Ponder: Unscripted

Unscripted ©2019 by Davis Bunn, is the fourth book in his Miramar series and the fourth I have read by this author. Unscripted was a huge disappointment; perhaps it should have had a subtitle of "and unedited" as well. It was incoherent. I give it two stars which in my system translates to Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it.  So what were these redeeming features that drew me on and what were the aspects that were lacking?

Redeeming features: 

1. Unscripted completed the Miramar series of books I previously liked by Davis Bunn.
2. There was an interesting aspect into learning what goes into making a movie, both in the technical and the financial skills.

There is a satisfaction in having read all the books in a series and I wanted to check that box. My expectation with an author is that he gets generally gets better as time goes on, but not so with this book. It was difficult to follow because the main characters were to move forward and act based on trust. The reason for them doing so is repeatedly withheld from them, presumably under the excuse of "no time to explain right now". This writing technique does create suspense since the reader is drawn on in an attempt to develop understanding. Unscripted is so titled because it is about the production of a movie for which the script has not been written, the funding has not been secured, the cast has not been contracted, and forward progress in hindered by a sinister undertone that some giant in the film industry wants this endeavor, spearheaded by line producer Daniel Byrd, to fail. From this I did manage to glean a sort of sequence that need to occur in the creation of a movie but I needed to ferret out that process from between the lines.The general conflict is of the David and Goliath variety. Los Angeles lawyer, Megan Pierce, formerly from a high-pressure, hot-shot law firm, manipulates the financial and legal aspects of producing the film. There is an underlying, unsubstantiated romantic interest developing between Daniel and Megan. Throw in a mysterious anonymous inheritance with a heart-rending betrayal by a close friend/partner, and the stewing soup of question marks continues to swirl and confuse. 

Aspects lacking:

1. It was incoherent
2. Characters did not become real or endearing to me
3. Previous reviews had been misleading

Included are three misleading reviews from the introductory pages of this Unscripted. True, a book will never have on the introductory pages, "This book is mediocre - do not bother reading it,". However, these praises are so far from my experience that I had to comment on each.

I did read this book with the hope of getting a better insight in the making of films. But there were so many characters, with first and last names, sometimes referred to by a first name, sometimes by a last name, depending on with whom in the pecking order they were speaking, that I became totally befuddled. The world of lawyers and bankers is not my realm and this book did little to enlighten me. Portrayal of the behavior of prima donna movie stars seemed stale and did little to dismiss or validate stereotypical impressions.

"Eyes damp twice and throat constricted...?" Hardly! If anything my eyes burned from trying to keep them open while forging on with the hope the book would get better. There was little to no emotional connection with the characters for me in Unscripted, unlike Bunn's previous three books in the series. To quote myself from my Jan 12, 2020 post about the first three books in the Miramar series

The first three all bear the author's soft urging style that encourages the reader to turn page after page, not necessarily because of some climactic event, but rather because of a genuine caring for the characters and a yearning to see how their lives unfold.

This reviewer probably had to reread the book to find out what the &^%&% was going on!

So why did I put so much effort into this review? I think I had to convince myself there was something more there that I was missing. I even made the effort of a special library request to borrow this book through an interlibrary loan, so engaged was I with the first three books. Alas. My efforts were for naught. Davis Bunn is a very prolific writer but I will most definitely give his books a rest before seeking out others. Two stars. Not worth your time. I over-invested.

Ponder: Educated

Educated ©2018 by Tara Westover is a strong, very well-written book. This non-fiction memoir of a women raised in a survivalist Mormon family has accrued many accolades; a subset of them as listed in a Wikipedia entry for its author are

• Named the Book of the Year by the American Booksellers Association
• One of the New York Times's 10 Best Books of 2018
• Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Autobiography
• Amazon Editors' pick for the Best Book of 2018
• President Barack Obama's Favorite Books of the Year list
• Bill Gates's Holiday Reading list

First off, before addressing the content of the book I call attention to the cover art. The jacket illustration is by Swedish artist Patrik Svensson. I loved how he portrayed the mountain on which Tara Westover grew up as a the tip of a pencil. A sharpened No. 2 pencil screams school to me and recalls to me the line from the movie You've Got Mail, attributed to Nora Ephron, where Tom Hanks writes to Meg Ryan

Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.

Tara is the youngest of seven children: Tony, Shawn, Tyler, Luke, Audrey, Richard, Tara. Presumably being homeschooled, there is no dedicated time for study. They are often pulled from lessons or book-learning to work in the family's scrapping and junk yard business or else to stock up supplies (gasoline, ammunition, preserved foods) for when they must be totally self-sufficient at the point in time where the world about them "inevitably" disintegrates and ceases to function. Their parents permit no medical care for them other than the mother's herbal remedies, leaving their healing from sickness or a myriad of serious accidents "in God's hands". It is intimated that the father suffers from an undiagnosed bipolar disorder. The mother is subservient to the father. An older brother Shawn has violent tendencies. It is a wonder that Tara "escapes" this environment. Note here that my choice of word "escape" is in itself pejorative, as if I am insinuating superiority to a chosen life style.

Tara Westover, who never went to grade school or high school and never earned a GED (General Education Development) certificate was ultimately able to receive advanced higher education degrees: a BA from Brigham Young University, MPhil from Trinity College, a visiting fellow at Harvard, and a PhD in history from Cambridge. Was she able to do this without alienating her family? That is a struggle. A good, pious Morman woman's place is in the kitchen of her home tending to husband and children. Two of Tara's five brothers earned doctorates, Tyler and Richard. There is no memoirs for them to discern if their familial struggle as males was any less difficult.

This book haunted me in a way that I sought out other reviews on the book and supplemental information about the author and her family. There was a YouTube clip of Tara's visit on the Ellen Degeneres Show that gives good overview of the book. Interesting enough, Tara's brother Shawn and her brother Tyler each wrote contrasting reviews on Amazon. 

A YouTube conversation between Tara Westover and Bill Gates gave me true pause for thought. I have heard the divisiveness in the United States can be attributed to the conflict between "poorly educated" rural America and the "cluelessly educated" urban America. The "upset" in the 2016 presidential election was reputed to be a cry from struggling Americans in places like the rust belt to be heard. Tara Westover makes a statement in her conversation with Bill Gates that she thinks of "education as a great mechanism of connecting and equalizing but it can be a little frightening when education become an instrument of division." Not understanding the beliefs of those in a different socio-economic situation or different religious beliefs can be harmful to cohesiveness.

The writing style is easily absorbed, the true life characters are many-dimensional and engaging, the storyline is impressive, and the emotional involvement of the reader is inevitable. Based on quality, I have to reluctantly rate it five stars which in my personal  rating system translates to Great! Read it!. Why reluctantly? While reading it, I was appalled at some of the practices and injuries experienced by the characters; so, in all honesty, I cannot say I enjoyed Educated. 

• If you are reading for enlightenment or for probing mental stimulation, this book is a gem.
• If you are supremely curious what all the buzz about this book is, then definitely invest your time.
• If you are reading for a pure, pleasurable past-time, this memoir is too intense and heart-wrenching. 

I do not at all regret reading it, but I will admit that seeing the suffering of the siblings as well as that of the father and the mother was hard to take.

Ponder: Hanover House & Her Darkest Nightmare

Since I am behind in my posts about books I have read in 2019, I continue to double up on the titles. Having liked the author Brenda Novak's ten-book romance Whiskey Creek Series (5/5/18) I started on her psychological thriller series called the Dr. Evelyn Talbot Chronicles. There are four books in this series all of which earned five stars on Amazon.

The kickoff novella to the Dr. Evelyn Talbot Chronicles is titled Hanover House ©2015 and sets the groundwork and background. Evelyn had been tortured by her high school boyfriend and left for dead. She survived and he was never apprehended nor imprisoned. She sets her life goal to understanding the psychopathic mind. How could someone she was so close to her turn on her and why? Getting her medical degree she sets up a maximum security facility in the remote and harsh environment of Hilltop Alaska, naming the medical health center Hanover House. 

Residents of the area are not welcoming because they are wary of having serial killers living near to them. Evelyn has trust issues and an education gap with the locals making it difficult for her to form social ties. Consequently she gets little relief from her dangerous and stressful work. Added to the mix is the onerous possibility that her murderous ex-boyfriend may want to seek her out and finish the job he started. This thriller has lots of suspense. It seems as if everyone is against her, even the uncooperative and howling weather. A local Alaskan State Trooper, Sergeant Amarok, reluctantly assists her out of duty. Evelyn's past trauma precludes romance between them playing a large role in this book. I give Hanover House three stars – Better than average; not a waste of time. 

The first full novel in Brenda Novak's Dr. Evelyn Talbot Chronicles is Her Darkest Nightmare ©2016. The characters with whom she interacts have already been established in the novella: the doctors who are her argumentative colleagues, her parents who fret for her safety, and the capable Alaska State Trooper who assists despite his dissatisfaction of having a facility of serial killers in his territory. In this particular novel, a dismembered arm from a woman has been eerily placed in Dr. Talbot's bed. The corpse of the women is later discovered and her identity sought. The scenes have shock value in their occurrence, but gratefully and mercifully, they are not described in gruesome detail for the reader. The pursuit scenes are harrowing, and the thriller is certainly a page turner. But I most enjoy the passages involving insight and analysis of the mental features of a psychopathic serial killer.

Probing the mind of a psychopath and reveals certain typical features. One passage (chapter 12) where Dr. Talbot is in a conversation with a patient reads:

Like Ted [Bundy] and so many other psychopaths, Hugo [patient] didn't seem to keep track of the things he said even a few minutes before and often contradicted himself. Most people overlooked these seemingly inconsequential slips, probably because they didn't deal with enough psychopaths to draw the correlation. But his kind of sloppy speech further proved that a psychopath's brain was not wired like a normal person's. Although the right hemisphere usually controlled speech, psychopaths were bilateral, meaning both sides of the brain were involved. They weren't the only ones – people who stuttered or had dyslexia were bilateral, too...

Many of the psychopaths appear charming and congenial on the surface, almost charismatic with those they encountered. They worm their way into their contacts's good graces, not by the unique qualities of their own personality, but rather by their chameleon ability to mirror the future victims' own personalities back at them. In general people tend to feel comfortable and bond with a person with whom they feel they have a lot in common. This scenario reminds me of the poem The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt published in 1828. 

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the spider to the fly;

The title Her Darkest Nightmare again hearkens back to her tortured and betraying high school experience. Since he has never been apprehended and jailed, the threat always looms that her ex-boyfriend may be involved and is leaving clues for her. Could it be him wanting to finish the job or merely taking delight in terrorizing her. Could it be that another, equally psychotic, perpetrator is involved? The suspense and action are excellent. I give Her Darkest Nightmare three stars – Better than average; not a waste of time. Because of a limited audience I feel it falls short of four stars. I enjoyed reading the book but no way would I go to movie made out of it. That is definitely not my cup of tea. My imagination is as graphic and as daring as I want to get.

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey

I almost forgot about this short little piece of fluff I read in the spring and never blogged about. For those who were fans of the TV Series Downton Abbey , While We Were Watching Downton Abbey ©2013 by Wendy Wax is a cute little reminder. Edward, the concierge at a posh city apartment building in Atlanta, GA, arranges a weekly movie get together on Sunday nights and invites building residents to attend. It is amusing how people with very little in common become fast friends and support each other in their trials. Main characters are Samantha Davis, a married woman who struggles to promote authentic relations with her husband while dealing with two grown financially irresponsible leech-like siblings; Claire Walker, an empty nest widow with writer's block; and Brooke MacKenzie, a young divorcé with two children whose husband dumped her for another woman. Staff at the hotel dress up on those evenings and attempt British accents as they pass around refreshments suitable for the Downton Abbey time period. Discussions after the screenings include references to characters from the TV series so it is fun to recall those characters that were on our own home televisions sets for six seasons. One Sunday night, a questionnaire is handed out and each viewer fills it out. The results pair each viewer with the Downton Abbey character they are most like. Will Edward be most like Mr. Carson? Not necessarily.

While We Were Watching Downton Abbey was light-hearted and had a limited audience, but I enjoyed it. Amazon awarded it four and a half stars but I gave it two stars which in my scale translates to Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it. Only if you are staunch Downton Abby fan and really want something droll and mindless, should you consider buying it or downloading it. To sample the flavor of the book, I offer the opening and one dialogue from Chapter Nine when the first showing of the series began.

OPENING: There was silence as the program ended with Matthew Crawley receiving the fateful message from Lord Grantham. The silence continued as the music swelled and the closing credits began. Then someone, Samantha wasn't sure who, began to applaud. Brooke who hadn't seemed to move so much as a muscle during the program joined in. There were whistles and one "woo-hoo!"

DIALOGUE: "So what did you think of Downton Abbey?" Claire asked."It was fun. It reminded me a little bit of Dallas and Dynasty only with fancier accents, better breeding, and no shoulder pads," Samantha said. "Well, except for on the men."

Ponder: Firefly Cove, Miramar Bay, & Moondust Lake

Where do I find the books I read and how do I select them?  Of all unlikely places, I picked up Firefly Cove in one of those cardboard bins of inexpensive books in the grocery store. I think the word firefly in the title caught my eye. Being originally from New Jersey where lightning bugs are quite prevalent and knowing that my husband, also from the East Coast, has a fondness for them, they evoked a nostalgia that drew me toward that book lying face up on the top of the bin.

From the front flap I learned that the novel's setting is in a seaside town in California, the state where I currently live. Just a few pages in, the setting expanded to include the city of San Luis Obispo, home town of my son's alma mater Cal Poly where we visited quite often during his college years. Ok, enough coincidences. This book was worth a shot. I'd heard a bit of advice somewhere "not to judge a book by its cover but rather judge it by if it's in a bargain bin" but  I chose to ignore that tidbit of warped wisdom.

Firefly Cove ©2018 by Davis Bunn caused me as the reader to suspend disbelief and enter the ethereal world that fireflies tend to conjure up in a magical sort of way. I eagerly turned page after page wondering about the fate of two main characters Lucius and Jessica. Lucius Quarterfield, a man in his late twenties, had suffered his entire life from poor health and, to the surprise of his doctors, among others, had managed to survive to adulthood. Despite his medical frailties Lucious is a workaholic, successful business man. Yet Lucius wonders, "Was it so much to ask, a healthy tomorrow shared with a woman he loved". That woman is Jessica, daughter of small town dentist, who follows in her father's footsteps. She is convinced she can offer Lucius the companionship, friendship, and happiness he craves.

In a second storyline, there is a character, Luke Benoit, who suffers from extreme depression – so much so that he is at risk for committing suicide. A second female charter, Asha, a clinical psychologist under the tutelage of Dr. Dino Barbieri tries to help Luke. The side by side storylines do eventually intersect in an innovative way that made for a fascinating read. It is thought provoking how people approach life. "What will you do with the gift of your next breath?" queries a quote from the book. Although Firefly Cove is the second book in a trilogy, that did not deter me from reading it first; I was at no disadvantage whatsoever. But I did like the author's style, characters, and creative story enough to seek out the first and third books, Miramar Bay and Moondust Lake, from my local library and read them. I give Firefly Cove, my favorite of the three,  four stars which, per my rating scale translates as Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience. Could I really, without a slight tug at my conscience, give a bargain bin book five stars? 

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Although I read all three books within a two-week period, Miramar Bay and Moondust Lake will rollover and count as 2020 completions. These two books are set in the same California locale but the characters area all different and unrelated, so perhaps they do not form a true trilogy. In writing this I have since learned there is a fourth book ©2019 in the Miramar series, Unscripted,  that I will seek out and read. The first three all bear the author's soft urging style that encourages the reader to turn page after page, not necessarily because of some climactic event, but rather because of a genuine caring for the characters and a yearning to see how their lives unfold. 

The front flap of Miramar Bay ©2017, the first book in the series, reads

In the tender, heartwarming tradition of Nicholas Sparks, this compelling novel of two strangers in a small coastal town marks a romantic tour de force for internationally bestselling author Davis Bunn.

The storyline in Miramar Bay follows Connor Larkin, a B-grade but rising, extremely handsome actor from Hollywood. His first love is music but his skill at acting propels him into the realms of a career and Hollywood public relation and social scene with which he is vaguely malcontent. He is engaged to a beautiful, vapid, voluptuous actress with whom he is very doubtful he wants to spend the rest of his life. He escapes incognito to a seaside town to think undisturbed about where his life is going. Can Connor extricate himself from the frantic public scene in which he feels bombarded or can he change the terms and adjust them to suit his own happiness? A paragraph in the novel has Connor musing

He stood looking out over the town and the cove and the shimmering Pacific. Connor knew this was why he had come to Miramar. It had never been about the music. It was all about regaining the ability to dream.

He meets Sylvia Cassick, owner of the Castaways restaurant staffed by cooks, waiters, and waitresses of dubious criminal pasts who Sylvia has granted second chances. The staff are her steadfast loyal supporters and devoted friends. Connor asked to be hired as a waiter at Castaways and Sylvia gives him a job, minimal questions asked. When Sylvia becomes at risk of losing her restaurant due to trumped up criminal drug charges against her, the tension level in the novel rises. Can the community and her clientele who love her help her in any way?

What I found interesting in this book, in addition to the intertwined budding relationships, were scenes where Connor was performing scripted acting that was being filmed live. I never realized how complicated a job of acting can be. Far from merely knowing his lines and saying them with emotion, Connor is stunningly aware of the technical aspects of filming that surround him: stopping at an impromptu location and posing oriented so the lighting is optimized, giving a sound man and his boom mic time to adjust position, surreptitiously feeding his co-actor lines when she forgets. I give Miramar Bay four stars - Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience. I did not like it quite as well as Firefly Cove but I certainly am glad I read it. And doesn't everyone, independent of age and circumstance, need to have the ability to dream?

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Moondust Lake ©2018 by Davis Bunn is the third book in the Miramar series and I read it right after Miramar Bay at the risk of getting saturated and bored from exposing myself to same author's work three times in a row. Each book is about 300 pages so each is longer than an introductory novella, but the trio kept me engaged all the same. True, having due dates at the library can be motivating to keep forging ahead, but it was my interest in the book's plot, the characters, and the suspenseful tone that kept me wanting to read on.

The plot of Moondust Lake focuses on Buddy Helm a young – late twenties – highly effective executive in the family business. His father Jack is highly critical, abrupt, harsh, and downright nasty; he never praises nor acknowledges Buddy's successes which surpass his own. Jack carries this abrasive attitude through to his wife Beth, and two daughters as well, although Buddy bears the brunt of it. Buddy is constantly under a lot of pressure and seeks an out without being unfaithful to or abandoning his father. Buddy is highly committed to the guardianship of his company "team", those who work tirelessly for him since he is considerate and inspires much voluntary loyalty. He is protective of his mother and sisters. He does not know who he is and struggles with his own identity. He begins seeing a church sponsored therapist who advises

Search out the elements of yourself you haven't been able to see before because you've lived with such constant pressure all your days. Take time to breathe. Take time to look. And to come to a fuller understanding of who you truly are.

As far as the self-identity issue is concerned I want you to take ten minutes morning and evening. Ask yourself one question. What would you like to hear other people say about you in five years' time? They are speaking the truth. They are talking about the man they love. What are they saying?

This book, too was a page turner, but not out of sympathy for the character or thriller type dangerous suspense. This book made me feel stressed as I was reading it as Buddy struggles to figure out what his future path should be. Moondust Lake  gets it title from the location of a retreat house where Buddy starts his self-discovery. The novel is a combination of psychological study (self) and strategy development (actions to be taken). I like where he sets out to learn more about his father's background as Jack grew up to understand why he acts as he does. There are some climactic action chapters near the end which compensated somewhat for Buddy' inner struggles. It was still an engaging read but not as pleasurable as the prior two. I give it three stars – Better than average; not a waste of time. I do not want to be a spoiler, but good does triumph over evil.

Ponder: Trust Me, Stop Me, Watch Me

Brenda Novak authored a trilogy of books featuring three women, each herself having personally endured a harrowing experience and surviving, who band together to form Last Stand, an organization dedicated to helping victims of crime.

• Skye Kellerman in Trust Me ©Jun-2008 had been attacked in her own bed and had managed to fend off her knife-wielding assailant. Skye saw his face, enabling her to identify him, so he stalks her to finish the job.
• Jasmine Stratford, a psychological profiler in Stop Me ©Jul-2008, suffered the kidnapping of her younger sister sixteen years earlier while baby-sitting her. Jasmine seeks to find the perpetrator.
• In Watch Me ©Aug-2008 Sheridan Kohl was parked at a lake with a teenage boy when a stranger wearing a ski mask shoots them both. Sheridan survives, but the boy, Jason, does not and the stranger was never caught.

TRUST ME ©Jun-2008 by Brenda Novak - 1st in a trilogy
STOP ME ©Jul-2008 by Brenda Novak - 2nd in a trilogy
WATCH ME ©Aug-2008 by Brenda Novak - 3rd in a trilogy

I enjoy all of theses books because they are action packed, suspenseful, and feature strong, brave, resourceful women. There is a bit of romance to spice up the emotional field, but it is not dominant in the story. Each novel can stand alone; there is some cross reference among the three female heroines Skye, Jasmine, and Sheridan but that does not hamper understanding the characters nor cause confusion in following the plot.

The plot in Trust Me is that Skye lives alone in a remote location and must protect herself. She takes an aggressive approach to derailing her stalker and does not just quake in a defensive mode. Sure, she is terrified but she rises above it. As he lurks outside her house trying repeatedly to break in, the tension is high and I turned pages rapidly. The scene reminds me of that final climax in the classic movie Wait Until Dark 1967 where Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman Susy alone at home with three thugs. Susy disabled all the lights in the apartment to level the playing field with her attackers. This YouTube trailer conveys the terror in the movie. The movie's climax is ranked tenth on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

In Stop Me Jasmine anonymously receives a package containing a strong indicator that her sister might still be alive. She needs to elicit help and information from a bitter, reclusive man who lives in the bayou of Louisiana. Romain was recently released from prison for shooting a man he thought had murdered his daughter. Jasmine believes the true murderer of his daughter is the same man who kidnapped her sister. She bravely forages out into the swamp, alone, to engage the help of the ex-con Romaine. Dark, creepy, scary settings make this book a page turner.

The opening scene of Watch Me is that of Sheridan, badly beaten and lying motionless in the mud deep in a forest, playing possum as she hears the scraping shovel sound of someone digging her grave. The hounds of Cain, a nearby tender of the wildlife preserve, raise such a ruckus that Cain comes out to investigate and interrupts the culmination of Sheridan's proposed fate. Cain is the step brother of Jason, the boy shot in the car beside Sheridan many years ago at the lake. This is my favorite novel of the three. The convoluted relationships among one step brother, who is the sheriff, the sheriff's twin sister (former wife of Cain), and a second step brother make for a real puzzle to sort out as to whodunit. Who killed Jason, many years ago, who beat up Sheridan, who killed another victim in the book, and why did this all happen?

Noting that since the release dates of these three books are within one month of each other, it is highly unlikely they will be categorized as high literature. But they are well written, have interesting premises, and entertain well as they hold my interest. I rate each three stars, better than average and not a waste of time. I learned there is a second trilogy and I have downloaded it to my Kindle and look forward to reading them. I think they very well may be worth it.

THE PERFECT COUPLE ©Jul-2009 by Brenda Novak - 4th in second trilogy

THE PERFECT LIAR ©Aug-2009 by Brenda Novak - 5th in second trilogy

THE PERFECT MURDER ©Oct-2009 by Brenda Novak - 6th in second trilogy

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This past spring/summer I also read novella and neglected to review it. I tacked it on to this post because it too is by Brenda Novak and because I am so terribly behind in my blog posts for book reviews I needed to consolidate. When We Touch ©2012 by Brenda Novak, Inc. is the kickoff novella to the Whiskey Creek series. 

I reviewed the ten books in the Whiskey Creek series in my post for May 5, 2018. In book 9 of that series the the background reveals that the lead male character Kyle had never quite recovered when the love of his life, Olivia, married his stepbrother Brandon. How did this transpire? The novella reveals all the juicy details. Olivia, a wedding planner had been forced to arrange the wedding of her trashy, self-centered, conniving sister Noelle to Kyle the man Olivia loved. Kyle had reluctantly felt obliged to marry Olivia's sister Noelle when she became pregnant; but the Kyle-Noelle the marriage ended in divorce. The Brandon-Olivia relationship took off in this novella. Sound very soap opera-ish? It was.

I rated this novella only two stars, ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it, but it helped me understand the circumstances behind book 9 of the Whiskey Creek saga and completed my reading of the series. I had downloaded a Kindle version of When We Touch and read it in one fell swoop on my computer screen. Hey, don't judge me. Some folks while away time on video games.