Reviews Page
(As
Nan DeVincent-Hayes)
Review
In this alternative reality novel, Jacob focuses on his goal, while the world goes mad around him in this novel of alternative reality. Jacob sees only his own goal, while Isleen, the representative of the drug company that wants to buy his formula warns him the “endtime” the time for the second coming of Christ is near. One world leader proclaims himself the messiah. But he may be the anti-Christ? While people on all continents suffer from grave natural disasters, and Jacob stays focused on his goal, the leader of the new world government prepares to lead the world population into a new era of peace and prosperity. Or so he would have them believe. Mystery, suspense, and intrigue intertwine with horror to form a powerful novel
Reviewer:
22
FRIAR STREET
A
Coming of Age story set in the 70's amid racial unrest
(As
Nan DeVincent-Hayes)
Review
Gianni
Devincent Hayes portrays characters that jump right off the page and make
you alternately want to hug or shake them. Peggy Dana is a brave modern-day
(if one can still call the seventies "modern") heroine who surmounts
unbelievable obstacles to become a well educated, generous, ethical young
women. Peggy Dana is born to a mother who succumbs to such despair after the
death of her husband that she subjects herself and her children to an existence
beneath mere poverty, a life without a shred of laughter or hope or affection
lived under the same roof with George. The scene in which her live-in boyfriend
nearly rapes 16-year-old Peggy is harrowing. The reader can feel the pain
searing both Peggy's flesh and her psyche. The maternal blessing Peg receives
when she leaves for college to take advantage of her basketball scholarship
is "One less mouth to feed." Due to a dorm shortage Peg is "forced"
to live with Martin and Missus Ellen, a black couple the reader will never
forget. It's not a smooth start with the Ellens, especially with Martin who
likes to goad Peg into learning more about black history by telling her that
his still living father served in the Revolutionary War. Furious at being
had, Peg "gets even" by reading up on black history and inviting
the Ellens to a party where Margaret Garner will be speaking. Martin Ellen
pretends to know exactly who Margaret Garner is until Missus calls him on
it, telling him Margaret Garner has been dead for a couple of hundred years.
Martin stops quizzing Peg, but he continues trying to prod her into learning
the most she can and being the best she can be. The Missus is just the giving,
empathetic, and classy person the reader feels Peg deserves as her surrogate
mother. And Martin Ellen, although often coming across as cantankerous, especially
after being forced into early retirement, is constantly proving the meaning
of integrity and self-sacrifice. Martin Ellen has a theory about the "cycle
of life," something about everything one does coming back eventually,
a theory that always guides him in what is right and what is wrong. Whether
he's going out for pizza after attending one of Peg's basketball games or
plunging into icy cold water to rescue a young neighbor girl, Martin is guided
by his "Cycle of Life." "22 Friar Street" put me in mind
of my favorite Grateful Dead Song "Wheel": "You can't go back
and you can't stand still; if the thunder don't get you, then the lightning
will. Big wheel turns by the grace of God. Every time that wheel goes round
bound to cover just a little more ground." A thoroughly good-humored
song, it resounds with all the issues at the heart of life and death. So does
"22 Friar Street."
Reviewer:
Allora Popen from Rochester NY USA
What
a Masterpiece! Check it Out.
I am
forever changed and inspired by this story so wonderfully captured in print.
The issues of race, poverty, neglect, abuse, age-discrimination, betrayal,
and vulnerability were all handled so skillfully . . .skillfully enough to
allow any reader to consider the "other side" of any one of these
problems. I read this book in three sittings, and was on the edge of my seat
the whole time. For example, my heart leapt for joy when the Ellens went to
Peg's house in Pittsburgh to make sure she'd continue her education back in
Bethesda. I found myself pulling for Mr. Ellen when he was forced into retirement.
I held my breath with Peg and Mrs. Ellen when the neighbor and his wife brought
over an apple pie for Mr. Ellen. I wept with Peg as she held Mr. Ellen in
her arms and whispered, "I love you, daddy!" I could go on and on,
but I won't. I want to be careful not to spoil the ending for those of you
who will consider buying this book. I will go as far to say that you must
experience this story, because I know that you won't be disappointed. In fact,
I am positive I will read it again. What a wonderful celebration of how two
lives intermingled with one life to form such eternal results. I am forever
changed.
Reviewer:
Suzanne T. Street from Crisfield, Maryland
JACOB'S
FIRE
(As
Nan DeVincent-Hayes)
Review
Dr.
Hayes introduces us to the main character, Jacob, just before the halfway
point in the seven-year tribulation spoken of in the New Testament book of
Revelation. It's amazing, but our hero is totally unaware of God's plan for
Salvation and the Tribulation because of the religious tradition in which
he was raised. This gifted professor/scientist has everything to look forward
to: a formula to cure AIDS that's worth billions, a wonderful wife and a darling
daughter. But under the dark cloud of the antichrist system, all these joyful
blessings are in great jeopardy. I worried about all of them constantly. Strap
on your seat belts because the action is swift; the scenes constantly change.
What I liked most about the book is the author's ability to make the scenes
so real, the people so alive, the tension so dramatic that I hated to lay
the book down. I suspect that all fiction novels will become more real...more
intimate if you read them in long settings. If I were a reader, I wouldn't
start reading "Jacob" again unless I could have two or more hours
to devote to it. It is obvious that a lot of research went into the writing
of this book. The author's knowledge of the Eschatology she used is reflected
in the plot and subplots with great detail. Her knowledge of the Vatican,
Israel, and the Italian and Yiddish language is impressive. We are privy to
several Machiavellian conversations between the charismatic Anti-Christ and
his ruthless False Prophet. And we cringe anxiously as we endure our hero's
opportune and prophetic moments with them. As Jacob goes through his fiery
trials in these worst of times, he meets several new Christians who keep showing
him in the Scriptures that they are watching end-time prophecy become living
history. I kept wondering when Jacob would ever receive Jesus Christ as his
Lord, Saviour, and Messiah as the non-Christians had. For someone so brilliant,
Jake sure was slow about believing in the Truth while seeing, and sometimes
even participating in, the fulfillments of prophesy. I think the author wanted
her readers to identify with our hero as he struggled between what he had
believed for over 60 years, and what the Bible was clearly revealing as living
history. Traditions die hard, but God is gracious and merciful. The ending
caught me off guard. That is not what I expected at all. In fact it caught
me so off guard that I gasped....I cried. What an ending!
Reviewer:
Kenneth Uptegrove, from Springdale, Arkansas
Thy
Brothers' Reaper
(As
Nan DeVincent-Hayes and DeVin Centis)
Reviews
"Thy
Brothers' Reaper is a doozy of a yarn, full of a future made messy and dangerous
by the age-old vices of greed and a raging hunger for power. Devin Centis
writes of a world on the brink of war, of science loosed from ethics, of monsters
wrought from our need to be God, of an America top heavy with technology.
This is a novel that starts in high gear and stays there, as good a read as
any you're likely to snatch from a bookshelf this year. Get ready, friends,
to stay up late."
Lee
Abbott, Noted author of several novels
"In
this futuristic novel, Thy Brothers' Reaper, the Brave New World is terrifying.
The water can be deadly, the streets are full of clones, and the military,
in attempting to perfect itself, has manufactured murderous beings who endanger
everybody, especially those dedicated to telling the truth about what is going
on. In deft, crisp prose, Centis imagines a world in which fertility clinics
are often places that plunder ova for experimentation, and where mutants and
clones could be wandering the mall or idling in the carpark. In fact, it is
the juxtaposition of the ordinary and the unthinkable that makes this novel
such a scary read. A generation ago it would have seemed science fiction,
pure and simple; today it seems all too horribly possible. Dolly the sheep
and DNA, as a tool for releasing the innocent from Death Row, has a downside,
and DeVincent-Hayes has imaginatively chronicled it to perfection."
Mary
Bringle, author of 10 novels
Troublesome
Grammer
A
Fast way to refresh your grammar skills!
(As
Nan DeVincent-Hayes , Ph. D)
Review
I am
a teacher of 30+ years of elementary school and I have consistently used Nan's
grammar texts in my classroom. Specifically, when I taught junior high, it
was my "bible". Her content and directions are clear, easily followed
and best of all, sequential. I used many of Nan's examples in classroom situations
that I could not find in a standard textbook. She covers ALL areas of troublesome
grammar parts in a compact and concise way. She ends each chapter with word
drills that pertain to the previous lesson. I particularly love the cumulative
exam at the end of the book. I have adapted it to many a test given to my
students. Her practical approach to grammar is essential to today's students,
who let good grammar fall to the wayside. She does not have to embellish her
text with pictures to attract the reader. Nan gets right to the heart of the
matter...strictly essential content and the all-important drill work.
Amazon
Reviewer
The
Last of the Wallendas
(As
Nan DeVincentis-Hayes)
Review
High-sighing
story of the great high-wire artists, told by the granddaughter of legendary
trapeze-artist Karl Wallenda and by journalist DeVincentis-Hayes (People,
Redbook, etc.). Now that the Wallendas have dwindled down to a precious few,
the remaining legally named Wallendas have wrangled with the author about
her use of the Wallenda name in her high-wire act--for her mother was Wallenda's
child by a woman he married after a Mexican divorce from his first wife, a
divorce that the US failed to recognize. ``I walk the wire because it's in
my blood,'' she says, and, with several thrilling moments, her story shows
just how and why high-wire walking gets into your blood if you're a Wallenda.
Leader of the pack was grandfather Karl, who insisted on topping himself with
ever more dangerous acts. He seems to have been his own worst enemy, harboring
one great dream: to skywalk Niagara Falls. But New York State doesn't allow
high-wire acts without a net, so Karl invented the seven-man pyramid, in which
six men form a pyramid with a woman sitting in a chair on top--an act so dangerous
that no one else on earth dared do it. The Wallendas handled it safely for
16 years until, one day in Detroit, the strain overcame one member, leaving
two dead and one paralyzed. But Karl survived and soon was back building the
pyramid: Courage is all to the Wallendas. Fate caught up with him in Puerto
Rico, however, when a poorly guyed wire and heavy winds toppled him from a
skywalk between two tall buildings. The young author, meanwhile, had been
taught by Karl and became the first woman skywalker, successfully walking
the very wire that killed her grandfather. Circus lore--with suicides, bigamy,
insanity and so on--fills in the family history. A strong, if downbeat, read.
(Photographs)
(First printing of 20,000) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP.
All rights reserved. From Kirkus Reviews
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