Meet Author Aimee Cabo Nikolov

Meet Aimee Cabo Nikolov, the author of "Love is the Answer, God is the Cure." Read her bio, check out reviews of her new book and visit her website, all via our new "Meet the Authors" section.

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#BookReview - Bonjour Girl

Bonjour Girl

By: Isabelle Lafleche
Publisher: Dundurn
Publication Date: August 2018
ISBN: 978-1459742000
Reviewed by: Skyler Boudreau
Review Date: September 2018

In this young adult novel, readers follow fashion student Clementine Liu as she navigates her way through Parsons School of Design in New York City. Not long after she arrives at school from Paris, France, she launches "Bonjour Girl," a fashion blog that blows up overnight and catapults her headfirst into the world of fashion journalism. When a jealous classmate begins to cyberbully her, Clementine must find a way to overcome the online abuse and help the bully’s other victims.

While attending Parsons, Clementine lives with her mother’s cousin Maddie, who serves as both a mentor within the fashion industry, and the maternal figure her own mother failed to provide in France. Maddie helps her apply for scholarships, encourages her when she is facing difficulties at school, and is an all-around incredibly supportive figure. This relationship is one of the most distinctive details of Bonjour Girl. Adult family members are often absent in young adult novels or merely serve as obstacles to the protagonist. It’s refreshing to find a story that highlights a positive familial relationship as this one does.

Diversity and inclusivity are major themes throughout the novel. Artistic industries can sometimes seem like exclusive clubs, and Clementine’s goal in her coverage of fashion journalism is to change that. She’s steadfast in this mission and her determination to make an impact is inspiring. The time she spends constructing her blog and interviewing subjects for it are easily the most enjoyable parts of the story.

Clementine is a college sophomore, yet she reads much younger and less mature, more like a sophomore in high school. It’s easy to forget how old she is and incredibly jarring to be suddenly reminded that she’s almost twenty, and not fifteen or sixteen. Some readers might find this off-putting. She also frequently comes across flat and under-developed. She often blatantly states her character traits and flaws, such as when she says, “I guess my insecurity comes from my mother who taught me that if you get a part, you’re taking it away from someone else” (Lafleche 76) to a classmate within five minutes of meeting him. There’s little room for the reader to infer anything on their own, and it makes Clementine come across as unrealistically self-aware.

One of the biggest drawbacks to this novel is its inconsistency. Characters completely change personalities, going from friendly and supportive to hostile and angry without any warning or reason why. The sudden, unexplained conflicts between characters can leave the audience confused and having to reread sections in search of something they might have missed. These conflicts come across as superficial and detract from the main plot.

Bonjour Girl has a lot of ups and downs and is not for everybody. The overall message the main storyline sends is wonderful and encouraging. It’s a highly positive book, to the point of being unrealistic. It felt as though the plot and characters were used as tools to deliver that message, rather than deliver a story. Bonjour Girl is marketed as a young adult novel, but older, teenaged audiences may find it lacking.

Quill says: Great for middle school students with an interest in fashion and romance.

#BookReview - The Cumberland Bride

The Cumberland Bride: Daughters of the Mayflower, Book 5

By: Shannon McNear
Publisher: Barbour Books
Publication Date: October 2018
ISBN: 978-1683226918
Reviewed by: Diane Lunsford
Review Date: September 3, 2018

A journey to the frontier wilderness of Kentucky is the theme of Shannon McNear’s latest novel, The Cumberland Bride.

The year is 1794 and Kate Gruener’s father prepares his family for their move to the western reaches of the Kentucky frontier. While change isn’t something to approach lightly, young Kate Gruener is hopeful. She has a love for writing and the prospect of documenting her real-life adventure across the wilderness on the pages of her journal is something she willingly embraces. She is eager to get started and welcomes the challenge. She likens her experience to that of her father’s during his participation in the War for Independence.

Thomas Bledsoe is a true frontiersman. He worked for the pony express delivering packages and mail to varied communities cropping up throughout the New World. At a young age, he was captured by the Shawnee and adopted as one of their own. Years later, he left the nation and returned to his white family. The skills he learned as a scout during his years of captivity would be skills set to good use once his job at the Pony Express ended. Commissioned by the Gruener family, Thomas was hired to be their scout to guide them safely through the uncharted wilderness to Kentucky. When the day arrives for the Gruener family to set out on their journey, Kate is intrigued by the likes of Thomas Bledsoe. She has a sense there is something much deeper to this man than scouting and if anyone could get to the bottom of such a notion, it was Kate. The threat of Indians, perilous terrain, conflict, and maybe even a little romance weren’t the only challenges that lie ahead for the group as they marked the trail to their new life.

Shannon McNear delivers an engaging tale of hardship and history in The Cumberland Bride. It is clear she has done her historical research and the story flows beautifully with the overlay of her descriptive prose of the scenery. She uses language that is specific to the era in describing things such as the ‘necessary’ as the word for 'restroom,' which anchors her audience in the time period. If I had to focus on one item that made this body of work so engaging, it would be the natural flow from one page to the next as well as chapter to chapter. There is a momentum that builds throughout the story that lacks predictability. Ms. McNear establishes voice and tone from the onset and has done an admirable job in her development of rich characters. I have read several of the books in the Daughters of the Mayflower series and have to say Ms. McNear’s addition is a terrific add to the series. I am a fan and look forward to the next book in this collection.

Quill says: The Cumberland Bride is a lofty tale of adventure as much as an account of the hardships endured by our forefathers in settling this ‘New World.’

#BookReview - The Race to Save the Romanovs

The Race to Save the Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family

By: Helen Rappaport
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: June 2018
ISBN: 978-1250151216
Reviewed by: Ellen Feld
Review Date: September 3, 2018

Author Helen Rappaport continues her fascination with Russia and delivers another interesting read about the Imperial Family, this time focusing on the events leading up to their murder and the somewhat feeble attempts made by foreign governments and royal relatives to save them.

The Race to Save the Romanovs analyzes the events leading up to that fateful night in July, 1917 when the entire Romanov family was brutally murdered in the basement of a home in Siberia. What led up to that night is a tangled series of events that, interwoven together, would see the Bolsheviks seize power and decide to eliminate the Imperial Family to quell any hopes of reviving the dynasty.

Rappaport begins her journey by introducing the royal family, and its many relatives, by following Queen Victoria, the 'Grandmama of Europe,' and the marriages she arranged throughout Europe (and there's a chart of all these marriages included which the reader may refer to often while reading). It soon becomes apparent that the future Tsar and his future wife have many close relatives spread throughout the various royal households of Europe. But it's not just blood that ties them together, but shared experiences as the author relates numerous occasions where they interacted and where we get to see a bit of their feelings for each other. 

Onward from the first chapter we travel to the years leading up to the tragic events of 1917. Relatives warned Tsar Nicholas that he needed to implement reforms in order to avoid revolution, while others saw that the Russian people viewed Tsaritsa Alexandra as a German spy, as well as a woman given to superstition. Repeatedly warned, the couple ignored all pleas to change their ways and soon found themselves at the mercy of Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

The author chronicles the time the Romanovs spent under house arrest at Tsarskoe Selo, shortly after Nicholas's abdication, through their last hours at the house in Ekaterinburg. While we see what the family was doing during those long days, the author closely follows the planning, or lack of planning in some cases, that was being done to rescue them during each point in their captivity. 

Helen Rappaport has exhaustively researched the events leading up to the murder of the Romanovs in 1917. There have been many unanswered questions that the author tackled, such as why Germany didn't take advantage of its stronger hand with the Bolsheviks at the Brest-Litovsk peace talks and insist that the Romanovs be released. The author has uncovered numerous new documents that shed light on these questions. While it becomes clear that Nicholas and Alexandra were not willing to leave their beloved Mother Russia, it also becomes clear that there was a lot more going on that kept their rescue from happening. While the book did not have the "can't stop reading" appeal of her book The Romanov Sisters, I still found it one that I wanted to read in order to discover more answers to the questions of "why" surrounding the end to the Imperial Family. For those with a deep interest in Russian history, this is a rewarding read.

Quill says: For fans of Russian history, Helen Rappaport's newest study on the Romanovs is definitely one to be added to the book shelf.

#BookReview - Into the Hands of the Soldiers

Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East

By: David D. Kirkpatrick
Publisher:  Viking
Publication Date:  August 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2062-1
Reviewed by: Diane Lunsford
Review Date: September 1, 2018

New York Times reporter David Kirkpatrick has assembled a journalistic journey of corruption and violence with epic reporting finesse in his latest body of work: Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East.

David Kirkpatrick and his family relocated to Egypt in August of 2010. In his words he was "…drawn to Egypt in part by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I knew the roots of Al Qaeda and its ideology ran back to Egypt…" They settled in a one-story villa in Maadi which is a district about six miles up the Nile from the New York Times bureau on the island of Zamalek. Through countless assignments from 2011 to 2017, Mr. Kirkpatrick set pen to paper and generated a series of articles that exposed a government rife with corruption, deceit and violence. From August 14, 2011 to January 23, 2012, Mr. Kirkpatrick’s initial assignments were tailored toward reporting the clear and imminent danger and contrasts between democracy and a government that played by the rules it deemed necessary for its agenda to prevail. It was a time when Egyptians of all walks thumbed their noses at autocracy and elected a Muslim Brotherhood as their president. Mubarak was in his glory days and his mission was to keep the political run of ElBaradei (Egypt’s equivalent of a liberal) at bay.

The clear and imminent danger on any given day was a constant companion to Kirkpatrick. He covered riots in the streets and uprisings of a new generation that was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore. Yet, through it all, Kirkpatrick persevered and never lost sight of his mission: get the facts and commit them to paper. Kirkpatrick contrasts the complexities of an administration so foreign to our own sovereign nation of the United States. The notion is a beast that Kirkpatrick tackled with finesse and accuracy. There is a wealth of information and historical accounts that are woven between the lines of hidden agendas and the holy grail of the obvious quest of victory, power and control. There are divided lines between democracy as much as secular insistence in that he writes of a world and religion so foreign to the soils of our nation. He addresses the plight and intent of a nation divided by the premise of Christianity as much as Islam and goads his audience into considering both concepts without choosing sides.

I applaud Mr. Kirkpatrick for compiling a series of articles and occurrences that took him to a part of the world that is truly the epicenter of what is perhaps the axis of good as much as evil. He tempers his pen in a way that doesn’t pontificate his personal views as much as it delivers an account of what true grit reporting is about. He uses succinct language and doesn’t pepper his articles with opinionated prose or divisive suggestion. Rather, he sets a tone throughout of "this is how I see it and I’m merely reporting what went down"—refreshing at best.

Quill says: Into the Hands of the Soldiers is a work of journalistic prowess and ability.

#AuthorInterview with Thomas Duffy @auctionguy28

Today, Feathered Quill reviewer Skyler Boudreau is talking with Thomas Duffy, author of To Never Know.

FQ: What influenced your decision in setting To Never Know during the aftermath of 9/11?

Author Thomas Duffy

DUFFY: Having lived through the tragedy of the 9/11 aftermath, I felt I wanted to share the state of chaos the city was in. I returned to NYC from Florida a month after it happened, and the city was changed forever. The support group scene in the novel is just the beginning. People were affected in devastating ways and to see people from airlines who lost jobs and people who lost loved ones in the tragedy just made me want to tell a story of a similar type of loss. I've met people through the Knights of Columbus who also lived through 9/11 and were there in lower Manhattan when it happened. Their experiences also helped shape details in the book.

FQ:  To Never Know is an exploration of grief and healing after tragedy. Were there any parts of the novel that you found difficult to write?

DUFFY: The scene where Emily is rocking back and forth over the loss of her daughter was something that I found hard to write. I had to show how the 9/11 tragedy impacted this woman and how Steven was left to figure out how to help her. Initially, he was looking for her daughter but this scene makes him realize he has to, without a doubt, help her mother. Her mother needed someone and he had to be that person she needed for his own peace of mind.

FQ:  Steven Lewis is a complicated, and sometimes unlikable character. He demonstrates the emotional strain financial hardships can have on a person in addition to losing a loved one. What kind of message do you hope readers will take from his journey?

DUFFY: I wanted readers to cherish the now and to keep believing in life's greater purpose. There's a reason we are all here in my opinion. That reason is to help each other. Reach out to those in need and the rewards will be substantial. Steven learns this fact in the novel and becomes a better person as a result.

Author Thomas Duffy at Indie Author Day in Forest Hills, NY

FQ:  In the beginning of the novel, Steven begrudgingly says, “My education teaches me that I need to earn more money to be happy and do something productive.” (Duffy 33) In the final chapters he decides to apply to graduate school and become a teacher. What changed his stance on education?

DUFFY: He has seen that money, while important, isn't everything. Happiness comes from helping others. That's why he wants to be a teacher--to give back something to others based on what he had experienced.

FQ: How did you come up with the initial idea for To Never Know?

DUFFY: When 9/11 happened, Facebook wasn't around yet. We couldn't see who was affected so easily. In 2001, it was harder to connect with people from our past. So taking this as a starting point, I completed the novel accordingly.

FQ: Do you think that high school and college graduates today face similar challenges to those that Steven faced in the early 2000’s? What’s changed since then?

DUFFY: Technology is better and helps us be more accessible to available jobs but the challenge is just as tough now as it was then. There is more competition since job applications are more easily accessible online. I wish all the best to those struggling and I wish to offer the advice to never give up and keep pursuing those ambitions in life.

FQ: In addition to writing fiction, you’re also interested in film criticism. Would you say that one style of writing influences the topics you pursue in the other? Why or why not?

DUFFY: Not really. My film criticism experience indirectly made me summarize more than analyze in my fiction writing with my first novel, Stockboy. When I picked up the pieces with my third book, One Love, I separated the two styles. However, I still put film references in my work. Notice the Good Will Hunting reference in To Never Know?  I reviewed Good Will Hunting in college shortly after interviewing Minnie Driver for Grosse Pointe Blank.  All my books except maybe The Separation have film references.

FQ: To Never Know is your fifth book. Do you find that anything about writing has gotten easier over time? What are some things you’ve struggled with as an author?

DUFFY: It's easier. I love doing it. I've struggled with sales. People bought my first book but I think they were disappointed and never trusted me again to buy another book. LOL. Look at David Fincher the film director. He started with Alien 3 which was awful. If I stayed away from all his other films because of that, I would have missed Gone Girl and Fight Club, two books based movies I loved.

FQ: Is there a specific writing process you stick to, or does it change with every book? What did the process for To Never Know look like?

DUFFY: It changes with every book. To Never Know was rushed to be released in time for September 11, 2016 but I am very happy with it. Releasing the book at the time didn't help sales. But, maybe you guys will help me move a few copies of this great book.

#BookReview - To Never Know @auctionguy28

To Never Know

By: Thomas Duffy
Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication Date: August 2016
ISBN: 978-1536898385
Reviewed by: Skyler Boudreau
Review Date: August 31, 2018

To Never Know follows Steven Lewis, a recent high school graduate without any solid plans for his future. Several years after graduating from high school, and a few months after leaving New York City to move to Florida with his family, he decides to reconnect with Kelly, a girl he briefly knew and possessed an unrequited love for during their final year of high school. The two have not spoken since graduation and finding her proves to be a challenge. It is only after he returns to New York City and meets Kelly’s mother that he learns it is too late to build a connection with her.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this novel. On one hand, it provides an excellent demonstration of a family coping with grief and trying to put their lives back together after being ripped apart by a tragedy. Steven and Kelly’s mother Emily help each other heal after the loss of their loved one, all the while struggling to sustain a living in one of the most expensive places in the United States.

Author Thomas Duffy builds a believable image of the fight for financial stability. After moving in with Emily, Steven is reluctant to find a job very far from her house in case she needs him during the day as she has fallen into a deep depression. That leaves a pharmacy job barely paying minimum wage as his only option. With Emily herself living off social security, they struggle to make ends meet.

This novel is essentially a portrait of two lives with very little in common intersecting by chance. Watching both characters build each other up after being torn down is inspiring.

To Never Know is not without its faults, however. While his situation is sympathetic, I did not find Steven himself particularly likeable. It was hard to empathize with him. One of the main components of the story was Steven’s regret of not having spoken to Kelly while he had the chance. He had become convinced that dating her would fix all his problems. When one of his co-workers tells him not to fear going after the things he wants, he responds in kind by saying, “She’s not a thing. She’s a person” (Duffy 29). Yet throughout the book he describes her more as an object. The only adjectives he ever uses in association with Kelly are “beautiful” and “special.” When he begins to date another woman, he spends most of their relationship wishing she was Kelly and trying to convince himself that she’s good enough.

I don’t agree with the way Steven views women, but it is fascinating to watch him realize they can be more than romantic conquests and that it is possible for people of opposite genders to have meaningful, platonic relationships. As the novel went on, Steven did mature, but I still found it difficult to connect with him.

Despite that, To Never Know did make me think, and that’s what every book should strive to make its audience do. It examines just how crippling grief can be while providing an example of two people trying to move past it.

Quill says: To Never Know will leave you conflicted and wondering what new course of life you would choose were you given the chance.