Fairy Tale by AK Nevermore, The Perfect Bitch (The Perfect Fate Book 3) by Tom Kane, Our Own Authors by Brian Baleno

Fairy Tale by AK Nevermore 

 AK Nevermore’s Fairy Tale is a suspenseful enchanting tale that gives us a fairy tale in a bleak postmodern urban setting.

Charlie Peel is having a rough time since she has been dumped and lost her job. She is not interested in the claims from the mysterious Nikodem “Nikos” Wisniewski who believes that she fits his grandmother's psychic visions of a wila, or a fairy. Nikos abducts Charlie and entices her to be his fiancee despite their growing attachment towards each other and her curiosity wondering whether his claims of her being a fairy are true.

This short novel favors dark energy and atmosphere over fantastic moments. It creates a strange but effective amalgam of crime thriller and dark fantasy.

The book starts out gritty and harsh like a typical dark urban contemporary thriller featuring two characters at their most frustrated and vulnerable. Charlie is feeling disenchanted by her lost job and break up. She is a woman ready to explode. Nikos tries to do his assignment and cover his tracks. He is aware of his family’s powerful legacy breathing down on him and that he has to live up to their expectations.

Nikos’ family’s control over his actions and Charlie’s fierce despair foreshadow the eventual violence. In fact when Nikos takes Charlie, it reads like a psychological thriller about a stalker or serial killer taking his victim to a remote location. His plan of her posing as his fiancee while Charlie cowers because he has the decapitated head of his previous hunting assignment has a dark comic edge to it. 

The fantasy aspects begin when Nikos recognizes Charlie’s fairy lineage through psychic impressions. They are somewhat subdued since we don’t actually see Charlie use magic or even fully believe that she is a fairy. She just knows that she’s in a Gothic situation surrounded by a potentially dangerous family with unspoken powers, both natural and supernatural. She knows that she has to play their game for now to survive.

But within Charlie lies the unspoken possibility that if she is a wila, then the Wisniewskis are permitting someone made of potent and dangerous magic, a dour outlook on life, and anger at the world including at the man and family holding her against her will into their lives. They could be turning her into the very demon that they are afraid of.

The first story creates suspense by atmosphere. The second could potentially destroy that atmosphere when Charlie discovers the powers that have been lurking inside her and takes it out on her treacherous captors and the desolate world surrounding her. 

The Perfect Bitch (The Perfect Fate Book 3) by Tom Kane

Tom Kane’s book, The Perfect Bitch is a Gothic Historical Paranormal Horror about a movie star whose obsession with fame, youth, and beauty becomes a horror.

Lovella Benjamin is a movie star from the 1930’s-40’s known for her glamor and difficult reputation, both of which earn her the moniker “The Perfect Bitch.” As she ages, she is anxious about her fading career and rivals. Her ambition reached the attention of a stranger, David Garland who has an enticing offer for her.

This book combines early Gothic works like Faust and The Picture of Dorian Gray with the remote allure of Old Hollywood. While the horror elements are eerie, the majority of the book is a character study of Lovella. Her personality including arrogance, fears, and insecurities is fully displayed.

When we first meet Lovella, she is 17 and already aware of how attractive she is and how she can control besotted men with just a look and a hair flip. However, what they don’t realize is that Bella is no ingenue. She is cunning, brilliant, and ruthless. It is quickly shown in the first pages when she turns the casting couch on its head in front of an associate producer. She reveals that she can not only play the Hollywood Shuffle but succeed at it too.

Lovella is a perfect actress because she is willing to play the part on and off the screen. She subjects herself to painful treatments, excessive beauty care regiments, diets, diction lessons, and especially a fake biographical profile to hide who she really is. It’s routine for all actresses but for an actress who is already receptive to deceit and manipulation, it confirms that she’s in the right place. Like other notorious bad girls in the past like Vanity Fair’s Becky Sharp, she doesn’t defy the society around her, she embodies the society around her. She is the worst qualities of Hollywood wrapped up in human form.

Lovella’s complicated journey is probably why the book focuses more on her than the creepy paranormal stuff that happens to her. She is an eerie forceful presence of her own that can challenge any demon, sorcerer, or otherworldly being. She blackmails a former associate when he wants to destroy evidence implicating her. She steals close ups and spotlights from a rival. She starts a whispering campaign against an actor that she is attracted to when told that his presence is interfering with her popularity. She schemes to end the career of a young upstart. She uses a romance for publicity then strings her lover along for years afterwards. 

Lovella’s dominance has an almost supernatural aura on its own that goes beyond earthly means. She has an almost clairvoyant sense and potent energy that knows when and how to wound an adversary while keeping her career, beauty, and fame intact. She herself is sometimes the demonic presence in her book. 

When supernatural events start to happen. It’s not surprising. Instead it’s inevitable. Lovella is not so much being drawn in by circumstances that she can’t explain and is frightened of but welcomed by a presence that understands her and thinks of her as one of their own. The dark twisted otherworldly happenings are reflections of her own dark, twisted, and human soul. 

Our Own Authors by Brian Baleno 

Brian Baleno specializes in writing about people's internal and emotional struggles either in a confined or open setting. The first book that I read by him, Barside Manner is set in a neighborhood bar in Pittsburgh and deals with the internal conflicts of the bartender and customers.His recent work, Our Own Authors might have a wider and more glamorous setting but it isn't free of emotionally conflicted characters. 

In it, Josh is a location scout for movies. On the set of his latest project, a spy romance, he deals with various filming difficulties and his own feelings about being away from his wife and children. 

This is a fun slice of life short novel that strips away the glamor of filmmaking to focus on the tedium and minutiae of working on a movie set. It’s a lot of standing around, coping with script or location changes, adapting to the weather or local needs, arguing with volatile cast and crew, moving around, and being away from home for long stretches of weeks or even months to create something that you hope will resonate with audiences.

 Baleno treats movie making as a job like any other with positive and negative aspects. The only difference is that the results have to be seen and evaluated by a paying and hopefully appreciative public.

On this particular set, Josh has to arrange the exterior shots in Istanbul and Paris by capturing the beautiful locations but maintaining control of the filming area for the cast and crew. He also has to manage the average public that are walking by and going about their daily lives while art is being made right in front of them. 

This job sometimes takes a keen eye for detail, understanding of the local culture and values, finding the best places for atmosphere and lighting, and having the patience to manage so many people, personalities, and schedules. 

Josh also has to deal with the complications involving various personal lives of the people that he works with. Cyrus and Chloe, the lead actor and actress respectively, are having a romance that they want to keep private from the public so Josh is elected as their official secret keeper. 

Josh also takes the time to have interesting conversations with some long time colleagues, particularly the director Oliver over various discussions such as AI’s presence, marriage, children, and how long they can keep up this frantic pace that the entertainment industry craves. These moments make these characters real as they talk about their lives of living in the spotlight and surrounded by enormous pressure.

Their lives are contrasted with the story that the film crew are selling. Throughout the book, the reader is treated to various scenes from the script. It is an espionage romance between Julia and Anar, two operatives from different countries and worlds that can’t deny their attraction to one another. 

The script’s somewhat hokey dialogue, frequent betrayals, and elaborate conflicts are meant to satirize the finished products that Hollywood creates that are as far away and remote from the people working on them as they are from the people watching them.

Along with satire, Our Own Authors has a lot of heart. Many of the most touching moments are when Josh’s thoughts turn to his wife, Lexi and his kids, James and Chris. Thankfully, this is not a story packed with scandal and infidelity but instead with longing and separation. 

Josh misses the milestones with his family and thinks often of them. He is also feeling his age and considers whether he should change careers before he misses everything at home.

 It is nice to read a story about a happily married man who misses his family so much that he wouldn’t dream of stepping out on them and working in entertainment no less. Granted such conflicts keep such books interesting, but there can also be something meaningful found in quiet conflicts. The conflicts of deciding between work and family. Of deciding between the fast paced life that one is used to and the slower one that is longed for but not always able to be achieved. 

Even when one is in the profession of creating dreams and illusions for other people, the cast and crew often furnish their own dreams and aspirations away from the set.

The Italian Coast Reunion by Dahlia Moore, A Matter of Time: He Lost Twenty Years in A Moment by I.P.D. Watts, The Copulation Chronicles by Bexxy Mov

The Italian Coast Reunion by Dahlia Moore, A Matter of Time: He Lost Twenty Years in A Moment by I.P.D. Watts, The Copulation Chronicles by Bexxy Mov 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

 

The Italian Coast Reunion by Dahlia Moore 

Spoilers: The Italian Coast Reunion by Dahlia Moore is a heartfelt and moving Contemporary Fiction novel about secrets and female friendship set in an eye-catching descriptive setting.

Recently widowed Kathleen decides that she wants to finally take a long overdue trip to Italy but doesn't want to go alone. She invites her former college friends Sylvia, Alina, and Lauren to come with. The quartet experience the country while confessing hidden secrets, painful revelations, and conflicts with spouses, children, and family members, and discuss the truth about what ended their close friendships all those years ago.

The book is practically a travel guide with richly developed fictional characters to experience the journey. The Italian setting is vibrant and captures the senses. Through Moore’s words, readers can vicariously see the ruins and art, hear the traditional music, smell the Mediterranean sea air, taste the delectable food and wine, and feel the authentic fabric in the shopping districts. Italy practically becomes a character itself as it invites the characters and readers to observe its historical past while living in the present moment. 

As the characters observe the Ancient and Renaissance history of the country, their own histories are also painfully observed. The historical sites show places that were beautiful, symbolized progress and rebirth, but now are dead existing only to be observed. The ancient past that is long gone moves towards the Renaissance.

Similarly the four women have to observe and acknowledge the deceased but troubling ancient ruins of their own pasts before they can progress and renew themselves into their own Renaissance. 

Each character speaks of family trauma and current struggles that sprung from it. Kathleen lived a childhood surrounded by rigid restrictions and emotional neglect. That resonated with her marriage as she tried to avoid the truth behind her late husband's real character and the root cause of her current solitude until she was forced to directly confront them.

Alina was traumatized by emotional abuse, sexual objectification, assault, and slut shaming. To escape that life, she threw herself into an unwise marriage that quickly turned abusive and traumatic.

Lauren, one of the few African Americans in her town and school, was the target of frequent racism. That ingrown caution and anxiety spilled into her relationship with her hostile adult daughter.

Sylvia left behind an Orthodox Jewish family that continued to trap her with their judgmental domineering views. That suffocating family environment compelled her to care for her invalid husband despite his increasingly morose and potentially volatile behavior.

The women are open, vulnerable, and honest as the reality of their lives are exposed. Each confession leads to another one until all secrets are laid bare in a heartbreaking confrontation when the temporary dissolution of their friendship is finally revealed. It was a time of trauma, bad decisions, hurt emotions, impulsive rage filled actions, and long time physical and emotional wounds that remained for decades afterwards.

Besides the honesty of their private lives, the four women show the warmth and support that drew them to each other in the first place and why despite the negative circumstances that ended their friendship in youth, they willingly reach out to rekindle it in the present. They provide solid advice, encourage walking down a different metaphorical path than the one that they are on, offer practical assistance, and put words and actions in the renewal of their friendship. 

The Italian Coast Reunion captures the four characters’ physical journey to Italy but more importantly their emotional journey as daughters, sisters, students, workers, wives, mothers, divorcees, widows, travelers, friends, and women.

A Matter of Time: He Lost Twenty Years in a Moment by I.P.D. Watts

Spoilers: Not to be confused with Jennae Vale’s A Matter of Time (The Bridge Through Time Series Book 4) which I reviewed earlier this year. 

I.P.D. Watts’ A Matter of Time: He Lost Twenty Years in a Moment uses one of the worst times in recent American history as a backdrop for this Science Fiction thriller about a time traveler who finds that his world is irrevocably changed by those circumstances.

On September 5th, 2001 Desert Storm vet and securities executive, Peter Collins left his suburban home, waved goodbye to his wife, Marie and three children Ashley, Tom, and Jake and went to work at his business Edwards and Collins Worldwide Securities Inc. on what should have been an ordinary day. On his way to the carport for lunch, he felt a strange sensation like he was walking through cold water. 

When he comes to, the carport is changed, his Mercedes is gone, his offices are now run by the NSA, and most of his colleagues no longer work there. Oh and the World Trade Center that he used to see from his office? It's not there anymore. Peter learns that he has moved forward twenty years into the future. It is now 2021 and his family, business, colleagues, and the entire world have completely changed. 

The science fiction aspects are introduced through the mechanics of time travel. The NSA experimented with a device called the Mag-Tron which creates a vortex in space and time with the present on one side and the past on the other. All someone has to do is walk through the vortex and they are in the past. 

However, they have to reenter at a specific point in time or the vortex will close and that person will be stuck in time forever. An NSA agent from 2021, Jed Ryman goes backwards to investigate ties to 9/11 and Peter who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time in 2001 moves forward twenty years.

Of course with government agencies involved in a project like this, Peter inevitably finds his life in danger. People that he confides in are injured or dead. Sketchy figures follow him wherever he goes. 

It gets to the point where Peter, and the reader, aren’t sure who to trust. Heather, a kind stranger, helps Peter but she raises suspicions with her sudden presence and involvement with this strange man and his even stranger story of time travel. After all, wouldn't most people be suspicious? Contact the psychiatric hospital? Not let the potentially delusional man sleep in their apartment?

There are some very heart tugging moments particularly when Peter reunites with his family. The reveal that his sons perished in the WTC during a field trip is a painful moment. It stops the book cold by exploring Peter’s shock and anguish when he mourns the loss of two boys who he saw only a few hours ago.

 The grief is still a fresh wound for him while for everyone else it was a deep loss that healed over time. Peter doesn't have that luxury to mourn but adjust for two decades. To him, it recently happened and it is a wide gaping wound.

Peter also has to cope with how the rest of his family moved on from what they saw as Peter’s disappearance and the twins’ death. He alternates between jealousy and acceptance when he learns that Marie remarried after declaring him dead.

His daughter Ashley has grown into a young woman in her 30s without him being there to enjoy it. Most of the book is a high energy thriller but it also knows how to stop and savor those moments of real emotions.

The book flows pretty well but there are some maddening questions and plot points that are unresolved most notably the presence of Agent Ryman in the past. He gets very little mention and it is unclear what his experiences investigating 9/11 in the past lead to. 

Ryman is a plot point that definitely needs more exploration. Perhaps Watts could write a companion piece exploring Ryman’s adventures in the past.

The book also seems to be of two minds when it comes to whether one can fight fate and change the past or not. Certain events play out to their inevitable conclusion and just when the reader is prepared to reluctantly accept that, something else happens that calls that into question. It’s kind of confusing that some things get changed but others do not. 

The concepts that were introduced in the book are interesting to explore but it seems like Watts wasn’t certain about what he wanted to say about it and decided to split the difference between one idea and another.

A Matter of Time has some huge flaws and questions but mostly it’s a thrilling and dramatic work that is time well spent. 

The Copulation Chronicles by Bexxy Mov 

The Copulation Chronicles by Bexxy Mov is an erotic, sizzling, frank, and openly honest book about a woman struggling with her PTSD and sex addiction.

The main character is also named Bexxy Mov like the author but the description says that it is a semiautobiographical novel so it will be reviewed as a novel with possibly true elements inserted into the narrative. (The character will be referred to as Bexxy while Mov will be used for the author.) Mov portrays her fictional self as a vivacious but complex woman who recognizes her flaws, wants to change, but finds herself unable to.

Bexxy recalls early abuse, trauma, sexual assault, and betrayal. Those awful experiences created a desire to escape and gain control of the situation. If people were going to hurt her, then she was going to use her body and sexuality to hurt others. 

The book explores one sex act after another where Bexxy uses various techniques and tools to entice her conquests. They think that they are getting the ultimate sex partner: a playful kitten, a femme fatale, a cunning prostitute, a bold dominatrix, a willing submissive. She can play any role expected of her by examining what her partners want.

Bexxy can reframe the damage that was done to her into something that gives her power and control over others. What takes her a long time to realize is that instead of controlling her partners, her sexual compulsions are controlling her.

There are moments when Bexxy hopes for something different from a partner beyond the usual one night stands but when she wakes up the next morning she gets more of the same disappointment, hostility, nonconsensual violence, and objectification.

Why try for anything if it's all the same? So she submits to her addictions and pretends that she doesn't feel any emotional pain or vulnerability.

Bexxy’s awareness of her addiction becomes a breakthrough for her. Through therapy and self-reflection, she views herself objectively and realizes where her sexual urges came from and how they ran her life. 

The moment when she refuses to let her addiction define and run her life is the moment where she gains the control that she long sought. She can be an independent free woman who gives herself when she wants to not because she feels compelled to.

Eyes Behind Belligerence by K.P. Kellenborn, How to Lose The Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame, Barside Manner by Brian Baleno

Eyes Behind Belligerence By K.P. Kellenborn 

 Eyes Behind Belligerence is a powerful and highly relevant novel about racism, xenophobia, cultural identity, patriotism, and what it means to truly call oneself an American even when others won't define you as such.

The Japanese-American population of Bainbridge Island, Washington State felt the impact of the attack by the Japanese Imperial Army on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, barely tolerated racist jokes and stereotypes become the norm. Members of the community are ostracized or treated with outright hostility by white neighbors, schoolmates, church members, and authority figures. They are forbidden from having possessions that might be used as weapons or short wave radios believing that they could be used for spying. Finally, they are sent to internment camps.

This is a heartbreaking novel about a shameful time in American history which unfortunately is still in practice today just with new names, faces, and targets for racist and xenophobic abuse. It's staggering how quickly certain groups are seen as enemies and how easily many can be swept up in paranoia and propaganda. 

The moments before and during the times in the camps feature dehumanizing practices used to isolate, divide, and internally destroy the people who are targeted. Some of the more insidious actions result in detainees not only trusting the white officers holding them but in their fellow inmates. Some act as inside informants. Others resort to random acts of vandalism and for mini gangs for survival.

 Sometimes division between Japanese born immigrants who came from Japan and settled in the US (issei) and those with Japanese ancestry but lived in the US their entire lives (nissei) is revealed. If they can be divided, it becomes easier for the American authority to break them.

The book is largely told from the points of view of teenage boys Goro/Russell Hamaguchi and Jimmu/Jim Yoshimura who are swept up in that generational divide within the camps and their own families and the racial and cultural divide from the government surrounding them. 

Both are Japanese-Americans whose parents fled to the US either before they were born or as children. They consider themselves more American than Japanese. They adopted American names, hardly understand their families’ first language, and have fully assimilated into the society around them. 

Russell in particular is fond of the country in which he lives. He mocks his parents’ traditional ways and scoffs at their ideals like honor and family loyalty ahead of individual liberty. He considers himself just as American as the white kids that he attends school with, maybe even more so.

Unfortunately that patriotism serves little use for him in a country that shows right away that it has no love for anyone who was born different. They don't see an American boy. To them Russell is Japanese and is treated like an enemy. Unfortunately his Japanese elders aren't any warmer either. Some like his siblings basically think that he sold out and question his loyalty. A fistfight with one of his closest friends reveals the buried resentment and lack of belonging simmering within him.

Jim also is torn between embracing his cultural heritage and assimilating into the world around him despite its rejection. Unlike Russell who treated assimilation like a calculated strategy for survival, Jim’s dismissal is fueled by personal trauma.

Jim’s journey is probably the most emotional even before the war begins because of his older brother's suicide. His grief over the death, his family's reaction to it, and the reasons for those actions lead him to question and defy his heritage. While many see community, Jim sees emotional abandonment and it takes a long time within the book for him to recover from the loss.

The two young men’s outlook changes inside the camps. Russell goes through periods of defiance such as defending himself from a racist guard, continuing correspondence with a Filipino-American girlfriend, and joining a gang of troublemakers in the camps. He ultimately tries to adapt, adjust, and find ways to ensure his friends and family's survival. 

Jim does the opposite. He starts out as a mostly pacifistic sensitive kid unwilling to fight alongside Russell and the other tougher kids. He tries not to do anything that would result in punishment and be the complacent dutiful detainee. 

Jim eventually tires of the mask of obedience that he is forced to wear because the officers don't care. He will always be considered an enemy and in moments of self-fulfilling prophecy, he becomes that defiant rebellious enemy. They could only push him so far enough by dehumanizing him before he pushes back. When he finally does, it's a moment of catharsis for himself and the reader.

Reading a book like this makes it easy to see the conflicts that are still relevant today so we can study them, read about them, learn from them, and maybe someday do better.

How to Lose a Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame 

How to Lose a Life You Love: A Memoir of Conditioning, Collapse, and Sovereignty is a meaningful, moving, and inspirational memoir about having and losing it all, and what happens afterwards. Mostly it's about having the resilience to pick yourself up and seize a second life.

Author Mike Karame had a childhood and young adulthood of strife and conflict. His parents’ tense marriage was rocked by bouts of temper, arguments, accusations, and emotional breakdowns resulting in a divorce.

 Karame describes his childhood in war and battle analogies because the arguments felt like a disruption of the peace that he sought. He and his siblings had to navigate their home like a minefield waiting for the next explosion to occur from their father's angry tirades and their mother's tearful silence. 

Karame’s childhood in Beirut was also surrounded by outside wars as well. He describes life in Lebanon as a “simple brutal algorithm. Your religion determines your power. Your sect determines your identity.”

Karame recalled explosions occurring during innocuous moments of watching television or studying in class. Tanks rolling down the streets, soldiers marching in formation, and people sprinting for shelters were commonplace. With wars occurring both inside and outside Karame's home, it's no wonder that he wanted to escape any way possible.

Karame later entered a law career but eventually felt unfulfilled by it. His interest in caring for and riding horses led him to a different path: opening up a horse club. Even though his friends thought that he traded a life of luxury for training horses, he said that he wasn't trading down, “(He) traded up.” It gave him a chance to do something that he loved and gave him personal satisfaction. He loved teaching people to ride and connect with horses and added to his own pursuits by learning kitesurfing, paragliding, deep sea diving, and other outdoor adventures.

This would normally be the end of the story. Someone leaves the life that tied them down and made them miserable and finds the career and life path that makes them happy. In Karame's case however, this is the middle of his story which means there were a lot more changes for him to go through and far more experiences for him to learn from.

A series of problems including a failed romantic relationship, the deaths of his parents, separation from his twin brother, and financial struggles culminated in Karame having to sell the horse club and leaving Lebanon. He had to find the strength and courage to start over in a new country where he was virtually a stranger, Australia. 

Karame described his life in Australia as a “collapse” when he encountered dishonesty from colleagues, unpaid bills, and potential bankruptcy. Despite this he purchased and worked in a bar/restaurant and maintained a relationship with his companion, Kate. He referred to the end as a demolition because a demolition “when you finally stop fearing it, is the beginning of clean ground.”

Karame and Kate traveled by caravan through the Australian outback. The connection to nature, vastness of travel, and the quiet privacy gave the couple a much needed slower pace. They ended up traveling for almost two years heading nowhere in particular. This trip gave them the freedom that they needed.

The tour also helped Karame look at and listen to himself objectively. In the silence, he examined what went wrong in his life and what needed improvement. Sometimes one needs to remove all of the barriers and noise before they can discover who they really are. That is what this tour meant to Karame: an opportunity to find himself.

This book is a memoir that shows readers that a person might have many opportunities and live many lives. They just have to 

be ready to find them.

Barside Manner by Brian Baleno 

 A trend this year seems to be short anthologized slices of life Contemporary Fiction novels set in specific places, usually dining or music establishments, and around ordinary people. The works are short on major plots but long on setting and characterization. This year I reviewed Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man and The Writing Writes, The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin’ Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann. I might even throw in books from years past like Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thomson Carr, The Lindens by Barney Jeffries, Tales From Whiskey Tango From Misery Towers by James Aylott, and The Cabin Sessions by Isobel Blackthorn for sharing many similar qualities with these works.

We can add Brian Baleno’s Barside Manner to this oddly specific subgenre. Just like its predecessors, it captures the immediacy of a small setting and closed circle cast of characters. Despite the small space that confines this specific written universe, Barside Manner presents an intimate close up look that is rich in detail and purpose.

Freddy is the bartender at the local Pittsburgh bar where he greets his regular customers and the occasional new faces. He listens, advises, comforts, provides a sympathetic ear, and sometimes reveals his own personal struggles while his closest associates drink, laugh, joke, bemoan their fate, and engage in friendship and fellowship that are guaranteed until Last Call.

The book itself doesn't really have much of a plot. Mostly it's about characters debating getting rich quick schemes, figuring out the next steps in their lives, changing jobs, changing relationships, moving up, or moving down in life. Plot isn't as important as character and setting. 

We get to know the characters through their dialogue and conversations. They talk about politics, whether AI will take over the world, whether the Steelers have a shot at the playoffs, complain about their jobs or bad relationships, and just about everything else in between. They don't come to agreements but they sure love talking and arguing about it.

The bar is the type of place that is practically a character in and of itself. Freddy makes sure that it's clean and inviting for guests to enter. He knows the usual drink orders and greets both regulars and newcomers jovially. It's cozy, somewhat dim, kind of smoky, has a stench of alcohol but also has a charm and friendly atmosphere that invites characters and readers inside for a few hours.

We also get some insights into the characters that inhabit this confined space. Since there is alcohol involved, they are at their most vulnerable, open, loquacious, reckless, and honest. It is a place where they can forget their troubles for a few hours and someone, usually Freddy, will be there to lend an ear, offer a word, or at the very least fill up another glass.

There is Enzo whom Freddy describes as a “Pittsburgher’s Pittsburgher.” Tough, mouthy, loyal to his family and friends and particularly sports teams. He will be the first to insult the Steelers or the Pirates if they are losing but don't you make the mistake of criticizing them in earshot if you are from out of town. Not unless you have two hours to kill to sit through a lecture about the history of either team.

 There's also Spike, Enzo’s friend. He is a muscular surly man who might strike up a conversation, brandish a fist, or both sometimes during the same discussion. 

Edward LaRoche, AKA Fox Chapel is from a different background than Freddy and the others. His nickname comes from the more affluent area of town in which he lives, a life of wealth and privilege that only exists in his fellow patrons’ fantasies. 

Bob and Jan are a septuagenarian married couple who treat the patrons and Freddy like surrogate children. 

Then there's Freddy who has struggles of his own. At 29 years old, he knows that he has to make changes in his life but is uncertain how to pursue them. He wouldn't mind attending college to obtain a degree but thinks that he is too old.

 He and his girlfriend Lana, a doctoral student working on her PhD, have a loving but at times contentious relationship as they discuss their next steps: marriage, moving in together, or breaking up and moving on. As Freddy remarks by quoting U2: “(He) still hasn't found what (he) is looking for.”

There is a complacency that surrounds the characters. It says that things are okay for now. As long as they have a decent job, a roof over their heads, a place to go and destress, maybe some good friends or a loved one then everything is okay. Why aspire for anything better or different? Just stay in the same places, ordering the same drinks, have the same arguments, and remain comfortable.

Many of the situations in the characters' lives involve making changes. They seek money, love, better opportunities, innovation, something new and different. Their actions serve as a reminder to remove from their benign comfort zones to enter different possibilities that test their potential and deliver fulfillment beyond settling. They occur when the characters make changes so they aren't the same people that we met in the beginning.

This book reminds us that we can find pleasure in the ordinary everyday routine but we should also look for the changes that provide the breaks in that routine and challenge us to be different, better people. 

The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon; The Writing Writes The Writer Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann

The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon 

 The Arts Council by Dolly Gray Landon is a bizarre book. It can't really be said to be highly recommended. It can't even be considered particularly good or well written. Instead it is a messy, loud, disturbing, darkly comic, vulgar, inappropriate, immature, witty, bizarre, trippy, unforgettable, sharp, and ruthless satire. You don't go into a book like this to like anyone or anything. You read it to cringe, laugh bitterly, compare it to real life, maybe think, and more than likely wonder “What the heck did I just read?”

The plot mainly involves Honoree Oinkbladder and Modesty Greedance, two high school artists who are constantly trying to one-up each other. It also concerns the Pimpleton Regional Arts Council who determines whose artwork is praised and promoted but are often swayed by famous family names, bribery, and other more nefarious means in selecting pieces. There are also various other subplots that involve cheating spouses, hook ups, break ups, murders, public humiliation, illicit lobotomies, and feral attack therapy dogs.

The Arts Council walks that strange line between being a very intelligent satire and an immature joke. There are savage takedowns everywhere from aggravating political figures, to pretentious artists and art experts, to judicial corruption, to inept intellectuals, to kangaroo courts, to depraved socialites, to obnoxious teenagers, and especially to a society which pays lip service to hard work and merit but lets money and names lead to success.

The attacks especially on the art industry are spot on. Landon skillfully dissects an industry which talks a big game about artistic integrity and free expression but only promotes art that is deemed acceptable when it is financially beneficial for collectors, council members, and gallery owners. 

They determine what is considered fine art and will try to assign an arbitrary meaning to make it more valuable. For example, a painting of Honoree’s that was defaced in the most horrible way during a bullying incident is considered a worthy piece. Honoree then displays it, despite its rancid odor and disgusting visuals. She periodically makes some slight additions and changes to make it look like an entirely new piece each time to the delight of her prestigious and unaware fans.

The intellectual satire is augmented by more childish humor making the book a bizarre concoction of humor. Various characters have double entendres and dad jokes for names such as Dweebaldo Van Boofus, Poppin’ Jay Godandy, and Ian Tickleman. The two protagonists named Honoree and Modesty suggest virtue but are conniving manipulative young women who have multiple sexual relationships.

There are moments that over emphasize scatological function and humor. Readers might be torn between sardonically smirking at the satire or rolling their eyes at an obvious dirty joke, sometimes doing both in the same paragraph.

There are many things that prevent this from being a highly recommended book or even a great work of satire and parody. The characters are off putting in that exaggerated way that is found often in satire where everyone is written to an obnoxious extreme and no one is particularly likeable. Some plot points go nowhere or are arbitrarily resolved. It's hard to care about anyone in a cast of shrill annoying caricatures who do stupid obnoxious things as plot devices.

That is probably the point but the incomprehensible plot and one dimensional characters also cause the book to run far too long. Readers might say, “We got the joke the first time. Can we move on please?” It's a book that is not well constructed but also revels in how ill constructed that it is. Technically that makes the book a potential work of genius.

Trigger warnings but there are also moments that are incredibly disturbing. A few characters get publicly humiliated in sexually and physically abusive ways that are treated as graphic and disturbing jokes. One could say that is the point and comedy is subjective. In a world that is becoming increasingly satiric on its own, those who point out society's flaws in arts and entertainment need to be more graphic, more satiric, and crazier to get their points across.

However, these are chapters that go to an extreme that is beyond humor. The excessive nature of these passages turn dark satire into psychological horror. The characters don't just suffer but others stand around, watch it happen, and take part in the humiliations. Once read, the reader can't unsee them and has a hard time focusing on the rest of the book. Because of them, the book could be considered recommended but with extreme reservations that it is definitely not for everyone. It is for people who like bizarre satire, dark humor, sexual innuendo, and have strong stomachs.

The Writing Writes The Writer Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: Some books capture large moments. Characters dealing with politics, life transitions like birth and death, trauma, and sweeping changes. Some capture little moments concerning friendships, couples, and daily life. 

That is the case with The Writing Writes The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin' Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann. There isn't much in the way of plot but it's heavy in characterization.

The book mostly focuses on Kev and his best friends, married couple Jeb and Mae. Kev is legally blind and Jeb and Mae often drive him around. One of their favorite places to go is Sizzlin' Meats and Salads, the local eatery. It's just a few weeks of their lives punctuated with trips to Sizzlin.’

The three characters and setting are relatable and identifiable. Those who live in small towns will understand the comfortable routine found in a town like Peculiar, California. It presents a history of the town and how it got its, well, peculiar name. It's the type of story that townspeople know by heart and retell. Maybe celebrate it in historical reenactments and guided tours. 

There is also recognition of the important locations that give the town character. In this case Sizzlin' Meats and Salads. It's a local mom and pop place where people arrive every week, order their favorite expected meals so often that sometimes even the servers memorize it before they order, and recognize co-workers, classmates, neighbors, or just the regular gang of diners. It's so beautiful because it's so familiar and comforting.

The three protagonists are the type of characters who depend on daily lives and routines. This is especially vital to Kev. An intellectual and writer, Kev hates being dependent on his friends but still relies on them to be his contact with the world outside his house. 

He is such a devotee to this routine that he looks forward to it like a kid waiting for a trip to a theme park. When things get in the way like car trouble or a family issue, Kev makes them swear that they will go the following week and it's non-negotiable. Of course unlike most people, he doesn't have the luxury of going some other day because of his lack of transportation. It's just as aggravating for him as it is for them and the frustration is easily understood.

We also see Jeb and Mae as a couple that are comfortable with each other. They compliment each other with different personalities but a yin yang dynamic that recognizes each other's strengths and vulnerabilities. 

They have shared memories, inside jokes, unfinished sentences that they answer. They know each other so well and treat Kev like another family member that's welcome in their lives and not an unwanted third wheel. It's a power trio that relies on warmth, familiarity, and connections as their strongest assets.

The Writing Writes The Writer is a simple book. But sometimes the simple books tell the strongest truths.

After The Rain: Stories by Dina Sokal ; The Narrow by Dan Cornelious; The Love That Wouldn't Die by Anthony Biren; 200 Things Women Can Do After 50 by Permission Press

 

After The Rain: Stories by Dina Sokal

This is a summary of the review. The entire review can be found on LitPick.

This poignant and meaningful anthology focuses on emotional confrontations, secrets, trauma, memories, and how sometimes it takes adulthood and maturity to understand these experiences.

The best stories are:

“Henry and Sally”- Henry learns that his ailing wife, Sally, has secrets that he never knew.

This story is about how we never know everything about the people that we are around the most, spouses, children, and close friends and family. 

Henry cares for his wife through her dementia and finds out her secret on his own. He weighs his suspicion towards her and his guilt in bringing this outcome forward. He has to address the reality of his marriage, not his romantic rose tinted view.

 “The Ritual Committee Meeting”-Christy weighs religious devotion with her uncertainty about her committee leaders Jonathan and Rivka who are becoming quite authoritarian.

This story is only a few pages long but says a great deal about Christy and the other church members. Christy sees the tight hold that the couple have on the committee and when she disagrees with them, they let her know that she has fallen in their estimation. 

She wonders if they are there to lead others to worship God or themselves.

“Mother's Day”-An accident forces Val to evaluate her marriage, motherhood, faith, and behavior.

Val once held a superficial view of her life. She thought that it was an idyllic home as long as she existed on the surface and lived in benign contentment. 

Afterwards she has to weigh her love for her husband and family. She also has to look at her own troublesome behavior and seek to change it.

“After the Rain”- A woman has a magical encounter that forces her to confront her past.

Most of the story is surreal and yet meaningful as a strange box leads her to several human figures, particularly a baby that beckons her to follow it. They have a lot of symbolic touches concerning security, suppression, and confrontation.

The story’s climax is reached when she names the trauma that was done to her. She confronts her assailant and brings her pain to the forefront. Recognizing it gives her the first step towards healing.

 Sokal’s watercolor illustrations are winsome pleasant landscapes that bring a timeless dream-like quality to the stories and provide light to even the darkest moments.

The Narrow by Dan Cornelious 

This is a suspenseful Science Fiction Thriller that combines monster disasters, alien encounters, and conspiracy theories and does some clever unique things with the concepts.

After surviving an attack by a mysterious creature Eli Merritt investigates the encounter. He sees a sealed passage which leads him to a civilization of reptilians called the Zargata. He bonds with one named Ryznk. When a greater evil approaches Eli, Ryznk, and their human and reptilian allies have to work together to fight it.

Most of the book focuses on typical military science fiction thriller tropes. There are the military figures who try to keep the weird stuff under wraps as they fight against it. The scientists and doctors with the analytical questions, devotion to science, and arguments with the military. 

The salt of the Earth protagonist who stumbles on the strange new world but still kicks ass. The religious supporting character that quotes the Bible and fears the End Times. It's all familiar but also kind of fun as a good action novel read for the summer should be. 

One of the most interesting aspects of this book are the reptilians. Most Science Fiction novels that focus on conspiracy theories treat the reptilians as some unstoppable inhuman evil bent in conquest and destruction. Dan Cornelious however took great care to make the Zargata just as important and multi-faceted as the humans.

 Ryznk is actually a well written character more so than Eli, his human counterpart who is alright but stereotypical and cliched. Ryznk however is a proud member of the Zargata community but has enough intelligent curiosity and empathy towards the humans. He draws Eli and others  into their mutual struggles by sharing thoughts and emotions. It is an interesting touch in what might have been a typical Science Fiction Thriller.

The friendship that develops between Eli and Ryznk is the emotional core of the story as they fight against their isolation, assumptions, enemies both human and reptilian, and mental and emotional blockers to work together. It's a twist that elevates this book from ordinary to potentially exceptional.

The Love That Wouldn't Die by Anthony Biren 

This is a beautiful and sinister short novel about the love between parent and child that survives beyond death.

John is devoted to his daughter, Rocky. He is so devoted to her that his final thoughts before he dies in a traffic collision were to always be with her. After death, he watches Rocky as she becomes romantically involved with Derek, a dangerous stalker.

The horror and mystery aspects are well written. John's attempts to communicate with his daughter can be creepy as he speaks to her through her phone and flickers with lights. Also John's attachment to Rocky could affect his memory of her and human emotions leaving him as an angry vengeance seeking spirit.

Besides the supernatural horror, there is also human horror. It is particularly noticeable when John and Rocky are given a chilling vision of Derek's actions and motives. The lengths that Derek went through because he felt entitled to have Rocky are incredibly disturbing.

Above all, this is a strong story about the love between a father and daughter. The opening chapter features a charming moment between John and his then-toddler aged daughter as she watches butterflies. It symbolizes their relationship as Rocky is as beautiful and fragile as those butterflies and John tries hard to hold onto her until he learns to defend when necessary but also to let her go.

200 Things Women Can Finally Do at 50 by Permission Press

If you are approaching 50, don't look at it as old age or think that it is an end to life. Think of it as a potential start to do new things. This is a funny and uplifting book that suggests that women can find fulfillment by living for themselves.

This book covers various areas like social life, beauty standards, work, family, health, tech, and a bucket list. The items suggest similar messages like “It's okay to opt out.” “It's okay to be less than perfect” “It's okay to practice self care.” “It's okay for others to take care of you.” “It's okay to be behind the times.” “It's okay to meet long term goals that were put off by life situations.” “It's okay to be yourself.”

The suggestions are humorous and heartfelt to remind readers that they should make time for themselves. For example in the social life chapter, one suggestion is “Unfriend the Energy Vampire. We all have that one friend. She only calls to complain about her ex, her boss, or the rash on her leg. You have listened to the same loop for 15 years because you are loyal. You are not a therapist, and you are not a garbage can for your emotional refuse. It is okay to outgrow people who only take. Hit ‘Block’ or ‘Mute’ to lift that weight off your shoulders immediately. Rebel Rule: Protect your peace like it is a limited-edition handbag.”

Illusion of Time by Omar Hamoud; Strange Beautiful Philosophical Literary Fiction Novel

 Illusion of Time by Omar Hamoud; Strange Beautiful Philosophical Literary Fiction Novel 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Illusion of Time by Omar Hamoud is a beautiful transformative philosophical novel that touches on various subjects like time, memory, death, fatalism, destiny, spirituality, and whether we are truly in charge of our lives or a part of someone else's design.

The book covers two lives who are connected on the same day in 1967. As restaurateur William Van Dyck dies of natural causes in Charlotte, North Carolina, Andrian Davis is born in New York City. Throughout the book, we are treated to the lives of both men and they seem to be linked. It's never stated why specifically but they seem to share minds, souls, memories, and experiences.

My copy of the book has no transition between William and Andrian's stories. No long white space, no separation of paragraphs, no subheads. Nothing that separates one story from another. Just jumps from Andrian to William and back again.

Now that could be a mistake in formatting or just found in the Advanced Review Copy but it could be intentional. It might be a way of forcing the reader to pay attention to the transitions through time and William and Andrian’s individual accounts. It tells us that even though they have different experiences and separate beliefs and perspectives, they are essentially the same soul living the same story. Each man is just taking half of it.

This is a book that captures both the real and the abstract. Ordinary lives intersect with esoteric discussions about what connections might mean in the deuteragonist’s lives, what their lives mean, or what anyone's life means for that matter.

Mostly these facets are found in William and Andrian who represent the split between the physical and the metaphysical, the material and the spirit, the body and the mind, what we can see and experience with our five senses, and what we think and believe with our extra senses. William represents one side and Andrian represents the other.

William’s life from his birth in 1893 Belgium to his death is one of poverty, abandonment, and desperate financial need.His mother abandoned him and his father lost himself to alcohol and self pity. 

William was raised with a brother who resorted to theft to earn a living and a sister who was the closest thing to a mother figure that he ever had. This exposure to loss and poverty propelled him to pursue financial earthly gain at any cost.

Andrian was also shaped by his upbringing but to follow a different path. His parents were baffled by his genius intellect, vivid dreams, and questions about Biblical characters and teachings that challenged their Christian faith. He isn't isolated by circumstances around him but more by people who don't know what to do with this brilliant but baffling child. 

His primary source of encouragement is from his uncle who follows the boy's education and career development for his own personal avaricious interests. This exposure to intellectual curiosity and human weakness propels him to pursue scientific knowledge and clear answers at any cost.

Their chosen professional lives are also indicative of their life paths. William's work in farming, meat preparation, and the restaurant business are about keeping people fed, providing sustenance, and attending to people's basic needs. It's the type of professional life for someone whose focus is on the things of the physical world that can be seen, heard, smelled, touched, and tasted.

 Andrian's work in physics and psychology are about studying the deep philosophical questions, providing knowledge and wisdom through learning and research, finding out why people live the lives that they did, what dreams they had, and what messaged the higher consciousness is sending. It's the type of professional life for someone whose focus is on the mental and spiritual worlds that can be learned, studied, experienced, thought, and believed.

Both men have circles of friends, lovers, siblings, and others who are drawn by their character. William’s wife and friends are drawn to his strength, determination, and earthiness. Andrian's friends and wife are drawn by his acceptance and intuitive intelligence. 

If they ever met, William would probably see a stuffy egghead that he wouldn't understand half the things that he was saying but would appreciate his understanding and the long interesting talks they would have. Andrian would probably see a blunt instrument who operates on emotion but would be touched by his devotion to those around him.

They don't meet in life or death nor do they know about each other but their lives connect in various ways. They share similar problems like conflicts with an older sibling and betrayal from an older mentor or parental figure. They marry similar women who are supportive but aren't afraid to disagree with or call them out. Deaths of loved ones cause them to spiral into Depression for a time. 

They also share much deeper connections that aren't shared in the mortal world but through the metaphysical. Andrian has dreams of various moments in William's life that could be past life regression or evidence of reincarnation. However, what muddies this interpretation is that William has flash forward dreams and thoughts of Andrian! 

Even though William was mostly a practical man of the physical world, higher curious thoughts entered his head. As Andrian experienced many similar earthly experiences of family, friends, and work William experienced some of Andrian's intellectual curiosity and academic research. His dreams of Andrian confuse him and he questions his life path and higher consciousness. 

Since William lacks the education and scholastic research, they are mostly stagnant thoughts pushed aside for reality. Towards the end of his life, William wonders if someone will have the answers. Little did he know but might have imagined that someone would be born on his death day.

There is an interesting theory that Andrian poses towards the end about what this connection means. In the book's universe anyway, it seems to be the right one but up to a point which sends the book spiraling to another direction. It pushes the book’s themes of interconnectivity and the split between mind and body to a higher level. 

Most of the book suggests that we are made by memories, dreams, time, social circles, choices, education, and experiences. This theory suggests that our paths are not made by us but by a greater design and higher power. It is disconcerting for this theme to be thrown in the last couple of chapters without time to dwell on it further into the novel. Though it is suggested that's why William and Andrian's lives are so parallel in some ways and so divided in others.

However, it is left open ended whether this theory is correct even within the narrative. Like many great philosophical novels, Illusion of Time invites the readers to inquire, discover their own views, provide their own answers, and ask questions about their own lives. We ask who made us the people that we are, some outside force or ourselves? 

Tom Ryan's Shoes Legend of The Banshee Castle by T.A. Keenan, Sketch by Ros Hill, and Whispers of Blue Ridge by Nina Purtee

 

Tom Ryan's Shoes: Legend of The Banshee's Castle by T.A. Keenan

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

T.A. Keenan’s Tom Ryan's Shoes: Legend of The Banshee Castle is a gentle slice of life, a dramatic account of life at the beginning of the Irish Potato Famine, and an engaging folktale involving witches, curses, and finding true love. Most importantly, it is a masterful example of storytelling by Keenan writing the book the way someone would verbally relate their family history.

In 1933, brother and sister, Tommy and Molly find a steamer trunk full of papers that belonged to their mother, Lizzie. Most of them consist of Lizzie's handwritten accounts of their family history, stories that she told her children out loud. Molly’s thoughts wander to a specific story that Lizzie told in 1897.

Lizzie's story focuses on her father, Tommy and Molly's grandfather, Tom Ryan in 1846 during the Potato Famine. After being rejected by his girlfriend’s parents, Tom goes to work on his family farm, mostly walking the family pig to market. Along the way, he is accompanied by his cousin, Frank. During this day, the cousins encounter various people and situations. 

The most fascinating person that the Ryan Cousins meet is the Bean Feasa or the Hag, a woman of knowledge, witch, healer, and midwife who crosses their path many times. As they are going about their business, she is going about hers blessing or cursing various people and requesting that they leave specific offerings as a reward, bribe, or a peace offering.

The story of the Ryan Cousins and the Bean Feasa conveys various situations that run the gamut from commonplace, humorous, romantic, tragic, disturbing, eerie, bizarre, uncanny, and magical. Keenan weaves the ordinary and mundane with the ethereal and otherworldly rather well. He depicts the voice of Ireland in a specific point and time by interacting the natural physical world with the unseen and invisible world.

Keenan captures the Irish milieu well by making each character unique. We see the peaceful farmlands, rolling hills, the recognizable accents and colloquialisms. Above all, there are the quirky characters.

 There is a crotchety taciturn neighbor who makes his opinions about everything known. A couple carry on an extramarital affair under the clueless husband's nose.There is a snobbish nun who can't believe that she is stuck in this backwater area. She is from France for crying out loud! Trouble making twins plan bullying shenanigans for the lulz.There is a lot of humor and charm in these looks at everyday life.

However this is not a book about fluffy nostalgia with only a postcard look at rural Ireland. All of the charm and humor is used as a front for the darker edges that appear because of the trying times of English oppression, crippling famine, and religious dominance. Sometimes the humorous moments are intertwined with the tragic. 

Tom and Frank see the various struggles that their friends, neighbors, and others are going through. Many characters are facing unemployment, starvation, and are considering leaving Ireland forever. While alcoholism is prevalent throughout, the historical context suggests that it is used for people to sedate their troubles away when they can't move up, out, or forward.

 There is an ongoing English presence of upper class land owners who look down on the locals with disdain and ownership that they can do whatever they want to these people and face no repercussions (at least until 1916 but that's another story entirely).

The cousins see lads and lasses kept from each other by income, religion, or their own personalities perhaps in desperate attempts to either move up a social status that doesn't include hunger and poverty or to hold onto a family legacy and culture before it's forced into extinction.

 A Magdalene Laundry is an important scene as we encounter young unwed isolated expectant mothers. A pharmacist sells abortifacients and other medicines on the side for those who don't want to bring children into such an uncertain world. A single mother is resorted to begging for food with her children. 

By far one of the most heartbreaking moments occurs when Tom and Frank see the bodies of an elderly couple floating down the river. It is implied that they committed suicide. Besides this image, the most disturbing aspect is the indifference displayed from Tom, Frank, and everyone else.

 Aside from the usual duties that come with fishing the corpses and planning for the burial, there's no grief, no mourning, no investigation. Just talk about whether the burial will be a church burial. It's a weariness that accepts that things are bad and are only going to get worse. 

Thankfully the darkness is only a part of the story and is tempered by the quirky charm mentioned earlier and the fantastic aspects. There is talk about ghosts and spirits in the atmosphere. A little man appears in various pages and dispenses uncanny advice and might be a leprechaun. A beautiful woman is compared to a leannain sidhe, a beautiful fairy that takes a human lover. There are references to a castle that might be haunted by the banshee, the wailing female spirits that predict the death.

By far the most enchanting character of the story is the Bean Feasa. She is able to see what people are really worth, recognizing their virtues and vices by sight and a few words of dialogue. She knows secrets that many hypocritical authority figures hide and calls them out on their promiscuity, crimes, corruption, and abuse of power. 

She acts as the words of vengeance, perhaps the voice of a people who have had enough. She curses them then offers to remove them in exchange for food and other items. She uses her own fierce reputation as leverage.

However, the Bean Feasa is not unkind. She also rewards good behavior and foreseeable fortune such as when she tells Tom that he will find true love. As before, she does this in exchange for food and other goods. While they probably are for her (even witches have to eat after all), we learn that there are more heartwarming reasons. They reveal that this stern, baffling, eccentric crone is probably the most moral ethical character in the entire cast and the real heart of the book.

This book uses the power of Lizzie’s storytelling to ensure that these people, their real world, their legends, their world will never be gone. Not as long as there is another generation to hear and read it.

Sketch by Ros Hill

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

Sketch is on the surface a witty meta fictional satire about superheroes and the comic industry but underneath it is a deep nuanced clever work about creativity, free will, and finding one's own purpose and agency.

In 1967, Charles, an illustrator, while on a trip to Egypt received a bottle of magic ink. Heba, the mysterious seller, suggests that with all of the problems in the world, he should draw a superhero. He does and creates Sketch who comes to life and is given powers through Charles' drawings. However, where there are superheroes, there are always supervillains and Sketch is no exception. His archenemy is the Finger Gunman who knows about the ink and wants to use it for his own destructive means. This rivalry ends in grief and tragedy.

40 years later Sketch finds Sid, a young man with a connection to all of the goings on from the past and needs him to confront his former enemy once more for their final battle.

There is some brilliant commentary about superheroes and comic book culture such as Sketch and The Finger Gunman playing their expected roles to the hilt particularly the end when The Finger Gunman has Sketch and Sid captive in his lair and monologues because of course.

Despite the humorous references, there are some interesting questions raised about the creative process, maturity, and choosing one's path.

In their first few minutes of creation, Sketch and The Finger Gunman only possess the knowledge their creators gave them. They know names and goals but don't have the ability to understand why or how to act towards them. In both cases, they have to make the choice to be a hero or a villain.

This shows that a creator, or a parent, gives the tools but they have to decide what to do for them. Charles may have drawn and wrote Sketch's powers, but he had to choose to use them and take the path of a hero. The Finger Gunman was created for the same purpose, but he chose the alternative. 

Whispers of Blue Ridge by Nina Purtee 

This is a summary. The whole review is on Reader's Views 

Nina Purtee’s novel Whispers of Blue Ridge has a beautiful rural Southern small town setting. It has a charming romance between a couple that goes from meet cute and flirtation, to making love, to making long term plans, to potential soulmates. It's a nice trajectory but underneath all of the light surface sweetness, there is a dark undercurrent of actions that are results of secrets, affairs, the failures of maintaining perfection, and death.

Vintner Savannah Gray runs Graystone Winery in Blue Ridge, Georgia after the deaths of her parents and grandmother. The upcoming wine tasting festival is an important event and coincides with the arrival of rodeo champion Jake Rollins who is looking for sponsorship from Graystone. Jake’s arrival opens family rivalries and long buried secrets that resulted in a serious car accident that took lives and left many physically and emotionally destroyed. The memories force Jake, Savannah, and other characters to come to terms with the revelations that could change their lives forever.

Jake and Savannah are a fairly decent couple. Savannah struggles to hold onto her family business and care for her aging grandfather. She also has her own personal goals that put her in conflict with her family responsibilities. She is torn between her loyalty to her family and pursuing her own happiness. 

Jake fits the rugged outdoorsy cowboy and love interest without much depth beyond that type of character. He doesn't come into his own until he reveals that he was involved in the accident that left him scarred, traumatized, and amnesiac.

The accident forces the characters to come to terms with the difference between the reality and the image that they tried to convey. The setting of Blue Ridge is one of those idyllic small towns that live off of maintaining an image of beauty and perfection. . It is a small town where status quo must be maintained at all costs and serious issues are brushed aside unless forced to face them.

When the true events that led to the accident and the subsequent aftermath are revealed, the characters have to weigh the consequences of earlier lies and secrets. Jake, Savannah, and the others have to confront the truth of what happened and how the subsequent years of artifice, pretense, and maintaining a perfect idyllic facade contributed to this catastrophe.