Book Release: Buzz by Carrie Lieber as reviewed by NYT Bestselling author Ellen Tanner Marsh

Author by Anonymous

Book Release:



Buzz

By Carrie Lieber



Imagine your client is a charismatic former police officer, hugely popular with the voters of California and a sure bet to become the state’s next governor. Now imagine that his baby brother is incarcerated at Lompoc Federal Penitentiary, serving 10 years for drug smuggling — and that your client is the cop who busted him and later tampered with the evidence.



Imagine the buzz it will cause when the nightly news picks up on this story, and you’ve got a good idea of the damage control that marketing and public relations expert Madison Morgan has to spin.



The only problem with Maddie is that she’s not particularly adept at spin because her own life is currently spinning out of control. Not only has she been dumped by her boyfriend Jake in exchange for a comely teenager, but she’s also lost the beautiful home and financial security he brought to the relationship. Homeless, overweight, self-doubting and in peril of falling off the alcoholic bandwagon, Maddie Morgan has all the makings of a pitiable antiheroine.



But thanks to author Carrie Lieber’s deftly humorous touch, Maddie comes across

a genuinely likeable heroine anyone could cheer for. Though traumatized by the past and so thoroughly lacking in self-esteem that she allows her marketing firm employees to cow and bully her, she nevertheless proves plucky enough to tackle the brewing political scandal surrounding gubernatorial candidate Al Miller and his infamously felonious brother.



Still, taking control of the “little PR problem” of Brother Willy proves no easy task. For one thing, he’s street-smart and smart-mouthed, and from their first meeting on puts Maddie at a decided disadvantage. Then there are the other aspects of the case that Maddie didn’t count on, such as engaging a high-profile lawyer to investigate the irregularities in Willy’s arrest records, enlisting activists from Medical Marijuana Now to demonstrate for Willy’s release from

Lompoc, and committing her own crime by breaking into a stranger’s house to steal important files.



Lieber’s pacing never flags in narrating these breakneck events and, more importantly, she never loses sight of Maddie herself. Here’s Maddie meeting with one of her clients—one of the last and wealthiest of U.S. oil barons—in his skyscraper office, and all she can do is grapple with her fear of heights. Next she’s sneaking into Lompoc under false pretenses to interview Willy for the first time only to find she’s brought along just a lipstick to take notes with. And instead of dealing with the growing threat to her own personal safety while delving deeper into Willy’s past, Maddie mainly obsesses about not having a date on Valentine’s Day.



But Lieber refuses to let Maddie live up to the “dumb blond” reputation of Willy’s scornful assessment. Instead she skillfully and believably guides Maddie along a path of self awareness to the point where Maddie herself suddenly realizes that, “now that I’d stood on my own for a while without Jake or anyone to catch my fall, a newfound confi dence had started to blossom. It was as if someone had handed me a key to an inner sanctum that till now had been well hidden and untouched.” While Maddie seems surprised by the discovery, the reader knows she’s had it in her all along.



Buzz is a fast-paced blend of suspense and drama narrated by a wise-cracking, decidedly human heroine who not only has the courage to persevere when the going gets tough but to face her own shortcomings with humor and honesty. All of us might do well to take a lesson from Carrie Lieber’s engaging book.



About the Author:

Carrie Lieber studied writing at San Francisco State University’s Creative Writing Program with noted authors such as Ethan Canin and Frances Mayes. In the course of her career she’s worked with various news stations, newspapers, and radio stations. She currently runs the public relations firm she founded in 1996, Maverick Communications.



Buzz is available through Amazon.com; Barnesandnoble.com; Booksinprint.com; BookSurge.com and select bookstores.