Laura Freeman's Blog, page 29
July 2, 2020
Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts
Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts 2001 A Jove Book
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Reporters are often assigned a beat which means they write the same type of stories every day whether it’s features, business, or government. You become skilled in that area but don’t expand your knowledge to other areas. Writers need to try other genres than the one they are most comfortable with.
Roberts was known for her romances but also wrote crime mysteries under J.D. Robb. In this book, she combines historical, supernatural, and romance. She isn’t afraid to try something new and push the boundaries.
The story begins in 1899 with Abigail, who is married to Lucian Manet, going to the nursery on the third floor to feed her daughter, Marie Rose. Abigail is Cajun and was a servant girl until Lucian fell in love with her and eloped. He brought her back to Manet Manor where his mother, Josephine, hates her and his brother, Julian, lusts after her. Lucian is away and Julian comes into the nursery, drunk, and rapes and kills her. Josephine helps him cover it up and tells Lucian that Abigail ran away and the child isn’t his. Abigail’s grandmother raises Marie Rose.
Roberts shifts to 2002 and Declan Fitzgerald, a rich Boston lawyer, bored with his life, has bought Manet Manor and wants to restore it to its former beauty. His friend, Remy lives in New Orleans and introduces him to Lena, a descendant of Marie Rose.
Roberts has set up the story and adds to it in layers as more background for the modern characters is added with scenes from the past as Abigail’s life is revealed. The sounds of a baby crying, doors slamming, and cold spots show the characters the manor is haunted, and Declan has visions of the past.
Roberts shows that Declan loves Lena immediately, just as he knew he had to own Manet Manor. Lena has a drug-addicted mother who made her lock away her heart to love a long time ago. A key she wears around her neck is a symbol of her unwillingness to fall in love with Declan and keeps them apart most of the story.
Symbolism is a great tool for writers but should be used sparingly. Roberts uses it here in an effective way because the reader knows she has to give the key to her heart to Declan at some point.
Roberts also uses humor in an effective way with a man having a baby – I won’t say anything more. The men, who are friends in her novels, tease and taunt each other, something she uses in several of her novels.
A writer develops a style that can be recognized by fans. It is the small details that create your style. It takes time to find what elements you want to use to define your style so try different things until you recognize what works for you.
More reviews can be found at authorfreeman.wordpress.com
June 25, 2020
Across Five Aprils
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt 1964 Tempo Books
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Many authors are writing about family histories. One of the common mistakes is to write it like a journal without tying the events together to form a story. This book is targeted at young adults but interesting for adults.
Hunt took stories her grandfather told her about the Creighton family during the Civil War and created this story that shows how the family made tough choices.
It is told through the youngest child, Jethro, who is 9 in 1861. His father Matt and mother Ellen had 12 children but the eldest son left for the gold fields, two daughters are married and traveled to Ohio, three young children died from illness, and their daughter was killed in an accident caused by the Burdow neighbor.
Jeth is good friends with the school teacher Shadrach Yale who hopes to marry Jeth’s sister, Jenny, but she is only 14. Jeth’s brother’s Tom, John, and cousin Eb join the Union while Bill joins the Confederacy.
Hunt is able to show what life is like on the farm in Illinois and the different opinions of the war as well as how they react to their neighbors. A couple of men think Jeth’s father should denounce Bill for joining the Rebels and plan to attack Jeth on his way home from town with supplies. It is Burdow who comes to his rescue. The same men burn their barn and dump coal oil down the well.
Jeth has to grow up fast after his father has a stroke. He spends time plowing in the fields and helping John’s wife, Nancy, and their two children. The story follows the path of the war and contains a few letters from Jeth’s brothers.
Jeth also must make adult decisions when his cousin Eb deserts the Union Army and hides out at home. Jeth writes a letter to President Lincoln, who has decided to grant amnesty to deserters if they return to their ranks.
The story takes the reader through the war and raises serious questions about war, slavery, and reconstruction among other things. But it also stresses the love of family and holding onto hope.
For those who want to write a story about their family or memoir, this is a book to read.
For more book reviews go to authorfreeman.wordpress.com
June 18, 2020
Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts
Carolina Moon by Nora Roberts
[image error]This novel has all the ingredients of a Roberts novel. A young girl, Hope, is raped and murdered in the first few pages and the killer isn’t revealed until the very end.
Hope’s death affects her best friend, Tory, her twin sister, Faith, her brother, Cade, and many others as everyone copes with their personal demons.
Tory was planning to meet Hope in the swamp between their homes. Hope lived in a mansion while Tory lived in a shack with her abusive and religious father who beat her so badly that night, she couldn’t join Hope, but Tory has special powers to share feelings with the people she knows or touches and experienced everything Hope felt the night of her death. She leads her family to her body in the morning.
Years pass and Tory returns to her family home to face her past and start fresh. But she realizes other women have died by Hope’s killer, but she can’t see his face to identify him. She falls in love with Cade and befriends Faith as she rebuilds her life.
Roberts explores each character’s emotional battles and gives each one growth and triumph over their personal demons. This is her forte. She uses her settings for mood and as a part of the story. She gives the reader a place to dwell during the story and characters to root for as they uncover the past and build a future.
As in other of her novels, the obvious bad guy is revealed before the secret killer and taken care of in a fitting way. Roberts also gives the female character the power to save herself instead of being rescued by a knight in shining armor.
Writers can learn how to write a complex and layered character from Roberts. She gives each of them a detailed back story and a growth curve that begins with a broken person and through experiences and friendships, grows into a complete and healthy person. Even minor characters have dimension. She also uses humor with description and behavior of more than one character. She also seems to always have a dog or two in the story.
More reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
June 12, 2020
Zac and the Dream Stealers
Zac and the Dream Stealers by Ross MacKensie 2012 Scholastic
[image error]I don’t usually read fantasy but it’s a nice change to dip into the world of magic, vampires, werewolves, and goblins. This young adult novel will appeal to older children and teens.
Zac, 11, is having strange dreams. His granny, Eve Wonder, takes him to the worlds of dreams, Nocturne, where Dream Stealers turn nice dreams into nightmares and feed on the fear of humans.
Granny is a member of the Knights of Nod. They join more knights, including Tom and Tilly, children who are learning magic. They are looking for Rumpous Tinn who escapes from the vampire leader, Shadow, with the help of a girl, Noelle.
The story is entertaining and has a quest with plenty of action as the two groups, one with Granny and the other with Tinn eventually meet. The knights have a traitor among them which is revealed during the final confrontation.
MacKenzie uses fun names and funny descriptions like a camper that can fly and a double decker bus that’s a boat.
The children play an active role in helping the adults defeat the villains and save the world from nightmares. Zac makes friends and feels he belongs in the magical world.
Anyone who likes the Harry Potter books, will enjoy this story.
More book reviews are at authorfreeman.wordpress.com
June 8, 2020
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant; and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; and time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to to keep silence, and time to speak;
A time to love, and time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
June 5, 2020
Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts
Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts 1999 A Jove Book
[image error]This is the final book in the trilogy and Roberts delivers. She gives us more background on Phillip, one of the three Quinn sons. The previous stories covered Cameron and Ethan and their romances.
It’s Phillip’s turn and sophisticated ad man Phillip is matched against Dr. Sybill Griffin, a renowned psychologist who is spying on Seth Quinn, the boy the three brothers are trying to adopt and keep from his drug addicted mother, Gloria.
Roberts releases information about Sybill slowly and paced, and the reader knows she is on a collision course with the Quinn brothers that ratchets up the tension. We finally meet Gloria and are given the background that was withheld in the earlier novels.
As in the previous novels, Ray Quinn’s ghost appears to Phillip and gives him words of wisdom like he did the previous two brothers. The ghost aspect is used sparingly and ties in the family love felt by the four brothers. All the questions about Ray’s relationship with Gloria and Seth are answered in a logical and satisfying way. The ending is especially rewarding.
Roberts excels at setting and the reader will learn a lot about sailing and boat building in all three novels. She also writes emotional and frequent love scenes that define a romance novel.
This was my favorite of the three novels in the trilogy.
More book reviews are available at authorfreeman.wordpress.com
May 29, 2020
Andi Unexpected
Andi Unexpected by Amanda Flower 2013 Zonderkidz
[image error]Amanda Flower is one of my local authors and has encouraged and inspire me to write. She introduced me to Sisters In Crime, a group of women who write mysteries, and she started a writing group at a local library. Writers need peers who will support them. It’s a tough business.
Andi Unexpected is a mystery novel for young adults. Andi, whose real name is Andora, and her sister Bethany have been orphaned by their scientist parents and arrive at Aunt Amelie’s house to start the story. We are sympathetic to Andi because she is an orphan but also because Bethany, who is older, seems to dislike her. She does’t want to share a room so Andi cleans out the attic with neighbor and nerd, Colin.
They find a hidden compartment and a trunk with the name Andora on it. Inside are some baby items. She also finds an envelope of pictures of her great-grandparents and a baby. What happened to Andora? So begins the mystery she must solve.
Colin takes her to the local historical museum which used to be the Pike’s soda pop factory where her great-grandfather worked before he went to college. Adults act strangely when she asks about Andora, which increases her determination to find out what happened to her.
Andi takes plenty of risks to uncover clues to keep the tension high and the reader turning pages. Flower puts Andi and Colin in danger as the bad guy reveals his motives.
Unlike so many of the young adult books of today that are filled with gloom and doom, this one offers a brighter story. Andi and Colin work together to piece together the past and uncover a secret that is tied to the Great Depression and poverty.
Flower uses Ohio locations that make it fun for anyone from the area. “I know that place.” She knows how to blend description, dialogue, and personality in her stories. Flower also writes cozy mysteries for adults. If you’re looking to add an author to your list of what to read, add Amanda Flower.
For more book reviews, go to authorfreeman.wordpress.com
May 22, 2020
Rising Tides by Nora Roberts
Rising Tides by Nora Roberts 1998 A Jove Book
[image error]This is the second book in a three-book series by Roberts. The trilogy focuses on three brothers adopted by Ray and Stella Quinn. Each of them came from abusive homes. Before Ray dies in a single-car crash with a telephone pole, he had plans to adopt another troubled youth, Seth, 10. The brothers, Cameron, Phillip, and Ethan join forces to provide Seth a home.
In the first book Cameron falls in love with Seth’s case worker, Anna, and they marry. In the second book Ethan reveals that he has been in love with Grace most of his life, but believes his abuse by his mother has tainted him and his blood and he shouldn’t marry or have children.
Grace has always been in love with Ethan but settled for another man, who fathered her daughter Aubrey and left her. Ethan and Grace fall in love, but Ethan nearly destroys it by refusing to marry her. Her anger helps her resolve issues with her father and confront Ethan. Anna helps guide Ethan to the truth.
Roberts uses Anna and her experience as a caseworker to explain the guilt and shame abused children carry with them into adulthood. Ethan never gets counseling, but his father appears to him as a ghost and gives him advice.
It’s a romance so the trauma of sex abuse is handled quickly. Roberts doesn’t shy away from using a dark backstory to explain behavior. Abuse and sexual assault are a running theme in her Eve Dallas detective series.
This book adds to the problem of Gloria, Seth’s mother, who wants money from the three brothers or she’ll take Seth back. She already sold him to Ray Quinn and may have blackmailed him for more money, which he paid. None of the questions about Ray, Gloria, or Seth was answered in the first or second book, so they better be answered in the third.
More book reviews at http://www.authorfreeman.worpress.com
May 15, 2020
To Be A Slave
To be a Slave by Julius Lester 1968 by Scholastic Press
[image error]I watch shows like “Who do you think you are?” and “Finding Your Roots” which trace someone’s ancestors back through time. Often if there is a slave in the family, the search is a dead end because names are not often listed, just a number of slaves owned by someone. But sometimes they discover a complex and interesting story that shows that each person, slave or free, has a special story to tell.
This book is taken from interviews of slaves and former slaves by the Anti-Slavery Society and abolitionist groups and then the Federals Writers’ Project in the 1930s.
Each slave has a different experience and yet common threads. Slavery was different for the field slave from the house slave. The book touches on the slave trade, the auction block, the plantation, resistance movements, and emancipation.
It gives the reader a taste of the topic and hopefully leads to books that take each subject of slavery to a deeper examination. Our history of slavery is often ignored, but this book is a start for discovering the tragic and complex story that shaped our nation.
More book reviews are at authorfreeman.wordpress.com
May 7, 2020
Sea Swept by Nora Roberts
Sea Swept by Nora Roberts 1998 A Jove Book
[image error]This is a trilogy of Nora Roberts that covers the three romances of brothers Cameron, Phillip, and Ethan Quinn. Ray and Dr. Stella Quinn took in the three boys at different times. Each one came from an abused home or background and they provided them stability and love at a seaside home on the Chesapeake Bay.
Sea Swept centers on Cameron who likes fast cars, fast boats, and fast women. He throws one out of his room when he hears Ray is dying. Ray ran his car into a telephone pole. He also was in the process of adopting another lost boy, Seth, 10.
The book focused on Cameron and Anna Spinelli’s affair. She is Seth’s social worker and cares about his future. She isn’t looking for love. But as Cameron builds a relationship with Seth, Anna falls in love with Cameron, who can’t wait to get back to fast cars, fast boats, and fast women. The conflict keeps them apart as each reconsiders giving their heart to another.
The story brings up several questions such as was Seth the son of Ray? Which meant he cheated on Stella who died eight years before of cancer. He also paid Seth’s mother Gloria DeLauter $25,000. She claimed Ray was her lover when she took a class of his at the local college. The insurance company is unwilling to pay Ray’s claim because of the rumors of suicide. They hire an investigator to find Seth’s mother for answers, but don’t confront her in this book.
The brothers do unite to fight the insurance company and any slander of their father’s name at the end.
Because she brought up questions and did not answer them in the first book, you have to read the next two to find out what happens to the Quinn family and especially Seth, whose mother is going to cause trouble. Cameron sees Ray’s ghost who answers some of the questions. I don’t know yet if he will appear to the other two brothers. What do you think about using ghosts in a story?
Roberts gives us some guidance on writing trilogies. She introduces the three main characters of each book in the first book. Although she focuses on Cameron, she gives enough background on Phillip and Ethan to make the reader want to know them better. The brothers also start a boat building business and are determined to defend their father’s good name together.
In any trilogy or series, the basic story needs to be resolved. In this case it was the romance between Cameron and Anna. But other elements need to be left unsolved in order to keep the readier’s interest, but I believe at least one element apart from the romance should have been resolved. None of the problems introduced in the first story are resolved. I was a bit angry about this. What do you think?
More reviews at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
