-TV Personality and Author-
Rictor J.S. Riolo
WAR BONDS
Mary Jo is a small town woman who discovers a mysterious box in her basement filled with letters from a soldier written during WWII. With the help of her arrogant, busy body ex-mother-in-law, she tries giving the letters to the rightful owner. The letters owner is the town’s most hated woman, who throws the box away saying, “They’re the workings of the devil.” Confused by her reaction, Mary Jo takes the letters back and reads them herself, revealing a soldier begging his family to write, and a family that has shunned their son. War Bonds captures the spirit of “Steel Magnolias” and the intensity of “Saving Private Ryan,” where the impossible happens and a family’s dark secret is revealed.
VEHEMENCE
The Corragio family is your typical Italian family living in Brooklyn, New York. The head of the loud household, Giovanni Corragio, is a retired fire chief who spends his free time either at the firehouse with the boys, or at his wife’s restaurant in lower Manhattan. His wife, Jennine, is the family matriarch who runs her own restaurant and acts as a surrogate mother to her husband’s firefighters at Rescue Station Eight. They have two grown boys: The youngest, Danny, recently graduated college and works at the World Trade Center as a commodities broker. The oldest is Jacob; he is an Air Force pilot, and has been for almost ten years. Their pop never wanted them to follow in his footsteps and become firefighters. Being a fireman was a dangerous job and Giovanni wanted more for his boys.
Factual events, as documented in history, are incorporated with fictional characters thrown into the chaos of that horrible day.
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September 11th changed all of that.
Reviews on War Bonds:
What a page turner! War Bonds is a first novel from an excellent writer, impossible to put down. Marvelous! The character of Hank is certain to capture your heart and hold it all the way through.
—Mary Millard
Rictor Riolo has created a compellingly original novel. His smooth storytelling vividly brings each character to life in War Bonds as he compassionately addresses their emotions including the hereafter in the gay community. A touching, exquisitely detailed and unforgettable journey.
— Camille Duskin, President of the Gateway Arts Foundation
