Category Archives: A closer look

Christmas Review No. 4: Ghost Mark by JP McLean

Posted on December 18, 2022 by jfkaufmann

I’ll conclude this miniseries of minireviews with one of my favourite authors of urban fantasy/supernatural fiction, JP McLean. I’ve been following her for years. I reviewed all of her books and it’s never been a difficult task: you only need … Continue reading →

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Review No. 3: Dog Meat by Priscilla Bettis

Posted on December 15, 2022 by jfkaufmann

Priscilla Bettis’s novella is a fascinating journey into the blackness of totalitarian regime—a literary sublimation and a paradigm that we have seen before, from Romania between 1945 and 1989 and Stalin’s gulags to the crazy, murderous dictatorship of Pol Pot … Continue reading →

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Christmas Review No. 2: She Who Returns by Audrey Driscoll

Posted on December 11, 2022 by jfkaufmann

The next in my series of Christmas reviews is the closing book of Audrey Driscoll’s Herbert West series, She Who Returns. I’ve read and reviewed the previous installment, She Who Comes Forth and I want to touch on this one, … Continue reading →

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Christmas Review No. 1: Christmas in Silver Creek by Katie O’Connor

Posted on December 8, 2022 by jfkaufmann

I’ll start off my mini-series of Christmas reviews with Katie O’Connor’s Christmas novel. The fact that Katie and I are friends has nothing with the fact that I like her books. I know the real reason for that: the feeling … Continue reading →

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A Short Journey to Horror Fiction

Posted on February 2, 2022 by jfkaufmann

I rarely plunge into this genre, but I read and reviewed Priscilla Bettis’s debut work, “The Hay Bale”. First, my review: “The best way to describe this short horror story is that I took a deep breath in on page … Continue reading →

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A Magnificent Farewell

Posted on February 7, 2019 by jfkaufmann

A five-star review of J. P. McLean’s Wings of Prey, the concluding book of The Gift Legacy.  I was reading the last book in The Gift Legacy with enjoyment mixed with that specific sadness we sometimes feel when the time … Continue reading →

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A Wedding and a White Christmas by Suzanne Stengl

Posted on November 25, 2018 by jfkaufmann

Among other things that I loved in A Wedding and a White Christmas are some that I normally don’t care for in romance fiction: stories set in Calgary, Christmas romances and impulsive Vegas weddings. In this sweet romance it was just the … Continue reading →

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Secret Sky by JP McLean

Posted on November 21, 2018 by jfkaufmann

Congratulations to my friend and fellow author JP McLean on launching Secret Sky, the first installment in her Gift Legacy. It’s available on Amazon (.com, .ca, .uk…) and other major e-book sellers for a promo price that is less than a … Continue reading →

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The Infamously Famous Story of O

Posted on June 29, 2018 by jfkaufmann

Story of O was so beautifully written that this alone should’ve been enough to give it literary credibility. I recently read the 1954 infamous, mysterious and controversial short novel by French author Pauline Réage. When it was published, the book … Continue reading →

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The Scarlet Mark by Shellley Kassian

Posted on April 22, 2018 by jfkaufmann

I’m posting a review I wrote more than two years ago… I’ve just realized I don’t have it on my website. January 2016 Intertwining her novel’s plot with several distinctive threads – Norse mythology, folk tales and early medieval Christianity … Continue reading →

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