Originally Posted by
megan
You sure it's a novel and not an autobiography?
Mostly made up....
Not to toot my own horn too much, but just got the best review I've ever gotten:
Book Viral ReviewThe BookViral Review:
Sometimes there are novels that strike you in a certain way, haunt your memory and provide some of the terms with which you view your own life and Hoover’s latest release is certainly one of them. It’s fast-paced, consistently compelling and hugely readable but what distinguishes Cologne & Coffee most is its many rich characters and the size of its vision.
A read that grabs your attention from the very start it ranges from 1986 to 2007, from Gabon to Colombia and just about every hotspot in between as we follow the lives of freelance helicopter pilots Jacques and Ethan. Two diametrically opposed characters who are unwittingly on a path that will see their lives and fates intrinsically bound together because of the decisions they make. And on this level, Hoover achieves the difficult feat of following two intersecting story arcs, one in which everything goes right for Jacques and the other in which everything goes wrong for Ethan.
With several converging plotlines Hoover’s narration rarely falters and is easy to follow as Jacques and Ethan are brought into the focus. Both are well-nuanced and the overriding draw of the novel is that all the twists and turns that set their lives on converging paths are wholly believable.
In the main, this is because Darcy takes as much time to emotionally build his characters as he does to create credible and often seedy real-world settings. Often combining these with a deadpan degree of social commentary as Jacques reflects on his life and who even when flying into the jaws of hell, has an insouciance, a devil-may-care attitude, that undermines the drama.
The pace of Hoover’s novel is rapid, almost hectic at times, the touch glancing and he doesn’t linger on any of its settings too long. Shaping even the most casual scenes decisively as the lines between right and wrong become heavily blurred.
A wholly captivating read whilst being refreshingly devoid of genre clichés Cologne and Coffee proves a superb follow-up release to Hoover’s first novel and is unreservedly recommended!