Evanthia's Gift

The Gift Saga, Book 1

By: Effie Kammenou

Narrated by: Emily Lawrence

In the year 1956, Anastacia Fotopoulos finds herself pregnant and betrayed, fleeing from a bad marriage. With the love and support of her dear friends Stavros and Soula Papadakis, Ana is able to face the challenges of single motherhood. Left with emotional wounds, she resists her growing affection for Alexandros Giannakos, an old acquaintance. But his persistence and unconditional love for Ana and her child is eventually rewarded and his love is returned. In a misguided, but well-intentioned effort to protect the ones they love, both Ana and Alex keep secrets - ones that could threaten the delicate balance of their family.

The story continues in the 1970's as Dean and Demi Papadakis, and Sophia Giannakos attempt to negotiate between two cultures. Now Greek-American teenagers, Sophia and Dean, who have shared a special connection since childhood, become lovers. Sophia is shattered when Dean rebels against the pressure his father places on him to uphold his Greek heritage and hides his feelings for her. When he pulls away from his family, culture and ultimately his love for her, Sophia is left with no choice but to find a life different from the one she'd hoped for.

Evanthia's Gift is a multigenerational love story spanning 50 years and crossing two continents, chronicling the lives that unify two families.

©2015 Effie Kammenou (P)2017 Effie Kammenou

Good read

This was a good read. Evanthia goes through a lot in her life. I liked this book because it tells much about Greek culture and how some cultures still wanted the children to marry within that culture. They sometimes were unhappy when they did not. Dino loved her with all his heart but both were to young and immature to realize the love they had. There familly pushed them from a young age to marry. Children do not always do what we want them to. This story tells about both of their paths in life. Woth the credit.

This book
was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Inspiring story of true love and fate

I absolutely loved learning about all these characters. I loved how the author incorporated the use of Greeks recipe and traditions in this book.
This is a story of true love destined to be together from childhood. The trials and tribulations of your first love in childhood to your forever love in adulthood is expressed all through this book.
The narrator did an amazing job! I felt her joy, her pain, her sorrow, and her love for the characters.

So worth it!

Any additional comments?

I was hooked on this book from the very beginning. The narrator instantly brought the story to life. Which was very easy to do considering how well crafted this book was. The characters are vivid enough to picture each of them in my mind. Whether the reader has Greek heritage or not, everyone will be able to relate to the family drama. However, the author did a nice job of sharing about the Greek culture without sounding like a travel brochure or a lecture. At times, I found myself talking to the characters in my head even when I wasn’t listening to the book. In looking at the book, I think the different character voices made it a little easier to understand the multiple POVs. I really didn’t want this one to end.

The narration felt perfect for this story. The narrator did a good job a varying the voices enough to keep everyone separate.

Sweet!

Evanthia's Gift was such a wonderfully sweet love story! I Effie told this multigenerational love story in such a beautiful way. I was touched and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Emily did a fantastic job with the narration. She truly brought the characters to life in an amazing way. Great job!

🎧AudiobookObsession🎧

LOVED IT!

I absolutely loved it! This book caught my attention from the very beginning and held it throughout the entire book. The narration was superb and gave the story that extra flair! The author did an excellent job with the character builds and plot. This was my first book by this author but definitely not my last! I look forward to reading the next book in this series! I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.