Sleeping Tigers [Kindle Edition]

Holly Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Best Indie Books of 2012 Semifinalist, Kindle Book Review

2011 Book of the Year Fiction Finalist, ForeWord Reviews

Jordan O'Malley has everything she ever wanted: a job she loves, a beautiful home, and a dependable boyfriend. When her life unravels after a breast cancer scare, Jordan decides to join her wildest childhood friend in San Francisco and track down her drifter brother, Cam, who harbors secrets of his own.  When Cam suddenly flees the country, Jordan follows, determined to bring him home. Her journey takes her to the farthest reaches of majestic Nepal, where she encounters tests--and truths--about love and family that she never could have imagined. Funny, heartbreaking, and suspenseful, Sleeping Tigers reminds us all that sometimes it's better to follow your heart instead of a plan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sleeping Tigers is the kind of book you wish didn't have to end. Fast-moving and funny, loaded with sex, adventure, and characters who feel like your oldest friends, it takes the reader through fabulous, keenly-observed settings as it follows one woman on a brave journey of self-discovery. Robinson's prose crackles with wit and humanity."  Elisabeth Brink, author of Save Your Own

"Be prepared to be surprised and delighted."  Toby Neal, author of Blood Orchids

"Ms. Robinson is a captivating story teller who knows how to add the right ingredients to create a page turner that you don't want to put down.  Sleeping Tigers is a must read."

Kathryn Hamilton, Chick Lit Central

From the Author

When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago, I was afraid that my life would be changed forever.  I was right--but what I didn't know then was that many of those changes would be for the better.  Since then, I truly have learned to appreciate every moment, to take more risks in life, and to never hold back on love.  I've tried to convey those life lessons in this novel, where the main character, Jordan, feels like a chipped teacup after her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, but learns to embrace the richness and excitement of being alive as she pursues her drifter brother to Nepal in an effort to save his life.  Writing this book allowed me to convey the many mixed emotions I experienced during my cancer treatments.  It also allowed me to revisit Nepal, a country that transformed my life in profound ways when I spent two months traveling there.  Every book is a journey.  For me, the journey I took in writing this book allowed me to reflect on the changes in my life, both good and bad, as I anticipate more exciting adventures ahead.

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Product Details

• File Size: 467 KB
• Print Length: 259 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1466404833
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006ZC5M9G
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,062 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Way better than Eat, Pray, Love February 11, 2012

By Donna Anastasi

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've seen this book compared to Eat, Pray, Love and while in is of the same genre as Eat, Pray, Love it is fundamentally quite different. From the first page I connected with the main character, Jordan, as very real and in so many ways "could be me." After the "sleeping tiger" within stretches and scrapes his claws in the form of a breast cancer surgery, Jordan is jolted from her perfect, safe, predictable little world as a middle school teacher engaged to a stable, sort of stick-up-his-@$$ guy (the description of him ironing his wet bills said it all). She leaves her smothering parents, boring fiance, and conservative New England life and pursues her MIA brother to California and beyond. She has a tight bond with and deep love for her only brother; they serve as each others "true witnesses," confidants, and heros after growing up as children of an unpredictable, often violent alcoholic. Unlike Eat, Pray, Love as Jordan lets go of the many societal bindings and is stripped of material possessions, she does not let go of relationships. Rather than going through a "me" phase this is very much a book about the "we." Jordan never changes her true essence as the responsible, oldest sister, nurturing, mothering type. Instead she allows it to flourish. "Sleeping Tigers" explores all the type of loves women feel so deeply as daughter, sister, girlfriend, lover, and "mommy." And does it in an often starkly realistic ways including close encounters with vomit, blood, feces, and other bodily fluids that inevitably go along with caretaking. The novel has many beautiful and descriptive scenes as well including Jordan's reawakening of her sensual side after being so deeply scarred. The book has a wonderful final scene that closes this chapter of Jordan's life, and, hopefully, will open another in the form a sequel.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars SOMEONE TELL ME. IS THIS CHICK LIT? April 20, 2012

By Schuyler T. Wallace VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm confused. After reading a couple of summaries of Holly Robinson's novel SLEEPING TIGERS, I almost passed over it, labeling it women's fiction (in fact, that's exactly what the author calls it in an interview), a genre I'm not particularly fond of. But some elements caught my eye. It had all 5-star reviews and it was deemed funny, fast-moving, loaded with sex, and featured adventures in Nepal. I love wild animal tales, especially about tigers, and, since it was free, I downloaded it to my Kindle.

The bewilderment began to diminish after I started the book, because I actually liked it. I liked it a lot. My wife tells me I was incommunicado the entire time I was reading it. From now on I will be more careful about placing books in categories that I suspect I won't enjoy. There wasn't a lot in it about tigers, but I didn't miss them.

The main character, Jordan O'Malley, is woman honed to toughness by a bout with breast cancer. She sets aside a rather mundane existence to find her brother and jar him back into reality from his worthless existence in an attempt to put her family back together. I'm not going to enumerate the trials she goes through because they form the backbone of Robinson's story. I'll just say that the author does a masterful job of dragging you along for the ride, and I guarantee that you'll be mesmerized. Her adventures are outlandish but totally believable under Robinson's skilful rendering.

Holly Robinson's personal story is the obvious inspiration for the story. She has also survived breast cancer that was diagnosed and treated early and saw it change her outlook on life. She moved to San Francisco from the East, as did O'Malley in the book, trekked around Nepal, and has a couple of brothers that she adores. It seems a natural evolution to come up with a novel that adds risk taking and the welcoming of new relationships to her personal story.

Robinson is an accomplished and talented writer. Her dialogue presentations are immaculate in their lucidity. The way she sets scenes and manipulates the action should inspire other writers to seek that level of skill. Of course they must be willing to work as hard as she does to get it right.

Chick lit? I'm not qualified to define what that is. In my mind this book is just an excellent read. I'm glad I'm so cheap that I went ahead and grabbed the freebie.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Journey of Discovery February 22, 2012

By Barbara Hightower VINE™ VOICE

Format:Kindle Edition

Jordan has a cancer scare and leaves everyone behind to look for her brother who had been taken. She goes to California and to 3rd world countries trying to find him. Her boring finance is a winner I have heard of men ironing their money, but seriously this was rich. I had to laugh and yell for Jordan to run far away from this man. This 4th grade teacher went through a lot in this book and could have turned around at any time and fled. She didn't she stuck it out.

Holly did a wonderful job with the characters and plot. I could relate a bit t Jordan as a cancer survivor you do panic even in a scare moment and her boyfriend/ fiancé was a doozy of a supporter. Sounds like my ex husband. I felt as though I was there right along rooting Jordan on and making some friends a long the way. Holly writes in a way emotion comes right out of the book to touch you. The journey Jordan takes is a wonderful on and glad I went along for the ride.

This is a book I will re-read and let my mother borrow as you will want to share this amazing story. Well done Holly.

More About the Author

I never meant to be a writer. I studied biology in college because I wanted to be a doctor - preferably one of those doctors who's always jetting off to villages in Africa to save thousands of lives in a single weekend. But life intervened during my last semester of college, when I chose a class in creative writing.

From the moment I sat down to write, I became completely absorbed in my work. While I was writing, seven hours could pass like seven minutes. To the horror of my parents, I abandoned the idea of medical school to become a writer, promising that, if I didn't get to be rich or famous in, oh, a year or so, I'd let common sense rule and find a real career.

Of course, none of that happened. A year went by. Two. Then more. As I became even more engrossed in the writing process, I did what all writers do to support my secret habit: I worked a thousand odd jobs, from proofreading telephone books (really) to construction. I kept writing, filling up the corners of my life and lots of paper with words.

Then one day, as I was driving home from the grocery store, a title floated across the windshield of my car: The Gerbil Farmer's Daughter. After I finished laughing, my mouth went dry. I knew I had the title of my first book, which sets out to answer this question: How did my father, a career Navy man, end up on a farm with 9,000 gerbils?