Julia's Child: A Novel by Sarah Pinneo

Julia's Child: A Novel. Sarah Pinneo. January 2012. Plume Books - U. S. Penguin Group. 288 pp. ISBN #: 9780452297319.

Julia Bailey is a stay-at-home Mom who takes the topic of her children's nutrition quite seriously, but her kids are slow to get the point and frequently pose comical and crazy questions that challenge Julia on a daily basis - very funny often! But Julia's trying to start a new business with an organic food company named Julia's Child! What's the focus - healthy eating - cheese and vegetables into the most unusual products like pancakes and muffins. It may not be such a new idea now but it's still great to see how it all started - and the sample recipes in the novel are fascinating to consider - and try!

The other interesting part of this novel is to follow how a small entrepreneur starts a business initially stocking her products in a small Brooklyn store. Next step a break on a TV show; next step approached by Whole Foods, the well-known natural food store, and so much more.

The reader will learn quite a bit about the "organic" label, what it really means, as well as marketing and business aspects of growing a flourishing, lucrative business!

This is a light-hearted novel that was pleasant, informative, funny, and interesting all the way through to the last page - a supportive husband and adorable kids add to the fun and adventure of the journey! Nicely done, Ms. Pinneo!

The Turning of Anne Merrick by Christine Blevins

The Turning of Anne Merrick. Christine Blevins. Berkley Trade Paperback. 2012. 448 pages. ISBN #: 9780425236796.

Anne Merrick is a spy for the Revolutionary Army in the late 1700s in the colonies. Jack Hampton and she are deeply in love but don't get many opportunities to be together. Caught up in the war between the Patriots and the British, Anne is spying in the camp of the enemy, having fled New York City after killing a British officer, Edward Blankenship. Though they are outnumbered by the British in manpower and weapons, the Patriots are slowly but surely winning the Saratoga campaign. But all is not so easy for Anne as she and her friend Sally see what war is like up close. They cook and care for wounded British soldiers, and they have to frequently remind themselves in the middle of suffering and death who they are supporting and why. Still Anne never loses her feisty nature and can swing between joking and compassionate care without missing a heartbeat!

After a phenomenal victory, Anne and Jack head for General Washington's camp at Valley Forge, where the situation is dire as they are surviving with a serious dearth of food and clothing in the middle of a fierce winter. Here Anne helps out in the middle of this dire situation; the strength of Anne and Jack is that the Cause of Liberty is worth everything and anything. Such determined focus is amazing on page after page after page!

Returning to Philadelphia Anne returns to her former role as owner of what we know as a coffeehouse and a collector of information from a carefully planned network of spies. With her charm and vitality, she manages, as she did in Saratoga,to charm the elite and thus learn of even more important British secrets. However, things begin to go awry when the man she thought she killed is met, alive and well and on recognition determined to have revenge on his would-be killer. The story of Anne's capture, imprisonment, and escape is riveting, tense reading, ending in a shocking way guaranteed to promise the reader more to come from this very, very talented writer, Christine Blevins. This reviewer looks forward to reading the next installment of this writer who makes history, with all its real and fictional characters, pull in the reader for hours of historical and romantic pleasure!!! Wonderful!!!

One Hand Killing: An Alex Sullivan Zen Mystery by Nancy O'Hara

 One Hand Killing: An Alex Sullivan Zen Mystery. Nancy O'Hara. Amazon Digital Services - Kindle Edition. 428 KB. ASIN No. B006LAA9WW.

Alex Sullivan has a Zen ability when she's in the middle of a crime scene in her role as an NYPD homicide detective. Going inward, she turns around and looks around a room, activating a sense for what is unusual and central to solving the mystery of a crime. But little does she know as she wearily travels upstate to a Zen monastery where she hopes to spend ten days reviving her inner spirit that this skill will be sorely needed very soon. Will it be to strengthen her for her job or is it time to be thinking about retiring? It turns out she won't be thinking about either, for upon arrival she senses an unusual tension among the community and not from the preparations for a Buddha birthday party to be held the following weekend!

Alex doesn't really get a chance to find out the problem when it is discovered that one of the monks is missing. The monastery is situated in the center of land surrounded by forest and mountains, so this monk could be anywhere. Almost before one can absorb the shock, the monk is found - dead - with a written message or Koan about a man hanging upside-down from a tree with a branch in his mouth - with a puzzle posed for the appropriate Buddhist response.

Things begin to spin totally out of control with two more deaths, a cat slaughtered, and a severed hand, all of which indicate a passionate killer. Two detectives are assigned to the case initially after the first death and it takes them a while to overcome their distrust of a female detective who is out of her precinct and has no authority in upstate New York. However, she's got what they need of which she for once can't seem to make sense as there are so many potential community members and non-community members who might be the guilty party or more than one guilty party.

Nancy O'Hara's got what it takes - She has crafted a terrific mystery with plenty of clues slowly revealed and with characters who exude both innocence and guilt. The calmness of the Zen Master and spiritual practices are a fascinating counterpoint to the increasing brutality and tension of the murders, with all beginning to worry about their personal safety as well as who is the killer and and how do these trained professionals, including Alex Sullivan, plan to solve the crimes before more happen? Finely done, with more captivating details, Ms. O'Hara!!!

 

Storytellers - The Druid - A Short Story by Frank Delaney

Storytellers: The Druid: A Short Story. Frank Delaney. E-Book Edition. 339 KB. ASIN: B006M594JK.

Frank Delaney begins this story with a preface about the well-known Bards of Ireland, their various names, their powers, political connections, place in the community, and their wonderful story-telling abilities. Frank Delaney here continues the tradition in this series of short stories, the first being "The Druid"!

This is a truly magical story about a crazy Druid who also knew how to manipulate the people he served with his powers. It's such a short story and not to be ruined by telling too much about it. It contains the proverbial phrases and comments that helped expand a bard's story, but most of all it tells of how much the common Irish farmers trusted the Druid with their present and future, even down to the focus of this story, the possible wedding of a beautiful daughter to one known and one unknown suitor! Every utterance of advice was honored as if it came from the divine!

The Druid is an annoying but funny guy whose end will delight every reader! Frank Delaney is a true Bard sharing his love of fable, legend and stories in the 21st Century, and readers are privileged to enjoy every literate story and novel he writes. Lovely!

The Land of Darkness by C. S. Lakin

The Land of Darkness. C. S. Lakin. AMG Publishers. November 2011. 272 pages. 13-17 years old recommended - YA. ISBN #:9780899578910

Jadiel has a horribly wicked stepmother who literally wants Jadiel to die. But before she dies, she must find a certain combination of herbs and flowers to make a concoction that will give the evil greater power than one could imagine. First she sends Jadiel off to find bark and leaves from a certain tree. Jadiel knows this is wrong and fears for her father who is besotted with his new wife, actually a hag in the finest sense of fairy tales of the past!

Then Jadiel meets a young man who is highly skilled in woodworking and is off on an adventure to seek a bridge with apparently beautiful and strange etchings worked into it. Now, however, Jadiel and Callen will learn what is truly good and evil within and outside of themselves through the help of a prophet and other adventures they experience on this adventurous journey.

C. S. Lakin writes in the style of C. S. Lewis, having children journey to a wicked city and battle the enemies they meet along the way, including learning about what true sacred living is all about. This author does a wonderful job conveying a sense of the sacred in an allegorical manner, a moral delight to any reader who may or may not believe! 

M. C. Higgins The Great by Virginia Hamilton

M. C. Higgins the Great. Virginia Hamilton. Reissue. Aladdin Publishers. 288 Pages. ISBN #: 9781416914075.

M. C. Higgins loves where he lives, Sarah Mountain, a land in Ohio that has belonged to his family for a very long time. He has a huge pole with wheels on which he sits and can see the entire mountain and even beyond to the nearest town. But what he most loves about the mountain are the trees, animals, rivers, everything about nature with its own moods and beauty surpassed by nothing or no one.

His Dad is very harsh with him but it's a loving harshness. But his Dad just doesn't get the message that the strip mining on the mountain is leading to a natural disaster and M.C. doesn't know how to stop it or how to save his family. He hopes maybe the man coming to hear his Mom sing can get them out of here in time but isn't sure about that.

M.C. will then meet a young girl who will awaken a part of him he never knew existed, even giving him new eyes and heart toward his friend, Ben's family, shunned because of their "witchy" powers. Yes, this is a coming of age book but mostly for those young adults (8-12 years recommended) who love the outdoors and want to learn about how being different can be the best and most heartbreaking thing to happen to any human being.

I thought this book was rather drawn out in points but all in all it's a very nice story and worthy of its Newberry Award!

A Dry Creek Bed by Avery Flynn

A Dry Creek Bed. Avery Flynn. Evernight Publishing. January 2012. 297 KB. ASIN #: 9781927368008.

Beth Martinez relied on her "abuela" for most of the wisdom she acquired in life. But then a horrific tragedy occurs in her life and then a deep disappointment in love, and now she is determined not to get involved with anyone or anything, believing that these bad events were her fault and that she carries tragedy with her. It's a protective shell she's built that works until now - when she meets one good-looking, hunk of a guy, Sheriff Hank Layton!

The sexual, electric tension between them rises from day one. Hank as well wants to be careful because he's been hurt as well, but he can't stop being so turned on when he's around Beth that he can't think or even breathe.

Beth is hesitant to tell Hank about the phone call threats she's receiving. It has to do with the land on which she lives being ripe ground for a bordering Indian reservation that could rake in millions of dollars in gambling. But she doesn't understand why they need her property and she hasn't a clue who is actually attempting to hurt her and maybe even to kill her!

The mystery behind the threats as well as the steamy passion between Beth and Hank grow proportionately to one wild ride!

A Dry Creek Bed is one hot mamma of a book, and the reader doesn't have a clue to the end about how the mystery behind the threats or the secret Beth is holding back from Hank will resolve. Great romance novel and sure to delight lovers of the romance fiction genre!!! Great story, Avery Flynn!!!