I just wanted to see if I could sustain the energy and effort to post every single day no matter how I felt. It wasn’t easy though it was a bit fun. Thanks go out to Amazon for inviting me into their Vine program and giving me plenty of book reviews to post. Those will continue. Hopefully three or four a month. I’ve got two new books on their way this week.

Forty-six year old Red likes them young but nine year old Olivia and six year old Daniel are a bit much. When the children’s other grandmother, who has been watching the children while their mother is deployed on active duty in the Army, has a stroke Red is forced to live up to the family emergency plan she agreed to and take in and take care of her grandchildren.

One of the many problems with that? Red owns, runs and lives above her bar. Working nights and sleeping days in her tiny upstairs apartment. Not quite the atmosphere conducive to raising and caring for children.

Dubbed, shortly after meeting her, ‘Abuela Mala’ (Bad Grandma) by six year old Daniel, who won’t speak a word of English, and flustered by demanding, authoritarian Olivia things go downhill from quickly. Enter Red’s current boy-toy and bar-band fiddle player, thirty-one year old Cam, who has a solution that just might work. If Red is willing to trust him and accept his help.

‘Red’s Hot Honky-Tonk Bar’ is a story of growth, understanding, compassion and learning to trust again in spite of what happened in the past. An enjoyable read without much in the way of unexpected plot twists, turns or suspense. The story is well paced. The writing style while occasionally reminding me of those ‘ABC After School Specials’ is overall enjoyable. All in all, a good read.

In a nutshell: Pleasantly Surprised.

When I first started this novel I worried that it would be an angsty, teenage complaint fest. It does start off that way a bit. But then angst and complaints are not an unexpected reaction from a fifteen year old who has been taken out of her school and sent off to live with an ‘aunt’ for the next six months.

Fifteen year old Rebecca’s father, a high powered tech consultant, has to travel to out of the country for an extended business trip. Not wanting to burden the elderly neighbor who normally looks after Rebecca during short business trips he packs her off to stay with ‘Aunt’ Claudia a Tarot card reader (and something of a clairvoyant) and Claudia’s daughter Aurelia in post Katrina New Orleans.

Moving away from her friends would have been bad enough but Aunt Claudia’s damp, strange, shotgun style house is stuffed to the rafters with Voodoo talismans, monkey skulls, Buddha statues and the like. Topping that off she’s also been enrolled in a snooty, upper-crust, school where friends are few and far between.

Upon spying several of the popular kids sneaking into a nearby cemetery late one night she follows to see what they’re up to. After nearly being caught eves dropping on the partying teenagers she runs into Lisette who helps her escape unseen.

After several more chance encounters she learns Lisette is the ghost of a girl about her age who met a horrible end and is told about a terrible curse laid over a hundred years ago on one of her new schoolmate’s families.

The story paces well. I finished it rather quicker than expected. It’s well written. An easy read. It moves enjoyably from beginning to a rather dramatic and exciting ending. This was categorized on Amazon as ‘Juvenile Fiction’ but I feel that it will appeal to adults and teens alike who are looking for a bit of light reading.

Then there was the rumor, soon proven to be true, of a movie, perhaps a theatrical release but most probably a direct to DVD job. We fans waited and waited and complained and waited some more. Then the news came out, the filming was done! Hooray! Then we waited, and waited and… it was years from the first rumors to the eventual direct to DVD release. I’d given up on ever seeing it but occasionally checked it’s IMDB page to see if there’d been any update. One day I see it’s OUT! RELEASED! People have been buying and watching it for weeks without my knowing it. I’m just about to head over to Amazon to order it when I saw the ratings, oh my… then I read some reviews, oh… goodness. It was in the toilet and swirling around the bowl. Since then the rating at Amazon’s gone up to 6/10, I think that’s just due to fans trying to convince the producers to bring back the series.

Ok, granted I’m basing my opinion on the censored and probably heavily edited Sci-Fi TV (I will NOT use that other name) version they broadcast Sunday night. Pretty much, it stunk, like week old dead skunk stunk. Rube/Patinkin is gone, replaced by a self absorbed pretty boy who’s so one dimensional I’m amazed he showed up on film. The character of Daisy is still there but they’ve replaced the outstanding Laura Harris with the near talentless Sarah Wynter. The story moves too fast so rapidly in places they lose any believability. Plot lines develop with little to no explanation. Muth looks terrible throughout most of the movie, tired, worn out, dark circles under her eyes that the makeup people couldn’t hide.