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Carnevale by Peter Fortunato
This is an extraordinary coming-of-age story about young Italian-American boy Guido Diamante who grew up on his family-owned inn in New York’s Hudson Valley. But it’s so much more. Orbiting Guido are characters so colorful they nearly upstage our hero.
Guido’s labyrinth of memories is steeped in references to the “brave new world” of the sexy, psychedelic 60s, and is colored by his knowledge of Renaissance art, alchemy, and the Tarot. While seeking his own Philosopher’s Stone, Guido is also in search of his runaway cousin Tina, an irresistible beauty possessed of psychic abilities they both have inherited from their grandmother. Is she the key to his contentment?
The Diamante family becomes more precious as the story continues: they love, die, betray, disappoint, advise, inspire, and confuse. From Fomite Press, purchase at https://amzn.to/2rRR2N1.
Kassy O’Rourke, Cub Reporter by Kelly Oliver
Angst. Intellect. Imagination. Humor. Vulnerability. It’s all there. Kelly Oliver has wrapped 12-year-old Kassy O’Rourke’s persona around a wonderful story for middle-graders. Kassy is intent on winning an investigative journalism award, and when a cougar cub goes missing from her mother’s petting zoo, she has the perfect story to pursue.
This book will captivate readers with an exciting plot, clues to decipher, relatable narrator, plenty of laughs, and a sprinkling of lessons. Kassy O’Roarke is a great role model: smart, thoughtful, clever, ambitious, motivated and curious. She even understands it’s okay to cry now and then. But above all, Kassy is real. Lots of fun by all accounts. From Beaver’s Pond Press, purchase at https://amzn.to/2VRYna4
I Was There All Along by Margo T Krasne
“I was turning 49. Exhausted. Depleted. About to lose my home…I was supposed to be a somebody…I’d run a department at a major advertising agency…Two of my sculptures were in a museum for Christ’s sake. And there I was—curled up in a chair staring out my window contemplating a leap.”
These moments would tear the guts out of anyone, but how many people can so deftly put them into words and make them seem entertaining? Krasne has turned serious life issues into a therapeutic and envious romp through the city that never sleeps. Follow her world and life in this fascinating memoir. From Simply Good Press, purchase at https://amzn.to/33l4iHt
Lost Tomorrows by Matt Coyle
Tragedy strikes again for Rick Cahill when Krista Landingham, his former partner on the Santa Barbara Police Department, is found dead. At her funeral, the judgmental eyes of the local police are on Rick, who already is suspectedof murdering his wife in the same town.
Krista’s sister Leah hires Rick to investigate her death, which leads him back to a series of far more twisted events that took place before Krista was even involved. Rick must learn how to face his past head on and confront all the demons that have been waiting for him in order to right these terrible wrongs. From Oceanview Press, purchase at https://amzn.to/2M2cczF
