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  Review by Ronica Wahi The Ghost of Villa Winter By Isobel Blackthorn First published: December 20, 2020, Gumshoe – A Next Chapter Imprint. Kindle Edition Pages: 269.  ASIN: B08R3KDZ9R     Canary Islands Mysteries Book 4 this is. The island of Fuerteventura does not offer a pleasure journey, but a frightful mystery as revealed by the title and the cover. No cause for hesitation if the first three books in the series are yet unread, for this is also a standalone piece of work. The positives first. The description of the ride to Villa Winter, the site where the crux of the tale is revealed when a body is discovered by the protagonist Clarissa Wilkinson and the once-successful-and-now-struggling crime fiction writer Richard Parry, is so vivid that the reader is as if taken along on the journey. The landscape, the scenery, the Villa Winter and other spaces are so deftly sketched that the reader can visualize the spaces. Much later in the book, as a trek on a d...

  Review by Ronica Wahi Dreamy Days and Random Naps By Mawson / Mark O’ Dwyer First published: December 1, 2020, Publisher Obscura. Pages: 52.  ISBN: 978-1922311139 Dreamy Days and Random Naps is a book fit to be bought for kids whose parents or other elders narrate stories to them to stoke their imagination and curiosity or to encourage their dreams. Kids who have just started reading also might find in it new words and ideas to test and digest. Older readers, unless they adore cutesy pictures, are not too likely to find this book engaging. But for those for whom Dreamy Days and Random Naps is a fit, it can prove to be a treat. The top winning aspect of the book is the pictures. Mawson, who is the protagonist bear, and his teddy bear friends are cute, and so are the items arranged around these teddy bears. The bears and other items lend aesthetic value, and are, in each picture, positioned to add meaning and relevance to the idea or dialogue written alongside....

  Review by Ronica Wahi Junction: Time’s Ticking By L.A. Evans First published: July 2, 2020, Elizabeth Guttridge. Kindle Edition Pages: 254. ASIN: B08CBGVXMT “Keep following your path but look out for side roads. Don’t let them pass you by.” This is what an old lady co-passenger on a bus tells the protagonist and narrator Aisha Brown in Chapter 9 of Junction: Time’s Ticking by L.A. Evans. This advice is what Aisha keeps recalling, for she knows that even if only to a limited extent, she can exercise her will. To a limited extent for sure, because this novel drills home the fact that there is only so much that an individual can control and decide, and must do what he or she is able to; destiny is what will chart out the major route and destination. This aspect of destiny is explored within the framework of the mysterious, and what the reader is offered is a ride on a thriller, albeit unlike the usual class of thrillers. Aisha had a job she enjoyed and a family sh...

  Review by Ronica Wahi Cancer Daily Life Writer: Carola Schmidt Illustrator: Rafael Antonio First published: July 11, 2020, Independently Published. Kindle Edition Pages: 28.  ASIN: B08GY5R77K The Corona pandemic has taught us all how difficult it is to live with limitations placed on us. To read “Cancer is…To feel like you don’t have to change anything in your habits when a pandemic starts.” tells us how constrained a person suffering from cancer feels. It goes without saying that when that person is a kid, it is tougher. Yes, Cancer Daily Life , written by Carola Schmidt and illustrated by Rafael Antonio, lays bare the challenges that anyone with the disease seeks to surmount on an everyday basis. Yet, the book is not gloomy; it is hopeful and quite literally too, colourful. The words and the illustrations go hand in hand to offer a whole package of life – therefore, there is mention of struggles, bounds, aches, joys, and fantasies. The cover shows a bir...