Rene GutteridgeRene is the author of seventeen novels. She also has extensive experience writing comedy sketches, and worked for five years as the director of drama for a church. She has a degree specializing in Screenwriting, for which she earned the Excellence in Mass Communication Award, and graduated magna cum laude.
She is married to Sean, a musician and worship leader, and has two children. They reside in Oklahoma, where Rene writes full time and enjoys instructing in college classrooms and writers conferences.
Learn more about Rene on her Website.
Cheryl McKay
Cheryl McKay has been professionally writing since 1997. Cheryl wrote the screenplay for The Ultimate Gift, based on Jim Stovall’s novel. The award-winning film stars James Garner, Brian Dennehy, and Abigail Breslin and was released in theaters by Fox in 2007. Cheryl also wrote the DVD for Gigi: God’s Little Princess, another book adaptation based on the book by Sheila Walsh, as well as the Wild and Wacky, Totally True Bible Stories audio series and books with Frank Peretti. Her screenplay, Never the Bride, has been adapted into a novel for Random House Publishers and was released in June 2009. She also released Finally the Bride: Finding Hope While Waiting, the non-fiction version of Never the Bride. She penned the film script for “A Friend for Maddie”. She recently released her autobiography, Finally Fearless: Journey from Panic to Peace. Cheryl and her husband live in Los Angeles.
Visit her website HERE or the ministry she runs with her husband, HERE.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Hope Landon has been rewriting other people’s greeting cards since she was six years old — there’s always a funnier caption. She’s all set to chase those creative dreams with her musician fiance in New York City until he leaves Hope at the altar, deciding he must not really love this girl if he can’t write a song for her. That may give her something to write about . . .
Hope disappears alone on what was supposed to be the couple’s month long honeymoon. Upon returning she learns of her funeral — everyone in her life concluded Hope must have killed herself after being jilted. Needing a fresh start more than ever, she heads for the Big Apple only to discover it’s not that easy to rent a place when you’ve been declared dead.
Taking shelter at the YWCA, Hope soon lands a job at a Christian inspirational greeting card company as an assistant to Jake, a guy who shut down his organization’s humor department. She has lost her faith in love; he needs to find something or someone that will make him laugh.
Is there anything in the cards for these two? Find out in the truly original Greetings from the Flipside by authors Rene Gutteridge (Boo) and Cheryl McKay (screenplay for The Ultimate Gift).
If you would like to read the first chapter of Greetings from the Flipside, go HERE.
MY REVIEW:
Having read several books by Rene Gutteridge, I was aware that her sense of humor can at times be somewhat unusual. I was a bit unprepared for what I found when I began reading Greetings from the Flipside. I was almost tempted to close its covers and resort to the cut and paste promotion and leave it at that. After all I had a huge stack of books waiting to be read and reviewed. I could justify skipping one of them – couldn’t I? Then it clicked. I suddenly realized what was going on and my interest was caught. I continued to read and actually enjoyed the process.
Now I don’t know quite how to review this book without revealing too much so I will stay away from the plot as much as possible. I will say that the book is two stories in one that are concurrent. One takes place in real time while the other is what is happening in Hope’s mind as she lies in a coma following a head injury. Sections titled “GREETINGS FROM MY LIFE” describe Hope’s coma induced dreams that seem to feed off the people who enter her hospital room and things she hears and smells. Characters, both real and imagined, are interesting and sometimes quirky. Situations Hope experiences during her coma are sometimes bizarre. Yet somehow Hope’s subconscious mind has some lessons she needs to learn and fortunately Hope connects with the truth before it is too late.
Greetings from the Flipside is probably one of the more unusual novels I have ever read but it is also one of the most intriguing. If you are looking for something different than the usual contemporary romance novel, Greetings from the Flipside might just be one to try.
