The Uncharted Life of Olivia West

An exciting, adventurous novel about two courageous women, living in different eras, whose entwined lives ultimately solve a long-ago mystery.

Prolific author Sara Ackerman presents an inspiring, well-researched novel that delves into the stories of two women--living in different eras, 60 years apart--who lives are unexpectedly entwined in The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West. 

Through a beautifully braided narrative, two clearly delineated points of view, Ackerman anchors her story on the “The Big Island” of Hawai’i in both 1927 and 1987.

 

The 1927-part of the story centers on Olivia “Livy” West, a young, ambitious female pilot trying to measure up and compete in a male-dominated world. Determined to participate in the Dole Air Race--a real-life, 2400-mile flight competition that launched in Oakland, Calif., crossed the Pacific Ocean, and ended in Honolulu, Hawai’i--she wheedles her way to become a navigator in a race that will test her strength and fortitude.

 

The 1987-part of the story centers on down-and-out Wren Summers who suddenly learns that she’s inherited (from a great-uncle) a piece of land on the Big Island of Hawai’i. The place, however, is a depilated shambles; a mess. Badly in need of money, Wren goes to sell the land, but soon discovers an object in the barn that piques her interest—so much so, that she sets her off on a quest to learn more. Along the way, she dredges up the past and follows a winding road that leads to chilling, unexpected revelations.

 

As in her other exciting novels (The Codebreakers Secret, Radar Girls), Ackerman displays great finesse in her understanding of Hawai’i, women, and fast-paced historical fiction. Filled with spirited romance and suspense, this uplifting, inspiring story adds to Ackerman’s accomplished body work. The Uncharted Life of Olivia West will hold great appeal to readers who admire stories of courageous women determined to live authentic, empowered lives.

The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West by Sara Ackerman

Mira Books (HarperCollins), $18.99 paperback, 9780369747785, 384 pages

Publishing Date: February 6, 2024

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

A Wish for Winter

An enchanting, fun romance about a single, 40-year-old bookstore owner in search of finding her Mr. Right—a nameless man in a Santa suit.

Viola Shipman (pen name of Wade Rouse) delights readers with A Wish for Winter, an unforgettable, heartwarming story about a never-married bookstore owner from Petoskey, Mich. who goes in search of rekindling Christmas joy and finding true love.

 

Christmas was always special for Susan Norcross. Both her mother and her grandmother met their future husbands when they were dressed up as Santa Claus. But when Susan was in fifth grade, her parents were killed in a Christmastime car crash that snuffed out hope from the holidays.

 

Susan is “girlishly youthful looking” and now the successful owner of “Sleigh By the Bay,” a thriving community bookstore. As she nears her 40^th birthday, those who love her--especially the grandparents who raised her, a dear friend of her late mother’s and Holly, Susan’s best friend--want her to settle down. When Susan dresses up like Mrs. Claus and attends the famed “10k Santa Run” in Chicago, she meets an appealing Kris Kringle who sparks her fancy. The two make plans to meet up after the race. However, Susan is later stood up—and she never got Santa’s name. This disappointment encourages determined friend Holly to take to social media to find him. Three men--three Kris Kringles from the run--step up claiming to be the ‘mystery’ Santa. Might one of them be Susan’s romantic destiny?

 

Shipman’s (The Charm Bracelet; The Recipe Box; The Secret of Snow) sensitive storytelling is enlivened by offbeat, well-meaning characters and an enchantingly fun, romantic plot.

A Wish for Winter by Viola Shipman

Graydon House (Harper Collins), $17.99 paperback, 9781525804847, 416 pages

Publishing Date: November 15, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

Gator Country

An exciting, propulsive true story about an alligator poaching sting operation in Florida and what it reveals about nature—including human nature.

In Gator Country, science and nature journalist, Rebecca Renner delivers an astounding story about an alligator-poaching operation in the Florida Everglades. She grew up in Florida, the “swampy deep south,” one of the most bio diverse places in the country. At the age of seven, she encountered her first alligator up close behind her family’s home. By 2017, Renner was working to support herself as a high school English teacher when a student had turned in a well-informed, intimate wildlife essay on poaching--“the active illegally taking or flora or fauna from the wild”--and profiting from it. The student feared Renner might snitch on him, and this planted a seed in Renner. 

 

Years later, when she was working her way up the ranks as a nature writer for National Geographic and The New York Times, Renner’s interest in poaching resurfaced. In 2020, she became determined to learn more about alligator poaching from the points of view of the law and the poachers--those whom she identified as the economically poor, struggling to live in Florida’s diminishing wetlands. Her adventurous, in-depth study probes the nature of crime and human character, while also mining the far-reaching consequences of what it truly takes to survive—in the wild and in society.

 

Renner (Drift: Collected Short Fiction), a gifted and deeply empathetic writer, paints such sympathetic, well-rounded portraits of the justice-seeking rangers and wildlife officers versus the struggling-to-survive poachers that readers will have trouble taking sides. Her propulsive narrative reads as suspensefully as a well-wrought mystery novel as she uncovers an exciting true story that will educate, enlighten, and enthrall her audience. 

 

Gator Country: Deception, Danger and Alligators in the Everglades by Rebecca Renner

Flatiron Books (Macmillan), $29.99 hardcover, 9781250842572, 288 pages

Publishing Date: November 14, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (November 17, 2023), link HERE 

To read the longer form of this review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (October 2, 2023), link HERE