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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Dec 7, 2021  
Watch the book trailer for the romantic mystery novel SCATTERED LEGACY: MURDER IN SOUTHERN ITALY by Marlene M Bell, Author on my blog. There's also an amazing giveaway for a chance to win the a prize pack valued at $425 for one winner! The prize pack includes:
- a $50 VISA gift card
- a Patricia Nash leather bag
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the Puglia Region of Italy
- Orecchiette Pasta from the Puglia Region
- Weekly 2022 Engagement Spiral Calendar
- Silver/Gold Italy Coin necklace on 18” silver chain
- autographed copy of Scattered Legacy by Marlene M. Bell

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/12/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-scattered.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
To outsiders, the relationship between Manhattan antiquities assessor Annalisse Drury and sports car magnate Alec Zavos must look carefree and glamorous. In reality, it’s a love affair regularly punctuated by treasure hunting, action-packed adventure, and the occasional dead body.

When Alec schedules an overseas trip to show Annalisse his mother's birthplace in Bari, Italy, he squeezes in the high-stakes business of divesting his family’s international corporation. But things go terribly wrong as murder makes its familiar reappearance in their lives – and this time it’s Alec’s disgraced former CFO who’s the main suspect.

Accompanied by friend and detective Bill Drake, Annalisse and Alec find themselves embroiled in a behind-closed-doors conspiracy that threatens the reputation and legacy of Alec’s late father – linking him to embezzlement, extortion, and the dirty business of the Sicilian Mafia. The search for the truth sends the trio straight into riddles, secrets, and an historic set of rosary beads. Annalisse leads Alec toward a discovery that is unthinkable, and events that will change their futures forever.

Scattered Legacy is the third in Marlene M. Bell’s thrilling Annalisse series, which weaves romance, crime, and historical mystery into addictive tales to instantly captivate fans of TV show Bones or Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.
      
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Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Unpassing in Books

Dec 22, 2021  
The Unpassing
The Unpassing
Chia-Chia Lin | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
212 of 250
Book
The Unpassing
By Chia-Chia Lin

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

In Chia-Chia Lin's debut, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When 10-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive.

Routine takes over for the grieving family: The siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighboring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in grave harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby finally emerges.

With flowing prose that evokes the terrifying beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, Lin explores the fallout after the loss of a child and the way in which a family is forced to grieve in a place that doesn't yet feel like home. Emotionally raw and subtly suspenseful, The Unpassing is a deeply felt family saga that dismisses the American dream for a harsher but ultimately more profound reality.


To start off I’ll say it’s very well written. Sadly I just struggled to connect with the book and it’s characters, yes I’ve still given it 4 stars because it at least deserves that considering it is also the first book from this author. I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading it as someone else may connect I just struggles.
  
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ClareR (5542 KP) rated We Germans in Books

Aug 17, 2023  
We Germans
We Germans
Alexander Starritt | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
We Germans is told from the point of view of a German soldier on the Eastern Front. A young British man asks his German grandfather about his role in the war, and whilst his grandfather doesn’t want to talk about it with him, he does leave him a letter to read about what happened to him after his death.

That letter is the book we read, with asides and clarifications from the grandson.

We don’t have a story that covers from the beginning to the end of the war. This is told from when things have started to go wrong for the Germans. The army is fragmented. The soldiers don’t really know where they’re going, but they know that they want to try and make it back to Germany - on foot. These men are scared, confused and the acts they see committed by both sides are horrific.

The grandson helps us to see the effects of the war on his grandfather, and his subsequent imprisonment in Russia. How 70 years post-war have changed him, how the war changed him as well. He acknowledges that he was to blame for what had happened as much as anyone else, but that he was expected to toe the line as a soldier.

This is historical fiction, but its well researched and has the hint of reality about it. It really gives the reader something to think about, and I know that personally, I haven’t found many books out there that cover this period of history in this way. I can’t say as it’s something I want to avidly read lots of books about, but having read this from a more human perspective (rather than a factual history book that lists dates and places), it feels very personal.

This is a short, powerful novel, and I think it’s worth the time spent reading it if you have an interest in either the time in history, or human nature.