When their four-year-old son Gabriel’s leukemia relapses, Richard and his wife, Joycelene, are thrust back into the nightmare they thought they had escaped. Every heartbeat feels like a countdown as they beg for a miracle to keep their child alive.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in time, Bill — a young university student reeling from heartbreak — suddenly glimpses a future that shouldn’t be his to see. Horrified by the suffering that seems to await, he vows to defy it at all costs.
As both men confront what they most fear, their stories converge into a haunting clash of destiny, courage, and life-altering choices. Will the actions they take be enough to rewrite fate, or are some destinies impossible to escape? Can one really “cross the boundary of time” and stand in his or her own future?
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
“Mm! Mm! Good!” spake I, Kimber the Magnificent whilst smacking my lips as noisily as possible.
“Whaddya mean, Kimster?” says Her Royal Momness.
“It’s this new book we read recently. You know. That coming-of-age tale set in the South. As in, Mm! Mm! Good!”
Mom: “Hate to break it to you, Kimmi. But ‘Mm! Mm! Good’ is Campbell’s Soup. Dontcha mean ‘Finger lickin’ good?’
Kimber: “You eat what you want, and I’ll eat what I want, okay?
Anyway, your favorite dynamic book duo is here to tell you about a new book by William Gardner. (See our review of the prior book in Gardner’s Southern Adventure series, Me, Boo and the Goob,here.) We mostly liked World. But we’ll also tell you why we DNFed it. So, keep your hair on, Cookie.
There was a time when my life felt settled, predictable, and safe. I was a retired data analyst living on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with my husband, enjoying the rhythms of family visits, nature, and the quiet comfort of a life well lived. Then everything changed. When our son Matt died in 2017, grief didn’t just break my heart, it imploded the life I knew. The future I had imagined vanished overnight, replaced by a silence and emptiness I didn’t know how to navigate. I was completely shattered.
“What a kick in the passport!” Mom hooted after finishing Karen Gershowitz’s Travel Mania: Stories of Wanderlust. “It’s fun and educational!” (She’s outside turning handsprings. Don’t tell anyone, okay?)
“But Mom,” says The Level-Headed One. “You say that about every travel book!”
Ever see someone try to stop hand-springing halfway through?
“I do not!” barks Mom.
Okay, fine. Whatevs, says I, Kimber the Magnificent. But tell me, Mom. What makes this book so splendiferous?
By Daniel G. Block (Indie author/North Air Entertainment, 2025)
Genre: Non-fiction – Memoir
Pages (print): 334
Via: Author request
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
Other note: Trail Creek was “Originally written by the late Dr. Daniel G. Block, professor of Biology at the University of Montana, Western and carefully edited and prepared for publication by his grandson, Zach Block with the assistance of the North Fork Landowners Association.”
“Some day we will return – and cry together.”
Throw another log on the fire and grab a hot cuppa for this highly readable and imminently engaging memoir by the late Daniel G. Block, educator, biologist, and natural storyteller. As bright as a summer sun and as big as a Montana sky, this true story of love, life, and adventure on “the last true frontier” pulls at the heartstrings as it whispers of memories of early, unforgettable years on the North Fork of the Flathead River in Montana and the “tonic of the wilderness.” Set largely in the post-WWII years of 1946 through the early 1950s, Trail Creek: A North Fork Saga is Walden-esque and Walton-esque in both style and substance.
Glad you asked. The answer is cuz I’M SO EXCITED!!
Mom: Kimber, that’s not new. You’re always excited. Just likd you love everyone. (Except maybe the neighborhood powder puff. But let’s not get picky here, okay?)
Kimber: I know. But Im soooo happy and super excited! Cuz its a favorite time of year! As in, Spring! New life! Warmer weather! Trees budding! Mud drying! Burgers on the barbie… What?
Oh yeah. Spring. And Easter! Oh yes. Oh Yes. OH YES! Like this:
They thought it was over. Friday felt like a final defeat. But Sunday morning was just getting started.
Cuz Easter isn’t just a story. It’s the Most Momentous Event in Human History. The Ultimate Triumph. The Everlasting Hope. Easter changes everything.
And one of our favorite books celebrating Easter is pretty new. In fact, it was released just last year by indie author Caleb Backholm. It’s called Two Weeks Till Sunday.
You know it’s Pawsome cuz we say so. It also garnered a very rare 5.0.
Kimber: Jackpot! It’s a beautiful spring day. The sun is shining. The sky is a perfect bowl of blue. The neighbor’s cat is visiting relatives elsewhere. And Her Grumpiness is only half as grumpy as usual.
What a deal!
Speaking of “deals,” I’ve got a two-fer for you today. Sort of. One’s a “repeat surprise.” I’ll let Her Grumpiness tell us about that in a min. So kindly keep your shirt on, okay? The other is a Second Sigh. As in, we loved the author’s first book but this second one is a stinker. Which is why Her Grumpiness is only half as grumpy as…
Well, wait. Here she is now.Mom, is that the second or third bowl of cookies ’n cream ice cream? “Mind your own beeswax;” Mom chirps.
By Lili Cyr-Robillard (Kenos Publishing, November 2025)
Genre: YA/Fiction – Fantasy
Pages (print): 304
Via: Author request
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
What happens after we die? What’s on the other side?
Up to his shackled ankles in corpses, at the lip of the Pit of the Forgotten, twelve-year-old Glaguel wants to know the answers to these questions. And more. You will too in Lili Cyr-Robillard ambitious and absorbing new fantasy, The Forbidden River.
It’s one of the finest fantasies we’ve read in years. Here’s the 4-1-1:
We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
“I don’t know what to think of this book,” spake Her Royal Momness the other day. “It’s not like anything we’ve ever read.”
“Welp,” says I, Kimber the Magnificent. “There you go again, Mom. Thinking on an empty stomach.” (You’d think she’d learn, right?)
Anyway. This book arrived in our mailbox last spring-ish. Or maybe it was summer? We were buried under a metric ton of other stuff and set it aside. It got buried under another ton of other stuff. And was recently excavated. So here’s the 4-1-1:
Peacemaker the Labradane is “black, lanky, and large.” He has one “Achilles’ heel”: Loyalty. He’s also the star of this show. So we like it a lot already, thank you very much.
Now. The’s an old In-Between Land prophecy about a fearless black dog and two “enablers.” (Aka: “Klutzes.” Aka: Humans Malcolm and his friend, Eve.) “Peace” and one other dog are the only ones with enough courage to face infinite evil and save everyone, everywhere.
Kimber: Peace is probably a cousin. I know we’re related. No doubt about it.
When Malcom, Eve, Peacemaker and Gruffy stumble upon a “farm pond”, everything goes sideways. Unleashed by the stout-hearted by impetuous Peacemaker, “whimsical forces” drag Malcolm and Eve away from Earth and into In-Between Land where the adventure unfolds. While traveling through a mountainous landscape of ancient lore, the Earthlings learn that the future of all worlds within the continuum depends on their ability to defeat the demonic evil that has invaded In-Between Land.
So. The future of pretty much everything and everyone is in the paws of one black, lanky, and large Labradane and his faithful friend, Phantom.
Kimber: Best place to be in the midst of an ‘epic conflict’!
Still not quite sure what to make of this book. It’s quirky. Witty. Clever. It also sags in the middle and feels overlong in places. It defies genre pigeon-holing. You might call it a “silly fantasy.” Or an “epic fairy tale.” An adventure story. A dog-ish book. Or a trip to Neverland via Narnia and Middle Earth. Add a chaser of Oz on the side. And a spur trail into Star Trek. The text includes nods to Germanic/Norse origin or mythology with chapter headings like Odin’s Day, Thor’s Day, Freya’s Day, etc. (Yeah. We noticed.)
Top-Notch
The writing is top-notch. With just the right amount of sass and spunk. Besides. Who can resist words like “globulous agglomeration”? “Mucilaginous.” Sentences like, “A stench of wickedness accompanied the silence.” Or “Beware of chicanery and desolation if you chose to proceed.” There’s also The Anthology of Erudition. The Compendium of Catastrophe. The Tenets of Antephsyics and Subliminal Simulacrums. World tunneling. A rift in the continuum. The Managerial Reserve and the Kingdom of Deletion. And that’s just for starters! Delish! Indeed, the clever word play and labyrinthian plot twists in this delightful fantasy adventure are so “out of the box,” they’re in a completely different world!
And that’s the whole point. Or at least part of it.
Clever
This imaginative, clever tale brims with originality and sparkles with rapier wit. Beautifully written with rich, robust language, the story features impressive world-building skills and an imagination that registers somewhere in the stratosphere. It’s a riotous romp through a dazzling fantasy world and a host of fantastic creatures. These include Weewuns (“gnomes” to you hoomans). Sasquatch. Evil Lizard Number One. A mouthy unicorn named Mr. Corny. A shape-shifting witch named Irene. Zinger the loquacious bunny. Seedub. The Weewuns who administrate In-Between Land. Villain extraordinaire, Ahrem. There’s even a “lazy gray cat” named Gruffy (nobody’s perfect.) Many more.
The story is metafictional. You’ll find the author popping in and out of the story here and there. Some readers will love this technique. Others may find it jarring or disruptive. Just sayin’.
The story takes some time to get rolling and the timeline can get bumpy. We got a little lost in the opening chapters. (Kimber:Mom had a hole in her breadcrumbs pocket. Silly Mom!)
Issues
A story synopsis or book blurb on the back cover or the inside jacket flap would be a big plus. Absent both, readers and potential readers don’t really get much on an idea of what they’re in for when opening page 1. Except for what can be deduced from the cover art. So a story synopsis would make a welcome addition.
On the whole, Farm Pond is a whole lotta fun, empty stomach or not. (Note: Sometimes raw mushrooms aren’t half-bad. Except when they need salt. “And cheese. And bacon.” Just ask Eve.)
By Jessica Fletcher & Terrie Farley Moran (Thorndike Press, 2023)
Genre: Fiction – Murder Mystery
Via: library
Pages (Print) 382
Kimber here. Telling you we weren’t going to do a “St. Patrick’s Day post.” Were not. Were not. WERE NOT!! But then…
This here “murder mystery” thingy sorta jumped off the shelf at The Book Place and landed in Mom’s book bag. Funny how that happens sometimes. But a cozy mystery by Jessica “J.B.” Fletcher set in Ireland? Well. Who can resist that? Especially on St. Patrick’s Day. So here we are.
Pages & Paws 