Review: Inherit the Lightning by Bud Gundy

Title: Inherit the Lightning

Author: Bud Gundy

Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

Length: 260 Pages

Category: Historical Romance, Mystery

Rating: 5 Stars

At a Glance: Inherit the Lightning is an achingly lovely and compelling book. Its passions soar as high as its sorrows run deep, with a breadth and beauty to the story that is eloquent in its articulation of Coop’s life, his triumphs and tribulations, his courage and the strength of his convictions, and the hard-won happiness he found.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Growing up middle-class in Cleveland, Ohio, Darcy O’Brien and his sisters learn they’re about to inherit a long-rumored, immense family fortune from their great-grandfather Cooper Tiller—until a mysterious stranger from New York City swoops in and claims ownership of the estate.

When his lawyer forbids Darcy from confronting the interloper, it only fuels his determination to protect their rightful inheritance. In many ways a mirror of Coop—a masculine, hard-charging businessman from the early 20th century—Darcy’s uncertain about his ability to find love with the right man, but he secretly longs for Jake Tester and allows him to join his quest.

The journey will change their lives as they uncover Coop’s epic tale, unraveling a seventy-year-old family secret that forces Darcy to face his fears and leads to a breathtaking discovery waiting more than a century to be unearthed.

Review: History can be a covetous guardian of secrets, something Darcy O’Brien will discover firsthand as he leads readers on a journey to confront a stranger who is attempting to lay claim to the family fortune amassed by his great-grandfather Cooper Tiller. Darcy not only finds the stranger he’s looking for, but he acquires something far more valuable than material possessions along the way.

Inherit the Lightning details the life of a man who is lifted up from poverty and tragedy to discover untold riches, a serendipitous windfall instigated by what many would call an impulsive fool’s bargain with a stranger who convinces a teenage Cooper to trade property deeds, Coop giving the stranger his family farm in exchange for the deed to land that, for all Cooper knows, might not even exist. Coop meets a boy named Will Herrington on the road to his new stretch of property where idyllic days and passionate nights and Mother Nature’s whims deliver them to a fortune that will carry them along in its wake to eventual heartache, driven by their need for discretion and the expectations of an unaccepting society.

Reader’s see the world through Cooper’s eyes for a good majority of the book, and we see Coop himself through the eyes of those he already knows as well as those he meets along the way. We can see for ourselves that Cooper is exceedingly kind and generous to a fault, the sort of man who is guided by conscience, integrity, and compassion in a world that, if it were discovered he was homosexual, would eagerly destroy him.

This book weaves past and present together through stories that don’t seem to coincide, until they do. Bud Gundy ties these seemingly unrelated threads together as the orchestrator of a resonant refrain, to the culmination of all Darcy’s efforts when he meets a man he didn’t know existed, a man who is able to fill in the blanks in Cooper’s life, which offers Darcy the gift of respect and admiration for a great-grandfather he never knew. There is also an unexpected twist that offers up another lovely connection with the past that draws Darcy and Jake Tester, the man Darcy could see himself falling for, closer, and serves to move their relationship forward.

Inherit the Lightning is an achingly lovely and compelling book. Its passions soar as high as its sorrows run deep, with a breadth and beauty to the story that is eloquent in its articulation of Coop’s life, his triumphs and tribulations, his courage and the strength of his convictions, and the hard-won happiness he found. In the end, Cooper boldly lays claim to the peace and fulfillment he had never stopped longing for. This story touched my heart and captivated me in a multitude of ways, which was only enriched by the author’s exceptional storytelling.

You can buy Inherit the Lightning here:
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