Saturday, August 29, 2015

BOOK REVIEW/GUEST POST: "Molly Lee" by Andrew Joyce


From the author of the best-selling novel, REDEMPTION: The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer comes MOLLY LEE. 
Molly is about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime . . . of two lifetimes. 
It’s 1861 and the Civil War has just started. Molly is an eighteen-year-old girl living on her family’s farm in Virginia when two deserters from the Southern Cause enter her life. One of them—a twenty-four-year-old Huck Finn—ends up saving her virtue, if not her life. 
Molly is so enamored with Huck, she wants to run away with him. But Huck has other plans and is gone the next morning before she awakens. Thus starts a sequence of events that leads Molly into adventure after adventure; most of them not so nice. 
We follow the travails of Molly Lee, starting when she is eighteen and ending when she is fifty-six. Even then Life has one more surprise in store for her.


I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Historical fiction books are not my usual forte, but I like to read them when the opportunity presents itself. In this case, I got to read a new version of one of my favorite childhood tales. Seeing Huck Finn in this light, meeting Molly Lee, and getting to know their story was a great experience. It really got me thinking; imagining new things for all of my favorite classic characters.
Mr. Joyce has a great, easy to read voice, as he writes effortlessly from a woman's POV. I really want to read something genuinely original from him one day; his writing style is very fun to read.
The only reason this has a four star and not a five star is because these aren't wholly original characters. That fact aside, I LOVED this book. Made me feel like I was right there in the 19th century.

4/5--a great book!

Purchase Molly Lee via:
Barnes and Noble ... http://geni.us/P2X  
iTunes ... http://geni.us/TH1
Kobo ... http://geni.us/2EHU
Smashwords ... http://geni.us/1ZNZ 
Andrew's Web Site ... http://andrewjoyce76.com

GUEST POST:



My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. Kelly has been kind enough to allow me a little space on her blog to promote my new book, so I thought I might entertain you with a story about the publishing business.
My first book was a 125,000-word historical novel. And in the publishing world, anything over 80,000 words for a first-time author is heresy. Or so I was told time and time again when I approached an agent for representation. After two years of research and writing and a year of trying to secure the services of an agent, I got angry. To be told that my efforts were meaningless was somewhat demoralizing to say the least. I mean . . . those rejections were coming from people who had never even read my book.
“So you want an 80,000-word novel?” I said to no one in particular, unless you count my dog, because he was the only one around at the time. Consequently, I decided to show them City Slickers that I could write an 80,000-word novel!
I had just finished reading Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn for the third time, and I started thinking about what ever happened to those boys, Tom and Huck. They must have grown up, but then what? So I sat down at my computer and banged out REDEMPTION: The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer in two months. I had them as adults in the Old West. (Here’s an Amazon link: http://geni.us/redemption )Then I sent out query letters to literary agents.
Less than a month later, the chairman of one of the biggest agencies in New York City emailed me telling me that he loved the story and suggested a few changes. They were good suggestions, and I incorporated about 80% of them into the book. We signed a contract and it was off to the races, or so I thought. But then the real fun began: the serious editing. Seven months later, I gave birth to Huck and Tom as adults. And just for the record, the final word count is 79,914.
My new book is entitled MOLLY LEE and it’s averaging 4.9 stars on Amazon. It is also available in paperback. Please check it out. Here’s a link . . . http://geni.us/molly
Thank you,
Andrew Joyce http://andrewjoyce76.com

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