Licia Flynn's Book and Movie Review Blog

Having written two other books and worked with over three professional editors, I knew exactly what I wanted in a proofer for my third novel ---   Lucifina: The Belle of Hell . Nina Denison was my ideal candidate because of her impressive undergraduate degree in English literature and years of professional publishing experience. However, I was most intrigued by her background in poetry, experience editing cookbooks, and understanding of the YA market. Of everyone I contacted, Nina wrote back with the most enthusiasm and undertook her task of proofing with the utmost care. I was very impressed with her work. She was extremely methodical. In fact, I suspect she may have read my book twice. I've read Lucifina twice after receiving her edits and found no errors. This is rare. Nina was also extremely generous. She gave me a line --- the rain continued its drumbeats on the roof. She also offered developmental guidance, which ultimately changed the ending of my book. Nina's encouragem...

Last year, I wrote a review for Guard Thy Heart by Siwar Al Assad. However, the review focused on relationships. Thus, I wanted to write another review focusing on healthcare issues. Guard Thy Heart becomes especially gripping when Assad describes Paul's horror at the practice of extracting organs from living donors, who sold them under appalling conditions: "Immigrants lacking documents or money, poverty-stricken Indian farmers, and other vulnerable people were surgically divested of a kidney or cornea, and then left without medical care and frequently unable to work. For their trouble, they received a meager sum, allowing the traffickers, doctors, and lawyers to recoup a profit ten times what they paid for that precious resource. The height of the monstrous practice was the kidnapping of human beings to be killed and cut into pieces to fill special requests."   - Assad, Guard Thy Heart Assad then concisely illustrates the politics behind such crimes by exposing ...

I have dozens of books on my Kindle, mostly ones I feel I should read --- classics and books recommended by friends.  I'm so glad I stumbled upon Die by the Pen by Miles Maxwell. This mystery novel is fun and easy to read after a long day of studying tedious, dry, technical data. Die by the Pen is a fast-paced page-turner about two strong FBI agents working to solve a series of murders. Maxwell is an excellent writer because he knows his territory so well, one can presume that he's a former insider. Plus, his prose are swift. He writes for his reader and not for himself. Now you can download Die by the Pen for free by clicking the link below:  #Mystery #Thriller #FBI #Detective #Miami #NewYork #Crime #MilesMaxwell #DiebythePen #NaomiSoul #Amazon #Freebooks #Free 

Two Deaths  by Kim Philley is a moody thriller about an American journalist traversing the backroads of Cambodia. It focuses on her complex relationship with Jonathan, a Nigerian soccer player, and the bureaucratic challenges he faces while seeking to relocate to Australia. The protagonist is a woman surrounded by tragedy in the underprivileged third world. As she undertakes her work, she encounters death and then is haunted by childhood memories where she often felt blamed for other peoples' transgressions. Arguably, the protagonist's biggest fault lies in being too hard on herself. At one point, she recounts a childhood bee sting and how much she cried. Was she crying from the actual bee sting or the blame she placed on herself for disobeying her mother's warnings? The story begins in Phnom Penh. The young journalist quietly recounts former flames left behind in Portland. Then she describes Jonathan in vivid detail like the 17th-century novelist Aphra Benh describ...

After watching Gaddafi butchered alive, I pulled out a notepad and created an outline for my book Firm Resolve. I divided the book into five sections and carefully broke each part into chapters and sub-chapters before writing. Part 1 was inspired by the disappearance of CIA agent Jim Thompson. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was a heavy influence for much of the book. Corporal King from King Rat, stories about Vietnam, and the Iran Contra Affair inspired Natalia's father, Aaron Walker, and the backdrop of the entire story. I was also influenced by the structure and style of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, which is about a Victorian marriage in the Caribbean. There are several plots in Firm Resolve — 1.) The disappearance of Natalia’s parents, 2.) How Natalia survived in the intervening years and changes from a fiery young woman into a very determined agent and why she disappears, and 3.) Curt Steiger’s fraudulent business activities as a pharmaceutical startup founder. The d...

Crichton's State of Fear is an action-adventure about eco-terrorism and an impending global catastrophe. The main character is Peter Evans, a big firm environmental lawyer. His main client is an eccentric wealthy donor named George Morton. Morton mysteriously disappears after pulling substantial funding from an environmental organization. The goal of NERF is to wage a trillion-dollar lawsuit based on global warming evidence. Evans is a nice guy. However, he's relatively passive in his approach to life, whether it be in his acceptance of mainstream propaganda or his relationships with women. His encounters are casual and not exactly meaningful. At one point, Evans is interested in a lawyer, Jennifer Haynes from D.C. But he doesn't pursue her because he assumes it'll never work out. Throughout the book, Evans is in love with Morton's assistant, Sarah Jones, a beautiful blonde from the Bay Area. But instead of taking charge, he whines that Sarah isn't interes...