Compound

by Monica Mingo

Compound follows five strangers as they are each given a deed to a luxury beach home, a title to a new car and a cashier’s check for one million dollars with promises of more to come. Golden hasn’t had the best life, yet is as loving and trusting as a puppy. She’s unemployed and tanking financially while waiting for her fiancé to return and help save her family home from foreclosure, marry her and start a family. When she’s contacted by the lawyer representing an anonymous benefactor, she attributes the windfall to the grace of God. When the lawyer also informs her that her fiancé is living with another woman and has a baby on the way, the blow knocks her sideways.Golden warms up slowly to her neighbors at The Pointe, the luxury beach community where her new vacation home is located. They start working out together, sharing intimate secrets, having regular dinners and forming close bonds that celebrate each other and their differences. The enjoyment of their beach summer is rocked by one explosive, climactic event leaving someone dead, many confused and all conflicted once they discover the reason they have been brought together. We’ve all been hurt a multitude of times and most things too good to be true generally are, but what if they are given in secret to right past wrongs? What if the worst of your life was evaluated and payment was made to soften all those blows? But payment from whom? For what ills? And what consequences does accepting payment bring?

322 pages, Paperback

Published May 3, 2017

About the author

Frenchies, flowers and fun.

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book, I kept thinking about how broken we are...people. Everyone. Some more than others, in different ways and different stages perhaps, but still broken. The thought of taking something broken and bruised and making something more tolerable, beautiful even is not a new concept by any means, right? We make quilts from cloth scraps and discarded materials, or banana nut bread from bruised and decaying bananas. We do this "repairing" all the time in most aspects of our lives. Think of the Japenese concept of Kintsugi. In this tradition "broken things are repaired most times with gold or silver joinery, so that the repaired object is even lovelier than the original- and the breakage and repair becomes an important part of the object's history, rather than something to disguise." Can you Kintsugi people though? What does it look like to take several broken, bruised, discarded, scratched, chipped, peeling, hurting people and try to create in them, for them, from them even, something more tolerable than before, something more beautiful than they can imagine for themselves, in spite of certain tragedies? Read this book and see that concept come alive. This book is cozy like tea but also pleasantly sharp like wine. I enjoyed this book and the characters so much I was disappointed when I finished it.

['The Book Queen' · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an oddly interesting story.

[Amyr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished the book compound, and I had to tell everyone how much I enjoyed it! It was a really great book. She did a amazing job building up the many characters. The story line was lit as well. No dull moments. My fiance hipped me to the book, and I'm glad she did; because really enjoyed it.

[Marianna F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down until I finished every last page!!! It’s so good! The plot line is so filled with many stories, yet they are all connected. The different characters are described so well that they feel real! I am in love with this novel!!