Title: Plummet to Soar
Series: Plummet to Soar: Book One
Author: Z.A. Maxfield
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 200 Pages
Category: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: Z.A. Maxfield takes us on a crazy ride with murder on the menu in her latest story. The only drawback I found with this story was the continual jumping about when it came to hearing both JD and Kenzie’s inner thoughts and worries.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: Feckless, luckless, and charming, Mackenzie Detweiler is the author of a self-help book one reviewer calls “the most misbegotten motivational tool since Mein Kampf.” He’s maneuvered himself into a career as a life coach, but more often than not, his advice is bad. Really bad.
It’s even getting people hurt… and Mackenzie sued.
It falls to Mackenzie’s long-suffering editor, JD Chambers, to deliver the bad news. He chooses to do so face-to-face—to see if the spark he senses between them is real when they’re together in the flesh. Unfortunately, a snowstorm, a case of nerves, a case of mistaken identity, and finally a murder get in the way of a potential enemies-to-lovers romance.
There are many, many people who have good reason to want Mackenzie dead. JD must find out which one is acting on it before it’s too late for both of them.
Review: Plummet to Soar, the latest release by Z.A. Maxfield, is a wild romp of a novel that combines a little bit of lunacy, a touch of lust and a promise of love with a whole lot of bad luck. Mackenzie’s streak of bad times began the day he lost his parents but survived a plane crash that lobbed him into the foster care. But, it as when he fell out of the tourist helicopter that Mac suddenly knew what his life was all about—living in the moment and trying to help others do the same. Life that a moment ago was relegated to the rearview mirror, and if there was anything Mac knew for sure, it’s that he couldn’t live life constantly looking back. So, Mac wrote a book all about taking a chance—or plummeting, as he calls it—and before long he was holding his own plummet workshops. It was his book editor who really gave Mac the needed boost to grab all life had to offer, the elusive JD Chambers. His was the helpful, encouraging voice in the night, the internet shadow that took up more and more of Mac’s thoughts and even some space in his heart. He was a lifeline of sorts and the only one who could call Mac by a special name only for them to know—Kenzie.
JD was on this latest plummet, albeit disguised and unknown to Kenzie but there, all the same. They‘d had no communication for over a month. It could be because JD’s crazy mobster ex had run him over with his sports car and he’d been in the hospital, or perhaps because, as usual, calamity had struck Kenzie and his phone was lost or maybe stolen. The problem was that neither knew what had happened to the other, so both thought they were being cut loose and hearts were aching. JD, with his penchant for kleptomania, his fortune from his publishing company, and his broken, aching leg was there to see just who this man was. Could he really think of him as his Kenzie, who he had decidedly fallen in love with, or was he just some glib con man who played fast and loose with the people he fondly called his “plummeteers”? Plus, JD had bad news to deliver. Due to the multiple lawsuits folks who took Kenzie’s book way too seriously were bringing against their client, he had to be cut loose and JD hated the idea with all he was worth. Now in a snowed-in hotel, with barely any staff and not more than just the few plummeteers as residents, a new piece of bad luck was introduced. Someone was stalking them, people were disappearing, and either JD or Kenzie was the target of a crazy murderer who was not stopping until someone was dead.
Z.A. Maxfield takes us on a crazy ride with murder on the menu in her latest story, Plummet to Soar. Thank goodness both Kenzie and JD were incredibly endearing, because this story jumped around more than I ever imagined it would. In retrospect, it was rather clever of the author to write the story in the vein in which both her main characters thought and acted without forethought and without thinking through the consequences. To say that Kenzie was both hyper and yet a giant, caring heart disguised as a man is an understatement. He loved the people who put their trust in him, but he adores JD—at least he thinks he does, having never met the man. JD, on the other hand, is a combination of savvy businessman, partial thief, and totally besotted lover when it comes to his plummet man. The two of them together means absolute magic and hysterics in equal measure. Add in a zany side cast of characters and a murderer on the prowl and you have an incredibly fast-paced mystery that had me laughing out loud.
Perhaps the only drawback I found with this story was the continual jumping about when it came to hearing both JD and Kenzie’s inner thoughts and worries. Because we were dropped down into the middle of their lives, the info about their prior online relationship, both their personal backstories and their business relationship were given in a rather disjointed and piecemeal fashion. Due to their strong attraction, this had the effect of making me frustrated since I felt I was always playing catch up and trying to figure out what these two guys meant to each other. I understood that the author was trying to give me a feel for how erratic and manic they became when they thought about each other, but by placing the reader in the middle of the story, so to speak, it meant that the gradual payout of important info was too often a bit too late in coming. Still, the characters were so adorable together that minor annoyance faded just as quickly as it arose.
Plummet to Soar is a romantic romp through the minefield of establishing a real life relationship from the internet. It’s a bird’s-eye view of what it’s like when a person takes a leap to trust and makes a commitment of the heart by opening it up to both new love and potential hurt should things crumble. With wit and compassion, author Z.A. Maxfield gives us a sweet novel sure to put a smile on your face.
You can buy Plummet to Soar here:
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