Hazardous Choices

Hazardous Choices is written by Joseph Rinaldo and published by Smashwords. The novel is approximately 88,000 words and 30 chapters in length.

Joseph Rinaldo has two published novels the third he is currently editing. Joseph has a daughter who has down syndrome and he hopes his voice can be a guide to parents in a similar situation by creating a character within his first two published novels whom have down syndrome.

Coach Rotteli is keen to get his football team, the Western Kentucky state University Bobcats, back on top form after several losses but it is going to take a lot of work for everyone, so he needs his home life to run smoothly and between a son who has down syndrome and a daughter who is little interested in her studies he has his work cut out at least until another teacher steps in to help with the families communication barriers when it comes to son Eric.
When Darnell, a football player and member of the Knights of Neptune wants out of the gang, he hides who he really is. On return home and to the gang Darnell’s life takes a turn for the worst when he kills someone to please the gang and to enable his return to school and football. Ashamed of his life outside of school Darnell keeps it secret. But just how long can he keep living two separate lives and prevent them from crossing paths without casualties on either end? How many decisions is he going to have to make and will they be the right ones? How many lives are going to be effected by his actions? Not wanting to appear siss-e-fied by either side, if he wants to follow his dreams and leave the tower block back home, what is a guy to do?

Life is full of hazardous choices and that appears to be the point in this story however as much as I know football is important to this story, for me there is just too much description about the game because of this I would have to say that this book is aimed more at a male audience rather than a female one.
However, the story of Eric is far more interesting and I would have liked to have seen more of his story open up and perhaps have his character a little more involved especially at the end.
Gang life appears portrayed very well and the story itself is well written but I have this nagging feeling that some of the football descriptions were word fillers to amp up the word count and this has thrown off the balance of the story. I actually like the idea of the story and would have liked to have seen more about the similarities between gangs and teams rather than read about a football game.

Hazardous Choices is very much a story about brotherhood and loyalty to the end, it also depicts slight similarities between gang life and that of a team of footballers. There is also a story of connections between people and the bonds they have which is especially portrayed by Nicole and Eric.
From a males point of view this book would probably have a higher rate however being a female who prefers books to sport I could only recommend this book to males above 18 years of age or football fans.
I give Hazardous Choices by Joseph Rinaldo 3.5 out of 5 stars.

By R.N. Hadley