#bookreader – Page 16 – Rosepoint Publishing

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin #AudiobookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Editors’ pick Best Literature & Fiction

Book 1 of 2: Eilis Lacey

Book Blurb:

A NEW PRODUCTION NARRATED BY SAOIRSE RONAN, ACADEMY AWARD–NOMINATED STAR OF THE 2015 FILM ADAPTATION!

Colm Tóibín’s New York Times bestselling novel—also an acclaimed film starring Saoirse Ronan and Jim Broadbent nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture—is “a moving, deeply satisfying read” (Entertainment Weekly) about a young Irish immigrant in Brooklyn in the early 1950s.

“One of the most unforgettable characters in contemporary literature” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the hard years following World War Two. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America, she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind.

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, who loves the Dodgers and his big Italian family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future.

My Review:

Unhappily, our Netflix doesn’t present the movie version of Brooklyn, and it sounds like the plot might have gotten ground a bit, skipping over the mundane. I might have preferred the movie.

I did, however, listen to the audiobook, and sorry (once again) of my inability to make those notes along the way on an audiobook. It does present a slow start, introducing Eilis Lacey and her life in small town fifties Ireland and that of her large Catholic family, an older sister and three brothers, the latter of whom all split for England and greater opportunity.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin - UK cover — Brooklyn – UK cover

Eilis is facing that age when her reality is marriage and kids and longing for something more is asking the old familiar, “Is that all there is?”

No, not for her, as the family priest and her older working sister have arranged her sponsorship to Brooklyn, along with a room in a boarding house and a job in a department store. Her sister will take care of their mother, so off she goes.

The transition is not just from a small town to metropolis, Ireland to America, family to boarding house with a variety of cliquey boarders, singlehood to introduction to men. There is the shock of relocation, the homesickness, and the previous lack of adult decision making for herself.

The storyline is not new. We’ve been through this plot before but what sets it apart, of course, is the author’s prose, writing style, description of the era, and transition of old morals to modern. Yes, coming of age, right between the eyes.

As the narrative progresses, there are decisions to be made, back bone to be adjusted, and actions taken that with either choice will forever alter the life she had planned or expected.

Decisions, decisions…

The Italian American with the family making firm plans on advancement, all appearances looking upwardly mobile and a man who obviously adores her. Does she adore him back?

No.

Does she even love him? Did she get swept into another of those life-altering decisions without proper consideration? Yup.

Now, Ireland. She’s been called back. Her sister passed unexpectedly leaving no one to care for her mother. But…blue skies! There is the Irish man who adored her from afar—still available and now transformed with testosterone.

I thought it was no contest and I’m not a fan of the non-ending. So it was a romance. And conflict; eenie, meenie, miney, mo…

This one seemed to have the spectrum of reviews. Did you read it? How did you feel about it?

Best of all might be that it was on my list of Irish authors for this year’s Reading Ireland Month, the #Begorrathon, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-in Fiction, Coming of Age Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0DGMPHMBF
Listening Length: 9 hrs 50 mins
Narrator: Saoirse Ronan
Publication Date: October 22, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Colm Tóibín is the author of ten novels, including The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary, and Nora Webster, as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the laureate for Irish fiction for 2022-2025 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Toibin lives in Dublin and New York.

March is #ReadingIrelandMonth

Milkman: A Novel by Anna Burns #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

Editors’ pick Best Literature & Fiction

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner – 2018

Book Blurb:

In an unnamed city, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. She reads while walking, for one. And she has been taking French night classes downtown. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes “interesting,” the last thing she ever wanted to be. Despite middle sister’s attempts to avoid him―and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend―rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers. Milkman is a story of the way inaction can have enormous repercussions, in a time when the wrong flag, wrong religion, or even a sunset can be subversive. Told with ferocious energy and sly, wicked humor, Milkman establishes Anna Burns as one of the most consequential voices of our day.

My Review:

Yet another example of my apparent lack of appreciation for genius literary fiction. I was ready to DNF in…about ten minutes and several times after that. Yes, an audiobook and even if I hadn’t ramped up the speed, the author would still have been barreling through this book in it’s entirety without taking a breath.

What did I get myself into?

I was determined to finish it because it was to be on my list of Irish authors for this year’s Reading Ireland Month, the #Begorrathon, hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. Sorry, but I just couldn’t fathom this one.

Sheltered as we’ve been living in the States and only remotely getting news second or third hand, and at a time in my life when I was dealing with babies, I was far removed from what was going on “over there” except that “our boys” were still in ‘Nam and we wanted them home.

The protagonist here is a teenager, grappling with all the angst of teens the world over with the extra burden of an oppressive religion, an almost permanently hysterical mother, her education, and her lack of lining up a proper marriage.

What threw me at the beginning was the lack of names as everyone was referred to as (for instance) Almost Boyfriend, Third Brother-in-Law, Second Sister, etc. And the Milkman, wasn’t.

It’s a non-stop monologue that takes a single thought and multiplies it to all the possibilities that could result from the original thought and end with the worst scenario.

The only character I came close to engaging was Third Brother-in-Law and I couldn’t tell you why. I still didn’t know him any more than any of the main or support characters but the mother was the absolute worst.

A constant run-on self-dialogue that didn’t end and sometimes jumped into other persons, other scenes or situations, making it all but impossible to keep up with where we were now. Or why did we care?

This is supposed to be humorous—sorry—I didn’t find much funny with the horrible things going on (particularly the scene involving the dogs). No plot. No progression in the storyline. Oh, wait. No storyline. Everyone is paranoid, gossip runs rampant in an effort to…destroy(?) each other. A lot of narrative, nothing is settled. And then it ended.

SOOOO much philosophy! Dispensed, analyzed, regurgitated.

I’ll tell you what: Read the reviews on Goodreads. They should have gotten the awards!

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Two point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Political Fiction, Literary Fiction
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
ISBN-10: ‎ 1644450003
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1644450000
ASIN: B07JJJTT29
Listening Length: 14 hrs 11 mins
Narrator: Bríd Brennan
Publication Date: Reprint edition – December 4, 2018
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: Milkman – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Anna Burns was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is the author of two novels, No Bones and Little Constructions, and of the novella, Mostly Hero. No Bones won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and was short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She lives in East Sussex, England. Author photo credit Eleni Stefanou

#ThrowbackThursday

First Pub on the Right by David Irish Anderson #BookReview #Motorcycles

“Driving a car is like watching a movie, while riding a motorcycle is like being a part of it.”

Book Blurb:

With the quick wit and dry humour of a true Irishman, David “Irish” Anderson documents his epic eighteen-month motorcycle adventure from Ireland to South Africa in this captivating travel memoir.

What begins as a lofty idea in a pub becomes a reality after six years of planning when Irish and his wife purposely set out with their two heavily loaded motorcycles. Somewhere along the way, Irish loses his wife, but amidst the heartbreak, turmoil, and challenges on the long and often bumpy road, he gains a whole new perspective on life.

Follow his exciting journey as he does what you’re absolutely not supposed to do when you see an elephant, involuntarily exfoliates himself during a desert sandstorm, and receives plenty of well-meaning but impractical advice from strange characters.

With a telling eye for detail, Irish artfully captures the characteristics of each country he visits, the encounters with people he meets, the difficulties he faces, and the joy of discovery that comes with travelling to unfamiliar places, providing the reader with a rich tapestry of experience.

My Review:

Yes, of course, I was caught by the photo of the BMW GS on the cover. And while that is not the model of the bike I rode, mine was a R1200C—gorgeous bike—I’d have never attempted this ride. Much less ever had the money for it. It’s hard not to get pangs for the saddle though when you no longer ride.

Then, bonus: The author is from Ireland and I can include this book in Reading Ireland Month, or as we call it, #Begorrathon, an annual event hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. And, too, had to laugh at the title as we often heard from the CE that we’d (finally!) stop at the next café on the right. Hot, tired, hungry, and totally exhilarated by a sweet ride and creating life-changing memories.

This man, however, and at the beginning, his wife, undertook to ride from Cork, Ireland to Cape Town, Africa. Six years in the planning still SOOO much unexpected in the execution that I couldn’t fathom why, first, the money didn’t run out.

Not entirely without experience in long distance traveling overland on a motorcycle since both journeyed through South America, this was still more ambitious. In the end, he traveled forty countries in eighteen months for a total of 39,047 miles.

Virtually impossible to fix an itinerary with a ride of this magnitude, the routes were kept rather loose. It should be noted, of course, that this man also had extensive worldwide knowledge of rafting colleagues, a huge network of acquaintances and friends, having worked or lived on virtually every continent of the planet. For this trip, he’d be doing a lot of wild camping and there was always a question of available fuel.

Irish settled on a BMW 800GS, while his wife chose the BMW F650 as she insisted on riding her own for this trip rather than “two-up” as they did in South America. As they each divvied up necessary equipment, I wondered how he managed the equipment she’d carried at the beginning.

I loved the account of so many places the CE and I have been fortunate enough to see and lived again the scenery, beauty, and welcome of the people this time vicariously on a bike rather than the tour bus. The description of the City of Split on the Dalmatian coast was of particular interest since that’s where our “Croatian son’s” family was living his first time back home following the Balkan War.

The loss of his wife was sudden and heralded a period of heavy introspection and downtime. It seemed the timbre of his voice changed subtly after that to more a chronology than storyline. I was definitely surprised at the turn of events but it turned on a philosophy gene that he continued to explore and engage the rest of the book.

He spoke of “experience overload” which was a familiar occurrence back then. As with most riders, he eventually found an appropriate name for his bike and likened “her” not as a machine but more a part of him as a sentient being with whom he’d shared a magnificent and healing experience.

The narrative exposed a raw personal side of the author and his eventual acceptance of his new life as much as the people and countries in which he rode. He faced a lot of obstacles, many of which would have some giving up. It was by the completion of the trip, however, that he managed to come to terms with everything that happened along the way and to find his way forward.

A travelogue as well as a diary of a motorcycle odyssey, you don’t have to love riding to enjoy the experience of the book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Motorcycles, Travel Writing Reference, Travelogues & Travel Essays
Publisher: Pure Ink Press
ISBN: 979-8987586631
ASIN: B0DWBJCFQC
Print Length: 346 pages
Publication Date: February 4, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: David “Irish” Anderson has been an outdoor educator and adventure guide for over thirty years. Originally from Ireland, he has lived and worked on every continent, including Antarctica, while pursuing his passion for exploration and discovery. He caught the motorcycle travel bug at a young age and has spent more nights sleeping under the stars than he can possibly remember. Irish currently lives in Queenstown, New Zealand, where he divides his time between guiding, writing, and planning more shenanigans.

Sunday explorations — AI generated graphic courtesy Freepik.com

The Greatest Band That Never Was by Jeff Meshel #BookReview #RockMusic

Book Blurb:

First Shelly imagined a musical legend.
Then she brought it to life.
Careful what you wish for, Shelly.

2006, dawn of social media. Paralegal Shelly Griffin is 43, single, stuck in small-town dead-end Rust Belt, Ohio. When she discovers a song by Decapede about a dying local beer, she inadvertently triggers the first-ever viral clip on the internet and finds herself leading a frenzied search for the long-forgotten band.

The Greatest Band that Never Was is a saga of overnight celebrity, lives turned upside-down and recreated, found family, local pride, with one indomitable woman changing lives with her dream. And driving it all, the magic of Rock & Roll.

His Review:

A long-standing brewery in Ohio is struggling to stay afloat. Creston Gold used to be a brand that everyone reached for. That was nearly 40 years ago. Allie Bauer is barely able to make ends meet and the production is less than ¼ of the former levels. She cannot afford workers and is about to lose everything.

Shelly Griffin meets the woman and decides to write a story to help boost sales. Her investigation leads her to the decision that she is going to save Allie and the brewery. She is on a one woman crusade to increase sales, rejuvenate the brand and bring it back into a regional juggernaut. Her father wants to publish the story of the declining brewery and encourages his daughter to pursue the project.

How can a person increase sales rapidly? Shelly decides that a regional music venue will do the trick. The musicians need to be local and she remembers her mother telling her a story about a band that fell apart nearly 40 years ago. Shelly decides this will be the answer. She sets out to find the members of a band her mother loved called Decapede. Her first lead is Sam, who lives as a hermit in the forest!

Two young and very talented musicians started with Decapede and they have serious talent competitions. They both also have a very real attraction to Sherry’s mother, Beverly! Can the band be resurrected? The story develops as a herculean effort to put the two back together again! Enjoy the adventure! 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: Rock Music, Small Town & Rural Fiction
ISBN: ‎ B0DP3HFYQF
ASIN: B0DNNF2G9L
Print Length: 764 pages
Publication Date: January 14, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble

The Author: Jeff Meshel grew up in Ohio. As a young music journalist, he interviewed Simon & Garfunkel, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa and many others. He saw The Beatles live, spent a weekend with The Grateful Dead, got soaked at Woodstock, and left the US after Kent State for Israel, where he has lived happily ever after.

He has worked as a playwright (in Hebrew) and director, lyricist, librettist, singer, blogger (Song of The Week@ jmeshel dot com) and creator of the a capella rock orchestra Vocalocity. He lists his vocation as ‘Music Promulgator’, as if that’s a real thing.

The Greatest Band that Never Was is his first novel.

Enjoy your day!

AI generated Graphic courtesy Canva.com

(*Freepik.com)

The Builders (Open Door) by Maeve Binchy #BookReview #ReadingIrelandMonth25

Reading Ireland Month (or the #Begorrathon as it is affectionately known) will return for the tenth year in March 2025. This will be my fifth year. It is hosted by Cathy at 746 Books. Cathy is a supporter of everything Irish and a promoter of Irish culture. She has an amazing list on her page for suggestions of what to read and listen to. Check out her page and sign up!

If you post, tweet or use instagram, please use the hashtags #readingirelandmonth25 or #begorrathon25

I am slow this year putting together a list of reading material, but hoping to read several as well as listen to more. I am also looking for a movie to watch and will try to include a quick bit from Marc Gunn, my favorite musical Celt Father.

I jumped the gun and read Melanie Forde’s new novel, Guardian of the Crossroads and Carlene O’Connor’s novel You Have Gone Too Far in February, but you could still check them out.

In the meantime, consider this my first for the annual celebration, a novella, short, fast read by Maeve Binchy. The last one I read by this author was in March of 2023, A Week In Summer, a real short story.

Book Blurb:

Original short fiction by a beloved best-selling author on her best topic relationships. Charming novella from a masterful writer on the power of family secrets. Nan Ryan lives by herself at 14 Chestnut Road. When builders arrive to fix a deserted house next door, everyone expects the worst. But when the handsome workman looks to Nan to help unravel the mystery of the previous residents’ disappearance, a strange relationship develops. With family dynamics and crooked developers in the wings, things are about to get very messy…

My Review:

Written to promote adult literacy in Ireland, Binchy manages to develop engaging characters and wring as much emotion from them as possible in less than one hundred pages. Nan Ryan lives alone, her children with lives of their own, manage visits that are little more than welfare checks and then gone. Then a crew arrives to fix up the house next door that was deserted a couple years ago.

The foreman of the team, Derek Doyle, pops in for tea and as a relationship develops, Nan changes her family dynamics. The relationship between her three children has been somewhat strained. As her interest and activity in Derek develops, however, an interesting paradigm impacts all the characters.

And I applauded the change.

While I wasn’t too sure about the conclusion, it was a happy little ending, even if a bit fast and tidy. If you are a Binchy fan, you can read it on your commute home (unless you’re driving, of course).

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Two-Hour Travel Short Reads, British & Irish Literary Fiction, Romance Literary Fiction
Publisher: GemmaMedia
ASIN: B002A7WVNU
Print Length: 93 pages
Publication Date: May 1, 2009
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK

The Author: Maeve Binchy was born in County Dublin and educated at the Holy Child convent in Killiney and at University College, Dublin. After a spell as a teacher she joined the IRISH TIMES. Her first novel, LIGHT A PENNY CANDLE, was published in 1982 and she went on to write over twenty books, all of them bestsellers. Several have been adapted for cinema and television, including TARA ROAD. Maeve Binchy received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Book Awards in 1999 and the Irish PEN/A.T. Cross award in 2007. In 2010 she was presented with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards by the President of Ireland. She was married to the writer and broadcaster Gordon Snell for 35 years, and died in 2012.

March is #ReadingIrelandMonth

Gathering Mist by Margaret Mizushima #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Secrets hide within the fog deep in the mossy forests of the Pacific Northwest in this ninth thrilling installment in award-winning author Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K-9 mystery series.

Deputy Mattie Wray, formerly Mattie Cobb, is summoned to Washington’s Olympic peninsula for an urgent search and rescue mission to find a celebrity’s missing child. With only a week left before her wedding, Mattie is hesitant to leave Timber Creek, but her K-9 partner Robo’s tracking skills are needed.

Dense forest, chilling rain, and unfriendly locals hamper their efforts, and soon Mattie suspects something more sinister than a lost child is at play. When one of the SAR dogs becomes ill, her fiancé, Cole Walker, suspects poison. Fearing for Mattie’s and Robo’s safety, Cole joins the search and rescue team as veterinary support.

Secrets that have lain hidden within the rugged terrain come to light, and when it is uncovered that the missing child was kidnapped, the search becomes a full-blown crime scene investigation, forcing Mattie, Robo, and Cole into a desperate search to find the missing child before it’s too late.

My Review:

I love mysteries and crime thrillers and throw in an awesome service dog and I’m there. This is one of my favorite K-9 series and this installment becomes a page turner very quickly.

With one week to go before her wedding to Cole, a veterinarian, Maddie is called in to fly to the northwest in Washington state to find a missing child. The change in climate is a shock, cold, windy, and buckets of rain with the attendant saturated soil and underbrush and difficult not only for ground trackers but scent trackers as well. The atmospheric description really sets up the scene and becomes a strong integral part of the plot.

This is one reason I enjoy these books so much. You learn so much about canines, their atheleticism, and learning capacity. It’s such a part of the prep for search or take down, however, the info is easily slipped in and just adds the wow factor rather than slowing the pace.

When one of the other search dogs becomes sick, it’s apparent that he might have been poisoned and Cole makes arrangements to join her. Together with the search teams and local search and rescue, they form the grid and begin methodically canvassing the area which includes interviews with off-the-grid residents.

The tension ramps up as the search intensifies. There are a number of support characters and the parents present a divided and suspicious countenance. The story turns to a darker subject than I ever remember being used before and the climax is hard and fast.

The writing style throughout is engaging with no slack in the storyline. Robo shines as a masterful SAR dog, intuitive, smart, and protective. Love the action scenes. Heartily recommended.

Book Details:

Genre: Police Procedurals, Women Sleuths
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
ASIN: B0CRTG7JRQ
Print Length: 252 pages
Publication Date: October 8, 2024
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: Margaret Mizushima writes the award winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. She serves as past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and was elected 2019 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. Active in the writing community, she is also a member of Sisters in Crime, Northern Colorado Writers, and Women Writing the West. She and her husband recently moved from Colorado to a home in the Pacific Northwest. Find her on Facebook/AuthorMargaretMizushima, Twitter @margmizu, Instagram @margmizu, and her website http://www.margaretmizushima.com.

#TuesdayBookBlog

To Catch a Spy by Mark ONeill #BookReview #HeistCrime

Book Blurb:

“A worthy sequel to the classic.” ― Harlan Coben

Estate approved sequel to the novel To Catch a Thief by David Dodge and 1955 Academy Award-winning film by Alfred Hitchcock

It’s been a year since John Robie, notorious Riviera jewel thief, proved his innocence by catching a copycat burglar. And it’s been a year since John has seen Francie Stevens, the adventurous socialite who not only saw through his disguise, but helped him catch the copycat. Now Francie is returning to the Riviera for its first-ever Fashion Week as a model for a top French designer, and John plans on rekindling their romance. But there’s a problem. While helping a friend, John chases down a mysterious courier, whose ruthless associates now want John dead. To make matters worse, when Francie arrives, she has a boyfriend in tow, and tells John that she wants nothing to do with him.

John has to figure out why he’s a hunted man, and why Francie is acting suspiciously. Digging deeper, he discovers a spy ring with evil intent. As John works unofficially to gather evidence, a question begins to haunt him―could Francie Stevens be a spy? With his enemies closing in, John turns to his cat burglar skills to try to save his life and expose the traitors. To survive, he has to catch the spies before they catch―and kill―a retired thief!

His Review:

John Robie is a very accomplished individual. He has trained as an acrobat in the circus and has maintained his climbing abilities throughout his life. He is an ex-patriot living on the French Riviera and has honed his craft as a jewel thief. He frequents the posh hotels and other places where the rich and famous go to play.

Francie Stevens is a young lady learning the modeling trade. She is very lovely and picks up the business fairly well. Some of the designers decide to use her in the upcoming fashion shows and she is quickly becoming famous. Many designers wish to engage her to promote their designs. She is new to the business and eager to please.

Francie has an off/again, on/again affair with John, and although they seem to hit it off, they soon part ways. She is lured by wealthy designers who want her to help with their clandestine activities. She does not know she is being used, but many of the designers are engaged in many nefarious activities. Francie is unknowingly drawn into this world and she is dragged into the world of espionage.

This story is well written and follows the format of a story written nearly a century earlier. The plot has many twists and will keep any reader glued to the outcome. The characters are particularly well developed. The French Resistance during WWII honed the skills of many of the participants. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

I read To Catch a Thief by David Dodge in January. While this author has been given approval to write this sequel by his estate and did an admiral job, there was a certain writing style to the original by David Dodge that I just didn’t quite find in this novel. The book will catch and hold your interest and attention but if you’ve read the original concept, (especially recently) might note a perceptible difference.

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: Heist Crime, Heist Thrillers, International Mystery & Crime
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
ISBN: ‎ 146422501X
ASIN: B0D1XMV53C
Print Length: 366 pages
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

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

Mark ONeill - author — Author photo courtesy Goodreads author page

The Author: No bio

Winter Reading — AI generated by Freepik.com

Valley of the Wolves: Book 1 by Brock Farrow #BookReview Teen & Young Adult Historical Fantasy eBooks

Ishkwandem

Book Blurb:

Fifteen-year-old foster child Josh Redford’s only friend in the world was an old Algonquin trapper who taught him the secrets of the wilderness. When the trapper dies, Josh runs away to a remote area of the rugged Laurentian Mountains, where he soon discovers that the trapper’s tales of animal spirits are true, and that not all of them are friendly. Caught in an ancient war between good and evil, Josh’s escape from grief quickly becomes a harrowing struggle to survive. Desperate and alone, he soon discovers the one secret the trapper never revealed.

Valley of the Wolves is a four-book series full of action and adventure that is rooted in Algonquin mythology. It is also the story of how colonialism nearly destroyed a beautiful people and their culture.

His Review:

Moving from group home to foster home wore heavily on Josh. His heart yearned to be free and away from adult guidance. Certainly, many of the homes were nice but they were not his family and he never seemed to fit in. He longed to be free and disappear in the Laurentian mountains of his ancestors. His only true friend is a dying Algonquin who is teaching him the old ways.

He is very proficient with a canoe and escapes on a foggy night and heads downstream. He will cross into Canada and leave the Foster Child Systems behind. His Indian name is Crazy Otter given to him by Stumbling Moose who tries to teach him the old ways. He knows that the officials will be looking for him and will put him in a juvenile detention facility until he is of age if he is caught. He stays in the darkest parts of the forest and continues northeast towards Canada.

As a child, I often thought of running away and making my own way heading north to Canada. Josh is much smarter because he read all of the books he could find on wilderness survival and how to exist in the wild. Building traps and foraging for edible foods and tubers, he could teach military survival. The further he melts into the wild, however, the more he becomes the hunted instead of the hunter. This is a great book for young scouts and others to read. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

The first book in a new series that launches an enterprising and magnetic main character and is a great start to the series. 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: Teen & Young Adult Historical Fantasy eBooks, Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fiction eBooks
ASIN: B0DLGM9F21
Print Length: 179 pages
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
Source: Author and NetGalley
Title Link(s): Valley of the Wolves – Amazon-US
Valley of the Wolves – Amazon-UK

The Author: Brock Farrow is an avid outdoorsman and survivalist with a deep love for the Laurentian Mountains. He holds a profound respect for Canada’s Indigenous peoples, especially the original inhabitants of the Laurentians—the Algonquin Nation. He believes that they have much to teach us about our relationship with the planet and each other. The Valley of the Wolves series is his first attempt to share his knowledge and admiration with others.