Living the Dream
Author
Tim Baker
Publisher
Dog Ear Publishing, LLC
3 Review Copies Left
"Living the Dream" is a semi-humorous crime story about a loser named Kurt who thinks that his ticket to Easy Street lies in a half-baked kidnapping plot. After the road trip from hell he arrives in Florida to find that Vicky, his intended victim, is out of town. Vicky's husband, Jimmy, is thinking of divorcing her and probably won't pay the ransom anyway. And Leslie, Jimmy's mistress, wants a piece of Kurt's action. Just to make matters worse, Kurt has a bookie, a biker and an ex-Navy SEAL all wanting a piece of his hide. Kurt had no idea that kidnapping was such hard work. His plan might work if it doesn't get him killed first.
Tim Baker was born and raised in Warwick, Rhode Island. After graduating from The Wentworth Institute of Technology in 1980 he embarked on a career in Architecture and Engineering. Along the way he has also worked in the natural gas industry, construction and ice cream sales In his spare time he enjoys a wide variety of activities including sports of all kinds, music, photography, model building and, of course, writing. An avid dog lover, Tim was a volunteer puppy raiser for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, raising and socializing potential guide dogs. He has also studied and taught martial arts. Living the Dream is his first published novel, his next novel Water Hazard will be published in the fall of 2009. Currently, Tim is enjoying life in Palm Coast, Florida.
To contact Tim or find out about upcoming works please visit his website at www.blindoggbooks.com
Reviews
All Kurt wants is a break and he can’t understand why he can’t get one. Deciding to take matters into his own hands he comes up with a plan to kidnap Vicky. He is sure her husband will pay the ransom and then his life will be on the right track, he will be a loser no more. Unfortunately for Kurt, things go from bad to worse as he drives to Florida in what becomes the road trip from hell. Once there, he discovers Vicky is out of town and her husband, Jimmy, doesn’t care enough about her to pay a ransom even if Kurt could managed to kidnap her. Just when it seems like Kurt’s plan is over, he meets Jimmy’s mistress, Leslie, who has some plans of her own and Kurt starts to believe he may finally get to “live the dream”.
When I first started to read “Living The Dream” by Tim Baker, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. Three of the main characters have no redeeming qualities and it was hard to care about what happened to them. Then I realized that I didn’t have to like them in order to appreciate the story and the imagination that went into the writing. The things that kept happening to Kurt were crazy and creative and I was impressed with how events unfolded in a way that kept me interested despite my lack of empathy for the characters. I eventually found myself turning the pages furiously to see what was going to happen next and, by the end, felt that the book was well written, creative, showed lots of imagination and I would definitely recommend it.
One note of warning, there is a lot of coarse language in this book so if you are easily offended, this is not the book for you.
Reviewed on 01/06/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member April Hanson
