"The Girl She Used To Be" by David Cristofano~Mafia Makes Nice

SUMMARY :

When Melody Grace McCartney was six years old, she and her parents witnessed an act of violence so brutal that it changed their lives forever. The federal government lured them into the Witness Protection Program with the promise of safety, and they went gratefully. But the program took Melody's name, her home, her innocence, and, ultimately, her family. She's been May Adams, Karen Smith, Anne Johnson, and countless others—everyone but the one person she longs to be: herself. So when the feds spirit her off to begin yet another new life in another town, she's stunned when a man confronts her and calls her by her real name.

Jonathan Bovaro, the mafioso sent to hunt her down, knows her, the real her, and it's a dangerous thrill that Melody can't resist. He's insistent that she's just a pawn in the government's war against the Bovaro family. But can she trust her life and her identity to this vicious stranger whose acts of violence are legendary?


PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :

Published by:  Grand Central/Hachette Publishing
Pages:  241
Genre:  Fiction/Suspense/Thriller
Author:  David Cristofano
Website:  http://www.davidcristofano.com

Nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author (2010).

The movie rights for THE GIRL SHE USED TO BE have been sold to Mark Johnson’s Gran Via Productions (THE NOTEBOOK, MY SISTER’S KEEPER) and Julie Lynn’s Mockingbird Pictures (ALBERT NOBBS, THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB), with screen adaptation by Laeta Kalogridis (SHUTTER ISLAND, AVATAR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

David Cristofano has earned degrees in Government & Politics and Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park and has worked for different branches of the Federal Government for over a decade.  He currently works in the Washington, D.C. area where he lives with his wife, son and daughter. 


THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

I'm a huge fan of David Cristofano since I read his first book "The Exceptions."  He does mafia better than anyone.  You learn to love them more than hate them.  It's a fantastic ride.  The primary mafia son, Jonathan, in these novels is absolutely irresistible.  I couldn't stop myself from fantasizing about him...gorgeous and good!  This is a book you can't put down until the end. 

Cristofano is not only a wizard at characterization in that he makes his people come jumping off the pages at you, but they are so sympathetic.  The bad guys are as love able as the good guys!  He has a way of turning the ordinary on its ear, so you find yourself rooting for the "wrong" side most of the time...  He has the feds down perfectly and enriches the life of Melody in her world of Witness Protection Program in its stark reality.  Great descriptions of both sides of the law.

I fell in love with Jonathan, the mafia son who sadly had the experience of seeing Melody's parents flee the scene of his dad's crime when she was so little.  His life and her life are sculpted by the one event.  He becomes the anti-mafia amongst the core of gangsters.  He's beautiful in so many ways.  Just irresistible as a character.

This is a book I found so moving and intriguing that I couldn't stop reading it.  Finally, this one picked up the slack from the recent downers I've had in the last weeks!  There really are great books out there and I'm not losing it!!

I promise you'll love "The Girl She Used To Be," as the girl's side of the horrific life in the Witness Protection Program and being chased by mafia hit men, and you'll want to read Jonathan's side of the story afterwards, "The Exceptions."  I've now read both and they're both heart-wrenchingly good!

Better than "The Godfather..."  Take a chance on this one and you won't look back.

5 stars                           Deborah/TheBookishDame

"The Exceptions" by David Cristofano~Hypnotic!

SUMMARY :  From David Cristofano, the Edgar^® Award-nominated author of The Girl She Used to Be, comes a poignant, darkly witty story about the ties that bind us together . . . and the choices that rip us apart.

THE EXCEPTIONS

No loose ends. It's the Bovaro family motto. As part of the Bovaro clan, one of the most powerful and respected families in organized crime, Jonathan knows what he must do: take out Melody Grace McCartney, the woman whose testimony can lock up his father and disgrace his entire family. The only problem: he can't bring himself to do it.

Had Jonathan kept his silence, Melody and her parents would never have been identified and lured into the Witness Protection Program, able to run but never to hide. So he keeps her safe the only way he knows how-by vowing to clean up his own mess while acting as her shield.

But as he watches her take on another new identity in yet another new town, becoming a beautiful but broken woman, Jonathan can't get her out of his mind . . . or his heart. From the streets of Little Italy to a refuge that promises a fresh start, Jonathan will be forced to choose between the life he's always known, the destiny his family has carved out for him, and a future unlike anything he's ever imagined.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK :
Published by:  Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group
Pages:  465
Genre:  General Fiction
Author:  David Cristofanto
Find out more about the author here:  David Cristofano
Purchase the book:  Barnes and Noble
Available as Hardback & ebook


ABOUT MR. CRISTOFANO :

David Cristofano has earned degrees in Government & Politics and Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park and has worked for different branches of the Federal Government for over a decade. He currently works in the Washington, D.C. area where he lives with his wife, son and daughter.

 

 

THE DAME'S REVIEW :

 

Absolutely hypnotic book!  This is one that had me fixed in my recliner for the weekend and then when I wasn't, carrying the book around with me to the kitchen and pacing as I craved Italian food and the company of people on the North End of Boston. A rich and sumptuous read.  David Cristofano knows his mafia and his art.   He also seems to know a lot about the inner workings of the federal government.  He's a master writer of the highest caliber.

 

All the characters live and breathe in Mr. Cristofano's hands.  For instance, protagonist Jonathan Bovaro is no caricature of a mafia don's son, he's the living example of one caught between the "lifestyle" and wanting to be straight.  This is a character who exemplifies what it means to love and to be obsessed with wanting to do the right thing. I was spellbound by his sensitive ways, his counterbalance of the dark and light - rage and romance; love and hate; violence and tenderness.  David Cristofano takes us through the gamut of emotions in Jonathan Bovaro.  His life-long fixation on Melody, the young girl he inadvertently wronged as a child and caused to be held in the Witness Protection Program, is believable and staggering in its heart crushing realism.  Melody is also a complex character, a woman whose feelings and situation we can respond to.

 

I was set down in a places so readily available by "The Exceptions."  The homes, restaurants and streets of NY, NJ and surrounding states were made familiar as the story progressed.  The Bovaro territory became real.  Cristofano gave the Bovaro home a realism such that I could smell the foods, see the tables set for dinner, hear and see the conversations of the mafia men as they gathered apart from their families at mealtimes, and I could place myself with Johnny as he walked the dimly lit rooms of his own restaurant, hearing dishes clatter and music from Sinatra playing.  There is a play in this book on every sense we have: sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch.  And on every emotion we can experience.

 

David Cristofano is a genius writer able to transport his reader into the heart and soul of  his characters.  He made me feel as if I were sitting with Jonathan Bovaro over a glass of wine listening to him pour his heart out about his life, his family and the love of his life. 

 

This is a book I will rank as one I'll never forget.  Rich as "The Godfather" in the traditions of the mafia, only written with a better hand and mind.  Touching as "I Know This Much Is True," by Wally Lamb.  Easily as good as anything Jonathan Franzen has ever written.  You can't miss this novel.  No loose ends here!

 

5 stars of perfection                Deborah/TheBookishDame