Book Details:
Book Title: The Kiminee Dream: A Novel
Author: Laura McHale Holland
Category: Adult Fiction (18+ and older), 342 pages
Genre: Literary fiction, magical realism
Publisher: WORDforest
Release date: April, 2020
Formats Available for review: print soft-back (USA and Canada), ebook (mobi for kindle, epub, pdf, Gifted Kindle)
Tour dates: June 7 to June 18, 2021
Content Rating: PG-13 + M. A few scenes contain violence and sexual assault. These are not major aspects of the book and don't go into great detail, but these experiences have repercussions for some of the characters that they have to resolve.
Book Description:
A deeply poetic, riveting debut novel, The Kiminee Dream is a tale of Midwest charm and quirky characters, but with twists and turns that reveal a dark side you don't see coming.
It's true that odd things happen in Kiminee, Illinois. Lilacs bloom in winter. Gravel glows golden on occasion. The river sings as it wends through town. But this is normal for the tight-knit folks who call Kiminee home. So when auburn-tufted Carly Mae Foley learns to read at age two and masters multiplication at age three, the denizens take it in stride and embrace her with pride.
But all is not well in Carly Mae's family. And when a twister roars though, it decimates their home, along with their emotional bonds, as her mother's affair is exposed and her father goes missing. A determined grandmother, one-eared dog and generous benefactor come to the gifted child's aid, but not everyone is rooting for her, and when an appalling crime occurs, long-held animosities boil over. No one can say whether the good folks of Kiminee will pull closer together—or be torn apart.
Influenced by folklore and magical realism, The Kiminee Dream is both hypnotic and endearing. If you like depth as well as whimsy, arresting twists, and details that stir your heart, you’ll love what is ultimately an eloquent exploration of acceptance and a tender tribute to the people of Illinois. Don’t delay. Experience this literary gem today.
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Amazon ~ B&N ~ Bookshop
Draft2Digital
add to Goodreads
Also Available for Review:
Book Title: Aunt Truly's Tales: Enchantment for Story Lovers
Author: Laura McHale Holland
Category: Adult Fiction (18+ and older), 100 pages
Genre: Fantasy: short stories/folk and fairy tales
Publisher: WORDforest
Release date: June 5, 2021
Formats Available for review: ebook (mobi for kindle, epub, pdf, Gifted Kindle)
Tour dates: June 7 to June 18, 2021
Content Rating: PG. These are all stories that could be shared with a teenager, probably even a 10 year old.
Book Description:
A dash of whimsy and a dose of wisdom for our times.
If you like stories that call to mind a simpler era and words strung in lyrical ways, this collection will take you to a wondrous world where ordinary rules do not apply.
Podcasts, blogs, movies, vlogs—people spin yarns in many ways. But nothing dazzles like a story told in person. In the right teller's hands, a simple narrative has unfathomable power. Such is the case with Aunt Truly, a spellbinding character in Laura McHale Holland's novel The Kiminee Dream. She is old, but no one knows her age; she travels, but
where she goes is a mystery. One thing is certain: she collects stories.
The ten tales in this book present traditional and original stories Aunt Truly might tell you if you happened by her home, Windy Wood, where snow falls from November through April, and reality is open to interpretation. In her tales, you'll meet a determined frog, clever seamstress, wise handyman, stolen wife and more unlikely heroes who face daunting trials. Some succeed; others do not. In the process, they are all transformed.
Buy the Book
Amazon (print) ~ Amazon (ebook)
B&N ~ Draft2Digital
add to Goodreads
As a child, Laura McHale Holland loved the musicality of language and often recalled, verbatim, conversations she heard. A lost soul in her teens and early twenties, she righted herself in her mid-twenties and discovered a deep love of the creative process. In her work, she often finds hope in unlikely places.
Laura writes stories true and untrue in multiple forms from flash fiction to novels, memoirs to short plays. Her coming of age memoir, Resilient Ruin, won a National Indie Excellence Award for new adult nonfiction. Prior award-winning books include Reversible Skirt, a childhood memoir, and Sisters Born, Sisters Found, an anthology on sisterhood. Her stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Best of Every Day Fiction Three and Wisdom Has a Voice. Two of her short plays were produced recently in Northern California; two others received staged readings. The Kiminee Dream is Laura's first novel. To connect with her, please visit her website.
connect with author: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ goodreads
June 7 – Olio by Marilyn – book review of The Kiminee Dream / giveaway
June 7 – Olio by Marilyn – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
June 7 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book review of Aunt Truly's Tales / giveaway
June 8 – Cheryl's Book Nook – book review of The Kiminee Dream / giveaway
June 8 - @twilight_reader – book review of The Kiminee Dream
June 9 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book review of The Kiminee Dream / guest post / giveaway
June 9 - Welcome To MLM Opinion’s Reviews – book review of The Kiminee Dream
June 9- Sefina Hawke’s Books – book review of The Kiminee Dream
June 10 - Literary Flits – book review of The Kiminee Dream / giveaway
June 10 – Welcome To MLM Opinion’s Reviews – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales
June 10 - World of My Imagination – book review of The Kiminee Dream / guest post / giveaway
June 11 – The Avid Reader – book review of The Kiminee Dream / author interview / giveaway
June 11 - @twilight_reader – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales
June 14 – Books for Books – book review of The Kiminee Dream
June 14 - Sefina Hawke’s Books – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales
June 15 – Peaceful Pastime – book review of The Kiminee Dream
June 15 – Books for Books – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales
June 16 - Splashes of Joy – book review of The Kiminee Dream / author interview / giveaway
June 16 – Peaceful Pastime – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales
June 16 – Bigreadersite – book review of The Kiminee Dream / giveaway
June 17- Splashes of Joy – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales / giveaway
June 17 – Bigreadersite – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales / giveaway
June 17 - Gina Rae Mitchell – book review of The Kiminee Dream / giveaway
June 17 - World of My Imagination – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales / giveaway
June 18 – Kymiee Tries to Read – book review of The Kiminee Dream / guest post
June 18 - Gina Rae Mitchell – book review of Aunt Truly’s Tales / giveaway
Laura McHale Holland's THE KIMINEE DREAM Book Tour Giveaway
Author Interview:
I would like to welcome Laura McHale Holland to my blog and thank her for the interview!
What inspired you to
write The Kiminee Dream?
I set about to write a
short story about a young genius who was constantly told she could achieve
great things, but who encountered repeated obstacles that led her to live a
different life than anyone imagined. As I wrote, however, a host of quirky
characters emerged. They lived in an odd little town with a personality all its
own. At some point, I realized the girl and her struggles were part of a bigger
story about the underlying love that connects us if we allow it to. Well,
that's what I think it boils down to, but the beauty of setting a novel free
into the world is that other people find their own meaning in the narrative.
Writing it was full of surprises because I let my imagination reign.
Are the magical realism
aspects of the book the result of letting imagination reign?
Definitely, yes. If I saw
something unfold in my mind's eye, like a lilac that bloomed all year, even in
the deep of winter, I didn't push it aside, thinking it was nutty because it
couldn't happen in the real world. I saw Kiminee as an extraordinary pocket in
the real world. I exaggerated things that do happen, such as leaves falling in
autumn. In one chapter, the leaves fall day after day. Each time one turns
color and drops, another replaces it on the branch and soon drops, as well,
until the entire town is blanketed. Children wade to school through them,
people shovel them but can't keep up, but the situation does resolve in not too
long a time.
How many books have you
written? Which is your favorite?
I've written five books:
two memoirs, two collections of flash fiction (very short fiction) and one
novel. I've also edited an anthology on sisterhood. I have two favorites. One
is The Kiminee Dream, because writing it was such an adventure. The
characters had their own ideas about what should happen, and I love them for
it. The other favorite is my first book, Reversible Skirt, a memoir both
heartbreaking and hopeful about growing up after my mother's suicide. I started
and stopped the memoir several times over many years. Finally, my voice as a
child came through and carried the book. My main job was just to listen.
If you could go back in
time, where would you go?
I'd like to spend a day
with my mother in the 1950s. I was just two years old when she ended her life,
and my few fleeting memories of her are blurry and drained of color. I'd like
to see her in vibrant color interacting with my sisters, my father and me. I
want to know if she twisted the cord when she talked on the phone. I'd like to
smell what she cooked at the stove, maybe go on a walk with her at twilight. I
want to see her smile and look into my eyes. I want to know the sound of her
voice. Wouldn't that be something? I'd also like to meet some of my ancestors
when they arrived on the shores of North America. The earliest were Irish
immigrants who settled on Prince Edward Island more than a century before the
Potato Famine.
What advice would you
give a new writer, someone just starting out?
The most important thing
is to keep going, and if you get sidetracked—no matter for how long—get up and
get moving again. It's easy to feel like you're falling behind, especially if
you've had a dry or difficult spell when life has thrown things at you that
demand your full attention and all of your heart. Don't dwell on lost
opportunities and time wasted; there's room for all of us, starting right now
and from wherever we're at. People who love books don't usually want to read
only one author's work. We're on the lookout for great reads all the time.
We're all part of a great big community. People are waiting to connect with
you. Your book could become my next favorite read or vice versa.
What is your next project?
I'm working on a novel that centers on Shinbone Lane, a fictional street in San Francisco. I lived in that city for twenty-nine years, many of them just a heartbeat away from the 29th Street hill, which is mighty steep. I situated Shinbone at the top. The tale begins in the mid-1970s, a time when I landed in San Francisco, but beyond that, the story doesn't follow my life experiences. When I started the book, I mentioned to my husband I was trying to think of a good name for the lane. "Call if Shinbone," he quipped. I was leaning toward something like Parsnip or Buckeye, but the more I thought about Shinbone, the more I liked it. Plus it gave me a challenge: to come up with a tale within the novel about how the lane got its name. I'm still working that out.
My review:
Overall I enjoyed this book very much.
Reasons:
- The characters are so unique. Their names creative, but yet they are so relatable.
- The story is so vivid, that I can picture it in my head.
- I just wanted to keep reading because it was an interesting story.
- It was an enjoyable story.
- Well written.
Final Verdict:
I haven't found a book like this in a long time. I would highly recommend it. I would like to thank I Read book Tours for letting me participate in this blog tour.
