Self-Published | April 22, 2016 | Romantic Supsence
Art of Eros, book 1
★★★1/2
SOURCE: KILLION GROUP
For years Marabella built a wall to protect herself from the pain. She has a secret about her dead husband that she would prefer not to share. Mac has his own secret but wants to know everything about her. As they play in paradise, someone is watching and waiting. Can Mac get to Marabella before her past catches up with her?
{ about kenzie macallan } .
I live in the Northeast with my two dogs who keep me very busy. As a child I traveled around the world to places like Africa, Greece, Italy, France, Holland and England. My favorite country is Scotland and hope to go back someday. I love to take photos of flowers and paint portraits, mostly of children. When I'm not writing, I'm reading all kinds of romance novels.
{ guest post : day in the life of character } .
Of Marabella Luccenzo. Mara is the lead character in my book. She gets up in morning with her head full of questions that have no answers. Her breakfast includes toast and almond butter with fruit. Since her life had been turned upside down by the death of her husband, her appetite hasn’t gotten back onboard.
After her morning coffee filled with sugar and whip crème, which is really more of a dessert, she goes to her studio in Tribeca. It’s a small space with gray concrete walls stocked with paper, charcoal pencils, clay and wooden models. Her creative mind never takes a rest as images constantly float around in her head. As a sculptor, she constantly works with her hands. Her visions come in three-dimensions. She spends the day sketching, molding clay and deciding which figures will be bronzed. Her client list continues to lengthen and there are demands for her free form dancers. Mara always gets lost in a place without time or space creating things through sketching or working with clay. It’s her escape from the pressures of the world. There’s a peace that comes over her as she allows herself to go free.
As the late afternoon approaches she takes the subway to the Children’s Hospital. There she works with sick children to help them create their own small creatures of inspiration much like her Eros. Eros is a small green dragon she created when she was very young that holds a special place in her heart. Her hope is that it will give them hope to make it through whatever ails them, from burns to terminal cancer. It’s the light in their eyes as they create that always brings her back even as she misses the ones that have gone to a place with no pain.
As dusk settles into night, she might find her way back to her studio or catch dinner with her sisters, Leigha and Raquelle who are never more than a phone call away since her husband sudden death. They have been like hover crafts trying to keep her spirits up without knowing about the heavy burden that was lifted with his death.
{ review } .
This book held a lot of promise for me, but managed to fall just short in a few areas. The strengths certainly lie in our hero, Mac, a Scotsman who ends up in the seat next to a terrible flier. He, of course, is not without is flaws... The entire time he's walking to his seat, it was as if he were marching to his death -- he saw the terrified woman sitting in the seat beside him and all he could think about was this was a terrible way to end the night of partying and women he'd had the night before. But... amazingly, almost, he finds himself entranced with the woman.
The biggest flaw, I would say, would lie in our heroine. Mara was a character who was battled and scarred, and she allowed it to rule her life -- for the most part. Her father belittled her, her late husband left terrible words in her mind... She had very little self-worth. However, in a point that didn't quite jive with this scared kitten, she had fiery, spitfire moments that almost rivaled her sister. I liked her best when she wasn't putting herself down; I enjoyed her talisman of a dragon she crafted; I loved the symbolism of said dragon throughout the story, even.
Mac and Mara embark on a quick romance. They both end up at the same resort; when they disembarked the plane, Mac left her -- he didn't get her resort information or anything. He knew she was likely to be special, but he let her go. So when he simply feels her near, surely their meeting was fated, right?
For the most part, this story was well-written. I enjoyed the plot line and enjoyed watching Mara learn to love herself -- albeit done quickly. The only other thing that bothered me with the writing style was the author's flip-flopping of view points (as well as some grammar issues {"her and her sisters went" really bothered me}). In one paragraph we would be in Mac's mind and immediately following, in Mara's. I personally need/prefer some consistency. I am hopeful that as Ms. Macallan continues this publishing journey, some of these things will be caught and fixed!
The next to fall on this Art of Eros journey is one of Mara's sisters... I'm curious to see how cool and calm sister, Leigha, handles falling (but it's Raquelle I'm most excited to watch).
The biggest flaw, I would say, would lie in our heroine. Mara was a character who was battled and scarred, and she allowed it to rule her life -- for the most part. Her father belittled her, her late husband left terrible words in her mind... She had very little self-worth. However, in a point that didn't quite jive with this scared kitten, she had fiery, spitfire moments that almost rivaled her sister. I liked her best when she wasn't putting herself down; I enjoyed her talisman of a dragon she crafted; I loved the symbolism of said dragon throughout the story, even.
Mac and Mara embark on a quick romance. They both end up at the same resort; when they disembarked the plane, Mac left her -- he didn't get her resort information or anything. He knew she was likely to be special, but he let her go. So when he simply feels her near, surely their meeting was fated, right?
For the most part, this story was well-written. I enjoyed the plot line and enjoyed watching Mara learn to love herself -- albeit done quickly. The only other thing that bothered me with the writing style was the author's flip-flopping of view points (as well as some grammar issues {"her and her sisters went" really bothered me}). In one paragraph we would be in Mac's mind and immediately following, in Mara's. I personally need/prefer some consistency. I am hopeful that as Ms. Macallan continues this publishing journey, some of these things will be caught and fixed!
The next to fall on this Art of Eros journey is one of Mara's sisters... I'm curious to see how cool and calm sister, Leigha, handles falling (but it's Raquelle I'm most excited to watch).
{ other tour stops } .
4/4/2016
4/6/2016
4/7/2016
4/8/2016
4/11/2016
4/12/2016
4/13/2016
4/14/2016
4/15/2016
Ever since the counter culture motions from completion of the 1960s and the start of the 1970s we have actually seen a surge in free love. joysexdoll
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