Dianne's Book Reviews

Through the Independent Authors Guild, I have met an incredible array of authors from across the country -- and around the world!   I have found independently published books to be more original and captivating  than your regular "NY Times Bestsellers."  Yeah, those guys get the sales, but these authors have the stories. Many of the books reviewed on this site were sent to me for review by the author or the publisher, often through POD Book Reviews and More., however these reviews reflect my honest opinion and are in no way influenced by my receipt of the book.

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Blind Delusion by Dorothy Phaire

Politics, drug-lords, marital strife, and the yearning for motherhood all play their part in Ms. Phaire’s new mystery, Blind Delusion. Commencing a few months after the conclusion of Murder and the Masquerade, the book opens with Dr. Renee Hayes, a 45-year old black psychologist living in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, trying to repair her damaged marriage. Renee has broken off her affair with handsome police detective, Deek Hamilton, seeing no future with a man a dozen years her junior, no matter how much attraction there is between them.  She is determined to rekindle the flame of love in her own marriage, although she sometimes wonders if her continued attempts to woo Bill, her husband of fifteen years, are nothing but a “blind delusion.”

Meanwhile, Renee’s new secretary, Brenda Johnson, is wondering if she’s been blindly deluded about her own husband.  She believed that the ne’er-do-well Jerome had managed to keep himself drug-free for eighteen months, but he is unexpectedly fired from his job after a random drug test. Brenda doesn’t believe his claim that it was all a mistake, especially after catching him with his old girlfriend. The two storylines converge when Brenda’s life erupts into flames, and Renee is first uplifted by a seeming miracle and then crushed by a devastating disappointment. 

Searching for Pemberley by Mary Lydon Simonsen

Searching for Pemberley is a historical romance of complexity and depth, with skillfully layered characters that readers will remember for a long time. Author Mary Simonsen intricately weaves multiple timelines of British history – the Regency era and both World Wars – while exploring three different historical romances.

The first is the courtship of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Narrator Maggie Joyce, a young American living in post-World War II England, visits a Regency-era home that may have been the inspiration for the stately home of Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s famous novel.  Maggie’s interest in the family who may have inspired Austen’s timeless book Pride and Prejudice blossoms into an enduring friendship with the British couple who have kept and catalogued the family letters and diaries.  Through these historical documents, readers are treated to a retelling of the P & P story, with characters and events just different enough from the Austen novel to keep things interesting.  Soon, however, we become immersed in the story of the British couple themselves, Beth and Jack Crowell.  Beth is a descendent of the Darcy family (here named Lacey) and Jack is the son of her family’s butler.  Their class-breaking romance is set against the back-drop of World War I, when a generation of young Englishmen were killed, maimed, or emotionally-scarred by the horrors of war.  Add to this a burgeoning love triangle between the narrator herself and two servicemen – a dashing American flyer and a sergeant in the Royal Air Force who may be a descendant of the original Mr. Darcy – and the result is a truly wonderful romantic novel.

I read the original, self-published version of this novel, Pemberley Remembered, and enjoyed it very much.  This newer, enriched version, published by Sourcebooks in December 2009, is superior, however, in that it weaves multiple layers of history and romance into a compelling tale and satisfactorily wraps up a narrative that was left open-ended in the original book. Simonsen has created characters who tug at your heart and skillfully paints an emotional picture of the devastation of war.  When Jack Crowell, who lost a brother and two brothers-in-law in the first war, reacts to the news that his younger son has been assigned to combat in Burma, I was reduced to tears.  However, there were also plenty of joyful and truly funny moments, such as a diary entry in which “Mrs. Bennet” gives advice on the marriage bed to her daughters and a humorous retelling of eldest Crowell son facing a “privacy hole” cut into the bedcovers on his wedding night in Italy. 

As the focus of the book gradually shifts from the distant romance of Pride and Prejudice fame to the life-changing decisions of young Maggie Joyce, readers will find themselves swept along on a rich backdrop of history and personable, enduring characters.

The Boleyn Wife by Brandy Purdy

In The Confessions of Piers Gaveston, Brandy Purdy took on the portrayal of one of the most maligned male characters in English history.  Now, in The Boleyn Wife, she brings us a narrative of a similar vein – the confessions of Lady Rochford, the woman who helped bring Anne Boleyn and her brother to the chopping block.

Lady Jane Parker is described on the back cover as shy and plain. Personally, I felt that based on this portrayal, better words to describe her would be manipulative and avaricious.  Her obsession with George seems unaccountable – they had nothing in common and George had never shown anything but disinterest in her.  She desired him in a most obsessive way and resented everyone he truly cared for – most of all, his sister Anne.

Anne Boleyn gets a slightly new face in this novel. Purdy supposes that Anne’s love for Harry Percy, the man Henry prevented her from marrying, was deep and genuine.  Forcibly separated from her true love match, Anne avenges herself by flagrantly provoking and spurning the King, and inadvertently fueling his obsession. Only when his pursuit of her reaches extraordinary bounds does Anne see the potential for her own advancement.  George Boleyn is entirely devoted to Anne with a depth of tender feeling that would have been incredibly romantic – if she hadn’t been his sister – but since she is, it’s slightly creepy. Still, there is no physically incestuous love between them, and Jane’s jealous hatred of their relationship eventually leads to madness … and perjury at their trial.

Brandy Purdy’s writing is vivid and full of rich imagery.  At times, it is downright bawdy, especially when the lusty Kat Howard takes center stage in the latter half of the book. For readers interested in a new look at the Tudor court through the eyes of the woman who betrayed her husband and regretted it evermore, The Boleyn Wife is worth a close look.

Manifestations by D. C. Wilson

When bizarre events begin to happen in Brockton Falls, California, ten year-old Eric Jessing, his younger brother Kevin, and their father Matt find themselves at the center of a terrifying paranormal adventure.  A war is coming, one that will pit the dark matter forces of the universe against the human defenders against evil, known as Charges because of their ability to repel and deflect dark matter.  Matt Jessing finds it hard to believe when a local psychic identifies his sons as two of these specially gifted Charges, but when his house is invaded by an abnormal infestation of foul insects and he detects a threatening presence watching over the boys in the night, he is forced to seek the advice of an antique book seller and send his sons alone on a dangerous quest.

This paranormal novel for teens delivers some scary scenes and suspenseful action, although there are a few plot holes that bothered me.  I felt that the story continued pages past the logical climax, and the groundwork for the subsequent events was not well laid in the earlier part of the story.  The content is definitely rated “teen” in my opinion, in spite of the age of the protagonists. D.C. Wilson shows a potential for dishing up some scary stuff, and his use of dark matter physics as a basis for the paranormal makes an interesting twist.  Recommended for teen readers of horror and the paranormal.

Murder and the Masquerade by Dorothy Phaire

Dr. Renee Hayes is a 40+ Black psychologist with a successful practice in the Washington DC metropolitan area who finds her personal life unfulfilling. Her husband is cold, competitive, and unenthusiastic about Renee’s interest in adopting a child. When a handsome police detective a dozen years her junior investigates a break-in at her house that resulted in patient files being stolen, Renee breaks out of the play-it-safe, good-girl role she has lived all her life and takes a chance on an illicit and possibly marriage-breaking affair.  Then, a frantic phone call from a patient puts her right in the middle of a crime scene, and the issue of doctor-patient confidentiality takes a backseat to a more pressing problem -- the detective investigating the case is her lover.

Murder and the Masquerade is full of richly developed characters and believable dialogue. In particular, Renee’s dilemma as a childless, professional woman approaching middle age and her affair with a younger man was cleverly developed. Renee does not go into adultery lightly or without misgivings, and yet she is irresistibly drawn to Deek Hamilton, who treats her with the tenderness and passion so lacking in her life. Hamilton’s attraction to this mature and intelligent older woman is also well explained, and readers will find him a sympathetic and likeable character.

Unfortunately, after a stunning prologue and a promising beginning in which the weeks previous to the murder are fleshed out, the central mystery fails to deliver. There are several plot holes, including important clues which are never explained and inconsistencies in the chronology of events.  Toward the end of the novel, I felt the characters did not continue to act and respond as they did earlier in the book, and overall the solution to the crime did not satisfy. This was almost a fantastic book, and in spite of my misgivings, I believe that this author shows a great deal of promise.

But Wait ... There's More!

Due to the number of reviews written in the last year, this page was becoming a bit crowded.  Therefore, only the 5 most recent reviews will be displayed on this page.  Visit the Review Archives to see older reviews, organized for your convenience by genre.

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