A Gaggle of Book Reviews

Boxcar Kid by Norma Charles is a new young adult/tween novel about family life during the Westward expansion in Canada. Set at Fraser Mills, a lumber mill in British Columbia, in 1909, Boxcar Kid follows Luc and the Godin starting with their arrival from Quebec. While the novel is written as fiction, the location is real, and the situation could really have happened. Coquitlam, British Columbia grew rapidly in 1909-1910 when French loggers from Quebec moved west to work for Fraser Mills and the growing logging industry.

Luc is the thirteen year old oldest child in the Godin family in Boxcar Kid. Luc has a mother, a father, a twelve year old sister Rita, a five year old sister Clara, and a baby brother named Joseph. We soon realize that there was an older son, Leo, who died in an accident within the previous year. The entire family is excited about the move to Fraser Mills, and eager to see the new home that was built for them by the loggers. However, upon their arrival they learn that the homes were not built, and that the four families that moved to the mill will be sharing an empty boxcar in place of a home.

Norma Charles has a wonderful skill for creating characters – each of the main characters jumps off the page, pulling the reader into the story. Facts merge with fiction as we learn about horse care, doctors, schooling, and the object of Luc’s fascination – bicycles! At the beginning of Boxcar Kid, Luc feels worthless – he is nervous around horses after the accident that killed his brother, and his younger sister happily takes his place working with their father. Luc helps a bit with the younger children, but finds himself helping new arrivals, translating between French and English. His academic skills are soon a boon, and a chance for him to help his family and himself.

The world of a lumber mill was completely foreign to me, as was the history of westward expansion in Canada. In Boxcar Kid, Norma Charles does an amazing job of intertwining a wonderful coming-of-age story with a unique historical background. As with Valerie Sherrard’s Three Million Acres of Flame, the story and the characters pull the reader in, and the history lesson sneaks in unexpectedly! Luc, his family, and his friends are wonderful characters – no cardboard cut-outs or stereotypical characters. It feels as if we are peeking through time into the lives of people almost 100 years ago; we see the prejudices against the Chinese, bicycles, and the difficulty of a language barrier that crops up even when moving within the same country.

I loved Boxcar Kid, and recommend it to the 9+ age group of tweens and Young Adult. Parents should know that there is a little flirting, but nothing beyond that. There is some discussion of death, as well as accidents. That said, there is very little violence overall. This is a great read to reinforce the value of family, of being confident in yourself, and in learning some history, too! Boxcar Kid is a wonderful, quick read that kids will enjoy and that can spark some great discussions, too.

This book was received from the publisher for review

Ghost of a Chance is a paranormal mystery written by Kate Marsh, a pen name for the fantastic paranormal author Katie MacAlister. I have raved about Katie’s books previously, and I was thrilled to find a new book written by her. If you have read her Dark Ones (vampires) series, you will have a good insight into the background of Ghost of a Chance, as she uses the same paranormal world for both. If you haven’t read the Dark Ones books, you will be able to quickly pick up the vocabulary of the paranormal society inside Ghost of a Chance, but you should really pick up Katie MacAlister’s books; they’re great reads.

While there are mysteries and suspense in all of Katie’s books, Ghost of a Chance focuses on the mystery, rather than romance. Karma Marx is an unhappily married woman whose job is to “clean” houses; she exorcises spirits from their homes and banishes them. She’s soft hearted, and tends to move the spirits to her own home rather than banishing them completely, so she has several entities living with her, but in hiding from her husband Spider. When Karma stands up for herself and asks for a divorce, Spider agrees to divorce without contesting, with the stipulation that she “clean” one last house for him.

Nothing is ever that simple, though is it? When Karma arrives at the house, she finds the previous owner, Adam, a poltergeist, disinterested in moving. While several people are in the house there is an unexpected death. Adam seals the house so that no one can leave or enter, and he and Karma set out to discover the identity of the murderer.

The reader follows along as we read about the investigation from Karma’s point of view. Ghost of a Chance is an interesting variation on the “locked room” type of mystery. No one is quite who they seem, and their supernatural powers alter the possibilities for alibis. Additionally, there are ghosts, a unicorn, and others within the house that can testify to a person/being’s whereabouts. There are clues that point you away from one possibility and towards another. Is the solution the one which is the most obvious, or is it one that you never expected? While parts of the mystery went exactly as I expected, there were several big surprises. The quirks and abilities of each character are as unexpected as the ending; and those quirks make the characters (living or not) incredibly realistic.

It was a lot of fun to read a book that included two of my top book loves – the paranormal world and mysteries! I highly recommend Ghost of a Chance, by Kate Marsh to anyone who enjoys Katie MacAlister’s novels, as well as to anyone who likes a good mystery or a good paranormal story. This novel is worth taking a chance if you haven’t read paranormals before – the mystery is great, and the characters have depth, you can really imagine having coffee with Karma – or maybe some tea. There is some great humor mixed with the mystery and paranormal; Ghost of a Chance is a great read.

Demon Envy is author Erin Lynn’s first foray into the Young Adult genre. Writing as Erin McCarthy, she has created some wonderful paranormal novels with romance, including Sucker Bet which we reviewed here. Demon Envy is just as well-written and fascinating as the adult novels, but with age-appropriate themes and activities. The stage is set when sixteen year old Kenzie Sutcliffe accidentally drops some of her prescription acne cream down the shower drain, and it opens up a portal to hell. Specifically a portal to one of hell’s prisons, and a prisoner escapes – appearing in her shower as she’s washing her face!

After Kenzie freaks out, she and the demon Levi (yes, his name is an anagram of evil) negotiate an understanding. Levi will stay at the Sutcliffe home and go to school with Kenzie, and he and Kenzie will work together to close the portal before another prisoner or a guard comes through the shower portal. Levi works some demon magic to get Kenzie’s parents OK with the plan, and to make sure he can go to school despite having no ID or transfer records. Why does he want to go to school? Levi is an Envy demon, and he feeds off the jealousy of humans; high schools make for great eating for an envy demon!

There’s a knack for writing for the Young Adult market, and it isn’t just in reworking a plot so that it doesn’t cross into inappropriate behavior for the under 18 set. Some authors can’t make the switch work, while others manage to be equally successful in both markets. Erin manages to write books in different voices, all of which feel real. Kenzie and her friends act like realistic teens. The parents in Demon Envy are pretty oblivious, but that’s normal for Young Adult novels.

Demon Envy includes several themes that are frequently used in this genre: a girl on the outside of popularity, new kid who becomes popular right away, and the girl has a crush on the popular sports star. However, Erin puts a new spin on them and makes them feel fresh. Adding a demon who feeds on high school jealousies is definitely unique! Plus, each of the characters has their own quirks that make them interesting and fun rather than a cardboard stereotype.

If you’re a teen who wants a new spin on the typical Young Adult read, pick up Demon Envy. If you’re the parent of a teen who likes Young Adult fantasy and the YA version of chick lit, pick up a copy of Demon Envy. If you’re an adult who has loved the many novels by Erin McCarthy, definitely pick up Demon Envy to read her Young Adult writing. No matter why you are picking up Demon Envy, you’ll really enjoy it, and we highly recommend it. This is another book where the only problem is that the next book, Speed Limit Demon won’t be out until November!

Did I Expect Angels? is the intense first novel by Kathryn Maughan. This is a story that will require a nearby box of Kleenex, but it is ultimately an uplifting novel about the effect one person can have on another’s life. Kathryn Maughan’s book has inspired others to talk about unexpected angels who have helped them on her book’s website. In a way, the idea reminds me of the concept in Pay It Forward – the book and the movie, but rather than focusing on a wide range of people, Did I Expect Angels? focuses on the lives of two people – Jennifer and Henry. While the storyline discusses faith and angels, this is not a novel to be dismissed due to your own beliefs; there is no preaching, just two beautiful stories.

When we first meet Jennifer, she’s despondently walking through the drug store, planning to buy 2 bottles of aspirin. Henry is the greeter at the drug store, a friendly guy with whom she has chatted frequently; Jennifer had visited Costa Rica, where Henry was born. Henry picks up on Jennifer’s desperation that evening, and asks her to come with him for a few minutes. Reluctantly, Jennifer agrees, and she joins Henry and his daughter Rosita for a hot chocolate at a local diner.

The story within Did I Expect Angels? happens at one table at the diner, in one evening. However, the story transcends time and space, recalling forty years of an older man’s life, and the love and loss of a younger woman’s life. Sitting with her at the diner, Henry tells Jennifer about his childhood in Costa Rica, how he and his family immigrated to the United States, and the joys and hardships in his life. As Henry tells her his story, Jennifer’s attention fades in and out; she listens to him, but also starts remembering her own story.

Kathryn Maughan skillfully weaves together Henry’s tale with the story of Jennifer’s love for her husband and daughter, and her profound grief after the loss of her husband. The reader is pulled into the lives of both characters, and needs to know what has happened to them, and how they will be helped. I had to put down Did I Expect Angels? a few times so that I could find tissues, but I did not want to put it down; I needed to know what would happen next for both Jennifer and Henry.

Maughan was inspired to write the novel after reading articles about the first Christmas September 11, and the grief of the widows and widowers as they coped through their first holiday.

As I read and listened to all these stories, I thought, “What about next Christmas? Is that going to be any easier? And the one after that? Will the newspeople talk about it next year?”

In our society, grief is given a time limit – if you are still grieving after a few months, it’s gone on for too long. Unfortunately, human minds and hearts are unique, and each of us heals in our own time. I am very impressed with not only how Jennifer’s debilitating grief is treated in Did I Expect Angels?, but also how sensitive Maughan is to those who continue to struggle. Jennifer and Henry share their grief, but they are also linked together with hope as their unexpected angels assist them.

I have been dealing with chronic pain for over two years, and have had my fair share of friends who couldn’t cope and thought I was too upset for too long. However, I’ve also been lucky enough to have a few unexpected angels who helped me when times were toughest. At the end of the novel, I found myself with tears in my eyes and an uplifted heart.

Did I Expect Angels? is a beautiful book that will deeply affect you. If you are looking for a beautiful and intense read, look no farther – this is your book. If you are surviving grief, Did I Expect Angels? can offer some hope. Be sure to check out the book’s website, and leave a video message about the unexpected angels that have helped you. I recommend Did I Expect Angels?, but though it is ultimately hopeful, I would still recommend a cheerful book as a follow-up to this one!

Melanie Wells was gracious enough to allow me to interview her about her writing and her newly released book, My Soul to Keep. You can read the (spoiler-free!) review here.

1. You and Dylan share some biographical information, including the study of psychology, theology, and teaching. How much of Dylan’s personality mirrors your own?
   

   Dylan has my voice and some of my background, but that’s about it. She’s my soapbox and shares my point of view on people – that they’re flawed and mostly doing the best they can. But I do not share her obsession with Pine Sol. I have many close friends and am a good girlfriend (I hope), whereas she’s a relational disaster zone. I hope I’m not as self-absorbed as she is. If I am, someone should send me to time out.

2. Dylan has some very spiritual/religious experiences, as do the very special children in My Soul to Keep, but the experiences are not tied to one particular religion. What was your rationale behind that choice?
   

   I don’t really know much about religion, to tell you the truth. I wasn’t raised in a church-going environment and have never been part of a denomination. My entire experience with God has been from a non-denominational perspective and from studying the Bible directly. I think there’s a lot out there that we can’t explain. I get emails from all over the world about baffling spiritual events. And they don’t tend to fit into tidy categories. Not much of life does, I’ve noticed.

3. Have you had any personal experiences with spiritual guides? If not, how did you decide to integrate them into the story?
   

   I have the radar, certainly. Some people have it and some don’t. I just discussed this in a blog I share with my best friend, Trish Murphy (www.ifeelawakelouise.blogspot.com). There are times when I feel something evil is lurking about and there are times when I feel a level of protection that can only be supernatural. Many times, I’ve almost done something…. Stepped off a curb, for example… and had a strange sense of doubt that caused me to stop. And then a truck would speed around the corner which would have flattened me if I’d been walking across the street. Things like that. But that’s about as specific as it gets. Interesting story, though. In My Soul to Keep, the character Joe Riley was actually a friend of a friend. The original Joe Riley died of AIDS years ago, and since then, my friend has continued to feel a strong spiritual connection to him and has had experiences similar to the one I just described with the curb and the truck. So I named the angel after him.

4. “My Soul to Keep” focuses on a child’s kidnapping. You clearly did a lot of research about the facts of kidnapping. How did you decide how to write the emotional effects?
   

   That was tough. I have friends on the homicide squad at the Dallas Police Department. Kidnappings, strangely enough, are handled in Robbery. One of my homicide buddies once worked Robbery, so had worked some kidnappings. But they were all drug-related, where the kids were returned within a day or two for drug money. I thought about trying to talk to the parent of a kidnapped child – there have been several high profile stories in the DFW area in recent years. But I just couldn’t bring myself to disrupt their lives. So I opted to keep it soft. I didn’t want the emotional aspect of the story to be too wrenching since the topic is such a sensitive one. That’s why Maria reacts the way she does. She’s a tough girl – especially when you know how Nicholas was conceived. I figured it fit her character to square her shoulders and get down to the business of surviving this terrible thing and finding her son. I’ve gotten some criticism about that, but I’m standing by that decision. I think it was the right way to go.

5. As a parent, I had a very hard time beginning “My Soul to Keep”, though I had an equally difficult time putting it down. Are there different risks in writing a book about a kidnapping than a mystery involving another crime?
   

   Sure – but I think that would apply to any terrible crime, honestly. I have two friends whose mothers were murdered – violently. (There’s an entry about this on the Thelma & Louise blog I mentioned earlier). Neither of them, quite understandably, finds murder entertaining. Especially when the violence is shown. I try to keep my books free of gratuitous violence and suffering. You never see it happening – you only hear about it in hindsight. If you’ll notice, you don’t find out what happened to Nicholas until the end. And even then, I just couldn’t bring myself to write about any of the horrible things that do happen to children out there. It’s a terrible world, really, when you think about these things. I don’t know how God stands it.

6. It took me quite a bit of the book to get a handle on Peter Terry, whom other readers would remember from your earlier books. How would you describe him to a new reader?
   

   Peter Terry is a metaphor, really. As a character in the books, he’s a demonic, other-worldly figure. But he’s not like the Frank Peretti demons or any of the stereotypical things you read about. He’s more insidious than that. He’s more of a mental and spiritual stalker. Not unlike the people and events and obstacles we all have in our lives. There’s a great book called “The Gift of Fear” which every woman should read. The idea is that fear is good. It’s a signal you should listen to. When you feel it, something is wrong. Listen to yourself and do what you need to do. Run, scream, fight – whatever. This is one of the messages of my books. Listen to your fear and never go down without a fight.

   [ed. note - I completely agree - if you haven't read The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker, go buy it. Now.]

7. Dylan, Liz, and Maria are very strong women who pull together support each other while their male companions are unavailable in different ways. Is the theme of women’s support for each other also in your other books? Have you found a similar support group?
   

   Dylan is pretty isolated in the earlier books. She really has no social life. In fact, at the end of The Soul Hunter, which is the second book in the series, she sort of “targets” Maria to be the first recruit in her campaign to have a social life. But the theme is important to me. I have a group of close girlfriends who are indispensable to me. We meet Wednesday nights – we’ve been doing this for almost 20 years, in one form or another – and share our lives. We named ourselves the Waah Waah Sisterhood, because we’ve had so much to cry about in that span of time. Also, I could not live without my closest friend, Trish Murphy. She’s a writer also, so she gets that whole thing, but we are just necessary for one another in life. We buddy-breathe through the entire thing.

8. Dylan has some OCD-type behaviors, about which she is very honest and amusing. How did you create such a realistic portrayal without going too far?
   

   That’s so fun to write about. There’s a scene in The Soul Hunter where Dylan cleans her water heater. Think about that. What a nut-job she can be! I think the key to the OCD thing is to make it funny and quirky. If she were agoraphobic, for example, or washed her hands or checked locks obsessively, that wouldn’t be funny. But she’s obsessed with order and germs in a messy, disorderly world. That’s what we call a fat pitch – fun to swing at and you can hit it out of the park.

9. Authors with books in a series have to walk a line between giving enough information to new readers and alienating their existing fan base with too much back story. How do you decide what to include and exclude?
   

   That was tough. I wanted each book to be a stand-alone read, but when you get to the end, you realize it’s one long story. So as a writer, you have to be careful, obviously, about what you do and don’t give away. You need to set up the characters without over-explaining in the later books. And you have to be careful about giving away the big fat answers – the identity of the murderer in The Soul Hunter, for example, was very hard to keep out of My Soul to Keep. I lost a little sleep over that. And took a lot of Excedrin. I should invest in whatever company makes that stuff. I keep them in business.

Thank you Melanie! Mystery lovers, go pick up a copy of My Soul to Keep, you won’t regret it.

The Duck Who Played the Kazoo is the newest children’s picture book by Amy E. Sklansky, illustrated by Tiphanie Beeke. Amy’s catchy poetry combined with the beautiful watercolors by Tiphanie make a book that is appealing to children and also fun for the designated reader. It isn’t always easy to find picture books that enchant children which adults will enjoy as well, but Amy and Tiphanie have created such a book in The Duck Who Played the Kazoo.

The poetry in The Duck Who Played the Kazoo has a meter and rhyme that is fun to read; the poems also include zu zu, words that manage to evoke the sound of a kazoo! When we first meet Duck, he is alone in a quiet lake:

There once was a duck
who loved the kazoo
He played:

La ditty, da ditty
zu zu.

While the white duck loves his peaceful lake, he becomes lonely, and packs up to find some other ducks. He lands near a river, and watches a group of brown ducks play in the water. My daughters (9, 7, 4) thought that it would be difficult for Duck to find new friends at the river, but after he plays his kazoo, they are quick to welcome him:

“Hooray!” they all shouted
when his tune was through
“Would you like to swim
with our fine feathered crew?”
“You bet,
Let’s get wet!”
Zu zu.

The pages become brighter and more colorful as The Duck Who Played the Kazoo enjoys being with his friends. The repeating zu zu in the poetry is both reassuring and fun, a sign that the duck is content and the story is continuing.

The evocative words and the gorgeous watercolors bring Duck’s story to life. My daughters all gave the story a thumbs up, and we needed to read it several times. Unlike many rhyming books for children, The Duck Who Played the Kazoo continued to be enchanting even after the 5th reading in two days! We highly recommend The Duck Who Played the Kazoo; it’s a great mix of language play, accessible poetry, and a fun storyline for kids and adults. My only complaint was listening to the effusive kazoo playing by my daughters in the days after we read the book!

Once you’ve had a taste of the poetry in The Duck Who Played the Kazoo, you’ll want to check out Amy’s other books, and more books with Tiphanie Beek’s illustrations.

This book was received from the publisher for review

The wonderful novel Happy Hour at Casa Dracula has been re-released as a mass market paperback after its original release in trade paperback. I mentioned this book in a previous post about great vampire romances, and relished the idea of the story being available to a larger audience. Of course, I also relished the idea of re-reading Marta Acosta’s bon mots within Happy Hour at Casa Dracula! If you know how Happy Hour ends, you will spot Marta’s clues throughout the book – it qualifies as a top re-read – definitely a novel to be read more than once.

Happy Hour at Casa Dracula could be put into many categories – Latina literature, vampire novel, vampire romance, paranormal mystery, and so many others. Marta Acosta does a wonderful job of introducing her audience to a new type of vampire and a new heroine – one with natural curves and a cooking style that includes “putting things in tortillas”. the vampire fantasy genre tends to be overrun with very Caucasian individuals, with very few “people of hue”. It’s wonderful to see Happy Hour at Casa Dracula and the rest of the series bucking that trend.

Milagro de los Santos, Mil to her friends, is a graduate of Fancy University, but hasn’t quite found her niche. She lives in a basement apartment, has a small gardening business, a “reading consultant” business for wealthy women who want to look well read, and writes novels and short stories she hasn’t been able to get published. When Mil attends a party held by one of her reading consultant clients, her ex-boyfriend from F.U. is there as the fêted author. As she leaves the party, she meets a handsome man and ends up kissing him, and falling down, so they exchange blood.

After the kiss, Mil’s world whirls out of control – she becomes very ill, and then she is hunted by one group of rabid extremists, and saved by another group. The kidnappers have money and political power behind them, the other group has money but is trying to remain secluded. Mil is thrown into a world of “genetically different” individuals who eat a lot of red foods and may drink blood – but they claim not to be vampires! Who should she trust? What about the handsome young men of the family – including the one with whom she shared a kiss? Happy Hour at Casa Dracula is a story of love, political machinations, and a woman’s search for her place in the world.
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Marta Acosta has create wonderful characters who are a lot of fun, characters with quirks and secrets that are exposed over time. No one is quite who they first appear, and as Mil finds herself, she is also discovering the true selves of those around her. It’s fabulous to read a book that takes on diversity in vampires, political machinations, and romance all at once. If you have never had the opportunity to check out a great vampire novel, Happy Hour is a good book to get you started – it isn’t cheesy, it is incredibly far from clichéd, and it has a great mix of suspense and fun.

Happy Hour at Casa Dracula is a truly unique book that I highly recommend. This is a book that you will devour, needing to see what happens next. But when you finish, you’ll re-read it, savoring the moments that have extra meaning after you’ve discovered the ending. When you’ve finished Happy Hour, you can pre-order the mass-market paperback of the sequel (Midnight Brunch at Casa Dracula), or if you’re impatient, pick up the trade paperback of Midnight Brunch. Then you just have to wait for the end of summer to read book 3 – The Bride of Casa Dracula!

While you’re waiting, be sure to check out Marta Acosta’s web site, as well as her Vampire Wire blog, which is filled with news and links to reviews of great paranormal/urban fantasy/vampire romance books.

This book was received from the publisher for review