Just Jennifer

Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert (William Morrow, July 2014)

Ten-year-old Sophia is living in the shadow of her mother Naomi who is trying to make a career as a jazz singer in Chicago during the 1960’s, but who is also trying to make it in a world to which she has never really fit in.  Told from alternating viewpoints, Sophia who retells the present day-to-day life as she sees it, trying, with the help of their friend Jim to not only take care of Naomi, but help propel her to the stardom she so desperately craves; Naomi tells her story, beginning as a teenager who is cast out from her hometown and large family, continuing on her journey to Chicago, assembling her own unlikely family as she goes along.  Your heart will ache for Sophia as she tries with all her might to care for her mother and help her in any way possible, but at the same time, to have a normal ten-year-old life, something she desperately craves.  A debut novelist, Rebecca Rotert writes with the assurance of a more seasoned author and as a singer herself, brings a certain lyricism to this heartfelt novel.