Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Goddess Game, by Sheila Lee Brown {ends 4/7}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Bethany stared at her phone ringing and vibrating on the table. She eyed it like a haunted artifact in a horror movie. You don’t touch something like that. Curiosity leads to danger. You don’t open yourself to the possibility of bad things happening, right?

She desperately wanted to let it go to voicemail, but was conflicted by her desire to be a good friend to Jenna. She was also worried that if she didn’t answer it, they would both lose work. And, for Bethany, the work Jenna brought in was the type of work that fed her spirit and made the more boring aspects of her life bearable. 

Bethany reached for the phone and hesitated. She didn’t know what this person wanted or if she could even help. Jenna had indicated nothing about the call other than it was scheduled for today.

Bethany’s safe life, of seeing the results of her choices and being able to decide in advance which way she wanted things to go, has ended. She’s now making choices with unanticipated results, just like everyone else.

Official synopsis:

Bethany Hart has a secret superpower - she can see different possible futures and choose the safest path through any social situation. For decades, she's used this gift to avoid conflict and maintain a quiet, controlled life. But when she meets a handsome stranger at the grocery store, her ability malfunctions, showing her tantalizing visions of their perfect future together before disappearing completely.

Now Bethany must navigate an increasingly chaotic life without her supernatural safety net. As embarrassing incidents pile up and long-buried emotions surface, she realizes her gift may have been holding her back from truly living. With help from her best friend Jenna, her surprisingly supportive ex-husband Caleb, and a mysterious spiritual guide named Fiona, Bethany learns that real power comes not from controlling outcomes, but from having the courage to embrace uncertainty.

A heartwarming contemporary fantasy about learning to take risks, face fears, and open your heart to life's possibilities - even when you can't see what's coming next.

Bethany had the potential to just be annoying, but the imaginative story of her redemption arc luckily made her a charming and quirky character by the end of the book. Her power had, indeed, led her to manipulate all of the circumstances and people around her. She was completely oblivious to this originally. Realizing her supernatural power while she was in high school made it just a survival technique for someone with her social anxiety. Not many high schoolers would be ready to sacrifice their comfort for the overall well-being of anyone else.

The important part was Bethany’s realization both of her responsibility in overusing her gift, and seeing what it may be like to be happy instead of just calmly surviving. The telling of her dream sequences was beautiful and insightful.

Overall, the story was original and enjoyable. Hopefully the loose ends will be tied up in another book. This book earned 4 out of 5 stars and was entertaining and inspiring. Those who like contemporary stories with what may be called almost a spiritual angle will appreciate this story from Bethany’s life.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link - currently FREE for Kindle Unlimited!}

Becki Bayley is a wife of almost 20 years, and a mother of two children. She enjoys reading and doing LEGOs. Check out her other reviews and commentary on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Goddess Game!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Monday, April 7th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be contacted the next day via email and have 24 hours to respond, otherwise an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Goddess Game, by Sheila Lee Brown

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Book Review - An Inconvenient Wife: A Modern Tudor Mystery, by Karen E. Olson

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

How had that girl ended up the way she did – and in such a vicious way? Underneath it all lurked the stock sell-off. There was no way this wouldn’t affect the stocks even more. Shareholders were a skittish bunch. The word “bankruptcy” was tossed around a bit, and for a moment she wondered what it would be like to be married to a Hank Tudor without the billions, a Hank Tudor who lost it all because of a body found on his property. She’d grown up in a middle-class family, in a suburban, nondescript town with parents who were teachers. She worked summers and afternoons after school at the local diner, serving up BLTs and coffee and ice cream sundaes, scraping together enough money to go to the movies, concerts with her friends, putting a little aside every paycheck to help defray college costs. She knew how to live like that; she wasn’t afraid of it. Hank had grown up with money, though. He didn’t know what it was like to struggle financially.

She imagined the two of them settled into a small house somewhere. She could go back to work, and Hank could start a new business. They could have home-cooked dinners and Sundays in front of a fire, reading and just being together. No media hovering outside the door, no need for security teams. 

Kate Parker wasn’t just Hank Tudor’s sixth wife. She had already been his assistant while he was married to wife number five. She knows what goes in to promoting the image the staff needs the world to see about Hank Tudor and his companies.

Official synopsis:

Kate Parker knows what she’s getting into when she marries billionaire businessman Hank Tudor—she’s his sixth wife, after all, and was by his side (as his assistant) when his fifth marriage to actress Caitlyn Howard fell apart.

But honeymoon plans go awry when a headless body is discovered near Hank’s summer home, forcing Kate to contend with two more of his exes: Catherine Alvarez—the first—who lives as a shut-in with her computers, carefully following Tudor Enterprises; and Anna Klein—the fourth—who runs a bed-and-breakfast where she and her wife keep a steady eye on things—particularly Hank’s children, Lizzie and Teddy.

In this clever and suspenseful reimagining of Tudor era betrayals, these three women become entwined in a deadly game of cat and mouse—with each other, Hank, and Hank’s brilliant fixer, Tom Cromwell—as Kate seeks to solve the puzzle of who the murdered woman is, who killed her, and whether her death has any connection to the other headless body from eight years ago.

This modernization of a splash of Henry VIII’s story was an amusing read. While there seems to be a marked pattern of Hank Tudor leaving each of his wives for personal assistants, Kate Parker is sure that she understands more of what’s up than the others did. But since she’s now his sixth wife and doesn’t have any authority within his life and business dealings, she’s an outsider as the investigation begins regarding a headless body found on his property.

Kate’s confidence may be the death of her, as she is certain she knows what is happening and who all the players are. She also wants to prove that she’s more loyal than the previous wives, and would definitely never question whether her new husband could be behind any deaths or missing persons cases.

It was fun seeing the wives described as contemporary characters: a business woman, an agoraphobic obsessed with him, a lesbian who would never love him that way anyway, and a starlet, to name a few. The story was a fun premise that could be expanded to cover other wives’ stories. The book earned four out of five stars and would be enjoyed by those who appreciate the original Tudor stories, or know nothing of them and just like a curious mystery.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, writing, and doing Legos. When she’s not at work, you’ll find her caring for her family with love. See what else they’re up to on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

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Book Review: Conditions of a Heart, by Bethany Mangle

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

“I just invited Oliver to come here,” I deadpan. “Help.”

“Whoa, whoa. Slow down.” She slowly tilts her head back as she drains the rest of her drink, her eyes shutting briefly when it’s empty. “Oof. That’s bitter.” She rolls her hand in the air. “You may continue panicking now.”

I bend over, my subconscious rapidly calculating the odds that I throw up on Tori’s Birkenstocks-and-ankle-socks combo. “What was…what thinking? Why…do?”

Tori pats me consolingly on the head and gestures for me to follow her toward the kitchen. “Do you want breakfast? I have spinach quiche and egg wraps.”

“He’s going to be here in, like, an hour.” My attempts to slow my breathing turn into not breathing at all, leaving me somewhere between stunned blowfish and hyperventilating panic attack. I straighten suddenly and latch onto the sleeve of her oversized purple hoodie before she’s out of reach. “What do I do? What do I do?”

Brynn has never told anyone at her new school about her diagnosis. Now that it’s been years, is there any way to tell them that will let them ever trust her again?

Official synopsis:

Brynn Kwan is desperate for her high school persona to be real. That Brynn is head of the yearbook committee, the favorite for prom queen, and definitely not crumbling from a secret disability that’s rapidly wearing her down. If no one knows the truth about her condition, Brynn doesn’t have to worry about the pitying looks or accusations of being a faker that already destroyed her childhood friendships. She’s even willing to let go of her four-year relationship with her first love, Oliver, rather than reveal that a necessary surgery was the reason she ignored his existence for the entire summer.

But after Brynn tries to break up a fight at a pep rally and winds up barred from all her clubs and senior prom, she has nothing left to prop up her illusion of being just like everyone else. During a week-long suspension from school, she realizes that she doesn’t quite recognize the face in the mirror—and it’s not because of her black eye from the fight. With a healthy sister who simply doesn’t understand and a confused ex-boyfriend who won’t just take a hint and go away like a normal human being, Brynn begins to wonder if it’s possible to reinvent her world by being the person she thought no one wanted: herself.

Brynn decided to live her life at her new high school exactly as she wanted to. She became one of the most social students, building up to her senior year. She loves having everyone recognize how capable she is in heading up the yearbook committee, and she enjoys planning big events for the class, like prom. 

When she tries to break up a fight by talking, Brynn ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and in order to keep his own name clean, the rich kid causing the trouble tells the school that Brynn started it. To make an example of her, after her suspension, she is banned from the activities she loves for the rest of her senior year. A lot of soul-searching leads her to potentially change her life even more, if she can’t have it like she wants it.

This heartwarming story eventually has Brynn finding out who her true friends are, and realizing that she doesn’t have to do her life by herself. In spite of how much she values her impression of confidence and her independence, everyone needs help from family and friends sometimes. Brynn’s medical diagnosis means that she’s going to need more help than a lot of people along her journey.

The book was the best and worst of a stereotypical private school with the added intrigue of Brynn and her family trying to navigate her Ehlers-Danlos in secret (at Brynn’s request) through it all. In addition to being an entertaining book about the drama of a high-schooler’s senior year, it also was educational about her diagnosis and personal limitations. The book earned 4 out of 5 stars and would be a good read for those who like contemporary YA romance and family dramas.

{click here to purchase via my Amazon Affiliates link}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, really good chicken salad sandwiches, and building Lego sets. Check out her other activities and book reviews on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

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