Book Review of Sunstruck by Mayra Calvani -- Review by Douglas Quinn

Sunstruck

by Mayra Calvani

Chic Lit/Mystery/Satire

Zumaya Publications, 2009

Trade Paperback, 223 pages

ISBN 978-1-934841-18-1

****

A Fast-Paced, Humorous and Titillating Read. Recommended.

Review by Douglas Quinn, Author of Blue Heron Marsh, etal (www.douglasquinn.com)

First, let me say that third person present (it takes me a chapter or two to get into the rhythm of the writing) and chic lit aren't my usual reading fare but I liked the premise, so I dove in and was pleasantly surprised.

The characters are quirky and Calvani's descriptions are wickedly delicious, sometimes irreverent and at all times scrumptiously entertaining. All this talk is making me want to run off to Taco Bell, Ismael's favorite hangout-or is it McDonald's or Burger King? Actually it's all of them. Among other not-so-flattering traits, he's also a fast food junkie.

Ismael is the disturbed ex-husband of Calvani's moody and emotional heroine, Daniella. He is married to Lady Dracula, a woman who collects torture devices and gives herself blood facials. And who knows what she hides in a secret room behind the closet.

And, there's more. Calvani also gives us a mutinous Angora cat with its own passport, an anti-feminist, ass-slasher dressed as Zorro, an animal hotel where you can share a room with exotic and sometimes dangerous animals, magical mushrooms that make LSD seem like a sissy drug, Daniella's mother, who favors retail therapy and coffee enemas, and Daniella's live-in boyfriend, Tony, a surrealist artist who weaves his way through life in his own bizzaro world of drugs and an obsessive quest for fame.

Amid the chaos of her friends and family, will Daniella find peace and her place in the world? And who is this Zorro imitator, and what is this obsession with making the "Z" slash on the buttocks of girls wearing miniskirts? You may be surprised at the answers.

Prepare yourself for a satirical romp through Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Sunstruck by Mayra Calvani is a fast-paced, humorous and titillating read. Recommended for both chicks and...uh...well, you know, us sensitive type guys.