By Natalie Standiford ** Publication Date 6 April 2021 ** 4.5 stars Trauma can do funny things to our brains. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re off kilter because we can’t see our behavior. Others can. Others will try to protect us, help us or exploit those crazy days post-trauma. Phoebe has graduated from college …
By Heidi von Palleske ** Publication Date 9 March 2021 ** 4 stars This is a story about accidents and destiny. How accidental things happen in our lives that perhaps set a course for our future that was possibly predetermined. It has been described as a Gothic novel, but I didn’t find all that much …
By Kaya McLaren ** Publication Date 19 January 2021 ** 5 stars Amy finds out she has breast cancer and must undergo a double mastectomy and chemo. Her husband, a cop who was a first responder at the Oklahoma City bombing, is still trying to cope with his own trauma, and now must be Amy’s …
By Danielle McLaughlin ** Publication Date 5 January 2020 ** 4 stars Nessa works in a gallery where she is procuring both the studio and it’s resident, The Chalk Sculpture. Of course that’s not its real title, but it’s the one most commonly known. Nessa has been taken by Robert Locke’s work for many years. …
By Fredrik Backman ** Publication Date 8 September 2020 ** 5 stars One day a man jumps off a bridge setting off a chain of events even he can’t fathom. Many years later a woman tries to rob a bank, failing miserably, but in turn finding a path forward in life. Five people arrive at …
By Susie Yang ** Publication Date 8 September 2020 ** 5 stars Ivy Lin is 100% an American teenager. She longs for the same things all American teenagers do – the cool crowd, the handsome boyfriend, the right clothes. But Ivy is not 100% American. Ivy was born in Chongqing China, raised by her grandmother …
By Donald Friedman ** Publication Date 29 August 2020** 3.75 stars Owen Berk is called upon to investigate the untimely death of his boss’s cousin, one psychologist named Albert Snaedeker. Albert was in for a routine colonoscopy/polypectomy when he met his end by exploding on the operating table. The hospital maintains that Albert simply neglected …
By Kelli Jo Ford ** Publication Date 14 July 2020 ** 3.75 stars / This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com on 7 July 2020 . Justine is a 15 year old Cherokee, living in Oklahoma with her mama and her grandmother. While her family does belong to the local Bible church, known by the …
By Christina Clancy ** Publication Date 2 June 2020 ** Two siblings and two educator parents in Milwaukee bring a teenage boy into their home, eventually adopting him. Ann and Poppy love Michael and are thrilled to have him be a member of their family, until one disastrous trip to the family’s second home in …
By Sharon Myrick **Publication Date 14-August-2018** At first I wasn’t quite sure what to think of School Tales. It came across haltingly, as though it struggled to find a voice. Or perhaps too many voices. It felt like a manual for how to teach high school. But it definitely kept my attention and made me …