Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Vineyard Blog Tour, Review, Excerpt and Giveaway


e





Check out the Tour HERE


Synopsis 

Ten years after their college days together, three wounded and very different women reunite for a summer on the island of Martha's Vineyard. As the come to grips with the challenges and crises in their lives, their encounter with a reclusive poacher known only as "the fisherman" threatens to change everything they believe about their world--and each other.




You can purchase The Vineyard at the following Retailers:
        

Want some More? Here is an Excerpt!!


CHAPTER 2:


Charlotte plopped down on the patchwork quilt that covered the high, four-poster bed. Carefully embroidered ringlets of berries and flowers rambled across the fabric. Made by prim ladies at Edgartown tea parties, she imagined, wheedling away the long winter hours behind frosted windowpanes in serene comfort. The whole ethos of a bygone era was still present in the Delano house like the scent of perfume. It was all so exquisite. Quite so. It seemed to Charlotte as if nothing uncouth, no ill wind, could ever penetrate such a fortress of gentility.
Except she had penetrated it, . . .

. . . .

Dory was a free spirit, a granola girl, a bon vivant. Charlotte was not. Charlotte, even in the throes of a suicidal depression, remained a Pop-Tart kind of girl, a wear-jammies-to-bed girl, and a woman firmly tethered to the moral and social conventions of the middle class, which certainly did not include gallivanting about naked in one’s backyard.

. . . .

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but the path to purgatory was not paved at all. Ruts and potholes pushed and bullied Charlotte as she ran that gauntlet. What a fitting anticlimax it would be, she thought, to break an axle and become stranded along the way to one’s own suicide—a live woman and a dead car stuck together on a murderous road. It would be untoward to wash a dead body out to sea while leaving a dead car in the middle of the road. A minute passed while she concocted a story for the ensuing road assistance. I had an urge to go skinny-dipping, was all that came to her. Dory would accept this unquestioningly, though not likely without some petulance for not being asked to come along.

. . . .

The unexpected warmth of the water surprised her even before she realized she had begun to wade out into it. It covered her ankles, then her thighs, and made the raw night air seem more rude by comparison on the parts of her that were yet unimmersed. If her own baptism as an infant had been, by all reports, a freezing, wet shower endured with screaming and terror, this means of undoing the sacrament by immersion was markedly more pleasant. The warm water was far more welcoming than the cold air and earth she was leaving behind, and not at all the hypothermic ordeal for which she had braced herself, now, for months. O Death, where is thy sting?

. . . .




My Review

Dory, Charlotte, and Turner are college friends that are in
desperate need of some time together.  Each has their own reason for escaping to Martha's Vineyard, to spend time at Dory's beach house.  Each girl comes from different backgrounds, however their friendship never shows this.   When the "fisherman" enters their lives unexpectedly, little did they know how all three of their lives will change forever in just that one summer.

No spoilers for this review.

I was completely floored with this story.  I was expecting the usual reunion between friends and was pleasantly surprised when I got SO much more.

The Mystery of the "fisherman" was enough to keep me attached to this story on so many levels.  And you will find how important the fisherman is to this story on a Fascinating emotional level.  There is so much more than the eye can see.

Dory, Charlotte, and Turner are so different from each other, however you can see how their personalities clicked.  Dory the elite social, Charlotte the Catholic good girl, and Turner the adventurer...They each balance each other, protect each other, and make sacrifices needed to keep their friendships.  There were moments where my heart ached for each one.  Emotion takes a big roll in this story.  Moments that will infuriate you, and moments where pride steps in...complete shock at some betrayals...it is a doooosy of a read!

Michael Hurley never disappoints!








ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Hurley and his wife Susan live near Charleston, South Carolina. Born and raised in Baltimore, Michael holds a degree in English from the University of Maryland and law from St. Louis University.

The Prodigal, Michael’s debut novel from Ragbagger Press, received the Somerset Prize for mainstream fiction and numerous accolades in the trade press, including Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, ForeWord Reviews, BookTrib, Chanticleer Reviews, and IndieReader. It is currently in development for a feature film by producer Diane Sillan Isaacs. Michael’s second novel, The Vineyard, is due to be released by Ragbagger Press in December 2014.

Michael’s first book, Letters from the Woods, is a collection of wilderness-themed essays published by Ragbagger Press in 2005. It was shortlisted for Book of the Year by ForeWord magazine. In 2009, Michael embarked on a two-year, 2,200 mile solo sailing voyage that ended with the loss of his 32-foot sloop, the Gypsy Moon, in the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti in 2012. That voyage and the experiences that inspired him to set sail became the subject of his memoir, Once Upon A Gypsy Moon, published in 2013 by Hachette Book Group.

When he is not writing, Michael enjoys reading and relaxing with Susan on the porch of their rambling, one-hundred-year-old house. His fondest pastimes are ocean sailing, playing piano and classical guitar, cooking, and keeping up with an energetic Irish terrier, Frodo Baggins.




--Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter
mber 10th Monday
a Rafflecopter giveaway

2 comments:

  1. Sounds fabulous, I can't wait to read it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Vineyard looks interesting! Joining the giveaway asap and adding it to my list!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.