First a quick explanation!
Due to some severe health issues over the last few years, and a lingering chronic condition, my planned review schedule went right out of the window and I have been scrabbling ever since to get it back on track.
In an attempt to try to regain some lost ground, I have been scrunching some of my (overdue) reviews together into one or two posts each week: shorter reviews, but still covering all of the points I intended to.
That's the plan anyway, so let's see if we can find any summer beach reads packed on my TBR shelves…!
Title: Just a Wild Ghost Chase
Author: Dan Harris
Publisher: Independently published
Blurb: When Tom signed up to the Unit to keep the world safe from paranormal threats, it was with the firm understanding that he would be working from the safety of his desk. But with a wave of ghosts sweeping the city, Tom is forced into the streets, tunnels and graveyards of London to face the terrors that haunt them.
Meanwhile, elderly witch Martha has the ability to exorcise the ghosts. But she has another issue to deal with: Tom's agency will happily arrest her as a magic user if they lay their hands on her.
Can the unlikely pair set aside their differences to combat the sinister power threatening the city?
Review: Similarly to the first book in this series, Only Ghouls and Horses, this book was really good fun and felt over far too soon!
Main character Tom continues to complete his exorcism field assignments to the best of his ability while covering his colleague's maternity leave, and meanwhile Martha is trying to find out what is causing the recent rise in disturbances and hoping it might be new witches to aid her coven cause.
There is plenty of humour, action and ghostly goings-on, as the author continues to successfully blend British 'The Office'-style humour with Simon R. Green's kind of urban fantasy adventure.
The book still felt like the second-half of Book 1 rather than a full standalone novella, but I was hooked enough to immediately buy books 3 and 4 in the series... reviews to follow at some point!
Title: Scoochie & Skiddles: Scoochie's Adoption Story
Author: Tom Tracey; Illustrator: Dustin James
Publisher: Scoochie & Skiddles LLC
Blurb: Scoochie was adopted by her two daddies through an open adoption. While at the park one day, a friend notices Scoochie's two dads and inquires "Where's your mom?" Based on an actual experience of the author's family, Scoochie's Adoption Story, chronicles Scoochie's explanation of adoption to her friends.
Using kid-friendly language, the book normalizes the adoption process as one way a family can be formed. Scoochie's Adoption Story is a celebration of family, regardless of family composition. Through text and illustration, the story represents a wide variety of families, supporting inclusion and acceptance.
Scoochie's Adoption Story is part of the Scoochie & Skiddles collection of inclusive kids book. It is a multi-award winning book and has been featured on CBS-Philly News, SJ Magazine and Gay Parent Magazine. It has received glowing endorsements by adoption agencies, child professionals, educators and parents/families alike.
A perfect reading book for all families, including children of LGBT parents, diverse families, and families touched by adoption.
Review: This colourful picture book tells a lovely multi-racial, LGBTQIA open adoption story, based on the real-life experiences of the author.
The story explores different kinds of family units in clear, kid-friendly language and with bold, bright illustrations to complement the text. We read this as a family and the only part we found a little unclear was Scoochie and Skiddles' family tree at the end of the book (perhaps because this is Book 2 and we haven't read Book 1?)
Here's what Minishine (11) and Babybows (8) had to say about the story:
Minishine: I liked it better the second time we read it through because I think I understood it better. The first time I wasn't sure which children were which and how they were a family together but when we talked about it more, I got it.
Babybows: It's a nice story and was good for telling us about people's families that aren't like our family.
Ms: I learnt that if you have a child and want to give it to somebody else what happens and how you do it, and that you can adopt different children from different families to make one new family.
Bb: I learnt what 'diverse' means, and that you have to go to a judge when you get adopted. And that I'm not adopted! [Bookshine: We had to prove this with pictures and he was a little disappointed, I think!] Five stars!
This is a useful and reassuring resource for speaking to young children about adoption and about diverse families and a cute picture book for any family reading time.
Title: How to Become a Grown-Ass Woman
Author: Cailin Riley
Publisher: Independently published
Blurb: College. Relationships. Career changes, existential dread and the dreaded patriarchy.
In How to Become a Grown-Ass Woman, you'll get the down-to-earth, honest-to-goodness advice for navigating modern life that you usually only get from really drunk strangers at the bar.
In each easily digestible chapter, you'll learn several handy tactics for becoming a boss lady, including how to:
- Shut down boring diet talk from coworkers
- Avoid financial pitfalls and make credit cards your bitch
- Survive a break-up and emerge like a phoenix from a grease fire
- Overcome the old, clingy wench that is adult loneliness
Review: There's no rocket science here, just common sense and sensible guidance, like you might get from an older, wiser friend.
The book is aimed at women in their early 20s and covers everything: physical health, mental health, career, side gigs, finances, friendship, love, family and 'deep stuff'. It's pretty comprehensive! And there is a useful list of resources and sources at the end, for anyone who wants to know more.
The author takes a frank, non-patronising, conversational tone as she imparts the hard-won knowledge she gained from her own life experiences and what she wishes she would have known when younger and there are discussion questions at the end of each chapter to help you consider how the topics relate to your own life and challenges.
This would make a great gift for a 20th birthday, or for any 20-something woman to treat themself to when they are feeling a bit lost in life.
Personally, I absolutely agreed with most of the advice presented here, but I highly doubt 20-something me would have followed any of it! Hindsight: 20/20, common sense: 0!
Title: A Brand to Die For
Author: Alex Pearl
Publisher: Fizgig Press
Blurb: WORKING IN ADVERTISING CAN BE MURDER - LITERALLY.
It's 1983. Margaret Thatcher has been waging war on the Argentinians in the Falkland Islands. The miners are about to wage war on Margaret Thatcher. And Angus Lovejoy, once sent down from Charterhouse for shagging the Chancellor's daughter in the cricket pavilion, has now landed himself a job as a copywriter at London adland's creative hot shop Gordon Deedes Rutter where he is teamed up with art director Brian Finkle whose neurotic Jewish parents are the bane of his life. The two are an unlikely duo, but their mischievous and sardonic take on the world makes them a brilliant creative team. Everything goes swimmingly until a bizarre and mysterious murder rocks the world of Gordon Deedes Rutter and ripples out into the national media.
While the dearth of evidence leaves the police baffled, Lovejoy and Finkle, take it upon themselves to apply their creative brains to solve the mystery, and in so doing, inadvertently get themselves into particularly deep water.
Review: Something of a mixed bag, this book! The plot and tone are an unusual mixture of the TV series Mad Men, P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings stories and a gangland thriller, which was entertaining but kept throwing me off balance just as I was settling into the story.
The satire-style ad-men beginning was quite funny, despite the rampant misogyny and casual sexism - which were likely true to the setting! - and I absolutely LOVED when the plot suddenly sidestepped into a Wodehousian murder mystery, complete with beloved pigs. Then I was baffled, and a little disappointed, when the story took another steep swerve, this time into Italian crime families, car chases and shoot-outs. I had really enjoyed trying to work out whodunnit up until that point, then rather lost my grip on the plot and had to sit back and just enjoy wherever the ride took me next.
This definitely could have been a 5* read for me, if the thriller aspect had been omitted entirely and the suspects restricted to the pool of advertising executives and miscellaneous others who attended the ad-pitch conference. It was such a clever set-up and with plenty of subtle British humour and satirical touches, and the mash-up of the Gordon Deedes Rutter dream team with cereal and wild boar was utterly inspired.
Ultimately I felt that too many different books collided here but the story caught in the collision was a potential "pearl" nestled amid swine of both the literal and metaphorical variety.
Title: H2Liftships - A Back Story
Author: Bob Freeman
Publisher: Indies United Publishing House
Blurb: Trading and dealing for a living is just what the LunaCola's crew is doing to get by. But everybody (or octopus) has a backstory, and the members of the crew have more than enough to reminisce. There's nothing quite like sitting down to play cards, celebrating a job well done, and recollecting the past but there's still plenty that still has to come to light.
The big questions, such as how in the galaxy did the born-and-bred asteroid citizen learn to drive sports cars on Earth? Are the bioGels Sentient? The even bigger question is, are they plotting against their owners? And what dark secrets is Jack harboring behind his fears of prison?
Those answers and more. Plus: Do octopuses really think that they are better than the terrestrials? (spoiler, yes they do, and there's a story there as well.)
Review: The title here tells you exactly what to expect from the story - this is the back story of the main characters in H2LiftShips: Beyond Luna: Captain Graciela, First Mate Octopus, Tang and Jack.
Of course, she's not a captain here, at least to start with! Instead we see Graciela work her way through space cadet training to become a second lieutenant, along with her companions Rocky (canine) and Herb (gorilla). She then goes on alone to complete her captain's training and get a job as captain of the LunaCola with its crew: Tang (orangutan), Rusty (canine) and Octopus.
Meanwhile we see her dad getting caught up in a bioGel smuggling scheme, getting the poor onboard canine into trouble alongside him, so when Rusty loses trust in Graciela's new captain-ing skills, at least there's a certain unhappy puppy able to step into his pawprints.
And no one could really blame Rusty, because Graciela's time on the LunaCola mainly involves lurching from one disaster to another, as they are tricked, swindled, trapped, miscalculate their routes/landings/trades and so on, and so on. It's quite nerve-wracking reading for anyone already invested in the characters - even when we can reassure ourselves by remembering this is the time before 'Beyond Luna'!
In between, over and through the story is loads of technical worldbuilding detail about life in space, on the moon, on other planets, aboard ship. The book is really more of a day-in-the-life type of story rather than having a distinct plot arc - we follow the characters through their training and adventures, thus learning all about the world and its systems through their exploring, trading and engineering exploits.
It's a very technically and scientifically dense text, with plot and characters taking a definite backseat to the intricate and realistic worldbuilding background. It was all totally fascinating but I confess that I got a little lost towards the end when we side-tracked to briefly follow the renters of Graciela's parents' old ship on Earth. But then, I am definitely more of a Humanities student than a STEM adept - those interested in a really authentic-feeling STEM sci-fi story will find this a technical treat!
What do you get when you cross an urban fantasy novella, a diverse picture book, a self-help guide, a humorous crime story and a sci-fi adventure in space...?
...my very eclectic batch of latest book reviews! I've noted before that these are batched by chronology of when they were received and therefore tend to be random in terms of genre and I think this selection has thoroughly proved my point! Let me know which one takes your fancy, or treat yourself and try all five - while it's the summer holidays. 😉
Happy reading and keep shining! 🙂
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