Reading Fanatic Reviews

All Literary Fiction Review (including Chick Lit)

Healing Zen to Empty the Brain by Leonid Altshuler

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Healing Zen to Empty the Brain*

Book of Short Poems

A fascinating collection of short poems buy a psychiatrist. I like to use poetry for writing prompts, so I was curious what this book had to offer. the poet has a good sense of the spare but artistic use of language in poetry. the poems are not very long, but they still managed to evoke a memory, and image, or a sense. Autumn seems to be an inspiration. I think this book might be fun for me to explore as the basis for stretching my own creativity.

The Girl in the Painting by Renita D’Silva

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Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de

The Girl in the Painting*

Lyrically Written, but Tense is Annoying

This is my first time to read this author, and I am impressed with the way that she describes settings and emotions with such lyrical fluidity. This book is complex, with suspense that was kicked off in the very first section. The author seamlessly weaves between an early 20th-century past in India and present-day England. The story deals with loss, choices, and forgiveness, amongst other themes. The only thing I didn’t like about this book is that it is written in the present tense. I just find that a really awkward narrative tense to read; it jars me when I just want to be immersed in the story. The present tense sticks out like a sore thumb, beckoning me to acknowledge it when I just want the mechanics of language to fade into fade into the background. That said, I do appreciate this author’s poetic way with words; I just wish it was in the past tense!

Pagan Death by Sam Taw

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Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)

Pagan Death*

A Violent Look at Pagan Britain

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the level of violence that’s in this book, given the title. But I have to say that, nonetheless, I was surprised. The book starts off with a violent scene of human sacrifice. Fiction books about this time period are rare, so it intrigued me when I saw it on my favorite book review site. Unfortunately, at that site we only have the blurb to go on, so I wasn’t prepared for what this book actually was. I just found it to be too violent without much letup. In a story, there needs to be balance, and this story felt too dark. As one who has done some pagan studies, I also thought that the author showed a bias towards only showing the worst imaginings of what pre-Christian societies could be. Yes, it does make for more drama, but I don’t like the demonization of these ancient cultures.

The East End by Jason Allen

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Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)

The East End*

Not My Cuppa Tea

I did not like this book. When reading a contemporary book, I like it to feel at least moderately close to my reality, and this book depicted lifestyles that I hope aren’t realistic. Everyone in this book seems to be messed up in some way: problems with alcohol, problems with drugs, problems with petty crimes, problems with terrible spouses, etc. The first near quarter of the book just showed a teenager who vandalizing the rich mansions on his Island on the Hamptons (while contemplating actually stealing) and then one of those owners coming back to town from New York City while he just got crazy high and drunk on the way. I actually wondered, Can somebody do that much cocaine as he did on that short drive and still live?! Plus he was drinking scotch after scotch at the same time. This book had a world I just didn’t want to live in, even in my imagination. The author did have a good way of describing things and getting you into the characters heads, but at times in the early part, it felt like the description was too much, making the pacing slow to a crawl. After the incident with Henry in the pool, things did speed up. But I still just couldn’t get into this world because I just didn’t like it or the people in it.

The Other Blue Sky by Shari J. Ryan

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Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited

The Other Blue Sky*

An Enthusiastic 5+ Star Read

Having recently read Last Words, I was very interested in Annie’s story. I’ll admit that I started the book in an already emotional state because I just knew that her story, as told by this author, was going to blow me away. I was not wrong. The author has managed to craft yet another tale that is heartbreakingly beautiful and poignant, that will resonate with you for long after you’ve finished it. The story weaves between the modern-day where Annie is talking with her mother and Charlie, filling in the gaps of what she knows of her history, and the past starting when Annie realized that she wasn’t her parents’ biological child and going through the years as she developed as a young woman, wife, and mother. This book touches on so many themes I hardly know where to start. It is about identity, family, your place in the world, grief, forgiveness, love of several sorts, and grace. And I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I don’t know how this author can create such heartfelt and beautiful words that perfectly express such a wide range of human emotions and experience. This book, like Last Words, is simply stunning. As it does deal with the aftermath of the Holocaust, parts of it are not an easy read, but the author doesn’t dwell on this. Rather, this book—like the other one—is about the triumph of the human spirit. That sounds a little high falutin’ and cerebral, but the author makes it real with believable characters that we can immediately identify with and root for as they face the challenges in the book. I can recommend this fantastic book wholeheartedly.

The Specter by Tam May

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Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de

The Specter*

Intriguing Tale of Northern California in the 1800s

As someone who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I nearly laughed out loud at the first sentence in this book–and not in a good way! The author states that San Francisco hadn’t seen as damp a day like as was happening since the Civil War. As the novel takes place in the early 1890s, that would mean that San Francisco hadn’t seen such a damp day in nearly thirty years! Having been in San Francisco in all seasons, I can say that it can be very damp there quite often! These would be hard to quantify, and there certainly wouldn’t be thirty years in between damp days.

Once I got beyond that, I found parts of this book to show an interesting glimpse of Northern California in the Gilded Age as well as harkening back to the early days of the city and state around the time of California’s statehood. I find myself wondering at the accuracy of the history, especially the part referring to the 1850s, when San Francisco was still kind of a rough western city. True, not as rough as the little shanty towns that sprung up around state during the gold rush, but certainly nothing like the city as we think of it now (or even as it would have been in the 1890s. The term Gilded Age was really an accurate reflection of San Francisco at that time because of the wealth that many San Franciscans had because of the former gold rush as well as the Comstock silver rush. In a tiny little detail that I found odd, the author mentioned two prominent newspapers in the city during the 1890s, one of them the Chronicle and the other the Sun. I was surprised that the Examiner wasn’t mentioned, because that flagship newspaper became a part of Hearst corporation about ten years before the novel would have started–and a very young William Randolph was given it by his father five years before.

The novel is partly epistolary, with a large chunk of the second half of the book being letters that the heroine’s grandmother wrote back to her family when she stayed in an artist colony just north of the city as a young woman. These letters were fascinating, as they revealed a very different sort of existence for young women in the 1850s, but I wish they had been integrated into the greater story better. The letters were each just given their own chapter, with no commentary from the granddaughter, Vivian, who is the protagonist of the story. This made it feel like they were just stuck in there, as they weren’t really anchored to the rest of the story as much as they could have been. That said, I still did find this book to be an interesting look back into two very different and fascinating times of early California history.

Not from the Stars by Christina Britton Conroy

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Not From the Stars*

An Immersive Read into Two Worlds, Edwardian England and the Theatre

I read a lot of historical fiction, but I haven’t read a lot from the Edwardian era. So I enjoyed that this author was not only able to make the Edwardian world feel real but was also able to bring theater to life in an unexpected way. I loved all the references to Shakespeare! This book involves quite a cast of characters, and at times, it is a little tricky to follow the movement of the greater story. There are some surprisingly sexual and violent scenes. If you’re used to reading historical romances, not historical fiction, parts of this book will seem shocking to you. But all in all, it was an immersive read that I found fascinating.

Four Green Fields by Greg McVicker, J. P. Sexton, and Mark Rickerby

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Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de

Four Green Fields*

Take a Literary Trip to Ireland

As an American of Irish descent who has visited Ireland twice, in the 1980s and 1990s, I felt like this book’s stories, insights, and modern poetry very much reflected the Ireland that I knew back then. These three writers have let us into their worlds, both the ones in which they grow up and the ones they are living in now. I did spend some time in Northern Ireland when The Troubles were making an impact on daily lives in numerous ways; this certainly brings back those struggles and gives them a face and voice (so to speak). This book is not wholly focused on Northern Ireland, but a lot of it is about that small patch of the island. We learn a bit about republic sections of Ireland; we also hear stories from a person who is now a part of modern Irish diaspora. The authors have a way of writing that draws you in, whether narrative or poetic, and I can actually hear the words spoken in an Irish brogue; I think the words make more sense if your brain hears them that way! And it is more engaging. While the contents of this book are not always easy ones, I enjoyed this little literary trip back to Ireland.

Owen by Tony Riches

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Ebook available at Amazon
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Paperback available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Owen*

Fictionalized Story about the Start of the Tudor Dynasty

This fascinating historical fiction novel is told from the perspective of Owen Tudor, whom we learn about through the book as the unlikely Welsh progenitor of the Tudor dynasty of England. He is, in fact, Henry VIII’s great-grandfather. In this book, the author has worked with limited historical sources to form a plausible story about Owen Tudor, his wife, and their sons. The book can be a little dense at times, especially when detailing some history and relationships between characters, but I still found this book to be an intriguing look at a person who shaped much of late medieval English history because of the impact of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. His life, as depicted here had incredible ups and downs, as did his children’s. This is very accessible even though it deals with weighty historical subjects, but it is not necessarily an easy or light read.

See You Soon Broadway by Melissa Baldwin

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See You Soon Broadway*

A Good Life or a Dream?

In an unusual move for books of this nature, protagonist Maris actually has a very good life at the start of the book. She has loving parents, a good friend who is also her roommate, and a very attentive and loving boyfriend, Kyle. Maris has more than many people, but she has dreams bigger than the life that she is currently leading. She is a vocal teacher who has dreams of being on Broadway. She is at a crossroads in more ways than one and doesn’t know whether she should pursue her dream in New York or stay where she is. She finds inspiration in her grandmother’s journals from the 1940s.

At times, it felt like the author was trying too hard to affect a younger woman’s way of thinking and speech. Some of it came off as unrealistic. There were times when I absolutely felt sorry for Kyle because I felt like she only cared about herself and not really about him. I know this is chick lit, so that’s supposed to be okay. But I don’t like it when a protagonist, even in chick lit, cares only about themselves.

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The asterisks (*) by the book title denote the source of the book copy.

One star = I received it as a free advance/review copy or directly from the author.

Two stars = I borrowed it through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Three stars = I purchased the book outright (sometimes for free).

The Amazon book links on this site are affiliate links, which means I make a tiny percentage if you choose to buy a book linked from this site.

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