Plaster Scene


Fiction - Humor/Comedy
370 Pages
Reviewed on 04/08/2014
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

Author Biography

Michael J Holley writes comedy fiction. He is the author of Plaster Scene, The Great Corporate Escape and The Christmas Number One (and other Christmas Stories).

He was born in Southampton, England in 1977, and since then has moved to Liverpool and Manchester, but now he lives in Cowes on the Isle of Wight with his wife and two children.

Having been the taller half of the rhythm section for the indie-rock band Aura4, Michael still enjoys listening to proper music and tinkering around on his guitars. He also loves watching and playing football, watching comedy, reading (of course) and drinking coffee.

His next full-length novel, Blind Faith, will be out in the summer of 2014.

You can follow him on Twitter @mjholleywriter

Or, visit his website www.michaeljholley.com

    Book Review

Reviewed by Julia Hopkinson for Readers' Favorite

Plaster Scene is Michael J. Holley’s second novel and, after reading this one, I want to get my hands on the first one as soon as possible! This story moves between the heady, drug-fuelled days of the sixties in North Wales, via the less-relaxed seventies, to monotonous modern day, middle class Cheshire in North-West England; and between the multiple viewpoints of its various protagonists. Back in the sixties, Celia has dropped out and fully tuned in to all that is fun, racy, radical and subversive during those times; but in the modern day, she is an elderly lady, with awful relatives, who, due to lack of other options, has to leave her useless nephew, Henry, a cryptic message about his supposed inheritance. Henry’s domineering wife, Claudia, hatches a not-very-fool-proof plan to claim what is theirs, roping in quarter-life crisis sufferer, George Spencer, and launching the three of them on what proves to be an ill-fated but unforgettable quest across the north of England and Wales.

Michael J. Holley has created an extremely funny tale in Plaster Scene, and it works well as a modern, British screwball comedy. The multiple strands of the story collide in perfect farcical fashion and the plot is well designed and executed. The writing is witty, and includes many genuinely laugh out loud moments, and each brilliantly bonkers character is fully three-dimensional and well described. George, Coral, and Henry are very sympathetically drawn (Claudia is most decidedly not so!) and the supporting cast of Simms, Horatio, Cornelius, and Bronwyn all play their part in making this a very enjoyable and highly recommended book.