Books are food for my soul! Pull up a beach chair and stick your toes in the sand as the Jersey surf rolls in and out, now open your book and let your imagination take you away.
In association with Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours, Jersey Girl Book Reviews welcomes Terri L. Austin, author of Diners, Dives & Dead Ends (A Rose Strickland Mystery - Book 1)!
Author Guest Post
Hello, Jersey Girl readers! And thank you, Kathleen, for having me on your blog today. It’s a pleasure to be here!
My name is Terri L. Austin and I’m the author of Diners, Dives & Dead Ends. My humorous mystery debut features heroine, Rose Strickland. Rose is a former rich girl who turned her back on her wealthy parents and their overbearing ways to strike out on her own.
Rose was fun to write. She’s a complex character and a girl you’d want as your BFF. She’s loyal to her friends—a quirky bunch—smart, and hard-working. She hasn’t quite figured her life out, but she’s trying. I wanted a likable heroine who’s a bit of an underdog, but has a lot of heart. I like to think Rose fits the bill.
The secondary characters in Diners made me laugh out loud. Roxy was a blast to write. Inspired by the Loli girls my daughter saw on her trip to Japan, Roxy follows her own path. And it’s sometimes a strange one. Then there’s Ma, Rose’s boss. She’s a sassy senior who likes to hang with her girls. And that’s fine. As long as she doesn’t break a hip while she’s doing it. Axton, an affable stoner with a secret, is Rose’s friend from her old life. And then there’s the smoking hot bad guy who makes Rose forget she’s a good girl.
Blurb:
As a struggling waitress and part-time college student, Rose Strickland’s life is stalled in the slow lane. But when her close friend, Axton, disappears, Rose suddenly finds herself serving up more than hot coffee and flapjacks. Now she’s hashing it out with sexy bad guys and scrambling to find clues in a race to save Axton before his time runs out.
With her anime-loving bestie, her septuagenarian boss, and pair of IT wise men along for the ride, Rose discovers political corruption, illegal gambling, and shady corporations. She’s gone from zero to sixty and quickly learns when you’re speeding down the fast lane, it’s easy to crash and burn.
I love to hear from readers! Seriously! Some of my writer pals and I host a book chat every Wednesday on Little Read Hens on FACEBOOK. We’d love for you to come chat with us!
About The Author
Terri L. Austin lives in Missouri with her funny, handsome husband and a high maintenance peekapoo. She loves to hear from readers. She and her writer friends have a book chat every Wednesday on Little Read Hens on FACEBOOK. Check it out and join in the conversation!
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours.
Book Description:
As a struggling waitress and part-time college student, Rose Strickland's life is stalled in the slow lane. But when her close friend, Axton, disappears, Rose suddenly finds herself serving up more than hot coffee and flapjacks. Now she's hashing it out with sexy bad guys and scrambling to find clues in a race to save Axton before his time runs out.
With her anime-loving bestie, her septuagenarian boss, and a pair of IT wise men along for the ride, Rose discovers political corruption, illegal gambling, and shady corporations. She's gone from zero to sixty and quickly learns when you're speeding down the fast lane, it's easy to crash and burn.
Part of the Henery Press Mystery Series Collection, if you like one, you'll probably like them all! Diners, Dives & Dead Ends is the first book in the Rose Strickland humorous mystery series.
Book Excerpt:
I walked back inside and scooped up Axton’s backpack, taking it into the kitchen with me. As I opened the swinging door, the smoky tang of bacon grew stronger. My boss, Ray, scrubbed the grill, and the dishwasher, Jorge, clinked plates as I moved past them into the pantry. I dropped the bag at my feet. It weighed a ton.
I sat on my haunches and unzipped it. So help me, if Ax stashed his pot in here, I was flushing it. But as I dug into the pack, I found it drug free—unless you counted the flannel shirt that almost gave me a contact high after one whiff. There was also a hardback copy of The Hobbit, two tech magazines, a laptop, a small tool kit, and a rectangular computer doodad the size of a deck of cards. Nothing unusual. At least not for Axton. I wondered why he left this with me. What the hell was going on?
I stuffed everything back inside and took a case of syrup off the shelf. I removed the restaurant-sized bottles of imitation maple goodness and stuck the backpack in the large box, closed the lid, and hoisted it back in place. Then I made some room next to the salsa and decided the condiments could play nice for a couple of days.
Roxy found me a minute later, with my hands on my hips, staring at the syrup box. “You must be really bored,” she said.
“Yep.” I followed her out of the pantry and into the dining room.
“Do you want to do something tonight or are you studying?” She walked over to the windows and pulled down the shades.
“I’m going to study with Janelle, go to bed, then get up and do it all over again. It’s glamorous, I know.” I lifted a shoulder. “But that’s just how I roll, my friend.”
“Your life kinda sucks.”
Sadly, she was right. Truth was, my life had become pretty predictable. My classes were beyond boring and I spent weekends either drinking watered down beer with Roxy or watching sci-fi movies with Ax. Sometimes when I got really wild, I did both at the same time. Not exactly living on the edge.
My name is Rose Strickland—Rosalyn to those who named me. I inherited my blue-green eyes from my dad, my A-cup boobs from my mom, and my blonde hair from them both. Where I got my wicked sense of humor and independent spirit was anyone’s guess, but the last two traits pissed my parents off to no end.
My Book Review:
Twenty-four year old Rose (Rosalyn) Strickland is a full-time waitress at Ma's Diner and a part-time college student from Huntingford, Missouri, who is trying to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Rose grew up in a wealthy family, but when she wouldn't lead the lifestyle that her parents thought was appropriate, her parents insisted that she leave their home and make her own way in the world.
Axton Graystone is Rose's childhood friend and the one person who helped her get on her feet. He's a lovable stoner, sci-fi and techie geek, who works in the IT department of the local community college. One day he stops in at the diner and is acting weird and very nervous, he asks Rose to keep his backpack for a few days in a safe place. When Ax disappears, Rose knows that he got himself into trouble and she's determined to find him. Rose and a motley crew of friends embark on a zany adventure to locate the missing Ax, only to have a hunky bad guy in tow and a town full of secrets ... what else can happen when your world revolves around Diners, Dives & Dead Ends?
Diners, Dives & Dead Ends is a fun story that has an entertaining mixture of chick lit and cozy mystery. In her debut novel, author Terri L. Austin weaves a humorous tale told in the first person narrative by Rose Strickland, who takes the reader along for the ride on a crazy adventure to find her missing friend Ax. This fast-paced story has a lot of twists and turns that easily engages the reader and keeps them guessing what will happen next, while also providing a lot of laugh-out-loud moments that will keep you in stitches. I really enjoyed the author's writing style, she provides a story that is just plain fun to read, it has a great balance of humor and intrigue.
The author creates a zany cast of characters who are realistic and fun to get to know. Rose is a sassy girl with an independent spirit and wicked sense of humor. I loved how the author made the story come alive via Rose's voice. I found myself snickering and thoroughly enjoying Rose's sassy attitude, it felt like I was sitting on the couch next to Rose as she talked about her adventures. I loved the cast of secondary characters: Roxy, Ma, Joe, Dane, Steve, Eric and the hunky bad guy aka Bossy Jackass. Their quirkiness, witty dialogue and engaging interactions made the adventure that they went on so much fun to follow. The author does a great job of describing the characters and their personalities, you can visualize what they look and sound like. I also liked how the author weaves in a few interested suitors for Rose, while throwing in some family drama into the mix as well.
Diners, Dives & Dead Ends is a delightful cozy mystery that is full of mad cap zany adventurous fun and sly humor that will keep you thoroughly entertained. This is the first book in the Rose Strickland Mystery Series. I look forward to reading about Rose's next adventure in Last Diner Standing, the second book in the series that is scheduled to be released on December 3, 2012.
In association with Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Publicity Tours, Jersey Girl Book Reviews welcomes Mack Mulluncey, author of Euthanasia!
Author Guest Post
Tangos With The Muse
The muse has a mind of her own; every writer knows that. She’ll show up anytime and anywhere, with a complete disregard for what else you have going on at the time. And I’ve found that when she comes around, and she wants to tango, I need to put my dancing shoes on and follow her lead. The relationship can be ephemeral, and she oftentimes leaves as quickly as she comes.
Like those times when she visits and I’m in that groggy place between wakefulness and sleep. If I don’t will myself out of bed to find a pen and paper, by the time my alarm clock goes off, the muse has gone on to dance with someone else—and she’s taken her great ideas with her.
She can be fickle that way.
But luckily there are other times, like when the idea for my novel Euthanasia was presented to me, that the muse punches me in the face and the sting of her visit stays with me like a week-long shiner.
Flashback to the mid-nineties and all of the talk shows that came along with it. Apparently, she couldn’t reach me in any other way that afternoon, so she leapt through the television screen. I was watching a talk show that day, and the topic was haunted houses where they show you aborted fetuses and other very un-Halloween-like items. Aside from feeling like it was a little odd, I didn’t think too much about it—and I certainly wasn’t planning on writing anything about the abortion issue.
But that is one of the tricks she uses: She exposes you to something that you don’t really connect with at the time and she needles you with it until your story comes to life on the page.
My bus ride to work was about 45 minutes, which gave the muse more than enough time to grind the wheels in my head with ideas of activists gone berserk. I thought that the haunted house story was pretty far out—I’d always considered Halloween to be a light and fun holiday after all. But then I took the idea and ran with it.
A lot of what the muse does can be boiled down to two little words: "what if?". And, it turned out, the haunted house led to a lot of questions that became plot points in the novel: What if someone started calling women and pretending to be their aborted fetus? What kind of person would conjure up something like that? How would that person get other people to help? What effects would it have on the women?
By the time I got to work that evening, the answers were beginning to come to me in the form of my antagonist Tobin Bartell. The first thing I did after I punched in for my shift was write down a sentence on a napkin. It ended up being the first line of Euthanasia.
I never know when the muse is going to show up, but I’m always thrilled when she does because she always brings gifts.
About The Author
Mack Mulluncey is a gender-ambiguous pseudonym for the author of Euthanasia. According to her website, Mack considered writing a traditional author biography, but thought that no one really cares about that.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Publicity Tours.
Book Description:
She lies on the cold, metal table—clad in a loose, white paper dress—waiting, waiting, waiting, as her lover claims his next victim.
When Alex left the clinic that day, she thought she could move on from the rape that left her pregnant and the agonizing decision to have an abortion. That is, until the child she thought she left behind contacts her. Terrorized by mysterious phone calls and guilt, Alex feels her sanity slipping away as she becomes convinced that she must find the man who brutalized her to make a family for her dead daughter.
Anti-abortion crusader Tobin Bartell wouldn’t have it any other way. As The Leader of The Movement, when he’s not organizing protests or giving speeches, he’s orchestrating a campaign of harassment against women like Alex...and plotting to kill the local abortion doctor.
And Tobin has no shortage of candidates for the job: Paige wants money, Courtney wants love, Derek wants to belong. Tobin just wants it done…and it doesn’t matter to him who does it.
Life. Death. Murder. It’s all the same to them. My Book Review: Euthanasia is a very dark, intense and disturbing story that deals with some very serious societal issues: rape, adultery, incest and abortion. Author Mack Mulluncey weaves a gritty tale full of graphic descriptions and strong language that provides a lot of shock value as the reader turns the pages. This is by far not an easy book to read, I found it to be a very disturbing story with a large cast of characters and alternating points of view that rambled on and made it hard to embrace and was a very unpleasant story to stomach. While I may not think that this story is my cup of tea, the author does make you stop and think about the issues that she wrote about if you can get past the very graphic scenes. This evocative, controversial and emotionally charged book may not be for everyone, but it most certainly will make the reader sit up and take notice of the serious societal issues that the author has described in her book.
In association with Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Publicity Tours
Author Guest Post / Book Review
Book Description: Euthanasia
When Alex left the clinic that day, she thought she could move on from the rape that left her pregnant and the agonizing decision to have an abortion. That is, until the child she thought she left behind contacts her. Terrorized by mysterious phone calls and guilt, Alex feels her sanity slipping away as she becomes convinced that she must find the man who brutalized her to make a family for her dead daughter.
Anti-abortion crusader Tobin Bartell wouldn’t have it any other way. As The Leader of The Movement, when he’s not organizing protests or giving speeches, he’s orchestrating a campaign of harassment against women like Alex…and plotting to kill the local abortion doctor.
And Tobin has no shortage of candidates for the job: Paige wants money, Courtney wants love, Derek wants to belong. Tobin just wants it done…and it doesn’t matter to him who does it.
Life. Death. Murder. It’s all the same to them.
Wednesday 11/28/12
Diners, Dives & Dead Ends by Terri L. Austin
In association with Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours
Author Guest Post / Book Review / Contest Giveaway
Book Description: Diners, Dives & Dead Ends
As a struggling waitress and part-time college student, Rose Strickland's life is stalled in the slow lane. But when her close friend, Axton, disappears, Rose suddenly finds herself serving up more than hot coffee and flapjacks. Now she's hashing it out with sexy bad guys and scrambling to find clues in a race to save Axton before his time runs out.
With her anime-loving bestie, her septuagenarian boss, and a pair of IT wise men along for the ride, Rose discovers political corruption, illegal gambling, and shady corporations. She's gone from zero to sixty and quickly learns when you're speeding down the fast lane, it's easy to crash and burn.
Part of the Henery Press Mystery Series Collection, if you like one, you'll probably like them all! Diners, Dives & Dead Ends is the first book in the Rose Strickland humorous mystery series. Bonus: Includes book club discussion questions.
Resurrect by David E. Stevens
In association with Litfuse Publicity Blog Tours
Book Review / Contest Giveaway
Book Description: Resurrect
Book 1 in the Resurrect Trilogy.
Preventing his burning fighter from crashing into a neighborhood, Navy Commander Josh Logan ejects … too late.
Critically injured, he’s offered a new life and mission exploit highly classified military technology to stop a global cataclysm. The price? He’ll be dead to everyone he knows.
He wakes in a city hospital with a genetically enhanced body and no identity. With the help of his brilliant, Neuro ICU nurse, and guided by nothing but a voice, he must infiltrate the military-industrial complex to develop the world’s most powerful weapon … to protect humanity?
Thursday 11/29/12
The Memory Thief by Emily Colin
In association with JKSCommunications
Author Guest Post / Book Review
Book Description: The Memory Thief
In Emily Colin’s exquisite debut novel, perfect for the fans of Kristin Hannah, one man’s vow to his wife sparks a remarkable journey that tests the pull of memory and reaffirms the bonds of love.
Before Madeleine Kimble’s mountaineer husband, Aidan, climbs Mount McKinley’s south face, he makes her a solemn vow: I will come back to you. But late one night, Maddie gets the devastating news that Aidan has died in an avalanche, leaving her to care for their son—a small boy with a very big secret. The call comes from J.C., Aidan’s best friend and fellow climber, whose grief is seasoned with survivor’s guilt . . . and something more. J.C. has loved Maddie for years, but he never wanted his chance with her to come at so terrible a cost.
Across the country, Nicholas Sullivan wakes from a motorcycle crash with his memory wiped clean. Yet his dreams are haunted by visions of a mysterious woman and a young boy, neither of whom he has ever met. Convinced that these strangers hold the answers he seeks, Nicholas leaves everything behind to find them. What he discovers will require a leap of faith that will change all of their lives forever.
Friday 11/30/12
Heroes & Lovers by Wayne Zurl
In association with Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Publicity Tours
Author Guest Post / Book Review
Book Description: Heroes & Lovers
Sam Jenkins might say, “Falling in love is like catching a cold. It’s infectious and involuntary. Just don’t sneeze on any innocent people.”
Getting kidnapped and becoming infatuated with a married policeman never made Knoxville TV reporter Rachel Williamson’s list of things to do before Christmas.
Helping her friend, Sam Jenkins, the ex-New York detective and now police chief in Prospect, Tennessee, with a fraud investigation sounded exciting and would get her an exclusive story.
But Sam’s investigation put Rachel in the wrong place at the wrong time and her abduction by a mentally disturbed fan, ruined several days of her life.
When Jenkins learns Rachel has gone missing he mobilizes all personnel at Prospect PD and enlists his friends from the FBI to help find her.
During the early stages of the investigation, Sam develops several promising leads, but as they begin to fizzle, his prime suspect drops off the planet and all the resources of the FBI aren’t helping.
After a lucky break and a little old-fashioned pressure on an informant produce an important clue, the chief leads his team deep into the Smoky Mountains to rescue his friend. But after Rachel is once again safe at home, he finds their problems are far from over.
In association with Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Publicity Tours, Jersey Girl Book reviews welcomes Ace Collins, author of The Christmas Star!
Author Guest Post
Christmas Music Is A Joyful Time Machine
By: Ace Collins
Ace’s current novels are The Christmas Star, The Yellow Packard & Reich of Passage.
In my current novel, The Christmas Star, music and traditions play an important role in Jimmy Reed coming to fully understand the true meaning and power of Christmas. So to give you a little insight into why I love this holiday so much that I have penned five books on it, here is the way I view holiday music.
I really feel the power of Christmas songs is magnified because these beloved standards come back every year. In other words, these are musical time machines. They wipe away the years and bring us the feelings and emotions of our youth. Suddenly loved ones who have long been gone are almost there with us when we hear certain songs. Having written five nonfiction books about the stories behind Christmas music and traditions and one newly released novel celebrating the special miracles involved in embracing the Christmas spirit, I look forward to Christmas more than most children do. One of the things I can’t wait for each year is changing out the records in our 1959 Wurlitzer Juke Box and fill it with only Christmas singles. These are five songs that really define Christmas for me and why. I could list dozens but for me Christmas doesn’t really begin until I heard these five.
1. White Christmas by Bing Crosby. For many this song is special because of the two Crosby movies where it was featured. For me it became incredibly special when I found out the first time it was sung in public was on December 24, 1941 on Bing’s national radio show. When you consider that America had just entered a world war, the song’s impact must have been incredible. As millions via radio heard it they must have thought back to the Christmases when there was peace on earth and wondered when that would happen again. So whenever I hear Crosby’s version of this song, I consider how much it must have meant during World War II. It really was a secular prayer for those believing only a miracle could bring their family back together at Christmas.
2. Why Can't Everyday Be Like Christmas by Elvis Presley. Blue Christmas might have been his biggest holiday hit, but this was Presley’s favorite Christmas song and it has become one of mine. It asks a haunting question that remains open and unanswered and then considers a theory that is simple but also unattainable, “Oh why can’t everyday be like Christmas? Why can’t this feeling go on endlessly. If everyday could be just like Christmas, what a wonderful world this would be.”
3. Silent Night by almost anyone. Great story behind the classic song and the story of how we know it today is even better and that makes it really hit home in my world. But the deeper reason for loving this song is that it brings out the child in me. There is nothing more moving than seeing Christmas through childlike eyes.
4. Merry Christmas Darling by The Carpenters. The song is great, the story behind it is cool, but this is my wife’s favorite Christmas song and thus it is special to me because of what it means to her. It always reminds me of the most special person in my life.
5. O Holy Night is my favorite true gospel classic. The way the story of Christmas is revealed and the meaning of that special night to the world is so moving. That fact this carol was also used by abolitionists in the U.S. as an anthem demanding Christians free their slaves is profound. And the added bonus of having it be the first song ever played on the radio means this number is ripe with spirit and history.
About The Author
Bestselling author Ace Collins has written more than fifty books including novels Farraday Road, Swope's Ridge and Words of the Father, as well as the nonfiction Stories Behind The Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, grAttitudes, and Lassie A Dog's Life. His books have become movies and network television specials. He has appeared on Good Morning America, the NBC Nightly News and The Today Show and has been featured in the Distinguished Lecture Series at the National Archives in Washington D.C. Ace Collins has sold more than 1.5 million books during his career.
His latest book is the Christian holiday fiction, The Christmas Star.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Pump Up Your Book! Virtual Book Publicity Tours.
Book Description:
At the end of World War II, a young son mourns the loss of his Marine father who died a hero.
Robert Reed gave his life for his country in the early days of World War II. His sacrifice was honored when his widow and son were presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor. Each Christmas the final decoration Madge Reed hangs on the family’s tree is that medal. Rather than being a symbol of honor for young Jimmy Reed that shining star represents loss, pain, and suffering.
Yet a letter delivered by one of Robert’s fellow soldiers and a mystery posed in that letter put a father’s sacrifice and faith into perspective and bring new meaning to not just the star hanging on the Christmas tree but the events of the very first Christmas. Then, when least expected, a Christmas miracle turns a final bit of holiday sadness into a joy that Jimmy has never known.
Book Excerpt:
December 21, 1945 3:20 p.m.
It was doubtful that Sharp County had ever experienced such a collective sense of euphoria. First, the Great Depression and then the war had created an atmosphere of heartache, insecurity, chaos, and turmoil, tearing up families while dashing dreams and crushing security, but now there was a hope fueled by the fact that freedom had been preserved and “Peace on Earth” was no longer just a line on a greeting card, it was a reality. Christmas was more than just a holiday this year; it was a celebration! The promise that had been offered in Bing Crosby’s hit single “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” had been realized and for almost everyone in every corner of this part of Arkansas, as well as all over the United States, it was the most wonderful time of the year, the decade, and perhaps even the century.
December twenty-first was the day everyone in the rural school district, children and teachers alike, had been looking forward to. For those spending seven hours a day behind the native stone walls of Ash Flat High 3:20 p.m. was the moment when Christmas really began. As the clock signaled that specific instant and the final bell sounded, kids poured through the old two-story school building’s large oak front door and down the well-worn concrete steps like the bulls racing through the streets of Pamplona, Spain. Their warm spirits met a cold north wind as scores of enthusiastic kids rushed across the yard and onto Calvin Jenkins’ yellow GMC school bus. Other equally ecstatic youngsters raced past the mud-splattered vehicle, up the dirt road toward downtown Ash Flat just to spy all the wonder that was waiting to be discovered in the community’s handful of stores. Smiles and laughter were everywhere, as everyone seemed caught up in holiday spirit—everyone but Jimmy Reed.
While others rushed passed at supersonic speed, Jimmy, a tall, thin, sixteen-year-old hung back at the top of the steps, a tormented look filling his deep green eyes. Dressed in a blue wool jacket that was about two sizes too small, he stuck his ungloved hands deep into the pockets of his patched jeans. In a sense, he was an outcast in a world of holiday cheer. For the boy, there was no light at Christmas, only foreboding darkness brought on by great loss. While all his friends saw Christmas as a joyous dream, to Jimmy it was a nightmare, a prison of loneliness and a day of despair. If Jimmy could erase any day from the calendar it would be December 25.
“See you in January,” Wylie Rhoads called out from behind as Jimmy slowly ambled down the steps. Glancing back over his shoulder at the short, stocky school superintendent standing in arched entry, the youth shrugged his shoulders and smirked. That expression brought an immediate response.
“Jimmy!”
“Yeah,” the boy shot back at the school administrator, his voice and body language showing great contempt and little respect.
As their eyes met, the man pointed his finger and barked, “Get the chip off your shoulder son. You’ve got two weeks to shape up that attitude. When you come back I want to see a different person. Someone with the kind of character your father had.”
“You leave my dad out of this,” Jimmy hissed.
Marching down the steps until he was face to face with the angry kid, Rhoads emphasized his threats in a firm, deliberate tone, “I can’t do anything about what happened to your father and neither can you. But you’re driving your mom to an early grave while you’re setting yourself up to end up in reform school or worse. You’ve got too much potential to waste it!”
“I haven’t done nothing that bad,” the boy hissed his green eyes never leaving the man’s.
“Not yet,” Rhoads shot back, “but it’s coming. I’ve seen it before. Starts with stuff like breaking windows, sneaking behind the fence to smoke, and going out getting drunk, but it always ends with a whole lot more. And you’re heading that way at a breakneck pace.”
Jimmy shook his head, “You don’t know nothing.”
Frustrated, Rhoads turned his back on the boy and marched back up the five steps and into the building. As he did, Jimmy leaned against the school wall and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Who cared what old Wylie thought? So what if he got kicked out of school? It was a waste of time anyway.
“James Reed, don’t you light that up on campus or anywhere else.”
Audrey Lankins was one of the few students who hadn’t given up on him. Like Jimmy, she was a junior, but while he had developed a knack for getting into trouble, she walked on the right side of the street. She was Ash Flat’s prize student, with her blonde hair, blue eyes and striking figure, she was also the prettiest girl in the county and the youth leader at the Methodist Church. She was also the ideal daughter for her banker father and the apple of everyone’s eye. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Audrey was also the one person he truly wanted to impress. Yet she couldn’t know that, not now or ever. So though he yearned to reach out to her, he delivered his reply in a machine-gun fashion he hoped would shut her up and drive her away! At this point, he couldn’t afford to have anyone close enough to know what he was planning.
“What do you care? You won’t get in trouble if I have a smoke.”
“I just care,” the pretty blonde assured him. “I don’t want you in trouble. That’s not who you really are. You’ve always been my best friend or at least that’s how it used to be.”
Forcing his attention on the street, he twirled the cigarette from finger to finger of his right hand, slipping it between one and then the next with the dexterity of a magician, before finally letting it slide into palm and easing it into his coat pocket. When the thirty-second show was over, he looked back at the girl, “Didn’t feel like smoking anyway. I’ll save it. But it has nothing to do with what you want. You understand?”
Audrey smiled. Clutching her black purse to her chest, she moved to the boy’s side. “You coming to the church program on Sunday night?”
“Naw, got better things to do. Got something really special planned.”
“I’m going to sing,” she added enticingly, now she was more begging than just giving him information on the program. He approved of her approach, but he still couldn’t go. There was something far more important calling him.
“And you’ll do great,” he mumbled, “but, like I said, there are things I got to do.”
“Fine,” she replied in a huff. Then her tone changing, she added, “but it would mean a lot to me if you’d come. So please try.”
He didn’t understand why she cared about him. He couldn’t grasp why she continued to reach out to him. Maybe it was true that good girls liked bad boys. Who knew? So, though he had no intention of stepping into her church or any other on Sunday night or any other day, he nodded.
“Jimmy,” Audrey’s sweet voice pulled his eyes back to hers, “even if you don’t come. You have a Merry Christmas.”
Shaking his head, Jimmy laughed, “Christmas is for kids. I don’t need it and don’t like it. I don’t care if it ever comes. Just another day and not a very good one either!”
The smile drained from her face as quickly as a solitary raindrop evaporated in the scorching August sun. Pushing her hair over the shoulders of her coat she said, “I don’t understand. Everyone likes Christmas and on top of that everyone is home this year.” The words hovered in the cool air like a dark cloud. She probably knew the moment she spoke them she’d opened a wound too painful to contemplate much less talk about. Yet words can’t be unspoken, and they rarely disappear as quickly as they were said. And so, her words hovered just out of her reach for moments too long to count.
Turning his face back toward the old school bus, Jimmy chewed on Audrey’s observation. She’d opened a large door to a place where no one would have thought him rude to lash out at the girl. If the superintendent, or a teacher, or even one of his friends had spit out what she’d just said, he’d have jumped on them. But this was Audrey, she was incapable of pouring salt in a wound. It wasn’t her nature. So, after taking a deep breath, he said, “Christmas was OK when I was a kid, but that was before the war.”
Moving two steps closer, Audrey placed her right hand delicately on his shoulder and whispered, “What I said was stupid. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for,” he mumbled, once more digging his hands deeply into his pockets. After all, she was not the one that had changed everything. She had no part in it. Christmas had once been wonderful for him too. There were still bittersweet memories that were etched in the fabric of his mind. He and his father had always gone out into the woods to find and cut a tree, drag it into the house, and laugh about a host of different things. And they had strung popcorn while Jimmy’s mother pulled out old decorations and hung them on the tree. After their turkey dinner and a dessert of homemade pecan pie, his dad had pulled out his Gibson guitar and for more than an hour they sang every carol they knew, many three and four times. And they always ended with “Silent Night,” his dad explaining the story behind the song before they sang all the verses. Finally, just before bed, Jimmy’s mother picked up his father’s well-worn Bible and read from Luke about Jesus’ birth while Jimmy moved their hand-carved nativity scene across the coffee table to match her words. But the war changed most of that. Yes, the nativity scene was still on the table, they still cut and decorated the tree but the guitar remained propped against the wall, as did the innocent joy that had once defined those December days. And it wasn’t just Christmas it changed, though the wounds might hurt the worst on December 25, in truth the war had altered everything.
“Jimmy,” Audrey’s voice brought him back from the past to 1945. “You OK?”
“Yeah,” he said, straightening his shoulders and forcing a smile.
“Your dad,” she assured him, her hand still lingering on his shoulder, her light touch pushing through the coat and into his heart, “was a great man.”
It was funny, Jimmy had once used those same words to describe Robert Reed. He’s boasted to his friends, including Audrey, that his father would lick the Japs all by himself. Back then, he supported that bragging by quoting from long, handwritten letters he and his mother had received from the Pacific Front. When he told what was in those communications, his friends hovered around Jimmy at the lunch table awed by the fact a Marine from their small town was fighting the Japanese in places they’d never heard of.
But all the bragging abruptly stopped in May 1942. Jimmy had just gotten home from school and was headed out to gather the eggs when he noted the dusty black truck pull into their long dirt lane. An old man he’d never seen, dressed in a dark blue uniform, got out of the vehicle and marched past Jimmy without saying a word or even acknowledging his existence. The stranger paused for a moment at the base of the porch, taking off his hat and smoothing his gray hair, then slowly, as if he was carrying a back-breaking load, climbed the three steps to the home’s landing, and, only after taking a deep breath, knocked lightly on the weathered front door. A few moments later, Jimmy’s mother, dressed in a blue flower print dress half-covered by a yellow apron, appeared. It seemed strange she said nothing or even smiled; rather she simply stepped out and nodded as if she knew what the visitor wanted. He didn’t speak either. Instead, he just pushed a shaky hand clutching a light brown envelope toward the woman. That simple action was just like turning the sound knob down on a radio; everything was suddenly tomb quiet. Marge Reed studied that envelope for almost thirty seconds, then, after wiping her hands on her apron, finally took it. No, now as he recalled those moments he realized she really didn’t take it; it was more as if she accepted it, because she knew she had no choice.
Jimmy stood mute and confused as his mother pushed her auburn hair back off her forehead and took a seat in the porch swing. She stared off toward the pond for several minutes, long enough for the Western Union representative to start his old Ford truck and head back down the Reed’s quarter-mile lane to U.S. Highway 62. It was only after the vehicle had disappeared over the hill in the direction of Agnos that she finally took a deep breath and gently tore open the communication. The thirty-year-old woman studied the message on the yellow paper briefly before setting it carefully down on the swing. Showing no emotion, she resolutely pulled herself to her feet and silently walked back through the front door, closing it gently behind her. It was only when Jimmy heard her rattling the pots on the stove that he stole from the yard, climbed up onto the porch, and moved quietly over to the swing. Picking up the telegram, he glanced at the message. It began simply enough, “We regret to inform you . . .” Those words were all that was needed for an adult to know how the story ended, but it was not enough for a thirteen-year-old boy. So he read on, “. . . that Private Robert J. Reed was killed in action while fighting in the Philippines.” He read no more before dropping the telegram onto the porch’s wooden planks and racing off into the woods. He would stay there, tears burning his eyes and streaming down his face, until the sun went down and he came home a much different person than he had been just hours before.
That news changed everything. From that day forward there would be no more letters from overseas and there was suddenly no pride in being the son of a Marine. The news of the war, which had once drawn him like a moth to a flame, was now avoided.
My Book Review:
In December 1945, Americans were celebrating the end of World War II, peace once again reigns throughout the world, and the attention swung towards the joyous Christmas holiday season. But for sixteen year old Jimmy Reed of Ash Flat, Arkansas, Christmas is a dark day full of loss, grief, pain, and anger. The holiday that once had been wonderful for him, now holds only bittersweet memories.
Jimmy's dad, Marine Private Robert Reed was killed in action while fighting in the Philippines in May 1942. On December 24, 1942, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic actions, but Jimmy doesn't consider his dad a hero because he didn't come home from the war like the other soldiers have. To Jimmy, the medal was not a symbol of heroism and honor, it was a symbol of his personal loss. To add insult to injury, this medal would forever cast a cloud over Christmas for Jimmy. Jimmy's mom, Marge, began a new holiday tradition that was most painful to Jimmy, she replaced the gold star that sat atop their Christmas Tree with the medal, setting off a change in Jimmy that would effect every facet of his life. From that day forward, Jimmy's attitude toward everything changed, he has a chip on his shoulder, and he begins to lash out and is heading down the wrong path. Jimmy starts to hang out with the wrong crowd who lead him astray with dangerous and illegal activities. The bitterness and hatred Jimmy feels for the holiday causes him to form a plan to make the holiday a memorable one that everyone would remember. But in a span of three days, from December 21-24, 1945, with the help of some special people and a Christmas miracle, Jimmy will learn lessons that will change his life forever.
The Christmas Star is a poignant and inspirational story that will simply touch your heart. Author Ace Collins weaves a heartwarming tale set in the post World War II era of December 1945, in the small southern town of Ash Flat, Arkansas. Written in the third person narrative, rich in detail and vivid descriptions of a nostalgic time in our country's history, the reader is transported into the world of sixteen year old Jimmy Reed. Jimmy is having a very hard time coping with the loss of his father, his bitterness and pain washes over into the Christmas holiday when the family receives Robert Reed's posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor, and causes Jimmy to react in a way that sets him in a downward spiral. The author engages the reader to step into Jimmy's shoes and feel his pain, while he embarks on a three day emotional journey from December 21-24, 1945, that will teach him lessons, provide him with a new perspective towards his father, and a Christmas miracle that will change his outlook on the holiday and life in general. The author does a wonderful job of describing how Jimmy comes to terms with his loss with the message of hope and faith that comes out of the darkest of places during this magical and joyful time of the year.
With an engaging cast of characters; realistic dialogue and interactions; wonderful nostalgic descriptions of the post war time period and classic Christmas songs; and a moving storyline with enough twists and turns that draws the reader in and keeps them captivated; The Christmas Star is an inspirational and warm Christmas classic that will be embraced and enjoyed by everyone.
In association with Tribute Books Blog Tours, Jersey Girl Book Reviews welcomes Jerome Charyn, author of Under The Eye Of God!
About The Author
Jerome Charyn (b. 1937) is the critically acclaimed author of nearly fifty books. Born in the Bronx, he attended Columbia College, where he fell in love with the works of William Faulkner and James Joyce. After graduating, he took a job as a playground director and wrote in his spare time, producing his first novel, a Lower East Side fairytale called Once Upon a Droshky, in 1964.
In 1974 Charyn published Blue Eyes, his first Isaac Sidel mystery. Begun as a distraction while trying to finish a different book, this first in a series of Sidel novels introduced the eccentric, near-mythic detective and his bizarre cast of sidekicks. Charyn followed the character through Citizen Sidel (1999), which ends with his antihero making a run at the White House. Charyn, who divides his time between New York and Paris, is also accomplished at table tennis, and once ranked amongst France’s top 10 percent of ping-pong players.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book from the author / publisher in exchange for my honest review and participation in a virtual book tour event hosted by Tribute Books Blog Tours.
Book Description:
After decades of madness in the Bronx, Isaac Sidel visits the craziest state in the country.
Isaac Sidel is too popular to be America’s vice president. Once the New York Police Department commissioner, he became the most beloved mayor in the city’s history—famous for his refusal to surrender his Glock, and for his habit of disappearing for months at a time to fight crime at street level. So when baseball czar J. Michael Storm asks Sidel to join him on the election’s Democratic ticket, the two wild men romp to an unprecedented landslide. But as the president-elect’s mandate goes off the rails—threatened by corruption, sex, and God knows what else—he tires of being overshadowed by Sidel, and dispatches him to a place from which tough politicians seldom return: Texas.
In the Lone Star state, Sidel confronts rogue astrologers, accusations of pedophilia, and a dimwitted assassin who doesn’t know when to take an easy shot. If this Bronx bomber doesn’t watch his step, he risks making vice-presidential history by getting killed on the job.
Book Excerpt:
Chapter 1
VICTORIES MEANT LITTLE TO ISAAC SIDEL. He despised election campaigns, with their pomp and panoply, their bitter battles. He went up to the Bronx without his Secret Service man. He loved to stand on some hill and look down upon the firebombed streets. All that desolation seemed to soothe him. The Big Guy needed a strong pinch of chaos. That meadowland of gutted build- ings had a strange beauty, like a diorama of brick teeth.
He stood alone in Claremont Park and what he saw pricked his curiosity. Land surveyors and army engineers had climbed onto another hill with their tripods and magical measuring devices. This was no citizen’s group. An MP was guarding their equipment.
The Big Guy hiked over to the army engineers. They saluted him.
“Hello, Mr. President.”
“Jesus,” Isaac said, “I’m not in line to become your commander in chief. You’re looking at the bottom half of the ticket.”
The chief engineer smiled at him. There was no menace in his manner, no hidden darting of his eyes.
“You’re still our president,” he said.
“But what are you guys doing here? The Bronx isn’t much of a playground.”
“This is a practice session, sir. My engineers have to get used to all terrain.”
He produced a permit, signed by the NYPD. It still bothered Isaac—the cavalry invading Claremont Park. But he wouldn’t badger these engineers. They continued with their work.
“Good-bye, Mayor Sidel.”
He couldn’t disappear without creating a little storm of auto- graph seekers. He signed “Sidel” on bits of cardboard and the bills of baseball caps. A woman caressed his sleeve.
“We don’t want Michael,” she whispered. “We want you.”
Isaac skulked out of the park while the army engineers surveyed the South Bronx from their hill. His fans saluted him from fire escapes across the street. There was little Isaac could do about all the fury surrounding the election.
It was known as the slaughter of ’88. Democrats battered Republicans, knocked them out of the box. President Calder Cottonwood couldn’t even capture his own state. He lost Arizona in the very same landslide. But the Democratic Party was riddled with rancor. Its stan- dard bearer, J. Michael Storm, the czar of baseball and president-elect, was sinking fast in the polls. He was a flagrant Casanova. One of his mistresses had surfaced since the election and demanded hush money from the Dems. The Party would have to pay and pay and pay.
That wasn’t the worst of it. The Dems had to cover up J. Michael’s crooked land deals, the phony corporations he’d started with Clarice, his dipsomaniac of a wife. It’s lucky he had a running mate like Sidel, a former police commissioner who ran around with a Glock in his pants and captured criminals while he was on the campaign trail.
The Party couldn’t have won the election without Sidel. He was much more popular than a president or a baseball czar. He should have resigned his mayor’s job, but the citizens of New York wanted Isaac to govern them until the day he ran off to DC. Michael had moved into the Waldorf with his transition team. But Isaac stole whatever little thunder J. Michael had left with his daily shenani- gans. And so the Dems had to get him out of Manhattan.
Tim Seligman, the Party’s chief strategist, who’d been a fighter pilot in Nam, decided to send Isaac out on the road on some kind of quixotic quest. He could scream his head off about any subject under the sun as long as he didn’t mention J. Michael Storm. He was given his own touring bus, a gift from the Democratic National Committee. And Tim Seligman accompanied him as his babysitter. They flew to Dallas, where Isaac began his tour of Texas. He was the Democrats’ holy warrior. But he couldn’t ride with Marianna Storm, Michael’s twelve-year-old daughter, who was known as the Little First Lady. Voters had fallen in love with her during the election. She didn’t campaign with her father. She was always at Isaac’s side. The Big Guy needed a “consort.” Marianna had camped out with him at Gracie Mansion, because she couldn’t bear her mother and father, and had baked butternut cookies for Isaac and his staff. Now, Seligman banned her from Isaac’s bus, and Isaac turned on Tim, threatened to resign as the Democrats’ holy warrior unless he had the Little First Lady. But Tim had to deal with all the postelection flak. The Dems had a photo of Calder pissing in the Rose Garden and threatened to release it if the Republican machine continued to harp on Michael’s mistresses.
“Isaac, it’s a war out there,” Tim said. “The bombs are flying. Do you want to ruin that little girl?”
“By having her sit with me?”
“The Republicans are concocting a very tall tale. And how can we fight it? Unless Marianna disappears, they’ll accuse you of having a Lolita complex.”
“What Lolita?”
“Isaac, it’s a smear. They’re talking pedophilia.”
The future vice president jumped on Tim, rocked the entire bus. The Secret Service had to separate them. The boss of Isaac’s detail, Martin Boyle, an Oklahoman who was six foot two, had to beg the Big Guy.
“Sir, if I let you go, will you promise to behave?”
“Not before I murder Tim.”
“Then I’ll hold you here until kingdom come.”
“Perfect. I won’t have to tour Texas.”
“And President Cottonwood will jump on our backs,” Tim said. “He’s behind the smear. We went deep into Calder’s pockets. We captured his astrologer.”
“Calder has an astrologer? He’s like fucking Adolf Hitler.”
“He can’t make a move without her. He’s beside himself.”
“What’s her name?” Isaac had to ask.
“Markham, Mrs. Amanda Markham.”
“And how did you capture her, huh, Timmy? The Prez must have guarded this Amanda with his life.”
“She walked.”
“Of her own free will? That’s a peach. She comes into our camp and offers her services, and you don’t smell a rat? What’s the matter with you? Calder’s crazed, so he lends us his favorite spy.”
“Isaac, we’re not dummies. We checked her out. We have tapes of her with the Prez.” The Big Guy wasn’t amused. “You’ve been bugging the White House? Boyle, did you hear that?”
“No,” said Isaac’s Secret Service man. “I’m not allowed to listen to your conversations, sir. I’m only here to protect your life.”
“I can’t believe it. Nothing makes sense. . . . And what did you learn from the tapes, Timmy Boy?”
“A lot. About Calder’s pedophilia play. He’s been doctoring pho- tographs. Of you and Marianna. And that’s when Mrs. Markham started to rebel.”
“Why?”
“It disgusted her. She’s a big fan of yours. The Prez found out, and he broke her nose. That’s when she walked.”
“Where is this Mata Hari?” “On the bus, and she’s not Mata Hari.”
“She climbed aboard, and you never told me?”
“I wanted Amanda to study you without your being aware of her. She’s an astrologer, the best in the business. She’s preparing your chart. She can help us plot our future . . . yours and the Party’s.”
“Damn you,” Isaac said. “You steal Marianna and saddle me with a fucking star clerk.”
“Who’s a star clerk?”
Isaac had to crane his neck, or he couldn’t have discovered the source of that shrill cry. A roly-poly woman was perched at the back of the bus with a bandage on her nose. She hadn’t entered his field of vision until now. He should have noticed her. He’d been the Commish.
“Sidel, do you have a sore throat?”
He blinked at the fat witch. “How did you guess?”
“Taureans have a lot of problems with their throats. . . . ”
“Does Calder have the same affliction?”
“I never discuss my other clients,” she said.
“But you did talk to Tim about Marianna, and he took her from me.”
“That’s different. The child was in danger, and so were you. Sidel, I’m your survival kit.”
“I doubt that. You were Calder’s clairvoyant . . . until he broke your nose.”
“But I couldn’t save him. Nobody can.”
“Why? Was the moon in Virgo the moment he was born? And it captured his capriciousness?”
“You’re making fun of me, Sidel.”
“Yes, ma’am. Marianna’s the only moon I’ll ever need.”
My Book Review:
After a thirteen year hiatus, author Jerome Charyn has brought back his popular NY detective, Isaac Sidel. In 1974, readers were introduced to Isaac in the first Isaac Sidel mystery novel, Blue Eyes. Over the span of ten novels from 1974 to 1999, Isaac's career has progressed from cop to detective to police commissioner to mayor to his run for the White House in the 1999 novel, Citizen Sidel. Now in the eleventh novel, Under The Eye Of God, the series picks up with Isaac winning the Vice-President of the United States in the 1988 election with his running mate, President-elect J. Michael Storm. Storm doesn't like being overshadowed by Isaac, so he sends him off to Texas on a speaking tour, and in true Sidel fashion chaos ensues.
Under The Eye of God is a fast-paced intriguing thriller full of corruption, sex scandals, politics and murder that engages the reader to keep turning the page. Written in the third person narrative, author Jerome Charyn weaves a gritty political-crime thriller that once again draws Isaac Sidel fans back in with his latest misadventures. Issac "The Big Guy with the Glock" travels from New York to Texas and finds himself in another round of dangerous misadventures with a personal astrologer tagging along.
With a large quirky cast of characters; witty dialogue and interactions; and a lightning quick storyline that has so many twists and turns that gives the reader whiplash, Under The Eye Of God is an action packed thriller that has a little bit of everything to satisfy the diehard Isaac Sidel fan.
Even though this novel is part of a series, it can also stand alone, but I would encourage readers to read the full series so that they can get the full essence of Isaac Sidel, his illustrious career progressions, and his no-nonsense Bronx style adventures.
