Young Texas attorney JD Thompson enjoys his life in a small Texas town, where he lives with his ABBA tribute band, college roommates, and seventy black cats that his veterinarian partner rescued before Halloween. Probate cases with inheritance squabbles leave him time to help family members, like when his grandfather receives a surprising present from the past. But the squabbles turn deadly, the present isn't a gift, and the lovely woman who captures his heart isn't what she seems. As he stands in ashes with murder on the doorstep, JD races to defend his client, his family, and his home. Can he untangle the dark secrets threatening to destroy everything he holds dear? The walls are already splattered with blood.
Join JD and the quirky Black Orchid Enterprises gang in their fifth Texas mystery as the holiday season rolls in—fall holidays, that is, from High Holy Days to Thanksgiving.
BOOK TALK
I am a sucker for cute, cozy mystery books with a cute animal on the front (especially since it reminded me of my own black cat). When the opportunity came to read this book, I knew I had to throw my hat in the ring. Here are my thoughts on Hallow: A Fracture Family Tale by M.R. Dimond.
Now, I'm not going to lie, this book took a couple of chapters for me to get fully into. After some of the establishing pieces were put together and we started to get into the meat of the story, it became too good not to gobble up. From the storyline about J.D.'s grandfather's past to the mystery surrounding the burning building, I felt immersed in the lives of this small Texas town.
Speaking of getting ourselves immersed, I need to find this place in real life. Throughout the story, the readers are invited to learn about various traditions, holidays, history lessons, and so much more. I found myself looking up these different things as I was reading, which I love to do, to understand and better educate myself. So besides a good story, there are great facts and tidbits that you can learn along the way.
The only thing with this story is that it's the fifth one in the series and, at least for me, I didn't feel like I could pick up on the characters and settings right away. I felt like I was missing connections and little details that would make the character dynamics make more sense. After a few chapters, I understood everyone's relationship and where they fell into this world, but it took a minute. Therefore, I recommend probably reading this in chronological order rather than out of order.
Overall, I enjoyed my time getting to know everyone in this small town and all their traditions and habits. It's a story that has made me want to pick up and read the previous books in this series, which you should look into doing too. I give Hallow: a Fractured Family Tale a 4 out of 5 stars. Until next time, Happy reading!
After stints in professional orchestras, law firms, cat rescue, bookkeeping, and technical communication, M. R. Dimond returned to a childhood dream of writing fiction, which has turned out to be about musicians, lawyers, veterinarians, accountants, and cats. Her Black Orchid Enterprises Mystery series, set in her near-native Texas, currently contains five novels with more soon to come.
She has had short fiction published in Strange Horizons, Dancing USA, and various anthologies (most recently in Dreaming the Goddess; Hook, Line, and Sinker; and Riddles, Resolutions, and Revenge), as well as nonfiction articles in various publications.
She holds an MBA from University of Tulsa and is a veteran of writing workshops, including Clarion, Viable Paradise, Jim Gunn’s Center for Science Fiction, and Taos Toolbox. She lives in the wilderness east of Austin, Texas, with her husband and many foster cats.
The thing I love most about M.R. Dimond's books is the humor that shines through. Just like in real life, there are some tough or scary moments in the book when a little humor hits just the right note. The characters in these books are like friends, so it's great to see them in another adventure.
I hope everyone will take this last chance to enter the giveaway before midnight CST. Besides a signed book and a stadium tote, 3 lucky winners will get all this cool stuff my friends and I made: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10223659347024283&set=a.4874652316728
As the review says, it’s best to start reading from the series beginning, so as a gift to all, here's a tOp S3cR3t link to buy an ebook box set of the first 5 Black Orchid Enterprises mysteries at half price: https://dimond.me/product/box-set-1-5 Happy reading!
ROUNDING HOME by SARAH SWINDELL Genre: Memoir / Family / Autism Date of Publication: August 2, 2019 Number of Pages: 256 Scroll down for giveaway! In 1991, twenty-one-year-old Sarah, the recently divorced mother to two-year-old Hayley, moved from the dusty small town of Farmington, New Mexico to the bustling city of Houston, Texas with dreams of a better life. A year later, she was swept off her feet by Greg Swindell, an established Major League Baseball player who had just signed a lucrative contract with the Houston Astros and was quickly becoming the talk of the city. Six weeks after their first date, Greg asked Sarah to quit her job as a hairdresser and marry him during Spring Training in Florida. Over the next several years, Sarah's Cinderella story continued with the addition of three more children, a lifestyle only a few ever dream of living, and a love story even fewer ever experience. That is u...
Yes, it's that time of the year again where I create a manga review, because I'm not done with the book that I'm reading because of the Holidays. I will have a proper book review for you next Month and they will start being regular, hopefully. Anyways, I'm really excited about this review, since I recently received all the original manga as a gift from my wonderful fiance. So onto my review! (SPOILER ALERT!) Introduction If you haven't heard of Rurouni Kenshin , then you haven't heard of one of the greatest fantasy, Meiji Era stories ever written into existence! Rurouni Kenshin , also known as Samurai X in most other places, initially appeared in Weekly Shonen Jump from April 1994 to November 1999. The story was written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki , who also illustrates another well-known manga, One Piec e. The series then turned into an anime from January 1996 to September 1998. The story takes place in the 11th year of the Meiji per...
Hello all you beautiful people in the world! I've actually finished this book in June, but hadn't had the actual time to sit down do a whole review on this due to other book review commitments, but I'm really excited to tell you all about this book! It's one that I don't have any negative things to say about it, so read on if you are curious to learn more about the novel, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. A Little Bit About The Author She was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to Queens, New York with her family in 1976 when she was seven years old. Lee is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and was inducted into the Bronx Science Hall of Fame. At Yale College, she majored in History and was awarded the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. She attended law school at Georgetown University and worked as a lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time. From 2007 to 2011, Lee lived in Toky...
Great review, Amanda! I'm glad to know that you recommend starting at the beginning with this series. I just snagged the first book on Kindle!
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy the first book (and many more after). Thanks for reading—and introducing me to Lone Star Lit
DeleteThe thing I love most about M.R. Dimond's books is the humor that shines through. Just like in real life, there are some tough or scary moments in the book when a little humor hits just the right note. The characters in these books are like friends, so it's great to see them in another adventure.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed another visit with friends, Amy. That's just how I hope people see my characters, since I see them that way too.
DeleteI appreciate your comments, Amanda. Thanks for letting your readers know about Black Orchid Enterprises and their adventures.
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone will take this last chance to enter the giveaway before midnight CST. Besides a signed book and a stadium tote, 3 lucky winners will get all this cool stuff my friends and I made:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10223659347024283&set=a.4874652316728
As the review says, it’s best to start reading from the series beginning, so as a gift to all, here's a tOp S3cR3t link to buy an ebook box set of the first 5 Black Orchid Enterprises mysteries at half price: https://dimond.me/product/box-set-1-5
Happy reading!