"The Invention of Wings", by Sue Monk Kidd

This fiction is inspired by actual historical figures and is the extraordinary story of struggles for freedom. Set in South Carolina in the early 19th century this powerful novel tells the story of four women from Charleston, Sarah and Angelina Grimké, two sisters from a prosperous white family and Hetty and Charlotte, a black mother and daughter who are the house slaves. They all share the ardent desire to break free but for different reasons.

Drawn from the Grimké sisters’ real-life as abolitionists and feminist this moving and gripping story of urban slavery is a rich depiction of the lives of free women imprisoned by the lack of rights. Hetty Handful and her mother Charlotte are fictional persona and compelling characters representing trapped individuals in a household where cruel punishments and abuse are frequent.

The plot unfolds in alternate chapters and weaves the voices of two verbally narrators: Sarah Grimké, and Hetty Handful. The language is exhilarating and emotionally entwines early on. Hetty’s voice is colloquial with occasional dips into nonstandard grammar while Sarah’s voice is by far less colourful but still holds a punch. Through their eyes we are shown a long and painful voyage…

This thought-provoking story not only depicts the brutality of slavery in vivid and meticulous detail but also openly displays the greed of men and the will of women clamped shut by law, society and religion….

This is a riveting page-turner from book end to book end. In the last chapter the author’s separates facts from fiction and explains why she distorted and enhanced portions in order to make this a more enjoyable read.

"A Dubious Position", by Gerald J Kubicki and Kristopher Kubicki

Book 7, in the Colton Banyon Mystery

This is a series easily read in no particular order and after three books I can assure they are an interesting and captivating read from start to finish. On one hand, “A Dubious Position” has kept the series’ mystical tone while on the other hand has distracted us with original ideas and providing a suspenseful and fast moving plot populated with a mix of mysterious and appealing main characters. This latest definitely has a strong blend of old-time male fantasy and a lot of sexual innuendo

Once more, Colton has to face one crisis after another that needs to be solved and with the help of his usual team and of course Wolf the ever present spirit to guide his every move and make everything go smooth and be successful. The adventure takes place on both sides of the US/Mexican borders.

In this story Colton works for the President as a contractor for a prestigious law firm who employs the strangest of characters: nuns, priests, illusionists, porn star, and a young athletic woman. They are there to assist Colton on covert operation sanctioned by the President. Their mission is to prevent Nazi operatives intermingling in the Mexican and the Unites States affairs. These characters spoiled the pot for me. They are a bunch of starved sex individuals acting like idiots, totally unprofessional and very annoying. This aside, I like the steady pacing, the short chapters straight to the point narration, and how the author has weaved into his plot a humorous side with the more serious situations.

Although I found parts unappealing, at the heart, “A Dubious Position” is quite exciting and is one I enjoyed nevertheless.

"Dark Digital Sky", by Carac Allison

Book 1, in the Dark Pantheon Series

This series is contemporary pulp with a tech undertone, quite geek noir and somewhat of a thriller. The story is quite innovative, a bit twisted and intense at times one that explores the threats of the digital world. The characters are definitely pure fiction. Its main character is hard to like, a bipolar, manic-depressive, a man controlled by drugs and drinks and one that lies to get to the truth.

The main story starts simple. A Hollywood over-wealthy personality contacts Chalk, an ex-FBI agent currently a PI who is very successful in his private business work. His request is to find his 3 sons that he’d fathered through a sperm bank many years ago. He is dying and wants to meet his sons before it is too late. Eventually the story moves on and the three young men are recruited in a conspiracy that includes crashing drones on US soil.

Mixing into the main plot at different stage of development is a plethora of distracting subjects: a story around a Japanese sword, lots of geek techno talk, movie buff talk, dog fighting sidebar, world of wrestling sidebar and a lot of other gibberish.

I had issues with this novel from the start. The story is rather disjointed and the style is too clunky for my taste, lots of 2-3 words sequential sentences starting with pronouns such as “he” and “it”, I found this annoying and distracting. We have chapters jumping from one place to the other and at one point I lost track and interest. There were too many irrelevant characters introduced throughout, each with their own story to confuse the whole thing even further. This first book is a real Smorgasbord of ideas none really developed. I didn't like this book not to say it is a bad one it was simply not my cup of tea. I prefer my mysteries or thrillers to be more focused…..

On the other hand the author’s knowledge in computer science and in the artistic world is highly noticeable and may be a joy for some readers. Not being that much interested in either I skipped most of those numerous paragraphs to try kept up with the main theme which is quite captivating nevertheless….

By the end, the door is left wide open for a sequel and I reiterate some of the thoughts I share with other reviewers: leave the buffet aside and consecrate skills and wits to one recipe….