Featured New Release Of The Week: For All She Knows by Jamie Beck

This week we’re looking at a solid story that also does a remarkable job of showing a truly balanced social examination. This week we’re look at For All She Knows by Jamie Beck.

Amazing Social Examination While Telling Solid Story. I gotta admit, when I first heard about this story featuring “a teen party with a tragic outcome”, I was a bit scared that Beck was about to go preachy. More than a bit, if I’m being perfectly honest. But I’ve come to truly appreciate her strength as a storyteller, and I knew that no matter how preachy she may have gotten, it was going to be a truly excellent story that allowed her to do it.

And yall: She didn’t get preachy. At all. Instead, what we get is a truly balanced, truly nuanced look at how even local politics and tragedies can tear even decades long confidante level friendships to shreds. What we get is two very realistic approaches to parenting – I’ve seen both even within my own family. What we get is two mothers fighting for their sons who happen to be on opposite sides of both the local political issue and the tragedy. And we see in depth the love and devotion each mother has to her son – and what each is willing to do to try to help.

Beck’s older books – romances – were still excellent stories, even if constrained by that particular genre’s (some would argue obsessive and insane) rules. Now unconstrained by those rules and able to tell exactly the story she wants to tell in exactly the way she wants to tell it, this already strong storyteller shows that she is truly a master of her craft. Very much recommended.

Featured New Release Of The Week: You Let Me Go by Eliza Graham

This week we’re looking at a remarkable and rare blending of the historical fiction and women’s fiction genres. This week we’re looking at You Let Me Go by Eliza Graham.

If you’ve read very many of my reviews on WWII historical fiction books at all, you know it is a subject that has long fascinated me due to my own personal family history there – both grandfathers were at the Battle of the Bulge, one got a Silver Star and Purple Heart for his actions there, the other was in the area (at minimum) when the Americans liberated the first concentration camps on their front of the war. And the dichotomy of what I knew of those two men decades later – one (concentration camp) whose lifespan my own intersected with by 5 weeks, the other who I knew for the last 20 years of his life – has become a long running, simmering thread in my own tale.

And without further ado… the Goodreads review. ๐Ÿ™‚

Long Buried Family Secrets Find Closure. Here, we get an interesting spin on this oft-travelled subject and technique. So many books of this genre want to take place primarily in the past with only the occasional jump to the future (ala Titanic), but here Graham sticks remarkably close to alternating every single chapter past and present. The past storyline is, perhaps, a touch more urgent, as it involves hiding a brother and trying to smuggle him out of France in 1941. But the present storyline has more of the “women’s fiction” elements of a woman trying to find herself after the tragic loss of her grandmother soon after the loss of her significant other and business partner… and stumbling across things about her grandmother that had never been known in the family, which leads to her quest and ultimately the resolution of both timelines. Both timelines worked quite well, and it is indeed rare to see a single book blend elements of the two distinct genres together so effectively – which speaks to just how good Graham is. Very much recommended.

Featured New Release Of The Week: Into The Blue by Kay Bratt

This week we’re looking at the (seeming?) conclusion of an amazing series of books set in Hawaii. This week we’re looking at Into The Blue by Kay Bratt.

Satisfying (Seeming?) Conclusion. After Bratt rushed things a bit with Book 2 of this series (No Place Too Far), combining elements that I felt – and mentioned both to the author and in the review – could better be done in multiple books, here she takes the same approach. Yet here, the story is more condensed generally, taking place over just a week or so and having two concurrent storylines that work quite a bit better as a pairing. In one, Jules, the true matriarch of this series, has a medical issue that sidelines her yet gives her a compelling storyline. In the other, and happening concurrently, her youngest daughter has gone missing – and Jonah, the PTSD-suffering Iraq veteran who decades earlier already lost one sister (see Book 1 – True To Me) has to find her.

As with much of this series, it is loosely based on Bratt’s own daughter’s adventures living in Hawaii – the author’s note at the end actually notes a much more perilous event that made the news there in the last few years as the inspiration for the missing daughter piece.

And as with Bratt’s immediately prior book to this series, Dancing With The Sun, this book is essentially a love song to one of her own daughters, and another cry of just how strong her love for that daughter is.

Bratt’s writing, at least in the time I’ve known it, has always been about putting her real world heart on her sleeve and then pouring it into “paper”, while creating worlds that allows her to explore and convey the emotions she is feeling at any moment. It makes her personally vulnerable – but also makes for some of the most compelling reading of the last few years. This story is ultimately no different here. Read it because it is truly an excellent book, one where she took the (light) criticism from its predecessor and largely corrected. Knowing a bit of the backstory – and I haven’t noted anything here beyond that which she has said (IIRC, in much more detail) publicly – only makes it that much richer.

Very much recommended.

#BlogTour: The Choice I Made by Cynthia Ellingsen

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a remarkable book about the murky real world choices so many of us face. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Choice I Made by Cynthia Ellingsen.

Here’s what I had to say about the book on Goodreads:

Choices Are Rarely Clear Cut. Ellingsen does a remarkable job here of showing the tensions between competing choices so many of us face. Spouse vs genetic family. City vs rural. What I wanted to be vs what society made me into. Finding myself vs keeping what I have. And so many more. All within a solid tale ostensibly about a childless married woman trying to help save her family’s Dirty Dancing-style wilderness resort… and stumbling across a secret that could bring it all tumbling down. Excellent work layering so many issues into a readable and average ish length (circa 300 page) story. Very much recommended.

Below the jump, all of the publisher information, including a description of the book, contact links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Choice I Made by Cynthia Ellingsen”

Featured New Release Of The Week: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

This week we’re looking at a stunning tale set in a (now) very famous time and place that is so vivid that you’ll be looking up fictional characters to see if they were real. This week we’re looking at The Rose Code by Kate Quinn.

As always, the Goodreads review:

Wow. All the feels. I make no secret that Alan Turing is a personal hero. He is *very* much suspected of being a fellow Autistic, and because of his brilliance I was able to follow in his footsteps to rise myself out of being a trailer park kid into a career that has already made me far more successful than I ever dared imagine. So when a book is set at Bletchley Park during World War II – where Turing built the first physical “Turing Machines” after having theorized them before the war – … it gets my attention.

And while Turing himself (along with a handful of other particularly significant real-world people of the era) *does* appear in the book – and even helps in the endgame itself – this book is NOT about him. Instead, this is effectively a book about the *other* people there at Bletchley during the period and what *they* went through… while spinning a tight tale of personal and national betrayals as a solid fiction story should. ๐Ÿ™‚ We see the era and the place through three very different eyes – a likely (female) Autistic (though Quinn never uses that word to describe the character, as it wouldn’t be period-authentic) who is over-protected by her very religious parents (gee, where does *that* feel familiar? ๐Ÿ˜‰ ), a poor, down on her luck girl from the “wrong side of the tracks” just trying to get by and become better than her birth (again, where does this seem familiar? :D), and a well-connected socialite who wants to prove that she is more than just her birth. And we see how friendship and even family can grow between such disparate people. Truly an outstanding work that hooks you from Chapter 1 and keeps you reading through the final words… even though those words come over 650 pages later! Oh, and if you’re familiar with The Imitation Game (the 2014 movie focusing on Turing’s work at BP)… you may just have its theme running through your head when you finish this tale. Very much recommended.

#BlogTour: We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid Book 1 of a potential new superhero fiction series. For this blog tour, we’re looking at We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen.

This is a book that feels very much at home with the kind of superhero world the CW’s Arrowverse has built out – and indeed this world could fit in right alongside that renowned universe.

Here’s what I had to say about it on Goodreads:

My First Foray Into Superhero Books. As much as I’ve read scifi for literally decades, this is actually my first foray into the actual superhero fiction genre. Yes, I’ve read a few comic books in my day and am a big fan of most of the major franchises, but this was my very first superhero fiction novel. And y’all, I found it quite compelling – even as a 38 yo married male reading about two people closer to that Young Adult / New Adult category. While the Arrowverse inspirations for this project were quite clear in so *very* many areas, Chen still managed to create an intriguing and interesting story that could plausibly hold its own against any of those shows – and maybe even be better than some of them. This book definitely feels like a Book 1 for a potential new series, and this reader for one would be down for that. Very much recommended.

Below the jump, we have an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the book along with all of the relevant information from the publisher. ๐Ÿ™‚
Continue reading “#BlogTour: We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen”

#BookReview: Primal Thirst by Kent Holloway

In Kent Holloway’s Primal Thirst, we start out with Jack, a cigar chomping professor/ cryptozoologist/ adventurer in the Amazon chasing a supposedly mythological creature – and get pounced on by real cats at the edge of a ravine! Barely escaping that calamity, Jack gets offered a simple job with a lot of money behind it. Fly immediately to Malaysia, rescue a Senator’s daughter, and fly her home safely. Nothing to it, right?

Except that she’s beautiful and the remote tribe she is working with is being slowly slaughtered by creatures that a) are not supposed to exist b) IF they exist, they are supposed to be no more than a foot or two tall and c) are over 4 feet tall! Oh, and they suck you dry of blood… without leaving a mark on you.

Can our daring adventurer save the day? What are these creatures? How did they get so big? And why does some former Soviet who is intent on overthrowing the Malaysian government want the oldest of the creatures for himself?

Well, you’re just going to have to read this book to find out!

*Disclaimer: I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

This review of Primal Thirst by Kent Holloway was originally published on February 27, 2013.

#BookReview Evolution by Kelly Carrero

Kelly Carrero has done something fairly rare in my experience – written something that is fairly unique. The closest thing I can think of to what she has pulled off here is the movie Jumper, and even that lacked the execution of Ms. Carrero.

You can get the overall synopsis from the Amazon blurb, but what it doesn’t tell you is that the ending sequence is fairly shocking… and makes you want to get the second book immediately. For those who came to Ms. Carrero before the followup was published a month ago, this had to be somewhat….. tormenting. ๐Ÿ˜‰ I know waiting on the third book is!

Do yourself a favor and pick up this book. I got it while it was free, and honestly I would have gladly paid the current price or even more had I known it was going to be this good. (Side note to Ms. Carrero: Smart marketing move doing the free/ $0.99 move on the first book. Honestly doubt I would have picked it up at $2.99, just because I had never heard of you – and I would have missed out on a GREAT book.)

This review of Evolution by Kelly Carrero was originally published on November 23, 2012.

#BookReview: Seven Principles of Good Government by Gary Johnson

I’ve been following the Governor since some friends started talking about him a couple of years ago when he launched the Our America Initiative. Honestly, before that point, I’d never heard of the man.

Even though I’ve been following him for a couple of years and know quite a bit about him and his positions, this book revealed far more that even I didn’t know – and convinced me even more that this is the man that America needs in the White House.

For example, while I’ve always known him to be forthright, I didn’t know to the exact extent he held himself until reading the chapter about honesty. Truman once famously said “The Buck Stops Here.” Johnson lives that statement, even when he knows the honest answer may wind up hurting him, as it did in New Mexico a time or two.

And I had never known about his program as Governor to allow any citizen of his State 5 minutes at a time to talk to him about anything they needed or wanted to speak to him about. For a few hours every evening, he set aside time to hear directly from the people. Not the various lobbying groups that haunt all Capitols, but the people directly. I personally think that made him a better Governor, and I would challenge all Governors to emulate that program (apparently his immediate successor, Bill Richardson, did at least for a time). Can you imagine how in tune a President would be with the American people if he had such a program? No more lobbyists in the Lincoln bedroom, no more “Celebrity President”, simply average Americans telling their President exactly what is on their mind.

Along the way through this book, you meet both the man and his ideals. You learn about the very human, very pragmatic side of the man who became known as Governor Veto – and you learn exactly why he vetoed so many bills.

In an age of increasing polarization of the electorate, this book stands as a shining example of a man who is well respected by all sides, even those who oppose his views. As he sometimes says on the campaign trail, he is the only candidate for President who the residents of his state wave at him with all five fingers, not just one.

This review of Seven Principles of Good Government by Gary Johnson was originally published on August 24, 2012.

#BookReview Resurrect by Kane Gilmour

RESURRECT is Kane Gilmour’s first work, and I would EASILY put it up there with other first works such as Dale Brown’s Flight of the Old Dog, Clive Cussler’s Mediterranean Caper, or Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October. Yes, this book is THAT good – or better.

The action starts with a plane crash in a remote region of China near Tibet, picks up with the survivor and her rescuers being chased through a mountain by people trying to blow them up, and reaches a finale with the group battling their adversaries INSIDE St Peter’s Basilica.

Along the way, we meet Jason Quinn and Curtis Johnson, our heroes and best friends who work together at ARGO – a group reminiscent of Cussler’s NUMA or David Golemon’s Event Group – who will be featured in at least Gilmour’s next work. Johnson is the practical, friendly side kick to Quinn’s friendly yet mysterious do-whatever-it-takes hero.

Gilmour is an author Jeremy Robinson has taken under his wing, and it shows. In one more blatant way, in the weapons used by the bad guys. This is not a bad thing at all, but fans of Robinson’s CHESS TEAM novels (and novellas, the latest of which, CALLSIGN: DEEP BLUE, was cowritten by Gilmour) will recognize them as probably the only other novel they’ve ever read that feature these particular cutting edge weapons.

So yeah, absolutely go pick up this book, and while you’re at it, go ahead and pick up DEEP BLUE. Based on Robinson’s past work and the strength of RESURRECT, I’m confident in telling you that you won’t be disappointed in either purchase.

This review of Resurrect by Kane Gilmour was originally published on December 10, 2011.