Saturday, October 30, 2010

Shaken by Dee Tenorio: a quickie book and a quickie review

Surgeon Grant Sullivan’s once-perfect life lies in ruins. His daughter is gone—lost in a tragic accident he dare not allow himself to remember—and his beautiful wife now stares at him from across a legal table, insisting she wants nothing from him.

Julia Sullivan lost everything, especially her illusions about her marriage, after the accident. Her grief only seemed to drive Grant further into his emotional shell—except for the nights he turned to her in silent, furious passion. Unable to live like a ghost in her old life, she’s packed up what’s left of her broken heart and is ready to move on. Alone.

Determined to break their stalemate, Grant follows Julia onto the elevator just in time for an earthquake. Trapped for hours in a building pressure cooker of unspoken pain, he’ll do anything to remind her what she’s leaving behind, as deliciously as he can. But giving her what she needs to save their marriage is the one thing that could destroy his soul.  

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Emotional. Deep. Heartbreaking. Raw. Uplifting. Shaken runs the gamut in an incredibly short format. Locked in an elevator together during an earthquake, Grant and Julia must face the issues that tore their marriage apart, on the very day that they are trying to work out the terms of their divorce. That they still love each other is evident from the beginning. Their fears, their insecurities, their shortcomings are all aired as Grant tries desperately to win Julia back, and she tries to get him to come to terms with the loss of their daughter.

The incredibly short format works because of the rich history between the two, and their complete isolation. Their situation was heartbreaking, and I got that clench in my chest that tells me I’m reading something powerful. Tenorio has a way of getting to the heart of the matter, and doing it with wonderfully relevant dialogue and a strong connection between the reader and the characters.

Shaken brings every parent's and spouse's worst fear to life and shows that it can be all right in the end. Tenorio writes with such depth of emotion it's impossible not to get caught up in it. I normally despise the super short format, but this book tells me that in the right hands, it can be a very rewarding experience.

4 comments:

  1. I have this on my wishlist and have heard good things. Normally I don't like stories about husband/wives trying to reconnect - but I really want to read this.

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  2. Read a lot of good reviews for this one :) Glad you liked it Lori.

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  3. Good to know you liked it Lori. I've noted this one on more than one TBR post-it note this past month. (A post-it here, a post-it there. My new scientific method for keeping track of blogger recs for my TBR list. I should tally the number of post-its per title and implement a new ranking system for that list. LMAO)

    Awesome review--that alone bumps it up the list. Thanks!

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Have you read it? What do you think?

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