‘This gentle little book snuck up on me. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was glad I dove in.’ (Reviewer B. Sneedy)
A teddy on the cover, yes, but this is mostly a book for grownups
‘She Ran Away from Love is an adventure on more than one level. It’s the physical journey of a small, frightened bear who finds Love just a bit too bright for comfort, but it is also an inner journey in which the little bear finds herself.’
‘I suspect this book will touch different readers in different ways. I smiled through the entire book.’ Review by Bernice Sneedy at Amazon AU. ‘
Thank you Bernice Sneedy for this kind review of Frilly’s quest to find herself.*
Mawson’s Guardian adds: And LOOK! Its only $3 or do on Kindle everywhere.
Go on, get snuck up on to, yourself!
Where to find She Ran Away From Love by Mawson, one of this world’s few published Writer-Bears:
*Oooh, that reminds me of another Bernice, a really cool young detective. Why not plunge into my review of Bernice Takes A Plunge while you are here.
Your host, Mark, is Mawson Bear’s Guardian, photographer, editor, blundering typist, chocolates fetcher and cushions re-arranger.Baffled Bear Books ABN: 4787910119.
‘A parade of craft cruised the lagoon: gilt-edged ferries and gondolas in jewel-like colours – dazzling blues, crimsons, emerald greens. Sea dragons looped above the rooftops, twisting their sinuous forms … . Esme’s Gift Ch. 3.’
Mark, guardian of Mawson Bear says: Oh dear, our world is not in its finest shape right now, is it? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be elsewhere. Fortunately, I have to hand Esme’s Gift, the sequel to Esme’s Wish and I can plunge once more into this other world and see again the towers of the city of Esperance and the siren islands of Aeolia.
Esme’s Wish follows on after Esme returns to Aeolia. The evil Nathan Mare is at large and intent on finding the secret knowledge entrusted to her. But in the classrooms and library of Pierpont school she can find friends and allies. And what a library it is.
‘(Ancient gondalas) repurposed into shelves, lined the library’s walls … No longer fit to carry passengers, they now carried books to the shores of the readers’ minds. Esme’s Gift Ch. 12.’
Esme must gather the strange ingredients of the only elixir that can save her mother. To obtain these elements takes all her courage and all the combined gifts and powers of her friends. But some people are not who they seem to be, and the tension never lets up.
Esme’s Wish and Esme’s Gift are written by Elizabeth Foster with the ‘Young Adult’ audience in mind. But if you happen to be older (after all, some of us have yet to find a potion to wind back the years – and if the high risk alchemical experiments in Esperance are anything to go by, we should stay well away from any such potions or concoctions, or who knows what could happen!) .. if you are an older reader who loves beguiling fantasy worlds and tales of ghosts and of quests into caverns guarded by monsters and ghouls, and if you also don’t object to dragons .. The books of the Esme trilogy will be a treat for you.
Reading of Esperance in Aeolia, a realm of seas, islands, lagoons, oh – and dragons.
Where to find this other world:Esme’sGift is published by Odyssey Books, a small press where ‘books are an adventure’. You can immerse yourself in this trilogy by looking at Amazon at Barnes and Noble, and more. You can see more about Esme’s search for her mother and about the author, Elizabeth Foster, at GoodReads.
The Ouroboros Keyby Patricia Leslie blends Sumerian mythology, esoteric Templar secrets, and a detective story, all played out in the mountains of modern day Colorado.
Before Dan Tenney can understand the strange dreams he’s had all his life, he’s attacked by an enigmatic group, the Brotherhood of the Grail. When he is whisked away from them to underground sanctuary by an even less explicable pair of men, he comes into the possession of what is apparently an ancient relic. His dreams get worse!
His friends search first for Dan, and then for the meaning behind the mystifying events they stumble upon. We readers learn the clues, the connections and the mythologies at the same pace as the band of searchers as they dodge villains and attempt to pin down straight answers.
This is as much a story about these characters and their idiosyncrasies and relationships as it is about a myth-riddled artefact. I liked this approach, as the details and lore of each mystery never got too heavy, too scholarly. We learn, together with our little band, enough to get some sense of things, and then are on the way again, as the quest develops into a dangerous trek in the mountains.
This novel will be enjoyed the readers who love to delve into the mysteries of ancient myths and at the same time enjoy a good adventure – and isn’t that most of us?
Patricia Leslie gives more details about this, including how she came to write, and also her other books at patricialeslie.net.
Where to find it:Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, Chapters Indigo and more. Or ask your friendly local bookshop to obtain it for you.
You are at Mark’s blog called Baffled Bear Books. Mark is a dark coffee tragic and bibliophile as well as the Guardian and blundering typist for Mawson Bear, Ponderer of Baffling Things and one of this bright world’s few published bears.
