Book Review: "Lover, Friend and Muse"

"Lover, Friend and Muse," by Carol M. Palmer

- by Robin Dorner
   Editor in Chief

A year has gone by in this seemingly happy marriage, but Beatrice has yet to tell her husband Sebastian the “big secret.” Why? Is it fear? Pride? Regret?

With a foggy mind from a terminal illness, this woman does what she must to protect who and what she loves before she dies. You will never believe what you’ll see untwisted at the end of this inevitable fatal truth.

The character building in the beginning of Lover, Friend and Muse, by author Carol M. Palmer, is so compelling, it’s hard to put the book down. It’s as if you are directly meeting these people and becoming friends in real life as you read each word. You develop that bond before the shocking twist that comes in the second part.

Who would have thought a woman would find a substitute like this to replace her when she is gone?

However, readers of the Gayly will certainly agree, she could not have made a better choice of someone to love, respect and passionately care for her family after her passing. She sets out a plan and makes it happen. Beatrice will tell you,

"Someone once said 'everyone has a story'."

“This is my story and the story of a few others. You'll have to forgive me if the facts and what I remember are not always accurate. I've tried to reconstruct the events of my past as best I could.

Someone also once said 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'.

If that is the case, then I have carved out a remarkably direct path for myself. You see, in all honesty, I didn't have anything to lose or gain by what I'd done. But the 'intent' to save what was most precious to me might have distorted my actions and how I went about them. For every deception, every lie, and all the manipulations were, in fact, done with good intentions. And for every brick I was laying on my way to hell, another road was being prepared for my daughters."