A Christmas Wish for Love by Mariah Lynne


A Christmas Wish for Love by Mariah Lynne
Publisher: World Castle Publishing
Genre: Romance, Holiday, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Have you ever had a holiday cookie that came with a set of instructions? You’re about to.

In this sweet, heart-warming holiday romance, a precocious twelve-year-old named Luci, short for Lucia, never met her mom because she died giving birth. Her dad, a Florida Gulf Coast Island veterinarian, loved his late wife so much that he does not date or look at any other woman even though women are attracted to him. He still wears his wedding ring and, every Saturday night, shares a box of her mom’s memories, hoping to keep her alive in Luci’s heart.

Luci’s elderly Swedish next-door neighbor Meta loves Luci like an adopted granddaughter. When Luci’s dad gets called in for an emergency on her birthday which happens to be Saint Lucia’s Day, Luci and her dog Chester visit Meta.

Meta gives Luci a surprise birthday gift as she leaves to take home and open later with her dad. Then the holiday magic begins.

A CHRISTMAS WISH FOR LOVE is an enchanting and inspiring story you will want to share with others!

Anything is possible during Christmas time.

This was a unique spin on the romance genre. I don’t think I’ve ever read a romance novel written from the perspective of a child whose father is falling in love before. Kids don’t always understand these things the same way adults do, so I smiled when Luci explained what was happening and occasionally gave creative reasons for why the grownups in her life were behaving the way that they did.

There were some inconsistent details in this story that I found confusing. For example, Luci was described as a twelve-year-old girl in some scenes and a thirteen-year-old girl in others. Her character was written in a way that either one could have easily been true, but I did wish that the narrator had been clearer about her age. Her mother’s name was also spelled in two different ways later on in the plot. Another round of editing would have fixed these things and made it possible for me to choose a higher rating.

I loved the strong, caring community that these characters lived in. Being a single parent isn’t easy, especially after such tragic circumstances that surrounded Luci’s birth, but Kyle was lucky enough to have plenty of friends and neighbors around who could help him give his child everything she needed other than a mother figure. Some of the most memorable scenes were the ones that showed how everyone stepped up to give this little family extra love and attention. They brought a tear to my eye because of how sweet they were.

A Christmas Wish for Love was a gentle holiday romance.

Corrosive by J. Kariuki


Corrosive by J. Kariuki
Publisher: World Castle Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (78 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A former foster child now car washer, Stan, harbors dreams of professional photography. The baffling peeling of his flesh, however, magnified by dire poverty and a thieving lover, worsens the reticent twenty-seven-year-old’s situation: after a painful day at the car wash and later in the city taking photographs, Stan is overcome by the accruing pain in his flesh.

He rushes into an alley to hide his disgrace. But there, his seclusion proves fatal: after a chase and a brutal assault by the homeless of the alleys, Stan discovers mysteries held by his flesh, whereupon are two dead vagabonds, new flesh and a contract from a chummy photo agent.
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All indications now point to wealth, joy, and fulfillment; but instead, what follows Stan are revelations, heartbreak, death, absorbed flesh and a livid creature of fire.

The worst thing about feeling trapped is that it makes all kinds of everyday decisions much harder than they should be. If only Stan knew if there was a way out of the life he wished he could change.

The flashbacks to the main character’s childhood were some of my favorite scenes in this tale. While I can’t say anything about that part of his past without wandering into spoiler territory, I’m glad that the author spent as much time as he did showing how Stan had ended up with such a difficult life as an adult. That really helped me to get to know this character well.

There were certain aspects of Stan’s flesh disease that never quite made sense to me. I would have liked to know more about when and how it started. There were a couple of hints pointing to the idea that he’d been dealing with the problem for a long time, but there were other hints that this was possibly a new development in his life. Either explanation would have worked perfectly well for me. I simply wanted to know which theory was true as they would have changed how I interpreted at least one conversation he had with someone else in the storyline.

This was one of the goriest horror stories I’ve read in a long time. What I found most interesting about the sections that described the terrible condition of Stan’s skin was how much attention Mr. Kariuki paid to the smallest detail of what was happening to this character’s body. It was definitely strong at times, but it also pulled me into storyline in ways that wouldn’t have happened if any of it had been held back.

I’d recommend Corrosive to anyone who loves grisly science fiction.