Jul 21, 20204 min read

Blog Tour Book Review: Extreme

Updated: Aug 29, 2023

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the EXTREME by Joan Gelfand Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About the Book:

Title: EXTREME

Authors: Joan Gelfand

Pub. Date: July 14, 2020

Publisher: Blue Light Press

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 282

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, TBD, Bookshop.org

Hope Ellson is from the wrong side of the tracks, but her genius transcends class. When Hope joins FearToShred, a Silicon Valley extreme gaming startup, Hope's mission is to groom the scrappy company for prime time. Enter Doug Wiser, her very married ex. While the two work in tandem, nefarious forces are at work behind the scenes. Adding to the excitement of this thriller are the stars and heroes of surfing and skateboarding. With a keen eye on women in tech, business ethics and dangerous stunts, "Extreme" will leave you breathless.

Winner of the Cervena Barva and Chaffin Fiction Awards, Joan's work has appeared in The Huffington Post, Vanity Fair, Rattle, Pank! The Meridien Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicken Soup for the Soul and over 200 literary journals, blogs and magazines.

A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Joan has worked for California Poets in the Schools, Poetry Out Loud, Chiat/Day Advertising and other Bay Area companies. She currently coaches writers and teaches in the San Francisco Bay Area.

With a poet's sensibility and a novelist's instinct for plot, Joan Gelfand has produced a whip‑smart page‑turner of a book, complete with startup fever, romantic intrigue, and a cast of sympathetic ‑‑ and not so sympathetic ‑‑ characters. Read Extreme and you'll have a better sense of what really goes on in Silicon Valley, far better than TV shows like Silicon Valley could ever provide.” - Katie Hafner, Author, New York Times and Wall Street Journal columnist.

A rapid technical read with women behind the wheel and taking things a step further for success. This took me a while to get into, but I ended up liking it enough to give it 4 stars!

Thank you to Rockstar Book Tours, who’ve provided a digital copy to review. In no way does this influence my opinion.

From the first few chapters, readers nose dive into Hope’s ever dashing workaholic mode. She won’t stop at anything for her work. The plot was interesting, but I ‘d have to agree with other reviewers who weren’t as experienced to always know what they were talking about! However, I sensed the emotion and tension within the characters which spoke volume.

This story is told in third person jumping from character to character which I had to get used to at first. Yet it made the pacing of the book well. The chapters weren’t lengthy with exaggerated descriptions. The writing was captivating, so I wished I knew what they were talking about to fully understand it!

Extreme focus on Hope and Doug. Exes. Hope has a rich boyfriend while Doug has a wife. Both of their partners want to take it to the next step, but Hope and Doug are immersed in their work. Until this point, I’m not sure if I enjoyed Hope’s character. I loved her attitude in the workplace, but then she’s totally different in the outside world. Then again, it resonated with what and who she prioritizes. I liked Doug more for his flaws and the way he’s seen from Hope’s perspective. It really made me favorite him over the others (Julie was awesome, by the way, so she takes second place).

As I mentioned earlier, it was hard to grasp how crucial issues were in the workplace since I didn’t have that specific knowledge, however, I know a few people who might like this book because of that!

Overall, I took my time with this book and read it on the bus and train. It pulled me out of reality and made me focus on these characters. I also liked the trope of women doing what’s classified as men’s work. Hope, Julie, and Meg (I think) had an interesting conversation about it in one chapter. It really helped me understand the book more and sort of motivating readers (female) to pursue whatever career/passion they want, no matter what society has said about it!

About Joan:

Joan Gelfand’s reviews, stories and poetry have appeared in national and international literary journals and magazines including the Los Angeles Review of Books, Rattle, Prairie Schooner, Kalliope, The Toronto Review, newversenews.com, The Sycamore Review and RiverSedge. Joan’s work has also appeared in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Dreams and the Unexplainable” and “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Dreams and Premonitions”

Chair of the Women’s National Book Association National Writing Contest, a member of the National Book Critics Circle and a juror for the Northern California Book Awards, Joan blogs for the Huffington Post and coaches writers. She is the recipient of over twenty writing awards, nominations and prizes.

“The Ferlinghetti School of Poetics,” a poetry film based on Joan’s poem was featured at the 4th Annual Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece, the Meraki Film Festival in Madrid and won Certificate of Merit in a juried art show at the International Association for the Study of Dreams.

Joan has been teaching at book festivals and writer’s conferences on “You Can Be a Winning Writer” for the past ten years. She coaches writers around the country.

She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Adam Hertz and two beatnik kitties – Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.