Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: A Lock

CHASING VICTORY: The Winter Sisters, Book One by Joanne Jaytanie – Romance, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Psychics

Greed, power, and genetics combine with a steamy love story to stir up an action-packed, hot read in Joanne Jaytanie’s Chasing Victory: The Winters Sisters, Book One.

Responding to a cryptic phone call from an old college classmate, Victory Winters, veterinarian and geneticist, makes her way through the foothills of the Olympic Mountains to the agreed upon meeting point. Spotting him from a distance, Victory’s excitement quickly turns to dread when shots ring out.

To make matters worse, Victory observes a local police detective at the scene – and not in a law-enforcement capacity, either. She can’t go to the cops, and she’s terrified the killers know she witnessed the murder. Needing a safe space to retreat to, Victory flees to her sister, Payton, who is residing in a motorhome at the San Francisco Fairground for a dog show.

Author Joanne Jaytanie is off and running with a tension-driven novel, opening with a gripping scene. Jaytanie sets the stage for her story by featuring Victory—a vet who combines telepathy with acupuncture to heal dogs. Victory is also close to finding “a genetic link between the canine world and the human world,” an endeavor that has promising potential to cure diseases in humans. This work of hers makes her a hot commodity – so hot, in fact, others will go to great lengths to gain control of her and her work.

Two entities are indeed keeping track of our heroine. One, Tristan Farraday, a special ops hunk from the U.S. military sent to protect Victory. And second, a nefarious group headed by the malicious Lawrence Braxton, a genetics corporation. Of course, our gal doesn’t know about Braxton’s intentions when he sends her a rather flattering job offer which is where the proverbial screws tighten, and the story takes flight.

Jaytanie shifts character POVs which increases tension gives her the opportunity to develop her characters and drives the story forward. There are some proofreading errors, but on the whole, this book is a good start for the first in the series. Jaytanie adds chapter cliffhangers, sprinkles in romance and everything sinister, and proves her worth through rich descriptions and excellent dialogue all to produce a flurry of narrative twists to make a fast, fun read.

April 26, 2017
The Atheist and the Parrotfish by Richard Barager – Religious/Spiritual Fiction/Literary/Medical

Can the souls of the departed live on in their transplanted organs? Read Richard Barager’s edgy novel, The Atheist and the Parrotfish, and find out!

Dr. Cullen Brodie receives word that a donor is available for one of his patients, Ennis, a sixty-three-year-old cross-dresser desperately in need of a new heart and kidney. Cullen learns that the donor happens to be his boss’s daughter-in-law, Carla, who never recovered from a car accident.

At his three-month follow-up appointment, Ennis declares that his donor came to him in a dream and that Carla’s organs have exerted influences on him “beyond their intended bodily functions,” such as unexplained sweating and flushing, chattiness, a love for jazz as well as beets.

The possibility of Carla’s transmigration (passage of a soul into a living body) sends chills through Cullen. How can this be?

The uncanny “spiritual” experiences in Ennis’s life spark religious questions within Cullen’s mind, particularly ones directed toward an unresolved conflict embedded in his past.

Ennis has some other issues, as well. But his (or more correctly, Carla’s) take shape in an obsession with locating the donor’s family. When he does, however, that familial connection stirs up personality clashes between Ennis and Elaine (Ennis’s feminine side), and Carla.

Amid the turmoil, Ennis is aware of Carla desperately trying to relay a critical life-changing message to her family, but he needs Cullen’s help to deliver it. The real trick will be whether or not Ennis can convince Cullen before Carla destroys Ennis altogether.

Coming-out-of-the-closet late produces in Ennis a multitude of inner struggles and unsettling childhood memories. In the midst of his personal chaos, Ennis has amazing moments of clarity (with the help of Carla) to see through people and their faults.

Cullen, on the other hand, finds himself between a rock and a hard place dealing with Ennis’s ongoing commentary about Carla. “When all else fails, listen to your patient” is Cullen’s default motto to identify patients’ diagnoses. With Ennis however, Cullen finds this motto difficult to live by, especially since it is both extremely unusual and disconcerting for Cullen to even consider the possibility of life after death – or the very existence of a soul. As a result, Cullen’s attempt to apply reason to an unreasonable situation leads him to revisit conflicts from his own past.

Contradiction is a key narrative theme in this work. One story coiled within another builds while Barager slowly and masterfully weaves the two seemingly opposing accounts together. Chapters alternate between characters dealing with past and present situations, and scenes that include shocking, and at times, heart-stopping endings.

Pages are replete with rich descriptions of religious and ethical conundrums, philosophy, and theological ambiguities. The latter, readers may not recognize until much later in the story.

Rising author Richard Barager pulls from his daytime job experience as a nephrologist to create a gripping human-interest account packed with complex characters and spiritual paradoxes.

“A fascinating story, The Atheist and the Parrotfish, which merges age-old spiritual questions with the latest in modern medicine, is replete with complex characters and riveting pages that brim with religious and ethical conundrums, making Richard Barager’s novel a thought-provoking top-of-the-line read.” – Chanticleer Reviews

February 23, 2017
Beauty and the Bridesmaid by Lisa Souza – Chick-lit

Beauty takes a different a form in Lisa Souza’s page-turning debut novel, Beauty and the Bridesmaid.

Dorothy (Dot) Lindell tags herself as a “relationship black hole.” An overweight software geek with a loser love life whose only wish is to not die a virgin.

At her cousin’s wedding, displayed in a tightly molded purple-ish taffeta gown, Dot feels she wins the award for the ugliest bridesmaid. To add injury to insult, Dot has lost hope of an amorous hookup since her escort, Kennedy J Kennedy is gay – and the life of the party. But when he offers to trade his image consulting services for her software know-how, Dot checks the box for a complete image overhaul.

What she doesn’t realize is that her extensive overhaul is bigger, financially and physically and emotionally, than she could ever have imagined. If facial acid applications through a dermatologist aren’t enough, Dot’s personal trainer works her to death. Although it only takes her three and a half months to lose the weight through rigorous exercise program and her spanking-new meal plan, it all pales in comparison to the painful aftermath of plastic surgery.

As a result of her hard work and her surgeon’s skill, Dot is NOT the same person, anatomically speaking, than before. Changing her moniker to her middle name, Alana (Dot) enters a new world of attraction. Among her many admirers, the first person to ask her on a date is none other than her heart-throb who didn’t know she existed – even though they worked in the same office.

As told through Dot, Souza’s first person narrative describes a young woman whose involvement as a bridesmaid is less than stellar for several reasons, hideously unflattering dresses near the top of the list. Beauty and the Bridesmaid is a fascinating story that will hit the nerve of women who have ever felt or been told that their physical appearance just isn’t enough.

Souza’s distinct cast encompasses a wide range of personalities. From the down-and-outers and geeks to the haughty, and those that are purely villainous, Souza has designed much of her figures to function as foils for the main purpose of shaping Dot’s persona. Scenes continually alternate between Dot’s work, home life, friendships, and attendance at weddings as she transforms from an unattractive heavyset woman to a slim drop-dead gorgeous diva. An appealing feature of Dot’s character is her snarky comebacks, which as comedic as they are, function as her defense mechanism. Underneath her callous demeanor is actually a very humble and compassionate side that remains consistent even though she changes outwardly.

Souza slowly but steadily builds her plot with various elements to keep the story fluid. Aside from cliffhanging chapter endings and scenes replete with copious amounts of unexpected everything, Souza eliminates monotony by sprinkling the storyline with Dot’s therapy appointments, her Barbara Cartland romance reads, and bridal excerpts from Sarah Stein and Lucy Talbot’s The Bridesmaid’s Manual.

Beauty and the Bridesmaid is a perfect read with broad audience appeal for both Chick Lit and Romance aficionados.

February 1, 2017