Audrey
Within the first few pages I was engrossed. Before I knew it, I was 30-40 pages in. Sadly, I lost momentum somewhere around there as it became overwhelmingly obvious what direction the story was taking. Miranda's uncle disappeared around her twelfth birthday. For years she sought him out until he eventually faded into memory. Years later, she receives word of his death and finds out he's left his bookshop to her. He also left behind a series of clues for her to follow to find answers about not only his past but her own. Again, I found the first pages gripping. Until it wasn't. There are too many clues dropped early on, leaving the mystery pretty much solved with a couple hundred pages to go. Because of this, I would consider it to be more of a work of literary fiction than a mystery.
For some reason, I'm a person who tends to prefer the sequels over the first installments. I read this book back to back with When in Rome and found myself much more attached to Annie and Will than Amelia and Noah.
Shy and introverted Annie has her heart set on finding her other half. Thanks to small-town talk, she begins to fear her quiet reputation has her out of luck in the dating department. She enlists her friend Amelia's bodyguard Will to help her come out of her shell.
I'm not usually a fan of plots where the ‘good girl' has to become someone she isn't just to find ‘love' but it worked for me more here than usual. Will's personality has a great contrast with Annie's. They fit well together as the narrators.
Like When in Rome, this book has quite a few references to Audrey Hepburn, albeit, not quite as many as the first. The film of focus this time around is Funny Face. If you've seen the film, you can see some of the similarities between Annie and Jo Stockton. I'm curious to see if this theme continues should the series go on.
I was torn about whether or not I should continue this book when I realized it had more mystical accounts than scientific. Ultimately, I'm glad I stuck with it as I very much enjoy Annie Jacobsen's writing. Though I can't say I believe every account written in these pages it was an interesting read nonetheless. Despite my personal disbeliefs or contradictions with my faith, the author remains objective, not trying to influence the reader to believe one thing or another. She states the declassified facts as they were recorded as well as her observations upon meeting some of the subjects.
Stacey Willingham is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Normally I struggle to connect with characters this age and in this setting, but I was absolutely absorbed into this story. Margot's college experience isn't what she'd imagined it would be after the death of her best friend after high school. She muddles through her first year. Toward the end of her first year at college, she befriends Lucy, whose allure has Margot under a spell. When Lucy invites her to live with her and a couple of her friends off-campus, Margot accepts. Margot's friendship with Lucy feels like a rebirth of sorts. No longer does she feel like she's only the shadow of her childhood best friend. She's become part of Lucy's circle. Partway through sophomore year, a neighboring fraternity boy is killed. When Lucy suddenly disappears, all eyes turn to Margot, Sloane, and Nicole. I ate up the dynamic between Margot and Eliza as well as Margot and Lucy. The relationships (and the characters in general) were so intriguing. The setting was a good match with the personalities.
I've read a lot of WWII fiction and quite a few have covered the Resistance, however, I've never read about the Norwegian Resistance (if any story set in Norway at all). Hearing the summery, my interest was piqued.
Rumi and Jens make a great team, both carrying the emotional wounds of war and doing what they can to aid those affected by the Nazis. As the story progresses, Rumi's focus shifts to the maternity home which turns out to be more of a glorified prison. In turn, Jens becomes her ally in these missions though he is under the constant watch of the Gestapo. The story is slow to start but picks up about halfway through the book. The found family dynamic is strong here, something I love!
The particular style of writing here isn't my favorite – more detail than dialogue – but the plot shone through it all and I enjoyed the story immensely. With the maternity home such a focus, I do wish we could have seen more about it, though that would have made for a lengthy book and separate from Jens and Rumi's stories. The two have a good, yet complicated chemistry, but the real charm of the book is their shared love for Marjit. In a sense, she is the heart of the story.
A huge thanks to HarperCollins/Harper 360 for sending me a free copy of the book to read and review.
As great as the full cast audiobook is, the intensity of the performance is too much for me for a story I'm not particularly enjoying. I don't like how the pedophilia is being handled and according to reviews, it's not going to get any better. This was my freebie from BOTM so I don't feel obliged to push through.
This series has caught my eye for a while, especially when the movie came out. I've been hesitant to pick it up because I'm not typically one for the horror genre. I joined a buddy read which gave me the push I needed to read it. Jacob grew up listening to his grandfather's stories of the peculiar children he knew growing up. As he got older, he discredited his tales as fiction. Never could he have imagined one of those stories coming to fruition and taking his grandfather's life. No one believes his own story now, thinking him traumatized and mentally unwell. Jacob believes the answer to his nightmares lies in his grandfather's stories. He convinces his parents to allow him to take a trip to England where his grandfather lived during World War II. There, he ends up finding the portal into the past. I was surprised by how absorbed I got into the book. Yet, whenever I put it down, I didn't find myself thinking about it. My interest was mostly in the beginning, however. By the end, I was weirded out by the relationship between Jacob and Emma's relationship. While I could anticipate the book ending on a cliffhanger given there are other books that follow, I was a little annoyed as I don't feel invested enough to jump immediately into book two.
A Stranger in the Family is the 11th book in the Maeve Kerrigan series, however, it stands strong on its own. I went into the book with no former knowledge of the series and was able to keep track of the characters. The book begins with the disappearance of the Marshall's young daughter Rosalie. Jumping to the present day, Helena and Bruce Marshall are found dead. At first look, it appears to be a murder/suicide, but Maeve Kerrigan thinks otherwise and begins her and Josh Derwent's investigation. As I said, despite being so deep into a series, this novel can standalone. I did feel a lack of connection to the characters though as I'm assuming most of the personalities have been established previously in early books, making the book dialogue/plot heavy. For that, I would recommend reading at least the first book. Otherwise, it was a solid mystery. (And the book does end on a bit of a cliffhanger!) A huge thanks to Harper360 for sending me an ARC of the book to read and review!
I never had much interest in reading Dracula until I read Frankenstein earlier this year. Much like my experience with that book, I was braced for campiness rather than genuine source material. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I ended up enjoying it. Told from multiple POVs as well as multiple writing mediums, the story conveys the terrors caused by Count Dracula. A large portion of the book focuses on his victim Lucy and the efforts to keep her out of Dracula's clutches. The rest is dedicated to the study of the count and the pursuit to put an end to him altogether. The different writing styles threw me off in the beginning. I couldn't latch on to the story until it came to scenes with Mina and Lucy. For me, that's when the story began. Before then I struggled to discern who each of the characters were. I could differentiate Lucy and Mina right away but the men took much longer. I enjoyed the gothic atmosphere the most. I can't do modern horror, but I'm finding that I have an interest in some of these classics. It's also interesting to see the original characters who have since become commonplace in media and more often than not spoofed and made comical.
I had decent expectations from this book. I read a lot of books that discuss the dawn of the space age. I haven't yet read a book that focuses so much on Wernher von Braun, though his name naturally makes an appearance in any space book about this era. Breaking the Chains of Gravity certainly keeps a spotlight on him and I was actually disappointed that the rest of the information was largely summarized rather than deeply explored given the title alludes to this era as a whole.
The book has a mechanical and technological focus going through the history of rockets and the scientists behind them. This information is good, though I noticed inconsistencies (particularly historic dates) with other books and what has become general knowledge for me through my reading. It also leaves a nasty elephant in the room and almost minimizes von Braun's connection to the Nazi party. I understand this book aims to look through a technological lens, but it's hard to look past the fact there was a lot of unmentioned human experimentation going on with enslaved prisoners. I don't know the extent of von Braun's moral story and I'd been hoping through this book to gain more insight, instead, I walked away feeling like everything had been justified. I'll believe the claims that he was trapped into joining the party, but that doesn't mean it will ever sit right with me personally. I'd rather read an account that plainly discusses the good as well as the bad.
Aside from this, the rest of the book was interesting enough. I do like the technical side of things. Under these circumstances, I think I would have taken a dryer telling that didn't include much about the members behind the innovations. I do believe there is a time and place to discuss both sides but the way it was presented here just didn't work for me. I would need to read deeper into von Braun's life to solidify my opinion.
I've really enjoyed other books by Fredrik Backman and his writing never fails to speak to me. I wasn't super into the plot of this one not being a hockey fan (or sports fan in general), but there were a lot of passages and moments I really liked. I did go into this thinking my heart was going to shatter completely... I think I made it more devastating in my mind than it turned out to be.
The artwork was enchanting! Definitely going to be a version I go back to over and over again.
A wonderful collection of short stories from a great range of authors. A few that particularly stood out to me were ‘A Novel Thief' by Jessica Baker, ‘A Mystery for the Books' by Angela K. Ryan, ‘Catheter Cliffs' by Mary Lucal, and ‘A Cat Catalog Catastrophe' by Krista Lockheart. Each one has its own flair and there is a good mix of sub-genres keeping every story fresh. A must-read for cozy mystery fans looking to find new authors!
A huge thanks to the publisher for sending me a free digital ARC to read and review!
Informative
I found this book to be a helpful and detailed timeline of the Japanese side of WWII, namely, the different battles. It's a quick read but covers quite a bit without going into excessive detail. Recommend!
A heartwarming story about embracing the differences of others and following your heart, instinct, and faith. Subsequently, The Giant Secret is a story of friendship and family. Good for middle readers but can also be appreciated by adults.
Dawn Wells provides a refreshing handbook of morals long forgotten in today's society. She does so with humor and care in every word. She also provides hope for the young ‘Mary Anns' forced to live in a ‘Ginger' era. I enjoyed every minute of the book, learning a lot along the way.
Picking up shortly after the first book, The Corpse at Ravenholm Castle is a perfect sequel. There are several twists and turns which I always love and some I found very surprising. With some return appearances, we get to know some of the characters better and watch relationships evolve. The new characters, Bridget for example, meddled wonderfully with the originals as well. The balance of mystery, humor, and romance makes for delightful reading. Looking forward to the next installment!
This book raises several interesting questions involving the mob and their potential involvement. While the title is a bit misleading as JPK ‘betrayal' is only mentioned in the final pages, things do tie together with fingers pointed back to him. A good read and stands out from other JFK books.
As the title states, Dorothy Kilgallen received, and continues to receive, a denial of justice.
I read The Reporter Who Knew Too Much a while back and haven't stopped talking about it since. Reading Denial of Justice, it's added fuel to the fire. I will probably end up repeating sentiments in my Reporter Who Knew Too Much review, but the fact Dorothy Kilgallen is practically unknown today is sickening. And when someone does know her name, it's most likely from a What's My Line? rerun.
A groundbreaking reporter, a brilliant mind as seen on tv and as seen through her writing, a woman who worked her way to the top in male dominated industries without losing her elegance has been almost forgotten... in only 54 years? That in itself is cause for suspicion. This woman was the most famous columnist in America and known internationally. Take a browse through internet archives and you'll see for yourself. How has history so quickly forgotten her while hundreds of other people with minor achievements are still household names? And in the age of feminism, no less! This alone is an injustice, never mind the fact her case is being all but ignored by those in power.
Thankfully, there are people like Mark Shaw who will not settle for the ‘accidental overdose' theory. The extent of his research is true homage to Dorothy. Just as she went above and beyond in her JFK investigation, Mark Shaw is going above and beyond to uncover the truth surrounding Dorothy's death. In this book, he has proposed a handful of scenarios as to what might have happened November 8th, 1965, and with everything uncovered in this book, he's likely solved this ‘forgotten' crime step by step.
Thank you, Mr. Shaw, for your integrity and persistence. As a reader and a great admirer of Ms. Kilgallen, I continue to spread the word about the case as well as direct people to your books. Uncovering who murdered Dorothy Kilgallen is one of the keys to solving the mystery of JFK's assassination point blank.
“Justice is a big rug. When you pull it out from under one man, a lot of others fall too.” - Dorothy Kilgallen
Like many people nowadays, I learned about Dorothy Kilgallen through ‘What's My Line?' reruns. She was my favorite panelist. I liked the way her mind worked. About a year after I started watching, my mother sent me an article she'd come across that connected her to JFK. Being a history buff, I did a mad search for more information both on her and the connection, ultimately coming across this book.
It's an injustice this woman has been, more or less, forgotten. She was much more than a panelist on an old game show. Here we have a woman who broke barriers, had a brilliant mind, was the epitome of sophistication, and one of the most famous and respected columnists of the 20th Century, pushed aside after her mysterious death. True to the tone of this book, something doesn't add up. How can someone like Dorothy be so unrecognized in history?
The book offers many theories surrounding cause of death which, at times, left me with my head spinning. The pages are not to be breezed through (especially the second half of the book). While the toxicology reports along with other pieces of documentation can be tedious (and in my case, a foreign language), all of it is important information. As stated in the book, had she lived, the course of history would have been changed dramatically.
No matter what ‘cause of death' theory you believe, kudos to Mark Shaw for giving Dorothy Kilgallen the recognition she deserves. Take away her final investigation and you still have an incredible figure in history that should be recognized now and for years to come. A truly remarkable human being.
Interesting, but wish it was a bit more organized. I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning but somewhere in the middle my attention was lost in the jumble of facts. Glad I finished it nonetheless.
After reading several other books surrounding the JFK assassination, it was interesting to read on that focuses solely on Lee Harvey Oswald. What drew me in was the fact it wasn't exclusively about his ties to JFK, rather the history of his CIA record(s) and his time in Russia and New Orleans. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who has no interest in this historical period as it's not ‘edge of your seat' exciting, but it's certainly fascinating and though provoking when you have prior interest/knowledge.
It's been a while since I've read a mystery book and even longer since I've read a historical mystery. This was the perfect book to rekindle a love for the genre. Murder on the Flying Scotsman has the perfect balance of plot and character. Every character met throughout the pages has their own, well thought-out story even when they seem to play a minor role. I'm usually not bad at figuring out ‘who did it', but this time I had the killer pegged wrong. How refreshing it was! I am looking forward to revisiting Lady Thea in the books to come.