IDENTITY THEFT



IDENTITY THEFT

by Laura Lee

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

A bored employee in a rock star's office begins an online relationship with a fan in the guise of his boss and sets off a chain of events he cannot control.

Candi Tavris is on the verge of turning 30, she works in the packaging department of a company that is downsizing and she is hounded by calls from creditors who mispronounce her name. She wakes up every morning praying that the folks at Life Lock will perform their work in reverse and give her "identity" to someone else. Her younger sister, never a serious student, married a rich executive and lives in a mansion.

Candi's only solace is escaping into the music and image of the 80s pop star Blast.

Ethan  Penn,  a  22 year-old college dropout who smokes pot and lives in his mother's  basement, works in the rock star's office. (His desk sits under a framed gold record with a dead spider caught in the glass.)

His boss, whose real name is Ollie Thomas, is as socially awkward off stage as he is charismatic on stage. He is depressed about his pending divorce. His greatest fame is behind him, his biggest hit "Partly Cloudy Thursday (Blast With Me)" was a cliched monstrosity written to please record executives. His rock n' roll lifestyle mostly consists of finding ways to keep his laundry from stinking while on the road and trying to remain anonymous while buying Preparation-H.

Blast assigns the task of keeping up with his social networking to Ethan. Ethan starts to correspond with Candi through e-mail and chats in the guise of the rock star. The conversation soon becomes steamy. The game spirals out of control when Blast performs a concert in Candi's hometown and Candi is mistaken first for a groupie and then for a delusional stalker.

Candi must try to prove (and retain) her sanity. Ethan must decide whether to risk jail by telling the truth. A terrified Ollie has to come to terms with his relationship with his Blast character and the consequences of his fame.
 

GIVEAWAY: 

The author, Laura Lee will award a randomly drawn commenter a digital copy of IDENTITY THEFT to one lucky winner! a Rafflecopter giveaway

MY IMPRESSIONS:  

This was a great read that brought new light to the circumstances that surround identity theft and how to protect yourself and be proactive. I loved the twists and turns throughout this book. It kept me engaged and expecting the worst and the best in people. The characters are well wrote, with depth and evolving as the book progresses. Ollie, Candi and Ethan are amazing characters. I felt so bad for Ollie, our rock star that seems no matter what he does he cannot catch the break he needs in life. 

If you love psychological suspense books you will adore this one no matter what your age is. 

EXCERPT: 



Ollie was in a good mood when his day began.  It was his first free day in three weeks of touring, and he did not have to pack and check out of the hotel for another couple of days.  This was the height of luxury.  He was dressed in a pair of navy blue sweat pants-- he'd slept in them-- and a new t-shirt he had stolen out of the merch.  The shirts cost about $1.20 each to make in Bangladesh, and they sold them for $30.  It was a racket, but it was also the main thing that kept the tours profitable.  The design featured a cartoon version of Ollie in his Blast persona.  It was the only clean shirt he could find.  He looked nothing like his alter ego at the moment, his face hidden a bit behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses.  He wore contacts on stage. It had been a while since he'd colored his shoulder-length red hair, so the roots were coming in grey.  (Hats and bandanas disguised this when he performed.)

The television was on: a program about some guys in Texas who restore junk cars to their former glory and try to flip them to make a profit.  Ollie glanced at it from time to time as he pulled stale garments out of his suitcase and sorted them into piles by color on the bed.  No washing underwear in the sink today!  This hotel had a guest laundry! 

Once all of the clothes were stacked up, he grabbed a couple of plastic bags from a side pocket in his bag.  He always kept a few plastic bags.  You never knew when you were going to need them.  They can serve as trash bags when those tiny hotel rubbish bins get full, you can use them to wrap up toiletries that leak and, of course, you can tote your laundry.   When the clothes were bagged up, he threw a couple laundry detergent cubes into the bag with the darks.  The detergent cubes were a great invention.  Not only couldn't they leak during travel, you could move them around in the suitcase to help make things smell a bit more fresh.  He also traveled with a small spray bottle with a mixture of water and vodka inside. The alcohol mixture could be sprayed on to garments if they got a bit pungent. Worked wonders.  He kept a couple of those round balls designed to deodorize gym shoes in there for extra assistance in the olfactory department.  If the rock n' roll thing didn't work out, he figured he could always write a book called “How Not to Stink When You're on the Road.” 

Ollie picked up the room key.  He took a $5 bill from his wallet, which was laying next to his cell phone on the night stand.  He tucked the money into one of the plastic bags. Then he picked up the laundry and was about to head down to the front desk for change when a tinny version of The Beatles “Eleanor Rigby” started to play.  When he had chosen that as his ring tone it seemed clever and ironic.  Since then it had become increasingly depressing.  He made a mental note to download a new one when he had the chance.

He was tempted to not even look at the phone. There is a level of fatigue that kicks in after a month on the road.  You move from place to place, event to event like a wind up toy.  The momentum propels you through. The most likely phone candidates were the office, one of his lawyers or his soon-to-be ex-wife. Any of them would be a drain of his energy.  Only one would take his refusal to answer the phone as a personal affront and further evidence of his bad nature.   He stopped and glanced at the small screen.  It was her.


AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Metro Detroit native Laura Lee divides her time equally between writing and producing ballet educational tours with her partner, the artistic director of the Russian National Ballet Foundation. She is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books with such publishers as Harper Collins, Reader’s Digest, Running Press, Broadway Books, Lyons Press and Black Dog and Leventhal. Her Pocket Encyclopedia of Aggravation has sold more than 85,000 copies. She has also written two collections of poetry, and a children’s book (A Child’s Introduction to Ballet). She brings to her writing a unique background as a radio announcer, improvisational comic and one-time professional mime.

The San Francisco Chronicle has said of her work, “Lee’s dry, humorous tone makes her a charming companion… She has a penchant for wordplay that is irresistible.”

Angel is her first novel. Read more about the book at http://angelthenovel.carbonmade.com
https://lauraleeauthor.wordpress.com/

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