Official Review: Against the Wind by Joy Cee
Posted: 02 Sep 2017, 11:15
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Against the Wind" by Joy Cee.]
4 out of 4 stars
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Against the wind By Joy Cee starts off at a crescendo- His hands were clasped around her throat. OH, MY GOD! This time he was going to kill her. This is a story based on the true life experiences of Joy Cee, who in her dedication, says lovingly, “To my husband, Bob, who has made the journey with me to my broken past, encouraged me to open my mind, my heart, and soul, with no guilt and no regrets." Through this first-person narration, with the setting of the story alternating between New Jersey and Florida, we get to meet Joyce, the “creep magnet”. She is too beautiful for her own good and has an uncanny ability to attract creeps, but soon takes care of this by buying a basketball bat that she attaches to her bicycle. “A girl couldn’t be too careful.” Joyce, the protagonist of the story, asks whether this is a love story and answer her own question, "Sort of-" I would like to explain further that this is more than a love story; it is life at its best and its worst. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has been wronged, and I would like to think almost all of us fall into that equation.
As a rule, Joyce never looks back, but just before her sixtieth birthday, she does and flips us back decades ago to a time when she fled at the heart of the night with her young daughter from a life of physical and mental abuse perpetrated by her belligerent husband. The story begins with Joyce’s emotions held back; this is understandable because she was young and broken, spent and emotionally dead. Though this slows down the story a little too much, at the beginning, for its own good, the tempo soon picks up and things get exciting and tragic and laughable and fun. Joyce is thrust into a destitute life, a life of horrific nightmares; a life with no money, no car, and no life.
That is except the undying love of her ‘sweet little angel’, Bean, her daughter. They have a sweet mother-daughter morning ritual, but that is before she wakes her mother up by hitting her on the head. Joyce is satisfied with this life and keeping all men at an arm’s length until she meets Shane, "the intruding stranger”, the man with the liquid blue eyes, silky smooth voice, and the tall muscular body. The mutual attraction is undeniable, and soon Joyce slowly and grudgingly accepts it, but will they both be ready to give up their demons and dreams for a life of unconditional love? Will they be strong enough to withstand the ugly horrors of her past? And will she be strong enough to allow herself to lean on Shane if her husband turns up like a bad coin?
All the chapters in the book are preceded by inspiring and clever quotes from an assortment of persons. These quotes also help us to get a recap of what is going to happen in the chapters. One of the quote states, “If you can’t do anything about it, laugh like hell.” And that is how the story mostly went; there was a lot of laughing like hell!
I enjoyed reading the book more and more as I went deeper and deeper into it. I was screaming inside my head at Joyce for her blatant blunders. The conversations were clever and funny, flowing with undercurrents of humor and outright hilarity that had me burst into laughter. The characters were captivating and engaging. Among the characters, there is Frank, the impossible assistant manager, Bean, always happy and laughing, Debbie, who was always there to get Joyce into trouble, Lisa, the small petite blond with a big, heavy southern accent that made her a hoot! Just like her friends, the ocean whispers her name, and the alluring sand calls her name, soothing her away from her chronic nightmares.
There was not much I did not like about the book. There was explainable slowness at the beginning that would put off the faithless readers. There was also a word that I thought was misplaced, THEE, in the confusing but clever sentence, “…it was THEE place to be.” But I later saw the sense in it. I give the book a rating of 4 out of 4 stars because there was no major mishap, just a misplaced word I will not go into, and also because if you are going to write an excellent work with a degree of romance in it, I have always thought you would better give it good twists or something original, and I saw this in this book. I urge you to get this book.
******
Against the Wind
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4 out of 4 stars
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Against the wind By Joy Cee starts off at a crescendo- His hands were clasped around her throat. OH, MY GOD! This time he was going to kill her. This is a story based on the true life experiences of Joy Cee, who in her dedication, says lovingly, “To my husband, Bob, who has made the journey with me to my broken past, encouraged me to open my mind, my heart, and soul, with no guilt and no regrets." Through this first-person narration, with the setting of the story alternating between New Jersey and Florida, we get to meet Joyce, the “creep magnet”. She is too beautiful for her own good and has an uncanny ability to attract creeps, but soon takes care of this by buying a basketball bat that she attaches to her bicycle. “A girl couldn’t be too careful.” Joyce, the protagonist of the story, asks whether this is a love story and answer her own question, "Sort of-" I would like to explain further that this is more than a love story; it is life at its best and its worst. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who has been wronged, and I would like to think almost all of us fall into that equation.
As a rule, Joyce never looks back, but just before her sixtieth birthday, she does and flips us back decades ago to a time when she fled at the heart of the night with her young daughter from a life of physical and mental abuse perpetrated by her belligerent husband. The story begins with Joyce’s emotions held back; this is understandable because she was young and broken, spent and emotionally dead. Though this slows down the story a little too much, at the beginning, for its own good, the tempo soon picks up and things get exciting and tragic and laughable and fun. Joyce is thrust into a destitute life, a life of horrific nightmares; a life with no money, no car, and no life.
That is except the undying love of her ‘sweet little angel’, Bean, her daughter. They have a sweet mother-daughter morning ritual, but that is before she wakes her mother up by hitting her on the head. Joyce is satisfied with this life and keeping all men at an arm’s length until she meets Shane, "the intruding stranger”, the man with the liquid blue eyes, silky smooth voice, and the tall muscular body. The mutual attraction is undeniable, and soon Joyce slowly and grudgingly accepts it, but will they both be ready to give up their demons and dreams for a life of unconditional love? Will they be strong enough to withstand the ugly horrors of her past? And will she be strong enough to allow herself to lean on Shane if her husband turns up like a bad coin?
All the chapters in the book are preceded by inspiring and clever quotes from an assortment of persons. These quotes also help us to get a recap of what is going to happen in the chapters. One of the quote states, “If you can’t do anything about it, laugh like hell.” And that is how the story mostly went; there was a lot of laughing like hell!
I enjoyed reading the book more and more as I went deeper and deeper into it. I was screaming inside my head at Joyce for her blatant blunders. The conversations were clever and funny, flowing with undercurrents of humor and outright hilarity that had me burst into laughter. The characters were captivating and engaging. Among the characters, there is Frank, the impossible assistant manager, Bean, always happy and laughing, Debbie, who was always there to get Joyce into trouble, Lisa, the small petite blond with a big, heavy southern accent that made her a hoot! Just like her friends, the ocean whispers her name, and the alluring sand calls her name, soothing her away from her chronic nightmares.
There was not much I did not like about the book. There was explainable slowness at the beginning that would put off the faithless readers. There was also a word that I thought was misplaced, THEE, in the confusing but clever sentence, “…it was THEE place to be.” But I later saw the sense in it. I give the book a rating of 4 out of 4 stars because there was no major mishap, just a misplaced word I will not go into, and also because if you are going to write an excellent work with a degree of romance in it, I have always thought you would better give it good twists or something original, and I saw this in this book. I urge you to get this book.
******
Against the Wind
View: on Bookshelves
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And yeah, I totally agree we need to go back to what's real, we've lived outside our minds for long enough