Do You Realize?

A Novel

By: Kevin Kuhn

Narrated by: Grant Pennington

Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

George is a middle-management, middle-class, middle-aged guy who hates his job and struggles to stay connected to his wife and teenage children. Most guys might end up with a steamy affair and a flashy car for their midlife crises, but George gets a quirky philosophical physics professor named Shiloh. Trapped with this mysterious misfit on his morning commuter train, George is dragged into awkward conversations about love, fear, music, and the meaning of life. Shiloh also asks George to beta-test an app he wrote for the new Apple Watch - and with a free watch included, how could he say no?

When tragedy strikes, throwing George out of his uncomfortable comfort zone, he learns that Shiloh’s app lets him journey through alternate versions of his past. As challenges mount in his own reality, George must make a decision that will change him - and possibly the entire multiverse - forever.

©2017 Kevin A. Kuhn (P)2019 Kevin A. Kuhn

Can't Stop Thinking About It

I love Time Travel Stories, especially when they blend with a real human interest story. Although this "Time Travel" is in a different manner - the story line is so thoughtful and thought provoking. The characters are well developed and fit together beautifully. George, one of the main characters is a "good man" with flaws that he is learning he has and also tries to change those flaws for his family. The "traveler" Shilo is a philosophical type of person with a good sense of humor. the bonding of George and Shilo provide a look at love in the universe among other important issues that stem from love.
I could go on with George's family, but I won't because I don't want to give anything away.
My only issue is that the narrator does not do a good job with women's voices and makes them sound like babies even though they are teenagers or adults.
All I can say is WoW you gotta listen or read this one!

Be Prepared to Think about this one

This was by no means what I expected when I read the summary.
This book is a deep thinker on life and the choices we make in living it every single day.
We are all travelers in this journey. Are you a positive or a negative influence on those you interact with on your journey?
No matter your background, you can choose to find good and bad not only in this story but in every part of your journey. Hopefully you will choose to look for the positive and then choose to share that with others.

I thought this was a well written story designed to tell the story that it excels in telling. Sometimes it goes quite deep, but that is by design.
I thought the narrator did a good job with this story even though he really was not able to do the female voices justice. He just made it work as this is told in a primarily male voice.

I will be looking for more from Kevin Kuhn.

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Good premises but some issues at the execution

George feels trapped in what seems to be a middle life crisis when he meets Shiloh on the train to work. Shiloh makes George a very special present and tries to give him lessons of philosophy and psychology to make him understand that not all is lost, and that everything will be fine.

I really liked the premises of this book, about time travel, even though it was not time travel per-say, and the science fiction part of the book was not bad. I think I just expected it to be a bit more fulfilling, like the philosophy theories Shiloh comes up with to help George, which come out mostly patronizing. It was all about positive thinking and how unimportant our problems really are in the grand scheme of things. It was okay, and I believe this book may be of help to lift one’s spirits, but my problem was that I didn’t care enough for the characters. They traverse quite difficult times, and I think the book should have made me cry a couple of times, but it did not. Somehow there was something missing that did not let me fully enjoy it. Maybe the writing or the fact that the main character is a middle-aged man. Even like that, I believe some of his problems could be akin to me, but I just failed at feeling any kind of connection to him.

Some parts of the book are terribly long-winded, and I think the whole story would have benefitted from an editor. When describing the Apple watch, the author switches from past to present tense, which did not feel right. I also believe the dialogs sounded forced and not natural at all. I think it was one of the main issues why the characters did not seem alive to me.

George is a worrier by nature, and he and the plot feel predictable and flat. The ending was a bit anticlimactic, and the POV switch caught me off guard. Hint: the book is written in first person, but the last chapter is told by Shiloh instead of George. It felt a bit strange, especially because Shiloh keeps being quite a mystery and a one-dimensional character.

Grant Pennington was perfect for George. He did sound like a middle-aged man in need of help, but he did a poor job at trying to interpret the rest of the characters. Everyone sounded exactly the same, and following dialogs was a bit confusing at times. He did not even try with female characters, and pauses between paragraphs were a bit too short, which did not help to follow dialogs.

Aside from the issues I had with the book, I still think it is a good story, and worth reading if you are into time travel.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Time Does Matter

Kevin A Kuhn nails time travel in this sci-fi adventure of alternate parallels in one man's past.

George is dealing with seemingly familiar days. He and his family are distracted by work, school, sports, and accidents that keep happening. George is stuck in a rut, when he meets a man named Shiloh on a morning commuter train. Shiloh has some important questions to ask George. George is given an Apple watch to beta test. He finds out he can travel back in time to help answer these questions, and get some perspective on life.

This book is an A+. An amazing read. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, always wondering what will happen next.

great read

this book makes you think, it has everything you could want in a story. I truly loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone who has ever doubled themselves or questioned their place in the world.

A Thought-Provoking Journey

This book is an interesting combination of philosophical introspection and science fiction. It should be noted that the science fiction aspect is what is used to drive the real message of this story which involves the philosophical message. I enjoyed both.
in this story, the main character is given the opportunity to revisit certain aspects of his life and re-experience them. This is a pretty decent way for us to look at ourselves and our past with the possible benefit of the wisdom we have garnered.
I enjoyed the thought-provoking nature of the story which is guided by the physicist Shiloh.
The narration was OK. It often felt a little stiff to me but, ultimately did not affect my ability to enjoy this book.
I requested this book from the author and agreed to write a review after reading.

Could be better

George is a middle-management, middle-class, middle-aged guy and he is also a bit wet and annoying, what I did enjoy was the idea of the book. but the author enjoyed writed George a little too much, there were times when he could have used the word he.
Apart from all that the narration was great, the storyline was good. There is certainly something to think about in this book. But I found it was missing something, can't put my finger on it. I found George a little wet, his wife a little bossy, his kids just annoying also. The idea of the book was good, but I don't think it was taken advantage of. I found the last 25% a bit dragging. But even though I finished it so it get three stars.

Awesome Story With an Amazing Underlying Message

I received a free credit for this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

This book was absolutely awesome... the whole story is told perfectly. The only problem I have is the narrator didn't provide a greater range of voices for the characters in the book. I had a tough time differentiating between the characters when they're speaking, so I had to pay very close attention to the conversations held.

Now, onto what was so awesome. The whole story had an amazing underlying message. It reminded me of several other books that have allegorical stories like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, The Noticer by Andy Andrews, and any of Og Mandino's books. What I took from this specific book was a message about being present and making an impact on someone's life.

You are either a spark that will have an impact in the world or a spark for someone else.

Definitely listen to this book and pay attention to the conversations. Shiloh is a major conversation starter and the spark for the main character, George.

Excellent story!

I highly recommend Do you Realize? By Kevin Kuhn.
This story has very relatable down to earth characters and kept my interest throughout.

Everyone needs a Shiloh in their life

I loved this story line and feel inlove with Shiloh, though sometimes his perky and positive narrative was about at times. I think that this interpreted stranger was exactly what George needed in his life. the take away I got in this book was to accept the chances that come along in your life.