Cause & Effect

by Heather Marie Adkins

Martin’s existence has centered on his wife, Sophie, for thirteen years. Their tumultuous, explosive relationship ends in adultery and her abrupt death, leaving Martin to pick up the pieces of the life she built for them – and a daughter he barely knows. With the touching insights of his little girl and memories of Sophie to keep him going, Martin navigates the year after her death in a series of lists, finding that happiness is something to create, not expect. Cause & Effect is a novella at 38,000 words or roughly 120 pages.

168 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 24, 2011

About the author

HEATHER MARIE ADKINS writes too much but still too little. She also has too many cats, not enough tequila, and a torrid love affair with procrastination.

With a penchant for the paranormal, Heather spends her days fueled by coffee, Ancient Aliens, and true crime podcasts. She resides in an unfortunately-not-haunted Queen Anne in southern Indiana with a sarcastic husband who is entirely too dependent on puns.

When she’s not plotting her next book or herding felines, she's researching the spookier aspects of history for her podcast, Historically Weird. Find out more about her at heathermarieadkins.com.

Reviews

[Karin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A novelette based on a seriously clever premise, Cause and Effect starts out dark and follows a seemingly sinister list created by a flawed protagonist, Martin. His love affair with Sophie is a tangled web of passion, betrayal and loss, but out of it has come the true love of his life: a daughter, Ali. By the end of the novelette, the story has come full circle and will leave readers with a smile.

Adkins has admirably distinguished herself as an author to watch out for. Her prose is crisp and interesting, and her credible, multidimensional characters weave both darkness, and light into a realistic, poignant work about struggling with honor, loyalty, rage, love and death.

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the hardest things for a family story dealing with themes of loss and grief to do is to avoid becoming maudlin and sentimental. It is only too easy for such a story to wallow in the feeling of bereavement, just to gin-up an emotional effect in the reader. It can even happen without an author trying to do it, as these are emotional themes. Everybody feels something for family, and everyone has experiences of loss that are often close to the surface.

For me, "Cause & Effect" avoided that pitfall. The emotion struck me as authentic, and I never felt manipulated for effect. To me it is a work of honesty, and while only of novella length, the world within it is wide enough to hold grief, and happiness, regret, and redemption. I really enjoyed reading this book.

[Jack Wallen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a rare occasion that an author can take a subject and pen it with such grace and gentleness that no matter where the story takes you, the end effect is stunning. Heather Marie Adkins is that kind of writer. And with her novella Cause & Effect she has written something so wonderful that reading the final sentence is only a let-down because there's no more to read.

The story is an up and down roller coaster that never once derails. Every relationship is not only believable, but touching. There were times when I assumed the story would unfold in a certain way, only to see it move into another. At one point I was sure their was foul play and I wanted to begin disliking a character -- only to immediately feel deep sympathy and regret I ever doubted the man.

I can't say enough about Ms. Adkin's writing. It's such a breath of fresh air to read such delicate and graceful prose that can take your breath away.

I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a new author that you will want to stick with for the long haul.