Review♥Excerpt♥Giveaway: Tyler Falls by Lori L. Clark

Young Adult Contemporary

Title: Tyler Falls

Author: Lori L. Clark

Date Published: 5/25/12

Synopsis: 

Tyler has suffered from manic depression for as long as he can remember. Through medication and therapy, he manages to keep his life together. But when his parents are murdered, he decides he's had enough of living as a broken person with a broken life. So, in thirty days, he plans to stick the barrel of his Ruger SP101 into his mouth and pull the trigger.

Emma Perez's brother, Ethan Giovanni, sits in a mental institution for the murder of Dr. and Mrs. Falls. Deemed mentally incompetent and unfit to stand trial, Ethan has one weekly visitor -- Emma. She doesn't deny his guilt, he's her brother and she loves him spite of the fact he's paranoid schizophrenic.

They say when you cross paths with someone more than once, it's fate -- you're destined to meet. Tyler doesn't know Emma is Ethan's sister, and Emma doesn't know Tyler's story either. When Tyler learns who Emma's brother is, the world he's rebuilt around her begins to crumble all over again and it leaves both of them wondering why fate has such a cruel sense of humor.

Excerpt:

Chapter 1

Tyler

My name is Tyler Jacob Falls and I have exactly thirty days to live.

The special school I attend -- not short bus special -- and my shrink Dr. Dynerbaugh think talking about my problems will be great therapy, part of my healing process. She wants me to open up and share my thoughts and feelings more. Dr. Dynerbaugh even gave me a journal to write in, but I don't plan on using it. I've got news for her; there are more pages in that empty journal than I have days left.

I'm seventeen and live with my aunt and uncle on Loon Island. I've lived here since April last year. No, my parents didn't get a divorce or kick me out. Dealing with that would be a piece of cake compared to what really happened.

My parents were murdered -- on Valentine's Day.

That night, when I pulled into the drive after dropping Livi off, (Livi is Olivia Barnett -- only the hottest chick at Fort Jupiter High School. Yeah, I didn't always have the big "L" on my forehead like I do now), the front door to our house stood wide open. It being February in Fort Jupiter with a foot of fresh snow covering the front lawn, I knew there was no way in hell the front door should be open like that. We had a running joke in our family about my mom being like the Energy Nazi and she would flip out about someone's lack of procedure.

My gut told me something was bad wrong so I pulled out my cell phone, just as a precaution, and inched closer to the front door. When I walked in, that bastard Ethan Giovanni was wiping the blood from the knife he'd just slit my parent's throats with. He wore a sick, twisted grin on his face. I had about two seconds to dial 911 before he spotted me.

For someone who just offed two people in cold blood on their living room floor; he showed no more emotion than if he'd just squashed a freaking cockroach.

He had pure evil in his eyes. It's those eyes that will haunt my dreams every night for the rest of my remaining life -- when I actually sleep. Giovanni tried to make me victim number three, and the last thing I remember about that night was the distant echo of sirens.

He tried to run, but they caught up with him about three blocks from our house. But before running like the pussy he is, he stabbed me four times. I spent the next six weeks breathing through the pain of a punctured lung and took my meals through a tube attached to needle in my arm.

My mom and dad were buried while I lay in a semi-comatose state due to all the drugs they kept pumped into my body in the ICU at Fort Jupiter Memorial Hospital. When they said I had healed enough to leave the hospital, I went to live with my aunt and uncle -- Nicole and Kyle Falls -- on Loon Island.

There are Three-hundred-forty-two residents on Loon Island -- forty two normal people and three hundred crazy people.

Those numbers are subject to change, depending on what kind of day I'm having, to forty-one Normals and three-hundred-one Crazies.

Review:
When I first read the synopsis of the book, I knew I was in for an emotional ride. I mean with themes of depression, suicide, and murder, it had huge potential. I literally said "Oh snaaapp!" when they said Emma is Ethan' sister. I like reading books that give me feels, that destroy my being, that makes me swear at them for being so painfully good. Yeah, I am a sadist. Sadly the characters weren't portrayed to their best. I didn't connect or felt their pain as much as I hoped. I was expecting a book that made me feel bad about living in my good life but it never really struck on. I wished it had emotions that I had with Fullmetal Alchemist, where I burst out crying or just had mind spasm. I wanted to read a book that made me "VJJEAFJEALFJEHGRGVNBNRG", I want a book that I cry out in pain while my sister looked on thinking I am insane, however I didn't get what I wanted. There weren't struggles within the characters for me. There wasn't much depth. The book didn't break me down as much as I wanted. The romance was mediocre. Oh yes, I should mention that the book is written in alternating POV. I really do like alternating POV because you get to see both sides. Overall, I didn't quite enjoy this book as much as I hoped.

Author Bio
1. I’m an only child.
2. I love dogs!
3. I was born in Iowa City, Iowa and lived in Iowa my whole life until January 2007, when I moved to the STL area.
4. I worked as a professional psychic reader for 2 years.
5. I’m a Pisces Sun, Leo Moon with Aquarius rising.
6. I’ve written 3 books and am in the process of writing my 4th.
7. I don’t look or act my age!
8. I’ve been married twice and divorced twice.
9. I love 80′s hair band music.
10. I’m a claims payment analyst for Fortune 500 Magazine’s #16 “Top 100 places in America to work.”

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