#Goodreads – Page 10 – Rosepoint Publishing

The Paris Express: A Novel by Emma Donoghue #AudiobookReview #WorldLiterature

Book Blurb:

Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.

From an author whose “writing is superb alchemy” (Audrey Niffenegger, New York Times bestselling author), The Paris Express is an evocative masterpiece that effortlessly captures the politics, glamour, chaos, and speed that marked the end of the 19th century.

My Review:

Oh, mercy, I’m so not a fan of slow burn starts, and this one is a bit angonizing—at least for me.

I usually enjoy historical fiction and have read and reviewed a couple books recently on disasters (both manmade and natural) in the US. Thinking this would read roughly the same, managed this audiobook from my local library.

This novel recounts the disastrous train crash packed with people riding the rails into Paris back in 1895. There are characters I specifically enjoyed, including two of the train crew, but as the storyline progressed and the addition of more characters jammed the train, their voices created a cacophony that was a bit difficult to separate.

The characters are persons from countries as far away as the US and Russia and those innocent to the sinister, one of whom has hatched a deadly plan and is simply waiting for the most appropriate time to implement it.

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue — The Paris Express – UK Kindle cover

Because of the divergence in persons (including historical figures), their backgrounds are examined along with their purposes for traveling to Paris. As the train hurtles toward a shocking but not unexpected end, the pace speeds up as well, and the explanation of the mechanics of the old train, obviously well researched and quite spellbinding, provides a heart-pounding account of the speed, power, and limitations of the locomotive.

The characters drive the dialogue from the political to economics and the reader is offered a peek into some long and plot grinding discussions. There is tension building in those discussions, although for some of the lesser interesting easy to read-skip over. The thoughts of the anarchist who is now seeing individuals, rather than a faceless body of persons, revealed just the tiniest stumble of well laid plans.

In the end, I found it a bit anti-climactic and rather abrupt and was caught off guard even as I was speeding along with it to the station at Montparnasse knowing the outcome. Not a wholly satisfying denouement. But then, again, it is an historical event. How else?

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

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: World Literature, Historical Fiction, Genre Fiction
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0D67V6PQL
Listening Length: 7 hrs 15 mins
Narrator: Justin Avoth
Publication Date: March 18, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the international bestseller “Room” (her screen adaptation was nominated for four Oscars), “Frog Music”, “Slammerkin,” “The Sealed Letter,” “Landing,” “Life Mask,” “Hood,” and “Stirfry.” Her story collections are “Astray”, “The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits,” “Kissing the Witch,” and “Touchy Subjects.” She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio. She lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two children.

Audiobooks

Chasing Justice: A Thrilling K-9 Suspense by Kathleen Donnelly #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

National Forest K-9 Book 1

Book Blurb:

A former marine learns to love again in this suspenseful, action-packed K-9 search and rescue from Kathleen Donnelly

After losing her military K-9, former marine Maya Thompson swears she’ll never work with dogs again. But when she returns home to Colorado and accepts a job with US Forest Service law enforcement, fate brings K-9 Juniper into her life just as another tragedy unfolds.

Juniper, a beautiful two-year-old Malinois, isn’t the only new addition to Maya’s life. Josh Colten, the local deputy sheriff, insists on helping with her new case. Handsome and mysterious, he’s all anyone in town can talk about, but Maya can’t let herself like him, let alone trust him.

When Maya’s grandfather goes missing amid a growing drug war, Maya must put her faith in Josh, and her own battered instincts, to find him. But there’s a web of secrets tying her grandfather to the tragedy that brought Juniper into her life—secrets someone would kill to keep hidden.

My Review:

I love it when I find a new author and book series I can really get into. This is one that hooks immediately and keeps a reader’s attention throughout.

Not my first book regarding a female National Park employee as I’ve read most and loved Nevada Barr’s park ranger Anna Pigeon series, the last one being A Superior Death. Whereas Anna Pigeon is appointed to different US parks, however, Maya Thompson is solidly assigned to the US Forest Service in Colorado. (And, of course, I do miss the Pigeon series narrator Barbara Rosenblat but I chose to read, not listen, to this novel.) Also, I do love and have read most of Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K-9 books, the last being Gathering Mist. It’s hard to beat a Timber Creek K-9 installment.

Maya lost her K-9 while she was in the service in Afghanistan and swore she’d never go through that loss again, but circumstances found her the owner of Justice, a young, brilliant, and energetic Malinois. Oh yeah, and Maya has returned home with PTSD.

Maya returned to the area where her grandfather is the local sheriff. Also, you guessed it, there is a new deputy in town, Josh Colten, handsome and available who tends to set her heart tingling. Again—something she swore off of after returning home.

They end up in a high profile drug case that allows the spotlight on Juniper often and Maya’s demonstration of how to manage a high energy, high prey drive animal. The forest is atmospheric and adds a deep dimension to the scene.

Malinois parachuting from airplane. — **Fun fact about the Belgian Malinois:**
🐕🦺 **They can skydive!**
Belgian Malinois are so smart, athletic, and brave that military and police units often train them to parachute out of airplanes alongside their handlers. Some have been part of high-profile special ops missions! Basically, they’re like the Navy SEALs of the dog world. AI generated fun fact from ChatGPT. AI generated photo courtesy Gemini.

I like both characters, Maya and Josh, but I’m not in love. Her military service gives her an edge of experience in combat, she’s sharp, intelligent, and can strategize well with her service dog. Josh is not exactly battle hardened but carries baggage of his own. So, yes, I loved the dog and the personality she is given. I noted a few edit misses and tend to tire a bit with repeated (romance) issues, but enjoyed the premise, the plot, the dog, and the pace enough to go look for Book 2—and found it. Look for Hunting the Truth shortly.

Thanks to my local library for the loan and providing me the opportunity to read and review this book. The thoughts expressed here are my own. If you enjoy animal, dog stories, this is a good series to start and I can recommend them.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Animal Fiction, Police Romance, Cozy Animal Mysteries
Publisher: Carina Press
ASIN: B097YJ2FD3
Print Length: 351 pages
Publication Date: May 24, 2022
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: Award-winning author, Kathleen Donnelly is a handler for a private narcotics K-9 detection company. She enjoys using her experience to craft realism into her fictional stories. Kathleen loves the beauty of the mountains, which inspired her choice of setting for her series. She lives near the Colorado foothills with her husband and her four-legged co-workers.

Visit Kathleen on her website at http://www.kathleendonnelly.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/AuthorKathleenDonnelly/, follow her on Twitter @KatK9writer or find her on Instagram @authorkathleendonnelly.

#TuesdayBookBlog

The Cartagena Cartel by T C Roberts #BookReview #travelhumor

The Misadventures of a Modern-Day Nomad: Book 2

Book Blurb:

Archie Flynn, heartbroken and restless, flees his homeland in search of adventure, freedom, and a fresh start as a digital nomad. His destination? Cartagena, Colombia.

But paradise turns to peril when a chance encounter with a femme fatale leaves him drugged, robbed, and broke in a city where desperation breeds bad decisions. Forced into a dangerous game with the local cartel and corrupt cops, Archie’s dream of escape quickly spirals into a nightmare.

Just when all seems lost, the enigmatic Julianna steps into his life—an unexpected ally who rekindles his faith in women and offers a glimmer of hope. But in a city where romance and danger walk hand in hand, can Archie survive long enough to rewrite his fate?

The Cartagena Cartel is a gripping, darkly comedic thriller about heartbreak, survival, and self-discovery in the underbelly of paradise.

His Review:

The largest cash crop for Cartagena is drugs and the second biggest for the country of Columbia. The drug cartels run the country, the government, and the police force. Archie Ignatius Flynn is an Australian who has made Columbia his current home and is a drug enthusiast. He is in the city to write and send stories back to Australia regarding the enormous drug problem. However, as you read the story you realize that drugs are not a problem for Cartagena but rather for the rest of the world.

Entering the country is risky in and of itself. The rain forest is a large part of the country and the many ways to die are incredible.

The rain forest is not an environment to be taken lightly and many die each year thinking they can enter it, but Archie is not involved in the rain forest at this time. He does enjoy a little recreational cocaine and has a number of very beautiful women who pursue him. One of these lovely ladies is involved with people who drug him and steal his identity, passport, and all of his money. If he had not prepaid for his lodging, he would be penniless and out in the street.

I found this to be a very interesting book and a warning for non-drug users to avoid the country at all costs. The women are gorgeous and engaging. However, their target may be you, the tourist, and all of your possessions. (At one point, Archie is left totally naked in the street with nothing.) There are scenes that lend a dark, noir foreboding to the storyline. Read and be forewarned by his adventures! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to the author 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: Travel Humor, Crime Action Fiction, Crime Action & Adventure
ASIN: B0F1FHFW8W
Print Length: 301 pages
Publication Date: April 8, 2025
Source: Author

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK

The Author: T.C. Roberts is the independent author of the non-fiction title, “Goodbye Office, Hello World!”, his debut novel, “Highly Flawed Individual”, and the forthcoming sequel, “The Cartagena Cartel”. Originally from Sydney, Tim has no fixed address and considers himself a citizen of the world. When he is not writing, he’s exploring new places, swimming in the ocean or seeking out his next destination.

AI generated graphic courtesy Freepik.com

The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke #AudiobookReview #ThrowbackThursday

A Dave Robicheaux Novel Book 1

Book Blurb:

New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels began with this first hard-hitting entry in the series.

In The Neon Rain, Detective Robicheaux fishes a prostitute’s corpse from a New Orleans bayou and finds that no one, not even the law, cares about a dead hooker.

My Review:

My first go-round with this author and I gotta admit checked most of the boxes for me. I could identify with the time period, if not “Nalans” and, indeed, New Orleans is a whole character unto itself.

It’s good I was listening to the audiobook as the author did a beautiful job of the accents (French), dialects of the locals (Cajun), as well as the protagonist’s name, Robicheaux (pronounced Row-be-show).

Even better when I start a healthy (24 installments in the series??) with Book 1. Yes, the first book is usually an introduction to the main character, the location, and the setting, in this case, the police department. Back then we had a lot of veterans, some still fresh from ‘Nam. Dave Robicheaux has apparently been back long enough to have achieved detective level with the local police department.

I loved how the description of the area rolled off the tongue of the narrator, making it almost sensual. I got a feeling pretty quickly about gritty Robicheaux, hardened from battle, brass, baddies, and loss. He’s no one to mess with.

When he discovers a young prostitute’s body, it hits him hard, and he throws all effort at finding the perp. Unfortunately, it also begins to uncover a lot more than he bargained for, and he reverts to drinking again and is placed on leave.

No problem.

He goes rogue.

In the meantime, the reader is treated to the prose created by the beauty of the bayou, the music, the mood, the food, the heat, the French Quarter, and the rain. In our experience, the latter happened every afternoon about 4 p.m. Ever notice that moss hanging from those iconic trees? Did you wonder why?

Graphic details, descriptions, and language paint a noir picture through the storyline and solid support characters. It is well-paced, suspenseful, gritty, and within a hard-boiled mystery. Armchair tourist? This might well be one trip you’ll enjoy.

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: Police Procedural Mysteries, Crime Fiction, Suspense
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B0028TY1GU
Listening Length: 8 hrs 22 mins
Narrator: Will Patton
Publication Date: May 5, 2009
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US
Amazon-UK

The Author: James Lee Burke is a New York Times bestselling author, three-time winner of the Edgar Award as well as the Grand Master Award from Mystery Writers of America, winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger and Gold Dagger and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts in Fiction.

#ThrowbackThursday

Murder in Galway by Carlene O’Connor #BookReview #InternationalMystery&Crime

A Home to Ireland Mystery Book 1

Book Blurb:

In the first installment of bestselling author Carlene O’Connor’s new Home to Ireland Mystery series, New York Tara Meehan’s first trip to Galway, Ireland may be her last.

Jump right into the beauty and splendor—and murder—of Tara’s Irish adventure! With a gorgeous setting, suspicious characters, and a deadly mystery—Murder in Galway will have you packing your bags…

Tara never imagined her introduction to Ireland like this—carrying her mam’s ashes to honor her final request: “Tell Johnny I’m sorry…Take me home.” She’s never met her mam’s estranged brother, Johnny Meehan, who owns an architectural salvage business in Galway. Although Tara is immediately charmed by the medieval city, the locals seem wary of strangers and a gypsy warns her that death is all around.

When Tara arrives at her uncle’s stone cottage, the prophesy seems true. A dead man lies sprawled over the threshold in a pool of blood. The victim turns out to be Johnny’s wealthiest client, and her missing uncle is the garda’s number-one suspect. In trying to find Johnny and solve the crime, Tara uncovers her mam and uncle’s troubled past. But with a desperate killer about, she had better mind herself, or they’ll be tossing her ashes in Galway Bay…

His Review:

Ah, the lure of Ireland to the progeny of Irish ancestors. Tara’s mother had immigrated to the United States from Ireland in her mid20’s. She did not explain to her daughter why she immigrated except that she had some “troubles” with a few of her neighbors. The problem was never explained. Upon her mother’s death Tara decided to go back to Ireland to see if she could understand the reason why.

There is an old warehouse full of odds and ends that has supported her mother’s brother since she left Ireland. Tara goes to the old warehouse in which her mother has an interest. Upon arriving at the building, a dead man is sprawled across the threshold of the business! The local law enforcement called Guarda start to investigate with Tara’s uncle being the principal suspect. In Galway less than 24 hours and she is already embroiled in a major crime!

Tara is an aspiring investigator and she begins to outline the crime and possible suspects. Meanwhile, the Guarda is working to get enough evidence to charge Tara with the crime. Their recommendation is that she leave Ireland immediately.

A budding romance blossoms between Tara and a young man named Danny, however, who has been operating the business since her uncle’s disappearance. The evidence of the crimes seems to always circle back to Tara’s visit to her mother’s homeland!

This book has many interesting twists and turns and a budding romance between Tara and Danny. Will the death spoil their chance for romance? Will Tara be charged with murder? These questions and many more are answered in the book. Read and enjoy this Irish mystery in Book 1 of A Home to Ireland Mystery series Book 1.

[Note: This book was on my list for #ReadingIrelandMonth25 this year, but didn’t get posted in March. It’s late.

[I read Book 2, A Murder in Connemara back in July of 2021 and really enjoyed it. I also read the last three O’Connor novels from the County Kerry series and many more from her other series as well. Thought the CE would enjoy this one. I must say, he was ready to pack his bags and fly to the Emerald Isle.]

C E Williams We received a copy of this book from our library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: International Mystery & Crime, Cozy Culinary Mysteries, Ghost Mysteries
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ASIN: B07TT34D26
Print Length: 297 pages
Publication Date: April 28, 2020
Source: Local Library

Title Link(s):

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

The Author: USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor comes from a long line of Irish storytellers. Her great-grandmother emigrated from Ireland to America and the stories have been flowing ever since. Of all the places across the pond she’s wandered, she fell most in love with a walled town in County Limerick and was inspired to create the town of Kilbane, County Cork. She writes the bestselling IRISH VILLAGE MYSTERIES, the HOME TO IRELAND series, and the new COUNTY KERRY MYSTERIES. Her books have been translated into numerous languages, and optioned for television. Readers can find her at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086525205106 or through her website: http://www.carleneoconnor.net

Reading Ireland Month 25 — 746 Books is hosting this annual challenge. Mix and match your formats!

Beautiful Ugly: A Novel by Alice Feeney #AudiobookReview #DomesticThrillers

Editors’ pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible: a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

My Review:

Boy, howdy, I do get tired of damaged narrators. Grady Green is a narcissistic author whose wife apparently disappeared the very day he was over the moon with the news he’d landed New York bestseller status. He couldn’t wait to tell her, but the journalist stopped her car on the way home to check out someone in the road and was never seen again. Yeah. They found her car.

Grady is a mess. The loss of his wife appears to put the kibosh on his writing skills. He’s hit the wall and struggling with everything, staring down the laptop as it continues to cool its jets. That’s when his publisher mentions she has a cabin on an island in which he could sequester himself peacefully and just write.

And I gotta admit. I was hooked in this first part. He’s almost sympathetic. The cabin is nice. Very nice. The view of the water and the area surreal. His dog Columbo loves it. The only problem is the people of the little village—too small to have much—they are a tight bunch who heave a big sigh when tourist season is over—for them it’s over—and he’s not a particularly welcome guest.

It’s weird then that things begin to manifest—seeing his wife. Is sure he sees his wife. Or maybe not. The deeper into his history, the less sympathy I felt, and there were really no support characters that grabbed me. Pretty unlikable all round. Except for Columbo.

The storyline became complex, and the more so, the more incredulous or implausible it became as well. Yeah, twists that didn’t make sense. I had to shake my head…wait, what?

The author built suspense alright and kept this reader turning pages, and it was getting pretty far out there until the one big one in the denouement. To the point of almost being funny. Really? Okay, Karma is a b*tch.

Fan of Feeney? You may very well find this one a thriller you’ll enjoy. You can’t say it isn’t entertaining.

I also read and enjoyed Good Bad Girl a couple years ago, along with a couple others, but find this author still a bit inconsistent for me. 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: Domestic Thrillers, Family Life Fiction, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0D3QS21DQ
Listening Length: 9 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Richard Armitage, Tuppence Middleton
Publication Date: January 14, 2025
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)

Title Links:

Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Alice Feeney is a New York Times million-copy bestselling author of novels including His & Hers, Sometimes I Lie, Rock Paper Scissors and Daisy Darker. Her books have been translated into over thirty-five languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations, with His & Hers currently in production for Netflix, produced by Jessica Chastain, and starring Tessa Thompson and Jon Bernthal.

Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years. Her seventh novel, Beautiful Ugly, will be published around the world in January 2025.

You can follow Alice on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter. To find out the latest book and TV news, or to sign up for Alice’s free newsletter, please visit alicefeeney dot com

Happy Thursday

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

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!