Tag Archives: book review

12 Books Releasing in September

[Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I received copies of the books contained in this post for purposes of review.]

September has a lot of great new book releases from true crime to historical fiction, to apocalyptic novels. Here’s what is on my radar this month.

Always the First to Die by R. J. Jacobs. A horror film actress returns to the manor where her first film was made, a place she swore she would never return to after the horrors that took place there. She is forced to return to the island to find her daughter as a category 4 hurricane hits, replaying the plot of the infamous horror film that made her famous. Releases September 13.

Children of the Catastrophe by Sarah Shoemaker. This historical fiction story begins in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, 1908. Liana Demirgis is being thrust into the spotlight by her mother in order to find a husband. An arranged marriage is made between the Demirgis and Melopoulos families and Liana is wed to Vasili. We follow the couple’s lives as the massacre of Greeks and Armenians after World War I takes place. Paperback releases September 6.

Duet: Our Journey in Song with the Northern Mockingbird by Phillip Hoose. National Book Award and Newberry honor-winner Phillip Hoose dives into the history of the mockingbird and it’s present day use as the rallying call in the Hunger Games. This YA book uncovers the connections between humans and the mockingbird over the centuries from the White House to modern day books. Releases September 13.

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer. Oh, I love Enola Holmes and she is at it again. This time, trying to keep a friend with dual personalities out of trouble, while her older brother Sherlock is tasked with bringing the girl back home. What trouble will Enola find herself in this time? Releases September 6.

Fall Guy by Archer Mayor. Book 33 in the Joe Gunther series. This one is for those who love detective novels. When the body of a burglar is found in the trunk of a stolen car, the Vermont Bureau of Investigation discovers evidence in the car linked to an old unsolved child abduction case. Joe Gunther leads his team on the hunt for this psychopath before he kills again. Releases September 27.

Harrow by Joy Williams. Her first novel since Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Quick and the Dead, Joy Williams creates an apocalyptic story about a gifted young girl who stumbles upon a resort filled with elderly inhabitants who want to violently punish corporations and those who created the environmental apocalypse. Releases September 14.

Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah. This is an incredible story that leads to complete doom every which way Koral turns. This new world was hard to understand in the beginning, but once the races begin, you get snared into its net and can’t help but hope that things will get better for Koral and her family. Will she win the race and help her family out of their ruin, especially when the entire world is stacked up against her? This South Asian inspired story releases September 6.

Nothing But the Night: Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920s America by Greg King and Penny Wilson. For my true crime lovers, I can’t sum this up any better than the actual synopsis. The synopsis alone makes my jaw drop. SYNOPSIS: Nearly a hundred years ago, two wealthy and privileged teenagers―Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb―were charged and convicted in a gruesome crime that would lead to the original “Trial of the Century”. Even in Jazz Age Chicago, the murder was uniquely shocking for the motive of the killers: well-to-do Jewish scions, full of promise, had killed fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks for the thrill of it. The trial was made even more sensational by the revelation of a love affair between the defendants and by defense attorney Clarence Darrow, who delivered one of the most famous defense summations of all time to save the boys from the death penalty. The story of their mad folie à deux, with Loeb portrayed as the psychopathic mastermind and Leopold as his infatuated disciple, has been endlessly repeated and accepted by history as fact. And none of it is true. Using twenty-first century investigative tools, forensics, and a modern understanding of the psychology of these infamous killers, Nothing but the Night turns history on its head. While Loeb has long been viewed as the architect behind the murders, King and Wilson’s new research points to Leopold as the dominant partner in the deadly relationship, uncovering a dark obsession with violence and sex. Nothing but the Night pulls readers into the troubled world of Leopold and Loeb, revealing a more horrifying tale of passion, obsession, and betrayal than history ever imagined. Releases September 20.

Resurrection: Book One of the Manifestation Trilogy by Paul Selig. For those looking for spiritual guidance, renowned channel Paul Selig, channels the Guides for guidance and wisdom in manifesting our next phase in humanity. Releases September 20.

The Best Friend by Jessica Fellowes. For those who love thrillers, this book explores the friendship between two women. Friends at a young age, and then when men are introduced into their lives, everything takes a dark turn. Releases September 13.

The Deceptions by Jill Bialosky. This book qualifies for the tag of writing about strong women. As a woman’s life unravels at the seams, this teacher/poet spends her days in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, sitting before the Greek and Roman gods. They come to life, forcing her to choose between myth and reality. This book is an exploration between ‘female sexuality and ambition.’ Releases September 6.

The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore. This retelling of Ivan the Terrible intertwines the tsar’s story with the mythical witch Baba Yaga. Yes, the witch who lived in a house with chicken legs. Part goddess and part mortal, she is blessed with a long life and youth. She is thrust into the tsar’s court to care for his ailing wife, Anastasia Romanovna, who was being poisoned by someone in the tsar’s court. It is rumored that Ivan’s volatile behavior came out after Anastasia’s death, thus beginning his reign of terror across Russia. This book intertwines the myths of the gods of old with the new Russia that formed as Christianity took over the land. Yaga faced more than just an irate tsar, she also faced an unknown evil that was taking over the land. Was this evil the workings of a madman or the amusement of the gods? Gilmore does an excellent job of making Yaga a participating spectator during this time in history. Yaga is seen as an inspiring demigod, a heroine, and not just an ugly, old witch. Releases September 20.

Take My Hand: A Look into Forced Sterilization of Poor and Marginalized Groups

When I first read a few years ago that women detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in detention centers were being sterilized involuntarily, I thought that cannot be true.  After reading “Take My Hand” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, I now understand the US Government has been using sterilization on the poor, especially on people of color over the last 100 years.  And I’m mad as hell about it.

“Take My Hand” is a historical fiction novel loosely based on the 1973 Relf v. Weinberger case where two sisters, ages twelve and fourteen, were sterilized without their consent in Montgomery, Alabama by a federally funded agency.  In this story, we follow Civil Townsend, a nurse hired by a clinic to help women and girls with their reproductive health.  She believes that all women and girls should take care of their reproductive health.  Her mission is to help them.

She is responsible for administering Depo-Provera shots to two girls living in a one room shanty where they live with their father and grandmother.  They live in complete squalor. 

The girls are ages 11 and 13.  The youngest does not speak and has developmental issues.  When Civil learns that the youngest has not even had her first menstrual cycle, she questions why the girl is required to receive birth control.

Her friend, Ty, informs her the shot is not FDA approved and causes cancer in animal subjects.  This alarms Civil and she realizes this may be similar to the Tuskegee experiments.  She decides to stop giving the girls the shots and either get them on birth control pills or altogether stop administering birth control to them since they are not sexually active.

But her supervisor is monitoring the situation and notices the doctored reports.  She shows up at the girls’ home and gets dad and grandma (both cannot read) to sign a slip of paper to take the girls to the ‘clinic’ for their shots.  At least, that’s what they thought they were signing.

When Civil visits to let the youngest girl know she got her into a special school, she discovers the girls were taken to a hospital to be sterilized.  By the time she gets to the hospital, it’s already too late.

Ty’s parents are lawyers and decide to help the family get justice for what has happened.  A young white man is assigned to the case to help them.  It catches the eye of Senator Ted Kennedy and he brings the family to Washington, DC to tell a Senate committee what happened.  The story makes national news and more stories surface from across the nation of women and girls forced to be sterilized by federally funded agencies.

Reports appear of mothers in the midst of childbirth forced to sign papers that will allow the doctor to sterilize them after the birth of their child.  The doctors threaten to not deliver the child if they refuse to sign the papers.  In California, doctors report that poor Hispanic women are forcibly sterilized.  More and more stories come to light as to how bad the situation really is.

We have found that sterilization is the rule, not the exception.  It is widely endemic in this country.  It is a form of reproductive control.

Last year we did a survey and found that although two-thirds of federally funded clinics’ patients were white and only one third are Black, 43 percent of those sterilized are Black.  A report from the United States government…found that between the summer of 1972 and the summer of 1973, twenty-five thousand adults were sterilized in federally funded clinics.  Of these, 153 were under the age of eighteen.

“Take My Hand” is terrifying and shocking as you learn that this atrocity happened and continues to happen.  This is a war waged against women, especially those who are poor.

Our bodies belonged to us.  Poor, disabled, it didn’t matter.  These were our bodies, and we had the right to decide what to do with them.  It was as if they were just taking our bodies from us, as if we didn’t even belong to ourselves.

The fact that involuntary sterilization still occurs is unfathomable.  How is it that an administration that is anti-abortion and pro-life is also pro-sterilization?  

There’s also a conversation that underlies all of this and that is the importance of women’s sexual and reproductive health.  Throughout the world, talking about any of this is taboo.  From first periods to menopause, no one talks about women’s health.  It is shunned.  In some parts of the world, women and girls do not have access to sanitary napkins or tampons.  Girls end up dropping out of school when they get their first periods, because they do not have access to something as basic as pads or tampons.

Sexual health is health care.

Women needed access to reliable birth control and information about their reproductive health.

One item that is very important to mention is that many of these women and girls felt like they had no choice but to accept sterilization.  Those who accept government assistance (welfare, food stamps, housing, Medicaid) are subjected to constant government intervention.  Government officials constantly came and  went out of their homes.  For some people, they were threatened that if they did not submit to sterilization, mandatory birth control, etc., they could lose their government assistance.

In some cases, people were not given the proper information on sterilization and Depo-Provera.  They were not told that the surgery was not reversible.  Side effects of Depo-Provera were not discussed.  At times, clinics were not advised on the procedures regarding sterilization or the administering of it.  Women and girls were not given alternatives to birth control.  For thousands of women and girls, their right to have children was taken away from them without their consent.

That’s the most important thing here…their right was taken from them without their consent.

Women in prison as recently as 2006-2010 faced forced sterilization.  Less than a hundred years ago, sterilization was forced on those institutionalized.  Many women during that time were not mentally ill.  A woman with irregular periods, or a woman whose husband wanted to rid themselves of their wife to marry another woman, could be institutionalized.

During the Trump administration, rumors of detained female immigrants who were forced to be sterilized made the news.  But the only response became disgust, and then yesterday’s news.

The war on women needs to end.  We don’t hear of men undergoing forced sterilization because they are poor or an immigrant.  Their right to their own bodies is not under attack by the government.  But for women, we are constantly threatened.  It needs to stop.  We need to stop being a taboo.  Our reproductive health and overall women’s health needs to be considered important in the medical field.  When I want to talk about menopause and what happens to the body changing, I need my doctor to be able to know what exactly that is and advise me on what to expect.  When we are provided a vaccine, make it not just for men in mind, but women, too.  Sanitary napkins and tampons should not be taxed.  They are a necessity.  It should be covered as a health need.

Why not provide adequate birth control to all women?  There would be less abortions if women had the proper medical care and access to it.  Give them other alternatives to birth control.  Sterilization should be a choice, not something forced upon women by the government.  Truthfully, I have to ask, why is the government so obsessed with controlling a woman’s body?  Women must really scare them.

I have to say, this book made me mad.  It is a difficult read, but necessary.  Everyone needs to understand the way war is raged upon women, especially those who live in poverty and are a person of color.  Women are not yesterday’s news.  We are victimized daily in a numerous amount of ways, because we are women.  It needs to end.

[All quotes are from “Take My Hand” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez] [Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.]

Book Review: Firekeeper’s Daughter

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

[Disclaimer: Please forgive me if this post isn’t fully coherent. I had two of my wisdom teeth removed a couple of days ago. I am still on medication and not fully back to functional.]

This is the third indigenous author I’ve ever read. I think it has more to do with a lack of indigenous authors than it does not seeking out their stories. I’ve become a loyal Rebecca Roanhorse reader over the years, and I will definitely be a loyal reader of Angeline Boulley’s books, because of the strong characters they build to tell their stories.

In Firekeeper’s Daughter, we are introduced to Daunis Fontaine, an eighteen-year-old mixed race (half white, half Ojibwe) young lady getting ready for her first semester of college. She is from a hockey town, well known amongst the die hard hockey fans, called Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan (it’s not Salt, it’s pronounced Soo). Her father, Levi Firekeeper, was a great hockey player until an accident ended his career. Both she and her brother (also Levi) are hockey players.

Her family’s past though is a little complicated. Her mother is from the richest white family in town. When she discovered she was pregnant, she went to tell Levi, only to catch him in the act of cheating. She ran off, he followed and got into the accident. Her parents sent her to stay with relatives in Montreal. When she returned with three-month-old Daunis, she discovered he was now married and had a son called Levi Jr.

Despite this unfortunate beginning for Daunis, her mother always made sure she had access to her Ojibwe family, no matter how much her GrandMary (grandmother) disagreed with it. Daunis grew up in two different worlds. One that was white and French, the other that was a part of the indigenous Ojibwe community.

I’m always a big supporter of stories featuring mixed race kids, because I am one myself. You’re always stuck between two worlds, and one side is usually unaccepting of the other side. You tend to be more assimilated into one culture than the other. But you’re always an outsider of both cultures, and never fully accepted, even though you do everything you can to be accepted.

Daunis here is in the same boat. She is a star hockey player, really smart, volunteers her time, a pillar in her community, and always looking out for her friends and family. She is literally a female warrior throughout this book, and that’s what made me love her character so much. They call this Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman).

When we enter Firekeeper’s Daughter, it is shortly after Daunis’s uncle dies from an overdose. Two months later, her GrandMary is hospitalized. Her mother takes off work to watch over her while she is in a long-term care facility, and Daunis decides to forego leaving home to attend college at University of Michigan so she can be closer to her family during this time. She decides to enroll in the local community college where her friend Lily will be attending, and then transfer to U of M the following year if everything gets better.

What Daunis doesn’t know is that her world is just starting to change.

It starts with a murder, then a suicide. Then she is roped into an FBI investigation where she is asked to become an informant to help them uncover where a strange strain of meth is coming from. All the FBI knows is that it has something to do with her small town, her community, and hockey. But how?

It is here that I would like to warn readers that there are content warnings for this book. Do not read if you are sensitive to any triggers, because to accurately tell the story of the Ojibwe people, the author had to talk about the things that happen in their community. It is not all fairy tales and happy endings…although, this one had a fantastic girl power ending.

Indigenous communities suffer from a higher rate of suicide among men than any other race in North America. They are plagued with substance abuse issues, drugs, and criminal activity. What broke my heart though is that this is a harsh wake up call for those who want to understand how people of color are treated in America, especially when a group of people face systemic racism and poverty. People are forced to do things that can destroy everything about the community they love, just for their own survival. And they don’t care who gets hurt along the way.

When I realized in the story who was behind the drugs, I kept thinking…no. Please, no. This will break Daunis’s heart. But if Boulley is going to accurately describe what was happening in her community, she needed to tell the truths that would hurt. But she helps the reader survive those heartbreaks by making Daunis a strong Ojibwe woman.

Daunis doesn’t let the evils of the world transform her or stop her from being her own true self. She builds strength by standing against the evils and standing with her community. When she stands with them, they stand with her. And that is a powerful message.

I highly recommend this book. It was a 21 Jump Street meets hockey in an Ojibwe community kind of story. It tells us about the horrors that Ojibwe women go through, as well as what their community is going through. Boulley wanted to remain as true as possible to their stories when she wrote this book. She enlightens the world with who the Ojibwe people are and how they are being destroyed, yet somehow she knows all too well they will survive together if they stick together.

For those hockey fans that still read what I write, this is a great YA novel to pick up. There’s enough hockey in this that will keep you intrigued. It will also remind you of the story of the Tootoo brothers (Inuit tribe). Both brothers were hockey players. One took his own life at the age of 22. The other went on to have a 13 year NHL career.

You can get your copy here: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million.

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a review. This post contains affiliate links.]

Book Feature: Where Dreams Descend

Book: Where Dreams Descend
Author: Janella Angeles
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: August 25, 2020
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5)

Hello Lovelies!

So this month, I decided to review a book a little differently. I joined a buddy read with a few fellow Instagram book reviewers and we read the book together and chatted about the book a couple of times this month. I have to say, it was much more fun to review a book this way. I honestly think we should do it more often.

Here’s the synopsis for the book.

Synopsis

In a city covered in ice and ruin, a group of magicians face off in a daring game of magical feats to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus, only to find themselves under the threat of an unseen danger striking behind the scenes.

As each act becomes more and more risky and the number of missing magicians piles up, three are forced to reckon with their secrets before the darkness comes for them next.

The Star: Kallia, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost

The Master: Jack, the enigmatic keeper of the club, and more than one lie told

The Magician: Demarco, the brooding judge with a dark past he can no longer hide

Where Dreams Descend is the startling and romantic first book in Janella Angeles’ debut Kingdom of Cards fantasy duology where magic is both celebrated and feared, and no heart is left unscathed. 

{From Goodreads}

Review: Where Dreams Descend

As you can see from the ranking above, I gave “Where Dreams Descend” three stars. I agreed with the group’s assessment on the ranking. Here’s why.

The story was confusing. A whole group of us had so many questions at the halfway point and at the end. None of our questions were answered at any point.

Sure, we had some crazy conspiracy theories at the midway point, trying to figure out who was the bad guy and what was really going on. Was the villain really the villain or do we have this all wrong? What’s up with this strange town? Why does no one know anything beyond 50 years ago? What happened 50 years ago? What was this fire? Where in the world did Kallia come from? What’s her backstory and Jack’s? What is up with these mirrors? What’s with the cards? What’s with the houses? What about this fire they talk about?

NONE OF THE QUESTIONS WERE ANSWERED.

Granted, by the time we got to the end, we were even more confused than we were at the midway point. So in other words, it wasn’t just me. ALL OF US were confused!!!

Granted, I kind of liked our conspiracy theories we came up with. It made us want to race to the end to see if we were right. Sad to say, none of us were right. Instead, we were going, “HUH?” In other words, you will NEVER guess how this book will end.

But that’s not why we ranked it 3 stars.

The author created some very strong characters. I loved Kallia from the very beginning. I loved Aaros, too. Kallia and Aaros made the perfect partners in crime. I also loved the love story that developed between Kallia and DeMarco. These characters made you feel either a strong love or distaste for them. Even when you can’t quite figure out if someone is innately good or bad, you feel something for that character.

Creating strong characters is Janella Angeles’s strong point. But like all authors, writers have a strong suit and a weakness. For Angeles, her weakness lies in the plot. It is all over the place. Then when we get to the end, the plot is just lost on everybody.

But here’s the thing, this concept is great. The whole concept is intriguing and interesting, but it became too much and too many plot lines that nothing was answered at the end. It just sort of fizzled out and we’re all left going, “HUH?”

There will be a book two, and I need that book like last week, so I can figure out if all of our questions would be answered. Is everything resolved and fixed in book two?

This debut from Janella Angeles (a Filipino-American, for those interested in reading more books from Asian American writers) has great potential as a series. I love the whole concept, but it needs work to sort of streamline all of us out of its confusion. To build what Angeles has built, you have to truly master piecing it all together so it becomes that masterpiece. It’s like Erin Morgenstern’s “The Starless Sea.” The book is brilliant, but you have to be a genius to do what Morgenstern was able to do by tying up all of those loose ends. It also took her eight years to write that book.

Trust me, writing is not an easy process. Also, something I learned from other authors is that we all tend to be masters of one part of the writing process, and have a serious weakness in other parts. You can be strong at developing characters, but be weak at plot lines…or even spelling. I swear I saw an author put you’re in a post instead of your. That kind of drove me batty.

Writers are not perfect. This is an art that has to be continuously worked on and perfected. We have to work on our weaknesses in order to make them our strengths. I could also say that we should do that in all facets of life, especially in our jobs.

I’m looking forward to the next book just to see if any of the questions are answered and the plot lines resolved.

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this title from the publisher in exchange for a review. This post contains affiliate links.]

You can pick up your copy at any of these Perfectionist Wannabe preferred retailers.

Book Review: Dark Secret

Book: “Dark Secret” by Danielle Rose
Publisher: Waterhouse Press
Release Date: February 18, 2020

4.5 out of 5 stars (4.5 / 5)

Synopsis

There’s no wrath like that of a witch scorned.

Seventeen-year-old spirit witch Ava López is the self-appointed guardian of the witches and humans of Darkhaven, an idyllic village nestled between the forest and the sea. Her watch: vicious and bloodthirsty vampires.

Ava is a novice in the eyes of her coven. If she expects to protect them and the secrecy of their powers, she must gain better control of her own. When a full moon ritual goes awry, control may be lost forever, and Ava is exiled from her coven. Forced to seek refuge among the beings she had always sworn herself to hunt, she vows revenge on those who have upended her life.

But the more time Ava spends away from her coven, the more she discovers a startling truth: the witches haven’t been honest with her. Ava’s quest to strip the truth from everything she’s ever known begins with the toughest realization of all—coming to terms with who she has become.

[Synopsis from Goodreads]

“Dark Secret” Review

What a great start to this new YA series from Danielle Rose!

Ava is a witch set on protecting her coven from the things that threaten them…mainly, vampires.

While out patrolling, she picks a fight with the wrong group of vampires. She makes the mistake in letting the leader get away. He comes back with a vengeance and attacks her coven, leaving her on the brink of death.

That’s when another group of vampires shows up to aide the witches. One vampire gives Ava his blood after she’s been bitten…dooming her to a vampire’s life. She is tossed out of her home and forced to reside with this group of vampires who tries to protect humans (and witches) from rogue vampires.

Fortunately for Ava, if she has to be a vampire, she can still continue to protect her family and her coven from the bad vampires that seek to hurt them.

This series is broken up into 5 books, which is essentially 5 different parts. The first part is Ava’s beginning and her first fight as a vampire where she realizes she needs to train to control her newfound powers. Book two comes out in March, followed by book three in April. Books four and five will be released in the fall. The way Danielle has broken this book up reminds me of the way penny dreadfuls were released. You get just a little bit of the story each week. You have to keep reading each week in order to find out what happens next in the story. That is how the Darkhaven Saga is written.

I can’t wait to read what happens next…

[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher and author.]

You can purchase “Dark Secret” at any of PW’s preferred booksellers below.

Book Review: The Sea of Lost Girls

Book: “The Sea of Lost Girls” by Carol Goodman
Publisher: William Morrow/HarperCollins
Release Date: March 3, 2020

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

Synopsis

In the tradition of Daphne du Maurier, Shari Lapena, and Michelle Richmond comes a new thriller from the bestselling author of The Lake of Dead Languages—a twisty, harrowing story set at a prestigious prep school in which one woman’s carefully hidden past might destroy her future.

Tess has worked hard to keep her past buried, where it belongs. Now she’s the wife to a respected professor at an elite boarding school, where she also teaches. Her seventeen-year-old son, Rudy, whose dark moods and complicated behavior she’s long worried about, seems to be thriving: he has a lead role in the school play and a smart and ambitious girlfriend. Tess tries not to think about the mistakes she made eighteen years ago, and mostly, she succeeds.

And then one more morning she gets a text at 2:50 AM: it’s Rudy, asking for help. When Tess picks him up she finds him drenched and shivering, with a dark stain on his sweatshirt. Four hours later, Tess gets a phone call from the Haywood school headmistress: Lila Zeller, Rudy’s girlfriend, has been found dead on the beach, not far from where Tess found Rudy just hours before.

As the investigation into Lila’s death escalates, Tess finds her family attacked on all sides. What first seemed like a tragic accidental death is turning into something far more sinister, and not only is Tess’s son a suspect but her husband is a person of interest too. But Lila’s death isn’t the first blemish on Haywood’s record, and the more Tess learns about Haywood’s fabled history, the more she realizes that not all skeletons will stay safely locked in the closet.

[Synopsis from Goodreads]

Review: The Sea of Lost Girls

This gripped me from the very beginning. I couldn’t put it down. This book reminds me a lot of “The Woman in Cabin 10” and “My Dark Vanessa.”

It reminded me of “The Woman in Cabin 10” because you don’t know what’s going on. In Ruth Ware’s book, the lead character is either drunk or drugged. She doesn’t know what’s what and she’s trying to see through her drunken lens. In “The Sea of Lost Girls,” the reader is the one trying to see through the haze, because Tess (our protagonist) lies all of the time. Her story is constantly changing. You don’t know what the truth is until the very end and that’s because someone else is trying to tell you what really happened.

Each time the story is told, it changes just a little bit. You think you’ve heard the story already, but then it changes. You have to pay very close attention.

“My Dark Vanessa” deals with an inappropriate student/teacher relationship. In “The Sea of Lost Girls,” Tess runs off with her teacher after she finishes her schooling, because she is pregnant with his child. Then later, after she goes back to school (at 23), she ends up marrying her teacher. The first relationship was the really bad and abusive one. She ends up living on a remote island in a cabin with this teacher (Luther) and their son (Rudy). Luther is abusive to both of them. She doesn’t decide to flee until after she discovers that he is a serial pedophile, dismissed from 4 schools for inappropriate relationships with students. The girls were all much younger than Tess.

During their flight off of the island, Luther receives a head blow with a rowing oar. But who did it? Who killed him? That story changes as it goes.

There’s the story of Tess and her relationships, but there’s also another story involving the lost girls who went missing from this school/wayward home in Maine. In the 1960s, 3 girls disappear. One girl notes that these three disappearances are all linked to one person. Next, they find her dead body out by the Maiden Stone.

Fast forward to present day. Lila, Rudy’s girlfriend, is also discovered dead by the legendary Maiden Stone. Her death comes just hours after Rudy and Lila get into a fight. Lila’s death also occurs right around the time she discovers the identity of the Lost Girls’ murderer. Is her killer the same murderer? Is it Rudy? Or maybe it was Luther, back from the dead? Or maybe it was Tess’s husband who was helping Lila with her paper? Did one of them have an inappropriate relationship with Lila?

There are so many possible motives, so many lies spinning, you will not be able to tell who is telling the truth until the very end.

A very enjoyable read.

[Disclosure: I received a copy of an eARC from the publisher.]

You can purchase “The Sea of Lost Girls” at any of PW’s preferred booksellers below.

REVIEW: How Quickly She Disappears

[This post contains spoilers.]

Book: “How Quickly She Disappears” by Raymond Fleischmann
Publisher: Berkley, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
Release Date: January 14, 2020

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars (2 / 5)

Synopsis

“How Quickly She Disappears” is “The Dry” meets “Silence of the Lambs” in this intoxicating tale of literary suspense set in the relentless Alaskan landscape about madness and obsession, loneliness and grief, and the ferocious bonds of family …

It’s 1941 in small-town Alaska and Elisabeth Pfautz is alone. She’s living far from home, struggling through an unhappy marriage, and she spends her days tutoring her precocious young daughter. Elisabeth’s twin sister disappeared without a trace twenty years earlier, and Elisabeth’s life has never recovered. Cryptic visions of her sister haunt her dreams, and Elisabeth’s crushing loneliness grows more intense by the day. But through it all, she clings to one belief: That her sister is still alive, and that they’ll be reunited one day.

And that day may be coming soon. Elisabeth’s world is upended when Alfred Seidel — an enigmatic German bush pilot — arrives in town and murders a local man in cold blood. Sitting in his cell in the wake of his crime, Alfred refuses to speak to anyone except for Elisabeth. He has something to tell her: He knows exactly what happened to her long-missing sister, but he’ll reveal this truth only if Elisabeth fulfills three requests.

Increasingly isolated from her neighbors and imprisoned by the bitter cold and her own obsession, Elisabeth lets herself slip deeper into Alfred’s web. A tenuous friendship forms between them, even as Elisabeth struggles to understand Alfred’s game and what he’s after.

But if it means she’ll get answers, she’s willing to play by his rules. She’s ready to sacrifice whatever it takes to be reunited with her sister, even if it means putting herself — and her family — in mortal danger.

[Synopsis from Goodreads]

Review

I cannot give “How Quickly She Disappears” 3 stars, because I simply did not like it. Two stars means the book was OK. I will give it that much.

How Quickly She Disappears Raymond Fleischmann Author

This book is from Berkley, which is an imprint under Penguin Random House. The name of the publisher alone means that we should have a certain level of expectation for this title. I expected the book to be of the highest caliber, because it should be considered a bestseller if coming from Berkley. This book though is a complete disappointment.

I did not like any of the characters. I can see where the marketing folks were going with this book being like “Silence of the Lambs” in the way Hannibal Lecter toys with people. But the difference here is that Hannibal is highly intelligent and does not become obsessed with people. Instead, he just plays with people for his own amusement before he devours them. He plays with his food.

Here, Alfred is just a friggin weirdo stalker. He tries to have the upper hand by appearing intelligent (like Hannibal), but he just came across as a complete asshole withholding information, because he has some weird obsession with Elisabeth. He plays these games, because he is trying to get her to stay in contact with him, the way a lovelorn person acts towards the person they desire.

It is similar to Hannibal’s interest in Detective Starling, but there is a reason why he strings her along. Once again, it is more for his amusement in his game of chess.

At the end of the book, we discover Alfred’s been stalking the same person since she was 11 years old. He was an adult. Pedophile? Yes. Stalker? Yes. He becomes a murderer when someone tries to protect her from him. Twenty years he stalks this girl.

At the end, when this is revealed, I almost put the book down and thought I totally wasted my time with this entire book. A stalker? Add in the pedophilia, incest between sisters, and the implied hate towards women that I kept sensing from the author (not the story)…I really could not believe this book is being published in this day of Me Too.

That implied hate towards women can be seen from the beginning and throughout. It’s not just how John speaks to his wife, Elisabeth. You get a sense of hate towards the main character, Elisabeth. Her twin sister that goes missing when they’re 11 is a little nymph. A Lolita. She’s almost treated as if she’s a goddess throughout the book. Perfection. She can do no wrong.

Because Elisabeth (the good girl) isn’t, I started to note the dislike towards her. It’s similar to the reason why 22-year-old Elliot Rodger went on a killing spree in Isla Vista, CA in 2014. He killed six people, injuring 14 others because “he wanted to punish women for rejecting him, and punish sexually active men because he envied them.” The author made me think he had a similar unhealthy relationship with women and it was all coming out in this book.

Of note, this is Fleischmann’s debut.

I noted the complete coldness and disconnect in how Elisabeth was portrayed. One moment she is the doting mother and wife, the next she’s a cold heartless bitch all because some guy shows up and mentions her sister and that he knows where she is. Why the sudden change after one night? I started to question why she became obsessed with Alfred. Is it really because she is trying to find her sister or is there something wrong with her? Then I realized…what woman does this? Is this a complete disconnect with who women are?

It’s like Elisabeth represents a woman that rejected the author and he’s poured his anger and hate towards her into this book. He loves her, but then he hates her, because she is not with him. In a nutshell, it is a bit like Alfred’s unhealthy obsession with Elisabeth. I can definitely make that connection.

Our lead character is Elisabeth, but the whole story feels like Alfred is telling this story. I get that sense just because of the way she is portrayed throughout the book. But that’s not what the author is trying to do, it just comes across as that in the blatant hate towards her.

Then how does her daughter turn from sweet, loving child to all of a sudden a rebellious child in three months time?

I could not understand Elisabeth’s unhealthy desire to keep going towards Alfred. It made ZERO sense. Asking to see her daughter should have been the end game. But no. She brings her daughter to a murderer in a prison and then he manages to kidnap her, just like what happened to her twin sister when she was that age. This goes back to the whole BLAME THE WOMAN FOR BEING STUPID. SHE DESERVED THIS.

A mother would not allow a murderer near her daughter. NOT EVER. That’s what made this so unrealistic.

I did appreciate the Alaskan imagery, and I did feel the coldness of the setting, the darkness of the winter and the never ending light of the summers. Fleischmann does an excellent job of allowing you to feel that you are right there in the room with the characters. Where the imagery goes all wrong is how Tanacross all of a sudden has a highway and is a brand new CITY after they’ve been gone for three months. Just three months. She could not recognize Tanacross after being gone only three months.

I had to flip back, because I knew it said they’d been away only three months. The sections were correct in the timing. So how in 1942 does a small native town all of a sudden change into a bustling city and have a highway, when three months earlier you couldn’t get there except by plane? THREE MONTHS in 1942. Even if it progressed to six months, how is this possible? We can’t even do that in the 21st century.

I really had high hopes for “How Quickly She Disappears.” I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for the last six months. Now, I think my time would have been better utilized reading something better…one where I did not feel the tone of a man’s hate towards women.

[Disclosure: I received a copy of the ARC from the publisher.]

You can purchase “How Quickly She Disappears” at any of PW’s preferred booksellers below.

Book Review: Seven at Sea

Seven at seaEver feel like taking a chance in life and leaving your comfort zone for the great unknown?  Erik and Emily Orton decided to do just that.  They left their lives in New York City behind to spend a year on a sailboat with their five children and they tell their story in “Seven at Sea.”

Erik wasn’t even an experienced sailor six years before their trip.  Watching sailboats pass by as he looked out his corporate office, he decided he wanted to learn how to sail.  He signed up for classes at a nearby marina and began to learn.  Soon after, he realized it would be cheaper and easier if he enlisted his family to take the classes with him to become certified to sail.

Now, don’t think Erik and Emily are multi-millionaires and can do whatever they please whenever they please.  They are not rich.  They are just a normal middle class family with a dream to be free from the doldrums of the corporate world, and free to set their days as they please.

Even as a family of seven, they were able to find a way to make it work…this dream.  They got in as much training as they could, finding economical ways to rent boats, earning money while shuttling their friends around on excursions.  But the big step they wanted to take was to buy a boat of their own to take some time away from the city with their family to sail to parts unknown (to them).

It took six years to make that dream a realization, but they stuck to their goal together as a family.  Then one day, they bought a boat and their adventure began.

Review

What “Seven at Sea” teaches us is that we should all work towards our goals and dreams.  For the Ortons, it took a lot of planning, preparing and learning before their dream could even begin.  Even at the start, when they first arrived on their boat, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.  There was still more to learn and mistakes that needed to be made, because no matter how much you prepare, when you are in the thick of it, it is not necessarily what you envisioned.

With Erik micromanaging their schedule, he quickly learned that you can’t plan life or dreams.  You have to sort of go with the flow.  They spent the first few months in their first port of call, Sint Maarten (the Netherlands side – the French side of the island is Saint Martin).  Between fixing the boat and equipping it with the things they would need to make their journey, they were stuck on Sint Maarten/Saint Martin.

But it was a good thing this happened.  It allowed them to get their sea legs taking short jaunts to nearby islands, preparing them for the longer stretches.  They made friends with other families doing the same thing as them (always good to know you’re not alone).  Thanks to fellow sailors, he was able to learn how to fix his boat – a vital source of knowledge when you’re alone on the seas and no one nearby who can help.  These are all things he could only learn with hands on training.  Books and the internet can only get you so far.

I will admit, reading this book turned me off from that fantasy of learning how to sail.  It’s something I always thought about doing, not necessarily around the world, but maybe off the coast of New England or in the Mediterranean.  I’ll explain why I was turned off – learning how to fix your own boat, the problems that could arise, being stuck on a boat with other people – really, it was all of the technical details that turned me off from learning how to sail.  Then again, I would probably be the worst sailor of the group like Emily, so maybe someone else can sail and I can just be the matron.

At any rate, being on a boat allows you to have some soul searching moments.  Erik shared a lot of his thoughts in this book and they really rang true with how we should look at life, especially the dreamers.

“A lot of times people feel like, ‘Oh we have kids so we can’t do that until the kids are out of the house.’  The time to go is when you have your kids with you because you only have them for a short period.  There will be plenty of time to make more money.  There’ll be plenty of time to take it easy in retirement when you’re older, but the reason we’re going now is because we want to go while our kids are with us.  Let your kids be a reason rather than an excuse.”

I also appreciated Erik’s thoughts on having patience and playing the waiting game.

“For so many weeks, I’d been trying to push and force the situation.  I wanted the engine fixed on my timeline.  I wanted to hustle off to the BVI (British Virgin Islands).  I wanted to know when and where we would arrive in the Bahamas.  The truth is, there was no way of knowing.  I would have to let it emerge.  I could predict, plan, and hope, but in the end, the wind, sea, and a thousand other breezes would shape the unfolding events.  I had to wait, just like everyone else.  No amount of planning or willpower could make it otherwise.  I learned to become fairly zen about it.  “It will emerge” was the yin to the yang of “trial and error works every time.”  Tenacity has its place.  But so does waiting; engaged, curious, and resourceful, but patient.”

On fear and the uneasiness of taking the first jump:

“At the moment, Jane was happier to be at the top of the grotto, barefoot, hot, and scared, than she was to be in the cool, clear water below.  Her anxiety over what she could no longer see, and the fear of what it would take to get there, were more powerful than her will to jump.  We did our best to help her shift the balance, but it was up to her.  Only she could decide when she wanted to move and how she would do it.  She could climb back down or she could jump.  The push of her current situation, the pull of her new situation, her anxiety about her future, and her loyalty to her present were all shifting moment by moment.  We change when we’re more excited about getting the new thing than we are scared about losing the old thing.  I go through this same semiconscious process every time I face my own fears.  I think we all do.  It’s very personal. I internally weigh all these factors in the balance, and something happens or it doesn’t.”

Karina Orton, after being asked how she had changed on Fezywig (their boat):

“I don’t think I’ve changed,” she said.  “I’ve become even more myself.  I’ve gone further down the path that I was already on.”

Emily Orton on the ‘confidence that it will emerge’:

Erik – “Why do you think the last one is more important?”

Emily – “Because it lets us get started.  We don’t have to know everything.  We don’t have to control everything.  It lets us be patient while we’re figuring it out.”

***

Why you should read “Seven at Sea”:  If you’re a dreamer thinking ‘someday,’ this book will help give you the confidence to take risks and chase after that dream.  It is a raw look into how difficult it is to make your dreams come true.  From making excuses to planning and researching for that big day, it’s all about getting over that fear and taking the leap.  You have to have patience that the journey “will emerge.”  You can’t force it to happen on your timeline.  It will emerge on its own.

There are a lot of life lessons here for those who have dreams that want to make them come true.  This book is not just about a family who bought a sailboat and sailed from the Caribbean to New York City one year.  This is about living your best life and taking the chance to live your life to the fullest and the Ortons are here to inspire you to do so.

[Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.  This post contains affiliate links.] 

Book Review: The House at Saltwater Point

Just in time for the Fourth of July holiday is a new novel from Colleen Coble called “The House at Saltwater Point.” [Due out July 3, 2018]

This is book two in the Lavender Tides series.  You don’t need to read The View from Rainshadow Bay to get a sense of what is going on, because the story stands very well on its own.  It ties in characters from the first book, allowing them to develop their own unique backgrounds within this story.

When I read this book, I kept asking myself which publisher gave me this book.  I try not to read the back cover when I start reading a book, because I want to be surprised.  There should be no hints as to what this book could possibly be about.  I don’t want to know the genre.  Yet, if I had flipped to the back of the book, I would have figured out the publisher was Thomas Nelson, a HarperCollins publication.

But I decided to read forward without seeing who the publisher was to see if I could figure it out just by reading the book…and I did figure it out.  Some publishers place their own unique stamp (or style) in the type of books they publish.  HarperCollins is one of them.

I do not pick up too many religious titles.  I avoid them like the plague…UNLESS it comes from HarperCollins.  Why?  Because even though some of the books they publish may have some sort of religious theme, it is not being shoved down your throat.  And I appreciate that.

I knew this was a HarperCollins publication because there were references to ‘praying’ or ‘God.’  No mention of the word “Jesus.”  To me, this book passed the test for this site to be willing to write a review.  Why?  Because in everyday conversation, we may not all be religious, but when people are hurting or need direction, it is perfectly normal to say that we will pray for them or ask God to help them.  God is more encompassing of all religions.  Using the word ‘Jesus’ limits it to one religion, and not all people believe in that religion.

So let’s talk about “The House at Saltwater Point.”

What drew me to this book was the main character.  Not only is she a house flipper, but she is also a blogger for a site called “Hammer Girl.”  Ellie is the type of person I would follow on social media.  I would probably read her blog, too.  She is basically living in a world that many wonder about and would love to know more about.  She lives an inspiring life, buying houses, flipping them into something beautiful and then moves on to the next project.  I can just imagine how awesome her Instagram account would be!

So throw in a murder mystery with a missing sister (possibly dead) and a bunch of missing cocaine.  There is even a terrorist plot underway in her beautiful hometown.

Yes, I said a terrorist plot!!!

Add in a little bit of a love story, family issues, and a lot of suspense in a dreamy locale where you are constantly visualizing the beautiful water with tall boats floating by in a quaint seaside town where everybody knows everyone, and you have the elements of what makes this story worth picking up.

You will have no idea what is going on as the adventure unveils.  Is Ellie’s sister, Mac, still alive or is she dead?  Is she connected to the missing cocaine?  Why is there a terrorist involved in this?  What does North Korea have to do with anything?  ISIS on US soil?  Who is trying to kill Ellie?  What did she do?  Why is there a dead man in her basement?  Why does Mac have information about making EMPs (bombs) on her laptop?

You will ask a lot of questions, and they will all be answered in the most incredible way.  Did I see who the mastermind was going to be?  No.  Then I felt stupid for not seeing the foreshadowing.  [That’s how you know it was a well planned murder mystery…when you feel like you should have seen the result coming at the end, but you didn’t.]

The Verdict

I really enjoyed this book.  I do not read suspenseful murder mysteries very often, but this one is worth the read.  Despite the crazy that comes out of the town of Lavender Tides, it sounds like a dream.  The locale seems like paradise, if it weren’t for all of the sinister plots going on.

There are elements in this story that ties in the first book and will likely tie in the third book.  What binds the stories together are Shauna and Grayson.  Shauna’s story appears in the first book.

She is not a main character in the second book, only Grayson.  There is enough intrigue that I looked up the first book in the series.  It goes further into Shauna’s tale of what happened the day of the earthquake.  The line that hooked me in this book to want to pick up the first book is Coble’s reference to the earthquake being caused by Shauna’s father.  Now, she has my attention.

Lavender Tides binge to be continued…

How to be a Book Reviewer and Other Things to Consider

I love books.  As a writer, reading books is a livelihood.  It is a way to become inspired by other authors who are honing or have already honed their crafts.  I want to know what people think, create and escape to when they put a book together.  It is not just the stories they are telling.  The words.  The words are the most important part.

Without words, we would have no story, no way to express the tales that linger within our souls.  Words may be elegant.  They can be sharp.  Each word tied together can create something beautiful that may inspire or enlighten us.  Done right, it can even warm our hearts to love even greater.

As we move further into this age of technology, people are spending more time connecting with the internet than connecting with life.  Their eyes are constantly on their devices instead of absorbing the pages of books.  More and more people claim they are too busy to read books.  They read Facebook, Twitter and headlines, never clicking on the story to get further information.  The headlines, tweet or meme tell them whatever they need to know in a few words or less.  To them, that’s all they need to know everything.

In reality, this method is dumbing people down.  For instance, yesterday, when the Supreme Court of the United States released their opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd., et al. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission et al. the only thing people read was that the court sided with Masterpiece Cakeshop in their right to deny service due to their religious beliefs.  But that is not what the Court said.

If people took time to read the opinion, they would have found that SCOTUS believed that the baker’s rights were violated by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.  The baker was accused of heinous things by the Commission.  They were hostile towards him and persecuted him because of his religious beliefs.  Instead of listening to both sides of the argument in a neutral manner to decide if it legal or illegal for a business to deny service to someone due to religious beliefs (a question that SCOTUS would have answered), the Commission chose to be hostile and punished the baker for his religious beliefs.

That, right there, is illegal under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.  The decision on Monday addressed only what the Commission said and did to the baker.  They did not address whether it was legal or illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ persons.  That question became irrelevant when the Commission (the government entity) decided to persecute the baker for his religious beliefs.  No government can persecute or act hostile to anyone because of their religious beliefs.  In this case, that is what the Colorado Civil Rights Commission did.  If they had been neutral in their decision, SCOTUS would have discussed the question of whether businesses can discriminate against LGBTQ persons due to religious differences.  But because the Commission persecuted the baker, that violation of the First Amendment took precedence.

To sum it up: The Supreme Court did not say it was ok to discriminate against LGBTQ persons.  It was not part of the decision.

But the only way you would know that is if you read the opinion or got your news from someone who actually read the opinion.  It’s like flag burning.  Most Americans have no idea that burning the flag is perfectly LEGAL because it is protected as free speech…just like taking the knee during the national anthem is free speech, whether you like it or not.  They would know this if they did a quick Google search.

It disappoints me that people choose ignorance over truth.  They choose a meme over the real story, even if the meme is completely wrong.  They believe the meme!

But what disappoints me even more is that people don’t read books anymore, at least not like they used to.  There are so many people out there with so many stories to tell.  From the good to the bad to the ugly…stories connect us.  As we grow as human beings, reading books allows us to learn from others who are different from us (or just like us) so that we can better understand who they (or we) are.

The narrative does not belong to just one race anymore.  It belongs to all of us, including that dreamer crossing the border from Mexico into the United States.  That kid you bullied because they were transgender?  Even they have a tale to tell to you about themselves.  But you will never know if you don’t take the time to enlighten yourself.  You may find that you have more in common with them than you thought you did.

Pick up a book.  Learn.  Become enlightened.  Whatever answers you are looking for in life don’t always just happen to you.  Sometimes the answer can be found in someone else’s story…in their own words.

Are Book Reviews Dying?



Not only are we moving towards an age where people are not reading books, but we are also moving into a time where promoting books is a dying business.  While Amazon is taking over the market (books are actually their biggest seller), many booksellers are struggling.  But it’s not just the booksellers that are struggling.  The book reviewer is finding a shrinking marketplace to tell you about the book they read that you really should read too.

Very few newspapers give space for book reviews these days.  Even magazines give a short blurb about the book they probably got directly from the publisher.  But the funny thing is, depending on the paper, the more intelligent the publication, the more likely they have space for book reviews.

Now, ask yourself…how many intelligent publications are left?  Look to see if that media material you are reading has book reviews with 500 words or more.  If not, it’s not an intelligent publication.

During Book Expo America 2018, a panel of book reviewers discussed the industry as a whole.  Are book reviews dead?  Even moreso, is the livelihood of the book reviewer becoming non-existent?

First, when I went to this panel, I had no idea people were paid to write book reviews.  I generate income in a different way when I write book reviews.  Sure, I could see being a book reviewer was a realistic job back before the turn of the century.  But today?  We are lucky to find people that actually read books!  Getting kids, let alone adults, to read a book is a struggle for every parent and educator.  Even adults are finding it more difficult to find time to read books.  Where is Oprah’s Book Club when you need it?

At the panel, Christopher Carduff, the Books Editor from The Wall Street Journal spoke about how he was considered the White Rhino at WSJ.  When he leaves, book reviews in WSJ will disappear with him.  The people that read the book reviews and the weekend book section are the most intelligent readers of the WSJ.  They are also the ones that stay on the site the longest to read more articles.

When the WSJ writes a book review, they are looking for the jewels to share with their readers.  Believe it or not, finding those jewels are becoming harder to find as the book industry becomes watered down with so many stories from everyone wanting to be a writer (even if they can’t write).  Trust me, I’ve read my share of crap books and I had to ask myself just what in the world publishers were thinking asking me to read this crap.

When you read a review in the WSJ, they have sifted through a lot of shit just to find something that wasn’t a piece of shit to share with you.  Their reviews are thought provoking and written by a good writer.  Believe it or not, book reviewers are all writers.  Every good writer reads a lot of books.  Just look at Stephen King.  He writes and then he reads every single day…and he reads a lot of books.

The Book Reviewer aka The Writer

So if you are going to be an author who writes well, you need to read well.  You need to read a lot of books.  You need to learn from the masters, as well as the ones who are just horrible (in order to learn what not to do).  I also believe that you should share what you read.

They say blogging is becoming a dying art, but there are bloggers that miss it.  At least once a week, I see a blogger I love go on a rant about how they miss writing stories for their blog.  If you are a writer, don’t ever stop blogging.  Do not sacrifice to the whims of the world for a watered down version of yourself or your brand.  Keep writing.

There are people that still read book reviews.  It still remains to be one of the more popular sections of the Wall Street Journal both in print and online.  There are educators and bibliophiles that read book reviews.  There are highly intelligent people that read book reviews so that they can find their next great read.

As a book reviewer, it is our responsibility to find those gems out there to share with the world.  After all, it is the publisher/author looking for that opportunity to have their book reviewed and shared with the world.  They are looking for that sales push (aka free marketing).

Book reviews in the marketplace may be dying, but for those who have blogs and websites…keep reviewing.  It will make you into a better writer.  Read the classics and bestsellers, but also discover new voices.  They will all teach you how to be a better writer.

How to be a Book Reviewer

For those who want to start reviewing books, start by having 1) a blog or website where you can post reviews regularly, 2) an Instagram account and 3) a Twitter account.  Optional: Tumblr & Facebook.

The first one is self-explanatory, but keep in mind that if you want to be taken seriously as a book reviewer, you absolutely cannot write a short blurb about every book you read, unless you are doing a short summary promoting books like you will find on my PW Book Club page.  You can create a similar page, but make sure your actual site has complete reviews.

When you post a review, make sure to let the author and the publisher know about the review.  The easiest way to do that is to tweet it on Twitter.  Most authors and all publishers have Twitter accounts.  Add them to your tweet when you publicize the review.

On Instagram, take creative pictures of books you are reading, book hauls, bookstores, etc.  In other words, anything that promotes books.  Some book reviewers post a short review of the book they are reading on Instagram, encouraging people to click on the link in their bio for more.  [NOTE: Don’t do socks with books.  It was cute in the beginning, but now it is overdone and boring to publishers.]

For other social media accounts, I find that sharing books with friends on Facebook gets the most traction, because many of my friends read my blog and want book suggestions.  Tumblr is also very popular among the younger generation.

I also recommend posting a portion of your review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads (save time by linking your Amazon and Goodreads accounts).

How to Get Advanced Copies of Books

When you’ve built up a rather large amount of writing on your site, there are different ways to get review copies.  For newbies, I highly encourage you to post reviews on Amazon, but also make sure you create a public profile on Amazon [example] that allows authors and publishers the ability to contact you.

I’ve met many new authors this way and discovered some great books this way.

Also, for those starting out, get yourself to a Book Con.  Book Cons are designed for fans of books.  You can get advanced copies of books from many publishers for free.  If your blog has been around for a little longer and you’ve established yourself as a legitimate book reviewer, you can sign up for the Book Expo (which is strictly for those in the industry).  The Book Expo is generally more expensive, but they also include panels and MORE FREE advanced reader copies (aka galleys or ARCs).  You’ll have more access to what is expected to be the IT books of the year at the Expo.  It is also not as crazy as the Cons.

If you are at Book Expo level, you can also sign up for NetGalley.  You’ll get your ARCs delivered electronically through Kindle documents.  You will need to post your blog review to NetGalley, as well as on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as a requirement to read ARCs from NetGalley.

If you are at Book Expo level, it is important that you develop relationships with the publishers.  Make sure you come equipped with business cards and a willingness to market your site verbally to the publishers.  I’ve developed great relationships with publishers over the years by marketing my site when I talk to them about my business plan in relation to promoting their books.

It is also very important to tag the publisher in your book review tweets.  They remember the review, especially if it is a very good one.  For instance, my most recent review was on Siri Daly’s cookbook. I tweeted the review to both Siri and her publisher.  At the Book Expo last Thursday, Siri was there signing her new cookbook.  I introduced myself and told her I reviewed her cookbook at Perfectionist Wannabe.  Both she and her publisher lit up, knowing exactly which review and which site I was referencing.  They both exclaimed how much they liked the review.

When you write reviews that are well received by both the author and the publisher, it helps in their decision making process on whether they will work with you in the future for future book reviews.  Those coveted titles you want to get your hands on before anyone else does…it helps if you have a good relationship with the publisher.

One publisher I love working with is Simon & Schuster.  They have created incredible opportunities for me as a writer to learn from their bestselling authors on how to write better and to just plain finish the damn novel!  They are usually the first to open up the door for me in both the writing and reviewing realm.

That is another reason why it is important to develop relationships with publishers, especially if you are writing a book.  They will help you develop as a writer by giving you the tools you need to learn how to become a better writer by learning from their best-selling authors on how to troubleshoot the writing process, develop techniques and inspire you to complete your novel.  For me, it also helps me in the decision making process on which publisher I want to work with to publish my book.  I look at each book they hand to me to review as a calling card of what their company can do in the editing, marketing, and talent handling processes.  To me, it’s not just a book to be reviewed, it’s an extension of who they are as a publishing company and whether I want to work with them in the future.

So if they hand me a lot of crap books to review, what does that say about the company?  Something to think about if you are looking to publish your novel.  I would prefer to work with a qualitative editor and publisher than just a company that will publish anything and everything.

There are other ways that book reviewers receive their advanced copies, but these are my ways that work very well for me.

Miles Morales: A Book to Get Excited About

Advance Reader’s Copy of “Miles Morales” by Jason Reynolds. Bag of the Day: Fendi.

Book: Miles Morales
Author: Jason Reynolds
Publisher: Marvel Press, Disney Book Group
Release Date: August 1, 2017
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

There are very few books I cross paths with that make me very excited to share with everyone.  For Jason Reynolds’ upcoming release “Miles Morales,” I can’t wait for all of you to read this book.

Yes, this is a Spider-Man novel.  Forget Peter Parker, this story is about Miles Morales, a mixed race kid from Brooklyn going to a posh boarding school in Brooklyn on scholarship.  He is a genius with a 4.0 GPA, so smart, the neighborhood speaks of him with pride.  What makes this story unique though, is that this is about rising from adversity and becoming a better person.

Miles is from a poor family.  His dad’s past is that of a common criminal, along with his uncle.  They start off doing a lot of bad things as teens, because they feel like they have no choice.  If they are going to survive, they need to steal and make fast money.

Then one day, Miles’s dad meets a beautiful woman, falls in love and leaves that world of crime for something better.  He wants to have a family that does not need to resort to crime to survive.  They are trying to give Miles a better option in life.

Leaving crime, though, means disowning a brother.  But that doesn’t stop Miles.  He sneaks out to see his uncle, because that’s what you do for family.  During one of those visits, he is bit by a spider, just like Peter Parker.

Going to school has its own challenges.  He works hard at his grades, trying to maintain his 4.0 GPA. He has a work study to help cover the room and board at the school.  He tries so hard to do everything right, but society tries to push him back down.

His history teacher, Mr. Chamberlain, has his own opinions on blacks and slavery.  They are very backwards ideologies.  He makes each teaching lesson a lesson on the importance of black people remaining slaves.  He believes they need to stay within their element and not try to rise above (i.e. go to an elite boarding school).

These lessons disturb the students, but they just put it off as crazy Mr. Chamberlain.  Ironically though, Miles’s spidey sense goes off every single time he is in this class.  Thinking someone outside needs to be saved, he runs out of the classroom (saying he needs to go to the bathroom, which Chamberlain denies) only to find nothing at all.  He ends up getting suspended from school for a week.

He leaves his work study to show up at an open mic night to get extra credit for one of his classes (and pass a poem to a girl he’s crushing on), only to discover the next morning that cans of sausages were stolen during his shift.  Something like this could lead to his expulsion, because they assume he took it because he’s 1) black and 2) poor.  He doesn’t even like canned sausages.




The Message

His father is trying to teach him how to grow up to be a hero to his community first.  When he comes up against all of these problems both at school and in his neighborhood, the question becomes what type of person will he be.  Will he turn bad or good in the end?

This book is mainly about the challenges many people face across America.  It is about learning how to be a hero, no matter who you are or where you are from.  You do not necessarily have to be a superhero with powers in order to be a hero.  Sometimes just helping out your community, picking up trash, and helping your neighbors is part of being a hero.  You are helping someone else that needs help.  That is what heroes do.

But what is a Spider-Man story without evil villains out to destroy the world?  Oh, there are a few bad guys in this book that leads to an epic fight scene in the end.  So do not go into this thinking this is just about evil super villains, because this book is more than that.  This book is truly about a boy learning how to be a hero with and without his powers.

The message in the end is that “We can all be heroes.”




The Rating

I give this book 5 stars, because it is so well written and a tremendously awesome story.  I was so absorbed in the story, I couldn’t stop reading it (and this was while I was doing a Game of Thrones binge).

The story is more than just the regular superhero story.  It is a story about a kid trying to be a hero when the world keeps trying to stop him.  It’s hard for a lot of kids to go up against a system that wants to see them fail.  Miles Morales is one of those kids.

Just because he’s Spider-Man, it doesn’t mean that he’s not faced with personal challenges that are similar to so many kids out there.  He is victimized because of his race and his socio-economic class.  There are people that want kids like Miles to fail because they are black or from a bad neighborhood or from a parent that is a known criminal.

His family may struggle, but his father, that known criminal, is trying hard to make sure his son doesn’t turn out like he did.  He changes his life around so that Miles can have a better opportunity.  Miles deserves a chance to be the change.




What I Love

What I love about this story is that Reynolds is teaching kids that they can all be heroes.  It starts in your own neighborhood.  Little things like helping the elderly, cleaning up the streets, or helping your neighbors can result in a positive change in our communities.

Reynolds doesn’t shun the stories of people living in their cars or kids being falsely arrested for crimes they did not commit.  This is the reality in our world.  Having a family member in jail, visiting them in a detention facility and trying to be a family are all part of the story many kids experience.

The author brings the realities around us into this story.  Even superheroes can experience the same adversity as the kid that picks up this book.  What Reynolds is saying to these kids…YOU’RE NOT ALONE.




Final Thoughts

In conclusion, I cannot begin to express how much I absolutely love this book.  I do not even like Spider-Man.  I am a Superman kind of girl.  This story though made me into a Miles Morales fan.

This is an excellent story that should be on everyone’s must read list this year.

[Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review.  This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a commission.] 




Reading Material: What I Read (May Books)

For those who are challenging yourself to read more, I wanted to share with you a few of the books I’ve read this past week.


3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5)

1. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.  With the trailers coming out for the new Tim Burton movie, this story looked absolutely fascinating, so I ordered the first three books.  I finished the first one in the series last week.

I will say the first book was a little boring.  I think he spent too much time setting the story up in this first book, so I’m hoping that the next book really gets into the adventure.

I do like what the author is doing as far as these characters are concerned.  Consider the first book the background that lays the groundwork to the adventure.  The second book (so far) is starting the kids off on that journey.


5 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

2.  31 Days to Radically Reduce Your Expenses: Less Stress. More Savings.  As part of a new series I’m starting here, I wanted to do some research and get some new tips on being frugal.  I always like to stay abreast of what people are saying about personal finance and how to be more frugal.  While I incorporate a lot of the author’s tips, I did learn a few things along the way.

I really liked her “Household Wish List” suggestion.  I also tend to splurge during Christmas.  While having a Christmas Savings Account is nothing new, it made me think that it’s not such a bad idea to buy Christmas gifts throughout the year, but also create a savings account for all of those big ticket purchases.

It’s definitely worth a read and FREE to read if you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.


5 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

3. Six Dollar Family.  What I love about this book is how it got its name.  The author started off with $6 to her name, living in a homeless shelter to now on her way to her first 6-figures.  A lot of her tips are drastic, but I was just so amazed.  I loved how she incorporated her DIY for medicine and toiletries in the book.  She takes the all natural approach to those DIYs, which end up working out so much better than the expensive stuff at the store.

I downloaded all of the apps she suggested + more.  The way I look at life is that you need to bleed every single dollar…make sure you get as much as you can out of every single dollar you spend.  Who knew that I could get double the rewards back if I use the Ibotta app and Checkout 51 to report my shopping receipts?  You didn’t know either?  That’s what I’m saying about this book!

She took being frugal to a whole new level.  I learned so much and even bookmarked her website: Six Dollar Family.

A definite must read for those looking to save money and be even more frugal than you already are.


5 out of 5 stars (5 / 5)

4. Resthaven.  I have not put up my review of this book on Amazon.com yet for a reason.  It’s because the detailed review will come from this site first.  I also want to read the other book by Erik Therme before doing an interview with him (yes, that was a teaser).  Note that I gave this book a 5/5 stars.  Why?  I got to the very last sentence of the book, flipped the page and did a “Whaaaaaatttt?”

The next page was the author page.  I flipped back to the last page and re-read the last two lines and did a “Whaaaatttt?”  Then I did an “OMG.  I need the next book!”

Yeah…that’s how good this book was.  I definitely recommend this.  It’s a thriller and mystery all wrapped up into one.  Loved it.


End of Summer Weekend Reading Material

The summer is starting to wind down.  With only three weekends left, many are running off to get that one last vacation in before the fall arrives.  For me, June, July and August are my months for vacation, which means taking a bit of a break from writing and the blogs.  September is when I’m back in the saddle again.  From film festivals to NY Fashion Week, to movie premieres, to NHL training camps, to the start of the Metropolitan Opera season…my working season begins.  That means the content on this site will increase.

There will be more interviews from authors, publishers, celebrities, and artists.  There will be more reviews, talks about books, films and the arts, a special fashion edition, and a new project unveiling that I’ve been working on over these last couple of months.

If you think content isn’t going up fast enough, as my artist friend Borbay describes the site…the word “Perfectionist” is in the title.  That means that the content here is meant to be far superior so it takes a little longer to create it.  People will just have to wait.

For now, let’s talk about what reading material is on the radar.


1.  Kim Thúy, Mãn and Ru: A Novel.

I had the pleasure of meeting Kim Thúy back in May when she was signing copies of her latest book Mãn.  I had never read her works before.  I just saw the book in the Book Expo newsletter from Random House Canada and knew I wanted to get my hands on it.  She signed it “To Michelle, Thank you so much for coming back to me again.”  You’ll find out soon on the site why that little inscription is a bit serendipitous {TEASER}.

What I was not expecting from Mãn was how beautifully written the book would be.  It’s a quick read, but also the type of book you have to reflect upon as you go from chapter to chapter.  Each chapter is only a paragraph or two long.  In that one simple paragraph, she can tell an entire story, but she does it so beautifully that you go back and re-read the sentence, stumbling over each word slowly in order for it to sink in.  

What makes Kim’s works in both Mãn and  Ru: A Novel so unique is that she has perfected the art of storytelling by using very few words to tell an entire story.  Each word she has chosen sinks deep into your soul and you are left pondering the words over, letting your tongue roll over each phrase she has chosen in each tale.  

Both books are a compilation of stories of Vietnamese immigrants.  She weaves each of their stories from one to another, using a choice word in each chapter to connect to the next story.  For instance, she uses the word ‘red’ to end a story in one chapter and then uses it again in the following chapter to tell the tale of another immigrant.  That one word can create a strong connection from one person to the next.  In a way, it’s the same as how people read and connect to her books, no matter where they are from.  The term “communism” can create a bond with a person in Eastern Europe because they can understand the struggle the Vietnamese went through, even though their experiences were totally different.  That one word means something powerful to them.  That one word is a lifetime of stories and struggles, of hunger, fear, anger and upset.  Just one word can invoke so much passion in a person…just like a simple word like ‘red.’  That’s what makes Kim Thúy’s books so thought-provoking…one simple word can create a flood of feelings that enables the reader to connect to the book itself.  

Her ability to weave these stories together using choice words is also a way of understanding how everyone in the book is essentially linked to each other.  They may have in common that they are all Vietnamese immigrants, but there’s more to it.  It links their life experiences from how we show love through food to what it means to let go of the person you love.  From coming from well to do families to all of a sudden finding themselves as refugees in a foreign land, living as janitors, seamstresses, farm hands, etc.  Then there are those who come from poor families who marry up and move to North America through marriage.  She opens our eyes to the life of the immigrant in North America.  They may have been from rich families or were doctors or professors in Vietnam.  They sacrificed who they were to start over again in another country.  Some were stripped of everything, others found opportunity.  How do they evolve under those circumstances?

The stories are all very humbling.  The writing style is unique and beautiful.  I will forewarn you that you will be very hungry after you read her books.  I have been eating Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai food every single day since I read Mãn.   As you’ll discover in the book, the connection with food is about love…the love a mother shows to her child.  The love a wife shows to her husband.  It’s what bonds a family and friends together.  

I highly recommend reading both of her books.  You will not regret it.  Your soul will thank you for the fresh drink of beauty.


2.  Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman: A Novel.

If you’ve read the reviews of Harper Lee’s latest Go Set a Watchman: A Novel, people are really mad.  It’s not even a story.  It’s just a rant.

SPOILER: Atticus Finch is a racist.

That’s what really has everyone up in arms.  But that’s because most of us had no clue when we read To Kill a Mockingbird that Atticus was anything but fair and colorblind.  To find out he was a racist?!?!

This is where I want to remind everyone that Go Set a Watchman: A Novel was the first novel written by Harper Lee.  It was also rejected by the publishers.  They liked the characters, but it needed a stronger story.  Go Set a Watchman: A Novel laid the foundation to the setting and the characters, but it needed a story.  That’s when Lee came back and gave the publishers a new book entitled To Kill a Mockingbird.  That was the book they published and it became a Pulitzer Prize winner.

What makes Go Set a Watchman: A Novel so difficult to digest is that it takes place 20 years after To Kill a Mockingbird.  We know the story.  We loved Atticus Finch, Scout, Jem, Dill and Calpurnia.  How could we all of a sudden be shocked that Atticus was a racist and that Calpurnia didn’t really care for her or Jem?

You have to keep in mind that Go Set a Watchman: A Novel was the first book, not the second book.  It was also the book that was originally rejected.  When she came back to the publishers with To Kill a Mockingbird, maybe she decided to make Atticus fair and not a racist.  Maybe Calpurnia really did care about the kids and didn’t care about the fact there was a black and white barrier.  Maybe Harper Lee fixed what was really wrong with Go Set a Watchman: A Novel and made the characters into ones that would be cherished for all eternity when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird.

Those are the things you need to keep in mind when you read Go Set a Watchman: A Novel.

Would I recommend it on its own?  No.  It’s a rant, not a story.  BUT, if you’ve read To Kill a Mockingbird, you need to read Go Set a Watchman: A Novel to truly understand the entire context of the times, racism, and Alabama.  For those who are writers, it’s actually an interesting look into how you can be rejected from one story, but you can go back and rewrite it based on the same characters and create a masterpiece.  Sometimes a complete do over is the key.  She learned from her mistakes and came out with one of the best novels of the 20th century.  That is a life lesson within itself.

Currently reading: Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop: A Novel.

I decided to take a little break from reviewing the tall stack of books I received from publishers so that I can read something without the pressure of it feeling like ‘work.’  I was ordering a couple of books for the Book Club when Amazon recommended this book.  It looked like such an interesting story that I decided to order it as my ‘fun’ book (i.e. a book I chose, rather than was chosen for me by someone else).

I always love stories that take place in Paris, but I really love stories that involve books as a means for adventure.  Any book lover understands that love of the book itself and what the adventure means.  They understand that little happy place.  So take a bookshop apothecary that is located on a barge, a bookseller that finally opens up that letter the love of his life left for him when she left him 20 years ago, a bestselling author that is being hounded by crazed fans and you have an adventure of how a bookseller is trying to make amends with the love of his life by setting sail on his bookshop barge to make right where he went wrong.

In all honesty, I kind of want my own Bookshop Apothecary…a bookshop that prescribes the right books to people, rather than selling whatever books people want to buy.  Sometimes the latest novel just isn’t the right book for that person during that time in their life.  Trust me when I say, I’d like to take back all that time I spent with Gillian Flynn’s “Dark Places.”  I put up with it because it was a Book Club book, but damn if I’ll ever read another one of her books willingly.  She’s too dark for me.  An Apothecary would have stopped me from even purchasing that book, explaining that the book just doesn’t go with my personality.

I will say that I am enjoying this book.  I’m now at the part where he embarks on his adventure.  It’s really exciting.  The author has already used the love of books to charm me into loving the lead character.  Can’t wait to find out what happens!

***

September is a big month for publishing houses.  The majority of new releases come out at that time.  Stay tuned for our list of what to read in September.

Book Review: Circling The Sun

"Circling the Sun" by Paula McLain is due to be released on Tuesday, August 28th.
“Circling the Sun” by Paula McLain is due to be released on Tuesday, August 28th.

If there’s any book you need to pick up this summer, let “Circling the Sun: A Novel“ from Paula McLain be at the very top of that list.  If you’ve read “The Paris Wife,” you already know how spectacular the story was.  “Circling the Sun” is even better.

Like “The Paris Wife,” the main character is based on a real person.  McLain starts off by introducing us to Beryl Markham, a woman who is on a journey to become the first person ever to fly from London to New York.  [There were people that had flown from New York to London, but never from London to New York.]  As her plane starts to stutter, her life flashes before her eyes and we are transported to Beryl’s days of youth when she was a young girl running wild on a farm in Kenya.

McLain takes you through Beryl’s life as a wild child who hung out with the Kipsigis tribe and learned how to raise horses with her father.  She trained with the boys of the Kipsigis tribe on how to hunt, make bows, and snap whips.  She rode horses and trained them to race, just like her father did.  She was a tomboy through and through.

By the time she was sixteen, her father’s horse farm started to fail, so her father pushed her into marrying a neighboring farmer.  Not knowing each other very well ended up leading to a divorce a few years later.  Before her father left for Capetown, he told Beryl to get her license to be a horse trainer, so she set out to become the first woman to ever get a license to be a horse trainer.

She went to work at a family friend’s ranch where she could log her hours and prepare for the exam.  She took the exam and a few weeks later received her license to train horses to race.  This would become her livelihood.

As her first marriage was slowly disintegrating, she started to have indiscretions.  She soon began to learn how the colony could damage her and the people around her through gossip.  It’s even more amazing how the gossip traveled.  You think you’re alone and no one else will know, then all of a sudden everyone knows.

If you’ve ever seen or read Out of Africa, both Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton play prominent roles in Beryl’s story.  Both women would end up falling head over heels in love with Denys.  Beryl, though, may have loved him more.

McLain takes us through Beryl’s triumphs over the years, her relationships and adventures from one year to the next.  This book was so well written and the story was just so fascinating, just like “The Paris Wife,” I had a hard time putting it down.  McLain is a master storyteller.  Beryl is an inspiring woman.  She was the first woman to ever be a licensed horse trainer.  She was not only the first person to fly from London to New York, but she was also the first woman to do it.

Beryl made her share of mistakes and learned from them, but she also valued her freedom.  She was a wild child from the start and no one could truly tame her or domesticate her.  Like Denys, it wasn’t in their nature.  They valued their freedom more.  That is truly why they were so drawn to each other.  They understood that need inside of each other to not be caged.

Denys was the love of her life.  He was also the love of Karen Blixen’s life, as well.

In the end, Denys truly belonged to Karen.  She could write the other woman out of the story (Out of Africa) like she never existed, because Denys was hers in the end.  She was considered the grieving widow, even though they never married.

This story was absolutely incredible.  It will make you want to book your next vacation to Kenya to go on a safari expedition, to see the rolling hills or the flamingos flying off at the sound of horses hooves on the beaches.  The book is beautifully written.

Circling the Sun: A Novel will be released on Tuesday, July 28th.  You’re going to absolutely enjoy this tale.  Paula McLain is proving again and again why she is a master at her craft.

****

Disclaimers: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive monetary compensation.  I received a free copy of this book in exchange for writing a review on the blog.  All content and opinions are my own.

Book Review: Come Away With Me

Come Away With Me by Karma Brown. This is the Advance Uncorrected Proof and not the official cover. The release date is August 25, 2015.
“Come Away With Me” by Karma Brown. This is the Advance Uncorrected Proof and not the official cover. The release date is August 25, 2015.

I’m just coming off of a very long vacation, so I’m very behind in posting up content.  It doesn’t mean I wasn’t working in some way or another.  It does mean I was able to find some time to catch up on a lot of reading material.

The first book I’m going to share is Karma Brown’s “Come Away With Me” from Mira Books.

The book is about a young woman named Tegan Lawson.  She is going through one of the most difficult times in her life.  Before, she was newly married, expecting a baby, and everything was just perfect until a car accident left her childless for the rest of her life.  Her husband, Gabe, was behind the wheel that night.

Dealing with the loss of their unborn child and knowing that she will never be able to have a child again, left her severely depressed and angry at her husband.  It was his fault this happened.  She blamed him.  How does a marriage survive this?

She and Gabe have a Jar of Spontaneity where they place their dream destinations.  She pulls out three pieces of paper to determine where they will go to help get Tegan out of their apartment.  It’s an attempt to help fix Tegan (and their marriage).  She draws out Thailand, Italy and Hawaii from the jar.

In Thailand, they start off in Bangkok and then head to Chiang Mai to ride elephants and buy art painted by elephants.  In Italy, they head to Ravello, Italy so she can learn how to cook Italian food just like Gabe’s mother.  In Hawaii, she learns how to Hang Ten.

This adventure is a spiritual adventure for Tegan.  In each place, she’s learning how to be herself again.  More importantly, she’s learning how to be happy again.

What will surprise the reader is that the story isn’t quite what it seems.  There’s a twist at the end that will leave your heart pounding and wanting to just embrace Tegan into your own being to protect her, because you understand her in ways you never thought you would be able to.  The story will break your heart from the very beginning, but then you’ll find hope and promise at the end that makes you realize no matter how horrible things can be, you can always find your way out of that dark place.  No matter how crushed and broken you are, you can be happy again.

I will warn you, for those who have been in that place of deep grief, depression and sorrow, the first 100 pages will be difficult for you.  It was for me.  Brown dives so deeply into that depression and loss, you’ll feel like putting the book down and not going through with it.  There were some points in the beginning where I wanted to throw the book across the room because I was so mad at Tegan.  I wanted to shake her and say, “Get over it.  Get your ass out of bed.  Move forward with your life, dammit!”

I found that if you stick with it, you’ll find the adventure that awaits is worth pursuing with Tegan as she reclaims her sanity, her peace of mind, her happiness, and herself.  The story does get better.  More importantly, for those who have found themselves in that deep misery that you can feel when you have lost someone you love, this is a way of finding hope that things can and will be alright.  You can feel that deep sorrow and grief that feels like it will never end, but you won’t always feel that way.  It’s just a moment and that’s what Karma Brown explains all throughout this book as she takes Tegan from her happiest of times, to her worst of times and then to her new self.  These tragic moments change you forever, but the journey that follows is one that makes you an even greater person than you were before.


come Away With Me 2Come Away with Me is due to be released on August 25th.  For those who have lost someone, and for those who love to travel, as well as enjoy reading spiritual adventures, I highly recommend this book.  I will say that this book was not what I expected at all.  Karma’s note of “Hope you enjoy!” that she inscribed in the front made me want to say, “Thank you for writing this book.”  I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to.  I went in expecting nothing and came out of it thinking…this is the kind of story that sticks with you for the rest of your life in a very good way.  The book doesn’t just make Tegan into a better person, it turns the reader into a greater person as well.  You realize just how weak you can be, but also how strong you can be after life deals some of the hardest blows you’ll ever experience.

After reading this book, I started my own Jar of Spontaneity.  I drew out four pieces of paper of places I will be going to over this next year.  I pulled: Vietnam, India, South America and Bolivia.  Tegan suffered a lot in the realization of what she lost after she lost the baby and her reproductive organs.  It hit home for me because surgeries can oftentimes change you when you realize you can’t have kids anymore.  I haven’t traveled overseas since my surgery.  This book prompted me to go out and do those things again, because I’ve found that some of the greatest journeys into your own being happens when you travel.  Thanks, Karma, for reminding me it’s time to take that step forward.

****

Disclaimers: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive monetary compensation.  I received a free copy of this book from Harlequin Books in exchange for writing a review on the blog.  All content and opinions are my own.

Book Review: The Witch Hunter

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker.
The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker.

Book Review – The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker.  Released June 2, 2015 by Little, Brown and Company.

I am a sucker for Young Adult Fantasy Fiction, so when Little, Brown handed me a copy, I couldn’t wait to read it.  I don’t remember where I heard about the book before, whether it was from Book Club or a book recommendation from Amazon or Barnes & Noble, I knew I wanted to read it because it’s right up my alley.

First off, I love stories about witches.  This is what intrigued me about the book:

Elizabeth Grey is one of the king’s best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. But when she’s accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.

That is what captured my attention.  I didn’t read anything beyond those two sentences, but it was enough to get me to want the book and read the book from start to finish.

What is this book like?  Consider it the female version of the Spook series “The Last Apprentice” by Joseph Delaney meets Xena: Warrior Princess meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets Disney’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” meets Jon Snow.  I only mention Jon Snow (Kit Harington) because that’s who I would have cast as John the healer in the movie version of this book.

This book starts off with the two witch hunters, Elizabeth and her friend, Caleb’s, search for a few warlocks/necromancers who are practicing dark magic and attempting to bring an old magician back to life again.  They’re required to capture, not kill these wizards.  They bring them back to be tried before they are burned at the stake, because all forms of magic are outlawed in the land.

After accidentally killing a wizard in the book’s introductory hunt, she and Caleb head to the local pub where she discovers that Caleb is going off to party with some palace girl.  She stays behind and decides to drink her woes away with glass after glass of ale (which actually ends up being absinthe).

While at the pub, she runs across a pirate and the king’s fool.  They capture her and try to get her to talk.  But she’s so out of it, she’s no help to them.  She lies about who she is (a witch hunter), pushing it off as if she is just some kitchen maid.  They let her go.

On her way back to her room, she finds a guard outside of her door.  He’s been sent there under the King’s orders.  She knows why he’s there, but she doesn’t want to go with him.  She stumbles and out of her pocket falls some special herbs that are used in terminating pregnancies.  The King’s guard sees it and accuses her of practicing witchcraft.  He arrests her and takes her straight to the Inquisitor, Lord Blackwell, Duke of Norwich, the man she works for.

Despite being one of his witch hunters, Blackwell sentences her to death by burning at the stake.  Caleb swears he will get her out of prison.  He promises he’ll come back for her.

He never does.

As she is on the verge of dying, rotting away in a prison cell, an unlikely individual walks into the prison to save her.  The most wanted wizard in all of the land, Nicholas Perevil, springs her from her prison…and thus begins her new adventure.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book.  When it got to the end, I was happy it was over with (because you should see all of the books I need to review).  But as the days went by as I was preparing the review in my head, I kept thinking…you know, I’m not done with this story yet.  I want to know what happens to Elizabeth next.  The way it ended, I expect to see another book after this.  The story just doesn’t feel like it’s over yet.  It feels like we could get a few more books out of this tale and develop these characters stories more.

This is Virginia Boecker’s debut novel.  While at times, I thought it was a little crazy she added so many different elements like pirates, wizards, witches, revenants, nymphs and scary looking creatures you never want to meet in a dark alley, she actually masterfully pulled all of these vastly differing characters in and weaved an intricate tale where all of their stories worked well together…including the pirates.

Think about it…how weird would it be if J.K. Rowling threw a pirate into the Harry Potter books?  That’s what Boecker did.  You think it’s dumb at the start, but as you go along on their journey you realize just how important having a pirate is in this tale…and then you can’t imagine the story without the pirate or the revenants.  They are all instrumental in helping a witch hunter find herself.

The characters were developed so well along the way, you can’t help but fall in love with the friends Elizabeth makes along the way.  You even feel sympathy for the evil wizard himself.  After all, there’s a reason to the madness and need for power.  In a way, for Lord Blackwell, it’s the only way he believes he can save their kind.

Elizabeth’s tale is about one of growing up.  She grows up believing a certain way, but when taken out of that element and forced to see the world in a new light, she is forced to come to a reconciliation of what she was taught to believe was right, and discovering for herself what is right in her heart.

A couple of my favorite quotes from the book:

  • He’s asking me the question I’ve always asked myself.  How an unremarkable girl like me could live through unimaginable danger like that.  I didn’t know then, not really, and I’m not sure now.  I offer up my best guess anyway.“Because I was afraid to do anything else except live.”
  • “You can’t undo your past.  You know that as well as I.  But you also can’t foresee the future.  Not even Veda’s prophecy can do that.  What you want to do next, who you want to be, where you want to belong, that’s entirely up to you. As I always say, nothing is written in stone.”

For those who love YA Fantasy, I recommend reading “The Witch Hunter.”  This is the kind of series that can only get better after each book…and yes, according to Virginia Boecker’s Twitter, there’s a Book 2!  You’ll fall in love with the characters.  Imagine John (the Healer) as Kit Harington (Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow)…trust me when I say you’ll fall head over heels in love with his character.

You can find out more about the book and it’s author from her website.  You can also follow her on Twitter @virgboecker.

You can purchase the book at Amazon.com by clicking on the link: The Witch Hunter

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Disclaimers: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive monetary compensation.  I received a free copy of this book from Little, Brown in exchange for writing a review on the blog.  All content and opinions are my own.