Mystery-romance novel, 292 pages, softcover.
Millennial Carlos Almarón struggles past the devastating and unexpected loss of his recent lover, who dumped him the night he was to propose marriage to her. Unable to bring him back to battery, most of his Manhattan jet-set friends abandon him. Three women aim to help his recovery for different reasons: One is rebounding from the recent death of her husband after a long illness, another senses a predestined, romantic liaison, and Carmela Ariana, his childhood tomboy friend, walks among the wounded-in-love after abuses nearly shattered her hope of finding everlasting love.
(Ariana alone knows why Almarón's lover rejected him and what happened to her. She fears that telling her longtime friend would push him away forever.)
Almarón's road to recovery brings a series of haphazard events, but only after he traverses a tightrope of daydreams and nightmares that take him as far back as the 11th century and to sexual escapades with himself and would-be lovers in his pubescent and early collegiate years. The process helps him learn what he cherishes most about men and women and his closest friend, Ariana.
After Carlos and Carmela come to understand that true love requires a spiritual connection, Cupid takes them beyond their wildest dreams. Love's arrows strike them when and where they least expect it!
If finding everlasting love means facing intimate truths about ourselves no matter how hard or strange, Almarón's and Ariana's story teaches us how to trust peace and love. We all seek the kind of romance these two hapless lovers crave. Everyone faces the same challenge in the war of the sexes: how to rise above the fray and win love against all odds (or fail in the attempt).
The winding road that takes Almarón and Ariana by surprise time after time makes Ruined by Murder Addicted to Love a surprisingly wonderful, emotional roller-coaster, five-star read!
