Heroes and Monsters by Josh Riebock

Heroes and Monsters: An Honest Look at the Struggle within All of Us by Josh Riebock is a book I really, really tried to enjoy and I come out of the experience on the fence. I feel like the best way I can review this book is to just lay out what I did and didn't like and go from there.


What I did like:


I do like to read personal journey's through life and faith. I almost always love introspection....I love introspection so much that I have read books that are little more than paper scribblings from people who were really baked on drugs during the 1970s. Josh's introspections were very interesting when they were interesting. The book opened with Josh and his father taking an unexpected detour/plowing wreck into a cornfield in the middle of the night. Within these passages he falls into what is nearly sheer panic and survival mode to contemplation of life without a father - or at least a father who has been cut down to an imperfect human size - and it is very sweet and compelling and scary and sad all at the same time.


I also really liked some of the interesting graphic elements in this book. Several pages are full illustrations which made it feel much more journalish, which was nice. A little bit of intimacy in reading never huts.


What I didn't like:

A Love Forbidden by Kathleen Morgan - a Blog Tour

I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to share A Love Forbidden by Kathleen Morgan with you as part of another blog tour. Why? Because it is the second book in her Heart of the Rockies trilogy; I had previously reviewed the first book in this series, A Heart Divided about this time last year.

A Love Forbidden was really interesting because it focused almost entirely on its main characters while also giving us a bit of a peak back at the family we met in the previous volume. Shiloh Wainright is Cord Wainright's little sister. Shiloh and her childhood friend Jesse Blackwater, a Native American with a Ute Indian mother and white father, are the hero and heroine in this book, and Kathleen weaves their story really well.

This is the best exploration of a mixed relationship between a Native American and white person I have read since Courting Morrow Little by Laura Frantz. Morgan treats both the white and Indian perspectives on life and love with dignity while ultimately bowing to the authority of scripture and doctrine in a few of the trickier situations the book presents.....

Did those last comments catch your interest?

The Back to Back Blog Tour

Ever since I started doing blog tours, I have struggled with exactly when to schedule my reviews because I always have a Sunday through Saturday week to choose a day within. I have finally settled on a set posting schedule for two consecutive weeks with scheduled tours: The Back to Back Blog Tour. If you enjoy stopping by to see the latest great releases from Revell Publishing House, you can expect the best of the content back to back on Saturday and then Sunday.

For example: This week the Saturday listing was The Pursuit of Lucy Banning for the 1st week's tour. My second week starts on Sunday, and I will feature A Love Forbidden by Kathleen Morgan. Any of you who actually follow my affiliate links through to Amazon when they are shared should find this handy too as you can purchase both books on the same day with only a 24-hour delay between reading about the first volume. Given weekend shipping processes, your order will not be delayed at all. I hope you enjoy the new system!

An Interview with Olivia Newport, Author of The Pursuit of Lucy Banning

I just shared a blog tour with all of you for The Pursuit of Lucy Banning by Olivia Newport, and now I am pleased to present a series of questions and answers with Olivia. I am very grateful for her time in answering these questions and am looking forward to sharing more of her work with you in the future.

How did The Pursuit of Lucy Banning get started?

I have Chicago suburban roots, but I had not heard of the Prairie Avenue Historical District until a friend of mine became a docent at the Glessner House Museum on Prairie Avenue. This house preserves the flavor of Chicago’s gilded age when the neighborhood was full of wealthy powerhouses of industry. As soon as my friend began his training, he saw the potential for the setting of a story. He is not a fiction writer, but he knew my interests. It did not take us long to cook up story ideas about a daughter of a privileged family who engaged with the changing social climate of her time.

Your book is layered with historical detail. Tell us about your research process.

My docent friend, Stephen Reginald, is a history buff. He spits out the most interesting details sometimes, and before I know it, I am digging too. We both scoured the archives of the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times for headlines and language of the era. I looked for true events that serve as hooks in the stories. The Internet turns up all sorts of obscure books and historical accounts. One of my favorites was a first person travelogue written by someone who visited the world’s fair in 1893. Stephen’s work at the Glessner House Museum opened a portal into diaries and museum pieces that helped me faithfully recreate the story’s setting.

The Pursuit of Lucy Banning by Olivia Newport

This week our blog tour features a wonderful new volume: The Pursuit of Lucy Banning by Olivia Newport. I wrote my first review of this book several weeks ago on Amazon and have been watching new reviews roll in to see how my fellow readers felt about the volume, and it looks like most of us really, really enjoyed this book. (To find out more about Olivia Newport and this volume click through to my author Q and A here: An Interview with Author Olivia Newport)

I had first bumped into the volume when it popped up on my recommend items list on Amazon while I was purchasing a couple of other books. I actually preordered it at the time. I was so excited to read it because it features a lot of elements I was excited about: a young woman standing against the social constraints of the gilded age, the Chicago's World Fair, and the "pursuit" of higher education and higher love.

I really wasn't sure what to expect in this book besides the world's fair angle and the other parts mentioned above, but there was actual a great deal of subplot that explored Lucy's relationship with a housemaid (who will be the heroine in Newport's second book set during the world fair), her relationship with her fiancee as it deteriorates as greater opportunities are opened to Lucy, and some of the other social battles that went on behind the scenes as the world fair was staged (female architects, etc.).

I'm Baaaaack to MiscMayzee

Hello Dear Readers and sometimes visitors,

My apologies for the impromptu extended vacation from blogging, but it is over now! I have had wonderful time for the past month actually catching up on my reading instead of starting, stopping, and starting again and really couldn't bring myself to interrupt the flow for blog posts while I was also juggling school (two week vacation right now) and my usual article writing.

The great news in all of this is....I am basically now caught up with my back log of book review readings and will have lots of great new posts to share with you over the next couple of weeks. I have some suspense, historical fiction, and non-fiction reviews all ready to go...and I am delighted to report that most of the books I read were fantastic which means I hope you will dive into them too!

Until that next post....

Celebrate Curvy Straws in Select Big G Cereals and Enter to Win!

I am delighted today to bring you an opportunity to put some fun back into breakfast or a mid-afternoon snack featuring your favorite Big G cereals!

Right now you and your family can collect six different colorful straws featuring beloved Big G cereal characters. These straws are featured in specially marked boxes of Big G Cinnamon Toast Crunch® (17 oz.), Lucky Charms®(16 oz.), Reese’s® Puffs (18 oz.), Honey Nut Cheerios® (17 oz.), Trix®(14.8 oz)  and Cocoa Puffs® (16.5 oz). Each of these cereals is made featuring more whole grain than any other ingredient. When you combine this goodness with 1/2 cup of milk it really helps kickstart the day!

The Forgiven Duke by Jamie Carie: Enter to Win

I recently had the opportunity to read an advance copy of The Forgiven Duke by Jamie Carie, and I am so delighted to report back that this book is more than a suitable follow-up to The Guardian Duke. The quality of writing in this book as well as the progression of the story line is actually markedly better, and it reaches a much more satisfactory conclusion than the previous volume despite being the middle book of a trilogy.

I liked the first book, but this one is truly far better. There is less of complete, unconnected strangers fawning over Alexandria without reason -- none of the melodramatic people being nearly bewitched by her as in the first book. While it was easy enough to overlook for the sake of a fun and interesting story, it was better not to have the abundance of it. My only further wish is that Alexandria would quit using the word "clue" so often. The words 'evidence', 'information' or 'hint' would be a most welcome addition to her sleuthing vocabulary.

The Discovery by Dan Walsh - a Blog Tour

The Discovery is the 3rd Dan Walsh book featured in a blog tour here at MiscMayzee. It follows reviews of Remembering Christmas and The Deepest Waters. I really loved the latter and had mixed feelings about the former. This book is squarely between those two.

There were aspects of The Discovery I really liked (see below for a blurb about the plot). The joy Michael and Jenn feel upon becoming really well-to-do overnight was very authentic. I appreciated that an author could and would acknowledge that even in the midst of sadness we can feel joy and happiness when we realize that our loved ones provided for us both in life and death.

I also loved the story within a story aspect of the book. We don't follow Michael for the entire text, instead we delve into an older world you may not expect if you don't read the entire book jacket. I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say, I was delighted with it because it is a time period I enjoy reading about and this copy provided a real twist to the usual stories I come in contact with.

Genius Moments When Writing

Do you ever have a genius moment when you're writing - one of those flashes that makes you think "Eureka!", giant exclamation point and all? I always wanted one of those moments but rarely felt it when writing poetry and  most of the celebrity and beauty articles I wrote when I first began freelance work online.

I was quite surprised to find that when I began writing tax articles, accounting articles, and numerous other financial articles I started to have "Eureka!" moments frequently - both from the writing and from the exhilaration of tackling new and sometimes foreign subject matter. Because I am a small business owner, I already had a foot in many of these fields but really began to get into the complexity as I started writing articles intended for Chron.com and Motley Fool and I love that complexity.

I never would have thought I would find my home in finance, but I have...and I love that I combine finance with writing to improve my own financial situation. Having the best of two worlds never hurts, does it? ;)