🌟🌟🌟🌟 A British-Columbia based thriller, set deep in the interior of the Pacific Northwest, on a remote forested island decimated by the closing of the local mill. As the remaining villagers attempt to find a means to survive, poaching of magnificent old-growth trees, many of them hundreds (or even thousands)…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 What, after all, is a storyteller? In this seething exposé, itself the work of a fictional storyteller crafted by a real-life storyteller, “ripping through bone and gristle to the tender bleeding heart”, June Hayward, aka Juniper Song, takes us deep into the “grotesque” world of commercial publishing, from a…
🌟🌟🌟💫 Are we destined to follow in the footsteps (good or even evil) of our ancestors? An interesting premise, explored by this author, as we meet nine-year-old Kate Harmon, with her very complicated parentage, who happens to be the only witness to a horrific fatal event. An event which may…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 A disconcerting look at systemic racism, as it exists, in even the very nicest neighborhoods and families. For Salma and Bilal Khatun, along with their eighteen year-old son Zain, a move to new house signals the beginning of a nightmare, made all the worse by the seeming civility of…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 1/2 A sly and clever mashup of perhaps the most dysfunctional family ever, a stylishly-plotted mystery, and a behind-the-scenes fantastical look at the audacious lifestyles of the fabulously wealthy, all rolled into one addictively-suspenseful package that is sure to keep you reading. Alana is a thirty-something volunteer at a…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 A historical and cleverly-fictionalized look at the inner-life of a British Princess - Louise Caroline Alberta - born in 1848 as the sixth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (deceased when this story begins) - an accomplished sculptor, patron of the arts, and yes, champion of love and…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 A complex story of secrets, a memoir spanning decades of searching, as the author, her two siblings and her parents, (each of them, separately and in their own anguished way) navigate a world shrouded in visceral pain and uncertainty - just who, exactly, are they, deep inside - who…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Thick with menace and foreboding, this creepy and stylish thriller is a modern-day techno-horror parable - a warning that any individual’s life, in the virtual arena, is as malleable as the imagination (and motivation) of its digital author (be it benevolent or dastardly). Alex Hutchinson is living the dream.…
🌟🌟🌟💫 An Interesting and suspenseful premise, executed with the help of a crazily complex web of strange and compelling characters (most of them harboring deception and secrets), and an intensely creepy setting, this book’s initially engaging start fell somewhat flat for this reader on the final go-round. Hannah, our main…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Packed with sardonic humor (Note to reader: watch where you read this book. I found myself laughing out loud in several places) pop culture (many of which were obscure to this reader), faux fur, and pink velvet, this ode to growing up a literary-wannabe in the exploding world of…