FOLLY BEACH by Dorothea Benton Frank

Publisher:  Avon

Date published:  April 24, 2012 (reprint edition)

ISBN:  978-0-06-196128-1

Fiction

Paperback

Reviewed by Lynne

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061961280/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=1535523722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00A1AA7C0&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=103KEWXMGXBJ9HSDKFNR

Obtained via publisher

 

Cathryn Mahon Cooper - or Cate, to her friends and family - is shocked and devastated at the sudden loss of her husband, Addison.  Yet it isn’t until his funeral she learns of the incredible web of deceit he has spun throughout their marriage.  Left with nothing, once the creditors take their due, Cate, at the advice of her family, returns to her roots, to the woman who raised her.  Aunt Daisy.  To her home at FOLLY BEACH, South Carolina.

As Cate starts a new life amid the glistening beaches and reconnects with childhood memories, it is then she begins sorting through her own fears and worries by taking comfort in the history of Folly Beach and the enticing Gullah traditions of the area. 

As fate would have it, Cate meets a man too good to be true, John Risley, who involves her with the history of an artist, a writer, and a sometime colleague of George Gershwin, the genius behind the famous play, “Porgy and Bess”.  Dorothy Heyward’s beloved husband, DuBose.  As Cate researches the couple’s poignant history, she soon finds herself intrigued and wants to learn more. 

As time goes on, her own relationship with Risley deepens, and he soon convinces her to write a play of her own.  Though the Heywards are long gone, ripples of their passion and spirit linger at FOLLY BEACH, which leads Cate into becoming her own person, the woman she has always desired to be.

FOLLY BEACH by Dorothea Benton Frank is a delightful book, with an interesting story to tell.  This edition is a reprint of the original FOLLY BEACH:  A LOW COUNTRY TALE, only with a different cover.

At first, I found FOLLY BEACH a bit strange, the way it started out.  But I soon learned that every other chapter was a flashback to a different time.  The time of the Heywards’ lives at FOLLY BEACH.  Once I figured that out, I understood what was happening.

I greatly enjoyed FOLLY BEACH.  It brought me to a time, a subject, I knew little about.  The time of when the famous “Porgy and Bess” was written.  The way Frank interweaved the lives of the Heywards with the life of Cate Cooper was done quite skillfully.  The fact that Frank is an extremely talented writer is demonstrated clearly in the way FOLLY BEACH is presented.

I empathized greatly with the main character, Cate Cooper, when she learns what her deceased husband did to her.  It was easy to relate to her circumstances and the feeling of hopelessness she must have felt at the devastating discovery, that he had left her penniless because of his greed and mismanagement of their money, and everyone else’s.  To have to lose everything, then move back home had to be very difficult for her.  It was an extremely low point in her life.  But I loved how quickly things changed for the better.

The turning point for Cate, when she meets John Risley, is a wonderful part of FOLLY BEACH.  John sounds like everything a woman would want in a man.  The addition of his nutsy wife was sheer genius, because it added a lot of conflict, perhaps even tension into this story.  John could never truly connect with Cate because of his marriage.  Although it seemed inevitable that things would work out in the end, it still was a bit of a wrench between Cate and John in the beginning.  Especially since John seemed so right for Cate.  I loved how they connected, of what they shared through humor, encouragement, and even history.

The variety of minor characters, namely Cate’s children, also added some conflict and a bit of tension in FOLLY BEACH.  Along with their many problems, then we have Aunt Daisy and her health problems.  She is a very likeable person, spunky, one that many readers can probably relate to, since they may have Aunt Daisies of their own they care about.

I did find it a bit strange about the addition of the autographed piano that was identical to the one in the museum.  I actually thought Cate might try to sell hers or donate it or check to verify that the one in the museum was authentic.  Regardless, it was a unique idea for FOLLY BEACH.  This scene does seem a bit contrived, yet it takes nothing away from the story.

Frank does a wonderful job of tying up everything at the end of FOLLY BEACH.  It is a happy, pleasant ever after for many of the characters.

Filled with interesting characters and tidbits, humor, great dialogue, lots of family turmoil, a bit of mystery, and feel-good plotting, FOLLY BEACH is a sure charmer for anyone interested in whiling away an afternoon or just lounging on the beach with a good book.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

THE SIREN by Tiffany Reisz

The Original Sinners series, book 1

Harlequin MIRA

July 2012

ISBN 9780778313533

Erotica

Paperback

Obtained via Publicist

Reviewed by Lil

Nora Sutherlin is an erotica author who has a solid fan base and is looking to publish her next book with a larger and quite reputable publisher. This book is particularly special to her.  The editor she has to impress is an exacting Brit with a chip on his shoulder for her and her genre. The deal is that she must finish the book to his standards in six weeks or there literally is no deal.  It is a grueling deadline with a demanding taskmaster.  Fortunately, Nora is open to the challenge.  It rather helps that she is something of a masochist.  

Nicknamed ‘The London Fog’ for his less than jolly manner and dampening comments, Zach Easton has come to New York with the purpose of moving on to a position within the company but based in Los Angeles. He is known for working with serious literary fiction authors whose works have gone on to win prestigious awards.  But for all of his career success, his personal life is at a heartbreaking crossroads.

It has been some time since a heroine has stood out so much as a one-of-a-kind, kinky, brash and irrepressible character.  Nora’s unabashed embracing of her sexuality and the glimpses of how she reached this point in her life is bound to shock.  Her introduction to love and sex was with a severely dominant man who remains the love of her life. 

Unfortunately, the relationship is challenged by being taboo to her Master’s calling and so she has broken away and made a life for herself.  She has carved out a career in exact opposite of what one might expect of a submissive and in addition, nurtured her ability as a writer with hope of someday reaching the ability to support herself in the latter solely.  Add a sweet 19-yo male as a housemate/intern and you have an even more complicated picture of Nora.  There is further forbidden ground broken with a scene of seduction of an underage teen through lack of suitable disclosure.  The concepts for some of the book are uncomfortable but the author manages to make the entirety work.

One could not help but be amused by how Zach tried so hard to stick to his morals and ethics in his encounters with his infamous author.  It is further entertaining to watch as she turns his preconceived notions of her around or at least forces him to see her in a more yielding, respectful light.  Zach grows throughout the story and finds redemption through the erotic encounters and situations he experiences. The gradual breaking down of walls is done in the best style of erotica.  This character is facing a potential permanent breach in his marriage and the author writes the scenes and emotions with as deft a hand as she does with the suggestive, erotic scenes we see in various relationships in it and elsewhere.

Readers will find an intelligently written story within a story that one could easily classify as one of the best in the genre.  The characters are smart, the dialogue full of wit, and the relationships fascinating, conflicted, fond, and anguished.

This is an objective review.

 

SISTER MERCEDES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM by Brian C. Petti

Publisher: independent

Date published: 2013

ISBN: NA

Biography

E-book

Reviewed by Helen

Weblink: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C479TN6/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

Obtained via author

Brian C. Petti is a playwright and this book is a collection of the articles he wrote for his blog over a two-year period, 2011-2013. They encompass everything from stories from his Catholic childhood, his family, everyday life, the people he meets and anything else that takes his fancy. A completely eclectic mix.

Authors frequently say that they find inspiration in anything and everything. If Mr. Petti’s blog does anything it points to the truth of the saying. Pick a topic and he’s probably referred to it in one of his blogs. He tells whimsical tales from his childhood and youth, interspersed with more serious ones about life, health, his family, his plays and more. Some of the stories are definitely funny, others eyebrow raising and still others a comment on the world as we know it.

Mr. Petti is typical of many authors. He’s had some success, made some sales, got a core of readers and supporters, but is not likely to be making his fortune on Broadway in the immediate future. However his creative mind puts its own unique slant on life and, despite being neither male, nor catholic, nor a baseball fan, I enjoyed reading many of his tales.

I think it’s great to understand writers are humans with thoughts and feelings and lives outside their books and plays. For all those who disparage their work, there needs to be twice as many who read blogs like Mr. Petti’s and come to understand that life is a mixture of so many things, and joy comes from writing. The world’s definition of success is no guarantee of happiness. That comes from within.

With so much variety, the reader can dip into the book and pick and choose what they feel like reading in a given day.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

THE REUNITED by Shiloh Walker

Publisher:   Berkley

Date published:   February 5, 2013

ISBN:  978-0425246979

Genre:   Suspense, Paranormal

Book format: Paperback

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com

 

In an organization made up of gifted people, Joss Crawford has the most unique of all gifts. Well not that he and his associates consider what they have…what they do…as gifts. They are psychics, psychics with abilities that go beyond peering into the future or reading tarot cards. They are a special unit of the FBI and are led by the enigmatic Taylor Jones. Jones himself isn’t without feeling. He just contains it better than almost anyone else. It was due to his own traumatic experience he formed his unit of psychics and together they go after the worst of the worst in criminals.

Joss’s gift goes beyond mere psychic ability. He has the power to take on any other psychic’s skill. In essence he mirrors their ability. It tears him up emotionally, sends him to the pit of despair, but he continues on his course because he is a man on a mission. Somewhere out there is the woman he loved and lost—in another life time. He knows what happened to her all those many years ago and this time he’s going to make sure she stays safe.

Dru Chapman has her own unique skill set and she too is on a mission. Her nightmares have led her to the worst being imaginable and she is engaged to him. Time and again, despite a desire to leave, to just run, she sticks to her mission because this man is one man who needs to be stopped. When she allows herself into his mind she sees the horrors he has inflicted and her resolve to stop him once and for all keeps her on the path. She too remembers a long ago love. A man from another lifetime.  When she encounters Josh she knows in an instant who he is but her mission takes precedence. Will that long ago life repeat itself with both Joss and Dru once again dying without the chance to be together? Or this time will they survive?

THE REUNITED by Shiloh Walker is the third book in her FBI Psychics series and in many ways the darkest of the books so far. When I read the first in the series, THE MISSING, I had a hard time putting the book down.  It was one of those reads that you start and you soon find yourself sitting up till the wee hours of the morning telling yourself “One more chapter, one more and I’ll go to sleep.”  And then you find the sun is rising and you DO have to put it down to go to work. (Fortunately for me I have a commute that allows me an hour’s worth of reading each way.) Book two, THE DEPARTED was just as good—I really liked Taylor Jones’s intensity. He is really something once you get to know the character and see his vulnerability. THE REUNITED brought together the characters of the first two books so I initially thought it signalled the end of the series. I was happy to see it is not the end and that more books are to come—I really do like the concept. THE REUNITED deals with issue of human trafficking—not a very pleasant subject. Based on a lecture I attended given by a member of the Bay Area human trafficking task force I can say that Ms. Walker tells a very true to life story with the added elements of psychics entering the battlefield to bring its perpetrators down.

Ms. Walker’s voice is a bit different in THE REUNITED and it didn’t quite resonate with me. Given Joss’s gift he picks up the thoughts of a number of the other characters as well as dealing with his own past life remembrances. Dru as well has thoughts from others in her mind all of which made for multiple points of view. While the different minds were separated out so that you knew a switch had happened there were still too many thought processes going on. At times I had to go back and re-read sections to be sure I was getting just who was doing the thinking and talking.

As I said, I recently learned that the series will be continuing and I am looking forward to book 4, THE PROTECTED. I have learned my lesson though when it comes to a Shiloh Walker book—start it on a night when I don’t have to get up the next morning because I’m simply unable to put them down until I have read them cover to cover.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.