Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Review:

Dear Rebecca Yarros,

I found your book on the New York Times Bestsellers List. I do not look at it often, but sometimes I do and this time I found a book with DRAGONS in the blurb and I am rarely able to resist DRAGONS. Trying to be good, I checked to see if my library has the book. They did indeed, unfortunately when I placed the hold, I saw that I was number 941 out of hundred something copies. Desire for instant gratification once again won, because let me repeat – DRAGONS.

So, let me get this out of the way first. In many, many ways this book was very predictable. I am not a frequent reader of YA/ NA fantasy, but even I could see “Divergent” and a little bit of “Hunger Games” and I am sure other readers may see lots of other influences. While I could not predict every detail in the plot twists, I certainly could predict in general what would happen with a very high frequency. For example, I knew right away what *kind* of secrets Xaden was keeping as soon as the fact that he was keeping those secrets was mentioned and I was right, however of course the specifics of the secret I did not know and no, I cannot say more without a spoiler.

Despite the predictability, I enjoyed the book enough to preorder the second one (and yes, for the same crazy price) right after I finished this one. The main reason for my enjoyment was Violet and dragons. Dragons were fun. Violet’s bonded dragon was fun. I love me a smart-ass dragon who constantly talks to the main character in her head. I will refrain from talking about other dragons and also specifics of the bonds because of the spoilers, but I certainly enjoyed them too.

Violet herself was great.  I mean, once again, she is the main character in the fantasy/ romance story, she is bound to have some unique abilities and mission and being chosen for something, but I appreciated her, because she was just so likable.  Compassionate and kind and trying to survive in the world she never thought she would enter.

Actually let us talk about some of the dragon college specifics here and please note that I will be talking about the minor very minor SPOILER here. Young people who are trying to enter the dragon college know right away that a lot of them will not survive the training because it is brutal and that’s fine by me, I get the brutal training and necessity for that in the fictional story.

What made me scratch my head a lot was this, young people trying to enter the college may die not because of any training but because other cadets candidates are allowed to kill them for example by pushing them off the wall. I am sorry, what? And don’t tell me that this is the survival of the fittest, because you don’t know who is the fittest yet, if somebody lost their balance for whatever reason, it does not mean that you cannot train a great soldier out of them, because once again their training hasn’t start yet.

One would think that this college has too many candidates eager and willing to enter the training and while a lot of people do, they actually force some youngsters to enter as a punishment for something spoilerish so nope, does not look like they have too many candidates. This undertone from “Hunger Games” was just weird to me here.

And actually just in general allowing cadets to kill each other (with some limitations during training) felt bizarre. Again, if they get killed during the brutal training – that’s one thing, but allowing others to help them out felt weird.  End Spoiler.

Overall, there is a lot of action in the story and I mostly enjoyed reading about it.

There is also a very front and center building romance with a lot of sex in the last, I would say, third of the book. I mean the romance is building throughout the story, there is a lot of sex in the last third.  I did like the building romance, I did not care for the sex only in a sense that I did not enjoy how the sex was written. Opinions may differ of course.

Of course, as I mentioned previously there is a second book coming and I bought it. I am praying this won’t turn into an endless series, but knowing my luck it most likely will.

The book ends up on a cliffhanger, but it is not a bad one, because the immediate danger is resolved and we get a surprise (well, only if one cannot see it from the mile ahead).

Grade : B

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Dear Elle Kennedy,

I’ve enjoyed your previous Avalon Bay books (Good Girl Complex and Bad Girl Reputation) but they had not quite lived up to the experience of books like The Deal for me. It’s the kind of reading high I’m always chasing and I’m pleased to say that The Summer Girl brings it. (So much so that I am currently happily falling down an Off Campus re-reading rabbit hole with no regrets.) This time the banter and the vibe and the plot all worked for me and I spent most all of the book in a happy reading daze.

Tate Bartlett gets “dumped” by Alana at the start of the book. (I put dumped in quotes because they’d had a casual FWB relationship and Alana decided to end it before either of them could potentially catch feelings. They’ve been friends for years and will remain so. Tate is not heartbroken.) Of course, Cassie Soul, who unfortunately is nearby and has no way not to overhear the late night beach conversation does not know that. She’s trying to sneak off without Tate realising she’s even been there when her phone buzzes with a text and the jig is up. 

Before I can think of a witty response to his cute girl remark—or any response at all, really—my phone dings again. I glance down. Another text from Peyton. Followed by another one.

“Someone’s popular,” he teases.

“Um, yeah. I mean, no. It’s just my friend.” I grit my teeth. “She’s one of those annoying people who send, like, ten one-line messages instead of a single paragraph, so they just keep popping up and the phone dings over and over again until you want to smash it over their head. I hate that—don’t you hate that?”

His jaw drops. “Yes,” he says, with such sincerity I have to grin. He shakes his head. “I fucking hate that.”

“Right?”

Tate is not exactly a player but he has no trouble finding companionship as and when he wants it. He’s a one-woman-at-a-time kind of guy but he is not in the market for a relationship. He likes to keep things casual, friendly and respectful. His parents are nauseatingly in love and they have provided him with a very high standard to aspire to. Having not ever felt anything close to that, he doesn’t see the point in pretending.

Cassie is a student at Briar College in Boston (Briar!)  and is in Avalon Bay for the summer visiting with her maternal grandmother, the former owner of the Beacon Hotel. Mackenzie Cabot will be reopening The Beacon at the end of the summer and grandma will be moving to Boston so it’s a last hurrah for the Tanner family. Cassie’s mother is in Boston and won’t be in Avalon Bay until the end of the summer, thankfully. Cassie’s mother is a narcissist who is constantly belittling and criticising Cassie. Cassie’s dad and his second wife live in Avalon Bay, in the house Cassie grew up in. They have twin girls who share Cassie’s birthday. Cassie will turn 21 over the summer, the girls will turn 6. Cassie feels estranged from her dad and usurped by his new family (much as she adores the girls and longs for a better relationship with her stepother), like she doesn’t really belong anywhere. More than anything, she longs for that sense of belonging and family she’s missing.

However, Cassie is more interested, this summer, in finding a fling and finally losing her virginity. The first guy she meets in the bay is Tate and he’s a very gorgeous specimen indeed. It’s difficult to imagine she will find anyone better.

Cassie and Tate are instantly attracted to one another but Tate is warned off Cassie by Mac because Cassie is exactly the kind of girl who will catch feelings and want those strings Tate is trying to avoid. He doesn’t want to hurt her. He genuinely likes her and wants to be her friend. Cassie is disappointed but likes Tate for himself and is happy to hang out with him platonically.

Cassie’s self-esteem has been severely damaged by her mother’s constant criticism about everything from what she wears, to how she looks, what she eats, and everything else in her life and by feeling distanced from her father. Her old bedroom is now shared by the twins and she feels excluded from his family. Her stepmother (never referred to as such) is distant and Cassie believes, not without reason, that she is unwelcome and unwanted at their house. Cassie finds it difficult to express her needs and wants openly, tending to go along to get along and to push her feelings down rather than risk a confrontation which could make things worse.

However, almost straight away with Tate, things are different. She tells him how she feels, what she wants and is open with him in a way she is only with her two best girl friends. She doesn’t get as tongue-tied around him the way she does with most guys. That said, Cassie tends to babble when she’s nervous and can’t help doing it when she first meets Tate. He finds it charming and amusing in the kind of way that you just know this pair belong together forever.

Tate and Cassie have a wonderful chemistry and camaraderie and their banter is everything I want in a romance novel. It’s snappy, funny and oh so entertaining. It put me in mind of Hannah (aka “Wellsy”) and Garrett from The Deal. In the same way that Garrett was a good guy, so too is Tate. Both characters are people I’d like to hang around (…if I was a bit younger than I am now because it would be weird otherwise). They’re the kind of people you just want good things for.

“You’re a ginger,” he accuses, his eyes twinkling. They’re a light blue, just as I suspected.

“Don’t paint me with that ginger brush,” I protest. “I’m a copper.”

“That’s not a real thing.”

“I’m a copper,” I insist. I grip my ponytail and hold it closer to his face. “See? Dark red. It’s practically brown!”

“Mmm-hmm. Keep telling yourself that, ginger.”

As it happens, Tate is house-sitting next door to Cassie’s grandmother’s house for the summer. Cassie is still trying to find some one to have a summer fling with but the most promising not-Tate candidate is a terrible kisser. The scenes where Tate is “coaching” Cassie in how to handle the tonsil-tickler to try and improve his technique without crushing his ego are fun but also, I think, educational (in a good way).

Cassie being right next door means proximity does its own work. Before long Tate has succumbed to “flinging” with Cassie and he’s happy as a clam. Cassie is determined to keep her promise to keep things to a summer romance only but over the weeks that follow their connection is such that both of them are thinking that the plan needs a review. Tate, for the first time ever, wants a capital R Relationship.

Unfortunately Cassie’s awful mother arrives early in the bay and she brings with her mountains of trouble and oceans of criticism. On Tate’s side of the equation, he finds out things about his family he wished he didn’t know. Tate has an opportunity of a lifetime to sail a boat from Miami to New Zealand but this puts him in conflict with his dad and a promise to look after the family boat business while his parents take a month’s holiday. Tate never wants to let his parents down – he describes himself as the child who suggested his own punishments after he confessed to wrongdoing as a kid – but there comes a time when Tate has to spread his own wings and not live to please his parents.

Between trouble with Cassie’s mother and Tate’s dad, it looks like the casualty will be their future and for a while things seem bleak. But this is a romance and of course everything turns out right in the end.

One of the things I loved about the entire Off Campus series (and its offshoots) was the banter between the friends; the hockey guys, the girls and their own group of friends. It’s present in the Avalon Bay series too but in The Summer Girl it shines more brightly. It gave me those feel-good vibes you do so well.

Our buddy Jordy and his reggae band play this venue most weekends, but they’re not here tonight. In their place is a metal outfit with a lead singer who’s scream-singing unintelligible lyrics as I sidle up to the boys.

Cooper, clad in a black T-shirt and ripped jeans, is sipping on a beer and wincing at the ungodly noises coming from the stage. His other half is nowhere to be found, and by that I mean Evan, his twin. Mackenzie would be his better half, the chick who got Cooper to smile more times in the last year than in all the years I’ve known him combined. Genuine smiles, too, and not the cocky smirks he’d flash right before we used to fuck shit up.

Chase is next to Coop, engrossed with his phone, while Danny listens to the band with a pained expression.

“These guys are awful,” I say, wondering who the hell decided to book them. The singer is now making strange breathing noises while the two guitarists whisper into their microphones. “Why are they whispering now?”

“Is he saying my skull is weeping?” Cooper demands, wrinkling his brow.

“No. It’s my soul is sleeping,” Danny tells him.

“It’s both,” Chase says without looking up from his phone. “My skull is weeping/my soul is sleeping. Those are the lyrics.”

Equally in The Summer Girl there are strong female friendships as well – Cassie’s good friend back in Boston and her local friend from her childhood, as well as the new friends she makes with Mac and Gen and their crew.

Right up until the last 5-10% of the book I was pretty much in my reading happy place. I didn’t love the ending (well, except for the very end because of course) – I had hoped to see some things on page which were all done off page – especially an important conversation Cassie was to have with her dad – and I got a bit grumpy with Tate’s mother at one point. Still, the bleak part doesn’t last long for readers and Tate and Cassie are happy and in love – where they belong – by the time THE END rolls around.

I gobbled up this book like the tastiest treat. I felt disappointed at the end only because the book had finished. The Summer Girl is of course a different book to The Deal or The Mistake or any of my other favourites of your books. But it has everything in it that makes it the best of Elle Kennedy’s stories. Readers who loved the Off Campus books will probably love The Summer Girl too. I know I did.

Grade: A-

Regards,
Kaetrin

AmazonBNKoboGoogle

From the author of the international bestseller The German Heiress, a gripping historical drama about a woman determined to avenge the crimes against her family, set at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.

Vengeance is in the family, and the family is a bond like no other…

It’s the worst year of the Great Depression, and America needs all the hope it can get. The Chicago World’s Fair, a glittery city-within-a-city, becomes a symbol of the good that’s yet to come. But every utopia has a seedy side—and that’s Rosa Mancuso’s world. As the mysterious Madame Mystique she mixes magic with a dose of bare skin burlesque, bringing customers to the home of the Fair’s carnival rides and spectacles.

Rosa doesn’t perform for fame, though. She has come from Mussolini’s Italy to America, where she’s plotting her revenge for the murders of her family. The perpetrator will soon arrive at the World’s Fair via a celebrated Italian air fleet, and Rosa is determined to be prepared.

But when her estranged cousin, Mina, comes to her desperate for help, with a dangerous mobster close on her heels, Rosa agrees to protect Mina and her new baby, born across the color line. With the clock ticking, Rosa decides the only way to survive is to make vengeance a family affair and prompt everyone to, at last, confront the sins from their pasts.

A gripping story of retribution, belonging, and survival, Sinners of Starlight City boldly explores the complexity of identities straddling ethnic lines and asks, who gets to decide who we are and where we belong?

Dear Ms. Scott, 

This is one riveting book. I inhaled it in long gulps and only came up for air when needs must, food beckoned, or my cats meowed loudly to be fed. It’s a type of story I love – when I don’t have a clue what’s going to happen next. 

The blurb pretty much lays out the bare bones but you added the flesh and blood, the sinew and muscle. When things kicked off, I was a little bewildered. Separate threads are started and only slowly woven together. Information is carefully doled out but – yay – the dreaded info dumping was avoided. Readers need to just sit patiently and let things unfold as needed. 

I’ll be honest and say that I had doubts about most of the characters along the way. Some are not nice and some are horrible. Some do terrible things while others know the truth about that and are content to accept this or look the other way. Only a very few come through to the end with flying colors. Why are so many awful things planned and done? Revenge in some cases. Power and control in others. La familia and honor are everything. Or nearly everything. 

Rosa endured snubs and then loss after loss. As a mixed race child she knew the love of parents only to lose them.  As a teen she had to flee for her life and then rebuild it before realizing that she could take revenge on the one responsible. Danny had to fight against parental abuse and grew up to be a man who “fixed” problems by whatever means. Tino and Sal Gallo … well, thugs will be thugs. Paolo’s actions can be laid at the feet of the facism sweeping Italy. 

I enjoyed how strong the women are in the book. Rosa, Mina who won’t give in to her family’s demands, Fiammeta, who survived that terrible night along with Rosa, and the other women of the Oriental Fair who are seen as misfits by society but who stick together to face that. The other “found family” members are given their dignity and courage and allowed to stand up against the abuse and demands made on Rosa and Mina. The world at large might view these people as outcasts but together they are a family.    

But how was it going to end? Could things be pulled off? Would Rosa get her revenge and Mina get her baby? Was Danny all bad? Would Rosa’s uncles uphold family honor? I was on the edge of my seat. When the blood congealed and the dust settled, I was satisfied. It wasn’t pretty but it all worked. So (mostly) morally gray and morally black characters in an intricate revenge plot set against a glimmering 1930s World’s Fair that was supposed to uplift people during a time of economic depression for the win. B+    

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

A stormsinger and pirate hunter join forces against a deathless pirate lord in this swashbuckling Jacobean adventure on the high-seas.

Launching the Winter Sea series, full of magic, betrayal, redemption and fearsome women, for readers of Adrienne Young, R. J. Barker and Naomi Novik.

Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Faced with servitude to pirate lord Silvanus Lirr, Mary offers her skills to his arch-rival in exchange for protection – and, more importantly, his help sending Lirr to a watery grave. But her new ally has a vendetta of his own, and Mary’s dreams are dark and full of ghistings, spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of her homeland and the figureheads of ships.

Samuel Rosser is a disgraced naval officer serving aboard The Hart, an infamous privateer commissioned to bring Lirr to justice. He will stop at nothing to capture Lirr, restore his good name and reclaim the only thing that stands between himself and madness: a talisman stolen by Mary.

Finally, driven into the eternal ice at the limits of their world, Mary and Samuel must choose their loyalties and battle forces older and more powerful than the pirates who would make them slaves.

Come sail the Winter Sea, for action-packed, high-stakes adventures, rich characterisation and epic plots full of intrigue and betrayal.

Dear Ms. Long,

I ogled the cover. I read the blurb. I crossed my fingers and requested the book. Then I fell into this world, among these people, and sucked it all down in two days. That’s 464 pages by the way. I’d come up for air every so often, clear my head a bit and then dive back in because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Books that make me do that are a joy to read.

The blurb covers as much of the plot as I think is good to know going in. Part of the happiness of the book is not knowing what twist or turn it’s going to take next. Plus I doubt I could describe it without giving away some spoilers or ruining things so I’ll stop.

What I liked? Strong women! In this story women and men are equals on board the ships. There are female first lieutenants and female captains. Two of the kingdoms are headed by Queens. And then there are the Stormsingers. I’m not sure if there are male Stormsingers as none are mentioned but like so many things done only by women, the talents these women have are as much a curse as a gift. Mary and her mother rise above this in the end – okay I’ll spoil that much as I am delighted that Mary (mostly, I will admit that it is a bit of a group effort) is her own savior as well as working together with the others done wrong by the villain to get justice.

The worldbuilding is intricate but I could follow it and take it in. There are some facts and hints that are casually sprinkled in from early on that are explained later via some clever exposition – namely excerpts from “Books” in this world as well as descriptions of what happened to Mary before the action starts. None of this lands with a thud and brings the story to a screeching halt though, for which I am grateful.

The characters are individual and fleshed out. I found them fairly easy to keep straight in my head. They’ve also got some layers to them. No one is all good and most, except for one or two, are not all bad. Revenge and redemption are behind most actions. Characters act appropriately with the amount of knowledge that they have. As I mentioned there are twists to the plot but also clues so that things aren’t completely baffling in a “Now wait a minute, where did that come from?” way. Since some of the characters are ruthless pirates or pirate hunters, there is also some blood and gore though not full-on horror amounts.

A satisfying ending rounds things out. I’m glad that, on her own, the heroine believed what the hero said about his past. To be honest, there is a fair amount of exposition to lay out this world. It’s also first person with a very subdued romance. In fact I’d almost just call it more historical fantasy than fantasy romance. One character is sort of A Chosen One – with a twist. But I had a rip roaring time reading it – because pirates. B

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

In first century Rome, Flavia Albia takes on an easy case that soon proves to be anything but as, at every turn, bodies —old and new — dog her path.

Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken over her father’s business as a private informer. She only has two hard and fast rules – avoid political cases and family cases because nothing good comes of either of them. Unfortunately, since Albia isn’t good at avoiding either, it’s really more of a guideline. So when her Aunt Junia demands Albia track down a couple of deadbeats who owe her money, it’s an offer Albia can’t refuse.

It turns out to be a relatively easy job, requiring only some half-hearted blackmail, and it leads to some new work – tracking down some essential paperwork for the debtor family. But nothing is truly easy in Rome – if Albia doesn’t find the paperwork that proves that family’s ancestor was a properly freed slave, the family could lose everything. The more she digs, the more skeletons she finds in their closet, until murder in the past leads to murder in the present. Now, it’s serious, even deadly, and Albia has precious little time to uncover the truth.

Dear Ms. Davis,

After last year’s blood fest book, I’m happy that this one – though it has some violence and a lot of injustice that needs to be sorted out – isn’t quite as gruesome. Flavia Albia is again hired to do one thing – one easy thing – that soon spirals into something that she just can’t let go. She’s smart and she’s cynical but she will do her best just because it’s what ought to be done.

To try to describe the plot is beyond me. Truly, it’s so convoluted and so intricate that to untie the Gordian Knot would be child’s play in comparison. The legal case at the heart of the plot might not have dragged on as long as that in “Bleak House,” but for 40 years two families have disputed the ownership of an orchard and railed against each other. But something even worse is at stake though. Is one man free or enslaved?

With a large cast of characters, it pays to try and remember who they are and how they’re related. Yet, just when I thought I had a handle on that, new layers would be revealed. As a private investigator, Flavia Albia is used to those she interviews – as well as often her clients – lying to her face. The ones in this book have it down to a fine art.

I’ll be honest and say that there are plenty of times when I had to stop and mentally review the who’s who here. Given the Roman naming system, many had similar appellations. The two families involved also had a few intermarriages. It was confusing. As Albia tried to figure out what her real case was about and then gathered clues, for a long time nothing appeared to join up. Then once things began to fall into place, I had some “Ah ha!” moments.

Albia does figure out who owns the orchard. I was more invested in the fate of a few people – one who had been lied to by a truly detestable slug and one who felt he was at fault for something. Seeing Albia get them justice was sweet. That it occurred with Helena, Falco, Albia’s siblings and husband in attendance provided the juicy cherry on top. B

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

We usually start the reviews in this series by noting how many books are in the series and how many Janine and I have reviewed together. I insist on doing this for some reason, even though I find the math confusing and challenging at this point. But anyway, by my count, this is our 11th year reviewing these together. Resonance Surge is the 22nd book in the series (which is technically two series – the Psy/Changeling books – 15 and the Psy/Changeling Trinity books – 7). This is the also 11th book we’ve reviewed together, meaning we’ve reviewed exactly half the series together.

Janine, please check my math!

Janine: You are correct, Jennie. The main reason I know this is because last year was the year I joked about that being our aluminum anniversary.

Jennie: With that out of the way, onto Resonance Surge:

StoneWater bears Pavel and Yakov Stepyrev have been a unit since birth, but now Pavel’s life is veering in a new direction, his heart held in the hands of Arwen Mercant, a Psy empath—and the only man who has ever brought Pavel to his knees.

This is it. A point of irrevocable change. For Pavel . . . for Arwen . . . for Yakov . . . and for another pair of twins whose bond has a far darker history.

A low-Gradient Psy, Theodora Marshall is considered worthless by everyone but her violently powerful twin, Pax. She is the sole person he trusts in their venomous family to investigate a hidden and terrible part of their family history—an unregistered rehabilitation Center established by their grandfather.

The Centers are an ugly vestige of the Psy race’s Silent past. But this Center was worse. Far, far worse. And now Theo must uncover the awful truth—in the company of a scowling bear named Yakov, who isn’t about to take a Marshall at face value . . . especially a Marshall who has turned his dreams into chilling nightmares.

Because Yakov is the great-grandson of a foreseer . . . and he has seen Theo die in an unstoppable surge of blood. Night after night after night . . .

I’ll admit I was hesitant when I saw that the hero was a bear – Silver Silence didn’t work so well for Janine, in part, I believe, due to …the somewhat unromantic image of bear shapeshifters. They aren’t sinuous leopards or noble wolves, to be sure.

That said, I think Singh does a pretty good job of leaning into the virtues of the bear persona as depicted in the Psy/Changeling world; bears here are fun-loving and mischievous. I appreciate the lightness of Yakov, at least a partial contrast to the super-intense typical Singh hero. To be sure, Yakov’s manly manliness and “dominance” (a concept that *I* don’t really like about this world) are attested to frequently, but he’s also playful and relatively happy-go-lucky.

Janine: I groaned when I heard this would be a bear book but I ended up really, really liking Yakov. I thought he was fun, caring and sexy, and that he was right in the happy middle between overbearing or not having enough spine for my taste.

Jennie: Which means of course that it’s our heroine, Theo, who has to be uber-tortured and convinced that she is unworthy of love. Theo does indeed have tragically traumatic background – rejected by her powerful family due to her apparent lack of psychic gifts; separated from her beloved twin at an early age and subjected to abuse from her evil grandfather, who she fears used her to carry out dark deeds. Adult Theo has a lot of anger and guilt. She meets Yakov when they are tasked with working together to uncover the mystery behind a secret “rehabilitation center” owned and operated by Theo’s family.

Janine: I really liked Theo’s anger. We don’t really encounter a lot of angry heroines in romance even now, and I haven’t seen many in Singh’s. I liked that Theo’s anger manifested in dangerous ways that were not entirely under her control, but she didn’t want to harm anyone and that tortured her.

Jennie: I think that’s a good point. Theo’s anger was definitely justified and I appreciated that she wasn’t a stereotypical forgiving female.

Janine: I also really, really liked the creepy mystery about the rehabilitation center, and I thought it gave the book a Guild Hunter-ish flavor. For those who don’t read them, Singh’s Guild Hunter novels often have scenes where the couple investigate a creepy / eerie place together. Singh does that kind of atmospheric darkness well. I have a preference for the Guild Hunter series over the Psy/Changeling one—the books are more varied and not generally focused on fatal brain diseases or dominance and submissiveness—and the GH vibe gave this book some positive associations.

Jennie: Both Yakov and Theo are immediately struck with the usual attraction that is to be expected in this series. For Yakov, there is more – he recognizes Theo. Specifically, he recognizes her from his dreams, where she has been a featured player for many years. First as a loving companion and partner, but most recently – horrifically – as a victim. Yakov has been haunted by dreams of Theo being slashed by an unknown assailant while he watches, bound and unable to save her.

It is when Yakov and Theo first approach the apparently abandoned rehabilitation center on the outskirts of Moscow that Theo has a revelation – she’s been here before. Flashbacks show her being taken there by her grandfather and subjected to painful experiments. Theo’s memories from ages 8-16 are fragmented and she doesn’t have full recall of what happened to her at the center, but she has a strong negative response to even being there. The trauma of it is an opportunity for Theo and Yakov to grow closer and for him to both admire her grit and take care of her, which of course his bear wants to do.

Janine: I thought this was interesting too. The only other character I can think of who spent time in a center like that was Ivy, but we really don’t know anything about what it was like or what happened to her there. Dark though the glimpse of it here was, it was a nice expansion of the psy/changeling world.

Jennie: The trajectory of Theo’s and Yakov’s story is pretty familiar for fans of this series. She’s tortured. He’s protective. She has a dark secret that makes her feel like they can never actually be together. I’d complain about the repetition and the almost Madlibs style plotting (insert [tortured Psy/tortured changeling] add [physical challenge/emotional challenge] blocking the HEA, etc.), but complaining about a formula on book 22 seems silly.

Janine: Yes, I’m pretty much in the same space. At least here the impending death had to do with murder more than anything brain-related. I liked the characters very much (better than average for this series, I would say) so I was willing to go with it although the scene in the nightclub was a little too familiar (also in GH way, I think).

Jennie: I haven’t read any of the Guild Hunters books, but I feel like some of the “Changelings size up the Psy partner” scenes were rather familiar at this point.

Janine: That was not actually the aspect that reminded me of the Guild Hunter series. It was Theo’s private interaction with the club owner–it felt very Elena to me. It reminded me of when Elena met her business partner in the flavored synthetic blood business and of other interactions Elena has had. I love Elena so it wasn’t a terrible thing, but it felt a bit like it fell short of how much I like that kind of thing when Elena is actually involved. I like Theo so this isn’t a criticism of her.

Jennie: There is an aspect of the story that is fresh and gives insights into the beginnings of Silence. The beginnings of some of the chapters feature letters back and forth between Yakov’s great-grandfather, Dewei Nguyen and his sister Hien. Dewei was a Psy who mated into the Stonewater bear clan. Their early correspondence is loving and light, but after Hien suffers a tragedy she begins to be drawn to the promise of Silence, a protocol that is being debated at the time. It’s sad to see the break in the family as Hien choose what she believes is the right path for herself and her child, a path that cuts her off from Dewei and her parents forever.

Janine: As I was reading this correspondence, I kept expecting Hien to end up in a rehabilitation center and for the storylines to connect in this way. I was relieved that wasn’t the case, but this expectation cast a pall over the letters for me (not the author’s fault, I know—my brain often sees twists where there aren’t any).

Jennie: I wasn’t expecting that but was expecting some sort of twist or resolution to the letters that never came. That said, I wasn’t disappointed; I found them poignant and I felt that they gave some nuance to the origins of Silence, which usually just seems like a really bad idea that made the Psy even more messed up than they already are (the Psy=bad and Changeling=good being a general complaint I’ve had about the series).

Both Theo and Yakov are twins, and their twin relationships are central to who they are. Yakov is able to understand Theo’s situation with her brother, Pax, better than most people. Pax Marshall is a very prominent Psy (I sort of see him as Kaleb Krycheck 2.0) and Theo has been the dirty little secret of the Marshall clan for as long as she can remember.

Janine: Yes, I think I dubbed him Baby Kaleb several books ago. That said, we see a softer side to Pax here and I liked it (especially child Pax). However there was one Pax and Theo thing that confused me.

Janine: I really like Arwen but I thought Pavel was a little boring in this book. Arwen had a small arc here that was not 100% convincing to me, but I went with it.

Jennie: As if there weren’t enough going on, there’s a serial killer stalking blonde-haired, blue-eyed Psy in Moscow. Guess Theo’s coloring?

There were some things I found confusing at the end of the book. Theo remembers committing some dark deeds at her grandfather’s behest, but isn’t clear if she was controlled or did them of her own free will. I found the resolution of this a bit unclear.

Janine: Yeah, I can see why, it was a blinked-and-you-missed-it thing.

One thing I keep forgetting to mention was that “Bozhe!” and “Bozhe Moi!” appeared almost often enough for a drinking game.

Jennie: Resonance Surge was an average entry into the series for me. I’ll give it a B/B-.

Janine: As usual I liked this one a bit better than you did. It was not a standout, and in fact, I read it more slowly than I typically read the psy/changeling books. But I did really like the main characters very much, and I’m giving it a B.

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Murder once again stalks the proprietors of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau in the surprisingly dangerous landscape of post-WWII London.
In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture – The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous – and never discussed – past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.

Shortly thereafter, she’s found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn’t make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets – perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case.

Dear Ms. Montclair,

Brava! This series continues to get better and better by digging deeper and deeper into the lives of the characters as they go about matchmaking clients and solving murders. Well, if Iris and Gwen continue to become lead suspects and the Met hasn’t solved things yet, someone has to.

I was hoping that there would be a bit more matchmaking in this book and indeed there was. In fact, that’s what kicks things off. Several potential clients appear at The Right Sort Marriage Bureau but the one who captures their attention is Mrs. Remagen, who tells the duo that she eventually wants her husband to become their client at a suitable time after her death. Gwen is in tears by the time Mrs. Remagen has told her story but it’s Iris who adds some codicils to the standard contract and suggests getting the final £20 fee put in escrow. Gwen, who has an unmatched (no pun intended) ability to “read” clients secures from Mrs. Remagen a pledge not to commit suicide but to look for the joy in what time the woman has left before her painful cancer claims her life.

So when Mrs. Remagen is found dead only days later, Gwen and Iris are stunned, saddened and also skeptical. They are not the only ones as a young police Constable begs his superior to let him follow his instinct that “something” about the crime scene isn’t right. Meanwhile Gwen’s day in court to determine whether or not she will regain her freedom and be declared sane again – in the eyes of the law, King, and everyone else – is coming up. She wants to prepare for stepping into her role on the board of the Bainbridge owned business where she has inherited her husband’s 40% of the shares but a surprise move at the meeting throws things there and at her court hearing into chaos. Then more murders occur.

Let me tell you, the last 90 pages of the story had me hanging on for a “hell for leather” ending. I felt as if I was zipping along on Constable Quinton’s motorcycle with no concern for gas ration coupons. The clues with which Iris and Gwen managed to solve the various murders – and the bodies were really piling up thick and fast – were there. It needed both women putting their individual skills to work to suss through who did what to whom when and why. The plot would zig and zag then put (mainly) Gwen in a worse place causing me to (mentally) bite my nails and (silently) scream, “NO!” Then with each reveal I grinned at the subtlety with which everything was worked into the plot without adding any neon CLUE! signs. It was masterful.

But wait, there’s more! The story is packed with unfolding additions to our knowledge of Gwen and Iris and Sally. Talk about layers of characterization. Iris gets a chance to revisit an old romance and compare this to her relationship with Archie – something she intends to triumphantly announce to Dr. Milford. Gwen faces losing all the momentum in her case to (legally) regain her sanity but reveals a keen mind for business which earns her the growing approbation of her starchy father-in-law. Meanwhile Sally, who has been at Gwen’s feet for a few books, finally gives us a hint of what he did during the war, why he has set Gwen on a pedestal, and what he can and can not endure in a relationship with her. Intense, sometimes painful, self discovery stuff for all.

I finished the book reading flat out and punching the air at the way Gwen and Iris handle one suspected criminal confession and how Gwen’s knowledge of single malts helps her in another. The final scenes of dealing with grief almost had me tearing up – okay, okay yes I was tearing up – but one character has had this coming and desperately needed it while another has only just begun to confront his loss – the depth of which we realize from a conversation Iris has with a former Army commando. I was wrung out and satisfied at the same time and I can’t wait to see what happens next. A

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Being an intern at One Wizard sounds magical on the page, but in practice mostly means getting yelled at by senior mages and angry clients alike. And so, after receiving a frantic call from a young man who’s awoken to a talisman on his bedroom wall—and no memory of how it got there—Journeyman Wen jumps at the chance to escape call-center duty and actually help someone for once.

But the case ends up being more complicated than Wen could ever have anticipated. The client has been possessed by a demon prince from Hell, and he’s not interested in leaving.

Review:

Dear Em.X.Liu,

I purchased this book on impulse, because somebody on my tweeter feed retweeted the review by KJ Charles. I don’t follow her myself, but the review hit several of my buttons, and I said to myself why not.

First of all, this is not a long read. The author calls it a novella, it has 165 pages on my kindle and it took me few hours to finish it.

The writing was on another level. I am not capable of analyzing the finer details, but I wanted to stop and taste every word and every sentence. Also, since I have not read any other reviews, I need to nod in agreement with KJ Charles’ one. Most of the story is written in second person present POV. The author does infuse some other tenses from time to time, but the vast majority is second person present. Let me tell you, I dislike first person present, but I certainly have read the books in that POV that I liked.

Second person present? I usually run away from the book when I see it. This book however I inhaled.

Now let me tell you what this book is not in my opinion – it is not a romance, at most it is a beginning of the romance and at the end of the book I was still not completely sure between which characters the romance may start (or NOT! and NOT is a very real possibility when the story ends). There are certainly emotional attachments formed between all four main characters, but where it will go, who the heck knows.

I also don’t think that this book is actually about magic, even though the settings are described very accurately in the blurb – the main character works in the magical agency and the actual magic is part of this world, but we dont see much of the magic at work. I mean, very real possession is at the heart of the plot, so magic should be involved, but I think the unhelpfulness of magical bureaucracy is what we see more than actual magic and dont get me wrong, the portrayal is very on point.

And main character trying to help to the best of his abilities and getting his heart involved too, was lovely and the client possessed by Demon Prince from Hell was wonderful, too. Oh and there was Nathaniel too who fit very well…

Read it… A-

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

An entertaining illustrated deep dive into muscle, from the discovery of human anatomy to the latest science of strength training.

Muscle tissue powers every heartbeat, blink, jog, jump, and goosebump. It is the force behind the most critical bodily functions, including digestion and childbirth, as well as extreme feats of athleticism. We can mold our muscles with exercise and observe the results.

In this lively, lucid book, orthopedic surgeon Roy A. Meals takes us on a wide-ranging journey through anatomy, biology, history, and health to unlock the mysteries of our muscles. He breaks down the three different types of muscle – smooth, skeletal, and cardiac -and explores major advancements in medicine and fitness, including cutting-edge gene-editing research and the science behind popular muscle conditioning strategies. Along the way, he offers insight into the changing aesthetic and cultural conception of muscle, from Michelangelo’s David to present-day bodybuilders, and shares fascinating examples of strange muscular maladies and their treatment. Brimming with fun facts and infectious enthusiasm, Muscle sheds light on the astonishing, essential tissue that moves us through life.

Review

Almost three years ago, I read Dr. Meals’s book “Bones:Inside and Out” about bones. Now he tackles muscles which (the skeletal ones) are attached to bones to move them. Skeletal muscles aren’t the only ones in town – I mean, our bodies – though. Smooth muscles do all sorts of nifty things such as run our gastrointestinal system. Let’s hear it for the sphincter ani and urethral sphincter. Life – and our dignity – would be a lot less pleasant without them. The last kind, cardiac, is really the one we can’t do without although scientists and inventors are pushing the boundaries of devices that can help people with ailing cardiac muscle who are on transplant waiting lists. 

Meals deep dives into the history of medicine in regards to musculature and what makes muscle work – how it’s attached (if it’s attached), how it moves, and how it repairs itself (if it can). He also discusses maintenance – exercising as well as diet, supplements (good or bad?), and nutrition. There’s even a chapter on bodybuilding. Animals have some specialized muscles such as those that allow horses to twitch off flies. Information on fast-twitch vs slow-twitch muscles and how these affect what sports you’d be good at is here. The book wraps up with a discussion on potential muscle replacements and robots. 

Dr. Meals has a nice writing style that invites you in and the book is full of drawings and photos to illustrate what’s being discussed. It’s obviously well researched though I found that I wasn’t quite as interested in some of the information and topics. Bodybuilding just isn’t my thing. Exercise is more my interest. But there is a lot of varied content and probably something to catch a reader’s interest. B-

~Jayne  

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Set in 1960s Italy, this stylish, atmospheric debut spins a bewitching web of ruthless ambition, family secrets, and the consequences of forbidden love, as an ambitious American actress snags the starring role in a mysterious horror movie shooting on location in a crumbling medieval castle outside Rome…
Readers who enjoy the moody gothic allure of Kate Morton and Silvia Moreno-Garcia or the immersive settings of Lucinda Riley and Fiona Davis will be enthralled by Kelsey James’ spellbinding web of intriguing mystery, family secrets, forbidden love, and midcentury Italian flair.

Rome, 1965: Aspiring actress Silvia Whitford arrives at Rome’s famed Cinecittà Studios from Los Angeles, ready for her big break and a taste of la dolce vita. Instead, she learns that the movie in which she was cast has been canceled. Desperate for money, Silvia has only one choice: seek out the Italian aunt she has never met.

Gabriella Conti lives in a crumbling castello on the edge of a volcanic lake. Silvia’s mother refuses to explain the rift that drove the sisters apart, but Silvia is fascinated by Gabriella, a once-famous actress who still radiates charisma. And the eerie castle inspires Silvia’s second chance when it becomes the location for a new horror movie, aptly named The Revenge of the Lake Witch—and she lands a starring role.

Silvia immerses herself in the part of an ingenue tormented by the ghost of her beautiful, seductive ancestor. But when Gabriella abruptly vanishes, the movie’s make-believe terrors seep into reality. No one else on set seems to share Silvia’s suspicions. Yet as she delves into Gabriella’s disappearance, she triggers a chain of events that illuminate dark secrets in the past—and a growing menace in the present . . .

Dear Ms. James,

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Gothic mystery teeming with secrets and hidden motives. Brava that “The Woman in the Castello,” your debut novel, kept me reading all day long until I managed to finish it right before bedtime. I sort of sussed out some points, suspected others, but the final twist took me by surprise.

Silvie Whitford is desperate. Her movie career hasn’t taken off yet, her mother is dying, and Silvie has a toddler to take care of. No, she doesn’t want the dirtbag she thought she was in love with to even know that Lucy – Lulu – exists. This chance to return to Italy, where Silvie was born to her young Italian mother and GI father who had married after a whirlwind meeting, will hopefully get Silvie more notice and enough money for them to survive.

So when she learns that the film has been cancelled, Silvie unsuccessfully tries to land waitressing jobs before reluctantly turning to her last hope – her aunt with whom her mother has been estranged for Silvie’s entire life. Gabriella Conti is charismatic with enough oomph to Be Noticed. She also informs Silvie that during the war, she worked with Musselini’s film industry because she wanted more than a dull life on a farm. She wanted fame and if that came with being a fascisti, so be it. This is the first of many moments when Silvie has to face her own weaknesses and decide what she’s willing to put up with, overlook, and accept in order to snatch at her dreams.

A twist of fate lands Silvie the lead role in a new film, a horror movie that will be filmed at Gabriella’s crumbling castello which is located hours outside of Rome. When Gabriella disappears and no one else seems to be worried or willing to look into it, Silvie risks rocking the filming schedule to pursue clues. Who could want her Aunt out of the way – or dead? And are the “accidents” that seem to dog Silvie on set and in the Castello just that – or worse?

The book is filled with incidents which could be innocent or not. People have legitimate reasons to see Gabriella out of the way but these could also be mere coincidence or figments of Silvie’s growing unease and worry. The Castello is a moldy, falling down wreck which adds atmosphere to the film but which also creeps most people out. Everyone’s got a secret or two and Silvie’s long held habit of keeping people at arm’s length makes forging friendships hard. Plus her past disastrous relationship has her doubting that any men are worth the effort. Since Silvie’s is the only (first person) POV, readers are left trying to piece the puzzle together with her, jumping at shadows, and imagining all sorts of hidden motives behind what’s going on. That is, if anything is actually going on. Could it all just be wisps of smoke?

Clues are scattered around but there are enough red herrings and suspect though maybe innocent character motives to keep readers just this side of being sure they have things figured out. The backdrop of WWII Italy looms and flares up enough to see that in the mid 1960s, some things were still not forgiven and were certainly not forgotten.

Silvie is young and her upbringing leaves her with gaps in being able to deal with some of the situations in which she finds herself. She makes mistakes which I can understand but tends to get somewhat petulant when someone didn’t act as she was hoping they would. In one case it’s a pretty big bomb that got dropped and she seemed to think it shouldn’t be so hard to accept it. Yes, Silvie, I would call a timeout, too. There is a romance but it didn’t totally convince me. A HFN would have sat better with me. Silvie is a loving mother but poor Lulu is pretty much relegated to being a plot moppet. Silvie’s, Gabriella’s, and Silvie’s mother Elena’s relationship is where I focused. Too bad that the sister’s reunion and what they discuss is mainly offpage.

I had fun sliding down into a Gothic book after a long break and this one makes me mostly satisfied in how the misdirection was handled and the heaping helpings of doom and gloom spiced up the oppressive atmosphere. Just a few things would have made me happier but I will be keeping my eyes open for your next book. B-

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Hollywood Star Turns Spy

In 1943, Movie producer Henrik Zoltan approaches Amelie Blake under the guise of offering the Hollywood star a leading part in his upcoming film, but he has a more meaningful role in mind. Amelie’s homeland of Sweden declared neutrality in the war, but Stockholm has become the ‘Casablanca of the North.’ When top-secret atomic research goes missing in Sweden, the Allied forces scramble to recover the files before they fall into Nazi hands.

The United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) needs someone who’s subtle enough to spy on the Swedish elite without triggering suspicion. Who better than the “all beauty, no brains” Scandinavian starlet? Fluent in three languages and possessing a brilliant memory, Amelie loathes being labeled witless but uses the misconception as her disguise. She’s tasked with searching for the crucial files, but Finn Ristaffason keeps getting in her way. Is the charming shipping magnate after the missing research? Or does he have other reasons for showing up at her every turn?

With the Gestapo on her heels, Amelie must rely on her smarts in addition to her acting skills to survive a world of deadly spies and counterspies.

Dear Rachel Scott McDaniel,

Okay, yes the cover caught my eye but the plot was what made me want to read this book. Ooh, intrigue in Sweden, atomic secrets, and a heroine who needs to disguise her smarts while also using them.

Amelie Blake is a Hollywood star just finishing her most recent film when a noted European immigre director invites her out to “discuss his upcoming movie.” That is, of course, not at all what they talk about and before Amelie knows it, she’s on a plane to Toronto to Camp X to get a crash course in espionage and self defense. Reeling from lack of sleep, she’s next flown to Scotland before the final hop to Stockholm. There Amelie does get to finally reunite with her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in years, as well as explain why Mamma needs to act wan and weak for a little while longer to bolster the supposed reason why Amelie has appeared home after traveling through war zones. Though Sweden is neutral, every other country around them is at war. 

But soon Amelie is headed to the country estate of a man suspected by the OSS of having business with Germany (not illegal as Sweden is neutral but morally bankrupt as far as Amelie is concerned). Notes on atomic secrets were lost during the evacuation of Denmark’s Jews to Sweden and everyone is desperate to get their hands on them. There are issues in Amelie’s past, as well as that of her mother, that come to light during her stay there as she tries to determine who to trust, who to suspect, and where that darn briefcase of secrets is. Small sparks begin between Amelie and Finn but both have been mistaken about love in the past and neither is eager to risk their heart again.

While I love that Amelie is not the dumb blonde she tries to appear to be, I hate that she has to hide her intelligence behind a façade of silliness. Amelie also realizes that she’s not quite as good an actress as she thinks when this cover slips a few times. She also has a special “talent” of being able to remember anything written that she focuses on though this is underused in the story.

The romance is slow burn partly due to what I mentioned above and partly because Finn is suspicious of why Amelie is there. Another character basically calls Amelie out very early about why she left her “oh, so sick” mother back in Stockholm despite that being her reason to fly from LA to Sweden. No one else mentions it again but it is a niggling plot hole for me. 

The middle section of the book is mainly setting up characters, suspicions, and counter suspicions. Amelie observes people, asks some questions of others, uses her newly acquired lockpicking skills, and tries to keep Finn from discovering that she’s investigating him. Things move a bit slowly as far as cloak and daggering goes. There is a lot about Sweden though, which I enjoyed reading about. Amelie’s faith is important to her but this is mainly shown by her mentally giving thanks and credit to God for the important things in her life.

Then things start to pick up. In one lovely scene, Amalie finally confesses to Finn about the long ago meeting they had when he crushed her teen dreams and that it made her a stronger person who began to view her own self worth as coming from inside rather than as a validation from a man. Finn apologizes for his past self. Then later on Finn confesses that Amelie as she is then – with no make-up and wearing a bathrobe – is lovelier to him than any glammed up version. Yeah, I could tell he was falling hard for her. The action finally kicks back into gear and it’s here that Amelie’s intelligence is finally allowed to shine while she and Finn chase down clues and leads. Yay that it’s Amelie who puts the clues together. Boo that the villain goes into gleeful exposition mode.            

Overall, I really liked the unusual WWII setting and that Amelie is smart and figures things out. The Author’s Note information was fun to read, too. Now I must youtube to see what the hambo dance looks like. B-   

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

A groundbreaking new history of the role of American servicewomen in WWII, illuminating their forgotten yet essential contributions to the Allies’ victory.

Valiant Women is the story of the 350,000 American women who served in uniform during World War II. These incredible women served in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. They were pilots, codebreakers, ordnance experts, gunnery instructors, metalsmiths, chemists, translators, parachute riggers, truck drivers, radarmen, pigeon trainers, and much more. They were directly involved in some of the most important moments of the war, from the D-Day landings to the peace negotiations in Paris. These women—who hailed from every race, creed, and walk of life—died for their country and received the nation’s highest honors. Their work, both individually and in total, was at the heart of the Allied strategy that won World War II.

Yet, until now, their stories have been relegated to the dusty shelves of military archives or a passing mention in the local paper. Often the women themselves kept their stories private, even from their own families. Now, military analyst Lena Andrews corrects the record with the definitive and comprehensive historical account of American servicewomen during World War II, based on new archival research, firsthand interviews with surviving veterans, and a deep professional understanding of military history and strategy.

Review

“Women are a weapon waiting to be used.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

The book begins with a run down of the world situation in the late 1930s and how woefully unprepared the US military was. Not only were the standing branches of the military low in numbers of trained men but tactics and weaponry had drastically changed in the last 20 years.This was going to be the first war in which the US had fought that it couldn’t manage to fill its needs both in domestic productivity and in service with only men. Luckily General Marshall had already pushed to start beefing up production, supplies, and training. While needed to set the stage, these chapters were a little repetitious.    

While women might have been eager and willing to join and help win WWII, it would be a long and hard slog to get some of the men to accept them in this role. Even the seeming shoo-in of nursing personnel was, at the time, a fairly recent and still somewhat controversial profession. It was mainly the Great Depression that spurred women to enter, and their families to accept, nursing. But nursing in the military? surrounded by men? dealing with knowledge of male bodies? shameful! However nurses were the first in line – in Pearl Harbor and the Philippines –  to encounter the war. Several nurses in the Philippines declined to be evacuated, despite knowing of Japanese atrocities against women and nurses, because the wounded under their care needed their help.

The women’s auxiliary services were slowly brought on board in fits and starts as the various services accepted that women could free men for combat roles. Cutesy names* – except for the Marine Corps whose commandant (sadly also a racist) flatly refused saying that these women were Marines –  decided and uniforms designed (Navy the best, Army the worst) most of the women leading them were handed all the responsibility but none of the authority needed to get the job done easily. Sadly the female (possibly queer) physician and daughter of Chinese immigrants whose lobbying got the WAVES off the ground (pun intended) was denied the chance to lead them due to her age. 

The fact that the WAACs were not (until mid 1943) officially in the Army would cause issues as they were not initially eligible for the same pay, pension, and benefits of service. That the WAAC leader was a White Southern woman was concerning to Blacks worried about discrimination (which they did face in all the services). The WAVES got off to a better start but soon found that they had to use the age-old tactic of making their male counterparts think that an idea was theirs in order to get it accepted and done. 

Women in these auxiliary forces also had to face sexism, harrassment, the risk of assault and rape, and public accusations of being out to take men’s jobs plus were called prostitutes.     Pause here a minute to join me in my anger that people just trying to be patriotic had to deal with this shit.     The higher-ups did accept that the women who had answered the call to service were of the more adventurous persuasion and provided a Sex Education manual that was astonishingly frank for its day. But the military was no more ready to accept lesbians than homosexuals.   

Part two begins to take us overseas and show the often horrific conditions under which nurses had to work and the fact that two years later the nurses captured in the Philippines were still POWs. By 1944, the public at large and most of the military brass (including Eisenhower who was enthusiastic about the work the [now changed to] WACs were doing) had accepted that women could help the war effort in these jobs although women in the field still faced skeptical or sometimes hostile men.  

Many of the women interviewed for this book seemed to dismiss their contributions as being exceptional. According to the author, others appeared to feel that what they did wasn’t real war work. But after the war, many of these women continued their tradition of service to their communities. What they did mattered and we need to remember it. This well written and accessible book will help with that. B

~Jayne

To be sure, it took the work of future generations to advance the gains of the women who served in World War II, but, wittingly or not, the women of World War II forever changed the place of women in American society. Quietly, diligently, and persistently, the military women of World War II brought the women’s movement into the modern era.

   * Some of the awful ones were Femarines, WAMS, Dainty Devil-Dogs, Glamarines, Women’s Leatherneck-Aids, MARS, and Sub-Marines.   

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Their chemistry creates a chain reaction . . . but will love be the final result?

Dorothea Grantham has always been fascinated by chemistry and spends most days conducting experiments in her laboratory at Grantham Place, staining silk with gold, silver, and other metals using chemical processes.

Thea embroiders the beautiful gold and silver silk shawls she creates and enjoys wearing them, but her grandmother, Lady Longmore, advises her not to reveal to anyone outside the family circle that she has created the fashion items herself, concerned her granddaughter might be seen as an oddity.

When Thea enters Society, her shawls attract a great deal of attention and become the talk of the town. James, Lord Castleroy, takes a particular interest in her work, having inherited a share in his grandfather’s silk mill in Macclesfield.

Eager to invest in the ailing silk industry, the baron studies Miss Grantham’s silks with an admiring—and increasingly suspicious—eye, believing the fabrics to be smuggled imported silk. As he spends more time with the enterprising young lady, however, his interest in her quickly extends beyond his business affairs to engulf his guarded heart.

But Lord Castleroy isn’t the only person in London interested in Thea’s exquisite creations. And when a silken web of intrigue entangles her in real danger, Thea must trust the devotion of a man she never expected—or intended—to fall in love with.

Dear Ms. Baxter 

When reading the blurb, what caught my eye and my interest is the fact that heroine Thea isn’t just a dilettante about chemistry – no, she is making practical use of her interest and talent in the field. True, some of her family members aren’t thrilled with her interest and try to keep what she does hushed up because they don’t want the ton to think Thea is weird but her love of the science isn’t merely a soon-dropped hook to get readers to try the book.

Thea and James’s first meeting isn’t the best but thankfully Thea isn’t made out to be an awkward, stumbling idiot. The fire is doused and all’s well. No, James’s interest in Thea initially appears to be due to what Thea’s wearing rather than the way they met. Thea dyes and then beautifully embroiders silk and she does it with her chemical knowledge. James has a reason to be concerned about what he sees as his mother’s father owns a silk mill in England and times are hard. English silk makers are still not in the same league with those on the European continent or India, contraband importation is rampant, the Crown is losing revenue, and English silkweavers are on the ropes. 

When he learns what is behind the beautiful shawls Thea wears, James has another proposition. He wants to patent her chemical process and use it to create silk at his grandfather’s mill thus helping the destitute workers. Thea comes back at James and says the process isn’t hers but that of a female chemist and if that woman is alive, James needs to get her permission. But the shawls and other items Thea has created have attracted the attention of others and some of them will go to any lengths to control or end what she’s doing. 

Thea is a bluestocking but the societal interest in the science lectures in London make this acceptable and even fashionable which is a welcome change in my reading. Several men, our hero included, think nothing of taking their sisters, sweethearts, and family to these events. Thea’s interest in chemistry might not be seen as too odd but what she does with it? Yeah, that could smack of (gasp) trade. James is a Baron but his mother was married for her trade dowry and this caused James some issues at Eton. Luckily James and the hero from the previous book in the series (which it isn’t necessary to read before this one) became fast friends.

This is mainly a character centered book and I love the fast friendship that Thea and James’s sister Anne develop. James also carefully helps Thea with some issues of PTSD (not referred to that way, of course) which are the result of a horrible event

It’s refreshing that Thea is the one initially unconvinced of seeking a Grand Passion in marriage. Her parents were deeply in love and Thea saw how the death of her mother shattered her father. Thea wants nothing like that. Even after feelings have started, both James and Thea have moments of introspection and the realization that the needs and wants of the other person must be considered. Just feeling that they’re in love isn’t enough. A final act doubt on the part of one person was a drag but the way the other person convinces the doubter of their sincerity is sweet.    

The tidbits and information about the silk industry are interesting and don’t come across as too much like a history lesson. They’re also important to the story rather than merely being stuffed into the book to show off research. What disappointed me is a penultimate act that too closely mirrors the first book which can only take place because Thea loses any hint of her intelligence. And also how the heroine’s grandmother reacts. No, This Person in book one didn’t abduct your eldest granddaughter because he loves her so why should you briefly think this time would feature a besotted swain?? Sigh …

I liked many aspects of this book but caution readers that it is definitely slow burn and no sex. But it does have a STEM heroine whose passion is actually pertinent to the plot and a lovely, gentle hero willing to gently woo her. I’m just going to forget the whole bit at the end that annoys me and give this one a B

~Jayne  

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

For too long, Arthur Tudor has been remembered only for what he never became. The boy who died prematurely and paved the way for the revolutionary reign of his younger brother, Henry VIII.

Yet, during his short life, Arthur was at the centre of one of the most tumultuous periods of England’s history. At the time of his birth, he represented his father’s hopes for a dynasty and England’s greatest chance of peace. As he grew, he witnessed feuds, survived rebellion and became the focal point of an international alliance.

From the threat of pretenders to West Country rebellions, the dramatic twists and turns of early Tudor England preoccupied Arthur’s thoughts. At a young age, he was dispatched to the Welsh border, becoming a figure head for a robust regional government. While never old enough to exercise full power in his dominion, he emerged as a figure of influence, beseeched by petitioners and consulted by courtiers. While the extent of his personal influence can only be guessed at, the sources that survive reveal a determined prince that came tantalisingly close to forging his future.

Finally, after years of negotiation, delay and frustration, the prince finally came face to face with his Spanish bride, Katharine of Aragon. The young couple had shared a destiny since the cradle. Securing the hand of this prestigious pride for his son had been a centre piece of Henry VII’s foreign policy. Yet, despite being 14 years in the making, the couple were to enjoy just five months together before Arthur succumbed to a mysterious illness.

Arthur’s death at the age of 15 was not just a personal tragedy for his parents. It changed the course of the future and deprived England of one of the most educated and cultivated princes in their history. Arthur would never wear the crown the of England. But few Princes of Wales had been better prepared to rule.

‘Arthur, Prince of Wales: Henry VIII’s lost brother’ shows that Arthur Tudor was more than a prince who died. He was a boy that really lived.

Review

“Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.” If you’ve read much about Henry VIII – Henry Tudor – you’ve probably heard that little rhyme used to tell the fate of Henry’s six wives. But what if Henry’s older brother, Arthur, hadn’t died so young. What if he had lived long enough to father children and inherit the crown from their father, Henry VII?

Most of what I know about this Tudor prince, who was the heir to both sides of the War of the Roses and was the hope of his nation, is in regards to how he did die young, six months after his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, and how this led to his brother Henry inheriting the crown that should have been Arthur’s and the bride who swore that the marriage had never been consummated. When I saw this title, I decided to find out about Arthur himself.

The book begins as a quick and dirty run down of the dynastic upheavals of the various claimants to the throne of England in the fifteenth century. The crosses and double crosses and double-double crosses and marriages and turn-coating and intrigues are laid out about as clearly as possible. I did laugh when Streeter said that for the most part, the common man didn’t care who reigned. The common man, the merchants, and the landed gentry just wanted a person with a firm grasp on the reins of power.

Once Henry Tudor had won the Battle of Bosworth and been crowned king, things weren’t set and secure by a long shot. He needed an heir and the best way to try and knit the different sides back together was to marry the niece of the defeated Richard III. Though Henry was a Tudor, he was aligned with the House of Lancaster so marrying Elizabeth of York made sense. But as Henry VII never fully trusted many Yorkists, he used the “keep your enemies closer” strategy.

The claims of the various imposters (Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck) who tried to present themselves as The Rightful (Yorkist) King are explained with how the powers behind these claims (Yorkist supporters, King Charles of France) hoped to upset the Tudor apple cart and cause Henry grief. But why was this important? Mainly due to the fact that Arthur was old enough to know what was going on and how easily a dynasty could end on on the losing side and also because Their Catholic Majesties of Spain refused to send their youngest daughter to a country with such a history of recent political upheavals until they were assured that this would no longer be an issue. How convenient that the real and the imposter prisoners in the Tower were discovered in cahoots with plotters and executed. Problem solved.

There are a lot of descriptions of things in Arthur’s life that begin with phrases such as “He might have thought this …” or “He was probably …” as there are records of events in his life but little of what he thought either because he was too young to comment or it was never written down. So yes, there’s lots of restrained conjecture but it appears to be based on other known facts (such as his younger brother’s investment ceremonies) or parsed out of the sparse records.

What I did learn is that Arthur began his public life at age three (!) when he was made a member of the Order of the Bath and invested as Prince of Wales. He appears to have been viewed as intelligent, well educated, well spoken in public, and was beloved by the nation (unlike his father who never was). He was thought handsome and tall (as a youth) for his age, liked music, and had many good friends from childhood including one who arranged for his own burial to be near Arthur’s in Worcester Cathedral.

But what about his health before, during, and after his marriage? Did Arthur and Katherine consummate their marriage? Well, there are arguments either way and based on the evidence presented, some of it based on recently translated letters in Spain, I’m pretty sure of how I feel. It’s also probable that Arthur’s health wasn’t the best and a reason that he succumbed so quickly to whatever killed him.

Given the spotty records of the time and the fact that Arthur didn’t leave a lot of first hand information, the book explores his life and times as well as possible. There is conjecture but, aside from the “what could have been” last chapter, it is based on reasonable evidence. Having finished it, to me poor Arthur is now more a person in his own right rather than just a footnote of his brother’s life. B

~Jayne

NOTE – This hardback book has already been released in the UK but will not be released in the US until later this summer.

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general? Post about it here!

In 1666, plague and fire will pull them asunder. But love will overcome.

In a privileged role as Maid of Honor to the Queen of England, Miss Mary Hook should be content, but her companions’ lack of morals makes her miserable. When the plague forces the Royal court to leave London, Mary is happy to leave the vice and frivolity behind… Only to find that the reputation of light-skirts follows her, regardless of how wrong the assumption is.

Back home in the countryside village of Woodham, Mr Francis Hartwell disapproves of her friendship with his sister. He can’t believe that Mary won’t be a bad influence and lead her astray. Then the plague hits the Hartwell household, trapping Mary in the house with them to contain the disease. And when she succumbs to illness, it’s not her friend who tends her back to health, but scandalously, the Master of the household himself!

With danger and rich historical detail, fans of sweet and clean historical romance will relish this Tudor and Stuarts era piece for the wealth of intriguing domestic history and the heart-pounding events that shaped England.

Review 

I thought I’d treat myself to a reread of “The Maid of Honour” in honor of it being released digitally. Plague! Fire! Charles II! Restoration goodness along with a wonderful cat named Oliver. Oh, you want to know about the romance? Well the Hartwell men (as I’ve pointed out in Briar Rose and Country Cousins) aren’t known for their romantic finesse but once they love their lady, their love is strong. 

Mary Hook is the daughter of the Baronet who owns Pinnacles and received his title from his restored King in gratitude for secret help during the Commonwealth. Clever Sir Charles carefully spun a tale of health woe that lasted until the Restoration. His only daughter, Mary, is now a Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine and heartily sick of Whitehall, court dandies, and her fellow Maids. When word that the plague is spreading reaches court – after word that the Dutch Navy has been defeated – Mary begs leave to visit home. There she is reacquainted with Jemima (Jem) Hartwell – a descendent of Matthew and Kate Hartwell (Briar Rose). Francis, Jem’s brother, eyes Mary askance and then quietly pulls her aside to ask her not to corrupt his younger sister with her wanton court ways. Insulted, Mary verbally hits back after which the two mainly avoid each other. 

On a day when Mary is at Cannons Grange helping with the brambleberry conserve making, Cook collapses and the terrified household is forced to isolate as she is revealed to have been Visited – by the plague. Francis and Jem survived the disease as children but Mary is struck down and then nursed back to health by Francis. Afraid that he is offering for her to save her reputation, Mary (who has by now reversed her feelings about this quiet, steadfast, and honorable man) declines his proposal. It’s going to take the Fire of London to break this romance deadlock. 

Oh, the Hartwell men. If only they could screw their courage to the sticking point and tell the women they love that they love them. But as it appears to be a family trait to remain mum about that, the course of their true love never runs smooth. The reader knows the deal but all we can do is sigh and urge them on. I will say that Mary’s reasons for turning Francis down are valid and given that he hasn’t told her he loves her (the lunk), I can understand why she’s trying to protect her heart. The romance here is definitely a slow burn.    

This time with the other of the books in the series fresh in my mind, I enjoyed reading more about the village of Woodham. The church bells are a minor event in village life and we see the place 120 years after Henry VIII was saved by Matthew Hartwell who, in return, got Cannons Grange for a peppercorn rent of one arrow delivered to the monarch every seven years. Charles II (who is shown very positively in the book) is amused by the story as Francis delivers the most recent one. I felt I was getting another glimpse of a slower time long gone when villagers had an ancient right to pannage for their livestock, massive shire horses pulled hay wains at harvest time, making preserves was a hot all day process, households depended on the herbal knowledge of the ladies of the house, and those houses were expanded by fits and starts over the years.   

Mary is strong willed – she lets Francis know he’s overstepped and fends off the handsy men at court – but she is also a woman of her time and not a dolled up 21st century woman. When she realizes she’s stuck at the Hartwell’s house, she pitches in, makes good suggestions, and doesn’t whine. When she is worried about Francis in London, she recruits help and goes searching for him. Mary is not an empty headed fool. Slowly we learn about Francis’s background and what he has endured – usually without complaint – in his life. Francis’s scarred palms, and how he got them, earn the respect of the Thames watermen. 

I enjoyed all the secondary characters and felt they were well rounded. Oliver, the cat who rules over Cannons Grange with a firm but benevolent paw, is again a favorite. But then everyone probably knew I’d say that. This time my grade rises to a B+    

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

London, April 1943. A little over a year since she married Captain Charles Mayhew and he went away to war, Emmy Lake is now in charge of “Yours Cheerfully,” the hugely popular advice column in Woman’s Friend magazine. Cheered on by her best friend Bunty, Emmy is dedicated to helping readers face the increasing challenges brought about by over three years of war. The postbags are full and Woman’s Friend is thriving.

But Emmy’s world is turned upside down when glamorous socialite, the Honorable Mrs. Cressida Porter, becomes the new publisher of the magazine, and wants to change everything the readers love. Aided by Mrs. Pye, a Paris-obsessed fashion editor with delusions of grandeur, and Small Winston, the grumpiest dog in London, Mrs. Porter fills the pages with expensive clothes and frivolous articles about her friends. Worst of all, she announces that she is cutting the “Yours Cheerfully” column and her vision for the publication’s future seems dire. With the stakes higher than ever, Emmy and her friends must find a way to save the magazine that they love.

Dear Ms. Pearce, 

I was thrilled to get a chance to read this book in advance. Thrilled. Over the moon. Giddy. Alright, I’ll stop now. Chuffed. Happy. Ecstatic. Right, right, stopping now. The previous two books had been such joys to read but I knew that there was still a lot to be written in this series. 

Emmy’s life is going well considering this is heading towards the fourth year of the war. She’s happily married yet has spent so little time with Charles who is off censored somewhere fighting for King and country. No personal news is good news, right? She and bestie Bunty are still living in Bunty’s grandmother’s house in Pimlico and thrilled that Thelma, Emmy’s fellow telephonist at the National Fire station were Emmy works part time, and Thel’s three children will be moving into the flat at the top of the house. 

Lord Overton, the beloved longtime owner of Woman’s Friend magazine has recently passed away but so far, the staff don’t anticipate any change to their mission to help the ordinary women of Britain soldier through the wartime shortages and challenges. Then word arrives that the magazine has been left to Lord Overton’s Society niece – the Hon. Mrs. Cressida Porter.     

While she might at first appear like a dazzling haute couture fairy creature dispensing glamor and fudge, Mrs. Porter, while smiling charmingly, quickly slashes through the bread-and-butter content of Woman’s Friend in a way that would make a velociraptor sit back in awed appreciation before beginning to take notes on her technique. Emmy’s brother-in-law, Mr. Collins – wonderful man and the type of manager anyone would be lucky to work for, is tact and patience personified as he attempts to stanch the blood and soothe the nerves of the staff. But there’s only so much Guy can do to head off Mrs. – “call me Egg” – Porter’s. ruthless plans to turn their humble but needed magazine into a glitzy publication for the wealthy, landed, and titled. As the complaints from their readers rise and ad revenue falls, can Emmy and Guy cook up a plan to save what’s left of Woman’s Friend?  

We’ve been through ups and downs with Emmy, Bunty, and the staff at the newspaper Woman’s Friend. The staff brought it back from the edge – and unwittingly became minor celebrities among the London journalists for doing so – but now they face their greatest challenge. They’ve dispensed helpful information and tips to their readers about how to make do and carry on. The “Friend to Friend” column has been a sounding board for readers’ hopes for the future “once the world is free.” And in “Your’s Cheerfully,” Emmy has given advice to those who often have nowhere else to turn. When Mrs. Porter’s little ideas begin to turn things on their head, the staff is dismayed and then furious. She might think that glum letters from dreary people are “a bit Mis” and that yet another recipe for potatoes or knitting patterns need to be ditched for a write up on a Society wedding or advice to spend 4 guineas for a frock (4 guineas!) but as boring as Mrs. Porter finds business dealings (a bit Mis) it’s soon obvious that the paper is spiraling and headed for disaster. 

Bunty is still a bit raw at the loss of her fiancé Will in a Luftwaffe bombing raid but Emmy susses out that there might be a new male friend in Bunty’s life. Soon Harold is a part of the jolly bunch living in the house and he finds himself a hero to Stan, Marg, and George – Thel’s children. As an engineer (formerly tasked with dealing with unexploded bombs), Harold is a key part of repairing the garden shed for Stan’s hoped for guinea pigs and other assorted creatures. If you need chickens, ask for Scary David or his scary brother but don’t ask too many questions. 

Emmy and Guy watch helplessly as Mrs. Porter’s ideas scuttle the paper until Emmy thinks outside the box after which the Wonderful Monica and her source at the Ministry Do Their Part. What Guy and Emmy don’t count on is a rear attack. I was sweating how this would end. I was also waiting for Something Dire as several people near and dear are fighting in various military theaters plus though the Blitz is over, the Luftwaffe still does bombing raids. What happened had me gutted. I cried. I will freely admit that. For a good section of the last third of the story, tears trickled. Emmy’s oft repeated thought, “You are safe and you are loved” got me through. Then just when I thought all hope of a positive outcome for one issue was lost, it was saved and I cheered.  

If I have one complaint to lodge, it would be that most of these characters are either very good or very bad. Most of the characters are three dimensional and have layers – even Small Winston – but yeah, good or bad. One big Yes from me though for Stan, Marg, and George who are Definitely Not Plot Moppets. Write the next book please quickly as I need to know what will happen next. A  

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Dear Catherine Chidgey:

This book was mentioned to me by the esteemed Janine, who has more than once (or twice) directed me towards smart thrillers, even though it’s not a genre she reads herself. Pet ended up being very smart and unexpectedly dark.

Justine Crieve is a 12-year-old in 1984 Wellington, New Zealand. Her mother has died recently after a long struggle with breast cancer, and her father, who owns an antiques shop, drinks and grieves. Justine attends the local Catholic school, and vacillates between feeling the same numb grief for her mother that her father experiences, and being a typical adolescent, concerned with the doings of the popular girls and the rowdy antics of the handsome boys. Justine also suffers from epilepsy, a condition that embarrasses her. She finds comfort in the family of her best friend, Amy Fong, whose parents welcome Justine into their home and treat her like part of the family.

Justine is in the 8th grade (or the New Zealand equivalent; next year she’ll be in high school). Her teacher, newly arrived from Christchurch, is the glamorous Mrs. Price. Blonde and charismatic, Mrs. Price holds sway over her class and picks favorites – choosing certain students to clean erasers at the end of the day, run errands for her, and eventually, inviting a group of them to her home. Justine falls into being a favorite, a move that alienates her from Amy.

Interspersed through the book are scenes set 30 years later, where Justine is a mother of one and concerned with the care of her father, who suffers from dementia and is in a nursing home. There Justine meets an aide who strongly reminds her of Mrs. Price.

Back in 1984, Mrs. Price is both inappropriate and creepy, but her adoring pupils don’t seem to see it. She forces one of the students to amputate the leg of the class pet, an axolotl named Susan, after it’s injured (the circumstances of the injury appear to be suspicious). Throughout the year, there’s a rash of thefts of small items from almost every student in class. Eventually Amy alone appears not have been targeted, so suspicion falls on her as the thief. Mrs. Price eventually has the students all write their prime suspect’s name on a slip of paper; later she announces the consensus to the class.

(As someone who went to Catholic school in the same time period, albeit in San Francisco, not Wellington, the 8th graders in Pet feel both familiar and alien to me. They seem at times more innocent than I remember being – I don’t think we were interested in Cabbage Patch Dolls at that age – and paradoxically more vicious. The girls in class seem to think nothing of throwing “you should just kill yourself” out as an insult.)

So Mrs. Price is not exactly Teacher of the Year, but again, few are able to see it. One of the students, Dom, a boy from a large Catholic family, befriends Justine and cautions her about Mrs. Price. An older nun at the school, Sister Bronislava, seems to be onto Mrs. Price, but the school’s headmaster and others champion her. Justine is mesmerized by her. It takes the better part of the book, a shocking tragedy, and Mrs. Price’s eventual romantic involvement with Justine’s father for the scales to begin to fall from Justine’s eyes.

Justine is a challenging narrator; while one feels sympathy for her loss and empathizes with her desire to fit in, her increasing cruelty towards Amy is painful to witness. There’s a certain hardness in Justine that’s unsettling; it’s evident in the short sections featuring her as an adult, as well. Also, her epileptic episodes result in her losing time and memories, casting a sinister pall over her recollections of some of the later events in the book.

The denouement was surprisingly lurid; I did not quite expect such melodramatic happenings. I’ve often said I love melodrama, so I can’t complain too much. But it does deliver an extra punch of darkness into a book that was already kind of dark to begin with. Justine, and through her the reader, is left with an unanswered question that affects how one feels about her as a character and thus the book as a whole. I decided on what I believe, but there’s still a little niggle of doubt.

Pet is very well written and compelling, but it’s a book that my head liked better than my heart (my heart doesn’t do as well with moral ambiguity). I’m giving it a straight B; I will be on the lookout for future books from the author.

Best,

Jennie

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle