#NetGalleyreviewer – Page 32 – Rosepoint Publishing

These Silent Woods: A Novel by Kimi Cunningham Grant –#BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

“The thing about grace is that you don’t deserve it. You can’t earn it. You can only accept it. Or not.”

Book Blurb:

A father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past in Kimi Cunningham Grant’s These Silent Woods, a mesmerizing novel of suspense.

No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world.

For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that’s exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he’s got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin’s shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she’s starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her—and he’s still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.

The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper’s old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn’t show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred—and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch’s growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding—or finally face the sins of his past.

Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.

My Review:

Not sure how I bumbled into this one. It’s not lost on me—Finch—(in this case) the young daughter and relationship of father-daughter of classic Harper Lee fame. (And I must admit difficulty in separating the name from this narrative.) This gripping literary novel, of course, only borrows the unusual name. There is the strongly bonded connection but is otherwise quite the opposite in character and plot.

Cooper and Finch have lived in severe isolation in the Appalachian woods. Off the grid, off the track, off almost any public connection. But there are two: Jake, Cooper’s former army buddy and the owner of the cabin, and Scotland. And then two events happen almost simultaneously that will have a strong, irreversible impact on their sheltered lives. First, this is the first year in eight that Jake has not shown up with a laundry list of household essentials; groceries, supplies they cannot grow or sustain themselves. And in his stead is Jake’s sister, Marie.

And then there is the discovery of a beautiful young woman on their land next to national forestry land wielding a camera.

Scotland has always been a problem. From the beginning. Popping up at odd times, a nuisance, a pseudo-neighbor who watches, sees, and knows all about Cooper and Finch. His secret, their history. Cooper finds the man detestable while Finch loves him and is always delighted to see him. The two have a special connection.

Finch is precocious. A natural in the woods, schooled at home by her dad, she has never set foot in a store or a school. Knows only what she has gleaned from nature and the books in the cabin.

But their sanctuary is careening to an exposé and soon decisions must be made. Cooper is torn. For eight years he has protected, nurtured, and cherished his daughter and this moral choice is tearing him apart. The very essence of his teachings tested. Can he abandon all that now to continue a life that can’t be reconciled to the decision or bow to it and change possibly lose her?

Cooper made some bad decisions. He can’t afford for them to be discovered or all is lost. It’s a rather slow suspenseful building of the conundrum, a calamity of timing. Raw, emotional, tension-filled, with no apparent solution.

The author is a master storyteller, weaving her well-developed characters through Cooper’s POV, his wartime experience and trauma, the loss of Jake, his wife, the sacrifices he has made. He will NOT lose his daughter as well. Heartbreaking turmoil and beauty in the prose. The decision is made.

And then taken out of his hands.

The conclusion whips the mind around, at a loss to understand what just happened. And while I understand what did happen, I’m not totally understanding the why. Nor was it more fully explained to my satisfaction in the epilogue, which settled most loose strings (though perhaps it was enough for many readers). My mind is still reeling. Currently on pre-order. Queue up for yours!

A novel worthy of many a book club debate and one that will stick with you for some time. Most heartily recommended.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley (thank you!) that in no way influenced this review, nor could they warn of the impact. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Contemporary Literary Fiction, Coming of Age Fiction
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: ‎ 1250793394
ASIN: B08R2JNYLX
Print Length: 279 pages
Publication Date: November 16 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Kimi Cunningham Grant is the author of two books. Silver Like Dust is a memoir chronicling her Japanese-American grandparents and their internment during World War II. Her second book, Fallen Mountains, is a literary mystery set in a small town in Pennsylvania, where fracking has just begun. Kimi is a two-time winner of a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize in Poetry and a recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship in creative nonfiction. Her poems and essays have appeared in Fathom, Literary Mama, RATTLE, Poet Lore, and Whitefish Review. She studied English at Bucknell University and Messiah College. She lives, writes, and teaches in Pennsylvania. You can find her at https://www.kimicunninghamgrant.com.

The Pilot’s Daughter by Meredith Jaeger – #BookReview – #HistoricalWWIIFiction

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

The glitzy days of 1920s New York meet the devastation of those left behind in World War II in a new, delectable historical novel from USA Today bestselling author Meredith Jaeger.

In the final months of World War II, San Francisco newspaper secretary Ellie Morgan should be planning her wedding and subsequent exit from the newsroom into domestic life. Instead, Ellie, who harbors dreams of having her own column, is using all the skills she’s learned as a would-be reporter to try to uncover any scrap of evidence that her missing pilot father is still alive. But when she discovers a stack of love letters from a woman who is not her mother in his possessions, her already fragile world goes into a tailspin, and she vows to find out the truth about the father she loves—and the woman who loved him back.

When Ellie arrives on her aunt Iris’s doorstep, clutching a stack of letters and uttering a name Iris hasn’t heard in decades, Iris is terrified. She’s hidden her past as a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl from her family, and her experiences in New York City in the 1920s could reveal much more than the origin of her brother-in-law’s alleged affair. Iris’s heady days in the spotlight weren’t enough to outshine the darker underbelly of Jazz Age New York, and she’s spent the past twenty years believing that her actions in those days led to murder.

Together the two women embark on a cross-country mission to find the truth in the City That Never Sleeps, a journey that just might shatter everything they thought they knew—not only about the past but about their own futures.

Inspired by a true Jazz Age murder cold case that captivated the nation, and the fact that more than 72,000 Americans still remain unaccounted for from World War II, The Pilot’s Daughter is a page-turning exploration of the stories we tell ourselves and of how well we can truly know those we love.

His Review:

This excellent book shows the contrasts of women’s lives between the 1920’s and the second world war years. First Lieutenant William A. Morgan went down with his plane in the Adriatic Sea. His daughter Ellie received the dreaded letter from the War Department and subsequently his belongings. She was in denial regarding his death and felt he was more probably missing in action.

While checking through the box of his effects she comes upon a packet of letters addressed to Ms. Lillian Dell. The letters allude to their daughter and love for each other! Ellie is flabbergasted to think that her father may have had another family in New York! She and her aunt Iris set out for New York to solve the mystery. Iris had been one of the headliners in the Ziegfield Follies in the early twenties. Iris had left the city and returned to San Francisco after a very dangerous entanglement with a married man.

The author melds the experiences and lives of both ladies with the hand of an artist. I appreciated the experiences of both Ellie and her aunt Iris. They have a very close family bond while Ellie and her mother are not close at all. The trip to New York is exciting and holds some danger for aunt Iris. The diving back between the experiences of the 1920’s and mid 1940’s provides a clear view of the change of respect that women received before and after WWII.

I highly recommend this book as a treatise on the social change that occurred in this country as a result of the war and the need to have women more closely involved in the development and production of aircraft and weapons during the war. 5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical World War II Fiction, World War II Historical Fiction, Women’s Detective Fiction
Publisher: Dutton
ISBN: ‎ 0593185897
ASIN: B08VWZP9PJ
Print Length: 351 pages
Publication Date: November 2, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: The Pilot’s Daughter [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

The Author: Meredith Jaeger is the USA Today bestselling author of THE PILOT’S DAUGHTER, BOARDWALK SUMMER and THE DRESSMAKER’S DOWRY. She’s a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she was raised by a Swiss father and an American mother. A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz, Meredith wrote her debut novel, THE DRESSMAKER’S DOWRY, while working for a San Francisco startup.

THE PILOT’S DAUGHTER has been called “unputdownable” (NYT bestselling author Sally Hepworth) “stirring and powerful” (NYT bestselling author Fiona Davis) and “historical fiction at its finest” (NYT bestselling author Lori Nelson Spielman).

Meredith lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, their young daughter and crazy rescue dog.

Hypnosis Is for Hacks (An Eleanor Wilde Mystery Book 4) by Tamara Berry – #BookReview – #psychicmysteries

Book Blurb:

Though Eleanor is delighted that her brother, Liam, is visiting her in England, she must reluctantly agree that her quiet village lacks something when it comes to sightseeing—namely: sights. True, there’s nearby Castle Hartford, belonging to the family of Ellie’s boyfriend, Nicholas. But even Nicholas’s mother is eager to ditch sleepy, sweltering Sussex for a vacation in Brighton, taking Ellie and a relieved Liam with her. Yet hopes of a breezy seaside holiday quickly turn stormy, in every sense . . .

The ominous change in weather is accompanied by the reappearance of Ellie’s former partner-in-crime, Armand Lamont. Back when Ellie earned a living as a phony medium, Armand’s hypnosis skills helped the pair persuade many gullible marks to hand over their savings. Ellie assumes that Armand has resurfaced with blackmail in mind, but before she can figure out his angle, she and Liam witness a man being pushed from a boat by two shadowy figures who then vanish into midair.

Phantoms? Demons? Though Ellie doesn’t believe in either, the recovered body is real enough, as is a string of thefts plaguing their luxury hotel. Ellie has a theory, and it requires inviting Nicholas to join them under a fake identity. Their evolving relationship is as complex as this case, and Ellie’s authentic supernatural abilities too are developing in surprising ways. But as for whether the outcome will be good or bad, not even her witchy powers can say . . .

His Review:

A couple is walking along a beach during an extremely stormy night. The couple looks out into the tempestuous storm to see two men fighting and throwing a third man off the boat whereby he drowns. Thus begins an investigation by a very renowned psychic and medium! A bit of a bitter pill to swallow as the novel begins.

Eleanor is a gifted psychic with a group of ghosts who help her unravel the mysteries she seems to keep getting. She is surrounded by a group of never-do-wells, cats, and an ugly doll named Brunhilde. She also has a highly respected investigator named Armond Lemont who continues to question her investigation and appears more of a hindrance than a help.

She struggles through the investigation with Armond questioning every assumption. It seems he may have more than a passing interest in Eleanor and her future. Meanwhile her apparitions continue to guide and help her through the investigation. She has another suitor who is hanging in there hoping to win her heart. He is Nicholas Hartford III. Even his name evokes status and wealth. His mother will have to expire before this becomes a reality though.

I found it very difficult at times to believe the narrative. Who can walk on a beach during a stormy night and witness a crime on the water in the dark? Having lived on an island and been out in bad weather, I can assure you something happening in the dark on a stormy night wouldn’t be observed, especially someone fighting in a small boat on the open water.

The story was a fun frollick, however, and featured some interesting concepts and characters. It is a romp into the shadowy world of make believe. 4 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychic Mysteries, Witch & Wizard Mysteries, Ghost Mysteries
Publisher: Kensington Cozies
ASIN: B08VF957XH
Print Length: 197 pages
Publication Date: October 26, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Hypnosis Is for Hacks [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

The Author: Tamara Berry is a part-time author and part-time freelance copywriter/editor. She has a B.A. degree in English Literature from Eastern Washington University. In addition to books, she has mad love for all things TV, movies, and pop culture.

©CE Williams – V Williams

Always Remember by Cathryn Grant –#BookReview – #psychologicalsuspense

Book Blurb:

Louise loves her family. To death.

Kelly is married with two kids, enjoying an ordinary peaceful life – until she finds her father-in-law Frank dead in her backyard sauna.

Now, Frank’s grieving widow, Louise, has installed herself in Kelly’s house and shows no signs of leaving. Ever.

In fact, she seems determined to take over Kelly’s role as mother and wife, inserting herself between Kelly and her twin boys, lavishing attention on Kelly’s husband Wyatt.

Kelly tries to be understanding – Louise has had a huge shock, after all, losing her beloved husband of so many years.

But Louise knows exactly what she’s doing, and as her horrifying agenda slowly becomes clear, Kelly realises she has to fight. For her children, her marriage – and her life.

My Review:

Don’t you just hate it when you paint yourself into a corner and then have nowhere to go? I suspect this is what happened with this story.

Kelly and her hubby invited his parents to stay with them while Frank was recuperating from multiple bi-pass surgery. They have twin boys and it was thought Louise, her mother-in-law might be of some help with the three-year olds. Kelly took on the post-surgical care of her father-in-law and discovered him deceased in the backyard sauna, definitely against doctor’s orders, but that wasn’t all.

The grieving widow makes herself to home, caring for the children, cooking meals, light cleaning, even prompting Kelly to return to work which she missed and was happy to do. But Louise begins to make decisions around the household not wholly welcome, including encouraging Wyatt (her son) to take a leave of absence from his job to concentrate on his music and redesigning the former office.

POVs shift from Kelly to Louise to Wyatt each giving their perspective of the household atmosphere which gradually goes from softly benign to cancerous. Kelly becomes increasingly aware something is terribly wrong, Wyatt refuses to acknowledge there could be a problem with his mother, and Louise is playing the self-serving widow.

As the suspense escalates, questions are answered and become shocking, all three on eggshells dealing with the other, Kelly finding no support from Wyatt against his mother. The conclusion is dreadful, but the resolution of the situation appalling, and I had a real problem believing this is how it might play out. The secret this couple would share, untenable. Really? This is how it ends?

The narrative begins rather slowly, setting the scene, getting the reader engaged and involved with the characters. Wyatt would back his mother until you wanted to hit him over the head. Kelly kept pounding at problems, Louise kept conniving—not a person to celebrate on Mother’s Day. All three left me a bit cold. I hated what happened to Jason. Okay until then but I was not a fan of the ending of this novel.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley and these are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Domestic Thriller
Publisher: Inkubator Books
ASIN: B09J1C87RF
Print Length: 313 pages
Publication Date: October 17, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Always Remember [Amazon]

The Author: Cathryn is the bestselling author of twelve psychological thrillers, including THE OTHER COUPLE and THE GUEST, published by Inkubator Books. She is also the author of the ALEXANDRA MALLORY series, featuring a sociopath you can’t help but love.

View the complete list at her website: cathryngrant.com

Cathryn Grant’s fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines, The Shroud Quarterly Journal, and been anthologized in The Best of Every Day Fiction and You, Me & A Bit of We. Her short story, “I Was Young Once”, received an honorable mention in the 2007 Zoetrope All-story Short Fiction contest.

Her psychological suspense fiction reveals the motives and desires that lead to suburban crime. She’s obsessed with the “why” behind human behavior. In real crime, too many times, the why is left unanswered. Cathryn’s fiction tells the stories of ordinary people driven to commit crimes, especially homicide.

Cathryn also writes ghost stories—The Haunted Ship Trilogy and the Madison Keith series of novellas.

When she’s not writing, she’s usually reading fiction, walking on the beach, or playing golf, trying desperately to avoid hitting her ball in the sand or the water. She lives on the Central California Coast with her husband and two cats.

Sign up for Cathryn’s mailing list to find out when new books are released and receive a free short story about Alexandra Mallory, or contact Cathryn directly at cathryngrant.com/contact

Silent Title Books – Are Any of These on Your #TBR ?

Rosepoint Pub-Silent title books

Silent book titles are popular lately—I currently have four—two already read and reviewed, two on the radar. Seems they come in waves—before “silent” was “secret.” Must be a title trigger. [Thumbnails below are linked to the Goodreads entry.]

First read and reviewed the middle of September by the CE was Silent Witness by Carolyn Arnold. He gave it five stars and it was not the first book by the author we’d read. Ms Arnold does a great job with a #policeprocedural and this one is rated at 4.6 stars on Goodreads.

The second read and reviewed the first week of October also by the CE was Silent Island by Dana Perry. He gave four stars for this police procedural also rated at four stars on Goodreads.

Next up will be my read (if I can keep it away from the CE during his recuperation), These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant. Due to be released on October 26, this mystery-thriller is expected to be a humdinger with over 330 ratings already on Goodreads riding at just over four stars.

Of course, one of my favorite authors, Robert Dugoni, will be releasing The Silent Sisters next year on February 22, a Tuesday, of course. This is part of the Charles Jenkins series, Book 3, International Mystery and Crime currently running over four stars on Goodreads. We both read Book 2, The Last Agent in April, 2020 (five massive stars!). (And I read the Tracy Crosswhite series.)

Funny how often titles seem to run a similar theme, but then I tend to read mystery/thriller. Maybe no surprise. Do any of these titles interest you? Have you read or have them on your #tbr? Hopefully, I interested you in one!

Enjoy your weekend!

PS: Okay, yeah, I knew there was another “silent” and after trying to find it and giving up, got the approval from St. Martin’s Press (Minotaur Books) for Silent Parade by Keigo Higashino, A Detective Galileo Novel (Detective Galileo Series Book 4), International Mystery and Crime. It is scheduled to release December 14, 2021. It is apparently ahead of the game on Goodreads at over 275 ratings with an average of four stars. You might want to check this one out as well.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

2019 NetGalley-Edelweiss Reading Challenge – It’s Time to Sign Up!

Reading Challenges

It’s time to sign up for the 2019 NetGalley-Edelweiss Reading Challenge.

You’ll remember there was a host change mid-year and it was moved to Tina at Reading Between The Pages. Take a look at the Challenge Guidelines (don’t worry–they are simple!) and pick your Level (see below). I think I’ll make my challenge this year but it will be tight. Last year I chose Platinum (75 books) and it’s been a struggle, but will sign up for Platinum again! (Wish me luck!!)

The challenge runs from January 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019. There is no deadline to signup.

Everyone is welcome to participate – you do not need to have a blog.
Any genre, release date, length, etc. counts, it just needs to be a book from NetGalley or Edelweiss.
Books can count for more than one challenge that you are participating in.
If you want to move up or down a level – go for it!
The first day of each month I will post a monthly “link-up” for you to link your reviews. If you forget one month, no worries, just catch up the next month.

The Levels…

Bronze – 10 Books

Silver – 25 Books

Gold – 50 Books

Platinum – 75 Books

Diamond – 100 Books

You can see my 2018 progress on my Reading Challenges page. For complete information and your sign up instructions, be sure to join everyone at Reading Between the Pages.

And don’t forget to use the hashtag #NGEW2019 and use Tina’s Mr. Linky!

V Williams

Twelve Points for Review Submission

Most new Indie authors believe reviews are the make or break of a book and aggressively pursue them.

There are numerous articles on the algorithm Amazon uses to determine Best Sellers Rank. While it is generally considered to be reviews that help to get you to the top of the pack, it isn’t, according to what I’ve read. Amazon won’t disclose its algorithm, but will readily agree that good reviews do seem to help drive sales, which IS the major contributory factor in Best Sellers Rank.

I’ve written before on reviews, discussing whether or not 300 five-star ratings are really all bogus or not. Having written and posted 1,000s of reviews myself, I’ve always strived for honesty, striking a balance between what I liked about the book as well as what I didn’t. The books I review are a mix of Indie books, as well as best-selling authors, and posted those reviews whether the author needed them or not. In addition, in an effort to accommodate a larger variety of genres, I got the CE involved in reading and giving me his synopsis. That also becomes a review.

Reviews can run anywhere from a short informal paragraph or an in-depth analysis of the book of more than 500 words detailing not only the description of the plot but a critical view of how the topic was handled. Point being: Did you agree with the observations or challenge every posture? I’ve developed the following twelve points in the submission of my reviews.

My reviews include:

1 Whether or not the title reflects the topic of the book.

2 Did the cover convey the genre; show you what the book is about without your having to read the blurb?

3 Was the setting properly introduced–did you know where it was located geographically or what year it was?

4 Did the opening chapter grab your attention and did the plot hold your interest throughout the remainder of the book?

5 Is the dialogue believable, natural, or forced?

6 Are the characters properly fleshed out? Can you identify or connect with them?

7 Did the protagonist and antagonist convey a strong opposing emotion?

8 Are the same scenes repeated, albeit with slightly different wording, until you “heard it all before.”

9 Is the plot unique? Is the book outside your normal genre?

10 Did the story end with a plausible climax, wrapping up the loose ends to a satisfying degree, or suddenly end when it appears the author is over-the-top tired of the whole thing.

11 Is it full of typos, edit errors, misused words, missing words, or extra words that should have been deleted from the final edit?

12 Can you honestly recommend the book? Can the book be recommended outside the reader’s normal genre?

Review Format

Since I have been receiving review requests, I thought it was time to change the way I post the reviews. Therefore, after the blurb and review, the format will be changed to reflect additional information about the author, the genre, the publisher, and the date published, followed by the review. The review will be posted on this blog as well as on Amazon and Goodreads. Many of the books are received through NetGalley and most reviews are also shared on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.