As an author, I can appreciate a new author wanting to publish and get recognized. We struggle and develop our works and want them to be seen. However, I often wonder why authors will publish 7 pages of a story, rather than just writing multiple stories to compile together. I think this story would do much better in a collection of stories rather than a stand alone.

This very short story delves into the mind of an author with writer's block and he attempts to create a reality very different from his own life. The writing is promising, and should the author continue to write, I'm sure we will see great things from him. The work, like that of most new authors, does need some polishing (for example "through" instead of "threw"), but overall it is an easy read. Also, it does need to be properly formatted.

It could easily be turned into a full length book. My mind started with a "what happened to the ex?" And being the sick freak I am, already developed a whole story about how the author killed the ex, but now regrets it and wanted to create a utopia out of guilt. Keep writing Mr. Desai. 

Due to my extensive travel and lack of internet connections, I acquired the assistance of Pelican Freak Reviews to ensure those requesting reviews are not forgotten. Not only is she an avid reader, but a top Amazon reviewer. She knows a great book when she reads it, so be sure to check out her site.

Author Bio
L.C. “Lamar Calvin” Davis Jr grew up an army child and currently resides in the military town of Clarksville,
Tennessee. He is a film school graduate, avid gamer and hopes to one day become a premier southern novelist in modern day literature. His debut novel series, Divine, was crafted with the intention of becoming his first contract between himself the author and the rest of the
world as readers. Die hard supporters and fan art are what keep him going.

The book seems like it gets off to a good start, and then it doesn’t. We are treated to an intense scene – however it quickly sours with an awful continuity issue. I’m going to go ahead and be specific here since this much is available in the preview anyway… the opening scene depicts a queen in labor. The child is sadly stillborn but the THREE midwives clean and dress him without realizing he’s deceased. It’s only when someone asks why it’s so quiet someone realizes he isn’t crying that the THREE experienced midwives realize he’s not alive.  This seems like an awful oversight and I’m tempted to stop reading but I do read on.

The overall situation is gripping and I’m drawn in, despite the poor continuity and spelling errors. What holds me is the author’s way of description – I’ve got a vivid picture in my mind and it causes me to want to go on. While it does need some work, it’s not bland.

Chapter One reads more like a prologue… the book does pick up from Two. The book is a fantasy and at times it reads like it’s from times past and at times it doesn’t. The voice is a bit inconsistent.

I quite like that it’s written in present tense as I rarely see that – this is refreshing. Overall – it does have some promise and it is pretty easy to get into and follow.

I do recommend the author edit for continuity and blatant spelling issues as a little bit of help with bring a more streamlined read. The book does have drama and action – two gripping aspects.

Three stars – and it’d likely be four if it were more professionally presented.

*I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

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Blurb
Roads and Circuses (West Dublin Series: Book 1)

Some Civil Servants are not so civil.

Marcus O’Malley is the brown-nosing suck-up everyone despised in school. He also happens to be Ireland’s best known barrister who truly has it all: a beautiful runway-model wife, two perfect children, prestige, power and wealth. When he refuses a dangerous villain’s request to defend him of heinous crimes, Marcus is rightly intimidated. A seemingly random opportunity to run for political office pops up and only as means to save him from the threats does he decide to dive in.

With his reputation as a do-gooder, Marcus takes like a duck to water to the local scene and his meteoric rise through the party’s rank begins. But as he sets his sights on becoming Prime Minister, he must cooperate with unsavory colleagues, bide time and determine what’s best for him versus what’s best for the party. Could outside forces bring him down, ruin his career and potentially send him to jail? Can he play the game in the shark-infested waters of Irish politics? Does he want power just for the sake of having power? Is he able to see that the chaos and the mayhem in his life are self-created? Can he continue to fool all of the people all of the time? Including himself?

Roads & Circuses is a thrilling satirical look at the world of politics and the duplicitous mind of a politician. It’s not so much what a politician says or does that should worry you, it’s what they actually THINK! And although set in Ireland, Marcus O’Malley could exist in any country or political party in the world.

Author Bio
Tom Mazzone is the author of the West Dublin Series, a humorous social satire set in Ireland as the credit crunch of 2008 changed gears. Having worked with the public for over thirty years, Tom feels qualified to put certain types of people into small constricting boxes and then flog them for sport, for their own good and everyone else’s. It’s his way of giving back.

The second book, Verdant With Envy, is about a passports-for-cash scam, and will be released in the new coming year, 2016, where he’s pretty certain to upset certain people yet again, but certainly much worse.

Tom lives in Clane, Co. Kildare Ireland with his wife Deirdre.

**West Dublin Series: Prologue**

Not all towns are created equal…

Not all families are worth the trouble…

The West Dublin Series are quirky and sinister congruent tales of The O’Malley Family, the people you love to hate. The O’Malleys are a prominent but dysfunctional Irish family living in a rapidly-changing society which is falling apart at the seams during the great recession.

When the patriarch of the family, Bernard O’Malley, tells his impressionable five children a seemingly innocuous tale every Easter, little does he realise the ramifications of his well-intended ‘life lesson’ and how it will individually shape their future relationships to everything.

Each book focuses on one member of the family and their self-imposed nightmares concluding in the last week of November 2008. Bureaucratic politicians, dodgy builders, desperate estate agents, corrupt immigration officers and dubious solicitors become involved in murder, extortion, adultery and arson – amongst other horrors.

From the water, to the wind, and from the birds, to the cats and dogs, something isn’t right in this place.

There is never a dull moment in West Dublin but thank God you don’t live there.

Macy Jones is a perfect student, popular teenager, and utterly miserable. This all changes once her father is arrested and she is liberated from the domestic violence and desolation which used to characterize her life. Macy transforms into Meadow, a girl with all the suppressed qualities of before, who gives less thought to societal expectation and more thought to living a debauched and insane life. Meadow never would have stabilized into a chaotic and liberated character without her best friend, Dante, who is a charismatic individual who shows her what it is to throw away a superficial life of social media and conformism and to merely live. When the two meet a young and disenfranchised wealthy drug addict named Liam things begin to fall apart, though they do not realize this until it is too late when their character and strengths begin being tested by the worst of scenarios.