Category Archives: Authors A-E

Review: A Christmas Carol 2 by Robert J. Elisberg

by

About A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge

A-Christmas-Carol-2

It’s five years to the day after dear old Ebenezer Scrooge has passed away and left his thriving firm to his former clerk, Bob Cratchit. However, Bob’s overly-generous benevolence with lending and charity-giving has driven the company into the ground, on the verge of bankruptcy. And so the ghost of Scrooge returns one Christmas Eve to teach Cratchit the true meaning of money, with the help of visitations of three spirits – not all of whom are happy t be there. (It is Christmas Eve, after all, and they have other plans.) Making the swirling journey through Christmases past, present, and yet-to-be all the more of a chaotic ride for Cratchit are the dozens of characters from other Dickens novels woven throughout the story, together for the first time. God bless them, most everyone.

And it’s all augmented with footnotes of letters between Mr. Dickens and his publisher, along with notes from Dickens’s own hand and scholarly research. At least that’s what the editor tells us, though we’re a little skeptical of his honesty.

Buy your copy from:

amazon2

pump-divider-general

About the author, Robjert J. Elisberg

Robert-J.-Elisberg

Robert J. Elisberg has been a commentator and contributor to such publications as the Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, C/NET and E! Online, and he served on the editorial board for the Writers Guild of America. He has contributed political writing to the anthology, Clued in on Politics, 3rd edition (CQ Press).

Among his other writing, Elisberg wrote the comic novella, A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge, which reached #2 on Amazon’s Hot List for Humor/Parody. His most recent novel is the swashbuckling adventure, The Wild Roses. He co-wrote a book on world travel. Currently, he writes a tech column for the Writers Guild of America, west. He also co-wrote the song, “Just One of the Girls” for the Showtime movie Wharf Rat, and wrote the book for the stage musical Rapunzel!.

Born in Chicago, he attended Northwestern University and received his MFA from UCLA, where he was twice awarded the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. Not long afterwards, Elisberg sold his screenplay, Harry Warren of the Mounties. He was on staff of the international animated series, Flute Master, and co-wrote three of the Skateboy films based on it. He also co-wrote the independent film, Yard Sale. Most recently, he wrote an adventure screenplay for Callahan Filmworks.

Connect with Robert J. Elisberg:
Web:Elisberg Industries
Twitter: @RobertElisberg
Facebook: Robert Elisberg

Add this book to Goodreads:

goodreads add

pump-divider-general

My Thoughts:

I’m a fan of Dickens, and I’m also open to pastiches, which means A Christmas Carol 2: The Return of Scrooge was very likely going to be something I enjoyed. Nevertheless, I approached it a little nervously. I don’t like to give reviews. Obviously not everyone likes everything they’re given to read, but…What would I do if it wasn’t FUNNY?

My fears were assuaged almost instantly, and forgotten by the time I reached the first footnote. What? Didn’t anyone warn you that this book is annotated? Well it is, with a lovely footnote for every new/old character, talking about their appearance in the main body of Dickens’ work, and why he included them in this ‘lost’ novella.

The voice of the book isn’t quite Dickens as we know him, but could easily be unedited Dickens after a few shots of tequila – er, um – Smoking Bishop. The self-referential humor works every time, and the other bits of humor (sending a Jewish character to be a ghost on Christmas Eve, and having him complain about it) are dead-on.

In A Christmas Carol 2 Elisberg has not only given us an entertaining read, he’s helped the story live in contemporary times, showing us that the best path is neither abject poverty nor total profit, but a balance of the two.

Those who are familiar with the original Dickens work, or any of his novels, will gain the most enjoyment from Elisberg’s so-called revision, but even readers new to his work will get a laugh or two.

Writing pastiche is hard. Writing effective parody is even harder. Elisberg has managed to do both, successfully, and I enjoyed reading it very much.

Goes well with a slice of mince pie, and coffee laced with brandy.

A-Christmas-Carol-2-banner

Review: A Soul’s Calling, by Scott Bishop

by

A Soul’s Calling
Scott Bishop

Description (via Amazon.com):

A Soul’s Calling is a memoir about a man who listened to his heart instead of reason.

Scott, a forty-something attorney, is average in every way except one. He has a connection to the Other Side. He speaks to Spirit and Spirit speaks to him. He sees, hears, and interacts with an invisible realm that is beyond ordinary human perception. When Scott learns his soul has been spiritually compromised he travels to the ancient kingdom of Nepal to win it back. Once there, he hikes the Himalaya carrying a mysterious bundle and a stick laden with prayers from Luminous Beings hoping to come face to face with the greatest mountain on earth: Mount Everest. As his journey unfolds, Scott is called on to battle his fear of heights, the thin air, and his physical limitations.

A Soul’s Calling transports readers to the rugged but enchanting Khumbu Valley where mountains speak and nature is imbued with a special kind of magic. The novel is an inspiring modern day adventure that weaves the timeless themes of living an authentic life, the consequences of power, and what a man would do for unrequited love.

Part travelogue, part hiking adventure, A Soul’s Calling blends elements of shamanism and magic as it brings the Himalaya to life in vivid detail. Powerful, sweeping, and deeply moving, readers will search their hearts as the book draws to a stunning conclusion.

My Thoughts:

Anyone who’s grown up reading National Geographic or watching The Discovery Channel dreams of trekking to far away lands, but a surprisingly few number of us ever DO it. It’s an even fewer number of us who are tapped into Spirit – that voice inside all things that speaks to us about the past and future and our place within it.

Scott Bishop is one of those rare few who not only hears the voice of Spirit, but also acts on it, choosing to climb Mt. Everest.

In his book, A Soul’s Calling Bishop takes us on his journey, from a fairly mundane existence to the life of a spiritual pilgrim, climbing mountains to find the answers to life, the universe, and his personal spirit quest.

His story is part travelogue, part spiritual awakening. What could seem silly or pretentious in another writer’s hands (the Voice of Spirit speaking through trees) becomes, instead, an ominous warning, and a wake-up call to his very soul.

The details of the actual trek are similarly compelling, though he obliterates the notion of a stark, lonely mountain, making it seem – at least at lower elevations, like a fairly busy microcosm of granola hippies, religious seekers, and explorers in every sense of the word.

A Soul’s Calling, isn’t an easy read – at least it wasn’t for me. At times I had to put it down and take time to digest what Bishop was saying. But it’s a compelling, well-written, deeply personal tale that touches on some fairly universal themes, and I can honestly say that I’m a better person for having read it.

Goes well with:
Herbal tea and trail mix, followed by a hot bath.

Apologies to Mr. Bishop. I read this MONTHS ago, but have been suffering such a bout of writer’s block, and dealing with some personal craziness, and my review queue is woefully behind.

Review: Mindfront, by Dave Becker

by

Mindfront
by Dave Becker

Product Description (from Amazon.com):
After uncovering a universal code in the brain waves of all living things that could revolutionize psychology, Martin Keller wakes one morning to find himself covered in blood, surrounded by his butchered family. Convinced he’s being framed by a diabolical organization set on stealing or sabotaging his work, he dodges a multi-agency manhunt that pursues him from the seediest corners of DC to the highest offices of government. Struggling to stay alive and find his family’s killer, Marty soon finds himself lost in a maze of conspiracies and paranoia, and eventually begins to doubt his own sanity. How can he find the truth when he doesn’t know what’s real?

My Thoughts:
When the author of this book asked me to review it last fall, I was in the mood for a good thriller. Despite this, I didn’t have a chance to read it until last week, when I was immediately so absorbed in it, to the point where for two days, I was reading it constantly. (During those two days I was also kind of drugged on muscle relaxants and pain killers because of a sprained back, which may have colored my reaction to the book.)

Thrillers – good thrillers – are a tricky thing to create. They have to have an element of mystery, a dash of danger, and a hint of good crime fiction, but still be rooted in a plausible version of reality or they don’t really work. With Mindfront all of the elements were there, and more – an interesting plot that was part techy, part bureaucratic, with nice family/spousal scenes that added dimension.

Martin Keller seemed like a three-dimensional character, and even I didn’t see all the twists til the very end of the novel. If you like thrillers, you will love this book. The physical copy is out of print, but the Kindle edition is available from Amazon.

Goes well with a pastrami sandwich on rye bread and a vanilla cream soda.

Review: Changes, by Jim Butcher

by

Changes
by Jim Butcher

Product Description (from Amazon.com):
Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden’s lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry’s not fighting to save the world…

He’s fighting to save his child.

My Thoughts:
It’s been a long time since I spent any time with Harry Dresden. I bought this book in April of 2010, when it was new, and it’s been sitting on my nightstand since then – nearly THREE YEARS – not because I wasn’t interested, but because my to-be-read stack was so high.

During the first week or two of January, however, I took a break from my to-be-reviewed queue (which I’m mostly caught up with) and read a lot of escapist fiction – stuff I actually bought, stuff that was exactly what I needed after having NINE PEOPLE in my house for ten days over Christmas.

Changes did not disappoint. I found myself slipping back into Harry Dresden’s always stormy, often violent life very easily. There were a few characters I didn’t remember as well as I should have, but for the most part I was familiar with Molly (Harry’s apprentice), Karrin Murphy (bad ass cop), and Bob the Spirit in the Skull.

As to the story…it’s a mindblowing whirlwind of, well, changes. Harry finds out he’s a father, finds out his daughter is being held by the queen of the Red Court (a group of vampires that holds far too much underworld – and real world – power), finds out the Red Court is about to go all out in political and physical assault against the White Council of wizards, etc. etc.

The end, of course, involves the biggest change of all, but there’s no way to even hint at it without spoiling the story.

Suffice to say that Changes represents Jim Butcher at his best and Harry Dresden at his most base, raw self.

It is sheer awesomeness, cloaked in the form of a book.

Goes well with hot chocolate and peppermint taffy.

Review: The Preacher and the Prostitute, by Brenda Barrett

by

The Preacher and the Prostitute
by Brenda Barrett

Product Description (from Amazon.com):
Maribel struggled to forget her past, when she used to dabble in prostitution, made porn videos and was a nude poster girl. She became a Christian and turned her life around and made a decision to use her singing talent to give glory to God. However, she quickly realized that a young, single, attractive, talented girl was never going to remain unnoticed at church. First, she captures the attention of a jealous church sister who is determined to dig into her mysterious past and then the new pastor who seemed to reciprocate her affection. After falling in love with him, her past rears its ugly head and Maribel realizes that she has to tell her new-found love the truth about her history before she can accept his marriage proposal. Can a preacher and an ex- prostitute be happy together?

My Thoughts:
When author Brenda Barrett saw my intro post at a website where bloggers and authors can connect with each other and sent me an email, it actually got lost in my spam filter for two weeks. When I finally rescued her message, I initially wrote a polite note telling her that while I am all about supporting women writers, her book is a Christian romance, and that’s not a genre I’m really fond of. She asked me to give it a try, anyway, promising that it wasn’t “preachy,” and because I felt bad about having had her mail in digital limbo I agreed.

You’d think, on the surface, that I wouldn’t be able to relate to The Preacher and the Prostitute at all. After all, like the author, the lead character, Maribel, is Jamaican-born, and the flavor of Christianity represented in the book is something that brings to mind words like “gospel choir,” and “Baptist,” whereas I’m a culturally-Catholic, currently-vacillating-between-Episcopalian-and-Unitarian-Universalist, Italian/German/Welsh woman who was born in New Jersey and grew up in Colorado and California, and spent time in South Dakota before moving to Texas.

The thing is, fundamentally, this book isn’t about ethnicity or religion, it’s about something much more universal: women finding themselves. Maribel’s story could be any woman’s story. How many of us are one paycheck away from turning to money-making methods of questionable morality? How many of us just want to find the right partner, the best friends? How many of us have a deep, dark secret we haven’t shared with our spouse or partner? How many of us are trying to rebuild ourselves, not in the image society first presented to us, but in our OWN image?

This is the story that Ms. Barrett tells, through Maribel and her journey, and she tells it deftly. The scenes with all the church women, dressed to the nines and talking gossip and gospel in balanced ratios sing with truth, and bring nods of understanding accompanied by amused smiles and audible chuckling. Maribel’s relationship with her “best friend” is also incredibly truthful, as is her battle with herself about what, and when, to share her story.

Barrett handles dialogue in a way that suggests a musical ear. Every character is distinct on the page, which makes them live more in the mind’s eye (and ear). Nothing seemed overly contrived – not too formal, not too far into caricature.

As for the Christian aspect of the book, yes, many of the scenes are set in and around church, and yes, Maribel’s partner is a pastor, but Barrett was right when she told me the book wasn’t preachy. It’s simply an honest depiction of one slice of the cultural pie, a portrait of people who try to live their faith in a world that doesn’t always make doing so easy.

Bottom line: I went into reading The Preacher and the Prostitute expecting a formula romance with heavy Christian overtones, and what I got was a rich story with romantic elements that were well-balanced by universal truths and a thematic question: Will he like me if he knows who I really am?

Goes well with…hot tea and butter cookies. I recommend Pepperidge Farm Milanos.

Ms. Barrett is doing a giveaway of her book, which you can participate in (one lucky winner will receive a $50 gift card to Amazon). Link: http://fiwibooks.com/giveaways/book-review-blog-tour-and-amazon-50-gift-card-giveaway

Review: The Legend of Rachel Petersen, by J.T. Baroni

by

The Legend of Rachel Petersen
by J.T. Baroni

Product Description (from Amazon.com):
Did his book raise the dead? Outraged when The Post Gazette overlooks him for a promotion, thirty-nine year old sports writer, Christian Kane quits and moves to the country to write fiction. Inspiration flows from a grave he stumbles upon in the woods. He compiles The Legend of Rachel Petersen, a fascinating story revolving around the dead twelve year old girl lying beneath the weathered tombstone. His book becomes a Best Seller; then Hollywood makes it in to a blockbuster movie. Kane becomes rich and famous, but only to have Rachel rise from the grave to seek revenge on him for slandering her name!

My Thoughts:
When J.T. Baroni asked me to read his book, The Legend of Rachel Petersen, I said yes because I love reading dark fiction in the autumn, and The Legend of Rachel Petersen was a perfect choice.

At first, this book is the story of Christian Kane, a sports journalist who is perceived as being obsolete because of his lack of tech-savvy. He doesn’t own his own computer, and carries a cell phone only because it’s required by his boss. At first, his wife, Shelby, comes across as a bit of a bimbo. The reality is that – tech knowledge aside – neither is true. The Kanes move to the woods and Christian decides to try writing fiction.

Anyone who has ever tried to come up with a fresh take on vampires knows that doing so is incredibly difficult. Christian is no exception, and it’s because of Shelby’s insightful comments that he scraps his formulaic story. On a walk through the woods, he stumbles across the grave of a little girl, and that becomes his inspiration.

At that point what could have been an ordinary ghost story becomes the literary equivalent of nesting dolls, with stories, within stories, within stories. There’s Kane’s own novel about the story of this long-dead child’s grave being discovered by two young boys tracking a deer; then there’s the boys’ story of discovering dead girl’s – the eponymous Rachel’s – identity and the truth of her life and death, and then there’s the dual story told to them, and seen by us, that explains why she was buried in the middle of the woods.

It could be a cheesy set-up, but Baroni never lets us forget which level of the tale we’re in, and his writing voice does a good job at changing to reflect each strata of story.

Also deftly handled is the twist at the end of the novel, which surprised me even though I’d been warned that a twist was coming.

The Legend of Rachel Petersen is J.T. Baroni’s debut novel. I look forward to his next work, because this tale was gripping and ghostly in just the right proportions.

Goes well with venison stew and apple cider.

Review: A Brew to a Kill by Cleo Coyle

by

A Brew to a Kill
Cleo Coyle

Product Description (from Amazon.com):

Coffee. It can get a girl killed.

A shocking hit-and-run in front of her Village Blend coffeehouse spurs Clare Cosi into action. A divorced, single mom in her forties, Clare is also a dedicated sleuth, and she’s determined to track down this ruthless driver who ran down an innocent friend and customer. In the meantime, her ex-husband Matt, the shop’s globetrotting coffee buyer, sources some amazing new beans from Brazil. But he soon discovers that he’s importing more than coffee, and Clare may have been the real target of that deadly driver. Can ex-husband and wife work together to solve this mystery? Or will their newest brew lead to murder? Includes recipes.

My Thoughts

Cleo Coyle’s new Coffeehouse Mysteries have been coming out in early August for the last couple of years, which means I always use birthday money to buy them for myself. A Brew to a Kill was one of the best birthday gifts I’ve ever received. :)

This new installment of the caffeinated adventures of Clare Cosi and company incorporates two nifty modern trends, social media and cupcakes, and adds a mystery that introduces us to an old colleague of Mike Quinn’s who might be almost as cool (but only almost) as well as new friends, but rest assured the entire gang from the Village Blend is well represented, in all their slam-poetry and art-creating glory, and ex-husband Matt and his mother Madame are both deeply involved in the mystery that involves Brazilian coffee, Asian cooking, drug trafficking, class snobbery, and a mobile version of the Village Blend (if only there was such a coffee van in my neighborhood – Starbucks should deliver, at least in suburban Texas).

Of course there’s a secondary storyline about the ongoing romance between Clare and Mike, but their relationship gets a new twist thrown into it in this book. To borrow a phrase from a favorite character in a totally different genre and medium, “Spoilers, Sweetie.” Translation: I don’t do plot reveals – you’ll have to read the actual book.

What I love about Coyle’s characters is that in both the Coffeehouse Mysteries and in the Haunted Bookshop series (which next installment cannot come soon enough) the protagonists are adults. Clare is in her forties, and Penelope is a single mother. They both have multi-dimensional lives with jobs, homes, and friends, and come across as completely real people. The men, too, are very vivid. Both Mike and Matteo are guys who could easily step off the page. (I confess, however, that in my mind’s eye Mike Quinn is played by Chris Noth and Matteo is played by Michael Sheen, who is Welsh, yes, but has that dark, curly hair that is generic European).

And then there are the recipes. I’ve tried several of the recipes in the Coffeehouse books (the Donut Shop Muffins are a favorite) and not only are they well written, but they never fail to please. For someone who is notorious for having a book with her at every meal, the fact that the author gives us the ability to reproduce key foods makes the books live longer.

A Brew to a Kill was an excellent read, and I’m excited to know that another Coffeehouse Mystery is due out before Christmas. Long live Cleo Coyle! Long live the Village Blend.

Goes well with: a double cappuccino and anything chocolate (I read my copy while enjoying chocolate raspberry birthday cake).

In Their Words: Author Bo Briar talks about MORGAN HALL

by

Bo Briar Just yesterday, I posted a review of the marvelously moody, spectacularly spine-tingling Morgan Hall, a modern gothic novel by Bo Briar. Ms. Briar was gracious enough to spend some of her writing time doing an emailed interview with me. I can tell she’d be a great person to share a mug of tea with while spinning stories on a rainy afternoon.

Bo, please tell my readers a bit about you: Where are from, and what led you to become a writer?
I was born in Hong Kong. My Dad was an architect and my Mum was an avid horse rider. I also have one brother. After being sent to school in the UK, I lived there for over 20 years. – worked, married and had children. I’m a single parent of two lovely children, a boy and a girl ages 9 and 10 respectively. I’m a professional writer and editor.

I think I’ve always just had a tale brewing within me. As a child I was always fascinated by ghost stories, classical architecture, historical places and drawn to heroes that were a bit dark and mysterious such as the classical Heathcliff and I would have loved the modern day Lestat. I’ve always had that romantic gothic inclination. Then as you grow up, you meet certain people, experience intense emotions both good and bad and get thrown into situations out of our control; basically life is one big story. Together with a creative imagination and much life experience Morgan Hall just evolved naturally within me until I had to write it down on paper and transform it into novel.

Morgan Hall is a modern gothic. Have you always been drawn to that genre?

Yes, definitely, I’ve always been drawn to the gothic atmosphere and characters. Then my interest was sealed when I read Wuthering Heights.

The descriptions of places (houses, grounds, York, London) in Morgan Hall are particularly vivid. How much of that comes from research, and how much comes from your imagination?

In fact all of that comes from experience. I write about places and situations I know and know of, and my fictional places are reality with a creative twist, but most of them are based on real places. I’ve lived in London for 20 years so know it very well and what you saw is “my” London, and I’ve also been to York many times. The descriptions and feel of those places are very real. The villages and towns are all based on real places with a creative twist.

Morgan Hall the house is itself an amalgamation of different stately homes that I have visited, including my old boarding school. My father was an architect so I know architecture pretty well. The outside of the hall is English Jacobean in design, but as with many of these old houses they have been renovated throughout the centuries, hence the different styles within. From decades of having visited many of these historical houses around the UK and Europe and having lived in one too (school), I have in my mind exactly what Morgan Hall looks like inside and out. The same applies to the other houses in the book, Belerion and Forton Park. It’s a mixture of my tweaking reality to maximum effect.
.
The scene where Christie and the Boys (and yes, I do realize they’re all adults) draw a Ouija board with marking pens took me back to my own school days. Did you draw that scene from a real memory?

Yes, like you we used to do that too! A whole group of our friends used to sneak out of our dorms and meet in the middle of the night right at the locked entrance to the basement (a hallway). Our school was built in the early 18th century with foundations dating all the way back to the early 13th century, so beautiful as it was, you can imagine how scary it could be.

We prepared the Ouija board just as Christie and the boys did in the book. Spooky things really did happen. Questions were answered and the heavy ginger-pot lid that we used moved effortlessly. We did it a few times until one night the lid started spinning, literally spinning on the spot round and around and it was increasing in speed. That was horrifying. Since then we never touched it again and we burnt the Ouija board and discarded of the ginger-pot lid.

Morgan Hall is wonderfully moody – as a gothic should be. Did you use any special tricks to help sustain that moodiness (drink a special tea, listen to music, etc.)?

It was very natural because when I write, I’m totally there. I actually feel myself living and breathing the place and environment that I am writing about. I see exactly what the characters see and feel what they feel. Sometimes I do have some music playing in the background though for added effect.

Many writers have a personal soundtrack that goes with each of their books, either the music they listened to during the writing process, or the music that inspired scene, tone, etc. Are you influenced by music? If so, what five songs are your personal “Morgan Hall Mix?”

I love music and I am always influenced by music. It’s amazing how hearing a tune can bring you right back to that exact moment in time when you used to listen to it most – when it meant a lot to you. For Morgan Hall it would be quite an eclectic mix of music and songs.

In the early days of writing Morgan Hall I did often have Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” on, the Nigel Kennedy version because his is very powerful and passionate which suits Morgan Hall. Sometimes I’d also play the Bach Violin Concertos. Classical music tended to inspire the scenery and feel of the places.

But to inspire the scenes between the characters there was “Somewhere Only We Know” by a British band called Keane. “These Dreams” by 80’s rock band Heart. “You’re the Inspiration” by Peter Cetera (ex-Chicago) the 1997 “new” version. The cover version of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” by the British rock band Muse. And my favourite, “Love Walks In” by American rock band Van Halen.

I know that when I’m reading (or writing, or acting in) something particularly dark or eerie I often scare myself. Have you ever been frightened or disturbed by something you’ve written?

Yes definitely. Morgan Hall has been edited quite a few times. The original version was much scarier and I used to have to look over my shoulder sometimes as I’d suddenly be spooked while writing certain scenes. And I guess it didn’t help that I used to do a lot of my writing late at night.

Writing is, by nature, fairly internal. What do you do to shake things up when you’ve been living inside your own head for too long?

I’ve always been able to separate fiction and fantasy from reality. After having become a single parent, even more so. You just can’t afford to live in a dream world all the time. You’ve got to be on the ball.

What’s next for you? What Bo Briar title should we all be looking for?

I am working on the sequel to Morgan Hall and plan on creating a series. Like with Morgan Hall, the characters are passionate, dark, romantic, deep and intriguing. This time the story is very contemporary and takes the characters (new and old) from the UK up to the icy mountains of Switzerland and half way around the world to Hong Kong in the mystical East. The villain is even worse than the last! The sequel is much scarier. I get chills writing it.

Where can readers connect with you? Twitter? Facebook? Pinterest? Anything?

Email me at: bobriar1@gmail.com

I am very happy to receive emails from readers and anyone interested in Morgan Hall and it’s good to meet new people. I always reply.

My website: www.bobriar.com is under construction.

Review: Morgan Hall, by Bo Briar

by

Morgan Hall
by Bo Briar

Product Description/Synopsis (from Amazon.com):
Love never dies, and revenge never sleeps in Morgan Hall…

Morgan Hall, a desolate country estate, has been in Lady Christie Morgan’s family for almost 400 years. A family cursed by eternal tragedy, and now Christie is the last Morgan.

Apparitions appear, sparking a chain of horrifying occurrences involving Christie and the two men who love her: Anthony Longfield-Lothian and Tristan Ely.

A saga of mystery and sordid family history weaves intrigue for the passionate love triangle. Past and present war as the secrets of three aristocratic families unfold – resurfacing in a spine-chilling mystery of passion and lust, ghostly happenings, and blood-curdling murders.
Emotions run high as their world spins wildly out of control. Are they all cursed to repeat the grizzly past? Does sweet revenge claim its prize?
Morgan Hall.

My Thoughts:
There are times when a gothic thriller is the perfect thing to read, and I was lucky enough to read the bulk of Bo Briar’s modern gothic Morgan Hall on a murky, moody, rainy August morning that perfectly complimented the book.

Why do I call it a “modern” gothic? Because while Morgan Hall has all the requisite elements of a classic gothic – huge old manor houses with disturbing histories and some disrepair, orphan heiresses with tragic pasts, unrequited love, stormy weather, ghostly apparitions, and creepy housekeepers, it’s actually set in a time not too far removed from today, and the characters all have cars, computers, and cell phones (not that the latter ever work reliably). In fact, about the only thing missing is someone hiding behind a billowing curtain.

But don’t assume that I mention this because I didn’t like the book. In fact, I enjoyed it immensely. Sure, Christie Morgan’s behavior was often frustrating to my feminist sensibilities, and true, I didn’t quite buy the instant-love between Christie and Tristan (the best friend of Christie’s lifelong friend and ‘kissing’ cousin Anthony), but when an author is spinning a good story, the willing reader overlooks minor things like that, just as the good audience member engages in willful suspension of disbelief when watching Harry Potter and friends soar around on broomsticks to play Quidditch.

And make no mistake, Bo Briar spins a good story. Her descriptions of place, whether she’s talking about the afore-mentioned manor houses (one of which was a castle) or just describing modern London or a pub in York, are so vivid that when she wrote about gusts of wind or rainwater puddling in the street, I found myself looking outside to see if my weather was the same. I felt like I was walking through the corridors of the titular Morgan Hall with Christie Morgan.

As well, Briar knows how to set a tone. In my “I finished this book” tweet, I mentioned that Morgan Hall is wonderfully moody, but what I didn’t say was that, while reading the first part of the novel late at night, I had to insist that my husband come to bed RIGHT NOW because her writing worked with my over-active imagination to give me goosebumps.

I read across many genres. I love science fiction and contemporary literature, but I also love good mysteries. While I don’t read a lot of gothic fiction, when I do, I always enjoy the pleasantly shivery feeling of being just a little bit scared. Briar’s book gave me that feeling – I put aside my disbelief in some of the plot elements (like Christie, Andrew and Tristan all having inherited big old houses, or the three of them platonically sharing a bed) but was involved enough in the story to worry when Tristan turned out to be less – and more – than he seemed, and to worry for Christie when we learned what jeopardy she was in.

There are perfect times and places for gothic fiction. I was lucky enough to read Morgan Hall over a late August night and a rainy August morning, but even if you read this in the bright sunshine of a happy summer day, I think you’ll find this tale both compelling and just scary enough to make the hair rise on your arms.

Goes well with shepherds pie and a tall glass of hard cider.

Retro-reading: STTNG: A Time To…

by

It’s no secret that I revel in escapist reading from time to time. Between January of this year, and the beginning of July, I’ve been re-reading the Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Time To… series, a collection of nine novels, the first eight of which are in pairs, that span the time between the last two Next Gen movies (Insurrection and Nemesis).

The specific novels are:
STTNG: A Time to be Born, by John Vorholt
STTNG: A Time to Die, by John Vorholt
STTNG: A Time to Sow, by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
STTNG: A Time to Harvest, by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
STTNG: A Time to Love, by Robert Greenberger
STTNG: A Time to Hate, by Robert Greenberger
STTNG: A Time to Kill, by David Mack
STTNG: A Time to Heal, by David Mack
STTNG: A Time for War, A Time for Peace, by Keith R.A. DeCandido

You can read them individually, I suppose but they’re better savored as a whole collection, and while each of them have great moments, together they give a really plausible picture of how Starfleet reacted to the events of First Contact and Insurrection, explain why Data says in Nemesis that he has no feelings after two and a half films worth of emotion chip issues, and set-up the wedding of Will Riker and Deanna Troi, and their move to the U.S.S. Titan.

It’s no secret that I’m a great fan of Keith DeCandido’s work, so it should come as no surprise that his book, the last in the series, is my favorite. His take on the canon characters is always spot-on, but he also adds a political background – think “The West Wing in Space” – that I maintain would be an awesome series in and of itself (he revists the political aspect of the United Federation of Planets in a subsequent novel, Articles of the Federation).

Star Trek novels are my comfort-books, and I often read them when my day job has me so exhausted that I don’t have the brain power for reading deeper fiction, or writing my own stuff. There’s a ten-year span of TrekFic that I think of as the “DeCandido Years” where continuity was followed and all of the writers used some of the same original characters. These are, in my opinion, the best of the genre, and the A Time To… books are the best of the era.