One Breath Away by Heather Gudenkauf Scavenger Hunt, Review & Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the One Breath Away Scavenger Hunt.  Check out my excerpt, then you can visit this link to see other  tour stops and keep up with the excerpts.

“He has a gun. He has P.J. and he has a gun.”

“Who has P.J.?” Terror clutches at my chest. “Tell me, Augie, where are you? Who has a gun?”

“I’m in a closet. He put me in a closet.”

My mind is spinning. Who could be doing this?

If that has you intrigued then let me tell you, you need to get this book.  I have loved Heather's first two books and from the start One Breath Away is no different.  Scroll down more to find my review.  But first check out the Live Chat coming up later in the month at BookTrib.com

ONE BREATH AWAY 

By Heather Gudenkauf

MIRA; July 2012

384 pages; $15.95 U.S./$18.95 CAN.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7783-1365-6

My Review:

Heather Gudenkauf has now hit three out-of-the-park home runs for me with her books.  After the first two and how blown away by them I was I was almost afraid to open and read One Breath Away.  I mean can she really do it three times in a row, and using a gunman in a school too?  Well let me tell you, if you have any doubts, put them away because Ms. Gudenkauf has managed to do it again.  She manages to take this story and turn it into something completely fresh and unexpected.  So much tension, so many interesting storylines and how they intersect is  just amazing.  She managed to completely take my breath away with this book in a great way.

Ms. Gudenkauf returns to the varying points of view again in One Breath Away and I love that. It's especially important in this book since there is the parent in Arizona, the grandfather whose two grandchildren are trapped in the school in Iowa, the police officer on the outside, and the teacher who is right there in the middle of things.  All the characters are different and Ms. Gudenkauf crafts them to be so real. The struggles of single parenting.  The struggles of teaching and growing older.  Just everyday struggles.  They are all there and add such dimension to each character.  I felt like I got to know each one of them and could really hear their voices in my head.

The plot will just blow you away.  The gunman is not brutal, doesn't go in guns shooting and blazing, but he doesn't have to. That is really not the focus.   I won't giveaway too much. The suspense in this book is tyring to figure out who the gunman is and why he is doing this.  In the beginning Ms. Gudenkauf keeps adding to the list of suspects, but then as the book wears on the suspect list starts to wittle down.  Story lines intersect, things get intense and One Breath Away becomes very difficult to put down.  I think Ms. Gudenkauf will leave you guessing right up until she gives it away, I know I was and I kept trying to figure it out.  I loved it though, the guessing and the story were intense and while there is some violence it was nice to have an intense story without too much violence.  

Extremely well crafted with characters that I cared about as I got to know them through the book, One Breath Away will leave you breathless up until the end.  Ms. Gudenkauf knows how to create suspense and characters that involve you in the book.  She's been on my to-buy list since The Weight of Silence and I believe One Breath Away has moved her to one of my top authors.  Heather Gudenkauf has a gift and I am glad she is sharing it with the world.

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

About One Breath Away

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Heather Gudenkauf follows the phenomenal success of her first two books with her most emotionally charged novel yet. ONE BREATH AWAY (Harlequin MIRA; July 2012; $15.95 U.S./$18.95 CAN.) is a gripping story of a small town caught in the midst of a deadly crisis, as experienced from the points of view of five different people.

On a bitter March day, as a sudden snowstorm envelops the small town of Broken Branch, Iowa, an unknown man with a gun enters the town’s only school and takes a classroom of children hostage. As awareness of the situation spreads, the panicked community is ready to do anything to protect their children, but can only watch and wait.

As a teacher with a long career behind her, Evelyn Oliver is ready to enjoy retirement with her loving husband. But now, faced with a crazy man armed with a gun, terrorizing her classroom, she’d rather die than fail to protect any of her students. But why is he doing this? Evelyn’s been scouring her mind but doesn’t recognize the intruder. Maybe one of the students is the key?

Holly Thwaite left Broken Branch and her family behind without a word eighteen years ago, vowing never to return. But after a debilitating accident leaves her recovering in a hospital in Arizona, she’s forced to send her children to her hometown to be looked after by their grandfather, the man she never wanted them to meet. Will Thwaite never understood why his estranged daughter, Holly, ran away all those years ago. But now that her children are in his care, he refuses to fail his daughter again. One way or another, Will is going to get his grandkids, P.J. and Augie, out of that school safely even if he has to go in and get them himself.  What Will doesn’t know is that thirteen-year-old Augie is just as determined to rescue her little brother from the killer and help her classmates, even if it means putting herself in the crosshairs of the gunman.

Police officer Meg Barrett wants to know who the intruder is and why he’s doing this. Whoever it is, there’s no excuse for this. Meg should know. She’s had plenty of hardships herself. But with innocent lives at stake, Meg is prepared to risk her own life to save these hostages, although it means disobeying orders and taking on the gunman face-to-face.

As the standoff progresses and the snowstorm rages outside, anxiety and frustration start to build to dangerous levels. But everyone knows how precarious the situation is. One wrong move, even a breath, could have the most devastating of consequences. 

Heather Gudenkauf is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novels The Weight of Silence and These Things Hidden.  She lives in Iowa with her family.  Visit her website, HeatherGudenkauf.com.

Giveaway
Thanks to Kate at BookTrib, I have one paperback copy of One Breath Away for giveaway in the US/Canada.  This will be mailed by the publicist.  Ends 7/13.  Fill out the Rafflecopter below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

***I received this book from the publicist (BookTrib) for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***

Scavenger Hunt & Review: The Kingdom of Childhood by Rebecca Coleman

The Kingdom of Childhood by Rebecca Coleman

Publisher: Mira

Publish Date: October 2011

Paperback, 352 pages 
Fiction
 ISBN: 978-0778312789

I'm the next stop on The Kingdom of Childhood by Rebecca Coleman Scavenger Hunt sponsored by Meryl L. Moss Media Relations (Media Muscle).  First check out the next part of the excerpt, the next tour stop and then check out my review of this very interesting book.

I turned the car into the deserted lot next to the lake and parked toward the back, near

the woods. I laid a hand on his thigh and said, "Hey."

He turned his face toward me.

"Why are you so moody?"

"Because thinking about cops and babies doesn't turn me on."

"Is something else the matter?"

*Head over to Urban Girl Reader on October 17th for the next installment from THE KINGDOM OF CHILDHOOD*

My Review:
The Kingdom of Childhood definitely deals with a difficult subject and Ms. Coleman definitely never in any way sugar coats this situation.  I admire her for tackling this situation in a book and in a realistic manner.  And I think that is what is key and captivating about this book is the realistic look of the plot.

As you can read from the overview of the book, the storyline is essentially about an inappropriate relationship between a teacher at a school and a student (who is not her student) who is 16.  The relationship is consensual, but is still wrong since the teacher is in her forties and the teenager is underage, making it statutory rape.  Thankfully there is never that "ick" factor in the book, I mean you know that it's wrong, and you accept it's wrong, but since Ms. Coleman never tries to make it right you don't feel like it's "icky".

As characters by themselves  I liked Judy and Zach.  I felt for Judy and her dissolving marriage.  Her husband is busy pursuing a PhD and has little time for her and she is feeling the pain from that and pretty much counting the days until her youngest graduates.  Zach seems like a pretty good kid, he's a new kid at school and he's just trying to fit in with the people he's in choir with, one of whom happens to be Scott, Judy's son, which is how he meets Judy.  Zach comes off crass at first with his jokes and then he's assigned to work with Judy to get some extra hours by working on the bazaar she heads up.  This is what throws Judy and Zach together.

Their first kiss is almost by accident.  As is their second and then they can't seem to get enough.  But then the power shifts between them and to Judy it seems that Zach has all the power and to Zach it seems that Judy has all the power.  There is definitely no love and the relationship is purely based on sex.  But people are starting to notice.  Things begin to get dicey and the book gets even more interesting.  You want more details, read the book.


The Kingdom of Childhood is even more than the description above.  It is about what is going on in Judy and Zach's heads and a few of the people around them as well.  I fund it a fascinating story that I could not put down.  It's like a train wreck that you cannot look away.  If you ever wanted a look at the real motives at how something like this could happen, read this and you can get a good feel.

I knew i wanted to read this from the start, but I didn't know I would enjoy this book this much.  It was a true eye-opener and thrill ride from beginning to end.  Ms. Coleman knows how to capture your attention keep it and leave you just right at the end.  I look forward to future books by her.  But until then I know The Kingdom of Childhood will stick in my brain for quite a while.

My Rating: 4.5/5.0


About the Book:
The Kingdom of Childhood is the story of a boy and a woman; sixteen-year-old Zach Patterson, uprooted and struggling to reconcile his knowledge of his mother's extramarital affair, and Judy McFarland, a kindergarten teacher watching her family unravel before her eyes. Thrown together to organize a fundraiser for their failing private school and bonded by loneliness, they begin an affair that at first thrills, then corrupts each of them. Judy sees in Zach the elements of a young man she loved as a child, but what Zach does not realize is that their relationship is, for Judy, only the latest in a lifetime of disturbing secrets.

About the Author: 
Rebecca Coleman received her B.A. in English literature from the University of Maryland at College Park and speaks to writers' groups on the subjects of creative writing and publishing. A native New Yorker, she now lives and works near Washington, D.C.

Website
Blog

***I received this book from Meryl L. Moss Media Relations for an honest review. ***