#TuesdayBookBlog Under the Banner of Valor (Valorie Dawes Thrillers Book 5) by Gary Corbin (@garycorbin)

Hi, all:

I bring you a book by an author I’ve reviewed before, and a series I’m also acquainted with.

Under the Banner of Valor (Valorie Dawes Thrillers Book 5) by Gary Corbin

Under the Banner of Valor (Valorie Dawes Thrillers Book 5) by Gary Corbin

A shadowy alliance of extremists start shooting up abortion clinics…and Val’s best friend Beth lies in the cross-hairs.

When a fanatical sniper takes aim at women entering family planning clinics, Val risks everything to protect her closest friend.

Val Dawes and the WAVE Squad get called into action after Clayton’s family planning clinics receive ominous threats: Close the clinics, or else.

WAVE Squad member Valorie Dawes takes this threat personally, as her closest friend since childhood, Beth, discloses that she’s pregnant and is considering an abortion.

Can Val support her friend and keep her safe from the armed madman? Or will Beth’s stubborn recklessness thrust her into harm’s way?

About the author:

Gary Corbin is a writer, editor, and playwright in Camas, WA, a suburb of Portland, OR. Raised in a small town in New England, Gary has also lived in Louisiana (Geaux LSU Tigers!), Indiana (Go Hoosiers!), and Washington, DC before settling down in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Join Gary’s mailing list (http://garycorbinwriting.com/about-gary-corbin/contact/) and be the first to be notified of free preview editions, 99 cent specials, free book promotions, and exclusive content.

Gary’s nine novels comprise three hit series featuring page-turning plots, flawed but lovable protagonists, and bad guys you love to hate.

His most recent works, the Valorie Dawes Thrillers, feature Valorie Dawes, a rookie policewoman with a #metoo past pursuing perpetrators of crimes against women in Clayton, CT. Val’s intuition, courage, and relentless hunger for justice sometimes pushes her close to–if not over–the line. Books in that series include A Woman of Valor (2019), In Search of Valor (2020), A Better Part of Valor (2021) and Mother of Valor (2022) follow Val’s path in pursuit of rapists, kidnappers, torturers, and sex traffckers. The fifth novel in that series, Under the Banner of Valor, is expected to release in Winter 2023/24.

Gary’s Lying Injustice Thrillers, his first series, is also his most decorated. Lying in Judgment, features Peter Robertson, a man serving on the jury of a murder trial–the murder that he committed. An Amazon.com best-selling legal thriller, Lying in Judgment selected as Bookworks.com “Book of the Week” for July 11-18, 2016, and was the feature novel on Literary Lightbox’s “Indie Spotlight” in February 2017. The sequel, Lying in Vengeance, released in September, 2017, explores the aftermath when a fellow juror blackmails him in hopes of forcing him to kill again–or be exposed for his first heinous crime.

Gary’s second novel, The Mountain Man’s Dog, came out in June 2016, kicking off the Mountain Man Mysteries series. Forester Lehigh Carter fears only two things: dogs and women. But when he rescues an injured dog on the highway and brings it into his ex-fiancee’s vet clinic, his fears collide, leading to an unwelcome deep dive into the worlds of romance, politics, pet ownership. The sequel, The Mountain Man’s Bride, was released Feb. 8, 2017. The third book in the series, The Mountain Man’s Badge, was released in June, 2018.

All of these mysteries are available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

Gary’s plays have enjoyed critical acclaim and have enjoyed several productions in regional and community theaters. His writer’s reference, Write Better Right Now: A Dozen Mistakes Good Writers Make-And How to Fix Them, is available exclusively on Kindle.

Gary is a member of the Willamette Writers Group, Northwest Editors Guild, 9 Bridges Writers Group, PDX Playwrights, the Portland Area Theater Alliance, and the Bar Noir Writers Workshop, and participates in workshops and conferences in the Portland, Oregon area.

A homebrewer and coffee roaster, Gary loves to ski, cook, and watch his beloved Red Sox and Patriots. He hopes to someday train his dogs to obey. And when that doesn’t work, he escapes to the Oregon coast with his sweetheart.

Author’s website: http://garycorbinwriting.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garycorbin1

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garycorbin

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-corbin-176b17/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GaryCorbin

My review:

I received an ARC copy of this novel from the author, which I freely chose to review.

I have read several books by Gary Corbin in the past, a couple of them in the Valorie Dawes series, and I was kin to reacquaint myself with the character and her adventures because I’d lost touch for a while.

First, I want to reassure readers, that even those who’d never read any of the books in this series before would be able to enjoy it and follow the action. There are references to the background of the protagonist, Valorie Dawes (she is a police officer with a traumatic past whose uncle was also in the force and died in the act of duty) and recent events in her life and her career, but the information provided is sufficient to allow somebody not familiar with the character to understand her motivations and thought processes, without deviating or getting in the way of the story being told.

Valorie is a strong character: a woman who’s just completed a year working in the police force of Clayton (so she is no longer a rookie, as everybody keeps calling her), a mid-size town, in the squad investigating perpetrators of crimes against women, and her connection with and vocation for her work are strong. In this book, she has to confront a case that becomes very personal to her: her best friend, Beth, is pregnant; she decides to have an abortion right at a time when all the abortion clinics in the town are being the subject of threats, and eventually more than threats. There is another case that might (or might not) be related to that one, about a clinic’s break-in, robbery, possible online security breach, and some mysterious pills. And then, there are changes at the Dojo where she has been practicing Jiu-Jitsu for years. Might it all be linked? Well, you’ll have to read the novel to find out.

Apart from Valorie —who is challenged and undervalued by some of the men she has to come into contact with— there are other interesting characters: her superior, her male colleague—who is going through a difficult time as well—, Tank and Stevie Ray, two of the men who have taken over the running of the Dojo and who also run a man’s group, Val, a female officer who is also finding it difficult to get ahead in her career due to gender prejudice, her friend, Beth, her boyfriend, Gil, some other members of the police force, and many of the people she comes across while investigating, as well as victims. Some get more page time than others, but they all contribute to making the story complex and fascinating.

We learn about IncelNation (Involuntary Celibate) a group (mostly of men, nowadays) who feel females are unfairly ignoring them because they are not attractive enough and are judged only by their looks or their means, and take issue with it. There are many ramifications and connections with other groups, and, unfortunately, some members of the group have been involved in activities classed as terrorism, including mass shootings (and it is considered a hate male supremacist group). The author’s research into the topic shows in the book and is seamlessly incorporated into the novel. The issue of birth control, the role of abortion clinics, and the right of women to decide is a hot topic much in dispute in the USA at the moment (although not exclusively), so this makes the novel very relevant. We also learn about Mixed Martial Art Fights and get a first-hand account of them. There is also plenty of attention being paid to the way the police force works (this book falls into the category of police procedural, with an emphasis on the psychological aspects, not only of the investigators, but also of the perpetrators), and the struggles for power and career advancement within the police department, and that adds to the complexity and attractive of the book.

The novel is told in the first-person, and it alternates the points of view of Valorie and the sniper —whose real identity is not revealed until close to the end, although we might have some suspicions beforehand—, and getting into the head of both characters give us a privileged perspective from both sides, although sometimes the experience is anything but pleasant.

There is plenty of action (and some violence, so those who prefer cozy, gentle, and clean mysteries or crime novels might need to reconsider this one); the writing is functional but includes enough descriptive details to make us share in the state of mind and feelings of the characters, and it moves at a fast pace. It is a gripping book, with red herrings and more than a few twists and turns that are sure to keep readers engaged until the end.

I won’t go into any detail about the ending, but I think most readers (those new to the series and those who’ve read previous novels) will enjoy it.

A novel that combines strong characters with an intriguing and riveting plot, and one dealing in topics that won’t leave readers indifferent. Recommended.

Thanks to the author for the opportunity, thanks to all of you for reading, commenting, liking, sharing with anybody who might be interested, and for all your support. You’re all stars!

#TuesdayBookBlog Romeo and Juliet Keep Their Eyes on the Prize: A Dwayne Finnegan Novel (The Dwayne Finnegan Series) by Richard Engling (@RichardEngling)

Hi, all:

I bring you the second novel in a series whose first installment I really enjoyed, and this one wasn’t any different.

Romeo and Juliet Keep Their Eyes on the Prize (A Dwayne Finnegan Novel) by Richard Engling

Romeo and Juliet Keep Their Eyes on the Prize (A Dwayne Finnegan Novel) by Richard Engling

“Richard Engling knows Chicago’s famously chaotic and glorious storefront theater scene like the back of his hand. It’s the perfect setting for absurd comic hi-jinx.”
– Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

In this hilarious follow-up to Give My Regards to Nowhere, Chicago director Dwayne Finnegan has another crack at the big time if only his production of Romeo and Juliet can shine. However, Dwayne shares rehearsal space with a psychedelic drug cult that believes Dwayne’s production is evil. The cult sabotages him. His actors rebel. His publicist gets entangled with a loan shark. Bones are broken, the production drops into chaos, Dwayne’s marriage hangs by a thread, but despite it all, the show must go on.

About the author:

Richard Engling is a Chicago actor, playwright, and novelist, whose books include the novels, GIVE MY REGARDS TO NOWHERE: A DIRECTOR’S TALE, VISIONS OF ANNA and BODY MORTGAGE, and the collection of plays, ANTIGONE AND MACBETH: ADAPTATIONS FOR A WAR-TORN TIME. His plays also include GHOST WATCH and ANNA IN THE AFTERLIFE and have been produced in Chicago and elsewhere.

My review:

I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed), and thank her and the author for this opportunity.

I read the previous novel in the series a while back and enjoyed the adventures of the Psychedelic Dream Theater, and I had to know what happened next.

We again have a story told mostly from the point of view of the artistic director of the company, Dwayne Finnegan, who is still trying to find a way to make a living in the theatre world. As much as he enjoyed the experience with the Psychedelic Dream Theater, he is trying to get a paying job directing for one of the big theatre companies in Chicago, but he realises he will have to do another show and get important people to see it if he wants to get a chance. His wife, Angela (who appears more in this novel than in the first one), has decided that now is the time to have a baby, and the pressure starts to build up for Dwayne. Thankfully, he gets the help (?) of his long-time friends (Chaz and Aleister) and the rest of the members of the company, although, of course, things don’t run smoothly.

I don’t want to reveal too much, because the beauty is in the detail, of course, but, among other things that come in the way of the production, there is a cult that takes issue with having to share space with them (as they have rented the space the company also uses for rehearsals) because they feel the play, Romeo and Juliet, creates bad vibes; Chaz, who got into real trouble in the first book, now ends up organising the PR campaign for the performance, manages to get himself into deb to a pretty nasty mafia-type character who is related to one of the actresses (the famous Coco) and has to find a way to repay his debt before he loses a limb; there is a lack of chemistry between the actors playing Romeo and Juliet; Aleister, Dwayne’s psychiatrist friend, has written a self-help book and the publicity campaign interferes with rehearsals; Coco isn’t delighted with the part she plays (Juliet’s nurse) but eventually she finds a way to make it shine; there is a disaster to do with the dresses that hits Peaches, the designer, pretty hard; Dwayne’s personal life is under a lot of strain; there is another visit by an important theatre personality that doesn’t go according to plan…

All of this is peppered with the idiosyncrasies of the characters, in particular, Dwayne, who is still fond of invoking the protection of saints and virgins to help at difficult times, but here he has also taken to heart the advice of a self-help book, Keep the Eye on the Prize, and that means he is forever quoting passages from it and bringing it up at the right (and quite often also, the wrong) moment. Wallace, the experienced older actor, wants to play King Lear and decides that he should write a memoir. Tom, the choreographer and master of the fight scenes, takes issue with the interaction between Orlando (playing Romeo) and Melinda (Juliet). Ingrid and Joan have to use their various talents to manage to bring everything to fruition, even when the elements seem to conspire against them.

This is a fast and funny book, written in the third person, mostly from Dwayne’s point of view, with plenty of lines from Romeo and Julie to inspire readers, and it is easy to imagine the performance, with some parts replaced by the music and songs in the style of Prince, a particular interpretation of race relations and the way the characters play their roles. It has the advantage over the previous novel that most people will be familiar with Romeo and Juliet, even in passing, so that should add to the attraction of the novel even for people who aren’t big Shakespeare or theatre fans. The experience of the author and his in-depth knowledge of this world shines through the novel, as does the affection he feels for the many people who are trying to make a living while bringing theatrical performances and joy to the public.

The book includes a cast of characters that —especially at the beginning, when the characters are being introduced— will help readers keep them straight in their minds, and although there are plenty of references to what happened in the previous novel, there is enough detail included for readers to follow the action without having read the previous one. Personally, I would recommend reading them in the right order, as it will make it easier to follow the evolution of the characters and to realise how far the company has come.

People who prefer to avoid any jokes or references to sex, sexual arousal, bodily functions, and some (mildly) florid language should give it a miss, although the book is in no way explicit.

The novel ends on a high note, and I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the Psychedelic Dream Theater, the intricacies and behind-the-scenes look at how a small theatre company works, and getting to share in the lives of its protagonists, their dreams and dedication to this wonderful (but oh, so tough) world. I hope there are many more adventures to come for them. Long live the Psychedelic Dream Theatre.

Thanks to the author for the opportunity, Rosie for her hard work, the team for their support, and, most of all, thanks to you for following, reading, liking, sharing, and commenting. Keep smiling and take care!

#TuesdayBookBlog Love Is a Curse by Keith Stuart (@keefstuart)

Hi, all:

I’ve read and reviewed three novels by Keith Stuart already, and I’ve come to expect a story that, no matter what goes on and the difficulties the characters have to face, always ends on a positive note. So, how could I resist this one?

Love is a Curse: A mystery lying buried. A love story for the ages by Keith Stuart

Love Is a Curse: A mystery lying buried. A love story for the ages by Keith Stuart

From acclaimed author Keith Stuart, author of A Boy Made of Blocks and The Frequency of Us, comes a daring and unique story of heartbreak and hope.

A single sentence was all it took to define Cammy’s life. They came as her beloved artist aunt was dying, a teenage Cammy standing by her bedside: ‘Did your mother ever tell you about the curse?’

Cammy is warned that the women in her family are destined always to lose the one they love. She thinks nothing of it – until the day when, in her late twenties, her new boyfriend is hit by a car. Convinced she is to blame, Cammy begins to investigate the one-hundred-and-fifty-year story of a family that is both ordinary and remarkable, tragic and beautiful.

But is the curse real, or is there an answer lurking in the letters, diaries and paintings of generations of women whose hearts were broken?

About the author:

Keith Stuart is an author and journalist. His heartwarming debut novel, A Boy Made of Blocks, was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and a major bestseller. His third novel, The Frequency of Us, was a BBC2 Between the Covers pick and Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. Keith has written for publications including Empire, Red and Esquire, and is the former games editor of the Guardian. He lives with his wife and two sons in Frome, Somerset.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/441866.Keith_Stuart

My review:

I thank NetGalley and Little Brown Group UK for providing me with an ARC copy of this novel, which I freely chose to review.

This is the fourth novel by Keith Stuart I have read, and I’ve enjoyed them all. This one follows more in the steps of The Frequency of Us (his third novel) perhaps, than A Boy Made of Blocks, but it shows the same affinity for its characters, non-judgemental attitude, and glass-half-full perspective of life which I’ve come to expect and love.

The story starts with a prologue, set in 1892 in Batheaston, a village near Bath, where we meet a woman called Camille, in pretty mysterious circumstances, and the whole episode (which I cannot discuss in detail) has a clear Gothic feel. Then the story moves to the present time of the story (pretty contemporary, although not specified), and we meet another Camille. Everybody calls her Cammy, and she becomes our first-person narrator. And she has quite a story to tell. It seems there is a course going back four generations affecting the women in her family. If they fall in love, things will go wrong. Although not everybody believes in the curse, Cammy takes it to heart, and it seems to fit in with her outlook on life. When her aunt dies and leaves her the old church where she used to live as an inheritance, Cammy becomes more and more convinced the curse is true. Then, things start looking up, only for something terrible to happen that makes her reconsider everything. She starts digging into the story of the female line of her family, and her findings are anything but reassuring. Is it all just a case of confirmation bias, or there is something to the story?

Of course, I am not going to reveal anything that has not already been hinted at in the description, but this is a gripping story, and I became enwrapped in it. The pace isn’t always fast, as tends to be the case when somebody is investigating a long-buried mystery because there is much through and fro —one step forward and one step back— involved, and the difficulties increase the further back she tries to go. Still, I enjoyed the way the story is told, with its mix of memories, letters, diaries, newspaper articles, personal accounts… The narrative jumps about a fair bit, because there is much ground to cover, and there are different versions of events, but I didn’t find it confusing. The way the main protagonist keeps hesitating, changing her opinion, and being put to the test feels quite realistic, and despite the supernatural elements suffusing the story, it does manage to create credible characters whose behaviours and reactions feel true and understandable.

The writing is compelling, with beautiful descriptions of the church, the woods, the landscape, the jewellery (Cammy designs jewels), and the artworks (her aunt, Lorna, was an artist), which I enjoyed and I did not feel it detracted from the story, rather the opposite. The atmosphere of the narrative is fundamental, and though engaging, this is not a story that goes at a breakneck pace, but one that builds up slowly. But don’t get too comfortable, because the tension keeps ramping up as we get closer to the ending (which is very good).

Is this a totally realistic story? No. Does it require suspension of disbelief? Of course. That is the nature of the beast. The writing is compelling and the story manages to combine classic with modern elements and make them work. And it is beautifully constructed and written.

Some of the author’s followers were not too impressed with this novel, as it is quite different from the others, especially his first one, but I think this is a case of unfulfilled expectations. I am happy that he keeps exploring and finding new stories to tell. And, anybody who hasn’t read any of his previous work doesn’t need to worry, as each novel is completely separate, independent, and quite different from the rest. I look forward to Stuart’s future writing.

Oh, and for those who love music, there is a playlist to go with the story. The link is at the end of the book.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and the publishers (Clara Díaz from Little Brown Group UK especially) for this book, I’m always grateful to all of you for stopping back, reading, liking, sharing, commenting, and please, make sure you don’t forget to keep smiling!

#TuesdayBookBlog The Gathering by C. J. Tudor (@cjtudor) (@PenguinUKBooks)

Hi, all:

I bring you a new book by one of the authors I discovered a few years back, and she always delivers.

The Gathering by C. J. Tudor

The Gathering by C. J. Tudor

WELCOME TO DEADHART. ALASKA. POPULATION 673. LIVING.

In a small Alaskan town, a boy is found with his throat ripped out and the blood drained from his body.

The brutality of the murder of chillingly echoes a killing from twenty-five years ago.

Out-of-state detective Barbara Atkins is brought in to assist the sheriff, Jensen Tucker, who investigated the original case.

However, the inhabitants of Deadhart believe they know who is responsible: one of the nearby vampyr colony who live in an old mining settlement deep in the mountains.

Barbara is under pressure to authorize a cull of the entire colony.

But the evidence doesn’t stack up, people are lying, and the more Barbara and Tucker delve into Deadhart’s history, the darker the secrets they uncover.

As the snow thickens and the nights grow longer, another teenager goes missing and body parts are found.

Time is running out for Barbara and Tucker to find the truth.

Are they hunting a cold-blooded murderer, or a bloodthirsty monster?

And which is more dangerous?

About the author:

C. J. Tudor lives with her partner and young daughter. Her love of writing, especially the dark and macabre, started young. When her peers were reading Judy Blume, she was devouring Stephen King and James Herbert.

Over the years she has had a variety of jobs, including trainee reporter, radio scriptwriter, dog walker, voiceover artist, television presenter, copywriter and, now, author.

Her first novel, The Chalk Man, was a Sunday Times bestseller and sold in thirty-nine territories.

My review:

Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph/Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC copy of this book, which I freely chose to review.

C. J. Tudor has become a popular author in the last few years, to the point that one of the other novels, The Burning Girls, has been turned into a TV series, and I have been lucky enough to have discovered her when I read an ARC copy of her first novel, The Chalk Man, and I’ve enjoyed all she has published so far. And this new novel is no different.

Tudor has a great ability to revisit subgenres (mostly within the horror and mystery categories) and give them a new twist, and she is very good at keeping that difficult balance between a gripping plot and a cast of characters that aren’t just standard and forgettable types. She likes to play with our expectations, making us believe we know what is going on, only to pull the rug from under our feet. You might think you are in familiar territory, but you shouldn’t get too comfortable. You are bound to get one or two (nasty) surprises.

So, this is a book about vampires, but these vampyrs (as they are called in the novel), are not the typical vampire we know (and love, or not). They are not immortal (not exactly), they live in their own communities and follow certain rules of behaviour (you shouldn’t kill one of your own kind), and they don’t feed on humans. And, they live in “colonies” close to humans but aren’t supposed to mix and are very limited in what they can do, while the catalogue of what can’t do is very long (they cannot get a proper job or work with humans, they cannot get an education…). There are laws in place to protect them, but not everybody is in agreement with those, and exterminating a whole colony (“the cull”) isn’t that difficult if one can make a good case for it.

This is a police procedural as well, with the difficulty that the action takes place in a remote Alaskan small town, in the middle of a terrible storm, so accessing some of the facilities we are used to in modern police procedurals (CSI, DNA tests, even a post-mortem examination) is “complicated” to put it mildly, and no help from outside is to be expected. So, although the action is set in contemporary times (or thereabouts) in this slightly different universe, the investigators have to do a lot of groundwork themselves and rely on their wits more than on science and hard evidence, so, in some ways, this feels like an old-fashioned mystery.

Within the mystery/thriller genre, this also falls into the category of a small-town mystery, where an outsider (in this case Barbara, a female detective with her own backstory and some personal knowledge of these kinds of communities) arrives to investigate a crime —the murder of a young boy that shows plenty of signs to have been the work of a vampyr— and finds the locals… not exactly forthcoming or welcoming. If you suspect that there will be secrets, mysteries, and hidden truths that many don’t want to face, you’d be right.

We have many memorable characters: Barbara, who isn’t thrilled to take up the job but is determined to do a real investigation and not say what the townspeople would want her to say to just keep the peace, no matter what the cost. She isn’t charming or particularly adept at making friends, and she has to confront a lot of resistance and hostility in her attempts at doing her job. Rita, the mayor of the town, who also helps at the police station and seems to do a bit of everything is a bigger-than-life character; the sheriff, who although not sympathetic to Barbara is determined to help her do the job, gets injured early on and Barbara asks the previous sheriff, Tucker, to help, because the case she’s investigating has many similarities with one that happened 25 years back and Tucker had investigated. Tucker isn’t particularly well-liked and has lived removed from the town since then, but he has connections, knows everybody, and can help. There is also a female pastor who seems determined to get rid of the colony; the two friends of the boy who was killed, who seem to know more than they say; their parents; the owners of the grill and hotel and their daughter; the doctor; a teacher, an old man who was involved in the previous case and who happens to be the grandfather of one of the dead boy’s friends… And yes, of course, we get to know some of the vampyrs as well, Athelinda and her son, Michael (yes, vampyrs can have children, but you’ll have to read the novel to find out more).

The story is told in short chapters, written in the third person, and we mostly follow Barbara in her investigation, but not exclusively. We later also accompany Tucker in his solo detective work, and there are some chapters written in italics interspersed in the story, where we read about a young girl kept prisoner, from her point of view. Readers might suspect who she is, but we only find out (for sure) at the end of the novel, and for those who haven’t guessed, that puts an interesting spin on the story.

There are some pretty scary moments, plenty of action, violence, and bloodshed, and there is nothing cozy or gentle about the story or the language, so readers need to take that into account. It is not the most extreme or gore novel I’ve ever read, but it is not suited to those who prefer a clean and mild read. I’ve said that this is, in many ways, an old-fashioned mystery, and that means there is a lot of going through the clues, trying to piece the evidence together, interrogations, so the pace is not frantic and relentless. There are moments of reflection and we also get to know some details of the previous lives of the characters, as the events bring back memories for the protagonists and the main characters. Despite the general subject, there are touches of humour, sometimes pretty dark, so I wouldn’t say this is a dour, dry, and sad read. Quite the opposite.

Some readers have commented on the use of expressions and words typical of British English that are out of place in a novel set in the USA. I lived in Britain many years, so I am not the best person to notice that, and having read an ARC copy, I imagine that those issues might well have been sorted before publication. Other reviewers took issue with what they felt was the author’s agenda, the focus on religion, bigotry, and how it portrayed the townspeople. It made me think of how, over the years, and perhaps more in the horror genre than in others (although in science-fiction as well), the “others” (be monsters, outsiders, aliens…) have been seen as a stand-in or a representation of many of the issues high up in the political and social agenda of the time (gender, race, colonialism, religion, fear of the bomb, climate change, immigration policies, LGBT rights…), and have been analysed in detail. I am sure the novel will make readers think about some or many of those issues, but, ultimately, it is a novel, and if we are to judge by the ending (which I won’t reveal, of course), nobody comes out of the story as all good or bad, and that includes humans as well as vampyrs. And, for me at least, it closed on a satisfying (and slightly eerie) note.

I am not sure if there will be more novels set in this universe, but that is an option left open by the ending.

So, readers (and viewers) who have enjoyed recent vampire novels and series and others like Twin Peaks, The Wicker Man, and similar stories should try this one. And I recommend it as well to people who’ve read and enjoyed the author’s previous novels and short stories. They are unlikely to be disappointed.

Thanks to C. J. Tudor (who is always happy to interact with readers on Twitter and keeps us posted on what she is up to), to NetGalley, and the publishers for the book, and to all of you for visiting, commenting, sharing, and liking, and remember to keep smiling and taking care of yourselves.

#TuesdayBookBlog The Dying Five 2: Caught Dead-Handed (A Hospice Heroes Mystery) by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

Hi, all:

I told you last week that I was already reading book two of The Dying Five. And, here it comes!

The Dying Five: Caught Dead-Handed (A Hospice Heroes Mystery) by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

The Dying Five: Caught Dead-Handed (A Hospice Heroes Mystery) by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

Your favorite Hospice Heroes are on the case again, but this time, they’re gliding their walkers and wheelchairs through Indianapolis to catch the killer of a young homeless shelter volunteer, which hits Mary right in the heart, since she used to be homeless herself.

Our savvy dying detectives are in cahoots with Sylvia Winters, a pharmacy mogul with terminal cancer, who has an underground operation to help the homeless and poor get the medications they need. But when her primary distributor is murdered, she realizes someone is trying to take her organization down. She seeks out the help of The Dying Five, who are excited to unmask yet another murderer.

The Dying Five do not know who they can trust in Sylvia’s inner circle. Everyone looks suspicious and motives for murder abound. Each of the heroes faces peril as the case twists this way and that, the clues leading them everywhere but to the killer. Just as they think their journey to exact justice is coming to a close, there’s another twist, one that could turn the tables on all of them. However, TD5 will not be deterred; this unlikely cast will chase the culprits with the help of some homeless friends until the criminals are caught and sent to the clink, even if it means facing the most menacing murderous monster of all.

About the author:

Believing in yourself and what is possible at any stage of life is what my writing is all about. The resilience of the human spirit despite life’s challenges is the message I’m sending. Join my characters as they take you on an adventure- they love you for who you are, the whole you, no matter what.

You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

https://jenniferwrightberryman.com

My review:

I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed) and thank her and the author for this opportunity.

I’ve read this book straight after finishing book 1 in the series (you can find the review in this link) (book 2 has just been published), and much of what I said about the previous book applies to this one. This is a “not-so-cozy” cozy mystery where the protagonists are a group of people who’ve all met because they suffer from terminal illnesses and are looked after by the personnel of a hospice. Don’t expect any cake recipes here. All the characters have plenty of quirks, as you would expect in the genre (some believe they are related to great writers of crime and mystery, others can’t tolerate direct contact with people but do their best to be useful, some would be quite at home in an action movie, and others keep quiet and say little…), but they come together because there is a crime to solve, and although some of them are new to the group, they all have an important role to play, and they all have become a big family by the end.

Once again, it is difficult to say much about the characters without revealing too much of what happens in the story (because, yes, some of them won’t reach the end of the book), but those who have read the first novel will see plenty of familiar faces, some that were adopted into the group during the previous case, and it is a joy to see how, although the roles are somewhat changed (the leader needs a bit of help herself due to her own health problems, and that means other characters who were in the shadows take on more of an active an open role), the protagonists are developing and becoming more complex and interesting as the series moves along.

There is plenty of attention given to dying and how people prepare (or not) for it, and also the reactions of those around them, and the support they need. And, of course, there is a mystery, and as was the case in the previous book, it is not a simple and clear-cut mystery. The case involves Big Pharma and the difficulties some people have to get the medication they need in the USA (in other places as well, but I found the book very illustrative in the way it highlights the crisis of the system and how so many people in need of medical care and medication fall through the net and get nothing), and how some make money out of other people’s misery and need. Although this is not a police procedural and a degree of suspension of disbelief is required (of course), the case is far more detailed and (unfortunately) plausible than is the case in many light cozy mysteries. There is something of the spy novel as well, plenty of high-tech, and some undercover missions to keep readers turning the pages. Moral issues are also highlighted, and the novel doesn’t shy away from difficult topics and from asking hard questions.

The story is divided into three parts, the chapters are pretty short, and they include letters, the entries into the book that detail the adventures of the group (which this time are written by Mary, one of my favourite characters in the team, who is helping Callie, the social worker-leader), and also chapters that follow the action of others in the group and their meetings (written in the third-person). There is plenty of action (and some violence, although not too graphically rendered), but there is also telling, as the members of the team and others involved need to be brought up-to-speed, so this is a book that allows people to catch up if they’ve missed anything or weren’t paying enough attention, and it is easy to read in small bits if one doesn’t have a lot of time. The risk of becoming lost is small, although, as usual in mysteries, I’d recommend being attentive to the clues, as there are also plenty of red herrings. Knowing what the protagonists think can be helpful but it can also throw us off the right path. But that is one of the charms of mysteries, and there is more enjoyment in the process than in the actual resolution, although that is also quite good.

This book is a whole story in itself, so there is no need to have read the previous book to enjoy it. As usual in series, if you read the books in the right order you’ll gain more understanding of who the characters are and how they have evolved, so that is a consideration. This one doesn’t go over the story of the group in much detail, and the mentions of the previous case are brief and in passing, likely to raise curiosity but not related to the understanding of the case at hand. My one suggestion to the author would be to consider adding a list of characters with a few details about each one, which would be useful for people who might not have the time to read it all in one go, and it could also include information about previous characters that might get a mention, to avoid any confusion.

Oh, I shouldn’t forget that there is some romance here as well, at least budding romance, some losses (no surprises there), and some very moving and inspiring moments. (There is a new character called Charlie who will steal your heart, I’m sure).

All in all, it is a great second novel in a series that has a lot of heart and plenty of memorable characters. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Rosie and her group for their support, the author for this opportunity, and all of you for visiting, reading, sharing, commenting… Keep smiling and take care!

#TuesdayBookBlog The Dying Five (A Hospice Heroes Mystery Book 1) by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

Hi, all:

I bring you another book (or I should say, a series, as I’m already reading the second book that is due for publication in the next few days) from Rosie’s Book Review Team. I think many of you will like this one.

The Dying Five. A Hospice Heroes Mystery by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

The Dying Five. A Hospice Heroes Mystery by Jennifer Wright-Berryman

Murder and conspiracy are exactly what the doctor ordered, if you ask The Dying Five. Who says you can’t solve crime with terminal illnesses?

When Eric Graham, the CEO of an Indianapolis start-up company is gunned down on his porch after a dinner party, a group of hospice heroes and their social worker go undercover to unravel the mystery. Investigating Eric’s death exposes a scheme of national proportions and tangles The Dying Five in a web of greed, power, and peril. With the life clock ticking, they dance with danger in between naps and nursing visits.

Not everyone in The Dying Five is who they seem to be, and the secrets of some members could end the bond the group has worked hard to build. Their friendship fate hangs in the balance as they travel from their suburban spy lair to the rolling hills of southern Indiana, collecting clues along the way. As they’re closing in on Eric’s killer, another employee from the start-up company is murdered. The Dying Five are certain they can unmask one killer, but can they catch two?

About the author:

Believing in yourself and what is possible at any stage of life is what my writing is all about. The resilience of the human spirit despite life’s challenges is the message I’m sending. Join my characters as they take you on an adventure- they love you for who you are, the whole you, no matter what.

You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

https://jenniferwrightberryman.com

My review:

I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed) and thank her and the author for this opportunity.

I have mixed feelings about cozy mysteries. In theory, they should work well for me (I love mysteries and I’m a big reader of thrillers, police procedurals, and all kinds of crime novels, and I am also fond of quirky characters), but that has not always been my experience. Sometimes the mystery and the investigation side of the story is too simple or tests too much my suspension of disbelief, and others, the characters aren’t sufficiently well-drawn or interesting to pull me in. So, I approached this new series with caution, although the premise made me curious: a group of people who are all facing terminal illnesses get together to solve crimes. What could go wrong?

As the title indicates, the five (at least to begin with, and I’ll try not to reveal any major spoilers) people are all under hospice care, and the way the story is told pulled me in from the beginning. The “leader” of the group is writing the story to the “next leader” so s/he is aware of what has happened before and they can carry on adding to the history of the group. As the leader (who in this case happens to be Callie, the social worker who looks after all of the members, in one capacity or another) explains, she has also included accounts from other members of the team and even correspondence written by some of them (Mary, who is probably my favourite character, at least in this book). So, we have chapters in the first person, from Callie’s point of view, and also chapters that detail what some of the other members of the team get up to. That works very well for the mystery side of things because it gives the reader a more complete picture of the events, and it also avoids the dreaded “too much telling and not enough showing”, whilst keeping some stuff off the page and not revealing too much information too soon.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that, with this premise, the story will be a bit low on action and the characters won’t be hands-on, but you’d be wrong. There is more action, violence (although much of it doesn’t happen live), and threats than tends to be the standard in cozies. And, a fair amount of deaths, although, as you might expect with such a group, not all of them are due to crimes. And apart from the main mystery, the one the Dying Five are investigating, there are a few others that hover in the background and that have to do with the group itself and who is behind the Columbarium, the organisation that funds and oversees the group and other initiatives that take place at the hospice. Which, by the way, sounds like a terrific place.

I liked all the characters, even though some of them are anything but likeable at first, but they evolve. I won’t discuss them in detail because it would be difficult to do so without giving away the plot, but even those who aren’t there for very long play an important part, and we get to know them sufficiently to care for them. We have some who are funny (intentionally or unintentionally so), the caring ones, the meticulous ones, the helpful ones, the ones who aren’t good at social interactions… This is a pretty diverse book and we come across protagonists and other characters from all walks of life, races, sexual orientation, social standing… But they are all equal members here, and one of my favourite aspects of the novel is the way they all become a team and even the members who might not appear important at first end up playing a decisive role in the resolution of the case. Everybody contributes and with all their skills they do something that none could have achieved on their own. And yes, of course, not all of them are who or what they seem to be, as you might suspect.

Another favourite aspect of the book for me was how their illnesses, their end-of-life decisions, and confronting their own mortalities are dealt with. The author is a social worker and a professor teaching social workers, and it is evident that this is a subject she is passionate about. That is another way this book is different from some of the other cozies I’ve read, as it is not all light subjects and fun. There are serious moral issues at play here; it’s impossible to read the book without asking yourself some uncomfortable questions, and there are no easy answers. Some might not agree with the way the group handled what happened, but I appreciated the mention of restorative justice, something I think is worth thinking about more often than it is at the moment.

Did I guess the solution to the mystery? Some aspects of it I did, some quite late in the day, but I was so taken by the overall story that I didn’t mind at all. I wanted to know the answer, but I also wanted to spend more time with the characters and know what was in stock for them. Despite what we know will happen to many of the protagonists, I felt this was a feel-good novel with a positive outlook on life.

I enjoyed this novel, and I’d recommend it to readers who like cozies with a bit of a bite and are not afraid to face serious topics or have to think about painful and morally complex subjects. I have already started the second book in the series, so, don’t delay and check it out!

And I leave you with a quote that sums up the feel of the book for me:

Family really is more than blood kin and spouses. It’s whoever makes you feel like home.

Thanks to Rosie and to all the members of the team for their support, thanks to the author for offering me both novels in the series, and, most of all, thanks to all of you for visiting, reading, liking, sharing, commenting… Keep smiling and keep safe.

#TuesdayBookBlog The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo (@yangszechoo)

Hi, all:

I bring you a pretty special book today. I haven’t read anything else by the author, but it seems her two first novels have done very well and one has become a TV series (although some readers don’t think it is a good adaptation), so you might have come across her already. I loved it!

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

The Fox Wife: A Novel by Yangsze Choo

Some people think foxes are similar to ghosts because we go around collecting qi, but nothing could be further than the truth. We are living creatures, just like you, only usually better looking . . .

Manchuria, 1908.
In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach—until, perhaps, now.

Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them—their eldest sons die before their twenty-fourth birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change—or does it?

Snow is a creature of many secrets, but most of all she’s a mother seeking vengeance for her lost child. Hunting a murderer, she will follow the trail from northern China to Japan, while Bao follows doggedly behind. Navigating the myths and misconceptions of fox spirits, both Snow and Bao will encounter old friends and new foes, even as more deaths occur.

New York Times bestselling author Yangsze Choo brilliantly explores a world of mortals and
spirits, humans and beasts, and their dazzling intersection. Epic in scope and full of singular, unforgettable characters, The Fox Wife is a stunning novel about old loves and second chances, the depths of maternal love, and ancient folktales that may very well be true.

About the author:

Yangsze Choo is a fourth generation Malaysian of Chinese descent. Due to a childhood spent in various countries, she can eavesdrop (badly) in several languages. After graduating from Harvard, she worked as a management consultant before writing her first novel.

She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ghost Bride (now a Netflix Original series) and The Night Tiger, a Reese’s Book Club Pick, and a Big Jubilee Read selection for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. She lives in California with her family and loves to eat and read (often at the same time). Her new book, The Fox Wife, and all previous novels would not have been possible without large quantities of dark chocolate. You can follow her blog at http://yschoo.com/ or on Twitter @yangszechoo 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6547911.Yangsze_Choo

My review:

I thank NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing me with an ARC copy of this book, which I freely chose to review.

This is my first experience reading one of Yangsze Choo’s novels, and it won’t be the last one. I loved this novel.

Although it is set in a real location and in a real time (the characters travel and visit different places in China and Japan), once you start reading, you are transported to a magical place, where gods, ghosts, spirits, and animals share space with human beings, and where who you are and what you believe in are one and the same. If you believe in gods, and in the influence of god animals (who might also live between us taking the form of human beings), they might take control of your life, heal you, make you fall madly in love with them, or kill you. This is a world where tradition and modernity are wrestling and vying for dominance; where the old wisdom is losing its battle but not totally gone; and where a family’s fate and history weigh heavily on the new generations to the point of driving them to distraction (and destruction).

There are touches of history, mentions of revolution and the government, exams and professions, the society of the period, with references to concubines, servants, and the order of things (the matron of a family is moved to the back of the house when her son gets married again, as the new wife does not wish her to have such an influence over the household and their business, as reputed traditional Chinese medicine shop), but the story is about the characters and what happens to them, and readers don’t need to have a lot of knowledge about China’s history to follow and enjoy the novel.

The story is told from two points of view. One of them is Snow, who is a mother looking for revenge for her daughter’s death, and she narrates her story in the first person. She is whatever she needs to be in order and will do whatever she has to do to achieve her goal. She has no money when we come across her, and she becomes a servant to an old lady by chance. It works well for her and she lives a lot of adventures and also becomes very fond of the old lady, who is anything but conventional, and the same applies to her family. Snow has a lot of secrets up her sleeve, and those are revealed slowly as we move through the story.

The second point of view is that of a man, Bao, who held a lot of promise when he was young, but who became very unwell when he was a child and something peculiar happened as a result of the intervention of her nanny. That marked his life from then on, and he never lived up to his expectations, although he acquired an ability (gift or curse, depending on how one looks at it) that he finally puts to good use by becoming a private investigator. He is engaged in investigating a mysterious death, and through that case, he becomes embroiled in a variety of other puzzles and enigmas, which somehow take him back to events in his childhood and a friendship he never forgot. His story is told in the third person, and although I felt closer, perhaps, to Snow, I enjoyed Bao’s story as well. He is an older man (or so it seems when we start reading about him), and much of what he thinks circles back to his life and the past, but I was happy to follow his wandering mind and his disquisitions, and I found them fascinating (perhaps because I’m no longer that young myself).

If you imagine that both stories must be related and the two will intersect at some point, you’d be right, but, of course, I am going to avoid making a spoiler and I won’t give any details about it. The title will give you a clue, and once you start reading, you’ll probably get a good sense of what might be going on, but there are plenty of surprises to come, and I was more than satisfied with the overall arc of the story.

The author has a beautiful tone of phrase and I loved the writing style, lyrical, with gorgeous descriptions, use of metaphors, and something ethereal about it. Although there are mysteries and investigations, this is not a page-turning thriller, but a calm and slow-flowing narrative, which goes back and forth and where memories and legend mix easily to create a whole. I am not sure that people who prefer modern-style and conventional narratives will appreciate this novel, but I particularly enjoyed the different nature of it, and the way one didn’t quite know what might happen next, who was who, and what was real and what not.

The type of narrative made me think of magic realism, although the traditional stories and legends of China and Mongolia do play a very important part in the plot and the style, as the author explains in a note at the end. It made me think of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, though the setting and the plot are quite different, I think readers who enjoyed that novel are likely to like this one as well.

The main difficulty I had with the story wasn’t following it, despite the split narrative, as the two characters were quite different and each one took one chapter in turn, but with the names of the characters, which were unfamiliar to me. This was further complicated by the fact that some of them adopted different names as well, and shortened versions were used at times, so one needs to keep that in mind when reading it, although the author gives us a guide to the main names used and their meanings at the end of the book.

I noticed that some reviewers who had read the author’s previous novels didn’t enjoy it as much as The Ghost Bride or The Night Tiger, but I cannot make a comparison, although I can honestly say that if the other two are even better, they must be amazing.

So, as I have said before, this is a novel I recommend, especially to readers who like fairy tales and stories with a touch of the paranormal and the magical; those who love lyrical and poetic writing, and who don’t mind a slow and contemplative narrative. Beautiful.

Here are a few samples of the writing from both characters’ perspectives:

You know those heroes of old, the ones willing to throw themselves over a battlement to save a besieged citadel? Well, I don’t know either of them either, at least living ones. They all end up dead, and who’s left to bury their mutilated bodies and write mournful poems to their starving families? The rest of us, that’s who.

He gives the address of this hotel. Gazing at Tagtaa’s face, old but still sweet, like the last plum left to wrinkle in a corner of the storehouse, he can only think, I liked you when we were fourteen and I still like you now.

Sometimes our wishes come back in the darkest, most twisted ways, like a thorn that pierces and grows through your flesh. A tree that drinks blood and blots out the sun.

Thanks to Netgalley, to the author, and to the publisher, for this book, and to all of you for visiting, reading, sharing, commenting, liking, and always being there. Take care and keep smiling!

#TuesdayBookBlog The Forest of Stone by Lance Manion (@writermrbrown)

Hi, all:

I bring you another book from Rosie’s Book Review Team, and one especially recommended to those who love short and flash fiction with a touch of the absurd.

The Forest of Stone by Lance Manion

The Forest of Stone by Lance Manion

His work has been called demented, hilarious, quirky and well outside the mainstream, and with his twelfth collection of short stories Manion unapologetically stays with that formula.
With this newest collection Manion once again asks the reader to get off the bench and into the game as he dishes out laughs, offense and even a few poignant moments. There is no point to be made here. Only the hope that somewhere amidst all the run-on sentences, unnecessary profanity and poor grammar, readers will come away with some unique thoughts of their own.
Perfect reading for artists, commuters and people who spend an inordinate amount of time on the toilet.

About the author:

Lance Manion looks exactly how you want to him to look. Disappointed there isn’t a picture of him looking at you smugly, perhaps wearing a heavy cardigan and clutching a pipe? Life is full of disappointment.

In your head there is a perfect Lance Manion. Where he lives, what his hobbies are, his political or sexual affiliations.

Go with those.

(from Merciful Flush)

A tremendous fellow this Lance Manion. Currently residing in a house he could be, much like Schrödinger’s cat, either alive or dead. Of course, if you’re reading this in the year 2060 or beyond then he’s probably dead.

(from Results May Vary)

Homepage

My review:

I write this review as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team (author, check here if you are interested in getting your book reviewed) and thank her and the author for this opportunity.

I hadn’t read anything by this author before, and these days I prefer longer fiction (although it depends on the circumstances and the author), but I was intrigued by this book, and I appreciated the opportunity to read it in the breaks between longer reads.

It is tough to explain what this book is like. It contains stories that are, almost, like standard stories, with a well-defined narrative and recognisable characters (sort of). But this is not the norm. Some stories provide us with different versions (perhaps in a parallel universe) of the same events; others take as main characters quite unexpected beings (don’t think standard pet, either); there is even a short series with the same hero, Nap Lapkin, who is a secret agent/spy but taken to extremes, and then given steroids. (If you, like me, think that secret agents in movies are beyond your suspension of disbelief, you have seen nothing yet). It may be played for laughs, but I love the guy and Madonna. (Don’t ask. You’ll better read it yourselves, but, just let me tell you that this is a guy that, when bored, allows himself to be captured by the baddies, just to have a bit of fun).

Many of the stories start on what seems like a pretty normal premise and then go off on a tangent (always an interesting one, though). A lot of the stories make us look at things from a slightly (or not so slightly) alternative perspective, and it can be illuminating, whether you decide to take it seriously or not. Many are funny, some will leave you thinking about what happened, and some will make you think. I am sure this is one of those books that you might not be able to recall a lot of details of when asked, but then, you might be in the middle of doing something, hearing something, or seeing something, and one of the stories from the book will pop up into your head.

The whole collection reminded me of the theatre of the absurd and the way it mixes seemingly everyday characters and settings with extraordinary events or circumstances. You might think you know where things are going, but you’re likely to be wrong.

The stories are easy to read, even though the style varies according to the story and the narrator. Sometimes the narrator is one of the characters but in others, there is a very self-conscious author who addresses the reader directly (breaking what is referred to as the fourth wall on stage) and who is happy to talk about the tone of the writing and even the use of punctuation. The author in his note at the end likens his efforts to “collage portraits” and observes that reading such a collection is a good way to get to know who the author is. If that is the case, I must say Mr Manion’s head is a pretty interesting place to visit.

I recommend this book to those who love short fiction and are looking for a new author, especially readers who are looking for something out of the ordinary.

Thanks to the author, to Rosie and her team for their ongoing support, and above all, to you, for always being there, reading, sharing, clicking, commenting, and making blogging such a pleasure. Take care and keep smiling!

#TuesdayBookBlog The Women: A Novel by Kristin Hannah (@panmacmillan)

Hi, all:

I bring you a book by a very popular author I hadn’t read before. I’m sure it will do very well, but I wasn’t totally convinced by it. I’ve never been too partial to the romances thrown into some genres, but many readers like them, so…

The Women by Kristin Hannah

The Women: A Novel by Kristin Hannah

From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah’s The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.

About the author:

Kristin Hannah is the award-winning and bestselling author of more than 20 novels. Her newest novel, The Women, about the nurses who served in the Vietnam War, will be released on February 6, 2024.

The Four Winds was published in February of 2021 and immediately hit #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Indie bookstore’s bestseller lists. Additionally, it was selected as a book club pick by the both Today Show and The Book Of the Month club, which named it the best book of 2021.

In 2018, The Great Alone became an instant New York Times #1 bestseller and was named the Best Historical Novel of the Year by Goodreads.

In 2015, The Nightingale became an international blockbuster, was Goodreads Best Historical Fiction novel for 2015, and won the coveted People’s Choice award for best fiction in the same year. It was named Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Paste, and The Week.

The Nightingale is currently in pre-production at Tri Star. Firefly Lane, her beloved novel about two best friends, was the #1 Netflix series around the world, in the week it came out. The popular TV show stars Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke.

A former attorney, Kristin lives in the Pacific Northwest.

www.kristinhannah.com

My review:

I thank NetGalley and the publisher (Pan MacMillan) for providing me with an ARC copy of the book, which I freely chose to review.

I had read many comments about Kristin Hannah and her novels, but I hadn’t read any yet, so I can’t compare it to her previous work. I have been interested in the Vietnam War and the role the United States played in it for a long time, and I’ve read books (both, fiction and non-fiction), and watched movies, series, and documentaries about it, so this novel seemed a good fit for me.

As the description explains, the novel centres on Frankie, a girl from a navy town in California, whose father has never lived up to his disappointment about not having been able to serve his country, and who worships everything military, in particular, navy-related. He is very proud when his son goes to Vietnam. Unfortunately, things don’t go according to plan, and by the time Frankie has decided to enlist as a nurse, tragedy has already fallen on the family.

The war is a shock for her, but thanks to two of the veteran nurses (Ethel and Barb) and the patience and understanding of the rest of the staff, she develops into a great nurse, and she ends up signing up for a second tour of duty. She is a religious (Catholic) girl, and pretty conventional and naïve, so she tries to keep men at bay at first, following her strict moral standards, but eventually, she ends up having a relationship with a young man she knew from before, and they make plans for the future.

When she returns to the US, she doesn’t get the hero reception she had heard about from WWII. Instead, she is spat on and called names. She had heard of the anti-war movement, but the reality of it hits her hard. That, together with flashbacks and other clear symptoms of PTSD, and a serious loss shortly after her arrival, make her reintroduction into civil life very complicated. Despite the support of her two nurse friends (who’ve both made new lives for themselves), she doesn’t manage to fit in and find her place, and events (and to a certain extent, her own choices and her way of dealing with things, or trying not to deal with them) keep conspiring and take her to breaking point.

This novel is a mixture of historical fiction (it captures well the atmosphere of Vietnam, especially the hospitals, although it doesn’t dedicate much space to the Vietnamese people other than in passing), coming-of-age story, and romance/melodrama. In many ways, Frankie is a typical protagonist of a romantic novel: beautiful, naïve, principled, quite green… All the men she meets fall for her, but she sticks to her rules of conduct, at least initially. She falls in between two eras: her mother (and father) expect her to marry somebody of her upper social class, have babies, and have a full social life, taking an interest in some good causes. At the same time, the Hippy movement has arrived, the Civil Rights Movement is in full swing, and so is the Women’s Liberation Movement. Women are demanding more freedom and taking their destiny in their own lives. Frankie doesn’t seem happy in either of these two worlds, and although she tries to get help for her trauma, nobody acknowledges that there were women in the war, and the veteran services and hospitals are only set to look after those who saw action (as if nurses hadn’t seen more than their fair share of it).

The story is interesting and it’s difficult to put down once you get into it. On the other hand, I never felt too attached to the protagonist, although I empathised with her and felt quite moved by the way things developed towards the end. I would have liked to get to know more about her two friends, Ethel and Barb. We don’t see or hear things from their perspective, and they are never the focus of the novel, although they represent the support and sisterhood well. The part of their experiences in Vietnam and also what Frankie experiences when she gets back home felt realistic and gripping, but the parts related to her relationships felt overdone and melodramatic. There were many coincidences, many tragic events one after another, and I ended up feeling as if I were watching a soap opera gone to extremes for effect. The other aspect that I thought worked well was the coming-of-age side of things, and how Frankie manages to find a way to become independent and to find a meaningful outlook in life. I would have preferred it if the author had avoided the last twist (this is another case of ‘a twist too far’, in my opinion) but I’m sure readers who like romantic novels will enjoy it.

Hannah includes an author’s note, where she explains her interest in the subject and the process of creation of this novel, and a section of acknowledgements which is particularly interesting, as she mentions the people she consulted and recommends some books written by people who survived the experience and others she used as a source, and those will be of interest to people who want to deepen their knowledge of the Vietnam War and the experience of the (western) women who joined the war effort.

In sum, this is a book suited to those interested in historical fiction about the Vietnam War, the role of women in that war, and particularly readers who enjoy a good dose of romance and melodrama mixed into their historically inspired novels.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this novel, thanks to all of you for visiting, reading, sharing, commenting, and liking this post, and remember to keep smiling!

#TuesdayBookBlog The Big Apple Bites Back: Short Stories About Life In New York City by Arthur Shapiro (@arthshapiro) (@ReedsyDiscovery)

Hi, all:

I bring you one of the books I’ve discovered and reviewed on Reedsy Discovery.

The Big Apple Bites Back by Arthur Shapiro

The Big Apple Bites Back: Short Stories about Life in New York by Arthur Shapiro

New York City is unique, vibrant, exciting and a melting pot of cultures and values. But sometimes, living in the Big Apple can lead to twists, turns, and unexpected outcomes.

The Big Apple Bites Back portrays life in NYC-the people, neighborhoods, the workplace, dashed dreams, and life on the street.

The stories attempt to capture the city’s spirit, with tales about how things occasionally go awry and how even the unexpected can enliven life there. When that happens, New Yorkers try to change the situation, go with the flow, or laugh about it and move on.

At the very least, The Big Apple Bites Back reveals what it’s like to live and work in “The City The Never Sleeps.”

About the author:

Arthur Shapiro is a semi-retired marketing and business consultant passionate about telling stories. He considers himself a storyteller above all else, whether it’s marketing and brand building, blogging, playwriting, filmmaking, or writing books.

The Big Apple Bites Back: Short Stories about Life in New York City is Arthur’s second book. His first is Inside the Bottle: People, Brands, and Stories, an intimate and informative behind-the-scenes window on the global spirits and wine industry.

His work life began in the marketing and polling industry, but most of his career was in the alcohol industry. Most notably, he spent fifteen years with Seagram Spirits and Wine, including ten years as head of marketing for the Americas. After Seagram was sold, he launched a marketing and communications consultancy,initially focusing on major spirits companies as clients. Gradually, he turned his attention to startup ventures, craft distillers, and mergers and acquisitions, which became the focus of his practice.

In 2010, he turned his storytelling efforts toward writing about the industry and launched his popular blog, Booze Business. In 2016, he published Inside the Bottle: People, Brands, and Stories based on his experiences in marketing and brand building in the industry.

Arthur’s journey has taken him to writing and storytelling. He says: “I finally figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up.” The journey began with stage plays and screenplays.

As a filmmaker, he has written and produced a short film called Bereavement, starring Mark Linn-Baker, Michael Mastro, Lizbeth McKay, and Lauren Ashley Carter. The film was selected for five short film festivals.

As a playwright, Arthur has written many short plays. One of which, Stuck, was a winner at the Short Play Festival, Players Theatre in New York. That play was the inspiration for Chapter One of this book. His work-in-progress one-act play, Brooklyn Moonshine War, was stage read at the Manhattan International Film Festival.

Arthur is a member of The Dramatists Guild of America(DGA) the national, professional membership trade association of theatre writers, including playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. He has taken several courses in playwriting at the Dramatis Guild Institute (DGI), which is the educational arm of the guild.

Among his classes at DGI, he had the good fortune of attending several courses run by Gary Garrison, who served as Director of DGA and DGI and is a world-renowned author, playwright, and educator. Mr. Garrison is particularly well known for his short plays and their role in playwriting. Arthur credits him as an outstanding educator and the inspiration for short-form fiction, plays, and stories.

Arthur was an adjunct faculty member at Fordham University Graduate Business School – Marketing Management and Marketing Research. He was Chairman of the Marketing Committee, Distilled Spirits Industry Council of the U.S.

He and his wife, Marlene, have two daughters and three grandchildren. They recently moved to Ranch Mirage, CA, where he writes for the community newsletter.

This book is his attempt to capture the spirit of New York City, with stories about how things occasionally go awry and how even the unexpected can enliven life there. It is also his homage to where he grew up, got educated, became a reasonably successful businessperson, raised a family, and had the time of his life.

Based on the play by that title, Arthur’s third book, Brooklyn Moonshine War, will be coming soon.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1473674.Arthur_Shapiro

My review:

I received a free ARC from Reedsy Discovery and you can find my original review on their site here. Authors and readers might want to check their website, as they offer recommendations, services, blog posts, and other interesting and useful content.

This is a book of stories/vignettes about the city of New York, and, apart from the stories, it includes an introduction, a preface, an author’s note, the usual acknowledgments, and an about the author section. Shapiro explains that after having lived in New York all his life, he recently retired to Palm Springs, California, with his wife. He enjoys life there, but he can’t forget the “Big Apple” (something that readers will discover no real New Yorker would ever say) and has decided to write a few stories (thirteen plus a section of “short takes” at the end) that illustrate what life in New York and being a New Yorker are like.

The stories and vignettes (some follow the classical structure of a short story, while others are like a short scene that might flash in a fully developed narrative) cover a large variety of topics: running late for a job interview; parking, and its rules; filming a movie in the city and the problems it causes; the pushcarts at the old markets; the cut-throat business culture; being a spectator at a sporting event, buying property and its stringent requisites; prison rules and food; going to the psychiatrist; narcissists and toxic people, and even more variety in the “short takes”, which are among my favourites, because they are very brief, quick, and most quite funny, like a good joke. The stories are set in different eras, mostly in the present or the recent past (the pandemic is mentioned often), and the author excels at observing and capturing the rhythms and cadences of speech, the attitude of people, the wit, the sharp sense of humour, and, above all, the sense of place. Readers might not be familiar with New York other than through movies and series, but they will soon get a feel for what life must be like there, a combination of excitement, tension, buzz, daring, and plenty of energy, not all positive. Although the city might not always make you feel welcome, the book will, and there are stories for most tastes.

As expected in all collections of stories, some are stronger than others but even the longer ones don’t drag, and this book would be ideal for people who don’t have a lot of time to read and prefer something that can be picked up and put down without losing the thread and becoming frustrated. And if they are interested in New York, all the better.

Thanks to the author and to Reedsy Discovery for this opportunity, thanks to all of you for reading, and remember to like, share, comment, and keep reading and smiling!