Rosepoint Publishing

Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan #BookReview #WitchandWizardMysteries #NetGalley

Book Blurb:

Following her powerful debut in The Witch’s Orchard, private investigator Annie Gore returns in Brimstone Hollow, bringing readers back to the mountains that author Archer Sullivan, a ninth-generation Appalachian, knows so well.

There isn’t much that happens in the Appalachian Mountains that Private Investigator Annie Gore hasn’t seen. Before she was an Air Force Special Investigator, she was born and raised in those rolling hills, and lately Annie’s cases have called her away from her Louisville office and closer to the small towns of her youth than she ever anticipated. But when her newest client asks if she’s ever been to a snake-handling church, Annie knows she’s about to enter unknown territory.

Katie May has been estranged from her father—one of Appalachia’s last infamous snake handling preachers—for twenty years. But when Katie finds out he’s been fatally bitten, and a funeral was held within twenty-four hours, she questions whether someone deliberately rushed the process. Despite Annie’s doubts, she takes the case. After all, when she looks at Katie, she sees a version of herself: a girl who needs to understand her father in order to understand herself.

As she navigates the hidden hollers and dangerous secrets of this insular Eastern Kentucky town, Annie works fast, hoping to find the truth in record time for her client—and before too many memories from her own childhood surface. But it soon becomes apparent that someone wants Annie’s investigation to stop—by any means necessary.

His Review:

Annie Gore has been a police officer and investigator but is now on her own in private business. A distraught girl has been estranged from her father for over 20 years but needs to get in touch with him. She hires Annie to investigate and locate her father. He happens to be a very famous snake-charming evangelist. His church is located near Brimstone Hollow.

She teams up with Detective Dishman of the Brimstone Hollow Police Department but things go south very fast. People associated with Annie’s father wind up being murdered. The plot thickens as there are now three bodies! Meanwhile, the preacher is away giving tent ministry displays in another county. When he returns to the church, disaster happens. What can Annie report back to the minister’s daughter regarding her father?

This story has a whirlpool effect as everyone associated with the pastor seems to be winding up dead or a very viable suspect. The author has woven a very intricate plot with sharp turns and deaths whenever someone gets too close to the church and its’ pastor. Read and enjoy, it is a well contrived story. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Witch & Wizard Mysteries, Private Investigator Mysteries, Small Town & Rural Fiction
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: August 11, 2026
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Kobo

The Author: Archer Sullivan is a ninth generation Appalachian. She’s moved thirty-seven times and has lived everywhere from Monticello, Kentucky to Manhattan, New York and from Black Mountain, North Carolina to Beverly Hills, California. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Tough, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, Rock and a Hard Place, and The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024. Connect with Archer Sullivan at his website. [Goodreads]

#SundayRead

The Paris Wife: A Novel by Paula McLain #AudiobookReview #bookclub #TBT

Book Club at the YMCA

Best Books of the Year 2011

Nominee for Favorite Book of 2011, Winner for Readers’ Favorite Historical Fiction (2011), Nominee for Readers’ Favorite Goodreads Author (2011)

Sorry, but this one was regarding Ernest Hemingway—not my fav. We have to remember it’s a novel and certainly not penned by Wife Number One, Hadley Richardson. At twenty-eight years old in Chicago 1920, she definitely would have been termed a “spinster.” I don’t think it was the Jazz Age Paris that set Hemingway into a hard-drinking social life with some cronies who were already achieving name recognition, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. I think the man, well ahead of the myth, was already a hard-drinking narcissist who pulled Hadley along for the ride. And when it ended. It ended.

But what a ride it was!

This is the book club selection for March, discussed rather low key at our April meeting.

My Thoughts

Hadley experienced a tragic childhood, from the suicide of her father to the death of a sister in a fire. Neither his family nor hers had been thrilled with the two together. Hadley was considered the old maid at 28 and Hemingway back from the war at just nineteen.

After she met Hemingway and together enjoyed a whirlwind romance, they were married in 1921. Shortly after, they moved to Paris where he struck up with contacts during his fledgling foreign correspondent days and Gertrude Stein in turn introduced him to additional authors who fed his need for the spotlight and his ego.

Living a fast-paced Bohemian life took a toll on the marriage; the drinking, the free-wheeling moral code, his lust writing the Great American Novel…and women. Her discovery of his affair with her friend, however, became the final straw.

Many thanks to our local well-stocked library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own as well as my interpretation of the consensus of the book club participants.

Book Club Thoughts

The publisher provides pointed questions for discussion at the book club.

The Paris Wife - UK cover — The Paris Wife – UK cover

Among the items specifically examined this time were:

►We were reminded a couple times that this book is fiction, a novel, not a biography. We can draw some conclusions but would have to independently research key details of interest.

►A big question regarding what her perceived role was, with the majority feeling it was to feed his ego, and unfortunately, following his success, no longer needed that extra support.

►We wondered what Hadley might have seen in him and the consensus generally felt that he took her out of her expected lonely, spinster life to one of discovering the big world out there.

►A big point of discussion was the loss of his entire work to date when she traveled to meet him. Did he ever really forgive her for losing all his manuscripts? Perhaps we’ll never know.

There were additional questions and discussions, of course, one being the lifestyle and the hard drinking of Paris life, and the contradiction of Hadley’s acquiescence to attending the running of the bulls (and death of the animals) by occupying herself with crocheting baby clothes.

Book Club rating vote

Book Details:

Publisher: Random House Audio
Narrator: Carrington MacDuffie
Publication Date: February 22, 2011

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Paula McLain is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun, Love and Ruin, and When the Stars Go Dark. Her latest novel, Skylark, a GMA January 2026 pick, is a mesmerizing tale of Paris above and below, revealing a story of courage and resistance that transcends time. McLain was born in Fresno, California in 1965. After being abandoned by both parents, she and her two sisters became wards of the California Court System, moving in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. When she aged out of the system, she supported herself by working as a nurse’s aid in a convalescent hospital, a pizza delivery girl, an auto-plant worker, a cocktail waitress–before discovering she could (and very much wanted to) write. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996, and is the author of two collections of poetry, a memoir, Like Family: Growing Up in Other People’s Houses, and the debut novel, A Ticket to Ride. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, O: the Oprah Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Real Simple, Huffington Post, the Guardian and elsewhere.

The YMCA Book Club

Murder on the Marlow Belle: A Novel by Robert Thorogood #BookReview #cozymysteries

The Marlow Murder Club Book 4

Book Blurb:

**USA Today Bestseller**

The new cozy crime novel from the bestselling author of The Marlow Murder Club, now a major TV series on PBS Masterpiece!

Verity Beresford is worried about her husband. Oliver didn’t come home last night, so of course Verity goes straight to Judith Potts, Marlow’s resident amateur sleuth, for help. Oliver, founder of the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, had rented The Marlow Belle, a private pleasure cruiser, to host an exclusive party for the society, but no one remembers seeing him disembark. And when Oliver’s body washes up on the Thames with two bullet holes in him, it’s time for the Marlow Murder Club to leap into action.

Oliver was, by all accounts, a rather complicated fellow, with a reputation for bullying children during nativity play rehearsals, and he wasn’t short of enemies. Judith, Suzie, and Becks are convinced they’ll find his killer in no time. But things are not as they seem in the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society, and this case is not so clear-cut after all. The gang will need to keep their wits about them to solve this case… otherwise a killer will walk free.

My Review:

My introduction to the author and the series, this is a thoroughly complex cozy mystery of the locked room style.

A disparate group of sleuths, Judith Potts (a senior), Suzie Harris, and Becks Starling. Guess I came in too late in the series to find out why she is called Becks and it threw me off every time I read the name.

Anyway, by installment 4, certain things have been established—Judith is large and in charge.

Oliver Beresford has gone missing. His wife, aware of Judith’s rep, seeks her help in discovering where or what happened to old Oliver, though really she apparently is just as happy he’s missing and may he stay that way, thank you very much.

But he doesn’t. His body washes up on shore.

Oliver was a thorough narcissist and turns out—not that many are hungry for his return—including the Marlow Amateur Dramatic Society who hosted a cruise on the Thames that included him and a Marlow original, now successful actress, Lizzie Jenkins.

Judith and her cronies seem to be grooming DI Tanika Malik as their police contact and, of course, also the department’s voice in trying to get the girls out of police business. Not that I don’t enjoy a few good mysteries that employ septuagenarian sleuths, but Judith tends to go a bit overboard in her zealous search for the truth. How hard can it be with only the few on board, each pointing a finger at the other and some with more motive.

It always astounds me that the protagonist, or one of the pack, can get someone to talk and glean more info than the police and that the person being questioned actually answers. But anyway—that’s how cozies are solved and it depends on the characters, the atmosphere, and the storyline how deeply engaged the reader becomes. The pace is the place where it all works—or doesn’t.

I felt the pacing a bit slow—I’m notoriously impatient—until about the last quarter or so when it picked up. Somehow, I couldn’t get the page into my imagination, and it slowed my enjoyment of the plot and the style of writing. Then, the denouement that Judith manages pushed disbelief. It just seemed like she’d have needed to read multiple minds to come up with that one.

This made it to Masterpiece Theatre in the States on PBS. And, thinking if I try another, it will be the audiobook version as I can imagine how that might have made it come alive. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Amateur Sleuths, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: September 16, 2025

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Robert Thorogood - author — Robert Thorogood – author

The Author: I’m the author of THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB books, set in my hometown of Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

The first book in the series has been made into a TV show and can be watched in the UK on the Freeview channel U&Drama and in the USA on PBS/Masterpiece. A second TV series is coming out in 2025 and is based on Death Comes to Marlow, but also includes some brand new murders as well.

Before all of this, I created DEATH IN PARADISE for the BBC and have also written four standalone Richard Poole murder mystery novels. I’m really proud of them, and if you like Death in Paradise, I hope you’ll love the books as well.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Iron Curtain by Russ Stone #BookReview #MilitaryThrillers #NetGalley

Travis Delta Thrillers Book 5

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

The most dangerous man in America just became its only hope.

Travis Delta is the U.S. government’s most lethal black-ops operative—until an Air Force missile destroys his Alaskan cabin and he finds himself at the top of a kill list issued by the very country he has fought so hard to protect.

To survive, Delta must trek through forty miles of frozen wilderness while his own military hunts him down. And he is truly alone, because the order to eliminate him has come straight from the Oval Office.

President Arlan Patterson has been compromised by the Russians. To survive politically, he must comply with orders from Russian President Yuri Morozov. And Morozov wants Delta dead.

Pursued by the world’s most powerful military, Delta realizes that running isn’t enough. Despite the overwhelming odds, he’s going to have to take the fight to his enemies. To save himself—and his country—he’ll have to assassinate Morozov.

From the frozen Alaskan wastes to an elite Russian ski resort, Iron Curtain is a relentless thriller about one man’s fight to end a conspiracy that stretches all the way to the highest office in the land.

His Review:

International relations can be very dangerous to everybody, particularly the leaders. An American President is invited to Russia to spend a weekend in Sochi, skiing with the Russian Premier. The president’s wife hates skiing and Russia, so he must go alone. What could go wrong?

Many Russian women are absolutely beautiful, particularly when they are young. The chance to enjoy carefree nights away from the prying eyes of the media is too great and so our President decides to enjoy a little furlough from his wife and all of the governmental attaches that go along with his trips.

The people in our government who are opposed to his high-handed policies seem to be winding up missing. A special encampment has been set up for them in the desert of New Mexico. He is trying to decide whether he should simply dispatch them or keep them isolated while he changes the constitution. His first move will be to simply declare a national emergency and then have a small group of his cronies allow him to have his way with the country.

Travis Delta sees the quandary that the US President is facing. His attempts to rewrite the constitution would effectively wipe out all civil liberties and the America as he currently sees it. The President is nothing more than a puppet for a very corrupt Premier. His life depends upon stopping the President and returning our government to three separate and distinct units. The Executive, Judicial, and Legislative! But Travis has been marked for extinction by both leaders.

This book follows the fears of many in our country who watch the President bypass the Constitution and utilize the military for his own purposes. The world quakes as these two put their heads together and decide how a new global government will operate. Read and enjoy! 5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.

Book Details:

Genre: War & Military Action Fiction, Terrorism Thrillers, Military Thrillers
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Publication Date: March 15, 2026
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK

The Author: Russ Stone is the author of thirty-one novels, including those written as R.H. Johnson. The Travis Delta thriller series reflects his military, private-sector, and consulting background, with particular emphasis on counterterrorism and cybersecurity. Each of the Travis Delta thrillers addresses real-world threats and relies heavily on intensive research to give the narrative a stamp of authenticity.

He lives in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.

Happy Easter – Wherever You Are – May You Have a Blessed Sunday

Happy Easter to all who choose to celebrate

To those who celebrate Easter, have a wonderful day with those you love. And for those who enjoyed a lovely Sunday yesterday, hope you have a peaceful week!

The Astral Library: A Novel by Kate Quinn #AudiobookReview #MagicalRealismFiction

in Magical Realism Fiction

Book Blurb:

From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures. Beautifully performed by award winning narrator, Saskia Maarleveld.

Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives…inside their favorite books.

The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself? Includes a bonus conversation with Kate Quinn, Saskia Maarleveld, and Tessa Woodward (editor of The Astral Library).

My Review:

From the creative mind and the commanding master of her craft comes the author from a whole new direction no one saw coming. I devoured her 20^th Century books and looked for more—jumped on this one and noted Saskia Maarleveld as narrator. An absolute powerhouse of audiobooks. And a departure from anything I expected. Note to Self: Must read the book blurb in addition to author and narrator.

Stretching my chops as a reader into fantasy, a genre heaven knows I don’t often do.

But, hey, we’re talking Kate Quinn and I must admit it is an uncommon and unique experience. Written well, haven’t you put yourself in a book? FMC Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned to do that. Within the Boston Public Library, she often escaped her fierce struggle for survival as a foster care kid. But this time, she also happens upon a hidden door that opens to another library, a librarian, and books. These books are different.

Alix is a great character, full of the feisty intelligence we are used to in a female protagonist from a Quinn novel. There are some strong support characters as well. Appreciated the fashion descriptions of the different periods; the sights and sounds all come alive under Quinn’s pen.

I loved escaping to Boston. Drank in the historic atmosphere, the buildings, the people, food and drink, then to be whisked away to London or…? Alix is not the only one who has found a refuge from tedious lives, however. Having made a choice to escape into the book of their choice, some may not have turned out to be the glorious and safe haven they expected.

The antagonist appears to be the library board, which is ready to change the rules, and it’s a fight Alix eagerly tackles. The storytelling blurred just a bit for me there. There is a modicum of romance and the character of the Astral librarian is a hoot. I loved the shout-out to the various authors of the classic novels. It’s a prose-filled exploration of simultaneous alternate lives.

Heavy into fantasy, metaphysical, and Quinn books, you’ll enjoy the departure of her famously popular historical fiction novels. I enjoyed it, but must admit it won’t be my favorite Quinn book.

Many thanks to my local library for providing me with the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Magical Realism Fiction, Fantasy Action & Adventure, #Literary Fiction
Publisher: William Morrow
Narrator: Kate Quinn, Saskia Maarleveld
Release Date: February 17, 2026

Title Links:

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with “The Alice Network”, “The Huntress,” “The Rose Code,” “The Diamond Eye,” and “The Briar Club.” She is also a co-author in several collaborative novels including “The Phoenix Crown” with Janie Chang and “Ribbons of Scarlet” with Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Heather Webb. “The Astral Library,” releasing in 2026, is her first foray into magical realism. Kate and her husband now live in Maryland with their two rescue dogs.

audiobooks — Graphic courtesy combination Canva and Freepik.com

Rosepoint Reviews – March Recap – April Weather is no Joke

Rosepoint Review Recap-March-Hello April!

Definitely going to be a wet and wild April with lingering thunderstorms from March—a crazy pattern with warm temps to 70s plunging 40 degrees in a few hours. Normally, I’d be starting seedlings, thinking garden, planning appropriate veggies and symbiotic flowers.

First goal: Take down that poor tree in front of our kitchen window that only had one viable limb left. The CE surprised me by getting a big jump on it before I was even dressed and by mid-afternoon we had it down, limbs in the garbage bin, area raked and swept. What a job! I’m hoping it will be a good spot for some water plants. I tried lotus flowers last year, but failed to provide sufficient sun. This may be too much sun. We’ll see.

Old tree on the left and after it's cleared. — Old tree on the left–tree is gone on the right.

Hail, same spot — Hail one day later, same spot.

March is birthday month for me and I was celebrated with a visit from our daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandkids. The little ones are so much bigger than last we saw them, the youngest still a baby. They got to have a tour of Chicago from our son who works there, a short and sweet visit, but so happy to see them all.

Of course, we also celebrate Reading Ireland Month in March and I participated once again, experiencing a recommendable movie, a wacky newly released series, as well as ebooks and audiobooks. We made our usual corned beef and cabbage (better this year), which also made delicious leftovers—the CE’s fav.

The CE and I read or listened to a total of ten books in March. As always, the major source of our books is the library (audiobooks and ebooks). (We also review books from NetGalley and author and publisher requests.) The links on titles are to our reviews that include purchase information.

Rosepoint Reviews - March Recap

Singing Bones by S G Ullman (CE review-publisher request)
Countdown by Sara Driscoll
The Burning Soul by John Connolly (CE review)
Murder in an Irish Churchyard by Carlene O’Connor

Audiobooks

See How They Hide by Allison Brennan (mini-reviews)
My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney (mini-review)
Thirst Trap by Gráinne O’Hare
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
To the Moon and Back by Karen Kingsbury
The Storied Life of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Favorite Book of the Month

Can I cheat just a bit and nominate a movie instead of a book? What if the movie was based on a book–written by Declan Power? The Siege of Jadotville was compelling and powerful.

Favorite for March – The Siege of Jadotville

My Reading Challenges page…March was just too busy to update. My Goodreads count is still off, but landing page shows 40 of a challenge of 175.

To all my dear readers and fellow bloggers, thank you so much for taking the time to check out my posts and reviews. I’m trying to up my bloghopping and hope to see you soon.

Shamrocks, Blarney Stones, and Wild Irish Tales #ReadingIrelandMonth26

Reading Ireland Month (The #Begorrathon26) had a good run this year, with ebooks and audiobooks read and reviewed. Surprisingly, although Waking the Titanic was supposed to be on Netflix, I gave up looking for it, as it was obviously taken down at some point. Then, in quick succession, we gave up on Derry Girls, Lies We Tell, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Reading Ireland Month26 - wrap up

Back when I published a number of my grandfather’s books, I tried creating a book trailer or two and made one for Cocos Island Treasure using one of Marc Gunn’s songs.

Of course, I always recommend my favorite Irish podcaster, Marc Gunn’s Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. This year’s St Patrick’s Day podcast included one of his own songs that I thought I’d share.

Years ago, I also posted a St Patrick’s article regarding one of his more interesting poems, The Bonny Bell from Yarn Four.

By now you’ve read my chuckle-fest St Patrick’s Day post that I titled Beans, Beans…(A St Patrick’s Day Revisited). Check it out if you haven’t seen it before. And don’t forget that special Irish Soda Bread recipe from one of our favorite Irish authors, Jean Granger.

We only use Netflix on the internet along with our antenna, so don’t have a large selection of streaming services but did enjoy The Siege of Jadotville. Hope you got to view that or have it on your view list.

Recommendations

I already mentioned the lone movie we were able to get and highly recommend. As always, one of those long-buried stories taken from history worthy of public note, The Seige of Jadotville deserves a look-see.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is a fast and furious, bordering on fantasy, dark comedy series, and I suspect, for those who enjoy a unique and wild ride with their whiskey.

The ebooks and audiobooks were a bit of a disappointment, though I enjoyed my ebook copy of Carlene O’Connor’s Murder in an Irish Churchyard.

We do have fun with this every year and it usually gets me out there researching and finding stuff I had no idea was available. Hope you read or listened to one of these books or movies, and if you did, I’d love to know.

Reading Ireland Month 2026