Book Review: Grave of Hummingbirds by Jennifer Skutelsky

In the Andean mountains, preparations are underway for Independence Day in tiny Colibri. Dr. Gregory Moreno, still mourning his late wife, dreads the holiday without his Nita. A young man finds an angel in the mountains – a dead woman – with wings sewn to her newly inked skin.

The authorities are taken with the woman's resemblance to the late Nita. Superstition, rumor, and suspicion swirl around this murder. Then, another woman is abducted, and this woman also resembles the doctor’s departed wife.

With the mayor prepping for the festival, the job of sleuthing falls to the doctor, though he is reluctant to accept the call to action.

This is a story to savor. So much of what goes on in small towns is captured here in loving yet suspenseful detail. There are several enduring themes here and I especially like the condors circling in the sky, reminding me of the endlessly spinning wheels in small communities.

Love and betrayal are served up on a hefty slice of karma. This story will stay with you long after you stop turning the pages.

Maggie Toussaint and Rigel Carson for Muddy Rose Reviews

Book Review: Finding Charlie by Katie O'Rourke

In a family where the mom walked out when the kids were small, older sister Olivia became mother and sister to Charlie.

One day Charlie turns up missing. No one can reach her – not her father, not her sister, not her bestie. Worse, no one knows why she left without her car or cell phone.

The cops are no help, so Olivia starts piecing together Charlie’s last day and eventually learns she left town with a male acquaintance. Olivia traipses after her, eventually finding her in a place she didn’t expect, with a person she never wanted to see again.

Finding Charlie is about the ties that bind -the ties that bind until they chafe and more. Inter-family dynamics are explored as well as themes of independence, forgiveness, accountability, and love.

Maggie Toussaint and Rigel Carson for Muddy Rose Reviews

Book Review: The Treemakers by Christina Rozelle

In a world gone wrong, children toil long hours in a tree factory. The air’s all messed up, and the mechanical trees they make will restore the atmosphere. The tree factory kids, united in their misery, become a family of sorts, with Joy and Jax as leaders. The few adults in their lives are the strangers running the factory, only the strangers consider their work force disposable.

But the resilient human spirit finds a way to enjoy stolen moments of freedom, even in the throes of exhaustion and starvation. Joy, Jax, and a few of their friends explore some nights, searching for food and clothing and they happen upon something so out of their realm they barely know what to do.

A great dystopian read presenting hope and freedom as two necessarys in life. This is Book One in Rozelle’s Treemakers Trilogy. I’m looking forward to Book Two.

Maggie Toussaint and Rigel Carson for Muddy Rose Reviews

Book Review: The Toucan Trilogy by Scott Cramer

The night of the purple moon changed life as we know it. All the adults died overnight from something that rode in on the comet. Abby, Jordan, and Toucan’s parents died, same as the rest.

Kids on their island banded together to survive. The disease vector hit each child as they passed into adolescence, killing them as well. Just when things were starting to work under kid rule, the illness that killed the adults mutated and young children became ill.

With each turn of the screw, Abby struggles to hold her family together and survive. An intriguing take on what might be. Be forewarned. This story will stick with you long after it's done!

Maggie Toussaint and Rigel Carson for Muddy Rose Reviews