Adora and the Distance

Adora and the Distance is a 2021 Comixology Original YA fantasy graphic novel following the epic adventures of Adora, a brave young woman of color who lives in a fantastical world with underground pirates, ghosts, and a mysterious force called "The Distance" which threatens to destroy it all.

Adora's adventures were magical as advertised. She is a nine-year-old adopted princess who left home to avoid being obliterated by the Distance. Her father Raphael assigns several of his employees to protect her throughout her travels. Her maid Esperanza, of course, travels with her as does Gregoire, Antonio from Roma, Jaffar from Arabia, Mur Rey from Turkey and El Moor. Along the way the group encounters bandits, puzzles and the walking dead whose homeland was destroyed by the Distance. The ending had a surprise twist that I did not see coming. I have debated whether I should explain the ending, which was quite profound. It's impossible to write a decent review without delving into the weighty issue the author gives us. Some reviewers have done so but I will not.

This comic is a must read. You will not be disappointed. There is no foul language, sex or violence so it is appropriate for young readers. 5 out of 5 stars.

Can't Wait Wednesday #40

My favorite cozy mystery author has a new book coming out on April 1, 2025. Cleo Coyle's No Roast for the Weary is the 21st installment of her coffeehouse mystery series. Coyle is the pen name of husband and wife writing team of Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini. The main character is Clare Cosi. Along with her ex-husband Clare operates her mother-in-law's Village Blend coffeehouse.

The publisher's summary: When the Village Blend opens a Writer's Block Lounge, a cold case crime turns up the heat on Clare and her crew in this gripping new entry in the beloved Coffeehouse Mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle.

As much as master roaster Clare Cosi adores coffee, the landmark shop she manages won't survive if she doesn't sell enough of it. So when the Village Blend's customer traffic grinds to a halt, she turns to her staff for creative ideas, and the Writer's Block Lounge is born. Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the shop, is upset by this news. Years ago, a group of accomplished writers used the shop's second-floor lounge to inspire each other, but the group disbanded when something dark occurred. Though that history is shrouded in mystery, Clare presses forward...

Soon the Village Blend tables are filled with aspiring novelists, playwrights, and poets, all happy to be coaxed, cajoled, and caffeinated by her coffeehouse crew. Clare admires the stamina of these scribes, many of them toiling at night jobs—driving taxis, tending bar, ushering for Broadway—while penning projects during the day. Then one of their fictions turns fatal when a shocking secret leads to a deadly end. Unless Clare can untangle this mystery, uncover the truth, and stop a desperate killer, she fears more of these weary writers may be marked for eternal rest. 

I pre-ordered a copy of the book awhile ago and cannot wait to start reading.

The Rise and Fall of Miss Fannie's Biscuits

The Rise and Fall of Miss Fannie's Biscuits was published on New Year's Day 2025. The novel is co-authored by Wanda Brunstetter and Martha Bolton. It’s interesting that the cover states the book is "a cozy Amish mystery." Is the book classified as within the cozy genre or does the reader just have the feel of being cozy while they are reading it? I have wondered for awhile whether Amish fiction can be considered to be a cozy sub-genre and am still befuddled by it. Brunstetter has written 78 books to date and Bolton has written 88 inspirational books. 

The story opens with Fannie Miller deciding to enter the Tuscarawas County Baking Contest. After making the finals of the competition some of the contestants begin disappearing. Fannie calls on her old friend Foster Bates, a retired cop and part-time private investigator, to determine who is responsible. They wonder whether other finalists are responsible for these disappearances in order to thin out the competition. Possible whodunnits include the couple on verge of divorce who need the prize money or the three Beiler sisters who are always in a huddle whispering. We don't get the names of the missing folks until 70% into the story. One person is named but she returns to watch the baking finals competition after a multiple personality blackout.

 

The story moved slowly and I got bored. I didn't like the characters at all. Fannie is a bossy woman who no one wants to be with, including me. It’s hard to believe that she is Amish because she behaves like an Englisher from the inner city. Foster Bates is just plain dull. I can't believe that he got involved in the investigation based merely on a bossy woman demanding his participation. He was not interested in joining Fannie's investigation and always tries to avoid her so his decision to help her isn’t realistic. Foster is a low energy guy who doesn't really want to work. In addition, I did not believe their interpretation of events. The missing contestants didn't make the finals so why wouldn't they just go home? Halfway through the story Foster even wondered whether anyone was really missing and the reader isn't given the names of the so-called missing people. Another problem I had was the huge amount of narrative. There wasn't much dialogue, mainly narrative. It's impossible to know each character's motives without dialogue. Also, the Amish bishop was quite accommodating to Foster. He answered every question and also offered more information. This just isn't realistic and the suspension of belief went too far. 

I wonder whether Wanda Brunstetter contributed anything to this book other than her name. The writing was not in her style. With most of the characters being Amish, I expected an Amish setting. There was nothing Amish about the book or the characters dialogue or behavior. Likewise, I expected to read about the characters as they baked their goods. None of that was in the book.

This book was a disappointment. 2 out of 5 stars. 

Delicious

Delicious, the Life and Art of Wayne Thiebaud was published in 2007. When I purchased it I was expecting the 9 x 12 official art history book of the same title. The book I received is approximately 8 x 8 with 108 pages. It contains a short biography of artist Wayne Thiebaud as well as his development as an artist from age 8 until his death in 2021 at the age of 101. I was not aware that this book is a children's book for kids aged 9 to 14. However, I still learned alot about the artist. Thiebaud is known for his paintings of cakes, pies, cupcakes,  hamburgers and hot dogs. He is one of my favorite artists of the 20th century.

The book has full page copies of Thiebaud's art along with some history concerning the methods used to make the painting. Thiebaud was a contemporary and friend of Willem de Kooning. He utilized Kooning's technique of making brushstrokes in his dessert paintings and painted many layers in each painting. He also copied the methods of the Old Masters. Thiebaud was a skilled cartoonist who could draw Popeye simultaneously with both hands. While he married twice and had a family, he went to college and earned a MS degree in art history. Thiebaud's day job was a professionor of art at Sacramento Junior College. 

During the 1960s he was thought to be a Pop Artist like Andy Warhol. However, Thiebaud used different ways of painting that were more complex than Warhol’s. He began each painting with a thumbnail sketch and then drew triangles or squares that he later drew into the pies, cakes, etc... Although Thiebaud is famous for his desserts, he also drew cityscapes and landscapes. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I will be thumbing through it alot in the future just to view those gorgeous paintings. 5 out of 5 stars.

40 Seconds

40 Seconds is a 2022 Comixology Original comic. This 120 page edition collects releases 1 through 5 of the comic. The book is a science fiction story about a team of science explorers. They are traveling in space through a series of alien gateways using Forge Gate Technology in order to answer a distress call from a galaxy away. The scientists jump across the universe through strange and beautiful landscapes only to be hunted by a vast inexplicably unstoppable horde. They can only learn the truth surrounding the distress call if they make it through the final gate in time.

While the story was gripping and fast paced, the first thing I noticed was the color palette of the comic strip panels. They are gorgeous. The first gateway has a beautiful pink landscape. The second was done in browns but the buildings were Asian inspired. I couldn’t tell if they were Japanese or Chinese. Colorist Brett Weldele did a fabulous job here. The next gateway was pink, lavender, green, blue, teal, orange and brown. The drawings of these worlds included ruins, jungle, urban areas along with strange creatures and enemies. The artwork made this story a fun one to read.

What does the title reveal about the story? The explorers have forty seconds to jump through the gates before they close and they are lost forever. I loved this comic and immediately re-read it. It's a fun story suitable for kids as there is no foul language, sex or violence. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Guests

I selected this book for the Key Word Reading Challenge this month. The plot is interesting. Six guests are invited to the private Stonecliffe Island in Lake Michigan for the reading of a will and some of them are going to die.

The story opens with Ryleigh, a struggling artist whose been invited by her best friend, Kerrigan, to spend a week on Kerrigan's family’s private island on Lake Michigan. Kerrigan is a housewife with a perfect life. She has a seemingly loving husband, Kip, and a glamorous downtown Chicago apartment. However, her husband hates her. Their marriage is a sham. Cole is the caretaker of the estate and his job is to make sure the guests of the estate have everything they want but he has private aspirations that he needs to accomplish before the summer is over. Also in attendance are newlyweds Stavros and Mika.

On the estate each guest has their own villa. There are staff on-call twenty-four hours a day, including a masseuse, chefs to make dinner every night, and waiters pouring endless champagne. Their stay is expected to be perfect. However, a violent storm arrives and there is no way off of the island. Then one of the guests disappears.

The story started off well but for half of the book there was mainly bickering among the characters. The first disappearance didn't happen until halfway through the story so I tired of this dialogue. The story took off though and the pace kept ratcheting up until the final pages. The guests pointed fingers at each other, accusing everyone of commandeering the disappearance of Mika and later the disappearance of Kerrigan. This back and forth continued to the end of the story which had me reeling from the frequent twists and turns.

Despite the slow start this was an exciting novel and I am glad that I stuck with it. 4 out of 5 stars.

Two Spinsters and a Madman

Eve Tarrington's Two Spinsters and a Madman was published on March 1, 2025. It is my selection for the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge. My initial thought about the book is that I have no idea what I just read.

The publisher's summary: 

A foundling, a murder, and a home full of people society has deemed mad. Can two intrepid spinsters save themselves and this rare refuge?

Wealthy Louisa-Margaretta Haddington is spending a London season in the company of Mr Fortescue, a notorious rake and spendthrift. She knows she should not seek him out, but she finds him intriguing. Meanwhile, her old friend Judith St Clair has left her home to work in the Home, a refuge for men and women who are thought to be mad. The resident doctor is Mr Ludlow Fortescue, who is as serious as his London brother is irreverent. Though Judith finds the Quaker beliefs strange, the work is meaningful. When a foundling child is abandoned at the Home, its residents band together to care for her.

Then Mr Ludlow Fortescue is killed.

Suspicion quickly falls on the men and women who are residents of the Home, though Judith knows that not one of them would have intentionally harmed the doctor. Louisa-Margaretta, in order to escape her suitor, promises to solve the murder. But neither of the two friends knows where to start. And when a second foundling is left outside the Home, they begin to wonder if death and new life might be connected.

I must say right off the bat that I don't normally read regency stories. This type of writing was a little strange for me but that is not what bothered me. When I reached page 85 (out of 248) there still had not been a murder. Instead there was 85 pages of characters behaving oh so proper. At this point in the story an infant had been discretely dropped off on the premises. The staff and patients of this upper class psychiatric facility decided to keep the baby instead of taking it to the foundling home. Strange. However, the resident physician and superintendent are supposed to be murdered so I stopped reading for a few days. When I picked up the book again the murder finally occurred.

The investigation was done by two main characters: Judith St. Clair and Louisa Margaretta Harrington. They are friends even though they come from different classes. Louisa Margaretta is an aristocrat who isn't sure that she wants to marry. She has left her family's London manor to stay with Judith at the facility. Strange again. Who vacations in a psychiatric hospital? Louisa offers her hand in marriage to one of the facility's superintendents who just happens to be the brother of the deceased. Louisa Margaretta made a deal with him:  if she discovered the identity of the killer first, she wouldn't have to marry. If she didn't then she would marry Mr. Fortescue. Judith is also on the lookout for a husband. Their investigation consisted of a search of the house belonging to their suspect. The identity of the whodunnit was announced but I have no idea how these two ladies figured it all out. It was surprising though.

The dialogue was particularly old-fashioned because the Quakers running the hospital insisted on everyone speaking with thees and thous. I am not opposed to reading more regency novels but if they are mysteries I want a good pace. I don't know what the standard formula is for regency stories so I don't know what to expect from them. I am not even sure what genre applies here. Initially I thought the book was a cozy mystery. After finishing the book I wondered whether it's a historical mystery. I guess it could be both. 

I enjoyed reading this novel regardless of the problems I mentioned above. I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars. 

Can't Wait Wednesday #39

I have been in a reading slump all week so it's hard to think about any book I might want to read in the future. However, Sue Hincenberg's The Retirement Plan sounds like a good story. Three wives approaching retirement with three husbands in the way. This novel will be published on May 6, 2025 and with 544 pages it's definitely a chunkster.

The story concerns three middle-aged best friends who turn to murder in order to collect on their husbands’ life insurance policies. The ladies, though, are unaware that their husbands have a devious plan of their own. After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands, until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong, and their dreams of beachfront condos and a sunny, carefree retirement vanish. When one husband dies in a freak accident, the other three women are shocked to see his widow rebound with a huge life insurance payout and a new life in Florida. In the aftermath, the women discover that their husbands have identical, seven-figure life insurance policies. A new dream forms, and this time, it involves a hitman.

Meanwhile, their husbands have a secret retirement plan of their own. So, when things begin to go awry, they fear their own scheme may have backfired with deadly consequences. The husbands scramble to stay alive, but they may not be fast enough to outmaneuver their wives. What follows is a high-stakes tale of cat and mouse, both laugh-out-loud funny and unbearably tense, while ultimately a bighearted look at marriage, friendship, and middle-age. 

I retired a year ago so this book sounds fabulous.

Rising Sun Falling Rain

I received a free copy of this book from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. The book was published on January 30, 2025 and the story is set in post-WWII Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped.

The publisher's summary:

 

Introducing the stunning debut RISING SUN FALLING RAIN by Trish Devine. This powerful novel explores the clash between tradition and new ways, weaving a story spanning cultures and generations, celebrating the enduring strength of the human spirit.

 

New Zealand serviceman Mick Mitchell tackles the recovery of Hiroshima with compassion, Kiwi ingenuity and the determination to make a difference.

 

Eighteen-year-old Emiko Tanazawa, determined to break free from the constraints of her traditional upbringing, emerges as a driving force for social reform. Advocating for the rights of marginalised women and children, she embraces modern ideals born from the chaos of war.

 

Drawn together in the wave of change, Mick and Emiko fall in love and furtively marry, but dreams are not enough. Their plans for a better life are thwarted by the controlling influences of others, forcing them into an unforeseen future.

Twenty years later their daughter sets out to unlock the mysteries of her past...

I was expecting more from this novel than what I got. Mick's work as a truck driver was dull. He gave rides to folks going to and from a local hospital and work, if there was any. The beginning of the story described each day of Mick's but with a boring job comes a boring story. We read alot of sentences stating Mick drove here or he turned left. It might have been interesting if life on the military base was described in more detail. Early in the story Mick decides to help a young boy named Kazu learn English in exchange for help building wooden steps for buildings. When Mick sees a friend of Kazu's grandmother, he is smitten. Kazu is the link to Emiko, his grandmother's friend.

Once Mick and Emiko become a couple the pace picks up. This is around page 90 of this 256 page novel. However, for me the story was still slow. I wasn't engaged in the story until Karina, Mick and Emiko's daughter, came into the picture. Karina is the only character with emotion. All the others fell flat. When Karina found out that Mick was her father the story  became compelling and the pace was at lightening speed. The second half of the book was devoted to her and her search for her biological mother It was exciting. The only other problem I had was how the story ended. SPOILER ALERT. After Emiko recognized that Karina was her daughter there wasn't even another sentence.

This book was a disappointment. I am rating it 2 out of 5 stars.

Black is the Color

I loved the cover of this graphic novel and decided to get a copy. I wondered whether the comic strip panels inside would have some color or whether they would be black and white. Unfortunately for me, they're black and white. 

The story opens with a 17th-century sailor abandoned at sea by his shipmates. It was cruel for the captain to pick Xavier and Warren to offload in order to protect the ship from damaging winds. Xavier is ill and can't stop coughing. The sound annoys Warren so much that he pushes Xavier out of their lifeboat. As the story progresses Warren endures, and eventually succumbs to both his lingering death sentence and the advances of a cruel and amorous mermaid; a nakedness and voluptuous mermaid of course. The narrative also delves into the experiences of the loved ones he left behind, both on his ship and at home, as well as of the mermaids who witness his destruction. Most of this was about the mermaids though. Per the author, the story is about "the value of maintaining dignity to the detriment of intimacy, and the erotic potential of the worst-case scenario."

The story didn't grab my attention. I couldn't figure out why the plot premise was something to write about. There wasn't much action. Many of the comic strip panels had no dialogue. However, it was easy to determine what was happening. While there are many comic fans who would love this type of book, it just wasn't my cup of tea. 3 out of 5 stars.

Can't Wait Wednesday #38

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at the Wishful Endings blog to spotlight the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released. 

This week I am excited about the newest installment of the Indigo Teashop series by Laura Childs. High Tea and Misdemeanors was published yesterday and I will most likely be reading it in a few days.

The story is about a wedding where the amateur sleuth Theodosia Browning is catering the reception. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Theo owns a teashop in Charleston. Her tea sommelier Drayton helps her investigate murders. Sometimes they occur on the premises. In this installment of the series she and Drayton are setting up their catering area when they hear a crash coming from a greenhouse. You guessed it, the greenhouse roof collapsed on a bridesmaid and groom. I am assuming the two of them should not be together but we shall see.

What book(s) are you looking forward to read?

Sugar Shack

I received an advanced review copy of this graphic novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on August 5, 2025. I have read most of Knisley's books and they all give a female perspective of various times in a woman's life. In this story we read about Jen, a city girl turned country girl, whose life has been constantly changing. Jen believes that it's time that she found her place in her new blended family. Her father Walter has a new wife and kids while she lives with her mother. Sugar Shack is the final novel in Knisley's Peapod Farm series.

The publisher's summary:

Jen couldn’t be more excited to spend time on Peapod Farms with her step-sisters, Andy and Reese. For months, Jen has been so focused on trying to figure out how she fits into her new blended family that she hasn’t realized she’s found her place… that is until Reese calls her sister.

Excited and content, Jen thought she had figured everything out,but now she’s not so sure. A rift emerges between the girls as Andy doubles down on being Reese’s ACTUAL sister, while Jen is just the STEP sister. With Andy’s attitude bringing a cold front to the farm it seems like it’s going to be a long winter.

Maybe between Peapod Farm’s first snow and learning how to tap a tree for sugar, Jen and Andy both will have a chance to truly understand what it means to be family.

This is a cute, kid friendly story. There is no foul language or violence and the drawings reflect the perspectives of the kids in the story. The recommended reading age is 8 to 12 years old. 

Jen loves visiting her father and her two step-sisters on the farm that her father owns. They have wonderful adventures such as building snowmen and snow castles, then coming indoors for plentiful mugs of hot cocoa. The farm has many maple trees from which the family makes maple syrup. I enjoyed learning how it is made. The title of the book comes from the sugar shack on the farm where the maple liquid is boiled down into syrup. First, maple liquid is tapped from the trees into a bucket and later made into the syrup. The step-sisters also have fun experiences with their friends from school. Jen is introduced to them and joins in their activities. Jen is boy crazy, though, and there are many scenes where she talks about her infatuation with a guy named Eddie. 

Jen spends her Saturday mornings studying with her rabbi for her Bat Mitzvah. She is a fairly religious Jew while her step-sisters don't have any knowledge of their Jewish ancestry. Technically the step-sisters are not Jewish because I don't think their mother isn't Jewish. If she is, this knowledge has not been passed down into the story.

The dialogue in Sugar Shack is written the way kids talk. With the brightly colored comic panels the book has the feel of a children's books, which it is. However, my sixtysomething self thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It sent me down memory lane to my own childhood where I, too, had fun with my friends and classmates. 

5 out of 5 stars.

The Peacemaker

The Peacemaker is the second book in an Amish fiction trilogy by Wanda Brunstetter. It is part of the Mifflin County series. I reviewed the first book in the series, The Protector, on June 1, 2024.  The Peacemaker was published two days ago on March 1, 2025.

The publisher's summary:

An Unresolved Mystery Holds an Amish Community in Limbo In book two of A Mifflin County Mystery series, Rosa Petersheim’s disappearance continues to cause suspicion and pain to swirl in the Big Valley. Ada’s best friend, Rosa, disappeared a year ago and still has not been found. In their grief and confusion, Ada and Rosa’s boyfriend, Ephraim, have grown very close. But some in the community feel Ephraim is responsible for Rosa’s disappearance. Now Rosa’s younger sister is making accusations against Ephraim that can’t be true, and he pulls away from Ada, feeling betrayed. A fire set by an arsonist might finally be the thing to reveal secrets that have long been dividing this community of friends and family. But will it be too late for love between the peacemaker and the suspect?

As usual, Wanda Brunstetter has written another heartwarming Amish tale. The missing character Rosa has deeply affected all of the characters in this story. Her disappearance has not been resolved. Her wild boyfriend Ephraim finally settled down after her disappearance. Rosa’s brother Norman refuses to believe that he isn't guilty and her best friend Ada falls in love with Ephraim. While the story is about the relationships these characters have, the Rosa thread has been written extensively into the plot. The story isn't about her though. It's about Norman and his fiance Salina, Ada and Ephraim and Norman's younger sister Susan who is just as rebellious as Rosa. 

The characters I loved the most were secondary:  Ephraim's widowed grandmother Sarah and her friend Josiah. Josiah Weaver is my favorite. He too is widowed. He needs to use a cane but has a fun personality. Josiah met Sarah while he was searching for a lost cat. He fell for Sarah right away and the two of them frequently went out together.

While Ada is the official peacemaker of the story, her mother as well as Ephraim's mother and grandmother also have this trait. Also, the story has more than a few romances going on at the same time. I think there usually is one romance per a typical Amish fiction novel but here we have several. Obviously we have Norman and Salina, Ada and Ephraim, Norman's sister Susan and her wild living boyfriend Ben, and Sarah and Josiah. There's alot of love here. . . and grief.

If you love romance you will love The Peacemaker. 5 out of 5 stars.