Category: Uncategorized

About the book:

Title: The Kitchens of Canton

Author: Isham Cook

Published: February 7th 2018 by Magic Theater Books

Source: received from AuthorsDB in exchange for an honest review (paid promotion)

Format: e-copy

Blurb:

Jeff Malmquist is unaccountably catapulted to the year 2060. He finds himself in New Gary, Indiana, a labor camp of one million Chicagoans, their identities hacked and incriminated as pedophiles through the collusion of a corrupt US Government, the Russian cybermafia, and China (which runs the USA behind the scenes). He escapes to Chicago, only to find himself in a full-scale replica of Ancient Rome in China, erected for the wealthy country’s amusement and manned by a million enslaved Italians. Or did China come first? As he struggles to orient himself in these synchronized urban labyrinths, he is plunged back to real Ancient Rome, before being flung yet further into the future: It’s 2115 and the Chinese Empire rules the world. The former Western hemisphere is now the American Special Administrative Region, a vast Cantonese-speaking slave colony. Malmquist will soon be shipped to the most opulent city the world has ever known for an unspeakable fate.

A dystopian satire both bleak and funny, The Kitchens of Canton distills the worst of our present and future societies into a strangely seductive maze of a story.

Check it on: Amazon  & Goodreads

My Review:

This is one of those difficult books that keep you thinking on the subject long after you’ve gone through all its pages. At least this is what happened to me. “The Kitchens of Canton” is not an easy book to follow, as it jumps from one scenery to another, from one action to the next and even from one language to another.

We have our main character Jeff Malmquist who is lost in time and space. Somehow he is sent to different future scenarios, in a world wither ruled by China or Ancient Rome. He is trying to understand how he got there, why and what is happening? And I think that’s the most important question this book is raising. What is happening with us as humans, what is happening with our society. I see it as a raised flag towards what we see around us, the amount of indecency flowing around and most importantly, the lack of coherence.

The different languages used in the book may be confusing to us, as well as to our main character. We get to experience with him the puzzlement and the disturbing feeling caused by all the events. The sexual content is on the highest level. The intimate act is lacking emotion now. It is simply something that must be performed for the happiness of our masters. Huh, ain’t that funny? (I apologize!)

Isham Cook’s story is not one to be taken lightly. Society needs to shift its course towards the true values. We need to be focused on the things and subjects that really matter. Or else we become vain, dump and mere slaves of our own misery.  I liked the approach, I liked how it was put into pages – 4 out of 5 stars.

About the Author

American novelist and essayist based in China since 1994. Writing philosophy: downmarket, big concept, provocative, discriminating, outrageous. Kirkus Reviews calls my second novel The Kitchens of Canton “poignant…language barriers abound, with dialogue in Cantonese, Italian, and Latin, but Cook isn’t merely interested in verbal language—body language, customs and rituals, and symbols are also on full display. The book also explores Americans’ complicated relationship with sex, juxtaposing it against their seemingly comfortable relationships with weapons and violence. An insightful, unconventional, and risqué view of present-day culture.”

Website  |  Twitter

About the book:

Title: Dancing with Armando

Author: Jill Cox Vogt

Published: November 1st 2016 by Lakeview Publishing

Source: received from Authorsbd

Format: e-copy

Blurb:

Born in a Tennessee commune to a hippie mother and an unidentified father, Iris Lyon already feels short-changed. Now, in small-town Twicks Hill, her husband chooses vodka over family interaction, her mother stages protests, and her musically gifted daughter grows sneakier by the day. When Iris runs into an old acquaintance, handsome mystery writer Armando Torres, she hopes for friendship to ease her frustrating world. Instead, she must overcome deceptions that crash in on the night she meets her father and dances with Armando.

Check it on: Amazon  & Goodreads

My Review:

I received a review copy of this book and “Dancing with Armando” is a book that puts in comparison not only three different women, at different ages, but as well different types of life styles. I must admit that I was expecting so much more in the beginning, but once I was done reading it, I did understand all the concepts behind Sophie, Iris and Heaven.

A hippie grandmother, an unhappy mother and a talented daughter, all meet and for this spectacular combination of personalities. Each has tried to make the best for her family. Sophie was abandoned by her lover and father of her child when Iris was just a baby and she has never heard of him before. She has dealt with the pain ever since the best way she could: forgetting and following her ideals, being an artist, in a hippie sort of way. Iris has become a mother herself and, even if her marriage is not the strongest, she is doing her best to offer a father to her daughter. Heaven, on the other hand, is trying to reunite past with present and make a career in music.

But who is actually Armando? Well, Armando is more than a character. I see him as a concept, since the expression “dancing with Armando” is used several times with a deeper meaning. Dancing with Armando is like an option to escape an imperfect life.it is that one special moment when you can let it all go and imagine yourself someone different. Is the ideal life we all want.

I did not like how the encounter between father and daughter was presented and it made Iris seem immature for a married woman with a child. Also, I would have wanted to know more about Iris’s marriage, how bad it was before the shift in their lives and how it was after that moment. But other than that, I have no complains.

This is the sort of book that makes you reflect on the good and bad in your life and nudges you towards appreciating all the good. If things are not as one would like, the only solution is to fix them, not run away. At least this is the idea that I was left with after finishing it. Hope you like it as well.

Author: Joy Penny

Narrator: Susan Marlowe

Series: Stay in Touch, Book One

Length: 8 hours 17 minutes

Publisher: Snowy Wings Publishing

Released: July 12, 2017

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Four friends. Four college grads. Four people figuring out that life doesn’t always turn out the way you expected.

Brielle Reyes may not have post-college life planned out like some of her friends do, but she figures she’ll work for her mother’s home cleaning service while job hunting for something that makes use of her history and philosophy degrees. It’ll work out as long as she doesn’t fall in love. Her last relationship was a disaster and she has no idea where she’ll be in a few weeks, let alone the rest of her life. Since the only guy in her age range she sees now on a regular basis is cantankerous if handsome client Archer Ward, she probably won’t have a hard time sticking to that vow. Probably.

Archer Ward likes very few things: illustrating as a somewhat-celebrated comic artist and his privacy. When his meddling mother hires him a cleaning service on an almost daily basis because she doesn’t fully trust her son to live on his own with his disability, he’s at first annoyed – even if his house cleaner is the most beautiful woman he’s ever spent more than a few minutes with. When he realizes her dreams may take her far outside of his restricted orbit, he has to decide whether to stifle his interest in her or risk messing up her plans to explore if there’s something more between them.

Neither can deny they’re growing a little fond of each other, even if falling in love just now makes no sense whatsoever. But how often does love ever make perfect sense?

Joy Penny writes books, devours stories, and geeks out about everything from classic romance books to manga. When she’s not working as a freelance writer and book editor, she’s probably immersed in her favorite TV shows, period dramas, and anime series. She also writes YA speculative fiction as Amy McNulty, and one of her books, Nobody’s Goddess, won The Romance Reviews’ Summer 2016 Readers’ Choice Award for Young Adult Romance.

Website⎮Twitter⎮Facebook⎮Goodreads⎮Instagram⎮Pinterest

Susan Marlowe is an audio book narrator/voice artist. For more information, contact her at smthom76@gmail.com.

Facebook

Reasons to listen to this book

1. It’s very, very loosely based on Beauty and the Beast
2. It’s geeky
3. If you’ve ever struggled to figure out your future, it’s relatable
4. It’s got some awkward, comedic moments
5. The narrator does an amazing job bringing the characters to life

Touch of Fondness Giveaway: $10 Amazon Gift Card

➜Sign up as a host here

Bronwen Evans continues to write, a brilliantly and masterfully work of romance! Such feelings and emotions shown throughout this powerful and compelling story, are hard to convene to readers. But she managed it, beautifully.
– April, Goodreads Reviewer

An epic drama of love, lies, self-control, suspense, surprises and secrets. It’s a captivating storyline that keeps you turning the pages.
– Mary Lynde, Goodreads Reviewer

Giveaway

WIN FABULOUS GIVEAWAYS
May 30 – June 30, 2017

TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY
One Lucky Winner:
A Garter Lingerie Bag and a Collection of Historical Romance Books

Click here to enter the giveaway.

ON EACH TOUR STOP
A book in the highly praised Disgraced Lords series by Bronwen Evans

Be sure to visit each tour stop for more chances to win.
Check the tour schedule below.

About Bronwen Evans

Book Tour Schedule