Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews: February 2022

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Weekly Reader: The Doomsday Medallion (A Van Ops Thriller) by Avanti Centrae; Van Ops Takes On Nostradamus In Another Thrilling Adventure

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: If you are as fascinated as I am with Michel de Nostradamus and his famous prophecies then you should enjoy Avanti Centrae's third Van Ops Thriller, The Doomsday Medallion. Even if you are not and just enjoy a good adventurous treasure hunt sprinkled with plenty of suspense and character development then you still should read The Doomsday Medallion.

Centrae's third go round follows the same pattern as the previous volumes The Lost Power and Solstice Shadows in that it involved three Van Ops agents: Maddy Marshall, a psychic and Aikido instructor, Will Argones, Maddy's twin brother an engineer and expert knife fighter, and Bear Thorenson, Will's friend and Maddy's boyfriend, a seasoned agent with an interest in the humanities particularly history, art, and literature.

In the first volume, The Lost Power, the trio found themselves searching for the Aragon Chasse while on the run from Russian assassins who killed their father and Will's wife. The second volume, Solstice Shadows, found them recovering a stolen star chart that would lead to a great power while encountering treacherous relatives and a looming war.

This time the trio's adventures take them right on the path of Avril, a 16 year old social media sensation who has impressed and frightened many with her spot on predictions. Her latest one involves a military takeover in the South China Sea. This accurate foretelling makes her the target of some suspicious characters who attempt to kidnap Avril and her guardian, Monique. Will, Maddy, and Bear are assigned to watch over the girl who is more powerful and more important than your average psychic. She is a direct descendant of Nostradamus and possesses knowledge on where some of the famed seer's missing quatrains are and what they foretell.

The book doesn't jump around as much as the previous books. Mostly Doomsday Medallion is set in France and Italy. While the settings don't give the Readers their "Imagination Frequent Flier Miles" that the previous books do, French and Italian art and history are explored more frequently. Key scenes are set near cave paintings and Renaissance art to reveal that strong connection to the past.

The adventure sequences are as exciting as those that can be found in many blockbuster films. There are some pretty tense moments such as when the twins infiltrate a kidnapping attempt on Avril. Many times they are followed by enemies that want to make short work of them. Centrae makes her books extended chase scenes and leaves the Reader with breathless anticipation with every close call that her characters get.

While the adventure is tight, Centrae never loses sight of characterization. In The Lost Power both Maddy and Will share the spotlight. In Solstice Shadows, Maddy gets more attention while this one evens the score by having Will be the main focus. While the twins live active lives full of adventure, Maddy has been able to form a family with Bear and her adopted son, A.J. Will has not been so lucky.

He still feels the loss of what might have been after his wife, Maria's death. Here he feels a paternal protective connection with Avril wanting to be the father figure in her life that fate so far has deprived him. Their chapters together are sweet and humorous with the world weary adult and the bright sassy kid arguing with and supporting each other through this adventure.

In fact Avril herself is also a very well written character who easily stands out in this book. She is gifted with this phenomenal inherited power that she doesn't fully understand but still wants to share in her own right.

Like her famous ancestor, she is uncertain and vague about what she sees and shares her information with others for them to interpret. With Nostradamus it was through writing poetic quatrains. With Avril it's creating TikTok videos. Whatever reaches the masses, am I rite?

However, Avril is also a regular kid who loves her pet gecko, worries about her guardians, sasses authority figures, and makes social media her second home. It would be interesting if the series continues to see her equally involved in future adventures. The ending resolutions seem to foretell this.

The Doomsday Medallion is another great Van Ops adventure. I predict Book Four will be just as good.

Saturday, February 26, 2022

New Book Alert: The Paraclete by Bernard Leo Remakus, M.D.; Disturbing Thriller About The Dark Side of the Catholic Church

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: When it comes to sex scandals, the Roman Catholic Church has a lot to answer for. Not just for individual priests who molested patrons, both male and female, but also the Vatican's zero response to the cases. Instead of forcing the priest to resign or press charges against them, many Archbishops often simply moved them to another diocese to continue their foul deeds elsewhere or sent them to an "undisclosed location for a time for rehabilitation."

Someone that I know works across from such an undisclosed facility. It is remote, on a dirt road, in a rural area, and is not a safe area to be because of how far it is from local authorities. I worry about this person for that and reasons concerning their job but I digress. (For protection's sake, I will not reveal my contact's name, relation, nor where this facility is located.)

There have been some improvements in the situation. I suppose when enough people come forward with the same experiences, even the Pope has to pay attention. Recently Pope Francis has changed Vatican laws to explicitly criminalize sexual abuse. But for many survivors, the damage has already been done and accusations are still made. Is the Vatican's tougher approach working or are these priests being more secretive about it? It remains to be seen.

One novel that explores the Catholic Church sex scandals is The Paraclete by Bernard Leo Remakus, M.D. Like any good crime novel, it shows no matter how high up that you think you are, no matter how right you claim that you are with God, if you commit a heinous crime you will be caught and exposed.

The protagonist is Father Paul Thielemans, who is considered a "Rock Star" in the world of modern Catholicism. He is from a prominent family that made their money by distributing Belgian based beer but he entered the church upon adulthood. He is known for his lectures and best selling books. He is also not afraid to confront controversial topics like "Should the church allow priests to marry?" In many circles, he is famous and just as equally infamous.

While in San Diego, he makes the acquaintance of Bobby Kucera, an introverted altar boy and runs afoul with Father Kitterick, a sinister and rude priest. On a sea voyage to Hawaii for a lecture, Thielemans discovers that his concerns about Bobby and suspicions towards Kitterick were correct when he learns that Bobby committed suicide after having been molested by the priest.

Thielemans also meets Sister Michelle Erzengel, a nun whom he hires as his assistant. He learns that Michelle is part of a secret network dedicated to capturing and exposing priests for sex crimes. Thielemans also learns that Michelle herself has prior experience with priests who refused to keep their hands to themselves.

The Paraclete is one of those kinds of thrillers and mysteries that subverts our notions of guilt and innocence, right and wrong, black and white. Just like Thielemans does in his research, the book itself is not afraid to ask tough questions like if one knows that a crime is being committed is it their duty to report it without evidence? How long can one hide their horrible deeds under a God fearing facade? If the authorities won't do something about a crime what else can be done? If a priest hears of a crime in confession should they turn the perpetrator in? What sins can be forgiven and what cannot? Is confession enough or does true repentance involve a change in actions? There are no easy answers and The Paraclete does not give them.

Instead what the Paraclete does is give us decisions that the characters make based on their own experiences and proximity to these situations. Some characters do horrible things and are never held accountable for them. Instead they are left to their own devices and continue those crimes because their society is insulated and allows them to continue. Even worse, they carry these deeds to another generation by turning a blind eye or taking active part in the deplorable actions that the younger generation does.

Many of the characters in the Paraclete, particularly Thielemans and Sister Michelle are faced with these moral conundrums because of priests getting away with molesting parishioners and the silence of the Church itself that allowed the crimes to continue.

Michelle and her organization prefer to take a more active role in finding and persecuting these men so they can never hurt anyone else. While Thielemans takes a more theoretical cerebral approach to this situation, he too is appalled by the hypocrisy that many of his fellow priests have when they honor God with one hand while raping a male or female parishioner with the other.

He is disgusted not only with their actions but those of the bishops, archbishops, and cardinals who allow it to happen.

Illegal, unethical, and immoral deeds can only be caught when higher ups let go of their apathy and no longer fear the repercussions or their personal loss.

To paraphrase the famous quote attributed to Edmund Burke "Evil only thrives when good people do nothing."

Unfortunately, sometimes when the answer is to do nothing, some like the characters in The Paraclete, do something and that something isn't always right. However, in some cases it may be the only way for that evil to end.

The Paraclete is a thought provoking thriller that through its characters asks some tough questions about sexuality, morality, legality, and faith. It is a novel that leaves the Reader in suspense but also to form their own conclusions.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

New Book Alert: Born For The Game by Mike DeLucia; Check This Book Out About The Ball Game

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Once again, we have a book that ends up mirroring real life perfectly. As I am writing my review for Mike DeLucia's Born for The Game, the Winter Olympics has ended. Every time the Olympics or any major sports event airs, we are made consciously aware of the intense scrutiny and pressure that athletes are put through. We glamorize them when they succeed and vilify them when they fail or do something outside of what we consider appropriate behavior.

During this past Olympics, much of the spotlight was put on Russian figure skater, Kamila Valieva, who tested positive for an illegal substance for heart medication. The Olympics Committee faced much criticism by allowing her to perform.

She, the ROC, and the Olympics Committee, faced verbal attacks, criticism, and threats because of this decision. Despite the intense controversy, Valieva performed superbly during the short program. But the pressure obviously got to her and she did not do as well during the long.

The criticism that she received, particularly from commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, was beyond abusive and hypocritical on Lipinski and Weir's part. Lipinski was herself a teenage figure skater and should understand her situation and Weir had an accusation of domestic violence that could have ended in his dismissal from the figure skating world. Regardless of whether it was true, he should understand what negative publicity can do to a career.

The camera following the ROC team before the medal ceremony in which not only Valieva but her colleague, Silver medalist, Alexandra Trusova were left in tears making what should have been a private moment public was ghoulish and voyeuristic. What is forgotten in all of this is that Kamila Valieva and her fellow skaters are not only world class athletes, but they are also young. In her case, she is fifteen years old. Teenagers are emotional, unpredictable, not always far thinking or even in charge of their own decisions, and the intense pressure would break anyone but especially one who is not old, experienced, or in many cases mature enough to handle such stressful scrutiny.

This pressure can double when an athlete is the first of their kind to enter the sport. Think about the threats and abuse that Jackie Robinson received when he became the first African American baseball player in Major League baseball or that Hank Aaron received when he dared to break Babe Ruth's home run record. All eyes are on that athlete, waiting for them to succeed and break that barrier to welcome others or waiting for them to fail as proof that their "kind" can't do the sport.

In Born For The Game, we have a fictional situation that hopefully will one day be real: the first woman to play for Major League baseball. (Since the All American Girls Professional Baseball League during WWII, forever immortalized by the Penny Marshall directed film, A League of Their Own.)

In this eye opening look at what it takes to break such athletic barriers this woman is Ryan Stone, pitcher for the fictitious L.A. Greyhounds. She is 19 years old and is a coach and manager's dream. She can throw a knuckleball at 50, a fastball at 88, and curves, sliders, and screwballs at different release points. In contrast to the whole "pitchers make lousy batters" myth, she strikes out most of the other players during spring tryouts. As for intelligence, well she graduated from high school at age 8, was tutored by Harvard Law professors, and has an IQ of 197. She is probably the prototype of what many consider the perfect baseball player.

While her impressive career can be attributed to plenty of talent and practice, there is a darker side to Ryan's past and her ambitions to become not only a great baseball player or the first female but to become the best. She was groomed long before her birth to become the perfect baseball player. Multimillionaire Phineas Stone, former player and manager Baxter "Rollie" Rollins, and martial artist and head of the L.A. Japanese Cultural Center, Ito Hatchi conspired to create and raise the perfect player.

They arrange her conception by bringing together two world class athletes, Dakota Swiftwater, a Hall of Fame pitcher and Valentina Fermi, an Italian gold medalist in both Summer and Winter Olympics to conceive and give birth to their future prodigy. That she turned out to be a girl instead of the hoped for boy didn't bother them. In fact they consider her debut more noteworthy for that reason.

Besides arranging Ryan's conception, she is raised by Ito, trained by Rollie, and overseen by Phineas through a combination of visual impressions, subliminal messages, drilling and training for the goal of becoming the best baseball player.

Ryan is well developed as a character. She is clearly living someone else's dream and being programmed even before birth to succeed. Her background is meant to be secret but plays a large part in her acceptance into the baseball world. While this constant pressure and programming have led her to this place, she also shows enough natural talent and study in the sport itself to allow the dream to be hers.

However, the unspoken thought and unanswered question throughout this book is what if Ryan hadn't had this background of these men creating her to be the perfect baseball player. If she had just been an average woman with an amazing gift from an impoverished background but a killer pitching arm would she even be considered for the Majors? How many women have considered a career in professional major league baseball and even told "if you were a guy, we would sign you up" but because they weren't men they have been denied or didn't even bother to try? Do women have to be super successful and have something extra before they can break into a boy's club or can they get in through the traditional way through hard work and perseverance?

While Phineas and Co.'s training and programming of her, particularly putting her parents together, are untoward are they really any different from the real life "Coach Dads" and "Stage Moms" who micromanage and pressure their kids to succeed, feed them drugs to enhance their performance, and even fight with judges, directors, and other personnel when they don't?

At least Ryan actually loves baseball and wants to succeed just as much for herself and not just because she is driven to.

Some of the best moments in the book occur when Ryan breaks her programming and shows despite Phineas, Rollie, and Ito's influence, she is still a person and a young person at that. Right before she gets accepted for the Greyhounds, she mouths off to the manager showing her legalese and business savvy to get a decent contract to join the team. She has an affair with a fan and argues with her adopted fathers when they find out. She sincerely mourns the death of one guardian and feels caught in the middle of a power struggle between the remaining father figures. Then when rumors fly about her background, she is often at an emotional crossroads that impacts not only her career but her mental health and self worth.

While fictional and possibly extreme in the attempts to create the perfect athlete, Born For The Game takes an insider look at the pressure, the highs, and lows of what it really means to be a groundbreaking athlete. As a book, it looks like it could be, yes it is a home run!

Thursday, February 3, 2022

February's List

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

For being sick in January, I managed to catch up to most of the reviews. Hopefully, February will prove just as fruitful.

I should let you all know because of our WiFi plan, sometimes at the end of the month the Internet shuts off. For a period of a couple of days, sometimes I am unable to send reviews or communicate online. I try to get as much as I can done before then, but quite often I am a couple of reviews short. So that's why I am sometimes unavailable at the end of the month.

Born For The Game by Mike DeLuca

The Paraclete by Bernard Leo Remakus, M.D.

(Splendor by Zlaikha Y Samad and L'mere Younossi

Beyond The Sushi Chef: The Ultimate Bible for Mastering Nigri Sushi

Suspended Animation by Carly Rheilan)*

The Doomsday Medallion (A Van Ops Thriller Book 3) by Avanti Central

Murder of a Runaway (Belfast Murder Mystery Book 5) by Brian O'Hare

Rite Judgement Heads Roll-Corpses Dance (Dada Detective Agency Book 2) by Pete Adams

The Last Keeper (Book 1 of The Warminster Series) by J.V. Hillard

Emma's Tapestry by Isobel Blackthorn

Lakshmi and The River of Truth: A Fairy Tale For Adults by Paul Chaseman

The Flames of Resistance (Women Spies of World War II) by Kit Sergeant

*Works in parentheses are to be reviewed this month but will not yet appear on the blog

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

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Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Payments can be mailed through my PayPal account at juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Prices are as follows:

Beta Read: $15-20.00

Review: $20-35.00**

Copy/Content Edit: $75-300.00

Proofread: $75-300.00

Research & Citation: $100-400.00

Ghostwrite/Co-Write:$100-400.00

**Exceptions are books provided by Henry Roi PR, BookTasters, and other noted book groups

Well that's all. As always, Happy Reading!

Weekly Reader: Outsourced (Book 1 of the Outsourced Series) by Eric J. Gates; Destiny Laden Fantasy Proves That The Pen Really Is Deadlier Than The Sword

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Eric J. Gates' Outsourced reads like a book length Twilight Zone episode where something odd, mysterious, and paranormal happens and changes the life of the person that experiences it for better but usually for worse.

In this book, the strange object is a fountain pen ("the ugliest fountain pen" the one of the characters had ever seen in their life), originally a quill pen, inside a wooden box with a strange Tibetan inscription. The pen passes through the hands of three people who learn that the pen has the power to control destiny.

The first character to wield the pen is Robert Polanski, a sociopath just acquitted for multiple murders and is ready to go on the run.

The next recipient is Nic Stiles, a writer who needs privacy to put down the writing thoughts in his head. After a few chance encounters, Nic is fascinated and drawn by what the pen can do.

The third person that the pen has affected is Grayson Fallon, another writer and Stiles' frequent rival. He shares important information to Stiles about what the pen does and the true consequences. Oh he also brings a conspiracy of people in higher positions who want the pen for their own gain.

It's interesting to see what choices that the characters make when they receive the pen and then learn about the consequences of what such power can bring. For Polanski, it fills all of his most lustful dangerous thoughts. He uses it during a long path of violence and bloodshed. He represents the worst things that someone can do with that kind of power.

While we don't get the full picture of what exactly Fallon did with the pen, he represents the higher goals connected to it. He doesn't fully understand what he has been given so he seeks to study it, getting information from scientists and spiritualists. He seeks to master the pen through knowledge and to assist others who have been given the same choice that he had.

Stiles represents the average person, the mistakes that we would all make if given the chance. After receiving the pen he does some fun things like causing a boat on a nearby lake to catch fire and a crocodile to swim in the middle of the Thames. It's all harmless mischievous fun. He is also drawn by what an awesome power that he has been given. It isn't until the pen causes the death of someone close to him, that Stiles realizes the full implications of what he has and what it truly means to alter one's destiny.

There are some missteps with Outsourced partly because the book runs longer than the concept needs to be stretched. The government conspiracy is thrown in halfway through perhaps to stretch the book to novel length when the idea would work just as well as a three character study with a fascinating gift. It also continues to another book that could threaten to stretch this plot much longer than is needed or necessary.

Despite the flaws regarding the book's length, Outsourced reveals that sometimes the pen is not only mightier than the sword, it can be deadlier too.

Weekly Reader: The Arboretum After Midnight by W.T. O'Brien; Murder Victim Steals The Murder Mystery After Death

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: With Murder Mysteries, sometimes there are specific parts that take the Reader's focus. Sometimes, it's the lead detective. The Reader is interested in their personal struggles as well as their investigative process. Sometimes it's the setting. The location and time period are so detailed that the mystery can't be set anywhere. Sometimes, like in the case of W.T. O'Brien's Aboretum After Midnight, it's the murder victim that is the most interesting part.

In the case of Arboretum, the murder victim is Whitney Colliers, personal assistant to interior decorator, Lorian Piaff. Beautiful but domineering, she takes charge of any project including roughshod over Max, Lorian's employee and who bears conflicted feelings over Whitney's sexy appearance but high handed demeanor. Lorian is practically dependent on Whitney's insights so she is well regarded in business but not so much personally. Then after a party, she is found dead in a park with her body fallen on the ground and her head smashed open by a brick.

Detectives Roscoe Romar and Peter Seagram investigate Whitney's mysterious death. They uncover deeper secrets in the deceased woman's life including an unhappy childhood, many lovers, and several enemies. The more that the detectives and others search into Whitney's past, the more that they learn what a complex troubled woman that she really was.

Much like Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks or Rebecca DeWinter in Daphne DuMaurier's novel Rebecca, Whitney leaves quite an impression even after her untimely demise. In fact, she is made a more intriguing character the more other characters find out about her than if she were still alive and able to defend herself. Roman and Seagram, as well as Whitney's colleagues uncover layers and layers of Whitney's past and personality. These discoveries reveal a fundamental truth. We never really know the people that we are often in contact with until after death and even then maybe only a third of it comes to light if they died under mysterious circumstances.

Whitney's story is filled with contradictions that cause those layers to be opened. She was arguing with another woman at a party the night before she died. The fight was about to erupt into a catfight but about what? Were they fighting over a man? Was the argument work related? Were they a couple? Was she more than work colleagues with Max or Lorian or both? Who were her lovers anyway?

What about Whitney's estranged mother and her background? Did her family escape from Cold War Eastern Europe and if so what was the price for their trip to freedom and what did Whitney (or her mother) provide to obtain it? Each question leads to more questions about Whitney's character and the circumstances surrounding her death. What is the huge takeaway in this book is how the facts towards Whitney's life as told by others are altered by their interpretation of her: innocent victim, ambitious businesswoman, seductive siren, troubled soul and or all of the above.

The Arboretum After Midnight shows that sometimes with murder mysteries, the loudest voice heard is that of the murder victim.