Archives for August 2026

The Laird Of Drumlychtoun by Hilary Pugh


The Laird Of Drumlychtoun by Hilary Pugh
Publisher: Housemouse Press
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A simple case of a missing sister. Or is it?

When Ian Skair is invited to an ancient castle perched on a rocky promontory of the Angus coast, he expects to find a routine missing person case. Little does he know, the Laird of Drumlychtoun and his family have more secrets and black sheep than Ian could have ever anticipated.
As Ian uncovers secrets and intrigues, thefts and legends, he finds himself and the family in a dangerous situation. Can he reunite the laird with his sister and discover the truth behind her disappearance? Or will the family’s secrets be too much for them to handle?

Ian Skair is hired by the current Laird on the Angus coast to investigate the whereabouts of his long-missing elder sister. Alexander Lyton was a very young boy when his much older sister left the castle in her late teens in the late 1960s. Having never got along well with their father, Ailish had left with her boyfriend, London in her sights and never been in touch again. Can Ian navigate this investigation and reunite the laird with his estranged family?

I have enjoyed other books by this author and was curious to see if this – the first in a different series – would be equally good to my mind. I was very pleased to find the tone and prose similar and one I connected well with. I found Ian to be an interesting and relatable character and I found myself quickly caught up in the story and characters.

While I admit the pace of the story is a little slow – readers looking for an action-orientated or spy kind of thriller might not be happy with this – I thought the story wove really well together and the various plots and interesting characters kept my attention throughout the story. With quite a strong cast of primary and secondary characters there were a few interweaving storylines here and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I’m pleased there are a few more in this series already published.

Readers who enjoy an atmospheric Scottish private eye mystery should find this a fun and interesting read and I can easily recommend both the author and this series.

Piano Zen – Where Reality and Dreams Converge by Thomas Rheingans


Piano Zen – Where Reality and Dreams Converge by Thomas Rheingans
Publisher: Piano Zen Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Journey into a world where piano notes awaken the mysteries of the soul and reveal the hidden connections between life’s physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions.

In the Gate Lodge overlooking the City of Nightingale, the enigmatic Rosa Carreño introduces young William Longfellow Emerson to a way of learning that reaches far beyond traditional piano lessons. Through her unique approach to music, William begins to discover that the piano can open unexpected pathways of awareness, inviting him to listen not only with his ears, but with his whole being.

As William’s musical training deepens, it draws him into the Whispering Woods of the Tall Pines, a mysterious realm where melodies blur the boundary between dreams and waking life. Within this dreamlike landscape, he encounters the Elemental Masters of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, whose teachings reveal the deeper harmony connecting body, mind, emotion, and spirit.

Guided by Rosa’s quiet wisdom and supported by a circle of mentors who have each faced their own life trials, William begins to understand that music can be more than an art form. It can become a path of transformation. As he navigates moments of loss, questions of identity, and the challenges of growing into himself, he slowly uncovers resilience, compassion, and the healing power of connection.

Piano Zen is a luminous story of music, awakening, and inner discovery. Blending dreamlike adventure with timeless spiritual insight, the novel invites readers to listen more deeply to the rhythms of life and to the quiet wisdom that lives within us all.

Beauty is a state of mind.

The dreamlike qualities of the plot were intriguing and fit the themes nicely. For example, sometimes it wasn’t entirely clear to me when one scene ended and the next one began. They all simply blended together into a series of thoughtful moments that reminded me so much of what it feels like to experience a dream but not quite be aware in the moment that nothing one thinks is happening is actually occurring.

I struggled with the pacing of this book, especially when it came to the whimsical portions of it that blended our world with light fantasy elements. The plot simply moved too slowly to keep my interest levels high despite how curious I was about it originally when I read the blurb. Yes, this was part of the literary fiction genre, so of course I wasn’t expecting something action packed. It still would have been nice to have a little more conflict, though.

There were some beautiful descriptions included that illuminated by imagination. I especially enjoyed the passages that talked about the incredible library William visited and thought they were an excellent introduction to the many wonderful things he saw and did later on. One of the best moments from further on in his adventures from this perspective was a small section that talked about ruby, sapphire, and amber lights shining onto crown molding on a wall. I’ll leave it to other readers to discover the context of that, but it was quite pretty to read about.

Piano Zen – Where Reality and Dreams Converge was a gentle tale.

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for August 19, 2026

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Food(s) from my Geographic Area that I Don’t Like

James by Percival Everett


James by Percival Everett
Publisher: Vintage
Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Snowdrop

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim’s agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.

I read Huckleberry’s name, and I was back in the 60’s reading Huck Finn in my high school. But this wasn’t Mark Twain’s book. This was someone who had written a book of the time, these times, the 21st century. This was a good story, but it had reality in it. It was full of those things we sometimes don’t like to face.

I am really not sure how Everett did this. He wrote a story I couldn’t put down, one of bad guys and good guys, troubled times, and good times. He included words that I would have put a book down immediately had I read some of the words included. Words I would definitely find offensive in today’s world. I’d be ashamed that someone had called anyone those names. Yet somehow, he portrayed the truth all mixed with reality, even humor, mixed up with a story you just can’t wait to know how it ends. How in this world he did it, I cannot tell you.

I can’t find anything to pick on except for maybe a few typos and for this story even I can forgive those. That’s saying a lot. I can say you will have lost out if you don’t read it.

Top Ten Tuesday: Cozy Mystery Series I Want to Read

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

All of these cozy mystery series sound excellent to me. If you’ve read any of them to the end of the final book, which one would you recommend starting first?

1. Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple, #1) by Agatha Christie

 

2. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, #1) by Alexander McCall Smith

 

3. Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1) by Charlaine Harris

 

4. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (Vera Wong, #1) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

 

5. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1) by Alan Bradley

 

6. Fatal Fixer-Upper (A Do-It-Yourself Mystery, #1) by Jennie Bentley

 

7. Knit One, Kill Two (A Knitting Mystery, #1) by Maggie Sefton

 

8. The Chocolate Cat Caper (A Chocoholic Mystery, #1) by JoAnna Carl

 

9. A Peach of a Murder (Fresh-Baked Mystery #1) by Livia J. Washburn

 

10. Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby, #1) by Janet Evanovich

Another One for the God of Insects by Cobalt Stone


Another One for the God of Insects by Cobalt Stone
Publisher: KDP
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Sanderson McCaffrey knows two things for certain.

The first is that some land takes care of the people who respect it.

The second is that government men never know when to leave.

For generations, the McCaffrey family has farmed the same South Texas soil. The crops survive droughts that should have killed them. The harvests come when they shouldn’t. And whenever outsiders push too hard, ask too many questions, or dig too deep into things that don’t concern them, trouble has a way of finding them.

Sanderson doesn’t pretend to understand it.

His father didn’t understand it.

His grandfather didn’t understand it.

But they all learned the same lesson.

Some questions are better left unanswered.

Twelve-year-old Sally McCaffrey has grown up hearing stories, working the farm, and learning the unwritten rules that have been passed down through her family for generations. She believes the world works the way nature works. Flies feed spiders. Spiders feed birds. Everything feeds something.

When a young state agriculture inspector arrives to investigate the McCaffrey farm’s impossible production records, he finds a family hiding something he can’t explain and a field that refuses to behave the way fields should.

The more he digs, the more determined he becomes to uncover the truth.

The more determined Sanderson becomes to send him home.

Neither man realizes how little control either of them actually has.

Set against the backdrop of South Texas farm country, Another One for the God of Insects blends rural folklore, family legacy, quiet dread, and Southern Gothic suspense into a story where the greatest danger is not what can be seen in the fields, but what has been waiting there all along.

Some inherit land.

Some inherit money.

The McCaffreys inherited something else.

Nothing is more important than respecting the land that sustains us all.

The world building was understated but complex. Readers who have any experience with farming or rural culture will have a little bit of an advantage with this piece as the descriptions of people who are from these subcultures was subtle, but I think it can also appealing to anyone who is unfamiliar with these subjects so long as they pay close attention to the dialogue and character development. This was something that should be slowly savored, especially once the inspector from the Texas Department of Agriculture arrived and began disregarding the instructions the main character gave to him.

Speaking of character development, Sanderson’s gruff, no-nonsense personality was perfect for a protagonist who had spent his entire life on the family farm. He valued choosing one’s words carefully and embracing the silence of the countryside if one didn’t have anything useful to say. Other readers should get to know his other personality traits for themselves, but he struck me as a solid example of what the average farmer is often like.

This tale included one of those endings that can make someone pause and go back to reread the last few paragraphs. I adored how open to interpretation was and how much it trusted the audience to pick up on the few clues that had been provided in order to know what deep secrets Sanderson and his family had been protecting for so many generations. If the rest of Mr. Stone’s work is anything like this, I want to read it all!

Another One for the God of Insects made me yearn for a sequel.

The CAll to Authorship by Tim W. Lindsay – Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Tim W. Lindsay will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click to see the other stops on your tour.

Embrace the call to authorship: 10 steps to leverage the power of a book!

Books help people—they inform, inspire, and engage. Books are also a powerful force for those who write them. Publishing a book builds your authority, sharpens your thinking, and opens doors to media exposure, speaking engagements, partnerships, and more.

Despite the greater accessibility of publishing than ever before, many would-be authors hesitate. They get stuck with self-doubt or believe producing a book is incompatible with a busy life. They may start writing but don’t finish. Or they finish but don’t publish or market their books.

The truth? With a little dedicated time, consistent effort, and the right guidance, anyone can publish a book that changes lives for the better. And they should.

Put down your phone. Take the leap from consumer to creator!

This step-by-step guide will show you how to:
– Use a one-page tool to clarify your goals, target audience and plan.
– Craft an outline that drives your manuscript forward.
– Overcome mental roadblocks and craft habits to finish your first draft in months, not years—even with a busy schedule.
– Select a publishing model, refine your manuscript, and make informed design and distribution decisions.
– Employ promotional strategies to achieve goals that transcend royalties.

Become more than you are. Have courage. Commit to growth by authoring a book, strengthening your ability to serve. Write with purpose. Publish for impact!

Bonus for book professionals: Special content for book coaches, editors, and ghostwriters—those helping ordinary people become extraordinary authors.

Enjoy an Excerpt

We live in an age of swipes, scrolls and soundbites, where attention is fragmented and surface-level engagement is the norm. In such a world, choosing to sit down and write is bold indeed.

Writing a book is an act of meaning-making. It’s how we wrestle with ideas, make sense of experience, and speak into the noise with words that are considered and enduring. It takes courage to believe that your words matter. It takes character to see them through and shape them into a book.

That journey often begins with a spark. Maybe you’ve been through something, built something, learned something—and now you feel the quiet tug: This should be a book.

But with that tug often comes hesitation: Who am I to write this? Will anyone care? I’ve heard those doubts from countless aspiring authors through my work at Tellwell, where we’ve helped thousands turn that first spark into a finished book. And I’ve watched them write anyway. What followed was often extraordinary.

For Cindy Cherry, that moment came unexpectedly. For years she resisted writing a book about her father, Don Cherry, the outspoken hockey commentator who became a household name in Canada. She feared a memoir about her dad might seem biased, or worse, opportunistic. But everything changed when a Google Alert lit up her phone screen: a news organization was praising the Western Hockey League for cutting ties with Don following what she calls “Poppygate,” and for erasing his name from an organ-donation campaign he had helped champion, raising nearly half a million dollars. This cause was close to Cindy’s heart. As a teenager she had donated one of her kidneys to her younger brother.

She realized that the public narrative was being written in a way that dishonoured the man she knew and loved.

About the Author Tim Lindsay founded Tellwell in 2015. Since then, he and his team have guided some 5,000 authors including entrepreneurs, professional speakers, coaches, consultants, experts, course creators, community builders, religious and nonprofit leaders, Indigenous organizations, athletes, influencers, and everyday citizens. Discover more at Tellwellpublishing.com.

Instagram | YouTube

Buy the book at Amazon

TV Review: Little House on the Prairie


Little House on the Prairie (2026), screenplay by Rebecca Sonnenshine and based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Showrunner: Rebecca Sonnenshine
Starring: Luke Bracey, Crosby Fitzgerald, Alice Halsey, and Skywalker Hughes
Publisher: Netflix
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Romance, Holiday, Historical
Rating: 4 Stars (8 on IMDB)
Reviewed by Astilbe

The Ingalls family lives and works on a farm in Midwestern America during the late 19th century.

Anything is possible on the open prairie.

So many iconic moments from the book were explored here. I’d say my favorite one involved what happened when the Ingalls family was snowed in over Christmas and had to become creative when planning how to celebrate that special day. Another notable moment involved a natural disaster that the characters had no advance warning of but had to react to quickly in order to prevent something catastrophic from happening. These were moments I imagined over and over again while I read the Little House books growing up, and it was fun to see a modern reimagining of them.

I was surprised by how many changes this adaptation made to the original material which had already softened many of the more difficult moments of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life. Some of the changes made sense for a 2026 interpretation of this classic as western society has changed quite a bit in the last hundred and fifty years or so, but I would have loved to see Laura and Mary played by actors who were closer to the original ages of these girls when the book was written. Some of their scenes simply fit better for younger children and felt a little unusual for a preteen and a young teenager to still be interested in. For example, most older kids have a very different experience of Santa than what was portrayed here.

With that being said, this first season did a great job of setting up what happens to these characters as they grow older. There was some wholesome foreshadowing for the Ingalls children in particular that Little House fans might find amusing, and I liked the way so many of the important people in their lives were either introduced early on or included in conversations that will hopefully be revisited in the future.

Little House on the Prairie was a heartwarming introduction to what will hopefully be a long-running series.

A Dead Man On Staffin Beach by JM Dalgliesh


A Dead Man On Staffin Beach by JM Dalgliesh
Publisher: Hamilton Press
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

That which does not kill you… only makes them try harder…

When the body of a celebrity author, recently returned to the Isle of Skye seemingly to live out his remaining days, is found on Staffin Beach, D.I. Duncan McAdam is left with a mystery to solve.

The circumstances of his last days along with his death prove to be a mystery. How did this man meet his end on the sands of An Corran Beach at dawn? The case generates a great deal of interest in the media, putting a spotlight on Duncan and his team. Little does Duncan know how many people have been keeping secrets on the island. Secrets that some thought – and many hoped – would never come into the light.

As Duncan uncovers a darker side to his beloved Misty Isle, he finds the investigation coming closer to home. The life on Skye he escaped from all those years ago may not have been quite what he thought it was. As the investigation develops, Duncan begins to question not only who he can trust but also to what extent his own experiences have been manipulated by the deeds of the past.

What is it that happened on The Rock all those years ago that no one dares to speak of?

DI Duncan McAdams is called in when the body of a well known author is found on Staffin Beach. The author had returned after many years living away, so Duncan is unsure who could possibly have wanted to kill the man. But as Duncan and his team dig deeper they begin to find a number of secrets – some of which are of such long-standing many lives remain deeply entrenched in their shadows.

I have been enjoying this Scottish noir mystery series. I thought this book was not just a good addition – with a solid plot and a number of well-linked characters I am coming to be attached to – but I was pleased with the forward momentum with some of Duncan’s personal and family life as well. As I’ve found with a few of the other books in this series the ending is a little vague – while the perpetrators are known and the mystery is solved, I’ve found with these books sometimes there remains a few threads dangling that aren’t necessarily neatly tied up. Readers should be mindful of that with this series.

The main characters – both the police team and Duncan’s sister, mother and girlfriend – all have a good amount of time spent on them in this book. I enjoyed this balance, showing that Duncan has a number of things on the go and not just his work. While I do feel readers can easily pick this book up by itself and thoroughly enjoy it, plus the links and relationships are all very clearly explained, I admit my attachment to Ros – Duncan’s sister – in particular stemmed more from a deeper understanding having read the previous books. I feel this book was richer to me, personally, for having read the others – but the mystery and most of the book can absolutely be enjoyed by itself.

With a solid mystery, a good number of characters and some fairly dark secrets unearthed I found this to be a good book and a gripping read.

Why Do I Want to Get Married? A Guided Journal for Clarity Before Commitment by Venchele Saint Dic, MPH


Why Do I Want to Get Married? A Guided Journal for Clarity Before Commitment by Venchele Saint Dic, MPH
Publisher: Pathway Coach Writing
Genre: Non-Fiction, Contemporary
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Before choosing a future with someone else, take time to understand the reasons behind your desire for marriage.

Why Do I Want to Get Married? is a thoughtful guided journal created for singles, divorced men and women, people dating again, and anyone seeking emotional clarity before commitment.

Through reflective prompts, emotional clarity exercises, and intentional self-exploration, this journal helps readers uncover what they truly desire from marriage, partnership, healing, and love.

Inside this journal, you will explore:

• beliefs inherited about marriage
• emotional readiness for partnership
• healing after heartbreak or divorce
• loneliness versus genuine desire
• relationship patterns and boundaries
• healthy marriage values and vision
• self-worth beyond relationship status

This journal is not about rushing toward love.
It is about understanding yourself before choosing your future.

Because marriage is not the prize.
Self-awareness is.

Marriage can have many different meanings, all of which should be explored carefully in advance.

This was one of the most unique books I’ve reviewed so far here at Long and Short Reviews due to the journal format of it and how much space was left for readers to work through their own feelings about marriage, why they desire it, and what they hope it will bring to their lives. There were a series of in-depth questions about this topic with space left below each one for someone to write answers to a wide variety of questions about romantic love, commitment, hopes for the future, and one’s expectations of what each of those things may look like.

I was hoping the author would include a section that focused on memories of past dates and relationships and was thrilled to see this wish granted. It was nice that the questions didn’t make negative or positive assumptions about what those experiences were like as people’s experiences with this topic can vary greatly. Sometimes certain patterns can reveal themselves by looking back at one’s previous choice of partners, though, so I was glad that this was mentioned as well.

What ultimately encouraged me to give this a full five star review was the section that covered what might happen if the reader never ends up getting married (or married again, in the case of people who are widowed or divorced). Not everyone who yearns for this milestone will necessarily reach it, so having a backup plan is important even while one continues to go on dates and work on themselves as they wait to meet their future spouse. I loved the flexibility of the questions in this portion and thought they provided a well-rounded approach to the subject of wanting to be in a happy marriage but not yet knowing when, how, or with whom that might happen.

Why Do I Want to Get Married? A Guided Journal for Clarity Before Commitment was a thorough and thoughtful workbook that I’d recommend to anyone who hopes to be married someday.