Reviews for Rainy Day People

by

Susan Haley

Official Apex Reviews Rating:

Reviewed By Linda Waterson, February, 2010

Love is the absolute last thing on the mind of Amber, a widow of two years who has become quite complacent with her life - that is, until she meets Ben, recovering alcoholic currently fighting cancer, among other demons from his past. Despite their instant attraction for one another, Ben struggles to open up fully to Amber, leading her on a subsequent convoluted journey of the heart as she aims to embrace his presence in her life while simultaneously coming to grips with his frequent absences from it. Along the way, she learns invaluable lessons about both him and herself, ultimately embracing the newness of a life she never actually sought.

Rich, profound, and real, Rainy Day People is a gripping, heart rending read. Drawn straight from the pages of everyday life, author Susan Haley’s vivid tale of mid-life love and heartbreak will serve as a literary reflection of the challenges confronting many of us on a regular basis - be they physical, emotional, or spiritual in nature. As such, it will not be difficult for readers to relate to the grim realities facing Amber and Ben both individually and collectively - not to mention the genuine bliss they experience together when their guards are laid down and they allow their souls to feel - and heal. In impressive fashion, Haley paints a picture of life at its rawest, where it serves as the source of both our greatest joy and pain and makes us the flawed - yet noble - human beings that we are.

Clearly crafted from the depths of her own sage soul, Susan Haley’s moving opus is a strong testament to the redemptive power of love and the resilience of the human spirit. A striking, strongly recommended read.

  It kept me spellbound, July 20, 2009

Review by Jo Harris Shaw Amber had me spell bound from the beginning. You step into her life and she takes you on a ride and with her amazing detail to characterizations, she takes you immediately into her life, along with Ben, a man she meets in the book store, HER book store she thinks, he is a stranger invading her solitary corner, slowly leafing through pages. She thinks he is rude, but when she looks into his eyes she sees a connection, "Oh, God" she says, and instinct tells her that he will become a part of her life. They embrace you warmly and invite you to peer into the drama they create with each other, sometimes sweet and sometime bitter, but never boring! Amber has a wild side, she loves speed and drives her convertible much too fast for Ben, even though he was a pilot, and especially when she turns the music up while careening around curves. You feel as if you are riding next to her and can see the wind blowing her long dark hair. Ben warns her that one of these days she's going to "sail that damn fool car off the cliffs." She believes in circumstance and destiny, and it leads her down a path that takes her into unexpected dangers and delight. She pulls you into her drama, and I felt as if I was ease dropping on their private conversations when Ben felt death breathing down his neck, and Amber as she is insistent, that she can save him. He does not understand her affiliation with nature and her idea that there is a cosmic meaning in the universe that governs all of us. Will Ben ever come around to her way of thinking? This kind of writing is intense and very rare. She is so detailed that I really did feel as if I was with Amber and Ben, and the yellow cat, "Tag," that they had adopted on one of their crazy adventures. Reading the last page I felt as if I had left my friends behind, and I wanted MORE!

A SERIOUS NOVEL, May 12, 2009   By Richard A. Ide     Having read Susan Haley's RAINY DAY PEOPLE. I am pleased to report that despite the considerable turmoil embodied in its two intense main characters - recently widowed Amber Allyson and Ben Riley, a divorcee dying of cancer - this carefully wrought tale of an evolving relationship is a joy to read. When a writer chooses to draw together "two ships passing in the night" in a seemingly inconsequential bookstore collision, then sets about peeling back their personalities - intricately exposing their innermost thoughts, their deepest inner conflicts and failings one to the other; couching it all in a narrative about coping with the loss of a life partner and getting beyond it - then you have, indeed, a most serious novel. Before beginning this book, you needn't fortify yourself with a Scotch and water and a box of tissues; you'll find more pepper and humor between the covers than tears. Susan Haley writes with a light but caring touch - both through highly descriptive prose and in her spot-on dialogue. There is the touch of the poet throughout much of this book, no doubt due to the fact that Ms. Haley's prior publication was FIBERS IN THE WEB - a finely wrought collection of poetry you would be remiss in failing to pick up. What most fascinated me as I watched the relationship between Amber and Ben solidify was the eerie control Amber's deceased life partner continued to exert on this couple. Ben and Amber are forced to overcome barriers Amber's deceased husband "Jeff" has seemingly placed in their way. Not only is Amber driven to despair trying to step out from under Jeff's past influence, but Ben senses the dead husband's spirit haunting every step he takes toward Amber. There's an air of mysticism in Amber's attraction to Ben. She's a naturalist, a believer in a vague power that must physically appear and show her how to love again. So we are treated to the symbolic reappearance of such things as a fox, a sea gull - "Birdfriend," double rainbows, various coincidences, and the odd intermingling of people's names and initials throughout the story. None of this is careless; all of it done by the sure hand of a strong writer. It is during the pair's escape from Amber's Florida "treehouse" to fresh surroundings and a clean start in Maine that Ms. Haley's descriptive skill truly shines. The passages about Amber's former life in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina and the night she and Ben spend at Otter Creek are exemplary. In Maine, during an excursion on a converted trawler, they are caught at sea in a violent squall. I felt every heave and surge of the vessel in the mountainous swells, my pulse racing along with theirs until the boat found safety back in the harbor. Seldom have I read a more beautifully crafted and descriptive action sequence. The intensity of the novel's final chapters is skillfully heightened by the use of a series of what might best be described as filmic cross-cuts. Let me just say that the resolution of Ben and Amber's final conflict is exciting, swiftly paced, and in the end completely satisfying. Amber may be a complex, overly analytical, lovingly defiant woman - ornery when things prove wrong or she fails to get her point across; and wise-cracking Ben is stubbornly locked in fear and anger over his cancer. Yet this diametrically mismatched pair are hopelessly drawn to each other. This strange and wonderfully written tale will keep you turning pages; the reward is watching Amber Allyson and Ben Riley leap the hurdles lining the way to the finish line. --Richard Ide, Author, 3 ACES www.3acesthenovel.com www.richardide.com

 

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