Book Review: You Never Know: Tales of Tobias, an Accidental Lottery Winner
Posted by adminJul 29
Have you ever started to read a book and just couldn’t put it down? That’s what was happening with You Never Know: Tales of Tobias, an Accidental Lottery Winner by Lilian Duval. Closing the book tonight, goose bumps spread up and down my arms. You know how you walk out of a movie theater completely absorbed in the after effects? That’s exactly how I felt. It’s like the characters and the story are still with me. Duval does an excellent job of bringing you into her characters’ lives, although truth be said, they felt very real.
And they very well could be real. You have a guy, Tobias, who wins the lottery but not until Duval gives you a glimpse into Tobias’ life. If she had started out the book with him winning the lottery right away, it would take so much away from the book so there was a very good reason for it. I love it that she did it that way because it was very important to the storyline.
But I digress. I offered to review Duval’s book at The Soul Mate Triangle because I wanted to take a different approach at reviewing this (my more literary version will be posted on my Virginia Beach Publishing Examiner column on August 9). While reading her book, I was picking up on the soul mate elements within its pages. You have Tobias, the main character, who after the tragic accident car accident in which his mother and father are killed and his brother is left brain-damaged which he feels was his fault because he was the driver. Tobias feels so responsible that instead of pursuing his dreams which he would have done had it not for his feelings of guilt, he drops out of college to take care of his brother, Simeon.
While in therapy, Simeon comes into contact with a nurse named Carmela who has a very strong connection with Simeon in the respect that she wants the very best for him, like she would her own child. Tobias meets Carmela and although she feels herself drawing closer to Tobias, she keeps her feelings to herself. Tobias is too wrapped up in the tragedy and focuses only on taking care of his brother that he virtually closed himself off to relationships.
The neat thing about this is the brain-damaged brother is what brought the two together and the ending is just going to floor you.
Oh, we were talking about soul mates, right? Tobias and Carmela are the perfect example of the “companion soul mate” relationship. Soul mates are brought together to teach each other lessons through the good and the bad. Each of your soul mates come into your life to help you grow and help you find happiness and not to get too new agey on you, your higher self. And to keep you on the right path. While it looked like it started out as a karmic soul mate relationship, that wasn’t all there was to it. Companion soul mates come into each others’ lives mainly for child-bearing. The difference between that and karmic is that with karmic soul mate relationship, you stay on a “friendly” level and it doesn’t progress any further as far as sexual advances like the companion soul mate relationship. And here’s what’s neat. Carmela had a strong relationship with Simeon which led to her relationship with Tobias which to me screams karmic soul mates for Carmela and the brain-damaged brother, Simeon.
So what does all this mean?
Picture for a moment a triangle. At one point we have Tobias, at another we have Carmela and the third one we have Tobias. All three were meant to come into each others’ lives for certain reasons. Tobias felt he didn’t have a choice and he was going to take care of Tobias because of guilt. Carmela came into Simeon’s life to teach him how to live a productive live, but also because she was meant to come into Tobias’ life to help him see what a good person he was for doing so. Had Carmela not come into either of the characters’ lives, Tobias would have stayed on the same path for who knows how long and would have eventually self-destructed.
So you might be saying if Carmela never came into either Tobias’ or Simeon’s life, he probably would have found someone else – perhaps another soul mate who could have done the same thing?
Highly unlikely because these three were meant to be in each others’ lives. If it’s in the cards, it’s in the cards.
Think of all the people who are in your lives right now – the good with the bad – and think for a moment, what lesson you learned by them being in your life.
I want to personally thank Ms. Duval for writing such a wonderfully inspiring book and letting me offer my “soul mate analysis.” If you’d like to pick up a copy, head over to Amazon by clicking here. Let me know what you think of the ending. ;o)
You can visit Lilian’s website at www.lilianduval.com to find out more about this very talented author.
4 comments
Comment by Michelle V on July 29, 2011 at 1:44 am
I’m reading this book over the weekend for my tour stop next week. I’m really looking forward to reading it!
Comment by Tracee on July 29, 2011 at 10:20 am
What a great review, this book sounds really good!
Comment by V.R. Leavitt on July 29, 2011 at 1:48 pm
Sounds like a great book. I often think we learn just as much and sometimes more from the negative people in our lives than the positive ones.
Comment by Lilian Duval on August 17, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Thanks to all readers from writer Lilian Duval. I would very much enjoy hearing your comments after you read You Never Know. And I will write back to you! You can contact me directly through my website.
Happy reading!
Lilian Duval
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