Avon Calling: A Woman's Work is Never Done by Hayley Camille

Ding-dong, Avon Calling!

It’s the summer of 1943, and Betty Jones is living the perfect life. Married to her beloved, George, a successful insurance man, with two children, George, Jr., age 5, and Nancy, age 11, she completes her days helping her Avon business customers and friends. Just when life becomes a little too much, the sound of “Avon calling” and the little bit of pampering that accompanies it can really boost a girl’s day.

But Betty isn’t all that she seems. Underneath that perfect exterior, Betty has secrets. For one, she can hear your thoughts.

Wow! Betty is my new super hero, and Avon Calling! is my new favorite series. A Woman’s Work is Never Done is the first episode and is a great start to this series. Episode 1 introduces the character Betty Jones and her family, and gives us a glimpse into her backstory, growing up with an abusive father who is a member of a local crime family in New York City and her heroin-addicted mother who uses the drug to quell the voices she hears in her head. Her mother could also hear other people’s thoughts, and the constant barrage from these voices drove her to find relief, and ultimately her death, in a syringe.

The author has incorporated the fashion, the language of the time, and the cultural history of the door-to-door Avon Lady into this story of mob crime and paranormal gifts. I can’t with to get into the next episode A Dream That I Can Call My Own.

Indentured (The Mystic Saga, #1) by Scott McElhaney

Declan Stringfellow is on a vigilante mission to take out the drug dealers and their organization when he is shot, rushed to a hospital, and undergoes an MRI to determine the damage. One minute he’s entering the scanner and the next he’s waking up (in a new, healthy, and fit body) in the far distant future aboard a spaceship. Future humans have developed the technology to highjack the results of MRIs collected in the past and imprint them on the brains of commercially-developed human bodies. Although the original Declan and the others with him lived out their normal lifespan in the past, the new beings only have memories up to the point of the MRI and nothing further. To their horror, they have been created to serve as “Indentures” or slaves. They are on this space vessel bound for an uninhabited planet light years away with the goal of building a base for future colonists already enroute from Earth. However, not everything is as it seems and many of the Indentured aren’t “on board” with their new lives.

This is the first book in a five-book series, The Mystic Saga, by Scott McElhaney. With an interesting storyline that goes from modern times to well into the future, a variety of characters, cool tech, heartbreak, and mysteries all around, the story had me hooked right away. There are intriguing developments all along the way that the characters question, just like I was doing. I’ve already obtained Book 2, Legacy, to continue the fun.

Severing Sidney by Jason Werbeloff

When Geppetto (the Gutter surgeon and 'parts' dealer from The Organ Scrubber) receives the "Save the Date" (awesome touch!) announcing the "Merging" ceremony of his only child (only daughter), Simona, he leaves his home outside the New York Bubble and travels back to his home country, the Roman Bubble. The announcement has taken its time finding and getting to him in the Gutter and he must leave immediately as the ceremony is to take place in 2 days time. Arriving in his former home, he discovers the ceremony has actually already taken place and Simona has already "become one" with her intended, Neville. To recognize their new relationship and state of being, they have taken a new name, Sidney, a melding of both their birth names. But Geppetto cannot find the true essence of his beloved daughter in the new being and sets about to rectify the situation as only a surgeon in the Bubble World would do!

This slice of life in the Bubble World adds to our knowledge and understanding of author Werbeloff's universe and we get to see some of the backstory of characters that appeared in the very first story: Geppetto and his niece, Florenza. I particularly was surprised by the introduction of Geppetto's ex-wife, Lilly White. I was suitably horrified by this latest installment in the Bubble World saga and look forward to more.

Patenting Peter by Jason Werbeloff

Jason Werbeloff and "The Bubble" continue to entertain me with each new addition to this world. In this latest story, Peter is a discontented husband acting out while his wife is at work. He suspicions that he is under constant surveillance by the Tokyo Bubble government, in general, and his wife in particular, while toting up the “movement tax” on his actions. He tries to garner his wife’s attention with more and more outrageousness until he succeeds. And succeed he does. Just not with the results he was hoping for.

The Bubble World short stories are a super addition to the Defragmenting Daniel trilogy. Don’t miss it or the supplemental stories.

The Sixth Man by Rupert Colley

Occupied France – 1943 - Six Frenchmen, picked up by the Germans for conspiring with the Resistance, have been held in a detention facility for the past six months. They are due to be released to go back to their homes on the morrow when they are informed by their captors that a train has been blown up by Resistance members. During the attack, five German soldiers were killed, and as an example to deter future attacks, five of the six Frenchmen are to be executed rather than released. It is up to the six to determine which of them is to be spared while the others die.

During the tension-filled night, the six decide to each tell their story and then vote, based on the lives they’ve lived and the deeds they’ve done, who is to escape the executioner. Rupert Colley has written an engrossing story with interesting characters and great background vignettes. I won’t divulge the final decision or results from the tense night of storytelling. Historical fiction readers will really enjoy finding out what happens.

Defenestration by Matthew W. McFarland

Originally a short story published as part of the author's previous work Fifty/Fifty and Other Stories, Defenestration has been expanded to novella length.

The story opens with our main character, Adam, looking back up to the 12th story apartment he’s just fallen from. He's falling, falling, and then ...

He is greeted by Gabriel and Michael who welcome him to the afterlife and give him an overview of his new situation. Turns out, the afterlife is whatever you believed it to be whenever you were alive. Adam decides he wants to know why and how he got to where he is, and the story takes off. And take off it does with many delightful interconnections deftly woven together to bring the story back around to where it started.

I love it when stories come full circle and tie everything together. This one is excellent! There were quite a number of the twists and turns that I never saw coming. All to the better for me. I highly recommend this book and the previous short story collections by the author.

City of Hope and Ruin by Kit Campbell and Siri Paulsen

Theo lives to protect her people from hellish monsters that sweep over her city each night when the sun goes down. She leads a trio of fighters on patrol to seek out and destroy them or be destroyed. Theo is the longest serving fighter on duty and has had numerous trio members wiped out by the creatures.

Briony is a healer in her village which lies near the border of her country and that under the control of the vicious Scarred. As the Scarred invade closer and closer, Briony is desperate to get her family to flee away from the border to the safer interior of the country.

One twilight, while Briony is deep in the forest with her mountain lion companion, Poes, she comes face-to-face with a projection of Theo. Over a series of meetings, they learn the rudiments of each other’s world and decide that their societies can and must come together to defeat their enemies and survive. While they work to solve the mystery of how their two societies got to where they are, the two begin to fall in love with each other.

It was my understanding that City of Hope and Ruin is a collaborative work by Kit Campbell and Siri Paulsen with one author writing from the point of view of one character and the other from another. Right there I was intrigued. The result was a very nice story. The authors have also posted pictures on Pinterest of settings that resembled their ideas of their characters and various settings. This was fun and I only wish that I’d run across that earlier in my reading - great pictures that really fit the story! The character names are awesome by the way.

City of Hope and Ruin is a solid fantasy with good character and world building, loads of exciting action, mystery, intrigue, heartbreak, and romance. This is the beginning of a series and I look forward to finding out what happens next.

I received an ARC copy of this book, and I was not obligated to write a review. This is my honest feedback.

Manufacturing Margaret - More awesomeness from Jason Werbeloff!

I don’t know what this author does day-to-day but he needs to write more and do less of whatever that is. Author Jason Werbeloff has a New Year's Resolution to produce a short story based in the world of the Bubble every month in 2017. This is the January 2017 story.

Manufacturing Margaret is a delightful addition to the world and history of the Bubble from the Defragmenting Daniel trilogy. If you’ve read the trilogy, you’ll know that Margaret is the murderous android that Daniel encounters first in his quest to regain his donated organs. However, Margaret has her own quest – to become more human by incorporating actual human parts into her android frame. This story tells about her earliest beginnings and what starts her on this quest. Werbeloff has crafted a truly creative origin story for Margaret!

I received an ARC copy of this story, and I was not obligated to write a review. This is my honest feedback.

The Boy Without a Heart (The Defragmenting Daniel Trilogy #3) by Jason Werbeloff

The Boy Without a Heart is the third installment in The Defragmenting Daniel Trilogy by Jason Werbeloff, and it picks up at the scene of the end of Part II. (The parts are not standalone pieces. They need to be read in sequence to understand and enjoy the trilogy.)

Android Margaret was always a loose cannon but she’s really gone over the top when she and Daniel confront the Stanton brothers after their concert at the Bacchus Mall. She’d become impatient and was ready to obtain the parts she still lacked to complete her “project” of becoming a human. Not only do they recover Daniel’s lungs from the brothers but she gets her lips (and when Detective Kage Jackson gets on the crime scene, he also scores some necessities as well from the fresh corpses!)

Author Jason Werbeloff ratchets up the action, tension, and horror in the final part of the trilogy. Daniel is closing in on the recipients of his last two organs and they turn out to be individuals with whom he has a connection. Daniel faces the dilemma of what to do with a lot of heart though.

With The Boy Without a Heart, the trilogy is done and proves to be a really satisfying reading experience complete with absolutely awesome plot twists at the end. I recommend this story to mature readers that enjoy horror and dystopian society tales.

The Face in a Jar (The Defragmenting Daniel Trilogy #2) by Jason Werbeloff

Jason Werbeloff has delivered AGAIN in the exciting and tension-filled 2nd installment of The Defragmenting Daniel Trilogy called The Face in a Jar.

Daniel Mendez is steadily gather up his original organs (taken from him as payment for his childhood upkeep) from the wealthy, priveleged Bubble recipients. However, the private investigator, Kage Jackson, contracted by the Bubble PD to track down the "Organ Thief" is steadily figuring everything out and closing in. Daniel is helped and hindered in his quest to become whole by Margaret, the robot that wants to become human and needs just a few parts herself to achieve her goal - Project Alpha. Her assistance comes at a price: Daniel must collect her desired parts as well as his own. Kage, a trans male formerly known as Kassandra, helped by love-interest, Una, is also hampered in his successful completion of the case by the police themselves.

The Face in the Jar builds wonderfully upon the world created in The Organ Scrubber (Book 1) and solidifies the totally hedonistic realm that is life in the Bubble. It reinforces the achingly vast difference between Bubble residents and those existing in The Gutter (the broken-down, poverty-stricken area outside). The story has explicit gore and sex and so much imagination of what makes up this world. It is exciting, tense and a definite page turner!

The Organ Scrubber (The Defragmenting Daniel Trilogy #1) by Jason Werbeloff

Daniel lives a grim, futile existence of endless work as an organ scrubber – flushing and preparing human organs slated for reuse by the wealthy and privileged. Orphaned at birth, Daniel grew up in The Orphanage with others in the same circumstances, selling his own organs as required to pay the high debt that even his meager existence incurs, replacing them with inferior cybernetic parts.

On his 18th birthday, he is entitled to receive the identification of his parents. Father unknown, but Daniel receives his birth mother’s name and last known address and leaves the relative safety and security of The Orphanage to find her. Along the way he discovers the fate of his mother and encounters people living outside the control of the known government. More importantly, Daniel decides he wants his own organs back.

Defragmenting Daniel: The Organ Scrubber is the first in of a trilogy by the talented Jason Werbeloff, and it is one heck of a beginning. Daniel's world comes to life, grim and horrific. Characters of a wide variety populate it and the action is non-stop. I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the story!

Montana Rescue by Kim Law

After completing the first title in this new Kim Law series, Montana Cherries, and enjoying it so very much, I had to read book 2. I was delighted by the characters and setting in Montana Rescue. A handsome bull rider, Nick, part of a large family returns home, temporarily, to manage the family orchard business while his father and new stepmother take a long-needed vacation. Before even taking up his duties, he reconnects with the girl of his teenage dreams, Harper Stone, now widowed, who has also returned home after years away, and is helping her younger sister out with her business of providing the bucking bull stock to the Montana Pro Rodeo circuit (where Nick competes.) What follows is the story of how their relationship evolves and how they come to terms with their pasts.

It is a sexy, contemporary romance with two strong characters that totally melt when dealing with each other. It is also a story of healing and forgiveness – forgiving oneself and moving on. The setting in Montana was of interest to me. I’ve never been there but it sounds lovely and wild. Also, I enjoyed seeing this side of the workings of rodeo – that was a little different angle than I’ve seen before. As I mentioned before, this is the second book in this series about the large Wilde family but it stands on its own – you wouldn’t have to read the first book, Montana Cherries (although I liked it, too) to enjoy this one.

Montana Cherries by Kim Law

Dani Wilde’s life has been on hold for the last 14 years while she has kept house and looked after her father and brothers on their family farm after the sudden death of her mother during Dani’s first semester of college. But with the college graduation of her youngest brother, Dani plans to move back to New York City (where she’d been when her mother died) and pick up where she left off.

The plan is to stay through the summer cherry harvest when all her brothers return home, say her goodbyes, and attempt to restart her interrupted life. And then, in walks her older brother’s best friend, Ben Denton, the love of her life, who took her virginity 10 years ago and left for a high-profile, celebrity lifestyle as a fashion and “fashionable” photographer. But Ben has not returned home alone. He’s got his newly-discovered daughter, Haley, with him and no clue about how to proceed as a single father to a four-year-old girl.

The feelings between Dani and Ben are still strong, and when Ben and Haley are welcomed into the Wilde family with open arms, complications begin to develop. As harvest time closes in and Dani prepares to depart for New York, the truth and dysfunctionality of the family begin to come to light.

The characters in the story are all suffering and trying to heal from the impact of horrible mothers: the Wilde siblings, their father, Ben, and Haley whose mother kept her existence a secret until she dumped the child on Ben’s doorstep and abruptly left. All are victims of women that never should have had children. Each is trying to cope in their different ways under their different circumstances. There are some very heartbreaking moments.

The romance between Ben and Dani (both as their younger selves and in the present situation) is compelling and keeps the pages turning. I continued to wonder what the final outcome was going to be.

There is tension between family members rooted in their past but there is forgiveness and reconciliation as well making for some additional drama and emotional storytelling.

Altogether, Montana Cherries is unique in its premise and satisfying in its resolution. It is a lovely start to what I hope is a series featuring each of the Wilde siblings.

Her Darkest Nightmare by Brenda Novak

Twisted minds, twisted ending!

After a spectacular set up of the series in the prequel, Hanover House, author Brenda Novak has offered up a very suspenseful series opening in Her Darkest Nightmare. The story begins with a retelling of the horrific abduction, torture and murders of 16-year-old Evelyn Talbot’s 3 best friends by her boyfriend, Jasper Moore, and her subsequent victimization and almost murder when she discovers him in the act. Jasper escapes capture and justice, perhaps aided by his parents, and remains free to this day, haunting the adult Evelyn’s life and mind, always looming in the shadows ready to pounce and finish what he’d started all those years ago.

Dr. Evelyn Talbot is now a successful psychiatric leading a research facility attached to a new prison located in Hilltop, Alaska, studying psychopathic serial killers. Overcoming the fears of the locals and the only law enforcement in the area, Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Amarok, about having such a facility on their outskirts is tough enough but suspicions escalate with the murders of two prison staff members.

With the characters socked in and hampered by winter storms, the remoteness of the setting lending to the feeling of aloneness, and the absolutely terrifying craziness of some of the inmates, the story is really suspenseful. Evelyn and Amarok are immediately attracted to each other but their relationship is complicated by her past and his opposition to having the prison on his doorstep. Then, too, just when I thought I had it all figured out – SURPRISE!

I was so wrong.

And because I never saw it coming, the story was that much more frightening.

I highly recommend Her Darkest Nightmare to those that like their sexy romance with a big dose of suspense.

Hanover House by Brenda Novak

When Evelyn Talbot was sixteen years old, she was abducted, then tortured and left for dead by her boyfriend, Jasper Moore, in their hidden, secret rendezvous spot in the woods. She had walked in on his murders of her 3 best friends and he had to stop her from alerting the police. She was at his mercy for 3 days in the little shed in the wood before he slit her throat and left her to die amongst the bodies of her friends. But Evelyn managed to escape and get to help and did not die. Jasper, with the suspected aid of his parents, immediately disappeared, never caught and brought to justice: his memory and unknown whereabouts always lingering in the shadows and the back of Evelyn’s mind. She goes on to university making it her goal in life to unravel the secrets of the psychopathic mind.

Now a successful psychiatrist, Evelyn has gotten the Bureau of Prisons to fund and build a special maximum security prison and research facility for the study of psychopaths outside the remote Alaskan town of Hilltop. The townspeople there are of mixed opinion about having the prison located there: while it will provide some much needed economic development and jobs, it brings with it some of the worst criminals in the country to their back door. Leading the local opposition to the project is handsome, single, local boy Alaskan State Trooper Benjamin Murphy or “Sergeant Amarok (Wolf)” as he was known by the community – also the only law officer in the region.

When construction on the prison is interrupted by vandalism, Evelyn must travel to Hilltop to oversee its repair, hire some construction site security, and meet with Sergeant Amarok in an attempt to garner some support for the project in town. In the meantime, Jasper reappears on the scene.

The characters that populate the story are a wonderful mix – good/evil, supportive/adversarial. Evelyn is still vulnerable as an adult due to Jasper’s horrendous attack. It continues to color her life and her healing is an ongoing process and a major part of the story. Amarok also has a past that affects him. He had discovered only a few years earlier that he had a twin brother. His mother had left him and his father alone in Alaska taking this brother with her to live in Seattle without further contact. So both the main characters have trust issues with the opposite sex. There are also Jasper and the inmates, all suitably crazy.

The plot is tense and suspenseful with immediate romantic tension between Evelyn and Amarok. The setting in Alaska introduces a layer of hardship and remoteness into things as well which added up to keeping me on edge throughout the reading.

Hanover House is the precursor to the actual series which kicks off with Her Darkest Nightmare in August 2016. With such a dramatic and suspenseful build up, I will definitely be in line to pick up that title.

Saven Deception by Siobhan Davis

What a good story!

Set in a dystopian future Earth where society has been separated into 3 classes: Bullions (the elite), Coins (the middle-class), and the lowest level or Stars and segregated into living sectors by class centered around a core city, author Siobhan Davis has built a grim, hopeless, and wearing life for story protagonist, 18 year old Sadie Owens.

When offered a way out of her miserable life and horrible home situation through selection to participate in a government-sponsored experimental program, Sadie jumps at the chance. “The Experimento” is the creation and development of new underwater cities that are expected to ease massive overpopulation issues that exist on the surface. Sadie and her fellow program participants have been recruited as study subjects to see how, and if, humans can successfully adapt to a life lived in these cities under the ocean.

With much young adult romantic drama and the slow unfolding of secret government agendas, the story moves forward at an exciting pace with something always going on. There is foreshadowing of secrets yet-to-be-revealed, hopefully in the succeeding novels of the Saven series. I’m so on board for the next installments!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Daisy's Chain by Gillian Larkin (Storage Ghost Mystery #5)

Frankie and Grace have experienced some good luck with the contents of the first couple of storage lockers they’ve bid on and won at auction. They’ve lucked into some definite hidden treasures. However, in this, the 5th story in the Storage Ghost Mysteries, Grace may have faltered.

One of the lockers at the day’s auction appears to be the abandoned result a charity scam: unscrupulous persons have collected household donations in the name of a bogus charity, sifted through the contents for valuables, and left the rest in a temporarily-leased storage unit. Along with the leftover charity detritus is the very angry ghost of a man named Dan Manville. Against her will, Grace’s arm is forced up to make a winning bid on the whole distasteful scene – the ghost has somehow compelled her. The unpleasant ghost need her help and will not be denied.

In life, Dan Manville had been a loving husband and doting father to a single daughter (Daisy). During Daisy’s first term at university, she becomes pregnant. She is devastated and unable to tell her parents that she was drugged at a club and raped. Old-fashioned and unforgiving, Dan cuts his daughter out of his and his wife’s lives. His only keepsake of his daughter is the heart and chain necklace he gave Daisy on her 16th birthday. He dies a bitter, angry man. He doesn’t know it but he needs Grace to help him discover the truth of what happened to his daughter and resolve his anger.

This story relies on some realistic circumstances with some very possible consequences for its plot. It is a short novel but one that gives you a full story (and continues to broaden the whole Storage Ghost history). It is great for a single evening’s reading or any time you like.

The Write Dream by Gillian Larkin (Storage Ghost Mystery #4)

A mother's love helps "write" a wrong!

In The Write Dream, Grace and Frankie Abrahams are finally free of the vicious loan shark, Eddie Tominski, and can now concentrate on making a living with their shop left to them by their parents. Frankie is expanding their stock from antiques to household goods by bidding on and winning the contents of abandoned storage lockers. He is developing an online presence for the store and his auction adventures to further his marketing reach and sales.

Part of a recent storage locker auction acquisition includes the personal notebooks of a young writer as well as the ghost of his deceased, yet still doting, mother. The mother wonders how her son has turned out and a quick search of the internet leaves mom and Grace with more questions than answers – deeply troubling questions.

This fourth installment of The Storage Ghosts Mysteries has Grace assisting another ghost with unfinished business here on Earth find the answers she needs to move on to the afterlife. With a truly awful and sneaky villain in the story, its resolution is very satisfactory.

Grace continues to learn more about how she can help the ghosts that are in need and we get a better glimpse into the existence of a ghost that is attached to the shop itself.

Another fast-paced plot and quick resolution (not rushed!) made for a nice single sit-down.

Tick Tock by Gillian Larkin (Storage Ghost Mystery #3)

This Eddie character is EVIL!

Third in the natural progression of tales in the Storage Ghost Mysteries, Tick Tock reveals what really happened to Grace and Frankie’s parents.

Eddie Tominski, the ruthless loan shark, steps up his evil ways to wrest the antiques shop left to them by their deceased parents away from the Abrahams siblings. He even has his thugs attack Grace at a storage locker auction - in a public restroom. Grace is rescued and family friend, Big Bob, determines to put an end to Eddie’s plans.

Grace wins the contents of a storage locker that holds the ghosts of an older couple that she recognizes to be friends of her parents. Lynne and Tom Opendale had owned and operated a watch repair shop and died under mysterious circumstances. Grace is led to the couple’s grown daughter, Clare, who has developed a theory about their deaths as well as that of the elder Abrahams and others. All the suspicious deaths lead back to Eddie Tominski.

Although Grace never encounters the ghosts of her parents, she does receive word of them from some of the ghosts she end up helping. We also discover in Tick Tock that there may be the helpful spirit of a saucy old woman inside the antique shop.

Once again, this is a quick, fun, and satisfyingly-resolved cozy mystery but with a heavy dose of menace this time. Still … THUMBS UP!

Lost and Found by Gillian Larkin (Storage Ghost Mystery #2)

Another good entry in the Storage Ghost Mystery series - this time, Grace helps a couple, separated by time and a long-ago secret, find peace.

In this second story of the Storage Ghosts Mysteries, Grace Abrahams and brother, Frankie, attend another storage locker auction to find more saleable goods for their antiques/bits & pieces shop. Grace runs across a ghost named Clive Arthur that needs her help to peacefully move on to the hereafter. In life, Clive was an acclaimed photographer who traveled the world over for his art. In death, he is attached to some unknown item in an abandoned storage locker keeping him from exiting his earthly existence. That item turns out to be 2 undeveloped rolls of film. Once developed, the photographs lead Grace and Clive back to the only woman Clive ever loved and the bittersweet secret that, unknowing to him, served to keep them apart throughout his life.

Lost and Found furthers the story and the character development of Grace, Frankie, and some recurring, supporting players – evil loan shark Eddie Tominski, auctioneer Sylvester Sylver, and family friend, kindly Big Bob. Grace is able to discover the unfinished business tying Clive to his past life and the contents of the storage locker prove to be hidden treasure of the best kind – profitable.

This is a cozy, gentle mystery for the most part. Eddie is EVIL though and his thugs are rough and tough and relentless in their harassment of the Abrahams siblings. I recommend this story to readers that like their mysteries cozy and whose reading time is at premium. It is a short, quick, and completely satisfying read anytime but will really fit the bill if you only have an hour or so to sit down and enjoy.