Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Chanticleer 5 Star Book Review

A CHILD’S LOVE by Anna Casamento-Arrigo – Picture Books, Children’s Family Books, Family Life Fiction

Anna Casamento-Arrigo’s A Child’s Love is a heartwarming story that pays tribute to the loving relationship between a mother and her daughter.

This circle-of-life tale begins with a mother caring for her infant. The poetic storyline unfolds into a role reversal of caregiving from one generation to the next.

As the decades pass, the reader sees the child nurtured gracefully into adulthood and eventually become a parent herself. As time takes its toll, the now-grown daughter and grandchild become caretakers for the aging mother. From lullabies and games of peek-a-boo to walkers, wheelchairs, and visits to the hospital, the love and care the mother once showed to her daughter is now reflected in the daughter’s equal concern and consideration. With the granddaughter, Casamento-Arrigo introduces a third generation to show the continuation of this cycle of kin.

Alex Martinez’ endearing illustrations help define the genuine love and affection between these family members, and the changing needs within each generation as time passes.

Demonstrated again and again in tender detail, with the large and small footprints in the sand as mother and daughter walk hand-in-hand along the shoreline, in the daughter’s last backward glance at her loving home while heading into the wider world with all her belongings, and with the daughter’s recollection of her mom keeping the scary monsters at bay in the closet. The images are solid, genuine, and artfully crafted.

The narrative is composed of simple rhyming lines, each reflective of the preceding illustration’s activity, and should particularly appeal to younger readers.

While intended as a children’s book, A Child’s Love is a beautiful story to be shared by parents, grandparents, and children of all ages. The lasting sentiment is clearly one of love and compassion for those we care about within the familiar bonds between generations.

October 2, 2023
CROSSING The FORD by Gail Hertzog – Historical Fiction, Magical Realism, Old West

Crossing the Ford by Gail Hertzog opens in classic Western fashion: a train rolls in, carrying a stranger. Twenty-five-year-old Ruby knows, when she sees “that little lady” get off the train, that life in her rural Nevada town will never be the same.

Until this moment, Ruby’s children and her no-good husband have claimed most of her time and energy. But she gets to know Kenna, the red-headed stranger — and finds herself irrevocably changed in the process.

Hertzog weaves a rich tapestry of the post-Civil War West. Her characters inhabit a world that’s lush and bleak by turns, vivid with details of a landscape that shifts with the seasons, from giving to unforgiving. A thread of magical realism creeps in so subtly readers may hardly notice it at first. By the end, though, this book stands as a testament to how mystical and inscrutable the twists and turns of life can be.

The book is punctuated with vintage-style illustrations and even recipes, which tie in nicely with the plot and help readers immerse themselves in the moment in history.

Kenna soon introduces Ruby to new ways of looking at the world: ideals of feminine independence, the joy of luxury, and even using magic to bend life to your will.

Kenna comes from privilege and mystique, with a Scottish Highland heritage steeped in witchcraft – a stark contrast to Ruby’s bleak past. By turns, Ruby finds Kenna intimidating, frustrating, and awe-inspiring. They strike up a close friendship as the seasons turn.

The novel’s intrigue grows from early on, as Ruby and Kenna hold secrets from each other while holding each other dear. And then there’s Valentine: the local man that Kenna captivates, and Ruby desires from afar (and sometimes, from too close). With the addition of Ruby’s wayward, abusive husband, a tense love square emerges, and it’s not always clear what shape the characters’ lives will end up in. Even Valentine has secrets of his own.

As Crossing the Ford progresses, everyone’s secrets start to catch up to them, while every event is tinted with Kenna’s magic and mythology.

The mood sways from joyful to tragic and back again, from sensitive and compelling depictions of the abuse Ruby endures from her husband, to the life she builds in spite of it with Kenna and Valentine’s help.

This story maintains a confessional quality, as Ruby speaks directly to the mysterious character introduced in the prologue, setting up a satisfying reveal at the end. Over time, Ruby goes from passive observer to active anti-heroine, working to determine her own fate (and sometimes others’ too.) Readers get a deep look at the challenges she’s faced in life, so that when she starts making choices that seem brutal, we can understand her reasons. The action slows for a bit in the middle, but it’s a brief pause, carried by a strong sense of place and Ruby’s compelling voice. You can hear her accent in every word, that of a poorly-educated woman in the rural West, set against the fine and proper language of her best friend Kenna.

Crossing the Ford makes deft use of moral gray areas, as those areas seem to grow bigger with each page.

At first, the narrative raises questions about good motherhood and marital loyalty, but later, ponders questions of life and death. Ruby finds herself forced to answer: Is it ever justifiable to kill? Is it ever justifiable to forgive a killer? These issues ring of truth, as Hertzog paints a clear picture of the perils and quandaries faced by folks in the harsh landscape of the post-Civil War West. In the end, it turns out that everyone has something to run from, but not everyone will escape their fate.

This book is an excellent choice for lovers of historical fiction, complex female characters, and anything with a witchy bent. It shies away from easy answers, instead crafting a portrait of people and places whose outward beauty belies flaws, threats, and hard secrets. The ending is so tragic that it almost feels unsatisfying at first. Hertzog has given us such relatable, compelling characters that readers are left wanting more for them. Yet there’s a deeper truth to this narrative: magic may be real, but it doesn’t always work in one’s favor.

The characters in Crossing the Ford may not get the ending they want, but they just might get the ending they deserve.

Crossing the Ford by Gail Hertzog won 1st Place in the 2022 CIBA Goethe Awards for Late Historical Fiction, and 2022 CIBA Laramie Awards for Americana Fiction.

September 25, 2023
LOST In BEIRUT: A True Story of Love, Loss and War by Ashe Stevens & Magdalena Stevens – Travel Memoirs, Survival Biographies, Lebanon

Seeking to “fill his vessel with the truth,” young Ashe Stevens joins his friends on a thrilling adventure beyond the safety of his comfortable American life to chase stardom in Beirut, Lebanon.

Leaving behind a raucous life of plenty in Hollywood – complete with hot dates, popularity, and financial success – to the unknown of the Middle East teaches Ashe to prioritize his values and beliefs. But nothing could prepare him for what’s coming next.

Journey with Ashe and his friends as they bring the rapper 50 Cent to Beirut, the “Paris of the Middle East.” Along the way, Ashe dates not one, but two drop-dead gorgeous billionaires and falls head over heels for a blonde beauty to whom he promises to devote his life. But just as business is booming and true love reaches the height of bliss, the Israeli military bombs their beautiful city, “weaving a tapestry of death all over the night sky.” The team barely makes it out with their lives in a harrowing escape, leaving their love and livelihoods behind.

Before disaster hits, Ashe reevaluates his life in Beirut, slowly beginning the necessary work of “finding his circus,” drawing on the lessons of his friend and mentor, Roger Henderson.

Loosening his confidence in the United States’ supreme power and security, prioritizing loyalty and love over wealth, and expanding the horizons of his cultural imagination allow him to find safety in himself and accept the reality of the disaster that “washes away his elaborate dreams.”

Just as Ashe develops over the course of his life-changing adventure, those around him unfold with intricate depth. Readers will find themselves sympathizing, loving, protesting, and falling apart as they unspool each person’s threads. Personalities such as the eccentric Danny, the wise Roger Henderson, and the lovable criminal Marwan shape a colorful narrative that feels as real as flesh.

The narrative does tend to prioritize the complexity of its male characters over that of the women. Women’s personalities go unexplored and tied inextricably to the narrative-shaping men who either love or resent them. Ashe complains about his new rich date waiting for him in the car, and his friends exert a patriarchal command over the women in their lives: “‘Make sure you look hot tonight, Sana,’” says Danny to his girlfriend, “‘Okay, my love. I would never disappoint you,’” she meekly replies.

Even so, the memoir’s rhythm of adventure will sustain readers’ devoted attention.

Each chapter heading offers a curious epigraph, which slowly merges together with the others as pieces of a puzzle. Silky smooth transitions lose readers in the vivid imagery and fast-paced movement of the story, such as the “blazing-white sunshine amid the clusters of cars, repetitious horn sounds and the loud chatter of the city.” Ashe navigating the rich culture of Beirut and its new social rules immerses readers in the magic of travel and its potential to deepen the soul.

Overall, Lost in Beirut is a romping adventure full of love, war, and sacrifice.

Religious division, the mysteries of love and lust, hidden secrets of political violence, loss and recovery, and life-like characters pull readers beneath the surface tension of the page. As Ashe reflects on his experience in theater class: “We all look the same, leaving the phantom zone. Lost in our own bodies.” In the same way, Lost in Beirut will lose readers in its trance-like narrative where beauty and ruin melt into each other in a seamless dream-turned-nightmare.

Lost in Beirut won Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Military and Front Line Awards for Narrative Non-Fiction and Memoir.

September 22, 2023
THE COLOR Of The ELEPHANT: Memoir of a Muzungu by Christine Herbert – Peace Corps, Traveler and Explorer Memoirs, Africa

“The toughest job you’ll ever love.” That was the original slogan for the Peace Corps, one that Christine Herbert found to be wholly true, as she shows in The Color of the Elephant, a journal of her time serving in Zambia from 2004 to 2006.

This is a story about the journey rather than the destination. After all, the destination of any posting with the Peace Corps is the place you first came from, hopefully leaving something positive behind, and having changed and been changed by the experience.

For the author, her experience was that of a muzungu, a word synonymous in southern, central, or eastern African countries with foreigners such as Peace Corps volunteers and Doctors without Borders.

Christine Herbert came to Zambia as a ‘stranger in a strange land’, with the intent to change herself – to break out of her identity as a self-described ‘goody-goody’.

She resisted her family’s best efforts to convince her to stay on a safe and sane path. Volunteering for the Peace Corps, going to Africa for 27 months in the immediate wake of 9/11 was neither.

In her early 30s, a bit older than the usual Peace Corps volunteer, she knew that she wasn’t there to save anyone or anything – except quite possibly herself. The reader walks beside Herbert as she is made and broken over and over again in a tale equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking. Her experiences, for at least a little while, take her out of her white, privileged, American mindset and put her feet into the sandals of a world where community is everything.

Herbert does an excellent job of carrying readers on a startling, eye-opening, and life-changing journey.

The author did not undertake this journey for the adventure of it all, because the point was not to return to her old normal life. She sought to change her perspective on what normal can and should be.

Serving in the Peace Corps, that “toughest job you’ll ever love” has been a dream for many more people than have undertaken the actual journey. Any reader who dreamed that dream will be given a glimpse into the challenges of the job and just how much love – of friends, found family, newfound homes, and meaningful work – lay at its heart.

The Color of the Elephant by Christine Herbert won First Place in the 2022 CIBA Military and Front Line Awards.

September 20, 2023
LUNA: Rhone and Stone Book 2 by Strider S.R. Klusman – YA, Action/Adventure, Steampunk
Luna, the second book in Strider S.R. Klusman’s YA Rhone and Stone Series, follows Rhone and his alien partner Stone as they develop a ship that can sail through the air.

The two train to become agents for the Office of Public Recrimination, urged to join by their friend – and now boss – Aundrea. Rhone struggles through training with the help of his trusty partner, but a much more difficult test remains before them – their first assignment.

Aundrea sends them to Corgy, a port town, without explaining their mission. But it doesn’t take long for Rhone to encounter troubles from shore and sea alike.

He and Stone meet Mayor Dugan, who takes an instant dislike for Rhone, posing as a wealthy merchant’s son. But it’s his front, designed so by the ladies of the OPR, and commands a great deal of respect and authority from the locals, if not Bella. Sometimes it’s difficult not to forget his actual purpose for being at Corgy. As an agent of the OPR, he must solve the town’s greatest problem, a rash of pirate attacks on Corgy’s vital ocean-borne trade; if they continue, Corgy won’t survive.

But to fix anything in Corgy, Rhone will need help.

The roguish Captain Black tests Rhone’s sea legs on the Backwater Mistress. Rhone passes the test of rough waters – barely – and garners the good captain’s respect.

He also meets the beautiful Bella, a waitress at The Common House in Corgy. Though he’s smitten with her, Rhone is on a mission, and ends up frustrating her with mixed messages.

Bella responds to him with a fiery personality, but Rhone finds her passion to be as enthralling as it is unpredictable. As he gets to know her, he helps Bella find her place in a society that tries to smother her drive for independence.

She wants to prove that she is as good as any man. And, when Rhone comes up with the idea to hunt Corgy’s pirates from the air, Bella has her chance to do so.

Rhone takes Bella’s opinions and advice as they design a unique kind of ship. Aviation is unknown to this world, but the trio – Rhone, Stone, and Bella – design and pilot their first prototype, named Bo, a hot-air balloon made from a whale’s bladder. While a proof-of-concept, Bo doesn’t last long, and they’ll need a much greater ship to take down the dangerous pirates.

Stone provides immense scientific knowledge, Rhone the training in sailing he received from Captain Black, and Bella a knowledge of materials and the resources of Corgy. Between them, they turn an awkward and dangerous balloon into a vessel worthy of the sky.

Joining with Captain Black, the three plan to stop the pirates in their tracks – despite the great danger.

Tense and descriptively rich action scenes will keep readers turning page after page to find out if Rhone and Bella will survive their flight in an experimental craft – relying on the work of their own minds and hands.

Klusman’s masterful storytelling takes this second book in the Rhone and Stone series to the next level. Readers who have not read the first book will have no problem following this story, but will eagerly go back to join Rhone’s first adventure. Rhone and Stone make a fabulous team, sharing thoughts and trust as they claw their way out of danger time after time.

This book is a five-star read and a great adventure. Readers will be chomping at the bit for book three!
September 18, 2023
THE CANDLE GLASS by Diane Fedt Topolski – Picture Books, Children’s Moral Fables, Children’s Friendship & Family Books

Diane Fedt Topolski’s The Candle Glass breathes vibrant new life into traditional children’s morals, inspiring both young and old to strengthen the light inside them through intentional reflection and connection with a supportive community.

Stunning yet simplistic scratchboard drawings lift the story off the page, capturing readers’ attention and bringing the text to life. This simultaneously comforting and thrilling adventure will stick with readers and shed new light on the capacity for goodness within each person.

Topolski narrates the heartwarming tale of a young boy named Cappy, as he tries to invent a method of uncovering the hidden truth within each person.

When Cappy overhears his parents and grandmother discussing a “bad egg” they know, he concocts a machine to spot “the good, the bad, and the rotten” hidden within humankind. Constructed with two circus mirrors and a brightly lit candle, his remarkable invention shows him the inner lights of his loved ones.

However, the essence of each person is more nuanced than Cappy first assumes. Rather than revealing the ugliness within Cappy’s friends and family, the candle glass displays their inherent good, and the capacity of that good to expand. In fact, there isn’t “one rotten egg in the bunch.” Along the way, Cappy learns to trust his intuition and nurture the light within himself.

With vivid imagery, parents can use The Candle Glass to teach their young readers about seeking the good in every person.

The mesmerizing black and white illustrations complement the story’s theme of moral light clearing the way through the shadows. After all, as Topolski reminds readers, “everyone needs some work. Like the chick in the egg, we are just beginning.” Cappy’s imaginative adventures encourage children to deepen their curiosity about the world and its people, setting their minds and hearts to work.

Overall, The Candle Glass surrounds its readers with a warm, magical glow, allowing access to a world built on security, love, and trust. Readers will find themselves looking inward and realizing that when they join hands with their community in love, “the light becomes dazzling.”

September 15, 2023
THE MONEY MAP: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success by Kasey J. Claytor – Business Motivation & Improvement, Spirituality Self-Help, Money Management

“There is something magical about money—the way it appears and disappears, grows and shrinks, and, in a similar way of taming a hesitant wild horse, with calm assuredness and confidence, not only will you learn to control it, but you will find you can joyfully master it.” -Author Kasey J. Claytor

Claytor insists that every successful endeavor starts with an individual’s thinking and beliefs. She details this concept – and how to live with it in mind – in her new book, The Money Map: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success.

From the onset of her business-oriented career, Claytor has drawn from her beliefs as she upholds financial success as a spiritual goal. In this volume, she takes the mystery out of money to show it as an extension of the mind, body, and spirit. Claytor ensures the beginning of an endearing journey toward clearer financial decision-making, investments, and goals by asking readers to identify the worries of their own ego and to eliminate unproductive ideas and actions.

Claytor offers insight on how one can change their thinking and behavior to allow the floodgates of abundance to open up, with solid advice for achieving undivided focus, intelligent poise, and a competent thought technique.

She asserts that everyone can step outside of themselves and hold the point of view of the observer. If one is mindful and aware of their present moment, they can move toward much-needed peace and confidence, allowing the growth of new ideas and productivity.

The route to monetary independence may appear too steep to ascend, but The Money Map will guide readers to the summit, one checkpoint at a time.

This book’s eye-opening revelations about the mindsets of affluent people and its secrets to what they carry inwardly, earn it must-read status in the business resources category.

The Money Map: A Spiritual Guide for Financial Success will provide readers with invaluable advice, standing beside such works as Spiral Dynamics by Dr. Don Edward Beck Ph. D., Map of the Scale of Consciousness by Dr. David Hawkins M.D. Ph. D., and Integral Psychology by Ken Wilbur. The Money Map will aid anyone in discovering the most beneficial path to financial success, regardless of their current situation.

September 13, 2023
ROHAN And NYRA And BIG SISTER’S BET by Anthony C. Delauney – Children’s Money & Savings Books, Picture Books, Children’s Educational Books

Continuing his series of important financial lessons told through fun stories, Anthony C. Delauney teaches readers about greed and gambling in Rohan and Nyra and Big Sister’s Bet.

Rohan eagerly waits for his big sister to return home from school for the weekend. Nyra brings home a challenge for Rohan in the form of a game. For every catch of the ball, Rohan will earn one dollar, but if he drops the ball at any point, he will lose it all. Rohan has tons of fun catching the ball over and over, thinking of all the things he will be able to buy with each added dollar. Will Rohan decide to keep the game going even when he becomes tired, or will he stop while he is ahead? Read Rohan and Nyra and Big Sister’s Bet to find out!

The lesson at the heart of the story is an important one, for children and adults alike. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of taking risks.

Rohan and Nyra and Big Sister’s Bet highlights the importance of thinking through your decisions. Of course, one must sometimes take risks, but should do so thoughtfully.

With illustrator Chiara Civati’s whimsical artwork and Deluaney’s simple yet attention-grabbing rhyming, Rohan and Nyra and Big Sister’s Bet is a children’s book not to miss! Check out the other books in the series: Dash and Nikki and the Jellybean Game and Lilly and May Learn Why Mom and Dad Work.

September 8, 2023
MERGING PATHS by Vince Bailey – Paranormal, Horror, Suspense

Having escaped unjust imprisonment at the Fort Grant facility for juveniles, Curtis Jefferson is on the run, in Merging Paths, the third installment of Vince Bailey’s gripping, paranormal, Curtis Jefferson Series.

With only a small jug of water and the clothes on his back, Curtis has to cross the Sonoran Desert and find a way back to his mother and grandmother in Jacobs Well. But his trip is plagued by more than thirst, hunger, and fear of animals. A racist sheriff’s deputy, Myron Aycock, is hellbent on finding Curtis not only for the acclaim such an arrest will give him but also for vengeance against the beating he received at the hands of the aspiring boxer.

Trapped and desperate, Curtis is rescued by a mysterious figure and taken to Isabel and Ray Cienfuegos. After hearing Curtis’s unsettling stories about Fort Grant, the two understand that they have all been fighting the same evil forces – under the control of the sadistic Ezra. In a final confrontation, Isabel faces off against the wicked spirit, but just as they believe their problems are over, a new threat arises under the guise of friendship, and Isabel makes a life-changing decision that will mark her forever.

Intuition plays a huge role throughout the series, becoming vital to the central characters in this final book.

Throughout his harrowing experiences at Fort Grant, Curtis has relied upon his innate sixth sense to warn him of impending doom. A gift passed from his mother, this awareness has guided him to carefully choose his friends. Through this sense, he trusts Isabel and Ray, even seeming to know parts of their story before they tell it. He accepts Isabel’s questionable actions because his instincts tell him they were her only choice.

Isabel shares this remarkable perception. In fact, Isabel trusts her intuition so far as to commit acts most would consider insane. While Curtis’s near-clairvoyance is a guide, Isabel’s is a force. This sense helps Isabel to understand the evil of Ezra and tells her how to rid herself of him forever. But her intuition pushes her to one final act of destruction as well – the murder of a former confidante – a choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

Isabel and Curtis aren’t the only characters with an advanced awareness of evil. Father Frank Cullen, a priest to whom Isabel goes for confession, shares the gift. He has always doubted Curtis’s guilt, and when his not-so-chance meeting with Isabel brings him back into Curtis’s life, he uses his sense to help bring Curtis home.

But he could never have accomplished the deed without the intervention of Natchez Mendoza, a former judge and the son of the man Ezra was in life.

Natchez is, perhaps, the most “knowing” of the quartet. Natchez first appeared in book one, where he recognized the evil in twelve-year-old Harvey Huish. He also first met Curtis in book one, under extremely unusual circumstances, so when they meet again some eighty years later, Natchez knows Curtis’s story intimately and helps to release him from Fort Grant’s grasp.

Justice becomes central to the final struggles of these characters.

Will Farnsworth is a silent, but important example of this need for justice. Having died via decapitation in a car wreck during book one, Will has served as a knight errant since, responsible for the rescue of both Ray and Curtis. As a lawyer for the corrupt Huish family, he hated his job and his clients and longed to be free of both, but it was only in death that he could become the very thing he tried to be in life, the good guy riding in to save the day.

However, Isabel’s pursuit of justice is more complicated.

Her quest to rid the world of Ezra’s evil is commendable and noble, but her later conflict with Freddie Hightower approaches the slippery slope of vengeance. Freddie’s betrayal angers Isabel to the point of no return. She deems him unforgivable and takes matters into her own hands, perverting justice. Other characters like Sergeant Joe Garcia, Constable Frankie Quintana, Deputy Myron Aycock, and Sheriff Pete Alvarado represent the legal side of justice, both good and bad. Natchez Mendoza, white cane and all, straddles the line between legal and supernatural, determined to keep Curtis safe for his own contribution to justice for his massacred tribe.

The Curtis Jefferson Series won Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Series Awards for Fiction Series.

August 23, 2023
COURSES Of The CURSED: A Curtis Jefferson Novel by Vince Bailey – Paranormal, Dark Fantasy, Action & Adventure

Imprisoned in a boys’ institution for a crime he did not commit, Curtis Jefferson must again face his nemesis, Harvey Huish. In Courses of the Cursed, the second installment of Vince Bailey’s paranormal Curtis Jefferson series, the fight comes with much higher stakes.

Estranged from his constant companion, Randy, Curtis continues his training alone, bewildered as to why Randy believes Harvey to be more than a vicious bully. But as Curtis’s strange visions and dreams increase, he needs Randy more than ever. He begins to question whether Randy has been preparing him for an encounter beyond the violence between boys.

Unbeknownst to Curtis, he isn’t the only one being tortured by the evil of Fort Grant. A local artist, Ray Cienfuegos, has his own date with destiny. As the last male descendant of his family, Ray’s fate is tied to the massacre that occurred near the fort almost one hundred years ago.

Two young men, one a savior and one a sacrifice, will be tested by the wicked power of the sacred land. But who will survive the encounter?

This complex work twists its way through a maze of interconnected storylines and characters who each, in their own way, embody the age-old battle between good and evil.

Ezra, an old Apache shaman, embodies something horrible and ancient. Whether he is Satan or some malicious pagan entity, he facilitates the cruelty done to the characters in the novel. However, upon closer examination, Ezra’s “evil” becomes much more complicated. While he tortures Ray and sometimes takes the form of an enormous would-be rapist were-coyote, he is also the voice of a long-dead, long-forgotten people, innocents slaughtered in a sick game of commerce.

Ezra does unforgivable harm, but he does so in the name of justice, begging the question of whether justice can be achieved through bloody vengeance.

The idea of justice defines many characters, including Lieutenant Roy, the cavalry commander who refused to serve out the original retribution for which Ezra fights. In opposition to Ezra’s malignancy stands Isabel Cienfuegos, Ray’s aunt. She serves as foil to all that Ezra represents and becomes an avenging angel, toting a 12-gauge instead of a fiery sword.

Numerous other characters strive to do good in the world around them.

Vince, the narrator, admits that his faith is the very reason he must tell the story. Leon and Georgy, fellow inmates of Curtis, drag him to church to pray for guidance and courage for what lay ahead, leading the reader to question if Curtis’s actions are divine justice, or if he is merely a pawn in Ezra’s plan.

The symbology of fire frames this story.

If Ezra is – or is in league with – the devil, the use of fire is a pointed reference to the retribution forced upon those who have done wrong in life. However, when Ray receives his blood money from Ezra, Isabel throws it into a fire to rid them of the thing that led to Ray’s abduction and torture. The fort’s original inhabitants were complacent in the massacre of the tribe, so when it partially burns down, the flames cleanse part of that history. Ray uses fire as a healer, to help him rehabilitate after his disfigurement at Ezra’s hands.

But fire takes its most questionable form when a beloved character, a “knight” in search of justice, is set ablaze by Ezra. Fire here is only a punishment, wrought on someone who has done nothing to deserve it. The role of fire, just like that of good and evil, is a complicated one with a multitude of interpretations.

Courses of the Cursed asks what sort of justice can come from vengeance, and what really will bring peace to the past. A thrilling paranormal adventure that we highly recommend!

The Curtis Jefferson Series won Grand Prize in the 2022 CIBA Series Awards for Fiction Series.

August 21, 2023