First, I just love this cover from www.atrtlink.com. A nice cover still has an impact on me. If the cover doesn't grab me, it's often true that the story won't do much for me either. Of course the story comes first. You can have breathtaking cover art and not much of a story, but if the cover is lacking it's tougher to get folk like me to read your book at all.
Fortunately, Amery House, delivers on both counts. A cool cover and a well written story, Set in the late 1920's, it's the story of five prostitutes working and living together in New Orleans.
I can hear you now, "Hey Frank, I thought you reviewed Horror stories here?" Well, there is a ghost, sort of, and I was asked nicely to read and review this work, by the owner of Angelic Knight Press and the Editor of Amery House, Stacey Turner. Having enjoyed a number of previous books from this small press, I decided to take a chance. Glad I did.
The story teller is Nadine Frost, one of the prostitutes that end up at Amery House. At one time, she worked Burlesque in New York City, then came the Stock Market crash and subsequent depression and a tragic turn of events she travels to New Orleans winds up working for Mr. Big, real name Percy Amery, a name that doesn't exactly strike fear into the hearts of others.
Moore is a very good story teller, coming up with wonderful prose, like "We weren't dancers, but we put on a show nearly every night. We acted, giggled, and blushed on cue. We were there to perform. We were Showgirls in the strictest sense and so that's what we called ourselves."
As the story progresses we learn how each of the girls came to be at Amery House. "All the Showgirls were there: Majorie Hammon the poor laundress, Allison Woodbeck the apple farmer's daughter, Margaret and Mildred Reaves the orphaned twins, and Nadine Frost the"...sorry, that would be giving to much away.
Amery House is a novella that I can heartily recommend to all readers, although the principal characters are working girls, don't expect it to be like 50 Shades of Grey, it's just a wonderful story told very well.
Samantha J. Moore is a student, an author, and editor from Peterborough, Ontario. She writes about strong women, anti-heroines, and stories about coming home.
You can visit her blog at samanthajmoore.tumbler.com or follow her tweets: @samanthajmoore
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