Acquired Book By:I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Decorum” virtual book tour through HFVBT: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of the book direct from the author Kaaren Christopherson, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Note of Gratitude to the author:
I was happily surprised by what came in the Post for me when Decorum arrived because the author included a few extras for me to enjoy finding tucked inside with my copy of the book! I was very grateful to her for being thoughtful enough to make this book one of my ‘book surprise parcels’ as whenever an author or publisher includes a few unknown extras for me to find in their parcels, it’s a wonderful gift of random joy for me on the other end! Finding the copy was autographed was a true delight, too! I tend to forget to mention this on previous reviews, but seeing the author’s handwritten note or signature is a mark of joy for me! Especially if they sign an ARC not just a finished copy, as it connects the moment of discovering their novel with the moment I’m reading it for the first time! Little bits of joy like these do a world of good for a book blogger who doesn’t expect to find anything except the book she’s reviewing!
Note on the Cover Art: I was captured by the image of this woman from the moment I first laid eyes upon the cover art. Not merely for reasons of sorting out if it followed the timescape of the novel but there was something ‘curious’ about her pose and the manner in which she held herself in this portrait. I love studying Art History and this particular portrait reminded me of that passion I have for classical artists and the confluence of period specific portraiture giving us a lens backwards into the historical past. The author has more info on her site.
Decorum
Kaaren Christopherson’s brilliantly observed novel captures the glamour and grit of one of the world’s most dazzling cities during one of its most tumultuous eras–as seen through the eyes of a singularly captivating heroine…
In 1890s New York, beautiful, wealthy Francesca Lund is an intriguing prospect for worthy suitors and fortune hunters alike. Recently orphaned, she copes by working with the poor in the city’s settlement movement. But a young woman of means can’t shun society for long, and Francesca’s long-standing acquaintance with dashing Edmund Tracey eventually leads to engagement. Yet her sheltered upbringing doesn’t blind her to the indiscretions of the well-to-do…
Among the fashionable circle that gathers around her there are mistresses, scandals, and gentlemen of ruthless ambition. And there is Connor O’Casey–an entirely new kind of New Yorker. A self-made millionaire of Irish stock, Connor wants more than riches. He wants to create a legacy in the form of a luxury Madison Avenue hotel–and he wants Francesca by his side as he does it. In a quest that will take her from impeccable Manhattan salons to the wild Canadian Rockies, Francesca must choose not only between two vastly different men, but between convention and her own emerging self-reliance.
Kaaren Christopherson is the author of Decorum—a novel about Gilded Age New York—that began taking form in 1999 during a course on writing historical fiction. From that moment, Connor O’Casey (who had been rattling around in her brain for months) finally appeared one night and said, “All right, woman. Here I am. What are you going to do about my story?”
So she began to put his words on paper, and he hasn’t kept quiet since. Soon Francesca, Blanche, Tracey, Vinnie, and the rest of the characters began arguing, gossiping, loving, and forming themselves into Kaaren’s first novel.
Kaaren has had a professional career writing and editing for over 30 years and is a senior editor for an international development nonprofit organization in Washington, DC.
She has written fiction since her school days, story poems, children’s books, historical fiction, and time travel, and continues to be active in writer’s groups and writing workshops. In addition to her career as a writer, Kaaren was the owner of a decorative painting business. She loves to travel and prowl through historical sites, galleries, and museums. She is active in several churches in DC and in her local Northern Virginia community, where she shares her home with feline brothers, Archie and Sammy.
A Michigan native, Kaaren received her BA in history and art and her MA in educational administration from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “Sophia” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I am magnetically attracted to stories of romance, the London Season, and the follies which are wrought out of seeking romance as much as an engagement to end the unattached life of a singleton! I love the fanciful worlds of classical literature, where ladies and gentlemen not only are attired in such a way to reflect their propriety, but there is a measure of grace and honour in how they interact with each other. Perhaps not always finding themselves in situations that alight on their paths with the full honour of intentions, but there is a magnified expression of life within the ordinary hours that make the best stories burst to life! I love the romanticism of previous generations as much as I love a grounding in realism. I do not always have to read a story wrought straight out of historical records to become consumed by the expanse of the narrative; as there are parts of my literary soul who are quite comfortable in soaking in a romance with a tender-hearted heroine and the perception of a rake who is in fact a misunderstood gent who has yet to control either his life, affairs, or emotional outrage! Laughs.
Historical romances are always going to be a tip of a feather in my hat, as I grew up with a such a rapt fascination for this side of the Romance genre! I have only yet begun my sojourn through the classical writers who created the impetus for the modern writers to find encouragement and inspiration to create their own niche; but what I appreciate the most is being caught up in the details, the conversations, and the whispers of ‘intrigue’ as each lad and lass find their way in life! There are elements of carried over truths, but each story is set to it’s own pace, carrying with it a unique heart centered plot, and allows the benefit of being elsewhere in full mirth of joy for the reader who finds the book itself!
For these reasons and many more I have not yet mentioned, I most delightfully was joyful in finding Sophia! This novel is the second release as part of Sweetwater Book’s new focus on Pure Romance! Willow Springs was the first release, of which I found equally enjoyable to consume!
Sophia Subtitle: Pure Romance
Small-town Sophia Spencer can't believe her luck when an unexpected inheritance sweeps her up into the glittering London social scene. With more invitations to balls, parties, and country-drives than she can keep up with, Sophia is soon lost in the swirl of dresses and dances, friendships, and flirtations. But her happiness comes to an abrupt halt the moment she's caught napping in a grumpy gentleman's bedroom -- and forced into an engagement to protect her reputation!
This stunning debut novel combines unforgettable characters with crisp dialogue and a gorgeous setting to create a world you won't want to leave. A fun, romantic read that's perfect for incurable romantics of all ages!
Paula Kremser focused on a career in science for a few years after graduating from Brigham Young University. Several years later when she moved with her young family to England, Paula seized the opportunity to focus on her love of the Regency Era. The enchantment of the aristocracy and the fascinating stories from every stately home she visits have been both research and inspiration for her first novel. Paula lives with her husband and four children in a charming village nestled in the Chiltern hills in Buckinghamshire.
For a hilarious look-see behind-the-scenes of how this photograph was captured read her Outtakes post! I believe that the photograph that was chosen captures her ‘in the moment’ with a spark of joy. Sometimes the best photographs are the ones we do not overly plan but rather happen spontaneously!
London | a fetching place to set a Romance:
My heart is always quite aflutter when I realise I have stumbled across a romance set during the time of the London Season; that alluring moment where débutantes have to ‘come out’ and attract a suitor of a match of equality for their family to agree to the marriage. The notion of having to condense your dating years to a full season of endless balls and get togethers where every singleton of the year who is in want of a wife or husband is attending the exact same events as you, is more than daunting; it is tremendously full of pressure and expectancy of an engagement! I am not sure how the young men and woman feted away their anxiety and could settle into the social calendar as though it were simply an ordinary day within the expanse of their life. I do think in some ways it encouraged them to converse and interact with each other on level grounds, but not all the circumstances of their events would be equal nor without their share of hiccups!
I always felt that the easiest way to unsettle anyone’s chances at a good match would be to become quite devious in altering their chances for a match in love whereupon they would have to settle for a match of convenience to avoid scrutiny. It is simply too easy to speculate how willing some families might perceive the situations to being an opportunity to heighten their own motivated chances of success! Yet, aside from the malarkey of some, the back-drop of having a city the size of London the stomping grounds of fetching a suitor and sorting out what you want in life and love is such a captivating locale of choice! London is one of the world’s most known and most elusive of cities; the more I find is writ about one particular city, the more I fear there is still left to uncover about the city’s heart.
I feel the best centuries of setting a story in London are between the 18th & 19th Centuries, yet more oft than naught over the score of the last year: I’ve become further acquainted with London in the early and latter half of the 20th Century! Much to my chagrin I find London is perennially captivating irregardless of the timescape I am attune inside the story at hand!
My Review of Sophia:
Such an extreme concern on where to dispense an inheritance begins this Sweet Romance, on the presumption that if a grandmother were not to choose the most sensible heir to receive the family’s wealth, every inch of what had become the estate would fall straight to ruin! Imagine the tenacity of the declaration, as this is the type of woman who felt quite strongly that a man whose life was given to medicine and taking care of the health of others was beneath the family’s station! The very same man’s daughter became her sole living grand-daughter of whom she elects to choose as the beneficiary of her will and estate. I, must commend the author on how insightful she was in selecting such a perplexing and moxie filled character as Lady Atkinson to start her debut narrative! Atkinson is the type of character you hope to discover in fiction, as she is altogether in full belief she is always in the right as much as she has a sense that the way in which she perceives the world is both the end and beginning of argument!
I felt as if I stepped straight back inside the writing’s of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell (of whom I have not yet read but read about extensively on her style of voice), L.M. Montgomery, and Charlotte Bronté! There is such a beautiful expanse of classical literary voice ebbing out of Sophia, as part of me started to cheer for her as a character before I knew too much about her person! Fond memories washed over me of having read An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott as I started to soak inside this new classically inspired romance! Of course, part of me fondly brought to mind my viewing of the tv film The Inheritance (1997) starring Meredith Baxter and based on the story by Louisa May Alcott.
Alexander Huntley walks into the scene with a convicting back-story of a ill-wonted youth spent without concern for others, yet as an adult he has returned back to the ton quite changed! Gone from his conscience are the self-less ways of idling away hours he could have been more circumspect on attaching himself to the concerns of his estate’s well-being and replaced with a proper sense of duty, propriety, and a grounding of pride in his work. Huntley is as relatable as Sophia, being that they are two attendees to the seasonal balls who are a bit out of step with the rest of those in attendance! They each have their own quirky backgrounds which set them apart, but it is how they each approach life and set their minds to their futures, that felt the most in sync of all.
The circumstances by which fate brought Alex & Sophia together was part comical and part ingenious twisting of destiny; the scene felt a bit like a ‘meet-cute’ in some ways as well. My favourite part is how Sophia awoken out of her slumber to overhearing everything before fully realising the full scope of the situation! Kremser has a wicked talent for comic timing and a way of infusing a twinkling of wit without being overly cliche! I had noticed the forewarning of Sophia’s recently discovered ‘Auntie’ was up to something most foul, but it is how the plan to upset her niece I think will ultimately prove to be her undoing! Most wretchedly jealous relations always get their upcomings in the end, and it is the suspense of not knowing where Kremser will take these two characters that whisks you away further into the novel!
Lady Anne Fitzgerald is the kind of Auntie I was hoping Sophia would have had inherited rather than her jostly hostile Aunt Nora! My goodness! Lady Anne had all the grace, compassion, and composure of an Aunt you can lean on in the fervent height of a crisis, whilst having the forethought to plan what to do to wiggle your way out of a difficulty as she consoles your emotional heart! Sophia, I knew at this junction was in good hands, because even those of us who are given a jolt to our emotional keel by an Auntie who schemes against us needs a shelter from the storm!
One particular touch of unexpected joy for me was seeing each paragraph of each new chapter began in the hand of cursive writing! It gave me a seed of thought towards this being writ down as a re-telling account of a life in which was lived rather than of a completely fictional story within the imagination of the writer who penned it! Such a curious ticking of bemused thoughts floated to find of finding such a keen treasure of a journal filled my mind as I read each new chapter. Sophia, is the most obvious choice of whom might have kept it, but a part of me felt perhaps it was Lady Anne who was the truer narrator of the story overall — her sharp yet kind wisdom of understanding more than even Sophia & Alex could have dared to conceive possible knitted this theory into existence.
The most poignant love story is the one that places a stronger focus on the relationship and the purity of love spun between the two souls who have become entwined with each other. I am earnestly thankful that I not only found a story that once you become curled into you do not want to put down until the very last pages are wholly consumed, as within those final breaths of narrative prose, you find an illuminating ending that transcends the angst of the climax, but you find that the greatest love story of all is always told with the intention of uniting two persons who genuinely cannot be separated from one another due to the love that grew between them.
On the classically-bent writing style of Paula Kremser:
Kremser has a keen sense of a true way of capturing the heart of a romance booklover whose heart is tethered, tied, and threaded through Classical Literature! Her innate style of pacing the story as many of the writers of the 18th & 19th Centuries gave us such a felicity of mirth to discover, so too does her debut novel of Sophia; for recapturing the style of how to make an unexpected inheritance fuel the direction of a story! The little details and occurrences of a life within the upper tiers of society are contained with a happy fusion of mirth, cheeky humour, and a knowing hand who can pen a tale that is quite plausible as it is believable. An author who makes you giddy to know what she is penning next and if she is going to keep the timescape and setting of her first novel inside the second!
I have several bookish friends who adore this type of story (hallo Maggie, Juli, & Rissi!) and I would be plumb delighted to see if Kara and Charlene would find themselves just as wicked happy to soak inside this tome! This is the kind of story for all of us who grew up on Anne of Green Gables as much as found ourselves attached to Elizabeth Bennett & Jo March!
Virtual Road Map of “Sophia” Blog Tour can be found here:
To find out which Cedar Fort & Sweetwater Books author
I am hosting next visit my Bookish Events!
I positively *love!* comments in the threads below each of my posts, kindly know that I appreciate each thought you want to share with me and all the posts on my blog are open to new comments & commentary! Short or long, I appreciate the time you spent to leave behind a note of your visit! Return again soon!
{SOURCES: Author photograph, Book Cover of “Sophia”, the Cedar Fort badge, the Book Synopsis, and the Author Biography were provided by Cedar Fort, Inc. and used by permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}
.@PaulaKremser such a bewitching #novel as a debut for this #sweetromance novelist, who adds a dash of ingenuity to her couple’s coupling!
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) October 19, 2014
.@PaulaKremser in earnest guidance of her pen, heart, & intuition Kremser guides young #Sophia through trials w/ a sturdy aide in Lady Anne!
I am happily welcoming Cara Bertrand, the writer of the Sententia series to Jorie Loves A Story tonight as I decided to opt-out of reading her second novel “Second Thoughts” and host an Author Q&A instead — as if you read my ruminations on behalf of the first novel in this parapsychological series you will have noted my angst in finding such a confluence of frequency in regards to the strong words peppered throughout the text itself.
Take a moment to visit with us as we discuss the origins of the first novel as well as the parapsychological building blocks for the series overall! The topic is one that I have always keenly attracted to conversing about and therein lies the joy of hosting this Q&A!
She's going crazy. Everyone thinks she has severe migraines from stress and exhaustion. What she really has are visions of how people died - or are going to die. When doctors insist she needs a new and stable environment to recover, Lainey's game to spend two years at a private New England boarding school. She doesn't really think it will cure her problem, and she's half right. There is no cure, but she's not actually crazy.
Almost everyone at Northbrook Academy has a secret too. Half the students and nearly all of the staff are members of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted. A vision of another student's impending death confirms Lainey is one of them. When she's finally getting comfortable with her gift of divining deaths, and with Carter Penrose, a recent Academy graduate and resident school crush, they uncover her true Sententia heritage. Now Lainey has a real secret.
Once it's spilled, she'll be forced to forget protecting secrets and start protecting herself.
Book Synopsis for Book Two of the Sententia Series:
The continuing adventures of an ordinary teenage girl with extraordinary mental abilities, perfect for readers who love books and series such as “Vampire Academy,” “Spellbound” and “Sweet Peril.”
Secrets, lies and looming deaths – all things Lainey Young deals with in a typical day of high school. In her senior year at Northbrook Academy – a New England boarding school where the majority of the students and nearly all the staff are members of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted – Lainey has even more to worry about, things like classes, college, her boyfriend and, of course, the vision she glimpsed of her impending death. But to her surprise, Lainey finds one worry she can cross off her list, namely Sen. Daniel Astor, the leader of the Sententia.
After a shocking discovery when they finally meet, Lainey realizes maybe she was wrong to distrust the senator. She relaxes even further when he seems to accept her refusal to work for him after graduation. But with her secrets mounting and the time to solve them running out, there’s a final enigma Lainey hasn’t yet encountered: Daniel Astor doesn’t take no for an answer. Ever.
Author Biography:
Photo Credit: Vallarta Adventures
Cara Bertrand is a former middle school literacy teacher who now lives in the woods outside Boston with: one awesome husband, two large dogs, one small daughter, and lots of words. LOST IN THOUGHT is her first novel and was a finalist for the Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award.
Your titling for ‘Lost in Thought’ is a bit of a play on words and eludes to the general notion that ‘thoughts are things’ and it is always a bit wise to be cautious where our thoughts can lead us. Especially when considering the differences between Light & Dark / Good vs Evil; did you originally seek out to have a title of a series start with a thought provoking impetus or did it naturally piece together as you wrote the story itself?
Bertrand responds: The title was, in fact, the most difficult and literally last thing I applied to the story. I wish I could say it was a grand design or an act of forethought (heh heh), but it was the product of a furious chat session with my best friend when I needed a title and didn’t have one. It’s an interplay of the concept of Thought—the power wielded by all Sententia—and a scene in the book where Lainey contemplates feeling lost in her new, unfamiliar world.
You have a very unique perspective on the parapyschological gifts your characters are given in ‘Lost in Thought’. Specifically what drew me into the background of how their gifts manifested was the consideration of whom the gifter of the gifts actually is. Did you intend to impart a sense of faith and centering on a celestially being to have an omnipresence in the background or was this a naturally line of thought woven into the sequences of how the story unfolded?
Bertrand responds: From the beginning, I knew the Sententia origins. What they can do is beyond science, but in the modern world we no longer call those things magic. There’s a higher power involved, something bigger and broader than all of us that connects all of us. The Sententia acknowledge this, but they don’t worship it. Sometimes they call this higher power God, but it’s semantic more than anything. The story is not rooted in faith in the Christian God or any particular god at all. Faith as a concept, however, plays heavily throughout the stories—faith in oneself, one’s choices, one’s abilities, faith in each other, faith in what we know of the world. Lainey’s faith in things is tested constantly, and she responds, sometimes well, sometimes not, to these tests. She learns.
Lainey has a very interesting take on the theory of the Grim Reaper, which I previously uncovered in a different spin in the BBC series Mulberry. I was curious how the plausible aspects of her talent for being in such a unique position was curated and if there was a lesson in of itself on the gift Lainey was given?
Bertrand responds: Being so intimately connected to death is a burden Lainey didn’t ask for and certainly doesn’t want. Throughout not just Lost in Thought but the whole series, she struggles to come to terms with what she can do. It’s a process, because that’s what life is. Self-acceptance is a tricky thing, and it can take years to accept parts of ourselves that we don’t like or don’t know how to focus. I wanted Lainey’s journey to reflect that. In Lost in Thought she makes a bold promise to use her abilities for good, and this is her struggle—to find a positive way to wield an ability that doesn’t seem to have any positive aspects.
What kind of research did you conduct for this novel as I was quite impressed with the accuracy of the parapsychological aspects of the backstories? Did you perchance contact the parapsychologists who are actively researching the same types of gifts featured in your novel? Or perhaps visit The Rhine (Institute for Parapsychology in Durham, North Carolina)?
Bertrand responds: The real question is will you be more or less impressed when I admit I did none of those things? Readers regularly ask me if I’ve had first-hand paranormal/parapsychological experience, and the answer is no. In fact, if pressed, I’d say that I’m barely even a believer. I think if I were, if I had been touched by the parapsychological, it would change my ability to write about it. I did very limited reading on different kinds of extra-sensory abilities, and the rest I let my imagination shape.
What was the impetus which gravitated you into writing? And, when did this occur? Who was your best cheerleader?
Bertrand responds: I wasn’t a creative writer until very recently, though I am a life-long reader and lover of stories. When I was young, I always thought being a writer would be great, but it was an idea not a goal. I never did anything more than dream about it. Instead, I did what so many lovers of words do—I became a teacher. Eventually I left the profession, but I never stopped reading. One day while in the car with my husband, telling him about whatever I was reading at the time—and I can tell you exactly where we were on the highway, though not what day it was, where we were going, nor even what book I was talking about—he said, “I’m surprised you never wrote a book.” I answered, “I don’t think I could finish one,” which, later, made me angry. See, I’d never tried writing a book, so how did I know if I could finish? So I set out to prove myself wrong. And I have, going on 4x at this point. That conversation was in the summer of 2010. Undoubtedly my husband was and remains my best cheerleader, but I couldn’t do this without the continued encouragement of my parents, my best friend and first reader, and the love and enthusiasm from the rest of my family and friends. And, of course, the readers.
What are your favorite tools to use whilst writing? And, where do you write to gain the most inspiration?
Bertrand responds: My tools for writing are: my laptop, a pair of wrist braces (an unfortunate necessity), and Scrivener. That’s it. Helpful additives are: sunshine, coffee, and time. I spend most of my writing time split between my home and my local coffee shop (where I pen this now!). I like to be by windows, so I can see outside. Or to be outside, if it’s nice enough. Lately, I write best first thing in the morning, though, honestly, that’s by demand not nature. For most of my life, I’ve been a night owl fighting to survive in a daytime world.
What do you foresee as the best takeaway a story set in this captivating world of ‘thought’ generating gifted souls could teach the minds of those who are seeking a different kind of adventure in Young Adult Fiction?
Bertrand responds: We spend a lot of time seeking adventure outside ourselves, or in books looking for mythical creatures and different worlds—and believe me, I’m no exception. So when I started writing, I wanted to go in a slightly different direction, to look inside rather than out, so to speak. There’s magic in us, too, hiding in our everyday world.
I found it beyond incredible to have learnt through this conversation with the writer herself that she is practically a skeptic of parapsychology and yet has such a curious ability to breathe truism into this aspect of her book series? It made me suspect that she is naturally aware of things that perhaps she has not yet chosen to accept as plausible because this was one part to the novel Lost in Thought that had me at ‘hallo’ as they say and pulled me into the theory of origins for the Sententia themselves. It was a very cleverly writ back-story and one that felt grounded and true to it’s own accord of perimeters to exist.
I was also struck with a bit of shock on the explanation of where the origins originated from for the Sententia, as I never read a story that evoked the name of God not to be a direct reference of whom we would all attribute the name to be referring to directly. I walked away with a different perception of understanding than what was revealed in this Q&A as I actually disagree with this as a reader from the point of view that I read something different in the pages of the book itself. Whether it was ever intended to have this reaction or understanding from a reader, I cannot comment on, but I can say, that where the book led me to alight my thoughts is now counter-current to where the writer intended me too. I also found it odd that it was referred that God is only related to Christianity whereas throughout all my readings of World Religions this is simply not the case at all. Nor was I referencing a connection to Christianity in my review, as faith and religion goes beyond denominations.
I think it was quite brilliant how her husband encouraged her to pursue something she did not entirely have the confidence to do without his inspiring words of motivation. We all need cheerleaders in our lives and people to rally behind us when our own confidence falters. I never fail to smile whilst reading the answers to this particular question I love to ask writers I interview!
I do agree with her sentiments on the last Question I asked, as sometimes the greatest journey we can all take is within us all along. I was simply a bit surprised by some of her replies, as I had alighted a different level of understanding on a few things, but I accept too, that she came from a different place of thought when she penned the stories. It is a direct instance of where once a story leaves a writer’s mind & heart, the readers who pick up the story will have their own interpretations of where the story takes them; even if where the reader’s mind goes is opposite of where a writer intended them to travel. Stories are constantly evolving experiences as they fuse and shape differently inside the mind of whom reads them and carries a different piece of their message as they are read.
I am thankful I could interview Ms. Bertrand and provide a bit of a back-story to the Sententia series for my readers & visitors alike! I do hope everyone has clicked through to the rest of the tour stops and enjoyed this introduction to Luminis Books!
I hosted two authors for the Luminis Books Blog Tour:
Happily click-through to visit each stop on the tour & leave a note behind for either myself or the two authors I happily hosted for Luminis Books! It was such an esteemed honour to have both of them on my book blog! It was a great experience to host a new Publisher I had not yet discovered and gathering a sense about the type of stories they are publishing under the umbrella of Children’s Lit!
Similar to blog tours, when I feature a showcase for an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog.
I positively *love!* comments in the threads below each of my posts, and as CommentLuv only requires Email to leave a note for me I cannot wait to see what starts to populate below! Kindly know that I appreciate each thought you want to share with me and all the posts on my blog are open to new comments & commentary! Short or long, I appreciate the time you spent to leave behind a note of your visit! Return again soon!
{SOURCES: The tour badge & Book Synopsis for “Second Thoughts” were provided by JKS Communications and used with permission. Book Cover Art for “Lost in Thought” & “Second Thoughts”, Author Biography & Book Synopsis of “Lost in Thought” were provided by the author Cara Bertrand and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets are embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}
I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Second Thoughts” virtual book tour through JKS Communications: A Literary Publicity Firm. As this was the second novel in a book series, I was able to put in a request to receive the first novel Lost in Thought of which I received a complimentary copy of direct from the publisher Luminis Books without obligation to review. I received my complimentary copy of Second Thoughts direct from JKS Communications in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I am a bit of a quirky bookish soul on the level of being attracted to a particular style of paranormal stories which may or may not fit into the norm as far as industry standard selections on a per annum basis might include. I am particularly particular in my choices of both vocal styling of characters within the paranormal genre and the nature of how the undertone of these types of stories will befall. I am a reader who has a penchant for light being a fuelled undertone to novels, and thus, I am forever and a half seeking out the few paranormal stories out there that match my idealistic impression of the genre and the reality of what is being written. I nearly tucked tail out of the paranormal genre completely due to my previous interactions with other Adult Paranormal stories which tipped the scale in an unfavourable way.
I decided to forego seeking Adult Paranormal titles for blog tours and/or off-tour reviews and focus instead on the YA portion of the selections being published quite readily. Even then, I find myself not attracted to the heavier end of the spectrum but rather the intuitive side of YA Paranormal Fiction. I have always amassed a certain propensity for parapsychological story-lines (in both books & tv series/motion pictures), but my inclination of what I elect to read or to watch are a far cry outside the ones you’d expect I would have been drawn to read OR watch. Part of my participation in Horror October (by Oh! The Books) will carve out the dance I walk on the fringes of a supremely popular genre.
What drew my eye immediately into this book series was the premise – as I have to admit I was the girl in the darkened front row of The Sixth Sense who had worked herself up into a bit of a panic frenzy of not being able to handle half of the film; untila kind-hearted young bloke next to me (of whom I never knew previously or had the chance to properly thank afterwards; he disappeared that quickly!) told me *exactly!* when to ‘watch’ and when to ‘duck your eyes’; he clearly had been a groupie of the film director’s having seen this particular release 10x within the first few days of it’s release! I, on the other hand was a causality of a last-minute duck & dive into the theater with my best friend and as ill planned as we were, the front seats were the very last available to be had. Aside from the wicked horror of seeing it too close to the screen, what I appreciated was the premise of the film (perhaps not the straight-up horror bits mind you!) as a thesis of a theory of what happens when people see the dead amongst us. It is a thematic I was attracted too most intrinsically as forementioned on my blog having a connection to a field close-to that of a medical examiner. (see review of Daughter of the Gods).
Death by nature is always presented either in the light of faith-based stories or the gruesome after effects of being newly deceased on medical examiner series and/or police procedurals or detective mysteries. It is quite rare to find offerings of where the dead are alongside the living in a way that is representative of who they are after they pass and in such a way as to honour the spirit of the person who had died. Hence why I positively love watching Ghost Whisperer via seasonal dvds I loan through ILL’ing at my local library. The curiosity was always perked to find stories and characters who walk amongst the dead and/or are in communication with the dead on a parallel plane of acknowledgement as I think it has a bevy of choice as to how to portray not only the characters speaking to the dead but how to illuminate the dead themselves.
Now imagine my excitement on having discovered the Sententia series!
And, the blessing to read the series from Book 1 straight into Book 2!
Lost in Thought : First Book of the Sententia
Lainey Young has a secret . . .
She's going crazy. Everyone thinks she has severe migraines from stress and exhaustion. What she really has are visions of how people died - or are going to die. When doctors insist she needs a new and stable environment to recover, Lainey's game to spend two years at a private New England boarding school. She doesn't really think it will cure her problem, and she's half right. There is no cure, but she's not actually crazy.
Almost everyone at Northbrook Academy has a secret too. Half the students and nearly all of the staff are members of the Sententia, a hidden society of the psychically gifted. A vision of another student's impending death confirms Lainey is one of them. When she's finally getting comfortable with her gift of divining deaths, and with Carter Penrose, a recent Academy graduate and resident school crush, they uncover her true Sententia heritage. Now Lainey has a real secret.
Once it's spilled, she'll be forced to forget protecting secrets and start protecting herself.
Cara Bertrand is a former middle school literacy teacher who now lives in the woods outside Boston with: one awesome husband, two large dogs, one small daughter, and lots of words. LOST IN THOUGHT is her first novel and was a finalist for the Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Award.
Teenagers are not naturally attracted to antiques?:
I was a bit surprised to read this sentiment being expressed in the opening bits of learning more of Lainey’s past, a smirk of a recognition seeing a bit of myself in Lainey, if truth be told. I fell in love with antiques as a young girl as I grew up in a home and family of whom appreciated unique pieces and aged eclectic finds. By thirteen I was attending auctions regularly and getting the feel for discerning what was worth bidding on and what was worth letting slide by. I always appreciated the subtle differences in glass, china, and dishware – not only for distinction of style but for the artistry of where the pieces originally came from. We even had a factory of sculpture straight out of Italy nearby from where I was attending high school, so you could say, I grew up not only surrounded by art, music, and cultural events but a proper sense of ageless curiosity about curios!
Wandering around emporiums of antiques in tucked away small townes is simply a day ‘out’ I can always drink in with a smile, a nod to the out-of-doors walking paths, and a happy spirit. I love the spontaneous conversations evolving around something I find my eye is drawn to learn a bit more about and how each antique shoppe has it’s very own unique way of putting everything on display. I love the photographs which are framed and hung on the wall as much as the shoeboxes stuffed to the gills with individual photos you can purchase in large batches or separately if you want to go for the ‘unfamiliar relations’ mosaic. The furniture of the 1800s is intermixed with pre-1950s and early 20th Century, and the moment of anticipation to check out the estate jewelry in the cases is always a bit of happenstance glowing excitement! Yet, it is the furniture and the kick knacks I personally adore the most (except for how my mind wanders about sorting through the ‘china’ room to percolate a personal style of ‘necessary items’ in the dining room), as you can find such an array of hand-crafted artisan quality separates! One of my favourite finds are the pull down drawer desks and of course, an armoire that can fit and bemuse a woman’s wardrobe!
Hmm, yes, I do suppose being into antiques is not fashionably akin to being a teenager, but then who says you have to lead a conventional life!? I love Lainey’s spunk and her individualism!
My Review of Lost in Thought:
Realising you have a gift (especially a parapsychological gift) is innocuous enough, but to fully fathom how to encompass the truth of how far your gift can take you is quite another matter entirely! The paradoxical internal conflict at the jump-start of Lost in Thought set me inside the head of Lainey and etched out a time vortex to be wholly absent from my own living hours for the duration of her story to be told. There is something alluring about murder mysteries and to have orientated her revelation to know the dead through an act of murder was quite an ingenious hook for a potential reader to find on page 1! Of course, to be truthful, the reader would have to be a life-long appreciator ‘of murder mysteries’ such as myself to become rooted in their chair!
We quickly shift directly into Lainey’s life as she starts to end her gypsy life with her Aunt and takes up residence at a boarding school to finish out her tenure of high school. We start to watch her blossom by being able to have a bit of a routine rather than an unorthodox existence of following her Aunt Tessa around as she tours the country as a professional artist. It is whilst she is starting to settle into the Academy as a student we start to see her develop more as a person who is not only curious about what caused her headaches originally but if there was any truth to the origins therein. Her doctors always felt she was living too much out of sync with the normalcy other teens experienced during adolescence but she was never quite certain if her doctors understood her as they never had the fuller truth of what caused her the most duress. Lainey is a girl on the verge of understand who she is and why she was endowed with the gifts she has inside her, but there is always a pinch of foreshadow inside the story — alluring to a bit of a darker truth outside of the light.
I appreciated seeing the central core of the Sententia having roots in spirituality and watching how ethically they were attempting to do what was right whilst walking the fine line between interference with free will and observation. The internal core of the novel reminded me a bit of the Prime Directive from Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek and seeing theology discussed inside the novel was an unexpected surprise as I personally appreciated of whom the credit was given for having given the gifts to the Sententia. Each world is built differently inside the Fantasy genre, but what drew me to appreciate the Sententia is how humanistic they were whilst they understood a higher plane of existence. They are a bit advanced at discovering natural bourne gifts and how to wield them; yet they are a bit of a mystery to the outside world at large. This brought together an interesting proposition to the story’s central threads as they (the Sententia) are a unique sub-culture of humanity living on the fringes of ordinary society.
Lainey’s best friend Amy (who is also her roommate at the Academy) reminds me so much of Kit from Pretty Woman because she has her energetic enthused way of celebrating her roomie’s life that made me flash to mind her persona each time Amy walks into view or is wrapped up in a conversation with Lainey; which points closer to how this novel read more adult to me than high school teen; a bit more college than secondary school at least. Lainey never had a grounding of a friendship with a peer before due to all her expeditions but what she was truly gaining was further insight into who she was as an individual and how she wanted to proceed forward into her future. She is at the age where being given a gift came with certain responsibilities and certain consequences and I appreciated seeing how she was trying to align the balance she wanted in her life. Balance between trusting those who knew more than she did about the Sententia and trusting her gut instincts about everything else.
The only thing I was truly disappointed about aside from the strong language is that the story took an unexpected turn from what I had originally felt it was being projected as going towards — as far as the dead and the living are concerned. This is a story that is about the dead but it isn’t about helping the dead as I first had perceived but rather a unique bent on another vein of thought that walks alongside the dead and a bit on the level of the theory of the Grim Reaper if truth be told. Yet that isn’t entirely what it is about either. It is a very interesting story-line threaded through parapsychological phenomena that doesn’t allow you to fully guess where this novel is taking you; even when you think you understand everything you need to know about Lainey and her friends. Bertrand weaves in a twist or two that you are not expecting nor do you fully understand as this first installment ends on the tip of a cliffhanger; but not one that is hard to swallow but rather one that is most foreboding in where we shall enter Lainey’s life in “Second Thoughts”; because the title of the series itself is a leading clue to what lies within.
On the writing style of Cara Bertrand:
Bertrand excells at painting a story that feels real and is lush on descriptive narrative as much as sense of place for Lainey and the other students at the Academy; straight down to the local haunt of the bookshoppe. She has a knack for carving out a setting that feels as real as breathing and gives the YA genre a solid footing as far as how to paint the whole of the world whilst developing the characters inside it. The only flaw I found was the inclusion of a brass word early-on when Lainey met her roommate which not only felt out of step with the rest of the story but was a deep disappointment for me, as I was thinking I had finally found a writer who had curbed using strong language and left the genre to stand on the merit of the story and their characters without falling into the pattern of where modern YA is taking younger audiences.
I personally do not consider any novel YA or for an audience of Children if it is going to include strong language. I am going to start to talk more about this on my blog as I index my reviews, but what is disappointing to me is why there appears to be such a need to include the words at all? Despite my grievances for the language choices within this novel, I did appreciate the story as the words were flittered about like those flies I mentioned on previous reviews and not the total distractment they could have become. Evenso, I would not be recommending this to a teenager as the language for me puts this firmly in the Adult Lit category; similar to how I have felt each time I pick up a (supposed) YA title and find the same inside their pages.
I’m disappointed writers feel they have to add these words in order to find an audience because to me literature should stand as an example that improves our lives rather than detract from the causal way in which language has become outside literature and school. It is sad to me because when I find a wordsmith who breathes such a breath of positive narrative prose into her books, I am regrettably saddened to see words flicker onto the page that make me inwardly cringe. Their absence would not deflect from the message of the story but their absence would be applauded for carrying a story without abrasive words to narrow the audience the story could have had. I truly love the way in which Bertrand writes her stories, and the few intermittently brassier words do not reflect her writing as a whole.
Especially considering how much effort she put into having ‘cursing’ occurring ‘off-camera’ in some instances and/or finding unique phrases to ‘cover-up’ a stronger explicit phrase. I was a bit confused why more than half the book is writ with a young mind in consideration and the other half letting certain words erupt onto the page? It was quite confusing to me as like I said, she has a singularly strong strength in writing the voice of a teenager and in evoking what a teen’s mind, heart, and process of thought will entreat whilst dealing with a personal crisis and a revelation of identity. To say reading this story left me betwixt reactions is putting it mildly; especially considering when the coarse words started escalating in both frequency of appearance and the choice of which ones would be included.
Fly in the Ointment : is it me, or are there two versions of YA?
Is it me or has the book world gone upturnt crazy, lately!? Now, I have already established I purposely stopped reviewing Adult Paranormal novels for my blog with the express reason to avoid vulgarity in stories yet what curious little word did you think I found on page 18? It wasn’t the worst of the worst (of which I have absolutely positively no tolerance for at all) but it was still a word I wasn’t expecting to find in a novel branding itself as YA! I mean, isn’t the point of being a Young Adult novel to adhere to a certain ground rule of exclusion for explicit vulgarity and violence? Am I missing the boat OR is literature becoming so muddled these days it is growing harder to know which way is up? Sighs. And, here I was thinking this would be the one book series I would not be composing a Fly in the Ointment on!
I run searches on this topic every blue moon as I had tonight to check to see if my definition had miraculously changed since I first picked up Young Adult fiction as a young adult myself over a decade and a half ago! The results of which run the full gambit of if your not exclusively akin to reading vulgar words in literature you are either: too sensitive, too prudish, too religious, or too blind to see where society has taken our youth. I do not concur with any of the statements, because of the mere fact when I was in high school (and quite frankly elementary & middle too!) we had our own set of perimeters on language. If you heard foul words flying out of the mouth of a classmate you knew to give them a wide birth and they were never one to emulate. I admit to overhearing teens in my own towne sporting words out of their mouths which make me wonder what has changed since I graduated, but that aside, my main concern is the habit of finding there is no longer a ‘filter’ for Children’s Literature and the young minds of whom pick up the books.
I read a comment tonight from a concerned reader (who sounded a lot like me; open-minded but with a conscience) who lamented about how the ‘age’ of who regularly reads Young Adult novels are not teens but rather graduating elementary schoolers and run of the mill middle schoolers. The teens already graduating into adult fiction and/or pursuing interests outside of literature completely. As a future parent I am finding more angst in finding vulgarity in Young Adult fiction than as a reader who has appreciated YA fiction for most of her life. I never ran into any of this in the 1980s through mid-1990s which begs the question: what exactly has changed and why are certain words so rabid inside modern literature? As a book blogger — I never fathomed I’d have to find over 30 ways to Sunday to opine my discontempt for vulgarity in literature!
I’d never advocate for banning books but I do advocate for books to be marked with explicit content for language as a method of understanding what we will find inside and therefore start to curb our disillusioned disappointment. If they can mark books for science fiction & fantasy as much as lyrics in music, I am thinking it is time to start marking books with ‘strong language included’ and ‘explicit violence’ if the case might be as well.
What was more puzzling for me is the mission of the publisher (Luminis Books) is to curate books which are meaningful as they are thought-provoking, yet how can a novel be meaningful if the language is brought down by the commonality of cursing and using abrasive words where they could have been tempered and softly spoken by more creative means? I am not sure I am appreciating YA novels being overrun with language that parents and teachers alike are trying so very hard to discern them from using on a regular basis. Even on my own behalf in the not so far off future, I am not going to allow my children to talk with such reckless abandon; it was not how I was raised nor is it how I will be raising my children. Teens can feel anger and they can feel vehemently overwhelmed, as who didn’t feel that way as a teenager? The anguish and angst of growing up is always deeply wrought and felt, but we were always told to use our words and to express our emotions by choosing words which helped to douse the flames of the fires we felt surging inside us. To find better ways to express what we wanted to say and to own who we were without muddling our speaking voices with the words of sailors as the saying used to go.
I am not certain what has changed or why certain books are being found with such inclusions, but I personally will rally behind each writer of YA who doesn’t use language in a negative way but rather uses language to teach a more appropriate way to understand our world. The stories with stronger language I will advocate for adult readers only.
Stay tuned!
Next I will be hosting an Author Q&A with Cara Bertrand:
I positively *love!* comments in the threads below each of my posts, and as CommentLuv only requires Email to leave a note for me I cannot wait to see what starts to populate below! Kindly know that I appreciate each thought you want to share with me and all the posts on my blog are open to new comments & commentary! Short or long, I appreciate the time you spent to leave behind a note of your visit! Return again soon!
{SOURCES: The tour badge was provided by JKS Communications and used with permission. Book Cover Art for “Lost in Thought” & “Second Thoughts”, Author Biography & Book Synopsis provided by the author Cara Bertrand and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets are embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}
Being into antiques is not fashionably akin to being a teenager, but then who says you have to lead a conventional life!? #SententiaSeries
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) September 26, 2014
#amreading title of #newbook am soaking inside is aptly named: Lost in Thought, as this #bookblogger is EXACTLY that ‘lost in her thoughts’!
I was selected to be a tour stop on the “The Angel of Losses” virtual book tour through TLC Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC copy of the book direct from the publisher Ecco, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I am always seeking stories which will challenge my mind and take me somewhere completely outside of where I have travelled before in literature. I had a sense that this was a story that I would devour — a story which would alight inside the vast plane of my imagination and give me something hearty to chew on afterwards. It was a premonition of a reaction long before the ARC ever arrived by Post. Do you ever find yourself stumbling across an author or a novel that you simply ‘know’ will leave an etched impression on your mind?! This is what I felt when I read the premise of Feldman’s novel and as I read the final words cast on the final page of the last chapter, I knew my premonition was true.
A notation on the cover art design:
The cover art for The Angel of Losses is a mosaic of the visual representations and clues of where the story leads you to follow it’s epic conclusion and of whom you need to pay particular attention to as the story evolves. Pictorial stimulating clues that you will only recognise as you alight on the pages in which give you the insight to understand the circle of their presence. The story is nearly a riddle when all is said and told – a riddle of a theory and a puzzle of an ancient truth aligning forward out of history.
The Tiger’s Wife meets A History of Love in this inventive, lushly imagined debut novel that explores the intersections of family secrets, Jewish myths, the legacy of war and history, and the bonds between sisters.
When Eli Burke dies, he leaves behind a mysterious notebook full of stories about a magical figure named The White Rebbe, a miracle worker in league with the enigmatic Angel of Losses, protector of things gone astray, and guardian of the lost letter of the alphabet, which completes the secret name of God.
When his granddaughter, Marjorie, discovers Eli’s notebook, everything she thought she knew about her grandfather—and her family—comes undone. To find the truth about Eli’s origins and unlock the secrets he kept, she embarks on an odyssey that takes her deep into the past, from 18th century Europe to Nazi-occupied Lithuania, and back to the present, to New York City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli’s past.
Interweaving history, theology, and both real and imagined Jewish folktales, The Angel of Losses is a family story of what lasts, and of what we can—and cannot—escape.
Author Biography: Stephanie Feldman is a graduate of Barnard College. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and her daughter.
Elements of Folklore, Mythology, & the Craft of Stories within a Story:
One of the most beautiful additions to a story I am reading is the otherworld presence of either folklore, mythology, or the craft of how stories are told as they are passed down from one generation to another; oft-times referred to by myself as ‘living histories’ as they truly are ‘the living history’ of a particular family. Inside Feldman’s novel, you gather a proper sense of time, place, and the stability of connection between the sisters and their grandfather was unified through the genesis of his art for story-telling. Their connective bond was untethered as they grew apart as they aged, but what I loved is seeing how the grandfather’s stories took such a central focus and method of shifting the story forward as I read deeper into the novel itself. To the level that his handwritten stories and prose scribbled into his notebooks were shared with the reader from one chapter into another. It felt very natural to go from an ordinary day out of Marjorie’s life, straight into a piece of this story she only had a peripheral knowledge of before finding one of her beloved grandfather’s notebooks.
My Review of The Angel of Losses:
Such a haunting and riveting opening of a Prologue for The Angel of Losses as we are caught inside of a memory of two sisters who are transfixed and spellbound by their grandfather’s tale of a land far away where a magician knows part of the truth of a missing son of a King. What implored me forward from there is this sense of foreboding, where did the tale leave off from the lore of the bedtime story and where did reality step forward out of the tale? I love feeling an undercurrent of suspense when I read a novel, and as this is my second Magical Realism with an under thread connection to Judaism (as the first was The Golem and the Jinni) I was mesmerized! Entering the story out of the Prologue, time has shifted forward for both sisters, as Holly (the one who was horridly afraid of her Grandfather’s story) switched religions and lived an orthodox life whereas her sister had grown into a bittersweet version of her younger self soured on how the loss of her sister has affected her heart. Her sister is still living, mind you, but the version of Holly as an adult is a far cry from the sister Marjorie knew as a child. The two are living worlds apart rather than mere blocks or cities separated by streets and the swirl of modern life between them.
I loved seeing the larger sense of their familial bond being tested by how one half of their connection is being shattered by the inability to have compassion outside of religious grounds. In this instance, I am referring to Holly’s husband is not accustomed to a non-Jewish family nor does he condone non-religious texts inside his home. A home that was inherited to Marjorie but on loan to Holly; the mere fact that Marjorie has to refer to Holly as Chava is another wrinkling thread of Marjorie’s disfavour of Holly’s choice in husband. You gather the sense at this point in the story where Marjorie is attempting to lock a hold of her past into her present, that the sister’s disconnection was already occurring long before Holly made her choice in marriage. There is an absence of words and an absence of sisterly compassion between both of them, and it points to a larger issue at hand that is slowly unfolding in the narrative itself. I like being caught up inside of a family drama, watching everything unravell as the story unfolds on its own timeclock.
Feldman has a gift for narrative voice stemming out of a wordsmith’s spirited soul for visceral imagery – she innately has gifted us with a special treat of a story, giving us a full-on adventure as we hug to the coattails of Marjorie as she pieces together the legacy and the history of a fabled Magician and the true meaning behind where the lore was always meant to take a believer; the latter of which she never felt she could ascertain on her own behalf. It is a true quandary of a problem – how to root out the history of a theory she has nibbling inside her own mind which other scholars were equally mystified about themselves? Her journey towards understanding edges her further into the mythes and pathos of ancient ruminations.
There are moments whilst I am reading I have gathered a proper sense on how each novel I consume is a building block for another yet to be known novel I will pick up in the future. As if I were stitching a tapestry woven exclusively with the threads and stitches of knowledge itself and of wisdom flowing out of the stories by which have enchanted my mind and enraptured my heart. Each story which slips into my mind’s eye has allowed me to grow, to transcend where I was before I read the story and to appreciate a bit more than I had already before the characters had lived their lives as a shadowy presence inside my own spirit. As I went deeper inside this story, I noticed little nuances of memory flittering through my internal memory files; automatically opening, closing, and filtering as I read Feldman’s prose. I had not realised I had amassed enough knowledge of the religious past to propel myself forward through this story at such an alarming clip of a pace! I cannot wait to re-read this novel when time is not extinguishing off the clock whilst a deadline was passed and overdue.
The researcher in me was happily appreciating the sections devouted to Marjorie’s attempt to research her thesis as much as research further into the legacy of her grandfather’s story. As she was always on the brink of realising that the story itself was much more than it first appeared to be. Being hunkered inside a library, piles of books atop of a table, and pages littered with bookmarks, post-it notes, and notebooks clotted full of scribbled ‘spur of the moment’ notes is what makes my own writerly heart go aflutter! Research is in part how I fell in love with writing, and it is research of another writer I treasure whilst I am reading their own stories cast out into the world for us to find. There is an electricity of excitement reading The Angel of Losses,…
At some point I started to read on autopilot, willing myself past sleep and choking myself a bit on exhaustion, but I simply needed to know how this story, this novel was going to end. I was a bit worried it might end on a cliffhanger, as I never take too kindly to ambiguous endings of stories; especially without the foreknowledge of a pending sequel. Two hours blinked off the clock and I’m at a loss for words — I’m so absorbed into this story, I feel as though I am the one pursuing the research to understand what is just outside of my own memory. This story is not like any other I’ve read and I will never quite forget it either. It is meant to be absorbed and illuminated inside the reader’s mind without revealing everything to the next reader who comes across it. For each of us has to read it ourselves and satisfy our own curiosity,… especially if we’re a seeker of stories and understand the greater meaning of what stories can give us all.
Stephanie Feldman gives her readers a window into a portal of time:
We are stepping through a veil slit into a portal of time made available through an opened window which is the novel inside your hands as your reading The Angel of Losses. Two stories came to mind as I started to read this fantastical journey: The Golem and the Jinni (novel) and The Neverending Story (film) as they are akin to how it feels to step through this world Feldman has provided us to discover. She gave us the same vehicle Bastian had in The Neverending Story, to become one within the story as it unfolded and to live as one with the character as she found where she was going herself. I loved this aspect of the novel because all of reality around me dissolved as I was wholly consumed by the voice of the evoking narrator and the clarity of Feldman’s vision for this unique novel which bent genre and illuminated the world half out of mystic history and half out of the truism of where faith can take anyone if only they were to believe in what is not yet seen.
On the footheels of consuming The Ghost Bride, I felt honoured to have had the chance to read Feldman’s tome of esoteric concentration of mystic Judaism cross-sected with religious ancient truths. The suspension of reality and the generous backstories of where the mytho origins of the story can be traced was a treasurement to fall in front of my eyes. I devourted this novel as readily as if I were astride a thunderbolt – even knowing I was outside my intended deadline (as the moon had long since waned and the midnight hours had tilted into a crescendo) I could not yield to sleep. I had to consume the text as quickly as I could process the words on the pages themselves, as my mind was lit aflame by the creativity and the ingenuity of how the historical arc was interlaced into the present of the character’s lives.
Fly in the Ointment:
I counted the words this time and there were less than a dozen splintered out across the whole of the novel. I wasn’t happy to find them; this is an intellectually stimulating piece of literary fiction and they felt misplaced amongst the rhetoric. I am not even sure why they were included in such a brilliant spec of literary voice. They degraded the quality in my eyes, as not only could this stomach their expulsion it was necessary to keep in tact the gift Feldman had writ.
A small explanation on my tardiness:
I had lost hours whilst being needed at the hospital in visitation of my neighbour (as previously disclosed here & here) as much as I was out of the house on another appointment that could not be detained. I attempted to revive the lost hours and run into my deadline without passing through it — but alas, I am quite human and not as immortal as the character inside this novel. Time can be bent but time cannot be recaptured once lost. I apologise for the delayed response, but my tweeting at least was a small clue at my enjoyment whilst I read. I am attempting to make the rest of my scheduled book reviews & tour stops to be alight earlier in the day / evenings from here on out; barring any further unexpected life emergencies, crises, or unplanned events such as lightning storms.
I positively *love!* comments in the threads below each of my posts, and although I had happily made sure that I could reacquire the WP Comments where you can leave me a comment by using: WP (WordPress), Twitter, Facebook, Google+, & Email a java glitch disrupted my plans to have these activated! Therefore, I had to re-instate CommentLuv, which only requires Email to leave a note for me!
Kindly know that I appreciate each thought you want to share with me and all the posts on my blog are open to new comments & commentary! Short or long, I appreciate the time you spent to leave behind a note of your visit! Return again soon!
Reader Interactive Question:
Have you ever alighted inside of a novel that you unexpectedly were swallowed up inside? Taken root inside the shoes of the character, where their life was full of emotional upheaval and partially an exploration of how to create a life shift that will alleviate their disillusion with where their life was heading; to find a different way of living and carve out their own little peace of happiness? Did you ever read a novel that surprised you?
{SOURCES: Cover art of “The Angel of Losses”, author photograph, book synopsis and the tour badge were all provided by TLC Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}
Decorum
Sophia
Lost in Thought : First Book of the Sententia
The Angel of Losses
City and her estranged sister Holly, whom she must save from the consequences of Eli’s past.
