The One Good Thing by Kevin Alan Milne * A Review

For as long as Halley Steen has known her husband Nathan, he has carried a handful of stones in his pocket. Each day he uses those stones to remind him to follow the Golden Rule, moving a stone from one pocket to the other with each act of kindness. So it's not unusual that Nathan stops to help a stranger on the side of the highway while on his way to his son's football game one Friday evening. But that one act will change all of their lives forever, when a car hydroplanes off the road, killing Nathan instantly.

As Halley and her children Ty and Alice struggle with their grief, Nathan's spiritual legacy lives on. A Facebook page appears, where countless stories about Nathan's selfless acts are shared. But among them is one that stands out, from a woman who says that Nathan saved her life. Neither Halley nor her children have ever heard of Madeline Zuckerman. But soon Halley discovers years of e-mails from this woman to her husband on his computer that refer to "our little girl." How could her husband have kept the secret of this other child for their entire marriage? Why had he lied to her? Was he not the man she thought he was?

Only thirteen-year-old Alice maintains unwavering faith in her father. She knows there's an explanation. When she sets out to find Madeline and learn the truth, she will start to unravel the complex story of The One Good Thing Nathan Steen did that had the greatest impact of all.

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Center Street (March 12, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1455510084
ISBN-13: 978-1455510085

Kevin Milne was born in 1973 in Portland, Oregon. Although Oregon was always considered home, he also spent portions of his childhood in Virginia, Hawaii, and California. In 1991 he graduated from Sherwood High school, followed by undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University, then an MBA from Pennsylvania State University. As an adult he has lived in such varied places as Vermont, New Jersey, Nevada, Austria, and Croatia.

Since beginning his writing career in 2007, Milne's novels have been reproduced in 16 languages worldwide. His first published work, "The Paper Bag Christmas", was converted to a stage play in 2011.

Today, Kevin resides once more in his home town of Sherwood, Oregon. He and his wife, Rebecca, were married in Washington DC in 1995, and are the proud parents of five children.


MY REVIEW
  This is the second book I’ve read written by Kevin Alan Milne and it is just as good as or even better than the first. This book The One Good Thing is one of my favorites for 2013. Truly a book well written full of such love, compassion and an ending you won’t believe.
  I like how loving Nathan is and how he helps others and mostly his family. How he would do anything to help others. This book is about Nathan even though he dies before much of the book is written.
  How it is wonderful that his daughter whom is thirteen is the only one who believes in him and knows he wouldn’t lie to her and she trusts him completely.
  You will experience how each of the people in the story grow and change as the story moves along, but you will also think about how you would react if that happened to you. Would you believe and trust someone you have lived with and known for many, many years.
  You will find in The One Good Thing such love, acceptance, perseverance and full forgiveness really is.
  If you don’t read any other book this year read The One Good Thing. Kevin Alan Milne is a wonderful story teller and someone who will keep your attention from the first page to the last. I highly recommend this book for a book to keep and read often.

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I received my free copy from Sarah Reck at Center Street/HachetteBookGroup, for my review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

WINNER of The Final Note

Go to our winner

Grannyvon

She won the book The Final Note by Kevin Alan Milne

More book giveaways coming up!

Kevin Alan Milne*Author Interview and BOOK GIVEAWAY

Kevin, thanks for taking the time to visit us today! I appreciate you answering these few questions. It will be fun to get to know you better.

How long did you write before you were published?
My first attempt at writing anything longer than a college term paper was the novella The Paper Bag Christmas, which took me about 3 weeks to write. At that time I had no aspirations of becoming a published author; I really just wanted write something for my children to read. But once I had a manuscript done, those who read it urged me to shop it around; from there it took about six months to find someone willing to publish it.

Tell us about “The Final Note,” the featured book.
I’m a little nervous admitting to this before I see how readers react to it, but The Final Note is probably my favorite of the books I’ve written. It tells the story of a man who loses sight of the priorities in his life, and as a result pays a very dear price. Among other things, his negligence lands his wife in the ICU on life support, and he is faced with the unenviable task of letting her go (pulling the plug). Most of the story is a flashback, as the main character reviews the details of his life that have led up to the present-day crisis. Emotionally, I think this book is a roller-coaster, with some wonderful highs and bitter lows, and I hope readers will latch on to its message of forgiveness.

Is there any person who has been a strong influence in your writing journey?
My wife has probably had the biggest influence, simply by believing in me. She helps motivate me when I need it, and she’s an excellent sounding board. I draw a lot of the emotion for my books from the things I see and feel about her.

What message do you want to be clear to your readers?
I hope readers take away a variety of different thoughts and impressions when they read The Final Note, but if I had to narrow a message down to one thing it would be this: the effects and power of forgiveness are real.

What are some of your likes and dislikes? Your hobbies, interests? Where do you like to vacation?
Likes: lazy days with nothing to do but sit and play with the kids, Harry Potter, college football, and fresh strawberries. Dislikes: deadlines, re-reading my own bad prose, and frozen computer screens. Hobbies and interests: writing, playing guitar, and coaching soccer.

Tell us a little-known fact about yourself that readers may not know.
Little known fact #1: I lived in Vienna, Austria for two years, which is one of the key settings in The Final Note. Little known fact #2: A song reference in the book is Falco’s 1980’s hit “Amadeus.” As it happens, I met the man (Falco) in a tiny Austrian town while he was on tour in his native country. Little known fact #3: I was pretty excited about getting Falco’s autograph, but he was less than thrilled to give it to me.

How do you spend your writing days? Do you set goals to reach a certain number of words per day? Can you give us a general idea of how long it takes you to write a novel?
When I’m in the thick of writing (i.e. when deadline is looming), I like to reach a certain daily word count. In fact I have a spreadsheet that charts my daily progress relative to my plan – when I see my trend line dipping, I know I have to spend more time writing. Usually I start a writing session by reading whatever I wrote the day before, just to get my head back into it. Sometimes I’m able to pick up right where I left off, other days I sit there thinking for an hour or two before any new words are typed. Excluding my first novella (because it was definitely an exception), it takes me roughly four months to complete a novel.

What are you currently reading?
My editor suggested that I read My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult, because it is written from multiple first-person perspectives, which is kind of cool. I’m really enjoying it.

Do you grow flowers or vegetables? What are your favorite flowers?
Great question! I grow vegetables, my wife grows flowers. My favorite flowers are roses, largely because of the thorns. It just seems appropriate that something so beautiful should come with a little pain.

What are you writing now?
I’m just about four chapter in to my next novel, tentatively titled The One Good Thing. I’m really excited for this story, but I don’t think the planned release date is until spring 2013.

How can readers find you on the Internet?
The best place to go is my webpage, http://kevinamilne.com . From there you can also visit my blog or join me on FaceBook. Drop on by today!

Kevin Milne
http://kevinamilne.com

And thanks for spending this time with us, Kevin.
We wish you much success.

I’m very happy to announce that Kevin has donated his book The Final Note to giveaway to one of my followers. I must say this is a fantastic book. Here is my link for my review of The Final Note. http://thelifeandtimesofwanda.blogspot.com/2011/05/final-note-by-kevin-alan-milnea-review.html




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The Final Note by Kevin Alan Milne*A Review

ABOUT THE FINAL NOTE

In this brand-new novel from bestselling author Kevin Milne, readers will be inspired yet again by the themes of love, loss, and renewal. Ethan met and fell in love with Anna while studying music abroad in college. He married her, and fully expected to grow old with her. After all, they were young, life was good, and faith in each other came easily, as evidenced by the Love Notes Anna periodically left between the strings of his guitar.

On their wedding day, Ethan promised to love, honor, and cherish his wife...and to write a song for her. Fast forward to the present day. Despite his grand promises, reality has proven to be much harder than he anticipated. Instead of composing hit songs, he's working long hours to provide for his family, and still promising to finish Anna's song. His formerly hopeful spirit is almost too heavy to carry, weighed down as it is by regret.

His grandfather, a veteran of World War II, knows a thing or two about regret and bitterness, and has his own stories to tell. One in particular, has the potential to change Ethan's attitude and help him put the past to rest, if he can open his heart to the truth of it.

Can an old soldier's tales of war help Ethan relinquish his anger? Is it too late to finish the song he began for Anna on their wedding day? Will he be able to remember why he fell in love so many years ago? In this tale of loss and heartbreak, love and forgiveness, Ethan is about to discover that the final note has yet to be written.


Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Center Street (May 11, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1599952955
ISBN-13: 978-1599952956
Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kevin Milne was born in 1973 and grew up in Sherwood, Oregon, a quiet country town south of Portland. He earned a diploma from Sherwood High school in 1991, in a graduating class of fewer than one hundred students.

In college, after studying such varied fields as film, journalism, communications, pre-dentistry, pre-law, and German, Milne eventually earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Brigham Young University. One of the few things he didn’t study as an undergrad was business, which, ironically, is what he chose to pursue in graduate school, earning an MBA at Penn State University in 2000.

Today, Kevin is a business professional by day, an author by night, and a husband and father around the clock. He and his wife, Rebecca, were married in Washington DC in 1995. They have five children: Mikayla, Kamry, Mary, Emma, & Kyler (aka "the boy").


http://kevinamilne.com/

MY REVIEW
The Final Note by Kevin A. Milne is a wonderful, inspiring novel of love, forgiveness and loss. This is one of my most favorite books of 2011. The Prelude and Postlude are the most beautifully written ones I have ever read in any book. You will cry or rejoice with the characters in this charming book.
The Final Note is divided into 5 different parts. First verse, second verse, etc… Which I thought was really neat.
Ethan is a music major and Anna is an art major. Ethan wanted to write and sell his songs, Anna wanted to write and illustrate children’s books. In The Final Note you will see if they got to do what they always dreamed of.
It seems in chapter after chapter they lost so much in their lives, but what ever happened they continued to love each other and look to the future.
One part of the book that I truly loved was whenever Ethan played his guitar for her she would leave him a love note in the guitar neck.
The title of the book is just wonderful and it fits in so well. The Final Note is just full of love and forgiveness.
Even though two people love each other dearly, you have to make time for each other and just do things together. That’s how a marriage grows. Ethan and Anna were drawing apart because of his job. He was never home and never had time to do anything. So they needed to remind each other what was the most important thing in a marriage.
After they had been through so very much, more than you can imagine Anna got in a horrible car accident. The last part of this book was just heart-wrenching. You have never seen such pain and suffering.
The parts on forgiveness are just wonderful. When you forgive someone you free yourself as well as them. This book The Final Note shows all of this and more. I would highly recommend this book and it is definitely a keeper.



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I received my free copy from Sarah Reck at Center Street/HachetteBookGroup, for my review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255