The Gendarme by Mark Mustian: Book Review

Emmett Conn is 92 years old and he has started having seizures and disturbing dreams/flashbacks. His early years are a mystery to him anyway. He awoke in a British hospital in WWI, a Turkish soldier mistakenly picked up after he was severely wounded. That’s as far back as he can remember. But now in his […]

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The Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme: Book Review

Abby Sinclair is the neglected daughter of a plantation owner. Three years after the end of the Civil War, she is still mourning the loss of her uncle and her family is still adjusting to the loss of their slaves. When her father decides to move the whole family out to the Outer Banks of […]

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Everything is Going to be Great by Rachel Shukert: Book Review

After college, Rachel Shukert ended up working for free for a well-known experimental theater director. The play took a brief tour of Europe, and Rachel was thrilled when she found out that her passport had not been stamped. That meant she could stay in Europe as long as she wanted without a visa, since no […]

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Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens: Book Review

I read this for A Christmas Carol but decided to read the rest and see what else Dickens had to say about Christmas. There were a few other little gems, although none were as good as A Christmas Carol, but there were some that I didn’t like at all. A Christmas Carol was a 4 […]

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: Book Review

Everyone who knows pleasant Dr. Jekyll is surprised that he has taken the brutish Mr. Hyde under his wing. Hyde is a horrible person, and everyone who meets him claims to be immediately repulsed by him. It’s obvious that there’s more to the relationship than meets the eye, but no one guesses exactly how twisted […]

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Nightshade by Andrea Cremer: Book Review

Calla Tor is the alpha of her teen Guardian (werewolf) pack. She knows the rules and she enforces them. So why does she break them multiple times in one day by saving a normal teenage boy and letting him see her shift? And why are her masters, the Keepers, so interested in this same guy? […]

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Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende: Book Review

3 Stars. Even though this novel was written in first person, I felt as if I were watching the story unfold behind glass. I never got pulled into the story completely. I was never particularly interested in Aurora. I was more interested to see what scheme Paulina would come up with next in late-nineteenth century America and […]

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Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman: Book Review

A magus trying to capture Death captures her younger brother, Dream, instead. He’s trapped like a goldfish in a bowl for 70 years, a time when the “sleepy sickness” took over the earth. Some people slept through a lifetime. But the Sandman has patience and he has time to plan his revenge. I haven’t read […]

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Bound South by Susan Rebecca White: Book Review

Bound South by Susan Rebecca White Book Cover

I would say that Bound South is a group of connected short stories. There’s not really one plot that connects the chapters. Instead, I would say that the author uses these stories, told from the points of view of three different Southern ladies, to explore issues they each face and how hard it can be […]

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By Fire, By Water by Mitchell James Kaplan: Book Review

It’s the early 1490s in Spain and world-changing events are happening. The New Inquisition is getting established; Spain is trying to take Granada back from the Moors; and, well, we all know about Christopher Columbus in 1492. Huge stuff. By Fire, By Water focuses on one man’s role through all this. Luis de Santángel is […]

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