Certified by Roger Wilson-Crane | Book Review

 


Certified : One Unexpected Birth... One Hapless Wedding... One Bizarre Death

by Roger Wilson-Crane

Description: Certified is a fictional memoir following one man through birth, marriage, and death. Inspired by real life events, the book takes you on a journey of joy, loss, and heartache, through life’s three certificates.

It is, ultimately, a love story.One Unexpected Birth: The long road to fatherhood. Missed opportunities, poor choices, a car ride with Bet Lynch, and finally the shock of becoming a Dad. A story of heartache, elation, and Peter Beardsley.One Hapless Wedding: The pressures of matrimony. Inept friends, false promises, an encounter with armed police, and finally the relief of “I do.” A story of love, commitment, and a stranger, Wally, and his camper van.One Bizarre Death: The sadness of loss. Confused emotions, life re-evaluation, £25k in ceased bank notes, and finally saying goodbye. A story of regret, family reflection, and Morrisons, the supermarket.A book to stir the memories in us all. The realisation we have all been certified.

Review 

Firstly I need to apologies to Roger for the amount of time it has taken to get this book review typed up and posted. I received a copy of the book directly from Roger (thank you!) quite some time ago but life got in the way and I only recently managed to fully finish the book and get my review sorted. 

I will say straight off I really enjoyed this book. If I'm honest it isn't one I would have picked off of the shelf if not being sent to it read, I can't put my finger on why, maybe because of the genre. I'm going through a phase of nature non-fiction and crime fiction reading at the moment so probably just because it is a modern contemporary / comedy genre book. That being said I'm so glad I was sent it to read because it was such a brilliant read, funny in places and tear jerking in others. 

The writing style and structure of the book, being separated into three parts a Birth, a Wedding & Death was very clever. Each a time where certificates are issued, hence the title. Roger did well to blend them together in a way that made the story flow. I enjoyed the clever twists and surprises along the way. The way it was written felt a lot like you were being spoken to, rather than reading a book, which I thought fitted really well for novel. It was like someone was recounting their family history, telling you about themselves, being completely candor and leaving nothing out. 

I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a book that covers love, loss and new life in an entertaining way. It doesn't get too dark so even though I need to say there is a trigger warning of death it isn't too heavy on the heart as its handled really well. 

Rating 
4 stars 

You can purchase this book via Betty's Books, 30 Queen Street, Seaton, Devon, EX12 2RB or here online. 

You can find out more about this book and the author here, on Roger's website.