How to Walk Away: A Novel by Katherine Center

How to Walk Away: A Novel. Katherine Center. Creativia – St. Martin’s Press. Copyright May 2018, hb.. 320 pp.; ISBN #: 9781250149060. 

Margaret Jacobson is living a charmed life.  She works hard in school, is highly athletic and is soon to be engaged to the perfect guy, Chip.  Chip is confident and passionate about flying and one night before he takes his final exam to be licensed, he insists on Margaret flying with him.  That turns out to be the turning point in Margaret’s perfect life.  After an accidental flight, Margaret is severely injured and debilitated with an inability to move her legs, walk or anything else she had dreamed of doing in her now non-existent future!

One can see where this narrative is going but it doesn’t erase the reader’s total engagement with how Margaret’s world changes and the dynamic people around her who enable her survival.  First there is the enigmatic physical therapist, Ian, who is a tough piece of metal perfect for Margaret.  Then there is her estranged sister, Kit, who returns and turns out to be just the right amount of jokes, food, commiseration, and inspiration for Margaret to get back into life and new dreams and visions for the future. It also turns out that Kit had disappeared out of love and not hate and lies.

Chip, the perfect guy, doesn’t cope well with what has happened to his fiancé.  In fact, he is so riddled with guilt and shame that he falls apart.  How will that complicate issues? 

Trauma is a life-changer! How easy to write these words because most of us can’t possibly and fully imagine such changes in our life story?  Katherine Center has got it right – so right that the plot and how these people’s lives intertwine in this initial nightmare is credible and endearing. 

How to Walk Away is a more than apt title for readers to grasp by the end of this remarkable, realistic and engaging story of truly heroic growth and change!  So nicely done, Katherine Center!

Send Down the Rain: A Novel by Charles Martin

Send Down the Rain: A Novel. Charles Martin. Harper Collins Publishing. Copyright May 2018. E-Book. 352 pp.; ISBN: 9780718084769. 

Allie waits for her second husband to come home for dinner.  He’s a trucker who spends most of his time on the road but he and Allie seem happy in their new life in Cape San Blas. That complacent lull in life proceeding smoothly is about to be sheared apart, literally and figuratively.  But tragedy in the form of falling asleep and losing control of the massive truck changed everything, a massive fireball as the truck hit immense rocks on the side of a road and is obliterated beyond recognition.  Death tears apart Allie’s world!

Joseph (Jo Jo) Brooks has returned from a devastating time in Vietnam and wants nothing but to return to a life of normalcy.  So he settles into a cabin and is happy to work out his memory-driven demons.  He’s making progress but is still far from knowing normalcy.  A dramatically quiet meeting changes his world when he meets Allie and her two young children lost and wandering in the woods near his cabin.  They get to know each other and very gradually begin to care for each other. 

While he is helping her return to Florida to remaining family, a shocking truth comes to their attention and the rest of the story is a dramatic revelation indeed. All of this happens while Allie helps Joseph heal his way through nightmares and the PTSD that still looms large in his daily life.

The change in Allie’s life is tough to handle and it is Joseph who guides her through the journey to a satisfying end.  Sometimes life’s twists and turns are the tough road that makes a person grow the most, although one wouldn’t want to be part of this process. Although it may strike most readers as contrived, the story is still worth the reading, replete with high emotions and challenges!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Blood Orbit: A Gattis File Novel by K. R Richardson

Blood Orbit: A Gattis File Novel. K. R. Richardson. Prometheus Books. Copyright May 2018. pb.  495 pp.; ISBN: 9781633884397. 

Rookie Eric Matheson and his mate discover a gruesome, mind-blowing massacre of sixteen victims.  His mate is injured and Matheson is assigned to investigate the murders with the Chief Forensic Officer, Inspector J. P. Dillal.  Dillal is the first cybernetic investigator in the corporate-run planet of Gattis.  But Dilall has origins from a despised ethnic underclass in a caste system that not only feeds dislike but also guarantees outbreaks of violence.  The murders occurred in what is called a jassi, a place where illegal activities flourish and bonds among the criminal elements of society develop in spite of the clandestine nature of these jassi meetings.  Matheson and Dilall are charged with solving the murders quickly with hints that failure to speedily conclude this matter could have devastating results for both men. At the same time, Dilall is new to this cybernetic life and there are some adjustments that need to happen in order for him to avoid infection and death to his new mechanical being.

Dillal is glad he has a rookie for a colleague in this investigation so that he can train him in techniques that actually work, before the rookie Matheson is tainted by the local police who are supposed to enforce the law but instead pursue the interests of Corporate goals and greed.  Matheson’s peers however, resent his promotion to this job and violently let him know it.  Add to that the groups on the street who support and more often oppose him finding the answers about this murder.  The reality is that corporate office is trying to cover up the truth so they can name one of the lower-class groups as guilty, thereby justifying some elaborate methods of exterminating the despised lower class or classes of Gattis.

To say more would spoil the conflict’s evolution; suffice to say Dillal and Matheson will solve the crime but may not live to enjoy the victory!

This sci-fi novel is very difficult to follow, but it’s worth it to break through the challenging group names, acts by superiors to confuse and alter the progress of the investigation, and determine who are the ones directing Corporation commands.  Interesting read and recommended for true sci-fi fans!

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All by M. T. Anderson, Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Lisa Ann Sandell, Jennifer Donnelly, Linda Sue Park and Deborah Hopkinson

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All.  M. T. Anderson, Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Lisa Ann Sandell, Jennifer Donnelly, Linda Sue Park and Deborah Hopkinson. Schwartz & Wade. May 2018. 416 pp.  ISBN#: 9781524716197.

Attracting the eye of Henry VIII was definitely NOT a good thing.  Yet, remarkably, each woman whom Henry courted thought she would be the one to succeed where others had failed.  Denial is certainly such a powerful phenomenon!

We have here the story of each royal bride, narrated by different authors, told with a unique point of view that adds interest to the belabored topic of Henry’s wives.  They all have one element in common – please, yes amuse and flatter Henry VIII.  After each narrative we have Henry’s brief comments on his experience with each lady – with the same cycle of initial interest, disappointment, feeling betrayed, and separation.  It reminds this reviewer of a child grown bored with toys. Familiarity breeding contempt becomes the precursor to the “block.”

So for those unfamiliar with these brides, this will be an engaging, fascinating read.  For those familiar, it’s the story we all know but with some added emphasis to differentiate the women.  So Catherine’s disbelief and faith are quite remarkable.  Anne Boleyn’s account claims to be focused on joy but that is hardly the picture we get of this woman who passes from giddy to enraged to extremely pious in a most incredible manner.  Anne of Cleves is probably the smartest, most perceptive wife whose marriage has duped the King and for which she gains exile and independence, which isn’t such a bad outcome considering the demise of Henry’s other brides. So the narratives continue…

Fatal Throne… is labeled a YA novel but it is amenable to readers of all ages.  Each author has obviously done considerable research not only about the main characters but also about the prevailing, conniving advisors to the Tudor court.  Enjoy the latest addition to the Tudor novels depicting one of the most significant periods of English history!  Nicely crafted and certainly fascinating as the reader gets a closer look at the intricacies of initially pleasing and ultimately fragmented, fatal royal bonds.

Trouble at Timber Ski Lodge by Max Elliot Anderson

Trouble at Timber Ski Lodge. Max Elliot Anderson. TBCN, Inc. Copyright January 2018. pb. 136 pp.; ISBN: 97809384417191. TWEENS Reading - Ages 8-13.  

Sean Baxter is the number one enemy to his 12-year-old brother Eric.  The remarkable dynamic between these two brothers is that Sean never gets caught making trouble, a fact that frustrates Eric more and more with each passing day.  Now, however, the brothers are distracted by an exciting event that comes to the town in the mountains where their ski lodge is located. 

Before that discovery, Eric has to put up with his neighbor’s son, Vince, who runs another ski lodge, one that has all the latest gadgets and luxury items that make that lodge highly successful and profitable.  Vince, who really needs a friend, is constantly bugging Eric and putting down their lodge, which his father and grandfather manage, barely getting by because of lack of funds.

Now, an exciting event comes to their area.  Some thieves have stolen gold and are carrying it in a stolen airplane.  Given the fact that the area around these lodges are high in the mountains, most of the residents know that a plane will never make it through the mountains.  Finally, it will be Eric and Vince who put aside their mutual dislike and jealousy to solve the mystery of the missing gold and thieves. 

Max Anderson’s characters are strong, courageous yet full of humor and excitement, something for a young reader to truly enjoy!

The story is exciting and is guaranteed to thrill those who love adventurous stories, especially mysteries!

Swimming Between World by Elaine Orr

Swimming Between Worlds. Elaine Orr.  Penguin Publishing Group. Copyright 2018. pb. 416 pp.; ISBN: 9780698406384. 

Tacker is an engineering student who graduated and went to work with a notable engineering firm in Nigeria, Africa.  A man who fully embraces every thing he did and does, he wound up being fired and sent back to America.  His fault?  Getting too close to the native Nigerians, embracing their culture, innocently embracing religious and other rituals, and supposedly consorting in a physical relationship with a Nigerian.  Shades of Jim Crow extending its tentacles overseas.  Tacker comes back to his home town, embarrassed, confused and even angry about his failed career.  His family really don’t know what happened but stand by Tacker and eventually offer him management of the family’s small grocery store in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 

While working, Tacker meets Kate Monroe, a gal is who recovering from the death of her parents and who then discovers the momentous secret of her parents’ marriage that shocks her to bits.  The trauma is so deep and harsh that she is not sure she can ever trust anyone again, and that includes Tacker who seems to have his own secrets.

The plot picks up with the entrance of an African-American, Gaines Townson.  He is accepted to work at the grocery store where he does his best to work hard and remain unnoticed.  But Gaines is part of the new wage of rebellion, willing to risk arrest and even death for trying to break the Jim Crow laws.  Tacker actually accompanies him on one of these potentially volatile scenes in which Gaines dares to sit at a whites-only luncheon counter.  On and on these scenarios progress with eventual success but also accompanied by violence and death.

How to these characters develop?  One could call this a coming-of-age novel but the characters are only coming of age with the recognition and ownership of vital truths about humans and how they treat each other.  It’s all about love, hate, loyalty and betrayal.  It’s an American historical novel which leaves as many questions as answers in the reader’s mind.

Highly recommended historical fiction!

A Perfect Shot: A Novel by Robin Yocum

A Perfect Shot: A Novel. Robin Yocum. Prometheus Books. April 2018. 336 pp. ISBN: 9781633884175.

Nicholas “Duke” Ducheski is famous for his basketball performance in the small town of Mingo Junction, Ohio.  He thought his amazing skill shown in the state championship game would win him scholarships galore in colleges but that wasn’t the case.  Still he is the shining star of this steel mining town forever, but he doesn’t want to live on past laurels.  So he sets out to do something he can call successful.  At first he is forced to work in the mines but then decides to start his own restaurant, “Duke’s Place.”

Duke marries but it’s not a good union at all.  Add to his unhappiness is the fact that at age forty, after he first opens up his restaurant, his hoodlum brother-in-law, “Little Tony” DeMarco, shows up and thinks he’s going to get a piece of the pie as part of the local Mafia.  Everyone with any brains at all is mortally frightened of Tony, whose only talents lie in knowing how to beat victims to a pulp or murder them if they don’t cooperate with the local “muscle.”

Now one might say it’s easier to cough up some money to find peace and protection, but Duke isn’t made of that stuff.  All he wants is to run his business, do well, and eventually get a divorce from his wife who refuses to comply with his requests.  Life is beginning to get truly miserable to Duke.  But the reader will be surprised by the plan Duke devises to rid himself of the prevailing “thorns” in his flesh and business.

No spoilers here.  Suffice to say that most Mafioso stories are quite predictable; this isn’t one of them.  Stay with the reading as the action picks up and justice is served in the most astonishing manner.  Duke will pay a price but it’s not one any reader can predict.

Nicely crafted crime thriller – definitely plotted as a “perfect shot!”