Here at ROTR we love receiving book mail! A few weeks ago, Author Robert Reddic III, a long-time follower of the @readingontherunblog sent in a signed copy of his book requesting a review. Thanks! Keep reading for the details and to learn how you can win a signed copy for yourself.
Reddic, better known as Robert Reddic III, is a Navy vet and father with a passion for story telling. Reddic's first book, Addicted, is a fictional story that follows an American family through a journey of triumphs and failures due to an assortment of familial additions. The front cover design touts a picture of two identical young ladies with distinct facial expressions in an intense stare enticing the reader to ponder their similarities and differences. The book is 282 pages long, cover-to-cover offering over 30 chapters of love, pain, and reconciliation.
Author synopsis- Addiction: A family that is afflicted by their own personal addictions. Join the Austin family, as they go through life. See how a wealthy family in the New York suburbs deals with life’s difficulties. Grow with each family member as they attempt to beat their own demons, and move passed their fight with addiction.
The story begins with Trevor and Mary meeting in the year 1980 while attending college in the New York City area. Despite being from a racist family, Mary falls in love with Trevor, an African American marketing major from a past very opposite of her own. While planning a life together, her father refuses to support Mary’s decision. Trevor becomes fearful of losing the one person he loves the most and his feelings of insecurity send him to the casino one too many times. This causing the need for the couple and family members to clean up after his growing gambling addiction.
After the wedding, Trevor and Mary go on to have identical twins, Elizabeth and Nicole, subsequently losing a son at birth. The tragic loss spirals Mary into an opioid addiction. As Elizabeth and Nicole grow, it becomes obvious that the two girls are on different trajectories. Elizabeth, beautiful and talented, struggles with becoming a workaholic while Nicole’s feelings of inadequacy leads her to drug and alcohol addiction.
Most of the story focuses on Elizabeth and Nicole, and can be interpreted to symbolize the domino effects of trauma within families. Each chapter of the book is marked by the year (between 1980 and 2017) and highlights a significant familial moment or event. The chapters are short enough to enjoy the entire book in doses making it a good “one chapter per night” nightstand read.
Addiction is written in third person leaving the reader to desire knowledge of events outside of the narrator’s point of view. This can work for the audience in a way that allows the reader to take the story and make it personal to them by inserting familiar scenarios. The opposite can also be true if the reader interprets the narrator as an anonymous character which could give the reader a distant feel to the family, almost as if hearing a story from a stranger. Also, there are few scenic descriptions which may make it more difficult for the reader to melt into the story and adds little to the reader’s effort at personalizing the story as mentioned above.
Reddic’s love for story telling is obvious by the showcased tenacity and passion in reaching out to ROTR for a review. Written in 2017, Addiction is Reddic’s first published book following a six-year enlistment in the Navy (thank you for your service) and a ten-year hiatus from exploring his love for writing. The writing here in Addicted is formal and, at times, stiff however the story is interesting, linear and complete. The reader won’t be able to help rooting for the family to win, as are we with this new up and coming writer. We are very much looking forward to Reddic’s next body of work.
Dear Reddic, please remember to send your friends at ROTR a copy of the next one as well! We thank you for the honor.
To purchase your own copy of Addicted, visit www.robertreddicauthor.com or follow the author on Instagram (@robertreddicauthor).
To win a a signed copy gifted to ROTR, send us an email telling us why you love the blog! Entries must be submitted before October 31, 2020.
Happy Reading Friends!
Xoxoxoxoxoxo
ROTR
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