Reviews with TLC

What He Wants Eden Cole is an erotic short story starring two best friends who reluctantly admit their attraction for each other. I felt pulled into the story as the two struggled with feelings they didn't want to feel let alone act upon. Cole weaves an engaging story of attraction, friendship, and self-discovery to which many people will relate regardless of sexual orientation.

Tamara J. Madison's Kentucky Curdled uses poetry to examine the pain of family secrets and family mythology. All families have stories with a root of truth that have the feeling of being unbelievable. Madison bravely examines the emotions of all involved when a mother kills her own child believing it the best alternative. Her words are lyrical though raw and blunt. She entrances the reader with pure emotion and honest examination without giving in to the impulse to whitewash the story. Kentucky Curdled is a quick, compelling, thought provoking read.

Naseem Rakha packs The Crying Tree with thought provoking situations involving interesting characters the reader struggles to like at times and reluctantly dislikes at other times. Rakha immerses the reader in the grief and depression of the Stanley family after the death of their fifteen year old son, Shep. She examines the destruction wrought by family secrets and how easy it can be to blind ourselves to that which we don't want to see. As each family member deals with the death of Shep in their individual ways, the reader wonders what keeps the family from completely disintegrating. When Irene, Shep's mother, begins a secret correspondence with Daniel Robbins, her son's killer, she begins to see him as human rather than just as Shep's murderer launching her on the process of both healing and forgiving. When secrets reveal more about her son than she ever imagined, she questions her mothering as well as the truth revealed. The Crying Tree grabs hold of the reader ...

The Mental Game of Golf by Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D. explores how our psychological well-being affects our performance on the golf course. Cohn discusses a range of emotions that affect one's ability to play to one's full potential. He focuses a lot on the individual component of the game. Much of what he discusses will make sense to anyone who has ever played golf and felt either frustrated or surprised by the day's performance. I'm not sure if anything I read will improve my game, but Cohn's examination of how often we create the play we envision rings true with me. Anyone struggling to find their stride on the golf course may find The Mental Game of Golf an interesting read.

I'm fairly certain Dance with a Gunfighter by Joanne Pence is the first western I've ever read. I'm not sure what I expected, but reading it reminded me why I hate genre labels... I would've missed this gem simply because it's a western if I hadn't been asked to review it. Pence drops the reader in the middle of an Old West desert landscape complete with throats parched from thirst, pounding heat from the sun, and cold nights. When Gabe and McLowry meet at a town dance, they never expect to see one another again. After all, she's an innocent teenager and he's a gunfighter. Years later when Gabe finds herself alone and seeking revenge for her family, McLowry reappears and becomes her reluctant protector. As they grow closer, Gabe's inability to behave like a "lady" coupled with her innocence of how the world works confounds McLowry. They travel together looking for the people Gabe seeks to kill for revenge for her family all the while McL...

  All the Dancing Birds by Auburn McCanta set my heart aflutter and my mind to dancing as it immersed me in Lillie Claire's struggle to hold on to herself. McCanta's lyrical prose wrapped me in the story like a comforting blanket as we traveled through Lillie Claire's good days and bad days. I cringed as Allison, Lillie Claire's daughter, struggled accept the reality of the changes in her mother as Lillie Claire lost her hold on her memories, her life, and her self. I blinked back tears as Bryan, Lillie Claire's son, gently but efficiently guided Lillie Claire through the necessary steps to preserve her dignity as much as possible. The letters Lillie Claire wrote for her children explaining her "failures" as she saw them and giving them their ancestral heritage left me clamoring for more as I'm sure her children felt when they finished reading them. Lillie Claire's "woman" aka Jewell made me appreciate how precious caretakers for those ...

Click to purchase book from Amazon.com Click to purchase movie from Amazon.com I watched the movie, Chocolat, several years ago, so I recently decided it was time to read the book. Perhaps I wasn't paying close enough attention when I watched the movie, but I expected something very different when I sat down to read the book. I expected the book to be more... romantic, sensual... Instead I found it to be an exploration of the effects of intolerance. Harris takes the intolerance so rife in our world and concentrates it in one small community showing how limiting we can be when we refuse to see beyond that which we've always been taught. She deftly explores the effects of exclusionary behavior and the harm of not bothering to get to know other people. With the story set around a newcomer who opens a chocolate store during Lent and the priest who opposes not only the chocolate shop but her mere presence, the town seems divided down the middle with people willing to bli...