Bella

Title: BELLA
Author: Lisa Samson (from original screenplay)
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
May 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59554-601-1
Genre: Inspirational/women’s fiction

Nina didn’t expect life to turn out the way it did. Pregnant with an unwanted child, she has only one option open to her. An abortion. But she didn’t know how she’d pay for it. Rent was due, and the baby’s father only offered to pay for half the cost of the abortion. Now, she was late to work for the third time, and her boss was very unforgiving with the third offense.

Jose works as a cook for his brother’s restaurant. He had soccer dreams that died violently and prematurely. The weight of broken dreams gets heavier and heavier, but Jose doesn’t know how to handle the situation. When Jose learns of Nina’s pregnancy, he tries to talk her into keeping the baby, but ultimately promises to go to the abortion center with her, since the baby’s father doesn’t want anything to do with either Nina or the pregnancy.

But a series of unexpected events changes everything.

BELLA is based on the top movie of 2007 and was rewritten in book form by Lisa Samson. The reader can tell that this was originally a movie first, as it doesn’t read as smoothly as novels normally would, but Ms. Samson did a much better job writing this as novel form from the movie than other authors have done in similar situations.

It took me a long time to figure out what Jose’s story was, why he did the things he did. Nina’s situation was easier to understand, her motivations clear from the beginning. I never saw the movie, so I was going into the book without a clue what it was about, but I did enjoy the book, and read it through in one sitting. Pictures from the movie are included at the end of the book, as well as a reading guide, information about the actors, and information about the movie. $14.99. 201 pages.