An Exaltation of Larks
Suanne Laqueur
Release Date: November 22, 2016
Synopsis
The paths of a married couple and a male escort cross in Suanne Laqueur’s fifth novel about the price of love. “We’re so alike, you and I. It’s no wonder we kept finding each other.” September 11, 1973: Eleven-year-old Alejandro Penda watches from his apartment window as Santiago, Chile falls to a military coup, destroying his family and his childhood. Arriving alone in America, he’s taken in by the Larks: a prominent family in the town of Guelisten. Though burdened by unresolved grief for his disappeared parents, he becomes fiercely loyal to the Larks, eventually marrying one of their daughters, Valerie. September 11, 2001: Javier Landes watches from his apartment window as New York City falls to terrorism. As one of Manhattan’s top-paid male escorts, this professional lover has never lacked for company and is loyal only to himself. But in the wake of 9/11, Jav is named guardian for an orphaned nephew in Guelisten and must open his carefully-guarded heart to pain he's long suppressed. Alex, Valerie and Jav meet first in their twenties, with a sudden attraction each finds strange and compelling. When they meet again in their forties, they discover not only is their bond still strong, but their life experiences are strangely similar. All have been shaped by separate 9/11's, and their unfinished business from the past will change everything they know about love, loyalty and friendship. "Life has rules. You cannot come in the middle of the night and take what we agreed isn't yours." Across three decades and two continents, An Exaltation of Larks explores the unpredictability of sexual attraction, how family ties are forged, torn and mended, and how love's downfall can turn to exaltation.Add to Goodreads
Darra's Review:
It is amazing how much emotions Suanne's books provoke. This is
what makes her books like no other. Stories that are about a life, not just a
moment. It takes days to stop living in the story. Those characters did not
leave my mind. It left a dent in my heart.
I didn't read the
synopsis to make this book a surprise. With Alex and his horrors of when he was
leaving his family behind that may not live to another day. To not know if his
family will be tortured until the end of the war. The story sucks me in immediately.
My own feelings for Alex were drawing me in to what will happen with a new life
and family. I love Alex's soul. Yes, I am taking about a book.
When I started
reading Javier's story, it begins with a teenage mistake that effected his life
forever. Heart wrenching putting it lightly. Life move forwards for him and he
takes a route that benefits him, both mentally ans physically. The few people
he allows in his life have a gravitational pull to him. And likewise. He's
intense putting it lightly.
I don't need to
write much about Val. She is beautiful from within and out. She loves her
family no matter where they are and what they are doing. Including Alex. They
know it is more than a childhood crush.
I was invested in
Val, Alex and Javier as characters. Each of their lives wove into one another.
There are continued times of fate falling in place. A fate that you want to
believe this is real life. Any person would understand. I fell in love with all
three. Yes, my feelings for Alex were the strongest. As I was hoping Val and
Alex would get that happily ever after like most other books. Except this is
different as I have explained.It's life.
Suanne writes
stories about characters who live a life the best they can. Not all fluff. Raw
emotions. Passionate. Mournful. Bliss. This effects all 3 of them. This
is the one thing that will stick with me. Parts of the book I got so drawn up
into it. My heart was going a million miles. I actually felt dread. Just
watching the plot unfold in the next few moments.
There is black and
white. This book goes black to white to gray. My feelings were shredded for
Val, Alex and Javier. My heart would break a little if I(meaning reader) one
did not make it. I needed them all to make this book whole.
I was all over the
place. The writing is what makes this book unforgettable. As though it is
memories in a past life. I felt that burn in my throat. That excitement and
flutter at the bottom of my stomach.
It has been two
weeks since I finished this book. Still, it stays with me everyday. I see the
clock click to 9:11 and I think of Javier and little boy in Chile.
Writing this has
made me stare off in space thinking of what will happen in the next chapters of
the Larks youngest.
Only allowing five
star does not do it justice. It has altered my perception of what great writing
and story telling is. Epic.
5* since they only
allow that.
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Author Bio
Suanne Laqueur
Suanne Laqueur's debut novel The Man I Love and its follow-up, Give Me Your Answer True, won gold medals in the 2015 and 2016 Readers' Favorite Book Awards. Both were finalists in the 2015 and 2016 Kindle Book Awards, and Laqueur was named a gold medal Debut Author with Feathered Quill Book Reviews.
Laqueur graduated from Alfred University with a double major in dance and theater, and taught at the Carol Bierman School of Ballet Arts in Croton-on-Hudson for ten years. An avid reader, cook and gardener, she started her blog EatsReadsThinks in 2010. She lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband and two children.
With her Fish Tales series, Laqueur has gone from choreographing dancers to choreographing words. Her goal is to create a new kind of emotionally-intelligent romance that appeals to all readers, crossing gender, age and genre. Visit her at http://suannelaqueurwrites.com. All feels welcome. And she always has coffee.
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