The Big Five-OH! by Sandra D. Bricker

The Big Five-OH! by Sandra D. Bricker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a very enjoyable romance. I just recently hit the Big Five-OH so thought that it would be fun to read. I quite enjoyed the humor, romance and story line. The characters were great and I will definitely be looking for more books by this author.



Olivia Wallace has a birthday curse . . . or so she thinks. It was a broken heart on her 16th, a car accident on her 21st, pneumonia on her 30th, and a fall down a flight of stairs on her 35th. There were Ohio blizzards on her 38th, 39th, and 40th; and six days before her 45th, she lost the love of her life to a heart attack. Numbing grief stole that birthday and a couple more to follow and, on the morning of her 48th birthday, she received the call she’d dreaded ever since losing her mom so many years ago…she was diagnosed with stage-3 ovarian cancer. The doctors didn’t hold out a lot of hope, but Liv survived and maintained her faith. Months of surgeries and chemotherapy and radiation treatments followed.

But now, as her 50th birthday creeps up the icy Ohio path toward her, her hair has grown back, her energy level is up, and she is officially cancer free. It makes her nervous. After everything she’s gone through, Liv hates the idea of driving on icy roads and returning to work as an O.R. nurse in a local Cincinnati hospital.

Her best friend Hallie knows just the thing to break Liv out of the winter doldrums, while providing a safe haven of warmth, sunshine, and a time to regroup: a holiday in the Florida sunshine!



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The Drayton Chronicles by Tony Bertauski

The Drayton Chronicles by Tony Bertauski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Drayton Chronicles is a collection of novellas.

DRAYTON, THE TAKER
Blake Barnes commits suicide by freezing on Mt. Hood. As his life fades, he assumes Death has come to him in the form of a young man. In his last moments, he asks Death to find his family, to tell them he's sorry. Drayton honors this last request as he absorbs Blake Barnes' waning essence. He travels to the Lowcountry of South Carolina to find his family. But saying sorry is not always as easy as the words imply. Drayton seeks to unravel the mess Blake Barnes has left behind and the predator he's unleashed on his family.

BEARING THE CROSS
Drayton finds Andrew Drummond dying on the roadside. He absorbs the last of his life, but not before Andrew demands vengeance. In those last moments, Drayton understands what Andrew desires. He sees all of his hardships, the crosses he has been forced bear. Drayton will find the source of his suffering. He will show his transgressor Andrew's pain. He will show him the depth and taste of true suffering.

SWIFT IS THE CURRENT
Drayton spares the life of elderly Ms. Ruth Current. She was supposed to die, but her life is unresolved. Drayton intends to put to rest the blight she and her grandchildren have set loose upon the world.

YELLOW
Father Gordon suffers a life-ending heart attack during mass, but not before he looks into Drayton's eyes. In them, he sees his own sins and asks for forgiveness. Drayton grants him the opportunity for redemption. But asking for forgiveness is the first step in a very difficult journey.

NUMBERS
Dr. James Gallagher has a good life until a new patient hands him a card scrawled with the number 5. His new patient tells him that he will die of a stroke in five days. Dr. Gallagher doesn't take him seriously since this new patient claims to be thousands of years old. He considers committing him to a psychiatric ward until he begins to have visions.

He sees how Drayton has become what he is today.

~~~~~



This was an interesting read. I have read other books by Tony and really enjoyed them, so when the first book in this set was free on Amazon I jumped on it. I read it, loved it and then bought the set. I do have to say that the first and the last stories in this set were the best for me. The stories in between had some very dark content and to me were not really about Drayton as much as about the other characters. I probably would have enjoyed them more if they had focused more on Drayton. He was by all means the most interesting aspect of these Chronicles. One thing that I can say about all of the stories that I have read by Tony Bertauski, is that they are thought provoking and that they stay with me, long after I finish reading them.



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