Chris
A happy read. I do enjoy D.E. Stevenson books. It's called the Four Graces, but it's really about 3 sisters as the 4th is out of town during much of the book. The story takes place in an idyllic English village during WWII - but the focus is on the Grace family, not the war. The story picks up where the last of the Buncle books left off. As with the 3rd book - you don't need to have read the others to read this one. You may want to hop back to the 3rd after reading this, however, as the story is alluded to briefly.
Strong smart female character saves the day! And she's not wearing heels, makeup, and a body hugging leotard!
Basically... Eloise in Sweden. And instead of The Plaza, it's an apartment building (and along that vein: with Britt-Marie acting as a stand-in for Mr Salomone, I guess). I enjoyed Eloise... which is heavy on whimsy... not sure how I feel about this one. It's all so very whimsical...and all so very fairytale-ical. I'd put it down and find it difficult to pick up again. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it - but guess it was a bit heavier wading than I'd have liked through the fairytale sprinkled in amongst the story. What I did enjoy was how each of the side characters personalities and back-stories were teased out and woven together.
If you liked ‘Ove'... set that feeling aside, this book is not ‘Ove'.
Once they got on the road I really got into the story. Loved the characters. Plenty of humor. I'll probably reread this one at some point. Great fun.
listened to this one in the car. it's a nicely layered mystery and very well crafted. really liked the humor and found myself laughing out loud at several points. Am looking forward to reading others by this author.
I have wanted to read this for some time and eagerly picked it up to kick off a summer of long reads. I'm so bummed, I enjoyed the first third of this one...but had to slog my way to the end. Some sections are so repetitive I thought I'd lost my place and was rereading. I won't be venturing further into this series.
Loved this. Couldn't put it down. Can't wait to start the next book in the series!
This is a feel-good sci-fi story centered around the multi-species crew. Loved the characters, and really liked the story. The world-building was interesting and engaging.
This isn't your hardcore sexist sci-fi of the 50s & 60s - if you're looking for Asimov or Bradberry, look elsewhere - this isn't going to float your boat. This is more cozy meets Star Trek with a dash of whimsy - and plenty of snacks on hand. If you liked the Illuminae Files series, you'll probably like this.
Well, as others have said, the author covers a large amount of ground in the first couple of chapters...and as the series theme is mystery, not romance...moving the timeline ahead so quickly makes some sense. I enjoyed this one. I thought the backdrop was interesting - it covers a part of history generally not covered in textbooks in school. So I found myself googling and reading more about the area and time and players as I read the book. Very enjoyable. I look forward to her next book.
There are no likeable characters, but it weirdly added to the fun of the mystery. Really enjoyed it and found myself racing to the finish.
Fascinating review of the events surrounding the sinking of the Lusetania. I started this one and for some unknown reason back-burnered it. So glad I picked it back up and finished it.
My father was always fascinated with ship travel and ship wrecks and I grew up with many books about both peppering the big coffee table in our living room. The Lusetania was featured in amongst those familiar books. Dead Wake humanizes the disaster by delving into the stories of many of the passengers, the captain, and key political players. Well researched and well written. (And Dad would have LOVED it!)
Fred's an accountant AND a vampire and is about to discover there's more to the world than tax forms and playing it safe. This one was fun and a fast read.
Listened to it in the car. Took me a bit to get into it, but once it got rolling and the characters were a bit more fleshed out, I enjoyed it. Found the lead ‘baddy' to be highly annoying.
The mental health bits were interesting, but I really struggled with the legal bits. And since most of it is legal bits....sigh. I skimmed and was happy to finish it.
This one was a delight. Sorry I didn't read it sooner - and will probably put it in the read again pile. It's a kids book, but once it gets rolling, it's got plenty of sly adult humor.
This has been on my to read list for a few decades. I probably should have read it back in the '80s when the 1960s scifi/fantasy misogyny wouldn't have bothered me so much.
The book is a series of vignettes. Some are better than others. Some are a little hard to follow because of the dated style of the writing. Interesting concept that doesn't really get into the moral decision of how Helva came to be wired into the mainframe of a ship and encased in a titanium tube. I really liked the world building in the first vignette. I found the vignette involving the actors extremely hard to follow - this section really dragged for me.
Happy to check this one off of my to read list. Enjoyed it... I was entertained...but I'm not going to continue with the series.
Watched the miniseries and was entranced - immediately put the book into my to-read queue. Took me quite a bit of time to get through it (gads, almost a year!) - but that was due to life's little distractions, and not a ding on the story. Really enjoyed this one - reminiscent of aspects of The Stand without the hard edges - really liked the overall tone of the story and the world building. The mini-series is sufficiently different from the book - that I didn't feel like I necessarily knew where the story was headed. I'll probably read this one again. Thumbs up. Now - am going to watch the mini-series again.
If you liked ‘A Little Princess's or other orphan & villain gothic YA books, you're gonna love this one. Well executed gothic tale of an orphan who gets pulled into a con artist scheme. Really enjoyed it.