Tag: Ireland

Posted on

#BookReview: The Other Side Of Now by Paige Harbison

One Of The Hardest Hitting ‘Glimpse’ Tales I’ve Ever Come Across. This is one of those ‘glimpse’ tales – ala The Family Man (the 2000s era movie with Nic Cage and Tea Leoni) or It’s A Wonderful Life, and yet in its specific mechanics, it hit me harder than any I’ve come across before it. There are really only two books I’ve come across before – that I believe I’ve written reviews for over the years – that even come close, but revealing which two gets way too close to spoiler territory. So read this book then look back through my reviews (available on BookHype.com, PageBound.co, TheStoryGraph, Goodreads, or my blog at BookAnon.com) and see if you can make the connection yourself. 😀 (Ok, so *no one* is going to do that. But it could be a fun challenge for someone who is particularly bored, maybe? :D) Also, don’t forget to leave your own review of this book after you read it. *Then* go look through mine. 😀

But seriously, this is an utterly hilarious book that happens to have a lot of heart – both of which are hallmarks of this type of tale, and both of which are done particularly well by Harbison.

The selection of exact characterization here helps – a regular girl from Florida who has two different dreams which ultimately become two different realities one day such that she gets to live through both and see what both are really like. Yes, there is a fair amount of Hollywood name dropping and commentary, but again, I’ve seen that in many other books with similar characters, and it works well to establish this exact characterization early, particularly since the real ‘meat’ of the book is actually the *other* life.

What made this hit so hard personally was an event I don’t speak much of publicly, but which has direct bearing on this book – but again, I have to be very vague here in order to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say that my reality – assuming the one I’m typing this review in *is* reality – wound up very different from the one in the book, yet it is also all *too* easy for me to see how my reality could have been a version of this tale, all the way to me becoming a version of our lead character. (Though to be clear, *no one* is casting me as an actor. The one time I acted at all was in a HS play – Midsummer Night’s Dream – and even playing a character who was *supposed* to be a bad actor… damn, I was *really* bad at even that!)

If you’ve never encountered a ‘glimpse’ tale, this is genuinely one of the better ones I’ve come across, particularly in the last few years, so it is a great place to start. Long time fans of the type of tale, like me, will likely enjoy this particular tale quite a bit too.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Other Side Of Now by Paige Harbison was originally written on June 2, 2025.

Posted on

#BlogTour: The Irish House by Ann O’Loughlin

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid tale of family taking care of each other. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Irish House by Ann O’Loughlin.

Here’s what I had to say on Goodreads:

A Grandmother’s Love. This is, ultimately, a tale of a grandmother’s loves – for her daughters, her granddaughters, and her home. O’Loughlin does an excellent job of making the grandmother feel like an active character, even though she is already dead in the very first scene, and indeed the grandmother winds up driving the narrative as much as anything else. Outside of the grandmother, this is a tale of one woman’s decisions as her life is thrown into chaos in more ways than one, and now she is tasked with repairing a house and her cousins… while also repairing what she can of her own life. It is a tale of learning and loving and the mistakes we make big and small and the love and understanding that gets us through them all. Written very conservatively without being preachy, this is one that the “sweet”/ “clean” crowd will like, and those that expect more cursing and/ or bedroom action in their women’s fiction/ romance blends may find a bit lacking. Overall a solid tale for what it was, this is absolutely one worthy of a few hours of your time. Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, and social media and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Irish House by Ann O’Loughlin”

Posted on

#BookReview: Collateral Damage by John Sneeden

Explosive Spy / Revenge Thriller. When we catch up with our heroine of the series in this book, she is hiding and hurting – but still righting wrongs where she sees them, in badass and brutally effective fashion. And shortly thereafter, she gets roped into yet another mission that turns out to not be as it seems, which leads to even more action which tends to also be brutally effective at times. Yet again Sneeden does an excellent job of providing a seemingly shortish (no official page count as I type this review, but it *felt* like it was in the sub-300 page area) bit of pure escapism, this time highlighting various areas of Europe in the process. Perfect for fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher or J.M. LeDuc’s Sinclair O’Malley, or (sadly now late) Matthew Mather’s Delta Devlin. Very much recommended.

This review of Collateral Damage by John Sneeden was originally written on October 1, 2022.

Posted on

#BookReview: Emerald Dragon by David Wood

Solid And Short Maddock Adventure Perfect For Longtime Fans And People New To The Universe. Much like Golden Dragon a couple of books prior to this one, this is another short adventure – though at 120 pages, it is nearly double the length of Golden Dragon. It also has seemingly slightly fewer connections and references to other pars of the Maddock universe, though it has several connections to Golden Dragon – which is why readers should make sure they read that book first. (Seriously, buy both and you’ll likely finish both while waiting at the doctor’s office. :D) Here, we’re in Ireland and when you’re studying cryptids and ancient mysteries in Ireland… you get St. Patrick. And dragons. And lots of green stuff. And pagans. And old libraries and castles and crypts. When you’re *Maddock and Bones* virtually anywhere, you know there are going to be fun chase and hand to hand combat sequences, with a few guns going off here and there to boot and maybe some interesting mystical objects that turn out to be weapons of various forms. So pick this book up, have a couple of hours of relaxation and fun… and then go back to whatever awaits you in the “real” world, happier now that you’ve had the break. Very much recommended.

This review of Emerald Dragon by David Wood was originally written on September 2, 2022.

Posted on

#BookReview: Bad Luck Bridesmaid by Alison Rose Greenberg

Rampant Misandry Mars Otherwise Interesting And Compelling Debut. Up front: If you’re looking at this as a potential romance book… it isn’t that. It is more of a women’s fiction book, with an interesting take on the genre and in particular the well-travelled bridesmaid trope. My biggest problem here is the truly rampant misandry – the main character here is *constantly* being so utterly bigoted towards men, to the level that if even a female author had flipped this and done the same thing with a male character towards females, every single review would lead off with how misogynistic the character was. Which is my own standard for bigotry: ok for me, but not for thee. If you can flip the demographics from the targeted to the targetter without issue, awesome. But if you would have a problem if that happened… then there is a problem, period. But again, fun and unconventional story outside of the blatant and rampant misandry, and thus one that truly is worthy of consideration. Just, again, do NOT go into this expecting a romance. More of a train wreck, really. Just a particularly entertaining one. Recommended.

This review of Bad Luck Bridesmaid by Allison Rose Greenberg was originally written on January 12, 2022.