Rescued From The River by Stephy Smith

My Rating: 3 1/2 Stars

Title: Rescued From The River

Author: Stephy Smith

Genre: Historical Romance

Length: 78 Pages

Summary: 


Darkness engulfs Emma Donley as she sits on the banks of the Cache La Poudre River near Fort Collins, Colorado. Harvey Morgan, a trapper, kidnaps her with plans to keep her on the mountain as his woman for the winter. Morgan’s embittered rage turns deadly when her strong-minded escape thwarted his plans.

Kale Tucker hears the gunshot. He fears the worst for the next victim of Morgan. His anger grows persistent when he pulls the blood-soaked body of a beautiful woman from the river.

Doubts of her survival weighs heavy on his shoulders. However, he has to try to save the woman he rescued from the river. 

Review:

This review is long past due. I should have this one done months ago and I apologize to the author. Several months ago, when I was reviewing books on the Examiner.com website, I reviewed Ms. Smith's other book titled "Lizzie and the Rebel". With that book, while I loved the characters, I felt the pacing was off. Things happened too fast to be realistic and there wasn't really much sense of time passing to make it seem believable. So, to be honest, I was little reluctant to read this one. And when I first sat down to read it, the first few pages, once again, didn't seem realistic to me. Feeling like perhaps I wasn't in the right frame of mind to read it, I decided to put it aside to come back to later. I'm glad I did, though I wish I hadn't waited quite so long.

While Emma may not react in the same way that I would in the very beginning, she redeems herself later. She is a very strong character that will fight when pushed far enough. She may want to be a school teacher, but she is not some timid little mouse that will be pushed around. She fights to escape from the creepy mountain man, Morgan, and she fights to live. 


With the first book, pacing was an issue for me. This book handles it much better. You get the sense of time passing and as the two main characters begin to develop feelings for each other it's not necessarily an instant thing the way it seemed in the other one. This is much more realistic to me, and thus more believable. This may be a personal bias on my part but I tend to have issues with pacing in most of the short length novelettes that I read and Ms. Smith did an admirable job with it. There was a couple parts that felt rushed and one part in particular that it would have been nice to know more about what happened, but over all it was nicely handled.


I loved the character of Sally, Kale's mother. She was kind and caring, with a backbone of steel. She made me laugh aloud a couple of times and by the end I just adored her. I also liked Kale's father but he doesn't make many appearances. When he is in there, though, he is memorable. The story of these two, with the background that we got a peak at, would make a fabulous book.


The plot itself is believable and interesting. Without giving too much away, the part with the plague was ingenious, I thought. Again, as I say with most short length books, I would have enjoyed seeing it as a full length novel. There is enough of a plot here to handle it and the details that could have been included with a full length would have been great. I found a couple of mis-spellings/punctuation issues but it was minimal and, honestly, I was enjoying the book enough that I really didn't care. 

One thing that I, personally, love about this author is the way she blends in the Native American aspects in her books. It's not in your face. It's not stereotypical. It's not even the main focus of the story. But it's there and it's blended and weaved into the story in a way that is very well done. 


I look forward to checking out the next book by this author.

Pa Weathery's Chickens by Paul Morris

My Rating: 3 1/2 Stars

Title: Pa Weathery's Chickens

Author: Paul Morris

Genre: Fiction/Historical/Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Length: 239 Pages

 

Summary: 

JFK: the conspiracy is stranger than you think .....

"You can sleep in the barn but if you so much as lay a finger on my daughter or my chickens, it's your neck I'll wring." (Pa Weathery)

When an extraterrestrial Traveler arrives on the border of Texas, USA, in November 1963, you can bet that he is on a mission to do a lot more than just lay his hands on Pa Weathery's daughter and his chickens, although they'll do nicely too.

Crossing lawless lands where colored men are beaten to a pulp to add spice to another otherwise pointless night out, and where the white cops stand by applying arbitrary injustice, the Traveler is headed inexorably for Dallas, Texas, November 22 12:32 p.m., where he has been tasked with an act that will change the world forever.

..... and even he doesn't know why. 

Review: 

The first thing I did after being asked to review this book was look up the blurb. It sounded interesting and already had some good reviews, so I agreed, even though it isn't typically the genre that I read. When I finally sat down to read it, I really wasn't sure what to think. And, by the end of it....I still wasn't sure what to think.

Set in the deep south of the early 1960's, it puts our story firmly in the middle of the racial segregation controversies of the period. When the main character of the story, an alien, takes stock of his new, Earthly body he realizes that he's been given black skin. While this adds a twist and tension to the plot, it also raises questions for the reader (addressed below). Forced to travel to his final destination, our alien visitor naturally encounters a few obstacles along the way. Some of the obstacles are amusing, some are downright hilarious and some are just disturbing.


The plot definitely has an interesting and unique concept. It is well written and seemed to be well researched. Mr. Morris has a most definite talent for story telling and drawing in the reader. SimRarg, the main protagonist, is an intriguing but not entirely sympathetic character. The little tidbits that you get from SimRarg's prior education of both his job and Earth are entertaining, as are many of the people he meets in his travels. Mr. Morris also does a very good job with the dialect of not only the deep south but also of the racial differences in speech as well.


The author had me invested for the first third of the book, no question, until SimRarg arrives in the little town of Beausoleil. After that, I began to question some of the events taking place along with some of the logistics of the whole mission that SimRarg was faced with. Most everything that happens in the first third of the book made total sense to me. Later in the book, though, there just doesn't seem to be any reason for some of the events. Much of it doesn't really move the plot forward in any way other than to possibly introduce some bit players and maybe show some local color. Also, for me personally, some of it was just confusing. The bit with "The Ethiopian", the game playing and the "tej", seemed totally unnecessary to me as did most of the interaction in the book with "X". Venusia was one of the most colorful, and in some ways entertaining, character in the book. I thoroughly enjoyed her, but again, the part with her towards the very end of the book just left me confused.


One of the things about this book that lost me for much of it was the alien aspect. Not in the possibility, but in the details. A lot of little things just didn't add up. If there is an alien race advanced enough that they think they need to send one of their beings here to alter our history, fill his head with useless (and helpful) information for his mission and give him a human body then why aren't they smart enough to know that giving him black skin during that time period would make things infinitely more difficult? For that matter, why aren't they capable of dropping him someplace closer to his ultimate destination? Another thing was that SimRarg realizes that he is slowed down to some extent by the frailties of his human body and there are times that he fears injury by various means and/or actually is injured. But there is one thing that happens that, given all these other instances, makes no sense that it has as little impact as it does. The fact that SimRarg has no idea why he is there to perform his task didn't seem very realistic to me either, especially given the fact that his race apparently has a 'collective consciousness'.


I found the book to be an entertaining diversion from what I normally read and it did keep me reading once I started, anxious to see what happened next. It's not a book that would go on my keeper shelf, but I would recommend it to a friend I knew to be interested in the various aspects of this book. In fact, I already have. So, while it may not be a book that I would re-read, I would definitely check out future works by this author. The end appeared to be left open to a sequel, so maybe I'll have that opportunity soon.

E-book:



Paperback:

Double Crossing by Meg Mims

My Rating: 4 Stars

Title: Double Crossing

Author: Meg Mims

Publisher: Astraea Press

Genre: Historical Romantic Suspense

Length: 215 Pages

Summary: 

A murder arranged as a suicide … a missing deed  … and a bereft daughter whose sheltered world is shattered.

 

August, 1869: Lily Granville is stunned by her father’s murder. The police believe it was a suicide but she knows the truth. Guilt plagues her, since she argued bitterly with her father about the family lawyer’s loyalty. And only that lawyer knew her father had possession of a valuable California gold mine deed—a deed vital to fight a court battle against another claimant in California. Now the deed and the lawyer are missing.

Determined to track her father’s killer and join her uncle in Sacramento to fight the court case, Lily heads west on the newly opened transcontinental railroad. After her baggage is ransacked in her Omaha hotel room, she realizes she is no longer the hunter but the prey. It seems her father’s killer believes she is taking the deed west to Sacramento. And as things progress from bad to worse, Lily is uncertain who to trust—the China-bound missionary who wants to marry her, or the wandering Texan who offers to protect her … for a price.

Danger, intrigue and a second murder turn this adventure west into true peril. Will Lily survive the journey and unexpected betrayal?

Review: 

There was a time, long, long ago, when I would devour historicals like candy. Then I got bored. Probably because it felt like I had read damned near every plot imaginable. So to say that I was surprised at how quickly I got sucked into this one is an understatement. This one is like taking all the best things about a former love, combining it with all the best things about a new love and then adding a dash of adventure and intrigue. Don't be fooled - this is not your standard historical.


Lily has been raised well off. She has never had to want for much of anything and has been spoiled by doting parents. This is not to say that she is a spoiled brat. I only point this out because it makes her behavior later that much more courageous. This is also not to say that she hasn't known heartache. Her mother died when she was younger and her father was off fighting in the Civil War. All of this only brings Lily and her father closer and they are friends as well as father/daughter. When Lily's father is murdered in such a way to make it appear as a suicide, Lily knows immediately that this is not the case. After a couple of days in which Lily is lost in a haze of grief, she becomes determined to see her father's killer brought to justice. This sets Lily on a path that will take her across the country in a setting that is rarely seen in a historical romance to the extent that Ms. Mims gives us.


Set during the time less than six months after the Golden Spike Ceremony that connected the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads, the unique thing about this novel is that the majority of it takes place on a train. The author does an excellent job in describing not only the railroad cars and what you could expect to experience on a trip with this new railroad but also the surroundings. As you are reading you can visualize the views from the windows, the little towns or stations that pass by and the towns that the railroad stops in. The sheer amount of research that had to be done to accomplish this is mind-boggling.


The characters are well developed and enjoyable. Lily is the type of character that I really enjoy seeing in novels. Despite her age, she is very spunky and determined. Despite her fear of a killer, she refuses to back down from her goal. She stands up to an overbearing aunt with admiral aplomb and, realizing that she only has herself to depend on, hires protection for herself. She is intelligent, quick thinking and compassionate. The protection she hires for herself comes in the form of Ace Diamond, a ruffian who almost literally falls in her lap. While the motives, and character, of Mr. Diamond remain somewhat elusive he shows himself to be loyal and quite capable of holding up his end of the bargain. The secondary characters of the aunt and uncle, Lily's suitor Charles and her new friend Kate are each unique in their own individual ways, easily distinguishable from each other in personality, behavior and quirks.


The plot is also well developed and the mystery and intrigue will keep you guessing throughout the novel and turning the pages in a hurry to see what happens next. One might think that a train would be limiting in a suspense but given the limitations of the social restrictions of the time period and the fact that the main character is female it only adds to the story.


My only complaint about Double Crossing would be that, for a romance, there really isn't much romance in it. The tension between Ace and Lily could have been built up considerably more and earlier on, which would have added quite a bit to the romantic portion of the story. We also don't get the obvious 'happily ever after' that romance novels are known for. We only get a shadow of that. The ending is a bit ambiguous and is unclear as to whether we are meant to imagine the future happy ending for ourselves or if it is being left open to a sequel.


Overall, I really enjoyed this book - the uniqueness of the setting, the vividness of the descriptions and the volume of research that it is obvious the author put into it all made the book come alive. It kept me up well into the early morning hours, turning the pages, anxious to see what happened. If you enjoy historicals, especially if you like new settings, you should check this one out.


This book is such a new release (just released on 8/9/11) that I'm not sure where to direct you to find a copy just yet, other than the publisher's website: Astraea Press. That link will take you directly to the page for the book and, I believe, there are various formats available directly through the Astraea Press store. I will post an update when it's available at other locations, like Barnes & Noble and/or Amazon, if I find out about it.