Sweet Surrender

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Amazon.com, Barbara Stewart, Book review, E-book, Ebooks, Independent publishing, Indie books, womens fiction, Writing

Book Title:  Sweet Surrender
Author: Barbara Stewart
Format Reviewed: PDF
Available as: Kindle eBook, Amazon paperback
Published On: March 8, 2012
Length: 219 pages
Price: $0.99 (Kindle), $6.95 (paperback)
Genre: Romance (novella)

Book description from Amazon.com:  Delaney Morris is a young woman afraid of commitment. Logan Stiles is a man determined to tear down the wall she has built around her heart, protecting it because of the volatile relationship her parents share. He patiently waits and chips away at the wall until a piece of her past is revealed that leads to the answers she needs to break through the wall completely.

My Thoughts:

Sweet Surrender is the heartwarming story of Logan Stiles and Delaney Morris – the perfect couple in almost every way, except that Delaney is afraid of commitment. The acrimonious relationship between Delaney’s long-divorced parents has made her especially wary of marriage.  However, thanks to Logan’s devotion and patience, not to mention the example set by his amazing family, Delaney is able to build confidence in the potential for love to endure, and for committment to be worthwhile. It is this love and support from Logan and his family that also enables Delaney to face a shattering revelation about her past.

Sweet Surrender is a ‘feel-good’ romantic story that makes you want to snuggle up in front of a cozy fire with a hot cup of tea.  I especially enjoyed the way that Barbara Stewart introduced us to the culture, customs, food and settings of the southern USA. It’s an engaging story that kept my interest throughout. 

This was Ms. Stewart’s first book and, incredibly, was written in just one month as part of last year’s National Novel Writing Month.  As such, we can actually see Ms. Stewart’s writing skills evolve as we progress through the book.  There was a bit more narration (at the expense of dialogue) than I personally enjoy, but this too improved as the book progressed. I must admit that I have not read too many romance novels in my life so this could be typical of the genre, but I did find most of the characters in the book, especially Logan, unrealistically perfect. With the exception of Delaney’s mother, and to a small extent those dealing with her, no one ever said a harsh word or got cranky. 

My favorite part of this book was the food – there was a lot of it and it always sounded interesting and delicious! I think it would be terrific if Ms. Stewart could include recipes for some of the unique southern dishes she describes in the book, perhaps as an appendix at the back.

Catch the Sun

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Amazon.com, Author, Book review, Book reviews, books, E-book, Ebooks, Independent publishing, Indie books, Lee Zamloch, Marilyn Monroe, Publishing, womens fiction

The Indie Chicks were invited to join Lee Zamloch’s Virtual Book Tour by reviewing a PDF version of her new book.

Book Title:  Catch the Sun
Author: Lee Zamloch
Format Reviewed: eBook (PDF)
Published On: July 23, 2012
Length: 316 pages
Price: $2.99 on Amazon.com
Genre: Women’s Fiction

Book description, from the Author’s media kit:

Marilyn Monroe begins appearing on Amanda Grace’s patio dancing, laughing at the moon and gazing at Amanda through the glass doors. Is it possible that Marilyn, against all reason, has somehow transported herself through time and space to contemporary Los Angeles? And why does she haunt Amanda, a model whose beauty is undeniable, but whose talent is questionable?

The visitations begin when Amanda’s mother, Edith, commits suicide, an event that shakes Amanda to her foundation. For, while she has been a successful model, she has always measured herself against her mother, a well-known artist who has overcome severe obstacles. But unlike Edith and her accomplished sister, Joanne, Amanda Grace has not distinguished herself intellectually or artistically, nor even managed to marry and have children. In her eyes, she has failed to live up to her mother’s expectations. Now, with Edith’s death, she has forever lost her chance to prove herself. In her grief, she forgets to eat, sleep, or carry on with life’s simplest tasks. The final blow comes when Amanda accidentally learns she was adopted. With the loss of her family as a touchstone, her foundation crumbles, and her fragile sense of self dissolves completely.

CATCH THE SUN is a story about how an obsession with a celebrity can impact the life of an ordinary woman. It explores our endless fascination with Marilyn Monroe’s fragility, beauty and dazzling rise and fall.

My Review:

Catch the Sun is the story of Amanda Grace – a gorgeous woman who once experienced a brief taste of fame as a fashion model, but who has since fallen from the limelight.  Faced with the suicide of her terminally ill mother, being dumped by her agent, and multiple failed attempts at an acting career – she slips into a self-destructive depression and begins seeing visions of Marilyn Monroe outside her windows.  She decides to learn everything she can about Marilyn Monroe and to do everything she can to look like Marilyn Monroe, so that she can make her comeback playing Marilyn Monroe in a movie about the legendary star.

Catch the Sun moves smoothly between the past – providing us with fascinating (though, of course, fictitious) glimpses of Marilyn’s life and psyche, and the present – focusing on Amanda’s growing obsession and depression.  Much of the book is written in the present tense which, up until now, has been a major turn-off for me – but this is such a well written and polished novel that I am almost a convert.

Although this book deals with dark topics such as suicide, depression, substance abuse, and abandonment – it is a well crafted story.  The really artful thing about the book is the way the author, Lee Zamloch, weaves a tapestry of intertwining, parallel lives.  For example these include: Amanda’s own inability to separate her incredible good looks from her personal identity and Marilyn’s frustrations that no one else can separate these two in her; and Amanda’s feeling of loneliness and abandonment by her mother’s death and her neighbor’s foster-daughter, Cherry’s, sorrow at the loss of her own mother.

Despite the book’s somber topics and events, I found the story kept my interest throughout.  However, I did find that some intriguing plotlines were not pursued and that the ending was somewhat inconclusive.  Catch the Sun’s strength definitely lies in the unique and interesting character developments for all of the women in this book.

Homebound

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Author, Book review, Book reviews, books, E-book, Ebooks, Homebound, Independent publishing, Indie books, Jodi McClure, mystery, Publishing, romance

Book Title: Homebound
Author: Jodi McClure
Publisher: Smashwords; Amazon
Format Reviewed: eBook
Published On: August 8, 2012
Words: Approx 23,400
Price: $0.99
Genre: Romance/Mystery (Novelette)

Book description, taken from Smashwords.com:
Bedridden after an accident, down on his luck businessman John Adams finds himself at the mercy of Cloey Jacobs, his country bumpkin aide. Miserable and jaded, John wants little to do with the woman until she mentions an ages old mystery she’s been unable to solve.

Intrigued, John grows determined to unravel the puzzle himself, assisting the barely literate woman in following a string of clues hidden in classic books. As the pair grow closer to an answer, they also grow closer to each other, helping to pave John’s path to recovery with compassion, redemption and love.

Writer of the Science Fiction serial drama, ‘Swing Zone,’ Author Jodi McClure jumps genre to explore the healing strength of love in this adorable old-fashioned, southern charmer.

My Review:

Homebound is an entertaining and heartwarming story.  John is an accountant who has recently lost both his wife and job to a younger colleague; Cloey is a self-trained nursing aide whose grandfather left her a puzzle to solve when he passed away.  After John is badly injured in a motorcycle accident, he recovers at his parents’ home with the inexpensive and beautiful young Cloey taking care of him.  In contrast to university graduate, John, Cloey is a relatively uneducated ‘hick’ and, at first, John looks down on her and even ridicules her poor grammar.  However, she is so caring and kind that he soon falls in love with her. Together, they work their way through to the solution of her grandfather’s puzzle – something that Cloey was never able to figure out on her own.

I read the book all in one sitting – it was interesting enough to keep me reading late into the night.  The author has a nice voice, with some unique imagery.  Here are a couple of my favourite quotes:

“Last glance I had in the mirror, there was some hard luck bum staring back with dark unkempt locks, a scratched up face and a shadow five days past five o’clock.”

“…next to my naked toes which poked out of my cast like shorn gophers.”

The ending had a nice little twist and the characters, especially John’s parents and Cloey, were very likeable.

There were a few typos in the book – but they were relatively minor (mostly punctuation).  However, one thing I did find confusing was that there were many cases where John’s grammar was as bad as Cloey’s.  Here are just a few examples:

“…but that didn’t get me nowhere.”

“…get me one of them drumsticks.”

“But the reading wasn’t no prize.”

“Augusta wasn’t nothing like Atlanta…”

I found this particularly odd, given that the premise of the book was that John was the educated man helping the uneducated ‘country bumpkin’ solve her puzzle. It seemed especially strange that he would make fun of the way she spoke when his own grammar was so frequently poor, so I was left wondering if these were unintentional grammar errors.   Also, there was an underlying religious theme that surfaced occasionally – something that doesn’t generally appeal to me.

Despite these minor issues, I did enjoy the book a lot and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the ‘romance’ genre.

The Indie Chicks received a free copy of this eBook from the author to enable this review.