Blurb:
What if the only way to survive your
life is to go back in history and right the wrongs of two other men’s lives?
Patrick Walsh finds himself in this precarious position
as he goes back in time from modern day New York City to:
˃˃˃ The French Caribbean in 1790
Biracial plantation owner Patrice Beaumont is known as a
“kinder” slave master and claims to be committed to ending slavery, but his
actions don’t back-up his words. Is being the “best of the worst” all he’s
capable of?
˃˃˃ 1863 New York City
Irish street fighter Patrick Allen is days away from the
biggest fight of his career, when the Draft Riots ignite dangerous racial
conflicts around the city. Never one to take sides outside the ring, he steers
clear of the angry mobs. So when he stumbles on a lynching in progress, who can
expect him to do anything more than look away?
Tackling race relations from a unique perspective, Failed
Moments is a thought-provoking adventure that questions the measure of a man
not by his decision to do no harm, but his willingness to act on what is right.
Review by Rochelle:
I
wonder if Mr. Allen read the same metaphysical books I read that stated time
does not run chronologically on the other side, and our various lives overlap
enabling us to influence past lives as well as future ones. While lying
comatose in a hospital bed, Patrick Walsh finds himself waiting for a date in
the lobby of a posh New York hotel. He’s shocked when his “date” turns out to
be his favorite aunt, Grace. She tells him they’re soul-mates who have been
together in various relationships through many lifetimes together, and before
they can move on to the next level, they need to change decisions they made in
two of their past lives, and improve the way Patrick lives in this life.
In both
of their past lives, Patrick was at the crux of racially-charged situations,
and actions he failed to take made a difference in the outcomes in the world
around him. And, in both of those lives, advice Grace failed to give Patrick
influenced his inaction. If they manage to change those things, Patrick will
come out of his coma and have a chance to change his current life. If he does
so, he can move on to the next level of existence—Heaven, Nirvana, eternal
Summerland, whatever one chooses to call it.
It’s
not easy to stand up between fearful plantation owners and mobs of angry slaves
or an Irish lynch mob who believe if they’re drafted to fight in the Civil War
New York will be overrun by freed slaves who will work for lower wages and take
away the few jobs they’re allowed to hold. It’s much easier to look the other
way and maintain the status quo. Especially without the information his mammy
or his mother could give him that would echo in his mind and encourage him to
take a stand for what is right.
Failed Moments engaged me from the
first page. I learned a lot about race relations on Haiti when it was still a
French colony, and about how Tammany Hall controlled the military draft in New
York City during the Civil War. There was also a spiritual lesson there, and an
explanation of how reincarnation works, and again the fact that our lives do
not play out chronologically. We can go back from this lifetime and change
things in past lives. I believe this is something we sometimes do in our
dreams. And yet, all of this information is delivered in an exciting,
page-burning way. Mr. Allen transports us back to those times, into those
lives, and shows us first-hand how it was, what happened, and…
The
reason I’m giving Failed Moments 4.5
roses is that like so many self-published authors, Mr. Allen could have used a
good fiction content editor. He did a better job than most indie authors in
that he managed to avoid grammar errors and too many info dumps, but there were
quite a few head-hops—changes of point-of-view in the middle of scenes. While
the book did not read like an academic treatise (thank goodness!), Mr. Allen
does not quite have the hang of writing fiction. He does, however, have a
really good start. By all means, buy Failed
Moments.
Length:
245 Pages
Prices:
Print: $16.41
Digital: $2.99
Audible: 17.46
Thanks
for visiting. Julie, Donna, & Rochelle
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