Blog Archives
The Step and the Walk (Book Two in The Darkening Gate)
Kristina Elyse Butke’s The Step and the Walk is a dark fantasy novel that blends gothic horror, historical atmosphere, forbidden magic, and a deeply personal exploration of grief. The second book in The Dark and the Lovely trilogy, it takes an interesting approach to storytelling by presenting itself as the private journal of Andresh Zatavier, a young man whose fascination with the supernatural leads him toward increasingly dangerous discoveries. Set in a richly imagined world reminiscent of the early nineteenth century, the story begins with Andresh attending the prestigious University of Evandra, where his studies in literature introduce him to ancient alchemical texts and grimoires. What starts as an intellectual curiosity gradually becomes something much more consuming. Andresh believes there may be a way to conquer death itself, an ambition rooted in the painful losses he’s experienced. Butke gives this supernatural premise a surprisingly human foundation, making Andresh’s longing for connection and his fear of losing loved ones just as important as the magic surrounding him.
Andresh is a compelling character. His journal entries create a sense of intimacy that’s especially effective as his circumstances grow more unsettling. He’s intelligent, sensitive, occasionally awkward, and often painfully unaware of how his emotions influence his decisions. His relationships with fellow students Sebastien and Madeleine Arvensy bring romance, friendship, and complicated social dynamics into the story, while his connection to Lily Bellamy provides an emotional thread that runs throughout his experiences. Butke handles Andresh’s loneliness and desire for acceptance with considerable care, allowing readers to understand why certain people and possibilities hold such power over him. The diary format also gives the narrative an appealingly personal quality. Andresh might describe an ordinary university outing, complain about his roommate, or reflect on an embarrassing romantic encounter before turning his attention to demonic rituals and the mysteries of immortality. These shifts make his world feel lived-in, and they give the darker moments greater emotional weight.
Readers familiar with Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House will find some intriguing similarities in The Step and the Walk, particularly in its combination of academic life, supernatural mysteries, and dangerous magical practices. Both novels explore hidden worlds of occult knowledge, where curiosity can open doors to forces that are difficult to understand or control. Like Bardugo, Butke creates an atmosphere in which ancient rituals, secret histories, and supernatural entities exist alongside the everyday experiences of university students. Both authors also give their characters complicated emotional histories that influence how they navigate these strange environments. Butke distinguishes her story through its nineteenth-century-inspired setting, intimate journal format, and elaborate magical system involving Fire, demons, sacred names, and the Four Gates of Alchemy. Her incorporation of alchemical symbolism, religious traditions, and historical poetry adds depth to the worldbuilding, although the detailed explanations occasionally slow the narrative’s momentum. The result is a compelling blend of dark academia and gothic fantasy that should appeal to readers who enjoy Bardugo’s atmospheric storytelling and morally complicated characters.
What makes The Step and the Walk memorable is the way Butke connects its supernatural horrors to recognizable human emotions. Beneath the elaborate rituals, unsettling encounters, and philosophical questions about death is a story about someone trying desperately to find meaning in suffering. Andresh’s internal conflicts give the novel much of its tension, especially as his compassion, ambition, guilt, and longing begin pulling him in different directions. Butke’s conversational first-person writing makes these struggles accessible, while her vivid descriptions of demons and magical phenomena provide plenty of disturbing imagery for readers who enjoy gothic fantasy. The book also has a strong romantic element, with affection, vulnerability, and questions of trust shaping much of Andresh’s emotional journey. Its combination of introspective storytelling, dark academia, queer romance, and occult mystery should appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven fantasy with a psychological edge. The Step and the Walk is an absorbing, sometimes unsettling portrait of a young man whose desire to protect the people he loves draws him into a world where every discovery carries a personal cost.
Pages: 231 | ASIN : B0H5TTJ4ZZ
The Dancing Wolfeman, Volume I
Ricardo Coto’s The Dancing Wolfeman, the first volume in a supernatural fiction series, combines werewolf mythology, suspense, romance, and music in a story about personal transformation and the struggle to preserve one’s identity. Set against the atmospheric landscapes of Northern California, the novel follows Titus Wolfe, a high school music teacher and part-time DJ whose ordinary existence changes dramatically after a terrifying encounter on a fog-covered road. Titus is a man who finds fulfillment in music but struggles with an underlying sense of loneliness and emotional disconnection. As the novel’s opening declares, “Titus Wolfe was a man who lived between worlds.” This observation establishes a central concern of the narrative long before the supernatural elements fully emerge. When Titus begins experiencing disturbing physical changes, heightened senses, and unfamiliar instincts, he must confront a reality that challenges everything he understands about himself. Coto develops this premise through a combination of psychological uncertainty, physical horror, and moments of unexpected humor, creating an imaginative interpretation of the traditional werewolf story.
Titus’s lifelong relationship with rhythm and melody gives the narrative an emotional foundation that extends beyond its supernatural premise. As the author writes, “Music had always been his way forward.” This simple statement captures the importance of music throughout the story, particularly as Titus searches for stability amid increasingly unpredictable circumstances. Coto uses this connection to explore the relationship between instinct, self-expression, and emotional control. The protagonist’s profession also provides an interesting contrast between his familiar daytime responsibilities and the extraordinary experiences that begin overtaking his nights. The descriptions of Titus’s changing sensory perceptions are especially vivid, emphasizing the overwhelming intensity of sounds, smells, and physical sensations. Although some passages revisit similar emotions and experiences at considerable length, this sustained attention reinforces the disorientation and anxiety accompanying his transformation. The result is a supernatural narrative with a strong emphasis on the protagonist’s internal experience.
The supporting characters contribute additional dimensions to the story, particularly Nicole Santoro and Everett Kane, whose involvement introduces romance, mystery, and escalating tension. Nicole brings warmth, curiosity, and emotional connection into Titus’s increasingly complicated life. Their developing relationship gives the novel a romantic thread that complements its darker supernatural material. Everett, a disciplined military veteran with exceptional tracking skills, introduces another perspective through his determination to investigate unusual events in the surrounding wilderness. His presence adds an element of pursuit and suspense while expanding the narrative beyond Titus’s immediate experiences. Coto also makes effective use of the Northern California setting, incorporating wooded trails, isolated roads, coastal scenery, and recognizable locations around San Rafael, Sonoma County, and Bodega Bay. These environments provide a convincing geographical backdrop for the story’s mixture of everyday life and extraordinary encounters. The writing frequently shifts between ominous descriptions, conversational dialogue, action, and romantic exchanges, giving the novel a varied emotional rhythm.
The Dancing Wolfeman is a story about identity, connection, and the challenge of managing powerful instincts while remaining committed to the people and passions that give life meaning. Coto approaches familiar supernatural mythology with a distinctive musical sensibility, allowing the protagonist’s love of teaching, performing, and dancing to shape the character’s experience. The novel’s combination of horror, humor, romance, and adventure creates an accessible reading experience with several complementary narrative threads. Its emphasis on relationships also gives emotional significance to the larger mystery surrounding Titus’s circumstances. As the opening installment of a developing series, the book establishes a world with considerable potential for further exploration, especially concerning its supernatural mythology and evolving character relationships. Readers who enjoy character-centered werewolf fiction, atmospheric settings, romantic intrigue, and stories that bring unconventional elements to established genre traditions will find The Dancing Wolfeman an engaging introduction to Ricardo Coto’s imaginative supernatural world.
Pages: 149 | ASIN: B0G8LTLT6Z
Malanoche’s Curse
Malanoche’s Curse by Tom Blanton is an engaging blend of mystery, supernatural adventure, and historical intrigue set in the fictional town of Coronado Springs, Texas. The third installment in the Arthur and Marya mystery series brings back two resourceful teenage friends whose talent for uncovering secrets keeps landing them in extraordinary situations. This time, their hometown is suffering through a devastating drought, and a series of increasingly disturbing events suggests something far more sinister than a stretch of bad weather. Mysterious owl-headed figures, unexplained electrical failures, and an old legend involving a powerful curse gradually draw Arthur and Marya into a mystery with roots stretching back generations. Blanton does a wonderful job establishing the small-town Texas atmosphere, from a lively Fourth of July rodeo to the dusty countryside surrounding Skeleton Rock. The contrast between these familiar surroundings and the strange forces threatening the community gives the story an appealing sense of unease. There’s something especially intriguing about watching an ordinary summer turn into an adventure where local history, ancient traditions, and supernatural forces become deeply intertwined.
I liked the relationship between Arthur and Marya. Their friendship feels comfortable and genuine, built on shared experiences, mutual trust, and plenty of playful teasing. Arthur is thoughtful, observant, and inclined to analyze situations, while Marya brings confidence, curiosity, and an adventurous spirit to their investigations. Their different personalities complement each other, and their conversations provide welcome moments of humor when the story grows tense. Blanton also surrounds them with an entertaining supporting cast, including the mysterious Dr. Chomsky, the outspoken talking crow Alexander, and the influential Don Pedro Guzmán. Each brings something distinctive to the adventure, whether it’s wisdom, comic relief, or a connection to the town’s complicated past. The story also benefits from its attention to family relationships and community ties. Arthur and Marya may find themselves confronting extraordinary dangers, but their concern for the people around them keeps their journey grounded in recognizable emotions and motivations.
Readers familiar with Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief will recognize a similar appeal in Malanoche’s Curse. Both stories place young protagonists in situations where ancient powers influence the modern world, and both use humor, friendship, and dangerous challenges to make their adventures entertaining. Like Riordan, Blanton understands that young heroes become more compelling when they rely on clever thinking and cooperation as much as courage. The two authors approach their supernatural material from different cultural and storytelling traditions, however. Where Riordan draws heavily from Greek mythology, Blanton builds his mystery around Southwestern history, archaeological discoveries, Indigenous-inspired legends, and the enduring consequences of events from the distant past. Blanton’s storytelling also has the feel of a traditional mystery, with clues, suspicious encounters, and conversations that invite readers to piece things together alongside the protagonists. The combination gives the novel a personality of its own, blending the investigative appeal of a detective story with the imaginative possibilities of fantasy adventure.
I think what makes Malanoche’s Curse particularly enjoyable is the way its mystery expands from troubling incidents in a small community into a much larger adventure involving unfamiliar places, unusual creatures, and challenging decisions. Blanton has a knack for introducing curious details that encourage readers to keep turning pages, and his imaginative settings provide some of the book’s most memorable moments. The pacing occasionally slows during extended conversations explaining the history and supernatural forces behind the mystery, but those passages help establish the background that gives the adventure its significance. There’s also an appealing emphasis on trusting one’s instincts, questioning appearances, and finding courage in uncertain circumstances. Although this is the third book in a series, Blanton provides enough context for newcomers to follow the story while giving returning readers the pleasure of reconnecting with familiar characters. With its likable young detectives, colorful personalities, intriguing historical elements, and imaginative supernatural encounters, Malanoche’s Curse offers an entertaining reading experience for younger audiences and adults who enjoy mysteries with a generous helping of fantasy.
So You Want to Be an Interior Designer
Linda Soules’ So You Want to Be an Interior Designer is a delightful children’s book that introduces young readers to a creative career they might not have considered before. I really enjoyed how the book takes something as familiar as a bedroom, classroom, or favorite restaurant and encourages kids to see it through fresh eyes. It explains how interior designers shape the spaces where people live, work, learn, and relax, while showing just how much thought goes into making those places comfortable, attractive, and functional. Soules has a friendly, engaging writing style that makes the information approachable, and her enthusiasm for the profession comes through on every page. I especially appreciated the way she connects design decisions to everyday experiences that children can easily recognize.
One of my favorite things about this picture book is how much interesting information it packs into its pages. Readers learn about floor plans, lighting, color choices, furniture, building codes, and the many tools designers use. The book also explores some unexpected specialties, including designing airplane cabins, hospitals, and even spaces for people with disabilities. There are fascinating historical details, surprising facts about how rooms influence our behavior, and introductions to influential designers whose work has helped shape the profession. I enjoyed the balance between practical explanations and fun discoveries. Soules also discusses the challenges of the job, giving children a thoughtful understanding of the patience, problem-solving, and teamwork involved in bringing a design to life.
The illustrations are another wonderful part of the reading experience. They’re colorful, detailed, and full of personality, with a warm, inviting quality that makes each setting enjoyable to explore. From cozy living rooms and busy design studios to construction sites and imaginative interiors, the artwork gives children plenty to look at while reinforcing what they’re learning. I particularly liked the illustrations showing designers interacting with clients, examining materials, and solving everyday problems. There’s also a charming sense of playfulness in some of the scenes, especially those featuring secret rooms, curious animals, and unusual design challenges. The pictures make the profession feel tangible and help readers visualize how a designer’s ideas become real spaces.
What stayed with me most about So You Want to Be an Interior Designer is its emphasis on designing for people. Soules makes it clear that good design involves listening, observing, and understanding what others need. I loved that message, especially for younger readers who are beginning to explore their interests and imagine future careers. The hands-on suggestions and creative activities are a nice touch, inviting kids to experiment with room layouts, notice their surroundings, and try solving design problems themselves. This is the kind of children’s book that could inspire a child to start sketching a dream bedroom or looking at familiar spaces with new curiosity. It’s an enjoyable, informative read that celebrates creativity, empathy, and the satisfaction of making everyday environments work better for everyone.
Pages: 44 | ASIN: B0HNPL7QJR
What Lies Next Door
In What Lies Next Door, Shelly M. Patel delivers a psychological thriller that explores the unsettling realities concealed beneath the polished surfaces of suburban life. Sophia and Josh Miller are thrilled to move into their dream home, a beautiful property that represents stability, success, and the promise of a happy future. For Sophia, whose difficult childhood left her longing for security and belonging, the house carries particular emotional significance. Their excitement, however, soon gives way to unease when Sophia begins noticing suspicious activity around the property. Meanwhile, their seemingly friendly neighbor, Hana, takes an unusual interest in the couple’s lives. As strange encounters and troubling discoveries accumulate, the boundaries between neighborly curiosity and dangerous obsession become increasingly difficult to distinguish. Patel establishes an atmosphere in which ordinary domestic interactions take on disturbing implications, transforming a familiar residential neighborhood into a setting filled with suspicion, concealed motives, and psychological tension.
One of the novel’s most interesting features is its use of multiple first-person narrators, allowing readers to experience events through characters whose perceptions, motivations, and secrets differ considerably. Sophia’s emotional vulnerability and desire for a secure marriage contrast with Josh’s increasingly complicated personal and professional circumstances. Hana emerges as an especially intriguing presence, combining outward warmth with an unsettling capacity for observation and manipulation. Her declaration, “After all, I am the queen of secrets,” captures the novel’s central preoccupation with deception and carefully maintained appearances. Patel uses these shifting perspectives to create dramatic irony, giving readers access to information that other characters lack while preserving uncertainty about the larger picture. The approach also encourages readers to reconsider their judgments as additional details emerge. Even relatively minor characters contribute to an expanding network of relationships, grievances, and questionable decisions that gives the central mystery greater complexity.
Patel’s storytelling draws much of its suspense from recognizable experiences, including marital disagreements, uncomfortable encounters with neighbors, workplace difficulties, and the lingering influence of past relationships. These everyday situations gradually acquire more threatening dimensions as the narrative progresses. The house itself becomes an important element of the story, representing both the comfort its owners seek and the vulnerability that comes with believing a private space is secure. Patel’s attention to domestic details, from gardening and preparing meals to home improvements and casual neighborhood gatherings, helps establish this contrast. The relatively short period covered by the novel gives its escalating conflicts a sense of urgency, while the alternating chapters maintain momentum through changing perspectives and new revelations. At times, the characters’ internal reflections repeat emotions or suspicions that their actions have already communicated, and some developments rely on dramatic coincidences. Nevertheless, the steady accumulation of complications sustains the novel’s atmosphere of uncertainty and keeps its interconnected storylines moving.
Beyond its central mystery, What Lies Next Door examines the complicated relationship between trust, intimacy, and the desire to control one’s circumstances. The characters’ efforts to protect their relationships, reputations, and personal interests frequently expose the moral compromises underlying their choices. Patel is particularly interested in the discrepancy between how people present themselves and what they conceal, suggesting that familiarity can create an exaggerated sense of confidence in those closest to us. The observation “Every house hides something” neatly expresses the novel’s governing idea, extending its significance beyond any individual character. Readers who enjoy domestic suspense, unreliable narrators, shifting loyalties, and intricately connected secrets will find much to appreciate in Patel’s approach. With its accessible prose, layered character relationships, and persistent sense of danger, What Lies Next Door offers an absorbing exploration of the troubling possibilities hidden within apparently ordinary lives.
Pages: 359 | ASIN : B0GX9GQ4BY
This isn’t just my clients. This is me too.
Unleash Your ADHD Warrior offers a combination of personal reflection, practical exercises, and encouragement for adults who want to develop a more supportive approach to everyday life. How did receiving your own ADHD diagnosis at 62 change your understanding of yourself and the clients you had worked with throughout your career?
What makes my diagnosis especially interesting is that it actually became apparent while I was writing the book. The more I researched ADHD and reflected on the people I had worked with over the years, the more I began recognizing myself in what I was writing. Eventually there came a point when I thought, “Wait a minute this isn’t just my clients. This is me too.”
One of the strangest parts of a late diagnosis is realizing how well you can mask, even from yourself. I had spent years developing workarounds, compensating, pushing through, and assuming that was simply what everyone did.
You can even be an introvert who has learned to look very extroverted. You can walk into a room, engage with everyone, do what needs to be done, and appear completely comfortable and then get away from the crowd and collapse. I can laugh about it now, but for years I never really understood why certain things took so much out of me.
Receiving the diagnosis at 62 made so many pieces of my life click into place. I had spent more than 35 years helping other people understand themselves, yet there were parts of my own life I had always explained as, “I just need to try harder,” or “Why can’t I get this together when I can handle so many other things?”
The diagnosis didn’t change who I was. It changed the story I had been telling myself about who I was.
It also helped me recognize that some of the same traits that created challenges in one setting could be tremendous strengths in another. During my military service, for example, I was very good in a crisis. When things became intense, my brain could become incredibly focused. Looking back, I could see that ADHD had not simply made certain things harder, it had also contributed to qualities that served me very well in demanding situations.
That realization changed how I looked back at my work with clients too. I could see how many adults had come into my office carrying shame about things that were often related to how their brains were wired. They weren’t lazy, careless, unmotivated, or failing at adulthood. Many had spent years working twice as hard just to appear as though they were keeping up.
That became a major reason for finishing the book. I wanted people to move away from asking, “What is wrong with me?” and begin asking, “What does my brain need in order to thrive?”
That is a very different question, and sometimes it changes everything.
What are some of the most common misunderstandings about ADHD that you have encountered during your counseling career, and how can adults begin to reconsider long-held beliefs about themselves after receiving an ADHD diagnosis?
One of the biggest misunderstandings is that ADHD is simply a problem with attention. People will say, “You can focus on something you enjoy for hours, so how can you have ADHD?” But ADHD involves much more than attention. It affects regulation, attention, emotion, motivation, energy, time, and even the ability to shift from one thing to another.
Another misconception is that successful people cannot have ADHD. I have seen incredibly bright, capable adults who built careers, raised families, earned degrees, and accomplished remarkable things while privately believing they were somehow failing because everyday tasks felt harder than they “should.”
That word should causes a lot of pain.
After diagnosis, I encourage people to become curious rather than judgmental. Instead of saying, “Why do I always do this?” try asking, “What is happening here? What support would make this easier?”
A diagnosis should not become another label used against yourself. Ideally, it becomes information, a new lens through which you can understand your patterns, recognize your strengths, build better supports, and begin releasing some of the shame you may have carried for years.
For many adults who are diagnosed later in life, there can also be grief. You look back and wonder how life might have been different if you had known earlier. I think we have to make room for that grief while also recognizing that understanding yourself now still matters.
You can’t rewrite the first chapters, but you absolutely get a say in what comes next.
What inspired you to develop the ADHD Wellness Shield™, and how did you determine which areas of well-being to include?
The ADHD Wellness Shield™ grew out of something I saw repeatedly in both my clinical work and my own life: no single strategy is enough.
Someone might have the perfect planner but be exhausted because they are not sleeping. They may understand ADHD intellectually but have no support system. They may exercise and eat well but still become emotionally overwhelmed. Someone else may have tremendous strengths but spend so much energy compensating and masking that there is very little left at the end of the day.
The Shield became a way of asking, “What does this particular brain need in order to function at its best?”
Its seven reinforcements are nutrition, sleep, movement, mindfulness and emotional regulation, tools and strategies, connection and support, and purpose and strengths. They work together rather than becoming another impossible checklist of things someone with ADHD is supposed to do perfectly.
At the center of the Shield is something especially important to me: a stable nervous system and Compassionate Detachment.
I have always been very sensitive to what other people are feeling. That can be a tremendous gift when you are helping people, but it can also become exhausting when another person’s feelings begin to become mixed up with your own.
As I came to better understand both myself and ADHD as well as living with MS made respecting my own energy increasingly necessary. I had to learn that compassion does not require absorption.
I could see someone. I could understand them. I could care deeply about what they were experiencing without having to take that experience into myself.
The way I describe it is:
“I can see you, but I don’t need to feel you in order to be present and helpful.”
That became the heart of Compassionate Detachment.
It is not about becoming cold, withdrawing, or building a wall between yourself and other people. It is about developing enough healthy separation to ask, “What is mine to hold, and what isn’t?”
It also means learning discernment—recognizing who is emotionally safe, where stronger boundaries may be needed, and when someone else’s fear, anger, pain, expectations, or chaos is beginning to become entangled with your own.
That is part of why the image of a shield became so meaningful to me. A shield does not mean hiding from life. It allows you to stay present in life without being overwhelmed by everything coming toward you.
I also knew I did not want the Shield to become another book telling people with ADHD what they should be doing.
Knowing what helps is very different from being able to access it when you are overwhelmed.
That is where my background in clinical hypnotherapy became such an important part of the book. The self-hypnosis scripts give readers a way to practice regulation instead of only reading about it. They are designed to help create a pause, settle the nervous system, interrupt an overwhelm cascade, rehearse new responses, and reinforce healthier patterns.
The 4 Rs: Recognition, Release, Replace, Repeat give readers a simple structure for working with thoughts, emotions, and habits. The hypnosis and visualization exercises then help them practice those skills in a more experiential way.
One of the scripts, the Shield Visualization, brings many of these ideas together. It gives readers a way to practice Compassionate Detachment before emotionally charged situations rather than waiting until they are already overwhelmed.
That is also why the phrase on the cover, “Breath. Release. Rise.”, means so much to me.
Breath is the pause—the moment of regulation before reaction.
Release is letting go of shame, overwhelm, old stories, and what is not yours to carry.
Rise is moving forward with your strengths, your supports, and a better understanding of the brain you actually have.
In many ways, that is the Shield in three words.
What changes would you most like to see in how society, workplaces, and families understand and respond to adults with ADHD?
I would love to see us replace judgment with curiosity.
When someone struggles with organization, time, follow-through, emotional regulation, or overwhelm, the first response is often some version of, “Why don’t you just…?”
Just use a planner.
Just get organized.
Just try harder.
Just calm down.
Most adults with ADHD have already spent years trying harder.
I would like workplaces to recognize that supporting different ways of thinking does not mean lowering standards. Sometimes relatively small changes clear written expectations, fewer unnecessary interruptions, flexible ways of organizing work, or allowing someone to use the tools that help them focus can make an enormous difference.
Within families and relationships, I would like people to understand that ADHD behaviors are not automatically character statements. Forgetting something does not necessarily mean you do not care. Becoming overwhelmed does not mean you are dramatic. Needing external reminders does not mean you are irresponsible.
At the same time, understanding ADHD is not about removing personal responsibility. It is about finding strategies that actually work so people can take responsibility more successfully.
I would also like people with ADHD themselves to learn that compassion and boundaries can coexist. You can care deeply without carrying everything. You can understand someone without losing yourself inside what they are feeling. You can ask, “Is this mine to hold?” before automatically picking it up.
Most of all, I hope we stop defining people entirely by their difficulties.
ADHD can absolutely create challenges, but the same person may also bring creativity, humor, intuition, persistence, curiosity, empathy, passion, quick thinking, and an ability to make connections other people miss.
My goal is not to pretend ADHD is easy or turn every difficulty into a “superpower.” It is to help people understand their whole brain—its challenges and its strengths—and stop fighting themselves long enough to learn how to work with it.
If I could reduce the message of the book to four ideas, it would be:
Understand your brain.
Regulate before you react.
Know what is yours to carry.
Build the supports that allow your strengths to emerge.
And sometimes it really does begin with three simple words:
Breath. Release. Rise.
Author Links: Goodreads | Facebook | Website
What if the diagnosis was never a deficit—but a description of a brain built for a different world?
In Unleash Your ADHD Warrior, licensed clinical hypnotherapist and counselor Deborah McKenna draws on thirty-five years of practice—and her own ADHD diagnosis at 62—to offer something no other ADHD book does: a complete, clinically grounded toolkit built around who you actually are.
The ADHD brain is not defective. It is ancient. The hypervigilance, the crisis-driven focus, the restless scanning of the room—these were survival advantages in a world that needed a night guard. They still are, once you understand how to work with them instead of against them.
Inside you’ll find:
• The ADHD Wellness Shield™—a seven-part framework for building a life your brain can actually sustain
• Six original clinical self-hypnosis scripts you can use at home
• Compassionate Detachment™—how to care deeply without absorbing everyone else’s pain
• The 4 Rs: Recognize, Release, Replace, Repeat
• External brain systems for an unreliable working memory
• Nervous system regulation, sleep science, nutrition, movement, and supplement protocols grounded in current research
This is not a book about managing symptoms. It’s a book about understanding your operating system—why crisis activates you and stress shuts you down, why your emotional maturity can be years behind and always caught up, why hormones change everything for women with ADHD, and why the shame you have carried was never yours to begin with.
For the adults finally diagnosed after decades of trying harder.
For the women missed because they daydreamed instead of bounced.
For the men told to push through.
For the parents raising a young warrior—and recognizing themselves in every page.
Written by a clinician who has spent thirty-five years helping people change, who raised a son with ADHD, and who finally recognized herself on the page.
You were never broken. You were always the warrior. Now you will know it.
Foreword by Dr. Richard K. Nongard.
A portion of proceeds benefits CHADD, Give an Hour, and the National MS Society.
Have All Their Dreams Been Filled?
Thirty Grains of Love is an emotionally rich novel weaving romance, family secrets, and historical fiction as an artist’s investment in a Bulgarian seaside villa draws her into a complex family history that reshapes her present. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration came in multiple layers. First, I wrote one page of an idyllic picture at the seaside. Then, the outline of four couples, eight friends, trying to recreate their youth, emerged. Only then, when I started thinking about their midlife challenges and the difficult route to authenticity, did I see how artistic—or sometimes any—ambition often clashes with financial uncertainty, family obligations, and the complicated realities of love. The beautiful Bulgarian seaside is where I spent my childhood summers, and the palace is real. I am fascinated by how different generations experience dramatic political change, but above all, I am interested in what it was like to be a woman throughout history. So, I wanted to tell a story with a dual timeline that asks: a hundred years after Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield, have all their dreams been fulfilled? Is finding true love and pursuing one’s calling getting any easier?
Then, since personal relationships are complex in the modern world, I wondered whether I could depict both the male and female points of view. The story is set against the backdrop of history and generational echoes of secrecy and social limitations, but also of today, when we have the freedom of choice—exploring the price of happiness across four marriage models: trad wife, double career, open relationship, and unequal income.
Did you find yourself identifying with Isabella’s creative ambitions or personal struggles?
As a working mom in the corporate world who buried my dreams of writing for a while to provide for my daughters, I related to Isabella’s struggle to protect her family’s legacy while reconsidering the life she has built and the choices that shape personal freedom. This is even more prominent in her best friend’s story, Nina, and her creative journey as a writer, showing what it is like to be with a husband who is not your soulmate, and what a difference it makes if you meet one. Then there is also Isabella’s inner struggle between pursuing her creative ideas and the temptation to copy her art for quick cash, which would help her in the short term.
Were there particular challenges in connecting the historical and contemporary storylines?
The greatest challenge was how to compare the dilemmas of women in 1922, the 1950s, and the present day while also connecting them into a coherent storyline. In this context, the Art Nouveau villa became more than a setting; it was a meeting point for generations of secrets, personal histories, and decisions whose consequences reached far beyond the people who first made them. I also realized that multiple narrators were particularly suited to a story where love, guilt, and loyalty can look very different depending on whose experience we are following.
If readers take one central message from the novel, what would you hope it might be?
Sometimes, the life that we fight to save is what prevents us from becoming free. And sometimes, if it’s worth saving, we may not see it. The best compass is what we need to embrace our true selves.
Author Links: GoodReads | X | Facebook | Instagram | Website
Strong Like Mom
Strong Like Mom, written by Allison Casperson and illustrated by Heather Jenkins, is a children’s book about the changes a family experiences when a parent has cancer. Its elephant family gives young readers a familiar way into a difficult subject: Mom and Dad care for their two boys, Bubba and Peanut, while trying to keep everyday life going. Casperson writes from her own experience as a mother and breast cancer survivor, and that personal connection comes through in the attention she gives to family relationships. The book’s warmth rests in recognizable moments of affection, worry, play, and being there for someone you love.
The writing is direct and easy to follow, naming cancer and explaining some of the changes children might notice during treatment. It’s especially attentive to how confusing a parent’s tiredness or sadness can feel to a child. Everyday routines give the story its emotional footing, with food, games, and shared reading showing how care takes shape in small actions. Faith is woven throughout the family’s experience, and references to God and prayer make this a particularly natural fit for households that draw comfort from those beliefs. The repeated language of strength and courage gives the read-aloud a reassuring rhythm, though some passages state their message quite explicitly.
Jenkins’s illustrations give this picture book much of its tenderness. The elephants have softly textured gray bodies, expressive eyes, and trunks that reach toward one another in gestures of affection. Gentle pinks, lilacs, greens, and warm yellows create an inviting setting, while grassy landscapes and broad skies give the pages room to breathe. Small touches, including flowers, butterflies, fruit, and sparkling stars, offer plenty for children to notice as they listen. The artwork also makes shifts in mood easy to feel through changes in color and light. I especially liked how the family groups convey closeness through their arrangement on the page; the pictures let readers see the comfort of having someone nearby.
What makes Strong Like Mom useful for shared reading is its attention to both children and the adults caring for them. The questions and caregiver guidance at the back invite readers to talk about feelings, personal experiences, and the different ways people can show strength. Drawing and coloring activities offer another way to spend time with those ideas, especially for children who express themselves more easily through pictures. This is a book to read with room for pauses and questions. Its strongest quality is the way it makes support visible, giving families a starting point for conversations about illness, love, faith, and accepting help from the people around them.
Pages: 32 | ASIN : B0HGMTNQ8H
