Ex and The City by Sally Clements; Fluffy Rom Com With Some Edges

 

Ex and The City by Sally Clements; Fluffy Rom Com With Some Edges 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Ex and The City by Sally Clements seems like a fluffy light Second Chance Rom Com/Chick Lit about ex spouses working together on a project. However if you look beyond the formula, there are some deeper edges about toxic relationships, the pressures of fame, and the complexities of balancing a public persona with a private life.

Country singer Stacy Gold needs a new opportunity to branch out and refocus after her career goes into decline. That's where her ex husband, Adam Logan comes in. He is the CEO of Plaxair, an animated production company. His latest film features a singing squirrel and unfortunately his first choice is caught in a scandal so who can he call to fill the role? Why who else but his ex-wife Stacy of course.

There is enough sugar and sweetness in this book to spare but the darker edges keep it from being too mawkish and cloying. It plays with and slightly stretches the formula while sticking to it.

It has the usual Second Chance Romance tropes, so present that even someone like me who hasn't read a lot of them can identify them. There are the dates, intimate conversations, and sexual by play before they completely reconcile. Stacy and Adam go through fights and misunderstanding but clearly still care about each other. 

Another trope explored is the cute endearing couple brought together by outside circumstances, in this case making a movie. It is actually an interesting look at the making of an animated film. Adam and his colleagues watch different shows and movies to match a potential voice to Bibi Squirrel, their film’s protagonist. 

They weigh options as they look for a famous name that will draw in audiences, does not bring objectionable controversy (like Stacy’s predecessor did), and also to find someone who has the personality, voice, and demeanor to play an ingenue squirrel. There are endless voice over sessions where Stacy works alone in a studio and has to keep her energy and Bibi’s character going as she reads the script. 

The behind the scenes details of making an animated film sprinkle throughout the book. For example, Stacy records Bibi’s voice as computer animators model Bibi’s facial expressions and body movements around her. Animation fans might enjoy this inside look at the animation process wrapped inside a Second Chance Romance.

Other tropes in this book are misunderstandings and other people that influenced Adam and Stacy’s breakup. After all, if there were actual potentially toxic reasons like infidelity, addiction, abuse, and so on we would not be rooting for these two kids to get back together. 

In this case most of the break up is engineered by Stacy’s unscrupulous manager, Lester. He isolated Stacy by causing her to doubt Adam's intentions to keep her under his management. Lester is a particularly sinister addition to what is usually a light hearted fluffy subgenre in Romance. He also is who turns the book into a much darker, more layered narrative than is expected. 

He has all of the symptoms of being an abuser particularly with how he arranged Stacy and Lester's divorce. He withholds money and information from her. He love bomb her after she is rejected by her birth parents. He makes her think that he is the only trustworthy person in her life.

 Unfortunately, Stacy is so susceptible to his manipulations that she can't completely cut off from Lester even when she finds out about his duplicity. She considers him a father figure to her and integral to the beginning of her career. It's a toxic relationship that she still can't walk away from personally even when she has to professionally.

In fact within the romance, there is an ongoing theme of Adam and Stacy moving forward creatively. Adam runs his own animation company so he and his staff can make movies that they care about and have a final say in the production. It's clear that he sees animation beyond just a children's medium but a legitimate work of art that appeals to all ages. 

Stacy also has ideas about moving forward in her career. Lester wants her to perform her older songs and look like the girl from her first album. But she writes deeper, more personal songs and matures in appearance. She has grown in age and experience and wants to express that. If she can't do it with Lester, then she intends to do it by herself. Bibi and Adam provide that first step. 

Ex and The City can fall into formula but it also shows how people can change themselves by separating from toxic influences and exploring their professional creativity to form a real partnership.

Samhain by Nuith Lachesis, Seed of Fear by Patrick Seaman, A Woman Between Two Worlds by Kim Brantley

Samhain: Origins, Lore, Ancestor Traditions, and Flexible Wiccan Rituals for Solitary Practice, Couples, Families, and Covens by Nuith Lachesis

Samhain is an important holiday for Wiccans. It marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the winter in the Gaelic harvest calendar. Bonfires play a huge role for practical reasons like protection, gathering, and driving off pests and symbolic reasons like purification and marking the turning of the year. The day carried strong associations with the dead and ancestors. It’s sometimes referred to as a thinning veil. Divination customs are also traditions in modern harvests and Halloween traditions. This book explores the various customs and traditions associated with the holiday including for various types of Wiccans. 

The chapters include “History and Origin,” “Symbolism and Correspondence,” “Planning Your Celebration,” “The Solitary Flame: Rituals for Solitary Practice,” “Two Flames: Rituals for Couples,” “The Family Hearth: Rituals for Families,” “The Circle’s Fire: Rituals for Covens,”and  “Until The Wheel Turns Again.”

One of the most intriguing facets of this book is the emphasis on different Wiccan rituals for solitaries, couples, families, and covens. To do this author Nuith Lachesis mentions specific people who represent those types: Rowan, a Solitary Wiccan who lives in an urban apartment, so has access to only a limited amount of tools to practice her craft, Briar, a Solitary Wiccan with 20 years of experience, Dana and Marlowe, a couple who practice Wicca together, The Hart Family, parents Sam and Jordan and their three children Avery, Quinn, and Wren who represent the Fam-Trad tradition of passing Wiccan rituals across generations, and The Ashgrove Circle, a coven of eight to ten members who engage in elaborate ceremonies. These examples personalize the various rituals and practices that Wiccans can take to honor the holiday. 

For example “The Solitary Flame” chapter includes “Ancestor Altar Ritual,” “First Solitary Samhain Ritual,” “The Dumb Supper,” “Divination Night,” “A Releasing Ritual,” “Veil-Walking Meditation,” “Apartment Friendly Full Celebration,” and the “Full Solitary Rite.” 

 

Seed of Fear: A Biotech Conspiracy Thriller (The Quiet Harvest Series) by Patrick Seaman

Seed of Fear is a tense and emotion driven thriller about a couple separated by the manipulations of others.

DEA Special Agent Sean McCreary is the only survivor of an ambush that left the rest of his team dead or languishing in the hospital. He is filled with Post Trauma and Survivor's Guilt but he has another more personal struggle to deal with. His girlfriend, Grace Liang, a food engineer, has gone missing. Unbeknownst to her, she created a specific pathway design that other more nefarious government representatives and cartels want to get their hands on. Grace tries to survive her captivity while Alec tries to find her while uncovering the ambush and the reasons behind it.

This book has all of the qualities of an effective thriller. It has nail biting action, various methods of torture, clandestine meetings, betrayals on top of betrayals, and physical, emotional, and mental trauma than a real person can possibly take but it’s all in a day’s work for the protagonists. But what really sells it is the emotional journeys that Alec and Grace are forced to take.

Alec’s PTSD from the ambush is very real. There are some moments where he encounters his former teammates and their family members. He recognizes the cost of living a life on the edge for a government that could thank you for your service one minute and then pretend like you never existed in the first place. In some of the worst moments, he experiences betrayal when he learns that instead of helping him avenge their deaths, his superiors and colleagues would rather hush the whole thing up.

Grace also experiences betrayal as well though a more personal kind. She learns that one of her kidnappers is someone that she knows and once trusted. Her moments with this abductor are some of the emotional highlights as she simultaneously hates their actions and misses the relationship that they used to have. 

 A Woman Between Two Worlds by Kim Brantley 

This is a Science Fiction novel about discovering one’s inner power, transformation, rebuilding one’s life after tragedy, self-awareness, searching for and finding a higher purpose.

World governments have been given a message: In 30 days aliens, called the Velari, will arrive and in the meantime they have to prepare humanity for their arrival. After the transmission, the DNA of various Earthlings change revealing a hidden alien ancestry and the ability to communicate telepathically with the Velari.

One of those humans is Cassandra, a divorcee who is embarking on a second happier but unfulfilling marriage. She is selected along with the others to be an ambassador to the Velari and has to spend a lot of time with them. While among them, she has to figure out who she is, who she loves, and what she wants to do with her new abilities.

A Woman Between Two Worlds is a novel about transforming one’s body, mind, spirit, and purpose in life. Those who have been transformed, called Pathfinders, not only communicate with the Velari but share memories, emotions, thoughts, memories, and experiences. This bond changes them physically, mentally, and emotionally so they obtain higher consciousness and enlightenment. It's an experience that is both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time.

Kim Brantley explores the various aspects from the people going through the changes and those around them. The Pathfinders themselves experience this amazing transformation where they have the mindset of otherworldly beings but are still in the bodies of humans. They might have visions of other worlds but still have to eat, sleep, and live around people. 

This division of ethereal and human can be draining and create a schism within. Cassandra for example shares thoughts and emotions with others, but she worries about how her actions affect those around her. 

Cassandra is already anxious from her Earth troubles. She is shattered by the end of her marriage and still in that phase where she both loves and hates her ex. She floats along in her life feeling detached until the transformation happens.

The transformation turns her into someone more empathetic, compassionate, and intuitive. The visions of the Velari and their home world help her and the other Pathfinders search for ways to save their world. Far from being the drifting troubled woman preoccupied with her own struggles, she finds purpose and meaning in her life.

However no transformation comes without confusion or pain. Cassandra is filled with questions. How does being an alien ambassador change her relationship with her ex? Do her neighbors see an enlightened being, a cult member, or a traitor to her species? Do they want to heed her advice, burn her at the stake, or do both? Becoming a Pathfinder is an illuminating but anxiety inducing experience.

Earthlings around Cassandra and the other Pathfinders are fascinated but also fearful of the changes in their friends and family. Some come to them for advice or want to take part in the new world that they are creating. Others want to exploit them for their own gain. Others fear and want to study them, quarantine them, or execute them out of concerns that they will destroy the planet. 

The Velari gives Earth the answers to their problems in human form but the people have to set prejudice and fear aside and trust the human vessels to listen to them. 

Angel: Letters of Esther (The Romans Series Book 2) by C.L. Rosario; Female Centered Companion Book to Bromantic Contemporary Fantasy

Angel: Letters of Esther (The Romans Series Book 2) by C.L. Rosario; Female Centered Companion Book to Bromantic Contemporary Fantasy 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: C.L. Rosario’s previous book, And Then They Fell in Rome was a Magical Realism Contemporary Fantasy novel about a circle of male friends called The Troubadours who receive word from a mysterious stranger known only as La Bruja (“The Witch” or “The Stranger “) who tells them that they need to help Jean Luis Larose, one of their own, to find love before he dies. What followed was a lovely thought provoking meditative look at fate, synchronicity, coincidence, magic, romance, true love, and the importance of maintaining a good friendship. It was an excellent book that captured the male group of friends. I would describe it as not just a Romance novel but a Bromance novel.

Well if one focuses only on one party in a Romance novel, they are really telling only half of the story. In And Then They Fell in Rome, we are given insights about many of the female characters and are given as much depth and agency as their male counterparts so they aren't just shallow love interests. However, they are largely seen from the perspective of the male characters so compared to them, they are cyphers. Well written cyphers but cyphers none the less.

Rosario's next book, Angel: Letters of Esther more than makes up for that lack. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a sequel so much as it is a companion piece. It takes the same story and gives a largely female perspective. It focuses mostly on Esther Consuelos, Jan Luis’ potential love interest. We also get some solid insights into La Bruja who now has a name, Ariel, and some potential clues to her real identity.

This volume also provides a more streamlined narration that is easier to follow. It mostly focuses on Jan Luis and gives the rest of The Troubadours smaller, more supporting roles. It loses the complexity of the previous novel but since Jan Luis is the central Troubadour in both books, it makes sense that his story would wrap up in this volume.

Jan Luis and Esther meet at the Miami Grand Prix. The two click but a strange discovery about a shared coincidence from their paths suggest that there are higher powers at work bringing them together. An eventful weekend causes the couple to weigh their passions, faith, goals, intimacy, desires, standards, and the division between body, heart, and soul to find out what they really want in life and if they are compatible.

Both Jan Luis and Esther come across as fully developed characters. Since Jan Luis is the sole major Troubadour in this book, we are mostly exposed to his life and views. Technically, there isn't anything entirely new to Jan Luis that we didn't know before from his past. Even the strange previous connection between the two lovers was revealed in the previous book. We are familiar with Jan Luis’s past. This book is more interested in his present. 

As we remember in the previous book, he had yet to be paired off though his friends were. This book shows him moving from a hard edged cynic thinking that he is better off alone to a romantic who is open to the possibility of letting love into his life. It is a character trajectory that transforms him into the person that La Bruja and the Troubadours envisioned that he would become.

Jan Luis's strongest moments occur when he is alone and away from his initial peer group of The Troubadours. Since they are moved to the side and reduced to supporting characters, this book deals with what happens when friendships recede and characters grow up and move on.

The previous book was the be all and end all of their friendship at times even eclipsing their romantic relationships. It reveals the universal truth that sometimes friendships are more important than romance. This book shows the opposite.

 What happens when friends let other people and situations in their lives and phase out the original group. They don't do this out of meanness or because of fights but because of different circumstances, busy schedules, more people and commitments, and maturity. They have entered lives that are harder, more complicated, and busier. Sometimes early relationships fall away.

The Troubadours’s bond is still close and they still have some great reunions but they have evolved. Jan Luis can't rely on them as much as he used to. He spends most of his time in Rome with a new group of friends and has other interests, other goals, and other problems that have moved him far from his honorary brothers. It's a time where he has to figure out who he is without any help from his old friends.

 As I mentioned this is practically the female counterpart to And Then They Fell in Rome and it shows. Esther is by far the most developed character. She has many different facets to her character that reveals her complexities and depth.

She is a publicist for Formula One so she carries a very high class, fast living, public, athletic and energetic presence on the job. The kind that doesn't mind frequent travel and hobnobbing with classy elite individuals watching the races as well as managing the information on drivers and crews who work at them. It also breaks quite a few barriers to read about a woman involved in the still mostly male dominated world of auto racing. Her strong willed tough personality reveals herself as a woman who will not accept being sidelined or mansplained so of course she would excel in such a world.

There are also softer edges to Esther's character largely through her spiritual beliefs and questions about higher concepts. She is religious and considers herself as a “Christian but not that kind of Christian.” She is very accepting towards people and views that her religion is highly critical of. She uses it instead to aspire herself to live a decent charitable kind life. 

However, she has high standards mostly towards herself. She has specific views about sexuality, intimacy, love, and marriage. They are resolute but she is wavering. There are many times when Esther’s emotions and desires take over and she questions whether she has the views because of her faith in Christian doctrine or fear of being in a relationship. Is she putting off close relationships for her God or herself?

One of the most intriguing subplots is when Esther reunites with an ex. The potential for a rekindled romance is there even though she still loves Jan Luis and he is involved with a friend of hers. But more importantly than the romantic aspects are the deep conversations between them over quantum physics and higher consciousness. They open Esther to other possibilities and move her faith forward from the binary either or interpretation that she previously held. 

These conversations also bring awareness of the magical realism that surrounds the narrative. Through most of the book, the magical realism is more subdued as compared to its predecessor. Mostly it's reduced to revelations about what happened in the previous book and conversations about those topics. These conversations offer different theories about fate, coincidence, predestiny, and synchronicity. 

This volume posts different theories and analysis without fully committing to one or the other. The characters live in a potentially fantastic world and this book provides a potential key for them to understand it. It's almost like the first book showed the magic while the second book gives the realism, the answers to the previous book’s questions.

The magic returns as Ariel does to the narration. Now she has a name and a private life of people who know her and assist her in her endeavors. Before, there were possibilities that she didn't exist or wasn't even human. Now we know more about her and while she is still enigmatic and ethereal, she is more well rounded and more human in personality (though maybe not in reality).

There is an intriguing reveal about Ariel and a motivation over why it was so important for Jan Luis to fall in love. It won't be spoiled here and while somewhat arbitrary at first, in hindsight both books succinctly led to this twist. It becomes not a shocking twist but a natural resolution to two books where circumstances are never coincidence, where people are fated to meet in the right place, time, and right moment, where Higher Powers are watching and give signals for those who observe and listen, and where magic and realism exist side by side. Just like two lovers, they are destined to be together.

 

The Girl Who Never Left by Alison Stuart; More Character and Less Mystery

 

The Girl Who Never Left by Alison Stuart; More Character and Less Mystery 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Despite the marketing towards The Girl Who Never Left by Alison Stuart focuses on a mystery, the mystery is probably the least important aspect of it. Instead it is the character development of a woman exploring a new life after the death of her husband.

Helen Morrow’s husband Charlie is killed in The Great War/WWI. Instead of returning to her native Australia, she moves into her late husband's family estate, Holdston. Helen befriends her mother in law, Evelyn and Paul, Charlie's cousin who suffers from his own war ghosts. Helen finds an old diary written by an ancestor of Paul and Charlie's depicting an unhappy marriage and some dark secrets. Helen and Paul investigate the diary's revelations as they fall in love and deal with their own traumas.

By far the most fascinating aspects of the book are Helen and Paul’s post-war struggles. It's hard to live in the present when the past is so brutal and violent.

Helen is forced to live her life in a new place surrounded by strangers. She is far from Australia and constantly feels like she is being judged. She feels out of place in her late husband's wealthy home. The formidable Lady Evelyn, Charlie's mother, hovers between domineering matriarch and welcoming grandmotherly type. Helen isn't sure whether she is welcome or not.

She makes some good friends though. Servants Sarah and Sam Pollard provide steady sources of comfort and understanding for the bereaved widow. She befriends Tony, a titled childhood friend of Charlies’, who develops an attraction to her. Her daughter, Alice thrives in Holdston.

What makes Helen’s journey profound is that of a WWI era widow starting her life over again. Even though she is in the grip of grief, depression, and mental anguish, she keeps it suppressed for Alice's sake. Being an impoverished single woman in the early 20th century, Helen can only depend on the charity of her in-laws to survive. It is a desperate situation and the reader is made to feel and understand it.

Besides Helen’s story, we also get a parallel subplot featuring Paul, Charlie's cousin and Helen's soon to be love interest. If Helen has the stress of living among strangers, Paul has to face the pain of coming home. He has to return to a life that remains the same while he came face to face with trauma, violence, and death. He would rather study archaeology in places like Mesopotamia than go home and face a family that loves him but can't understand what he is going through.

He has PTSD flashbacks of his time on the Front particularly with Charlie. He weighs his guilt, memories, shame, and anxieties of what he did and didn't do and the aftermath of those actions. Paul can't adjust to life back at home with so much baggage surrounding him.

The mystery that surrounds the book concerns an unhappy marriage, domestic violence, and the division between living one's truth and doing one's duty. It thematically shares much with the rest of the book but really it is not as important as Helen and Paul’s plots. The book could just as easily have gone without it.

Instead of focusing on a mystery, the book's true strength lies in the personal journeys of two people who have to start their lives over after being faced with death and the senseless violence of war.

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. 

King of My Scars by Abby North; Whoever Romances in Vegas Stays in Vegas

 

King of My Scars by Abby North; Whoever Romances in Vegas Stays in Vegas

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Abby North’s Suspenseful Romance novel, King of My Scars, can be a bit paint by numbers in terms of romance but it doesn't shy away from darker and more disturbing topics like domestic abuse, battered person syndrome, stalking, and self-esteem issues.

Ariana has fled her abusive husband, Aaron. She leaves their swank Los Angeles home for Las Vegas hoping to move on. She is rescued in a tight spot by Denham King, hotelier, who moves her to one of his penthouse suites. He's handsome, charming, helpful, and kind but Ariana is reluctant to pursue a romance with him. She has had two previous bad relationships and isn't sure she is ready for #3. Then again the third time could be the charm.

Ariana is a strong yet vulnerable lead character. North expertly details how her trauma affected many of her actions in the present. Her trauma is realistically described and depicted and despite being put into a new romance. It doesn't shy away from her fear and reluctance to embark on another serious relationship.

That she has had two abusive relationships is a very understandable detail. She fled her first boyfriend Jonny who stalked her so much that she moved cross country and changed her name. When she encountered Aaron, she was susceptible to the love bombing, the manipulation, the controlling masquerading as caring, and the sharp criticisms coming from her latest lover.

While one would expect Ariana to recognize the signs and flee immediately from the scene, that isn't always the case. She was so determined to believe that her prior relationship was a one-time thing that she justified the abuse until it was too late. There is also a part of her that believed that she deserved the abuse that she was given. 

She emerged as someone with low self-esteem, PTSD, and battered person syndrome. She may have been able to physically leave the situation but mentally and emotionally, she's still there.

This perspective helps to understand the context of her struggles so they make sense. She is in danger a few times and is rescued by Denham. While it can be cringy and some would say dated, in this specific situation it works. She has extreme PTSD from both of her bad relationships so of course she would be on edge and feel helpless. These situations probably aren't helping either.

Ariana is naturally cynical and mistrusts Denham. Even though he's handsome, wealthy, charming, and empathetic, she is still living in the mindset of reluctance and caution that were her survival instincts during her previous relationships. After all, if Aaron was able to play the part of a nice guy before revealing his true colors, who’s to say that Denham isn't doing the same?

I don't know if North intended this but there are times when the Reader doubts Denham 's sincerity. There are a few red flags like when he uses his vast wealth to solve problems, hides information from Ariana, or veers towards arrogance. While Denham is written as a better alternative to Ariana's exes, he could become yet another abuser in her life and Ariana might have fallen into familiar and toxic territory. 

Perhaps these are traits that make Denham a multi-layered flawed character, but it could also be a commentary that Ariana’s suspicions are not entirely wrong. At least, Denham is aware of those traits and works on them so Ariana doesn't end up with more of the same.

The Las Vegas setting is also a subtle play on the book's themes of relationships. It is a city of glitz and spectacle where one can't always tell fantasy from reality at first. Someone is drawn to a casino for the atmosphere and the opportunity to win easy money. A few hours later they give away their life savings and have to go to Gambler's Anonymous. 

Ariana’s exes and Denham are like that, good looking, flashy, charming, charismatic and appear like nice guys to her. She is drawn in by the fantasy and then is left battered by the reality of her ex's abusive natures. 

What sets Denham apart from them, is that he is able to transcend the initial illusion that often comes with first meeting someone who creates instant attraction. He is able to show through his actions that he is a good man and has the patience to wait for Ariana to recognize that. 

He is the reality of love that lives within the Vegas illusions and helps Ariana to live in that reality as well. 

Where The Streetlight Ends by Bradley Butts; Being Laramie Buchanan Another Boulder Girl by Cynthia L. Clark, The Courage of Two Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer and The Fight For Freedom of Conscience in Early America by Nancy Kelley

 

Where The Streetlight Ends by Bradley Butts

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

Bradley Butts’ Horror Anthology is a strange but brilliant combination of classic supernatural campfire tales and postmodern existentialist terror. It reminds us that when it comes to paranormal horror, evil can be found in any form, in any setting, and in any time.

“The Doodle”

Alex, a high school student, has written conversations with a sentient doodled figure on the wall. 

The conflict between The Doodle and Alex are chilling as The Doodle recognizes and uses Alex's loneliness for friends and skepticism against him. The Doodle is a character that intentionally starts out as welcoming and friendly. There are moments where its presence is almost adorable like when it tells Alex that it is his friend. 

It becomes possessive and sinister when it feels abandoned by Alex. For example, it doesn't understand the concept of weekends when Alex is not in school. The smiley face becomes a frown and the wide curious eyes are narrowed in anger. It defaces Alex's notebooks and desks, calls him a bad friend, and threatens to kill him.

Alex's curiosity and eventual terror are multiplied because for a long time believes that he is having conversations with a human who is sending secret messages. His insistence that he is stalked by a human adversary is a means to gain control of this creepy situation. If he attributes it to a human something that can be stopped by normal means like expulsion or arrest. A supernatural presence in the form of a living drawing resists being defeated or contained so could stalk a human in perpetuity.

“The Strange Sound”

A sound affects all who hear it, particularly most of the student body of a high school.

This story recognizes the value of not displaying or telling much and leaving our imagination to do the heavy lifting. We are not given specifics of what the sound is as witnesses compare it to a hum or a whisper. We aren't told where it comes from, why certain students are affected, or what the whispers actually say that upset those who hear it.

The physical, mental, and emotional changes are the focus. The narrator's friend, Sara is one of the first to hear it and she goes from a bright curious teen to a catatonic zombie. She becomes languid, inert, lethargic and is devoid of energy and vitality.

The sound affects other classmates until over half of the student body is afflicted leaving friends, classmates, educators, families, and the entire town at a loss. The physical and mental impact of an unexplained phenomena affecting almost an entire generation cannot be overstated as the kids deal with the mysterious strain of this phenomena and their surviving loved ones have to cope with the loss and aftermath.

“Hangman on the Dark Web”

An innocent round of the spelling game Hangman becomes all too real for the young man playing it on the confidential and exploitative Dark Web.

Many of the stories deal with the fear that can be found through modern technology. This and the next story deal with that subject. This one attacks online fascination with the ghoulish, violence, forbidden, bizarre, and morbid particularly on the Dark Web.

The game goes from a spelling time waster to a psychological trap. The Gamemaster reveals personal information that the Narrator never said. Instead of a generic stick figure in the noose ready to meet its maker, the figure is all too familiar to the helpless Narrator. The only thing that he can do is play to rescue the doomed character.

While many of the stories don't have much of an explanation of where the creepy events originated, this story provides a few hints. The puzzle’s resolution, a famous literary quote, provides a clue. It indicates that the Narrator brought this disaster on himself for being overly curious, not cautious enough, and meddled into dark places where he doesn't belong. To quote the movie Wargames, “The best way to win is not to play.”

“The Filter”

Chloe uses a new filter on her selfie and her picture and face go through painful changes.

This is the second tech related story and covers another online obsession: using AI and filters to improve one's appearance and to make them look more attractive and flawless to followers.  

As Chloe changes her picture, she finds her face becoming painfully distorted to match the image. It does not skimp in describing the torture as her eyes enlarge, her skin is stretched, and her bone structure is manipulated. She is in agony.

Most readers would probably wonder why Chloe doesn't stop altering the filter but it appears that she can't. She is compelled and addicted to changing her appearance and can't stop even when she wants to. She is deprived of her personality and free will and turns into something that only exists to be looked at.

“The Beckoning Call of Black Hollow”

David visits an abandoned wooded area for his forestry studies and is frightened by the local monsters.

After covering modern sensibilities with two tech heavy stories, this one returns to basics. It's a campfire tale about the monsters in the woods with some interesting twists. This story has a strong ominous atmosphere. Everything from the winding trees, the magnified sounds and smells, and the chill in the air already gives an unsettling energy even before the creepy stuff happens. Of course once they start, it gets worse. 

David hears disembodied voices call his name and imitate people in his life to draw him outside to respond. He was warned not to respond to the voices and or go outside to see where they are coming from. This is advice he follows to the letter proving that he has more intelligence and common sense than most horror protagonists. It reminds readers that sometimes what you suspect and hear  can be just as frightening as what you do see.

The monsters themselves are a slight letdown as the approaching feelings and voices were much scarier than their physical presence. However, they are clearly inspired by the most recent infamous monsters that have haunted the Internet and social media communities for a few years now. It adds a current sheen to old tales by saying that the monsters might change appearance but the fears are the same. The fears of loneliness, isolation, the dark, insanity, and the possibility of evil. Those will never leave.

Being Laramie Buchanan Another Boulder Girl by Cynthia L. Clark

Cynthia L. Clark’s Being Laramie Buchanan has a decent lead character with a lot of depth and layers. Unfortunately, it gives her a substandard plot that alternates between too much and not enough.

Laramie Buchanan has plenty of problems. Her mother has died and her father is consumed with grief. She hovers between her job as an events coordinator at an art gallery and Yoga studies. Her love life is also complicated. Her romance with restaurateur Vick ends badly and she is interested in Chance who assists at the resort where she attends her Yoga retreat.

It's an odd contrast when a book succeeds so well with their protagonist but falters so much with the plot that is put around her. The strength of Laramie's character cannot overcome the weakness of the plot or plots. Some things are over explained either in dialogue or narration.The book can't decide whether it's a romance, a family drama, a woman's fiction, a thriller, or a bildungsroman.More twists and unnecessary complications are thrown in a book that didn't need more of them.

It's a shame that Laramie Buchanan does not live in a better book. 

The Courage of Two: Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, and The Fight For Freedom of Conscience in Early America by Nancy Kelley 

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

Nancy Kelley’s Courage of Two Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, and The Fight For Freedom of Conscience in Early America is a fascinating account of two women who stood for their beliefs, made their opinions known, and refused to be silent in the face of adversity

This is a nonfiction book about Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, two women who offended the religious establishment in the 1660s with their outspoken views on religion. Hutchinson preached from the Bible during private meetings and Dyer’s embrace of Quakerism put them at the center of controversies in which they were persecuted, arrested, tried, and threatened with exile and death.

Hutchinson showed a lot of spunk and knowledge in sessions and when being confronted by authority. Her Biblical studies were quite detailed and academic. She also had a witty, almost sardonic way of defending herself especially during her trials. Her words offended the Puritan community and she was eventually banished. 

The other deuteragonist, Mary Dyer, had a slow start in the book. She started out as one of Hutchinson’s students and strongest defenders. 

After Hutchinson died, Dyer came into her own. She joined The Society of Friends AKA The Quakers, a sect that Hutchinson would have fit in perfectly. Puritans considered Quakers, especially Quaker women, a threat. They made Dyer an example of their hatred sending her to her death and Quaker martyrdom.

People who are interested in religion will look at women of the past practicing their faith and living according to their beliefs. But even those who are interested in history will be interested in this book about two women remembered for challenging patriarchal authority.

And Then They Fell in Rome by C.L. Rosario; Magical Realism Novel About Love, Coincidence, Fate, and The Power of a Great Bromance

 And Then They Fell in Rome by C.L. Rosario; Magical Realism Novel About Love, Coincidence, Fate, and The Power of a Great Bromance

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: C.L. Rosario's novel And Then They Fell in Rome, is a powerful Magical Realism Contemporary Fantasy book that says a lot about love, romance, fate, coincidence, synchronicity, and maturity. Mostly it's a book about the importance of friendship between men. A novel that is largely concerned about romance is told primarily from the points of view of a group of male friends, a circular bromance if you will.

A group of friends called the Troubadours meet up in 2021. They are Freddy Bustamante, Juan Fernandez, Charlie Costa, Brian Verdugo, and Jan Luis Larose and are reuniting for the first time since their Senior year in college three years prior. In the middle of their drinks, laughter, and reminisces, a woman appears. She is called “La Bruja” (“The Witch”) or “The Stranger.” She says that she had been following them for some time, entered the minds, and took the forms of people that they met. 

La Bruja has a challenge for the guys. One of them, Jan Luis, was “compromised on a cosmic level” and is in danger of dying young. The only cure is love. The other Troubadours need to help him find love. To make things even more complicated, La Bruja removes the memories of their conversation from The Troubadours’s minds. So they know that they have to help Jan Luis but not how or why.

The book is rich with moments of magical realism with more emphasis on the realism than the magic with the exception of the appearance of La Bruja who comes straight from the latter. Her presence is reminiscent of Latin American novels that fit the magical realism subgenre. She is a mythical and legendary creature in a real world setting. The guys are talking about everyday things in a commonplace setting then BAM, she appears and moves things in a different direction. 

Most of the book focuses on situations that can be magical, mundane, coincidental, or from a more cynical perspective contrived. When the characters, except Jan Luis, go to Rome, a series of serendipitous moments lead them to the right people at the right time. After one relationship is threatened, one of the Troubadours encounters another woman who is connected to his previous lover.

Conversations and encounters are told through multiple perspectives so we don't realize that characters are supposed to meet and fall in love until it happens. Going down the right street, visiting the right cafe, and looking up at the right time leads to a meeting with the love of a lifetime. Even Jan Luis’s later trip to Rome seems to be fated to occur at that specific moment in time.

Similar to works like One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, La Bruja 's presence is tied to the real world conflicts concerning the characters. However the two books merge magic with politics, war, colonization, authoritarianism, and other global issues. 

The focus of And Then They Fell in Rome is exclusively on personal friendships, romantic attachments, and the interactions between men and women. Romance in and of itself can be considered magical with people looking and acting like the best versions of themselves to attract and enchant someone else. Sexual and emotional attachments are often described in fantastic ways (“She enchanted me.” “He's so charming.” “I am drawn to your presence.”) 

Even the ideas of creating lasting relationships, finding compatibility, and finding that perfect partnership are actions that often resist being analyzed and quantified because there are always exceptions, variables, emotional experiences and situations leading to other potential outcomes. So this book just injects literal potential magic where figurative magic already existed to give a slight nudge to the characters.

Speaking of characters, this book has some well written multifaceted characters. While La Bruja is my personal favorite, the Troubadours and their love interests convey richness and complexity.

The Troubadours are a group that doesn't play on conventional male stereotypes when guys get together. They aren't looking to drink, party, have wild and crazy adventures, and score as many hot willing babes as possible. They are ready to enter the next stages of their lives, as professionals, committed boyfriends, potential husbands, and maybe someday fathers. They aren't looking for one night stands. They are looking for a lifetime.

The complexities of modern relationships are shown through the Troubadours’s romantic experiences as they look for their potential partners. Juan goes through three separate romances before he realizes that he let his jealous assumptions interfere with what could have been a great relationship. One woman leads him to face his regrets so he can change his future. 

Cinephile Brian keeps comparing his love life to favorite films and hopes to find the leading lady in his life. He is faced with the reality that real people don't act according to a script. They need to be recognized for their frailties, flaws, and insecurities, not his fantasy projections of them.

Former frat boy Freddy is caught between two women: Maddy who represents his lost wayward wild youth and Katelyn who offers a chance at adulthood, maturity, realization, and authenticity. He also has a previous close association with La Bruja and is the only one who remembers her conversation with them and sees the truth that no one else does. 

Charlie is tempted to cheat on his girlfriend with unexpected results. This encounter forces him to confront his own thoughts about fidelity, desires, commitment, and adulthood.

 What about Jan Luis, the central focus of these romantic journeys? His past of an unhappy childhood with separated parents and a previous break up of his own have made him reluctant to seek or accept love. He is in danger of closing himself off emotionally and achieving fulfillment only in dreams and fantasies.

The love interest characters are just as brilliantly written. These are characters with their own stories, identities, and agencies. They aren't there solely to fulfill the Troubadours’s romantic desires but are meant to stand toe to toe in equal footing with them. The relationships happen because the characters work on improving themselves as individuals before they become coupled. 

While the romance and magical realism are important aspects of the story, by far the central relationship is not between the Troubadours and their significant others. It is among the Troubadours themselves.

These are five friends, who are brothers in heart and spirit. The conflict of helping Jan Luis find love becomes a catalyst that leads to their own conflicts and questions. They would be unable to evolve without each other. It's easy to recognize that these men deserve romantic love when we see that they are capable of maintaining a filial love. They are there for each other through university, work, romance, and marriage. Chances are their future kids will have not only loving fathers but four honorary uncles that will protect them with their lives.

It's also a kind of brotherly love that inspires change in each other. They aren't afraid to give one another advice or criticism to say exactly what they did wrong and how they can be better people. It is among the best bromances that I have read in recent novels. They aren't just there for each other in good times but bad as well.

And Then They Fell in Rome is a book that is magical, realistic, romantic, and bromantic.

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. 

A Matter of Time (The Bridge Through Time Series Book 4) by Jennae Vale; Enchanting Romantic Fantasy Has Questions

 A Matter of Time (The Bridge Through Time Series Book 4) by Jennae Vale; Enchanting Romantic Fantasy Has Questions 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: A Matter of Time is the fourth book in Jennae Vale’s The Bridge Through Time Series so that probably explains the confusion and questions about the overall series and ongoing story arcs especially since it is the first in the series that I have read. When it settles down and focuses on the specific Romantic Fantasy, it's charming, funny, heartwarming, and enchanting.

Womanizing nobleman and apparently antagonist in previous books, Sir Richard Jeffords is sent from 16th Scotland into the future by witch Edna Campbell to learn a lesson on how to treat women. He finds himself in modern day San Francisco where he meets Angelina Lawson, a modern woman with an interest in medieval martial arts and an unhappy love life. The two become attracted to one another and become closer even though they come from different centuries. Meanwhile an antiques dealer, Malcolm Granger, is obsessed with finding a sword from Richard's time and he will do anything to get it even go backwards in time with him.

There are two distinct aspects to the book and one works better than the other. The good news is when the book acts like a Romantic Fantasy, it's predictable but fun in its own way. 

Richard and Angelina’s romance goes down smoothly because they are perfectly compatible. There are indications from other characters that Richard was a villain in previous books so he is a harder cynical character because of this and a bit uncertain when it comes to a reciprocal love.

Angelina has also had her share of heartbreak and is the typical modern day jaded female Romance protagonist. She is less certain about love than Richard is. These are the types of characters who are perfect for each other. 

They may trade witty barbs, mock their deliriously in love friends, and deny their attraction while simultaneously becoming more and more intimate. It's a fun and interesting romance between two characters who like disagreeing with each other almost as much as they like making love.

The time travel aspects are a bit different from other books in the subgenre. Richard has been to the present in a previous volume, so this second trip is nothing new. He is unfamiliar with being in San Francisco however and gets lost easily. It's less like someone in a separate time period and more like a regular person visiting a new city on vacation.

It also helps that Richard is not alone. In fact, while in modern San Francisco, he encounters Nick, a friend of Angelina’s who is also a friend of his from Scotland. Nick is a charming comic relief character who is also close to Angelina.

 The Reader braces themselves for a love triangle. Thankfully, we get a reprieve. Instead, Nick treats Richard and Angelina like his favorite siblings. It also clears the path for him to find a love interest in the next book.

Another interesting character is the creator of this time travel escapade, Edna Campbell. She is an older wise woman with the gift of foresight. She is often quick with a magic spell, an herbal remedy, and a sardonic comment for those around her.

Edna is happily married and is surrounded by friends and family so she is the opposite of the usual lonely witch found in these works. In fact, if she were ever arrested and charged with witchcraft, she would have plenty of loyal allies who would have her back.

Things get incredibly confusing in later chapters which I admit are partly because I haven't read the earlier volumes. We meet more friends of Angelina and Richard's that have traveled back and forth in time which is highly questionable. 

Are these the only time periods that allow time travel? Is there some sort of cosmic link to 21st century California and 16th century Scotland? Can characters from the past go further back or from the present go to the future? How do we account for the implausibility that all of the time travelers all knew each other before their adventures? Does all of this time tripping affect the time stream or the space time continuum? Aren't there people in either time period missing someone? Is there anyone left in modern San Francisco or Scotland who hasn't been bitten by the time travel bug?

There are also other parts that don't work so well. Malcolm is an incredibly cheesy antagonist and his subplot is written without much depth or subtly. He wants a specific sword that belongs to Richard's family and he puts his and Angelina’s lives in danger. It's a pretty transparent attempt to create more conflict that doesn't always work.

Also again this is because I didn't read the previous books. In some of the last few chapters, we are told about some of Richard's more nefarious deeds in the previous volumes. It causes one to think differently of him. 

It's not that he reformed and found love that is the problem. Many characters go through redemptive story arcs and emerge on the other side as friends of the heroes. But the way his villainy is described as almost hand waved.

A character with the history that Richard has would have more guilt in his next relationship. There should be more flashbacks and remorse connected with his past. For it to be dismissed and info dropped in the final chapters seems almost dishonest. Like Vale was trying to rewrite or gloss over the history of one of her own characters.

Still despite the flaws, this is a fine book for fans of Time Travel Romance Fantasies. It's probably much better to look at its own merits than part of a series or do what most normal people do and read the series in numerical order.

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.