Review – Page 34 – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Edge Case

When her husband suddenly disappears, a young woman must uncover where he went—and who she might be without him—in this striking debut of immigration, identity, and marriage.

After another taxing day as the sole female employee at her New York City tech startup, Edwina comes home to find that her husband, Marlin, has packed up a suitcase and left. The only question now is why. Did he give up on their increasingly hopeless quest to secure their green cards and decide to return to Malaysia? Was it the death of his father that sent him into a tailspin? Or has his strange, sudden change in personality finally made Marlin and Edwina strangers to each other?

As Edwina searches the city for traces of her husband, she simultaneously sifts through memories of their relationship, hoping to discover the moment when something went wrong. All the while, a coworker is making increasingly uncomfortable advances toward her. And she can’t hide the truth about Marlin’s disappearance from her overbearing, eccentric mother for much longer. Soon Edwina will have to decide how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to stay in her marriage and in America.

Poignant and darkly funny, Edge Case is a searing meditation on intimacy, estrangement, and the fractured nature of identity. In this moving debut, YZ Chin explores the imperfect yet enduring relationships we hold to country and family.

Review: Egris and the Silence of the Storm

Fifteen years before I joined Arianna on her quest to break the curse and end the drought, I was just a simple Faun trying to keep my family alive.

After the day the rain stopped, I was forced to make some difficult decisions. I never could have guessed those decisions would have such a profound impact on the entire Kingdom of Idril…

Review: Ageless Fury

Within Ava, within Kel Doran – something has awakened….

The Caro Expedition is under way, but the journey will not be without peril for the mysterious warrior and those she leads. Their goal: To plunder the secrets of Valshyr, unlock its past, and search for answers within the mist.

Meanwhile, in Wyvern’s Rest, Ava has her freedom, but it may cost her more than she can bear. She and the other survivors are left battered and broken as tremors plague their helpless city, pushed to the brink as darkness infests the Outer Quarter. Put to the test, Ava will have to choose between her freedom and the city’s survival. Which will she choose?

The epic adventure continues in book two of the Mists of Kel Doran Fantasy Series!

Review: Ring of Fire

Humans and Mystics have been at war for as long as Kala can remember. For this reason, contact with any of the magical creatures that inhabit the forest near her home is punishable by death.

So when an elf rescues her from being kidnapped by his brother, she has good reason to question his motives. That is, until she learns the truth: that it was a human who killed her mother, not a Mystic, and that she and the whole kingdom are being lied to.

But confiding in the wrong person opens old wounds, and Kala must choose between her family and a blossoming romance. Can her love unite their people? Or has she doomed everyone she cares about?

Review: The Weave of Fate

The city of Wyvern’s Rest has fallen…

The feud between the capital cities of Cambridge and Sephyra has reached a boiling point, leaving the former “Jewel of the Highlands” a ghost of its former glory. Those with the means to live and the will to dream have already fled the city. Those lacking remain, condemned to bury their sorrow while the walls crumble around them. Lawlessness and poverty have overtaken the streets, and as the days grow longer, the shadows of the abandoned Outer Quarter loom ever darker.

Ava spends her days tethered to her prison, the belly of an old, stone inn, overlooking the docks and the familiar, sea-side market. She leans on her friends for innocent laughter and talk of unimportant things. Every day, the tavern fills with the hopes and dreams of those fleeing for brighter horizons; and every day, Ava watches them leave with the simplest wish…to join them.

Little does she know, her fate is woven to the enormous, crimson carriage that creaks through the shadows of another forgotten morning. The odd-shaped man who emerges from the carriage carries two simple things: an old, leather satchel and a sinister secret. One will free Ava from her prison. One will forever seal her tomb.

Both will alter the course of Wyvern’s Rest forever.

Review: One Hundred Bullets

Captain Lou Rush of the New Orleans police department is the leader of the Tribunal, a band of 10 cops dedicated to eliminating the criminals that fall through the cracks of the justice system. Their success has made them powerful and untouchable in the Crescent City, but that is about to change.

After two decades, the time has come for Lou Rush’s son Nick to join the Tribunal, as aging members are due to retire. However, a fellow officer is killed by the Tribunal, and Nick discovers that his father may have also murdered an innocent man.

For years, Nick’s fiancé Cali Maddox quietly blends into the background. With an agenda of her own, her secrets will force father and son to decide where their true loyalties lie – with the Tribunal or with the love of Nick’s life, because one of them will not survive the aftermath.

Review: Amasai Rising

Finding out you’re a princess destined to stop a war sounds great, until it actually happens.

Amasai Rising is an enchanting young-adult coming-of-age fantasy novel set in the Kingdom of Aythia. Azlana is a half-human, half-elf princess on the run, forced from the only home she has ever known and shouldered with the responsibility of uniting men and mystics. But an ancient darkness has taken hold of Azlana’s mind, flooding her thoughts that horrify her.

Can Azlana defeat the darkness? Or will its hold on her prove fatal for magic and mankind alike?

Previously published as Anhedonia.

Review: Dead in the Water

When Maisie Mitchell sold her restaurant and retired to sunny Florida, she couldn’t wait to get out of the kitchen and do absolutely nothing except enjoy lazy days by the pool.

Thirty-five years with the Chicago Police Department was enough for detective Donna “Dot” Pinetta. She was ready to escape the daily stress of big city crime and retire under a palm tree with a tall glass of something cold and a little paper umbrella.

But, as these two friends soon find out, retirement can get a little, shall we say, tiring? Sometimes you just need a vacation from your vacation. Maisie and Dot concoct an exciting plan of hitting all the destinations on their bucket lists, but when the dead body of handsome recreation director, Mason Jacobs is discovered floating in their own little piece of paradise, chaos ensues. Maisie and Dot’s plan for adventure gets shoved to the back burner when a good friend tops the suspect list and Dot jumps back into detective mode dragging Maisie along with her.

With a millionaire, an aging beauty queen and a jealous husband among the long list of suspects, can they expose the real killer and clear their friend’s name? Or will their first road trip be to the prison on visitor’s day?

Dead in the Water is the first book in a brand, new series by cozy author, S.C. Merritt. Join Maisie and Dot on their travels in the Bucket List Mysteries.

Review: What Ianthe Knew

Five years ago, Arielle’s dream life with Caleb was derailed when he left for Boston in search of work. Only, he never made it and turned up dead. Now, Arielle struggles to piece together what happened, while raising their daughter Ianthe alone.

A mysterious stranger shows up and suggests that Ianthe might know what happened to Caleb. Only, Ianthe has never met her father. Caleb’s secrets begin to come to light, and it’s all Arielle can do to keep her and her daughter safe.

But how can she, when Ianthe holds the key to the truth but is too frightened to talk about what she knows? What really happened to Caleb? All Arielle knows is that she’d better figure it out – and fast.

Review: The Ursulina

I know you’ll never forgive me for what I did. I’m sure you’ve asked yourself that question many times over the years.

Why? Why did I do it?

Well, sweetheart, this is the answer.

I was only twenty-six years old when the monster came back to Black Wolf County. The answers you want begin at Christmas time that year. However, if you really want to understand everything that happened to me—to us—you have to go even further back in my life.

Years back, to the night I met the Ursulina face to face.

So let’s start there.