The Mad Tatter 

By J. M. Darhower

Synopsis

Reece Hatfield has just one rule when it comes to falling in love: don’t fucking do it. There’s no room in his life for another person. He can barely keep a handle on things as it is. A shadow of the man he used to be, Reece spends his days tattooing, the artist inside of him longing for the chance to do something different.

Avery Moore is all dance, all the time. Ballet is all she’s ever known, and she’s damn good at it. Her body is her art, a living canvas that captivates Reece the first time he lays his eyes on her.

He yearns to leave his mark on her body… in more ways than one.

The tattooed degenerate with a shady past. The beautiful ballerina with a bright future. They live in different worlds, yet somehow, they fit. But just because they fit doesn’t mean they belong together. Cracks sometimes form. Two pieces don’t always make a whole. The course of love never did run smoothly. Things get messy.

And Reece doesn’t do messy.

Not anymore.

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Lis’ Review

I saw an ad for this book, clicked on amazon.com to check it out and did the “Look Inside” thing to read a few pages to see if it caught my attention. To say it did is an understatement. I was captivated by the Overture, then thrown a curve ball on the first page of chapter one when Reece starts talking. He’s all street kid, all the time. Yes, he’s closing in on thirty and stuck in a rut that life’s misfortunes have thrown him into. Yes, we get the hint that hard times are the only times he’s known. But I can see him, the aging punk in baggy, ripped jeans and worn hoodie, cigarette in hand, hanging out at the tattoo parlor where he works, trying to make it in the city that chewed him up and spit him out not that long ago. I can hear him, his no-nonsense description of life abrupt and to the point.. until he comes face to face with living art in the form of a dancer named Avery.

Avery is “my yellow.” She’s graceful, confident, and not beaten down at all. A student at Juilliard, she was born to be a dancer and she reflects the precise beauty of the classical ballet she’s studied all her life. When she wanders into Reece’s tattoo shop with her friend, he describes her as “a walking talking goddess, an angel in disguise, and she looks at me like she fears I don’t really see her at all.” But she does and she comes back for more.

The two of them are like night and day, his darkness to her light, his life mistakes like black paint on the unmarked pure white canvas that is the protected, naïve dancer. They click, a case of opposites attracting. But we soon discover they are connected in a way that nearly tears them apart.

The only other female to own Reece’s heart is his daughter Lexie. She’s a bundle of energy, a little girl who loves dinosaurs despite her mother’s attempts to give her Barbies. She’s like a runaway train, all loud mouth excitement and childish enthusiasm. She really likes her Daddy’s friend who’s a girl (that would be Avery) and Avery falls in love too, not with Lexie, but with how Reece loves Lexie and shows it in everything he does for her. Reece is a troubled artist, forced to give up what he loved and he’s drawn to Avery who is the protected prima donna dancer given the chance to discover life. And Lexie is the wild glittery glue that brings them together.

This book was a masterpiece of dialogue, description, and emotion. The art of painting in its various forms as done by the Hatter meets the art of dance as given to us in the art of words. The author beautifully describes the gritty side of graffiti covered New York City as well as the clean, montone, upscale side. Reece and Avery’s story unfolds slowly, the details taking shape like the fine lines and colors of the tattoos he works on in his shop. As a reader I was mesmerized, loving every beautifully crafted word. I knew there would be an ugly climax, but like every work of art, it all came together at the end, giving me a treasure of a story.

The Mad Tatter is a must read.. a 2015 favorite for sure.

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Author Bio:

JM Darhower is the author of countless stories and poems, most of which only she has ever read. She lives in a tiny town in rural North Carolina, where she churns out more words than will ever see the light of day. She has a deep passion for politics and speaking out against human trafficking, and when she isn’t writing she’s usually ranting about those things. Chronic crimper with a vulgar mouth, she admits to having a Twitter addiction. You can find her there.

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