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Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie

Category Archives: Book Reviews – Fiction


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Heart & Head Clash in Vibrant New Fairytale, ‘Heartless Hette’

Heartless Hette

By M.L. Farb, 2021

Genre: Fiction/Fairytale/Fantasy

Rated: G

Via: Author Request

Summary:

Hearts and heads collide as an unlikely trio sets out on an epic quest to find the true meaning of friendship and more in this freshly reimagined version of “once upon a time.”

“Which is stronger – heart or head?”

Once upon a time, a beautiful princess prized logic and reason above all. Her father bid her marry, become queen and produce an heir. But no suitor could match her formidable mind. So a sorcerer disguised himself as a prince. He set out to woo the princess. She rejects him. The sorcerer steals her heart. Literally. Right out of her chest.  In its place is a mechanical “clockwork heart” designed to bend Princess Hette’s will to his.

“Love only hurts… Alone hurts less.”

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Family Matters in Delightful New Sci-Fi Novel

The Captain’s Daughters

By Doreen D. Berger

PolarisPrint, 2021

Genre: Fiction, Sci-Fi, Family

Rating: G

Via: Author Request

Summary: Two spunky sisters get more than they bargained for when they disobey their starship captain Dad and wind up captives in an interstellar game of cat-and-mouse.

“What lies within the folds of the fabric of the never-ending universe?

“Not now, Kimmi!” sniffs Her Momness.

Why is she saying this when I just brought her the Frisbee?  Hello? Earth to Mom? Come in, Mom?

“I’m right in the middle of the good part,” she says. “Can you gimme a min?”

Oh, bother. Cuz Mom said that like, two hours ago.

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High Octane Action Powers ‘Albertan Apocalypse’

Albertan Apocalypse

By John Keillor, 2021

Fiction/Dystopian/Action-Adventure

Summary: Governments have been destroyed worldwide by global catastrophe except in Alberta, Canada. But when malevolent forces try to take over, Albertans put up a ferocious fight to keep their freedom. 

Originally reviewed on Reedsy/Discovery.

Setting

It’s 2031. Twelve years ago a worldwide catastrophe destroyed the internet and disabled governments. Many human brains were also “ruined” when the atmosphere “was transformed into a microwave oven.” One of few stable societies remaining is in Alberta, Canada. But malevolent forces are converging to invade the province, exploit its natural resources, and enslave its citizens.

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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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