The Splendid and Extraordinary Life of Beautimus Potamus by Peggy A. Wheeler

You’re never too old for a great fairy tale. - 5-star readers review.  A funny and quirky fantasy fairy tale for adults complete with mystery, murder, romance!  The mystical green planet of Rendaz is home to devout goddess worshiper and university professor, middle-aged Beautimus Potamus—who also happens to be a hippo plagued by hot flashes and poor self-esteem. Beautimus forms an alliance with Samuel S. Goodwings, a younger womanizing, atheist praying mantis. When these two are together, life morphs from the mundane into the fantastic. Our unlikely duo solves mysteries, bring a murderer to justice, and even help end a war while experiencing their own trials, triumphs, and tragedies. Often with humor, their situations and adventures parody Earth culture. During their exploits, the two interact with a host of characters, including a pair of New Age flamingos, an A.D.H.D. afflicted trout, an orangutan detective, and a 310-year-old blue crane High Priestess. All of these creatures are more “human” in surprising ways than the citizens of the blue planet, Earth, we discover was once a Rendazian Colony. Beautimus Potamus’ tongue-in-cheek story is a magical fable-stew made with the ingredients of satire, drama, social commentary, and comedy, with jests, puns and wordplay sprinkled throughout. For good measure, a generous pinch of romantic flavoring is thrown into the pot. Readers reviews:  Truly a splendid and extraordinary story. It was refreshing to find something so original. Well written, vivid descriptions, great humor and delightful characters. So often we limit our reading to books by Dan Brown, John Grisham, Nicholas Sparks or Michael Connelly and we [...] miss the gems by new writers that put their heart, soul and dreams on paper to let our imaginations go where theirs have. This is one of those gems. If you liked this book, you should check out Peggys dystopian tale, Chaco as well!