Abel Yeager is dead broke, down on his luck, and suffering from a serious case of what-the-hell-does-it-matter. His transition from active Marine to stateside long-haul trucker hit a wicked speed bump when his rig was involved in a wreck that claimed the life of a pregnant woman and laid him up for several months.
Back at work but deeply in debt, Yeager meets bookstore owner Charlie Buchanan in St. Louis and jumps at the chance to haul a load of remainder books to Austin for her. On the way south, a crew of truck thieves tracks his every move. But none of them know what Charlie’s ex has smuggled inside the book pallets, who he stole it from, or how far the owner will go to get it back. Charlie’s the first person Yeager has cared about in a long time, but as their bond deepens, so does the danger they’re in.
With enemy forces closing in, Yeager battles greed, corruption, and his own fatalism in a bid to hold true to Yeager’s First Law: come home at the end of the day. AMAZON 5 Intense Stars is what I'm giving it.
It surprised me how quickly I was pulling for Abel Yeager! Although I'm well aware that I root for the underdog, the speed with which this happened was startling. Even in the earlier part of the story I was thinking, "Come on, can't this guy catch a break, (and I'm not talking broken bones)?" "And maybe, just maybe he could get the girl?" Although the logical side of my brain said, "And if he gets Charlie, how's that going to work?" You see this story did cause some inner dialogue for me.
I liked the way the author wrote, the way the story flowed, the way he described things. Some of them were funny like his description of his friend Victor and Victor's sidekick Cujo and even Yeager's ex wife. One description of his ex Martina was that "she could jumpstart a nuclear reactor with the volume, language and venom of her cursing." I'm sorry, author but I just HAVE to share one more example of your descriptive writing. I don't think it will hurt anything because you had so many other good ones. So here it is: "They pelted down the runway, legs and arms pumping at full speed. But they still ran about as fast as a kiddie car." Can't you just SEE it?
Even some of the fictitious names that Yeager gave some of the people who attacked him, made me smile. The names, Hairflip and Tire Iron, pretty descriptive and made me smile even in the midst of some pretty serious attacks. And Charlie? Oh yes, it didn't take long for me to admire her chutzpah! Now, I was rooting for both of them. They had a lot to overcome but also some really good "got your back" friends Now that is something that made the story even better for me. I liked that part of the story because they went far beyond just "the extra mile", especially Yeager's friends. Some of his conversations with Victor were downright funny too.
All in all its a pretty intense book. It starts strong and stays that way. I really like Yeager's First Law, but also his Law Five comes in a close second for a favorite: "Hurry carefully." Yeager, his friends, and Charlie find themselves at least hip deep in enemies. More than once I thought, "how are they going to all get out of this? Or are they?" The whole experience ratchets up in intensity about Chapter 25. Okay, maybe even a bit before there, its so hard to pinpoint and I just couldn't make up my mind on that. Just for your information there are 37 Chapters and an Epilogue. That should give you a pretty good idea of how long the author manages to keep things rolling in several different areas. Its not a story for the faint of heart, because of the the adult scenes, language, violence, and sexual situations. Even with all of that was it a well written story? Yes. After reading it, I went, "Wow, Wow, Wow, what did I just read?"
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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