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 trying to get 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. 

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana; The Mantis Continuum (The Mantis Gland Series Book 4) by Adam Andrews Johnson and Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana, The Mantis Continuum (The Mantis Gland Series Book 4) by Adam Andrews Johnson and Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana 

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana is a tense psychological suspense short novel about trauma and its chilling aftermath on two people, the victim and the perpetrator.

Tracey is left traumatized after being sexually assaulted by Phil, a married husband and father. She is angry and filled with vengeance but she doesn't want to just have him arrested or kill him. She has a more long-term goal. She manipulates her way into his home, befriends his wife, Patsy and daughter, Joy, and blackmails Phil into financially providing her escape from her abusive family.

This book is essentially a two-person story between Phil and Tracey, the abuser and his sexual victim, the blackmailer and her financial victim. They both have plenty of depth and layers in their one-on-one combat.

 Tracey is very methodical in planning and executing her revenge. She decides to become a haunting presence in Phil’s life instead of taking the easy way out and killing him. It's a way of disarming Phil and leaving him as vulnerable and uncertain as he was. She may have been physically underneath him then but she is figuratively on top of him now.

Phil is also an interesting albeit antagonistic character. His memories of that night are filled with the graphic violence that he inflicted and his weak attempts at justifying it. He is not understandable at all here.

However, there are points where the safety of his family is compromised and the Reader's thoughts shift to Patsy and Joy's welfare and how Phil will be affected by their losses. It allows Readers to understand and even be concerned about the husband and father without defending or condoning the violent actions that he did.

Also, Patsy and Joy’s subplots are handled well. Patsy sometimes acts as the comic relief by rehearsing weather girl monologues and being preoccupied with an upcoming job interview at a news TV station. However, she also shows awareness with Tracey’s presence and the circumstances of her arrival by going from empathy, to suspicion towards her, then distrust towards Phil.

Joy is an effective foil to Tracey. She was a sheltered girl thrown into violent catastrophic circumstances which Tracey knew about practically since birth. She acts like a spoiled brat at times, but is also a very realistic teenager with emotions, hormones, and irritation at everyone else around her. She follows Tracey into some dangerous circumstances without thinking of the consequences.

This is a cold calculated tale of revenge in which much is lost and there are very few victors.

 

The Mantis Continuum (The Mantis Gland Series Book 4) by Adam Andrews Johnson 

No matter how good an ongoing book series seems, not every volume is going to be a winner. The first three books of Adam Andrews Johnson’s The Mantis Gland Series told a captivating series about a world where some people called Shifts have mutations because of a gland called the Mantis Gland. These people develop extraordinary abilities like flight, telekinesis, elemental control, super strength, impervious skin, or remote viewing.

 The Shifts are targeted by the Messiahs, a religious cult that has a great deal of power and influence. They perform ritualistic murder on the Shifts so they can swallow and absorb the glands. In each volume, the Shifts gather together in Teshon City where they form a resistance aided by a Demifae,a person who studies magic, called The Mystic and others who fight against the Messiah’s influence. The first three volumes tell a streamlined story and introduce new characters with the goal of bringing them together. They have a definite beginning, middle, and end. 

The fourth volume in The Mantis Gland Series, The Mantis Continuum is by far the weakest book in the series. It has some interesting passages of character development that push some forward into new relationships, abilities, positions, and self-awareness. However, there are too many characters and subplots to tell a comprehensible or compelling story. It’s a case of doing way too much at once.

Some of the new characters and subplots aren’t bad. After the murder of their mother, twins Thech and Jzuna flee to Teshon City with an entertainer named Bivon. A trio, Kosephaji, Relliduna, and Pelipi have to escape via boat after Relliduna becomes seriously injured. Meanwhile a group of former Messiahs whose bodies have completely altered into monstrosities by consuming too many Mantis Glands are heading straight for Teshon and they are hungry.

When the book slows down, it captures some pretty decent moments. Thech and Jzuna have a loving sibling relationship. The sweet but dim Thech is the more physical one while the bright eloquent Jzuna provides the brainpower. Jzuna is a maternal influence on her brother’s life while Thecha brings out her more empathetic side. 

Another winning relationship is that of Kosephjai and Relliduna. As their lives are in danger, they evolve from best friends to lovers. With the constant threats to their lives and feeling out of focus because of the suspicion towards Shifts, there are very few people that they and Pelipi can rely on. These stressful situations bring out their most vulnerable emotions, cause them to evaluate their feelings towards each other, and move their relationship forward. 

The problems occur when the action moves to Teshon City where the new characters meet the old ones. There are way too many characters to focus on and it’s hard to remember who is whom, what their significance is, which book they debuted in, or even their powers. 

If you notice in my previous paragraphs, I mentioned some of the character developments that I liked but not their powers, it's because I don't remember them. There wasn't anything that made their abilities stand out or differentiate from the older characters.

There are times when the chapters read like one giant roll call by showing brief scenes of characters in their current setting but don’t do anything important with them. It was almost like Johnson said, “See this character? Yeah they are still alive. Move along.” With that many introductions or reintroductions, it takes a long time for them to actually do anything.

Even an interesting plot point that was introduced in the previous book of Messiahs whose bodies have become distorted by their addictive consumption of the Mantis Gland, isn't as compelling as it was in the previous book. They leave a creepy disturbing presence, enter Teshon City with unending appetites, kill a few Shifts, and anticlimactically meet their end. They were much more intimidating as a cult.

Perhaps Johnson should have ended the series at Book Three or, as much as I like the new characters, just developed the original ones instead of inserting new ones. This book shows that there is a time to write and build on a new series but there is also a time that it should end. There is a fifth book, The Mantis Synchronicity. Here's hoping that it's better.

Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks is a short novel about a touring music group that is long on atmosphere but not on plot or thankfully music group cliches.

Two years after they break up, the band Borrowed Light has re-formed to go on a tour of several European cities. Drummer Giada, bassist Julian, and the guitarist Narrator endure long days going from one place to another, long nights of performing, playing at various clubs, and facing fans, owners, executives, on and on.

Let's explain what this book doesn't have. No love triangles though they had some romantic entanglements in the past. No drug addiction fights or onstage meltdowns. No slow climb to success followed by a rapid fall thanks to personnel disputes and the soulless music industry. No internal conflict between the member who is full of themselves and the others. Not much of the usual music tropes, which actually makes this a great short novel.

The biggest strength in the book is the atmosphere. The opening describes the trio’s travels as “The map matters only because sound behaves differently from where you stand. Amsterdam’s wood, Paris’ velvet, Brussels’ take, Montreux’s morning light, Valencia’s warm air, Stockholm’s clean edge, those spaces shaped our tempos more than adrenaline ever could.” 

The book is a constant stream of wearying movement, travel, faces running together, frustration with last minute changes and bookings, the exhilaration of a performing high, and the languid exhaustion afterwards. 

The clubs are filled with smoky air, tight compacted space, argumentative organizers and club owners, and customers either enraptured by the music or bored with life. Only faces and names change. The music draws the band, their listeners, and club employees for one moment before it ends and they trudge along to their separate lives.

The tone explains perfectly why this book doesn’t go into the usual tropes and cliches about music groups, It tells the truth about that kind of life. Julian, Giada, and The Narrator don’t fall into those typical hijinks because realistically they don’t have time to. They travel to different places, check into hotels, inspect the clubs, negotiate with owners and executives, put up their instruments, sound check, play a few sets, close, thank everybody, pack up, maybe have a few drinks or talk to customers, stagger off to bed, sleep, wake up the next day, check out, and then go on to the next city. 

Any conflicts that occur between them is not because of rock star ego. It’s because they are tired and snippy from constant travel and are getting on one another’s nerves, 

There is a simplicity within these characters and how they accept the music and travel lifestyle as just a part of their lives. They leave complicated love lives, conflicts with family members, and their own insecurities and self-esteem issues behind to play. Also their personalities mesh well with Giada’s no nonsense leadership and organization skills, Julian’s flash and outgoing personality, and The Narrator’s rationality and poetic observation. 

The band gives them a chance to use their musical talents and personality traits to good use by contributing to their chosen art, openly and honestly expressing their emotions, seeing different places and meeting different people, and despite the hardships having a good time, and making exciting memories to look back on.

In fact their tour isn’t really seen as a means to become discovered and sign on with a bigtime record company. It’s just something that they get to do once in a while as friends and musicians and then return to normal life afterwards. . 

Goon by Glenn Erick Miller; Oath by Kate Butler; The Wise Marie Paradise Edition by Natasha Brune

 

Goon by Glenn Erick Miller; Oath by Kate Butler; The Wise Marie: Paradise Edition by Natasha Brune 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Goon by Glenn Erick Miller 

This is a summary of the review. The complete review is on LitPick.

Goon is a tense, darkly comic, but captivating novel about incarceration, self-preservation, redemption, and the true nature of guilt and innocence.

 Goon is a troubled foster kid who stole a car, then injured his younger brother before being sent to a juvenile detention center. While there Goon has to deal with the various rules and regulations, violent fellow prisoners, a hurricane, his attraction for a girl who volunteers at the prison, and his guilt and anguished concern about his brother.

He is a fully developed protagonist who is practically made of attitude and regret. He recalls his dysfunctional upbringing, parentification towards his brother, and current incarceration with detached and wry humor. He is a self-deprecating sardonic kid who uses his humor to deflect from his own pain and tragedy.

The setting of the experimental detention center nicknamed J-Rot is fleshed out as a distinct society with its own culture and rituals. Everyone is given a nickname and bullying and favoritism are frequently shown. These dehumanization procedures remind the boys that who they were outside doesn't matter. Here they are who the prison, and by association the State of Florida, decides.

 Goon has to call up his talents and skills to aid someone who was once antagonistic but has shown potential to be a friend. Goon must surpass the institutional dehumanization and enter the contradictory chaos surrounding him to save him. 

Oath by Kate Butler 

This is a summary of my review. The long version is on Reader Views. (The links takes you to the site. You must insert the book's title in the search engine to read the review.)

Kate Butler’s Oath is a charming and enchanting queer fantasy romance about the love between a lord and his knight.

Lord Aerion Valemont is the spoiled Narcissistic son of the Archbishop. He is used to having his way so when Sir Clyde of Blackholt AKA “The Hound”, a war hardened, quiet, defiant warrior is assigned to be his protector, Aerion considers it a challenge. It appears these two completely opposite characters from different worlds are attracted to one another despite Clyde's sworn oath to protect the young Lord and the scheme to get Aerion married to avoid scandal.

Oath is the type of Fantasy Romance that technically does nothing new. The characters are known archetypes and the plot and setting have been seen many times. Even the fact that it's a Queer Romance has been done. 

This book should be a disposable cliche but there is something so delightful and endearing about this particular book that makes it work despite or actually because of the cliches.

Aerian is written as the ultimate spoiled rich kid with plenty of money and daring but not a lot of empathy or sense. Clyde is a solid stoic force. 

When the Lord and the knight become emotionally and physically closer together, Clyde's softer side and Aerion’s kinder side emerge. They become lovers who accept one another's flaws and all that comes with them.

Their relationship is tested by war, separation, sacrifice, and commitment. They move beyond a spoiled lord and stoic knight to become stronger, braver, more selfless, and more devoted characters and lovers.

The Wise Marie: Paradise Edition by Natasha Brune 

This is a summary of my review. The complete review is on Readers Views. (The links takes you to the site. You must insert the book's title in the search engine to read the review.)

Natasha Brune’s The Wise Marie: Paradise Edition is a traumatic and troubling autobiographical novel about a woman's involvement with crime and drugs.

Brune’s alter ego, Marie lived in a crowded home with a troubled and volatile family. Marie retreated into drugs, abusive relationships, and criminal activity to survive it.

Brune’s writing style is a straightforward matter of fact manner and surprising detachment for writing about her own experiences. It doesn't get overly sentimental or overdramatic. Terrible things like teen pregnancy, over doses, and abuse but it's informative not emotional. It makes the events and characters the main focus instead of presenting Brune's opinion about how she felt about it. It allows the Readers to connect with the events on their own. 

One could imagine it being written years later when Brune has had enough time to detach herself from the events. As an older woman, she has the years of experience and knowledge that the angry young woman didn't have. She also has empathy and understanding for the circumstances that led her down this path but recognizes the damage that she brought on herself.

The Wise Marie also makes use of its Hawaii setting by downplaying the paradise connotation (except in the subtitle) to focus on the local resident’s reality or at least the reality that Brune experienced. She reveals the poverty of people who live in a state with beautiful year-round weather but an expensive cost of living. A place where local reality is purposely kept from the tourists and issues like drugs, crime, and violence are ignored. While many states have high levels of crime and poverty, in Hawaii’s case the sometimes ugly reality clashes with the beautiful image, an image that no one and no place can fill forever.

The Forgotten Queer A Journey of Self-Discovery, Breaking Free, and Healing by Stella Mok: Tragic and Triumphant Memoir About Coming Out, Authenticity, and Living Ones Truth

 The Forgotten Queer A Journey of Self-Discovery, Breaking Free, and Healing by Stella Mok: Tragic and Triumphant Memoir About Coming Out, Authenticity, and Living Ones Truth 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Stella Mok’s book The Forgotten Queer: A Journey of Self-Discovery, Breaking Free, and Healing is a tragic and triumphant memoir about coming out, authenticity, and finding the physical and emotional space to live one's truth.

Mok’s writing style is both personal and informative. She summarizes and gives dry fact based accounts like most nonfiction authors and memoirists. But she also uses literary techniques like dialogue and internal thoughts in parts. This dual nature is a means to highlight the most important conflicts and themes within her story.

For example, most of the book is centered around Mok’s troubled relationship with her parents, Leandro and Nora. In the first chapter Mok, her siblings, and her father get into an argument about future plans and Leandro goes into a paragraph long diatribe about how women couldn't be doctors. This exchange is foreshadowed in her opening sentence, “I wish I were a boy.” 

This chapter and various other ones reveal the toxicity between Mok and her parents which went beyond cultural, generational, or gender conflicts. At one point, they use emotional blackmail to keep Mok’s sister tied to their family business. They also used various other means to keep Mok and her siblings under their control. It's a troubling environment that one does not thrive so much as be fortunate enough to survive.

Mok lived in a tight, oppressed, and psychologically abusive atmosphere in which Mok did not only have to suppress her true self, she had to pretend that it never existed to begin with. One where the freedom to be honest with herself was treated as a luxury that she could not afford so it couldn't exist. At one point she realizes this by thinking, “I had to fight for my life, or end up losing what I worked so hard for.”

This fighting for her life also played into Mok’s sexuality and various relationships. An early romance ended because Mok was uncertain about pursuing a full romantic relationship with another girl. She also had a long term relationship with another woman who had trouble reconciling her lesbianism with her religious beliefs.

Throughout the book, Mok used different means to find her own inner strength and personal happiness. Two of the most triumphant moments occur when she wrote letters to her parents dealing with their deficiencies in parenting while also forgiving them and herself. These gestures show someone who is ready to move on into the next step in life. 

This and other actions moved her to a more positive path that led to a new more honest and fulfilling life. She had to break the cycle that her family gave her and heal herself.

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

 

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

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

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