Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Jake has had a rough life ever since his dad went to prison.  He struggles to find work because credit checks pull up his dad’s felonies since he’s unfortunate enough to share his name.  And, he was kicked out of college when the account he used to pay his tuition was seized, leaving the school expecting him to repay the funds that were already paid in addition to charges for any future classes; leaving bettering himself through education out of his grasp.

Jake finds himself in a dead-end job as a lifeguard at the local country club thanks to a good word from his Uncle Rolly.  He lives in the spare room in his uncle’s house.  And, the girl he loves gave him eight great weeks when they were teenagers before cutting him loose.  She works at the club to, but makes it clear that they will only be friends.  Ultimately Jake just gets by living his dead end life with no hope of ever improving things.  That’s what happens when you’re the son of a convicted thief.

But when his dad’s former associates come a calling to drag Jake into their world, could it be his way out?  Or will it just bury him deeper?

I read the synopsis of this book and thought it sounded really good!  And, I really wanted to like this novel, but it just fell short for me somewhere along the way.  It could be because I do read so much that I’m just hard to please, in general.

I really enjoyed Jake as a lead character.  I felt for him with his plight of having everything go to shit because of his father going to prison and having the misfortune of having the same name.  I also appreciated the internal struggles he had with loving his father and still feeling obligated to uphold his loyalty to him, when it’s truly the last thing he wants to do.  There are many layers to Jake, and I truly enjoyed discovering every one.  But I was yelling NOOOOO at him when he made that one phone call that changed everything … the one we all knew was a mistake, even Jake himself realized what an idiot he was being!

I did find the constant flashbacks to get a bit confusing at times, especially in the beginning.  I understand the depth they brought to the story, but feel there was probably a few that could have been taken out, or the information delivered in a different way.

I liked where the author was going with his story as a whole, but something just missed the mark for me on the execution.  I thought parts of this story were predictable, like Jake participating in this con.  And, overall there just weren’t enough climatic scenes to hold my interest.  I just wanted to see more, I guess.  Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely some tense moments between Jake and his father’s former associates, but they seemed to fall a bit flat for me on the excitement scale.  But I did find his last meeting with the Magician to be entertaining.

Overall, I did find this story to be interesting.  A nice look at how the sins of the father, truly effect the son and other loved ones.  It shows how easily a child in Jake’s situation that wants to do good can so quickly be turned around and placed on the wrong path.