Tag: book review

Book review (extra post for spooky season!): The Hidden Secrets of NOLA by: Laura Daleo, Rhonda Bobbitt, Fern Miller, Preston Allen, and Savanna Loy

This is a wonderfully spirited collection of short stories that highlight different aspects of New Orleans and the different populations which are drawn to the city’s mysteries. Each story is a tribute each author’s imagination. I received an ARC and am so glad I did!

My Name is Death by Laura Daleo
What does Death do on a vacation? In this supernatural story, he visits his favorite places in New Orleans—a city known for its joie de vivre—and encounters a young soul who needs the help and understanding only Death can provide. Annalise, a 17-year-old girl who has been sick her whole life escapes the hospital from where she is staying and searches out life’s experiences that she has been unable to take part in up to this point. Death’s and Annalise’s serious conversations and interactions are imaginatively woven with the more vivacious aspects of modern-day New Orleans.

The Ghost of Toulouse Street by Rhonda Bobbitt
As Rose’s 25th birthday arrives, she has the feeling that she is being watched. Rose reaches out to her sister Lydia and tries to convince her that she has seen the same man in various places throughout the city. Lydia remains dubious while Rose explains the strange happenings that have occurred at her work and other locales. Merrick has his own mystery to solve and a curse to vanquish and believes he has found the answer with Rose. Rose, Merrick, and the supporting cast of intriguing characters weave in and around 1969 New Orleans in this paranormal thriller.

Bidding Up Knox by Fern Miller
This page turner of a second-chance romance takes place in modern-day New Orleans and showcases Kara and Knox. Kara’s caring personality drives her to work for a non-profit organization, and Knox’s father presses him to work in the family industry and to make as much money as possible. Kara and Knox once had a budding romance that left Kara with more questions than answers. When they meet again at an auction that Kara’s organization puts together, Kara wonders if she’ll ever receive the answers that have eluded her for years. Will Kara and Knox be able to reconcile their obvious differences to try again at love? Or will the same issues drive them apart once again? Read along as the descriptions of love and the hustle-and-bustle of New Orleans keep you reading.

Crossed at the Cafe by Preston Allen
Modeste’s life is one of intrigue, voodoo, and witchcraft. She is a voodoo priestess who helps her father with the family store. While ordering a coffee in an unassuming cafe, she has a chance encounter with someone who will greatly influence her life. Modeste, her father, and a family friend try to unravel the mystery of the woman from the cafe, and the readers are taken on an adventure that lends itself well to the magical-realism setting. The characters leap off the page and entwine the reader in a wonderful description of the magical side of New Orleans.

Borrowed Bayou by Savanna Loy
Estelle’s story is one that traces back throughout the ages and evolutions of New Orleans. This sci-fi romance tells of a cursed family who runs a cafe and airboat tour business in the bayou country. Estelle and her close-knit family have sacrificed to ensure the safety of New Orleans over the course of 100 years. Their sacrifices have been many, and each family member has grown weary of their role. One day, handsome Thiago walks into the cafe and catches Estelle’s eye, heart, and soul. But how will Thiago react when the terrible secrets that the Dupont family have managed to keep hidden away all this time are revealed? This story is full of rich descriptions and engaging characters that have the reader engrossed until the very end.

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Book review: Exposed: Nevertheless She Persisted by Alicia Curry

4 out of 5 stars

Mother. Educator. Counselor. Daughter. Sister. Aunt. Friend. Coworker. All of these help define Alicia Curry. But they do not tell her complete story. While she is one or more of these to each person in her life, the most important description in Exposed: Nevertheless She Persisted is survivor. Curry bravely tells her story of enduring workplace harassment and toxic workplace behavior and the years it took to fight back against a system that protects the abuser.

Curry starts the memoir describing the toll the loss of two of her brothers and other family members had begun to take on her. What Curry does well throughout is describe how not only one aspect of self is affected by loss, but many if not all are affected. The loss of Curry’s brothers affected her as a sister, daughter, aunt, friend, mother, etc. Grief affects even someone who can compartmentalize most things and move on with their plans.

Curry carefully planned what career path she wanted to take and how it would take her to an administrative position within the school district. She worked hard for her career to provide for her daughter, to help serve the student population, to be a supportive family member. Then Curry starts receiving abusive behavior from someone she once trusted and from multiple people who would shape the course of her career.

Exposed is more than a simple retelling of a fight against an abuser, the systems that protected him (in multiple states), and the compounded affect it has on someone who was already fighting to find new routines after familial loss. Curry draws in the reader with her beautiful descriptions of the people who supported her throughout and with the description of her faith journey. Exposed is a story of strength and inspiration.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Olawu by P.J. Leigh

5 out of 5 stars

Olawu by P.J. Leigh is a powerful story of growth, bravery, courage, love, and healing in pre-colonial Africa. This historical fiction follows titular character Olawu’s life as she travels through three cities: Kanakam, where girls and women are not allowed to learn to read or write or trade at the square; Borimbe, where girls and women are allowed a little more freedom to wander about within the city and are allowed to learn to read and write, but are not allowed to leave the city without a male escort without fear of being beaten; and Oloko Ekhaya, where women and men are treated as equals in every way.

As Olawu travels through these three cities, we are also introduced to two tribes: the Dikebe and the Oloko. Olawu’s experiences and discoveries as a healer help educate her and those around her throughout her interactions with both tribes. We follow as Olawu works to better her understanding of what healing can truly mean in every sense of the word as she navigates a time of war, hardship, and hatred.

For all those who ask, “Can one person really make a change in the world around them?”, this novel delivers a resounding yes. Leigh takes us on a journey of emotions through her descriptive language and fantastic character development. This inspirational novel should be a part of recommended reading for young adults and adults alike.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Mystery of L’Inconnu by Dan Grylles

4 out of 5 stars

Mystery and crime readers who have wished for a return to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle style novels, you have caught a lucky break. Mystery of L’Inconnu by Dan Grylles is a well-researched, well-developed novel about tragedy on the high seas and how Lt. Detective Remington Ferguson and his team attempt to unravel the mysteries surrounding the ill-fated cruise.

From Grylles’ introduction of characters (you must include the yacht as one of those characters) to his character and setting developments, the reader will be reminded of the intelligent writing of the aforementioned staple crime writers. Grylles adds his own touch of technological panache that brings the mystery and crime genre into the 21st century.

L’Inconnu is a luxury yacht from the Royal Knight Cruise Line, which caters to the very wealthy who might like to purchase their own luxury yacht. The esteemed guests are invited to enjoy a five-day trip showcasing the possible life aboard a yacht that leaves its passengers wanting for nothing. Each crew member is selected by Royal Knight Cruise Line for their singular expertise to enhance the passengers’ experiences from cuisine to marine life to social excursions.

Throughout the four parts of the novel (The Discovery, The Deception, The Detection, and The Disclosure), the reader learns about what it takes to run and maintain a yacht such as L’Inconnu as secrets about its crew and its guests are unraveled. Nothing is what it seems as what starts off as a sales pitch for a beautiful yacht turns into a nightmarish fight for survival for all involved. The guests and crew start turning against one another, and what is left for Lt. Detective Remy to figure out once the yacht is discovered will take all the expertise of his crime scene team and help from the US Coast Guard.

While a lengthy read, the story is intriguing enough to keep your attention and wanting for a little more at the end. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Stories of a Harlem Resident by Javier Sarmiento Jr.

4 out of 5 stars

Stories of a Harlem Resident by Javier Sarmiento Jr. is a short yet powerful collection of poetry that gives us a look at everyday life in Harlem through the lens of poetic and descriptive language. The author uses his poetry to show his inspirational vision of making the world a better place, making his community stronger, and helping the world to understand a viewpoint they may not have seen before.

Sarmiento Jr.’s vision and passion for social justice shine throughout, especially with “Journeyman” and “The Blue Men.” He teaches us how to be kind, to listen to one another, and to make better informed choices, all while giving us descriptive snapshots of the struggles he has experienced.

I would have loved to see a few more poems further illustrating his vision of what helping one another looks like for him. His eagerness to impact the world is palpable, and I can’t wait to see what this author has in store for his readers. His gift of perception and description will continue to develop and aid his unique poetic voice.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Death Date: Book One of the Rageblight Duology by B.Y. Simpson

4 out of 5 stars

Death Date by B.Y. Simpson is a rapid-fire page turner of a YA dystopian novel. The character and world development are intricate and lend to a fascinating story. I received an ARC, and pretty soon, you’ll be able to order it for yourself and dive in.

Nova James is brought up in a world where you receive your death date on your 18th birthday. Any of your previous actions up until that birthday can have an adverse or positive effect on the date’s proximity. As Nova’s 18th birthday approaches, the structured world she’s known and strived to understand her whole life changes, and chaos ensues. The novel follows Nova’s dangerous journey to find answers against all odds. Along the way, she suffers loss, makes new allies, explores her world, and finds that she is much stronger than she ever imagined.

What would you do to try to save the world if you only had some of the answers, and having those answers wasn’t always the blessing you thought it would be? Would you push forward or accept your fate? Death Date shows us the heroine’s struggle as she deals with just those questions. Death Date ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the reader itching to know how the rest of Nova’s journey will continue.

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Book review: The Soul Collector by Laura Daleo

I read this supernatural mystery within 24 hours. The intricate storytelling in the Soul Collector drew me in and, in all honesty, I didn’t want it to let me go.

Johnathan Bayfield is a boxer who is beaten down in a match. Arielle Robbins is a rich socialite who drunkenly falls off her family’s boat. They both lapse into comas and end up at the same hospital. As they each have out-of-body experiences, they meet Drara the Soul Collector. She promises both Johnathan and Arielle protection over their earthly bodies as they heal in exchange for their signatures in her book of souls. Neither Arielle nor Johnathan seem to have other opportunities, so they willingly sign and wait for the next chapter of their lives to start.

While their earthly bodies heal in the hospital, their spirits meet, share adventures, discuss their predicaments, try to solve the mystery presented to them, and eventually fall in love. The hospital doctors are unaware of their patients’ spiritual meeting and attempt at mystery solving. The doctors do not know why Johnathan and Arielle are healing rapidly but only to a certain point. Johnathan and Arielle visit their bodies in the hospital and discover the partial healing. Did the sinister-looking Drara mislead them into thinking they would be fine after a while? Does Drara have evil intentions for their souls? Will they ever be able to reunite with their bodies?

For a short novel, 168 pages, the author packs a lot of action, intrigue, and love into the storyline. She weaves in supporting characters who advance the story and help to solve the mysteries surrounding Drara and her collection of souls. One of best features of this novel is the character development. There are quite a few relatable human moments for a supernatural story, and you can tell the author took care in shaping what makes the characters tick.

I would love to see this developed into a longer novel with a little more energy spent on scenery development and how it works with the story. There are some editorial mistakes throughout, but they did not distract me from the unique storyline and character descriptions.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5394899974

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Book review: A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri Rawson

What would you do if you had an awkward FBI agent come to your apartment and deliver the news that the man who helped raise you and shape your general world views is really a serial killer? Kerri Rawson answers this question throughout this memoir when she is faced with the news that her father is BTK. It’s a complicated path laced with trauma, depression, repression, and ultimately confronting her PTSD. Rawson is helped on this journey with her faith journey and the love that she is shown throughout and that she gives to others. Overcoming such a realization is not an easy switch to say goodbye to everything she has ever known. Loss is complicated and can come in many forms.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It is about a daughter’s journey aligning the father she knew with the man who committed terrible crimes, as well as her journey in processing the information that was given to her throughout the years. I imagine she is still encountering new information that she has to weave into her family’s history.

There are negative reviews complaining that this is a book that focuses too much on Rawson’s faith journey with Christianity. Faith not only is part of the title, but it seems to be a large part of how Rawson finds her way through the depression, trauma, and PTSD that she deals with throughout her life. She reinforces the up-and-down battle that is her faith journey by repeating details or biblical quotes that are important to her. Very few faith journeys are linear without hills and valleys, and Rawson’s is no different.

Equally mentioned in the title are Love and Overcoming. Rawson shares different aspects of love: familial and marital, as well as her love of animals and nature. All of these add to her healing during different stages of self-discovery and I would argue, overcoming. Some of my favorite passages are her descriptions of hiking trails in the Grand Canyon with a cousin and her father, her brother later joining the hiking party. These details help frame the duality of her father’s personality and how others reacted to him.

If you are looking for an in-depth description of the grisly murders of BTK or a psychological analysis of why he committed these crimes, this is not the book for you. And as a memoir, it doesn’t fit into nice and neat chapters that make it easy reading. The content is raw and is presented as such. This book is part of Rawson’s healing journey, helping her weave the details of a man she did not know existed within her father into the history of her family and her life. It would not have been the same book if it had been neatly edited and meticulously trimmed. The reason I give it three stars is that it is a solid book that does exactly what the title describes. I didn’t pick this book to read because I expected award-winning prose that leads to enthusiastic epiphanies. I picked this book because we don’t often hear the side of the story of a serial killer’s family and all they lose to the actions of someone they once held dear. It is an interesting viewpoint, and I thank Kerri Rawson for sharing her part of the story.

And that leaves me to a final point. There are times when Rawson questions the harm it does to her family, especially in the chapter “175 Years is a Long Time.” Some reviewers have taken that to mean that she is self-centered or not caring about the loved ones of the murdered. She does state that the prosecution asked the victims’ families’ permission to present all of the details of the crimes at the sentencing, but the prosecution doesn’t ask BTK’s family’s permission. However, later on the same page, she states “In hindsight, I understand why the prosecution—the detectives—did what they did.” Rawson realizes that her discomfort does not compare with what the victims and their families went through. A few pages later she says “After he murdered, he should have turned himself in to the police. He should have been in jail the past thirty-one years. People should still be alive. But my brother and I wouldn’t be. I was okay with that—I’d trade my life for theirs.” And that is a powerful statement in the midst of a tumultuous journey.

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Book review: Raspberry Danish Murder by Hannah Swensen


I picked this book as a nostalgic read since my grandmother and I would read and discuss the early books of this series together. Granted, I could have gone in order of the last book that I read, but this one was on sale and thought it would be a pleasant read to pass some time in December.

Halfway through chapter 2 I was questioning that I had chosen the correct series because other than the baking and names of the characters, this book resembled very little of the books that I remembered. It seems that there are many more recipes and that the thoughts and actions of each character are overexplained as if the reader could not infer what was going on by simple context of the storyline. I remembered enjoying the at times quite witty writing in the earlier books. This novel lacked all wit and whimsy. It seemed that whoever wrote this (some reviewers are guessing ghost writers), enjoyed the experience even less than the readers who have been with Joanne Fluke since the beginning of the series.

As an avid reader, I very rarely have to convince myself to continue with a book. However, I wanted to know what happened so I dredged along. I finally finished the book today wondering why I wasted my time. The ending was not satisfying enough to justify reading all of the book. As my grandmother might have said, “It wasn’t worth the calories.”
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Book review: Origin by Dan Brown

“Well, science and religion are not competitors, they’re two different languages trying to tell the same story. There’s room in this world for both.”

“Origin” is the fifth book in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown and follows Robert Langdon around the Basque region and other areas of Spain as he industriously tries to solve one mystery after another. This installation of the Robert Langdon series deals with big-picture questions in relation to technology, evolution, and religion: where do we come from and where are we going?

At the start of “Origin,” one of Langdon’s former students, Edmond Kirsch, invites him to an elegant event with a presentation that is geared toward answering these questions. Kirsch, who is an atheist, has made a discovery that he believes will change the course of mankind. Before the presentation is able to proceed, the night erupts in chaos. Thus begins the Langdon chase for codes, clues, and answers, this time with the director of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and princess-to-be, Ambra Vidal, as his cohort. For a large portion of the novel, Robert and Ambra race across the beautiful city of Barcelona and through the colorful and intricate architecture of Gaudí as they try to stay ahead of their pursuers. Meanwhile, Spain’s Guardia Real and the royal palace are trying to figure out how the king, his loyal friend Bishop Valdespino, and the prince might be implicated in the problems arising from Kirsch’s failed presentation.

Brown gives us his usual lessons in history, art, literature, religion, and architecture; however, this time he includes a lesson in technology past and present. “Origin” did not flow as well as the first three books of the series did. This novel seemed disjointed at times and appeared more like a whodunit rather than an complexly woven plot. At times the lessons felt heavy-handed and not always in sync with the quick rhythm of the action throughout. The stop-and-go effect this produces is a bit unsettling and provides the reader with a bit of a bumpy ride.

Flaws aside, “Origin” is an enjoyable read. It was good to read about Langdon’s adventures and near-death experiences.

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