JESSE'S GIRL / Blog Tour & Review
From the Publisher:
How much should a parent sacrifice for a troubled child? In Gary Morgenstein’s taut new thriller, Jesse’s Girl, the answer is – anything. Anchored around a floundering father-son relationship, finding roots and re-uniting vanished bonds, the timely novel about teen addiction and adoption follows a desperate father’s search for his son, who has run away from a wilderness program to find his biological sister in Kentucky.
Available exclusively from Amazon.com, Jesse’s Girl opens as a jarring phone wakes lifelong Brooklynite Teddy Mentor well after midnight. It’s the Montana wilderness program saying that his 16-year-old adopted son has vanished – and they haven’t a clue where he’s gone. Only two weeks ago, Jesse had been taken to the program by escorts to deal with substance abuse problems.
Jeopardizing his flagging PR job in New York, Mentor rushes across the country to find Jesse, who is off on his own quest: to find Theresa, the sister he’s never known. When Teddy finally discovers Jesse at a bus stop in Illinois, he is torn between sending him back or joining his son on a journey to find this girl in Kentucky. He decides to go. They become embroiled in a grisly crime when Theresa’s abusive husband Beau attacks her – Jesse stabs the big beast of a man, leaving him for dead.
Given Jesse’s misdemeanor criminal record, Teddy can’t go to the authorities without risking his son’s arrest. However, Beau is not dead, merely wounded, and he hunts them down, thirsty for revenge. Teddy, Jesse and Theresa flee across the Bluegrass State with Beau in hot pursuit. Seeking safety but finding trouble, their story leads them to an ultimately shattering question: is Theresa really Jesse’s sister or has he been scammed?
About the Author:
In addition to Jesse’s Girl, Gary Morgenstein’s most recent novels, both available exclusively on Amazon.com, are the political baseball thriller Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the romantic triangle Loving Rabbi Thalia Kleinman. His chillingly prophetic play Ponzi Man played to sell-out crowds at a recent New York Fringe Festival. A PR consultant for Syfy Channel, he lives in Brooklyn, New York, with lots of books and rock and roll CDs.
You can visit him at www.facebook.com/people/Gary-Morgenstein/1011217889.
My Review:
Geesh – this guys life is a bummer.
His wife is dead. His 16 year old stepson is a
depressed drug addict.
He’s overworked and underpaid & unappreciated.
Honestly, I was really looking forward to reading this book.
Teen alcohol and drug addiction is rampant.
Mental Illness – depression, bi-polar disorder,
schizophrenia and the like – begins to manifest itself in the teenage years.
Families are being torn apart
(and yes, I know this from my own experience with a couple of my children),
and parents are “breaking the bank”, in order to pay for
good treatment (for addiction / mental illness) programs.
All too often, parents are so overwhelmed, that they just give up.
But not Teddy. He’s risking a lot to try to find and help Jesse…
…Unfortunately l stopped reading on page 51.
Not because the story wasn’t engaging,
but because of the big F.
I hate that word.
Even more so, when mother is attached.
I don’t need OR WANT
to see it, or hear it over and over and over again.
By page 31, it was used on practically every page,
and on many pages it was used more than once.
Call me a prude…I’ll wear the title proudly.
There is enough ugliness in life that can’t be avoided,
so why should I intentionally fill my head with that
which I can avoid?
Sorry Mr. Morgenstein, but I’ve closed your book, and put it down.
I’m sure that the actual story was great…but the wording was not for me.
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DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,
in exchange for my HONEST review.
No items that I receive “in kind”
are ever sold…they are kept by me,
given to family or friends,
or donated to The Polk Education Foundation,
my local library, or given away on
contests on this blog.
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I just want you to know you are not alone on the f-word thing. I hate that it's so common now, and it makes me cringe to hear people use it or see it in a book.
🙂
Libby (OH this is you Neas!! – I am following now!) – I am there with you on the f-word! I have pushed through a few for review but if I knew before hand that a book was full of that I would pass it by! I mention it in my reviews for just that reason too!