Book Review-Learning-by-Degrees

Learning by Degrees

(Dan Irvine Book #1)

by

Marty Langenberg

 

Learning by Degrees commences with university Orientation Week pranks and in this instance focuses on the hazing of a gay first year student and the long-term cost of that event.

Learning by Degrees is sort of a sequel to Marty’s previous books in so much as the core characters from Marty’s earlier works (The Broken Vows Trilogy) are reprised again, in Learning by Degrees.

Learning by Degrees commences with university Orientation Week, however the story soon jumps to about ten years after graduation day.  Most participants of the initiation ceremony are now very successful in politics or business.

One by one, four of the six involved in the initiation ceremony, against the gay freshman, turn up very dead.  I didn’t pick the murderer as Learning by Degrees ended with surviving characters explaining why and who, the murderer was.

Learning by Degrees is reasonably well paced with many conversations between characters as they try to solve the mystery of who is the murderer.

I was left a bit baffled when I discovered who the villain was, as from memory, he had a small part (except in name) and was never described (to my knowledge) as a villain.

At the time of writing my review only one other Goodreads reader had rated (5 stars) and reviewed Learning by Degrees.

My three star rating gives Learning by Degrees an average of 4 stars at this point in time.

 

I have rated

Learning by Degrees

as a

read.

Learning by Degrees

can be purchased on-line at 

Fishpond and Amazon

Finally, I must declare that I know and worked with Marty

for several years before he retired.

However, I believe this has not clouded my review.

 

Book Review-A-French-Connection

A French Connection

(Broken Vows Trilogy Book 3)

by

Marty Langenberg

Should you have previously read this review my apologies. 

I cannot find a review for ‘A French Connection’ anywhere on my blog,

however I read it in mid 2018.

I read A French Connection not long after I returned from my second visit to France and although that trip to France did not see Paris and the Palace of Versailles on my itinerary, they were definitely a major part A French Connection (The Broken Vows Trilogy, #3) by Marty Langenberg.

With memories of Paris and Versailles (during my first visit) still deeply etched in mind A French Connection had my attention in the first few pages.

A French Connection sees Pennie and her son (Daniel) moving to Paris together with her friend Chris, because of the latter’s desire to further his career opportunities through study at the ISIPCA (Institut Supérieur International du Parfum), the world-famous school for people looking for a career in Perfume, Cosmetics and Food Flavours.

A French Connection has a strong link to The Baby Farm (Book 2 of the Trilogy) with a bad guy surfacing and up to no good in Paris. While the bad guy may provide a link between two books, his appearance is not the crux of the story.   A French Connection revolves around how these three survived in Paris.

If this happens to be the first time reading a review of mine, please consider reading the Broken Vows trilogy and novella in sequence. A French Connection could be read as a standalone novel, however, there are characters that ‘pop up’ (for lack of a better phrase) briefly, or not so briefly, in A French Connection and all are thoroughly introduced in early books.

When trying to liken Marty’s work to another author, the first name which came to mind was James Patterson. Both authors produce fast paced, interesting and easy reads. I am fairly confident that if you are a James Patterson fan, as am I, you will enjoy the Broken Vows Trilogy.

I hope Marty has another story in the pipeline as I am enjoying the other side of a former work colleague.

Finally, I must declare that I know and worked with Marty

for several years before he retired.

However, I believe this has not clouded my review.

 

Definitely a

read.

A French Connection

can be purchased on-line at 

Amazon, Barnes & Noble,

Kobo, OverDrive

 

Book Review-The-Baby-Farm

The Baby Farm

(Broken Vows Trilogy Book 2)

by

Marty Langenberg

The Baby Farm is the second book the Broken Vows Trilogy by Marty Langenberg and follows book 1.5, Pennie, the Prequel to The Baby Farm.

I have already stated in my review of Pennie that I am not a fan of short stories, however in this instance, while not completely necessary to read Pennie prior to The Baby Farm, Pennie does fill in some otherwise unknown detail of Pennie’s life and how she arrived at this point in her life.  Also bear in mind that Pennie was introduced in Book 1 of the Broken Vows Trilogy with her character being further developed in Pennie, Book 1.5.

For many years in Australia we have heard of the stolen generation. The ‘stolen generation’ being children of native Australians who were removed from their parents by the government of the day to be raised and educated by white Australian standards.

What has often annoyed me is the fact that there were/are many generations of white Australian children in the same position who are never described as stolen by society simple because they were children primarily of unwed teenage mothers. It was not until the early seventies that I first saw an unwed teenage mother with her child around my home town.

Prior to then girls often disappeared for a few months, usually to a capital city where they had their babies delivered and adopted.  Society of the time decreed they had brought shame on their families.

In writing The Baby Farm, Marty has addressed this issue head on.  The Baby Farm describes in detail what occurred to some of our young teenage/unmarried mothers of that era.  He has delved into the trauma these mothers underwent and also described the deviousness of people working in the name of religion, God and in this case St. Gerard (protector of mothers and children), to ‘help’ these mothers.

Thankfully there were some characters who offered real help and assistance to Pennie and her friend (Heather), preferring to see the real person and not forming an opinion based on current circumstances.

The Baby Farm is another fast paced read and one which again will have readers wanting to know what is going to happen in the next chapter.

Finally, I must declare that I know and worked with Marty

for several years before he retired.

However, I believe this has not clouded my review.

 

Definitely a

read.

Broken Vows

can be purchased on-line at 

Amazon, Barnes & Noble,

Kobo, OverDrive

 

Book Review-Pennie

Pennie

(Broken Vows Trilogy #1.5)

by

Marty Langenberg

Pennie is a prequel to The Baby Farm which is book 2 of the Broken Vows trilogy and tells us of Pennie’s background; the how and why she came to be in Orange (New South Wales) in Book 1, Broken Vows.

Before proceeding any further I must state that I am not a fan of short stories.  Any I have read seem to pique my interest and the next page, like a Perry Mason script (which shows my age), the story ends in a few sentences.

 My initial reaction to Pennie was that I had read much of this before either from the blurb or as Pennie retold her story to Steve/Des in Broken Vows.

Pennie became more interesting as it progressed to Pennie’s hitchhiking days and as mentioned previously ended rather abruptly.  I do hope Pennie’s character is featured in later books as I think she could be expanded upon and interesting story lines could revolve around her.

Pennie was an enjoyable read and worthy of a solid three star rating.

At the time of writing no other Goodreads Readers had rated or reviewed Pennie.

 A solidread.

Pennie

can be purchased on-line at 

Amazon, Barnes & Noble,

Kobo, OverDrive

I must declare that I know and worked with Marty for several years before his retirement.  Little did I know he was a closet author. 🙂  However, my review is genuine…as are all my reviews.  

Book Review-Broken-Vows

Broken Vows

(Broken Vows Trilogy Book 1)

by

Marty Langenberg

Before I go any further I must declare that I know and worked with Marty for several years before he retired.  However, I believe this has not clouded my review. 

‘Broken Vows’ is Book 1 of the ‘Broken Vows Trilogy’.  ‘Broken Vows’ refers to the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, which Catholic priests take, before they are ordained.

 

The opening of ‘Broken Vows’ sees three young men studying to be  priests and discussing, at length, the meaning of these Vows.  To say they come up with some interesting definitions of each Vow is understatement.  These definitions combined with the Bishop’s view of simply moving priests to another parish when their warped proclivities were discovered and reported, provides an interesting opening to ‘Broken Vows’

 

 ‘Broken Vows’ is about these priests and a family with three boys at a Catholic boy’s boarding school in a time when children were to be seen and not heard.  The seen and not heard comment applied especially if the child’s actions or thoughts could bring humiliation on family or school.  The boys’ father often used the phrase “…these things don’t happen in Catholic schools…” and was more concerned with his family’s public persona than his boy’s well-being.  This attitude resulted in the worst possible outcome for the family…followed by their eldest son leaving school without a word to anyone.

 

‘Broken Vows’ was a bit close to home for me for various reasons.  I did attend a Catholic all boys’ boarding school during the sixties.   Staff names were similar to some of those appearing in ‘Broken Vows’.  We also had several boys disappear overnight as in ‘Broken Vows’.  We all believed the version of their absence provided by the Rector without question.  I don’t know of any rumours that may link any of our staff to the ‘Broken Vows’ activities.  But how would we have known?  Asking the Rector would have been out of the question.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Broken Vows’ and scenarios put forward by Marty.  I felt ‘Broken Vows’ was fast paced and it was definitely one of those books which saw me wanting to read on into the early hours of the morning.

 

Attending a Catholic Boarding School is not a pre-requisite to enjoy ‘Broken Vows’.  ‘Broken Vows’ could have been set within any Denomination and still been an enjoyable read.

I have already read and reviewed ‘Pennie’, a short story prequel to Book 2 of the Broken Vows Trilogy.   May I suggest you do likewise?

I have rated ‘Broken Vows’ a solid four star read and added one more for an outstanding debut novel.

To date, no other Goodreads readers have rated or reviewed ‘Broken Vows’.

 Aread.

Broken Vows

can be purchased on-line at 

Amazon, Barnes & Noble,

Kobo, OverDrive