Quintessentially Quilly

An Excellent Story!

About the Book: Insignificant Moments, by Jeremy Asher

For 27-year old Jaye Logan, life has been full of neglected opportunities and missed chances. He’s had an incredibly unadventurous career as an assistant librarian and only one serious girlfriend. But on the day he decides to literally climb a mountain and seek something better in life, something better finds him instead.

That glorious day, Jaye rescues a beautiful young woman and realizes he’s just met the girl of his dreams. In the turmoil surrounding her rescue, though, he doesn’t even ask her name. She slips through his fingers – another casualty of his too cautious life. Reeling from disappointment, Jaye writes a simple yet heartfelt email about the key to life and send it winging into the ether.

“Today is the most important day of your life,” he writes. “More accurately, this moment is the most important moment. Most of us spend our lives searching. searching for the perfect job, the perfect pet, the perfect moment to tell someone how much they mean to us, the perfect soul mate. None and these and all of these things exist. And sometimes we are lucky enough to discover one or more of them. And when we do, we begin the journey of searching all over again. Why? For the same reason a mountain climber nearly kills himself to reach a new summit. For the same reason a man gets married for the second time. And for the same reason a grieving widow finds a way to get out of bed each day. It’s because deep down inside, somewhere deep in our souls or in the passionate side of our hearts, lives the truth. And the truth is that all we really have is now.”

Author Jeremy Asher’s inspirational novel Insignificant Moments follows Jaye and those his words impact as they set out on their own journeys to seek the lives they realize they haven’t been living. It speaks to the profound impact a single moment can have on our lives and in our hearts.

Debut Novel

Asher explains how he came to write this story: I wondered if chain emails really worked. I wondered if people’s lives were ever changed because of an inspirational message that was generally written and randomly sent. Then a story formed in my mind about a simple man with few accomplishments who writes an inspiring email as a means of venting frustrations of his own uneventful life. He sends the email into cyberspace, never expecting to see again. But what he doesn’t realize is how many lives he touched in a very positive way. All due to a simple email.

About The Author:
Jeremy Asher was born on January 28, 1977, in New Haven, Indiana, a small town just outside of Fort Wayne. He was one of 5 siblings and lived in a house of about 1,000 square feet. Asher says that since there wasn’t a lot of room to get away from each other inside the house that he spent most of his free time hanging out at the neighborhood park, exploring the woods in his backyard, or reading. He says he was an introverted kid with a wild imagination.

Currently, Jeremy holds a degree in business management and earns his living in that industry, but in his free time he wrote. One day his showed his English teacher wife, Brandi, one of his short stories and she began urging his to write a book — and so he did. I predict he will write another, and another and …..

My Thoughts:

Insignificant Moments, by Jeremy Asher is a debut novel, and a smashing debut at that. I read this book straight through in just a few hours.  When I finished it, I went back through and read several key parts again.  While technically this book might be considered a romance, it most certainly isn’t “chic lit” and will appeal to men as readily as it does to women.  There is romance in the book, but primarily the romance is with life and living it to it’s fullest.  If you have ever regretted a missed opportunity you will connect with this story.

Asher’s storytelling skills are outstanding.  He weaves intricate details of his characters lives together clearly revealing how their choices effect one another long before they ever actually meet and he does this so deftly that the reader has no trouble following along and making those connections.  In a few places throughout the story it is apparent Asher wasn’t certain his subtle clues would bring the reader far enough to make the necessary connections and he gets a little heavy handed — like when the doctor gives a cancer patient his prognosis from day one despite the fact that he is many months into his treatments.

As much as I loved this book I did have one other little problem that strikes me as ironic.  I have written many book reviews and lambasted the authors for their sloppy grammar and writing.  that isn’t going to happen here.  In fact, if anything Asher’s story was written too precisely and too well.  As a rule people don’t think in formal sentences and linear patterna, but Asher’s characters all do.  A couple of times that pulled me out of the story, but not enough to keep this novel from landing on my “favorites shelf”.  Insignificant Moments is a thoroughly enjoyable read sans offensive language and explicit sex scenes.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Hannah Shaner of  BohlsenPR, Inc.  I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”