AMAZON; GOODREADS

I spent this afternoon reading the new horror anthology Canadian Dreadful, which is published by Dark Dragon Publishing and edited by David Tocher.

As you can probably guess by the title, all of the stories (14 total) are set in or near Canada. There are a wide range of horror tales in this collection featuring sacrifices, cannibalism, ghosts, and mystical forests.

The story titles and authors are:

• Aranzazu Banks by Robin Rowland
• Centre Ice by Cailtin Marceau
• His Cold Coffin by Tyner Gillies
• Memories Of Miss Mindy Tulane by Jen Frankel
• Nowhere Time by Pat Fleweeling
• Rebecca Raven by David Tocher
• Relentless by Repo Kempt
• Sins of the Father by Colleen Anderson
• Snow Angel by Nancy Kilpatrick
• The Delivery Boy by Judith Baron
• The Mansion by Karen Dales
• Two Trees by Vanessa C. Hawkins
• Stag And Storm by Sara C. Walker
• The Sound Of Passing Traffic by Joe Powers

Barnes & Noble; Amazon

Hop into a time machine and travel back to the early 1990s, a time when I was in elementary school and was reading a R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book monthly. Yeah, believe it or not, between 1992 and 1997, R.L. Sine cranked out 62 Goosebumps installments and sold around 4 million copies monthly. After the 1998-2000 spinoff Goosebumps 2000 series ended, fans would have to wait until 2009 until the next series, Goosebumps Horrorland, was published. Every since then, R.L. Stine has been releasing a few new Goosebumps titles, with latest being Goosebumps Slappyworld: Revenge of the Invisible Boy ($3.99; Scholastic; 151 pages).

Like the previous 8 entries in the SlappyWorld spinoff series, this book is hosted by everyone's favorite Goosebumps villain - Slappy, the ventriloquist dummy. Sometimes, Slappy includes himself into the story but not this time. Instead, the story focuses on Frankie Miller, a twelve-year-old at Han Solo Middle School in Barberton, Ohio. Along with his friends Melody Richmond and Edurado Martinez, he's part of a Magic Club with his nemesis, Ari Goodwyn, who likes to play tricks on everyone.

The Magic Club gang are more than excited when they learn the legendary magician, Mystical Marvin, is going to preforming at the Town Center, and thanks to Frankie's dad being on the city council, they have tickets to the big event!

Shortly after the event, the gang goes backstage to meet Mystical Marvin, who shows them a secret formula he uses to disappear. To get back at Ari for all of his tricks, Frankie puts a few drops of the formula into his lemonade. However, Ari is smarter than he looks and switches Frankie's drink his own. Let just say the formula and lemonade don't mix well together and Frankie turns into the invisible boy!

Final Thoughts

Early this morning, I had the privilege of reading the new thriller A Cross to Kill. And, no, it's not an "Alex Cross" novel by James Patterson! (FYI: I've read many Patterson books!) Written by Andrew Huff, A Cross to Kill is the first book in A Shepherd Suspense Novel trilogy from Kregel Publications.

The novel centers on John Cross, a small-town pastor who used to be a CIA assassin. He has mostly put his past behind him until terrorists attempt to murder news reporter Christine Lewis "live" on the air for millions of people to witness around the world. It forces John into the crossfire to rescue Christine and stop the bad guys.

AMAZON

Typically in the autumn months, I tend to read only horror or Halloween themed novels but here I am writing a review for the Amish romance "Summer's Promise" by Barbara Cameron, which was just released last month from Gilead Publishing. I've read a few other books by the author so I naturally wanted to read this one as well.

The novel centers around Summer Carson (Yep! That's a name!), a young woman who's trying to get her degree in agricultural science so she can follow in her late father's footsteps to help work with the local farmers. When Summer's not taking care of her mother, she's working part-time at the county agricultural office, a place where she occasionally has to socialize with Amish farmers. Her knowledge of Pennsylvania Deitsch is very limited.

This is a romance novel, so of course there is a suitor for Summer - Abram Yoder, a young Amish man who catches Summer's eye fairly quickly upon meeting. Despite being worlds apart, her being Englisch and him being Amish, sparks fly between the two but Summer's love for her Englisch lifestyle could be a bit of problem for them.

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

I wasn't even aware there was such as thing as "Amish romances" or an "Amish genre" until I read The Covenant by Beverly Lewis (a.k.a. the first book in the Abram's Daughters series) in either 2002 or 2003. Since then, I've read many Amish stories by many authors but my favorite happens to be Beverly Lewis. That being said, I've fallen a bit behind with the author's recent releases. However, I was able to do a bit of  reading catch up in September, which is when I finally got around to reading the author's 2018 novel The Road Home (320 pages; Bethany House).

Set in 1977, the novel centers around Lena Rose Schwartz, a young Amish woman from Michigan who's forced to move to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to live with a new family after the death of her parents. Lena wanted to take care of her nine siblings but the bishop disagreed and sent all of them to different families. Adjusting to a new settlement has been a huge challenge, especially since she has been separated from her siblings and left behind her beau, Hans Bontrager.

Final Thoughts