Kindle Edition Amazon Category:  Relationships Publisher: Roger Bruner ISBN-10:  1542391075 Type: Fiction Pages: 308 Copyright: April 12, 2017 ISBN-13: 9781542391078 Price: $4.99 (eBook) Can a young Mexican woman forgive the villagers who rejected her years earlier and help them find a better way to live…and to survive? Sixteen-year-old orphan Rosa No-Name has grown up in the remote Mexican village of Santa María, where the villagers resentfully meet only her most basic physical needs. Unwilling to offer love or guidance, they not only refuse to answer Rosa’s questions about who her parents were, they don’t bother to teach her what she needs to know about the facts of life. Tomás del Mundo, who smuggles the village “produce” to San Diego and spends only a small part of the proceeds on things the villagers want and need, gets Rosa pregnant. The villagers decide to rid themselves of their responsibilities to the unwed mother-to-be by coercing Tomás into taking Rosa back to San Diego and marrying her. Rosa and Tomás don’t love one another. Their marriage is one of uneasy convenience for her and open resentment for him, and she soon finds herself captive to his violence and egotistical whims. Returning to Santa María after discovering part of the truth about her mysterious background, Rosa must overcome her resentment toward the villagers and help them solve a generations-old problem. At the same time, she begins a quest for the “god” she has only heard about casually. R0SA NO-NAME is the stand-alone, coming-of-age prequel to the award winning 2011 Young Adult novel FOUND IN TRANSLATION. Author Joel Sutton says:  “This is Roger Bruner at his finest. This engrossing story has more unanticipated twists and turns than a well-designed rollercoaster. But the ride is a thrill, with an ending that deeply satisfies. Bruner’s writing pulls you in so that you feel a part of the story. You feel the anger, sense of injustice, the marvels of love, and the beauty of forgiveness. You’ll thank yourself for reading Rosa No-Name!” Excerpt “Where are you, Rosa No-Name?” a man’s voice called from a distance. “Are you hiding from me?” Although the voice sounded real, I thought I might be dreaming. None of the villagers would have asked questions like those; none of them would have wanted to find me. On my bare knees at the edge of the river, I ignored both questions and questioner and continued to scrub the only two pieces of outer clothing I owned on the worn-smooth rock. “Baby,” I said aloud, addressing my words to the giant bulge in my belly, “quit kicking and getting in my way or I’ll be too exhausted to deliver you.” I laughed. “And you will be too tired to come out.” Footsteps on the hard pathway made me draw my blanket around me and turn halfway to look. “There you are,” he said. Oh, it’s you. I’d hoped you were my imagination. Not a living nightmare. Tomás stood looking down at me. Although the late afternoon sun at his back kept me from distinguishing the details of his face, I could hear him clearly. He gasped as if he might be trying to catch his breath, his voice so husky I wondered whether he was ill. At one time, I would have cared. When I twisted to face him more completely, gravity rolled me into a sitting position and the baby protested with such a hard thump I thought she might kick a hole in my stomach and come crawling out. Could that be why the village women cried out in such pain at childbirth? Although I had never expected to confront Tomás again, his interruption gave me an excuse to set my laundry aside and rest my arms, back, and shoulders momentarily. When I relaxed, so did my baby. “You have found me,” I said, trying to swallow my sarcasm like a bite of bitter fruit. “You have found us. Your unborn child and me.” He glanced at my belly. Under the worn blanket I’d wrapped up in so I could wash my skirt and blouse, my womb resembled one of the wild gourds that proliferated in this west Mexican wilderness. Eight months ago, my stomach had been as flat as the terrain of my tiny village, Santa María de los Campos. I had trusted Tomás then. I thought I loved him. “You don’t look like a proud papa-to-be.” He grunted as if answering would be too painful. “Rosa, we should marry.” Simple words. Words I’d once longed to hear. But…no longer. “We need to marry,” he said as if I hadn’t heard him the first time. Although his voice sounded raspier than it had a moment earlier, I couldn’t miss his emphasis on the word need. I no longer tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. “Not ‘I love you, Rosa, and I’m proud to be the father of your child’?” “Not that,” he said, gazing past me at the river we had once frolicked in as if we’d been two small children. After several moments of silence, he looked at me again. “Can’t you see what they’ve done to me?” I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to care. “They beat me up just for getting you pregnant.” Just? You hope to win my sympathy that way? “They’ve ordered me to take you to my home in San Diego and marry you.” I turned my head the other direction to keep him from seeing me twist my face into a scowl. The villagers of Santa María weren’t any more concerned about me now than they’d ever been. They wanted me out of their sight because they couldn’t—they wouldn’t—accept an unwed mother. Especially a sixteen-year-old orphan who wouldn’t be pregnant now if one of her past “keepers”—the numerous guardians who’d shuffled her back and forth from shack to shack since infancy—had bothered to teach her even the basics about intimacy between men and women and to reveal its dangers. No, Tomás. If the village men beat you up, they didn’t do it for me. They were warning you never to touch one of their daughters.

This book will stick with you!
This well-written story, set in the present, follows Rosa, a young woman from a remote, primitive village in Mexico, from the ages of 16 to 29. At first, I did not like the main character - Rosa seems as manipulative and prideful as the people who treat her badly. But as the book went on, I began to sympathize and understand her more, and ended up desperately hoping for a happy ending for her. So many tragic things happen to Rosa, but the book manages to avoid being depressing because several beautiful, caring characters balance out the evil. The gospel is not introduced until near the end, but there are hints of the Holy Spirit drawing Rosa throughout the book. This is not a light read, but if you want something that sticks to your ribs, I highly recommend it.

An unforgettable book
Rosa will take you on a journey, the journey of her life. Sometimes it will be a sad journey, or a scary one, or one with moments filled with joy. It is a deep, introspective trip spanning decades, but it is captivating and fascinating. Be prepared for surprises, even shocks. They make Rosa’s journey so hopeful, as is Rosa herself. Will she ever find out who the god is that others refer to and bow to?

Bruner has a special gift for creating authentic characters and tempting the reader into compassion with them, even the evil ones. Although it will be difficult to put this book down when sleep overcomes you, you will find yourself during many following nights thinking about Rosa. She will have gotten under your skin, and into your heart. Rosa No-Name is one of the most intriguing and unforgettable books I have ever read.

CAPTIVATING
This book was hard to put down with its many twists and turns. Often my audible gasps had my husband wondering what was going on! I haven't read a book in awhile and this one has prompted me to get back into reading more often. The Christian overtones were done in a clever way.. a must read