G1074 Book Review of Melding Spirits by Michael E. BURGE
Author: Michael E. Burge
ISBN: 9780996309837
Publisher: Self published
Type of book: 1958, summer, Wabash River, first love, crush, friendships, relationships, murder, evil, Illinois, coming of age
Year it was published: 2017
Summary:
Twelve-year-old Evan Mason’s life has been turned upside down by the sudden death of his father. His mother isn’t home much, the insurance office during the day, waiting tables at night. Evan is spending a great deal of time alone.
Now he finds himself on a Greyhound bus headed for a small town on the Wabash River where he’ll spend the summer of 1958 with his loving grandmother.
Evan soon meets his new neighbor, Katie Dobbins. She’s a feisty blue-eyed girl with a ponytail, the type of girl Buddy Holly might sing about on American Bandstand. Evan is instantly enamored with her.
It seems the perfect summer is underway—but strange things are happening in the woods surrounding the Ghost Hill Indian Mound.
There’s a dark cloud lingering over the Wabash Valley—It won’t be long before it erupts into a raging storm.
Characters:
Main characters for the tale include Evan, Katie Dobbins, Riley Wilson, and the detectives in charge of solving the case. Evan is a talented musician who has given up playing piano on account of his father's death; Katie is an outgoing young lady, and Riley Wilson has an intriguing history in that he had a chance to be a talented baseball player but who couldn't make it. There is also Evan's grandmother Bea, but I am getting the feeling that I haven't really caught the sense of the characters, unfortunately.
Theme:
I am not sure what the theme should have been; that nothing is at it seems?
Plot:
The story is in third person narrative from what seems to be everyone's point of view, and there are a lot of characters to keep track of: the setting and the time is well done in my opinion, although MY MOTHER'S SON by David Hirshberg is a lot better at nostalgia factor. and in my opinion, I think its a good tale for New adults or young adults to read because its a clean tale. The author also seems to shy away from more darker aspects, such as Evan trying to heal from his father's grief, or even more about the mysterious killer, and I still am not sure how the killer was discovered in the first place.
(From iRead Book Tour)
Buy the Book:
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KOBO ~ iBooks ~ Indigo ~ IndieBound,
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Read the first few chapters...
Meet the Author:
Michael E. Burge grew up in the Chicago suburbs and a small town on the Wabash River in Southern Illinois.
In the late sixties, he left college to serve on a U.S. Navy destroyer out of Norfolk, Virginia. Upon leaving the service, he transitioned to a career in the burgeoning computer industry, positions in product management and marketing.
He is now pursuing his lifelong interest in writing, publishing his debut novel, Bryant’s Gap, in 2015 and his second, Melding Spirits, in 2017.
Michael also plays piano, paints, and is an avid golfer. He and his family currently live in Illinois.
Connect with the Author: Twitter ~ Facebook
Opinion:
What I think I was expecting from the tale is that it will be far more darker than it really is; I expected for the tale to really juxtapose the innocence and the evil as is claimed (I think I was expecting a lot of ROANOKE GIRLS by Amy Engel, or else MY MOTHER'S SON by David Hirshberg (which I received on Fresh fiction website) but while MELDING SPIRITS does have that, it doesn't mix the two well, and very often I wondered how the mystery part connects to the innocence? and unfortunately I could predict the connection almost halfway through the book. What is good about the book are the vivid descriptions of the place along with the innocence aspect, that is what the character does or doesn't do. The darkness aspect needs to be worked on a bit more in my opinion.
This is for iRead Book Tours
BOOK REVIEW TOUR SCHEDULE:
Jan 14 - Working Mommy Journal - review / giveaway
Jan 14 - Viviana MacKade - book spotlight / guest post /giveaway
Jan 15 - Rockin' Book Reviews - review / guest post / giveaway
Jan 17 - Paulette's Papers - book spotlight / giveaway
Jan 18 - Books Direct - book spotlight / excerpt / giveaway
Jan 18 - Syllables of Swathi - review / author interview / giveaway
Jan 18 - Books Direct - book spotlight / giveaway
Jan 21 - A Mama's Corner of the World - review / giveaway
Jan 22 - Locks, Hooks and Books - review / giveaway
Jan 22 - Reviews in the City - book spotlight
Jan 22 - Library of Clean Reads - review / giveaway
Jan 23 - Mystery Suspense Reviews - book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Jan 24 - Truly Trendy - review / giveaway
Jan 25 - T's Stuff - review / author interview / giveaway
Jan 25 - Celticlady's Reviews - book spotlight / giveaway
Jan 29 - Books for Books - review
Jan 30 - Literary Flits - book spotlight / guest post
Jan 31 - Adventurous Jessy - review / giveaway
Jan 31 - The Avid Inspri - review / author interview
Jan 31 - Life as Leels - review
TBD - Svetlana's Reads and Views - review
4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)
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