Indigo – (A Novella)
by Geraldine Solon
Review

I can’t believe that it was way back in 2011, when new author, Geraldine Solon, first contacted me about promotion and review opportunities for her debut novel Love Letters. After supporting her next couple of books, we kind of lost touch, until she contacted me with the opportunity to read this, her latest novella, Indigo, which she describes as a fantasy romance.

Since we last spoke, Geraldine’s writing has gone from strength to strength, with more than ten published books to her credit, across a multi-genre network.

…

INDIGO – (A Novella)

Grace and Michael are soulmates, and Heaven is the only world they’ve known.

While Grace and Michael play a game of tag, they discover an area prohibited by God. Piqued by their curiosity, Grace urges Michael to explore what’s out there, not realizing that the dark hole is a tunnel that leads to Earth. Michael is hesitant to probe further, but a slip in the ravine causes him to tumble and land on Earth.

Grace can’t afford to lose Michael, so she follows him to Earth, hoping to bring him back to Heaven.

Unbeknownst to Grace, on Earth, Michael is a married man with a three-year-old daughter and has lost all his memories of Heaven, including Grace.

Despite the circumstances, Grace must bring Michael back during the full moon; otherwise, she is stuck on Earth forever.

…

GERALDINE SOLON

From an early age Geraldine, who grew up in the Philippines, wrote poems, essays and short stories; although it would be several non writing related ventures later and a move to the San Francisco Bay area of the US, before she began to turn her hobby into a career; deciding that writing stories provided her true solace and calmed her restless nature.

In 2011, Geraldine launched her debut novel, Love Letters which reached the overall Top 100 Amazon Bestseller List. The novel won various awards including the 2011 Beach Book Festival for the Romance category. An independent producer fell in love with Love Letters and optioned the book for film.

Being the relentless author that she is, Geraldine released ten more novels and a marketing guide-book for authors. Her books focus on deep core relationships and the human condition. She writes Romance, Women’s fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Fantasy and Psychological Thrillers.

Geraldine who loves art and film also writes screenplays; speaks at events and teaches workshops for aspiring writers. She has served as Treasurer, Event Planner and Vice President for the California Writers Club Fremont Chapter and was also the previous Managing Editor of fashion and lifestyle magazine, Gastronomique en Vogue.

When she’s not writing, Geraldine enjoys travelling, reading books, watching movies and island hopping. Her latest project is to promote literacy by building libraries in remote areas of third world countries called, A Library for Hope.

Keep up with all Geraldine’s latest news by visiting her website

Follow Geraldine on Twitter

Connect with Geraldine on Facebook

“I’ve always been a firm believer that love conquers all and that every woman’s experience is a story in itself. Life is a never-ending journey and my imagination and experiences have inspired me to write powerful stories. Although my books are fiction, my goal is to offer compelling lessons about life and love. The message I wish to convey to my readers is that despite the many challenges we face in this world, we must have hope and faith. Overall, it is love that binds us together. I hope you enjoy reading my books as much as I enjoyed writing them.”

…

FIRST LINES – (from the prologue & chapter one)

“They say Heaven bears no pain…no anger…no sadness.”

“My long, ivory dress swayed as I zoomed through the wide evergreen meadow while Michael chased after me.”

…

MEMORABLE LINES

“Loneliness doesn’t exist because I sleep in your arms with the shadow of the moon watching over us.”

.

“In the past few days, I had grasped what human life was all about and also witnessed how the community became united after a terrible tragedy.”

.

“Rivers connect the land and the sea together. They are an instrumental part of our universe,” he paused. “Like the river, you are connected to my heart and soul.”

.

I kept quiet. The pain and torment on Earth was too much to bear. Ever since I arrived here, I’ve felt like my emotions were like fragments, and every day was face with a new challenge.”

.

“What many of us don’t realize is a set-back can give birth to a breakthrough if you allow nature to take its course.”

.

“Once a soulmate, always a soulmate, right?”

…

REVIEW

“Heaven can wait”

I have never professed to be an avid reader of either fantasy, romance, or short stories; so I have broken just about every rule in my book, in one fell swoop!

My reasons? I haven’t touched base with Geraldine for so long, that I really wanted to check out where she was at right now in her journey as an author. The novella is quite a short read, at less than 150 pages. I know full well in advance that as Geraldine is a self-confessed romantic at heart, her storylines will always feature lessons about life and love as their core message. But perhaps most importantly, I know that her writing comes straight from the heart, so I am always going to take a truly authentic journey when reading her books.

This time, Geraldine has manged to paint a picture and compose a musical, all in the written word. Very visually descriptive, the story has an intriguing beginning, a strong, content rich plot and a nice ending, something which all too few short stories or novellas ever manage to achieve. The narrative and dialogue are rich and deep in feeling, with a touching naivety which kept me turning the pages towards the next twist in Michael and Grace’s journey. I really wanted things to come good for them, because that is what Geraldine set out to make me feel, right from the first, to the very last word.

My compelling and rather unconventional journey began in Heaven, but through a series of rash and impetuous decisions, an over abundance of curiosity, much heartache and soul searching, and the inevitable happy ending, finished up very much here on Earth!

In profoundly touching opening scenes, Michael and Grace are Heavenly soulmates leading the ultimate life in a place of perfection, happiness, plenty and beauty; although their guardian angel, Daniel and God, do still have guiding rules to be obeyed. However, whereas Michael is more than happy with his utopian existence and safety in the knowledge of his adoration and love for Grace, she is by far the more adventurous and inquisitive of the pair and needs to know what might lay beyond all the perfection they can see, especially the parts which God has labelled ‘out of bounds’!

I’m sure that, like Grace, despite there never being a time of want or need, I would definitely still need to know answers to the questions of ‘what and why’. Surely I would get bored with all that perfect ‘sameness’ after a while!

I really found myself investing in the whole engaging and captivating cast of characters, as they were so well drawn, defined, and easy to empathise with, whether in a good or bad way. There was a strong emotional connection, particularly with Grace, who had the biggest struggle with her emotions and feelings, as she still retained memories of her heavenly life, which Michael did not, so the whole return to Earth was much more traumatic for her, especially when she begins to show signs of aging and experiences the feelings for and of another male, which she finds it almost impossible to comprehend. It takes true love and strength of character from William, to let Grace go to fulfil her ultimate destiny, even helping her to discover her true self along the way, so that she can reconnect with Michael and discover whether they really already were the soulmates they became in Heaven, that one true love for another person which endures to the end and beyond.

Oh! and look out for that unexpected edge-of-the-seat, twist in the storyline that I definitely never saw coming!

Being such a concise, but multi-layered, multi-faceted story, full of heart, I really don’t want to give away any more spoilers, only to say that the whole thing flows seamlessly and moves along at a steady pace and is a true book to make your escape into at the end of a long day. Sure there are one or two loose ends, which don’t quite pull together, but I still had so much of that feel good factor when I closed the final page, that they paled into insignificance immediately, leaving me to wonder just how much of the outcome was karma and how much divine intervention!

I like to think of myself as being totally down to earth, not following any religious faith, and not a believer in an afterlife as in any way credible. However by the time I came to the end of Grace and Michael’s story, even though I still couldn’t reconcile myself to the whole concept of the ‘Heaven or Hell’ experience, I did find myself wondering if there is in any mileage in the precept that we might have all been here on Earth before, without any memory or knowledge of our past experiences?

Mmm! I’m still pondering that one!

…

A complimentary Kindle download of this book, was made available and supplied by the author.

Any thoughts or comments are my own personal opinion and I am in no way being monetarily compensated for this, or any other article which promotes this book or its author.

I personally do not agree with ‘rating’ a book, as the overall experience is all a matter of personal taste, which varies from reader to reader. However some review sites do demand a rating value, so when this review is posted to such a site, it will attract a well deserved 4 out of 5 stars!

…