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Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie

Category Archives: Book Reviews – Fiction


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Sink Your Teeth into New Box Book

Three – Inch Teeth

By C.J. Box

(Putnam, 2024)

Genre: Fiction/Crime Thriller

Pages: 369 (Print)

Via: Library

If you’re ever in a tight spot in the wilds of Wyoming, Joe Pickett’s your guy. Especially when facing down not one but two rogue killers – human and animal – in this riveting new crime thriller by Western author C.J. Box.

All is not well in Twelve Sleep County, Wyoming. A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage, killing, among others, the potential fiancé of Game Warden Joe Pickett’s daughter. Meanwhile, ruthless con Dallas Cates is released from prison. Joe put him there years ago. Cates makes skunks look good. He has a special list tattooed on his skin. Has Cates really figured out how to kill the people he blames for ruining his life and make it look like a grizzly attack?

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Suspense Thriller a Rousing Ride

By S.F. Baumgartner

Genre: Fiction: Thriller/Suspense

Via: Kindle

Pages: 345 (Kindle)

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Buckle up and hold on tight for a white-knuckled ride through murder, mystery, money-laundering, and mayhem with S.F. Baumgartner’s latest suspense thriller, Tangled Secrets.

Is a strange car following school teacher Grace Benson home from work? Why? Sheila Mitchell is middle-aged wedding planner. Her ex-husband is FBI agent Ron Peters. Their son Kyle is also an FBI agent. Sheila enlists their help when she suspects her current hubby, Doug, of espionage. Is Doug living a double life? Why?

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Fiction & Non Two-Fer!

She Who Must Be Obeyed (sort of) says we’re doin’ a ‘two-fer’ today! I’m thinkin’ bacon and more bacon! Or peanut butter! But nooooo! Her Momness says we’re doin’ two books by two different female authors. One fiction. One non. Both have strong female characters or POVs.

They are She Left Me the Gun: My Mother’s Life Before Me by Emma Brockes (non-fiction). The other is On Mystic Lake. By Kristin Hannah.

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THIS MS Fiction Will Knock Your Socks (and Phone) Off

Alone in the Woods

By Rebecca Behrens (Sheridan Books, 2020)

Genre: Middle School Fiction/Children’s Friendship/ Children’s Action & Adventure 

Pages: 301 (Hardback)

Via: Library

Cold. Defenseless. Hungry. Bleeding. Sick. Lost.

It’s not a good day for two middle school girls lost in the vast untamed wildness of Wisconsin’s Northwoods during the shank end of summer. The two ex-best friends must find a way to put their differences aside and work together in order to survive. Can they? Will they?

Uh-Oh

Jocelyn (Joss) and Alejandra (Alex) have been BFFs since kindergarten. But after two weeks at summer Spanish camp with uber cool Laura Longbottom hanging on her every wood, Alex isn’t interested in brainy and “nerdy” Joss. But their families have been taking joint vacations to “Allard’s Roost” family cabin on Wisconsin’s Buttercup Lake for years. So Joss hopes that their upcoming trip will provide an opportunity to restore and rekindle the friendship.

Will it?

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Perspicacity Prevails in ‘The Perilous Voyage’

The Perilous Voyage

A Professor Goodsteam Adventure

By Michael Wegner (Indie author, 2023)

Genre: Fiction – Historical Fiction/Action & Adventure/Steampunk Fiction

Pageg: 331 + Epilogue (Paperback)

Via: Author request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“But it’s only a two-day trip. What could possibly happen?”

The answer is plenty in this lithe and lively combination of travel, technology, geography, adventure, romance and levity by Michael Wegner.

Mom: With a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be…

Kimber: Earth to Mom. Come in, Mom. Methinks you’re in the wrong season.

Mom: Well, let’s not get picky here, okay?

Kimber: Speaking of “picky” – sort of – The Perilous Voyage thingy reminded me of that story where Caractacus Potts rebuilds that old race car for his littleuns after buying it for thirty shillings to prevent the car from becoming scrap metal.

Mom: You mean the book by Ian Fleming?

Kimber: Naw. I was thinkin’ more the movie with that Dick van Dyke dude.

Mom: Funny you should mention that. I was thinking Jules Vernes’ Around the World in Eighty Days.

Kimber: With Phileas Fogg and Passepartout?

Mom: Exactamundo!

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Heavenly or Homely? Albom’s ‘the five people you meet in heaven’

the five people you meet in heaven

By Mitch Albom (Hyperion, 2003)

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 196

Via: Library Book Sale!

You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, heaven – ?!

Okay, okay. So we stole that from Rod Serling. But it applies pretty well to this short little tome by Mitch Albom entitled the five people you meet in heaven.

Pop Quiz 

Q: What’s the first thing that jumps out at you from the title?

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Batter Up! With Delightful Baseball-ish Yarn

“Batter up!”

In case ya missed it the first 6,897 times, She Who Must Be Obeyed is what ya might call a Baseball Nut. Once the season starts, it’s Dodgers Girl from here to kingdom (or Series) come!  (Don’t tell her I said that, okay?).

Go Dodgers!

Wait. Where was I?

Oh yeah. Baseball book. Anyway, when we heard about this cute little book narrated by a talking baseball named Bennie – I’m not makin’ this up – one of us stepped right up to the batter’s box and started swingin’. Like this: 

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‘Fourth Sister’: Not Quite Our Cuppa

Fourth Sister

By M.L. Farb

Genre: YA Fiction/Fairytales & Folklore

Indie Author, 2021

Pages: 252 + Food for Thought, Explanations and Research

Via: Author Request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Basics

The fourth of seven daughters, Shisei is an outcast. Is she truly “sacred poetry,” a “bridge between the seen and unseen” as her late mother said? Or is Shisei something else?

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6 Literary Scene Stealers & Kimber’s New Best Bud

Dontcha just love scene stealers? That person or critter that outshines the rest of the cast, especially unexpectedly? You know. Like me?

 

All modesty aside, Mom and I have been keeping a running tally of literary scene stealers in recently read books.

Some of the books they appear in are great. Some are awful. Not a main character, a scene stealer outshines everyone else, including a bad script.

Here’s a brief list of our top 6 scene stealers from recently read historical non-fiction and fiction fiction (that’s not a typo). A brief synopsis of each book is included:

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Why ‘Shadow’ is Like a Warm Breath of Spring

Shadow

By Michael Morpurgo

U.S.: Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan

Great Britain: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2010

Genre: Historical Fiction

Via: Library

A silver star badge. A little red train.  A cave in Afghanistan. A “sniffer dog” named Shadow. An incredible story of escape, adversity, courage, and love. The kind that never gives in and never gives up.

“We want you back.”

Kimber here, saying “Happy Spring” – finally! I’m also ready to introduce you to my new BFF: Shadow the springer spaniel. Aka: “Polly.” She’s a special bomb-sniffing dog. (Okay, she’s not quite as special as I am. But let’s not get picky here, okay?)

Wait. Where was I? Oh yeah. Shadow. She gets lost in Afghanistan during the war and is finally reunited with her old unit from the U.K. But not before finding her way into the heart of young Aman.

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