She Treads Softly: Live To Tell

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Live To Tell

Live To Tell by Bianca Sloane

SBB: 9/7/16
eBook review copy; 302 pages
ISBN-13: 2940157148379

Live To Tell by Bianca Sloane is a recommended thriller.

At first glance Dr. Charles Morgan has it all. He came from a wealthy privileged family, has a successful practice, beautiful wife, and two sons who are also on their way to success. The problem is his wife, Jillian, is toxic. Nothing Charles does suits her. The two are barely civil to each other. It seems that Charles job is to bring home the paycheck for Jillian to spend while she belittles him. It seems like divorce or counseling is in order, but the two stay in their rut. Charles is seriously considering having an affair, but it needs to be with a woman who won't upset his current lifestyle but will provide him with the excitement he craves.

Charles meets Tamra, a cocktail waitress, quite by chance and starts an affair with her that he thinks will satisfy his desires. His affair provides him with a whole lot more than excitement though as he becomes obsessed with her.

Live To Tell is well written, and a seriously dark and sexy novel. Once the action starts it will grip most readers and keep you entertained. This is a perfect airplane book and I'm rating it based on the addictive factor - you will want to see what happens next. 3.5 stars

For me personally, I was less of a fan of this novel. I know other readers were surprised by the twist, but I wasn't and pretty much predicted everything that was going to happen very early on, when Charles was whining about his wife and we were shown that she really is a horrible bitch. Therein lies some of my problems with the novel: the characters felt like stereotypes to me and I didn't really care for the subject matter. Also, this is a part one of what will be at least two part series. Issues are left unresolved and there will be another novel to finish the story. I'm not a fan of that for thrillers either. It's not that Live To Tell is bad, but I would recommend Bianca Sloane's previous novels before this one.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.