4 stars I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. I realize this may be an odd thing to say, but I think my favorite part of the book is the title. It's a cozy mystery, which isn't generally my cup of tea. The mystery was certainly intriguing, and the romance between Piers and Charity was believable, but I never connected emotionally. I'm not heartless. Of course, I wanted Piers and Charity to find their way back to one another, and naturally, I hoped for a happy ending to the mystery, but I wasn't as devastated as I think I should have been by unpleasant events, which leads me to wonder if the author could have engaged my feelings a bit more. Descriptions of the scenes were vivid and made me feel I was there. I could feel the chill in the air, smell the mist over the moors. I always had the sense I knew exactly what things looked like and how they felt. The plot was very well thought out and the pacing was perfect. And to be sure, a book doesn't have to make you cry to be good. In fact, most cozy mysteries are not particularly emotionally engaging. But the heroine's emotions were so overwrought, maybe because of the Gothic aspects of the setting, I felt as if this one should. So I was disappointed when it didn't. February 27, 2021
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5 stars I’m always interested in a modern-day adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, even when it’s not exactly modern-day, so I was thrilled to be offered an ARC of Cowboy Pride. This one takes place in the wild west, and starts off with the following statement from Mrs. Bennett: “Everyone knows a rancher in possession of a large spread needs a wife.” Upon reading that, I knew I was in for a treat with the Bennett family, Nathan Bingley, Rob Darcy, George Wickham, and even Mr. Collins (who is a much nicer character in this incarnation, which includes a wife and a new baby). The plot is different enough from its inspiration to leave the reader wondering what will happen next. Besides, if Ms. Silks was willing to change certain aspects of the story, who knows how much she is willing to change? Sometimes the HEA is not exactly what we expect it to be. There were really some wonderful characters in this story and period details that brought the Old West to life, complete with dusty streets, a dearth of doctors, boarding houses, and societal expectations. As always, Eliza and Mr. Darcy are really the stars of the story, but Janie and Nate’s relationship holds almost as much angst. The misinterpretations of the others’ feelings were enough to make you want to strangle the two of them. But while Janie and Nathan were driven by shyness and fear of unrequited feelings from the other, Eliza and Rob were, not surprisingly, driven by pride and prejudice. I think this story makes a nice addition to the many tributes to the original from Jane Austen. February 26, 2021 5 stars This action-packed second installment to The Tainted Fae series is impossible to put down. I found myself turning pages, anxious for what might happen next while also dreading the end because I knew it wouldn’t truly be the end. Much like in the first book, for which I also received an ARC, I found myself completely enamoured with Bramble, the brownie. Every description of him was endearing, whether it was his giggle that “sounded like beetles clicking combined with the melody of a strange bird” or comparing him to “an acid trip wooden version of a parrot” perched on Riasg’s shoulder. I imagine it could have been difficult to bring an inanimate object to life, but Autumn Birt does so quite adeptly, making Bramble seem almost human in his interactions with the other characters. When Riasg found out that Bramble wanted to email Gavin back in Scotland, he was shocked to find she had an email address and access to the internet. “‘What century do you live in?’ Bramble’s laughter faded to disbelief. ‘What were you going to do, scry her?’ The little creature fell over onto the stone counter with the clatter of dropped sticks.” Even being a sarcastic little brat, he’s still adorable. Riasg was the main character of the previous book and he features heavily in this one, but the main focus is on October. She finds herself recuperating from an injury on Wind River, where she meets an odd cast of characters. Fed herbs to help her heal, as well as to help shield her from the knowledge of the magic at the farm, “October felt she was on a never-ending stoner trip. Every time she gathered her thoughts, they scattered, dissolved, or evaporated.” I thought this was a wonderful description of that feeling when you’re trying to understand and make sense of something beyond your comprehension and cannot even formulate the questions needed to clarify your thoughts. A new and significant character appears: Raven. This description is so clever: “The raven was darker even than the nighttime storm. He resembled a hole cut out of the world.” There is something very ominous about his appearance, despite the fact that he claims he wishes the residents of Wind River no harm. He seems unusually wise and possibly benign, but I still can’t get past the feeling of foreboding. I spent a good portion of the book wondering when Sgleó might begin to pivot and focus on healing. He spent a good deal of time sitting around, communicating with the local fairies and pixies, studiously ignoring Bramble and wanting very little to do with October. When he finally decides to be proactive, the transformation and means of achieving it is surprising and amazing. I’m impressed by the world-building and character development in this book. Descriptions like this one painted a vivid picture involving multiple senses: “The air pulsed against her skin and danced on her tongue with the snap of tart bubbles bursting.” Or this one: “The taste was sunlight and fragments of memory of his dear, lost homeland.” Meanwhile, characters were relatable and believable, despite an “unbelievable” premise. I was transported into the story and never doubted the “reality” presented. I can’t wait to read the next installment. February 26, 2021 4 stars I received an ARC of this book and quickly realized I had read it years ago when it was called Substitute Boyfriend. If there were any changes in addition to the name, I am not aware of them. I recalled the plot, the main characters, and some of the scenes. It’s a good story. Beth has Ridley as a booty call to help her write scenes for her romance books. She calls him her pretend boyfriend. After a falling out, she confides in her best friend Roman that she is a romance author and isn’t sure what to do now that her pretend boyfriend is gone. Roman suggests a substitute boyfriend: himself. After some initial hesitation, she figures, why not? Predictably, throwing sex into a best friend relationship leads to love. It’s not an overly emotional story, not designed to evoke tears or make the reader feel anything too strongly. It’s just a fun plot with likable characters in sexy situations. I enjoyed it. It’s unusual and memorable, as evidenced by the fact that I was happy to read it for the second time. February 25, 2021 5 stars Forewarned this would be a cliffhanger, I was still disappointed when I reached the end of the ARC and was left hanging. The occurrences leading up to the “end” were not entirely unpredictable. They were the sort of thing I knew might happen, but hoped wouldn’t. But Blair Babylon likes to torture her characters before she’ll allow an HEA. Although I didn’t like this installment of the story as much as the last one, it was the natural progression of events so I cannot criticize it. As in previous books, Dree is a regular comedian, dubbing Maxence: “His Serene Highness, Prince Maxence of Monaco, Count of Wherever, Lord of Someplace She’d Never Heard Of, Emperor of His Own Massively Inflated Ego, the Duke of Stick It Up His Noble Ass, and Royal Guy Who Evidently Didn’t Want to Get Laid if He Treated People Like That.” Again, the subject of narcissists in power was touched upon, with ample references to Pierre and Jules, Max going so far as to say someone like Jules “would seek out and sign treaties with other countries that would give him more power and money with no regard for how it affected Monaco’s citizens. Indeed, he would enjoy making them more miserable, more helpless, with less money and power, more like medieval serfs than citizens, because it would demonstrate his power over them. Strippping people of their citizenship, humiliating them, even allowing his own people to become sick and die would excite him. He literally gets high from it. It proves to him that he has the power of life and death over those people, that he can crush them, and no one can stop him. He would enjoy destroying Monaco just because he could do it. Yes, he’s evil. He’s evil to his very core.” When Dree suggests someone with an MBA or a law degree would probably run the country well, Max responds: “Corporate drones are inherently sociopathic and destroy anything they get their hands on. They think they know how to run a company, but their vice presidents and admins really do the work the whole time. Because they focus on boosting short-term profits to keep the stock price high, they don’t know how to invest in and manage a country and citizenry to prepare for the next century. They play too much golf and screw it up. And then they burn down the economy because they were too lazy to do the job right, and they’re mad about it.” In case that didn’t drive home Ms.Babylon’s point strongly enough, Dree later observes that “only a childish narcissist would crap in a golden toilet.” Maybe it’s a bit heavy-handed, but I suspect those most unwilling to recognize these observations are the ones most likely to need it. Regardless, I loved it. Xan Valentine and Georgie make an appearance in the book and I loved Dree’s impression of Xan: “His blond hair just past his shoulders seemed perpetually being blown back by the forward momentum of his ambition.” I also chuckled when she thought to herself that sex with her previous boyfriend “felt like stuffing a protein bar in her mouth because she was hungry.” There are several references to Francois the Malicious and the statue in his honor. Dressed as a Fransicsan monk, he tricked the guards into letting him into the palace, only to pull a knife and turn on them, killing several guards before allowing his army inside to take the fortress. This is Max’s ancestor, the first in the line of succession of Grimaldis. Upon closer inspection, Dree says he looks exhausted and maybe he was just desperate to end the war, willing to do anything to achieve that goal. Max counters that maybe the real message of the statue is that you can never tell whether someone is malicious or not, just by looking at them. He continues, “Or perhaps just a warning that all Grimaldi are malicious at heart.” I believe there is some serious foreshadowing going on here, in regard to both of their assumptions. Many of the Grimaldi have shown they are vicious and self-serving, but there’s another part of me that wonders if the desire to “end the war” might be a motivating factor to push Max to do something that might otherwise be viewed as malicious. After all, he has been disguised as a Jesuit priest wanna-be all this time. What if that “calling” of his has actually been an unconscious calling to take control and end the war? And maybe that is the reason for his special gift? February 24, 2021 5 stars I received an ARC of this story from Netgalley. It is told from the POV of a mostly well-behaved 12-year-old boy who hardly ever gets in trouble. At least, that’s what he tells us. I thought the author did a masterful job of getting into the head of a young boy and spinning an outrageous adventure. Because of this, it didn’t even matter if all of it didn’t make sense. For example, as the book drew closer to the end, I had some suspicions about what might happen, while also wondering what was happening. The ending was a bit of a disappointment, because I hoped to find out more about Helical Unfolded and Timber Value Corporation, but I enjoyed the overall story so much, for me, it doesn’t really matter. There was one scene in the book, early on, which practically had me rolling on the floor laughing. Ruby, the protagonist, and his best friend and partner in crime, Quinn become convinced they have a curse on them. As always, they go to the local “witch” for a cure. The description of this encounter was hysterical. It starts off with this observation, “‘Oh, boy,’ she said when she saw us coming, like she wasn’t happy to see us.” It was beyond Ruby’s comprehension that Widow Jones wouldn’t want to see them. But it gets better because the more they call her Widow Jones, the more aggravated she gets, telling them she has never been married and never plans to marry and is not a widow and would they just stop calling her that? Naturally, they ignore her. Then she insists she is not a witch, and they don’t believe that either, begging her for a cure for the curse. “‘I am not a witch!’ she said. ‘Mother of Mercy! I used to like you kids! What the hell happened to you two?’” They are impervious to her logic and eventually she gives up, throws a handful of herbs at them and tells them to get lost. The storytelling is genuinely funny. Having a 12-year-old boy as the narrator allows the author to create all kinds of fantastical occurrences, with the reader never quite knowing how accurate his account is. Everything he relates in this memoir-esque story is tinted by his view that he and his friend are good kids surrounded by people who don’t understand them. They’re a modern-day Huck Finn-Tom Sawyer duo, eschewing school, church, bathing, and chores, and wishing for adventure. In real life, you might expect some pretty horrific things to happen to these hapless boys, but this is a feel-good story, and aside from the too-vivid description of the dying deer at the beginning, they are never in any serious danger. Instead, they seem to float from one circumstance to the next, always landing on their feet, surrounded by people who generally don’t wish to hurt them. You might argue that those who do have good reason for it. I seriously enjoyed this story and would recommend it to anyone looking for a light-hearted adventure story told from the POV of a pre-teen boy. I know lots of kids liked Tom Sawyer, the original star of the Mark Twain books, and it’s obvious Ruby was based on Tom. Huck was always my favorite, and I guess you could say Quinn was more like him, though I think I liked Ruby better. Ruby’s feigned death was reminiscent of Tom’s, while having a character the boys referred to as Widow Jones was a nice touch. Overall, the entire setting of Hacker’s Loon, NY is much like that of St. Petersburg, Missouri, though the social commentary has changed some. This one touches on the issue of corporate greed, but only insofar as it can be understood by a child. In the end, Ruby really is a good kid who is trying to do what he thinks is right and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. February 23, 2021 4 stars This is a fun cozy mystery book with a touch of romance. It has quirky characters and makes murder seem not only common place, but also not too much of a big deal. Obviously, a cozy mystery is not going to focus too much attention on the murdery aspect of the story, but I was surprised by the body count. One of the characters had a line that I’m hoping to remember for use in my own life: “You’ve got a face like a wet weekend.” There was one scene in the book that I found difficult to follow and I think it probably needed to be worded better. Lenny pulled out a box of chocolates and everyone was eating them. Beth asked Maggie if she could give the dog a doggy biscuit. Maggie said okay, but just one. Then Beth reached for the box of chocolates and chose a coconut-covered truffle. I think it’s common knowledge that chocolate is toxic to dogs, but the way this was worded had me thinking the poor dog was about to get very sick. It didn’t say that she gave the truffle to the dog, but it didn’t say she gave the biscuit to him either. The fact that she reached for a chocolate after getting permission to give him a biscuit was odd. Overall, I enjoyed the book. February 22, 2021 5 stars The main characters, Captain Francis Grafton (crude) and Mrs. Caroline Harding (prude), make an unlikely pairing. Caroline has been widowed, and now destitute, is barely scraping by as she tries to support her family--her mother and two younger sisters. Captain Grafton is a mercenary, ne'er-do-well (or so it would seem) with a terrible reputation, who also happens to be her landlord. Their initial relationship is not exactly consensual, and it's a little hard to get past that. Grafton is a complicated character who seems intent on maintaining his hard exterior while bits of his compassion keep peeking through. For the most part, Caroline seems to despise him, for good reason, but she slowly comes to the realization that he is not the bastard he wants everyone to believe he is. His actions are driven by self-loathing and his growing affection for Caroline forces him to confront the past. It's an interesting story. I always appreciate a historical romance that features characters from the "lower" classes, and this is even a bit of a second chance romance. It takes characters who might otherwise be seen as having no intrinsic value and turns them into protagonists. It’s memorable because it’s different from other romances. I really enjoyed this story and would recommend it. February 20, 2021 5 stars This is an exciting start to a new YA series. Juliet is a shapeshifting cat and Dante hunts shapeshifters. At their first meeting Dante notes her name and the connection to Romeo and Juliet, an "ancient" story. It's a not so subtle indication that this story will be following the outline of the classic, but without the tragic ending because people are not as willing to read tragedies as they once were. The story is an allegory for teens (really, for anyone) about the importance of NOT judging people based on preconceived notions about who they are. In this case, it's the stories Juliet and Dante have been told and have always believed about the other. As they get to know one another and are put in positions that require trust, they both start to hope there is a way to bring their people together. Naturally, the story doesn't end with this book, but the cliffhanger is not utterly unbearable. In other words, I won't be tortured wondering what happens next. Still, I'll be anxiously awaiting book two. February 19, 2021 5 stars What to do when two people inextricably drawn to each other are both afraid to love? Kate made the mistake of marrying someone who plied her with pretty words then shipped her off to the country to waste away while he engaged in multiple affairs in London, eventually dying because a cuckolded husband called him out. Now widowed and wealthy, she is determined to enjoy life. Meanwhile, Ryder lost his wife several years ago and out of fear of losing anyone he cares about ever again, he has chosen to wallow in his grief and guilt. Naturally, the chemistry between them is undeniable, and apparently, inevitable. This is Kate’s journey to realizing that trying to protect your heart is a losing proposition. Ryder learns that fear can often disguise itself as sadness or guilt or any number of other emotions that are far easier to face. Both are driven by the most elemental of emotions, the one that seems to drive most people—fear. Both learn that facing their fears is the only way to conquer it. I will admit this story brought more than a tear to my eye. I particularly felt for Ryder because it’s harder to heal a broken heart caused by death than one caused by neglect or rejection. Kate’s is a character who is strong, independent , persistent, brave, and inquisitive. Ryder is not only thoughtful and caring, though he tries to hide it, but also cognizant of the value of these qualities in her. He has no desire to change her or control her, which is refreshing since that is the most common way for men to treat women during this time period. There is more than a little debauchery (Ryder’s word) in this novel and I was surprised by the scandalous underbelly of London exposed by Ms. Devon. I have no reason to doubt the veracity of this society as portrayed, even though it was well-hidden and does not appear in most historical romances. This is not your typical bodice-ripper, and although no more explicit than others in its category, it is definitely more unusual. I loved this story and I highly recommend it. February 19, 2021 |
Elizabeth J ConnorWriter. Editor. Proofreader. Archives
September 2022
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