The Washington Constellation: In the Game

The George Washington Constellation
Edward Correia
self-published, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1469974774
ISBN-10: 1469974770

Available at Amazon

Everyone goes to Washington full of high hopes, determined to change the system, and many of them get "chewed up and spit out" as the old saying goes.  A long-term watcher of the Washington political scene, Edward Correia's resume includes working as a senior lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee, serving in the Clinton Administration as Special Council to the President for Civil Rights, and working as both an attorney and Adjunct Professor at American University's Washington College of Law.  He's seen it all go by.  This book is a departure from his more cerebral non-fiction, "The Uncertain Believer: Reconciling God and Science," (2000) and "Teaching Your Child About God in a Scientific World," (2012), but uses fiction to show us the insiders view of Washington, warts and all.

Mark of the Seer

Today's book is all about demons; no, not personal ones, real demons and the angels who, along with their human helpers, fight them!

Mark of the Seer
By Jenna Kay
Length 282
Publisher Crushing Hearts and                         
              Black Butterfly Publishing



From Amazon:
    All Clarity Miller wanted was a normal teenage life and everything seems to be going in the right direction until she meets Sam. Sam informs Clarity that he is her Guardian Angel and she has been given the gifts of a "Seer" but Clarity wants nothing to do with Magic or the Spirit Realm. However, when tragedy strikes her home town, she realizes she has a very important decision to make...

About the Book:
    Clarity Miller is an ordinary high school senior who wishes school wasn't about to start, who is in love with THE boy, who is having work and coworker issues, and whose best friend, Kora, has just dumped her loser boyfriend. Just as everyone is settling in to the school rhythm, a new boy shows up, smelling like lavender, the bluest eyes ever. Trouble is, this new boy, Sam, has a world changing offer for Clarity she doesn't want. And while Sam protects her from Kora's boyfriend and other trouble coming her way, ultimately Clarity must decide if she will take the step to join with the angels or continue her path of love and marriage without the overt protection Sam has given.  As evil moves into her world, Clarity's decision becomes ever more pressing. The battle between good and evil doesn't begin or end with her but her corner of the world needs her desperately.

My Take:
      The book is interesting and has a slightly new twist on old ideas. I love the Kora character and Clarity is someone with whom many of us will identify. Jenna Kay let's us see the dilemma Clarity faces and how she tries her best to think of all the options. I did find the excessive drinking of alcohol (to the point of getting drunk) a bit off- putting, especially in a book that seems to be destined to teach good versus evil, where sex before marriage is a very bad thing. 
      One thing books tend to do when dealing with school aged heros, particularly heros with new found power, is the books tend to pretend the everyday school world does not exist.  This book shows both the school life and its troubles as well as the supernatural side of our heroine's life. 

Recommendation:
This would be best suited for young adults who have an interest in angels and demons. The high school stuff seems quite realistic to me.

Blood upon the Rose; Birdie Down; and Pig

Today I have an outstanding book by Tim Vicary called The Blood Upon the Rose. The title made me think of a song I have called Grace by the Dubliners (sung here by a young Irish girl -  Irish Song Grace - YouTube  ); an old Irish song about a man who is to be executed but marries his sweetheart just before his dawn execution. (Also  see Grace Irish ballad (Dubliners) cover - YouTube  or  The Dubliners - Grace-HQ - YouTube  for lyrics and music.)  I found it interesting at the end of the book that the title apparently did come from the words in the song.


The Blood Upon the Rose
By Tim Vicary
Publisher White Owl
Length about 350 pages

From Amazon:
Ireland in 1919 is seething with violence, tension and divided loyalties - and so is the heart of the beautiful, wilful heiress Catherine O'Connell-Gort. For Catherine, by heritage, is a glittering symbol of British rule and oppression - yet by inclination she is a traitor to her class. A fervent supporter of Sinn Fein, she is also the secret lover of Sean Brennan, an IRA volunteer who is being hunted by the police for terrorism and murder.
      When the British government decides to meet terror with terror, Catherine finds herself in a position of even greater conflict. Her father, a colonel in British Military Intelligence, recruits Major Andrew Butler, battle-scarred war hero and Irish landlord, to assassinate IRA leader Michael Collins. He also decides that the dashing major would make the perfect husband for his headstrong daughter ...
In a violent climax of passion, guilt and betrayal, while her country hurtles towards civil war, Catherine faces and a agonising choice as she makes her final, fateful decision.

Someone Else's Fairytale might be your fairytale.

          Once in a while we all dream big.  We visualize winning the lottery ticket, kissing that famous singer, marrying that famous actor, writing the next best seller.  Okay, that last one was mine.  The point is, we all dream big once in a while but we don't think it will happen to us. And sometimes we don't dream big but the dream finds us anyway, like the guy who wins big bucks because someone bought him a lotto ticket for his birthday or the sales clerk who just happens to catch the eye of a wealthy customer. What happens, though, when opportunity doesn't just knock but opens the door and tries to walk in?  Do we run and hide; do we refuse to believe it; do we try to shove it off onto someone else? 
       When I was a young teenager, some kids told me one of the cutest boys in school, Mike Patrick, liked me.  I thought they were kidding me, making fun of me, just trying to get a rise. After all, how could he like me? It was much later that I realized they weren't making fun of me, he had liked me but was way too shy to say anything. To this day I wonder if I hurt him. So what would have been different if I hadn't rejected the notion or if he had been less shy? 
       In the rather chaste chick lit book, Someone Else's Fairytale, E. M. Tippetts explores this a bit. What would happen if dreams hunted us down until we finally listened, if the boy isn't too shy to pursue, if we at last stepped out of our denial and realized it could really happen to us? And what if we had a dark secret to complicate things?

From Amazon:
Jason Vanderholt, Hollywood's hottest actor, falls head over heels for everygirl, Chloe Winters, who hasn't gotten around to watching most of his movies. She becomes the woman every other woman in America is dying to be, but it just isn't her fairytale.

Someone Else's Fairytale
By E. M. Tippetts
File Size: 689 KB
Print Length: 311 pages
ISBN: 1467940151
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.