Review & Giveaway: The Life O'Reilly by Brian Cohen

Hardcover: 276 pages
Publisher: iUniverse.com (October 21, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1440150273
ISBN-13: 978-1440150272

For the last twelve years, Nick O'Reilly has had it all materially wise. He's a lawyer for the high powered Wall St. firm of Williams Gardner and Schmidt. Recently, Nick has been feeling much disquiet in his life thinking that something valuable is missing. He spends close to all his time working and he realizes how much he would like someone special in his life. Unfortunately, the law partners frown on any kind of outside life. They are only interested in billable hours.

Now that the media has castigated the firm for not doing any pro bono work, the powers that be decide to pick up a case and Nick is given the assignment; Dawn and her young son Jordan are victims of domestic violence. This action is not through any magnaminity, it is virtually a public relations move to give the firm better press. The partners remind Nick that his first loyalty is to the firm's clients. The paying ones, they stress!

When Nick and Dawn begin to work on her case, nature takes it's course and the two start to have feelings for each other. Nick, being the conscientious man that he is, tries to behave in an ethical manner but somehow Dawn's husband sees them together and decides to use this information to his advantage. After much stressful negotiation, Nick thinks things are finally going well for him, Dawn and Jordan. This is when life throws them all a very surprising curveball.

For a debut novel, this is quite good. Just a little tighter editing would have easily fixed the plethora of superfluous sartorial descriptions and a few grammatical mistakes. Since the author himself is an attorney, the book has the feel of authenticity to it. Overall, once I started the book, I was hooked on the characters and the story.

You can read more about this debut author, Brian Cohen, at his website.

Giveaway details:
2 autographed hard cover copies up for grabs
Open internationally!
P.O. boxes are okay for this one.
Be sure to leave an e mail address in your comment.
+ 3 Bonus entries can be earned by putting a link in your sidebar or tweeting . Please do not leave me three comments saying you tweeted. I promise once is enough and I'll give you the three extra entries. :)

Deadline is April 25th at 6 P.M. EST. Good luck!!

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by the author in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks, Brian!