By Elizabeth Hein

ASIN: B00CLU6ABK
Publisher: Winterfield Press

Publication Date: 01/14/14 

Format:  e-book
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
My Rating:  4 Stars

 

Elizabeth Hein’s OVERLOOK is a hilarious debut novel, a cross between Desperate Housewives, Devious Maids, and Mistresses—as the dirty secrets of this southern North Carolina suburban neighborhood are deliciously exposed.

 

Having recently read an ARC of Hein’s upcoming “How to Climb the Eiffel Tower”, coming Oct 1, 2014 (a must 5 star read, highly recommend), I fell in love with the author’s razor sharp wit, and immediately purchased OVERLOOK.

 

In the fictitious town of Magnuson, NC in the seventies—Overlook is a lakeside pristine upper end three-hundred home community, a country club setting of swim, tennis, golf, boating with a mixture of families—busy wives and mothers, gossip, nosy maids, homemakers, career women, gardening, clubs, runners, cyclists, swimmers, joggers, young children and teens, cheating husbands, food binges, Lily Pulitzer dresses, Krispy Kreme donuts, fried chicken, bake sales, wine drinkers, cocktails, drugs, PTA, real estate agents, mistresses, and those nearing empty nester status. (The Overlook moms are otherwise known as The Lookers if you are a part of Stacia’s inter-circle).

 

Of course, behind every southern upper crust family, there is greed, backstabbing, betrayal, jealousy, revenge, infidelity, drugs, cover up, disloyalty, hate, and hypocrisy.

 

Kitty, age 43, is married to Seth, VP of a Golf company (a marriage out of a pregnancy years ago), basically going through the motions. Mother of two, Bobby and Becky, and a busy homemaker (later in the book a career mom) and a cool sister, Rose.

 

Seth has never been faithful; however, Kitty has looked the other way, doing her own thing, until she finds herself with STD (gonorrhea). It does not take long for this small community of women to spread the word of this nasty little development. (Loved “hope your pecker falls off”).

 

Her friend Stacia Tate, influential Tate family (inter-racial) married to the real estate developer (Curran Construction) for the prestigious community, has a thumb on everything and everyone in Overlook. After all, it was her family who developed this oasis which is now Overlook.

 

Partners in crime, these two tackle all the challenges of motherhood and their wifely duties, while keeping one step ahead of the gossip. A comic Southern novel about all the important things in life: marriage and divorce, friendship and betrayal, and small-town secrets.

 

Full of laughs, edgy, with true-to-life characters, and hilarious one liners which will keep you laughing out loud as these southern belles find themselves in all sorts of mischief.

 

Hein reminds me of a cross between sassy Southern writer, Mary Kay Andrews, Susan Rebecca White, Emily Giffin,and sarcastic and witty, Jennifer Weiner.

 

OVERLOOK is an engaging and scandalous comedy-drama chick-lit, filled with humor and sass, and a juicy sequel, ESCAPE PLAN, coming (Fall, 2014), after the surprise and shocking ending. How far will these women go to protect those she loves?

 

Looking forward to catching up with these savvy southern mysterious and desperate housewives of Overlook.

 

By Elizabeth Hein
ISBN: 9781611531039
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
Publication Date: 10/1/14
Pages: 326
Format: e-book
My Rating: 5 Stars

 

A special thank you to Light Messages Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

 

HOW TO CLIMB THE EIFFEL TOWER by Elizabeth Hein, is edgy, funny, and empowering as one strong woman tries to hide from her abusive past on her own, until a tragedy happens, and gains the courage to love and embrace life in an entirely new way.

 

Set in a small town of fictional Magnuson, the Piedmont area of NC, near Durham. Magnuson’s largest employers are the Ellery Medical Center and the financial services companies. Lara works as an analyst at one of the mineral investment firms.

 

Lara is a funny, smart and a complex young woman. She is independent and lives an isolated life, with no friends, guarding herself and her heart. She is a loner and demands a world of safety, haunted by her horrible abusive childhood. She has no family and buries herself in work, and her obsession with fitness at the gym, keeping a steady routine. She works in a cube at her office, is under-valued, with her boss taking all the credit for her work. (The work stuff is hilarious with her sarcasm and names for her co-workers. And the gym was a riot!)

 

Lara Blaine believes, that she can hide, from her past by clinging to a rigid routine of work and exercise. She endures her self-imposed isolation until a cancer diagnosis cracks her hard exterior. Lara’s journey through cancer treatment should be the worst year of her life. Instead, it is the year that she learns how to live. She befriends Jane, (in her sixties), another cancer patient who teaches her how to be powerful even in the face of death. (Loved their relationship).

 

Accepting help from the people around her, allows Lara to confront the past and discover that she is not alone in the world. With the support of her new friends, Lara gains the courage to love and embrace life. Like climbing the Eiffel Tower, the year Lara meets Jane is tough, painful, and totally worth it all.

 

The relationship between Jane and Lara is priceless. Her newfound friendship with Vanessa (HR), and Sebastian, she meets at the race, and the dog— totally amazing! Lara’s goal in life is to have personal power. She wants to feel loved and learn how to love; however, she never knew how previously.

 

Climbing the Eiffel Tower begins with a setting on the gym equipment; however, later Jane shows Lara how she needs to climb the real Eiffel Tower in Paris and learn to live life and all it has to offer, by leaving the past behind and not allow it to control her.

 

What a great book! A moving novel of healing, redemption, raw emotion, overcoming adversity, with realistic lovable and flawed characters. I loved the strong women in this book—so impressed, as quite the page-turner and hard to put down. Elizabeth Hein has just made it to my favorite author list. She writes razor sharp, and do not think I have ever laughed so hard!

 

Fans of Jennifer Weiner, Sarah Pekkanen, and Amy Hatvany will devour HOW TO CLIMB THE EIFFEL TOWER. This book is for every woman, young or old. Whether you have an illness, cancer, a survivor, or are perfectly healthy, this book is for you – one of friendship, cancer, loss and love.

 

After reading HOW TO CLIMB THE EIFFEL TOWER, was so blown away, later spent some time reading about the author. I strongly urge you to get to know this special woman. After reading more, this makes me treasure the book even more. She sounds like someone you would want to be BFF with, to tell it like it is; keeping you in stitches laughing.

 

Hats off to Elizabeth, for being a cancer survivor, mother, and talented writer and for giving this special gift to her readers with this incredible, and inspiring novel.

 

On a Personal Note: My mom received the diagnosis of colon cancer and secondary liver cancer the first of this year. She has been in and out of the hospital with other complications and is currently undergoing chemo. She is doing really well, and goes to the gym six days a week. She is an inspiration; however, this book helped me realize you do not always have to talk about the illness as sometimes you just want to have fun, escape for the afternoon, and do small things which make you happy. She so enjoys going to the Y and visiting with all her friends.

 

As Jane says, “Make sure you leave plenty of time to eat croissants, and drink lots of wine too, live the whole experience, not just the hard parts.”

 

Well Done, Very Deserving of a 5 Star++, and looking forward to reading more from this new-found talented author! PS Loved the cover and the titles of all the chapters – another special touch.

 

About the Author
Elizabeth Hein is a mother, author, and cancer survivor. She grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Durham, North Carolina. She writes women's fiction with a bit of a sharp edge. She is fascinated by how friendship and human connection can help a person through the most difficult moments in their lives. When not writing, she is trying to raise two young women and a husband.

I received a free review copy of this book through Netgalley.

This and other reviews can be found on my blog, Kittens and Books.

When I first joined Netgalley, I was excited. I didn't look into some of my requests as closely as I should have. Maybe if I did, I wouldn't be faced with the challenge I have now. Or maybe I would have misinterpreted this book anyway - I really did think I wanted to read this one.

But I'm not here to tell you it's a bad book. It's not. How to Climb the Eiffel Tower isn't my type of book, but it's extremely well-written. It flowed nicely and I enjoyed the somewhat slow pacing as it helped the reader understand the characters and situation.

Immediately starting the book we find out the main character, Lara, has been diagnosed with cancer. She's a closed-off woman with a difficult past to work through. She is also constantly exercising and part of her workout is "climbing the Eiffel Tower" through a setting on a machine at the gym. She would never think of climbing the actual Eiffel Tower, but her diagnosis and her new friend Jane change her perspective and make her realize that sometimes difficult things can be worth it.

I'm telling you about the book because I think it would be wonderful in the hands of the right reader. I think it would be touching and heartfelt and everything it was written to be.

If you're looking for complete honesty, I did not finish this book. I went into this expecting a light chick-lit, although I knew it involved cancer from the start. I looked at the title and was excited about the Eiffel Tower, which as far as I can tell is not actually visited in the novel.

Readers who don't have these same expectations will probably love this book. Those who read more adult contemporary will probably love this book. It's one of those that I'm not sure exactly why it wouldn't click for me; it just didn't. But I encourage you to give it a chance if it interests you.