M.J. Rose is a stylish, lyrical writer with a new series available from Mira Books. I reviewed the first book, The Halo Effect, for ReadersRoom.com. The book is now available in paperback, and in a great effort to promote literacy, Rose has arranged for $5 to be donated to Reading is Fundamental for each Web site that links to her Vidlit promo for the book.

From Rose’s Web site:

Introducing the first
“GOOD BOOKS/GOOD CAUSE BLOG-A-THON” campaign

The goal of this two-week campaign is to connect book lovers with a good cause and a great summer read via the vidlit for THE HALO EFFECT.

I’ve secured pledges from real-life supporters - my publisher, agent, family and friends - who will collectively donate $5 to the nonprofit literacy organization, Reading Is Fundamental, for each website or blog that links to the Vidlit for THE HALO EFFECT before July 19.

The goal is to get at least 500 blogs to link and raise $2500+ for the charity.

Working with publicist Lauren Cerand (lcerand at gmail.com), I’m making a serious outreach to cultural blogs, New York centric blogs (the book takes place in NY), entertainment blogs, blogs that focus on psychology, sexuality, true crime, women’s issues, erotica, and yes, of course lit blogs.

THE HALO EFFECT is just the first book in the GOOD BOOK/GOOD CAUSE BLOG-A-THON series. I’ll be blogging about how it goes and if it takes off watch this space to get information about how to get involved with your book and/or your author.

In the meantime, if you want to help raise some money for a good cause, all you have to do is blog about M.J. Rose’s novel THE HALO EFFECT including a link to the short animated film for the novel (http://www.vidlit.com/mj/) just once! And $5 dollars will be donated to the nonprofit literary organization Reading is Fundamental. (If you want a copy of the book for review. contact lcerand at gmail.com while supplies last.)

Below is my review of The Halo Effect.

The Halo Effect, besides being the title of the newest work from author M.J. Rose, is a psychological term used when an individual creates an overall favorable impression because of his excellence in one trait. If someone is successful in one thing, we assume they are successful in all things. This can lead to some serious misjudgments on our part, and Rose explores this artfully in her new thriller from Mira Books.

The Halo Effect is the first in a new series about Dr. Morgan Snow, a sex therapist with the Butterfield Institute. Morgan’s patient, Cleo Thane, is a high-priced call girl who can fulfill every man’s fantasy, except the one she wants so desperately to please–her fiancé’s.

Desperate to reconcile her line of work and past with her future, she turns to Morgan to help her find the underlying reason for her inability to connect–intimately and physically–with her fiancé. In addition to this, she turns to the doctor as a person she can trust with the book she is writing–a book that will spill the secrets of the high-priced clientele she caters to, even though she is attempting to disguise them.

At the same time Snow is counseling Thane, a series of murders unfold in the city, and the serial killer’s target victims are young prostitutes. Detective Noah Jordain is on the case, and he is appalled by the ritualistic–and apparently religiously motivated–brutal murders. A man with demons of his own to spare, Jordain is the perfect person to capture this killer, if only he can put the pieces of the puzzle together and come up with the answer he needs. When Cleo Thane disappears, Morgan is convinced that it could be related to the murders of the other call girls, and that perhaps the killer is one of the men described in Cleo’s memoir, even though the other victims were street hookers, and Cleo served only the wealthy and famous. But Morgan is hard pressed to convince Jordain that Cleo’s disappearance is related to the other murders, so she decides to go undercover herself and meet the men that Cleo described in her memoir–a copy of which Morgan still has in her possession. She is able to identify all of them mostly because Cleo described them so completely, even though she gave them nicknames–all of them, that is, but one.

And so, the slightly cold Dr. Snow traipses over into Cleo’s world, one inhabited by the powerful, wealthy, and sexually perverse. She arranges meetings with each man as a way to discover if they could be the killer–or if, at the least, they could have done something to Cleo. Along the way she forms a fledgling relationship with Detective Noah Jordain, a man who makes her want to open herself up–and warm up–for the first time since her divorce, even while she is contemplating the trouble that sex can cause in a person’s life. Her husband divorced her because they became little more than friends, her work affecting her ability to pursue intimacy, and while the friendship was enough for her, it was not for him. Now Jordain is challenging her desire to keep herself safe in the confines of a relationship, all the while disapproving of her dabbling in his case.

What ensues is an enlightening look at sex in the twenty-first century, lyrically written as only M.J. Rose can do, along with a compelling murder mystery and a detailed look at what lies beneath the trappings of wealth and power–and what drives people to kill.

When reading The Halo Effect, it is necessary to put all your preconceived notions aside, and consider the vagaries of human nature and human sexuality. The book is gritty and graphic, yet compellingly lovely and open-minded, and full of surprises and nuance–much like the people it portrays.

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