Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

NORTH QUEEN by Nicola Tyche – Epic Fantasy, Romance, Action Adventure

Norah Andell, Princess of Mercia and future North Queen, has been missing for three years.

Her father secreted her away to protect her from a prophesied attack in a ten-year war, but he dies shortly after their departure and takes her location to the grave. Alexander Rhemus, Lord Justice to Queen Regent Catherine, Norah’s grandmother, was told by a seer that Norah would be found in the deep forests of the Northern Kingdom, and has searched the woods ceaselessly. Having loved her since they were children, Alexander’s desperation leads him to the Wilds, a legendary and feared area where men often do not return. So opens The North Queen.

To Alexander’s shock, he finds Norah, who has no memories of her former life or even of her own name. At first, she refuses to believe she’s the missing princess, now Queen, and bristles against her newfound world and the restraints it casts upon her.

Norah struggles with a position she doesn’t want, governing a people on the verge of starvation and facing an arranged marriage to protect her people from the Shadow King, a ruthless man hell-bent on taking her kingdom.

With few choices left to save the land she feels responsible for protecting, Norah agrees to marry King Phillip of Aleon, hoping to unite against the advancing Shadowland army and fulfill a prophecy that will bring defeat to her fabled enemy. However, Norah’s life takes another drastic turn when the Shadow King kidnaps her. The longer she spends in the company of Mikael Ratha Shal, Salar of Kharav, the less sure she is of her path, and his reputation. Norah will have to make a life-defining, fate-altering decision. Will she choose herself or her kingdom?

This story centers on Norah’s search for identity.

From the first page, she is desperate to learn who she is. But the search goes beyond that. Norah must discover more than her name and her favorite food. She must find who she is as a person and the values that life experience should have given her. From her mostly well-meaning but pushy grandmother to her one-time love, she is bombarded with roles to play, which she doubts she would want in any variation of herself.

Not only must she literally relearn everything about herself, but she must also purge the world of the Shadow King.

She bears her own kingdom’s problems alongside the expectation of overthrowing another. Her old self tugs at her, a rebellious girl who wants only to run away with the handsome Alexander. However, she more keenly feels the heavy weight of duty, which cares little for her heart. She will do anything to keep her people safe, even if it means marrying a stranger. For fear of disappointing those who depend on her, Norah pushes herself to her physical and emotional limits.

Norah’s love interests foil one another, Salar Mikael and Lord Justice Alexander creating an interesting dichotomy.

Alexander is literally the “golden boy,” with his blonde hair and light eyes. He is the subject of Norah’s dreams while she is in Mercia, and they spend moments lost within a past that she can only recall in fragmented scenes. He is everything a woman could want, honorable and valiant, even though she must give him up for her contracted marriage. The past they share gives Norah an enthralling sense of home.

Mikael, the Shadow King, seems at first glance to be everything he is rumored to be, cruel, cold, and bloodthirsty. However, Norah soon begins to see the man behind the myth, a man who wants what she does – to protect his kingdom and end the war started by his father. Though he thinks her death is necessary, Mikael is surprised to see her bravery and fortitude, the spirit of a queen. Just as she struggles with this new reality, he battles to keep her at a distance.

Norah has been told to hate this man, this killer, but along with the rest of her memories, she has lost those twenty-five years of indoctrination.

Though Mikael holds her hostage, she begins to see another perspective. Their fiery battles start to feel like something more, but when Alexander reappears in her life, she falls back into confusion. This love triangle adds engaging romance to an action-packed plot and will make the reader long for the sequel.

July 5, 2023
BLACK WING SKY: Gehenna Series Book 4 by Kaylin McFarren – Paranormal, Action & Adventure, Epic Fantasy

When it seems as if evil can never be vanquished, where does one find the strength to fight on?

In Kaylin McFarren’s Black Wing Sky, Samara Daemonium must reach for fragile tendrils of hope to pull herself forward against a deadly new threat on the planet of Nexus.

Battling her inner demons, Samara ends a harmonious future with her kindred soulmate. She takes up a terror-filled quest to defeat the deadly Black Dragon and afterwards, she must stop Lucifer, the heinous ruler of Hell, who, with his daughter Lucinda, is determined to destroy Samara’s entire family.

This fourth and final novel in the page-turning Gehenna series presents the salacious and sinister Lucifer, who wields great power, while building a new threat in Hell. Meanwhile on planet Nexus, fire-breathing dragons are determined to destroy all living beings within it. In the midst of her mission to defeat them, Samara is kidnapped. The Black Dragon himself holds her prisoner and has wicked plans for her. How can she ever escape?

Reunited with her loved ones, Samara holds onto the joys of her life, especially her twin sons. Her family’s safety remains a foremost concern in Samara’s mind as she struggles with her identity until the final epic scene on planet Nexus.

Author Kaylin McFarren brings terror to life as the power of evil is let loose on the unsuspecting. This story propels the reader forward at an exciting pace through tense battles, perilous adventures, and precious hopes. The characters in this story carry intense struggles with them as begin to find understanding of the nature of demon kind, desperation, and the conflict between faith and fragility.

Black Wing Sky concludes the Gehenna series with thought-provoking themes of good versus evil, exploring the true source for the motives behind each, and whether the two can ever be separated, or if they remain to be an eternal struggle.

June 30, 2023
STIFF HEARTS by Jo Deniau – Historical Fiction, 1950s, Family & Social Issues

Stiff Hearts by Jo Deniau follows the journey of a youthful soul, Gillian Jeanne Rysert, as she tries to live with openness and connection despite the abuse she suffered from her mother.

As Gillian stood at the front of her patio, she couldn’t help but wonder whether her mum, Hannah, truly valued her, after going through utmost scorn and hatred. As readers will learn, Hannah could not deliver such love as she had not grown up with it either. Instead, Hannah had chosen to maintain a routine of reminding Gillian of her lamentable birth, without regard for how deep the sentiments would slash her daughter’s spirit.

Brutality had rocked Hannah’s family and, in turn, Gillian learned early not to oppose Hannah’s remarks under threat of a brisk slap. The two women lacked a mother’s adoration and, so deprived, had hardened their own hearts.

But hope and excitement would radiantly shimmer on Gillian months later, as she secured herself a job and an apartment in Greenwich Village.

This unprecedented change delivered much-needed independence and serenity. She began to nurture a sense of self-worth as she found herself at the center of attention in her workplace, away from her heartbreaking past and draconian mother. However, memories still plagued her, including her sister’s and father’s untimely demise, along with her own narrowly-evaded childhood death. These traumas stall her personal transformation and make her question whether she had any chance of ever opening her stiffened heart to love.

This story will fill myriad readers with empathy, adoration, and understanding, as Gillian’s struggles relate to the social conflicts of the modern day.

Gillian’s reckoning with her traumatic past shows the hope of awakening to a brighter tomorrow. Stiff Hearts is a tale of resilience in the face of fear, and the courage to leap into new opportunities even if one might falter. All the characters are well-hewn, creating a rich and complex narrative with important lessons to teach.

As Jo Deniau discloses, being on the receiving end of cruel and unrelenting criticism, especially when it comes from a parent, weighs heavy on the heart.

Gillian’s story sheds light on the damage of this kind of criticism. It skillfully presses the importance of decent and ethical parenting, to create a haven for children. Deniau is an author whose concept of life is exceptionally alluring, and whose strong convictions and regard for current subjects weave throughout her writing.

Stiff Hearts by Jo Deniau won First Place in the 2022 CIBA Somerset Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

June 28, 2023
THIS TOO SHALL PASS by David Yuen – Poetry, Inspirational, Spirituality

Poet and philosopher David Yuen shares observations on the human experience, showing how the gifts of life outweigh its pains, though not without a thought-invoking skirmish between the two.

Covid-19 provoked Yuen to compose some poems fixed on the unique moments of the pandemic. One fascinating segment centers on a trip the author undertook to Ireland. It was a typical sort of tour, including a visit to the Blarney Castle, with the opportunity, which Yeun declined, to kiss the renowned Blarney Stone. Yet, he joined in the placing of stones, assisting a couple with one of the many stones they set around the world in memory of their departed son. Sharing in that small ritual was a high point of the journey, contrasting a low point as he scored positive on a Covid test and had to remain in Ireland for many days.

Though at the time it seemed tedious, Yuen reminded himself of how often he wished for simple solitude in his busy life, and how fortunate he was to isolate in such desirable surroundings.

Similar thoughts, rooted in a Christian perspective, occur to Yuen as he reads about the Russian attack on Ukraine, and the many implications of that war.

In all situations, ranging from such issues as Roe vs. Wade, personal stresses like a horrific accident narrowly averted while driving to work, or a rather amusing argument with his morning coffee, Yuen maintains a positive stance. He believes that God wants humans to face tragedies, wars, and personal vulnerabilities with resolve, as Jesus invited us to count our blessings and feel secure that we are, in fact, “lavishly loved.”

Yuen, a second-generation Chinese American, has developed the enviable ability to explore thorny issues and painful subject matter while maintaining an upbeat, spiritual viewpoint.

His descriptions of his inner thought processes – energetic, entertaining, and credible – will remind readers of their own sometimes-conflicted ways of chewing on problems. Despite the inner turmoil, Yuen keeps a positive light at the end of even the darkest tunnels. His well-considered outlook, encapsulated in the title This Too Shall Pass, should be welcomed by anyone trying to approach time-worn trials or embrace the challenge of new ones.

June 26, 2023
ECHO From A BAYOU by J. Luke Bennecke – Paranormal Thrillers, Suspense, Action & Adventure

John Bastian’s life is falling apart, but after a serious accident, he gains another one. In J. Luke Bennecke’s suspense thriller, Echo from a Bayou, John must tie up the loose ends of a man who died decades ago.

One misfortune after another beats John down. His wife divorces him, and his California business is going bust. On a ski trip to boost his mood, he fails to save a man from falling to his death out of a slopes-bound cable car. The next day, on the mountain, John slams head-first into a tree.

He’s not the only one who wakes up in his hospital bed.

An Echo from a Bayou flips the reader into a paranormal mystery. John Bastian of Southern California now shares his body and mind with one Jack Bachman, a Louisiana pilot who died 38 years ago. Living Jack’s memories, John travels to Louisiana’s bayous, hoping to find a woman Jack loved. Those murky waters also hide a fabulous treasure, worth billions of dollars.

But the hunt for these riches invites grave danger into John’s life, as Jack lost his own to it.

John struggles to understand his unique connection to this dead man. Is it reincarnation that brings them together? They have no family history bonding them together. And yet John, since he was an infant, has known details about Jack’s life. Until the skiing accident, he had no idea of his link with Jack, but as a child, John drew maps to the potential location of the treasure and even molded a tiny red-headed doll that resembles Tammy, Jack’s wife, in tantalizing detail.

While trying to track down Tammy and more information on the treasure, John encounters Adam, Jack’s identical twin. At first, Adam dismisses his claims, but when John tells him of a memory from the brothers’ early childhood, he has no choice but to believe him. John continues to sink into Jack’s life as he finds Tammy, now 20 years his senior. The two of them rekindle the old love bond Jack had shared with Tammy before he was brutally murdered.

This hardcore adventure thriller becomes all the more curious and suspenseful for its supernatural aura.

Bennecke brings both setting and characters into stark clarity with realistic and detailed descriptions. Echo from a Bayou will captivate readers with astonishing surprises and reveals as John falls down the rabbit hole of his other self.

Echo from a Bayou by J. Luke Bennecke will be available at a bookstore near you and through online retailers on August 8, 2023. Pre-order it here!

June 23, 2023
AMBITION, ARROGANCE And PRIDE by Sandra Wagner-Wright – Revolutionary War, Biographical Historical Fiction, Family Saga

Sandra Wagner-Wright’s historical novel, Ambition, Arrogance and Pride, chronicles the rise of some of Salem, Massachusetts’s founding families, through the revolutionary war and beyond as they make their fortunes in far-off ports.

Wagner-Wright tells this story through several points of view, but it is her strong female characters who carry this story, women like Mary Derby, whose courtship and marriage to George Crowninshield begins this saga.

We follow Mary as she brings new life into the world while her husband is out at sea as captain of a merchant vessel. Wagner-Wright has done her research, making real the perils of pregnancy and childbirth in the 1700s. In keeping with the time and the rate of infant mortality, we suffer with Mary each time she loses a precious child.

Men such as Captain Richard Derby and George Crowninshield travel the sea in search of foreign ports, while women like Mary, Lydia, and Eliza hold their families together in this intricate and expertly crafted story.

Wagner-Wright breathes life into the world through the vernacular of the time and rich descriptions of the dress, table settings, and social decorum, developing a vivid view of Colonial America. These descriptions fascinate readers with the daily lives of merchants and colonists during the time, and the narrative surrounds us with the commerce and influencers of Salem’s politics.

This story shines a light on famed historical events such as the Boston Tea Party, filling them with the personal stakes of Salem’s central figures. These moments come to life through the eyes of the Derby and Crowninshield families.

Ambition, Arrogance and Pride immerses us in the lives of families tied by love and marriage as they vie for power, wealth, and status in a volatile and ever-changing world. The Author’s Notes, and Glossary of Terms are filled with fascinating information that helps readers navigate the specific discourse of the time.

Wagner-Wright’s writing earns a five-star review and will surely delight history buffs and readers of Americana everywhere.

June 21, 2023
THE BLACK FOSTER YOUTH HANDBOOK: 50+ Lessons I Learned to Successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal by Angela Quijada-Banks – Overcoming Trauma, Inspirational Non-Fiction, Foster Youth

The Black Foster Youth Handbook: 50+ Lessons I Learned to successfully Age-Out of Foster Care and Holistically Heal is a distinguished compilation of award-winning author Ángela Quijada-Banks’ insights, seeking to assist those in foster care to stay optimistic and triumph over traumatic experiences.

The text features the author’s candid revelations regarding the disarray she encountered in foster care and the overwhelming emotional roller coaster she underwent through family upheavals and a heart-breaking rift between her siblings.

Foster care had seen her forget her goals and aspirations, as traumas and emotional misfortunes spread their venom in her soul. Banks had found herself misplaced, perplexed, wounded, irate, and unloved. Her background, past wounds, and pessimistic beliefs ruled over her. In a painful recap, she reveals how she became accustomed to constant alarming incidents, creating in her a perpetual state of survival.

But a deep longing for conquest in life kept burning in her heart.

Achieving that conquest would prove trickier with time, as she struggled to figure out her path. Readers will find Banks’s R.E.A.L Success Model a gem that will help them understand the basics of foster care, the implications of having healthy relationships, the kind of people one should reach out to in case of a problem, and how to attain a stable life of success.

This resourceful read has ably uncovered what numerous children experience in unfamiliar foster care settings, such as mistrust and fear of encountering a trauma they have already gone through.

Banks explains how adopting such cynical sentiments blocked her from certain blessings and people who were willing to help her into a quicker recovery. Her open confessions are bound to leave readers more open-minded, honest, and ready to come out of complicated matters, regardless of their years, gender, ethnicity, or religion. This book meticulously uncovers little-spoken traps that numerous people have fallen into, such as seeking guidance and counsel from relatives or friends who don’t have truthful insight to offer.

The Black Foster Youth Handbook’s substantial content will inspire readers to check whether their thoughts, actions, and beliefs are being powered by love or by fear. Its lessons will benefit many readers, primarily those who have gone through young childhood traumas and torment. Thought-provoking illustrations from Banks’ life journal deepen the impact of these lessons, highlighting the importance of each personal choice on the road to healing and restoration. This powerful handbook will guide its audience to aim for progression, rather than perfection.

The Black Foster Youth Handbook by Angela Quijada-Banks won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA I&I Awards for Instruction & Insight Non-Fiction.

June 19, 2023
DELAWARE BEFORE The RAILROADS by Dave Tabler – U.S. History, State & Local History, U.S. Revolution & Founding

Delaware Before the Railroads by Dave Tabler presents a captivating visual tale of this tiny state, from 1638 to 1832, ranging between early colonial settlements and the aftermath of America’s Independence.

Delaware’s place in this seminal time of United States history is carefully illustrated through pictures with wonderful captions. Delaware Before the Railroads highlights the significant role played by Delaware in America’s creation, uncovering surprising historical details such as the origin of log houses, a heroic figure who thwarted the British invasion of Canada, and the intriguing connection with Captain Kidd.

The pictures and captions are highlighted by sidebar paragraphs that deliver more knowledge about what life was like for the Swedes and Dutch who settled near Delaware Bay. They found, for instance, a “new world” of seafood they didn’t recognize, such as the crabs they called “sea spiders.”

The book explores day-to-day details of this growing society. One fascinating – and unsettling – aspect is the nature of their medicine. They used tools for bloodletting, torturous-looking dental implements, and pharmaceutical ingredients such as benzine, peppermint oil, saffron, peppercorns, and even mercury! The specifics of how these tools were used will chill readers.

Delaware Before the Railroads balances these darker elements with more light-hearted moments in time as well, with one fun fact being that Delaware delegates ratified the US Constitution at The Golden Fleece Tavern in Dover, thus christening Delaware as “The First State.”

The best treasure of the book is in the “Notes on Photographs” section, to which the sidebar paragraphs direct the reader.

This section adds significant anecdotes and details that shed more light on the culture of the time. One discovers that the Swedish colonists named the first non-native settlement, Fort Christina, after the then 12-year-old Queen of Sweden. Or, that the early days of Delaware also gave rise to the iconic log cabin in America, as Swedish and Finnish colonists introduced the style to their new home.

These notes deliver excitement as well as excellent historical information. The famed privateer Captain Kidd once marauded in an area now called Kitts Hammock, one of the places he supposedly buried his treasure. Kidd also colluded with some Delawareans to sell stolen goods from an Indian Ocean takeover of a merchant ship, despite a colonial law forbidding the importation of any goods from the East Indies (due to pirates and privateers).

Pick up Delaware Before the Railroads to join the hunt for Captain Kidd’s buried treasure and learn other intriguing slices of Delaware’s past.

June 15, 2023
ONCE UPON A TIME In BALTIMORE by Sally DiPaula – Historical Fiction, Multi-Cultural, Family Saga

In Sally DiPaula’s Once Upon A Time In Baltimore, a young couple faces the pains and triumphs of life amidst the changing social mores and ever-present challenges of the 20th century.

Throughout decades, this story unfolds to reveal their relationships with extended family, and their lifetime commitment holding against the likes of marital strains, discrimination, war concerns, and health issues. Inevitably, there are moments of pondering about the choices they’ve made and worries over what the future holds.

As an Irish-American girl growing up in Baltimore, young Annie Finnerty suffered the loss of both a parent and sibling. Vince Parisi, the son of Italian immigrants who worked in the restaurant business, also weathered the heartfelt loss of a family member. When the two meet, their definite attraction soon leads Vince and Annie down the expected path of marriage and starting a family.

With the joining of the Italian Parisis and Annie’s Irish-Catholic Finnerty clan, DiPaula includes familiar details to distinguish the contrasting ethnicities.

While momentarily at odds in their courtship, in an attempt to reconcile, Vince delivers a chocolate Easter egg gift to Annie. Here Mrs. Finnerty questions its edibility, inferring that Italians are known to poison their enemies. And while Vince looks upon his Italian relatives as extended family, Annie insists on privacy and separation from them.

Whether family members who succumb to illness or sons going off to war, country club rejections or suspicions of infidelity, DiPaula fills these pages with emotional characters entangled in a bevy of themes from Love and loss, betrayal and heartache, to jealousy and fear.

Once Upon A Time In Baltimore holds many beautiful moments of family life, coupled with just the right amount of sudden and unexpected twists to pull the reader in.

Annie deals with panic attacks, frequently overwhelmed by the world around her, while Vince often voices his inner sense of feeling unappreciated. Along a marital route marked by bliss and blisters, separation and counseling help to heal their connection. In the final chapters, we see a contrast between contentment and loneliness. With friends and family of her generation passing, Annie doesn’t enjoy her left-behind Matriarchal status, waiting out her time and suffering from age-related concerns.

DiPaula delivers chapters in chronological order and maintains a steady pace. With an impressive timeline, the story sometimes jumps ahead, always providing a brief update on where characters are in their present life situations.

Extensive research went into the details of this century-spanning story.

From the descriptions of the involved process of starting up a car and the daily routine of running a restaurant, to the available cancer treatments for a key character stricken with the disease, DiPaula’s effort proves thorough and genuine.

Once Upon A Time In Baltimore is the kind of story that could seemingly be set anywhere. Amidst the joys and sorrows of blended families when a marriage takes place, we see a striving for The American Dream. For individuals who enjoy following emotional family sagas and the generational relationships that play out over many years, DiPaula delivers a rich-in-character, well-crafted, and entertaining novel.

June 13, 2023
A WAR In TOO MANY WORLDS: The Time Traveler Professor, Book Three by Elizabeth Crowens – Time Travel, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure

Musician-turned-time-traveler John Patrick Scott adds spy and saboteur to his resume while undercover in Germany in the final months of World War I, in A War in Too Many Worlds, the third installment of Elizabeth Crowen’s thrilling sci-fi series, The Time Traveler Professor.

Meanwhile, Scott’s once and future collaborator in psychic experiments, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is back in Britain sharing real time-travel adventures with the inventor of the fictional time machine, H.G. Wells.

Scott, after being wounded in the trenches, has finally been given an assignment in the Intelligence services. His extensive pre-war experience as a professor at the Conservancy of Music in Stuttgart, Germany, will do him good.

His assignment is to sabotage the waning German war effort through numerous false identities, while simultaneously mixing with high society to learn who is passing secrets from the Allies to the Central Powers.

Although frustrated by his sudden inability to travel through time, Scott has not lost any of his remaining powers. He is assisted in his secret work by many of the spirits haunting wartorn Berlin.

In Britain, Doyle and Wells undertake time travels of their own, to a past that seems to be more of a literary creation than a jaunt through time. They find the Island of Doctor Morbideux, a dangerous place filled with genetic experiments merging men with beasts, just as in Wells’ novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau. Morbideux appears to be a time-traveling Harry Houdini, unaware of his present life or his adversarial but friendly relationship with Doyle. The situation becomes increasingly perilous as it becomes clear that Doyle and Wells will be Morbideux’s next experimental subjects.

As the story slips between Scott’s undercover operations in Germany, and Doyle’s and Wells’ clandestine journey, this third book in the Time Traveler Professor series proves itself more complex than either of its predecessors.

Since the first two books, the war has changed Scott, leaving him older, sadder, more experienced, and more frustrated in equal measure. He takes greater and greater risks, and slips easily between chemically induced ecstasy and all too frequent despair, as danger mounts and loss surrounds him. Doyle’s and Wells’ adventures and misadventures, at least until they plumb the full depths of the island of Doctor Morbideaux, provide a bit of leavening to set against Scott’s increasing despond.

The overall story of the series continues to gain depth with a compelling pace, and the author recommends that readers enter this sprawling saga at its beginning in Silent Meridian. This book’s opening recap serves as an excellent refresher for readers who know the previous stories, but The Time Traveler Professor is a series like Outlander, where seemingly minor past – and future! – events and chance meetings may have vast implications for the ultimate fate of the protagonists and their world.

Ultimately, the adventure of The Time Traveler Professor, even if he cannot currently travel through time himself, still jumps in time and place, racing towards what is sure to be a wild ride of an ending in the projected final book in the series, The Story Beyond Time.

A War in Too Many Worlds by Elizabeth Crowens won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction.

June 9, 2023