Spotlight: Fifty Shades of Truth by Josef

R+++ rated

Very explicit but it has not been written as a gratuitous sex novel

A very challenging book to read and not in any way for the faint hearted

It is an autobiography, not a novel. And none of what you experienced before will prepare you for this book.

This is a wonderfully entertaining, sometimes humorous, sometimes shocking, sometimes challenging, but always entertaining account of this man’s life. Many other men can only fantasize about what he has experienced. Could the variety and extent of his sexual world really belong to one man? How did he keep this side of his life secret? What trigger­points in his life can explain his behaviour? 

EXCERPT: I asked him whether anyone ever got to this second test and ended up with a negative result.  “Sure, it happens,” he said. “But not often,” he added quickly.  He was an older cop and seemed like a nice guy, and I don’t think he wanted me getting my hopes up.

So for fifteen minutes I prayed.  I prayed to God or whoever runs the show, begging for the result to come back negative.  Losing my driver’s licence would have a great impact on my job and my life.  It wasn’t something I would look forward to trying to explain at all, but I knew I would be able to come up with something if I had to.  I am a very good liar but I didn’t want to go through that.  Every day, everything I did was a lie, and I was already telling too many.  So I prayed, and promised on my soul’s very existence that if I got out of this, I would get in my car, drive home, and never do anything like this again.  I would give up the trannies, the mistresses, the beautiful girls they call prostitutes; I’d give up the whole lot.  The focus and intensity of my prayers was all-consuming.  I felt it through every fibre of my being as I begged the heavens for just this one favour.

The officer returned from the other room and gave me the good news.  The result had come back negative and I was free to go.  The old cop on the front desk was surprised, but I could feel he was happy for me.  We had got on well in our time-killing chat while I waited.  They returned my car keys to me and I left.  I walked back to my car, with relief flooding my body, and rang the tranny girl I had been on my way to see.

“Hi, it’s Josef,” I told her when she answered, “I had a bit of trouble.  I’m running late but I’m still coming,” I blurted out.  “I’m probably about twenty minutes away.  Is it still okay to come and see you?” I asked anxiously. “Of course,” she replied, “That’s fine.  I’ll see you when you get here.”

This all happened without a second thought about God, or the Divine, and without a moment of hesitation or remorse.  Even before I got back to my car I had thrown my prayers into the gutter, and was ready to drive over to see her.  When I got to her apartment I knocked and she let me in. “Hello,” she said, greeting me warmly as she stepped out from behind the door and closed it behind me.  She was wearing a sexy top and knickers, which was standard fare.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  The author is a man who has lived two lives; one ordinary and the other extraordinary. It has not been fabricated, exaggerated, or embellished in any way.  It’s the raw truth and he is not really sure why he wrote it, but his therapist thought it was a good idea.  Writing down his life’s story might simply be a part of the healing process, so he can finally move on with his life and live it like a normal person.  It has been written in a way that tries to depict how the author felt at the time and how he feels now, and he can only use words or terms that make that possible.

Publisher: Fontaine Publishing

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                                 Spotlight hosted by the GreatReads!

Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott

Fans of John Green's Looking for Alaska as well as Lauren Oliver and Sarah Dessen will embrace this provocative debut novel, an exploration of taboo love set against the backdrop of a suburban high school.

Charlie, a senior, isn't looking forward to her last year of high school. Another year of living in the shadow of her best friend, Lila. Another year of hiding behind the covers of her favorite novels. Another year of navigating her tense relationship with her perfectionist mom.

But everything changes when she meets her new English teacher. Mr. Drummond is smart. Irreverent. Funny. Hot. Everyone loves him. And Charlie thinks he's the only one who gets her.

She also thinks she might not be the only one with a crush.

In this stunning debut, Jessica Alcott explores relationships-and their boundaries-in a way that is both searingly honest and sympathetic.

The Dust That Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières

Delightful and stirring, The Dust That Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernières is a witty and touching historical war novel which is beautifully mounted and will no doubt be a hit with readers worldwide. The story starts in the year 1902 at the home of a successful Scottish entrepreneur and inventor, Hamilton McCosh, who lives with his snobbish wife and four young daughters - Rosie, Christabel, Ottilie and Sophie. The McCoshes are great friends and close neighbors to the Pitts and the Pendennises. The Pitts are a family who have witnessed great tragedy. Initially a family of six, the father and two sons died leaving behind a widowed mother and her two sons, Archie and Daniel. The Pendennises have three boys Sydbey, Albert and Ashbridge.

As the novel opens with a garden party at The Grampians, which is the home of the McCoshes, you can’t help but notice that twelve-year-old Rosie McCosh and Ashbridge Pendennis have something going between them which is much deeper than the family friendship. Madly in love, they promised each other they will become married when they grow up. But as the drumbeats of war grew louder, it soon became apparent that their idyllic life will come to a grinding halt. Ash enlisted to serve with the Honourable Artillery Company, and before leaving for France, formally solemnised his engagement to Rosie, who also volunteers to become a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment working in Southampton. Author Louis de Bernières also brilliantly followed Daniel Pitt as he joined the Royal Flying Corps.

The Dust That Falls from Dreams is a story of friendship, love, family, war and tragedy. Brilliantly narrated through different voices, both in the first and third person, it is a story filled with grief, hope, and uncertainty, and vividly portrayed the horrors of war. Readers will also be quick to notice the irony surrounding the three families. While the Pitts and Pendennises have only sons, the McCoshes have only daughters. This sweeping novel which spans many countries and covering a period of more than two decades will capture the imagination of readers, and will undoubtedly be a runaway success.

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The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman

If you are one of those readers who enjoyed the Alex Delaware series by bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, it’s time to switch gears and head over to the other side of his creative resourcefulness for what he has in store for his fans. And it won’t disappoint, that I can assure you, for Kellerman’s protagonist is a strong female, of the femme fatale type, yet susceptible with demons of her own, and with strong ties to Alex Delaware. You've never met anyone like her before!

The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman is about a young psychologist Grace Blades who was once a student of Alex Delaware. Grace is no ordinary mortal. She witnessed the brutal and horrific death of her parents. All the goodness in her were instilled by her foster parents. Yet, there runs a voracious and insatiable streak contrary to her ordinary life which has brought to the fore Kellerman’s expertise as a clinical psychologist. Like fish to water, writing a psychological thriller comes naturally to Kellerman.

The fulcrum of Kellerman’s The Murderer’s Daughter is the “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” personality of its main protagonist, Grace Blades. Dedicated, brilliant, caring, young and lively, Grace is a supremely fantastic character, finely etched, and fits her job as a psychologist perfectly. But Grace’s other personality is inconceivable for those who knows her as the competent psychologist that she is during day time. When night comes, Grace ventures out seeking for excitement and adventure, ostensibly to relieve herself from the stress of her job and the nightmares of her childhood. She does crazy things. You’ve to find out what happens next after a person with whom she had a tryst comes barging into her office and is soon found dead.

The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman is a hugely entertaining read with Alex Delaware making a brief appearance. Riveting and suspenseful, Kellerman has crafted a superbly well-paced story with a hard-nosed protagonist in control. Though she lives her life on the edge of civility, it is impossible not to root for her. Delving into the deepest recesses of the human capacity for good and evil, Jonathan Kellerman's masterful latest novel will captivate readers from start to finish.

Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel

There are various approaches to a story. While the vast majority of the books that we have in the market are geared towards the entertainment and pleasure of its readers, there are some books which are designed to engage the readers, stimulate one to action and evoke a sense of duty, awareness and self-discovery as a result of its reading. And it is into that latter category that Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel belongs.

A suspenseful contemporary mystery thriller, Crooked Little Lies follows the events surrounding the mysterious disappearance of Bo Laughlin, a quirky character familiar to most residents of the small Texas town of Hardys Walk. Bo is also the step-brother of Annie Beauchamp, a young woman who works in the café in town, and they both have lost their mothers. It is also the story of Lauren Wilder, an old-fashioned suburban wife and mother of two adolescents - Drew, 14, and Kenzie, 11 – and how her life unchangeably intertwined with Bo’s disappearance.

Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel is an absorbing and captivating story that is strung with elements of mystery and suspense. What emphatically sets apart this particular story is how the author sets the stage for the story to fold up and the underlying refrain of how an incident can affect an individual, family or an entire community. Author Barbara Taylor Sissel's eclectic cast of characters in the form of Cooper Grant, Lauren’s her husband Jeff, Lauren’s sister Tara and drug-addict boyfriend Greg, and other secondary players make it a satisfying read. Though the ending did not come as a surprise, the mastery with which it was build up makes for an exciting read.

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Finders Keepers by Stephen King

After last year’s absorbing thriller Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King returns with its sequel as the unlikely team of ex-policeman Bill Hodges, Jerome Robinson and Holly Gibney tried to make sense of the City Center Massacre and also save the life of Pete Saubers from the clutches of a near-deranged Morris Bellamy. While the main thread of the story revolves around Pete and Bellamy, it also delves deep into the plot of Mr. Mercedes and the massacre which took the lives of eight innocent people, maimed three, seriously injured twelve and caused minor injuries to seventeen others.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King begins in the year 1978 with the murder of a novelist at his New Hampshire cabin by a die-hard admirer. The cloistered eighty-year-old novelist John Rothstein found himself awake when the privacy of his cabin was invaded by an obsessed fan Morris Bellamy and two accomplices. Not content with the cash available, Bellamy wants to make sure if the rumored sell-out of his favorite character Jimmy Gold in the next Rothstein novel is true, and the ensuing melee proved disastrous.

Bellamy’s plans unraveled when he was arrested and sent to prison for thirty-five years for another violent crime, but not before he stashed the loot away. A high school student Pete Saubers, whose father Thomas Saubers was seriously injured in Mr. Mercedes, and whose family is struggling to make both ends meet, found the buried treasure and sent the money to his parents concealing his real identity while keeping the drafts of Rothstein’s novels. All hell broke loose when Bellamy is released on parole in 2014 and discovered his treasures missing. It is up to King’s likeable trio of Bill Hodges, Jerome Robinson and Holly Gibney to keep Pete from harm’s way and protect his family.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King is an ambitious and well-crafted hard-boiled thriller which can be read as a stand-alone though it is the middle book of a trilogy. Its masterful pacing and riveting plotting makes it a heart thumping read, intensely thrilling and absolutely gripping. Author Stephen King as is his wont, delivers a novel that has stunned me by its shrewdness and ability to sustain interest.

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