Review by Awad Sharar -- Lemoncella Cocktail by Rene Natan
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Awad Sharar
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- Latest Review: "Lemoncella Cocktail" by Rene Natan
Review by Awad Sharar -- Lemoncella Cocktail by Rene Natan
[Following is a volunteer review of "Lemoncella Cocktail" by Rene Natan.]
3 out of 4 stars
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Patrick Carter is a bartender in his mid twenties. With a troubled past, he chooses to live a quiet life. On his way back home at night, he hears a scream for help. Naively, he hurries to rescue a teenager who is drowning in the river. The girl he saves, Samantha McLeod, has to be eliminated by an organized-crime group. The criminals take Samantha for her elder sister, Amelia, who finds out that her boyfriend Oscar Calander is a major arms trafficker. Since those organizations destroy any evidence or witness that may lead to detain them, they decide to eliminate Patrick, too. A series of crimes follow. The Canadian police, as well as the Task Force 101, a security body, start investigation. Patrick acquaints with Emy from the Task Force and, gradually, they are in love. Would they live a happy life or be eliminated? Would the police, together with the Task Force, be able to put an end to that arms-trafficking organization without heavy losses in lives?
Whatever good or bad we are, a mixture of this and that, we'll finally be rewarded for our good deeds, perhaps behavior, and have to bear the consequences of our bad deeds and behavior, too. We can fool others for some time, for some benefits, but time will inevitably come to pay for our wrong doings, sooner or later. Although classical, it's a highly appreciated message Ms René Natan sends to the reader.
From the very beginning, when I was reading about the elimination attempt of the fourteen-year-old Samantha McLeod in "Lemoncella-Cocktail" by René Natan, I remembered "The Honoured Society: Sicilian Mafia Observed" by Norman Lewis which I read more than a decade ago. In both books, the organized-crime men kill, for doubts, only to destroy any possible evidence or witness that may endanger their lives or illegal work, regardless of the victim's nature or number. In René Natan's book, Amelia, by chance, discovered the real job of her boyfriend Oscar Calander, an arms-trafficking Godfather, and so she ran away. Samantha's crime was that she looked a lot like her elder sister Amelia, and so the arms-trafficking men took her for that sister, the witness, and tried to eliminate her. In Norman Lewis's book, some criminals committed their crime in a valley. One of them looked up at the top of a mountain and spotted a teenager, a shepherd, with some sheep. That criminal climbed up the mountain and tossed that boy down from a high cliff. Had the boy really seen them commit their crime? None could tell.
I laughed again when I was reading the last two chapters of the book. Al Capone, a well known American mobster, was a mafia Godfather who smuggled, killed, wounded and blackmailed a lot of people for many years. He was always declared 'Not Guilty' in the court rooms for lack of evidence. Finally, in 1931, he was sentenced to eleven years in prison for income tax evasion. In our story, Oscar Calander, Amelia's former boyfriend and then her bitterest enemy, the arms trafficker, was caught - by chance - for an act that has never floated in his mind to be a crime. He was accused of stealing a bike! So had happened to his last secretary Martha.
I also predicted that I was going to read an excellent and intriguing story with much action, joys and sorrows, a lot of crimes, much mystery, secret informants and many hide-and-seek games. With a plot of a lot of twists and turns, with much failure and more success of the police, the story suggested much resemblance to a spring day. It would break misty, cloudy and gloomy. Suddenly, it was clear, the sun rose and it was warm- the most suitable time for an outing. An hour later, it was windy and cold with showers of rain. In the afternoon, it was clear again and so on. So was the flow of the story, although it was mostly fast and smooth.
Although there are many, many characters in the story, the central one Patrick Carter, Emy, his girlfriend and later his fiancée, and her father, Mr Walker, Amelia, the present-absent character, and Martha, Oscar's girl and secretary, were developed, as well as the story itself, to the reader's satisfaction. The other main characters; Jessica McLeod, Amelia's, Samantha's and Justin's grandma, Mr Des Pres, head of the Task Force and his secretary Lucien, the flat characters, remained loyal, trustworthy and committed to their jobs.
I love most the eldest character, Grandma Jessica McLeod and the youngest, Justin McLeod, her grandson. Jessica is a model to all grandmothers how they should be. She is generous, patient, kindhearted, open and understanding. The funny character, Justin, five years old, hasn't gone to school yet, plays a considerable role in the story. However, he faces puzzles twice. The first is when Patrick downloads the road map and Justin spends a long time, hours, watching it. The second is when Patrick trains him how to drive a car. I quote from Chapter 44. Patrick said to Justin, "We have to turn round. We slow down and turn one hundred and eighty degrees." I wonder how a kindergarten child would understand what a degree in geometry is. Yet, one hundred and twenty degrees refer to a straight line, not to a turn, a curve or an angle.
The story, set in south Canada, the only suitable area for land, air and marine smuggling and trafficking, with its seventy-five chapters on three hundred and fifty standard pages, a little less or more, could be translated into seventy-five scenes or more, each of a new topic. All that will entice the reader to go on reading, hoping to know what would happen next. However, because of the many plot twists, the mystery, conspiracy, betrayal and suspense nature of the story, sometimes, it would be so hard for the reader to predict or even guess what will happen.
Although the story genre is C/T/M/H, there's a kind of classical love that we find in some works of fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Without hot and steamy sex, short and see-through outwear, we like the love scenes in the story, although very few. From Chapter 64, I quote, "Patrick and Emy… happy to sit together, holding hands and exchanging smiles."
I was going to rate the story 4 out of 4 stars. I love it very much and recommend it strongly to readers of all ages and all genres. The more I find it enticing and intriguing, the more sorrow I feel. It's unbelievable. The author who writes this great work of fiction, makes a lot of grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes. The past perfect was excessively used. Just an example, I quote from Chapter 13: "The man for whom she'd lied to her family….She'd witnessed Oscar's meeting with two masked men. She'd stepped out of the bedroom to see …She'd thought there was another woman…" all in one paragraph. In two sequential paragraphs, Jessica talks to Des Pres and his secretary Lucien, "Help yourself." In the next paragraph, she addresses them, "Help yourselves.". Another example: "She not attract attention." Chapter 6, "one the windows." and "The where and how…" Chapter 8. For spelling errors, I quote from Chapter 50, "Cloe (in stead of Chloe) and that s (in stead of that's) and Oscar Carpenter (in stead of Oscar Calander)." I wish the author had time to re-edit the book, or release another edition. She still has the chance to.
Since it's unreasonable to rate a book with many grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes, and badly needs editing, 4 out of 4 stars, and so, I rate it 3 out of 4 stars.
******
Lemoncella Cocktail
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Awad Sharar's review? Post a comment saying so!
3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Patrick Carter is a bartender in his mid twenties. With a troubled past, he chooses to live a quiet life. On his way back home at night, he hears a scream for help. Naively, he hurries to rescue a teenager who is drowning in the river. The girl he saves, Samantha McLeod, has to be eliminated by an organized-crime group. The criminals take Samantha for her elder sister, Amelia, who finds out that her boyfriend Oscar Calander is a major arms trafficker. Since those organizations destroy any evidence or witness that may lead to detain them, they decide to eliminate Patrick, too. A series of crimes follow. The Canadian police, as well as the Task Force 101, a security body, start investigation. Patrick acquaints with Emy from the Task Force and, gradually, they are in love. Would they live a happy life or be eliminated? Would the police, together with the Task Force, be able to put an end to that arms-trafficking organization without heavy losses in lives?
Whatever good or bad we are, a mixture of this and that, we'll finally be rewarded for our good deeds, perhaps behavior, and have to bear the consequences of our bad deeds and behavior, too. We can fool others for some time, for some benefits, but time will inevitably come to pay for our wrong doings, sooner or later. Although classical, it's a highly appreciated message Ms René Natan sends to the reader.
From the very beginning, when I was reading about the elimination attempt of the fourteen-year-old Samantha McLeod in "Lemoncella-Cocktail" by René Natan, I remembered "The Honoured Society: Sicilian Mafia Observed" by Norman Lewis which I read more than a decade ago. In both books, the organized-crime men kill, for doubts, only to destroy any possible evidence or witness that may endanger their lives or illegal work, regardless of the victim's nature or number. In René Natan's book, Amelia, by chance, discovered the real job of her boyfriend Oscar Calander, an arms-trafficking Godfather, and so she ran away. Samantha's crime was that she looked a lot like her elder sister Amelia, and so the arms-trafficking men took her for that sister, the witness, and tried to eliminate her. In Norman Lewis's book, some criminals committed their crime in a valley. One of them looked up at the top of a mountain and spotted a teenager, a shepherd, with some sheep. That criminal climbed up the mountain and tossed that boy down from a high cliff. Had the boy really seen them commit their crime? None could tell.
I laughed again when I was reading the last two chapters of the book. Al Capone, a well known American mobster, was a mafia Godfather who smuggled, killed, wounded and blackmailed a lot of people for many years. He was always declared 'Not Guilty' in the court rooms for lack of evidence. Finally, in 1931, he was sentenced to eleven years in prison for income tax evasion. In our story, Oscar Calander, Amelia's former boyfriend and then her bitterest enemy, the arms trafficker, was caught - by chance - for an act that has never floated in his mind to be a crime. He was accused of stealing a bike! So had happened to his last secretary Martha.
I also predicted that I was going to read an excellent and intriguing story with much action, joys and sorrows, a lot of crimes, much mystery, secret informants and many hide-and-seek games. With a plot of a lot of twists and turns, with much failure and more success of the police, the story suggested much resemblance to a spring day. It would break misty, cloudy and gloomy. Suddenly, it was clear, the sun rose and it was warm- the most suitable time for an outing. An hour later, it was windy and cold with showers of rain. In the afternoon, it was clear again and so on. So was the flow of the story, although it was mostly fast and smooth.
Although there are many, many characters in the story, the central one Patrick Carter, Emy, his girlfriend and later his fiancée, and her father, Mr Walker, Amelia, the present-absent character, and Martha, Oscar's girl and secretary, were developed, as well as the story itself, to the reader's satisfaction. The other main characters; Jessica McLeod, Amelia's, Samantha's and Justin's grandma, Mr Des Pres, head of the Task Force and his secretary Lucien, the flat characters, remained loyal, trustworthy and committed to their jobs.
I love most the eldest character, Grandma Jessica McLeod and the youngest, Justin McLeod, her grandson. Jessica is a model to all grandmothers how they should be. She is generous, patient, kindhearted, open and understanding. The funny character, Justin, five years old, hasn't gone to school yet, plays a considerable role in the story. However, he faces puzzles twice. The first is when Patrick downloads the road map and Justin spends a long time, hours, watching it. The second is when Patrick trains him how to drive a car. I quote from Chapter 44. Patrick said to Justin, "We have to turn round. We slow down and turn one hundred and eighty degrees." I wonder how a kindergarten child would understand what a degree in geometry is. Yet, one hundred and twenty degrees refer to a straight line, not to a turn, a curve or an angle.
The story, set in south Canada, the only suitable area for land, air and marine smuggling and trafficking, with its seventy-five chapters on three hundred and fifty standard pages, a little less or more, could be translated into seventy-five scenes or more, each of a new topic. All that will entice the reader to go on reading, hoping to know what would happen next. However, because of the many plot twists, the mystery, conspiracy, betrayal and suspense nature of the story, sometimes, it would be so hard for the reader to predict or even guess what will happen.
Although the story genre is C/T/M/H, there's a kind of classical love that we find in some works of fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Without hot and steamy sex, short and see-through outwear, we like the love scenes in the story, although very few. From Chapter 64, I quote, "Patrick and Emy… happy to sit together, holding hands and exchanging smiles."
I was going to rate the story 4 out of 4 stars. I love it very much and recommend it strongly to readers of all ages and all genres. The more I find it enticing and intriguing, the more sorrow I feel. It's unbelievable. The author who writes this great work of fiction, makes a lot of grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes. The past perfect was excessively used. Just an example, I quote from Chapter 13: "The man for whom she'd lied to her family….She'd witnessed Oscar's meeting with two masked men. She'd stepped out of the bedroom to see …She'd thought there was another woman…" all in one paragraph. In two sequential paragraphs, Jessica talks to Des Pres and his secretary Lucien, "Help yourself." In the next paragraph, she addresses them, "Help yourselves.". Another example: "She not attract attention." Chapter 6, "one the windows." and "The where and how…" Chapter 8. For spelling errors, I quote from Chapter 50, "Cloe (in stead of Chloe) and that s (in stead of that's) and Oscar Carpenter (in stead of Oscar Calander)." I wish the author had time to re-edit the book, or release another edition. She still has the chance to.
Since it's unreasonable to rate a book with many grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes, and badly needs editing, 4 out of 4 stars, and so, I rate it 3 out of 4 stars.
******
Lemoncella Cocktail
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Awad Sharar's review? Post a comment saying so!
Latest Review: "Lemoncella Cocktail" by Rene Natan
