Jeff Sexton

Excellent Series Introduction For New Series Perfect For Dog Lovers. This is yet another of the multi-author series that have seemingly sprung up in the last few years, mostly in the romance and/ or women's fiction realms, where multiple authors come together to offer up stories around some common McGuffin such as every book has to feature a cruise (2024's Sail Away series, featuring many of these same authors) or every book has to feature a snowglobe in some manner (2019's Snow Globe Christmas MM romance series) or any other common tie in. As in most cases, this introductory book is essentially the first chapters of all of the rest of the books, though this one also has a prologue and epilogue that extend its own story a touch, which actually leads directly into my next main point.

Having now read a few of these as I sit to write this particular review, I can tell you that what sets this particular series apart from all of its predecessors that I've read (a handful or so) is just how well everything is integrated. Every author gets their own dog(s) and their own characters and can tell their story their way, but other than slight differences in style one could almost see this entire series written by a singular author - that is how well the storytelling and editing through 4.5 books has been so far. If you know a bit about each particular author and their style and what is going on in their "real" (non-book) lives, you have a better sense of the distinctiveness of each voice, but otherwise the stories fit so seamlessly together, even when borrowing characters from other books, that it really is quite remarkable just how well everything fits together here.

And yes, as the McGuffin for this series is that all of our central characters are getting new puppies, this series really is perfect for dog lovers of all stripes (though to be clear, these are all Labradors in these books). Sorry, cat lovers. Maybe that will be the next project for these authors or perhaps a similar group. :)

Ultimately a great introduction to the series, and a very quick read at barely 100 pages to boot. Perfect for those times at the end of the year holidays / beginning of the year ramping things back up when maybe you don't have as much time to read - or maybe you find yourself like me and trying to finish the back half of this series before it releases on Jan 1, 2025... *and* read 2.5 *other* books before the calendar flips over into 2025 in just over three more days! Eek!

Very much recommended.

"New" (Yet Also Obvious, At Least For This Reader) Research Marred By Lack Of Bibliography. As I noted in the title just now, really the only objective flaw in this text, at least the Advance Review Copy of it I read in December 2024 months before actual publication, is the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at an almost non-existent 2%. Given the particularly strong claims made within this text, that is a *shockingly* small amount of evidence to support Kaminsky's claims, which while I acknowledge are based on his personal career as a therapist, still need actual documentation from outside sources in order to be more fully believed and accepted as objective reality.

This dearth of documentation was the cause of the star deduction, but otherwise this was an interesting, if obvious - at least to me - read.

Maybe it is due to being Autistic, maybe it is because I've always felt I lived my life between two worlds in virtually every possible arena, maybe it is any number of other factors, but Kaminsky's arguments about an "otrovert" - a term he is coining here to mean someone predisposed to be focused outside of any group - felt rather obvious to me. In claiming that both extroverts and introverts ultimately want to be part of whatever community they find personally valuable, but otroverts exist more along the periphery and don't feel those communal bonds as importantly... Kaminsky's arguments made a lot of personal sense to me, as this is largely the way I've felt throughout my life. Indeed, in my later teen years I actually explicitly told those around me that I needed to learn what I believed for the simple reason that I believed it to be true - not because those of my community or any other community decreed it to be true, but because I had done my own research and reached my own conclusions. At the time I believed this was something every adult should do - though as I've grown over the near three decades since, I've realized that few ever truly do. Instead, most ultimately subscribe to some minute variation of the beliefs of those around them or those they have some strong online or otherwise physically distant relationship with. Which again, makes Kaminsky's arguments ring true to my own personal observations.

But while my personal observations may flavor and direct my own personal beliefs and, through communication, can help influence the beliefs of others, I hesitate to claim my observations as true *conclusions* of objective reality and instead try to always point out that they are simply my own views. I'm just the blind mouse reporting my own observations as I feel around my own little section of the elephant, and my own direct observations could in fact be wrong in the more general and objective sense.

Which is why I *really* wanted to see a LOT more documentation here, because Kaminsky's points *do* ring true to me - but without far more documentation from far more sources, it is truly hard to know if this is just a viewpoint Kaminsky and I largely share or if there truly is this third personality type out there, and that societal understanding of this third personality type could prove beneficial in the long run *if it is shown to objectively exist*.

Read this book. Kaminsky does a great job of laying out his arguments in a largely conversational, easy to follow manner, using a lot of personal and (non identifiable) patient anecdotes. Make your own call about whether you think Kaminsky is on to something or is a crank that shouldn't be trusted. Write your own review of this book explaining which side you fall on and why. And hell, maybe together our reviews can provide a level of documentation that this text is utterly missing. :)

Very much recommended.

Not As Much Of A Hit Piece As One Might Expect. If you see that a self-proclaimed "environmentalist" is writing a book about nuclear energy and specifically the Diablo Canyon Power Plant along Central California's coast, many would likely assume this is going to be little more than a thinly veiled hit piece about how evil the plant is and how it should never have been extended.

And one would be WRONG in that assumption... mostly.

Tuhus-Dubrow instead actually does a reasonably balanced-ish (if still clearly tilted slightly (your mileage may vary on how "slightly") towards the anti-nuclear position) approach of looking at the totality of everything about nuclear power in the 21st century, showing its evolutions from its earliest incarnations in the middle of the previous century when many thought nuclear power could usher in a Pre-War version of the world from Fallout (briefly seen in the opening sequence of Fallout 4, for example) into its most modern - and promising yet highly contested - forms, using the Diablo Canyon facility as the basis of much of the overall narrative.

Along the way she makes it a point to talk to many on both sides of the issue and give the requisite brief biographies of each of the key players to the narrative she is constructing, as well as discuss in varying detail the whole of the nuclear power saga - everything from its well known incidents to its lesser known incidents to how *exactly* spent nuclear fuel is stored (mostly, she never details the process involved at facilities such as South Carolina's Savannah River Plant, where I've worked a couple of times in a couple of different software engineering roles) and most everything in between. She discusses the various pro- and anti- groups that have formed over the years and actively interviews several leaders on both sides.

But it is during these interviews in particular that Tuhus-Dubrow develops a new term she clearly means and uses as a pejorative throughout much of the text, specifically to describe many - if not all - on the pro-nuclear energy side: "nuclearists".

Still, even this wasn't truly significant enough to necessitate the star deduction. Instead, that comes from the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 11% or so of the Advance Review Copy of the book I read nearly four months before publication.

Ultimately, no matter your position on nuclear energy and even if you, like I, have actively worked in the field for any length of time, you're going to learn something from reading this book. So give it a read, and make sure to write your own review about your own experience with it. And then go read the fictional Viral Apocalypse series by Michael McBride, showing one way Diablo Canyon could actually someday help cause the Apocalypse. ;)

Very much recommended.

Not As Much Of A Hit Piece As One Might Expect. If you see that a self-proclaimed "environmentalist" is writing a book about nuclear energy and specifically the Diablo Canyon Power Plant along Central California's coast, many would likely assume this is going to be little more than a thinly veiled hit piece about how evil the plant is and how it should never have been extended.

And one would be WRONG in that assumption... mostly.

Tuhus-Dubrow instead actually does a reasonably balanced-ish (if still clearly tilted slightly (your mileage may vary on how "slightly") towards the anti-nuclear position) approach of looking at the totality of everything about nuclear power in the 21st century, showing its evolutions from its earliest incarnations in the middle of the previous century when many thought nuclear power could usher in a Pre-War version of the world from Fallout (briefly seen in the opening sequence of Fallout 4, for example) into its most modern - and promising yet highly contested - forms, using the Diablo Canyon facility as the basis of much of the overall narrative.

Along the way she makes it a point to talk to many on both sides of the issue and give the requisite brief biographies of each of the key players to the narrative she is constructing, as well as discuss in varying detail the whole of the nuclear power saga - everything from its well known incidents to its lesser known incidents to how *exactly* spent nuclear fuel is stored (mostly, she never details the process involved at facilities such as South Carolina's Savannah River Plant, where I've worked a couple of times in a couple of different software engineering roles) and most everything in between. She discusses the various pro- and anti- groups that have formed over the years and actively interviews several leaders on both sides.

But it is during these interviews in particular that Tuhus-Dubrow develops a new term she clearly means and uses as a pejorative throughout much of the text, specifically to describe many - if not all - on the pro-nuclear energy side: "nuclearists".

Still, even this wasn't truly significant enough to necessitate the star deduction. Instead, that comes from the dearth of a bibliography, clocking in at just 11% or so of the Advance Review Copy of the book I read nearly four months before publication.

Ultimately, no matter your position on nuclear energy and even if you, like I, have actively worked in the field for any length of time, you're going to learn something from reading this book. So give it a read, and make sure to write your own review about your own experience with it. And then go read the fictional Viral Apocalypse series by Michael McBride, showing one way Diablo Canyon could actually someday help cause the Apocalypse. ;)

Very much recommended.

Nothing Technically Wrong - Yet Your Mileage Will Absolutely Vary. This is one of those books where there is nothing technically wrong - even the bibliography clocks in at a healthy 30% or so - and yet with the way Upholdt chooses to write this book... eh, a lot of people are going to have a lot of problems with it.

The book does a decent enough job of going through (at a very high level, mostly) the breadth of the history of the Mississippi, particularly as it relates to human interaction with the river, from the earliest of "Native American" (themselves recent immigrants, at this point in history) all the way forward into 2020s era issues. But make no mistake, if you're looking for a more geography-based examination of the river... this really ain't that. Instead, this is far more of an engineering look at the engineering challenges of living amidst the river and shaping it - as much as possible - to human needs of the given era... no matter how ill-advised or not quite thought through or understood those efforts to shape it may have been in any given era.

One large point of contention here, for many, is the "less than straight" narrative flow, as Upholdt may be talking about 19th century efforts (or even 2020s efforts) and suddenly be doing a deep dive into ancient efforts either using an earlier tech or perhaps in the same area of the river. Similarly, we may be in New Orleans and suddenly jump to Chicago or St Louis or vice versa. These jumps worked reasonably enough for my own mind, but I also fully admit my own (Autistic) mind is very different than many, and not everyone will be able to follow such jumps with such ease.

I think, for me, the largest point of contention for my own personal tastes was Upholdt's prevalent and pervasive denigration of anything good about Western and/ or white efforts within the River, getting quite preachy at times about how other societies' efforts were "better" in some way or another according to his own tastes. No, I'm not defending in any way actual evil and vile actions that anyone of any race did along the Mississippi - humans are idiots in the best of times, and across all of humanity across all of time, there will always be people behaving nobly and people behaving abhorrently no matter their demographics. My issue with Upholdt's commentary is simply that he routinely excuses the bad in every other group while highlighting the bad in Western/ white people and ideas.

But maybe my reading of the text was off and you don't see any of that. Maybe my reading was spot on and you see it - but agree with Upholdt's views on the topics at hand. As I said in the beginning, your mileage is absolutely going to vary on this book.

If you're interested in the history of human engineering as it relates to the Mississippi River, you're ultimately going to find this book at least somewhat enjoyable no matter your particular beliefs about any given topic, though there may indeed be sections where nearly anyone will also want to rapidly defenestrate it at the closest available opportunity. Read the book for yourself, decide for yourself what you think of it, and write up your own review of it. Feel free to call me out in your review if you truly think I deserve it. Just read the book for yourself if you think it is something you might be interested in and write your own review when you finish it. (Or even if you DNF it, write your own review noting where and why in the text you decided to DNF.)

Recommended.

Aspiring Autistic Author Accomplishes Astounding Act of Adoration. Ok, so that was a very painful and forced alliteration by an Autistic reviewer that actually gives an idea of what this book may be like for at least some non-Autistic readers.

Personally, I found that most of this book worked quite well - it does in fact have the far-too-common tacked on baby-in-epilogue that always leaves a sour "aftertaste" for me when the book never really mentioned even wanting kids in its overall story, but other than this quibble the book actually does work well as a story of both finding oneself and rediscovering the love one had for one's partner along the way. But part of what made it work so well - if perhaps a *touch* stereotypically - is that North worked in so many real-world examples of what life as an Autistic in the corporate world can truly be like at times, particularly as it relates to understanding others and working to be understood by them.

The emphasis on improv comedy and its "Yes, and" philosophy is a driving force in the overall narrative here and yes, perhaps is very nearly a crutch/ preachy at times about the philosophy and its purported benefits, but again, within the overall structure of the story as told... eh, *every* such story has some overarching narrative device, this one simply happens to be improv.

Overall this was a solid debut effort in the romance space, and absolutely leaves me wanting to see more from this author - which is the number one (or maybe two, after sales of this book itself) goal of any debut book. So in that regard, it did its job quite well indeed. And for those looking for "diverse reads", again, here's a neurodiverse author for you to give a shot!

Very much recommended.

Atmospheric But Long. This book almost feels like a Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, but an East Coast variant. It has the same 60s era setting, the same type of fire-based setup and ending, but then tells a more "East Coast" feeling tale of the era, in some ways dealing with some of the same kinds of relational topics... but from that "Old Money" / "High Society" kind of East Coast / New England vibe.

That noted, this is far from a clone of the other, and it does what it does in showing the various relationship dynamics of its ladies - each in different societal strata - remarkably well. Gold clearly put in a lot of effort to make each of these women as real and relatable as possible, and she truly did a good job there - we begin to sympathize to a degree even with our ostensible villain of the tale... even as she continues to show *why* she is the villain. Along the way, we encounter so much of that admittedly lily white social scene and period the tale is set in, in interesting ways that show both the warts and the beauty of each of our characters.

The one real criticism I have here is that the book *does* go perhaps 30-50 pages long. Not a "Return Of The King After The Coronation" slog, but certainly a "this could've been trimmed a bit" feeling, at least after completing it. Now, where, exactly, could the cuts have been made... becomes perhaps less clear. Which would perhaps indicate that the book is exactly as long as it needed to be. I'll leave it to the reader of this review to read the book for yourself and make your own calls there. (Also, please leave a review when you do. They don't have to be anywhere near as wordy as mine tend to be - 24 words will be accepted on any review site I know of, including the big corporate ones.)

Ultimately this was a solid book of its kind, one that *should* be seen as an equal or perhaps even superior of Malibu Rising... but which clearly hasn't had Reid's marketing people behind it. ;)

Very much recommended.

Wherein Academia Catches Up To Eminem And Dr. Dre. First up, I gotta give Ludwig credit here, the text is 41% bibliography, which is truly remarkable - on the higher end of any book I've ever read. So, truly, kudos. No matter what those sources may say, the fact that they were so prevalent throughout the text is a good thing where I come from - at worst, it is crystal clear the information being used to present the narrative.

And before we get into the meat of the review, I do need to note that Ludwig's reliance on the terms "System 1" and "System 2", while perhaps academically accurate... also makes his arguments less clear and concise, as one has to constantly remember what "System 1" and "System 2" mean. So for this review, I'm going to do what Ludwig should have done and refer to them as "Automatic" and "Thinking".

Basically, Ludwig's entire point is that gun violence is not a question of "bad people" - as he claims the GOP likes to proclaim (in a fair amount of straw man, but perhaps with some valid enough straws) or of "bad environments" - as he claims the Democrats like to proclaim (in a similar amount of straw man/ straws), but rather *bad decision making*. Ummm.... duh, doc. From there, Ludwig's entire premise centralizes on disrupting the Automatic action and forcing the person about to commit gun violence - be it murder or suicide - to *think* about what they're about to do and whether they really want to do it.

So this entire 352 page book that clocks in at 41% documentation is essentially a long way of saying exactly what Eminem and Dr. Dre said in Guilty Conscience 0ver 20 years ago.

Ludwig does in fact lay out the arguments in a very systematic, academic manner. Though he *does* rely *way* too much on Chicago, the *very* place most Americans think of as having the *worst* problem with gun violence in the entire country (and as Ludwig himself admits in the text, having perhaps only the second worst gang problem in the country, IF it is behind LA's gang problem in any given year). But given that at least one recurring example used in the narrative is the doc walking his own dog... maybe there are reasons Ludwig didn't look too much further afield.

But seriously, read the book. Maybe it will help crystallize in your own mind exactly what Ludwig does throughout the text: the arguments and policies of the last century clearly aren't really moving the needle on the issue, so perhaps it is time for new ways of thinking. Of finding ways that disrupt the Automatic system and instead force individuals into the Thinking mode for even 10 minutes (or up to 3 hrs or so, in the case of suicide attempts, apparently).

Maybe if enough politicians read the book, maybe if Barack Obama or Bill Gates put it on their 2025 reading lists, maybe more people will consider these thoughts, and maybe things might actually get better.

Maybe if we'd listened to Eminem and Dre 20 yrs ago, we might have already been there.

Very much recommended.

Esoteric Atmospheric Tale Not For The Faint Of Heart. Straight up, this is one of those truly esoteric books that, even with the glossary and map up front, isn't going to work for everyone - despite not being fantasy *at all*, and in fact because it is perhaps *too* real.

This is the world of Saturation Diving, where divers work underwater under pressure for weeks on end, often repairing cabling or piping or other undersea infrastructure that makes above ground life possible/ globally connected for the rest of us. And here, Dean is as exacting in his depiction of the actual lives of these people as Andy Weir was in The Martian, with *even more* technical discussion since so much of this particular book is a group of these divers living and working together as they do in the real world - warts and all.

And yes, there are also larger forces at play - but we only see those from *inside* the Chamber, through the eyes of our sole narrator. (Ans some scream: "Yay! No multiple perspectives!" :D)

Overall one of the more interesting tales of 2024 just because of how true it is to its real-world subject material and how rare any open discussion of that particular role in modern society really is - but truly, be forewarned: It is extremely esoteric *due* to how rare that job is in the real world *and* the tale can be truly slow or even incomprehensible for some readers, if you simply can't wrap your mind around what is happening in such a tiny and closed off space. For those that can though, this is truly a fascinating book on a few different levels.

Very much recommended.

Moving Thriller Set Against Family Trauma. There are times when you find a thriller tale that has genuine heart, when a book that is supposedly intended to make your heart beat faster also manages to make the room quite dusty at times. This is one of those tales.

There is quite a bit to unpack about this story, but to reveal the things that truly make it as powerful as it is could delve too far into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say that the setup itself is done well - we are many years after a massive trauma for a family and even their small community, and the trauma reverberates to this day in many different ways. Stone manages to craft a story that is pitch perfect thriller - more bodies are piling up *now*, and it seems they may be connected to the original trauma, at least if some people are to be believed. It is the way she goes about executing this story, exploring the various internal dynamics within our main character and the larger dynamics within her family and community, that give this book its heart and its soul.

Overall a strong tale, though perhaps not *so* atypical as to be heads and shoulders standing above others of its form and genre. Still, for those that enjoy this type of tale - or even those open to exploring if they like this type of tale - this is certainly a strong entry within the space, and a worthy read indeed.

Very much recommended.

Deliciously Dark And Creepy Multi-Layered Tale Reminiscent Of IT And Stranger Things. This is one of those dual timeline tales where a group of six kids get pulled together as teens to fight off an incredible supernatural evil in their rural smalltown hometown, then as adults have to come back home to end it once and for all. So like I said in the title, pretty well a blatant homage, all these years later, to IT. And of course, some say "homage", others say "blatant rip off". I'll leave that to those who choose to read both my review and Kurian's work. But if you have problems with dual timeline or multiple perspectives... just know up front that this book isn't for you. It is truly a great story, but meh, even I know of what I know to be *phenomenal* stories that even I simply can't read. (Looking at you, Lord of the Rings.)

Where Kurian shines particularly brightest is in giving these characters realistic Xennial (that weird merger of the youngest of Generation X with the oldest of the Millenials) character arcs, and yes, that does include LGBT discovery for at least one character. Again, if that is a problem for you... maybe not your book here.

Particularly strongest for me personally was Maddy's own arc, particularly as a teen, as she is deeply immersed in conservative Christian culture of the early and mid 90s - as I myself was as a male just a few years behind her in the same period and in a similar small town atmosphere. (Here, our kids are Sophomores that school year, and I was in 7th grade that year - so just 3 yrs younger than our characters.) Maddy's arc in some ways has a lot of things that were specific to females in that culture in that era, but in a lot of other ways were common across teenagers of both sexes during this period, and this is where I connected with the story the deepest. Maddy's struggles as she realized what was going on and her role within it, and her desperate attempts to try to change and correct things... yeah, that was the early years of my own young adult form. So again, and particularly for any females reading this - there is quite a bit of discussion and action around purity culture in the conservative evangelical American church circa the mid 90s, including some of its atrocities being actively shown "on screen". If this is something you can't handle exploring in fiction form 30 yrs later (OW!)... maybe not the book for you.

Overall this was a deliciously dark and creepy tale that hit so many strong notes and was so very layered and multi-dimensional... it really was quite a ride. I very much enjoyed it, and I very much look forward to seeing what Kurian thinks up next. Very much recommended.

Surprise Pregnancy Mars Otherwise Excellent Romance Tale. This is one of those types of romance tales that is going to be divisive in a couple of different ways, but the biggest is that there is a surprise pregnancy around the 50% mark at all. Which comes completely out of the blue - there is not one iota of a hint that this character may be interested in having kids some day *at all*, then *BAM*, pregnant. Which from reading other reviews, even those who *do* have kids don't always enjoy this particular type of surprise. Much less the childfree or childless.

Outside of the surprise pregnancy though - which *does* dominate the back half of the book, though there *is* some solid character development despite/ through the pregnancy - this was actually a strong book featuring some atypical angles (such as geocaching) and some solid characterization of grief and loss in various forms and through various backgrounds.

Overall a strong tale that perhaps could have been stronger with a different back half, but which many will find perfectly solid as is. Very much recommended.

Pulse Pounding Nail Biting Thriller With Some Powerful Dusty Rooms. Wait. An author known for *airplane* tales is writing a book that takes place 99% *on the ground*? Yes. And she does a damn fine job of it to boot.

As someone who has actually worked in the nuclear waste disposal area (at the Savannah River Site, where I sat yards away from tanks containing tens of thousands of gallons of nuclear waste and worked on putting the information-and-control spreadsheet (yes, spreadsheet) online), having a *touch* of knowledge of the field only made it that much more terrifying... because I knew exactly what some of the devices Newman speaks of were. (Specifically, the dosimeter badges. Never had to wear one myself, despite going into certain areas a time or two, but remember the training all too well - the "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye" badge in particular.)

Even without having worked a touch in an adjacent area of the tale though, this is one of those disaster tales that starts off in the middle of the action... and never really slows down. After the introduction where we see the plane going down, from there the tale takes place entirely ground-based, but with a strong countdown clock that is actually calculated within the tale and is used to great effect, going down to the final moments.

Perhaps Newman's greatest strength in this particular tale though is in *not* making any "superheroes" but instead showing everyday people in every day situations (yes, including nuclear power generation and nuclear waste management) doing their best with what is in front of them and trying to avert catastrophes big and small. Newman even manages to "humanize" her (fictional) President of the United States in ways not often done well, yet here is.

And about those dusty rooms... man, the hits just keep hitting. There are *several* points here where if your eyes don't get misty, I question whether they *ever* do. Newman sprinkles these moments throughout the book, but in a couple of scenes are particularly strong indeed - nearly to the point of needing an audio version of the text to get through them.

Overall truly an excellent and fast read - despite being 300+ pages, you're not going to want to put it down.

Very much recommended.

Tense Yet All Too Real. "Book 0" of this series, The Paris Orphans, does a much better job of setting up the overall series than this particular book does - and yet this particular book actually does a far better job of showing what we're in for with the rest of the series. Here, we get an all too real world in both WWII era Paris and 2010s era England. Yes, this is a dual timeline, and yes there are the usual linkages there. There are also multiple character perspectives, but both timelines and perspectives are switched well. The tension throughout both timelines, though wildly divergent (and appropriate for the given timeline) is done quite well, with brief moments of reprieve sprinkled throughout the story before the tension is ratcheted up even higher. The setup for Book 2 is sprinkled in later in the text here, but the Epilogue is essentially a stinger to make you want to pre-order Book 2 immediately. (Which I don't even think is possible as I write this review on release day.)

Overall a solid tale of its type, with an intriguing twist of the idea of having s linked series of sisters and their tales during the war (along with, presumably, a post-war dual timeline of some form). Very much recommended.

Solid Susan Mallery Tale Of Finding Friends Even In Difficult Situations. I admit, I'm a bit weird here due to how my own family was as I was growing up, and even how my wife's family is to this day. You see, my grandparents divorced well before I was ever born. I never knew them married. And yet, my grandmother and step-grandfather lived on my grandfather's property, at times even inside his own house, at a few different points of my childhood. Similarly, my wife's mom's best friend... is the ex-wife of her husband (my wife's stepdad).

Thus, when I find myself reading a tale such as the one here, where a new wife suddenly finds that her only real chance at moving forward is the generosity of her husband's ex-wife (prodded on by their daughter)... it actually isn't that far out of the realm of "normal" for me. :D

So maybe I had an easier time accepting this plotline than some, but for me it absolutely worked quite well. Yes, it could get a touch repetitive at times as Mallery was driving home her major thematic elements, but... that is kinda part of Mallery's style, at least of late. Yes, her books - including this one - could easily be 20 or more pages shorter without all of the repetition, but I honestly think that many of Mallery's bigger fans appreciate this to some level.

Ultimately, this is a tale of hope and found family/ found friendship and how these can make life bearable even under difficult and somewhat unusual circumstances. This is a tale of women bonding even in situations that would likely tear many female bonds apart, and it is a tale of the power of friendship. I for one thoroughly enjoyed it, even if, yes, it did run perhaps a touch too long. But again, that is just something one comes to expect from Mallery, who I'm beginning to think has some kind of deep seated aversion to publishing a book with less than 400 pages in it.

Very much recommended.

Fascinating Blend Of Rare/ Unique Spin On Vampire Lore With Action. This is one of those debut books you don't get very often at all, one where very nearly everything within it works to perfection to make you want that next book... ummm... now please. We get an almost Without Remorse by Tom Clancy storyline going on... that quickly transitions to include vampires. Except when we get into the vampire lore of this particular tale... it isn't the usual stuff. Griffin has taken some usual concepts and worked them his own way, adding his own touches along the way, and produced a very different and very intriguing take on the idea.

And yes, like any book claiming to be a noir, we get the hard boiled detective and his storyline connecting pretty well everything in the book as well.

But then, surprise... *more* interesting developments of a type not often seen these days in particular, used late in perhaps a bit of a rush... but apparently meant to setup a rather explosive Book 2.

The last third of this book in particular, you're going to be racing through, breathless as you can't wait to see what happens next...

And then that tease of an ending, in the most delicious ways. Yes, this book does its primary purpose of making you want the *next* one quite well, so let's all help this debut author know that we want to get that next book ASAP... go buy the book already, read it, and help spread the word!

Very much recommended.

Strong, Layered Romance With Atypical Lead. Up front, I'm a guy that got a degree in a mathematics related field (Computer Science) and because of the quirks of the way I attended college (also, as our lead here, at 16yo,fwiw) I came within just a couple of semesters of getting two other separate mathematics related degrees at the same time. Like our lead, I too had a flash of utter brilliance at that young age (well, in my case I was 20 yrs old) that is now, 20 yrs later, seemingly being realized in the real world. (Damn I wish I had applied for a patent, but I thought nothing of it other than as a paper for a Bachelor's Degree level class - even if Senior Year.) And yes, like our lead, I've also known close friends of that era later struggle with various legal issues. So maybe the book worked so well for me *because* I am in a rare position of having a similar enough background to *really* feel it. Perhaps. But I also think these issues and situations are still prevalent enough and general enough that even if you've never been in or near situations with these exact particulars, you've been in or around similar *general* situations (strains on parental relationships, lonely, questioning yourself even as a 30+ yr old adult who is "supposed" to "know what you're doing" by now, etc).

And that is what makes this book particularly great. Yes, it is messy. Yes, it can be convoluted at times. Yes, it may or may not feel particularly "swoon worthy" romantic at times. Hell, there are times when it feels like our lead exists for little more than sex. (That is rare, btw, but yes, "clean"/ "sweet" crowd... you've now been warned that this may be a bit racy for your tastes.) But all of this, to me, makes it feel all the more "real". Because let's face it, our lives rarely feel any of those things all the time (thank God, really).

And while some may scream at me "But I don't read romance to feel REAL!!!!! I *WANT THE FANTASY DAMMIT!!!!*", my argument here is that because this *is* more real, *knowing* that this book fulfills all romance requirements I am presently aware of means that despite the realism, *you still get the fantasy as well*. You still get that happy ending - at least one that works for this couple in this story in this world. You still get that "awww" and that catharsis that everything works out in the end, no matter how shitty and messy it gets in between.

And to me, that makes the story *stronger*. *Because* it was more real and more heartfelt.

This was my first book from this author. It very likely will not be the last.

Very much recommended.

Solid Tropical Murder Mystery Will Be Problematic For Some. Straight up, this book features an "on-screen" rape and an "off screen" predatory "relationship" between a teacher and a student. And yes, that last bit is a bit spoilery - but it is also something a lot of readers are going to want to know about before they get to that point in the tale. If either of those issues are absolute no-gos for you, you're going to want to avoid this book.

But if you're still here... beyond those two issues, this book was a *great* cat and mouse thriller that has twists almost literally through the last page of the text, and you're going to need to be clairvoyant to catch the last one in particular because it comes that far out of left field, but in a Now You See Me type manner where well, you were just looking too closely.

It also uses its tropical setting absolutely stunningly, in all its beauty... and perils. This book is going to make you want to go to Thailand and find one of these remote island resorts... but just be careful about it. :D And if you read J.M. LeDuc's Eastern Drift, based in Miami but featuring a trip to Thailand itself, near in time to reading this book - as I did - you're *really* going to be tempted to look up pricing for flights out to Bangkok. (Looks like around $3K for a late April 2024 round trip flight, staying a week. Just saving you some time on a casual check. :D)

But seriously, the scenery is both beautiful and visceral in this tale - you're going to feel like you're there as much as you want to be there. Indeed, the scenery is used so well in the tale that at times it actively overshadows the overall plot... but that is actually a great thing in the early stages of a tale such as this, because I in particular almost *want* that to happen in a book such as this. Ground me in the lush tropical setting. Give me some hints of some trouble, but have it overall be about just how amazing this place is. *Then* hit me with the "well... paradise for some may be hell for others" bit. Which Ochs does spectacularly, then proceeds to ratchet up the tension and ultimately action sublimely.

Again, if you can withstand the onscreen rape and offscreen predatory "relationship"... this truly is an excellent book that I sincerely hope the author can replicate in future works. Very much recommended.

Want An Election Themed Book That AVOIDS The Real Ones Entirely? Here Ya Go! Seriously, this book does a phenomenal job - truly, one of the best I've yet found in any medium - of showing both the nuts and bolts of elections and the high drama of elections and yet managing to present both in such a manner as to avoid most all (current) real world politics *and* without boring the viewer (reader) to tears. Because yes, while working elections is truly hard work (as I know as even a 2x former rural small town City Council candidate) and truly, utterly *boring* at times... this book manages to switch gears into its primary tale - that of a woman discovering her husband cheating on her and the actions she takes after that point - to keep the reader involved in the overall story.

Truly an excellent work on both the women's fiction side and the elections side, and the two complement each other well in exactly the manners that would largely play out in real life, particularly given the backgrounds involved here.

You're going to laugh. The room will get dusty at times. And in the end, you're going to leave this book happy to have come across it. Isn't that a good combination of a lot of what we all hope for in a fictional tale?

Very much recommended.