Guest Blogger: Morgan Mandel, Author of Forever Young: Blessing or Curse (Review Included)

Fresh beginnings turn tragic when Dorrie Donato’s husband, Larry, is killed in a hit and run accident a few months after starting a new job at the Life is for Living Institute. Discouraged and desperate after suffering countless setbacks, Dorie accepts an offer by Larry’s boss, the famous Angel Man, to be the first to test an experimental pill designed to spin its user back to a desired age and hold there, yet still retain all previous memories. The pill seems too good to be true. Maybe it is.

Them Bones, Them Bones… by Morgan Mandel

At this time of year, if you live anywhere it’s cold, you may notice some twinges and stiffness in your bones that didn’t bother you as much as during the summer. It could be arthritis, just the weather, or something else.

You could be suffering from osteoporosis, a disease from which the bones lose their density and easily fracture. Most susceptible are post-menopausal women and anyone of advanced age. A painless bone density test can clue you in if it’s starting to happen. As mentioned in Wikipedia, there are many methods of prevention and treatment, such as vitamins, exercise and special pills, which could offer some relief, depending on the severity of your case.

You may wonder why I’m bringing up this medical subject during the Blog Book Tour for Forever Young: Blessing or Curse. Of course, I’ll tell you.

Dorrie, my 55 year old heroine, knows she’s suffering from the onset of osteoporosis, the disease which debilitated her mother and ultimately led to her death. It’s not an experience Dorrie wishes to replicate. Added to that, she’s lost her husband, her job, and horror of horrors, her looks have gone downhill.

The Forever Young pill, as offered to her by Roman Remington of the fictional Life is for Living Institute, is a daily pill through which she can turn her age back to a desired level and keep it there,with the added bonus of remaining free of age-related illnesses.

Sounds pretty attractive, doesn’t it? You can look and feel like you did before and stay that way, yet still remember everything you already know. Maybe one of these days such a pill will be invented.

For now, it’s only a part of fiction. Even there, in my book, it’s not perfect. The pill’s flaws lead to untimely deaths for some and terror for Dorrie.

To find out what happens to my plucky heroine, look for Forever Young: Blessing or Curse on Kindle at http://tinyurl.com/6tsntn6. It’s also available at Smashwords, which distributes to all sorts of other venues, such as Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and more. The link for Smashwords is: http://smashwords.com/books/view/115446. Once I conquer the enigma of CreateSpace, this book will also be in print at Amazon.

By the way, I don’t want to start any panic, but if you’re of a certain age, it wouldn’t hurt to get that bone density test. Or maybe you’ve already had one.

Mine was okay, thank goodness. Does anyone have any more light to shed on the subject?

Along with writing mysteries, thrillers, and romances, Morgan Mandel loves to blog and network. You’ll often find her on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites, as well as at various e-groups. Her previous books, still available, are Killer Career, Girl of My Dreams, and Two Wrongs, all on Kindle and Smashwords.

She’s a past president of Chicago-North RWA, past library liaison for Midwest MWA, belongs to Sisters in Crime and EPIC.

Her next project is a sequel to Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, called Blessing or Curse: A Forever Young Anthology. This book will describe what happens to other subjects who take the Forever Young pill.

Personal Blog: http://morganmandel.blogspot.com/  
Website: http://www.morganmandel.com/ 

  My review:

I can't say I've ever read a book like Forever Young: Blessing or Curse by Morgan Mandel. Employing a unique take on the appeal of the Fountain of Youth, Mandel draws the reader in from the first sentence where Dorrie's life changes forever with a situation that leads her on a path that not only helps her rediscover her youth, but also places her life in danger.

The reader sympathizes with the pain and suffering Dorrie experiences over the loss of her beloved husband, Larry, while perhaps feeling a bit jealous over this fictional character's ability to go back in time to the lovely woman she once was. Mandel does a superb job of delving into Dorrie's  mind so the reader gets to experience everything right along with her. In what I felt was an excellent decision on the author's part, the reader is also able to understand the motives of Roman Remington, Larry's boss, and the gorgeous face behind the Life is for Living Institute. Switching between Dorrie's and Roman's points of view adds an extra emotional and gripping element to the story, especially as the suspense increases.

The ending is fabulous and sets up the sequel nicely. I'm eager for the next book. Forever Young is definitely worth checking out.

Title: Forever Young: Blessing or Curse

Author: Morgan Mandel

Publisher: Choice One Publishing Co.

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services

ASIN: B006MO28CQ

SRP:  $2.99

I received a free Kindle version of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I received no monetary compensation of any kind for this review.

This is the first book I've read for the following challenges: