Book Review for APRICOTS IN A TURKISH GARDEN by Carrie Jane Knowles

Title: Apricots in a Turkish Garden
Author: Carrie Jane Knowles
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing, LLC
Genre: Short Stories
ISBN: 978-1630661090

Apricots in a Turkish Garden

by Carrie Jane Knowles

Book review by Nicole Eva Fraser

Carrie Knowles is a great writer, pure and simple, and her gifts shine in this collection of short stories with a crazy-quilt of characters we can recognize and identify with. In her stories, conversations are key—imagine! People talking face-to-face and on the telephone to each other! People conversing at length without their minds and eyes wandering to their smart phones! Knowles brings her individual characters, their relationships, and their realities to life so richly, through her heart for people’s stories and her ear for real conversations. What impresses me most is that the stories flow so naturally, without hiccups, false notes, or contrivances. Knowles wields her writing prowess quietly and effortlessly. These stories brought me back to the land of the living.

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Nicole Eva Fraser received her MFA in creative writing from NEOMFA consortium in northeast Ohio, and graduated summa cum laude from Baldwin-Wallace College with a double major in English and communications. She is an adult-literacy activist in Cleveland, Tanzania and Malawi. She runs 10Ks (slowly), used to speak French, and often can be found putting her foot in her mouth. Fraser is the author of It’s the Hardest Thing in the World and I Don’t Think It’s that Simple.

 

Book Review for MERCY’S SUNSET by Lindsay Luterman

Title: Mercy’s Sunset
Author: Lindsay Luterman
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing
Genre: Paranormal
ISBN: 978 1938101922

Mercy’s Sunset

by Lindsay Luterman

Book review by Carrie Jane Knowles

Lindsey Luterman raises an interesting question as her well crafted novel, Mercy’s Sunset unwinds: How do you choose a love for eternity if you have lived more than one lifetime? Also, how and who do you choose to travel with you from one life to another?

What are the choices we unconsciously make and how do the shape our lives?

If you’ve have ever wondered about the possibilities and the responsibilities that travel with you from one life to another, you’ll delight in the journey of Mercy’s Sunset.

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Carrie Jane Knowles has been a freelance writer for the past forty years. She has published widely in both fiction and non-fiction and has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including: Midland Authors Poetry Award, the American Heart and Torch Award for Creative Journalism, and Glimmer Train’s Very-Short Fiction Contest. She is the author of Apricots in a Turkish Garden.

Carrie and her husband, Jeff Leiter, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three children.

 

Book Review for ACQUIESCENCE by Velya Jancz-Urban

Title: Acquiescence
Author: Velya Jancz-Urban
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing
Genre: Paranormal
ISBN: 978-1630661021

Acquiescence

by Velya Jancz-Urban

Book review by Carrie Jane Knowles

Beautifully written and full of wisdom, Velya Jancz-Urban’s enchanting novel, Acquiescence, left me breathless and believing in the power of spirits to hold onto this world until life is resolved and made whole again. It’s a story of two women living two hundred years apart that need each other in ways neither one of them fully understands until the end. It’s about love and redemption, and how we are not really separated by time and space, but, instead, deeply connected by circumstance.

I will not spoil it for you, but only say that this is a ghost story that will teach you about life and loving and believing in what you cannot see.

Read this book!

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Carrie Jane Knowles has been a freelance writer for the past forty years. She has published widely in both fiction and non-fiction and has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including: Midland Authors Poetry Award, the American Heart and Torch Award for Creative Journalism, and Glimmer Train’s Very-Short Fiction Contest. She is the author of Apricots in a Turkish Garden.

Carrie and her husband, Jeff Leiter, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three children.

 

Book Review for THE NINETY-NINTH REUNION by Dene Hellman

Title: The Ninety-Ninth Reunion
Author: Dene Hellman
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing
Genre: Mainstream
ISBN: 978 1938101922

Ninety-Ninth Reunion

by Dene Hellman

Book review by Carrie Jane Knowles

Great read! Dene Hellman keeps you on the edge of your seat in The Ninety-Ninth Reunion as you turn the pages and begin to understand just how dangerous it might be to go back to your high school reunion to kick up the dust of the past!”

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Carrie Jane Knowles has been a freelance writer for the past forty years. She has published widely in both fiction and non-fiction and has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including: Midland Authors Poetry Award, the American Heart and Torch Award for Creative Journalism, and Glimmer Train’s Very-Short Fiction Contest. She is the author of Apricots in a Turkish Garden.

Carrie and her husband, Jeff Leiter, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three children.

 

Book Review for CRACK IN THE WORLD by Maribeth Shanley

Title: Crack in the World
Author: Maribeth Shanley
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing, LLC
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 978-1630661014

Crack in the World

by Maribeth Shanley

Book review by Carrie Jane Knowles

Maribeth Shanley’s novel, A Crack in the World is a rough jagged read that draws a roadmap for recovery and self-discovery, albeit sometimes bumpy, for anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse. It’s an honest story of how difficult self-acceptance and healing can be for a person who comes from a family built on a solid foundation of lies. It forces you to take a hard look at the damage one selfish and morally corrupt individual can wreck on a family and a community.

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Carrie Jane Knowles has been a freelance writer for the past forty years. She has published widely in both fiction and non-fiction and has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including: Midland Authors Poetry Award, the American Heart and Torch Award for Creative Journalism, and Glimmer Train’s Very-Short Fiction Contest. She is the author of Apricots in a Turkish Garden.

Carrie and her husband, Jeff Leiter, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three children.

Book Review for DEADLY ADAGIO by Carole Howard

Title: Deadly Adagio
Author: Carole Howard
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing
Genre: Mystery
ISBN: 978-1938101373

Deadly Adagio

by Carole Howard

Book review by Carrie Jane Knowles

Carole Howard’s carefully woven mystery of a murder, Deadly Adagio, takes us deep into the complex world of diplomacy in Dakar, Senegal. Emily, the tag-along wife of a diplomat finds herself stepping into a dark world of murder and cultural clashes when her best friend, Margaret is found murdered. Howard’s story will educate you on the murky boundaries of diplomacy and why cultural practices and differences can easily ignite tension and muddy the waters of who done it and why.

Deadly Adagio is a fine tuned symphony of words, worlds and characters. Five Stars.

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Carrie Jane Knowles has been a freelance writer for the past forty years. She has published widely in both fiction and non-fiction and has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including: Midland Authors Poetry Award, the American Heart and Torch Award for Creative Journalism, and Glimmer Train’s Very-Short Fiction Contest. She is the author of Apricots in a Turkish Garden.

Carrie and her husband, Jeff Leiter, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three children.

 

Book Review for A GIRL ON A BIKE by Susan Emmerich

Title: A Girl on a Bike
Author: Susan Emmerich
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing, LLC
Genre: Essays
ASIN: B00UVVM6Q4

A Girl on a Bike

by Susan Emmerich

Book review by Carrie Jane Knowles

“I found myself with a bad case of bronchitis and a rare day in bed with a terrific book!

I loved A Girl on a Bike. It was fresh, honest, and insightful. This is a book for women of all ages. I felt like I had met a good friend and found myself hoping that I would some day have the chance to sit down and share a good laugh or cry with Susan Emmerich.

This is book to read then pass on to a friend.”

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Carrie Jane Knowles has been a freelance writer for the past forty years. She has published widely in both fiction and non-fiction and has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including: Midland Authors Poetry Award, the American Heart and Torch Award for Creative Journalism, and Glimmer Train’s Very-Short Fiction Contest. She is the author of Apricots in a Turkish Garden.

Carrie and her husband, Jeff Leiter, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three children.

 

Book Review for I DON’T THINK IT’S THAT SIMPLE by Nicole Eva Fraser

Title: I Don’t Think It’s that Simple
Author: Nicole Eva Fraser
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing
Genre: Psychological Fiction
ISBN: 978-193810159

I Don’t Think It’s that Simple

by Nicole Eva Fraser

Book review by Carrie Jane Knowles

Nicole Eva Fraser’s beautifully written and fully realized novel of one man’s struggle to find his own life story, I Don’t Think It’s That Simple, will keep you up all night turning the pages! And, as you read on way past your bedtime, you’ll find yourself hoping Evan’s last chance to choose to do the right thing will both open his heart and give him courage to seize the love he has been searching for his whole life.

Nicole’s wonderful characters that she’s carefully wrapped in fine polished prose make this book simply a great read!

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Carrie Jane Knowles has been a freelance writer for the past forty years. She has published widely in both fiction and non-fiction and has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including: Midland Authors Poetry Award, the American Heart and Torch Award for Creative Journalism, and Glimmer Train’s Very-Short Fiction Contest. She is the author of Apricots in a Turkish Garden.

Carrie and her husband, Jeff Leiter, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. They have three children.

 

Book Review for APRICOTS IN A TURKISH GARDEN by Carrie Jane Knowles

Title: Apricots in a Turkish Garden
Author: Carrie Jane Knowles
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing, LLC
Genre: Short Stories
ISBN: 978-1630661090

Apricots in a Turkish Garden

by Carrie Jane Knowles

Book review by Dene Hellman

The ten stories told in Apricots in a Turkish Garden are penetrating explorations of sensitive relationships that try the souls of their participants. Carrie Knowles writes each with a perceptive voice that takes no prisoners. Mothers and daughters cope with Alzheimer’s; a daughter grows up adjusting and readjusting to her father’s blindness; a woman dismays her relatives with her determination to find family ties to Clint Eastwood. It isn’t a stretch to think we must have met all of Knowles’ characters at one time or another and that we now know them for who they are.

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A native of Iowa, Dene Hellman has lived in North Carolina since the ‘80s. She is a graduate of The University of Wisconsin Green Bay and has written professionally in numerous genres, including corporate publications, executive speeches, newspaper feature writing, commercial videos, and two books of poetry with Annie O’Dell. She is the author of The Ninety-Ninth Reunion and The People Under the House. She currently lives and writes in Winston-Salem, NC. Dene has four daughters and six grandsons.