Title:
Mandatory
Release
Author: Jess
Riley
Release
date: July
16, 2013
Age
Group: Adult
Genre:
Dude
Lit / Edgy Women’s Fiction
With appeal for fans of Jonathan Tropper, Tom Perrotta, and Laurie Notaro, this snarky mashup of Girls and Oz is so painfully honest you might think you’re reading a memoir—except the author isn’t a smart-ass guy in a wheelchair who works in a prison.
Recently paralyzed in a car accident, thirty-year-old Graham Finch spends his days trying to rehabilitate a caseload of unruly inmates and his nights on one bad date after another, attempting to rehabilitate his heart—
—until his high school crush Drew Daniels walks through the prison gates one hot summer morning. On the run from a painful past that’s nearly crushed her faith in love, Drew is a new teacher at Lakeside Correctional. Graham, smitten all over again, tries to redirect his unrequited feelings. But when your heart keeps looking back, it's not easy to turn it forward.
Amidst escalating violence at work, Drew is forced to confront her secrets, find a way to forgive old sins, and learn how to listen to her heart and her head when it comes to men. Graham must also learn to make peace with his own past. Together they realize that if you’re going to save yourself, sometimes the best way to do it is by saving someone else first. If only finding their way to one another was easier than working with convicted felons.
Loaded with twisted humor and pathos, Mandatory Release is a darkly comic, unexpectedly sexy love story about broken people putting themselves back together. People who learn that no matter what you lock up—a person, a secret, or your heart—sooner or later, everything must be released.
OR, in 25 words: Lad lit meets chick lit in this dark comedy about broken people who work in a dangerous place, finding hope where they least expect it.
Recently paralyzed in a car accident, thirty-year-old Graham Finch spends his days trying to rehabilitate a caseload of unruly inmates and his nights on one bad date after another, attempting to rehabilitate his heart—
—until his high school crush Drew Daniels walks through the prison gates one hot summer morning. On the run from a painful past that’s nearly crushed her faith in love, Drew is a new teacher at Lakeside Correctional. Graham, smitten all over again, tries to redirect his unrequited feelings. But when your heart keeps looking back, it's not easy to turn it forward.
Amidst escalating violence at work, Drew is forced to confront her secrets, find a way to forgive old sins, and learn how to listen to her heart and her head when it comes to men. Graham must also learn to make peace with his own past. Together they realize that if you’re going to save yourself, sometimes the best way to do it is by saving someone else first. If only finding their way to one another was easier than working with convicted felons.
Loaded with twisted humor and pathos, Mandatory Release is a darkly comic, unexpectedly sexy love story about broken people putting themselves back together. People who learn that no matter what you lock up—a person, a secret, or your heart—sooner or later, everything must be released.
OR, in 25 words: Lad lit meets chick lit in this dark comedy about broken people who work in a dangerous place, finding hope where they least expect it.
So this is what a dude lit
looks like – awesome!!!!
Mandatory release has a humor
I never expected I would love. It is filled with humor, sex and sarcasm. Meet
two of our lead characters who are the total opposite of the other. Graham is a
bitter man and hated his job. Since the accident, he is stuck in a wheelchair because
it left him paralyzed from the waist down. He’s divorced, lonely and online
dating totally sucked for him. Hope seems to flicker when an old high school
crush, namely Drew comes back in to town. Will she finally be the one he has
been waiting for after all this time?
Drew decided to go back home
and live with her parents after a recent divorce. She decided to teach
prisoners, a work that was supposedly not in her plans since her mother works
there as well. Good thing that an old high school friend is there to soften the
blow. Drew tries to move on and have a fresh start – that’s why she came home
to be with familiar people in a familiar place – a good start to recuperate.
But will she able to move on from her past?
I love the fact that it was told in a dual POV
of both the main characters, it makes it easy to understand why they are
feeling those kinds of emotions. Your life may not turn out how you plan it to
be, but its how you deal with it that truly matters. If Graham was bitter,
sarcastic and hopeless, Drew, on the other hand is a tough gal who’s filled
with hope. But both of them have one thing in common – they are survivors. And
no matter how much I wanted to slump Graham out of the wheelchair to make him
realize that he is lucky at some point, I still love him. Mandatory Release is
something you would not expect you would enjoy. I love the humor, the
characters and a surprising romance.
RATING:
Purchase Links
Jess Riley’s experiences teaching in a medium-security prison inspired the novel Mandatory Release. Her debut novel (Driving Sideways, now in its fourth printing) was published by Random House in 2008. She lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin with her husband and nutty Cairn Terrier in a 130-year-old money pit farmhouse. When she’s not writing novels, she’s a Grant Writer for school districts nationwide.
(2) Print Copies of Mandatory Release –
US/Canada
(5) eBook Copies of Mandatory Release -
International
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