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Reviewer's Choice
Songs from Fern's Pond: Composing a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and Joy
Sheryl Pothier Harmer
GFB
www.girlfridayproductions.com
9781959411154, $17.95 Paperback/$26.95 Hardcover/$9.99 eBook
https://www.girlfridayproductions.com/titles/songs-from-ferns-pond
Songs from Fern's Pond: Composing a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and Joy details the life of Sheryl Pothier Harmer's mother Fern, who was born in 1913 in rural Oregon into poverty, but led a rich life filled with laughter, love, and family.
Harmer's mother was an artist, a weaver, and a woman forced to reinvent herself at the age of sixty-one when her long-term husband and love of her life Oscar passed away. She created the world of her dreams both before and after she died, serving as an inspiration first for her close family and now, thankfully, for readers facing their own elder years wondering about the possibilities remaining for building a positive, revised life.
The first question readers might have is: why should a relatively unknown mother's life be of interest? The answer lies in Fern's personality and vibrant attitude, which influenced generations of her family and those whose lives they undoubtedly touched: "My mother inspired me to live fully and optimistically. She taught that every life has obstacles and opportunities to see oneself as either a victim or as a participant in creatively navigating a new path. Using a lifetime of problem-solving skills, sheer grit, and good humor, she learned her way through each new challenge."
Another attraction lies in the makeup of Fern's story, which is not just a collage of connections between mother and daughter, but a dance of relationship- and life-building skills. These are vivid expressions juxtaposing mother and daughter's writings and reflections. Songs from Fern's Pond contains the essence of not just surviving, but thriving. Herein lie the keys to adaptation, positivity, and joy that readers can easily learn from.
Poems and prose add observations of nature and self to this dance. One example lies in the poem "Beauty in the Blight":
Do not look for perfection.
There is beauty in the blight-
badges of resilience;
stories told in scars.
Another powerful example lies in the running thread of memoir that captures Fern's life, filling in details about her emotions and choices: "Something stirred within her -- a longing to embrace the forlorn land; to wrap her arms around it, gather it in, nurture it, and bring life into its dry and neglected soil. Maybe it was a connection to her childhood, or maybe it was the nurse in her with an instinct to care and soothe and heal. Whatever it was, she sensed both a familiarity and a wild calling of new possibilities as she breathed in the clear air and surveyed the landscape."
Libraries can call it a memoir, an artist's journey, a celebration of nature, a learning opportunity that supports ongoing life education, or an uplifting story of adaptation and joy, as they will, as they recommend it to patrons from all walks of life. One thing is evident: Songs from Fern's Pond: Composing a Life with Courage, Gratitude, and Joy provides an uplifting example of how life weaves together circumstances that rest on individuals to interpret as either opportunities or adversity. The clues to "how" lies in Fern's story, which is highly recommended for a wide audience seeking joy and purpose in their own aging lives.
Songs from Fern's Pond also will provoke uplifting discussions of values and resilience among groups ranging from book clubs to psychology circles and those facing their own aging.
The Cookbook Shelf
LEON Big Flavours
Rebecca Seal
Conran
c/o Octopus Publishing
www.octopusbooksusa.com
9781840918267, $26.99
https://www.amazon.com/LEON-Big-Flavours-Cookbook-Salty/dp/1840918268
LEON Big Flavours focuses on recipes which profile salty, sour, spicy or sweet punches. All come wrapped in the signature approach to big flavors which has made the LEON restaurant and brand so appealing. The heart of LEON's manifesto is that fast food can be both zesty and tasty. To this end, busy cooks will simply love the infusion of global flavors and variety that is unique to this LEON production, above all others.
Rebecca Seal introduces 'flavour markers' throughout to help busy readers identify their special interests, while recipes featuring colorful, full-page facing photos invite interest in such dishes as Loaded Miso Soup, Blackened Trout Tacos, or Caramel Pork with Garlicky Greens. The pairing of innovation with flavor makes LEON Big Flavours an outstanding winner among original, creative cookbooks. It's a top recommendation for libraries either seeing popularity with the prior LEON-branded cookbooks, or new to the notion of fast food with a zip of ease and flavor.
Kyle Books
c/o Octopus Publishing
www.octopusbooksusa.com
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Sauces-Flavorful-Recipe-Pairings/dp/1804192902
Secret Sauces: Over 65 Fresh & Flavorful Sauces with Recipe Pairings by Vanessa Seder (9781804192900, $19.99) explores not just sauces, but how they work in recipes, pairing sauce and dish discussions to teach how to choose sauces that involve a minimum of effort for maximum flavor. The book has been reissued to appeal to modern audiences, featuring a host of easily-produced sauces that will especially appeal to busy cooks still interested in home-cooked meals, but looking to add 'healthy' into the mix. Each sauce is adaptable, can be customized or can serve as a variation on a theme, and is accompanied by recipes for a finished dish that works particularly well with the sauce. Some examples are a 'Golden Romesco' Catalonian sauce of peppers, tomatoes, nuts and garlic that goes well with seafood, or a Butternut Curry Cashew Cream that is a rich dip and an easy way to make a sauce from vegetables. Readers used to the plethora of sauce cookbooks on the market will be delighted to find these recipes quite different and utterly appealing. They expand the concept of sauce applications and eliminate the fuss of extensive prep or special ingredients.
https://www.amazon.com/Bento-Lunchbox-Brilliantly-Balanced-Recipes/dp/1804192945
Sara Kiyo Popowa's Bento Lunch Box: Brilliantly Balanced Lunchbox Recipes (9781804192948, $22.99) is a plant-based recipe collection that expands the bento box concept from lunches to include breakfast and dinner options (even though the title says 'lunch'), and comes from the founder of Sisho Delicious. Workers who eat on the job and those who enjoy picnics but utilize vegan ingredients will find many options to the traditional lunch box approach. Attractive, full-page color photos add mouth-watering images of finished dishes such as a No-wrap Summer Roll Bento consisting of watermelon, onion, peanuts and cucumber, or a Savory Banana Bread for breakfast that's made with oats, almonds, bananas, and brown rice miso. The delicious interplay of flavors and options is not to be found in other bento box cookbooks, and is perfect for readers seeking healthier meal packages that can be easily made and packed into small bento boxes.
The Parenting Shelf
Apparently This is What Parenting Feels Like
Sue Dvorak
GFB
www.girlfridayproductions.com
9781964721828, $18.95, PB, 354pp
https://www.girlfridayproductions.com/titles/apparently?rq=This%20is%20What%20Parenting%20Feels%20Like%20
Apparently This is What Parenting Feels Like covers emotional experiences and coping methods from the moment of birth onward. It reveals experiences and management strategies for bringing the new baby home, adapting to a new routine, enjoying a baby's many "firsts," and understanding the pros and cons of baby's first years.
Sue Dvorak focuses on emotional responses as well as shifting situations. This gives her book added value for parents who would understand the influences of various emotions common to the task, which change mightily as their infant grows. A wide range of tools help new parents adjust more quickly to their revised roles.
For example, Diversion Tools are highly recommended to distract toddlers so parents can be on the telephone with fewer worries: "Let's start here: Would you set off on a climbing expedition without preparation? No, you would not. Well, no more should you blithely think you can just "make a phone call" with a toddler or two around. Ha! You must prepare Diversion Tools. Collect three or four odd things, not overtly dangerous, that children do not normally play with.
One must be an old remote control, preferably one that doesn't operate anything. If the remote still has batteries, causing lights to illuminate, or beeping to happen, consider yourself blessed. Young children love things that are clearly made for adults. Toddlers and preschoolers somehow know that the good stuff, the real stuff, is usually black or metallic, shiny, and often sharp, like remotes, real tools, keys, and external hard drives. We insult their nineteen-month-post-utero sensibilities with the condescending, primary-coloured plastic crap made for babies. The baby toys piss them off. They want the good stuff."
This advice is followed by more specific recommendations that give parents a wealth of easy opportunities to both enhance their free time and enrich the very young. From everyday life to the unthinkable (a child's death), Dvorak covers all possibilities and experiences with an eye to enlightening new parents about better ways to embrace life, their revised jobs, and their child.
The blend of emotional support and practical advice exhibited in Apparently This is What Parenting Feels Like is in stark contrast to parenting guides that tend to be dry or idealistic. Perhaps this is because many of the keys to better understanding come from the author's own experience with children and family members, giving the book a rich underlay of reality intrinsic to powerful, better guidance.
Libraries and about-to-be-new parents may have plenty of other childrearing and birth guides on hand - but none will hold the perfect blend of personal experience and enlightening alternative management and childrearing tools profiled in Apparently This is What Parenting Feels Like. This is why Apparently This is What Parenting Feels Like should be read, given to forthcoming parents, and placed high on reading lists and parenting or book club discussion groups -- above all others.
The General Fiction Shelf
Doctor Robert
Bobby Lopez
Independently Published
9781633378803, $14.99 pbk / $9.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Doctor-Robert-Bobby-Lopez/dp/1633378802
Doctor Robert is a wry, satirical consideration of the psychological profession in general and the power and peril of treatment in particular. It opens with a poem detailing the negative effects of therapist Dr. Robert, which segues into a prologue about the good (or bad, as it were) doctor's modus operandi for impacting those he is tasked with helping.
The introduction comes from the memories of first-person narrator Robbie, who reviews his childhood, the trauma of losing his mother, and the dreams of his past that affect his present.
Early in the story, Bobby Lopez introduces the sensitive topic of student suicide: "A few suicides had occurred in the graduating class. But I didn't really know the students. When I heard about their deaths, it was no different than reading an article in a newsfeed about students killing themselves. Death became so omnipresent in my world that it didn't make a difference to me. But for the rest of my classmates, it became a topic of gossip and speculation, a game of guessing which mental illnesses they suffered from. At least, that's what I've gathered from overheard conversations."
Robbie faces growing, not diminishing, angst over so many things in his life that he seems a prime candidate for therapy: "...the events of the day continued to creep into my thoughts, nagging at my mind. It reminded me of the countless times I had been unable to share my true thoughts, of how no one seemed interested in understanding who I truly was or what I believed. I carried the weight of my thoughts alone, putting on a brave face and pretending to be content. But there were moments when the weight became too much, when the cracks in my soul deepened and I felt as though I couldn't go on."
These events and emotions lead Robbie to seek help from the much-acclaimed, renowned Dr. Robert. As he and his doctor explore philosophy, thought processes, new worldviews, and disparate pathways towards healing, Dr. Robert's impact and interactive choices become thoroughly compelling: "You're not a freak. There's nothing inherently wrong with you. When I look at you, I see a reflection of myself. However, you possess certain differences that set you apart from the rest of the population. One must understand their differences to journey through life more smoothly. Then they can fit in, find friends, and find love. It's something anyone would want, but it requires effort and self-reflection. And that's where I come in. I help you reach your full potential, so everyone can see what I see in you."
While general-interest readers looking at coming-of-age stories that touch upon sensitive subjects about life purpose, suicide, and growth and death will relish Doctor Robert, it's the psychological student interested in therapeutic approaches who will especially appreciate this novel's focus.
The characters emerge as realistic and compelling, Robbie's psychological conundrums come to life not only in relation to his experience, but the guidance of Dr. Robert, and the emerging personalities and underlying motivations of a dangerously deceptive doctor add criminal insights and unexpected tension to the journey.
Teachers of psychology seeking fictional explorations of the profession will be especially delighted by the story's progression and insights, which lend to not just attractive leisure reading, but potentially avid reading circle debates.
Libraries that choose Doctor Robert for their collections will find the novel a strong recommendation for a wide audience. Its insights are also strengthened by juxtaposing Dr. Robert's perspective for maximum understanding and contrasts between experiences, ideals, and underlying motivations.
Lopez's deep dive into physician power, nefarious plotting, and counseling's potential for dangerous relationships creates a thoroughly thought-provoking, unexpected scenario readers will find hard to put down as they follow Robbie into the therapist's office and beyond the power of self-examination into dangerous territory.
Highly recommended for its juxtaposition of suspense, coming-of-age experiences, and inviting discourses on life and death, Doctor Robert is a winning page-turner that's hard to neatly categorize and equally difficult to put down.
Mother Mac's Boarding House
Trisha Sugarek
www.writeratplay.com
Independently Published
9798303750487, $12.95
https://www.amazon.com/Mother-Boarding-House-Trisha-Sugarek-ebook/dp/B0D6HZ18H9
Mother Mac's Boarding House is a prequel to Trisha Sugarek's Ain't Nuthin' Gonna Separate Us, and will especially delight readers seeking for more "origin" detail about the Georgia backwoods orphaned siblings.
The story opens with a literal bang: "Martha 'Marty' McBride never would have believed that a man would have gotten past her defenses and knocked her silly." Spunky, determined Marty MacKenzie is planning an escape from her abusive husband Hank, despite the major challenges of money and locating a safe haven. In 1949, there were few resources for women who wanted to flee such circumstances.
As in her previous book, Sugarek is adept at capturing the thoughts and lingo of the South to bring these Mississippi characters to life: "One more meal in this house. One more night with that summa'bitch. Hopefully, this heavy meal will put him to sleep early. Then, tomorrow, if Ah'm lucky and as Mama used to say 'the creek don't rise', Ah'll be gone for good."
When Marty stumbles across an abandoned once-grand house for sale, her new life begins to take shape. Again, Sugarek's talent for capturing atmosphere, dreams, and realities springs to life through descriptions and reflections which impart a "you are here" feel to her story, where Marty: "...didn't see the peeling paint, the knee-high weeds choking the grass out, the broken windows, or the hole in the front porch floor. Oh no, all she saw was her future home, and the home of the boarders she would rent rooms to. The meals Ah will make for the lonely traveler. The vase of wildflowers on Mah kitchen table. Marty's heart skipped a beat as she gazed at the house. She could almost hear the laughter of the boarders, smell the aroma of home-cooked meals, and feel the warmth of a home filled with people and purpose."
How Marty confronts the "old world and its rules" with her own special brand of determination makes for an uplifting, evocative story of transformation that brings the Old South alive. Marty's chance encounter with Hannah Mae and her brother Jerry thus becomes fuller-bodied with the backdrop of events that come full circle for previous readers while welcoming newcomers to the extraordinary coincidences and self-determined life of a woman whose dreams reach out to embrace everyone around her.
Teens, young adults, and many an adult will relish these strong female characters, which expand from Marty's world to embrace the circumstances of Elenora Parks, an Army nurse veteran newly returned from the war who finds a new life as a teacher and a home that offers an unexpected sanctuary for a pregnant, grieving woman. Mother Mac's Boarding House is an exquisite read not only for its realistic Southern setting and characters, but for its uplifting display of female characters whose actions inject positivity and new options into the world around them.
In stark contrast to the "me first" sentiments that seem to permeate modern times, Marty's desire to escape results in a creation that offers safe harbors to others, as well. Additionally, the political and social milieu of the times, which passed many restrictive rules on African Americans, comes to life in the light of personal experience.
This is a far more intimate, compelling manner of absorbing civil rights and American history than any nonfiction text could achieve, immersing readers in the life of Marty's journey. Marty's confrontations with social and personal repressive elements, and how she rises above them to influence others' lives, results in a thoroughly compelling story that is hard to put down.
Libraries choosing Mother Mac's Boarding House will find its impeccable historical research and equally powerful mix of dialogue and atmosphere makes it a top recommendation for book clubs and reading groups interested in women's and African American experiences in the 1950s Deep South. It stands nicely on its own but also serves as an important prequel to the events of Ain't Nuthin' Gonna Separate Us, merging history and social inspection in an uplifting, revealing manner that circles around questions of safety, home, connections, and self-determination.
The Historical Fiction Shelf
The Last Patient
Tudor Alexander
Boyle & Dalton
https://www.boyleanddalton.com
9781633378841, $16.99 Paperback/$7.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Patient-Tudor-Alexander-ebook/dp/B0DWTCMYY1
The Last Patient opens with a 1993 Maryland setting in which wife and mother Clara lays dying, her husband Kostea and son Toddy caring for her in her final hours. The main story embraces Clara and Kostea's past, however, with the first chapter returning to 1950s Bucharest and elsewhere, which is experiencing political turmoil and the raise of the proletariat.
The dangerous environment has been building for a good while, Dr. Kostea Bardu notes, with the contagion of political repression now infecting people they know: "...we are small potatoes, but it doesn't matter. What started at the top extends now to everybody. Simply put, it's terror."
In this past, Clara is nine months pregnant, still working as an intern in the hospital as she awaits their first child. A rap on the door brings more bad news on the cusp of her welcomed first child: "Comrade Bardu, your apartment has been subdivided," the policeman informed Kostea, handing him an authorization with the emblem of the precinct. "These are Comrades Sorin and Marta Ionescu, and their five-year-old son, Radu. Your second bedroom was assigned to them, with access to your kitchen and bathroom."
Kostea paled. Haltingly, Clara had followed him, and he heard her breathing behind him. He turned and pointed at her rounded belly. "There must be a mistake. We need the space. We're expecting a baby."
The policeman shrugged. "I'm merely executing an order. You know there is an acute housing shortage after the war. All of us make sacrifices."
By now it should be evident that Tudor Alexander pays close attention to the juxtaposition of personal and political climate, bringing characters to life that are experiencing the blows of decisions they no longer make for themselves, which are imposed upon them from above. Their assertive, demanding new "roommates" introduce further adversity and struggle to the young couples' lives, illustrating the divide that comes from Communist activists who are as passionate about their patriotic purpose as they are about their newfound rights under this repressive regime.
As Alexander unfolds this couple's shifting world, uncertainty, changes, unreliable happinesses, and affairs emerge that further impact their lives and perspectives about relationships, faithfulness, and life under the hand of Ceau escu. Readers receive thought-provoking, realistic insights about this period of time and how people not only survived, but sometimes flourished (albeit in unpredictable ways) as they raised families, faced the usual concerns of aging and change, and forged new pathways of discovery and life against a political backdrop that was anything but kind.
As the decades unfold, shifting viewpoints between Clara and Kostea reinforce differences in ethics, values, and experience that inject intriguing, thought-provoking reflections for readers: "At the trailhead, the driver turned his truck around. "Happy trekking," he said. "And enjoy the time with your son."
The path led uphill through the forest. The air was velvety and fragrant, the light borrowing a green hue from the trees. Kostea walked ahead. As the incline increased, so did the distance between him and Clara."
From Toddy's emigration and profuse letter-writing over a five-year period to Clara and Kostea's dangerous decision to escape the culture and place they have long called home, Alexander weaves social, political, and personal struggle in a compelling manner.
Readers may think they'll need prior familiarity with the politics and regime of the times -- but they do not. The backdrop and history are intricately referred to and woven into a story that proves deeply compelling even to those who may know little Eastern European history or culture.
Libraries that choose The Last Patient for their collections will find it worthy of book club and reading group recommendation for its outstanding blend of personal and political reflection. Given modern times and questions about survival, fascism, freedom, and life trajectory, The Last Patient is especially relevant, important reading that should be chosen and discussed by any thinking readers interested in past precedent, history, and future possibilities.
The LGBTQ Fiction Shelf
War and Preservation
Karen Lynne Klink
She Writes Press
https://shewritespress.com
9781647428662, $17.99 Paperback/$12.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/War-Preservation-Book-Texian-Trilogy/dp/1647428661
Historical fiction readers interested in Civil War events will especially appreciate the continuation of the Texian Trilogy in Book Two of the series, War and Preservation.
Here, the war evolves on two fronts: through the battles of Adrien Villere as he fights with Terry's Texas Rangers and at home, where his family faces additional hardship and struggle. At the heart of these events is a forbidden love that influences all involved. This adds a LGBTQ+ component to the times that rarely is explored in Civil War historical fiction.
As in her previous book, Karen Lynne Klink builds a sense of realism through disparate characters that harbor their own special interests and reasons for fighting. These influences emerges in the opening lines of the novel, set in 1861 Houston where Ethan's choices are backed by secrets: "If a fellow asked Ethan Childs how a man from Louisiana ended up in Terry's Texas Rangers, he said it was because he lost his Houston enterprise in a card game. Truth: his partner caught him in an indiscretion that meant he must sell his partnership in the saloon and leave town. "Indiscretion" my great-aunt's fanny -- he mentally kicked himself in the behind. He had let desire overcome caution."
Influences which are different from idealism or politics, that could also lead to battle, thus emerge from the start. These broadening Klink's character development, encouraging readers to examine their own beliefs about how and why individuals may choose to become involved in greater issues than their singular lives. The story's forbidden love component creates a solid foundation of interests and experiences of the 1800s which lends to both realistic action and settings and insights that juxtapose personal objectives with battlefield experience.
As Adrien Denys Villere and other characters reconsider their options for the future in an increasingly dangerous world, Klink creates the kinds of connections, self-discoveries, and military encounters that encourage readers to think about and debate various Civil War preconceptions.
Families, from plantation owners to those with Creole and abolitionist backgrounds, also bring diversity to the issues which arise as war progresses. This comes from both traditional sources and personal relationships as Ethan one day discovers that the past year's limitations, trials, and his repressed gay longings can no longer be ignored.
Tasteful love scenes entwine with bigger-picture thinking about the war's ultimate impact: "This war. I figure caring for a person is not the worst thing a man can do." With uncommon love comes a frightening vulnerability which leads Adrian and Ethan to ponder their futures, both together and apart. Klink draws close connections with every breath of change that her story takes.
Libraries looking to enhance their LGBTQ+ fiction holdings with historical fiction that embraces Civil War times will find War and Preservation a powerful recommendation.
Readers seeking Civil War or LGBTQ+ fiction that sizzles with not just combat action, but interpersonal moments of discovery and transformation, will find War and Preservation satisfyingly hard to predict. It's packed with insights suitable for reading group discussion and individual contemplation alike. Klink takes the time to weave together disparate lives that face hard choices in the name of love, community, and self-acceptance, doing so in a completely riveting read.
The Mystery/Suspense Shelf
Mayhem on Mulberry Book Two: Fall of an Empire
Vincent deFilippo
ViennaRose Publishing
9781960299574, $19.99 Paperback/$7.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Mayhem-Mulberry-Empire-Vincent-deFilippo/dp/1960299573
Mayhem on Mulberry Book Two: Fall of an Empire returns to the milieu so engrossingly begun in the first Mulberry book, Rise of the East. The continuation is just as thoroughly detailed and captivating as the original work, even though lovers and gang family members Enzo and Jen appear to be at the end of their lives.
The prologue opens with Deputies Johnson and Fitzsimmons, who have found a faceless body on New York's streets that seems to be the missing Jen Mo-Li. Li's notoriety as a Chinese gang leader and a busy human trafficker made her public enemy number one. Her love Enrico Corrozzio lies close by, killed execution-style. The officers consider the possibilities... which include the thought that the headless lady might not be Li.
At this point, it should be noted that the dialogue between the officers is reflective of the gruff, streetwise, underlying prejudice harbored by some white men in authority. It's deliberately delivered in a candid form that some readers might chafe at. However, the talk works tightly (even if there is a shock value involved), creating believable characters that represent New York's various personalities in the early 1990s: "What the fuck is that all about, Joe? Jesus Christ, if this horseshit doesn't put the Chinks and the Goombahs at loggerheads, I don't know what would. What in Christ's name was that fucking goombah doing there in the "frst place?" He cocked a thumb at Rico's corpse."
Racism, prejudice, and lingo that reflect these beliefs are thus unusually straightforward and candid. These reflects the overall atmosphere in a story that continues a heavy march into gang operations, urban psychology and social struggles, and the aching impact of gang leadership. After the prologue, fast forward to 2020 for some surprising revelations. What seems cut and dried in the introduction proves to be anything but set in stone as an identity change is blown by an inquisitive, arrogant brother who is undeterred by the carefully constructed cover story.
A myriad of new characters emerges from these entwined gang relationships. Two are gang leader Nicky DeCarlo and Julia, who would do anything to remain part of the Sun family. She is charged with fulfilling her family duties and obligations by drawing close to him and, thus, closer to the family's target -- Enzo DeCarlo.
Nicky and Julia become the story's focus as the pawns in another dangerous game between the vying empires. Issues of boundaries and control, both personally and politically, emerge as Nicky and Julia become engaged not only with one another, but in ventures that reflect and sometimes defy their family's ideals: "Julia's mind snapped to her own kin, and just what Mother or Big D would say if they ever caught her daring to step out beyond the family's tight borders."
Readers who may know relatively little about gang activities need have no prior knowledge of these or New York in order to appreciate the disparate, complex avenues of competition, success, and death the gang members employ in the course of turf wars and special interests. deFilippo creates fine tension through a combination of dialogue, believable characters that confront their own shifting values and goals, Chinese and Italian families that clash both on the streets and sometimes in the bedroom, and more.
The tension is fine-tuned to provide edge-of-your-seat thriller reading as shifts in focus send different gang forces in novel directions. Libraries seeking crime thrillers with excellent characterization, ethnic contrasts between gangs, and vivid scenes that draw readers into unpredictable twists and turns will find Mayhem on Mulberry Book Two: Fall of an Empire a winner.
The story begins with Enzo and Jen, expands their story and worlds into those of Nickey, Julia, Danny, and other characters who are powerfully developed, and ultimately delivers a one-two punch of revelation and shock. Fall of an Empire delves into the mechanics of creating revised lives and confronting the full impact of family expectation and connection. What's not to love?
The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf
Ferren and the Invaders of Heaven
Richard Harland
www.richardharland.au
IFWG Publishing International
https://ifwgpublishing.com
c/o Independent Publishers Group
https://www.ipgbook.com
9781925956900, $17.99 Paperback/$5.99 eBook
https://www.amazon.com/Ferren-Invaders-Heaven-Trilogy/dp/1925956903
Ferren and the Invaders of Heaven, Book Three in the Ferren Trilogy, completes a captivating fantasy adventure and begins with the end -- the Apocalypse is coming. It's not just hell on earth, either. The earth residents have built a tower to heaven and an army to invade it, creating a dangerous new commander whose knowledge supersedes even that of heaven's angels.
Ferren and his fellow Residual tribesmen, some of the last original humans left (in contrast to the artificial Humens who have replaced them), have a difficult decision to make. Should they journey up to heaven to fight alongside the angels who have become part of their lives, or should they focus on the divisions in their own group? Either choice comes with dire consequences that will reset the stage whether Ferren and his band become hunters or prey.
As in his two other Ferren stories, Richard Harland builds upon the foundations of events that shape not just Ferren, but the entire world. Newcomers will find the introduction, "The Story So Far..." presents a fine overview of the past, but ideally this audience will have read the prior books to recognize the deep flavors and influences that have placed Ferren and others at this crossroads in life.
Such readers will especially appreciate and smoothly intersect with the ongoing dilemmas of Humens, Residuals, and angels as the final battle tests all involved. Various elements vie, here, including the paradoxical Zonda, who saved Ferren's life in a previous adventure, then betrayed him. All these characters hold vivid special interests which bring to the table disparate and intriguingly thought-provoking perspectives about the future and their roles.
Ambitions and ideals don't just reside with the life-seasoned characters surrounding Ferren. Newer, younger participants also express their (perhaps naive) hopes for the future: "Then they talked about the forthcoming meeting, for which Ferren had high hopes but no definite plans. Kiet was confident that the representatives and People had come round to the young Nesters' way of thinking.
"Everything's going to change!" she declared. "You'll see!" Fast-paced action revolving around battles, sabotage teams, the powerful Stone of Wrath that emerges during confrontation to possibly lead Zonda and her team to victory, and efforts born of desperation and courage contribute to a fast-paced plot that holds no easily predictable outcome.
While the Ferren series as a whole is written with young adults in mind, Ferren and the Invaders of Heaven is featured in this general fantasy section so that adults won't miss its alluring strengths. Libraries and readers seeking fantasies that sizzle with action while remaining true to deeper-level thinking about what the real prize is in a world-altering apocalyptic situation will find Ferren and the Invaders of Heaven a compelling choice -- especially for those familiar with the prior Ferren adventures.
The conclusion that rests on happiness, home, and unexpected newborns and reunions ultimately crafts an uplifting, thoroughly compelling saga that will please readers seeking full-bodied, vibrant fantasy series titles.
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI 53575-1129
phone: 1-608-835-7937
e-mail: mbr@execpc.com
e-mail: mwbookrevw@aol.com
www.midwestbookreview.com
Diane C. Donovan, Editor & Senior Reviewer
12424 Mill Street, Petaluma, CA 94952
phone: 1-707-795-4629
e-mail: donovan@sonic.net
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