By: T.L. PetersOriginally reviewed for A Cozy Reader's Corner
Amazon Kindle - $0.99
B&N Nook - $0.99
Synopsis:
A moving tale of a young man down on his luck who has aspirations for something more.
The main character Freddie is a bit slow, and the story is told from his perspective. He is quick to anger, but usually quick to forgive as well. He works in a copy room of a large company and develops a close friendship with Pete, the owner's son who also works in the copy room. The other employee in that copy room, Joe becomes his worst enemy. Freddie's mother died when he was younger, and he lives with his aging and diabetic father - who is a bit of a crab as well. The characters are realistic, sometimes likable.
I was surprised by the plot in this story. As I said, Freddie has a passion for the violin and one day when he want to see a violinist play on a very rare Stradivarius, he finds a violin case sitting in an alley without anyone else around. He nabs the case and thus begins his "accidental love affair" with the violin. He also begins to feel the stress of being a big time thief, this wasn't some little thing from the store, this one was huge...there was a $100,000 reward offered for the violin.
I really enjoyed this story, especially that it was from Freddie's p0int of view. You may not always know what everyone else is thinking, but the author keeps the story moving and provides enough details that usually you can figure out what is really happening in a situation without Freddie's unique coloring.
I read this as a PDF file and didn't see the cover art. I thought it was going to end up in a romance, but after knowing Freddie I can see why it went the way it did.
This novel had an interesting pace. I felt it was perfect, it never felt too slow...well maybe when Joe was making fun of Pete and Freddie, but that's because I thought Joe was a big jerk.
I'm not sure where the story takes place, but it wasn't that important to the story. It could have been anywhere, but being that there was a concert hall that managed to borrow a Stradivarius from a London museum...it's probably a larger city.
Overall I really enjoyed this story, it drew me in and I couldn't put it down. It's also very sad, so I may not read it again for awhile. lol I will leave you with this, the ending is much more upbeat and surprising than I expected.
