The New Book Review

This blog, #TheNewBookReview, is "new" because it eschews #bookbigotry. It lets readers, reviewers, authors, and publishers expand the exposure of their favorite reviews, FREE. Info for submissions is in the "Send Me Your Fav Book Review" circle icon in the right column below. Find resources to help your career using the mini search engine below. #TheNewBookReview is a multi-award-winning blog including a MastersInEnglish.org recommendation.

Friday, February 18, 2022

Lois W. Stern Reviews Write Right by Joy Lynn Goddard

Lois W. Stern Reviews Write Right by Joy Lynn Goddard


Write Right
is a book packed with clearly defined, easy to digest relevancy. Although primarily geared toward striving novel writers, I discovered much within its covers of equal relevancy to more experienced writers - writers of both fiction and nonfiction. And since TheNewBookReview has a huge audience of writers of all genre and levels of expertise, I wanted to point it out to our readers here.


Once you open this book, first check out the GETTING STARTED section. In her chapter, What’s Your Big Idea, Ms. Goddard writes, “Readers are drawn to a book by the way it makes them feel.  . . .”  Such a simple concept, perhaps easy to overlook, but Ms. Goddard brings it home with her personal reminiscent of the day her mother witnessed blatant racial discrimination and took action against it to right the wrong. And this is the mantra of all polished authors, SHOW, DON’T TELL.

Ms. Goddard continues to SHOW her readers by citing excerpts from well proven treasured works, such as those from To Kill a Mockingbird, The Push, and her own Charlie’s Song, along with pithy statements from beloved authors as J.K. Rawling, Stephen King and even Ernest Hemingway, on what makes strong characters. 


The final section of Write Right, with its chapters on Perfect Punctuation, Parts of Speech, Effective Editing, might appear a bit simplistic for the seasoned writer, but her final chapter offers something of value to them as well. Techniques from alliteration and allusion to symbolism and understatement, are topics even the most seasoned of authors might incorporate into some of their well crafted works, just to give them a bit of extra punch. 


It gives me much pleasure to recommend this book to seasoned authors and aspiring newbies alike. 


Saturday, February 12, 2022

Ketak Datta Reviews Aussie Magdalalena's Newest Poetry Book "Compact Bone"



The Density of Compact Bone
By Magdalena Ball
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Ginninderra Press
100 pages, ISBN: 978-1761091865, Paperback

Reviewed by Dr. Kataki Datta

The Density of Compact Bone is a remarkable collection of poems from the prolific pen of renowned poet, Magdalena Ball. This is not her debut collection of poems. Hence, she is mature enough to carve a niche for herself among creative writers who are revered for their creations. This book has been divided into four interesting sections: “The Age of Waste”, “The Stronger the Entanglement the More Warped Space is”, “Chronon”, “The River Will Wash Us All Down”. Not less than ten powerful poems are included in each section. Environmental issues, Apocalypse, Time as an inexorable reality, the practicality of existence and its hapless yielding to the demands of Time, Space and Love and even the Anthropocene, we are inching on to—all serve as grist to her mill. The poet has addressed the difficult issues through the necessary terms borrowed from the pages of Science and fitted them into the emotional matrix of her poems, quite adeptly. And they never seem outlandish or misfit. 

A British lifestyle survey report once pointed out a hair-raising issue of wasting food and dumping of excess food in the garbage bins. This is sheer waste of food which is essential for sustenance. In nature, waste of many resources meets our eye very often. While we are in the times of Anthropocene, we should be wary of wasting our valuable resources like water, oil etc. In the very opening poem, Weed Garden, of this section, “ The Age of Waste”, Magdalena Ball wields her powerful pen,

  “A patch of weeds left to grow tall”, 

Which she decides to annul by walking next morning till …

…” I’ve left the farm

lost my body
with all its false softness

broken to sinuous fibre
too tough to digest.”

Losing the farm to destructive weeds is tantamount to losing a body to the rupture of “sinuous fibres”.  in poem after poem of this section, poet Magdalena Ball is warning the civilization to be careful about the threat of extinction it is going to face, with gradual depletion of all its resources:  

“Her name is Mud
 last of her kind……  

 Her name 
Is the Sixth Mass
Extinction
Glaciers, forest, buildings,
Man.”  (“FKA”)

Even humanity is touching low, as civilization is inching towards its extinction, when existence itself is threatened:

“Earth of course is
saturation blue
periwinkle in the morning
sumptuous even when 
melting
under the hot weight of 
humanity
bearing down.” ("Is Blue an Earth Tone?”)

Magdalena Ball leaves an indelible impression on our mind as she looks at all the conventional perspectives and challenges them with an analytical, scientific and a completely novel one. Just like Joy Harjo or  Adrienne Rich, Magdalena makes everything new in her world. Sometimes it feels like she is chiming in unison with Yeats’ “Surely some revelation is at hand” ("The Second Coming”) and sometimes she is with Wordsworth to give vent to her pent-up angst, “ Little we see in Nature that is ours/We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” ("The World is Too Much with Us”) and at times the work is Huxleyan in its search for a brave new world. 

In the second section, “The Stronger the Entanglement the More Warped Space Is” , the poet explores the future of earth, space and the ‘entanglement.’ The poet opens the third, title section with suspense, initially hesitating to relate her own experience to the world, and then she opening up into ‘feminine energy’ finding solace in the woods, amidst trees and nature as in the title poem: 

… “because my feet failed
beneath all that bluster
still bone.” 

The poems in this section are fraught with covert meanings and overt explanations:

“Every day is another chance
 to die of kindness
 the infinite regression of
 immortality.” ("Tomorrow’s Box is Quantum”)

Poems like "Shadow Genome” and “Transmission” explore the notion of being ‘transmitted’ into a different form, ‘second life, second soul’ may be. All these ideas are either the influence of Hindu religion or the Buddhist concept of transmogrifying into another soul in another birth. 

In the third section, “Chronon”, Ball explores many aspects of time, both as an indivisible unit, and against the hypothetical but still true statement that Time is not continuous. If such continuity of Time is questioned then, Eliot’s tall claim that “Time present and Time Past is contained in Time Future.” A length of Time is frozen in the matrix, it seems. Ball catches Time in all its varied facets and spectra:

“Nothing is lost, not even the moment
Shattered into light pulses, entangled
In the mother tongue, in the morning
leaves a taste on the lips, sharp
breaks through like the crack of a whip
reminds you that time is a construct
 you write every minute with breath. [Eastern Whip Bird]

Magdalena Ball might have been influenced by Jorge Luis Borges’s well-renowned essay, “A New Refutation of Time” (Labyrinths), where Borges says, “ I have accumulated transcriptions from the apologists of idealism, I have abounded in their canonical passages, I have been reiterative and explicit, I have censured Schopenhauer[not without ingratitude], so that my reader may begin to penetrate into this unstable world of the mind. A world of evanescent impressions: a world without matter or spirit, neither objective nor subjective; a world without the ideal architecture of space; a world made of time, of the absolute uniform time of the Principia; a tireless labyrinth, a chaos, a dream.”[256]

The last section of this volume, “The River will Wash Us All Down” is both interesting and mindboggling. The poems of this section highlight a desire of the poet to go with the flow yet follow her own course, paving a way for unique forms of understanding. For example, in “ If I could open a space”, she  declares of breaking  ‘every boundary’, ‘dissolving…every boundary’, taking ‘every burden on my (her) tiny  back’ and forgiving ‘ even myself(herself), every ragged mistake/to open this space.’ The Density of Compact Bone is a rare collection of poems to be treasured by poetry-lovers.  

INFORMATION ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dr. Ketaki Datta is an Associate Professor of English with Bidhannagar Govt. College, Kolkata. Apart from academic publications, she has two novels, three translated novels, and a book of poems, “Across the Blue Horizon”[ funded by Arts Council, England]to her credit apart from a bunch of short stories: both original and translated. She had been to Lisbon, California and University of Oxford on an invitation to read out her papers, mainly on indigenous and World theatre.  She is Regional Editor of The Theatre Times from India, headed by Prof. Magda Romanska, Professor, Emerson College, Boston. She has contributed to Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, edited by Magda Romanska; Beyond Improbable Lines: The Partition of India (Cambridge Scholar Publishing) by Daniela Rogobete and Elisabetta Marino. Lately, she has co-authored a book of photos and poems titled “ Urban Reflections” with Prof. Wilfried Raussert, Univ. of Bielefeld, Germany. Her book on Oral Stories of Totos is coming out soon from Sahitya Akademi. 



A BIO OR CREDIT LINE FOR THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK
More about Magdalena Ball can be found at her website: http://www.magdalenaball.com

Snapshot Courtesy Joy V. Smith

More About #TheNewBookReview Blog


 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Monday, February 7, 2022

My Octopus Teacher Film 10 Discussion Questions

My Octopus Teacher Film 

10 Discussion Questions

I loved the film, My Octopus Teacher. My daughter who has never liked cephalopods so much I could barely mention the title to her didn't watch it. She doesn't know what she is missing, in my opinion. Although there is a lengthy discussion guide online, I wrote ten discussion questions to encourage people to talk about the movie. The site's critical consensus reads: "A heartwarming look at the way a meaningful bond can transcend just about any barrier, this documentary will leave you asking your friends to come and see My Octopus Teacher with you." Living in a pandemic, that left me to watch it alone as no one in my so-called bubble wanted to watch (or discuss) the movie. So, that leaves me to write a blog post. Having watched it months ago, I still feel the impact of what I learned. 

My Octopus Teacher Film 10 Discussion Questions

For the questions that are less easily answered from only viewing the film, please see the long yet engaging official discussion guide. Here are my questions to get started:

Why did Craig Foster begin a daily diving regimen? How was it filmed? Where was it filmed?

2.    Did you connect with the protagonist, the octopus? Did the protagonist have a name? Did she have a memory?

3.    What portion of the life of the octopus did Foster record? What is the usual life expectancy of a cephalopod? How did you feel when he did not intervene or help at critical moments, like when the shark attacked or she gave birth?

4.    Do you think this movie was part of why the UK declared some octopuses, crabs, and lobsters as sentient beings in 2001?

5.    What is the range of temperatures in a kelp forest? Why? Describe the self-discipline needed to form a relationship with the octopus and record the information.

6.    How is climate change affecting kelp seaweed forests? How do kelp forests help climate stability?

7.    Why do you think Foster said, “What she taught me is to feel that you are part of this place. Not a visitor. And that’s a huge difference.”

8.    How did the story show love, friendship, connection, and hope? Do you think it was a love story?

9.    How does cold water stimulate brain activity? How long did Foster and the filmmakers have to hold their breath?

1             What is living science, according to the Sea Change Project?

Have you had a “teacher” in nature? Tell about your experience. 

If you have not seen the film, I hope to encourage you to do so. Here is a trailer that might help. 




Last, but hopefully not least as they say, here is the free instant download question guide I wrote. Click on the next link to download your copy. 

Discussion questions free instant download PDF

My Octopus Teacher Film 10 Discussion Questions free instant download

Thank you for reading, Carolyn Wilhelm of the Wise Owl Factory LLC 

 
 More About #TheNewBookReview Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Bob Freeman Introduces His H2LiftShips Sci-Fi Series


Series Title: H2LiftShips
Titles: Beyond Luna and A Back Story 
Coming spring of 2022, Bosons Wave
Subtitle: A tech manual for a future
Author: Bob Freeman
Category: Science Fiction 
Publisher: Indies United Publishing House, LLC
Page count: 331
Both books available in paperback and a variety of ebook formats at Amazon:

www.amazon.com/dp/B08WHN4PN6 and 

www.amazon.com/dp/B08X4YMHZZ 

ISBNs: 9781644562376 and 

9781644563076   

 

Synopsis: 

 

The premise of the stories is to build an Anti-dystopian commerce-based world using the tools already available on this planet and to answer the question, "How do the exhaust plumes of those fantasy ships do nothing downwind from the blast?"

 

Our spaceships are not rockets, which have huge emission issues. but use a light, explosive gas to move out of Earth's gravity field, wrapped in a colorful balloon shell.

To keep it simple, there are no aliens, monsters, blasters, exploding computers or half-dressed humans.  We just have regular sentients making a living in our heliosphere around Sol.

 

Driven by commerce, sentients bring their cultures, assumptions, and attitudes to the wider heliosphere.

 

We follow our main characters as they make their way across the heliosphere on the H2LiftShip, the LunaCola.  They are: 

 

Graciela Lourdes, female,  Homo sapiens

Tangsapor Kewellan Candrey, male, Pongo pygmaeus

Jack San Freedog Jr., male,  Canine familiaris

Octopus, male,  Octopus sp.

And a host of sentients they meet along the way: Family, pirates, merchants, and the Navy.

  
About the Author

Bob Freeman graduated from Humboldt State Univ, California after flunking out of UCLA because he spent too much time in Yosemite. He continued the education scheme by taking four years to complete a two-year Master program studying Anaerobic bacteria digesting Lignin. That effort took so long because he spent too much time in the Trinity Alps.

 

Forced to work for a living, the author spent eighteen years in the Imperial Valley, as a Public Health Microbiologist/Lab Director, with emphasis on border Tuberculosis and all the other nasties that seem to interact with humans, bats,  and dogs (We're talking Rabies).

 

Freeman also developed a Laboratory Information System software for Public Health Labs, still in use today and wrote innumerable laboratory/software manuals and more recently he is applying much of that experience to writing Science Fiction.  


Learn more about him at his website, 

www.h2liftship.com/backstory , on Twitter at  @h2lift and  on LinkedIn at  
linkedin.com/in/freemanbob

Watch for Vol 3, in this series,  "BosonsWave," It is due sometime soonish.


Bob Freeman Introduces His H2LiftShips Sci-Fi Series


More About #TheNewBookReview Blog

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Friday, January 28, 2022

Reviewer Jack Evans Weighs in on Joy Lynn Goddard's Contemporary Women's Fiction

TitleThe Keepers
Author: Joy Lynn Goddard 
Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction (multi-genre: mystery, romance, suspense)
Age/ Interest Level: 30+ Given the main characters, the book 
       especially appeals to middle-aged and senior readers.
Page #: 388
Awards: Canada Book Award
Publisher: Joy Lynn Goddard
Ebook Purchase link (paperback version available too): 


Reviewed by Jack Evans originally for The Belleville Intelligencer

Review: 

The Quinte area has enjoyed a generous share of talented and successful writers, both fiction and non-fiction.  A name that should be added to that growing list is Joy Lynn Goddard, a Picton-raised girl, who has been making a success with her books in partnership with her husband, Dan Pike. Their latest book, now available, is called “The Keepers,” set in a fictional winery and tourist accommodation operation in Prince Edward County. 

The Keepers-by-Joy-Lynn-Goddard-reviewer-jack-evans-weighs-in

Goddard thoroughly paints a cast of characters involved in a gripping story which includes a brutal murder, marital stress and breakup, a troubled teenage boy as a result, illicit drugs and wild beach parties, troubles with neighbours and budding new romances.

Richard, a successful writer, finds he is drying up and abandons his estranged wife to recover in the quietude of a summer let house at the winery. He soon gets involved with single mom Beth, the do-it-yourself and competent owner and her family and neighbours. 

Alexandre, Beth’s son, is a diamond in the rough teenager seemingly bent on a troubled life, getting involved with irresponsible friends and wild partyers. When a troublesome neighbour is found murdered in a shed at the winery, Beth quickly becomes the prime suspect and Richard pitches in to help clear her.

Lots of tense moments in this gripping story, with a suitably happy ending, and a recognition of the real problems some people have to face, often alone. This is a book for Adult Fiction fans. Exciting, enjoyable and beautifully portrayed.


More About the Reviewer

 Jack Evans is freelance writer and reviewer.

More About the Author

Joy Lynn Goddard teamed up with her husband, Daniel Pike, to write contemporary adult fiction. Both their novels, Moonshadow and The Keepers, have global appeal and won Canada Book Awards. Besides novels, they wrote Buyers, Liars, Sellers and Yellers, a collection of humorous short stories about the real estate industry. Although she is well known for her young adult and junior fiction—starting with the award-winning Daredevils and including Hello, my name is EmilyCharlie's SongJazzWhen Pigs Fly, and Mrs. Maloney's Garden—her adult novels are attracting wide-ranging attention, each crisscrossing romance, mystery, and suspense genres.

Joy and Dan divide their time between Guelph and Belleville, Ontario, where they spend time with a growing family when not working on their next book.


More About #TheNewBookReview Blog

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Books, Book Reviews and Hens' Teeth

James Gilmore, a mid nineteenth century American, is said to have coined the phrase, Scarcer than Hen’s TeethWell, since hens don’t have teeth, in effect he was saying that something was so scarce as to be nonexistent.



 

Let’s not have that happen to our books posted here on TheNewBookReview blog.

We all want those FREE Amazon posted reviews, so let's make it easy for the reviewer. Here’s how:

 Be ready to select a small section of your book listed here on The Book Review blog - perhaps 25 to 50 pages - just to give the reviewer its flavor. And potential reviewers, don’t be afraid to ask.

I have spent the last few weeks updating my Tales2Inspire books, to make it as easy as pie for potential reviewers to write those reviews. But you can develop some of these same features and have them ready to e-mail to potential reviewers, even if they’re not printed in your book. 

For example, I’ve included:

  • A brief synopsis of each short story on the Contents pages at the front of each of my Tales2Inspire books. (You can write synopses for chapters or book sections of your book instead.)
  • Thoughtful Book Club Discussion questions, at the end of each Tales2Inspire book, targeting the specific stories, so readers can pick and choose those of particular interest to them. (You can write some thought provoking questions now to e-mail to any reviewer from our list who contacts you .) 
  • Some really great hints for helping your potential reviewers write reviews, without breaking a sweat, (while showing them how to do a bit of self-promotion along the way.) Click here to check them out.
  • And don’t forget, there are some rewards just waiting for each reviewer, to heighten your visibility. Click here to see how we honor our reviewers.

It’s a New Year. 

Go here to select the genre of your choice, choose a title of interest to you from our treasured book listings, contact that author for a free book, and do your stuff.

And here’s why:




No Hen’s Teeth for us!  

As caring, responsible authors, let's each do a little bit to help a fellow author.


Your NewBookReview Coordinator,



   

 





Lois W. Stern

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Reviewer Wesley Britton Suggests You Dive Into This Camelot Tale

TITLE: The Priestess of Camelot: 

SERIES: Prequel to The Heirs to Camelot

AUTHOR: Jacqueline Church Simonds

Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 28, 2018

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07HSYTNRT

PURCHASE


Reviewed by Dr. Wesley Britton


Reviewer Wesley Britton Suggests You Dive Into This Camelot Tale

I suppose nearly everyone alive has experienced more than one version of the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table from the songs of Lerner and Loewe in their Camelot to the craziness of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.   In literature, we’ve seen everything from Thomas Malory’s 1485 Le Morte d’Arthur to Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1859 Idylls of the King to T.H. White’s 1958  The Once and Future King to my personal favorite, Bernard Cornwell’s earthy Warlord trilogy.

With such a plethora of reworkings of the classic stories, is it possible to give the much revamped canvas any new twists? It seems so. Jacqueline Church Simonds has indeed taken the epic where it hasn’t trodden before. For one key matter, her version of the legend centers on a female lead, Anya, a goddess-worshipping priestess of the Nordic Rus tribes. In Britain, she joins the sisterhood of Avalon, headed by Arthur’s archnemesis, Morgaine.

In time,  Anya travels to Camelot where she falls in love with Merlin and bears him a son. Then, she falls in love with Arthur and also bears him a son. Then, in a magical ritual in a sacred grove,  she has a sort of “immaculate conception” where the goddess impregnates Anya with the fatherless daughter.  Now, that’s a vivid, memorable scene.

Back in the beginning of the tale, Anya is seduced by Morgaine which sets the stage for a series of very erotic encounters.  Malory nor Tennyson nor White ever ventured into this territory but, not having read every modern recasting of the Roundtable saga,  I can’t attest as to whether or not Church Simonds is breaking new ground here.  All I can safely say is that The Priestess of Camelot is not YA material.

To be fair, the book is far more than a series of romances. Anya is a very developed, vividly painted character who becomes a leader in her region, demonstrating her skills by protecting her neighbors in a time where Christianity is doing its best to quash goddess worship.   Because of the visions the goddess occasionally shares with Anya, the priestess sets about making it possible for goddess worship to return to Britain   1,500 years in the future led by her heirs, the descendants of Merlin, Arthur, and the goddess.


So, The Priestess of Camelot sets the stage for Church Simonds’ Heirs to Camelot series including The Midsummer Wife,   The Solstice Bride, and The Mistress of the Rose Moon. All of these titles are available now, so if The Priestess of Camelot grabs your imagination, you can dive into a non-stop trip into a new avenue of Arthurian lore. Maybe you’ll fall in love with Anya yourself. You’d be in good company.

 

 

More About the Reviewer

Dr. Wesley Britton, an author in his own right,  reviews regularly for this blog and rBookPleasures.com.


More About #TheNewBookReview Blog 



 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing