Undying

Undying #1

by Cyndy Aleo

What if the world isn't ready for your miracle?

Cameron Tattersall’s wife, Adrienne, should not be cooking breakfast when he wakes up. After all, he buried her yesterday. Yet the woman in his kitchen not only claims she is his wife, but also refuses to accept that she's supposed to be dead.

Cameron doesn't know what this woman is: hallucination, con-woman, or bona fide miracle. For all he knows, he's crazy, but her reappearance may return the only thing he ever wanted: a life with Adrienne.When their families discover Cameron isn't alone in his house, the couple learns coming back from the dead has its own set of trials: angry surviving family members, confused insurance companies, and a media storm that simultaneously wants to build the couple up and tear them down. There's also the matter of just who, or what, was buried in that coffin. Or not buried.

Thrust into the spotlight, Cameron and Adrienne have to decide whether living under a microscope is a fair trade for a miracle, and to reconcile their need for privacy with the desire for answers.

Genres: Paranormal, New Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Fiction, Drama, Ebooks

261 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2011

About the author

Cyndy is an author who hates writing about herself,
especially in the third person. She’s been a barista, 
a rectory sitter, a computer programmer, a secretary, 
a tech journalist, and now a freelance writer and editor.
 Once upon a time, she wrote Twilight fan fiction.

She likes chocolate, subtitled movies, sleep, 
and HP sauce, and dislikes people who don’t 
like to argue and remain friends afterward.

AS A REVIEWER: Yes, I was a pro book reviewer. I did not, however, review books by friends, books I've beta'd (unless it was a quick read-through), books by clients (just no), or any books that were fan fiction previously in any fandom. (That I am aware of. Some may have slipped by.)

At the time they were written, I was unable to share my paid reviews here on Goodreads. Now that the outlets have both gone under, I am undertaking the very slow and painful process of copying them here. Thank you for your patience! (updated March 2019)

Reviews

[Cyndy Aleo]

So hi. This is being added solely for Clovia Shaw. Because she is sort of a pain in my behind at times. Feel free to add to whatever shelves you want. And I love GIFs. Especially if they are dirty.

[Kira Gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!
On the third day (and yes, there is a fair bit of tongue in cheek reference to The-Story-with-a-capital-T. Or S. Whatever.) Adge comes back from the dead, and she and her dreamy head-over heels husband Cam must figure out how to deal with a modern second coming.
It's a fast, lovely and angsty ride, and can make you giggle one second and sniffle the next.
What was fantastic about the story, was how gently the author treats the reader when dealing with the subject of breast cancer. Not the characters- we see the savagery as it tears through our heroine and her family, but it's all done with enough distance and blurred detail that as a reader, we can accept their agony and still keep turning the pages to watch their love and laughter.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I told you how different this book is, it still wouldn't do it justice. The blurb was even the most unique blurb I had ever read, so when I had the opportunity to snatch it up, I did. And, wow...I am forever enlightened.

Cameron is a 24 year old widower. He's beyond devastated that he now has to make so many horrific decisions about what to do next...all the while having to make those decisions in front of a funeral director, his parents...even hers. Everything is completely up to him. It wasn't supposed to happen this way - they had their whole lives ahead of them. How could something like this happen to someone so young?

As a reader, you will feel Cameron's heartache, taste his salty tears, and empathize with his anger, confusion and exhaustion. Aleo makes sure of that, and my goodness, in such a beautiful way. Mostly because you're given hope from quite impossible odds. No one can believe it, not even Cameron or is wife. But what makes this story even more incredible was the organic way Aleo mixed to scenarios into one amazing journey...all coming together to complete the unanswerable puzzle of, "how?"

I highly recommend this book mostly because of it's sincerity, it's simplicity and its raw truth with every decision we all must eventually face.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

Undying expresses our deepest wish when someone we love dies: that we get just one more day or a second chance. As wonderful as that sounds, it's not without a whole host of complications.

Odd how just the other day I found a story to be just a little too far fetched yet this reads more realistic to me despite the actual impossibly of coming back from the dead. It's all in the presentation and context. The reactions of the characters are realistic and thought provoking. You may wish for that second chance, but what would you do if it actually happened?

The premise works in part because the reader and the characters are on the same page so to speak. The characters have no clear understanding of what's going on and consequently neither does the reader. It's in contrast to stories where the characters are in situations which make no sense to the reader while the characters continue to plod along as if it does.

What I didn't like: using underlines to emphasis words. I get it, but it seems like bad grammar. Also not fond of first person switching POV. It was a bit jarring for me the first switch, but it got easier. I might have preferred one or both of them to be in third. Or maybe you'd lose an emotional connection. Eh. There were some minor issues here and there, but such is the nature of self publishing.

I should emphasize the very minor flaws do not detract from the story. It's beautiful and very well done. The odd numbered chapters killed me in the best way.

And cancer sucks.

[Carolamex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book. THIS BOOK! Dear lord. This book is amazing. I don't know where to start and what to say to not give the plot away. But I guess the tittle and description gives away a bit. I will say it is a MUST read, it will shake you to the core, you will cry. Its brutal, it deals with heavy stuff but its so well done. SO WELL DONE!
You will FALL in LOVE with Cam hard! Cam is what every woman (that likes boys) dreams about. We should all get a Cam because, that man? My heart!
You will fall in love with Adrianne and Ryan, Amber, his parents! So many great secondary characters. And the ending, gaaaah, the ending. I almost had a heart attack thinking the worst could happen again. But nooooo, now, I need to know more, and since its says this is book 1 I can only pray that we get more soon. So, run and read this one.
See, I managed to not give anything away! Except my undying love for Cam *twirls away*

[Tammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I checked this book out for my October Amazon prime book. I'm not sure what initially made me choose this, probably a review or something I had read. A word to describe this book for me is uncomfortable. The whole concept and how it played out was weird. Here's what I thought would happen: a man's wife passes away from a year long struggle with cancer, man awakes to wife alive in the kitchen the day after he buries her, man & wife spend time doing all the things they wish they could have done but didn't because of wife's failing health. This did not happen. What did happen: DNA tests, hiring lawyer & publicist, having press conferences about miracles?? Not spending quality time with your spouse. That whole concept was weird for me and I could not grasp it. My loved one dies and comes back to life I'd live every day like it's their last and celebrate it not turn it into a reality program.

[Britt Marczak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this. I was waiting for the "big twist", but there really wasn't one. That made me respect the story that much more, and believe in the love of these characters.

PS You're going to cry when reading this.

PPS FUCK CANCER

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Short review: I loved this book. Cyndy Aleo's writing style is easy to read and keeps the reader engaged throughout the story. I flew through "Undying" in a matter of days, always thinking about the characters and what might happen next every time I was forced to put it down.

Now on to the longer review...

Imagine going through a year of hell with your significant other: discovering signs of cancer, diagnosis of a rare form that is virtually un-treatable. You spend a year caring for your loved one, hoping for a cure, but knowing that ultimately you will have to go on without the person you cherish above all else. Welcome to the world of Cameron (Cam) Tattersall, and his beloved wife Adrienne.

After the inevitable occurs, the impossible seems to happen. Cam wakes the morning after burying his wife to the smell of coffee, and finds his dead wife in the kitchen cooking breakfast – she’s somehow alive and restored to her pre-cancer state (no zombies here, sorry).

What follows is the exploration of what may or may not be a miracle, an impostor posing as Adrienne, or a man simply losing his mind.

The chapters alternate between before and after Adrienne's death. Adrienne narrates from the beginning of the discovery and diagnosis of her cancer until the day of her death, and Cam tells of the "after" - the days following her death, burial, and subsequent re-appearance. With each page, I EXPECTED some kind of Gone Girl twist, but WANTED to believe that a miracle had indeed occurred, that Adrienne really HAD come back from the dead.

I won't spoil things by telling you which (if either) was Aleo’s version of the story, you'll have to read it for yourself.

"Undying" is a heart-wrenching book to read. The story of young love and loss is excruciatingly realistic: the back story of Adrienne's illness and death; Cam's sense of hopelessness; Adrienne's realization that she isn't worried about herself, but how Cam will cope without her...these themes hit very close to home for me as I'd recently lost a member of my family and a close friend and saw how their spouses suffered with the loss. Aleo's research and personal experience in cancer prognosis, progression and treatment, and end of days hospice and palliative care are extensive - the narrative and dialog are realistic but also feel very personal. Aleo is well versed in the clinical side of cancer, but she brings grace and emotion to the story in well-written prose...this is what hooked me from the onset.

Cam's narrative - after Adrienne's death and reappearance - deals with the aftermath, questions, and social implications of her return. There's tension between the main characters as they struggle to understand what has happened, and what their relationship will be going forward.

The story ends where it began - on a boardwalk in Savannah, GA, with Cam and Adrienne* walking hand in hand. While the story's package is wrapped and tied neatly with a bow, there are a couple of pieces of tape missing if you look closely...but don't. "Undying" is a great read, with a message of hope tied up in its fantasy.

*I've been on that boardwalk, smelled those pralines and entered that candy store. Yes, it's as good as Aleo describes. :)

[roxtao · Rating 5 out of 5]

~ www.roxtao.com ~

I probably cried when I was reading some sad books when I was a child. I definitely remember crying a damn cascade while reading half of the Harry Potter books. But it’s been decades ago and since then, my masochistic brain keeps looking for books that would tear me apart completely and make me feel everything that the characters feel at such a deep level that I’d forget that I’m crying for the pain of an imaginary person.

When I started this book I chose it because of how interesting the idea looked. Maybe it’s a thriller with an impostor trying to impersonate the dead wife of a poor husband. Maybe it’s a zombie book. Maybe it’s a fantasy one. A dead wife showing up in her husband’s bed next day after her funeral? I literally had no idea how things could have evolved. But what I definitely didn’t expect was to cry uncontrollably after the first chapter. I have no words to explain how amazing this book is. Without notice, the story starts flowing through your veins, touching every part of your soul, forcing your brain to feel absolutely every single damn thing that Cameron feels. You’re thrown into a path of pain and anguish so deeply that you feel the story at the most personal level. Because what is the biggest fear of all of us? Not spiders, not monsters, not poverty, not loneliness, not our own death. But the death of our loved ones. And the feeling that no matter how much you’d wish, there’s absolutely nothing that you can do to stop that, to help them, to keep them longer next to you.

Cameron goes through all of this in the year when he finds out that his wife, Adrienne has a devastating form of cancer. She’s young, beautiful and healthy and all of a sudden the terrible news descend over them. And one year is not enough to get used to the idea that the whole future that you imagined is shattering to pieces. But one year of suffering is also clearly not going to make things easy when he wakes up after her funeral to find her in their kitchen. Young. Beautiful. Healthy. Undead. And cooking breakfast.

So what follows is exactly what you would imagine. Because Cameron lives in our universe, not a parallel one, not in a fantasy world. He lives in this one, where miracles don’t exist, when you cannot continue your life like nothing happened after the wife that you just buried literally just came back from the dead. The world will not allow it. You will become a „case” that needs to be studied and explored from all the practical angles: legally, medically, by lawyers and doctors and churches and media. Over and over again, since there seem not to be any answers that could solve such a mistery.

I loved how realistic the author treated her idea. She took an unthinkable fact and throw it in our society that is very far from accepting the impossible as possible. There’s nothing forced, nothing romantic and magical about it. Her characters don’t treat the whole thing just like a miracle because the human brain simply doesn’t work like that. No matter how enormous the happiness and amazement can be once they accept that what happened is true, they are still very well anchored in reality and take the whole right and mundane road to understand how was it possible.

Every reaction, every gesture, every word and action, even the ones that piss you off are all perfectly drawn and completely understandable and realistic. I loved the fact that nothing comes easily, that the characters actually go willingly into the chaotic carousel that their lifes became, even if sometimes they cannot feel in any other way than totally overwhelmed by what’s happening to them.

If you have any doubts about reading this book, just take them all and throw them into the garbage right now. You need this book! The storyline is flawless, the writing, the characters, the action, everything has a bright, shinny „perfect” label on it! You will be carried through the whole spectrum of emotions, you will cry, laugh, be surprised, melt into a puddle, die of curiosity and live the whole story at the same intensity as the characters are.

[Roselover24 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my GOODNESS
OK first off do not read this book without reading the summary first
BE WARNED you will cry
Have you ever wanted a second chance?
Have you ever lost someone you loved?
have you ever thought that if you could only have just one more hour one more minute one more hug one more day with them that you would appreciate it more.
What if it actually happened?
What if you died
and came back?
This book looks into this along with a bunch of other stuff
It has romance and sweetness and death and a heartbreaking leading dude Cam that I just want to cuddle
of course Cam is young enough to be my son so I Identify with his mom a great deal.
Adge is his love they are a young couple doing the things young couples do when she ends up with a rare form of breast cancer
This story is told in a back and forth way showing the story from her POV and his POV hers from her diagnosis on and his from the day she dies on
it works

I enjoyed this one even though I found a couple errors in the ebook and it did have one repetitive phrase "in our bubble" that I found irritating BUT it was captivating enough that I forgive these because of how it emotionally manipulated me, and how much I loved the characters
I have lost family to cancer I have held the hand of those who have died no matter the age it is heartbreaking. I loved how it looked at the feelings of all of the family

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the way it unfolded in opposing timelines. Cam and Adge were both so real, and so many times I felt myself drawn into their story, feeling the emotions they were feeling. The book has a sort of incomplete feel - not because it is. Just the opposite actually. So often we get all the answers and have everything wrapped up nearly in a bow, and this book doesn't do that. Some things are just unexplainable and I really liked that about this book and their story.

I will note that this book has a significant number of typographical errors. I would read love to see them corrected.

Despite that, I'm rounding this up to 4 stars because it's compelling and well-told.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this, even the parts that had me in tears were well written.

Interspersed with chapters dealing with how our protagonists are coping with the practicalities of Adge's 'resurrection' are beautifully realised chapters detailing the year-long battle with cancer that got them to this point. It's a unique angle - to look at what real-life would look like if someone you loved came back from the dead. How would you go about having them declared alive again? How would other family members react? The mundane realities ground this supernatural story and lend authenticity to its heart.

The real heart of the story is the 'undying' love these two have for each other. It's one of the best love stories I've read this year.

[cacinta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the title of the book is 'Undying', a large part of the book is about death. Specifically, slow death due to disease. As someone who has been on the sidelines for many slow deaths, this book did not disappoint.

The part that I liked the most is the fact that the book doesn't pretend to have answers. All the characters were flailing about trying to come to terms with their situation. Just as it should be.

Please don't do a sequel.

[Anthea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't want to say this yet again, but I have to.. WOW, such a stupid little phrase but explains exactly what I thought about this book. I spent a lot of time crying (but it does have a HEA). The descriptions of the pain Adge and Cam go through. The mind-blowing, uniqueness of this book has to make this one of the best books I have ever read

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved to story telling of this book, it is a wonderfully emotional book. At one stage I was afraid to read on and it was only through a twitter message that I found the courage to do so, I am so glad I did. It is a warts and all story of how people deal with devestating news and that wonderful thing called hope. Stock up on the tissues before you start reading!

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should have realized that before undying there had to be dying, which led to me crying- a lot. Just a little heads up. A very emotional story, sometimes heart wrenching, sometimes sweet, sometimes mystifying. Ok, most of the time mystifying. Not sure this is making any sense, so I'll stop. It's a good book. Plan to read it all at once if you can because you won't be able to put it down.

[Sweetp-1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was Ok sums it up. The writing is fairly solid but I had issues with staying engaged in Adrienne's POV. I also wasn't really sure what the message was....woman comes back from the dead but rather than a message about living every minute like it is your last it was almost like a treatise on reality TV and how to manage fame. IDK, it was just kind a weird at the end.

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful written -- an incredibly sensitive and astute observation of grief, sickness, and relationships. The subject matter was difficult, but I found this book extremely touching and ultimately enjoyable. Highly recommended.

[Trixiter Marczak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally not how I thought this was going to end! What a well written, good cry story.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. Truly makes you think and appreciate every moment you have with your loved ones!

[Ted Wenskus · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars -- detailed review to come!

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this author when she wrote twi fanfic and I'm still a fan with this book. I felt a bit let down at the end...I guess I just wanted more of an explanation. I'll buy future releases from her.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a long time for me to finish this book because it triggered a strong emotional response. I cried, I laughed. I am very glad that I finally finished it.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Just loved it.

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Pretty amazing. Was not expecting to be moved this much...