George A. Bernstein
Author of Trapped
Works by George A. Bernstein
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Short biography
- George A. Bernstein, now living in south Florida, is the retired President of a modest, publicly held appliance manufacturer. He spent years attending writing seminars and conferences, learning to polish his work and developing a strong “voice.” George is acclaimed by his peers as a superb wordsmith and a crafter of surprise endings no one expects. He works with professional editors to ensure his novels meet his own rigorous standards, and all of his books are currently published by small indie press, GnD Publishing LLC, in which he has an interest.
"Sniper" is the fifth of his Detective Al Warner Suspense series, with the first four; "Death’s Angel;" "Born to Die;" "The Prom Dress Killer;" and "White Death" all garnering rave reviews. His Detective Al Warner has attracted many fans, with readers likening Warner to James Patterson’s Alex Cross.
Bernstein’s first novel, "Trapped," was a winner in a small Indie publisher’s “Next Great American Novel” contest, and received high praise, gaining many mostly 5-star reviews, reaching “Top 100” status. His second novel, "A 3rd Time to Die" (A paranormal Romantic Suspense) has also garnered mostly 5-Star & 4-Star reviews, with one reader likening him to the best, less “spooky” works of Dean Koontz & Stephen King.
Bernstein is also a “World-class” fly-fisherman, setting a baker’s dozen IGFA World Records, mostly on fly-rods. He’s written the popular "Toothy Critters Love Flies" (http://pikeflyguy.com), the complete book on fly-fishing for pike & musky.
Members
Reviews
Mysterious, thrilling, unique and captivating are some of the first words that pop into my mind when thinking about the best way to describe this book. A different sort of time travel with the idea of past lives and reincarnation as this endless love that continues through the centuries manages to reach a modern era with a modern couple at the helm, fully engaging the readers attention. A villain with no name and face keeps the reader guessing literally till the very last pages. Although we show more bask in the romance between Ashley and Craig I would have liked to see it develop just a bit earlier in the story having it feel slightly more prevalent and having Ashley gain a lot more confidence. Over all a great choice for those who enjoy a little romantic suspense.
4 stars
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. show less
4 stars
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review. show less
Reviewed by Susan McMichael
What is it about you stranger?
This is a love story with a mystery at the heart of it, a paranormal mystery. Why can Ashley Easton speak French so well? Why can she ride a horse so well, after only riding for just a few weeks? Who is the mysterious young man she meets in the dressage competition, and why is he so alluring? A 3rd Time to Die by George A. Bernstein is a love story and a mystery, rolled into one. It uses the concept of reincarnation as an interesting show more plot device.
Our first glimpse of Ashley Easton is of a woman rescuing a horse:
"Hey quit that!" Her shout raspy, she banged the gate with the side of the pitchfork. (p. 25)
The horse has always represented passion and desire in literature, and A 3rd Time to Die is no exception. Ashley's new horse brings her excitement and energy into her life and allows a new relationship to flourish. Ashley is revitalised and energised by rescuing the horse; it also brings into sharp relief the way her life has changed. Ashley is an engaging character who knows her own mind and who is financially independent. She feels a great deal, but takes a long time to act on these feelings: this is Ashley Easton's challenge. The reader feels the occasional sense of frustration, and is delighted she finally gets herself going.
Ashley’s lover, Craig Thornton is lovely and is everything that Ashley needs and wants: he is the polar opposite to Ashley's husband Keith, and is charming, interesting, fascinated by Ashley, shares her interests, and is caring. Their relationship changes over time, and as they learn more about each other, their characters develop in surprising and engrossing ways. A personal fault or two, however, might have helped to make Craig more real.
Craig Thornton is also an interesting contrast to Ashley because his marriage is breaking down, but it's not his fault: his wife is the one who is cheating. Bernstein thus sets up interesting parallels and contrasts in the relationships. The two spouses, Keith and Toni, are not pleasant characters. Keith is a husband totally lost from the relationship: he ignores the children and takes a mistress. I would have preferred a little more shading to these spouses to add more real complexity of personality: Keith doesn't help with the children, doesn't like anything about his wife anymore, is nasty in his other relationships; but has no redeeming quality. He is a little too bad to be human. He seems to have no saving grace : I know Craig is lovely but Keith must have been OK at one point.
The novel examines relationships. The men and women in A 3rd Time to Die are not just seeking anyone but someone special. In the opening 1895's past-life visionary flashback Charles sees in Victoria, a woman who is "passionate, sensuous and willful" (p. 6). He loves her for these qualities, and Ashley and Craig are similarly looking for very special traits.
Soul mates are important in this novel - people click and realise they are meant to be together. The website of the Australian Psychological Society says that: "newer fields of psychology, especially transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology, are taking seriously the holistic notion of human beings as comprising mind, body, and soul. These fields propose that people are spiritual beings living a human life that extends beyond our mundane existence and skin-encapsulated ego-self to include direct experience of the environment and the cosmos. They recognise the importance of integrating spiritual with physical and mental reality, that spirituality is but one part of the whole.” (http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/tpig/) The complications of the soul mates and reincarnation that have to be overcome make a really interesting plot device in this novel. The question of whether Ashley and Craig will survive their love, and who is against them and intends them harm is a gripping question.
The last main character is the psychologist Dr Feldman. He is an interesting character: he's helpful, but indecisive and his eventual insights and understandings moved the plot along. Feldman is one of Joseph Campbell's helpers . In Monomyth, Cambell explains that: "For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero journey is with a protective figure (often a little old crone or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass. What such a figure represents is the benign, protecting power of destiny.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth) Feldman helps Ashley and Craig understand what is happening. This relationship is a satisfying aspect of the novel.
Ashley and Craig share a love of horse riding. As has been noted, the horse has always represented strong emotions and passionate desires in literature and this is also true in A 3rd Time To Die. Since D. H. Lawrence, the horse has been a staple representation of sexuality, freedom and power. Ashley's horse in the novel represents all the freedom of her youth, the regained sexuality that her unfulfilled marriage has stripped from her, as well as links to the past. A secondary meaning for the horse spirit animal is the balance between the instinctive and tamed parts of your personality. Ashley is thus more real when she is with her horse, Injun, than when she is in her house. She feels freer, her speech with Craig is more natural, but she also learns more about herself and the issues that are troubling her: "Jeez, that's when this started! The sense of riding through woods and whispered thoughts in French. Nothing as intense as now. Why the fantasy only haunt her when jumping a horse?" (p. 87). This is the symbolism of the nature / culture dichotomy.
The story’s structure is that of several parts with the first long section establishing the various different relationships. Ashley spends a considerable amount of time analysing her (hopeless) marriage, before concluding that there is nothing to be done. This section was long and drawn out. I wondered why it took so long to get to a resolution of this point. Once the relationship with Craig was established and Bernstein managed to bring the pair together, the book moved along at a great pace.
In the final section the plot lines are drawn to a satisfying conclusion and the lovers’ relationship and future, and the circumstance of the nemesis are well resolved. A final catastrophic climax is well done and keeps the reader guessing until the last moment.
The role of money in the novel is interesting: Ashley is well off, thanks to her Father's money. She uses the processes and systems and makes them work for her to improve her life, rather than just make more money. This is a positive role for women.
A 3rd Time to Die's main theme is of course reincarnation. Have these people lived other lives? Who were they? Who is after Ashley and Craig now? Carl Jung believed that in a person's life, synchronicity served a role similar to that of dreams, with the purpose of shifting a person's egocentric conscious thinking to greater wholeness. Dr. Feldman helps promote this view in the novel. He is also a psychiatrist using various methods to assist his patients. Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience. Transpersonal experiences may be defined as "experiences in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos." Issues considered in transpersonal psychology include spiritual self-development, self beyond the ego, peak experiences, mystical experiences, systemic trance and other sublime and/or unusually expanded experiences of living. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpersonal_psychology) Dr. Feldman moves from a more reductionist view of the mind to a more spiritual, Transpersonal approach and indeed the question of this new ideology and philosophy become central to the book.
A 3rd Time to Die is a love story with a twist, a paranormal mystery with an engaging heroine and plot surprises and developments which were very satisfying. The characters develop in interesting ways through time and as the novel progresses. The relationships were interesting and well-drawn. The plot lines are drawn to a satisfying conclusion, and the lover relationship and mystery of foreboding doom are well resolved. The conclusion is gripping and the answer is unexpected and pleasingly surprising. I am happy to rate this book as 4 stars out of 5. show less
What is it about you stranger?
This is a love story with a mystery at the heart of it, a paranormal mystery. Why can Ashley Easton speak French so well? Why can she ride a horse so well, after only riding for just a few weeks? Who is the mysterious young man she meets in the dressage competition, and why is he so alluring? A 3rd Time to Die by George A. Bernstein is a love story and a mystery, rolled into one. It uses the concept of reincarnation as an interesting show more plot device.
Our first glimpse of Ashley Easton is of a woman rescuing a horse:
"Hey quit that!" Her shout raspy, she banged the gate with the side of the pitchfork. (p. 25)
The horse has always represented passion and desire in literature, and A 3rd Time to Die is no exception. Ashley's new horse brings her excitement and energy into her life and allows a new relationship to flourish. Ashley is revitalised and energised by rescuing the horse; it also brings into sharp relief the way her life has changed. Ashley is an engaging character who knows her own mind and who is financially independent. She feels a great deal, but takes a long time to act on these feelings: this is Ashley Easton's challenge. The reader feels the occasional sense of frustration, and is delighted she finally gets herself going.
Ashley’s lover, Craig Thornton is lovely and is everything that Ashley needs and wants: he is the polar opposite to Ashley's husband Keith, and is charming, interesting, fascinated by Ashley, shares her interests, and is caring. Their relationship changes over time, and as they learn more about each other, their characters develop in surprising and engrossing ways. A personal fault or two, however, might have helped to make Craig more real.
Craig Thornton is also an interesting contrast to Ashley because his marriage is breaking down, but it's not his fault: his wife is the one who is cheating. Bernstein thus sets up interesting parallels and contrasts in the relationships. The two spouses, Keith and Toni, are not pleasant characters. Keith is a husband totally lost from the relationship: he ignores the children and takes a mistress. I would have preferred a little more shading to these spouses to add more real complexity of personality: Keith doesn't help with the children, doesn't like anything about his wife anymore, is nasty in his other relationships; but has no redeeming quality. He is a little too bad to be human. He seems to have no saving grace : I know Craig is lovely but Keith must have been OK at one point.
The novel examines relationships. The men and women in A 3rd Time to Die are not just seeking anyone but someone special. In the opening 1895's past-life visionary flashback Charles sees in Victoria, a woman who is "passionate, sensuous and willful" (p. 6). He loves her for these qualities, and Ashley and Craig are similarly looking for very special traits.
Soul mates are important in this novel - people click and realise they are meant to be together. The website of the Australian Psychological Society says that: "newer fields of psychology, especially transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology, are taking seriously the holistic notion of human beings as comprising mind, body, and soul. These fields propose that people are spiritual beings living a human life that extends beyond our mundane existence and skin-encapsulated ego-self to include direct experience of the environment and the cosmos. They recognise the importance of integrating spiritual with physical and mental reality, that spirituality is but one part of the whole.” (http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/tpig/) The complications of the soul mates and reincarnation that have to be overcome make a really interesting plot device in this novel. The question of whether Ashley and Craig will survive their love, and who is against them and intends them harm is a gripping question.
The last main character is the psychologist Dr Feldman. He is an interesting character: he's helpful, but indecisive and his eventual insights and understandings moved the plot along. Feldman is one of Joseph Campbell's helpers . In Monomyth, Cambell explains that: "For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero journey is with a protective figure (often a little old crone or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass. What such a figure represents is the benign, protecting power of destiny.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth) Feldman helps Ashley and Craig understand what is happening. This relationship is a satisfying aspect of the novel.
Ashley and Craig share a love of horse riding. As has been noted, the horse has always represented strong emotions and passionate desires in literature and this is also true in A 3rd Time To Die. Since D. H. Lawrence, the horse has been a staple representation of sexuality, freedom and power. Ashley's horse in the novel represents all the freedom of her youth, the regained sexuality that her unfulfilled marriage has stripped from her, as well as links to the past. A secondary meaning for the horse spirit animal is the balance between the instinctive and tamed parts of your personality. Ashley is thus more real when she is with her horse, Injun, than when she is in her house. She feels freer, her speech with Craig is more natural, but she also learns more about herself and the issues that are troubling her: "Jeez, that's when this started! The sense of riding through woods and whispered thoughts in French. Nothing as intense as now. Why the fantasy only haunt her when jumping a horse?" (p. 87). This is the symbolism of the nature / culture dichotomy.
The story’s structure is that of several parts with the first long section establishing the various different relationships. Ashley spends a considerable amount of time analysing her (hopeless) marriage, before concluding that there is nothing to be done. This section was long and drawn out. I wondered why it took so long to get to a resolution of this point. Once the relationship with Craig was established and Bernstein managed to bring the pair together, the book moved along at a great pace.
In the final section the plot lines are drawn to a satisfying conclusion and the lovers’ relationship and future, and the circumstance of the nemesis are well resolved. A final catastrophic climax is well done and keeps the reader guessing until the last moment.
The role of money in the novel is interesting: Ashley is well off, thanks to her Father's money. She uses the processes and systems and makes them work for her to improve her life, rather than just make more money. This is a positive role for women.
A 3rd Time to Die's main theme is of course reincarnation. Have these people lived other lives? Who were they? Who is after Ashley and Craig now? Carl Jung believed that in a person's life, synchronicity served a role similar to that of dreams, with the purpose of shifting a person's egocentric conscious thinking to greater wholeness. Dr. Feldman helps promote this view in the novel. He is also a psychiatrist using various methods to assist his patients. Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology that studies the transpersonal, self-transcendent or spiritual aspects of the human experience. Transpersonal experiences may be defined as "experiences in which the sense of identity or self extends beyond (trans) the individual or personal to encompass wider aspects of humankind, life, psyche or cosmos." Issues considered in transpersonal psychology include spiritual self-development, self beyond the ego, peak experiences, mystical experiences, systemic trance and other sublime and/or unusually expanded experiences of living. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpersonal_psychology) Dr. Feldman moves from a more reductionist view of the mind to a more spiritual, Transpersonal approach and indeed the question of this new ideology and philosophy become central to the book.
A 3rd Time to Die is a love story with a twist, a paranormal mystery with an engaging heroine and plot surprises and developments which were very satisfying. The characters develop in interesting ways through time and as the novel progresses. The relationships were interesting and well-drawn. The plot lines are drawn to a satisfying conclusion, and the lover relationship and mystery of foreboding doom are well resolved. The conclusion is gripping and the answer is unexpected and pleasingly surprising. I am happy to rate this book as 4 stars out of 5. show less
Several of us at the book club have read this author before and were thrilled to hear that we would be reading a new book by Bernstein. The first book was top rated so we knew this one would be the same. For me this book started out a little slow, but when it got going and I worked several things out in my head I could not stop turning the pages.
What really grabbed my attention with this story is how well Bernstein kept everything straight with the different centuries. When reading in the show more 17th century I felt like I was in the 17th century when reading 19th century I felt like I was in the 19th century.
The amazing way this tale was put together is just astonishing. Three different centuries, with the same people over and over. This book almost makes me want to believe in reincarnation.
I questioned a friend who owns horses about some things from the book and they were spot on. George did not just write a story, he wrote a tale weaving through time. A true challenge for writers when keeping everything straight, I admire anyone who achieve this. This story will keep you wanting to turn pages and wondering which century you will be in.
Disclosure - As a Quality Reads Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book from the author via Orangeberry Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. show less
What really grabbed my attention with this story is how well Bernstein kept everything straight with the different centuries. When reading in the show more 17th century I felt like I was in the 17th century when reading 19th century I felt like I was in the 19th century.
The amazing way this tale was put together is just astonishing. Three different centuries, with the same people over and over. This book almost makes me want to believe in reincarnation.
I questioned a friend who owns horses about some things from the book and they were spot on. George did not just write a story, he wrote a tale weaving through time. A true challenge for writers when keeping everything straight, I admire anyone who achieve this. This story will keep you wanting to turn pages and wondering which century you will be in.
Disclosure - As a Quality Reads Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book from the author via Orangeberry Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. show less
Did you find that the cover and title represented what the story was really about? The book is about horses so the cover was connected to the story, the title was also accurate although you do not expect a story with so many twists. Kudos to the author and I loved it.
What did you think of the story structure? Highly entertaining, wonderful story with characters that drew me in from page one. When Ashley thinks, “We’ll stay buddies with no complications,” you absolutely know that the show more story is going to get far more twisted than they already are. Unique idea and although it seemed complicated at first, the story structure made it easy for the reader to understand.
What did you think of the ending? I would have preferred the ending without the epilogue. The epilogue seemed to add a new twist to the story and made me think there was going to be a second book which I doubt and it gave the book a surreal feel which spoilt the beauty from a few pages before.
Disclosure - As a Quality Reads Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book from the author via Orangeberry Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. show less
What did you think of the story structure? Highly entertaining, wonderful story with characters that drew me in from page one. When Ashley thinks, “We’ll stay buddies with no complications,” you absolutely know that the show more story is going to get far more twisted than they already are. Unique idea and although it seemed complicated at first, the story structure made it easy for the reader to understand.
What did you think of the ending? I would have preferred the ending without the epilogue. The epilogue seemed to add a new twist to the story and made me think there was going to be a second book which I doubt and it gave the book a surreal feel which spoilt the beauty from a few pages before.
Disclosure - As a Quality Reads Book Club member, I received a free copy of this book from the author via Orangeberry Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. show less
Statistics
- Works
- 5
- Members
- 29
- Popularity
- #460,289
- Rating
- 4.6
- Reviews
- 8
- ISBNs
- 5