Tag: secrets

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#BookReview: The Secrets Of Good People by Boo Walker and Peggy Shainberg

Walker Shows Impressive Range. I’ve been reading Walker’s books for a few years now, and this is a first for him in my experience with him (though he notes in the Author’s Note that he had written a few books of this type prior to when I started reading his books). A laid back mystery of a form I call a “Gulf Coast Mystery”, almost like a more serious version of D.P. Lyle’s Jake Longley books – and set decades prior to those books. (Ok, so Ray Longley (Jake’s dad) and Quentin Jones crossing paths could have been interesting – just sayin’, Walker and Lyle. 😉 )

Walker, who has spent time living in many different places even in the few years I’ve been following him, among which was this particular region of Florida described in the book, captures the setting well – perhaps added by Shainberg’s original text, which Walker notes (again in the Author’s Note) was much of the tale up to Chapter 12.

Being set in the 1970s, this book has some things that will offend “modern sensibilities”, including quite a bit of cigarette smoking (virtually unheard of in many places in the 2020s) and even one particular situation that even hints of in the 2010s and beyond in particular tends to be vilified to the nth degree, and indeed gets snide comments even now in the 2020s even when everything plays out perfectly legally. I’m not going to indicate how it plays out in the text just because that would be a spoiler, as the tension of this particular situation plays into the overall narrative.

Speaking of which, Walker does a particularly good job of sticking to the old adage of “if you show a blue shoe on page 2, that blue shoe better play into the end game”. (Ok, so I absolutely butchered the quote, but the point being to show *exactly* what you want shown and *nothing* else.) Meaning that this is one of those tales where everyone has secrets… and, well… how everything comes together can get quite a bit thrilling…

Seriously, this was perhaps the more interesting aspect of this book is that even as a women’s fiction/ mystery blend – the men’s fiction side of it tending to be something Walker has excelled at in my reading of his work these last several years – Walker really does manage to do the thriller and even romance sides particularly well, particularly deep into the text.

Overall truly one of Walker’s better books from several different angles, both in showing more fully his range and in his ability to work with what another author had begun and finish it out in a way that seems true to that original author’s vision – which could provide Walker a path forward, should he ever run out of his own ideas. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of The Secrets Of Good People by Boo Walker and Peggy Shainberg was originally written on March 18, 2025.

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#BookReview: We Are Made Of Stars by Rochelle Weinstein

Surprising And Unexpected Yet Powerful. Following Weinstein on social media, I know she was writing this book shortly after the Hamas attacks on Israel in late 2023. As I finished reading this text (that I’ve had on my Kindle for a couple of months or so even now), Hamas had been parading the caskets of several babies they had murdered earlier in the day. Given that the Surfside Condo collapse in Miami a few years ago now – where Weinstein’s family personally knew a few of the victims – clearly contributed quite a bit of emotional heft to the book she was writing at the time, I expected the same to be true here, as Weinstein is quite vocal (yet, to be clear, not preachy) about her Jewish faith and support of the State of Israel. (Haters, go the fuck away. While I’ve only known Weinstein online to date, she is truly a great person in my own interactions with her, no matter what your own political beliefs may be – and we *do* disagree quite substantially politically.)

So that is the background I approached this story with, my own “baggage” I brought into the Drift, even as I generally approach each and every book with a blank slate – and indeed knew *nothing* about this book beyond its title and that Weinstein had written it when I agreed to read and review it, and even when reading it this remained all that I knew (plus that it releases next week so I needed to hurry up with the reading and reviewing!).

What I actually found here was, as I noted in the title of the review, quite surprising and unexpected – for some reason I expected at least one blatantly Jewish character, if not every single protagonist in the book, to be honest, along with a much more blatantly Jewish plot, along the lines of say Jean Meltzer’s books… even though I know from prior reading that this isn’t really Weinstein’s style. What I *actually* got here was a powerful tale of several flawed duos within families – mostly husbands and wives going trying to work through some level of trauma within their relationship, but also a powerful story (that takes a more prominent role later in the text) between a mother and her daughter.

While there are a total of ten main characters and the story *is* told from multiple perspectives (yes, I know there are readers who don’t like that either – if you’re at least willing to try it, this is a *really* good one to try with), Weinstein (and, perhaps, her editors) made the smart choice of limiting our number of perspectives to just a few, and never both halves of any of the five duos. This helps both story cohesion and progression, as even with chapter based perspective switches, at least this way we aren’t getting first person views of both sides of the dynamic in question.

And the traumas that are happening here… even without being explicitly tied into anything overly “real-world”, they’re at the same time all too real. I don’t want to detail them here due to spoiler potential, but I will note that Weinstein truly shines here in just how real and relatable she manages to make pretty well everything about all of these interweaving secrets and dynamics, and the pacing is done particularly well such that some surprises are tossed in early, others are late and seemingly out of nowhere (yet fit perfectly), and still others are teased well with what becomes for me at least a perfectly satisfactory payoff.

Overall truly a powerful and well written story, exactly what Weinstein is known for, and one that will have the room quite dusty at several different points – you’ve been warned about that too, now. 😉 This is one that will leave you with that beautiful “wow, what did I just read” feeling (in the best possible ways) and will hopefully show you a path through even your own struggles.

Very much recommended.

This review of We Are Made Of Stars by Rochelle Weinstein was originally written on February 21, 2025.

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#BookReview: Get Lost With You by Sophie Sullivan

Solid Small Town Romance With A Touch Of Spice. For those looking for Carolina Reaper level spice… this ain’t that. Yet it also isn’t a warm glass of milk. I’d say it hits around a habanero or so – spicy enough to zing the taste buds a bit, but also mild enough to excite those who generally prefer a warm glass of milk without giving them “the vapors”. 😉

On the actual romance side, well, there’s as much family drama going on here as romance, so your mileage will absolutely vary on that side. There’s a lot of drama to work through, though both halves of our couple wanted each other all those years ago… and that never really went away, despite our female lead marrying and having a kid with another dude in the meantime (one source of so much family drama).

Fans of small town insta love/ second chance Hallmarkie type romances will generally enjoy this one. Those looking for more spice or more glitz or more glamour or more action or some such… likely not as much.

Overall I thought this worked quite well for what it is, and I was quite happy with it as such.

Very much recommended.

This review of Get Lost With You by Sophie Sullivan was originally written on December 17, 2024.

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#BookReview: So This Is Christmas by Kay Bratt

Yet Another Excellent Entry In Series. Seriously y’all, if you enjoy small towns and family drama, you’re going to love this entire series. So just go all the way back to Book 1, start there, and this one will be here when you get here.

Yet again with this series, Bratt bases the crime of the book on an all-too-real one, though as she notes in the author’s note, this particular one was *so* horrible that she just couldn’t bring herself to replicate certain elements of the real crime in her fictional world.

And that brings me to my one criticism of this particular book. Anyone that knows Bratt and follows her on social media, particularly her Facebook page, knows that she brings quite a bit of her own real world into her fiction, and there was one particular line that while meant as fiction and from a character’s perspective… there are just too many instances of the real world blending into the fictional for this line not to be addressed in my review, particularly since, as I told Bratt personally, I tend to call such bullshit lines out any *other* time I see them, and I do try my best to approach every book and every author in the same manner, *no matter what*. Indeed, the very line in question references by name and detail an all too real event that happened just months before publication of this book.

The particular line in question here is that “The gun laws in this State are a joke, and you know it. That’s why we’ve got tragedies like Apalachee High School – two kids and two teachers gunned down because *it’s easier to buy an AR-15 than it is to adopt a damn dog*.” (Emphasis mine).

As I told Bratt directly before sitting down to write this review – and I quote: “As someone who has both adopted a dog and bought a gun in the State of Georgia – the gun across State lines at a Georgia gun show while living in South Carolina, no less! – I can state without hesitation or equivocation that Bratt is 100% wrong about it being easier to buy a gun in the State than adopt a dog. For one, there are no background checks at all when adopting from a County-run animal shelter, while buying a gun anywhere in the United States requires a criminal background check to be completed before the gun can be purchased – yes, even if buying the gun at a gun show. Furthermore, while where I can take my dog is not legally restricted in any manner (though property owners certainly may decline to allow my dog on their property), where I can take my gun is heavily restricted, even in the State of Georgia.”

I also told her that I would also note here that this is absolutely one of those issues where your mileage may vary – you may agree that guns need to be more heavily regulated or you may not, you may think that pet adoption or pets generally need to be more heavily regulated or not – but the statement in the text was 100% wrong in the real State of Georgia, and I’ve personally experienced both sides of the statement and know of what I speak here. But hey, Bratt never specifically addresses these issues in her fictionalized Georgia, so even though it bears a striking resemblance to the real thing, as authors frequently note in the front pages of their fiction books “This work is fiction and not intended to represent any real person, place, or thing no matter how similar they may or may not be. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the fictional characters only and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions held by any real person, including the author.” So let’s give Bratt the benefit of the doubt here that she isn’t addressing the real State of Georgia in that particular line and move on. 🙂

Again, outside of that particular line, the book itself is perhaps even one of the stronger of the entire series – which is saying something, considering Bratt originally intended to end this series a few books ago, but fans keep demanding to come back to this world, and she keeps delivering. The drama in our central family is coming back up from unexpected and interesting places, there is more drama brewing in other areas well established earlier in the series yet which had cooled off in recent books, the crime of the book is particularly gnarly and the investigation is tight without being the frenetic sprint of the prior book…

It just all works truly, truly well, and again, makes this one of the stronger books in the series to date overall.

So again, go back to book 1 (assuming you’re new to the series) and get here – you’ll want to get here when you do, and this book will make you fall in love with the series all over again and want at least one more book from it. Which Bratt may or may not have news about in the Author’s Note. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of So This Is Christmas by Kay Bratt was originally written on December 11, 2024.

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#BlogTour: The Greatest Lie Of All by Jillian Cantor

For this blog tour, we’re looking at . For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Greatest Lie Of All by Jillian Cantor.

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

Never Meet Your Heroes – You Might Find Out More Than You Wanted To. Seriously, this book takes that age old saying to heart in its basic premise… and then spins it on its head in the actual execution of the tale at hand and in showing all that has transpired in these characters’ lives.

This is one of those inventive enough tales that it seems almost completely implausible… and yet real enough that it feels all too real at the same damn time. Surely, *nothing* could be *this* convoluted, right? (Says the guy whose mother in law is best friends with her husband’s ex-wife and whose grandparents lived together on the same property – at times even in the same house – even after they divorced and remarried.) In other words… yes, life can get quite messy at times, and this book does a tremendous job of showing this to great dramatic effect.

This is one of those women’s fiction/ romance genre benders that actually has the *cajones* to walk right up to the RWA/ RNA gatekeepers and say “Really? You’re going to try to tell me that *this* isn’t a romance for the ages?”. There is even at least one element of this book that will certainly, if the book reaches enough people, prove quite controversial indeed, and while I know *exactly* what those arguments will be and who (in general) will be making them, revealing even the specific nature of that particular debate pretty well spoils what this element is, so this is about as close as I can get to noting its presence without spoiling it.

Releasing late in the year when Yankees are seemingly already snowed under and largely inside their might-as-well-be Igloos for the winter and thus needing much reading material (at least that is how this Southern boy who has never lived any further north than the Atlanta exurbs tends to look at these things), this is going to be one of those great ones to read while huddled up trying to stay warm. Yes, even for us Floridians in our heaviest Arctic gear getting ready for temperatures that begin with “5” for a few days.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Greatest Lie Of All by Jillian Cantor”

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#BookReview: Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner

RomCom In A Nightmare Setting. Seriously, the title of the review here is pretty much exactly what you’re getting. I don’t know how common it is, but I know I’ve had the nightmare that is a version of the basic premise of this book – that you suddenly find out all of your “government” “approved” “identification” is suddenly found to be fraudulent and/ or non-existent… anywhere. How would you survive in modern America? Particularly if you were just starting a new job? And now you have the basic narrative here.

The romance/ romcom aspects of this tale take a bit of the realism of the premise out of the picture, but then, if we wanted a gritty real world version of the premise above, we wouldn’t be looking for it in a romcom, now would we? Instead, both sides of romance and comedy work well, so long as you don’t mind absurdist/ “What the FUCK?” comedy. (And seriously, if you can’t enjoy that type of comedy at least from time to time, that absolutely says more about you than about Wiesner’s writing here.)

Ultimately, this *is* a romcom – even with the initial premise – so yes, things get tied up in nice little maybe more Lifetime Movie than Hallmarkie bows, but said bows are absolutely the pink and frilly kind. In other words, don’t let the premise get you too anxious here, just sit back and enjoy the ride – if maybe a touch more pulse pounding than many romcoms.

Very much recommended.

This review of Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner was originally written on November 1, 2024.

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#BookReview: Every Moment Since by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Dark. Dreary. Dismal. Oppressive. And Then The Candle Flickers To Life. This is one of those books that takes the hyper-dark and hyper-oppressive feel of the singular worst book I’ve *EVER* read – The Road by Cormac McCarthy – and does what McCarthy never could: Provide just that flicker of a spark of a candle lighting. *Just* enough to provide *some* level of hope. Even when most everyone in this book is so broken by the central issue – a child going missing decades ago – and their secrets about that night that none of them *really* *want* that hope, the reader *needs* that smallest flicker… and Whalen provides it in particularly dramatic form.

For those who are not fans of multi-perspective books… this one isn’t going to change that, sorry. There are a lot of perspectives going on here, and a lot of sudden switching that can get a touch confusing at times, particularly as we switch between “then” and “now”.

But really, that was the only *potential* flaw here, and not everyone has that particular hangup. (I don’t, I actually thought the multi-perspectives made the story work much *better* in this particular case, as we get so many views on what happened here and how different people are reacting differently.)

The tie in to Richard Jewel of the Centennial Park Bombing during the 1996 Olympic Park Bombings in Atlanta was interesting, even if Whalen actually meant that particular character to be a more general representation. (And to be clear, it is only my own mind that made the connection at all, though perhaps others who were living in the Atlanta region during that time also might make it. The actual characterization is far more generic and could represent any number of people in similar situations.)

Overall a strong, if extremely dark and depressing, tale extremely well told. Very much recommended.

This review of Every Moment Since by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen was originally written on October 14, 2024.

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#BlogTour: One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery

For this blog tour, we’re looking at . For this blog tour, we’re looking at One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery.

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

Hallmarkie “Messy Family Comes Together” Type. This is a Susan Mallery book, and it is Christmas book from Susan Mallery – so you know you’re going to get a lot of drama, but in a very Hallmarkie manner where the drama never gets *too* intense and everything wraps up with a nice dose of Christmas magic by the end. Considering the popularity of both Mallery and Hallmark Christmas movies, this isn’t exactly a losing strategy… if a bit “been there, done that”.

Where Mallery manages to spin things with this particular one are, well, the particulars – and there are a lot of things here that aren’t exactly typical. Irritable Bowel Syndrome shown in all of its complexities in a book? Happens some, not exactly overly common in my experience. Female tow truck company owner? I actually am related to one – a cousin – but she’s literally the only one I had ever heard of before reading this book. Age gap romance where the *woman* is the older *and* is on the back side of “middle age” to boot? Done, somewhat, but rarely in this particular combination/ age range. On and on it goes.

Oh, and for anyone who says that this gets way too far out there with just how “together” everything gets… if you’ve read a few of my other reviews over the years, you know about my own family history – same side as the cousin above, actually. You see, both sets of my grandparents were divorced long before I was ever alive. But my mom’s parents in particular? My grandmother remarried, also before I could ever remember anything. My step grandfather was my “second grandfather” (the other died 5 weeks after my birth). And yet there was more than one instance of my grandmother and step-grandfather living on my grandfather’s land over the years, including at least one stint in his house with him. So my sense of “weird family relationships” may be a bit skewed, having seen this type of thing – along with several of the exact scenarios Mallery includes in this book – in my own (extended) family over the years.

Ultimately a solid book of its type, and one for anyone looking for a good Christmas family drama to check out.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery”

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#BookReview: The Holiday Cottage by Sarah Morgan

Forced (Yet Needed) Christmas Break. Another year, another Sarah Morgan Christmas tale. And yet again, if you like Hallmark Christmas movies – and so very many people very clearly do – you’re going to like this one. Perhaps more drama than many of those movies here, Imogen is truly broken – and with good reason, when we get her full backstory. She’s coping – she thinks – but even then, she *barely* has her ducks in a row. They’re more like cats than ducks, and they *really* don’t like walking in rows. Of course, much of this – she admits – she brought on herself.

Let’s face it, this is 2024, and it almost doesn’t matter your generation, from Boomer all the way down to Zoomer, far too many of us can identify *all too well* with Imogen.

But really, it is the *rest* of the tale – where Imogen is forced into exile and ultimately comes face to face with her past and all of its traumas that created the version of herself she now knows – that is where the true heart of this story is, the true magic – yes, with a bit of Christmas “magic” thrown in to boot. It is this part of the tale that gives it both its gravitas and its wonder, even as it also makes its characters ever more *real*.

Christmas has few Santas, but also few Scrooges. Few Grinches. Just a lot of Whos living their who-lives in their little who-world, doing the best they can.

And here, Morgan hits that particular message out of the ballpark. Kudos to Morgan, and, since I’m writing this review on the day my beloved Atlanta Braves begin their extremely unlikely 7th straight Major League Baseball postseason run, let me just toss in a “Go Braves” and a #ChopOn as well – even though it has *nothing* to do with the book at all. 😀 May they get a bit of the magic of this book and make a *truly* unexpected season.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Holiday Cottage by Sarah Morgan was originally written on October 1, 2024.

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#BlogTour: The Banned Books Club by Brenda Novak

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a book that is *just* on the right side of being labeled as “deceptive marketing”, based on its title. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Banned Books Club by Brenda Novak.

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

*Almost* Deceptive Marketing. This is one of those books where the title has *just* enough to do with the book itself that it isn’t *actually* deceptive marketing… but you can look to the lower starred reviews and see that many readers felt that the title and book had little to do with each other. (And they’re right.) There is really nothing in this tale about banning books or anything related to the topic, other than a sentence or two of setup that is also (currently, as of publication day) in the description of the book.

Instead, the tale we *actually* get is a version of the Prodigal Son. One sister left years ago after having her world shattered in HS, the other sister stayed in their hometown and has now been taking care of their mother as her mother’s health rapidly fails. As mom’s time is nearing its end, the prodigal sister is convinced to return… and now, *everyone* in town is going to have to come to terms with the fallout from all those years ago.

In the process, we get a lot of different things, some discussed more than others – spousal abuse/ controlling spouse, sexual harassment/ teen molestation (to be clear, the age of the student in question is *not* “child molestation” in all States), breast cancer, coming home, uncovering family secrets, really quite a bit, such that even in a 350 ish page book… like I said, not all of it is covered n much depth.

And of course we also get a romance plot here… and maybe more… because, well, why not? 😉

Overall, for what it *actually* is, this tale is actually quite strong in many ways. Yes, it has its weaknesses at times, but I think overall this ultimately comes out on the stronger side of resiliency and overcoming your demons. But this is also a tale where your mileage truly will vary, so give it a read and make your own call.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Banned Books Club by Brenda Novak”