Movie Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures


Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures
Writers: Olivia Newman and John Whittington
Director: Olivia Newman
Starring: Sally Field, Lewis Pullman, and Colm Meaney
Publisher: Netflix
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars (6 on IMDB)
Reviewed by Astilbe

A widow who works at a local aquarium finds joy again when she forms an unlikely bond with a giant Pacific octopus and a wayward young man who comes to town in search of family. Together, they uncover a mystery that will lead them to a life-changing discovery and restore their sense of wonder.

Loneliness is a heavy burden to carry.

Some of the best scenes were the ones that explored how quickly news can spread in a small town and what happens when gossip doesn’t match what actually occurred. It rang true to life in my experience, and I enjoyed watching the characters react to the stories that were either being spread about them or that they were spreading about their friends and neighbors. Some of them liked this process far more than others did, and my opinions of all of them shifted for the better or the worse depending on how they handled this topic.

I did find the character development flat, especially when it came to the protagonists. Even given the tragic backstories of certain characters, I struggled to connect to them due to the limited amount of information that was shared about them outside of the painful events they were processing. As much as I wanted to give this one a higher rating, I wasn’t able to do so thanks to this issue.

The magical realism was handled nicely. While the vast majority of the storyline was rooted in realistic conflicts and events, there were a few moments that were slightly outside of the realm of possibility in our world. These scenes were handled so sensitivity and creatively that I could easily imagine them really occurring which is exactly what I love to see in this sub-genre. The ordinary experiences of the characters in the vast majority of their lives only made those rare deviations from the norm all the more spectacular.

Remarkably Bright Creatures made me smile.

Murder At Midnight by Faith Martin


Murder At Midnight by Faith Martin
Publisher: Joffe Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Felix Olliphant was found stabbed to death at a New Year’s Eve costume party for the turn of the millennium.

Seemingly liked by everyone, motives for his murder are hard to find. There was one suspect, but no evidence.

Hillary struggles to solve this baffling case. And she has to contend with a new colleague, Jake Barnes. Young and rich, he says he wants to give something back to the community, but Hillary has her doubts.

Will Hillary finally be defeated by this cold case and will she lose her boss and love interest to a new job?

Hillary Greene has returned to Thames Valley Police HQ, acting as a cold-case consultant for the Crime Review Team, looking into murders which the police have never been able to solve.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to go back. But solving crimes is irresistible for Hillary Greene. And it doesn’t hurt that her new boss is devastatingly handsome.

Hillary Green returns to work in the cold case unit after a well earned two week break. Her two new trainees are both eager to begin work with her – though each have their own secrets. Hillary is given a particularly difficult case – one with ample suspects but no real motive. Can Hillary work her magic yet again?

I have been thoroughly enjoying this series. I am particularly impressed the author manages to keep the situations feeling fresh. With semi regular new characters introduced as the plotlines surrounding other secondary characters close out and they move on I think this really finds the balance between the comfort of the known and familiar but with enough movement and new people brought in to keep everything feeling fresh and different. I also really enjoy the fact that while the cases are generally kept to each individual book, there is frequently a sub-plot or two percolating in the background to give a bit of cohesion and a sense of an overall storyline unfolding.

Realistic and enjoyable, I can thoroughly rate this series and find each new installment to be an enjoyable read. I thought there was clearly a longer running plot with one of the new trainees – he’s clearly got a few secrets lurking and a personal agenda he’s working on. It will be interesting to see where that leads. I also have been enjoying the slowly building sub-plot of Hillary’s love life with her about-to-be-promoted boss. Readers should be aware that the final paragraph of the book spins a few things on it’s head and clearly is leading to a big change in the next book.

An excellent mystery with a cast of strong secondary characters and a very well plotted series of mysteries and multi-book plot arcs this is a great series and one I can highly recommend. Thoroughly enjoyable.

The Wine Cellar by Chris Hart


The Wine Cellar by Chris Hart
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

She inherited a house she had never seen. She did not know what waited under it.

When Dr. Rosaria “Rosie” Conti loses the grandmother she barely knew, she also inherits a stone masseria in the hills outside Ragusa – a property no one in her family knew existed, kept in silence for more than eighty years. Burned out from emergency medicine and grieving more than she can name, Rosie travels to Sicily to settle the estate and walk away.

Then she finds the wine cellar beneath the kitchen floor. And the bottle dated 1943. And the man waiting on the other side of one impossible swallow.

Salvatore “Turi” Valenti is an OSS operative working with Sicilian partisans behind German lines during Operation Husky – an Italian-American from Brooklyn living between three names and one war he may not survive. The cellar that brings Rosie to him will only open ten times. After that, the door closes for good.

As Rosie crosses again and again into a country at war, she discovers that her grandmother’s silence held more than grief – and that the choice waiting for her at the bottom of the bottle is not whether to love a man eighty-three years out of reach, but what she is willing to leave behind to stay.

Some love stories are not bound by time.

Love is everywhere.

This was a great example of how to include complex world building into a tale that was fast-paced and didn’t have space for lengthy descriptions. The author made every sentence count, and within a few pages I could imagine Sicily in exquisite detail that included all five senses during both the World War II era as well as today.

There were times when I wished for more information about the budding romance between Rosie and Turi. Life in the 1940s was quite different than it is today, especially for a woman. It surprised me a little that the main character didn’t think about how rare it was for women to become doctors eighty years ago and how her life might change for the worse if she decided to remain in the past. Developing the romance even further would have given the protagonist a solid reason to make this decision, and I would have gone for a full five-star rating if this had occurred due to how well written the rest of it was.

The descriptions of how Rosie treated common injuries and illnesses in a world that didn’t yet have widespread access to antibiotics or other modern medical advancements were among my favorite scenes. This would have been tricky enough during peace time, but during a war it was even more daunting due to how limited certain supplies could be and how dangerous it was to travel some nights. I also enjoyed seeing how these scenes explored Rosie’s calm personality and the relationships she built with people who trusted her to help them during some of the worst moments of their lives.

I didn’t want The Wine Cellar to end. What a heartwarming read!

Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse by A.D. Shaddox


Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse by A.D. Shaddox
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Amaya Reed never asked to become an Active.

One day, she’s a normal high school junior. The next, she’s cycling through eight unpredictable powers—mind-reading, gravity control, phasing, speed—each one replacing the last, each one harder to control than the one before.

There’s just one problem: once she uses a power, she can’t use it again until she’s burned through all eight.

When a disastrous rescue attempt goes viral, Amaya is branded a danger instead of a hero. But before she can even figure out how to live with her abilities, the mysterious Agency comes calling with an offer she can’t ignore:

Go undercover on the biggest show in America—The Next American Popstar—and stop a killer who plans to strike during the live finale.

Now, Amaya has to survive high school, master a volatile cycle of powers, and compete on a national stage where one mistake could cost her everything.

Because this time, failure won’t just go viral.

It’ll be deadly.

Being a teenager is complicated enough even before magical abilities start developing.

The descriptions of Amaya’s eight powers and how she learned to use them were detailed and memorable. I liked the fact that each ability was not only associated with a color but also had a special name. Once the characters explained them all, it was easy for me as a reader to know what to expect next based on what she’d done recently and which power was next on her rotating list. I should note that it did take a little while for this to be fully explored, but I didn’t mind the wait and thought it felt very natural to learn the last few bits of information when I did. Sometimes life does get in the way of lengthy conversations about important matters, after all!

It would have been helpful to have stronger character development, especially for Amaya. As much as I enjoyed learning about the incredible things she could do, I found myself wishing that I knew more about her personality and the interests she had that were unrelated to her role as an Active. Her relationship with her younger brother, for example, could have been explored more deeply in order to round out her character and give the audience a glimpse of what she was like when she was doing typical teenage things.

Many of the young adult books I read tend to shy away from including social media or reality television in their storylines, so I found it refreshing to see how the characters used and were affected by both the Internet and this style of programming. There are some key differences between teens who grew up in previous generations where these things either didn’t exist at all or were much more niche and people in that age group today who know that anything they say or do could be immediately shared and dissected online.

I was intrigued by Imago Nine – The Popstar Apocalypse.

Two Lives With You by Lauren Ho


Two Lives With You by Lauren Ho
Publisher: Mindy’s Book Studio
Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What if they never married? For an overwhelmed husband and wife, that what-if wish comes true in an emotional and bittersweet novel about choices, sacrifice, and the love that they might lose forever.

When Dana and Nigel got married, they had such promise. After sixteen years, the cracks are showing.

Dana is a burned-out ER nurse, and Nigel is a recently unemployed stay-at-home dad whose professional identity is disappearing. Questioning the directions their lives have taken, Dana and Nigel are each granted a wish from a mysterious stranger. For one week they can escape the pressure of their lives in favor of ones in which they never married.

Waking up in an alternate reality where their youthful, individual dreams have come true is, at first, a marvel. When they meet by chance in Bali, Dana recognizes Nigel instantly, but he feels only an inexplicable connection to this stranger. And they discover there’s a catch to their wishes.

Returning to normal—and to the long-haul love they vowed would be forever—won’t be as easy as they thought. As the clock ticks down, Dana and Nigel face an impossible choice that will test the very foundation of their relationship and alter their lives forever.

Perfection is a myth.

Romantic relationships evolve over time, especially when a couple decides to have kids, encounters health problems, or struggles to find work among many other potential stressors in life. There simply aren’t enough romance novels about characters in these busy and sometimes difficult stages of life for my tastes, so I was thrilled to read something about a relationship that has weathered multiple storms and no longer feels quite the same as it used to. While I don’t want to give away any spoilers, I can say that this realistic approach to romance for people who are no longer college aged was refreshing and I loved seeing how Nigel and Dana explored their past together as they contemplated their possible futures as well.

I would have preferred to see more attention paid to character development. While I could easily describe Dana and Nigel’s professions and what they thought of their work on their best days as well as their worst ones, explaining what their personalities were like or how they grew and changed as a result of their magical experiences would be trickier. There were moments that briefly focused on this topics, but not to the extent I’d hope to find in a full-length novel. As much as I enjoyed the storyline itself, I needed a deeper understanding of who these two characters were as individuals in order to select a higher rating.

With that being said, I loved the fantasy and paranormal subplots of this tale. They were well developed and blended beautifully into the main romantic storyline due to how reliant the two protagonists were on figuring out the spell that bound them in order to repair their marriage and hopefully return to their original reality. This was a great example of how to blend these genres together in ways that honor all of them equally.

Two Lives with You was romantic and heartwarming.

Protecting Home by Kyle Shoop


Protecting Home by Kyle Shoop
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Historical, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

You can’t outrun home.

A game-winning hit.
A mysterious inheritance.
One journey that changes everything.

After the sudden death of his father, major-league all-star Buck Boone is forced to return to the hometown he left behind years ago. But instead of a traditional inheritance, Buck is surprised to find his father left him a final challenge: in five days—the length of a little league baseball game—he must revisit four meaningful places from his past.

Four bases.
One final trip around the diamond.
Only then can he claim what his father left behind.

Each stop uncovers a memory his father could never forget—a defining moment in their relationship, and a moment Buck believed he had outrun long ago. As the journey unfolds, the line between past and present begins to blur, revealing the love, heartbreak, and quiet sacrifices that shaped his life.

Told through an emotionally rich dual timeline, Buck’s return home forces him to confront formidable moments, old friends, a fractured relationship with his family, and the lesson his father lived by: always protect home.

Heartfelt and unforgettable, Protecting Home is a powerful novel about baseball, fathers and sons, forgiveness, and the courage it takes to come home—reminding us that the greatest victories aren’t always won on the field, but in the lives we choose to protect.

Forgiveness is for everyone.

Memories can be tricky things sometimes, so I was glad to see the dual timelines included in this book. Buck’s understanding of the world as a child and teenager were obviously not the same as how he viewed the same events many years later. It was helpful for me as a reader to see how his perspectives evolved as he began to understand his family better and branched out into the world as a professional athlete.

It would have been helpful to have stronger plot and character development. Other than his love of baseball and his close relationship with his father, I’d have trouble describing what Buck was like as a person. For example, no other hobbies or interests of his were included and I’m not sure what it would be like to meet him in person. Was he gentle, loud, thoughtful, or impulsive? I was never certain, but the same could be said of the vague descriptions of his small hometown. Was this set now or sixty years ago? Good arguments could be made for many different decades, and knowing roughly when it occurred would have helped to clear up some of my questions about why the character who was struggling with serious mental health problems didn’t seem to have any medical assistance with them.

With that being said, the descriptions of what it’s like to have a relative who is struggling with their mental health were interesting. Whether it was happening decades ago or in current times, getting help for a family in crisis can be difficult and sometimes provoke feelings of shame and guilt in both the person who is suffering as well as in their loved ones. This isn’t something that can always be easily resolved, and I liked the way the author acknowledged that aspect of the subplot along the way.

Protecting Home was a thought-provoking look at fraying family ties, mending fences, and, of course, the joy of baseball.

You Can Tell Me by Melinda Leigh


You Can Tell Me by Melinda Leigh
Publisher: Montlake
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

On the three-year anniversary of true crime writer Olivia Cruz’s horrific kidnapping, she’s scheduled to walk her podcaster friend Zoe March through the crime scene, but Zoe fails to show. Olivia knows Zoe would never stand her up—not today.

Zoe’s husband, who claims she never came home the night before, has reported her missing. But marital conflicts make the police suspect she has left him. Olivia thinks otherwise. The police aren’t looking for Zoe, so Olivia begins her own investigation. Retracing her friend’s last steps, she finds Zoe’s phone and a text with one chilling word: Run.

It soon becomes apparent that Zoe has been keeping secrets, and with her true crime podcast, there’s no telling what she has unearthed. To find her, Olivia must dig into her friend’s past. Did Zoe vanish to escape a killer, and is Olivia walking into a deadly trap?

Olivia Cruz knows that horrible things can happen to good people. When her longtime friend, Zoe March, fails to show for a meeting, her mind immediately jumps to the worst. But is it truly something nefarious or did Zoe just tire of her husband and leave to start a new life? That is the thing that Olivia is determined to discover, whatever the end result might be.

Three years ago, Oliva was kidnapped as a PR stunt and has been dealing with the trauma of it ever since. It was pretty impressive how well she coped with it all, and how her boyfriend, Lincoln, helped her without smothering or controlling her. Loved that she was a reporter turned true crime writer, made her reasons for wanting to find Zoe more understandable and less reckless.

Zoe March was the character I was most interested in, however. When the main character starts to find out that their good friend – Zoe, in this case – has been keeping secrets, I’m immediately engrossed, wanting nothing but the truth. As Olivia discovers, Zoe has been keeping a lot of secrets, for a very good reason. The tidbits of Zoe’s past are doled out a little at a time, making it hard for me to stop reading. I needed to know!

You Can Tell Me is a fast-paced, engrossing mystery. I was sucked in right from the start. First, I wanted to know about Olivia’s past kidnapping. Then, once Zoe fails to show, I needed to know where she’d gone, what had happened, and why. It was also different having a true crime writer searching for her true crime podcaster friend. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Leigh’s writing in the future. But first, I need to scour her backlist and see if Olivia’s story is told in any of them because that is a story I need all the details on.

Field Of Bones by LT Ryan


Field Of Bones by LT Ryan
Publisher: Liquid Mind Media
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

A young woman disappears…
A desperate family searches for answers…
Maddie Castle must uncover the truth before it’s too late.

Maddie Castle thought she’d seen it all as a private investigator, but when Bentley Roycroft pleads for help finding his niece, Daisy Miller, Maddie is drawn into one of her most harrowing cases yet. Daisy has been missing for nearly a year, but a recent clue—a mysterious flash drive—could hold the key to her whereabouts.

As Maddie investigates, she unravels a trail of deceit, corruption, and buried secrets that point to a dangerous conspiracy. With each step, the danger grows, and Maddie must rely on her instincts to navigate a deadly game where every move could be her last. Time is running out, and the stakes couldn’t be higher: uncover the truth or lose Daisy forever.

PI Maddie Castle has finally found a solid lead on the missing Daisy Miller. Bently – Maddie’s boyfriend – asked Maddie to search for the Daisy, the young sister of his dead wife. Maddie knows the older man – Daisy’s captor – is ruthless, smart and determined, but as Maddie uncovers more and more, she realizes that the stakes are higher than she could have imagined, and the death toll is worst than her every nightmare.

This is an intense and well plotted mystery/thriller series I have been enjoying a lot. There are some darker themes here in the book – kidnapping and non-consensual activities in particular – but I wouldn’t describe anything as overtly graphic or titillating. These themes are present and not shied away from, but they also are not dwelled upon or given graphic description – more mentioned numerous times and not shied away from. I also would stress heavily that this book is solidly a mystery/thriller and “rescue the kidnapped woman” storyline – not in any way a romance or “Dark Romance” style of book.

I also for this book would recommend that the previous story (Vanished Trails) would be a sensible book to read prior to picking this book up. Much of the background detecting occurs in this book and then Field of Bones picks up immediately after where Vanished Trails leaves off. This means readers starting here might feel as if a lot of the hard yards in tracking Daisy and the key evidence they find is missing – as this story opens with Maddie having the evidence in hand and actually tracking down Daisy. I do feel readers should be able to pick up where this story begins, but I feel if I hadn’t read the previous book it might feel to myself as if half the story (the mystery/tracking the clues) was missing.

I absolutely enjoyed the fact that the pace is fast in this book. The whole book covers just a few short and intense days – the culmination of the case as a whole – and this book has a very go-go-go sort of feel to me. I was pleased that much of the emotional baggage which the other books in this series often has was a lot more back seat in this story. I enjoyed that the focus was the case and rescuing Daisy and not so much all the complexities of Maddie’s personal and family life. I did really enjoy that.

While I admit this book might not appeal as much to new readers to this series – without the multiple story plotline arc some of the intensity and emotion might not be present, I do nevertheless feel this is a highly emotional and intense read, a strong thriller/serial killer style of story and a fast paced, plot heavy read. It was also very satisfying to finally get some closure and answers on some of the longer running story arc with these still being plenty of story left for future books.

A well plotted, fast paced mystery/thriller book and a series I am really enjoying. Recommended.

Death by Coconut by Susie Black


Death by Coconut by Susie Black
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Cozy Mystery, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Obnoxious Mystique Swimwear sales rep Simon Posnick was universally despised by competitors and customers alike. So the question wasn’t who wanted the lying, cheating scoundrel dead. The question was who didn’t. Mariel Levine, Laurie’s Fashions’ swimsuit buyer and Holly Schlivnik’s career mentor, is wrongly arrested for murdering Posnick by impaling him with the jagged edge of a coconut shell at the base of his skull. The wisecracking, irreverent President of Mermaid Swimwear jumps into action to uncover the real killer. But the treacherous trail holds more dangerous human predators than the alligators and black pythons in the Everglades. Everything turns out differently than amateur sleuth Holly thinks it will as she tangles with a vengeful killer.

He might have been a jerk, but he still didn’t deserve to die.

I was pleased by the character development that has happened since Death By Sample Size introduced Holly Schlivnik to the world. She has matured in all sorts of wonderful ways since I first met her, and her experiences solving the previous mysteries have clearly played a part in her personal growth. This made me want to go back and catch up on the titles in this seriesI haven’t read yet to discover more details about how that all occurred.

While the beginning and ending were fairly fast paced, I did find the middle portion’s pacing to be slower and sometimes uneven in certain places. This lead to my interest in the plot wavering for a while due to the reduced number of events that were leading the protagonist to the truth. If not for that issue, I would have given this a full five-star rating as everything else about it was memorable and entertaining.

The romantic subplot was woven into this tale beautifully. I especially appreciated how Holly balanced the role she played in trying to find the murderer with her attention to her private life. She’s a character I’ve grown attached to and was rooting for as she tried to make time for work, romance, and a lot of sleuthing along the way. My fingers are crossed we’ll get even more details about her personal life in the future.

This is the seventh instalment in the Holly Swimsuit Mystery Series, but it can be read as a standalone work as well.

Death by Coconut kept me guessing until the end.

Montana El Diablo – The Infinite Adventures by Peter Martin


Montana El Diablo – The Infinite Adventures by Peter Martin
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Humor, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Horror, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Montana El Diablo, the manliest man to ever man and the greatest Private Detective to ever detect privately, sits at his desk. It’s all very noir and cool.

The phone rings, but at the same time there is a knock on the door.
Which will he answer? It’s up to you. If you answer the phone, turn to page 30. If you answer the door, turn to page 58, but buy the book first.

Montana El Diablo, The Infinite Adventures is a unique user driven narrative experience where you, the reader, will determine the fate of Montana El Diablo. Cults, zombies, an alien invasion all await Montana El Diablo and, more importantly, you. Will you find the Leprechaun or will the Leprechaun find you?

Together you can forge forward and determine the fate of Montana El Diablo. Will you find success or fall into complete ruination in what has been called “a book” and “pretty neat”. That was from some pretty reserved people, so it was a party popping off for them.

Will the party pop off for you? Only one way to find out, that being to purchase the book and read it. With 60+ possible outcomes, 500 insightful footnotes by the author, the adventure is truly infinite*.

*Except for the fact that 60 is a very finite number**

**This is an example of an insightful footnote.

Any move could be Montana’s last one.

Mr. Martin had a wry sense of humor that worked perfectly for, as he put it, a “non-linear user-driven narrative experience.” I especially enjoyed the many off-topic sections he included in which he rambled on about subjects ranging from cat facts to how echolocation works to the etiquette of Korean bath houses. They were an amusing detour from the zombies, cults, and mysterious beautiful women that Montana El Diablo generally concerned himself with.

It would have been helpful to see more character development for the protagonist, especially since this was over three hundred pages long. As much as I laughed along the way and enjoyed the plot it self, I didn’t feel as though I got to know Montana particularly well as a individual. Yes, he loved flirting with pretty women, seemed to be extroverted, and was full of zany antics, but I’d find a bit harder to describe other parts of his personality. For example, what did he like to do during his time off from work? Was he close to his family and friends? What were his biggest hopes and fears? If I knew more about him, I would have happily given this a full five-star rating.

I adored the creativity of this book. It’s difficult to discuss specific plot lines as every reader will have his or her own unique experience with that based on which options they choose as they read, but I thought the author did a great job of exploring many different options that ranged from logical to absurd depending on the scene. Some of my favorite moments were the ones that described the multitude of ways in which Montana El Diablo could die if he made the wrong choice. Given how common that type of ending is in the choose-your-own-adventure writing style, I don’t believe that should count as a spoiler so long as I avoid mentioning the specific circumstances of any of his deaths. All other potential readers need to know is that there were some unexpected twists along the way that made me think a lot of work went into developing them.

Montana El Diablo – The Infinite Adventures was a wild ride that I’d recommend to teens and adults alike.