The Elephants of Shanghai by Stephen Jared is a 2013 publication and published by Solstice Publishing. I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.This wonderful trade size paperback novel is two stories in one book.
The first story is our introduction to Jack Hunter entitled "Jack and the Jungle Lion".
Set in the late 1930's, Jack Hunter is an actor, famous for his roles as the 'hero' in romantic action adventure movies.
He is married to an actress in the traditional Hollywood business arrangement sort of way. His wife's career is on a down slide and so when Jack takes off to shoot another movie, she stays home hoping to revive her career.
However, Jack never makes it to his movie set. Instead of an imaginary adventure, Jack finds himself on a real life adventure when his plane crashes in the Amazon.
Also surviving the crash was the lovely Maxine Daniels and her niece and nephew as well as the co-pilot. While managing to survive the natives and various other threats, Jack and Max fall in love.
Will they make it home? Will Jack and Max have a chance at love ?
In the second half of the book- "The Elephants of Shanghai", Jack and Max have moved on from the Hollywood lifestyle and settled in Texas. Max's niece and nephew are old enough now to start living their own lives. With a war raging, Jack feels restless and needs to be involved, to do some good.
When Max realizes Jack is in China and in some real trouble, she heads that way herself with their trusty co-pilot from their previous adventure, Clancy.
Upon arrival, Max learns Jack has uncovered an underworld connection that implicated a United States Senator. Max is furious with Jack and his need to have more in his life than marriage to her and raising the children. When she gets into a little trouble herself, Jack tries to convince Max to join up with him to make other's lives better. But, first they have to escape from a few harry situations.
These books are wonderful. Action, Romance, and Adventure set in the 30's and 40's. If you ever watched some of the older movies similar to those our Jack Hunter starred in, you will find yourself feeling like you have tripped back in time. The stories left me with a feeling of nostalgia. Both these books were absolutely a blast.
I loved the banter between Max and Jack. Jack had a really laid back personality, but still liked to be the center of attention, and although Max out did him a few times, he was still a man's man.
The harrowing escapes the two lived through in the Amazon had Max feeling rather content in her life with Jack and she couldn't understand his need for adventure. But, these two really love each other, even when they really like each other that much at the time. They stick together through thick and thin. After you finish reading the book I promise you will feel as though you lived through the adventure right along side these two wonderful people.
The author's style of writing worked perfectly for this type of book. Adventure novels don't need a lot of unnecessary dialog. The action carries the story along and too many words will slow that down. So, an author writing action scenes needs to be able to put the reader inside the pages so they envision the scenes in their minds. There were several sweaty palm and heart thumping moments, more so I think in the second book.
I thought this was wonderful tribute to a style of books and movies that we don't see anymore. The characters were funny, charming and real.
I had a great time reading this book. The language, violence and adult situations were written in such a way as to make this a book everyone could enjoy. If it were a movie it would get a PG rating. I recommend this book to anyone that likes adventure and romance, but this book could appeal to just about anyone that likes to read.
Over all a resounding A+.
