Rating: 
Summary: A wild, imaginative, lime green ride!
Review: "Flabbergasted" is one of the most quirky, interesting stories I have ever read. I cannot recall having laughed so much or so hard while reading a book since the last time I read one of Erma Bombeck's books.Jay Jarvis is a single, eligible, stock-broker bachelor who has just recently moved to Greenville, South Carolina. Not interested in church other than to meet eligible bachelorettes, Jay meets the girl of his dreams, Allie, on his first visit to North Hills Presbyterian Church. Unfortunately for Jay, Allie is not easy to get to know. Jay will embark on a strange journey domniated by the color lime green, a row of numericals, a less-than-punctual preacher, a pirouette of the gospel, and a multi-hour ride into the Ecudorian jungle. As Jay learns more about Allie and who she is, he will learn about who He is. "Flabbergasted" is a Christian, coming-to-the-Lord novel. However, this is not your normal salvation tale. Ray Blackston, in his first book, has created a wild and imaginative story that will have you laughing, keep you guessing, and make it difficult for you to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Loved It!
Review: "Flabbergasted" is one of the most quirky, interesting stories I have ever read. I cannot recall having laughed so much or so hard while reading a book since the last time I read one of Erma Bombeck's books. Jay Jarvis is a single, eligible, stock-broker bachelor who has just recently moved to Greenville, South Carolina. Not interested in church other than to meet eligible bachelorettes, Jay meets the girl of his dreams, Allie, on his first visit to North Hills Presbyterian Church. Unfortunately for Jay, Allie is not easy to get to know. Jay will embark on a strange journey domniated by the color lime green, a row of numericals, a less-than-punctual preacher, a pirouette of the gospel, and a multi-hour ride into the Ecudorian jungle. As Jay learns more about Allie and who she is, he will learn about who He is. "Flabbergasted" is a Christian, coming-to-the-Lord novel. However, this is not your normal salvation tale. Ray Blackston, in his first book, has created a wild and imaginative story that will have you laughing, keep you guessing, and make it difficult for you to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Great Cast of Characters
Review: Being from the area the novel is set in, I found the story especially amusing. The cast of characters could not be more fun to follow as our narrator takes on one misadventure after another-at least until he finally understands what he was doing wrong all along. If you are single or Southern you will find this book just plain fun to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great Cast of Characters
Review: Being from the area the novel is set in, I found the story especially amusing. The cast of characters could not be more fun to follow as our narrator takes on one misadventure after another-at least until he finally understands what he was doing wrong all along. If you are single or Southern you will find this book just plain fun to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, trite, bad editing
Review: Being from the south, and struggling with my own writing, I really, really, really wanted to like this book. I (and my husband) came away very disappointed in this first outing by Ray Blackston.
The story doesn't ring true, plot points are not explored fully, and a great big nothingness consumes many, many pages. I read an interview with Mr. Blackston where he explained how much of this novel came from his real-life experiences, and apparently he never really had to create anything new.
The book needed a much heavier editing hand, and the twee voice Blackston gives Jay Jarvis is just too treacly.
Give this one a big miss.
Rating: 
Summary: A Quirky Male's-Eye-View of the Christian Singles Scene
Review: How do you get from a sun-soaked South Carolina beach weekend to a missionary outpost in the wilds of Ecuador? The answer surprises Jay Jarvis again and again in this quirky male's-eye-view of the Christian singles scene. Once a male friend said to me "I didn't know what I was here for until I had a child." One might debate his statement, but it does illuminate part of the challenge of being a modern man. In an era and society in which the role of men has changed drastically, young men like my friend are searching for meaning. Ray Blackston's protagonist, Jay Jarvis, is also searching for meaning in his life --- or, at least, a girlfriend. But when a move from Dallas to Greenville, South Carolina finds him trolling the local churches for female companionship, Jay gets much, much more than he bargained for. Jay, like his creator is a stockbroker, who has just been unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend, and on the advice of his realtor decides to try a church service instead of a dating service. Before he know what's hit him, Jay is meeting with the young men's group at the church and taking a Memorial Day beach trip with them (19 men, 34 women, a gross or two of Oreos). He's also met a churchmember named Ally who spends most of her time in the mission fields of Ecuador --- but enough time at home so that her verbal sparring and fast-food-throwing skills haven't been dulled. Before you can jump a pew, Jay is smitten. He and Ally become so engrossed in getting to know each other that they float off course in inner tubes and are forced to spend a night alone on a beach. However, this is a Christian novel, and while that night on the beach causes some sheepish consternation for the pair, it doesn't involve anything else. What makes Flabbergasted so fresh and refreshing is Jay's unchurched perspective. When he arrives in Greenville, he has very little knowledge of what is means to be an adult Christian, and this causes him (and others) no end of confusion. Blackston has not chosen to have his main character poke fun at others at their expense; it's all really at Jay's expense, since he's entered a world where church rules. That doesn't mean, as he soon discovers, that there isn't any fun to be had. Even when Ally returns to South America, Jay has dates to go on, meetings to attend, and all manner of funny, lively characters to meet. His new church-centered life is far from boring. Yet his yearning for Ally remains strong despite the lure of other charming young woman at home, and soon Jay finds himself visiting Ecuador --- and discovering that Ally has reserves and qualities he never imagined. This is no boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl story --- but it has all of the spark of one. Blackston has a sequel in the works that will appear in May 2004 and will include many of the same characters (although in what proportions and contortions remains to be seen). --- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Rating:
Summary: cute
Review: I liked the fresh angle of this book. Imagine this... a book from a man's perspective with almost no reference to sex or violence. (Unless you consider discussing impure thoughts or bloody head injuries, I suppose...) I've never read a book like this. I really liked it and I walked away wanting to smack Allie upside the head for her self-righteousness disguised as good-doing. I just wanted Jay to get somewhere besides holding hands with Allie. And I can't even believe I'm saying that about a Christian-themed story, but there you go.
Rating:
Summary: Amazed in Dallas...
Review: I was walking by the book shelves at the local Sams Club, as I usually do, looking for any new books for some of my favorite authors when I came upon this interesting cover. I read the first page of the Prologue (to determine if the writing will capture me), read the back cover, found out Blackston was a first time author, and decided to take a chance. I am delighted to have made the choice. The story revolves around Jay Jarvis and his struggle to find out the true meaning of life, and I enjoyed every minute of his journey. I cannot help but believe that the character follows Ray Blackston's same abandonment of the 8-5 cubicle life and pursuit of his real joy. The theory of relativity is explained in clear vivid entertaining detail when Jay Jarvis tries to describe how one day being a missionary in Ecuador lasts forever while a week in a finance job lasts but an unmemorable minute. A delight to read. It will examine your purpose in life and make you wish you had the courage of both the author and the main character to live your life as it should be lived. Enjoy. I am saving the book and have loaned it to friends as a source of inspiration.
Rating:
Summary: Help Ray buy a lime-green Cadillac!!!
Review: Jay Jarvis moves to Greenville, South Carolina due to a job transfer from Dallas, Texas. Since his girlfriend just dumped him by email he is interested in finding the singles' hangout. Jay's realtor tells him that churches outnumber bars by a twenty-to-one margin. Memorial Day weekend finds Jay on a singles retreat to Myrtle Beach with thirty-four females and nineteen males from the North Hills Presbyterian Church. Between singing eulogies to lobsters, floating to Africa on an inner tube and riding in a lime green Cadillac, Jay makes friends with a food-throwing, poetry-writing anti-materialistic missionary girl named Allie. And the summer has only just begun... Flabbergasted is more refreshing than lemonade with a squeeze of lime. Buy this book in hardcover and tell everyone you know about it!
Rating:
Summary: The perfect book for light summer reading
Review: Okay, I admit it; I bought this book because of the cover. So when I started reading it, I really didn't know what to expect. But even if I had know, it wouldn't have helped because Flabbergasted is like no book I've ever read before!
The characters are all so weird and spontaneous that you never know what's going to happen next. Every chapter is interesting, and some parts actually made me laugh out loud.
Probably the thing I liked best about Flabbergasted, though, was Jay's perspective. I think that a lot of authors of Christian fiction feel obligated to make their characters become boring and/or preachy after they're "saved". But apparently Ray Blackston didn't read that unwritten rule, because Jay is just as interesting in the end of the book as in the beginning!
One minor complaint I have deals with a statement that Allie makes. She mentions that her church, North Hills Presbyterian, doesn't allow women to preach. But the Presbyterian Church USA has accepted women preachers for many, many years. In fact, we're one of the most "liberal" denominations in this country. But it's only a very small error, so I won't complain too much!
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