Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Chanticleer 5 Star Book Review

PULSE and PREJUDICE: The Confessions of Mr. Darcy, Vampire by Colette L. Saucier – Mashup Fiction, Historical Romance, Classic Adaptation

As a wealthy member of the landed gentry, Fitzwilliam Darcy has obligations in Colette Saucier’s mashup, Pulse and Prejudice: The Confessions of Mr. Darcy, Vampire.

Darcy must secure a suitable match for his younger sister, maintain his cool facade of indifference, and live as quietly as possible. He refuses to consider marriage for himself due to his unusual “affliction.” Forced to live a shell of his former existence for the past six years, Darcy relies on his valet, Rivens, for his every need. He shuns most company because Darcy is a vampire. So, when his close friend, Charles Bingley, insists that Darcy accompany him to a country ball, Darcy is loath to accept. When Bingley meets and is immediately captivated with Jane Bennet, Darcy suspects the Bennets are fortune seekers, interested only in finding wealthy matches for the five Bennet daughters, including the fiery Elizabeth, Jane’s sister.

As Bingley spends more time with Jane, Darcy is thrown together with Elizabeth and begins to see something extraordinary in the headstrong girl, so much so that he fears his growing hunger goes beyond mere admiration. When Darcy feels his control beginning to slip, he knows he must distance himself from Elizabeth, but he soon learns nothing, not even distance, can diminish the strength of his need.

Based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this novel is a fantastic adaptation which most Austen fans will love.

It has the cozy familiarity of the classic with an unexpected twist, creating something that feels as comfy as your favorite jeans but is sexy as a little black dress. In this retelling, the author explores the same time-tested love story as the original but from Darcy’s perspective, which in and of itself is truly interesting; however, add the fact that he is a vampire, and the story explodes in a fresh, new way while seamlessly aligning with the original. Even the vocabulary and sentence structure of the novel matches that of Austen, making the story seem like the perfect companion.

Darcy’s tortured psyche is the star of this novel.

Ironically, this dynamic character experiences a dramatic change that makes him much more human – although he is not – than in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. As the plot follows that of the original, the reader can see and feel his growth from a man of extreme pretension, a man spoiled by his parents into believing himself above most of society. Though he must maintain this belief for decorum and the safety of others, he is also a lonely man who misses that human part of himself that he has suppressed.

In the beginning, Darcy doesn’t realize how miserable he is nor how much he hates himself, but the more time spent with Elizabeth, the more he sees the “pinnacle of [his] self-loathing.” Having pretended indifference for so long, Darcy now feels unworthy of Elizabeth’s love or forgiveness for the many slights he gives her and her family. Darcy also wonders which part of him, the vampire, or the bit of humanity to which he clings, that Elizabeth excites. His yearning for her goes beyond anything he experienced as a man and drives his vampire nature insane. He cannot stay away from her, nor does he desire it. He wants her body and blood, but he mostly wants to be worthy of her love. In short, she brings him back to life and makes him feel, maybe for the first time. He is the perfect tortured, dark hero, and romance lovers will not be disappointed.

Pride and Prejudice: The Confessions of Mr. Darcy, Vampire won 1st Place in the CIBA – Chatelaine Book Awards for Romance.

August 30, 2021
The CORPSE WORE STILETTOS by MJ O’Neill – Cozy Mystery, Women Sleuths, Amateur Sleuths

The Corpse Wore Stilettos by MJ O’Neill brings down the house in a most delightful way.

Four months ago, Kat Water’s life fell apart. Her father, a prominent insurance broker, was arrested on racketeering charges, accused of laundering money for the mob. A successful museum curator in Boston, Kat immediately dropped everything to return to St. Louis, leaving her fiance and career behind. With all of their possessions seized and their bank accounts frozen, Kat’s mother, Lauren, and her grandmother, Theodora, are left poverty-stricken. Kat, with her family name now dragged through the mud by the media, can only find a job in the county morgue. With her minor in biology and her detail-oriented personality, she finds her work most rewarding.

When tasked with processing the body of a believed prostitute, it’s all business as usual.

But the deceased girl doesn’t bear the typical signs of her profession. Then a gun-toting bad guy steals the body before Kat begins her task. Oops. Now, once again, Kat’s family steps in as fodder for the rumor mill, and everyone believes the body must be connected to her father, his crimes, and the mob. Kat determines to find the body, solve the mystery of the girl’s identity, and clear her family name. She grudgingly teams up with the distractingly attractive ex-military special forces turned security firm owner, Burns McPhee. As they chase the mystery – and the body – all over St. Louis, the two realize the girl’s death is part of a much larger, much more dangerous plot.

This novel’s character line-up shines!

With one misfit eccentric after another, they all seem to work seamlessly to create a memorably fun read. From shoe-obsessed drag queens to heroic strippers, this novel definitely delivers on character development. Grand, Kat’s grandmother Theodora, sparkles. The borderline “geriatric Nancy Drew” is a hoot! Often the feisty troublemaker, Grand cannot help but instigate – or fan the flames – in any bad situation. If she isn’t “shopping” in their police-patrolled, off-limits former home, she’s running around in kitschy visors (one for all occasions) and making revenge scrapbooks on ways she’ll get even with her long-time nemesis.

Another example of character craftsmanship is DC, Kat’s best friend and co-worker. He is, perhaps, the most interesting of all the supporting characters. With his fashion savvy and his cat therapist, DC has a flair for the dramatic. As Kat’s figurative and literal sidekick, he is in the middle of all the action. When he turns superhero – complete with costume – Kat engineers a complicated rescue scheme to get him away from what he believes are Russian mobsters. Kat’s other co-workers won’t disappoint either with super-timid Henry, gothic Meg, Marshall the perv, and Sam the tattooed, motorcycle-riding, aspiring chef.

Armed with outstanding fashion sense, a minor in biology from Harvard, and uncanny random facts that she spouts whenever nervous, Kat Waters is an absolutely unique and memorable character herself.

Her entire life, Kat’s been pampered and made to feel special. Her life was exactly on the expected trajectory: great job, correct fiancé, and numerous pairs of expensive shoes. She never dreamed she’d be literally penniless and working in a morgue to keep Grand and her mother off the streets, and though her mother doesn’t really respect Kat’s work with the dead, Kat learns the importance of her job in a way she never expected. She discovers that she is much more than a two-time Miss Missouri winner in the best makeup category, and certainly not the mob princess the media like to portray her as.

Kat’s a woman who refuses to abandon those she loves and one who willingly gives up her own dreams to keep together the family she has remaining. After the girl’s body disappears on her watch, she transitions that attitude into her need to find Jane Doe. While initially her amateur investigation stems from her suspension and punishment at work, her search evolves into a quest for justice for a string of prostitutes similarly murdered by a serial killer six months prior. Kat refuses to let these women remain victims of a faceless killer; their stories must be told regardless of the risk. She won’t let flirty reporters, sinfully handsome ex-army guys, or psycho stalkers get in her way, and she’ll do it while looking fabulous!

From the county morgue to a dominatrix kink house posing as a barbershop turned therapist’s office, this novel is one crazy adventure after another! Mystery lovers will not be disappointed. The Corpse Wore Stilettos won 1st Place in the CIBA 2019 M&M Awards for Cozy and Not So Cozy Mystery novels.

August 27, 2021
The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife: The Origins of Sherlock Holmes, World’s Greatest Consulting Detective (The Early Case Files of Sherlock Holmes, Case One) by Liese Sherwood-Fabre – International Mystery & Crime, Mothers & Children Fiction, Private Investigator Mysteries

The game is afoot! It’s years before Sherlock Holmes’ ponderings from 221B Baker Street. Sherlock is a teenager when challenged to solve his first case, The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife by Liese Sherwood-Fabre.

The stakes are among the highest. Sherlock’s beloved mother is the accused killer when he and his infamous brother Mycroft are summoned home from their boarding schools. The family reunites to a single purpose. They must prove Violette Holmes’s innocence. They soon discover that proving her innocence will not be enough to restore her standing in the court of public opinion. They can only clear her name by also finding the actual killer. That investigation involves a dangerous pursuit that requires detailed observation, logic, and action. Young Sherlock Holmes will also need to watch his back.

The adventure begins with a brief glimpse into Sherlock’s school days.

It’s an illuminating peek into his growing personality. As the men of the family come together, nerves fray with their mother and wife jailed. Sherlock’s Uncle Ernest is also anxious to help free his sister. Ernest and Sherlock visit Violette in jail, and together the three of them create a plan they hope will bring her home. If successful, they may catch the killer, an endeavor that may be an even more significant threat to them all. The determined Holmes family will need all the help they can get along the way. The killer is watching their every move.

During his analysis of the case, Sherlock encounters a most intriguing teenage girl who has perfected the execution of the enviable skill of sleight of hand.

Her name is Constance, and she is the most talented pickpocket he’s ever met. A handy tool to have on your team if you can, but there’s more about this girl that attracts Sherlock. He wants to strike up a friendship. Is this the start of young love, a first crush? Of course, there are complications. If Sherlock can save his mother from conviction and the gallows, then someone very close to Constance risks becoming the main suspect in the murder of the unfortunate midwife.

Author Liese Sherwood-Fabre paints a lively, historical setting that draws the reader immediately into a curiosity about the social conventions and people of the story.

Crafted to perfection, the Sherwood-Fabre offers several suspects and a crime scene clever enough to engage the reader at every step of the investigation. The investigation takes unexpected twists and turns that will keep a reader guessing until the end. The most outstanding achievement is the author’s skill in creating her characters, including one of the most famous mystery characters of all time. She paints the most credible portrait of him in his youth. The characters’ motivations and family dynamics are revealed in due time, throughout the adventure, with some surprises. Situational and character humor delights as they race to solve the mystery. And so, the adventure begins.

The Adventure of the Murdered Midwife by Liese Sherwood-Fabre won 1st Place in the CIBA 2019 M&M Awards for Cozy and Not so Cozy Mystery novels.

August 26, 2021
ANTONIUS: Son of Rome (The Antonius Trilogy Book 1) by Brook Allen – Ancient Roman Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction

Antonius: Son of Rome by Brook Allen focuses on one of history’s most vexing and perplexing figures, Marc Antony. It is also inevitably a prism on modern American politics, with its characters behaving duplicitously, greedily, and ignobly while spinning up service to the greater good.

Historians often cite Antony as a controversial figure whose accomplishments and flaws have been noted by his enemies. Yet, he is as compelling as Richard III or Richard Nixon, with gaps in the accounts of his life that create grounds for curiosity and speculation as to how he became the pivotal figure in western history that he is. Allen weaves a wonderfully realistic and organic story of how a boy grows up desperate and bitter in a disgraced patrician family yet desperately transmutes mistake and tragedy into military achievement.

Marcus Antonius was the eldest of three male children of his namesake father, Marcus Antonius, and Julia Antonia. Of noble birth in Republican Rome, the novel begins as eleven-year-old Marcus learns of his father’s fatal illness, a man who had failed in his duty to govern overseas provinces. His actions as provincial governor – extorting gold from those he should protect, then failing to commit suicide as a Roman general should when such disgrace is discovered – angered the Senate and left his widow and orphans to bear his dishonor.

Young Antonius vows to restore honor to the family name.

He commits to instruction in military practices and interacts with a cast of relatives and characters who aid him and provide additional problems with their political intrigues. His distant cousin, Gaius Julius Caesar, gifts him with a slave who becomes trainer and friend. But young Antonius also acquiesces to baser pursuits, becoming involved, with two other young Roman men of noble birth, in a brothel and gaming club where he indulges copiously. He begins to accrue gambling debts, which lead him to desperation as his moneylender demands repayment that the family’s modest wealth cannot meet. Roman proprieties and political savagery come together as his mother remarries. A plot to rebel against the Republican order includes his new stepfather, whom Antonius has come to esteem, and one of his brothel compatriots. The plot’s failure leads to his stepfather’s death and additional contempt for his family. Even his own joy sows horror; he frees and marries a family slave, only for her to be murdered by his usurious moneylender. Despondent and concerned for the others in his family, he is convinced by his cousin, Caesar, to study abroad in Greece, where his fortunes change.

Allen makes historical Rome real.

She brings to life areas readers might be familiar with, but she also takes us into the homes and less-pleasant places in mid-first-century BC Rome. From murder dungeons to strolls along the Palatine, receiving guests at a family Domus, and the daily interactions of Roman nobles and plebians and slaves, the perspective of young Antonius provides insight to a time two millennia distant and yet of human behavior not much different. As familiar names like Cicero and Caesar and Ptolemy plot and scheme and inveigle for personal glory with the lives of people they disregard in the balance, it’s difficult not to transfer young Antonius’s learning experience into our own era where the covetousness remains pervasive. The backstabbing is only slightly less literal.

Indeed, the novel’s strength lies not in the admirable accuracy of its descriptions and accounts but in Allen’s ability to place the reader directly in the head of her hero. Perhaps it’s difficult to think of a man who drinks, fornicates, and wagers excessively as a hero – but Marcus Antonius relies on honor in most instances, including when it may be to his detriment. As readers share his journey from the Domus Antonii to Alexandria, many will come to understand his philosophy and may be swayed.

Steeped in history, but more than fiction, Antonius: Son of Rome ultimately invites readers to visit another place and time.

Allen presents a flawed but sympathetic character to an enigmatic two-dimensional historical figure that will appeal equally to those already inclined to Roman history and those who might be just as inclined to the modern singer. Antonius: Son of Rome took home 1st Place in the CIBA 2020 Chaucer Awards for Early Historical Fiction.

August 18, 2021
SAVORING the OLDE WAYS SERIES: Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, Book One by Carole Bumpus – French Cooking with Food and Wine, Culinary Memoir and Biographies, Culinary Travel

The retired family therapist turned travel writer and culinary memoirist, Carole Bumpus shares the delicious first book in her new series, Savoring the Olde Ways: Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table.

In this first book, Carole takes readers on an intimate food tour of the Champagne, Alsace, Lorraine, and Paris regions of France. After being introduced by a mutual friend, Carole builds a special friendship with Josiane and her mother. Wanting to understand what brings and keeps European families glued together through generations of happiness and hardship, Bumpus begins by interviewing Josiane’s mother. Hearing about traditions passed down and the challenges of cooking during the war, the plan for a culinary tour of France is born among the women. Unfortunately, after travel delays out of their control, Josiane’s mother passes away before they can make the trip. Determined to make a dream trip a reality, Carole and Josiane set off to start a journey of a lifetime in honor of the woman who inspired it all.

Savoring the Olde Ways: Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table, takes readers along on an intimate view into the culinary lives of the people in Northeastern France.

Mouth-watering descriptions of food and heartwarming traditions tempt readers through every chapter, where history has had a powerful impact on both. Culture does not stop at borders. Bumpus encounters recipes from Italy and French recipes influenced by German cuisine. Following World War II, people from surrounding countries came to France in search of work and brought their traditional recipes with them. The Alsace and Lorraine regions of France went back and forth as being part of France and Germany. Carole and Josiane spend an evening with three generations of a family that experienced this flux of their nationality over the course of a century. Family and tradition helped to keep families strong during troublesome times in history.

The French have a reputation for being rude, but Carole finds everyone she meets to be nothing but warm and inviting.

Residents eagerly share their recipes, memories, and traditions with the visitors. Josiane brings Carole to the regions she and her family grew up in, and they take part in the long tradition of Sunday family dinner. Traditions like this may seem less common in modern culture, but still, very important to the families who keep it alive. The importance and similarity of the family traditions that Bumpus encounters show that we all aren’t that different.

Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table won 1st Place in the 2019 CIBAs – Instruction & Insight Awards.

Full of the warmth of family, mouthwatering food, and the importance of history, readers will relish this tome of culinary arts and a good home-cooked meal. The journey continues in Searching for Family and Traditions at the French Table: Book Two and Bumpus’s Italian adventure in September to Remember: Searching for Culinary Pleasures at the Italian Table.

August 9, 2021
DANGEROUS ALLIANCE Randall Krzak – Political Thriller, Action/Adventure, Thriller/Suspense

Dangerous Alliance, the second volume in Randall Krzak’s Bedlam counterterrorism thriller series, takes the team to the Middle East to disrupt an unholy alliance between North Korea and Somali pirates to hijack oil tankers in exchange for weapons.

Talk about a thriller ripped from the headlines!

Once again, in severe straits because of the maniacal rule of its dictatorship, North Korea finds itself running out of oil. It turns to its “friends” throughout the world—Russia, China, and Iran—but it finds that those friendships have limitations. Shipping oil to North Korea is one. Desperate for answers, the country’s Dear Leader turns to one of its own, an ambassador, and threatens him with the decimation of his family unless he comes up with an answer. Pushed to the limit, the ambassador comes up with a wild but plausible scheme: hire Somali pirates to snatch oil tankers sailing from the Red Sea through the treacherous Gulf of Aden. The ships get repainted, their transponders turned off, and countries friendly to North Korea allow the purloined oil to reach its final destination.

As world events demonstrate, stopping the Somalians is no easy task. But an international intelligence group headquartered in London, calling itself Bedlam, plans to dispatch members of its elite, multinational strike force to the Middle East to fight the pirates and restore order to that part of the world. Neither Bedlam nor the North Koreans know each other’s plans add to the certain knowledge that the two forces will clash in a major confrontation.

That’s one of the threads in this multilayered fully engaging novel, the second in the Bedlam series of thriller novels.

Two other stories run parallel to the North Korean oil hijacking. One involves Soo, the North Korean ambassador, his aide Kim, and their attempts to stay alive by fulfilling the Dear Leader’s wishes knowing that they face certain death if they fail to do his bidding. And the North Korean leader doesn’t help things, changing the nature of the offer to the Somalian pirates at the last moment and ultimately cheating the pirates when and if they actually receive the promised weapons.

The other story follows the Somali pirates as they plan and execute their schemes to secure the tankers. Part of their plan involves creating bloody diversions to keep police forces engaged in fighting acts of local terrorism and focusing less on the pirates’ activities in the waters off East Africa. Their diversionary attack on the Somalian capital of Mogadishu is fierce, well-executed, and gripping reading as the pirates race from site to site, blowing up key structures in the city to keep police attention on terrorism, not on piracy on the high seas. Things, however, do not go smoothly. Diversions go tragically wrong, leading a few to suspect a traitor among them.

The theme of “Who can you trust?” hangs heavily over the actions of the North Koreans, the Somalis, and the forces of Bedlam itself. A few significant characters turn out not to be who readers think they are—don’t even try to guess who they are—and the twists add an extra layer to the tension of this well-crafted novel.

Krzak’s unique knowledge of this world shines throughout this book. The missions undertaken by both good and bad guys feel authentic; the locations feel real, the political and social conditions reflect the author’s obvious understanding of these worlds. The story doesn’t rely on distractions such as one single character to follow; i.e., no James Bond, no George Smiley, or a love affair, a hot-blooded night between the sheets to offset the action. Dangerous Alliance relies on solid storytelling with events so plausibly terrifying that readers may not be able to sleep – for weeks.

If you like your action hot, if you enjoy thrillers with some relationship to the real world, if you enjoy well-written complex stories with some good twists and turns, Dangerous Alliance deserves a place on your reading list. This title won 1st Place in the 2018 CIBAs, Global Thrillers Awards.

August 6, 2021
B is for BAYLEE by Kay M. Bates – Middle-Grade Fiction, Middle Grade Blindness Books, Middle-Grade Adventure Books

Kay M. Bates delivers an inspiring middle-grade reader focusing on a young girl who suffers a severe injury that takes her life in a new and surprising direction in B is for Baylee. Along the way, she faces opposition, ridicule, and challenges. Still, she discovers the importance of determination and the actual value of friendship and acceptance when life throws you an unexpected curve.

Twelve-year-old Baylee Harker plays first base in a Stoutland city league softball game when an errant ball strikes her. The unfortunate incident sets in motion a series of events that take her on a physical and emotional roller coaster ride of dealing with sudden vision loss and its life-changing repercussions. Between the hospital, emergency surgery, and subsequent visits with eye specialists who offer little hope for improvement, Baylee’s diagnosis: legally blind. Though she can see illumination and washed-out color with her right eye, she lacks visual acuity. The left eye offers fuzzy vision with black splotches across her visual field. Soon she’s wondering, “Will I be like this the rest of my life?”

At home, Baylee is a typical “tween,” but her blindness compounds frustrations. Bates presents loving, though sometimes over-protective parents and close-knit siblings who help Baylee adjust to the situation. Bates smartly delivers Baylee’s mix of emotions and allows readers to feel it all: angst, fear, and exhilaration. Baylee’s disappointed at the closing of a favorite taco eatery; she’s concerned about descending a staircase on her own, and her anger at the disastrous results in attempting to make mac & cheese drives the story forward. But it’s joining a family sledding excursion that revives her exhilaration for the outdoors.

Returning to school may be fun.

A return to school and the world-at-large soon has Baylee realizing the frailties of human nature. Comments from a hair-flipping, so-called friend Margaux like, “Poor thing” and “… just faking it,” or a tense but ultimately humorous encounter with a parking lot bully emphasize the lack of knowledge and often little respect towards physically challenged individuals. In counterpoint, encouraging comments from a teacher suggest that Baylee’s injury might lead to other opportunities. “Keep your chin up, stay tough,” prove well-meaning words with an advantageous edge. With the help of a compassionate braille instructor and classmate, a mentoring track coach, and newfound friends, Baylee learns to navigate both life’s literal and figurative hurdles as she works to regain the parts of her identity she lost along with her eyesight.

The story is heavy on conversational dialogue, which seems appropriately reflective of the subject matter. With limited vision, Baylee must adapt to a world where sound is now at the forefront of her life. Here a moment of sitting against an amplifier proves a stress reliever. She even turns her reliance on audio/verbal cues into a game by matching the voice of a person.

Bates drew on her own experience to write a story that focuses on the main character’s loss of sight. Bates herself once dealt with severe vision impairment due to rare complications occurring after eye surgery. She now has full vision.

While visually impaired individuals must face their unique journey, this book offers particular insight and perspective for those newly coping with such a sudden life change, as well as those around them. Triumphantly ”B” is for Baylee reflects not only the harsh realities of a blindness diagnosis, but it positively showcases the opportunity for hope and winning achievement.

”B” is for Baylee placed semi-finalist in the CIBA 2019 Gertrude Warner Awards for Middle-Grade Fiction.

July 30, 2021
EUDORA SPACE KID: The Great Engine Room Takeover – Book 1 by David Horn – Science & Math Adventure Children’s Books, Action/Adventure Books, Sci-fi Series Children’s Books

Young readers with a penchant for math, science, and engineering are sure to fall in love with David Horn’s new Eudora Space Kid series. With the premiere story of The Great Engine Room Takeover, readers meet a precocious third-grader and her mad-cap adventures in outer space.

Eudora Jenkins lives aboard a multi-level Astroliner called the Athena and hopes to be its chief engineer someday. The Athena is the flagship of the Astrofleet, a science and defense force for the Planetary Republic, which comprises twenty planets working together to make the galaxy a better place for all living things. Early on, we learn that aliens adopted both Eudora and her older sister Molly. Their new Mom resembles a beautiful gray wolf from the dog-like species of the planet Pox, and their father, Max, looks like an octopus and hails from planet Pow.

Through an imaginative first-person narrative, this “most awesome girl” draws us into her space domain.

Looking for more than a typical childhood existence aboard this flying craft, Eudora’s latest desire is to figure out how to increase the speed of the Athena. After hacking into the spaceship’s PA system, Eudora’s enticing birthday party announcement works as a ploy to empty the engine room. Here she applies her formulas and makes adjustments at the computer terminal in an attempt to break the Astroliner’s speed record.

In Eudora’s funtastic, futuristic world, we meet all types of innovative technology and fabulous new friends.

For example, her pet drago named Bologna appears as a cross between a bunny and a dragon. Young readers will discover electropad devices that hold all the students’ books, notes, and work – and hear tales of exploding pumpkins that wreak havoc on a fuel storage chamber. Not only is this a book that fits in well with the STEM programs now in many educational curriculums, but the story quickly touches on an array of themes, from sibling rivalry and family variations to lessons about learning from our mistakes.

Laced with humor, Eudora comments to her audience, “And you thought your parents were weird!”

An opening illustration by Talitha Shipman sets the stage with a spaceship flying amidst a star-studded galaxy.

Readers will see lion and octopus-headed creatures and a being with Spock-like pointed ears. Details in the artwork throughout the book capture the extreme facial expressions of these spacecraft residents. Eudora’s gleeful look while destroying an asteroid at the push of a button changes to a disgruntled frown when the captain reprimands her. The final pages offer a creative word search puzzle, and the audience also learns that more cosmic adventures with Eudora are on the way.

Eudora Space Kid: The Great Engine Room Takeover will indeed win an audience among inquisitive, inventive-minded youngsters who like to push boundaries and reach for the stars.

July 29, 2021
SEVEN APRILS (American Civil War Brides Book 1) by Eileen Charbonneau – U.S. Military Romance, American Civil War Brides, Historical Romance

Disguised gender identities, warfare, and thwarted romance all play a role in this many-layered novel, Seven Aprils, by award-winning fiction author Eileen Charbonneau.

When Tess Barton, a hardscrabble farm girl, saves the life of a man attacked by a panther, she and he little realize how fated this encounter will prove. Ryder Cole, the man she saved, moves on, pursuing a medical career just as the United States seems destined for war. Intrepid Tess will move on, too, when she learns that her widower father sells her in matrimony to an old, brutish shopkeeper. A wise crone cuts Tess’s hair and garbs her in men’s attire. Reborn as Tom Boyde, who will soon, strangely, meet up with Ryder and become one of his “men,” conscripted into Lincoln’s armies. Tess/Tom shows promise as a medical assistant with some undeniable cooking skills, and together with two other conscripts, they make the team in the Union’s army hospital units.

Things change again for Tess when she and the others visit a brothel in Washington, DC.

The madam spies a young woman in Tess/Tom right away. She dresses and perfumes Tess and sends her to Ryder. As for Ryder, he’s not stopped fantasizing about the huntress “Diana,” who saved him from the panther. As this strange link develops, Tom helps Ryder write to his “sister” Tess since Ryder has feelings – for Tom – that can only be assuaged by the hope of meeting the young man’s female twin someday. Meanwhile, their sexual affair blooms. Diana/Tess will meet Ryder only in darkness, though, and Tom/Tess serves mysteriously as their go-between. When the war ends, Ryder, assuming Tom to have been killed, feels compelled to seek out Tess, who has meanwhile met the Underground Railroad founder, Harriet Tubman, and has more than one surprise for her former lover and comrade-in-arms.

Seven Aprils feels a lot like the mistaken identities and disguises found in a romping romantic Shakespeare comedy.

The plot, undeniably complicated, appears in seven phases – beginning in 1860 with Tess and Ryder’s first encounter and concluding in 1866. When done with subterfuge, the two can finally see each other in complete honesty. The novel abounds with what is clearly the author’s deep commitment to historical fact. Many women disguised their physic to serve in the war. The scenes of army medical care, savage as it had to be under the harrowing circumstances, are founded on real accounts. And the background of noted battles and locations is drawn from the annals of recorded history.

If the tale seems a bit too fanciful, how could Ryder not see that Tom was a female at some point in their mixing? Held together by the reader’s own wish to have it so, readers have a chance to sit back and enjoy the show. So long as Tess/Tom can sustain her/his deception, there will be a gripping war chronicle and a sensual love story on the boil. And in the end, Charbonneau deftly ties up all the threads, leaving an opening (this being Book 1) for more such dramas to play out in the future. Seven Aprils took home the CIBA Laramie Grand Prize for the Best Western Romance novel in 2019.

July 23, 2021
SHAPING PUBLIC OPINION: How Real Advocacy Journalism™ Should be Practiced by Janice Ellis, Ph.D. – Media and Internet Politics, Political Advocacy, Human Rights

Janice S. Ellis, Ph.D., introduces the journalistic theories of Walter Lippmann in her new non-fiction work, Shaping Public Opinion: How Real Advocacy Journalism™ Should be Practiced.

Walter Lippmann, considered one of the foremost journalists in the field over the last 100 years, was a mentor in absentia of Dr. Ellis in the art of advocacy journalism. During Lippmann’s 40+ year career, his columns were syndicated in over 250 newspapers nationwide and over 25 other international news and information outlets. Lippman focused on the ethical dissemination of information, especially about communities, society, and the world. A theory, which Dr. Ellis calls Real Advocacy Journalism™.

Real Advocacy Journalism™ theory pertains to foundational behavior and ethical standing for those who report on, translate, and share information with the masses. This theory identifies the tension between individualism and collectivism, the private sector and public sector, the ruling elite, and the dormant masses.

Real Advocacy Journalism™ eschews demagoguery and tribalism for a belief that reason, logic, facts, truth, and clear graphic language are the most effective instrument of public persuasion.

Remarkably well researched, Dr. Ellis shows throughout the book how Lippmann identified challenges to factual sharing of information and how he spoke to the importance of choosing words wisely.

Three tasks every journalist must consider in the pursuit of Real Advocacy Journalism, 1—separate words and their meanings in order to disentangle complex ideas, 2.-be effective at creating a visual picture to explain the words and concepts used, and, 3.-have a good understanding of the traits and characteristics of the target audience.

Lippmann knew the impossible task of considering everything that the typical listener may utilize in their life as a filter of information. As the audience grows, the number of common words and references diminishes. The information becomes more abstract, lacking a distinct character of its own. This phenomenon leaves the general audience to interpret the message as they see fit, not necessarily equal to the original information. Age, race, gender, social standing, mood, and “his place on the board in any game of life he is playing” inform how information is understood. The journalist must set the highest goal to clarify, evaluate and draw conclusions for readers and listeners too preoccupied or too removed from the actual events to judge clearly for themselves.

The problem occurs when the constant feed of partial information is based on opinion and not wholly on facts.

Information in its most proper form may be perceived as dull and uninteresting. To gain viewers, “opinion news” sources have become increasingly personal and deliberately dramatic to stop the viewer from tuning out or turning the channel. Not having the time, energy, or understanding to draw their conclusions, the listener accepts this partial information as truth.

Ellis cites Robert O. Anthony as saying, “The secret to Lippman’s ability to reach such a wide audience lay in his expert understanding of the information, his reasonableness of temper, his complete honest and profound attachment to the principles of liberty.”

Lippman’s “survivors,” Kennedy, Schlesinger, and others claim Lippman taught them how to think.

He perfected a rare ability to impose verbal order on chaos. Even when wrong, corrected, or later expanded on, the goal was not to be the only voice but to be like “the village light post.” Ellis’ book exposes the dangers of “opinion news” and how very counterproductive “celebrity journalism” truly is, as it puts profits and popularity (ratings) over actual truth.

Ellis encourages readers to research and discover the meaning of the words being used to grasp the whole picture of what any news source presents. Shaping Public Opinion: How Real Advocacy Journalism™ Should Be Practiced won Grand Prize in the 2019 CIBAs, Nellie Bly Awards for Longform Journalism.

July 19, 2021