Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth by Stephen van Olsen

The FBI's Highway Serial Killings Initiative keeps track of murders on the highway, and over 850 have been linked to truck drivers.  This is a novel that is written in the voice of serial killer Stephen, a truck driver who kills in many states on the road.  He is an independent truck driver and works when he wants.  He lives, works, and kills out of his truck.  The goal is fifty teeth that he etches a name, a fact about the person, and a date on, which reside inside a red velvet roll with fifty pockets.  

Stephen didn't start off killing people.  The taking of a tooth was the first goal.  He wasn't entirely successful in removing a tooth from a person until he broke into a dentist's office and forced him to show him how to do it.  Stephen took the instruments and some Novocain and left the dentist alive.  Soon, he discovered that it was easier to remove the tooth when the person is dead and can't fight back.  He added to his kit a piano wire and Dr. Pepper loaded with a drug to knock the person out.  Stephen prefers women because they take better care of their teeth.  That's not to say that he doesn't kill men.  He does to those who deserve it.

Each chapter is a story of a tooth, but not the story of every tooth.  There are too many.  Not everyone dies, and some of the victims have a plan in place to kill him and believe he is the one in the trap.  He only takes those no one will miss and those that deserve to die.  Stephen has a bit of an epiphany on the road and changes his rules somewhat.  Eventually, a woman known as The Poet, for her reading of poetry of being on the road on a CB station, begins to offer news of a killer on the highway and missing women.  She asks for tips, and FBI agent Mara Holt begins to follow her on air and hunt for this killer who takes a tooth from each victim.     

I haven't read any books about a trucker serial killer, so, for me, this novel is unique.  This is the second horror story from Olsen.  He wrote another one that comes before this one, but it in no way hinders you or loses you by reading this book first.  You will want to read the other book once you finish this one. This book was a spectacular read and one I can't recommend enough. It keeps you captivated, and sometimes crossing your fingers that he won't kill this victim and rooting for him to not get caught and kill those that truly deserve it.  Every page you turn, you have no idea what will come next.  Each chapter is a thrill ride that will keep you guessing until the end of the book.       

Quotes

He taught me the sound a belt makes when it whistles through the air at midnight.  He also taught me something else without meaning it.  Pain has a rhythm. A cadence. A music.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p 11)

Coincidence is a language for people who aren't paying attention.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p 33)

Memory was crueler than accuracy.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 74)

The he said it. Matter-of-fact with a cracked little melody under it.  Kids who talked like that had already survived things adults didn't want to imagine.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 76)

The sky keeps changing colors. Don't want to miss the moment it becomes itself.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 81)

Kids don't savor.  Kids devour.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 88)

Her voice carried road dust, cheap coffee, too many nights without sleep.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 110)

"Headed where?" I asked. She hesitated. "West. Far enough." A pause. "Not back."  Back was a person not a place.  Back was a man with a belt. Back was a house with alcohol and backhands. A house that finally felt apart.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 111)

I've been tired longer than you've been breathing.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 113)

The kind of silence where everyone was trying to figure out whether they could breathe.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 116)

I knew their type.  California bred them. Feral, bright, desperate kids raised under sodium lamps behind strip malls, learning to navigate men the way other girls learned algebra. They were used to choosing their predators.  They believed they had.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 135)

Predators recognize predators not by teeth or speed, but by silence.  The kind of silence that doesn't come from having nothing to say.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth, p, 139)

Fear made people waste their last seconds on impossible math.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth,  p, 202)

Everything's creepy if you look at it long enough.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth,  p, 211)

It still amazes me how friendly and polite people in the South are.  Makes it so much easier for hunters, and the others, the really bad ones.

Stephen Van Olsen (Ghost Hauler: Fifty Teeth,  p, 257)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHHPJXZR/?bestFormat=true&k=ghost%20hauler&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-ww_k0_1_12_de&crid=2ZQIGEZEC8V39&sprefix=ghost%20hauler

 

Link to ThriftBooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/ghost-hauler-fifty-teeth-stephen-van-olsen/59326021/?resultid=18aa50ad-01f3-43cf-b292-ca0dc5573875#edition=75905312&idiq=89484287

Daredevil. Yellow by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

 

Loeb and Sale have written four books with color titles, including: Captain America White, Hulk Grey, and Spider-Man Blue.  This one has Daredevil, Matt Murdock, looking back after the death of Karen Page, his and Foggy's secretary and Matt's love.  While he was in law school, he and Foggy were roommates, and Matt's father was a boxer.  When Matt's father refuses to take a dive for The Fixer, he has him killed.  The Fixer knows people in law enforcement, and he is never charged.  Matt takes his father's boxing robe to create a secret identity and goes out to get justice for his father.  Daredevil runs into various villains, including Electro and The Purple Man, who puts Karen in danger.

This book lives up to the other books in the series and is a perfect example of Loeb's work.  He makes reading about Matt's father's death fresh again.  His rock-solid relationship with Foggy begins to show cracks when both of them fall in love with Karen.  Of course, Karen is only interested in Daredevil. Sale has her dressed in the height of 1950's fashion, wearing A-line dresses and pedal pushers.  When Karen becomes a victim of The Purple Man, Daredevil will do anything to save her.  This is an excellent book, and I recommend the whole series. 

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Daredevil-Yellow-Jeph-Loeb-ebook/dp/B00AAJQYK6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2F8I49G1ZHI8H&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.muG1Z2xLrGa7Itj83Rl27VC5NmgGmn68_8tkpFM6181xL2n-q2rVkiUqZPMPkWJAZS-XjFRrBOJ268-g9JPSRxCH_9KyyTioenchKSxIIfDM9qqNZrCrtpoESwiK_kkbueZs43G1jOG_WGoDbk0PEESsWmZ5luAuYE1aaaCv7qj4yUxK6X9G1J2mHVbwK28rdfeo6jKZwy7obOumYIoSTH70lWi8tzh5uqSG908or3E.bYjyuS4iZRi5kL-LMwmmFukSI6GnqexZ_7tXCuJIILo&dib_tag=se&keywords=daredevil+yellow&qid=1780515815&s=digital-text&sprefix=daredevil+%2Cdigital-text%2C252&sr=1-1

The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

Cecilia is the perfect Victorian young woman who yearns to become a member of the Wisteria Society of Lady Scondrels.  This is a group of women pirates who sail their houses in the air, thieve, pickpocket, blackmail, try to assassinate one another, and fight for women's rights.  The book is set in England in the late 1800s.  Cecilia lives with her smothering aunt, Miss Darlington, since her mother, Cilla, was killed by Cecilia's father, Captain Morvath, an evil pirate who wants to see all women subjugated to men and to take over England from Queen Victoria.  He also writes awful poetry and believes he is the descendant of Bramwell Bronte, the useless (in his mind, the genius author) brother of the Bronte Sisters.  He has hired Ned Lightbourne to kidnap his daughter and bring her to him so he can marry her off to her vapid cousin and have a grand estate to fly.  

Ned Lightbourne, as Eduardo Luca, was hired by Lady Armitage to assassinate Cecelia, to break her aunt's heart and hurt her before killing Miss Darlington.   Ned appears at Miss Darlington's door to warn Cecilia of the dastardly plan.  Cecilia shuts the door on him, and he is forced to blow up a window to try to gain entry.  Miss Darlington sets the house to sail to Bath, which begins Cecilia's quest to find a library to steal books from.  She is caught up reading Wuthering Heights in secret, as her aunt would kill her if caught.   Several people in this novel quote poetry of the time from luminaries such as Longfellow, Wordsworth, and Byron.  Also, Captain Morvath's house is named Northangerland Abbey, from Jane Austen's book Northanger Abbey. There are also many references to the Brontë sisters' books.  

When the Wisteria Ladies get together to discuss Morvath, their houses are stolen, and they are kidnapped by Morvath.  Ned and Cecilia set out to rescue them from Northangerland Abbey.  Ned reveals that he is secretly working for the Queen, who wants Cecilia killed because she may turn out to be like her father.  Ned, by the way, has as many names as Cary Grant's character in Hitchcock's movie, Charade. But Ned finds himself falling for the redhead, and maybe Cecilia is falling for him too, but she believes that her place is by her elderly aunt's side.  Will the two work things out? Will Morvath kill the Wisteria Ladies and take over the world?  This novel was quite entertaining and charming.  It is the first book in a trilogy that I cannot wait to read.  The writing is so incredible that I wanted to add the whole novel to my quotation collection.  I had to stop myself from writing everything down.  I loved Cecilia, who carries an emergency book with her always for those times when nothing is going on, like when the other person is reloading their gun.  I flew through this delightful book and highly recommend it.

Quotes

"What would I have done, had he broken in?"

"Shot him?"

"Good heavens, child, what do you take me for, a maniac? Think of the damage a ricocheting bullet would do in this room."

"Stabbed him, then?"

"And get blood over the rug? It's a sixteenth-century Persian antique, you know, part of a royal collection."

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p 4)

Murdering three husbands (and misplacing a fourth) tended to inure a woman to masculine charms.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels,  p, 12)

They had swindled lords together, got drunk together more times than either could remember, and once they forced Alex's remshackle house to its limits, making the London-Cashel run in less than twelve hours, although they did lose a few windowpanes along the way.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 19)

It was a soft voice, typical of those who long had spoken with great power; a voice that could whisper death in a tower room and far below a man would be strangled among the garden roses.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 21)

We have only three laws in our Society, Cecilia. No killing civilians. Pour the tea before the milk.  And no stealing each other's houses. Anyone breaking these laws is cast out--literally, and in most cases from a very significant height.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels,  p, 42)

It is violence that best overcomes hate, that most certainly heals injury, and a good cup of tea that soothes the most anguished soul; thus ran the motto of the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 54)

Navy. Well, that's about as useless as a feather in a sword fight.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 67)

Yes, I've been meaning to be in touch ever since you framed me for the Marlborough House robbery twelve years ago. But you know how it is, busy, busy. I've quite lost count of all my heists and husbands.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels,  p, 52)

Mrs. Rotunder had recently failed in an attempt to have Miss Darlington assassinated by means of a trained parrot, unaware of Miss Darlington's belief that parrots carried syphilis and were therefore to be scrupulously avoided. This had been in retaliation for Miss Darlington's theft of Mr. Rotunder's leg, which was said to be inlaid with wood from the True Cross, and yet only fetched five hundred pounds on the Catholic black market. Mr. Rotunder--a thin, anemic gentleman who hadn't been quite right since a mad doctor sawed off two of his limbs before rescue arrived--had been willing to let the matter go, but his wife would have none of that.  When the assassination attempt failed, she took solace in stealing Miss Darlington's favorite mahogany cabinet, from which a new leg was made for Mr. Rotunder, and thereafter all was well again between the ladies.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels,p, 56)

After all, the Wisteria Ladies Junior Division's motto was: Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do, and hopefully the other person dies.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 66)

Morvath stood in the Dole foyer, dressed in black like a vampire or an opera singer.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 69)

"En garde!" she cried, much to the horror of Miss Darlington's sensibilities--"A lady shall not use French on the street."

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 78)

I'm sure you will find the chitchat of old ladies tedious--it will be all about firming lotions and bulletproof eyeglasses, and the best guns to use when you have arthritis.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels,p, 79)

"Only keep your hat on, and use your parasole, and don't, whatever you do, remove your gloves. Remember the Great Peril, dear".  At that phrase, half the company went silent..." Freckles."

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 81)

She had renounced her proud pirate heritage to marry a man whose only crime up until then had been the composition of a novel so bad publishers had him threatened with legal action if he ever submitted to them again.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels,p, 88)

Aunty believes too much education corrupts the delicate mind of young ladies. I received only to basic instruction at home--reading, writing, horse riding, navigation, weapons handling, piano, harp, the principles of burglary, geography, arithmetic, anatomy, metal work, confidence trickery, history, battle tactics, dining etiquette.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels  p, 93)

Nothing's impossible if you can pay enough.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels  p, 111)

She was smart, strong, and God, just the way she held a gun made his toes curl up in lust.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 135)

"Fine", she said in a sterling British fashion, meaning that she was either fine or on the verge of complete internal catastrophe.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 136)

One can be happy in solitude: a book, a cup of tea, and no company; that was Cecilia's idea of heaven.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 148)

Cecilia was fast for a woman in a long dress and petticoats. She made it down a flight of stairs, along two corridors, past an astonished henchman whose thereafter unconscious body Ned had to leap over as he ran, and partway down the portrait gallery before he caught up with her. "Look, a bookshelf!" he shouted, as she glanced up she stumbled. Her foot caught in the hem of her dress and she fell.

India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 198)

Please, I don't want to shoot you.  It would make kissing you decidedly unpleasant.

 India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels  p, 244)

For her, an unanswered knock was equivalent to having to put down a book three pages before the ending.

  India Holton (The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, p, 270)

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wisteria-Society-Lady-Scoundrels/dp/0593200160/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.c5NDZlfIeMOnX87vRM9eArMrI9T_gK4Q8fgwkKFTPyQ4RRlDrL4MQoP0cwmVhsI3iUKgeGeVJlrIsg_bnZaV4Stc-nBw6jIXSA9rYy4GDR7qj1NTX-qfGJRX1Z29pqBIic1AkdXmOoCH8_reXlQJT2PeEMlUa_5yha9PK0tby4HXQkB7jlCfzMvwjDzuhmF3P51xDzXpAT_bXqFp3PLMeqzqtdeKa7BmJkjo7I-wyr4.lO5F65WxwTiW5dY3qvlWFsExyNCp9sQpizg4xGGI4nA&qid=1783356682&sr=1-3

Link to ThriftBooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-wisteria-society-of-lady-scoundrels_india-holton/26966202/?resultid=7e5333e4-8f85-4b4d-8eb8-424999db2ffa#edition=57595972&idiq=46385435

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris

 

In this latest collection of searing and oftentimes funny twenty-eight essays, Sedaris captures everyday life in the simplest yet most hammering-the-nail-on-the-head way.  For example, he sees a hotel owner demand that a patron remove his feet from the table in front of him.  Sedaris wishes that action could be taken elsewhere, like on trains, when a patron is playing music too loudly; shoot him in the face if he doesn't comply.  This, from a man who opposes the death penalty, but apparently only in certain situations.  In another essay, Sedaris's friend has a ChatGPT write a story based on Sedaris's work.  What comes out is a tale of Uncle Melvin who gets stuck in a bathroom.  Sedaris thinks this essay is nothing like what he would write, so he writes his own version of that story the way he would have actually written it.  

He also writes about topics like traveling to different places and dealing with dumb questions, going to a new country for only one night to check it off his list, or going on a safari with Hugh in Africa.  He writes about his relationships with his husband (he prefers to call him his boyfriend), his sisters and brother, and close old friends. These vignettes really touch home with his readers, and you'll find yourself nodding along in agreement with the quirks of fate that make you smile and laugh out loud.  This is David Sedaris at his best.

Quotes

Hugh became a nonstop grouse. Ghosts in movies moan less than he did.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 4)

You donate money to charity, and they spend it all trying to get you to donate more.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 36)

She was so close I could see the craziness in her eyes, could see how completely unpredictable she was, the sort who could either shake your hand or slash your face with a razor blade.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 47)

Also, I wasn't bothered by the pope's use of faggotry because I'm not queer; I'm gay. The difference is that queer people are offended by just about everything. They have the rest of us walking on potato chips, afraid we're using the wrong pronoun or saying "motherfucker" instead of "mothering person fucker."  Gay people just wonder what they'll wear to the Vatican at the crack of dawn and what the proper etiquette is.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 86)

Who are these hothouse flowers, all so easily and constantly wounded? People whose parents never hit them, that's who.  People who don't know what real pain is but still wants to throw the word around.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 98)

A child needs brothers and sisters; the more the better. Good siblings will press your favorite doll's face into a red-hot barbecue, then steal the money the tooth fairy left under your pillow. They'll deposit things inside of you when you're four, then sleep with your boyfriend twelve years later--will, in short, prepare you to live in the real world.  Better still, they'll dilute the Eye of Sauron-like attention given to an only child.  My mother couldn't remember our names half the time, much less care whether we felt anxious or depressed.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 99)

One of [Jean] Stafford's book ideas--never realized--was Cooking For One While Drunk.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 110)

Being a cool mom is like being a folk artist---defining yourself as one is all the proof the world needs that you're a fraud.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, 113)

When we were fourteen, for example, we had to find volunteer jobs. Mine was at Dorthea Dix, the state psychiatric hospital...I was regularly threatened by patients. I was cornered and shouted at, accused of everything you can imagine. It was excellent training for my later life in New York City.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 117)

Duolingo was seemingly designed for people with an obsessive-compulsive disorder.  The same could be said for my fitness-tracking Apple Watch. And so I had combined the two and was walking my minimum of ten miles per day while pointlessly reading sentences out loud in Japanese, German, Spanish, and French.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 147)

I'm in the hard part of getting old--the part where everything irritates you.  The easy part comes a little later, when my short-term memory disappears, and I forget I've heard "perfect" two hundred already that day.  Each occasion will be the first. Then I'll die and go to Heaven, where Saint Peter will say, "Welcome in! How were your travels?" and I'll realize I'm actually in Hell.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 218)

I've often spent an afternoon with my friend Ronnie, then come home and wonder the same thing: what did she and I talk about? When it's effortless, you don't really think about it.  At the end of the day, you're left with a feeling — of contentment or comfort — but rarely any specifics.

David Sedaris (The Land and Its People, p 245)

Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Land-Its-People-Essays/dp/0316264830/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Uj2HdLlqCSECEgGGuR2iYv_0t1uwJWJCNAmUgJh57bx3jTP31HdJCpyMLLhV54j3BUGjV00YpUY-2HXbxDNScuLddtv0qkY0B-zGldz-ebgWeXrGB7XFrMIa-grZQrmb6nJk0cEzTAHyT0vR2lmAwd94K-S8407m4PWn_Onh8qdG3beJf3VJUJiIBiF74RdD.Yhprj4MYVgU-_H6DGFC7D8wc9knqt2bFhmdO8nP4Jcg&qid=1782661295&sr=8-1

Link to ThriftBooks: https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-land-and-its-people-essays_david-sedaris/57632630/#edition=74787256&idiq=87548946

Independent Hearts by Kiva Hart

 Zoey runs the historical society in Whispering Falls, Arkansas. She inherited the job from her father, deceased, who started the society and museum years ago. The society is quickly running out of money, but Zoey was hired as a tour guide for a documentary filmmaker named Nick and his on air talent, Damian. The studio also provided money that Zoey is using to celebrate the town’s 200th anniversary on July fourth. 

Damian lets it be known from the start that he has no interest in being there. Nick, however, finds the town fascinating and Zoey, in particular, the best thing about the town.  When Damian books a better gig in Houston that will go nationwide, he leaves and expects Nick to come with him. Nick knows that it will really boost his career, but he is starting to feel a connection with Zoey and the town. If he doesn’t go, the studio will fire him, and if the documentary on Whispering Falls is not made, then Zoey will have to close the historical society and museum.

This next book in the Holiday Hearts series by Kiva Hart was a delightful read and the two characters were engaging and fresh. This is a sweet romance that nonetheless explores the relationship between Nick and Zoey who are possibly falling in love and are afraid to commit due to Nick’s job.

*Only available as an ebook.  Free for those who have Kindle Unlimited.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Independent-Hearts-Romance-Little-Holiday-ebook/dp/B0H2C8ZKCN/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.X_8f4iRvA6YW7h2YCLeaIQVVlSjqS9oQtVfD-wmpBWjUD7_gqeYOSYn68zSFJdbHWk2vz44E8DLwvR8BAv3aAbNMBAQDLvIHHynxjWyJhr1l_OqG0YVECJ1vLM3rwlHj6YtTePIKrJcxwZoQebg4aZWsiUt0FkKYl0wfM-WZuKLUu7OTvx9r1HSj6mouOBLJlGH6kmrMNq8aWHvVdr0GzF8XkHXkZ44IuafedP1Avj4.7iISxP-SJ48KTQTK76lHlkV5YGPtrWGuiobFL6zyLwc&qid=1782687849&sr=1-1

Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones by Emily Kim (Writer), Triona Farrell (Colorist), VC's Ariana Maher (Letterer), and David Nakayama (Cover Art)

 

Spider-Gwen goes to a lab run by a doctor named Lyla and her husband Lee to fight the Sinister Six from Earth-616.  In the process, Gwen sends the Sinister-Six back and causes the lab to blow, killing Lee and injuring Lyla.  Lyla uses her work to clone a Spider-Gwen with each member of the Sinister Six and bring Spider-Gwen to Lyla along with a quantum box.  When Gwen meets up with Gwen Ock, she realizes she isn't from another Earth, but a clone being controlled by a halo on the back of her neck.  Gwen removes the one on Gwen Ock, along with Sand Gwen, whom she meets later.  With the help of twelve-year-old Reed Richards, they discover that someone is cloning Gwens for a reason that is a mystery to them.   

I really enjoyed this book, which featured so many cool Gwens.  Gwen really feels like she can't get close to anyone, lest they get hurt because of her, even the cloned Gwens. She's been avoiding dating a guy she really likes.  She's keeping her distance from her roomie and former bandmate, MJ.  Emily Kim has written an interesting story that entangles you in its web.  The artwork is stellar, as each Gwen is created to be a mix with the Sinister Six, so it's like a new Gwen Stacey, with Gwen's memories.  There is another graphic novel featuring Gwen fighting variants, called Gwen-Verse.  It was published before this one and is mentioned. After this book, I'm eager to read it too.

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Gwen-Shadow-Clones-ebook/dp/B0CCZN3ZMM/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2NW0WHEYS5AGQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FGwScM038TIoX3RnoQXVwGGyC3afowS_eMfMtRId-wDrum-4uKTsJ48miWS_GUIJbCqFPKu7Denze-9eMLBf9ut6xojnq5tv-4liV_pfx-sGb0SZY-CrrX0-BObvdZ-FV-y_WQiWk3cwgRJxbImYM84M2itPBiIeJVBDG0_ozlekVPUHCwNuLF9Vpb5v5odnNYajUPnNbUnrY1_NLylKnXTuUIvvEhdkP4yPVZGujW0.sjUQDnk3nhVzzMOBVswTVw-do_zdUReY4oin_f9luUY&dib_tag=se&keywords=spider+gwen+shadow+clones&qid=1781982000&sprefix=shadow+clones%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-1

Brave Hearts: A Grumpy/Sunshine Romance With a Little Bit Of Father's Day Magic by Kiva Hart

 

This is a new book in the Holiday Romance series, which now contains thirteen books, by Kiva Hart.  It opens when Beth, a professional guitarist and singer who has been on the road for the last five years, is making cupcakes for her niece.  She forgets to get them out of the oven, and her fire alarm goes off.  While she is emptying the burnt cupcakes into the sink, she hears a knock at the door.  It is the one and only local fireman, Leo, checking to see that there isn't a major fire.  He proceeds to give her a lecture about kitchen fires and paying more attention to what you have in the oven.  This really ticks Beth off.  So the two are off to a rocky start.

Leo helped put out a fire in the next town over years ago.  The only survivor of the family was a toddler named Danni.  He adopted her and has been raising her ever since.  She is ten, the same age as Beth's niece, Matty.  The two girls are school friends.  At the last concert of the school year, Beth sings and plays a song, inspiring Danni to take lessons.  Beth, with nothing to do until the next tour, which could be a while, agrees to teach her.  As the two get closer, Leo backs off because he is scared of her going on the road, leaving him and Danni behind.  

Leo is so serious and Beth is so flighty.  Can the two make a match of it before Father's Day?   This is not a bad novella that can be read in a few hours.  It's a nice way to spend your lazy summer afternoon on something that is a very light and easy read.  On top of that, it gets you in the mood for the holiday approaching on Sunday.  

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brave-Hearts-Sunshine-Romance-Fathers-ebook/dp/B0GT287Y5X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1O9SPYX0FT7NA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.W4XK9ada0B5pOUcud19kOqV_Khvw5E4q-4LF6eqJW8zRPXiz72RlznYV8i3EtC7_uDqdqgNfLzaQ9OF0D13gseb-V_Fn1is_-7-9MaxuKwVM874_XLYqkPtqyXmqGoELfA-qumY7_th7rnvF_cQo7ak9-GZphP3yaTtvOgUKlC3ajrgnCqfyw9PtW9iw5CzwZlHFLXV5rW_G_ykZsMFy6ixRdeLB3hqViL0Q_7eIhvk.hfdGrYTxGN3c9WIYssZZedINRd2V4BLGvJaqshd83hk&dib_tag=se&keywords=brave+hearts+book&qid=1781635233&sprefix=brave+hearts%2Caps%2C299&sr=8-1