Review of Living Again by L.L. Collins

Collins, L. (2013). Living Again.

Living Again is the debut novel of self-published author L.L. Collins.  When I chose to review this book as part of the Closed the Cover virtual blog tour, I was skeptical as to whether I could get into the storyline of a contemporary romance.  However, I  found myself easily pulled into the plot.

Life can't possibly get any better for Kayley Carson. She has a great career as a physical therapist and is married to her college sweetheart and best friend, Alex.  With a baby on the way, their future and happiness together seems totally assured.  Then one evening, Alex is late coming home from work and an ominous phone call sends Kayley's world into a tailspin.  Alex has been critically injured in a terrible car crash.  Kayley rushes to the hospital, only to be given the news that Alex has passed away.  Only weeks later, she gives birth to their daughter, who she names Alexis in memory of the father that she will never know.  Kayley enters the world of motherhood in a fog of despair and grief.  Overnight, she has gone from a happy wife and expectant mother, to a single parent facing the world without the man that she loves most.  Only the love and support of her family and friends, including her best friend Emily, allows her to rebuild some semblance of a life.  Kayley dedicates herself to raising Alexis and keeping Alex's memory alive.  Her family urges her to begin dating again, but Kayley has shut her heart off from the world.  Memories of Alex wash over her daily like the waves of the ocean on the Florida beach near her home. Then one day, she meets Dr. Ben Nichols, an emergency room pediatrician and she tentatively takes steps towards building a new relationship. However, both she and Ben must face and overcome the insecurities and pain from their past so that their new love can stand a chance.

L.L. Collins is a teacher, mother, and wife living in Florida.  Her second self-published novel will be available in the early part of 2014. Read more about her on the Author Interviews page of this blog and enter to win an ebook version of Living Again by clicking on the Contests and Giveaways tab.

Living Again is a modern love story with heavy doses of romance and sexuality.  Due to graphic lovemaking scenes, this book is recommended for mature readers only.  The story is laid out in both the present day and through a series of flashbacks.  It is very poignant and emotional, with some outright tear-jerking scenes throughout.  Vivid imagery, well-written prose and flowing dialogue make this is a worthy debut from a new author in the adult contemporary romance genre.  Living Again should definitely find its way into the hands of romance fans, while fans of other genres may not be as impressed.  On the other hand, they may be pleasantly surprised like I was.

Review of Countdown City by Ben Winters

Winters, B. (2013). Countdown City. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.

Countdown City is the much anticipated sequel to The Last Policeman and the second book in the trilogy.  Readers are once again transported to the pre-apocalyptic world of Hank Palace as he and those around him struggle to hold onto the last remaining pieces of civilization in the face of impending doom.

At the end of The Last Policeman, Hank solved his case determining the true cause of death of Peter Zell and inherited a dog named Houdini in the process.  Hank suffered two significant losses- the official end of his job when the Concord (New Hampshire) Police Department is taken over by the feds, and the murder of the woman he loved, Naomi.

Countdown City picks up with 77 days left until the predicted impact of Maia, the enormous asteroid that will obliterate most, if not all life on Earth.  Conditions are rapidly deteriorating.  The electricity is gone.  Most businesses are closed, and food is becoming scarce.  Palace and two of his police buddies meet at a diner each day for lunch where they are served the only things left on the menu, hot tea and oatmeal.  Citizens are responding to the impending doomsday in a variety of ways:  some have committed suicide, many have disappeared to fulfill their 'bucket list' wishes, while others are hoarding supplies, taking weapons training, and preparing for slim chances of surviving the catastrophe.  Many children have been abandoned by their parents and have taken shelter in a local elementary school, where they sleep outside and play aimlessly.  Hank has taken an interest in two of the children-a brother and sister, and keeps tabs on them when possible.  Perhaps even more saddening, are the large numbers of boats filled with desperate refugees fleeing the impact zone of the asteroid but who are often forcibly turned away by the U.S. Coast Guard.  In the midst of it all, Hank finds himself once again working a case, this time, the disappearance of Brett Cavatone, husband of Hank and his sister Nico's childhood babysitter.  Hank had a bitter disagreement with Nico and they parted ways in the first book, but their paths cross again in Countdown City, both because she becomes helpful in his quest to find Brett, but mostly because of a childhood promise that he made to her that he would never leave her.  The brother and sister's love/hate relationship provides an interesting backdrop to the heightening mystery surrounding Brett Cavatone's disappearance, culminating in a series of events that literally mean life or death for Hank.

Ben H.Winters grew up in Maryland and attended college at Washington University in St. Louis.  He has worked as a journalist and a playwright and has written seven novels.  The Last Policeman won a 2012 Edgar Award.

Countdown City continues Winter's spare, elegant prose as he delves into the life of a detective who struggles to make sense of a world that has fallen apart and maintain some semblance of decency and civility even when it seems hopeless to do so.  Everywhere he goes, Hank is asked "why"?  Why is he so doggedly pursuing cases, trying to solve crimes, looking for a missing person in a world full of people who have gone missing?  Winters manages to achieve the fine balance between making a philosophical point without being preachy.  He shows readers that Hank continues to solve cases for the same reason that he and his police friends meet for lunch each day, for the same reason that Ruth-Ann continues to serve them determinedly from her dwindling menu, for the same reason that Micah-the little boy who sleeps in the elementary playground with his sister, hangs on to his samurai sword-because even in the face of almost certain doom, the human will to survive is one of the strongest forces on the planet. Hank made a promise to solve the case. Ruth-Ann made a promise to serve her customers.  Their fragile world is held together by the slender bonds of these promises-none of which they are bound to keep in the face of such damning odds, but which they keep nonetheless, lest they give up and their souls die of despair before their bodies physically perish.

Winters invites readers to submit short essays to his Quirk Books page answering the question, "What would you do with just 77 days until the end of the world?" What would you do? Please comment below!

Thriller Fiction Novelist Tom Clancy Dead at Age 66

copyright 2012 David Burnett

The Penguin Group has announced the passing of New York Times best-selling novelist Tom Clancy in Baltimore on Tuesday.  The author was 66. A cause of death was not stated. Clancy was perhaps best known for his blockbuster thriller, The Hunt for Red October, which became a hit movie starring Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery.

Several of his other novels also went on to be played out on the big screen, including Patriot Games, The Sum of All Fears, and Clear and Present Danger.

In the statement released by the publishing company, Penguin executive David Shanks was quoted as saying "He was a consummate author, creating the modern-day thriller, and was one of the most visionary storytellers of our times. I will miss him dearly and he will be missed by tens of millions of readers worldwide."

Command Authority, Clancy's 17th novel, is due out on December 3rd.

An icon of the literary world is gone but his words will live on.  What is your favorite Tom Clancy novel/film? Comment below.

Review of Gone Girl by Gillian Fly

Flynn, G. (2012).  Gone Girl.  London:  Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Gone Girl may be one of the only books that you encounter in your life in which the thoughtless, forgetful, cheating husband becomes the victim and the person that you root for in the end.  I can't give away too much in this review because of a mind-blowing twist in the middle of the novel. This is truly one book that you simply must read for yourself.

Nick and Amy Dunne are a mid-thirties couple living in Nick's small Missouri hometown.  Both writers who met when living in New York City, they became victims of the economy and the digital wave that wiped out many print journalists.  When they find themselves both unemployed and Nick gets a call from his twin sister Margo to tell him that their mother is dying from cancer, the decision to move back to Nick's home is an easy one-at least for him.  Amy leaves behind everything she has ever known, including her parents, in order to follow Nick halfway across the country, where he and his twin, who he affectionately calls Go, borrow money from Amy's trust fund to start a small bar.  Meanwhile, Amy tries to settle into her new surroundings and wanders aimlessly through her days as a forced housewife.  Her side of the story is told through her diary entries, which paints a picture of an isolated, unhappy woman who maintains a facade of cheerfulness as her marriage slowly unravels.  Then one day, Nick comes home and finds the front door wide open, their cat outside, signs of a struggle in the living room, and most shockingly-blood in the kitchen.  Amy is gone, and his world goes into a tailspin overnight.

Gillian Flynn earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and English from the University of Kansas and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University. A former critic for Entertainment Weekly, she is the author of two other novels.  Gone Girl is a New York Times Bestseller and has been nominated for several awards, including an Edgar Award.

Gillian Flynn creates a stunning masterpiece with an engrossing, startlingly real character study of Nick and Amy at the center.  Their opposing narratives show how the same actions and events can be viewed in completely different ways by the people involved, a phenomenon that is anything but fictional and leads to the disintegration of real-life marriages too.  Colorful characters such as Tanner Bolt, the obscenely expensive lawyer that Nick hires when it becomes apparent that he is suspect number one in Amy's disappearance, and Ellen Abbott-the prosecutor turned true crime television analyst (shades of Nancy Grace) who vilifies Nick nightly in her self-righteous rants, add humor and irony as well as telling commentary on a society that tries criminal cases in the media and in which spouses of missing or murdered persons are judged innocent or guilty based on the amount of emotion they display.  Gone Girl is a can't-put-down must read with a thriller of a twist and a perverse ending that will leave readers begging for a sequel.

Review of Vuto by A.J. Walkley

Walkley, A.J. (2013).  Vuto. Rocket Science Productions.

Author A.J. Walkley spent time in the Peace Corps after graduating from college, working as a health volunteer in the country of Malawi in Africa.  Her experiences during this time inspired the novel Vuto, a moving narrative that describes what happens when two cultures collide and how help from a well-intentioned outsider can be viewed as interfering and have far-reaching consequences.

Vuto is a 17 year old who is giving birth to her third child when the novel opens.  Samantha, a white Peace Corps volunteer, watches and wonders why she is alone, no family or friends present to provide comfort and support. The nurse explains that Malawian tradition dictates that the woman gives birth alone, as a sign of strength.  As the narrative switches back to Vuto's perspective, readers soon learn that her birth name is not Vuto, but she is called Vuto, meaning "problem" because she is deemed a troublemaker.  Her two previous children, both boys, died soon after birth.  Her third child, a girl, whose birth Samantha witnessed, dies on her 13th day.  Tradition dictates that the woman and the child stay isolated for two weeks after birth.  If the child lives past this time, then and only then, does the mother introduce the child to the father. Because all of her children have died before this time period, Vuto has never been able to show her husband their children.  She has carried the burden of her grief alone.  After the death of her daughter, whom she had named Mwala, meaning "Rock", Vuto summons her courage and confronts her husband in front of a tribal meeting of elders, in order to force him to see his dead daughter.  She is immediately ordered to be banished from the village with only the clothes on her back for her disobedience and violation of cultural traditions.  As she leaves, desperate, heartbroken, and unsure of what she will do next, she encounters Samantha, who remembers her from the clinic.  Upon hearing her story, Samantha offers her a place to stay in the small hut that she is provided as a volunteer.  Because Samantha's home is not outside of the village borders, Vuto is violating her order of banishment by staying there.  Leona, the nurse, sees Vuto enter and secretly goes back and tells that she is there.  Enraged, Vuto's husband shows up at the house and attempts to attack her.  Samantha defends her new friend by stabbing Vuto's husband with her Swiss Army knife, killing him.  Panic-stricken and faced with the realization that Samantha may face murder charges, the two women flee, but only after Vuto reasons through Samantha's naive beliefs that the authorities will understand that the murder was self-defense and that the Peace Corps will come to her aid.  Vuto narrates, "she didn't see it from my point of view, only hers, and her point of view was American, not Malawian. Not African at all." After Vuto tells the story of how a former Peace Corps volunteer was raped by a village elder and the organization swept the incident under the rug to avoid bad publicity, Samantha realizes that she is on her own.  Along the way, they receive help from Samantha's boyfriend Hunter, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, and when they reach the Peace Corps headquarters in the capital, things come to a sad, troubling end.

A.J. Walkley majored in English Literature and spent a year in the Peace Corps in Malawi after graduating from college.  In addition to Vuto, she has written two other books.  She currently works as a writer and blogger for The Huffington Post.  To learn more about her, check out the Q &A on the Author Interviews page of this blog.

Vuto tackles tough issues in a thoughtful, realistic manner.  The Malawian characters, including Vuto, are torn in their feelings towards the Peace Corps volunteers.  On the one hand, they welcome the help that is so desperately needed.  On the other hand, they resent and distrust them, viewing them as yet more white outsiders who have come in to change and destroy their way of life.  Vuto herself questions and disobeys some of her culture's traditions, but it is even worse when a white outsider such as Samantha does the same.  Samantha sorts through her own internal conflicts.   Many of the things that she sees, especially the treatment of women and children, goes against her own belief system.  However, she wonders who she thinks she is to come in and criticize or try to change a culture simply because its traditions don't align with her sense of right and wrong.  The Peace Corps forbids volunteers from interfering in cultural traditions, which is one reason why Samantha cannot expect them to defend her.  However, Samantha's-and the reader's view of the Peace Corps as a benevolent humanitarian organization is tarnished as she learns just how far it will go to maintain good public relations.  Perhaps what makes this story so real and compelling, is that all of the answers are not presented neatly tied up in a nice ending.  Samantha's efforts to help Vuto-although well-intentioned, lead to tragedy.  In the end, although she saves Vuto's life, she cannot save her from her overwhelming grief, nor rebuild her broken spirit that has been crushed by years of cruel disregard and even abuse in the name of tradition.  The reader, like Samantha, is left to wonder what-if anything can be done to bridge the gap between Western culture and the rest of the world, after so many years of oppressive brutality and colonialism on one hand, and misunderstood and sometimes abusive traditions on the other.

Review of Sister Souljah's A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story

Sister Souljah.  (2013). A Deeper Love Inside:  The Porsche Santiaga Story. New York:  Emily Bestler Books.

A Deeper Love Inside: The Porsche Santiaga Story is the long-awaited sequel to Sister Souljah's bestseller, The Coldest Winter Ever. The author's first novel chronicled the fast-paced, danger-filled rise of the Santiaga family as the head of the house, Ricky, became a legendary drug kingpin in the projects of Brooklyn, New York.  The Santiaga's eldest daughter, Winter, was the apple of her father's eye and determined to follow in his footsteps, even when the family was broken and disgraced after Ricky's arrest.  A Deeper Love Inside tells the second part of the Santiaga tale through the eyes of Porsche, the middle sister, who at the young age of 10 finds herself navigating the harrowing world of a state juvenile detention center where she is serving a sentence for assaulting the caseworker who removed her and her younger sisters from their home.

After an unbelievably daring (and stomach-turning) break-out from the detention center, Porsche finds herself on the run with her older mentor and friend from inside, a mysterious white girl named Riot who took her under her wing.  They end up on a Native American reservation, where Porsche is healed of the eating disorder that she developed on lockdown and learns about natural healing through the use of organic foods and herbs. Embraced by the Native American community and at peace with their beautiful surroundings, the girls could safely stay there forever without fear of being caught by the authorities, since American law enforcement does not have jurisdiction on the reservation.  However, each girl has unfinished business from the past to face, and so they make a pact to split up and then meet back up in New York City several months later.  Porsche hits the streets of New York in a determined quest to put her family back together and reclaim the money, property, and Long Island mansion that was taken when the police arrested her father.  She finds her mother, the once beautiful diva who was the envy of all of the other women in Bed-Stuy, but who is now a broken-down crack addict.  The two of them live underground-literally, and Porsche uses her street smarts and hustling ability to scrape up several under-the-table jobs to care for the both of them, since she isn't legally old enough to work and has to dodge the authorities who would want her in school, locked back up, or both.  Using the healing talents that she developed on the reservation, she takes her mother through a homemade detox program in an attempt to cure her drug addiction. She also meets and falls in love with Elisha, a prep-school teen with aspirations of being a filmmaker.  However, their budding romance is threatened by Porsche's secrets.  Afraid to reveal her real identity, Porsche tells him that her name is Ivory.  She is too afraid for him to find out who she really is, and to see the poor conditions that she lives in with her drug-addicted mother.  She must also continue to deal with the issues that haunt her.  She wants to find her family and must come to grips with the realization that both her mother and Winter knew where she was when she was locked up but only made one visit to see her and never sent any money to her. While in lockdown, she developed a split personality, a girl named Siri, and as her world becomes more confusing and challenging, the line between where Porsche begins and Siri ends becomes ever more blurred.

Sister Souljah is a community activist, intellectual, and sought after speaker.  A graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in both American History and African Studies, she is the author of four bestselling books-three novels and one autobiography.

Just as with The Coldest Winter Ever, I found myself unable to put this novel down.  Porsche's story was just as compelling as her older sister Winter's, and even more profound and touching.  Whereas Winter was very selfish and thought only of self-preservation, the lengths to which Porsche went to save her mother and find their young twin sisters, Lexus and Mercedes, was poignant and heartbreaking.  Sister Souljah does a great job comparing the outcomes of the two sisters and showing how being greedy and self-centered and focusing on making fast, illegal money, leads to a sure downfall in the case of Winter, in contrast to Porsche, who does her best to help her family and friends and makes her money through legitimate, though under-the table hustles, resulting in lasting wealth for her-both materially and emotionally.  Fans of Midnight, the mysterious, enigmatic character who was introduced in The Coldest Winter Ever and went on to be the subject of the author's next two novels, will be excited to see his return in this novel and the part that he plays in helping Porsche and her family.  Once again, Sister Souljah has done a notable job creating real characters that are very identifiable with the young urban readers who make up the majority of her fan base.  She also presents valuable life lessons about navigating the tough choices presented by the streets without being preachy.  A Deeper Love Inside challenges readers to follow Porsche's example and find love for themselves and then to magnify that into love for their family, friends, and neighbors.

Review of Deadly Eyes by Michael Meyer

Meyer, M. (2012).  Deadly Eyes.

The Caribbean is a popular setting for many fiction writers.  The beautiful weather and scenery, and colorful language and culture provide an exotic backdrop for many fictional plots.  Only some authors, however, go  beyond scratching the surface to delve deeper into the Caribbean that visitors sometimes do not see-the islands scarred by poverty and economic despair, and the skepticism and sometimes even resentment that is often harbored by local people towards tourists but that is carefully masked because of reliance on the money and jobs generated by those same tourists. Independent writer Michael Meyer is one of those authors.  His story of James Cuffy, known as Cuff, and his indomitable girlfriend Rosie, is set against the backdrop of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.

Cuff is an American but he is not a tourist.  He has come to St. Croix to start life over after false accusations from a student ends his idyllic career as a university professor.  As a permanent resident and not merely a tourist, Cuff experiences St. Croix in ways in which the vacationing tourist cannot.  He becomes accustomed to the natural beauty and the slow pace of the island, and learns to appreciate the local foods, customs,and ways of speaking.  Through the struggles of his girlfriend Rosie, a bartender/server at a popular bar, readers understand the poverty that many islanders live with as they rely on low-paying jobs in the service and tourism industries to make a living.  As Cuff tries to build a new life for himself, he is unwittingly falling prey to an unknown stalker whose all-seeing eyes mark his every move.  As the mysterious assailant closes in on Cuff and Rosie, everyone that they come into contact with becomes susceptible to danger and they must race to find out the identity and motive of the killer before they become the final and ultimate targets.  In addition to the careful detail and attention that the author uses when painting the background story for readers, an additional characteristic that I haven't seen in a book since my junior high days reading the Choose Your Own Adventure series makes this novel unique-Meyer includes an alternate ending.  Meyer gives readers fair warning before choosing to read one or both of the endings.  Ending A is the 'happy ending' while Ending B is the more sinister one.  Ending B actually wrapped up details and loose ends more than Ending A however, answering several questions that would no doubt be in the back of readers minds as the plot unfolded.

Michael Meyer is a retired university professor and the author of another suspense thriller in addition to Deadly Eyes.  He enjoys traveling and uses the locations that he has traveled to and worked in as the settings for his novels.  For more information about him, check out the Author Interviews page on this blog.

Deadly Eyes combines two of my favorite things in a novel-a mystery and a Caribbean setting.  The mystery at the center of the story is fast-paced and believable, although as previously stated, the second ending provides more answers to some plot details than the first one does.  The author presents a realistic, unvarnished view of the Caribbean through the eyes of Cuff in a way which is neither idealistic nor patronizing.  Cuff does not carry himself like a stereotypical obnoxious tourist, but has truly made the island his home, accepting the good and the bad that go along with it.  He and Rosie are fully-fleshed, believable characters with flaws but who are overall good people, and their complex relationship is put to the test but ultimately stands strong as they fight for survival.  The plot is unique and truly keeps the reader guessing until well towards the end as they try to piece together how the varied and colorful characters that Cuff interacts with are all related to the mysterious threat that he faces.  The addition of an alternate ending, something done with modern movies on a regular basis, adds a nice twist to the novel as well.  Michael Meyer establishes himself as a credible independent author with well-written prose, fully developed narratives and characters, and an engaging story line that pulls readers in from start to finish.