I Never Kissed Judy Garland by Michael A. Kechula

THE PAGAN & THE PEN BOOK REVIEWS

Title: I Never Kissed Judy Garland
Author: Michael A. Kechula

Author Site

Buy Link
Publisher: BooksForABuck.com

Genre: Romance/Short Stories

Length: 137 pgs.
Reviewed by: Kim Clune

RATINGS FOR:

Cover: 4

Presentation: 4

Editing: 5

Story: 5

Writing Ability: 5

Overall Card Rating: 

                                                               

About The Book:
A stunt double never gets over his crush on Judy Garland. A man spots a sign on the side of the road--and it changes his life. A musician discovers a beautiful doll who makes him a star and more. A middle-aged man decides to help a desperate young woman ... and wonders if the good guy ever can win. A girl wishes for an air force fighter for her birthday and discovers what true love can do. These are only some of the stories Michael A. Kechula delivers in this collection of romantic stories by the master of short fiction.

The Review:

Michael A. Kechula has a fine gift for story-telling which he attributes solely to the tutelage of Dr. Sherry Rosenthal, his professor at the Community Colleges of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas. Rest assured, while Dr. Rosenthal may have had a significant impact upon Kechula, this author has an innate talent for writing that springs forth from deep within.

 I Never Kissed Judy Garland is Kechula’s first short story collection focusing on romance and relationships. The main characters are sweet and often bumbling through life, unsure of what comes next. They could be easily be friends of yours or mine – well many of them, anyway – and as we cheer them on through some pretty odd trials and tribulations wanting to offer each advice, they often find their own way, although separate from what we’d suggest. And sometimes they don’t. And sometimes our similarities end when a shape-shifting being arrives on the scene to hook the story in another shocking direction altogether.

Each story bears trace details that are similar to the next, creating a sense of familiarity and cohesiveness where none actually exists. Or does it? The result is a fun read that makes you question the ways in which each story is somehow connected, only to find entirely new and unexpected twists as each page is turned.

You’ll find yourself indulging in Kechula’s odd sense of humor as you curiously delight in struggle, sadness, mental illness, jealousy, and surreal twists of fate, while full-on enjoying hints of magic sparked by love, a simple charm in unrequited desire, and geeks who become heroes in the end. And if you want a little holiday flavor, there’s a bit of that too.

This book is well worth the read, even if you consume it like I did, just a story here and there on the go. Let me add that, while I Never Kissed Judy Garland is served up in tasty bits allowing you to easily put it down between reads, that doesn’t mean you’ll want to.

Pagan Elements: N/A

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

The Wayfarer’s Road: Bowdancer Book 2 by Janie Franz

THE PAGAN & THE PEN BOOK REVIEWS

Title: The Wayfarer’s Road: Bowdancer Book 2
Author: Janie Franz

Author Site

Buy Link
Publisher: Breathless Press

Genre: Romance/Erotic

Length: 102 pgs.
Reviewed by: Kim Clune

RATINGS FOR:

Cover: 2

Presentation: 4

Editing: 5

Story: 5

Writing Ability: 5

Overall Card Rating: 

                                                   

About The Book: The Bowdancer Saga continues with The Wayfarer’s Road. Jan-nell, now a woman traveling alone with her precocious young daughter, meets a handsome wandering bard. But he is carrying his own secrets along with the priceless chance at hope for her and her child to belong.

The Review: Fully enamored with The Bowdancer, the first book of this saga, I looked forward to reviewing The Wayfarer’s Road with great anticipation. Once more, author Janie Franz did not disappoint. Not in the least. Her writing, characters and plot are exquisite. My single, lingering wish would be for an accurate depiction of Jan-nell, an earthier and less frosted character, on the cover.

Jan-nell is the young and naive healer who left the stifling safety of her village in a fit of romance with Bastin, a traveling ruffian who challenged Jan-nell to acknowledge her inner-most desires. In the space between book 1 and 2, Bastin continues to chase passionately after far-fetched dreams in untethered travels, leaving Jan-nell to give birth and raise their now 4-year-old daughter, Mira-nell, alone.

The road has been less than kind to Jan-nell as she scrapes by with invigorated strength to support what is left of her fractured family. Unable to return to her own village, she and Mira-nell sleep under cover of the forest between unfamiliar villages in need of a traveling midwife. Jan-nell’s daughter, inheriting Jan-nell’s determination and ability to read people, as well as the quick wit and biting honesty of her father, has learned to fend well for herself too.

We join mother and daughter as they seek shelter from the rain in a stable adjoined to the local inn. Here, the innkeeper mistakes the single mother for a whore, hurling insults and providing only the very least of his generosity – which includes a late-night visit with his band of bullying patrons for ill-perceived services.

Enter Khrin, a handsome, gentle, traveling merry-maker who charms brothel audiences with his lute and lyrics. Taking a shine to Jan-nell, he helps her thwart the unwelcome, late-night advances of the innkeeper’s owner.

As the three flee together, they become reliant upon one another, traveling deeper into danger and having to draw upon one another’s skills for survival. Together they fend off not only the randy innkeeper, but a band of brutal villagers angered by Khrin’s affinity for men, a disillusioned kidnapper, hunger, bruises, boredom, cold and loneliness.

While Jan-nell, Mira-nell and Khrin couldn’t be more different, they complement each other well and, in a short span of time, they learn they are not so different after all. Aside from a life deeply rooted in song (but for young Mira-nell whose only interest to learn is on an as-needed basis), each is misunderstood, longs for belonging, and only cautiously trusts the other.

With childhood innocence, curiosity and honesty that cuts to the quick of social construct, young Mira-nell is instrumental in teaching Jan-nell and Khrin to question the comfort of their ingrained perceptions, including those of sexual orientation.

Khrin’s intentions and Jan-nell’s ponderance of their possibility reveals that one must honestly assess inner desire and realize that there are no rules of engagement but for those imposed upon us. If the interaction between these complex characters seems eerily confusing, the author is simply asking us, in a not-so-subtle way, to challenge the comfort of our own limiting assumptions.

Will Jan-nell, Mira-nell and Khrin satisfy their need for love in one another as friend, father, brother or lover? Will they find utter rejection or the safety of acceptance in the village Khrin once abandoned near the hills of the Warrior Women? Read on to find out - but be forewarned. This story will leave you ravenous for the saga’s third book, Warrior Women, which I’ll delve into next with tremendous curiosity.

Pagan Elements:

Jan-nell often references the healing power of herbal treatments, drawing from the natural powers of an earthly yield. She also draws on the healing power of traditional village song and dance. In particular, she employs a song illustrating the stages of a woman’s life, which is, ironically, used to heal Khrin’s bruises through stretching.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

Reviewer Top Pick: The Bowdancer by Janie Franz

PAGAN & PEN REVIEW

Title:  The Bowdancer

Author:  Janie Franz

Author Site

Buy Link

Publisher: Breathless Press

Genre: Breathless Press

Length: 31 pgs 

Other:  M/F

Pagan Elements: Yes 

Reviewed by: Kim Clune

About The Book: 

Jan-nell, a young healer and keeper of village lore, fears she will never find a worthy child to train and replace her as the next bowdancer. Nor does she think she will find a man worthy of her love. When a village wedding is interrupted by four strange men, one mawled by a mountain lion in need of help, Jan-nell treats his injuries. During the men’s stay, their arrogant, intelligent rogue leader, Bastin, questions the bowdancer's opinions on life, freedom and love. By doing so, he stirs her desire for these things and more.

The Review:

Janie Franz weaves a beautiful and intricate tapestry of duty, destiny, tradition and exploration of the soul into The Bowdancer. Her writing wastes not a single word and gives a strong, unique voice to Jan-nell, the loyal yet conflicted bowdancer and village healer. While stories of personal internal struggle are timeless, Franz breathes fresh life into this one, creating a rich and curious world among a non-specific tribe or creed.

All her life, Jan-nell is judged and defined by what she is not. During her tomboyish young adulthood, Jan-nell’s mother attempts to refine her femininity by keeping her chestnut hair long to balance her fair, thin and shapeless form. As Jan-nell matures, she learns to balance her physical insecurities with the confidence she carries in her bowdancing. Still, Jan-nell’s community sees her as an “other” when she colors her skin with dark, herbal oil rather than the traditionally colorful body paint of her predecessor at seasonal rituals. While her innovative and simple expression of connection with the earth and the One feels natural to Jan-nell, her mother-kin eventually asks, “Do you not fear you will make yourself so different that no man will approach you?” Jan-nell has hardly made herself different. She is different. Powerful, creative and intelligent with interests as varied and balanced as her well oiled bow, she simply has yet to find an equal to love within the confines of the village.

Embracing her community role, if not the community itself, Jan-nell attempts to resign herself to her life’s only known purpose, to be “the bow that sings the song of the One.” This devotion, although noble, conflicts with her fear of never marrying and having children of her own, a future she only half hopes to find. Not having found a child to train as her replacement for the next ten years may doom her to a fruitless marriage to the only typically available partner at that age, a widower.

It isn’t until Bastin and his band of bandits enter the village that burgeoning questions push Jan-nell to concretely define her desires. Bastin is the first to see her essence beyond her sense of duty and the first to demand her honest reflection. Uncharmed by his boastful stories, Jan-nell emotionally disarms Bastin and demands honesty from him as well. The two reflect each other like mirrors, one allowing the other to see his or her self plainly. This new dance is not that of a bowdancer nor of innocent love, but one of powerful equals vying for each other’s trust in a world of unlikely possibility. To say what happens next would spoil the story but it’s well worth finding out.

The Bowdancer is wonderful read and just short enough to devour every delicious word in one sitting. I highly recommend it and look forward to following Jan-nell’s next adventures in The Wayfarer’s Road.

Cover (Rated 1-10): 2 – A pretty face with frosted blue eye shadow would better suit the Twilight series than The Bowdancer. Jan-nell is a tribal-type woman rooted in all things natural,  prefering earthly pigments to decorative body paint and a doeskin to a black, velvet hood with red satin lining. Interestingly, this cover re-enacts the bowdancer’s struggle, pushing her to dutifully appeal to the greater romance audience yet denying acceptance of her true identity.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & the Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

The Fallen Fae by Connie Wood

Title:  The Fallen Fae

Author:  Connie Wood

Author Site
 
Buy Link
 
Publisher:  Freya’s Bower

Genre: Erotic Fantasy/Angels and Demons

Length: 55 pp 

Other:  M/F


Pagan & Pagan Elements: yes/yes

Reviewed by: Kim Clune

About The Book:

Shae, an unassigned guardian angel tempted by the bounty of an earthly realm, pines for a glimpse at free will, passion and excitement beyond his peaceful servitude in Heaven. Archangel Michael, Shea’s dear friend, does his best to dissuade the curious one from taking the leap, but is ultimately unsuccessful. Once Shea leaves his heavenly realm for one desired moment of bliss, he realizes he can never again return and his wings are painfully scorched during the fall.

On Earth, the Fae lives among the others who had fallen before him until summoned via a faery stone by Hamish Bradey, a Scotsman whose wife is critically injured during a rabbit hunt. Hamish is willing to pay any price for his wife’s salvation, even his family’s firstborn girl child. The Fae heals the wife and seals his agreement with Hamish believing that the girl, once a woman, will be his own chance for salvation.

Years later in Australia, when the family suffers a tragic accident and Hamish has later passed, the youngest granddaughter, Aleta, is all that remains of the family. Her grandfather had tried to prepare her for a fate he knew awaited. She was the Fae’s replacement for his firstborn granddaughter. Hamish shared with her the tales, but never alluded to the fact that they were destined to become her life.

Stories of destiny, with their presumable outcomes, have an interesting way of stirring more questions than answers. Will the Fae take Aleta or will he patiently wait for her to love him, honoring the free will he so desired, once upon a time? If they should find love, would it lead to eternal damnation? Will Lucifer allow the most powerful of the Fae to leave his realm? It is absolutely worth the read to find out, complete with whimsy, celebration, anger, suspense, tragic bloodshed, sabre rattling, heartache, and not necessarily a faery tale ending for all.

The Review:
   
The Fallen Fae is a captivating, if short, story that expertly blends pagan and Christian elements. Beyond Heaven and Hell, God and Lucifer, temptation and salvation, lies the world of Scottish faery lore, a mechanism for bridging these separate planes. Of course, to bridge these distinct and complicated worlds, worlds which are deeply connected to one another yet so very separate, invites conflict, drama and passion. This book is not short on these elements in the least. The passion of innocence, of the forbidden, of unquenched desire, all are ripe for the reading.

Ms. Wood’s writing style is beautifully fluid, revealing her characters’ most intricate and delicate emotions without intrusive narrative. In line with Scottish lore, the tone of her language is hauntingly ancient in its naturally poetic flow. It was refreshing to see characters of each gender equally weighted with moments of fear and bravery, speaking volumes toward masculine and feminine balance without pushing the point. As for the pace, it moves in perfect concert with each scene, never rushing yet, through economy of words, spanning millennia in a mere 55 pages. My only complaint, if I had one, would be that I wanted more.

Cover (Rated 1-10): 9 – The imagery captures much of the story, from the connection between the Fae and Aleta, the conflict that comes from the fallen one’s quest for salvation, and the sun-shielding haze of the faery realm.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & the Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.