Harmony Kent's Blog, page 8
September 4, 2023
Sally Cronin @sgc58 has a wonderful post showcasing past reviews for my #poetry book Life & Soul
Life & Soul is the second book in the Soul Poetry Series by acclaimed author Harmony Kent.
This beautiful collection of over fifty poems will take the reader through the highs and lows of everyday life via contemporary poetry in a range of styles and themes. Within these pages, you will find reflections on the Lonely Soul, the Seeking Soul, Brief Soul, Friendly Soul, and the Loving Soul—states of mind and living and longing we each experience over the course of a life.
Life & Soul offers something for lovers of poetry from all walks of life.
See Sally’s post HERE
August 11, 2023
The Day My Life Changed: You Never See it Coming A short story from Harmony via @Vocal_Creators #shortstory #memoir for Chapters #Challenge #amputee #surgicalerror #lifechanging
You can find my entry below. Vocal estimates this as a 7-minute read, but something tells me you’ll whiz through this! 
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I’d love to know what you think! And I would be delighted if you could read and heart. To heart and/or comment, you’ll need to sign in to Vocal, which is free to do.
Thanks for all your support! Hugs 
August 10, 2023
Ava: The Future of Cinderella? A short story from Harmony via @Vocal_Creators #shortstory #fairytale for Fairytales Retold #Challenge
You can find my entry below. Vocal estimates this as a 5-minute read.
—Ava
I’d love to know what you think! And I would be delighted if you could read and heart. To heart and/or comment, you’ll need to sign in to Vocal, which is free to do.
Thanks for all your support! Hugs
August 8, 2023
The Secret is Out! #NewBook #NewSeries #HarborPointe 8 books from 8 @StoryEmpire authors!
The Harbor Pointe Inn has loomed on California’s cliffs for generations of Hawthornes. For some, it’s been a blessing. For others, a curse. Travel through two centuries of stories to discover the old inn’s secrets.
Hi everyone! I’m so excited to announce the ‘secret project’ I and 7 of my fellow Story Empire authors have been working on … a new Novella series! 
As well as flowing with the series, each novella can also be read as a stand alone story. The genres vary–mystery, suspense, ghost fiction, time travel, family and relationships, historical fiction, and futuristic. There’s a little something for every reader.
Here’s an extract and book description for my novella, The Room at the End, which releases on January 9th, 2o24 … scary how soon that will be upon us!
Book Description:
When guilt-ridden Mia checks in to a suicide hotel, but can’t go through with the final act, vengeful ghosts gather to torment her.
Set in the near future, the post-war world is in turmoil.
Mia Hawthorne suffers an emotional breakdown, following the death of her wife, and loses everything to a corrupt government.
In an ironic twist of fate, the government suicide department, The Last Sanctuary, allocates a desperate and destitute Mia to the very hotel and family heirloom which she has so recently lost.
On her first day at the Lighthouse Inn, beset with painful memories, doubts, and questions, Mia finds herself coming face to face with angry ghosts, who gather to goad and torment her.
Lost and alone, can Mia find enough strength and purpose to avoid her final, frightful fate?
Extract from Chapter One:
November, 2070, Harbor Pointe Inn
Much like her life, the hotel failed to meet expectations. Even if the thieving government hadn’t given the old place a complete refurbishment and removed all traces of its previous owners, it wouldn’t have felt the same. Wouldn’t have been hers. Mia shrugged the weight from her tense shoulders and showed a straight spine to the manager. With a forced air of calm nonchalance, she strode to within a pace of the reception counter. ‘Mia Hawthorne.’
The manager’s eyebrows lifted. Short, straight black hair in a severe cut framed her thin face and sucked any joy from her pale grey eyes. ‘Ah, yes. The Last Sanctuary allocated you to us.’
Mia’s smile felt more grimace than mirth. ‘Ironic, considering.’
‘Quite.’ The stern-looking woman peered over her glasses and studied the new arrival. After a couple of seconds, she leant over the counter and offered her hand, which Mia shook. ‘Hilary Cameron. Let me show you to your accommodations.’
Hilary collected a couple of key cards from a drawer and walked around to Mia’s side of the desk. ‘Given the … er … nature of your stay with us, I felt it best to house you in the old keeper’s cottage.’
Surprised, Mia stooped, picked up her two bags, and fell into step with Hilary. ‘Right. Thank you.’
The pair walked in a silence which fell somewhere between stiffly-companionable and uncomfortable. What did the government employed manager think of the Harbor Pointe Inn’s old owner coming here to end her life? For that matter, what did Mia herself think? At the thought, her abdominal muscles flinched and tightened. I’ll find out soon, I suppose. With a soft sigh, she kept pace with Hilary as they crossed the courtyard—nestled between the horseshoe-embrace of the hotel’s U-structure—and left the property via a back gate, which led to the rough track up to the keeper’s cottage and, further on toward the bluffs, the lighthouse.
The chill wind carried malevolent memories on its deceptively soft breeze and froze the marrow in Mia’s bones.
Universal Pre Order Links for the Series:
Mae Clair–The Price of Atonement a-fwd.com/asin=B0CCW59D94Gwen Plano–The Gift a-fwd.com/asin= B0CD15LV2ZD L Finn–The Destination a-fwd.com/asin=B0CCQB7X1SD Wallace Peach–The Seas of Time a-fwd.com/asin=B0CCQGRXH9Jan Sikes– The Edge of Too Late a-fwd.com/asin=B0CCQ1QB9XStaci Troilo–A Fathomless Affair a-fwd.com/asin=B0CCQLDX47Joan Hall–A Death at the Inn a-fwd.com/asin=B0CCR3HMBDHarmony Kent–The Room at the End a-fwd.com/asin=B0CCSFMC8JIt’s been a huge pleasure and honour to work with these seven talented authors on this fun project! And also a huge learning curve on co-ordinating us all
Thank you all for your support and for stopping by today to cheer us on!
Hugs, Harmony 
Skin Tight: A poem from Harmony via @Vocal_Creators #poetry #chronicpain #chronicillness #Depression and a #Health Update
You can find my entry below. Vocal estimates this as a 1-minute read.
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Health Update:
Thank you all for your constant support and well wishes.
So many of you hope someone will find something that helps my condition soon. Unfortunately, and outrageously, I’m on my own with this diagnosis.
I’m trying everything I can, but I’m not there yet as regards an answer or ‘magic bullet’. So, once again, apologies for being so absent. I’m having to make a lot of changes at the moment.
Hopefully, soon, I’ll be able to find some sort of rhythm, but right now, it’s a take each minute at a time and see, as my energy can drop off a cliff without notice, and the pain can ramp up within a split second, again without notice. Pain is constant–it’s just the degree that changes.
Sometimes, I’m way down (as this poem shows), but most of the time I bounce up quickly and am able to be my usual happy self. Hugs and love to you all
I’d love to know what you think! And I would be delighted if you could read and heart. To heart and/or comment, you’ll need to sign in to Vocal, which is free to do.
Thanks for all your support! Hugs
July 28, 2023
Ode to Toilet Paper: All the Ways we’ve Wiped! A #humorous #poem for the Ode to the Ordinary Challenge @Vocal_Creators #poetry
You can find my entry below. Vocal estimates this as a 1-minute read.
I’d love to know what you think! And I would be delighted if you could read and heart. To heart and/or comment, you’ll need to sign in to Vocal, which is free to do.
Thanks for all your support! Hugs
July 27, 2023
Fixer Upper? and White Noise: Two poems from Harmony via @Vocal_Creators #poetry #pain #chronicillness #Depression
You can find my entries below. Vocal estimates these as a 1-minute reads.
I’d love to know what you think! And I would be delighted if you could read and heart. To heart and/or comment, you’ll need to sign in to Vocal, which is free to do.
Thanks for all your support! Hugs
July 25, 2023
#BookReview: Watching You by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk #MysteryThriller #Mystery #Suspense #Fiction #GoodReads #Kindle
Hi everyone. Today I have a book review for you by an author new to me but well known (just not to me! 
), Lisa Jewel. Here’s my review >>>
About the Book:
Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you.
As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father.
One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her.
Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…
My Review:
A Gripping Story with Plenty of Twists to keep you Guessing!
‘I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to feel. Is this normal?’ … From this highly relatable opening line, the author pulls the reader into a world of what ifs, maybes, rumours, suspicion, and–eventually–unravels the twisted threads to reveal the unexpected truth.
This novel has some wonderful one liners and phrases, and is certainly attention grabbing, yet it lets itself down time and again with the massive overuse of ‘literally’, which LITERALLY drove me nuts! Along with that, we also get treated to lots of ‘very’ usage and every speaker over uses ‘just’ in their dialogue. If this were one character, it would be a quirk, but ALL OF THEM? … Give me a break. Due to this and clumsy sentences, such as: ‘The manager was a big, butch woman with a crew cut called Dawn.’ … I’m certain the manager is called Dawn and not the crew cut! Likewise with: ‘She was necking wine in a floaty top.’ Once again, I’m certain the woman wore the floaty top rather than the wine being in the floaty top! And this is to show but two of such sentence formations. A few spelling errors have slipped in as well. All of which lost a lot of points for me. Together with passive writing, much of this ripped me right out of the make-believe, and quite violently at times.
However, with all of that said, the story premise, plot, pacing, characters, and world building are all done so well you feel as though you are right there next to the many characters from whose point of view the tale is told. The narrative delivers multiple POVs, each with their own clear sections, and written in past tense. Here are some lines I loved …
‘… she said, her heart not reaching her words.’
And …
‘He thought of the smell of old beer coming off him this morning, the sour smell of secrets and lies.’
And …
‘Jenna ached to say, Me Too, and draw the line and make things good. But she couldn’t do it. The words were too deeply buried under piles of other stuff for her to quite reach them.’
Despite the passive writing and often clumsy clause arrangements, I loved this read. I never saw the culprit coming. Great penultimate twist and a wholly believable motive. Watching You by Lisa Jewel gets a soft 4 stars from me. With extra polishing, I’d give a resounding 5 stars. If you love a suspenseful mystery thriller with plenty of twists and an ending you don’t see coming, then go and read this book!
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NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.
5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.
I’d love to hear what you think of this review. Thanks for stopping by
***Due to limited energy and time, I will be taking a break from publishing review posts for the foreseeable future. Thank you for following my reviews all this time! Now and then, I will post a review for any authors in my online circle, but won’t be reviewing traditionally published books. I’ll pop in from time to time with updates and teasers on my planned projects. Hugs, Harmony
The post #BookReview: Watching You by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk #MysteryThriller #Mystery #Suspense #Fiction #GoodReads #Kindle first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
July 18, 2023
#BookReview: Poetry for the Blind by Atmos #Poetry #Change
Hi everyone. Today I have a book review for you for a poetry book by an author new to me, known simply as ‘Atmos’. Here’s my review >>>
About the Book:
How often do we reflect on the life we are living or the kind of future we are heading towards as a species?
The way that we think of the world shapes the world that we live in and how we interact with it.
Poetry for the Blind is a collection of poems about issues in the world, philosophy, consciousness, raising awareness of gratitude, promoting positive change, and concerns for the future of humanity.
Through poetry, this book offers readers a way to explore the human condition through the eyes of the author and reflect on issues affecting the collective consciousness residing in human lives on a mass scale. Through turmoil and devastating circumstances, Poetry for the Blind progresses towards a sense of possibility and hope for a positive future—a future that we can still have.
We have the power to change the world but we have to start with ourselves first.
My Review:
Essential poetry about world issues and positive change
First of all, the title doesn’t mean what you might think it means; at least, not in a literal sense. Secondly, this is the sort of poetry everyone should read. This wonderful opening quote says it all: ‘The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.’
As the author says, ‘This book of poetry was written in response to all of the injustices and commonly accepted perceptions which are ingrained in our society.’
I couldn’t agree more with the following statement: ‘What we do to someone else, we also do to ourselves.’
This is a collection of beautiful poetry which I read in one sitting. However, it is also a collection I need to revisit over and again and properly digest the wisdom and hope embedded within these wonderful words, which echo my own sentiments and philosophy in life. Here are some of my favourite lines and poems (please note, there were so many, I’ve had to severely limit what I show for this review) …
‘FROM SUSPENSION: Another persecutor craving attention’ and ‘A foundation harnessed at home | Anger authorised by a lack of affection | Take responsibility for your child | And for their perception.’
And …
‘FROM MELANIN: Fighting a war against prejudice | Over melanin produced in the skin.’ … Oh, how true!
And …
‘FROM MACHINES: Corrective surgery | The manipulation of a gene | Editing DNA is a precursor | To man becoming machine.’
I highlighted so many more poems and verses, way too many to list here. All I can say is you’ll have to read this book for yourself! As you may have guessed, Poetry for the Blind gets a resounding 5 stars from me. Even better, at the time of writing this review, as well as when I discovered this book, the Kindle version is FREE! It doesn’t get a whole lot better than that. Go read this wonderful collection … it may just change your life.
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NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.
5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.
I’d love to hear what you think of this review. Thanks for stopping by
The post #BookReview: Poetry for the Blind by Atmos #Poetry #Change first appeared on Welcome to Harmony Kent Online.
July 17, 2023
Four Little Letters: On which the world turns: A #poem about #love using 4 letters or less from Harmony via @Vocal_Creators #poetry #life
You can find my entry below. Vocal estimates this as a 1-minute read.
I’d love to know what you think! And I would be delighted if you could read and heart. To heart and/or comment, you’ll need to sign in to Vocal, which is free to do.
I plan on doing some online catchup with you all tomorrow if I’m well enough. Your understanding is so appreciated. Thanks for all your support! Hugs
