Pallas Poppies
Reading about slavery always pisses me off.
I don’t really get to know Ona and not really her world either, a very interesting character but we don’t know much about here. There’s more about the Washington's, I felt a little disappointed after reading the book. Also the title is somewhat misleading “Relentless pursuit”, he put and ad in a paper and sent a guy to look for her twice?
I don’t know… a lot of the characters felt cartoonish and the “reveal”, who could have seen that one coming, oh my god /s
Not a proper cozy for those that care about that, sex on the page and some cursing I think as well.
I was pretty bored and I didn’t care about the murder or the MC so I guess that’s bad.
This is my third Freya Sampson and there’s a lot of recurring themes and ideas from her previous books, it makes you feel at home but it’s can become repetitive.
The characters are new, the town is new but it does feel like I have already read it.
I found it charming but it doesn’t read like a proper cozy mystery, cozy sure but not much on the mystery like I would expect or want.
… and the ending felt a bit rushed.
Not a lot of knowledge about the people other than watching some costume dramas. Felt like more than half of the book was the first two wives, maybe there’s more sources on them? It wasn’t a dull read and it wasn’t a thrilling one either, it was middle of the road for me.
There was an odd part towards the end… “What turned the King into the ruthless tyrant of latter years was to some extent Katherine of Aragon's stubbornness and Anne Boleyn's ambition.” Yeah, not sure we can blame them for Henry loping the heads off of women.
All the women the MC comes across are pretty terrible and she doesn’t like any of them, she comments on their hair roots, surgery, breast etc. She hates influencer's because they have ruined journalism instead of accepting that things has change. She’s jealous and bitching and everyone is below her.
You could have kept this bad character if we understood her reasoning behind it, maybe she has been pressured into acting this way because this is how she managed to get things down back in New York, she had frenemies but no real friends etc but no. She’s too terrible and there’s not enough change or a reason for change or much of an apology at the end of the book.
There were some really fun ideas in here but… Haven is mad when someone doesn’t take her serious as a diver and then she forgets antifogger and to bring to change into after diving. She also has amazing sex with some guy and never a conversation, and this is real love. The historical time-line isn’t better, the love is there because the author says so. How can you make sea witches so dull? And it was set up for a modern Indiana Jones adventure but it never happens. Dull and I wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t an audiobook.
I could see this as a movie, and I would probably like it. I liked the book as well. There’s plenty of cozy and not a lot of sleuthing or that much focus on the mystery but it still worked for me… but it would have been even better with more focus on that.
There’s plenty of talk about the MCs weight and I don’t understand why until the end of the book, in the authors note she mentions that she’s been called “ageist” and “antifat” and wanted to change that and do better, does she succeed in this? Maybe not.
The MC in the beginning especially comes across as a grandparent you worry about getting scammed, I thought she was lying when she said she had worked with a private investigator. It’s a bit unbelievable.
That said, I liked her regardless and I might give the authors other books a try.
Read this with no previous knowledge about Hadrian, The Wall or Roman Britain. It served it’s purpose and I’ll pick up some more books about the Romans. Or hiking The Wall, that seems like fun as well.
I was a little annoyed at the preface when talking about ramparts and fortifications, “Perhaps the attraction comes from years of television and film: American Indians charging across the plains, whooping and yelling, hurtling towards camera, loosing off arrows at the good guys safe behind the stockade…” Yes in reference to the world of movies where natives are bad and cowboys or whatever good but I hate that, make it stop.
It gets weird pretty early on when everyone can see ghost, if this was the case the entire world would be pretty strange.
The description about the MCs body feels immature and it’s mentioned that he goes to the gym like 3 times a week but he never does in the book.
There’s some head hopping or at least that’s how it felt listening to the audio.
The mystery was a bit of a mess too.
Didn’t really connect with me. Wasn’t interested in the crime or the characters and there were some “men writing women” moments, something about curios nipples looking around. Will not continue the series.
There’s also some old fashion views and language on sex workers and anything under the pride flag, to put it mildly.
Fun and in a nice setting, perfect summer read. It was a bit more flair in it than some cozies, I can get bored when the MC is just having tea with suspect after suspect.
You are either going to love or hate the footnotes, I didn’t mind them but I did mind that every character got assigned a celebrity lookalike (a pet peeve of mine).
I wouldn’t call the MC likable but I did find the story enjoyable (she has done something I hate and I struggle to like her because of it… and other things). Will read the next one in the series.
Jarrod is a former child star currently working as a theater director, after his husbands death there’s been a distance between him and his daughter but she finds her boyfriends dead body father and daughter are joining forced to solve the case.
I thought this was kind of cute and will continue the series. Dad and daughter work well together and I think their relationship will get better and better. Also nice uncle that pops up, I needed more from him and he better be in the other book.
Contains spoilers
Started as an audiobook but I could stand the narrator, it was terrible, didn’t last a minute. So switched to a physical copy.Short chapters so this can be a pretty quick read.
The MC, Peter Sutherland is a little hard to care for. He’s very much a gray man and he has no one. There’s a godfather that shows up but other than that he’s got no family and no friends and he’s dull. Not caring much for Rose either, she’s pretty flat.
Action scene are hard to write, I get that… I was lost at times to what was happening.
Maybe the TV series is good but this was pretty bland.
PS. The ending… how and why are Peter and Rose a couple? And I was expecting some kind of twist, something but dull and I felt a little snubbed, no growth or anything.
I don’t know how I ended up reading book seven instead of the first one but when I realized it was too late.
I felt a bit detached from the characters but if they have already been introduced in other books maybe that’s not that strange?
The love interest took me a moment to realize he was the love interest and he felt to thin and absent from the story. All in all it felt a bit thin.
I thought it would be more about humor in ancient Rome but it went a lot deeper than that. I don’t know much about the time or era and I’m sure it’s more interesting if you are more familiar with the times and people mentioned.
It’s also not written in a funny and entertaining way like some none fiction but is of the dryer variety.
I did like it because it made me think of why we laugh and how humor in many ways is thought, cultural and very individual. But I’m sure the subject could be interesting and funny at the same time, not really happening here.
