My husband got a wonderful opportunity for a very nice career with a company he’d wanted to work with for years. This is and was great news for our family. Sadly, the job is five hours away in a different state.

Time to pick up the pieces and construct something new.

We’re looking at homes in the southwestern Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, but even more exciting for me, we’re looking for a hobby farm between 5 – 10 acres with an old 1880s – 1910 farmhouse. He is working on his dream, and now it is time for me to work on mine, too.

—I’d planned to continue this, but a screaming six month old (turned so today!) is claiming my attention. Forgive the rough draft with the disjointed writing and lack of focus. It’s just a reflection of the reality of my life.

A review of Eternal by H.G. Nadel. Rated 4 out of 5. What do the stars mean?

SYNOPSIS | Demon possession, past lives, eternal love, and teenage relationship and friendship drama collide in Eternal by H. G. Nadel. Julia Jones, 18, is an intelligent and beautiful lab assistant to Dr. Caleb Bertel, a quirky scientist studying where the soul resides in the human brain, at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Bertel “dies” via electrocution, but Julia brings him back with some handy defibrillators (everyone should know how to use them!). After that everything goes awry when Dr. Bertel starts acting really funky. In the course of Bertel dying and then disappearing (and reappearing… different), Julia meets Detective Austin Moore. She swears that she knows him from somewhere and she’s falling deeply in love with him, despite her boyfriend and lifelong friend, Tyler. Julia reactively tries to figure out what’s going on to get herself out of the mess that’s appearing around her and in the process, struggles to figure out how to handle her sudden feelings for the detective and her fondness for Tyler.

The cover of this edition of the young adult mystery-paranormal-romance book showcases Austin and Julia standing with each other while a painting of two people resembling them in an older-style clothes is in the background. There is a prologue, twenty-eight chapters, and an epilogue totaling a final numbered page count of 260.

REVIEW | Nadel writes an informal descriptive novel with clear and concise language. The style and structure aren’t really original – this type of novel has been played out and written many times with a typical teenage melodramatic I-have-and-will-always-eternally-love-him-no-matter-what sort of irresponsibility. The most recent extraordinarily popular version of this type of young adult lit is probably Twilight.

Once you get past that characterization and simplistic structure, though, and ignore the Austin-Julia so-perfect-for-each-other-no-matter-what portion of the storyline that some of the young adults intended to read this would probably love (to their detriment, in my opinion), there is a really good nicely written mystery.

The information Nadel incorporated about the pineal gland and Héloïse d’Argenteuil and Peter Abélard, the story woven about the location of the soul and the light religious overtones, the lack of explicit sexual relationships or content, and the relationship between Julia, her father, and her mother were all high spots of the novel. The paranormal bits were my favorite, with the demon possession and spirits very interesting. Of course, many romance novelists have done the past-life storyline regarding eternal love, but how many of them feature Tasering demons?

Oh yeah, baby. A futuristic-looking Taser.

CONCLUSION | Heavy criticism about the unrealistic romance aside, I enjoyed reading the novel. It was light subject matter, the demons gave me a little of the heebie jeebies, but not enough that I had nightmares, and the mystery was decent. It prompted me to google the pineal gland, too, which I now know more about than I did before. If I threw myself back into a juvenile’s body, I’d probably love this book. I don’t know that I would recommend it for my daughter (once she reaches the appropriate age), though, until I talked about the realistic aspects of loving relationships.

Thank you H. G. Nadel.

A review of Deep Connections by Rebecca Graf, published by Silver Tongue Press on August 23, 2012. Rated 2 out of 5. What do the stars mean?

SYNOPSIS | Brenna is a mild-mannered, old-fashioned teacher who struggles with wanting a deep connection with others and wanting to remain free from pain. Orphaned when her parents died in a car accident, she is understandably cautious. For the past year, she’s been hanging out with the Lightfoot family and has developed a tiny crush on their son, Slaton. He’s a lawyer for the local tribe and is apparently all-out sexy. Brenna never thought she had a chance with Slaton, but then he begins to act very protectively when a stalker starts threatening her. Eaton, the man she’s been dating, is also acting protectively. Brenna has some choices to make, all while trying to solve the mystery of who is stalking her and why.

This is a paranormal, suspenseful romance set in a small town near native American lands. I read a PDF copy of the novel which had no extras.

REVIEW | Graf writes the novel from the third-person with a somewhat formal tone. While the language is clear, the novel doesn’t flow well on the micro-level with each sentence feeling like a separate entity. I always think it’s bad when you notice the periods, and I noticed the periods.

Graf describes the surroundings and events well, although it is sometimes down to the very minute and unnecessary detail:

The storyline could be very compelling and interesting if the writing was more seamless. The “world” is well thought-out, and while the plot isn’t completely novel, it isn’t over-saturated either. I enjoyed the background describing why the stalker was after Brenna and enjoyed the way her relationship with Slaton played into the storyline.

The biggest weakness, for me, is the writing style. It seems somewhat formal and old-fashioned. For example, the author writes that Brenna is dating Eaton and talks about their relationship multiple times, but then Brenna says they were only ever friends. Huh? Then how was it dating? On pg. 62, Brenna is going to get the police after a horrifying incident with the stalker, yet pauses to ask why anyone would care if she was in her shorts and t-shirt. Well… Who WOULD care if she was in her shorts and t-shirt? NO ONE! That isn’t even revealing! Go get the damn door!

I also have a serious problem with how Brenna thought a text message was from Slaton when it was really from the stalker. Does she not have his cell phone number programmed into hers? She’s known him for over a year for pete’s sake.

CONCLUSION | In the end, I wanted to really like this book. I feel horrible that I didn’t. (I always do feel bad. I want everyone to be a rousing success.) I even read it twice, just in case I was having a bad day the first time I read through it. Sadly, it didn’t change my opinion. I won’t read the follow-up book by Rebecca Graf, because the first one didn’t grab me. I had no emotional reaction to the book at all. I’m so very sorry.

Thank you Rebecca Graf for the opportunity to read your novel.

Rebecca Graf is a wife and mother of three when she is not writing. From writing online for various companies to book reviews to her own novels, Rebecca spends most of her days reading and writing.

She worked as an accountant for 20 years before taking a chance and trying to make it as a writer. She has been published on sites such as BellaOnline.com, HubPages, and Natural Family Today. She also freelances where she writes for several different companies.

She is an avid reader and has found a love of writing all types of genres. She self-published her first children’s book, A Gift for a Mouse two years ago. Since then, she has started her own publishing company with a friend. Deep Connections is their first publication.

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Anyway, I bought this amazing paperweight and suddenly discovered the reason for the phrase “Got an app for that?”

I’d had an Android HTC Eris, letting the contract lapse and going without a cell phone for a year prior to the purchase of the iPhone, but I hadn’t really delved into the app scene – to my brother’s chagrin.

It’s no longer a problem, man. No longer a problem.

Without further ado, here’s a list of my top five favorite apps that I use too often for me to even admit to:

(1) Evernote | I use this for all my note-taking needs, of which I have a lot. Interviews, council meetings, event coverage. Attendance rosters, lectures, discussion notes and ideas. Class notes, paper prep, PDF journal article response papers and detailed synopses. Home tasks, schedules for repetitive events like pantry orgsnizational needs, I even have a section for photos from magazines of Stuff I Think Is Cool. Then of course, the book I’ve been writing in my spare time.

I use this the most on my iPad, but love having the access on my phone.

(2) Total Baby | This app has been a memorysaver ever since Gabe was born. It tracks when and how long the baby feeds, what the baby feeds on, when and what kind of diaper is changed, doctors appointments, sleeping patterns, pumping, breast milk storage, baths, and has a place for you to track whatever you want. There are detailed reports as well. It’s one of the most useful things I’ve ever come across. Exhausted in the middle of the night? No big. You don’t have to remember anything, because this app will do it for you.

It will also sync with your iPad, manually, and works every better on there.

(3) Carcassone | Haven’t played this game? You should. Get a bunch of your friends together and have them buy the app. You’ll have endless entertainment.

Carcassonne is a German-style board game played by placing tiles and game pieces on a table. While playing, a medieval world of towns, roads and fields unfolds on the table.

Carcassonne for iPhone and iPad keeps all the charm of the board game and adds features only a digital board game can provide, like networked multiplayer or taking care of cleaning up the table after a game. – Carcassonneapp.com

There are expansions, too.

(4) Flipboard | The tagline: Your Social Magazine. Flipboard is pretty neat because it takes a bunch of different feeds (you can add in your social networking feeds, blog feeds, image feeds, YouTube feeds, etc.) and turns it into a visual feast. You flip through the pages, scanning photos and videos with accompanying headlines and select whatever you want to read more about. It’s gorgeous.

(5) Our Groceries | How many times have you been coming home from work and you pass the grocery store just to remember that you were supposed to pick something up – but you don’t remember what it was? Our Groceries syncs across Android and IOS based smartphones and has computer-access as well. You can add anything to a list and then cross it out as you go (where it conveniently moves to the bottom of the list in its crossed out state). You can have multiple lists. It’s great.

Want to know what is NOT on this list and is in fact on the bottom of any awesome app-list ever?

Facebook.

That app blows.

A review of The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon, published by William Morrow on January 2, 2013, ISBN 978-0-06-212255-1. You can see this review at Amazon, GoodReads, and LibraryThing. Rated 5 out of 5.

Neptune is back and he is going to kill again, unless Reggie and her childhood friends can stop him.

The novel begins in “present day” 2010 with the protagonist Reggie. It’s fall in Vermont and Reggie is having dreams of her thirteen-year-old self. On the outside, Reggie seems to be the cliché who has it all – a successful award-winning architecture career and a beautiful home she’d designed on a lake – with all the accessories. It’s soon revealed that Reggie hardly owns anything like “a criminal on the run,” her sometime boyfriend says (pg. 16). Then, we find out that Reggie’s mother – who was a victim of serial killer Neptune twenty-five years ago – has been found alive.

In 1985, Reggie was a teenager with a crush on her best boy friend. Things weren’t great, but they were good enough. Then, the serial killer Neptune started severing the hand of his female victims and leaving them at the police department, before dumping the bodies a few days later. Neptune kidnapped Reggie’s beloved and idolized mother, but her body was never dumped. Now it is 2010 and her mother has been found. But, Neptune takes another victim and this time it is one of Reggie’s childhood friends – Tara, the goth. Can she find Neptune in time to save her friend? In order to do so, she’s got to take a mental trip back into her childhood and make some hard realizations about the truth of her life.

Review

I was confused when I began reading, because the book starts off with an excerpt of another book and a bit of a story of Neptune’s last victim. At first, I skipped the pages thinking that they were part of the publisher’s advertising for other novels, but then I realized they were the introduction to this book. The crazy introduction, befitting a book about a serial killer, is reminiscent of the movie Saw.

Skipping around in the years, the novel tells the entire story of Reggie’s life from the time time her mother became pregnant with her up until the end of the novel. It’s haphazard, but completely able to be followed. It’s also fascinating how with each chapter, a new layer of Reggie’s life is discovered, until you’re completely wrapped up in her life. In the beginning, the novel is nothing but a series of cliches, but by about halfway, it begins to get less predictable. It becomes darker as Reggie realizes things about her past that she didn’t understand as a teenager, and then it gets even darker still. I didn’t “see” the end at all until the last few chapters – as someone who can normally predict the ending at the beginning, this was a very refreshing change.

What I liked best is that despite the novel being dark, unpredictable, twisted, and edgy, the story still has notes of hope. The novel questions what a family is and how it is formed. It discusses dysfunction and keeping secrets. It’s deeper than just a story about a serial killer. It’s seemingly a peek into real life.

Thank you Ms. McMahon.

Jennifer McMahon is the author of Dismantled, the New York Times bestseller Island of Lost Girls, and the breakout début novel Promise Not to Tell . She grew up in suburban Connecticut, and graduated from Goddard College. Over the years, she has been a house painter, farm worker, paste-up artist, pizza delivery person, homeless shelter staff member, and has worked with mentally ill adults and children in a few different capacities. Currently, she lives in Vermont with her partner, Drea, and their daughter, Zella.

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Here are the criteria that I use when giving stars:

0 out of 5

DISLIKE: I could not make it through the book. It could be boring, obscene, disgusting, or so “out there” that I couldn’t wrap my head around the content.

1 out of 5

STRONGLY DISLIKE: I made it through the book, but wish I wouldn’t have spent so much time on it.

2 out of 5

SLIGHTLY TO MODERATELY DISLIKE: The book was readable, but the content was not novel or it was poorly written.

3 out of 5

NEUTRAL: The book was okay. I didn’t mind reading it, but I wouldn’t pick it up again unless the mood struck me just right. I might recommend it to a friend who was interested in the subject matter, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. I may even have enjoyed the book, but it was still a common subject matter or a rehash of prior works.

4 out of 5

SLIGHTLY TO MODERATELY LIKE: I enjoyed reading the book and would recommend it to other people. I will re-read it and I will seek out its sequels (if there are any).

5 out of 5

STRONGLY LIKE: I really enjoyed reading this book and it tops up there as something that I would re-read many times. I will definitely seek out all its sequels (if there are any).

First semester of graduate school + having a baby + my grandma dying… momentarily, and then recovering days after being put on life support + my grandpa having emergency-type surgeries + Kai dying + Ra-ra running away from home and probably dying + gestational diabetes and high-risk pregnancy and nursing problems + raising two other children (one with many conflicts at school) = CHAOS.

I felt like I was running balls to the wall (shut up, internal editor – I like clichés) every single day just to survive. That kind of stress isn’t really good for a person, I don’t think, and near the end I just snapped and couldn’t take any more.

Hence the relaxing. Lots of relaxing.

Some good stuff happened in the fall of 2012, too. Nate was adopted by Aaron and all is great.

Let’s switch gears a second. Our house and our yard have changed drastically from the time we purchased it in 2006. I can’t believe it has been that long. You can read about it in the backfiles here, or at least some of it. Many things never make it to the blog, because I spend way too much time working on projects and working at work! Maybe I’ll get a chance to go around and update you on the rooms during my break – but, maybe not. The living room hasn’t changed much, except the desk is gone.

Despite the changes so far, I still have many plans for our home that I run past my husband often. Encouragingly, he doesn’t seem to mind too much when I dreamily start discussing things I want done. I’ve always kept files of inspiration and ideas around. For years now, that’s taken place in the starred folder of my Gmail accounts. It’s not really a very useful way to handle it, because I sometimes forget about the starred folder and then don’t do the projects. Plus, the starred folder isn’t organized.

Yesterday and today, I’ve spent many hours going through my starred Gmail folder. You can see where this is going, I’m sure. Pinterest. I decided that a better way to handle all the ideas would be to add the rooms of my house to Pinterest and pin the ideas to each room. This has resulted in my Pinterest account more than doubling in its number of pins. I think I’m okay with that.

Horrifyingly, though, people have begun to repin my inspirations. This has led me to go and look at their albums. Which then leads me to pin more things. And spend more time on Pinterest going, “Aaaah, yes!”

I think the encouraging look in my husband’s eye has turned to horror.

Moral of the story: Pinterest is the devil. But I love it. How could I live without the idea of making a moss bathmat, after all?

Photo used from coroflot.com, designer is Nguyen La Chanh

A review of Raylan by Elmore Leonard, published by William Morrow on December 26, 2012, ISBN 978-0-06-211947-6. You can see this review at Amazon, GoodReads, and LibraryThing. Rated a 3 out of 5.

Raylan Givens is a U.S. Marshall with a gun and an attitude, and he isn’t afraid to use either. Born in coal-country Kentucky, he spent some time in Florida with the Marshals until he shot a man to his boss’s displeasure. Shuttled back to his roots, Raylan gripes about serving the region he’s assigned, yet still gets the job done. Raylan reacts to several different crimes over the length of this novel, interacting with a kidney-stealing transplant nurse, a dope-running hick master mind, a coal company woman, some female bank robbers, and a girl master poker player.

While the premise of the novel seemed very engaging, it actually fell a little short. This is primarily because the novel reads more like a collection of short stories strung together with truncated transitions. Instead of one main story arc, there are at least three and they don’t really weave together in the end. It’s also incredibly dialogue-heavy and reminiscent of a novelized screen play instead of a rich and fully fleshed out world. This led to a lack of connection with the main character, Raylan.

The novel also has a cast of far out characters (seriously – a transplant nurse who steals kidneys and leaves her victims in bathtubs full of ice). Givens has many witty interactions with them which helps speed up the pace of the book, but it did take extra time to navigate the heavily Kentucky-accented dialogue throughout the book. Added to that, the relationships that Givens has with the other characters just weren’t believable.

The novel is, however, entertaining in a very light read-it-and-leave-it fashion and well-written overall. I’m sure someone who has seen the TV series Justified, which the novel’s main character is in, would be more interested in Raylan.

Thank you Mr. Leonard.

Elmore Leonard has written more than forty books during his highly successful writing career, including the bestsellers Road Dogs, Up in Honey’s Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise,Tishomingo Blues, and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories When the Women Come Out to Dance. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Be Cool. Justified, the hit series from FX, is based on Leonard’s character Raylan Givens, who appears in Riding the Rap, Pronto, the short story “Fire in the Hole,” and Raylan. Leonard is the recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA, and the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. He lives in Bloomfield Village, Michigan. The fourth season of FX’s hit original series, Justified, is set to premier on January 8, 2013.

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When I disclosed that I’m a gamer, jaws dropped across the room and I faced a room of incredulous faces.

So, ladies and gentlemen, this one is for you.

Playing a little Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Watch out and move over, Downton Abbey, because The Muskoka Novels are here.

Beginning in Muskoka, Canada in 1914, The Summer Before the Storm starts out telling the story of a well-to-do family as they endure a scandal of a disinherited son’s child audaciously inserting himself back into his family’s life through his tough grandmother. Victoria, the eldest son’s daughter, is really the main character in the story and it is told primarily through her eyes. Ria, as she is called, is daring and bold. She has been largely ignored by her father, raised without a mother, and likes to do things as she wishes.

Jack, the disinherited son’s child, takes to her immediately as a way to make sure he is kept in the family forever. He sets out to win Ria over, but the story doesn’t end there. (I won’t tell you if he succeeds, because where is the fun in that? Just know that this isn’t a predictable story.) Then, after a summer of fun and play – and halfway through the book, The Great War (World War I) strikes. The many cousins and friends we’ve come to love are of age to go to fight for England. We follow them through tragedy such as the sinking of the Lusitania and brief descriptions of the RFC and multiple battles. More and more sorrow falls on Ria while I was left crying.

Needless to say, I’ve already purchased the second book.

This isn’t a pleasant, meaningless jaunt through history. Ms. Wills skillfully weaves together fragments of history with fiction into a deep story with a plethora of events, characters, and stories to keep track. You have to settle into the novel, perhaps with a glass of wine – or a bottle, and enjoy it page-by-page. I’m normally a racer, reading quickly to get to the end as if I’m on a mission. This book is not a fast read. It is meant to be enjoyed and savored and instead of having a blatant point – such as an action film – it is more a carefully constructed drama.

And it is well worth it.

Thank you, Ms. Wills.

I rate this book a 5 out of 5! I loved it!

From Ms. Wills website:

Gabriele was born in Germany and emigrated to Canada as a young child. With degrees in the social sciences and education from the University of Toronto, she has had a varied career as an educator, literacy coordinator, and website designer, and has been an active community volunteer, particularly in heritage preservation. But writing fiction has always been her passion. Her first short story, “Mrs. Beresford’s Disgrace”, won an Honourable Mention in the Canadian Authors Association short story contest, and appears in the Winners’ Circle 5 Anthology. In the fall of 2001, she produced a feature, nominated for an award, on CBC Radio’s “Outfront”.

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