Grace’s Family by James Patrick Kelly

June 11, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Grace’s Family by James Patrick Kelly
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Length: Short Story (45 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The mission: to survey the galaxy and beyond. An endless stream of probes and starships heading out into the universe, surveying, cataloguing, assaying. Forever. And on board those ships, the intrepid explorers who give it all meaning.

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One of the things I liked the most about this tale had to do with the role that humans played in space exploration. Not all of the characters were human, and not all of the humans were necessarily the most important characters in the storyline. This isn’t something I’ve seen a lot of in this genre recently. I truly enjoyed getting to know this universe from so many non-human perspectives.

I found the beginning of this story confusing for two reasons. One, the characters used a lot of slang terms without explaining what any of those words meant to the audience. Two, the characters’ relationships to each other were not explained well. Figuring out all of the references and relationships meant that it took me a while to actually begin to enjoy the plot. It would have been helpful to have all of this stuff laid out clearly much earlier on.

The world building was handled nicely. The narrator expected the audience to put some effort into figuring out how this society worked, and I appreciated that. In the end, there were exactly enough clues about every step in the process to make me feel satisfied with how much had been shared even though I would have loved to keep learning more about this vision of the future. If Mr. Kelly ever writes a sequel, though, I want to be first in line to read it.

Grace’s Family should be read by anyone who is in the mood for an interstellar adventure.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers by Sarena Ulibarri, editor

June 6, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers by Sarena Ulibarri, editor
Publisher: World Weaver Press
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full Length (293 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Solarpunk is a type of optimistic science fiction that imagines a future founded on renewable energies. The seventeen stories in this volume are not dull utopias—they grapple with real issues such as the future and ethics of our food sources, the connection or disconnection between technology and nature, and the interpersonal conflicts that arise no matter how peaceful the world is. In these pages you’ll find a guerilla art installation in Milan, a murder mystery set in a weather manipulation facility, and a world where you are judged by the glow of your solar nanite implants. From an opal mine in Australia to the seed vault at Svalbard, from a wheat farm in Kansas to a crocodile ranch in Malaysia, these are stories of adaptation, ingenuity, and optimism for the future of our world and others. For readers who are tired of dystopias and apocalypses, these visions of a brighter future will be a breath of fresh air.

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Daesha’s mission in “Fyrewall” was simple, but that didn’t mean it would be easy to accomplish at all. The only way for her community to survive was if Daesha figured out how to fix the Fyrewall her grandmother had built out of ocean water and other natural materials to shelter their community from the wildfires and air pollution that were destroying the rest of California. I empathized with this character’s struggle to understand technology that she hadn’t built and only half understood. The plot twists in it were fantastic as well. They fit this world that had been dramatically changed by climate change beautifully, and they made me wish for a sequel.

All of the stories in this anthology had fantastic premises. With that being said, there were a few that I would have liked to see explained in a little more detail. For example, “Grow, Give, Repeat” was about a young girl named Alex whose family was struggling to grow enough food to eat on their farm. After losing their previous flock of chickens, the new birds they received were like no other animal I’ve ever heard about before. They were an odd combination of machine and living beings, and I struggled to picture what they might look like or how they could exist. These chickens were such an integral part of the plot that it would have been easier to understand what was going on if I could have imagined them in better detail.

“The Heavenly Dreams of Mechanical Trees” was one of the highlights of this collection for me. In it, a sentient, robotic tree named Ailanthus realized that she was going to stop functioning permanently soon and began a desperate attempt to communicate with the humans who maintained her to see if anyone could fix her before it was too late. I was mesmerized by the thought of a robot fulfilling almost all of the same functions that a real tree does, and I couldn’t wait to find out if Ailanthus’ mission would be successful. The thought of a forest without her kind and patient personality was such a sad prospect.

I’d heartily recommend Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summer to anyone who is in the mood for an optimistic vision of what the future might be like for humans and all of the other creatures who live on Earth.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Library of Lost Things by Matthew Bright

June 5, 2018 By 1 Comment


The Library of Lost Things by Matthew Bright
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (28 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Welcome to the Library of Lost Things, where the shelves are stuffed with books that have fallen through the cracks—from volumes of lovelorn teenage poetry to famous works of literature long destroyed or lost. They’re all here, pulled from history and watched over by the Librarian, curated by the Collectors, nibbled on by the rats. Filed away, never to be read. At least, until Thomas, the boy with the secret, comes to the Library.

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The plot twists were well written. I enjoyed trying to figure out why Thomas ended up at the Library of Lost Things, especially since it didn’t seem to be the sort of place that the average person would know about. The more time he spent at his new job, the harder I worked to put all of the clues together before the narrator revealed what was going on with this character and the delightfully peculiar coworkers he’d just met.

It would have been nice to have more world building. I adored the idea of a magical library that collected and preserved books that have been lost to humanity, but it would have preferred to see more time spent explaining when this place was first created and how they acquired such a rare collection of materials. There was so much about it that was never explained.

Not everyone would be well-suited for working in such an unusual place. My favorite scenes were the ones that showed what the employees were like. They all had quirky parts of their personalities that ended up making them the perfect candidates for their positions. It was especially interesting to see Thomas go through the interviewing process and adjust to his first days on the job. He obviously belonged there just as much as anyone else who’d been selected.

The Library of Lost Things was a creative tale I’d recommend to anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to read a novel that no longer exists in our world.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mental Diplopia by Julianna Baggott

June 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Mental Diplopia by Julianna Baggott
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (31 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

There seems to be a strange new disease spreading around the world. People are getting stuck in the past in mostly happy memories. They are straddling the line between now and then. Although the disease ends in death, the infected seem to go willingly. The epidemiologist seeks the answers to this viral mystery while she is falling in love and yet trying not to get infected, in Julianna Baggott’s Mental Diplopia.

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I’ve never read a tale about a pandemic that involved characters feeling happy and peaceful while they were dying from an incurable disease, so I was quite curious to see how that would change the typical progression of this sort of science fiction. The descriptions of this ailment only made me more interested in finding out where it came from and why it had such a strange set of symptoms. While this worked perfectly well as a short story, I would love to read a sequel someday about what happened next.

It would have been helpful to know more about how the main character met Oliver, her love interest. They clearly had a lot of chemistry, and I started rooting for them to somehow have a happy ending as soon as he was introduced. The only thing missing in their relationship was an explanation of how and when it began. Had it been included, I would have been perfectly happy to give out a much higher rating.

The unnamed protagonist was an intelligent and sensible epidemiologist. I enjoyed reading her calm and often understated descriptions of how this disease progressed and what happened to humanity once the vast majority of people had died from it. There was something compelling about reading such a factual account of a worldwide tragedy. Seeing it from the perspective of someone in the medical field made me even more interested in finding out how it would end than I would have otherwise been because of this. Her slight detachment from the subject matter gave her the objective point of view that the plot needed in order to truly drive its message home.

Mental Diplopia is a great choice for anyone who would enjoy reading a somewhat romantic take on the end of the world as we know it.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Retribution Road by Christi Corbett

May 15, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Retribution Road by Christi Corbett
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Historical
Length: Short Story (66 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Montana Territory, 1867

Graham Patterson, an accomplished veterinarian, is leaving Seattle and heading east to start a new life for himself. Opportunities abound for men who understand how to make the land work for them, rather than work the land. But after he overhears two scoundrels plotting to take advantage of a lonely spinster, his well-laid plans go awry.
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Willow Bennet lives just outside the town of Whitcomb Springs with only her beloved dog to keep her company. It’s a predictable life, until late one night when she foils an attack and her dog is wounded as revenge.

Can she trust the mysterious stranger who insists he can help?

For a cozy little Western, this one has setting, characters, and action wrapped up in a story that will leave readers satisfied. Montana is the place, and the time is the late 1860s. Graham is an interesting fellow, and he is lost in the wilderness. He runs into two “helpful” men who give him food, Kit and Andrew. The guys seem nice enough, but are they really? A banker oddly runs into them in this setting. He will come into play later, as a reader might suspect. This innocent meeting of characters is a good set-up for the controversy to come.

Christi Corbett uses terminology and descriptions that are so natural, one falls right into the story. With dialogue perfect for the setting, a reader goes along for the ride with Graham and overhears the sinister plans of others. But what can one man do to stop them? When he hears that they plan on hurting an innocent woman, Graham knows he must do something, so he follows them. When the men prepare to attack a woman who lives on her own with only a dog, some unexpected things happen—a twist in the plot. Graham gets bold here, and we see him in action. As he deals with the fallout from the men’s attack, we learn that he has a cool job. He goes to work. During this time, his character and that of others is further developed. He grows closer to the woman, Willow.

During this feel-good story, we are treated to little tidbits of medical knowledge, nothing too technical, just interesting. When Graham goes to town for supplies, men surround him, thinking he robbed the bank. One thing after another happens, keeping the suspense rolling. Since Graham won’t say he was with Willow, helping her out overnight, because it would ruin her reputation, it looks like this just might be the end for him. Prosecution for a good man seems likely.

The author has done a good job of keeping the story moving along and showing the characters in tough situations. We also see some character growth for secondary characters. This tale is a good read that I would recommend to those who love historically set stories, especially Westerns.

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The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica

May 11, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The eerie thing about Paige Adolpha wasn’t how she turned up right when I was reading about her in the paper. It wasn’t her fame as the star witness in the local werewolf trial. What brought on the gooseflesh, first time I saw her, was she’s the spitting image of her murdered identical twin.

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It’s not very often that I read about a murder in the fantasy genre. This isn’t a topic that seems to be widely explored there, so I was curious to see how the author was planning to show how a trial could unfold after a mystery has already been solved and the killer identified. Since there weren’t any clues to piece together, I was able to sit back, relax, and wait to find out more details about why Paige’s sister was killed and how she was adjusting to her life without her twin.

The plot was easy to predict ahead of time. While I was very interested in the premise in the beginning, being able to guess what was going to happen next so regularly made it hard for me to remain interested in the storyline. I like to be challenged or surprised a little when I read, and there weren’t opportunities for me to do that here.

Romance was the last thing I was expecting to find in this tale, but it suited the characters nicely. They were both in a place in their lives when falling in love was something they might be interested in. Only time would tell if one or both of them would end up taking that leap by the final scene, but I enjoyed seeing their reactions as they decided what they wanted to do with their growing attractions to each other.

I’d recommend The Cage to anyone who likes to mix romance into an urban fantasy setting.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Vintage Dreams by Jannie Lund

May 4, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Vintage Dreams by Jannie Lund
Publisher: Satin Romance, an imprint of Melange Books, LLC
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Full length (166 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 2.5 stars
Reviewed by Quince

Scott Sullivan has been sent on a not all together pleasant trip down memory lane to secure a location for a client. Sure, it may take some charm and convincing to get the owners to sell, but he’s up for the task. And then he’s getting the hell out of dodge to escape the memories. In and out, quick and painless, that’s the plan. He just hadn’t counted on running into a fiery and stunning obstacle with gold flecks in her eyes.

Danielle Harris has worked hard to make her dream come true. With her best friend, she owns a boutique where she sells the vintage style dresses she designs. When a city lawyer comes along and tries to ruin everything, her Italian temper flares.
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With Scott trying to conduct a business deal and Danielle fighting for her dream, sparks fly. Not least sparks of attraction and perhaps love. It’s clear that one of them needs to give in, but the feelings of resistance are deep-rooted in them both.

One of the reasons I enjoy reading romance novels is to see how a relationship between two people will develop. Also, I like to read them to see how they will overcome their problems and fall in love. And, if the story is good, I fall in love with the characters and I live through their fears and insecurities and become very happy when they find their HEA. I really liked how this story started so I was looking forward to more conflict between Scott and Danielle before they fell in love.

Unfortunately, that was not the case with Vintage Dreams. This book had a very promising start, but not so satisfying a performance. Scott Sullivan is sent on a business trip to his childhood town to try to secure a location for a client but it’s occupied by the fierce heroine, Danielle Harris. Under no circumstances does she want to sell her property. Instead of buying the property, Scott finds himself liking Danielle and ends up in a situation where he needs to reexamine his life and make some decisions about his future.

I was hoping that the story would focus much more on the development of the relationship between Scott and Danielle, but it was pretty much an instant love story. Right after their first date they were together and from that point on the focus was not so much on romance as on the resolving of past issues.

I have very mixed feelings about the characters. Scott is such a nice guy. He had a very tough childhood and he is carrying his father’s sins but he is willing to help and has a good heart. Danielle is also nice, but I did not like her temper. She is a bit over the top temperamental and often I did not understand her reactions. I wish there had been more emotional depth between the two.

All in all, Vintage dreams is an okay read. Readers who are looking for a subtle romance novel featuring a lot of nice vintage dresses and “love-at-first-sight” will not be disappointed.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Hurt Handler by Linda Palmer

April 23, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Hurt Handler by Linda Palmer
Publisher: Uncial Press
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal
Length: Short Story (91 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Shiloh Nilsen lives at one end of the street. Nathan Conti lives at the other. In all her eighteen years, they’ve never met in the middle. Why? Because he attends a special school for psychics in Wyoming while she goes to their neighborhood public school, Dillon High, right there in Montana.

Nothing changes until Shiloh loses a treasured family heirloom–a ring that dates back centuries. Desperate to find it before her mom figures out it’s missing, Shiloh crashes a birthday party just to meet Nate. If the local newspaper is right, he has psychic gifts. She hopes one of them will help her out of a mess she can only blame on herself.
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Nate reluctantly agrees to accompany her to a local ghost town, the last place she wore the ring. With the weather getting worse by the minute, they search everywhere she hiked until the skies open up and they’re forced to take shelter in the ruins. Huddled there, they talk about his psychic abilities, a conversation that opens Shiloh’s mind to what’s really out there.

Unfortunately, Nate’s conclusion about the ring’s location isn’t at all what Shiloh was expecting. Instead of getting closure, she’s faced with a new dilemma. She can either confess everything to her mom, who will be crushed, or she can confront the person who has the ring, a guy who, according to Nate, gives off some very bad vibes.

Shiloh decides to crash a birthday party, determined to talk Nate into using his powers to help her out. Having lost her great-great-great grandmother’s ring, she needs to take Nate to Farlin – even with the ghosts there – and have him help her find the ring. Nate and Shiloh both find each other attractive, but their worlds couldn’t be further apart. Shiloh is from the wrong side of town, Nate’s family is rich and he’s just graduated from an expensive academy geared towards people with magical gifts. The more time they spend together, the more complicated their relationship gets. Can they each find their right path?

This is a fun and really interesting story. I’ve not read any of the previous ones in this series and was very happy to find none of the back-story was really needed. Both Nate and Shiloh are fairly young – nineteen and seventeen respectively – and so while there is some romance it’s all fairly sweet and teenager-ish – friends who are attracted to each other etc. Aside from some chaste (and just a few teen-steamy) kisses there’s no physical romance, but a delightful emotional connection that flourishes into an even better romantic relationship.

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot in this story – finding the mystery of Shiloh’s lost ring as compelling as Shiloh and Nate both exploring their own powers and coming to terms with the magical world neither of them have much experience in. In a number of ways this felt very much to me like a coming-of-age story and I’d actually recommend it equally as a YA style of story as a sweet, emotional and slightly romantic read for grown ups as well. With strong and multi-layered characters, a few excellent plots and some fantastic pacing I eagerly drank up every page of this story and fully plan to look out for the others in this series. Shiloh and Nate were two wonderful characters and I loved watching them get to know each other, push each other’s magical boundaries and solve the puzzle together. The fact they ended up with a Happy Ever After and a beautiful relationship was just icing on the cake.

For a sweet, happy and well-paced story this is one I’d happily recommend.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Willow’s Way by Sharon Struth

April 19, 2018 By 17 Comments

Willow’s Way by Sharon Struth
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: Full Length (228 pgs)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rated: 5 stars
Reviewed by Rose

Voted BoM by LASR Readers 2013 copy

Willow Armstrong, the once-famous “Queen of Weight Loss” and president of Pound Busters, succumbed to stress eating after her divorce. Now the scandal of getting caught on camera binging on pizza, and the internet-wide mocking of her new curves, may destroy her career. Add in a business advisor who drained her finances, and Willow is out of options—until she learns she’s inherited a house in England’s most picturesque locale, The Cotswolds.
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Willow’s trip across the pond to sell the property and salvage her company soon becomes its own adventure: the house, once owned by grandparents she never met, needs major work. Plus, single dad Owen Hughes, the estate’s resident groundskeeper and owner of a local tour outfit, isn’t thrilled about the idea of leaving . . . Yet as Willow proceeds with her plans, she’s sidetracked by surprising discoveries about her family’s history–and with Owen’s help, the area’s distinctive attractions. Soon, she’s even retracing her roots—and testing her endurance—amid the region’s natural beauty. And the more she delves into the past, the more clearly she sees herself, her future, and the way home . . .

Willow’s Way is an apt title for this book – because Willow has definitely lost her way and this novel describes how she finds it again. The book opens with the fact that Willow, creator of a very successful and popular diet program, has been caught on film sneaking pizza. It sounds like a set up for a joke, but her life has become no laughing matter. She’s divorced, a trusted advisor has taken off with her company’s (and her own) money, and she’s a stress eater. Her board of directors are not happy that the face of their weight loss company has gone from a size 6 to a size 12, so the release of the video was not a good thing. As she’s weighing her options, she quite unexpectedly learns she has inherited a house in England – and makes a decision that quite literally changes her life.

I absolutely loved Willow… I can identify with her on so many levels. I love the way she took control of things. She was a fighter, it stood her in good stead. There were a lot of issues for her to deal with over the course of the book and dealt with them she did. In doing so, she learned a lot about herself and her past she never knew. She was the type of character I felt like I could sit down and have tea with.

The rest of the characters were just as richly drawn. Owen is just scrumptious and could quite easily become one of my favorite male characters. His daughter Jilly (and Henry, her dog) are just fall-in-lovable!

The setting is almost like another character in the book. I’m a not-so-hidden Anglophile anyway, and I felt like I had stepped into the pages of a Maeve Binchy book had she written English settings instead of Irish. I would have loved to live here.

There are no great conflicts in this book, but they aren’t needed. It’s a sweet look at one woman and her life and I stayed up way too late reading it! I was right there rooting for Willow all the time she was trying to find her way, and I was very sorry when the book ended.

I highly recommend this book!

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Digging In by Loretta Nyhan

April 19, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Digging In by Loretta Nyhan
Publisher: Lake Union
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Full length (263 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Aloe

In Loretta Nyhan’s warm and witty Amazon Charts bestselling novel, a widow discovers an unexpected chance to start over—right in her own backyard.

Paige Moresco found her true love in eighth grade—and lost him two years ago. Since his death, she’s been sleepwalking through life, barely holding on for the sake of her teenage son. Her house is a wreck, the grass is overrun with weeds, and she’s at risk of losing her job. As Paige stares at her neglected lawn, she knows she’s hit rock bottom. So she does something entirely unexpected: she begins to dig.
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As the hole gets bigger, Paige decides to turn her entire yard into a vegetable garden. The neighbors in her tidy gated community are more than a little alarmed. Paige knows nothing about gardening, and she’s boldly flouting neighborhood-association bylaws. But with the help of new friends, a charming local cop, and the transformative power of the soil, Paige starts to see potential in the chaos of her life. Something big is beginning to take root—both in her garden and in herself.

This author tackles a hard subject. How do you go on when your other half dies in a freak accident? There was no warning, life isn’t the same and your helpmate is gone. It doesn’t help when your child doesn’t want to talk about it either. What makes this story even more meaningful is that the author’s own husband died while playing golf. Her story isn’t this story but it makes it even more touching.

Paige had been in love with him since the eighth grade and is trying to learn to live without him. Then her boss dies and his son takes over the company. Her home and her clothes and her life are all a mess and now she might lose her job…

It’s very easy to fall into oblivion when a major traumatic event shakes up your life. She’s emotionally unstable, is fighting with her neighbor, and the folks in the housing association think she’s losing touch with rationality. She thinks they may be right.

Ms. Nyhan takes you through Paige’s life as she fumbles around trying to put her life back together. She finds a man she likes and decides to take it slow and see how it goes. Her son rebels. She’s gardening even if she really doesn’t know how because she’s friends with a lady from the Farmer’s Market. And the road isn’t clear yet but she’s finding her direction.

The story sounds authentic and the author makes you feel her sorrow and her uncertainty. Paige can’t give up but she’d like to. Then, with the help of friends, she perks up and starts making a new life. Everyone has gone through that at some time in their life. Did you do as well as Paige?

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