Blog Tour & Review: Touched Up by Leo Dufresne

No one should smile before the sun rises. On the happiness scale, content is about as good as you can get to in these dark hours. I wake early most every morning because content works for me. Since becoming the father of two, this tiny portion of the day is all the me-time I have left. If people were honest, which they mostly aren’t, I think they would admit to wanting more time alone. It’s 5:47 AM and I’m sitting quietly in the kitchen, where there are no responsibilities, no guilt, and no unmet expectations. Simply silence.

Mitch Pederson, a forty-something executive in the high-tech world, made no allowance for blackmail in his comprehensive plans to ascend to the top of an electronics company. His carefully ordered world quickly unravels into a chaos that threatens everything he cares about. As he puts the pieces of his life back together he discovers something about himself that is much more than the sum of the parts.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

The son of a career Air Force serviceman, Leo spent his childhood living the nomadic life of a military brat. Having survived the constant uprooting, Leo draws upon the time spent in the four corners of the US as well as Europe to develop his characters.

Leo has finally settled down in San Diego, California with his wife of over thirty years. Aside from writing, and engineering (the necessary day job), he enjoys time with his children/grandchildren, running distance races and all things baseball.

"I write contemporary novels where I stress a character's beliefs to the point of breaking and then I follow along for the ride.My goal is to offer readers a pause in their lives to think about what they believe and why."~ Leo Dufresne 

Author Website | Facebook

I absolutely loved this book!  At first, I wasn't sure.  I wasn't really a fan of Mitch, our protagonist.  He wasn't a likeable character, and I wasn't entirely sure that I could hang with him.  But I'm REALLY glad that I did!  When the author introduces blackmail to Mitch's life, the story really picks up, and you had better hold on to your hat, because it's one heck of a ride!  

It's cleverly written with a great mystery and humor that is so genius, it made me literally laugh out loud.  The evolution of Mitch's character is beautiful and in the end, I loved him.  It was so well penned and left me eagerly anticipating this author's next offering.  In the meantime, I think I'll reread this one.  It'll be totally worth it :)  

Rating: 5 stars

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  All conclusions reached are my own.