Review: Fast Paced and Kept Me Guessing!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2014
As Editor-in-Chief of the Marketing for Romance Writers Newsletter, I get inside information on what’s coming out each month. Linda Bond was our Featured Author for August, 2014. One of the first things I noticed about Alive at 5 was the fact that Ms. Bond’s name appeared above the title. That’s rare enough for seasoned authors. You have to be a Tom Clancy, a James Patterson or a J. K. Rowling to get your name above the title. Most mid-list authors’ names stay firmly below their titles. Next, I tested the link for Ms. Bond’s website and found myself watching her book trailer. I thought I was pretty clever narrating mine. All of the other book trailers I’ve seen have simply been a collection of stock photos accompanied by music. Ms. Bond’s trailer is live, with actors, dialog, soundtrack music and even out-takes at the end. It helps to be an Emmy-winning broadcaster and have access to a news crew, equipment and video studio. All of that, however, means Ms. Bond has a really good agent and friends in the right places. So, you’ve got my attention. Can you write?Well, of course! You don’t get the kind of agent who gets your name above the title by writing a dull, slow-paced story with characters no one cares about! Alive at 5 lived up to its promise and then some. If it weren’t for the help of her mother’s former lover, Maxwell Wentworth, Samantha Steel would not be able to keep her mother in an expensive nursing home after a plane crash leaves her in a coma. Furthermore, if Maxwell hadn’t allowed Sam to accompany him on and cover his adventure vacation, she’d be out of a job. She’s had anxiety attacks every time she’s had to deliver a live broadcast ever since her mother’s accident. Covering Maxwell’s adventure vacation is her last chance—until his parachute fails to open in the first phase. When fellow vacationer, Zack tells her the chute’s been tampered with, Sam decides to follow him on the rest of his tour, and find out who tried to kill Maxwell and why, not realizing Zack is there to track the person who killed his uncle a year earlier on the same tour.Alive at 5 grabbed me on the first page and held my attention all the way through. I truly did not know who did it or why until Sam and Zack figured it out, and regular readers know how rarely that happens. I’m excited for Ms. Bond. I think we’ll see a lot more of her. I really hope so. Oh, and watch for the hunky actor in her book trailer elsewhere. He’s a soccer player in an Adidas commercial.