Literary Fiction

Holy Parrot

Holy Parrot
Title: Holy Parrot
ASIN: B0B8SL82J6
Publisher:
Published: December 1, 2022
Author:
Author's Twitter: @Angel_A_Author
Leo Lumière, a science student from Australia, was tasked with discovering something special in the remote Colombian Department of Magdalena. Maria swore a parrot told her that she would be the mother of a saviour. Was Maria the virgin mother she professed to be, or was Pablo the father? Miraculous events unfolded that challenged Leo’s scientific reasoning. Torn between revealing a crime and protecting Maria from efforts to eliminate the claimed divine child, his task took an unexpected turn. Tens of thousands converged into the region hoping to witness Maria with her paranormal parrot, all chanting one phrase, 'Loro Santo’: Holy Parrot.

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

25 July 2023

 

Secrets In The Mirror

Secrets In The Mirror
Title: Secrets In The Mirror
ASIN: B0B34H59Y1
Publisher:
Published: September 13, 2022
Author:
Author's Twitter: @LeslieKainAuth1
This book contains a racist term and explicit language.   “A psychological thriller perfect for our time” that “toes the fine line between sympathetic and terrifying,” Secrets In The Mirror is a sweeping saga of one family’s journey to rise above the toxicity of multigenerational domestic abuse and crime. Gavin struggles to salvage his self-esteem from Dad’s bullying, and from narcissistic abuse by his identical mirror twin. But when Devon gets into drugs and trouble with the Mob, people start dying. Gavin flees far away to protect himself and his new family. But he can’t escape his sociopathic brother, or the Mob. Yet inextricable bonds tie him to Devon, and Gavin vows to break the lethal chain of family dysfunction and rescue his twin from his self-destructive path. Can he save his brother before Devon destroys them both?

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

This book contains a racist term and explicit language.

Far Cry From The Turquoise Room

Far Cry From The Turquoise Room
Title: Far Cry From The Turquoise Room
ASIN: B004ZF80N0
Tag:
Published: May 4, 2011
Author:
Author's Twitter: @AuthorRigby
Told from both daughter and father's perspectives, Far Cry From The Turquoise Room is a coming-of-age, riches-to-rags tale of loss, resilience, and self-discovery, set just before the millennium. Leila is the eight-year-old daughter of Hassan Nassiri, a wealthy Iranian property owner, and younger sister to the adored Fayruz, her father's favourite daughter. But a holiday narrowboat tragedy has far-reaching consequences for the surviving family. Hassan withdraws into reclusive grief or high jinks with his men friends at his second home in Hampstead, leaving Leila to fend for herself in a lonely world of nannies, chess and star-gazing. Leila eventually runs away from home and joins a family of travellers in Sussex, and so follows a tale of adventure, danger and romance – and further anguish for her surviving family. But how will she fare at such a young age and will her family ever find her?  

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

Tomorrow Is A Long Time

Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Title: Tomorrow Is A Long Time
ASIN: B00ODHR0NQ
Published: November 23, 2014
Author:
Author's Twitter: @TabithaVohn
Tomorrow Is A Long Time is an intertwining of two stories, both exploring the boundaries of romantic love and the consequences of pushing those boundaries. It tests preconceived notions of age, fidelity, and sacrifices made for love.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Clad in Armour of Radiant White

Clad in Armour of Radiant White
Title: Clad in Armour of Radiant White
ASIN: B00YFAGM8U
Published: May 27, 2015
Author's Twitter: @RosalineARiley
This is a coming-of-age novel set in the 1950s and 60s in Lancashire. Its point-of-view protagonist is Ellen, a working class girl who becomes friends with middle class Erica when she goes to the convent school in the neighbouring town. Focussing on both Ellen’s home life and her school life (which she tries to keep separate), the novel explores the gains and the losses that education and religion provide over the course of her school years.   Thematically, it’s a novel about friendship, love, loss, and death. Social class is also dealt with lightly. There are dark passages in the novel, but also much humour. Each chapter is a month of the year – beginning with September to reflect the structure of the school year. This framework also allows for treatment of the seasons and the liturgical year. The months are sequential but the years are not. Between September 1959 and September 1966 the years go back and forth (with some flashbacks to earlier years).

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Writing is Easy

Writing is Easy
Title: Writing is Easy
ASIN: B00FIKWSZW
Categories: ,
Published: September 28, 2013
Author:
A gourmet casserole of writerly ego, vanity, seduction, blackmail and death, spiced with a superhuman fitness protein and dollops of good red wine.    

Assessed 

South of Burnt Rocks – West of the Moon

South of Burnt Rocks – West of the Moon
Title: South of Burnt Rocks – West of the Moon
ASIN: B009V2ZOL8
Published: October 21, 2012
Author:
Lavena, the last survivor of Rome's plundering destruction in ancient Spain, must survive to the next sunrise and then try to unite far-flung villages and oust the Roman menace. Based on real events and ancient She-Warriors who fought alongside their men. Mighty Rome plunders everything of value and destroys anything left standing in the beautiful and rich land south of Burnt Rocks. We know it as Spain. Lavena, the last child of the strongest tribal leader in the area, must grow up fast, must choose between marriage to her favorite young man and children, or the life of a She-Warrior fighting side-by-side with the male warriors of her tribe – or even fighting alone. The crush of an invading Roman army forces her choices. Guided by the spirits of the dead, by her father’s favorite dog, and the courage of those with nothing left to lose, she takes a last stand against the Roman menace. Roman scout, Marcus, is ordered to try to find answers to unseen but real threats pestering his Roman army – scouts who never return, dead soldiers, deadly traps in the ground, and slaughtered bullocks. More than any of his masters, Marcus begins to understand the havoc Lavena has wreaked, but deeper yearnings drive him to find her for other reasons, to be with her. Based on actual characters of that time and place, South of Burnt Rocks – West of The Moontells that mostly true story lost to the fog of history.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Delivering Virtue

Delivering Virtue
Title: Delivering Virtue
ASIN: B01528UA9A
Published: November 7, 2015
Author's Twitter: @briankindall
Poetic rogue Didier Rain is hired by The Church of the Restructured Truth to deliver a baby – Virtue – to be the bride of the Prophet Nehi at his church’s new settlement in the wilderness territories. A picaresque novel set in the American frontier of 1854. “It’s 1854 in the American West and Didier Rain – rogue, poet, and would-be entrepreneur – is hired by an upstart church to deliver a child bride to the sect’s prophet across a frontier fraught with perils.” Delivering Virtue is a picaresque novel set in the American frontier of 1854. A poetic rogue by the name of Didier Rain is hired by The Church of the Restructured Truth to fulfill a prophecy. He is to deliver a baby – Virtue – to be the bride of the Prophet Nehi at his church’s new settlement in the wilderness territories. The story is an account of the trials Rain endures on this journey, attempting to adhere to the contract he signed prescribing his sacrosanct behavior throughout, while wrestling with his more base animal inclinations. As he walks this precarious line between the sacred and the profane, Virtue remains Didier Rain’s guiding miracle, showing him the true meaning of salvation by journey’s end.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Lives Interrupted

Lives Interrupted
Title: Lives Interrupted
ASIN: B0062WC95E
Published: November 2, 2011
Author's Twitter: @shaunabickley
One moment can destroy your life. It’s an ordinary summer day in London until explosions rip through the underground. Matthew has been fired and Rosa is struggling to cope as their debts spiral out of control, but she has a plan. A plan she can’t share with Matthew. Meanwhile, his choices will wreck their lives in a way they can’t begin to imagine. Life is tough, but how much worse could it be? A bombing on the underground answers that question. Death and injury affect them as they struggle to survive, but those first few hours are only the beginning. They will never be the same, but can they learn to live with this new life they never chose? One moment can change your life. One moment that takes everything. That leaves nothing as it was. People you will never know. Their decisions take what was, and leave you with now.

Assessed