Kelly Sokol

Some of us bear continual hardships that others might never encounter. Marleigh Mulcahy is one of these people. Both her parents are addicted to alcohol, and she was raised in a boxing gym by her grandfather. She is working through school to be a dental technologist, but has to work several jobs to make ends meet. Her grandfather fades into dementia and eventual death. Life seems stacked against her.

While in the gym, she meets a young Navy EOD specialist named Jace. (He disarms bombs while deployed.) They quickly fall in love and desire to found a family of their dreams. At first, it seems that they are succeeding in these hopes, but life’s challenges again seep in. Jace struggles with understanding his experiences in a combat zone, and Marleigh is understandably overwhelmed by being a new navy mom. Questions and doubts loom: Will they be able to fulfill their dreams or will they encounter more hardships to forestall their progress?

That much of the story I just described makes this book seem like a simple romance. That plot-line, however, spans only the first half of the book. The story evolves over and over again and becomes not a tale of simple love but primarily of resilience and human dignity. It speaks especially to women whose lives might not match up with their earlier dreams. Marleigh continues to try to live up, again and again, to the dreams that Jace and her aspired to when they started.

Sometimes, Sokol makes Marleigh seem to lose her focus and all hope. The despair of pressing on with the present seems to overcome the narrative. Marleigh is so used to encountering bad things in life that she forgets that life can bring positive developments as well. When these good things happen, she rekindles her spirit and her family’s spirits, and her story becomes one of perseverance and of one woman’s strength.

People – especially women and especially those affiliated with the military – recalibrating their life aims will benefit from reading this book. It presents a nice combination of adjusting to reality while continuing to press on in hope. Life is not easy, and Marleigh’s story is not easy. Nonetheless, her determination and adjustments make her a noble character who saves her life and her family’s lives through maintaining dignity amidst oppressive circumstances. The old adage, “You can only control your choices, not your circumstances,” proves true here, and Marleigh reminds us to dig for strength deeper and deeper within.… (mer)

In a simple context, I believe this is a book about the meaning of love and identifying with that person. Beyond that, it looks at how emotionally traumatic experiences affect those serving in the military making it more likely that they may have an issue with re-entry into civilian life.

Page one of this well-written book mentions what happens when we are sleeping and sets the stage for us to recognize that clearing away damage is essential for us to survive and thrive.

The very first chapter of the book draws us into this love story with the protagonist Marleigh meeting Jace and stating she'd be able to sense him somehow, even if she couldn't see him. Interestingly, many people believe that body odor is more important for attraction than appearance and that people put off a natural scent that may or may not attract different people.

Marleigh and Jace hook up at a traumatic time and together they go on to create a family. Sokol related how previous experiences tied into Marleigh's and Jace's perception of life's events and I must state that I felt Sokol's description of the Holt family unit seemed very true to what one might expect.

This carefully crafted love story points out the positive and negative effects of traumatic experiences and I appreciated how the Sioux legend tied into the story as well as the italicized communications while Jace was deployed.

This story made me think about the statement “ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain,” being used as a description for more than just innovative material choices as people often express emotions in terms of weight - such as a "heavy heart".

There are many things you can learn from this book. I felt the most important takeaway was that we connect with others when we share experiences. In the process of sharing trauma, we learn to, cope with mistakes or changes in our environment and we learn to appreciate life, see new possibilities, and set new goals.

I received a copy of this book from Michelle Fitzgerald, Publicity Director at FSB Associates… (mer)

The Unprotected by Kelly Sokol is a starkly honest depiction of infertility and postpartum depression.

Lara James is a driven career advertising executive who never thought she would want to have children. At one time rather dismissive of her friends and family with kids, she shocks her husband Will with her sudden announcement she wants to have a baby. Pursuing pregnancy with the same single-minded focus that helped her achieve professional success, Lara is ill-prepared for a four year battle with infertility. Cautiously optimistic when she is finally pregnant, she is soon writing a detailed birth plan while designing the baby's nursery and discussing baby names. Making a completely unexpected decision to give up her career in order to be a stay at home mom, Lara is completely stunned by the reality of sleep deprivation and a colicky baby who cries for hours on end. Even more shocking is her increasingly downward spiral of exhaustion, frightening thoughts and lack of bonding with her newborn baby.

Lara is not an easy character to like. Her relationship with her mom is contentious and she has absolutely no patience with her at all. She is rude and condescending to her sister, Bea, and she never hesitates to let her know her opinion about Bea's decision to marry and have kids. Lara is a steamroller who does not take other people's feelings or viewpoint into consideration. This attitude extends to her husband Will and she refuses to give up on getting pregnant despite the toll her infertility and treatments are taking on their marriage. She is also a little sly and devious as she becomes obsessed with her quest to become pregnant.

Despite her fertility problems, Lara's pregnancy is rather easy and without complications. Her childbirth experience is not what she expected or planned for, and things continue to go downhill once she is released from the hospital with baby Auden. Exhausted and in pain, Lara struggles with breastfeeding and things worsens as Will quickly returns to work, leaving her and Auden on their own. As the situation continues to deteriorate, her fears about what would happen if she were to reveal some of her worst thoughts are understandable. However, it is somewhat incomprehensible that an intelligent, well-educated woman would not confide just how bad things are becoming. Will also carries his share of the blame for failing to recognize his wife's exhaustion and understandable frustration with Auden's inconsolable crying.

The Unprotected is a realistic portrayal of the shame and fear women experience when motherhood takes a dark turn. Kelly Sokol does not downplay the alarming symptoms of postpartum depression and while she shines a much needed light on this little discussed topic, it is not easy reading about Lara's increasingly disturbing downward spiral. A tough read but one I highly recommend.… (mer)

The Unprotected by Kelly Sokol is highly recommended women's literary fiction.

Lara James is a ad executive with a thriving career and a husband she adores. After her father's death she devotes herself even more fully to her career and marries her husband, Will, a college professor her father knew. The two are immediately attracted to each other. They both devote themselves to their careers and each other for several years, until Lara surprises them both by wanting a child. Getting pregnant doesn't come easy, though, and Lara and Will have to endure years of treatments and miscarriages until she finally becomes pregnant. When their daughter Auden is born, though, being a mother isn't as tranquil and calm as Lara thought it would be.

The Unprotected is well written and will draw you into the story right away. The novel is also well-paced; I read the book in one sitting and was engaged through the whole book. Sokol does a nice job developing Lara's character. She's obnoxious in many ways, but you will see her behavior patterns as being consistent with her personality. The infertility problems and miscarriages had me feeling desperately sorry for her pain. When her daughter is born and she spirals into postpartum depression, again, I felt her pain.

So, basically, I like The Unprotected, but there are two glaring problems with it. First Lara is not always a very sympathetic character. It's difficult to feel compassion for her over her infertility and then postpartum depression because she is portrayed as being so uncharitable to other women not on her career path and so incredibly perfect. The only way you can manage this is to draw on personal experiences, your own experience or ones shared with you from your own circle of family and friends. Since so many women have experienced both of these, gathering up empathy for her was relatively easy, despite her difficult personality.

The second flaw overwhelms what the theme of the novel was supposed to be, postpartum depression, according to the synopsis, in my opinion. The Unprotected portrays Lara as a career-minded woman who doesn't want children, but changes her mind in her late thirties. This is easily understood by many women. Then we go through her miscarriages and subsequent infertility treatments. I'm assuming that Sokol wanted to show how much Lara wanted a child before she actually had one. So many women endure the pain and loss from miscarriages and fertility problems that Lara's struggles with this seemed like it could easily carry the narrative of the book. When she finally gets pregnant, we rush through the pregnancy to her postpartum depression. Then we endure her suffering with a colicky baby and no relief. Again, many women have suffered from postpartum depression and didn't have the ability or foresight to ask for help. In my opinion, the book would have been stronger had it focused on one overriding problem - either the infertility and miscarriages, which devastate many woman but are rarely talked about, or her postpartum depression, which many woman also suffer through silently.

The Unprotected still deserves a good rating but could have benefited from a tighter focus. (Also, ignore the comparison to We Need to Talk About Kevin.)

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Skyhorse Publishing.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2017/04/the-unprotected.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1975723334… (mer)