Hey there, bookworms! Happy Wednesday and Happy Spring! Well, in my neck of the woods, we’re having our fourth nor’easter in three weeks, so I’ve been hunkering down with my books all day. Momentarily, I’ll have to head outside to shovel so I can (hopefully) make it to work tomorrow, but before I do, let me bring you a review!
Tonight’s book is from my list of review requests, and if I had to describe it in one word, I’d say it was therapeutic. Sometimes you just need a read that resonates with you, and for me, The Beauty Of The Fall by Rich Marcello was that read.
Dan Underlight is a workaholic, and a man trying to cope with loss. After a tragic accident takes the life of his ten year old son, Zack, Dan immerses himself in his work at a successful tech company. It’s only a matter of time until the safety net and stability of his job is pulled out from under him.
Divorced, grieving, and suddenly unemployed, Dan is forced back to the drawing board to re-evaluate his life. Luckily, he has a therapist, and some close friends to lean on and who help him find his way out of the fog.
Realizing that sitting around won’t be beneficial to him, he finds a way to take one of his tech ideas and start a new company, Conversationworks. The journey from brainstorming to launch and development through the ranks not only brings Dan on an adventure, but also closure on the areas of his life he sees as failures and downfalls.
There is a lot of technical and business talk in this book, which caused me to lose attention along the way. When Dan had to deal with being fired from his job at Radio Radio and start his new business with Conversation works, I was lost among the meetings and the idea-pitching conversations between him and his friends/colleagues. However, there was a bigger story here which is where I focused my interest.
What I loved about this book was every relatable aspect sprinkled throughout the text. We’ve all dealt with loss as we’ve all had to navigate our way through work and relationships whether they were going well or poorly. Most of this book was written so well and so relatable that I had to remind myself that this was a work of fiction and not a memoir of some sort. It was a very heart-felt story that really had me aching for Dan, who seemed to keep getting kicked while he was down.
I also enjoyed the levels of intimacy I reached with Dan throughout these pages. I got to know him as a successful business man, as a father, as a boyfriend, a man, a hero, a patient, and more. Through therapy sessions, he confronts his past, his life with his son and ex-wife, and the mistakes he made. As a business man, I saw where he triumphed and where he fell. I enjoyed his interaction with Willow, a friend-turned-lover who was a free spirit in her own regard, but also recruited Dan to her cause of helping battered women which helped him discover a purpose once more.
In the end, this book not only had a lot to offer, but also a lot to teach its audience. There was great sadness, tragedy, and darkness as well as more dramatic and happy times among these pages, and as a reader, I was able to relate to all of it. It served as a reminder that all of us are on a journey, and that while we may hit bumps and obstacles along our paths, there is still much to be grateful and remain strong for in order to survive. As the author wrote, there’s lessons to be learned from loss, and I couldn’t agree more.
If you’re looking for an eye-opening and thought-provoking read, or maybe if you’re just in need of a little inspiration, please grab a copy of this book and add it to your TBR!
My Final Rating: four out of five stars
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