Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Contemporary Women’s Literature

  • PAUSE by Sara Stamey – Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Family Fiction, Literary Fiction

    Blue and Gold Somerset First Place Winner Badge for Best in Category

     

    Sara Stamey’s Pause features a hero who defies gravity, a scintillating setting, and a lovely backdrop for this riveting story.

    This story is about women: strong, weak, abused, cherished, divorced, cancer survivors, mothers, sisters, friends, frenemies. It is a book about survival and hope, about getting back to self to reemerge into a life worth living. 

    Meet Lindsey, a fifty-two-year-old divorced woman going through menopause, living alone with her two cats, and worrying about her 1 and ¾ breasts. Readers will be hooked from the very beginning with the first of many poignant and funny journal entries. Here is Lindsey’s reality: a middle-aged woman suffering hot flashes that sear her skin and cause spells of nausea, who suffers PTSD from an abusive spouse. 

    Lindsey never thought of herself as a victim, though.

    The fact that she walked on eggshells around Nick becomes a reflection of Lindsey’s parents’ relationship. Her father’s abuse of the mother and the mother’s frailty combined with her refusal to accept help and get out of the situation leave Lindsey feeling helpless and trigger her PTSD. 

    A certifiable mess, Lindsey seeks out an old flame, Newman. And at least for her, the flame ignites, and Lindsey finds herself falling in love. Newman, however, never opens up to her or becomes more available than a part-time lover. When she meets Damon, she is torn between being treated like a queen by a man ten years younger than her or as a booty-call by Newman. 

    Stamey weaves these issues and more into her novel, giving her protagonist a chance to try on life again after surviving cancer and divorce. 

    Lindsey’s spiritual awakening occurs as she works as a medical transcriber at a local hospital. While typing up a rush job on an emergency case, she discovers that a friend’s son was admitted with head trauma. The doctor who did the neurosurgery regularly botches the surgery, either killing his patients or leaving them vegetables. She informs the parents of her fears about this doctor while launching a full-scale lawsuit against the hospital that knowingly kept this doctor on staff and destroyed their son’s chances for recovery. 

    She gets fired for breach of confidentiality and finds herself unemployed, but her original plan to pursue environmental writing, essays, articles, and books after graduating from college beckons. She finds her first topic while riding through a park slated to become a hospital parking lot. She submits her essay about endangered owls living in the trees there; the piece is published and becomes instrumental in saving the space. The paper’s editor recognizes her talent and approaches her with another project with an environmental theme, and Lindsey agrees. A new career blossoms for her, which builds her up instead of tearing her apart. 

    Stamey develops Lindsey as a woman who won’t succeed until she takes charge and stands up for herself and her dreams. 

    Lindsey must learn to heal and move beyond cancer, the divorce, and the PTSD of the abuse. Readers will adore Lindsey for all of it. Powerfully written with melodic imagery, Stamey draws her readers in. Be prepared to cry, laugh, and cheer for Linsey as she finally takes the leap of faith necessary to begin believing in herself.

    Stamey’s Pacific Northwest backdrop is captured in her skillfully crafted narrative. Readers are with Lindsey on the rapids, riding bikes through a maple forest, or walking beside a salmon-filled stream. We sit with her looking out over the Pacific Ocean at sunset and watching eagles as they hunt along the shore. Stamey’s brush strokes are deft, and her palette is rich as she creates this story’s world.

    Stamey’s Pause is a riveting tale of one woman’s exploration to discover herself in a world where she has been dominated and controlled. She learns to take back control and finds herself whole and healed. 

    Pause is beautiful and thought-provoking and comes highly recommended.  This title won 1st Place in the 2020 CIBA Somerset Book Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction.

     

    Somerset Literary and Contemporary Chanticleer International Book Awards 1st Place Winner oval Gold Foil sticker

      5 Stars! Best Book Chanticleer Book Reviews

       

    • The APPRENTICE by Jana Barkley – Contemporary Women’s Literature, Falconry, Cancer

      The APPRENTICE by Jana Barkley – Contemporary Women’s Literature, Falconry, Cancer

      Forty-three-year-old Sam’s secure life is unraveling. It’s not just that her marriage ended two years ago, or that her job leaves her exhausted, or even that her son has essentially become a food-and-laundry-services-only visitor. It’s the combination of a cryptic phone call from her doctor’s office and the crushing claws of an improperly imprinted raptor that spin Sam down an entirely new adventure as an apprentice in the art of falconry.

      Since an apprentice needs a sponsor, Sam considers friendly Mary Kate or knowledgeable Mike, but unfortunately neither is close enough geographically for it to work. Instead, they suggest the best choice is clearly the mysterious (bordering on surly) Hank Gerard. He has experience raising and flying a wide variety of birds. So with gentle prodding, she and Hank become sponsor and apprentice, and Samantha’s life changes forever. She’s no longer a lonely, harried corporate marketing executive. She’s a falconer in training.

      Unfortunately, she’s a would-be falconer fighting a terminal cancer diagnosis. Sam tries valiantly to keep up with this physically demanding new hobby, but both the disease and the chemotherapy intended to cure it put a strain on her efforts. Readers may find it improbable that someone going through cancer treatment will feel up to full tilt running through a field a few days after chemo. Some patients will, of course, but some won’t. It might pull some readers out of the story if they have had a rough experience themselves or know someone who has.

      Sam’s challenges of learning the art of falconry progress alongside her chemo treatments, and the growing tension between her and her sponsor:  “The next step is a psychological one, too, and probably the biggest. He has to jump from his perch and come toward you in order to get his meal, now. In other words, he’s jumping toward the big scary thing—you.” (p. 119)

      It comes as no surprise that the author is an expert instructor at West Coast Falconry. The company is based in Northern California and offers classes, instruction and public education in the 5000-year-old sport.

      The Apprentice transports the reader to a raw, natural world, one with fields of sweet smelling sage, soaring hawks and diving falcons. The language and beauty of falconry is woven expertly into the narrative, providing the reader a glimpse into a rarified world while providing believable, relatable characters.