Tag Archives: Contemporary

May 1, 2025 · 12:00 am

A Review of It Happened One Wednesday

Book cover for It Happened One Wednesday by C M Weller. Image on cover is a black and white photo of a 1950s style diner with a black and white checkerboard linoleum floor, seats up by the kitchen for solo guests, and cute little booths on the side of the room for groups of two or more. Title: It Happened One Wednesday

Author: C M Weller

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 24, 2013

Genres: Science Fiction, Historical, Contemporary

Length: 9 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

For your consideration, an ordinary girl on a hot, summer’s day. But watch out for the door she’s about to enter, for it leads straight to the past… which is, indeed, another country.

Content Warning: Influenza and racism. I will discuss the latter in my review.

Review:

Get ready for a fun time travel paradox!

No, I can’t tell you what it is, of course, but trying to figure out how the various events fit together when they all needed each other in order to happen in the correct order was amusing. This is one of those things I like the most about time travel tales, and I was glad to have enough time to puzzle about how certain events probably fit into the timeline and why Esperanto was determined to return to such a racist and sometimes dangerous chapter of American history.

I would have loved to see more world building in this short story. Yes, it was modelled heavily on The Twilight Zone and therefore some mystery was to be expected, but from a reader’s perspective I felt a little confused by what was going on and how Esperanto managed to travel so far back into time and what on Earth she hoped to accomplish there. If this had been explained a little better, I would have happily gone for a full five-star rating as this was quite the experience for her.

Social mores can change quite a bit from one generation to the next, but they happen so slowly that the people experiencing them may not always notice right away while the generations to come might be shocked by what things that were normal sixty years ago but are now prohibited by law. Yes, this paragraph is about racism and how the protagonist responded to it. I’ll leave the details of that up to other readers to experience for themselves, but it was refreshing for me as a reader to get a glimpse of the past that doesn’t attempt to whitewash the ugliness in it.

It Happened One Wednesday made me want to know what happened next.

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April 17, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Darkness in the Cyclone

Book cover for The Darkness in the Cyclone by Barnabas Soon and hyperhop. Image on cover shows an aerial shot of a tornado beginning to form. The clouds are swirling together tightly and menacingly. Title: The Darkness in the Cyclone

Author: Barnabas Soon and hyperhop

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 12, 2025

Genres: Speculative Fiction, (very mild) Horror, Contemporary

Length: 3 pages

Source: The authors gave me a free copy.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

What happens when a natural disaster hits the Gold Coast? As cyclone Alfred hits, a man is trapped in his home without power. What lovecraftian horrors does he imagine as he is cut off from the rest of civilisation and only the howling wind and rain as company?

Content Warning: Natural disaster (cyclones).

Review:

Are you afraid of the dark?

Some of the most interesting scenes in my opinion were the ones that described what it’s like to sit quietly at home during dangerous weather. This experience can be lonely, boring, terrifying, and/or even a little entertaining depending on how violent the weather is, how many supplies one has, and how prepared their home is for the many different things that can go wrong when the wind is raging outside. What is a mild inconvience for one person or place can be much worse under a different set of circumstances, and I appreciated the fact that the author allowed for every possibility before revealing Alfred’s fate.

It would have been helpful for the horror elements of this tale to be given more time to shine. I hesitated to even label this under that genre because of how subtle it was here.  Other readers are free to make up their own minds about how far these hints should be taken and what was really going on, of course, but I personally needed a little more substance and grit in order to feel connected to Alfred’s dilemma.

On a positive note, this is a gentle introduction to the horror genre for people who are easily startled or who don’t generally gravitate in that direction. The scary stuff is confined to Alfred’s thoughts and hobbies as he waits out the storm alone in his house for a few days. Yes, thoughts can be frighting sometimes, but there wasn’t any blood or gore here to amp up the suspense which did help this tale feel more realistic. I mean, who hasn’t occasionally felt afraid during a bad storm or on a particularly dark and gloomy night when the power is off thanks to bad weather? It’s such a common experience that it makes sense to explore it in fiction.

The Darkness in the Cyclone is a thought provoking thing to read during storm season…whenever that season may be where you live.

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March 13, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Apis

Book cover for Apis by Liz Boysha. Image on cover shows a drawing of a black woman who has patches of something gold and glowing on her skin. She’s holding her chin up with one hand has she looks thoughtfully and happily off to the viewer’s right. There are blue, purple, and yellow flowers woven into a halo-like object above her head. Title: Apis

Author: Liz Boysha

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 15, 2020

Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQ, Contemporary

Length: 166 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A woman wakes up to find bees are living inside her. It’s a love story.

Content Warning: References to growing up in multiple foster homes. Rape. Attempted sexual abuse. Miscarriage. Bee stings. Stabbings. Fainting. Anaphylaxis from bee stings. A house fire that resulted in a child being orphaned. Metastatic breast cancer. Infertile foster parents who disrupt the placement of their foster child after getting pregnant.  Miscarriage. TI will not be discussing any of these topics in my review.

Review:

Hope isn’t a thing with feathers in this universe, but it does have wings.

The world building left plenty to the imagination which fit Astrid’s personality and backstory nicely. She wasn’t the sort of person who would ever stick her nose where it didn’t belong, and she appreciated the same treatment from others. Her fierce desire for independence coloured everything she said and did, including her limited interest in what was happening around her unless it personally affected her in some way. This was a slightly unusual choice, so I commend Ms. Boysha for taking that risk in writing a character who, in a different set of hands, could come across in a much harsher light. There is something to be said for characters who have strong boundaries and aren’t afraid to enforce them, and I hope to meet more characters like this in the future.

One of the things I struggled with as I read part one was how many different traumatic things kept happening to the characters, particularly the protagonist Astrid. Including one to a few of them would have been enough to keep the storyline moving forward, but to have wave after wave of awful experiences that were shared but generally never resolved was too much for my tastes. This is something I’m saying as someone who reads horror and is accustomed to a decent level of scary and disturbing scenes. Other readers may disagree, of course, but I think this would have been a stronger work if Astrid had been given time to process and heal from a smaller number of painful experiences.

With that being said, I was intrigued by how Ms. Boysha used these scenes as possible fodder for the metaphor she was exploring. (I say possible because I believe there are other explanations that could also be just as valid). Trauma of any form can resurface months, years, or decades later in ways that may not make immediate sense to someone who isn’t aware of the backstory. Yes, I’m being vague here, but the details are best teased out by other readers for themselves so you can form your own theories about what this tale means. I found it meaningful to draw parallels between Astrid’s early life experiences and how her life unfolded after the events of the first scene.

Apis filled me with questions.

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February 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Winter’s Chill

Book cover for Winter’s Chill by J D Savage. Image on cover shows a yellow late 1800s or early 1900s style house with a large porch on the right and a turret on the left. The house is covered in snow as it is the dead of winter.Title: Winter’s Chill

Author: J D Savage

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 18, 2025

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 61 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Melinda Wilson receives news that her mother has died by suicide. Not believing that her mother committed suicide, she returns to her childhood home along with her best friend Greg Creston. As she digs into her mother’s death, strange things to start happen. As Melinda digs deeper to find the truth she finds her father’s diary. Inside she finds information that would destroy the family name and rock the town to its core. As things get dangerous who will survive winter?

Content Warning: Death. Discussion of suicide as a possible cause of death. Murder. Brief references to blood.

Review:

Winter is full of frights.

The atmosphere was well done. There’s something about old houses that can be a little eerie even if they don’t have anything malevolent hiding in the corner, and this only becomes a stronger feeling when reading about homes that do have a paranormal presence. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the cold areas of the house as that could have easily been explained away by the fact that historical buildings can often be cold and drafty during the winter. To encourage the reader to continue to believe there was a less ordinary explanation for that was a smart decision and one that kept me reading.

This story would have benefited from another round of editing in my opinion. One of the characters was introduced with a last name but later referred to by a  completely different last name. Had he been earlier shown to be a liar, I would have assumed that this was yet another example of him misleading others.  He was always written as a truthful person, though, so I can only assume this was an error and not a hint about his moral character. There were some punctuation errors sprinkled through it as well that I found distracting. As much as I would have liked to choose a higher rating, I wasn’t able to do so due to these issues.

Not everyone is lucky enough to come from an upstanding family, especially when one digs more deeply into their heritage. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that explored Melinda’s feelings about the information she discovered about the past and how it could destroy the good name her family had in the community. No one should be held personally responsible for the actions of their ancestors, of course, but there is also something to be said for seeking out the truth and making amends as much as one possible can once they know what really happened.

Winter’s Chill was a scary read for a snowy night.

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February 6, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of I Wish, I Wish

Book cover for I Wish, I Wish by C M Weller. Image on cover shows a wooden African mask whose dreadlocked-hair is actually made of spent bullet casings. It’s a cool and unsettling piece of art! Title: I Wish, I Wish

Author: C. M. Weller

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 4, 2016

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 10 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

They always say, “be careful what you wish for”, and Shannon knew that better than anyone. Yet, when the need is great, temptation looms. What would you do, if you had the chance for one wish to come true?

Content Warning: Bullying, destruction of property, and an unknown viral illness.

Review:

Justice comes in many forms.

Shannon was a likeable protagonist I immediately began rooting for. Not only was she significantly physically disabled, she was being raised by a low-income single mother who had limited help. There were so many things stacked against this family that I desperately wanted them to finally catch a break and have something go their way for one.  They needed a chance to thrive after all they’d been through together.

The paranormal elements of the storyline were subtle at first but grew stronger over time which was the perfect decision for this piece. I enjoyed seeing how Sharon slowly came to the realization that her wish might actually have been granted and that the plot twists were not a coincidence but were building up to something that both the protagonist and the audience would need to think about.

This tale had one of those glorious endings that made me say, “wait, what just happened?” I mean that in a good way as I immediately flipped back a couple of pages to see if my understanding was correct and if the final scene had really been wrapped up the way it had. In retrospect, it made perfect sense given everything that had happened before, but it also caught me off-guard a little due to how some of the earlier scenes played around with the audience’s expectations about what might happen next. It’s delightful to be surprised like that.

I Wish, I Wish made me question my assumptions about what I’d do to make the world a better place with just one wish.

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December 26, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of From Shadows to Strength

Book cover for From Shadows to Strength by Jamilette Cintron. Image on cover is a drawing of thick fog winding its way through a pine forest on a dark, overcast day. This scene is framed by a window frame, so the viewer is tucked away safely indoors after all! My first impression was that the viewer would be walking through this damp and cold scene alone. Title: From Shadows to Strength

Author: Jamilette Cintron

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 20, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: 5 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

After a life-changing surgery, she thought the hardest part was over. But as her body begins to heal, a new battle emerges—one that can’t be seen on the surface. Depression quietly creeps in, threatening to pull her deeper into the shadows. With every step forward, she struggles to find the strength to rise from the emotional wreckage, discovering that the journey of healing is more than physical. It’s a fight for self-love, hope, and the courage to face her darkest fears. This is her story of resilience, a testament to the power of the human spirit to overcome even the deepest scar.

Content Warning: Depression. Anxiety. References to a painful surgery.

Review:

Hope is the thing with feathers, or, in this case, bandages instead.

Recovering from surgery is a process. Even minor procedures take a toll on the body and can make recovery feel endless if someone doesn’t fully know what to expect going in or if they were quietly expecting to heal faster than the average person. Some of the most interesting passages in this piece focus on the mental health aspects of this experience for a patient who desperately wanted to be feeling better by now.

I would have loved to see the metaphor in this short story expanded upon. There were a few different ways to interpret it from what I could tell, but I was never quite sure which interpretation or interpretations the author intended her audience to gravitate towards. Yes, I know I’m being vague here, but this is one of those things that a reviewer must talk circles around in order to avoid giving away spoilers. What I can say is that there were some thought provoking ideas embedded in this piece that could have made this a five-star read with more development.

The ending made me smile. As much as I wanted more details about what was going on, I also appreciated how hopeful it was and how much optimism I had for what the main character might do next. She’d been through so much already that I wanted her to thrive from that point forward. Many of the stories I read have more ambigious endings, so it was refreshing to flip past the final page and feel so good about what I just read.

From Shadows to Strength piqued my curiosity. 

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December 19, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Christmas Mourner

Book cover for The Christmas Mourner by Marian McCarthy. Image on cover shows a closeup painting of a few branches of a white Christmas tree decorated with red bulbs. You can see snow gently falling in the blue background.Title: The Christmas Mourner

Author: Marian McCarthy

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 10, 2021

Genres: Holiday, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 11 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A lonely Christmas Eve turns lively for mortician Perrie Spock when a late-night mourner shows up at the Rose Funeral Home.

Content Warning: Funeral home setting. Death.

Review:

Christmas ghost stories are one tradition that should never die.

I adored all of the little moments in this tale that showed Perrie’s dedication to her work. She really seemed to be passionate about preserving the dignity of the dead and giving their loved ones a chance to say goodbye in a peaceful, healing place. Grief is never easy, but it can be less difficult if the people surrounding the mourners are kind and compassionate like Perrie was. Look for the small things this protagonist does when she thinks nobody is watching that demonstrate just how much this matters to her. One of the best ones happened shortly after she turned off the light in the viewing room and prepared for a quiet Christmas Eve.

While I understand that this is part of a series and I did not go into it expecting to understand every reference to past events, it would have been helpful for me as a new reader to have a little more backstory on Perrie. For example, why was she so nonchalant the first time a ghost spoke to her? Even a line or two about how maybe she’d had this happen to her before or she expected it for some other reason would have been enough for me to choose a much higher rating as this was a heartwarming read in general.

The world building was sweet and lovely. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of what it feels, looks, sounds, and smells like to interact with a friendly ghost. Anyone who is familiar with ghost stories, especially of the Christmas variety, will know just what to expect here, but that is not a criticism of this work by any means. Sometimes readers – or at least this reader – find comfort in tropes they’ve read many times before. It’s like eating a favourite meal or putting on a soft sweatshirt after a long day in the outside world and relaxing into the moment. That is to say, it’s blissful.

The Christmas Mourner made me smile.

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December 12, 2024 · 1:00 am

Winter Solstice Delights: A Review of Midwinter Magic and Mayhem

Book cover for Midwinter Magic and Mayhem edited by Frances Evelyn. Image on cover is a drawing of a pale-skinned woman who is standing outside in a snowstorm with no clothes on. (You can only see her face, neck, and a little bit of her shoulders). Her straight, dark blonde hair is swirling around her head and she is staring at the audience with a serious expression on her face as the snow blows around her. Title: Midwinter Magic and Mayhem

Author: edited by Frances Evelyn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 15, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Holiday, Romance, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 199 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Short stories for the darkest of nights
Midwinter fantasy from award-winning fantasy authors

Witches, demons, spirits and ghosts haunt these pages, tricking, trapping and seducing unwary mortals. Humans, meanwhile, are wielding magic and the spirits for their own ends, with no guarantee of good intentions or great success. Along the way, God and Lucifer wash their hands of us all.

Real-world and epic fantasy rub shoulders with fantasy romance and horror in this new collection of short stories by much-loved authors. Ration yourself to one a night to colour your dreams or binge through them all in search of your next favourite series.

Why so cheap? What’s the catch?
Don’t you worry about that. Just put out your hand and let us take you into the chill of a winter night. What could possibly go wrong?

Content Warning: Migraines. Ancient curses and ancient blessings. Characters drinking alcohol. Hypothermia. Death. I will not discuss any of these topics in my review.

Review:

Prepare for something delightful.

Galyna received warnings in her dreams from one of her ancestors about various forms of danger that were threatening her and those she loved “The Horse Woman.” This was something established pretty early on on in the storyline, so I don’t consider it a spoiler. What I found interesting about this tale is that Galyna’s ancestor had lived so many generations ago that nobody in the family knew anything about her other than these few sparse facts. Imagine getting warnings from someone so far back in one’s family tree. Where the storyline went from there surprised me and made it difficult to stop reading. What creativity! I’d read an entire book about these characters if such a thing existed.

“Daisy” showed what happened when Janie decided to adopt an odd little stray cat that showed up in her garden one autumn. There are so many details of this story that I can’t share without giving away the plot twists, but what I can say is that I loved Janie’s compassion for her new pet no matter how strange life became for the two of them. One of my all-time favorite tropes involves ordinary people performing acts of kindness for those who can’t possibly repay them. There is something so wholesome about someone who simply wants to make the world a better place in whatever small ways they can without any expectations of being noticed or thanked, and I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of reading about these quiet, sweet moments that happen regularly both in fiction and and in real life.

One of the things that frightens me the most about winter is the possibility of getting stuck outdoors in the cold for too long. After Jessica’s car died, she became so hypothermic she fell asleep and then woke up in a bizarre bar in ‘The Spirit of Winter.” Due to the dangerous beginning of this story, I was pleasantly surprised by where it meandered off to after Jessica’s exposure to the cold weather began to affect her so seriously. It was not at all what I was expecting, but it worked well for the characters and plot and gave me multiple hints about how it could be interpreted depending upon how a reader reacts to certain clues.

Midwinter Magic and Mayhem was the perfect read for the holiday season.

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December 5, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of Christmas Inc.

Book cover for Christmas Inc. by Tim Vee. Image on cover shows one row of metal shelves in a warehouse that are stuffed full of boxes. The florescent lights overhead are dimmer than one would expect and give this scene a sad feeling, especially when combined with the fact that there are no people to be seen anywhere. Just what feels like endless merchandise. Title: Christmas Inc.

Author: Tim Vee

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: November 15, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Satire, Political, Contemporary

Length: about 181 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

When a new US president is elected, and war is declared on illegal immigration, there is one “illegal immigrant” to America firmly in the cross-hairs of this new president, who was always a very naughty boy and was never, not even once, on the nice list.

Christmas Inc. tells the story of Mrs. Claus, four elves, the reindeer, and a little red crab, and their battle to save Santa and Christmas from the forces of greed, hubris, and dysfunction.

Christmas Inc. is an anarchic, subversive, timely, and satirical look at populist politics, greed, capitalism, slave labor, the cult of the billionaire, and (of course) the magic of Christmas.

Content Warning: Reindeer being harmed. Smoking. A detainment camp for undocumented people. A few brief references to waterboarding (but it wasn’t actually shown). Pigeon pie made from pet pigeons. Someone choking on a bone while eating.

Review:

Not even Santa is safe this Christmas.

It takes a lot for someone to end up on naughty list year after year. Santa would much rather see everyone be judged as nice from what I observed! Some of the most memorable passages for me were the ones that explored how the North Pole worked in this universe and what Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves did in the lead up to Christmas Eve to ensure everything ran smoothly. As someone who wasn’t taught to believe in Santa, there were a lot of things about his mythology that I quietly wondered about as a kid when children who did believe tried to figure out how it all worked. It was amusing to see how these characters explained it all and what happened to people who consistently disappointed Santa with their naughtiness.

I thought the satirical elements of the storyline were a little heavy-handed, especially in the beginning. In my opinion, satire works better when it requires some additional work from the audience to figure out what the author is poking fun at. It will be interesting to see if other reviewers agree with me there as I do agree this is a subjective topic and that some readers do need things to be spelled out more clearly in order to understand what’s going on.

With that being said, I enjoyed the thought of Santa of all people being one of people the president targeted as immigrants were identified and removed from society.  One would think that Santa would be loved and admired by everyone who believed in him, but that wasn’t so for reasons I’ll let other readers discover for themselves. This was a fun twist that helped to smooth over the heavy satire in the beginning as it drove home the author’s points.

Christmas Inc. made me chuckle.

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November 14, 2024 · 1:00 am

Urban Magic: A Review of Bodega Botanica Tales

Book cover for Bodega Botanical Tales by Marianne Rodriguez Bross. Image on cover shows a preteen Hispanic boy who is wearing jeans, white sneakers, and a puffy black jacket standing in the doorway to a greenhouse. What’s interesting about this scene is that the door appears to be outdoors in an alley or urban street as you can see a brick wall surrounding it and some trash on the sidewalk nearby. The greenhouse is lush and filled with flowers and other healthy plants. Title: Bodega Botanica Tales

Author: Maria Rodriguez Bross

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 5, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 46 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Eleven-year-old Jose has always felt invisible, surrounded by problems no one seems to notice—an empty belly, neighborhood bullies, and a mysterious green-and-yellow bracelet given to him by the Bodega man. One fateful day, as Jose’s struggles reach a breaking point, he is rescued by a supernatural being who transports him to a magical bodega that transports him to a breathtaking, enchanted rainforest filled with magic and mystery. In this extraordinary world, Jose meets another supernatural being, named Don Wicho, who grants him a single wish that will change his life forever. Without hesitation, he makes his wish, desperate to escape his troubles. But once he returns to reality, the boundaries between fantasy and his own world begin to blur. As Jose grows older, he wrestles with the consequences of his wish. Was it all just a dream born of childhood anxiety or did it truly happen? When a chance meeting with someone from his past brings up traumatic memories back to the surface, Jose realizes he is not ready to confront the past. But every wish has a cost, and the consequences of that wish are confirmed. Bodega Botanica Tales- Jose’s Story is the first tale in a series of a magical, coming-of-age stories about courage, resilience, and the price of wishes. Perfect for readers who love fantasy, adventure, and magical bodegas.

Content Warning: Bullying, theft, mental illness, and a developmentally-delayed child.

Review:

Cities are full of secrets.

So much of the fantasy I’ve read was set either out in the woods or in tiny little towns near vast stretches of nature that it was refreshing to read something from an urban environment. Being surrounded by thousands of other people doesn’t mean someone can’t still feel alone or in need to guidance from paranormal sources, and I enjoyed the ways Ms. Rodriguez Bross explored how the unseen world might operate in such a setting.

The world building was strong and memorable. I loved the way the neighbourhood bodega was also a character of sorts in this short story. It influenced the lives of the people who visited it in all sorts of intriguing ways, both magical and realistic. Readers who have been lucky enough to live near a bodega will have a few extra treats to enjoy as they read this, but one doesn’t have to have that particular life experience in order to get something fabulous out of this.

Jose was a relatable protagonist who didn’t always know which decision was the right one to make but who did have good intentions in life. Yes, he was a preteen, but this didn’t feel like a middle grade story and that was part of the charm of it and of this character as well. The storyline was a little more serious and gritty than most middle grade fiction even though I’d agree that some kids may relate to those aspects and enjoy them just as much as adults can. In the end, I think the author was right in marketing this to adults, but I appreciated how easily Jose’s concerns about his family could cross over to younger audiences, too, as he decided how to handle everything from his sister’s physical health problems to his mother’s mental health problems and the bullying he was experiencing from other kids. Writing to more than one audience like this isn’t easy, so I appreciated the chance to view Jose from multiple perspectives as he grew older.

Bodega Botanica Tales made me yearn for a sequel. Bravo!

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