The Chocolate Shop – Five Stars
The Chocolate shopThe Chocolate shop by J.J. Spring
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The rocky relationship between an overbearing mother and her prodigal daughter becomes even more tumultuous when the mother, distraught over witnessing her husband’s long, painful death, decides to satisfy her terminally ill aunt’s last wish.

I really misjudged this novel when I started reading it. “This sounds rather bland,” I thought. Well, I started getting into it pretty quickly, despite the slow start. Not that I thought the start was bad; it just didn’t seem congruent with the genre I like to read.

By the time I got halfway through the book, I told myself, “This is actually pretty good, I’m going to give it a 4 star.” As I neared the end, I figured the book could end in one of two different ways. One way, I decided that I would give Spring a 3.5 star. The other way I would go 5 stars all the way.

Looking at my rating, you can plainly see that J. J. Spring did not disappoint me. A perfect ending for a beautiful story wrought with difficult decisions. The challenges Laura Beckman faces are ones I hope I never have to face with my own children.

The story starts with Laura Beckman agonizing over the suffering of her dying husband in a hospital room. He lies there, unable to speak, and when he does communicate with her, it’s to beg her to allow him to die, to stop the suffering. Needless to say, she stays with him as he slowly declines, kept alive by the doctors as long as possible.

Shortly after his death, her aunt Nora makes them promise to not let her suffer like that. So between herself and her aunt Gracie, they come up with a method for humanely allowing her aunt to commit suicide, but not before granting her one last adventure.

Laura and Gracie soon become the saviors to several terminally ill patients, starting a group they coin the chocolate shop.

I won a signed copy of this book, and I would recommend it to anyone really. Unless you’re an ostrich. Don’t read this book if you’re an ostrich.


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Storm Cloud Haze – Five Stars
Storm Cloud Haze: A memoir in poetry, prose and polaroidsStorm Cloud Haze: A memoir in poetry, prose and polaroids by Alessandra Wike
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! How do you rate this? How do you rate someone’s life, their pain, their suffering, their fear? I didn’t really want to, but I know how important it is for an author.

If this were a work of fiction, my rating would be so different, or if I were to rate it on the writing alone. I disliked the poetry. Even the prose was written poetically, and I care little for that style of writing. However, I’m going to ignore that part of my brain for this review. It’s trivial to the story being told in Storm Cloud Haze.

Storm Cloud Haze is a story of pain. It’s a story of trauma. It’s a story of acceptance. It’s Alessandra’s story. To say I found the story frightening is an understatement.

When I took Kenpo Noh Shin Do, it was to learn to defend ourselves, to end a fight quickly, and by whatever means necessary. But how? How do you win a fight when your opponent is your own body? The concept is terrifying, and Alessandra’s experiences are chilling.

I can only commend Alessandra for her bravery, for seeking hope in a situation that seemed devoid of it.

I won this book in a contest. I could tell right off that it’s not my typical read, but as a literature student, I learned not to turn down a book just because it’s not in the genre that resonates with me.

This book contains a beautiful, haunting story of survival. I highly recommend it to anyone really. It’s short and gives you something to think about.

Because of what this book is, because of what this book stands for, I can only leave it five stars. But again, how do you rate this?

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Not all of you may know this, but I have a manager. My wife not only edits my work, but she has also been marketing for me like a beast. Hence, we have scheduled a book signing at our public library — the Brownwood Public Library, located at 600 Carnegie St. in Brownwood, TX to be precise. I plan to be there from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the 18th of November, and you can bring a book to be signed. If you don’t have a book yet, there will be plenty there for sale that I will also sign.

When I first discussed the book signing with the library, we had planned for the 11th of November; but alas, today we received an email stating that the library director had just learned that the library will be closed that day due to Veteran’s Day. Of course, my wife had already advertised for the 11th on several websites. Rather humorous.

Amazon Hot New Releases
Amazon Hot New Releases

At this time,  Assassin Marked is #10 on the Amazon Hot New Releases list in the 45-Minute Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Short Reads category.

Future book signing events are planned, and, if you are unable to make it to these book signing, you can also purchase a signed book from the Signed Bookstore on Authors Den.

If you haven’t read Assassin Marked yet, you’re missing out. Check it out on Amazon. There, you can buy the paperback or ebook version. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free.

~ Michael C. Sahd

NASA Ames Research Center

Today, 24 copies of “Assassin Marked” arrived in the mail. The paper copy turned out very nice. Looking the book over, my wife and I discussed the idea of turning the story into a graphic novel. I think it would be a very cool graphic novel; unfortunately, I am definitely not capable of illustrating anything myself. Finding someone to do the cover was well-nigh impossible. So maybe someday.

In “Assassin Marked, ” the locations are backdrops and not fully elaborated on in the story; however, in the DuFonte Chronicles setting, Arbona and Penelope are advanced O’Neill Cylinders. Gerard K. O’Neill, an American physicist, proposed the design of these Cylinders, as conceptualized below.

 

NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center
 

Image by Rick Guidice NASA Ames Research Center —  http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/70sArt/art.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=617874

If you’ve read “Assassin Marked,” would you be interested in seeing it in a graphic novel form? If so, let me know in the comments below. As always, your input is appreciated!

~ Michael C. Sahd