Forget the Fairy Tale and Find Your Happiness Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by Books Forward in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read plenty of female empowerment books for a long time. Many of them encourage women to forgo societal expectations in order to pursue their dreams and happiness. The memoir Forget the Fairy Tale and Find Your Happiness by Deb Miller falls under this spell, but it uses the fairy tale framework, specifically the legacy of the Disney Princesses, to tell the story. I’ve never read a book like it, and I’m happy I did because it resonated with me on many levels, and it had a great structure.

Forget the Fairy Tale and Find Your Happiness is about how the author learned to slay the myth about Prince Charming and redefine her happily ever after. Growing up, Deb dreamed of meeting someone who will sweep her off her feet and provide the happiness she deserves. She initially finds in it her college sweetheart, whom she marries. However, when she realizes that he can’t deliver the fairy tale she expects, she takes charge and creates her own. Her love of tennis opens many professional doors, but it also leads to a tumultuous second marriage. This memoir chronicles her transformation from a Midwest housewife to a global executive as she deals with societal expectations, personal setbacks, and professional achievements. 

Throughout her journey, Deb draws extraordinary parallels with Disney’s ever-evolving princesses, who evolved from being damsels in distress to brave, strong, and independent women who embrace their unique strengths and forge their own paths. Deb learns a few lessons while on her bumpy ride to happiness. This is her tale of resilience, pursuing a better life for her children, and finding genuine joy for herself.

Reading Forget the Fairy and Find Your Happiness reminded me how I used to think about the Disney Princesses. As a child, I didn’t care too much for them. They were too girly for me, but I loved Sleeping Beauty (mainly for Flora, Fauna, Merriweather, and Maleficent). When I got older and more diverse princesses emerged, I started to appreciate them, especially the Disney Renaissance-era ones, more. As of now, Belle is my favorite Disney Princess since she’s smart and knows what she wants – just like Deb. 

I enjoyed how Miller reflects on the lessons she was taught. Throughout, she mentions that her parents, often her mother, reinforced the idea that the man was the provider and the woman was to be taken care of. This made Deb want to follow the princess path in the first place despite her ambitions. In fact, the first lesson Deb offers is “Follow the Path” (p. 3). Each is interspersed throughout the memoir, but they are not always at the beginning of a chapter. Some come in the middle, and stop the story in its tracks. Surprisingly, they didn’t ruin the flow, for the lesson was incorporated into whatever Miller was talking about at that moment. Moreover, they evolve just like the Disney Princesses have, so it was nice to see them transform from “Follow the Path” and “Be Smart, But Not Too Smart” to “Be Yourself” and “Be Happy.” Also, I loved how the final chapter involved Deb and one of her daughters watching Brave and the former being genuinely surprised by how it turns out.

I actually find it surprising that not many female empowerment memoirs use the fairy tale/Disney Princess framework, but I love how Miller utilizes it. She starts off each section and chapter with an anecdote regarding a certain Princess, and each reflects what she encountered in her life at that point. For example, when she goes to the USSR to visit the Russian guy who would eventually become her second husband, she compares that to Belle initially coming across the Beast and his castle. That’s a great analogy! 

Another thing that I love about this framework is how seamlessly Miller weaves the Disney Princesses chronologically as the memoir unfolds. In the early chapters, she uses the old-school ones (Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty) to show what she wanted her life to be in the beginning as a housewife and desired a man to be the breadwinner. When the latter couldn’t be delivered, Deb seeks other avenues to provide for her family. This is when she references the latter princesses like Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, etc., to demonstrate her growth and independence. The shoe simply fits.

Forget the Fairy Tale and Find Your Happiness by Deb Miller is an excellent female empowerment-themed memoir. The author was engaging throughout the book, especially when she reflects on the lessons that she was taught when she was younger and the ones she learned from experience. Above all, the Disney Princess structure was beautiful. Without that framework, it could’ve been any other memoir about an extraordinary woman. This truly makes it stand out. I would recommend it to readers who love the Disney Princesses and want something more in their female empowerment stories. Forget the Fairy Tale and Find Your Happiness will be out tomorrow, June 24, so go check it out wherever you get your novels.

Before I go, I want to let you know that I had the opportunity to interview Deb Miller for the website. The transcript will be posted soon.

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Adapt Me Podcast – Sputnik Sweetheart

Hi Everybody!

The latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast is up right now. In it, guest and Women InSession Podcast co-host Jaylan Salah and I discuss how we would adapt Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami into an interpretive dance. We discuss how the themes and visuals could lend itself to film and interpretive dance (as long as directors are focused on capturing its spirit). Also, we talk about the strengths of Murakami’s writing and why his work has been frequently adapted to varying results. Check it out at this link!

In the meantime, I have a review of the book itself, so check that out too!

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Literary Travel – Northern Michigan Edition

Hi Everybody,

Last September, I wrote a blog about my travels to Wisconsin, Northern Michigan, and Canada. In that same month, I traveled to a different part of Northern Michigan to a town called Manistee, so I could celebrate my birthday with a dear friend. During that weekend, she took me to a Carnegie Library and a bookstore. Today, I’ll show them to you. All of the photos used were ones that I took.

First up is the Manistee Library in Manistee, Michigan.

As a part of the Manistee County Library, this public library is special because it’s housed in a 120-year-old Carnegie Library building. A group formed by Manistee society ladies called the Lakeside Club wanted to create such a place. In 1902, the Lakeside Club collaborated with city officials and the local literary society to successfully campaign for a public library that would be funded largely by The Andrew Carnegie Foundation. Construction commenced the following year, and the library officially opened on April 28, 1905.

When my friend and I went to the Manistee Library back in September, it was going through some renovations. Despite that, it was nice and compact. It was made up of two floors.

The first floor contained the main reference desk and shelves for adult fiction and nonfiction books. We even chatted with the librarian at the desk. She told us that the desk seen here was originally part of the library.

The first level had books, movies, and audiobooks organized in ways that patrons would expect from a library.

Good for the library to have DVD/Blu-Ray players for patrons to check out.

The library also had a couple good displays when we were there. Since we came during Banned Books week, they had a simple, but effective one near the reference desk. In addition, I liked how they had a Library of Things collection. It seems that the cases are used to mark when an actual Library of Thing gets checked out.

Before I get too off track, the other display was dedicated to James Earl Jones, who died earlier that month and grew up in Manistee County. Who knew!

The second floor in the main library consisted of computers. Some of them were on the main level, but most were on the top.

On this level, not only were there computers, but there were also a laminating machine, a 3-D printer, a charging station for those who need to charge their phones and other devices, and a computer equipped to read microfilm.

Back to the main floor, we came across a spacious reference room for those who like to study and read the newspaper. I especially loved the blue walls, which makes it calming. According to my friend, the library uses that room as a locked meeting space these days, so I’m happy I got to see it when I did.

Finally, while we were at the Manistee Library, we went up the elegant wooden staircase to find a Fine Feathered Fridays Display and a children’s room.

The Fine Feathered Fridays room contained all bird-related items, including an original Audubon book. They turn a page every first Friday of the month.

The other part of that floor held a Children’s room, which was fit for any child to play in!

It had everything that a child would want at a library. It contained a play area, where they can put on a puppet show and pretend to make food in a kitchen. Furthermore, the Children’s room held computers, a Wall of Fame, and backpack kits to enhance their learning. The latter was in collaboration with two other counties in the Northern Michigan area.

I’m glad that libraries like the Manistee Library are finding ways to strengthen children’s learning.

While the Manistee Library has a prestigious history, it has continuously found ways to keep patrons of all ages interested. It has good books and study spaces for adults as well as a nice play area for the kids. Along with their website, you can check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Manistee is all about the past, present, and future.

The next and final place we’ll look at is not just any bookstore, it’s The Bookstore in Frankfort.

After our visit to the Manistee Library, we took a spontaneous trip to downtown Frankfort, which is about an hour away from Manistee. It was a bright sunny day with a ton of people out, and we happened to stumble upon The Bookstore.

With a name like “The Bookstore,” it must think highly of itself. Luckily, it kept customers in mind with its wide range of books, magazines, and other publications.

The building is divided into two rooms – one containing adult-related books and the other for kids. I went into the latter first. The children’s area looked super cozy. It had classic, popular, and Michigan-related titles. Additionally, it sold toys like puzzles and puppets. Maybe customers who buy the latter can donate them to a library like the Manistee Library.

There was also a nice seating area consisting of a futon. It gave off a simple, comforting mood.

Cards, journals, and planners were present in the children’s room as well. That was an unusual choice of place, but hey, they got some nice visuals. Anything to catch a customer’s eye. I especially like the “Reading is Magic” planner, for that message is what we need in the world right now.

Flags of all kinds, specifically the United States one in many of its iterations, were also at The Bookstore. They added that independent feel to the store.

On the adult side, the typical kinds of the books were available for sale like the bestsellers, genre novels, and nonfiction titles.

Furthermore, it had unique offerings like Native American history, books about Michigan and the Great Lakes, and ones by local authors. I actually bought one title from the local author collection called The Cut by John Wemlinger. It’s a historical fiction novel that takes place in Manistee County. I hope to read it some time.

Throughout the adult side, notes from various staff members gave customers ideas of what to purchase. For example, this one is from employee Carrie, who listed a few of her favorite books. I’ve read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry and Dalva. Check out my reviews on those books to see how I feel.

My favorite thing about this bookshop was its sense of humor. For example, a raven was perched on top of the Literature/Classics shelves in the adult area, and it said this.

Right next to it was a Shakespeare mask and a drawing of Edgar Allan Poe and the raven from the iconic story.

The Bookstore is the bookshop in Frankfort, Michigan. It had a broad range of items that appealed to all types of readers from the bestsellers to anything Michigan-related. You can check them out on Facebook. That bookstore definitely kept readers in mind while making it a fun and comfortable place to stroll as well as sit and read.

And that concludes the seventh installment of “Literary Travel!” I hope all of you had a great time on this trip. There is another one down the pipeline, so stay tuned for that later this year!

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Just Gone: True Stories of Persecution for Love and Life Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by Sasha Stolz Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: this review discusses attempted murder, sexual assault, rape, and exorcisms.

Countries all around the world are celebrating Pride this month. We have made great strides in ensuring and protecting the rights of the LGBTQ+ community. However, there are still nations that still persecute people from that group, including prison and in some cases, death. I knew about this prior to reading today’s book Just Gone: True Stories of Persecution for Love and Life by Jo DeLuzio, but that book opened my eyes to the extent in which individuals endured and how they escaped to Canada. It’s a powerful story that needs to be read by everyone regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.

 Just Gone: True Stories of Persecution for Love and Life is a collection of interviews with queer people who sought refuge in Canada. LGBTQ+ individuals have always told their stories in order to make themselves visible. However, for some, rendering themselves this way can lead to violence and death. These interviews provide them a safe outlet to share their stories from all around the world. They often tell heartbreaking tales of why and how they escaped their homelands without getting caught or killed. They are just gone from those areas. Many who came to North America still wonder if they will be found and murdered. In addition, the author adds background information to the impact of the stories of the people she interviews.

While I was in college, I was the secretary of the LGBTQ+ club for all four years. As someone who’s straight, it opened my eyes to the people in that community and tales they told. I knew about their past and present struggles, but Just Gone highlights them on a global scale to show that there are still battles that need to be fought to prove that LGBTQ+ rights are human rights. Even DeLuzio herself, who came out as queer later in life, was blown away by what the participants endured in their home countries. She may be the reader’s objective lens, but it’s clear that she too learned many things while conducting the interviews and writing this book.

Just Gone contains seven harrowing stories of the suffering the interviewees – whose real names are undisclosed – endured and how they managed to get out of their home countries. Most of them are gay men, but there’s a lesbian and a transgender woman. DeLuzio acknowledges this discrepancy by writing how being a woman adds even more pressure to live by societal expectations in certain nations (p. 6-10). 

At under 200 pages, I was able to read this in under a week. Each tale was beautifully constructed. The ones I gravitated to the most were Eric and Roberto from Mexico and Ariella from Nigeria. In Eric and Roberto’s case, they found fiberglass in their apartment’s ventilation. Later, they got drugged and beaten, and Roberto was repeatedly raped. The worst part was that Eric’s aunt was in the room when the latter episode occurred.

As for Ariella’s story, she grew up knowing that she was a girl despite being a boy’s body. However, when she told her family that she liked boys, they kicked her out of the house. She spent many years living on the streets working as a drug runner and later as a prostitute. Ariella endured several beatings and rapes, and even at one point, she was left for dead after a severe attack. Luckily, a prostitute named Chisimdi found her, took her in, and accepted her for who she was. Both stories were devastating to hear, yet they needed to be told. I’m glad all of the interviewees, including Eric, Roberto, and Ariella found ways to escape.

DeLuzio also does a great job with providing context about the countries the participants came from at the end of each chapter. For example, even though discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is illegal in Mexico, and same-sex marriage is recognized in all 32 states, that nation is notorious in its human rights violations with torture and enforced disappearances being well documented (p. 115). In addition, the situation in Nigeria has gotten worse with its treatment of LGBTQ+ people since Ariella left. Same-sex relations in that nation are punishable by imprisonment or death depending on secular or Sharia laws, and even “the mere discussion of LGBTQ rights was criminalized” by 2021 (p. 74). 

In nations like these, the fight for LGBTQ+ rights are far from over.

Another wonderful aspect of the book was how the interviewee chose their pseudonyms for the book. For instance, Ariella got hers because she asked DeLuzio to select a name that was fit for a princess. The author initially chose Ariel from The Little Mermaid, but the participant felt that it was too plain, so she changed it to Ariella (p. 73). 

Additionally, Sungai from Indonesia selected that name because it meant river or stream in Indonesian, as he put it, “They tried to wash away the gay, but they failed. I was born gay, and nothing will change it” (p. 53).

He had every right to say that. A church in his home country performed an exorcism to try to wash the gay away. It didn’t work.

Just Gone: True Stories of Persecution for Love and Life by Jo DeLuzio is a powerful book that doesn’t need additional words for how great it is. I already mentioned who I would recommend it to, but I’ll say it again: it needs to be read by everybody regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. If the author, who’s queer herself, can learn about the extent of the horrific situations that the participants went through, you can too. It’s not an easy read by any stretch, but it’s not meant to be. After all, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual, asexual, aromantic, and two-spirit people, etc., tell their stories to cement their existence and not be erased. Let’s remember that all year round and not just in June.

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Spoken: A Memoir Sprinkled With a Little Quadriplegia Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: this review discusses sex and suicide.

I’ve read plenty of memoirs written by extraordinary people. I always admire how they came out on top despite the struggles they went through. Today, I will add another title to that group Spoken: A Memoir Sprinkled With a Little Quadriplegia by Robert A. Rieck Jr – a story about one man’s life before and after becoming quadriplegic. It’s a unique story that I couldn’t believe happened with an interesting structure, and I loved how the author was unafraid to show his dark side and sexuality while balancing them out with his humor.

Spoken: A Memoir Sprinkled With a Little Quadriplegia recounts the good and bad choices that led to painful challenges and remarkable accomplishments in the life of Robert A. Rieck Jr. Growing in a Jehovah Witness family in Nebraska, Robert always wanted to try new experiences. When he got older, he discovered love and had many relationships with various women at different times. From an early marriage to a suicide attempt, his love life took him through significant life changes, including becoming a C5 quadriplegic and struggling with depression. Despite his difficulties, he found purpose while being a drug and alcohol counselor, participating in competitions for wheelchair athletes, working on his unique T-shirt designs as a mouth artist, and becoming a full-time animal and vegan rights activist. 

As alluded to earlier, there’s not a memoir I’ve read that had a life like Robert’s. He wanted to gain new experiences because he grew up in a Jehovah Witness family, which restricted him in certain ways. Because he was in that kind of household, he could have been viewed as naive in certain eyes, like marrying his best friend’s mom when he was 17. More importantly, I didn’t really know much about quadriplegia prior to reading Spoken. Nonetheless, I learned quite a lot about it, for Rieck is able to express what he goes through in basic terms, especially how he manages to stimulate sex. He even invented a chair that would allow him and his able-bodied partner to have oral sex, but sadly, he never was able to get the patent.

Not only did I enjoy Robert’s story, but also I loved how he told it. How Rieck structures the memoir appears to be of the from-cradle-to-present-day kind. But, towards the end, he reveals that he used the Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development framework to evaluate his life. This theory asserts that personality “develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.”

I have come across this theory prior while reading A Life Well Bred, A Life Well Led: A Personal Memoir in Eight Psychosocial Development Stages by Robert C. Jones. Rieck better utilizes this framework than Jones did because the former was able to blend the theory into his story. Again, I didn’t realize that until Rieck mentioned it at the very end.

Additionally, I loved how Robert was brave to show his darkness, sexuality, and humor. He is open about his depression, especially in how he didn’t feel accepted by people, especially the women whom he loved. I can’t imagine how hard it was for him to write about his suicide attempt, which led to him being a C5 quadriplegic (that means he had a spinal cord injury to the C5 vertebra in the neck that resulted in paralysis in his upper and lower body), at age 21. He also talks about sex quite a lot. This may be off-putting for some people who might prefer something more “clean,” yet this addresses a common stereotype about disabled people: infantilization. Subconsciously or consciously, there’s this notion that because people with disabilities are incapable of doing certain things, they’re not able to be intimate with others. Rieck dispels that idea very quickly as he discusses his relationships with various women throughout the years, how they were able to stimulate sex, and even showing his penis to his male childhood friend when they were kids.

And, Rieck does this with a sense of humor. There are interludes sprinkled in the memoir like the one called Disability Stereotype and QuadAntics. In that one, he talks about the stereotypes that are commonly associated with disabled people. He created images that combated those labels that he called QuadAntics. Two of my favorite designs that he did were the Quad Spud (p. 256) and the phrase “Can You check to See if I have a Wedgie?…Dressing Directions” (p. 264). 

If I had one issue, it would be that he does some listing. What I mean by this is that he talks about something that happened in his life and moves on without ruminating or coming back to it. This primarily happens in the first half before Robert becomes quadriplegic. I had a similar problem with the second part of Eric Idle’s autobiography Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography.

Spoken: A Memoir Sprinkled With a Little Quadriplegia by Robert A. Rieck Jr., is a special story about a man dealing with many ups and downs in his life. He’s very open about what he’s been through and how he felt about each of his obstacles and accomplishments. Also, he’s very comfortable talking about sex. And, he does much of this with humor, sincerity, and Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development. I would recommend it to people who love reading about extraordinary lives and want more stories by disabled authors. I have never read a memoir of a life like Robert’s, and I’m glad I did.

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Sputnik Sweetheart Book Review

Haruki Murakami is one author that I’ve wanted to read for awhile. For those who don’t know, he is one of the most prolific Asian authors of the last few decades. His work has been translated all across the globe and adapted into several movies, including the Oscar-nominated Drive My Car. Recently, I finally read my first Murakami novel, which was 1999’s Sputnik Sweetheart. It’s a great meditation on unrequited love with simple and effective writing and memorable characters.

Translated from Japanese by Philip Gabriel, Sputnik Sweetheart is a character study on three different people. Sumire is in love with a woman who’s 17 years her senior. While Miu is glamorous and successful, Sumire is a struggling writer who dresses like a character in a Jack Kerouac novel. She spends lots of time on the phone talking to her best friend K about the big things in life: what is sexual desire, and how should she tell Miu her feelings for her? Meanwhile, K wonders if he should profess his love for Sumire. Soon, Sumire and Miu go on a trip to Europe. It seems like everything is good until the former suddenly disappears while they’re on a remote Greek island. Will she be found?

One of the first things I noticed while reading Sputnik Sweetheart was its simplicity. Murakami is great at that because he knows when less is more. The way he describes Sumire in the beginning (i.e. how she falls in love with Miu and who she is as a person) gets straight to the point. It’s this bluntness that intrigued me while reading it. The simplicity also reminded me of Ernest Hemingway. That author is best known for his short prose style of writing even though his novels contain lots of filler. There’s some fluff in Sputnik Sweetheart as well. For example, was it necessary to have two chapters devoted to the documents Sumire wrote before she disappeared? But, the more I thought about it, it made sense because of how Sumire writes. 

Moreover, the characters were interesting in their own right. Sumire is definitely the stand out. She dresses like a Jack Keroac character and calls K in the middle of the night from a remote phone booth. Seeing how she evolves over the book was fascinating. Even though Sumire is the most memorable, K and Miu were just as compelling. K is a school teacher who has feelings for Sumire. He spends much of his time reading and having “relationships” with older women, including the mothers of his students. I felt bad for him because of how lonely he was and how much he cared for Sumire. Miu, on the other hand, is Sumire’s employer and love interest. The older woman clearly cares for Sumire, but she could never love her the same way the younger one does. The explanation leans into some magic realism.

All of their conflicts play into the biggest theme of the novel: unrequited love. Murakami hits this notion really hard. Each of these characters feels lonely in their own ways. There are many lines that exemplify this well. One is when K helps Sumire move into her apartment and says that he’ll miss her, he says, “Imagine The Greatest Hits of Bobby Darin minus ‘Mack the Knife’” (p. 65).

The other and my personal favorite line is Miu’s realization about her relationship with Sumire:

“And it came to me then. That we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own separate orbits. From far off they look like beautiful shooting stars, but in reality they’re nothing more than prisons, where each of us is locked up alone, going nowhere. When the orbits of these two satellites of ours happened to cross paths, we could be together. Maybe even open our hearts to each other. But that was only for the briefest moment. In the next instant we’d be in absolute solitude. Until we burned up and became nothing” (p. 117).

I also have to give credit to Gabriel for maintaining Murakami’s simple and expressive nature. No one can articulate loneliness like Murakami can, and Gabriel captures that spirit. 

Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami is a great reflection on loneliness, especially with unrequited love. Each of these characters are engaging, especially in how they deal with longing. Murakami has a great ability to express it in simple and creative ways. I would recommend this to readers looking to read more titles involving unrequited love, loneliness, and anything by Haruki Murakami. I have been wanting to read his work, and I’m glad I launched into that journey with Sputnik Sweetheart.

Before I go, I want to let everyone know that the latest episode of the Adapt Me Podcast will come out next month. Guest and co-host of the Women Insession Podcast Jaylan Saylah and I will talk about how we would adapt this novel. Keep an eye out for the link.

Interview with J.D. Barker

Full disclosure: this interview has been edited for clarification.

Hello Everybody!

We got something special for you all on Book Reviews by a Chick Who Reads Everything today. We have a guest, who is a New Times Bestselling author of many titles, including his latest Something I Keep Upstairs. Please welcome, J.D. Barker! Hi J.D., how are you doing today?

J.D.: Hey Emily, how are you doing? Doing great.

Emily: I’m doing fantastic. Well, I’m glad to have you on today because I’ve got a whole load of questions for you, which I’m sure we’ll have a fun time talking about.

J.D.: Well, I’m fully caffeinated and ready to go.

Emily: Alright, so, what was the catalyst for writing Something I Keep Upstairs?

J.D.: Ooo, well, it’s funny ‘cause it takes me typically three months to write a book. This one took me about four years from start to finish, and mainly because a lot of it is based on a true story. I live on a little island off the coast of Portsmouth in New England called New Castle, and I go for a run every day, and at one point, I’m standing on the beach, and if I look out over the water about a quarter mile out, there’s this tiny, little island called Wood Island with one house on it. It’s only about an acre. It got the “what if” gene going in my author brain. At some point, I just decided that’s the house I wanted to include in my haunted house story.

Emily: That is awesome. One of the many things that people often note about in their reviews is your very extensive Author’s Note, which, as you have just mentioned, New Castle and Wood Island being real places. And, I was really fascinated to get into your mindset of doing all of this research and how those places inspired this book. But, I have to ask you since you mentioned that New Castle and Wood Island are real places, how have its residents reacted to the book if any?

J.D.: At this point, I haven’t heard anything negative, but I think that means they’re not talking to me. New Castle is a quiet little place. It’s a very small community. We got about 600 houses on the island, and I think about 900 people actually live here. I have no idea what this book actually means with regard to that. People have found me since I moved here, there’s a bike tour that comes through, and they stop in front of my house and point. People know that I live here. You mentioned my Author’s Note. The Author’s Note was all about the naming of the town like do I keep it, do I change it? Because typically, for something like this, you do change it. You know, you come up with something fictitious and kind of go on unless you’re using a big city like New York or Pennsylvania, err Philly, or someplace like that. But when I started going through this book, I had so many historical references that I used that it just wouldn’t make sense if I would have to change them all, which doesn’t make sense from a book’s standpoint. By leaving them, it doesn’t take much detective work to figure out where I’m really talking about. So in the end, I just decided to go ahead and leave it as is.

Emily: Ah, I see. The way you describe them does make me want to go to those places. I mean, I don’t know if I want to spend a night at the house on Wood Island because it’s a little spooky there. But then again, I understand that there was recently a giveaway or a prize for anybody, if you did something, you could spend a night at that house.

J.D.: Yes, so, whenever I have a book done, we always look at what people are doing to market their titles, so what is everybody else doing? And, I try to come up with something a little outside the box to basically get people talking. So, what we landed on is we’re giving away an overnight stay in the actual haunted house. So one month after publication, June 13th, we’re going to draw the name of one person. They’re going to pick three of their friends. We’re going to load them up on a boat, take them out to this private island, drop them off, and they’re going to spend 24 hours in a haunted house all by themselves.

Emily: Well, I hope they have a great time there. 

J.D.: Me too, ‘cause I will not do it.

Emily: Yeah, I’m not sure if I would do it. It sounds cool, but I think I’m good with staying in the house I live in now.

J.D.: Well, we just did the book release party on the island in the house. It was a mix of people. We had friends and family and had lots of reporters there. We also had paranormal investigators there, so as we are having this party for the book release, they were running around the house with their various recorders, trying to pick up whatever they could. I’m really curious to see what they actually found. We’ve had activity reported out there for years. When I was researching this book, that’s one of the reasons why it took so long to write. I found stuff going back almost 400 years, things that have occurred out at this house, so there is a lot of history there.

Emily: Wow! That is amazing! I’d be curious to find those results too because for my regular job, I’m an archivist in Romeo, Michigan, and I do a lot of historic home research. I’ve had owners come up to me and be like, “Hey, can you research this house? We suspect there’s some paranormal activity in there. So, we want to learn more about the people who lived there.”

I find that to be fascinating. And I’m so glad that you have this book, and you really dive deep into the history of the house in that regard.

J.D.: Yeah, we found a lot of stuff, so even before the house was built, that island was used as a quarantine zone during Yellow Fever when that was going on. During the Spanish-American War, they used to dock ships out there, so they would capture a Spanish vessel, they would dock it out on Wood Island, and they would force everybody to stay on the boat until they either died from starvation or disease, and then, they would take the boat ‘cause that’s ultimately what they wanted. But I found so many records of people dying around that island. When I speak to the paranormal investigators, a lot of what they tell me seems to come down is energy. If something dies, that energy has to go somewhere, it doesn’t just disappear. So when a lot of people die in the same place, it’s almost like the place becomes a battery, you know, where all that energy gets stored. So, I think that would kind of lead to some of things we’ve seen in more recent times in some of the activity that’s taken place out there lately.

Emily: Wow! That’s amazing to hear all that. You have been open about your experiences with autism, which I greatly appreciate as someone who is also on the spectrum. How has that influenced your writing?

J.D.: I think it has actually helped me. I’m not quite so I would be able to do what I do today without it. When I first started off in this world, I was working as a book doctor and a ghost writer. I wrote a lot of memoirs for some very famous people, so I would have to sit down with, let’s say, a female politician, and I would interview her. I would take those interviews and transcribe them, and I would have to turn them into a novel written basically in a first-person narrative, so in her voice. I was able to do that, and this was before I was diagnosed with, what I learned later is as an autistic person, I tended to mimic other people. So, if I’m in a social situation, and someone cracks a joke, I’ll laugh because other people are laughing, not necessarily because I find it funny. I’m basically mimicking what I see other people do. What I’ve learned is that I’m able to mimic people on paper too. So, if you give me somebody, like in this case, recorded transcripts, I can use that. If I have written stuff in front of me, I can pick up on their writing style, their vocabulary, their cadence, basically continue writing a piece of text in their own voice, so I’m able to mimic them on paper as well as mimic them in real life.

Emily: Wow! That is really amazing. We got to love the superpower of mimicking other people, whether it’s intentional or not.

J.D.: Yeah.

Emily: In your books, you include a mix of genres, especially mystery, suspense, and horror. How do you maintain that balance and choose which ones to emphasize?

J.D.: For me, it really comes down to I like to have one common thread, and I’d like to think of that as suspense, so every one of my novels is a suspense novel, and it might include elements of horror or sci-fi or romance or western or whatever, but that’s usually a smaller piece of the overall puzzle. And, I find that as long as the suspense is there, my readers will come along for the ride, so the novels are similar enough where they’ll bounce from one to the next to the next even though I’m introducing some of these other elements. 

Emily: Absolutely! I can definitely tell that from Something I Keep Upstairs. I was trying to figure out what’s going to happen, especially in the house, how Billy is going to deal with all of this. I remember just reading this and trying to figure out, “What is going on here? What is going to happen?”

So, you did a fantastic job with that, J.D..

J.D.: Thank you. In that case, it was primarily a thriller, and I lean heavily on horror. We actually dubbed it a chiller, which is a term that I stole from Peter Straub.

Emily: Yes, I think I remember reading about that at some point. That makes sense, so at least, I will label it as a chiller when I post my review and this interview up on my book review website. Speaking of Billy, if you were placed in the same situation as him, what would you do?

J.D.: Ooo, I don’t know. The story revolves around a 17-year-old kid named Spivey – Billy’s best friend, so his grandmother passes away. He had no relationship with her, but she leaves him this house on a private island, so he does exactly what you expect any other 17-year-old boy to do: he and his friends turn it into a party house. That’s probably honestly what I would end up doing with it too. You would create this place away from your parents, away from the authority figures, and just kind of have some fun, especially since it’s basically their final year, you know, of high school together, before they all take off for college. But at one point, partying out at this house gets old, and somebody raises their hand and says, “Hey, what would it take to take this house and turn it into a haunted house?”

You know they start exactly where you expect, there’s a couple of scary stories, somebody brings in a ouija board, but the tagline for the book is “For a haunted house to be born, somebody has to die.”

So, you know where they’re going, so the book is basically all about that journey.

Emily: Ah, yes! What a journey it is! It was such a rollercoaster of a ride reading it. One of the aspects you include is the musical Brigadoon. Now, I was in a production of that show when I was a teenager. What made you include that in the novel?

J.D.: You know, I had to explain, I don’t want to give any spoilers here, but the house basically bounces around a little bit in time, and certain things happen at certain times. The only other thing I could think of where that sort of thing happened was Brigadoon. I wanted to somehow tip people off as to what was happening without really telling them what was happening, so anybody familiar with Brigadoon might understand the reference. Other people might research it, but eventually, it all comes together. 

Emily: Absolutely! I don’t think people really talk about Brigadoon these days, especially in the context of Golden Age musicals. Usually, it’s like Oklahoma or Carousel. I mean, Brigadoon is still in there, but the only main reference I’ve seen of Brigadoon as of late is the television show Schmigadoon that’s on AppleTV+. Have you seen it?

J.D.: No, I haven’t. It’s one of those…I was just on Broadway with my daughter, took her to see The Lion King. Brigadoon is not there anymore. That’s probably where it would have been at some point, but I think in today’s world, it has been relegated to high school plays and things like that, which is kind of sad ‘cause it’s a really cool story. I kind of feel it’s being forgotten.

Emily: Yeah, it is, and I would be forgetting about it if it weren’t for the fact that I was in a summer theatre production of Brigadoon when I was a teenager. But, I am glad that you are, at least, bringing it to the reader’s attention. Maybe they would seek out the musical as well as the 1954 film starring Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse.

J.D.: And maybe, we’ll see it back on Broadway someday, who knows.

Emily: Well, we’ll see. That would be interesting to see how they do it. I know it was 2017 or 2018 or 2019 when the Kennedy Center had a production of Brigadoon. It had Patrick Wilson in it and Stephanie J. Block. It was really good.

J.D.: That’s cool. Yeah, I’d love to see it come back. I love making references like that because it kind of reminds people of stuff, same reasons you just brought it up. You have all of these fond memories of it. You probably forgot about it for years, and all of a sudden, it’s back in the forefront.

Emily: Absolutely! I also want to talk about your collaborations with James Patterson. You have collaborated with him on a number of novels. How were those experiences, and are they any titles in the works?

J.D.: Originally, it was supposed to be one project. We were going to do one book together, and that was it. We actually have five out now. The latest one was called The Writer. It just released in March, debuted at number 2 on the New York Times list. We just have a lot of fun working together. We just started another one about a month ago, so we’re going to keep this going. For a while there, I was kind of his go-to guy when he came up with an idea for something scary, so we did a few of the probably only horror-related novels that Patterson has out there. The Writer is just a straight up thriller, and this one that we’re doing again, it’s just something different.

Emily: How did you actually get in contact with James Patterson to begin with?

J.D.: When my second book was coming out, it was called The Fourth Monkey, it was with HMH, which is part of HarperCollins now. One of the things the big publishers do is they send out copies of these books to all of the big-name authors a couple of months before they come out, hoping they read it and give you that one little quote that you can use on the cover or marketing or whatever. So, a copy of The Fourth Monkey landed on James Patterson’s desk, and he liked it enough, for he picked up the phone and called me and told me basically gave me his review of the book over the phone. And then, we decided to meet for lunch, and things went from there.

Emily: That’s wonderful! I can’t wait to read the next books that you have with James Patterson and even pick up previous ones like The Writer. They sound amazing.

J.D.: The Writer was a lot of fun.

Emily: Awesome! You just mentioned The Fourth Monkey. Some of your books like The Fourth Monkey and Dracul are getting turned into movies or television shows. Are there any updates regarding those adaptations?

J.D.: No, I’ve got eight different projects in what I call various stages of Hollywood hell. So, like this one’s got a director, this one’s got a writer, or this one’s got a star, and all of a sudden, you lose the star, and then, the writer goes away. It’s this constant rollercoaster ride. Anytime, my film agent calls me, it’s either really good news, or really bad news. The good news from my standpoint is that they keep getting optioned over and over again, but at this point, nothing has been filmed. It’s going to happen. It’s a number’s game. Somebody once told me that if you watch the credits at the end of a movie, you know, six minutes of names going by, every single person listed there had to be there in order for that movie to make it to the screen, so if you take one away, and all of a sudden, it comes apart. That’s kind of what I’m seeing. Every one of these productions is a perfect storm like everything has to come together at the exact right moment, or it doesn’t happen, or it gets paused. But like I said, I think sooner or later, we’re going to see one of them on the screen. 

Emily: Well, I hope so too ‘cause I’m a massive fan of seeing how adaptations work. In fact, I actually run a podcast called the “Adapt Me Podcast,” where a guest and I talk about books that have never been adapted and how we would go about it. Who would you cast as the main characters from Something I Keep Upstairs in a possible adaptation?

J.D.: Ooo, that’s really tough ‘cause honestly, I’m not sure who is the latest and greatest out there when it comes to people in that particular age group. One of the things I’ve noticed is I literally had zero control over that, and I’m finding that even the people who are making these things like the directors and producers, they have very little control over it. What it really comes down to is scheduling. We’re going to shoot from this date to this date, and who’s available during those dates? So, I tend to keep my mouth shut because whenever I throw a name out there, it either comes back and bites me, or I don’t want to risk getting it in the press, saying “J.D. Barker wants so and so to be in a particular movie.”

I just stopped speculating on that sort of thing.

Emily: Ah, I see. I’d imagine if you got a name out here right now, and everybody would be like, “Oo, J.D. Barker is on this small-time book review website saying that he wants so and so to be in an adaptation of Something I Keep Upstairs. Ooo!”

J.D.: Well, it’s not only that. I know what names they are talking to, and I’ve got other people that I would like to see in it, and all of those things kind of get a little mixed up. I just don’t want to throw the wrong name out there.

Emily: That’s fair. What are some other projects that you are working on now?

J.D.: Like I said, I just started the latest one with James Patterson. My next one that’s going to be coming out, do you remember a film from the 90s called Flatliners? 

Emily: That does ring a bell. 

J.D.: Yeah, so it came out in 1990. It had this crazy cast. It had Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Billy Baldwin, and Oliver Platt, all at the start of their career before they became these household names that they are today. It’s about a bunch of medical students that kill each other one at a time to try and figure out if there’s life after death, so they kill each other, and they bring themselves back. It was like this cool premise. I always liked the movie. It honestly still stands up today. The guy who wrote it happened to be on one of my other projects, and we got to talking and came up with this idea to reboot the franchise. So, I just finished up a novel to reboot the Flatliners franchise. I literally just sent it to my film agent about an hour ago. So, the novel is going to come out first, probably a movie or tv show after that, so we’re kind of doing things backwards, but it’s a fresh take on the idea.

Emily: Wow! That’s amazing! I’ve heard wonderful things about the movie. I would love to check that out.

J.D.: It’s a fun movie if you get a chance to see it. I would watch it.

Emily: Oh, that I will do. I will put that right on my list. Where can people find you?

J.D.: The easiest place to find me at jdbarker.com. I’m on all of the social medias @jdbarker. And like we talked about, the latest book is called Something I Keep Upstairs just released May 13, and you can find that anywhere.

Emily: That’s wonderful. Well, thank you for coming on today. It was certainly a pleasure talking to you and picking your brain on how you conceived Something I Keep Upstairs

J.D.: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Emily: Yeah, you’re very welcome.

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Something I Keep Upstairs Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free advanced reader copy of this book by the author’s publicist in exchange for an honest review.

J.D. Barker is one of the most known authors in the mystery, suspense, and horror genres. His work has drawn praise from all over the literary world. Stephen King thought his novel Forsaken was so good that he granted permission for him to use one of his characters in it. On top of that, Barker has co-written a handful of books with James Patterson. I was recently given the honor of acquiring an advanced readers copy of Barker’s latest book Something I Keep Upstairs. It had me on the edge of my seat despite pacing issues.

Something I Keep Upstairs is about a haunted house on a remote island between New Hampshire and Maine. In the sleepy coastal town of New Castle, New Hampshire, seventeen-year-old Billy Hasler’s life takes a horrifying turn. When his best friend David Spivey inherits a mysterious home on a nearby island, it seems like the perfect place to hang out during the summer before college with no parents, police, or responsibilities. As Billy and his friends dig into the island’s dark part, they awaken an evil spirit that has influenced generations. What starts off as an innocent summer adventure quickly descends into a nightmare.

I was hooked from the very beginning. The likeable characters were the ones that I liked, and the unlikeable ones were those whom I was rooting against. The moral ambiguous ones were definitely in the grey area. I liked Billy quite a lot even though he was a bit bland, but I see why Barker wrote him that way. Many protagonists are written with some personality, so readers can insert themselves into the story. My favorite character was Spivey. He is socially awkward in a way that feels natural. In addition, he has been battling leukemia for a long time. When he inherits his late grandmother’s home on the remote Wood Island, he takes every opportunity to be at the house as much as he can, like having parties, so he can be a normal teenager just for the summer.

The strongest aspect of this novel is the plot. From the moment I read the first page, I knew I wanted to know more about what was going to happen. Every new development had me scratching my head in a good way even if I had some lingering questions when I finished. I wasn’t entirely sure how the home and the evil spirits on Wood Island worked, but in the end, I grasped enough of the logic and rooted for the characters that I wanted to succeed to keep going. Plus, that ending was insane. Also, I love how Barker included the musical Brigadoon to explain how the island works. I was in a production of that show when I was a teenager and had a great experience. It’s good to know that someone knows about it outside of the musical theatre nerds and the creators of the television show Schmigadoon.

If I had one complaint, it would be the pacing. I know some reviewers pointed out how slow the book was in the beginning, but I didn’t mind this. I liked how Barker gradually builds on the initial setup, which leads to the high octane finale. My issue was how he uses the two main narrators of the story. Even though Billy is the protagonist, the novel also emphasizes the point of view of Chief Whaley from the local police. Barker goes back and forth between the two, which was fine in the beginning. Billy sees first hand of what’s going on the island, and Whaley tries to obtain information on the circumstances surrounding it and later infiltrate it. It felt like the show Squid Game. However, once the third act arrives, I wanted to focus more on Billy and how he tries to escape. Everytime a new development occurred with him during that part, the novel decided to switch to Chief Whaley. This need to equally balance Billy and Whaley’s perspectives slowed down the flow.

Something I Keep Upstairs by J.D. Barker is a great chiller. It grabbed my attention from the very beginning with its likeable characters and increasingly insane plot. Even though it had some flow issues, I still was invested to see how everything would turn out. I can see why Barker has gotten a lot of praise. He is someone that I will definitely keep my eye on for future reads. I would recommend this to readers who love a mix of mystery, thriller, and horror; a good haunted house story; Stephen King; and James Patterson. Something I Keep Upstairs is out now, so grab a copy wherever you get your books. 

Before I go, I want to let you know that I had the opportunity to interview J.D. Barker for the website. The transcript will be posted soon.

Six Days in Detox Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Content warning: this review discusses addiction, alcoholism, mental health, and trauma.

I’ve read plenty of harrowing tales both for and outside the website. Some have stayed in my mind because of how well-written they were. On the other hand, if it’s poorly communicated, then I’m not going to get into as much despite the horrific situation being described. This was the case for the memoir Six Days in Detox by Dianne Corbeau. Even though it does a great job detailing what life is like for an addict detoxing in the worst place possible, I struggled to get fully invested because of its repetitiveness and editing issues.

Six Days in Detox is a memoir about the author’s time in an institution while she recovers from addiction. Dianne picked up alcohol after 26 years of sobriety. After a near-death experience, she is placed in a mental institution, beginning her journey back into recovery. Despite certain forces in that place, she gives it her all to survive the battle of her life. It takes a hard look at what goes on with an addict internally and externally.

I know I said this quite a lot when reviewing memoirs that deal with intense situations, but I couldn’t believe that actually happened to Dianne aka the author. The mental institution she was placed in sounds like the cruelest place ever. Everyone, including Dianne, is not given the proper medication that they need despite the orders from a prior doctor. Dianne’s roommate is awful, as in she thinks that Satan is out to get her and that people are stealing her stuff. I was happy when Dianne stood up to her. The worst thing is the head nurse whose only job is to supposedly make Dianne’s life truly miserable, especially when he doesn’t call her name to get her meds. He was so horrible that the only other person who would be friends with him is Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I’m thankful that Dianne only spent six days in that place.

The biggest strength of this memoir is how it explores an addict’s mindset. Dianne has manic depression, and she suspects she got this from her abusive biological mother whom she left at age 8. She spends the rest of childhood being homeless and later a drug addict. Luckily, she was able to become sober at 19, but during her sobriety, she kept thinking of the unresolved issues and emotions regarding her upbringing. To avoid reminding herself of them, she turned back to drinking even though she spent nearly 30 years on the wagon and worked as a professor. It’s during her time in the mental institution that makes her realize that recovery is a life-long process, and she needs to keep working at it to avoid relapsing again. At one point, Dianne expresses fear about what life would be like after leaving the horrific place because she doesn’t know what being sober is going to look like for her this time. I like how the memoir ends on an ambiguous note as a result. 

Six Days in Detox could be a great memoir if it weren’t for the repetition and glaring editing issues. Throughout, Dianne kept bringing up certain points. These include the trauma she encountered, how awful the head nurse was, how much she needed her medications, how her organs were shutting down, and the fact that she had been sober for 26 years. In certain situations, I would overlook these repeatings. This is not one of those because it’s less than 150 pages and has seven chapters with six devoted to each day Dianne was in the mental institution. This disrupted the flow.

Before I go into the critique about the glaring editing issues, I have to make a confession. Before I publish my reviews, I have my husband Carl, who is a car journalist, look them over. It’s the reason why they are as polished as they could get. When I read certain parts of Six Days in Detox, I had to look them over at least twice and kept thinking of how the editor didn’t catch them. For example, part of a sentence is repeated twice in a single paragraph (p. 116). All I know is if Carl was editing this memoir, those errors would have been corrected immediately because he’s that good at his job (and I’m not saying that because he’s my husband).

Six Days in Detox by Dianne Corbeau has the potential to be a great memoir. It has a harrowing story about one woman’s stay at the worst mental institution possible while detoxing. In addition, it offers powerful insight into a user’s mindset when it comes to addiction and the struggle for sobriety. However, it kept repeating itself and contained some obvious editing errors. As a result, this slowed the flow and made me less invested in the story as I should be. I would only recommend this to readers who are curious to learn about what it means to be an addict. It’s a shame that the memoir is not as well constructed as it should be because the story is truly a powerful tale about recovery and overcoming addiction.

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Hive Book Review

Full disclosure: I was given a free advance reader copy of this book by Mindbuck Media Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been about a year since I read a time-travel romance. The last one I looked at was The 23rd Hero by Rebecca Ann Nguyen, which involved going back in time to prevent climate change. Today’s novel Hive by DL Orton does something similar but with higher stakes and a second-chance romance. It works for the most part because of the premise and the wonderful characters.

Hive is the first book in the “Madders of Time” series. Inside a disintegrating biodome surrounded by rising sea levels and deadly robot bees, the last survivors of humanity cling to hope. Time is running out for  the middle-aged couple Isabel – a dying scientist – and Diego. When she stumbles upon a long-lost spacetime bridge, the chance to change the past emerges, offering one final opportunity to rewrite history. However, going back in time means facing forgotten secrets and powerful forces seeking to control the future. 

When Mindbuck Media asked me to read this book, they mentioned that I might be interested in Hive due to my interest in titles like A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman. I wouldn’t have necessarily pitched it like that, but I can see why. While that one doesn’t involve time travel, its aging main character has a second chance at life. In Hive, Isabel and Diego want another opportunity to prevent the end of humanity.

Hive reminded me of The 23rd Hero the most. Not only there’s time travel to prevent tragedy, but there’s also a romance at its core. The similarities end there. In The 23rd Hero, traversing through time is controlled by an organization for one goal: to prevent climate change. As for Hive, Isabel stumbles upon a spacetime bridge and wants Diego to go back in time to give a cryptic message to his younger self to save the Earth from various catastrophes and ensure the survival of their children. As much as I liked The 23rd Hero, I actually prefer Hive because there’s a bit more logic regarding the time travel, and it balances that with the romance more.

Hive also reminded me of modern Doctor Who, with how it uses time travel, romance, and humor to level the tension that the plot creates. After all, the Doctor and their companions have to save the world in a variety of ways, just like Diego and Isabel have to do here. Specifically, it reminded me of the episode, in which the Ninth Doctor and Rose go back in time to try to prevent her dad from getting killed in a car accident. Both the episode and the book constantly ponder how much timelines can diverge based on one change.

Prior to going into Hive, I had no idea that Isabel and Diego were in a previous series “Between Two Evils.” This was my introduction to them, and I liked them as a pair. I could sense how Diego loved Isabel so much that he was willing to go back in time for her. In addition, since they were former lovers prior to the disaster, their scenes of reconnecting in the cabin made me invested in their romance. Isabel was good too. She is a go-getter and cares a lot about Diego and the Earth. Plus, she’s trying to cultivate bees that could be highly beneficial for the environment. As the readers will see, it doesn’t go as well. Also, Dave – Diego’s best friend and Isabel’s ex-husband – is a great villain. He is awful on a whole number of levels, and yet, he’s the one behind the biodomes that could save people’s lives, including the main protagonists. While I enjoyed the chapters from Isabel’s perspective, I wasn’t into Diego’s all that much. He didn’t have that much of a personality outside of loving her.

Even though the focus of the novel is on Isabel and Diego, my favorite character was the third lead – Dr. Matthew Hudson. He’s the physicist who’s ordered by the government to figure out solutions when the destruction of Earth begins. I adore his scenes with his adult niece Cassie – another scientist – and his co-worker in the lab Sam. He has great banter with the government officials who try to boss him around. I absolutely wanted him to find Cassie and to get out of the lab the government put him in. He adds plenty of humor in a story that’s full of intensity.

Hive by DL Orton is a good introduction to the “Madders of Time” series. The plot is intriguing, and I certainly want to know how Diego and Isabel try to save the world. The strongest aspect is the characters. Even if Diego is underwritten, I still was rooting for him and Isabel to survive. In addition, Matthew is the best character, and I can’t wait to see what Orton does with him in the future. I would recommend this to those who watched Doctor Who as well as read time-travel romances like The 23rd Hero and other titles by DL Orton. Hive will be out tomorrow, May 6, so grab a copy wherever you get your books. The next installment Jump will be published in November!

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