GoodReads – Page 43 – Rosepoint Publishing

In My Attic (A Magical Misfits Mystery Book 1) by Lina Hansen – a #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

Sometimes all it takes is murder to discover who you truly are.
Grammar school teacher Myrtle Coldron has no patience to spare for Aunt Eve’s Wiccan shenanigans. Myrtle ignores auntie’s frantic plea for help—only to learn she has crashed from the attic to her death. The circumstances are suspicious; murder is on the cards. Riddled with guilt, Myrtle returns to the Witch’s Retreat, Eve’s beloved Bed and Breakfast, to sleuth for the truth.

No such luck.

The sleepy, historic village sheltering the B+B also hides a mystery. Soon enough, Myrtle is besieged by a zany posse of suspects, nightly visitors in the attic, threatening notes—and a zombie primula with a mind of its own.

Somebody is out to get her, and it will take all her skills—including those she doesn’t care for—to keep Myrtle alive.

My Review:

Myrtle Coldron has to return to Avebury and her aunt’s B&B when she is notified of the former Wiccan’s passing. Her aunt had tried to call for her help, but Myrtle wouldn’t return the call. The local police close the case marking the death accidental but now her death appears to be very suspicious, she feels even worse and vows to learn the truth.

Her aunt’s B&B called the Witch’s Retreat has only a few guests at the moment and she has the aid of Eve Coldron’s housekeepers-pseudo managers to keep things in order. The aunt had taken her in after the tragic death of her parents. Her cousin, Daisy, Eve’s heir apparent, is not the most reliable and Myrtle will stay to help make arrangements and coordinate with the attorney.

Unfortunately, her aunt bequeaths the B&B to Myrtle leaving her cousin only a stipend and a place to live. Strange things begin to happen and begin to escalate. The two male guests seem at odds with each other. Avebury is an interesting setting, ancient (with an aura even we felt when we visited–also a cold, rainy day). The weather coming out of a long winter is still wet, dreary, and cold lending a dismal atmosphere.

The subject of witches, druids, and the mystery of the stones have enjoyed quite a bit of research and lends entertaining threads. The staff (sisters), local residents, and a coordinating officer introduce several support characters. Myrtle is not fully developed, though we know she is an unmarried educator. She undertakes a search to discover her aunt’s artifacts and in the process begins to discover much more about her aunt–and herself–than she ever imagined.

Although well-plotted, the pacing, particularly at the beginning, is rather slow as it establishes the scene, B&B descriptions, and characters. I enjoyed the writing style infused with self-talk and some humorous observations. The author allows the tension to build as additional quirky happenings send Myrtle scrambling to protect herself and reveal the who and why. The climax comes unexpectedly revealing the one you might not have suspected. While there are a couple unexplained threads, the conclusion leaves a couple doors open for a storyline to explore in Book 2.

I was offered the digital download in the hope of a review and feel it’s a good start to a promising series. If you enjoy a magical aspect in your reads or witchy stories, you’ll appreciate this narrative of the discovery of powers.

Book Details:

Genre: Cozy Mystery, Amateur Sleuths, Witch & Wizard Mysteries
Publisher: Literary Wanderlust

ISBN-10:1942856512
ISBN-13:978-1942856511
ASIN: B085KPYKPT

Print Length: 280 pages
Publication Date: July 1, 2020
Source: Direct Author Request
Title Link(s): In My Attic (Amazon)

Rosepoint Publishing: Four of Five Stars

The Author: LINA HANSEN has been a freelance travel journalist, teacher, bellydancer, postal clerk and science communication specialist stranded in the space sector. Numbed by factoid technical texts, she set out to write the stories she loves to read– cozy and romantic mysteries with a dollop of humour and a magical twist. After living and working in the UK, Lina, her husband, and their feline companion now share a home in the foothills of Castle Frankenstein. Lina is a double Watty Award Winner, Featured Author, and a Wattpad Star. In My Attic is the first of the Magical Misfits series of mysteries.

Contact Ms. Hansen at http://linahansenauthor.com/contact/ or @lhansenauthor

Departure (Seth Walker Book 3) by Joseph Reid – A #BookReview by the CE

Air marshal Seth Walker is called in to investigate the disappearance of an electrical engineer at SFO.

Book Blurb:

The Amazon Charts bestselling series continues as air marshal Seth Walker hunts a potential terrorist who could hold the key to the darkest chapter of his own past.

When an electrical engineer from one of America’s premier tech companies disappears inside the San Francisco International Airport before an overseas flight, air marshal Seth Walker is called in to investigate. With the clock ticking down and questions multiplying at every turn, Walker can’t afford to fail: the lives of all two hundred thousand passengers inside SFO may hang in the balance.

As he races through crowded concourses, desperately searching for clues, Walker can sense this is no routine missing-persons case. But as he digs ever deeper into the young man’s background, the tangle of contradictions he finds is confounding. Is the engineer the victim of a crime…or the perpetrator of one?

As the case forces Walker to confront his own demons and the reason he fled his former life in industry, finding this man may mean exposing his own darkest secret.

His Review:

Air Marshal Seth is landing at LAX, returning from an assignment, when he is intercepted to follow another case. Riding on a plane with a thoroughly obnoxious passenger is not unheard of. However, this fellow makes himself a real mean and classic drunk. You know, the kind you wished there were emergency exits for!

He left the electronics industry due to the suicide of his boss which has left him with remaining questions. But industrial espionage will be the primary focus of this book. Would a foreign power really try to capture and steal the technology developed in this country? As you read you be the judge. A major support character is Melissa Cooke, Special Agent for the F.B.I.

The object of the diversion is a young Arab immigrant named Anah El Amin. Remarkably, throughout the book, he stays one step ahead of Seth and Melissa at the airport in San Francisco.

I enjoyed the story and the plot but found the various treks through the terminals at SFO just a little slow at times. My thoughts developed a parallel plot. Why can’t they simply have a cadre of people looking at all the surveillance footage and see where El Amin is currently located rather than looking at past footage and then trying to keep up with his progress?

Amin escapes with his Chinese co-conspirator in a small jet. They head to another US destination and our two agents are able to commandeer a plane to follow them. They arrive at the new destination at about the same time.

CE Williams I found the resourcefulness of both the two conspirators and the two agents entertaining. There was a lot of action and the storyline is well-paced. The climax was a surprise. A new series and author for me, I read as a standalone. We received the digital download from NetGalley in exchange for a read and review and these are my honest opinions. Recommended. C.E. Williams

Book Details:

Genre: Military Thrillers, Technothrillers
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

ISBN-10:1542041813
ISBN-13:978-1542041812

ASIN: B07S6MWR88
Print Length: 322 pages
Publication Date: August 11, 2020
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Departure (Amazon)

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five of Five Stars

The Author: Joseph Reid is the author of the bestselling Seth Walker series, featuring the air marshal-turned-investigator who solves crimes in and around aviation.
The son of a navy helicopter pilot, Reid chased great white sharks as a marine biologist before becoming a patent lawyer who litigates multi-million-dollar cases for high-tech companies. He has flown millions of miles on commercial aircraft and has spent countless hours in airports around the world. A graduate of Duke University and the University of Notre Dame, he lives in San Diego with his wife and children. [Find Mr. Reid at his website here.]

Bossypants by Tina Fey – An #Audiobook Review Narrated by the Author

Rosepoint Publishing: Five of Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Before Liz Lemon, before “Weekend Update”, before “Sarah Palin”, Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both of those dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon – from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

Includes special, never-before-solicited opinions on breastfeeding, princesses, Photoshop, the electoral process, and Italian rum cake!

My Review:

If you’ve ever wondered if an author can read his/her own book and do it any justice, I urge you to give this audiobook a listen. Even if you’ve read her book–give the audiobook a listen. She so totally nails the pacing, the insinuations, the whispered asides, and the timbre, you can’t help but hang on every word. There were times I shared chapters with the CE and he laughed along with me.

A memoir? Nah. Autobiography? No–it is categorized as Comedy and Humor Essays and I’d say there were enough of both that you don’t really need a memoir, per se. Why not just enjoy the humorous aspects of her memories, giving you a personal glimpse to the woman inside Tina Fey. What you get is what you see? Perhaps more than you realized. She is enormously talented and she doesn’t take a lot of nonsense from anyone–hence the title.

Still, you are given vignettes into her childhood, adolescence, and the road to success through her experience with Second City, stint in SNL, and now 30 Rock. To be fair–no–30 Rock is not a show I watch, but then I don’t watch much on TV anymore, period. I specifically enjoyed the chapters on her dad, “That’s Don Fey,” as well as “My Honeymoon,” “The Secrets of Mommy’s Beauty,” “Amazing, Gorgeous, and Not Like That.” But “Kotex Classic” has to be a classic. Did I forget to mention her experience with the “Teat Nazis?” (Her attempt at breastfeeding didn’t go all that well.) Gees, I laughed at so many of her observations!

“Gay people don’t actually try to convert people. That’s Jehovah’s Witnesses you’re thinking of.”

Her intro to writing for SNL was a hoot, her role gradually evolving into performing (memorably as Sarah Palin) as well. It certainly makes those “stars” human, the actors, her fellow writers, and directors, with special love notes to Amy Poehler.

While the audiobook that Amy Poehler narrated was classed Biographies of Women and Humor Essays, I found little to confirm those categories, whereas I felt Fey’s Humor Essays were just that–one right after the other. I was quite surprised to read some of the reviews on Goodreads that didn’t appreciate either. Do both Poehler and Fey tend to get a bit profane? Yup. And there are no subjects taboo. (I suspect their lives have been greatly more exposed to the baser part of life than I.)

I received this audiobook download from my local library audiobook selection delivered through Overdrive. THANK YOU! You looking for a humorous oasis in this pandemic cloud? I suggest this just might give you that respite.

Book Details:

Genre: Comedy, Humor Essays
Publisher: Hachette Audio
ASIN: B004V6APR2
Listening Length: 5 hrs 31 mins
Narrator: Tina Fey
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Source: Local (Audiobook Selections) Library
Title Link: Bossypants

Tina Fey - actress, author — SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — NBC Late Night — Pictured: Featured Player and Head Writer Tina Fey — NBC Photo: Mary Ellen Matthews

The Author: [from Goodreads] Elizabeth Stamatina “Tina” Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She has received seven Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and four Writers Guild of America Awards. She was singled out as the performer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment in 2008 by the Associated Press, who gave her their AP Entertainer of the Year award.

After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1992, Fey moved to Chicago to take classes at the improvisational comedy group The Second City, where she became a featured player in 1994. Three years later, Fey became a writer for the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). She was promoted to the position of head writer in 1999. The following year, Fey was added to the cast of SNL. During her time there, she was co-anchor of the show’s Weekend Update segment. After leaving SNL in 2006, she created the television series called 30 Rock, a situation comedy loosely based on her experiences at SNL. In the series, Fey portrays the head writer of a fictional sketch comedy series.

In 2004, Fey made her film debut as writer and co-star of the teen comedy Mean Girls. In 2008, she starred in the comedy film Baby Mama, alongside Amy Poehler. In 2009, Fey won an Emmy Award for her satirical portrayal of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in a guest appearance on SNL.

[Note: Tina Fey is married to Jeff Richmond. Fey is currently the “creator and star of 30 Rock. They met while working at The Second City and dated for seven years before marrying in a Greek Orthodox ceremony on June 3, 2001. They have two daughters.”]

An Unequal Defense – David Adams Book 2 by Chad Zunker

“The single greatest cause of homelessness is a profound, catastrophic loss of family.”

Book Blurb:

A client with delusions of a deadly conspiracy draws attorney David Adams into a darkness where only the paranoid know how to get out alive.

Former up-and-coming hotshot attorney David Adams left his glamorous corporate law firm to fight for the disenfranchised. With a caseload of petty offenses, a meager office in a crumbling building, and little in the way of compensation, David needs a real case.

When he agrees to represent Rebel, David recognizes this will be the biggest challenge of his young legal career. The mentally unstable homeless man has been accused of murder, and the evidence of his guilt seems overwhelming. But it’s the victim who shakes David’s world: a county prosecutor who just happens to be an old law school friend. Rebel’s murky defense: a paranoid insistence on a CIA plot to silence the derelict.

Aided only by a “legal team” of misfit street friends and a fellow counselor lured into this dark web, David will risk everything to defend his client…who may not be nearly as crazy as he seems.

My Review:

The second book in the series and the first I’ve read of this author. David Adams is a great protagonist, almost immediately empathetic. Up to a year ago, the fledgling attorney was a rising star in an aggressive legal firm strongly focused on billable hours and the almighty buck.

But something happened and he and a partner Thomas Gray (his mentor) left to start their own office, one that would take on cases of the disenfranchised–hoping to make a difference to the community. While his partner seems to be doing pretty well, most of David’s cases have successfully closed with him being owed the legal fees. Thomas is getting nervous.

He’s even more nervous when one of David’s friends, an assistant DA, is shot to death in an alley and he’s asked to defend Rebel, the homeless man in custody. It looks like an open and shut case with the homeless man maintaining he didn’t do it, while blathering about the CIA.

David doesn’t get too far with Rebel his first few meetings with him obviously off his meds, but something just seems even more “off” when he’s confronted with a possible witness who quickly fades into the background. Okay, now he has to know what is going on.

I do enjoy a good legal thriller, though this didn’t seem to involve a lot of legal maneuvering in or out of court more than it did investigation. In the meantime, Rebel is attacked in jail and survives but in the hospital, David trying to get any info out of Rebel sends him further over the top. (DAMN! Where are his meds?!)

The well-paced mystery, thriller is a fairly simple read. While the plot might be complex, there are red herrings sufficient to drive interest and gradually expands from unreliable witness to political conspiracy. But wait! How far up the chain does it go? Who can you trust? The author introduces great support characters, including Dana Mitchem and Kate at the appropriate point in time, and while plunking in possible new dodgy motives, adds tension to the ever-widening plot. Dana is…what…a romantic interest? But more than that–feeding him just a tad of insider information. I don’t know if Dana was involved in Book 1, but feel she’ll absolutely be around for Book 3. (Awkward…) There might have been greater fleshing of Dana in the first, as well as Thomas and Doc, but I missed it here.

Easy to follow, short chapters, genuine dialogue, interchange between David and his partner exhibiting an easy familiarity. David comes off as sincere, you’ll root for him as well as Rebel. There is a surprise in the conclusion that left the reader with a knowing chuckle that provided a fast read with a pleasant ending.

I received this digital download from the publisher through NetGalley and appreciated the opportunity to read and review. Fun, fast-paced legal, espionage thriller that’ll interest you in proceeding to Book 3. An Unequal Defense is out now. The timing is perfect.

Book Details:

Genre: Legal Thrillers, Espionage Thrillers
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ASIN: B07S7Q1ZGC
Print Length: 247 pages
Publication Date: May 19, 2020
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: An Unequal Defense (Amazon)

Rosepoint Publishing: Four of Five Stars

The Author: CHAD ZUNKER is the author of the David Adams legal thriller, An Equal Justice, as well as The Tracker, Shadow Shepherd, and Hunt the Lion in his Sam Callahan series. Chad has worked for some of the country’s most powerful law firms and serves at Community First! Village, a 51-acre master-planned community that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women coming out of chronic homelessness. He lives in Austin with his wife, Katie, and their three daughters, and is hard at work on his next novel. For more information visit http://www.chadzunker.com.

Bones of the Innocent: A Mason Collins Crime Thriller 3 by John A Connell – A CE #BookReview

Rosepoint Publishing: Five of Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Mason Collins grapples with secrets and murder as he races against time to save the lives of abducted teenagers in a case a twisted as the streets of Tangier’s medina.

Summer, 1946. Just as assassins from a shadowy organization close in for the kill, a flamboyant stranger offers Mason a way out: He must accompany the stranger to Morocco to investigate the abductions of teenage girls. Girls that vanished without a trace.

Once Mason lands in Tangier, he discovers that nothing—or no one—is what it seems. This playground for the super rich is called the wickedest city in the world, and he realizes those who could help him the most harbor a terrible secret.

But just as Mason begins to unravel the mystery, the assassins have once again picked up his trail. Now, Mason must put his life on the line to find the girls before it’s too late. If he lives that long…

Bones of the Innocent is the third in the Mason Collins series of historical crime thrillers that bestselling author Lee Child declares is “…a must-read series for me.”

If you like your murder mystery served with a dose of adrenaline and a dash of the bizarre then you’ll love Bones!

His Review:

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’” is very appropriate for this tale. John Connell has developed his character, Mason Collins, into an international cop for hire. The setting is Tangier and is a very good reason not to visit the place. From the onset Mason is at odds with most of the police force in the area.

The other characters are well developed and most of them are hateful. When diplomats’ children are among the missing, it sparks a big investigation into the missing youths. Tangier is a melting pot of many cultures and distrust of other cultures is a key element in this narrative. The dialogue points out the problem with multi-languages being used in a very small country.

As the plot develops, the local police are less than thrilled with the intrusion of this outside detective. There seem to be many false leads leading to the climax. Distrust between ethnic groups hampers straight forward investigations. Disparity between the haves and have-nots is everywhere.

The author keeps this story going at a fast clip and a well-scheduled reading interval will help with the book. The climax is rewarding and satisfactory. I found the loss of many different ethnic children very disturbing and disheartening. 5 stars

We received this digital download from BookBub and appreciated the opportunity to read and review and these are my honest opinions. 5 stars – C.E. Williams

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Thrillers, Kidnapping Thrillers
Publisher: Nailhead Publishing
ASIN: B07T1PGV1G
Print Length: 378 pages
Publication Date: July 5, 2019
Source: Publisher and BookBub
Title Link: Bones of the Innocent [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble

The Author: John A. Connell is a 2016 Barry Award nominee and the author of the Mason Collins series. He was born in Atlanta then grew up in Ohio, New York and Virginia before ending up in Atlanta again at the age of 13. He has a BA in Anthropology, and has been a jazz pianist, a stock boy in a brassiere factory, a machinist, repairer of newspaper racks, and a printing-press operator. He then moved to Los Angeles to work as a motion picture camera operator for film and TV, where he worked on films like Jurassic Park and Thelma and Louise, and on TV shows, including NYPD Blue and The Practice. John and his wife spend their time between the U.S. and France.
He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America.
John loves to hear from readers, so please feel free to contact him at john@johnaconnell.com

Yes Please by Amy Poehler – An #Audiobook Review

GRAMMY NOMINEE – Audie Award, Humor, 2015

Book Blurb:

Amy Poehler is hosting a dinner party and you’re invited! Welcome to the audiobook edition of Amy Poehler’s Yes Please. The guest list is star-studded with vocal appearances from Carol Burnett, Seth Meyers, Michael Schur, Patrick Stewart, Kathleen Turner, and even Amy’s parents – Yes Please is the ultimate audiobook extravaganza.

Also included? A one-night-only live performance at Poehler’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. Hear Amy read a chapter live in front of a young and attractive Los Angeles audience.

While listening to Yes Please, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll become convinced that your phone is trying to kill you. Don’t miss this collection of stories, thoughts, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of our most beloved entertainers. Offering Amy’s thoughts on everything from her “too safe” childhood outside of Boston to her early days in New York City, her ideas about Hollywood and “the biz”, the demon that looks back at all of us in the mirror, and her joy at being told she has a “face for wigs” – Yes Please is chock-full of words, and wisdom, to live by.

My Review:

I guess I can’t think about Amy Poehler without also including Tina Fey, and of course, Tina also wrote a memoir that I am currently listening to and will review next week. I’m not sure what I was expecting when I downloaded this audiobook from my local library. Amy’s book is biting, full of essays, name-dropping, and repeated comments regarding how difficult it is to write a book. That becomes imminently obvious, as she struggled mightily with it.

And I’m sorry (or maybe not), but I didn’t find it particularly funny. Okay, a comedienne, but this is not a book about comedy. I’m not wholly sure it can be called a memoir either as it skips over parts many people would be interested in, saying, “I also don’t like people knowing my s**t.” Then yah got me stumped. So, then, what is it? Perhaps more of an appreciation card–a thank you to all who helped get her there?

Of course, I’m most interested in her years on SNL–thinking back to some of the hey-dey years of SNL–when they were a little more topical and a little less fart jokes. I never really got into Parks and Recreation, and her description of it sounds like it didn’t garner a lot of awards.

She does mention realizing at an early age that this was what she wanted to do and focused on moving toward that goal, getting into the improv groups, dodging rats in New York and drugs and booze in Chicago, though she expands in further detail drug usage in a later chapter.

Motherhood, definitely waxes poetic, having started her family in her thirties after having enormous amounts of fun playing the single scene and the improv scene through her twenties. In fact, she was pregnant in segments on SNL. I did enjoy some of the anecdotes from her time there, particularly with Tina Fey, but also as she goes into depth about her friendship with Seth Meyers.

In fact, she spends quite a bit of time expounding on various of the characters with whom she played for years. The problem I had was in the lack of cohesiveness. (It was all over the place.) The book doesn’t appear to have been laid out in any one direction. She’ll bounce from kindergarten to SNL and back again to kindergarten and her parents. In fact, they have a segment.

Alternately profane and compassionate, she climbs more than one soapbox to express her concerns for people, how to attain satisfaction in your own life. She teaches kindness. Reads letters that she felt were pivotal points in her treatment of people. Still, she remains closed off, impenetrable. All I really know at this point is that she worked hard at her craft and paid her dues and I think that’s the story of any who finally made it to the top.

I received this audiobook from my local well-stocked library audiobook section and appreciated the opportunity to give a listen. Next week–Tina Fey’s memoir, biography, Bossy Pants. Stay tuned.

Book Details:

Genre: Biographies of Women, Humor Essays, Biographies of Celebrities & Entertainment Professionals
Publisher: Harper Audio
ASIN: B00MP22QRQ
Print Length:
Listening Length: 7 hrs 31 mins
Narrator: Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, Seth Meyers, Mike Schur, Eileen Poehler, William Poehler, Patrick Stewart, Kathleen Turner
Publication Date: October 28, 2014
Source: Local (Audiobook Selections) Library
Title Link: Amazon Audible | Amazon Paperback | Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble

Rosepoint Publishing: Four of Five Stars

The Author: [from Goodreads]] Amy Meredith Poehler is an American actress, comedian, voice artist, producer and writer. Raised in Burlington, Massachusetts, she graduated from Boston College in 1993 and moved to Chicago, Illinois, to study improv at The Second City and ImprovOlympic. In 1996, she moved to New York City after becoming part of the improvisational comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade, which later developed into an eponymous television show that aired on Comedy Central for three seasons. Poehler was also one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in 1999.

Poehler was a cast member on the NBC television show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she became the co-anchor of the Weekend Update sketch along with her friend and colleague Tina Fey. Poehler’s work on SNL earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She is known for voicing Bessie Higgenbottom in the 2008–2011 Nickelodeon series, The Mighty B! and Eleanor Miller in the Alvin and the Chipmunks CGI films. Since 2009, she has starred as Leslie Knope in the sitcom Parks and Recreation, and received the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Musical or Comedy Series. She is also an eight-time Emmy Award nominee.

Poehler is currently starring in the new Swedish-American sitcom Welcome to Sweden along with her brother Greg Poehler.

Curse of the Ninth by Ruthie Marlenée – a #BookReview

“Oranges for health, California for Wealth”

Book Blurb:

In the fall of 1930, Charley, not yet born, knows what happened to his father Doc as he lay dying. Like a changing of guards upon his death, Doc transfers over his consciousness to his unborn son.

Now sharing the life of his dead father, Charley has no choice except to carry out his father’s plans, including taking revenge on Doc’s killer. Despite the consequences.
Charley floats in and out of juvie, jail, and finally ends up in the U.S. Naval Hospital’s mental ward as a perfect candidate for the government’s “Project Chatter.”

Confused and threatened, Charley only wants to live like a normal person and marry the woman he loves, goals that feel impossible unless he can somehow get rid of his father’s beyond-the-grave influence.

My Review:

Uh, okay…

This is a hard one. It actually names the “phenomenon of transferring one’s consciousness into a pure form at the time of death.” Phowa (a Buddhist meditation practice ).

Doc dies, but it isn’t an accident. His unborn son receives his restless and spiteful spirit. He’ll want retribution. There is no simple way to properly review this book. It’s complicated, unusual, I doubt you’ve read another like it. The cast of characters are at opposing sides of the moral compass and I felt the most sympathy for the mother, Phoebe. Phoebe is a gifted concert pianist and introduces to the well-drawn plot the myth of Beethovan’s curse…the curse of the ninth. (He died before he could complete his tenth symphony.)

There are issues here–many. Doc was married before–to Stella, who gave him two sons and a daughter. Stella was an alcoholic and made life miserable before Doc met Phoebe, who transformed his life and was about to give him a baby. A son…Charley. And it is Charley’s POV that drives the book along with a stellar cast of support characters–most flawed, bitter relatives, thieving partners, one of whom convinces the widow her new son needs a dad.

And Charley, the most egregiously damaged, possessed of his father’s vengeful spirit and often uninvited voice. The complex tale follows Charley’s life-long struggle with Doc’s spirit, failing to evict him after numerous attempts. Charley possesses the amazing musical ability of his mother and the strains of the Ode to Joy often weaves in and throughout the pages (indeed I plugged into the YouTube version), steeped in prose and philosophy, arguments of mental illness.

Set during the 30s through 1949, much of the narrative is relayed through sessions with Dr. Savage, a Navy psychiatrist, in an effort to determine how Charley should be diagnosed and discharged. At this point, Charley seems a ne’er do well, constantly at odds with the voice in his head, and who wouldn’t diagnose him as schizophrenic? Boy does that open a can of worms!

A compelling read, whether or not rooting for Charley. A strange mixture of the occult, historical reference, and poetic prose. Beautiful description, engaging author writing style, although I was a little dismayed by the conclusion. A family story from the author years in research, her grandfather would be proud.

I received this digital download directly from the author and greatly appreciated the opportunity to read and review. Looking for something different? Recommended to any interested in the occult, spiritual world, myths, eastern philosophy, even literary and historical fiction. Kudos to the author for weaving a fascinating tale between fact and fiction. 4.5/5 stars

Book Details:
Genre: Occult Fiction, Literary Fiction, Occult Horror
Publisher: E L Marker
ASIN: B08429CXWS
Print Length: 320 pages
Publication Date: January 19, 2020
Source: Direct Author Request
Purchase Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five of Five Stars

The Author: Ruthie Marlenée “Like her main character Charlie, Ruthie Marlenée grew up hearing wild, colorful stories about her wealthy, entrepreneurial grandfather…The result (of a suggestion from her father) is her novel, “Curse of the Ninth,” a tale based on real and imagined events. After almost twenty years since the kernel of the idea was planted, after going back to UCLA to workshop the story, after earning her Writers’ Certificate in Fiction and a nomination for a James Kirkwood Literary Award for “Curse of the Ninth”, Marlenée is happy to find a home with the WiDo/E.L. Marker Family of Publishers. A company Marlenée describes as “a personable and genuine organization willing to take this project on.”

Marlenée believes that writing is about using your imagination and so sometimes when she writes she can’t help but add bits of magic or elements of speculation. In her current novel, she marries the notion of the Curse of the Ninth Symphony, where a composer is doomed to complete a tenth, together with the Buddhist meditation practice of Phowa, the transference of consciousness at time of death.”

Taken in part from an article dated October 2, 2018, WiDō Publishing^tm, Novelist and Screenwriter Ruthie Marlenée Signs with E.L. Marker™ See full article here.

Sucker Punch: Getting Killed Can Be the Least of Your Problems by Jim Carroll – a #BookReview

Rosepoint Publishing: Five of Five Stars

A Vicarious Blogger review of a military thriller

Book Blurb:

Johnny Mack wanted to be an airline pilot who flew all over the world, made great money and met lots of girls. At 18 that seemed like a fair trade for a few years in the Army.

Johnny found out too late that in 1971 the Army only needed helicopter pilots. And they only needed them in Vietnam.

After an unfortunate incident involving a General’s daughter, Johnny ‘volunteers’ to go undercover on a Medevac crew suspected of selling Army medicines to the enemy.

Johnny’s control officer’s incompetence is deadlier than any enemy. Johnny’s crew are psychopathic pirates.

Then there is the regular job. Coming into hot landing zones. Loading the dead and wounded. Ignoring the screaming and thrashing about in the back. Holding the helicopter steady as bullets rip through the bird. Cleaning out the blood and gore as part of the regular post flight.

There is no one to trust. Death is coming from every direction.

As life spirals out of his control, Johnny realizes that getting killed may be the least of his problems. His sanity, his soul and everything that he believes himself to be, are in as much danger as his life.

His Review:

Anyone who has seen a Cobra helicopter in action is amazed at the nimbleness of the machine and the awesome firepower. Many young men during the Vietnam War aspired to be a pilot and fly one of those beauties. Our hero, John Mack, is just such a fellow. Training is arduous and upon the completion of his training, he and his buddy “Face” set out for final liberty before deployment.

Young ladies can get Warrant Officers into real trouble and Mack is no exception. A general’s daughter who looks much older spends some time with him giving him a painful medical condition and a trail directly to the general.

Rather than flying the Cobra Mack is sent to Vietnam to be a co-pilot on a Huey. His primary mission is to uncover someone who is selling medical supplies to the enemy. He is the third WO sent to unravel this mystery. The other two were missing and killed in action.

Cobra attack helicopter The flying sequences and characters in this tale are very entertaining and remind me of standard military people in times of war. Very few people get particularly attached to teammates because they could die on any given mission. This coupled with undercover work makes our hero particularly vulnerable.

This book is very fast-moving and hard to put down. Danger is a daily event for the helicopter crews in a war zone. As a reader, you will immediately become engrossed in the survival aspect of this fast-moving drama and nail-biting scenes. Some of the descriptions of the war are downright hair raising. Therefore, I warn you to set aside a block of time because you will not want to put this book down.CE Williams

We received this book from the publisher and NetGalley and appreciated the opportunity to read and review and these are my honest opinions. This novel is scheduled to be published on Friday, May 15, 2020.

Book Details:

Genre: Military Thrillers, War and Military Action Fiction
Publisher: Zeljim Publishing
ASIN: B084S6HR1Q
Print Length: 271 pages
Publication Date: To be released May 15, 2020
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Sucker Punch

The Author: [from Goodreads bio] James Dennis “Jim” Carroll was an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries, which was made into the 1995 film of the same name with Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.