Smorgasbord Book Promotions – Book Review – #Shortstories #History #Romance – A Room in Blake’s Folly (Blake’s Folly Romance Book 1) by J. Arlene Culiner

Delighted to share the short story collection A Room in Blake’s Folly (Blake’s Folly Romance Book 1) by J. Arlene Culiner

About the collection

If only the walls could speak…

In one hundred and fifty years, Blake’s Folly, a silver boomtown notorious for its brothels, scarlet ladies, silver barons, speakeasies, and divorce ranches, has become a semi-ghost town. Although the old Mizpah Saloon is still in business, its upper floor is sheathed in dust. But in a room at a long corridor’s end, an adventurer, a beautiful dance girl, and a rejected wife were once caught in a love triangle, and their secret has touched three generations.

My review for the collection July 29th 2023

What a wonderful collection of stories covering 150 years of history within a small town from its heyday during the silver mining through to the modern day. Focusing in particular on one room in the saloon that has stood resolutely in the centre of Blake’s Folly through all its fortunes and misfortunes.

The author has a wonderful writing style that flows and captures the imagination. You almost feel you are there during the silver boom, watching as women turned to the only occupation most of them could follow after escaping from poverty stricken upbringings and violent relationships or widowhood. Love was difficult to find and a way out of this life even harder, but some managed to find both when men with a different perspective of how a woman should be treated passed through the doors of the saloons and brothels.

Across the generations, those men and women left behind a legacy that enabled their children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren to cross paths with each other, more often than not in the room where the story began with two very different women and one man who made a life-changing choice.

We meet women from other states who drift into town in search of a safe haven, and even one escaping the horrors of war in Europe and the loss of all she loved. The men are not all saints, but many are searching, not just for a good time as they pass through the town, but a like-minded companion whose mind or approach to life makes them attractive and desirable. That theme is reflected throughout many of the stories and made for a refreshing approach to the romantic aspects involved.

I particularly enjoyed the earlier stories and also those that brought this town up to date in the 21st century, bringing together the present generation, revealing the secrets and revelations resulting from the love story in the late 1890s.

I highly recommend this collection for history and romance lover’s who enjoy well written and engaging stories.

Read the reviews and buy the collection: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK

Also by J. Arlene Culiner

Read the reviews and buy the books: Amazon US – And: Amazon UK – Follow J. Arlene Culiner: Goodreads – Website: J. Arlene Culiner – Facebook: J. Arlene Culiner Romance Writer – Twitter: @JArleneCuliner

About J. Arlene Culiner

Born in New York, raised in Toronto, Jill Culiner set out to have a life of adventure and discovery, not one of security and comfort. She has since crossed much of Europe on foot, travelled, by bus, train, car or truck throughout North and Central America, Europe, and the Sahara, has lived in a Hungarian mud house, a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave-dwelling, on a Dutch canal, a lonely, and a very haunted stone house on the English moors. Such a lifestyle has meant staying flexible and taking up any sort of work that presents itself: belly dancer, fortune teller, b-girl, translator, fashion model, storyteller, radio broadcaster, actress, social critical artist, photographer, and writer.

She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest and protects all creatures, especially spiders and snakes. She particularly loves incorporating into short stories, mysteries, narrative non-fiction, and romances, her experiences in out-of-the-way communities with their strange characters, and very odd conversations.

 

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope you will be leaving with some books.. Sally