Friday, January 20, 2012

Stay Tuned



Lauren Clark
ISBN: 978-0984725007
Publisher: Monterey Press
Source: CLP Blog Tours

For Melissa Moore, crisis management is all part of the job, but not part of her life.  As a TV producer, Melissa has had her fair share of crisis.  From a high maintenance boss to a co-worker and employee disputes, Melissa has seen it all.  In fact, not much surprises her, or so she thought.  When a fight breaks out on set during the ten o’clock news, Melissa is in for big changes.  Her two news anchors end up fired due to their brawling fist fight, Melissa agrees to fill in.  Her new temporary position requires a much needed makeover, complete with haircut, heels and of course the outfit.  Melissa’s natural talent impresses her station and the viewers.  Best of all, Melissa loves the job, though when it will end is uncertain.  While her work life continues to exceed, her personal life is riddled with drama and crisis.  Her husband is never home, working just as much as she is.  Their marriage has defaulted to sticky notes left around the house, the messages from her husband being of few words.  Her mother is out of control, reeking havoc upon her nursing home and on top of it all, Melissa has a stalker. 
Stay Tuned is appropriately titled as the reader is left to keep reading in order to discover how Melissa’s life will unfold.  Fast paced and realistic, this novel is well written, dramatic, entertaining while being quite serious too.  Everyone has crazy drama, wild relatives and a messy life.  This book is completely relatable and a pleasure to read.  The author created well developed and likeable characters.  While Melissa is easy to understand, connect with and relate too, Alyssa is funny and completely crazy in a way that brings comic relief.  After all, what else can you do but laugh at a crazy character?
The book is written in a manner that enables the reader to move through Melissa’s life in non-continual basis.  Instead at times days or weeks are skipped as the story advances.  This makes the story more realistic but also slightly confusing at times.  Dates or simple words such as 3 days later could have fixed this, though the issue is not major. 
I connected to this book in different manners but totally felt for Melissa when it came to her mother’s trials in this story.  Melissa’s mother had her at a late age and is now in a nursing home, suffering from dementia.  While Melissa struggles with her expectations of her mother and her disease, the reader can’t help but feel sorry for her.  This section hit close to home for me since my grandma was diagnosed with the disease.  The story has many storylines that are quite intriguing.  It kept my attention easily.  I would highly recommend this novel to others, it was a great read.  I look forward to more from Lauren Clark.
Highly Recommended

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