Tantric Coconuts

Tantric Coconuts by Greg Kincaid     70 of 304 pages       

I’ve enjoyed Greg Kincaid’s previous three novels (A Dog Named Christmas, Christmas with Tucker, and A Christmas Home) so I was excited to see that he had a new book coming out.

In rural Kansas, Ted Day is a divorced, workaholic lawyer. One of his grandfather’s last wishes was that he take a vacation. One of the things that Grandpa left him was an old silver and black Winnebago 32RQ Chieftain. After Grandpa’s funeral, he packs with the RV and his dog, Argo, and sets out.

At the same time on the Lakota Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, free spirit Angel Two Sparrow is trying to figure out what to do next. She wants to become a Native-American Spiritual Consultant. Exactly how she’s going to do this is shady, but she has a business plan.  Her aunt Lilly gave her Bertha the Bookmobile, equally as decrepit as Ted’s Winnebago that she had converted into her home. Now that Aunt Lilly was in Pierre at the South Dakota Women’s Prison and no longer needs Bertha, Angel decides that she will go in search of clients for her new business. She paints her business card on one side and on the other side, her logo.  She loads up with supplies and Aunt Lilly’s half-wolf/half-dog, No Barks, and sets out.

Somewhere in New Mexico in front of the Perfect Prairie RV Park, the two vehicles collide. Literally.

Cute, huh?  The back cover copy promises a “quirky spiritual journey.” I like spiritual journeys; I was thinking Joan Brady’s God on a Harley and its sequel Joyride. But that’s as far as it goes.

By the time I got to page 70, where I gave up, the Ted and Angel were caricatures of a thousand characters before them. I felt like I was being preached at after Ted decided he want to give Angel’s way a try, and I was bored. To me there was no reason to turn the page; no compelling plot line, no wondering what’s going to happen next. PLUS what really closed the book for me was the footnotes.

Sorry, Greg, you missed the boat on this one. I give this book one out of five stars.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

 

 

 

In The Shadow Of Blackbirds

In The Shadow Of Blackbirds by Cat Winters        387 pages

Set in San Diego during World War II, Mary Shelley has gone to stay with her aunt Eva in the midst of the Spanish Influenza outbreak.  People are dying all around them from the disease and they are worried about getting sick also.  Mary Shelley is also worried for her father, who has been arrested and for her friend, Stephen, who has gone overseas to fight.  She and Stephen weren’t officially courting, but they definitely loved each other and Mary Shelley is devastated when she finds out that Stephen has died.  Stephen’s brother, Julius, is a spiritual photographer.  He photographs people and loved ones who have died often appear in the background.  Stephen always claimed that Julius was a fraud but when Aunt Eva asks Mary Shelley to sit for Julius, Stephen appears in the background and soon after, Mary Shelley starts hearing Stephen’s voice.  She has never believed in ghosts but now she’s not so sure.  This is a good historical, supernatural story for teens.

Ghost of the Mary Celeste

The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin 306 pages

 Despite the title, the ship Mary Celeste is only plays a minor role in this novel set in the 19th Century.  Its role is more of how the mystery of the abandoned ship with it's missing crew affected the lives of supposedly unrelated people, Sallie Briggs, Phoebe Grant, Arthur Conan Doyle and spiritualist Violet Petra.  Each section is almost an unrelated vignette and we skip among each person recounting a history and as the book progresses we start to see how loss has shaped each person's lives.

If you are expecting a solution to the mystery of the Mary Celeste you will be disappointed as the book offers no concrete solution and ends rather mysteriously and abruptly.  Instead you'll be enthralled by the lives and action of each of the main characters and the heartbreak of loss.