#MelanieForde – Rosepoint Publishing

Guardian of the Crossroads: A Novel by Melanie Forde #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

Catherine Devine briefly becomes a minor celebrity in Fauquier County, Virginia, when she saves a child from an oncoming truck. Cate is an unlikely heroine, stuck in a dead-end job as a school crossing guard and part-time art teacher. Stalled in her early forties, she lacks sufficient faith in herself to craft any plans—grand or small. But Cate harbors an extraordinary secret—she occasionally experiences psychokinesis. As she ponders just how she stopped that truck, she comes to believe her mind can move more than just physical objects. Perhaps she can move time itself. Melanie Forde’s riveting sixth novel takes readers on a journey of discovery as Cate explores not only her paranormal quirks but artistic talents that can heal old wounds. Accompanying her on this journey is her faithful wolfhound, Hecuba, an old soul who has always considered her mistress someone very, very special—perhaps even a goddess.

My Review:

This is not an author who churns out one series installment every six months. Ms. Forde takes her time to deliver a complex plot line and crafts a spellbinding literary novel.

Thoughtful storylines may take a bit longer to build but are rewarded by deeply moving and thoughtful characters wrestling with life and circumstances the best they can with the gifts they were born with. Such is the story of Catherine Devine of Fauquier County, Virginia.

The author generates a raw and emotional main character in Catherine who, following the extraordinary save of a young girl from being killed by a run-a-way vehicle in her school crosswalk, begins to question her ability to have moved that fast and effectively. As Cate begins to reflect on obscure memories in her life, she instigates a plan to solve what might be an act of psychokinesis.

Essentially without family, Cate does have a few friends but she begins an earnest investigation into her abilities and consults a professional. Single, her closest ally is a giant wolfhound named Hecuba. I loved this character! I could picture and invest in her.

In the study of her background, Cate comes across her old paintings, something she’d loved years ago and was very good at.

There is one very dark, ugly, but powerful painting she comes across that stirs strong emotions and she realizes that is the direction she must follow. She also remembers the catharsis her artistic abilities brought her and dives back into it with abandon, wondering what secrets she has long repressed will be revealed.

Yikes! The storyline turns dark, a startling surprise for me. Definitely caught off-guard, the plot becomes so compelling, you’ll have to follow to the denouement.

“The law of unintended consequences.”

It’s an intelligent and sensitive writing style that pulls in the reader. The themes examine the loss of familial trust, sexual deviation, paranormal and kinesis abilities, along with Greek mythology.

“…physical abuse breaks bones. Sexual abuse breaks the spirit.”

The author is a powerful storyteller. This is one of those stories that is laid out carefully, quietly, and then bestows a “wow” mystical factor at the end when the readers’ mind catches up. Whether or not you believe in paranormal or psychokinesis abilities, the narrative will leave you satisfied.

I greatly enjoyed The Quarry’s Girl, my last read by this author. Each of her novels is totally unique. I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. While there were some edit misses, they will be corrected. These thoughts and opinions are my own.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Literature & Fiction
Publisher: D Street Books, a division of Mountain Lake Press
ISBN: 1959307436
ASIN: B0DSQ98DL1
Print Length: 471 pages
Publication Date: January 9, 2025
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble

The Author: For most of her writing career, Melanie Forde ghosted on international security issues. She published her first novel, Hillwilla, in 2014, followed by On the Hillwilla Road in 2015. Her West Virginia trilogy culminates in Reinventing Hillwilla, 2018. Twenty years in the making, her Irish-American family saga, Decanted Truths, was also released in 2018. In 2022, Forde mined the stories about her French Canadian ancestors, to publish another period novel and family saga, The Quarryman’s Girl. Legends about the goddess Hecate were the starting point for her sixth novel. Published in 2024, Guardian of the Crossroads combines paranormal, psychological and literary themes.

AI generated Irish Wolfhound courtesy Freepik.com

The Quarryman’s Girl by Melanie Forde – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

“Gossip was a major form of entertainment in the eighteen-nineties…”

Book Blurb:

Life seemed to be winding down for French–Canadian immigrant Rose Dowd. She had not been fighting the inevitable until Fate forced her to gear up for yet another chapter. Much like her adopted country, as America begins staking out a new international role in World War II, Rose must reinvent herself. Quickly. Before she can move forward, however, she needs to absorb the lessons from her past. Integral to that journey are Rose’s sharp-tongued sister Izzy; her perpetually worried son Vince, a resourceful shipyard worker; her long-dead Métis mentor Mère Agathe; her bright and bubbly but sickly granddaughter Netty; and Nate, the “Ragman’s Grandson,” a club-footed, pre-law student dreading his future and inching instead toward a career as a writer. The Quarryman’s Girl follows these vivid characters from the 1880s to the 1940s, from the hard-scrabble pig farms of Quebec to the granite quarries of Quincy, from the frozen St. Lawrence to the deep-channel Fore River. A compelling story from beginning to end, once again Melanie Forde has shown why she is a consummate storyteller and one of contemporary America’s finest writers.

My Review:

The wait is often worth it.

Such is the case with this beautifully penned literary novel deeply entwined with characters so well developed you want a hug them. They’re family.

I was introduced to this author back in 2019 with the request for participation in a book tour; one I was glad to accept for Reinventing Hillwilla (final novel in the Hillwilla trilogy) followed a few months later by Decanted Truths. I loved them both, each read as a standalone and each entirely unique.

“In the Irish culture, the gift of gab was equally distributed between the sexes.”

In this novel, Rose Dowd is staring down senior hood and doesn’t like what she sees. Thank heaven she has Vince, her youngest son, to help her meet day-to-day challenges she was formerly capable of handling on her own after her husband passed on. She also has others in her life well established near the granite quarries of Quincy (KWIN-zee—not KWIN-see) where she and estranged sister Izzy were abandoned after her large Irish family left Quebec and Quincy for Manitoba. The girls, barely teens, survived and thrived.

“You’ve heard of spring fever. You know what it really means? Scurvy!”

There are a number of threads interweaving through the well-plotted narrative and we get to know each of the characters, identify easily with people we know, care about, invest in. Descriptions of scenes are so well drawn that the reader is plunked into the middle of them. Loved the inclusion of the French phrases in the storyline as well as the Native American’s contribution to the shipyard efforts—the dialogue between Vince and Walter, a Mohawk, is priceless male banter.

Tension builds as the characters are developed and Nate, the “Ragman’s Son” is sent to perform handyman jobs at Rose’s home and to report to Vince her slips of memory. Vince is frustrated with Rose’s senior moments as he tries in vain to glean grist for a thesis, unhappily facing law school.

And then there is Izzy, her sharp tongue alienating more than immediate family, who has a crisis of her own that may force Rose to deal with the upheaval that caused their rift so many years ago.

Oh, so bittersweet, examining the hurts, the love, the physical as well as the mental constraints that bind family and friends as easily as isolate. A unique story that scrutinizes senior cognitive decline, betrayal, aspirations, and, hopefully, reconciliation.

The story is full of emotion, raw, alternately filled with wry bursts of humor. It’s written in an intelligent, sensitive, and articulate style that pulls in the reader and doesn’t let go. The conclusion is both heartbreaking and tearfully satisfying and is heartily recommended. Not just family drama. Truly literary magic.

“Intense relationships never really died.”

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Literary Fiction
Publisher: Mountain Lake Press

ISBN-10: ‎ 1959307002
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1959307006

ASIN: B0B7BM9KLX
Print Length: 325 pages
Publication Date: August 27, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

The Author: For most of her writing career, Melanie Forde ghosted on international security issues. She published her first novel, Hillwilla, in 2014, followed by On the Hillwilla Road in 2015. Her West Virginia trilogy culminates in Reinventing Hillwilla, 2018. Twenty years in the making, her Irish-American family saga, Decanted Truths, was also released in 2018. In 2022, Forde mined the stories about her French Canadian ancestors, to publish another period novel and family saga, The Quarryman’s Girl.