Reviews for
Amelia
by Harvey Mendez & Christie
Shary
An exotic and entertaining tale that kept me reading into
the wee hours of the night. This intriguing book with its
fast pace and matching storyline managed to vividly transport
me to an era of passion, danger, dignity, and adventure, making
me turn electronic pages at a pace almost faster then I could
handle.
What really made for a smooth and dynamic read, I realized
after finishing the book, was the powerful, flawless teamwork
between an adventurous male writer and a subtle, intelligent
and passionate female partner. The scenes followed each other
in smooth transition, further emphasized by the author's talent
for foreshadowing dramatic and imminent events, setting you
on the edge of your seat.
The beautiful surroundings of this Southern Hemisphere tale
set the stage for stormy emotions simultaneously connecting
you with the rest of the world, making you participate in
the story. Past and present events blended smoothly through
real dangers and the vivid imagination of the characters,
portraying a world with a magnetic pull drawing the reader
into a passionate and fleeting reality.
Having read the book, I strongly believe that these two talented
writers painted a wonderful, well-researched, and dignified
rendition of the events that unfolded during and after the
Second World War, featuring AMELIA EARHART, a real, visionary,
daring female flyer remembered and admired by many.
~~~~~~~~~
No one really knows what happened to her, although everyone
has a pet theory. AMELIA, a new e-book, is a piece of speculative
fiction that tells the tale of curious men who are looking
for Amelia Earhart. Vincent Carlson, a designer who works
for Lockheed, has always been in love with Earhart. When she
disappears, he makes it his mission to find out what has happened.
His friend, Tad Yamaguchi, a Japanese-American spy, and his
son Marvin, protect Carlson wherever he goes on this mission.
Amelia Adams is the daughter of Stan Adams, another contemporary
of Earhart and also a fellow seeker of this famous pilot.
Amelia Adams meets up with Vincent Carlson thirty years after
the disappearance. Despite the difference in age, they fall
in love and have many misadventures together, trying to fight
the evil Triangle (a Japanese expatriot who also spied in
World War Two) and find Amelia Earhart. They dodge the Viet
Cong who work for Triangle in Australia. Why is Triangle so
eager to help the Vietnamese win the war?
Amelia is action-packed and a great story as well. There
are many great elements in the plot, including romance, trials
and tribulations, misunderstandings between friends, espionage,
and a surprise at the end of the story. This great eBook is
a tribute to the electronic format and may hook new readers
into this new way of reading.
~ Cynthia S. Arbuthnot
Word Weaving
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The fate of Amelia Earhart still captures the imagination.
AMELIA by Harvey Mendez and Christie Shary picks up the story
thirty years after the famous aviatrix vanished in the Pacific.
The designer of her spy plane, Vincent Carlson, is obsessed
with A.E and is still searching for the answer to her disappearance.
The instant passion that flares between Vincent and Amelia
Adams, a beautiful , mysterious, young Eurasian is complicated
by her belief that Vincent killed her father, his chief mechanic
at Lockheed.
Each propelled by private motives, the pair fight their way
through a tangle of fact, rumor and lies about A.E.'s fate
all the way from Brisbane, through the Coral Sea, to Saipan.
The theories about A.E.'s involvement with various spy agencies
and about the complex dealings that culminated in the attack
on Pearl Harbor are fascinating; the lovemaking on tropical
islands and in lush tropical settings is steamy; and the action
is fast moving and violent. Vincent's nemesis, the immoral,
wily and exceedingly powerful Ito is a fitting villain. The
December/May romance between the virile, stubborn Vincent
and equally strong-willed and passionate Amelia has the ring
of truth about it.
The writing style is terse and lean. Indeed, at times, it
was so lean that I wondered if I was reading notes about the
action. The parallels between Amelia's predicaments and those
of A.E. were well drawn although, occasionally, I found the
vivid dream sequences interspersed with flashbacks a bit confusing.
AMELIA is a page turner. It tells a powerful story of enduring
loyalties, friendships and hatreds. Capably blended in with
the mystery and the danger is the constant thread of a deepening
love that will not be denied.
~ Dee Lloyd
www.deelloyd.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harvey Mendez and Christie Shary, like many other people,
are mesmerized by Amelia Earhart. Thank goodness for us, the
readers. That fascination has resulted in a well researched,
fast-moving, action-packed book with a plot that climbs and
soars before us page after page. The authors make excellent
use of their knowledge of aircraft, of geography, and of oceans
and the crafts that travel it, which adds authenticity to
Amelia.
A prologue sets the historical scene for the reader, as it
moves from Lae, New Guinea in 1937 to a Viet Nam jungle in
1965. At that point the speculative fiction takes off at a
breakneck pace.
Our hero, Vincent, once a mechanic for Amelia Earhart, is
an aging, guilt-ridden adventurer who carries memories of
AE with him as he seeks to discover the facts of her disappearance
in 1937. He is diverted and impeded by people who are not
what they present themselves to be. He is snared by evil remnants
of the Kempei Tai, a Japanese secret society linked to the
Viet Cong.
When Vincent meets young Amelia Adams in Brisbane she becomes
the focal point of his life. They discover a mutual interest
in AE's life, albeit for quite different reasons, and together
they search for facts to prove or disprove their theories
of why she vanished from the sky that long-ago day. Along
the way they uncover espionage, unearth cultural beliefs and
practices, unveil long-hidden family secrets.
Film-style, the authors' clipped, pointed conversations and
descriptions keep the reader turning pages. Just when you
think you've got an angle figured out, along comes a dead
body leading you down a different path of thought.
Amelia offers divergent characters who nonetheless fit logically
into the story. Stan (Amelia Adams's father) and Blue, Toshio
and Honda, Joaquina (Amelia Adams's mother) and Ruth -- all
well-rounded and highly individualized people who add complex
twists and mysterious turns to the plot, and who continually
surprise the reader.
In defeating his enemies, both old and new, our hero, Vincent,
calls upon his experience as a former undercover govenment
operator with an energy we've come to know from Indiana Jones.
Sex, suspense, sanguine events are all here in full force.
Normally not a suspense/mystery/adventure fan, I found myself,
on occasion, backtracking through rapid fire conversations
to make certain who was speaking. Curiosity satisfied, I had
to hurry to catch up with Amelia and Vincent as they hopped
aboard yet another ocean-going vessel or land roving jeep
to chase someone or to deter a threat; perhaps to follow a
recently revealed clue. Though at times the two Amelias appeared
to blur in both Vincent's and my mind, I was never without
emotional involvement of one kind or another from page 1 to
page 252.
I found myself welcoming Vincent's and Amelia's hours of
rest on beautiful isolated islands. Their sensuous lovemaking
follows an enjoyable pace which allows readers to become personally
engrossed, as all good love scenes should. It wasn't long
however, before some incident sent this May-December couple
off on another exploit.
Even the logical, acceptable ending has a surprising and
unexpected element.
If you need some spice in your life, some quickening of the
pulse, some need to "finish off" a few bad guys,
let Mendez and Shary mesmerize you, too, for a few exciting
hours. Rediscover the settings of Amelia. Sail the waters
of the Pacific to chase the ghost of AE and recover your zest
for life.
~Pat Oplinger
Author and Educator
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"As I began to read the book "Amelia" I wondered
which version of Amelia Earhart's demise I would be reading
about. I was in for a surprise! As the dates came into focus
after the prologue, I found myself reading of subterfuge that
begins when Vincent Carlson (who has prior knowledge of Electra,
the airplane Amelia Earhart flew) meets the daughter of Stan
Adams, whom he suspects might have sabotaged the flight. She
was named after the famed aviatrix, Amelia.
The rumors that surround Amelia Earhart's disappearance are
all well researched and fictionally enumerated. There is Tad
Yamaguchi and Takao Ito as army intelligence agents as well
as Dr. Keuhn who is also in the spying game, which takes us
through Pearl Harbor.
Anyone who served in the eastern theatre would find this
interesting, as Emelia Earhart is being described as a pawn
in the political aspects of that war era. We find Vincent
and Amelia on Saipan Island, where they find pictures they
believe is the wreckage of the Electra. This leads them deeper
into trouble as they try to find the reason for AE's disappearance
and why Amelia's father Stan was killed. Scenes of Amelia
Earhart's being questioned by the Japanese are brought into
young Amelia's mind. Is she the aviatrix's reincarnation?
As the story is told through conversations, speculation rises
as episodes emerge and dangers are overcome. Romance develops
as Vincent and Amelia continue their journey to seek the truth.
Someone is trying to stop them from finding this truth. Amelia's
mother Joaquina wants the two to marry. The two are continually
pursued by the secret society, as the love interest grows.
And strange Mrs Garcia keeps popping up in this story of espionage.
Who she is, is finally revealed, as she becomes even more
dangerous. A must read for the Amelia Earhart buffs, especially
for the surprise ending.
~ Virginia Elizabeth Clark
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