November 2023 MBR The General Fiction Shelf

The General Fiction Shelf

Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop
Jenny Colgan
Avon Books
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
Blackstone Audiobooks
https://www.blackstonelibrary.com
9780063345096, $30.00, HC, 320pp

https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-at-Christmas-Bookshop-Novel/dp/0063345099

Synopsis: Christmas comes early (far too early) to McCredie's little Old Town bookshop in Edinburgh. It's summer, but an American production company has decided that McCredie's is the perfect location to film a very cheesy Christmas movie. After all, who can resist the charmingly narrow historic street with its Victorian grey stone buildings and warmly lit shop windows?

Carmen Hogan, the bookshop's manager, is amused and a bit horrified by the goings-on, but the money the studio is paying is too good to pass up. She uses the little windfall from filming to create new displays and fend off a buyout offer from an obnoxious millionaire who wants to turn McCredie's into a souvenir shop selling kilts made in China and plastic Nessies.

Still reeling slightly from a breakup, Carmen is not particularly looking forward to the holidays. But just as snow begins to fall and the lights of Christmas blink on, all sorts of lovely new possibilities present themselves -- for McCredie's bookstore, and for Carmen herself!

Critique: An original and fun read from cover to cover, "Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop" is yet another example of author Jenny Colgan's impressive flair for the kind of narrative storytelling that fully enchants and entertains her reader from first page to last. While an especially recommended and certain to be popular addition to community library Women's Fiction and Holiday Fiction collections, it should be noted for the growing legions of Jenny Colgan fans that "Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop" is also available in a paperback edition (9780063260450, $18.99), in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99), and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackstone Audio, 9798212697866, $41.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Jenny Colgan (https://www.jennycolgan.com) is the author of numerous novels, including The Christmas Bookshop, The Bookshop on the Corner, Little Beach Street Bakery, and Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe. Jenny, her husband, and three children live in a genuine castle in Scotland.

We Are Family
Beth Moran
Boldwood Books
c/o Ulverscroft Large Print, Inc.
www.ulverscroft.com
9781837513390, $41.00, PB, Large Print, 564pp

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/we-are-family-beth-moran/1143237267

Synopsis: Thirty-three-year-old Ruth Henderson and her daughter Maggie have some hard choices to make. Following the tragic death of Maggie's father, they are left with a mountain of debt and broken hearts. So, despite her vow never to return home after the fall-out from her teenage pregnancy, Ruth can't see any option other than for the two of them to move back in with her parents.

Going home means many things -- finally confronting her estranged father, navigating her mother's desperate need to make everything ok despite the wobbles in her own marriage, not to mention helping a still-grieving Maggie to settle into a new school, find new friends, and stop expressing her emotions through her ever-changing hair color.

What Ruth needs are friends, but she abandoned her childhood ones when she left all those years ago. Luckily for Ruth, they haven't abandoned her. Slowly she lets herself be embraced by a group of women who have always had her back -- even when she didn't know it. And as the grief and shock recede, Ruth can even begin to imagine sharing her life with someone other than just Maggie -- if Maggie will let her.

Critique: With a special appeal for fans of women's family and friendship fiction, this Boldwood Books large print paperback edition "We Are Family" by Beth Moran is highly recommended reading and will prove to be a memorably popular addition to personal reading lists and community library General Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Beth Moran (https://bethmoranauthor.com) worked as a biochemist and then taught antenatal classes before giving it up to follow her dream of becoming an author. As well as writing novels, she is a foster carer and a trustee of the fabulous Free Range Chicks charity.

Daughters of Muscadine: Stories
Monic Ductan
Fireside Industries
c/o The University Press of Kentucky
www.kentuckypress.com
9781950564330, $24.95, HC, 144pp

https://www.amazon.com/Daughters-Muscadine-Stories-Monic-Ductan/dp/1950564339

Synopsis: Two events tie together the nine stories comprising author Monic Ductan's "Daughters of Muscadine: Stories" - the 1920s lynching of Ida Pearl Crawley and the 1980s drowning of a high school basketball player, Lucy Boudreaux. Both forever shape the people and the place of Muscadine, Georgia, in the foothills of Appalachia.

The daughters of Muscadine are Black southern women who are, at times, outcasts due to their race and are also estranged from those they love. A remorseful woman tries to connect with the child she gave up for adoption; another, immersed in loneliness, attempts to connect with a violent felon. Two sisters love each other deeply even when they cannot understand one another. A little girl witnessing her father's slow death realizes her own power and lack thereof. A single woman weathers the excitement (and rigors) of online dating.

Critique: With individual stories that collectively covering the last one hundred years of history "Daughters of Muscadine: Stories" is an impressive compendium of well crafted and rivetingly personal stories of women whose voices have been suppressed and erased for too long, including Black women, rural women, Appalachian women, and working-class women. As a novelist, Monic Ductan has a genuine and enviable flair for portraying the extraordinary and the revealing in the everyday lives of ordinary women. Of special appeal to readers with an interest in stories of southern small town life and women's lives, "Daughters of Muscadine: Stories" is available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $18.99) and is a highly recommended pick for community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Monic Ductan (https://monicductan.com) teaches literature and creative writing at Tennessee Tech University. Her writing has appeared in a number of journals, including Oxford American, Good River Review, Southeast Review, Shenandoah, Appalachian Heritage, and South Carolina Review. Her essay "Fantasy Worlds" was listed as notable in The Best American Essays 2019.

The Christmas Guest
Peter Swanson
William Morrow & Company
c/o HarperCollins Publishers
www.harpercollins.com
Blackstone Audiobooks
https://www.blackstonelibrary.com
9780063297456, $19.99, HC, 112pp

https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Guest-Novella-Peter-Swanson/dp/0063297450

Synopsis: Ashley Smith is an American art student in London for her junior year. She was planning on spending Christmas alone, but a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, country residence of the Chapman family.

The Cotswold manor house, festooned in pine boughs and crammed with guests for Christmas week, is a dream come true for Ashley. She is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma's aloof and handsome brother.

But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Is she in a grand romance? A gothic tale? Or has she wandered into something far more sinister and terrifying than she'd ever imagined?

Over thirty years later the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time. What began in a small English village in 1989 reaches its ghostly conclusion in modern-day New York, many Christmas seasons later.

Critique: A deftly crafted novella by Peter Swanson, "The Christmas Guest" will be of very special interest to fans of psychological suspense thrillers where the quality of the narrative driven storytelling rises to that of truly memorable literary excellence. While unreservedly recommended for community library collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Christmas Guest" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99) and as a complete and unabridged audio book (Blackston Audio, 9798212698603, $27.99, CD).

Editorial Note: Peter Swanson (https://www.peter-swanson.com) is the author of nine novels, including The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, and Her Every Fear, an NPR book of the year. His books have been translated into 30 languages, and his stories, poetry, and features have appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Atlantic Monthly, Measure, The Guardian, The Strand Magazine, and Yankee Magazine.

Spanish Gold
Fred Rayworth
New Link Publishing
c/o Mystic Publishers, Inc.
https://www.mysticpublishersinc.com
9781948266178, $17.95, PB, 294pp

https://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Gold-Fred-Rayworth/dp/1948266172

Synopsis: The discovery of a centuries-old journal from a Spanish monk sends Detach and his team on another quest for gold. From England to the Azores, and finally, to Spain, they follow a twisted trail filled with hazards that test all of their skills. Each clue uncovered brings Detach and his team closer to the hidden treasure, but they will have to escape the death stalking them to get it!

Critique: A fun read from start to finish, "Spanish Gold" showcases author Fred Rayworth's impressive flair for originality and narrative driven storytelling skills. Of special interest to fans of romance, action, adventure, mystery and suspense, "Spanish Gold" will prove an immediately welcome and enduringly popular addition to community library fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Spanish Gold" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).

Editorial Note: Fred Rayworth found his passion for writing in 1995. He's so far completed twelve full-length novels and is currently working on number thirteen, in genres including science fiction, icky bug (horror), adventure/thriller and fantasy. Over a dozen of his short stories have made it to print in not only those genres, but non-fiction as well. He has also published numerous non-fiction articles on amateur astronomy including co-founding and editing the original Observer's Challenge for the Las Vegas Astronomical Society. He published a series of autobiographical articles between 2014 and 2016 with the now defunct web site, Let's Talk Nevada. You can read his writing tips and adventures at www.fredrayworth.com

Cravings
Garnett Kilberg Cohen
University of Wisconsin Press
www.uwpress.wisc.edu
9780299345242, $17.95, PB, 160pp

https://www.amazon.com/Cravings-Garnett-Kilberg-Cohen/dp/0299345246

Synopsis: Opening with "Hors d'oeuvres" and closing with a "Feast," the stories comprising "Cravings" fairly pulse with longing, missed opportunities, recriminations, and joy as author Garnett Kilberg Cohen leads her readers through acutely crafted explorations of the way events shape and change our lives, sometimes for the better and sometimes in ways that haunt us forever. Love, friendship, childhood, parenthood, and leaving home (all these experiences of desire, driven by the unrelenting passage of time) form the heart of this charismatic short story collection.

Cohen's captivating and vulnerable characters often recognize their shortcomings and past mistakes, but cannot always rise above them. One woman learns to forgive her husband's ex; another fears her love of salty snacks caused a family tragedy. A stoic rural community drives a newcomer out of town; a young man's entire life is colored by a traumatic childhood event at a zoo. Focusing on the specific, unforgettable moments that reveal our connections to one another, Cravings offers an expansive vision of humanity that lingers long after the final page is turned.

Critique: The impressive literary quality of the short stories comprising "Cravings" is just what you would expect of a writer who has taught creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago for more that twenty-five years. Eloquent, original, moving, memorable, and published by the University of Wisconsin Press, Garnett Kilberg Choen's short story anthology, "Cravings" is a welcome and recommended pick for community and college/university Contemporary Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Cravings" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.05).

Editorial Note: Garnett Kilberg Cohen (https://garnettcohenauthor.com) is the author of three story collections: Lost Women, Banished Souls; How We Move the Air; and Swarm to Glory.

Down the Steep
A. D. Nauman
Regal House Publishing
https://regalhousepublishing.com
9781646033706, $19.95, PB, 326pp

https://www.amazon.com/Down-Steep-D-Nauman/dp/1646033701

Synopsis: The year is 1963 in small-town Virginia. Willa McCoy is a strong-minded teenager who longs to follow in the footsteps of her father, an important member of the KKK. Willa believes the Klan is daring and brave -- like the father she idolizes. She wants only to rise in his esteem; he wants only to keep everyone in their place.

When Willa is sent to babysit for the new minister's wife, Ruth Swanson, she finds herself at Ruth's kitchen table with Langston Jones, a smart young Black man. At first they despise each other, but they have one thing in common: they both love Ruth. When Langston reveals a secret he's discovered (that Willa's father is having an affair) the once-loyal daughter plots to destroy her father's reputation, unwittingly setting into motion a series of events that leads to her family's demise.

Critique: Deftly crafted and impressively original, "Down the Steep" by author A. D. Nauman is a riveting read from start to finish, and one that will hold al special appeal to readers with an interest in southern-based coming of ages stories. With a narrative driven and eloquent storytelling style by novelist A. D. Nauman "Down the Steep" is raised to from ordinary fiction to literary fiction at its best. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49), "Down the Steep" is a solid and recommended pick for community and college/university library Southern Literature collections.

Editorial Note: A.D. Nauman (https://adnauman.com) is a Chicago author whose short fiction has appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Willow Springs, TriQuarterly, Necessary Fiction, The Literary Review, and many other journals. Her dystopian novel, Scorch, was published in 2001 and re-released in a StoryBundle in 2019. Nauman is an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award recipient, whose work has been produced by Stories on Stage and broadcast on NPR. Though now a Midwesterner, Nauman grew up mostly in Tidewater, Virginia.

Mr. Bridges
Jessie Thorpe
Mountain Lake Press
http://www.mountainlakepress.com
9781959307211, $24.95, HC, 265pp

https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Bridges-Novel-Jessie-Thorpe/dp/1959307215

Synopsis: Jack Bridges is the popular principal at Great Forest elementary school in suburban Washington, D.C. His easy manner and likeability contribute to his success and job satisfaction. Each day, he attends to his work and returns home to his wife Greta and their three young sons, Chris, Bud, and Sam.

Nina Talbott is a housewife living near the school. She is raising two daughters, Polly and Elaine, while her husband Tom travels frequently for his job. Eventually, and inevitably, Jack and Nina connect and consummate a passionate affair, thereby setting into motion a relationship full of private excitement and hope for future happiness.

Jack also experiences a personal epiphany when he returns to the small Michigan lakeside town where he spent an idyllic youth. But a personal tragedy forces him to make a fateful and likely irrevocable life choice.

Critique: Following author Jessie Thorpe's acclaimed debut novel "Bolton Roper", her new title, "Mr. Bridges" is deftly set in the 1980s and once again showcases her natural flair as a novelist for both originality and the kind of narrative drive storytelling style that is replete with the types of details and descriptions that provide a feeling of authenticity, believability, and reader engagement that raises a novel to the level of fine literature. While "Mr. Bridges" is unreservedly recommended for community and academic library American Contemporary Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that "Mr. Bridges" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $6.99).

Editorial Note: Jessie Thorpe, during her time at United Press International, quickly gained a loyal following for her breezy but insightful reviewer critiques of books, films and occasional social events. Using her lifetime love and study of literature and nonfiction, Jessie Thorpe had developed the keenest of eyes for spotting new and emerging talents -- and for poking well-deserved holes into substandard works by famous authors and personalities. Her book reviews consistently presented unique perspectives and insights, and her thoughtful essays matched the observational prowess of much more widely known commentators. They remain trenchant and persuasive despite the passage of time.

Children of Tomorrow
J.R. Burgmann
Enfield & Wizenty
c/o Great Plains Press
https://greatplainspress.ca/books/enfield-wizenty
9781773371092, $17.95, PB, 256pp

https://www.amazon.com/Children-Tomorrow-J-R-Burgmann-PhD/dp/1773371096

Synopsis: "Children of Tomorrow" by novelist J.R. Burgmann is a history of family and friendship that spans generations and geographies over a century of escalating climate change.

In 2016, Arne Bakker is working on a reforestation project in Tasmania shortly before bushfires sweep across the ancient wilderness. Elsewhere, London - born freedriver Evie Weatherall witnesses extreme climate events in her travels. Arne's close friend and Evie's Canadian cousin Wally, influencer, journalist, and musician, also sees a dangerous future forming. Meanwhile, Arne's brother Freddie, "a shredded poster boy for global environmental activism," is mobilizing his followers. When their paths collide, the group is set on course to witness and struggle together against the coming century.

Decades later, a new generation is living with the havoc wreaked by their parents and grandparents and they too must find ways to find hope for the future in an increasingly difficult present.

Critique: Although "Children of Tomorrow" by J.R. Burgmann is a work of fiction, the extrapolations of how the environmental crises brought about by climate change will affect future (and not-so-future) generals are in full alignment with today's science based forecasts. Articulate, riveting, deftly crafted, and thought-provoking, "Children of Tomorrow" is especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and college/university library fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Children of Tomorrow" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: J.R. Burgmann is an emerging writer and critic. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and received his PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies from Monash University, where he is based at the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub. "Children of Tomorrow" is his debut novel and was highly commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2021 in the category of unpublished manuscripts. In 2022 he was awarded a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship.

Beijing Tales
Randy Lu
Soaring Dragon Press
9780578832838, $21.61, PB, 457pp

https://www.amazon.com/Beijing-Tales-Novel-Randy-Lu/dp/0578832836

Synopsis: It is the year 2013. Parsley Wang, an employee of Sin Man Bank, has another romantic failure that she blames on her destiny as a dutiful Chinese daughter living with an elderly widowed mother whose Chinese-ness is at odds with her desire to assimilate.

Grace Kim, Parsley's best friend and co-worker, signs up for a post at the new overseas bank branch in Beijing. She believes it would benefit Parsley to work there, too, and applies for Parsley without consulting, her. Both women's applications are accepted.

Mr. McGee, the widowed neighbor who harbors romantic feelings for Mrs. Wang (unbeknownst to her and Parsley), assures Parsley he can help out her mother, Mrs. Wang, while Parsley is away.

Beijing unexpectedly dazzles Parsley with striking new buildings, scenic parks, and palaces. She immerses herself in the city and its culture and begins to appreciate her Chinese heritage. And she also meets a Chinese Canadian named Andrew Han.

But all is not well. Tina Grecian, the Beijing branch head, works with Jim Clark, a regional head of the bank in the U.S. to embezzle money from the bank for a dream life in Buenos Aires and will let nothing get in her way. And Mr. McGee's daughter, Wynn, and her sister Megan want Mrs. Wang out of their father's life.

Critique: Original, fascinating, entertaining, and exceptionally well written from start to finish, "Beijing Tales" by Randy Lu is an exceptional and memorable novel that reveals its author to have a genuine flair for the kind of detailed background and narrative storytelling style that will fully engage the reader throughout. While especially and unreservedly recommended for community and college/university library Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for fans of cultural heritage fiction that "Beijing Tales" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.95).

Editorial Note: Randy Lu is a Los Angeles area artist, poet, and writer. Living overseas in Western Europe and East Asia prior to becoming an artist has had a profound influence on her thought and approach to art. Her travels in the U.S. and abroad have inspired numerous paintings. Randy Lu began writing poetry and fiction in high school. As with her artwork, her subject matter and unique style have been influenced by her experiences abroad which include extensive time in China and Japan. She is also the founder of Randy Lu Pastels And Watercolor (http://www.randyluart.com)

Wild Asses of the Mojave Desert
Lis Anna-Langston
www.lisannalangston.com
Mapleton Press
9781957730066, $9.99 ebook

https://books2read.com/wildassesofthemojavedesert

"How does your life just fall apart?" Wild Asses of the Mojave Desert embarks on a journey away from the familiar and into the desert of discovery, where the first-person narrator Skye has been "...tossing off jackets and shoes and bad timing my entire life and there I was, alone and exhausted, but free."

Poor relationship choices have resulted in an ex, baggage, and the desire to start over while confronting the fact that, in reality, part of what has been seemingly left behind has followed Skye into a new life: "Like a smooth second hand rolling around the dial, time passed. It didn't heal or fix things. I didn't have a map of my life, just a feeling that connected to a feeling, that connected to a feeling. I'd gone too far out into that wide-open space that turns back on you and howls." Lis Anna-Langston specializes in employing an thoughtful voice that captures the "Jungian nightmare" the author is emerging from and trying to evade. This translates to a compelling series of descriptions about not just an effort to re-envision and recreate a life, but the environment that surrounds and supports it.

Thus, readers are introduced to a foreign milieu in which years of journeying bring the narrator full circle back into a family that supports a "crazy bunny" who still doesn't know exactly what she wants to do with her life. The imagery adds a rush of color into a narrative that draws on both a visual and emotional level: "Mom and Dad made it look easy. I gawked at my parents, holding hands in front of a perfect sunset. Violet, magenta, apricot melted down onto rooftops. An entire world melting into their gooey love affair." Whether it's filling out applications or considering the extraordinary possibilities of rocks that captivate Dylan as much as reflects his curious personality, Skye is both "just passing through" and finding her place at last. The typical assessment of her life (which comes from her as much as those around her) is that "Skye is broken. Skye can't handle reality." In truth, the kind of reality she navigates is far more honest and revealing than those around her realize.

As relationship quandaries, marriage possibilities, and good and harmful emotional connections emerge against the backdrop of the desert environment, readers receive a multifaceted story that connects via both emotional and landscape twists of perspective. Lis Anna-Langston injects surprises along this journey, including end-of-life to rebirth realizations that lead readers to examine their own life directions and choices. Wild Asses of the Mojave Desert is a novel that pulls at heart and mind alike. Through Skye's journey and process of letting go everything she's held tightly throughout her life, readers receive a compelling saga especially highly recommended for women's book reading groups searching for stories of self-realization, relationship growth, and a sense of place, that offers transformative opportunities.

The Warmer
Patrick Robbins
Pipevine Press/Warren Publishing
www.warrenpublishing.net
9781957723938, $30.99 Hardcover/$18.95 Paper/$4.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Warmer-Patrick-Robbins/dp/1957723939

The Warmer is a novel about new college grad Ned Alderman, whose encounter with the alluring Chase Becker, who promotes and reflects joy, changing his life and those around him. From the start, Chase exhibits a magnetism and connection that leads those around him (including Ned) to fall into his spell. As Chase's uncanny ability to "pay attention" injects added value into others' lives, he also rubs some people the wrong way. When Chase pulls Ned's cousin Nadine into a professional free fall, the three characters find their attractions and lives pulled in different directions.

Patrick Robbins excels in a contrast of personalities, life approaches, and connections that will encourage a satisfyingly thought-provoking response in readers who might anticipate a story of how new adults struggle, but receive an equally involving tale of charisma's complications. From love and taking flight to the ultimate impact of illusion and transformation, Robbins leads readers into a scenario in which the daily interactions of life are revised by a "warmer" personality who has yet to learn how to give to himself what he instinctively bequeaths to others.

The result is a powerful novel of epiphany and attractions that will provoke powerful reflections in those interested in how new adults navigate life's uncertainties and opportunities. Libraries and readers seeking stories that portray characters like Chase, who is adept at "using his positive emotions as a force field, launching them into those he met" will find The Warmer a heartfelt story of growth that ideally will spark interesting book club and psychology group discussions about relationships, growth, and approaches to life and learning.

Never Enough Time
Kimberly McMillan
Warren Publishing
www.warrenpublishing.net
9781957723860, $33.95 Hardcover/$18.95 Paper/$4.95 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Never-Enough-Time-Kimberly-McMillan/dp/1957723866

In Never Enough Time, Marni was fourteen when she lost her mother and was sent to live with her father and his new family. During this time, truths emerged that not only challenged her with a strange new environment, but tested her loyalty to her mother and father as well as her concept of family. Now over thirty, Marni is once more rocked by the loss of a key person in her life, and again faces a redefinition of family, loyalty, and love as she faces betrayal and the challenge to accept strangers into her life and embrace them as kin.

Kimberly McMillan creates a satisfying juxtaposition between past and present patterns and experiences as Marni seeks different ways of blocking her pain and finds, instead, that she must fully embrace it to move ahead. The raw, candid revelations Marni reveals may prove triggers to readers who struggle with their own devastating life losses. This effect is mitigated by the hope that runs like a stream through Marni's life, from childhood to maturity, as she continues to embrace the thought of a happy life and carries the lessons of her strong single mother into her own choices.

Never Enough Time's rich focus on strong women who tap their inner resources and beliefs to form productive, constructive relationships against all odds makes it a particular attraction to female audiences who will appreciate the powerful portraits of Marni, her mother, and women who, through generations of experience, pass down legacies of trust, love, and courage. In providing a variety of perspectives, exploring the possibilities and strengths of women who harbor deep convictions about the world and their place in it, and delving deeply into the characters that set the stage for Marni's own decisions and courage, McMillan creates a moving and inspirational novel. Never Enough Time is highly recommended for libraries and, especially, for women's book clubs seeking representations of disparate women who are each strong in their own right.

My Two and Only
Carla Malden
Rare Bird Books
www.rarebirdbooks.com
9781644283592, $28.00

https://www.amazon.com/My-Two-Only-Carla-Malden/dp/164428359X

Some days, you can't take back. A simple admonition or twist of fate leads to inevitable and world-shaking changes. In My Two and Only, Charlotte faces just such a moment in a day that 'wanders off course early' from an initial checklist of possibilities to conclude with a partner's evening jog that changes everything. In some ways Charlotte remains the same person: a mother, a daughter, a career woman. In other ways, as a newly single woman, her opportunities expand - especially when she meets environmental lawyer Brian, who compels her to make a hard decision that forces her to question her identity and trajectory.

Carla Malden examines a woman's transformative process and turns it on end with several twists and turns that provide a realistic assessment of identity for women who face disruptions and changes in their own lives. The dovetailing of opportunity and adversity is woven into everyday affairs from the start, lending a realistic and compelling feel to the story: "Go for a run," she told her husband. "You'll feel better." Past and present and memories and identity meld in a story of growth that deepens these transformative moments with reflections on marriage, its reasons for downfalls, and the well-meaning advice of friends and self-help gurus that don't always work for Charlotte. As she compares Paul and Brian, Charlotte solidifies her personal and professional goals with her interior design and redesign savvy, quietly peppering the story as they highlight impactful moments: "Long term livability was always a goal of hers."

Women readers who have fielded marriages - first, second or third, who are exploring their self-definitions, or are already well grounded in patterns of growth and independence will appreciate the special blend of strong characterization and evolutionary processes that Malden explores as Charlotte's life plays out. Libraries and readers seeking a strong women's novel delving into heartache, joy, and transformation will find plenty of material in My Two and Only. This novel lends itself particularly well to lively book club reading group discussions about the nature of growth and independence, among many other possible topics for debate.

Friends with Issues
Meredith Berlin
Warren Publishing
www.warrenpublishing.net
9781957723730, $32.95 Hardcover/$18.95 Paper/$6.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Friends-Issues-Meredith-Berlin/dp/1957723726

Friends with Issues is set in New York City in 1997. It follows the quandaries and interactions of three successful women who struggle (in different ways) to balance their careers, family lives, and friendships. From this description, readers might expect the story to be told entirely from a female vantage point, but it actually opens with the reflections of Nick Gallagher, Susan's husband, six months before his demise. He reflects on the end of their sex life after the baby is born, the incongruity of living in a lavish house he hates, and the oddity of being in his late forties in a life that alienates him despite its outward appearance of success. His musings are soon to be mote, but contrast in an intriguing manner with the next chapter, which captures Susan's personality.

Susan eschews many popular facets of self-examination, instead opting for a gritty form of honesty others may find grating. As the lives of Susan, Elizabeth, Brooke, and Nick coalesce, readers receive thought-provoking moments of self-discovery and new realizations that prompt each character to take new steps into embracing their disparate choices and passions.

Meredith Berlin creates a strong novel which contrasts women's friendships, lives, and opportunities for self-realization and change. Each character receives inspection for their influences, motivations, and perceptions of life, and each circles around the wagons of love, loyalty, and opportunity with a different set of life experiences and challenges which contrast nicely with one another. The rich details of their interwoven lives are thought-provoking and realistic. Nobody's perfect; but within that ideal of perfection lays the beating heart of attempts to rise above life's slings and arrows to become better, happier, and more empowered. Libraries and readers looking for beach reads about women's friendships and life changes will find Friends with Issues realistic, engaging, and hard to put down.

Captured Angel
Cynthia L. Clark
Outskirts Press
www.outskirtspress.com
9781977264190, $15.95 Paper/$9.49 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Captured-Angel-Cynthia-L-Clark/dp/1977264190

Readers of Cynthia L. Clark's prior novel Dirt Road Main Street will well recall the love lost when handsome Ben "Tano" Montano and Holly Harris meet by chance, lost one another, then reunited under a storm of adversity destined to tear them apart once more. In Captured Angel, Holly is on the rebound from these events, engaged to be married to another, and is on the cusp of having her dreams fulfilled at last, having moved on from Tano. Or, has she? When Tano unexpectedly reappears six months after their breakup, another fiery encounter emerges like a phoenix from the ashes of disaster as Holly again finds her choices and chances challenged by both opportunity and disaster. Unable to set aside the destructive impulses and alluring attraction that led to so much pain in the prior book, Holly and Tano find themselves on a parallel course of involvement dilemmas that both keep the love torch burning and threaten to consume its holders.

Holly returns home only to find she actually has come full circle back into the circumstances and arms of attraction that proved so dangerous the first time. Prior readers of Holly and Tano's escapades will find the same outstanding draw in their evolving relationship conundrums here, with the added value of others characters whose worlds revolve around and are affected by their choices and interactions. Clark cultivates an emotionally tense atmosphere that juxtaposes love, desires for revenge, and challenges of resolution in a story that acknowledges the complexity of motivations for actions and their consequences. Much as she prays for rescue in different ways, Holly discovers that, in the end, words unexpressed may prove just as bitter as those exchanged.

The intersection of romance and suspense is well done as events play out to further the attitudes and life-changing experiences of two characters who dance around one another and search for resolution in themselves. Libraries and readers seeking powerful sagas of holding on, letting go, and discovering what is really worthwhile in life will find Captured Angel a riveting exploration of life, sacrifice, redemption and survival.

Between Two Gates
Neil Perry Gordon
Independently Published
9798987563229, $16.99 Paper/$4.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Gates-Young-Toward/dp/B0CD11NK17

Between Two Gates is a novel of visionary fiction that opens with a death. This might seem an unlikely starting point for a novel, but this story represents a new beginning as the thirty-two-year-old protagonist's life stops from drug abuse and then experiences a transformation in the afterlife. Samuel's spirit is welcomed by his grandfather, and the two embark on a quest that embraces Samuel's transitioning "...from your life on the Earth to the next stage of your existence." The structure of the plot takes the form of a three-act production (sans the usual drama screenplay of character calls and responses). It features a wide-ranging spiritual flow, from Samuel's calling to traverse Gehenna's five realms to his confrontation with disparate forms of heaven, hell, and purgatory. His wise grandfather calls his current abode a "...good place. A natural place where we continue to exist until that time when we're called upon to make our return."

Samuel's task is to embrace his destiny, rescue his great-great-grandfather from dangerous entity Solomon, and confront his own karmic heritage while fielding angels and fairies alike. The spiritual and ethereal nature of this metaphysical work requires of its readers a mind open to non-traditional concepts of the afterlife. Those harboring such inclinations will find Between Two Gates a wide-ranging, mind-hopping journey that offers tantalizing insights into destiny and life purpose. Readers who also harbor affection for philosophical reflection receive this in droves as Samuel confronts others and self in an afterlife journey that cements his karma and the impact of "doomed desires" that affect and direct his world.

The result is a powerful novel of realization, redemption, and afterlife conundrums that is especially recommended for audiences interested in considering the lasting impact of their choices and the power of love. Samuel's heroic and epic struggles play out on an afterlife stage replete with thought-provoking insights that will prove as suitable for book club and spirituality group debates as for individual contemplation. Libraries and readers seeking a visionary story that juxtaposes adventures with afterlife considerations will find Between Two Gates compelling and hard to put down.

Altar of Ashes
Bruce Westrate
Thousand Acres/Armin Lear Press Inc.
9781956450835, $24.95

https://www.amazon.com/Altar-Ashes-Bruce-Westrate/dp/1956450831

Young Ted Polanski is a deer hunter looking for perspective and a last good hunt before his move from rural Indiana to Ann Arbor. Unfortunately, he bags more than he bargained for when he and his companion witness something strange going on in the glade as they pursuit their game. What seems like a hundred people are participating in a strange ceremony that turns into a horror spectacle when Ted and his friend Tim stumble upon a sacrificial rite. Local Indiana prosecutor Allen Southworth is facing personal and professional conflagrations of his own. At a crossroads in his own life and career, Allen discovers that his ability to cut back his workload to embrace a new family is challenged by a spectacular case that sparks many emotions about religious tolerance and intolerance, diversity, and bigotry that place the small community in the national eye of a hurricane.

As political and cultural strife heat up, various community members from farmer Abner Stickle to African-American legal giant Madison Fulbright, find their interests and pursuit of justice intersect with simmering underlying community prejudices and emotions that explode into the open to reflect a broader schism in American politics. Bruce Westrate moves his story from a murder mystery to a legal encounter that embraces some of the undercurrents of adversity and prejudice in America today. Not quite a courtroom procedural (even though court appearances drive a good deal of the story) and not just a story of intrigue, Westrate shatters emotions and preconceptions of what makes for good and bad legal precedents and how the past reaches out to influence present-day decisions.

Firmly based on history and research into the rite of sati and the specter of personally gaining from tragedy and national calamity, the sati trial which evolves brings Allen to the precipice intersecting guilt and success as it forces him to confront moral and ethical influences in his own choices. Libraries and readers interested in a compelling blend of ethical and social examination and intellectual discourses over legal precedent and proceedings will relish the questions and conundrums in Altar of Ashes, which ignites a sense of shame and revelation in the protagonist after the final outcome is revealed. Book clubs interested in debating the foundations of courtroom proceedings that raise intriguing questions about connections between the nation's laws and its moral standing.

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