Vettedby K’Anne Meinel was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review
Vetted is a ‘coming-of-age’ novel written in the third person, and set in two main locations in modern America, although there s a definite Karawak ‘Road’ feeling about the story as the main characters migrate from Denver to Oregon to start a new life.
From the beginning of the book, we meet Allyssa, a twenty-year-old younger of two sisters. Despite the fact that her elder sister has already married and left home, she still feels brow-beaten by her, and by her parents who are of the domineering kind.
Allyssa feels that she can’t do anything right, no matter how hard she tries, and she does put in a lot of effort bouncing from job to job to help support herself while at university.
Driving one day to help burn off the frustration caused by yet another conflict with her parents, she hits a dog and takes it to the nearest veterinary surgeon for treatment. This incident is to make fundamental changes to her life, eventually falling for and marrying the vet.
This has further knock-on effects, which lead to Allyssa learning how to shake of the shackles of her previous family life and learning how to play an adult role in the world.
I thought that the cover and title of Vetted are completely appropriate to the story, and it is well-edited; being easily the most professionally put together Indie novel that I have ever read. I also learned a lot from it. I learned that middle-class Americans can also be cold-hearted parents, like their British counterparts, and I learned more about inter-female relationships – to name but two aspects of the book.
I enjoyed Vetted by K’Anne Meinel and recommend it without reservation. Well done, Miss Meinel, full marks.
You can read our interview with Miss Meinel here: Interview
Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail from Barry to Gibraltar a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier.
“I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of fifteen years.
His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books.
Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books
He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.
