Book Review: Swimming With Manatees by Bill Bennett

 This is clearly a passion project of Bill Bennett, an independent author. 

 I would like to thank NetGalley for the advanced digital copy to read and review. 

I was initially attracted by the title and attractive cover, as well as the Florida setting. I do love a Florida setting.  In addition, I did hope to finish this in 2025 as part of my water theme, but I got... Water logged with books, so here we are in January. 

We're given the Story of Ava Martinez, a tough and savvy detective  who is somewhat new to the force she's working on in the Everglades area of Florida. This case is personal, because in a small town, almost everyone knows everyone. 

Readers experience multiple points of view as they read and unravel the mystery of who killed multiple people, and why. The author brings in current uses and interest in marine life as a source of new medical treatments, and was able to hold my attention with some action scenes interspersed with cerebral sleuthing. 

The book is written with a heavy heavy noir style which many descriptions ending in a comparison.  This is an area which Bennett excels. It was repetitive, but I did enjoy reading the prose which took me right into the nostalgic feel of Noir novels and films from days gone by. 

That said, I did not fall in love with any of the characters- I could see how the author attempted to cobble in a backstory - especially for Ava Martinez, but unique as her backstory was, it didn't seem to really influence her current character or do anything to make her seem more real. I found her partner to be much more interesting, and that partner perishes early on!

The mystery of the murders revolves around a fascinating plot of the possibility of new biologics for disease treatment.  For most readers, this is going to be great.  For me, given my career, there were some errors that made it seem less real, but again, that has to do with my familiarity with the subject at hand. 

   I did think that it was a bold move for this male author to chose to create a female main character with a very specifically Hispanic/Latina name. To his credit  ( or discredit?) the only thing female or Hispanic/Latina about this character is the name.  I feel like the book could have had a male main character with the name of John Smith and it would have felt the same.  

So is this a book for everyone?  I suspect there are readers out there who will find this to be a good read. Unraveling the mystery was quite fun, and I enjoyed the description of the Everglades. Other readers may find it a bit difficult to follow, and to be somewhat tedious with heavy prose. 

STATS

First Published : 10/30/2025

Pages: 479

Available as an Audio Book :  No

Trigger Warnings: violence, blood, medical situations, murder, guns,  (not a complete list- be responsible!)

Book Review: Salvagia by Tim Chawaga

  I was very hesitant to pick this up when I saw it on NetGalley.  The cover was so cool and the premise was good, but would my own expectations get in the way? 

I am so glad I finally hit the request button and even more glad that Simon and Schuster sent me the Advanced Listener Copy.  Another Banger for 2025!

  I did a little digging about and it seems that Tim Chawaga is a debut novelist that works in tech, and does not live in Florida. Despite all that, he captured a lot of what is great about Florida and some of the less great as well. I sunk into this novel, and honestly, I slowed the narration down to the very regular 1.0 speed  because I didn't really want it to end. 

So- interlude to talk about the cover.  The design is credited to Jim Tierney. I peeped at his website and saw a ton of books I'd picked up because of the cover. Seriously!  I guess... if you want to sell me a book, get Tierney to make the cover? 

SPOILER FREE SUMMARY  because spoilers are for losers, and I'm a total winner. 

Triss is living in a future Florida that is mostly underwater. Triss is a diver and brings up thing slike air conditioners for money, but... also Salvagia - which is essentially nostalgic salvage. Just like nostalgic items are valued today for the story attached to them, salvagia increases in value similarly. 

We join Triss and the crew as they salvage a specific shoe, but after some issues with the crew, Triss discovers one of the most powerful family heads chained underwater, dead. This is a problem! The after math of this discovery leads our main character on a adventure all over Florida, with risky diving, even riskier space races with "atmo-breakers", interaction with semi-sentient machines, real estate schemes and more. Triss is caught between the Feds, the powerful Florida "families" and her obligations to her friend who's seeking a third way (you'll have to read to find out about the ways). Can Triss and company carve out a different way of living that is sustainable and free?  Well, obviously you'll need to read to find out. I do hope you'll read! 

   Things I loved about this book and want to highlight? 

- Really solid world building that is easily understood.  Chawaga starts with a foundation that many know well- Florida. On top of Florida an entirely different world is created with just enough of the old mixed in with the new that the reader can easily immerse themselves in this new Florida setting which is a comfortable combination of the old and the new.  

-I never could figure out the gender of many of the characters. This simultaneously bothered me and intrigued me.  I really wanted to know, and then I was left sitting in my thoughts about why was it so important that I know.  I liked that this novel wasn't "about gender"  but without being about gender, still gave me a lot to think about regarding gender in society. 

-Realistic while being futuristic.  I read a lot of romance, and I appreciate the genre because it is predictable to a T. (We get a happy ending, the heroine never dies in the villains clutches etc). In Salvagia I had a few moments when I realized that some places/characters were not going to be revived/reintroduced and as disappointing as it was to my heart, I liked it a lot because indeed, the world doesn't save everyone.

-Mechanical alligator.  Need I say more?  I think not. 

As a person who accidently came to live in Florida and love it for many of it's quirks and weirdness (It could be a little less weird these days!)  I really loved the imagined sunken cities, the salvagia and the typical freedom seeking folx depicted.  It seemed to capture the essence of Florida now and into the future. 

Highly recommend! 

STATS

First Published : August 2025

Pages: 272

Available as an Audio Book :YES

Trigger Warnings: Death, climate issues, blood, medical situations, violence.

Not a fully TW list, please read responsibly. 

Book Review: Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis 5 millions stars

Sometimes a novel comes along that it so powerful, that it's hard to even talk about because, nothing I could write down could express anything coming close to the reading experience. 

Old School Indian falls into that realm for me. 

I saw this on the library's "new books shelf" and grabbed it, and checked it out on book club day.  Then I had to sit through Book Club (listening to a tepid discussion about a mediocre book written by  yet another mediocre writer) with this enticing cover just staring at me. The cover was done by Alex Jacobs and honestly, it really grabbed me.   Go check out his website because it's... really really enjoyable, stunning and just sort of surprising. Kind of wonderful in the age of those weird AI covers. 

So, this gorgeous novel rode around in my car for 3 weeks.  I didn't start it, didn't look at it much more and returned it to avoid a library fine.  I honestly- had started to have a lot of vision issues and reading actual text wasn't that appealing or easy.  I wanted to read that book, but, if wants were...

(Bear with me as this relates to the book.) 

I saw the novel again as an audio book from the library and checked it out. When I started the read/listen I was immediately pulled in and could not stop reading. 

So- as you know, I dislike spoilers. So  let's try to do a spoiler free "summary"!

 Our Main Man Abe is a Mohawk Indian. Raised on the reservation, he attended Syracuse University, met the love of his life and embarked on a life the seems deep and full and yet also not entirely of his own making. It seems he's always on the outskirts of the life he's made. He's enjoying himself, but he's mostly deriving happiness from making others happy. Eventually settling in Miami (maybe the most non-rez place I can think of in my limited experience), he is diagnosed with a rare, incurable, untreatable auto-immune disease.  This sets him up perfectly for a midlife "crisis" and coming of midlife age experience. In a rare move, Abe returns to the reservation, and considers his options. With themes of family, illness, identity, generational trauma, grief and loss, this one hit really close to home for me. The observations of auto-immune illnesses (really any chronic disease that's not well understood) and their effects on people, their relationships and life choices ( what it takes from a person, and what it might give to a person) just was so spot on and relatable that I did actually possibly, shed a tear or maybe two out of my incredibly dry auto-immune diseased eyeballs. 

If you want to know what happens to Abe - you obviously have to read the novel, because I really really refuse to spoil this one for anyone. Though I will say - it had maybe the MOST SATISFYING CONCLUSION of a novel for this entire year.  (after having read 120 or so books this year that's saying a lot).  It is so well put together, with beautiful tight writing, and surprisingly well paced that I think it's a must for anyone who's into reading current fiction, not just folks with auto-immune issues.  Every time I felt like I had a handle on "this is where this is going", I did not have a handle on it. I enjoyed being gently surprised all the way through! 

So anyway, fast forward back to my eyeballs.  What I thought was just my vision changing turns out to be an auto-immune issue to add to the Graves Disease which I already have. My eye doc was able to help me with a lot of ways to treat it and it may be getting a bit better, but my left eye may just always be like looking through a waterfall due to some deep corneal damage.  So reading this while going through that diagnosis period was kind of intense. I am extremely grateful it was available on audio as I would still be reading it in the print version. 

 This was a debut novel for Aaron John Curtis and I really really hope he has more work to share. 

STATS

First Published : May 2025

Pages: 416

Available as an Audio Book :YES 

Trigger Warnings: death, drug use, alcohol, open marriage/cheating, chronic illness, medical situations, injury.    As always this is likely not a complete list, so please read responsibly.