Book Review: Tick to the Tock by Matthew Turner

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Tick To The Tock
By:  Matthew Turner
Release Date:  January 2014
Source:  Author

GR's Summary:

What would you do if you had three months to live? That's what Dante King faces, the indecisive twenty-two-year-old who must finally learn to embrace life and love.

Tick to the Tock is a Contemporary New Adult Novel about Dante coming-of-age during turbulent times. A story inspired by love, but with the gritty realities of regret, missed opportunity, and understanding life's meaning under dire circumstance. But a single mind isn't affected on this journey, as an eclectic group comes to terms with the past, present, and what lies ahead.

Dante must confront and accept his fate, but can he let go of Danii: his lost love and kindred dreamer? With his rationally stubborn cousin, and eccentric best friend, Dante witnesses a life of dream and wonder: embarking across Europe, tackling Tibet, travelling Australia, and defeating each lifelong wish one-by-one.

Follow this coming-of-age roller coaster as four lives change forever. We're only given one, but it's never too late to understand faith, discover acceptance, and uncover the true meaning of love and happiness. Dante will die, but not before Danii, Ethan, Wilbur and he undertake an intense and heartfelt journey.

Smile… Cry… Ask yourself what you would do with three months left... Because Love & Living Begins Now

My Take on this Journey:

Tick to the Tock, by Matthew Turner, was an all encompassing novel of love, life, healing, learning, growing, compromising, selflessness and death.  Mr. Turner was masterful with his prose.  He made me feel every turbulent step of Dante Kings' painful journey. At the young age of 22, he is told by his long time doctor, and family friend, that he has an inoperable brain tumor. He is sent on a quest from specialist to specialist, and no one can give him a straight forward answer as to when his time here will end. The reader becomes entranced in this heartbreaking journey and Dante's inner turmoil becomes yours.  This novel hit a very real, fragile, empty place in my heart that made me relate on another level.  As I write this review, I am engulfed with sorrow and loneliness.  I am reliving my own family tragedy once again.  Mr. Turner made every step believable and heartbreakingly honest. 

Fate has thrown Dante a curve ball with a fatal demise that he must face head on.  Dante walks the streets of Yorkshire, realizing that this will be his last summer on this earth.  He walks for endless hours, going nowhere, trying to figure out why this happened and how he will tell his two best friends, his perfectionist cousin, Ethan, (that he has the utmost respect and love for) and Wilber, (His quirky friend who is all over the place, can't sit still, and makes everything into a joke.)  He also must tell his fragile mother that has a drinking problem, and his heartless father, that has never shown or taught him about feeling, love, and life about his fatal tumor.

Dante realizes that he must leave Yorkshire, in order to live out what is left of his life, now that his dreams have been stolen from him.  If he doesn't leave York, he will have regrets, and just die there, seeing his loved ones crumble before him as he nears his end.  Instead of all the things he was looking forward to in life, he must now close all the doors from his past, so he will have no regrets at the end.  One door he feels the need to close is with his ex-girlfriend and long time love, Danii.  Things ended badly and he doesn't know if she will even talk to him.  He goes to see her, and her new boyfriend answers the door.  There is bad blood there, but Danii comes to the door and talks to him for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, she cannot deal with what he has to tell her and she shuts the door in his face.  Dante is mortified, but understands her reaction.

Dante tells his parents and friends he is going to the airport in the morning to leave on a trip through Europe.  He has always wanted to travel and he will do this last thing for himself, and experience everything he has yearned for.  He tells them he will return to say goodbye, when he knows that he is nearing the end, and they are very distraught.  The next morning, his two friends surprise him and show up at the airport, to join Dante while he fulfills his destiny, and travels his final journey of a lifetime, that will change all their lives forever.

Dante is relieved to see them.  

Days later, Danii shows up in Paris and though there is hostility between her and Wil, it all comes together, and Dante is able to forge ahead with the three most important people in his life.  There are so many beautiful places they see and so many moments they share, good and bad.  Reflections on the past come to light, and Dante realizes a lot of things he didn't know about his best friend Wil, that help him to understand him more than ever before.  Ethan is a tower of strength that Dante can always depend on.  He finally lets loose and becomes this unrecognizable entity. One that makes your heart reach out to.  Danii realizes that she never stopped loving Dante, and tries to make up for everything with what little time they have left together.  Compromise's are made, when things start getting strained between the different personalities, and a friendship is forged for a lifetime between the other three characters.

The descriptions are breathtaking, the prose are lyrical, the story is flawless.  The character growth is amazing, and will touch your hearts.  The struggle for Dante to hide his pain is so selfless, until he can no longer hide the harsh and disturbing realities that lie before him with his imminent death looming before him.  He finally realizes that his three best friends saw everything he was trying to save them from all along. The simple things in life become most important; the wind in his hair, the leaves changing color, appreciation for the beautiful and small things in life, a smile on his loved ones face, laughter from memories of his past, staring at a star filled sky and wondering what lies beyond, the aromas that fill his nostrils of the one he treasures. I loved everything that was indelibly written on paper by Mr. Turner.  

The dream sequences were tangible, everything was thought out and relayed so beautifully. The life lessons in this story are abundant. It touched my heart on so many levels and the tears are pouring down my face as I am writing this review.  I am so grateful that my fate put me in line to read this overwhelmingly beautiful story.

I give Tick to the Tock, by Matthew Turner, 5 Beautifully Poetic, Heartbreakingly Warm, Fate Filled, Journey of a Lifetime Stars!!!

My Favorite Quotes:

"There's always been a future and I've always planned to do...to see...to experience so much.  I've always dreamed of someday, but soon there will be no days left.  Today was normal, but now it isn't.  It was ordinary, but now it's extraordinary.  I was average, but now I'm unique."  (Kindle Loc-159)

"Consider us hobbits on a quest of enlightenment, and although we search for nothing in particular, we will find what we find and treasure it all the same.  Let us make the best  of the good days and avoid the bad ones with blind bliss."  (Kindle Loc-755)

"So much time wasted, thinking instead of doing.  Talking instead of walking.  Right now, I smile, and I'm happy, and although it'll soon turn to fear and angst, for this single moment, everything is okay.  It's as it should be."  (Kindle Loc-858)

About Matthew Turner:

My name is Matthew Turner: a Writer, Reader & Coffee Loving Fiend.

As a Storyteller, I embrace the tale in all its forms: Fiction (New Adult, Coming-of-Age), Non-Fiction (Entrepreneur, Artistry, Creative Thinking) & Blogging, Speaking, Vlogging, and more...

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