#BookReview: Fury Brothers: Claim by Anna Hackett

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
#BookReview: Fury Brothers: Claim by Anna HackettClaim (Fury Brothers Book 5) by Anna Hackett
Format: eARC
Source: author
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Genres: action adventure romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense
Series: Fury Brothers #5
Pages: 240
Published by Anna Hackett on October 17, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Amazon
Goodreads

It was only supposed to be one night—a hot, nameless encounter with the gruff, gorgeous older stranger.
When you’re on the run from a killer, you can’t afford attachments. For over a year, I’ve been alone, never staying in one place long, fighting to survive.
But when the tall, muscled man with the intriguing ink steps in to help me with an obnoxious admirer, we end up sharing a coffee. Coffee turns into the hottest night of my life.
I never expected to see him again.
But when I walk into Hard Burn—the best gym in New Orleans—desperate to learn how to fight, I discover my stranger is none other than Beauden Fury.
When Beau discovers I’m being hunted, I see the true depth of his protective streak. He gives me a job, and says he’ll train me to protect myself. But he also makes it clear that he thinks I’m too young, too vulnerable, and too nice for him.
Now we’re spending hours together, side by side, and it’s hard to remember that I can’t let myself get too close. It’s even harder to fight our red-hot desire.
But the man hunting me hasn’t given up.
Can I defeat a killer, and prove to Beau that what we have is worth fighting for?

My Review:

Claim is the fifth and most likely the final book in the Fury Brothers series (barring any epilog-type short stories) – because there are five Fury Brothers and as this book opens, Beauden Fury is the only brother left standing alone. Not that THAT lasts long after the woman he knows only as Bell walks into his New Orleans gym and pretty much demands that he train her to fight.

So she can fight back against the literal demon that is chasing her. Not that Beau knows what – or rather who – is driving her. Just that he’s certain that something is. Because the morning after they met in some tiny town in the middle of nowhere – and spent one glorious night together – she fled without a trace, leaving nothing but a sweet memory he can’t get out of his head and a name that isn’t nearly enough to track her down with – if it’s even hers at all.

He thought it was for the best. He’s convinced that he’s too old, too rough and too broken for her.

As much as her night with Beau was the best, safest, ANYTHING she’d had since she went on the run, Bell thought it was best to leave because it’s too dangerous for anyone she gets close to. Chandler Carr, the serial killer chasing her down and tormenting her every step is toying with her, his prey, as he runs her down – the only one who ever got away.

Bell comes to New Orleans because she always wanted to see the city – and because her would-be killer found her in Pensacola. She’s in Beau’s gym because she needs the best to train her to fight back – because if she can’t fight back and fight hard the next time Carr catches up with her it will be her death. The notes he’s left her – no matter how far or how fast she runs – make that frighteningly clear.

No matter how much Beau and Bell each tell themselves that the other would be better off without them – they can’t keep their hands off each other and can’t resist falling hard for each other. Even though they each believe that their relationship is best if it’s only temporary – until Carr is out of the picture.

Of course, they are both wrong, Wrong, WRONG! The question is just how big of an idiot one or both of them will have to be before they figure out that they belong together.

If Carr lets them live that long.

Escape Rating B: Readers of the Fury Brothers series will see echoes from the first book, Fury, in this final book. Mila Clifton was being chased by the mob in that first book after witnessing a murder. Bell is being chased by a serial killer after she witnessed him leaving her apartment and discovered that he’d murdered her roommate.

Neither woman was responsible for the mess that they found themselves in – and both of them were on the run because anyone they got close to got dead. Both of them get involved with the Fury Brothers because they’ve moved into the Fury orbit and have each met someone who can’t resist protecting them. And because they can’t resist their protector no matter how much they think they should.

The ‘heroine in jeopardy reacting by running’ trope is not one of my favorites. But it works for the Fury Brothers, in both cases, because in spite of it being a cliché it doesn’t descend into one. Bell is not TSTL. She doesn’t do anything stupid – although there’s a point where the reader thinks she might have that turns out MUCH better.

Neither is remotely responsible for the fix they’re in – not by any standard of guilt except possibly their own. And in neither case is their pursuer an EvilEx(™). I personally hate those stories.

Claim does run straight into another trope that can go pear-shaped, but in this case fits well within the setup of the series as a whole AND gets its comeuppance in very short order once Carr is out of the picture, and that’s the “I’m not worthy” trope. At first they’re both suffering from it as Bell’s presence does paint a target on anyone she gets close to, while Beau thinks he’s not worthy of anyone’s love because of the addict parents he ran away from. (The Fury Brothers have all had a bit of an issue with the “I’m not worthy” thing for reasons that are clear in their stories, so this isn’t out of left field. Also, Bell does a great job of separating Beau’s head from his ass as soon as their situation is resolved.

Very much like my reaction to that first book, I liked this one in spite of myself. The description had me worried that it was going to dive into a whole bunch of tropes that I’m not all that fond of, but it didn’t and the blend of if not going to any of the places I worried about while wrapping up this marvelous series of found family stories AND telling a hot romance set in a fascinating city absolutely did work for this reader.

#BookReview: The Mountain Crown by Karin Lowachee

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
#BookReview: The Mountain Crown by Karin LowacheeThe Mountain Crown (The Crowns of Ishia, #1) by Karin Lowachee
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: dragons, epic fantasy, fantasy
Series: Crowns of Ishia #1
Pages: 150
Published by Solaris on October 8, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

Méka must capture a king dragon, or die trying.
War between the island states of Kattaka and Mazemoor has left no one unscathed. Méka’s nomadic people, the Ba’Suon, were driven from their homeland by the Kattakans. Those who remained were forced to live under the Kattakan yoke, to serve their greed for gold alongside the dragons with whom the Ba’Suon share an empathic connection.
A decade later and under a fragile truce, Méka returns home from her exile for an ancient, necessary rite: gathering a king dragon of the Crown Mountains to maintain balance in the wild country. But Méka’s act of compassion toward an imprisoned dragon and Lilley, a Kattakan veteran of the war, soon draws the ire of the imperialistic authorities. They order the unwelcome addition of an enigmatic Ba’Suon traitor named Raka to accompany Méka and Lilley to the mountains.
The journey is filled with dangers both within and without. As conflict threatens to reignite, the survival of the Ba’Suon people, their dragons, and the land itself will depend on the decisions – defiant or compliant – that Méka and her companions choose to make. But not even Méka, kin to the great dragons of the North, can anticipate the depth of the consequences to her world.

My Review:

This story feels like it began LONG before the book does. This story reads like it has been years in the making, and that the slice of it that we are getting is a bit in the middle in a world that has been going to hell in a handcart for quite some time, and has now reached a level of FUBAR that STILL isn’t anywhere near as bad as things are likely to get before the end.

And that’s a fascinating way to write a story, because worlds generally DO exist before a particular story in them gets told, and go on existing after the last page of a particular story in them gets turned.

Méka has returned to the land where she was born. A land that once belonged to her people, but no longer does. Even worse, a land that has been conquered by a rapacious empire that has chosen to act as if her people aren’t people at all – merely slaves for their use.

Including the dragons that her people, and only her people, have the capacity, not to control, but to bond with. A bond that the greedy, rapacious Kattakans exploit in order to use both Méka’s people, the Ba’Suon, and the dragons, the Suon, to strip mine the land for gold.

The Kattakans have turned a beautiful place into a steaming, belching wasteland on a par with Mordor. (Auditions for the part of this world’s Sauron are possibly ongoing – I jest but not nearly enough.)

Méka has come to this once-home for a right of both passage and preservation. It is her time to bond with one of the Suons that still live free in the mountain crowns far to the north. Both to refresh the dragons in her adopted homeland and to prevent a single king dragon from taking over too many herds and reducing the genetic diversity in the crowns.

Of course, the powers that be to rape and pillage interfere with her quest – even though it has been sanctioned by her adopted country and the court of the, shall we say, greedy bloodsuckers.

She is duty bound on a quest to bond a dragon. She is being coerced to retrieve a dragon for a criminal’s nefarious purposes. But control of any dragon is illusory at best – and a dangerous illusion at that. As the greedy bloodsuckers are about to discover in fire and blood.

Escape Rating B: The Mountain Crown is an ‘in media res’ story. In other words, it feels like it starts in the middle of things. It’s a method of storytelling that CAN get the reader caught up in the action from the very first page. Howsomever, it can also give the reader the feeling that they’re missing something, or a whole lot of somethings, and not feel like they have what they need to get stuck into the story.

The Mountain Crown read like it straddled that fence, where the problem with straddling a fence is that one gets splinters in the ass. I had a difficulty time, at first, getting into the story because I didn’t feel like I had enough to figure out how the situation reached this pass in the first place. It does not help at all that the primary characters of this story, Méka and her companions Lilley and Raka, are all parsimonious with their words – even when they are speaking to one another.

There’s a LOT that doesn’t get said – even when something is being said at all.

All of which led to my brain attempting to spackle over the bits that were missing with analogies to other stories and other places. The ramshackle mining monstrosity where Méka first arrives sounds a lot like the gold rush encampments of the Klondike, including the weather conditions. The nomadic nature of Méka’s people read like an amalgam of many nomadic cultures around this globe – even if this story isn’t set on any version of our world.

In the end, what brought the story together was the way that it reflected on colonialism and empire, shone a light on cultures whose fundamental principles are greed and acquisition and then explored the possibilities of another way – a way of stewardship and community.

And took the problem of might making right to a whole different level by adding dragons into the mix in a way that both put a temporary check on the ‘evil empire’ AND sowed the seeds for further contention between peoples who were once one.

I have to say that by the end, I really did enjoy The Mountain Crown and that I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, The Desert Talon, coming in February, as well as the third book, A Covenant of Ice, arriving in June. (There’s an irony that the desert book is coming in the depths of winter and the ice book is coming as summer heats up.)

I’m hoping that the rest of this novella trilogy will not just continue this fantastic story but also fill in the blanks and answer my many, many questions about this particular world came to this particular pass – because it has to be a doozy. I can’t wait to find out ALL the answers

 

A- #BookReview: Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A- Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
A- #BookReview: Murder in Highbury by Vanessa KellyMurder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, ebook, audiobook
Genres: cozy mystery, historical mystery, regency mystery
Series: Emma Knightley Mystery #1
Pages: 400
Published by Kensington on October 22, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

The delightful debut of a Regency historical mystery featuring Jane Austen’s indefatigable Emma Knightley! Perfect for fans of Anna Lee Huber, Darcie Wilde, Claudia Gray, and Stephanie Barron. Less than one year into her marriage to respected magistrate George Knightley, Emma has grown unusually content in her newfound partnership and refreshed sense of independence. The height of summer sees the former Miss Woodhouse gracefully balancing the meticulous management of her elegant family estate and a flurry of social engagements, with few worries apart from her beloved father’s health . . .    But cheery circumstances change in an instant when Emma and Harriet Martin, now the wife of one of Mr. Knightley’s tenant farmers, discover a hideous shock at the local church. The corpse of Mrs. Augusta Elton, the vicar’s wife, has been discarded on the altar steps—the ornate necklace she often wore stripped from her neck . . .    As a chilling murder mystery blooms and chaos descends upon the tranquil village of Highbury, the question isn’t simply who committed the crime, but who wasn’t secretly wishing for the unpleasant woman’s demise. When suspicions suddenly fall on a harmless local, Emma—armed with wit, unwavering determination, and extensive social connections—realizes she must discreetly navigate an investigation of her own to protect the innocent and expose the ruthless culprit hiding in plain sight.

My Review:

Mrs. Elton was dead, to begin with. And the only person in Highbury who seems to miss her is the local vicar. Then again, that local vicar was her husband, so he’s supposed to miss her. even if the woman had earned the, let’s call it the disregard, of everyone else in town – one way or another.

Honestly, several ways and many others. Mrs. Augusta Elton believed that everyone in Highbury was beneath her, and wasn’t at all shy – in any way – about making that plain.

When her body is discovered on the floor of her husband’s church, with finger-shaped bruises around her neck, blood and brain matter matted in her hair but without the expensive necklace she habitually wore, it’s clear to even the dullest numpty that Mrs. Elton was murdered. Also robbed, but definitely murdered.

The problem in Highbury is that there hasn’t been a murder in decades – and the local coroner and constable ARE both a couple of utter numpties at best, and pompous, self-aggrandizing fools at worst.

However, the corpse of the late, unlamented was discovered by Mrs. Knightley – the former Miss Emma Woodhouse – and her friend Mrs. Martin, the former Miss Harriet Smith. And, while Harriet can be a bit of a widgeon when she’s upset – and discovering a dead body is certainly VERY upsetting – Emma is much too intelligent and level-headed to let the terrible sight in front of her prevent her from investigating the scene of the unprecedented crime.

And Emma Knightley, née Woodhouse, has never, ever been a dullard or a widgeon or a numpty. So, when most of the officials involved in investigating the case – with the obvious exception of Emma’s dear husband, who was, after all, smart enough to marry her in spite of her errors in matchmaking in the Jane Austen book named after her – accuse an oh-so-obviously incorrect person of the murder, Emma is all in on investigating the crime herself.

With, or without, her husband’s approval. But generally – and thankfully for Emma’s wake – with. Allowing Emma to prove, yet again, that there are times when she can be just a bit TOO smart for someone’s own good. And very nearly, her own.

Escape Rating A-: I was honestly surprised at how very much I enjoyed Murder in Highbury. But enjoy it I certainly did, and kept coming back to it over the course of a lazy Sunday because I just couldn’t resist seeing both whodunnit and how Emma managed to investigate the case in spite of a lack of even any of Sherlock Holmes’ forensic methods.

Part of my trepidation was due to not being an Austenphile. I’m pretty sure I listened to Emma once upon a time, but that would have been 30 years ago. I don’t remember any of the details – but that did not affect my enjoyment of this story one bit. (If you never read Emma, or read it LONG ago and don’t remember those details either, I would recommend looking at a plot summary. The events are still relevant, and the players are the same, so some background is helpful but not required.)

The second part of my concern going into the story reflects back on yesterday’s book (and Friday’s a bit, come to think of it), in regards to the difficulty that frequently occurs in female-led historical fiction. Specifically that the protagonist needs to be a woman of her own time and not ours, but must manage to realistically have enough agency to BE the protagonist. Emma manages to walk that line differently from Mabel Canning of the London Ladies’ Murder Club a century later, but manage it she does.

It helps that Emma was known to be high-handed, headstrong and intelligent if often prone to rushing down the wrong path, and she’s still that a year later in this story. Howsomever, while she is not independent in the way that Mabel is, she is allowed to act according to her own nature by the men who do have actual power over her – so she frequently acts first and worries about questions of forgiveness vs. permission later if at all – even as she still sometimes lets her heart overrule her head.

Because we’re in Emma’s head, we get to experience both what is said and done on the outside, as well as her actual, and frequently much less socially acceptable, thoughts on the inside. The men in charge absolutely ARE idiots, and we get to cringe right along with her.

Above all, and in spite of the murder, or on top of it, underneath it and all around it, Murder in Highbury is still just the kind of ‘comedy of manners’ that infused Jane Austen’s work and has made it utterly timeless. Human nature hasn’t changed in a mere two centuries, and the exposure and gentle ribbing of the nature of people in Highbury rings true in spite of the murderer and his (or her!) victim in their midst.

Or perhaps even more so because of it. Making Murder in Highbury a surprisingly charming and utterly delightful read. It looks like Murder in Highbury is the first in a cozy historical mystery series.  I hope so, because I’d be delighted to return to Highbury to watch Emma investigate another case!

A- #BookReview: Murder of a Suffragette by Marty Wingate

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A- Reviews> book reviews
A- #BookReview: Murder of a Suffragette by Marty WingateMurder of a Suffragette (London Ladies' Murder Club #4) by Marty Wingate
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: cozy mystery, historical mystery
Series: London Ladies' Murder Club #4
Pages: 331
Published by Bookouture on October 28, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Goodreads

Women from all around the country have joined together to fight for the vote. But when one of them is killed, only amateur sleuth Mabel Canning can halt a murderer’s campaign…Fellbridge Hall, England: Mabel Canning is thrilled to be organising a suffragette conference. But when all the women are settled in the sprawling country mansion, she barely has time for a sip of gin before chaos ensues. Leading suffragette Annie Harkin has been found murdered in her bed, clutching a white feather in her outstretched hand…As the guests clamour for justice for Annie, young police officers Ned and Ted arrive in time to trip over the banners and be roundly ignored. And with a killer on the loose, the suffragettes swiftly vote for Mabel and her pals to take control. When it comes to solving mysteries, there’s nobody equal to the London Ladies’ Murder Club!But soon it’s clear many a suffragette is hiding a secret under her sash. Eccentric veteran of the cause Dorothea Goose is acting rather flighty; why is she so afraid of the police? Would Annie’s rival go this far to replace her as leader? Or has someone taken a life to stop the cause of women’s lib?Then Mabel uncovers what happened to Annie’s closest comrade in the years before the war, and she is sure the answers lie in the past. But will Mabel be elected as the killer’s next victim? Or can she crack the case and save the fight for Votes for Women?A totally addictive whodunnit bursting with suspense and sparkling with wit, from USA Today bestseller Marty Wingate. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Richard Osman, Verity Bright and T.E. Kinsey.

My Review:

As much as it makes Mabel Canning’s father worry about her when she’s on her own in London, it’s clear from this fourth entry in the utterly charming London Ladies’ Murder Club that her home, the tiny village of Peasmarsh and its surrounds, are better off if Mabel is in London.

Not because of Mabel herself, but rather because she seems to have a fortunately unfortunate knack for finding herself in the midst of murder investigations. Peasmarsh’s population is much too small to survive the number of deaths that Mabel and her ‘club’ become involved with on the regular!

As this case is a, well, case in point. Mabel has returned to the Peasmarsh area to serve as the personal secretary to Lady Emma Fellbridge at nearby Fellbridge Hall. Lady Emma has known Mabel all of Mabel’s life, and Mabel was a frequent guest at the hall as her dearest childhood friend was Lady Emma’s daughter-in-law until the Spanish Flu took her much too soon.

Lady Emma was one of the heroines of the suffragette movement, and has convened a meeting of her fellow campaigners at Fellbridge Hall to consider the next phase of their work. At the time this story takes place, 1922, women 30 years of age and over who were property owners or householders, or married to men who were either of the above, or occupiers of rental property over a certain rate, or university graduates had the right to vote, while men could vote from age 21 with considerably fewer restrictions. These women, who once chained themselves to gates and went on hunger strikes in prison, are determined to continue the fight for equality into a new generation.

Mabel and her ‘Murder Club’ have arrived at Fellbridge Hall under the auspices of Miss Kerr’s Useful Women’s Agency for which Mabel works and of which her ‘Murder Club’ is an active part. She’s not expecting for the club to be active at the suffragette meeting – but that’s exactly what happens when one of the suffragettes, in fact, one of the women in contention to become the next leader of the movement, is murdered.

Mabel has more experience with murder investigations than the local police do – and Detective Inspector Tollerton of the Met is just far enough away in London and snowed under with urgent cases in the metropolis to leave Mabel temporarily in charge. Somewhat to his own surprise – and even occasional chagrin – Tolly is forced to leave Mabel leading the investigation, seconded by WPC Hildy Wardle, several members of her Murder Club, and two local constables who desperately need someone to give them orders.

When a second suffragette is murdered, and Mabel herself is attacked twice, she’s certain that she’s on the trail of a murderer – but the clues are misleading at best and confoundingly conflicting at worst. She’ll need the wits, and the skills, of every single member of the London Ladies’ Murder Club to catch the killer – before he strikes again.

Escape Rating A-: I’ve been looking forward to reading this latest entry in the London Ladies’ Murder Club since the minute I finished the previous book, A Body at the Dance Hall. And it absolutely was worth the wait! My one regret about having finished this book is that I don’t know for certain that there will be a next book in the series – or when that MUCH hoped for book will be published. (I have my fingers crossed!)

I’ve fallen for this series because I’ve taken to Mabel Canning as the protagonist. The charm of the series rides very much on her shoulders – and it’s just terrific to follow the investigation from inside her thoughtful, intelligent head.

What makes this series work for me is that Mabel does an excellent job of straddling the line between being a woman of her own time and not ours, while still having a realistic amount of agency to go about her business – which in Mabel’s case is investigating murders.

She does have to reckon with the attitudes towards women’s roles and women’s place, but because of her particular era, just post-World War I, she’s part of a time when things were still in flux because of the war – and because the war killed a generation of young men leaving many women without the prospects of marriage even if they wanted it.

The series does not shy away from the fact that some didn’t, including Mabel’s friends Skeff and Cora, as well as, it turns out, both Lady Emma and the first victim, Annie, even though the earlier generation did follow tradition – at least to all outward appearances. And it’s the degree to which lip service was given to those outward appearances that creates one of the sets of misunderstood clues and red herrings that makes this particular case so juicy.

Another part of the series that works particularly well is the way that it dives into women’s experiences and women’s history. In this particular case, the suffragette movement, its sister movement, the suffragists, and the contention between the two. Suffragettes were the considerably more militant arm of the movement – while suffragists preferred to conduct their campaign via entirely legal means. There existed tension between the two as well as an acknowledgement that some women switched from one to the other (and back and again) over time.

Voting rights for women on the same terms as men was finally granted in 1928, but at the time of this story the fight was not yet won. The question before the gathered women centered on just who would be the best person to lead that fight. The strong personalities of many of the women involved made leadership of the movement a possible motive that Mabel was forced to consider – no matter how much she wished it was not.

Part of what makes Mabel such a fascinating protagonist is the way that she navigates her world, and the push and pull of loving her father and wanting to remain in his good graces – he’s a good man and has been an excellent father – but still NEEDS to live her own life on her own terms gave this entry in the series a very personal touch as well.

Her father wants her to be safe – but he recognizes that safe on his terms is not what his daughter was built for. It was wonderful to see a supportive father-daughter relationship in a female-led historical mystery – as opposed to the more usual situation, where dear-old-dad has often been the impetus for his daughter’s flight from conventionality in one way or another. If not several.

In other words, there are a LOT of reasons why I enjoy the London Ladies’ Murder Club series and this entry is certainly an excellent example of why. I did figure out WHOdunnit a bit early, although the WHYdunnit took a bit longer. I’m here for Mabel Canning, and I hope you will be too. If you haven’t discovered her yet, start with A Body on the Doorstep to see just how the London Ladies’ Murder Club got its start!

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on my (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 10-20-24

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement

This was an excellent week here at Chez Reading Reality. Not only were there TWO giveaways, but also TWO Grade A or BETTER books! (The final book of the week was also good, it just wasn’t quite so much my exact cuppa as the earlier titles.) Next week also looks surprisingly good for a week that starts and ends with MURDER!

Speaking of having a good week, I also have a great picture of Tuna from earlier this week. He’s in a classic kitty pose, the “If I fits, I sits” position. He doesn’t fit, exactly, but that’s because the biggest cat in the house has decided to nest in the smallest cat bed. You can just see how well that’s working out for him!

Current Giveaways:

$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book PLUS EVENT-WIDE AMAZON/PAYPAL PRIZE in the Late Fall Giveaway Event!
$10 Gift Card or $10 Book in the Fall 2024 Seasons of Books Giveaway Hop

Winner Announcements:

The winner of Reading Reality’s Early Fall Giveaway Hop is Rochelle
The winner of the Scaredy Cat Giveaway Hop is Elizabeth

Blog Recap:

A+ #BookReview: The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski
Grade A #BookReview: Fangs So Bright and Deadly by Piper J. Drake
Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop
Late Fall Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event!
B #BookReview: The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin
Stacking the Shelves (623)

Coming This Week:

Murder of a Suffragette by Marty Wingate (#BookReview)
Murder in Highbury by Vanessa Kelly (#BookReview #BlogTour)
The Mountain Crown by Karin Lowachee (#BookReview)
Fury Brothers: Claim by Anna Hackett (#BookReview)
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (#BookReview)

Stacking the Shelves (623)

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

Saying that I didn’t get much this week is like saying water is wet. And it’s really weirding me out. To be honest, originally there was only one book on this list. Well, there was only one book after I moved the four books that don’t have covers yet to next week’s stack. Again. I know I shouldn’t just add stuff because the pile looks empty, but I did it anyway. Also again.

The book I’m most looking forward to is the one I started with, A Fashionably French Murder by Colleen Cambridge. It’s the third book in her An American in Paris series, meaning it’s the third book in the historical mystery series that features Julia Child as the protagonist’s sidekick. The first two, Mastering the Art of French Murder and A Murder Most French, were both awesome and I can’t wait for this next one.

The book I’m most curious about – and I’m terribly curious – is The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig. It’s based on the true story of America’s first famous murder trial, with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr attempting to work together to defend the accused murderer. The book is based on the actual trial transcript – and it sounds fascinating.

Both the Memory Bank series and The Naturalist Society are books that I’ve looked out multiple times over the past couple of weeks but just didn’t pick up. With this week’s utter dearth of titles, I decided to pick them up after all.

memory bank by brian shea and raquel byrnes
girl from greenwich street by lauren willig
aurora fragment by brian shea and raquel byrnes
retrograde flaw by brian shea and raquel byrnes
fashionably french murder by colleen cambridge
naturalist society by carrie vaughn

For Review:
Aurora Fragment (Memory Bank #3) by Brian Shea and Raquel Byrnes
A Fashionably French Murder (An American in Paris #3) by Colleen Cambridge
The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig

Purchased from Amazon/Audible/Etc.:
The Memory Bank (Memory Bank #1) by Brian Shea and Raquel Byrnes
The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn (Amazon First Reads)
Retrograde Flaw (Memory Bank #2) by Brian Shea and Raquel Byrnes

If you want to find out more about Stacking The Shelves, please visit the official launch page

Please link your STS post in the linky below:


#BookReview: The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
#BookReview: The Booklover’s Library by Madeline MartinThe Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, large print, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: historical fiction, World War II
Pages: 416
Published by Hanover Square Press on September 3, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

A heartwarming story about a mother and daughter in wartime England and the power of the books that bring them together.
In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job to provide for herself and her beloved daughter, Olivia. But with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her.
When the threat of war becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In her daughter’s absence, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, as well as the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing, and her work forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.
As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.

My Review:

When this story truly opens, after a heartbreaking prologue, it’s August of 1939 and the impending war is NOT the biggest problem looming on Emma Taylor’s horizon.

Her immediate worry is continuing to put food on the table – as well as continuing to have a table to put it on – for herself and her eight-year-old daughter Olivia. As a widow with a child, Emma is unemployable – regardless of her skills, her abilities, or her outright need to support herself and that child.

And her widow’s pension plus the government stipend for her daughter aren’t nearly enough to make ends meet – no matter how much Emma scrimps and saves – which she absolutely does – at every single turn.

Emma’s parents are dead, her late husband’s parents are, frankly, terrible – or at least they were the last time she saw them – and she has no options and no prospects. Not because she’s not capable but because that’s the way society wills it. (I am holding myself back from getting up on a soapbox SO HARD!)

The war is about to change all of that, but Emma doesn’t know it, yet.

Still, on a cold and rainy afternoon, a door opens for her in the person of Miss Bainbridge, the manager of Nottingham’s Boots’ Booklover’s Library. The Boots’ libraries, which really did exist, were subscription lending libraries housed within Boots’ Chemist shops around the country. They had strict educational requirements and equally strict standards for their female ‘librarians’.

Emma had the skills, after growing up in her late father’s bookshop, and Miss Bainbridge, for reasons of her own, bent the rules. Rules that began going by the wayside not long after, as Britain declared war on Germany after its invasion of Poland.

In the midst of what later became known as the “Phoney War”, the parents in cities that were determined to be targets for German bombers shipped their children out to the hopefully safer countryside. Nottingham was chock full of factories that either had been or would be converted to war production.

Olivia, like so many children, was sent – or evacuated as it was referred to – turning the white lie of Emma being alone into a lonely truth. A truth that, even as it broke her heart a bit, forced her into relying on her fellow librarians for companionship and friendship and opened up her world and her place in it, if only to get herself away from a flat that was empty, quiet and much, much too clean.

The Booklover’s Library becomes a story on three levels. On the first level, there’s Emma, her work and her life on the homefront as the Blitz bombards Nottingham as well as other industrial centers. On the second, there’s Olivia’s own story, an independent adventure she feels forced to take as hers becomes one of the placements that does not work out – at all. And over all of that, there’s the story of the power of literature to build community – and to help people find a light in even the darkest of places.

And if that last piece of the story reminds readers of The Last Bookshop in London, it’s only right that it should. Both The Booklover’s Library and The Last Bookshop in London are from the same talented pen, and both tell charming and heartwarming stories centered on the early days of that terrible war.

Escape Rating B: I picked up The Booklover’s Library because I was fascinated by the concept AND because I enjoyed the author’s earlier book, The Last Bookshop in London. (Which is absolutely a readalike for this book and vice versa!)

That both stories are grounded in surprising bits of real history made them that much more captivating. In this story, it’s the existence of the Boots’ Booklover’s Libraries, which existed until 1966! What’s notable about the Boots’ libraries is that they provided popular fiction – even salacious fiction – to their middle-class subscribers.

(The debate about popular vs. improving literature in public libraries has been loud, vociferous, and contentious in both the UK and the US and is STILL ongoing.)

As a librarian, I found the portrait of the Boots’ library, how it worked and how its ‘librarians’ were trained to be utterly fascinating, while the friendship, camaraderie and support that developed among the women working there – particularly under wartime conditions – is sure to charm the heart of ANY reader.

The story of the evacuations, told from both the perspective of Emma who misses her daughter but wants her safe, and Olivia who has found that safety from bombing is not nearly enough, provides a perspective that adds to the depth of the story. (This was not my favorite part of the story, but it was an important part nonetheless.)

Like The Last Bookshop in London, the story of The Booklover’s Library does not go into the details of Emma’s and Olivia’s experiences through the whole war. It doesn’t need to. It ends at the point where their personal crises have been resolved even though the war has several years to run. The icing on this cake – even if sugar is rationed – is that Emma has her chance at a Happy Ever After. The rest of their war will be following that admonition to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’, but in much happier circumstances in spite of the war. And together.

But the reader needs to know that Emma, Olivia and their friends and loved ones made it out okay. Which we do get in a sparkling epilogue. A fitting ending to a lovely read.

Late Fall Amazon/PayPal Giveaway Event!

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Late Fall Giveaway Event

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Welcome To The $100 Amazon eGift Card or PayPal Cash Giveaway!

Giveaway: 1 lucky winner a $100 Amazon eGift Card or PayPal Cash. The event is running from September 1st to October 15th. The giveaway is open Worldwide everywhere PayPal is negotiable-Must be 18+.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

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Prize:

$100 Amazon eGift Card or PayPal Cash

One Lucky Winner Will Receive choice of: $100 Amazon eGift Card or PayPal Cash

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This giveaway/sweepstakes is in no way endorsed, affiliated, or associated with Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media Networking Site. This event is not sponsored or endorsed by Amazon or PayPal Company. The winner will have 48 hours to email their information back to Versatileer at gmail dot com or a new winner will be drawn, you may want to put this email address as safe as it could go to spam. The giveaway is not valid where prohibited! Once a winner is drawn and confirmed, the name will be announced on the Rafflecopter form. Versatileer will be responsible for sending the winners their prizes. By entering you are authorizing us to collect the information on the form below, this information is used only to contact the winner! No purchase necessary, Void where prohibited by law, and the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Winners are chosen randomly by Rafflecopter through the use of Random-dot-org. Twitter and Facebook dummy/fake accounts are ineligible for entry and will be blocked. Authentic accounts only are eligible to win. Next seasonal giveaway starts 3 hours before this giveaway ends, and the two giveaways will overlap for the three hour period. More giveaway terms and conditions are listed: HERE. No blog associated with this contest are responsible for prize fulfillment. If you would like to become a sponsor in a giveaway like this please email Jerry Marquardt at versatileer at gmail dot com or you can use the Contact Form. If you take an entry you must stay following for the entire contest or you will be disqualified.

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To put a little extra apple cider or pumpkin spice flavor into the pot, there’s also a giveaway here at Reading Reality:

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Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop

Welcome to the Silly Pumpkins Giveaway Hop, hosted by Mama the Fox!

The pumpkin in the hop image isn’t silly at all. The poor thing doesn’t even have a face! To make up for its lack, here’s a whole row of silly pumpkin faces:

(My favorite is the third from the left. Not only does it look like it’s surprised to be in the line-up – it has HAIR!

Whatever lurks in your imagination under the phrase ‘silly pumpkin’, the giveaway for this hop is not imaginary at all. Answer the question in the rafflecopter for your chance at one of Reading Reality’s usual prizes, the winner’s choice of either a $10 Amazon Gift Card or $10 in Books. It might be enough for a couple of pumpkins to carve – or even a book about pumpkin carving!

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MamatheFox and all participating blogs are not held responsible for sponsors who fail to fulfill their prize obligations.

Grade A #BookReview: Fangs So Bright and Deadly by Piper J. Drake

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
Grade A #BookReview: Fangs So Bright and Deadly by Piper J. DrakeFangs So Bright & Deadly (Mythwoven, #2) by Piper J. Drake
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: epic fantasy, fantasy, fantasy romance, urban fantasy
Series: Mythwoven #2
Pages: 304
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on September 24, 2024
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

A Kitsune, a Kumiho, a Witch, and a danger not even their combined magic is strong enough to defy. 
Marie Xiao lives a double life, moonlighting as a freelance consultant in corporate Seattle even as she dedicates herself—and her powers as a witch—to chasing down objects of myth and magic before they can be used to harm humankind. She carefully guards the bridges between worlds and has never once been tempted to stray.
Until she catches the eye of a pair-bonded kitsune and kumiho and her whole world is thrown into chaos.
Japanese and Korean fox spirits Yamamoto Kuro and Joseph Choe have been hoping to cross paths with Marie since their first chance meeting at an artifact retrieval gone decidedly wrong. They may work for Marie's enemy, but they don't see any reason why they can't mingle a little work and play…especially when a (literal) dead man waltzes into their impromptu reunion, raising intriguing questions about a deeper magic that may be afoot. Temporarily teaming up, the trio investigate the unusual unrest…but as loyalties begin to shift and lines blur, Kuro, Joe, and Marie may find themselves at the precipice of something none of them are prepared to face…or deny.

My Review:

This second book in the Mythwoven series, after last year’s Wings Once Cursed and Bound, is every bit as fascinating and downright captivating as its predecessor.

We met Marie Xiao, nature witch and member of the Darke Consortium family, in the spellbinding – and spell breaking – conclusion of that first book, as the members of the Consortium came to rescue of kinnaree Peeraphan Rahttana from a collector who planned to ‘acquire’ the rare Thai bird princess for nasty and nefarious purposes.

As it turned out, during that operation, Marie needed a bit of rescue of her own, provided by two beings she knew had been working for Babel, an organization dedicated to acquiring magical objects for the purpose of sowing chaos among the human population.

She was grateful for the rescue but didn’t trust the two nine-tailed foxes who helped her – out of either the goodness or the mischief in their hearts. Whatever made the kitsune and gumiho come to her aid – she wasn’t able to forget how much the two male supernatural creatures captivated her senses. Even though she ALSO couldn’t forget that were present on the scene at the behest of her own organization’s enemies.

So when she encounters Kuro and Joe on the streets of Seattle, she’s more than a bit wary of their motives. And so she should be.

She’s just learned that the client she believed was mundane is, in fact, playing with dangerous artifacts they shouldn’t have ever had access to – an access that the Darke Consortium will need to revoke at the first opportunity.

It’s clear that Kuro and Joe are on the trail of the artifacts that Marie has just discovered – but for a much less benign reason. Or so it seems.

But Joe and Kuro haven’t forgotten Marie any more than she has them. Unfortunately for all of them, Babel hasn’t forgotten that the foxes’ protection of Marie may have obeyed the letter of their contractual obligations but certainly violated the spirit of it. And that the fox spirits need to pay for that transgression – with the very thing that makes them who and what they are – and as painfully as possible.

In that pain, and in their desperate need to be rid of the curse AND Babel, Kuro, Joe and Marie find a common cause, a common purpose – and the possibility of something even more precious. All they need to do is hoodwink Babel while revealing the deepest of truths to each other.

Escape Rating A: The fun thing about this series so far is the way that it manages to take the formulas for urban fantasy and paranormal romance – formulas that are tried and true and familiar – and make them fresh and new by adding in the panoply of mythical creatures and legends from places that weren’t touched on back in urban fantasy’s heyday AND then combining those legends with romantic possibilities that just weren’t publishable back then.

And then adds just a touch of cozy by bringing it all back to a found family where the vampire and the werewolf are the most mundane members of the crew. While Marie doesn’t get stuck in that dreadful ‘torn between two lovers’ melodrama, nor does she fall into the terrible romantic triangle trap. Instead, their happy ever after is a triad – and it’s wonderful!

But this isn’t just a romance, it’s also very much part of both urban fantasy and action adventure. If Anna Hackett’s Treasure Hunter Security and Simon R. Green’s Gideon Sable series(es) had a book baby, Mythwoven would be it. The Darke Consortium hunts down the weird and the mystical and gets it out of the hands of people who either have no clue or have entirely too much of one.

What made this entry in the series particularly fun was that it was a bit of both, with a heaping helping of a fascinating new magical system, a touch of Egyptian mythology, and references to not one but two great movies, Ladyhawke and The Sting. A combination that should not even be possible but works oh-so-well.

The Mythwoven series is clearly not done – and this reader is VERY glad of it. So, even though the next book isn’t yet on the horizon, I’ll certainly be looking to put it on my TBR pile the moment it appears!