More Good Reads

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. How is everybody? It’s good to see you. I thank you so much for stopping by. I realize everyone is so incredibly busy. Lord knows I am. I’ve been trying to visit everyone periodically. If you haven’t seen me for a while, please say hello and leave your link. I’ll be right over.

Lately, it seems that there has only been time for blogging and reading, so that’s what I continue to be up to. Soon, however, that will change as I transition over to writing once again. I haven’t written anything new since last year’s project which was Seeing Ghosts. More on that later…

I have a few more books to tell you about.

An Illusion of Trust by Linda Cassidy Lewis

In this sequel to The Brevity of Roses, Renee Vaziri discovers that even when your dreams come true your nightmares remain. When Renee Marshall locked the door on her dark past and married Jalal Vaziri, she hoped for a quiet life in a California coastal town. Now, with a sexy, adoring, wealthy husband, one beautiful child and another on the way, she dares to believe happily ever after could be her future. But doors don’t always stay locked. As the stress of living in Jalal’s high-society world increases, the traumas of Renee’s past begin to poison the present and threaten to destroy everything she treasures. Is it her imagination or is Jalal keeping a secret that will end their marriage and rip her children from her life? And could it involve Diane, the woman who reminds Renee too much of Jalal’s beloved first wife?

It’s not exactly horror, is it? No, but you may recall me telling you before that I like to mix things up that way. Lewis is a dear friend of mine. We’re practically neighbors, too, and I can’t wait to sit down with her and chat about writing. In any event, it was not difficult at all to get me to grab my copy of this book. Lewis’ writing is top notch and I really enjoyed this book. I wanted to strangle Lewis’ character Renee a few times, but her struggles are integral to the story and make perfect sense once you’ve taken this continued journey with her. Lewis spins a fine tale and I hope she continues to pick up her mighty pen and blaze trails like this one. I fear Lewis is uncertain of the talent she has, but she shouldn’t. Her writing is as good as anything out there in the market place. If this sounds up your alley, I hope you’ll give it a try.

Immaterial Evidence by Milo James Fowler

The vault door never opened. The bank went into lock down in less than a minute. Yet the security footage was unmistakable: a hundred silver bars had simply vanished. Ever since the city’s most dangerous crime boss put a price on his head, private investigator Charlie Madison has lived as an exile in Little Tokyo. But now an old friend and police sergeant has lured Madison back into the city to hunt down an invisible criminal—if he can. As Madison makes his clandestine return, high-profile people start disappearing. And when federal agents swoop onto the scene to take matters into their own hands, they offer Madison a deal he can't refuse—as long as he agrees to work with them. With Japanese freedom fighters and refurbished killing machines threatening to take the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust, the United World government needs all the help it can get. Embroiled in an unimaginable mystery, one private eye must rely on his wits to solve a case where the evidence is immaterial, and the odds are stacked high against him at every turn.

I really liked this story. It was a bit of crossover fun; a cross between Mickey Spillane and iRobot. Fowler really painted the classic noir/gumshoe world well with the typical seedy areas of town – warehouses, dark alleys, cultural inner city sections – as well as the great dialogue and narration/detective’s inner voice. The science fiction part of the story was a new twist I had yet to see, but why not? Why does everything in this genre have to be Maltese Falcon-ish?

The story was fairly short which I’m curious about. All in all, I had no complaints. It was different, well-written and completed submerged me in Madison’s world. It wasn’t a world I was expecting, but that simply made it one of those pleasant reading discoveries which is why we pick up a book in the first place.    

Before I go I want to thank everyone for allowing me to spend a good chunk of the year promoting Seeing Ghosts. It’s been a long year from teasers to cover reveals to event day to book tour, and I appreciate you allowing me to do that. I will attempt to back off from that now and talk about other things. Of course I’m still trying to sell it. I just don’t want to inundate you with all of that ad nauseum! I thank those of you who have picked up a copy, those who’ve added it to their GoodReads TBR piles, those who’ve reviewed it, and even those among you who have not yet decided. Everything’s appreciated.

Take care and have a great week.

We’ll talk soon.

The Brevity of Roses

Hello, my dear Fire Enthusiasts. How is everyone? For me, I am well. Life continues to be busy. I’m alone at the day job as some of you have heard. That leaves me doing the work of two. For those who don’t know, I supervise the Packaging Floor for Sun-Maid Raisins (the lady on the red box). I’m in the office by 4 am, work 11 hours, have over one hundred employees and seemingly all of them have my work cell number and call endlessly. Not really, but that’s how it feels. Do you like having to answer the phone when in the bathroom? Yeah, me neither…

Now, a disclaimer: I have just read another book that I’m positively crazy about, but it was a long way from horror. Therefore, if you don’t like anything else but horror, perhaps you’d better come back next week. ;) On the other hand, if you love good fiction. I may have something for you.

Disclaimer, number two: I don’t read what I would refer to as pure Romance novels; HOWEVER, I absolutely adore serious writing about flawed and scarred characters, written by gifted writers, with romantic or heart-wrenching situations.


I hope I didn’t offend anyone by mentioning that. I just wanted to set the stage for the marvelous novel that I just finished devouring. It is called The Brevity of Roses and was brilliantly composed by Linda Cassidy Lewis – an author that I am fortunate enough to call friend.

The Synopsis:

Jalal Vaziri has looks, money, women--and a habit of running from reality. When he abandons New York and reinvents himself as a poet in a California beach house, he thinks he's running from a father who hates him, a career mistake, and endless partying. A fresh start is all he needs. After an intriguing woman enters his life, he believes all his dreams are coming true, but too soon, those dreams dissolve into nightmare. Jalal flees again. Only this time, a woman blocks his retreat and challenges him to finally face the truth about what he's trying to outrun.

The first thing that I was so pleased about was the fact that this novel was not about two blond hair, blue eyed people who find love, lose love and then find it again. Like many of the fabulous gourmet dishes that you’ll find the characters cooking and eating, this wonderfully crafted story has been flavored and spiced with culture. Jalal and his pleasantly intriguing family are not originally from America, in case you hadn’t already guessed that. It was such a breath of fresh air to fall in love with a family that was so different from my own or my neighbors.

Beyond that, this story isn’t about two people at all, but three. They did not ask to be brought together, but fate intervened and they find themselves powerless to do anything about it. In fact, the three try as hard as they might not to be brought together, but in the end, love has its way.

We have three distinctive characters amongst the three leads, and a vibrant and unforgettable supporting cast that surround them throughout. Lewis’ prose is smooth and effortless. Her writing made me forget there was a narrator involved. I simply felt as if I were in the room with every character, sitting out on the deck with them or running that beach alongside Jalal. I also marveled at the pacing and the quality of the subplots, particularly the storyline involving Jalal and his father. I happened to be reading the resolution of that conflict from my desk at work. I am thankful that no one came to see me just then, because it was very moving. I wasn't crying, but I definitely had to get up and walk the moment off. 

Lewis drives me crazy sometimes because she seems to second-guess her talent. Perhaps she’s just worried that one great book is all she’s got in her. I doubt that will be the case, but I would be ecstatic were this the only book I ever wrote. That’s how special I think this novel is.



Lewis may have created the most perfect title for a book ever. In fact, it's a book within a book, since you'll find that Jalal used it to title his book of poetry that was inspired by his wife Meredith. By definition, brevity means "shortness of time or duration; briefness: the brevity of human life". It suits the plot perfectly, but you'll definitely need to find that out for yourself when you pick up a copy of this absolutely delightful and moving book, The Brevity of Roses.




We'll talk soon.