Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Unlimited, by Davis Bunn (a review and giveaway)

About Unlimited
ISBN (Trade Paperback): 978-1-4336-7940-7
320 pages
September 1, 2013 from B & H Publishing Group

Plot Synopsis 
Simon Orwell is a brilliant student whose life has taken a series of wrong turns. At the point of giving up on his dreams, he gets a call from an old professor who has discovered a breakthrough in a device that would create unlimited energy. He needs Simon's help.

Upon crossing the border, nothing goes as the young man planned. The professor has been killed and Simon is assaulted and nearly killed by members of a powerful drug cartel.

Now he must take refuge in the only place that will help him, a local orphanage. There, Simon meets Harold Finch, the orphanage proprietor who walked away from a lucrative career with NASA and consulting Fortune 500 companies to serve a higher cause.

With Harold's help, Simon sets out on a quest to uncover who killed the professor and why. In due time, he will discover secrets to both the world-changing device and his own unlimited potential.

My Review of Unlimited
WOW!!! What to say and how to say it without giving away the whole wonderful plot. I just loved this book. Davis Bunn is such a GREAT writer. Spirituality, intrigue; wonderful, yet flawed, characters; a great plot. Davis Bunn first wrote the screenplay to the movie. Then they decided to have him do a book, also. I can't wait to see the Movie! It should be super! There is so much action in this story.

I would definitely give this book a big thumbs up.
Out of 5 stars I would give it

I loved it. I couldn't put it down. I love their big idea for this book: "unleashing the God-given forces of success that live in every one of us." (pg vii)  I could use some of that.

The device "anchored him [Simon] to a million broken dreams." (pg 14) Boy can I relate to that. I am sure there are others out there who feel the same. Will God give us another chance, or have we blown it to many times?? God gives unlimited grace to us. I am so thankful for that.

Suspense... this book has it from the very beginning!!! Try this on for size... "The hunter treated Simon's death as a game." pg 19 Wowee!!! The book has Secrets. Can you solve the murder before the book tells you? I had my suspicions from about halfway and it turned out I was right. There was much work to be done. People to be drawn to the Lord. Children at the orphanage to be protected and show the truth of God's word. Even love. This book has it all, as usual for a Davis Bunn book. He is my favorite author right now.

"What if God brought him here for a divine purpose?" (pg 41) [Simon that is] Does God have a divine purpose for all of us? I know I will never create a device that makes unlimited energy. Does that mean God's purpose for my life is any less divine?? I don't think so. "Simon might have given up on himself. But God had not given up on Simon." (pg 100) It is the same with us. Especially once/if we are one of His, a believer, a child of God. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will complete the work he started in us (Philippians 1:6), the divine work. He has a purpose for my life... and yours.

     "How do you do it?" (Simon)
     "Do what?" (Harold)
     "Your facing ruin. Everything you worked for could collapse tomorrow. But you're talking about changing the world."
     Son, that's the power of dreams. If they're not big, if they're not impossible, they're not worth investing you life."
     Simon backed up a step. "I've forgotten how to dream."
     "Your problem is, you never learned." (pg 177)

I feel this way. I don't have dreams any more. Things in my life are tough. I don't know if I have forgotten how to dream or if I never knew how. It is hard to dream big, impossible dreams. But God is the God of the impossible. He can do anything. I just need faith, and some hard work of my own, to pursue those dreams.

Will Simon get the device working? Will the orphanage have to close its doors because of lack of money? Will they figure out who and why the professor was killed?

Negatives about the book???? NONE!! It was stupendous!

You can start below by reading the first 3 chapters... after that you will have to buy the book... or enter the giveaway and maybe you will win a copy!!!!!

Read Chapters 1-3 of Unlimited 
They are on Davis Bunn's Facebook page, so you need a Facebook account to read them.
Just click the link below. It will open in a new tab so you can read them after you finish my review.
http://on.fb.me/1c5IyCS



About Davis Bunn

Davis Bunn is a four-time Christy Award-winning, best-selling author now serving as writer-in-residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Defined by readers and reviewers as a “wise teacher,” “gentleman adventurer,” “consummate writer,” and “Renaissance man,” his work in business took him to over 40 countries around the world, and his books have sold more than seven million copies in sixteen languages.

Unlimited is Davis’s first screenplay to be released as a major motion picture. The book, Unlimited, is a novelization of the screenplay.

The inspiration behind the Unlimited film and novel is Harold Finch's book, Success: Four Keys to Unlock Your Unlimited Potential. Download a free copy of Success here: http://unlimitedthemovie.com/4-keys-book/.


Trailer for Unlimited: The Movie




Q and A with Davis Bunn
The storyline in Unlimited is inspired by true events. What actual events inspired the story?

Harold Finch was formerly the founder and CEO of the first management-leadership consulting groups in the US. In the mid-seventies he sold the company to H&R Block for over a hundred million dollars—back when a hundred million actually meant something. Answering God’s call, he has spent the past three decades traveling the world, teaching his concepts for free and helping underprivileged children learn that they do indeed have both a purpose in God’s eyes, and the potential to succeed. His experiences form the basis for this story.

What ignited your idea for the characters to create a device that would convert raw wasted energy into useable power?

I actually wrote the screenplay for the film before writing the novel. This happens occasionally—Godfather and Love Story were both conceived in this order. While working on the film script, the producer and Harold and I were discussing what might work as a basis for the story’s suspense element. We were looking for something that had the means of revealing this ‘unlimited’ potential in people. I don’t actually remember who first came up with the idea of wasted energy, but soon as it was said, we all jumped on it.

Simon Orwell, the protagonist in Unlimited, is a brilliant, cynical electrical engineering student who finds danger irresistible. Did you model his character traits after yourself or anyone you know?

Alas, we all know a Simon. These days, this type of person is all too common. An individual with huge potential, who allows himself or herself to become distracted by the multitude of temptations that basically define modern life. And yes, I do know several such people. Some turn this into hugely productive directions, thank goodness. Usually to do so requires divine help, a clarification of focus, and strength they must reach out and ask to receive.

Many of the characters in the story are orphans. What parallels do you see between the orphans in the story and real-life spiritual orphans?

A beautiful question. While researching the core components of this story, orphanage leaders repeatedly stressed the need to teach orphans to believe in themselves and their natural abilities. Too often they see themselves as lost, without purpose, without a role to play, without chances, without love. What made this story work, I think, is how Simon Orwell shares these same feelings about himself. And how he comes to realize God is the only one to fill this need.

Many people believe they must wear a mask to hide the parts of themselves they are ashamed of. How is this story about removing that mask?

So much of life remains hidden away. The darker elements of a life without God only amplify this falseness. Simon has spent so much of his life, so much of his energy and time, in hiding. As the story unfolds, he discovers that an essential element of arriving at his full potential is being honest with himself. This is where the mask is most damaging, and also where it is often hardest to release. We seek to hide the truth, even when we know the act is a lie in itself. And the mirror we require to see the truth about ourselves is the one that God offers, in infinite patience, in gentle love.

The title, Unlimited, has multiple layers of meaning. What does that title mean to you?

Unlimited was the title brought to me by the film’s producers. When I first began working on this story, it was just that, a title. But as I grew to know Harold, and heard him teach, and read his lesson plan, and then actually applied what he has come to call his ‘Dynamic Life Retreat’ (see Harold's full teachings on his website, HaroldFinch.com) I have come to agree with them in their choice. Bringing God into the equation of life’s direction, success, and reaching full potential does reveal the true meaning of Unlimited.

How can readers find Davis Bunn on the Internet?

Sweepstakes
They are doing the giveaways differently. They are not doing a giveaway on each blog that does a review.
You could win a $50 Fandango gift card plus UNLIMITED, Davis Bunn's new suspense novel. Ten additional winners will receive a copy of UNLIMITED. Enter right now by clicking this link: http://woobox.com/mp5qew. You can enter once per email address per day. Rack up bonus entries by sharing the contest with your Facebook and Twitter friends!

If you don’t have a Facebook or Pinterest account, enter by filling out the form on the Official Rules page here http://bit.ly/15vTr8u.



NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of Unlimited from B&H Publishing Group in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts on the book are my own and were not influenced by the fact that I received the book for free. None of the links are affiliate links.



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