The Bookseller

Across from Boston Common, nestled into the corner of a cobblestone mall, sits The Bookseller, a bookstore owned by a lovable rare book dealer and his wife, who runs a coffee parlor inside the store. The parlor is the morning gathering place for business people from around the mall where the complimentary coffee is hot and delicious, the croissants are a quarter, and the lively banter is free. George and Elizabeth lead a happy life surrounded by many friends.

Their happiness is about to be shattered by a violent South American drug cartel with a new, high tech process for smuggling cocaine.  A brilliant book that you just have to keep reading to the end - set aside the time!!!

The story is well done and draws the reader in. It could be a story of any one of us affected by gangs. It's is both intriguing and heart wrenching. You cheer for the characters and are horrified by the criminals. It is a story happening in every town with often the same unfortunately good people affected. Well done. Intriguingly good novel.

I have just read a previous review on this book and was bemused by the word for word copy of the Publishers blurb - hardly a genuine review, Sometimes when everyone else has given 5 stars I feel a tad apprehensive in case I am not equally enthralled. However I did like this book, I loved the setting and the characters, was not too sure about "The Baddies" but just as in the old Western films justice won out in the end. Mr Cales seems to have a quirky style and clearly he is Scarybob. Strongly recommend for a cracking good read.

A strange but  engaging tale of good versus evil, and great love.

Could not put this one down- At first I didn't like the paranormal stuff and wished i had not started reading it but I am glad I stuck with it.  Very intense and dark but spellbinding!

A great tale of immortality ,friendship love and an unquenchable quest for power with a bit of the supernatural thrown in and a supremely evil head of a cartel

Wow!  

I don't know where to begin with this book.  I started out reading it and thought it was going in one direction and then just when I settled into my stride with it, it changes pace and goes in a different direction!  

It has everything you could want from a book and a few things that I wouldn't want from a book but by time I realised this I was too involved with all the characters to even think about stopping!  

Original, scary, sweet, romantic, spiritual, it has it all, and what was great is that it was all tied up nicely in the end.  I was a bit worried for a time that I would be left with questions, but honestly I had none.  I don't want to give anything away, but it all went well for the goodies and the baddies;-) 

I was left with that feeling of not wanting to read another book for a while, whilst still basking in the brilliance of this one.  Thanks so much netgalley for this one and C. Robert Cales, more please!

Title: The Bookseller by C Robert Cales Publisher: Amazon Digital Services, ScaryBob Productions, 435 pp Genre: horror, mystery/thriller, adventure, fantasy 4 Stars ****
Author: This is the author's second novel, after Devil Glass, and while they are stand alone, he is at work on a third which will form a trilogy. He has the technical and writing skill to produce quality self publication. This was the first of his work that I read, and not my genre but as that New Years resolution exhorted us to read something new, I went with it.  In fact it was the title that caught my eye, Bookseller, but it also takes place in Boston. What's not to like? Well, keep the lights on!
Story line: George  Saunders and his lovely wife Elizabeth have owned a rare book store on Boston Commons for over 30 years. It's now 2004 and life has been good. You are lulled into the charming characters and neighborhood, although something lurking is not unsuspected with the opening guillotine prologue. So with a sense of trepidation I continued; it really isn't pleasant when bad things happen to people you care about. But by then the ride is galloping along into a fantastical story. Not everyone survives, how could they in the presence of such evil? But there are twists and misdirections and grit and adventure which keep the pages turning to a satisfactory conclusion.  Read on:
If you like Stephen King or John Connolly.
Quotes:
1794 August Paris....he thought of the journey ahead; the journey always came to pass, eventually. The temporary agony of death and the tiresome process of yet another childhood were the prices he paid for iimmortality.
He recognized early that diversity in his friendships could broaden his horizons, like diversity in his reading material.
My love of literature apparently has nothing to do with my ability to pen a tale.

Read as an ARC from Netgalley Published on Friends of the Rochester Public Library Wordpress blog, Celtreads.blogspot, Amazon and Goodreads, Facebook