Title: The Role of a Lifetime, A Woman Reinvents Herself…for Good…and Bad!
Author: James B. Flaherty
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1-5320-3099-4
Genre: Fiction/Romance
Pages: 318
Reviewed by: Jessica Schmidt

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The Role of a Lifetime is a marvelous and inspiring tale of a woman who creates her own fairytale. She maximizes her natural talents and becomes part of worlds she had only dreamed about. She finds herself on center stage and must navigate new challenges including heartbreak and taking on new and unexpected roles.

The author James B. Flaherty is a wonderful storyteller and has created interesting and endearing characters you will quickly fall in love with. The novel captures the readers’ interest and keeps it until the last page. Mr. Flaherty is an excellent and skilled writer whose style is perfect for this genre. The attention to detail regarding fashion and the theater world make it interesting and fun to read. I liked the style and content of the headings at the beginning of each chapter, they offer a teaser about what follows and kept me turning the pages.This would be a great book club selection, it is ideal for young adults and adults and will probably appeal mostly to women. Every woman can relate to dreaming about a glamorous lifestyle typically only accessible to the rich and famous.

The author is skilled at writing the romantic and amorous scenes too and has created male characters that will make readers swoon. I also enjoyed all the characters, especially Bettina with her larger than life personality and her enviable life story. I found her and her best friend, Lisa to be very relatable. I even took the characters’ recommendations for the books they most enjoyed reading on their week vacation in Acapulco and added them to my winter reading list.

The Role of a Lifetime has all the makings of a best-selling novel. Great characters with depth, interesting storyline with unexpected twists and turns, romance and scintillating seduction scenes, travel and extravagant lifestyles, and a great modern rags-to-riches story.