Solid YA Horror. Weird Whiplash As Book 2 In Series. This book, taken independently, is pretty damn awesome. You've got strong 80s vibes, including strong RL Stine type vibes. You've got a mall - that quintessential 80s teen experience (says the kid who was never a teen until the mid 90s). You've got all kinds of ancient smalltown creepiness and secrets. Seriously, every bit of this is clicking on every level.

You've even got monsters that fans of Jeremy Robinson will recognize, as the way Ralph writes his zombies here is very reminiscent of the way Robinson uses at least some types of zombies in his book TORMENT, later retconned to be part of his INFINITE TIMELINE event. Which was nice to see - and possibly shows Ralph to be as ... "creative", let's go with "creative"... as Robinson. :) One thing Ralph's version lacks, particularly from Robinson's original incarnation of TORMENT, is the subtle yet also quite present religious allegory. Ralph's tale here is instead more straight horror, zero subtext (at least that this reader picked up on).

No, where the whiplash comes in is that the first book in this series was set 40 ish years after this second entry, with the first book being bleeding edge tech and very human horror, whereas this second entry both sends us back in time and gives us a far more supernatural style of horror that wasn't even hinted at in the first book. Read independently, both books are awesome. Read as a "series"... you almost have to envision each book as being the same town in different universes, all experiencing horrors unique to that universe's version of the town? Which is a bit weird, but can also work well enough. (Indeed, Robinson himself did a horror series that was more akin to Sliders where the entire town slid between universes - he called that series REFUGE, and to date it remains one of his fans' favorites.)

Still, for what this book itself is, this really was a quite solid YA horror tale that does a phenomenal job of showing its version of this town and its time period quite well indeed.

Very much recommended.

Bleeding Edge Thriller May Not Be For The Younger Side Of YA. This is one of those tales that will be utterly terrifying for many in just how real it is, at least in its basic "Yes, AI can do this now" premise. And on that side, it absolutely works quite well without going into the "AI is evil" camp, which is quite refreshing to see an author hold off on going off that particular cliff. AI is a tool, same as any other, and thus can be used for both good and evil - it is the mind and the intent of the human wielding the tool that is actually good or evil, not the tool itself, and it was genuinely awesome to see an author take pretty much that exact position here and even use it quite well in a horror setting.

What makes this tale perhaps not suitable for the younger YA readers is that there are absolutely enough F-bombs in this short 250 ish page text to garner it an R rating, even without the body count and grisly descriptions of most of the murders at hand. Is it puritanical to care more about language than vividly described gory murders? Perhaps, but in this case you're also reading review being written by a fan of Mortal Kombat since it first came out, and while I'm no fan of hyper gory horror ala Saw, this one had a just enough to be gruesome in some scenes without going heavy handed slasher. Far more Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer than Saw or Texas Chainsaw Massacre... and with enough self awareness to actually have its characters talk about being in a horror "movie".

Overall this was a solid high school level horror tale that makes great use of its overall setting to tell a tale that is both ancient and exceedingly modern.

Very much recommended.

If You See This Review, You Should Be Terrified. I'm a Xennial. I've grown up with computers. The Net first became a public thing when I was 10 yrs old, and within a decade I would complete a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I've known all along that privacy online was more theater than fact, no matter how careful you are - that if it has a computer chip, you're safer to assume it is tracking you than not, and that someone you may not like will likely be able to access that data.

Even knowing this almost as long as I've known anything... Ferguson makes clear just how much worse it actually is, from a legal perspective. Even in the United States, where we "supposedly" have 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States rights limiting government searching of our data and how it can use the results of such a search.

While Ferguson doesn't address at all how very eroded and damn near paper thin those Amendments have become over the last 250 yrs of jurisprudence, he makes it all too crystal clear that the words on the papers haven't kept up with the actual technical capabilities, and because of this, many of the things that once kept your written words on paper safe or even your words to certain people safe no longer protect you in this digital era at all. Indeed, quite the opposite - many of the exceptions to those earlier forms that actively limited what government was allowed to do are instead now the rules that give government nearly unlimited abilities to search your data without even having to get a "warrant" rubber stamped.

Indeed, another of Ferguson's large points throughout this text is just how little privacy you have specifically when a warrant is signed... and he even tosses a point or two in about the "qualifications" needed to be able to sign such a warrant. (There are basically none to be a Magistrate Judge in particular.)

While all of this is utterly terrifying - and Ferguson goes to great lengths to show that this should be terrifying no matter your own personal political bent -, Ferguson does actually offer paths forward at every level that could at least begin to alleviate many of the concerns he details. He even goes so far as to note which ones are likely more politically palatable within the current system and which ones would do more to actually alleviate privacy concerns... but which are also far larger hauls in the current political environment.

Overall this is absolutely a book every American should read, and indeed anyone globally who thinks of America as the "land of the free". Ferguson shows here that this "freedom" is illusory at best, particularly in the current world environment.

Very much recommended.

Less Gory Saw. I'm glad the description mentioned the "escape room" and the need to make it out or die, as it made that headline so much more concise, since it technically isn't a spoiler. :D

And yet that headline is exactly what you get here - the latest entrant in the Quinn and Costa police procedural thrillers is a version of Saw set in North Florida (the "First Coast" region of Jacksonville (where I happen to live) and St Augustine) and surrounding areas.

I'm not a fan of horror generally and specifically not a fan of gory horror, so I can't tell a fan of the Saw franchise just how closely this aligns with that franchise - I don't know. I do know the base ideas are similar enough that fans of that franchise will enjoy this book on at least some level, but this book is also rather deep in an ongoing series and thus will reveal at least certain things from prior books. However, most of those elements are about the team itself rather than the prior mysteries they were solving, so this may well be a decent enough place for fans of the Saw franchise who may not have read these books before to start and see what they think.

More long time fans of this series specifically or police procedurals generally will also find quite a bit here, as the narrative spends nearly equal time on "oh shit, we woke up in a dangerous situation" and "oh shit, our teammates are missing and the case we thought we had in the bag... isn't". Thus, there's a solid mix of tension and investigation on two different fronts, as we see both sides play through to their inevitable meetup. But what condition will the missing teammates be found in? Who the hell could be sick enough to attempt a Saw type setup in the "real" world? Brennan does a great job really on all aspects here, including our criminals of the tale, and really allows pretty well every character - including several more minor ones - at least a few scenes to shine. Of course, she's working with 400 pages here... so she's got the space. ;)

And yes, even this region of the country has its moments in this book, be it in St. Augustine itself, the FBI office in Jacksonville, or the other nearby areas that also come to bear. All are done pretty damn well - well enough that it is clear that Brennan did at least some research on the areas, if not actually came out here and experienced them herself. Which is always pleasant to see as a consumer of a story that claims to be set in a place you are very familiar with. :)

Overall truly a well-paced thrill ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout... and will probably keep you up well into the night reading.

Very much recommended.

Tremors Meets Open Range. I truly think the best way to describe this book for an at least somewhat general audience - you still need to be familiar with these movies - really is the combination of the movies I use in the title of the review here.

In Tremors, you get an excellent use of a closed environment (in the case of the movie, a desert valley where the only road in or out has been blocked) to create a fun, intense survival type thriller where the good guys can only guess at what is going on. Brennan absolutely nailed that element here, using catastrophic flooding to great effect.

In Open Range, there are other issues going on between neighbors, with some neighbors being less than neighborly to their neighbors. Some might even say they were dirty, underhanded, cowardly snakes who were only looking out for themselves. Again, Brennan absolutely nails this element as well... while actually expanding on it in some rather interesting ways.

Ultimately, our central family truly is the heart of this tale, even as the events of the book keep them separated for so much of it. Brennan uses both environment and human quite well, and truly manages to give very nearly every character some level of weight to them such that you really want to see how this plays out for everyone... even the snakes. But especially the family cat who has run off in the storm...

Solid book that could get perhaps a touch too real for some when it is scheduled for release in the middle of the summer of 2026, this is absolutely a book fans of both family drama and survival tales are going to want to read, and it appears to be truly standalone to boot.

Very much recommended.

Part Geologic History. Part Memoir. All Intriguing Information. This is one of those books where, like at least one other early reviewer mentioned, it is nearly as much about the author as it is his subject. So for those looking for a book more solidly focused on geology or science, where the author rarely if ever interjects himself into the narrative... know up front that this isn't that. At all.

Instead what we get is a book where the author has spent a lifetime researching something he is clearly passionate about, one where he has several personal theories he openly admits aren't shared by all of those in his field, yet also one who has had some very interesting experiences along the way as he was doing his research. This narrative encompasses all of the above and more. We get a lot of deeply scientific detail of how the oldest rocks on Earth formed and how scientists find and study them. We get a lot of stories of the type of "and that is how I wound up being the personal taxi for an entire region when the regional bus failed one day" or "these are the people I was partying with at a remote campsite deep in the African wilderness". We also get several instances of "these are my personal theories based on my own research and studying the field for a lifetime, but not everyone agrees with me".

In other words, a fascinating look at a topic that some could consider quite dry indeed, but which Lamb brings to life with both his own life and his passion for the subject. Yes, there is perhaps too much here at times for anyone who knows anything less about this subject than Lamb himself does, but for the most part he really does explain even these concepts well enough that the reader can have at least a rough understanding of them - enough to generally follow along with Lamb's narrative and story, if not enough to pass any kind of test about them.

No, the only real thing I could find to fault here is the dearth of a bibliography. Yes, I recognize that this tale is at least part memoir, but still, there is enough geology and objective nonfiction here that just 12% bibliography still seems lacking, even if much of the objective nonfiction is based on the author's own research. But hey, maybe I'm being a touch harsh there. Read the book for yourself and write your own review of it and let the world know either way what you think on that point. :)

Overall a truly fascinating book that works as much as a travel memoir as it does as a geologic tale.

Very much recommended.

Solid Summer Escapism. You know those summer movies where you just want to be entertained, so you turn your brain off a bit and just go for the ride?

Do that here, and you're going to have a blast. (Literally, in the case of this tale, as it opens with a car bomb in a small lake town.)

Featuring a small yet interwoven cast and a multi-POV storytelling mechanic, this is one of those tales that uses everything it has to craft a tale that will worm its way into your brain as you're reading it and won't let you go... but also isn't going to be the most memorable book out there once you dive into the next escapist book. The twists and turns and action are all solid, don't get me wrong. They're just also a bit plain. Which isn't a bad thing - plain and expected is great for escapist fiction. Again, you don't want your brain working too hard with this particular type of tale.

Overall a fun lake escape with a few thrills and chills, some great vibes, and a few solid enough hooks to keep you reading even as this may be a touch long for some readers (north of 350 pages). Still, stick with it and you will absolutely be rewarded here.

Very much recommended.

Short Xennial Scooby-Doo Type Tale. This is one of those books that is great for an early-year release (and end of January certainly qualifies, in my mind), because it is a 200 page very quick read. Easy win to get moving on your reading goals for the year, even if those goals measure in the single digits or low double digits.

It is also a very fun tale squarely aimed at Xennials (those of us born between 1977 ish and 1984 ish) now solidly in their 40s who grew up with several great renditions of Scooby-Doo cartoons, as this is very much effectively an adult version of a Scooby-Doo mystery. Minus the van and the dog, and adding a bit more of a Scream/ I Know What You Did Last Summer vibe. Again, pretty squarely targeting a specific population... but this is also a fun enough book that more general audiences will likely enjoy it nearly as much, perhaps even more.

Now, there is a scene or two of jalapeno or so spiciness, so those that prefer their tales no more spicy than a warm glass of milk... you do you. That scene is only just the one scene really, and actually adds far more depth to the story overall than similar scenes in romance novels, so I thought it actually worked rather well in this particular tale.

Overall just some fun "turn your brain off and enjoy the ride" (oh, wait. maybe a little too meta there in the review, considering the last paragraph ;) ) type of tale that again, is a very quick read great for jumpstarting whatever annual reading goals you may have for yourself - if you have any at all. Or maybe you just need some pure escapism generally. This tale will work perfectly in that regard too.

Very much recommended.

Reasonably Well Documented Book Will Force You To Rethink All You Think You Know Of The Post-WWII Era. This is one of those rare history books that actively goes in to not just point out something most people missed about an era and/ or a person, but also goes to show the reader that a lot of what you thought you knew... may not have happened quite the way you think it did.

For example, one of the main points of the early part of the text: You think President Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That was what most textbooks (at least in America) teach, at least lower than say upperclassman history majors at the collegiate level. Except.... Wellerstein shows here - repeatedly - that this wasn't exactly how that went down. Indeed, Wellerstein uses first hand sources from a few different key people - including Truman himself, where possible - to show that not only was there not one single decision to drop the bombs or where, but that Truman himself likely understood neither the weapon nor the target profile. (Which, let's face it, both humanizes him a bit more - something Wellerstein is great at in this text, for what that's worth - and should give most of us at least a touch of hope given more recent Presidents and their mental abilities.)

Then, in the period after the bombings, Truman - and the world - realize what has been done... and Truman is personally absolutely horrified. This is where and when the real struggles begin, and the "rest of the story" (as Paul Harvey famously proclaimed for so long) begins. And y'all, this part reads almost like a DC spy thriller/ court drama. High ranking people across several different realms within the US government all seeking to have their vision of the future made manifest, with Truman - and his famous "buck stops here" mantra - the focal point and the one both making decisions and seeking to establish his own preferred path.

Now, with all this lesser known history and with the entire point of the book showing a side of Truman most often ignored by history and historians, some may argue that this necessistates application of the Sagan Standard -that these are extraordinary claims that thus require extraordinary evidence. From my reading here and my understanding of both this text and the relevant histories as I know them, I don't think this is true. This is a bit of a bombshell, yes, but is also fits pretty squarely in with known histories, it simply illuminates lesser known corners of those histories more properly. Thus, for me, the roughly 20% bibliography here sufficiently establishes a reasonable amount of documentation, and the frequent citations of the diaries and memoirs of those directly involved show the depth of research Wellerstein was able to bring to the table here.

Overall a very well written text that will completely rewrite your understanding of the post-WWII period as it relates to the use and control of atomic weapons - which seems to be Wellerstein's very point, meaning he executed that point to near perfection.

Very much recommended.

Strong Magical Realism/ Romance/ Mystery Combo. This book had a lot of things for a lot of readers, but curiously, it only had a single line or two about a real world version of itself. But more on that in a moment.

The mysteries here are solid. There's a dual timeline going on, mostly set in the world just before the collapse in 2020, with the "current" timeline being set in late 2019 and the "then" timeline being back in the 1990s. When the two different mysteries converge... things get quite interesting indeed, setting up one hell of a climax that will take your breath away. As in, if you go into that section just before bed... just plan to stay up a bit later than normal. Once you get there in particular, you're not going to want to put this book down.

The romance plays out across both timelines as well, with some interesting complications due to the events of the mystery sides of the tale, and is reasonably paced throughout. Nothing overly spicy here, perhaps somewhere between a warm glass of milk and a jalapeno. Maybe somewhere around a Banana or Poblano pepper? Enough that the warm glass of milk crowd may get a little antsy, but also so little that the crowd that barely thinks a habanero is anything at all may not even think there is any spice to be had here at all. I mean, these are college students brought together in an unusual and magical circumstance. Yes, things are going to happen.

But the one thing that hangs over this entire book is the one thing that Harrison only devotes a line or two to - the fact that the very thing that is supposed to be magical about this book, tech in 2025 can already damn near do - and likely will be fully capable of within the next five years or so. While it may not be an exact analogue to the magical bit of this book - in that it won't be a singular book for everyone - AI is largely already to the point that for many readers, particularly those who only read a few books a year or even a few books a decade, AI can already give them a book tailored specifically to their own interests that is largely compelling enough for those exact types of readers. And yes, this is going to be a problem for authors going forward. What happens when the tech gets good enough to satisfy even those of us who read hundreds of books per year? Harrison could have used even her magical version here to perhaps explore this possibility more in a "pre-AI" magical world, but instead uses this part of the magic as more of a macguffin or even an end game set piece than really exploring this idea in any real depth. Which, to this reader, is perhaps a lost opportunity to take a solid mystery/ romance and have it get that much deeper and more timeless.

Still, for what this story actually is and what it actually does, it actually does - ahem - all things - ahem - quite well within its world, and this is absolutely a book that a lot of different types of readers will be able to enjoy quite a bit.

Very much recommended.

For The First Time In My Life, I Feel Actively Stupider For Having Read A Book. Yes, y'all, this book is that bad. This isn't even "I disagree with this guy's politics and he is hyper preachy throughout the text" level, though there is that too. This is "this dude cites things that have been repeatedly and conclusively not only actively disproven, but actually shown to be the exact opposite of what he claims" level bad. Truly literally everything this guy says promoting rent control? Actual economics conclusively proves that he is not only 100% wrong, but that indeed reality is exactly the opposite of what he claims in this text.

I mean, y'all, I'm absolutely flabbergasted by this book. I wanted it to be good. I wanted an expose of homelessness in America that I could shout from the rooftops proclaiming its brilliance and showing how far America has fallen - because we admittedly have. And yet while we have fallen, we've also raised the standard of living even for our homeless to levels never before seen in the history of humanity - and that is a level of hope that is sorely missing in Markee's text here.

Instead, in this text, everyone who opposes outright pure Marxist economic theory is a racist Nazi monster who can't possibly have a single redeeming quality. And yes, Markee actively and specifically calls someone he disagrees with a Nazi in this text, without providing any actual evidence at all that they had ever supported the actual Nazis. Further, Markee openly admits to stealing from a former employer in Austin, TX in this text while never thinking he did anything wrong.

My dear reader of my review, for literally years I have thought that a "gold mine" was my worst possible rating. It means that there is a speck of something redeemable in the text, but you have to shift through literal tons of detritus to find it.

I. Was. Wrong.

I need a new term for my worst possible rating, because this book officially goes well beyond any book that has ever earned my "gold mine" rating. I was not joking in the title here, I actively feel stupider for having read this book.

To the level that I can't even recommend it even if you agree 100% with Markee's politics, which he is extremely preachy on throughout this narrative. Because he is so easily proven wrong on so very many points, he will actively make you a worse debater and less actually informed on this topic from being so wrongly misinformed. Indeed, recommending this book in 2025 would be akin to recommending a book about germ theory from say the 13th century in 2025 - it would be so wrong it would actually harm you and potentially cause you to actively harm others due to how misinformed you would be from reading the book.

Not recommended. It should never have been written to begin with. And I truly hate to say that about any book - and never have before this one.

Solid Enough Primer. This is one of those "history of humanity" type books that attempts to take literally thousands of years of human history (including pre-history) and condense it into a sub-400 page narrative. (With 12% of its 403 Kindle pages being bibliography, which we'll get to in a moment.) Human history being as complex as it actually is, none of these types of tales are going to be 100% correct in all details, as details are more often than not incredibly nuanced. But as an overall narrative, this one is at least interesting and provides a lot of solid jumping off points of "hey, did this particular bit of history actually happen the way McWilliams claims?". Sometimes that answer will be "mostly". Others, it will be "somewhat", and still others will be "barely". Different specialists will have different opinions at different points, and I know my friends trained more in the Austrian school of Economics (Milton Friedman, Ludwig Von Mises, Frederick Hayek, etc) will likely take quite a bit of umbrage with McWilliams' 20th and 21st century histories in particular. Including the fact that McWilliams is obviously quite the fan of one John Maynard Keynes - the singular "economist" who has done more harm to the global economy than very likely any other in the history of humanity.

Still, like I said, as an overall primer on the history of money... this is at least entertaining and mostly informative... if you're willing to do more research.

No, the actual star deduction isn't for McWilliams' adoration of Keynes or his at times gross over simplifications. Those can at least somewhat be excused as not 100% objective criticisms - even if they are educated criticisms. The actual star deduction here comes from the aforementioned 12% bibliography. Quite simply, a book with this much history should be cited far more than this, and indeed I've personally read books over the years covering a far more limited historical scope that had multiples of this level of documentation.

So read this book to begin to get a rough idea of the topic - and, as I've already pointed out to one friend and fellow book blogger since reading this, it can be enough to refute a few monetary policy memes/ stories floating around online. Then do even more research on the actual events portrayed here and see how accurate McWilliams truly was. Or was not.

Very much recommended.

Solid 'Second Screen' Book. Apparently there is a concept Netflix show/ movie producers call 'second screen' - meaning, essentially, that the video must be produced and the story easy enough to follow even as someone is actually doing something else. Thus, actions are spoken - "I'm cutting the veggies now" - and are loud and concise. Rather than simply showing the character cutting the veggies. Plots are simplified and characters a bit more stereotypical than perhaps fully fleshed out, nuanced, "real" people.

This is exactly that kind of book - and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. Netflix is making bank right now on exactly this type of content, so why shouldn't authors take a stab at it as well? Not everything has to be a hyper complicated, hyper real "oh, you missed on page 33 paragraph 3 sentence 2 that this thing had this hyper specific property" kind of tale to be enjoyable. Quite the opposite, I would argue - sometimes, particularly during the holidays, you really want something you can just consume while vegging out a bit yourself. Many romance novels - the "bubblegum pop" and "Hallmarkie" ones in particular - offer exactly this level of escapism, so why can't mystery tales have this from time to time?

For what this book actually is, it really is a solid work of its type. One that is enjoyable even at its near-400 page length, and one that can work in exactly the kinds of scenarios I describe above - where perhaps you need some time during the hectic holiday season to simply zone out with a good enough book - quite well indeed.

Very much recommended.

Spicy Trauma In Long Form. This is the third book directly in its series (fourth if you count its "backdoor pilot" book from another series where a key character + a few side characters to this book were all introduced) and is the longest by over 100 pages, according to Amazon's count... and that length shows here. Now, given that this is a habanero spicy book at times... maybe you want that length. Or maybe you're more a "motion of the ocean" type that would rather things just get to the point without a lot of extras. Either way, you've been warned about the extra girth here and you can now make your own decision based on your own preferences.

And yes, if sexual puns and innuendoes aren't your thing... you're really not going to like this book. As it is as deep (oh god) (crap) in the series as it is, you probably should have picked up on that by now, but maybe you picked this up thinking it could be read standalone. While it technically can be - its story isn't directly intertwined with any other - the characters from the other books all play roles to some degree or another here, including one scene in particular here detailing in even more explicit detail a common event among all three tales... and other that is more background to the other books, finally fully explained here.

For those who are looking for solid romance tales with some laughs (including various animals that nearly steal the scene in most scenes they are in) and a ton of heart and you can handle cursing at at least the sailor level (programmers curse more, for what that's worth) and the aforementioned habanero spice level, this entire series is excellent.

This particular entry, with as much trauma as is detailed on both main characters... maybe the extra girth was needed. Maybe it wasn't. I'm honestly torn, as I want to say it wasn't needed... but there are also no clearly extraneous scenes here. Every scene was done well and every scene works together in its sequence to tell a richly developed story of two traumatized people slowly coming together over a period of time, and it really works on so many levels that even though I want to say the extra length wasn't needed, I also can't really defend that position by citing anything that could have been cut and this book work as well as it does here.

Thus, the best I can say is prepare yourself for the extra length... and have fun with it. The conclusion reveals that we've got one more book left in this series, and it is the one person we haven't really heard from yet... who becomes very obvious through the course of this tale that they've got their own story to (finally) tell. I for one can't wait to see what happens there.

Very much recommended.

Another Solid Entrant Where Bratt's Heart Is Tattooed On Her Upper Arm With Her Sleeves Down. For a series that was supposed to end at Book 7 or so to now have doubled that speaks to just how popular it has become among fans of the author. That the new books continue to sell and continue to bring in new fans speaks to how well the author is crafting both each individual entry and the overall arc of the series. I know in my own reviews I've noted before the series was supposed to end at this book or that book or whatever, but at this point it seems that Bratt will be containing this series through the rest of her writing days.

With this particular entry and its particular crime, Bratt's heart shines through in more muted and subtle ways than in both previous entrants in this series and in Bratt's prior works such as her True To Me series or (where I first "met" Bratt) in Dancing With The Sun... and yet equally powerful as those other books, when you know her story. (That she speaks of from time to time publicly, to be clear.) Bratt's loves are never far from her mind, and always shine through in her writing when you know where you're looking... and yet when you don't know these details, she still provides an all-t00-real look into far too many of our own families and, in her fictional world, gives us hope that all can work out as well as Bratt makes it work out here. Which isn't to say there won't be tragedy, just that the family will work through whatever tragedies may come - and celebrate whatever successes may come too.

The heart of the Hart's Ridge community - and of the Gray family in particular - is what makes this series so strong, so what is coming next for those hearts following the events here...

I for one am looking forward to finding out. ;)

Very much recommended.

Strong Tale Of The Travails Of Friendship After College. This is one of those tales where, as someone in his 40s who graduated college 20 yrs ago this year himself and who has maintained at least a couple of friendships since that era, I get it. Now, my friends and I were nowhere near as complicated as these ladies. There were no secret houses or anything remotely like that at our then-commuter school that was just on the cusp of creating its first actual dorms as I was graduating. Our football team was "still undefeated"... because it didn't exist yet. And yet, as I type this review just a couple of weeks before Selection Sunday 2025, there is a chance that that very same football team goes to a bowl for the first time in school history this year! (Go Kennesaw State Owls!)

Even so the book, for me, evokes the fireside scene in the 2017 Power Rangers movie (and particularly the soundtrack playing in that scene) and even elements of the John Knowles classic A Separate Peace or the more obscure One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick. Those beautifully tragic moments when you realize that all that you thought you knew, you never really had a clue, and yet there is still that essence there that is exactly what you always knew, that essence that drew you to these people to begin with, that was truly the foundation of your friendship.

Now, there is a lot going on in this book, and yes, there are elements of both 'literary fiction' and thriller that make for an interesting merger, but I actually thought Lee did a solid job with said merger. The tale gets chaotic at times, even though told from a single perspective... but I almost think that was the very intent. Lee needed the reader to feel the chaos around these characters in these situations, and this was the best vehicle to really bring that out.

Overall, this is truly a book that won't work for everyone. I suspect Lee knows that, or at least I hope she does. But for those it works for, I think it has the potential to really work for. Will it be remembered and studied ala A Separate Peace? Unlikely. Is it an enjoyable short ish (sub 250 page) book that can be a fun yet cathartic diversion during the cold winter months? Absolutely.

Very much recommended.

Solid Laid Back Cozy Florida Mystery - With Magical Realism Tossed In. This is the book that exactly one person alive was capable of writing - particularly writing this well. That person being St. Augustine-based medical investigator and now pastor of a St. Augustine area church, Kent Holloway.

I've known Holloway for years. I first started reading his works when he began working as a coauthor with The New God Of Science Fiction Jeremy Robinson, and I've read most of his independent works since - even his nonfiction book I Swallowed A Goldfish, where he looks at his older day job (medical investigator) through the eyes of his newer one (pastor). I either know of or have read every project he names in the Author's Note at the end of this tale, and I was largely around when he was coming up with all of them. Living in Jacksonville myself for nearly a decade now, I even finally got a chance to meet Holloway in real life a couple of years ago now... when Robinson came to St. Augustine and brought his annual gathering of fans and colleagues, Robinsonfest, with him.

As noted in the Author's Note, years ago Holloway wrote a book called The Legend Of The Winterking. In its level of detail and blending of both fantasy and Christian lore - but with Holloway's own particular Christmas-focused bent to it - it really did seem capable of standing right up there with Lewis and Tolkien. As I don't read fantasy, I don't know this, but being familiar with the overall stories of all three authors - despite never having read a word of any of their fantasies - I feel confident enough in saying that. Winterking was supposed to be Holloway's Magnum Opus. It was going to be glorious and make Holloway as famous as those other two. Wait. Has anyone ever heard of them? ;)

Here, with this particular tale, Holloway actually does better than he has ever done before - including with Winterking. Yes, you heard that right. This long time fan and reader of Holloway is openly proclaiming this to be his best book yet - and I have strong thoughts on this.

Who else beyond Holloway would be able to create a Tolkien-level world... and then when that project failed, instead use it as a magical realism deep background element to an Agatha Christie level cozy murder mystery... that happened to be based both at Christmas and in Christmas, Florida? I know many more Florida based authors, from the few native Floridians to be found these days to transplants who have lived here various lengths of time, both longer and shorter than I've lived here myself. Literally not one of them - talented authors all in their own rights, many of whom I am an active fan of - could have pulled something quite like this off. Sure, many of them have done emotional family mysteries of various levels. A few have done scifi epics. But none of them have been able to combine fantasy and cozy mystery the way Holloway has here, and it shows just how strong a storyteller he really can be.

Who else could take the real-world Christmas, FL - a town on the opposite outskirts of Orlando from that place with the castle famously ruled by a rodent, a town that literally doesn't have so much as a stop sign on its main road through town, a town where it is more than possible to imagine the rampant (recovering) alcoholism Holloway incorporates into this book being all too real - and use it quite the way Holloway has here? Even with the blatant set up of the name, I've not yet encountered anyone.

And yet Holloway takes all of this, takes his deep Christian faith and his deep love of all things Christmas (the holiday), and creates... this truly remarkable cozy mystery that somehow blends all of this, along with quite a bit of both heart and hilarity, into a tale that will be unlike most anything you will ever read from any other author.

Now, because of all of this - the several mentions of alcoholism throughout the book, the focus on Christmas, the magical realism based in nothing you've likely ever heard of before, the sheer number of characters (though from only a single perspective), the merry-yet-acknowledging-the-darkness, the (off screen) referenced child abuse, the (behind the door) attempt to cajole a young adult lady to have sex (played for both heart and a touch of comedic relief, to be clear), and perhaps any number of other issues... maybe this book isn't for you. You do you. But I'm telling you as someone who has read over 150 books this year, who has read nearly 1800 books in a decade now... this is one of the most singularly unique books I've ever encountered, in so many of the best possible ways. Do what you need to do for your own mental health, I'll never say otherwise there (so long as you're not harming anyone else, that is, and choosing not to read a book is not harming anyone). But I'm not going to hide my opinion that this book is great for all readers.

Ultimately, this could yet be the opening chapter in Holloway's true Magnum Opus. It truly is the best book he has written to date, bar none, and I for one cannot wait to see where he takes this world next.

Very much recommended.

No Angels. No Demons. Only Humans. This is one of those tales that has a lot going against it - multiple perspectives, pretty well everyone is "unlikeable" at best, etc. And yet... that is the very strength of this particular tale.

I for one enjoy and even embrace tales where humanity is shown in all of its highs - and lows. Where people are shown to be exactly what they are - flawed creatures simply trying to live their lives the best they can. Where no matter how angelic someone appears, there is clearly a demon hiding just under the surface, and no matter how demonic a person appears, there is an angel hiding in there somewhere. (Eh, maybe a fallen angel, but still an angel. ;) )

That Satterthwaite uses a fairly standard-ish overall plot of high school friends reuniting after several years apart to tell this particular story actually works well to establish expectations... which makes it even better when she actively subverts these very expectations at nearly every turn.

Fans of the particular story type and overall genre will have enough here to sink their teeth into and enjoy, while those like me who enjoy having something "more" will find a fair amount of that here as well.

Indeed, looking back to my review of Satterthwaite's 2024 debut, Made For You, it seems here that Satterthwaite leaned into the better parts of her storytelling in that tale, threw out the bits that didn't work so well, and used the remaining time to really tighten up what worked so well there and really do it even better here. Thus, showing strong progression as a storyteller that indeed makes me want to come back for book 3 to see what she has in store for us next, and if she can continue to improve her storytelling and potentially evolve it even further.

Very much recommended.