Amazon Blindogg Books Living the Dream Living the Dream Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing ISBN-10:  1608440877 Type: Fiction Pages: 344 Copyright: Jan. 2009 ISBN-13: 9781608440870 "Living the Dream" is a semi-humorous crime story about a loser named Kurt who thinks that his ticket to Easy Street lies in a half-baked kidnapping plot. After the road trip from hell he arrives in Florida to find that Vicky, his intended victim, is out of town. Vicky's husband, Jimmy, is thinking of divorcing her and probably won't pay the ransom anyway. And Leslie, Jimmy's mistress, wants a piece of Kurt's action. Just to make matters worse, Kurt has a bookie, a biker and an ex-Navy SEAL all wanting a piece of his hide. Kurt had no idea that kidnapping was such hard work. His plan might work if it doesn't get him killed first. Kurt’s life has been one dead end after another since he was convicted of attempted rape thirty years ago. Inspired by a dream, he thinks he’s finally found the way to Easy St. and it starts with kidnapping Vicky, the woman who had him arrested all those years ago. Surely Vicky’s husband, wealthy investment consultant Jimmy, would pay handsomely for the safe return of his wife. But Kurt soon learns that even Easy Street has its share of pot holes. After the road trip from Hell, Kurt arrives in Florida to learn that Jimmy is planning to leave Vicky and may not be interested in saving her. On top of that Jimmy’s mysterious mistress wants her own piece of the action. To make matters worse, Kurt gets on the wrong side of a biker, a bookie and an ex-Navy SEAL who seem determined to make the rest of his life as painful as possible. Meanwhile, Danny Putnam is enjoying life in Florida. He owns a successful dive shop and has a very comfortable lifestyle until he starts having bizarre dreams about his murdered wife and a beautiful woman he has never met. Suddenly his comfortable life becomes very complicated. Living the Dream by author Tim Baker, is both humorous and action packed. All of the characters in this novel have a plan and a few dreams. As their lives begin to intersect, they find out that dreams really can come true, for better or for worse   Excerpt The whole thing started with a dream. Kurt hadn't seen her in almost 30 years. Her name was Vicky something. They had met at a Doobie Brothers concert in Boston sometime in the late seventies. Kurt and his buddy Phil were hanging outside the Music Hall smoking a bone when these two chicks walked by. Kurt made eye contact with the cute blonde who smiled a cute little smile that was mostly innocent but with just the right touch of naughty. Hoping to work his way into those tight designer jeans he offered up his joint to her. She gave a quick look to her friend as if to say 'What do you think?' and her friend gave her a look that said 'Yeah, why not', so they got stoned together and traded their respective tickets to a scalper on the sidewalk for four together. The vibes were good during the concert and Kurt thought he had himself a sure thing. Afterward he tried to convince the girls to go back to Phil's place and keep the night going but this Vicky chick was playing hard to get. Refusing to accept any answer but yes, and not paying any attention to Phil's incessant whining about forgetting them, Kurt followed the girls to their car and tried to sweet talk them into keeping the night alive. Vicky said no with a fair degree of finality as she opened the car door, so Kurt went for broke. He grabbed her by the shoulders, spun her into his grasp and planted a lip lock on her that he was sure would change her mind. Unfortunately it only cemented her stance and she let Kurt know by driving her knee square into his balls. Suddenly there was no air to breathe, little blue lights were dancing before his eyes and he found himself on the ground holding his groin. To emphasize her point, Vicky delivered a solid kick to his ribs causing the blue lights to triple in size and the air supply to decrease to less than zero. Then she screamed. Phil scrambled over and tried to help Kurt to his feet and out of harm's way when one of the cops patrolling the parking lot pulled up and asked what the trouble was. Kurt wheezed and croaked that there was no problem; he had slipped and fell. It looked as if the cop was going to buy it and split until Vicky told the cop that he didn't fall, she had kicked him in self defense because he was trying to rape her. Despite the agony in his crotch and the lack of air in his lungs Kurt heard that one word louder than thunder...Rape??? Did she say rape? Was she serious? He was only trying to show her what a good time she could have. He never got a chance to explain himself though because as soon as the cop heard "rape" he was out of his car and on top of Kurt with amazing speed. The next thing Kurt knew he was back on the ground, facedown in the gravel parking lot with a two-hundred pound cop on top of him driving a knee into his back and handcuffing him. That was a week after his eighteenth birthday, making him of legal age, and because Vicky was only sixteen it did not bode well for Kurt. Six months in the joint and two years of probation for aggravated assault and attempted rape. Kurt could trace almost all of his problems in life back to that night. Even thirty years later it seemed that he was still paying the price. He had never been able to get a decent job because nobody wanted to hire a high school dropout with a record, he didn't get a break then and he still couldn't get one. Life sucks.

Living the Dream
Living the Dream
Tim Baker
Dog Ear Publishing (2009)
ISBN 9781608440877
Reviewed by Rebeccasreads.com (07/09)
"Living the Dream" by Tim Baker starts out with Kurt reminiscing about an event that took place thirty years ago. He had met a girl named Vicky at a Doobie Brothers concert. When he and his friend tried to get her and her friend to leave with them, Kurt got a little overzealous and grabbed her and tried to kiss her. She defended herself by kneeing him in the groin and kicking him in the ribs. Then came a moment that would change his life forever; she screamed which got a patrolman's attention, and when the cop came over she told him that Kurt had tried to rape her. For this incident, he ended up serving six months and got two years of probation.
The reason that this event is brought back into focus is because of a dream that Kurt has about Vicky. With these memories in the forefront, he decides to embark on a journey from Rhode Island down to Florida, where Vicky lives, to kidnap her and try to extort a large amount of ransom money from Vicky's rich husband Jimmy. What follows is an experience wrought with disaster for Kurt.
The story starts off with the individual chapters each focusing on the different characters and then slowly their lives start to intertwine and intersect. I truly enjoyed this aspect of the book and Baker did a great job of neatly tying everyone together.
My favorite part of the book was Kurt's adventurous drive down to Florida. I loved reading about all of his mishaps and bad luck. It was one thing after another which made for a fast-paced read that will definitely hold your attention.
Overall, "Living the Dream" is a humorous crime novel with a cast of very interesting characters. Baker does an excellent job with the character development and his descriptive writing allows the reader to vividly picture all of the scenes taking place. I look forward to reading more of Baker's novels in the future!