The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois by Malve Von Hassell; An Era in Anddemar by Maureen B. Roberts; The Orphans of Absolution The Hollow Dark Chronicles by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni

The Price of Safety: Serving Adela of Blois by Malve Von Hassell 

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

 The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois is a sublime look at the early Medieval Era during the time of the Norman Conquest and the First Crusades. It is rich in character particularly in its two protagonists Princess Adela of Normandy and Countess of Blois and Cerdic of Wessex, a knight sworn to serve her.

The book sees her through her brothers’ rebellion, the Crusades, her marriage to Count Stephen-Henry of Blois, motherhood, and her family's legacy. It is also told from the perspective of Cedric of Wessex, a knight and childhood friend of Adela’s but has complicated feelings for her despite their marriages to other people.

The two become friends by sharing outsider status. Cerdic is removed from his home in Wessex and Adela subverts her family's expectations. Adela and Cerdic develop a bond of friendship that lasts through constant changes particularly when Adela's brother rebels against her father and Cerdic is trained to fight him.

Adulthood transforms their friendship into a platonic romance. Their relationship never becomes physical but it's clear that they are among the most important people in one another's lives. Even though they marry two decent characters the kind Stephen-Henry and the strong willed Gisella, they still retain their closeness.

The book goes out of its way to not only make Adela and Cerdic decent characters, but also their spouses as well. Because Von Hassell portrays Adela, Cerdic, and their spouses in decent lights, the marriages and Adela and Cerdic’s bond does not resort to love triangle tropes. Adela and Cerdic stay faithful to their spouses and don't give into their passions. 

In the struggle between the political and the personal, Adela and Cerdic choose the political. That doesn't mean that they don't love each other. It just means that their bond includes their spouses, children, homes, lands, positions, values, and self-respect.

An Era in Anddemar by Maureen B. Roberts 

Coming soon here and on Reader Views 

Orphans of Absolution (The Hollow Dark Chronicles) by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni 

Orphans of Absolution by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni deftly combines Westerns and Paranormal Horror to create a chilling graphic novel of the creatures that can be found in the Old West. 

Twins Francis and Randall O’Dowell are the sole survivors when Father Mercer, a violent minister, murdered their entire family. Now they wander the Southwest, particularly the Arizona Territory hunting demons and other supernatural creatures for a bounty. However, they are on the lookout for their real target, Father Mercer.

The book is a veritable tour into Southwestern myths, legends, and ghost stories. The twins encounter a town in which children have been captured by La Llorona, the notorious ghost that lures children to drowning deaths. The results of a town filled with missing children in a time where early death was all too frequent is heart wrenching and motivates Francis and Randall on their search. 

They also encounter shapeshifters that sometimes fool the twins by looking or sounding like people that they knew. There are various moments when the twins are out in the isolated desert where suddenly they might hear their deceased mother’s voice or catch the form of a former lover out of the corner of their eye. It is terrifying to imagine a creature that not only knows their entire history but is willing to use it as a weapon against them.

Even when characters are potentially benevolent, there is a dark sinister aura that hints that they might not be trustworthy. A mysterious man known only as Crow appears and disappears to give them solid hints and advice about their missions but also maliciously puts them in dangerous situations.

What also makes this book more ominous is the setting. This is set primarily in the desert regions where the landscape is the same for miles. Where the nearest help could be in the next town or county for all anyone knows. Where the mind often plays tricks on the unwary who are lulled into a false sense of sameness and security.Where a mysterious moving shadow could be an animal, a violent person, or something else entirely. Brignoni takes full advantage of the haunted Old West.

The creatures and settings aren’t the only things that are haunted. Randall and Francis are too. They only live for the hunt and have foregone any hopes of romance, family, or settling down while there are dark supernatural spirits out there. They both have histories of relationships that ended prematurely, something that their antagonists take full advantage of. They are also haunted by their family’s graphic death and wake up with memories of blood, bodies, and the minister's sinister presence.

Because of their status as nomadic orphans, all Randall and Francis have in the world are each other. If anything challenges that union, whether it's human or supernatural, that challenge is outright rejected. They have no lives beyond the hunt and each other. It’s an unhealthy codependent relationship that is at times possessive and controlling (though the jury is out over who is controlling whom). But Randall and Francis have a shared understanding, language, and destiny that only they can understand. They have seen death as children and now have to face it every day as adults.

Orphans of Absolution is a graphic chilling Horror Western that combines the barren landscape and the lone gunslingers of one genre with the nightmares and twists of another. This combination presents strange but effective absolute results.

Rock Kills by Michael Di Lauro; Rocking Good Times With An Awesome Narrator

 

Rock Kills by Michael Di Lauro; Rocking Good Times With An Awesome Narrator 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Michael Di Lauro’s novel Rock Kills walks the path that many accounts of rock stars take but it does it with the perfect narrative voice that lets you enjoy the familiar ride.

That voice belongs to Steven Apollo Belmondo AKA Stabb Bell, former lead guitarist for the 1970’s rock band She Kicks. The book tells his story from folk musician to rock star with the usual beats of humble beginnings, small starts, greedy music executives, musical group of misfits, damaged love lives, meteoritic rise to success, addiction, egos, bad tempers, betrayals, break ups, and so on. We've seen it before in every biopic ever but none are told by Stabb Bell.

Stabb’s narration is what makes the book. I would genuinely love to hear the audiobook version to see how the narrator would capture his voice. His elevates many of the usual beats of a star’s rise and fall to an interesting and actually compelling level.

Stabb’s sarcastic comments about his own story are self-deprecating, acknowledging the tropes while also mocking them. Instead of a faded celebrity full of ego and delusion, he looks back with honesty. He compares She Kicks to other famous groups like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones and admits that his band was famous but “never fainting famous.” (Where fans fainted in delight during their concerts). It's less a story about being lonely at the top than it is about feeling kind of crappy in the middle. 

There are times when Stabb’s burnt out narration becomes almost cluelessly adorable. For example, it takes Stabb an entire chapter to figure out an important secret about his past even though the person revealing it drops several obvious hints beforehand. 

The Reader easily guesses the secret only a few lines into the beginning of the chapter and waits, with a forehead aching from the constant face palms, for the Midnight Train to Clue Town to finally catch up to the protagonist. Stabb is highly talented and a great storyteller but he's not the sharpest note on the musical scale. 

Unfortunately there are also times when that naivete results in less humorous moments especially when Stabb finds out too late that he was being used as a front for others’ criminal activities. To his credit the middle aged man telling the story recognizes what an idiot the young budding star was to ignore it but he can't change the past. The only thing that he can do is talk about it.

Di Lauro's writing also gives Stabb interesting recall in describing the colorful characters that he encounters on his journey to and from stardom (not “fainting super stardom" of course). His former girlfriend Margot, the “one that got away” and who inspired his earliest hits appears and reappears in his life but she has her own agency. 

While she appreciates him as a musician, Margot lets Stabb know about what she thinks of him as a person and lives her own life separate from him. In fact it's less like she is pining over him and more like he is pining over her. 

The band members of She Kicks are an interesting eclectic bunch particularly Siobhan, the sharp tongued lead singer who leads the band like a cross between a larger than life prima donna and cold blooded CEO. Think of if Janis Joplin was ever crossbred with Leona Helmsley.

She also isn't afraid to maintain dominance in a largely masculine led industry including arguing with her obstreperous and verbose lead guitarist. Siobhan and Stab often engage in one on one snark battles to disguise their own anxieties and insecurities.

Another interesting member of the band is the ebullient bassist Tanya. She is usually something of a comic relief, blurting out off color jokes and asides at even the most inopportune moments. But her story ends up being one of the most heartbreaking. 

Tanya joined She Kicks to pursue her passion for music and maintain a separate identity from her suffocating family only to find herself crushed by them anyway. Even after all of these years Stabb still feels the vicarious anguish of his former colleague.

 In his recall of his and his band mate’s experiences, Stabb reveals the great cost of pursuing artistic success: the performance highs, constant pressure, and the need to be an individual that is screaming to be heard, understood, loved, and accepted while being surrounded by a crowd.

Stabb Bell, and by extension Michael Di Lauro, turns what could be a hokey cliched melodrama into a thought provoking introspective engrossing novel about fame, love, identity, artistic pursuits, and maintaining one's own individual voice in the face of change, conformity, and control. It is truly a rocking good time. 

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. 

Cambridge Street by Steven Decker; Intimate Family Saga About Italian-American Family

 

Cambridge Street by Steven Decker; Intimate Family Saga About Italian American Family 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: One of the best ways to learn about the past is to research our own family history. This research teaches us where we came from, the struggles that our ancestors faced, what challenges befall them, and our inherited legacy. Steven Decker researched his own family history, the Tomasellos. The results are Cambridge Street, this intimate personal family saga about an Italian family emigrating to the United States during the Roaring Twenties.

The Tomasso Family are forced to leave Sicily because dwindling supplies cannot feed and provide for all of them. So eldest brother Paolo emigrates to the United States with his reluctant wife, Gianna, their children, Gianna's mother Stella, and Paolo’s brothers, the idealistic spiritual Leonardo and the sly criminal Renzo. 

The family settles in the Little Sicily area of Chicago where they face poverty, family conflicts, threats from organized crime, and the sacrifices and ambitions to achieve the American Dream. 

In writing the experiences of the Tomasso Family, particularly the three brothers, Decker reveals the various conflicts and concerns faced by immigrants when they are in a new place and their former roles are challenged. They are forced to find another way to live and adjust.

Paolo and Gianna have to face uncertainty. In Sicily, Paolo was one of several farmers. He worked alongside his father according to the planting and harvesting season. It was a routine existence that he knew when to plant seeds, when to grow and note the progress, when to harvest, when to store and when to eat. It was a cycle that his family knew well.

Also he and Gianna were surrounded by family, uncles, aunts, siblings, cousins, parents, long-time friends, and neighbors. It was a legacy recognized by several generations which contributed, networked and knew that if one person needed help, others were close by.

Now in Chicago, they are out of their comfort zone. Paolo now works in a slaughterhouse for human managers and supervisors who act with more authority than the seasonal weather cycle can. It is hard backbreaking work with very little rewards.

 The fertile fields are replaced by city streets. The peaceful villas by tenement slums. Before Paolo knew that he and his family would be cared for. Now they have the fear of poverty, homelessness, and hunger hovering overhead.

As if that wasn't hard enough, the Tomasso Family are now among strangers instead of family. Gianna in particular feels the loss as she misses the network that she knew and feels uncomfortable around people that she does not. She gives birth to more children, becomes a committed church member, and finds common ground with others around her.

 She and Paolo now have a found family made up of fellow immigrants and American citizens that are in the same situation that they are in: working hard in a new country and hoping for a better day.

Renzo was in a different situation. He is charming, ambitious, and slick. He would prefer to take the easy path to fortune. He assisted criminals by doing leg work, delivered messages and packages, and used his wit to escape from tight spots. He also romanced unattainable women including the wife of a dangerous operative.

At first, Renzo didn't even want to go to America. He wanted to ascend in his fast glamorous life, perhaps becoming a Don in his own right. However, a very spirited discussion with criminal rivals involving gunplay and death threats caused Renzo to change his mind and come with.

Just as in Sicily, Renzo is involved in organized crime but being older, more mature, and away from the insulating protection of his large family and their certain legacy, Renzo is aware that he is pursuing a path that is not just dangerous for him. He is also causing great danger to those around him.

Renzo’s increased loyalty towards his family and his close proximity to the more unsavory aspects of the criminal life force him to face real consequences. In one heartbreaking moment, he realizes how much this lawless pursuit has cost him. 

Leonardo is the quiet scholar in the family and was destined to join the Church as a priest. He has the skills and temperament for this path and he was too even tempered and obedient to question it. It was an expected required path so he followed it. 

While Leonardo acquiesces, his real feelings are ascertained by how quickly he discards it once he lives in America. He declines going to seminary and falls in love. He opts not to serve God behind the cloistered walls of the priesthood.

Instead, Leonardo becomes involved with the community becoming proactive and spiritual but also continuing human pleasures like marriage and fatherhood. He has the best of both worlds: a definite belief in God and a love to share it with.

A tragedy occurs that won't be revealed here but changes the Tomasso Family. They have to face danger, grief, fear, anger, vengeance, redemption, and guilt. 

Those left behind have to weigh whether to seek revenge or move forward. They wonder what the American Dream can possibly mean if it costs too much to pursue and not everyone will be able to achieve it.

Other Lovers (Love, Sex, Poetry, Peace) by Natalia Rachel, Heathcliff Unbound by Robin Robby

 

Other Lovers (Love, Sex, Poetry Peace) by Natalia Rachel 

I mean this in the best way but Natalia Rachel's novel in verse, Other Lovers (Love, Sex, Poetry, Peace) reads like a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I mean that it is a raw, unfiltered, emotionally realistic book about a woman's struggles with romance, dating, sex, relationships, and her own self-worth.

The book is told partly through poetry and partly through first person prose about Lena, a woman who goes through various moments in her love life. She discusses bad romances, sexual desires, emotional openness, fixations and obsessions, emotional compatibility, partner violence, heartbreak, and embarking on new relationships. All with a deft, witty, and insightful hand.

The free verse poetry is structured and confessional. It captures the confusion, sadness, anger, and hope of modern romance. “Kiss of Death” details an abusive relationship. Lena tells her former lover “I let you/Kiss me/Into some kind of/Slow soul death.” He enchants her with love bombing and physical affection. She is captivated though her older self knows that she is in for heartbreak.

Later the picture becomes clear when Lena learns that his kisses come with a price tag. “But also with/Incredible demand/Claiming my body/And banishing/My spirit.” The price of this toxic relationship is the banishment of her free will.

She looks for a man to soothe the abused girl that she once was but instead he adds to her trauma. By the end, Lena has no choice but to end her relationship before she loses herself.

Rachel's prose provides immediacy, raw vulnerability, sardonic insight, and a world weary survivor's instinct. 

“Bad Bitch Good Girl” for example is about Lena feeling caught between the two extremes of being a bitch or a good girl. It's similar to the “Madonna-Whore” Complex where women are objectified into various categories either the sweet nurturing virgin or the passionate sexual nymph and the twain are not supposed to meet. Lena questions these roles wondering why men don't see the whole complex woman instead of what they want to see.

This chapter also discusses Lena’s relationship with Leonardo after an unhappy marriage and divorce. Rediscovering her passions, her relationship with Leonardo is strictly erotic, sexual, and without long term commitment. 

It is a relationship that is not bound to last. When Lena has a flashback of abuse, Leonardo says a few platitudes but lets her suffer through them alone. When Leonardo reveals that he has to leave because of a family emergency, Lena just lets him go. A relationship built solely on sex is not one that allows for emotional complications like PTSD and family strife.

Besides relationships and love, Other Lovers also reveals that Lena is on a journey of personal discovery. One of the final chapters, ”Little Gifts in the Sand,” reveals her resilience. 

Even though she had a long string of bad relationships, Lena realized that she emerged stronger through them. She says, "I rise up/Eventually/Glorious/A phoenix returned.” Like a phoenix she emerged from the flames of unhappiness and became a more centered person with a richer heart, wiser bones, a more humbled heart, and sharper wit. She may not have found love, but she is aware of who she is, what she wants, and she is determined to get it.

Lena learned that being in a relationship is fine but the best and strongest relationship one can have is with themselves.

Heathcliff Unbound by Robin Robby 

I admit that I love to read and write fanfiction. I am always curious about the other aspects of my favorite characters. Where they came from, what is in their future, and what goes on when we're not looking. Fanfiction satisfies my curiosity that wants to fill in those unspoken blanks. 

Robin Robby appears to like fanfiction as well. 

After writing two books that focus on Jane Austen as a lead character, Jane Austen’s Totally Unexpected New York Adventure and Dear Emperor, Yours Jane, Robby switched gears to focus on another giant from English Literature. He focused on the world of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and the brooding, arrogant, passionate Heathcliff.

In Heathcliff Unbound Robby focuses on Heathcliff’s missing years from when he was exiled from Wuthering Heights and his beloved Catherine Earnshaw to when he returned to the Heights, wealthy, domineering, and seeking revenge on those who wronged him.

This novelette takes Heathcliff to the United States where he works for a shipping merchant named Mercer and catches the eye of his independent intelligent daughter, Victoria. However this location is a mere stepping stone to eventually return to Wuthering Heights and Catherine. 

This gives a more modern analytical look at Heathcliff. He is every bit the brooding toxic Byronic anti-hero that Bronte describes him, which makes him detestable in my eyes but romantic in many others’. 

Most of Heathcliff's time is spent moping about the Heights while working for Mercer. He develops a head for business and is able to earn a decent living. A living which will ultimately fund his return to gloat at the scoffers who called him “a foundling G&_$y brat” and made his early years miserable.

 In fact he is so successful at the business that if it weren't for Heathcliff's preordained fate foretold by Bronte, one would wonder why he doesn't just use his business acumen to become an American tycoon and move on with his life. But he wouldn't be Heathcliff otherwise. 

Victoria is a unique presence because she is the exact opposite from Catherine. Steady to Catherine's vulnerable. Intelligent to Catherine's passion. Sharp wit to Catherine's outbursts and withdrawals. Independent to Catherine's neediness. She entertains a relationship with this newcomer and even though she is attracted to Heathcliff, this relationship is not the be all and end all for either of them.

Victoria is merely transitory, a temporary release of buried passions, flickered briefly and ends just as briefly. Victoria thinks that Heathcliff is unlike anyone she has ever met before. Heathcliff thinks that Victoria is a means to an end. He is saving his strongest and deepest feelings for the girl that he left behind.

This novelette is not meant to change anyone's feelings for Heathcliff. It's more of an additional couple of chapters to a larger story to fill in the blanks until his fated return. It's fanfiction but it's interesting fanfiction.

By The Sword (Guardians of The Crown) by Alison Stuart; English Civil War Backdrops Engaging Romance and Fun Predictable Adventure

 

By The Sword (Guardians of The Crown) by Alison Stuart; English Civil War Backdrops Engaging Romance and Fun Predictable Adventure 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The focus of Alison Stuart’s Historical Fiction novel By The Sword part of her Guardians of The Crown is not the English Civil War. That's just the historical backdrop. It's not really even a Woman's Fiction about a woman living with and challenging her role similar to The Wedding Shroud by Elizabeth Storrs. Those are parts of it but the main focus is the romance between the main characters.

 The novel is formulaic, runs on far too long, and some of the dialogue and plot points seem to survive on a charcuterie platter consisting solely of Velveeta cheese products. But the characters are winning, their trajectories hold the reader’s interest, and despite being predictable and formulaic, there are charming moments that make you root for these likeable characters.

In 1650 England recently widowed Kate Ashley and her son Tom were facing genteel poverty when they received word from their dying grandfather-in-law. In absence of any male heirs, he designates Tom to inherit the Thornton Family estate. Since he is only a boy, his mother Kate cares for it until he comes of age. She must restore the estate to its former glory and fend off greedy neighbors.

Jonathan Thornton, grandnephew, cousin of Kate's late husband, and exiled because of his loyalty to King Charles, now wants to garner support for the king. He meets the young widow and helps her with the inheritance and defending her new homestead. However, the two become attracted to one another despite avenging armies, a menacing rival of Jonathan's, and Kate's complicated feelings and loyalty to her late husband's family, particularly his handsome cousin.

The novel centers around an appealing couple that carry the book together or separately. Kate is an older character than the usual one that leads Historical Fiction. She is a widow approaching middle age and is already used to being an experienced leader in her household. This is less about a young woman discovering her agency than it is about an older woman maintaining her agency during great change and turmoil.

Kate is uncertain about being around her late husband's estranged family as anyone would be coming to a house of strangers. But she quickly accepts this change and settles into the family. She befriends many of the locals like Jonathan's sister and becomes an indispensable member of the household. It's likely that when Tom comes of age, the Thornton Family estate will be in good hands. 

Jonathan also carries a world weariness that comes with age and experience. He is on the side of the Royalists, even fights alongside King Charles whom he considers a friend. His war time experiences enable him to think fast on his feet which comes in handy when getting himself and Kate out of trouble. He is used to violence and tough situations.

However, we also see someone who probably realizes that he is past his prime as a soldier. The passages where he acts as a father figure to Tom and as a love interest to Kate reveals him as someone who wouldn't mind settling down and has found the right family to do so.

Kate and Jonathan’s romance works pretty well even through the predictable formula. There are plenty of moments where Kate, Jonathan, or both are in a tight spot and need to use fighting prowess, intelligence, or medical know-how to get them out of it.

There are one dimensional antagonists that are no match to the heroes. One has an understandable grudge against Jonathan but is written so broad and reprehensible that their somewhat justifiable reason disappears underneath the veneer of melodramatic boos and hisses.

It's like those old adventure movies and novels where you shake your head amused, know the good guys will survive, but enjoy the cliff hanging excitement and the romance. It's fun but predictable. But remember, predictable can sometimes be fun. 

Delusions of Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor; Harrowing Historical Fiction About The Reality of Mental Asylums and Mistreatment of Women

Delusions of Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor; Harrowing Historical Fiction About The Reality of Mental Asylums and Mistreatment of Women

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: Delusions of Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor is about as skin crawling, creepy, harrowing, and anxiety inducing as any Supernatural Horror book or movie. The most disturbing part of this Historical Fiction nightmare is that it is true. It depicts the lives of patients, especially women in a 19th century mental asylum and it does not skimp on any of the details. Even if you don't have dementophobia (fear of insanity-which I do), you might still have nightmares.

Proper 19th century Ohio wife and mother, Cassie Alexander is institutionalized by her husband, Jed who reports that she has gone insane. She hasn't. She and Jed are having marital problems and he is having an affair and needs to get rid of the competition before he can move onto the Second Mrs. Alexander. He convinces a judge that she needs to be institutionalized, so she is sent to a mental asylum.

When Cassie arrives, she finds a filthy degrading place filled with suffering patients, practices that damage them even more, and a sadistic or indifferent staff that tortures and abuses those under their alleged care. It doesn't take Cassie long to figure out that mental asylums are not there to treat people or help them recover. They are places to put people to forget about them.

Mental asylums have become an important topic in the past year with President Trump insisting that immigrants “from prisons and mental asylums” are being sent to the US, probably confusing mental asylums (institutions for the treatment and care of the mentally ill) with asylum seekers (people fleeing persecution, war, or violence and applying for legal recognition as refugees to another country but whose claims are still pending). Last year he signed an executive order aimed at reducing homelessness and severe mental illness by encouraging the expansion of involuntary, long-term commitment into psychiatric care including reducing community health services and bringing back long-term mental institutions and insane asylums.

It's important to remember that the treatment at such centers wasn't always the best and to understand the history of how people were treated back in the day, to recognize the mistreatment for what it was, prevent such abuse from repeating itself, and remember that there are resources that can be contacted if such abuse does happen now.

Taylor pulls no punches in her descriptions of the horrid conditions that Cassie and the other inmates/prisoners suffer through. We are treated to drafty mildewed walls, filthy floors with rancid odors and waste that is barely cleaned, uncomfortable and filthy beds, rats and other vermin that inhabit some of the rooms, and the sounds of tortured sobbing and screaming. It is not a pleasant place to say the least, said Ms. Obvious.

Then there is the staff who make Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest look like Florence Nightingale. They beat and physically torture the patients and purposely use dehumanizing language to bring them down to their lowest basest level.

Dr. Gooding, the asylum's primary physician, sexually assaults the patients. One of the patients ends up pregnant and he arranges for her to have an illegal, painful, and potentially destructive abortion. Matron Harrow, the asylum director is adept at manipulating and mentally abusing her charges. She has a particular vendetta against Cassie because there is a personal link between her and Cassie's erstwhile husband. She saves the worst punishments for her.

The asylum patients are subjected to various torturous punishments disguised as treatment from the moment they enter. They are branded upon entry. If one steps out of line as Cassie does, they are sedated and deprived of food and water. They are subjected to torture disguised as treatment like dunking their heads in ice cold water, throwing them in solitary confinement, or strapping them to a chair and spinning it around to the point of disorienting them.

 There are also early forms of electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomies practiced by people who do not know what they are doing.All of these are means to break a patient's spirits and remove their free will. If they are constantly monitored, ridiculed, tortured, beaten, and dehumanized, they will consent to anything.

The dehumanization is revealed in various ways in the book. Some are left screaming. Others sit in fetal positions crying. Many just lie inert, no longer giving a damn. One woman whose child has died holds nothing but air in her hands under the delusion that her baby is with her. The sad part is if help and reform comes to the asylum, these women will be too far gone to appreciate it.

In some ways, the asylum is representative of the patriarchy. Women’s sanity is determined by husbands, male family members, judges, doctors, and attendants who make medical decisions for them. Women who help the system like matrons, nurses, and Conservative women can only seize power by siding with men and condemning women who don't fit the program. The results are the women are silenced, isolated, deprived of any agency, and left utterly dependent and complacent to whatever abuse they receive.

Just like other facets of the patriarchy, it takes women to challenge it and reveal what is wrong. While most of the female patients are left dependent and animalistic by the abuse, ironically it strengthens Cassie. She argues with staff when she or others are abused. She stands up for and defends those who can no longer speak or reason for themselves. She still recognizes their humanity. She covertly takes notes on her situation and tries to send hidden messages to authority figures so something legal and permanent can be done to stop it. She's not the only one.

The book is set around the same time that Nellie Bly wrote her famous Ten Days in a Mad House expose in which she faked mental illness symptoms to be institutionalized and was sent to Bellevue Hospital and later Blackwell Island. She took notes of the poor treatment and abuse and compiled them into her book which was such a sensation that reforms in mental institutions began almost immediately. Bly and her book even get a shout out in this book as Cassie and her fellow inmates now have someone speaking out for them and telling the truth. 

Cassie in the book and Bly in real life forced the public to see that the mentally ill, particularly mentally ill and institutionalized women are people with names, histories, and identities. They challenged the people in charge and on the outside to recognize their humanity and change and reform the institutions accordingly.

 

The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs; This Woman's Roads Lead From Rome to Etruria

 

The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs; This Woman's Roads Lead From Rome to Etruria 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I admit that as much as I am fascinated by Greco-Roman Mythology and am a huge History and Historical Fiction fan, I actually don't know a lot about Etruscans. I knew that they originated in Etruria and were the early settlers of what would become Rome. They were led by a city-state system. 

They obtained wealth and power through mineral resources, agriculture, and maritime trade with Greece and Carthage. They influenced much of Roman culture. They went into decline after the Etruscan kings were overthrown, conquered by Rome, and the Etruscans absorbed into the Roman Republic/Empire with their culture and language merging with Rome’s. 

Most of the time history treats the Etruscans as a footnote between the fall of Ancient Greece and the rise of Rome. However they were a people with a distinct history and culture. The Etruscans left their own mark in history and The Historical Fiction novel, The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs shows that.

In 406, Caecilia, a young Roman patrician/plebian woman, is arranged to marry Val Mastarna, an Etruscan nobleman as part of a treaty. At first she is unhappy and determined to remain true to her Roman ideals but slowly adjusts and feels accepted in this new world. 

She even comes to care about Masterna, his adopted son, Tarchon, her handmaid/friend Cytheris, and another friend, courtesan Erene. She is caught between the world that she came from and the one in which she loves.

This book is strong in setting and character. The Etruscan setting including time and place is awash with details. It uses the Historical Fiction trope of a newcomer from one society seeing another for the first time and contrasting the societies. It's predictable but in this case works very well.

Caecillia was born and raised in a Roman society where everyone knew their place and position. Caecillia comes from a plebian, lower class, father and patrician, ruling aristocratic mother which Roman society considers her half-caste. While moving from one status to another is possible, there are limitations to what a plebian or their children can be permitted to achieve.

Because of this outsider status, Caecillia’s father raised her beyond the expectations of a proper Roman girl. Instead of just learning basic reading, managing the household, and domestic home care, he raised her to discuss politics, philosophy, leadership, and to read dense literature. What a boy of her status would learn. She becomes quite an intelligent young woman but has nowhere to use it.

After her father dies, Caecillia loses the only encouragement that she has. In the home of her aunt and uncle is where she truly learns that her status as a Roman woman is nonexistent. She is told to wear pale colored linens and to practice homecare. She learns that her authority and status only ends within the household. 

She is to remain housebound while any future Roman husband would fight in battles, head city-states, and manage multiple lands. They can participate in ritualistic games and gatherings while she cannot even look upon them. Her upbringing from her aunt and uncle is rigid, conservative, and uncompromising. After a long time, she is conditioned to accept it.

The education that Caecillia’s father gave her disappears because of her lack of use for it, though it does give her a questioning personality and a strong will. After many years, Caecilia is conditioned to know and accept her place. The potential that she might have had disappears within the required Roman gender roles.

Caecilia is isolated by her stern parental figures only to have her cousin, Marcus, and a family friend, Drusius to confide in. If not for a strange change in circumstances, Caecilia might have remained an upper class desperate Roman housewife. Instead, she is arranged to marry Masterna without her consent. 

It is worth mentioning that this book is set long before Rome would become the Empire which spread throughout the western world. It was still several small unstructured and disorganized city-states that were constantly battling each other. Caecilia’s family lives on the outside of the central government closer to the Etruscans in nearby Veii than they do to other Roman city-states. They are constantly fighting so any form of peace is imperative. 

That is what is the center of Caecilia and Masterna’s arranged marriage. For the Roman and Etruscan city-states to form an alliance with and strengthen their bonds to maintain peace and potentially defend themselves from other larger city-states and enemies.

When Caecilia enters Veii, it’s like she is in a completely different world. Where she dressed in drab plain outfits, the Etruscans wear bright colors and elaborate jewelry. Where she was raised to suppress her emotions and desires as a stoic Roman wife, the Etruscans, even the women, openly discuss their frank sexuality and have very fluid relationships. 

The most impressive discovery that Caecilia learns is that Etruscan women have authority. Caecilia seeks advice from Masterna’s mother who is very politically influential. Even Erene, a courtesan, has advice to give on how to use her sexuality as a power move. Through these women, Caecilia gains self-actualization in her life and marriage which had been lacking in her Roman upbringing.

Because of this influence, Caecilia is able to gain power and prestige in her marriage. She learns that Masterna had a wife that had died, she allows him to grieve up to a point. When the time is right, she informs him that she is in front of him and while his late wife may still have a place in Masterna’s heart, in his home and in his bed Caecilia comes first. 

Caecillia also delays the conception of a child until she is certain that her place is secure in Veii and that she is accepted among the Etruscans. She is also concerned about Masterna’s past difficulties in producing children. She knows that the presence of a child, especially a son, might alter things in her husband’s favor. 

She takes medicine as contraceptives to delay parenthood as long as needed. Only when Caecilia is secure in her marriage and status,and Masterna’s virility, does the possibility of having a family come into play. 

Caecilia also brokers relationships inside Veii. She treats Erene and Cytheris like women with their own agenciesvand gains empathy with their struggles. She has an older sister-kid brother relationship with Tarchon to the point that she advises him to get out of a very unhealthy toxic relationship with Masterna’s priest brother.

Then there’s Masterna. Their relationship begins very antagonistically as she objects to being forced into marriage like a bargaining chip. He tries to dominate her with his masculinity and authority. She chips into his demeanor to discover the more vulnerable open side of him that grieves for the wife that he had while beginning to care for the wife that he is currently married to. His and Caecilia’s marriage evolves into an equal partnership and potentially a love match.

Caecilia changes in her marriage and becomes a stronger, more confident, more self-aware woman, potential leader, and proud Etruscan.

The Imperfect Hand of Fate by Wade Monk; The Balance of Evil by Kim Rozdeba, and Obsessed with Change: A Look at the Future From the Beginning by Cecil W. Lee

 The Imperfect Hand of Fate by Wade Monk; The Balance of Evil by Kim Rozdeba, and Obsessed with Change: A Look at the Future From the Beginning by Cecil W. Lee

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

The Imperfect Hand of Fate by Wade Monk 

This review is a summary. The longer version is on LitPick

Wade Monk crafts an effective Suspense Thriller with The Imperfect Hand of Fate. He uses the dual narratives to their fullest exploring an elaborate spy game from the point of view of someone in the exact center and someone on the outside but becomes greatly affected.

There are two stories being told in this novel, set primarily in 1960’s Georgia. The first is that of Haskell Hand, a teenager, who sees a mysterious man acting strangely at the library where he volunteers. Every week at the same time, the man reads copies of The Constitution, the local newspaper, and the same copies of the same books and leaves after a few seconds of searching. Haskell’s curiosity about the man, dubbed Mr. Constitution, is a relief from Haskell's personal stress and boredom with small town life in De Soto, Georgia. 

The second story is that of Daryl Timmons, the aforementioned Mr. Constitution, a former American GI who was imprisoned by the Soviets during his time in the Korean War. He is forced to spy against his country for the safety of his wife and daughter. The spy games are greatly detailed as he is surrounded by betrayal and dividing loyalties.

In many ways, Haskell and Daryl are foils for each other. They are at different stages in life as a teenager and adult respectively but feel trapped by circumstances. Daryl’s trap however is a literal one while Haskell's is figurative. Haskell is trapped by poverty. He is the subject of derision because of a prank that he caused. Financial constraints keep him from pursuing higher education.

He also has familial pressure. His mother died and he doesn't get along with the surviving family members particularly his disabled brother, Elliot. His prank appears not to be a cry for attention but a cry from a boy who is under pressure and is on the verge of cracking. The Mystery of Mr. Constitution distracts him because it requires an answer.

Daryl is someone that is also surrounded by physical and psychological stress. He was graphically tortured during the Korean War. He is retrained to be a double agent in a Soviet program imitating a typical American town and whose agents assume American identities to infiltrate the United States. 

Daryl marries in Russia and fathers a daughter. His handlers force him to return to his home country as a spy and saboteur. He has become embittered and only cares about his family’s safety. He will betray his country to keep his family safe. 

Haskell and Daryl's stories parallel in many ways but unfortunately, never fully connect. However, they are connected thematically as two men trapped in circumstances beyond their control and are trying to find some sense in a world that has deprived them of their free will and ability to fully change those circumstances.

Balance of Evil by Kim Rozdeba

This review is a summary. The longer version is on Reader Views.

Kim Rozdeba’s novel Balance of Evil is a compelling political thriller that combines the intricate details of a wide-spread conspiracy and the intimate poignancy of a family drama.

Retired businessman Scott Barton stumbles upon a USB flash drive with contents that reveal a sophisticated and secret weapons program between the USA and Russia for decades called FIST. After opening it, Scott and his wife, Colleen, are followed by sinister figures in black helicopters and unmarked cars. 

Scott is naturally terrified of this situation of going from mild mannered executive to fugitive on the run from government agents trying to kill him. He is frightened but confused, particularly about his wife who seems to know more about this situation than she is letting on.

The way the FIST conspiracy is depicted makes for very engaging reading. Scott's discovery of the flash drive seems arbitrary but once we are given the full situation, it makes more sense. Scott, his family, and their allies are aware that they are laser focused mostly on one specific organization and one leader. This organization is simply one part of the decades of hidden agenda, secrets, underhanded deals, and tyranny. Getting rid of one leader can only do so much.

By far the most heartfelt aspect of the book is the family drama that is equal to and sometimes more prominent to the conspiracy aspects. Scott is a naive noob thrown into an unknown world but surprisingly adapts well to it. This experience opens Scott’s eyes towards Colleen who is a seasoned pro at espionage situations. Scott is at first confused about his wife's separate life and upset by her deception in covering it. But as he is pulled further into her world, he begins to admire the strength and resilience that she had in living within it. It makes him love her even more.

Scott and Colleen are forced to recognize their real selves that are behind the disguises of a normal exterior life and live solely within the reality of a duplicitous interior life. Questions of whether the family unit can remain intact under these discoveries and the subsequent actions abound. 

Obsession With Change: A Look at the Future From The Beginning by Cecil W. Lee

Cecil W. Lee’s short Science Fiction novel/coffee table book, Obsession With Change: A Look at the Future From the Beginning effectively combines both AI and the human element. Lee collaborated with an AI entity named Lahneer to write the book and the illustrations are human originated by Lee who gave instructions to AI. The combination of styles gives a striking combination of human and AI creativity. 

The book is actually a series of short concepts, stories, and fictionalized interviews with figures from the future talking about their daily lives and conflicts. Each chapter also features illustrations that explore the concepts within the text. 

The book describes character’s experiences with futuristic body art, CRISPR genetic engineering, holographic sex, robot artists and musicians, body modifications, AI performed surgery, augmentation, interstellar travel, cybernetic replacements, cryopreservation, neuroplasticity, synthetic mind, and autonomy protocol. 

The book gives short accounts of characters living in the future and how they experience this world around them. Among them are Elara Masaki who goes through a CRISPR procedure to have a pair of wings inserted on her back, KX-91 a robot artist who is gaining attention from the critics, and Solar Callaway a hoverboard champion who is drafted into receiving cyberbiotic augmentation and going on an interstellar mission to explore a distant planet. 

Unlike many anthologies, it’s really difficult to discern which I would consider favorites in this book. These aren’t completed short stories so much as they are snippets or sketches of what could potentially be larger stories in one continuous shared universe. 

The book is intriguing both in text and images. The text being told through a series of articles, interviews, and short essays gives the work a meta style and makes one feel that they are not reading a fictional work but perhaps a dry fact based account from the year 2091 catching Readers up to the latest news. In its own way, that approach can be immersive. 

These are all potentially interesting ideas and it would be nice if Lee explored them further in longer stories and novels. The snippets only offer a glimpse of this futuristic world that is so distant chronologically but at the time seems so familiar because we are in the early stages.

Perhaps we can get more insight into why Elara wants a pair of wings, what Solar experiences in his travels, and who influences and inspires KX-91’s art.

The illustrations are AI style and while many shun AI art for very good reason, this is a book where it kind of works. Since the writing style acts like it is set in the future, there is no reason to assume the illustrations wouldn’t be either. KX-91’s story in particular benefits from this as we see the art produced by a futuristic fictional robot but actually created by a present AI program and originated by a human author. They are both eerie with that uncanny valley feel that modern AI art produces but also evocative in capturing emotions from a being that shouldn't have any.

Choppiness on High Seas by Arvid Wadhera; One Man's Life, Loves, and Loss

 

Choppiness on High Seas by Arvid Wadhera; One Man's Life, Loves, and Loss

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Arvid Wadhera’s novel Choppiness on High Seas tells the complex story of a man's life, from an impoverished childhood, to financial success, to a long marriage, business and personal relationships, parenthood, grandparenthood, and above all the various losses in his life as he comes to terms with the deaths of others. It’s an interesting trajectory even if the protagonist is not always the most interesting aspect of the book.

Matthew Stephens was born in poverty to Gail, a single mother and housekeeper to a wealthy family. He was raised during WWII where he became an evacuee and Gail cleaned hospitals. 

The poverty, war years, and separation gave the mother and son an unbreakable bond that lasts long after death. When Matthew is in a moral or emotional crossroads, he imagines Gail’s ghost giving him common sense advice and sometimes chastising him as though he were still a small child. 

This difficult upbringing taught Matthew much about resilience and loyalty. These traits carry him through the struggles that he experiences later in life. 

This resilience implements itself into his rise in status as he takes an apprenticeship for a shipping company. He then ascends to the point that he eventually becomes not only a shipping magnate, but the wealthiest man in Britain. 

His perseverance is found in his work style of “just getting on with it.” He does his work, does extra, collects his earnings, cultivates friendships, gets promoted. He faces his career trajectory with stoicism, calm under pressure, a strong sense for business, and a practical rational mind.

 As a teen, Matthew’s loyalty is manifested as he and his mother fight off a violent rapist and he takes care of her during the aftermath while Gail’s health takes a serious turn. 

The loyalty also occurs during his marriage to Gwendolyn and the birth of his daughter, Sally. He clearly loves his wife and is very restrained with his emotions towards her. She is the more emotional type and able to bring out a tender more romantic side in him. 

Matthew's fidelity is so great that when there is a moment where he meets an attractive brilliant client, Kung Ling, the Reader anticipates an extramarital affair but is pleasantly relieved to find that is not the case. He merges with her in business and nothing else. Gwendolyn is the real love of his life and this incident proves it.

 It’s not the most interesting subplot because of the resolution but it does show that Matthew has standards and loves his wife. It also is a credit to Kung Ling that Matthew is able to look beyond her attractiveness and see an intelligent and worthy business partner. 

Matthew and Gwendolyn’s union is tested when Gwendolyn faces a health crisis and Matthew remains by her side. There are plenty of moments where one is at their most vulnerable and in tears with the other providing a steady comfort. 

Matthew is also supportive of Sally’s decisions. She forgoes her privileged wealthy upbringing to become a nurse in a lower income area. Even though he worked hard to provide Sally with a lifestyle different from the one in which he grew up, he understands her need to make her own way in the world.

Matthew also respects Sally's decision during an unexpected pregnancy to raise the child herself as a single mother. No doubt, Matthew is reminded of his own feisty mum and sees a lot of Gail in her granddaughter. At least Sally won't be completely alone and will have a grandmum and granddad to help her look after the little one.

Traits such as resilience, stoicism, loyalty make Matthew a great guy, but they don’t make him the most compelling protagonist. This is a novel where a lot of dramatic things happen that we don’t see through the eyes of those who go through them. Instead it is told through Matthew’s limited third person.

Some of the experiences like Gwen’s illness affect him but it's all viewed with detachment from someone who just gets on with it and is outside of direct impact with the story. The other characters are the ones who get sick, get arrested, are abandoned by lovers, go bankrupt, or are faced with their immortality. At times, he comes across as a vanilla protagonist chronicling other people’s stories and how they affect him but not how they personally experience them.

 It would be more compelling to experience those things through the characters that are directly involved and not just Matthew. It would be interesting to get Gail’s backstory or experience Gwendolyn's illness from her perspective. Perhaps Sally’s work as a nurse could be much more fleshed out. We could find out about Kung Ling’s life as a woman in a man's world of big business. 

Perhaps Wadhera wanted to create the book as a one-person narrative instead of an ensemble. Perhaps Matthew was the one he felt emotionally close to or was his Author Avatar. Matthew's perspective is fine particularly during a subplot when he has to weigh his loyalty to a friend who is charged with child molestation and whether his resilience is a defense mechanism for facing tough times or a coward’s means of avoiding them.

However, there are long stretches where the important life or death struggles are right outside our peripheral view. We need a more interesting narrator to experience them himself or the opportunity for other characters tell their own stories.

Carrying On by Kali Desautels; She is Woman, Hear Her Roar and See Her Write

 

Carrying On by Kali Desautels; She is Woman, Hear Her Roar and See Her Write 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers:In this day and age when women’s rights are being challenged and some like, reproductive choice and the ability to vote under married names, are being removed, it is important to remember how women in the past lived. How they struggled to make their voices heard and fought for those rights. These accounts remind us of what we didn’t have, what we won, and what we could lose. Carrying On by Kali Desautels is the type of novel that does just that

Carrying On is a sharp and brilliant character driven Historical Fiction novel about Peggy Brennan, a woman embarking on a journalism career in the mid-1960’s. Peggy is different from her more traditional mother and sisters. They have all been married and expect Peggy to do the same, but she has other ideas. The journalism career that they believe is only a hold over until marriage is Peggy’s ticket for living a professional self-actualized life. If a woman has to choose marriage or a career, she is going for the latter while the other women in her family went for the former. 

The book explores the changes that women encountered during the volatile 60’s. The traditional roles of a house, husband, and children no longer applied and were not looked upon as the sole aspirations for women. Books like Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and noted events like the release of the Pill are referenced. They are also shown in how this time affected people personally.

One of Peggy’s sisters leaves her closeted husband and moves to San Francisco. Another holds to her values, but also has serious questions about her life. Peggy also asks her mother if she is satisfied with her life and how things turned out. This is a conversation that would never have occurred to her if she wasn’t surrounded by these questions and the decisions that many women of her generation took to answer them.

Peggy herself is surrounded by these changes in her own way. Her roommates struggle with their jobs, relationships, and expectations. At work, she is dismissed for writing important news articles and is worried that she is only going to write the so-called “women’s articles” about fashion, cooking, and childcare. Her contributions are disregarded because the men don’t take her seriously and the women think that she’s acting above her station. Her progressive views are demeaned and dismissed. 

Her new editor, John Grant however is one of the few men that are actually receptive to the idea of change. When he wants to create a woman's section, he doesn't want it to be the fluffy soft news that readers and advertisers expect. He puts Peggy in charge of it because he wants to focus on real news that affects women. News like politics, war, laws, education, work, the various movements, and changes. 

 This egalitarian view interests Peggy as much as John’s genuine interest in her work and opinions. Even though Peggy questions the division between marriage and career, she weighs whether it's possible for a woman to have both. Can she truly have it all with a man who is accepting of that possibility? 

This is a relationship of mutual respect and friendship. It's interesting that I am reading this book at the same time as The Girl From Melodia which also deals with a romance between two people in a similar field. However, The Girl From Melodia explores the concept of the Artist’s Muse and how the Artist is so self-involved in their own art and voice that they deprive the Muse of theirs. Carrying On is the opposite. Someone who is not threatened by their intended’s voice and actively encourages it making their relationship an equal partnership. 

As Peggy conducts interviews and leads focus groups, she sees women of different ages, statuses, political views, goals, and outlooks. They do have one thing in common. They are glad that someone is taking their voices and opinions seriously and they are being shared on a wider scale.

That is what the various feminist movements do. Take seriously the current concerns of women and work to improve them. Whether it's the right to vote, having educational opportunities, to have control over their own bodies, to earn the same amount as men, to stop being assaulted and harassed, or to do away with the patriarchal assumptions of men and women. 

Sure the names change, the specific causes might vary, and the means of sharing information and rebelling fit the era but they all boil down to one obvious function. Anyone who identifies as female fighting for the freedom of agency and choice over their own lives and futures.

The Girl From Melodia by Jonathan Toussaint; The Toxic Musician and The Troubled Muse

 

The Girl From Melodia by Jonathan Toussaint; The Toxic Musician and The Troubled Muse

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: The relationship between an artist and their muse is one that has been discussed, studied, analyzed, argued about both for and against, critiqued, defended, parodied, and recognized. The Artist, usually a man but these days any gender will do, is a tortured soul driven by emotion and is inspired by The Muse, often a woman but again that has changed, who is the source of their art and possibly the breadwinner while they go through their artistic funk. The model for the portrait. The name in the catchy rock song. The disguised protagonist or love interest of the novel. The unattainable unrequited love of the romance film. Despite being named for the Greek goddesses who were the sources of the arts themselves, oftentimes the modern Muse takes a secondary role in creation. 

Think Camille Claudel for Auguste Rodin, Gala for Salvador Dali, Aline Bernstein for Thomas Wolfe, Leila Waddell for Alesteir Crowley, Yoko Ono for John Lennon, Patti “Layla” Boyd for George Harrison and Eric Clapton, Charlotte Gainsborough for Lars Von Trier, and Uma Thurman for Quentin Tarantino. While many muses have had careers of their own, the stereotypical assumption towards them is that the Muses are just required to shut up, stand there, passively inspire, and not actively create their own art. Often if the Artist is a Narcissist, they will agree with that assumption. That is what is at play with Johnathan Toussaint’s novel, The Girl From Melodia.

 The Girl from Melodia is like a folk song. It's about two people who are looking for their authentic voices and are consumed by a passionate love, a love that ends badly. It speaks about truth, love, art, obsession, and unhappiness all of the things that make a perfect tragic love song, but a very crappy real life incompatible relationship.

Martyn Lockhart is the son of famed English folk singer/songwriter, John Lockhart. He is proud of his family legacy and his father’s reputation but he also wants to come out of his father’s shadow and be known as his own person. In 1992, Martyn encountered Francoise, a French woman at the Tulle Music Festival. To Martyn, the Artist, Francoise is the Muse. She inspires him and the two begin a very passionate romantic love affair that continues when returning to Martyn’s native England. Unfortunately just as quickly as the romance and creativity are set afire, they fizzle out when the reality of commitment, artistic temperament, financial and practical woes, and professional and personal insecurity set in.

It cannot be overstated how unhealthy this relationship is. Martyn is the archetypal Artiste. He is creative, passionate, reckless, iconoclastic, argumentative, self-absorbed, and Narcissistic. Everything is material for his music. His first encounter with Francoise leads him to his latest song and concept album, The Girl From Melodia. 

Melodia is a fictional country that Martyn created as a child that he could mentally retreat to in his imagination when things got tough for him. In many ways, Martyn never left that fantasy and still remains in Melodia even as his real world falls apart around him.

He possesses a romantic ideal of Francoise at first. She inspires him with her looks, carefree attitude, lively spirit, and vulnerability. Like him, she is also a passionate writer particularly in her journal which she describes the headlong sexual and romantic emotions of being near each other and the intellect of two creatives sharing ideas. She is also a musician and songwriter and just as she inspires him, Martyn inspires her.

These are the days of the early lyrics and first juvenilia poems which describe the youthful innocence of plunging feet first without thinking or caring about what comes next. Francoise fills that Melodia fantasy so well that Martyn tries to remain there. He wants to hold Francoise to the fantasy world and image that he created. But he considers Melodia and Francoise as his works and there is only room for one writer and artist in that fantasy.

That all changes when they move to England and their real natures, especially Martyn’s, emerges. Because just like Martyn has all of the positive aspects of an artist like creativity and passion, he also has many of the negative aspects. He is the kind of guy who diss tracks like “You’re So Vain,” “You Oughta Know,” or most of Taylor Swift’s catalog were written about.

Martyn is the type of guy who excites, fascinates, and blinds one with his talent, charm, looks, and artistic fire at first. Then his true nature is revealed to be controlling, absent, egocentric, jealous, volatile, immature, and self-indulgent. Suddenly, his love interest is left with a broken heart, a diminished soul, and a cynical outlook on love to fill at least hundreds of discographies.

One of the ways the narcissism is manifested is when Martyn suffers through writer’s block. As his creative well runs dry, Francoise is activated. She writes, rehearses, and performs. There are even hints of a record deal which makes Martyn furious. 

It is very reminiscent of stories like A Star is Born, which is a film that I thoroughly despise no matter the adaptation for reasons that I won’t go into, despite the original screenplay being written by Dorothy Parker, one of my favorite writers. Martyn feels that he is supposed to be the creative one, the musician, the poet and Francoise is the creation, the inspiration, the model. He can’t live with his partner’s success if it is at the expense of his own and doesn’t have the enlightened foresight to take pride in it. 

To Martyn, the muse is not supposed to drink from the artistic poetic well. She is supposed to guide him to the well and provide him with a cup. He was once interested in her talent when it was hers, but now that’s in direct competition of his own, he sees it as a threat. He behaves irresponsibly, withdraws from Francoise, belittles her, and in one of the worst chapters destroys her demo recordings that she worked hard on for months.

Her songs and journal entries show that she is just as driven, just as passionate, and cares about her music just as much as he does. She shapes Melodia into her own fantasy and Martyn doesn’t want to share it.  

To his credit, I suppose Martyn recognizes these attributes in himself. In the prologue, as he goes over his relationship with others, particularly Francoise, he realizes that he is to blame. He compares himself to a vampire sucking on Francoise’ energy and creativity to survive.

 The novel reveals that she wasn’t the only one who suffered from his egotism and his previous partnership with a former friend produced violent results because of Martyn’s conceit and insecurities. Looking back with regret and harshly obtained wisdom, he comments in the narration with lines like “This still haunts me,” and “I know that I shouldn’t have done this, but..” He knows that he screwed up so has some humility and remorse over it.

Some of those negative attributes can be attributed to his upbringing by his folksinger father, John. John also possessed a similar artistic temperament, penchant for violent behavior, and self-destructive coping mechanisms. Those mechanisms led to the decline of his relationship with Martyn’s mother. 

Martyn saw the creative sparks and emotional decline from the front row. But he only connects to his father through their music. He wanted to achieve the artistic, professional, critical acclaim, and audience adulation that his father had. Unfortunately, he got that and everything that came with it: the temper, the addiction, the mistreatment of partners and didn’t realize it until it was too late.

One could say that Martyn’s regret is more self-indulgence and that he hasn’t truly repented. That may be true. He might find another toxic relationship to inspire then anger him. But he may also see this as a wake up call and finally gain the maturity to improve not only his life but his music as well.