Tag: reviews

Monthly Features – October 2025

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Hummingbird Moonrise by Sherri L. Dodd

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: The past two years have taken their toll on Arista Kelly. Once an eternal optimist, now she has faced the darkness and must recalibrate what true happiness means for her. Meanwhile, Shane, her ex-boyfriend, is pulling all the right moves to help keep her sane from her heightening paranoia. But it doesn’t help that Iris, her Great Aunt Bethie’s friend, has disappeared.

Still, one additional trial remains. While searching for Iris, Bethie and Arista stumble upon a grand revelation in the eccentric woman’s home. With the discovery, they realize their run of chaos and loss of kin may have roots in a curse that dates back to the 1940s—the time when their family patriarch first built Arista’s cottage in the redwoods and crafted his insightful Ouija table.

This pursuit will not follow their accustomed recipe of adrenalized action, but the high stakes remain. Will the mysterious slow burn of unfolding events finally level Arista’s entire world or be fully extinguished, once and for all?

Summary: Overall, Hummingbird Moonrise is a paranormal mystery that works because it never loses its human touch. Yes, there are curses, possessions, and supernatural forces, but there’s also cinnamon bread, inside jokes, and the kind of family loyalty that keeps people moving forward even when the odds feel impossible. What I admired most is the way Dodd lets the suspense simmer without sacrificing warmth. The book left me both unsettled and comforted—a rare combination that lingers long after the last page

See the full review here: Hummingbird Moonrise
Purchase here

 

Unborn by Eva Barber

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Olesya was not born like other people but was found in the Siberian Forest by a couple unable to have children. Plagued by mysterious visions and dreams, she struggles to fit into a society both as a socially inept but brilliant child and as she becomes part of a research team to discover the nature of dark matter. The findings of this discovery never make it to the scientific community as the project leader goes missing and the physics lab blows up, destroyed by a powerful foe with seemingly noble intentions.

Seattle detectives question Olesya in connection with the explosion and the disappearance of her boss. She becomes a person of interest until she herself goes missing. From her kidnappers, she learns that her parents, knowing she lacked a belly button, suspected she was created by the Russian government as part of a scientific experiment, and emigrated to the USA to hide and protect her. She also learns she possesses powers related to dark matter and of the existence of a brother held captive since his discovery by the Russian government. Even though she suspects her kidnappers’ interest in her and their motivations aren’t so noble, she joins them in rescuing her brother. Catastrophic world events following the successful rescue force her to continue working with her foes to save the world from destruction.

While working to save the world, Olesya experiences a moral dilemma and becomes someone she never thought she’d be—a mother. Olesya learns of mysterious chambers scattered around the world, and her visions return to haunt her, until she opens the chambers and learns their secrets, wishing she hadn’t. Now she faces the heart-wrenching realization that she must travel into a dark dimension to save the world from self-destruction. Worse yet, her daughter, Emery, is the key to humanity’s salvation and must follow her mother once she becomes an adult because she is the only being who can travel where no one else can to restore balance to the universe and return with an extraordinary gift for humanity. But powerful entities have reasons to keep the gift away from humanity and will do anything to stop her.

Summary: Overall, Unborn is a haunting, beautiful story about science, motherhood, and the unknowable threads that connect us. It’s the kind of book that lingers quietly after you’ve finished it — the kind that leaves you wondering whether what you just read was speculative fiction or something closer to a modern myth.

If you like stories that mix atmosphere and emotion — think The Time Traveler’s Wife, Never Let Me Go, or The Daughter of Doctor Moreau — you’ll find something to love here. It’s for readers who enjoy a story that makes you think and feel at the same time; readers who don’t mind when mystery lingers even after the answers come. 

See the full review here: Unborn
Purchase here

 

Smoke on the Wind by Syvila Weatherford

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: “Smoke on the Wind” is a captivating tale that weaves the perils and dangers encountered on the Western frontier by Will Lawton, a young Black cowboy, after kidnapping then wedding his young Native American bride, Niabi. He plods a path packed with uncertainty that ultimately winds its way to an unthinkable opportunity – a race for free land.

Follow the characters of Smoke: the beautiful Louisa Ortega, who haunts the memory of the Chief’s son, Nashoba; Captain Horton, head of Fort Townsend, charged with keeping peace between settlers and tribes, and Dakota Sam, a rambunctious Civil War veteran attached to his military blues and backwoodsman ways.

This is the second book in an epic series, following the success of Weatherford’s first novel, “Blessings from the Four Winds.”

In this sequel, new characters are introduced: Liao Ming Chow, a Chinese immigrant, Sargent Thomas of the Buffalo Soldiers, and Mr. Todd Morgan the railroad tycoon. Niabi and Will raise two children and enjoy the protective company of their horses: Rodeo and FireTip. Their journey is marked by resilience, the spirit of community, and the ongoing struggle for safety and belonging.

Summary: Overall, Smoke on the Wind is a vivid continuation of America’s untold stories — where race, heritage, and faith collide. It’s tender and unflinching, full of voices that feel like they’ve been waiting a century to be heard. Weatherford writes history the way it deserves to be written: not as distant fact, but as living memory. For readers who are drawn to immersive, historical fiction.

See the full review here: Smoke on the Wind
Purchase here

 

Review: Pigeon-Blood Red by Ed Duncan

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Synopsis:

For underworld enforcer Richard “Rico” Sanders, it seemed like an ordinary job: retrieve his gangster boss’s stolen goods, and teach the person responsible a lesson.

But the chase quickly goes sideways and takes Rico from the mean streets of Chicago to sunny Honolulu. There, the hardened hit man finds himself in uncharted territory, when innocent bystanders are accidentally embroiled in a crime.

As Rico pursues his new targets, hunter and prey develop an unlikely respect for one another.

Soon, he is faced with a momentous decision: follow his orders to kill the very people who have won his admiration, or refuse and endanger the life of the woman he loves?

Favorite Lines:

“If you were in a fight for your life against hopeless odds and could pick just one person to help even them out, he would be your choice every time.”

“You remind me a little of myself before I smartened up.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Pigeon-Blood Red begins like a crime story you think you already know — a lost item, a hitman, a debt gone bad — but Ed Duncan turns it into something surprisingly human. Beneath the violence and deception runs a quiet thread of loyalty, fear, and the tiny sparks of conscience that survive even in people who’ve long given up pretending to be good.

The story follows Rico — a disciplined, unflinching enforcer whose calm masks something almost noble — and Robert McDuffie, a desperate gambler who makes one very bad choice: stealing a necklace worth far more than his life. It’s a story built on momentum — one thing going wrong after another, until everything comes crashing down.

What I liked most is how Duncan writes violence without glamorizing it. His sentences are clean and deliberate, as if his characters are trying to convince themselves that control is still possible. But there’s always something cracking beneath the surface — a conscience, a flicker of guilt, or maybe just exhaustion.

The pacing works—sharp dialogue, short scenes, no filler. You can tell Duncan knows this world, but he never overexplains it. I finished it in a single sitting and wanted to keep going, which is all you can really ask from a crime novel.

If you like your crime fiction with heart — not sentimental, but human — this one will surprise you. It’s about how easy it is to cross a line, and how hard it is to come back once you do.

Summary:

Overall, Pigeon-Blood Red is a fast-moving crime thriller that digs into the choices people make when survival is the only goal left. It’s not just about gangsters or stolen jewels — it’s about what happens when morality and necessity collide. It’s a story for readers who like their thrillers grounded in realism, where the danger feels as psychological as it does physical. Happy reading!

Check out Pigeon-Blood Red here!

 

Review: Unborn by Eva Barber

~ likelystory18 ~ 3 Comments

Synopsis:

Olesya was not born like other people but was found in the Siberian Forest by a couple unable to have children. Plagued by mysterious visions and dreams, she struggles to fit into a society both as a socially inept but brilliant child and as she becomes part of a research team to discover the nature of dark matter. The findings of this discovery never make it to the scientific community as the project leader goes missing and the physics lab blows up, destroyed by a powerful foe with seemingly noble intentions.

Seattle detectives question Olesya in connection with the explosion and the disappearance of her boss. She becomes a person of interest until she herself goes missing. From her kidnappers, she learns that her parents, knowing she lacked a belly button, suspected she was created by the Russian government as part of a scientific experiment, and emigrated to the USA to hide and protect her. She also learns she possesses powers related to dark matter and of the existence of a brother held captive since his discovery by the Russian government. Even though she suspects her kidnappers’ interest in her and their motivations aren’t so noble, she joins them in rescuing her brother. Catastrophic world events following the successful rescue force her to continue working with her foes to save the world from destruction.

While working to save the world, Olesya experiences a moral dilemma and becomes someone she never thought she’d be—a mother. Olesya learns of mysterious chambers scattered around the world, and her visions return to haunt her, until she opens the chambers and learns their secrets, wishing she hadn’t. Now she faces the heart-wrenching realization that she must travel into a dark dimension to save the world from self-destruction. Worse yet, her daughter, Emery, is the key to humanity’s salvation and must follow her mother once she becomes an adult because she is the only being who can travel where no one else can to restore balance to the universe and return with an extraordinary gift for humanity. But powerful entities have reasons to keep the gift away from humanity and will do anything to stop her.

Favorite Lines:

“Being different is not something you should be ashamed of. It’s something you should be proud of.”

“For years now, her hope had lain buried deep inside, waiting for the right moment to awaken.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Eva Barber writes Unborn with an eerie tenderness that makes the strange feel familiar, the impossible feel almost believable. It’s a novel that mixes the beauty of myth with the sharp edges of science, and it does so without ever losing sight of its humanity.

The story begins in a Russian forest, where a baby is found alone and impossibly alive. Her name is Olesya. She’s perfect — except she doesn’t have a belly button. That single detail feels small at first, but Barber builds the entire story around it. What does it mean to be created instead of born? To belong to a family, but not to the natural order that defines one? Those questions stay at the heart of Unborn, even as the story stretches across centuries, countries, and dimensions.

What I loved most is how the book keeps its balance — it’s dark without being bleak, intelligent without ever becoming cold. The writing feels cinematic, full of quiet tension and visual detail: candlelight against snow, the hum of a laboratory, a mother’s hand trembling as she holds something she can’t quite understand. And yet, under all of that, the story is deeply emotional. It’s about motherhood, creation, and the lengths we’ll go to protect what we love — even when we’re not sure what it really is.

By the time I reached the end, I realized that Unborn isn’t really about science or the supernatural. It’s about inheritance — what we carry from those who came before, and what we unknowingly pass on. It’s about the ache of being human in a world that keeps asking us to prove we exist.

Summary:

Overall, Unborn is a haunting, beautiful story about science, motherhood, and the unknowable threads that connect us. It’s the kind of book that lingers quietly after you’ve finished it — the kind that leaves you wondering whether what you just read was speculative fiction or something closer to a modern myth.

If you like stories that mix atmosphere and emotion — think The Time Traveler’s Wife, Never Let Me Go, or The Daughter of Doctor Moreau — you’ll find something to love here. It’s for readers who enjoy a story that makes you think and feel at the same time; readers who don’t mind when mystery lingers even after the answers come. Happy reading!

Check out Unborn here!

 

Review: PEOPLE MAKING DANGER: Short Stories by Adam Fike

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Synopsis:

PEOPLE MAKING DANGER is a collection of three-act short stories from a variety of genres, plus two bonus stories.

STORY ONE: THE QUIET ONES (Thriller) – Neighbors grow together with the help of their friendly local serial killer.

STORY TWO: OPERATION DRAGONHEAD (Satire) – Mistaking experimental communication helmets for alien antennae, townsfolk launch an improvised defense. Based on a true story.

STORY THREE: HIGH DESERT (Western) – A rotten Sheriff and reluctant hero clash beyond the reach of the law, with cars for horses.

STORY FOUR: PAGANINI (Biography) – The wicked life of an actual nineteenth-century Italian violinist, who played so beautifully they thought he was the devil.

STORY FIVE: YARDLEY COUNTY (Drama) – A dead convict finds himself, and his redemption, at the hometown robbery where a gunshot began his career.

BONUS STORY: VALLEY FOOTBALL (Comedy) – Existentially lost grownups start a secret tackle football fight club in the suburbs.

BONUS STORY: THE TROP (Farce) – This aging, and somewhat haunted, East Hollywood motel has rooms at reasonable rates for struggling stock characters on the down-and-out.

Reading. Why not do it for fun sometimes?

Favorite Lines:

As always with any short story collection that I read, rather than providing direct quotes from the book, I am sharing which stories were my favorite from the collection: The Quiet Ones and Operation Dragonhead.

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

PEOPLE MAKING DANGER surprised me with how many different layers it manages to hold at once. At first glance, it’s a collection of short stories but the deeper I read, the more it came together into a reflection on what it means to live with risk, to carry trauma, and to wrestle with the edges of survival.

Fike writes about ordinary people under extraordinary pressure. Each story feels like a small explosion—characters pushed to the edge, not by dramatic fantasy but by the sharp, recognizable challenges of real life. That immediacy made the book difficult to put down; I always wanted to see what would happen when danger inevitably arrived, and how the characters would react to it.

One of the things I appreciated was how different the voices and settings felt across the collection. Some stories simmer quietly before snapping into violence or heartbreak, while others throw you into conflict from the first page. Yet even with these shifts in style, the book has a cohesion—it keeps circling back to questions about survival, choices, and the thin line between safety and chaos. The repetition of these themes gave the collection weight without making it feel repetitive.

The characters themselves are what lingered with me. They’re not perfect; often they’re messy, flawed, even unlikeable at times. But they’re always believable. Fike has a way of sketching just enough detail—a gesture, a memory, a bitter aside—that makes you recognize these people instantly. In some cases, I felt like I had met them before in real life, which made their downfalls and small victories all the more striking.

By the end, I came to see the title, PEOPLE MAKING DANGER, as more than just a clever phrase. These aren’t just stories about danger happening to people—they’re about how people create, provoke, or invite danger into their lives, often without meaning to. That nuance—danger as something we stumble into, sometimes through love, sometimes through pride, sometimes through desperation—is what makes the book feel bigger than the sum of its parts.

Summary:

Overall, PEOPLE MAKING DANGER is an unsettling and varied short story collection where the everyday collides with the extraordinary. What makes it powerful is not just the danger itself, but how ordinary people create or invite it into their lives. Fike’s ability to shift between tones—grim, satirical, surreal—keeps the collection fresh while always grounding the stories in authentic human choices. It’s a book that lingers, leaving you to wrestle with what danger really means in the context of family, community, and survival. If you enjoy short story collections that reflect on what it means to be human, than this book could be for you. Happy reading!

Check out PEOPLE MAKING DANGER here!

 

Review: Hummingbird Moonrise by Sherri L. Dodd

~ likelystory18 ~ 1 Comment

Synopsis:

The past two years have taken their toll on Arista Kelly. Once an eternal optimist, now she has faced the darkness and must recalibrate what true happiness means for her. Meanwhile, Shane, her ex-boyfriend, is pulling all the right moves to help keep her sane from her heightening paranoia. But it doesn’t help that Iris, her Great Aunt Bethie’s friend, has disappeared.

Still, one additional trial remains. While searching for Iris, Bethie and Arista stumble upon a grand revelation in the eccentric woman’s home. With the discovery, they realize their run of chaos and loss of kin may have roots in a curse that dates back to the 1940s—the time when their family patriarch first built Arista’s cottage in the redwoods and crafted his insightful Ouija table.

This pursuit will not follow their accustomed recipe of adrenalized action, but the high stakes remain. Will the mysterious slow burn of unfolding events finally level Arista’s entire world or be fully extinguished, once and for all?

Favorite Lines:

“There is almost nothing worse than coming face to face with an agitated serial killer.”

“Twice, she had accidentally crashed a wedding by walking through at inopportune times. She would miss that lovely park.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is book three in Sherri L. Dodd’s paranormal mystery series, Murder, Tea, and Crystals—you can find my review to the first two books here: Murder Under Redwood Moon (book 1) & Moonset on Desert Sands (book 2).

As the third and final book in this trilogy, Hummingbird Moonrise blends cozy domestic rituals with creeping dread in a way that feels both comforting and unsettling. One moment you’re sipping apple spice tea with Arista and her Auntie, and the next you’re peering into shadowy rooms, wondering if the curse that has haunted their family for generations is about to resurface. I loved the way the novel keeps this balance—never letting you forget the warmth of family bonds, but always threading in a sense of danger just out of sight.

What makes the book stand out is how personal it feels. The Kelly family’s history—haunted by curses, betrayals, and supernatural debts—doesn’t read like distant lore. It weighs directly on the characters’ everyday choices. Arista, still finding her place as a “prophesied witch,” doesn’t get the luxury of choosing between a normal life and a magical one; the two are woven together, whether she’s ready or not. That tension keeps the story engaging, because you’re always watching her struggle between the pull of destiny and her desire for peace.

The atmosphere of the California redwoods adds so much texture. The setting becomes a character of its own, cloaked in fog, filled with shadows, and alive with whispers of both natural and supernatural dangers. Dodd writes with a rhythm that sometimes lulls you with cozy descriptions and then jolts you with eerie details—just like her characters, you never know when the ground beneath your feet will shift.

At its heart, though, Hummingbird Moonrise is about resilience. It’s about how families carry their curses, their traumas, and their secrets—but also how they carry one another. Arista and Auntie’s bond is the emotional anchor of the book, and their mixture of banter, affection, and fierce loyalty gives the story its heart. Even amid possessions, missing persons, and malevolent artifacts, the real magic lies in love and perseverance.

Summary:

Overall, Hummingbird Moonrise is a paranormal mystery that works because it never loses its human touch. Yes, there are curses, possessions, and supernatural forces, but there’s also cinnamon bread, inside jokes, and the kind of family loyalty that keeps people moving forward even when the odds feel impossible. What I admired most is the way Dodd lets the suspense simmer without sacrificing warmth. The book left me both unsettled and comforted—a rare combination that lingers long after the last page. Happy reading!

Check out Hummingbird Moonrise here!

 

Monthly Features – September 2025

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

The Boy with the Thorn in His Side by L.J. Robson

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: For most of my life, I felt like something was wrong – like I was living with a shadow I couldn’t see, a weight I couldn’t name. My childhood was marked by fear, confusion, and memories that never quite fit together. I knew there were pieces missing, but I never expected the truth to be more terrifying than my worst nightmares.

This is my story. A journey through trauma, survival, and the battle to reclaim my own mind. It’s about the ghosts of the past that never stopped whispering, the questions no one wanted to answer, and the slow unravelling of a reality I had been forced to forget.

Told with raw honesty, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side is not just an account of what happened to me – it’s a testament to resilience, a fight for acceptance, and a message to anyone who has ever felt trapped by their own past.

Sometimes, the truth is the hardest thing to face. But in facing it, we find the strength to break free.

Summary: Overall, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side is a raw, unfiltered memoir of trauma, resilience, and healing. L. J. Robson takes you into the shadows of his childhood home, unafraid to expose the scars of abuse and the chaos of survival. It’s heavy, often heartbreaking, but threaded with moments of hope and honesty. A difficult yet rewarding read.

See the full review here: The Boy with the Thorn in His Side
Purchase here

 

The Hidden Life by Robert Castle

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: The police have just surrounded the hereditary mansion of Gladwynne Biddleton. He has just shot and wounded his security chief, Dominic Kittredge, and killed Dominic’s wife, Theresa. As he watches the siege unfold on TV, historical visions besiege Gladwynne’s mind. By turns he is a B-17 bombardier; an SS officer tasked with burning the bodies of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun; a fugitive pursued by the celebrated Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal; and a co-conspirator in the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg.

Between the television coverage and the pageant in his head, Gladwynne becomes dissociated from what has just actually happened. Fixation on his immediate physical needs and with life in the mansion tend to conceal the enormity of his crime from him. He descends into a narrowing and harrowing spiral of isolation.

Why did he shoot his closest confidant, Dominic? We don’t quite know. But in Dominic’s thirty year diary of serving Gladwynne we begin to find clues. In this chronicle, Dominic recounts the “golden age” of their association, a time when the two men devised a mock nation with Gladwynne as its center. With Dominic’s encouragement, Gladwynne came gradually to conceive of his own physical person as a sovereign state, competing diplomatically with other world states, persistently resisting their efforts to deprive him of his sovereignty. Between the hostile international powers out to get him and the police now at his door, will Gladwynne’s confusion become total?

Summary: Overall, Robert Castle’s The Hidden Life is a dark, ambitious novel that intertwines wealth, madness, and loyalty into a portrait of a man unraveling. Both unsettling and absorbing, it’s a story that lingers long after the final page, not just for what it says about one family, but for what it suggests about the hidden lives we all construct.

See the full review here: The Hidden Life
Purchase here

 

Settle Down by Ritt Deitz

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: A college kid endowed with hypnotic powers keeps telling himself there’s got to be more waiting for him after graduation than family in the neighborhood and an okay catering job. Maybe he just needs to get his story straight.

Kenny McLuher is far from his native Wisconsin, in his last year at the University of Virginia, majoring in history with no idea what he’s going to do with it. At his catering job, Kenny’s old Southern folktales keep putting his co-workers to sleep, and in Kenny’s dreams President Abraham Lincoln sure seems to be trying to tell him something.

Maybe the pieces will come back together after graduation when Kenny returns to Madison, where he can ask the big question: What is home, anyway?

Summary: Overall, Settle Down is a warm, heartfelt coming-of-age tale about finding home in unexpected places. It’s a quietly triumphant debut that will resonate with anyone who’s ever wondered where they truly belong. 

See the full review here: Settle Down
Purchase here

 

How Deep is the Wound by Antonieta Contreras

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: Finally, a Clear Path Through the Confusion of Modern Trauma Language

If you’ve ever wondered whether your struggles “count” as trauma, felt overwhelmed by conflicting mental health advice, or questioned why some healing approaches work for others but not for you—this book offers the clarity you’ve been seeking. Today’s mental health conversations have reduced the rich complexity of human suffering into a single box labeled “trauma,” used for both devastating life-altering experiences and everyday disappointments—a confusion that serves no one well. This tendency leaves people either minimizing genuine injuries or pathologizing normal life challenges.

Antonieta Contreras introduces an approach that distinguishes different types of psychological wounds based on their actual depth and impact on your nervous system. Drawing from years of clinical practice, extensive research, and personal recovery, she provides the missing understanding to accurately assess your experiences and match them with effective strategies.

You’ll discover the differences between:

  • Emotional Pain: Hurts that sting but don’t fundamentally alter your system
  • Emotional Wounds: Deeper impacts that linger after the initial hurt
  • Traumatization: The active process of seeking safety
  • Trauma: Deep injuries that rewire how you perceive the world

Learn why using a hammer for surgery or a scalpel for construction both create problems—and how matching your healing approach to your actual wound depth accelerates recovery while preventing unnecessary suffering.

Discover how to honor your pain without being defined by it, moving from identity-based labels toward agency-focused growth that reclaims your power to heal and thrive. This book examines how your unique nervous system responds to overwhelm.

Real-World Applications

  • Assess childhood experiences accurately without minimizing or catastrophizing
  • Recognize trauma bonding and attachment wounds that keep you from living fully
  • Understand why some relationships feel impossible to leave
  • Navigate narcissistic abuse and emotional manipulation
  • Distinguish between healthy processing and rumination that reinforces pain
  • Build genuine resilience based on nervous system regulation

This book is for:

  • Anyone confused about whether their experiences constitute “trauma”
  • People who’ve tried multiple healing approaches without lasting results
  • Individuals stuck in cycles of pain, insecurity, lack of motivation or satisfaction, or relationship difficulties
  • Those seeking to understand childhood experiences and their adult impact
  • Anyone wanting to move beyond victim identity toward empowered recovery
  • Mental health professionals seeking more nuanced assessment tools and practical exercises for their clients

When you understand the actual depth of your wounds, you can choose interventions that match their severity. This prevents both under-treatment that leaves you unresolved and over-treatment that creates unnecessary pathology. You will spend less time on ineffective approaches and focus your energy on strategies that are effective for your specific situation.

This book avoids both toxic positivity and victim mentality, acknowledging real suffering while emphasizing human capacity for growth and adaptation. Learn to work with your nervous system’s intelligence rather than against it. You’ll finish with practical tools for regulation, boundaries, and building the safety your system needs to thrive.

Stop wondering if your pain is “enough” to deserve attention. Learn to honor your experiences and discover what it means to finally feel yourself again. Transform your relationship with your own story and step into the clarity, agency, and hope that effective healing provides.

Summary: Overall, Antonieta Contreras’s How Deep is the Wound?  blends clinical expertise with accessible storytelling to help readers understand the spectrum of emotional pain—ranging from everyday struggles to deep trauma—and argues that distinguishing between them is key to healing. By challenging the overuse of trauma language while offering practical exercises and compassionate guidance, Contreras reframes pain as a sign of our innate adaptability rather than evidence of brokenness, ultimately encouraging readers to approach their wounds with clarity, agency, and hope.

See the full review here: How Deep is the Wound?
Purchase here

 

 

Review: The Collectors by Richard A. Danzig

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Synopsis:

The Collectors is the third book in the award winning Chance Cormac legal thriller series. The first two books “Facts Are Stubborn Things” and “Punch Line” are both best sellers on Amazon.

Chance is retained by a client who believes that he has been the victim of fraud when he purchased a valuable abstract painting that may be a forgery. Chance soon learns that both the painting and his client, might not be what they seem.

Chance is then summoned to Costa Rica to help Damian and JR who are caught up in the black market of selling human organs. Facing police corruption and danger, it may be too late to help to save his friends.

Favorite Lines:

“Art is meant to be seen. A painting in a vault is like a flower growing underground.”

“I learned early on that one of the keys to success is to always delegate responsibility to the most capable person.”

“I’m the luck one. A dream job doing the two things I love most – looking at art and making money.”

“I think if she wants it, it’s the best lesson in life. To work hard at something you love, to build confidence and self-esteem. Learn to win and learn to lose. Laugh because it’s only a game.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Richard A. Danzig’s The Collectors is a fast-paced thriller set at the intersection of the art world and organized crime, following Chance, and a cast of allies and enemies as they navigate stolen masterpieces, criminal networks, and personal codes of loyalty. 

What drew me into The Collectors right away was its mix of adrenaline and atmosphere. This isn’t just a story about stolen art—it’s about survival, identity, and the ways people justify the choices they make when life pushes them to the edge. From the early combat fight scenes, to the moments of quiet reflection on scars—both physical and emotional—the book doesn’t let you forget that its characters are people who have already paid heavy prices.

The art-world angle was particularly fascinating. Paintings aren’t just commodities here—they’re symbols of power, greed, and memory. Beauty becomes dangerous when hidden, hoarded, or traded like currency, and Danzig captures that tension with sharp precision.

At the same time, the book is driven by relationships. Family promises sit alongside the betrayals and shifting loyalties of the criminal underworld. These contrasts give the novel depth. It isn’t just about art forgery or organized crime—it’s about what people decide is worth protecting, and what they’re willing to sacrifice along the way.

By the time the story edges toward its conclusion, it becomes clear that the heart of The Collectors isn’t the money, the fame, or even the paintings. That’s what stayed with me. For all its action, the novel lingers because it asks readers to think about what truly matters when everything else can be bought or stolen.

Summary:

Combining gritty action with meditations on beauty, family, and survival, The Collectors delivers both suspense and heart—reminding us that beneath the heists and betrayals, the real stakes are love, trust, and what it means to protect what’s yours. It’s a story that entertains, but it also lingers after the final page, asking bigger questions about what we value and protect when the world demands compromise. Readers who enjoy thrillers, contemporary fiction, and character driven crime novels may enjoy this book. Happy reading!

Check out The Collectors  here!

 

Review: We the People: A Premonition by Russel Razzaque and T.J. MacGregor

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Synopsis:

What if AI could show us the future—and what if that future was our extinction?

We the People: A Premonition is an AMAZON BESTSELLER and a gripping political thriller that explores the terrifying convergence of autocracy and climate collapse. Set in a not-so-distant America ruled by a fascist regime, the novel follows three unlikely heroes brought together by one truth: if they don’t act, the future is lost.

Luna Ochoa, a former FBI analyst turned underground investigator works for Leo Montoya, a reclusive millionaire funding a network tracking the government’s abuses. When the advance AI they created suddenly starts making predictions of humanity’s collapse—nuclear war, ecological annihilation, and widespread oppression—the danger becomes existential.

Enter Jake Kessler, a Pulitzer-winning journalist silenced for exposing political corruption. After crossing paths with Luna, he becomes entangled in a movement bigger than any of them imagined. Together they enter a race against time—not just to survive, but to reclaim the future.

The novel asks the question at the heart of today’s global crisis: Can we still choose a different path? Drawing on the ancient Athenian model and powered by modern technology, their vision is to build a new system where people participate in governance directly—every voice heard, every idea tested. It’s dangerous. Revolutionary. And it may be our last chance to avoid extinction.

With cinematic pacing, unforgettable characters, and razor-sharp political insight, We the People is not just a warning—it’s a call to action. It reminds us that democracy is not a guarantee. It’s a choice. And the most important character in this story is us

Favorite Lines:

“Not if our democracy deepens its roots. Not if we share power, instead of leaving the levers in the hands of a tiny cabal. If we become a real democracy, where ordinary people from every walk of life are involved, then a whole new predictive trajectory opens up.”

“You see, every crisis is also an opportunity. I created this space, not just to protect us, but to protect future generations.”

“Decisions are about judgements. We want individual people, from all backgrounds, to exercise their judgement and produce answers, through this iterative process.”

“Diversity is key. We need broad representation from the rainbow of humanity, so we can benefit from everyone’s lived experiences. That is where the creativity and innovation will come from – people from all walks of life regardless of backgrounds, ethnicity, and religious beliefs.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the authors in exchange for my honest opinion.

We the People: A Premonition follows Luna Ochoa, her brother Juan, and journalist Jake Kessler as they uncover AI-generated predictions of a near future defined by authoritarianism, violence, and ecological collapse. Working with Leo Montoya’s secretive organization, they confront the dangers of a government bent on silencing dissent while struggling to protect their families and preserve the last fragments of democracy.

What immediately stood out to me about We the People is how uncomfortably close its fictional world feels to our current reality. This is speculative fiction that doesn’t hide behind far-flung futures or alien landscapes—it sets its stage in recognizable cities, among ordinary people, and asks us to face what could happen if democracy erodes unchecked. The opening chapters, where Luna and Juan uncover horrifying AI-predicted images of global collapse, feel almost too vivid. The terror isn’t just in the events themselves—mass protests crushed, cities drowned, governments corrupted—but in how plausible they all seem.

I found the book compelling in the way it braids thriller pacing with political commentary. The narrative never slows down—characters stumble from discovery to danger, always pursued by unseen forces loyal to an authoritarian regime—but beneath the action, Razzaque and MacGregor are making a sharp critique of our fragile democratic structures. It reminded me of dystopian classics, but the authors’ choice to anchor it in the immediacy of Orlando and other familiar settings made it hit harder.

The characters themselves—Luna, her brother Juan, journalist Jake Kessler, and their enigmatic employer Leo—give the book its heart. They’re not superheroes. They’re regular people, bruised by loss and compromise, who stumble into carrying truths bigger than themselves. I appreciated how their fear, exhaustion, and even their doubts are depicted. It makes their small acts of resistance feel braver, because they’re not framed as destined saviors, just as people making choices in impossible circumstances.

That said, the novel can feel heavy-handed at times. The imagery of catastrophe is relentless, and the villains—the billionaires and political loyalists—are painted in very stark colors. But I think that bluntness is deliberate. This isn’t a book trying to be subtle; it’s trying to sound an alarm. By the end, I wasn’t left with a neat resolution but with an uneasy sense of responsibility. The authors’ message is clear: the future isn’t written, and what happens next depends on “we the people.”

Summary:

Overall,  We the People: A Premonition mixes political thriller urgency with speculative what-ifs. The novel becomes both a story of survival and a warning—reminding readers that the fate of society rests on ordinary people’s willingness to resist and reimagine the future.

For readers who enjoy fiction that feels both urgent and socially conscious, this  book sits at the intersection of political thriller, dystopian speculative fiction, and social commentary. Happy reading!

Check out We the People: A Premonition here!

 

Review: Solitude by Sebastian JC

~ likelystory18 ~ Leave a comment

Synopsis:

A young girl lives her day-to-day life in a post-apocalyptic world, confined entirely within the crumbling remains of an old church—the last refuge for a small band of survivors. She is the only child among them, and the wasteland beyond remains a mystery, known only through her daydreams and fleeting glimpses through boarded-up windows and broken towers.
Her story begins with the unexpected death of a fellow survivor—the first loss she has ever known. As grief ripples through the group, their fragile sense of safety begins to fray. Through the girl’s eyes, we see the adults around her struggle to maintain a semblance of normal life and offer her something like a true childhood, even as the dangers of the outside world press ever closer.
Solitude is a novella about found family, survival, and loss, seen through the eyes of a young girl as she tries to understand and come to terms with a world that is ultimately too big, too dangerous, and too indifferent.

Favorite Lines:

“Her world was larger up here; there was more room for possibility and imagination.”

“It was the forever part that was hard to handle. the permanence of it. The idea that someone she had known her whole life, who was always there, was gone. It was hard to think about it. Maybe this is the weight that everyone was feeling all the time. The weight of people being gone, of their lives being different forever.”

“And then she noticed it. Illuminated perfectly in the twilight, the smallest bit of green. A green that she had only seen in books and old pictures.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

Sebastian JC’s Solitude follows a young girl growing up in the ruins of a church after societal collapse, where a small group of survivors struggles to endure hunger, grief, and the dangers of the outside world. Told through her observant and reflective perspective, the novel highlights the fragile dynamics of a chosen family, the cycles of daily survival, and the weight of loss.

What surprised me most about Solitude is how intimate the story feels despite its post-apocalyptic setting. It would be easy for a novel like this to lean heavily on destruction and despair, but instead, JC builds the world around one young girl’s perspective, grounding the collapse of society in the quiet moments of her everyday life. From her perch in the ruined church steeple to her careful observations of the makeshift family she lives with, the novel is less about explosions and chaos and more about survival through relationships, memory, and the fragile bonds that hold people together.

The writing style is deliberate and unhurried, mirroring the rhythms of camp life. Long passages describe the girl’s walks through ruined hallways, her habit of counting steps, or the way dust filters through stained glass. This might sound slow, but it works; the detail makes you feel like you’re inhabiting her world, and it underscores how, in a life defined by scarcity, attention to small things is survival itself. You begin to see the church and its ruins as she does: not just broken stone and wood, but a place mapped in memory, danger, and imagination.

I also appreciated how the book weaves grief into its structure. The loss of Jav early on is not a plot twist but a weight that echoes through every chapter. Each character absorbs it differently—John through silence and illness, Sandra through relentless caretaking, and the girl through restless wandering and reflection. JC shows how in survival, grief is never private; it seeps into the entire group, shaping decisions, tensions, and fleeting moments of tenderness.

At times, the book risks feeling repetitive—another patrol, another climb, another whispered conversation in the ruins—but I came to see that repetition as intentional. The girl’s world is claustrophobic, defined by cycles of watchfulness and waiting. That narrow focus made the rare bursts of danger or connection stand out all the more. By the end, what lingered with me wasn’t the bleakness of the world outside but the fragile hope inside: the idea that even in ruin, meaning is built in relationships, in ritual, and in holding onto stories of who we are.

Summary:

Overall, Solitude blends post-apocalyptic tension with quiet, detailed storytelling. It becomes less about destruction and more about memory, resilience, and the search for belonging in a fractured world. If you like post-apocalyptical sci-fi and coming-of age stories, then this book could be for you. Happy reading!

Check out Solitude here!

Review: How Deep is the Wound by Antonieta Contreras

~ likelystory18 ~ 2 Comments

Synopsis:

Finally, a Clear Path Through the Confusion of Modern Trauma Language

If you’ve ever wondered whether your struggles “count” as trauma, felt overwhelmed by conflicting mental health advice, or questioned why some healing approaches work for others but not for you—this book offers the clarity you’ve been seeking. Today’s mental health conversations have reduced the rich complexity of human suffering into a single box labeled “trauma,” used for both devastating life-altering experiences and everyday disappointments—a confusion that serves no one well. This tendency leaves people either minimizing genuine injuries or pathologizing normal life challenges.

Antonieta Contreras introduces an approach that distinguishes different types of psychological wounds based on their actual depth and impact on your nervous system. Drawing from years of clinical practice, extensive research, and personal recovery, she provides the missing understanding to accurately assess your experiences and match them with effective strategies.

You’ll discover the differences between:

  • Emotional Pain: Hurts that sting but don’t fundamentally alter your system
  • Emotional Wounds: Deeper impacts that linger after the initial hurt
  • Traumatization: The active process of seeking safety
  • Trauma: Deep injuries that rewire how you perceive the world

Learn why using a hammer for surgery or a scalpel for construction both create problems—and how matching your healing approach to your actual wound depth accelerates recovery while preventing unnecessary suffering.

Discover how to honor your pain without being defined by it, moving from identity-based labels toward agency-focused growth that reclaims your power to heal and thrive. This book examines how your unique nervous system responds to overwhelm.

Real-World Applications

  • Assess childhood experiences accurately without minimizing or catastrophizing
  • Recognize trauma bonding and attachment wounds that keep you from living fully
  • Understand why some relationships feel impossible to leave
  • Navigate narcissistic abuse and emotional manipulation
  • Distinguish between healthy processing and rumination that reinforces pain
  • Build genuine resilience based on nervous system regulation

This book is for:

  • Anyone confused about whether their experiences constitute “trauma”
  • People who’ve tried multiple healing approaches without lasting results
  • Individuals stuck in cycles of pain, insecurity, lack of motivation or satisfaction, or relationship difficulties
  • Those seeking to understand childhood experiences and their adult impact
  • Anyone wanting to move beyond victim identity toward empowered recovery
  • Mental health professionals seeking more nuanced assessment tools and practical exercises for their clients

When you understand the actual depth of your wounds, you can choose interventions that match their severity. This prevents both under-treatment that leaves you unresolved and over-treatment that creates unnecessary pathology. You will spend less time on ineffective approaches and focus your energy on strategies that are effective for your specific situation.

This book avoids both toxic positivity and victim mentality, acknowledging real suffering while emphasizing human capacity for growth and adaptation. Learn to work with your nervous system’s intelligence rather than against it. You’ll finish with practical tools for regulation, boundaries, and building the safety your system needs to thrive.

Stop wondering if your pain is “enough” to deserve attention. Learn to honor your experiences and discover what it means to finally feel yourself again. Transform your relationship with your own story and step into the clarity, agency, and hope that effective healing provides.

Favorite Lines:

“Your pain isn’t as permanent as it feels, and your potential for transformation is greater than you’ve been told.”

“In truth, healing from trauma doesn’t erase your most significant traits; it simply gives you the freedom to choose how you’ll respond instead of being run by harmful reactions.”

“I believe healing ripples outward in ways we can barely imagine.”

My Opinion:

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.

What struck me first about How Deep is the Wound? is how directly it speaks to a cultural moment we’re living through. Everywhere you look—on social media, in everyday conversations, even among children—you hear the word “trauma” tossed around casually. Contreras doesn’t dismiss the pain behind those words, but she challenges the reflex to label every difficult experience as traumatic. That nuance is refreshing. Too often, books about emotional pain fall into one of two camps: either they minimize suffering or they overpathologize it. This book carves out a thoughtful middle space.

I appreciated how practical the writing felt without losing its warmth. Contreras weaves clinical knowledge with relatable metaphors—likening emotions to a child tugging at their mother’s arm until they escalate into a tantrum if ignored. She grounds her points in both neuroscience and lived experience, yet never drifts into inaccessible jargon. Reading it felt less like being lectured to and more like being accompanied by someone who has walked alongside many others on similar journeys.

Another strength is the book’s insistence on adaptation as a concept alongside resilience. That idea—that we aren’t just built to “bounce back” but to actively adjust and grow through challenges—stuck with me long after I put the book down. It reframes emotional pain not as proof of damage but as evidence that our systems are trying to reorganize and teach us something. In a world that rewards quick fixes and tidy labels, this felt like a radical but necessary reminder.

Of course, not every reader will agree with Contreras’s critique of “trauma culture.” Some might feel that drawing distinctions between trauma and emotional wounds risks invalidating their struggles. But I think that’s where the book’s heart really lies: in showing that recognizing the spectrum of emotional pain doesn’t diminish suffering—it clarifies it. For me, the takeaway was hopeful rather than minimizing: our wounds may run deep, but they are not all catastrophic, and understanding the difference is itself empowering.

Summary:

Overall, Antonieta Contreras’s How Deep is the Wound?  blends clinical expertise with accessible storytelling to help readers understand the spectrum of emotional pain—ranging from everyday struggles to deep trauma—and argues that distinguishing between them is key to healing. By challenging the overuse of trauma language while offering practical exercises and compassionate guidance, Contreras reframes pain as a sign of our innate adaptability rather than evidence of brokenness, ultimately encouraging readers to approach their wounds with clarity, agency, and hope.

Check out How Deep is the Wound? here!