The Advocate

The Advocate by Teresa Burrell

The Advocate

By Teresa Burrell

Silent Thunder Publishing

San Diego, CA

92111

2009

ISBN: 978-1-938680-03-8

Paperback

286 pages

This debut book was a captivating read. The main Character, Sabre Brown is a juvenile court attorney and the author takes us on a journey into her world of cases that involve things like custody and the best interests of children. But Sabre Brown finds herself in a place where her life gets mysteriously intertwined with a case she’s working on. The case is that of a ten-year-old named Alexis Murdock. The author, Teresa Burrell hooks us into her immense story that includes a lot of twists and turns. Sabre’s story, ***While I won’t give out spoilers***slowly unwinds as she enlists the help of one Detective Carriage. While doing a background check on the little girl Alexis’ father, it leads suddenly to her own back story regarding her missing brother.

The story develops into a complex and even treacherous peril for Sabre as she continues on into the investigation of the child’s family. This leads to more intrigue and mystery, thrill and danger.

I thought this was a great work of fiction. The characters were compelling and helped to drive this story. I thought this was an interesting subject matter to write about. I was engaged and felt for the juvenile character Alexis all the way to the end. I would be interested to read her next book in the twelve-book series.

The author Teresa Burrell is indeed an Advocate and an attorney for a family court system in her real life. She truly has dedicated her life to children’s issues, her novels have been inspired by her many legal cases.

4****

I received this book for a #realandtruereview I’d like to mention Bookstagrammers.com for making this possible along with the author Teresa Burrell.

This book is available through the author’s own website at: teresaburrell.com/bookstore and at all booksellers. The author can be found on all social media channels including Facebook.com/teresaburrell

A Novel The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

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A Novel

The Alice Network

By Kate Quinn

532 pages

William Morrow

An Imprint of Haper Collins Publishers

New York, NewYork 10007

ISBN 978-0-06-265419-9

Ms. Quinn writes a stunning novel! The Alice Network quickly became a New York Times and a USA Today best selling novel.

*This book review may contain story spoilers. Ms. Quinn takes us on an epic journey with her two main characters, Charlie St. Clair and Eve Gardiner, as the two courageous women take to a time of war and of sacrifice.

The Alice Network is a powerful and intriquing story about how Eve Gardiner joins the fight against the Nazi’s as part of an intricate network of women spies. Based on some truth of real war time women spies; Eve and her network forge forth with extremely daring plots right beneath the enemy’s nose.

Ultimately, The Alice Network becomes uncovered and many went to go on to prision terms charged with war crimes. There is huge loss and sorrow and left most involved completely stung and remorseful. When suddenly Charlie St. Clair is on the trail to find herself and her history and this brings her into another epic journey; many truths are uncovered as a result.

Kate Quinn launches, us the reader, on a realistic journey that is filled with loss, female friendship, esponage, and historical unsung valor.

This book was easy to read and the chapters were heart-felt and there was even some humor amongst the sad times of war. Guaranteed a 5 star reading experience.

This book is part of my personal library and was read as part of my “Book Babes” book club.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine By Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant

is completely fine

By Gail Honeyman

Penguin Books

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

New York, NY

10014

2018

325 pages

ISBN 978-073-522-069-0 (paperback)

ISBN 978-073-522-069-3 (hardback)

ISBN 978-073-522-070-6 (ebook)

This book is the winner of the Costa First Novel Award and the British Book Awards Book of the Year, and it was a #1 New York Times Bestseller and has been chosen to be a Reese Witherspoon  Book Club pick as well as optioned to become a major motion picture.

Author Gail Honeyman writes a sweet heart-tugging introverted character as her main character Eleanor Oliphant, in this her debut novel. Her character is visceral and loving yet there’s so much you may not like about her as well. She’s a hardworking, yet nonsocial and even cold at work. Eleanor is a creature of habit; she is quirky and lives completely by herself. She has absolutely no idea that she is the damaged one.

Eleanor and the IT guy named Raymond at work begin a friendship and this friendship blossoms into a deep and endearing one. Raymond is as lonely as Eleanor is. He cares for her and helps mend her own heart. Raymond helps Eleanor recognize that only “being completely fine” may not really be completely fine.

WHILE I WON’T give out spoilers, this is quite intense and drama-filled. Eleanor is struggling to find and to mend her heart from her childhood relationship with her mother that was, to say the least; weird and creepy. Raymond champions this cause. He brings Eleanor into his life and together they have an unspoken bond.

We as readers do feel deeply toward Eleanor too as the story unfolds and we understand the nature of her quiet and awkward personality. We too, will care and pull for her success. As the layers of Eleanor peel away, yet another layer to Eleanor’s style is revealed. She has an uncanny ability to have light-hearted joke telling and it’s almost sarcastic, yet endearing. Also, this is a way that this novel will have you scratching your head, but you most likely will have a smile on your face because at that moment realize that this novel you’re reading will become one on the rise and that it’s undoubtingly about to become a very beloved story. The ending is heartwarming and one wonders what will be next for Eleanor.

This is a “completely fine” debut novel, that I will give five stars ***** for the depth of story, the interesting characters, and the absolutely believable story. I recommend this novel.

This book is a part of my personal library and was a selection from my own book club, called The Book Babes. We read widely and over many, many genres.

*This is not a paid post.

Where The Crawdad’s Sing By Delia Owens

Where The Crawdad’s Sing

By Delia Owens

G.P. Putnam’s Sons

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

New York, NY

10014

2018

368 pages

ISBN 978-073-521-909-0 (Hardback)

ISBN 978-073-521-9113 (epub)

What can be said for this beautiful stunner of a debut novel? Delia Owens has us enthralled on page one. Ms. Owens has an easy style of writing that is presented with poetic flair. In fact, poetry plays a big part in this coming of age murder mystery.

This book is set in Berkley Cove off the North Carolina coastline. The area is all marshland where the main character Catherine Danielle Clark, nicknamed “Kya” lives. She basically grows up on her own. Kya’s mother left when she was little, and her father, a chronic drinking man, disappears from time to time leaving her to fend for herself. Kya lacks a true formal education and becomes a much whispered about outcast by those in the nearest town.

Kya learns the beauty of life from observations on the marsh and the marsh life of animals. What she learns of life is that it can be harsh there and in order to succeed and thrive, her own survival is based on the fittest, such as with nature.

When the body of a popular town’s person named Chase Andrews was found in the swamp, naturally most blamed Kya.

This book creates a gripping and masterful whodunit and it is a magnificent page-turner. The story winds us through the intertwining relationships of each of the fierce and noble, as well as interesting characters that Ms. Owens has penned. These characters you will fully embrace with full force.

You, as the reader, will root for the characters and be engaged in the predicament that the characters undergo. You will be engrossed and be compelled to feel hope and empathy for Kya’s situations. All the way to its surprise ending, Kya will touch you as well as write the poetry of the marsh.

This book is a 5-star stunning debut novel, and it is proudly part of my personal library. It has become a book club selection by my own personal book club, The Book Babes. This book has spent over some 44 weeks on the NY Times Bestseller list, #1on the Amazon Charts, and #1on Indie Bound charts. Where The Crawdad’s Sing was the top-selling print book of 2019; selling over 1.1 million copies of the print edition!

Delia Owens lives in the North Carolina mountains. She has co-authored three other bestselling nonfiction novels about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa. She has won the John Burroughs Award for nature writing.

I as a reader and a reviewer cannot wait for Ms. Owen’s next novel.

This book has also been chosen as a Reece Witherspoon top book club pick and has been optioned as a movie by her studios.

*This is not a paid post.

The Keeper of Lost Things A Novel By Ruth Hogan

The Keeper of Lost Things

A Novel

By Ruth Hogan

William Morrow

An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

New York, NY 10007

2017

ISBN 978-0-06-247355-4

Softcover  275 pages plus bonus 4 pages reading guide

Fiction

A cute and charming tale, spun with compassion and perhaps whimsy.

This is a story of Anthony Peardew, main character, who kept bits of secrets behind a locked door.

He was a collector of found objects which he kept on shelves neatly with spun short stories for each. His hope was that one day he might find the true owners of the lost or discarded item. It would become his life’s mission.

This is Ruth Hogan’s debut novel and it was cute in the premise, but somehow I (and the reader) may get lost among the dual narrative. The character driven story has me caring about the characters and although it was so endearing in many parts, it falls just a bit short for me.

Mr. Peardew is getting old and is in need of a housekeeper. His house has become way too large to manage as he had become a widow. Enter Laura who has been recovering from a divorce and has been deeply depressed; she applies for the job after seeing the listing. Laura meets Mr. Peardew and she was hired immediately. Anthony was left truly brokenhearted by the loss of his wife Therese. He vows redemption when he loses gift that Therese had given him, thus creating the hobby of cataloging and writing his stories about finding the people whose items he had found.  

Laura and Mr. Peardew develop an adoring relationship, and she caring deeply as she is beguiled with the home, its contents and of course the objects that are behind the closed door.

The Keeper of Lost Things is charming in that the objects are fulfilling the needs of each of the characters as they work to find the owners of the objects, they also find themselves. After Mr. Peardew’s passing, the character Laura and her now beau Freddy (the gardener of the home) and the Sunshine (the neighborhood child) work as team, a lost family of sorts. Together they fulfill Mr. Peardew’s mission to help the ghost of Therese rest gently. The story’s dual narrative with the characters Eunice and Bomber was enriching but, the story lines and the many stories within the story was jumbled and even hard to follow at times.

I give this book 3.5 for the charm alone and the very cute concept.

Next Year In Havana a novel By Chanel Cleeton

Next Year In Havana

A Novel

By Chanel Cleeton

Berkley

An Imprint of Random House LLC

New York, NY

2018

356 pages plus 3 -page readers guide

Bonus: Excerpt from

When We Left Cuba

(Upcoming book Available Winter 2019, Berkley Publishers)

ISBN 978-0-399-58668

This is a fantastic book, filled with romantic passion and with the accompanying strife during the war times of Cuba. This book is beautifully told in a dual narrative with the main character, Marisol Ferrera, going to Cuba as a travel writer/journalist. She grew up hearing the stories of her Cuban born family and only dreamed one day to actually go to the land she was so immersed in. Her family fled Cuba sixty years prior, and now her grandmother Elisa Perez, who helped raise her, has now passed away and requested that her ashes be distributed in Cuba; the land she loved.

Marisol arrives in Cuba and has her breath taken away at the beauty of it all. It is as she has heard, beautifully romantic. Marisol also discovers that her extended family is rooted in secrecy, revolutionaries, and love. It is a passionate story about familial loyalties and even one of exile.

This story flows beautifully with the descriptions of the breathtaking landscapes and the gripping yarn of long enduring friendships and the holding of secrets.

I was completely hooked, and smelling the salt of the sea and feeling the sun on my back along with Marisol.

MS Cleeton endears us with the touching story of close sisters and the hardened lessons of heartbreak, with a tight-knit family dynamic and the views of yore.

This is an engrossing novel, with historical fact, that ticks every box for readers of so many genres in an epic way. It is a tale of courage, fear and love affairs wrapped in peril and even danger. It is refreshing MS Cleeton has woven a chapter filled tapestry that is worn in spots and gently loved in others.  

This book is included in Reese Weatherspoon’s Book Club list, and I see why! I was a reader first, and a reviewer second was enchanted with this saga. This book included an excerpt from her next novel due out called When We Left Cuba due out in the winter of 2019 from this publisher. I can say now that this novel will come highly anticipated if it reflects this story currently.

I really enjoyed this story and I recommend it highly. This is a five-star novel.

The Urge By CL Gibson A Review

By CL Gibson

The Urge

CL Gibson

166 pages

My Blue Horse Publishing Co.

Cary Illinois 60013

2018

ISBN 978-1-7326720-2-4 Digital Edition

ISBN 978-1-7326720-1-7 Hardcover Edition

ISBN 978-1-7326720-0-0 Softcover Edition

I was lucky to meet this author at a writer’s event at my local library, and I’m so glad I did!

CL Gibson is an emerging author who wrote The Urge as one in a series of books she’s entitled “The Devil’s Rules” series.

The impact of the first chapter is chilling! As a reader I am hooked, the author’s attention to detail and forensics knowledge leads the reader right into the underbelly of the crime with her exquisite scene setting.

I could not stop turning the pages, immediately I am ensconced in caring deeply about the characters she has written. Ms. Gibson gives the reader a full sense of the utter depravity of each of the situations the main characters Woody and his sister Vette go through. This prompts us to root emotionally for the choices that the young character Woody makes as he justifies his secrets. There are many twists and turns and without giving away too much in this review, it is a unique brand of justice served as cute as a breakfast muffin could get. The book will take you through the years in the lives of Woody and Vette as they grow up and face their pasts.

This complex psychological thriller will keep you guessing as Ms. Gibson skillfully takes us on the journey until the satisfying end. You will agree The Urge is a stellar debut novel, and I cannot wait for CL Gibson to continue to add to her “The Devil’s Rules” series.

I highly recommend this book. 5 Stars *****

Bonus: As part of the purchase of The Urge, you’ll get a sneak peek at the next four chapters of her next book The Grudge. The Grudge will be released in the fall of 2019.

Please go to:

https://christilgibson.com/

Where you can purchase her books, but you can also sign up to hear about news and events

You can also go directly to Amazon to purchase as well.

The Lost Ones By Sheena Kamal

The Lost Ones

By Sheena Kamal

William Morrow, an Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

New York

2017

ISBN 978-0-06-256590-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-06-266632-1(International Edition)

342 pages

This book was an exciting read. Sheena Kamal’s debut novel is a super page turning psychological suspense novel.

The Lost Ones

The main character is a very complex and emotionally troubled young woman named Nora Watts. The setting takes place in Vancouver, where Nora and her stray companion, a dog she named Whisper, who truly becomes Nora’s sidekick go searching for a daughter Nora gave up for adoption after she had gone missing. Nora, a semi-homeless street girl has the “street smarts” that hinge on almost a sixth sense of sorts; she can sniff out a liar and now she’s on a mission.

Nora becomes involved after the adoptive parents of her child call upon her to help in their cause to find their child they now have named Bronwyn, or Bonnie for short. The police have Bonnie listed as a chronic runaway and they simply know the police won’t help. They know this time she hasn’t run away, this time it’s different.

Nora goes on a scary trip into the underbelly from which she comes to trace down her missing biological daughter she has never seen. She encounters many life-threatening scenarios where she uses her street skills to overcome them. Like covertly slipping into a security agency to steal records, or being chased and beaten violently and with her perserverance and sheer will she keeps going. She continues to have flashbacks from her past that are filled with pain, violence and lots of desperation.

There are so many twists and turns in this dark and compelling story. Where Nora stands brave against the very convincing and life-like criminals characters. The gloomy setting of this story pulls you in and you become a cheerleader for the heroine Nora. 

Ms Kamal shows so much depth in her story, and Nora will become the new subject of an upcoming series of stories that I cannot wait to read. Ms Kamal has an HBA in political science from the University of Toronto and was awarded a TD Canada Trust Scholarship for her community leadership and activism around homelessness. Ms Kamal also worked as a crime and investigative journalism researcher for the film and television industry.

This book is in response to an email to Ms Kamal and is part of my personal libray. I give this book 5 stars!

My signed copy 

For further information you can contact this author at 

http://www.sheenakamal.com

This Is How It Begins Review

This Is How It Begins

By Joan Dempsey

ISBN 978-1-63152-308-3

2017

She Writes Press

387 pages

+3 page reader’s guide

Release Date 10/3/17

I was pleasantly riveted as part of the Advanced Reader Copy book launch. Author Joan Dempsey’s debut novel, crafts a timely story filled with characters that have depth. Immediately, as readers, we care about them. The novel takes us into thought provoking settings that exhibit and even mimic today’s current events. Ms. Dempsey writes a story that is compelling; her story breaches subject matters such as bigotry, intolerance, hate, and violence. Her characters are opinionated and exhibit some of those cultural and often criminal feelings.

The main character, Ludka Zeilonka, an 85-year-old art professor and matriarch of a well-known political family, becomes part of a religious discrimination freedom bill. This political fight brings on the firing of certain area teachers, including her grandson Tommy, who is gay. Spurred on further by a radio host named Warren Meck, who crusades this anti-religious freedom debate bias in public schools on his show, and becomes a key player, brought into the fray by local area Pastor Royce.

Deepening still is Ludka’s character who as a Catholic woman in WWII Poland, joined in her own secret lifelong resistance against Nazi War Crimes. She used her art drawings to depict and bear testimony to the crimes. Her family also sheltered Jews where she witnesses the death of her own parents in front of her for their efforts.

This novel is about free speech and the importance of having empathy. It is so applicable to today’s current events.

Author Joan Dempsey’s work has appeared in many highly regarded literary circles and magazines. Ms. Dempsey was recipient of a significant research grant from the prestigious

Elizabeth George Foundation. Ms. Dempsey is also the recipient of the 2017 Poets & Writers

Magazine’s Maureen Egen Writer’s Exchange Award.

I highly recommend this book for the reader who is looking for rich story content and character depth and suspense that feels ripped from the headline news.

Please pre-order your copy through Amazon at:

https://www.amazon.com/This-How-Begins-Joan-Dempsey/dp/1631523082

Or at her site at:

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The Girl On The Train Review

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins

Riverhead Books

Penguin Group (USA) LLC

New York, NY 10014

2015

ISBN 978-1-5943-366-9

323 pages

This work of fiction from author Paula Hawkins, her first thriller, definitely puts the reader on the edge of their seats! This psychological thriller debuted #1 on NY Times Best Sellers list. It stayed there for 13 consecutive weeks!

It is told narrative style or Point of View (POV) of the three female characters, Rachel. Anna, and Megan. The main character Rachel takes the same commuter train every single morning and returns on this same train every single evening. She has memorized the landscapes and the homes in her hum drum rides. As she passes, from time to time, she glimpses the people who live along this train route. She’s seen them in their backyards. Rachel actually names them as she wonders about their lives; even fantasizing about their affairs and hoe they conduct their family lives.

Then one day Rachel sees something from the train window that changes everything. She believes she may have witnessed a crime. She doesn’t report it at first, because she reasons with the characters she’s created, even thinking that the imaginary but real couple couldn’t have been involved in what she believes is a crime, that and her own hidden secrets may make her unreliable.  But she can’t bear her own thoughts and eventually does report what she sees to the police.

The emotional thrill ride begins and there are many twists and turns in this story that has been likened to Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpieces. It will keep you guessing and leaving you all consumed until the very last line!

An easy read that comes highly recommended.

This book has been aquired by DreamWorks Pictures.

*this book is part of Mary Caliendo’s personal library.