Wildflower
by Janine Carbone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers' Favorite .
Faith is determined to make it through college without getting close to anyone, and so far she has made it to her junior year with only her freshman dorm mate, Casey. This year is going to be different, Jason is determined to get to know the beautiful girl running on the track. Faith has had a rough upbringing and Jason will have to break through her walls. Professor Jillian has been there all through the years to encourage and help Faith try to take a few steps out into the world and out from behind her walls, and as her relationship with Jason blossoms, she will encourage her even more. At the same time, repressed memories of her childhood will start to haunt Faith. Janine Carbone does a wonderful job of mixing a number of ideas and storylines into one larger story. Wildflower will get darker yet before it gets brighter with the addition of a serial rapist on campus.
Janine Carbone has mixed a coming of age story, with a mystery story and a romance story to come up with a wonderful story that blends the elements and makes the whole story greater than the sum of the parts. Wildflower is prefect name for the book, but you will need to read until the very end to understand the meaning of the name. This book is definitely a young adult book, but adults and even younger readers will get something from the story. Aside from the mention of the rapist, there is no other sexual situations in the book, which is nice for a book these days.
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EDIT:
" Hi Michelle:
Thank you for the wonderful review of "Wildflower"! I loved it so much that I placed it on my personal website, social media accounts and on the back cover of the book!
- Janine"
The Frailty Of Perception
by Joey Rawlings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers' Favorite .
Asher Bloom knows nothing of from where he comes, but that doesn't bother him. He has Raglan, and that is all he needs. Raglan found him when he was young, took him in and has raised him and taught him everything he needs to know to survive, or at least up until now that had been the case. Suddenly everything that Asher knew has been turned upside down. Joey Rawlings takes us on a journey into a fantastic world where Asher is not only unique among the normal population, but even among the special population of his type that is trained, he is unique. THE FRAILTY OF PERCEPTION is a fantasy tale that follows Asher Bloom as he learns who he is and what his role in this new world will be.
As you read The Frailty of Perception, you will notice similarities to other fantasy stories, but at the same time you will see differences. Asher enters the training school and is immediately befriended by a young girl and boy, the trio becomes one. Yet this trio is nothing like any fantasy story trio you have ever read about before. Joey Rawlings does a wonderful job of using parts of classic fantasy stories that draw readers in and mixing then with new ideas to make a brand new fantasy that takes the reader to new and better heights. Young adults and older readers both will enjoy this book as both will find different levels of meaning in the book as they read. This is one that parents can share with their children.
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Hidden Agenda
by Peter Berman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book reviewed by Michelle Randall for +Readers' Favorite .
A year after his wife's death, Jeremy Hart, from the DA's office, is attending a fund raising gala at the advice of his therapist. She wants him to talk to at least two single women, when he spots Claire Carlton, he is smitten, after an innocent dance he finds she is married and she will later pay the price at the hands of her husband for the dance. Hidden Agenda follows Claire and Jeremy as they talk, becoming friends and then lovers. Claire wants to leave her husband, but Peter is not a man you walk away from, so they talk about it but you can tell it will never happen. One night Peter is shot in his driveway, and Jeremy is arrested for the murder, but did he do it? Or is he being framed? Author Peter S. Berman introduces us then to Ulysses and Jennifer, the Detectives on the case and what they find or don't find. All the while, there are side vignettes of a stranger that is attacking women. How does that tie into this investigation?
Peter S. Berman does a wonderful job, breaking the book in three main sections, one about each duo of characters as it might be, and telling what is happening from their perspectives. The beginning of the story is all about Claire and Jeremy, the middle is all about Ulysses and Jennifer and the last about another. Hidden Agenda is aptly named in more that one way, as there is more than one hidden agenda going on in the book! As you go through reading you find so many people doing things, just under the surface to right a wrong that the system failed them on in the past. Now that is not an endorsement of doling out justice, but it makes an amazing and captivating story for all readers.
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