fiction

BOOK REVIEW: Love Will Tear Us Apart by C.K. McDonnell

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Title: Love Will Tear Us Apart

Author: C.K. McDonnell

Book Length: 448 Pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Humor, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal

Read Start Date: September 9, 2023

Read Finish Date:  September 29, 2023

Number of Book in Series: 3

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: Love can be a truly terrible thing.

Marriages are tricky at the best of times, especially when one of you is dead.

Vincent Banecroft, the irascible editor of The Stranger Times, has never believed his wife died despite emphatic evidence to the contrary. Now, against all odds, it seems he may actually be proved right; but what lengths will he go to in an attempt to rescue her?

With Banecroft distracted, the shock resignation of assistant editor, Hannah Willis, couldn’t have come at a worse time. It speaks volumes that her decision to reconcile with her philandering ex-husband is only marginally less surprising than Banecroft and his wife getting back together. In this time of crisis, is her decision to swan off to a fancy new-age retreat run by a celebrity cult really the best thing for anyone?

As if that wasn’t enough, one of the paper’s ex-columnists has disappeared, a particularly impressive trick seeing as he never existed in the first place.

Floating statues, hijacked ghosts, homicidal cherubs, irate starlings, Reliant Robins and quite possibly several deeply sinister conspiracies; all-in-all, a typical week for the staff of The Stranger Times.

My Review: Love Will Tear Us Apart by C.K. McDonnell is a riotous, hilarious, and heartfelt romp through the magical underbelly of Manchester. It’s the third book in the Stranger Times series, and it’s just as good as the first two, if not better.

McDonnell has a knack for creating quirky and unforgettable characters, and this book is no exception. We’re reunited with the intrepid team of journalists from the Stranger Times.

All of our old favorite characters are back and better than ever. Banecroft has never believed that his wife is dead, even though there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Now, as her voice emanates through the mouth of the ghostly resident of the Stranger Times office, Banecroft has reason to believe that she is still alive.

Hannah has resigned suddenly from the paper to get back with her husband, who has changed completely. She is attending the same retreat that made him a better person. The new assistant editor is, at first impression, bothersome, and it doesn’t seem that she will get along with the rest of the staff, especially Grace, whom she sets the task of collecting old invoices for an audit. Stella continues to discover the extent (or lack thereof) of her powers, and Ox, Stanley, and Reggie get into their own side investigations.

I don’t want to spoil the book, so I will just say that the plot is as wild and unpredictable as you’d expect from a C.K. McDonnell novel. It’s full of twists and turns, and there’s never a dull moment.

Of course, no Stranger Times book would be complete without its fair share of humor. And Love Will Tear Us Apart is no exception. McDonnell’s writing is witty and sharp, and he has a knack for finding the funny side of even the most dire situations. A couple of my favorite quotes are below.

“Banecroft picked up the bottle of Irish whiskey that sat on his desk and poured himself a healthy measure, then kept pouring past the point of unhealthy all the way to death wish.”

page 4

“‘The words ‘I didn’t like it’ do not do justice to my sentiments. I only read the first two chapters, but it is the worst thing I have ever been in the presence of. It’s basically a hate crime. If an Irish person were to read it, there is every chance they would come and find you and beat you to death with it.'”

page 191

Overall, Love Will Tear Us Apart is a must-read for fans of urban fantasy, comedy, and all things weird and wonderful. It’s a book that will make you laugh, cry, and think, all at the same time.

Stats: As of writing this review on October 10, 2023, this book has an average rating of 4.46 stars. As you can see, many people think this book is great, so you don’t have to take only my word for it.

Recommended? YES! YES! YES!

Other Books in the Series (that I have read)

Book 1:

Title: The Stranger Times

Author: C.K. McDonnell

Book Length: 424 pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Crime, Magic

Read Start Date: May 28, 2023

Read Finish Date: June 15, 2023

No. of Book in Series: 1

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: There are Dark Forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular) and so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them. A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but more often the weird) of modern life, it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable . . .

At least that’s their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and
-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little (and believes less) of the publication he edits, while his staff are a ragtag group of wastrels and misfits, each with their own secrets to hide and axes to grind. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door – and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who’s got her own set of problems.

It’s when tragedy strikes in Hannah’s first week on the job that The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious, proper, actual investigative journalism. What they discover leads them to a shocking realisation: that some of the stories they’d previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly, gruesomely real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker foes than they could ever have imagined. It’s one thing reporting on the unexplained and paranormal but it’s quite another being dragged into the battle between the forces of Good and Evil . . .

See my review of this book here.

Book 2:

Title: This Charming Man

Author: C.K. McDonnell

Book Length: 497 Pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Humor, Vampires, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Read Start Date: July 7, 2023

Read Finish Date: August 7, 2023

Number of Book in Series: 2

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: Vampires do not exist. Everyone knows this. So it’s particularly annoying when they start popping up around Manchester .

Nobody is pleased about it. Not the Founders, the secret organisation for whom vampires were invented as an allegory, nor the Folk, the magical people hidden in plain sight who only want a quiet life. And definitely not the people of Manchester, because there is nothing more irksome than being murdered by an allegory run amok. Somebody needs to sort this out fast before all Hell really breaks loose – step forward the staff of The Stranger Times.

It’s not like they don’t have enough to be dealing with. Assistant Editor Hannah has come back from getting messily divorced to discover that someone is trying to kidnap a member of their staff and while editor Vincent Banecroft would be delighted to see the back of any of his team, he doesn’t like people touching his stuff – it’s the principle of the thing.

Throw in a precarious plumbing situation, gambling debts, an entirely new way of swearing, and a certain detective inspector with what could be kindly referred to as ‘a lot of baggage’ and it all adds up to another hectic week in the life of the newspaper committed to reporting the truth that nobody else will touch.

See my review of this book here.

BOOK REVIEW: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

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Title: Tom Lake

Author: Ann Patchett

Audiobook Length: 11 hours and 22 minutes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

Read Start Date: September 16, 2023

Read Finish Date: September 23, 2023

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake.

As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

My Review: Tom Lake tells the story of Lara Novak, a woman who lives on a cherry orchard in Northern Michigan with her husband. Her three adult daughters return to the farm for the season. I believe that the present day events are set during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic is mentioned only in passing and doesn’t become an overarching theme of the novel. While picking cherries, the daughters ask Lara to tell them the story of Lara’s summer at Tom Lake during her early twenties, where, while participating in a summer stock theater company, she fell in love with a famous actor named Peter Duke. The daughters grew up watching Peter Duke in several favorite movies, and only recently learned that their mother had dated him in her youth.

The novel alternates between the present and the past, and the stories soon intertwine in a intricately woven story, where past actions / events, resonate with /dictate the present.

The storylines are character heavy, and not much happens other than the telling of their lives. In such books, I always find that it is vital that the book is written well, and that the lives of the characters are engaging enough to keep my interest. Both are true with Tom Lake. Patchett writes in beautiful prose, and her characters are relatable and loveable.

Stats: as of writing this post (October 9, 2023) Tom Lake has a 4.23 rating on Goodreads. My review of 4 stars is on par with the masses.

Recommended? Yes!

BOOK REVIEW: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

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Title: A Court of Mist and Fury

Author: Sarah J. Maas

Audiobook Length: 23 hours and 16 minutes

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Read Start Date: August 31, 2021

Read Finish Date: November 29, 2021

Number of Book in Series: 2

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads:  The seductive and stunning #1 New York Times bestselling sequel to Sarah J. Maas’s spellbinding A Court of Thorns and Roses .

Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she’s now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre’s hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas’s masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.

My Review: A Court of Mist and Fury is the second book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas. It continues the story of Feyre Archeron, a mortal girl who becomes entangled in the world of faeries.

The book begins with Feyre suffering from the aftermath of her traumatic experiences in the first book, A Court of Thorns and Roses. She is struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and feeling trapped in her engagement to Tamlin, the High Lord of the Spring Court.

Rhysand, the enigmatic High Lord of the Night Court, claims Feyre as part of a bargain they made in the previous book. Feyre is taken to the Night Court, where she gradually begins to heal both physically and emotionally. She forms deep bonds with Rhysand and his inner circle, which includes Amren, Azriel, Cassian, and Mor.

The book also delves into the politics and power dynamics of the faerie courts, as well as the looming threat of an ancient evil.

The central romance between Feyre and Rhysand is a significant aspect of the story, and I found it excruciating to read about. At nearly 24 hours long, this book is so long and painful. Everyone goes around “hissing” and “snarling,” calling each other “prick,” “bastard,” and “whore,” and the plot is just pointless. Snore. I also found it disturbing that the main character is supposed to be a teenager (19 years old?), and her fairy lovers are grown men. And I don’t mean that they are like 1,000 years old, but in fairy years, that’s a teenager…I mean, they are (maybe) 1,000 years old, and in fairy years, that makes them at least 30, if not 40 or 50! I don’t understand how this book is a YA novel (according to Goodreads). I wouldn’t want my teenager to read this book. There are way too many graphic sex scenes! I also don’t understand why people are so thrilled at the relationships between the main character and the 2 fairy lovers…they are abusive! The relationships are abusive! How many times in the book did we hear that Tamlin “locked me up!” (like 100…we get it! He LOCKED YOU UP!!) Even though Feyra left one abusive relationship, she is a “traitor” for getting into another relationship? What?? Great message: leaving an abusive relationship is wrong…huh? Rhys is suddenly a great guy, when in the last book, he was a class-A jerk, because he is Feyre’s mate? (another word beat into the brain: mate, mate, mate, mate, mate). “My mate”…yes, we get it, Maas, Rhys is Feyre’s mate…you don’t need to repeat it 200 times. And then Feyra stopped referring to him as Rhys and started saying, “My mate.” I had a giant eye roll at that. Sorry for venting, but I could not even with this book.

I didn’t really like the first book, but thought that I would give the second book a try. I liked the second book even less than the first.

Stats: As of the writing of this post on October 9, 2023, this book has a rating of 4.64 on Goodreads. So clearly, my review is not tot typical reception that this book usually receives.

Recommended? No, but as stated above, my opinion is the minority.

BOOK REVIEW: The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes

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Title: The House in the Pines

Author: Ana Reyes

Audiobook Length: 8 hours and 34 minutes

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense

Read Start Date: September 3, 2023

Read Finish Date: September 7, 2023

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: Armed with only hazy memories, a woman who long ago witnessed her friend’s sudden, mysterious death, and has since spent her life trying to forget, sets out to track down answers. What she uncovers, deep in the woods, is hardly to be believed….

Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank whom they’d been spending time with all summer.

Seven years later, Maya lives in Boston with a loving boyfriend and is kicking the secret addiction that has allowed her to cope with what happened years ago, the gaps in her memories, and the lost time that she can’t account for. But her past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. Plunged into the trauma that has defined her life, Maya heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer–the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey.

At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born, but time keeps running out, and soon, all roads are leading back to Frank’s cabin….

Utterly unique and captivating, The House in the Pines keeps you guessing about whether we can ever fully confront the past and return home.

My Review: Maya witnessed the sudden and mysterious death of her best friend, Aubrey, when they were both high school seniors. Seven years later, Maya is still haunted by Aubrey’s death and the gaps in her memories of that summer. When she sees a video of a young woman dying in a diner after sitting across from Frank, the same man who was with Aubrey when she died, Maya is forced to confront her past. She returns to her hometown in the Berkshires to try to piece together what happened, but she soon realizes that Frank is not the only one who has secrets.

The book has a feeling of the supernatural — and the twist at the end was not expected!

I really enjoyed this book. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time, just waiting to figure out what it is about Frank that make women drop dead around him. The characters development was also great. They are complex and realistic, and in the case of Maya, is flawed yet deeply likeable. We learn the backstory of Maya (the timeline alternates from the present, as Maya investigates the death of Christine, to what happened in the past leading up to Aubrey’s death). We get an in depth look at the relationships Maya has in her life: with her boyfriend, her mother, and her best friend when she was a child. We learn of Maya’s trauma, her struggles and her will to overcome them.

I felt invested in Maya and her growth through out the novel.

Stats: As of writing this review (September 12, 2023) this book has a 3.14 star rating on Goodreads, which I feel to be unfair. I thought this book was just fantastic!

Recommended? YES!

BOOK REVIEW Netgalley: The Doom Magnetic Trilogy by William Pauley III

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Title: The Doom Magnetic Trilogy

Author: William Pauley III

Audiobook Length: 5 hours

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Bizarro Fiction, Science Fiction, Horror

Read Start Date:  September 11, 2023

Read Finish Date: September 15, 2023

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: CHORIZO, NEVADA is filled with the grittiest of men and the filthiest of women—the perfect place for a man chockful of secrets to hide. But one fateful day, his past catches up to him…

A Japanese assassin, with a cue-ball for an eye, invades the town with an army of two-foot eyeless minions who thirst for human blood. This man has two things on his mind: Where is his purple television? And who is the dead man that stole it from him?

The Doom Magnetic Trilogy is a fast-paced sci-fi western, packed plum-full of sex, violence, cosmic voids, coliseum-style combat, genetically engineered mutants, breathy brain whispers, cigar smoke torture chambers, and a sea of electric television zombies.

This is the weirdest book you will ever read.

My Review: I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Mungden has stolen The Purple Television (an object that has magical powers) from the Japanese Government, and Qoser, a Japanese assassin with a cue ball for an eye, has been tasked with its return due to his unique skillset (i.e., he can use the doom magnetic).

I have read many of Pauley’s books, and like the rest, this one is weird but oddly amazing. The description level given to the characters, actions, and scenes is always fantastic, and you can see the images in your head as you read.

The audiobook is masterfully narrated by Connor Brannigan. He has a wide range of character voices and is fantastic at building atmosphere with his tone. Pauley nailed using Brannigan as the narrator for his works.

The Doom Magnetic Trilogy is not for everyone. It is a violent and strange series that may not appeal to all readers. However, if you are a fan of dark and twisted science fiction, you should definitely check it out.

Reviews Published
Professional Reader
10 Book Reviews

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

BOOK REVIEW: Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

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Title: Alone With You in the Ether

Author: Olivie Blake

Audiobook Length: 9 hours and 57 minutes

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Literary Fiction

Read Start Date: August 23, 2023

Read Finish Date: August 28, 2023

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: CHICAGO, SOMETIME—

Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.

To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.

For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?

My Review: I wasn’t particularly in love with Blake’s book The Atlas Six (you can find my review here), and so had decided not to read the other books in that series. However, I figured I would give Blake as an author another shot, and so picked up Alone With You in the Ether from the library as an audiobook. I had no idea what it was about, other than it topped the “popular” charts at the Vienna library.

In reading the book, my mood was constantly at status quo. I neither loved, nor hated the book. I didn’t feel much of anything about it, really…it was more something to listen to in order to pass the time. I did become annoyed from time to time at the different voices in the audiobook version, as Blake had some weird “narrator” POV that popped up sporadically and only for a sentence of two to describe to the reader the backstory of what was happening at that moment.

Some people absolutely love this book, like Ary and Books. I believe the review even mentions that Ary and Books bought multiple editions.

“the relationship (Regan & Aldo) in this book is another reason I am still mentally brainrottingly obsessed over it. Their connection is so beautiful and so deep, I loved both of them dearly throughout, but together it was a wild, heart wrenching, beautiful love. I felt through the whole book that I was fighting for them, fighting with them.”

Ary and Books

For me, Aldo and Regan (pronounced Reegan not Raygan) were not particularly enjoyable/likeable characters, and their “love” story was more like watching two trains barreling at full speed toward each other. You know they are going to crash and burn, which is not something you really want to witness, but somehow you can’t look away either.

From all the reviews of this book that I have read, it seems that you either love this book or don’t. I am sorry to say that I fell into the category of don’t.

Stats: My three star rating is below the average rating for this book, which on September 8, 2023 is 3.91 stars.

Recommended? Given that my 3 star rating is below the average for this book, and that other people absolutely love it, I can neither recommend, nor not recommend this book. You will have to judge for yourself :).

BOOK REVIEW: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

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Title: Hello Beautiful

Author: Ann Napolitano

Audiobook Length: 15 hours and 6 minutes

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction

Read Start Date: August 7, 2023

Read Finish Date: August 19, 2023

Goodreads’ Synopsis: An emotionally layered and engrossing story of a family that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.

But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

My Review: The novel begins with the birth of William Waters, a boy who is unwanted by his parents. He grows up in a house filled with silence and sadness, and he never feels loved or accepted. When he meets Julia Padavano, the oldest of the four sisters, he finds a connection that he has never had before. Julia’s family is everything that William’s is not: they are loving, supportive, and full of life.

William and Julia fall in love and get married. With Julia comes her family, the Padavanos. The Padavanos are a close-knit family who are always there for each other, no matter what. William finally feels like he belongs somewhere. However, the Padavanos are not without their own problems. Julia’s father, Charlie, is a struggling alcoholic. Her mother, Rose, is a devoted wife and mother, but she is also exhausted and overwhelmed. The sisters themselves are all struggling to find their own way in the world.

The novel spans four decades, from the 1960s to the 2000s, and explores themes of love, loss, forgiveness, and redemption.

Hello Beautiful is a beautifully written and moving novel that deals with some heavy topics, such as childhood trauma, grief, and loss. I often felt melancholy while reading this book, so I think that you have to be in a good headspace before starting it.

Each character is well developed and complex and feels like a real person.

William Waters is shaped by a childhood trauma that follows him into adulthood. For decades, his choice to abandon his wife and infant daughter created ripple effects throughout the Padavano family. When abandoned by William, Julia, a strong and independent woman, blazes her own path despite the obstacles ahead of her. Sylvie is a dreamer and a romantic, and she is always looking for a new adventure. She is drawn to William’s vulnerability and makes a choice that creates a rift between the once close-knit sisters. The first to go her own way, Cecelia is an artist and a free spirit, and she is not afraid to be herself. Emeline, Cecelia’s twin, is the family’s caretaker and is always there to lend a helping hand. Emeline struggles with her sexuality and whether to be herself in the face of outside scrutiny or bigotry.

It is a story about the power of love and the importance of family, even when things are at their darkest. There is so much to unpack in this book, that it will stay with you long after reading it. Apparently, it is supposed to be based on Little Women, but in my opinion it is at best “loosely” based on Little Women.

Stats: As of September 8, 2023, this book has a 4.23-star rating on Goodreads, so my review is on par with that of the general public.

Recommended? YES!

BOOK REVIEW: This Charming Man by C.K. McDonnell

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Title: This Charming Man

Author: C.K. McDonnell

Book Length: 497 Pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Humor, Vampires, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Read Start Date: July 7, 2023

Read Finish Date: August 7, 2023

Number of Book in Series: 2

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: Vampires do not exist. Everyone knows this. So it’s particularly annoying when they start popping up around Manchester .

Nobody is pleased about it. Not the Founders, the secret organisation for whom vampires were invented as an allegory, nor the Folk, the magical people hidden in plain sight who only want a quiet life. And definitely not the people of Manchester, because there is nothing more irksome than being murdered by an allegory run amok. Somebody needs to sort this out fast before all Hell really breaks loose – step forward the staff of The Stranger Times.

It’s not like they don’t have enough to be dealing with. Assistant Editor Hannah has come back from getting messily divorced to discover that someone is trying to kidnap a member of their staff and while editor Vincent Banecroft would be delighted to see the back of any of his team, he doesn’t like people touching his stuff – it’s the principle of the thing.

Throw in a precarious plumbing situation, gambling debts, an entirely new way of swearing, and a certain detective inspector with what could be kindly referred to as ‘a lot of baggage’ and it all adds up to another hectic week in the life of the newspaper committed to reporting the truth that nobody else will touch.

My Review: The characters from The Stranger Times are back and as hilarious as ever. Instead of telling you how great the book is, I’m just going to share some of my favorite quotes from the book below.

“‘But we haven’t got running water’, said Grace.

‘Yes,’ said Banecroft. ‘The good Lord has blessed me with many gifts, including male genitalia. Ergo, I can pee anywhere. Out of windows, in woods, in that plant pot beside your desk…’

‘Don’t you dare,’ warned Grace.

Banecroft waved a hand theatrically in the air as he left the room. ‘Too late!’

Grace looked around the room. ‘He wouldn’t, would he?’

Her colleagues avoided her gaze.

‘If you’ll excuse me,’ she sighed, ‘I need to go and burn an asparagus fern.'”

page 62-63

“Vincent Banecroft slipped through he doors of the Kanky’s Rest pub and looked around him. He’d never been here before and yet he knew the place well. It was a proper old fellas pub. Everything was made out of hardened wood or worn leather, including the clienetele.”

Page 135

“Hannah shook her head. ‘How has he got this far in life without anyone stabbing him?’

‘I heard that,’ roared Banecroft from the other room. ‘Shows what you know. I’ve been stabbed twice!'”

page 201

“On the day Banecroft went to pass his driving test on the first time, Patrick, the instructor who’d had to endure the stresses of teaching him, resigned in protest at a system that was broke beyond belief. He retrained in a less stressful profession and ended up being awarded a medal for his work as a bomb-disposal technician.”

page 415

Stats: As of writing this review on September 3, 2023, this book has an average rating of 4.39 stars. As you can see, many people think this book is great, so you don’t have to take only my word for it.

Recommended? YES! YES! YES!

Other Books in the Series (that I have read)

Title: The Stranger Times

Author: C.K. McDonnell

Book Length: 424 pages

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Crime, Magic

Read Start Date: May 28, 2023

Read Finish Date: June 15, 2023

No. of Book in Series: 1

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: There are Dark Forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular) and so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them. A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but more often the weird) of modern life, it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable . . .

At least that’s their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and
-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little (and believes less) of the publication he edits, while his staff are a ragtag group of wastrels and misfits, each with their own secrets to hide and axes to grind. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door – and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who’s got her own set of problems.

It’s when tragedy strikes in Hannah’s first week on the job that The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious, proper, actual investigative journalism. What they discover leads them to a shocking realisation: that some of the stories they’d previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly, gruesomely real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker foes than they could ever have imagined. It’s one thing reporting on the unexplained and paranormal but it’s quite another being dragged into the battle between the forces of Good and Evil . . .

See my review of this book here.

BOOK REVIEW: Worms by James R. Montague

/ E.A. Hoffmann / Leave a comment

Title: Worms

Author: James R. Montague

Book Length: 186 pages

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Genre: Fiction, Horror, Gothic

Read Start Date: June 23, 2023

Read Finish Date: July 7, 2023

Brief Summary of the Plot from Goodreads: 

My Review: I found this book at the local library. I had never heard of this book before, but it seemed like something that was right up my alley. I usually love horror novels from the 1970s and 80s (Worms was first published in 1979). I was expecting a creature feature similar in style to Jaws by Peter Benchley. However, Worms was more of a thriller with a flavor of worms.

James Hildebrand is not a good guy. In fact, he’s a murderer. Retiring to the Norfolk coast, he seeks peace and quiet, and for no one to suspect him of fowl play in the untimely death of his wife. Invasive in his daily life are the worms, and at first we do not know whether the worms are figurative — a metaphor for the guilt festering in his mind — or whether they are real.

As he begins to suspect that someone knows his secret, the infestation intensifies, leading to an expected conclusion.

I liked the book, but I didn’t love it. I’ve thought about it a lot and I do not know why this book didn’t do it for me. Don’t get me wrong, it was entertaining, and I’m glad I picked it off the shelf, but I also could have lived without ever reading this book. It was good, but not life altering.

Stats: As of August 29, 2023: 3.6 stars on Goodreads from 145 reviews.

Recommended? Yes, but I wouldn’t add it at the top of your list.