The Lovers’ Tango: A Review

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book blog, book review, mainstream fiction, novels, pedometer geek, review

Discovering a new (to this reader, at least) author is always fun, and this pedometer geek found one in Mark Rubinstein. Receiving a copy of his novel, The Lovers’ Tango, through a Shelf Awareness giveaway, this reader had the pleasure of reading this latest Advanced Reader Copy (ARC). Here is the extended review.

The Lovers’ Tango
by Mark Rubinstein
Published by Thunder Lake Press, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-98562682-2

As the back cover of the novel indicates, Bill Shaw’s life changed the minute he met the beautiful actress Nora Reyes. Once she dies of an overdose, he becomes the prime suspect in her death. Sean Olsen, the district attorney, is out to convict Bill for the murder of his wife especially since there are eerie similarities to the current novel Bill is writing.

A novel within a novel within a novel may sum up Mark Rubinstein’s tale of love, suspense, and murder…IF it is murder. Told through the perspective of the protagonist, author Bill Shaw, this is his story of his intense love for actress Nora Reyes (from the moment they met at a New York party) until her death. Accused of murder, and fighting for his own life in court, Bill tells the tale of the courtroom drama playing out against his own memories of the life he led with his beloved wife.

As witness after witness testify against him including Nora’s sister, Lee, it takes all of his control to sit beside his best friend and personal lawyer Ben Abrams at the defense table. Even his current novel-in-progress, Assassin’s Lullaby, is used as evidence to help prove his intention to kill off his wife, who is slowly dying of MS (multiple sclerosis).

As the trial winds down, will he be convicted of Nora’s murder? Will his Assassin’s Lullaby manuscript be evidence of his murderous intent, making him guilty in the eyes of the jury? Can his lawyer get him off by producing enough reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors?

Suspenseful action, mesmerizing dialogue, and a compelling love story make for an intense, gripping, can’t-put-it-down read. Learning about the tango and its history is just another reason to read this tale, which has a stunning cover, but I digress.

Quotes to remember:
“Every love story has a tragic ending: either the lovers grow apart or death takes them from each other.” (page 327)
“There are no happily ever afters–least of all, in life.” (page 327)

Based on my first exposure to the writing of the author, I look forward to reading some of his other works in the near future.

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Appalachian Serenade: A brief review

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book blog, book review, e., pedometer geek

Normally this pedometer geek titles the review with the name of the book followed by the words, a review; however, because this review is for a novella, and a short one at that (less than a hundred pages, which includes a preview of the first book in the Appalachian Blessings series), it will be less extensive. I received this novella directly from the author, Sarah Loudin Thomas, through a Shelf Awareness giveaway for the first book, Miracle in a Dry Season. Although this reader didn’t win it, the author was kind enough to gift me with the novella so that her writing could be sampled and enjoyed.

Appalachian Serenade: A Novella

by Sarah Loudin Thomas

Published by  Bethany House Publishers, 2014

ASIN: B00KQS1DJ8 (e-book)

ISBN: 9781441264985

As may be expected with the publisher being Bethany House, this story has some Christian/spiritual overtones. It is a romance between a young widow, Delilah Morrisey, and a local man, Robert.

After her husband died and then she lost her job post-World War II, Delilah returns to her home town in Wise, West Virginia to live with her sister and her family. Rather than wallow in the self-pity of broken dreams (she desperately wants children), she takes a job at the local general store, working for Robert. In taking a job, she knows she can contribute to her sister’s family.

Robert, too, wants something more than the store he has built. He’d love to have a wife and children, but his dreams also seem out of the question because of a previous illness.

Can Delilah and Robert get over their lost dreams? Can they forge new ones? What does God have in plan for this pair? Through faith they build a relationship. Beyond that, the people of Wise are at the heart of this romance that emphasizes the power of community to change a person’s life.

This is a sweet romance with none of the graphic descriptions of sexual encounters often seen in many of them. In fact, it is less a romance than a growing acknowledgement of a love that may grow only deeper through the years (since the novella ends with their shared realization of their blossoming feelings for each other).

This reader looks forward to reading more from the author in the futur

 

The Sea Keeper’s Daughter: A Review

The most recent Goodreads giveaway novel this pedometer geek read is The Sea Keeper’s Daughters by Lisa Wingate. The book was an unedited edition of the Advance Reader Copy so any typographical errors were overlooked by this reader. The presumption is that all of them (and there weren’t that many) were corrected in the published edition.

The Sea Keeper’s Daughters
by Lisa Wingate
Published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2015
ISBN: 978-1-41438827-4 (Hardcover)
978-1-4143-8690-4 (Softcover)

Mystery, history, intrigue, and even romance are all intertwined in this novel that has the protagonist returning to her roots near Roanoke Island in order to save her business from a hostile takeover.

As the contemporary women’s fiction book opens, Whitney Monroe is dealing with a hostile takeover of her new restaurant, Bella Tazza 2. Bella Tazza 1 is doing well enough that she has expanded only to find that locals, particularly Tagg Harper, are throwing up roadblock after roadblock in legalities, bleeding her funds. Added to that, her estranged stepfather Clyde, whom she hasn’t seen since her mother’s death, has fallen and landed in the hospital in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This forces her to deal with him and his health problems while juggling her financial woes of keeping her business viable (and her employees paid) back home in Michigan.

The Excelsior, now a rundown Gilded Age hotel, was where Whitney spent her summers working for her paternal grandmother. With her mother’s death, she has inherited the building, but has always avoided returning and claiming it. Until now, when she needs to clear it out and sell it to raise needed funds…but there are people like Mark and the other businessmen who rent space on the first floor and Casey, a land developer, who all have their own plans for the old hotel. This also includes her aging stepfather, who has made it clear that he has no intention of moving from the third floor despite his failing health and infirmities.

Once she is there, she begins cleaning out all of her grandmother’s stuff that has been stored in the old bedrooms on the second floor. Going through boxes and desks, she discovers a mystery to be solved, history of which she was unaware, and so much more.
What to do with what she is discovering wars with her growing frustration to save her restaurants and livelihood. Moreover, potential romantic entanglements with both Mark and Casey are a vexation she hopes to ignore in her decision-making process as each, seemingly, wants something from her.

Ultimately, what are the choices she will make? What does she learn about the events of the past that affects her present? And will it really matter in the long run if she loses her sense of self?

Complex characters, lush descriptions, and historic import are all seen in this story that blends the past (the past includes Roosevelt’s WPA folklore writers of the Blue Ridge Mountain peoples) with the present. The historical sections of the novel, some of which are told through old letters, are some of the most engrossing parts of the book. Overall, the story makes for compelling reading including a surprising and redemptive conclusion.

As I read about some of the characters in the book, I was compelled to look up more information about what I learned. While I had heard of the lost colony of Roanoke, I had never heard about the Melungeon people. I never knew of this WPA program of the Folklore Writers, either.

While The Sea Keeper’s Daughters is the first of this author’s works that this pedometer geek has read, it will not be the last. I discovered that this is actually the third in the Carolina series, but each stands alone, and this reader will find the time to read the other two sometime in the near future.