Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

RIKKI and the ROCKET TWINS DISCOVER the SOLAR SYSTEM by Kneko Burney – Children’s Book, Science & Nature, How-it-Works

Rikki and the Rocket Twins Discovering the Solar System is a fun exploration of space for children ages three to eight. Written by Kneko Burney and with graphic illustrations by Adriana Patricia De La Roche and Zoe Williams Sticka, this full-color picture book follows the dream adventures of Rikki and her new friends the rocket twins as they explore the entire solar system.

Rikki is a naturally curious girl who wonders about all kinds of things. When the story begins, she is busy imagining what may be beyond the clouds and as she gets ready for bed that evening, Rikki’s mom gives her two of her own childhood toys—Tikki and Timbo. Rikki quickly falls asleep and thus begins her exploration of the solar system, with Tikki and Timbo by her side. Together the three of them learn about the sun as well as each of the planets, all the way from Mercury to the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris.

The sun and the planets all get their own two-page spread with educational and concise information young children will be sure to understand. Sizes, temperatures, and other facts about the planets are all compared to things on earth. There are questions throughout, such as, “Would you like to live on Mars one day?” that will keep young listeners actively involved in the story. One excellent strength of this book is that it can be catered to the age/attention span of the child. Just the main text can be read to little ones with short attention spans, or more detailed information can be given to older children with the text boxes included in the graphics.

Rikki and the Rocket Twins is done with full-page, computer-generated color illustrations reminiscent of current popular children’s television shows. This short, educational picture book is entirely up to date in its information and is sure to appeal to today’s families. Rikki is a young, multiracial girl, whose mom encourages her to learn and explore. This is sure to be an excellent bedtime book as Rikki herself is getting ready for bed. Young listeners may even be more eager to go to sleep to begin their own adventures. One can dream, right?

Kneko Burney’s book won 1st Place in the 2016 LITTLE PEEPS Awards!

September 7, 2018
The BLACKBIRD by Kristy McCaffrey – Western, Historical, Romance

An historical sensual romance set in the rustic Arizona territory of the late 1800s, the fourth in the Kristy McCaffrey’s Winds of the West series, The Blackbird hits the mark. It brings together two tortured souls who also have deep insights and gifts that may help them find their way to each other.

Tess Carlisle is a spirited but wounded young woman who suffered an assault by one of the men in her father’s gang that left her leg wounded and her soul scarred. Tess’s life was already tough when she began to ride with her father and his band of bounty hunters. She lived with her alcoholic mother and her beloved Abuela (grandmother) until the two older women died in a house fire, brought on by her mother’s depression and drinking. Tess has the ability to tell stories, a gift she learned from her grandmother and Tess knows this ability ties her spirit to the greater world. She sends word to Cale Walker, a man who used to ride with her bounty hunter father, to help her find Hank Carlisle, to find out answers to why her papa would allow one of his men to assault her and then abandon her.

Cale Walker joined Hank with his band of bounty hunters after a stint in the Army until he had a falling out with Hank over the ruthlessness of some of the other members “methods.” On his way from leaving Hank, Cale was attacked by a mountain lion and rescued by an Apache tribe, such as those that Hank and Cale hunted. During Cale’s time with a tribe of the Nednai, he learned their healing ways and became a di-yan (medicine man). Cale also has unresolved issues with Hank.

Cale and Tess are introduced to each other at the very beginning of the novel, when Cale arrives at Tom and Mary Simms’ home, having been summoned there by a letter from his half-sister, who also is Mary’s half-sister. Yes, there are a lot of names that are mentioned at the beginning of this story, and, as the fourth in a series, reading the first one helps set all the other characters in their proper place.

When Cale and Tess meet, there is an instant connection, one that Tess tries hard to ignore given her past, and one that Cale wants to suppress, because of the wounded spirit he senses in Tess. He wants to protect and help her. As they travel together to find Hank, Tess and Cale are wary of the growing feelings between them. It’s an unforgiving land, and they are both unsure who to trust, including themselves. When Tess is hurt in a fall during an attack, Cale finds his way to Vern, a rancher in the Dragoons where Tess allows Cale to use his healing knowledge to help her leg get strong, and she nurtures a wounded blackbird, aware of its connection to her, wounded and in a cage to heal, but wanting to be free. Can Cale bring her the same kind of healing?

Blackbird is a sensual romance and has all the aspects one might expect for the genre – and receives high marks as being a keenly written historical novel. The author’s attention to historical detail is evident in the use of traditional Apache terms and realism of the time. Tess’s storytelling ability and memories of her grandmother also add to the flavor of the novel as she sprinkles her stories and conversation with Spanish phrases. But it is the story of two wounded hearts finding each other in the hardscrabble environment of Arizona during the time of Geronimo that makes The Blackbird go beyond “romance.”

The storyline is so engaging and intense, it is difficult to put down. The description of the Arizona desert, such as the otherworldly look the Dragoon Mountains, as well as the brutality of both the bounty hunters and some native war parties, show the realities of what life was like during those time, for both the settlers and those Apache tribes that wanted to live at peace without government interference.

The Blackbird by Kristy McCaffrey won First Place in the 2015 LARAMIE Awards!

August 31, 2018
GOD ANSWERS SCIENCE! FROM ORIGIN to END by Pastor Gary W. Driver – Religion, Science, Inspirational

In this highly detailed and illustrated work, Pastor Gary W. Driver demonstrates a genuine zeal and unwavering respect for scientific knowledge, while holding to his conviction that, contrary to the opinion of many scientists, God cannot be left out of the picture when considering how the universe began, how it is sustained and how it might someday end.

Driver quotes Einstein to support his ideas: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” [Albert Einstein, “Science, Philosophy and Religion: a Symposium”, 1941]

Starting with the premise that the biblical account of creation needed science to develop to the point that it could be accurately understood, Driver cites the Big Bang Theory as supporting the story in Genesis that God simply created all that was, from nothing. To make everything from nothing requires a plan and a plan requires a planner. According to Driver, Edwin Hubble revealed the profound vastness of the universe and the inability for humankind to count the stars (both truths, the vastness of the universe and the number of stars, are stressed in the Christian Bible.) Similarly, he notes that the Bible describes space as a fabric. Scientists also use that metaphor to explain three-dimensional space.

Driver suggests that the “days” of creation described in the Bible are symbolic and that any one of those days could have lasted eons. He goes into detail propounding his ideas of the geologic and anthropological happenings of each “day.” He does not shy away from tackling the concept of evolution, seeing earlier humanoid life forms as simpler versions of human beings. He posits that on the seventh day, God’s work was complete, and we continue to live in that day, experiencing the challenges of ecological change and the natural working of the law of entropy. He views God as the sustainer, who will in His own time see to the creation of a new heaven and earth, already part of the divine blueprint.

Driver writes in a conversational yet thoughtful and organized manner, using charts, photos and numerous quotations from the Bible and the annals of science to support his theories. His arguments for God’s hand in creation bear weight because his research and studious attention to many arcane scientific facts go further than many standard treatments of this subject. He has labored diligently to confront and answer most of the arguments that scientists, naturalists or skeptics might produce.

God Answers Science! is an engaging treatise on the role of religion in the cosmos; it has the potential to solidify the beliefs of the author’s religious cohort, while perhaps changing the views of those with a more secular mindset.

August 30, 2018
PURGE ON THE POTOMAC, Volume 3 of the Patriot Series by David Thomas Roberts – Political, Spy, Thriller/Suspense

When the U.S. is threatened from within, help comes from within in David Thomas Roberts’ political thriller featuring the Texas Rangers and their leader Pops Younger in a pitched war against the establishment.

In a generation or so from now, the U.S. has its first female president, Annabelle Bartlett, a politically savvy left-winger who has come to the office after the attempted impeachment of her predecessor, Tyrell Johnson. The impeachment proceedings and the dirty tricks that provoked it, cause a mighty stir in Texas. When several stalwart Texas heroes are murdered, a battle between the feds and the Texas Rangers heats up. The Rangers win. Secession is in the air, and it’s clear that President Bartlett will only make matters worse.

As Texas Ranger Commandant Pops Younger, a grizzled die-hard known for his Stetson hat, Wrangler denims, and handlebar mustache, often repeats, “Texans may forgive, but they don’t forget.” And sometimes, as in this case, if things go too far, they may not forgive either. In league with ex-Navy Seal and former CIA operative Zach Turner, Younger will trace the corruption he is sure he smells in the U.S. body politic all the way to the top.

Suspicious election tactics aside, President Bartlett is an intelligent adversary who chooses political gain over democratic functioning. When a conservative Supreme Court justice mysteriously drowns while on vacation to be replaced by a corrupt Bartlett appointee, straight talkers and straight shooter Younger and Turner have had enough. The ground will shift under Bartlett’s feet, and a significant defector from her ranks will make Younger’s case unshakeable.

Describing himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” Roberts offers a highly complicated plot that begins at the Viet Nam Memorial in Washington, D.C. and ends there, amidst the carnage that began in earnest when Bartlett took on the Texans.

Roberts’ twisted tale is filled with motifs that seem almost like the new normal in the current American political life: rumors of rigged elections, Russian involvement, a power-hungry leadership, and the failure of moderates to act for a just cause ─ all for the sake of staying in office.

Purge on the Potomac is the third book in The Patriot series by David Thomas Roberts, focusing on the grit and ethics of men like Younger and highlighting the dogged sense of independence that Texans, in general, seem to exude. A few glimpses of the characters’ private lives and tenderer feelings give emotional tone to this hard-edged and sometimes violent saga.

August 28, 2018
DEEP BLUE ETERNITY by Natasha Boyd – Supense, Romance, Contemporary

When two strangers meet on a small island, they quickly find their destinies intertwined in ways that are painful, and potentially passionate.

Eighteen-year-old Olivia, or Livvy, steals a credit card and some meds from her parents and runs away from home – forever. She is carrying the key to a cottage on Daufuskie Island off the coast of South Carolina, where she intends to retreat.

The cottage is an inheritance from her grandmother to Olivia and her sister Abby. Abby died tragically, and her memory continually haunts Livvy. To add to her problems, the cottage is already occupied. A young man named Tom has been in residence for quite some time. Forced to acknowledge that he has some claim to the place, Livvy accepts the arrangement, and she and Tom begin a strange, strained stand-off of tentative, suspicious acquaintance that very slowly morphs into a kind of trust that neither of them had anticipated.

Interacting with the island folk and gradually piecing together bits of their shared past, Tom and Livvy creep towards romance. It’s no easy road; there are jealousies, misunderstandings and a fair share of subdued rage on both sides. To get to a sense of complete understanding, both must shed their anger, bitterness, and mistrust, and to come to grips with secrets from their shared past that threaten like storm clouds.

Told from the separate, alternating perspectives of Olivia and Tom, Deep Blue Eternity casts light on two tormented souls. Livvy is flippant at times, at other times, almost immobilized by depression, while Tom vacillates between overly guarded and domineering. As they observe one another, the reader learns how burdened each one is, how much they long to exorcise their ghosts and find simple contentment.

Award-winning author Boyd (Eversea) has constructed this psychological romance with admirable patience and skill. The reader sees Olivia and Tom interacting like two people learning to waltz, beginning with teetering missteps and embarrassing stumbles and fumbles, through some moments of shared confidence that quickly fade, until they are finally, gracefully moving as one. Though both are young and wounded, by the end of this engaging story, the reader feels that they have a chance for enduring love. Boyd has a gift for dialog and is comfortable with the setting, convincingly conveying the charms of Daufuskie and its inhabitants.

Readers of intelligent, romantic fiction will be enthralled by this complex exploration of two people forced together by fate, trying to turn what could be a disaster into a lasting bond.

Deep Blue Eternity by Natasha Boyd won 1st Place in the 2015 Chatelaine Awards.

August 27, 2018
FINDING BILLY BATTLES: An Account of Peril, Transgression and Redemption, (Book 1 of 3) by Ronald E. Yates – Literary, Historical Fiction, Germany

The best way to experience history is to ride along with someone who lived it. Author Ronald E. Yates allows us to do just that by cleverly inserting a story within a story in his spectacularly captivating novel, Finding Billy Battles.

The title character’s great-grandson, Ted Sayles, greets the reader in the novel’s prologue and explains how he came to be in possession of journals, letters, recordings, and other autobiographical materials of his great-grandfather. William Raglan Fitzroy Battles lived an entire century, from 1860 to 1960, and it was his wish that Ted “…help me set the record straight about some things I did, people I met, and some events I witnessed.”

And what a tale it is! One chock full of the peril, transgression, and redemption noted in the subtitle. Ted makes the astute choice to allow Billy to address the reader directly, thereby giving an immediacy and intimacy to this account of his childhood, young adult years, and early manhood. Hitch up your saddle because you are in for the ride of your life!

Billy also referred to as “William,” was born in Ford County, Kansas in 1860. His parents had been part of a wagon train heading to the western territories. Billy’s father fought for the Union during the Civil War and lost his life on the battlefield. His mother, an ardent abolitionist with a flair for dressmaking, raised Billy in Lawrence, Kansas, and insisted he attend the new university for a couple years when he came of age. Sensing her son’s restlessness, she allows him to travel to Dodge City, that “notoriously wild cow town” to work on the Dodge City Union newspaper for a summer. It’s a significant experience and William will remain a journalist his entire life, learning the business from the bottom up. His journalist’s eye will allow him to observe and assess what others might miss entirely. The same is undoubtedly true for Ronald E. Yates, an exceedingly talented journalist. The events in this book are carefully considered from every possible angle and relayed with admirable objectivity.

Journalism won’t be William’s entire life, however, because of key people and pivotal events that will shape his years. He interacts with noted figures of the time, including the taciturn yet quietly charismatic Wyatt Earp, the gregarious showman, and owner of the Crystal Palace Saloon, Bat Masterson, and that famous dentist, Doc Holliday, whose quick, sardonic wit was far stronger than his body, which was slowly surrendering to consumption. Such company is enough to make a young man forget ever returning to conventional life in Lawrence and continued studies at the University of Kansas.

While William won’t be a part of the famous battle at the OK Corral (which, he tells us, actually took place in a vacant lot behind the Corral), he has his own shoot-out, one that will plague him almost his entire life. While visiting his family’s old homestead, he and his companions discover squatters, the Bledsoe clan, on the property. One thing leads to another and events reach a fevered pitch with kidnappings, escapes, and, finally, William inadvertently shooting someone while defending himself from others. It shakes the young man to his core. Because of his connections with Earp and other lawmen, his version of events are believed, but that’s never the end of the story in the Wild West.

Vengeance has an arm longer than the law, and it will reach for William again and again. As a result, his courtship and marriage to Mallie McNab, a banker’s daughter in Denver, are impacted, as are his relations with his mother and young daughter. Can William weather it all or will he flee to foreign lands and encounter adventures of a different kind? At a dark point, William notes, “…my life descended wildly into a morass of adversity and peril.” It’s a statement worthy of Charles Dickens. Our protagonist, once indeed a young man with great expectations, now must decide what he must do to make life worth living. Thank heavens there are two more books in this series, The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles and The Lost Years of Billy Battles. We must know how it all turns out, and William has more than six decades yet to live.

With precise and fully realized characterizations, Ronald Yates will draw readers in immediately as they become aware of the will and grit it took to carve out a life on the frontier, and the courage necessary to live in a place like Tombstone, amongst people ready to settle any disagreement with a gunfight. Not all scenes take place in boomtowns and saloons, however. We’re also treated to alluring details of lovely rooming houses and majestic hotels including the Grand Hotel and the Tremont House Hotel.

The reader gets an almost literal taste of savory meals served in both private homes and the finest restaurants of the day. Most fun are the scenes that take place at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 where William and his wife tour fascinating exhibits at Marshall Field’s Wholesale Store and learn that the Palmer House Hotel is now lighting its rooms with electricity! It’s all marvelous and so artfully described that readers may envy the characters. It’s the rare and talented author who can achieve this, and it’s not hard to imagine Billy, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, and the Earp brothers tipping their hats to Ronald E. Yates.

Highly recommended.

The second book in the series, The Improbable Journeys of Billy Battles, won 1^st Place in the 2016 Somerset Awards.

August 24, 2018
FISHING WITH HYENAS by Theresa Mathews – Narrative Non-Fiction, Memoir, Sea-Faring, Romance

Romance, typhoons, and exotic scenery highlight this exceptional sea-faring memoir about love and surviving loss by debut author, Theresa Mathews.

When the author first meets Bart, he strikes her as a “wonderful blend of sophistication and blue collar.” Captain of a fishing boat, he prowls the seas for albacore, the long-fin tuna beloved of sushi fans. To hook up with this romantic figure, Mathews must accept the reality of connection with one of the “Hyenas”—a group of hardy fishermen (and some women) who give each other humorous nicknames and look after one another at sea and “on the beach” (their term for being on dry land). Bart fishes for three-month stretches, so it isn’t long before Mathews decides to drop her professional career and sign on as the cook and a deckhand on his next voyage.

On that voyage, Mathews learns more than she ever imagined about the perils and pleasures of the sea, tuna fishing, and—herself. She hauls in the big fish, cutting and wounding her hands so severely she can barely hold a toothbrush. She cooks and also keeps watch, once needing the assistance of a fellow crewman to avoid a close encounter with another vessel.

It gradually becomes clear, as the Hyenas often say, that “Mother Ocean” changes a person. On land, Bart is talkative and flirtatious; at sea, he is the Captain with no time for chitchat. On their last voyage together, the couple, now married, discovers that the going rate for a tuna haul is half what it had been. They are beyond broke, so Bart keeps fishing while Mathews stays on land and works. Then she receives a call—her beloved husband has died at sea of a heart attack.

Flashing from the shock of that news to the halcyon, sometimes perilous and often amusing days at sea with a cast of colorful characters too fascinating to be fictional, Fishing With Hyenas evokes heartthrob and heartbreak. Mathews’ creative competence is beyond question, as this skillfully constructed narrative attests. Well-chosen photographs bring the episodes alive.

The memoir is partly catharsis and partly a paean to Bart and his many staunch friends. Mathews deftly weaves the lore of the independent fishermen and adventures on the water through every page: the rescue of a kitten, the freeing of a bird, camaraderie among fishing families, and the occasional spectacular sunset.

The aftermath of Bart’s death leaves Mathews grief-stricken, penniless and fighting for his legacy—the boat he had borrowed everything to possess. But we know from her courageous account that Mathews will overcome any hardship—having experienced a weathered life at sea and the loss of a good man.

Fishing With Hyenas won 1st Place in the JOURNEY Awards, the narrative non-fiction category of the Chanticleer International Book Awards in 2017.

August 22, 2018
WHEN STARS GO OUT by Ransom Grey – Y/A Dystopian Thriller, Fantasy, Christian

Welcome to the new America, the one where everyone who reaches age 18 is shipped off to heavily controlled (albeit, dark and oppressive) compounds to work. Don’t worry, your meals and your housing are already taken care of. We’ll pay you, too. Sure, there’s a curfew and some rules… but that’s the price you pay for order.

What’s that? You don’t want to follow the rules? You don’t want to work in our compounds?

Guards!

When Reed turns 18-years-old he’s shipped off to one of several heavily controlled compounds, part of a new national order known as the Great Reorganization Operation, or GRO. Once there, he spends his days as an involuntary worker at “The Hill” where he lives in a dorm and works in a factory. He receives reasonable pay, is fed and housed, and has some hours before curfew each day to mingle with other entrapped young people. There is no choice in the matter. Suddenly, Reed’s life is not his own.

At first, he’s furious. He longs to live without the heavy-handed discipline those who fall out of line endure. His roommates, Riley and Reagan, warn him that the ruling clique known as the Council has brutal methods of treating those who speak out against their governance. Better to keep your head down, they tell him. Better to stay alive.

But then Reed notices Nathan, a guy that never seems to have a bad day. Reed wants to learn his secret. At great risk, he joins with Nathan and other young people who meet covertly. To his surprise, the group’s focus centers around how to oppose the Council, the GRO, and everything those institutions stand for. Elijah, their leader, gives Reed a radically new perspective. But nothing is perfect and soon Reed is forced into a position where he must choose to sacrifice his own safety for another’s well-being. His decision sends him on a path he could’ve never anticipated.

Debut author, Ransom Grey, offers an adventurous mix of speculative and dystopic vision for the Y/A audience. In fact, his futuristic dystopia is unnervingly close to current day America. When Stars Go Out echoes the totalitarian overlord vibe of George Orwell’s 1984 with a cast of characters who are brave and honorable pitted against the machinations of a society gone very wrong. Grey’s prose is solid, with compassionate leads and a few scenes of violence to underscore the hatefulness of the GRO and the Council.

A dark dystopian fantasy, When Stars Go Out posits a credible projection from today’s current reality of a nation led by a dark and dreadful class of elitists, with the young people secretly meeting at the GRO facility as the only ones who have the guts to save it. Mr. Grey’s work is published with Defiance Press.

August 20, 2018
EPSTEIN’S PANCAKE by Bjarne Rostaing – Political Thriller, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, CLUE AWARD WINNER

Styled in the cooling off days of the Reagan era and the still heated Iran Contra imbroglio, Epstein’s Pancake features a street-wise hero afflicted by PTSD and new to the spy vs. spy game. Viet Nam vet Rob Price is not having an easy time with civilian life when a friend introduces him to a mysterious man who wants to hire him for some low-level, well-paid courier work in France – dropping things off, meeting people in airports, that kind of thing.

Of course, it’s espionage and despite how careful Price normally is, he doesn’t hesitate. He has little to lose, though he will gradually realize that even someone with little to lose might find something worth saving. In this case, possibly, the entire world. As he gets more tightly drawn into more secretive levels of the work, Price begins to wonder who the good guys really are. He has one trustworthy supporter, a martial arts teacher name Jennie whose instruction might save his life as he takes on an entire military-industrial complex.

At the core of this multi-layered plot is a scientist playing with something that still seems ultra-futuristic, though it has been around for longer than most people realize: artificial intelligence. In this case, AI is represented by a plate full of genetic mush connected to wires and computers – the eponymous pancake that multi-nationals, dictators and even the leaders of the free world want to control. After numerous near-death experiences and constant switchbacks that force Price to re-learn his playbook almost daily, he will identify the villains in the piece and force their hand. But not without cost to his psyche.

Rostaing, an award-winning author, paints a remarkable picture of the times and the setting of this action-rich, intelligent tale, and is able to convey it in rich language. Doubtless, he has accessed many sources in piecing together a novel that seems entirely accurate down to small but significant details, from everything that was on TV in the late 1980s to how the bigwigs were thinking.

He inserts some believable behind-the-scenes vignettes and a few well-chosen opinions without weighing the narrative, and he has an excellent ear for dialogue. In Price, he has brought to life an enjoyable mix of John le Carré’s cool-headed Smiley and Dashiell Hammett’s hard-bitten Sam Spade.

With international intrigue, a new twist on almost every page, life-threatening danger, and a hard-living hero with a soft heart, Epstein’s Pancake is a smart story solidly in the spy thriller genre that’s bound to garner a loyal readership.

Epstein’s Pancake won First Place in the 2016 Clue Awards for Bjarne Rostaing.

August 12, 2018
MONEY JANE: The Hunt for a Legendary Magic Thief, Book 2 of How to Set the World on Fire Series by T.K. Riggins – Fantasy, Sword & Stone, Middle-Grade

Money Jane won First Place in the 2018 CIBAs OZMA Awards for Fantasy Novels. Congratulations!

Living in a fantastical world filled with magic and mythical creatures, Kase Garrick is studying at The Academy. His main course of study focuses on becoming a great warrior. As he grows close to his friend Lenia, he’s influenced by what is dear to her. Lenia is working hard at becoming a well-respected and powerful wizard.

But that isn’t the problem. The troubles begin when Lenia’s magical black trident is stolen. It’s a bold and surprising attack by a hooded figure who has the mysterious resemblance and mystical presence of a legendary criminal, a cloaked thief who lived long before their time. Could this be that daring, and feared Money Jane? Welcome to the second book in T. K. Riggins series, How to Set the World on Fire, Money Jane: The Hunt for a Legendary Magic Thief.

Kase’s skills have grown by leaps and bounds as part of this group of fierce combatants in training. Their battle cry resonates as they shout in unison, “Dragoon!” Yet, this adventure will truly test Kase’s fortitude and commitment to what’s right. When Lenia is devastated by the theft of the trident, which is the focus of her wizardry, Kase devotedly fights by her side. He sets out to track down this devious thief and return what was taken from her.

Will Kase be able to match wits with this ancient culprit, and how will he confront him? On his mission, Kase plunges into a magical world that’s full of new people and many surprises – some beautiful and some dangerous. In the midst of all this, Kase and his friends are further challenged in the annual Academy competition. Others at the Academy are plotting to beat Kase’s team at solving the difficult and complex scenarios that require excellent execution of skills from the three interwoven studies: Warrior, Wizard, and Scholar.

In this school of magic world where balance exists between the strength of a warrior, the intellectual prowess of a scholar, and the passionate magic of a wizard, Riggins creates vulnerable, but eager characters who are learning that “we do our best when we work together.” Dragoon!

How to Set the World on Fire, book one of the self-titled series, won Grand Prize in the OZMA Awards for Fantasy in the 2017 Chanticleer International Book Awards Competition.

August 5, 2018