**** Love is difficult Review by Rox Burkey
Author Athina Paris reveals the independent path of a young girl, Gabrielle, who’s life shifts on its axis with the death of her mother, Eleanor. Eleanor’s friend and confidant, Charles Knight watched Gabrielle grow up. He is committed to helping Gabrielle succeed. Angry, Gabrielle, against Charles’ advice, seeks out her birth father traveling to Africa.
Though the truth of why her mother and father weren’t not together was unknown to Gabrielle, she learns firsthand of his duplicity as he steals her inheritance. Circumstances shift and she escapes with her infant sister Tammy in tow. Charles Knight is her only hope. She secures a job with him, determined to protect Tammy, and build a life together.
I like the tenacity and creative thinking character traits Author Paris attributes to Gabrielle. Her choices reminded me of the inexperience of youth with an idealistic edge. This passage where Gabrielle tries to enroll Tammy in nursery school provided me that insight initially. It was a continued theme woven throughout the story.
“Gabriella phoned Charles and told him. Both raged at the two idiots, who were going through life as if nothing, but their little additions were important. No wonder the baby had already been to the hospital, she probably had next to nothing in the area of an immune system. So, when Gabriella reached the front of the queue at Home Affairs, she knew something outside her body possessed her, because suddenly, she knew exactly what to do.
“Dear lord,” Charles said when she told him the story. “And when the two crazies discover what you have done?”
“I’m past caring. This is how I read the situation; she’s putting herself in a grave and he—not much better. His additions are different, but they are just as dangerous.”
Charles’ son Jonathan, and his friend Paul work at the firm. They are smitten with the pretty Gabrielle and her baby. When Charles suddenly dies Gabrielle’s life abruptly shifts again. Paul and Jonathan both vie for her hand, willing to support she and Tammy. A out of context conversation convinces them both that Charles is the father of Tammy. Jonathan attempting to protect his mother and keep the child close enough to protect, weds Gabrielle. He tries his best to support his wife and daughter. Her independent nature puts up several seemingly insurmountable roadblocks between the couple.
The ins and outs of this couple takes the reader on a wonderful ride of thrills, heartbreak, wishful thinking, and above all hope for elusive happiness. It is an unrequited romance with pieces of the puzzle missing. You’ll need to read to the exciting end to find out if hope can bloom from a foundation of lies and half-truths. This is my first book from this author, and I recommend you consider it. The descriptions of the surroundings linger long after you turn the last page.
About the Author
Athina Paris spent her formative years in Mozambique, where she was born. Years in convents and boarding schools prompted a deep curiosity, which quickly developed into an avid interest in reading and storytelling that led to a lifelong obsession with the written word and books. By fifteen she had discovered ancient civilizations and became fascinated with various mythologies.
She became a spectator of human nature, but quiet and shy, she preferred recording conduct, and so built a treasure-trove of relationship observations from which she eventually drew backgrounds for the characters in her romantic novels.
She studied Interior Design then turned to Creative Writing and followed that with Script-writing.
Set in faraway and exotic places, Athina’s epic romances take her characters on voyages of self-discovery while dealing with catastrophic love lives in an imperfect world.
A stint as a high school English teacher polished her skills but she now concentrates on her professional goals of writing, editing, and proofreading.
