Review of the week & Blog Hop Time

I'm beginning to wonder if I have anything other than busy weeks nowadays. It's definitely been busy on the blog with reviews, a guest post and a giveaway. So as a recap....

You have until noon tomorrow (so just over 25 hours) to enter my giveaway. As part of his Be Nicholson's Agent event Scott Nicholson is giving away a copy of his e-book Troubled. Here is the original post with details on how to enter. Once the winner has been drawn I will be announcing the next giveaway!

This month author David Brown is also busy on a blog tour. He stopped by with a guest post on creating the fantasy world of Elenchera featured in his novel Fezauriu's Epiphany.

And as far as reviews, I posted on

The Water Men, by Adelaide MacKenzie Fuss, a 5* contemporary fiction
ORPHANS stories, by Tim Cummings, a diverse collection of short stories, poetry and dramatic pieces, and finally
The Tunnelers by Geoff Gander, a great horror short.

I have another review to write and post later, and tomorrow I will have a guest post from Scott Nicholson.

Moving swiftly on...it's Blog Hop time! This week the question is Many of us primarily read one genre of books, with others sprinkled in. If authors stopped writing that genre, what genre would you start reading? Or would you give up reading completely if you couldn’t read that genre anymore?


Give up reading :O Never! It's not a dilemma I'm likely to ever face because I read such a mix. I think even if the only genres left were my absolute least favourites I would still read them, I'd just have to hunt down the best of the best.

Are we really going to see anyone admit they'd stop reading if they couldn't get their hands on their fave genre? I thought book blogger were all too diehard for that!

Book Review: The Water Men by Adelaide MacKenzie Fuss

A life in California, surfing in the Pacific, to me sounds perfect. Devon, England is hardly the West Coast. My view of the lifestyle has probably been distorted by too many American TV shows so this book sounded like a bit of an antidote.

Shawn McGuire was living the American dream, but it has now faded and he's wide awake. He has retired at the age of 36, a multi-millionaire, and returned to his home town of Newport Beach. His plan is to surf and to find some sort of spiritual nourishment. His mum hasn't seen him for years and is a prickly lady to deal with. His neighbours are mostly in a similar position, millionaires with time on their hands and not much in the way of a plan. He realises his mum is one of the things drawing him back, the unsolved disappearance of a former schoolmate is another.

This story charts about a year in Shawn's life, although until near the end the timescale isn't clear which gave me the same sort of drifting, unanchored feeling I imagine Shawn would have after a life in the hectic business world. He find some sort of purpose in his life when he rescues abandoned dog Oliver, who leads him to the woman he marries. Theirs isn't a conventional marriage though and Shawn focuses more time on rescuing alcoholic neighbour Russ and former surgeon Jimmy. He also finds a way to try and do some good for the community. While doing all of this things start to come together for him.

With the description talking about Shawn searching for missing pieces of his soul I did wonder whether this might be a little too philosophical and highbrow to be a really enjoyable read. I turned out to be totally wrong. Shawn is a nice guy who has made good and is now searching for meaning beyond his value in $$$s. As a character I really warmed to him and the good things he was doing in his search for a better life. The author's descriptions of the Pacific and the surf lifestyle, while blunt about the potential dangers, has made me determined to make it as far as the West coast one day. It sounds amazing.

This is a wonderful piece of contemporary fiction that I have been thinking about since I finished it yesterday. I think it is one of those books that will stay with me for longer than most as I continue to think about what is really important in life and what brings a person meaning. This may make it sound like a heavy read but it really wasn't, and although it's a reasonable length it was the work of a day to read it. Love it!

Format: Paperback, review copy
My Rating: 5*