Category: Book Reviews

Guest Post: Author Jacqui Murray

Published on by J. Kelland Perry59 Comments

I’m delighted to welcome fellow author Jacqui Murray to my blog today.

Balance of Nature is the third book in Jacqui’s Savage Land prehistoric fiction trilogy. I have read and enjoyed previous instalments of the author’s Man vs. Nature series, so it was no surprise that this one also quickly drew me in. Jacqui’s prose and research masterfully portrays the many struggles our earliest ancestors endured, while at the same time revealing the courage, tenacity, and shrewdness at the core of human existence since time immemorial.   

Summary: A tribe haunted by the past. Lies that threaten the future. A reason to find the truth. 

Savage Land is the third trilogy about prehistoric man in the series, Man. Vs. Nature. Savage Land explores how two bands of humans survived one of the worst natural disasters in Earth’s history, when volcanic eruptions darkened the sky, massive tsunamis crossed the ocean in crushing waves, and raging fires burned the land. Viral tribes of Neanderthals and early man considered themselves apex predators, but that crown belonged to Nature and she was intent on washing the two-legged blight from her lands.  

In Balance of Nature, Book Three of the trilogy, Yu’ung’s Neanderthal tribe hopes to settle at Gibraltar but instead find unexpected threats and lethal challenges.  
 
Follow the courageous Yu’ung, the determined Kazeb, the mystical Shanadar, and the pawed-and-clawed Canis as they navigate a perilous world of tribal conflict, unexplained visions, and shifting loyalties. Their journey is a testament to the resilience and strength of true leadership in a sweeping saga that ultimately leads to who we are today.   

Book information:   Print, digital, audio soon available:    http://a-fwd.com/asin=B0G45MFBWW    
Genre: Prehistoric fiction    
Editor: Anneli Purchase    

Jacqui is sharing with us today an article she has written about writer’s block. Take it away, Jacqui!

When asked, my answer to    writer’s block    always is, “I don’t get it”, but in writing this article, I paused to think about what that meant. Right now, I’m pretty burnt out over writing my current book. I don’t want to start the next in the series so I’m reading and researching. Is that what some consider “writer’s block”? To me, it’s necessary time to redirect. invigorate my mind.    

What is writer’s block?

So which is it? Is writer’s block a temporary mental fatigue from overwriting or the burn out people often suffer from overworking on their jobs? I decided to ask some experts:

In his book Writer’s Block, educational psychologist Mike Rose defines it as: “a breakdown in the writer’s ability to generate text due to rigid or inappropriate rules about writing.”

Keith Hjortshoj in Understanding Writing Blocks describes it as: “a temporary inability to produce new work, often accompanied by anxiety, frustration, or self-doubt.”

Jerry Seinfeld simply says:

“Writer’s block is a phony, made-up BS excuse for not doing your work.”

Seth Godin is equally dismissive:

“I write like I talk and I don’t get talker’s block.”

How to cure writer’s block?

Now that we know what the experts consider writer’s block to be, how do you cure it? Most solutions require you give up perfectionism and ditch a schedule, ultimately freeing your creativity. Here are a few concrete ideas:

1. Take a break from writing and do one of the other many tasks required of writers. Market your last book. Update older books. Mix it up on social media to find new friends (especially if your old ones are becoming less responsive). Research a new book. Travel to an area that inspires you. People watch. Most of the time one of these will inspire you.

2.  If you’re writing in a vacuum, seek out online or in-person groups. You don’t have to share your work, just talk writing with like-minded individuals.

3.  Forget deadlines. Give yourself permission to finish when you’re done, not on some deadline that probably no one cares about. If you have a boss who enforces that deadline, test his/her limits. Creativity rarely works well with rules, deadlines, and pedantic orders.

4.  If you feel like you’ve run out of ideas, ignore the adage “write what you know”. Who can do that? I guarantee I can’t write about my experiences living with Neanderthals. Read on a topic that interests you until you feel you know it.

Author bio: Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular prehistoric fiction saga, Man vs. Nature which explores seminal events in man’s evolution one trilogy at a time. She is also author of the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers and Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. Her non-fiction includes 100+ books on tech into education, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.        

Author Links & Social Media:    

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Jacqui-Murray/e/B002E78CQQ

Blog: https://worddreams.wordpress.com

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/askatechteacher        

X: http://twitter.com/worddreams        

Website: https://jacquimurray.net

The Women of Wild Cove: A Thought-Provoking Future for Only 99¢*

Published on by J. Kelland Perry

My latest novel in e-book format is only 99¢ for all of June!

“An intriguing view of the future … I was both thrilled and, at times, appalled with its methods of survival … I love novels that make you think.” – Marie Ann Bailey

“… A love story of the land, of its people, of friendships and of justice.”
– Carol Balawyder

“A  timely book – a dystopian future triggered by runaway global warming.” – Atlanta Reader

“Fascinating exploration of a peaceful matriarchal society in a deteriorating & violent world. The book is engaging and suspenseful and hard to put down.” – Luanne Castle

 “… An ambitious book that delivers on all fronts … great world-building … and dimensional characters who are easy to root for. I loved the feminist bent as well, along with the Eastern Canadian setting. All in all a great read!” – Carrie

“Two hundred years in the future, society and the environment has collapsed. The story follows the life of Kat, an 18-year-old girl who lives in a matriarchal society in Newfoundland … I found the story captivating and compelling.” – Marie

“Can women rule better than men? Highly recommended to readers who enjoy post-apocalyptic thrillers that raise interesting questions about human nature, power, and control.” – D.W. Peach

“The story balances world-building with real human stakes, and the final choices Kat faces are both heartbreaking and believable.” – Elsie

“A very thought-provoking book.” – Lulu

“A broken lawless world or one ruled by women that seems to work … I settled into my reading chair for what prior experience with this author told me would be a well spun tale.” – Jacqui Murray

*Available on Amazon Kindle, Indigo Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, and wherever fine books are sold.

“The book is engaging and suspenseful and hard to put down…”

Published on by J. Kelland Perry8 Comments

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A new 5-Star review was published today for The Women of Wild Cove on Amazon & Goodreads, by Luanne Castle, Author. That makes 21 ratings and 12 reviews on Goodreads with an average of 4.24 out of 5, and 10 global ratings and 6 reviews on Amazon.com with an average of 4.4 out of 5.

The Women of Wild Cove by Jennifer Kelland Perry

“Jennifer Kelland Perry’s latest novel, The Women of Wild Cove, imagines a utopian community set within a dystopian world. This matriarchal village, one of several in the region, is self-sustaining (with bartering between villages) and peaceful. The book is engaging and suspenseful and hard to put down.

What fascinated me even more than the action of the plot and the characterization is to see how the community functions. These villages are a response to a world ruined by the greed and violence of a male-dominated society. As long as the community is not disturbed by the outside world, the peace holds-and the male peons and consorts seem content with their positions. But what happens when there is an outside threat? And the storyline begs other questions as well. For instance, is the tradeoff to get peace at the expense of the autonomy of the men? As a retired English lecturer, I predict that this novel would generate thoughtful and spirited class discussions.

Perry’s novel is in the best traditions of dystopian and utopian novels; however, she has interjected a thread woven throughout. The community collects the stories of women who have written down what happened to them, both in the “old” world and in their new world. Much of the stories are about the violence and abuse men perpetuated on women, making a strong case for this matriarchal society.”

Read from: Mar 25, 2026 – Mar 28, 2026

Shelved as: read, sci-fi, fiction


The e-book is 99¢ but only until the end of March!
*Available on Kindle, Indigo Kobo, Barnes & Noble Nook, Apple Books, and others.

Indigo: The Women of Wild Cove

Amazon: The Women of Wild Cove

A Reblog: ”You’ve Never Read a Dystopian Book Like It” by Jacqui Murray

Published on by J. Kelland Perry
The Women of Wild Cove–You’ve never read a dystopian book like it

Sunday Snaps: I’m in Bookstores :) 📚

Published on by J. Kelland Perry29 Comments

During a trip to St. John’s last weekend, Paul and I stopped by Coles Bookstore in the Avalon Mall. He had an Indigo gift card from his Christmas stocking that was burning a hole in his wallet, and I thought it would be a great idea to see, for the first time, my latest book on the shelf at an actual bricks and mortar establishment.

I wasn’t disappointed. There it was, in the local interest (Newfoundland and Labrador) section.

We left there and visited Chapters, the big box bookstore in the capital city.

Once again, I was pleased to see The Women of Wild Cove on the shelf, this time in the Fiction and Literature section.

At the suggestion of bookstore employee Megan, I happily signed all copies.

Megan told me they would be displayed as author-signed copies for more visibility.

So, townie friends, followers and fellow bookworms, there you have it. Last time I checked, there was only one of my novels left in stock at the Village Mall Coles location. You can get a copy at either of these locations, or at Indigo.ca, as well as Amazon. 📚

Indigo: The Women of Wild Cove

Amazon: The Women of Wild Cove

Top 5 Reader Reviews for “The Women of Wild Cove”

Published on by J. Kelland Perry4 Comments

Hello, Friends & Followers! I’m sharing with you my favourite reviews for my latest novel today. These critiques come from Amazon and Goodreads.


D. W. Peach – 5 stars

 Can women rule better than men?

The future looks bleak for most of humankind. Almost 200 years from now, climate change has devastated the world—destroying food sources, breaking down societal norms, and allowing disease to spread. One part of the world is managing better than most – the island of Newfoundland in Canada.

There, a matriarchal society dominates, relegating men (called peons) to manual labor or to roles as consorts for breeding purposes. Once a day, they’re fed a serum that tempers their masculine natures. Women are fully in charge, allowing men few rights, chemically controlling them, and expecting full compliance.

Katrina (Kat) is eighteen and grew up believing that men are reckless, violent, and the cause of the world’s collapse. Then she meets a “rogue,” a man who slipped onto the island, seeking a cure for his three-year-old son’s disease. She must decide whether to turn him in or defy her community and help him. Kat and Marc (the rogue) are the most nuanced characters with the richest personalities and emotional backstories. They share the POV.

The plot is straightforward, and the story moves at a clip with some slower moments to get to know the characters and the island society, which includes a complete dismantling of the family unit. What I found most interesting was the author’s attention to gender-based power structures, including the obvious role reversals. Women, for so long treated as second class citizens and victimized by men, are now the oppressors.

Perhaps out of necessity, the elders of Wild Cove also exercise rigid control over the community’s girls and women, including Kat, who are assigned tasks and career placements with little or no input. To address a rise in infant mortality, teens are coerced into breeding. The female elders seem to think this is all for the good of humankind’s survival, and I’m curious to see how this plays out as the series continues.

Highly recommended to readers who enjoy post-apocalyptic and dystopian thrillers that raise some interesting questions about human nature, power, and control.

Atlanta Reader – 4 stars

 A timely book – a dystopian future triggered by runaway global warming

This take on how global warming could wipe out civilizations around the world is a bleak one that should make us try harder to save our precious planet. The novel focuses on a community in Newfoundland, in northern Canada, where there’s a ray of hope far from the equator. That’s where a matriarchal society is struggling to survive with the “help” of men who are kept as well-treated slaves for their labor and breeding services. It’s an interesting depiction of how even well-intentioned leaders can set up a government that tramples the rights of the many. Besides the oppressed male population, this also includes all the communally-raised girls who are told what they can and cannot do, with precious little room for personal choice. It’s a system ripe for revolution.

18-year-old Kat is something of a rebel who secretly helps Marcus, a “rogue” who arrives from farther inland, even though she’s been taught that men are evil. Will Kat risk her community’s welfare and go against lifelong anti-male indoctrination to help him? Will Marcus succeed in his urgent mission to find medicine to take back to his dying family? The story is told in an unhurried fashion so it takes a while to learn the answers. And the ending leaves open the possibility that the story could continue.

A novel for readers who enjoy dystopian fiction and the “what ifs” that hang like storm clouds over the increasing threat of runaway climate change.

Carrie – 5 stars
Great read

This dystopian novel is an ambitious book that delivers on all fronts. I easily got lost in its pages. Great world-building, vivid descriptions, and dimensional characters who are easy to root for. I loved the feminist bent as well, along with the Eastern Canadian setting. All in all a great read!

Bruce – 5 stars
Great read start to finish!

This author, J. Kelland Perry, has a style that makes you keep the pages turning and want to find out more of this world in the future. A story of a “What if” scenario that is filled with rich details of survival and growth by a matriarchal society on an isolated island. I would love to see this book turned into a movie.

Amelia – 5 stars

The Women of Wild Cove by Jennifer Kelland Perry is a striking and imaginative post collapse novel that redefines the dynamics of survival and power. Set on a matriarchal island off Newfoundland’s coast, the story fuses speculative world building with intimate emotional depth. Perry crafts a society led by women, sustained by cooperation and communal caregiving then boldly explores what happens when that balance begins to falter.

Through Kat’s journey, readers are drawn into a moral crossroads where compassion and conformity collide.

Her secret encounter with Marcus, a wounded outsider, forces her to question the ethics of her people’s rule and the boundaries of love, freedom, and sacrifice. The novel’s tension between idealism and control between nurturing and domination gives it rare philosophical resonance.

Perry’s prose captures both the serenity and volatility of her world, reflecting the beauty and fragility of a civilization rebuilt on principles of equality. The Women of Wild Cove is both a compelling survival tale and a reflective social allegory one that lingers as a meditation on what humanity must protect to endure.

Amazon Link

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I am also wishing all of my American friends and bloggers a very Happy Thanksgiving. 🧡

Sale On My First Novels

Published on by J. Kelland Perry3 Comments

Hey Readers!
For a limited time only, my two-book Young Adult/New Adult Calmer Girls series is now on sale on Amazon. These full length novels are recommended for mature young readers, but are popular with older readers as well.
Both are only .99 each on Kindle and 9.99 in Paperback. They are also available on Audible on Amazon.com.

CALMER GIRLS ON AMAZON

CALMER SECRETS ON AMAZON

Here’s the scoop on the series:

Calmer Girls, Jennifer’s debut YA novel, is a realistic coming of age tale set on the island of Newfoundland in the summer of 1993. Samantha Cross, a sensitive sixteen-year-old devastated by recent losses, discovers first love and a possible escape from her despair when she meets magnetic Ben Swift.

However, there are problems. He happens to be the new boyfriend of her biggest adversary and life-long irritation, her vivacious sister, Veronica. Then she finds out the boy driving the vintage Thunderbird has some complex and mysterious issues of his own.

This realistic Young Adult novel allows an honest and introspective glimpse inside a teenage girl’s self-deprecating, sometimes humorous angst. Navigating the obstacles of individuality, sibling rivalry and parental divorce, Samantha ultimately learns poignant lessons about love, betrayal and sacrifice.

Calmer Secrets, a New Adult novel, picks up the story four years later. Samantha Cross is all grown up, busy with art school, and free of romantic entanglements. That’s how she prefers it, having renounced love ever since Ben Swift came between her and her sister Veronica four years ago, changing their lives forever. But when an old friend turned sexy bass player rocks Samantha into a wild infatuation, she rethinks her abstinence. 

While feeling out this intense relationship, Ben barges back into their world with devastating news, sending both sisters into a tailspin. In an explosive climax, Veronica reveals long-buried secrets of her own, secrets that could impact all their futures and any hope of reconciliation between the Cross women—a.k.a. the Calmer Girls.

The Women of Wild Cove has Launched!

Published on by J. Kelland Perry25 Comments

Hi Everyone,

My new speculative fiction novel has been released as of September 1st. What has me excited is that it’s already been selected as an Amazon Editors’ Pick for September in the Best Science Fiction & Fantasy category! It is now available in paperback and ebook, with audiobook to follow. Also available at Indigo.ca, Apple Books, Bookshop.org, and other book sites.

After global collapse, the island of Newfoundland in the warming waters of the North Atlantic has survived under female rule. Children are raised by a network of caregivers, guided by the principles of “It Takes a Village.” But the civilization is threatened when its birth rate suddenly stagnates.


THE WOMEN OF WILD COVE is a survival tale of divided loyalties, love and sacrifice, gender equality, and uneasy alliances in a climate-changed world.

Free Library Swag? Thank you!

Published on by J. Kelland Perry27 Comments

I was pleasantly surprised this week to get a bonus with my local library checkouts: a lovely new mug! Our librarian only had a few come in, so he was limited in who he could give them to. But because my husband probably uses the local library more than any other patron(and perhaps me as a close second), the first name that came to him was Paul. Much appreciated, Austin!
As for that book in the photo, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, I am absolutely loving it so far. Weir is the author of The Martian, a popular novel that was made into a very popular movie. Science fiction at its best.

Do you use your local library? Do tell. 📚

Further reading in my post from 2019: In Praise of Librarians. Many supportive comments of our libraries and of those who work in them.

“The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man”
― T.S. Eliot

Book News!

Published on by J. Kelland Perry38 Comments

Hello friends, followers, and my fellow book lovers.
I am pleased to share some news.
My latest novel, The Women of Wild Cove, will be published on September 1st.

Publisher: Running Wild Press

A short synopsis:

After global collapse, the island of Newfoundland in the warming waters of the North Atlantic has survived under female rule. Children are raised by a network of caregivers, guided by the principles of “It Takes a Village.” But the civilization is threatened when its birth rate suddenly stagnates.

THE WOMEN OF WILD COVE is a survival tale of divided loyalties, love and sacrifice, gender equality, and uneasy alliances in a climate-changed world.

At this time, the book is available for pre-order in e-book form only. Here’s the Amazon link.

When the book is officially released on September 1st, the paperback will then become available.

About the Author: 

Jennifer Kelland Perry is a Canadian blogger, writer, avid reader and animal lover. Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, she left the city behind in 2010 to enjoy rural life beside the ocean with her husband and two spoiled cats. Jennifer is the author of Calmer Girls, a two-book coming-of-age series, and a proud member of WritersNL. Visit her writing and photography blog at: jenniferkellandperry.com

By the way, if you are a member of LibraryThing, their April 2025 Batch is now available for Early Reviewers! Hit the link and scroll down to my book if you’d like a chance to review my new novel for free.