Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: E. Alan Fleischauer

RECONFIGUREMENT™ by E. Alan Fleischauer – Money Management, Retirement Planning, Career Planning

A guide to achieving financial freedom in retirement, E. Alan Fleischauer’s bestseller Reconfigurement™ reveals a roadmap guided by the Mantra, “Navigate, Customize, and Thrive.”

Advances in medicine, nutrition, and longevity planning now offer unparalleled possibilities to live longer, higher-quality lives. However, looming over this rosy image is a genuine concern: the financial ramifications of a longer retirement term. More alarming is that a sizable portion of the American populace is not harnessing their 401(k) retirement plans.

In light of this scenario, can traditional investment programs with fraying safety nets, such as pensions, remain viable? Reconfigurement combines the emotional fulfillment of making retirement dreams a reality with practical guidance that rejects the notion of a set retirement age of 65. This work’s personal tales and sound financial guidance entice readers away from the constraints of traditional retirement approaches.

Author Fleischauer integrates the needs of financial, professional, and retirement life to create a path for long-term stability and success.

Reconfigurement opens with an eye-opening examination of the unpleasant reality of money and its importance in our lives. It focuses on why budgeting is crucial in a society where success relies so heavily on personal finance. Practical advice and experiences follow to demonstrate the viability of preserving the capacity to earn.

After addressing the financial side, Reconfigurement moves on to the career aspect with a series of tests to assist readers in discovering what career would fit them best.

Continuing the journey, the book explains financial stability pillars that can help strengthen assets and ensure a fruitful retirement. It guides readers through the complexities of insurance, social security systems, and investment opportunities. Next follows the link between safeguarding one’s financial future through insurance and planning for retirement with a chapter on investment options.

The foundation of life, healthcare, takes center stage as Reconfigurement untangles the web of Medicare and Medicaid to safeguard one’s well-being across the years.

The specter of long-term care looms as the book addresses its issues and how to plan around them. Next comes guidance on securing a legacy for one’s posterity, focusing on wills, trusts, and the complexities of their legal and tax implications. This path to financial freedom finally carries into uncharted territory: education savings, budgeting skills, and charitable donations.

Reconfigurement delivers an in-depth account of the different aspects involved in preparing for and managing life transitions, both those hotly discussed and those concealed.

Case studies, practical counsel, and real-life examples serve to close the gap between theory and implementation. Also, the author concedes that the financial material may tire readers, so he endeavors to balance it with humor, anecdotes, and interactive components in a conversational tone.

Rather than aiming for ‘one-size-fits-all’, this book’s advice remains flexible for each reader’s unique situation.

Readers are encouraged to make decisions consistent with their goals, circumstances, and preferences. It is worth noting that Reconfigurement primarily targets the American audience in reflecting American financial standards and systems. However, its overarching financial planning concepts, emphasizing individual customization, assure its global applicability.

Reconfigurement by E. Alan Fleischauer won Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Harvey Chute Awards for Business & Finance Non-Fiction.

March 4, 2024
JUST DIE by E. Alan Fleischauer – International Mystery & Crime, Occult Horror, Thriller & Suspense

E. Alan Fleischauer’s lead character holds the power of life and death in his fingertips in the new crime thriller, Just Die.

How would you react to holding the fate of the living in your bare hand? Recovering from his own near-death experience, retired financial advisor Jake Silver attempts to understand his new powers after a stint in the hospital. When he points his bare finger and utters well-worn words, the object of his attention instantly dies.

With great power comes great responsibility. Now that Jake has this power, how will he decide to use it? And what repercussions come with his decision?

Happy to be home after a stroke, Jake celebrates a second chance at life with his fiancée Beth. He’s also made a new friend from the hospital. This man, Omar, turns out to be an idolized NFL Super Bowl winner, and he joins in Jake’s celebration.

Despite Jake’s gratitude for being home, life’s annoyances can still rub him the wrong way. When he flashes a familiar gesture at any living thing, it dies. It dawns on him that he’s the cause of the deadly results. When a particular bike rider crosses a path near Jake’s home, he suffers this ultimate, lethal punishment. An overreaction? Keep reading to find out more.

The biker’s death brings on a police investigation, exploring motive, means, and opportunity.

Witnesses come forward with motives of their own. Both Jake and his beloved Beth are questioned as witnesses – and then as suspects. How can Jake answer the cops? Concerns grow over whether this stress will force an end to the couple’s engagement, bring them closer together than ever, or put one or both behind bars.

Omar shares a provocative idea with Jake.

After seeing firsthand his friend’s extreme power, Omar shares a story with him. An all-too-familiar tale of justice denied – and the impact upon Omar’s family moves Jake. He sees that it’s within his new power to deliver justice by a covert plan to kill a freed criminal. Will Jake intentionally take on the role of judge and jury to execute what he thinks is the rightful outcome?

In the meantime, the police investigation heats up.

Jake’s power may no longer be a secret. Someone wants this power used for the benefit of the nation and tells an influential official. Now Jake faces more potential danger and critical decisions as the government has designs on his powers. Where will Jake turn? His retired life, gratefully saved in the hospital, has been interrupted by the thriller life of a hired gun.

An action-packed paranormal thriller, Just Die challenges readers with questions about the quality of life, shades of morality, and personal loyalty.

E. Alan Fleischauer masterfully creates relatable characters, including the human frailties shouldered by an NFL star. No one is immune from the limits of being human when tackling bigger-than-life issues. Fleischauer handily delivers a paranormal thriller destined to garner the attention it so rightly deserves. How will it all end? Who will survive the threats and the investigations, and who will just die? Readers, get ready for one thrill ride of a novel. This one will keep you up at night! Just Die won 1st Place in the 2020 CIBAs for Paranormal Fiction.

October 27, 2021
RESCUED, JT Thomas Adventures Book 1 by E. Alan Fleischauer – Action/Adventure, Romantic Action/Adventure, Mystery Action/Adventure

Alan Fleischauer ushers in his new Action/Adventure Western series with Rescued – and gives us a protagonist worthy of the title “hero.“

John Thurgood (JT) Thomas just found the most unusual cave, housing a strange treasure trove of high-end furniture, extraordinary inventions, and a custom gun. While he’s enjoying his mountain view and wondering what should happen with the goods, he spies another unusual site. Three women follow a wagon of dangerous-looking desperados. JT can’t help but step in, little knowing that action will alter his entire life. As a former lieutenant colonel in the Civil War and U.S. Marshal, JT rescues the three women and finds a fourth sitting in the wagon. He immediately abandons his cave camp and takes the women to nearby Point Stevens Pass, Colorado, where he stays until their safety is secured.

One of the women, however, leads the gang and is responsible for kidnapping the others. Jean Cantrell, a bloodthirsty bank robber, and murderer flees town before the women spill the beans – but not before leaving behind a dead banker.

Hellbent on capturing Cantrell, JT pursues the villain, but another woman, Annabelle Hewitt, insists on accompanying him. JT and Annabelle soon realize their feelings may run more profound than those of “victim and rescuer” when they take shelter in the very cave JT had earlier abandoned. Inside, they soon discover a secret. However, Cantrell isn’t about to give up her need for revenge and her greed, and soon, the new couple will face off with the kidnapper again, and their lives will take an incredible turn once again.

So many characters in this novel are unbelievable survivors, especially the female characters.

Annabelle is the most obvious example of these fierce women. Annabelle is married to a violent, dangerous man, Marcus. They lived in New York, where Annabelle trained as a nurse under the tutelage of Marcus’s father; however, when Marcus turns to alcohol and womanizing, Annabelle makes up her mind to leave with their daughter. Marcus isn’t about to let her go, though, and chases her down, takes their daughter from her, and leaves her penniless and abandoned. Annabelle refuses to return with him and works as a housekeeper in an inn until she saves money to keep traveling. While traversing the vast plains, a group of Cheyenne takes her prisoner. She earns the respect of the tribe as a healer, but her adventure doesn’t stop there. Annabelle creates her own business as a midwife and returns from a visit when the Cantrell gang takes her. Meeting JT makes her even more resolved, especially when the two embark on a trip back to New York to take back her daughter and get her freedom legally through a divorce.

Annabelle isn’t the only female survivor.

Though unbelievably evil in a “super-villain” way, Jean Cantrell is also a survivor. While Annabelle gains strength and independence by helping others, Jean chooses the opposite route; nevertheless, her story is one of survival in the brutal world of the Old West. Jean takes on one of the oldest occupations open to women and becomes a whore until she stumbles into a bank robbery where she quickly, remorselessly kills the would-be robber and takes the money. Once Jean realizes how much easier her life can be, the transition from prostitute to outlaw is quick, and no one gets in her way. Though her path is bloody and ruthless, she knows what she must do to survive. She is respected, albeit through fear, and no one, but JT, is willing to challenge her. Evil or not, Jean is a survivor.

Another great theme in the novel is the kindness of strangers, best seen in the actions of JT Thomas.

JT is the consummate good guy. Lovers of old westerns will recognize his gallantry in that comfortable, protector of weak way. He cannot stop himself from helping everyone he meets. He not only saves these women, but he also insists on paying their way, buying them clothes, and finding other people to safeguard them when he leaves to chase Jean Cantrell. When the plot transitions to the big city of New York, JT proves to be the hero again and again. He becomes fast friends with Mrs. C, the owner of a failing hotel, and finds a way to refurbish and restore her hotel. When he meets Annabelle’s daughter, he makes sure she is cared for in all forms, including hiring her boyfriend to manage the hotel. With a few loose ends left at the novel’s end, JT’s heroic actions seem likely to be continued in subsequent adventures.

From the rugged mountains of Colorado to the grit and glitz of New York City, this novel is a fast-paced, twisting adventure that lovers of westerns will devour. Rescued (JT Thomas Adventures Book 1) took home 1st in Category in the 2019 CIBAs for LARAMIE, Western Fiction.

July 9, 2021