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The BookViral Review:
Edgy with whiplash smart dialogue at first glance Stone Angel might seem like a romance but actually, it’s a study of two lifestyles: of a glamorous A-list actress whose fame and fortune have kept her in the media limelight, and of a professional bodyguard who makes his living by protecting celebrities from high-level threats against them.
The conventions of the genre dictate that the A-list actress and bodyguard have to get off on the wrong foot; she doesn’t want him meddling with her lifestyle and freedom, and he doesn’t have any respect for her lack of cooperation and Buday’s narrative thrives on the kind of guarded romantic tension that grows between two people who spend a lot of time keeping their priorities in focus.
Stone Angel is Buday’s debut novel but of particular note is how much time he finds for small touches of realistic detail and emotion. The conversations between Paige and Cal – about security, the film industry and their respective pasts feel as though they’re taking place between real people and the banter is first-class.
Readers might well be reminded of similar fictional relationships but despite familiar plot elements, Stone Angle is not a retread but a smart, tense read that straddles the Literary Fiction and Thriller genres whilst taking us on a psychological journey with atmospheric textures so dense you can almost taste them.
This is most evident when Cal is silently checking everyone and everything out that comes into Paige’s orbit and when the action comes it’s frenzied but comprehensible, brutal but not wantonly violent as Buday gets the balance just right.
Meanwhile, Buday’s plot advances relentlessly as Paige and Cal’s respect for each other grows, and there is a wonderfully captured moment as they dance to the sound of a car radio when they tacitly concede they are attracted to one another.
With a host of powerful supporting characters quickly established Buday’s narrative doesn’t waste a line and when its climax comes it’s exciting not only because of its action but also because of its flawless logic. And when you come to turn the last page you know it couldn’t have ended any other way!
A superb debut for Buday Stone Angel proves a genuine page-turner and is unreservedly recommended!
Beginning with the marriage of Erc of Dalriada to his first wife Marca at the age of fifteen and covering the period up until his death in 474AD, Strittmatter gives us a rousing historical novel and a fine example of what can happen when good writing and extensive research come together.
With his seemingly endless talent for absorbing storytelling regardless of time, place or culture, Neil Perry Gordon builds on his previous success with ‘THE NAZARITE-The Untold story of Samson and Delilah’. Breathing life into this miraculous and fantastical Biblical account, Gordon lends an air of believability to the astonishing events in the life and downfall of Samson the Nazarite.
Go back not so many years and an author was just that-an author…. who wrote, and at the most maybe edited their own work. How different things are today!
Are we desensitising our young people with the graphic offerings of modern media? And going even further, do the conclusions of ‘Bandura and the Bobo doll’ still hold true in the modern era?
The bedrock for authenticity has to be robust research but the inclusion of fact doesn’t necessarily make for a compelling read.
The religious book market and faith-based poetry continues to see year on year growth, which certainly indicates a surge of public interest in what has historically been a minority genre.
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