Category: Fly in the Ointment

+Blog Book Tour+ Trinity Stones by L.G. O’ Connor Introduction to the Angelorum Twelve Chronicles!

Posted Sunday, 6 April, 2014 by jorielov , , , 5 Comments

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Trinity Stones by L.G. O' Connor

Published By: She Writes Press () 22 April 2014
Official Author Websites:  Site | Facebook | Twitter | Trinity Stones Site
Converse via: #AngelorumTwelveChronicles & #TrinityStones
Available Formats: Trade Paperback and E-Book
Page Count: 366

Acquired By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Trinity Stones” virtual book tour through TLC Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author L.G. O’ Connor, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Paranormal Romance: Is a new genre I am engaging into the heart of as I had mentioned on my review of Ryder on the Storm  I had not even realised that I was already reading bits and bobbles contained within the genre itself ! After my readings of Violet Patterson’s opening of her Storm Sullivan saga, I decided to tread into the waters of the genre overall. What I find fascinating is how wide of a range the genre can entertain stories under its branch of literature! If I were to consider what is writ under the article on Wikipedia for Paranormal Romance, my inclinations lie as follows: ghost stories (i.e. mediums a la “Ghost Whisperer” OR cosy mysteries involving a ghost as a main or supporting cast character); heightened abilities such as telekinesis & telepathy; shapeshifters (i.e. the hawk in Reclamation by Jackie Gamber); and the mere fact it is a gene-bender for a crossover between science fiction, fantasy, & horror! For me, the fact that the horror is mostly kept at a distance or within what I consider ‘horror-lite’ is quite wonderful! The elements of time travel and of bending time against itself is also an appeal, as I love when science is brought out in such creative ways as to make you consider the epic realities of what could be plausible but are not yet probable!

I am thankful Trinity Stones came up for review via TLC Book Tours as I continue to make my ‘introduction’ into a genre I am still curious to become acquainted! One nice surprise was receiving a Trinity Stones novel card which has the cover-art on one side and the book synopsis & book information on the opposite. I used the card as a bookmark whilst reading the novel, and am thankful Ms. O’ Connor included it with the book!

 Angelorum Twelve Chronicles Synopsis:

The struggle between good and evil is eternal, but modern science offers an opportunity to upset the balance. Set in a refreshingly current environment, Trinity Stones: The Angelorum Twelve Chronicles by L.G. O’Connor, is the thrilling first story in this series about humans and angels brought together to fight a final battle against the Dark Ones.

Book Synopsis of Trinity Stones:

New York investment banker, Cara Collins, has little to smile about on her 27th birthday. Her boss is a misogynistic pig and the love of her life is married to someone else. Top that off with a creepy man in the subway and then a homeless woman on the street grabbing her and asking to be healed, and Cara’s panic disorder rears it’s ugly head. Cara wonders if things could get any worse until a mysterious letter arrives announcing she’s inherited $50 million–which must remain secret or those close to her could die. As Cara unravels the truth surrounding her inheritance, she makes a startling discovery: angels walk among the living, and they’re getting ready to engage in a battle that will determine the future of the human race. In the midst of these revelations, she meets the mysterious and sophisticated Simon who stirs her sleeping heart and offers her another chance at romance. But when the love of her life and his daughter are kidnapped by dark forces, Cara must choose: accept her place in a 2,000-year-old prophecy foretold in the Trinity Stones as the First of the Twelve who will lead the final battle between good and evil . . . or risk losing everything she holds dear.

Captivating and thrillingly romantic, Trinity Stones captures the eternal struggle of good and evil and the occasional need to bend the rules for the most important force of all: love.

Author Biography:

L.G. O' ConnorL.G. O’Connor is a member of the Romance Writers of America. A corporate strategy and marketing executive for a Fortune 250 company, she writes adult urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance. She is currently preparing the second book in the Angelorum Twelve Chronicles: The Wanderer’s Children, for publication at the end of 2014. In addition, her adult contemporary romance will launch later this year. A native New Jersey girl, she lives a life of adventure, navigating her way through dog toys and soccer balls and loaning herself out for the occasional decorating project. When she’s feeling particularly brave, she enters the kitchen . . .

Find and connect with her in any of these places:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads 

An opening which had me pinned to my seat:

I am never quite sure what to expect when venturing into a genre I have not read as well as others, but in the moment of uncertainty I sat back eager to dig into something new. Finding an opening which had me pinned to my seat and a breath of haste in my throat as I read the Prologue of Trinity Stones was not what I had expected! The gutting moment for me is the realisation of how tedious the balance is within the series of the Angelorum Twelve Chronicles between light and dark / good vs. evil. There is a curious back-story emerging out from under the narrative which eludes to the purpose of a prophecy shared within the pages prior to the Prologue. It’s quite the clever tie-in to yield the arc of the series.

My Review of Trinity Stones:

Aside from a furrowed brow over the language barrier issues, as I am a gentle reader who advocates for less vulgarity not more in the stories she reads, I was a bit surprised by the theory of power wielded in Trinity Stones. The fight between Angels and Demons has held deep roots in most religious histories, but to see how the interplay between who is aligned in the Light and who sides with the Dark in a fictional format was quite interesting. Especially considering that even on the level of those who walk in Light, information about how to overcome the evil of the future is withheld to prevent cross-repercussions stemming out of free will. The flow of the story is to introduce the reader to the backbone of the series, but in the beginning chapters your faltering a bit to understand the depth of what is being revealed. The little ruts in the road for me there would be the blight of vulgarity surfacing here or there, but to another reader they might not cringe as much as I did.

I was much more interested in the direct link between Hope (in the Prologue) and Cara who becomes the central character in the narrative. Each of them holds a dynasty of ancestry that is quite startling at first to conceive, but then, being loosely aware of mystic religious histories and how dangerous the world hangs in the balance without most of us realising the danger at hand; the theories presented had a level of plausibility. Especially as O’ Connor writes-in the ability for some of the entities to have the freedom to cloak out of sight of everyday humans. The veils of the worlds are thin but even within a short distance there is much for humans to be forthright worried about!

Cara is an woman everyone can relate too. She’s a bit flawed but loveable in the sense she is a work-in-progress. She’s attempting to sort out her life from the professional side to the woes of her heart. She was intuitive enough realise she draws a connection to Kai in a way that is not entirely natural. It’s her gift in which her grandmother bestowed as hint of a legacy at her birthday she’s perplexed about the most. In this train of thought, I was excited to watch her grow towards understanding and the realisation of how her life could affect so many others.

The stitchings of Genetics and science experiments to reveal a hidden agenda of the research Kai is working on implored me forward into the text. I’ve always been appreciative of science and the one class which surprised me in high school of being of keen interest was Genetics. The sequences of how our genes pool together to distinguish how we’re put together on a molecular level was fascinating! Along with of course the anomalous deviations which can stem out of our cell’s history and coding. Genetics is a fascinating branch when you stop and think about it because so much is carried within the cardinal run of DNA coding and sequencing; including through ancestral lines.

The battleground for souls and the balance of humanity are center-stage in this first exploit into a new series where Angels are at war with Fallen Angels. The cornerstone of the story is etched out of the depths of religious history and theory, of what can be foretold and what can be destined. The sanctity of free will plays a large role in determining the course of action. The hardest passages are when the Fallen Angels supersede the Angels & Guardians in power struggle. The imagery O’ Connor provides is a bit frightful but you have to put it into proportion of what is happening inside the story. She provides a lot of historical background to the Angelorum as well as to the time in which the story is set. Everything that has been put forward into this volume is opening the door of what is yet to come next.

And, I for one am eager to see where her muse leads her next!

Trinity Stones : the Trinity of Faith:

One of the interesting bits of the story for me is how the Trinity Stones are assembled and kept together; three halves of a whole which interconnect to work in tandem for protection, discovery, and enlightenment of destiny. The reason this was of a curiosity to me is because I’m a spiritualist who enjoys studying world religions. I found it incredible how O’ Connor managed to take religious thought and transmorph it into a paranormal romance & urban fantasy setting to where the theory of the Stones themselves hinge directly back into religion. I found it intriguing to watch where she took her mythology and where it dissected with mystic spirituality. The background research she must have conducted would have unearthed a great deal of insight and historical mysteries to last throughout the four-book series!

The way in which she represents the soul as an orb of energy as much as how each living soul has the choice to walk its own path during a lifetime spent on earth was truly along the lines of my own beliefs. I enjoyed the gentle guidance of the Angels, who took on different roles within the story: Guardians, gatekeepers, and administrative types of whom strived to maintain order from the ensuing chaos. The flip-side of representing the light of good is being as real and honest about the darkness and evil. I think she struck a balance to where those of us who walk in the light can respect the darkness as its presented in the story but with the encouragement of knowing that however fragile the balance; light pushes back the dark each chance that it can.

Fly in the Ointment:

I am never quite sure why explicit expletives have to be inserted into romance novels, as for me, they do very little to add to the character’s personality but rather detract from their character. The first curse word barely had me flinch as I sort of expected there might be the occasional word here or there when I noted this is referred to as ‘adult’ paranormal fiction rather than straight-up paranormal romance or YA paranormal romance. I think the main difference between the adult bracket and the young adult bracket is the language bar of concern. I clearly yield to the mindset that narrative can stand on its own merits without vulgarity at all. There is one explicit word in particular which is my absolute pet peeve to find in literature because of its strength and of its definitions. Inside Trinity Stones its used more as an adjective than an noun or explicit depending on which character was talking in the moment of use.

My personal opinion is that this story could stand on its own merits without the vulgarity being included. The characters are strongly fleshed out and the world in which they exist is sharpened to where you feel as though your living through their shoes. The details are bang-on in every inch of a way possible and to me, the quirk quips of cursing distracted from the narrative left behind.

*UPDATE: In the morning after this book review posted, the author graciously left a comment in the threads advocating that if any reader who alights on my blog finds the same to be true for them on the issue of language as I explain in my ‘Fly in the Ointment’ they are encouraged to contact her about a special digital version which has been edited into a YA version. Again, this is between you and the author Ms. O’ Connor herself as I do not host bookaways/giveaways on Jorie Loves A Story, but the graciousness she expressed in reaching out to all readers who want to read her novels touched my heart. Please see her full message below.

IF the YA version gets re-packaged for the quartet series in print format, I’d be one of the first readers to get a full set!

This book review is courtesy of:

TLC Book Tours | Tour Host

check out my upcoming bookish events and mark your calendars!

{SOURCES:  Trinity Stones Book Cover, synopsises, and tour badge were provided by TLC Book Tours and were used by permission. Book Review badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Author photograph of L.G. O’ Connor provided by the author herself and used with permission.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Sunday, 6 April, 2014 by jorielov in Angels, ArchAngels, ArchDemons or Demonic Entities, Blog Tour Host, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Novel, Fallen Angels, Fantasy Fiction, Fly in the Ointment, Good vs. Evil, Indie Author, Paranormal Romance, Romance Fiction, Shapeshifters, Supernatural Fiction, Suspense, TLC Book Tours, Unexpected Inheritance, Urban Fantasy, Vulgarity in Literature

+Blog Book Tour+ The Tenor by Peter Danish

Posted Friday, 4 April, 2014 by jorielov , , 0 Comments

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The Tenor by Peter Danish

Published By: Pegasus Books () 28 February 2014
Official Author Websites:  Site | Facebook | Twitter | Danish Media Group
Converse via: #TheTenorVirtualTour & #MariaCallas
Available Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, and E-Book
Page Count: 350

Acquired By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “The Tenor” virtual book tour through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy the book direct from the author Peter Danish, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read:

I was always keen to read & watch Captain Corelli’s Mandolin as it spoke to me at the time the film was being released. I never did get the proper chance to explore its story, but as I read about this book being hinged to history as it was lived I decided to take the chance now to read a powerful & evoking story of courage! I’m an appreciator of opera as well, and I find it rather keen that a singer was saved by one man’s selfless act to protect her!

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Book Synopsis:

The Tenor is a sweeping tale of historical fiction in the style of Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto” and De Burniere’s “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.” It swiftly moves from Pino Vaggi’s youth in pre-war Italy, to his coming of age as a soldier in war-torn Greece, before ending in a shattering surprise finale at Maria Callas’ historic final performance ever on the stage of New York’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1965. It is based loosely on the stories and anecdotes that I learned from several of Maria Callas’ personal friends and from nearly a dozen trips to Italy and Greece to research the subject.

Pino Vaggi is not like the other children in Italy in 1930. While they play soccer, he listens to opera. By age ten, he is already a child prodigy, an opera singing sensation on the fast track to a major international career. On the eve of his debut, WWII breaks out. The theater is closed. The season is cancelled. Pino is drafted. He is stationed in war-torn Athens, where he hears and ultimately falls in love with another child prodigy, the young Maria Callas. There is one major problem: she is the enemy.

However, as famine devastates Athens, (a famine created by the diversion of humanitarian aid meant for the Greeks to the Russian front to feed the German Army) the artist in Pino can’t fathom the thought of the greatest singer the world will ever know perishing, especially if he is in a position to prevent it. With a firing squad in the balance, he repeatedly risks his own life to protect and feed the young girl and her family. In the process, his love for her deepens, until something tragic happens – something with devastating consequences that blows the young lovers apart.

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Author Biography:

Peter Danish

Peter Danish is the Classical Music Editor in Chief for BWWClassical.com, the classic music site for BroadwayWorld.com,, covering and reviewing the classical music performance in and around New York City and the greater New York Area. A proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America, he is the playwright of the play: “Gods, Guns and Greed,” as well as the new musical: “The Flying Dutchman.” His writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Ad Age, Ad Week and Media Week Magazines.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Artistically Determined:

One thing I have always known about artists, is that they are artistically determined to make it on their own terms. Pino Vaggi in the story of The Tenor, is clearly one of those self-confident musical artists whose bold grit in succeeding in singing opera is what thrust him forward whilst his family was a bit less than certain of his choice. Coming from a family who supported my choices, whether I was pursuing art, science, or writing it’s hard to understand why other parents wouldn’t help their children reach for their own dreams. To pursue the gifts they were bestowed and to give them the courage to find their own voice and path. The hardest road an artist has is finding the ability to believe in the impossible because the mark of any artist is how willing they are to stay on their path whilst their road becomes muddled and difficult.

I appreciated the honesty of Pino’s character being painted as a young artist whose misguided brassy personality oft lended him to rows with his family but is his grace of voice gave him purpose from the darkness. Growing up in the age of looming war, the fact that Pino could keep a grip on his artistic soul is impressive.

My Review of The Tenor:

Danish has the ability to ease you into the story-line of The Tenor, by giving you a reason to hone in on Pino! First through recollections of his aromatic memories inter-related to chestnuts, and then, gradually as we start to see the underpinnings of his passion for opera emerge into place! I appreciated the intimate portrait of how a young Pino fell in love with the beauty of opera whilst caught up in a French rendition of Romeo & Juliet! His unexpected emotional connection to the voices and music was a pure joy to read. Music is evoking on such deep levels, each time we individually listen to opera or another form of music, a part of us is transformed; altered for the performance in which we took in. I remember vividly how I felt whilst listening to orchestrations and symphonies as a child, how the music washed over me and inside me at the same time. You become a part of where the musicians are leading you as music is one art form which transcends outside of itself to a greater purpose.

The setting in which Danish places his novel comes alive with the full breath of Italian countryside living lit inside the sturdiness of the people who lived there. He envelopes the story around the everyday interchanges of Pino’s townespeople, whilst giving a greater scope to the impending war between Italy & Ethiopia. Politically charged, we get inside the mind-set of Pino’s father’s beliefs as much as the harrying realities of Italy in the early decades of the 20th Century. The tug-of-war between Pino’s teacher and himself gave a clear view of how you have to develop strength whilst your young to be brave in hours you feel the least able to stand up for yourself. His teacher pushed him past where he felt he could take his voice because his belief in his abilities was paramount to where he viewed Pino could strive in the future to succeed as a tenor.

War is such a heavy hand to be dealt when your young, and seeing the beguiling ignorance and diffidence towards those who are different weighted on Pino’s shoulders and heart. I can imagine that whilst he struggled to find a grasp on the changing world outside, so too were those who were dealing with countries being invaded and worlds being turnt upside down by World War II. Innocence evaporates when the world arrives at one’s feet. The war is very much a part of the story, but only as a backdrop to the whole. In this, I am grateful to Danish, whose sole focus in on Pino.

A tightrope of a dance between Maria (Callas) and Pino grew out of their affection for opera and the innate gift bestowed to both of them which gave them a tie to each other. They were each on the opposite side of the war, Pino was serving in the army and Maria was in Greece employed as a singer. Their lives were ill-fated to intersect at a point in their lives where tragedy and solace would find them. They carved out happiness within the shadows of a dictator’s reign and what they shared amongst them was fit with humour and the joy of singing. They understood each other in ways they both were transfixed by as it isn’t often you can meet someone who understands every inch of you without needing definition. As they each went their separate ways after the war, it show their fates ended up crossing once more that truly was remarkable.

Here is where truth and the shadows of history differ as the story is based on an unknown soldier who could not have survived the war. I think its a more befitting story for Pino to have survived the war and survived in the way he had, as it hardened his character a bit with worldly experience. To think there was a Pino who lived long enough to effectively save Maria Callas is the most incredible part of the story! Where one life is given in order to ensure the freedom of another. And, for Pino his life took an alternative course which would have endeared him to his teacher who gave him the best insight into how to live a life full of worth.

The beauty of opera is revealed:

Peter Danish gives a wonderful introduction into opera, which will satisfy the novice appreciator as much as the devouted follower. The vulgarity used in the story is relegated to the blights of war and thus, are not something I would flinch over as war is war, and the most shocking of realities for all men is being caught up in the face of war. What exits one’s lips whilst a chest is heavy with confliction over the impending approach of a World War arriving at your door is not a mark against language or story; but a notation of how those who lived might have reacted themselves. His writings inside the novel read as part travelogue and part historical remanent of a past most of us might not have recovered without this story.

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This book review  is courtesy of:

The Tenor Tour via HFVBTcheck out my upcoming bookish events and mark your calendars!

Previously, I interviewed Mr. Danish on behalf of “The Tenor”!

The Tenor by Peter Danish Book Trailer by Peter Danish

{SOURCES:  “The Tenor” Book Cover, synopsis, and tour badge were provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and were used by permission. Book Review badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. The book trailer by Peter Danish had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

  • Go Indie
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Posted Friday, 4 April, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, Aftermath of World War II, Biographical Fiction & Non-Fiction, Blog Tour Host, Book Trailer, Debut Novel, Geographically Specific, Greece, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Indie Author, Italy, Magical Realism, Maria Callas, Musical Fiction | Non-Fiction, New York City, Opera History, Opera Singers, Passionate Researcher, The World Wars, Vulgarity in Literature

+Blog Tour+ To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis by Andra Wakins

Posted Tuesday, 1 April, 2014 by jorielov , , 7 Comments

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To Live Forever by Andra Wakins

Published By: Word Hermit Press, 1 March, 2014
Official Author Websites:  Site | Twitter | Facebook | Pin(terest) Boards
Converse via: #ToLiveForeverTour | #ToLiveForeverBook
#MeriwetherLewis | #NatchezTraceWalk444miles
Available Formats: Paperback & E-Book
Page Count: 305

Acquired By:  As soon as I saw this particular tour come through my Inbox from Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, I elected to request to be a tour stop on the “To Live Forever” virtual book tour. The premise of the book was awe-inspiring and I could not pass up this opportunity to read a book which shattered conventional genre orientations! I was given two spots on the tour, a book review & an Author Interview of which I was grateful! I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author Andra Wakins in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read: 

Whilst reading the virtual tour information for “To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis” my initial reaction was thus: I love everything about this particular story, from the historical impact to the paranormal implications! There is suspense but there is also the human desire for legacy! A wicked chance to read a book that I cannot quite put my finger on which genre it belongs in! I love finding genre-benders and this one for sure has all the lovely ingredients of a historical novel interspersed with time slip, paranormal tendencies and psychological suspense! As a reader, who dances through genres and whose blood is stirred by the evoking narratives of inventive writers who dare to give a reader a new dimension of a reading experience — I will always champion the rebels with a cause, such as Ms. Wakins! Who boldly refuses to give up on their stories and forge their own path towards publication!

Book Synopsis:

Is remembrance immortality?

Nobody wants to be forgotten, least of all the famous.

Meriwether Lewis lived a memorable life. He and William Clark were the first white men to reach the Pacific in their failed attempt to discover a Northwest Passage. Much celebrated upon their return, Lewis was appointed governor of the vast Upper Louisiana Territory and began preparing his eagerly-anticipated journals for publication. But his re-entry into society proved as challenging as his journey. Battling financial and psychological demons and faced with mounting pressure from Washington, Lewis set out on a pivotal trip to the nation’s capital in September 1809. His mission: to publish his journals and salvage his political career. He never made it. He died in a roadside inn on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee from one gunshot to the head and another to the abdomen.

Was it suicide or murder? His mysterious death tainted his legacy and his fame quickly faded. Merry’s own memory of his death is fuzzy at best. All he knows is he’s fallen into Nowhere, where his only shot at redemption lies in the fate of rescuing another. An ill-suited “guardian angel,” Merry comes to in the same New Orleans bar after twelve straight failures. Now, with one drink and a two-dollar bill he is sent on his last assignment, his final shot at escape from the purgatory in which he’s been dwelling for almost 200 years. Merry still believes he can reverse his forgotten fortunes.

Nine-year-old Emmaline Cagney is the daughter of French Quarter madam and a Dixieland bass player. When her mother wins custody in a bitter divorce, Emmaline carves out her childhood among the ladies of Bourbon Street. Bounced between innocence and immorality, she struggles to find her safe haven, even while her mother makes her open her dress and serve tea to grown men.

It isn’t until Emmaline finds the strange cards hidden in her mother’s desk that she realizes why these men are visiting: her mother has offered to sell her to the highest bidder. To escape a life of prostitution, she slips away during a police raid on her mother’s bordello, desperate to find her father in Nashville.

Merry’s fateful two-dollar bill leads him to Emmaline as she is being chased by the winner of her mother’s sick card game: The Judge. A dangerous Nowhere Man convinced that Emmaline is the reincarnation of his long dead wife, Judge Wilkinson is determined to possess her, to tease out his wife’s spirit and marry her when she is ready. That Emmaline is now guarded by Meriwether Lewis, his bitter rival in life, further stokes his obsessive rage.

To elude the Judge, Em and Merry navigate the Mississippi River to Natchez. They set off on an adventure along the storied Natchez Trace, where they meet Cajun bird watchers, Elvis-crooning Siamese twins, War of 1812 re-enactors, Spanish wild boar hunters and ancient mound dwellers. Are these people their allies? Or pawns of the perverted, powerful Judge?

After a bloody confrontation with the Judge at Lewis’s grave, Merry and Em limp into Nashville and discover her father at the Parthenon. Just as Merry wrestles with the specter of success in his mission to deliver Em, The Judge intercedes with renewed determination to win Emmaline, waging a final battle for her soul. Merry vanquishes the Judge and earns his redemption. As his spirit fuses with the body of Em’s living father, Merry discovers that immortality lives within the salvation of another, not the remembrance of the multitude.


 {: Author Biography :}

Andra Wakins

Hey. I’m Andra Watkins. I’m a native of Tennessee, but I’m lucky to call Charleston, South Carolina, home for 23 years. I’m the author of ‘To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis’, coming March 1, 2014. It’s a mishmash of historical fiction, paranormal fiction and suspense that follows Meriwether Lewis (of Lewis & Clark fame) after his mysterious death on the Natchez Trace in 1809.

I like:

  • hiking
  • eating (A lot; Italian food is my favorite.)
  • traveling (I never met a destination I didn’t like.)
  • reading (My favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo.)
  • coffee (the caffeinated version) and COFFEE (sex)
  • performing (theater, singing, public speaking, playing piano)
  • time with my friends
  • Sirius XM Chill
  • yoga (No, I can’t stand on my head.)
  • writing in bed
  • candlelight

I don’t like:

  • getting up in the morning
  • cilantro (It is the devil weed.)
  • surprises (For me or for anyone else.)
  • house cleaning
  • cooking

Meriwether Lewis | Enters stage right just past the grave:

Watkins has a gift for eluding to the story as its foreshadowed to unfold by giving her readers a nib and a tasting of where her characters are going to lead both the writer and the unsuspecting reader who bemuseful of curiosity picks up the book to engage in the mystery. She cleverly allows the three main protagonists to make a causal, unfiltered entrance whilst giving the reader a nibbling of suspense about the purported dimensional expanse in which they live. One of the reasons I was attracted to reading this particular story is the level of interest in the unknown. For as many near-death experiences there are of those who return back to earth as they stepped out of the light to come back to their earthly lives; there are a multitude of examples of what ‘lies beyond the veil’.

The Meriwether who steps into the forefront of this particular story is a nearly-jaded (here I refer to ‘nearly’ as a piece of his spirit half-hinges himself to a hope he no longer feels possible) downtrodden Meriwether who has lost the will to see the point in his existence. After attempting task after task to sort out where he is and how to exit the in-between world he’s tethered too, you gain the sense he is walking the path between madness and fugue.

Unbeknownst to Meriwether, I do believe is his fatherly nature and tendencies towards children. I think he was plumb aghast at how well he fared whilst in the company of Miss Emmaline. A natural bourne role model for young people, giving them something to chew on by appreciating their worth at their age of youth. He treats her with respect and talks to her straight, allowing her to process what she needs to hear. He listens and he’s attentive and that is one of the best bits to seeing Meriwether in this way. Emmaline humbles his weathered and jaded heart.

My Review of To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis:

The opening bits of To Live Forever surely by George tug quite a heap at your heart-strings! Emmaline is a young girl, all of nine years when her mother strategically out favoured her father in the judge’s eyes for sole custody. The very words sole custody etch out a shuddering straight to the core of a little girl’s soul! Dragged away from the one parent who loved her beyond selfish desires and needs, Emmaline is forced to grasp a hold of the whisperments of her father’s memory until the day could arrive where she could change her stars and reunite with him permanently.

Caught up in the darkest of night behaviours, Emmaline is fated of having a mother whose only intentions towards her daughter are to earn  her keep out of her. I cringed reading the passages of where only Aunt Bertie could save Emmaline’s life from being snuffed out from love completely! A measure of a man’s humanity is oft laid bare by his actions towards his children. If Emmaline’s mother had to stand trial on grounds of character choices and humanity she would no sooner see the daylight again than a bat caught in the nettles of a sewer tunnel! Young Emmaline is gifted by a singular grace of affecting herself to the light within the days she has never quite been free to live within. Her inner spirit hugs her close to the truths of life and its her raw courage which solidifies her ability to reach out to Meriwether in a darkened alley.

Words ooze out of Wakin’s narrative as sweet as a honeycomb to a tending worker bee. She has a way of conveying imagery, both hauntingly dangerous and tragically poignant with the flick of her pen and a dribble of her ink. All of which fuses into a new tangible version of Southern Gothic intermixed with historical fiction purveying the notion that our past is entwined to our present as much as our future. Time is temporal and To Live Forever is a living thesis towards that end. The novel breathes and extends its own narrator around the interjections of the characters on its flattened stage. 

Emmaline and Meriwether’s sojourn trek into the wilds of the Natchez Trace held me reflective of their plight. Not merely to reach Nashville, in order to seek out Emmaline’s father but of the greater disadvantages against them. Of Meriwether never truly seeing himself for the man he was but rather the disillusioned sigh of a lost legacy. Emmaline was still young enough to grow and find in maturity a strong path towards individual freedom. Each of them were tied to a future bent against them by situations out of their control. Striving to forge a better path to walk, they found reassurance in each other knowing that any journey worth taking is sometimes lessened in adversity when shared.

The natural world is the backdrop of To Live Forever, fraught with an indecisive urge to complicate their expedition by presenting new challenges neither of them had yet experienced. For Meriwether he’s being given the chance at redemption, and towards living a half-life of what his life could have been had he lived past his time of death. In Emmaline, I see an urchin of an innocent girl stalwart and strong in her internal hope to carry her through the aching tides of her adolescence. Her courage runs deeper than her confidence due to a few kind souls who crossed her path for the good.

The story is interwoven as a refractive mirror of the Natchez Trace itself. The harder you believe any blight of adversity is in your life to conquer and overcome, the more your spirit will start to believe your too fragile to try anything. The Trace is a test of wills as much as it’s a test of inner fortitude to re-strengthen our shield against unwanted storms and periods of stress which arise out of nowhere. Life can ebb and flow, bobbing us along until we’re ready to see what our eyes blinded us towards revealing. All of our passageways lead us further towards where our feet are meant to land, but what if we hold ourselves back from the greatest revelations of all? Simply because we’re not willing to alight where we’re lead to go? The Trace is unique in that it withholds its past like a tightly woven tapestry. Each piece of its innate soul is stitched inside the weathered path where feet and souls mingled into the mist. There lessons linger and their spirits shudder to grieve.

There is an ever-knowing pool of truth and hope awaiting us around each bend and turn. The people we feel we are ‘randomly’ encountering are the kind of teachers and advisers we might never expect would be important to our growth. Listen with compassion. Be kind to strangers who might one day become a cherished friend. Grow through friendship and rise each day realising the beauty of the hour. Our lives are leading us through the light and back inside it.

 

On Illustrations | Reflective fragments of text:

A delight for someone who appreciates illustration, art, and design as much as I do will appreciate the cover-art splashing out an array of the internal illustrations peppered throughout the novel itself! They arrive rather unexpectedly as you travel through the chapters. A bit of a sketch here, and an elusive sketch over here, attempting to give you another fragmented piece of the whole. I like the old-school approach to the sketches themselves and if I had thought to ask ahead of time, I would have asked Ms. Wakins about their origins whilst I was still composing my Interview which posts on Thursday! The vivid detail in carbon textured visuals is a treat for me, as I always felt one place most novels lose a bit of creative edge is from withholding illustrators from illuminating their novels with art.

There is a geometric shift in book production where stock imagery has morphed away the originality of most cover designs to where its hard to distinguish at times who was the forerunner and who took up the lead from the one who followed next. I miss the uniqueness of book cover art as only a few Indie publishers still strive towards giving us a peek of a view of the internal world inside the stories whilst gracing their covers with conversational stirring projections! I am blessed to host blog tours with the few I am referencing in this paragraph!

Not all book covers yield to this opinion, but you have to admit, how oft do you wander around a bookshoppe and feel as though you’re staring into the sameness of what was already released!? As though if you were to stack a heap of books end to end with each other, they would look like twins rather than fraternal cousins four times removed!? The differences in design and the elements in which covers resonate with us boil down to typography, colour, elemental ornamentation, and a cheeky clever way of cluing the audience in on a ‘slice’ of what they will find revealed by the ending chapters fall close. And, this dear hearts is where Ms. Wakins outshines the lot!

I loved the clever surprise in who “Mister Jack’ was in reality! This nature-loving girl felt all giddy inside when she connected the dots, which nearly occurred half a step ahead of Emmaline!

A note of gratitude on behalf of the author, Ms. Wakins:

I classified this novel several different ways to Sunday under “topics, genres, and subjects” because it fits quite easily into quite a few distinctive areas of literature! For me, its occupying the ethereal space between psychological suspense intermingled with Southern Gothic, with a pinch of Horror-lite (I blame the Judge!)! Horror-lite for me implies that there are bits and bobbles of ‘horror’ thrown in for good measure but not overtly so as to be disturbing or distracting. Once your reading a novel by Ms. Wakins your lulling in the water of the Mississippi, fully aware of where you are but caught up in her stream of lucid dream-state story-telling where you barely notice the darker points around the fringes of the story because your caught up in the adventure of the central plot surrounding Meriwether Lewis!

I earmarked ‘vulgarity in literature’ as a way to reference the lovely gift Wakins wrote into her début novel; with one singular foul-mouthed character she championed every inch of what I have been lamenting about myself for quite a while now on Jorie Loves A Story! That there are far better ways to express yourself and that sometimes, even though you walk a line in life yourself, you cannot always help but encounter a few people who might push your buttons towards one extreme or the other. It’s how you find the balance and how you learn to embrace the ruts in the road which will define your characters in the long run.

Virtual Road Map for “To Live Forever Tour”

To Live Forever Blog Tour via HFVBT

Be sure to scope out upcoming tours I will be hosting with:

Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours - HFVBTon my Bookish Events page!

{: Natchez Trace Walk :}

Natchez Trace Map
Natchez Trace Map of the walking route Andra Walkins undertook to promote her début novel “To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis”. Map supplied by the author for the virtual blog tour.
The Natchez Trace is a 10,000-year-old road that runs from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Thousands of years ago, animals used its natural ridge line as a migratory route from points in the Ohio River Valley to the salt licks in Mississippi. It was logical for the first Native Americans to settle along the Trace to follow part of their migrating food supply. When the Kaintucks settled west of the Appalachians, they had to sell their goods at ports in New Orleans or Natchez, but before steam power, they had to walk home. The Trace became one of the busiest roads in North America.

An extra special surprise for readers:

Whilst Ms. Wakins undertook the grueling 444 miles walk along the Natchez Trail, she brought a free-spirited funny-bone tickling sense of humour with her as a constant companion on the road! As evidenced through her cheekily humourous responses to “reader submitted author questions” whilst she walked! Filmed wherever she happened to be on the Trace, I implore you to sit back, pull up a comfy chair and a cuppa of your favourite brew! I’d personally go with hot cocoa or fresh brewed hot chai,…

 

[ To Live Forever | Natchez Trace 444 Mile Walk Start ] by Andra Wakins
Start with her video diary Question 1 & watch straight-through!
After you listen to several, come back & add your reflections in the comment threads!

 

To Live Forever is a humbling tale of adventure and the juxtaposition of immortality, death, and life as it evolves throughout our days on earth and what fore-falls us in the next. Atmospherically enriched by characters happily brought forward to meet as you journey with Emmaline and Meriwether. Do you feel you can relate to some of the life lessons and cardinal truths I hinted about in my review!? Have you noticed similar intuitive resonations in your own life which have led to either a renewal of hope or a resolution of an obstacle once on your path?! How did you react when you learnt the author walked the 444 mile Natchez Trace route!? Did you feel as I did that she not only undertook a trail to promote her book, but she re-traced a part of Meriwether Lewis’s life to where the past had a deep impact on the future? A cross-roads of one life intersecting with another? What do you like the best about reading stories like To Live Forever where the writer focuses you to think about ethereal dimensions just outside of our view!?

{SOURCES: Cover art of “To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis”, book synopsis, author photograph of Andra Wakins, author biography, the Natchez Trace map & Natchez Trace Walk Infomation and the tour host badge were all provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. The video by Andra Watkins had either URL share links or coding which made it possible to embed this media portal to this post, and I thank them for the opportunity to share more about this novel and the author who penned it.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Tuesday, 1 April, 2014 by jorielov in Biographical Fiction & Non-Fiction, Blog Tour Host, Bookish Discussions, Debut Novel, Geographically Specific, Ghosts & the Supernatural, Good vs. Evil, Gothic Literature, Haunting & Ethereal, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Horror-Lite, Indie Author, Indie Book Trade, Magical Realism, Meriwether Lewis, Natchez Trace, Naturalist Sketchings, New Orleans, Parapsychological Suspense, Southern Gothic, Time Slip, Vulgarity in Literature, Wildlife Artwork

+Blog Tour+ My Wish List by Gregoire Delacourt

Posted Sunday, 23 March, 2014 by jorielov , , , 1 Comment

Parajunkee Designs

My Wish List by Gregoire Delacourt
Published By:  Penguin Group (USA), 25 March 2014
Official Author Websites:  Site | Facebook
Converse via: #GregoireDelacourt
Available Formats: Paperback & E-Book
Page Count: 176

Acquired By: I was selected to be a tour stop on the “My Wish List” virtual book tour through France Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC direct from the publisher Penguin Group (USA), in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Book Synopsis:

A cathartic, charmingly tender, assuredly irresistible novel, MY WISH LIST imagines one answer to the question: If you won the lottery, would you trade your life for the life of your dreams? With sales of more than half a million copies in France alone, rights sold in twenty-five countries, and a major motion picture in development, this slim yet spirited tale has sewn up the interest of the literary world.

Jocelyne Guerbette is a forty-seven year old who runs a modest fabric shop in a nondescript provincial French town. Her husband—instead of dreaming of her—wants nothing more in life than a flat-screen TV and the complete James Bond DVD box set. And to Jocelyne’s two grown-up children, who live far from home, she’s become nothing but an obligatory phone call. Perpetually wondering what has happened to all the dreams she had when she was younger, Jocelyne finally comes to terms with the series of ordinary defeats and small lies that seem to make up her life.

But then Jocelyne wins the lottery: $25,500,000! And suddenly she finds the world at her fingertips. But before cashing the check, before telling a soul, she starts making a list of all the things she could do with the money. While evaluating the small pleasures in life—her friendship with the twins who manage the hairdresser next door, her holidays away, her sewing blog that’s gaining popularity—she begins to think that the everyday ordinary may not be so bad. Does she really want her life to change?

MY WISH LIST is an essential reminder of the often-overlooked joys of everyday life and a celebration of the daily rituals, serendipities, and small acts of love that make life quietly wonderful.

Author Biography:

Gregoire Delacourt

Grégoire Delacourt was born in Valenciennes, France, in 1960. His first novel, L’Écrivain de la Famille , was published in 2011 and won five literary prizes. MY WISH LIST has been a runaway number-one bestseller in France; publication rights have been sold in more than twenty-five countries. Delacourt lives in Paris, where he runs an advertising agency with his wife.

My Book Review of My Wish List:

I was a bit taken aback from the bluntness of Delacourt’s writing, as although I’ve been reading quite of heap of French Literature over the months since I first started touring with France Book Tours, I must confess, he has a unique way for telling it like it is in a very cutting way as to leave nothing for the imagination. Somehow the opening bits of the story felt a bit awkward as I was expecting this entirely different story to shape into the starting bits of My Wish List. Not that this is entirely bad per se, but what I was sort of expecting was slightly different than what I was being given. I suppose in some ways, I felt she (Jo) might have had an idyllic life whilst owning her fabric shoppe, and that might have complicated things when her tides changed. Instead, I found a middle-aged French woman whose woes out number her blessings, and where a bit of crudeness intersects with her musings on why everything is unfair simply because life took a different path than she hoped it would.

The one part of her life I could settle into is the fact she’s an avid knitter, with projects cast on the needles all the time. She off-sets her business in fabric during the slow seasons by selling her creations in fiber, and that intrigued me. If this story was more about the haberdashery shoppe & her knitting adventures, whilst Jo turnt sour on her marriage and was looking for a bit of adventure to spice it back together, I think I would have found my footing a bit easier in the narrative. The necessity to express that life is spent whilst engaging in one lie after another lie was a bit daunting as I personally could not make a connection with the train of thought Delacourt was enticing his readers to connect with him.

His crude way of expressing intimacy and passion was a turn-off for me, as I appreciate romance and love in purer forms of expression. This is clearly one book whose premise led me astray as far as what I would find inside its covers, and I was not overly thrilled by what I was finding on the pages. In fact rather than finding an uplifting novel bent against a life shift opportunity to change one’s stars, I found the story to be sordidly depressing and full of negativity rather than light or grace. The entire world of Jo is painted black, and not in the ways you’d expect someone to find themselves depressed with their life in their middle forties!

The shortness of the story in length I wish had made up for the blights I felt against it. It was such a tug and pull to get into the heart of what makes Jo tick and why she feels the way in which she does. Each time I felt as though the story was making a turn for the better, the undertone of the elements turnt stark dark again. For me I did not make it even half-way through and that was the most I could tolerate. This is one author who disappointed me greatly whilst giving me food for thought about stories in French turnt in translation to English.

Virtual Road Map for “My Wish List” Blog Tour:

My Wish List Tour via France Book Tours

Be sure to scope out upcoming tours I will be hosting with:

France Book Tours

on my Bookish Events page!

{SOURCES: Cover art of “My Wish List”, book synopsis, author photograph of Mr. Delacourt, author biography, and the tour host badge were all provided by France Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Sunday, 23 March, 2014 by jorielov in ARC | Galley Copy, Blog Tour Host, France Book Tours, French Literature, French Novel Translated into English, Literary Fiction, Vulgarity in Literature