27 August, 2012

#BookReview & #Giveaway :: Binding Arbitration by Elizabeth Marx

Through the corridors of the Windy City’s criminal courts, single mother Libby Tucker knows exactly how far she’ll go to save her cancer-stricken son’s life. The undefeated defense attorney is prepared to take her fight all the way to the majors. Circumstances force Libby to plead her case at the cleats of celebrity baseball player Banford Aidan Palowski, the man who discarded her at their college graduation. Libby has worked her backside bare for everything she’s attained, while Aidan has been indulged since he slid through the birth canal and landed in a pile of Gold Coast money. But helping Libby and living up to his biological duty could jeopardize the only thing the jock worships: his baseball career.

If baseball imitates life, Aidan admits his appears to be silver-plated peanuts, until an unexpected confrontation with the most spectacular prize that’s ever poured from a caramel corn box blindsides him. When he learns about his son’s desperate need, it pricks open the wound he’s carried since he abandoned Libby and the child. All Libby wants is a little anonymous DNA, but Aidan has a magical umpire in his head who knows Libby’s a fateball right to the heart. When a six-year-old sage and a hippy priestess step onto the field, there’s more to settle between Libby and Aidan than heartache, redemption, and forgiveness.


Banford Aidan Palowski, the college heart throb turned major baseball player has it all. Born into a rich family and with a star status, Aidan has had those things in life that most people can only dream of. Elizabeth Tucker is a successful Chicago defense attorney and single mom. She has had a tough life but has worked hard to earn a good life for herself and her six year old son, Cass. She had managed to move on after her heartbreak and had no plans of confronting Aidan again, till Cass is diagnosed with Leukemia. As the father of her son, Aidan possibly holds the key to the solution of the life-saving bone marrow transplant for Cass. Of course for her son, Libby would do anything any and thus she braces herself for the pain that her old wounds would bring up and faces Aidan. But will Aidan step up and do what needs to be done in order to save his son? Or will his career plans stop him? And what about his feelings for Libby?

The plot is just perfect. There’s love, there drama, there’s humour and there’s anguish – just like it is in life. It has a perfect mix of all sorts of emotions. The characters develop throughout the book. Libby is stubborn and strong. She leaves no stones unturned for her son and certainly goes that extra mile. Aiden’s strength is admirable. There are no two opinions about his failings, but he makes up for everything and in the end he holds on to everything that matters. Cass is a sweet boy that you will have no scruples about falling in love with. You can see a bit of both Libby and Aiden in him. The author’s style of writing is truly impressionable. To deal with the complications of relationships – whether between the protagonists or with their parents and then to mix in the complications of a child suffering with a disease like leukemia… it is just mind blowing. I absolutely have no words for the way the author has handled the intricate details of the lives of the people involved in such situations. 

Overall, this book is a complete rollercoaster journey. From laughing with the characters to crying for them, I have experienced it all while reading this book. I would recommend this book to everyone who… well just to about everyone I know!


About the Author
Windy City writer Elizabeth Marx brings cosmopolitan flair to her fiction, which is a blend of romance and fast-paced Chicago living with a sprinkle of magical realism. In her past incarnation she was an interior designer--not a decorator--which basically means she has a piece of paper to prove that she knows how to match and measure things and can miraculously make mundane pieces of furniture appear to be masterpieces. Elizabeth says being an interior designer is one part shrink, one part marriage counselor and one part artist, skills eerily similar to those employed in writing. 
Elizabeth grew up in Illinois and has also lived in Texas and Florida. If she’s not pounding her head against the wall trying to get the words just right, you can find her at a softball field out in the boonies or sitting in the bleachers by a basketball court. Elizabeth resides with her husband, girls, and two cats who’ve spelled everyone into believing they’re really dogs. 
Elizabeth has traveled extensively, but still says there’s no town like Chi-Town.

Other books by the Author
  

Say Hello to Her

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Giveaway
Ms.Elizabeth has kindly agreed to giveaway 2 e-copies of Binding Arbitration. Please enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win it!!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for reading and reviewing Binding Arbitration. It was a difficult book to write in places but overall it was a labor of love.
    Thanks again. Happy reading and reviewing to all.
    Elizabeth Marx

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