A 55 year old's husband dies. To compensate, she takes a pill to be 24 forever. Then she finds out getting old isn't the only way to die.
Fresh beginnings turn tragic when Dorrie Donato’s husband, Larry, is killed in a hit and run accident a few months after starting a new job at the Life is for Living Institute. Discouraged and desperate, Dorie accepts an offer by Larry’s boss, the famous Angel Man, to be the first to test an experimental pill designed to spin its user back to a desired age and hold there, yet still retain all previous memories. The pill seems too good to be true. Maybe it is.
Excerpt
Blood rushed to her head. Roaring filled her ears. Larry couldn’t be gone. She’d prove it. Dorrie bent to kiss his lips. They felt warm and soft. He must be alive. Soon the ambulance would come, the paramedics would fix him, and he’d be all right.
She glanced again at Larry’s still form. The truth hit, sucking her breath away. She didn’t need a medical examiner to tell her what she could see with her own eyes. Larry had left and would never return. Her stomach convulsed, her chest heaved with sobs.
It shouldn’t end like this, not in the middle of a parking lot. Larry deserved better. So did she.
Professional Reviews
Forever Young: Blessing or Curse; January 1, 2012
The author has written a book with a fascinating premise, one that has been a topic of conversation for decades--How to stay young forever. In her version of the fountain of youth, Morgan Mandel has fashioned an intriguing story about an experimental pill that promises to transform the user's body back in time to an age the user specifies. In Forever Young: Blessing or Curse, the protagonist, a 55-year-old widow named Dorrie, chooses to recreate herself as she looked when she was 24 years old.
Despite the excellent results, Dorrie faces a host of problems brought on by the novel's antagonist, known as Angel Man. As you might surmise, Angel Man proves to be anything but an angel, and we learn there is a dark force at work that threatens even Angel Man himself.
Morgan Mandel does a nice job providing intrigue and suspense with just the right amount of foreshadowing, making the reader reluctant to put the story down before reaching the ending. It's a fast read, enjoyable and has a satisfying ending. For a self-published book, Forever Young is well done with good editing and a marvelous cover. The Kindle price of $2.99 makes the book even more of a good read. Ms. Mandel's book makes the point that self-published books need not take a backseat to traditional publishing. Well done; well written.
Forever Young: Blessing or Curse (Always Young Series)
Want to Live Forever? Read This First. January 1, 2012
Dorrie is a beautiful middle-aged woman who watches her husband Larry die in a tragic accident. Larry had worked for the Life is for Living Institute, which then offers Dorrie a job that includes being spokeswoman for their brand-new Forever Young pill. She can choose to revert to any age and stay there virtually forever without the worry of death by disease, so with some trepidation she becomes a gorgeous 24-year-old again. That's a blessing, right? Wouldn't we all love to revert to the prime of our lives?
But it gets complicated. Wouldn't you know that Larry died knowing a secret, and that not everyone wishes Dorrie well? What follows is a fast-paced romantic escapism with generally good dialog and interesting characters. Nitpickers will note that the Forever Young pill has been released to the public without FDA testing or approval. Dorrie is a well-crafted, likable heroine whom romance fans will surely root for.
It's a fun read even for a guy who's never read a romance before.
Jason Chase, a man filled with personal demons, only wanted to finish his manuscript. But all his carefully laid plans disappear when a stranger showed up at his front door claiming to be his long-lost father.
