Great Review of Broken at Game Vortex
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Great Review of Broken at Game Vortex

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Psibabe, aka Ashley Perkins, at Game Vortex posted a thoughtful and beautiful review of my forthcoming novel BROKEN.

She wrote, in part:

Broken by Traci L. Slatton is both a story of supreme selfishness and selflessness. It centers around Alia, a beautiful fallen angel who has chosen to live life as a human in Paris right before the Nazi occupation during WWII. She willingly chose to fall when Ariel, another angel dear to her, fell from Heaven and she now spends her days enjoying the once forbidden fruits of sexual activity with humans, despite Michael the Archangel, who sometimes comes to persuade her to return to Heaven. Sex with humans is forbidden because angels are completely irresistible, and to do so takes away a part of the human’s free will, along with a portion of their “light,” leaving them with a need and desire that they can never again fulfill. It’s cruel, but Alia doesn’t care about any of that. She is merely trying to forget her angelic days and the pain she suffered when Ariel fell.

What, or rather who, she does care about is the young girl who lives next door, Cecile, who often comes to visit Alia. Cecile’s mother, Suzanne, is a Jew although they are both French citizens, and Alia, who is often beset by visions of the future, fears for Suzanne and Cecile as the Nazis approach and Jews are more and more persecuted.

Broken has some incredibly graphic sex scenes and these may take some readers aback, but they are meant to shock, as well as explain Alia’s selfishness, desperation and hopelessness after becoming a human. It took me a few chapters before the book really had its hooks into me, but Broken is incredible and, much like Immortal, had me in tears as I finished it.

I knew from our email exchange before she posted the review that she enjoyed the book even as it troubled her. I’m grateful that Psibabe expressed herself so eloquently, and that she took the time to think about what she had read. Readers like Psibabe keep me writing. They encourage me to take risks.

This is what it’s all about.

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Gratitude, on many levels, for old friends and good reviews
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Gratitude, on many levels, for old friends and good reviews

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A friend from my distant past contacted me recently. She sent a kind email and thanked me for something I’d done for her, all those decades ago.

My service to her was important, even life-changing, I say that honestly. But I also know that she would have found a way to do it without me. She was that kind of person: bright, energetic, personable, poised, competent.

And it was reciprocal. I learned from her. With my modest origins, I was something of an uncut gem in my early 20’s. There were things I simply hadn’t learned, like how to apply make-up and the value of a great haircut. You can get away with some rough shagginess when you’re young like that, but it sure does help in life to sport a slick of polish. My friend took me to her salon and sat me down in a chair and I received my first ever truly great haircut.

Everyone judges a book by its cover, and she helped me to foist a better one. I’m grateful.

At the same time, it felt really good to be acknowledged, to be recognized, for a kindness I had done. I’m sort of used to my good works going unnoticed, or even denigrated. Not by Sabin and my little one,  who are appreciative people, but by others from my past. I suppose I should be enlightened enough to follow the Bhagavad Gita’s advice, and do good things without attachment, simply because they’re there to be done.

But, dang, it does feel super good to be acknowledged and thanked!

In that vein, I happily thank book reviewer Psibabe aka Ashley Perkins of the Game Vortex site for her wonderful, thoughtful, insightful, and well-written review of my first novel Immortal. Perkins had read Fallen and some of my other novels and liked them, so she went back to read Immortal. Game Vortex is a big international gaming site, and I’m delighted to have the exposure. Good reviews feel pretty great!

So to Ashley Perkins and all the other book reviewers who have taken the time to read my books and write a review: Thank You! I know you have busy lives and yet you’ve done me a splendid service. I appreciate your time and thought.