LLR Book Review #5 Love Never Dies

So it’s that time of year again. The time of year when all I do is read books that catch my eye at my local bookstore in San Francisco as well as diligently eating Red Vines until its calorie content swallows up my face. And for your information Red Vines > Twizzlers. It’s a known fact!

The book that caught my attention this week and has now found a cozy spot on my dusty bookshelf is the D.C Cannady book, Love Never Dies.

D.C. who??? You might ask.

Don’t worry. I thought the same thing.

Brief background:
D.C. Cannady is a young writer of two novels and one book of orignal poems that she’s collected throughout the years.
Her first book Secrets, Lies & Murder was acclaimed and has won several awards throughout the writing community (Go Girl, Go!)
Currently she is working on the first book of an untitled young adult series. Apparently there’s been a lot of rumblings about the book, so I’m thinking that this particular book could possibly be her first hit seller…we’ll see.

She’s also collaborating with USA Today bestseller, Shawna Buggs. (I’ve read alot of her books and she’s super good). Their book, Forever Your Girl, is due out the beginning of 2012.

Now back to the book at hand…

Truth be told, I would not have given the Love Never Dies a second thought I I wasn’t so appealed by the fashionable black paperback cover a model walking down a poorly lit runway.

I’ve never been one for the hype of fashion.
If you steeped inside my closet and assessed my outfits that are hanging on the rack you would agree.

Something about the cover screamed at me though. It had a sense of mystery and intrigue that I longed for in my dull and seemingly boring life. After the reading the back cover and flipping through a few pages of the prologue I knew this book was going to be worth my $20 bucks. Thank God I got my paycheck the day before!

As most of you who have read my reviews know, whenever I rate a book 3/5 or higher, I like to contact the author by email or mail to let them know how much i enjoyed their book. I went to D.C. Cannady’s website, and let a email message to the person who takes care of those things. Within two days I got a message from D.C. Cannady herself. I was excited. Usually I get messages back from someone representing the author so for her to email me back personally was awesome. I have such an admiration for professional writers young and old and I was thrilled that she welcomed my comments good and bad. On that note, I absolutely adore the fact that she’s only 22, a full time college student, and gorgeous! I don’t know how she does it.

So, without further adieu, here is my 103th book review this year!

Oh! I almost forget. To get a copy LOVE NEVER DIES you can go the author’s cute and informative website
www.dccannady.jimdo.com
(The first two chapters of it is free!)

or
www.amazon.com
www.lulu.com
www.redroompublishing.com

And herrrreee weeee goooo!!! (In my best Peter Pan voice)

BOOK: LOVE NEVER DIES
AUTHOR: D.C. CANNADY
RATING: 3.5/5

Summary

Love Never Dies is a book centered around lies, secrets, ridiculous greed, and soap opera worthy scandal in the small honky farming town of Clover Grove. Clover Grove, Illinois somehow unrealistically boosts a dozen wealthy, high class aristocrats who own Fortune 500 companies. None of the characters talked about in this story are broke, on welfare, have a bank account of less than a million dollars, or dream about winning the lottery. Though this is laughably unrealistic, I could not help but continuing reading. It was as if I were a low class citizen of Clover Grove relaxing in a lazy boy and watching with a bucket of popcorn in my hand as some of the main characters pissed their lives away selfishly.

The story is centered around Jon McAllister–the lead detective in Clover Grove who is trying to solve the murder of his girlfriend Christyna Montgomery. Jon McAllister seems like the only person in town who isn’t swimming in money. But this of course is an illusion that the author probably did just to piss me off. The reading of his late girlfriend’s estate will coincidentally makes him accepted by his wealthy peers.

Unbeknown to me, Cannady’s first book, Secrets, Lies and Murder is focused on Christyna before she dies. It is a story of her unfortunate yet deserving destruction told through her eyes.

WARNING: If you are thinking about reading LOVE NEVER DIES and haven’t read SECRETS, LIES & MURDER yet, STOP READING THIS REVIEW! (I mean it…just close this window right now and go out and get the first one.) If not, you might be lost like I was. Luckily, Cannady did an amazing job of summarizing the whole story of the first book in the prologue of Love Never Dies. This is a rarity! Author’s who decide to do sequels, series, trilogies, and so on, completely forget that sometimes the reader has not read the previous book before that one and how no idea how the characters became to be. This confuses the reader.

Anyway back to the story.

We learn though some hardcore and fast past backstory that Christyna Montgomery was famous–almost unrealistically famous. She was a young and outrageously beautiful fashion designer who was working her way to become to top designer in the nation (again read the Secrets, Lies and Murder if you have no idea what I’m blabbering about). She also just so happened to be the adopted daughter of an evil and ridiculously vain man named Lark Montgomery. It is clear early on in the story that Lark is a man that everyone in town loves to hate. Lark is an insanely stubborn billionaire who owns a large tech and industrial conglomerate and takes great pleasure in the destruction of others. Also, Lark seems to own shares in almost every anything imaginable.
Det. McAllister is convinced that Lark has a connection in his daughter’s murder and will stop at nothing to find evidence for his suspicions.
Throughout all this, we learn during Christyna’s will reading, which is dictated by Echo Berkley, D.A. of Illinois (p.s. LOVE THAT NAME) that Christyna close confidant (Olivia White) is the new CEO of Christyna company, and that she has left her already successful and disgustingly rich father NOTHING. Lark of course is upset by this. Olivia, on the other hand, is too busy worrying about other things to care about anything else such as a horrendous secret she’s keeping and how she’s not good enough to take over Christyna company.
Meanwhile, focus shifts to Det. McAllister’s ex-wife (Fallon Douglas) and their two young children. Turns out Det. McAllister is so focused on solving the unsolved murder of the slain fashion designer that he’s slacking on his fatherly duties.
Nevertheless, the story shifts focus several times, as it focuses on Emerald Montgomery, Lark’s biological daughter, her sneaky ways, Fallon’s suspicions of her and her relationship with Det. McAllister. There are also several other citizens in town who are dealing with their own noteworthy problems.
Towards the end however, everything thing gets tied together and a shocking revelation is revealed!

My Thoughts

The story revolves around three families, The Montgomery’s, the Berkley’s, and the Kesingtons–all are rich and too stuck up for their own good.
For people who love fashion and thrive for the life of New York Fashion Week, high quality fashion shows, and haute couture then this book is for you.
For those who love mystery and drama this is for you too. To some it up, Love Never Dies is like Days of Our Lives meets Sex and the City meets NYPD Blue.

ANOTHER NOTICE: This book is primarily geared towards woman!
Don’t let the main character who is a “rugged good looking all-american” detective fool you. Though Jon is the main focus, it is clear that the author has a preference for some of the woman in the story line.
Lark Montgomery’s company, Montgomery Enterprises, intrigues me the most, however. Out of all the companies introduced in the storyline, his company seems the most realistic. The way Lark bashes his employees, rules with an iron fist, and his money hungry ways is how I picture most big shot CEO’s being. It’s sickening the lengths Lark will go to make sure he gets what he wants and I have no doubt that there are some corporate CEO’s out there who would not hesitate to run a bus over someone to get a couple million. (Yes, I mean LITERALLY run over someone with a bus!) His “conditional” love for his daughter Emerald is completely ridiculous and disturbing.
The way he talks to her a couple of times in some of the chapters seriously bothered me. So much so that I actually called up my own father and told him how much I appreciated how good of a father he was to me growing up.

What I Didn’t Like:

I took off some points for this review because there were several factors that left a bad taste in my mouth.

1. Olivia (freaking) White
SHE WAS SOOOOOOO ANNOYIIINNNNG!!! (UGH! Ok…I’m calm now!)
Throughout the whole story she whined about not being able to live up to everyone’s expectations. We get it, Olivia. You have a lot of pressure to outdo your dead best friend and to keep that secret that eating you up alive. It wasn’t as if she whined for a chapter or two. When the reader is first introduced to Olivia, she is whining to her hot doctor boyfriend about how she doesn’t want to go to Christyna’s will reading because she knows there is going to be drama and she hates drama (FYI…She is a liar. This is not the real reason why she wants her extremely hot boyfriend to take her back to her never ever land)
To be quite honest, I have no idea what Trig loves about Olivia, besides her knack for complaining about every little detail in her life. Most people would kill to be in the position she’s in.

2. D.C. Cannady’s Writing Style
During the beginning I was loving how Cannady was tying in all the main and supporting characters together and made them seem so believable, however towards the end I was beginning to get frustrated.
The story is told completely through third person so that the reader can get a sense of what is going on inside the mind of every character. I am not a fan of third person. Cannady had a tendency to focus on some characters than others. For example, when Nixon Kensington strolled into town I was completely excited I knew he was going to be a character that was going to shake things up. I was mistaken. Cannady focused so much on Fallon, Jon, Emerald and the Lark/Echo love affair that she forgot about the ever sneaky Nixon Kensington and his sudden partnership with Lark. It seemed like Nixon was only their to give Fallon her fifteen minutes of fame and some forewarning about Christyna’s killer…that’s it!

3. The airplane scene with Det. McAllister, Belinda, and Nixon
Need I say more!

4. Rose Porter
I wanted more of her. I hated how she gave Echo that classy but stern warning during the fashion show about Echo’s affair with Lark but after that, she was no where to be found in the story.
MISSING: ROSE PORTER. Please contact 1-800-missing character if you have information about her whereabouts.

5. I DON’T LIKE STRANGE OR UNNECESSARY ENDINGS
There were several actions that I wish were cleared up better.
1. How the heck did Fallon and Jon hook back up so fast (who knew that a gun shot wound could make your ex husband fall back in love with you!)
2. Nixon and Lark…weren’t they planning to take over BKD?!
3. Olivia and Trig…I really wanted them to get engaged or married…or both. They really do deserve each other.
4. Carmen White…I really wanted the town’s tabloid queen to take Christyna’s place as the Queen Bitch of Clover Grove. oh well, A girl can dream I guess.

Moral of the Story

I could list several…

Be careful who you pick as a sperm donor. History has a tendency to repeat itself. Be kind to your children…you never know what they might do in the future. Leave the detective and CSI work to the experts. Anyone can be rich. It’s all about who you know (or who you marry/date/get pregnant by).


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