Bookworm Press

The best rewards for authors are readers who love their work. It makes all the effort of writing a book worthwhile. I’m so excited about the lovely review of my new novel, Letter from a Cave, from Sally G. Cronin, UK author of many books and host of the wonderful Smorgasbord Blog Magazine:

“This is a delightful book with several elements that add interest and colour, along with stunning descriptions of the majestic mountains and lakes of Italy and Switzerland.

The characters in this story have appeared over the years in the author’s other books, but there is enough back story for the book to be a standalone read. It was the first time I had met them, but they are so well rounded and engaging that you feel you have known them for years.

A tragedy towards the end of the war prompts a journey through Italy and Switzerland to unravel the mystery, but it is also a journey of discovery for the main characters as they come to terms with the past, loss and uncertainty about love and the future.

With two romances developing for the younger and older generation there is plenty of light-hearted chapters as well as the unfolding discoveries about the letter in the cave to keep the reader engaged. The fact there is a cute dog in the mix will also make readers very happy and entertained.

There are reminders of a darker past and that there are still those who bear grudges and guilt about their own actions during a time of repression and fear. There are also wonderful moments where there is an opportunity to celebrate the bravery and sacrifice of others.

I highly recommend this lovely and well-written book to romance and mystery fans of any age.”

– Sally Cronin, Author and Host of Smorgasbord Blog Magazine, UK

Finally! This book took me forever to write, at least it seems that way, but here it is now. I’m very happy and grateful for the wonderful reviews it has garnered so far. Here is the blurb:

With a captivating mystery at its core, Letter from a Cave is a suspenseful journey through Switzerland and Italy that will make readers feel a gamut of powerful emotions. Fans of Christa Polkinhorn’s other novels will be delighted to meet a few familiar characters. Don’t miss your chance to get lost in this unforgettable story!

Andreas, a Swiss sculptor and stonemason, grieving the loss of his wife from three years ago, discovers an old, abandoned backpack in a cave during his hike in the Swiss mountains. What he finds within the backpack—a letter written by a young Jewish refugee during the Second World War to his pregnant wife in Italy—sets him on a quest with his friend, Luisa, to find out what happened to the man, to his wife, Bella, and her family in Italy. During their search, they meet both helpful people and those who try to prevent them, even by force, from digging into a past filled with heroism but also with cruelty and betrayal. Will the outcome of the quest bring closure and peace, or will it cause turmoil and heartache?

Review by Lisette Brodey:

I’ve read several of this author’s books over the years, and I was very happy to learn she had a new release, one that gives new adventures to established characters. It’s always great to see old friends. That said, this wonderful book doesn’t rely on past novels to be enjoyed.

Sculptor Andreas, who has been lonely and depressed since his wife’s death three years prior, often hikes into the mountains. One day, while with his dog in a cave, he is surprised when the dog unearths a backpack from years ago. Looking inside, Andreas finds a letter from an Italian man named Joshua to his pregnant wife, Bella during World War II. He realizes Joshua never made it home and his family most likely never knew what happened to him or that he had tried to make contact.

The emotional weight of the letter hits Andreas hard, and with the encouragement of his daughter, Emilia, and his son, Tonio, he sets off to Italy to see if he can do the impossible and track down Bella (if she’s still alive) or other family members. Tonio takes his sister and father to a vineyard in Tuscany where he has a friend, Julietta. Readers of the author’s previous book will remember Julietta and her mother, Luisa, from The Italian Sister.

From this point on, the story really takes off. I don’t want to summarize the plot, but rather offer a short commentary on why I found this book to be so special. Author Polkinhorn has several wonderful and heartfelt sub-plots flowing through the main story. All of them are skillfully woven together, beautifully emulating life and its twisty, unpredictable ways. I genuinely cared about every character.

Letter from a Cave offers suspense, romance, emotion, surprises, nostalgia, and so much more. The author’s gorgeous descriptions made it easy to visualize the scenes in Switzerland and Italy—not to mention making me hungry for Italian food.

This was truly a feel-good read, and I hope the author will continue to write more stories with her delightful characters. Already, I’m wondering how they’re all doing.

Thank you so much, Lisette!

Letter from a Cave, eBook

Letter from a Cave, paperback

Happy Reading!

I’m a writer but also an avid reader and I love to share books and authors I like. Murder in Tuscany (An Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mystery, Book 1) by T A Williams is a novel which I thoroughly enjoyed and which takes place in one of my favorite parts of the world. Tuscany is also the locale of my own series The Wine Lover’s Daughter.

Here is my review on Amazon:

Newly retired DCI Dan Armstrong was given a retirement present by his colleagues at the force in England—the opportunity to attend a writing retreat at a stunning villa in beautiful Tuscany. While he is grateful for their generosity and the opportunity to finish writing his novel and leave his personal problems, among them a failing marriage, as well as rainy England behind him for a while, he is less enthusiastic about the genre of the literature taught at the retreat—erotica of all things. The somewhat strait-laced former policeman decides, however, to make the best of his time and try to fit in with the group of the other probably crazy writers.

If Dan thinks he left police work behind, he has a rude awakening a few days into the retreat when one of the people is found dead and it looks very much like murder. Together with his friend, the Italian detective, and his sidekick, Oscar, the enthusiastic and exuberant Labrador pup of the owner of the villa, he tries to shed light on the happenings and begins to uncover some very dark secrets among the attendees of the retreat and the hosts.

This is a fun and suspenseful mystery with interesting and quirky characters and vivid descriptions of Florence and the Tuscan landscape, the excellent food and wines. It kept me engaged from beginning to end and I look forward to part two of the series. Highly recommended!

Here is a book I really enjoyed and wanted to share with you:

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

One of the funniest books I have read in a while. It’s a special kind of humor that not everybody may like. I found it hilarious and while you laugh you get a great overview of world history and a tongue-in-cheek vivid portrayal of some of the world’s most famous politicians and rulers. There is an underlying roguish criticism of the weaknesses of social and political systems and their perpetrators.

I read the German version: Der Hundertjährige, der aus dem Fenster stieg und verschwand.

Happy Reading, my Fellow Bookworms!

Just published my new novel An Uncommon Family, Book One of the Family Portrait series. Book Two, Love of a Stonemason was published in 2010. In other words, I wrote the second book before the first. I do things backward sometimes.

The novels, however, can be read in any order. The link between them is the main character, Karla, the young painter. Here are the blurbs to both novels:

An Uncommon Family:
A chance meeting between a middle-aged woman, a widower, and a semi-orphaned child in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, brings together three people who grapple with a past of loss and betrayal. Six-year-old Karla, whose mother died in a car crash, has a hard time accepting the loss. Anna, her aunt and guardian, struggles with her former husband’s deception and her shattered confidence in men, and Jonas, artist and teacher, mourns the death of his wife.

While trying to help Karla, a talented but troubled child, Anna and Jonas develop feelings for each other that go beyond friendship. The budding romance, however, hits a snag when Anna discovers a sinister secret in Jonas’s past. While the two adults have come to an impasse, young Karla takes matters into her own hands. Together with a friend, she develops a plan to bring the two uncooperative adults back together. The plan, however, creates havoc and as it begins to unravel, Karla is forced to learn some difficult lessons.

An Uncommon Family is a story about loss, lies, and betrayal but also about the healing power of love and forgiveness. It takes place in Switzerland, New York City, and Guadalajara, Mexico.

If you want to accompany Karla on her way to becoming a painter and grow as a person while struggling with turbulent love relationships, try Love of a Stonemason:

The young painter, Karla Bocelli, is all too familiar with loss. When she was five years old, her mother died in a car crash in the south of Switzerland. Her Peruvian father lives at the other end of the world, and a year ago, her aunt and guardian passed away. Now, at age twenty-four, Karla almost gets hit by a speeding car. As if this wasn’t fateful enough, Andreas, the driver, turns out to be a sculptor and carver of tombstones.

In spite of his profession, Andreas is anything but morbid. Quick-tempered and intense, he exudes a rough-and-tumble energy. After a tumultuous start of their relationship, Karla comes to see in Andreas the “rock in her life,” the perfect antidote to her fears of abandonment and bouts of depression. Andreas, however, wrestles with his own ghosts: an alcoholic father who abused him as a child and his own fits of anger. Together, the two artists must confront the demons that haunt them.

Love of a Stonemason is a story about the struggle of two artists with their past, their family, their creativity, and their love for each other. Told from the point of view of Karla, it depicts the world through her painter’s sensibility. It takes the reader on a journey full of sights, smells, tastes, and sounds from the south of Switzerland to Italy and the Peruvian Andes.

SUMMER SPECIAL:
For a limited time only, both novels are available at Amazon for the Kindle (click on the cover icons on the right), at Barnes&Noble.com for the Nook and at Smashwords for multiple devices for ONLY 99 cents each. Get your summer reading at an affordable price!

Lindsay Edmunds granted me an interview at her lovely blog. Check it out!

Check out Neal Hock’s great review!

More reviews on Amazon.

The Wrong Bus, An Urban Christmas Story by John Noel Hampton – 5 Stars

I have been exploring a lot of different literary genres lately and I noticed that paranormal thrillers and romance, mysteries, science-fiction, and fantasy seem to be among the most popular ones these days. Whether you walk into an ordinary brick-and-mortar bookstore or peruse the online blogs, trolls, vampires, and werewolves glare or growl at you from every corner. You can’t help but wonder if the lives of “normal,” everyday human beings are no longer fit topics for literature.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those genres myself. I love a good mystery; I like a well-written fantasy and paranormal tale. But every once in a while, I long for an interesting book about Mr. Everyman and Mrs. Everywoman who deal with their everyday lives without interference by ghosts, witches, and paranormal happenings. And then I stumbled upon the story by John Noel Hampton, The Wrong Bus, An Urban Christmas Story.

The Wrong Bus takes place in Los Angeles, in both a middle-class environment and in the less well-to-do section of South Central. It depicts a few days in the lives of flawed but lovable characters. The middle-class, elderly white woman, Ida, is a good-hearted, somewhat naive person who doesn’t want to accept the fact that her only son was killed in Vietnam. Her African-American housekeeper and best friend, Madeline, has her own share of shattered dreams. Junior, a young black man, works hard and dreams of becoming a medical doctor in order to help his grandmother and escape the dreary environment of his upbringing and his dysfunctional mother. Maria, a Latin woman, who was fired from her job, turns to stealing in her desperation. Then there are neighbors, friends, cops, and criminals.

A series of coincidences, such as missing the right bus stop, brings these unlikely people together and sets in a motion a string of misunderstandings, wrong turns, false moves as well as lucky encounters. The story leads up to Christmas, but Christmas for the characters doesn’t mean a bunch of expensive presents or even an end to their problems. But it brings them closer to the true spirit of Christmas: love and compassion.

The Wrong Bus is a moving tale without being sentimental. The language is stark, interspersed with beautiful images and vivid descriptions. The magic is not conjured up by fairies, hobgoblins, witches, or trolls. It is created by the characters’ feelings, by moments of beauty in a rough environment. These people aren’t fantasy heroes; they struggle with their selfish desires, they are torn between wanting to take the easy way out of a situation and doing what is right. Yet they do find the courage to step outside their comfort zone, to take risks in order to help someone else.

The sign of a good story for me is one that I feel like reading over and over again and always discover something new. The Wrong Bus is such a story. I can only recommend it and I look forward to reading more by the same author.

People are beginning to wonder why I only write four- or five-star reviews. The answer is simple. No, it’s not to flatter or placate authors. I only review books that I love and that inspire and excite me. I am not a professional literary critic. I am a writer and avid reader and I want to write about books I feel good about. I know how hard it is to write a book, how time-consuming, and how exciting.

The writing process is a lot of sweat, interspersed with moments of elation and deep satisfaction. Once a book is finished and you find out that someone else likes it as well, that readers are inspired by it, that it means something to them, then, somehow, everything comes together. You forget all the heartache, the ripped-out hair, the self-doubt, and you bask, for a moment, in that warm feeling of being understood by someone, accepted, you delight in the knowledge that you have touched someone. That, to me, is worth more than the sale of books (which I like too, of course. I’m not Mother Teresa – oh, by the way, did you know she just turned 100? Talk about inspiration! Happy Birthday!)

Anyway, because I know how good it feels to receive a positive review, I enjoy doing this for other authors as well. I don’t write book reviews on demand, because then I would have to review books I may not like and would have to give a lower score. And I don’t want to do that.

There are enough reviewers out there who give 1- or 2- or 3-star reviews and that’s fine for them. A negative review as long as it is respectful and sensitive can be very helpful for an author. (I am not talking about those insulting diatribes that attack an author personally or make unreasonable assumptions. I’m not talking about reviewers who are failed writers and take it out on those who still have the courage to write. You know what I mean.)

But for me:
4-Stars: I love it and have perhaps a suggestion how it could be made even better.

5-Stars: I love it. It’s well-crafted, language and content are in sync. It may not be absolutely perfect, but I’m excited, it gives me joy and means something to me.

Happy Writing!