Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

TO PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE: A WW1 Windy City Novel by Robert W. Smith – Historical Fiction, WWI, Chicago History

In To Pledge Allegiance: A WWI Windy City Novel by Robert W. Smith, Conor Dolon, a defense lawyer, investigates the suspicious death of his friend, and ends up unearthing horrifying family secrets as well as deeply ingrained espionage activities.

Conor, Irish-American living in Chicago, receives shocking news. His wife Maureen has been abducted by a bunch of vigilantes walking the streets of the city and sporting flag armbands. The previous evening, Maureen had agreed that her outspoken support of the IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood) in Ireland and her neutrality actions were becoming risky given the unpredictability of the current political climate.

Even when she eventually returns unharmed, the police officer who found her did not detain the kidnappers despite their evident presence. As Conor subsequently discovers, his wife’s captors questioned her attitude toward the Kaiser, involvement in Irish groups, and allegiance in the case of war.

When a friend is shot during a warehouse burglary, Conor is once more taken aback. He later finds out from a nurse that, despite the hospital saving his life, he unexpectedly passed away from an infection.

This friend had not previously suffered fever symptoms, so the nurse finds that stated cause strange. Conor goes out to look into his friend’s death, and bumps into a woman he’d saved earlier from hooligans pestering her during a peaceful demonstration. She turns out to be the daughter of one of his primary suspects, a ruthless and vindictive man who leads a prominent gang. But her elegant sense of style rapidly wins Conor over, almost shattering his marriage to his wife.

And as information about the affair surfaces, Conor’s wife reveals a fifteen year old secret about her involvement with one of Conor’s close friends from his early years in Chicago—the man who had helped him navigate the quagmire of the city’s politics.

The events of World War I in Europe in 1917 serve as the backdrop, instilling this story with real historical elements such as the Department of Justice approving a group of criminals and even giving them badges to carry out their violence.

An immigrant family of well-known Irish Republicans—the Clan-na-Gael—has also been well depicted. The author carefully shows the role that many organizations played in Chicago, a city which has been at the epicenter of powerful movements opposing the nation’s war policy. Readers fascinated with history and World War politics will appreciate the richness of material in this book, including details on the largest-ever patriotic group’s endeavor, fully backed by the US government, to suppress opposition and foster nationalism.

Robert W. Smith’s book To Pledge Allegiance: A WWI Windy City Novel is a story propelled by likable characters who remain true to their era.

It weaves action, romance, mistrust, familial insecurities, and war-related themes into a narrative that will hold the reader’s attention from beginning to end. An engaging, judicious and well-written work!

May 15, 2024
GUARDED HEARTS by T.K. Conklin – Romance, Western, Suspense

Guarded Hearts by T K Conklin is a sensual romance in the Wild West, with all the passion and excitement natural to the setting.

Sparks fly between a man with an outlaw past and a woman with a terrifying gift to heal or harm. Strykes is a man haunted both by a violent childhood and his time in an outlaw gang. But he has found a place in Rimrock, where he met LaRisa, an auburn-haired woman whom the townspeople have labeled a “witch” due to her healing herbs and rumors of her “powers”.

LaRisa has kept her distance from people, afraid of her gift of healing touch that can turn dangerous, even deadly. But, when she comes to town to deliver her medicinal herbs, she makes her way to the livery with tasks for Strykes such as shoeing her horse or fixing a spring in her wagon. He is only too happy to oblige the auburn-haired beauty. The attraction between them is instantaneous, yet they both are hesitant to act on it, fearing they would hurt the other– he from his violent past, and she from her “witch” power.

But when Strykes arrives at her isolated cabin, riddled with bullets, LaRisa knows she must use her healing touch to save him.

During his time recovering, they discover passion and love in each other’s arms until Strykes’ past catches up to him and they both must run for their lives together. If they survive this threat, can they overcome their fears about hurting each other?

This romance is fast-paced and riveting, with the reader easily captured by the growing relationship between the two leads, both wounded by their past and yet desperately in love, hoping for a future with the one they can’t live without.

Guarded Hearts is the second book in the Wild Love series but can stand strong as its own title. There are a few references to events in the first book, but nothing that takes away from this one.

Guarded Hearts by T.K. Conklin won Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Laramie Awards for Americana Fiction.

May 3, 2024
AKASH And MILA And The BIG JUMP by Anthony C. Delauney – Children’s Books, Self-Respect & Determination, Gymnastics

In Akash and Mila and the Big Jump by Anthony C. Delauney, best friends Akash and Mila excitedly start their first class together at TRIumph Gymnastics.

They enter a building full of athletes of all ages, shapes and sizes. But they also see captivating trophies, banners, and prizes that gymnasts from the school have won over the years, and hope to eventually have their own trophies, too– that they’ll be winners.

Though excited to learn today during this special event the school is holding, they’re both nervous to start because they both have never had any gymnastic training.

A fellow friend, Dash, does the springboard and lands with a perfect pose. Akash tries the same, but lands flat on his belly. He’s worried what the others will say of his first attempt. Mila decides to take a pass on her turn until she feels more comfortable and confident.

Dash learns that Akash and Mila are scared to try because they don’t want to be made fun of by the others. He has the perfect solution. Dash introduces them to his friend and fellow gymnast, Lulu, and he explains that he felt the exact same way when he started doing gymnastics, but Lulu helped him learn to succeed at the floor exercises.

Akash and Mila, feeling a bit more adventurous, both try to do the springboard this time.

The bright and vibrant illustrations allow readers to get fully engrossed in this wonderful children’s story.

Without a doubt, readers will be cheering Akash and Mila on as they make their attempts at learning the springboard. This book teaches children that, if at first you don’t succeed, you should keep trying until you get it right– even if you’re worried what others might say or think of you. Be your own individual and just know that you tried and gave it your all.

The author wrote this as book 5 in the Owning the Dash series, which skillfully teaches children that it’s important to have confidence in yourself because you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Akash and Mila and the Big Jump is a compelling and effective learning tool for children, without making the learning process to obvious.

The characters were very believable and fun to get to know, allowing children to want to become friends with Akash, Mila, and the other gymnasts at the school. Akash and Mila and the Big Jump was written for ages 4-8 years and fits perfectly for children within that age range.

May 1, 2024
SUMMER LIGHTNING: Magic at Myers Beach Book 3 by Alan B. Gibson – Romance, Urban Fantasy, Mystery

In Summer Lightning, the third book in Alan B. Gibson’s Magic at Myers Beach series, fairy prince Alias shoulders the weight of his people’s prejudice, but also their very lives.

Someone has poisoned the natural reserves of fairy dust ingredients, lacing it with deadly iron. With many of his people already dead, and others terribly ill, King Theos relies on his younger brother Alias to devise the lost recipe with ingredients found at Myers Beach, a small human town. Alias helps house the sick in Myers Beach, and dedicates himself to his research, he loses much of his own comfort.

Alias lives with his boyfriend, Christophe, a hero of the Third Kingdom– one of his own kingdom’s allies. He and Christophe can walk together freely in the human world, still Alias must worry about how his people see their prince. And now, with so many fairy eyes in his little town, he can’t even hold Christophe’s hand in public without the danger of being found out.

As Alias worries about fairy eyes on him, humans catch sight of the mystical beings in their midst.

Though Alias has created a functional fairy dust with only some of the ingredients, it leaves his peoples’ magical disguises unreliable. When famed actress and Alias’s childhood teacher, Dame Gabor, is found in her true form by a little girl, a media frenzy unleashes on the small town.

Summer Lightning shines a satirical light on the fads of modern mass-media, with an online group, Friends of the Fairies, arriving in town to find evidence for their various blogs and podcasts. The story morphs from one of a fairy, to a small bird, to a seven-foot monster, all with opportunistic tour guides and business owners looking to cash in on the town’s tourists.

More pressing than even keeping the true fairies hidden, however, is figuring out who poisoned the original dust.

Calling back to earlier books in the series, Summer Lightning menaces the protagonists with hints of their old villain, a powerful and vengeful witch. But, more personally, Alias has to face the traumatic memories of his old tutor–from the days he spent growing up in the Third Kingdom. Though he’s certain he’s seen the last of the man, Györfi, who tried to molest him as a teenager and outed his forbidden relationship with the young Third King, Alias begins to discover possible connections between Györfi and the current trouble.

Alias’s emotional journey will pull readers in, with his struggle between responsibility, personal connections, and the shadows of the past.

His relationship with Christophe takes center stage as they deal with homophobia from both human and fairy society. Christophe tries to bridge the gap between them, but Alias doesn’t dare make his relationship public, especially with so much attention already on him as the only hope for his people’s survival. In this story, the word ‘fairy’ pulls double-duty, both as the name for Alias’s people, and one of the slurs thrown at him by bigots.

Summer Lightning doesn’t shy away from darker subject matter, and as the story continues, readers will delve deeper into Alias’s memories of the cruelty he’s suffered–all while his old traumas resurface in new and dangerous forms.

But he and Christophe aren’t alone, with characters like Dame Gabor standing as a staunch ally both to their relationship and Alias’s work. And though the fights between Alias and Christophe can feel a bit rushed, their connection remains heartwarming and empowering in the face of adversity.

With a well-balanced mixture of comedy, intrigue, drama, and satire, Summer Lightning brings these magical characters to major crossroads as they try to keep up with the sinister forces ensnaring their homelands.

April 29, 2024
THE GARDEN PLOT DIARIES by Endy Wright – Short Story Collections, Small Town Fiction, Humor

Endy Wright’s The Garden Plot Diaries is a delightful collection of four short stories about life, relationships, and consequences.

Wright captures the gossip and rivalries between factious groups of town folk, all between sixty and ninety-something, who have known each other since childhood and carry the grudges to prove it. Our delightful narrator professes, “I am a rambling old man with a tale to tell and in no hurry to tell it.” So, settle in.

Hailing himself from New Hampshire, Wright has set these stories in Monadnock, a New England town/region which he peoples with a menagerie of colorful octogenarians who drink, dance, and feud. In the voice of his narrator again, “[these are stories] of chaos creeping into God’s Garden.” Wright’s stories certainly do deliver a wonderful kind of chaos and pandemonium usually expected in a kindergarten class.

We meet Old Lady Sourton, known after her introduction as the OLS. We meet Ivendricus Poudry, or Iven as his friends call him, the sidekick to our narrator, and of course our humorous and witty prankster narrator whose name we never learn, even as we grow to love him.

These delightful characters, and so many more, leap off the page as they garden or go to the Oval in the town center to visit, shop, or pick up the morning paper. A tall tale lurks behind every pair of garden sheers and pot of tomato plants.

No place is safe, even while fishing on the ice. Iven and our narrator head out with Ned Jalbert and Chester Turcotte with some of Iven’s famous Lion’s Tooth wine. Our narrator brings along his fresh homemade cheese he calls Cutting Cheese. They travel to Lake Massabeesacomapesit and commence the tradition of setting up their picnic in the ice fishing house or “bob.” Soon, the wine and cheese are flowing, and the stories turn surprisingly real for our fishermen.

Wright spins his yarn and lures us into these hilarious fishing stories. Within the hour, the characters are reliving their WWII battle memories and becoming a force that even Eris Heavystep’s twelve-year-old twins can’t compete with– and when I say they can’t compete, these boys didn’t know what hit ‘em that day on the ice.

After our heroes wake from their post-fishing naps, they find that the OLS has won their special cheese at the town’s Christmas auction.

They waste no time in getting to the OLS’s house only to find they are too late. Her Zulu war outfit is missing from the mannequin in her museum-like home. Music is blaring and they can’t find the OLS. When they do, Wright describes a scene that will have readers rolling on the floor.

The grand finale is a ghost story to end all ghost stories, as only Farmer Horthfarger Ghunt can tell.

He sets a group of youngsters down in his pumpkin storage shed and spins a yarn for Halloween that would make Freddie Krueger run and hide. It’s a perfect way to end this wonderful and hysterical romp through Monadnock.

These four stories capture the quaint side of small-town living in New Hampshire. Wright draws a picture of a small town then colors outside the lines. Readers will fall in love with this motley crew of mischievous elders planting their gardens and sowing the seeds of prankery and high jinks. Five stars all the way!

April 26, 2024
EARTHLY VESSELS by David T. Isaak – Metaphysical Fiction, Coming of Age, Mystical Fiction

In Earthy Vessels by David T. Isaak, Crystal Keeling encounters a mystical power that sends her on a journey of true chaos.

Crystal wasn’t necessarily seeking spiritual enlightenment on the streets of Manhattan, but there were certainly plenty of fools and charlatans peddling it back in 1969 – as well as both legal and illegal means of achieving ‘higher consciousness’ one way or another.

Fortunately – and unfortunately – for Crystal, the man who found her, cult leader Anton Reginald LaMarr, and his Children of Pan were the real deal, whether they knew it or not. They had discovered a ritual that could draw down the soul of a Hero, and planned to implant that Hero’s soul into Crystal – using the usual orgiastic methods.

Crystal was fine with the ritual sex but had not signed up for imprisonment and pregnancy. She ran far and fast and never looked back.

When she discovered that she really was pregnant despite the birth control regimen she religiously maintained, she took it in stride – as did all the other members of whichever commune or co-op she happened to be living in at the time.

The child, however, a boy she named Rainbow Bounty, rebelled against her counterculture lifestyle every bit as much as Crystal had rebelled against her conservative upbringing before him.

Thus, readers follow Rainbow Bounty, who calls himself by his initials RB, pronounced ‘Arby’, because having people in the early 2000s think you’re named for a brand of fast food is much better than advertising that your mother was and still is a ‘flower child’. Arby makes his way from a job in the oil fields of Bahrain to Portland, Oregon because his mother hinted that there is a life-threatening event on the horizon.

But she’s not the one whose life is about to be threatened and thrown off its course.

The ritual that gave Arby life is about to come crashing down on his head – one way or another – and the fate of the world rests on him reconnecting with the abilities of his past lifetimes.

Whether those abilities will help or hinder is a crapshoot of the highest order, because Arby isn’t the avatar of some long-dead Hero or God. That would be much too easy. Arby is, as he has so often been in his life, the avatar of chaos, the embodiment of Murphy’s Law.

Arby is destiny’s Fool, and his purpose is to cast all plans into disarray. Even his own.

Earthly Vessels, beginning as it does in the counterculture movement of the 1960s, reads with a sense of nostalgia for that brief era, and Crystal’s acceptance of and equally brief involvement with the Children of Pan fits right in with books of the time, from the Harrad Experiment to Stranger in a Strange Land.

As the story moves from Crystal to Arby, a different perspective emerges, as the reader learns Arby’s place in the post-9/11 world right along with him. Arby discovers his expected role at a compelling pace, as there are forces beyond his understanding searching for him – on both sides of the cosmic balance that human shorthand calls ‘good’ and ‘evil’.

The scope of Arby’s story, diving deeply into that longest of long-running battles, with avatars fighting on both sides of the divide, will remind readers of both Good Omens and American Gods.

Earthly Vessels is both a deep exploration of the philosophy of the cosmos and a compelling thriller in one breathless story.

Arby is a protagonist readers can easily empathize with, an Everyman who rises to an occasion he never dreamed was possible, doing his damnedest along a path he doesn’t fully understand.

This story will keep readers turning pages as fast as they can, from the first until the surprising, fitting, and delightful last.

April 24, 2024
TOMORROWVILLE by David Isaak – Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Satire

As Tomorrowville by David Isaak opens, it is in fact yesterday. 2008 to be specific. Toby Simmons, a Gen X programmer/engineer/hacker, is in the midst of something professionally fascinating but personally stupid.

Toby uses a state-of-the-art virtual reality system to surreptitiously peek into the apartment of the woman across the street. But he’s three stories up, and loses track of where his real feet are walking as he’s too busy following his virtual eyeballs, leading him to one of Wile E. Coyote’s famous maneuvers. He discovers that there’s nothing underneath him but air and a three-story drop to the pavement.

But just like that cartoon coyote, Toby comes back from the dead. It only takes a silly prank, a forgotten gin and tonic, and 80 years, as medical science makes great strides in bringing cryogenically frozen bodies back from formerly life-ending spinal destruction. Along with a whopping bill from the U.S. government– nearly five million dollars for all the many, many costs of Toby’s revival.

It’s 2088, and Toby Simmons has unwittingly become Rip Van Winkle. The world has changed while he’s been sleeping– although not, perhaps, nearly as much as it should have.

This compelling story follows along with Toby’s learning curve/adaptation to a not-nearly-so-brave new world. The government relies on asset reclamation for funding, and issues mandatory, automatically-dispensed mood enhancements to keep its population from noticing that fewer and fewer people manage to stay out of the prison industrial complex.

The late 21st century that surrounds Toby has idealized the era from which he came to the point that, as much as they want to hear the account of the person who lived it, they are only interested in that account if it reinforces their mythology. At the same time, this new society’s faults are clear to both Toby and the reader– but concerns about safety and security eclipse all other concerns from the powers-that-be, leaving the U.S. a totalitarian regime that has lost ground to the rest of the world and has medicated itself into not caring about all that much.

The world in which Toby has found himself is a dystopia without having ever experienced an apocalypse, made all the more fascinating because they did it to themselves, using tools that they claim the late 20th and early 21st century gave them.

It’s a future that is all too easy to see from here. Toby begins to feel himself superior to those around him, and as he’s not drugged up to his eyeballs, it’s easy for readers to slide into his perspective on this world.

In the end, Toby wants out of 2088, and the story leaves readers with the hope that he might manage to avoid the destination his journey is leading to– prison– by doing something professionally interesting but quite possibly, and quite personally, stupid, once again.

April 15, 2024
STAY With The WAGONS: Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail Book 3 by David Fitz-Gerald – Historical Fiction, Oregon Trail, Mystery Edit | Live

The wheels roll relentlessly westward. In Stay with the Wagons, book 3 of David Fitz-Gerald’s Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series, the families upon those wheels must face not only the consequences of the trail behind them but also new dangers that lie ahead.

Dorcas, the resilient mother, widow, and adventurer will need to summon forth all her remaining strength– physical and emotional– to survive these new challenges. Especially with her children to protect. Their community of waggoneers have supported each other through great hardship, but cracks are growing between them.

Amongst its incredible beauty, the country they travel through contains great danger, wild animals, and a hidden evil energized by greed and violence. There is a promise, a hope of happiness on the trail west if you Stay With The Wagons, but nothing is guaranteed.

There’s no turning back now for Dorcas and her children, as they near the halfway point to Oregon.

She can’t give up on this dream, facing down their long way to go into the unknown. Dorcas yearns to truly become a strong and independent Athena-style woman, yet doubts linger.

It’s the first day of summer, so the weather conditions are improving, but even this helpful development brings forth new challenges. So far the graves left behind them due to illness have been isolated cases. Dorcas buried her husband, but now she faces her own possible demise as she falls deathly sick.

While she fights desperately for life, her children must step up to responsibilities beyond their years. Their friends in the wagon train do what they can to help, but can this family carry on and can their mother summon the vitality to recover? Like a mustang out on the plain, will the family’s wild spirit prevail?

Along the trail there are many spirited encounters. Some are animalistic, some are devilish, some are affairs of the heart– none are predictable.

Grizzlies, snakes, even scorpions seem to conspire against the invaders of their lands. But true evil lurks in human form, and paranormal forces hovers over the wagons.

The complications of love are woven within the community, and even beyond. It’s not only romance that provokes trembles, but also the love for family, and wishing only the best of dreams for those who are cherished. When they reach a fork in the trail, life choices must be made with dire stakes.

Don’t fall behind now. This series continues west to the promised future.

Author David Fitz-Gerald propels readers through the 1850 American West, alongside the people of that era in the journey of their lifetime. We all know the destination, but no one knows whether– or how– this wagon train will arrive. Fitz-Gerald wields an amazing talent for suspense and surprise twists.

Readers will feel as if they’re walking the trail step by step with Dorcas and her family, sharing the emotional heights of rocky precipices as well as the depths of valleys in all their vivid beauty and daring, as they continue onward to Stay With The Wagons.

April 12, 2024
WOKELYND by George Denny – Dystopian, Political Fiction, Contemporary Social Issues

Wokelynd by George Denny transports readers to a futuristic New California, where the government’s benevolent rhetoric of equity and inclusion disguise instead an insidious quest for power and dominance.

A panoramic view of New California as an independent nation in 2066 sets the scene. The authoritarian JSS (Justice of Social Soldiers) wields absolute control over the population of this nation, where despotic policies stifle human autonomy. The ‘intersectionality score’ of an individual governs their position in the social hierarchy; the higher the score– the higher the chances one has experienced historical oppression– the higher their privileges. The result is chaos: an ideological rift has taken over the nation as the Liberati challenge the status quo with a stance of ‘Anti-Anti-Racist ideology’.

Distrust and division pervade New California. The story opens on a fierce military operation between the JSS and Nevada at Lake Tahoe over ideological disputes. The ambiguity and perplexity of soldiers are embodied through Quinceton, a teenage sniper with the identity of a straight cisgender boy of African descent. A soldier under the JSS government, Quinceton straddles his commitment to JSS and his dilemma due to a growing awareness of the complexities in the despotic system. Wokelynd ushers Quinceton along a journey of self-discovery and resistance, along with companions Sarah and Bones, as they navigate the treacherous paths of identity politics and societal change.

The climax throws Quinceton into the throes of uncertainty as he grapples with the JSS’s professed motive of universal equity versus their thirst for power.

The horrors of warfare with Nevada further disillusion Quinceton, leading him to question his duty and the greater good of all. As Quinton and his companions navigate through the apocalyptic landscape of post-war New California, they encounter the elderly Tinh, living off the grid with his family. Tinh reveals his involvement in the secret network ‘Rooftop Railroad’, aiding refugees out of JSS’s grasp, as well as opening clandestine chapters in the history New California, which were otherwise written only from the regime’s viewpoint.

The encounter foreshadows a critical juncture for the three soldiers, especially Quinceton, as they turn to the precarious roles of revolt and defiance. The peril of Anti-Anti-Anti Racist (AAA), the muscle of JSS, awaits them. To AAA patrolpersons, dissenters are terrorists who end up in the ‘DIE’ camp– offers either indoctrination or death. With AAA’s manipulation and severe disciplinary measures in place, the trio is headed for a future where equality reigns supreme.

George Denny makes an intriguing correlation between language and power dynamics.

The JSS government exercises control by shaping the discourse of citizens. Phrases such as “Anti-Racist” and “Anti-Anti-Anti-Racist” (AAA) reinforce the ideas that the New Californian Society stigmatizes. Likewise, the title “Knowers”, for the top members of society with the highest influence over people and policymaking, reflects the government’s implied justification for their every decision. But this use of language to maintain authority is echoed in the linguistic tactics of the opposing Liberati to mobilize resistance.

Social and political allegory of frail government policies and the erosion of freedom manifest through Tinh’s family. Tinh disregards the JSS’s programs aimed at promoting equality and welfare. He stresses autonomy and self-reliance, recognizing the inherent limitations of government projects that perpetuate exclusion and dependency despite their professed objective of encouraging fairness.

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” This quote by Steve Biko reverberates in the pages of Wokelynd. This piece lays bare an insatiable desire for power and control contrasted with the indomitable spirit of human agency.

April 10, 2024
COMING OUT Of The METAPHYSICAL CLOSET by Lisa Rhyne – Spirituality, Metaphysics, Memoir

Lisa Rhyne offers a view into her beliefs, education, and personal experiences with the mystical and otherworldly in Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet.

In this autobiographical compendium of supernatural phenomenon, Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet is a combination of multiple original manuscripts, beginning with a hefty overview of the foundational science and concepts to help frame Rhyne’s experiences, the metaphysical world, and those who claim to work in it. Rhyne explains her perspective on walking between and having to function in both the ‘normal’ and ‘mystical’ worlds and, like many visionaries, describes this reality as illusory and subjective, created by the collective consciousness of living beings through morphogenic fields and a universal repository of knowledge.

Within this metaphysical framework, humans reincarnate from an ‘Oversoul’ that seeks to learn through each lived experience—the good, bad and everything in between. As such, Rhyne relates that shamans such as she can step between past and present lives, and even across different planes of existence. Throughout the book, Rhyne expands on the powers, dangers, as well as unique transformative opportunities that these spiritual journeys can lead to.

Her own path within the metaphysical community takes center stage as she shares impactful moments in her life. From a complex and abusive relationship with her mother, to a dangerous stalker, to joyous life-changing personal revelations, she insists that metaphysical forces have watched over her since before she was born.

Rhyne maintains a strong sense of yearning and hope throughout these stories, with moments of evocative description that paint both the mundane world and her enchanting mystical visions. Emotional scenes frame otherworldly ideas with experiences that readers can easily connect to—the pain of supporting a loved one through illness, the simple love between a girl and her cat, the joy and satisfaction of feeling that you’ve helped another person.

As she learned more about mystical practices and her relationship to them, Rhyne continuously connects with many fascinating people. Her continued studies include a wide variety of scholars, healers, and thought leaders, Hopi and other indigenous elders, fellow Metas (her term for those who share her beliefs, abilities and practices), and renowned authors such as Michael Talbot, Phillip K. Dick and shamanic practitioner Dr. Hank Wesselman, PhD. Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet contains numerous references and links, so curious readers will find many more valuable threads of knowledge to pursue.

Rhyne shares examples of her metaphysical experiences and powers such as manifesting desired outcomes into her life, healing herself and others by moving between dimensions, and being guided by higher beings to pursue or avoid certain relationships. The full nature of these higher beings remains elusive, with references and stories that paint them in angelic, ancestral, and even extraterrestrial light.

Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet seeks to inspire readers—encouraging those who not only believe in but know the mystical to utilize their powers and share their abilities and perspectives with the world to foster understanding and acceptance of all things metaphysical.

Some readers might find some ideas difficult to grasp, as this book is oriented more towards those who already have some education and connection to various metaphysical theory and beliefs, but Rhyne grounds the more esoteric ideas with figurative language, scientific foundations, and recurring explanations. Additionally, as some ideas are often drawn from various mythologies across the world, they show interesting connections between belief systems that at first glance appear disparate but share foundational concepts.

Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet has over 300 images including pictures and video stills of sometimes unexplainable supernatural phenomena, and significant moments for Rhyne, with an online gallery that further expands on them, including transcripts and videos.

Rhyne’s online gallery includes images in the book and provides readers a chance to view the photos on their computers to be able to see the details better. More significantly, she includes security camera videos of drifting motes of light. The true nature of these videos is interesting to consider, whether one believes them to be small spiritual manifestations, or physical things catching the camera’s attention. Similarly, the photos and videos, and recording of the Mysterious & Unexplained show, include significant technical issues and comments by others experiencing the phenomena, giving tangible examples of Rhyne’s claims that her energy disrupts electrical systems.

Rhyne also provides supplemental documents like the full Dragon dictation messages (from Chapter 8) in this gallery. These messages contain some ominous and even poetic lines, though similarly to Rhyne herself, readers will find it difficult to parse meaning from this text. Much could be read into it, however, and the lack of clarity prompts one to wonder how an otherworldly entity might struggle to communicate with someone in our reality utilizing electronics.

All these examples might encourage others with metaphysical beliefs to openly share their experiences, their own documented phenomena, and could certainly spark fascinating discussions which is one of the goals of this book—to start authentic dialogue without any fear of negative repercussions or discrimination.

This book will resonate with those who experience—as well as seek to experience—seemingly unexplainable mystical things, and ultimately advocates for a world of understanding, love and authentic personal empowerment.

At the core of Coming Out of the Metaphysical Closet is the idea of inclusion and universal connection—through past lives, Aka cords, soul groups, or even just the small moments of kindness that turn strangers into friends. Whether or not readers share every belief with this book, Rhyne reminds them to search for people who enrich their lives and live the ideals of empathy and equality.

For readers on a journey of metaphysical spirituality, or for those who are merely ‘psi-curious’ (to borrow one of Rhyne’s terms), this book will spark curiosity and a sense of community. Rhyne understands there will be those who doubt and no matter how much evidence is presented by her or anyone else, some will never accept. And that’s perfectly fine with Rhyne. This book is a beacon of light for those who wish to be the masters of their lives and dreams. There are two questions that sum it up nicely. “What if she’s wrong?” and “What if she’s right?”

April 1, 2024