Believe Me, J.P. Delaney's Latest Will Blow Your Mind

Good Morning Readers, 

Today we're talking about J.P. Delaney's newest book, Believe Me. 

I loved The Girl Before, and found Delaney's writing to be delightfully twisty then, this novel is so much more; and to be truthful, Delaney's writing style has hit a new high with Believe Me. (YAY for authors KILLING IT with their sophomore novels!!!) 

"In this twisty psychological thriller from the New York Timesbestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.

A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected.

Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.

Then the game changes.

When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.

Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap? But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey?"

There is so much here I'm just going to dive in. 

For starters, I did this on Audio and I have to say it enhanced my experience. Yes, I do A LOT of books on audio, that's how I get away with reading at work, but because of the stylized writing of Believe Me there really is another level added. Written from Claire's perspective, much of the story is told like a scene from a play or a movie, "interior, Kathrine Latham's Office," etc. which certainly helps the reader get inside Claire's head and gives you major Hitchcockian vibes. 

WHICH CAN BE SUPER CONFUSING! As much as I loved how twisty and sexy this story is I had to re-listen to conversations between characters and even whole chapters because the story is constantly moving at a pace that makes you think you're caught up, but you're actually behind. Not the worst thing in the world, and I still loved the book, there were just a handful of times where it felt as though the plot had changed and I missed something. I wasn't missing anything, the plot just jumps, frequently, and Claire's scenes are the only way you get to stay on track. 

Hands down this was a great follow up to The Girl Before and hands down you'll enjoy this novel, you'll just feel confused until the end and maybe a little turned on by a few of the scenes, and for the vanilla types just lean into it. 

Until next time, 

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

Review Time: With You Always by Rena Olsen

Good Morning Readers!! 

Today we're talking about a book I just finished, the second by one of my favorite authors, 

With You Always by Rena Olsen; her first book is The Girl Before and she doesn't disappoint with her sophomore novel. Just a heads up, I will be spoiling the novel, so if that is going to bug you read the book first and come back tomorrow. Additionally, I listened to the Audible version of this book, because Brittany Pressley is amazing and I love listening to her; also, psycho thrillers are way more fun as audio books. 

Told in multiple parts and from the perspective of Julia, our gem of a leading lady, With You Always brings you in and then leaves you feeling trapped. (In a good way I swear!)  

"In the wake of a painful breakup and struggling to prove herself at work, Julia feels adrift. When Bryce blows into her life, he seems like the perfect anchor. Handsome, charming, secure, and confident, Bryce brings out the best in Julia, sweeping her off her feet with attention and affection while grounding her with his certainty and faith. Together they embark on a path guided by the principles of his family and their church, each step a paving stone leading to happily ever after.

But this is no fairy tale.
Step by step, one small concession leading to another, Julia is slowly isolated from her job, her friends, and her family, until she comes to find that her dream come true is a cage. Then one day everything changes...and Julia is faced with no choice but to find a way out" 

As the story begins Julia is relatable to every single woman in the world who has dated a terrible guy. Her fiance leaves her, after cheating on her multiple times, and she is seriously lacking in confidence. She has some great friends from college, a good to great relationship with her sister, nephews, and parents, and a domineering female boss that makes her feel inferior, though she's starting to make her mark at work. Julia feels disturbingly normal, and Bryce feels somehow planted. He just happens to be there when Julia is taking a break from work outside when the wind blows and scatters her papers, he just so happens to be at the bar she's at with her friends after she and Bryce have gone on a few dates. He's perfect with her nephews and parents, he even gets along with her sister's (probably soon to be EX) husband, and the only one who is skeptical is Julia's sister Kate. 

So when we get brought into Bryce's life, with his "parents" the Reverend and Nancy, the church life and culture, I was getting some Scientology vibes. (I also picked up on the drug thing as soon as "The Gathering" was described the first time.) Everything about Bryce felt fake, especially compared to how real Julia felt. Their relationship, the dynamic, you know from the synopsis what's going to happen, but I wasn't anticipating HOW it happened. 

Like I said this story is told in parts, and I liked that. We start off with a large cast of characters as well, and as each part is told references to other characters start dying down, I flat out forgot about a couple of them by the end, not that they weren't well written, just that the story had so completely focused on Julia and Bryce by that point that I started feeling Julia's isolation as I listened. It's brilliant. 

I do wish that the bits and pieces of Bryce's back story that we got were larger. There are some flashback scenes that happen, giving us clues as to why Bryce was so enthralled with the Reverend, why Bryce left his home and changed his name from Bruce to Bryce, and sure, he killed an abusive jackass to save his mother and sister, but I wanted more from Bryce. Hell, I want more from Reverend and Nancy. Like a whole book of their backstory, how many people in their church are abusive assholes, the whole nine. I want more info on the school, I want to know what the hell happens in that punishment closet, can these characters have a spin off? Can we be told their story and have Julia and Bryce be background characters? They're so addicting!! 

One thing I wasn't expecting was the foreshadowing or outright explanation of the ending. About halfway through the book, when we're getting used to the narrator telling us about Bryce's back story, we start hearing about a dead man in a tub, about him being held down by a woman, and it's written in such a way you think it has something to do with something "Bruce" did, or maybe even something Nancy did, that woman is shady as hell, when in reality, it's Julia killing Bryce. 

All in all, this novel was every single bit as compelling as The Girl Before. I couldn't finish it fast enough, and I want more. I'm excited to see what comes next from Rena Olsen, because hands down I will always be here, ready to read or listen. 

Until Next Time! 

XoXo

BrainyHeroine

P.S. Rena Olsen's first novel is also how I found J.P. Delaney, who's second book I'm currently listening too. Sooooo you'll get that review by the end of the week I'm sure. 

Writer, Seeker, Killer... Talk About a Thriller!

Hey Readers,

(TRIGGER AND SPOILER WARNING, THIS BOOK INVOLVES SUICIDE)

Today we're talking WSK, that's Writer, Seeker, Killer by Ryan Starbloak!

WSK was published in November of 2017, and though it is a collection of novellas, don't start reading thinking you are going to be underwhelmed. If anything each part of this story is a sucker punch to the gut, while simultaneously making you want to sleep with the lights on. Stay tuned to the end, where I have a brief interview with the author to lighten the mood!

"New Orleans; our lady of perpetual sirens." Hinanya Ven has but one interest in this life, and that is death. This great question has enveloped her into a deranged obsession, a need for transcendence in proximity to grand suffering. The search takes her back to her childhood home of New Orleans, where she returns after a six year absence following her family's permanent retreat from the city in the unanticipated catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina. On her own there for the first time, Hinanya inquires into whether or not there is a metaphysical substructure to the universe we all perceive. In the course of her journey, she, through inexplicable and violent circumstances, appropriates the pistol identical to the make, model, and serial number her friend had used to commit suicide several months prior to her arrival in New Orleans. The weight of the mystery augments her desire to part from her body... to have an out-of-body experience. The suicidal girl's path takes her from becoming a writer, a graffiti artist in the glittering menace of the New Orleans nightscape to search for a secretive substance which may settle her ceaseless curiosity. From there, she uncovers a jarring conspiracy which inextricable undermines her being into that brutal principle of the natural world: kill or be killed."

Told in three parts, Writer, Seeker, Killer, follows Hinanya Ven, a completely death obsessed woman who is working through a few things. She's a few screws loose and the way her mind works is expansive enough that each of these novellas could have become their own stand alone novels. Hinanya's obsession with death leads to the asking of the big questions, and we start asking them slowly, with her return to New Orleans after a 6 year hiatus due to Hurricane Katrina. While contemplating so many big questions, Hinanya comes across the pistol her friend used to commit suicide. Now I mentioned before that she is death obsessed, so reading about her becoming suicidal was a complicated experience as a reader. From here the novellas dig deeper into some dark and dangerous truths about life.

After reading WSK I had to step away from it for a few days. Starbloak has mastered in 256 pages what many authors master in a thousand; that paranoid, frightened, thrilling feeling of reading a book that will fuck you up. There is nothing soft or gentle about this book, though there is love in it. Very little hope can be found inside but I have never felt a character's emotions so completely and so immediately than with Hinanya's. I would love to see each story fleshed out into it's own novel, I'd love to one day find this on the shelves as a trilogy, but I am terrified of what may come of the story if that happens. Hinanya's story ends when the book does, but the characters she interacts with, the implied history she discovers, there's so much more here. Additionally, I've never been a fan of authors who have multiple characters commit suicide, but I will give Starbloak credit here for not having it feel like a rush job, or as a plot device. Hinanya's spiral will consume you like a tornado; it'll pick you up and drop you off somewhere new completely disoriented.

To purchase the book for yourself or a friend CLICK HERE!! 
To keep up with Ryan check out his site www.starbloak.com

And now for Five Questions! The fun thing where I ask the author 5 questions and cross my fingers for some great answers! 

Author Ryan Starbloak

1. What are your top five books right now? 

"The Three-Body Problem" by Cixin Liu, amazingly mind-blowing first contact read. The science fiction concepts found in this trilogy are so fresh and vibrant... & here I was thinking another Transformers movie would tarnish the genre for good! But for every disgraceful science fiction franchise there is an author like Liu pushing things forward in unexpected ways.

"The Long Walk" by Richard Bachman (Stephen King), always & forever my most beloved King read. The journey is utterly humane yet the premise of the story is not. It's an evocative contradiction.

"Yesterday's Gone" by Sean Platt & David Wright, a sprawling serialized work that becomes rather addictive. These guys do so good at cliffhangers!

"Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, thought it'd be a delightful English romance. That's the first impression. And with du Maurier's prose, I was sold already. But this novel became more like a suspense piece that had me tense and in awe at the same time.

"A Scanner Darkly" by Phillip K. Dick, a look at the consequences of trying to slay a monster by impersonating one. I find this one really somber... use & abuse of drugs definitely does not lead to a happy ending here. I found myself really inspired by the work, & there's definitely some elements to be seen of it in "Writer, Seeker, Killer."

2. They say inspiration comes from everywhere, where is the weirdest place you've found a story's 

inspiration? 

Hm, challenging question, but after a lot of thought, one thing keeps coming back to me. Those ghost hunter programs on TV really got to me this one time. I'm a skeptic and philosophy has some issues with the existence of ghosts. Hell, I'd love to see one though. No matter how scary it might be in the moment, that's confirmation of an afterlife. Good deal, in my mind. Anyway, I got to thinking in the way a skeptic like me might roll their eyes at these ghost hunter people, some of whom believe in ghosts, what would make THEM roll their eyes at someone? That's how I got the idea for my short story "Ghost Eggs."

3. Chocolate or Vanilla? 

(Dark) Chocolate. Mhm. I have some stockpiled in my freezer as I'm typing (excuse me, it's calling to me).

4. Does WSK have a book 2 coming out? 

 Ah, good question! Well, I certainly felt good with the scope of the world I created there. That seedy New Orleans underbelly truly yields some brutal and decadent tales. There are absolutely more stories to tell there, but would you believe it? I don't know what they are as of yet. I sure did love writing in the thriller genre though!

5. What's your next project about?

I've been working on a science fiction serial for some time. It's going to be at least four books. What's taking so long is I'm trying to write out all four books before launching the first. For the cohesion and integrity of the story. Yay J.K. Rowling for doing that. Boo for "Lost" for failing to do that. Eh, on second thought the "Lost" people were probably on a ridiculously tight schedule.

Anyway, it is about the first contingent of human beings to emigrate from Earth and live on a spaceship for keeps. I explore the consciousness change the first generation experiences as a result of leaving Earth behind. Space is sad! And there are many hazards both psychologically and externally. I also address the development of their offspring, who have never known Earth.  I'd drop the tentative title, but my friends snickering at it (because apparently, the title sounds like it's a book about butts) advise I keep that in the vault. Okay, okay, if you really want to know there's a loophole. Pretty sure I have it listed somewhere on my website (www.starbloak.com). Oooops! Will you go there in time or will I have already purged it?

That's all for now readers, until next time...

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

This Poison Won't Kill You...Yet

Hey There Readers! 

On a completely different level, ready to read something that makes you question everything? Then I'd highly recommend Poison by Galt Niederhoffer. Now we all know that I am one for a well researched psycho-thriller, I mean it may be a medical condition at this point, so when I was given an ARC of this through Net Galley I was more excited than could be considered normal. 

x

Poison is a literary psychological thriller about Cass and Ryan Connor, their marriage, and a (not so) minor betrayal that leads into a cluster of catastrophic proportions, some manipulation, and more twists than Chubby Checker ever prepared you for. 

"Cass and Ryan Connor have achieved family nirvana. With three kids between them, a cat and a yard, a home they built and feathered, they seem to have the Modern Family dream. Their family, including Cass' two children from previous relationships, has recently moved to Portland --- a new start for their new lives. Cass and Ryan have stable, successful careers, and they are happy. But trouble begins almost imperceptibly. First with small omissions and white lies that happen daily in any marital bedroom. They seem insignificant, but they are quickly followed by a series of denials and feints that mushroom and then cyclone in menace." 

While it has been marketed as a mystery you get some serious psycho-thriller, did I read that right, vibes. Every page turned brings you both closer to the truth and further from it. Additionally, the attention to detail and accuracy that the author put into the research may make it hard to read for some. Not going to lie there were a few times I tried to skim over the scientific summaries used, that I then had to go back and read because if you don't read them you'll be lost. Actually, if you skip over anything in this novel you'll be lost. This is definitely one you need to read, word for word, and possibly in one sitting.  I felt the characters were thought out, but needed some smoother execution, a few instances are hard to believe if you apply normal logic to them. And based on the ending, I need a second book. 

Happy Reading!

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

A Book of Extraordinary Reading

Good Morning Readers,

Sorry to be so absent lately, life gets a little to real sometimes. However, I'd like to take some time today and introduce you to Ruth Emmie Lang, a woman I first met on Litsy, and the author of Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance. This is a debut novel so extraordinary that Book of the Month even made it one of their October picks, and an exclusive one at that since Lang's title was released in November. I got a copy of it through Net Galley, so I've been sitting on this gem for a while, and it is certainly a book to read when life gets a little to real.

Lang's novel is the sort of fairy tale esque novel that brings back those moments of childlike wonder. Reading it is both foreign and familiar, and somewhat spectacular. As a reader I loved how easy it was to consume; characters are well thought out and complete, the story line is tended too and blossoms brightly, and at the end of it you somehow feel as though you're a little more hopeful. By far this is one of the weirdest books I've read, but also one of the most beautiful. One aspect to the story that I found refreshing was that Weylyn isn't a character you meet through his own eyes. You meet him through everyone else, somewhat like the Little Prince, most of those you meet along the way are for brief moments, yet they leave lasting impressions. On a more personal level I found this book to be a beautiful reprieve from my real life. The magical and lyrical nature to the story made it one that stuck with me; and one that I will carry with me for quite some time. Ruth Emmie Lang has truly crafted a work of art, and it begs the question will you allow yourself to believe in both magic and possibilities?

Also, check out this book trailer! Book trailers are one of my favorite ways to get into a novel and see the world it's written in come to life.

About the Author
Ruth Emmie Lang was born in Glasgow, Scotland and has the red hair to prove it. When she was four years old, she immigrated to Ohio where she has lived for the last 27 years. She has since lost her Scottish accent, but still has the hair. Ruth currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband and dreams of someday owning a little house in the woods where she can write more books. Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance is her first novel.

You can learn more about Ruth and her work right here!

I'd also encourage all of you to order Ruth's book through whichever platform you like! It's available on Amazon, Kindle, B&N, Nook, Indiebound, iBooks, and Kobo.

For audiobook lovers you can also get it on Audible!



Happy Reading!!

XoXo
BrainyHeroine

(Here's an excerpt to really get you interested!)

roa r k e

“A betting man can lose a dollar. It’s the man he bets on that can lose an eye.” My mother would say this with a confidence that sug­ gested there were no other possible outcomes, that there were thou­ sands of one­eyed boys out there apologizing to their mothers for not taking their advice.

I, remarkably, still had both my eyes despite my impulse to hurl myself off things that were often a generous distance from the ground. Some of my other hobbies included running with sharp objects, lighting fires, and lighting sharp objects on fire and launching them into the sky with my slingshot. So, naturally, when it was my turn in Truth or Dare, my friends never had to ask.

“Dare!” I hollered and head­butted a tree.

The other kids laughed. That was my favorite part.

“I dare you to . . .” Mike looked around the forest for something I hadn’t yet climbed, eaten, or peed on. One time, he puked after I made him eat a worm, so I ate ten worms and a beetle just to make him look like a baby in front of pretty Ruby S.

“This’d better be good,” Ruby said as she perched herself on a tree stump like it was box seats at the opera, pointing her candy heart nose at the ceiling as she admired the crown molding.

Mike thought for a moment longer, then flashed me a wily grin. “Did you hear about the thing that ate Gretchen’s dog?”

“Again?” I scoffed. Mike’s cousin Gretchen was always making up stories. Her most recent string of lies featuring beloved family pets meeting strange and untimely demises. She was pretty weird.

“This one’s real!” Mike insisted. “Charlie got off his leash and started sniffing around this old cabin by the creek. She tried to call him back, but he wouldn’t come. Then like a minute later, she saw this half­man, half­spider thing looking back at her through the win­ dow, and she bolted.”

Ruby gasped and leaned forward on her stump. “She just left Charlie there?”

Mike nodded and continued, “She showed me the place. It’s creepy. Covered in cobwebs and stuff. I wanted to look inside, but Gretchen started crying ’cause she didn’t want me leaving her there by herself. She’s scared of spiders.”

“I think you’re the one who’s afraid of spiders,” I said, wiggling my fingers like they were eight hairy legs.

Mike didn’t take the bait. He leveled his gaze on me and said, “I dare you to touch it.”

“What? The cabin?”

Mike nodded, searching my face for signs of fear. “What d’ya say?

Truth or—” “Dare.”

“That’s it.” Mike pointed to a ramshackle cabin made of splintered, gray wood. The windows were dark and shrouded by cobwebs. It ap­ peared no one was home.

This was going to be easy. “So, I just have to walk up and touch it?” I asked.

Mike hesitated, clearly thrown off by how unfazed I was. “Yeah . . . but you have to keep your hand on it for at least twenty seconds.”

I almost laughed. This was weak, even for Mike.

“Guys, look,” Ruby said, pointing to a small flock of sparrows that had settled on the roof of the cabin.

“What is it?” I asked, failing to see what was so interesting about a bunch of birds.

“Just watch,” she said.

One by one, the birds beat their wings, but none of them lifted off. It was as if something was anchoring them by their tiny wishbone feet. They furiously flapped and chirped for help as their heads jump­cut from one angle to the next, searching the sky for hawks or eagles.

“Poor birds!” Ruby cared enough to exclaim, but not enough to do something about it. She turned to me. “You have to save them.”

“Yeah, Roarke. Save them.” Mike nudged me forward.

For the first time in my life, I hesitated. I didn’t hesitate when I drove my uncle’s truck when he left it running in the driveway, or when I caught that snake and wore it like a necktie. But something about this was different. My heart fluttered; my pulse raced. I was . . .

“What’s wrong? Scared Old Man Spider’s gonna eat you?” “No!” I sounded more defensive than I’d have liked. I could see

the other kids doubting me, Ruby doubting me.

I head­butted the nearest tree, took one last look at Ruby’s candy heart nose, and ran to my almost certain doom.

I slowed to a stop within spitting distance of the cabin—twenty­ three feet, my personal best. I made sure the coast was clear before I pulled myself onto the branch of a sagging elm and shimmied over to the eaves of Old Man Spider’s roof. Then I realized what was keep­ ing the birds from leaving. Most of the cottage’s roof was missing, and in its place was what looked like a tarp made of spider’s silk. I carefully placed my weight on one of the several rotten two­by­fours that remained of the original roof and went to work freeing the birds with my Swiss Army knife, cutting the threads that bound their tiny feet while being careful not to step on the sticky stuff myself.

I could see Ruby from where I was, so I decided to make a show

of it. I leaped from board to board, bird to bird, cutting them loose and throwing my arms in the air as if I had performed some kind of magic trick. Ruby’s lips were moving, probably saying something like, “Oh! Did you see that? Roarke is so brave.” When all the birds were free, I took a bow and wondered if I’d get a kiss later. Then came time for my final trick: the Disappearing Act. Like a trapdoor, the board beneath my feet gave way, and I fell.

I braced myself for the landing I had nailed a hundred times be­ fore from the tops of trees, roofs, and bridges, but it never came. I found myself cradled in a hammock of spider silk not three feet from the ground. I had fallen into Old Man Spider’s trap.

I struggled to break free but only succeeded in making myself more tangled. Where was my knife? Not in my pocket. I eventually spotted it suspended several feet above me from a single thread of silk. I could see the webbing had caught the blade, not the handle, so all I could do was wait as gravity cut through the thread and hope it didn’t land on any part of me that contained a vital organ.

As my eyes adjusted to the dark, my surroundings revealed themselves. The room itself was spartan—the only pieces of furniture were a kitchen table and a sofa bed with springs sticking out of the mattress. It was what was above eye level that was cluttered. Spoons, toothbrushes, socks, tweezers, tennis rackets, and other household miscellany hung suspended in long, sticky tendrils that dangled from large sheets of cobweb on the ceiling. It was as if all those items had gotten stuck at some point and whoever lived here just hadn’t both­ ered to cut them down.

I heard a shuffling noise behind me. My heart raced as I imag­ ined a giant half­man, half­spider pinning me down with its hairy arms as it prepared to devour me headfirst. Luckily, the thing that found me was no mutant human­spider hybrid, but entirely man: two legs, two arms, two eyes, hair mostly concentrated on his scalp. He also had two pant legs and two sleeves—both of which were soiled and frayed—and a long, salt­and­pepper beard that he most likely used as a napkin from the amount of food particles that were nestled

in it. I guess he wasn’t so much old as he was dirty, although I could see how it might be hard to tell from a distance.

“What’s this?” His look of surprise suggested he had never seen a child before.

“Get away from me!” I shouted and struggled against the web­ bing that bound me.

“You’ll pardon my asking, but this is my house. Why do you ask that I remove myself from it when you are the one dropping in unannounced?”

“I’m not scared of you!”

The man once again looked surprised. “And why should you be?” “Because! You . . . you’re a villain!”

“A villain?”

“You trap animals in your web and eat them!” I said bluntly.

“I think you have me confused with someone else. Have you tried Myra Oswald on South Street? She’s an odd one.”

“What about . . . kids?”

“Of course not! Eating children is a ghastly business.”

My muscles relaxed a little. “Then why do you live in this creepy place?”

“Because I needed a place to stay and it was available. The roof needed some patching­up, so my eight­legged friends offered to fix it for me. Would you like something to eat? Cheese? Watermelon?”

I liked both cheese and watermelon, and Old Man Spider didn’t seem so bad, but I wanted out of that web. “No, thanks. Could you help cut me out? My knife got stuck.”

He gazed up at the hole in his ceiling. “What were you doing up there, anyway?”

I told him about the birds, the bet, and Mike.

“I tell them not to land on the roof, but they keep doing it. You could say they’re a little flighty.” He paused like actors do in sitcoms after they’ve told a joke, only I had no idea what the joke was. “Never mind,” he added flatly.

“Can you get me outta here or not?”

“Of course, of course!” Old Man Spider went to work untangling my mess. “This might take a while. As you can see, when things get caught, I usually just leave them where they are.”

I glanced at a cheese grater hanging not ten inches from my face and wondered if he just stood in the middle of the living room to grate his cheese.

“What is your name, young man?” “Roarke.”

“Roarke, Roarke . . .” The man ran off and rummaged through a kitchen drawer. He pulled out a leather­bound book and flipped through it. “Rachel, Randy, Reginald, Ronald. No Roarke. You’re the first!” He excitedly scribbled something in the book. “I try not to repeat names. You don’t know how many Johns I’ve told to skedad­ dle! My goal is to know one person of every name. I haven’t met another Weylyn, yet. That’s my name—Weylyn Grey,” he said, shaking my hand. His name suited him. He had gray eyes that shone like fish scales in the light.

The web was starting to make my skin itch. “I really gotta go home.”

“Of course. My apologies.” Weylyn got back to work.

I hoped my mom had bought more chocolate  milk.  Maybe she’d let me have some after she made me try on that eye patch again and asked me how I’d like to have one of my own.

“So, what’s a smart boy like you doing climbing on people’s roofs? You could’ve hurt yourself.”

“I’ve done much crazier stuff than that.”

I told him some of my best stories: the one about the sewer and the train tracks and the neighbor’s dogs. Weylyn seemed un­ impressed.

“What? You got something better?” Weylyn smiled. “I was young once, too.”