Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Best Books

DUST ON THE BIBLE by Bonnie Stanard, a moving coming-of-age story

A poignant tale from start to finish, Dust on the Bible by Bonnie Stanard is a vivid and emotionally captivating story about the strife of a family living in rural South Carolina in 1944.

Lily, a twelve-year-old farm girl, wraps readers around her heart. While struggling to understand the mysteries of death, God, family, and school bullies, she endures poverty and agonizes over her missing father. Lily is hungry for knowledge, but a sixth grade bully turns school attendance into misery. Lily is an easy target; she is quiet, poor, and wears homemade feed sack dresses. This is Lily’s story, one year of her life when she transitions from childhood innocence to the edge of her awakening.

Readers first see Lily on a cold, October morning, while she warms her backside in front of the cook stove. Stanard does a superb job in crafting imagery that evokes the senses; readers can see the small kitchen and feel the morning chill. The author’s descriptive words and phrases are fresh and easy to relish as readers follow Lily through the seasons, from bitter winter to scorching summer.

Lily’s consummate yearning to know what happened to her father moves the plot steadily forward. No one will talk to her about him, but she keeps asking. And every time she does, it causes trouble. Lily is bright, curious, and needs answers. When family members do reply to her questions, they keep comments short and simple; they shirk her questions to try to shield her from something they believe that she doesn’t need to know. But, this creates even more questions and adds fuel to her active imagination. Nonetheless, their answers paint character sketches of each person in the story.

Grandpa owns the one-thousand-acre cotton farm that he runs without the help of a tractor. He and Grandma have opened their home for four of their five adult children, including Lily’s mother and Lily herself. The overcrowded home is without indoor plumbing, cold on frosty winter mornings, and oppressing with stifling heat in the summer. They all share the endless chores and the long days of hard-scrabble living for a meager living.

Stanard creates a family with a non-nonsense way of life, but the family also carries a deep abiding love for each other; no matter what. Even when Lily’s youngest uncle, Archie, goes overseas, despite the family’s subdued fear, their love for him shines through in their reaction to the letters he writes to them.

Stanard has created a strong protagonist in Lily—one in whom we can feel the relentlessness and restlessness of youth as shown in one of my favorite lines in her work.

“She daydreamed of sleeping late as she wanted to. Of swimming in Ma George’s pond. Of catching lightening bugs and building forts. Of shooting the .22 rifle. Most of all she wanted Grandpa to teach her to change gears so she could drive the pickup.”

A few paragraphs later, Lily’s reality ensues.

“Don’t matter whether she wants to. Lily’s old enough to know what work means,” said Florence. [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Lily’s mother replied to Grandpa when he told Florence that maybe it was too hot for the twelve-year-old Lily to work in the summer afternoons.]

Stanard’s writing deftly shapes the narrative and the setting. Her pitch perfect dialogue conveys Lily’s “tween” age while conveying the social strata of her world. Readers are pulled into her thoughts, her reactions, and the family dialogue––walking through her world, seeing it through her eyes, and feeling it through her heart. Lily is a brave individual seeking to find her own place in the world while enduring difficult times on many fronts.

Dust on the Bible is a moving novel with an honest perspective of what it was like for some who grew up in poverty in the South during the Second World War. The coming-of-age story of Lily is candidly related, drawing on all the senses. Lily’s story and her world will linger with readers long after they’ve finished reading the final pages.

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June 24, 2016
CHASING NATHAN by Jeanette Hubbard, a humorous suspense novel

An epic convoy of bad men, good guys, tough women, and international operatives who zigzag across the Oregon wilderness chasing a truck-load of marijuana briquettes, a million bucks in cash, and one lovable border collie in this fast-paced satire by Jeanette Hubbard.

Claudie, independent and relationship-weary, encounters Nathan, an affable bookstore owner, when the two camp side-by-side in what should be an idyllic woodsy retreat. Sparks of mutual interest waft over grilled salmon and chilled sauterne, until a nasty character named Hammer in a clapped-out truck decides to park nearby, barely squeezing in among the boulders. He’s loud and foul-mouthed, and he abuses his border collie.

The next morning, Nathan and his Winnebago are gone, along with Hammer – only the broken-down truck and the nervous collie remain. Claudie, a bit miffed at Nathan’s defection and suspecting foul play, stows the mistreated canine in her car and buzzes off to find the nearest lawman. Little does she realize that she has become part of a massive dope deal gone wrong, with Nathan and his old female friend Dani, an espionage expert, in the thick of it.

Claudie will learn a lot about Nathan, who, it turns out, is not just the jolly bookworm he appears to be; and there’s a lot Nathan will discover about the surprisingly intrepid Claudie. She worries about Nathan as she fends off the weirdos trying to take her dog away, while Nathan thinks of her fondly even as he makes a daring escape from the violent Hammer and his evil twin Sprocket.

Author Jeanette Hubbard introduced Claudie, a seasoned sixty-something, in her first novel, Secrets, Lies and Champagne Highs. In this rollicking sequel, Hubbard displays her knowledge of highways, weaponry, dopers, and spies. Chasing Nathan criss-crosses genres: part hippie, biker, road-tripper’s fantasy, part thriller with intellectual undertones, love interest, and liberal lacings of humor.

Claudie appeals as a gutsy heroine with one hand on the steering wheel, the other flipping a bird at the thugs who try and fail to grab the collie. But she has her smarmy side, too, secretly admitting that despite her best defenses against a new romance, Nathan makes her feel all warm and fuzzy.

Chasing Nathan has a non-stop plot that celebrates the back roads, the great Northwest, and two saucy seniors who can flirt, fight, and floor the accelerator as the situation demands.

June 17, 2016
LEGACY by Jesikah Sundin, Book One of the Biodome Chronicles

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 17, 2016
FRAGMENTS OF YOUR SOUL by E.S Erbsland, a thought-provoking fantasy novel

Shape-shifters, runes, and mystical creatures all collide to create an engaging story in E.S. Erbsland’s fantasy novel Fragments of your Soul. Lovers of the fantasy genre and anything relating to magic will not be disappointed by this compelling plot-line.

The tale begins by showing the protagonist, Arvid, a woman who is almost thirty, feeling trapped by a mundane life. Her desire is granted to her when she falls through a portal into an alternate dimension. The utter weirdness of her new dwelling is dangerous and repugnant. Grieving for her mother, she longs for all that is familiar. She burns with livid anger at the “gods” who created these portals, but claim they don’t know how to un-create them … or send someone back.

Instead of showing the demanded reverence for these gods, she shows contempt and fury. To her, the concept that the gods are good and deserve obedience is utterly false. The story reveals fragments of one powerful male character’s soul little by little as he interacts with Arvid. She has something he needs to accomplish his goal. Is he good? Will he help her? Or is he ruled by a devious heart?

Readers watch magic powers develop within some characters, and learn about runes, the written language of this world––and runes which are tools used to create magic. We meet gods, humans, demons, cave worms, dwarves, giants, and shape-shifters. Immersed in this new foreign world, the reader experiences Arvid’s adventures eliciting fear, loss, pain, horror, anger, guilt, and love.

The Shadow World designed in the novel creates vivid pictures of a place totally foreign to readers, but one that our imagination accepts. Nonetheless, readers will be drawn in by how realistic the world is. Each word engages the five senses and racks up an emotional response that creates an unbreakable connection to the protagonist. Readers will wonder if they could endure Arvid’s tragedy, and they will hope that she will pull through.

Arvid doesn’t give up on her quest to return home, but at times she comes close to defeat. Readers will cringe when they measure her courage against their own. While she navigates through ordeals, reader empathy grows for her exhaustion in the fight, for the bitter cold, and for her loneliness. Arvid’s goals and motivations are clear, driving her through tremendous hardships. The characters interacting with Arvid let us know who she is and how she thinks.

Readers can also expect to be enthralled by the carefully crafted plot. Unexpected conflict boils and simmers throughout the novel and seduces readers into turning the next page. Many settings and characters exist in the story, but they are so well introduced that the reader maintains a vivid picture and remembers them when referenced again. The multiple types of beings and their interactions reveal how the Shadow World functions.

Erbsland has crafted a thought-provoking novel that will engross readers of fantasy and beyond. This reviewer looks forward to continuing reading this riveting story in the second novel of the Mirror Worlds series.
Reviewer’s Note: This book is recommended for readers over seventeen due to some brief sexual content.

June 16, 2016
The ONLY CLUE — The Neema Mystery Series, Book 2 by Pamela Beason – a gorilla mystery

When three gorillas disappear, Dr. Grace McKenna stands to lose not only her livelihood and her professional reputation, but also three close friends, in this lively new novel by animal advocate and author Pamela Beason.

Grace, assisted by a crew of young advocates from the Animal Rights Union, reluctantly fulfills a request from her project funders to hold a public exhibit of Neema, a mother gorilla, her baby Kanoni, and Neema’s giant, grumpy mate, Gumu. A dedicated cop, Matt Finn, supplies the project’s security protection (and Grace’s romantic interest).

After the public event, the apes vanish, a huge pool of blood on the floor of the gorilla compound is “the only clue” to what might have happened. Did they escape into the wild? Were they “liberated” by ARU operatives, or captured by exotic animal traders?

Grace can’t believe Neema would desert her, because the two have a close kinship based on their mutual use of sign language. Matt is sure someone connected with the project freed the gorillas on principle, or stole them for cash. He focuses on Tony Zyrnek, father of Jon, Grace’s most trusted assistant. Tony just got out of prison, is charming to a fault, and has a slew of highly questionable, greedy associates.

The project goes on lockdown, with Grace justifiably fearful of the consequences if word of the disappearance gets out. Matt and Grace are torn apart by the calamity, making it harder for both to function.

Matt’s investigations become increasingly complicated by crimes outside the compound, but his thorough police work gradually uncovers important evidence about the fate of the missing apes. Major revelations also result from Grace’s desperate delving into the bizarre international underworld where rare animals are bred and sold for profit.

Beason’s book, the second in her “Neema” series, will excite, enchant, and educate. Readers unaware of the innate intelligence of apes may be surprised to learn that Neema’s rather sophisticated communication abilities are based on verified fact. Beason skillfully shows us the human world through gorilla eyes.

Both dedicated animal rights proponents and people new to the dynamics of ape/human interaction will empathize with Gumu, Neema, and Kanoni’s struggles; while fans of the “locked room mystery” genre will fix their attention on the plight of the humans and their efforts to find more clues before it’s too late.

The Only Clue is a well-crafted mystery to inform as well as intrigue and captivate, opening an engaging realm of fictional exploration and speculation—the special bond that can happen between gorillas and people. Highly recommended.

June 3, 2016
PORTIA BENCH by Robert Boyd, a horror thriller novel

Ill-fated Clint Matheson. He lands what looks like the stellar job of his career—managing construction of a new highway across British Columbia, in time for the Expo 86 World’s Fair in Vancouver—only to find the highway must cross Portia Bench–a tableland that is ideal for a roadway.

However, it is actually a graveyard. Centuries ago, a First Nations chief lost his bride there in an earthquake, and in his grief he forever cursed the land. Later, a horrible train wreck took more lives, including those of circus animals. So when Clint’s team starts surveying this cursed ground, spirits awake, and start fighting back.

Survey teams are slaughtered when crew members suddenly go berserk. Surviving crew members see bewildering visions and hear incomprehensible noises. Clint, who learns of the legends from a contemporary chief and his daughter, plus a museum director knowledgeable about the Kootenay Central Railway, finds that maybe he shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the legend of the curse, especially once he starts seeing some of the visions himself.

But Clint can’t make his bosses believe, and they refuse his begging to reroute the highway. He has to find some way to stop the spirits from going crazy and get the road built. Meanwhile, crew after crew comes to grief. Even nature conspires to set back the project, with harsh winters and mysterious wildfires.

The story takes on a Grade-B-horror-movie flavor as the body count rises as an entire work crew is murdered. The plot of this story is about supposed progress interfering with a cursed landscape and unleashing primeval forces. Clint has to wrestle with some serious conflicting interests along with finding himself romantically distracted by Chief Edwin’s daughter, Cindy.

The most intriguing aspect of Portia Bench is the regional history brought to life by the author, who clearly has done his homework, and knows from experience the hardships of building roads across the high backcountry of western Canada. The central mystery of the story is: Will Clint be able to come up with a solution, or will the spirits wipe everyone out? The odds are against Clint and he must risk all to find a way.

June 2, 2016
Quotes for MEMORIAL DAY and Suggested Books that remember the sacrifices of those who served their country – Kiffer Brown

Quotes for Memorial Day

“Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” — President George Washington

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, an d for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”— President Abraham Lincoln 1865

“Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.” — President Theodore Roosevelt

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.” –President Theodore Roosevelt

“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.” —President Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” — President John F. Kennedy

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States in remembrance of the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces. It is observed the last Monday of May.

Originally, there were two different holidays celebrated by the North and the South to honor their Civil War dead in 1868. After World War One, the two holidays were combined to honor all Americans who died while in the military service.

Veterans Day, which honors all U.S. veterans, is celebrated annually on November 11th–the day that WWI officially ended. V-E Day (Victory in Europe), May 8th, 1945 is the date United States and Great Britain celebrated defeating the Nazi war machine.

We at Chanticleer Reviews are honored to present four excellent reads that exemplify the honor and courage of the men and women who serve in the U.S. military. For information about each book, please click on the link provided.

NON-FICTION

NO TOUGHER DUTY, NO GREATER HONOR by GySgt L. Christian Bussler

GySgt. Bussler served three tours of duty in Iraq in 2003. The last tour (2005 -2006) proves to be the most challenging when Bussler narrowly escapes an IED blast with his life and sent home with injuries. The year proved challenging not just for Bussler, but for his whole team and it leaves each one of them forever changed. After recovery, Bussler then served as a Mortuary Affairs officer.

Though now retired from the Marines, GySgt L. Christian Bussler is still active in the veteran community and acts as a mentor for other veterans. A truly magnificent and heartfelt memoir, No Tougher Duty, No Greater Honor is a must-read for every American.

Journey Book Awards, 1st Place award-winner.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY PTSD by Christopher Oelerich (non-fiction)

“I went away to war one person and came back another, and in my wildest dreams would never have chosen to be the one who came back.” – Christopher Oelerich

For those who suffer from PTSD, understanding that they are not alone and that they can help themselves is a huge step toward embracing a recovery program. Oelerich, as one who has experienced combat and traumatic events, wrote this book as a “How To” guide for combat soldiers, like himself, who suffer from PTSD.

Christopher Oelerich relates his own personal history, beginning from when he was drafted into the military during the Vietnam War, and continuing through his return to civilian life and his own rocky road to recovery.

GENERAL in COMMAND – The Life of Major General John B. Anderson by Michael M. Van Ness

A remarkable biography chronicling the adventures of a farm boy born in 1891 who rose high rank in the US military and served with distinction in two world wars as a combatant, officer, and sage observer. He served in the Mexican War, WWI, the Civilian Conservation Corps in the Great Depression, and WWII.

HILLBILLIES to HEROES: Journey from the Black Hills of Tennessee to the Battlefields of World War II – The Memoir of James Quinton Kelley by S.L. Kelley.

A farm boy from the hills of Coker Creek, Tennessee to driving tanks across France and into Germany as part of an initiative that ultimately saw the end of Hitler’s Third Reich. A heartfelt recollection of the sacrifices of America’s soldiers in WWII.

FICTION

None of Us the Same by Jeffrey K. Walker

Love. Honor. Friendship. Exactly what we need from a historical fiction novel, at exactly the right time. WWI.

Wait For Me by Janet K. Shawgo –World War II (historical fiction)

The often-unknown role of women in wartime as travel nurses and pilots, as well as the use of herbs for natural healing, adds interesting and relative historical content to the story. The WASP pilots and their active role in the war effort was particularly fascinating reflecting Shawgo’s vigilance with her medical and military history research.

After the prologue shows Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, establishing the World War II setting, the story begins on September 23, 1940 in New York.

Readers may find it interesting that Shawgo, along with being an award winning novelist, is also a travel nurse who goes where and when she is needed for national disasters.

Life On Base: Quantico Cave by Tom and Nancy Wise (contemporary fiction)

A riveting portrayal of the lives of children whose parents serve in the armed forces. Being a teenager is hard enough, but adding the constant uprooting and moving from base to base adds its own unique challenges as well as rewards.

The story focuses around young Stephen, a “military brat”—a term that these children use to distinguish themselves from their civilian counterparts. Stephen finds himself uprooted once again from his most recent home in California and moved across the country to Quantico Bay, Virginia. His father is a Marine and relocating often has become a part of Stephen’s life. However, becoming accustomed to something is not the same as liking it.

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.“
Mark Twain

“How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” – Maya Angelou

“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” —Joseph Campbell

Remembering those who have served and made the ultimate sacrifice….

As my father who passed in 1981 from 100% service-connected disabilities (a Marine Corps lifer with WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam conflict in his military service) repeated,

“May we never forget freedom isn’t free.” —Unknown

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May 30, 2016
DAUGHTER OF DESTINY: BOOK 1 OF GUINEVERE’S TALE by Nicole Evelina, the Grand Prize Best Book

Guinevere asks us, the readers, to listen to her words in the prologue of Daughter of Destiny, book one in The Guinevere’s Tale Trilogy. She implores, “I will take back my voice and speak the truth of what happened.” So shall the lies be revealed and Camelot’s former glory restored.”

Daughter of Destiny is the first of three historical fiction novels narrated by Guinevere in the series of Guinevere’s Tale, by Nicole Evelina. Her tale begins during her young turbulent childhood in fifth-century Britain. It is a time of struggling to come to grips with her special powers. She’s studying to become a priestess, competing against her future lifelong enemy Morgana, and coping with the politics and violence ravaging her homeland in England’s fifth century. The novel follows Guinevere as she is separated from her family in Northgallis, during her early years in Avalon. It follows her training in the magical arts and eventual return to her war-ravaged homeland.

This is no amateur first attempt at writing a novel—Evelina’s writing is lyrical and powerful. Her natural talent for storytelling is obvious from the first page as she captivates the reader with her tale told from Guinevere’s engaging perspective.

Even more impressive is the author’s extensive research behind the series. Her knowledge is evident as she constructs a richly-drawn fictional world of fantastical landscapes and sorcery. She immerses the reader in legend, magic, and tragic love, all set against the backdrop of misty Avalon. The author clearly loves her subject and passes on that passion through her telling of Guinevere’s story.

What makes this series brilliant, however, is that Evelina takes Guinevere’s story far beyond its common historical re-telling. Guinevere is not merely a woman destroyed by her own weaknesses in loving the wrong man, as history would like us to believe. She is also a woman of power, intelligence, and special gifts who, from her early childhood and beyond, strives to use her talents to help her own people.

Guinevere is an independent woman of strength and fortitude, who finds herself at odds with a world in which her gifts are a liability, and her passions put her and her homeland at great risk. Evelina’s account is a riveting and captivating page-turner.

This first offering by Evelina is rich and stunning, easily comparable to novels by other bestselling historical fiction authors. She has done her research and created a world that is compelling, historically accurate, and a realistic portrayal of the times balanced with the mystic and the magical.

This reviewer highly recommends Daughter of Destiny to fans of Arthurian and Avalonia tales, historical fiction, political intrigue, and heroic journeys.

The Guinevere’s Tale Trilogy won the 2021 Series Grand Prize Award for Best Fiction Book Series.

May 25, 2016
AN OUTCAST STATE by Scott D. Smith, a YA dystopian novel

One of the most popular genres out there today is “the zombie apocalypse.” You can find it on TV, in books, in graphic novels, and just about any other media format you can think of. Author Scott D. Smith brings his voice to the genre in his award winning book An Outcast State. It is a fast paced, imaginative, riveting read.

Written in the first person, you’ll quickly find out that the world is a different place than it was a few short months prior to the story. The book’s main character, Corbin, is a loner who has honed his survival skills and survived long enough to “live to tell tale.”

He tells us in the beginning of the book, “In fact, as I write this, an entire herd of them is outside this building trying to claw its way in. The door to this place is reasonably solid, but it won’t hold forever. Doesn’t really matter I guess since I’m planning on opening it soon anyway.”

The herd he is referring to are the zombies or as they are called in this book “eaters.” Corbin continues:

“The only comforting thought I have is that I don’t imagine the eaters are going to have any interest in this book. That means there’ll be some kind of record of my having been here, something that could give my death a little meaning. Assuming it even gets found. It’s better not to think about it. I have enough problems for today.”

Early in the book the loner status was soon to change for Corbin as he obtains a traveling partner. One of the realities of life in this current state of the world is the fact that to survive, one must explore the now empty homes of others. This quest is to gather usable supplies including such treasures as non-perishable good, batteries, and weapons.

On one such exploration, our main character meets Molly. Inside the home when Corbin arrives, we quickly learn that Molly is searching for her parents and this particular home Corbin chose to explore was hers. This sets off a quest to help Molly find her family, one that leads the duo via bicycle from Texas to Louisiana. This journey is filled with harrowing complications that build suspense. It is engrossing to see how our main character handles the new partner as this greatly impacts his ability to travel, seek food and defend himself.

Soon the pair encounters yet another challenging, but unexpected twist in their young lives. The following excerpt is a fine example of an important aspect about this book, the very real human concerns that play out in each of the scenes. Zombies are only the tip of the iceberg in this book. The real depth of the story lies in the interactions of the main characters to each other and those whom they encounter. It is through these interactions and encounters that Scott’s writing skills shine.

“Some combination of intelligence, intuition, and luck has kept me alive on my own all these years. I’ve learned to trust in each of them, but I usually count on all three working together. Unfortunately, intelligence and intuition had apparently called in sick that day.”

Luck was going to have to get some overtime, so one spot out in the middle of nowhere being as good as any other for chance to intervene on our behalf, I signaled Molly to follow me, turned my bike off the pavement, and headed for the woods that grew thick and dark just a few feet from the old highway……I have never believed in karma. I have never thought the universe was in favor of my success or my failure.

Things simply unfolded as they did, and that was that; however, as the events of the next few seconds played out, I was certain that I must have been paying for the accumulated sins of my lifetime.”

An Outcast State is one of those books that once you finish it, you are left with a desire to return to the world you just left and will want to hang out a little longer with the main characters. Filled with suspense and backed by a solid storyline, this novel is one that is hard to put down. Scott D. Smith has taken a popular modern genre, made it his own, and gives readers a thrilling tale to behold. An Outcast State received the Dante Rossetti Award for YA Dystopian Novel.

May 21, 2016
I, Mary: Book 3 of the Crofter Family Saga by Mike Hartner, an historical fiction middle grade book

Heartwarming and inspirational, Mike Hartner’s novel I, Mary is a beautifully-written middle grade children’s novel that captures a young girl’s dreams of becoming a sailor. A fantastic read for children and their families who enjoy fiction set to the background of sailing and historical times. If your middle grade reader loves The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, then she will love reading I, Mary by Mike Hartner, the third book in the Eternity Crofter Family Saga series.

The tale takes a reader into a turbulent time in England’s history, when Oliver Cromwell usurps power from the monarchy and plunged England into a civil war. Readers are introduced to the protagonist Mary as a toddler aboard one of her father’s ships. She shows an innate love and connection with the sea. At age eleven, she pleads with her father to allow her to become a sailor. A caring man, he yields. He urges one of his captains to take her on, even though she is still a young girl. Her superior intelligence, reliability, and hard work earns the respect of sailors and their captains who, along with the readers, watch Mary learn and excel in seamanship.

Mary is a unique, strong, and kind girl existing during a time in history when females were considered by many to be chattel without rights. Readers admire her from the start as they watch her navigate through calm waters and stormy seas. She is a praiseworthy character for her courage and the way she helped or touched so many other characters .

When the first person narrator changes, a line of three stars above the passage marks the switch. Intimate content is limited to hand holding and kissing, but the growing love story carries emotional impact throughout. The dialogue, though, is still written using some of the authentic dialect of Highland Scotland, such as lass, laddie, and bairn. Hartner’s novel is also an easy, smooth read for children and to read aloud to children.

Children can also get a history lesson as well, or be inspired to learn more Highland Scotland and clan life. In the author’s note to his readers, Mike Hartner says, “My goal is to provide an enjoyable reading experience and not a historical map.” But admits he’d be pleased if a youngster got motivated to check the book’s historical accuracy regarding the British Crown Hierarchy, the ‘Rump’ parliament, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire in London, all of which are mentioned in the story.

This reviewer rarely cries during the emotional hits in a story, but Hartner’s ending stirred powerful feelings and brought forth tears. Readers will resonate with Mary from start to finish over the poignancy of her life. An inspiring read that pulls at your heartstrings, I Mary is a brilliant novel that sets the dreams of a young girl to the historical backdrop of a time that was most difficult for women.

May 20, 2016