A Picture Is Worth A 1000 Words

Dear Kindle-ites,

In the 29 years I have been devouring and (for the most part) enjoying the written word I never imagined I would one day find myself incapable of finishing a novel. Today however, is that day, and instead of posting a synopsis and (in simple terms) telling you to “make up your own mind” I felt I owed you, and the author an explanation for my reluctance.

For most of you reading this, our relationship has changed over the past year.  I started off as “just another reviewer,” and you, well… you were “just another number” on my Google Analytics page, but things have changed.  Now, I know most of you on a personal level.  I see pictures of your children, and swap stories with you about coffee addictions, and baseball rivalries.  I share tears with you when something dreadful happens, and banter with you about the random facts of life. To me? You are all my friends, and for several of you, I can only hope to be called the same.

I have never been one to hide my past, and I love telling y’all stories and sharing who I am, but this… the “REAL” me is where I ran into a problem with “The Tourist Trail.”  For several years now I have been an active voice for whale conversation.  I donate money, I plaster Sea Shepherd stickers on everything I own, and share my views with anyone who will listen. WHALES mean more to me than BOOKS do, if that gives you any perspective.

Now… what does any of this have to do with “The Tourist Trail?” Well, that’s simple. The majority of this book is based around and aboard a conservation boat, and at 50%, when Yunker decided to throw in descriptions of Japanese Whaling vessels with harpooned whales in “dressing mode” I began to cry. No, correct that… I began to bawl.  See… I have SEEN what he was describing, as a matter of fact I have 3 pictures sitting on my desk I cannot bring myself to touch.  If I flip them over to throw them away I will be lost to wracking sobs.  I could not continue reading if for no other reason than self-preservation.

So, what does this mean for Yunker and the novel he (obviously) worked so very hard on? It means that I can only tell you that up until 50% the novel was interesting, the story flowed surprisingly well, and the writing was nothing to complain about.  Other than that… I beg you, (just this one time) to please forgive me for my inability to separate reality from fiction, and please… do not discount this book just because I couldn’t finish it.

Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: Sometimes even the most opinionated of us trip over our own personalities.

Product Description – Click Image for complete details.

Biologist Angela Haynes is accustomed to dark, lonely nights as one of the few humans at a penguin research station in Patagonia. She has grown used to the cries of penguins before dawn, to meager supplies and housing, to spending most of her days in one of the most remote regions on earth. What she isn’t used to is strange men washing ashore, which happens one day on her watch. The man won’t tell her his name or where he came from, but Angela, who has a soft spot for strays, tends to him, if for no other reason than to protect her birds and her work. When she later learns why he goes by an alias, why he is a refugee from the law, and why he is a man without a port, she begins to fall in love-and embarks on a journey that takes her deep into Antarctic waters, and even deeper into the emotional territory she thought she’d left behind. Against the backdrop of the Southern Ocean, The Tourist Trail weaves together the stories of Angela as well as FBI agent Robert Porter, dispatched on a mission that unearths a past he would rather keep buried; and Ethan Downes, a computer tech whose love for a passionate activist draws him into a dangerous mission