Review this Book   Kindle Edition Amazon Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Outskirts Press ISBN-10:  1977256295 Type: Fiction Pages: 278 Copyright: July 2022 ISBN-13: 9781977256294 Price: $3.99 (eBook) Set in 2022, new novel features a successful Baltimore attorney who attempts a run at the state senatorial seat. But she is suddenly faced with obstacles she didn’t know existed and decisions she never dreamed she would have to make… Baltimore attorney Michelle Miller Ibanez is in a bitterly contested race for the state senate. Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay is dying, and Michelle considers the bay as her personal heritage. She’ll do everything in her power to save it. Michelle hires Robert Stark and Associates to run her campaign, but Stark is secretly working for the opposition and has plans to sabotage her. A financial analyst for Stark, Mr. Faung, is immediately smitten with Michelle and feels a need to tell her story   Excerpt I first looked at her, saw her all at once, that morning. Both of us saw the physical woman who seemed so at home in the lobby of the Lord Baltimore, short brunette hair barely kissing the collar of her white silk blouse, the long, crossed legs and the Armani heel, dangling like a moss green bauble from her tapping toe as she searched on her phone. Authentic, for some reason that English word flashed in my mind like a neon billboard in Tokyo. She was the real thing, the rarest of things, an authentic woman. I want, no I need, to tell her story. I will tell it from my own recollections, from conversations with people in her aura, and I’ll admit it, from gossip. Some of the things I will tell you here I couldn’t swear to legally. But this isn’t a court of law; it’s only me, telling you about her. If at times you wonder how I know of some of the events I describe, I don’t. But I have come to know this woman, the people around her and their universe. So, my imaginings of events unseen are as accurate as anyone’s can be. I knew already he had to have her. He was like that. Two days spent with Mr. Stark was enough to know all about him. “Ms. Ibanez? Hi. Robert Stark.” He kept walking forward, coming closer than he needed to. The long right hand at the end of that long arm shot out and stayed in front of her, rigid, like a saw blade attached to the arm of a mechanical man. “Sorry we’re late. This is my assistant, Mr. Faung.” Thankfully, he remembered the Mr. Sometimes he would refer to me as Faung, like he was introducing his pet turtle. But the authentic woman nodded to me with a smile that would have put the proverbial Mona Lisa to shame and I was fine with whatever came next. Already I was at her service, not his.

Writing that transports the reader home to Baltimore
LJ Hippler's long-awaited novel A BRIDGE TO HOME does not disappoint. He takes the reader home to Baltimore with his sense of place. Michelle Miller Ibanez is passionate about Baltimore and saving Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. She gives up her law practice and has her son stay with her father so she can devote herself and all of her resources to winning the state senate race and passing legislation to save the bay.

Right from the beginning I was hooked by the voice of Mr. Faung. "I want, no I need, to tell her story. Some of the things I will tell you here I couldn't swear to legally. But this isn't a court of law; it's only me, telling you about her." And wow, does he tell you.

The reader knows Mr. Faung is also hooked with Michelle. He was hired by Robert Stack to help win the election, but one smile from Michelle and "I was at her service, not his."

Winning the election becomes harder than Michelle anticipated as she is also weighed down by personal problems. Her son feels abandoned and won't return her calls. Her father, who is about to become a father again, is facing health issues, and Father Jerry, her uncle, is trying to save the local Catholic elementary school from closing in the fall due to declining enrollment.

A BRIDGE TO HOME is the third novel about the Miller family and all the familiar characters are back, including the dog, Strider. The book can definitely be read as a stand-a-lone, but once you are introduced to the Miller family you will want to read the first two books, CATHEDRAL STREET and THE NEW ROAD.

A wonderful and heart-warming addition to the Miller family saga that I did not want to end.