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Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie

Category Archives: Book Reviews – Fiction


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‘Spies Never Quit’: Spunky, With a Dose of Sass

Spies Never Quit

By M. Taylor Christensen

Moon Zoom Press, 2021

Fiction/Action-Adventure/Spy Thriller

Via: Author Request

Summary: When a young woman’s mom is abducted, she goes undercover to save her. Can the novice “spy” pull it off – or will her inexperience cost them both their lives?

“A light spy thriller where the romance is sweet and the suspense is cozy.”

What do you do when some Uber Bad Guys kidnap your research scientist mom and force you to steal and hand over all her research so they can build a huge lethal weapon, or else?

If your name is Mari Sandoval, you try to break into your mom’s lab and comply. Foiled by some spunky sorority girls who are more than they appear to be, the eighteen year-old college freshman considers her next move. And what it may cost.

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‘Winterset Hollow’: Cunning, Careful & Quite a Ride

Winterset Hollow

By Jonathan Edward Durham

Fiction/Dark Contemporary Fantasy

Published by: Credo House Publishers, 2021

Rated: PG-13

Via: Author Request

 

Freedom comes at a price.

Can he afford it?

These questions and more swirl throughout Winterset Hollow, a gut-grabbing, action-packed literary tour de force by Jonathan Edward Durham.

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Sail Into Adventure With ‘My First Five Years at Sea’

My First Five Years at Sea

And Other Tall Tales

By John M. Tabor

Fiction/Historical Fiction/Action & Adventure

Via: Author Request

Summary: A country boy from Kansas makes an unexpected U-turn into high adventure on the water.

Shanghaied onto a rum runner in the 1930s, MIT-bound James Tyler sails into history and adventure faster than you can say, “Captain Anne Bonny.” He manages to land on his feet, “moving from one unexpected maritime intrigue to another.”

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3 Choice Novellas and a Monkey Wrench

Paintings from  the Cave: Three Novellas

By Gary Paulsen

YA/Fiction

Via: Library

“Dogs know how to love better than people.”

– Paintings From the Cave

Sometimes even the best laid plans go awry. Especially when a monkey wrench gets thrown into the mix.  Like  when Mom and I plan our blogging calendar. (Well, one of us plans. The other snoozes. I’ll let you figure out who’s who.)

See, we were going to put together a collection of Best Gary Paulsen Books Ever. He’s an old favorite. When it comes to outdoor adventures or coming of age tales, no one does it better than Gary. He’s our bud. He’s also a dog lover. Need I say more?

So here Mom and I were, cruising along with our blogging calendar when Mom stumbled upon a Paulsen book she somehow missed: Paintings from the Cave.

Monkey Wrench Alert!

After finishing this extraordinary trio of gripping, poignant novellas, we knew they had to have a stand-alone post. Here’s why:

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How One Woman Discovers Something Bigger Than Herself in ‘The Accidental Suffragist’

The Accidental Suffragist: A Novel

By Galia Gichon

Wyatt-McKenzie Publishing, Inc., 2021

Historical Fiction/Women’s Fiction

Via: Author/publisher review request

Summary: A family tragedy propels a working class wife and mother into the Women’s Suffrage Movement where she finds a part of herself she didn’t know existed.

“Ladies, do you believe in the importance of women voting?”

This is the salient question put forth in The Accidental Tourist. We may take the right to vote for granted now. But that wasn’t the case in the early 1900s, when a few stalwart women worked tirelessly to secure voting rights for themselves, their daughters, and future generations of American women. The Accidental Suffragist is part of that story.

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Lonely But Not Lost: 2 Young Novels Deserve Discovery

‘No, I am NOT lost, thank you very much. Just takin’ The Scenic Route.’

Ever see a lonely book? You know. A library book perched all on its lonesome on an isolated shelf, looking forlorn and a wee bit lost? Like it’s begging for some intrepid reader to come by and snatch it?

Enter Her Momness. She’s a sucker for lonely books. She found two of ’em in the Juvenile Fiction section of the library the other day. (She hangs out there a lot. Cuz she fits right in. Don’t get me started.)

Anywho, the books are: The Story Web by Megan Frazer Blakemore and After Eli, by Rebecca Rupp. In the first one, hockey… Oh, wait. Mom is elbowing her way into the conversation. As usual. So I’ll let her tell ya about these two “lost” and “lonely” books that deserve discovery:

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Why “Finding Dorothy” & The Land of Aahs Are ‘Forever Young’

You know that Good Book Feeling? Where you close the final page of a Really Great Read and sigh? Wish that it’d never end? Or maybe you just go, “aaah”?

Elizabeth Letts’ Finding Dorothy is that kind of book.

Sheer Genius

We turned Finding Dorothy’s last page and sighed. Because this book, like its protagonists, L. Frank Baum and his remarkable wife, Maud, is sheer genius.

Told through the eyes of L. Frank Baum’s indomitable wife, Maud, Finding Dorothy is the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the beloved book that inspired the movie classic.

Finding Dorothy is also a love story. It traces the intertwined lives of Maud, daughter of a suffragette leader and a “force of nature” in her own right, and Maud’s husband, creative genius and author L. (Lyman) Frank Baum. The two were devoted to each other until the end of their days.

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Why ‘Hunt for a Hometown Killer’ Kept Us Up All Night

Hunt for a Hometown Killer (EABooks Publishing, 2021)

By Mary Dodge Allen

Fiction/Christian/Romance/Suspense/Mystery & Detective

“Just a sec Kimmi,” chirped Her Momness as she snatched up Hunt for a Hometown Killer. “I’m just gonna zip through a coupla chapters tonight – quick like a bunny – and get a head start on tomorrow’s reading.”

Uh -oh. Heard that one before, says I, Kimber the Magnificent. (You know. The brains in the family.)

And that’s how we wound up staying up until zero-dark-thirty to finish this “just one more chapter! I can’t put it down” rippin’ good read!  Because:

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‘The Red Tent’: The Sisterhood Lives, or ‘Meh’?

The Red Tent

By Anita Diamant

Based on the story of Dinah from Genesis 34, The Red Tent is “historical fiction.” Emphasis on fiction. Indeed, the author takes so many liberties with the original text, “historical” is kind of an afterthought. 

The story is also billed as a “retelling of a biblical story from the perspective of the female characters.”

That’s quite an assumption. It’s also a clue. A big one. As in, if you’re looking for a re-telling that’s faithful to the original account, keep looking. Cuz this isn’t it.

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6 Best Film Adaptations of Classic Books

“Hey, Kimster!” says She Who (thinks she) Must Be Obeyed. (Insert eye roll here. Do I ever have Mom snowed!)  “I’ve got a great idea for summer reading!”

What is it now, Mom?

“Let’s revisit some of our favorites from classic British literature this summer… on film!”

You mean like that Charles D. guy? The 19th century novelist you keep bugging me to read again? As in Pip and Miss Havisham? Lucie Manette and Charles Darnay? Jacob and Ebenezer?

Exactly!

“Exactly!” chirps Her Momness.  (She always does that chirpy thing when she’s on a roll. Me? I save that for bacon.)

Anyway, that’s how we got to binge watching all things Charles Dickens-ish. And 18th century Cornwallish. Wait. Did I say “binge watching”? Well, yeah. One of us claims she doesn’t have the time to plow through Martin Chuzzlewit or Bleak House in one summer, let alone Pip and Magwitch or David Copperfield and Peggotty. 

So we’re watching (mostly) BBC productions and movies of same. Here’s what we’ve watched so far in the classic English historical fiction mode. These are our favorite film adaptations of select classic books, as noted. How many do you recognize?

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