Book Tour and Review; The Last Prejudice by Bill Blodgett
When Ed
Connor slips into a coma his wife, children and their families arrive at the
hospital to await his recovery. They gather around his bedside and begin
reminiscing about the good old days but as the hours pass stress begins to take
its toll causing long held family secrets and unresolved issues to surface. A
disagreement over a DNR order put Ed’s sons, Steve and Peter, at odds and the
family speculates that their anger is really about an event that led to their
falling out when they were teens. While in his coma, Ed exists somewhere
between life and death and wonders what he could have done differently when
Steve tried to tell him that he was gay. The family is drawn into the bitter
battle between Peter and Steve, and they fear things will never be right
between them again. It’s now up to the family to devise an intervention as a
last ditch effort to bring these two battling brothers back into the family.
My Thoughts on the Book
Personally, I found the book heartwarming, even though I got a bit mad at Peter quite a few times because of his behaviour, especially towards Steve. Even though the book is in a sense about Ed and him being in a coma, it's also about Steve and him being gay in addition to the dynamics of this particular family.
Excerpt
The coffee cup shattered when it hit
the white porcelain kitchen sink. She had just poured it and added a splash of
half and half before she looked out the kitchen window to check on him. Oh
well, if it makes him happy. Some things I just can’t change, she thought. Then
he slumped over the steering wheel of the lawn mower. Fortunately the mower’s
safety mechanism shut the mower down when he fell to the side and onto the
newly mowed lawn.
The shattering of the cup had barely
quieted before she was through the screen door and at his side. She pulled him
the rest of the way off the mower and felt for a pulse. She found it. Thank
God.
“Ed! Ed, can you hear me? Don’t do
this to me, you stubborn old fart. I told you not to be mowing this damn lawn.”
His eyes opened when she cradled his
head in her lap, and he mumbled something. She leaned closer. “… broken…” was
all she heard.
“Broken? Ed, what’s broken?”
When he didn’t respond, she pulled
back to look at him. His eyes went vacant and then slowly rolled back and
closed.
“Help me, please… Anyone, please
help me!”
She shrieked until someone heard
her. Within minutes Beth, her neighbor, was at her side. “Jan, my God, what’s
happened?”
“Call 911.”
AUTHOR Bio and Links
I
still live in the community where I met and married my lovely wife, Janice.
Actually, she lived around the corner from me and we both ignored each other
until our teen years when the hormone thing kicked in and we suddenly realized
that the cute little girl skipping rope and that goofy boy riding a bike had
both grown up.
We
are the proud parents of April and Lindsay; both of whom are now married. April
married Darren and they have two beautiful boys, Brian and Owen. Lindsay
married Tim and they have two beautiful children: Kailyn and Evan.
I enjoy hiking, kayaking, camping with my
family, golfing, making candles, and restoring my antique European sports car,
a 1972 MGB.
They
say to write from what you know, so I do. I write of love, life and
relationships.
Barnes
and Noble
Amazon:
My
personal links:
Giveaway Info
Bill will be awarding
an digital copy of Unrequited to 5 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter
during the tour.a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for allowing me to participate.
DeleteThank you for hosting and for your review and I'm happy you got mad at Peter... that was my intent! Maybe a wake-up call for any family going through a crisis.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. And let's face it, it wasn't that hard getting mad at Peter, especially since I'm bisexual myself. :-)
Delete