Friday, July 2, 2010

GIRL

GIRL
by Bart Bare
Canterbury House Publishing
225 Ira Harmon Rd.
Vilas, NC 28692-9369
www.canterburyhousepublishing.com
ISBN: 9780982539644

Although 14 years old, Loren Creek is independent enough to care for her terminally ill mother while maintaining their small farm. When her mother passes away, Loren fights for emancipation but is ordered into foster care. Unhappy with her foster family, Loren escapes to a small town in North Carolina. To avoid detection, she cuts her hair, dresses like a boy and changes her name to Lorne Land. Loren rents a small house from a mountain man who has little respect for the law and, at his suggestion, pretends to be his grandson. Guised as a boy, she enters high school, where she’s easily accepted, and joins the track team her freshman year. Her sophomore year, she joins the football team, earning respect as a kicker. But life isn’t easy for Loren; she finds her choice confusing and even dangerous at times and is aware her cover can be blown any moment. Even worse: her foster caseworker is tracking her, slowly getting closer.

Bart Bare has penned a heartwarming tale about a young woman’s journey as she loses the only family she thinks she has and gains a more extended family, touching lives along the way. Loren is a wonderful character, an intelligent, independent teenager who is not afraid to live life as she wants and is open to new adventures and friends. The author paints a colorful picture of the people and mountains of North Carolina, further enriching a truly lovely story.

GIRL GONE NOVA

GIRL GONE NOVA
by Pauline Baird Jones
L&L Dreamspell
Friendsville, TX
ISBN: 9781603182041

Delilah Oliver Clementyne (Doc) is a genius whose expertise is making the impossible possible. Doc’s secret name is the Chameleon and she fits this moniker well, being able to change herself at will to blend in with whatever situation she finds herself. Doc’s aboard the Doolittle, in the Garradian Galaxy, waiting for instructions from her superior, when she meets Helfron Giddioni, leader of the Gadi. Doc is shocked at her attraction for him but there is strife between the Earth ship and the Gadi and war seems imminent. When Doc heads toward the small planet Kikk in order to try to access their weaponry, she is kidnapped by a band of aliens trolling the galaxy, collecting wives for the men on their planet. Doc manages to get away, only to find herself time-traveling with the Gadi leader, trying to avert a war that will destroy her ship and its people while dodging the leader of the wife-stealers, who is intent on having her as his own.

Jones is adept at creating kick-butt women characters who can give as good as they get. Doc is mentally quick and physically lethal. She’s a woman who has never felt like she fit in until she meets Giddioni, whom she is instantly attracted to. But that doesn’t stop her from doing her job, even if it means battling the Gadi leader and his minions. The action is nonstop, the suspense gut-wrenching, and the plot rollicking fun.

STORM SHADOWS

STORM SHADOWS
by Caitlyn Hunter
L&L Dreamspell
Friendsville, TX
www.lldreamspell.com
ISBN: 978-1603182065

Long ago, four Cherokee cousins were cursed by the Shamans to eternal life after violating the laws of their tribe. Matt, Luke, Marc and Jon Tassel also possess psychic abilities and each can shift into the form of the animal they are destined to watch over. For years, Marc, a cougar shape-shifter, has had visions of a woman with storm-colored eyes tending to him at his death, but sometimes, in these dreams, the woman dies instead. Betty Sue Corn grew up under the shadow of a beautiful sister and considers herself merely ordinary, with a tendency toward awkwardness to the point of constantly having bruises and cuts from her stumbles. When Jon inadvertently causes Betty Sue’s suspension from her job, he offers her his cabin on Eternity Mountain, where Betty Sue hopes to chase a dream or two. When Betty Sue meets Marc by accident, the chemistry between them is intense. Marc, however, realizing Betty Sue is the woman in his dreams, tries to keep his distance from her due to his fear he may cause her death but finds this near-impossible. Betty Sue, tired of her prior timid existence, is not frightened by Marc’s ability to shift or his vision of death, and is willing to risk her life to prove this.

The genteel cadence of Hunter’s poetic prose draws the reader into a lovely story steeped in Cherokee legend, filled with romance sweet and heady and tantalizing. The plot excels, along with characters strong and vivid and intriguing. Betty Sue is fresh and fun, and many women will identify with and root for her. The four Cherokee cousins are not only endowed with pulchritude but each has an appealing persona readers will love. This well-written paranormal romance, book 2 in the Eternal Shadows series, rises above others of its genre due to the author’s unique voice as well as her prolific skill with characterization, dialogue and narration. Highly recommended.