1106 Grand Boulevard is a marginally fictionalized chronicle of the life and loves of Billie Jean Sloan, the author's big sister. The story begins when Billie Jean, as a tender young teen, runs away to Kentucky to marry the love of her life, Cal, who is seven years her senior. Even though they love each other wholeheartedly, their vast age gap makes communication difficult, and Cal becomes abusive. After he draws a gun to threaten her and it goes off, wounding her, she ends up in the hospital. Her parents refuse to let him near her, and begin legal proceedings to annul the marriage. This all happens right at the beginning of the book!
What Ms. Dravis has done, with 1106 Grand Boulevard, is to take the extraordinary life of her sister, embellish and spin her magic on it, and make it a wonderful story of hardship, suffering, family, passion, deceit, and wonder. Whether you believe any or all of it is irrelevant, this book is truly an amazing journey of growth, which ultimately made me alternately want to BE the main character, then thank God that I'm not. ( )

TITLE: 1106 Grand Boulevard
AUTHOR: Betty Dravis
PUBLISHER: Canterbury House Publishing, Ltd.,
http://www.canterburyhousepublishing.com
FORMATS: Ebook
PRICE: Kindle $4.99 (US), £3.58
PAGES: 312
ASIN: B00564TQ28

Let’s travel back in time to the 1930’s. It’s evening and an argument has just broken and Billie Jean accidentally gets shot in the shoulder by her husband, Cal. Running for her life she hides from her husband in the bushes. Naturally, she goes back to her childhood home…1106 Grand Boulevard. This is one woman’s story of her search for true love during and after the turbulent World War II years.

At her childhood home, she is welcomed with open arms by her family. Naturally, her parents admit her to the hospital where the doctors repair her shoulder.

Now that sixteen-year-old Billie Jean is married, can she stay at her childhood home or will her stern mother make her go back to her manic husband?

Aunt Tommie enters the story here. She believes in marrying rich and having the best of everything. She takes Billie Jean to Arizona to live with her and her uncle. Billie Jean is schooled in the proper way to get a rich husband. Aunt Tommie teaches her how to walk, talk and behave like a lady around the ‘right’ people. At her coming out party, Billie meets a handsome man in his twenties named Jackson. Of course, Jackson is struck by Billie Jean’s beauty and wants to marry her.

By this time, Billie Jean is used to the high life and the attention shown to her by men. She flits from man to man searching for someone who can take Cal’s place. She marries several of these men. Each time she marries, Billie Jean is sure she is in love. But is she?

Six times she goes home to 1106 Grand Boulevard where her sister helps her drown her sorrows by going shopping. She goes back to 1106 Grand Boulevard each time a husband dies or when Billie Jean goes through a divorce. Once she went back when her then husband went off to fight in World War II. Will there be a seventh homecoming for Billie? Will Billie Jean ever find true love or will she keep flitting from man to man like a bee flits from flower to flower?
There are a couple of ways to find out more about the author of this love story. You can go to Ms. Dravis’ website at: http://www.bettydravis.com and click on the ‘Bio’ tab. You can also surf here to read more about her: http://kindlenationdaily.com/2011/08/who-is-betty-dravis.

You can find out more about this ebook by going to Ms. Dravis' website at: http://www.bettydravis.com. Just click on the ‘Books and Stories’ tab. ( )

Billie Jean Sloane is a young woman bent on her own destruction. How many will she bring down with her? What is driving her along this path? Will she find peace before it's too late?
Married at sixteen to her "true love," her parents have that marriage annulled plunging her into depression and physical danger. As she seeks to patch her life together again she will progress through six more husbands. Some good men, some bad, she learns a lesson from each taking her closer to knowing herself. A story full of passion, sadness, despair, anger, frustration and excitement, finally ending in healing and hope.
Some of the dialog is stilted, the author doesn't always live in one tense, still, it is a good story. One which is more common than we like to think in that era (1920-1970), where women went from total dependence on men to complete independence. It was not always easy to know who they were supposed to be. ( )