Storm Gathering by Rebecca Zanetti

Well hello there Mr. Storm …

Let me start by saying that I love the name Greyson Storm. I also enjoyed his lover’s name, Maureen Shadow. Rebecca Zanetti names her characters well. I’m not joking when I say that a “bad” name can be distracting to a story. I’ve read a book where a woman was named Sissy and it drove me nuts every time I read the name. Maybe I’m an odd one.

Storm Gathering continues the storyline of The Scorpius Syndrome. If you’ve read the prior stories, you’re familiar with the post-apocalypse world. To sum up, one person went psycho after contracting Scorpius and purposefully spread it to others as quickly as he could. Thus, wiping out 90% (or so) of the population. There is not many people left, food is running out, there is no longer running electricity, and the president is a psychopath.

Friendly reminder, I’m never disappointed by Rebecca Zanetti’s books.

Greyson Storm leads “The Mercenaries” in Santa Barbara. His territory was once a wealthy neighborhood with ocean views. He kidnaps Maureen Shadow as his hostage to extort her brother Raze, a member of “The Vanguard” in LA. This is all laid out in book 2 (Mercury Striking). In Storm Gathering, we rewind in time to learn just how the kidnapping occurred and what kind of relationship was built while Maureen was kept in Merc territory. It’s not Stockholm Syndrome I promise. Zanetti was smart to zip back for a little while in the beginning of this book because it is imperative to their storytelling. Without learning the details of their interactions it would be hard to accept a relationship that originated from a kidnapping and extortion plot.

In Storm Gathering, Greyson has to choose a side with whom to align his people. Clearly if he becomes an ally of the crazy President he will lose Maureen. He could align with Vanguard (if Raze could bury his grudge with Greyson) but it isn’t the best option from a war-zone/tactical standpoint. Naturally, Greyson would normally make the logical choice without emotions; however, he’s in love now. Emotions have muddied his thinking and he finds himself forced to make some quick decisions in the heat of the moment that can either save or damn them all.

The Accident by S.D. Monaghan

The Accident by S.D. Monaghan had the perfect setup to be a fast-paced thriller. Unfortunately, it was not thrilling until about 75% into the story line. We meet the main characters moments before “The Accident” occurs. After catching his wife Tara having an affair with their contractor in their newly built home, David engages Ryan in a fight. It is a brief fight before Ryan falls out of the window. Dave doesn’t exactly regret hitting Ryan, but he didn’t want to kill him. What follows is Dave’s struggle between doing what is morally right versus what instincts tell him to do, protect his family from the damage of murder.

The book shifts between the perspectives of Dave and Tara and I found that helpful. I needed to understand the motivations inside of Tara’s head. Considering that in the first chapter we learn she’s ten years younger than Dave and is cheating on him in their brand new custom home, I can’t say I thought much of her. Ya, I judged her. Sorry, not sorry. Getting inside her head allowed me to understand her reasoning even if it was thin and flimsy. Dave is not such a bad character, but Tara had no redeeming qualities for me. She cheated on her husband, and later under serious stress makes some poor choices, while pregnant. I realize it’s a fictional story but that really ground my gears.

Don’t underestimate the power of dialogue.

The story didn’t have enough dialogue between characters to keep me entertained. The story didn’t get exciting until about the 45% mark, and part of what helped at that point was a slight increase in the amount of character interaction. The beginning of the story shifts between what happened, and the history of how Dave and Tara got together. This method usually works well in books but in this case it irritated me. I felt that it fell flat because the characters were musing on inside their own heads for much too long. It carried on and on and it made me put the book down for a few days.

This story missed the mark just a little bit. A little more interaction between characters would have helped keep things interesting. The intense character interactions didn’t really occur until about 70% and it was just a little too late by then.

Baby Lost by Hannah Robert

"I can't imagine what she's going through," says every mother when they hear that a woman has lost her child. I don't quite agree. If you're a mother you know well enough what that loss would feel like because you love your child with every fiber of your being.

Baby Lost by Hannah Robert is the telling of her own journey through the grief of losing her child at 8 months pregnant. A car accident crushed her vehicle around her and her family, causing placenta abruption and death of her daughter before she could even be born. I was drawn to this book on NetGalley because I wanted to see inside another mother's loss. Having experienced a miscarriage, I felt an affinity to the author before reading her story. There is not one right way to handle such monumental pain and Hannah Robert guides us through her own process.

When I started this book, I couldn't put it down until Hannah reached the point of kissing her baby Z goodbye. I felt that I needed to stick by Hannah's side through her extraction of her car, through the doctors trying to find the heartbeat, beyond the cat-scans that followed the silence in her womb, and alongside her and her family as they held baby Z for the one day they physically let her go. Once Hannah kissed her baby for the last time, the chapter ended, and I allowed myself to quietly sob.

I was angry and hurt for the unfairness of her situation. I re-opened the hurt of my own lost child at 11-weeks gestation. Not far enough along to be determined a boy or a girl. This then brought new tears to my eyes; I found myself jealous that Hannah at least had a chance to hold her baby and know it was a girl. I thought she was "fortunate" to have at least held her baby and that she could hold a service for baby Z. I realized quickly how absurd that was, cried anew with guilt, and eventually brought myself back to the present.

Mothers who lose their children, regardless of when they were lost, all share grief. There is not a "best way" to lose a baby. We can't be jealous of those who shared 18 years with their babies, 30 years, 2 months, or any amount of time. Mothers aren't supposed to bury their children. And yet, so many women do. Hannah Robert knew several people in her group of friends and family who joined her in this shared misery. I began to reflect on my own connections and realized there are two people (that I know of, there could be more) who have had to be induced and endure a still-born delivery. Where am I going with this? To be honest, I don't know. The mind wanders in all kinds of directions when trying to find reason and understanding of such tragedy.

I felt that Hannah's book was organized and followed a nice structure and yet it was also disorganized in a way, as she stumbled along in her after-impact life. Her telling is an honest reflection of her pain while also including journal entries that were true to the actual moments that she's sharing with her readers. The story moves forward and backward through time much like we do while we process our new altered reality. We move forward and feel proud to know we are making progress toward a new normal, and then in the next moment we are spontaneously weeping. Hannah shows amazing courage throughout this book. She has a brilliant mind, and eloquently shares how she chose to find peace after loss without religious faith.

Like Hannah, I am not religious. Religion probably would have helped guide me in my own grief because then I would have known where he/she went after their heart stopped beating. I would have felt a certainty that he/she was in a better place. Hannah respected the beliefs of her partner Rima, and they held what sounded like a lovely service for baby Z, 30 days after she both died and was born. Together they chose spiritual godparents to love and care for their daughter in the place where they could not care for her themselves. Hannah feels her daughter in the ocean, the sand, the rain, and her pomegranate tree. It felt very real to me, I believed in her feelings, and it attaches her daughter to the world of the living.

I could keep going on and on about all the things that I appreciated about this book. I would never say that "all things happen for a reason". Hannah wasn't destined to lose her baby so that she could write a book to help others with child loss. This book was an aftereffect. In loss, many of us are driven to create anything positive out of our experience. It could be developing new laws, awareness of a need for funding of an illness, prevention of losses where it can be prevented, or simply sharing the pain so that others know they aren't alone. It was important to me to find people who understood my pain from their own experience, and this was true for Hannah as well.

I have to say this book was perfect and give it a 5-star rating. It is hard to judge a story like this because there is no perfect way to tell such a story. Hannah made it easy to give this book 5 stars because she wasn't trying to teach us how to conquer grief, she was simply sharing her own.

Baby Lost re-opened my grief. I am grateful for this which is odd to say. I keep my grief tucked away in a corner inside of me because I have other children. Revisiting my loss felt like I was honoring my unknown child again. In just 11 days it will be six years since my loss, and this book brought it all back to me as if it was yesterday. Time truly helps us heal even if we don't want to accept that.

Girling Up by Mayim Bialik

I was very excited when I discovered Mayim Bialik's book for "tween" girls. It sounded like this book would cover all of the topics that I feel my daughter should learn, with the special bonus that it was written by "Amy Farrah Fowler". I'm a huge Big Bang Theory fan, streaming the reruns every night before bed. Naturally, my daughter caught onto the show and she truly looks up to Bialik's character "Amy" on the show. The good news is that I've finished my pre-read of Girling Up and I approve the content. There were a few places I decided I'd write additional notes from Mom, but not many.

Mayim Bialik is a unique role model for my daughter. She is famous which excites most young people, but she also has her doctorate in neuroscience. How cool is that, right? That said, she has a special position of influence on my daughter. The reality is, kids are going to look outside of their immediate family for additional role models. If she's going to idolize another human, Mayim Bialik is a great choice.

Onto the book. Thank you Mayim (can I call you Mayim?) for keeping this information based on science. I thought it was clever to first explain the physical set up of our bodies, how they work, and the signals that our brain is sending for different reasons. You were able to explain the physical reaction we feel when attracted to others without being perverse. There is no shame in understanding how and why our bodies react the way that they do to either the same or opposite gender.

Speaking of gender! Yes there is a male and female based on the X and Y chromosomes but that doesn't mean a person subscribes to the gender norms assigned to their chromosomal make-up. I admit, you surprised me by telling readers that it's OK to be different. In fact, throughout the book you maintain a friendly tone that speaks directly to readers like you're their friend. Many times you remind girls that there is no one-right-way for being true to themselves. You've explained the standard stereotypes presented in America and you explain the differences to other countries. It's helpful for kids to know that the world is bigger than the American culture they know.

It's also very important to understand what behaviors are appropriate from our peers and the adults in our lives. Several times it is suggested that the reader seek out a parent or trusted adult if they find themselves in these questionable situations. This is true even among friendships. I am a grown woman and I still struggle to relinquish unhealthy friendships.

I could rave about this book forever but I will wrap this up. 

It is not your job to raise our daughters (or even sons who read this book) but you've provided a useful tool to help parents open dialogue with their children on sensitive topics. I've always said that both girls and boys need to understand and seek consent. It is an important issue with me. I want my kids to know they always have to receive consent from others as well as provide consent to others in all aspects regarding their bodies. This book had a whole section detailing what consent means and I wanted to highlight and circle it in vibrant colors.

Thank you for using your experiences as a late-bloomer, a child actress, a teacher, an adult actress, and a mother of boys, to write a book about "Girling Up". I hope that it reinforces all of the messages that I try to get across to my daughter. You're not her mother so she's more likely to listen to you. ;)

Lethal Lies by Rebecca Zanetti

Lethal Lies, the second book of three in the Blood Brothers series, was an exciting and turbulent ride. Anya Best is determined to stop the serial killer who is stalking her and has killed her sister. His victims always look like Anya, and he mails her victim photos without trace evidence that links to him. To stop the killer, she relies on the help of Heath Jones whom we know from Deadly Silence. Heath is a genetically altered man who was orphaned and found family among two other orphans with the same circumstances. Anya is taken into Heath's small family group but so many secrets are kept from her for her "own good". If you've read a book with a strong female lead you know that Anya didn't take to this well.

Honestly, every Rebecca Zanetti book is worth reading

Something I struggle with in general is finding author's who can surprise me. After reading enough books (approx. 458 since 2012) you recognize patterns in books and can ultimately see the twist coming. I am please to share that I did not guess correctly at the serial killer's identity. Well done Zanetti!

This was a great read because we are still engaged in the serial killer storyline from book one and yet also following the crazy storyline of a psychotic woman who "creates" super soldiers to be trained from birth to be killers. This continues naturally and unhurried from The Sin Brothers series into the Blood Brothers series.

Lethal Lies delivers suspense and romance with a side of bad-ass-ery. :)