A Bookworm's Book Reviews

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Introduction

Hello all!

I am C.M. Mills, an avid book lover looking for the next good book. I usually read fantasy and historical fiction. I’ve started branching out into thrillers. I’m not the biggest fan of purely romantic books. Sure, put it in a book, but it shouldn’t take the place of a good plot. I am willing to give any book a try. I enjoy reading nonfiction, too. Most of the nonfiction books I’ve read are memoirs, but I’d be willing to give other types of nonfiction a try. I’ve slogged through terrible books and will put up with a lot before I give up on a book.

Some things that I love in a book: a map (if needed), a pronunciation guide (if needed), a reason to care about the characters, and suspense to keep me going. Give me a connection to the protagonist. Authors get brownie points if the villain has a relatable motive, or has a unique stance.

Some turn offs include: introducing too many characters at once (looking at you Game of Thrones), characters with difficult names to pronounce (a pronunciation guide can offset this), not enough character relatability, boring plot, not enough action, etc.

I do enjoy a sappy romance, but it drives me nuts when the characters won’t admit their feelings (yes I know it can be a plot point, but don’t let it be the main plot point), or have again off again relations (it can get annoying). Also too many steamy scenes cause me to skip or skim over book.

Some of my favorite books include The Book Thief (for its writing style and humor despite being a WW2 setting book), Redeeming Love (a slightly predicable romance/historical fiction set in during the California gold rush), The Last Sin Eater (a historical fiction focused on an unusual British Isle tradition) , Immanuel’s Veins (a unique take on vampirish/angelic lore set to a historical fiction book), The Lord of the Rings (a dense read but so unique), Harry Potter (magic, cause why not), and The Chronicles of Narnia (for the world within). These are the first that came to my mind. I have so many more that I’ve enjoyed.

Some of my favorite authors include Francine Rivers (for her takes on historical fiction interwoven with classic tales, also has some sappy romantic books), Ted Dekker (for his unique thrillers and ability to keep the reader interested), Paula Brackston (for her historical fiction and use of worldly magic), Arturo Perez-Reverte (for his descriptive historical fiction use of vocabulary), and Elizabeth Camden (for a sappy love story and use of historical fiction). These are the authors I usually gravitate towards.

Feel free to send me recommendations and requests. I’d love to hear about other genres, books, and authors. I’ll try my best to read those books as soon as I can. My room is a partial library of unread books. Also feel free to ask me questions. I’ll respond as soon as I can.

Good Spirits – B.K. Borison

Title: Good Spirits

Author: B.K. Borison

Genre: Romance

Plot: Harriet York is being haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past. His name is Nolan Callahan. He needs to help Harriet find the error of her ways before Christmas. It should be another easy assignment for Nolan. Except Harriet seems to be the opposite of the people Nolan usually helps. She’s kind and caring and full of Christmas spirit. So Harriet and Nolan find a way to work together and find out why they were paired together. Nolan takes Harriet to the past to see why Harriet was chosen to be haunted by the Ghost of Christmas Past. And the more time they spend together, the more they learn they might be connected. Since they’re working together, the more they help each other become better people. They quickly become more than just friends. But can Nolan and Harriet figure out why they’re connected? Or will their time run out?

Rating: 4.0 – a different take on A Christmas Carol

Opinion: This was a super cute book. I really liked this take on A Christmas Carol. It was a fun idea to make the Ghost of Past, Present, and Future a job of sorts for people who’ve passed away. I liked that the author included the other ghost jobs, like a grim reaper, and management levels of ghost jobs as well. That was a clever touch. I’d love to learn about other ghost jobs and how they work in another book. I liked that Harriet wasn’t the normal ‘Scrooge’ like character. But her and Nolan still tried to work together to find out why they got paired together. I also liked that Nolan helped remind her of her true value beyond her family’s expectations and values. And that Harriet helped Nolan find his purpose and meaning again. The two of them worked hard to help each other and work together to make each other better. I found it interesting that they knew their relationship wouldn’t work out but tried it out anyway. Though I found the relationship revelation in the book was kind of anticlimactic for me. There was this big hidden thing that kind of fizzled into nothing. I wished there’d a little more to it. I also thought that one or two of Nolan’s things with his boss were a little distracting to the plot and weren’t necessary for the story. Overall, I really enjoyed this sweet story. I highly recommend this book for anyone who needs another PG-13 Hallmark Christmas story.

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat – Syou Ishida

Title: We’ll Prescribe You a Cat

Author: Syou Ishida

Translator: E. Madison Shimoda

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Short Stories

Plot: The Kokoro Clinic for the Soul is a hidden gem in Kyoto, Japan. Most people hear about it through a friend of a friend. It’s said you can’t find the clinic unless you need to. Most clients need help with their mental health. The doctor there prescribes clients cats to help with their problems. The clients are confused and skeptical at first. How will a cat help them with their problems? They reluctantly take their cat home. Of course they’ll come back and complain at first. Then they finally realize why a cat can be beneficial to their life. Five different cats help five people and their families.

Rating: 4.5 – a cute collection of short stories

Opinion: This was such a cute collection of stories. It was a fun way to describe the cat distribution system. This was one of those books that I kept seeing around and finally decide to read it. I got a kick out of the ‘ “I don’t want a cat!” but ends up loving the cat theme.’ I liked idea that you can only find the clinic if you’re looking for it and if you need it. I also liked that the clinic seemed liked a foster cat system for shelter cats. There were so many people who benefited from taking the cat home, not just the people who were prescribed a cat. There are so many benefits to owning a cat. As the book was originally published in Japan, they kept all of the character names and city names the same, which I appreciated. Thankfully Japanese can be easier to figure out how to pronounce. It’s fairly phonetic, but takes a second to completely wrap your head around how to pronounce the words. There was one short story that I wanted more to read more about and another that much longer than the others. I get that the author probably wanted to put more information about how the clinic worked in that story, but I wanted it more spread out in the other stories. Overall, I really did love this collection of short stories. It’s an easy read and great for any cat lovers.

Lovelight Farms – B.K. Borison

Title: Lovelight Farms

Author: B.K. Borison

Genre: Romance

Plot: Stella has been trying to keep her Christmas tree farm alive for the past year. But there’s been missing shipments, dying trees, and a family of raccoons living in the Santa barn. So she’s just trying to stay afloat as this farm is her dream come true. Then Stella sees an opportunity to save her farm. Evelyn St. James has a famous social media account and is having a contest with a $100,000 prize. But there’s a catch. When Stella applied for the contest, she lied and said she runs the farm with her boyfriend. Expect there’s no boyfriend. So she asks her long time best friend, Luka, to be her fake boyfriend while Evelyn is visiting Stella’s farm. Luka is more than happy to help Stella. They promise that whatever happens with Evelyn’s contest, they’ll remain friends after their fake relationship ends. There’s a possibility that they could be more than just friends by the end of it. But can they keep their relationship going strong while Evelyn’s around? Or will Evelyn find out the truth?

Rating: 4.0 – a fun Christmas time romance

Opinion: I really enjoyed this sweet Christmas time romance. I enjoyed that all of Stella’s friends supported her and her business. They wanted to see her succeed and believed she could’ve proven herself without a boyfriend to sell her story to Evelyn. I liked that Stella and Luka were good friends for such a long time before starting their fake romance. It made their relationship easier to fake. I liked that they set boundaries for each other before they started their relationship and told each other if they were crossing a line. I liked that they apologized to each other and talked through things. I liked the small town talk and bets on when Stella and Luka would start dating. I thought it funny that that was the true thing that complicated things with Evelyn. I really liked how that the plot line with Evelyn worked out. The one thing that kind of bugged me was that the plot line with the missing shipments, dead and drying trees, and so forth seemed to wrap up a little too nicely for me. It seemed a little too easy that they caught the person, they confessed, and wanted a cheesy reason they wanted to ruin the farm. It seemed a little out of left field for me. But it kind of redeemed itself because they were able to use the complications for good and save the farm. A little FYI, but the bonus chapter at the end doesn’t really help the plot much. It gives very little info about the plot and an extra steamy scene to the book. So you really don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. Overall, this a cute Christmas time romance. It really felt like a PG-13 Hallmark romance. I recommend this book for anyone who loves Hallmark Christmas romances.

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) – Jesse Q. Sutanto

This is book 2 in the Vera Wong Series. Book 1 is Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Title: Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

Author: Jesse Q. Sutanto

Genre: Mystery

Plot: Vera Wong feels bored with life. It’s been a year since someone died in her tea shop. She desperately wants more excitement in her life again. Then she gets a scam call and tells her police officer friend Selena, who also happens to be dating Vera’s son Tilly. Vera runs into a young woman named Millie outside the police station. They strike up a conversation and Vera learns that Millie’s friend Thomas has gone missing. Vera takes it upon herself to look into Thomas’s disappearance. Thanks to some snooping at Selena and Tilly’s place, Vera learns that Thomas died and it’s probably a suicide. But she doesn’t believe that. So, Vera does what she did last time and gathers up all possible suspects at her house and feeds them. She gets to know each of them and sees who’s behind Thomas’s death. But this time, she uses her new friends, and the new suspects, to use the internet to her advantage. But her new people are hiding deep secrets about how well they actually knew Thomas. So, who was Thomas really? Can Vera solve the case? Or is she in way over her head this time?

Rating: 4.5 – a fun, light hearted murder mystery

Opinion: I really enjoyed the this book. I had high hopes for this one since I loved the first one so much. I thank my book club for helping me find the first one. This one still had the same messages of loneliness, and the importance of family, friends, and community. But made it different and relatable. I liked that the author talked about how easy it is to fake things online. It’s easy to make your life seem perfect and the addiction of likes and views when you post things. But it shows the ugly side of comment section and the ache you can feel when you feel like you can’t compete with what others are posting. I enjoyed seeing Vera Wong bring more people together again. The new characters bring new adventures to Vera and her family from the last book. They do a great job of helping Vera expand her family and helping them with the new problems in this book. They have great character development. Everyone learns important lessons and learn and grow from their experiences. Vera always brings a smile to my face with all of her antics to try and help the people in her life. I like that everyone else is always so supportive of Vera as well. They know they can’t always stop her, but they can be there to protect her. Something I found interesting, and never really thought about, was phone scam rings. I guess it makes more sense that people are working in groups to scam as many people as possible. But it was extra despicable in the book that the bad guys were using children for their scams. But I’m glad they were brought them to justice in the end. Overall, I loved this book and I’m glad I found the sequel. Part of me hopes there more books in this series. Though, just happy there was a second one. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a happier, simpler murder mystery.

Letters from Father Christmas – J.R.R. Tolkien

Title: Letters from Father Christmas

Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

Genre: Fantasy, Children’s Book

Plot: Over the course of 23 years Father Christmas wrote letters to the Tolkien children. He thanks them for the letters and what’s been going on at the North Pole. Some years the North Polar Bear knocked over half of the annual fireworks. Other times Goblins attacked or stole the presents. Some years they were able to have a great bonfire and feasts. Every year Father Christmas tries to include a drawing of the year’s events. He’s always grateful for their letters. He continually writes until the kids outgrow Father Christmas.

Rating: 4.0 – a cute little collection of letters from Santa to a family’s kids

Opinion: This was such a cute book. I enjoyed seeing another side of Tolkien’s works. He’s such a clever and creative author. I enjoyed seeing how much effort he went through to write letters to his kids as Santa. And that he could find new things to write each year and could continue his story from the previous years. I loved the pictures Tolkien included with the letters. It’s a very sweet addition for his kids. I’m glad he still remembered to include his older kids in his letters even though they were addressed to the younger ones. The letters made me want to do something like this for my kids someday, if I ever have kids. I highly recommend this book to read to your kids at Christmas time.

The Memory Collectors – Kim Neville

Title: The Memory Collectors

Author: Kim Neville

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: Evelyn, or Ev for short, has a unique ability. She can feel emotions that people have left on ordinary objects. Those emotions can rub off on others in unexpected ways. Ev knows this better than most. That’s why she’s super careful about handling those objects. That’s why she thinks those objects are better off destroyed. Then she meets Harriet. Harriet has been collecting those emotional objects her whole life. She’s been forced to relocate with those objects as they’re affecting her apartment neighbors. Harriet asks Ev for help, along with a mutual friend Oliver. Ev is hesitant at first, but accepts. Then Ev’s sister Noemi shows up unexpectedly. Noemi wants to know more about their family’s past. Ev is reluctant to share. Bu the more they help Harriet, the more the past comes up. Noemi learns why Ev wants to keep the past buried. Harriet learns that all those emotional objects can come with price. But what is really hiding in Ev and Noemi’s past? What is the true cost of all of Harriet’s objects?

Rating: 3.5 – a different style of hidden pasts and magical objects

Opinion: This was an interesting book. It intrigued me that objects carried a strong emotional tie to the previous owners and that they could affect the new owners in similar ways. I liked that idea because we have emotional connections to things in real life. I liked that objects could lose their potency with time and space. I liked that different characters had different ways to interact and keep themselves safe from the objects with strong emotions. I liked that there were different ways that the characters felt about the emotional objects and called them by different names. I didn’t love the writing style of the book. Parts of the book seemed a little jumbled and not as clear as I would’ve liked. Some of the character jumps were unclear and took me a second to realize that story was continuing from a different point of view. It made it a little harder for met to connect with the characters. I wish that there were better character development for some of the characters. I also feel like the plot got lost a little bit. It kept getting side tracked by all the different points of view in the story. I wish I had a better explanation for certain things that happened in the book. Overall, I feel like this book had good ideas but kind of fell flat. It probably just not a good book for me. I’d recommend this book for anyone who wants a realistic style fantasy.

The Dollmakers – Lynn Buchanan

Title: The Dollmakers

Author: Lynn Buchanan

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: Shean is a very talented doll maker. She’s one of the youngest who’s ready to take her license exam to be an official doll maker. In the country of One, where dolls come to life to fight the Shod, this means you’re ready to make those dolls. But Shean’s licenser says Shean’s dolls are suited for artistry instead of fighting the Shod. Shean is furious. The licenser refuses to changer her mind. Shean’s mentor offers her a different way to impress the licenser and get the proper guard doll license she so desperately wants. Shean must travel to the city of Web and talk with Ikiisa. Ikiisa is a very unusual doll maker with unusual techniques. Shean’s mentor think Ikiisa has more to teach Shean. It will be up to Shean to learn something. The people in the town called Web are slow to warm up to outsiders. An Shean has some ideas to help the people of Web welcome her. Will it help? But what will happen when the Shod show up? Can Shean help defend the city against them? Or will all of her plans come to ruin?

Rating: 4.0 – a different take on fantasy

Opinion: This was a surprisingly interesting book. This was the first book in a long time that made me mad at the main character. The writing was well done to make me irritated with her in the first third of the book. I really hoped that something would happen to her to knock her down a few pegs. Her ego was huge, and I thought of her as a ‘Karen.’ It was starting to make me think I wasn’t going to like this book because of how much the main character annoyed me. I’m glad that somethings did happen that knock her down a little bit and that she actually learned a few things from her adventure. So I could actually enjoy the book. My coworkers got a kick out of how much the main character annoyed me at first. I liked how the magic system worked in the book. It was interesting that the doll makers weren’t entirely sure how the dolls came to life, only that it worked. Some of the characters learned a little more about the magic throughout the book. The author left it open for the characters to learn more after the end of the book. Throughout the book the author drew some pictures of some of the characters and landscapes of the book. That was a nice touch. There was also a map at the beginning. I’m glad I’ve been seeing more authors do that lately. Overall, this was a great book. I was presently surprised with how good it was. The book had an open ending so I’ll probably read the other books related to this one if the author writes more in the future. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves fantasy.

Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore – Emily Krempholtz

Title: Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore

Author: Emily Krepholtz

Genre: Fantasy

Plot: Violet Thistlewaite is looking to settle down after her former boss, and villain, Guy Shadowfade, was killed. She was Shadowfade’s right hand witch, known as the Thornwitch. Her ability is to control and grow plants. But Violet can also destroy a whole farm’s crops in minutes. Now that Shadowfade is dead, Violet wants to start a new life. She settles in Dragon’s Rest and opens a floral shop. Her grumpy landlord Nathaniel Marsh, is hesitant to welcome her. He’s seen what Shadowfade and the Thornwitch can do. So, he’s weary of any newcomers in case they want to take over since Shadowfade’s gone. The longer that Violet stays in Dragon’s Rest, the easier the good side of her magic is to use. The less worried she is of anyone learning she was the Thornwitch. She’s great at encouraging Nathaniel and the other residents of Dragon’s Rest to be open to new things. Her floral business starts booming. When a blight starts affecting the town’s crops. Nathaniel and Violet come together to find the solution. But what is causing the blight? Is it the shady stranger that also worked with Shadowfade that recently moved to town? Is it someone else? Will Violet and Nathaniel be able to stop the blight? Or is it too late?

Rating: 4.5 – a great story about starting over.

Opinion: This was a great book. I really enjoyed the themes of starting over and healing. It is important to know that it’s okay to start over, even you don’t have squeaky clean past. You can have a past, but you don’t have to let it define you. People can change, if they’re willing. For the book, I do like that people wanted Violet to reveal her past on her own time, and not their own. Revealing the hard things about the past is hard. So when people get the chance to talk about it on their own terms, it makes them feel more validated and accepted. I like that the book talks about living up to your parent’s legacy. Nathaniel wanted to live up to his parent’s legacy by doing the same thing they did, but can’t because he’s not them, which leaves him frustrated. I liked that Violet helped him find his own path while honoring his parent’s legacy. It made me happy that the two learn to work together to find the cure for the blight. They use their strengths to help the town. They both want to help and do so to the best of their ability. In the end, they do find a way to cure the blight and capture the new bad guy. I liked that the ending was all wrapped up but left a loose string or two so that there could be sequels sometime in the future.

Pandora – Susan Stokes-Chapman

Title: Pandora

Author: Susan Stokes-Chapman

Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Plot: Dora Blake is the daughter of late antiquities dealers in 1799 London. Her scheming Uncle Hezekiah now runs the shop. He passes forgeries as the real deal while hiding the fact that he has real antiques on sale for the black market. Dora starts to realize this when a Greek vase comes into the shop. Some of the people who transported it say it’s cursed. Hezekiah brushes off though his recent injury could say otherwise. Dora starts to investigate and break free while Hezekiah blokes her at every turn. She turns to an amateur antiques expert, Edward Lawrence, for help. But his help comes with hidden strings. Edward wants to investigate the black market antiquities sales and Hezekiah’s shop might be his ticket. So, who can Dora really trust? Can she find out the truth of the Greek vase? Will she ever escape Hezekiah’s thumb?

Rating: 3.4 – an interesting historical fiction mystery

Opinion: This was an interesting book. It was different than I was expecting. I thought it was going to focus more on the mysterious vase. But the vase is just one of the many subplots in the book. The story focuses more on Dora’s plans for making her own way in the world away from her uncle and Edward’s plan to get into the world of antique dealership. For me, it took away from the story. There were too many things going on to distract from the mystery of the vase. It made it feel like less of a mystery and more of a simple historical fiction. It made it harder for me to connect to the characters. They know people who connected them to the answers they were looking for and for ways to get around Hezekiah. It also made it feel like there wasn’t as much of a plot. I kept waiting for more mystery about the vase but nothing really ever came of it. They found what was really going on with the vase. They found out the mystery behind how the vase came to be and what Hezekiah had to do with it. This was a decent book but not one of my favorite ones. I’d recommend it for anyone who wants a simpler historical fiction mystery.

Through Water and Stone – Karen Barnett

Title: Through Water and Stone

Author: Karen Barnett

Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot: Talia has just lost her job with an athletic clothing company. She returns to her grandfather’s house in Zion National Park in shame. But her grandfather welcomes Talia home with open arms. Talia picks up a job with the gift shop in Zion. On the way, she gets pulled over by a park ranger, Blake. Though they had a rough start, they soon become friends. On a date, they decide to try the ancestry sites. Talia learns that her ancestors might not really be her ancestors. She starts to do some digging and learns what really happened to her grandfather’s family.

Henry and Alma Eriksson work in Zion National Park in 1948. They’ve recently lost their son in a flash flood. Almost a year later, they find a baby boy abandoned near a bridge on one of Henry’s patrol routes. The park rangers and police search for the baby’s parents with no luck. Henry and Alma agree to care for the baby boy and make the adoption official when no parents come forward. Three years later, a couple, the Johnson’s, come forward saying the now three year old is theirs. The evidence is circumstantial, but fits. Is the baby truly the Johnson’s? Or someone else’s?

Rating: 4.0 – a sweet telling of found family and finding your true purpose

Opinion: This was a really sweet book. I enjoyed learning more about Zion National Park. I heard about it but never realized how beautiful and dangerous it is. You hear about the flash floods, but not realize how fast they truly happen, especially in the slot canyons. But I loved seeing the characters in the book come together. Everyone in the park treated each other like family. All of the staff protected and cared for each other whenever they could. I thought it was interesting that Hank and Alma never told Billy that he was adopted. But I think it was different back then. And with all of the drama surrounding his discovery and early childhood, I could imagine why they wouldn’t want to tell him. I still wondered why they didn’t tell him when he was older. It made me happy that they still treated him like he was truly part of the family, especially the other people working in the park. As far as anyone was concerned, Billy was Hank and Alma’s son. I appreciate this author because all of her sappy romance is clean. There’s an element of friendship that blossoms into romance. The characters truly care for and support each other. All of the characters have a great character arc. They learn from their mistakes and grow. I also love that there’s always aspects of Christianity in the books and that there’s always lessons to be learned about life in her books. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves Christian based historical fiction books.