Reviewed
by: BigAl
Genre:
Contemporary Fiction
Approximate
word count: 85-90,000
words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes &
Noble, or Smashwords store
Author:
Erica
Lucke Dean:
“After
walking away from her career as a business banker to pursue writing
full-time, Erica Lucke Dean moved from the hustle and bustle of the
big city to a small tourist town in the North Georgia Mountains,
where she lives in a 90-year-old haunted farmhouse with her
workaholic husband, her 180 lb lap dog, and at least one ghost. When
she's not writing or tending to her collection of crazy chickens and
diabolical ducks, she's either reading bad fan fiction or singing
karaoke in the local pub. Much like the main character in her first
book, To Katie With Love, Erica is a magnet for disaster and has been
known to trip on air while walking across flat surfaces. How she's
managed to survive this long is one of life's great mysteries.”
Laura
M. Kolar:
“Laura
M. Kolar lives with her husband and daughter in a one-stop-light town
in northern-lower Michigan. Though she didn't discover her love of
books until she turned thirty, as a self-declared hopeless romantic,
she has spent the past few years reading and writing stories with
mostly happy endings. If she's not at her day-job or with her family,
you will find her sipping a cup of chai latte while sitting in her
favorite rocking chair, hunched over her laptop writing or spending
entirely too much time on Twitter.”
Description:
“Married
for just three months, Alex Barrett is stunned when her husband,
David, dies in a tragic accident. And the absolute last thing the
pregnant young widow wants is to take on responsibility for his
teenage daughter, Maddie. Reeling from loss, Alex struggles to deal
with her grief and her troubled stepdaughter, but one question haunts
her: why was David with his ex-wife when he died?
All
Maddie Barrett wanted was for her parents to get back together, but
an icy road took that dream away. Afterward, Maddie is riddled with
guilt that she can’t share with anyone. Feeling angry and alone,
she lays all the blame on Alex.
Alex
and Maddie must find a way to move past their pain—shared, yet
separate. Thrown together in an untenable arrangement, they fight
through a frozen landscape of sorrow and redemption while redefining
love, forgiveness, and family.”
Appraisal:
At
first glance, Ashes
of Life
seems like a departure from the standard fare for either of the
co-authors. Laura M. Kolar's previous output was a coming of age
story with paranormal aspects aimed at the young adult audience.
Erica Lucke Dean's books are erotic romances, co-authored with Elise
Delacroix, and her solo efforts, which straddle the line where
romance meets chick-lit. That first impression is both right and
wrong.
While
Ashes isn't like what either author has done before, it plays to
their strengths. Ultimately all of Dean's books that I've read, and
as well as I can tell those from either author that I haven't,
revolve around relationships, romantic and otherwise. Dean's books
always show a sense of humor and, in spite of Ashes attacking some
serious issues, that sense of humor still shows. (The relationship
between the protagonist, Maddie, and her favorite barista along with
her interactions with a handsome doctor who comes to her rescue more
than once are a couple examples.)
However,
ultimately Ashes is more serious than the typical romance or
chick-lit book. Like those, it has a budding romantic relationship
that may or may not come to fruition. But also themes revolving
around parenthood and duty with complex characters dealing with
difficult situations. The authors may have been stretching their
wings, but in doing so came up with an exceptional story which I
highly recommend.
FYI:
Some
adult language and mild adult situations.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues
Rating: ***** Five Stars
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1 comment:
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and review my book! You are the best! :)
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