Reviews By Charline

“The Wind in the Woods”

Author: Rose Senehi

Initially I had some difficulty getting into “The Wind in the Woods.” While the book’s author, Rose Senehi, does have solid writing skills; her particular style did not immediately reach out and draw me in. In Senehi’s defense there are several plots intertwined throughout “The Wind in the Woods.” Once the characters were introduced; once the plots merged into a cohesive story; Senehi’s novel was able to garner my interest and hold my attention.

Moving on to the book: “The Wind in the Woods” is a romantic thriller set around the Green River Valley which is located in North Carolina. The book’s main players are Tiger Morrison, a charming and charismatic widower. Tiger’s beautiful daughter, who unbeknownst to anyone, including herself, is being stalked by a serial killer, and finally the nine-year-old Alvin Magee who is happily learning lessons about freedom and responsibility.

Tiger owns a children’s camp he built in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains. Every summer he opens this camp in order to share wonders from the pristine land surrounding it with the kids. His love for these mountains causes him to take on the real estate developers who are intent on buying a large parcel bordering his. Tiger understands that if this sale happens the developers will have no remorse whatsoever about the damage they will inflict upon the surrounding area. Somehow he has to come up with an exorbitant amount of money in order to buy the land himself until he can get a conservationist group involved.

Alvin is one of the camp’s kids and at first glance he is completely out of his element. He’s skinny; he wears glasses and his mother is too overprotective. However, he does a phenomenal job of making up for whatever he’s lacking with sheer determination and spunk. He loves the camp and because of his experiences there he learns about himself and about the man he will become.

All in all I found “The Wind in the Woods” to be a decent read. Senehi does write well and she does pay attention to detail although I did feel the story started off too slowly. I enjoyed the environmentalism throughout the book and I definitely appreciated that while part of this novel included a sociopath Senehi was kind enough to leave out the majority of gruesome details.

“The Traveler”

Author: Jenna Lindsey

Several weeks ago I was looking for some new books to read / review; hoping to find a few that would interest me. I haven’t read any science fiction or fantasy in a while and the title “The Traveler” in this genre caught my eye. Of course I did my usual due diligence in order to find out what the book was about and while I wasn’t completely captivated by the book’s cover, I did find the jacket blurb sufficiently interesting enough to want to read it. I’m glad that I did.

“The Traveler” by Jenna Lindsey has an interesting premise. Jinnie, the book’s main character, seems to be caught between two worlds. She’s here on earth and yet she feels as if she’s living elsewhere at the same time. This alternate life is amazingly vivid and Jinnie is having trouble figuring out which is real and which is the illusion. At night, as she sleeps, she dreams of a man named Griffin. A man who loves her completely; a man she longs to be with yet how can she when he is only a figment of her imagination. Or is he…

Suddenly and without warning Jinnie is pulled into a completely different world. She struggles to keep the memories of her past intact while trying to remember the life she’s currently living. At every turn it seems she faces lies, subterfuge, and deceit. When at last she regains her memory she learns a horrifying truth. She realizes her life has been unfairly twisted and she learns the awful heartbreak that goes hand in hand with the words “I love you.”

I don’t want to provide any more of this story but I will give “The Traveler” a solid four star rating. I found the book to be well written, very interesting and it held my attention completely. Lindsey has a great writing style as well as a wonderful imagination. She is descriptive without becoming boring; the interactions between the characters flow smoothly, and the transitions between the different worlds are, for the most part, seamless. The author could have made this book into a series and perhaps, in future, she will. I think it also has great potential as a movie script.

For those of you who don’t normally enjoy reading science fiction I would suggest you ignore that particular categorization. I feel Lindsey has done a great job of taking some elements from science fiction and merging them together with fantasy and romance. As such this is definitely not a hard-core sci-fi read.

“The Post Debutante”

Author: Herman Franck, Esq.

Initially I was very excited to read and review “The Post Debutante” written by attorney Herman Franck. I loved the book’s cover. It reminded me of the early twenties and I was enthusiastic to see how that “look” and “feel” would be brought into a story set in today’s day and age.

Upon receiving “The Post Debutante” the first thing I did, after admiring the cover again, was flip it over so I could read the back. I always enjoy reading the information it provides as it reminds me what the tale will be about plus I get to learn something about the author. I reread the initial “about” blurb three times because the last sentence didn’t make any sense at all. “She also learns a lesson she didn’t know she already knew, that was is lovely and wealthy on the outside is not necessarily lovely and wealthy on the inside.” No, I didn’t type that incorrectly. It’s actually a typo on the back cover of the book which threw me for a loop. I was quite surprised. If nothing else I expect lawyers to possess meticulous attention for details.

Moving on to the story, I would say the premise behind “The Post Debutante” is good. A high society woman has her perfect wedding end before it evens begins because her fiancé has fallen in love with another woman. To add insult to injury this “other” woman is found dead and Nancy, the jilted bride-to-be, is charged with her murder. As I began reading I was appreciative that Franck didn’t write “The Post Debutante” using “legalese,” a word I have picked up from an attorney friend. My happiness however was short-lived as I was blown away by the complete and total over-descriptiveness of the book. Not to mention that quite often the author would repeatedly use the same word in the same sentence. Example: “He was true to the medical profession, a true professional, and knew at an early point in his career that, like most true doctors, he would never retire.” Suggestion: find a different word to use in place of true or better yet rewrite the sentence so it flows better and is not so redundant. “He was a true professional; a shining star in the medical field and like all great doctors, he knew he would never retire.”

Unfortunately, I found the writing style within “The Post Debutante” to be long-winded and tedious causing the read to be challenging. While I recognize that attention to detail is important; I must also point out that not everything needs to be exhaustively explained. Most of us have seen a wedding invitation. We know the pieces which are placed inside. We generally know what the reply card says and how to fill it out. Personally, I don’t want to read multiple paragraphs detailing every single aspect of something like that. I also had a hard time with the structure of the writing. The characters in “The Post Debutante” are members of the upper echelon of society. Their dialogue is appropriately formal and contractions are not used. However, in the non-dialogue paragraphs contractions are used which, to me, causes the conversations to seem stilted. I can only hope this is the author’s intention as a way of highlighting formal society’s speech patterns.

Finally, even though I was unable to, if the reader can get beyond the too technical and too verbose writing style of the author then this book may be able to hold his or her interest.

“Mental Illness and Your Town”

Author: Larry Hayes

The writing of my review for “Mental Illness and Your Town” has taken me a little longer to put together than what I had originally anticipated. Truthfully I didn’t connect with the book as well as I had hoped and consequently I needed some time to completely process my thoughts before I committed them to paper.

What I did like: I definitely feel that the overall message contained within the pages of “Mental Illness and Your Town” is important. I’m neither a doctor nor a psychiatrist but I would agree that “mental illness” should encompass much more than just schizophrenia or delusional psychosis. I also agree that things like bi-polar disorder or depression should be classified as a lesser form of “mental illness.” During the past few decades it seems that depression has been regarded as “trivial.” Many of us have seen, or heard, about horrific aftermaths be they suicides or senseless killings. Neither of these can be construed as “trivial.” Finally, I applaud the author, Larry Hayes, for making the time to write this book in an attempt to educate, enlighten, and provide helpful suggestions to those who seek knowledge on this subject. “Mental Illness and Your Town” is a sincerely written book and it shows.

What I didn’t like: I had a difficult time reading this book because of how it was written. I understand this isn’t a fictional story however, I still prefer an easy to follow “flow.” The author’s experiences as well as those of his family members and others were mixed in helter-skelter with resource information, tips, suggestions, phone numbers, websites, et cetera. I think the message could have been better appreciated and / or understood if the book had been divided into two or possibly three sections. Had the author devoted the first part of “Mental Illness and Your Town” to his own personal story I feel the reader could have connected better with him. The second and / or third parts of the book could have been all of his thoughts, suggestions, and resources. I also feel that this format, or something similar, would make it easier for the reader to find the information he or she was originally seeking once the book was finished. Plus, this layout would make it easier for anyone to use this book as reference material in the future.

In summary though, “Mental Illness and Your Town” is a sincere book with an important message plus, it’s a great compilation of suggestions and resources.

“Blind Tasting”

Author: A.C. Houston

I recently reviewed “Blind Tasting” but I’ll be honest and say that due to the title I wasn’t really sure what to expect at first. Would this be a fictional book about food? Would it feature a blind critic? More importantly, would it be good? Needing to know more I read the jacket blurb. Okay… The premise sounded interesting enough even if it did seem somewhat far-fetched.

Initially the book was difficult for me to get into. Not because it was boring or poorly written. It wasn’t. It’s just that I’m not very fluent in “geek speak” and that was the first thing that jumped off the page at me in paragraph one, chapter one. I’m also not the most computer literate person and so, knowing this, I took a deep breath and prepared myself to read slower. This way I could hopefully better understand phrases like “plenoptic illumination function” or “NP-complete.” *chuckle* Don’t worry; the characters don’t talk like that all the time.

Let me move on to the “meat and potatoes” of the story. Cory Wilder is the main character and he exemplifies the meaning of the word “geek.” Three guesses who used that memorable phrase “plenoptic illumination function…” Besides being incredibly smart, he’s also attractive; he has a great job and a gorgeous girl-friend. What more could a guy, geek or otherwise, really ask for? Unfortunately Cory’s world is suddenly turned upside down. He has two choices. He can sit around and mope or he can pick himself up and start putting his life back together. One evening he comes up with a verifiably crazy idea. Can he train his beloved dog to identify and match wines? His two best friends, Dawn and Rob, throw themselves wholeheartedly into seeing if they can make this project work. I’m not going to provide any more of the story but I’d be willing to bet the title of the book probably makes more sense now…

In closing, I’m giving “Blind Tasting” a five-star rating. I don’t normally give out five’s but I feel this book deserves every one of them. It was well written. The premise was unique. The story was interesting albeit unusual and, truth be told, I couldn’t put it down. It was also apparent throughout the book that the author, A. C. Houston, is extremely knowledgeable about computer technology, biochemistry, wines and dogs. I felt “Blind Tasting” was kind of like Sherlock Holmes meets Nancy Drew meets MacGyver. I would also consider A. C. Houston to be the upcoming Clive Cussler type author for a technology loving generation.