This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
A Butterfly in Philadelphia is a contemporary fiction novel written by Bruce Hartman. Spencer Casey lives with his Aunt Lorraine, who's raised him since he was a child, and his cousin, Shawn, who's torn between being a rapper and a minister when he grows up. Spencer works at Artistic Puzzles, Inc., a factory that makes jigsaw puzzles out of masterpieces of Western art. Although he works the night shift on his own, Spencer spends time in the mornings with Charlie, old Mr. Pangborn, and Audrey, the bookkeeper. One day, there's word that a fraud has been perpetrated by someone in Artistic, and the licensing company is looking for what they say are hundreds of missing puzzles. It turns out that Stupid Butchie, a member of the Pangborn family, has been diverting a percentage of the puzzles into his own little enterprise.
Bruce Hartman's contemporary fiction novel, A Butterfly in Philadelphia, is sly and witty. Spencer and Lindsay Pangborn are marvelous characters and the perfect narrators for this disarming story. Hartman never tries to inject humor into his story; he simply makes it happen, and he does so quite well. The story is absurd, yet filled with pathos that sometimes borders on the grotesque. I had a marvelous time reading this book. It made me smile from the very first pages through to the end, though I'll probably never look at a jigsaw puzzle in quite the same way again. A Butterfly in Philadelphia is one of the strange, comic masterpieces that you're quite lucky to run across once in a very great while. It's most highly recommended.
