Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: Leona Rinaldi

  • The ALEXANDRITE: A HOLLYWOOD TIME-TRAVEL NOIR by Rick Lenz – Magic Realism, Hollywood, Time Travel

    The ALEXANDRITE: A HOLLYWOOD TIME-TRAVEL NOIR by Rick Lenz – Magic Realism, Hollywood, Time Travel

    Time-travel Noir becomes High Art with a wicked sense of humor in this fast-paced novel that offers up alternate views of Hollywood’s past and present.

    Washed-out and with the doors of opportunity slamming shut on all sides, actor Jack Cade is the poster boy for the “bad things happen in threes” mantra. Getting cut from a crappy, no-pay play was just the tip of his career-crushing iceberg. His agent, who lost faith in Jack way back in another epoch, manages to dig up a temporary life preserver – an audition for a part that has Jack written all over it. An audition he misses. And Jack’s wife, no longer able to stay afloat in his sinkhole of alcohol and “bleeding actor’s ego,” jumps ship.

    Just when it starts looking like it’s lights-out for Jack, an anonymous envelope lands in his mailbox. Inside is a pawn ticket that leads him to an Alexandrite ring and a psycho-physicist who claims to hold the secret of time travel. With Jack’s personal and professional lives collapsing in on him like a black hole, he walks out of 1996 and into the heyday of mid-Century Hollywood. He also walks into another man’s shoes, not to mention the scene of his recurring nightmare. Armed with “fore-knowledge” Jack has a chance to make things right in two different time periods. The only question is, how many times will he have to jump across the spectrum of an alternate reality to get it right?

    Drawing from his extensive experience in the entertainment industry, author Rick Lenz delivers a stellar and believable cast of characters. From Jack Cade, whose love-hate relationship with the movie industry keeps him on the razor’s edge of failure, to Jack’s 1956 incarnation – or possibly alter-ego – Richard Blake, a movie-star handsome gemologist, whose an angry alcoholic wife and sultry, mentally impaired sister-in-law set the stage for their own rendition of a sweaty Tennessee Williams play. And there’s the incomparably complex, multi-faceted Marilyn Monroe, at the peak of her career—the golden thread that weaves everyone’s story together.

    Steeped in Hollywood history and culture, The Alexandrite  entices the reader with snippets of iconic set locations, facades, meeting places, studios, and stars. But the novel is more than a torch song to the movie industry. It is also a paean to hard-working actors whose careers, like Jack’s, straddle a razor.

    Somerset Grand Prize award winner for Literary and Contemporary Fiction along with multiple other literary awards, The Alexandrite by Rick Lenz playfully challenges the reader to ask questions about a world that exists outside of the four dimensions in which we live. A must-read for anyone and everyone who has been touched by the magic of Hollywood.

    5 Star Best Book Chanticleer Reviews round silver sticker

  • EMPTY BOTTLE of SMOKE by Conon Parks – a riotous romp through Seattle’s Underground

    EMPTY BOTTLE of SMOKE by Conon Parks – a riotous romp through Seattle’s Underground

    In an effort to escape his shadowed past, work-a-day dweeb, Walter Curmudgeon flees from Portland to Seattle where he carefully inserts himself into the anonymous corporate shield of Seattle’s financial district. But, like the U.S. Mail service, former transgressions have a way of ferreting out their target, and Walter’s latest load of junk mail drives home the message that his safe haven has been breached. Wedged in between lottery scams, Ponzi-style chain letters and Soviet sex enhancement ads is the first of several warnings that “payback” is both brutal and inevitable.

    Once again in the role of the hunted man, Walter runs underground – straight into the bosom of the Manifesto Party, a disorganized band of anti-establishment types bound by the common ethos of “Free Guns and Dope.” Housed in a crumbling historic building, the Manifesto Headquarters shares space with the infamous “Museum of Indecision and Hysteria and WE B Art Gallery.” It’s in this pit of diverse artistic detritus that Walter hooks up with Mac, a PTSD Vietnam vet whose “combat oriented” neural wiring makes him a perfect ambassador for the disorganized band of Seattle underground n’er-do-wells.

    Mac’s inherent paranoia sucks Walter further into his own web of altered reality. And Mac’s Mao-cum-Baader-Mienhoff world view, backed-up by his “always carry violence in your back pocket” mantra, make for a wicked ride as the two jump into the chaotic build-up of Seattle’s cataclysmic World Trade Organization meetings.

    In a stream-of-consciousness prose style reminiscent of Ginsberg’s howling, debut author Conon Parks pulls the reader into the world of the collective disenfranchised, albeit one with an absurdist twist. And with a clever sleight of hand the author guides his seemingly inconsequential hero, Walter “everyman,” through a world of madness on a quest for life’s meaning.

    An Empty Bottle of Smoke is a witty, jumbled mash-up of anarchist philosophies and pub trivia in which the disparate threads of culture swirl in a literary vertigo.  It’s “Trainspotting” meets “Brazil” in this darkly comic romp that takes its hero from de Tocqueville’s “nanny state” to full-blown anarchy and reminds the reader “we really only have the rights we can defend.”

  • THE EX LOTTERY by Kim Sanders – a clever twist on the modern day fairy tale

    THE EX LOTTERY by Kim Sanders – a clever twist on the modern day fairy tale

    When art teacher Tory Adams trades in her heartache for a lottery ticket romantic sparks fly in this humorous tale of misunderstandings, half-truths and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

    Elementary school art teacher Tory Adams grew up believing in the power of love. But after three disastrous relationships, Tory realizes that the “love-at-first-sight” tales spun by her grandmother exist in a time and place of memory, far from the reality of Tory’s world. Or do they?

    On a whim Tory buys a lottery ticket, basing the numbers on the dates she was unceremoniously dumped, and when her numbers come up gold, men start crawling out of the cyberspace woodwork. With an overnight tally of 23 marriage proposals, Tory needs an out.

    Her best friend, Emma, prods Tory into a full head-to-toe makeover, trading in her small town Southern style for a sleek, new cosmopolitan look. And the new Tory “Victoria” Adams is transformed inside as well as out. She packs her designer bags and boards a plane to Ireland, in the hopes of buying the castle where her grandparents kindled their great love.

    Armed with her new attitude, a box of keepsakes and her grandmother’s Claddagh ring, Tory is determined to follow her dream and find the blue dragon of her childhood. But plans are never etched in the proverbial Blarney stone and when the world’s most eligible woman collides with the world’s most reluctant bachelor sparks do fly.

    Author Kim Sanders (“Shades of Gray”– a murder mystery) delivers a fun, eclectic cast of characters in this humorous tale of misunderstandings, half-truths and miscommunications. From Tory’s two geeky exes who are out to claim their parts of the lottery pie to the super-sexy Irish rogue, Shane, whose reluctance and secrecy could lose him the woman he loves, Sanders illuminates the human condition with a gentle insight that has the reader rooting for each character regardless of their motives. And then there’s Tory’s ex, Carter, a Special Forces man of mystery, whose revelations have the power to hurl Tory back into heartache.

    Set in the pastoral beauty and magic of the Emerald Isle, “The Ex Lottery” is a clever twist on the modern-day fairy tale, part rom-com, part travelogue and one hundred percent romance that demands a follow-up book. First Place in the New England Reader’s Choice Awards and Winner of the Chatelaine Award for Contemporary Romance, Kim Sanders’s “The Ex Lottery” is a must-read entertaining romp in the grass for anyone who believes in “romance and happily ever after.”

  • The GOLDEN DICE (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elisabeth Storrs — passion, betrayal, & victories

    The GOLDEN DICE (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elisabeth Storrs — passion, betrayal, & victories

    Set in the 4th century BCE, this gorgeously-written, masterful blend of fact and fiction exposes the raw passions, betrayals and victories of three strong women as they navigate politics and corruption in an ancient world at war.

    With famine weighing heavily in the Roman territories and its war coffers depleted, Rome is once again on the move. Political as well as blood alliances forged in previous battles are shattered under the Roman Consular General’s Northern military drive – a tactical move to extend Rome’s borders and claim dominion over the 12 adjacent city-states. Veii, the closest and most powerful of the twelve is the first to feel Rome’s metal. Caught in the crosshairs of this ancient war are three women, one Roman, one Veientane and one walking the razor’s edge of conflicted loyalties, all with secrets that link their lives in ways they could never imagine.

    Caecilia, daughter of Rome, keeps her secret locked away in her heart. Decreed to wed Vel Mastarna of her rival city, Veii, Caecilia becomes a pawn in the politics of power. Having been previously recalled to Rome in a violent emotional tug-of-war, Caecilia’s love for her Veientane betrothed has only deepened, and from what Vel believes to have been a prophetic roll of his golden dice, Caecilia is back at his side. But Caecilia is a half-cast, straddling the wall between Rome and Veii, seen as a traitor to Rome and just another “Helen of Troy” to the people of Veii. And as the home and family she’s built in Veii is threatened she is forced to make choices that have the power to make history.

    Pinna, once the proud daughter of a Roman soldier, has lost everything except her will to survive. Reduced to the status of “night moth,” an unregistered prostitute, plying her trade among the gravestones, Pinna gathers knowledge and secrets that she uses to her advantage. And when a twist of fate opens up an unexpected opportunity Pinna calls upon her sly wit to breach the established Roman social hierarchy. But Pinna’s scheming does not go unnoticed and the secret of her “tomb whore” past threatens to be her undoing.

    Semni, a gifted Veientane craftswoman, craves the world of sensory experience. But her hunger for a fully sensual life leaves her with an illegitimate pregnancy and her cuckolded husband throws her into the street, penniless. Fate again intervenes, this time bringing Semni into Caecilia’s house as a servant. Although Semni’s circumstances are significantly reduced she has the opportunity for a new life and possibly for the first time, love. As Semni adjusts to the rhythms of her new home she turns a blind eye to what she thinks are minor indiscretions of another servant girl. But she soon learns that her silence endangers Caecilia’s household and may cost her the man she loves.

    “The Golden Dice” is the second installment of Elisabeth Storrs’s award-winning “Tales of Ancient Rome” series. In it the author delivers engaging, believable characters infused with compassion, intelligence and unrelenting strength with a level of historical detail, both fact and fictional, that transport the reader to all of the glory and turmoil of ancient Rome.

    Readers who’ve enjoyed the passion and extraordinary historical detail of Renault’s “Alexander Trilogy” and Thornton’s “The Conqueror’s Wife” will love “The Golden Dice.” A great read!

     

  • REMEMBRANCE OF BLUE ROSES by Yorker Keith, a passionate literary novel

    REMEMBRANCE OF BLUE ROSES by Yorker Keith, a passionate literary novel

    U.N. Human Resources Officer Mark Graham Sanders find his life turned inside out when a chance encounter reunites him with his friend, fellow U.N. colleague, Hans, and Hans’ beautiful, enigmatic wife, Yukari. Mark enters into this triangular friendship convinced that, although attracted to Yukari, he can maintain an appropriate emotional distance and still enjoy the deepening bonds of the trio’s relationship.

    As the three friends grow closer, they discover their bond goes back several generations through their descendants, prompting Yukari to claim that destiny has brought them together. In tribute to this almost magical connection, the two men steal out to plant a rare variety of blue roses in the U.N. garden in Yukari’s honor.

    In the meantime without warning, Yukari’s world is shattered when she learns of her husband’s infidelity. With a calm resolve, she takes Mark into her confidence, revealing her plan to divorce Hans. Mark’s loyalty to Hans pushes him to help the couple reconcile, and when Yukari becomes pregnant with Hans’ child, peace seems to return. But the quiet grace and gossamer vulnerability surrounding Yukari draws Mark in, like a moth to a bonfire. And when Hans’ quest for “meaning” in his life takes him to another continent, leaving Mark to care for Yukari during her pregnancy, tragedy beckons.

    Set in the rich cultural backdrop of New York City, author Yorker Keith uses precise language and an insightful first-person narrative to explore the myriad facets of complex emotional relationships. A struggle of personal integrity allows his main character, Mark, to develop deeper levels of human understanding, to accept his own imperfections and rediscover himself while Han’s crisis of conscience forces him into a position of atonement. Yukari, like Madame Butterfly, spans the entire range of tragic, elegant love.

    Yorker Keith’s Remembrance of Blue Roses is a slow-burning, passionate literary novel that speaks to the romantic in all of us.

  • The SILK and the SWORD by Ron Singerton – an epic journey from Rome to the Great Wall of China

    The SILK and the SWORD by Ron Singerton – an epic journey from Rome to the Great Wall of China

    Tacitus, the rebellious son of Gaius Septimus, learns too late that the temple that his gang has desecrated was his mother’s chosen holy place. Barely able to contain his murderous rage, Gaius issues an ultimatum to his son: Tacitus can spend the rest of his life as a slave, or he can work to redeem himself through military service.

    However, Tacitus has little time to absorb the shock of his punishment and his decision to join the military. Behind closed doors, Caesar’s consul, Marcus Crassus, makes a case for war and creating the need for many of the legionnaires. Tacitus is called to action, answering directly to the leadership of his centurion father, Gaius, who is Julius Caesar’s chosen “First Spear.”

    Cursed by his own arrogance and greed, Marcus Crassus’s military mission crumbles, leaving Gaius, Tacitus and a small band of surviving legionnaires to navigate uncharted foreign lands and savage cultures in their quest to return to Rome. With betrayal and deceit at every turn the soldiers suffer enormous physical and emotional beatings.

    Their survival, much less their success, hinges on the unlikely chance that Tacitus, an unrepentant son, and Gaius, an unforgiving father, will cast aside their differences and work shoulder-to-shoulder to restore order, hope and honor to their men.

    In this well-crafted follow-up to his first historical novel, “The Villa of Deceit,” author Ron Singerton delivers a cast of fresh, flawed, and completely believable characters through which he illuminates the universal strengths and weaknesses in all of us.

    Building upon the life story of his original main character, Gaius, the author invites the reader to investigate the events that have created a chasm between father and son. As Tacitus sheds his underdog status and takes the spotlight, we become invested in his trials and triumphs. And, as his respect for himself and his father grows, he becomes a hero worth rooting for.

    From the battlefields of Carrhae (now modern day Turkey), to the towering mountains and sweeping expanse of ancient Asia’s “Silk Road,” and on to the Great Wall of China, “The Silk and the Sword” is packed with vibrant historical and tactical detail.

    Culled from primary historical references as recorded by Plutarch, Pliny and Julius Caesar, the author illuminates the fascinating, multi-faceted private and public worlds of the Roman legionnaire. Fans of both historical fiction as well as Roman history will find Ron Singerton’s “The Silk and the Sword” to be a highly engaging, satisfying read about one of the most detrimental defeats in Roman military history.

     

  • LEGACY by Jesikah Sundin, Book One of the Biodome Chronicles

    LEGACY by Jesikah Sundin, Book One of the Biodome Chronicles

    A captivating YA hybrid of sci-fi and medieval fantasy, mystery, and romance, Legacy opens The Biodome Chronicles series with divergent worlds on a carefully planned collision course.

    Cyberpunk culture in 2054: hard-living, nihilistic youth who hate themselves as well as the world. Fillion Nichols, a brilliant but dissolute hacker, can claim a third object of hatred: his father, Hanley Nichols, mastermind—and, as Fillion suspects, cult leader—of New Eden Enterprises. He is the creator of New Eden, a hand-picked community living within the real-life Biosphere 2, to test the psychological effects of long-term isolation. To study the second generation of Biospherians who’ve never interacted with the Outside world, Nichols’ team created The Code, a strict set of rules to which the inhabitants closely adhere.

    The first generation play along—quite literally, as LARPers role-playing per a script created by Hanley Nichols, one that includes a noble class divided into four houses and social mores gleaned from medieval times. For the young people of New Eden Township, however, although they have a vague sense of being an experimental colony, all they really know of life is that it’s an agrarian affair based on ritual, work, and the laws of nature.

    Heirs to the Earth Element noble house, chivalrous Leaf and temperamental Willow Oak Watson, discover all is not as idyllic as it seems. They learn soon after their father’s death that secrecy and murder have also been scripted into the game. A mysterious death card, a lost scroll, and a secret underground room lead the siblings to a portal to the Outside world, and to Fillion Nichols, self-professed Dungeon Master of New Eden.

    Once Willow conquers her terror of “magic” satellite communications, she finds herself spellbound by the strangely dressed, tattooed, and pierced young man. Fillion is equally captivated: not only by Willow’s beauty, but by the fact that the Watson children supposedly died nearly six years ago. His father went to trial on charges of negligence and manslaughter, and though never convicted, the infamy lingered on the family name.

    Although he is now the Earth Element, Leaf finds that the other Elements are determining his future, even making conditions for his marrying the daughter of the Fire Element, whose son passionately pursues Willow. Meanwhile, Fillion endures his own trial for falsifying IDs, resulting in a 90-day sentence, which, as he’ll soon find out, was also manipulated by his father from the start.

    As Leaf and Fillion grapple with understanding their respective legacies, New Eden Enterprises begins preparation for the project’s completion, Even as their increasingly twining paths are set out by their elders, the two young men are determined to discover the mystery behind Joel Watson’s murder and the unexplained faking of his children’s death.

    Laced through with excerpts from news reports and interviews with both the real Biosphere 2 participants and the fictional members of New Eden Enterprise, and infused equally with near-future technology and ancient ceremony, Legacy will entice readers into its unfolding story.
    2014 winner of Chanticleer Book Reviews Great Beginnings Cygnus winner for Sci-Fi/Fantasy, National Indie Excellence Award Finalist for Science Fiction, Cygnus Award for Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk, Dante Rossetti Award First in Category for Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk, and the Dante Rossetti Grand Prize Award for Young Adult Fiction.

  • ALMOST MORTAL by Christopher Leibig — a high octane legal thriller

    ALMOST MORTAL by Christopher Leibig — a high octane legal thriller

    The physical and metaphysical collide in this award-winning legal thriller that promises to leave the reader hungering for more.

    Part saint, part sinner, Deputy Public Defender Sam Young has an uncanny ability to work the legal system to his best advantage. With a super-human ability to ride the thought waves of others, Sam plays his hand like a mesmerist, planting ideas like seeds in people’s minds, “massaging” their thoughts to suit his needs. But underneath his self-serving agenda is an almost naïve desire to do good – a desire that compels him to take on private cases outside of his overloaded court schedule, not to mention outside of the law.

    Sam’s mastery of the gray areas of the law hits a wall when drop-dead gorgeous Camille Paradisi, a nun from Sam’s former Parish, dumps the proverbial Catch-22 problem in his lap. The Rosslyn Ripper, a serial killer stalking their streets, is confessing. The catch? He’s using the protection of the confessional to unburden his soul.

    With the clock against him Sam must find a way to break through the protective barrier Camille has built around her priest and access the information needed to reveal the killer. The only clue she’s willing to relinquish is a time-worn journal left at the church. Whether its contents reflect the grandiose ramblings of a delusional mind or of the killer himself remains to be seen. But one thing is certain. The DNA recovered from its pages present improbable if not impossible results, propelling Sam into world where the physical and metaphysical collide.

    Attorney Sam Young is clearly a protagonist for the new millennium. Cynical, self-destructive and heroic to a fault, Sam Young is a modern-day standard bearer for the underserved segment of society. But no one in this extraordinary cast of characters is who they appear to be: leaving Sam to juggle conflicting agendas, hidden truths and a reality so mind-bending that it defies everything he believes.

    With equal doses of insight and imagination, author Christopher Leibig draws on his experience as a defense attorney to provide a keen sensory awareness of the hectic and often desperate inner workings of an ego-driven legal system.

    Blending the high-octane thrust of a contemporary legal thriller with the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Almost Mortal” cleaves a new, inventive niche in the legal thriller genre. This fast-paced legal thriller will leave the reader hungering for more. A terrific read!

     

  • ICE MASSACRE: Mermaids of Eriana Kwai Book 1 by Tiana Warner – a killer twist on mermaid lore

    ICE MASSACRE: Mermaids of Eriana Kwai Book 1 by Tiana Warner – a killer twist on mermaid lore

    Action-packed battle scenes, complex, engaging characters and a “killer” twist on mermaid lore make this award-winning YA fantasy novel a captivating read.

    For generations the people of Eriana Kwai have selected their best warriors for the “honor” of embarking upon an annual assault on the murderous creatures infesting the waters that surround their tiny island. Known as “The Massacres,” this ocean-bound tactical offensive pits 20 rigorously trained young men against the burgeoning army of mermaids that lay siege to the island’s fishing grounds, leaving starvation in their wake. But these are no ordinary mermaids, rather, they’re the Homeric sirens of Greek legend, handmaidens of death and destruction, hell-bent on annihilating the human population of Eriana Kwai.

    With the men failing to return home, a new, unconventional fighting force is ready to take its place in history – a band of 20 young women. Immune to the sensuous allure of the mermaids, the women combatants have a more level battlefield.

    Among the most promising of the new warriors is Meela, an intelligent, thoughtful eighteen year-old whose skills, when harnessed properly, are unsurpassed. But Meela has a secret locked deep within her heart, an Achilles’ Heel that threatens to undermine their “Massacre” and send her entire crew to a watery grave.

    “Ice Massacre,” the first installment of author Tiana Warner’s “Mermaids of Eriana Kwai” fantasy series, introduces a rich and engaging cast of characters. From her main character, Meela, brimming with the fire and passion of her youth to Meela’s arch rival Dani, a self-professed leader with an ax to grind, the author artfully delivers characters that reflect all of the excitement as well as the internal emotional conflicts that drive a woman-child of eighteen. These are characters with whom the YA and NA reader can easily identify. Make no mistake this is not a children’s tale, but a gritty and riveting story of strong female warriors who can be relentless and cold-hearted. Expect graphic violence and brutality. Betrayal, fear, anger, coming-of-age turmoil, and rivalry are portrayed as the story unfolds. 

    The author’s use of older world weaponry and sailing ships rather than our current weapons and communications capabilities creates an odd juxtaposition of technological eras that actually works. Armed with hand-forged iron weaponry and crossbows the women warriors are akin to modern day vampire hunters, straddling two worlds, challenging the reader to step on board “The Bloodhound” and join Meela on her hunt.

    In the tradition of “The Hunger Games,” bestselling author Tiana Warner weaves a clever story of resilience and determination in the face of deadly odds. With riveting battle scenes, complex, enduring characters and “killer” twist on mermaid lore this award-winning, action-packed fantasy novel that is sure to captivate. 

  • HOT WORK in FRY PAN GULCH (Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter) Book One by Jacquie Rogers – Take a ride to the Old West

    HOT WORK in FRY PAN GULCH (Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter) Book One by Jacquie Rogers – Take a ride to the Old West

    Feisty, independent Honey Beaulieu is nobody’s fool, and she darned sure isn’t any man’s plaything. So earning a living on her back at her mama’s Tasty Chicken Emporium is not part of her life plan. Problem is, she doesn’t know exactly what her plan should be.

    Fortunately for Honey, her no-nonsense mama sees the proverbial writing on the bordello wall and does her own brand of arm-twisting to get Honey a job at the town marshal’s office.

    Lazy Marshal Fripp is none too thrilled to have a woman invading his domain and if it weren’t for his day-long excursions to the Tasty Chicken he and Honey would be banging heads constantly. With Fripp out of the office, Honey straps on her “Peacemakers” and gets a leg up on the career ladder, climbing from clerk-and-cleaner to Deputy Marshal. But Honey learns the hard way that Fripp is not about to stand on the sidelines while she hops on the fast-track to success.

    Plus, “lawdoggin’” doesn’t come close to paying the bills, let alone paying for all of the stray livestock that comes her way. So when a wanted man rides out of town on the back of Marshal Fripp’s horse, Honey is faced with the most important career decision of her life.

    Should she stick it out as the deputy marshal of Fry Pan Gulch or should she trade in her badge and a steady paycheck for a chance to leave the marshal in the dust and make some real money bounty hunting?

    In this hilarious first installment of the Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter series author Jacquie Rogers introduces a lively and engaging main character whose heart of gold shines brightly through her tough-as-nails façade. Saddled with a strong conscience and her own set of rules, Honey sets the good old boy franchise on its ear, proving that they’re no match for a resourceful and enterprising, sharp-shooting woman.

    In addition to her fresh, new Honey Beaulieu – Man Hunter series, award-winning author Jacquie Rogers is well known for her popular Hearts of Owyhee western historical romance series and for her highly entertaining story-telling.

    Set in the Old West’s rough-and-tumble Wyoming Territory, Hot Work in Fry Pan Gulch is a tightly-written, action-packed romp that delivers page after page of laugh-out-loud fun—and maybe even a bit of romance along the way.