Book Title : Mudflat Toy Boy
Author : Phoebe Matthews
Publisher : Siren-Bookstrand
Genre : Urban Paranormal
Publication Date : February 2009
ISBN : 1-9-60601-208-8
Pages : 282
Series : Mudflat, Book 3
Category : Sweet
Type : e-book

Reviewer : Melissa

5 Wings

A small neighbourhood in Seattle, Washington, Mudflat is a place of old magic and its residents have lived there for generations. Outsiders are not liked. Clair Carmody had brought in two a couple years ago from her unexpected trip to a different time and place. The older cousin Tarvik, younger than Clair, was a warrior and Clair’s love, and his younger cousin, Nance, was trying to find a life and grow up in a different culture than she was born in. Now another person (or being) from their home has come looking for the missing Prince warrior and new power. Clair must learn more about her horoscope talent and whatever else comes with it from the oldest living mage in the neighbourhood; she also must avoid the Decko Brothers and their schemes to use her talents for illegal purposes. The death of two of the most powerful mages in the Mudflat drew her closer to two of her friends who were not zombie-like in their actions and responses to others in the neighbourhood. Could Mudflat beat this new enemy? Could they survive this new hypnotizing enemy who was trying to steal the riches from the not so rich Mudflat? Lots of twists and turns and a lovely love story of two different people still trying to make their way to each other through it all.

This third book in the Mudflat series by Phoebe Matthews, Mudflat Toy Boy, delights and keeps you turning the pages as fast as you can to find out what happened next. The interaction between the members of this small Seattle neighbour makes anyone from a small town, or a small neighbourhood, laugh at the situations they find themselves in. The emotions and caring for each other, everybody pitching in to visit and watch over the two woman most affected by the evil in that had come to Seattle’s Mudflat is real and touching. The hero and heroine kept worked together, and eventually Clair told Tarvik everything that had happened to her and exactly who they were dealing with. Her fear of losing him jumped off the pages as she explained herself to you the reader, her love for him, her fear of losing him, her fear of commitment because things might go wrong. What I loved that about this book is that Clair states she would survive a broken heart, but she would not survive a broken marriage. This reviewer got that statement when she thought it as Tarvik keeps bugging her to get an engagement ring and promise to marry him. She is so afraid of waking up one morning and finding him gone for whatever reason. She finally agrees on getting his ring resized for her finger, no other ring could ever mean more to her that the one he had given her in his land. I totally enjoyed this book, even with it being in the first person, which for the most part I am not fond of. I give Ms Matthews a full 5 wings for keeping my attention and making the book so delightful. Well crafted, Ms Matthews. This reviewer will have to go collect the first two books of this series now.

Okay, I now have an old digital camera that got passed to me when the owner acquired a new one, but golly, it works!  I am no photographer.  However, I point and click and this thing comes up with amazing photos.  A perfect summer hobby.  As my 4th Mudflat book will be released in October, I decided to put together a cover idea to send to the cover artist to show her the main themes of the story.  And in the background I wanted something typical of Seattle.  So I hopped the ferry and snapped some pictures and hey!  Some came out quite well.  I sent them to her and she didn’t use the exact photos, but she used the general shapes, sky and building relationships, that sort of thing.  She has the talent and the artist’s eye.  I have the camera.  Here are a couple of the photos.  Let me add, the ferry ride is fun even without a camera because the views are gorgeous and the clam chowder is Ivar’s own.

Book Title : Deja Vu Lover
Author : Phoebe Matthews
Publisher : Wild Rose Press
Genre : Contemporary / historical / time travel
Publication Date : 2008
ISBN : 10: 1601543425; ISBN-13: 978-1601543424
Pages : 264 pages
Series : N/A
Category : Sensual
Type : Print, ebook

Reviewer: Lindsay Townsend

5 Wings

I was gripped from the start by Deja Vu Lover by Phoebe Matthews, with its clever title, intriguing opening and immediate evocation of place. In this original historical-romance-time-slip, the narrator, April, is used to being classed as a bimbo, but she is far from that. April is a warm-hearted, sympathetic, scatty (she keeps forgetting her umbrella in rainy modern-day Seattle) and charming young woman whom I found very appealing. She is part of a foursome of friends: steady, dependable Macbeth, clever Cyd and charming Tom. She has an on-off relationship with Tom, but both of them are commitment-shy and worried about losing each other as friends if they attempt to become more ‘serious’.

I really enjoyed the fresh, snazzy dialogue between April and her three friends, and the author’s compassionate, insightful depiction of modern relationships between men and women. April meanwhile is disturbed by a vision she has of a two car accident where her three closest, dearest friends are hurt – and where she is driving one of the cars, although she cannot really drive. The visions – or are they flashbacks to a past life? – continue and increase. April lives in modern Seattle but keeps being catapulted back to California in the 1920s, where as Silver (real name Millie) she is an aspiring actress, madly in love with rising star Laurence.

Faced with these visions, April and her friends do some searching in the library and online to find Laurence and Silver. On one of these searches, April finds another Laurence – a college professor called Graham Berkold who has Laurence’s smile and charm. April finds she cannot resist Graham and, much like Silver/Millie before her, she begins a sensual love affair. At first April is free of her disturbing flashbacks but then they resume with frightening intensity. And soon April is confused. Is she with Graham, or Laurence? Her two lives are starting to collide.

Laurence and Graham also mirror each other. Laurence, she discovers, is married. So, too, she learns too late, is Graham. Both claim their wives are addicts. Then in another flashback, April learns that Laurence’s wife died and that rumours circulated that Laurence had a hand in her death. Will that history repeat itself in the present? Will Graham be involved in his wife’s death? Are Laurence and Graham to be trusted with Silver/Millie’s heart and April’s heart?

Macbeth and Tom meanwhile keep looking in on April, checking she’s OK. Macbeth takes her in his car to teach her to drive. Tom, her on-off lover, goes with her to Minnesota to discover what happened in the end to Silver/Millie. The actress, it turns out, died young, in a car crash. Will that tragic history repeat itself in the present, with April?

Déjà Vu Lover by Phoebe Matthews is a tender yet tough story, full of romantic twists and turns and a lovely, romantic ending. I found myself cheering April on and wishing her really well and happy – which, in the end, she is – and with the right man for her. I am looking forward to reading more of Phoebe Matthews’ books.

Lindsay Townsend