If you are having a bad day, if you hate your job, or even if you are just in a bad mood, you need to read this book. This book is fun to read, and I don’t see how anyone could read it without laughing at least once. I lost count of how many times I cracked up while reading this book.
Toby Grant gets a job as a service technician with Handy Dandy Services, but this job turns out to be way more than he bargained for.
Ryan Burdell, one of the experienced technicians, is reluctant to train him but is still given the task to so. Ryan does not treat Toby the best and is always calling him “Newbie”. Of course, this grates on Toby’s nerves. And he constantly reminds Toby of the company’s logo, “service before self”. The reason for their company logo is easy to see when you discover the places they go on their service calls.
The service calls they go on are extremely entertaining. The first house Toby and Ryan paid a service call to was my favorite. The first three sentences under “Favorite Sentences” come from this part of the book, so you can probably figure out how nasty the place was. Toby is more than a little grossed out by it, but Ryan acts like it is just another day at work. I’m not sure which would have scared me more: the condition of that place or Ryan acting like it was normal.
Each service call after the first one is entertaining in its own way. Toby even begins to enjoy working with Ryan. Then one day, Ryan doesn’t show up for work. Things get rough when Toby finds out that Ryan’s life before this service tech job was not quite so innocent: he was involved in the world of drugs, and his former partner was stabbed twenty-seven times. Was Ryan the one who murdered him?
This was a great story that never slowed down. It made me laugh, and its characters were some of the zaniest I’ve ever run across. The author’s descriptions of the utter grossness of the places they made service calls to made me laugh and cringe at the same time.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you like to laugh, you would really enjoy this book. If you would like to purchase this book, Amazon and Smashwords links have been provided below.
Amazon Link: Service Before Self
Smashwords Link: Service Before Self
Recommended Articles:
Write What You Know & The Devil is in the Details – Guest Post by Tegon Maus
Machines of the Little People – a Review
Bio-Chemical Electrical Discharge – Guest Post by Tegon Maus
Favorite Sentences:
A dull, thick smell, a combination of very old socks, an unflushed toilet, rotting food and overused cat litter box filled the air. It felt as if the stench were soaking into my very skin, not to mention my clothes.
Left behind on the counter was a putrid, milky liquid and a small mass of writhing maggots.
To this day, I couldn’t tell you what color the ceiling had been painted. . .every square inch, without exception, was coated in a thick layer of roaches.
New Words Learned:
defoliated – describing an area where the leaves have been removed from
substrate – a supporting material on which a circuit is formed or fabricated.
About the Author:
Married forty-three years to a woman he calls Dearheart, Tegon Maus lives a contented life in a small town of 8,200 in Southern California. By day, Tegon is a successful home remodeling contractor, but his passion is storytelling.
Tegon’s protagonists are frequently wedged between a rock and a hard place but manage to work things out through the story. Like most when pushed into a corner, it only brings out the best in his characters and become the unstoppable force of a reluctant hero. Tegon’s signature style is creating characters who are driven and believable, and who strive to find happiness.
Tegon Maus Website: http://www.tegonmaus.com/#!
Author on Tirgearr Website: http://tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Maus_Tegon/
Thanks for taking part in the tour. I’m glad you enjoyed ‘Service Before Self’ so much!