Screen Play by Chris Coppernoll - Review

Screen Play: A Novel by Chris Coppernoll

After struggling for years to make it as an actress, Harper finally gets her big break—but will she have to sacrifice the love of her life to take it?

 

  At thirty, Harper fears her chances for a thriving acting career and finding true love are both fading fast. When she's handed an unexpected role on Broadway—understudy to New York’s biggest diva––everything changes. She longs for love in the City, but when it doesn't happen, she reluctantly signs up to an online matchmaking site. Frustration mounts when the only men Harper is interested in are on the West coast, thousands of miles away. Harper feels like an actress who doesn’t act, and a woman in love with someone she's never met, but God's about to change all that.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been meaning to read a book by Chris for more than a year. I just never have a craving for contemporary fiction. Whenever I have free time I am always reaching for the historicals. After reading "Screen Play" by Chris, I am sorry that I waited so long before introducing myself to his storytelling voice. The entire time I was looking forward to what was coming next. Already, partially read I would recommend it. After finishing it, I highly recommend it.

There is not just one story in there but several. The character voice of female Harper Gray is incredibly well developed by Chris. There were many little things that showed her personality and I am very impressed from a male point of view how well she came together on the page.

While enjoying the story I was expecting it to wrap up right after the New York play, but it continued and it was as enjoyable as reading a sequel of character's lives that you are not quite ready to let go of as a reader. After a short trip to London with my SisterB where we saw a play a day, except one day two I recall our performance of "The Woman in White" that was saw. This show sticks out in my mind specifically because the staring roll was played by the understudy. I remember being curious about what goes on in the mind of someone that plays the roll of an understudy and thanks to the first half of this fabulous treasure of a novel now I have a better plausible picture.

However, just this fact was not the only part of the story that I could relate to. I met my Enginerd online. Long story short, neither was looking and it all happened upon a fluke some would say, or rather God's design that we did not expect. Know how wonderful it was and at the same time how people are still uncertain if that is an okay way to meet people I could completely relate to the characters as they impatiently waited for the next email, IM or text message.

This was a story that was enjoyable to read and the characters were truly brought of the page to me. I can imagine them as palpable persons and that is to me an extremely valuable talent in an author. Once again, I repeat, I am sorry that I have not delved into the imagination on the page from Chris before, but I am so glad that I have found his writing now. I cannot wait for more.

Thank you Chris for this story and you're going up on my Author's I Like wall, you have definitely earned your spot.

*Thanks to Audra of TBBMedia for providing a copy for review.*

View all my reviews

Chris Coppernoll's Website http://www.providencebook.com/

FIRST Chapter & Thoughts: Screen Play by Chris Coppernoll

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Chris Coppernoll

and the book:

Screen Play

David C. Cook; New edition (January 1, 2010)

***Special thanks to Audra Jennings of The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Chris Coppernoll has authored six books including A Beautiful Fall and Providence. A national speaker to singles, Chris is also the founder of Soul2Soul, a syndicated radio program airing on 800 outlets in 20 countries. Chris holds a Masters degree from Rockbridge Seminary and resides outside Nashville, Tennessee.

Visit the author's website.


Screen Play, by Chris Coppernoll from David C. Cook on Vimeo.


Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (January 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434764826
ISBN-13: 978-1434764829

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

I absolutely had to be in New York by 1:30 p.m. Did my life depend upon it? Yes, as a matter of fact, it did. Just the thought of calling Ben or Avril with bad news from O’Hare churned my stomach and made my face prickle with a dizzying fear. I joined a sea of travelers bundled in parkas, hoods, hats, and gloves; they stretched out in front of me, pressing in and wresting me through a queue of red velvet theater ropes.


All of Chicago wanted to flee the blizzard they’d awakened to. Sometime after midnight the sky exploded with snowflakes. Icy white parachutists fell from their celestial perch as innocently as doves. The year’s last snowstorm tucked the city in with a white blanket knitted through the long winter’s night.


When I reached the American Airlines check-in, I hoisted one of my two black canvas bags onto the scale for the ticket agent.


“Harper Gray?” she asked, confirming my reservation.


“Yes.”


She returned my driver’s license, dropping her gaze to the workstation and tapping my information into the system. At the kiosk next to me, a large Texan with a silver rodeo buckle typed on his iPhone with his thumbs, mumbling something about checking the weather in Dallas.


Computers, I thought. What don’t we use them for?


It was obvious how many of my fellow travelers were heading somewhere for the New Year’s Eve festivities. I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on a cluster of merry college students reveling in their Christmas

break. They joked and chattered, mentioning Times Square, unbothered by long lines or the imminent threat of weather delays. At thirty, almost thirty-one, I could no longer relate to their carefree lifestyle. Too much water under the bridge, most of it dark and all of it numbing.


“Here you are,” the ticket agent said, handing me a boarding pass still warm from the printer. I fumbled with my things, stuffing my photo ID into my wallet as a mother and her young son squeezed in next to me. The crowd current swept me away from the ticket counter, denying me a chance to ask the agent the one question I most wanted answered.


Is anyone flying out of here this morning?


I rolled my carry-on through the main concourse. I’d used the small black Samsonite for so many trips, I thought the airlines should paste labels on it like an old vaudevillian’s steamer trunk. A row of display monitors hung from a galvanized pipe, cobalt blue icicles glowing all the brighter in the dark and windowless hallway. I joined a beleaguered crowd of gawkers studying the departure screens. Their collective moans of frustration confirmed what I already knew. My flight—indeed, all flights out of O’Hare—was:


DELAYED


I pinched my eyes shut. This was not what I needed. Not today, not today of all days. I absolutely had to be in New York by 1:30 p.m. Did my life depend upon it? Yes, as a matter of fact, it did.


©2010 Cook Communications Ministries. Screen Play by Chris Coppernoll. Used with permission. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.

I have been meaning to read a book by Chris for more than a year. I just never have a craving for contemporary fiction. Whenever I have free time I am always reaching for the historicals. After starting to read Screen Play by Chris, I am sorry that I waited so long before introducing myself to his storytelling voice. At this point I am about half way through, and looking forward to what comes next. I will not be able to finish it before posting tonight, because AppleBlossom took priority. But already I recommend it. A review is to come. *Grin*