Fiction

Ten Threads by Richard R Becker

May 24, 2022 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

Ten Threads by Richard R Becker

Ten Threads is a brisk 125-page, 10-story companion to the bestselling, award-winning collection 50 States.

Published as a Kindle exclusive, it can be read as a stand-alone anthology or as a continuation of stories found in 50 States. Specifically, this collection features stories set in Idaho, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Utah, Pennsylvania, California, Vermont, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky.

• An Idaho farmer who earns a second chance at life finds that the past has a hard time letting him go.
• A risk-averse young man must make a bold move after stumbling into a nightmarish government biohazard. • An aging alcoholic vigilante finds common ground with a teenager in a secret witness protection program.

50 States readers will find that eight stories feel like continuations. The other two, while connected to their counterparts, aren’t strongly linked. Whether read together or alone, Becker’s body of work plays out like a puzzle with new little bits shared a few pieces at a time.

50 States by Richard R. Becker

January 18, 2022 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

50 States by Richard R. Becker

An Idaho farmer who aches for absolution after a tragedy is given one more chance at redemption. Two runaways cross paths in a Tennessee bus station with only one ticket between them. A family sees looters racing toward their home as they escape an Oregon wildfire. A young couple takes a reckless turn off a state highway in Utah and find themselves in a nightmarish government biohazard area.

These and 46 more shorts make up an anthology that will surprise readers with each new thought-provoking story as they skip effortlessly across different genres, moods, and states of mind. Together, they provide a character-driven sampling of the American experience over the last 60 years — the kind and the cruel, the heroic and criminal — in unpredictable and exciting ways.

50 States is a debut collection of short stories that captures the human condition and reveals how perception shapes destiny. The book spans several literary genres with each short story set in a different state across America. It is soon to be released as an audiobook, narrated by a 5-time Emmy winner.

Prophecy of Love by T. Satterfield

December 26, 2021 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

Prophecy of Love by T. Satterfield

Good guy Gabe Mendes is certainly passionate. He thinks love will make his life worth living. So he’s made a deal. In exchange for access to the universe of love he agrees to slay the black ram. But soon he learns, being unlucky in love isn’t his only problem. Turns out—love isn’t what he thinks it is.

By the time Gabe stumbles across the website of the alluring, though mature, Pythia—mystic and high priestess—he’s already failed miserably in love yet again. Raised by a hardworking single mom, never having known the full truth about his father, Gabe has spent his life faithful to three beliefs: follow the rules; don’t let anyone get too close; and avoid, at all costs, being honest about how you feel—especially with yourself. If it weren’t for Gabe’s steadfast companion, a cat named Cat, he might not know love at all.

But when the enchanting red-headed priestess dangles the keys that will unlock the secret answers to the long-asked questions of love, Gabe jumps at the chance. Before he knows it, things change—and fast. The entertaining Pythia takes him on a whirlwind journey traveling the portals of time and space. She’s got him questioning everything he’s ever thought about love. And if that weren’t enough, Gabe is beginning to believe this business about the black ram might cost him everything. It might just kill him.

Is Gabe really ready for love? Or has his haunted past already destined him to a lonely life? Poor Gabe, he’s about to learn there’s more than romance missing in his life.

All the Colors of My Soul by Leta McCurry

October 22, 2021 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

All the Colors of My Soul by Leta McCurry

What could drive a loving wife and mother to commit cold-blooded murder?

Growing up in the 1930s Santa Clara Valley, California, Neva Holiday wanted nothing more than to reach eighteen, have a beau, get married and mother a houseful of kids. Simple, quiet, peaceful.

As she blossoms into a young woman during high school, she finds herself torn between a life-long bond with the boy next door and her growing love for a handsome newcomer escaping the destitution of Dust Bowl Oklahoma. Before she can discover the desire of her heart, WWII tears her world apart, plunging her into years of fear and dread of receiving the telegram beginning, “We regret to inform you.”

A son brings joy, purpose and focus to her life until an insidious influence creeps into the family unawares, creating an unspeakable tragedy, forever shattering Neva’s dreams of quiet happiness, and forcing her to confront whether she will turn the other cheek or deliver cold-hearted retribution.

In a dizzying exposé of the human spirit, Leta McCurry weaves a riveting tale of a young woman’s descent into darkness. Emotionally gripping and magnificently crafted, this rich and heart-wrenching novel will keep you on the edge of your seat as you race to its extraordinary conclusion. — Heidi Thomas, Award-winning author of the “Cowboy Dreams” series.

All the Colors of My Soul is a sweeping twentieth-century historical fiction. If you like captivating character studies, poignant moral quandaries, and vivid snapshots of the past, then you’ll love Leta McCurry’s mesmerizing story. — Sally Bates, Award-winning author of Western fiction and poetry.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+
Heat/Violence Level: Heat Level 4 – R Rated

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Two tragic family incidents. The situations were similar but the responses of the individuals involved were vastly different. All the Colors of My Soul is not the story of either of those incidents, but was inspired by the different reactions of the human spirit to an unspeakable tragedy.

How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
Characters are always influenced to some degree by people we have known, particularly in childhood for me. Additionally there are those people who appear for an instant and then are gone, the slouched old man sitting on a park bench, his face a road map of life, the thin woman with a smelly infant slung on her hip, the child with the haunted eyes. They speak to me on a primal level and I remember them. I don't pattern characters after any one person, but exposure to all these are the bits and pieces of the mosaic that becomes a new identity in my stories. Beyond that, the stories themselves are a big factor in character development – kind of like the character rises to the occasion.

Book Sample
Inside my chest, my heart slowly expanded until it pushed against the constraints of my ribs and into my throat as if it would flow out and fill the room with something sparkling and golden, but warm and soft. I held my breath, wanting to extend the moment, to fill my hands with the manifestation of my love for him, to smear it on my face and arms, and his, where it would forever color our skin with a lasting testimony of my unspeakable love for him.

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When Goodbye Begins: life takes over by Geeta Lal Sahai

April 9, 2021 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

When Goodbye Begins: life takes over by Geeta Lal Sahai

In When Goodbye Begins: life takes over, author-filmmaker – Geeta Lal Sahai actively involved in mental health advocacy rips apart the stereotypical existence. These five stories are about mental health, innumerable lanes and layers of memories, childhood abuse, infidelity, betrayal, hopelessness, and hidden emotions. There is pathos, feelings, inner conflict and stoic acceptance.
In the title story – When Goodbye Begins, a middle-aged woman, caught between her dreams and the present reality of being a caregiver to her husband, walks on a tightrope. Through her eyes, we experience the broken and painful world of people with Alzheimer’s and their families. In Walking on Ice Sheet in Pencil Heels, the story captures the protagonist Sheena’s struggle with her identity and the frightening and fascinating world of bipolar disorder. In Death of a Memory, Rashi facing betrayal and infidelity, fights with her memories to face the world. In another story – If Only I Could Tell, the author recounts the painful and traumatic world of the child sexual abuse survivor who keeps running away from love, people and self. Caught in the web of childhood abuse, the author, through her protagonist, poignantly shows the long-term ramifications of broken trust and bruised body.
In all five stories, Geeta exquisitely crafts the inner turmoil of her characters. The world of characters in these stories is gripping, and there’s a world within a world.

A Poor Man’s Supper by Jim Gulledge

March 16, 2021 By Book Review Matchmaker Leave a Comment

A Poor Man’s Supper by Jim Gulledge

In the North Carolina mountains two people, destined to love each other, are doomed to be apart.

Vancie Keller is trying to survive on her mother’s failing farm when her life is forever altered by the arrival of two men, Josiah Buckland and Jagger Hill.

One, she will love, the other she will marry. She has a secret neither of them know.

Orphaned as a teen, Josiah Buckland came down from the rugged mountains of North Carolina to try to find work and possibly a home. He didn’t expect to find the love of his life.

Jagger Hill has secrets of his own. When he comes to town and starts to rebuild, nobody knows him for who he really is, but people will soon learn. Some things cannot be kept hidden forever…

A powerful, heart-breaking tale of the tremendous consequences of our choices and actions, sprinkled with revelry in the natural world, faith, song and myth.