Book Review: Spare Change
Bette Lee Crosby
Print Length: 280 pages
ISBN: 0983887918
Publisher: Bent Pine Publishing (November 11, 2013)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
I’ve come to expect surprises from Bette Lee Crosby’s books. Spare Change is no exception and certainly no disappointment.
Meet Olivia Westerly, a fifty-eight year old woman who falls in love late in life. She marries Charlie Doyle and they whisk off to Miami Beach to celebrate their honeymoon. Unfortunately, the honeymoon is cut short when Charlie dies of a heart attack.
Enter eleven-year-old Ethan Allan Doyle, Charlie’s only grandson. When Ethan witnesses murder, he strikes out with the hope of living with the grandfather he’s never met. Instead he meets his newly-widowed grandmother who isn’t prepared to take care of this roguish boy.
Crosby’s characters are sometimes quirky, sometimes frustrating and always authentic. Their personality traits are sometimes endearing and sometimes off-the-wall. For instance, Olivia is superstitious: she has a phobia of the number eleven. So when an eleven-year-old knocks on her door, she is immediately skittish about the number as well as the boy. Ethan, raised without discipline and hardly any attention, curses randomly and with passion and has little trust of this stranger.
Crosby deftly weaves the story introducing the characters in a way that doesn’t make the outcome obvious. It keeps the reading interesting when you don’t know where the story is going until you get there.
What I enjoy most about Crosby’s writing is she gives us intimate glimpses into the characters by dedicating a chapter to an individual character’s thoughts, feelings and perceptions. It’s a wonderful technique and Crosby handles it with finesse.
I enjoy a well-written tale where characters undergo changes, for better or worse. Spare Change fills the bill.
Find Spare Change here.
Pen has self-published 20 titles in print and e-book formats. Her latest endeavor, Nero’s Fiddle, is a fictitious account of an EMP attack on the United States with women heroes. Visit Nero’s Fiddle website at http://bit.ly/1yYsNH2 follow her on Twitter @penspen or visit her website at http://www.penspen.info Contact her at mytuppenceblog at yahoo.com to inquire about proofreading, editing and formatting services.
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