Lapses of Memory by M. S. Spencer

Blurb: 

Sydney Bellek’s love for Elian Davies is reignited each time they meet, but in the long years following each encounter she forgets him. For his part, Elian knows from the age of seven that they are meant for each other, but when she finally understands it’s too late. Will he regain his memory and remember her or will their new love be enough to replace the old one?

Sydney keeps her daughter Olivia on pins and needles as she chronicles the ups and downs of her parents’ romance, making it difficult to concentrate on her own dilemma—how to choose between the rich and dashing Rémy de Beaumec, who wants to take her around the world, and the strong, silent, American-to-the-core, Benjamin Knox, who wants to make her happy. 

Review: 

M. S. Spencer has come to be one of my favorite authors of cozy mystery.  She regularly sends ARC copies of her books to me for honest reviews and her mysteries always keep me on the edge of my seat and while I figure out part of the ending there's always something that surprises me.  Those of you who follow this site know how difficult that is to do.

 

Lapses in Memory is a departure for Ms. Spencer.  It's a love story, not a mystery.  It's the story of Sydney Bellek and Elian Davies who meet on a flight to Paris when he's seven and she's five years old.  Through the years they meet again, frequently on air planes, so in addition to telling a love story, Ms. Spencer chronicles the history of passenger aviation, something I can relate to, having taken my first flight on a converted Douglas C-47 "Gooney Bird" at the age of ten.  (Hop next door to Rochelle Weber Author [or click the icon in the left column] for a chronicle of my own aviation adventures.)  They become competing journalists, so their story also takes place amidst some of the most dangerous events in recent history.

Most of the time when they meet, Sydney doesn't recognize Elian.  When she's a teenager, she doesn't remember the seven-year-old who was on her first flight, especially since he's decided Elian sounds square and is calling himself Eddie.  When they meet in college, she doesn't realize Elian is Eddie, the boy who climbed eight stories for a goodnight kiss only to find her sound asleep, and leave a note on her windowsill. And when she finally realizes she loves him, he's been shot and has amnesia.

The story is told in bits and pieces as Sydney prepares for one last trip to Paris, and her daughter, Olivia, records it for a book.  Sydney delights in shocking her daughter with the sexy bits.  Do kids think they come parcel post?  Or that they're all artificially inseminated?  Don't they realize we were young and horny when we conceived them?  It's universal—tell your kid you had sex with their dad and they turn red and freak out.  Tell them you enjoyed it and you may as well have a sedative on hand for them.  Sydney doesn't tell her tale all at once; she needs frequent naps, making one wonder if she'll get to Paris at all.  Meanwhile, Olivia must decide between a wealthy Frenchman who wants to take her around the world, and her stoic American boyfriend who wants her to do what makes her happy.

While this book wasn't a mystery, it still kept me on the edge of my seat, burning pages wanting to know how it turned out.  How would Sydney and Elian finally get together?  Who would Olivia choose?  Would Sydney have the energy to get to Paris one last time?  What sort of plane would she take this time?  Would the memory of Elian sustain her on this trip?  You'll have to read the book to find out, because I'm not telling. 

Length:  237 Pages 

Price:  $4.99 

Buy Link:  http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=4&products_id=595 

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement. 

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Critical Mass by Cyrus Keith

Blurb:

Jenna Paine is a super spy, genetically enhanced to be more than human. Nadia Velasquez is a living weapon of mass destruction. When the secret organization who built them both decides they are no longer useful, two enemies are thrown together for the only purposes they could have in common: survival and revenge.

There's only one way out of The Pinnacle, and that's on a coroner's slab. Jenna lives through a treacherous attack vowing to exact her vengeance on the people who trained her to be the most deadly agent on the planet.

Wounded and on the run, she turns to the man who's sworn to make her face charges for her involvement in The Pinnacle's nefarious schemes.

After years spent hiding from The Pinnacle, Nadia runs into the one thing she never counted on: Shelf life. As her body breaks down, she realizes it's only a matter of the short time she has left to redeem her existence and give her daughter a chance to live free.

In the final showdown, the two transhumans join forces against a common enemy, and The Pinnacle comes to know the deadly significance of…

Critical Mass

Review:

Critical Mass is the final installment in the NADIA project series.  The Pinnacle is a shadowy group of king-makers.  Or should I say king breakers?  Their vision of peace on Earth is an Earth united under one government—run by them.  In order to accomplish their goal, they create two transhumans: Jenna Payne and Nadia Velasquez.  Jenna is enhanced to be a super-agent.  Her senses, speed and reflexes are all super-human.  Nadia is a weapon of mass destruction.  Her bones are filled with anti-matter instead of marrow.  The Pinnacle's mistakes?  They allowed Jenna to grow up in a normal environment, and when they downloaded the personality of a dead woman into Nadia's brain, she also received the woman's memories and morals, and when she realized she was a living bomb, she refused to carry out the assassination for which she was designated.  Instead, she vowed to find the members of The Pinnacle and bring them to justice.  Of course, they wanted their multimillion dollar weapon back so they could repair "its" "defects" and send "it" back out on "its" assignment.

I've said it in my reviews of the first two NADIA books and I repeat:  these books are as good as if not better than Tom Clancy's early Jack Ryan books.  I burned through Becoming NADIA, eagerly anticipated and was not disappointed by either Unalive or Critical Mass. Well, I did have that feeling of bereavement at the end of Critical Mass one gets at the end of a really good series when you know you're saying goodbye to characters you've come to know and care about.  It's almost like moving away from your friends.  Oh, you'll keep in touch, but it won't be the same as that everyday kaffeklatch-in-the-kitchen, over-the-fence, Sunday barbecue relationship you've had.  These books are keepers to be read and re-read, even though I know how they turn out.  I'm sure you'll feel the same way.

Length:  323 Pages

Price:  $5.95

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/critical-mass-detail

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Momnesia by Lori Verni-Fogarsi

Blurb:

She's smart, pretty, and runs her own business. So then why does she feel so dead inside? Between work, two kids, and a husband who finds her about as exciting as furniture shopping, this is the story of a (formerly-exciting but now way-too-typical) suburban mom who diagnoses herself with Momnesia and sets about finessing a new version of her old vivaciousness:

Momnesia (mahm-nee-zhuh) -noun-
Loss of the memory of who you used to be. Caused by pregnancy, play dates, and trying to keep the house cleaner than the Joneses.

She finds some adventure pursing her own interests, makes some new friends (including the battery operated variety), but still feels like nothing more than a caretaker.

In between dealing with her husband's manic-depresssive behavior, drama with her friends, and some naughty Internet escapades, she ponders, Is it that I haven't been myself? Or is it that I am being myself, but just different from how I used to be?

It isn't until she tosses the Invisible Rule Book altogether that she discovers life—and love—have more to offer than she ever imagined!

Review:

Momnesia is a thoroughly enjoyable book.  I'm not sure how much of that I suffered from having been the wife of a submarine sailor who was stationed aboard fast attack nuclear submarines.  I was still in the Navy when we got married and it took six months for us to get stationed together.  The year after I got out of the Navy, he was gone for nine months, etc.  So I was pretty independent.  Although there was one evening I was out listening to a friend who was a folk singer at a bar on Waikiki.  I was chatting with an Air Force officer at the next table.  Between sets Russ came over to my table and started to introduce me to the gentleman.  After a minute's hesitation, Russ shrugged and said, “This is Tim's wife.”  Not that the guy had ever met Tim.  Russ just couldn't remember my name.

Momnesia starts in a supermarket parking lot.  Our Heroine is sitting in her car and suddenly, she can't remember whether she's done her shopping or not.  The car is stifling, but she lives in North Carolina so that's nothing new.  She's sweating, but she also has the chills.  Has she done her shopping or hasn't she?  For the past year she's been debating whether or not to get a divorce, along with help from a few very close friends, a marriage counselor, and the “Two Little Guys Inside Her Head.”  Now she literally doesn't know if she's coming or going.  She finally forces herself to look into the back of the car to see whether or not there are groceries there…

The rest of the first part of the book chronicles the year leading up Our Heroine's “Grocery Store Incident” and her subsequent drive home to ask her husband for a divorce.  Oh, it wasn't just that year that led up to the divorce.  That was how long she'd actively been debating the issue.  She'd been unhappy long before then.  Part Two of the book chronicles her separation, six months of which she spends first trying to chivvy her husband out of the bedroom, and then out of the house.  He doesn't argue; he isn't exactly abusive; he just doesn't get it.  He's really rather pathetic.  And he's bi-polar.  Not my kind of fly into a rage and then sleep it off and feel worthless bi-polar; the sleep for weeks and then start a huge project (like hacking a hole in the house for a bay window) and go back to the TV kind.  Most of the time when she confronts him about anything or even asks a yes/no/I don’t know question, he just looks at her, unblinking.  She calls it his cat face.  (I had a boyfriend with that face.  Drove me nuts.)  Many scenes end with:  “Cat face.  Ugh!”

Our Heroine tells us about her stretch marks, and laments about her “Chicken Belly Flap Thing” left over from giving birth to her daughters, Grace and Rose that she just can't get rid of no matter how many push-ups she does.  She talks about strapping herself into her (and I'm paraphrasing because I can' recall the exact quote here) "Push 'em up and show 'em off" bra when she starts dating after the separation.  There’s even a surprise ending when we share the end of Our Heroine’s submersion of Self and ultimate Blooming Moment.  Definitely no cat face on that page!  Yay!

Momnesia is a perfect book for clubs.  It even has a list of discussion questions at the back.  But whether you’re in a club or not; you’ll enjoy this book.  The final paragraph of the blurb was a bit of hype and I usually don’t like hype in blurbs, but in this case, I’m adding it here.  Because I agree completely.

“With custom-painted cover art that perfectly epitomizes the struggle of finding balance between "momminess" and "sexiness," Momnesia is a must read for anyone who has ever been a mother, had a mother, wanted to be a mother, judged a mother, or even just wondered about mothers. A great gift book, too!”

Just buy it—for you and all the moms and non-moms in your life.

Length:  288 Pages

Prices:

Paperback:  $11.99

E-Book:  On Sale Until 08-19-13  $1.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/0984028463?tag=freedogtraini-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0984028463&adid=19K8XMW0V3M938M52FWA&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fjquer5njp5sb6h1mrbe78kjsjbudut64-a-sites-opensocial.googleusercontent.com%2Fgadgets%2Fifr%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fhosting.gmodules.com%2Fig%2Fgadgets%2Ffile%2F110543442524307353585%2Finclude-gadget.xml%26container%3Denterprise%26view%3Ddefault%26lang%3Den%26country%3DALL%26sanitize%3D0%26v%3D1a9c8abfb81b27ae%26libs%3Dcore%3Adynamic-height%3Asettitle%26mid%3D117%26parent%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.lorivernifogarsi.com%2Flori-s-books%2Fmomnesia

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Pocket Piece Cameo by Rob Costello

Blurb:

Raised in a small Pennsylvania town, Jill and Blake seem the unlikeliest match of all. He is a star athlete, but as a football lineman, he is self-conscious about his size. She's a thrill-seeking acrobat and gymnast, a tomboy who prefers computers to boys. Allison, on the other hand, seems to have it all: beauty, brains, talent, and ambition. But epileptic seizures scramble her life and her outlook. All three are upended by a treachery breathtaking in its audacity and shattering in its impact. Can any love withstand a betrayal perfectly fashioned to destroy it? Pocket Piece Cameo is a coming of age story that tests the limits of love's resilience, of loyalty to a promise, of the distance love can travel, and the worst it can endure.

Review:

Pocket Piece Cameo is a lovely book, almost poetic in its writing.  However, I had difficulty believing Blake.  He’s about fourteen when he talks with his grandmother about true, deep, everlasting love and she gives him the cameo his grandfather gave to her.  It’s a family heirloom that he passes on to Jill, his first love.  But Blake’s a jock—a good-looking kid with raging hormones.  In my experience, most high school boys aren’t looking for deep, everlasting love, especially football players.  Their hormones are driving them to sew as many wild oats as they can.  Most boys that age aren’t having much luck, but when they’re thinking about girls, they’re thinking about sex—not how they can forge a relationship that will last the rest of their lives.  And they certainly don't read Jane Austen so they can plan how to make relationships last a lifetime.

Before I wrote this review, I asked my granddaughters to poll the boys they knew if they thought about long-term, deep, true love relationships.  They couldn’t even get answers.  The only boy who said he thought about that kind of love was my grandson, Alex.  But he almost died when he was a baby and is now on the list for a kidney transplant, so I suspect having a different perspective on mortality might give him a different perspective on love.  His answer surprised me, though, since it was the weekend of his mother’s third wedding and this year marked the thirtieth anniversary of my divorce.  It’s not like he’s had a plethora of role models in that area.  More marriages today end in divorce courts than last “till death do us part.”  Kids today don’t see that many examples of the kind of true, deep, everlasting love for which Blake is searching.

If Pocket Piece Cameo had been written by a woman, I would have given it one or two stars and been done with it.  But it was written by a man, so maybe Alex isn’t as rare and wonderful as I think he is.  (Well, okay, he is rare and wonderful—he’s my miracle genius grandson who is a sci-fi fan like me and who writes!)  So, if you can believe that Blake manages to get past his hormones and think with his brain and his heart, and that he reads Jane Eyre and Jane Austen on his own—not for English class, then you will enjoy this book.

Length:  272 Pages

Prices:

Paperback:  $16.95

E-Book in Multiple Formats:  $1.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Piece-Cameo-R-Costelloe/dp/1897512201/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

The Midwife’s Revolt by Jody Daynard

 Blurb:

The Midwife’s Revolt takes the reader on a journey to the founding days of America. It follows one woman’s path, Lizzie Boylston, from her grieving days of widowhood after Bunker Hill, to her deepening friendship with Abigail Adams and midwifery, and finally to her dangerous work as a spy for the Cause. Much has been written about our founding men. But The Midwife’s Revolt is unique in that it opens a window onto the lives of our founding women as well.

Review:

The Midwife’s Revolt had such a ring of truth, I forgot it was fiction and thought Lizzie Boylston truly lived.  It was only when I read the author’s acknowledgments at the end that I realized Lizzie was fictitious.  She could well have existed, however, as she and Abigail Adams (our second First Lady) reflect the efforts of women behind the scenes during our long struggle for independence from Britain.  Lizzie is widowed early in the fighting and orphaned when her Tory parents’ ship wrecks en route to England. She is fiercely independent—delivering babies, nursing the sick, maintaining a farm, and finally donning men’s clothing to spy on the Tories.  When someone poisons guests of her neighbor, she sets out to solve the mystery.  I’ll admit, Ms. Daynard even had me stumped on that one, and that’s not easy to pull off.

Finally, if you follow this blog, you’ll know that one of my biggest pet peeves is when historical fiction lapses into modern idiom.  Ms. Daynard passed that litmus test with flying colors.  If she’s anything like me, she must have driven her family crazy while she was writing this book.  I’d be willing to bet she slipped into Colonial idiom in her everyday conversations, forgetting to return to the twenty-first century when she finished writing each day.  Brava, Ms. Daynard!  She certainly took me back to the eighteenth century, into the lives, loves and struggles of the women who helped us win the Revolution!

Length:  440 Pages

List Prices: 

Paperback:  $18.95

E-Book:  $4.95

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Midwifes-Revolt-Jodi-Daynard/dp/0615590624/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1367695575&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=the+midwife%27s+revolt

Thanks for visiting.  RIW