Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 293

Review: VILLAGE BOOKS by Craig McLay

Reasons why working in a bookstore is great:


     1.       They’re quiet
     2.       All the knowledge and art ever created in one spot
     3.       You are not accosted by sales people like you would in an electronic store


That’s what was so great about Village Books


“Things may appear quiet on the surface, but passions run high.” (2)


I thought this might be an interesting read and there were tid bits that stood out to me, but the writing tends to babble incessantly and, at times, incoherently. I’ve often wondered what the heck he was talking about. It was also long-winded and didn’t seem to go anywhere within the first few chapters. I honestly thought this would be better.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE EXTRA by Kenneth Rosenberg

“Now, [Warren] was just another homeless person, struggling to survive on the streets of Hollywood.” (1) Bridgette was a struggling wanna-be actress, and, although she’s making a decent wage working as an extra, she starts to feel like she’ll never make it in the industry.


When Warren walks onto the set, they confuse him for an extra. Suddenly, he’s casted in a role. Turns out that Warren was a natural actor, and Bridgette wants to help him understand the biz. As the two get closer, they realize their feelings for each other run deeper than they thought.


Story was witty and well-written. It explores the true life of a Hollywood extra with a vivid portrayal of the painted and masked L.A. scene. The book was good, but it starts to lag about half way through. It’s a decent read.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: THE MAN TEST by Amanda Aksel

Marin (a therapist/marriage counselor): “I won’t be so bold as to say I’m a relationship expert, I’ve helped absent men become present husbands, set wandering eyes straight, and fueled fire back into sexless marriages.”


But Marin soon becomes one of those problematic couples when she catches her fiancé cheating on her. Her dream world is shattered in a matter of milliseconds. Would she ever love and trust again?


Then she reads a book that reveals the truth about men: All men cheat and all men lie. She soon learns that the male species carries a “man disease of deceit.” So then she spends her time researching and learning more about “the truth.” And to prove the truth to her friends, she comes up with The Man Test—she will date a man and show that he will lie and cheat.


If you go looking for trouble, you will find it. Was Marin going to find trouble on this Man Test? Of course, especially when she meets James, the perfect specimen, who actually seems to be a really nice guy. We’ll see.


Can she pretend to like someone while having an ulterior motive? Or will she fail the test?


I thought this was lovely, candid, and well-written. I liked the concept of the Man Test and how it all came to be. Of course, you undoubtedly knew that there would be some blunders and misunderstandings, but they were not as harebrained as I would’ve liked. What I didn’t like the most was that it gets too scientific on the statistics of cheating men. This goes to show that even a therapist can be crazy, especially when it comes to love. And I kind of figured that guilt was eventually going to set in and Marin would realize that she may not have all the answers. Story was interesting up until half-way through, then it sort of tapered off from there. Overall enjoyable though.


My rating: 3.5 stars

Review: GIRLS OF SUMMER a chick lit short story anthology

This all starts off with a preview of a novel or novella by the editor, which sounds like a good one.
In “Random Acts of Violet,” a housesitter gets a strange visit from a little girl, and football-player Noah might just be the person she needs to get rid of the monster in the attic.

In “Mixtapes and Rolleskates,” recently divorced Angie meets Owen at a skating rink.
A woman finds the “magic of Maui” with a hot adventure resort director.

Cute and sweet stories of love and summer girls. Most of them were predictable, but some were a decent read.

My rating: 3 stars

Review: SUMMER DREAMS a short story anthology

In “The Door into Summer,” a woman bored with her admin job leaves one cold, gray morning and brightens with a smile at the first light of summer. It turns out it might be a sign that she was missing happiness in her life.

“Shannon” is the story from the POV of the family dog.

“Aunt Bessie” is a cozy, little mystery on the beach front.
“One True Love” is about a man and woman who find each other again through the power of a magic pendant.
And a pre-med student with self-doubt studies too hard, then learns what she is truly capable of.
Stories are lyrical and sentimental, and they’re all about summer. Some were okay while others were boring.

My rating: 3 stars

Review: JOSHUA by Robert Fishell

Image Graphic designed by Sandra Lopez

Life is bleak for 12-year-old Joshua Miller. He's failing in school, his teachers pick on him, his classmates laugh at him, a relentless bully terrorizes him, his best friend has moved away, and he's hopelessly in love with the prettiest girl in his school. At home, his harsh and distant father has all but disinherited him, he worries his mother to tears, and he squabbles senselessly with his pretty, talented sister Anica, who seems to be everything he is not. Then adolescence comes along and really complicates things. A torrent of long-denied feelings for a sister who once adored him compel Joshua to repair the damage he's done to their relationship. His longtime babysitter helps him to understand things his mother doesn't know how to tell him and his father doesn't want him to know. Then, in a murky funeral home far away from home, he meets a distant cousin who changes his life in ways he could never have imagined. As Joshua starts to turn his life around, his father's tortured past catches up with him, and life at home begins to unravel. Joshua is faced with a decision that could imperil his very life. He will risk everything to protect his sister, and in the process, he learns the power of love and the meaning of courage.

Available on Amazon






My review: From the day she was born, Joshua Miller has stood by his little sister.
“The bond between them was the only thing that gave Joshua any respite from his struggles.” (6)
He begins his growing years in kindergarten, separated from his beloved sister. As time goes on, she learns and gains other interests. Loneliness and resentment soon begin to take root in Joshua as he realized that his sister doesn’t seem to need him anymore. Then Josh starts having trouble in school while his parents quarrel in the background. Anica would have fun in school while school was a prison for Josh. He was the loser kid that nobody wanted. And he was so alone.
“Was that to be the purpose of his life, to acquiesce, just to be nagged, scolded, and lectured?” (39) No one loved him—not his teachers, not his classmates, not his parents, and not even his sister it would seem.
Throughout his school years, Josh had learned to survive. Meanwhile, the rest of his family was dealing with issues of their own. Anica couldn’t figure why her brother was so angry at her. His mother questioned what was happening to her children. His father didn’t know why he even bothered with the boy. The emotional baggage weighed heavily on them all. I’m not sure if the POVs of the other characters lent anything to Josh’s story.
The writing was good, but I think the story lamented too much on the emotional aspect and it was further strained by the various points of view. For instance, I don’t think it was necessary to relive how the parents met. If the story had to have the differing POVs, then it would’ve been better just centering it on the key players of the family (Josh, Anica, mother, father.) Instead, we got the views of even more characters. Cammie, Becky, Mary. I mean, who were all these other people?
The whole thing was a good drama with an emotional toll. Even though the book was titled after Josh, the story is really about a family being torn apart by feelings and issues. Readers will definitely feel for these characters. Story is a lonely and poignant tale with an impactful ending.
A pretty good read.
My rating: 3 stars



--EXCERPT--

Fifth grade played out like a bad sequel to the previous four years, the umptieth iteration of some idiotic slasher flick where everybody knew the killer would return and the victims would stupidly look in the basement.
Joshua was able to scrape by in school only because of the intervention they said he needed. He was forced to stay after school three days a week while a teacher would go about the room checking his work and that of the other dumb kids. She would stand by his desk, condescendingly walking him through his work, treating him as she might treat a much younger child. It kept his grades marginal, but he didn’t feel good about it. It only reinforced his notion of how stupid he was.
When homework hour was over, the streets and sidewalks would be empty of other kids, who were off somewhere not being losers. At least it provided him with a way of avoiding Jesse Duncan. On the days when he was allowed to leave school on time, he left by a different door each day and took a circuitous route to get home. Jesse would still ambush him occasionally, but Joshua learned that if he could just keep his head down for a couple of  blocks, Jesse would have his fun and then leave him alone.
He still gazed hopelessly at Becky Lindstrom, who just got prettier every year. The thought that she would never know he was alive no longer depressed him. Seeing her allowed him to feel something that was not black and shapeless like the other things he felt. She was a little ray of sunshine penetrating the canopy of the dark forest he wandered through, trudging towards his eighteenth birthday and life on the streets.
Anica continued to get better at the many things she did so well. She had lots of friends, and she was happy. Joshua continued his snipes and insults with her, and in time, she learned to give as good as she got. Their mother scolded them both for bickering but she gave up trying to reconcile the two of them. They would have to work this out on their own.
In the spring, Joshua and the other fifth graders were given a tour of Harry S. Truman Junior High School, where he would go next year. The school was much bigger than Lincolncrest. The floor plan was confusing, and there were long, imposing rows of lockers everywhere. Instead of one teacher, he would have five, one for each subject. It was scary, Joshua thought, but he also thought it could not be any worse than Lincolncrest. He had not learned how to achieve, but he'd learned how to survive.

Review: A MOTHER’S LOSS by Jo Crow

A child therapist and a mother still mourning her son’s death ten years ago. Dr. Karen Marks has moved on since then, but her newest patient seems to be the exact replica of her son.  Suddenly, old wounds are re-opened and pain has found its way back to her heart.


Told in a diary narrative, story transitions between past and present. We learn that Karen was in the middle of an affair—lying between the sheets with a man that wasn’t her husband—when she heard about her son’s accident. On top of the brimming guilt, Karen must also contend with allegations on her dead, gay husband. Talk about a therapist needing a therapist.


Story was simply written with a rooted connection to the characters. The pace was rather slow, but the read was still fairly interesting. An okay read.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: CHANGE OF PLANS by H.K. Christie

“Here goes the first day of the rest of my life.”


Casey was an “independent, self-declared, career-focused dog lady.” What more could she possibly ask for? Certainly not marriage and babies. But, still, she liked being around Seth. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head when he was just a friend and co-worker? Why couldn’t she stop fantasizing about him, obsessing over him? Something told her that there was more there than she thought.


Casey was kind of neurotic about Seth, over-analyzing and over-thinking every move he made. You’d think that she would’ve learned from her last failed relationship.


Story was overall well-written and the characters were likable. The pace was leisurely, which was consistent throughout the book, although, at times, I wished it would’ve been a little quicker. Although it was a fairly simple read, it didn’t quite grab me. I thought it was okay.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: LITTLE GIRL by Courtney Vigo

A little girl who lost her father and resented her mother; but it all changed when her uncle moved in. “When I was little, he was fatherly. He made my lunches for school and carried me to my bed when I fell asleep in front of the TV. As I developed, it changed. I’d catch him looking at me from the corner of his eye.” (8)
It wasn’t long that she started to like the attention she was getting from men.
“[Police] read the face of a rebellious girl who got caught doing something wrong rather than a child who was being molested by her uncle and forgotten about by her mother.” (13)
Eventually, the fear, anger, and resentment were replaced with infatuation when a high school coach starts taking an interest in Paige.
Story had a slow, steady rhythm with a candid and endearing quality. It’s a distressing tale of a little girl that grew up too fast, a girl damaged beyond repair as she recounts the events of her past to a court-ordered psychiatrist. It was open and honest, and the writing was nonchalant.
Paige definitely had a delusional problem, especially when it came to the crush she developed on her coach. Her abandonment issues projected into a desire she constantly craved, a desire she transferred onto fatherly figures she never had as a child. It’s almost like she was living a double life—she would be a little girl that went to school during the day, but, at night, she’d turn into a sexual toy behind closed doors.
A raw coming-of-age story.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: THE MINER'S GOLD by Alba Arango

Image Graphic designed by Sandra Lopez

Steve, Matt, and Jenny are invited to hunt for a hidden treasure left behind by a mysterious forty-niner over a hundred and fifty years ago. As they begin to unravel the miner’s cryptic note, they realize they are not alone in the hunt for the gold.

Determined to beat the competition to the treasure, the three detectives up their game only to come face-to-face with their main competitor—the ghost of the miner himself!

 Available on Amazon


 

My review: A forty-niner's buried gold. Sounds like a job for the Decoders, a kids secret detective agency.
Steve, Matt, and Jenny have a chance to hunt for treasure and be in a movie. While working as extras, they would sneak off to seek the truth behind the legend of a miner's gold. But beware the ghost of the miner. On top of that, was something shady going on at the set?
It's a race in the hunt of this buried treasure.
Kids were smart and snarky with keen investigative skills. The Decoders were a fun combo of Indiana Jones and the Scooby gang.
A fun adventure and an intriguing mystery!
My rating: 4 stars