Hunting Hannah by CB Clark

Publication Date: September 30, 2024

Hannah Marchand is a reporter for Aspire magazine and is assigned to do a story on an archaeological dig in the northern reaches of British Columbia. She knows it isn’t the sort of thing that will make her career but she’s having a bit of an issue with an ex-boyfriend that won’t take no for an answer so skipping town for a few weeks may be just what she needs.

Roman Patrick is an indigenous archaeologist who is conducting his first dig since a reporter from Aspire wrote a story in which he was alleged to have mishandled an artifact, nearly ruining his career five years before. He does not trust reporters and he doesn’t want them around.

Despite his suspicion of Hannah’s motives, there’s a spark that neither of them can deny. Can he rise above his mistrust and work with her to elude the man hunting Hannah?

I was given a pre-release copy of Hunting Hannah in exchange for my honest review.

Continue reading Hunting Hannah by CB Clark

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle

Publication Date: May 14, 2024

Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (just call him Robert) is a dragon exterminator who hates his job. His dream is to work for a prince as his valet and he’s burdened with the incredible guilt of killing dragons which, in his home kingdom of Bellemontagne, infest homes like vermin. He trained with his father and now 18-year-old Robert has his own apprentice. When Robert is called by the King to exterminate the dragons in the walls of the castle, Robert is thrust into an adventure which will either be the end of him or the beginning of a new life.

 

 Back in July, I stopped in at River Bookshop, my local indie bookstore, and asked the young person working the till for a book recommendation telling them that I am a big fan of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett and am always looking for authors like them. They recommended I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle. While technically falling into the YA category, this book is spot on to the whimsical spirit of Pratchett. This is why you patronize your local Indie booksellers’ folks; I never would have picked up this book without the recommendation.  

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The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black by Lisa Hall

Publication Date: September 21, 2023

Lily Jones is an English ex-pat in Hollywood looking for her big break. She’s working as a chambermaid at the Beverly Hills Hotel and cleaning the suite where an actress was killed in 1949 when she’s transported back in time to two weeks before the murder. Can Lily save Honey Black?

I as given this book by the Book Reviewer Book Club on Facebook in exchange for my review.

 

I love a good time travel read and you can win me over with Old Hollywood anytime. I went into The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black ready to be entertained and sure that I would like the novel. The prologue was great. We see the murder of Honey Black. Suspense is built. The promise of what is to come is undeniably sweet but the author does not carry through on that promise. What this reader was left with at the end was confusion. The ending felt abrupt as though the author had simply had enough of the writing process or the characters and was ready for it to be done.

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The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

Publication Date: June 5, 2012

It’s 1922 and respectably married Cora chaperones a 15-year-old Louise Brooks to New York City for her multi-week training with and audition for the Denishawn School of Dancing. What Louise doesn’t know is that Cora’s earliest memories are of living in a home for girls in New York City and  has taken the position with a hope of finding out more about where she has come from. 

 

 

The Chaperone is not the story of Louise Brooks. She is a facilitator for the plot. Those facts that pertain to Brooks are incredibly well researched.  Brooks did, indeed, travel to New York City for the opportunity highlighted. Much of what we see of Brooks, through Cora’s sometimes judgmental and sometimes fond gaze, is based on deep research of the actresses own account of her past as well as research done by others. Though Brooks often comes off, in the story, as a bit of a caricature, there are moments when she shines as a fully realized character. 

Continue reading The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

The Girls in the Attic by Marius Gabriel

Publication Date: June 1, 2021

Maggie’s father dies and friends and family of her mother encourage her to ask her mother about her past. When she does, Maggie learns of the struggles her mother (Lola) faced as a Jewish woman in Nazi-era Germany and the extreme odds she faced of survival when the Nazi’s literally came to the door in the form of the son of the woman hiding Lola and her sister, Heidi, in her attic.

 

If you look at the Amazon description of The Girls in the Attic, its the story of Max Wolffe. Max’s father was a minister who spoke out against Hitler and was taken away when Max was young. The official story is that his father died in prison and Max’s devotion to the protection of the motherland and master race came at the hands of a Nazi who took the boy under his wing when he was tortured everyday as a result of what he believed was his father’s treason. When Max returns home after having suffered a head injury at the Russian front for what he thinks will be a recovery break, he finds that his mother has concealed two young Jewish women in his home. The only thing keeping Max from going to local authorities to turn the women in is that he knows that his mother will also be taken into custody. 

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The Ethics of Silence by C. J. Nash

Publication Date: June 24, 2021

Mason Turner is sent from Earth to the Mars Colony to investigate a murder. What Mason finds is a community entrenched in its secrets and a people divided and information a commodity that is in short supply. With everyone and time working against him will Mason uncover the secrets of the red planet?

I was given this book by the author, C. J. Nash, in exchange for an honest review.

 

Let me begin by saying that the plotline of this story is a great idea. One of my former coworkers always said “Everyone hates the new guy” and that is the first thing that Mason learns when he gets off of the space craft and meets his guide, Janet. The Mars colony wants to be left alone. They have faced obstacles that their early counterparts cannot imagine and the murder is perceived to be family business of a sort of Mason is an interloper. No one likes him, no one wants him there (even the guy who requested him) and if he’s not careful he may go the way of his long dead investigative subject.

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The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

Publication Date: August 4, 2020

Laura Lyons is a housewife in 1913 living with her family in an apartment in the New York Public Library where her husband is the superintendent. She enrolls in Columbia Journalism School and finds a new world outside of the library walls and herself where women have their own identity. When someone starts stealing rare books and her lifestyle is at risk, she has to make a choice.

Eighty years later, Laura’s granddaughter, Sadie, is hired as a curator at the New York Public Library. When rare books from an exhibit Sadie is setting up starts to go missing, Sadie starts to dig into the past and may not like what she finds.

 

Readers of my blog will know that I love historical fiction. I fully expected to be fangirling in this review when starting the book. The mystery, varied timelines, New York Public Library tie-in, sounds fascinating on paper. The paper on which it is fascinating is not the pages of this book. The Lions of Fifth Avenue is not the worst book I’ve ever read. It felt self-indulgent on the part of the author. Davis wanted this setting and timeline tie but the story and characters never really seemed to come together. This is the only book I’ve read by Fiona Davis so the rest of her books might be brilliant. Am I likely to find out? No. 

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A Little Birdie Told Me by Sharley Scott

Publication Date: January 25, 2021

It’s 1988 and Belinda is working in a nursing home after having had quite the career driven fall.  Her new job is boring and a bit frustrating but the light at the end of that tunnel is her co-worker, Joe for whom she harbors a secret attraction though her insecurity stands in the way of hope. When thefts and worse start to happen at the nursing home, she turns to Joe. When she discovers something disturbing, she has to decide if she’ll go along to get along or if she’ll stand up for what is right and protect her residents.

I received this book for review from the Book Club Reviewer Facebook group.

 

A Little Birdie Told Me is a snapshot of the 80s. Scott puts great care into the narrative place in time. I graduated high school and started college in 1988. Scott winks at her readers through topical jokes that, given the popularity with young folk of the 80s, will unlikely become dated but could evade a certain audience but then the genre of women’s fiction itself can sometimes be a bit specific. Scott’s humor will have broad appeal. Despite the attention to background detail, A Little Birdie Told Me is a quick read that flows really well. Continue reading A Little Birdie Told Me by Sharley Scott

Highland Lioness: A Highland Romance of Tudor Scotland (The Highland Ballad Series Book 4) by Kristin Gleeson

Publication Date: January 15, 2021

Morag McGregor is sent to Scottish Court by her father in hopes that she will make a match or, at least, dampen her desire to get revenge on her neighbour, the Campbells. In a setting tense with religious and political strife will Morag sate her desire for revenge and return to her secret love who is waiting at home?

I received this book for review from the Book Club Reviewer Facebook group.

Highland Lioness is the fourth book in the Highland Ballad Series

 

I have not read any of the previous three books in the Highland Ballad Series and believe that this is the first book I’ve read by Kristin Gleeson and to be quite honest, I did not have high hopes for Highland Lioness in meeting Morag and she and her co-conspirators were lying in wait to sabotage the Campbell’s cattle. First impression was that she was going to be one of these borderline compulsive characters that would careen brainlessly from scrape to scrape until someone “tamed” her completely discounting the historical context of how dangerous a spirited woman might be Continue reading Highland Lioness: A Highland Romance of Tudor Scotland (The Highland Ballad Series Book 4) by Kristin Gleeson

Serious Moonlight (How to be Dead) by Dave Turner

CORRECTION: I said in an earlier version of this review that this book was last in the series. I am overjoyed to learn that it’s not.

 

Publication Date: December 31, 2018

 

Dave Marwood and his girlfriend, Melanie, are due for a bit of a break in the country after saving the City of London from destruction. It’s a bit of a worry that Death, the last standing Horseman of the Apocalypse and Dave’s employer, is having a bit of an existential crisis and Dave has been acting as his flip-flopped toy scythed stand-in, but a relationship needs tending. The break, however; is not the peaceful time away the couple anticipates when they find themselves beset by ghosts and the people seeking them.

Serious Moonlight by Dave Turner is the fifth book in the How to be Dead series.

 

Part of my life’s work is finding books that give me the feeling I got when I first read the works of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, and Jasper Fforde. The beautiful humor and massive creativity of the aforementioned authors are qualities shared by the great Dave Turner. Continue reading Serious Moonlight (How to be Dead) by Dave Turner