Truth is Stranger than Fiction: Penny for Your Thoughts by P.M. Singer

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, we're exploring a novella that recently came my way that puts a lighter spin on a serious topic...SUICIDE.  I know, it's not a laughing matter, and I'm not saying it is...those that feel this is their only way out of whatever troubles they are currently facing need support, and a helping hand to turn things around...but I'm telling you, FACT can be much stranger than FICTION as we're about to find out in spades, in a fictional way.  Ready or not, here comes today's novella of choice...

Penny for Your Thoughts

by

P.M. Singer

Amazon

Within these 100 or so epages, author P.M. Singer will not only leave you entertained but informed.  We're catching a glimpse of this tragedy from the other side...that of the "voice of reason" on a suicide hotline.  That's right.  Those helpful souls that assist people in their darkest hours are just like you and me with obviously a bit more training, but life experience goes a long way as Penny is about to find out, as opposed to her precious Bachelor's Degree.  Some things, only the WORLD can train you for and this I'm afraid is one of them.  Book knowledge in her head and a desire to help others in her soul (as well as the ability to pay her rent while working something other than retail), Penny sets out to bring a little sunshine, a little hope to those reaching out at their lowest moments.  What she gets is the opportunity to do just that...and a lot of other things you'd never expect.

Okay, so MAYBE you would expect some of what she encounters, it depends on how cynical you are I suppose, but as for me, I was definitely taken by surprise...and I work retail, so it's pretty hard to surprise me!  Some of the callers honestly needed help with their crisis of the moment, the magnitude of which differed from person to person but so does the importance of the issue being handled (we're humans, not robots), while others needed to call OTHER numbers if you catch my drift.  Yeah, think 900 not 800... *-* ...and still others needed 411, or simply a network of friends to converse with.  The first were laughable, the second excusable, but the third...I felt saddest for.  They were the ones that I wanted to reach out and lift up because they could easily turn into the ones that REALLY needed the hotline.  

By book's end, I felt I had only just begun.  Penny's story was unique, her voice clear, even if her path was uncertain.  She was human in a job that required her to be just that and yet so much more.  Despite office politics, coworker conflicts, and a personal life that was so personal it was hard to find, Penny makes quite an impression on those she interacts with as well as those of us spying into her world.  With usable statistics and website references to guide those seeking more information on the services out there, it manages to walk the line of fact and fiction with the skill of an aerial performer.  Recommended read for adult readers, due to themes versus content.

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Special thanks to author P.M. Singer for the ebook for review.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title, the author, or those works forthcoming, feel free to click through the links provided above.  This title is available now, so seek thee out a copy wherever ebooks are sold.

Until next time...happy reading!