Book Review & Giveaway: Big in Japan by Jennifer Griffith

Book:  Big in Japan
Author:  Jennifer Griffith
Pages:   312
Format:  Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle/ebook
Publisher:  Jolly Fish Press
Book Source:  Provided by Publisher
Category:  Contemporary Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Style:  Humorous, easy feel-good style

Synopsis on Amazon

Buck Cooper is Texan, obese, and invisible to his colleagues. And to the voluptuous Allison Turner, the girl of his dreams, he is way below parr. Buck's entire life is about fitting in, a feat he's been struggling to achieve but has never succeeded. Until serendipity lands him in Japan. Right in the middle of a sumo match.

As his life takes a new turn in a country where being big can mean fame and fortune, Buck must embark on the most dangerous, yet adventurous ride of his life—to find the ultimate meaning of love and acceptance. Even if it means risking his life and giving up everything he has.

My Take:

Author Jennifer Griffith

Query:  how does a petite wife and mother write an empathetic story about a 6'6" 300+ lb. young man embarking on an adventure of a lifetime in a place about as foreign to Texas as it can get?  Answer:  superbly, with a great deal of style and charm—not an easy feat, even for people the size of Buck Cooper.

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Overview of Land of the Noonday Sun When two strangers have nothing left but their dreams, they must forge a relationship in Nantahala, North Carolina, a small town known as Land of the Noonday Sun. A man with a traumatic past is able to turn his life around and is happy with his chosen career as a whitewater guide. Everything changes though when fate hurls a woman into his path. His carefree life is in turmoil, and his former weaknesses threaten to overtake him. Will he be strong enough when tragedy strikes and is once again in danger of losing everything he loves?

Book Review: Deconstructing Infatuation by Mercé Cardus

Book: Deconstructing Infatuation
Author:  Mercé Cardus

Pages:   148

Format:  Paperback, Kindle/ebook
Publisher:  CreateSpace (June 1, 2012)
Book Source:   Provided by Author

Category:   Contemporary Romance

Style:   Character-driven, some sexual situations, occasional profanity

Synopsis from GoodReads:

Sometimes, whether you're single or with a significant one, somebody appears in your life unexpectedly. We feel the need to know who this person is, the need to know exactly who this person is.

A story may offer different interpretations, even with several irreconcilable and contradictory meanings. As in Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta's story in Dante's Divine Comedy, this story is not about unfaithfulness either. This story is about infatuation: what burns inside of oneself when we let ourselves fall madly for someone.

My Take:

Central to the plot of Deconstructing Infatuation are Helen Hayes, a late thirty-something literary agent living in Manhattan, and Tiziano Conti, a handsome Florentine in town to run the New York Marathon (one would assume, referred as it is as the marathon). Helen has a significant other who lives in his own apartment across town when he is in town which is not often as he is traveling 360 days of the year.

Her roommate, Marlene, comes and goes, it would seem, although the reasons for her itinerancy are never explained. It's enough to the author and presumably to the reader that Marlene will be out of town for a month and wants to sublet her bedroom, which she has done in the past with less than satisfactory results. However, this negative experience does not deter the roommates, and the story opens on the pair holding an open house in an attempt to find the right temporary tenant.

Book Review: Once Upon A Tour by D. Ogden Huff

Book:  Once Upon A Tour

Author:  D. Ogden Huff

Pages:  300-ish

Format: Kindle/ebook

Publisher:  Amazon Digital Services
Book Source:  Provided by Author

Category:  Contemporary Romance (LDS)

Style:  Character-driven, fanciful

Synopsis from GoodReads:

Creepy castles, exotic sights, and flirty foreign men—it’s no wonder ALINA, a starry-eyed American Mormon girl, is in love for the third time in three weeks. When a guided tour of Eastern Europe repeatedly tests her moral strength, she must decide whether her love is real or only imagined.

Alina knows that she sees the world through fairy tale-colored glasses—after all, she writes sappy romances and collects old fairy tales. But why stifle her overactive imagination when there’s romance all around her? With every new castle, Alina envisions herself in historical romances where she’s chased by delicious vampires, roguish robbers, and conspiring counts—right into the arms of loyal captains, fearless farmers, and regal princes. But in her short stories, as well as her real life, her romances don’t end well. . . . read more

My Take:

To be totally honest, I am always a touch leery of "Mormon" literature.  Don't get me wrong: I like to read books about characters who try to hold to the same standards as my own.  I enjoy reading about their struggles to live in but not of the world.  I especially appreciate getting through an entire book without being blindsided by gratuitous sexual content or foul language or graphic violence or any combination of the three.  I believe it's possible to tell interesting stories without having to resort to the salacious, and I appreciate it when the authors I read prove it.

Book Review: Identity by Betsy Love

Book:  Identity

Author:  Betsy Love

Pages:  304

Format: Paperback, Kindle/ebook

Publisher:  Walnut Springs Press (July 2011)
Book Source:  Independent Purchase

Category:  Suspense/Romance

Style:  Character-driven with some action

They say everyone has a doppleganger, even in LDS fiction.  Savannah is a middle-class Mormon girl at a turning point in her life.  Amelia is a spoiled cosmopolitan heiress on vacation.  Everyone loves Savannah.  Amelia not so much.  Their looks are similar enough that they are mistaken for one another when both are wearing sunglasses.  They sit down next to each other on a flight from Mexico to Arizona.  Mayhem ensues.

Typical topics for LDS books, with the Gospel being shared, lives changed, hearts are won, etc., etc., Identity differs with its plot of murder, intrigue, industrial espionage, blended family politics, alcohol dependency and surprise developments.  The blood and guts seem an odd juxtaposition to father's blessings and scripture study, but, it actually works.

The first published work of Ms. Love, it is ambitious.  While not ready to face off with Tom Clancy or Dan Brown, she manages to pull it off with few contradictions and plausibility issues.  I had a few problems with it, not the least of which was the bad .mobi formatting of the Kindle version and lack of a table of contents, but such difficulties could be eliminated with a new edition.