Piper's Impasse

Hidden America #1

by J. Traveler Pelton

From Yeti to Thunderbirds, what secrets lie hidden in the remaining wilderness of America? Join us in a series of novels based on mysteries, tales and legends; the first one being our most beloved beast, Bigfoot. Learn just why no one has ever been able to find the bodies, and based on indigenous stories, find out what our government is trying to hide. Meet she thought she knew a few things for she was going to finish her dissertation; graduate, teach, do research, find a nice professor, get married, have 2.5 kids, and live happily ever after. Then she went to Baxter State Park to complete her research and met Sebastian, a handsome, well-mannered war veteran with a very sketchy past and present. Suddenly, her plan does not look so good, and there are enough tribal and family secrets to make monsters real and the future of Piper, her family, and Sebastian's tribe doubtful.
Reviewers have said, “Piper's Impasse is an exciting, compulsively readable story. Can't wait to see what's next!”
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239 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 19, 2023

About the author

J. Traveler Pelton was born in West Virginia in the last century. She is active in her home church and was the Nation’s Mother for her tribe for several years. She is still wife to Dan after 47 years (He is so long-suffering!), mother of six adults, a grandmother of nine, a Clinically Licensed Independent Social worker in private practice, a retired adjunct professor of social work at her local university, and an avid reader. She lives on a mini-farm with her husband, seven alpaca, a flock of spoiled chickens, five Siamese cats, four Pomeranians, a talkative Amazon parrot named Gizmo, and her aviary of canaries. Traveler enjoys the intersection of fantasy, possibility, creativity, and speculation. Join her on the other side of the imagination tree. She’ll be sitting there waiting for your visit.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible!

"Piper's Impasse"... Can I rate it less than One Star? Yeah. It's that bad.

The editing is seemingly non-existent. The spacing is irregular. There are capitalization issues and missing words. Some of the wording is just plain awkward. A couple of the names are similar, which causes a bit of confusion while reading. "OK" is abbreviated even in dialogue, rather than spelled out - which strikes me as lazy and amateurish. The same thing with numbers. There's head-hopping all throughout the book - which is one of my biggest pet peeves as a reader. There are multiple issues with several things being crammed into one paragraph that need to be in paragraphs of their own.

The author also seems to be bothered by nudity. If that's the case, then she shouldn't write herself into situations where nudity is warranted.

The writing in general struck me as extremely amateurish. To me, the entire book read as if it were written by a high school student for an English class assignment. I only kept reading due to my deep interest in sasquatch - but I strongly dislike the author's take on sasquatch as a species.

Using the terms "sasquatch" and "yeti" interchangeably bothered me, too. The two are two different species, which live in different regions thousands of miles apart. Unless using "yeti" is a colloquial term akin to the "Grassman". But I have never heard of either being used before in the area where this book is set in all of my years of studying the subject. This strikes me as a lack of research on the author's part. Which means she's either lazy or doesn't care about what she's writing about. Or both!

The author displays no true knowledge of sasquatch. Or else she opted to take SERIOUS creative liberty while writing this work of fiction - even well beyond the ludicrous decision to turn the sasquatch into shifters!

Fortunately, I got this book for free. Before reading it, I obtained Books #2 - #4 in this series for free, also. Now... Do I read them and risk them being as bad as Book 1? Or do I just forget about them?

This is the part of the review where I normally recommend the book. However, I honestly must say that I strongly recommend avoiding "Piper's Impasse"!

[Glenda Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Great Series Start

J. Traveler Pelton has a great series started. Piper is a graduate student working on her dissertation about herbal medicine used by indigenous peoples. Planning to camp in a Maine park to collect specimens. Sebastian is a handsome indigenous man. Also the US Army is trying to encourage more enlistments but mostly refer to Sebastian's people. So it turns out the the tribe/clan are shifters. Ms. Pelton also wrote great series about the Oberllyn family and several other books. Even, in her science fiction, the science makes sense. She is adept with her character building and is indigenous herself. Try this book.

[Renee Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Myth ,Legend or real! Big Foot Sasquatch, Grassmen, called something different depending on the region. Piper is taking a few weeks to research plant life that can be beneficial to medical research. Camping in Maine should be easy since her father is a friend of the Aboriginal people and the park rangers. But what she finds out is that the friendly tribe is being abused by the military. As facts unfold, she begins to uncover secrets about her family, friends and even about herself. I loved this book and the mysteries of the mountains, and the native ancestors and how they have survived generations by staying true to who they are. I definitely recommend it!

[Leta Hawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

For the most part I enjoyed the main plot line of this book. The pace was good, and there was a good mix of everyday life and tasks laced with occasional tension. The supernatural aspects were also handled well, not overdone or unrealistic.
My only critique of the book was that there were a few places where I had some trouble following what was going on. Also, there was some dialogue throughout that seemed unnatural and forced, especially when we were reading through a telephone conversation.

[Sharon Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely Book

I don't normally read books about Big Foot, but this one tempted me...and I am so glad that I gave in to the temptation! What a lovely story! The characters are so real, and the storyline flows very well. I am going to have to indulge in the whole series now!!

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is different

I do like a nice story line. This book help me by being engaging. I cannot wait to read norepinephrine about Piper and Sebastian.