Secrets At The Aviary Inn by MaryAnn Clarke; Lovely Fantasy-Like Women's Fiction About Reclaiming The Past

 

Secrets At The Aviary Inn by MaryAnn Clarke; Lovely Fantasy-Like Women's Fiction About Reclaiming The Past

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

Spoilers: There's bad luck during vacations and there's what happened to Sophie Groenvald, protagonist of  MaryAnn Clarke's lovely Contemporary Women's Fiction novel, Secrets at The Aviary Inn. She toured Europe with her boyfriend, Marc-Antoine, to get away from a troubled and smothering home life in Canada. Unfortunately, Marc-Antoine abandoned her to travel with other strangers including a very attractive one. As if being an unfaithful narcissist wasn't enough, Marc-Antoine also took Sophie's money, passport, and other documentation so she is left in York without money, papers, or any way to get home. 

Her sad story and toxic relationship reaches sympathetic ears and she is directed to Aviary Inn, a beautiful out of the way inn run by Mrs. Ava Roxtoby. Ava hires Sophie to work at the front desk and reception center. The desperate situation becomes more tolerable as Sophie earns money, finds friends, gets involved in a couple of serious romances, and gains a benevolent employer in Ava. She also finds some long awaited answers to questions that she has asked that cause her to rethink her family and where she belongs.

Even though Secrets at The Aviary Inn is not a Fantasy by any stretch of the imagination, there is something idyllic, charming, otherworldly, and even enchanting about this book most notably by the presence of Ava and the Aviary Inn. 

Sophie’s first description of the Inn is as follows: “A large gray stone house with pointed gables and white fancy bags and rows of chimney pots stands three stories tall with sloped peacock blue awning that read The Aviary Inn on the Mount. It looks like two terrace houses joined, and the house on the left is wrapped in green ivy, with thick, creamy white window frames and mullions with leaded glass plants peeking through. It looks like a fairy tale castle, and I have to remind myself that old houses in England are like really old.”

The description gives an air of a fantasy castle that is beautiful but remote. Even the way that Sophie finds it, through word of mouth gives the overall impression of a space that activates the senses but is very hard to find. It can't be discovered or traveled to through conventional means. It has to be found.

Since the inn is called The Aviary Inn, there is a bird motif throughout the book. Sophie describes the lobby with enough bird decor that would keep The Audubon Society interested. There are pheasants, owls, finches, sparrows, ducks, and gulls represented either wooden, stuffed, seen, painted, or polished. Ava can often be seen feeding and caring for domestic doves and pigeons outside the inn. Sophie’s co-worker, Zoe, uses “duck” as a term of endearment for friends. This is a place that is definitely for the birds as well as the humans.

The bird motif is not only a reveal of Ava's interests and personality, but it also adds to the off putting but enchanting fairy tale quality of the setting. It is light, airy, a home to humans, birds, and animals. It's practically another world where the terms predator and prey do not exist. Instead it's a community that welcomes all who enter with good intent. 

Ava herself gives off the impression of a threshold guardian, almost a sorceress, White Witch, or nature priestess who lives in her own private world. She is an eccentric but kind figure who can be distant and warm at the same time. She approaches with kindness but keeps others at an emotional arm's length by not sharing much about her private life. She seems like the type of person to retreat to her birds and nature because she prefers them to people. 

Once Sophie  learns Ava’s story, she sees the hurt vulnerable woman who was separated from the people that she loved the most. It's easy to see why Ava created this private personal kingdom, one where she has control over who enters and exits and so she can never be hurt. 

In discovering Aviary Inn, Sophie learns important things about her family line. While it might stretch credibility that the strange place that she never before heard of would hold the answers that she so desperately sought, there are some indications that her journey is not as random as previously thought. She had ulterior motives for this trip and came specifically to York to discover her family history. 

There are some contrived coincidences and possibilities of fate lurking in the background. Sophie didn't plan on being abandoned nor did she know the exact location where she needed to go in advance. However, she had a good head start and the events in the book helped guide her to that path.

Once the truth is revealed, Sophie and Ava have to see each other as they really are not remote, otherworldly, or fantastic. Instead they see each other as full real complex women with a connection that had been severed by broken feelings, wrong words, understandable intentions but hurtful deeds, and time. Through their words and actions, they are able to repair that connection and create new meaningful ones.

The Towpath: A Time Travel Suspense Thriller by Jonathan David Walter; The Intricate Fragility of Time Travel

 

The Towpath: A Time Travel Suspense Thriller by Jonathan David Walter; The Intricate Fragility of Time Travel

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Time travel can be a precarious subject with the possibilities and paradoxes. Like going back in time to kill Adolf Hitler or prevent John F. Kennedy’s assassination could lead to history changing for the better or worse. Perhaps the Soviet Union becomes the victor in the Cold War or another dictator is created from the ashes of World War I or II. Imagine going back in time and accidentally killing or falling in love with your ancestor. You wouldn’t be there to travel back but then who killed or fell in love with them? What about seeing the future knowing what is to come but being unable to prevent it? Time travel can be very excruciating and produces many migraines to figure out the rules and fiction has explored the concept in different ways. Jonathan David Walter’s The Towpath is an example of a novel that explores the complex intricacies and fragile strands that the concept of time stands on.

A mysterious character called The Redeemer is in mourning for her daughter, Hannah, who committed suicide. She is searching for a powerful medallion which will allow the wearer to go back in time so she can prevent the girl’s death. Unfortunately, the medallion is accidentally found by Aaron Porter, a teen boy. Once he learns what the medallion can do, Aaron wants to use it to find his missing brother, Owen. The discovery puts Aaron and his friends, Simon and Libby in immediate danger as The Redeemer pursues them with the assistance of a group of Iroquois warriors that she gathered from the 17th century. 

The Towpath has plenty of depth, particularly with its main protagonist and antagonist. The Redeemer alternates between troubled and terrifying. While searching for Aaron, she gives one of his classmates a particularly painful and grisly death. She is willing to kill for the medallion or send the Iroquois to do it and has no conscience when it comes to inflicting pain on the teen. In her desire to save her child from death, she has no qualms about inflicting it on other children.

However, The Redeemer is not completely soulless. Her intense grief over her daughter’s suicide is very real. Her telepathic conversations with Hannah’s younger self pours out the unhinged rage and despair over the girl’s death and the extreme lengths that she goes through to save her. This is a woman whose traumatized grief has driven her insane.

There is a possibility that time travel itself has played a hand in The Redeemer’s cracking mental state. She has completely disfigured herself and has become desensitized to the historical violence in which she encountered. She has some bouts of kindness such as helping the Iroquois in their fights against white settlers but they’re almost always with the specific goal in mind to save Hannah. As she travels back and forth, The Redeemer loses parts of herself more and more until in one heartbreaking moment she is rejected by Hannah who is frightened of and angry at her. She has become the person that she didn’t want to be because of her grief that has eaten away inside her. 

Aaron is someone who if they were on the same side, would understand what the Redeemer is going through. He too has felt tremendous loss. He has no memories of his birth father. His stepfather, a kindly veteran, died. His mother lives in a drugged and depressed stupor so he is cared for by Owen.The loss that he feels after Owen disappears is just as harrowing as The Redeemer’s mourning. He is not just mourning his brother, but someone who had become another father figure to him shortly after losing his last one. 

The twin stories of grief and obsession are fascinating parallels because it serves as a warning. The Redeemer stands as someone that Aaron is in danger of becoming if his sadness and anger overpower him. He could become just as driven, just as heartless, and just as insane as the woman who is chasing him. 

The intricacies of time travel are brilliantly explored particularly after Aaron and The Redeemer both travel backwards in time and encounter Hannah. She is bruised, morose, and detached. Aaron has to help the troubled girl and repair the rift between her and her mother, without running into his past self. However, he desperately wants to warn and protect Owen from his own fate. 

There are plenty of existentialist questions that are asked. If they rescue them from these specific incidents, are they really saving them or postponing the inevitable? Hannah is clearly troubled and her mother’s presence unnerves her. In her drive to save Hannah, is The Redeemer airbrushing the past and not acknowledging her own culpability in creating the tormented soul that Hannah became? Would Aaron’s knowledge of Owen’s future drive him closer to his brother or further away? If they are saved by their loved one’s trips to the past, then what happens to them in the future? They wouldn’t have this drive to travel back in time or maybe not the ability, so they wouldn’t be able to go back to save them. Would running into their past selves lead to a paradox by their mere presence and would they have any memories of this meeting or the circumstances that led to it? 

These questions are addressed and explored in ways that weigh these potential consequences and change things for better and sometimes for worse. 

Oliver's Travels by Clifford Garstang; Cerebral Introspective Plot About Writing, Traveling, and Searching for The Past

 Oliver's Travels by Clifford Garstang; Cerebral Introspective Plot About Writing, Traveling, and Searching for The Past

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Even though Oliver's Travels sounds like Gulliver's Travels, Clifford Garstang’s novel is not a fantasy satire of a man traveling to different weird lands that mock various aspects of 18th century life. Instead it is a cerebral introspective novel about a man trying to discover the answers to his past through philosophy, writing, and traveling.

Ollie Tucker just graduated from college with a degree in Philosophy. He leaves his troubled father and siblings behind to move in with his estranged alcoholic mother and teach at a community college. Ollie becomes obsessed with learning about his missing Uncle Scotty especially when he has disturbing flashbacks concerning their relationship. 

Oliver's Travels takes a thoughtful look at its lead character. His family is toxic with an emotionally distant father, an alcoholic mother, a Fundamentalist sister, and a brother who has PTSD since his return from Afghanistan. He looks inward for support and validation that his family weren't able to give him. Ollie enters into a romantic relationship with Mary, another teacher, a relationship that is fraught with frequent arguments, miscommunications, and Ollie's uncertainty about whether he loves Mary or her brother, Mike.

 It's obvious that Garstang made him a Philosophy major to show him as the type of character who would examine his life and choices. His present situation often segues into past conversations with his academic advisor, Professor Russell where they talk about things like guilt, free will, memories, and identity. These conversations focus on what troubles Ollie and propels him to do the things that he does. They also have dark edges in the later chapters when Oliver and Russell’s student-mentor relationship becomes more intimate and disturbing. It makes one wonder how many of their Q&A sessions were genuine and how many were used for seduction. 

Besides Philosophy, Ollie examines his life through writing and travel. He writes a novel about a man named Oliver who travels to exotic locations, lives as a free spirit, and has a troubled romance. There ends up being a lot of parallels between fiction and real life but it is also clear that Ollie's novel is a sense of wish fulfillment. Oliver is the person that Ollie wants to be: bold, assertive, and daring. He goes on similar journeys but the fictional Oliver isn't as bound by these concerns as his author is.

 Ollie asks questions that are never answered. Oliver gets those answers. Ollie waffles about whether he can afford to go to another country and worries about cost and his relationships. Oliver just goes without repercussions. Ollie has a troubled on and off again relationship with Mary. While Oliver has arguments with his partner, they are able to work through them. Oliver is what Ollie wants to be: Someone with many of the same problems but is able to face them and shape himself into a better person.

Besides writing, Ollie uses travel as a means of finding answers. He and Mary travel from Singapore, to Tokyo, to Paris, to Mexico City to work or vacation. Each leg of their journey brings new struggles and disappointments. Ollie and Mary might go to different places but they are the same people every time. They are filled with the same insecurities, worries, conflicts, and ties to their dysfunctional families. A new city where they have to teach a different class of students, see sights, and learn a new language does not change who they are. In fact the relocation only adds more stress to their fracturing relationship. The relocation and the real unspoken motives for the traveling. Ollie is chasing leads to where Scotty might have lived.

Ollie asks his parents and siblings about his Uncle Scotty because the family won't talk about him. They give him evasive answers and contradictory statements which only fuels his curiosity even more. He wants to know about him to see if his disturbing memories were real or fabricated. He believes that if he finds and interacts with Scotty, then Ollie can finally get some answers about why he is stuck in this place of insecurity and frequent conflicts. 

When Ollie learns the truth about why Scotty left, he realizes that everything that he thought about him and the rest of their family was wrong. At first, Ollie envies his uncle's nomadic life but the more he pieces together Scotty’s real story, he realizes that his romantic image was errant. Scotty wasn't living a carefree life or running away from a past crime, he traveled because he felt compelled to. He went to different countries to get away from his own traumatic memories and because he couldn’t find a place that felt like home. In his drive to learn about his Uncle through philosophy, writing, and travel, Ollie realizes that he is more like him than he originally thought and is destined to end up in the same place.

Freeze Frame by Rob Santana; Santana Captures Quirky Romance Turned Crime Thriller

Freeze Frame by Rob Santana; Santana Captures Quirky Romance Turned Crime Thriller 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Rob Santana is an expert at writing the unexpected.

The Oscar Goes To features the titular awards ceremony interrupted by the Best Actress Winner’s on air suicide. Little Blue Eyes turns a potentially heartwarming story about a woman taking in an abandoned baby into a thriller about addiction, racism, and human trafficking. Even real people like Adolf Hitler and Jane Austen are taken to strange unexpected dimensions. When you read one of Santana's books you don't know what will happen. All you do know is that it won't be anything like the book that you thought it was going to be at the beginning.

His latest novel, Freeze Frame, starts out as a quirky romantic comedy drama that builds into a psychological crime thriller and gives you enough time to appreciate the transition.

Future filmmaker, Kim Poynter loves taking videos of the people around him particularly of Nova Muller, the pretty girl from across the street. He's in love with her but since she already has a boyfriend, Zane, he settles into the friend zone, for now. He is preparing to record Nova’s brother's wedding during the time that both he and Nova discover some horrible secrets about their families. The suspicion and tension from these secrets build until the wedding when Kim happens to capture a crime that will change his and Nova's lives forever. 

Freeze Frame is the type of book that has a slow build up before it reaches the climax. If done right, it can be a benefit by letting one get to know the characters and the conflicts. If done wrong, it can be a sluggish detriment as the Reader waits for something exciting to happen. Santana does it right. He allows us to understand his characters, particularly Kim and Nova, and see them as rich vibrant people before their worlds fall apart around them. 

Kim struggles with his own ambitions and expectations from his family. He has an eye for film and is interested in capturing the world around him. It is how he expresses himself by measuring every camera angle, preparing every shot, and making his work into works of cinematic art even if they are weddings, parties, and every day events. They aren't ordinary to him. They allow him to understand the people that he is recording and allow them to recognize his dedication. 

Kim's materialistic parents however are not supportive of his drive. They want to know why he isn't more interested in earning money and making investments. Look at them. They put their money into Lehman Brothers and that is certainly “too big to fail.” Right? (This book is set in the late 2000’s before the financial crisis.) 

Besides his parent's lack of financial foresight, they are also having marital troubles. Kim captures a compromising situation involving his parents and it changes their relationship forever. 

Kim captures videos because for him they symbolize perfection. If he doesn't like something he can edit it or change it. The negative parts can be removed. Unfortunately, that cannot happen after he puts the camera down. He has to deal with real life with all of its complications, messiness, and hypocrisy.

Nova is the opposite of Kim in many ways. Kim uses his camera to create a fanciful perfect world, but Nova uses herself. She acts like the smart attractive girl next door. The Miss Everything who is going places. What everyone thinks that they see is a brilliant beautiful good girl. What they don't see is a troubled young woman with a suspicious nature, a surly attitude, and complicated relationships with those around her.

She doesn't get along with her father who is overprotective of her in ways that could veer towards inappropriate. There is a bond that at times might be loving but can also be suffocating even threatening.

Their relationship gets progressively worse throughout the book until it completely deteriorates in a way that is sad but inevitable.

Nova also doesn't like her future sister in law at all. Her only supporter is her brother and even that will soon change. Her relationship with Zane is crumbling. He can be incredibly possessive and verbally abusive. Nova has some serious emotional issues that need working through and her friendship with Kim gives her the chance to be honest.

The build-up of Kim and Nova's “will they won't they” potential relationship is a quirky romantic comedy drama, the story of two misfits, that are two-thirds of a love triangle and are from dysfunctional families, that find their way to each other. Then it takes a 180 degree turn and this sweet and cute potential romance is not so sweet or cute.

Things occur that cause them to question their relationships with friends, family, and each other. One or more secrets are brought forward and a violent act is committed. This violent act spirals the book into a thriller. Kim records it and has to weigh whether to reveal it to the authorities and how to hide it from nefarious people who want it to stay private. 

The characterization that was present at the beginning gives way more to plot. But since the Reader has gotten to know Kim and Nova, that makes their situation more dire and the conflicts surrounding them more pronounced. They are left with some difficult choices to make and either way could result in more difficulties. They are hard choices but once made are clearly understood because of what we had experienced with the characters beforehand.

Freeze Frame captures a memorable quirky romance turned crime thriller. It is the picture of an excellent read and is among Santana's best.

 

Somewhere East of Me by Sean Vincent O'Keefe; Quirky and Contemplative Road Trip Across the U.S. and Into One's Memories and Soul

 

Somewhere East of Me by Sean Vincent O'Keefe; Quirky and Contemplative Road Trip Across the U.S. and Into One's Memories and Soul 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Sean Vincent O'Keefe’s Somewhere East of Me is a road trip novel that brings plenty of weirdness, plenty of heart, and plenty of wisdom. It's the type of trip where the characters that you meet early on are not the same ones that you encounter later.

Jake coasts through his life with his ex wife,Angel. He then receives a call from his sister who informs him that their late mother's body is being exhumed from her South Carolina cemetery and they need a family member to witness it. Jake is unwillingly chosen so he drives from Colorado to South Carolina and along the way encounters some bizarre stops, kooky locals, and unwanted memories of his troubled past.

Somewhere East of Me is a book that is part quirky humor and part contemplative character study. We learn a great deal about Jake’s life before he takes his trip. He barely ekes out a living by writing content for various websites, buying and selling stuff on Craigslist, and living off the residuals of his one published novel which was well known enough to have been made into a horrible movie. He shows some signs of talent as his previous novel shows. On his trip, he meets people who have actually read and liked it. He also produces an interesting article about the inner child that receives a lot of buzz. These are flashes of talent which are buried under dry cynicism and a world weariness caused by a lifetime of scraping by. 

Jake’s relationship with Angel alternates between charming and frustrating. It’s sweet that the two former spouses are still in each other’s lives enough to live and work together and to speak well of each other even when the other is not present. But they also recognize each other as a crutch and a relationship that should have ended in a clean closing rather than just hanging on out of habit. The flashbacks to their meeting and how their relationship evolved from romance, to marriage, to divorce, to this awkward semi-”divorced but not really” phase reveals who they are and why they stay together. They hang onto one another as though they still need that Band-Aid against the outside world. The relationship may not be wise or healthy but it’s all that they have.

The highlight of the book by far is the road trip. Anyone who has driven cross country will recall the small towns with weird names, the seemingly endless roads, the off road restaurants and diners, and the strange tourist traps. It’s definitely a fun vicarious experience and a great mental vacation for those who are curious about the so-called flyover states. From Colorado, to Kansas. Missouri, Tennessee, and South Carolina, the Reader is treated to the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the various states. It’s enough to make one want to pack their bags, rev the car, and drive cross country with the top down. 

One  of the quirkiest chapters is when Jake visits Prairie Dog Town, a tourist spot which is what it says on the tin: a home for prairie dogs designed to look like a small town. It is a fun scene that explores the eccentricity of people who can make a tourist site out of anything. It’s tacky, silly, funny, creative, original, and upholds that kind of unique spirit that these towns and their residents are known for. 

Jake also encounters many of the locals, mostly in dining spots. They vary from helpful and kind to taciturn and morose. Jake and the locals share interests, thoughts, goals, motives, memories, and advice.

 

The trip becomes a counter to Jake's relationship with his family. Flashbacks explore Jake’s complex and troubled relationship with his family, particularly his late mother. We experience why Jake turned out to become the hollow husk that he is and why he feels compelled to return to a home in which he was unhappy. His love hate relationship with his mother is tantamount to the person that he later became and in some ways wants to move beyond. This trip is a means of coming to terms with his upbringing, how it hindered his current life, and how he can let go and start over with new fresh insights. 

 It’s interesting that in the final analysis, Jake develops close bonds with strangers on his trip more so than he does with members of his own family, perhaps because there is a distinct lack of baggage and dashed expectations. The locals give Jake some insights into his own character and peer into his relationship with his mother in a mature and nuanced way.

By the time Jake reaches South Carolina, he has reconciled his past of unease, sadness, and disappointment with his recent present of someone who has actually seen life instead of just floating along within it. This experience permits him to take charge of his life, let go of his past, and finally plan for a real future. 

New Book Alert: The Beached Ones by Colleen M. Story; Bizarre and Unique Life After Death Fantasy Reveals The Strength of Fraternal Love

 

New Book Alert: The Beached Ones by Colleen M. Story; Bizarre and Unique Life After Death Fantasy Reveals The Strength of Fraternal Love

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Some believe that ghosts become so because they have unfinished business. They have to send a message, look after someone living, or have to meet some goal or at least be told that the goal has been met before they can ascend in the spirit world. 

Colleen M. Story's fantasy, The Beached Ones, is about a man who has died but has an emotional connection that keeps him tied to the human world.

The man who has passed on, ceased to be, is no more, and gone up and joined the choir invisible (too much Monty Python sorry) is Daniel A. Shepherd, who is part of an Extreme Sports team. He remembers a show in L.A. in which he and others flew over the heads of the people watching, then nothing. Daniel is confused particularly why no one can see or hear him and why he can move quickly from one place to another. After Daniel manages to communicate with his former girlfriend, Jolene he learns that he died during that stunt in L.A. Daniel needs the help of Jolene and her current boyfriend, Brent, who can also see and hear him, to go to San Francisco where his younger brother, Tony, is waiting for him. 

The Beached Ones is a bizarre and at times beautiful book that explores life after death and the connections that the dead made with the living. 

Story's depiction of the Afterlife is deceptively normal at first. It takes a while for Daniel to realize that he's dead because things seem so normal but somehow are off. Daniel has form and substance. Jolene can even touch him. There appears to be no set patten over who can see him and who can't, so one could attribute the behavior of others as they are simply ignoring him. It's only after he sees the article online of his own death that he realizes the truth. Even then some things are kept from him until the time is right for him to remember them.

Once he starts to investigate the matter, Daniel's experience in the Afterlife has some interesting perspectives. He travels wherever he wants from state to state with only a thought. A supernatural creature appears to be stalking him and can take other forms. 

In one beautiful passage, Daniel appears on a beach and views a pod of whales. He sees a mother and her calf being beached and tries to free them. This moment serves as a reminder for those that he left behind.

This moment with the whales foreshadows the connections that Daniel left behind in the world of the living. He and Tony were abused by their mother. Daniel protected his younger brother and practically raised him by himself. Realizing that his brother is alone, propels Daniel to find and reunite with him. This fraternal love is lovingly  explored as Daniel worries that crossing over could mean leaving Tony behind. The whales symbolize Tony and Daniel's relationship and how Daniel cared for his brother and wants to return to him.

The afterlife portrayal in The Beached Ones is fantastic but it's the emotional bond between the two brothers that is the real heart of the story.

New Book Alert: Accidentally Engaged to The Billionaire Book 5 by Bridget Taylor; Some Reality But Soap Opera Schemes Overshadow Charming Wish Fulfillment

 

New Book Alert: Accidentally Engaged to The Billionaire Book 5 by Bridget Taylor; Some Reality But Soap Opera Schemes Overshadow Charming Wish Fulfillment

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Bridget Taylor's Accidentally Engaged to the Billionaire Book 1 was a charming display of wish fulfillment as billionaire Charles Bentley is ordered to get married by his 35th birthday or risk losing his fortune. On a whim, he proposes at first sight to Jane, a pizza deliverer who is in financial straits. The two attend balls, fancy dinners, and country clubs acting like a happily engaged couple under the suspicions of Charles' avaricious uncle, Jack and attorney, Wyatt. Meanwhile, Charles and Jane are supported by Charles' cousin, James and challenged by Jane's sister, Helena who has her own private grudge against the Bentley family. Five books later, Accidentally Engaged to the Billionaire Book 5, moves things considerably. Charles and Jane have married and while Charles loves Jane, Jane is uncertain about her own feelings and the two intend to still end their marriage after a year. That is until Jane, who had long believed that she couldn't have children, learns that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, James and Helena have taken their relationship to a higher level with an impending engagement. Jack however has plans to destroy both couples and keep the Bentley inheritance for himself. Book 5 of the Accidentally Engaged series offers some slight semblance of reality into this modern fairy tale particularly with the ever present class conflicts and pregnancy complications. Jane's pregnancy is handled with much care and sympathy. We see a couple who adjusted to the fact that children would not be in the cards, making their unusual situation easier, are now blindsided by this emotional complication. The complication becomes physical when they learn that Jane has fibroids and giving birth could potentially injure or even kill her. This plot brings the romanticism of the previous book to a halt and allows Taylor to inject some realism into an otherwise paint by numbers romance. Many romances end with marriage or babies ever after. Once the couple says I do and they can hear the pitter patter of little feet, then it's over. Hugs and happy endings for all. But that's not always the case as Book 5 demonstrates. Pregnancy itself is a very complicated painful thing that is very difficult for couples to go through and it can be very hard physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. Some are just not prepared for the reality of having a family, especially a couple who began so arbitrarily and unrealistically as Charles and Jane did. There are also times when the plot takes on soap opera extremes. Uncle Jack who was the primary antagonist in Book 1 was mostly in small doses then as the uptight snob. Now he forces his way to the forefront as a scenery devouring villain. He appears to have taken lessons from J.R. Ewing from Dallas as he connives to take James and Charles' inheritances. He especially threatens James by demanding he take a DNA test to see if he is biologically a Bentley. Another nice touch in Book 5 is something that I had long predicted: longtime adversaries James and Helena would end their animosity and hook up. I was right and in a nice twist from Jane and Charles' speedy engagement and marriage, they take the time to get to know each other. They have a typical courtship and slow burning romance that culminates in a marriage, suggesting that the conflicts that Jane and Charles have because of their speed will be or have been worked out during the pre-wedding phase. Like with Jane's pregnancy complications, this brings this otherwise airy romance down to earth.

New Book Alert: Courage Jonathan (Courage To Rise Book 2) by Heather Nadine Lenz; Warm and Funny Novel About Life After Happily Ever After

 

New Book Alert: Courage Jonathan (Courage to Rise Book 2) by Heather Nadine Lenz; Warm and Funny Novel About Life After Happily Ever After

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I have to hand it to Heather Nadine Lenz. She thought of one of the cutest ways to draw Readers into a second volume if they are unfamiliar with the first. Most authors have a prologue. Others put dabs of exposition throughout the book so they can pick up things as they go on. Others ignore it entirely and expect the Readers to catch up.

In Courage Jonathan, the previous novel, Courage Caroline is summarized in one overlong drunken monologue by a future groom on the day before his wedding.

Jonathan Arrozinni is in Bali ready to marry his fiancee Caroline but as he explains to a bartender, he has cold feet. He recalls the events of the previous book: That he is the son of a wealthy family who started an architectural firm with his brother. He fell in love with Caroline, a yoga instructor from a poor family. His family raised objections and threatened to cut him off. Through a series of romantic complications including both of their exes, Jonathan decides to go for love instead of money and asks Caroline to marry him.

In this opening chapter, the bartender is no doubt considering a career change as Jonathan rambles on and on but the Reader gets a sense of the kind of character that Jonathan is. He is foolish, prone to hasty decisions without thinking, helplessly idealistic, romantic, at times self-centered, entitled because he had spent his life with money, but ultimately good hearted. In this chapter we learn about Jonathan through this summary of the previous book.

Courage Jonathan is a funny and warm book. If Courage Caroline says that  love conquers all and is worth taking the leap, then Courage Jonathan is the more rational friend holding their romantic idiot friend by the belt loops and saying "Whoa there, Love Birds, you might want to hold off and think about this for a while."

The trouble begins right before the wedding. Besides Jonathan's second thoughts, Caroline announces that she's pregnant, and Jonathan's brother makes a humiliating speech earning Caroline's embarrassment and Jonathan's fury. This angers Jonathan so much that not only does he refuse his family's money but he dissolves his partnership with Daniel and resolves to start his own firm. Well a year later, Jonathan is bankrupt, unemployed, and depressed and a fed up Caroline is ready to file for divorce and take their son, Leo with her.

The book has some romantic moments that reveal what a sweet couple Jonathan and Caroline actually are, the kind that are instantly likeable and we root for. In Bali, they observe a beautiful waterfall with the other members of Jonathan's family who before and since are at each other's throats. That moment however brings them together as they observe this natural beauty.

Another moment is during their wedding over water. They have to be barefoot and of course Caroline and Jonathan slip and get wet. As they playfully splash each other, we see this is a couple that take great delight and joy in being together. Despite the family conflicts and Jonathan's concerned feelings at the beginning, the Reader needs these moments to see Jonathan and Caroline as a loving couple caught up in the haze of romance before reality sets in and sets and it does.

After the bankruptcy and the estrangement of Johnathan's family, we see what a life of privilege does to someone who is too used to it and the culture shock when someone has to get used to being on their own for the first time. Jonathan may have felt suffocated by the standards and questioned many of their dealings. He may have constantly tired of them controlling him but now that he has cut the strings, he is wondering what went wrong.

It's not a surprise that Johnathan's architectural firm goes under. He is without the contacts, the backing, and the promotion that his famous name provided. He's practically like a toddler trying to skip learning to walk and trying instead to run around the neighborhood only to fall flat on his face. 

His depression when everything goes under is real enough to be understandable but also comic enough to make one want to shake him out of his funk and tell him to get over himself. It gets more dramatic as he contemplates suicide before he is rescued by a friend. This moment becomes a wake up call for Jonathan as he no longer loses himself to self pity and really takes positive steps to take charge of his life. Before when he broke from his family and started his own firm, he did it basically just to show them off like a pouty kid wanting to prove to his parents "See I did it myself!"

This time he restarts his life to become a better person on his own terms, so he can be a better worker, friend, husband, and father. He becomes a more well rounded person who takes pride in his work and cares for Caroline and Leo.

The ironic thing is at the exact moment when his new life is at its highest, his family are at their lowest. Jonathan may have successfully broken the patterns of entitlement and avarice, but they have not. They end up paying a price for their greed and expect money and a famous name means that they won't face punishment. At least in this book, they will. Jonathan looks on this with bemusement at their situation, relief that he got out, and a haunting thought of who he might have been and where he might have ended up if he stayed.

Courage Jonathan begins with a character who is so laughable that you want to slap him to make him see reality. It ended with him being slapped by life and becoming more real than ever.

Weekly Reader: Ugly Girl, Sweet Nectar: Based on A True Story by D.D. Kaye; Sad and Moving Book About The Scars Left By Child Abuse

 

Weekly Reader: Ugly Girl, Sweet Nectar: Based on A True Story by D.D. Kaye; Sad and Moving Book About The Scars Left By Child Abuse

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: D.D. Kaye's Ugly Girl Sweet Nectar is a powerful book about child abuse and how those emotional scars resonate into adulthood, making the later years ones of hardship, fear, mental illness, and self-esteem issues.

The book is about Alessa, a woman who is going through massive stress in her life. Though unmarried, she has had three daughters from three different fathers. Right now she is constantly arguing with her youngest whom she describes as an "Angster"(a portmanteau for angsty teenager). She has a much younger boyfriend but is insecure about her relationship with him. She is unemployed and broke. Both of her parents are going through health crises. Her father is ill and in the grips of his controlling and manipulative second wife. Her mother has dementia and is living with the aftereffects of a life of alcoholism. To cope with all of this, Alessa has decided to do what she does best: write about her problems to find out how she got to this situation and what went wrong. 

Most of the book consists of Alessa's current struggles with her children, lack of employment or finances, relationships, and parents and is interspersed with flashbacks of her unhappy childhood and teen years. Kaye writes this so the Reader understands where Alessa  came from and why her current life is the way it is.

 We get a sense that the flashbacks provide commentaries about what's going on in Alessa's life now. For example, Alessa goes through her morning arguing with her youngest daughter, Brooke, who would rather stay home with scabbed sunburned lips than be seen in public. Alessa is also remembering her last boyfriend who dated her for a few months until he updated his dating profile to "seeking a slender girl with a flat stomach" and is beginning to date Arman, who is almost 20 years her junior.

Alessa then recalls how her parents' marriage was once happy with a quiet mother who had an Audrey Hepburn look and a modish style and a handsome father who was very cheerful and swung his daughters around when he returned home from his office job. Alessa remembers the rare good times that she had as a child before her parent's marriage fell apart.

As Alessa's current life spirals out of control so do her memories. Alessais is laid off as a computer programmer in an "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" decision. ("You're kidding right?" She says to her boss about the process and the fact that even though a man who has never headed any projects and isn't educated in project management like she is, is not only remaining but is promoted to manager.)

During this time, Alessa  flashes back to her parents divorce when she had to take a maternal role towards her younger sister, Lilla while her father worked three jobs to support his daughters and pay for his ex wife's spending habits. The sisters hovered between their father's home in Washington State and their mother's home in Hawaii. Their more liberal mother drank, took Valium, threw wild parties, and mocked Alessa's personality and appearance. 

Some of the darker aspects in the flashbacks involve Alessa's parents' subsequent romances. Pam, their Dad's much younger girlfriend and later second wife goes from being an understanding sympathetic pal to a controlling manipulative shrew in a matter of a few paragraphs. She puts Cinderella and Snow White's stepmothers to shame as she dominates and verbally abuses their father, isolates him from his daughters by spreading lies, keeps to her room while the girls do all the chores, and withholds his money for herself. As they age, Pam focuses on her lesser aches and pains as his health deteriorates. Alessa and Lilla can only watch in dismay as their father, once a loving strong willed man is reduced to a shell of his former self. 

The picture becomes clear when we see their father as an old man dying of an advanced stage of leukemia and Pam sends him to a nursing home citing a sore foot and spending time in a wheelchair as reasons not to care for him. (In actuality, it would ruin her narcissistic ego to care for someone else other than herself.) I don't blame Alessa for wanting to punch Pam. I wouldn't mind reaching through my Kindle to take a few hits at her myself.

They don't have it any better at their mother's home with her string of boyfriends and frequent drunken episodes.These men are absolutely horrible but at least once they are out of Alessa's mother's life, they are gone. Unlike Pam who stays and stays.

 One, Big Manu, sexually assaults Alessa and reads The Joy of Sex out loud to then 7 year old, Lilla. When Alessa tells her mother about the near rape, Mom sides with Manu and tells her that this type of thing will happen all the time. 

Another boyfriend, Lou, practically keeps the girls and their mother captive in a cabin in Arizona. They only managed to be rescued when a thunderstorm knocked the power out and rangers checked on their status. Alessa's mother begged for her and her daughters  to be rescued.

 That moment and a subsequent chapter when their mother braves a dust devil to drive her daughters to safety are the final moments of self sacrifice. Alessa and Lilla's later years with their mother consist of more frequent alcoholism and Valium and further mental decline to the point that she requires caregivers. In a haunting conversation, Alessa's mother delusionally believes that she is in prison and asks if it's because Alessa still hates her for being a bad mother. Alessa cannot find a way to  answer.

These scars become more fleshed as Alessa matures. Her relationships with her daughter's fathers all ended badly partly because none of them wanted to stay with her. One wanted to continue partying, another became controlling and abusive, and the third was Christian and found Alessa's New Age beliefs to be "too occultic." (even though she cited them as giving her the strength to get her through her unhappy youth.) Looking at her relationships with them and comparing them to her parents, she realizes that she didn't want to follow the same patterns that they did. She wanted to end a relationship that wasn't working rather than be miserable and make her daughters miserable as well.

Even when things seem to go well in her current life, the rug pulls out and Alessa is left unhappy. She is no sooner happy with Arman than she sees pictures on his Facebook wall of him with scantily clad young women. She becomes closer to her older daughters, Emma and Willow but that's because they move back in to help their unemployed mother with the cost of rent. She has a male friend, Kristofer, whom she might want to pursue more than a friendship but he doesn't "want to ruin what they have" and uses Alessa only as a rebound or a shoulder when his romances fizzle out. However, he is a constant steady presence in her life and a good friend.

To keep her sanity, Alessa not only is writing out her problems but looks for signs from the Universe. During the book, she sees two different psychics and they both help her find light inside the darkness. Alessa meditates, exercises, and finds common signs and symbols that surround her. These things help center and remind her that the Universe still loves her. Even if her life is falling apart, she allows herself chances to grieve but also chances to be more open and accepting of the inward. Her spiritual path reminds her that everything will be okay and gives her the love and acceptance that her parents never did. 

Writing the book allows Alessa to look for those signs from the Universe and recognize the patterns in her life. She realized that her parents' unhappiness led to her own. She became excessively

cautious and terrified of men and became overprotective of her daughters to make up for the mother that she didn't have. These realizations plus a final revelation about her mother's youth finally gives her a chance to exorcise the ghosts that have long haunted her and to make peace with her dying parents. 

Alessa's writing about her past is not a quick fix. The ending makes it clear that there are still tears, criticisms, periods of anger and rage at the Universe, her parents and others, and low self-esteem. However, she will also have periods of support and love from friends and family, self-encouragement, and understanding towards herself. 

D.D. Kaye writes lovingly about a woman who reviews the ugliness in her life before she recognizes her own beauty.

New Book Alert: Central City by Indy Perro; The Thin Line Between Cop and Criminal Gets Thinner

 

New Book Alert: Central City by Indy Perro; The Thin Line Between Cop and Criminal Gets Thinner

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: There are many authors in the hard boiled mystery genre that explore the thin line between cop and criminal. Sometimes their methods aren't that different. Sometimes they are psychologically damaged and may have more in common than others are aware. Sometimes the police officer displays behavior that could be considered violent or illegal while the criminal is a beloved member of the community and devoted family head.

One author who explores that line is Indy Perro with his novel, Central City. This mystery suspense thriller tells of police officers and a representative from the other side of the law conducting their own separate investigations on the same murders only to learn that their links are much tighter than either would believe or want to admit.

After a tense opening set in 1977 in which two young boys are caught in an abusive situation with their father, we turn to 1992 where a man has been brutally murdered. Detectives Vinnie Bayonne and Adam McKenna are on the case. After they investigate similar murders before and since this one, they learn that the men all had something in common: they were prostitute's johns (clients). So someone is out killing men who solicited prostitute's company but who and why? Is it a jealous ex? A prostitute making the johns pay? Someone with a venereal disease making the whole world pay? A religious person removing sin from the world? 

While Bayonne and McKenna conduct their investigation, someone else is trying to figure it out, someone with less legal means at his disposal. Kane Kulpa, an ex-con and informant to the police is also looking for the murderer. Of course, he gets to bypass all of those pesky laws and requirements that police officers aren't supposed to follow like resorting to violence, intimidation, and psychological mind tricks. Of course that cops do them anyway further cements the close links between characters on the opposite sides of the law showing that they aren't that different except one carries a badge and the other doesn't.

Of the characters in this book the best one is Kane himself. He acts as a go between the law and the lawless not really a part of either one. He has a mutual respect with Bayonne and often offers information for the price of a drink. He is also caught in an approaching war between different gangs as a Vietnamese gang threatens him to leave his old gang behind and work with them or else. 

Just like Bayonne and McKenna, Kane wants to keep the streets safe. He is especially protective of the prostitutes including having one, with the delightful name of Molly Matches, live with and work for him as a housekeeper. His history as a once abused child and former convict gives him empathy for impoverished citizens forced to turn to crime when they have no other means of employment. Kane comes across as a better character than Bayonne and McKenna.

Bayonne and McKenn aren't bad characters per se. They are just not as developed as Kane. Perhaps that's the point, to subvert our understanding and loyalty between cop and crook. Bayonne is the seasoned veteran without much of a character and backstory. He is clearly concerned for people like Kane and the prostitutes, taking a fatherly concern for their welfare. He is the kind of cop that many wish would exist in real life: the type that looks beyond the poor and criminal exterior and sees the suffering hurting person inside.

McKenna is the typical rookie who tries to set himself above the people that he and Bayonne encounter. However, there is a surprise twist that links Kane, Bayonne, and Mckenna and puts them closer together. Even though the surprise is somewhat easy to guess, it's not cheesy and the results bring out the best in all three characters.

Central City is a brilliant detective noir story with modern sensibilities that reveal sometimes law givers and law breakers are often on the same side.

New Book Alert: The Leviathan Trial by Oliver Madison; Suspenseful Clever Mind Twisting Thriller About Breakable Family Ties

 

New Book Alert: The Leviathan Trial by Oliver Madison; Suspenseful Clever Mind Twisting Thriller About Breakable Family Ties

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Oliver Madison's The Leviathan Trial is an odd combination of The Hunger Games, Battle Royale, The Purge, and "The Most Dangerous Game," meets the Hatfields and The McCoys. It involves a sadistic game of life or death, but the participants are children in one very large, rich, multi-talented and incredibly screwed up family.

Father Benedict Lancaster is a very eccentric billionaire/recluse. At 90 years of age he lives the high life. He has homes, cars, thriving businesses, fame, infamy, and a tragic backstory to go with it. At 12 years old, he was the sole survivor of an accident that claimed the lives of his entire family leaving Benedict a very sad but wealthy young boy. (He was the sole heir to the family fortune.)

Upon adulthood, Benedict was a childless confirmed bachelor until abruptly in his 70's, he decided to adopt a child. Ultimately, he adopted 12 children from different countries.

The Lancaster children are raised in very unusual circumstances. They were left largely isolated, educated by a bevy of tutors, teachers, and coaches, until they attended the nearby Preparatory Academy where they are the subject of scrutiny, speculation, and gossip. They are ordered to socialize only with each other and to excel in one specific field.

 Benedict is hardly ever home leaving their care to an array of house servants and each other. He only returns to evaluate their performances and to reward or penalize them if they fall short of his expectations. Okay a wealthy, but distant father who expects his children to become overachievers. Nothing weird about that until they start talking about the Leviathan.

The Leviathan is a mythical creature who is their family spirit. The Lancasters pray to the Leviathan before meals and bedtime and swear total allegiance to this strange creature. Benedict often inspires and even thrives on competition between his children and allows rivalries and cliques to form because that is the way the Leviathan wants it.There are plenty of rumors that the Lancasters children are actually brainwashed members of a cult with Benedict as their leader and those rumors might be right.

The Lancaster children are a bizarre but fascinating bunch. Madison excellently personalized each character and how they interact as a family and as individuals. They are:

Pearl-The oldest at 19 and first to be adopted. She was adopted from New Zealand and is a champion skeet shooter. She is the de facto parent and mother of the group. Some believe that she is the closest thing Benedict has ever had to a wife.

Hiroshi-At 18, he was the first adopted boy. From Japan, he is a wrestling champion and the most physically athletic and strongest of the kids.

Blake-Also 18, he is from Iran and is an academic all-star. A chess champion, Blake has a sardonic attitude and often schemes against his siblings.

Cynthia-17, she is from Brazil and is an accomplished software engineer and computer programmer. She is very quiet and is known to hide her true feelings and keep to herself away from the others.

Allister-Also 17, he was adopted from Uganda. Like Pearl and Hiroshi, he is also an athlete though this time a champion fencer. He has a bad temper and somewhat inflated ego.

Zara-Also 17, she was adopted from India. She is the most star struck and is an accomplished actress, dancer, and model. She can be vain about her appearance and accomplishments describing herself as the Lancaster "family triple threat."

Troy-16, the only one adopted from the United States, he was from a Native American family. He is a culinary expert and gourmet chef. He is usually friendly and even tempered.

Levi-15, adopted from Kenya. He is very verbal as a debate champion and bookworm. He is also the book's Every Kid as he serves as the main third person narrator. Even though he is protective of some of his siblings, he isn't shy about becoming rivals with others particularly Blake and Allister.

Eden-Also 15, she is from Russia. She is a philanthropist and has organized a family foundation and charity that provides aid and assistance to underprivileged children from around the world. She has a reputation as the family do-gooder.

Mauve-13, she was adopted from Cambodia. She is a bright philosophy student but is going through a Goth stage. She is very rebellious and antagonistic towards Benedict and the other sibs.

Sion-Also 13, he was adopted from Puerto Rico. He is a founder of the chemistry club at his school and is very scientific and analytical. He is also a mischievous prankster and a bully, whose bullying sometimes extends to family members.

Helena-7, the youngest of the Lancasters and baby of the family. She was adopted from Norway and is mute. She may be autistic (though she has not been officially diagnosed, Benedict and the others just suspect that she is.) She is a complete mystery to her siblings except for Levi with whom she has developed a deep loving bond.

Yes the Lancasters are super talented, super strong, super brilliant, and super competitive. All of that plus their strange upbringing is a simmering cauldron that explodes into something super terrible.

The explosion occurs after the death of the family patriarch. Upon viewing his video will, the children learn that only one will inherit the family fortune and the title of The Great Leviathan. Who will it be? Well, it will be resolved by the children fighting each other in their locked mansion to the death. The one who is left alive will inherit the lot. Oh yeah and should they refuse, a poisonous gas will spread throughout the mansion killing everyone inside. So it's either 11 die and one lives or they all die. It's not too long before greed and survival instincts kick in and the Lancaster children become a bloodthirsty vicious bunch ready to kill the rest of their family.

The Trial itself is a truly suspenseful section as the children separate first into groups of three to outdo the others then turn on each other. There are some pretty heart stopping moments where some characters try to use physical strength to subdue each other physically while others hide in the shadows, mentally playing the different ends before they make their moves. They are also practiced at using their specific skills as means for attack and self defense.

 This is the type of book where people's real motives and ambitions come out under stress, ambition, and terror. Suddenly, that nice sweet sister of yours with whom you shared secrets will use those secrets as collateral damage before she willingly slashes your throat. Suddenly, that protective big brother who always defended you from bullies will now use that awesome strength and physical prowess to choke the life out of you. It's also the type of book where no one truly comes out clean. Even the seemingly nice characters aren't above scheming and fighting against siblings that they had long term rivalries with but are now seen as obstacles to their survival and fortune. There are even hints that the one who makes it will become as ruthless and power hungry as Dear Old Dad. 

The Leviathan Trial has some pretty clever and gut wrenching twists none of which will be revealed here but they subvert expectations and cause the Reader to rethink what had gone on before. There are some flaws notably the presence of Kitty Choi, a potential love interest for Levi that gets accidentally thrown into the Trial and does very little to advance the plot. She really only serves as the eyes and ears of the Reader to give some much needed exposition and an outsider perspective to this very odd family. If Kitty's presence was part of one of the many plot twists, it may have made sense for her to be there but she is simply a missed opportunity.

Mostly, The Leviathan Trial is a great novel that reveals that some family ties can be broken and shattered.