Travis Blakely had a comfortable existence. He had a decent job and good friends. He was comfortable with what the future held for him. Then he ran into a girl he remembered from high school. His life got a lot more interesting - and infinitely more complicated
Size: 3424 KB (678,111 words)
Genre: Romantic
Sex Contents: Some Sex
Tags: Ma/Fa, Consensual, Romantic, Heterosexual, Fiction, Celebrity, Slow
Review by Quasirandom [other reviews by Quasirandom]
Reviewed:
Sometimes, you just want to settle into a long romantic story. If that describes you, this is for you.
Travis and Liz grew up together but haven’t met since they were 15, when she got a Nashville contract. Now at 30, prodded by his coworker, they reconnect at a one of her promotional events. A lot has happened in those 15 years, which means both parties have significant personal histories to work through before they can truly become partners—and the author deftly navigates their ups and downs and sideways dodges. The result is hot and sweet and entertaining.
One thing that especially strikes me is how tightly plotted this story is—the pacing is not in any way brisk, but every beat is set up beforehand, sometimes directly, sometimes using a fakeout. There’s a stretch in the final third where the plotting gets a little slack, but the final chapters starting clicking together using plot-handles set up in some cases a hundred chapters ago. I admire that. Really admire that.
My biggest quibble is that the music industry threads seem to resolve a little easily. But otherwise, this is a great ride. Find a comfortable seat and take it.
Review by Nulaak83 [other reviews by Nulaak83]
Reviewed:
This is probably my second favorite story by Jay behind only The Outsider. It's a story with an excellent plot that continuously shifts in new directions throughout and keeps the reader hooked. It revolves around public relations and the life of a celebrity musician, but also manages to tie in elements of business, security, media, and baseball seamlessly. Like Jay's other stories it doesn't overwhelm you with sex scenes, but does contain a fair number of erotic scenes.
There are some issues with what seems to be words missing or at times in the wrong tense in sentences, probably about an error every three or four chapters on average. It's nothing major though and doesn't decrease the enjoyment or appeal of the story.
Review by Derek Smith [other reviews by Derek Smith]
Reviewed:
Mr. Cantrell, as always, has written an excellent book and one which is well worth the time spent reading it. He has obviously thoroughly investigated the recording industry and and this has made the plot both detailed and credible.
His characters are well drawn and although sometimes a little crude in their speech for British ears, almost become part of one's family!
It is a long book but unlike some of the other lengthy tomes on SOL, it keeps both its focus and the reader's interest right up to the last page.
If, like me, you know little of baseball and really do not want to learn more, it might be necessary to skip a few pages, but not too many! The fact that country and western music is well featured was welcome and more than made up for the baseball!
I do recommend this as a good read.
Review by Bud Ugly [other reviews by Bud Ugly]
Reviewed:
Do not read this book! Seriously, just don't do it. Why not? Because it's addictive. Soon you'll find yourself checking SOL several times a day, just to see if there are new chapters posted. You'll start neglecting your job, your hobbies, your family, your porn stash... Addiction is a terrible thing. Save yourself, and wait until it's all posted so you can read it all at once. You'll thank me (or not).
I try to refrain from reviewing stories in progress; after all, there's always the chance that the author will screw it up before it's done. Don't laugh, it happens. But given Jay Cantrell's track record, I'm not too worried about that. And I AM addicted.
I'm a sucker for a good romance, and this is a good romance. The story plot holds together well. I find the story to be quite believable; I'd say it's more realistic than most of stories here on SOL. The characters are engaging, each with with their own flaws and quirks. It's easy to identify with them, and to become immersed in their individual stories. I'm pleased that no one's perfect in Runaway Train, because that makes it all the more believable.
Technically it's excellent; the author and I don't see eye-to-eye on the use of punctuation, but that doesn't get in the way of the story at all (and probably won't be a problem for anyone who's not as OCD as I am). I find it quite readable.
In the end, this is one that I expect will become one of my ATFs, if the first 35 chapters are any indication. Of course, I'm counting on the author not to screw it up! :-)
My only complaint is that the chapters can't possibly come fast enough. I recommend it.
Review by Jetcrash747 [other reviews by Jetcrash747]
Reviewed: - (Review Updated: )
'Runaway Train' by 'Jay Cantrell' a review of an outstanding author's epic novel. The novel is 146 chapters long, divided into five sections.
In the opening chapter we meet Travis Blakely, employed in marketing in a San Diego California hospital. The stage is set for the Runaway Train to start slowly meandering down the tracks. As the story begins we find out about Travis having grown up with the world's largest county music star Liz Larimer and we are on the train heading who knows where.
Jay Cantrell has written a story about lost love, adventure and the music industry, or how he sees the industry. In the settings of the story's time line JC constructed a believable interesting drama about greedy Recording Labels, managers, struggling artists and Greed. The story revolves around artists making a lot of money and the labels need to control it.
Runaway Train is an excellent tale to spend a lot of time reading and enjoying. I strongly recommend Jay Cantrel's Runaway Train .
Review by RabbiRabbit [other reviews by RabbiRabbit]
Reviewed:
I am trying to think of a reason why someone might give a Jay Cantrell story a bad a review...waste of time. On top of this being a super story, he posts multiple chapters multiple times during the week.
This review is for Part 1, now completed. Old lovers reunite, he's a washed up baseball player, not down on his luck, he is educated and smart and a nice guy. She is a famous singer, hot, popular and outgrowing her core audience/demographic. And by the way, they knew each other since they were in grade school.
Of course there is a portion of the plot that revolves around the wicked recording company, that is trope. What makes the story super are the characters and dialogue; what makes Jay Cantrell's stories super is always the characters and the dialogue. Rather then build characters around a plot, the plot is built around the characters.
The players come in three flavors: the people close to the male protagonist; the people close to the female protagonist; other folks that tend to be there to move the plot a long. I am not going to give away the plot.
The people around the two main characters are painfully realistic, with all of realism's pain and joy, and the mundane parts of life.
Hospital administrators come in for a serious amount of verbal abuse; my wife has been a med-tech for almost thirty years and I am a graduate student. The two most poorly managed institutions in America tend to be hospitals and universities.The complaints about working for a hospital sound right on the money. One piece that did not resonate for me was the size of the marketing staff of a hospital, however that was not enough to detract from the story as these people needed to meet somehow and as a plot device that one was not at all bad.
I can put one of my pet peeves here because it does not apply to Jay. Dear Authors, Writers, and Storytellers, amused and bemused are not synonyms, and enormity means great evil, not very big. And yes, you can go to a dictionary and find very big as a tertiary meaning of enormity. That however speaks to the degradation of the availability of nuance in English much the same way that literally has come to mean figuratively.
As I wrote in the beginning of this review, this is part 1, complete. It is the set up for the rest of the story, the characters are in place, believable, and interesting. But what about the guy with the secret job and the ultra high security clearance?
