Writing and Book Reviews
Writing is easy. Writing well will make you question your life choices. It's similar to, "My God. Why did I eat that entire burrito and the whole bowl of queso?" Writing seems like a good idea. Even a great one as you start. But then you realize your characters are dull, much like that bite… Continue reading The Current
This is my first Moyes book. She's also written bestsellers like Me Before You, After You, and Still Me. This book, The Giver of Stars, is a historical fiction set in the Kentucky Appalachian mountains. Alice Van Cleve is a newly married woman who has followed her husband to his home all the way from… Continue reading The Giver of Stars*
I loved this book. Seriously. I'm giving it four stars, which I don't often do. Kim Michele Richardson has written a book that captures discrimination within a culture that's rarely seen clearly by outsiders. Cussy Mary Carter and her father live in Troublesome Creek, Kentucky, surrounded by the hollers and mountains of the Appalachian Range.… Continue reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek*
Charlie Tyler created a story on the backbone of what many trauma survivors know: sometimes what you've believed to be your truth turns out to be a lie. We are dropped into a kitchen, a young girl named Lily returning home. It seems like any other teenager's life; the parent asking where the young girl… Continue reading The Cry of the Lake
You asked me what love is once. I don’t remember what I said then, but I know now. Love is war. It’s two people wanting things, sometimes the same things and sometimes what they want is so drastically different that it makes you wonder how they got there in the first place. Sometimes it feels… Continue reading MAD MOON
COMING FEBRUARY 2021 from THOMAS & MERCER Guys, I love a thriller. Legal thrillers? Yes, even more love for those. This is my first Methos book and when I started it, I didn't realize it was number two in a series. I wish I'd known that before beginning because I enjoy reading a series in… Continue reading Crimson Lake Road
Germany in the 1930s was a dangerous time. Life as most Germans knew it was coming to an end; old allegiances were breaking and new and terrifying ideas were slowly taking hold. The Nazis were gaining power and Jewish lives, the lives of the mentally challenged, those who were not the “perfect” human example were… Continue reading Where Madness Lies
There's a quiet intensity to Powell's storytelling. Maybe it's the AI voice of the ship Trouble Dog or the somewhat resigned airs from the ship's captain Sal Konstanz that provide a steady thread even through space combat. That's not to say the story isn't exciting; it absolutely is. EMBERS OF WAR is the beginning of… Continue reading Embers of War
I don't think I can say anything about this book that hasn't already been said, but I wanted to include it in my reviews regardless. Perhaps there is someone who hasn't heard of it, will come across it here, and begin walking the road to self-assessment. Coates writes this book as a letter to his… Continue reading Between The World and Me
It wasn't until my second son was born and keeping me up all night that I read WUTHERING HEIGHTS. I can't imagine what drove me to choose it as my escape at two in the morning while my new baby refused to sleep anywhere but my chest. Sleep for me was only a memory at this… Continue reading Catherine House