Description:
“Sarah
Cohen is a walking disaster. She means well, but the ex-diver’s
hasty decisions wreak havoc on her life in Boston. Good thing Emerson
is a phone call away in Syracuse, with a metaphorical mop to clean up
the mess. Their long-distance friendship can be excruciating for him,
though. Years after they shared a brief college romance, he’s still
in love with her. When everything goes wrong, Sarah takes another
plunge: back to the scene of her last mistake, to start fresh.
Unfortunately for Emerson, the move puts her too close for comfort.
Her attempts to straighten her life’s trajectory are sometimes
amusing and sometimes catastrophic. With Sarah around, is anyone
safe?”
Author:
Laurie
Boris is a freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and a regular
contributor to the multi-author blog, Indies Unlimited. This is her
fourth novel.
For more,
visit Laurie’s website.
Appraisal:
This is the
third Laurie Boris novel I’ve read. Sliding Past Vertical has one
significant difference from the other two, there isn’t a major
character with a fatal illness. But the qualities from her previous
novels that made them both excellent reads are present in Sliding
Past Vertical. Characters you can relate to, with typical human flaws
and mostly likeable. Even those you don’t care for are realistic
and not unlike people you’ve met in real life. The stories each
have real world plots that shine a light on the human condition in an
entertaining way while possibly enlightening the reader about their
fellow man.
As for the
specifics of this book, I liked Sarah, the protagonist. At least for
me, that is important. If I don’t like the main character, warts
and all, I find it harder to care what happens to them. However, the
character I related to the most was Emerson. It was obvious early on
that Emerson’s feelings for Sarah were much deeper than hers for
him. He’s been biding his time and now sees his chance. How and
whether this will resolve itself is a question until the very end and
one that could easily have hit a false note, regardless of the
resolution. Somehow Boris hit the perfect pitch.
FYI:
Some adult
language and situations.
Added for
Reprise Review: Sliding Past
Vertical was the winner in the
Contemporary/General Fiction category for 2014 Readers' Choice Awards
at BigAl’s Books and Pals. Original review ran September 28, 2013.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating:
***** Five stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 75-80,000 words
3 comments:
Thank you for the reprise, Big Al and Pals!
You are very welcome! Thanks for dropping by and commenting, Ms. Boris.
I loved this story.
Post a Comment