Feeling for the Air

The Devereux Cousins #2

by Karen E. Black

"Feeling for the Air," is the much anticipated sequel to Karen Black's novel "From the Chrysalis" about the unconventional Devereux cousins, Dace, a 25-year-old convict and Liza, a college student who have everything going for them except family and good luck.

When the story opens on a picturesque but perilous parkway, Dace—alleged member of the Wolfhounds biking gang, a notorious prison riot leader and maybe a murderer— has just escaped from a brand-new Canadian penitentiary built to house the worst of the worst. For his pregnant cousin Liza, he heads to Mexico via Akwesasne to find out where the monarch butterflies really over-winter.

Isolated by her choices and hounded by Dace’s enemies, Liza keeps studying while she struggles to raise their baby alone and find out who’s really persecuting her cousin.

"Feeling for the Air" is a unique novel, focusing on love and longing, want vs need and how we live with our choices and the lives we’ve made.

Genres: Romance

292 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2014

Reviews

[PC · Rating 4 out of 5]

In prison for a crime he didn't commit. Escapes and joins his lover... , etc. The beginning gave me an early impression that this was going to be something close to other tales of this type I had read in the past, but I was wrong.

Our main character, Dace Devereux, soon finds that his true love is pregnant with his child and she just happens to be his cousin, Wow! Okay, now if you throw in beauty, intelligence, seemingly insurmountable obstacles, decisions and determination you will have just a few of the ingredients for this very interesting book. Take some time from your busy schedule, curl up and prepare yourself for a realistic run-from-the-law in which you join in the escape from a cruel Canadian prison, shiver through the cold of its freezing winter to face the dilemma shared by both Dace and his equally opinionated cousin in the outcome of their perilous situation as they squirrel off to Mexico in their efforts to be together and welcome the product of their true love. Characters as well as plot are well done, unusual and interesting, I was very impressed. Thank you to Goodreads for this opportunity.

[Courtney Haas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen E. Black writes an impressively honest story in “Feeling for the Air”.

Imagine if you were forced to endure the horrors of prison for a crime you knew you did not commit. 25 year old Dace is thrown into the harsh environment of one of Canada's toughest prisons and finds himself desperate to escape. When he uses his intelligence to arrange a breakout, things quickly become intense. Soon Dace is fighting for his life and sanity in the frigid Canadian winter. With the aid of his amorous cousin Liza he scrambles to stay one step ahead of the law.

“Feeling for the Air” hooked me in with page one and had me flipping pages until the very end. The characters are raw and emotional. The author creates a world filled with intensity and weaved in these characters I couldn't help but miss when I closed the book.

[Julie Baswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Dace Devereux escapes from a Canadian prison, he heads to Mexico, dodging the authorities as best he can. Unknown to him, his cousin and girlfriend, Liza, is pregnant with his child. With the stress of harassing police, school, and a baby, Liza does her best to survive. At first opportunity, she secrets to Mexico to be with Dace. But can they overcome everything that has happened to both of them, and still have a future together?

I like the direction that this plot took. It’s hard for society to accept this type of relationship. It made for a very interesting read. These two characters were equally headstrong, making me wonder what would happen next. I enjoyed that I couldn’t outguess them. There were a couple of times that I felt like I needed more detail, but otherwise it had a good flow to the read.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first book in the series, so I wanted to read the second. I loved the first book and got very into the story and the plot. I found this book to be adventurous and to pull me in. Dace is on the run after he has escaped from prison. He's a wanted man everywhere and the police are always on the lookout for him. Dace doesn't get much time to think about freedom because he is worried about Liza who is now going to be having his child. Liza just started her Master's program and is dealing with balancing motherhood along with trying to hide with Dace so he won't get taken back to jail. I loved Liza and Dace together and the connection that they feel. They are truly in love and want to be together. The lengths that they will go to be together is very sweet and charming. This series is getting better as it goes along and I cannot wait to continue it.

[Becca Quinlan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sure I’ve never read a book with so much real emotion in the characters. Instead of weaving a story with more or less simple obstacles to overcome, Karen E. Black offers the reader an impasse, and lets them read on as Dace and Liza cope with the consequences of their life choices. ‘Feeling for the Air’ tackles issues that are much like real life. Instead of escaping into the story, you’ll find yourself contemplating on what is right and what is wrong; what is worth love and longing. This is a raw story that tackles taboo issues head on with a straight face. I have a lot of respect for this author.

[Craig Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feeling for the Air by Karen E. Black is the sequel to From the Chrysalis, and the events carry over from book to book with chronological immediacy. Thus the story continues without any gap of missing time. I would highly recommend reading these books back to back. I read From the Chrysalis in February and fortunately I could still recall a great deal of it four months later. Unfortunately I cannot say that my memories of the first book were positive, yet I support local authors and wanted to read Black's sequel. The main reason I pilloried From the Chrysalis was that it was allowed to go to press wholly unedited. I regard the printed page as sacred; it used to be that multiple pairs of eyes would pore over a manuscript before sending it to the presses. Now authors can publish their works themselves without so much as giving a trained set of eyes a professional editorial once-over. From the Chrysalis escaped such editorial scrutiny. I hoped that by the time Black published the second book in her trilogy, she would have taken the time and expense to have it edited properly.

I am delighted to report that while I was reading Feeling for the Air, the merciless line editor that I am had seldom opportunity to wield his blue pencil. Black, thankfully, had used the services of an editor and Feeling for the Air was much more of a pleasure to read. In the first novel, I could not immerse myself in the story because the litany of errors produced a continuous start-stop, start-stop reading trajectory. It is impossible to become part of a story when all you want to do is throw the book against a wall and shake the author by the shoulders and point her nose towards a dictionary. While Black's second book was not error-free (as I shamefully must admit that most self-published works do have their share of editorial gaffes) there were so few in Feeling for the Air that it is not even worth mentioning them. The text was not ridden with distractions that would ruin my reading experience. Praise to Karen E. Black!

Now to deal with the novel and what it's about. Feeling for the Air follows escaped prisoner Dace Devereux and his run from the law. I will try not to give away spoilers, so I will say only that Dace finds his way to Mexico and embarks on a quest to find the migration grounds of monarch butterflies. Dace's lover and first cousin, Liza, struggles to find his whereabouts while dealing with the pressures of being a new mother to Dace's baby. I remarked in my review of From the Chrysalis how the progression of action is not explained. Things just happen. The same is true in Feeling for the Air, where stuff happens and the reader is left wondering why and how come. I wish Black had elaborated on how these actions came to pass. Don't forgo telling the reader how things happened by shrugging off all explanations with a "he didn't know". This reveals that not only did the character have no idea, but neither did the author. It is a weak sign of plot development when mysterious unexplained forces are in control.

There's some pretty heavy stuff here, such as the exposure of a pedophile ring and who the suspected guilty parties are. I enjoyed the descriptions of Dace and Liza when they discovered the monarch butterflies' migration grounds in Mexico. I could see their eyelids open wider as they were awestruck by the millions upon millions of monarchs. While I realize this story took place in the early 1970's before people could stream the news on their iPhones, the characters do seem to rely an awful lot on getting all of their news from the newspapers. The characters have an obsessive need to read the local newspapers. It stretches my credibility because I cannot fathom anyone in his early twenties even forty years ago caring one iota about what is written in a small-town newspaper, least of all members of a biker gang. Chapter 34 ends:

"The constable rubbed his temple. 'You think it was bikers who attacked Joe Armitage?' he asked. 'I can see why they might have a beef with him--all those articles he wrote--but I thought we ran them all out of town.'"

The inner speech of most of Black's characters is identical. There is no differentiation between Dace or Liza, the two protagonists. They are also identically foul-minded, for not only they but most everyone else peppers their inner speech with "What the hell", "Where the hell", "Who the hell" and so on. It grew very tiresome to see the constant referrals to Satan's bedroom in the text. Breast size also dominates the descriptions. These descriptions cover many different women but Black does seem preoccupied with the size of Liza's pendulous lactating bursting breasts.

Black does have a gift for simile, and after each passage below I had a rare satisfied moment where I paused and smiled. Truly, I did. I crave literary moments like this:

"She [Thalia] sounded more like a Spanish-speaking auctioneer than a girl." (p. 151)

and:

"For a moment, they'd both stared at what else was between Kathleen's legs like it was an inkblot test that they couldn't quite figure out." (p. 221).

I also enjoyed the image she created when describing Liza diving into a Mexican lake:

"She'd dive deeper into the water, with her hair streaming out behind her, her only anchor to the past." (p. 278)

and:

"Liza felt small, like a tiny plastic figurine in a giant white bowl." (p. 172).

I was especially fond of the example above. I would love to ask Black how she came up with that image. I'd like to ask Black how she conjures up images for similes. Does she consciously try to evoke a particular image? Do images from her world inspire her? Did she dream about this giant white bowl? As I share with others my reading experience with Feeling for the Air, I always state how impressed I was by the images Black employs in similes. That particular image resounds in me months later.

I genuinely look forward to reading the final book in Black's trilogy.

[Karen Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent my whole life writing my first novel, "From the Chrysalis" and less than two years writing the sequel, so it took me a while to realize that it was really finished. The third book will not be here as fast.

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recall reading part of this book soon after winning it a year ago, in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. I wasn't sure why I closed the book and placed it back on the shelf, but now recall. There are books that can be read as a stand alone and books that are best read in sequence. This was one such book whereby it would have been better had I read the first book.

I did manage to finish the book this time, and may decide to read the first book.