We sent out a call for reviews and you responded! Thank you. Louis (LJH) gave us this wonderful review of Author stephanie l danielson's For the Heart of Phillip - enjoy! And if you want to write a review for the blog, just let Renee Stevens or myself know.

Reviewer: LJH
Status: Completed Free PDF Ebook
Size: 1.34 MB

“Deepening”.

Some stories have it, many don’t. It’s not easy to define. It’s certainly easy to identify a story that doesn’t have it. For the Heart of Phillip has it, in buckets.

(The following is taken from Stephanie Danielson's blurb describing her novel. I have made some changes to the blurb)

The story engaged me on a level that is more than surface experience.

Look at novels like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, thrillers like Lost Light by Michael Connelly and The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, The Hunger Games and yes, even the Harry Potter series, there is much more going on in these books than their counterparts.

In deep storytelling, as in For the Heart of Phillip, there is a resonance. The pleasing last note that lingers. Keeps readers coming back for more.

None of it is easy, if it were, first drafts would be all we needed to write and typing would be the most important aspect of the craft. The story digs far deeper. Flourishes below the surface.

Questions. I imagined the author asking the plot questions. She has made a complicated situation virtually free of complication. I imagined she hounded the characters and forced them to give answers. Hundreds of them, and allowed her imagination provide the answers. I imagined her looking for the next answer.

So many times writers settle for the first thing that comes to mind, or the familiar. It’s the unfamiliar we are looking for. The deepening.

Two people tied up in each other’s lives looking for one thing only. The LOVE and affection of one man, Phillip Marnier. The emotional rollercoaster in this story is overwhelming.

I was gripped by what was going on inside the heads of Andy and Rob and Phillip. The insecurities within each of them. Ms Danielson's ability to transfer emotional intensity to almost every scene in the story, is perfect. The action from scene to scene, chapter to chapter, is not the same, but the feeling is replicated with justifications in each character.

Three people who love and then LOSE love. LOSS. The intensity of each of them losing the person they love, moved me beyond words. Stephanie Danielson writes about FEAR.

In all the characters there is this deepening: “THAT”S NOT JUST WHO I AM…THAT”S WHO THE HELL I AM” This is a line from the Broadway musical, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, maybe you remember it. Phillip knows who he is and what he’s about. Same with Andy. Same with Rob. They know what they want and have a hard time getting it, but in the end they get it. Maybe with the exception of Rob and David. The author writes about the consequences of one’s actions. Like a death in the family; it affects the whole family. Sometimes the effects are short lived, other times the effects are permanent.

Another deepening that flustered me (a good fluster) is the conflict. Conflict fear. Conflict love. Conflict joy. Conflict sadness. Conflict passion. Three people who love and lose love, and all FEAR becoming a GHOST to each other. Neither Phillip nor Andy will allow this haunting.

They simply need each other. Nothing will kill that. They are unable to live without each other. They have become one unit. Like Siamese twins, an attempt to separate them might end in tragedy. Although we are all products of an infinitely complex web of experiences, in fiction one can simplify for a purpose. And the purpose is a deeper connection to the main characters.

I identified and was moved to tears of joy when Phillip and Andy came together for the first time, tears of sadness when they broke up, and in the end,tears of joy when they came together once again. I was paralysed by the fear of these two characters not getting it together.

This story would be complete without sex thrown in. However, I did enjoy the eroticism that both Phillip and Andy resurrected in their lovemaking. I was filled with joy when they laughed together. I was filled with angst whenever Rob was in a scene. In fact, I hated Rob for his “better than thou attitude” which the author did not overdo. Andy’s attitude is in retaliation of Rob’s attitude. The conflict screamed.

This is a story that I will celebrate by reading repeatedly in the years to come. The reason is simple. It is passionately, and compassionately written.

And

there is deepening.