Alaskan Book Cafe

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Book Review - Blue by Lou Aronica

BLUE by Lou Aronica

Paperback, 400 pages; Kindle

Published January 8th 2011 by The Fiction Studio

*This book is being reviewed through Pump Up Your Book Virtual Tours. Book was provided for review. No compensation was received for review. All opinions are my own.*

Before I begin my review I would like to say that I purchased a Kindle version of Blue. The author provided a paperback print copy. I am donating this copy to Bartlett Regional Hospital' s Chemotherapy Lab in my hometown of Juneau, Alaska. Tamara, who runs the lab, keeps a library for patient use. We are a small community. Books for the patients are donated or bought out of pocket - not through the hospital. I hope the author does not mind this donation.

My Review:

This is my second time reading Blue. What I discovered reading it a second time is that it is a lot like reading Charles Dickens for me. What I mean by that is every time I re-read a Charles Dickens book, I come away with something new. Some little thing I did not get a previous time. A new perspective based on my life experience since reading it a previous time. Blue did that for me. Not every book I read does. Another thing I have noticed with this book is that when you read a review or talk with someone who has read it, most likely they will have a different view from you. The book is amazing like that. I think this makes it the perfect book club choice. Everyone who reads it comes away with their own views and thoughts on it. I know, every book does that. What makes Blue unique in this is how different those views are. The story doesn't change. You do and what you get from it does.

Blue is the story of a family dealing with divorce, a child with cancer, coming together and letting go. It is a book of reality, of fantasy and how the blurring of the two can lead us out of the dark and into the light. It is a book about sorrow, hope, faith and joy that can even be found in letting go.

Becky is a young girl with leukemia. She was just six when her battle first begun. She won that round. Now years later the leukemia has returned for a new battle. As so often happens in the face of a serious illness the stress on the family was too much. The family that stood united and strong to face the battle now does not know how or what to be in the face of victory. And so, Becky's parents are now divorced. She is living with her mother. Blue revolves around Becky and her father. When she was six, her father made up stories to distract her while she received treatments. He encouraged Becky to participate in building this fantasy world. Chris would transport Becky there nightly. Sometimes when reality is too harsh, fantasy is what can become salvation. Chris and Becky create a new reality. One in which cancer is unknown. Pain and illness are not a part of this new reality. Good health, happiness and love are what are real in this world. It is this world that gets them through the treatment. It is this world that connects Chris and Becky. It is this world which leaves her mother feeling left out.

Four years after the divorce finds Chris feeling as if he is the one left out. He has moved away to another town and sees Becky on his visiting days. He feels as if the little girl he knew so well is becoming a stranger. Another man has filled his placed inside the home and he fears he may lose Becky to him too. He spends his time trying to find a way back to his daughter. Then comes the news that the leukemia has returned. Once more the family must wage war but this time the family is divided. Chris and Becky once more retreat to their fantasy - reality world. Only this time a blight is upon the kingdom. Saving the kingdom becomes the focus because saving the kingdom is saving Becky. Except that sometimes saving the ones we love may mean we let go and let them fly on the wings of love.

Blue is an amazing love story. One that will touch you deeply and stay with you long after you close the book. I do not know the author. I do not know his history with leukemia or a seriously ill child. I do not even know if he has ever personally dealt with these issues. I do know he writes as one who has intimately known both cancer and a seriously ill child. Blue is one book I would give a sky full of stars to.

Blue has a prequel book out now. Until Again is a short novella which gives us the background of the breakup weekend. It is not necessary to read it before you read Blue but it helps.

Until Again: The prequel novella to Blue

Lou Aronica is also the author of the Full Spectrum Anthology Series:

He is also an accomplished publisher. He is part of The Fiction Studio and The Story Plant. More information on Lou Aronica and his work may be found at:

http://www.fictionstudio.com

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/195467.Lou_Aronica

http://www.fictionstudiobooks.com/Fiction_Studio_Books/Home.html

Comments Always Welcome

Thursday, February 16, 2012

guest Post with Jeanette Baker

I am delighted to have with me today Jeanette Baker. Jeanette is the author of Witch Woman, a book I reviewed yesterday. Jeanette has graciously agreed to write a guest post for us. Thank you so much Jeanette and welcome!

Witch Woman

by Jeanette Baker

WITCH WOMAN is my first Indie novel. After 15 books published by giant houses, Kensington, Pocket and Mira Books, I decided to branch out and test this brand new world of self-publishing with a book that is similar in tone to the Celtic paranormals I’d written previously and yet, completely different. Witch Woman is not a romance and it isn’t set in Scotland or Ireland, where I live during the summer months. Instead, I flew off to Salem, Massachusetts to investigate the city’s charm as well as its dark history. What came about was a paranormal with a contemporary heroine completely different from any I’d attempted to create before.

Readers of WITCH WOMAN often ask why I explored the possibilities of DNA memory and time travel or why I created a left-handed heroine with an interesting mutation, a clairvoyant who dabbles in white witchcraft. The answer is, The unusual fascinates me. It has since that September 17, 1964 evening when beautiful, blonde Samantha Stephens, the star of the television series, Bewitched, twitched her turned-up nose, hooking me forever. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought, to have the power to sway the mortal universe to my way of thinking? I remember rolling my pre-teen eyes at the doddering predictability of Samantha’s husband, Darrin who, with typical mortal myopia, wanted an ordinary wife. I empathized with Endora, her mother, over the stupidity of mortals and cheered when Aunt Clara’s magic actually worked.

Years later, during post midnight feedings, I introduced my infant children to the magic of Samantha’s spirit world, occasionally twitching my own nose in credible imitation, hoping that my colicky, wide-awake infants would magically fall asleep. Sadly, the gift of magic continued to elude me until I first put pen to paper and realized I could create my own bewitching heroines, endowing them with all the characteristics I longed to claim as my own.

The results of course, are my paranormal novels, LEGACY, CATRIONA, and my newest endeavor, WITCH WOMAN the story of a child sent 4 centuries forward into the 20^th century to escape the horrors of Salem’s witch trials, and her mother, aware of the dark forces that followed her, who frantically searches for the shrinking time portal to bring her child, now a woman, home.

Witch Woman: The lives of Abigail March and her daughter, Maggie, play out along parallel lines, both women blessed and cursed with a selective birthright and marked by a startling mutation. In 1692, Abigail and three-year-old Maggie are accused of witchcraft. Most women facing the hangman’s noose during this shameful time are innocent. Abigail is not. Summoning her powers she sends her child through a time portal into 20^th century Salem. Maggie grows to maturity knowing nothing of her past until her foster mother’s deathbed confession. Using her own clairvoyant abilities and medium of an ancient spinning wheel, she resurrects her past through a series of troubling dreams. Meanwhile, Abigail locates the time portal and slips through, changing her identity hoping to find her child. Unknown to both women are the dangers of the old world’s dark forces, a swiftly narrowing time portal and a missing child who desperately needs Maggie’s “sight” a sight that continues to blur as her ties to old Salem strengthen.

Slain abhaile,

Jeanette

Jeanettebaker.com

Facebook – Jeanette Baker, Jeanette Baker - author

A special thank you to Tracee at Pump Up Your Books Virtual Tours!

Comments Always Welcome!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Witch Woman By Jeanette Baker

Witch Woman by Jeanette Baker

ebook, 384 pages

Published January 31st 2011

*This book is being reviewed through Pump Up Your Book Virtual Tours. Book was provided for review. No compensation was received for review. All opinions are my own.*

Synopsis from Good Reads:

In two different centuries, four hundred years apart, the lives of Abigail March and her daughter, Maggie, play out along parallel lines, both women blessed and cursed by a selective birthright and marked with a startling mutation, heterochromia iridium, one brown eye, the other blue.
In 1692 Abigail and three-year-old Maggie, are accused of witchcraft. Most women who found themselves facing the hangman’s noose during this shameful time are innocent. Abigail is not. Summoning her powers, she sends her child through a time portal into twentieth century Salem.
Maggie grows to maturity knowing nothing of her birthright until her foster mother’s death bed confession. Using her clairvoyant abilities and the medium of an ancient spinning wheel, she resurrects her past through a series of troubling dreams.
Meanwhile Abigail locates the time portal and slips through, changing her identity, hoping to find her child and bring her home through the narrowing portal.
Unknown to both women are the dangers of the old world’s dark forces, a swiftly narrowing time portal, and a missing child who desperately needs Maggie’s “sight” a sight that continues to blur as her ties to old Salem strengthen.

My take:

I have been fascinated with the Salem Witch Trials since I first learned of them in grade school. I tend to read everything, non fiction or fiction, that I can find on them. When Tracee offered this book for a tour review I jumped on it. I was not disappointed. I loved reading this book.

This book is a work of fiction based upon an actual event. It goes between two different time periods; Salem today and Salem from 1692. The author takes us simultaneously between them, not missing a beat with different speech patterns and words. This, along with accuracy in the parts dealing with the actual witch trials, shows me the author did careful and thorough research. Ms Baker writes an excellent story that she unfolds in both worlds at the same pace. The characters were likable. I would have liked to know more of Nathanial, John, Abigail, Judith and their story but perhaps that will be told in a sequel. *Hint. Hint, Ms. Baker.* I figured out some parts of the story ahead of time yet the ending was a surprise to me. I liked the beginnings of a romance between Scott and Maggie although I would ultimately want Maggie with someone who was more in tune with Wicca. I noticed that Scott was very much like Maggie's father, John March, even before it was brought out. I liked the way the author brought various characters from one world into the other, blending them in. I also liked the spells that were written in. They enriched the story for me. For me, Jeanette Baker wrote a fresh and interesting story. I was drawn into it. I enjoyed it. I would like more of it. I recommend this book if you are looking for something witchy in the YA category.

Also by Jeanette Baker: