#BookReview: A Christmas Rescue by Kirsty McManus and Diane Michaels

Fun And Quirky Christmas Romance. This one has most of the makings of a Hallmark Christmas movie, if you toss in the “international travel” to a small town bit. Lots of self exploration when tossed into a new environment with ulterior motives. Lots of “Hemsworth brother”-esque swoony surfer dude. Lots of interference from the quirky grandmother. And a touch of drama on the existing relationship and job front. In other words, pretty well all of the ingredients of a classic Hallmark Christmas movie, and yes, this one qualifies as “sweet”, for those that care about such things. No cursing, and while masturbation is mentioned, not even that – much less any interpersonal stuff beyond a kiss – is shown. Very much recommended.

This review of A Christmas Rescue by Kirsty McManus and Diane Michaels was originally written on October 10, 2020.

#BookReview: The Woman I Was Before by Kerry Fisher

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes… Yes, I’m blatantly stealing from RENT, because this book – featuring (roughly) a year in the life of three women who randomly move in to the same block on the same weekend – brought out those vibes for me. It also harkens to fellow Amazon publishing colleague Emily Bleeker’s 2020 book What It Seems in that this is another look at how “reality” according to social media… rarely turns out to be actual reality. (Ha! Another RENT reference :D) Another strong look at the various damages secrets can wreak, though its portrayal of childless people was at times a bit extreme. Ultimately a well written story of several interweaving lives, and very much recommended.

This review of The Woman I Was Before by Kerry Fisher was originally written on October 9, 2020.

#BookReview: The Age Of Wood by Roland Ennos

Mr. Ennos, I Read This Book On A Kindle. 😉 This was a fascinating and at times novel look at how wood – not stone or metals – has allowed and even encouraged human biological and civilizational evolution. Written by a British academic-engineer, this book looks to the bioengineering of woods of various forms and how the material’s strengths and versatilities have allowed so much human progress, from eras before homo sapien sapien appeared through the future of the species. While the text does have a couple of weaknesses – he assumes that the book will be read on paper and there is a distinct lack of bibliography, at least in this advanced review copy I read – overall the book really is an amazing look at an oft-overlooked feature of human history. Very much recommended.

This review of The Age Of Wood by Roland Ennos was originally written on October 6, 2020.

Featured New Release Of The Week: Never Turn Back by Christopher Swann

This week we’re looking at a fun, twisty book that takes an interesting look at how childhood traumas can affect a person later in life. This week we’re looking at Never Turn Back by Christopher Swann.

This book is set in and around Atlanta, Ga – which happens to be where I am from (well, the northern exurbs anyway). And which happens to have had a very similar – and very nearly equally as tragic – incident as the backstory that drives much of the action here. You see, I was actually very tangentially tied to the real-world story.

Revealing what actually happens in the book would be a spoiler, but allow me to note what happened in real life.

May 1999. Just a couple of weeks after the Columbine shooting.

A teacher and his wife, the school secretary, are out for a night with friends – including the school Principal and his wife. The teacher and secretary leave their two sons, a Senior and a Sophomore at the school they work at, home alone.

Suddenly, their across the street neighbor – who happens to be a local radio celebrity – bangs on the door. The boys let her in, as she is fleeing from her exhusband who is intent to kill her. She hides somewhere in the house.

The exhusband demands to know where she is, and enters the home via blasting the door down with his shotgun.

Time passes, cops have surrounded the house, and now the two sons are in a back bedroom with the exhusband. He has leveled the shotgun at the younger son, demanding to know where his exwife is.

The elder son jumps in the way as the shotgun is fired, and is killed as a result. The younger son still catches shot in his shoulder and is hospitalized. But the blast – and death – create the opening for the cops outside to kill the shooter, which they do.

Yes, this really happened. The younger brother was actually in at least a couple of my classes. I knew him and his mom. I was a new student at the school, having transferred from another school across the County just that very semester. I was there as the school sat in shocked disbelief all week at what had transpired to kill one of our graduating seniors – in a school that would only graduate 67 students two years later. I would go on to be one of those 67 students graduating high school from that school two years later… though I would barely step foot in it at all over those two years. How I spent those two years – and the four more beyond them – would also result in me becoming a young male teacher in my early twenties, which is another point that I personally identified with this story on. Fortunately for me, only this particular incident of the backstory is even remotely similar to anything I actually experienced – as you’ll see when you read this book.

But what could be even more tragic than the real world story? Well, to find out – and to see what happens as a result… you’re gonna need to read this book. 😀

As always, the Goodreads review:
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#BookReview: American Messiah by M. Andrew Holowchak

Will The Real TJ Please Stand Up? Growing up as I did inside the Southern Baptist Church of the Moral Majority/ “Conservative Resurgence” era, Jefferson was one of those Founding Fathers frequently cited in defense of… well, somehow both sides of the issue of religion in the public sphere. Here, Holowchak does a deep dive into the evolving religious beliefs of the infamous Founding Father and third President of the United States of America. And y’all… Holowchak makes it crystal clear that if good ol’ TJ were alive today, he would recognize very little – if anything – of what constitutes the American Church today. Utterly fascinating read, but in a very academic way. If you’re looking for a more conversational approach to this topic… this aint it. But if you’re looking for a well documented critical examination of exactly what this infamously aloof former President actually believed based on his writings and correspondences… this is exactly what you’re looking for. Very much recommended.

This review of American Messiah by M. Andrew Holowchak was originally written on October 3, 2020.

#BookReview: Holiday Home Run by Priscilla Oliveras

Perfect Quick Escape From The Family During The Holidays. This is one of those shorter novels – 94 pages or so, per Amazon – that is great for just getting away from everyone and everything for a couple of hours or so and reading an entire book in the process. Mostly light and fun, there is next to no drama here really – more in line with a Hallmark Christmas movie, if even that much. But like a Hallmark Christmas movie, it mostly focuses on the romance of the two leads – in this case, a Puerto Rican looking to establish herself apart from her family and an ex-MLB pitching ace looking to re-establish himself. Very much recommended.

This review of Holiday Home Run by Priscilla Oliveras was originally written on October 2, 2020.

#BookReview: Second Chance Lane by Nicola Marsh

Typical, Yet Not. This was a solid genre piece with a few nice wrinkles. If you like romance novels generally, you’re going to like this one. If you don’t, you may still actually like this one specifically because of the wrinkles. Without going into spoiler territory, the drama here just seems far more realistic than some others of the genre. You’ve got the mother with a secret. The haunted rock star. The rambunctious and inquisitve 12 yr old. But you’ve also got a second romance in this particular tale – a feature so rare as to be seemingly unique in all of my reading. Normally you get a secondary character blatantly introduced to continue the series in the next book. Here, this secondary character gets their own full story-within-the-story. This story-within-the-story serves to fill out the town and its wide cast even more fully, even as the main story does a good job in and of itself with this. Ultimately this *is* a romance novel and hits pretty well everything one expects – including on-screen (though not erotica-level explicit) sex. So if you are a reader that can’t handle such a scene (and there are less than a handful of them here, basically enough to fulfill the genre requirement and little else) or you can’t handle the occasional “curse” word (again, not prevalent, yet present), you may want to skip this due to your own hangups. For the rest of us, this was an excellent read. Very much recommended.

This review of Second Chance Lane by Nicola Marsh was originally written on October 2, 2020.

#BookReview: Adulting by Liz Talley

Standing Outside The Fire. Ok, so possibly *too* on point or perhaps even a little cliché with the title of the review there, since Talley explicitly brings that song in late in the book with one character explaining to another that this is exactly what has been happening. But I *love* that song, it is easily one of my all-time favorites. 🙂

Anyway, on the book itself: Very fun, but also very deep. The two main characters – Olivia and Chase – are dealing with similar events in their worlds, neither of them realizing at first just how similar they are even if their perspectives on the events in question are very different. Along the way, many, many hijinx are had, including one very scared and borderline feral kitty cat. It is hard to note a particular trigger warning that is relevant enough to probably mention (even though I am not a fan of the practice generally, it is that significant here – though off screen, discussed by the characters as past events). So I’ll note that it ties into #MeToo and leave it at that. Truly a very balanced book about taking control of your own life and being open to possibilities that don’t seem obvious at first, and a very fun read. Very much recommended.

This review of Adulting by Liz Talley was originally written on October 2, 2020.