The Muse Book Reviews
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reviewed by Cindy Bergquist
http://themusebookreviews.tripod.com/id77.html
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TITLE: Following My Toes
AUTHOR: Laurel Osterkamp
(www.laurelosterkamp.com)
GENRE: Chick-Lit
PUBLISHER: PMI Books (www.pmibooks.com )
ISBN-13: 978-1-933826-27-1
ISBN-10: 1-933826-27-4
PAGES: 261
PRICE: $12.95 US
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What if your boyfriend and your best friend dumped
you for each other, and you move 300 miles away for
a change just to find an unstable friend, an insane
roommate, three guys interested in you (one of which
may be your new stalker), no jobs currently available
in your field, and on top of that your psychic abilities
have gone a bit haywire? Oh, that’s just the
beginning.
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Following My Toes’ starts out with our main character
Faith Emerson in an awkward situation. She and
unknown others are tied up at a table seemingly being
held hostage by an unnamed male, instantly throwing
the reader into a state of mystery and intrigue. But,
before we delve in too far, Faith brings us back into
her past—2 years ago to be exact, and that is where
the main story starts.
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The beginning is only a tease, an antidote to keep the
reader wary of any male character in the story from
this point. It makes you wonder, “is he the one
holding her hostage?” I found myself dissecting
every action of each male character, even after I was
pretty positive who the creep was, Laurel always
managed to put a piece of doubt in my mind with a
little action or fact introduced by another.
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By the end of Chapter 1, Faith’s life is turned upside
down. She loses her longtime boyfriend and lifetime
best friend in the same day and is crushed. Deciding a
change would be for the best, she makes the move
from Duluth, Minnesota to Minneapolis, Minnesota
where life goes from bad to worse to better, to the
point where she just about doesn’t care anymore.
She gets strange calls from a man (the stalker), her
roommate is eccentric to say the least, job hunting is
not going anywhere…all the bad things one would
worry about happening seem to happen to poor
Faith.
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Laurel tells a wonderful story of learning to forgive
yourself and others, trusting your instincts and not
giving up when everything seems hopeless. Her use
of second person in the flashback scenes flows
perfectly. I honestly didn’t even notice the change
until I read the questions in the reader’s guide.
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Speaking of which--this book is great for reading
groups because it includes a reader’s guide with eleven
thought provoking discussion questions.
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Oh, did I mention Faith is psychic. There is one line in
the book I thought described the title perfectly.
“Granted, my psychic abilities have never been
incredibly potent, but it used to be I’d always know
when something bad was about to happen because
my skin would hurt. In turn, when something good
was about to happen, my toes would itch.” For me,
that explained everything.
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*** GREAT READ
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Cindy Bergquist- The Muse Book Reviewer
Copyright © 2005-2008 by The Muse Book Reviews.
All rights reserved.
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