​It is easy to see how Like I Used To Dance by Barbara Frances won awards. It is a novel that should easily find its way into classic literature. It is not just the story of the Wolanskys, who live in a small farming town in the nineteen-fifty’s, but the story of life, and how even generations of family issues can affect each new generation unless something happens to break the cycle.
Ms. Frances paints a picture of each character, their weaknesses, as well as the strength in their character. From Grace, and Bud, their three grown children, to neighbors, and friends, each is drawn with a fine pencil, fully formed, and genuine, some are people you wish you knew, and others you would like to string up. Yet, each is so well crafted as to be able to see them in your life, or town.
Whether she is painting the generous nature of Bud, to the horror of Billy Ray, Ms. Frances brings us a full picture of life as it was, and life as it still is. Many things may have changed in our world, underneath there is still an underbelly of both the beauty and ugliness of human nature.
Like I Used To Dance was not a book that I could easily put down, but sat up till the wee hours of the morning reading.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

​HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO PROTECT YOUR CHILD BEFORE DARKNESS DESCENDS ON YOU AND YOUR WORLD?POSTED BY JUST REVIEWS BY:GABINA49: ⋅ MARCH 18, 2016 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENTDarkness Descends: Jewell in the Dark: Volume I


Marta Moran Bishop


Within this novella the author strikes some hard chords that will reverberate and resonate within our minds causing readers to realize that although this is fiction if we look long and hard it just might be our reality. As you open to the first page of this book and see Rebecca in her cell, the smallest glimmer of light shed on her broken and tortured body you wonder just how she even exists and yet within her own mind she survives. Her appearance is vividly described and the pain she feels as the guards us a whip to her already tattered skin and her body shakes from pain, her mind and spirit go back in time to where she was safe, loved and with Ben. Hoping to keep her sanity and not giving her captors an edge allowing them to think they have broken her spirit Rebecca takes readers back to the past as we meet her father and mother hear about the ceremonies that are sacred, the magic that will change the world and a place where she and her daughter will be safe. But, that world does not exist for her anymore as the author created three worlds for Rebecca: The present one where she is held captive for crimes against the laws invoked by those that rule. Women have no rights, school is just for men and only boys that come from rich families. The poor are enslaved and made to work in meager jobs, filthy conditions and considered nothing more than filth and cattle. If one dies another will replace that worker or person and anyone who dares to complain suffers. The second world is one where Rebecca lives with her parents, is about to marry Ben and although her life might not be perfect she is content. The final world has yet to come as you learn more about the men who changed the world she lived in, took her and placed her in her own private cell or dungeon, used her body for their own needs, tore away her skin but never her spirit. The “Between Times,” the time between night and day and the time when Rebecca could forget her present and remember why she is where she is right now and why Ben had to denounce her actions and his love.


With the confines of where people were allowed to live and daring to go to the lower town to educate children and women, Rebecca finds herself in a place of no return and pain. As you hear the guards and see what they are capable of you wonder why she does not cry out or why no one comes to her aid. Crawling on the floor of the filthy cell she once again returns to the past, hears her mother’s voice and then the author shares information about the John Birch Society, remembering her 15th birthday and coming back to the present.


Lost once again in her own thoughts as she is about to be sentenced to her final fate, as Ben stands in the back watching what is being done and seeing her for the last time, realizing that the world no longer exists the same for everyone as a group of ten men, rich, powerful, hungry for creating a world where the Constitution is just a piece of paper with words that have faded in time and have no meaning, where the rich prevail and the poor submit, where property rights are gone, guns belong to those in charge and five year old child is being trained to become a grown up and living on her own in hiding until it is safe for her to take her place in a world filled with fear, hate, cruelty and deceptions.


A coup to overthrow the government and rid the world of Roosevelt. A world where a special meeting took place in the 1930’s in a room in the Drake hotel and if the walls could talk and we were present what you would learn is bone chilling, frightening and could be ripped out of the headlines today. Ridding the world of the New Deal which these men felt would ruin their businesses and their fortunes forcing their children to do the unthinkable: Work! Morgan, Chafee, Davis and a man named McGuire hired or allowed into this elite group in order to con the veterans into going along with their plan. Rockefeller joins the conversation as Chapter 8 sets the tone for what they planned and what is yet to come. Controlling the media, the people, no freedoms, no voice in what they do or the government, education no longer a right, and a world filled with anarchy, oligarchy and more dangerous than the one created by Hitler in Germany, author Marta Moran Bishop might be taking us back in time and showing us what happens when we are complacent, not looking carefully and paying attention where few rule and the rest suffer at their hand.


While Rebecca shares more of her past and her father’s sad fate, the fate her Ben and her daughter Jewel who must learn to be the woman of the house at age five, you wonder what will really become of her, if she will carry on the magic and the prophecy for people in the future as she questions out loud what has she done? Why has she done this and I know Ben will keep you safe?


How far will a mother go to protect her child? How far will some go to enslave an entire population and justify their thoughts? How far will they go to make Rebecca an example of what happens when you speak out or go against their will? As she calls upon the spirits to hear her prayers, her thoughts and hopes and, “ By the power of the between times, I call upon the spirits of Earth, Air, Fire and Water to bring me the strength to face this coming day.” With cool water she hopes to bathe her burns and cool her body and spirit will she comes to the present as she is asked to renounce her delusions and take her place as a woman who serves men, who is worth nothing and what happens will bring tears to your eyes and anger in your heart. An ending takes her back to the dark days of the United States of America where a young girl will be born and have the power, “ to make people face from sight. Sound will disappear with the wave of her hand.” Will she have the power to control what happens between those times and present, past and future and where the world will once again be ruled not by the corporations, not by the rich but with equality. Will it happen but not before Rebecca faces a fate that lets readers know there is more to come as the author penned the next chapter: The Between Times but not before the night comes, a black veil forms and the Darkness Descends. A powerful novel that deals with real life issues like slavery, rape, cruelty, debasement and anarchy. Read the author’s notes to understand which situations are real, which characters are fictional and which did try and create a world as described and hopefully our world will not have a real Darkness Descend.
Fran Lewis: Just Reviews: FIVE GOLDEN SUNLIGHTS

​I loved Patricia Sawyers novel Lulu and Betty Growing up in Changing Times. It took me on a journey back through time, to the days my mother spoke of, when life was simpler, and children’s games were taken from nature, and the imagination could do wonders with just a little.
Reading of the meeting between Betty and Lulu and following them from childhood to young women when the world changed for everyone, and WWII happened.
It is a wonderfully written story, and one I believe is more of a memoir than fiction.
Kudos to Ms., Sawyers Fiske, I would have loved to have known her and sat with her for hours just listening.

​Echoes From My Heart by Jo Ann Jones is a beautifully written poetry book that takes us on a journey through life’s challenges.
It is also a look into the spiritual journey toward Christ’s teachings and helps us to forget our failings and learn to do better.
I loved this book and shall keep it near me, as I journey through life.
Thank you, Ms. Jones for your beautiful words.

​What a delightful coloring book that holds such an important message for children and yes adults too. Sherrill S Cannon has outdone herself in bringing Peter and THE WHIMPER-WHINERYS to a coloring book that can charm and teach at the same time.
The illustrations are perfect for both the subject and for the young, the message is clear, and my granddaughter loves it.
Thank you, Ms. Cannon, for bringing such an important subject into an interactive book for the young.

​THE COST OF CRUDE – A GWENN RESNICK MYSTERY – BOOK 1 BY INGE-LISE GOSS, did something most books don’t do, it kept me reading till my eyes could not keep open, till my mind begged for sleep, but oh how I wanted to read on.
Right from the first pages, you are caught! As I read on, I became more and more enthralled with the characters and story. Mind you, I am not usually interested in the Oil and Gas industry, but even the descriptions included of pipelines, etc., managed to hold my interest, as they were important in the discovery of who were the bad guys.
I fell completely in love with the beautifully written, and well-defined characters as they entered stage left or just fell into your lap as the saying goes.
It is no wonder that Ms. Goss has been on both the USA Today and Amazon bestselling author list, she deserves every award and accolade if all her books are as great.
I can hardly wait to open book 2, The Cisco Bandits.

​I received this book as a gift from my niece, and cannot thank her enough.
Ms. Francis’ novel Shadow’s Way, had me enthralled from page one, it kept me reading until so late into the night that I used a flashlight in order not to wake my husband.
I’ve always enjoyed reading gothic tales, but this one went beyond most that I had read. The synopsis was correct, past and present mingled and left me on the edge of my seat. Was G – G – Daddy a real paranormal experience or a figment of Elaine Chauvier’s imagination, which got worse as she sunk deeper into insanity?
I loved the various characters that Ms. Francis brought into play as needed to heighten the story. They were well rounded and interconnected in ways that one has to keep reading to get the full picture.

​Whether or not you agree or disagree with all or parts of Saket Suryesh’s book ‘If Truth were to be Told,’ it is difficult not to reexamine one’s life after reading it. All aspects of what you have learned as you grew from a child to an adult will be revisited, for in this little book’s pages are truths that challenge us to think.

Mr. Suryesh’s essays questioning the sheer fabric of our lives are thought provoking. His lyrical style of writing helps us as we traverse through his mind, down the lanes of thought, looking for our own answers within the pages of his book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for answers within. His style of writing is free and fluid and connects different parts of one’s life into a whole allowing us to grow further into ourselves. I believe Mr. Suryesh is a talent to be watched as he continues on his writing journey.

​Maria Savva’s books alway leaves me thinking and pondering about life’s quirks and foibles. Can we outgrow our childhood, if we never learn the lessons we need to grow and flourish?

Her character Nigel in Ms. Savva’s new book ‘Haunted’ has left me full of questions to ponder, some of which I believe will stay with me most of my life. Is Nigel actually haunted or is it only his mind that has gone over the edge from carrying around a dark and horrible secret for too long?

She has a knack for pulling out the inmost and darkest parts of the human psyche and putting them on paper.

​Margaret Koch tells us a tale of murder, romance, and the occult in (book seven of her Dr. Barb Stark Mystery Series) Cauldron.

It is impossible to read this book without laughing and falling in love with each and every quirky character. While pondering the human condition. When life challenges us with the unexplained do we wish it to be kept a mystery or do we want everything explained?

Is there, in fact, truth to the power of a curse, is magic real? Are we haunted on deeper levels by the mystery of life when it is arcane? Margaret Koch, both answers these questions and leaves us wondering about them as she draws us into the life of Dr. Barb Stark, who is by all accounts a bit different herself.

Ms. Koch is a master at characterization and drawing one into her stories. I have been reading them out of order, but it doesn’t seem to matter much as each book stands alone and fills in bits of backstory to her characters without being redundant. There is nothing repetitive nor predictable in Margaret Koch’s books.

I adored this book, it made me laugh at the foibles of us humans as it led me on the path to discover the murderer. It left me wondering how much of our lives are ruined and changed by the presuppositions we carry around in our heads and hearts.

Dr. Barb Stark has a knack for getting herself caught up in the most unusual events. Combining a natural curiosity, with the way Dr. Stark’s brain leaps from the twitch of an eyebrow, to the sighting of a strange looking man and comes up with two + two equals five. Ms. Koch keeps one guessing about what will come next in her story.

Ms. Koch definitely got me hooked on her writing and the stories she weaves.