Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 14
October 20, 2015
Tsura by Heather Anastasiu
I accepted a free copy of Tsura by Heather Anastasiu for review from the author because the central character is a Romani woman. I've read a number of books about Romani history and a couple of anthropology studies about Romani in the United States. I've also read some Romani memoirs, and a great many novels dealing with Romani. So you might say I'm interested in the subject.
I admit to being somewhat disappointed about the extent of Romani cultural content in Tsura. There was a slight Romani flavor sprinkled throughout Tsura, but ideally I would have liked to see a great deal more. The plot line justification for there being so little Romani content is that Tsura was exiled from the Romani community for reasons that are huge spoilers. Based on my reading and what I heard from a part-Romani acquaintance, Tsura probably wouldn't have ever been part of the Romani community because her grandmother was non-Romani. Romani have a very strong sense of purity and the non-Romani grandmother would have brought about the exile of her grandparents. Her family would have been part of the non-Romani world for three generations. They would have needed to make a strong effort to preserve their Romani culture in isolation from their community. They might have forgotten some traditions and this would have impacted Tsura's ability to live like a Romani woman.
When the novel opens Tsura is in hiding with her Jewish lover who was calling himself Andrei. She believed that she had a future with him and was prepared to convert to Judaism. If so, she really needed to change her own name. Tsura is very similar to the Yiddish word for trouble. The plural form is much more familiar. It's tsuris. I can just see Andrei introducing her as Tsura around the Jewish community. The response would be "Oy vey! We don't have enough tsuris already?" Yeah, that would go over really well.
So why were Andrei and Tsura hiding? Tsura takes place in Romania in World War II. Some years ago I had read a Holocaust memoir about a Jewish woman from Poland who took refuge with relatives in Romania in World War II, and was therefore safe from the Nazis. Yet I knew that there were Romanian Jews who were sent to concentration camps. I was confused. Why were some Romanian Jews safe from the Nazis while others weren't?
Tsura finally answered this question. Northern Transylvania was annexed by Hungary as a result of The Second Vienna Award in 1941. The Axis Powers essentially gave this land to Hungary. As a result, its Jews were no longer under the protection of Romanian Marshall Antonescu who refused to cooperate with the Nazi Final Solution when it came to the Old Kingdom's Jews. These were the Jews who lived in the original territory of Romania. He regarded them as Romanians. Marshall Ion Antonescu was no angel. He should not be nominated for a humanitarian award. He was responsible for the deaths of Jews who had joined the Red Army. This was known as the Odessa Massacre. Antonescu was a Romanian nationalist and extremely anti-communist. He was executed in 1946 for the Odessa Massacre and other war crimes. I'd like to thank Heather Anastasiu for helping me to understand Romania's role in World War II a little better.
On the other hand, I had a problem with the way the Jewish Holocaust was portrayed in this book. Something occurred that could never have happened. I can't discuss it specifically because that would be a significant spoiler, but it undermined the believability of this book for me. There is another aspect to this problem that I can't even mention in order to avoid spoilers, but my knowledge of this other area combined with my knowledge of concentration camps caused me to realize that this plot event was an impossibility. I will probably discuss it in the Goodreads version of this review because spoilers can be hidden on Goodreads.
So far I haven't discussed what I thought of the romance factor in Tsura which would be the most important component for those readers who chose to read this book because it's a romance. Well, it's a delayed HEA situation. There's a sequel and the relationship issues are presumably resolved over the course of that narrative. I wouldn't read the sequel for that reason myself, though I did like the romance hero very much. Tsura's difficulties with understanding him in this first book irritated me, and caused me to be impatient with her throughout the novel.
I admit to being somewhat disappointed about the extent of Romani cultural content in Tsura. There was a slight Romani flavor sprinkled throughout Tsura, but ideally I would have liked to see a great deal more. The plot line justification for there being so little Romani content is that Tsura was exiled from the Romani community for reasons that are huge spoilers. Based on my reading and what I heard from a part-Romani acquaintance, Tsura probably wouldn't have ever been part of the Romani community because her grandmother was non-Romani. Romani have a very strong sense of purity and the non-Romani grandmother would have brought about the exile of her grandparents. Her family would have been part of the non-Romani world for three generations. They would have needed to make a strong effort to preserve their Romani culture in isolation from their community. They might have forgotten some traditions and this would have impacted Tsura's ability to live like a Romani woman.
When the novel opens Tsura is in hiding with her Jewish lover who was calling himself Andrei. She believed that she had a future with him and was prepared to convert to Judaism. If so, she really needed to change her own name. Tsura is very similar to the Yiddish word for trouble. The plural form is much more familiar. It's tsuris. I can just see Andrei introducing her as Tsura around the Jewish community. The response would be "Oy vey! We don't have enough tsuris already?" Yeah, that would go over really well.
So why were Andrei and Tsura hiding? Tsura takes place in Romania in World War II. Some years ago I had read a Holocaust memoir about a Jewish woman from Poland who took refuge with relatives in Romania in World War II, and was therefore safe from the Nazis. Yet I knew that there were Romanian Jews who were sent to concentration camps. I was confused. Why were some Romanian Jews safe from the Nazis while others weren't?
Tsura finally answered this question. Northern Transylvania was annexed by Hungary as a result of The Second Vienna Award in 1941. The Axis Powers essentially gave this land to Hungary. As a result, its Jews were no longer under the protection of Romanian Marshall Antonescu who refused to cooperate with the Nazi Final Solution when it came to the Old Kingdom's Jews. These were the Jews who lived in the original territory of Romania. He regarded them as Romanians. Marshall Ion Antonescu was no angel. He should not be nominated for a humanitarian award. He was responsible for the deaths of Jews who had joined the Red Army. This was known as the Odessa Massacre. Antonescu was a Romanian nationalist and extremely anti-communist. He was executed in 1946 for the Odessa Massacre and other war crimes. I'd like to thank Heather Anastasiu for helping me to understand Romania's role in World War II a little better.
On the other hand, I had a problem with the way the Jewish Holocaust was portrayed in this book. Something occurred that could never have happened. I can't discuss it specifically because that would be a significant spoiler, but it undermined the believability of this book for me. There is another aspect to this problem that I can't even mention in order to avoid spoilers, but my knowledge of this other area combined with my knowledge of concentration camps caused me to realize that this plot event was an impossibility. I will probably discuss it in the Goodreads version of this review because spoilers can be hidden on Goodreads.
So far I haven't discussed what I thought of the romance factor in Tsura which would be the most important component for those readers who chose to read this book because it's a romance. Well, it's a delayed HEA situation. There's a sequel and the relationship issues are presumably resolved over the course of that narrative. I wouldn't read the sequel for that reason myself, though I did like the romance hero very much. Tsura's difficulties with understanding him in this first book irritated me, and caused me to be impatient with her throughout the novel.
October 16, 2015
Inches Aren't Everything by Sarah B. Daniels
Inches Aren't Everything by Sarah B. Daniels isn't your typical romance story. You'll follow several points of views for several characters, getting to know each on different levels. Every chapter takes on a different character. Stores like this have always been harder for me to read. It makes me feel like I need a notebook as I read it to keep up with who is who. Especially in Inches Aren't Everything because there were so many characters and the way they related to the BMC club.I found the writing to be excellent. The author is a great writer and knows how to draw you into the scenes. Her writing is easy to follow and flows well from scene to scene. She wasn't overly descriptive, which can sometimes get me lost because I'd much rather spend time with the characters than worry about what color a wall is.
As for the story itself, it was good. There were some twists and turns a long the way that kept it interesting. It did take me longer than a usual book for me to read, simply because it just didn't grab me like I wanted it to. And I think for me it was the about of characters point of views I needed to keep up with.
I would like to check out a story from this author again in the future because I did like her writing.
Lacey's Rating
About The Book
The elite trainers at Body Management Corporation (BMC) have more than sculpting the perfect body on their agendas. Working with hot rock stars and professional athletes, they often spend as much time between the sheets as on the treadmill.
Head trainer, Dean Stoddard, is known for his good looks and stunning bedroom endurance with his more than willing clients. Orlanda Kennedy, one of Dean’s colleagues, is an exquisite goddess on a quest for success and wealth. Orlanda despises the shallowness of the fitness industry and the simple-minded men she works with. She uses her curves and intelligence to manipulate the men who lust after her, to maintain control of the situation – and the men.
Dean can't deny his attraction to Orlanda but refuses to give her the satisfaction of turning him down, so he desires her in quiet from a distance – until he thinks she sends him a signal to approach for landing.
Orlanda's plot for domination unfolds around BMC's owner, Zack Johnston, who is in a power struggle with his business partner, and in another kind of struggle with Leena Ryan, the mysterious woman who seduced him during a flight and hasn't let him rest since. She is about to push Zack into a whole new understanding of the word “action”, causing him to question himself and everything around him.
Luckily, Zack has Keith Langley, his right-hand man and head trainer, keeping him grounded and protecting the business. Keith is a natural leader who longs for love instead of one-night stands.
Burned out rock stars, sex-driven sports stars, clients who tempt, and trainers who accept, round out the roster of characters in this page-turning, intriguing romp of a novel. You'll get to laugh at 'em, love 'em and want to join them!
October 15, 2015
Lethal in Love 6 by @msomerswriter - Book 6 - the final episode in a thriller serial
Be sure to check out my reviews for book 1, book 2,book 3, book 4, and book 5.The series has come to an end and we've discovered who the killer was. The killer was a tad bit of a shocker as well as their accomplice. I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded and the predicament that Jayda was in. Even after being captured, she fought hard and wasn't willing to just give up. I don't know what I would do in the situation, but Jayda was going to go out punching.
Thankfully, that didn't happen and we got the happily ever after we are after as a reader. I really like the way this whole series unfolded and the way the story ended for Sean and Jayda. As characters, they both grew a lot.
The only thing I would have liked to see was a scene with the mother in the last book. Through out the episodes, Jayda is needing to support of her mom after her sister's murder. We meet her in only one book and I felt like we needed a scene with her at the end.
Over all, I really enjoyed this series. I like who it was split up into different episodes. I didn't feel like the books were too short. They were all a good length and ended with the cliffhangers we all hate to love.
This is an author I will be looking for more from in the future.
Book 6 Rating:
Series As A Whole Rating:
About The Series:
Lethal in Love is a steamy romantic suspense about an instinct-driven detective and a sexy, scoop-hungry reporter, both on the hunt for a sadistic killer.
Jayda Thomasz is a sassy homicide detective who never lets her emotions get in the way of a case. So when a serial killer re-emerges after 25 years, the last thing she expects is to catch herself fantasizing over the hot, smooth-talking stranger who crosses the path of her investigation.
Seth Friedin is a reporter chasing the story that'll make his career. When he enters the world of swinging for research, he never imagines he'll be distracted by a hard-talking female detective whose kiss plagues his mind long after she's gone.
Past experience has shown Jayda that reporters are ruthless and unscrupulous. But when the murders get personal, will she make a deal with the devil to catch the killer? How far will she and Seth have to go? And do you ever really know who you can trust?
PS - Book 1 is free on Amazon. :)
October 13, 2015
Ten Questions from Tara: Interview with Alex Rosenberg
Welcome. You’re here to promote The Girl from Krakow, a historical fiction. Tell me, please, what was the inspiration behind this story? How did it come to you?
The Girl from Krakow is set in the period from 1935 to 1947 in Europe—from Barcelona all the way across to Moscow. It’s mainly about one young woman but the story in part traces the real lives of five people I knew growing up, and whose experiences shaped my take on that period of 20th century history from an early age. I helped tell the real story of one of these people in a memoir published about 25 years ago. Then, after thinking about what wartime really meant to people who experienced it, I had to write my version of what happened to them, less constrained by the actual trajectories of the real people but faithful to their fates as I saw them.
We focus a lot on heroines here on Book Babe. Tell me what makes your heroine strong.
Rita, the girl from Krakow, starts out strong enough to want to live her own life in a time—the ‘30s--that made it difficult for women to do so. And then things get infinitely harder. Once the war comes her challenge is sheer survival. The choices she faces are fraught, the burdens they impose are tragic, the threats she faces are universally mortal. But it’s not enough for Rita just to survive. She has to understand her fate in a Europe destroying itself by war, in which whole nations are gripped by madness, consumed by delusions, and make millions their victims. And she has to carry a secret that could lose the Allies the war. All that makes her a heroine in my book at any rate!
Did any particular woman in your family or life help inspire some of her (or their) traits?
The bare bones of The Girl from Krakow are based on real events that happened to real people. What happens to Rita is inspired by my mother’s own experiences in the war. The qualities and character that enabled her to survive under terrible and very dramatic circumstances animate Rita and drive her trajectory. My mother lived a long life after the war, a life she never should have had much reason to expect to have. She made it a life worth living. I wanted Rita to have the same chance, so I had to give her much of my mother’s strength, optimism, and intelligence.Was there any particular part of this story that was the hardest for you to write? Tell me why.
A great deal of The Girl From Krakow is set in Poland and Germany during the war. These are hard times for us to conger 70 years on from the 1940s. Hardest were the scenes in Warsaw Ghetto when Rita has herself smuggled into it, searching for her son. Readers have reacted strongly to those passages, some can’t bear them, others find them gripping. Capturing the horror in details and sensations, describing what she sees and feels, was difficult. These are scenes too easy to write about in familiar terms of outrage, and much harder to convey in ways that enable people to viscerally feel the catastrophe.What kind of research did you do when you penned this novel? Did anything surprising come up in your search? (Perhaps something you had no need to put in the book but stayed in your mind nevertheless?)
I am afraid I did no research for this book. I have spent a lifetime reading about these times, from the early ‘30s through the war and afterwards, not just in Germany and Poland, but in France, Spain and Russia. All of what I retained came flooding back as I wrote. I don’t think the span of years and places would have come together in a story if I had set out to stitch one together from systematic historical research.What would you like readers to gain from reading your book? Is there a strong moral? Do you hope they will laugh, learn something about a particular subject/person, ponder a point?
I started out writing this book with a story to tell, and a set of views about what those years really mean for human history. Readers have recognized these views in Rita’s thoughts, her actions and the ideas that emerge in her relationships with others—men, women, family, friends, strangers. These ideas are controversial ones—Darwinism and atheism, especially. Readers have reacted to this “message” both favorably and unfavorably.
But once I began writing the “message” became less and less important to the story, and now I think people can and should read the novel without feeling any need to take sides on whether Rita’s way of making sense of it all is one they can share. The Girl From Krakow is a thriller, not a work of philosophy.
Your book takes place in Europe. If I were a tourist, what would you recommend I see in this town/country?
Think of all the settings in The Girl from Krakow: Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Krakow, Heidelberg. They are all in their different ways destinations. For history, especially parts of it we know less about, Warsaw, Moscow, Krakow, are magnets. Warsaw was rebuilt after the Germans razed it to the ground in 1944. But Krakow survived intact and is one of the most authentically central European cities to survive 50 years of Communism. The vast church rising over the main square is wonderful. For fun and pleasure, those cities can’t beat Paris and Barca’. When I go back to these two places, I try to visit the sights that figure in this novel, Barceloneta and the beach at Barcelona, the left bank and the Cremerie Polydor restaurant in Paris. Of all the places in The Girl From Krakow, the one I love most is Berlin, a city that nowadays combines the gaiety of Paris with the history of the 20th century in a way that makes it endlessly interesting.
Moving on to personal things...if you could time travel to absolute any time and place in history, where and when would you go and what is it that draws you to this time period? What would you do whilst there?
There are two moments in history worth being there for, just to share the joy. Paris on the 25th of August 1944 and Berlin on the night of November 9th 1989. Watch the faces of the people you can see on Youtube from the wartime newsreels and the video footage from the nightly news programs on TV. You’ll feel so jealous you weren’t there.
What would I do if I could be transported back to those events? Sing, drink, kiss strangers, feel that sometimes the arc of human history really does bend towards justice.
There are so many books out there nowadays... What makes your book stand out from them?
The author is not the best person to answer that question. I know what I want people to find in my book more than in others. But what if anything does stand out to readers is for them to say. Here’s what I hope: readers will find it’s a better way to think about the meaning of what happens to us than the ways we have inherited from our traditions, our culture and our history.
I’m a dog mom, so I always ask this. Do you have pets? If so, tell me about them and do provide pictures.
Alas, my sainted yellow lab, Meg, died a few years ago. We still talk to her many times a day. Our memories and our frequent travels have made it impossible to share our lives with another dog, though wherever we go, it’s the dogs we remember most, and keep pictures of.
***
Alex Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Duke University and the codirector of the Duke Center for Philosophy of Biology. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
The Girl from Krakow is set in the period from 1935 to 1947 in Europe—from Barcelona all the way across to Moscow. It’s mainly about one young woman but the story in part traces the real lives of five people I knew growing up, and whose experiences shaped my take on that period of 20th century history from an early age. I helped tell the real story of one of these people in a memoir published about 25 years ago. Then, after thinking about what wartime really meant to people who experienced it, I had to write my version of what happened to them, less constrained by the actual trajectories of the real people but faithful to their fates as I saw them.We focus a lot on heroines here on Book Babe. Tell me what makes your heroine strong.
Rita, the girl from Krakow, starts out strong enough to want to live her own life in a time—the ‘30s--that made it difficult for women to do so. And then things get infinitely harder. Once the war comes her challenge is sheer survival. The choices she faces are fraught, the burdens they impose are tragic, the threats she faces are universally mortal. But it’s not enough for Rita just to survive. She has to understand her fate in a Europe destroying itself by war, in which whole nations are gripped by madness, consumed by delusions, and make millions their victims. And she has to carry a secret that could lose the Allies the war. All that makes her a heroine in my book at any rate!
Did any particular woman in your family or life help inspire some of her (or their) traits?
The bare bones of The Girl from Krakow are based on real events that happened to real people. What happens to Rita is inspired by my mother’s own experiences in the war. The qualities and character that enabled her to survive under terrible and very dramatic circumstances animate Rita and drive her trajectory. My mother lived a long life after the war, a life she never should have had much reason to expect to have. She made it a life worth living. I wanted Rita to have the same chance, so I had to give her much of my mother’s strength, optimism, and intelligence.Was there any particular part of this story that was the hardest for you to write? Tell me why.
A great deal of The Girl From Krakow is set in Poland and Germany during the war. These are hard times for us to conger 70 years on from the 1940s. Hardest were the scenes in Warsaw Ghetto when Rita has herself smuggled into it, searching for her son. Readers have reacted strongly to those passages, some can’t bear them, others find them gripping. Capturing the horror in details and sensations, describing what she sees and feels, was difficult. These are scenes too easy to write about in familiar terms of outrage, and much harder to convey in ways that enable people to viscerally feel the catastrophe.What kind of research did you do when you penned this novel? Did anything surprising come up in your search? (Perhaps something you had no need to put in the book but stayed in your mind nevertheless?)
I am afraid I did no research for this book. I have spent a lifetime reading about these times, from the early ‘30s through the war and afterwards, not just in Germany and Poland, but in France, Spain and Russia. All of what I retained came flooding back as I wrote. I don’t think the span of years and places would have come together in a story if I had set out to stitch one together from systematic historical research.What would you like readers to gain from reading your book? Is there a strong moral? Do you hope they will laugh, learn something about a particular subject/person, ponder a point?
I started out writing this book with a story to tell, and a set of views about what those years really mean for human history. Readers have recognized these views in Rita’s thoughts, her actions and the ideas that emerge in her relationships with others—men, women, family, friends, strangers. These ideas are controversial ones—Darwinism and atheism, especially. Readers have reacted to this “message” both favorably and unfavorably.
But once I began writing the “message” became less and less important to the story, and now I think people can and should read the novel without feeling any need to take sides on whether Rita’s way of making sense of it all is one they can share. The Girl From Krakow is a thriller, not a work of philosophy.
Your book takes place in Europe. If I were a tourist, what would you recommend I see in this town/country?
Think of all the settings in The Girl from Krakow: Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Krakow, Heidelberg. They are all in their different ways destinations. For history, especially parts of it we know less about, Warsaw, Moscow, Krakow, are magnets. Warsaw was rebuilt after the Germans razed it to the ground in 1944. But Krakow survived intact and is one of the most authentically central European cities to survive 50 years of Communism. The vast church rising over the main square is wonderful. For fun and pleasure, those cities can’t beat Paris and Barca’. When I go back to these two places, I try to visit the sights that figure in this novel, Barceloneta and the beach at Barcelona, the left bank and the Cremerie Polydor restaurant in Paris. Of all the places in The Girl From Krakow, the one I love most is Berlin, a city that nowadays combines the gaiety of Paris with the history of the 20th century in a way that makes it endlessly interesting.
Moving on to personal things...if you could time travel to absolute any time and place in history, where and when would you go and what is it that draws you to this time period? What would you do whilst there?
There are two moments in history worth being there for, just to share the joy. Paris on the 25th of August 1944 and Berlin on the night of November 9th 1989. Watch the faces of the people you can see on Youtube from the wartime newsreels and the video footage from the nightly news programs on TV. You’ll feel so jealous you weren’t there.
What would I do if I could be transported back to those events? Sing, drink, kiss strangers, feel that sometimes the arc of human history really does bend towards justice.
There are so many books out there nowadays... What makes your book stand out from them?
The author is not the best person to answer that question. I know what I want people to find in my book more than in others. But what if anything does stand out to readers is for them to say. Here’s what I hope: readers will find it’s a better way to think about the meaning of what happens to us than the ways we have inherited from our traditions, our culture and our history.
I’m a dog mom, so I always ask this. Do you have pets? If so, tell me about them and do provide pictures.
Alas, my sainted yellow lab, Meg, died a few years ago. We still talk to her many times a day. Our memories and our frequent travels have made it impossible to share our lives with another dog, though wherever we go, it’s the dogs we remember most, and keep pictures of.
***
Alex Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Duke University and the codirector of the Duke Center for Philosophy of Biology. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.October 5, 2015
Louise's Chance by Sarah R. Shaber @SShaber
I've really been enjoying this series since I picked it up at book three and despite missing books one and two, I have never felt like I'm missing anything, thought I can't for the life of me remember her previous experience with Agent Williams. Either he was in book one or two, or there's been too much time between novels and I've forgotten.But I digress. Louise is a former clerk for America's secret agency. It's WWII and she's in D.C. working a new job with the Foreign Morale committee. I've heard of this before and this is extremely interesting to me. During the war, we made fake letters and postcards and graffiti to discourage Nazis and German soldiers...to lower their morale. Louise takes us into the backrooms of this project. Her mission is to turn German POWs who've recently been incarcerated in the States. They are needed to plant the propaganda behind enemy lines.
But while interviewing the POWs Louise gets involved in a murder mystery.
And her secret lover pops up again, though there's very little of this twist this time.
I like how the author delves into the attitudes toward women and women working during the war, the changing attitudes and the resistors. The writing is stellar, and I must applaud the author for something. Often when reading mysteries in which there are a lot of suspects, I grow confused. Too many characters are introduced too soon and too many backgrounds, causing me to lose track of who is who. Not so in this novel. All the prisoners relevant to the story are introduced with just enough detail that we can tell them apart and remember who's who.
I can't wait to find out what Louise does next. Terrific novel. Perhaps not as exciting or intense as the last one, but a great installment to the series regardless. Did I mention we met another interesting and strong woman in this story? Louise's boss. I have a feeling we'll be reading more of her.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital review of this galley.
September 30, 2015
The Darkness Rolling by Win and Meredith Blevins
I read and reviewed the first Blevins' collaboration, Moonlight Water on my personal blog here. I first encountered Yazzie Goldman, the fictional male protagonist of The Darkness Rolling, in Moonlight Water. Yazzie is part Navajo and part Jewish. Although Moonlight Water was contemporary fiction, The Darkness Rolling is the first book in a series of historical mysteries that begin right after World War II. During the war Yazzie received training in NCIS investigative techniques. I thought that he had potential as a mystery detective.
The reason why I decided to review this book for Book Babe is because there's a rather prominent female character. She is the real Hollywood star, Linda Darnell. I knew virtually nothing about her before reading The Darkness Rolling. After finishing it, I wanted to know a lot more.
The Darkness Rolling is actually a crime thriller rather than a mystery. The perpetrator is revealed to readers early in the book. The suspense arises from how he is caught and captured.
Yazzie Goldman is hired as part of the security team for Linda Darnell during the filming of a movie directed by John Ford in Monument Valley. The movie's name is never mentioned in the book. Based on internal clues and online information about Linda Darnell's career, I'd say that it has to be My Darling Clementine (1946) in which Darnell played a Mexican dancer. I learned from this novel that Darnell was actually part-Cherokee. This was confirmed by multiple web pages dealing with Linda Darnell.
This book could have been a standard thriller about a star being stalked. One of the reasons why it wasn't was because of Linda Darnell as portrayed by the Blevins. She absolutely refused to be treated as a victim. She was not going to be pitied or allow herself to be sidelined.
Yazzie's rather unusual family also contained several wonderfully strong women. I especially admired Iris Goldman, a highly independent artist. I'm hoping to see more of her in future novels in this series.
I do have to say that Yazzie's grandfather, Mose, was the most extraordinary character. He had recently had a stroke before the novel began, and his speech was tremendously impaired. Yet in a crisis he could surmount his medical condition with a toughness and resourcefulness that was nothing short of amazing.
There was some good Navajo cultural and historical content in this novel. A reference to the Navajo chief Hoskininni led me to research him. I learned that when the U.S. Army forcibly relocated the Navajo, Hoskininni led many Navajos into hiding where they remained until the Navajo were allowed to return. I found a very colorful account of Hoskininni's life at Dine Biographies.
So I enjoyed The Darkness Rolling very much. It was unexpected, and I loved a number of the characters. I will definitely read the next in the series.
The reason why I decided to review this book for Book Babe is because there's a rather prominent female character. She is the real Hollywood star, Linda Darnell. I knew virtually nothing about her before reading The Darkness Rolling. After finishing it, I wanted to know a lot more.
The Darkness Rolling is actually a crime thriller rather than a mystery. The perpetrator is revealed to readers early in the book. The suspense arises from how he is caught and captured.
Yazzie Goldman is hired as part of the security team for Linda Darnell during the filming of a movie directed by John Ford in Monument Valley. The movie's name is never mentioned in the book. Based on internal clues and online information about Linda Darnell's career, I'd say that it has to be My Darling Clementine (1946) in which Darnell played a Mexican dancer. I learned from this novel that Darnell was actually part-Cherokee. This was confirmed by multiple web pages dealing with Linda Darnell.
This book could have been a standard thriller about a star being stalked. One of the reasons why it wasn't was because of Linda Darnell as portrayed by the Blevins. She absolutely refused to be treated as a victim. She was not going to be pitied or allow herself to be sidelined.
Yazzie's rather unusual family also contained several wonderfully strong women. I especially admired Iris Goldman, a highly independent artist. I'm hoping to see more of her in future novels in this series.
I do have to say that Yazzie's grandfather, Mose, was the most extraordinary character. He had recently had a stroke before the novel began, and his speech was tremendously impaired. Yet in a crisis he could surmount his medical condition with a toughness and resourcefulness that was nothing short of amazing.
There was some good Navajo cultural and historical content in this novel. A reference to the Navajo chief Hoskininni led me to research him. I learned that when the U.S. Army forcibly relocated the Navajo, Hoskininni led many Navajos into hiding where they remained until the Navajo were allowed to return. I found a very colorful account of Hoskininni's life at Dine Biographies.
So I enjoyed The Darkness Rolling very much. It was unexpected, and I loved a number of the characters. I will definitely read the next in the series.
September 28, 2015
Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts
Why am I reading a book called Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts? Am I getting into the Halloween spirit early? Such a title may lead readers to wonder what you feed a hungry ghost. I have an answer to that question. You feed them whatever they want. This is actually a serious answer. I've encountered the term "hungry ghost" in a Chinese cultural context. It means ancestors who have been ignored. No family members have established altars or made offerings to those ancestors. In Chinese tradition, this shows tremendous disrespect for ancestors.
Getting back to the book, the title is somewhat inaccurate. Although there is definitely one hungry ghost in the plot, there is no indication of any others. The single hungry ghost doesn't make an appearance at a cafe. There were no invisible hands preparing lattes that hadn't been ordered. If that's what you were expecting, you must look elsewhere for a ghost ridden cafe.
I first encountered Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts on Goodreads where author Teri J. Dluznieski was offering free copies in return for reviews. I promised one in September, and I'm managing to do that in September's final week.
Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts is really about Wayra, a college student who was brought up partly in Peru and partly in Vermont. This hybrid childhood is due to her parents making differing choices about where they wanted to live. In Peru her mother had given her some training in her family's tradition of shamanic healing. She is currently living with her father in Vermont where she's going to college, performing healing ceremonies for illegal immigrants who can't see medical doctors, is a mentor to a brilliant young girl and oh yes, she does work at a cafe.
Wayra is not portrayed as one of those idealized characters who juggles her numerous responsibilities perfectly and should be nominated for sainthood. On the contrary, she can't handle it all as well as she hoped, she has nightmares and makes errors in judgment. I found Wayra sympathetic because I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed.
I was interested in the content about healing . Wayra gives a woman recovering from flu an herb that is a mainstay of the Peruvian diet. It's called maca . My link is to an illuminating article about it on WebMD. I'd never heard of it before and it looks like it can be useful for a variety of purposes.
I was also very interested in the description of Andean shamanism and the folklore on which it's based. I have always known that it's unwise to assume that a concept from a tradition that I haven't studied is identical to one in other traditions that I have studied. Yet I did assume that the Andean concept of the "bubble" was the same thing as an aura. When I started reading Dluznieski's non-fiction book on shamanism, Dancing Your Bubble, I realized my error. The Andean idea of the "bubble" has some things in common with an aura, but is much more complex. It's important to realize that while there are similarities between traditions, there are also unique elements that can be significant.
The extremely controversial issue of illegal immigration is another important focus in this novel. Dluznieski gives opponents of a path to citizenship for illegals some food for thought.
There were brief mentions of phenomena in Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts that I wanted to know more about such as Barefoot College, guerrilla gardening and Bowenwork .The information at the links I've provided are a good start for those who want to know more.
Although this book is a fascinating look at Wayra's life, the cliffhanger ending was very jarring. There were a bunch of narrative threads left hanging. Even when a book is the first volume in a series, I prefer some degree of resolution. This was my biggest problem with Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts and I consider it a serious one.
Getting back to the book, the title is somewhat inaccurate. Although there is definitely one hungry ghost in the plot, there is no indication of any others. The single hungry ghost doesn't make an appearance at a cafe. There were no invisible hands preparing lattes that hadn't been ordered. If that's what you were expecting, you must look elsewhere for a ghost ridden cafe.
I first encountered Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts on Goodreads where author Teri J. Dluznieski was offering free copies in return for reviews. I promised one in September, and I'm managing to do that in September's final week.
Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts is really about Wayra, a college student who was brought up partly in Peru and partly in Vermont. This hybrid childhood is due to her parents making differing choices about where they wanted to live. In Peru her mother had given her some training in her family's tradition of shamanic healing. She is currently living with her father in Vermont where she's going to college, performing healing ceremonies for illegal immigrants who can't see medical doctors, is a mentor to a brilliant young girl and oh yes, she does work at a cafe.
Wayra is not portrayed as one of those idealized characters who juggles her numerous responsibilities perfectly and should be nominated for sainthood. On the contrary, she can't handle it all as well as she hoped, she has nightmares and makes errors in judgment. I found Wayra sympathetic because I know what it's like to feel overwhelmed.
I was interested in the content about healing . Wayra gives a woman recovering from flu an herb that is a mainstay of the Peruvian diet. It's called maca . My link is to an illuminating article about it on WebMD. I'd never heard of it before and it looks like it can be useful for a variety of purposes.
I was also very interested in the description of Andean shamanism and the folklore on which it's based. I have always known that it's unwise to assume that a concept from a tradition that I haven't studied is identical to one in other traditions that I have studied. Yet I did assume that the Andean concept of the "bubble" was the same thing as an aura. When I started reading Dluznieski's non-fiction book on shamanism, Dancing Your Bubble, I realized my error. The Andean idea of the "bubble" has some things in common with an aura, but is much more complex. It's important to realize that while there are similarities between traditions, there are also unique elements that can be significant.
The extremely controversial issue of illegal immigration is another important focus in this novel. Dluznieski gives opponents of a path to citizenship for illegals some food for thought.
There were brief mentions of phenomena in Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts that I wanted to know more about such as Barefoot College, guerrilla gardening and Bowenwork .The information at the links I've provided are a good start for those who want to know more.
Although this book is a fascinating look at Wayra's life, the cliffhanger ending was very jarring. There were a bunch of narrative threads left hanging. Even when a book is the first volume in a series, I prefer some degree of resolution. This was my biggest problem with Cafe of the Hungry Ghosts and I consider it a serious one.
September 24, 2015
White Collar Girl by Renee Rosen @ReneeRosen1
This is my favorite novel by this author so far, and I've read every one. Rosen has skillfully gone from the roaring twenties to the gilded age to the fifties newsroom. In this novel we follow a career woman as she tries to make it in the newspaper industry in a time when women were expected to be homemakers ala I Love Lucy (minus all the hilarious antics) and when a woman daring to carry an attache case instead of a purse darn near makes headlines.We journey with Jordan as she starts her first reporting job, determined to go from society news to the city desk. At first she starts doing this in honor of her dead brother. But by the end of the story, it's not just about him anymore. She just may find her niche. Sometimes it takes a tragedy or some heartache for us to realize that.
She not only deals with sexist problems--stealing of her byline, callous remarks, prejudice--but has issues at home with two parents who don't know how to bounce back from the death of their son.
There's a wealth of Chicago history here, from politics, dirty cops, FBI investigations, White Sox bomb raid sirens, the Mob... The author tells us in the end what's real and what's not. Most of it adapted from real-life stories and situations that occurred.
There's romance, but if you're looking solely for a romantic story with a happy ending, this isn't the novel for you. This heroine has her romance and she feels love, but when it comes right down to it, she knows she needs more in life. Here we finally have a heroine who doesn't become what a man wants her to, but stays true to herself. Take it or leave it, fellows.
The writing is stellar, engrossing, not too much of this or that, not too little. The descriptions were excellent. I was never bored or driven to skimming sentences.
Highly recommend this one, ladies.
I received this via Netgalley.
September 21, 2015
Lethal in Love 5 by @msomerswriter - Book 5 in a thriller serial
Be sure to check out my reviews for book 1, book 2, book 3, and book 4.Quite a bit happened in this episode. It kept my attention as I read each page, watching the whole story unfold. The author is dripping ideas around on who the Night Terror might be--or at least the copy cat. We still aren't certain if it's a copy cat or the orginal Night Terror. But it is someone who knows Jayda and it seems as though the person wants revenge toward her father and her.
A lot of new twists were added during this, one I had a feeling was coming. It's hard to believe there is only one more episode as this story unfolds. I am ready to see this all tied together and know who is behind it.
In this part, Sean and Jayda really begin to move into their relationship together. As a reader, I am very happy they are over the back and forthness and are just embracing being together.
Now onto part 6!
Lacey's Rating
About The Book
Lethal in Love is a steamy romantic suspense about an instinct-driven detective and a sexy, scoop-hungry reporter, both on the hunt for a sadistic killer.
Jayda Thomasz is a sassy homicide detective who never lets her emotions get in the way of a case. So when a serial killer re-emerges after 25 years, the last thing she expects is to catch herself fantasizing over the hot, smooth-talking stranger who crosses the path of her investigation.
Seth Friedin is a reporter chasing the story that'll make his career. When he enters the world of swinging for research, he never imagines he'll be distracted by a hard-talking female detective whose kiss plagues his mind long after she's gone.
Past experience has shown Jayda that reporters are ruthless and unscrupulous. But when the murders get personal, will she make a deal with the devil to catch the killer? How far will she and Seth have to go? And do you ever really know who you can trust?
AMAZON
PS - Book 1 is free on Amazon. :)
September 18, 2015
Lethal in Love 4 by @msomerswriter - Book 4 in a thriller serial
Be sure to check out my reviews for book 1, book 2, and book 3.Book 3 ended with a pretty good cliffhanger that really had me wondering what was going to happen next. Jayda and Seth don't make as much headway in part 4 as they have the others. Part 4 finally dove in to the budding romance between the two of them. As a reader, knowing this would have romance in it, I've been waiting for Jayda to finally give into what she'd been feeling for Seth. I was very pleased with the scenes the author wrote and felt like it really fit the characters.
The mystery is still there and I am ready to find out more. A new twist was added in when it comes to who they think the murderer might be, and I'm looking forward to see where that might go.
Our heroine is adopted and I am really starting to think The Night Terror is in some way related to her in some way. I can't wait to find out.
Lacey's Rating
About The Book
Lethal in Love is a steamy romantic suspense about an instinct-driven detective and a sexy, scoop-hungry reporter, both on the hunt for a sadistic killer.
Jayda Thomasz is a sassy homicide detective who never lets her emotions get in the way of a case. So when a serial killer re-emerges after 25 years, the last thing she expects is to catch herself fantasizing over the hot, smooth-talking stranger who crosses the path of her investigation.
Seth Friedin is a reporter chasing the story that'll make his career. When he enters the world of swinging for research, he never imagines he'll be distracted by a hard-talking female detective whose kiss plagues his mind long after she's gone.
Past experience has shown Jayda that reporters are ruthless and unscrupulous. But when the murders get personal, will she make a deal with the devil to catch the killer? How far will she and Seth have to go? And do you ever really know who you can trust?
AMAZON
PS - Book 1 is free on Amazon. :)
