I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Jette Harris since my early Twitter authoring days, and the good fortune to be one of her beta readers for her gut-wrenching thriller series “My Name Is Not Heather Stokes”.  In between its first installment, Colossus, and the upcoming Two Guns, she began work on “Phoenix Rising”, a series of novellas which follows the sinister serial killer known as The Phoenix along the path which leads him to the man we see in Colossus.  It begins in his youth, and is projected to follow him right up to the events of “My Name Is Not Heather Stokes”.   Here is my unsolicited, unbiased, unvarnished review of the two existing novellas.

I must begin by saying that ALL of Harris’ novels contain unbridled scenes of abuse, both emotional and physical.  If you cannot read such things, for any reason, I recommend that you steer clear.  If you’re still with me, let’s begin.

We begin in rural Colorado, with young Thaddeus “Thatch” Adams.  He and his mother live on Flint Ranch, a small horse farm, with his uncle, Jed.  It is clear from page one that their surrogate home is anything but safe.  Under Jed’s crooked, cruel rule of the household, nothing is allowed to remain innocent. Flint Ranch becomes a place where angels fear to tread, as the few allies Thatch and his mother have abandon them.  When a pack of wolves menaces the farm, uncle and nephew are both pushed to their breaking point.

It is suggested that Jed’s business dealings are as crooked as his morals, and that backed himself into a corner with his dealings: one reason why he may be taking his anger out on his family.  He is never fully fleshed out, which is for the best: it makes it easier for the reader to demonize him in the same way that Thatch does.   The solace he finds in the horses is simply written, but poignant: they become his second family in scenes which are a perfect counterpoint to Jed’s abuse.

Thatch’s abuse is rough to watch, because Harris holds no punches.   Her prose is raw and unapologetic, and there were times when I felt my throat and stomach tighten - particularly during one brutal scene in the barn.  But Thatch’s first acts of rebellion are the seeds which will help him survive … and grow into the man who becomes Avery Rhodes.
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The prose is quick, rough, and jerks from phrase to phrase, mimicking the anxiety and tension so perfectly that it’s hard not to empathize with Thatch, especially as he enters his teenage years and begins to fully comprehend what has been going on around him.   Flint Ranch’s ending is abrupt, but it feels right: cut off with a final line as sharp as a gunshot.  Even though the novella clocks in at under 100 pages, it carries an impact that lingers.

Not long after the events of Flint Ranch, Thatch is sent to Colorado Springs.  There, he enters the care of his father Wren Chares, a Greek mechanic.  In the course of adjusting to his new home and school, Thatch begins to slowly recover from the abuse he suffered at Jed’s hands.  But pieces of Wren’s history still haunt him, and they will come back to affect Thatch, too…
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I was just as anxious as Thatch to meet Wren Chares.  I, too, feared that he might be another abusive figure, but I was quickly proven wrong, and grew to love him as a character.  His quiet demeanor and gentle insistence upon manners and sophistication, despite his lower-class stature, are a refreshing polar opposite to the horrors of Flint Ranch.  Harris’ writing reflects this, losing a great deal of the brusque pacing and tension she strung through the previous novella. 

Thatch’s post-traumatic state of mind is treated with a deft hand, showing us the lingering after-effects of abuse, both physical and emotional.   One scene in particular, when Thatch is shown to his new room, is heart-breakingly beautiful, and his responses to what were considered “normal” locker room antics in the 1970s are revelatory.

Wren’s moonlighting job is handled with equal mastery, as Thatch begins to sort out his own opinions on the nature of the world, what he might want to do with the rest of his life, and his own attractions. 
doctor as his father tells him stories of his own compassion and resilience, and learns first-hand by accompanying him on house calls to the brothel, where he begins to sort out his own attractions.  I dare not give anything away, but the climactic scene of the novella is the birth of Thatch’s purpose, and brings joy mixed with tragedy.   Where Flint Ranch was the record of Thatch’s pain, Salvage lays down the first, tentative steps toward his recovery… and ends on a note even more abrupt.

To wrap things up, I must stress that despite the graphic scenes which scar Thatch, there is far more to these novellas than shock value - if anything, it is not what happens to characters which is of note, but how they handle themselves in the aftermath.   Thatch’s progression from victim to tentative survivor is what has me waiting on the edge of my comfy reading chair for the next novella.

You can find all of Jette's published works on her Amazon author page, here.   Please also take a moment to follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and visit her Wordpress blog, where she frequently shares excerpts from her work in progress, and shorter pieces.

​With that, I am going to tuck this blog in for a NaNoWriMo nap, and I will see you all in December!  Thanks to all of you for your continued support - I wouldn’t be here without you! 
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Until next time, 

Hello, everyone!  Welcome back Between The Lines... I hope you're all ready for a thrill ride, this week, because I've got a fantastic one lined up for you!  Before we start talking about the most breakneck-paced book I've read this year, I feel obligated to remind you that this is an unsolicited, unbiased review: I was not approached or compensated by the publisher or author in any way.  Now that the legalese is out of the way, climb on in, stow your belongings in the mesh compartment in the seat in front of you, pull the bar down 'til it clicks, and get ready to follow me on a wild ride through Cori Lynn Arnold's novel Thin Luck!

Robyn Hughes was a successful TV reporter in Connecticut (a little ways from Aviario, perhaps?) before a terrible accident got her arrested.  Now, after serving her prison term, she returns home, wanting nothing more than to reacquaint herself with her husband Nick and their infant son, Kyle.  But Nick never comes to pick her up, and by the time she's able to get home, he and Kyle are both gone.   With most of her resources stripped down, and no one willing to trust her, Robyn has to rely on her own street smarts and her investigative reporter's instinct to track Nick across the country so that she can get Kyle back.  As the title implies, however, luck is not on her side, and a string of unfortunate mishaps begin to amass until Robyn is wanted once more, this time with her own criminal nickname: "The Bonnie Without A Clyde".   When Detective Turner is assigned to track Robyn down, he must put together the pieces and bring her in ... but he discovers something else in her past which might change how things work out for everyone involved.

From page one, I wanted to know what was going on: who Robyn was, why she'd been in prison.  Cori Lynn Arnold has a deft hand for suspense, stringing it taut between chapters like a violin.  Robyn's cross-country quest to find Nick and Kyle is reminiscent of The Fugitive. I would say that it would make for an amazing mini-series adaptation, but it doesn't need one: Arnold's descriptions are at once rich and succinct, putting you in the scene without slowing down the story.  Readers careen along with Robyn from one chance encounter to the next, and every stranger she meets is as richly detailed as our heroine.  Things connect and branch off each other in unexpected, delightful ways, and culminate in a California showdown which left me holding my breath with every page turn.   

My only thing which took me a little out of the read was the fact that Arnold switches from Robyn's first-person voice to third-person during the scenes with Detective Turner ... but it grew on me as the novel progressed.  Hearing Robyn's tale in her voice not only makes it easier to see inside her mind, but helps wrap the reader up in it all and forget that outside of everything that Robyn is dealing with, life rolls on.   When Detective Turner comes on the scene, only then do we catch glimpses of the ripples the plot is making in the "real" world, and asked to decide if we really do want to root for Robyn.

The little details really help this book shine: each chapter begins with Robyn's location, and the codes for whatever law she breaks in that location, leaving us to guess how it's actually going to happen.  All in all, this was a fantastic novel: I read it in a little over a day, and after skimming through it to find the high points for this review, found myself wanting to read it again.  Those who prefer e-books will find Chapter 18 worth the price, alone, but I expect that I'll be purchasing a printed copy for my shelf at some point in the future.  

You can get your own copy of Thin Luck here on Amazon, or through Smashwords.  Cori Lynn does not have a blog, but you can follow her on Twitter,  Facebook, or Goodreads!

Thank you for joining me for another indie book review!  Please remember that reviews are what help independent authors like Cori and me sell books ... if you read something, review something!  I hope you'll join me next week for another review - this one's a double-shot: two novellas by Jette Harris! 

​Until then, as always, I remain your hostess,

Book of Birds tells the story of Elly and Dot, orphaned sisters sent to live with their maternal grandparents in post-war Canada, during the 1940s.   Sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, Elly's keen observational skills have taught her how to survive the wilds of the pre-pubescent schoolyard, but she still finds herself somewhat of an outcast.  She befriends fellow outlier Stanni, nicknamed "Stammer" for his speech impediment, but their friendship is tested to its limits when Dot disappears during a visit to a traveling circus.  All involved, even Elly's grandparents, have a little growing up to do as the investigation unfolds.

The first thing that struck me about Book of Birds was its narrator's voice.  Elly takes the reader by the hand and pulls them, without apology, down the path of those few turbulent months in her life.  She speaks with the clear, no-nonsense tone of a young girl, calling the shots as she sees them and making the sort of observations most adults either forget or miss.  L.M. Bryski seats herself so confidently in Elly's mind that we forget that Elly, herself, did not write it down for us.   As children often do, Ellie makes remarks that are equal parts harsh and humorous, and the humor serves to carry the reader through darker scenes with a perfect balance.  Those dark scenes are not written to shock or to disgust, they are simply told plain-faced, presented as they are, because Elly will not shirk from the truth of the telling.   

Elly is not the only remarkable character in the novel, by far: there was not a single character who I felt was one-dimensional or flat.  Every single person has a purpose in the story, and that purpose is woven in with traits and events that give them depth: from the school groundskeeper to the strange, outcast old lady who Elly meets outside after church one Sunday morning.  While I was able to predict the "who-done-it" aspect of the story, it did not detract from how much I enjoyed reading it, or the tension which the author strung taut through the entire novel.  This is a debut which I would happily read again and again: it deserves a place on the shelf with coming-of-age classics such as Where The Red Fern Grows and The Giver. 

I encourage you to check out L.M. Bryski.com, as well as follow her on Twitter and/or Facebook.  Book of Birds is available through Moran Press.    Please join me next week, when I'll have another review in store!

Until next Wednesday, friends & fellow readers!