“Exit to Morvana” by Marilynn Wood

Exit to Morvana

Marilynn Wood
Tellwell Talent (2021)
ISBN: 978-0228836261
Reviewed by Amy Lignor for Reader Views (04/2022)

I have to say, being a person who lives in the “infamous” locale where the UFO crashed and was turned into a monumental cover-up by our government (trust me, there are tons of movies about this if you don’t know what I’m talking about), this book certainly fell into the right hands. If you’re into sci-fi, aliens of the handsomest kind, or one of the billions of people who look around on a daily basis—especially after this pandemic—wishing that there was a way to get off this planet for a bit and enjoy some quality time somewhere else, then this is definitely the book for you.

You will automatically identify with the main character, Samantha Morgan. A woman who has worked as a vacuum cleaner salesperson, Samantha has a rather dull life. The only soul that keeps her company is her beloved old dog, Daniel. She also has a love for playing the piano at the Community Arts Centre for the Star Light Orchestra. After giving readers a brief introduction to Samantha, we ride fast with her on her way to the Centre (because she’s going to be late for her solo performance if she doesn’t move), where the choir is just beginning to belt out Samantha’s own composition “Music for the Universe.” Sitting down as fast as possible, she takes her own place at the piano and catches the eye of Duncan Adair; the conductor who is definitely more than a bit amused at her late arrival.

Now, Duncan is what you would call super-good-looking and has Samantha a bit nervous because he focuses a lot of his attention on her. And even though no one else seems to mind that, it makes Samantha highly uncomfortable. She and Duncan first met at a metaphysical bookstore that Sam frequents a great deal because she’s interested in the science, the stars, and everything that comes along with the metaphysical world. Upon their first meeting, Duncan stated to her that he knew her from somewhere, even though Samantha has no idea who he is and owns no recollection of ever seeing the man before. Oddly enough, however, it took him only minutes to learn everything from where she worked to the fact that she loved music.

Samantha has already been through an abusive marriage, a worse divorce, and doesn’t really feel like she ever wants to head down a romantic path again. She even gets more than a bit annoyed when Duncan gets angry at her for taking a summer job that will have her working in a larger city at The Palace Hotel, doing walk-throughs and selling timeshare condominiums to perspective clients. Duncan wants her to stay in touch with him and call him if she needs anything. She basically agrees to this to get him out of her face. But, unfortunately, that job also leads Samantha into a world of people she really doesn’t want to be around, and she ends up running away from ever having a long-term career in that area.

Life moves forward, with the devoted Duncan nipping at her heels, and Samantha has to go through another heart-breaking loss of her long-time “best friend.” She feels so alone. As far as she can see, Sam feels like there’s no possibility whatsoever she will remotely find a love match like her own happily married parents, where her father had gone AWOL during WWII in order to marry her mother when she was only eighteen years of age. Although Sam longs for a sweet outcome like this, after all the pain, all she really wants to do is get the heck off a planet that feels like it’s trying to smother her every day of her life.

So…how do you get off a planet? Well, being that she’s not a NASA pilot, Samantha soon learns the truth that could just give her a fresh look on life. Turns out, a planet by the name of Morvana exists in the Andromeda Galaxy, and Duncan knows just the route to take in order to get Samantha there. Turns out, she walks into a civilization that went through all the sufferings Earth is currently going through, yet they overcame them and went on to become a perfect planet…a planet Sam can call home if she just leaves everything she’s ever known behind for the rest of time.

The author did a wonderful job creating romantic, emotional characters that show planets at their worst and at their absolute best. The only one thing I would suggest is that an editor be brought in to “clean up” the errors in order to do the book and the author a great service, and to improve everything for the readers out there who love a true adventure!