Captivating Characters of August link-up opportunity! Please join the link party or share your most captivating character in the comments.

Carol’s Captivating Characters of August Link-Up

On the last Friday of the month, I will write a post about my most captivating character of the month and create a Link Party (see link below my review)! In addition to hearing about the memorable characters that have captivated you, I also want this new project to facilitate new bookish friendships, help you find your book twin, and promote blog engagement. This link party will stay active for 30 days. In exchange for linking your post back to this one, I promise to visit every blog post that links up, leave a comment, and share your post once on #bookx and #booksky.

Captivating Character Link Up Details:

1. You can use fictional or real characters/persons.
2. Link up a review that specifically highlights a captivating character or person, or write a post dedicated to your most captivating character or person of the month.
3. Please include a link back to this (monthly) post.
4. Be kind: visit one other post in the link-up and leave a comment.
5. #CaptivatingCharacters25

No blog? No problem! Share your most captivating character of the month in the comments.

Special shoutout to Joanne @ Portobello Book Blog, Rosie @ Rosie Amber, and Carla @ Carla Loves to Read for linking up with me last month. Check out their posts.

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Theo

Name of Captivating Character: Theo
The reason he is captivating: compassionate, kind, generous, thoughtful, spiritual
Book and Author: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
Genre/Categories/Setting: Contemporary Fiction, Character-driven Literary Fiction, Small Town, Friendship, Inspirational, Georgia
Mood: reflective
Content Considerations: overall a light read sprinkled with war memories, (one) abusive character, death, memory of child death, grief
FREE Book Club Kit for Theo of Golden

Theo, an octogenarian, arrives in a small Georgia town and visits a coffee shop that displays portraits by a local artist. Theo is fascinated by the artwork and the artist. He wonders why the art hasn’t sold and decides to buy several pieces and gift each one to the subject of the portrait. As he continues to do this, he gains notoriety in town. It’s a bit unusual, but the folks love him and he makes many friends. As the story progresses to its dramatic conclusion, Theo’s complicated motivations are revealed.

What endears each recipient to Theo is that he shares a special word of insight and encouragement with each one based on what he intuits from the painting. These words of encouragement uplift and inspire the recipients in different ways.

Theo is kind, compassionate, and wise. His mission in life is to buy and deliver as many portraits as possible, partly because it’s a meaningful exchange with the recipient and partly to support the artist. As the story progresses, we learn more about the mysterious Theo and his motivations.

Theo of Golden is a beautifully written story with a unique premise, a memorable character, and thought-provoking content. Uplit with a punch.

Star Rating: 5 Stars

Meet the Author of Theo of Golden, Allen Levi

Allen Levi grew up in Columbus, Georgia, attended University of Georgia for degrees in English and Law, and worked as an attorney from 1980 to 1990. He left law practice for two years in 1990, moved to Scotland, and, while there, received a degree in Scottish fiction from the University of Edinburgh. He returned home, resumed law practice for three years, and finally ventured into vocational music in 1996.

Since then, he has worked as a traveling musician, sharing his whimsical, thought-provoking brand of songwriting and storytelling to audiences across the U.S. He has over twenty albums to his credit, as well as hundreds of other unpublished songs.

In 2014, he published The Last Sweet Mile, a memoir of the close friendship he shared with his brother, Gary, who died in 2012. He also wrote and published a children’s book, Oliviatown, adapted from a song of the same title.

Allen published his first novel, Theo of Golden, in 2023 and is currently working on its sequel, Ellen of Golden.

When not reading or writing, Allen, cares for family acreage where he lives with his father, spends time with family nearby, keeps a full schedule of involvement in the small community around him, and dreams of being an artist someday.

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You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

(this link party is open for 30 days)

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“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
“Reading good books ruins you for reading bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“I read because books are a form of transportation, teaching, and connection. Books take us to places we’ve never been, teach us about our world, and help us understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley

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