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Whispers in the Night: Ryan Family Series, Book #1
Whispers in the Night, the first installment in Dorothy Elizabeth Love’s Ryan Family Series, explores the electrifying tension between love and opposition. Patricia Ryan, fiercely dedicated to saving a community center that provides vital support to impoverished children, finds herself at odds with Mac Carter. As the CEO of a powerful business, Mac threatens to demolish everything Patricia has worked tirelessly to protect. Yet, their undeniable attraction sparks a collision of worlds, forcing them to reconcile love with their conflicting goals.
This novel captivated me with its compelling lead character, Patricia. Her resilience and unwavering commitment to her cause made her deeply relatable, even without a shared history. Her journey to accept and reciprocate love added emotional depth, making her eventual happiness profoundly satisfying. Patricia’s admirable determination served as a cornerstone of the story, anchoring the narrative in her personal and moral struggles.
I do feel that the lack of insight into Mac’s perspective left the romance feeling somewhat incomplete. Without access to his backstory or emotional motivations, I struggled to fully understand his connection to Patricia and what drove his feelings for her. I believe a deeper exploration of Mac’s character would have strengthened the romance, providing a more balanced view of their relationship and making it easier to root for their union. This would have added an extra layer of intensity to their bond, enriching the story’s romantic appeal.
Whispers in the Night delivers a powerful story of determination, love, and personal growth. Patricia’s strength and vulnerability make her an unforgettable heroine, but a fuller exploration of Mac’s perspective would have elevated the romance to greater heights. Dorothy Elizabeth Love crafts a heartfelt tale that leaves readers eager for the next chapter in the Ryan Family Series.
Pages: 302 | ISBN : 978-1965437155
Strength From Failure
Broken Pencils follows a turbulent teenager from Oakland who, on his eighteenth birthday, spirals into a night of reckless indulgence, searching for purpose and meaning in life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
BROKEN PENCILS is a semi-biographical story loosely based on actual events and people from my teenage years. When the time came to structure the story, I drew inspiration from J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye as my guide toward creating an engaging narrative about a Black teen’s struggle with mental health. My hope is that the story will resonate with anyone who is dealing with the same issues. In regards to the authenticity of the story, let’s just say the inspiration came from a crazy night at my Senior prom, some of which are still difficult to recall.
I found Jonah to be an extremely well-written and in-depth character. What was your inspiration for his emotional turmoil throughout the story?
The emotional turmoil throughout the story was based on my own struggles with mental health. Ever since I was a kid, I dealt with bouts of depression and manic episodes. Despite my successes with therapy and medication, I have always carried this shame from not being understood and guilt from feeling misunderstood. Through Jonah’s heroic and chaotic journey, I wanted to take the reader along this emotional rollercoaster so that they may gain insight into the challenges and beauty of having Bipolar Disorder.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The book explores several important themes that I found resonated throughout my life including coping with grief, managing mental health, complexities of identity, dealing with existential crisis, succumbing to peer pressure. The most important theme in the book was the idea how feeling broken can inspire us to become better, which became clear in my life when I lost my best friend, Dion, at a young age. With his passing, I also lost my innocence to the world. My eyes began to see the suffering and fragility in so many lives. Yet within these broken lives, I saw strength from failure and beauty of growth, both of which I strived for myself and personified through Jonah’s character.
What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?
BROKEN PENCILS deserves to be read and studied by anyone who has ever felt broken. In spite of the chaos and drama, the story is full of rich meaning and raw emotion meant to inspire readers to examine their own purpose in life. My goal is for the book to reach a national audience and span to international countries as well as college courses and book clubs. My dream is having the book adapted to film or TV series, but I know I’ll be too old to play Jonah. Upon the book’s release, readers will be able to purchase exclusive merchandise based on the book, including original sketch artwork and T-Shirts. There is already a sequel to BROKEN PENCILS in the works, so stay tuned. Visit www.jrrice.com for more updates.
Author Links: Website | Instagram
Jonah Tarver, a troubled Oakland teenager grappling with his parents’ troubled marriage, his own mental disorder, and the weight of his best friend’s death, embarks on a desperate quest to find meaning in life. Will he find the purpose he yearns for, or will he discover that life has no point like broken pencils?
BROKEN PENCILS
Broken Pencils by J.R. Rice delves into the turbulent life of Jonah Tarver, a teenager from Oakland facing the challenges of adolescence, family strife, and personal mental struggles. The story unfolds over a significant day in Jonah’s life, marked by key events: prom night, the eve of his birthday, and the anniversary of his best friend’s death. This convergence of milestones catapults him into a whirlwind of chaos and uncertainty.
The narrative paints a vivid picture of Jonah’s environment, where the constant arguments of his parents form a continuous, unsettling backdrop. Jonah strives to protect his younger brother from their family’s deteriorating dynamics. Compounding his distress is the strained relationship with his father and the perceived betrayal by his friend Trevon and girlfriend Taniesha. Prom night becomes a pivotal point as Jonah plunges into a world of drugs, alcohol, and reckless behavior, leading to unforeseen consequences and revelations, including a discovery about his father. J.R. Rice’s Broken Pencils is more than a story of a teenager’s life; it’s a reflection of how things from the past can unfold in a single day. This book is a poignant exploration of choice and consequence, distinguished by Rice’s skill in creating authentic, complex characters. These characters, each entangled in their own struggles, bring a rich, multifaceted perspective to the narrative. At its core, the novel grapples with the theme of brokenness, portraying it not as a defect to be mended but as an intrinsic part of the human experience. While it subtly addresses the experience of young black individuals, the book does not make race its focal point. Instead, an undercurrent of mental health issues weaves through the narrative, offering a layer for readers to uncover and interpret.
Rice offers an emotionally resonant, thoughtful, and philosophically charged narrative in Broken Pencils. It serves as a compelling reminder of the weight of our choices and their indelible impact on our lives and those around us.
A Black Woman’s Journey
“You live, and you learn” is an idiom we have all heard often, and those lessons can come at a disproportionately high cost when it comes to relationships. Learning to navigate the roads of life and love can be difficult, but author Melissa Owens has resolved to keep moving up despite past mistakes. A heartbreak, however painful, can always be an opportunity to discover a new truth, whether it be about yourself or the world around you, and it should never be viewed as the end of the world regardless of its hurt.
A Black Woman’s Journey: Memoirs Of Love, Pain Loss, Comfort, and Forgiveness is Melissa’s personal travels through relationships as she tries her best to become more than her childhood and inopportune beginnings. She begins by acknowledging the societal influences that lead women of color toward a life of unfilled and unrequited love, then immediately jumps into her own story with no hesitation.
Pulling no punches, Owens unflinchingly talks about her teen pregnancy, her first genuinely satisfying sexual experience. In these situations, she’d thought she’d found “the one” and every bit of good, bad, and ugly in between. It’s a fast-paced memoir that shows the power of perseverance and learning to recognize your own needs. Owens never shies away from her own flaws, fleshing them out as naturally and objectively as if she were talking about anyone else. This story could easily be received as a cautionary tale, but at its heart, it is more optimistic than that, telling others to live a life without regrets. Owens detailed an immense amount of pain and heartbreak, all at a relatively young age, but her message is always to focus on yourself and move on. Personal accountability plays heavily into her story to a refreshing degree.
I enjoyed A Black Woman’s Journey as it was a quick read and didn’t get into much depth with any of the encounters. However, it was an interesting insight into the resilience that is necessary for survival sometimes, whether it’s within the world of dating or just life in general. In addition, Owens writes with a candor that makes it seem as if she were beside you, simply having a conversation, which makes it a much more personal read.
Pages: 72 | ASIN : B0BD5F8L6D
Outcast – Book Trailer
Tirrell Ellis has always felt like an outcast. His loving grandmother takes him in after the death of his parents and his very existence becomes the source of much conflict between him and his half-brother.
Feelings of being unwanted fester inside Tirrell and he eventually explodes in fits of anger. His unbridled temper gets him booted out of the military, and he violently unleashes his frustration on his girlfriend when he discovers a secret that she’s been harboring.
Tirrell believes things are finally turning around in his favor when he meets Alexandra Solomon. Blinded by the trappings of the lifestyle she offers him, he ignores the warnings of his grandmother to stay away from her.
By the time Tirrell finds out that Alex Solomon is not who she appears to be, it’s almost too late, as he puts his life and the lives of his family in danger.
With his world falling to ruin, will Tirrell be able to right the wrongs he’s done and prove that he’s not he pariah his family believes him to be?
“either locked up or dead”
The Prodigal Dream follows two kids on different paths out of a troubled neighborhood and explores how their choices affect their lives. What was the inspiration for the setup to this riveting story?
The “almost made it”, “If I had it all to do over again” and “either locked up or dead” stories that permeate communities throughout the US were a catalyst. As a child the reality of hearing adults lament these narratives was hard to digest.
The Prodigal Dream became a creative way to provide an educational perspective of what can happen over a young adult’s lifetime based off their aspirations, choices, and actions.
Joe and Marlon are intriguing and well developed characters. What were some driving ideals behind their character development?
Like many youth today, both of these want to attain a great lifestyle, yet the were both also missing the presence of their Fathers. Since both characters felt the pain of poverty and this heightened their desire for a better life. Their bond of friendship was solidified by the harsh reality of their environment.
The individual paradigms and accountability-or lack there of- for their actions were two major factors. Also both the levels of high school matriculation and incarceration rates for their specific demographic provided context for character development. The other characters that they encounter on their journeys also influence their life’s trajectory.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The power of a Dream. Setting goals. Working hard. Walking by faith. Spoken Word. True friendship. Growth. Overcoming adversity. Forgiveness. Self-actualization. Letting your mistakes become your lessons. Never giving up-In a lot of ways Life really is what you make it.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
The Prodigal Dream Sequel. It will be available contingent on The Prodigal Dream‘s success.
Author Links: Twitter | Facebook
Arlington Heights Book Trailer
Arlington Heights follows the course of a gifted and beautiful black woman who overcomes the stigmata of a youth of mistakes to become one of the more powerful forces in New York’s fashion and business scene. Arlington Cavanaugh has past her prime as a model and has committed her life to the building of the highly regarded fashion magazine, HEIGHTS. Through the novel she takes a journey that speaks not only to the incredible climb up the ladder of success, but also details all of the consequences of decisions made along the way by a woman so focused on escape from her past that she nearly loses her soul.
LITERARY TITAN 