Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews: May 2023

Monday, May 29, 2023

June's Reading List

What a great return with some wonderful books. Let's hope this month is just as fruitful.

Here are my new reads:

Fearghus Academy: Natural Gems by I.O. Sheffer

Midlife Shadows (Paraval Book 3) by Kate Swansea

Sailing by Carina's Star (The Constellation Trilogy) by Katie Crabb

Ginger Star by Diana McDonough

The Cat With Three Passports by C.J. Fentiman

The Everlasting Spring (Beyond Olympus, Book 1): Benjamin and Boudicca by Francis Audrain

Flint of Dreams by Charles Peterson Sheppard

Evil Alice and The Borzoi by DK Coutant

Asparagus Grass by Adrian Dean

Offset: The Mask of Bimshire Written by Delvin Howell, Illustrated by Hans Steinbach.

Fool, Anticipation by Robert Polakoski

Art Imitating Life by Claire Merchant*

Semicolon: Life Goes On; From a Different Perspective Living With Purpose by A.P. Aristeiguieta

Murder in Myrtle Bay by Isobel Blackthorn

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

Email: juliesaraporter@gmail.com

Prices are as follows:

Beta Read: $15-20.0

Review: $25-35.00**

Copy/Content Edit: $75-300.00

Proofread: $75-300.00

Research & Citation: $100-400.00

Ghostwrite/Co-Write:$100-400.00

*These are books reviewed for LitPick and will not be featured on my blog, only on LitPick's site.

**Exceptions are books provided by Henry Roi PR, Coffee and Thorn Book Group, LitPicks, BookTasters, Reedsy, Online Book Club, and other noted book groups

Payments can be made to my PayPal account at juliesaraporter@gmail.com

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

New Book Alert: Madame Pommery:The Creator of Brut Champagne A Champagne Widows Novel by Rebecca Rosenberg; Historical Fiction Novel About the Female Vintner Entrepreneur is Sweeter Than Wine or Champagne

New Book Alert: Madame Pommery:The Creator of Brut Champagne A Champagne Widows Novel by Rebecca Rosenberg; Historical Fiction Novel About the Female Vintner Entrepreneur is Sweeter Than Wine or Champagne

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Rebecca Rosenberg gave us, Champagne Widows, a sparking novel about the rise of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, a Frenchwoman who became

the first female wine entrepreneur creating Veuve Clicquot during the backdrop of Napoleon's reign.

Her latest historical fiction novel actually surpasses her previous effort. This time she gives us Madame Pommery, about Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Melin Pommery, creator of Brut Champagne during the Franco-Prussian War. It is a captivating novel about a woman's struggle to survive war, run her own business in a male dominated society, provide a future for her children, and create something beautiful, unique, and lasting.

Right away Rosenberg gives us different people with her two leads. Champagne Widows presented Barbe-Nicole first as a young woman rejecting arranged marriages, helping out in the vineyards with her powerful sense of smell, and studying the business side of selling wine. She is a young woman at the start of her life's journey.

Alexandrine is in the middle of her journey. She is close to her 50's and still recovering from the death of her husband, Louis. She is trying to retain a brave front for her two year old daughter, Louise and curtailing the sharp criticisms from her school aged son, Louis who blames his father's death on his need to return to work after Louise's surprise birth. Alexandrine also has to contend with the loss of her family finances and that unless something is done soon, they will be left destitute.

Alexandrine's character arc shows her challenging the role expected of her as an upper class Frenchwoman. She was originally someone who read and followed etiquette books to the letter and got involved in philanthropic activities like teaching and helping reformed prostitutes all with a sense of detachment and noblesse oblige.

After her husband's death those detached standards no longer exist when she has to be the sole breadwinner. At Louis' funeral, she responds with emotion and breaks the protocol because of her grief. She realizes for the first time that these etiquette rules are no substitute for human emotions like grief or loss. This moment cements Alexandrine as a woman who is willing to challenge expectations to acknowledge her independence.

Alexandrine exhibits this independence when she decides to run her Pommery winery herself. While women usually are not permitted to run businesses, widows are and Alexandrine uses that loophole to take over the wine business. Many like her husband's former business partner, Reynard Wolf question her abilities and decisions. They represent the old guard, men who believe that women should be coddled and protected and are incapable of being hard-nosed entrepreneurs. Many of Alexandrine's decisions are argued against by people like Wolf because of their short sightedness of hearing suggestions come from a woman who is going against the way things are usually done.

Many of Alexandrine's ideas end up being beneficial for her company and makes Pommery stand out. One of them is to specialize in champagne which she prefers to wine and is often used for special events occasions so it attracts a higher clientele. Many of Alexandrine's ideas come about by her own ingenuity.

She finds a series of limestones and chalk pits called crayeres and uses them as cellars to store the bottles.

An accident of leaving grapes out too long creates brut champagne, champagne that is known for its dryness and sweetness. While Brut is questioned throughout the novel and rejected by many, it had a long lasting impact so that now it is one of the most popular types of champagne.

Alexandrine also displays an eye for art and beauty. She hired sculptors and artists to turn her champagne house into a work of art with sculptures depicting various figures, particularly from myth and legend. This is so visitors can not only see how the champagne is made but could be awed at the creative beauty displayed around them. They can make a day of it.

One of the drawbacks to Rosenberg's previous book was the unnecessary inclusion of a supernatural subplot in which a demonic figure called the Red Man possesses Napoleon. Thankfully, there are no supernatural elements in this book. Well not major ones. There is a possibly magic or mundane situation that is actually presented by none other than Barbe-Nicole herself! There is a sweet passing the torch moment between the two entrepreneurs early in Alexandrine's career where Barbe-Nicole encourages Alexandrine to take the business for herself.

Barbe-Nicole also gives a cat that appears to be a matagot (a spirit that takes the form of a cat) to Alexandrine's daughter, Louise. The matagot, called Felix, does not appear to do anything overly magical except disappear and reappear on occasion and live an unusually long time. However, he could be a sign of good luck and prosperity letting Alexandrine know that she is on the right path.

In Champagne Widows, many of Napoleon's violent and warlike tactics could be attributed to the influence of the Red Man. Madame Pommery does not need such a paranormal excuse for people to do awful things. The Franco-Prussian War occurs because of land disputes and avaricious leaders who want more and don't care about the soldiers and civilians who have to suffer and die for it.

Alexandrine is forced to house the Prussian soldiers. She retains politeness but steely reserve as she serves these men who have no reason to be in her country. She also defends her daughter and female servants and employees from the lecherous soldier's advances.

Alexandrine shows courage and quick thinking when men are conscripted to fight including her employees and her son. Since she still needs the grapes to be treated and champagne to be made, she recruits women from a nearby brothel for assistance. Remembering her philanthropy over the years, the women happily comply and prove to be just as valuable a workforce as the men.

Alexandrine was known to be a kind and charitable employer giving retirement funds and health benefits for her employees and that is on display throughout the book. She treats her employees with kindness and devotion regardless of gender, previous occupation, income, or religion. She is also very encouraging towards them in her personal life. Damas, a boy from the village who is rendered mute, proves to be an adept vintner and eventually becomes a close friend to Louise.

One of the strongest relationships that develops is between Alexandrine and Lucille, Louise's former nanny. After Louis is sent to war, Alexandrine is surprised to learn that Lucille and Louis were not only romantically involved but had secretly married and Lucille is carrying his child. Besides Lucille being a servant, their relationship flies into convention because Lucille is Jewish. Once Alexandrine learns this, she treats Lucille kindly and cares for her like a daughter.

Alexandrine's kindness towards Lucille not only improves their

bond but Alexandrine's bond with her children. Louis who was once critical of his mother now admires her strength and perseverance seeing how she also loved his wife and child. Louise also finds her bond with her mother improves when she finds herself in a similar situation after the war. These actions show that Alexandrine's family will thrive long after she's gone.

Madame Pommery is a better book than Champagne Widows. Rosenberg has clearly given us a great historical fiction about an amazing woman. It is a historical fiction that is sweeter than a glass of wine or a flute of brut champagne.

Sunday, May 28, 2023

New Book Alert: Arabesque by Amy Shomshak; Tres Magnifique Story of Friendship and Dance in Paris

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Of all the subjects that I thought that I would read this year, I did not expect one of them to be ballet. This month, I am reviewing not one but two books about ballet and they couldn't be more different. The first, Music Boxes, is a YA Fantasy in which a young girl gets involved with an enchanted dancing school and its powerful magical headmistress who hypnotizes and transforms her students.

The second book, Arabesque by Amy Shomshak, is a more realistic book about the art of dancing but just as good in its own way.

Gina's best friend Tina is currently studying ballet in Paris while Gina remains in New York. Gina is tired of the dance classes that are far from the Russian training that she is used to and the mean girls who play pranks on her and shove her into the corps. She is also becoming aware that her relationship with her boyfriend Charlie, a stand up comedian, is not getting better. Her only constant is her uncle Gene who raised her and encouraged her love of dancing and her letters from Tina telling her how great her life is now that she is a lead dancer. Once Gina learns that Tina's life isn't as rosy as she portrays and Gina's depression worsens, Gene invites her to accompany him to Paris and reunite with her best friend.

In some ways, Arabesque reminds me of Melissa Muldoon's books about Italy like Dreaming Sophia, Eternally Artemisia, and Waking Isabella. It is an imaginary trip to Paris written by someone who loves the city, recognizes every street, every cafe, every location. Shomshak recognizes the beauty, marvel, and history of the city. She clearly loves the location and wants her readers to love it too. It is a perfect summer reading for those who need an imaginary vacation.

When Gina, Tina, and their friends go clubbing and dine at a cafe, you know it's a place that is real or at least made real by Shomshak's sensory images and attention to detail. Readers can smell the coffee brewing, hear the side chatter, and see the people talking and laughing. Even common tourist spots like the Louvre, Left Bank, and the Eiffel Tower are made unique by the characters' encounters with them. Paris is alive in this book.

In a touch very similar to Muldoon's work, there are brief scenes in the afterlife where Gina's late mother, Lili is following her daughter and encouraging her on a path. She's not alone, Lili engages in conversations with the likes of Marie Antoinette, Vaslav Nijinsky, Zelda Fitzgerald, and other members of Paris' past. Similar to Muldoon's Italy books in which artists, patrons, film stars, and other notables encourage their protagonists, here Paris' Finest does the same for Shomshak's. When a setting fits the character, it seems that everyone, past and present, conspire to make it feel like home, the place where they belong.

The Parisian setting isn't the only thing that comes to life in this book. The characters shine as well, particularly Gina and Tina. They have a very close sisterly friendship that fills empty voids in their lives. Like many strong friendships, they work better together than they do apart. Separately, they are going nowhere in their ballet studies. They are at most bit players when they have enough talent to get bigger roles. Together, however, they decide to take their talents into their own hands.

Gina and Tina perform a series of dances in outdoor venues throughout the city wearing elaborate costumes and masks that Madame Destinee from Music Boxes would envy. They do their own choreography and tell their own stories, sometimes original and sometimes variations of known fairy tales. These dances not only make them famous, if anonymously, but they give them artistic freedom and the ability to express themselves creatively.

A favorite performance is when the duo dance and communicate entirely with fans. They use gestures with their fans to reveal a conversation between characters and wear monochromatic black and white gowns and masks. It's a simple yet evocative dance piece.

Gina and Tina also open a wider circle of friends and family. They meet some female friends who help them with their outdoor dance. They also receive boyfriends who are supportive and interested in their pursuits, even revealing talents of their own. Gene also has a romance going with Josette, a married woman with a brilliant son. They clearly love each other but are playing things slowly because of Josette's marriage. Gina and Tina's circle of friends and family bring out the best in them and everyone else around them.

Music Boxes has plenty of magic, true. But Arabesque is a realistic story with plenty of magic of its own: the magic of friendship, the magic of the arts, and the magic of a place that tells you that you are home. When you find that magic, well c'est magnifique.

Weekly Reader: Sailing by Orion's Star (The Constellation Trilogy Book 1) by Katie Crabb; Engaging Seagoing Adventure About Piracy and Slavery

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: What's better than reading the next volume of a great series? Reading the first volume of a new great series. Here we have one.

Sailing by Orion's Star is the first volume of Katie Crabb's Constellation Trilogy. It is a high seas adventure involving pirates, slavery, and makes some great commentary about racism, sexuality, and what it really means to stand against deplorable institutions and become a hero.

In 17th century Jamaica, Ajani Danso and Abeni escape from a slave and prison ship getting past a young seaman, Nicholas Jerome. They end up on a pirate ship, eventually becoming Captain and Quartermaster of their own ship. Meanwhile, Jerome was removed from his old position and has been hired by Captain Michel Delacroix, a kind captain who treats Jerome like a younger brother. Jerome bonds not only with Delacroix but also the Captain's son, Rene and Frantz, Rene's best friend.

As Rene and Frantz mature, their friendship intensifies and they become at odds with Jerome's and Delacroix's inaction with and involvement in the slave trade.

There are so many great things about this book. In the first outing, Crabb hits it out of the park. There are plenty of moments of great sword fighting and narrow escapes that would be at home in a Pirates of the Caribbean film. There's a great moment when Danso and Abeni, fresh in their pirate careers, help slaves escape from a ship and give the escaped slaves the option of returning to their countries of origin or becoming part of their crew. This adventure helps cement their reputations as the Robin Hood and Maid Marian of the High Seas.

Danso and Abeni's story is fascinating especially in the heart wrenching chapters when they reunite with family members lost in the slave trade. There is no doubt that despite being pirates, they are the good guys. They are fighting against a horrible dehumanizing institution that though legal was far from moral or ethical.

The other interesting aspect to this story is the relationship between Rene and Frantz. It's fascinating watching them grow as innocent children to teens questioning and outright rebelling against something that they know is not right.

Rene starts as a naive kid who admires his father and thinks that he could do no wrong. He loves traveling with him and learning sword fighting from Jerome. He loves to hear about sea stories, tales of monsters, sirens, and of course pirates. He collects the stories in a book, including those of Danso and Abeni, Robin Hood and Maid Marian, unaware that they are closer to his father and his crew than he thought.

Rene also hates his abusive maternal grandfather who is the Governor of Kingston. He thinks he owns everything and everybody and isn't above striking and beating his own grandson into submission. No wonder Rene prefers the seas to land.

There is another reason that Rene prefers his life on the seas: so he can be with Frantz. Compared to Rene's wealthy family with a French naval captain and his English wealthy wife, proper by 17th century standards, Frantz's family is very unconventional. He is the biracial son of Delacroix's first mate and best friend, Lt. Seymour and Chantal Mensah, a black woman from the Gold Coast.

Unlike the Delacroixs who have to act like the correct couple even when they are at odds, Seymour and Chantal are really loyal and in love with each other but laws prevent them from being together. It's a truly heartbreaking cruel moment when Seymour and Chantal are separated forever but it intensifies Frantz and Rene's friendship as Rene tries to be the substitute family that Frantz needs.

The governor seeks a few times to personally attack or sell Frantz because of who he is. Delacroix turns a blind eye and Astra, his wife, only lets her real thoughts known in secret. Rene and Frantz are more upfront and are argumentative against Frantz's and the other slave's mistreatment. If the old song is right that children must be taught carefully to hate, Rene and Frantz are taught carefully to love. And love they do.

In fact, as the two boys become teenagers, their friendship evolves into romance. They become a duo who would do anything to stay together. Their convictions against slavery cause them to see the people around them, especially Delacroix and Jerome, as participants in dehumanizing people around them. They want to escape and fight against slavery even if it means leaving everyone that they know behind and facing the unknown of the seas, perhaps towards a very famous crew of pirates.

The other interesting thing that Crabb does is shows how slavery dehumanizes everyone, those that are captive and those that are doing the catching and transporting. If the pirates are the good guys, then the navy and officials are the bad.

This is embodied in Delacroix and Jerome. Delacroix is at first portrayed as a loving father to his crew and to his son. He never exhibits corporal punishment towards anybody and while nonchalant about the slave trade absolutely will not transport them. His friendship, and at one time more, with Seymour keeps him grounded and steady, giving him something of a backbone. Astra also has a higher moral compass than her husband's. Even though she can't say what she feels aloud, she is able to help escaped slaves covertly. They and Rene's admiration keep Delacroix's darker feelings in check for a while.

Unfortunately, Delacroix loses those good influences one by one either by other's actions or his own. At first he is inattentive and ambivalent to slavery, not personally liking it but accepting it in the background. Then he compromises his morals under duress and threats of removal of power. He kowtows to the institution and participates in transporting slaves. This is an anguished moment when Rene no longer sees the hero that he once idolized but a weakling who would rather capitulate than fight against something that he knows is wrong.

Jerome is another character who changes for the worse. He is the first pov character in the book and is portrayed sympathetically during Danso and Abeni's escape. He is a minor sailor in over his head and has a family history of his own that he doesn't want to admit. He is half-Romany on his mother's side. That lineage could enslave or imprison him so he keeps it a secret. (One of the few redeeming moments that Delacroix has later in the book involves Jerome letting his guard down enough to tell the captain about his family and Delacroix still understands and accepts him).

Jerome starts creating a surrogate family with Delacroix as his father and Rene as his brother. He enjoys the sword fighting lessons as much as Rene does and clearly sees Delacroix as the standard of someone he wants to be like. However, he too is caught between the standards of the day and his own morals. His reactions towards the slaves' mistreatment amounts to being glad that he doesn't have to go through it so he maintains silence.

Jerome also hates pirates because he sees them as irredeemable criminals regardless of their motives and also because he knows that he helped create Danso and Abeni's legend. His black and white views of piracy and slavery and adoration of the captain motivate him to turn his conscience off. He goes from being naive to a cold navy man who accepts commands no matter how harsh and violent they are. He becomes someone who left his conscience at the door and is the archetypal soldier, or sailor in this case, who is "just following orders." His descent into villainy is felt in the final pages as he actively rejects the good man he once was to become the hateful villain that he is becoming.

Sailing by Orion's Star is a great start to a tremendous series. If the second volume is like the first, there is some rough waters ahead for the characters, but the Reader will find some smooth sailing.

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Weekly Reader: The Fairy Tale Plague (Anne Anderson Book 2) by Cameron Jace; Prequel and Sequel of Fairy Tales Search is Exciting but Uneven

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It hurts me to say this because Cameron Jace's The Fairy Tale Code was one of my favorite books last year. It also hurts because I just read two other books that were the second volumes in their series, series that I also loved, but their second volumes were as good as or better than the first ones.

The Fairy Tale Plague, the second book in Jace's Anne Anderson series is good. It has some great moments of suspense and is another great hunt for historical truth that leads to bigger consequences for the entire world. However, it's an uneven volume because it combined two separate adventures, making it a prequel and a sequel. The results are two parts that are fine on their own but are needlessly crammed together.

In The Fairy Tale Code, Folklorist Professor Anne Anderson and DCI David Tale uncover a mystery of a dead woman hanging on a cross. The dead body leads the two down the Fairy Tale Road, a series of locations in Germany that were the real life locations of the sources behind fairy tales. They are followed by a creepy character called The Advocate, who would kill to keep his grip on the world, and The Ortizes, an eccentric family that is connected to the fairy tale world.

David and Anne uncover the truth that these tales were dark brutal histories disguised as folklore that were gathered and collected by a secret group called the Sisterhood (which the Ortizes are members of), and not the Brothers Grimm. Their discoveries open the truths about many fairy tale characters, such as Snow White and the Evil Queen who were actually Queen Mary Tudor of England and a young woman whom Mary killed after she caught the interest of her husband, Prince Phillip of Spain.

In the Fairy Tale Plague, the resolutions of the previous volume have become big news. Many now see fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm, and the British Royal Family in different lights. David and Anne have become instant celebrities. However, the Advocate has a story of his own to tell. The story leads us to the prequel portion of the novel.

Three years before Anne wandered down the Fairy Tale Road, she was hired by the wealthy Max Bauer to oversee the digital tour of the Brothers Grimm house in the town of Kassell, Germany. On her way to the Grimm House, she receives a call from a mysterious woman who informs her that she will discover a secret at the House. Her assignment coincides with the abduction of a young girl named Mary Miller. The secret has not only to do with Mary's abduction but centuries of crimes caused by the family of Wilhelm Grimm's wife, Gretchen Wild, crimes that still continue and are being covered up by the people in charge.

Mary's abduction, the unsolved cases of the past, and the themes of powerful families controlling everything around them, including history and folklore are echoed in the sequel portion of the book which begins halfway through the novel.

Anne is connected online to the rest of the Sisterhood, then watches in horror as they are murdered around the world one by one. She then has to save the London based Sister before she is assassinated too.

Meanwhile, David and his partner, Harriet are called to investigate the death of the Prince of Wales. No his name's not William. It's Julian. (Though he is the son of the recently crowned king so that makes things interesting). It turns out the deaths of the Prince, the Sisters, and Mary's abduction in the prequel are tied to the existence of a very powerful network of families and a fairy tale that could foretell the end of mankind, a tale called The Last Fairy Tale.

It's not that the prequel and sequel are bad. Individually, they are very good very involved stories that captivate the Reader's interest.

The prequel has some great intense moments where the kidnapper taunts Anne and others through emails revealing that they not only know exactly where Anne is but what she is doing at any given time.

It also becomes eerie as the kidnapper provides Anne with a series of clues and riddles to Mary's whereabouts. As Anne solves them, other clues pop up on the Grimm House virtual tour so she is definitely being monitored by a highly intelligent and ruthless individual.

Even the resolution is brilliant as it reveals another tie to the fairy tale world that Anne is so enamored with and shows that unlike fairy tales, in reality, good does not always win and evil does not always get punished.

The sequel portion is just as nail biting. David has a personal tie to what happened to Prince Julian and as Anne did in Fairy Tale Code, he is able to use own expertise on the life and works of Charles Darwin to provide answers. There also is a fascinating link between Darwin and the Brothers Grimm which may not have existed in reality but gives an intriguing backstory to the series which combines the magic of folklore with the process of scientific theory.

Anne's part in the story involves protecting the remaining Sisterhood with some old friends. That means the Ortiz Sisters, my favorite characters from the first book, are back and are more active in helping Anne and their fellow Sisters. Now that Anne and the Ortizes have found each other and accepted each other as family, they have no intention of letting their remaining family members go.

Speaking of families, we once again get some hints about Anne and David's troubled backgrounds. In the prequel, Anne succumbs to blackouts when thinking of her missing sister, Rachel. One of her enemies uses that PTSD to their advantage by accusing her of killing her sister and others. While in the Fairy Tale Code, the Reader knows that isn't true, it still puts Anne in a very vulnerable position.

However, in the sequel portion, David gets more attention than Anne and we learn more about his family such as his Darwin obsessed mother and physically deformed sister, Abigail. Many of the things that were hinted at in The Fairy Tale Code about David are outright said here and they show the full picture of who this detective really is. Just like Anne was shaped by her life with Rachel to love and study fairy tales, David was shaped by his life with Abigail to protect others by bringing criminals to justice.

There are a few big reveals and twists in the Fairy Tale Plague that are at first confusing but upon rereading the first volume check, are brilliantly foreshadowed, and work seamlessly into both books. They are surprise twists that are well executed.

There is a lot to recommend in this volume of the series but its pacing is uneven because of the prequel and sequel being part of one book. The prequel doesn't get as much time to develop its story before it's resolved. The sequel ends just as the characters learn some answers as though this adventure is just getting warmed up before its final chapter. It would have been better for Jace to release the prequel in novella form and add extra chapters to the sequel, thereby making them separate volumes rather than one.

Because of this unevenness, The Fairy Tale Plague is nowhere near as good as its predecessor but as an adventurous look into the history of fairy tales, there is still plenty to recommend.

Weekly Reader: Midlife Incantations: A Paranormal Women's Fantasy(Paraval Book 2) by Kate Swansea; More Magic, More Problems

Weekly Reader: Midlife Incantations (Paraval Book 2) by Kate Swansea; More Magic, More Problems

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Now we return to the world of Black Lake Falls, Washington and its Warden, 45 year old Elise Clair, a divorced dentist and mother of two that has to awaken alchemist abilities to fight dark forces.

In the previous volume of Kate Swansea's Paraval series, Midlife Alchemy, Elise accepts the position of Warden when she learns that her late father, Jack Clair had been one before he died. As Warden, their job is to make sure the gate to Inferium remains closed. If it is open even a tiny bit, dark unpleasant creatures called umbra come out and wreak havoc on the town. That's not the worst of it, they act under the bidding of a sinister character known as the Dark Commander who has possessed Black Lake Falls citizens in the past and has done it again.

One of the things that I liked about Midlife Alchemy was that it depicted a middle aged normal woman thrust in an extraordinary circumstance and shows how she adjusts and even thrives in this new world. The sequel, Midlife Incantations, loses a bit of that regular person feel. Elise is now the Warden and while she has to learn some new powers, she is definitely adjusted to her surroundings. However, it's still an effective adventure that tests Elise and her new friends.

In this volume, Elise and her boyfriend, General Theo Stallard, are two of the three Keepers to keep the Umbra out. They have to help the third, Ronath, a minotaur who is also the Gatekeeper. He is the latest to be possessed by the Dark Commander. He disappears but only after leaving destruction in his wake as though he were looking for something. Elise learns that her parents were part of a secret organization of alchemists whose surviving members are dying one by one. Apparently, they had knowledge of a mysterious book called The Book of Mairel, that has spells to open all of the demon gates in the entire world or close the portal to Inferium permanently.

There are some great moments that focus on Elise expanding and testing her powers. She has to learn ritualistic magic from a local witch named Agatha. While she makes many mistakes in practice, she ultimately is able to succeed in this endeavor, even changing events by swapping certain objects used in the rituals.

Her alchemist abilities are also growing stronger. In a couple of great moments, Elisa and Theo combine her alchemical powers with his pyrokinesis to build a working boat and activate a motorcycle.

Elise's search for The Book of Mairel gives her the opportunity to weigh the powerful implications of that book and its potential consequences. She may have the ability to eradicate all evil and close the portal for good but what does that mean for herself and everyone around her? There will be nothing for her as Warden to do. How powerful can a spell like that be in reality and what if it fell in the wrong hands?

Another important thing to note about the Book of Mairel is that it contains a spell that would eliminate all vampires. This is hugely problematic because Black Lake Falls is home to many vampires including Elise's friends, Nina and Jerome. Elise vows that no matter the circumstances that she will never use that spell but the fact that such a spell even exists puts her at odds with various vampires. Also there's the unspoken thought that who's to stop someone else from using it. The Book of Mairel may be an easy solution but it ultimately could do more harm than good.

There is also a lot of drama concerning the Dark Commander's possession of Ronath. In the previous volume, he possessed another character but it was treated like a mystery over who was getting possessed and it ended up being one of Elisa's new friends. While she is kind, we barely knew her before her possession.

This is different. We have known Ronath since Book 1. He is a kindly gentle giant uh minotaur. He and Theo have a bro-like friendship which consists of teasing and riffing each other but constantly having each other's backs. He is a good loyal friend to many and makes Elise feel welcome in her new surroundings. He even has a girlfriend, Agatha, who arrived in Black Lake Falls the same time that he did, centuries ago.

Ronath's a permanent fixture around town and for the Dark Commander to take him removes a large heart from the story.

It also affects Theo personally as he watches his best friend and partner succumb to a madness that he cannot help him with, a madness that can only be cured one way. This leaves Theo with the heartbreaking dilemma whether or not to kill his old friend.

Even once everything in this book is resolved, there is a cliffhanger ending for the next volume, which will bring the series to a dark, fascinating, and possibly decisive climax.

Friday, May 26, 2023

Weekly Reader: Fearghus Academy: Crystal Shards by I.O. Scheffer; The Fight Becomes Internal and More Personal for Our Magical Friends

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: So now we return to that awesome school for magical students. No, not that one. The, in my opinion, better, more awesome school for magical students. Fearghus Academy from I.O. Scheffer's YA Science Fiction/Fantasy series of the same name.

In the first volume, Anna Addison is adopted by Nichole Harvey, an eccentric Earth mage, and leaves 1860's England and Earth behind and heads for the planet, Domhan. She changes her name to Artesia and begins training as a Fire mage to study at Fearghus Academy. She makes various friends such as Evelyn Smith, an overachieving Light user, and Eilam Deforest, a secretive Ice mage. Artesia and her friends are also the targets of Alptraum Engel, a magic user who wants to gather all the magic that she can, including twelve very powerful skulls. On one of their missions the students find one of those skulls but lose fellow Fearghus student, Antonia Maria, in the process.

In the first book, October Jewels, we are introduced to Domhan, Fearghus Academy, the characters, and the ongoing plots. It's a great start. This second volume, Crystal Shards raises the stakes by being stronger and more character driven. It throws the characters, particularly Artesia and Eilam into emotional turmoil that could change them forever.

The gang is sent on an assignment to discover how the nuns in a nearby convent are impregnated without having sexual intercourse. After uncovering the truth, their next conflict involves one of their own. Parvaneh, a student, disappears and is found again alive but deprived of her magic. She has to return to Earth and to Domhan, she is considered dead. We then learn the source of her kidnapping. Eilam's scientist parents were arrested for conducting unethical experiments. They have escaped and now want to continue their research on volunteers, whether they are willing or not, and they have no reservations on their age, mental status, or whether they are blood relatives.

Meanwhile Artesia and the others are trailing people who are in debt from some dark creatures. They are also told that Antonia is with this sinister group, but she is not the flashy, vibrant, friendly girl that they once knew.

Sometimes the second volume in a series can be a miss. The first sets up the world and if the third doesn't end the series, it often leads to a dramatic climax needing the next book to resolve it. If done badly, the second volume can be a lot of running around with no resolution. If done right, setting and plot give way to developing the characters and deepening our understanding of them. In this case, it is a second book done right.

One of the brightest spots in the book is the strongest character in this volume, Eilam. From their first assignment, Eilam goes through a series of changes which alter him from the kindly, trustworthy, but quiet young man that we knew. During the search in the convent, Eilam is left alone in a graphic room with dead bodies, a living baby still in his deceased mother's arms, and a demonic looking creature.

Eilam comes through that ordeal with a newly adopted brother by his adopted father, Mr. Peterson. Worse, he ends up with a strange affliction in which he suffers tremendous headaches and blackouts, especially when he sees or hears about religious things. That's not a problem for him, since he's an agnostic but many of his friends, such as Lulu and Artesia are religious, and even the mention of "My God" as a swear is enough to put him in great pain.

Despite this affliction, he continues to help his friends with their studies and Mr. Peterson with caring for baby Cadence. He tries to be the same person as always, loyal best friends with Artesia and sort of boyfriend to Telemachus, but his illness takes its toll on him. It gets worse when his birth parents are released. He winds up back in their house and is forced to endure the sadistic tortures that they implement on him and their so-called subjects.

Eilam spends a lot of time trying to prove that he is nothing like his parents, being a good and thoughtful person even towards those who bully him. But his good intentions fall apart when he is alone with them. The Drs. Deforest study their biological son's abilities and those of other guinea pigs, including another student that Eilam led them to (instead of them going after one of his friends).

They really are pieces of work that make Joan Crawford and Josef Fritzel look like Parents of the Year (Okay maybe not that bad, but close enough).

Eilam's father verbally and physically abuses him, at one point sticking his hand in a toaster. He also keeps him locked in with a dangerous prisoner who delights in torturing him. Eilam's mother does not come off any better. While she doesn't physically harm Eilam, she is just as manipulative. She never stands up for Eilam's mistreatment, considering her love for her husband more important than her son. She isolates Eilam from his peers by telling him dark secrets about the Domhan government and Fearghus Academy's intentions. It's unclear whether she is telling him the truth, but it certainly drives a wedge between Eilam and his friends and makes him more alone than ever. Come the next book and we will certainly see a character with massive PTSD and Stockholm Syndrome.

Eilam isn't the only character that goes through a lot of emotional turmoil. Artesia adjusts to her life in Domhan and Fearghus. What she once thought of as glamorous and exciting, she now sees a harsher darker side. When they go through the process of mourning Parvaneh, Artesia wonders how long loyalties last in this new world. Does the loyalty of her new friends and family last as long as she is considered useful? What happens to someone when they return to Earth? They are left alone without friends, family, or a purpose that no longer exists, a feeling that they were once capable of great things but now no longer can achieve them.

Artesia also has some dramatic encounters that leave her incredibly shaken. A dark creature working for Engel tracks her down and threatens her friends in Domhan and Earth. She is in fear of what could happen to them and is unable to express it because she is sworn to secrecy.

One of her friends finds out a secret about her past and while she calls that friend out for nosing around, the revelation brings her closer to her adopted home world than she thought.

By far, Artesia's strongest and most emotional moment occurs when she is reunited with Antonia or what remains of her. She has a hard time finding her flamboyant friend in the hardened cold blooded being before her. Artesia wrestles with the consequences of what she did and didn't do in the previous volume and how she and the other students played a part in Antonia's downfall. Artesia also sees for herself the true danger in Engel's ambitions in that she can change a once loving person into a soulless monster.

Crystal Shards puts Eilam and Artesia through an emotional wringer. It's clear that by volume three, they and the rest of Fearghus Academy will never be the same again.

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Weekly Reader: The Cloud by Robert Rivenbark; Involving High Tech Science Fiction Excels at Presenting Microcosms of Futuristic Tech Heavy World

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It's always a treat when I read one book, then I read its polar opposite. I read two books set in the 2040s, Mark Richardson's Malibu Burns and Robert Rivenbark's The Cloud. Both are set in California, both after times of political and environmental unrest and both have worlds in which technology and AI have taken over. However, in execution the two books go in opposite directions. Malibu Burns doesn't concentrate on the futuristic world so much as it does on the mindscape of its lead protagonist. The Cloud does involve interesting characters but it concentrates more on how this futuristic world affects them. Malibu Burns is strong on character and The Cloud is strong on setting and world building.

Blaise Pascal is a VR designer who works for The Cloud, the tech corporation that practically runs the world. He is currently working on Gilgamesh V, the latest game to appeal to The Slags, the lower classes who aren't connected to The Cloud (like Blaise once was). His director, Minsheng is impressed with Blaise's work but wants him to tweak the game to include an addictive drug which will control The Slags. As Blaise climbs higher in the corporation and spends time with the Slags, he begins to see the corruption, dehumanization, and mass murder that his superiors are planning. He is caught between the luxurious technology driven world that he wants and the honest connections of the human driven world that he needs.

Many of the characters are well written, Blaise in particular, but mostly they serve as microcosms of the society in which they live. They are shaped and changed by the universe around them and we see the strengths and weaknesses of the world because of how it affects them.

Blaise is the person in the middle. He came up from the low tech Slag world leaving behind a missing father, a mentally ill and deceased mother, and intense poverty to move to the high rise Cloud world. He hooked himself up to the devices that monitor his actions and created VR simulations for the people that he was once a part of.

While Blaise is a huge part of how the Cloud works, he is not exactly enamored with his surroundings. He is a military vet who has seen his share of bloodshed in the name of the corporations and governments who pulled the strings. He also is mourning the deaths of his wife and daughter, the last people he felt connected to. Now he buries himself in work and a sardonic attitude. While his remarks are humorous (for example when his immediate supervisor, Mitsuko gives him an order, he remarks, "I ignored you the first time."), they reveal a cynical detachment for a lifestyle that provided him with creature comforts but little else.

Blaise's only relief is the downtime he gets when he goes to the Slags towns, perhaps his only means of any type of companionship and the only time that he can be himself without being spied upon. It is here that he meets Kristina, who is part of a resistance group against The Cloud. She tells Blaise some important information about his mother and what his role is to be in this revolution. As Blaise starts to see the Cloud for its true colors, as a dictatorship, he becomes an active participant in ending it by being the revolution's inside person and saboteur.

Unfortunately, Blaise's new role as rebel coincides with his promotion through The Cloud and his involvement with his supervisors, Mitsuko and Minsheng and the shady directors behind them. The threats and underhanded deals that collapse the lower classes are made all too real. In one chapter, Blaise is nearly tortured by mantises, cybernetic insects which inject their victims with a painful venom. He then watches in horror as those mantises are then used on people including many of the rebels.

Blaise becomes involved in a love triangle between Kristina and Mitsuko. While normally, I don't like love triangles because I find them cliched and often unnecessary with The Cloud, I will make an exception because of what each character represents.

Mitsuko represents The Cloud. She is a narcissistic ambitious person who uses many that come near her. In her world, relationships can only be made on a superficial shallow level. Because of this, terms like "friends, "family," and "lovers" are mere words. Because they are just words without feeling around them, those terms can be redefined however they see fit as Mitsuko reveals during one of the few times when she displays some reality beyond the materialistic driven persona that we have already seen. She is a woman who has been hurt in the past, knows what it's like to struggle to get to where she is, but doesn't care. She lost her humanity and compassion for others and sees the people around her as allies for or obstacles against the company that she reveres and even worships. She represents the worst that Blaise could be.

Kristina represents the resistance, the rebels that are still in touch with their humanity. They have technology in that they were able to build a functioning self-sustaining community, but all of their technology is used to benefit a larger society, rather than controlling it. They, particularly Kristina, haven't lost who they are or the love for those around them.

Kristina cares about her fellow rebels and family. Even though she is in love with Blaise, she isn't afraid to call him out on the actions and the people behind The Cloud's actions.

Kristina has a strange ability to read into other's souls. This ability opens up possibilities that when society heads further into progress and science, what was once considered magic could be rediscovered.

It also gives Kristina deeper insight into people. She sees beyond the surface that Mitsuko sees. She sees into Blaise's past and how he really feels. She makes a real connection with him, a connection that Blaise thought was lost.

The Cloud shows us a world that becomes so intertwined with its technology, that only the very few remember what it means to be human and it is them who will rebuild the world once that heavily technological superficial world is gone.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Weekly Reader: The Mentor by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Author-Editor Conflict Becomes Suspenseful, Bloodier, and Deadlier Than Usual

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: One thing that I will say as an Editor and Book Reviewer, no matter how often I disagree with authors, I am glad that our disagreements don't go the way of William Lansing and Kyle Broder in Lee Matthew Goldberg's The Mentor. This psychological thriller takes the never ending struggle between authors and editors and twists it to violent and deadly means.

Professor William Lansing is delighted to learn that his former student, Kyle Broder, has attained superstar status in the publishing world. The young editor gets the credit for discovering and editing the debut novel of rising star author, Sierra Raven. William thinks that Kyle would be the perfect editor to pitch his magnum opus, Devil's Hopyard, to. After all, William had been working on the book for ten years and he helped Kyle out when he was a troubled addicted college student so…favors?

Unfortunately, William's manuscript is an incredibly disturbing look into the mind of a deranged psychopath. Worst of all, it's a badly written incredibly disturbing look into the mind of a deranged psychopath. It's about the rape, murder, and cannibalism of a young woman and hits too close to home for Kyle's liking.

Kyle has no intention of publishing it and let's just say William does not take constructive criticism well. His desire for literary fame becomes an obsession and his means to achieve it become violent. Soon, Kyle begins to wonder how much of William's work is the product of a writer's imagination and how much of it is based on true events.

Just like with Goldberg's previous books, Slow Down, Orange City, and The Desire Card series, The Mentor shows the dangers of unbridled ambition and what happens when one's ambitions overpower their sense of ethics, morality, legality, and basic humanity. They become someone to be feared, someone who believes that the end justifies the means, any means, no matter who suffers.

William has that kind of ambition. He is definitely someone who we can't separate the art from the artist. Everyone around him and everything that he does is just material for his book. It's hard to tell whether he had these graphically violent thoughts before he wrote them or being a writer came first and he found gruesome inspiration. Either way, he sees everyone as characters in his novel that he could do the most horrific things or make them do the worst things and they act according to the orders of him, the author.

Kyle is a more sympathetic character since he is the one getting stalked and gaslit, but he also has an unchecked ambitious side. He rejects William's manuscript because he finds it disturbing, but at first he is less concerned about the content than about what it would mean for his reputation. He is a rising star attached to a couple of potential bestsellers, a coming of age novel and a crime thriller, surefire hits. Kyle does not want his star to be hitched to a poorly written and potentially controversial work. He is not concerned about the potential loss of life and confession of an actual crime rather than what it would mean if his name was attached to it. It's only when William's desire for fame and violent tendencies affect Kyle personally that he realizes just how deadly William's desires are.

Some of the other characters in The Mentor aren't as clearly defined. A rival of Kyle's sucks up to William until it becomes feasible not to. Kyle's girlfriend, Jamie, plays the usual love interest character who at first doesn't believe that the protagonist is being stalked until they too become a victim. Sierra becomes a pawn in Kyle's chance for stardom and ultimately William's chance for notoriety. Everyone is collateral in this one-on-one battle.

The final chapters of The Mentor are drenched in irony as things turn on its head and the drive for ambition becomes one of infamy. William gets his stardom in the worst way possible and Kyle has to live with the consequences.