Tag: family

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#BookReview: Adrift by Will Dean

What If Carrie Never Developed Superpowers? Seriously, that’s the kind of vibe I got from this book, particularly with the way Carrie is set up with such an abusive and controlling parent and is mocked so heavily at school, both of which are features here.

No, this isn’t “Will Dean” the way I’ve read him these more recent books (Last Passenger, The Chamber), wherein there was some truly isolated setting and some huge twist… and you know what, it actually works in his favor in this case, because he is still able to craft an isolated type of story in an atypical setting and still uses the setting quite well to propel his story, so it still fits with the overall style I expect from him… just in a very unconventional and unexpected manner.

Now, for those who can’t handle stories with heavy amounts of (primarily non-physical) abuse, manipulation, and bullying… yeah, this story isn’t going to be for you. You do you, and if/ when you think you can handle a story of this type, this one will still he here, still as excellently written as it is already.

But for the rest of us, while dark, this really was a rather compelling tale, just one a bit off beat. There really aren’t any real “thriller” elements here through the majority of the text… and that may actually be one of the most insidious aspects of this story. Instead, this is a far more all-encompassing cold, steady drum beat of so many seemingly simpler, more prima facie innocent *enough* abuses that its spectacle is in its very banality. Yes, dad in particular is a bit of a weirdo, but at the end of the day he’s also just a “normal”, if particular, dad (of a certain era, at minimum).

If you want a Michael Bay style story with explosions in every other paragraph… this aint that. But if the idea of an entire book more akin to the first bits of the Carrie story is something you find intriguing… you’re going to love this book.

Very much recommended.

This review of Adrift by Will Dean was originally written on January 27, 2026.

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#BookReview: What Tomorrow Will Be by Julianne MacLean

Proof That The Greatest Romances Don’t Always Involve HEA. Oh that title is sure to roil up oh so many in booklandia, but this tale really is, at least in some ways, proof of something I’ve personally long held, that the greatest *romance* stories known to humanity don’t always involve a happily ever after.

Like Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, we get an all too brief but oh so epic romance tale for the absolute *ages*… before we see it shattered in an instant. The love – and the tragedy – are far *too* real in MacLean’s words, and the room will get quite dusty indeed through this section of our tale.

And then, like Without Remorse again, we get a new romance at some time period after the initial one, and this is where we spend the majority of the tale (unlike Without Remorse, which is as much military thriller as it is romance… indeed, Clancy *set out* to write a military thriller, he just also included one of the best romance tales I’ve ever read even now).

This one too is divided – we see the couple coming together, and again here MacLean truly makes us *feel* it. Unless you have a block of solid granite in your chest, you’re going to be swooning through this section. It really is one of those truly epic love stories that really makes you feel what these characters are feeling.

But then we flash forward several years again, and this time reality has set in. We’re beyond the honeymoon period, and life is taking its toll. Here we get to the real drama of the book, and again MacLean does a superb job. Various conflicts are happening, and MacLean does a great job of making them all too real. Some of the drama is unfortunately plucked from so many peoples’ experiences, some of it is more reminiscent of the chronically underrated Hundred Foot Journey – but with a twist more familiar to many romance novels and indeed all too familiar to far too many people’s real lives. Here, MacLean does a superb job of making each character – at least those at the heart of these conflicts – feel like they could be sitting there reading these words over our shoulder – they feel *that* real.

And then that back third or so. Simply stupendous. Just. Wow. I’ve read a few of MacLean’s books in recent years, and I do believe this one to possibly be her most powerful yet, certainly among those I’ve read. And yes, it is in this back third that we really see the true power of what I said in the title of this review – sometimes the greatest romances don’t involve a happily ever after. Sometimes the greatest romances of all are the ones that change us forever.

But that isn’t actually a spoiler of anything here. You’re just going to have to read this book to find out exactly what MacLean did here to make me say that. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of What Tomorrow Will Be by Julianne MacLean was originally written on January 27, 2026.

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#BookReview: It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica

Solid Mary Kubica Thriller. That’s really all long time fans of Kubica need to know – she’s written yet another thriller that will have you breathlessly up way too late in the evening because “just one more chapter” keeps being repeated. One where the twists are coming almost literally until the very last word of the text.

For those new to Kubica, while I can’t honestly say I’ve read *everything* she’s written, I’ve read several – enough to know her current style at minimum, and like I said above, this is *exactly* her current style. So if you’re into books like what I described earlier, congratulations, you’ve found a new author you’re very much likely to enjoy quite a bit from, including this book.

Beyond the standard though, Kubica actually works several interesting tweaks into the story here that help it standout *somewhat* without necessarily being something you’re still going to remember a few hundred books down the road (whenever that may be for you). Enough to keep even voracious readers interested and guessing, even when you think you’ve seen every possible variation of every possible twist. Yes, you may have seen this one before too… but I can almost guarantee you that you haven’t seen it done *quite* like this.

Overall a very fun book and a great one when you need a distraction from the so-called “real” world for any reason at all.

Very much recommended.

This review of It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica was originally written on January 26, 2026.

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#BookReview: The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross

Strong Tale of Multi-Generational Grief Marred By Preachiness On Certain Topics. First off, let’s clear the air about one thing: Harper Ross isn’t a debut author. This is “Ross” debut *under that pseudonym* and *in this specific genre* of magical realism, but Ross is actually a well established author that I’ve read and reviewed many books from over the years and we actually know each other through that level of communication and speaking about book related topics on social media a few times.

Because I know Ross, I can tell you that while those who believe her to be a debut author could think that perhaps the seriousness of certain sections of this book was new to her, I actually know that these types of discussions were actually where she had been already heading, and indeed she had had similar types of discussions in other books I had read from her.

And honestly, I thoroughly enjoy what she was attempting to pull off here and much of what she did in fact pull off. As a whole tale, this book is an *extremely* powerful look at loss and regret and parents trying to do what is best for their kids and adults seeking to navigate all of their complex relationships as best they can. Seriously, on all of these notes, this is quite likely the most depth and emotion Ross has ever achieved – which is saying quite a bit, because if I remember correctly, some of those prior books involved a few dusty rooms.

One thing that sets this book apart – beyond the obvious – is that in not having some of the guard rails and prerequisites Ross once had, she was more free to plumb real emotional depth and not be hogtied on some levels by previous requirements, and this freedom combined with Ross’ apparently innate storytelling strength really allows her to excel here in areas she wasn’t really allowed to go into before, certainly not to this level or for this long. Yes, there were some *moments* of such depth in prior works, but here the entire tale is more rich and full within these spaces than Ross has ever done before. Which was truly awesome, and knowing some of the prior books, it really does go to show just how great a storyteller she is that she can navigate from one to the other.

Where this book falls is in its heavy handed preachiness on a couple of key topics in particular. As both are spoilers since they are not in the description – and one is absolutely a spoiler since it is *the very secret the description says is in the story*, I’ll not reveal here what they are. Instead I’ll add a postscript after the ultimate recommendation with the spoilers but with several lines of warning before I speak to them for people who do not wish to see them. I will also enclose them in spoiler tags on platforms where this review appears that support such tags. That way you, the reader of my review, can choose to look for them or not. Now, Ross has gone perhaps a touch heavy on similar ish issues before – but it was never to this level. Perhaps a downside of not having those guardrails and prerequisites she was bound by in earlier efforts, or perhaps just a genuine misstep in these even more contentious times. Ross has her views on these subjects and I have mine and let’s just say that we learned long ago neither is going to change the other. Unfortunately for this tale, she just goes *so very hard* within the book for several pages on one of them in particular, and the book ultimately suffers for it. Yes, this is specifically about the secret in the description, which is revealed in the story at around the 90% ish mark.

Ultimately, I’m truly elated to see Ross writing again. I truly love her style and what she is able to do, and I think this particular tale is actually *on its whole* a great new evolution of her capabilities. I genuinely hope St. Martin’s agrees and keeps her on for quite a while, but if something every happens and she finds she must, I hope Ross is never afraid to perhaps go the Independent route to get her stories out. The world would be lesser without them. Truly. But Ross, you know I’m not going to bullshit you: Find a way to get your message across without being so heavy handed about it. Please. You can integrate those exact same topics into the story and have them not be so preachy, and you’re good enough to figure out how to do that.

Very much recommended.

And now for the spoilers.

I’m adding several lines here so that people can stop reading and not see what I’m about to write.

Or at least that is my intention.

Seriously, if you don’t want to see spoilers, STOP READING NOW.

Don’t make me warn you again. SPOILERS AHEAD.

THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The two topics that Ross is heavy handed on:
1) alcoholism and treatment. For most of the tale, this is actually handled *really* well. Even through most of the fallout of some of the alcoholic’s actions, Ross still does quite well with showing an emotional and powerful tale. It is specifically during the treatment section and its fallout that Ross gets particularly preachy, and it does come across as just too much. Add in that Ross highlights an unconventional (for many) path/ doesn’t highlight the most well known path (or at minimum have a throw away line about how problematic it can be itself and thus the character doesn’t want to go that route), and you’ve got something that is both preachy and contentious, and it doesn’t actually add much to the story to be this preachy and contentious here – if anything.
2) Abortion. This is the secret from the description, and pretty well everything about the entire discussion here is heavy handed and preachy. It comes across more as a semi-moderate 2020s feminist lecture about the topic (in that at least one character thinks the boyfriend should have been at least informed about the pregnancy before the abortion, while still emphasizing that it was entirely the girl’s decision) than a real heartfelt emotional scene the way Ross was clearly intending. It is also something that by its presence and in particular the way Ross chose to handle it will turn at least some segment of readers completely away. Which is a business level decision rather than a storytelling one, at least to this reviewer. I know from prior works that Ross *can* be at least slightly more balanced on contentious issues, but that prior restraint/ balance doesn’t really come through here *at all* except for the one line (ish) about wishing the boyfriend had been informed first.

This review of The Unwritten Rules of Magic by Harper Ross was originally written on January 23, 2026.

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#BlogTour: The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman

For this blog tour, we’re looking at very solid penultimate book in its series. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com), Substack, and YouTube:

Solid Penultimate Book In Series. This is one of those entire series where you’re going to want to read the entire series before this point – including the short story prequel that sets everything up – before you get here. Even though this one stands alone (*ish*), you really need that deep understanding of all that is going on here to fully appreciate this story, and really those prior books are just as strong as this one, so if you see this one first and are interested in it at all, you’ll be glad you read them first anyway.

For what this book – and its predecessors – actually is though, it really is quite good. We get a dual timeline with both women’s fiction and romance elements in both timelines – enough that yes, this book technically satisfies all known RWA/ RNA requirements to be “officially” classified as a romance novel – and all elements here are done remarkably well. Considering that some other authors struggle at times with one timeline or genre and Kelman here is not only juggling, but excelling in, a combined four different genre/ timeline combinations is really quite astounding, and an absolute testament to her storytelling abilities.

If you enjoy dusty rooms or cutting onions, you’re going to love this book. (To be clear here, men don’t cry. The room is either very dusty or we’re cutting a lot of onions. We. Never. Cry. (And yes, this is a joke, but a joke explaining the other joke. 😉 )) If you enjoy books that both transport you to another place *and* make you *feel* something within it, you’re going to enjoy this book. If you enjoy books that are close enough to reality that you can more easily switch your brain off and accept the one presented in front of you, you’re going to enjoy this book.

And when you get done with this book… well, you’ll be glad to know that apparently we can expect the conclusion to this series later in 2026. I’m not sure *how* public the release date of Book 5 here is -I asked the publisher directly and have a longstanding working relationship with them across dozens of reviews every few months for several years now – but I feel reasonably confident that no one will get too upset with me for saying simply “by the end of this year”. 😀 And seriously, I can’t wait. Definitely going to be one hell of a back-end-of-2026 read, just as this book was one hell of a Book 5 of 2026 read for me.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Secret Twins Of Paris by Suzanne Kelman”

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#BookReview: Such Sheltered Lives by Alyssa Sheinmel

Slow Paced Yet Intriguing, Not Sure That Twist Lands As Intended. This is one of those slower paced books where there is enough here to keep you invested – and Sheinmel certainly drops some bombs at exactly the right time when maybe you’re becoming slightly less invested. Also a great shortish (sub 300 page) read, but a slower one where the scenes play out more akin to the pace one would imagine of a luxury beach resort rehab facility so much of the story is set within. Which itself works quite well.

The one thing that becomes a bit jarring is the twist, and because it is the twist I really can’t say *too* much about it here in this review other than to note that for me, the story became maybe a touch *too* weird here, or maybe it was just that the editing could have been a touch tighter to help focus the reader a touch more. *Something* just felt a touch off… but maybe that was a “me” thing. It is very possible, maybe even very likely, that I’m the idiot here and that this twist works for most people and works rather flawlessly for them. Read the book for yourself, write your own review, and feel free to tag me wherever you may see this review on your own feeds and let me know what you thought about it.

Very much recommended.

This review of Such Sheltered Lives by Alyssa Sheinmel was originally written on December 31, 2025.

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#BookReview: We Were Never Friends by Kaira Rouda

Don’t Like Collegiate Greek Life? This Book Is Likely A Large Example Of Why. Ok, so I gotta admit, Greeks were never that big at my commuter school that had just earned University status less than a decade before I first started classes and which had been a literal corn field when my parents were born. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely proud to be a Kennesaw State Owl, and the school has come a LONG way in its short existence – but we also don’t have the hundreds of years of collegiate greek life that schools like the University of Georgia or the University of Alabama or Auburn University or Ole Miss have (not to mention those damn Yankee schools). For me, as someone who rose even to President of KSU’s chapter of a collegiate honor society and thus had a cube right by all the Greek groups that we did have in the student center… well, this book confirms the worst things I’d ever thought about them.

Thus, those who have a more positive picture of collegiate greek life… well… you’re probably not going to like this particular book.

Rouda is typical Rouda here, with all kinds of drama in yet another locked-in environment and all kinds of secrets that are going to come out over the course of this weekend. It just so happens that the connection between the primary characters is that decades ago, they were all sorority sisters and had one particularly fateful Senior Spring Break trip that has reverberated throughout the rest of their lives…

Short, with tons of drama and a pace that will keep you reading quite late indeed, this is great for those looking for an end of the year “I need to squeeze in one more book!” type read – or for those looking for a fun, quick read any time of year… maybe even during Spring Break? With your Greek brothers and sisters? 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of We Were Never Friends by Kaira Rouda was originally written on December 31, 2025.

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#BookReview: Night Terror by Vincent Ralph

Solid YA Horror. Weird Whiplash As Book 2 In Series. This book, taken independently, is pretty damn awesome. You’ve got strong 80s vibes, including strong RL Stine type vibes. You’ve got a mall – that quintessential 80s teen experience (says the kid who was never a teen until the mid 90s). You’ve got all kinds of ancient smalltown creepiness and secrets. Seriously, every bit of this is clicking on every level.

You’ve even got monsters that fans of Jeremy Robinson will recognize, as the way Ralph writes his zombies here is very reminiscent of the way Robinson uses at least some types of zombies in his book TORMENT, later retconned to be part of his INFINITE TIMELINE event. Which was nice to see – and possibly shows Ralph to be as … “creative”, let’s go with “creative”… as Robinson. 🙂 One thing Ralph’s version lacks, particularly from Robinson’s original incarnation of TORMENT, is the subtle yet also quite present religious allegory. Ralph’s tale here is instead more straight horror, zero subtext (at least that this reader picked up on).

No, where the whiplash comes in is that the first book in this series was set 40 ish years after this second entry, with the first book being bleeding edge tech and very human horror, whereas this second entry both sends us back in time *and* gives us a far more supernatural style of horror that wasn’t even hinted at in the first book. Read independently, both books are awesome. Read as a “series”… you almost have to envision each book as being the same town in different universes, all experiencing horrors unique to that universe’s version of the town? Which is a bit weird, but can also work well enough. (Indeed, Robinson himself did a horror series that was more akin to Sliders where the entire town slid between universes – he called that series REFUGE, and to date it remains one of his fans’ favorites.)

Still, for what this book itself is, this really was a quite solid YA horror tale that does a phenomenal job of showing its version of this town and its time period quite well indeed.

Very much recommended.

This review of Night Terror by Vincent Ralph was originally written on December 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph

Bleeding Edge Thriller May Not Be For The Younger Side Of YA. This is one of those tales that will be utterly terrifying for many in just how real it is, at least in its basic “Yes, AI can do this now” premise. And on that side, it absolutely works quite well without going into the “AI is evil” camp, which is quite refreshing to see an author hold off on going off that particular cliff. AI is a tool, same as any other, and thus can be used for both good and evil – it is the mind and the intent of the human wielding the tool that is actually good or evil, not the tool itself, and it was genuinely awesome to see an author take pretty much that exact position here and even use it quite well in a horror setting.

What makes this tale perhaps not suitable for the younger YA readers is that there are absolutely enough F-bombs in this short 250 ish page text to garner it an R rating, even without the body count and grisly descriptions of most of the murders at hand. Is it puritanical to care more about language than vividly described gory murders? Perhaps, but in this case you’re also reading review being written by a fan of Mortal Kombat since it first came out, and while I’m no fan of hyper gory horror ala Saw, this one had a just enough to be gruesome in some scenes without going heavy handed slasher. Far more Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer than Saw or Texas Chainsaw Massacre… and with enough self awareness to actually have its characters talk about being in a horror “movie”.

Overall this was a solid high school level horror tale that makes great use of its overall setting to tell a tale that is both ancient and exceedingly modern.

Very much recommended.

This review of Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph was originally written on December 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan

Tremors Meets Open Range. I truly think the best way to describe this book for an at least somewhat general audience – you still need to be familiar with these movies – really is the combination of the movies I use in the title of the review here.

In Tremors, you get an excellent use of a closed environment (in the case of the movie, a desert valley where the only road in or out has been blocked) to create a fun, intense survival type thriller where the good guys can only guess at what is going on. Brennan absolutely *nailed* that element here, using catastrophic flooding to great effect.

In Open Range, there are other issues going on between neighbors, with some neighbors being less than neighborly to their neighbors. Some might even say they were dirty, underhanded, cowardly snakes who were only looking out for themselves. Again, Brennan absolutely *nails* this element as well… while actually expanding on it in some rather interesting ways.

Ultimately, our central family truly is the heart of this tale, even as the events of the book keep them separated for so much of it. Brennan uses both environment and human quite well, and truly manages to give very nearly every character some level of weight to them such that you really want to see how this plays out for everyone… even the snakes. But especially the family cat who has run off in the storm…

Solid book that could get perhaps a touch too real for some when it is scheduled for release in the middle of the summer of 2026, this is absolutely a book fans of both family drama and survival tales are going to want to read, and it appears to be truly standalone to boot.

Very much recommended.

This review of Whisper Creek by Allison Brennan was originally written on December 19, 2025.