Sally’s Cafe and Bookstore – Author Update – #Reviews – D.Wallace Peach, Barb Taub and Mary Smith

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life.

Welcome to the first of the Cafe and Bookstore updates for the week and the first author with a recent review is D.Wallace Peach for the first book in the Rose Shield Series – Catling’s Bane

About the book

Catling – She’s a weapon desired by those who reign and those who rebel.

In the tiered cities of Ellegeance, the elite Influencers’ Guild holds the power to manipulate emotions. Love and fear, pleasure and pain mark the extremes of their sway. But it’s the subtle blends that hook their victims’ hearts. They hide behind oaths of loyalty and rule the world.

Until Catling discovers the gift that will be her bane. She is the shield that disrupts the influencer’s sway.

Born in the grim warrens beneath the city, Catling rues the rose birthmark encircling her eye. Yet, it grants her a unique ability, the means to remake a civilization. To the Guild, she an aberration, a threat, and they order her death. No longer a helpless child, Catling has other plans.

As chaos shakes the foundations of order and rule, will she become the realm’s savior? Or its executioner?

Welcome to a world of three moons, a sentient landscape, rivers of light, and tier cities that rise from the swamps like otherworld flowers. A planet of waterdragons, where humans are the aliens living among three-fingered natives with spotted skin. Where a half-blood converses with the fog and the goddess plans her final reckoning.

In the spirit of the fantasy tradition set by Patrick Rothfuss, Karen Miller, and Glenda Larke, follow Catling’s journey as she grows into the deadly force that shapes the future. She is the realm’s shield, an influencer, assassin, healer, mother, and avenger. And all she desires is to go home.

A recent review for the book

K D Dowdall an amazing journey into a world so believable that the characters seem to come alive on the page.

Catling’s Bane, Book 1 of the Rose Shield, offers the reader an amazing journey into a world so believable that the characters seem to come alive on the page. This beautifully written science-fiction pulled me into a world that glitters with luminosity. The author reveals this world with descriptions so vivid, so rich in detail that we forget completely, that it is a fictional world.

It is a civilization very different than our own, yet still, very much the same, with problems of great poverty, injustice, and cruelty, with one exception. There are strange powers of influence, powers that control someone’s intent, beliefs, and thoughts. The poor live their lives in a caste system, while the wealthy and powerful live like royalty, and all others live by hook or by crook.

Yet, even for the wealthy, life becomes a perilous journey, because every word, ever thought, may not be their own. There are those, however, within this system, who have courageous hearts, make great sacrifices, and if they can escape the influencers, they may have the opportunity to change their world where everyone can speak their own thoughts and live their lives as they choose to be.

I was completely captured within this incredible world, created by the author, D. Wallace Peach.

Read the reviews and buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XK3PCRZ

And Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Catlings-Bane-Rose-Shield-Book-ebook/dp/B06XK3PCRZ

A selection of other books by D.Wallace Peach

Read the reviews for buy the books: https://www.amazon.com/D.-Wallace-Peach/e/B00CLKLXP8

And Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/D.-Wallace-Peach/e/B00CLKLXP8

Read more reviews and follow Diana on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7068749.D_Wallace_Peach

Connect to D. Wallace Peach via her website/blog: http://www.mythsofthemirror.com

The next author with a recent review is Barb Taub with her memoir, Do Not Wash Hands In Plates..

About the book

Once upon the Land Before Time (or at least before mobile phones), my two best friends and I decided to leave the US from separate locations and meet up in Europe. To everyone’s shock, Janine, Jaya and I pulled it off—mostly because we went to Luxembourg, a country so small the odds in favor of chance street encounters were almost 100%, but also because Jaya was carrying the BS, a blue suitcase so enormous it took up approximately a third of the country’s square footage and was visible on satellite images. We couldn’t possibly miss.

It took over thirty-five years before—in a combination of optimism and failing memories— we recklessly decided to repeat this feat. Hey, we reasoned, now we’ve got smartphones, better credit ratings, wheeled suitcases, medical insurance, and the ability to drink legally. Just to make it more interesting, this time we chose to meet in India, where the odds against the three of us actually linking up were approximately a bazillion to bupkis.

This is the story of three women eating our way across India in search of adventure, elephants, temples, palaces, western toilets, monkeys, the perfect paratha…and the kindness of Indian strangers.

A recent review for the book on Goodreads

Feb 21, 2019 Sarah Brentyn rated it it was amazing

A trip to India would be wonderful. The places this author describes are awe-inspiring. But, to be honest, it was the writing that left me unable to put this book down. It’s hilarious. The best kind of funny—deadpan. Barb Taub is the kind of person who could make a trip to the dentist sound funny. After I finished reading, I wanted to email her to grab a beer (or chai) and listen to her tell stories. That would just be weird. So I didn’t. But still.

I felt her joy (and pain) as she traveled. Loved hearing how she and her two friends got from here to there, what they ate, and the little conversations only good friends can have. I also enjoyed the tidbits about Indian medicine sprinkled throughout the book.

A unique and humorous travel memoir by a talented and humorous author.

Read the reviews and buy the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A34USEA

And on Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Not-Wash-Hands-Plates-strangers-ebook/dp/B01A34USEA

Also by Barb Taub

Read all the reviews and buy the books: https://www.amazon.com/Barb-Taub/e/B00EZP9BS8/

And Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Barb-Taub/e/B00EZP9BS8

Follow Barb Taub on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7267656.Barb_Taub

Connect to Barb via her website: https://barbtaub.com/about/

And the final author today is Mary Smith and a recent review for a wonderful novel No More Mulberries that I can highly recommend..

About the book

No More Mulberries is a story of commitment and divided loyalties, of love and loss, set against a country struggling through transition.

British-born Miriam’s marriage to her Afghan doctor husband is heading towards crisis. Despite his opposition, she goes to work as a translator at a medical teaching camp in a remote area of rural Afghanistan hoping time apart will help are see where their problems lie. She comes to realise how unresolved issues from when her first husband was killed by a mujahideen group are damaging her relationship with her husband and her son – but is it already too late to save her marriage?

A recent review for the book

Lady Bracknell A love story with a difference

I always enjoy a love story set in another culture because reading feels like a voyage of discovery. The kindness of the Afghan people warmed my heart as I followed the central character. The setting is completely alien to me, and I loved this backdrop.

People get on with their daily routines in spite of the war in Afghanistan. Scottish born Miriam has to adjust to the rhythms of Afghan life but experiences conflict. Smith manages to identify those elements of a new culture that alienate Miriam. The simple things we value are not familiar in Afghan culture. I found the conversation between Miriam and Fatima poignant.

‘Don’t you ever feel like walking – just getting out?

‘Why?’Fatima looked startled.

In Afghan culture women do not have thinking time. All the small differences contribute to Miriam’s sense of unease. The pivotal value of Afghan culture is ‘this thing about face – respect – reputation – honour.’ But to understand how this translates into the culture one has to read the book.

Charting Miriam’s marriages, this is a love story with a difference. Miriam goes on a journey of discovery to find out ‘what happened to the woman who married Jawad’.
No More Mulberries is a sensitive examination of love and cultural barriers. A fascinating read!

Read the reviews and buy the book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Mulberries-Mary-Smith-ebook/dp/B005RRDZ12

And on Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/No-More-Mulberries-Mary-Smith/dp/1849234205

A selection of other books by Mary Smith