Review - Reverb - J. Cafesin

A Review by Carol

Book – Reverb

Author – J. Cafesin

Publication Date – January 19, 2013

Type – Stand Alone

Genre – Romance, Thriller

Rating – 3 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis

James Micheal Whren is brilliant, beautiful, rich, and taken—with his genius for creating music. He's desired by many, yet commits to no one but his muse. Just twenty-eight, and at the pinnacle of his career, on the eve of his brother's funeral his father shatters his life, and James is left abandoned in hell with no one real to save him. 

His odyssey to freedom takes him beyond the looking glass, to the reflection of friends and lovers. Humbled and alone, James escapes to the Greek island of Corfu. But instead of finding solace there, loneliness almost consumes him. 

Until Elisabeth, and her son, Cameron. 

Reverb is a love story, a psychological thriller paced with romantic suspense. The story chronicles intricately woven characters fraught with frailties that possess us all, and that linger long after the read. It is a tale of redemption—the evolution of a modern man from solipsist to integrated awareness, and the journey that inadvertently awakens his capacity to love. 

Spun from The Magus, also about a man who learns to love someone other than himself, and way beyond 50 Shades of Gray, Reverb is told like Crime and Punishment--modern, clean, edgy verging on sharp. Like nothing you've read, guaranteed.

Review

To be honest, there were a few times, I had to put the book down and take a break from it.  Parts of it had my mind wandering on other things and I had a hard time grasping the “present tense” writing.  Other than that, I liked James’ character – I loved how self absorbed he was and was rooting for him the whole time.

I found myself getting pissed off at Elisabeth’s character and how she didn’t seem to have true sympathy for James’ tortured past at the institution.  At this point in the story, I was ready to give up.  I was frustrated that a grown man had everyone trying to take care of him and thought they knew what was best for him.  I just had a hard time connecting with that and wanted James to just turn his back on everything.

The author told me that this book would be like nothing I have ever read before and that statement in a nutshell is 100% true.  It is dark and most of the time captivating – the biggest problem being that while reading, I experienced a sense of dread and negative energy.

Re-Cap

James is a genius with music, but that’s about where it ends for him.  He can’t connect with people and relationships are the furthest thing from his mind.  James’ father confronts him at his older ½ brother’s funeral about taking over the property and business but James wants nothing to do with it or his father.

The next part of the book, we experience James hurt and on the run from something and learn that for years he has been institutionalized.  During this time, James has suffered unbelievable accounts of rape and torture until he is finally able to escape.

All alone, James tries to deal with the fact that music is missing in his mind and he needs to escape his father from finding him.  Hence, the trip to Corfu and the meeting of Elisabeth……but here I’m going to end since I don’t want to give too much of the book away.

Wrap Up

It may be just me and my dislike for stories told in the present tense that I couldn’t connect fully with this book, if you are a fan of that style along with romance, suspense and dark things…this is definitely a book to pick up.  The author isn’t lying about this being “nothing you’ve read before”.

About this Author

Writing fiction is intoxicating. Fully engaging. Hot. Sexual. Physical. Mental. Spacial. Virtually touching real if I'm doing it right, then enter the scene, a million miles from solitude...

I write taut, edgy, modern fiction with complex, compelling characters that bring story live, and linger long after the reads...

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