The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

Blurb:

Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense.

She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.

It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it man-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.

Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes.

But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.

About the Author:

Alexandra Oliva was born and raised in upstate New York. She has a BA in history from Yale University and an MFA in creative writing from The New School. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. The Last One is her first novel.

Review:

When you mostly review romance novels, they can get kind of boring. You know when you pick up the book the couple will have a happily-ever-after, and you pretty much know from page-to-page what’s going to happen next. Sometimes I want to write, “It’s a romance. You know how it goes,” and just award roses based on the quality (or lack thereof) of the editing. Rarely does a book come along that is completely different. That surprises you. Knocks your socks off. Horrifies you. And fascinates you.

“Zoo” is a veterinarian participating in a survivalist reality program. I avoid these shows. For one thing, my idea of roughing it is a hotel with no Jacuzzi. For another, I hate programs where people get voted off. At least on Zoo’s show, people are eliminated by being the last ones to complete various “challenges.” But even Zoo and the members of her team challenge are disgusted when the “lost and injured hiker” they’ve been tracking stumbles over the side of a cliff when they get there because they were ten minutes late. The sexy bimbo (thrown in by the producers for eye candy) stubbed her toe and spent fifteen minutes sitting on a rock crying. What the viewers don’t know is that the team can see a cable secured from the top of the cliff and the battered and bloody dead body at the bottom is a dummy. The “brains” are cottage cheese and food coloring, and the “blood” is colored corn syrup.

So when Zoo finds herself alone on a challenge and comes across a house with balloons in her signature blue color with a mat that says “Home Sweet Home,” it’s easy to delude herself into believing the challenge is to make her way home following the rules of the game. And to believe the dead bodies in the house are more props. As are the rest of the ones she encounters on her journey.

I’m not normally drawn to apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic books, but Zoo’s journey—her absolute inability to accept reality, the way she rationalizes the things that happen to her, made The Last One truly one of the most fascinating books I’ve read in quite awhile. You have to read it yourself.

Author Website:  http://www.alexandraoliva.com

Heat Rating:  R—Graphic Violence

Length:  305 Pages

Prices:

Digital:  $12.99

Hardcover:  $18.25

Audible:  28.46

Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Last-One-Novel-Alexandra-Oliva-ebook/dp/B016TG5RKG

Thanks for visiting.

Taking Shots: An Assassins Novel by Toni Aleo

 Blurb:

No matter how hard she tries, Elleanor Fisher never thinks she's good enough, from her job to her weight to her love life. After enduring years of abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, Elli has been drifting through life in a daze. Until, that is, she meets Shea Adler on a promotional shoot for the NHL's Nashville Assassins. Before Elli knows what's happening, the gorgeous Shea breaks the ice and shatters her world.

A brilliant athlete inside the rink, Shea Adler is tired of the life he's living outside of it: the women, the money, the drinking. But everything changes when he meets Elli. After laying eyes on this feisty, witty, beautiful woman, he feels like he's just taken the hardest hit of his life. No matter how skeptical she is, Shea knows they are meant to be together—if only he can convince Elli to put her insecurities aside before she misses out on a shot at love.

Review by Rochelle Weber:

Although I’m not a hockey fan by any stretch of the imagination, Taking Shots was a pleasant, somewhat-engaging read. However, it was way too long, and the dialog was extremely stilted. In fact, you can see a sample of the stilted dialog right here in the blurb; “…Shea knows they are meant to be together…” A hockey player would “…know they’re meant…” I can’t begin to list the number of times in Taking Shots where people fail to use contractions. Even Shea’s four year-old nephew says something like “his Unky would not do that.” Really? It’s as though the book’s populated by relatives of Data. There were also spelling issues and misused words.

It’s so sad. I share many of Elli’s issues. My mother, too, was an emotionally abusive alcoholic. When I got engaged, she said, “It’ll never work. He’s too good for you.” I, too, have thyroid issues and have finally lost over a hundred pounds but still have some body image issues; although Elli’s expectations are rather unrealistic. She’s upset that she’s a size ten, and not the size two she was when she was eighteen. I was happy with a fourteen. I was a twelve when I was eighteen, although I’m told sizes have changed since then, so I don’t know what size I would have worn in today’s sizing. At any rate, I’m in my sixties and more comfortable in my skin than Elli. The fact that even I wanted her to just get over it, already, and accept Shea says a lot about the problems in Taking Shots.

As I read the book, I was sure it was self-published. I was wrong. Taking Shots is published by Random House—the “Big Leagues” of publishing. I can’t believe I could look forward to such a poor level of editing if I finally made it to that level of success. Where were Ms. Aleo’s editors? Did they sleep through this manuscript? Half way through the book we knew what Elli’s issues were and even Elli was convinced Shea was in love with her and was in it for the long run. But, somehow, Ms. Aleo managed to draw the story out for another three hundred pages of angst. I finished the book, because I was curious to see what else could possibly happen, but it was put-downable. I really am sorry, Ms. Aleo. You need a better editor. I don’t suppose Random House is hiring sixty-four year-old graduates of Columbia College, Chicago who require their authors to use a whole lot more contractions, drop redundancies, and cut superfluous angst.

Length:  592 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $11.21

Digital:  $3.99

Audibel Unabridged:

MP3, CD:  $31.49

Wispersync for Kindle:  $2.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BSW7PV6/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_2

Thanks for visiting. Rose, Julie, Donna, & Rochelle