My thoughts on Circus Bim Bom: A Cold War Adventure by Cliff Lovette

Circus Bim Bom: A Cold War Adventure 

By Cliff Lovette

Publication Date: 1st March 2026

Publisher: Bim Bom Books

Print Length: 478 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction / Romantic Adventure /  Political Intrigue

Soviet circus performers arrived in America hoping to build cultural bridges. Instead, they became unwitting pawns in a Cold War game of international intrigue.

When the first privately owned Soviet circus arrived in 1990 in America as the Soviet Union disintegrated, its elite performers expected to build cultural bridges through spectacular shows. Instead, this prestigious troupe faced a perilous journey through Cold War America.

Circus director Yuri had to navigate treacherous waters where American mobsters, Soviet agents, and political forces circled like predators. Young aerialist Anton dreamed of becoming a clown against his family’s wishes, while forbidden romances and unexpected connections bloomed between Soviet performers and Americans who saw past the ideological divide. As high-stakes conspiracies threatened to tear the circus family apart, they had to choose between the authoritarian chains of home and the uncertain promise of freedom.

As the Ringmaster reminds us, “The best Soviet stories are like vodka—they burn with suffering, intoxicate with conflict, keep you stewing in reflection, and yearning for your heart’s desire.” This genre-bending tale explores whether human connection can transcend ideology—and whether storytelling can bridge the divides that separate us.

Cliff is offering an Author's Edition of the paperback at https://books.by/bim-bom-books/   The Author's Edition comes with a signed replica Circus Bim Bom circus admission ticket, a Circus Bim Bom circus poster you choose, and charter membership to bimbombookclub.com, with exclusive access to over 12 'rabbit hole' chapters!

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cover Art: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book is unlike anything I usually pick up, and I mean that in the best possible way. It reads part historical drama, part travelling circus memoir, part political satire, and part fever dream. One moment you are watching acrobats and dancers take the stage, the next you are caught in Cold War paranoia, culture clash, and the messy private lives of people trying to reinvent themselves far from home.

What struck me most is how boldly it shifts tone. It can be funny, outrageous and almost theatrical, then suddenly reflective and surprisingly tender. The Ringmaster’s voice ties it all together, constantly stepping in and out of the action, commenting on events, time, memory and truth itself. It shouldn’t work, but somehow it does, giving the whole story the feeling of being both performance and confession.

The circus acts themselves are vividly described and genuinely thrilling, but the real story happens around them: the tensions between old Soviet control and new American excess, the power struggles behind the scenes, the fragile friendships and dangerous attractions forming in the gaps. It feels chaotic and alive, as if anything could happen next.

I’m not too sure what to make of the constant references and the QR codes linking to real songs and historical speeches that are scattered through the book, but they certainly make the experience unusual. For the most part I did ignore them as I was too engrossed in the story to come away from it.

Although the book is inspired by real events, it openly leans into exaggeration and satire, which gives it licence to be wild, provocative and sometimes shocking. It definitely isn’t a neat or comfortable story, and it’s not suitable for younger readers, but that rough edge is part of its appeal.

By the end, nothing is neatly resolved. Instead you are left hanging in mid-air, like a trapeze artist between swings, which feels completely intentional. It leaves plenty of room for the second book, and I finished it feeling slightly dazed, very curious, and keen to see where this strange, ambitious circus goes next.

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What Makes This Novel Different

Circus Bim Bom offers an innovative multimedia reading experience. The novel includes 45+ YouTube links to period music, historical speeches, and cultural moments embedded throughout—readers can listen to the actual songs characters dance to as they waltz, and watch Reagan's Brandenburg Gate speech as it's referenced in the text.

The companion website (www.bimbombookclub.com) extends the story beyond the page:

• Character Avatars: 25+ talking video introductions where characters speak directly to readers

• Re-Imagined Circus Posters

• Book Club Experience: Interactive forums, live chat, and community discussions

• Historians Room (under construction): A space for Cold War history buffs to fact-check the novel, explore primary sources, and debate historical accuracy

Cliff Lovette

Father, storyteller, and dog lover living in Sandy Springs, Georgia, with London curled at his feet. Circus Bim Bom: A Cold War Adventure is the first book in his debut duology, followed by Circus Bim Bom: The Great Escape.

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My thoughts on Wolf of the Nordic Seas (Valiant Vikings Book 2) by Jennifer Ivy Walker

Wolf of the Nordic Seas
 (Valiant Vikings Book 2) 
By Jennifer Ivy Walker

Publisher: Green Mermaid Publications

Print Length: 357 Pages

Genre: Historical Romance / Norse Mythology / Fantasy

Named after the Norse God of the Sea, Njörd grew up sailing, swimming, and fishing the fjords of Norway. Endowed with extraordinary senses, speed, and strength, he became known as Wolf of the Nordic Seas, leading lucrative Viking raids from the Baltic shores to the Black and Caspian Seas. When a Viking völva foretells his future through a seidr vision, Njörd learns that his fate and his mate—the siren with the sea goddess eyes—lie on the alabaster coast of Normandy in the distant Land of the White Chalk Cliffs.

Elfi Thorfinnsdóttir is a skilled shieldmaiden who seeks vengeance against the ruthless Frankish count who killed her brother and abducted her father in an attempt to seize her clifftop castle. But rather that submit to the count’s relentless demand for her hand in marriage, Elfi allies with Richard the Fearless—the Viking Duke of Normandy— and the Danish Jarl of Ribe known as the Wolf of the Nordic Seas.

As Elfi and Njörd discover startling secrets about their respective pasts, they find that the three Norns have entwined the threads of their fates not just as political allies, but as mates destined to fulfill a divine prophecy.

Wolf of the Nordic Seas— book 2 of the Valiant Vikings series set in tenth century Normandy— is a sizzling, scintillating blend of historical fiction, Norse mythology, paranormal fantasy, and steamy Viking romance!

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cover Art: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wolf of the Nordic Seas is not a gentle story, and it has no interest in pretending to be one. It reads like a collision between saga, myth, and romance, where fate is unavoidable, and humans are left dealing with the consequences. From the start, it feels bold, dramatic, and unapologetically larger than life.

What surprised me most was how confidently the book leans into its mythological side. This isn’t a historical romance lightly dusted with legend—the supernatural elements are built directly into the structure of the story. Prophecies matter. Divine choices have consequences. You’re constantly aware that unseen forces are watching, nudging, and sometimes shoving events in certain directions, whether the characters are ready or not.

The tone shifts more than once, but it does so intentionally. One moment you’re caught up in political maneuvering and looming threats, the next you’re pulled into something far more intimate and intense. The romance is passionate and immediate, but it never exists on its own; it’s tightly bound to destiny, loyalty, and the simple problem of surviving long enough to see what comes next.

I also appreciated how unrestrained the story feels. It doesn’t try to be neat or minimal. There are elves with their own agendas, wolves that blur the line between myth and menace. At times it feels almost excessive—and then you realize that excess is exactly the point. This is a story rooted in legend, where subtlety would feel out of place.

The cover deserves special mention because it fits the book perfectly. It promises drama, danger, and romance, and the story delivers on all three. There’s a strong sense of momentum throughout, as if everything is moving toward something inevitable, even when the characters themselves don’t yet see it.

By the end, the book leaves you with the feeling that you’ve only seen part of a much larger design. Threads are still in motion, forces are still aligning, and the anticipation is very real. This is a vivid, myth-heavy, emotionally charged fantasy romance that fully embraces its scope and ambition. I finished it thoroughly entertained and more than ready to see what chaos fate has planned next.

Jennifer Ivy Walker is an award-winning author of medieval Celtic, Nordic, and paranormal romance, as well as contemporary romance, historical fantasy, and WWII romantic suspense.

A former high school teacher and college professor of French with an MA in French literature, her novels encompass a love for French language, literature, history, and culture, including Celtic myths and legends, Norse mythology, Viking sagas, and Nordic lore.

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My thoughts on Quillan Creek and the Little War: Time Stones Book I by Ian Hunter

Quillan Creek and the Little War: 
Time Stones Book I 
By Ian Hunter

Publication Date: 3rd August 2018

Publisher: MVB Marketing-und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels

Print Length: 281 Page

Genre: Historical Fantasy 

Jessie Mason lives with her nose in the pages of history. But she is about to discover that the past is a dangerous place where she doesn't belong, and knowledge alone is not going to save her.

In Jessie’s troubled life her aunt is the only constant and comfort she has. But when she inexplicably disappears, and Jessie uncovers her mother's Time Stone, that unhappy life turns unreal and terrifying.

She is summoned to a world in crisis, 250 years in her past, to three unlikely companions, and the aged Onondaga shaman, Nishkamich, who promises an education in the powers of the stones which they each possess.

Over one glorious summer, Jessie reluctantly settles to village life and the developing bond with her prickly friends, until they are forced to accept that their stones are being hunted through history.

But in the depths of winter, their friendship, their wits, and the very limits of their endurance, will be tested by an unforgiving Nature as war finally erupts around them.

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cover Art: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Some stories throw you straight into the roar of battle. This one carries you into the whispering wilds of the frontier, where the wind through the trees sounds almost like voices and the earth itself is not as solid as it seems. From the opening pages, the tale settles around you like campfire smoke, warm with friendship and wonder, yet edged with danger that keeps you turning the pages.

Lives change in an instant. A girl fleeing her daily chores runs for her life through an unfamiliar forest. A lonely modern teenager falls through the ground and into another century. A young man’s ordinary day ends in the company of soldiers and gunfire. Each of them arrives with nothing but the clothes they wear and a strangely beautiful stone that hums with hidden power.

These stones are gifts, but they are also burdens. There are no instructions, no gentle awakening of magic, only confusion, fear, and the growing sense that something dark is hunting them. The past they land in is breathtakingly alive: clear waters teeming with fish, forests untouched by industry, and a people deeply bound to the land. Yet beneath that beauty lies the shadow of invasion, conflict, and change that cannot be undone.

At the heart of the story is the meeting of strangers who slowly become something more. Trust is not given easily, but earned in shared danger and quiet acts of courage. Guidance comes from an aging shaman who understands that his time is short and his knowledge must live on in these unexpected heirs. Through him, the magic feels ancient and spiritual rather than flashy, rooted in responsibility instead of power for its own sake.

What lingers most is the feeling of found family. These young heroes come from different times and worlds, yet discover that belonging is not about where you start but who stands beside you when everything else is lost. Their growing bond brings warmth to a harsh and uncertain world, a reminder that loyalty and compassion can take root anywhere.

This is an adventure filled with peril, mystery, and wonder, but it also has a gentle, reflective heart. It invites you to walk beneath towering pines, listen to old stories carried on the wind, and believe that even across centuries, people can find one another and change the course of history together.

Books have been an important part of my life as long as I can remember, and at 54 years old, that’s a lot of books. My earliest memories of reading are CS Lewis’, “The Horse and His Boy” – by far the best of the Narnia books, the Adventures series by Willard Price, and “Goalkeepers are Different” by sports journalist Brian Glanville. An eclectic mix. My first English teacher was surprised to hear that I was reading, Le Carré, Ken Follett, Nevil Shute and “All the Presidents’ Men” by Woodward and Bernstein at the age of 12. I was simply picking up the books my father had finished.

School syllabus threw up the usual suspects – Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dickens, Hardy, “To Kill a Mockingbird” – which I have reread often, and others I don’t immediately recall. By “A” level study, my then English teachers were pulling their hair out at my “perverse waste of talent” – I still have the report card! But I did manage a pass.

During a 35 year career, briefly in Banking and then in IT, I managed to find time, with unfailing family support, to study another lifelong passion, graduating with an Open University Bachelors’ degree in History in 2002. This fascination with all things historical inspired me to begin the Time Stones series. There is so much to our human past, and so many differing views on what is the greatest, and often the saddest, most tragic story. I decided I wanted to write about it; to shine a small light on those, sometimes pivotal stories, which are less frequently mentioned.

In 1995, my wife, Michelle, and I moved from England to southern Germany, where we still live, with our two children, one cat, and, when she pays us a visit, one chocolate labrador. I have been fortunate that I could satisfy another wish, to travel as widely as possible and see as much of our world as I can. Destinations usually include places of historic and archaeological interest, mixed with a large helping of sun, sea and sand for my wife’s peace of mind.

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My thoughts on The Relic Keeper by Heidi Eljarbo

 

The Relic Keeper

By Heidi Eljarbo

Publication Date: 18th November 2025

Publisher:  Independently Published

Genre: Historical Fiction

Page Length: 162

Italy, 1620.

Angelo is an orphan, lonely and forgotten. Having been passed on from one family to the next, he ends up as a common thief, subject to and under the thumb of a ruthless robber called Tozzo.

Angelo knows no other life and has lost hope that any chance of providence will ever replace his lonely, misfortunate existence. When he loses his master, his livelihood is shaken. Tozzo’s plunder is hidden in a safe place, but what will happen if someone comes after Angelo to get their hands on the stolen relics? More than that, he feels threatened by words he’s heard too many times; that he’ll always remain unforgiven and doomed.

One day, a priest invites Angelo to help with chores around the church and rectory and, in exchange, offers him room and board. Padre Benedetto’s kindness and respect are unfamiliar and confusing, but Angelo’s safety is still a grave concern. Two older robbers have heard rumors about the hidden treasures and will stop at nothing to attain them.

With literary depictions and imagery, Angelo’s story is a gripping and emotional journey of faint hope and truth in seventeenth-century Italy—an artistic and audacious tale that crosses paths with art collector Vincenzo Giustiniani and the powerful Medici family.

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cover Art: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Oh wow, this book! I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but The Relic Keeper completely surprised me. Angelo is such a layered character — tough, clever, and just trying to get by in a world that’s stacked against him. I loved how real he felt; you could almost see his thoughts and struggles as if you were right there with him. You really get a sense of how hardened he is from a life of survival, but also the small glimmers of curiosity and hope that keep him going. It made me care about him instantly.

The story moves at a really nice pace, and I found myself completely invested in the small, quiet victories Angelo experiences. Watching him interact with Padre Benedetto and slowly start to see that there might be more to life than survival was honestly heartwarming. And I absolutely adored Benedetto — he’s so kind-hearted and genuinely sees the good in people, especially in Angelo. The way he offers Angelo shelter and trust is touching, and the scene where Angelo almost runs off with the candlesticks (a little like Jean Valjean in Les Misérables) had me holding my breath. Instead of scolding him, Benedetto offers breakfast! That combination of tension, compassion, and gentle humor had me grinning and tearing up at the same time.

Angelo’s trip to Rome is one of my favorite parts of the story. Experiencing the city through his eyes — with its bustling streets and rich history — really brought the story to life for me. When he visits Gerrit van Honthorst’s studio and sees the Adoration of the Christ Child, I was so curious that I actually had to look up the painting myself! Seeing it through Angelo’s eyes, his awe and unguarded emotional reaction, made the moment feel so powerful. It reminded me how art can reach even the hardest hearts and spark something you didn’t even realize was missing.

I also really appreciated the way the story highlights small moments of growth and courage. Angelo’s journey isn’t sudden or unrealistic — it’s the little choices, the small steps toward trust and honesty, that make his transformation feel genuine. And the writing itself is so immersive, you can practically feel the streets, the people, and the life Angelo navigates. It’s the kind of book that makes you slow down and savor the characters and the story, rather than rushing through.

If you love historical fiction that makes you feel like you’re stepping into someone else’s shoes — and cheering them on every step of the way — this book is a must. It’s heartfelt, quietly powerful, and full of hope and humanity. I can’t recommend it enough!

HEIDI ELJARBO grew up in a home full of books, artwork, and happy creativity. She is the author of historical novels filled with courage, hope, mystery, adventure, and sweet romance during challenging times. She’s been named a master of dual timelines and often writes about strong-willed women of past centuries.

After living in Canada, six US states, Japan, Switzerland, and Austria, Heidi now calls Norway home. She lives with her husband on a charming island and enjoys walking in any kind of weather, hugging her grandchildren, and has a passion for art and history. Her family’s chosen retreat is a mountain cabin, where they hike in the summer and ski the vast white terrain during winter.

Heidi’s favorites are her family, God's beautiful nature, and the word whimsical.

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