Ghost Walk by Melissa Bowersock, Thorn of Plimouth by Catherine Hughes, Walking Out of This World by Stephan Ford

 

Ghost Walk (A Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud Mystery Book 1) by Melissa Bowersock 

Ghost Walk is the first book in Melissa Bowersock’s Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud Mysteries, an, at the time of this review, 49 volume Paranormal Mystery series about cop turned private investigator Lacey Fitzpatrick and her partner Sam Firecloud, a clairvoyant. Throughout the series, the two face human killers but also ghosts, demons, shapeshifters, witches, curses, vampires, zombies, and every other supernatural creature. Not bad for a series that began in 2017. 

The first volume, Ghost Walk is a creepy graphic mystery with strong character development and eerie passages that joins the natural world with the supernatural. It sets the stage with the duo meeting for the first time and having their first brush with the paranormal world.

Former LAPD detective Lacey Fitzpatrick learns that one of her former cases has been reopened. The burial site in which the unidentified Fairfax Stalker might have left his victims is found. Obsessed with the unsolved case, Lacey approaches the crime scene at the same time as Sam Firecloud. The clairvoyant uses his abilities to refer to names of victims that only Lacey and her colleagues knew. Lacey is intrigued and seizes the opportunity to reopen the Fairfax Stalker case and investigate a potentially haunted house with Sam’s assistance.

Unlike other books on the series, this volume is slight with the paranormal aspects. Mostly they are found through Sam’s visions and psychic information which are creepy enough. He sees the violent acts and hears the names in his head. In one chapter, he reveals the emotional and mental toll the vision takes on him and how it is overwhelming to constantly and unwittingly see and hear acts of violence. 

As a divorced father of two, Sam is aware that his gift has been a barrier in his previous marriage. Also, he has terrified his kids without meaning to. It is a gift that he has been given but at times it comes with a high price tag. Sam is trying to use his gift to make others’ lives better even if it makes himself uncomfortable and lonely.

This book cleverly flips the script in the skeptic/believer dynamic made popular by Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in the X Files. Lacey doesn’t necessarily believe in Sam’s visions but she is interested in pursuing this lead anyway. She is at a point where conventional means, deductive reasoning, eyewitness testimony, psychological profiling, DNA testing doesn’t work. She is willing to follow Sam’s visions because she has literally run out of normal options. Even a strange otherworldly lead is better than no lead at all.

Lacey is not in any position to counter the leads anyway. A scandal caused by her ex resulted in his arrest and imprisonment and her resignation from the LAPD. Because of this, she had been drifting along trying to figure out what she wants to do now that she has lost her purpose in life.

 The Fairfax Stalker case reignites that purpose to protect innocent lives, punish the guilty, and deliver justice to those who deserve it. It also reminds Lacey of the bureaucracy involved in police work and gives her other possibilities in law enforcement perhaps as a private investigator.

This is an eerie creepy Paranormal Mystery that gives two leads that are worth rooting for as they enter into the darkness of the unknown. 

Thorn in Plimouth by Catherine Hughes 

I received a free copy of this book through Betafide. 

Thorn in Plimouth (sp?) by Catherine Hughes is an affecting Historical Fiction novel about a woman accused of witchcraft in the Pilgrim community of Plymouth Rock.

Rachel, a midwife and healer, is on board The Fortune. She is among the many European immigrants who follow The Mayflower to live in the Puritan colony at Plymouth Rock. Rachel's obstreperous nature, Welsh upbringing, and knowledge of herbology makes her a target of suspicion on board. The suspicion increases after they land and a series of troubles results in public accusations against Rachel.

In many ways, this book is similar to one that I read last year, The Healer's Daughter by Myriana Merkovic which was also about a woman emigrating to 17th century North America, South Carolina this time, and is accused of witchcraft. It was one of my favorite books and was third in my list of Fantasy novels for that year. ( Sense of Home: The Land of the Great Lakes by N.Z. Kaminsky and Isemene and The Voice by Juniper Calle were the top two.) 

There are similarities between Thorn in Plimouth and The Healer's Daughter. Full disclosure, an argument about abortifacients is repeated almost word for word in both books. Some of their accusers echo each other including a haughty young girl and a hypocritical community leader using the trial to cover up their own lustful, vengeful, and avaricious deeds. Though those are no doubt based on the real accusers of the Salem Witch Trials who were largely young girls claiming to be afflicted and community leaders who used the trials to settle old scores. But the focus and tone of the two novels are very different.

The Healer's Daughter is a Historical Fantasy. It asks the question what if a person accused of witchcraft actually had those powers but weren't from Satan but instead an inherited gift from a polytheistic religion that worshiped the Goddess. It is a character study of a woman, Naida Galene, who is an outsider because of her beliefs, so she isolates herself into the woods to live in nature and communicate with her ancestors freely. The focus was on the protagonist.

This book’s primary focus is on setting both time and place. It is a more realistic Historical Fiction where Rachel does not have any special abilities but still invites scorn, gossip, and suspicion simply by her presence. It is an indictment against the religious paranoia that brewed and profited from the scapegoating.

This book captures the claustrophobic Puritan setting and how an outsider like Rachel functions within it. Their rigid Biblical interpretation causes them to cast doubts on a woman who has a dragon keepsake as a reminder of her half-Welsh heritage, red hair, buoyant ability to swim, and sharp tongue. All of these physical characteristics cause eyes to narrow and puzzled expressions turned towards Rachel's direction. To them, she looks and acts like a witch that their Puritan elders taught them to fear. 

Despite this, Rachel uses her natural kindness to help people even as they gossip and note unusual activity. She uses her healer and midwife abilities to treat sick people and in one stirring chapter deliver a baby on board The Fortune.

In Plymouth, Rachel is surrounded by attackers with very few defenders. They are anxious and fearful in a new place where survival and adaptability are not sure things. Puritanism discourages any sort of individuality or elaboration and holds a rigid outlook towards indigenous people and anyone who does not follow their views. 

The paranoia is made stronger by a few circumstances in which Rachel is at the center, particularly the death of a newborn that she delivered and a prank that resulted in her getting lost in the woods. She is rescued and aided by Keme of the Pauquunaukit tribe. 

The local Pokanoket tribe might have helped the Pilgrims during the time of famine (First Thanksgiving, remember?). However, many Puritans still fear the various tribes and equate them and Rachel with those fears and their own anxiety and paranoia about the Devil. Even when others come to her aid such as Pilgrim Governor William Bradford, the voices of the accusers are far louder and more active. 

That paranoia leads to Rachel's public ostracism, eventual trial, and eventual exile. A vibrant kind woman who used her training to help people around her becomes a pariah because of their rigid religious standards and is swallowed and destroyed by their own fears.

Walking Out of This World by Stephan Ford 

This review is a summary. The entire review is on LitPick.

Walking Out of This World is a predictable but comforting allegory about people caught up in the battle of good and evil personified by two peculiar beings.

While participating in one of their long walks, members of the Far and Fast Walks Society (FFWS) encounter Miles Miteby, a kind but eccentric stranger. He leads them to his enchanting home village where many of their issues are resolved. Unfortunately Miles isn't the only mysterious person watching them. There is also Lucifix who leads them down a torturous miserable path of their own making.

It's pretty easy to guess who Miles and Lucifix are and what they are supposed to represent to the human characters. However, Walking Out of This World has plenty of interesting characters, settings, and plot points that capture the Reader's interest. 

By far the most intriguing concepts are Miteby Arms (Miles’ home) and The Other Realm (Lucifix’s), Neither of them are ever called Heaven and Hell but it’s clear that’s what they are supposed to be.Miteby Arms is depicted as a quaint remote village that encourages connection and togetherness while The Other Realm is a hellacious urban nightmare that thrives on isolation and fear. The rewards of Miteby Arms and punishments of The Other Realm reveal much about the protagonists' characteristics and personalities.

The book is filled with characters being close to what they wanted and longed for but are then punished by their own follies and frailties. Miles and Lucifix represent the best and worst of the human experience. 

The Sound of a Fallen Leaf by Shari Linn; Holocaust Drama Marred By Formatting Issues

 The Sound of a Fallen Leaf by Shari Linn; Holocaust Drama Marred By Formatting Issues

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I really wanted to like The Sound of a Fallen Leaf by Shari Linn. It is a Historical Fiction about the Holocaust. It has traces of a Magical Realism about a woman with unique inherited magical abilities. But unfortunately, there are difficulties in formatting that mar the book and distracts the reader from the overall storyline.

In 1940’s Jada Avrus had a power called bracha. It's an empathetic power which removes despair, anxiety, and panic but absorbs pain into herself. When the Nazis conquer her country, Jada uses that ability to survive and hopefully escape the dictatorship.

The novel is mostly great as a Historical Fantasy by presenting the struggles in 1940’s Europe alongside the story of a woman discovering hidden powers even if the presentation could use work. 

Jada goes through the trauma that other Holocaust survivors do. The dehumanizing laws, soldiers enforcing laws and regulations, abuse, torture, mass arrests, detainment, mass murder, and the desperate attempts to either hide, sneak out across the border, or stay and take their chances. 

Many who have lived in or currently live in a dictatorship can recognize themselves in that situation. Those who read Holocaust-Era Historical Fiction will experience vicarious anxiety and terror especially when they can see similar situations in real life.

Jada experiences the trauma around her but also within, because of her bracha abilities. She shares other's feelings. In such dark times, that power can easily become overwhelming, exhausting, and painful. There are moments when she is driven to illness and insanity by her powers and desire to help others.

Walking down a street or talking to someone will cause the bracha to overpower her. A normal day could affect her so we can imagine what it must be like during the Holocaust in which trauma, fear, and despair surrounds her. Jada is a lightning rod for pain and suffering in these times. 

She has ways to circumvent that internal pain. She charges people for consultation and limits her time and the amount of people that she talks to. More importantly she has friends and family especially siblings that keep her grounded and sane in such trying times. She also has goals to survive and outlive her enemies even if she has to go elsewhere to do it.

This book would be gripping and carry a lot of depth but the formatting gets in the way. It's hard to become invested in the protagonist and her journey when paragraphs are broken mid sentence and typesetting is off in several places. It gets in the way of the story that we are reading.

It seems like such a petty issue and it might just only be in my copy. But this is such a powerful story with a brilliant character who has amazing power and is going through such trauma. But it needs to flow better for the reader to experience and appreciate it.

In some ways, it's similar to watching a movie where you enjoy the script or the characters but can't get past the constant shaky cam, grainy lighting, or side angles. It might be a stylistic choice but it also ruins the immersive experience and keeps the audience remote from the film.

That is what happens with The Sound of a Fallen Leaf. Instead of appreciating Jada’s story and empathizing with this tragic situation and her struggles with the bracha, they jump from one broken paragraph to the next, sometimes forgetting what the plot points even are. It keeps the reader out of the book where we don't fall into the story. Instead we stare at blank spaces where words should be.

Linn has a good sense of history and character but the format stands in the way. It is well written but could be better presented. 

Ex and The City by Sally Clements; Fluffy Rom Com With Some Edges

 

Ex and The City by Sally Clements; Fluffy Rom Com With Some Edges 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Ex and The City by Sally Clements seems like a fluffy light Second Chance Rom Com/Chick Lit about ex spouses working together on a project. However if you look beyond the formula, there are some deeper edges about toxic relationships, the pressures of fame, and the complexities of balancing a public persona with a private life.

Country singer Stacy Gold needs a new opportunity to branch out and refocus after her career goes into decline. That's where her ex husband, Adam Logan comes in. He is the CEO of Plaxair, an animated production company. His latest film features a singing squirrel and unfortunately his first choice is caught in a scandal so who can he call to fill the role? Why who else but his ex-wife Stacy of course.

There is enough sugar and sweetness in this book to spare but the darker edges keep it from being too mawkish and cloying. It plays with and slightly stretches the formula while sticking to it.

It has the usual Second Chance Romance tropes, so present that even someone like me who hasn't read a lot of them can identify them. There are the dates, intimate conversations, and sexual by play before they completely reconcile. Stacy and Adam go through fights and misunderstanding but clearly still care about each other. 

Another trope explored is the cute endearing couple brought together by outside circumstances, in this case making a movie. It is actually an interesting look at the making of an animated film. Adam and his colleagues watch different shows and movies to match a potential voice to Bibi Squirrel, their film’s protagonist. 

They weigh options as they look for a famous name that will draw in audiences, does not bring objectionable controversy (like Stacy’s predecessor did), and also to find someone who has the personality, voice, and demeanor to play an ingenue squirrel. There are endless voice over sessions where Stacy works alone in a studio and has to keep her energy and Bibi’s character going as she reads the script. 

The behind the scenes details of making an animated film sprinkle throughout the book. For example, Stacy records Bibi’s voice as computer animators model Bibi’s facial expressions and body movements around her. Animation fans might enjoy this inside look at the animation process wrapped inside a Second Chance Romance.

Other tropes in this book are misunderstandings and other people that influenced Adam and Stacy’s breakup. After all, if there were actual potentially toxic reasons like infidelity, addiction, abuse, and so on we would not be rooting for these two kids to get back together. 

In this case most of the break up is engineered by Stacy’s unscrupulous manager, Lester. He isolated Stacy by causing her to doubt Adam's intentions to keep her under his management. Lester is a particularly sinister addition to what is usually a light hearted fluffy subgenre in Romance. He also is who turns the book into a much darker, more layered narrative than is expected. 

He has all of the symptoms of being an abuser particularly with how he arranged Stacy and Lester's divorce. He withholds money and information from her. He love bomb her after she is rejected by her birth parents. He makes her think that he is the only trustworthy person in her life.

 Unfortunately, Stacy is so susceptible to his manipulations that she can't completely cut off from Lester even when she finds out about his duplicity. She considers him a father figure to her and integral to the beginning of her career. It's a toxic relationship that she still can't walk away from personally even when she has to professionally.

In fact within the romance, there is an ongoing theme of Adam and Stacy moving forward creatively. Adam runs his own animation company so he and his staff can make movies that they care about and have a final say in the production. It's clear that he sees animation beyond just a children's medium but a legitimate work of art that appeals to all ages. 

Stacy also has ideas about moving forward in her career. Lester wants her to perform her older songs and look like the girl from her first album. But she writes deeper, more personal songs and matures in appearance. She has grown in age and experience and wants to express that. If she can't do it with Lester, then she intends to do it by herself. Bibi and Adam provide that first step. 

Ex and The City can fall into formula but it also shows how people can change themselves by separating from toxic influences and exploring their professional creativity to form a real partnership.

Samhain by Nuith Lachesis, Seed of Fear by Patrick Seaman, A Woman Between Two Worlds by Kim Brantley

Samhain: Origins, Lore, Ancestor Traditions, and Flexible Wiccan Rituals for Solitary Practice, Couples, Families, and Covens by Nuith Lachesis

Samhain is an important holiday for Wiccans. It marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the winter in the Gaelic harvest calendar. Bonfires play a huge role for practical reasons like protection, gathering, and driving off pests and symbolic reasons like purification and marking the turning of the year. The day carried strong associations with the dead and ancestors. It’s sometimes referred to as a thinning veil. Divination customs are also traditions in modern harvests and Halloween traditions. This book explores the various customs and traditions associated with the holiday including for various types of Wiccans. 

The chapters include “History and Origin,” “Symbolism and Correspondence,” “Planning Your Celebration,” “The Solitary Flame: Rituals for Solitary Practice,” “Two Flames: Rituals for Couples,” “The Family Hearth: Rituals for Families,” “The Circle’s Fire: Rituals for Covens,”and  “Until The Wheel Turns Again.”

One of the most intriguing facets of this book is the emphasis on different Wiccan rituals for solitaries, couples, families, and covens. To do this author Nuith Lachesis mentions specific people who represent those types: Rowan, a Solitary Wiccan who lives in an urban apartment, so has access to only a limited amount of tools to practice her craft, Briar, a Solitary Wiccan with 20 years of experience, Dana and Marlowe, a couple who practice Wicca together, The Hart Family, parents Sam and Jordan and their three children Avery, Quinn, and Wren who represent the Fam-Trad tradition of passing Wiccan rituals across generations, and The Ashgrove Circle, a coven of eight to ten members who engage in elaborate ceremonies. These examples personalize the various rituals and practices that Wiccans can take to honor the holiday. 

For example “The Solitary Flame” chapter includes “Ancestor Altar Ritual,” “First Solitary Samhain Ritual,” “The Dumb Supper,” “Divination Night,” “A Releasing Ritual,” “Veil-Walking Meditation,” “Apartment Friendly Full Celebration,” and the “Full Solitary Rite.” 

 

Seed of Fear: A Biotech Conspiracy Thriller (The Quiet Harvest Series) by Patrick Seaman

Seed of Fear is a tense and emotion driven thriller about a couple separated by the manipulations of others.

DEA Special Agent Sean McCreary is the only survivor of an ambush that left the rest of his team dead or languishing in the hospital. He is filled with Post Trauma and Survivor's Guilt but he has another more personal struggle to deal with. His girlfriend, Grace Liang, a food engineer, has gone missing. Unbeknownst to her, she created a specific pathway design that other more nefarious government representatives and cartels want to get their hands on. Grace tries to survive her captivity while Alec tries to find her while uncovering the ambush and the reasons behind it.

This book has all of the qualities of an effective thriller. It has nail biting action, various methods of torture, clandestine meetings, betrayals on top of betrayals, and physical, emotional, and mental trauma than a real person can possibly take but it’s all in a day’s work for the protagonists. But what really sells it is the emotional journeys that Alec and Grace are forced to take.

Alec’s PTSD from the ambush is very real. There are some moments where he encounters his former teammates and their family members. He recognizes the cost of living a life on the edge for a government that could thank you for your service one minute and then pretend like you never existed in the first place. In some of the worst moments, he experiences betrayal when he learns that instead of helping him avenge their deaths, his superiors and colleagues would rather hush the whole thing up.

Grace also experiences betrayal as well though a more personal kind. She learns that one of her kidnappers is someone that she knows and once trusted. Her moments with this abductor are some of the emotional highlights as she simultaneously hates their actions and misses the relationship that they used to have. 

 A Woman Between Two Worlds by Kim Brantley 

This is a Science Fiction novel about discovering one’s inner power, transformation, rebuilding one’s life after tragedy, self-awareness, searching for and finding a higher purpose.

World governments have been given a message: In 30 days aliens, called the Velari, will arrive and in the meantime they have to prepare humanity for their arrival. After the transmission, the DNA of various Earthlings change revealing a hidden alien ancestry and the ability to communicate telepathically with the Velari.

One of those humans is Cassandra, a divorcee who is embarking on a second happier but unfulfilling marriage. She is selected along with the others to be an ambassador to the Velari and has to spend a lot of time with them. While among them, she has to figure out who she is, who she loves, and what she wants to do with her new abilities.

A Woman Between Two Worlds is a novel about transforming one’s body, mind, spirit, and purpose in life. Those who have been transformed, called Pathfinders, not only communicate with the Velari but share memories, emotions, thoughts, memories, and experiences. This bond changes them physically, mentally, and emotionally so they obtain higher consciousness and enlightenment. It's an experience that is both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Kim Brantley explores the various aspects from the people going through the changes and those around them. The Pathfinders themselves experience this amazing transformation where they have the mindset of otherworldly beings but are still in the bodies of humans. They might have visions of other worlds but still have to eat, sleep, and live around people. 

This division of ethereal and human can be draining and create a schism within. Cassandra for example shares thoughts and emotions with others, but she worries about how her actions affect those around her. 

Cassandra is already anxious from her Earth troubles. She is shattered by the end of her marriage and still in that phase where she both loves and hates her ex. She floats along in her life feeling detached until the transformation happens.

The transformation turns her into someone more empathetic, compassionate, and intuitive. The visions of the Velari and their home world help her and the other Pathfinders search for ways to save their world. Far from being the drifting troubled woman preoccupied with her own struggles, she finds purpose and meaning in her life.

However no transformation comes without confusion or pain. Cassandra is filled with questions. How does being an alien ambassador change her relationship with her ex? Do her neighbors see an enlightened being, a cult member, or a traitor to her species? Do they want to heed her advice, burn her at the stake, or do both? Becoming a Pathfinder is an illuminating but anxiety inducing experience.

Earthlings around Cassandra and the other Pathfinders are fascinated but also fearful of the changes in their friends and family. Some come to them for advice or want to take part in the new world that they are creating. Others want to exploit them for their own gain. Others fear and want to study them, quarantine them, or execute them out of concerns that they will destroy the planet. 

The Velari gives Earth the answers to their problems in human form but the people have to set prejudice and fear aside and trust the human vessels to listen to them. 

September-October's Reading List

 

September-October’s List 

Ex and The City by Sally Clements 

The Sound of a Fallen Leaf by Shari Linn 

Seed of Fear: A Biotech Conspiracy Thriller (The Quiet Harvest Series) by Patrick Seaman

Samhain: Origins, Lore, Ancestor Traditions, and Flexible Wiccan Rituals for Solitary Practice, Couples, Families, and Covens by Nuith Lachesis

A Woman Between Two Worlds by Kim Brantley

Ghost Walk (A Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud Mystery Book 1) by Melissa Bowersock

The God of Naziland (The Fuhrer’s Master Book One) by Elyse Hoffman  

Under The Naga Tail by James Taing

The Fortunate Islands: A Novel of the 14th Century Canary Islands by Michael Ponzio

Walking Out of This World by Stephan Ford*

Thorn of Plimouth by Catherine Hughes 

The Perfect Bitch (The Perfect Fate Book 2) by Tom Kane 

Our Own Authors by Brian Baleno 

All Men Would Be Tyrants If They Could by Judie Mitchell 

Fairy Tale by AK Nevermore

Operation Nightfall (The VENOM Book 2) by Ty Mitchell-maybe

If you have a book that you would like me to review, beta read, edit, proofread, or write, please contact me at the following:

Bluesky 

Facebook

Goodreads 

Instagram

LinkedIn

Literary World

LitPick

Reader Views 

Reedsy Discovery

Threads

Upwork

Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com or julieporter217@gmail.com

Prices are as follows (subjected to change depending on size and scope of the project):

Beta Read: $50.00-75.00

Review: $50-100.00**

Copy/Content Edit: $100-300.00

Proofread: $100-300.00

Research & Citation: $100-400.00

Ghostwrite/Co-Write:$200-400.00

*These are books reviewed for LitPick or Reader's Views and will only feature a summary and a few paragraphs with links to the full reviews on their sites. Some may not be featured at all.

**Exceptions are books provided by Henry Roi PR, LitPick, Reedsy Discovery, Hidden Gems, Reader Views, and DP Books. Payments of short Nonfiction reviews are already facilitated through various reading groups such as Paid Readers Club, Read Books, Read for Pay, etc.

Payments can be made to my PayPal, Stripe, and CashApp accounts at juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Well that's it. Thanks and as always, Happy Reading.

Then Finished (Gutted, Dissolved, and Then Finished Book 3) by Anna Madorsky; Thrilling Conclusion to Psychologically Disturbing Trilogy

Then Finished (Gutted, Dissolved, and Then Finished Book 3) by Anna Madorsky; Thrilling Conclusion to Psychologically Disturbing Trilogy

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Since this is the final book in a trilogy, I recommend that you read my reviews on the previous volumes, Gutted and Dissolved and be forewarned that this review will contain MAJOR SPOILERS!!! for the entire series. Please, read at your own discretion.

In The Gutted, Dissolved, and Then Finished Trilogy, Anna Madorsky introduced us to killer couple Elliot and Jason. In the first book. Gutted, Jason meets an insomniac Elliot in a late night cafe where they share dark Nihilistic thoughts and complete isolation. They become lovers and eventually husband and wife. Jason reveals the worst aspects of his character and admits that he has killed someone before and has urges to do so again. Elliot alternates between appalled and fascinated and helps him kill again by the end of the book.

 In the second volume, Dissolved, Elliot and Jason are now divorced. To separate herself from the violence and Jason's dark urges, Elliot moves to Portland, makes many new friends, reunites with family members, and falls in love with Max, another man. She makes plans to live a better, more positive life. But she can't get Jason out of her mind and when he returns, she can't help but submit to his desires.

Now we have Volume 3: Then Finished, the final volume, the end, the resolution to Jason and Elliot’s troubled relationship and murderous plans. This volume takes the dark hints from the previous books and gives them their inevitable, destructive, graphic, and bloody conclusion. 

It lives up to its name by ending the series not with a period but an exclamation point! Book 3 revels in the darkness that is central to the narration whereas before it was hovering on the edge in Book 1 and moving ever closer in Book 2.

Now Elliot is romantically involved with Max who was introduced in Dissolved. He has finally defrosted her previously icy nature and she is beginning to open herself up to having another long term relationship. However, Jason is still there and still a part of her life. The two ex spouses rekindle their romance and with this romance comes dead bodies. It isn't too long before the duo are ready to kill again but now the relationship has shifted in surprising ways.

Gutted involved Jason introducing Elliot to her darker nature and murderous impulses. Dissolved showed her trying to get away from them. Then Finished counters the previous books by saying that no matter how far Elliot tries to run and escape, she can't hide who she is. The creature existed within her but needed Jason to bring it forward. 

In the previous books, Elliot fights against her darker nature. In this book, she accepts and embraces that darker nature. The conflict in Dissolved involved her finding better friends that bring out a better lighter nature within her. Here, Max does not represent a brighter path for her but a barrier towards what she now sees as her true self.

She sees the encouraging kindness that she once depended on with Max as restrictive, confining, and weak willed. She questions his motives and shoves her affair with Jason into his face, probably to close that final link to a lawful steady society. She made her choice so in rejecting Max, she rejects society.

A strange thing occurs throughout the book. It's clear that Elliot learned from Jason to embrace a darker and violent nature but she learned it too well. She used to be on the sidelines, making suggestions, driving the get away car, providing the alibi, and sometimes assisting in the graphic details. But here she is a stronger forceful presence and takes the lead.

Many of Elliot and Jason’s arguments consist of Elliot pushing her ex into doing something and he resists, which is the complete inversion of their former relationship. She has become more aggressive, darker tempered, and more open to causing great harm.

It's also highly significant that this is the only book in the trilogy where Elliot commits murder on her own. She has been open to the possibility of taking blood and now she can master and own it. She surpassed Jason in rage and violence and now he has to live with the monster that he created.

It's also significant that as Elliot strengthens, Jason weakens. He is now the withdrawn quiet one suggesting from the sides. He stews in a rage that is burning down into weariness and lethargy. The rage that fueled him has been given to Elliot with none left for him. Without it, he has nothing to live for.

Elliot has seen a better life but blatantly rejects it. Jason has no other frame of reference so cannot function when the chain of command is ruptured. His pain that he blamed as being the catalyst for murder is now all-consuming when he doesn't have an outlet to satiate it. He used to be angry, now he's just sad.

As with all murderers, Elliot and Jason’s crime spree comes to an end. It is an inevitable conclusion to a toxic relationship that was foretold the moment that an intense mysterious stranger saw an insomniac woman in a cafe and enveloped her into his private darkness.

 

Angel: Letters of Esther (The Romans Series Book 2) by C.L. Rosario; Female Centered Companion Book to Bromantic Contemporary Fantasy

Angel: Letters of Esther (The Romans Series Book 2) by C.L. Rosario; Female Centered Companion Book to Bromantic Contemporary Fantasy 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: C.L. Rosario’s previous book, And Then They Fell in Rome was a Magical Realism Contemporary Fantasy novel about a circle of male friends called The Troubadours who receive word from a mysterious stranger known only as La Bruja (“The Witch” or “The Stranger “) who tells them that they need to help Jean Luis Larose, one of their own, to find love before he dies. What followed was a lovely thought provoking meditative look at fate, synchronicity, coincidence, magic, romance, true love, and the importance of maintaining a good friendship. It was an excellent book that captured the male group of friends. I would describe it as not just a Romance novel but a Bromance novel.

Well if one focuses only on one party in a Romance novel, they are really telling only half of the story. In And Then They Fell in Rome, we are given insights about many of the female characters and are given as much depth and agency as their male counterparts so they aren't just shallow love interests. However, they are largely seen from the perspective of the male characters so compared to them, they are cyphers. Well written cyphers but cyphers none the less.

Rosario's next book, Angel: Letters of Esther more than makes up for that lack. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a sequel so much as it is a companion piece. It takes the same story and gives a largely female perspective. It focuses mostly on Esther Consuelos, Jan Luis’ potential love interest. We also get some solid insights into La Bruja who now has a name, Ariel, and some potential clues to her real identity.

This volume also provides a more streamlined narration that is easier to follow. It mostly focuses on Jan Luis and gives the rest of The Troubadours smaller, more supporting roles. It loses the complexity of the previous novel but since Jan Luis is the central Troubadour in both books, it makes sense that his story would wrap up in this volume.

Jan Luis and Esther meet at the Miami Grand Prix. The two click but a strange discovery about a shared coincidence from their paths suggest that there are higher powers at work bringing them together. An eventful weekend causes the couple to weigh their passions, faith, goals, intimacy, desires, standards, and the division between body, heart, and soul to find out what they really want in life and if they are compatible.

Both Jan Luis and Esther come across as fully developed characters. Since Jan Luis is the sole major Troubadour in this book, we are mostly exposed to his life and views. Technically, there isn't anything entirely new to Jan Luis that we didn't know before from his past. Even the strange previous connection between the two lovers was revealed in the previous book. We are familiar with Jan Luis’s past. This book is more interested in his present. 

As we remember in the previous book, he had yet to be paired off though his friends were. This book shows him moving from a hard edged cynic thinking that he is better off alone to a romantic who is open to the possibility of letting love into his life. It is a character trajectory that transforms him into the person that La Bruja and the Troubadours envisioned that he would become.

Jan Luis's strongest moments occur when he is alone and away from his initial peer group of The Troubadours. Since they are moved to the side and reduced to supporting characters, this book deals with what happens when friendships recede and characters grow up and move on.

The previous book was the be all and end all of their friendship at times even eclipsing their romantic relationships. It reveals the universal truth that sometimes friendships are more important than romance. This book shows the opposite.

 What happens when friends let other people and situations in their lives and phase out the original group. They don't do this out of meanness or because of fights but because of different circumstances, busy schedules, more people and commitments, and maturity. They have entered lives that are harder, more complicated, and busier. Sometimes early relationships fall away.

The Troubadours’s bond is still close and they still have some great reunions but they have evolved. Jan Luis can't rely on them as much as he used to. He spends most of his time in Rome with a new group of friends and has other interests, other goals, and other problems that have moved him far from his honorary brothers. It's a time where he has to figure out who he is without any help from his old friends.

 As I mentioned this is practically the female counterpart to And Then They Fell in Rome and it shows. Esther is by far the most developed character. She has many different facets to her character that reveals her complexities and depth.

She is a publicist for Formula One so she carries a very high class, fast living, public, athletic and energetic presence on the job. The kind that doesn't mind frequent travel and hobnobbing with classy elite individuals watching the races as well as managing the information on drivers and crews who work at them. It also breaks quite a few barriers to read about a woman involved in the still mostly male dominated world of auto racing. Her strong willed tough personality reveals herself as a woman who will not accept being sidelined or mansplained so of course she would excel in such a world.

There are also softer edges to Esther's character largely through her spiritual beliefs and questions about higher concepts. She is religious and considers herself as a “Christian but not that kind of Christian.” She is very accepting towards people and views that her religion is highly critical of. She uses it instead to aspire herself to live a decent charitable kind life. 

However, she has high standards mostly towards herself. She has specific views about sexuality, intimacy, love, and marriage. They are resolute but she is wavering. There are many times when Esther’s emotions and desires take over and she questions whether she has the views because of her faith in Christian doctrine or fear of being in a relationship. Is she putting off close relationships for her God or herself?

One of the most intriguing subplots is when Esther reunites with an ex. The potential for a rekindled romance is there even though she still loves Jan Luis and he is involved with a friend of hers. But more importantly than the romantic aspects are the deep conversations between them over quantum physics and higher consciousness. They open Esther to other possibilities and move her faith forward from the binary either or interpretation that she previously held. 

These conversations also bring awareness of the magical realism that surrounds the narrative. Through most of the book, the magical realism is more subdued as compared to its predecessor. Mostly it's reduced to revelations about what happened in the previous book and conversations about those topics. These conversations offer different theories about fate, coincidence, predestiny, and synchronicity. 

This volume posts different theories and analysis without fully committing to one or the other. The characters live in a potentially fantastic world and this book provides a potential key for them to understand it. It's almost like the first book showed the magic while the second book gives the realism, the answers to the previous book’s questions.

The magic returns as Ariel does to the narration. Now she has a name and a private life of people who know her and assist her in her endeavors. Before, there were possibilities that she didn't exist or wasn't even human. Now we know more about her and while she is still enigmatic and ethereal, she is more well rounded and more human in personality (though maybe not in reality).

There is an intriguing reveal about Ariel and a motivation over why it was so important for Jan Luis to fall in love. It won't be spoiled here and while somewhat arbitrary at first, in hindsight both books succinctly led to this twist. It becomes not a shocking twist but a natural resolution to two books where circumstances are never coincidence, where people are fated to meet in the right place, time, and right moment, where Higher Powers are watching and give signals for those who observe and listen, and where magic and realism exist side by side. Just like two lovers, they are destined to be together.