Book Review - The Vineyard by Michael Hurley plus Signed Book & Bookmark Giveaway - 5 Winners !!

Book Review

NEW RELEASE....

A Beautiful Island in New England.

A Time of Healing for Three Women.

A Moment of Destiny for One Man.

From Michael Hurley, winner of the Somerset Prize, comes a tale of old money, young passion, and ancient mystery.

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 they 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.

Book Available from.....

Amazon.co.uk     Amazon.com

“Hurley writes beautifully”
- Kirkus Reviews on The Prodigal

"Hurley's eloquent, hypnotic style will have readers following, unquestioningly, to the very end." 

-ForeWord Clarion Review

Book Excerpt from Chapter 20

 It was a question that would never have occurred to her mother or to any of her mother’s friends. Of course she would marry Tripp Wallace, they would say—or wouldn’t say, rather, because the subject would never come up. But if they were asked, they would be pained to explain what was self-evident. He met all the necessary criteria. He was from a well-respected family. He had gone to the right schools, as had his father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him. He had the right friends who had gone to the same schools and traveled in the same small circles. He was accomplished at the right sports—sailing in summer and skiing in winter—and he knew how to say and do the right things at the right moment in a way that bore testament, along with his good looks, to an obvious breeding. He was tall and well-formed and not overly bright or bookish or moody or sensitive. He would love Dory with fraternal affection and a benign indifference that would immunize him from the terrible angst that afflicts the lovelorn. There would be affairs, perhaps, but he could be relied upon to keep them discreet and meaningless, and there would be no brooding or melancholy or naval gazing in the wake of their discovery. New love would falter and stumble as it invariably does, but the business of marriage would march on. There would be no mid-life forays into the wild unknown, because he was not a curious man. His life had followed a well-worn path thus far, and he would stick to that path without the danger of navigational error that comes from needless reflection. He would lead a good life, not a well-examined life, and thereby make it possible for Dory to do the same. He and Dory would produce tall, lithe, gorgeous, tow-headed children and grandchildren who, on their way to fulfilling their central role as heirs to the family’s fortune and curators of its legacy, would by their laughter and playfulness banish the awful silence that would otherwise creep into their marriage, like a pestilence.

Our Book Review
The Vineyard grabbed my attention as soon as I started reading and the first part of the book is still my favorite part of the story.  Three college friends, Charlotte, Dory and Turner reunite at Dory's place in The Vineyard ten years after seeing other.  Each with their own personal soul searching story that interlinks making the story flow together, keeping you well and truly intrigued, grasping you to read on.

As I mentioned I was drawn to one particular character in the story, Charlotte, who's sadness and despair weighed far too heavy for her that she could no longer carry on.  What happens next will have your undivided attention and gives you the understanding of the true face of suicide, the author I felt did an amazing job with this.  

The story is a lot more than the girls reunion, we also have an elusive spiritual figure known by locals as 'The Fisherman', to the girls as 'Enoch', who seems to have miraculous gifts of kindness and healing.  This innocent, beautiful soul wants peace and beauty in the world and for the people in it and he will help the girls in their time of need in ways they certainly would not expect.  Yet not everyone sees The Fisherman in good light.

There is some sexual content in the story so I would recommend this for adults.

Certainly a reminder that if we slowed down in our lives we would find the real person we want to be.  A story of faith, real friendship and mystery after mystery that keeps you reading on to find out more.

Our Rating

About the Author

Michael Hurley and his wife Susan live near Charleston, South Carolina. Born in Baltimore in 1958, he studied English at the University of Maryland and law at St. Louis University. Michael's first book, Letters from the Woods, was a collection of essays, self-published in 2005, based on wilderness canoeing expeditions with his children. It was selected as a finalist in the Nature category for ForeWord magazine's Book of the Year award. In 2013 Hachette Book Group published his memoir, Once Upon A Gypsy Moon, under their Center Street imprint. The Prodigal is his first novel.

Follow the Author at.....

Website   Facebook   YouTube   Goodreads 

Follow the Book Tour

NOW FOR THE AUTHOR'S GIVEAWAY

5 Lucky Winners will win a SIGNED Book & Bookmarks from the author

Ending on Thursday 18th December at 11.59pm EST

Open Worldwide 

Enter Below and Good Luck !!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sharon x

Are you a book reviewer or book blogger? Join our book tours reviewers team - Apply Here x

    
http://www.beckvalleybooks.co.uk 
http://www.beckvalleybooks.blogspot.com