Saturday 7 January 2012

Review: Forget the Past (Fear of the Past #1)

Original Title: Forget the Past
Series: Fear of the Past #1
Author: Claude Nougat
Published Date: May 20th, 2011
Genre: History



Antonio Bellomo, preferred to be called as Tony, is a born computer genius and was offered a high-tech job with a heavy salary at the age of 13.  In spite of having everything, Tony feels his life to be 'lost' or 'not lived'.  So, giving up his boring life, he travels to Sicily to look for the palace, which once belonged to his ancestors or so were the words of his father.

Disappointed that the palace of his ancestors has been turned to the museum and none of the museum's pictures show that any of the Bellomo family has been lived in, Tony just roams around the museum, when he finds a open door.  He enters to find it full of strange people with different century costumes, claiming that they were the Bellomo family members of various centuries, and they were dead and waiting for the Judgement Day.  The place named as Circolo di Conversazione meant only for conversation.  The people in the Circolo speak with one another all the time and re-enact their lives to know their mistakes, before the Judgement Day.

While Tony learns about the past of his ancestors, he never thinks that he will fall in love with one of them.   What will happen when a mortal man falls for his ancestor, who is a ghost.  Tony's experience and his bonding with the 'people of the past' are intriguing and was taken in a satisfying way.

The historical times were as descriptive as possible.  There were times, I keep thinking, how very different the lives of all people are.  And most of them, if they had given a second chance, would do the same things again, would fall in love with the same person and would die for the same reason.

The author, although descriptive about the historical situations and the Italian word references, failed to explain the present-day Tony.  Due to this, it was difficult, for first half of the book, to know how Tony feels about his situation.  Being a computer genius is definitely not an easy feat, even if he is a 'born' genius.  I felt like I needed to know more about Tony, to realize his need to go away from his well-settled life, his desire to visit Sicily of all the places and his bonding with his father.  That is the one thing I found lacking in the book.

"Forget the Past" is an easy and entertaining read, where the readers keep thinking about how influencing our ancestors could be in our present lives.  Well, a book's success is to keep the reader's thinking about it, even after several hours of completion.  This book made me wish that I know more about my ancestors, even though its not so dramatic or eventful as Tony's.

'Fear of the Past' Series order:

1.  Forget the Past
2.  Reclaim the Present - Read review here
3.  Remember the Future - Read review here



The series is about Tony's life, as he struggles with his heritage (book 1), tries to claim his own life (book 2) and his destiny (book 3).  It must be read in the above order.


10 comments:

  1. Many thanks for the review, it came as a total surprise! As the author, all I can say is that I'm very happy you enjoyed reading my book. It's wonderful to find a reader who understood and felt the story in the way it was meant. And please, no worry, Tony Bellomo's character gradually comes out as it is shaped by his increasing knowledge of his family's past and in the last book, Remember the Future, he comes to grips with his life, plays the cards that Destiny gave him and makes an amazing breakthrough! I won't tell you what here because it would take away the pleasure of your read!

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  2. Awesome review! Thanks for touching on all of the points that I wonder about as a reader!

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  3. Thanks Claude Naugat! Thanks for visiting my blog! I think I will enjoy your other books too!

    Hi 'Fall Into Books'! Thank you! :)

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  4. Hi new follower via gfc and networked blogs. Hoping you can pop over for our weekly book blog hop wed-sat and follow us back at http://www.beckvalleybooks.blogspot.com xx

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  5. Nice to meet you on ur blog Vidya! Nice review.

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  6. Great review!! The book sounds so good

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  7. Nice review,I love reading! I'm thinking of reading these series.It's nice to know about our ancestors.
    I follow you via GFC
    I'm also a member from WBC!
    Thanks for the review!

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