Mark Brooker is an art teacher, existing in middle-age. His wife, Alison, informs him that she would like out of their marriage, forcing Mark to make some mid-life choices. He decides, after an unexpected monetary windfall and a similarly unanticipated intimacy with a young woman, to pursue his ambition as a landscape artist. Landscape is a beautifully told tale of mid-life crisis and the surprising new worlds that can open for anyone at anytime, plus the complications that can arise. The Australian countryside and mystery of India are fantastic and wild backdrops that illustrate the main character's life changes as well as Author Faulds relates the journey Mark takes in picking up the pieces of his life.  

In REGGAE JIHAD, Cody Sargent is a retired Navy Seal who has landed a small fortune. He has decided to spend this money on a boat so he can sail through retirement on the Carribbean. However, his pleasure cruise is short-lived as he uncovers a plot by Arab terrorists to cripple the American economy. The terrorists now want Cody dead, and what follows is a heart-pounding page turner by author Caleb H. Smith. Smith's descriptions and knowledge are credible and authentic, taking on the points of view of the character's three main cultures. His understanding of the cultures results in the inevitable clash that occurs and drives the plot to its action-packed conclusion.

Poetry from the mind of Natascha Tallowin takes on a life of its own in the collection Some of Her Parts. Vivid imagery and wild descriptions color the contemporary topics of break-ups, illicit sexual trysts, aging, and writers of fiction, among many others. Odes to perfect dream men, Oats (a cat), and Dracula (a masquerader?) are some samples of the subject matter that Tallowin presents from her day to day observations of people, places, things, and thoughts. Tallowin’s use of paradox, as in “The Boy” is a running theme through the collection (“Don’t worry, I’m here; I’m your girl”) as well as her tendency to call out individuals in particular (“Jennifer Schecter, For you the words from...

In ENDLESS SUMMER, author Christopher Petersen attempts to address the question, “Where do we go after we die?” In this paranormal family drama, Christopher Petersen gives us much to think about: “Are there spirits in another world? What happens when we die? Can we communicate with spirits?” These thoughts are expressed through the excellent dialogue between his main characters.

Will and Joan are on a New England beach vacation with their children. Joan has a great interest in ghosts, and lo and behold, suddenly paranormal phenomena begin to occur on the beach on a daily basis. This puzzles the family as they meet up with several mystifying ghostly presences.

Petersen has a uniquely humorous writing style that ...

Tear in Time is a fantastic fantasy novel about time travel. Dr. David Warner is a brilliant young surgeon who goes back in time through a portal. He ends up right in the middle of the Civil War, where he teams up with Dr. Jeb Morgan, a Civil War doctor. David teaches Dr. Morgan about modern medicine, while Dr. Morgan teaches David about real survival, prior to the age of needing a cell phone to “survive.” Author Christopher Petersen takes several jabs at the shallowness or modern society and our dependence on our conveniences in this novel. He also presents a plausible alternate history had events gone a certain way, given a small disruption in the past. I was very impressed by the attention to detail that Petersen paid to ...