London’s Slough House is where disgraced MI5 operatives are reassigned to spend the rest of their spy careers pushing paper. But when one of these “slow horses” is kidnapped by a former soldier bent on revenge, the agents must breach the defenses of Regent’s Park to steal valuable intel in exchange for their comrade’s safety. The kidnapping is only the tip of the iceberg, however, as the agents uncover a larger web of intrigue that involves not only a group of private mercenaries but also the highest authorities in the Security Service. After years spent as the lowest on the totem pole, the slow horses suddenly find themselves caught in the midst of a conspiracy that threatens not only the future of Slough House, but of MI5 itself.

Review:

Dear Mick Herron,

I finished this entry in your series yesterday and I still cannot figure out how to review it.  I enjoyed the book a lot, however I also spent a lot of my reading time yelling at a certain character and it is really hard to explain why without talking about spoilers. The blurb conceals the punch of the story, but I have to at least try and this is at least mentioned in the blurb.

So here it goes, when as blurb says one member of the “slow horses” team is kidnapped, another member of the team is contacted by the kidnappers and asked to steal something or “the kidnapped person’s” safety is not a guarantee at all.

Can someone please please explain to me why the person whom kidnappers contact does not call Jackson Lamb, who is this person’s boss and the kidnapped person’s boss? I mean, what in the name was that?  I understand that this person had the kidnapped person’s safety in mind of course I do, but if you need to have your “grand adventure,” at least call your boss first then rush to do it if you so desire. Oh my god.

Again, all members of this team became Slow Horses because they either made a mistake or their superiors decided that they did, so I get that, but this was to me such a disappointing lack of trust that I could not shake it off for most of the book.

I still like this character a lot mind you, such is the talent of the writer, but my opinion of this character’s intellectual abilities went down a lot.

As I said above, I get that it was done because of the desire to help the kidnapped member, which was great and I want to go into what I actually appreciated a lot. I thought that the Slow Horses Team actually started to trust each other and care for each other more than before. Oh, they do not do fluffy bunnies stuff, but I thought that it showed in their actions in the field a lot. I was happy that the characters continue to develop and showed us some new layers, good or bad.  And Jackson may not have perfect trust of his team yet, but if I had any doubts that he cares for his team and their safety, this book erased them.

I sort of complained about previous books being a little too slow in the beginning. I actually did not feel this about this book at all, maybe because I was worried about several characters at the same time and it started too early in the story.

Grade: B/B+

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Ariantes is a Sarmatian, a barbarian warrior-prince, uprooted from his home and customs and thrust into the honorless lands of the Romans. The victims of a wartime pact struck with the emperor Marcus Aurelius to ensure the future of Sarmatia, Ariantes and his troop of accomplished horsemen are sent to Hadrian’s Wall. Unsurprisingly, the Sarmatians hate Britain–an Island of Ghosts, filled with pale faces, stone walls, and an uneasy past.

Struggling to command his own people to defend a land they despise, Ariantes is accepted by all, but trusted by none. The Romans fear his barbarian background, and his own men fear his gradual Roman assimilation. When Ariantes uncovers a conspiracy sure to damage both his Roman benefactors and his beloved countrymen, as well as put him and the woman he loves in grave danger, he must make a difficult decision–one that will change his own life forever.

Dear Ms, Bradshaw,

Some months ago, your name was mentioned, in glowing terms, on a thread at DA and the descriptions of some of your recommended books caught my attention. Since to me hearing the words “Roman Britain” are like the bell to Pavlov’s dogs, I knew eventually I’d try this book. The first chapter excerpt read wonderfully with vivid characters and a fascinating set-up which hooked me there and then. I couldn’t wait to get started.

Ariantes shepherds all his men, along with those of the other two commanders who aren’t as willing to make the overtures and smoozing needed to smooth the process, across the channel to this island none of them were even sure existed since they couldn’t see it. Things only get worse as the journey continues with both sides rubbing the other the wrong way, honor at stake and the full impact of their exile finally hitting home to these proud men. And that’s before the paperwork kicks in.

The first third of the story is a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork. Roman style. Ariantes is a reluctant diplomat as well as military leader. But he is a leader and one who takes the lives and welfare of his men very seriously. He’s a thinking man though he can wield a sword and dagger as well as anyone. He’s a man lost in a new world, trying to not only find his way with honor but lead his men in finding their footing in their new lives as none of them can ever go back and have already been mourned by their people as dead.

New alliances must be forged among people they don’t know, using customs new to them in a land they were convinced was made up. These are proud men used to commanding absolute obedience, working individually and taking nothing from anyone so their changed reality takes some getting used to.

To be honest, it does take this book a little while to gather itself together and gain a lot of momentum, though the ground work laid in the early section comes into play later on. Just be patient, let it slowly sink in and get its footing. The visual of the Sarmatian units, or dragons as they’re known, outfitted in their ringed armor with silk pennants snapping in the wind must have been something to see.

This is definitely more a historical fiction with romance than a true romance. The relationship, once it arrives, is heartfelt and true though rather fast in a coup de foudre way. But the Lady in question is more than a match for Ariantes and tells him a thing or two when she feels it’s needed. I like that though Ariantes isn’t expecting to find a second love in his life, the loss of his first wife doesn’t send him into the throes of “I’ll never love again!” He quickly realizes that Pervica is a treasure with a will of iron and a level head and he’s damn lucky she says yes when he proposes.

The conspiracy is both intricate and believable and draws in the various factions of the age and time as well as tossing in a few Christians and Druids. The tension grows as Ariantes must solve who is behind the plotting while at the same time keeping the Romans at bay since he can’t make accusations without proof but the conspirators are more than willing to keep trying to kill him until he does. With mutual black humor, he and Pervica set the date for their wedding “providing Ariantes is still alive then.”

The humor is something I hadn’t anticipated yet which I enjoyed immensely. Ariantes’ world weariness as he tries to navigate the Sarmatians through this “Island of Ghosts” ruled by Romans who mistrust them speaks to anyone who’s dealt with middle management anywhere. By the time he’s safely through, with his head and honor intact and the woman he loves by his side, the poor man has more than earned his (hopefully) happy future. B

~Jayne

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The Cleric Chih accompanies a beautiful young bride to her wedding to the aging ruler of a crumbling estate situated at the crossroads of dead empires. The bride’s party is welcomed with elaborate courtesies and extravagant banquets, but between the frightened servants and the cryptic warnings of the lord’s mad son, they quickly realize that something is haunting the shadowed halls.

As Chih and the bride-to-be explore empty rooms and desolate courtyards, they are drawn into the mystery of what became of Lord Guo’s previous wives and the dark history of Do Cao itself. But as the wedding night draws to its close, Chih will learn at their peril that not all monsters are to be found in the shadows; some monsters hide in plain sight.

Though all the novellas are standalone, I would recommend reading at least one or two earlier ones to get a feel for the world and more information on the background of Chih and Almost Brilliant.

Dear Nghi Vo,

A new Singing Hills novella with Cleric Chih! This time it’s got some weird goings on, a strange family, a mystery. But where is Almost Brilliant?

Cleric Chih, a story gatherer from the Singing Hills Monastery, is on the road, traveling with a young bride and her parents on her way to meet a man her parents want her to marry. Pham Nhung is very young, sweetly charming, and acts and is treated as if she’s more fragile than fine porcelain. When the retinue reaches the compound, Nhung takes Chih with her ahead of the rest and surveys the strong walls that surround it, wondering aloud if she will find her future here.

The events get weirder after that when a bizarre young man warns Chih to have Nhung ask the lord what happened to his other brides. Wandering around the grounds that night, Chih and Nhung enter several buildings with Nhung coyly asking Chih to go in first and check for monsters. The mystery of the place deepens when the lord’s son, the young man from earlier, warns Chih and reveals something awful about his situation there and old family secrets. But the monsters Chih is expecting aren’t the ones they find.

“The world starts with a story. So do dynasties and eras and wars. So does love, and so does revenge. Everything starts with a story.”

Once again, a perfectly paced story unfolds in novella format. Some novellas end up too rushed or too thinly written with not enough to keep me interested. With the Singing Hills stories, I know that this won’t be the case. Words are carefully used to create and shade in the background worldbuilding which is filled with characters given nutshell sketches that tell us all we need to know about who they are without wasting pages on unneeded information.

The terrible situation is slowly built up, little by little with an aftertaste of unease, like a fire started and then allowed to heat up before bursting out in raging flames. There are subtle clues but they are softly dropped into the story and the reader is allowed to notice them and ponder what they mean before all the plot points are tied together and everything is let loose.

What didn’t work quite as well for me is

~Jayne

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It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.

Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

Whip-smart and utterly transportive, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is historical fiction of the highest order: an unforgettable coming-of-age story, a tender romance, and a portrait of a nation on the brink of change.

Dear Ms. Simonson, 

Huzzah. A new book from you. I’d almost given up when I saw it on a “to be released” list and sprang at the chance to read it. It’s a complicated and at times melancholy and heartbreaking book. It also, yeah, takes a while to get into gear and truly had me guessing how certain things would be resolved.

Constance Haverhill is drifting in the early summer of 1919. She has been firmly eased out of the job she did to “do her part” for the war effort. Dreading becoming a governess, she gladly agrees to be a companion to a (truly sweet) elderly lady at a seaside resort and there becomes acquainted with a group of women similarly looking for the means to support themselves. The War has changed social mores and expectations, or so Constance and the other women hope. But has it really and is Constance truly a part of this society or merely there for a summer?

Rereading my review of “The Summer Before the War,” I should have remembered that your style is to slowly introduce the characters, set the scene, and only then allow the story to get going. This mimics the slower pace of life in a smaller seaside vacation town of 1919. People are not flicking and scrolling their phone screens and rushing around. Even with the gentler tempo, things are still going too quickly for middle aged characters who decry the sudden changes that are jolting their world. Meanwhile (usually wealthy) young women who see new opportunities are champing at the bit to enjoy life or, if they’re working class, are desperately attempting to find a job and scrounge a living. Those who fought and survived are learning how to live with their new realities.

Tertiary characters fill out the background and show how various social outcasts ease through this world. Naturalized German Klaus was once a sought after waiter in better hotels but made it through the war working hard in low rent jobs in London. Captain Pendra, a skilled Indian pilot, had to approach the French to get a commission before the embarrassed British would accept his credentials. Simon and Matilde de Champney have always faced racism due to their mother and the fact that their parents weren’t married. Sam might have money but it was made through trade so he’s not quite totally accepted into the golden circle. Meanwhile as one working class man says the rich live by different rules. 

Constance is inhabiting a middle ground. She’s not truly a part of the wealthy titled world that she lives in and can easily see herself sinking into the unnoticed working class. She knows that she must forge her way in the world which still views women as wives and mothers even though there is now a generation of women who will never find a husband. The camaraderie she sees in the motorcycle club draws her though some women are dilettantes and others are looking for money to supplement woeful pensions. I liked Constance and felt she was standing up for herself as well as she could in her situation. Yes, she bites her tongue at times but she has to keep on on the good side of certain characters who control her employment. But she does stick up for Mrs. Fog and that woman’s lovely second chance.  

She’s not at all sure about the brother of her new friend, Poppy. Harris has inherited a barontency but is mired in depression due to his amputation and the feeling that he should have died in the war with his friends. He is (usually) well mannered but also brittle and given to retiring from social events. A strong sense of responsibility for his former mechanic and a gift from his sister might be what drags him back even before the stark realities of the financial situation of his estate yank him out of his funk. I could understand Harris’s desire to withdraw from company, especially as we learn of past relationships that have been broken. Poppy is a character who both charmed and annoyed me. Often her heart is in the right place but she can also duck responsibility when she feels like it and makes a decision that causes a stunned Constance to tell Poppy that she just doesn’t understand the people in this (rarified) world. 

There are events and revelations that call out the racism and classism of this world. Some people will end up having to reap what they have sown. Some innocents will pay the price for jingoistic attitudes. I was annoyed at how a few people seemingly abandoned those who depended on them but at the same time, some of this was caused by the post war government policies dictating what genders could be employed. Still it stung. Rigid conventions almost upend a relationship until one person’s true colors emerge which allows the changing social mores to finally deliver what I’d been waiting for. This story is much more historical fiction with romantic elements than a romance. The pace is  leisurely. Bad things happen to some people. Other people get off the hook. But Constance’s eyes are open to what she’s going into and Harris knows that he’s found the woman he can respect and admire. B  

~Jayne

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Astronomers’ Library by Karen Masters

Indulge in this collection of the best astronomy books from the past 800 years. The Astronomers’ Library is a rich history of astronomy (and astrology) publishing across Europe.

This is a carefully selected arrangement of publications from all over the continent – Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. And of course, as the original world leader in astrology, the middle east is featured, with multiple books from Persia.

Humankind has looked to the heavens since the dawn of time, wondering what is out there, as well as how everything works and (originally) who was responsible for it. Every tribe, race and civilization has wondered about our place in the universe and what lies beyond and what lies within it, below our feet.

Lately, attention has turned to the origins of the universe. From the turn of the millennium, knowledge and ideas were recorded, first on tablets or rock, then in the form of simple manuscripts, and eventually in a much more elaborate fashion as illustrative and engraving skills evolved.

The advent of printed books saw the production of highly illustrated tomes that showed off the skills of the printers as well as the newfound knowledge of the scholars and artists that wrote them.

Many of these works pushed the boundaries of illustrated publishing (and continue to do so to this day). They commanded expert illustrators and skilled engravers and hence didn’t come cheaply. They were treasured in the libraries of the wealthy and their intrinsic worth has meant that there is an incredible wealth of beautifully preserved historic examples from the 14th century onwards.

The significant difference we acknowledge today between astronomy and astrology has a relatively recent past, and the stars have long been associated with creatures, gods, characters and all sorts of divine beings. The study of such has a long, fascinating history that is shown in beautiful detail in the pages of these many beautiful books, and the transition from seeing the stars as characters to understanding them as spinning, celestial beings and part of our huge universe is akin to witnessing the history of the world.

Review

The blurb will tell you almost all you need to know about the book. Professor and author Karen Masters takes us through the best historical books about astronomy/astrology (as for a long time these were synonymous) from around the world. She selects best examples of books and arranges them loosely in chapters such as Star Atlases, Mapping Other Worlds, Astronomy and Culture, and Modern Astronomy – which contains a great resource list for further reading.

Rather than sticking closely to European viewpoint, entries are from all over the world with many more Islamic, Asian, and Mesoamerican examples than I’m used to seeing in similar books. The names by which they’re known might differ but the stars are the same as is the fascination of those who gazed at them and tried to understand them. I did notice a tendency for Renaissance European illustrators to include lots and lots of stargazing cheeky cherubs.

The illustrations are gorgeous and the tidbits and nuggets of information that Masters shares about her selections are fascinating. Given the layout and wealth of images, plus the fact that the digital and hardback prices aren’t that much different, it might be worth it to get a hardback copy in order to better enjoy it. The price right now will probably limit the book to hardcore enthusiasts. B

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A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages: The World Through Medieval Eyes by Anthony Bale

A captivating journey of the expansive world of medieval travel, from London to Constantinople to the court of China and beyond.

Europeans of the Middle Ages were the first to use travel guides to orient their wanderings, as they moved through a world punctuated with miraculous wonders and beguiling encounters. In this vivid and alluring history, medievalist Anthony Bale invites readers on an odyssey across the medieval world, recounting the advice that circulated among those venturing to the road for pilgrimage, trade, diplomacy, and war.

Journeying alongside scholars, spies, and saints, from Western Europe to the Far East, the Antipodes and the ends of the earth, Bale provides indispensable information on the exchange rate between Bohemian ducats and Venetian groats, medieval cures for seasickness, and how to avoid extortionist tour guides and singing sirens. He takes us from the streets of Rome, more ruin than tourist spot, and tours of the Khan’s court in Beijing to Mamluk-controlled Jerusalem, where we ride asses across the holy terrain, and bustling bazaars of Tabriz.

We also learn of rumored fantastical places, like ones where lambs grow on trees and giant canes grow fruit made of gems. And we are offered a glimpse of what non-European travelers thought of the West on their own travels.

Using previously untranslated contemporaneous documents from a colorful range of travelers, and from as far and wide as Turkey, Iceland, North Africa, and Russia, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages is a witty and unforgettable exploration of how Europeans understood—and often misunderstood—the larger world.

Review

This looked interesting and for the most part it was. After an opening chapter on what travel means (just keep going through this), Bale dives into various historical accounts of (mainly) Europeans venturing far from home for various reasons though the last chapter covers a few journeys made to Europe, Africa, and the Arabian peninsula by people traveling westward from China and Mongolia. 

The most time is spent on religious pilgrimages to Rome, Jerusalem, Egypt, and other parts of the Middle East by European Christians. Maybe this was covered so extensively due to the availability of texts? It’s interesting but does go on a bit. Honestly, the conditions sounded as horrendous as the pilgrims probably found them to be. Traveling simply for wanderlust or pleasure didn’t appear to be that popular though perhaps the Europeans who left home for this reason decided not to go home and thus left no records? Trade was another major incentive to leave home and several merchants and traders left accounts of what they went through trying to buy and sell or set up trade hubs and links in foreign lands.   

The book jumps back and forth from various sources to cover different aspects of a typical journey that might have been made rather than sticking with one person’s narrative for a whole trip. Some travelers were enthusiastic while others were grimly determined and also expecting things to be ghastly. For pilgrims, the suffering along the way seemed to enhance the payoff of the trip (shortening time in Purgatory by years or totally for those who made it to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem but check the 1450 guide in Rome to see exactly what indulgences are available and how much time you’ll save or how to get one soul out of Purgatory!). Some traders loved the chance to see new places while others caught cities or rulers having a bad day. One Chinese traveler was awestruck by Hormuz while a Mongolian Christian enjoyed sitting in a beautiful garden in Naples overlooking a sea battle.  

Bale doesn’t shy away from the fact that – just like today – people had their prejudices and preconceptions. Some of these are racist. Some people are great to travel with while others are grumps. What got written about depended on what a person thought was important rather than what we might love to read about today. 

Several fun tidbits of information are included such as an exchange rate so you know how far your plapparts will take you (also change money in Bruges where there’s a bank), don’t forget a staff (support and beating off bandits) and a bag, where to find a licensed guide in Venice who won’t cheat you while booking your travel on to the Holy Land, some travel costs in Egypt and the Holy Land (just accept that you’re going to be stiffed for money all along the way), that the locals who aren’t making money off of you will probably be annoyed by you (jeering and stone throwing are probable), some handy phrases translated into Greek, Albanian, Turkish, and Arabic, medical advice for those traveling overseas (some of which is … not bad), India has both manticores and unicorns, and when traveling from Tana to Khanbaliq (Beijing) don’t be chintzy when hiring a dragoman – splash out and hire a good one,. 

The little snapshots of things I hadn’t expected – life in a caravanserai (like a modern travel pit stop); that people from all over the world had traveled much farther into distant lands than I expected; that an Italian saw and saved two Tartars in bondage in Italy, one of whom he’d met before on his travels – were what made the book for me. It ends with sources, references, and further reading.  When it’s all said and done, it appears that travelers and traveling experiences haven’t changed all that much over the centuries. B      

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Otherworldly Antarctica: Ice, Rock, and Wind at the Polar Extreme by Edmund Stump

With stunning original photographs, an Antarctic scientist and explorer takes us to one of the most sublime, remote, and pristine regions on the planet.

The interior of Antarctica is an utterly pristine wilderness, a desolate landscape of ice, wind, and rock; a landscape so unfamiliar as to seem of another world. This place has been known to only a handful of early explorers and the few scientists fortunate enough to have worked there. Edmund Stump is one of the lucky few. Having climbed, photographed, and studied more of the continent-spanning Transantarctic Mountains than any other person on Earth, this geologist, writer, and photographer is uniquely suited to share these alien sights.

With stories of Stump’s forty years of journeys and science, Otherworldly Antarctica contains 130 original color photographs, complemented by watercolors and sketches by artist Marlene Hill Donnelly. Over three chapters—on the ice, the rock, and the wind—we meet snowy paths first followed during Antarctica’s Heroic Age, climb the central spire of the Organ Pipe Peaks, peer into the crater of the volcanic Mount Erebus, and traverse Liv Glacier on snowmobile, while avoiding fatal falls into the blue interiors of hidden crevasses. Along the way, we see the beauty of granite, marble, and ice-cored moraines, meltwater ponds, lenticular clouds, icebergs, and glaciers. Many of Stump’s breathtaking images are aerial shots taken from the planes and helicopters that brought him to the interior. More were shot from vantages gained by climbing the mountains he studied. Some were taken from the summits of peaks. Many are of places no one had set foot before—or has since. All seem both permanent and precarious, connecting this otherworld to our fragile own.

Review

Fifty years ago, geologist Edmund Stump began a love affair with the beautiful but also brutal world of Antarctica. Luckily for us, he’s also a great photographer and he snapped gorgeous pictures of the continent while doing scientific research there. Major bonus points that he accomplished this in an age before drones.

Think of purest white—the brilliance of all colors—and fathomless blue. Sprinkle in a few dark rocks and the total lack of green and you have Antarctica’s minimal pallet.

If someone offered me a chance to visit Antarctica, I’d be hard pressed to turn it down regardless of my risk of panic attacks while flying. Seriously, it wouldn’t be pretty. But if I could see IRL what I see in these images? I might take a deep breath, live better with chemistry, and go for it.

We were suspended on a transparent surface surrounded by bits and pieces of sparkling crystal, tinged blue beneath the waterline. A dome of matte gray illuminated the shadowless landscape. Ringing the cove were steep walls of ice fed by glaciers from the slopes above. Their faces bore the scars of tension and release where they had calved the icebergs that spread throughout the cove. The ice of the walls was young, only faintly blushing blue.

The book is divided into three sections: Ice, Rocks, and Wind. Stump adds geographic information for each image as well as describes his time there. There is a lot of scientific geology-speak to explain what readers are looking at which is helpful but Stump is also awed by his surroundings.

In the lifeless world of Antarctica, the wind is an animate force active in human-time— miles per hour, a heartbeat. It may be fierce, it may be calm, it may be steady, it may be restless or fickle or faint. Sometimes it isn’t even there at all. It is the bearer of cloud and the deliverer of snow. It can be a fearsome force, roiling through the mountains.

I found myself spending more time studying photos, inhaling this truly “otherworldly” place. Some photos made the landscape appear to be an intimate 50 or so feet across only to have the author reveal a scale of miles instead. Other images are up close and have a span of mere twelve inches. This is another book which is probably best as a coffee table hardback edition. B

If I had one hour more to savor Antarctica, it would be on a névé—a snowfield, circled at a distance by low mountains, snow gracefully rising to narrow ridgelines. A light breeze would nip my nose to remind me of where I was. The midnight sun would be low in the southern sky, casting long shadows and a faint alpine glow. And I would be standing in the midst of a field of the most exquisite sastrugi—wind-carved snow—as far as the eye could see.

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Drawing on the little-known true story of one tragic night at an Ozarks dance hall in the author’s Missouri hometown, this beautifully written, endearingly nostalgic novel picks up 50 years later for a folksy, character-driven portrayal of small-town life, split second decisions, and the ways family secrets reverberate through generations.

Daisy Flowers is fifteen in 1978 when her free-spirited mother dumps her in Possum Flats, Missouri. It’s a town that sounds like roadkill and, in Daisy’s eyes, is every bit as dead. Sentenced to spend the summer living with her grandmother, the wry and irreverent town mortician, Daisy draws the line at working for the family business, Flowers Funeral Home. Instead, she maneuvers her way into an internship at the local newspaper where, sorting through the basement archives, she learns of a mysterious tragedy from fifty years earlier…

On a sweltering, terrible night in 1928, an explosion at the local dance hall left dozens of young people dead, shocking and scarring a town that still doesn’t know how or why it happened. Listed among the victims is a name that’s surprisingly familiar to Daisy, revealing an irresistible family connection to this long-ago accident.

Obsessed with investigating the horrors and heroes of that night, Daisy soon discovers Possum Flats holds a multitude of secrets for a small town. And hardly anyone who remembers the tragedy is happy to have some teenaged hippie asking questions about it – not the fire-and-brimstone preacher who found his calling that tragic night; not the fed-up police chief; not the mayor’s widow or his mistress; not even Daisy’s own grandmother, a woman who’s never been afraid to raise eyebrows in the past, whether it’s for something she’s worn, sworn, or done for a living.

Some secrets are guarded by the living, while others are kept by the dead, but as buried truths gradually come into the light, they’ll force a reckoning at last.

CW – Violent death depicted on page, the aftermath of identifying remains is discussed – both these sections get graphic. Death of an infant. 

Dear Michelle Collins Anderson,

Lately I’ve been in the mood for historical fiction and when I saw this cover I fell in love with it. That plus a story set in 1978 (which I remember quite well, thank you very much) closed the deal. 

In 1928 most of the young people in the small town of Possum Flats, Missouri are at the upstairs dance hall late in the evening when suddenly it explodes in heat and flame. By reason and chance of where they are some are spared while others die horrible deaths. Stunned, the town rushes in to try to save the living then gather the dead. 

Almost fifty years later, young fifteen year old Daisy Flowers is dropped off at her grandmother’s house in some podunk town in Missouri after which her peripatetic mother leaves for California along with her latest lover. Daisy and Rose awkwardly work out how they’re going to live together until Lettie sends for her daughter. As Rose now runs the town’s funeral home and lives above it, Daisy is desperate to get out. When Rose takes Daisy along with her to the local paper to hand in an obituary (for the beloved town mayor who died in flagrante delicto with a woman who was not his wife), Daisy is fascinated by journalism and determined to get a job there. 

Some fast talking gets the interest of the editor who offers her a summer internship but writing obits (though she’s good at it) bores Daisy who jumps at Fence McMillan’s offer to dig through old newspapers and write a history piece. She latches onto the idea of revisiting the 1928 explosion and telling the story via interviews with survivors. Stunned at the negative reception she gets from various townspeople, Daisy nonetheless forges ahead. But when the last of her four part series has been published, old and well hidden secrets will be unearthed and lives will be changed forever. 

I loved these characters. None of them are perfect. Rather they are flawed in great and small ways that make them come alive. Daisy is intelligent and stubborn, things that Rose immediately remembers in her daughter Lettie who fought against the restrictions on females in the 1940s and finally fled town to escape. Rose is meticulous about her job and proud of the service she supplies but lived a painful life with her husband and in-laws who disliked her. Rose also still mourns her twin sister who died in 1928. 

One of the local pastors was a party boy until that night after which he devoted his life to God, something he never thought or planned to do after a horrible childhood. The stubborn sheriff has devoted his life to the town and its people. He might take an afternoon nap in the office every day but he’ll never leave a job undone. The other reporters take Daisy under their wing and try to give her good advice and photography lessons but warn her to tread lightly as despite the passage of fifty years, the town is still sensitive about its losses. Meanwhile Daisy keeps sending letters to her mother even though she’s yet to hear back from Lettie. 

I did guess a few of the secrets and who was responsible for them. Clues are given and if readers pay attention, not much will be a surprise. But the enjoyment is in watching the various characters interacting, remembering, and coming to terms with events past and present. There is an “epilogue” of sorts which shows what will happen to some characters and allows forgiveness for others which I liked but might be too sappy for some. I’m still debating some of the outcomes. This is not a light and fluffy book though parts are truly funny. I enjoyed watching Rose and Daisy, who are both strong women, as well as revisiting the late 1970s but be warned that there are graphic scenes in the book. B

~Jayne 

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From Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Tomlinson comes an inside account of the Westminster Dog Show that follows one dog on his quest to become a champion—and explores the bond between dogs and their people.

Tommy Tomlinson was watching a dog show on television a few years ago when he had a sudden thought: Are those dogs happy? How about pet dogs—are they happy? Those questions sparked a quest to venture inside the dog-show world, in search of a deeper understanding of the relationship between dogs and humans that has endured for thousands of years. Dogland shares his surprising, entertaining, and moving adventures.

Tomlinson spends three years on the road and goes behind the scenes at more than one hundred competitions across the country, from Midwestern fairgrounds to Madison Square Garden. Along the way he is licked, sniffed, and rubbed up against by dogs of nearly every size, shape, and breed. Like a real-life version of the classic mockumentary Best in Show, Dogland follows one champion show dog—a Samoyed named Striker—as well as his handler, Laura King, and his devoted entourage of breeders and owners as he competes in the 2022 Westminster Dog Show.

Striker’s whole career has been leading up to this moment. As Tomlinson writes, picking a top show dog is like drafting an NFL quarterback when they’re still in elementary school. Now Striker has made it to the Super Bowl. Tomlinson takes readers on the long road to glory, bringing the dog-show circuit to life as he witnesses teams scrambling from town to town in search of championship points and large, colorful ribbons. (Striker and his crew travel in a custom-built RV named after Betty White.)

Tomlinson’s limitless curiosity about people and dogs reaches far beyond the show tents and into the ordinary lives of dogs. We hear from experts who have discovered new insights into how dogs and humans formed their bond—and how that bond has changed over the centuries. We discover the fascinating origins of different dog breeds, learn about the elaborate breed standards that determine an ideal show dog, and consider the health issues that can arise in purebred dogs. We also meet dog lovers who applaud every dog, regardless of breed, simply for being themselves, such as WeRateDogs, the social media phenomenon with millions of followers, all for posts celebrating the day-to-day goofiness in most dog owners’ lives.

Engaging, charming, and insightful, Dogland is an irresistibly appealing read that invites us on a rollicking backstage tour through the rituals, tricks, and wonders of the dog-show world—and reveals what matters most for the happiness of dogs and dog lovers everywhere.

CW – deaths of loved pets is discussed. The word that properly refers to a female dog is widely used as it is in the fancy.

Review

I grew up with cats. My parents couldn’t agree on what type of dog to get so they compromised on a Siamese cat. It wasn’t until I was an adult and had the space and means that I got my first dog. Eventually I found my breed and more eventually I got to live with a retired show dog. As I pitched it to the publishers to be allowed access to this book, I didn’t finish this dog to his championship. He was a sweetheart who still stopped traffic when we took our daily walks. He got half of my sofa and I got the other half. But I did often wonder, as he lazed away the afternoons, was he happy out of the spotlight? Did he miss those days?

Author Tomlinson goes into the book with a similar question. As he watched a dog show on TV, he too wondered, are those dogs happy? And so he began a years-long journey into the world of showing dogs, one I know a little bit about from having been around dog people and show dog people. I used to go to a “cluster” of shows near where I live and can attest that what he describes about them hasn’t changed from what I saw years ago.

The dog and handler Tomlinson ultimately decided to focus on are Striker a Samoyed and Laura King his professional handler. We learn about how Striker was chosen from his litter as a promising puppy and how he’s lived with King and her partner for over two years on the road to greatness. Stryker is a MBIS (multiple best in show) winner and over the course of the book, his last show – Westminster 2022 – is detailed. I do wonder why an Afghan hound is on the cover instead of the Samoyed who was followed for so much of the book but whatever.

There’s a lot more in the book than just dog shows and show dogs including some short breaks for interesting dog facts, what might be the history of human and first dogs, many things that dogs are capable of doing and tales of Tomlinson’s dog Fred and Scott Van Pelt’s dog Otis. Tomlinson doesn’t shy away from talking about how show dogs are all basically inbred and many suffer from health problems that are visible such as breathing problems for brachycephalic (flat faced) dogs and difficulty whelping for dogs with narrow hips (both of which the now popular Frenchies have) or maybe not visible such as deafness in Dalmatians, heart issues in Dobermans, and a tendency for bloat in bigger, leaner dogs. We have bred these dogs and thus we are the ones who have landed them with these things.

Now about the answer regarding dog happiness? Well, dogs could probably teach a master class in making us think they are happy and like us because they discovered eons ago that life with us is a bit easier than life without us and they know which side their bread is buttered on or rather which bowl their kibble is poured into. Tomlinson says that in all the shows he attended, he never saw any dog abuse. The most he remembers? Maybe a few dogs looking bored. He did see dogs and owners/handlers paying close attention to each other, smiling (and Sammys always look like they’re smiling), and while he was talking to a handler, her dog (Scottish deerhound called Claire named after guess who) watching them, content to be there.

Dogs give us so much. Mostly, they just want to be there with us. One time I took my retired show dog to a specialty show near me. At first he perked up as if to say, “Oh, I’m going to do this again? Okay.” When we just stood by various rings and watched he settled down and seemed to enjoy doing just that, with me. Then we came home, he jumped on the sofa and we watched a bit of mindless TV. Was he happy at the show again? Maybe. Was he happy to be back home? Yes, he was.

This book is informative, chatty, thought provoking, and will give you plenty of inside scoop on “the fancy” as the dog showing world is known. And yes, they know about the spoof movie “Best in Show.” For a lovely tribute to one family’s dog, type “One Big Thing: Otis the King | SC with SVP” into the search function on youtube. Have some tissues handy. B

~Jayne

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Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he has done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.

More than a hundred years before, an alien named Ulysses had recruited Enoch as the keeper of Earth’s only galactic transfer station. Now, as Enoch studies the progress of Earth and tends the tanks where the aliens appear, the charts he made indicate his world is doomed to destruction. His alien friends can only offer help that seems worse than the dreaded disaster. Then he discovers the horror that lies across the galaxy…

Review:

Dear Readers,
I often enjoy reading science fiction from its Golden Age and knowing that this book was a Hugo Winner in 1964 increased my desire to read it when I heard a recommendation from a book tube blogger I enjoy.

I liked it and respected it quite a bit, but it did not knock my socks off AND I know the main reason it did not knock my socks off! It is not a fair reason at all, but it is not as if it happened on purpose. See I am a big fan of the Ilona Andrews’ writing duo and I now strongly suspect (don’t know for sure of course) that their Innkeeper series main premise took its inspiration from this book.

Obviously this book was first, and of course Simak deserves all the credit for coming up with the idea of galactic transfer station old Earth. But Andrews developed it so much more with the premises of Inkeepers as a profession, their Houses being alive, so many fun alien beings and all the adventures. Anyway, now unfortunately this story pales in my mind in comparison to those series through no fault of its own!

I really liked the description of the alien travel here; it may have been quite new for its time I think. It was interesting and the main character was wonderful. I thought the writer described his struggles really well. I also think that author showed Enoch as someone who is older despite not physically aging while he is inside the house. I liked it much better than what I find in some fantasy romance stories when the character is presumably hundreds years of age (part of the reason why I almost stopped reading about vampires) and the thoughts they have are of the young people in their twenties.

Not here. Enoch is very curious about the world around him and his Guests and the Galaxy he got exposed too, thats why he reads as a dynamic character, but he very much remembers his past and things that changed or not changed. I thought his story was well done.

Now, the blurb if you ask me gives enough spoilers already – I feel like the main premise should not have been spoiled, so I am going to try scratching my head about another character without giving too many spoilers. There is a young woman there, who cannot speak or hear and she ends up having a good ending as a character, but she also ends up being very VERY special and I just don’t know about that. I think her disability and her being special was too connected if that makes sense.

Also, and I know I keep talking about other things in this review rather than the book, but hopefully it is at least somewhat connected to the book. Some of you may remember the Hugo related squabbles few years ago and the arguments that science fiction of the past was not progressive or something, did not discuss the political issues of the days it was written in or something.

I take it they did not mean this book when they were making those arguments.

Grade: B

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The passion of red—the sweetness of white. Together they may create a love for the ages.

When Henry Bradley, sixth of that name, is suddenly elevated to Duke of Roseleigh, he finds the responsibilities almost outweigh the privileges. Beset by litigious neighbors, needy tenants, and nagging relatives, he also endures pressure from all sides to make sure Roseleigh’s brilliant red roses best the Earl of Edgecote’s white ones at the York Rose Show in the spring. When the Earl’s daughter Margaret pays an unexpected visit to offer her condolences on the death of the old duke, he finds an unexpected ally in the long-standing family feud—and a balm to his lonely heart.

Can the two of them come up with a proposition—or perhaps a rose—to ambush all comers in the Rose Society and turn the competition upside down?

Dear Ms. Warfield, 

I was looking around for what to read next and saw this novella. I’ve enjoyed several  of your other stories and I liked the blurb for “The Sixth Henry” so Rose Wars it was.

Henry had never expected to succeed to the family Dukedom given that he was the son of the second son but we all know how these inheritance things play out. Henry loved his grandfather who, bless him, was a conscientious man. One to look after his tenants, see to his duties, try to make things easy for Henry as Henry took up the responsibilities, and above all, make sure the gardener had all he needed to win the annual rose competition. The family name is Roseleigh, after all. 

The night of his grandfather’s funeral, Henry writes out a list of practical things he needs to accomplish with number six being “find a wife.” The next day he begins to tick off a number of them but when Lady Margaret appears a day later, things get in a bit of an uproar. Lady Margaret is the daughter of their chief rival for top rose honors but her reason for journeying to the estate of the Roseleighs is to offer her sincere condolences.

Okay so probably an unmarried woman of that day and age would never have done this journey but Margaret also wants to end this silly feud. Henry’s family might be suspicious of her but Henry is enchanted. The woman is lovely, intelligent, and knows her agriculture. If he had to make a list, Margaret would take the top 12 spots out of 10. She obviously feels the same but with a feud to bed down, these two are going to have to take their time before going courting. 

Despite this novella being right under the 100 page mark, it covers a lot of ground and does it nicely. Henry is a good guy but one who grows into his stature as a Duke while still managing to adroitly handle lots of people who are making demands on his time. I love that he places the welfare of his dependents/tenants first rather than being a puffed up popinjay who is all about “I’m a Duke.” 

Margaret is gobsmacked by the wonder of the Roseleigh library (gotta love a woman who loves books) and glasshouse. She does do something a little shady but her reasons are good and when Henry finds out, he’s totally on board. Also for a novella, and despite having the two MCs fall fairly quickly for each other, time is allowed before the “I do’s.” Henry adores Margaret’s superior qualities and he knows good things will come to those who give their heroines free rein. As he tells her once she’s explained her plan and how she got there, “Devious as well as clever. I’m a lucky man.” B

~Jayne      

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The best selling romance by France’s answer to Sophie Kinsella finally available in English

Chloe is the perfect Parisian: she’s too skinny, smokes too much, and drinks too much. She also has the bad habit of getting into toxic relationships, particularly with her ex Guillaume who is engaged to another woman. Her friend Constance, however, is a hopeless romantic, spends all her money on Jane Austen memorabilia yet is unable to find her Mr. Darcy.

One day, the two friends make a bet: Chloe will spend one year in the countryside, far from men and temptations, to finally write the novel she has always dreamed of; Constance will let go of her foolish dreams of romance and start hooking up with perfect strangers.

From Paris to Bordeaux vineyards to London, this bet will have completely unintended consequences.

Dear Ms. Vareille

“I Don’t Really Need You” was recommended to me by a friend who had read it in the original French. She said it was refreshing to see a chick-lit book with a French woman’s POV. It’s taken me a while to take her up on her rec but I found it to be delightful if a teensy bit different from the chick-lit I’m used to. I should say I’ve gone in and out of reading chick-lit. After starting it over twenty years ago with an English author another friend rec’d to me, I began to get tired of the standard format but every once in a while I dive back in and find myself falling for it all over again.

Chloe and Constance might not be a pair of women who would ordinarily be friends but after joining the same book club and discovering mutual ties to the same rural town in France, they have developed a friendship. Chloe is stuck with feelings for a man with whom she has officially broken up but who she once thought she would marry. After they are both at a party, they hook up for the night. It’s after this that we discover what Chloe already knows – that Guillaume is engaged and will be married in four months. 

Constance adores Jane Austen and has waited for her Mr. Darcy but at age twenty seven and not having been in a relationship for 28 months (she calls it No-Sex-Land), she (and her family) are getting worried. But instead of having the guts to go out, she prefers to slip into her flowered flannel jammies, heat some hot chocolate and rewatch “Pride and Prejudice” again in her tiny Paris apartment. When despondent Chloe calls her, Constance invites her over which eventually leads to lots of hot chocolate being drunk and the two agreeing to a pact. Among other work related things, Constance will be brave and have a one-night stand while Chloe will be celebate for six months. How will the women do and what will they discover about themselves?

Usually in chick-lit the FMC will be desperate for a man, somehow humiliated, crap at work, and have interfering family members. Some of these elements are here and yet they’re also a bit different than the usual. Chloe could have any man she wants but she hasn’t gotten over Guillaume. She knows her relationship with him is toxic for her but the heart wants what it wants, right? Constance is smitten with an Englishman (she’s met twice) and wants to practice her flirting to be ready for a family wedding this summer that she knows he’ll attend. 

Both women are good at their jobs – they just don’t like their jobs much. One reason that Chloe has stayed in hers is that Guillaume also works there while Constance has sort of drifted along in hers with a hard nosed German boss who is actually remarkably patient with her. Chloe heads for the hills to be near her aging grandmother (Mamie Rose is a delight) and stays at the house owned by a relative of Constance while she (doesn’t really) writes the novel she’s been meaning to start. Constance signs up for dating and self improvement lessons with a mysterious woman and after a (€€€€€) makeover at Galeries Lafayette she’s hitting the bars with a bit more confidence. 

Chloe discovers that her creativity has dried up even as she’s simultaneously attracted to and disdainful of a neighboring winemaker. Vincent is not her usual type of guy and can be either very helpful or rude depending on the day. He does, however, also know and like Mamie Rose as well as the elderly man Chloe is staying with. Uncle Gonz is a dear, too, who has known Mamie Rose since they were children. 

Things go just about as I expected them to and I pegged which men Chloe and Constance would eventually end up with. It’s the journey I enjoyed although there are a few things that are conveyed to and about various people as well as an unreliable narrator that the reader is unaware of until these have caused their damage. Things are done and said based on this misinformation that annoyed me a little when the truth comes out. 

Still I liked the Frenchness of the story even if some is a bit cliched. Chloe and Guillaume’s fiancee both live in stilettos. Chloe smokes like a chimney and wears skinny jeans. Mamie Rose had decided opinions about women wearing pants and flats. But despite drinking a lot of wine, Chloe’s knowledge of it makes Vincent and Constance wince though Chloe’s off-the-cuff first impression of a Sauternes that Vincent serves her impresses him. Oh and there is a funny wedding that had me laughing and wishing I could see it on film. Sadly I can’t find any other of your books in translation and my high school French is long gone but I had fun reading this one. B

~Jayne      

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Laurie Morrison’s Keeping Pace is a poignant middle-grade novel about friends-turned-rivals training for a half-marathon—and rethinking what it means to win and what they mean to each other.

Grace has been working for years to beat her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be named top scholar of the eighth grade. But when Jonah beats her for the title, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And then the wide, empty summer looms. With nothing planned and no more goals or checklists, she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to be working toward.

Eager for something to occupy her days, Grace signs up for a half-marathon race that she and Jonah used to talk about running together. Jonah’s running it, too. Maybe if she can beat Jonah on race day, she’ll feel OK again. But as she begins training with Jonah and checking off a new list of summer goals, she starts to question what—and who—really matters to her. Is winning at all costs really worth it?

Engaging and heartfelt, Keeping Pace is about wanting to win at all costs—and having to learn how to fail.

CW – divorced parents, FMC’s neglectful father, past death of MMC’s father

Dear Ms. Morrison, 

This is a little different from the usual middle grade books I’ve chosen to read. Usually there’s some fantasy and a cat in those stories but I liked the idea of reading something a little more normal and relatable. 

Grace is very goal focused. She has certain ways she wants to do things, certain rituals she follows, and at times she’s not that good in her relationships with others. When she misses out on getting the highest scholar award for her eighth grade class, what others might see as a great achievement – coming in second by half a point – to her feels like failure. Then she learns that her former best friend – who beat her out for the award – will be going to a different high school next year, Grace feels even more deflated as now she won’t be able to come back and overcome her loss. This is it. It’s over.
Or is it? Jonah mentions signing up for a race at the end of the summer and with nothing else planned, Grace decides to turn her enjoyment of jogging with her sister into another contest. She and Jonah used to be friends until he pulled away after the death of his father. If she trains hard, maybe she can beat him in the race. But if she opens herself to trying some new things, maybe they can work out what happened and possibly be more than friends. 

There are a lot of other things in the book that give Grace and Jonah some depth. Her parents are now divorced and she and her sister’s relationship with their father is strained due to his work. Grace is secretly worried about her transition to high school as there will be a lot of other smart kids there from other schools. Maybe she won’t be the smartest anymore as she is used to being. Maybe her PhD father won’t be as proud of her. Since her scholastic standing is basically her identity, I can see why she’s so razor focused on all of these issues.     

Grace and Jonah had been best friends for years but three years ago his father suddenly died and Jonah withdrew from their friendship. Now instead of pushing each other to be supportive, they are arch rivals. Grace’s sister, who might be slower to learn something but who keeps trying until she masters it, and their cousin Avery are determined that Grace isn’t just going to sit all summer and “help” her come up with a list of goals. Some of them are aimed at pushing Grace a little out of her comfort zone but she’s the one who tosses in completing the half-marathon. She remembers how fun it was when she and Jonah helped at one years ago. 

Another thing she does is babysit her father’s new girlfriend’s young son. Brie doesn’t want Teddy to be praised the way that Grace thinks is normal which leads to Grace having to rethink everything she’s used to about encouragement. She also begins to see her father in a new light and worries about the changing friend dynamics for high school with her friend group and cousin Avery.

I could see where most of the points of the book were being made but that’s probably older me with years more life experience looking (way) back to my own middle school days. I don’t think that these lessons were overly emphasized too much to Make. Sure. I. Got. Them. On the other hand, I think that by the end of the book, teen readers will be able to grasp what’s important without feeling lectured or condescended to. The book finishes with some things still open-ended but with a very positive feel. B  

~Jayne

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This is currently on sale at Amazon for 0.99

“The Arrangement” by BF Queen is the latest installment in the Ramadan Night series – a heartwarming sports romance that follows Yassine, a world-famous goalkeeper who requires a green card to continue playing in the US and represent Morocco in the World Cup. His solution: marriage to Nouha, a bookish personal assistant at the soccer club who has been scarred both physically and emotionally by a tragic accident. As their arrangement progresses, Nouha questions whether Yassine’s feelings are genuine, leading to a friends-to-lovers romance with a fresh twist on the Beauty and the Beast trope. A must read for anyone who would love to recapture the excitement of the Qatar World Cup last year.

Dear Ms. Queen,

I enjoyed reading The Serendipity” last year but missed this new novella in the Ramadan Nights series until now. Technically though, it doesn’t actually take place during Ramadan. Lovers of a “marriage of convenience” trope (like heroine Nouha) or sports romances will be in for a treat.

Yassine has worked hard to honor the efforts for better opportunities that his parents made when they moved the family from Morocco to Canada. But he runs into a roadblock when his application for a EB1 visa to the US is denied. He might be one of the best goalies in the US but, as he bitterly thinks, the US doesn’t value soccer players as much as US football players. With his work permit to play on an LA team about to run out and needing to play to possibly be on the Moroccan soccer team, Yassine is at first stunned by his coach’s suggestion of a MOC for a green card. He balks at doing that to any woman and for religious reasons, he wants his marriage to be a real one.

Nouha isn’t surprised when her latest marriage proposal meeting goes badly. She’s got facial scars from the car crash that killed her parents and no, she doesn’t want plastic surgery for them. Her aunt and uncle have loved and cared for them since she and her younger sister were orphaned and Nouha knows they would never push her into a marriage she doesn’t want. When she sees medical bills for her aunt, Nouha worries about how her uncle will afford to pay them. When Yassine, whom she’s known for years through work, comes to her with a proposal, she wonders if she could take him up on it. He’s so handsome, famous and mentioned on social media while she still doesn’t like being noticed – so how could this work?

What I really liked is that Nouha and Yassine are already friends who can laugh and joke together. Yassine knows that Nouha loves romance books which turns out to be one way that he eventually shows her how much he cares. A hero who buys his heroine books rocks, IMO. Yassine is also determined that his marriage won’t just be to get a green card. As he tells Nouha, he’d rather not get one and have to leave the country – even if this means risking what he and his parents worked for – than treat a woman badly by marrying her just for this.

They need to marry fairly quickly in order to start the paperwork for a green card which leads to the main conflict of Nouha having trouble believing that Yassine really loves her. This part is a bit rushed until Yassine – by his actions – proves that he loves his bride enough to sacrifice something dear to him in order to respect her honor.

So yes things are resolved fairly quickly but in ways that reassured me that these two are on the same page and committed to each other and their marriage. I love Nouha’s sister, aunt, and uncle, too. B

~Jayne

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The humans are fighting again. Go figure.

As a free A.I., Mal finds the war between the modded and augmented Federals and the puritanical Humanists about as interesting as a battle between rival anthills. He’s not above scouting the battlefield for salvage, though, and when the Humanists abruptly cut off access to infospace he finds himself trapped in the body of a cyborg mercenary, and responsible for the safety of the modded girl she died protecting.

A dark comedy wrapped in a techno thriller’s skin, Mal Goes to War provides a satirical take on war, artificial intelligence, and what it really means to be human.

Dear Mr. Ashton,

I freely admit that I came to this book for a sort of Murderbot. I arrived knowing full well that others have stated that they feel this is a much darker and grimmer version. I absolutely agree with that. There is some disturbing shit that goes down in this story. Readers looking for another version of our favorite SecUnit while waiting on Martha Wells to write one will do well to not think they’re getting that.

The blurb reveals just the opening chapter or so of the book. Independent AI Mal is lightly jumping from one thing to another – more to amuse himself, really – when he finds himself trapped and unable to return to infospace. Not wanting his “meat jacket” to suffer any further damage and with few other options, he and Kayleigh begin trying to evade the Humanists out to kill any Federal troops and/or modded humans. As both of them are highly modded, they are in no doubt of their ultimate (grisly) fate should the Humanists catch them.

Ducking and dodging and reeling in a few (less willing) travel companions, they attempt to evade those who are dogged and determined to get them. Sometimes they are better at this than others but mostly they stumble along and, living by their wits and some luck, they head from the epicenter of the conflict in Bethesda, Maryland to the remote mountainous area of Frostburg, Maryland.

Mal desperately wants to find a suitable digital place to “jump” into and get out of Chuck who, due to some neural implants he got for full on VR porn experiences, Mal was able to enter. Kayleigh may look like a toddler but she’s actually eighteen, takes no prisoners, and has a foul mouth though she’s loyal to a few entities. Asher was a Humanist but one who now recoils from some of the (awful) things that his fellows have been doing. If there’s a way to survive the hellstorm that is raging with both sides seemingly determined to wipe out the other, maybe they’ll come out of this alive. Maybe.

This book is grim, filled with dark humor, and more grimness with the addition of lots of brutality tossed in. There’s a weird levity to this story which has the main characters discussing the burn pits (for modded humans) then cracking sarcastic jokes about their situation. Sometimes this worked for me and other times had me grimacing. Kayleigh latches onto friendship with another person who never treats her like the child she isn’t despite what she looks like. When Kayleigh decides to do something, you’d better hope that she’s not giving you the squint eye and pondering whether or not she thinks you’re worth saving.

One person Kayleigh argues to save might not have wanted what he got but wasn’t given any choice about consenting to the life altering event. The last person joins the (not) merry band under particularly ghastly circumstances as something is happening to Mal’s “meat jacket.” Chuck is brutally honest about his shortcomings in the face of the violence – both threatened and actual – that he faces. I found I liked Chuck in spite of his neural mods.

Mal is, of course, the main character and the one most described in the omniscient present tense voice. I grew to “see” Mal as a cross between Sheldon Cooper and Professor T. Mal has always viewed human “monkeys” as annoyances and good for – well, not much actually. The war that is going on before he gets stuck away from infospace means nothing to him. The limitations of the meat suits means that for the first time, he is dependent on them – to a degree – and through the course of the story, he has to decide what he wants to do and for whom he’s willing to do it. Mal has his favorite but it’s for a reason. In other circumstances, even if he had them, I doubt Mal would have lifted a finger to save most of the characters. In the end, he’s blunt in confronting humans who have engineered something he views as genocide.

I laughed at the dark humor – most of it anyway. But at a point, the resolution of the fighting

~Jayne

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Calgary PI Ben Ames expects a relaxing evening off as he supports his boyfriend, Jesse, one of the star performers at a charity concert. But it turns out relaxing isn’t on the program. When last-minute guest Matt Garrett shows up, it creates a frenzy backstage. An A-list movie star with an ego to match, Garrett has bad blood with many of the performers—Jesse included. So when Garrett turns up dead, Ben begins to dig for the truth, both to protect Jesse and to satisfy his own instinctive curiosity. So much for his night off. When the police arrive, emotions backstage heat up, but no one can step out to cool off, because the Western Canadian winter is so cold that hypothermia waits outside. With such a high-profile crime, the lead detective seems poised to make a quick arrest… and Jesse’s a prime suspect. Ben has his work cut out for him to solve the murder under the police and paparazzi’s noses before Jesse’s reputation becomes collateral damage.

Review:

Dear Gayleen Froese,

This is the book two in the Ben Ames Case Files m/m romantic mystery series. I really enjoyed the first book and grabbed this one as well. Both books were on KU and I already preordered the third one (not on KU).

I believe that six months passed after the first book. Jesse and Ben reconnected in the first book under somewhat dramatic circumstances and here we see them together working on their relationship and of course Ben gets a chance to investigate another murder. Only this time the murder hits closer to home to both of them. As the blurb states Ben accompanied Jesse to a charity concert and one of the supposed performers there who comes at the last minute, ends up dead and Jesse is one of the prime suspects.

I have to say that despite reading the blurb carefully, the story surprised me somewhat. Yes, it is clear that a celebrity gets killed, but I did not expect that Ben’s investigation (according to my calculations anyway) lasted about 24 hours or maybe even less. This ended up essentially being a closed room (or is the expression a “closed door”?) mystery. We have a limited amount of people as performers on the upcoming show for charity and some of them (not even all of them!) end up being suspects.

I liked that author did not repeat the structure of the first book and the characters even make a joke about that.

“I sure hope someone else here is moonlighting as a world-class private detective,” I said, “because that’s not me.” “You solved a whodunnit last year.” “No, I solved a keep-chipping-away-at-it last year. I ran down leads until there were no more. I have no experience with this Murder on the Orient Express business.” “Oh, we should have all killed him together!” Luna said. “Why didn’t we think of it?”

The structure of the story is interesting. I think the murder is taking place and discovered in chapter eight, and the book has twenty five chapters with the epilogue. So a third of the story at least we watch various characters, who are about to perform at this ensemble show for charity, interacting. With some of them Jess has a previous history, with some – not really. I will be honest that besides letting us see more Ben and Jesse together, I was not really sure what was the point of those chapters and all the new characters. I mean, my thought was that they all will be suspects later on, but they were not!

There were only four viable suspects (one more person looks like a possible suspect for a short period of time, but is discarded as a suspect pretty fast), and one of them is Jess and once again, no offense to the author, but despite Jess having a pretty good motive, I was really REALLY sure that he could not have done it. I was sure because of the meta reasons of course – one half of the main romantic couple is a murderer? Unless Ben planned to run away with him from the justice system, I would say no and Ben really did not sound like a guy to do that.

So why all the other people were there I was not sure. I mean some of them ended up helping in the investigation a little bit, but I cannot say that I cared much about them one way or another even when the story ended. Maybe the author plans on bringing at least some of these people back and develop them further in the next book? That would have been awesome.

Having said all that, I still enjoyed this story a lot, a whole lot I would say. I still think that Ben and Jesse have great chemistry and I really enjoyed seeing them both on page. You could see that not all angles are smoothed between them after the break up that lasted seven years, but I could also see that they both really love each other and want to stay together and hopefully make it work.

I have no frame of reference of what it means to date a celebrity of any kind, but somehow Ben’s reactions also made sense to me (genuine love and support, but also irritation about some negative aspects of his job that may take some toll on Jesse).

I was actually quite amused about how Ben tried really hard to do a balancing act about catching a murderer because he was hired (not by Jesse thank goodness) to find the real murderer and kept telling himself that Jesse could not have done it for Reasons even if many things could point at him actually doing the murderer.

I also liked that even if Ben had his eyes on the real murderer as a real suspect several times during his short but eventually very effective investigation, he kept trying to look into everything, into other people, into all the motives, in other words he tried to be thorough. I just thought that he once again was a pretty decent investigator, his inexperience (according to him) with closed door mysteries notwithstanding :)

Grade: B/B+

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Lillian Rose Atkins is tired. She’s tired of picking cotton, serving as a maid in a hotel, and taking care of her younger cousins. So when she receives an invitation from the mother she hasn’t seen in ten years to move to Chicago and take part in Chicago society, Lily jumps at the chance. This is her opportunity to finally have new things, be on the other side of service, and find a wealthy husband.

Rutledge “Rudy” Addison is tired. As an investigative journalist who reports on the facts of lynchings and race riots in the South, he’s tired of dealing with the dregs of society. But when he is challenged to love those he is starting to hate, he begins to find that life is not as black-and-white as he always thought.

When Lily and Rudy are thrown together, will they realize that maybe the things they’re tired of are more important than they could ever have fathomed?

TW/CW – mention of past racial violence/lynchings, current (in the book) threat to incarcerated African American men

Dear Ms. Susberry,

I’ve been eyeing several of your books/series and finally decided to try this one as it appears to be a stand alone story. Right from the beginning, I realized that it wouldn’t just be a story about a young woman trying to better her prospects. Instead there are dark past and current incidents that investigative reporter Rudy covers as well as mentions of race riots in Chicago and Nebraska. An element of faith is also included.

Rudy Addison never planned on being a reporter but when teaching didn’t pan out, he discovered he has a natural knack for digging into stories, especially ones about racial injustice. Rudy gains such detailed insights because he can “pass.” With blond hair, blue eyes, and light skin Rudy can arrive in towns that have just lynched uppity negroes (term used in the book) and suss out the true reasons why these horrific acts were committed without the whites whom he talks to realizing that he’s Black. Rudy knows he’s playing a dangerous game and that if he’s identified as Black, he’ll be the next “strange fruit” in town.

Lily Atkins wants something better in life. She’s lived without her mother who moved to Chicago ten years ago and who has remarried a relatively well-to-do man. But upon arriving in a city that astonishes her at its size, Lily’s dreams are facing a cold reality. Her mother is intent on bettering Lily but the bond they lost isn’t being rebuilt. Lily feels terribly out of place and at times humiliated by other Black women in her age group who deliberately show Lily – with her seventh grade education – up. A few people are nice, surprisingly her step-father, and two other young women who enlist Lily’s aid to help Blacks who have suffered due to the recent race riots in town.

When Lily meets Rudy, sparks fly. At times Rudy is curt to Lily and ends up calling her Daisy because he couldn’t be bothered to remember her “flower” name. But the two work out a plan to help each other. However things are derailed when news of riots in Lily’s hometown reach them. Lily heads back to help her family and Rudy quickly follows to report on what’s happening. But will Lily remain stuck in Elaine, AR and can Rudy escape it?

Let me start with what didn’t work so well for me. At times the story feels disjointed as there is a lot going on both good and bad. The book starts with Rudy in a TN town that just lynched someone and the needs of the Black Chicagoans who suffered due to the (real) riots there seems intense and is something Lily and her friends try to alleviate. But then Rudy is helping Lily write a poem based on British Romantic poets for her ladies society meeting as well as learning to waltz. The contrast is jarring. I know that the two need to remain in the same vicinity for their relationship to begin but I kept thinking, doesn’t Rudy have more important things to report on and do?

Another thing that felt a bit forced was the element of faith. Rudy’s family has been raised in the strong Christian faith of his parents and his father is urging Rudy to find a way to love those who are difficult to love and we know Rudy is faced with a lot of those. Lily is also religious and there are many church service scenes. But then chapters will pass with little mention of faith until suddenly it’s front and center again. I liked how in the end, both Rudy and Lily find a degree of forgiveness for those who are doing them wrong but it’s more for them to be able to lay down the burden of hate that is eating them up, and as Rudy says, allow them to pity those whites with such racial hatred in them.

Now there is a lot to enjoy in the book. Lily has a dry but wicked sense of humor and doesn’t let people put or keep her down long. Her mother might push Lily at Rudy but Lily makes it clear that he’s not on her marriage list and makes sure he knows it. Lily has also already started improving herself even before she leaves Arkansas because she knows she wants more out of life. When she decides something, she does it. Yet when her family needs her, she immediately heads back to help even if that means possibly surrendering her dreams. Family is that important to her.

Rudy has built a career going into places dangerous to him in order to get the truth and make sure that it sees the light of day. The plot calls for him to be stupidly fixated on a woman we all know isn’t The One and honestly, I never saw much in her beyond she’s pretty. When he quickly decides to go to AK, several of his friends call him on his insistence that he’s not going down for Lily but once he realizes his true feelings, he throws himself into helping her family as well as covering the events of the (real) Elaine Race Riots.

I loved Lily’s family including her younger cousins. Aunt Rachel is a Rock in the troubled waters and Uncle Rufus is a man staunchly determined to provide for and better his family’s lot in life. Lily has white friends in Elaine including a family who has employed her and quietly looks after and helps her. She also makes good friends in Chicago (I’d love to have seen more about one couple’s romance) and works out relationships with her step siblings. Stepfather Frank is a jewel of a man. I would join the Frank Harrison Fan Club.

Even with the issues I’ve mentioned, for me the positives of the book far outweigh the niggles. Lily is my favorite but I think by the end, she’s got Rudy in line and fully aware of what a gem he’s got. B

~Jayne

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Can a disillusioned former cop track down a missing girl before it’s too late?

Seven years ago, criminologist Ben Ames thought he’d change a big city police force from the inside. He failed. Now he’s a private detective trailing insurance frauds and cheating spouses through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Like police work, the job would be easier if he didn’t have a conscience.

When university student Kimberly Moy goes missing, her sister begs Ben to take the case. But before Ben can follow up on any leads—What does the Fibonacci series have to do with Kim’s disappearance? What do her disaffected friends know? And where is her car?—chance and bad timing drop his unexpected ex, Jesse, into the mix.

Ben doesn’t have time to train Jesse into the junior PI he seems determined to become. Amateur sleuths are always trouble. Unfortunately, this is turning out to be the kind of case that requires backup, and his intuition is telling him Kim’s story may not have a happy ending….

Review:

Dear Gayleen Froese,

I got this book on Kindle Unlimited and it worked really well for me. Partially because I am the kind of m/m reader who prefers to read not *pure* romance. Oh I really like a romance storyline if it’s well done, but I can easily get bored if the main characters spent all their time on page mooning over each other and they have no jobs and no other interests to spend their time doing.

The bottom line is, for me this book achieved a happy medium – the mystery which is investigated by the main character, a PI and our narrator, Ben Amos and a second chance romance with his ex Jesse.

Of course I also think that this book was really well written, to me Ben and Jesse came alive on page and I found their second chance romance to be believable, because too often when two exes reunite after many years I roll my eyes when apparently all they were secretly doing for a couple of decades was to see each other again. Seven years in this book for me was I guess a shorter period of time to buy that their feelings for each other were still strong enough, and regardless it was just shown convincingly for me. I do wonder though what Jess being a rock star will do to their romance.

I also thought that Ben made a believable private investigator, although of course I don’t have first hand knowledge of what it means to be a PI, but going around talking to people sounds more real than constantly getting into trouble while chasing bad guys.

As the blurb tells you in this book, Ben is trying to find a missing young woman. I cannot tell you what came out of this search, but I liked how it was done, even if I thought the answer to who was the villain was both straightforward and a little out of nowhere. Isn’t it how it supposed to be though? If you keep trying to find the answer and investigating and putting aside the possibilities you will eventually run into the correct one.

I am looking forward to the next books in the series.

Grade:B/B+

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Why is this night different from all other nights?

For starters, Jared Leiman is home for the holidays. Because though he and Caroline Weiss were high school sweethearts, their postcollege lives took them in different directions. Jared became a big-time entertainment lawyer in LA, while Caroline became a fitness instructor and stayed in town to care for her sick mother. And though her mother passed away three years ago, Caroline is finally free to go where she chooses. Meanwhile Jared, who inherited custody of his baby niece after a tragic accident, is suddenly a family man.

So now Caroline wants to leave her hometown in the dust, whereas Jared might just set up roots there. Because there is one thing that Browerville, New Jersey, offers the two of them that no other place does…each other!

CW – mention of death of family members due to a car accident and cancer. 

Dear Ms. Wilck, 

After loving “Home for the Challah Days” last year, I was really looking forward to the next installment of this series. Because yes, it’s not a Hanukkah book! 

Instead Jared and his orphaned niece Becca are coming home for Passover with his parents as he tries to work out what he wants in life. Meanwhile, his old highschool flame Caroline, yeah the woman Jared basically ghosted when her mother was diagnosed with cancer, has finally paid off the medical bills, carved out a life and a job, and plans to start doing all the things she’s longed to for years. Is the past the past or might they have a second chance to work out a future for themselves. 

Let me just be honest and admit that I’m sad to say this one didn’t work as well for me. Yay that Jared already knows he acted like a shit all those years ago and that he plans on apologizing to Caroline. But dang despite the fact that he has matured a lot over the years, he can still act like a shit at times. I was all on #teamCaroline. Even two year old Becca can act better than Jared.

It also doesn’t help that much of the relationship time between Jared and Caroline kept rehashing what we’d already seen. I also didn’t have warm fuzzies about how much Jared initially pushes Caroline to go out with him while he’s home in New Jersey with all parties aware that he plans to go back to L.A. Without their past history it might have been okay but with it — his insistence in the face of his eventual leaving felt tone deaf. Much of Caroline’s discussions with her besties about her relationship time with Jared was also rehashing. The plot felt as if its wheels were spinning in the mud and things dragged. And dragged. Then the romance part of the story swung into gear and raced along before Jared pissed me, Caroline, and his parents off. Trifecta! 

What did I like? I liked Caroline’s job and competency. She has worked hard to finish her education and after losing her mother, gotten a job at the JCC, and has plans and ambitions. When something spikes part of her plans, she doesn’t just sit back and say “Oh, well.” No, she starts to look into it, keeps her head on straight, moves cautiously, and sees this through to a conclusion. When her boss – who believes in her – hands her a “gotta get it done fast” project, Caro rises to the occasion and – I’ll give Jared credit that he comes through in assisting her – pulls something spectacular out that wows people. Go, Caroline!

The family relationship stuff is great, too. When Jared’s brother and sister-in-law died and left him as guardian of Becca, Jared was out of his depth. But he tries, he learns, and he adores his niece. It’s great that his loving parents are there for them both and unobtrusively ready with advice when he asks for it. Mrs. Leiman is fiercely protective of Caroline as well and warns her son not to mess with Caroline.

Passover preparation is something the Leimans take seriously and woe betide anyone who gets in the way of Harriet Leiman’s cleaning (which she ropes the whole family into), shopping, and cooking plans. Watching them carefully, thoughtfully (not too much horseradish for Becca so she won’t associate Passover with yucky tastes), and lovingly celebrating the Seder with their granddaughter was delightful.      

So this ended up being a bit of half and half for me. There was a lot that I really did like and enjoyed. But the romance just didn’t work as well as I would have liked to have seen. Overall, C for the romance and B for everything else.

~Jayne      

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Books have been her only solace.

Now they’re about to change her life.

London, 1775: The only surviving child of six, Dorcas Turton should have been heiress to a powerful family name. But after her mother’s untimely death, she is stunned by the discovery that her father’s compulsive gambling has brought them close to ruin. With the threat of debtor’s prison looming large, she must employ all her ingenuity to keep their creditors at bay.

Fortunately, ingenuity is something Dorcas is not short of. An avid reader, novels have taught her the lessons her governess failed to. Forsaking hopes of marriage and children, she opens a day-school for girls. But unbeknown to Dorcas, her father has not given up his extravagant ways. When bailiffs come pounding on the door, their only option is to take in lodgers.

The arrival of larger-than-life James Lackington and his wife Nancy breathes new life into the diminished household. Mr Lackington aspires to be a bookseller, and what James Lackington sets out to do, he tends to achieve. Soon Dorcas discovers she is not only guilty of envying Mrs Lackington her strong simple faith and adaptable nature. Loath though she is to admit it, she begins to envy her Mr Lackington…

Based on a true story, Jane Davis’s latest historical novel is for book-lovers everywhere, delivering unforgettable characters, a portrait of Georgian London on the brink of change, and a love song to the life-changing power of the written word.

Dear Ms. Davis, 

Books, reading books, loving books, talking about books, and getting books into the hands of others who might love them is something we love to do here. Books were something that Dorcas Turton had always loved. She used to love to sit in the library of her family’s Islington home, running her hands over the leather binding of the many books there. 

But her family, which had inherited wealth that should have seen them through generations, were forced to “retrench” once, and then again, and finally (in the middle of the night) again to the small house in London where her mother died and her father gambled away the rest of the money. 

Now having taken in sewing and teaching the daughters of “up and comers” to better themselves, Dorcas desperately ducks and dodges to keep the wolves at bay. When her father has accumulated yet another debt, and the family has nothing left that Dorcas can bear to pawn, she puts her foot down and rents out a room. Mr. and Mrs. Lackington seem nice even if her father barely hides his sneers that they are working class. Mr. Lackington is unlike any man Dorcas has met. He moves easily among all classes, adores his wife, and (luckily for Dorcas) appears at almost every moment when Dorcas needs moral support. 

Just when things are maybe looking up Dorcas’s father dies and the Lackinton’s move to live above the bookshop they’ve opened only for Mrs. Lackington to die. Not wasting much time, James Lackington, who remember had adored his wife, takes the initiative and proposes to Dorcas telling her that he knows he’s the type of man who needs a strong wife and that his beloved Nancy had urged him to remarry. 

Five years later, Dorcas and James are expanding the business and ready to try all kinds of new innovations to increase sales. Then the Gordon Riots break out around them.      

I could easily identify with Dorcas’s love of books and reading. I could also, to a lesser degree, understand her frustration with how her family’s circumstances had been increasingly diminished due to her father. My mother kept things together (as James Lackington’s mother had also done) but my family also had a time when we scaled down. I too felt frustration and anger at my father’s lack of ability or effort to support his family. I however, had more options than did Dorcas even if she was educated above the average for a woman in her time. 

One thing I think readers will agree on is supporting Dorcas’s efforts to educate the teens and tweens in her day school. She knows that most of them will be willing to sink into the proscribed roles for women but for the ones who want more, Dorcas wants them to have female role models and knowledge. One of the invented characters in the story is Patience Brine, a fourteen year old who had to begin work three years prior and whom Dorcas takes under her wing as Patience steps off the stage in London. Patience is awesome. 

James Lackington befuddles Dorcas a little. He’s a shoemaker who loves to read and wants to open a bookstore. His father’s family also had some means but James had to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, was taught to read at age fourteen, and happily fell in with a family who enjoyed discussing books around the dinner table. His first wife’s death has turned James from espousing Methodism as strongly as he did and made him willing to read beyond religious tracts. James is a born entrepreneur and willing to take gambles to improve himself and his store. He also appreciates Dorcas’s intelligence and cheerfully acknowledges how much he depends on her. 

The book is divided into two sections though, in my opinion, the second seems more like two different parts. The little details of eighteenth century life are enough to thoroughly ground the book without overwhelming it. The omniscient voice POV put me right in the middle of the action so that I could feel Dorcas’s fear at who was pounding on the door, her frantic worry as she searched for a way to pay the creditors, her sadness when her father died so soon after she realized the “gift” he had given her. In a darkly humorous scene, we see that funeral home directors have tried for centuries to guilt families into paying for more expensive services than they can afford. 

The beginning of the “five years later” part two was my favorite bit of the book. James has big ideas for the store and brainstorms ways and means to increase their foot traffic, turn their stock over, and get the word out that theirs is the best place to come and buy books. Dorcas and James work well together though he does have a tendency to keep some plans up his sleeve. Then came the last bit of the story which diverts into the horrific Gordon Riots of 1780. I can understand that with the Lackinton’s both living near and having their shop close to a major area where rioting occurred it would have affected them in real life, but I wasn’t sure why the book needed such a deep dive into it. 

The characters in the book are well rounded and realized. I didn’t think that they were just twenty-first century people in hooped skirts and powdered wigs. The marriage that Dorcas and James make is truly a marriage of convenience but it’s one that quickly moves into a marriage of equals and deep affection. I enjoyed my time among them and I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen next to all the people in the story. B

~Jayne   

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