Would You BUY or PASS? Good Friday: Dreams & Nightmares #FridayFiveChallenge

 

Welcome to the ‘Friday Five Challenge.’

Would you BUY or PASS if you had only a thumbnail image and five minutes to decide?

Here is my contribution for this week:

Happy Easter!  It was fairly easy to choose a theme for the Friday Five this week and so in honour of our UK Bank Holiday I searched for ‘Good Friday’ and found this:

Good Friday: Dreams & Nightmares (Twisted Family Holidays Series Book 2) by JR Wirth

Blurb:

On the eve of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, an unsuspecting bookstore owner, in a resort town, Daniel Johnson, finds himself entranced with the new woman in town. Five years a widower, Johnson is ripe for a new relationship—something real and tangible, with intimacy.  

Unfortunately, the arrival of the enchanting, mystery woman also brings problems with his reality. Johnson finds himself waking up in alternating worlds: the first world involves his newfound love interest and a happy life with his youngest daughter; in the second world he struggles with his bookstore and his relationship with his daughter, who believes he is becoming senile, or mentally ill.

Johnson searches for the answers to the dream/wake realities, while trying to find a way to remain in the happy world with his brand-new, budding relationship. But, is he insane, or is there a greater, paranormal force guiding the action?

My Analysis:

Cover – I quite like the cover, it reminds me of an old-fashioned film, and I half expected to see that the two figures were Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.  It doesn’t give anything away about the plot, however, apart from it being a possible romance novel.

The book blurb – Not what I was expecting.  From the cover art and first line I was thinking ‘romance novel’ but then I spot the alternating worlds, and I’m suddenly in a paranormal novel.  I found the blurb to be a little bit confusing.

The Stats – There are 96 pages, and the Kindle price is £1.34 (also available in paperback).  There are 0 reviews on Amazon.co.uk, and 10 reviews appear Amazon.com, all of them four and five stars.  Here is an example of a four-star review:

Widower Johnson has dreamed of a beautiful woman, during Lent. Perhaps he’s “blessed.” But “Johnson’s heart stopped,” when he saw her in the flesh. Still, “despite the feelings of panic and loss of essential organ function,” he makes his awkward way to speak to her, and true love follows… maybe. Coffee is wonderful, secret recipes have power, and these two vendors of fine food and books seem made for each other. But Johnson’s daughter worries, and suddenly the story’s slightly odd tone makes perfect sense. Realities are clashing here, but is it dream or nightmare, the end or the beginning of everything? And what has Easter to do with it? Good Friday Dreams and Nightmares is short, confusing, intriguing, and, in the end, really satisfying. A cool, odd little story, pleasingly out of the ordinary.

BUY or PASS? – I think the review sums it up for me – short, confusing and intriguing, but am I intrigued enough to buy?  Nope, it’s a PASS from me.

Good Friday: Dreams & Nightmares – buy your copy.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Take a look at who else has taken part in the Friday Five Challenge:

Cathy searches for a Druid tale

The original idea for the Friday Five Challenge comes from Rosie Amber, and you can join up at https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

What is the Friday Five Challenge?

In today’s online shopping age, readers often base their buying decisions on small postage stamp size book covers (thumbnails), a quick glance at the book description and the review. How much time do they spend making that buying decision?

AUTHORS – You often only have seconds to get a reader to buy your book, is your book cover and book bio up to it?

The Challenge is this… IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES…

1) Go to any online book supplier,

2) Randomly choose a category,

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which has instantly appealed to your eye,

4) Read the book Bio/ Description of this book,

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple,

6) Make an instant decision, would you BUY or PASS?

(then write a little analysis about your decision)