Spring Book Review #1

A couple of nights ago I finished the first book on my Spring Thing Reading Challenge list.

I had started this book about a week ago and it was a very quick read because it's a thriller and a page-turner. I was even reading it at traffic light stops on the way to picking up Claire from rehearsals! lol....

Seriously, this is an exciting, though a bit violent in places, book.

The genre is fiction/thriller/drama.

The author was new to me although he has written three other novels that have all appeared on the best-seller's list.

Here's what the inside cover jacket has to say, summarized in my own words:

There is a place called Iron Mountain Home for Boys.  It is known as "Iron House".  It is a home for orphans and wayward boys.  Two young orphans, Julian and his big brother Michael, learn that life isn't won without a fight. Julian survives because of his brother's protection and loyalty.  One day tensions boil over and a boy is killed in a brutal manner.....there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make:  he runs away from the orphanage and takes the blame with him.

Twenty years later, Michael is an enforcer in NY's world of organized crime (i.e. the Mafia).  He is widely known on the streets and feared.  In fact, he is so feared that he rarely has to kill anymore.  However, the life he has been fighting to build is starting to unravel.  He meets a beautiful girl named Elena and she teaches him about the meaning and power of love.  He wants to start a family with her.  Which is something he and Julian have never had:  family.  BUT...somebody else holds the strings to his life.  Escaping this NYC life is not easy.  The mob boss gives his blessing to Michael to get out of the life because the mob boss is dying.  But the mob boss's biological son is intent on making Michael pay for this betrayal.  Michael is determined to protect Elena so gets her out of NYC and heads back to North Carolina where his life began...and back to his brother whom he lost so long ago.  In NC he discovers a whole new world and level of danger, deceit and violence.  It all leads back to the place he was running from:  Iron House.

What happens??  Does he make peace with his past??

My Thoughts

This book was gripping and fast-paced and I enjoy those kinds of novels once in awhile.

I do not like the level of  graphic violence described in one part of the book (towards the end) but I know the author wrote that way to describe the horrors of organized crime. Yes, it is fiction but organized crime in the world is very real.  I just think the author could have depicted the level of violence with a bit less of the "yuck" factor! 

The actual story of family, love, forgiveness, and determination to pull one's self up from a beginning of abuse, neglect, poverty and homelessness, is endearing....this book made me so thankful for the parents I had and the security of family and love.

I highly recommend this book for ages 17 and older.

On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, I rate this book a 9.