Book Review! Blessed Tragedy by H.B. Heinzer (plus $25 Amazon giveaway)

Disclosure:  I received a copy of the book mentioned for the purpose of review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Maddie Neumann died the day she pulled away from her parents’ house determined to make her dreams come true. She wasn’t the perfect little princess she’d been raised to be, all she wanted to do was rock. Everything Maddie was tucked away in a box to allow for her re-birth as Rain Maxwell; a badass rocker who answered to no one and lived by her own set of rules.

Rain’s world is shattered with one phone call from her estranged family. No sooner does she get home than everything she thought she knew about her life starts changing.

Colton Bradford knew there was something special about Rain the moment they first met. Unfortunately, she had a hard and fast rule about dating a bandmate so he was stuck in the friends zone. When Rain is going through her own personal hell, will Colton finally be able to make her see how he feels and convince her to take a chance on love?

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My thoughts

I jumped into this book a few days ago when I realized I was not going to have a lot of free time but needing an escape from moving.  I was so excited that the story drew me in and kept me guessing.  I loved the characters (all of them) but will admit there are a lot to keep track of.  In addition to the band, you also have Maddie/Rain’s family plus a few more that are part of the story at one time or another.

From the very beginning you are met with the chaos that Maddie-turned-Rain is all about.  Leaving her family and going out on her own is one thing, but she goes one step further and changes her entire life.  She no longer is the person she grew up as.  It was surprising to me how hard it was for her to separate the two “persons” but others were able to do it with much less difficulty.

We are introduced to the relationship between Colton and Rain from the very start.  They are really good, best friends.  They also sleep together every single night and show each other signs of affection often.  But they are just friends.   yeah right

I wasn’t buying that story from the very beginning.  How she didn’t know that Colton had feelings for her is just beyond me.  Seriously, how naive is she?  But, I was happy when things progressed with them.  It seemed that they both were a bit immature about being in a relationship and spent more time wondering about the status of their relationship than actually living it.  Rain was more worried about what would happen if something happened than being willing to just let life be.  Most of the time I was frustrated with Rain for her behavior and crazy emotions.

Near the end of the story though, I truly felt for Maddie/Rain a true sadness.  Everyone it seemed turned their back on her.  I was angry with her second family, the band.  They treated her like dirty, like another noboby in the throng of people who wanted to be near them.  She deserved more.

I really did enjoy this story and am really looking forward to the next book, Blessed Fate.  I am very eager to see where this story goes.  These characters went through so much during Blessed Tragedy and I am hoping they get some peace, happiness, and really rock during subsequent books!

I gave this book 4 stars!  Be sure to grab it and let me know what you think!

About the author

Some writers can tell you what book piqued their interest in writing a book of their own. I can’t. Other authors tell you the name of a teacher who influenced and encouraged them to write. The only English teacher I can remember probably does deserve some of the credit for my success because she was one of the hardest teachers I ever had. Honestly, I don’t know why I write; all I know is it’s one of two things I can do that makes me feel completely free.

The first “official” writing I did was as a fifteen year old high school sophomore. My dad was part of an APAzine and, for whatever reason, I started guest writing on his zine. That led to me getting a zine of my own in the Turbo Charged Party Animal APA. Rope the Moon (named after the John Michael Montgomery song and a nod to my dad’s influence on me) was the ramblings of a child in a world of adults.

I was held to a high standard because most of the contributors were my dad’s age. They were somewhat hesitant to allow a kid in, but they voted me in after those guest contributions. To this day, I feel blessed to consider some of those members friends.

Sometime after high school, life got in the way of my dreams. They keyboard was dusty. Looking back, that’s also when I felt my most restless. After my daughter was born, I started my first blog, More Than Mom, as a way to vent about my struggle to hold onto the identity I’d owned for 27 years.

In 2006, I heard about NaNoWriMo for the first time. I jumped in with the enthusiasm of anyone who’s never tried to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. It was a damn good story. Did I mention I’d never written anything of that length before? Yeah, that’s important because it means I never lost a work in progress of that length before. It was November 14th and I was over 24,000 words when my hard drive failed. And with the loss of my manuscript, I lost the drive to write for a while.

In 2012, I attempted NaNoWriMo again, this time saving in so many places I’m sure I’ll be finding partial copies of Bent everywhere until the day I die. The thing they don’t tell you with NaNo? When you hit 50,000 words, that doesn’t mean you’re done writing! So, I kept writing until I was done. And then I edited. And edited some more. Deleted a bunch of scenes, added others in. Had some trusted friends and mentors read it and then tweaked it some more.

In January 2013, I made the single scariest click of my mouse that I will ever make. I published Bent. It’s been a whirlwind year and it keeps picking up pace but I’ve never before felt so blessed to be where I am!

I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at hbheinzer@gmail.com with questions, comments or even a good joke!

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