Tag Archives: book review

Book Review: The Stranger I Wed

Harper St. George brings to us a new spicy Gilded Age romance series with The Stranger I Wed.

Pub Date: April 23, 2024

Synopsis

New to wealth and to London high society, American heiress Cora Dove discovers that with the right man, marriage might not be such an inconvenience after all. . . .

Cora Dove and her sisters’ questionable legitimacy has been the lifelong subject of New York’s gossipmongers and a continual stain on their father’s reputation. So when the girls each receive a generous, guilt-induced dowry from their dying grandmother, the sly Mr. Hathaway vows to release their funds only if Cora and her sisters can procure suitable husbands—far from New York. For Cora, England is a fresh start. She has no delusions of love, but a husband who will respect her independence? That’s an earl worth fighting for.

Enter: Leopold Brendon, Earl of Devonworth, a no-nonsense member of Parliament whose plan to pass a Public Health bill that would provide clean water to the working class requires the backing of a wealthy wife.  He just never expected to crave Cora’s touch or yearn to hear her thoughts on his campaign—or to discover that his seemingly perfect bride protects so many secrets…

But secrets have a way of bubbling to the surface, and Devonworth has a few of his own. With their pasts laid bare and Cora’s budding passion for women’s rights taking a dangerous turn, they’ll learn the true cost of losing their heart to a stranger—and that love is worth any price.

Review

I am going to be honest with you. I was not expecting the spice. I was expecting some sort of historical fiction romance taking place in the Gilded Age with zero spice. I mean, honestly, historical romances are not known for any spice in the bedroom. These stories have been historically known to be absolutely boring. Did women even know what an orgasm was until the Feminist Movement?

Well, maybe Asian women did because men were taught the importance of making women orgasm so that it can increase the chances of pregnancy. But English men during the Gilded Age knowing how to pleasure a woman? I think that is the fictional part of this story.

Ok. So the market today is to add spice to any sort of romance story. Women want their eggplant and peaches stories that fall more under the pornographic end of the spectrum. I was in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee, listening to the audiobook going into detail of their first encounter. I literally stopped what I was doing, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Oh, we’re going there with this story?” Totally unexpected from Berkley Publishing. But alas, tis the market these days.

That spice was a signal to me that I am not allowed to listen to the audiobook or read the book in public. And the Maine Coon better be asleep because I feel embarrassed when he looks at me. Oh, these are things I don’t want going on in my mind in any setting where the cat or a human can sense I must be reading something super spicy.

So now that I have clarified this book is spicy, most of you will have already headed to Amazon, Bookshop.org, or whatever your favorite retailer is to purchase this book. For the rest of you who need more than the spice, keep reading.

This is for the people who love Gilded Age/historical fiction stories. What intrigued me about this story is that the book shows another angle to the New York debutantes with money looking for an English title. Cora Dove, the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy NY businessman, does not want to marry. She just wants her inheritance. But since her father doesn’t want her mixing with people in American society (to save his wife and legitimate daughter from embarrassment), he’s made the caveat that she (and her sisters) must marry if she wants her inheritance. So she decides to marry someone with a title in England.

Her father agrees, so she, her sisters, and their mother (a former actress), sell their home and head to England in search of a husband with the help of one of her friends who married a gentleman in England.

As they are doing their reconnaissance, Leopold Brendon stumbles upon Cora. Literally. And that’s all it takes for their story to begin. He needs her money and she needs a husband. Works out just fine.

But what happens if this business deal could be more than just a business deal that would allow her to divorce him in a couple of years? What if they were to fall in love? What happens then?

This story is also the beginning of women’s rights in England, when women are seeking their freedom to own their own property. There was a time when women could not access their money or their property without a man. Their fathers, brothers, husbands, etc. were responsible for their property. Women were not allowed to handle their own finances, have bank accounts, own property, etc. without a man. At this juncture of the Dove sisters’ stories, giving women the right to their own property is set to a vote.

The Stranger I Wed is the first book in this Gilded Age series featuring the Dove sisters as they navigate English society, and being a woman looking for a husband so they can access their own inheritance. They will be met with suffragettes and their rights to vote, and so many more stories affecting women in their quest to be free.

You can purchase a copy of this book in the Bookshop.org or Amazon Bookshop links in the Shop menu.

Oh, and just to clarify, I think I’d put this as NC-17 on the spice scale. Not quite X-rated, but definitely spicier than R.

Book Review: An Enchanting Case of Spirits

An Enchanting Case of Spirits by Melissa Holtz mixes a little bit of sleuthing with spirits who have unfinished business. Sprinkle a little bit of romance on top, and we have this new spirited mystery from Berkley Publishing.

Synopsis

When a fortieth birthday celebration leads to a ghostly visitor, four friends find themselves navigating surprising mysteries and spiritual hijinks, in this clever debut from Melissa Holtz.

Alyssa Mann isn’t adventurous, not since her husband died and she found herself the single mom of a teenage daughter. But there’s no way to avoid celebrating the big 4-0, so when her best friends drag her out for drinks and a tarot reading, she throws caution to the wind and decides to see what the spirits have to say. It’s all fun and games, until she wakes up the next morning with a wicked hangover—and a ghost perched on the edge of her bed.

Sheer panic sends her running to get help from Nick West, the (very attractive) detective who lives next door. When he finds no one inside, Alyssa has to accept that she really did see a ghost. As the dearly departed keep appearing, Alyssa and her friends do their best to learn how to control her newfound power. Trading insults with ghosts, tracking down family heirlooms, and getting closer to the skeptical but helpful Nick is more fun than Alyssa imagined. But when looking into one ghost’s past reveals unexpected—and unwelcome—facts about Alyssa’s late husband’s death, she discovers she just may be in over her head.

Book Review

In An Enchanting Case of Spirits, Alyssa’s medium powers awaken during a tarot reading and things will never be the same again for her or her friends. In this comedic ride with a psychic helping spirits with unfinished business move on (mainly, because she wants them out of her life), we discover that these spirits all have one thing in common (besides being dead). Unbeknownst to any of them, they all have a reason why they are flocking to Alyssa, and it is not just because she’s a medium now. It’s because she also has a connection to their deaths.

Alyssa and her friends (plus throw in the tarot card reader that sparked Alyssa’s newfound power) band together to help unravel what happened to these ghosts. Nick West (the hot homicide detective living next door) can’t really help them because his captain closed these case files after feeling pressure from the mayor.

Alyssa can’t stand her neighbor, but in the enemies-to-lovers trope, you know she’ll eventually change her mind. Both characters come from a background of loss. Alyssa’s husband died in a car accident. Nick’s fiancée died from cancer. In time, their attraction to each other takes over after all of her requests for help brings them together, even if he can’t believe she sees ghosts.

But Nick starts to believe after a girl goes missing and she is able to give him details on where she can be found. That case that he was told to close, it ends up that she can do something to uncover the truth behind not just that one case, but multiple cases. While he may hate that she is becoming an amateur sleuth, he can’t help but think that maybe he should listen to what she has to say, despite her strange way of obtaining information.

I enjoyed this book. There were a lot of laugh out loud moments with the ghosts providing comic relief to Alyssa’s predicament. I was happy at the end when I discovered this may be the beginning of this story. I actually felt like screaming, “YES!” We’re getting a book two.

Sleuthing friends where the ghosts are helping them with their own unfinished business, what’s not to love? What they’re getting themselves into though is pretty dangerous and could cost them their own lives. So yes, there is a bit of a scare element in this mystery.

If you like the show Ghosts, you will definitely love this book.

An Enchanting Case of Spirits is out now. You can order a copy through the Bookshop.org or Amazon Bookshop link in the Shop menu above.

Book Review: Indian Burial Ground

Nick Medina is back with another Native American horror story steeped in folklore and mythology in his new novel, “Indian Burial Ground.”

Medina, author of “Sisters of the Lost Nation,” takes us back to the rez to talk about two issues that plague Native Americans – alcoholism and suicide.

In his Acknowledgments, he explains:

These two themes, along with Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, create the backdrop to this Louisiana story.

Synopsis

A man lunges in front of a car. An elderly woman silently drowns herself. A corpse sits up in its coffin and speaks. On this reservation, not all is what it seems, in this new spine-chilling mythological horror from the author of Sisters of the Lost Nation.

All Noemi Broussard wanted was a fresh start. With a new boyfriend who actually treats her right and a plan to move from the reservation she grew up on—just like her beloved Uncle Louie before her—things are finally looking up for Noemi. Until the news of her boyfriend’s apparent suicide brings her world crumbling down.

But the facts about Roddy’s death just don’t add up, and Noemi isn’t the only one who suspects that something menacing might be lurking within their tribal lands.

After over a decade away, Uncle Louie has returned to the reservation, bringing with him a past full of secrets, horror, and what might be the key to determining Roddy’s true cause of death. Together, Noemi and Louie set out to find answers…but as they get closer to the truth, Noemi begins to wonder whether it might be best for some secrets to remain buried.

Review

For those who know me, or follow me on Instagram, they know I reference Nick Medina’s books often, especially when we are discussing Indigenous issues.

One of the themes in this story that really resonated with me was the part about good and evil and how sometimes they can get out of balance. There are times when evil abounds, and then there are times when good outweighs evil. The universe will always try to correct itself when this happens in order to restore balance.

We can not have good without evil or evil without good.

This story is told by Noemi (present day) and Louie (past). For those who have seen Reservation Dogs, Gary Farmer narrates Louie in the audiobook, while Erin Tripp narrates Noemi’s story.

While Noemi is going through a horrible heartbreak (losing her boyfriend to suicide), Louie tells the story of the scary things that happened when he was a teenager. Stories of the Takoda vampire, the Takoda people, and the tamahka (the two great gators). Then there are the people dying and their corpses sitting up during their wakes. Bones in the cemetery are being dug up, and screams can be heard underground. People are going missing.

There are a lot of creepy things happening on the rez.

What I appreciate the most about Medina’s stories is the intertwining of myth and folklore into these characters’ lives in order to explain the unexplained. Each tale invokes ancient wisdom that helps people understand what is going on inside of them as they battle the monsters around them.

With every Medina book, I always learn so much. I enjoy reading Native American mythology and folklore, especially the scary stories that are passed down from one generation to the next. 

The book is out on April 16, 2024. You can purchase the book through the Bookshop.org or Amazon Bookshop links in the Shop menu.

Book Review: Something Kindred

Something Kindred is a new coming-of-age story of a young Black girl returning to her roots, to a town filled with ghosts. Echoes.

Synopsis

Magical realism meets Southern Gothic in this commanding young adult debut from Ciera Burch about true love, the meaning of home, and the choices that haunt us.

Welcome to Coldwater. Come for the ghosts, stay for the drama.

Jericka Walker had planned to spend the summer before senior year soaking up the sun with her best friend on the Jersey Shore. Instead she finds herself in Coldwater, Maryland, a small town with a dark and complicated past where her estranged grandmother lives―someone she knows only two things about: her name and the fact that she left Jericka’s mother and uncle when they were children. But now Jericka’s grandmother is dying, and her mother has dragged Jericka along to say goodbye.

As Jericka attempts to form a connection with a woman she’s never known, and adjusts to life in a town where everything closes before dinner, she meets “ghost girl” Kat, a girl eager to leave Coldwater and more exciting than a person has any right to be. But Coldwater has a few unsettling secrets of its own. The more you try to leave, the stronger the town’s hold. As Jericka feels the chilling pull of her family’s past, she begins to question everything she thought she knew about her mother, her childhood, and the lines between the living and the dead.

Review

Is this a ghost story? No. Not in the way people want a ghost story. This is a coming-of-age story about a young woman discovering her bisexuality and the meaning of home and family. Yet, the town is haunted with echoes, ghosts stuck in the town of Coldwater. Not everyone can see them. Only a few can, and those ghosts are filled with sadness, which makes others feel that sorrow and despair.

As Jericka prepares her photography portfolio for Parsons, she struggles with finding a topic to shoot until she decides to photograph the echoes.

But all of this is such a small part of the story. The main part is Jericka’s relationships with her estranged grandmother, her father (whom she hasn’t seen since she was 4), and his new family, her mother (who carries a secret that could destroy her relationship with her daughter), and her new friend Kat.

This book focuses mostly on family relationships and the need to run away, far away, from the people that hurt you. There are generations of people that leave Coldwater and the pain this small town causes. But this book also focuses on mending those past hurts and letting go of the past.

All in all, I think this is a great book to give to a young woman preparing to leave home for college or a new life, especially if they’re running from a lot of pain. Speaking from experience, there are some rifts that can never be mended. Sometimes, the healing comes at the end of someone’s life. There are even those instances where there is no forgiveness and the trauma shapes us and our decisions to stay away from the places that brought us our greatest despair.

Coldwater represents that pit of sadness that will never be fixed. But there are people who choose to make the best of things and create a home in that place because it’s where they found their peace. A hometown is different for everyone.

The author did an excellent job diving into these themes, working out the suffering inside to find peace in the things that haunt them…the echoes.

This book is out now. You can find this book in the Bookshop.org and Amazon Bookshop in the Shop menu.

Book Review: Becoming Madam Secretary

For those who love historical fiction and American politics, I have a new book suggestion for you that releases on March 12, 2024, called Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray.

Publisher: Berkley Publishing

Synopsis

She took on titans, battled generals, and changed the world as we know it…

New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray returns with a captivating and dramatic new novel about an American heroine, Frances Perkins.

Raised on tales of her revolutionary ancestors, Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century, armed with her trusty parasol and an unyielding determination to make a difference.

When she’s not working with children in the crowded tenements in Hell’s Kitchen, Frances throws herself into the social scene in Greenwich Village, befriending an eclectic group of politicians, artists, and activists, including the millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, the flirtatious budding author Sinclair Lewis, and the brilliant but troubled reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls deeply in love.

But when Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, sparks fly in all the wrong directions. She thinks he’s a rich, arrogant dilettante who gets by on a handsome face and a famous name. He thinks she’s a priggish bluestocking and insufferable do-gooder. Neither knows it yet, but over the next twenty years, they will form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House.

Frances is destined to rise in a political world dominated by men, facing down the Great Depression as FDR’s most trusted lieutenant—even as she struggles to balance the demands of a public career with marriage and motherhood. And when vicious political attacks mount and personal tragedies threaten to derail her ambitions, she must decide what she’s willing to do—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to save a nation.

Review

In order to understand Social Security, you should go back to its beginnings and why it was created to begin with. Frances Perkins was the woman behind it. She spent many years investigating labor conditions, trying to make things better for everyone. Becoming Madam Secretary dives into her story from her course studies to the honor given to her at the age of 80 by John F. Kennedy.

Perkins is responsible for the end of child labor. She helped change the 54-hour work week. She witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911, which would move her to advocate for fire safety.

But her claim to fame is the Social Security Act.

Today, lawmakers constantly challenge the Social Security Act. But in FDR’s days, the elderly could become homeless and destitute, especially women who were dependent upon men to support them. If their husband died and the money ran out, or if they did not have children to take them in, they would wind up on the streets.

The Social Security Act was meant to protect our elders from that fate, especially if they could not work anymore. Today, we lament paying taxes into the Social Security system, but we should consider how not everyone is able to save money for retirement.

Without Frances Perkins, the SSA never would have happened. She became the first woman to be appointed to a presidential cabinet. FDR chose her to become his Secretary of Labor.

This book shares the most amazing things one woman did to change how we work. These are all things the working class takes for granted. One woman did so much to make basic working conditions better for us. She looked for ways to protect us after we could no longer work.

While she was advocating for the working class, she also struggled in her personal life. Her husband suffered from manic depression, so he had to be committed. And later, her daughter would suffer from it.

How she was able to hold it together with so many issues at home while working towards helping all of America is incredible.

For those interested in politics and the conversations happening in Congress to overturn what this one woman did, you should read this book. There is so much to learn about the history of labor and how it changed thanks to Frances Perkins. It may change your mind on how you view certain labor policies today.

Get your copy here: Becoming Madam Secretary.

YA Romance Book: With a Little Luck

Happy Valentine’s Day, Lovelies!

For those looking for a little romance to read today, I have the perfect YA rom com for you! Marissa Meyer just released With a Little Luck yesterday. This standalone is the second book set in the Fortuna Beach universe. The first book in this series you may have heard of: Instant Karma.

Synopsis

After being magically gifted with incredible luck, a boy discovers this gift just may be a curse when it comes to love, in this sweet romantic comedy by #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer.

Jude is determined to fly under the radar. He just wants to draw comics, host D&D night with his friends, work at his parents’ vinyl record store, and escape high school as unscathed as possible. That is, until the night he finds himself inexplicably gifted with a bout of supernatural good luck.

Suddenly, everything Jude has ever wanted is within reach. His art is being published. He helps his friend’s song become a finalist in a songwriting competition. And he wins a pair of coveted concert tickets, which he can use to ask out the popular girl he’s been crushing on since elementary school.

But how long can Jude’s good fortune last? And why does he find himself thinking about Ari, his best friend since forever? If Jude has been dreaming of the wrong girl this whole time, does that mean he’s doomed to be unlucky in love forever?

With a sprinkle of magic, this sweet beachside romance is perfect for fans of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Love & Gelato, as well as anyone who has ever swooned over Marissa Meyer’s beloved characters.

Review

In the spirit of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, With a Little Luck is an adorable feel good, light read when you feel like reading one of those cute YA rom com books. This book really took me back to my high school days of asking out the most popular guy in school (and he said, yes). About doing nerdy things with friends, loving music, and just wanting to be successful in whatever you put yourself out there to do (no matter how scary it is).

If I had a little extra luck on my side, I think things probably would have turned out just about the same. But sometimes you need that extra boost of luck. The extra bit of confidence. Or maybe even enough luck to notice that your best friend is in love with you.

I kind of laughed when the good luck charm appeared. It reminded me of my brother because he does Dungeons & Dragons meetings every week (and he’s in his 40s…thank you, Stranger Things). The book has comic strips within to show you the story that Jude is drawing as he tries to create his own D&D story. I really loved this added element in the book, because Jude’s art is what makes him unique.

Jude and his sisters reminded me of The Loud House on Nickelodeon. I love how they all have their own thing that they’re great at. They also have a great support system where they encourage and cheer each other on. I really loved that aspect of Jude’s family.

I guess I can say what really made this book were all of the characters.

Like the other Marissa Meyer books I own, there are tabs I’ve left throughout the book of wise things that hit me at my core. They’re all little life lessons. In With a Little Luck, those wise sayings center around being confident in yourself to do the scary things. For Jude, that’s about getting his artwork published. For me, that’s about feeling confident in finishing my novels. There’s always some little words of writing wisdom that Meyer puts into her novels and they always leave a lasting imprint on my mind.

Also, of note, the Fortuna Beach series involves a little bit of magic from the universe, so if you have issues with topics dealing with karma or the universe granting you an unusual amount of luck, then you should probably skip this one. But, if you are like me and LOVE stories dealing with karma and the universe giving you a helping hand, then this is your kind of book.

At any rate, if you want a sweet rom com to get you through today, this is the book you should pick up either for yourself, or for your favorite teen who loves rom coms.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day filled with love. And rule number one to doing that is to make sure you do something for yourself. Show yourself that you are loved. Don’t always depend on others to do that for you. Do that for yourself. Love you, first. Then go share that love with others. You will find that the universe will make sure you feel loved when you start from within.

XOXO,
Michelle

Book Review: Village in the Dark

If you’ve been enjoying True Detective: Night Country as much as I have, you may like this new book out today from Iris Yamashita, “Village in the Dark.”

This book takes place in Alaska. So get your hot cocoa, tea, or coffee ready because we are about to travel into tribal lands.

SYNOPSIS

In Village in the Dark, Detective Cara Kennedy thought she’d lost her husband and son in an accident, but harrowing evidence has emerged that points to murder—and she will stop at nothing to find the truth in this riveting mystery from the author of City Under One Roof.

On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances.

Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet.

Aided by police officer Joe Barkowski and other residents of Point Mettier, Cara’s investigation will lead them on a dangerous path that puts their lives and the lives of everyone around them in mortal jeopardy.

Review

First, I would like to preface this in saying that the synopsis for Village in the Dark strips the story of what made it so intriguing. This book is written by an Asian American woman and includes the story of the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska. She brings together numerous tribes, including an Asian woman and her biracial daughter. These women create their own community together to raise their children. They live off the land, preparing for the day they could come under attack by an abusive ex.

Point Mettier is another community created by a former bank robber who was abused by her husband. In a large condo building, she lives with an entire community that seeks to hide women on the run from their abusive exes. The entire community exists in this one building, and they are there to protect each other.

Mia’s character is also of interest. She is a young woman who was raised in Unity Village. Reading about her journey into Man’s World was a centering moment in understanding how difficult it can be for Indigenous People to navigate the two worlds, especially ours. These are the conversations I’ve seen in the comment sections of Native American Instagram accounts.

After Cara discovers the DNA of her husband and son do not match the bodies that she had buried, that is when everything goes crazy. She soon discovers more and more dead bodies cropping up. And they’re all connected. She just has to figure out how, and it all begins with the photos they found on a gangster’s cell phone.

I was surprised how well an Asian American woman was able to include Indigenous stories into this book, all the way down to the language. She was able to do this with the help of the Native American community. They made sure she was including these elements correctly.

I also loved how she included a Japanese Indigenous woman to the Unity village. I loved seeing women uplifting each other, protecting each other, and creating a society together. They even came up with their own language, which is a little bit of everything from the different tribes.

As for the murder investigations and who is out there killing everyone, I wasn’t expecting any of it. First, I thought it was a serial killer, but it ended up being something far worse. Betrayals will abound.

This book is a quick read. A little under 300 pages.

I really enjoyed it. But mostly, I appreciated that an Asian American woman was able to tell a story that properly included Indigenous voices with the help of someone from the Native American community. There are a lot of strong women in this book. It’s like a happy ending for those who are victims of domestic violence. It’s all about community in the end and lifting your hand down to raise each other up. This is a quality that the Native American community teaches. That is what wins out in the end.

Thank you, Berkley Publishing, for sending this book my way. It gave me more confidence to keep working on my two book projects because I am an Asian American woman incorporating Indigenous stories into my books. It was good to read a book by another Asian American woman who accomplished this feat.

Fall Horror Books: Good Girls Don’t Die

Author Photo by Kathryn McCallum Osgood (2015)

Just because it’s November, it does not mean I am done reading scary books. This book I’m sharing today did not disappoint. It is perfect for horror movie fans.

Good Girls Don’t Die [#ad] by Christina Henry releases on November 14, 2023. [NOTE: This post contains affiliate links. Please see the disclosure at the end of this post for more information.]

This is not your typical horror novel. Take your horror films, cozy mysteries, and the insanity that is our world today, throw them in a blender and what do you have? Good Girls Don’t Die. [#ad]

Figuring out what was really going on was not so easy. I was confused at the end of each story, thinking, “What just happened?” At first, I thought this was reading like The Mill (a movie on Hulu), where it’s just a bunch of people going through some virtual reality. No, that wasn’t it.

Then the Cabin in the Woods story began, and I started thinking there is no way what I think is happening is really happening. Not at this scale. Are they stuck in some strange Truman like show? No, that definitely cannot be it.

Throw the Squid Game into this and you really are wondering what is going to happen after they all escape their strange scary stories.

When I got to the end, I sat there trying to wrap my head around what was going on. I kept thinking that this could actually happen because we see this kind of behavior out there in the world today. Women are murdered for these exact reasons, and that is scary.

I am not going to spoil this one for you. You are going to have to find out for yourself what happened. All I am going to say is that there is absolutely no way you are going to guess the ending at all. Good Girls Don’t Die [#ad] is straight out of several horror movies and stories ripped from the headlines.

About Good Girls Don’t Die

A sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren’t their own, from the author of Alice and Near the Bone.

Celia wakes up in a house that’s supposed to be hers. There’s a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family—and this life—is not hers…

Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip—but then her friend’s boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. No one else believes Allie, but she is sure that something about this trip is very, very wrong…

Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she’s in a dangerous situation and she doesn’t know who put her there or why. She’ll have to fight with everything she has to survive…

Three women. Three stories. Only one way out. This captivating novel will keep readers guessing until the very end.

About the Author

Christina Henry is a horror and dark fantasy author whose works include Horseman, Near the Bone, The Ghost Tree, Looking Glass, The Girl in Red, The Mermaid, Lost Boy, Alice, Red Queen, and the seven-book urban fantasy Black Wings series.

She enjoys running long distances, reading anything she can get her hands on, and watching movies with samurai, zombies, and/or subtitles in her spare time. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son. Learn more online at www.christinahenry.net.

[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review on this site. My review is not influenced by the publisher or the author in any way. This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]

The Book Influencer

The Book Influencer is not just a person who influences people to buy a certain book.  They influence people to read more books.

I am starting a new series on this site about being a Book Influencer.  This site has been around for about a decade now (maybe longer). Going through the audit pages to see what people read on this site, I noticed there are a lot of hits from people wanting to know how this all works.  How do we become book reviewers? How do we get advance copies of books?

So to help answer those questions, I am starting this series to help you become a better book reviewer, and eventually a book influencer.

How I Got Into This…

After leaving the hockey writing world, I switched to writing about books.  I knew absolutely nothing about this. All I knew was that post-hockey, I wanted to focus on two things I loved: books and film.

I started off by attending the Book Expo. This was an annual event where publishers met with librarians, book sellers, and the media to talk books. The first conference I attended allowed book bloggers in. I attended several panels where I learned what publishers wanted from us in order to market their books. I memorized all of the rules, picked up my advance copies, and got to it.

The following year, I noticed I was the only blogger at the Expo. I went around to all of the publishers and asked if they had seen any bloggers there. Nope. I was the only one. Someone from Penguin Random House explained that the Big Five had a meeting about who they would allow to attend, and they decided to only allow five bloggers/book influencers. Apparently, there was an issue with the bloggers from the previous Expo. They had depleted their stores, wrote a tiny blurb (if they wrote anything at all), and that was it. It wasn’t enough to satisfy gifting these ARCs (advance reader copies) to them.

So how did I beat out everyone else? I found out from an old colleague that now works for HarperCollins that he saw my name on the list and he greenlighted me for all of the publishers. He told them he had known me for years, I was a former hockey writer, he knew I would do everything by the book and already had a history of doing so. So that’s how I became one of the five allowed to attend the Book Expo. I was actually doing the marketing that was requested of me.

Now, to save you some time Googling, the Book Expo is no more. The event did not survive past the pandemic. There are book festivals throughout the United States that you should definitely attend in order to meet with publishers and authors to learn more about being a book reviewer, and possibly pick up a few ARCs.

How Do I Become a Book Influencer vs. a Book Reviewer?

For me, moving from being a book reviewer to a book influencer was a little different than most. And yes, there is somewhat of a difference between the two (but not much). A book reviewer reviews books, posts their reviews on multiple platforms in a timely fashion (or at least, we try to get the reviews out by the week the book is released).

Depending on your social media platform, you’ll need to have some sort of post about the book on your Instagram, blog, TikTok, etc. You are basically doing the marketing and sharing your review of every title you receive.

Now, this is how the Book Influencer is a little different. I receive somewhere between 30-50 books each month. 75% of those books are not books I requested. Oftentimes, these books are just dropped into the mail or into my inbox or Netgalley/Edelweiss queue.

Now, I don’t read 30-50 books a month. I wish I could. I do read over 100 books a year, though. The question is which of these hundreds of titles will I choose to be among the 100 books I will actually read. Of those 100 titles, which ones are the ones I will actually post a review for? Which ones will I promote? Which ones will get a spot on my blog or Instagram?

As a Book Influencer, I can be a little pickier about which books I choose to feature. When I told publishers that I am only going to feature the books that are good enough to share to the masses, they actually got on board with this. This method is a very different kind of marketing. That means if your book is shared, that means it was a damn good book, and I will be promoting it on several different platforms. I will be pushing the sale of the book. This is like getting a feature in a magazine or in a newspaper. The space on this blog does not just go to every single book I read. It goes to the ones that I recommend people should read.

Now, since finding those gems takes some time, I still share the books I receive from all publishers. For Instagram posting, I do a monthly round-up featuring titles I received that are releasing that month. During each pub week, I will post a graphic of that week’s releases. For physical copies I receive, I try to do a weekly or bi-weekly bookstack. For book tours I sign up for, those books are always featured. There are certain publishing houses that get an automatic post of whatever they send (think Berkley – IYKYK), as well as Penguin Random House Audio.

I do not write a review for every single book I read. I sift through all of these titles looking for books that are the diamonds in the rough. I am curating books for people who love to read that don’t want to read a mediocre or bad book.

Trust me, I know how it feels to pick up a book and think you wasted your time on it. One year, I received so many horrible books from publishers, I literally sent a message to them going WTF. Every single title from your publishing house this season was horrible. That year, it took going through 35 different books (reading them from cover to cover) to find one book that was actually worth recommending to people. So I learned how to be more selective with the books I chose to spend my time on.

In the beginning, you will find that may be the case with you. You’ll read several bad books in a row. Being a good reviewer means learning which books to stay away from because it is not going to strike a chord with you. It takes some time to master this. It will also teach you how and when to DNF (not finish) a book.

The purpose of the book influencer is not just to influence people to read whatever book you are recommending, it is to encourage them to read more books. Recommending a bunch of bad books does not influence people to read more. But if you recommend a good book, or get excited about something you read, it gets your followers excited. It makes them want to go out and read that book. And when they read one good book, they want to read more.

As a book influencer, you are not pushing the books the publishers want you to push. You are trying to establish a reputation where you are trustworthy with the books you recommend. You want to encourage people to read more books. The way to do that is to provide them direction to which books they may love. These books are the ones you vet and then decide whether to promote them or not.

This is What Happens When You are an Influencer

Over the years, as I wrote reviews and shared books, I never really looked up from what I was doing to see if any of this was having any impact. But then I started noticing that I was making an impact on people.

People that followed me during my hockey writing career followed me into the book world.  One person (shoutout to Kim) went from reading five books a year to reading a bunch of books every year.  She even joined Bookstagram and became a book influencer.

People I went to high school with that followed me started their own book club because they were inspired by all of the books I was sharing.  The hockey community started reading and sharing their books more.  Even the friends I made in the media started their own book clubs and book talks.

I do have a lot of friends and followers that are celebrities (this comes from many years of attending film festivals, writing about hockey, doing interviews, etc.). They started prioritizing reading every single day. Imagine my surprise when they started posting about books! I swear I almost fainted.

Since I do not always do book reviews or suggest books, when I do, I see within the next day a bunch of followers run to purchase that book. I think they know the difference between a book recommendation vs. all of the other other posts I do. It’s the actual book that makes the blog review that is purchased.

This is what being a book influencer is all about.  It’s not just about marketing.  It’s about getting people to read more books.  The only way to really do that is to recommend good books.

If you think this is just about writing or posting content, you should see me in person. If I know you like to read and I know your genre, I’ll curate a bookstack for you that will have you reading more and more books. I love talking about books, but I also love helping people discover their next great read.

I hope this series will help the book reviewer community. Feel free to ping me (Instagram/Threads: @michellekennethpw) or leave a comment on any of the articles in this series if you have questions and I’ll do a post on it. For those seasoned reviewers and influencers, leave comments with advice that will help others in the book community. After all, if it wasn’t for the book community, I never would have figured all of this stuff out. Plus, there’s something new every single day to talk about.

Fall Horror Books: White Horse

Today’s fall horror book comes from Erika T. Wurth, and it is called White Horse.

[Disclosure: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this website.  Your purchase helps support my work.]

I’ve been sitting on this book for a little while now, because I’ve been mulling it over.  That is actually how I know the book is really good…if I am still thinking about it long after I read it.

For me, what I am mulling over is Bigfoot.  Weird, right?  Kind of reminds me of Big’s obsession with Bigfoot on Reservation Dogs.  If you are like most, Bigfoot is just some urban legend that no one really believes is out there.  Never once did I contemplate just where the story of Bigfoot came from.

Imagine my surprise that Bigfoot’s roots come from Indigenous cultures.

As I dive more and more into Native American stories and their culture, I am learning how protective they are of their stories.  One book (I’ll be sharing soon) lists most of their horror stories as the white man being the monster.  And truthfully, it is rather eye opening to see the story through the eyes of a Native American.  I usually just nod my head and go, “Wow, you are so right.” 

With White Horse, you can see the monster through different eyes and it is equally as terrifying.  Watching history and folklore cross paths to explain the monsters around us, really made my heart sad.  I think I didn’t want to talk about this horror story so soon, because my heart wept.  To have that sort of emotional feeling during a horror story, that means you need to read it.

All I can say is that I don’t think the horror story ever really ends. There are so many levels of horror that stick with you long after you turn the last page. That is what makes this debut novel an incredible horror story.

Synopsis

Some people are haunted in more ways than one…

Kari James, Urban Native, is a fan of heavy metal, ripped jeans, Stephen King novels, and dive bars. She spends most of her time at her favorite spot in Denver, a bar called White Horse. There, she tries her best to ignore her past and the questions surrounding her mother who abandoned her when she was just two years old.

But soon after her cousin Debby brings her a traditional bracelet that once belonged to Kari’s mother, Kari starts seeing disturbing visions of her mother and a mysterious creature. When the visions refuse to go away, Kari must uncover what really happened to her mother all those years ago. Her father, permanently disabled from a car crash, can’t help her. Her Auntie Squeaker seems to know something but isn’t eager to give it all up at once. Debby’s anxious to help, but her controlling husband keeps getting in the way.

Kari’s journey toward a truth long denied by both her family and law enforcement forces her to confront her dysfunctional relationships, thoughts about a friend she lost in childhood, and her desire for the one thing she’s always wanted but could never have…

Fall Horror Books: Malus Domestica series

The Malus Domestica series from S. A. Hunt is one of my favorite scary series. It starts with Burn the Dark, followed by I Come With Knives, and The Hellion. This series is perfect for those who love their scary books to be on the extreme side, as in explosive action featuring witches, demons, and lots and lots of scary stuff. I don’t think I will ever get that cat scene out of my head.

This is also perfect for those looking for a trans author to read and follow.

What I loved about this series was all of the explosive action, followed by everything super evil you can think of. I may end up going back to read this series again.

This series is one you need to share with everyone who loves horror. It is really, really good.

Synopsis

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina meets Stranger Things in award-winning author S. A. Hunt’s Burn the Dark, first in the Malus Domestica horror action-adventure series about a punk YouTuber on a mission to bring down witches, one vid at a time.

Robin is a YouTube celebrity gone-viral with her intensely-realistic witch hunter series. But even her millions of followers don’t know the truth: her series isn’t fiction.

Her ultimate goal is to seek revenge against the coven of witches who wronged her mother long ago. Returning home to the rural town of Blackfield, Robin meets friends new and old on her quest for justice. But then, a mysterious threat known as the Red Lord interferes with her plans…

[DISCLOSURE: I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this website. Your purchase helps support my work.]

Fall Horror Books: Malice House

Malice House by Megan Shepherd is the perfect horror book for those who love their horror mixed in with a little fantasy and supernatural.

For horror writers and artists of macabre, maybe our worst nightmare is seeing our work come alive and do what it was created to do: kill in the most gruesome of ways.

I received Malice House last year when I was in the middle of taking a course at Conde Nast College in London, so I wasn’t able to get to it then. When I finally sat down to read it last month, I sat there thinking, “Look at you, Megan Shepherd. Scaring the hell out of me was not what I was expecting from this.”

I love a good horror story, especially when I wasn’t expecting to be scared at all. For me, being scared all lies with me walking away and thinking about what the author just whispered to me in between those pages. Did I carry it with me, mull it over, and think, “Yeah, that shit was scary?” I did with this one.

The scare factor lies in those creatives (or those, like me, who are writing a horror romance novel) who would be petrified if their scariest creations came to life and they went on a killing spree and there’s no natural way to stop them. It is kind of like the Jason, Freddie Krueger, and Michael Myers genre where you can’t kill them. They’ll keep coming back.

So if that’s your kind of scare factor, this is your next read.

You can get Malice House on Kindle Unlimited as part of your KU membership. Book two, Midnight Showing, releases on October 3, 2023.

SYNOPSIS

“One step away from our world lies another: a land of violent fantasies, of sharp-toothed delights. . . .”Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father’s remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right?

Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father’s obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven’s bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets—completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process.

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of review. The opinions expressed here are by no means influenced by the publisher or the author. This post contains affiliate links. Should you click on the link and purchase the product, I may receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]

Fall Horror Books: Black Sheep

Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison is the perfect horror story for those who loved Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, and End of Days.

When the publisher first sent this book to me for review, I thought it was funny, because I am the black sheep of my family. I’ve even posted about it on my social media accounts. Usually, those who find themselves to be estranged from their families is because of their religious and/or political differences. Oftentimes, in America, both are synonymous with each other.

When I went into this novel, I assumed that this cult-like family would be Christian. Oh, imagine my surprise when the cult happened to be Satanists. Now, you have my attention.

After reading this book, I guess it doesn’t matter what religion you are from. All cults are the same. They have the same issues that affect families. People become brainwashed with scriptures as they learn how not to love the people they are supposed to love. That’s why there are black sheep out there. We know life was meant to be better than this. We deserve to be loved.

For those who are looking for a horror book featuring the Devil, this is your Perfectionistwannabe.com Horror Pick for the fall season. The ending is as epic as any ending you would expect from a book about the Devil trying to bring an end to the world.

Synopsis

A cynical twentysomething must confront her unconventional family’s dark secrets in this fiery, irreverent horror novel from the author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle.
 
Nobody has a “normal” family, but Vesper Wright’s is truly…something else. Vesper left home at eighteen and never looked back—mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep. 
 
Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper’s been given special treatment. Is the invite a sweet gesture? An olive branch? A trap? Doesn’t matter. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen.
 
When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith in this deliciously sinister novel that explores the way family ties can bind us as we struggle to find our place in the world.

Pub Date: September 19, 2023

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of review for this site. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by the author or the publisher. This site contains affiliate links. If you click on any of the affiliate links, I may receive a commission from the sale of the product at no additional cost to you.]

Fall Horror Books: The September House

The temperatures are starting to drop. People are running to pick up their pumpkin spiced lattes. For us bibliophiles who love spooky season, we are looking for every new and old scary book we can get our hands on to commemorate every thing we love about fall.

To start off the spooky season, I have a new title for you that is set to be released on September 5th called The September House. This book is for all those who love the haunted house and murderous ghosts vibe. This is for those who love The Haunting of Hill House.

Throughout most of this book, you may think it is comical how an older couple with a grown daughter could purchase a beautiful haunted Victorian and not care one lick that it is haunted. The wife loves the house so much that she will put up with the blood running down the walls every September. She will tolerate all of the ghosts that look the way they did when they were murdered. She can even put up with the priest that comes every other month to sanctify the house from whatever evil lurks in the basement.

Even when her husband goes missing, she does not bat an eyelash that something could be amiss, because she has her dream house. She can live with the ghosts, so long as she has her perfect Victorian.

But things start to go all sorts of wrong when her daughter starts asking for her father. He has not returned any of her calls. She is getting tired of hearing her mother make up excuses on why her father won’t come to the phone or return her calls. So she decides to show up right when the September season is in full swing, when the house is at its worst.

As the daughter begins to think her mother is suffering from dementia and is seeing things, the police show up thinking that she’s killed her husband. Yet, the house decides to take matters into its own hands to prove that it isn’t just haunted, there’s an evil being living in its basement. It plans on killing everyone in the house.

As you read through this book, stick with it until the end, especially if you love the good ole gory stories. What may seem as all innocent and comical at the beginning, can turn into a complete bloodbath at the end.

That’s the part I was not expecting from this. You hope it will turn out that way, but you start to give up hope that it will. Maybe it is just a feel good kind of haunted house story. Oh no. It turns into a bona fide bloodfest horror story towards the end, sure to make any horror lover happy.

Synopsis

A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. 

Margaret is not most people. 

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

Get Your Copy

The September House is out on September 5th. This book is the first in this year’s Perfectionist Wannabe’s Horror Picks for the fall season. There will even be a few witchy books (that may not be scary, but are excellent reads for those who love the season, but hate the scare factor). Stay tuned for more finds and suggestions from now until Halloween. Happy Haunting!

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a feature on this site. All opinions are my own and are in no way shaped by the author or the publisher. This post also contains affiliate links. That means that should you purchase the book in the link, I may receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]

Book Review: Medusa’s Sisters

This story is not about Medusa.  This is a story about Medusa’s sisters; and they have their own stories to tell.

Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J. A. Bear is a retelling of the stories of the gorgons, the gods, and humanity during Ancient Greek times, but with a little spin. This story is not about the legendary Medusa. This story is about her sisters, Stheno and Euryale.

From their birth, these triplets became a part of each other’s fates, the good and the bad. They are not monsters born from Titans. They are born with the same shape as humans and the gods of Olympus. Only Medusa is mortal, while her sisters are immortal.

Stheno, the eldest, is their protector. Euryale, the middle child, is just a woman yearning to fall in love and to live in the world of the gods. Medusa, the youngest, is the one everyone loves.

As the sisters watch the devastation of Pandora’s jar to Zeus creating humans over and over again until he gets it right, they one day decide to join the world of the humans in Thebes. After Thebes, it’s Athens.

It is in the land of Athena that they meet their doom of not only Medusa’s demise, but their own. All three sisters turn into gorgons. This is where the true tale of Stheno and Euryale begin.

They watch as Perseus takes the head of their sleeping Medusa, unable to stop him. They witness Pegasus and Chrysaor emerge from her decapitated body. After Medusa’s death, Stheno and Euryale continue to live on their island of Sarpedon. This is where they plot their revenge.

Thoughts

If you are like me, you probably know the Clash of the Titans version of Medusa’s story. I did not know she had sisters who were also turned into gorgons after Poseidon raped Medusa on the altar of Athena’s temple. Nor did I know that Medusa was pregnant with Poseidon’s children and Pegasus was a result of that rape (or that Pegasus had a twin).

Also, I did not know that Orion is the son of Euryale and Poseidon. In other words, I learned a lot from this retelling. I fact checked a lot of the elements in the story I did not know about, and those facts checked out. Hollywood really changed the story of Medusa, and I am not OK with that.

Medusa’s Sisters vindicates Medusa and her sisters. They are the victims. This book uses the actual myth from the original stories, and it does not stray too far from it. I do like, though, the one change where the sigil of Medusa’s face on Athena’s shield isn’t meant to be looked at as Athena honoring Medusa. It is meant for the goddess to remember what she did to their sister. Euryale painted the sigil onto Athena’s shield so she would remember how she had destroyed the woman she loved, all because she thought Medusa betrayed her.

Within this story, is the story of Orion and his dog Sirius. Oh, how I loved their story. I loved the tale of a boy and his dog. The tears were flowing when Orion was killed and then the gods chose to honor him and Sirius by placing them in the stars above Sarpedon, so Euryale could see them every night. [I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.]

Even in great tragedy, there is beauty. In sorrow, we find healing, even from our own enemies. This book is a wonderful tale of sisterhood, motherhood, and family. It is a story of love, hope, and strength.

For those who love tales of Ancient Greece, you will definitely enjoy this story.

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a book review on this site. My opinions are my own, and are in no way influenced by the publisher. Should you choose to purchase the book or the movie through one of the links in this post, I will receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you.]

12 Books Releasing in September

[Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I received copies of the books contained in this post for purposes of review.]

September has a lot of great new book releases from true crime to historical fiction, to apocalyptic novels. Here’s what is on my radar this month.

Always the First to Die by R. J. Jacobs. A horror film actress returns to the manor where her first film was made, a place she swore she would never return to after the horrors that took place there. She is forced to return to the island to find her daughter as a category 4 hurricane hits, replaying the plot of the infamous horror film that made her famous. Releases September 13.

Children of the Catastrophe by Sarah Shoemaker. This historical fiction story begins in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, 1908. Liana Demirgis is being thrust into the spotlight by her mother in order to find a husband. An arranged marriage is made between the Demirgis and Melopoulos families and Liana is wed to Vasili. We follow the couple’s lives as the massacre of Greeks and Armenians after World War I takes place. Paperback releases September 6.

Duet: Our Journey in Song with the Northern Mockingbird by Phillip Hoose. National Book Award and Newberry honor-winner Phillip Hoose dives into the history of the mockingbird and it’s present day use as the rallying call in the Hunger Games. This YA book uncovers the connections between humans and the mockingbird over the centuries from the White House to modern day books. Releases September 13.

Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade by Nancy Springer. Oh, I love Enola Holmes and she is at it again. This time, trying to keep a friend with dual personalities out of trouble, while her older brother Sherlock is tasked with bringing the girl back home. What trouble will Enola find herself in this time? Releases September 6.

Fall Guy by Archer Mayor. Book 33 in the Joe Gunther series. This one is for those who love detective novels. When the body of a burglar is found in the trunk of a stolen car, the Vermont Bureau of Investigation discovers evidence in the car linked to an old unsolved child abduction case. Joe Gunther leads his team on the hunt for this psychopath before he kills again. Releases September 27.

Harrow by Joy Williams. Her first novel since Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Quick and the Dead, Joy Williams creates an apocalyptic story about a gifted young girl who stumbles upon a resort filled with elderly inhabitants who want to violently punish corporations and those who created the environmental apocalypse. Releases September 14.

Monsters Born and Made by Tanvi Berwah. This is an incredible story that leads to complete doom every which way Koral turns. This new world was hard to understand in the beginning, but once the races begin, you get snared into its net and can’t help but hope that things will get better for Koral and her family. Will she win the race and help her family out of their ruin, especially when the entire world is stacked up against her? This South Asian inspired story releases September 6.

Nothing But the Night: Leopold & Loeb and the Truth Behind the Murder That Rocked 1920s America by Greg King and Penny Wilson. For my true crime lovers, I can’t sum this up any better than the actual synopsis. The synopsis alone makes my jaw drop. SYNOPSIS: Nearly a hundred years ago, two wealthy and privileged teenagers―Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb―were charged and convicted in a gruesome crime that would lead to the original “Trial of the Century”. Even in Jazz Age Chicago, the murder was uniquely shocking for the motive of the killers: well-to-do Jewish scions, full of promise, had killed fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks for the thrill of it. The trial becomes even more sensational by the revelation of a love affair between the defendants and by defense attorney Clarence Darrow, who delivered one of the most famous defense summations of all time to save the boys from the death penalty. The story of their mad folie à deux, with Loeb portrayed as the psychopathic mastermind and Leopold as his infatuated disciple, has been endlessly repeated and accepted by history as fact. And none of it is true. Using twenty-first century investigative tools, forensics, and a modern understanding of the psychology of these infamous killers, Nothing but the Night turns history on its head. While Loeb is seen as the architect behind the murders, King and Wilson’s new research points to Leopold as the dominant partner in the deadly relationship, uncovering a dark obsession with violence and sex. Nothing but the Night pulls readers into the troubled world of Leopold and Loeb, revealing a more horrifying tale of passion, obsession, and betrayal than history ever imagined. Releases September 20.

Resurrection: Book One of the Manifestation Trilogy by Paul Selig. For those looking for spiritual guidance, renowned channel Paul Selig, channels the Guides for guidance and wisdom in manifesting our next phase in humanity. Releases September 20.

The Best Friend by Jessica Fellowes. For those who love thrillers, this book explores the friendship between two women. Friends at a young age, their story takes a dark turn after men come into their lives. Releases September 13.

The Deceptions by Jill Bialosky. This book qualifies for the tag of writing about strong women. As a woman’s life unravels at the seams, this teacher/poet spends her days in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, sitting before the Greek and Roman gods. They come to life, forcing her to choose between myth and reality. This book is an exploration between ‘female sexuality and ambition.’ Releases September 6.

The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore. This retelling of Ivan the Terrible intertwines the tsar’s story with the mythical witch Baba Yaga. Yes, the witch who lives in a house with chicken legs. Part goddess and mortal, she is blessed with youth and a very long life. She is thrown into the tsar’s court to care for his ailing wife, Anastasia Romanovna, who is being poisoned by someone in the tsar’s court. The rumor is Ivan’s volatile behavior came from Anastasia’s death, thus beginning his reign of terror across Russia. This book intertwines the myths of the gods of old with the new Russia that formed as Christianity took over the land. Yaga faced more than just an irate tsar, she also faced an unknown evil that was taking over the land. Was this evil the workings of a madman or the amusement of the gods? Gilmore does an excellent job of making Yaga a participating spectator during this time in history. Yaga is an inspiring demigod, a heroine, and not just an ugly, old witch. Releases September 20.

Take My Hand: A Look into Forced Sterilization of Poor and Marginalized Groups

When I first read a few years ago that women detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in detention centers were being sterilized involuntarily, I thought that cannot be true.  After reading “Take My Hand” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, I now understand the US Government has been using sterilization on the poor, especially on people of color over the last 100 years.  And I’m mad as hell about it.

“Take My Hand” is a historical fiction novel loosely based on the 1973 Relf v. Weinberger case where two sisters, ages twelve and fourteen, were sterilized without their consent in Montgomery, Alabama by a federally funded agency.  In this story, we follow Civil Townsend, a nurse hired by a clinic to help women and girls with their reproductive health.  She believes that all women and girls should take care of their reproductive health.  Her mission is to help them.

She is responsible for administering Depo-Provera shots to two girls living in a one room shanty where they live with their father and grandmother.  They live in complete squalor. 

The girls are ages 11 and 13.  The youngest does not speak and has developmental issues.  When Civil learns that the youngest has not even had her first menstrual cycle, she questions why the girl is required to receive birth control.

Her friend, Ty, informs her the shot is not FDA approved and causes cancer in animal subjects.  This alarms Civil and she realizes this may be similar to the Tuskegee experiments.  She decides to stop giving the girls the shots and either get them on birth control pills or altogether stop administering birth control to them since they are not sexually active.

But her supervisor is monitoring the situation and notices the doctored reports.  She shows up at the girls’ home and gets dad and grandma (both cannot read) to sign a slip of paper to take the girls to the ‘clinic’ for their shots.  At least, that’s what they thought they were signing.

When Civil visits to let the youngest girl know she got her into a special school, she discovers the girls were taken to a hospital to be sterilized.  By the time she gets to the hospital, it’s already too late.

Ty’s parents are lawyers and decide to help the family get justice for what has happened.  A young white man is assigned to the case to help them.  It catches the eye of Senator Ted Kennedy and he brings the family to Washington, DC to tell a Senate committee what happened.  The story makes national news and more stories surface from across the nation of women and girls forced to be sterilized by federally funded agencies.

Reports appear of mothers in the midst of childbirth forced to sign papers that will allow the doctor to sterilize them after the birth of their child.  The doctors threaten to not deliver the child if they refuse to sign the papers.  In California, doctors report that poor Hispanic women are forcibly sterilized.  More and more stories come to light as to how bad the situation really is.

We have found that sterilization is the rule, not the exception.  It is widely endemic in this country.  It is a form of reproductive control.

Last year we did a survey and found that although two-thirds of federally funded clinics’ patients were white and only one third are Black, 43 percent of those sterilized are Black.  A report from the United States government…found that between the summer of 1972 and the summer of 1973, twenty-five thousand adults were sterilized in federally funded clinics.  Of these, 153 were under the age of eighteen.

“Take My Hand” is terrifying and shocking as you learn that this atrocity happened and continues to happen.  This is a war waged against women, especially those who are poor.

Our bodies belonged to us.  Poor, disabled, it didn’t matter.  These were our bodies, and we had the right to decide what to do with them.  It was as if they were just taking our bodies from us, as if we didn’t even belong to ourselves.

The fact that involuntary sterilization still occurs is unfathomable.  How is it that an administration that is anti-abortion and pro-life is also pro-sterilization?  

There’s also a conversation that underlies all of this and that is the importance of women’s sexual and reproductive health.  Throughout the world, talking about any of this is taboo.  From first periods to menopause, no one talks about women’s health.  It is shunned.  In some parts of the world, women and girls do not have access to sanitary napkins or tampons.  Girls end up dropping out of school when they get their first periods, because they do not have access to something as basic as pads or tampons.

Sexual health is health care.

Women needed access to reliable birth control and information about their reproductive health.

One item that is very important to mention is that many of these women and girls felt like they had no choice but to accept sterilization.  Those who accept government assistance (welfare, food stamps, housing, Medicaid) are subjected to constant government intervention.  Government officials constantly came and  went out of their homes.  For some people, they were threatened that if they did not submit to sterilization, mandatory birth control, etc., they could lose their government assistance.

In some cases, people were not given the proper information on sterilization and Depo-Provera.  They were not told that the surgery was not reversible.  Side effects of Depo-Provera were not discussed.  At times, clinics were not advised on the procedures regarding sterilization or the administering of it.  Women and girls were not given alternatives to birth control.  For thousands of women and girls, their right to have children was taken away from them without their consent.

That’s the most important thing here…their right was taken from them without their consent.

Women in prison as recently as 2006-2010 faced forced sterilization.  Less than a hundred years ago, sterilization was forced on those institutionalized.  Many women during that time were not mentally ill.  A woman with irregular periods, or a woman whose husband wanted to rid themselves of their wife to marry another woman, could be institutionalized.

During the Trump administration, rumors of detained female immigrants who were forced to be sterilized made the news.  But the only response became disgust, and then yesterday’s news.

The war on women needs to end.  We don’t hear of men undergoing forced sterilization because they are poor or an immigrant.  Their right to their own bodies is not under attack by the government.  But for women, we are constantly threatened.  It needs to stop.  We need to stop being a taboo.  Our reproductive health and overall women’s health needs to be considered important in the medical field.  When I want to talk about menopause and what happens to the body changing, I need my doctor to be able to know what exactly that is and advise me on what to expect.  When we are provided a vaccine, make it not just for men in mind, but women, too.  Sanitary napkins and tampons should not be taxed.  They are a necessity.  It should be covered as a health need.

Why not provide adequate birth control to all women?  There would be less abortions if women had the proper medical care and access to it.  Give them other alternatives to birth control.  Sterilization should be a choice, not something forced upon women by the government.  Truthfully, I have to ask, why is the government so obsessed with controlling a woman’s body?  Women must really scare them.

I have to say, this book made me mad.  It is a difficult read, but necessary.  Everyone needs to understand the way war is raged upon women, especially those who live in poverty and are a person of color.  Women are not yesterday’s news.  We are victimized daily in a numerous amount of ways, because we are women.  It needs to end.

[All quotes are from “Take My Hand” by Dolen Perkins-Valdez] [Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a review. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.]

Book Review: Firekeeper’s Daughter

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley.

[Disclaimer: Please forgive me if this post isn’t fully coherent. I had two of my wisdom teeth removed a couple of days ago. I am still on medication and not fully back to functional.]

This is the third indigenous author I’ve ever read. I think it has more to do with a lack of indigenous authors than it does not seeking out their stories. I’ve become a loyal Rebecca Roanhorse reader over the years, and I will definitely be a loyal reader of Angeline Boulley’s books, because of the strong characters they build to tell their stories.

In Firekeeper’s Daughter, we are introduced to Daunis Fontaine, an eighteen-year-old mixed race (half white, half Ojibwe) young lady getting ready for her first semester of college. She is from a hockey town, well known amongst the die hard hockey fans, called Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan (it’s not Salt, it’s pronounced Soo). Her father, Levi Firekeeper, was a great hockey player until an accident ended his career. Both she and her brother (also Levi) are hockey players.

Her family’s past though is a little complicated. Her mother is from the richest white family in town. When she discovered she was pregnant, she went to tell Levi, only to catch him in the act of cheating. She ran off, he followed and got into the accident. Her parents sent her to stay with relatives in Montreal. When she returned with three-month-old Daunis, she discovered he was now married and had a son called Levi Jr.

Despite this unfortunate beginning for Daunis, her mother always made sure she had access to her Ojibwe family, no matter how much her GrandMary (grandmother) disagreed with it. Daunis grew up in two different worlds. One that was white and French, the other that was a part of the indigenous Ojibwe community.

I’m always a big supporter of stories featuring mixed race kids, because I am one myself. You’re always stuck between two worlds, and one side is usually unaccepting of the other side. You tend to be more assimilated into one culture than the other. But you’re always an outsider of both cultures, and never fully accepted, even though you do everything you can to be accepted.

Daunis here is in the same boat. She is a star hockey player, really smart, volunteers her time, a pillar in her community, and always looking out for her friends and family. She is literally a female warrior throughout this book, and that’s what made me love her character so much. They call this Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman).

When we enter Firekeeper’s Daughter, it is shortly after Daunis’s uncle dies from an overdose. Two months later, her GrandMary is hospitalized. Her mother takes off work to watch over her while she is in a long-term care facility, and Daunis decides to forego leaving home to attend college at University of Michigan so she can be closer to her family during this time. She decides to enroll in the local community college where her friend Lily will be attending, and then transfer to U of M the following year if everything gets better.

What Daunis doesn’t know is that her world is just starting to change.

It starts with a murder, then a suicide. Then she is roped into an FBI investigation where she is asked to become an informant to help them uncover where a strange strain of meth is coming from. All the FBI knows is that it has something to do with her small town, her community, and hockey. But how?

It is here that I would like to warn readers that there are content warnings for this book. Do not read if you are sensitive to any triggers, because to accurately tell the story of the Ojibwe people, the author had to talk about the things that happen in their community. It is not all fairy tales and happy endings…although, this one had a fantastic girl power ending.

Indigenous communities suffer from a higher rate of suicide among men than any other race in North America. They are plagued with substance abuse issues, drugs, and criminal activity. What broke my heart though is that this is a harsh wake up call for those who want to understand how people of color are treated in America, especially when a group of people face systemic racism and poverty. People are forced to do things that can destroy everything about the community they love, just for their own survival. And they don’t care who gets hurt along the way.

When I realized in the story who was behind the drugs, I kept thinking…no. Please, no. This will break Daunis’s heart. But if Boulley is going to accurately describe what was happening in her community, she needed to tell the truths that would hurt. But she helps the reader survive those heartbreaks by making Daunis a strong Ojibwe woman.

Daunis doesn’t let the evils of the world transform her or stop her from being her own true self. She builds strength by standing against the evils and standing with her community. When she stands with them, they stand with her. And that is a powerful message.

I highly recommend this book. It was a 21 Jump Street meets hockey in an Ojibwe community kind of story. It tells us about the horrors that Ojibwe women go through, as well as what their community is going through. Boulley wanted to remain as true as possible to their stories when she wrote this book. She enlightens the world with who the Ojibwe people are and how they are being destroyed, yet somehow she knows all too well they will survive together if they stick together.

For those hockey fans that still read what I write, this is a great YA novel to pick up. There’s enough hockey in this that will keep you intrigued. It will also remind you of the story of the Tootoo brothers (Inuit tribe). Both brothers were hockey players. One took his own life at the age of 22. The other went on to have a 13 year NHL career.

You can get your copy here: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million.

[Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for purposes of a review. This post contains affiliate links.]

Book Feature: Where Dreams Descend

Book: Where Dreams Descend
Author: Janella Angeles
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release Date: August 25, 2020
Rating: [usr 3]

Hello Lovelies!

So this month, I decided to review a book a little differently. I joined a buddy read with a few fellow Instagram book reviewers and we read the book together and chatted about the book a couple of times this month. I have to say, it was much more fun to review a book this way. I honestly think we should do it more often.

Here’s the synopsis for the book.

Synopsis

In a city covered in ice and ruin, a group of magicians face off in a daring game of magical feats to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus, only to find themselves under the threat of an unseen danger striking behind the scenes.

As each act becomes more and more risky and the number of missing magicians piles up, three are forced to reckon with their secrets before the darkness comes for them next.

The Star: Kallia, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost

The Master: Jack, the enigmatic keeper of the club, and more than one lie told

The Magician: Demarco, the brooding judge with a dark past he can no longer hide

Where Dreams Descend is the startling and romantic first book in Janella Angeles’ debut Kingdom of Cards fantasy duology where magic is both celebrated and feared, and no heart is left unscathed. 

{From Goodreads}

Review: Where Dreams Descend

As you can see from the ranking above, I gave “Where Dreams Descend” three stars. I agreed with the group’s assessment on the ranking. Here’s why.

The story was confusing. A whole group of us had so many questions at the halfway point and at the end. None of our questions were answered at any point.

Sure, we had some crazy conspiracy theories at the midway point, trying to figure out who was the bad guy and what was really going on. Was the villain really the villain or do we have this all wrong? What’s up with this strange town? Why does no one know anything beyond 50 years ago? What happened 50 years ago? What was this fire? Where in the world did Kallia come from? What’s her backstory and Jack’s? What is up with these mirrors? What’s with the cards? What’s with the houses? What about this fire they talk about?

NONE OF THE QUESTIONS WERE ANSWERED.

Granted, by the time we got to the end, we were even more confused than we were at the midway point. So in other words, it wasn’t just me. ALL OF US were confused!!!

Granted, I kind of liked our conspiracy theories we came up with. It made us want to race to the end to see if we were right. Sad to say, none of us were right. Instead, we were going, “HUH?” In other words, you will NEVER guess how this book will end.

But that’s not why we ranked it 3 stars.

The author created some very strong characters. I loved Kallia from the very beginning. I loved Aaros, too. Kallia and Aaros made the perfect partners in crime. I also loved the love story that developed between Kallia and DeMarco. These characters made you feel either a strong love or distaste for them. Even when you can’t quite figure out if someone is innately good or bad, you feel something for that character.

Creating strong characters is Janella Angeles’s strong point. But like all authors, writers have a strong suit and a weakness. For Angeles, her weakness lies in the plot. It is all over the place. Then when we get to the end, the plot is just lost on everybody.

But here’s the thing, this concept is great. The whole concept is intriguing and interesting, but it became too much and too many plot lines that nothing was answered at the end. It just sort of fizzled out and we’re all left going, “HUH?”

There will be a book two, and I need that book like last week, so I can figure out if all of our questions would be answered. Is everything resolved and fixed in book two?

This debut from Janella Angeles (a Filipino-American, for those interested in reading more books from Asian American writers) has great potential as a series. I love the whole concept, but it needs work to sort of streamline all of us out of its confusion. To build what Angeles has built, you have to truly master piecing it all together so it becomes that masterpiece. It’s like Erin Morgenstern’s “The Starless Sea.” The book is brilliant, but you have to be a genius to do what Morgenstern was able to do by tying up all of those loose ends. It also took her eight years to write that book.

Trust me, writing is not an easy process. Also, something I learned from other authors is that we all tend to be masters of one part of the writing process, and have a serious weakness in other parts. You can be strong at developing characters, but be weak at plot lines…or even spelling. I swear I saw an author put you’re in a post instead of your. That kind of drove me batty.

Writers are not perfect. This is an art that has to be continuously worked on and perfected. We have to work on our weaknesses in order to make them our strengths. I could also say that we should do that in all facets of life, especially in our jobs.

I’m looking forward to the next book just to see if any of the questions are answered and the plot lines resolved.

[DISCLOSURE: I received a copy of this title from the publisher in exchange for a review. This post contains affiliate links.]

You can pick up your copy at any of these Perfectionist Wannabe preferred retailers.

Book Review: Dark Secret

Book: “Dark Secret” by Danielle Rose
Publisher: Waterhouse Press
Release Date: February 18, 2020

[usr 4.5]

Synopsis

There’s no wrath like that of a witch scorned.

Seventeen-year-old spirit witch Ava López is the self-appointed guardian of the witches and humans of Darkhaven, an idyllic village nestled between the forest and the sea. Her watch: vicious and bloodthirsty vampires.

Ava is a novice in the eyes of her coven. If she expects to protect them and the secrecy of their powers, she must gain better control of her own. When a full moon ritual goes awry, control may be lost forever, and Ava is exiled from her coven. Forced to seek refuge among the beings she had always sworn herself to hunt, she vows revenge on those who have upended her life.

But the more time Ava spends away from her coven, the more she discovers a startling truth: the witches haven’t been honest with her. Ava’s quest to strip the truth from everything she’s ever known begins with the toughest realization of all—coming to terms with who she has become.

[Synopsis from Goodreads]

“Dark Secret” Review

What a great start to this new YA series from Danielle Rose!

Ava is a witch set on protecting her coven from the things that threaten them…mainly, vampires.

While out patrolling, she picks a fight with the wrong group of vampires. She makes the mistake in letting the leader get away. He comes back with a vengeance and attacks her coven, leaving her on the brink of death.

That’s when another group of vampires shows up to aide the witches. One vampire gives Ava his blood after she’s been bitten…dooming her to a vampire’s life. She is tossed out of her home and forced to reside with this group of vampires who tries to protect humans (and witches) from rogue vampires.

Fortunately for Ava, if she has to be a vampire, she can still continue to protect her family and her coven from the bad vampires that seek to hurt them.

This series is broken up into 5 books, which is essentially 5 different parts. The first part is Ava’s beginning and her first fight as a vampire where she realizes she needs to train to control her newfound powers. Book two comes out in March, followed by book three in April. Books four and five will be released in the fall. The way Danielle has broken this book up reminds me of the way penny dreadfuls were released. You get just a little bit of the story each week. You have to keep reading each week in order to find out what happens next in the story. That is how the Darkhaven Saga is written.

I can’t wait to read what happens next…

[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher and author.]

You can purchase “Dark Secret” at any of PW’s preferred booksellers below.