Friday, March 30, 2007

The Will by Reed Arvin

This one is the author of the month for my yahoo group. Here's my review!

Henry Matthews is working on a prestigious career at a top lawyer firm in Chicago. He gets a call to come back home to read a will his father put together 25 years ago. At first, he goes down to just read the will but soon it becomes more than just that. The son Roger wants to contest the will. Henry begins to doubt what he wants to do in life. He doesn’t want to see the person who benefits the most to get hurt because it was not only a shock to the town but to Henry as well when it came to who was named. So will he give up everything he has worked hard to get or will he just let things go and continue on with his life?

Reed Arvin is a fabulous writer. The story dragged in places but once everything was known about the connections that were made 25 years ago and all the players involved I had to find out what was going to see if justice would prevail. He is able to write very suspenseful scenes that make you turn the page. I was surprised how corrupt the town in the book is made out to be even though he did fictionalize it. I know there are people out there that are similar to the characters in the book but it still shocks me.

I really felt for Henry. He not only had to deal with his past but he had to learn to work through it. He had some tough decisions to make and figure out what was really important to him. There was someone helping him through the entire process and that was Amanda Ashton. I really liked her because she was fighting for what she believed in and showed him how good it felt to do so. Henry had to make the final decision but Amanda was there to support him when he needed her the most. Dealing with the skeletons in the closet is not an easy thing to do but Henry was a great man. He did have doubts but he made sure to call the one person who could help through it. I was really impressed.

In the beginning of the book, I was not sure if I would enjoy it. About half way through when the novel really started to pick up, I couldn’t put it down. I give it a 4/5. I really enjoyed this book and will read more by this author.

This makes my 15th Chunkster but I have only read 2 on my list. lol Need to work on it more. :)
Off to read 2 romance novels, one is really short so I will start with that one. :)