Reading Fanatic Reviews
Romantic FantasyLowcountry Incantations by C. J. Geisel
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Lowcountry Incantations*
Not My Type of Southern Gothic
This is a nouveau Southern Gothic story for sure. You just know that things aren’t as they seem, and things certainly do go bump in the night. I didn’t particularly enjoy this book despite the author’s wonderful ability to put you right into a scene with her deft sensory descriptions. I was turned off by the very first chapter. I really think authors need to put warnings in the blurb when a book tackles, or even mentions, certain taboo subjects like incest. While I have no experience of that personally, thank goodness, I actually have no desire to read a book where it is at all a factor. The book is a page-turner and otherwise well written, so if the incest doesn’t bother you, you might enjoy this book.
Girl by Any Other Names by M. K. Schiller
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Girl By Any Other Name*
Back from the Dead?
An intriguing take on a topic that is sometimes seen in suspense or thrillers: someone seems to come back from the dead. I don’t want to give too much away, but I found it interesting the way that the story moved back and forth between a fictionalized past of the couple and they’re present. The true source of the mystery and suspense is not known for quite a while, and not until the end do we really understand what happened in the past. The hero had quite a tendre for the heroine, even when all thought she was dead. The author was successful in making the “back from the dead” theme work, and I enjoyed the interplay between the couple both in the past and the present; kids can be kids, and adulting is sometimes complicated! Books that have so much flashback can feel disjointed, but the past illuminated the present in a variety of ways. I will admit that I was a little confused at first about what Raven Girl was and if it was meant to be told from the perspective of a young person or from an older person looking back at their childhood. But I decided just to trust the author and go with it, and it actually did work. A well-done, unique story.
Mindfulness by Olivia Telford
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Mindfulness*
Practical, Helpful Mindfulness Exercises
Mindfulness definitely seems to be a buzzword these days. This book attempts to define it and help you use it to help your life, both dealing with the negatives and cultivating the positives. The book is relatively simple and straightforward beginning with the definition of mindfulness, some simple exercises, and meditation information and techniques. The first section after that goes into detail about destructive negatives, like stress, anger, and anxiety, that mindfulness could potentially help with. The next section looks at how mindfulness can be used to help build better habits (or beat bad ones), relationships, and perhaps a better life. Both of these practical sections have a little article about the topic and include mindfulness exercises that the author believes will help. One tiny little thing bugged me. The author clearly states at the beginning that mindfulness is not meditation, yet she includes meditation in the subtitle, perhaps making the potential reader think that meditation is the only way that mindfulness can be achieved or that this book is only about mindfulness through meditation. As noted above, meditation does have its own chapter, but the exercises in the rest of the book don’t focus on meditation.
I think this is a solid introduction to mindfulness that contains simple, practical exercises could be helpful if you have issues like I mentioned above.
What Million-Dollar Brands Know by Lisa N. Alexander
Available at Amazon (eBook, paperback), Barnes & Noble (paperback), Thalia (paperback)
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What Million Dollar Businesses Know*
Mostly Meant for Medium- to Large-Size Businesses
Perhaps because I work with so many entrepreneurs in my own entrepreneurial business, I tend to think about creating personal, solopreneur brands. This book does have some information that will help very small or one-person businesses with their branding and marketing, but the bulk of the book is truly about marketing for medium- to large-sized businesses. There definitely are nuggets here for a business of any size, and certainly, small business owners will find ideas that they can use as they scale their business to include more people. I think the author depends too much upon the words of other people, making the book seem like it is not her own insights or conclusions but rather a compilation of others’ business and marketing ideas. At times, this makes the book not as readable as it could be; there are lots of quotes–some of the long–that aren’t really pulled together by a topic sentence or framed for easier digestion. I think ideas could have been summarized better. Some content seems like generic marketing ideas that you could find anywhere. I do like the million-dollar questions at the end of each chapter; they are meant to get you thinking and working with the ideas of the book.
Rise of the Shieldmaiden by Jaime Loughran
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Rise of the Shieldmaiden*
Vikings and a Strong Heroine… What’s Not to Like?
If you like stories with Vikings and the strong women (I’ll admit to loving the evocative term “shieldmaiden”), this book will be right up your alley. Thora, the heroine, is a young woman who has lost much but is determined to avenge her family. This book is full of intrigue, crosses and double crosses, unlikely alliances, and a bit of romance. Much is going on in this book. Just some of the themes touched on include second chances, courage, redemption, power, patriarchy, and survival. Thora is tough; she is strong both physically and mentally even though certain men in her world don’t want her to be either and take unfair advantage of her because they can. I enjoy the action sequences and the evolving relationship between Thora and her unlikely hero. The book ends on a happy-for-now cliffhanger that tantalizes about what might be in the next book. I’m curious to see what that is.
The Wind from Faerie by William Justus
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
The Wind from Faerie*
Nice Try, But Misses the Mark
This attempt at fantasy by a new writer didn’t quite hit the mark. There are whole-book issues as well as micro issues. For the overarching issues, I think the most significant problem was that there didn’t really seem to be one major conflict that everything should have been building toward. This made the book feel like it lacked direction and purpose. For me, it was the kind of book that, when I got to the end, I found myself wondering why I had spent the time reading it. Fantasy particularly, I think, really needs a solid structure; we need something it to hold on to when we are propelled into a world that is not like our own. That said, the author did a fairly decent job of world building. The world is believable and interesting. This is the first time I have seen movie-like ratings in the blurb of a book, and it didn’t seem wholly accurate as the book seemed rather tame to me. The danger of using that type of system is that it is generic and not really describe a book. I actually think it would be best classified as a YA novel in general, despite what the rating says.
There were smaller issues as well. I didn’t particularly like the protagonist, and that always helps when reading a book. I thought the author tried too hard to use sensory details to describe things, and this slowed down the pacing of the book as we got mired in long paragraphs of overly detailed language. Some authors can actually pull this off, drawing you into their world through the use of sensory descriptions, but it did not work here. The prologue didn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the book. I do think this world has the potential to be explored in future books, but I think the author needs to grow as a writer to fulfill his visions of the world.
The Bird with the Broken Wing by D. L. Richardson
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Thalia, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Bol.de
The Bird with the Broken Wing*
Compelling Story of Life, Death, Second Chances, and Purgatory
A highly unusual story! I read a lot, so it’s rare that I ever think that, and I think that’s the first time I’ve said that in a review. If the author hadn’t have said in the blurb that this takes place mostly in purgatory, I think I would have been as unsure as the human characters about their location. What an intriguing concept, to have purgatory be a rehab/mental hospital! The characters had so much to do before they could move on, and it was a fascinating read as the more significant issues slowly unfolded. The book switches between the viewpoints of the three main characters, and the author has managed to give them each a distinct voice. The author was able to draw me into their stories with the first chapters that show the desperate circumstances the characters were in before they neared death. You could really empathize with both Jet and Ben and what they were going through. The idea of an angel stuck in purgatory added a whole other dimension to the story. A well done and compelling read.
Witch Myth Christmas by Alexandria Clarke
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Witch Myth Christmas*
Paranormal Christmas a la Groundhog Day… Plus!
The first part of this book feels like a paranormal holiday version of Groundhog Day. Christmas day keeps repeating over and over with slight variations. Only one person seems to be aware of the time slip. I quite enjoyed this author’s writing style. She uses active verbs and deep point of view that makes you feel like you are living the story along with Noelle as she tries to figure everything out. There is a little bit of an information dump at the beginning, including the rather hackneyed use of a window so that a first-person narrator can describe herself, but this is written better than most, so I can forgive it. I loved following the twists and turns of the story. A fun and engaging read.
Life Hacking Spiritual Practices by Joe Fontenot
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Life Hacking Spiritual Practices*
Subtitle Better Fit Than Title
I think that the subtitle actually makes a better title than the real title of this book! When an author uses a trendy term like “life hacking,” I feel it more obscures what a book is about than illuminate. Something just rubs me wrong, too, about the idea of “hacking” anything spiritual. But I won’t keep going on about semantics. This book is meant for Christians who feel like the crazy modern world keeps them from truly living their Christian beliefs and hampers their closeness to God. The author has a clear and easy writing style as well as very workable suggestions and tips for how to become more focused on the religious aspect of your life and God. I wish, too, that the author had been more explicit in the blurb that this is a Christian book. The term “spiritual” can be used to define and describe a much broader realm than Christianity, so it is not accurate to use a more general term. Name it and claim it! This way, it makes it clear to people who just look at the blurb, and not the categories, what exactly this book is about. That said, this is a scripturally sound book written in in an engaging way that may help Christians find their way back to God, even with the pressures of modern life, and to help them live their lives in a way that more embodies Christ’s message.
Change Your Life after Narcissistic Abuse by Mia Warren
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Change Your Life after Narcissistic Abuse*
More about Background Info Than Changing Your Life
The title of this book makes you think it is going to be all about how to change your life after you get out of a relationship with someone who is clinically narcissistic. That is not wholly true; only the end portion of the book directly addresses this. (Even that section really isn’t about changing your life; it is more about issues you might have as you move on.) Earlier sections actually have useful information, but they aren’t about what the title says the book is. The book starts off defining clinical narcissism and some of its different types. The author then goes on to say how a person in a relationship with a narcissist can unwittingly feed the other person’s disorder and follows this with information about the typical tricks the narcissist uses to get his or her way. The author has quite a long section about how to not be a victim if you are in a relationship with a narcissist, finally suggesting that the best thing a person can do is leave the narcissist. Then, she guides the reader through the difficulties of trying to get away, including tactics that the narcissist will use to try to get the person back. Finally, the last section addresses what the title says the book is about (mostly). I think this book either needed to be more on point or have a different title.
This book reminded me about another one that was just released not long ago that looked at narcissism, Narcissist by Keith Coleman; the books are actually structured very similarly. This one has more information about what to do when you get out of the toxic relationship. There is one thing that annoyed me in this book; this has happened with several nonfiction books lately. In the middle of the book, there is a request for a review. I don’t mind one of these at the end of the book (and there is one there as well), but it is quite annoying to turn a Kindle page and see this; this even includes a graphic. Very irritating.
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