Your Next Favorite Author– Amy Bernstein!

Archaeologist Pauline Marsh has an uncanny talent for locating priceless artifacts but finding true love will take a lot more digging.

Bio: Amy L. Bernstein writes stories that let readers feel while making them think. Her novels include The Potrero Complex, The Nighthawkers, Dreams of Song Times, and Fran, The Second Time Around. Amy is an award-winning journalist, speechwriter, playwright, and certified nonfiction book coach. When not glued to a screen, she loves listening to jazz and classical music, drinking wine with friends, and exploring Baltimore’s glorious neighborhoods, which inspire her fiction.

Avis: Welcome Amy! I’m so happy we can showcase your wonderful new novel and get to know you a bit better! I just finished your book, and I have to say, it was riveting! Which leads me to the first question:  What was your hardest scene to write?

Amy: The hardest scenes to write in The Nighthawkers were those that take place in the magical, mystical, parallel reality that looks like home, but isn’t. I found it challenging to invent a place that was believable, although it exists outside of our normal time-space continuum. I wanted readers to feel they were there, so I had to choose details carefully, yet make this place feel special.

Avis: You create such a magical parallel reality, and your attention to details made me want to know more about Pauline’s roll in all of it. Those scenes really sucked me in and made me curious about the other people there! Which leads me to the next question: How do you select the names of your characters?

Amy: Choosing characters’ names is so much fun—and often quite difficult! Usually, the name just comes to me as soon as I know something about the character. Sometimes, I go for a name that has a particular sound. In The Nighthawkers, I thought “Grey” sounded very masculine. But the protagonist’s other love interest has an ancient Egyptian name with special meaning. So you really have to find the name that suits the character and his or her history.

Avis: Ancient Egypt? Wow! You really developed some great character back stories! I was so curious about the names and the historical importance of each of them. In a novel like yours that blends genres, history is all important. Your world building in this novel really draws the reader in, which leads me to my next question: Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

Amy: I am a multi-genre author, meaning, I don’t wish to pick a lane and stay in it. I enjoy the thrill of writing in different styles and genres, though all my books have some common themes around social justice, love, and loss. 

Avis: Well, not to give anything away, but this book does deal with all of those issues in a sensitive, logical, and realistic manner. I am always interested in an author’s response to this question: Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Amy: Writing is both energizing and exhausting. When I’m in the middle of a good stretch of writing, I feel exhilarated, like I can do anything (well, almost anything). Once I’m done for the day, however, I’m often exhausted, physically, and mentally. Writing can feel like running a marathon—but you do, on occasion, get the runner’s high.

Avis: I agree! When the writing is good, it’s an amazing feeling!

Amy, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions. It’s a pleasure to get to know you better. For people interested in learning more about Amy Bernstein, here are links to her website and her social media pages:

• Web site: https://amywrites.live
• https://twitter.com/amylbernstein
• https://instagram.com/amylbernsteiin
• https://facebook.com/AmyLBernsteinAuthor

Please continue reading for a blurb and a review of The Nighthawkers!

Blurb: Archaeologist Pauline Marsh is convinced she’s an unlovable freak. Who else in the world shares her ability to locate ancient artifacts without a map, hear their stories, and commune with long-dead artisans? But all that changes when handsome, charismatic Grey Henley persuades her she’s the girl of his dreams. For Pauline, Grey is the family she never knew. And for Grey, Pauline’s treasure-finding skills will make him immensely rich.  But the lovers are keeping secrets from one another that push their relationship to the breaking point. Grey is in league with a criminal and Pauline is visited by an other-worldly stranger with a message. Sometimes, it takes a broken heart to discover your true destiny—and find eternal love where you least expect it.

Review:

Amy L. Bernstein’s latest creative work is Nighthawkers, a novel filled with mystery, suspense, and fantasy. Bernstein sets her story in the world of archeology and creates a strong woman protagonist, Pauline March, PhD for us to follow. I’d follow Pauline anywhere, even when she experiences the pulse, a mysterious physical response that leaves her floating above her body.

We meet Pauline as she is about to graduate and follow her to the party at Dean India Nojes’ house. Pauline just wants to fit in and belong. She’s looking for acceptance, but not at the expense of who she is. The Dean is notorious for her parties and her control issues, so Pauline attends hoping to avoid any drama. 

Fat chance. She meets Grey Henley, the Adonis of her class. Together they are called into the infamous room where their fate is decided? Maybe, but no one is certain. Dean Nojes does not take no for an answer and calls her students into the room. Pauline and Grey enter, and they feel the bond of the experience. Thus begins a journey that will break all the laws her best friend and law school bound Bette is to expose.

Pauline and Grey begin their careers as Nighthawkers, people who find and sell artifacts for profit, and she learns more about herself and the pulse. As the puzzle pieces of the Pulse come together, her misgivings about what she and Grey are doing fill her with dread. She knows that Grey will leave her if she doesn’t use her abilities to find the next precious artifact.

 What she learns about Grey as they amass a fortune and build a life together based on stolen artifacts is that she won’t be party to any of it. Bernstein’s novel is a non-stop action-packed adventure on the scale of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft with the added element of fantasy for extra flair. This page-turner will keep you satisfied to the last word and wanting more! And rumors have it that several more books will follow! This is a five-star read!

by Avis M. Adams