Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews

Friday, July 23, 2021

New Book Alert: Birthrights by Carly Rheilan; Intricate Thriller About Motherhood and Obsession

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Birthrights by Carly Rheilan is a memorable and intricate thriller about obsessions and the lengths people will go through to have a baby.

Dr. Ana Griffin is looking forward to the upcoming birth of her little bundle of joy. She enjoys the compliments that she is getting about her pregnancy belly. She likes that she is able to continue giving lectures such as her criticism of psychiatric medicine so she could be seen as a powerhouse mama who has it all. She decorates her home with a nursery, toys, and baby decor. She wants to be a mother so badly that she is counting the days until the time. Unfortunately there is something wrong with this scenario as one of her patients, David witnesses. Ana is attacked and as her assailant draws a knife on her abdomen, the knife goes through nothing but air.

It turns out Ana isn't pregnant at all. In fact she can't have children. She has created an intricate web of lies to cover up her deception including wearing a fake pregnancy belly and hiring and practically imprisoning a Slovakian woman, Otka, so Ana can claim and raise her baby as her own.

Birthrights is captivating in how Ana's motivations are revealed and how she weaves her plan involving others. We peer into her lonely childhood as she protects her younger brother, Teddy from abusive and neglectful parents. This glimpse into Ana's past shows someone whose obsession came from a certain place where she was unloved and unappreciated. Even though she has achieved professional success in psychiatry, it isn't enough for her. Her maternal instincts aren't just kicking in. They are practically knocking her over.

Rheilan goes into great detail about how Ana plans to take and raise the baby for herself. She is desperate because all other avenues towards motherhood including birth, adoption, and surrogacy are closed to her. Ana uses everyone around her to achieve her goal of motherhood. She keeps Otka and her husband, Janos well paid and has them living outside of London so they don't encounter anyone that she knows. When she shares news of her "pregnancy" with colleagues, it's information about Otka's pregnancy that she has. All of the details are under a separate name so they don't trace the paper trail to her.

Also since technically, Otka is aware that Ana is going to have the baby once she delivers and is even getting paid for it, the legal ramifications would be extremely hard to pursue or press charges. Ana is certainly guilty of faking a pregnancy, medical fraud, and entrapment but Otka is also an accessory in a foreign country in which she barely speaks the language. Certainly the money puts her in a better position than she was in before. Otka knows if she goes to the police then she will also be in trouble. Ana is a schemer that is so confident that nothing will get past her. She believes that she is several steps above everyone else.

There are many suggestions that Ana's desires for motherhood lie more towards narcissism than a genuine love for a child. She wants someone that can love her unconditionally and will never leave her.

Once Ana's plan is unraveled beginning with the stabbing, her more violent nature comes out. She uses various people including a pair of patients, one of whom is obsessed with her, an admiring colleague, her competitive supervisor, and others to cover her tracks or to maintain her deception of impending motherhood. Once her elaborate scheme begins to fall apart, her more violent tendencies are unleashed and she is willing to throw anyone under the bus, except of course for her upcoming baby.

Birthrights is an engaging book about how one woman's obsession goes so far that she ruins many lives including her own and ironically the baby that she longs to have.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

New Book Alert: Souls On Fire: Memoirs of A Twin Flame (True Love's Journey) by Michelle White and Justin White; Witty Dark Novel About The Search For A Twin Flame

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Michelle and Justin White's book Souls On Fire Memoirs of a Twin Flame is a witty dark story about the modern search for one's Twin Flame.

Michelle is depressed and anxious for many reasons. She is self conscious about her weight. She has been hospitalized for panic attacks and knee surgery. She and her husband, Ed, get into savage fights over various issues. She is miserable and unhappy at her job. She longs for an escape.

She finds her escape during a night out with another man. Like her, he is also married but they are drawn to each other and for the first time, Michelle feels real passion and emotion. Could their relationship mean more than sex? Could this be the escape that Michelle needs? Could she be getting a second chance to have a better life?

The Whites's narrative does some interesting things to change our perspective of the characters. With two characters contemplating an affair, some might feel very uncomfortable with their behavior. That is until the Reader learns how unhappy Michelle is in her regular life. Her emotions are naturally all over the place as she questions her body image, her job, and her marriage. Many passages such as one at work where she has to be hospitalized after a panic attack and a house party where Ed leaves her to do most of the work, reveal Michelle as a woman ready to crack. She needs something, anything, to help her break from this life before it kills her.

The date between Michelle and her future lover is told in second person with Michelle referring to him as "you" and never calling him by name. It's a strange decision but works somehow. The effect seems to be like Michelle is almost interviewing her date for the job of twin flame. Title notwithstanding, there is no sign that this person is even going to become her twin flame. They both have certain things in common like unhappy marriages and fuzzy definitions of marital fidelity. They also feel for each other things they haven't felt in a long time, passion, understanding, compassion. They found the person that they could be happy with but at the wrong time after they have been with someone else.

Despite potential evidence to the contrary, the probable twin flames leave enough potential that one hopes that they will become so.

Weekly Reader: Mother: A Mother Gothel Tale (Witches of Grimm Book One) by C.M. Adler; Rapunzel Revisited Into A Tale of Feminist Solidarity

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Similar to Liz Butcher's Never Never, C.M. Adler's Mother takes a familiar story and turns it around to subvert our notions of heroism and villainy. This time the story that gets a facelift is Rapunzel. The central focus in this version is that of a loving mother and a loyal daughter.

Cerelia is on the run with an infant baby in tow. She is a witch and is running from judgemental villagers. She escapes into a forest and builds a cottage with a vast magical garden in which she grows herbs and flowers which are not only used for healing, food, and lotions but also to appease the fairies that hang around.

Meanwhile, Maia, a young servant girl, is pregnant and imprisoned. The weak willed father of her child goes along with his family as they accuse her of witchcraft. Longing for escape, Maia appeals to a spirit named Rumple, to help free her. Rumple Six, the goblin, says that she will be freed and have blood for blood in exchange for her unborn baby. Desperate, Maia agrees so she manages to escape into the forest right into Cerelia's garden.

Mother not only changes the perspective of Rapunzel but gives us a fantasy novella with two strong female leads that carry the theme of the solidarity of women. Cerelia lives an independent life caring for her garden and her familiars like the feisty spider, Xee, and leaves food and other gifts for the fairies that help her magically protect her home. She performs various magic like merging her soul with the forest and having second sight. Both abilities prove helpful to aid Maia.

Maia's involvement in magic is by pure accident to escape from her jailers. She stumbles onto a power that she doesn't comprehend and gets figuratively burned by it. Cerelia is able to show Maia a better way of channeling that magic into something more focused and less self destructive. Cerelia becomes a guide to help Maia find her inner personal power as they become a coven of two.

Besides helping each other in witchcraft, Cerelia and Maia form a familial bond which is emphasized by Maia's name for her: Gothel (German for godmother.) Maia explains that she never felt a close connection with any of the women in the village. Cerelia lost her child and feels that ache despite her independence. She wants someone to share that life with and she has that in Maia. They are mother and daughter, teacher and student, mentor and protegee, best friends. As for Rapunzel, well the young lady with the extra long hair does arrive and is welcomed into this charmed circle.

Mother does a lot to improve the witch characters in The Brothers Grimm's fairy tales. It will be interesting to see what Adler does with the other witch characters.

Weekly Reader: The Mind Witch (The Magi Series Book 1) by Nicole Demery; Short Character Driven Novel About A Woman Embracing Her Witchly Powers

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Nicole Demery's The Mind Witch is a brief fantasy novel about a woman discovering her inner powers. However, the book grabs your attention right away making the Reader want to read more.

Cassandra Whelan, an Irish Studies grad student has the usual difficulties of university life: turning in dissertations on time, trying to please difficult professors, welcoming visitors and so on. She also possesses the ability to read minds and not just the people around her. While writing a dissertation on the mythological meaning behind W.B. Yeats' poetry, she provides analysis towards the poet's thought process because she knows exactly what was going through his mind when he wrote them. That's because she is a seer, one of the four classes of fey that interact with the human world. She shares this gift with her grandmother.

Seeing can be a very uncomfortable gift as Cassandra can be bombarded and overwhelmed by thoughts if she doesn't protect herself which is why she prefers the solitude of her apartment with her understanding roommate. She also can sense the presence of other magic users and vice versa as a visiting professor identifies her. Then Cassandra senses a mysterious presence from a young man who seems to keep following her.

Because the book is short, we don't get much plot. Cassandra struggles with her abilities and encounters a mysterious stranger. She barely meets the stranger before the book ends (no doubt saving their relationship for the next book.)

Most of the book is focused on character and Cassandra is an interesting protagonist. We see her in her daily life as a normal single woman in Boston. We see her struggling with the pressures of academia and fighting with a pompous professor. We see her struggling with finances and worrying about a future with an Irish Studies degree.

We also recognize her seeing abilities. She can be overwhelmed when other's thoughts interfere inside her brain. She learns to focus her powers and the history of the fey from her grandmother. She also receives magical gifts that sometimes come with a price. The overall effect of covering Cassandra's regular and supernatural life is that Demery treats her like a normal identifiable woman who just happens to have a unique ability.

The Mind Witch is such a brilliant character driven short novel that it's a shame that it's so short.

Thursday, July 8, 2021

New Book Alert: The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz; Intriguing Premise About Virtues and Difficulties of Living Multiple Lives

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I feel a sense of deja vu as I say this:

Reincarnation is probably the #1 literary theme of this year or at least of this blog.

On the plus side, I found a support group that Amelie Pimont's Eli and Sarah, Nikki Broadwell's Rosemary and Dylan Hughes, and Melissa Muldoon's Artemisia Gentileschi, Maddalena, and Matteo can join.

D. Eric Maikranz's The Reincarnationist Papers is an intriguing premise about an organization that helps people who have full memories of their past lives. The book also presents both the virtues of living extra lives and many of the difficulties that such an existence could bring.

Evan Michaels is an outsider for many reasons. He has clear memory of his two previous lives and revealed them in ways that astounded and frightened his family. He left them feeling like an outcast and now spends his time in Southern California doing illegal activity, particularly professional arson to earn a living. While on the run after his latest assignment goes down, Evan is challenged by a mysterious young woman. Before she attacks him, Evan threatens her that if she kills him, he will just come back, right before he pases out. When he comes to, the woman, Poppy ,and a man, Antonio, believe and understand his reincarnation recall. In fact, they invite him to join the Cognomina, a secret organization of people who remember their past lives. To join, Evan has to go through a series of trials called The Ascension in which he has to recall his former lives and prove to the 27 other members that he really lived them.

It's clear that Reincarnationist Papers is intended to be the start of a series and this book definitely fits that obligatory introductory need. We are shown the new character that serves as our eyes and ears to this new world. We get the expositional history of the group that they join and the central ongoing conflicts between characters that carry over throughout the series. We even get introduced to potential love interests. It's all painted by numbers but in this case, it works.

What works is the originality of an organization created specifically for reincarnated souls. These characters retain the memories, experiences, pleasant memories, talents, and sometimes objects of their former lives. However, they also remember every fight and conflict leading to current prejudices and hatred, every traumatic situation that leads to phobias and obsessions in their current lives, and the circumstances towards their deaths. It can be difficult to live in the present when you are constantly overwhelmed by memories of the past.

The highlights of the novel are the looks into the character's former lives. Evan remembers two. His earliest life was of a Bulgarian man named Vasili Blagavich Arda who had been imprisoned during the Communist years. Vasili then lived in Istanbul for the final years of his life. Evan learns that his attraction to living in a large city like Los Angeles could be traced to Vasili's fascination with living in Istanbul. Evan's memories of reincarnation began when as a child, he was able to write and speak fluent Bulgarian.

Evan's other life was that of a young boy named Bobby with a mentally ill mother. While still a child, Bobby burned to death in a fire that he accidentally started. Bobby's death in a fire makes sense why Evan chooses to light fires as almost a way of conquering and controlling the element that once killed him.

Other members of the group share interesting stories Poppy remembers her time as a male Venetian glassworker who was killed by a female assassin and a French nobleman who was wounded in a duel against a rival artisan. Another character, Samas, recalls his life in the 11th century. One of the oldest souls remembers living in the 1st century.

Even the creation of the Cognomina is fascinating as two friends in Egypt decided that they would meet again in the next life. They recognized each other by pointing out objects that the other had. The group then spread to five members then 28.

The members also explain to Evan why they are so secretive. In a world of largely Abrahamaic religions which do not believe in reincarnation, these memories would be too much for others to know. People would become frightened and attack group members. Even Eastern religions which espouse reincarnation don't quite "get it," they say. The next life has nothing to do with how one behaved in the previous life as a reward or punishment. They are just reborn and many of the experiences are carried over.

For history buffs , Maikranz even includes footnotes of real history to fit with this fanciful story of reincarnation. Evan's life as Vasili includes his time serving in the military under Captain Eumen Hoxa. Maikranz did a tremendous job creating this secret organization of reincarnated souls and their rituals and procedures.

While the organization is well thought out, the plot somewhat falters. This is especially evident towards the end when Evan is thrown into an action plot and is left in a cliffhanger situation. However, most of the work is a decent speculative look at reincarnation and how people can struggle and thrive remembering who they were before.

Weekly Reader: Indecent Exposure (A Father Hardy Alaskan Mystery Book 1) by Jonathan Thomas Stratman; Alaskan Setting is Highlight Of Mystery About Blackmail and Murder

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Jonathan Thomas Stratman's Indecent Exposure is one of those types of murder mystery where the setting is so intrinsic to the plot that it can't be set anywhere else. In this case, the mystery is set in Alaska in 1955 and time and place play a large part in the events that unfold.

In the tiny town of Chandelar, Alaska, Episcopalian priest Father Hardy is called by two Athabascan men to help them move a deceased body. The body belongs to the cleverly named Frankie Slick, a local gambler, loan shark, con man, and generally no good guy. He has been missing for over a month but since he has made so many enemies around town and few friends, no one really bothered to look until now. It's not the elements that got Frankie. Instead, to quote the old detective tv shows, he came down with an unexpected case of murder.

Fr. Hardy has to wade through the hearty elements, the freezing cold, and a small town full of suspects to find out who Frankie's murderer was. This is complicated that many would love to take credit for this murder and are surprisingly okay with a murdered body and a potential killer in their midst.

The Alaskan setting really lends itself to suspense and mystery in this book. The time period is before Alaska became the 49th state. This huge chunk of cold snowy landscape is sandwiched between Russia and Canada but is considered a U.S. territory, so it's practically a law into itself. There is something of the Wild West mentality in the characters that if the official law won't protect them, then they will do it themselves. The cold forbidden endless land suggests that Chandelar is on the literal edge of the world where if you're not too careful, you could fall off and be lost to the elements.

This outsider status of the future state also is felt in the people who live within Chandelar. Many arrive in this small town with secrets, emotional baggage, and histories that they would rather leave behind. However, these are secrets that someone like Frankie wants to exploit for his own gain.

Plenty of the eccentric residents have something that they don't want others to know about from Evangeline, a prostitute and Frankie's ex who now finds herself falling in love with a certain priest, to Teddy Moses, a dog sledder who paid off his debts by letting Frankie take provocative photos of his daughter. Then there are characters who flee into Alaska from Communist Russia and are under suspicion from Cold War era Americans. Even Hardy himself has arrived with a hidden past in which he is still grieving for the death of his wife and has his own divisive questions about his faith and the nature of evil.

In this murder, there are many suspects and just as many people who are glad to see Frankie gone. To quote The Chick's song "Goodbye Earl," "(Frankie) was a missing person whom no one missed at all."

In fact the death of a town bully and the small town of potential suspects is similar to the 1981 murder and subsequent investigation of Ken "Rex" McElroy who was described as "the town bully" of Skidmore, Missouri. McElroy was accused of numerous felonies including assault and battery, child molestation, rape, arson, animal cruelty, cattle rustling, and burglary. Because of his power, McElroy ran roughshod over Skidmore's residents. When he was shot, there were numerous suspects but no one would admit to witnessing who shot him. The investigation went cold and the case is still unsolved. One resident even said that McElroy "deserved killing."

Fortunately, murder mysteries want, no demand, resolution and Indecent Exposure is no different. Even if the murder victim is the worst person on Earth, their murderer needs to be caught. Otherwise what's the point of reading all of those pages? The revelation of Frankie's murder is a bit underwhelming but the lead up with the setting and the long line of potential killers is much more compelling.

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

New Book Alert: Never Never by Liz Butcher; Fear, Screams, and Pixy Dust Make Modern Day Peter Pan Story

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: It's always interesting to take an alternate version of a story: to change a romance into a stalker thriller, to subvert heroes and villains. One story that produces many different interpretations is Sir James Barrie's Peter Pan. To some the story of the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up in the magical island of Neverland is a child's fantasy fulfillment of a land where adventures can be found and children can never grow up and never die. However,to some it is a creepy thought that veers towards horror of this seemingly eternally youthful sociopath kid abducting other kids and foolishly leading them into potential danger.

Some have even postulated the theory that Peter Pan is an Angel of Death and comes to sickly children to take them to their form of Heaven (and the Darling children hovered between life and death and returned to life by deciding to leave Neverland).

Actually, there is some truth to this theory in that Barrie was inspired by the death of his younger brother to create the story of a boy who wouldn't grow up. He later dedicated his work to the Llewelyn Davies Boys, five brothers whom he adopted after the death of their parents. So the tale of Peter Pan is surrounded by death even in his genesis so there may be some truth to the horror.

Liz Butcher's novel, Never Never reveals the potential horror that the Pan story could mean. Wendy Darling, the heroine of the original story is now grown up and a police detective. She is suffering from flashbacks of her abduction as a child which was not pleasurable or fantastic. Instead she is trying to rebuild her life with her daughter, Jane and girlfriend, Lily. Unfortunately, her kidnapping comes to the forefront after the death of her mother and confrontation with her brothers, John and Michael. Also a teenage girl has been kidnapped and her abduction parallels Wendy's perfectly right down to her nightmares of a creepy boy with bright green eyes hiding in the shadows. Wendy is forced to confront her memories of her kidnapper, the sadistic creature called Pan.

Never Never does a great job of transforming the kid's fantasy into an adult's horror. The characters are there: The Darling children, Peter Pan, Captain Hook but something isn't quite right. The promises of adventure and eternal youth become less enticing from a nightmarish creature with hypnotic green eyes. That's not even getting into the real reason that Pan kidnaps which is revealed in a very frightening passage when Wendy finds herself in Pan's lair once more. He's not a mischievous thoughtless forever young boy instead he is a demonic figure who destroys those he takes.

In fact every character goes through a modern more complex transformation that causes us to rethink the original story. Wendy was once seen as a daydreaming maternal figure. She is now a wounded embittered assault survivor, still maternal but willing to fight to protect her daughter and the missing children. John and Michael aren't as explored but they also carry the scars of their sister's abduction and are trying to keep what remains of their family intact.

Even Neverland's residents Captain Hook and Tiger Lily are given new outlooks as Hook's connection to Pan is explored more in depth. Lily is seen as someone who would rather forget her old life to focus on the one that she longs for with Wendy and Jane. Tinkerbell is also present, a mix of the ball of light from the original play and the saucy minx from the film productions. She finally has a lot to say and is just waiting for a chance to express herself.

Never Never gives us a familiar story and presents it in a new terrifying way. It shows that one person's fantastic dream might be another person's frightening nightmare.