In A Few Days, Richard Paul Evans Will Turn "The Parasite" Into "A Christmas Memory!"

 Mark the date...11/17/2022.  The day I finished "Michael Vey: The Parasite" by Richard Paul Evans.  The latest installment in the series didn't disappoint (entirely).  Though a few members of the Electroclan are unaccounted for, the action is still undeniable. The story picks up a few years after the events of "Michael Vey: The Final Spark."  Michael, Taylor, Ostin, and the others have grown up and some have attended college.  Tara (Taylor's twin sister) & Quentin, two of Dr. Hatch's former pet students, are now loyal members of the Electroclan.  Not to give everything away, but Jack has been abducted and Grace is in a coma.  I wasn't as impressed by this book as with the others in the series.  It wasn't boring, but it did seem to be missing something.  While I try to figure out exactly what that something was, I'll begin another "journey" on Tuesday with "A Christmas Memory," also by Richard Paul Evans.  It's 1967, and for young Richard it's a time of heartbreak and turmoil.  Over the span of a few months, his brother, Mark, is killed in Vietnam; his father loses his job and moves the family from California to his grandmother's abandoned home in Utah; and his parents make the painful decision to separate.  With uncertainty rattling every corner of his life, Richard does his best to remain strong--but when he's run down by bullies at his new school, he meets Mr. Foster, an elderly neighbor who chases off the bullies and invites Richard in for a cup of cocoa.  Richard becomes fast friends with the wise, solitary man who inspires Richard's love for book and whose dog, Gollum, becomes his closest companion.  As the holidays approach, the joy and light of Christmas seem unlikely to permeate the Evans home as things take a grim turn for the worse.  And just when it seems like he has nothing left to lose, Richard is confronted by a startling revelation.  But with Mr. Foster's wisdom and kindness, he learns for the first time what truly matters about the spirit of the season: that forgiveness can heal even the deepest wounds, and love endures long after the pain of loss subsides.  Just reading this summary makes me think that the "King Of Kleenex" will once again live up to his title as I embark on yet another "Journey Through A Book!" 

"The Bride," "The Wedding," & "The Parasite!" Oh, My!

 So, I spent some of Halloween reading.  I finished off Julie Garwood's "The Wedding" yesterday afternoon.  I confess to liking its companion novel, "The Bride" a little better.  Both novels featured Alec Kincaid and his wife, Jamie.  However, "The Wedding" mostly centered around Alec's brother--Connor, and Connor's wife, Brenna.  Connor's mother was a bitch, and his brother, Raen, was a creep!  (Though I suspect that Raen had mental issues; issues that his own mother refused to acknowledge).  All in all, not a bad book. But it was a little heavy at times, and I'm looking forward to starting my next "journey" with "Michael Vey: The Parasite," by my favorite author, Richard Paul Evans!  After defeating Dr. Hatch and the Elgen, Michael and his friends' attempt to return to a normal life isn't as easy as they thought it would be.  They also soon learn that "normal" doesn't always last.  Taylor's prophetic dreams are becoming more disturbing.  When she dreams of herself locked in a cage surrounded by bats and a burning city, she fears that the Electroclan's time of peace is coming to an end and that battling the Elgen was only the beginning of the dangers the Electroclan would face.  Could it be that, like the myth of the Hydra, cutting off the head of the Elgen only created even more dangerous enemies?  There's only one way for me to find out...by taking another "Journey Through A Book!"