Book Report: Welcome to the Fallen Paradise

Welcome to the Fallen Paradise
by Dayne Sherman



From the back cover:

Baxter Parish, Louisiana, is a bloody place where family tradition is stronger than the law and pride more valuable than life. Thirty-year-old Jesse Tadlock returns home to claim his inheritance after a peaceful, if not dull, twelve-year Army hitch. With a steady job, a past love back in his life, and his own land, he thinkgs he's outlasted the legacy of violence that has hunted his family.
But the morning after his first night in his new home, a neighbor turns up at his door with a loaded rifle on his arm and a bloodthirsty pit bull in tow. Balem 'Cotton' Moxley says he was born in this house and he'll die there, or Jesse will.
With his Uncle Red pushing him to deal with the threat the old way--meeting fist with blade, bullet with bomb--at odds with his desire for a simple peace, Jesse must find a way to stand up and save his own, even if it means losing everything to the fires of pride.


First paragraphs:

Prologue

The sky was bold, the sun angry. The shade from the live oak was the only defense from the ten o'clock heat. My cousin Murphy Jr. was dead again. He'd died at least a half-dozen times before. He'd tried drinking rubbing alcohol for a dull buzz, Valium and Drano for immediate suicide, jumping from a tree into shallow water for a broken neck, riding bulls stoned, even knocking up Tank Johnson's fifteen-year-old daughter. He was saved every time, thanks to fervent prayer and modern medicine. But this one did the trick. Brakes failed on his Mustang convertible one night, coming down too fast over the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge. He never checked up. Went right underneath the tractor-trailer. Clipped his head from his neck like a shear pin splitting off a boat prop.

Book Report: A Life Without Consequences

A Life Without Consequences
by Stephen Elliot


From the back cover:

Paul is a ward of the court continually moved through the Chicago juvinile system. Paul tries to succeed in schools where children aren't taught to read. He tries to get straight in homes where drug abuse and violence are the norm and find affection in families where the children are constantly being moved and the gaurdians are paid six dollars an hour to look after kids they have no stake in or relation to.
A Life Without Consequences is the semi-autobiographical debut novel by Stephen Elliot.


First paragraphs:

I roll on the couch, silent like padded footsteps. A drity blue pillow softens my cheek. My mind is half white, half black. I roll in the couch, still asleep, still a child. The light from the window paints a pink haze under my eyelids. It's raining blows. Raining blows like so many moons on so many homeless nights, it's raining blows.

Book Report: The Dark River

The Dark River
by John Twelve Hawks


From the back cover:

Two brothers born into a race of Travelers--prophets able to journey to different realms of consciousness--have just discovered that their long lost father may still be alive. Gabriel, who could be humanity's savior, wants to protect him. Michael, however, wants to destroy his father and humanity's hope for freedom. As they race across the globe, their frantic search puts them on a collision course, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.


First paragraph:

Prelude

Snowflakes began drifting down from the darkening sky as the members of New Harmony returned to their homes for dinner. The adults working on a retaining wall near the community center blew on their hands and talked about storm fronts, while the children cocked their heads backward, opened their mouths, and spun around trying to catch the ice crystals on their tongues.