Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 378

Review: WORTH THE WEIGHT by Eileen Palma

“Children are so FAT today. Isn’t there some way we can make money off that?” –Agnes from The Simpsons

Well, that’s exactly what Jack is hoping to do with his invention—extra large seats for heavier children. Did he not see the issue with that?
Kate Richards was the official spokesperson for KidFit, a T.V. talk show against childhood obesity. Technically, she was also banking on the little fatties. She is considered Jack’s nemesis, but the two can’t help but feel an instant attraction to each other. The two had a great, effervescent chemistry that was often youthful and klutzy. Their whole interlude read like a high school episode with two love-obsessed teenagers. Still, the moments when they talked and connected felt genuine, albeit a little sappy sometimes. But you figure that with all the things that they both have to deal with in their lives (Jack looking after his niece while her dad is in Afghanistan and Kate rushing to pay off some bookie to save her father), it was a comfort to know that they could confide and be there for each other.
Of course, no romance can stay perfect without a little conflict messing things up. In this case, Jack wasn’t honest about who he was—owner of the fat carriage company she’s been publicly bashing—before getting tangled up in the sheets with the woman. It’s like two people with opposing political views. How can anyone make that work? I guess it’s easy when all they could think about was sex. I must say some scenes were a little lascivious.
But political views have a way of creating war. Suddenly, both sides are firing at each other amidst the chaos of the sleazy paparazzi. I must say that the media turning up the heat and shaking things up made the plot more interesting. What better way to turn their world upside down? Will the pair be able to figure a way out of this mess? Can they save their careers or risk losing everything for love?
Sprinkled with light-hearted humor, Worth the Weight is a sweet, contemporary romance that paralleled similarities to the book/movie Must Love Dogs. Even with the zany dating advice from the eccentric group of characters, it was ultimately the dogs that hooked these two up. Also, Kate reminded me a great deal of Diane Lane with her awkward sensitivity and shyness. To be perfectly honest, I only saw the movie once (never read the book) and thought that it was an okay story, and Worth the Weight felt like a rehash of the same story but with a media-frenzy twist. In fact, that little twist made it better. It was interesting to see the nutty side of fabricated headlines, flashing cameras, and emergency PR work. I was actually curious to see how it would turn out (even though I had a good guess.)
So if you love dogs and quirky romances, this is the book for you.
My rating: 3.5 stars  

WORTH THE WEIGHT Blog Tour

As part of the WORTH THE WEIGHT blog tour, I feature guest author, Eileen Palma, and her thoughts on writing everlasting love.

***  The Good Wife  I was single before you could let a computer find your soul mate on eHarmony.  Before you could change your relationship status on Facebook.  Before you could snap date-night selfies with your phone.  I’m sure you must think I’m a senior citizen, but actually I was practically a child bride by today’s standards.  I married my college sweetheart two weeks after graduation.  My husband Doug and I started dating when I was twenty, which took me off the dating market for all of my twenties and what is now left of my thirties.   My un-married dating life ended with five dollar all you can eat pizza buffets, and rented VHS tapes from Blockbuster. Apparently I wasn’t paying attention the day that the writing teacher said, “Write what you know.”  Because I have no clue what it’s like to be living on the Lower West Side and single in your thirties like Jack and Kate from my rom-com Worth the Weight.  But, J.K. Rowling didn’t know what it was like to be a ten-year old boy wizard, and Stephanie Meyer had no idea what it was like to be a hundred-year-old vampire and I’m pretty certain that E. L. James doesn’t know half as much about bondage as Christian Grey. I may not know anything about the single life, but one thing I do know about is love; the kind of unconditional love that movies are made out of.  That guy from The Notebook has nothing on my husband. When he agreed to support me in sickness and in health he had no idea what he was getting into.  Three years after our wedding, while Doug was still in vet school, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Molly.  Hours after the C-section, my body ballooned with fluid, my blood clotted uncontrollably, my liver enzymes were through the roof and my blood pressure was so high I needed to be on an IV drip of Magnesium to prevent seizures.  I had developed a life threatening autoimmune condition that affects pregnant women called HELLP Syndrome.  For seven days and seven nights, Doug didn’t leave my side.  The nurses took pity on him and gave him a pair of scrubs so he would have a change of clothes.  The only food I remember him eating were the leftovers from my food tray. 
When we finally went home from the hospital, it became clear pretty quickly that while I was out of the woods, I would be plagued with health problems for the rest of my life.  When mothers complain about all those late night feedings they had to tackle while their husbands slept, I think about how Doug woke up every single time to feed Molly so I could rest and get my health back.  He spent many a night reading aloud from veterinary textbooks while rocking Molly to sleep. Eileen PalmaWhen Doug graduated, he worked two jobs for many years to support us never once making me feel guilty for being too sick to work.  It might sound crazy, but in a way I feel lucky.  Many marriages don’t get challenged with serious illness until the couples are much older than us.  Sometimes the marriages don’t survive.  I know that no matter what challenges come my way, I have someone who loves me no matter what.
              I may not know much about being single in 2014, but I know enough about love to fill volumes of books.


About the Author: Eileen Palma has an English degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and has studied Advanced Novel Writing at Sarah Lawrence College’s The Writing Institute. Her writing has appeared in The Momoir Project, Macaroni Kid Bronxville, Patricia Dunn's author blog, Blogging in the Big Apple, PTO Today and on the front page of Our Town.   
About the book: WORTH THE WEIGHT, a modern twist on YOU'VE GOT MAIL, explores what happens when the CEO of a super-sized stroller company falls for a famous kids fitness guru.  Jack Moskowitz has always been proud of his brainchild Considerable Carriages, a company that manufactures car seats, strollers and high chairs for overweight children.  That is, until he meets Kate Richards, host of ABC’s KidFit and New York Times Bestselling author of the kids’ diet cookbook Mini-Munchies, the day after she tears his company apart on a network talk show.



As a participant, I was given a complimentary copy of this book. My review for WORTH THE WEIGHT will be featured next!


Find out more about this author at http://www.eileenpalmaauthor.com/

Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Review: MAKING THE GRADE by Peter Pollak

Rookie detective Shannon Lynch is assigned to a major case with two men who seem to resent her having been promoted. Then her past catches up to her in a way she could never have predicted. Is she tough enough to overcome a killer who’s out for revenge as well as colleagues who aren’t sure she can be trusted?



My thoughts: It is the first day on the job for rookie detective Shannon Lynch, and her first case is…the murder of a rape victim.
Of course, Shannon is not being taken seriously by the other guys, although she didn’t exactly get treated badly by them either. She didn’t get hassled with male, chauvinistic attitude. I think that would’ve made it more authentic. Still, with everyone treating her like a 12-year old girl, I looked forward to her proving to these guys that she could do it. You root for Shannon even though she was “wet behind the ears.” Girl power, baby!
Shannon was an observant and studious character that still had a LOT to learn. For the case, she focused a lot on the left-handed theory and notes that on every potential suspect (there were a ton of interviews.) I did feel that Shannon could’ve been stronger as a central character. Perhaps there were a few too many minor characters with all the interrogations.
This book was a quick and easy read. Written passively, the story digressed from a slow beginning into a thick and heart-racing plot that suspends the reader as the killer is finally drawn out about half way through the book.  Once you get through all the paper work in the beginning, you’ll want to stick around to see what happens next.  
Pollak has a knack for story-telling, and, it is no doubt that he has the potential to be an even greater writer.
My rating: 3.5 stars  

Review: PRESSED PENNIES by Steven Manchester

Abby and her daughter, Paige, were saddened that they must leave the home they’ve known forever. I honestly never could understand how people can get so attached to these kinds of things. But what could Abby do after the wretched mess of her broken marriage?

Rick was high-flying, big shot executive who realizes that money secures everything but love in a marriage. Both Abby and Rick were desperate for human connection—until they reconnected with each other. Clearly, these former lovers still had lingering feelings for each other, but it just felt like the two were living too much in the past, wishing things were like they were before. Still, the two fell hard for each other once more, and they spend the bulk of the story making googly eyes at each other, which was sweet at times.
Eventually, Rick learns that he doesn’t need to spend a fortune to find love. “Without spending a penny, she’s shown me the perfect night.” (147) I thought that his syrupy love notes to Abby sounded a little too clingy.
Yes, it seemed that Abby and Rick finally found love at last—but Rick would first need to get the approval of the daughter, who totallywas acting like a rude, selfish brat. Really, Rick? Is the mother even worth it?
Manchester continues to write with such poise and sensitivity that grips and loses the reader. Written in curt segments, the story quickly unfolds the raw emotion from each character’s point of view. For example, Paige’s discontent with her mother going to parties was expressed in one fleeting sentence before breaking away into another character. It was as if the story was bulleted into an outline, briefly summarizing the short sequence of events. Sometimes those events seemed a little irrelevant—irrelevant and tedious.
This book was packed with emotion and drama in one neat, unsavory, little package. It felt like I was watching some Hallmark movie with the whole “love thy neighbor” ploy. It was 7th Heavenmeets Little House on the Prairie. Still, this was a sweet, untainted romance with commendable effort at kindling passion and empathy within the soul. As in previous titles from this author, this is a well-written story about “making every moment count”—words that should surface the minds of everyone.  

My rating: 2 stars  

Review: SOMETHING LIKE A DREAM by Robert Richter

Expatriate beach bum Cotton Waters is known to his cantina buddies as "Algo," meaning Something in Spanish. An illegal alien and ex-political activist with old and unresolved legal problems in the U.S., Algo scrounges a lazy fishing village lifestyle and a little beer money out of the Puerto Vallarta tourist trade as a private hustler of a Mexican Riviera lost-and-found--helping some people get lost and finding others--if the price is right or the client's cause worth the time and interest. 

In the summer of '82 the worthy cause is Corina Springfield, possibly the most beautiful woman Cotton Waters has ever seen, even in a town like Vallarta, searching for her husband, heir to the Springfield Foundation, missing and presumed dead for over three years. When Corina shows Algo evidence that her husband may be living among the Huichols, one of Mexico's most mysterious indigenous peoples; and when it's evidence she's held for over a year without bothering to investigate until now, Vallarta's Something" isn't sure he can find her husband, but he knows he wants to try. 
 
On a search for a lost hero-husband living as a shaman in a tribe of peyote worshipers, Cotton Waters leads Corina Springfield into the center of tribal dissension deep in the sierra heart of Huichol territory. On this strange pilgrimage Waters will find a whole new perspective on reality and dream, on deceit and self-deception, and experience a healing ceremony that will change his life forever or simply end it.



My thoughts: Poetic and well-written. I enjoyed the Mexican richness flavored throughout the book, even though it was a tad too political for my taste.

Cotton Waters seemed to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Spanish and Aztec culture. The reader joins Waters in his investigative efforts across the rugged terrain of Mexico’s ancient villages. Richter paints illustrious scenes through this daunting search; however, the search for Brian Springfield was not compelling enough to hold my interest. The information regarding the shamans was difficult to comprehend and follow along. And how exactly did dreams tie into this story? Were they a metaphor?
It seems that this book would be best suited for those interested in history and archeology. This was not a bad book; it just wasn’t for me.

My rating: 2 stars  

Review: TAKE HER FOR A RIDE by Steven M. Painter

Producer Paul Russel knows how to play the shady, glamorous of Hollywood movies, even though the stress can wrench him like a pretzel sometimes. Lillian Nelson is a hard-working actress trying to make it in the industry but is bothered by the fakeness of it all. But that’s what actors do—fake it! The fact that she was dating Paul didn’t make the vicious assumptions that she slept her way into a contract any easier. Perhaps Lillian was in the wrong business. At first, it seemed like she was tired of all the charades.

The story does answer the question: What to do when the star of a future Blockbuster hit suddenly dies? (It reminded me of Paul Walker.) Then to have this happen during the Great Depression made it even harder.
I loved how Paul’s specialty was in horrors. The author included references of some of the greatest classical films. Painter reveals the naked picture behind the glitzy film industry. His attempt to take the reader on a wild trip to 1930’s Hollywood was enhanced by the colorful characters and snappy dialogue. At times, the dialogue was a bit confusing as I couldn’t figure out who was talking.
The reader goes through every daunting, complex stage of the movie-making process through the eyes of Paul (the director) and Lillian (the actress). The steps detailed every task, but where was the story? Judging from the cover, I anticipated there to be a conspiracy or murder or something sinister. And what was the meaning behind the title? Who was being taken for a ride? Lillian? Was she being hoaxed as that was normally part of the old saying, “taken for a ride.”
Still, one thing was for sure: the story revolved around movies, and movies were LIFE.
Painter’s bio declared that “he has written extensively about 1930’s Hollywood,” and this book is strong evidence of it.

My rating: 3 stars  

Review: BURYING BEN by Ellen Kirschman

Dot Meyerhoff is a newly-hired police psychologist with a subdued tells-it-like-it-is attitude. Ben Gomez is a naive, rookie cop, who nearly gets sick when seeing his first dead body at the scene of a crime. Constantly hassled by his superiors and peers, Ben starts to question whether or not he’s cut out for police work. That’s where Doc Dot comes in.

Part of me was worried about poor, old Ben. He obviously was struggling with some major emotional set-backs. But Dot did have a point: “Academic types like to revel in nuance and collect data before making decisions. Cops need to think on their feet and think fast.” (30) SO TRUE! Not everyone can be a cop, and I couldn’t help but think that Ben just couldn’t be one.
Still, you can’t help but feel for Ben in his heart-wrenching struggles and over-bearing stress with his hard work at trying to be a good cop, a good husband, and a good soon-to-be-father. I mean, who wouldn’t be stressed with a whiny, selfish wife like April? What a bitch! What choice did Ben have?
After Ben’s suicide, Dot finds herself at risk at losing her practice, her license, everything she’s ever worked for.
The reader joins Dot in her quest to learn the truth and the reason behind Ben’s suicide.
The author writes with dignified humor and sensitivity. Full of well-crafted characters and a quick plot, this psychological mystery is a gripping read from start to finish.
 My rating: 4 stars   

Review: THE BRUTAL ILLUSION by Stephen Jared

Alysson is a young, nubile wanna-be actress, who, on the verge of giving up and moving back home to Indiana, impulsively moves in with a dashing gentleman.

It was fitting how this book was called “Brutal Illusion” for it is the ostentatious glamour of Hollywood that is alluring at first glance, yet deceiving upon closer inspection. You would think that you could trust the tall, handsome man that swept you off your feet, but then again…Suddenly, Alysson finds herself in a troubling predicament.
Jimmy is a struggling screenwriter stuck in the politics of Hollywoodland. He is enamored with Alysson, who shares the same child-like innocence for the film arts. Both endure abuse at the hands of corporate greed and aspiration.
Well-written and vivid. It was like seeing a movie from the 1940’s with its classic black-and-white film noir style. The author paints a brilliant portrait of the Hollywood scene with radiant sensitivity. This book is an exciting and colorful read with a dark twist.

My rating: 5 stars   

Review: UNDELIVERABLE by Rebecca A. Demarest

When Benjamin Grant’s son disappeared a year ago, he threw himself into the search, and his obsession left him without a home, wife, or job. Now, he’s managed to find work at the United States Postal Service’s Mail Recovery Center, which he hopes will prove an invaluable tool in his investigation. With the help of his coworker, Sylvia—a kleptomaniac artist—Ben learns the ins and outs of a warehouse full of lost mail, and explores every lead in his son’s case. But when it all points towards the monstrous Leonard Moscovich, Ben fears the worst.




My thoughts: Ben is a heart-broken father who keeps pounding the pavement every waking hour, full of determination and hope. You can’t help but feel for the guy in his soul-wrenching journey. In the beginning, I found it a bit odd how it started off with Ben’s wife learning she was pregnant before diving into the aftermath of the son’s disappearance; however, I was glad that, at some point, the author provided the back story to that horrible day.

Even though everyone else seems to have given up, Ben continues to pursue the case and feels that by working for the U.S. postal service might help him do that. Did he really believe that he would find his son that way? I wasn’t sure if Ben’s relentless search for his son was naively optimistic or endearingly brave.
I enjoyed Sylvia’s spunky and crafty attitude. Like her, I am also an artist and a reader. She was a great character. She was the friend that Ben needed in his endless down-ward spiral—she made him laugh, she was in his face about his reckless behavior, and, most of all, she listened. If he wasn’t still married and she was a bit older, I would’ve thought that they had a real shot together.
Illustrated against the day-to-day operations of the mail recovery system, the story is a vivid portrayal of the emotional impact of loss and psychological destruction. A sensitive tale with a touch of humor.
You will be most impressed by this talented writer!
My rating: 4 stars  
 

Review: TIME TO RETIRE by Jon Foyt

Things are not quite what they seem at Sunset Gardens, an active adult retirement community in California. The directors of the Homeowner’s Association has been handling money in questionable ways, there’s secret meetings occurring at The Silent Front, a former speakeasy, and an influential resident recently committed suicide. Reporter Willy Herbst, approaching retirement, is curious about what’s going on in the neighboring community “over the hill.” He and his eager intern, Sally Saginaw, team up to investigate. Their discoveries are surprising…




My thoughts: What do you do when you retire? Many think that old people just have way too much time on their hands, which is really what retirement is all about—finally getting to do what you want to do. For me, I’d spend all my time reading, writing, and traveling. However, Willy Herbst just can’t shake off his reporter’s instincts. Something is going on at Sunset Gardens, and Willy is determined to find out what.
As we dive into the story, the author presents some background and historical information on the scenes and characters. It acutely describes retirement living.
I was intrigued by the mysterious conspiracies of the retirement community and was looking forward to the unveiling, but my efforts were waned by the slow pace of the plot. For the most part, the writing was satisfactory and contained that small dose of “old timer” humor; however, it was not enough to hold my interest.
My rating: 2 stars