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- March and the Single Heart Reviewed By Gordon Osmond of Bookpleasures.com
March and the Single Heart Reviewed By Gordon Osmond of Bookpleasures.com
- By Gordon Osmond
- Published August 4, 2015
- GENERAL FICTION REVIEWS
Gordon Osmond
Reviewer Gordon Osmond : Gordon is a produced and award-winning playwright and author of: So You Think You Know English--A Guide to English for Those Who Think They Don't Need One, Wet Firecrackers--The Unauthorized Autobiography of Gordon Osmond and his debut novel Slipping on Stardust.
He has reviewed books and stageplays for http://CurtainUp.com and for the Bertha Klausner International Literary Agency. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School and practiced law on Wall Street for many years before concentrating on writing fiction and non-fiction. You can find out more about Gordon by clicking HERE
Gordon can also be heard on the Electic Authors Showcase.
Follow Here To Purchase March and the Single Heart: Third in the Single Heart Series (Volume 3)
Author:Vi Zetterwall
Publisher:CC Productions
ISBN:ISBN: 978-1499383669 Edition 3
In the worlds of contemporary romance books and action films, series are all the rage. From Harry Potter to Fast and Furious, the secret to success would seem to be being a link in a chain. Franchising is no longer the exclusive domain of fast-food restaurants.
Author Vi Zetterwall has clearly got the message in creating a mega-series based on the twelve months of the year. March and the Single Heart is the third in the calendar series. It is wisely described as a stand-alone novella.
In the young life of Marci Ramirez, the trials and tribulations occur in reverse order. The first part of the novella describes a truly depressing tale of physical impairment, parental abuse, employment exploitation, and romantic disappointment. The stakes are raised substantially when Marci is dragooned into serving as a runner for the local drug gang. This all comes to a head in the book’s final sections, which deal with the trial of Marci for her nefarious activities.
Given the life stations of the book’s principal characters— dry cleaning and grocery owners, checkers and baggers, a drunken widower, and Marci herself, it is not unexpected that their spoken language is on the basic side. Less justifiable is the author’s own voice which is comparably undergraduate. The descriptive passages of the book are long on street numbers and bus routes and short on sophisticated commentary.
The text is not totally devoid of charm or nuance. The exchange between Marci and the neighborhood pawnbroker is delightful.
With the exception of occasional confusion between possessives and plurals, the editing of the book is exemplary. On a more substantive level, it should be noted that banks don’t issue certified or bank checks on uncollected funds, and prosecutors don’t reserve the right to “redirect” defense witnesses.
The book’s subtitle is: A tale of unrequited love and final redemption. I won’t be a spoiler by commenting about the first tag, and I’ll leave to the book’s cleric to decide whether redemption was either necessary or appropriate.
Merchandising is also a key element of film production. You can achieve status as a Rocky aficionado by buying and wearing the tee-shirt. Not to be outdone, Ms. Zetterwall offers the opportunity to express one’s faith and hope in good luck and the Single Heart series for the modest price of $9.95 (not to be confused with $10) plus shipping and handling in payment for an authentic replica of the coin that connects the Single Heart Series. Creative, yes; cheesy, you bet.