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Category: Genre Fiction

Review: The Mirage by Matt Ruff

[ 1 ] May 17, 2012

Reviewed by Marcus Hammond

The Mirage by Matt Ruff is a complex vision of an alternate reality. Ruff takes everything we know about the recent history surrounding the War on Terrorism and our interactions with the Middle East and turns it upside down. The United States does not exist. Instead there is a Christian States of America and numerous other independent countries including The Republic of Texas, and the independent countries of Louisiana and Mississippi. The Middle East is united into the United Arab States. Most important to the story is that Americans hijacked airplanes and attacked the Arab world in an act of terrorism.

Central to the story are Mustafa, Amal, and Samir, Homeland Security agents employed with the task to search out Christian insurgents. Within their investigations they begin to find evidence of an ideology-destroying concept that the Arab world they live in is not real, that it is only an illusion of reality. Others in Baghdad know of the theory as well. Saddam Hussein, a Baathist gangster much like a mafia don, is interested in the theory due to his relatively powerful position within the theory. Also interested is Osama bin Laden, the head of the UAS’s version of the CIA known as Al Qaeda. In his view, any trace of the theory needs to be censored and destroyed, in order to maintain the peace and security of the UAS. Each character has something to lose or gain within this alternate theory of existence. As the investigations by every involved party progress, it becomes clear that allegiances will be tested.

The juxtaposition of reality to a hypothetical situation accentuates the concept of a shared history. Ruff challenges the basic ideology that Christians and Muslims are different by emphasizing the basic human experiences involved with war. Each character has a unique desire to change the world, and that accentuates that whether one is Christian or Muslim, everyone strives for a better life. He also emphasizes the idea that no matter what governing system a culture has, there will always be corruption. At times, however, it is hard to envision Ruff’s alternative world due to the knowledge that dominates our preconceived understanding of current affairs.

I think a lot of people will pass The Mirage up based on its subject, others will view it as utterly ridiculous, and a select few will be amazed at its uniqueness.

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

After obtaining a Masters in Liberal Arts and Literature Marcus has dedicated most of his time to teaching English Composition for a community college in the Midwest. In his down time, he spends time avidly reading an eclectic selection of books and doing freelance writing whenever he gets the chance. He lives in Kansas with his wife.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Harper. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Rose of Winslow Street by Elizabeth Camden

[ 1 ] May 14, 2012

Reviewed by Meg Massey

Libby Sawyer and her father are stunned when a Romanian man named Michael Dobrescu overtakes their home, claiming that he owns it. Libby soon learns that Michael claims to be a descendant of the previous owner, and that he and his family were never notified of his uncle’s death.

Libby finds herself in a predicament as the novel continues, and not just because she’s no longer living in her own home. She soon finds herself growing more and more attracted to Michael, and the more she learns about him, the more she disagrees with her father that Michael and his family are imposters. As the court case to decide the fate of the house looms closer, Libby must decide if she sides with Michael and his family, or the father she’s never really understood.

The Rose of Winslow Street is a delightful historical, Christian fiction novel by librarian Elizabeth Camden. In the beginning of the novel, Libby is a young woman living with a shameful secret, and by the novel’s close, she had matured into a woman who knows what she wants, with the gumption to get it. And Michael is a man who often makes mistakes with his words, but always knows how to encourage and show love to those he cares for. My only complaint is that it ended too quickly!

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Meg lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ryan. Library professional by day, freelance writer by night, Meg writes about life, entertainment and everything in between on her blog.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Bethany House. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Calico Joe by John Grisham

[ 6 ] May 11, 2012

Reviewed by Jennifer Rasmussen

Paul Tracey is on a quest to amend a wrong his father, a pitcher for the NY Mets, committed against one of baseball’s greats, a young up-and-coming rookie for the Chicago Cubs, Joe Castle “Calico Joe”.

In true Grisham fashion, the book opens with an incredibly in-depth accounting of Joe Castle’s first few rookie games, and Paul’s hero-worship of this superstar. The opening stories are so factual and detail-rich I had to have my baseball-geek husband translate a few of them, but then the story kicks into high gear as Grisham reveals the relationship–and life-changing event–between Joe Castle and his father. From that point on, I couldn’t put it down.

Grisham has a fantastic way of making the characters come alive and intertwines the events with an artistic flair. This allowed me to effortlessly switch between the flashbacks of how the events unfolded when Paul was young and Paul’s journey to right them as a grown man.

I have a glancing knowledge of baseball, and for anyone who’s not a major follower of baseball, I will caution you that the first chapter may be difficult to follow, but worth sticking it out. Once the relationship between Paul’s father and Joe is revealed, baseball knowledge is no longer necessary. I understand why Grisham layered the details of Joe’s first few games, and baseball geeks will love it, but Calico Joe is really a book about people, forgiveness and relationships.

Calico Joe is a fantastic read for Grisham fans, baseball fans, and anyone looking for a light, quick drama.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Don’t forget to enter to win a copy of Calico Joe!

Jen Greyson writes supernatural thrillers and corporate training guides and tries not to mix the two. You can find her free ebook, How to Build a Writing Platform that Works: The New Path to Publishing, at her website, http://TheSurvivalMama.com.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Doubleday. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
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Guest Post: Edward Blaine Livingston, author of Pare My Heart

[ 1 ] May 10, 2012

Please welcome my friend Edward Blaine Livingston with his new book of poetry, Pare My Heart!

by Edward

I don’t usually go too deeply into why I write something or what it’s about personally for me, just as an artistic principle, but I will share a little.

Pare My Heart is a book of largely metered and entirely rhyming poems, some of them about love, romantic love, some about childhood, some about God/religion, some just about observing the world in a philosophic way. Some of them are referential to a girl I was in love with in childhood and adolescence and others are entirely separate from that. I feel that the whole thing forms a kind of narrative, though it may be deceptive and not grounded in the actual inspiration of the poems (at times).

I think I would like to say that my work stresses musicality and a kind of childlike enjoyment of the sound of words, the rhythm of phrases and rhyme. Certainly it is full of references to fairies, ghosts, selkies and all manner of imaginary stuff that is out of fashion for poems today. It lacks the gravitas of contemporary poetry, but this is delibrate.

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Review: The Courtesan’s Lover by Gabrielle Kimm

[ 3 ] May 7, 2012

Reviewed by Colleen Turner

Francesca Felizzi, the beautiful, quick-witted and caring courtesan we first met in Gabrielle Kimm’s novel, His Last Duchess, is back and center stage in The Courtesan’s Lover.

Two years have passed since she ran from the Duke of Ferrara and her life as his paid mistress, taking their twin daughters with her. Francesca is now enjoying the life of a well-paid courtesan in Napoli. She has two houses: one for her life with her daughters and one for her work. She has all the money she could need and is able to live an opulent, lascivious life on her own terms. She gives her body to her patrons in any manner of lewd ways and entertains patrons who can be quite brutal. But, she is paid very highly to do so and has always been able to keep her heart her own and stay in control of what happens behind closed doors. No matter what, she strives to keep the end goal in mind: to keep her daughters innocent of her work and to ensure that they will never have to sell themselves to survive.

When her services are paid for to deflower a young man named Gianni Della Rovere, he shows Francesca a touch of kindness she isn’t used to and she begins to long for someone who would truly love her. Out with another patron and disguised as his virtuous, widowed cousin, she meets Gianni’s father, Luca, and they share an instant attraction that shocks them both. She knows she wants him more than any other man and must do whatever it takes to try and make a life with him. But Luca is not the sort of man who would want a courtesan and she will have to give up the life that has helped her to survive all these years. But even when she gives up that life, will he accept her tainted reputation?

As Francesca’s lies about her life become too much and she resolves to tell Luca the truth, her life, and the lives of her daughters, are put in jeopardy by her past. She now must not only tell Luca the truth but enlist him to help her save her family. Will he be able to forgive her? And will she ever be able to be anything other than a courtesan?

I absolutely adored His Last Duchess and was so excited to read The Courtesan’s Lover. Gabrielle Kimm does not disappoint and this book is juicy, dramatic and thoroughly enticing. Readers who tend to shy away from sexualized stories may feel uncomfortable with some passages but I found that Kimm was able to communicate the bawdy parts of the story without being vulgar. While there are a few characters that I thought could have been left out of the story to condense its length, everyone served a purpose and all details were neatly wrapped up by the end.

The book stands alone from His Last Duchess but I would definitely recommend reading both books because they are both wonderful. If you like racy but well written historical fiction you can’t go wrong with either.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son, their dog Oliver and their fish Finn. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let’s face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Sourcebooks Landmark. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell

[ 4 ] April 30, 2012

Reviewed by Colleen Turner

The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell tells the story of what happened on June 8th, 1968 as Senator Robert Kennedy’s funeral train made its procession from New York to Washington, D.C., not from the perspective of the Kennedy family but from that of six ordinary people along the train’s route. Each person, while in no way connected, has a shared purpose of not only moving the train along its path but of highlighting the good and bad of America at this volatile time.

Lionel Chase begins his first day as a train porter in New York aboard the funeral train for Robert Kennedy, trying desperately to get through this day as his own problems coalesce with those of the nation. Jamie West, having recently returned home to Maryland from Vietnam after losing a leg, is struggling, along with his family, to adjust to the changes his experiences and injury brings. Edwin Rupp wants nothing more than to celebrate his new pool, what he hopes will bring a return to his more carefree days with his wife, but feels the senator’s train will cast a shadow as it moves through Delaware. Young Michael Colvert in New Jersey is trying to get back to normal and watch the train go by with his friends as he, and his mother, try to recover from the trauma of Michael’s dad kidnapping him after their divorce. In Pennsylvania Deloris King, feeling continually more dissatisfied with her life, decides to go against her husband’s wishes and take her young daughter to see the train go by, not knowing that her web of lies will have devastating consequences to her daughter. And Maeve McDerdon, in Washington, D.C. to interview for a nanny position for Robert Kennedy’s soon to be born child, finds this new prospect dashed and begins wondering if she should begin to explore her love of storytelling that she had long suppressed after her beloved father’s death.

What I liked most about The Train of Small Mercies was the way the author used these seemingly ordinary people to show not only how devastated the nation was about Senator Kennedy’s death but how turbulent the country was at that time. It deals with the aftermath and protests against the Vietnam War, issues with freedom and equality for all people, regardless of race, gender or class and the continued rollercoaster of trying to find solid ground in an ever changing environment. Some people seemed to long for the simpler times while others had a renewed sense that maybe it was possible to start over and make a better life for themselves. The funeral train seemed to bring all walks of life together in one collective day of mourning, even if for only a short time.

Barely touching the surface of these characters’ lives, I wish the author had written more about each character and given a more finished aspect to each storyline. Some of the stories felt barely explored and none ended with any sense of closure. This could be the author’s purpose, giving a quick glimpse into the American life and then letting the people move on unobserved, but I would have enjoyed finding out where these characters went when the train rolled past.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son, their dog Oliver and their fish Finn. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let’s face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Putnam Adult. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Giveaway: Helen Keller in Love by Rosie Sultan

[ 44 ] April 30, 2012

Enter to win a copy of Helen Keller in Love by Rosie Sultan!

About the book

Sultan, fascinated by Helen Keller since she was eight years old, was inspired by a brief note found in the Helen Keller Archives at the American Foundation for the Blind in a file labeled “Peter Fagan.” The note, from Fagan’s grown daughter, read: “I remember my father…showing us a lovely photograph of you, and beneath it a penciled note in your handwriting…I would certainly appreciate it very much if you remember him and would care to send me whatever recollections you have of him.” Helen never wrote back.

Helen Keller in Love begins when Helen is in her thirties and Annie Sullivan falls too ill to keep up with their grueling schedule on the lecture circuit. Annie’s estranged husband, John Macy, sends a young, ambitious reporter named Peter Fagan to step in as Helen’s private secretary. Their interactions—signing into hands and lip-reading with hands and fingers—soon blossoms into the full-fledged romance for which Helen has long yearned.

Finally liberated from the physical and moral constraints she has been forced to live under, Helen and Peter find their affair met with stern disapproval from both Annie and Helen’s family. With Helen already struggling to maintain crowds at her events and cash in her accounts, her new relationship ratchets up tension between those she holds most dear, most keenly with Annie Sullivan, the guide who led her journey from darkness to light.

A captivating love story of triumph and imaginative sympathy, Helen Keller in Love takes us into the mind and heart of an American icon.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Blog Tour & Kindle Fire Giveaway: Baroness by Susan May Warren

[ 2 ] April 29, 2012

Please welcome Susan May Warren, author of Baroness, who is touring the blogosphere with Litfuse Publicity Group!

Reviewed by Meg Massey

The second in Susan May Warren’s Daughters of Fortune series, Baroness picks up several years after where its predecessor, Heiress, left off. Esme’s daughter Lilly is spending time in Paris with her cousin Rosie, Jinx’s daughter, but not of her own free will. She’d much rather return to Montana, a place she feels that her mother has long forgotten. Rosie, in the meantime, is longing for fame on the silver screen. But when both jump into relationships with men they barely know, will their broken hearts prevent them from pursuing their dreams?

From the streets of Paris, to the lights of Broadway, and to the wild west, Susan May Warren’s Baroness takes readers on a journey they won’t soon forget. A wonderful follow-up to the story of Esme and Jinx in Heiress, this tale creates unique heroines in Rosie and Lilly. Lilly’s untamed nature is part of her charm, but is it destined to lead her to trouble? And Rosie wants to create a life of her own, apart from her mother and stepfather, but it leads her, and the man she loves, onto a dangerous path.

I loved that this story allowed its new heroines, Lilly and Rosie, to shine, but it also provided an update on the lives of Esme, Oliver, Jinx and Bennett, which I very much enjoyed. And with just the right amount of romance and drama, you can’t go wrong. If you liked the first installment of the series, you’ll love where the second book takes you.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Also by Susan May Warren:

Heiress | My Foolish Heart | Licensed for Trouble | Double Trouble

Meg lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ryan. Library professional by day, freelance writer by night, Meg writes about life, entertainment and everything in between on her blog.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Summerside Press. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Baroness Roaring 20s Kindle Fire Giveaway from @SusanMayWarren!
Find out what the reviewers are saying here!

Expected to marry well and to take the reins of the family empire, they have their lives planned out for them. But following their dreams –from avant garde France, to Broadway, to the skies in the world of barnstormers and wing-walkers –will take all their courage.  And if they find love, will they choose freedom or happily ever after?

Celebrate with Susan by entering her Roaring 20′s Giveaway!

One grand prize winner will receive:

  • A Kindle Fire
  • Signed copies of Baroness and Heiress by Susan May Warren

But hurry, the giveaway ends on 5/7/12. The winner will be announced on 5/9/12 on Susan’s blog, Scribbles!

Just click one of the icons below to enter! Tell your friends about Susan’s giveaway on FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning.

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