February 2023 MBR The General Fiction Shelf

The General Fiction Shelf

Terra Nova
Henriette Lazaridis
Pegasus Books
www.pegasusbooks.com
9781639362424, $25.95, HC, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Nova-Novel-Henriette-Lazaridis/dp/1639362428

Synopsis: "Terra Nova" by novelist Henriette Lazaridis is set in the year 1910, and tells the story of two Antarctic explorers, Watts and Heywoud who are racing to the South Pole, while back in London, Viola, a photo-journalist, harbors love for them both.

Though anxious for both men, Viola has little time to pine. She is photographing hunger strikers in the suffrage movement, capturing the female nude in challenging and politically powerful ways. As she comes into her own as an artist, she's eager for recognition and to fulfill her ambitions. And then the men return, eager to share news of their triumph.

But in her darkroom, Viola discovers a lie. Watts and Heywoud have doctored their photos of the Pole to fake their success. Viola must now decide whether to betray her husband and her lover, or keep their secret and use their fame to help her pursue her artistic ambitions.

Critique: "Terra Nova" clearly reveals how Henriette Lazaridis seamlessly ushers the reader back and forth between the austere, forbidding, yet intoxicating polar landscape of Antarctica to the bustle of early twentieth century London. Deftly scripted with memorable characters and unexpected plot twists, "Terra Nova" is one of those novels that challenges its readers to consider how 'love and lies, adventure and art' can intersect. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.99), "Terra Nova" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Literary Fiction collections and will prove to have an exceptional appeal to readers with an interest in 20th Century women's adventure stories.

Editorial Note: Henriette Lazaridis (www.henriettelazaridis.com) is the author of The Clover House. Her short work has appeared in ELLE, The New York Times, New England Review, The Millions, Pangyrus, and more. She has earned a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant. She is a graduate of Middlebury College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Pennsylvania. Having taught English at Harvard, she now teaches at GrubStreet in Boston. She founded The Drum Literary Magazine and currently runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. She also writes the Substack newsletter The Entropy Hotel (www.henriettelazaridis.substack.com).

The Sweet Spot
Amy Poeppel
Emily Bestler Books
c/o Atria Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas. New York, NY 10020
www.simonandschuster.com
9781982176464, $27.99, HC, 400pp

https://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Spot-Novel-Amy-Poeppel/dp/1982176466

Synopsis: In the heart of Greenwich Village, three women form an accidental sorority when a baby (belonging to exactly none of them) lands on their collective doorstep.

Lauren and her family have been granted the use of a spectacular brownstone, teeming with history and dizzyingly unattractive 70s wallpaper. Adding to the home's bohemian, grungy splendor is the bar occupying the basement, a (mostly) beloved dive called The Sweet Spot. Within days of moving in, Lauren discovers that she has already made an enemy in the neighborhood by inadvertently sparking the divorce of a couple she has never actually met.

Melinda's husband of thirty years has dumped her for a young celebrity entrepreneur named Felicity, and, to Melinda's horror, the lovebirds are soon to become parents. In her incandescent rage, Melinda wreaks havoc wherever she can, including in Felicity's Soho boutique, where she has a fit of epic proportions, which happens to be caught on film.

Olivia (an industrious twenty-something behind the counter, who has big dreams and bigger debts) gets caught in the crossfire. In an effort to diffuse Melinda's temper, Olivia has a tantrum of her own and gets unceremoniously canned, thanks to TikTok.

When Melinda's ex follows his lover across the country, leaving their squalling baby behind, the three women rise to the occasion in order to forgive, to forget, to Ferberize, and to track down the wayward parents. But can their little village find a way toward the happily ever afters they all desire? Welcome to The Sweet Spot!

Critique: A fun, original and impressively well crafted novel by a writer with an exceptional flair for creating memorable characters and inherently fascinating plots, "The Sweet Spot" by novelist Amy Poeppel is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to community library Contemporary General Fiction collections. With a special appeal to readers with an interest in novels about women's friendships, domestic life, and odd-ball families, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Sweet Spot" is also available in a paperback edition (9781982176457, $17.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Amy Poeppel (www.AmyPoeppel.com) is the author of the novels Musical Chairs, Limelight, and Small Admissions. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, and Working Mother. She can be followed on Twitter or Instagram: @AmyPoeppel

Diminishing Veil
Lonz Cook
Elevation Book Publishing, LLC
http://www.elevationbookpublishing.com
9781943904174, $15.95

https://www.amazon.com/Diminishing-Veil-Lonz-Cook-ebook/dp/B0BM8HJN8R

Abuse, recovery, and love stalk Renee Chadwick's life in Diminishing Veil, but even before she met handsome playboy and successful career man Marvin Yarbrough, she struggled with many elements of success that continue to bring her full circle into bad decisions and dubious situations.

If Renee had made the right choice, life could have been different. Can she make the right choices towards true love, this time; or will they always lie in the dubious, gray world of indecision and bad judgment? The veil that surrounds Renee consists of her past choices. As she tries to break through it to a different life, she considers both her mother's teachings ("Love is a fool's journey, and it hurts, but when it is good it's amazing.") and new possibilities.

As chapters fluctuate between past trauma and the PTSD Renee struggles with, as well as patterns of engagement that shroud the difference between a bad choice and a good one, readers receive a powerful saga that moves through different lives and approaches to recovery. Lonz Cook excels at portraying not just a victim, but the stumbling points of true recovery. His story questions how romance is fostered, recognized, and differentiated from efforts to control or victimize others as it builds a new life for Renee from the ashes of extreme abuse.

The psychological components of her interactions with family, friends, and potential beaus are particularly well done because they offer no pat answers, but consider the complexity of living life more fully and differently than with the familiar patterns and reactions of the past.

Diminishing Veil outlines the beliefs, experiences, and scenarios that result in limited options or repeated negative options -- then illustrates a way out. Its ability to capture the differing viewpoints of all involved, crafting a more effective romantic connection than Renee previously fostered, makes for a story that will especially intrigue audiences interested in questions of how recovery is achieved.

Reader and community library collections strong in not just romance but PTSD and abuse recovery will find Diminishing Veil thought-provoking, engrossing reading.

Fan Mail
Joseph Lewis
Black Rose Writing
www.blackrosewriting.com
9781685131685, $23.99 Paper/$6.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Fan-Mail-Joseph-Lewis/dp/1685131689

Any popular music group receives fan mail. They also receive hate mail. When such communications assume physical threat, however, the mail turns into more of a trial than a support system. When Randy and Bobby, brothers who enjoy musical success, note that their fan mail has turned threatening, they are inclined to ignore it. After all, every success holds its naysayers and haters. But when it evolves into a violence that threatens their family, they come to question not only the price of their success, but their loyalties.

Adopted brother Brian is drawn into the fray when Bobby and Randy's response threatens to further divide the family. He once nearly died saving his brothers, and bears the physical and emotional scars for life. Can he again inject himself into this new scenario as a hero and savior? What will be the price of that effort?

The thriller components of Fan Mail dovetail nicely with the social and psychological inspections that are wound into the tale. Discussions of integrity, breaking rules, and deadly letters that rock the foundations of everything the boys have built makes for an intriguing story that contains many subplots covering moral and ethical dilemmas.

Book club discussion groups, especially those for young adults, will find numerous topics for discussion here, from artistry and creative projects that define and refine young adult perspectives to evolving circumstances that lead them to question their pasts, present, and possible futures.

Because guns, violence, and some profanity peppers the story, mature teens will be its best audience, especially with discussion groups adding value to the inspections by injecting reflections on love, kindness, and choice: "...we are given moments. Each day. Every day." Fan Mail is hard to easily peg.

At once a coming-of-age story that will appeal to mature teens, a thriller that can reach into adult audiences, and a psychological suspense novel that holds elements of deeper life inspections about sacrifice, redemption, and discovery, its gripping saga will reach a wide audience of readers and age groups.

Libraries looking for a vivid, fast-paced story that moves from LGBTQ+ issues to family ties and beyond will find Fan Mail a fine acquisition.

Magpie
Bronwen Carson
https://bronwencarson.com
Unleash Press
https://www.unleashcreatives.net/shop
9781737519485, $19.99

https://www.unleashcreatives.net/product-page/2022-unleash-press-award-winner

Childhood evolves best friends who too often grow apart in adult years, moving on and away into very different lives. Thus has been the case for Maggie and her childhood friend Dana. Paths divided by circumstance and life can sometimes cross again, but those linked by memory have since become someone else as time passes -- especially when a death and a disappearance introduced an estrangement that has lasted for decades.

In Magpie, these two now-disparate former friends are thrown back together in an unexpected, unusual manner that introduces past memories and conundrums into present-day experiences. The circumstances involving a mother's death, a Tsalagi woman who also vanished from Maggie's childhood, and a mystery that threatens to raise long-repressed memories about what really happened make for a vivid read that embraces childhood and adult angst.

These memories may be the key to why Maggie has grown into a relatively indifferent adult. She admits that "People don't talk about it. Maybe they don't want to admit it that feeling nothing is peaceful. It's invisible. No attachments, no reasons to linger or prove or uphold. That's the beauty of nothingness. The purity of it." Maggie has built her adult life around choosing the obvious, avoiding surprises, and settling for "the second verse, same as the first." Dana brings with her the demand for a different response, the realization of many truths Maggie successfully buried at great cost, and the possibility of changes Maggie never wanted to consider.

For some readers, this novel will stir unpleasant memories of choices towards peace over adventure; predictability over excitement. As Maggie moves into many revelations, so readers will find their hearts tugged and challenged by her self-discoveries and the truth that lies at the center of her adult choices.

Readers and libraries looking for novels about friendship, mystery, growth, and "Being part of the wild things that surround me...Not separate. Part of something bigger." will find Maggie a powerful story. It ideally will reach a wide audience with its landscapes of seasonal and relationship transformations.

So Hard to Do
Sally Basmajian
https://www.sallybasmajian.com
Creative James Media
https://creativejamesmedia.com
9781956183825, $12.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/So-Hard-Do-Sally-Basmajian/dp/1956183825

So Hard to Do explores a different kind of love triangle that revolves around three adults who are interconnected and challenged in different ways -- not just by love, but life.

Mother Suze Foster has always been devoted to her child Jannie. Now that Jannie is 29 and on the road to career success, Suze can finally relax. Or, can she? As soon as she draws back from her life-long support of her daughter, Jannie flounders in a big way. When she accidentally floods her apartment and older neighbor Aram comes to her rescue, its love at first sight. On her part. Aram, too, experiences love at first sight. For her mother Suze, who is also instantly and unexpectedly attracted to Aram. Therein lays the quandary, the puzzles of relationships and secrets, and the process of discovery whereby Suze and Jannie dance around the same man, each other, and their feelings about life.

During the course of this process, Suze and Jannie's entanglements assume disparate twists as Jannie moves in a different direction in love, career, and her relationship with her doting mother. It's truly a complex salsa to form a novel around a mother and daughter's changing adult worlds and perceptions of one another, much less add romance into the mix.

Sally Basmajian evolves these moves with a steady attention to realistic emotional responses, character growth, and emotional and sexual revelations. Suze may investigate a "boot camp" to rev up her sexuality; but what she really needs is instruction in independence and goals. When advised, in the arena of sexuality, that "you both need to play a part in the experience," the caution gains broader meaning as Suze comes to acknowledge the part she plays in not just her daughter's direction and growth, but her own choices and their consequences.

The process of demystifying life's circumstances will engage readers on both a thought provoking and entertainment level as they follow Suze and Jannie through navigating adult responses and options. Libraries seeking romance stories steeped in the challenges of loving too much (and too much alike) will find So Hard to Do not just a different kind of love triangle, but a different growth experience that will lead patrons to laugh, cry, and ponder.

Women's book groups who choose it for discussion will find many titillating topics within.

Operation Mom
Reenita M. Hora
https://reenita.com
GenZ Publishing
https://www.genzpublishing.org
9781958503096, $38.99, HC, 220pp

https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Mom-Plan-Get-Life/dp/1958503096

Synopsis: Ila, a Mumbai-based teenager, is going nuts with Veena, her controlling, single mother who prevents her from stalking her pop idol, Ali Zafar. Veena wants her daughter to date real guys in the lead-up to finding a husband. But Ila decides that the only way to get her mom off her back is by finding her a boyfriend instead. With the help of her best friend Deepali, her crush Dev and her mother's best friend Maleeka, they will come up with a plan to make it happen by setting up a profile in dating apps.

Critique: Of special appeal to readers with an interest in coming-of-age novels and romantic comedies, "Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life... and a Man" by Reenita M. Hora is a fun read from first page to last. Written with wit and insight, originality and the kind of narrative driven storytelling that keeps the reader's focused attention from start to finish, "Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life... and a Man" is highly recommended for community library collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Operation Mom: My Plan to Get My Mom a Life... and a Man" is also available in a paperback edition (9781958503089, $18.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).

The Girl in the Water
Joseph Howse
Nummist Media
https://nummist.com
9780995287853, $16.99, PB, 316pp

https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Water-Joseph-Howse/dp/0995287856

Synopsis: Novelist Joseph House's "The Girl in the Water" is the deftly crafted story of a multiethnic group of young friends who are coming of age in Estonia and Ukraine in the last days of the Soviet Union. Their lives are shaped by an Afghan war, the Chernobyl disaster, and the collapse and legacy of a suffocating society.

Critique: Of special appeal to fans of coming-of-age and family life novels, laced with humor, memorable characters, and an inherently interesting, narrative driven, storyline, "The Girl in the Water" is unreservedly recommended as an addition to personal reading lists and community library Contemporary General Fiction collections. It should be noted that "The Girl in the Water" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99).

Editorial Note: Joseph Howse (https://www.facebook.com/josephhowse.author) is an author of technical books on computer programming and image analysis. He lives in a Nova Scotian fishing village, where he chats with his cats and nurtures an orchard of hardy fruit trees. "The Girl in the Water" is his debut novel.

Road to Elysium
Kay A. Oliver
www.kayaoliver.com
Independently Published
9798358348974, $16.99, HC, 429pp

https://www.amazon.com/Road-Elysium-Self-forgiveness-Generosity-Neighborhood/dp/B0BKCQ32ZB

Synopsis: A man who had all he ever wanted, unexpectedly finds himself shattered and broken due to a single tragedy. Ken has come to know his sorrow as he clings closely to his painful memories. Giving his life over to his heartache, Ken sees the world as a cold, hard place to live. He settles on the fact that he may never again find the same happiness he once knew.

Some neighborhood kids decide to rob his house. This fateful event sets off a chain of repercussions that Ken could not have predicted. It leads to meeting a young man named Mykel in a very unconventional way. This chance meeting causes Ken to make an instant, profound choice. As their friendship grows, Ken sees something in Mykel.

Redirecting his personal focus to centering his time on the young man and not his own self-pity. Not realizing it, that momentary decision will affect countless lives in many unforeseen ways.

Critique: Although a deftly crafted work of fiction, "Road to Elysium" by Kay A. Oliver is based upon a true story. A compelling page turner of a read from cover to cover, "Road to Elysium" is a fully entertaining read and one that is unreservedly recommended for community library Contemporary Urban Life Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Road to Elysium" is also available in a paperback edition (9798355019679, $10.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.99).

Editorial Note: Kay A. Oliver (www.kayaoliver.com) has been a prolific writer in the entertainment industry for many years and she has been writing since her youth, winning many different awards in the course of her career. Now she is following her passion of writing fictional books. Her writing style and Hollywood experience never delivers a dull moment. Her imagination is quickly making her a legendary storyteller of our time. She is a current member of the TV academy.

Running From Tomorrow
Leo Cohen
Joshua Books, LLC
www.joshua-books.com
9798985549225, $14.95, PB, 172pp

https://www.amazon.com/Running-Tomorrow-Leo-Cohen/dp/B09RTQH5P4

Synopsis: Kevin Mallaghan, aka Mally, has returned from Vietnam to job frustration manning a shovel at a Boston construction site. Introduced to Noles Dermody, head of a Boston gang, Mally's penchant for planning and discipline allow him to thrive. But an unintentional murder sets him running from the vengeance of a Mafia Don, who has put a price on Mally's head for his capture. Without a plan, Mally ends up at a religious commune in rural Colorado.

Jenny Wechsler, a newly minted college graduate with a business degree is a frustrated typist and filing clerk in a shipping brokerage. A contract driver, Andy Keffler, suggests she ride with him trucking a large construction machine to rural Colorado. But after days on the road, Jenny characterizes the trip as whizzing past America, and Keffler leaves her in Colorado to get back home on her own. Good fortune and initiative get her a job as business manager for a growing Mexican Restaurant, Cantina Abramo.

The restaurant's owner wants to bring young, so-called cousins, into the US. He asks Jenny to figure out how to get them Green Cards so they don't have to be hidden from the INS. That leads her to Moe Bishop who provides her with the fake cards, but always with a proposition for sex that Jenny firmly rejects. When Mally saves a "cousin" from the INS, it results in his meeting and becoming good friends with Jenny.

Picking up a Green Card, Bishop attempts to rape Jenny. She manages to escape and when she tells Mally about it, he goes after Bishop, wounding him. But Bishop has gang connections and he fingers Mally at the Cantina for a Patriarca bounty hunter. Cornered, can Mally get away?

Critique: Action packed from cover to cover, "Running From Tomorrow" by Leo Cohen is a fun read from beginning to end. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.99), "Running From Tomorrow" will prove to be a very welcome addition to both personal and community library Contemporary General Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Leo Cohen (https://joshua-books.com) has been writing with fifty or more political screeds published in local Colorado newspapers, a few short stories, some poems and nine novels.

Calliope's Spell
Donald Davenport
Next Chapter
https://www.nextchapter.pub/publish
9784824156938, $28.99, HC, 170pp

https://www.amazon.com/Calliopes-Calliope-Chronicles-Donald-Davenport/dp/4824156939

Synopsis: Having been banished to live with her father, Anna, a bright but troubled 15-year-old, arrives to the quaint village of Santa Maria de la Campana, a town named for its famous bell, which no one has seen for generations.

Kipling, her father, operates a small field station perched atop a nearby cove known as the Bay of Crabs, a spot ironically devoid of crabs ever since the bell went missing - a mystery that has perplexed the town for years. Anna makes a deal with her father: if she can discover why the crabs are missing, he will allow her to return home to California.

Praying for guidance, the answer comes in the form of Christophe, the son of a renowned French explorer whose ship, the Calliope, has arrived for emergency repairs. With the help of the local priest, a gonzo flying dentist and the French explorer, Anna stumbles from one clue onto another in her search for the truth. But can she solve the mystery of Bahia del Cangrejo and the missing bell?

Critique: Original, entertaining, offering deftly crafted characters embedded in a memorable storyline of unexpected plot twists and turns, "Calliope's Spell" by Donald Davenport is a fun and engaging read from first page to last. While available for personal reading lists in a paperback edition (9798364209566, $8.99) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99), "Calliope's Spell" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Coming of Age themed fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Donald Davenport is an author, a screenwriter, and a filmmaker. His first book was Christmas in Canaan (HarperCollins 2002), co-authored with country music legend Kenny Rogers. Davenport has also produced, written and directed numerous commercials and industrial films and show elements for such clients as Hughes Aircraft and the Cousteau Society as well as multi-camera live-to-tape specials, including The New Noel for the ABC television network. He also traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia as a documentary filmmaker for an international relief agency, producing films in such locations as Hong Kong, the Walled City of Kowloon, Thailand, Borneo and Singapore.

Rip
Bruce Wessell
Independently Published
9798366406345, $15.99, PB, 418pp

https://www.amazon.com/Rip-Bruce-Wessell/dp/B0BPGQG4SC

Synopsis: Cody Panther's mother raised him to be a gentleman. She had told him to 'never hurt anyone who doesn't deserve to be hurt.' He tried to abide by her words while growing up in Texas.

On the outside, Cody's life seemed idyllic. A gifted athlete, he is a star high school wrestler and football player, and multiple colleges from around the country are offering him a scholarship to play football. He loves his dog, Chase, and his girlfriend Kayla Young. He grows close to her parents, Abby, and Red Young. Red also happens to be his high school football coach. Coach Red is the father Cody wishes he had.

But behind closed doors, Cody and his mother are both victims of abuse by Sam, Cody's drunken father. As college approaches, his homelife situation deteriorates until his tolerance reaches its breaking point. One day, the mother and son decide to flee while Sam is out of town. In the process, everything goes horribly wrong, and Cody's actions inevitably alter his future.

He is left with a choice between years of jail time or disappearing for a dangerous new career. As a result, his life changes forever, and he's forced to develop his expertise in order to survive. Becoming a killer was the last thing Cody imagined for his destiny. But you don't always get what you want from life, and it's his only chance to get his life back.

Critique: A deftly scripted and original suspense thriller of a read from first page to last, "Rip" by author, Rip is an inherently riveting novel showing how an ordinarily good man can be turned into a killer given the circumstances he finds himself in -- and that with great resolve and effort he can nonetheless achieve redemption. With a very special appeal to readers with an interest in crime fiction, "Rip" is a highly recommended addition to community library collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Rip" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $4.99).

Impossible to Be Human
Robert Kalich
Bunim & Bannigan
https://bunimandbanniganbooks.com
9781933480510, $23.95, HC, 216pp

https://www.amazon.com/Impossible-Human-Hardcover-Robert-Kalich/dp/1933480513

Synopsis: Facing the idiosyncrasies of his life and character, David Lazar mercilessly analyses his success. Can we accept irreconcilable contradictions? Can people change? And what does it mean to be human? Peeling layers of conventions and domestication, Lazar is gradually facing the man he once was, his past emotionless and cold existence. He cannot help but wonder: is he still that man or has the love of his wife redeemed him? Can a driven sports handicapper, who climbed 'Mt. Gamble' to become the most successful professional handicapper of his generation, become a loving, devoted husband and father? Can writing his life story purge his flaws?

The puzzle of life's inconsistencies grows as Lazar is baffled by his clandestine meetings in his NYC penthouse with Duck, the US president. They go way back when David was Duck's object of admiration. These days Duck represents everything Lazar rejects: racism, greed, callousness. The two of them mirror all that is opposed in American society and echo the doubt whether these dividing gaps can be bridged. And while Lazar dislikes these secret meetings he is turning into Duck's confidant, knowing all too well that he is acting against the people he loves.

The fragility of existence is further exacerbated by the spread of Covid-19. The presence of death is more tangible than ever. However, counting his blessings only intensifies the fear of loss. Lazar is trying to help the needy, but the knowledge of his own limitations and all that is still required haunts him. And the old, battered question is as relevant as ever: what is then the meaning of it all?

There is no straight answer, but as Lazar's identical twin brother observes, David did everything wrong, and yet bounced back lucky in his old age.

Critique: An impressively crafted and original novel by a master of the narrative driven storytelling style, "Impossible To Be Human" by author Robert Kalich is a fascinating and compelling read from beginning to end. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community library General & Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Impossible To Be Human" is also available in a paperback edition (9781933480527, $17.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99).

Editorial Note: Robert Kalich (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kalich) is a born-and-bred New Yorker. He is the author of several non-fiction books and four novels. Three of his novels are works of autofiction based on his life and intimate knowledge of sports and gambling.

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