Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge 2026: Wah Wah

 

Ralph Compton (Nicolas Hoult) witnesses the disintegration of his parents’ marriage through adultery and alcohol set during the last gasp of the British Empire in Swaziland in 1969. When his father (Gabriel Byrne) remarries an American (Oscar-nominee Emily Watson), Ralph finds she is the only one who can truly understand his inner turmoil.

Free use image by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

Ornery Owl's Mini Review

Five out of Five Stars

This coming of age film set in 1969 contains a different kind of peril than yesterday's offering. Both of Ralph's parents are unstable in their own way. Ralph sees his mother cheating on his father with one of his father's friends. When his mother leaves his father for the friend, his father falls into a bottle. 

While Ralph is away at boarding school, his father marries an American flight attendant. This is no evil stepmother story. Ruby is a wonderful character. She's in Ralph's corner, and she stands up to the snobs. She befriends Gwen, whose husband Ralph's mother left his father for. 

Gwen and Ruby are better mothers to Ralph than his own mother. Her attempt to re-enter his life and reconcile with his father is self-serving and disastrous. 

I enjoyed this story and give it an enthusiastic recommendation.

You can see if your library has this film available on Kanopy. 

https://www.kanopy.com/en/highplains/video/4825398

Truthful Lies and Bent Realities #rabtbooktours

A Truly Believed Love Story

 

Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Date Published: April 30, 2026

 

In a time when mythology as propaganda shapes the systems of society and government, two unlikely souls come together to question the reality of it all—what’s going wrong in the world, whether anything’s right, and their own perceptions of honesty, dishonesty, and who they are.

Chillee and Gordie meet in Big Town, where their connection flourishes despite the recognition that they could each be fatal to the identities they’ve created for themselves. Chillee is a realistic idealist, a problem solver who puts her faith in the truth. Gordie, too, is an idealist, but he thrives on uncertainty, posing as a criminal to bring justice to white-collar crimes. They vow to hold one another accountable, to push each other through the steps to being a better person—the best person they’re capable of being.

In Chillee’s neighboring hometown, a county commissioner’s election will determine the fate of the rural community—and unknowingly put relationships to the test. When her best friend Willi asks Chillee to help her run against her ex-husband, she returns to Colton Center with Gordie…who has his own motives in mind.

As the couple continues to work with and against each other, Chillee and Gordie begin to see the deepening cracks in the perceived rights and wrongs of their world. No matter the outcome of the election, life as they knew it may not be the life they continue to lead.

Truthful Lies and Bent Realities is a thought-provoking ride into learning to understand the self and challenge the mind to keep asking the existential questions: Who are we? Who do we think we are? Who do we want to be? And do those identities intersect in the right places?

About the Author

Stephen Foehr, author of 14 fiction and nonfiction books, began his career as a police reporter in Chicago. His nonfiction books examines the relationship between music and culture, autobiography of the blues Taj Mahal, and travel. His fiction deals with submission and how to resist.

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Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge 2026: #Horror

 

From IMDB

#Horror follows a group of 12-year-old girls whose obsession with an online social media game turns an act of cyberbullying into a terrifying night in a lavish Connecticut home. Drawing from real-life issues, it attempts to explore the dangers of media-obsessed youth and online cruelty. Notable for a strong cast including Chloë Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne, and Timothy Hutton, it features striking visual style and surreal imagery. However, critics widely panned it for incoherent storytelling, shallow characterization, and overuse of gimmicky effects, making it a polarizing and often frustrating watch.

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

Ornery Owl's Mini Review

Three out of five stars

The film features strong performances, but the stylized cinematography and sensationalistic approach often makes it difficult to follow the plot. 

There isn't a single likeable character in this story. Although I felt compassion for certain issues the girls were experiencing, it's difficult to feel sympathy for the mean-spirited, self-absorbed spawn of wealthy, self-absorbed, asshole adults.

If you're in a rough place psychologically, this movie is not the best choice of distractions. 

You can rent this title on Amazon

https://link.amazon/A018v89O2

If you sign up for Kanopy, you can also see if your library has the title.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/highplains/video/13784862

The Hawk's Lady Book Blitz #rabtbooktours

Historical Romance

Date Published: July 4, 2026

A blond Barbary pirate captain of a xebec. . . Sinan Reis.

Who is he? Why did he desert his country?

His latest capture: a fine yacht. And its owner. . . Lady Victoria Grenville.

Who is she? Can an heiress to a fortune conform to harem life?

Amidst sea battles, kidnappings, and political menace from the Dey of Algiers, Sinan and Tory start as captor and captive. But their fierce battle of wills will transform them both.

Most importantly, if Tory can’t submit to him will he sell her at auction? Or can she escape before he does?

Kismet has other plans.

In 1799, Lady Victoria "Tory" Grenville, a willful English heiress, is captured at sea by Sinan Reis, a blond Barbary pirate captain secretly working for a cause he can't reveal. Aboard his xebec and within the walls of an Algiers harem, captor and captive wage a battle of wills that becomes a battle for the heart, set against real political intrigue between the new United States, the Dey of Algiers, and the warring Federalists and Democratic-Republicans of post-Revolutionary Philadelphia. Sweeping sea battles, kidnappings, and court machinations build to a richly satisfying historical romance grounded in meticulously researched 18th-century detail.

 

* New, expanded edition with a newly written epilogue extending the story into the events of 1814, bridging to the author's upcoming Regency-era trilogy.

* Bonus material: author's historical notes, a detailed bibliography/source list documenting the book's research, and a preview/teaser of Shannon's forthcoming "Fire, Wind and Earth" trilogy (Ashes, Burning Bright; Whirlwind, Burning Bright; Tiger, Burning Bright).

* Author Colleen Shannon was nominated by Romantic Times as Best New Historical Romance Author and has won/been nominated for multiple industry awards (including a Kiss Award) across an 18-novel career with over a million copies in print.

* Limited deluxe hardback printing released to mark the U.S. 250th anniversary with patriotic design features available on Colleen Shannon's author website.

The Hawk's Lady: a Deluxe 250th Anniversary Edition of Colleen Shannon's beloved 1989 Barbary Wars romance, now fully revised with new original content.

 

About the Author

Colleen Shannon grew up in Midland, Texas where the skies are as limitless as the tales told by its many colorful residents, dreamers and entrepreneurs all, with some scoundrels sprinkled in. Colleen grew up reading and writing stories of every kind. She wrote her first short story at eight, began a novel at 14 and read authors like Ayn Rand and Clive Cussler at 13. After college when she married and expected her first child, she used a scrap computer assembled by her engineer husband, to write her first novel, Wild Heart Tamed (not posted digitally because she considers it a learning experience).

She sold it herself to Berkley in less than a year, and at the age of 26 began a new career and never looked back. The strength of her first book led to her nomination by Romantic Times as Best New Historical Author. She went on to win and/or be nominated for many other awards, including a Kiss Award for all three heroes of her Fairy Tale trilogy written for Dorchester Books. One of her six completed scripts is a modern, very different version to her Georgian England set beauty and the beast novel The Gentle Beast. It has not been shown as it needs heavy revisions but she moves easily between scripts and novels, including original screenplays like Full Circle, currently revised after two Blacklist evaluations. In the last two years, she has become one of Film Freeways’ top winning screenwriters internationally, per Film Freeway management.

Her 18 single title releases have appeared on many bestseller lists; she has well over a million books in print. Colleen’s recent works include thrillers and screenplays that combine her favorite novel story elements: romance, suspense, history and action. Most recently, she published three Kensington Lyrical Press romantic suspense. The first in the series, Foster Justice, was released in December 2014 and ranked #1 on Amazon’s Western Romance list. Colleen converted the story to a novel from the original script version she wrote at UCLA’s Advanced Professional Screenwriting program.

Colleen Shannon graduated cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Archaeology and more recently earned her Master’s in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California. She currently lives in Austin, Texas.

 

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Crows Calling Book Blitz #rabtbooktours

An Inspiring Journey into our Better Natures

Literary/Eco-Fiction

Date Published: 10-01-2025

Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press

Earth’s animals are fed up with humanity’s mindless damage to our common home. Will a young girl and her family heed their call?

Ten-year-old Luz sets out on an overnight camping trip, accompanied by her spiritual mentor. Peering through a canopy of California redwoods, Luz witnesses a council of animals confronting the menace of climate change. Led by a lustrous—and talkative—American Crow named Koro, the animals weigh their options. Some, like Koro, want to collaborate with humans. Others doubt humanity’s good intentions. The conversation compels young Luz, innately in tune with the natural world, to fight passionately in its defense.

At once a work of fact-based activism and a moving coming-of-age, Crows Calling immerses the reader in a richly-drawn family and community who, despite their differences, decide to dedicate their lives to the care of Grandmother Earth. They are not alone. Rather, they are accompanied by a colorful cast of savvy planimals—bears, coyotes, trees, and even chickens—with long memories and ancient ways of healing. However, some damage cannot be undone. Natural disasters, public apathy, and greed threaten everything that Luz and her friends are working for. Can the cross-species alliance find unity and resolve the climate crisis?

About the Author

Bruce McConnell is an agile and accomplished shapeshifter, having flourished as a poet, roofer, artist-blacksmith, mechanical engineer, tenor, business consultant, national security official, non-profit executive, and peacemaker. A collection of his poems, Living from Here, was published by Anvil Press (US). He recently moved to Ashland Oregon to feel closer to his relatives in the natural world. Crows Calling is his first novel. He is working on a second novel set in Southern Oregon.

A leading player on global peace and security issues at the intersection of governments, business and civil society for over thirty years, McConnell is the former President and CEO of the EastWest Institute. He serves on the board of The Stimson Center, in support of peace, security, justice, and prosperity for all living beings.

From 2009 to 2013, McConnell served in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, where he was Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity. He was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team. From 2000-2008, he created, built and sold two consultancies that provided strategic advice to clients in the technology, business and government sectors. In 1999-2000, McConnell led the International Y2K Cooperation Center, which was sponsored by the United Nations and the World Bank.

McConnell holds a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School for Public Policy at the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Sciences from Stanford University. He serves as a business advisor to various technology companies.

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Saving the Kids Book Blitz #rabtbooktours

Saving La Familia Series, Book Three

 

Romantic Suspense

Date Published: May 1, 2026

Intrepid school teacher Dina Salazar and her P.I. friend encounter more than they bargained for as they locate some of the 350,000 illegal, unaccompanied minors who crossed over and were turned over to unvetted sponsors. Their aim is to rescue those who have fallen prey to evil drug and human traffickers and turned into slaves. Their quest to save one group of immigrant teenagers leads them to encounter one of the most clever and corrupt of L.A. businessmen, a man with no moral scruples who has become rich as a drug and human trafficker. Finding the proof leads them to a border Arizona ranch where they and the Task-Force team battle smugglers and coyotes working for a dangerous Mexican cartel, and Dina and Gil confront a cartel hitman intent on killing both of them.

About the Author

Donna Del Oro was a high school teacher of Literature and Writing and is now enjoying the freedom from classroom bells by writing novels and traveling the world.

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It's All About Love Teaser #rabtbooktours

 

 Women's Fiction / Historical Fiction / Romance

Date Published: 11-10-2026

 

 San Francisco, 1967. The Summer of Love promises radical freedom—but for twenty-year-old Juliette, it becomes a dangerous trap.

 

Desperate to escape her conventional family, Juliette shocks her parents by announcing her engagement to David, a long-haired free spirit. When her father, Tristan—a famous novelist harboring a tragic past—vehemently forbids the union, Juliette acts on impulse. In the dead of night, she climbs out her window and flees with David to the counterculture epicenter of Haight-Ashbury.

 

But beneath the cloud of incense and rock 'n' roll, independence carries a steep price. As David drifts into a haze of drugs and broken promises, Juliette’s bohemian dream shatters. Back home, her flight reopens old wounds. Her fiercely protective mother, Lorna, must help Tristan confront the shadows of his past as they desperately try to pull their daughter back from the edge before it's too late.

 

It’s All About Love is a poignant coming-of-age story about the fragile line between rebellion and destruction and the enduring, messy grace of family.

Excerpt

“I’m getting married!” Juliette burst through the door, holding her ring finger up for the world to see. Well, for my dear husband of twenty-two years and me to see.
            Said dear husband rose from his chair with such gusto that the poor chair clattered to the floor, victim of his temper. “What?!”
            The humid June air clung to the back of my neck as I stood. Pushing my graying hair out of my eyes, I took a step toward my husband and placed a hand on his upper arm. I recognized the fear that flashed beneath his anger. I’d seen that look far too many times lately as she missed her curfew night after night all summer long.  “Tristan, dear, just...calm down, okay?” I cast a pleading glance between him and our daughter. I could see the words on the edge of his tongue. Don’t follow in my footsteps. His own impulsive marriage led to a tragedy that impacted both our lives. I knew the thought of Juliette repeating his mistakes kept him awake at night.
            “Calm down?” Tristan tossed his hands up; then his arms flopped to his thin torso’s sides.
            “Your heart,” I said, stepping in front of him. “Please.”
            He released a sound somewhere between a growl and a groan, then righted his chair and sat. “So, who’s the lucky guy?” he shot at Juliette. “Don’t tell me it’s that long-haired hippie.”
It wasn’t just the hair. David's casual attitude toward drugs reminded Tristan too much of his own dance with addiction, though he'd never admit that to her.
            Juliette stood just inside the open door. Only the screen separated her from darting outside and the darkness swallowing her for another late night. Another night without a curfew. Another night we hoped we could trust her judgment. Another night our little girl proved she wasn’t so little anymore.
            She crossed her arms over her chest and sent her dad a glare worthy of one of his own. Her blue eyes held the same spark that challenged, much like Tristan’s eyes. “Seriously, Dad? Like you should talk.” She gestured toward his messy, longish hair.
            “That’s not the point,” Tristan said, teeth clenched. “You can’t just go running off with the first guy who puts a ring on your finger. If he had any decency, he’d have asked us first.”
            Juliette closed the door and scoffed. “It’s 1967, Daddio.” She popped her gum as she leaned against the table. “I don’t need your permission.”
            “Like hell you don’t.” Tristan stood, the menacing tone creeping back into his voice.
            I came between them. “Okay, both of you… Can’t we talk about this?”
            Juliette shifted her gaze to me. “Mom, please. Can’t you make Dad see reason?”
            I held back a sigh and lifted my hand. About to place it on her shoulder, I resisted and let my arm drop. “Juliette, this isn’t a good idea. David isn’t—”
            “Isn’t what, Mom?” A tremor ran through her voice. She blinked rapidly, then stepped away. She headed for the door to the dining and living rooms, stopping before she exited. “Why can’t you just be happy for me for once?” Her footsteps banged through the house and up the stairs. A slam of her bedroom door and I knew it would be unwise to knock anytime the rest of the night.
 

 

About the Author

Bestselling and award-winning author of the Lorna & Tristan Series, Cynthia Hilston is a stay-at-home mom of three young kids, happily married, and lives in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Writing has always been like another child to her. After twenty years of waltzing in the world of fan fiction, she has stepped away to do her debut dance with original works of fiction, although she still dabbles in fan fiction.

In her spare time–what spare time?–she devours books, pets her kitties, looks at the stars, drinks wine or coffee with good friends, and dreams of what other stories she wishes to tell.

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