Official Review: A Negotiation of Wounds

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vsc_vet_tech
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Official Review: A Negotiation of Wounds

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Negotiation of Wounds" by Michael Stephenson.]

A Negotiation of Wounds is the second book that I have read by Michael Stephenson and was just as impressed with this one as the last. This book rotates around a couple that is undergoing a divorce. They are a power couple that lives in Hollywood, so their impeding divorce is the talk of all the tabloids in town. It all starts with the wife, Amanda, walking in on her husband, Reed, in bed with another woman. She then decides that she wants a divorce. After being rejected by the family lawyer, because they are representing her soon to be ex-husband, she has to find another lawyer. Amanda happens to hire the nemeses of that law firm, Preston Michael Windsor.

Preston has a reputation around town for a couple of reasons, not all for his legal ability. Due to a few of his extracurricular activities, he has landed himself in therapy. Now, these therapy sessions seem to be very informational and do add to the story line. On the other hand, the actual descriptions of his extra activities really do not add to the story, they are more of a distraction. I question whether these escapades are even needed in the story line.

The law firm that is representing Reed, the soon to be ex-husband, has had a few crushing blows in regards to this case. The first lawyer that was assigned the case was hit by a car and is now in a coma. So the case had to be handed to another family lawyer, Timothy, but he has been out of the major league cases for about a decade, due to a mental breakdown caused by another divorce case. As the story progresses, Timothy begins to get his “swagger” back, but in doing this he alienates his family.

Both sides of the case are trying to undercut the other. A lot of this is done by spreading half truths or flat out lies, of which both Amanda and Reed are hesitant to want to do. Before Timothy began to get his fighting attitude back, he was even hesitant to go as far as his boss (and managing partner) wanted. The longer the pre-trial last the more hurtful the “stunts” and lies get.

I would give this book a 3 out of 4 rating. A little lower than I rated Michael Stephenson’s other book. This is mainly because of the, in my opinion, unneeded story line of Preston’s extracurricular activities. Also, I think that is book needed to be broken down into more chapters. There is a lot that happens in each chapter that could possibly be split into smaller chapters. Otherwise I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more novels from Michael in the future! Sounds like this might become a series.

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