Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Chanticleer 5 Star Book Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 19, 2023
ONCE UPON A TIME In BALTIMORE by Sally DiPaula – Historical Fiction, Multi-Cultural, Family Saga

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 9, 2023
ENLIGHTEN UP! Finding Clarity Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World by Beth Gibbs – Personal Transformation, Meditation, Spiritual Growth

Beth Gibb’s Enlighten Up! Finding Clarity Contentment and Resilience in A Complicated World is not a simple how-to book, but rather an invitation to begin a journey of self-discovery.

This journey follows the “five-layer method,” based on the Upanishads, a 3,000-year-old East-Indian wisdom tradition. After a quick history lesson on the pursuit of self-awareness, Gibbs walks readers through the five layers of achieving it, for a happy and fulfilling life. Throughout the book, Gibbs includes breaks for mindfulness and grounding exercises to get the most out of each section.

Gibbs writes about the assumption that the goal of enlightenment is to, “suppress or eliminate their emotions, live everlasting bliss, and face every situation with equanimity,” and how that assumption is unrealistic.

She sees a better understanding of self as a way to improve many aspects of one’s life. Following her advice won’t create a drastic overnight transformation, but it involves a lot of reflection and hard work to make these changes last. It’s clear that the benefits of developing better self-awareness are more than worth the effort as they can lead to better lifestyle choices, reduced stress, and strengthened relationships, all of which contribute to personal happiness. At the end of the day, many people wish most of all for happiness for themselves and those they love.

Beth Gibbs does a wonderful job blending her explanations of Eastern wisdom traditions with Western beliefs and scientific thought.

Before Enlighten Up! Readers may not have heard of the Upanishads, but Gibbs’s down-to-earth writing style makes it easy to understand and think about the culture and purpose of enlightenment and meditation. For instance, she refutes the idea that practicing enlightenment is to suppress or eliminate emotions and live in everlasting bliss. Gibbs dives deeply into these ideas, such as exploring the distinction between our emotions and our feelings.

Within each section, Gibbs writes about her own journey of enlightening up and how it is about, “feeling, being, and acting authentically.” From Enlighten Up! readers will learn how to feel 100% authentic and comfortable in their skin by working through the layers of awareness, aided by the offer of breathing and calming exercises.

Enlighten Up! Finding Clarity Contentment and Resilience in a Complicated World is a must-read for those wanting more peace of mind in their loud and busy lives.

Enlighten Up! by Beth Gibbs won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Mind & Spirit Awards for Spirituality and Enlightenment Non-Fiction.

June 7, 2023
A LONG WAY From CLARE by Robert W. Smith – Historical Fiction, Conspiracy Mystery, Irish-American History

Twenty-four-year-old Conor Dolan had intended to surprise his older brother and catch up after years apart. However, what he finds when he arrives in Chicago will spark a harrowing mystery, in A Long Way from Clare by Robert W. Smith.

Kevin, a beat cop in twentieth-century Chicago’s worst neighborhood, was found six weeks before Conor’s visit, in what the police have dubbed a suicide. However, Conor has his doubts. Each time he asks people about Kevin, he is met with resistance and denial. When Conor speaks with Detective Flynn, the man assigned to Kevin’s case, his suspicions become certainties. Flynn’s bizarre behavior, the minimal effort on the police’s part to investigate, and the men following Conor at every turn convince him to stay in Chicago rather than return to his home in Springfield.

Conor’s determination to find answers to Kevin’s death lead him in a dangerous dance with darkness amidst the shadows of Chicago’s underworld.

He finds an ally in undercover Pinkerton agent Rebecca Fletcher, who has been assigned to find information on a secret Irish society, Clan na Gael. Clan na Gael, a militant organization bent on establishing a united, independent Ireland, is planning the assassination of a visiting British dignitary. And Rebecca has uncovered evidence linking Kevin with them. Now Conor finds himself in the middle of a corrupt city, fighting for justice for poor immigrants and searching for the truth about Kevin’s life. The more he learns about his brother, the less sure he is that he actually wants that truth. At great risk to himself, Conor faces the corruption, where his own destruction is just one misstep away.

A Long Way from Clare revolves around the brotherly love between Kevin and Conor.

The reader sees their relationship through Conor’s memories. Kevin gave up so much to make sure his brother became more than himself. A seven-year-old Conor was once protected from the reality of eviction by Kevin, who strives to make the whole thing seem like a grand adventure even as their mother sends them across the ocean to their uncle. He does this again on the horrifying journey from Ireland to America aboard a cramped, filthy ship. Conor is never fearful because Kevin has given him strength and assurance that all will be well as long as they are together.

As a young adult, Kevin joins the army and later the police force to provide Conor with an education. He made certain Conor became a lawyer while Kevin himself walked the beat of the worst section of Chicago. Conor truly begins to understand Kevin’s sacrifice as he investigates Kevin’s death. However, he also finds a duality in the brother he loved and respected. He’s uncertain and confused when he learns of Kevin’s secretive life, struggling to reconcile this with his kind and caring brother.

Chicago itself becomes an integral part of the novel. The massive government corruption in the early twentieth century defines Conor’s story just as much as the other characters.

Conor’s fledgling law office cannot survive without the consent of precinct bosses, their “heelers,” and the coppers patrolling the ward. Everyone from the local priest to the court clerk has their hands in the coffers. Stuck in the capital of debauchery, Conor cannot fathom how his caring brother has spent most of his adult life working in the ward. The smog, the filth, and the human depravity overwhelm Conor’s upright values. Though he feels the pressure to break laws to benefit his “protectors,” Conor refuses.

The plight of immigrants, especially the Irish, becomes foremost in Conor’s mind since the city itself seems to devour these poor masses.

In his search for answers, he encounters so many people – women in particular – who’ve been abused and used, crushed beneath the feet of men seeking their own freedom from those at the top. They hurt those beneath them because they themselves are being hurt, going so far as to kill their own children rather than allow the city to consume them piece by piece. This dark and horrifying picture of the Windy City is the one that Conor must face.

A Long Way from Clare skillfully entwines the bonds of family, the underbelly of a corrupt city, and the resilience of those who struggle for justice. Robert W. Smith’s storytelling plunges readers into early twentieth-century Chicago to deliver a riveting narrative where the truth is irresistible.

June 5, 2023
THE GREATEST MATCHMAKER In SPACE: Eudora Space Kid Book 4 by David Horn – Picture Books, Sci-fi, Children’s Adventure Books

David Horn’s Eudora Space Kid series continues with another fabulous middle-grade Sci-fi novel, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space.

Horn takes us back to the decks of the Athena, an AstroLiner and the flagship for the Astrofleet of the planetary Republic. The intrepid Eudora is ready to fly into another adventure, this time as a matchmaker for Captain Jax.

Eudora loves math and science, and even though she’s only in third grade, she dreams of becoming a chief engineer on an AstroLiner. But, she would settle for Captain if that’s what they offered her. When she visits Cafeteria 1 for dessert, she finds Captain Jax, who, per usual, yells, “Get off my bridge.” He’s used to kicking Eudora off the bridge while he’s working, but he must be deeply distracted to confuse it with the cafeteria.

She notices his sad eyes and dejected manner and asks what’s wrong. To her surprise, he invites her to sit with him, and she excitedly realizes the Captain of the Athena is going to confide in her.

He’s been thinking about Miss Allison, Eudora’s teacher. She’s shocked because she loves being in Miss Allison’s class. Does Captain Jax want to fire her?

In fact, he says that he’d like to go on a date with Miss Allison. In her relief, Eudora agrees to help, claiming romance as her specialty alongside engineering. Even though Eudora’s a math and science genius, she’s seen her mother reading all sorts of romance books, so she suggests a double date. Now all Eudora has to do is talk yet another person into going. Easy, right?

This book becomes laugh-out-loud funny as Eudora realizes she’s in over her head.

Can she get Miss Allison to agree? And what about her own date, Arnold? Captain Jax is counting on her, and she can’t let him down because he could help her get into the Astro University. But when she runs into a love triangle between Captain Jax, Miss Allison, and the MedBay officer, how will she untangle the mess?

Find out in David Horn’s latest installment aboard the Athena, The Greatest Matchmaker in Space. Readers will love Eudora’s antics as she marches boldly into the romance department on the AstroLiner. This book flies high with five stars.

June 1, 2023
DAWGS: A True Story of Lost Animals and the Kids who Rescued Them by Diane Trull & Meredith Wargo – Memoirs, Animal Rescue, Animal & Pet Care

We love our dogs. We love our cats. But what do we do when people no longer want them, use them for cruel purposes, or release them into the streets with no thought for what will happen to them? Diane Trull’s memoir with Meredith Wargo, DAWGS, shines a light on these questions.

Trull begins the story as a fourth-grade teacher in Dalhart, Texas. One of her young students asks about an article in a local paper showing photos of adorable dogs at a shelter who were up for adoption, wondering what happened to those who weren’t adopted.

Instead of dodging the question, and with great trepidation, she answered it with the truth: those who weren’t adopted would be put to sleep. Her tiny students were understandably shocked. Then one of them said, “I don’t want any of those dogs to die. Isn’t there something we can do to save them?”

That simple question, asked by a child in a classroom in 2003, started a profound adventure in the lives of Diane and her husband, Mark, and her students.

Together, they started a private dog shelter, working with a reluctant animal control officer and an even more reluctant city council to take in as many pets as possible, feed them, groom them, and bring many back to health until, hopefully, someone would adopt them.

This was no simple task. For most of us, taking care of one or two animals in our homes is enough. How can someone take care of hundreds? Without government funding, and with a workforce of only two adults and a small group of nine-to-ten-year-old children, the struggles started to pile up. The noise of barking dogs brought constant complaints, the food and medical attention cost too much, and the sheer effort to take care of these animals in the harsh weather of the Texas Panhandle overwhelmed the volunteer school children even with help from other concerned citizens.

The development of the shelter is in itself a remarkable story. But even more profound is its effect on the children who volunteered for months, or even years.

The shelter had a strict code of ethics regarding those young volunteers including full permission of their parents, and a required balance between school and their work at DAWGS. Its motto, then and now is, ”Making a difference, one animal at a time, one child at a time, one day at a time.”

Students who participated learned life lessons of responsibility, compassion, and dedication that helped shape them as people. Some of these fourth graders are still involved with the shelter after nearly 20 years.

Many dogs have their stories told in this book. Tales of abandoned, damaged pets who were nursed back to health at the shelter and subsequently adopted. Also told are the stories of the many companies and individuals whose key donations and hands-on work have made this shelter work.

A heartwarming story? Yes. But equally important is the hard work and grit that ensured the success of this shelter. Highly recommended.

DAWGS by Diane Trull won Grand Prize in the 2021 CIBA Hearten Awards for Uplifting & Inspiring Non-Fiction.

May 29, 2023
MIGUELITO’S CONFESSION by Miguel A. De La Torre – Historical Fiction, Cultural Heritage Fiction, Latin Literature

Miguelito’s Confession by Miguel A. De La Torre shows the resonate struggle of escaping the generational cycle of poverty and injustice.

Human nature is a product of circumstance, interwoven with the impact of one generation on the next. Sometimes history teaches people lessons of pain, cruelty, and inhumanity. How can someone rise above the disadvantages they’re raised in, the pressures that hold them hostage from their own goals and wishes? Especially at risk are the innocent children caught in the midst of a maniacal battle within the corrupt powers of society. Can an illegal immigrant find success and happiness despite the brutalities of life? And what is the personal cost of pursuing justice?

Manuel de la Cruz is dying, and he is alone.

At the end of his life, he suffers from dementia, a mixed blessing that releases him from the violent slice of history he had fully participated in. It allows him to forget the cruelty and violence he inflicted as part of the police force during the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Even the times that followed are lost to him, all he did to escape from the consequences of his actions by escaping to the U.S.

Yet suddenly, in his final moments, Manuel is granted the ability to think clearly again, a sign that justice is possible. As Manuel leaves this world, he is haunted by what his life has been, his impact upon others and his family, and especially the psychological inheritance he leaves his son Miguelito.

Now, this is Miguelito’s story, and he takes a difficult journey.

As a young boy, his family lived in the slums of New York. It’s a filthy, dangerous place to grow up, and its threats are magnified many times over for an illegal immigrant boy who is despised for being Latino. The author is masterful in his portrayal of this revolting setting.

Miguelito seeks out ways to survive his painful world. He learns from others who dwell in the corners of humanity, minorities who are punished for not being what the majorities require. Playing the social games forced upon him, Miguelito discovers some peace, persistence, and answers through his secretive worship of African gods. It’s an unexpected friend who introduces him to this path, helping him weather the turmoil that his mere existence incites around him.

Author and Professor Miguel A. De La Torre lifts conventional history out of a single point of view. Miguelito’s Confession brings to life the complex past settings, and the lessons revealed both sting and inspire.

This is history shown without glorification. Readers will be engaged by the author’s ability to mold multi-dimensional characters with complex motives. The backdrop slice of life is described artfully within a foundation built by preceding generations. Vivid pictures of human interaction drive the present and shape the future, holding the reader in a thought-provoking trance.

Empathy for the characters pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the story, in pursuit of hope. Will they uncover the hidden answer to what can make life worth living, and what can finally bring justice?

May 19, 2023
SAVONNE, NOT VONNY by Robin Lee Lovelace – Southern Literature, Myths & Legends, 1960’s

Robin Lee Lovelace evokes a world in which the mystical intertwines with the everyday in Savonne, Not Vonny, a coming-of-age story set in rural Louisiana.

Nine-year-old Savonne lives in a small room at the back of Mama Gwen’s whorehouse, in Indianapolis in the ’60s. Her mama is one of the working girls, and her father is Mama Gwen’s own son. Savonne’s daddy dotes on her, and Mama Gwen loves Savonne like the daughter she never had; the two of them together make a loving home for Savonne, in the midst of their raucous brothel.

By contrast, Savonne’s birth mother rarely pays her any mind. A “crazy-ass woman” with a temper “as hot as a Mississippi afternoon,” Coco is not at all opposed to beating the bejesus out of someone. In a fury one night, she does something that cannot be undone, and in her headlong flight out of town, she takes Savonne with her.

And so it is that Savonne is forced from the only home she’s ever known and left in the care of her mysterious and reclusive great-grandfather, Pompey.

With Pompey, Savonne enters another world, one of casual acquaintance with hoodoo and root work, a world where Papa Legba guards the crossroads and serves as an intermediary between the human and the spirit world, a world where an enemy might cast a subtle spell or command the serpents, or shapeshift into another form himself. However, as long as Pompey is there to guard her, Savonne is safe. She takes after her great-grandfather, and he recognizes that she too has the gift, the ability to conjure, “the natural.”

But the day will come when Savonne is left to face the forces that would undo her, with only Leatha, Pompey’s old black dog all gone now to gray and stiff-boned, by her side. Before her journey home is over, Savonne must outwit an enemy far more powerful than she — and rely on help from the most unlikely of allies.

Robin Lee Lovelace has conjured a world in which the seen and the unseen alike direct our days, in which the divine intermingles with the mundane, with characters so rich and fully realized they fairly leap off the page.

Pick this story up for the delicious experience of diving headlong into a landscape reminiscent of those spun by the finest Southern writers in the American canon.

Readers may find themselves racing through this novella to see how it all comes out for Savonne in the end, and likely wanting more of Savonne and her world (and maybe those allies too) in her full short story collection, A Wild Region, is available now!

Savonne, Not Vonny by Robin Lee Lovelace won Grand Prize in the 2020 CIBA Shorts Awards for Short Stories.

May 17, 2023