On the Bluffs by Steven Schindler

Publisher: The Elevated Press
Pages: 300

Sometimes the biggest lies are the ones we live

From the Cover: While Brian DeLouise was working the graveyard shift at a conspiracy theory-crazed radio station his wife was alley-catting around Washington, DC. But a cheating wife and a dead-end job no longer made him angry or depressed. He was just numb. It took a daring brush with death to awaken his senses and a few clicks on Google to begin a journey to recapture a love he believed was gone forever. Brian finds his lost lover in a rundown mansion on the windswept bluffs of Cape Cod, where he must confront a fast approaching evil while he risks losing everything he now cherishes.

Brian has had enough. Enough of his loveless marriage and DC. Enough of his job listening to crack pots who call into the ARS radio station (known to one and all as Arse). When he married Frances, she had a voracious appetite for sex, and now, they haven't had sex in two long years. He knows that she is having sex with anyone else that strikes her fancy. They only were married because of a pregnancy scare, but now he wonders if that was a lie too. Twenty years of a loveless, lie filled marriage. Good friend George agrees it's time to get out.

Brian's job which he at one time loved, has all but driven him mad. They call at all hours of the day or night, and need him to come to work to fill in for others to busy with their real lives to bother to be there. After a minor temper tantrum at work, related to the stress of his failing marriage and way too much overtime, Brian is put on leave and eventually let go.

Frances finally decides to ask for divorce, knowing she will devastate Brian. But he could care less, he's already made plans to head to Cape Cod, to look up an old girlfriend, from a time when he was truly happy. When he arrives, Smart House looks just like it did from his youth. Portia, his one time love, looks even better. This is just what the doctor ordered to get his life together.
As Portia and Brian try pick up from where they left off twenty years ago, he meets Portia's daughter, Juliette. Could Juliette be a love child conceived before her mother left for Europe?

On the Bluffs by Steven Schindler is great chick-lit. It took me a while to get into the book, about 80 pages worth, but after that the pages flew through my fingers. It's a moving story of a love almost forgotten. After the heart less Frances is done with Brian, he's little more than a shell. But Frances' refusal to accept him finally sends him over the edge. Brian only wants to recapture what is missing in his life today. To do so, he returns to the place and time when his life felt right. We all know we can't go back in time and expect to pick up where we left off, too many things have changed. But who said change was a bad thing? And that's what this story captures. Brian goes back to the place and time where everything was good, but he has to deal with the changes. Portia's mother, Beatrice, isn't as well as he had hoped and neither are the two elderly borders staying in Smart House. Portia has a grown daughter who's not all that friendly toward Brian, and Portia, while more beautiful than ever before, has her own health issues to address. George, ATF agent, helps keep Brian grounded through his divorce and his budding romance with Portia. But everything isn't as it appears to be at Smart House. Portia's brother, Richard, being one as well as the death of their father. And where has Beatrice hidden all of her money?

On the Bluffs was a fast endearing read that once I got into the story, I was hard pressed to put down. There were laugh out loud moments and teary eyed moments. It deals with the mysteries of life and a renewal of love. I highly recommend this book to lovers of chick-lit, I don't believe you'll be disappointed. For more information about Steven Schindler, please visit http://www.stevenschindler.com/