Lisa Henson
Y'all know how much I love Lisa Regan's books. So I figured Hidden Bones was a perfect read for me.
Guess what? I was right!
As I tend to do, I've jumped into the middle of the series here, so I'm getting to know Detective Ellie Reeves on the fly. I was able to follow the story well enough, but I need to go back and start at the beginning to get all the backstory.
The action starts off with a bang when a teenage girl falls into a pit and realizes she's landed on a pile of bones. The bones are on the property of Hawk House, a former children's home that closed down due to rumors of abuse and mistreatment. Ellie and her team investigate to determine whether the bones could belong to children that used to live at the home.
What starts out as an investigation of potentially old crimes is brought suddenly into the present when a woman's body is found. Ellie learns that the victim used to work at the children's home, and when more bodies turn up, she realizes someone doesn't want the truth about Hawk House to come out.
This is a heck of a ride, y'all. Rita Herron does an outstanding job of throwing down hints and then spinning the story in a different direction. The dual timeline perspective used to tell the story works wonderfully here.
Lots of twists and turns make for a thrilling read! Character development is excellent, and the story never lags. The tension builds with each new discovery.
And talking about tension – at some point, Ellie is going to have to choose. Ranger Cord McClain or Special Agent Derrick Fox? Decisions, decisions. I think I'm Team Derrick right now. Maybe.
If you love a good thriller, you'll want to make Ellie Reeves's acquaintance. I'm glad I did. Five stars from me!
I liked The Bookbinder's Daughter, another of Jessica Thorne's books. So I jumped at the chance to read and review this one. While I think I like The Bookbinder's Daughter better, this is an enjoyable story!
Bad enough that Ariadne (Ari) Walker's fiancé Simon broke things off with her. But shortly after the breakup, he died. Drowned in his pursuit of the legendary lost city of Ys. Ari has sworn never to return to Brittany, and while she grieves Simon's death, she sees it as a tragic accident. She puts little stock in local lore that says the princess of Ys was horribly betrayed by one she loved, and as a result, cursed the man who betrayed her and his descendants.
When her brother Jason asks her to come to Brittany to help bolster his case that his team has, in fact, located Ys, she plans to stay a couple of days. She has no intentions of staying in a place that brings her so much pain. But Rafael du Lac, charming and ridiculously wealthy and next of the du Lac men to die if the water witch has her way, convinces her otherwise. Soon things are happening that she can't explain, and she finds herself drawn tighter and tighter into the search for Ys. Finding the city and breaking the curse may be the only way she – or any of them – survive.
The romance felt a little too rushed, too insta-romance for me. I mean, Ari is still heartbroken over both Simon's dumping her and his unexpected death. But she's now developing feelings for the new guy, who may be dying soon, too, if the curse has its way. I know, liberties must be taken for the book. That's just a trope that bothers me a little.
And bless Rafael's heart. He's got so much money, he thinks it fixes everything. Ari says she needs to get back to her job? He sets up a foundation for the school where she teaches and covers all of her expenses to boot. There's a problem with an artifact they found and the university whose help they may need authenticating everything says it's a fake? He dumps a load of cash on them and suddenly they're irrelevant. I almost felt sorry for Rafael, because clearly no amount of money can keep the water witch from coming for him.
But the lore, based on actual legends of Brittany, is fascinating. Characters are not always what they seem, and I found plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing. Thorne's writing style is both beautiful and easy to read, and Ari is an easy character to care about.
So this wasn't quite up to the level of The Bookbinder's Daughter for me, but it's a solid four-star read. Very enjoyable if you're a fan of a good paranormal tale with a dash of fantasy, romance, and adventure.
Disclaimer: I received an advance copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
This book. The opening sequence, describing Bernard Froehlich's desperate trek across an unforgiving desert hoping against hope for rescue, is brutal. I'm not super squeamish, but some of the descriptions almost put me off the book.
I'm so glad they didn't.
Bernard Froehlich is found near a British outpost in the north African desert, wearing a German uniform. The Brits want to, if not shoot him on sight, at least capture him. But he convinces them he is, in fact, one of them. He tells a remarkable story, of being the lone survivor of a group of German Jewish soldiers going undercover as Nazis. As it turns out, he is not yet done serving for Britain.
I've never been in the military. I've certainly never been an undercover commando training for vital missions. But Steven Hartov writes in such a way as to make it clear how challenging such a task, such a role must be. We've all heard it said that war is hell, and so it is here.
I've read a fair amount of World War II historical fiction told from the perspective of women. The Last of the Seven is not that. It's much more descriptive in its scenes of battles and wounds, of the training Froehlich and his men endure. But while it doesn't focus on the more emotional side of war stories as seen from a woman's point of view, it is not without emotion. Froehlich earnestly desires vengeance on the Nazis for what they did to his family. Deaths of comrades are truly mourned. War romance is bittersweet. The story runs the gamut of emotion and does an excellent job drawing the reader into each scene.
I knew nothing about the “X Troop,” the German Jews who fought for the Allies and used their heritage and native language against the Nazis. I can only imagine that imitating those who they most had cause to loathe brought an extra layer of difficulty to their service.
I found The Last of the Seven to be an engrossing, well-written, well-researched work of historical fiction, and I appreciated the fact that it taught me something new about World War II history.
This book deals with some difficult subjects: murder, suicide, poor treatment/abuse of women. If these are subjects that cause you distress, please do not read this review.
Paper Targets opens with a bang, literally. Connie and Roanne have been best friends for fifty years. They've been through a lot together. So when Roanne decides to end her ex-husband's life and then her own, she does it with Connie on the line. Before she does, she tells Connie that the anger has trapped her, there was no way out, but that Connie needs to speak up. “Don't let them have the final say.”
Connie is left floundering without her best friend, but she takes Roanne's words to heart. She makes it her mission to revisit the men in her life who have talked down to her, taken her for granted, left her feeling “less than.” Former bosses, boyfriends, lovers, her ex-husband, even her deceased father – none of them escape Connie's speaking up for herself.
The story alternates between past and present events, and each glimpse of the past sheds more light on the present. We see Roanne and Connie growing up, see how they took each unkind word and each slight, whether intended or not. Patricia Watts does an excellent job developing each character, showing how their pasts shaped them and impacted their present relationships.
The cover of this story makes you think this is a lighter story. Maybe a cozy mystery or a rom-com. It is not. It deals with some fairly weighty topics. In fact, the bulk of the story revolves around Connie finding the inner strength to reclaim the parts of herself that men have taken away or squelched over the years. She knew Roanne never did find that strength, never could stand up to the men who would put her down until she had enough and pulled the trigger.
I think most women have experienced, at some point, a man telling them, “You can't do that, you're a girl.” Maybe not in those precise words, but in attitude and in action. Any woman who's ever had that happen, who's been made to feel like she doesn't measure up to some arbitrary standard simply because of her gender, will absolutely cheer for Connie. They might even see a little of themselves in Roanne, because at some point, maybe we've all thought, “We're not gonna take it anymore.”
Paper Targets covers challenging subject matter, but it is a worthwhile read. I won't say I enjoyed it. That sounds too casual. But it is a thought-provoking story, and it will stick with me long after the last page has been turned.
I have just finished reading The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip, and I'm sitting here with tears streaming down my face. I think I can say without spoiling anything that Mrs. Kip dies in the book. There's sadness over that. But in the final extraordinary death of Mrs. Kip, there is joy. She is a woman who's dedicated her life to loving as Jesus loves, to serving others, and she goes home to her Savior a mighty conqueror.
Aidyn Kelley, a young and talented reporter, wanted a real story, under her byline. She chafed at doing what she saw as grunt work for another, more experienced reporter. She wanted something with substance. She tried to take matters into her own hands to get that story, but her efforts failed in a big way. When she's assigned to write an obituary for Clara Kip, someone who says herself that she lived an “exceedingly unimpressive” life, she thinks her editor is punishing her for trying to get above her station.
Little does Aidyn know the story that Mrs. Kip has to tell, and little does she realize that her dreaded, hard-nosed editor is one of those warriors that the Lord hides in the most surprising places.
Mrs. Kip made a deal with Aidyn. For every extraordinary way to die that Aidyn dreamed up for her, Mrs. Kip would answer three questions about her life. This led to some pretty humorous moments as Aidyn came up with ways both mild and wild in which Mrs. Kip could meet her Maker. And true to her word, Mrs. Kip answered Aidyn's questions. And the events of her life unfolded in memories and flashbacks.
At first, I wondered why Mrs. Kip didn't just TELL Aidyn her story. Why did she want Aidyn to work for it? Why did she want Aidyn to want to know her story, to seek it out? And the more I read, the more I saw: God was working through Mrs. Kip to break Aidyn's pride, to help her see what was truly important in life. Clara Kip was loving Aidyn the best she could by not just handing Aidyn her life story and saying, “Here you go!” By realizing that this wasn't “just” an obituary, by seeing that Mrs. Kip's was a story that needed to be told, by learning how Mrs. Kip impacted others by dying to self and going where the Lord led her, Aidyn found her own strength in the Lord. And she saw what a privilege it had been for Mrs. Kip, and what a delight it could be for her, to live a life of mindful, joyful service to others, with no heed given to whatever status the world did or didn't convey.
“Authentic love is the greatest joy there is, Miss Kelley, but it requires a thousand little deaths to self.”
How often have I not loved people as best as I could? How much more could the light of Jesus have shone through me over the years had I been devoted to mindful, joyful service? This book made me laugh, made me cry, and made me think. And isn't that what a good story is supposed to do?
As an added bonus, this story points us to the greatest Story ever told: God's love for us and the gift of eternal life available to all of us – “whoever will” – through His Son Jesus. Mrs. Kip is a marvelous example of someone who loves well and does her human best to love like Jesus. She “lived as if death were merely a phase, not an end. She poured out as if she would never go empty.”
The extraordinary deaths of Mrs. Kip were the deaths she died to self serving others. As she said, “The Lord never failed to answer a prayer for work to do.” She died in amazing ways every time she said yes to His work. That made hers a story worth telling and a life well lived.
I'd give this book ten stars if I could. It is easily one of my favorite books of 2022, maybe ever. If any of what I've written here speaks to you, please, go get a copy of this book and get to reading.
Disclaimer: I received an advance copy from Revell Reads. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
Sweet mother of pearl, WHAT A RIDE.
The Binding Room is a dark, twisty, compelling police procedural, the second in Nadine Matheson's Inspector Anjelica Henley series. I haven't read the first, but I don't feel like my reading of this one suffered for it.
DI Anjelica Henley has a lot on her plate. She's dealing with the loss of a loved one, the fallout from an affair with her superior, and PTSD from her near-death experience at the hands of a suspect on a previous investigation. But all that has to take a back seat when a young woman goes to her job cleaning a church and finds the pastor, ostensibly a respected pillar of the community, brutally murdered. The SCU is called in to investigate. But when another person is found bound and clearly subjected to torture in a hidden room of the church, the SCU must also consider whether the pastor was victimizer as well as victim.
First, let me say that this isn't a book for the faint of heart. It deals with some fairly gory descriptions of injuries, and it covers the topics of abuse and mental health in a way that might be unsettling or upsetting for some. It also portrays an ostensibly Christian church in a less than flattering light.
But if those things don't put you off reading, this is a nail-biter of a story. This isn't just one murder, it's several, and the SCU has to figure out how they all tie together. A horrifying picture unfolds of unthinkable acts committed under the guise of exorcisms. But worse still, one of the victims had recently given birth. Where is her baby? In the hands of a killer?
Matheson's background in the criminal arena shines through. You don't write this kind of story this well without having some personal experience in the matter. With the way the SCU was written, though, as a team who have each other's backs even when they're giving each other good-natured grief, I would have pegged her for a prosecutor (I was one in a former work incarnation). She paints a thorough picture of police procedure and the criminal justice system.
The story is set in London, and there are a few terms and acronyms that might not be familiar to someone who hasn't operated within the UK legal system. I was able to gather the meaning of those from context pretty well, and the jargon didn't keep me from reading at speed and well past my bedtime.
The Binding Room is a five-star read for me. Dark, twisty, and absolutely enthralling. I look forward to reading more from Nadine Matheson!
I loved Katherine Macdonald's vision of Sleeping Beauty in Kingdom of Thorns. She now puts a different spin on it with Forest of Dreams and Whispers, and I think I like this one even better!
Juliana is a mortal born in Faerie. Her father has raised her, since her mother abandoned them long ago (or so she believes). She doesn't remember the curse cast on Prince Hawthorn, the insufferably smug and vain Seelie prince she's sworn to protect. His eighteenth birthday is drawing near, and with it, the fulfillment of the curse. She is responsible for guarding his life in hopes that the curse can be broken by the kiss of his chosen fae bride. All Juliana knows is that she'll be well rewarded for keeping the prince safe, and whoever his chosen fae bride is, it won't be her.
Macdonald doesn't tell the story in chronological order, but jumps from present to past and back again from one chapter to the next. I think this lets us get a good picture of how the relationship between Juliana and Hawthorn builds and changes.
And change it does. Juliana and Hawthorn are wonderful! They snipe and snark at each other, and Hawthorn takes positive glee in tweaking Juliana. She gets her digs in, too, but she doesn't see how much Hawthorn enjoys yanking her chain. They're two wonderfully oblivious teenagers, each hoping maybe the other doesn't hate them as much as they put on, each scared to death to open up to each other about how they really feel.
The supporting characters are nicely drawn as well. The Queen, Hawthorn's mother, is not as he perceives her. Juliana's father, Markham, also hides a secret – from everyone, including his daughter. There is friendship and betrayal, humor and loss. And always, there is the hope that the curse can be broken.
If you love a good gender swapped story, a slow burn romance, and a tale of love and hope and courage, look no further. Pick up Forest of Dreams and Whispers and get to reading!
Disclaimer: I received an advance reader copy from Booksprout. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
I've loved Heather Webber's books since I won an ARC of Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe. I've reviewed South of the Buttonwood Tree and The Lights of Sugarberry Cove and raved about them. Can a fourth book continue Ms. Webber's winning streak with me?
Absolutely.
Emme Wynn's mother uprooted Emme from Sweetgrass, Alabama years ago and took her young daughter along with her on a life of misdeeds and bad behavior. Emme cut ties with her when she turned eighteen and has been trying to build a life for herself free of her mother's malicious influence.
But now home has found Emme. Her grandmother, Glory, has located her and invited her to come back to Sweetgrass, with a job offer to boot. The day Emme arrives, the police have found a body in the community garden on Hickory Lane. The neighborhood is abuzz. Word has it the body might be Glory's long-lost sister.
It's tough for Emme to settle in. She tries, though, and slowly, she starts to embrace Sweetgrass. Glory has taken her in and is showing her the ropes of working at her shop. She's getting closer to her newfound cousin, Cora Bee. But Emme knows it can't last. She knows she hasn't been entirely truthful. She dreads the day she'll have to reveal her secret and fears she'll lose the new family and new home she's found.
Webber creates a realistic small-town setting, populated with people you feel like you might know. I love the neighborhood on Hickory Lane in particular. It's a place where people know and care about their neighbors. Sure, some of them might be a little nosey. But they generally poke their nose in your business because they care. That's the kind of place I want to live.
Each chapter was introduced with a bit of wisdom about the flowers that Glory was passing on to Emme. I thought that was a lovely touch.
The story deals with hard topics. An abusive and manipulative parent, a loved one missing for decades, a friend struggling with memory loss and independent living, poor choices leading to undesirable results. Secrets kept can become a burden. Each woman in the story has something she has not shared with others and each woman is impacted by what she is hiding. But in the right time, a secret can be revealed and that burden lifted. Webber does a wonderful job of demonstrating how liberating it is to trust the people in our lives enough to share with them we've tried so long to keep hidden.
Secrets come to light, family found, a little dollop of romance, the healing we find in love and community. All of this blended beautifully with Webber's trademark magical realism and whimsy adds up to a winner of a book.
Five stars, and if you haven't read her books, what are you waiting for?!
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and Forge Books. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
Ava is a librarian in the United States. She enjoys her work with the Library of Congress, so it's with no little trepidation that she accepts an offer to work undercover gathering intelligence in Lisbon. Her job will be to collect documents, mostly official and unofficial newspapers, and microfilm them so they can be sent back to the States.
Elaine, when first we meet her in occupied Lyon, France, is Hélène Bélanger. To protect a Jewish woman, Hélène gives away her own identity papers. A friend in the French Resistance provides her with new papers, and Elaine Rousseau, underground newspaper printer, is born. The Resistance is able to make good use of her printing press experience, and she works to get important information out to the French people.
Elaine's story line has more tension and anxiety, as she is constantly at risk of discovery by Nazi forces. Ava's story has its own moments of intrigue and fear, though, and both women show courage in their own way. Both also had some moments where I just wanted to shout at the book and ask them what they were thinking, but perhaps bravery looks like taking a risk for a good cause that other people simply can't understand. And when we finally see how their paths cross late-ish in the book, the risks they've taken seem a lot more understandable.
Martin has obviously done a great deal of research and put a lot of care into her character development. Descriptions of Nazi torture are minimal, but effectively gruesome. The suspense and underlying threat of discovery pulled me deeper into the story. Some of the characters' circumstances, like that of Otto, are heart-wrenching and bring to vivid life stories that you might read in the history books. I particularly enjoyed the epilogue – I enjoy hearing about “the rest of the story!”
The one thing sticking in my craw is that, to my reading, neither of the women was the “librarian spy” of the title. Ava was a librarian, and she was gathering information for the war effort back home, but what she was doing didn't strike me as espionage. And Elaine, while invaluable to the French Resistance and definitely operating undercover, wasn't a spy, either. There IS a character that is a spy and that is ostensibly a librarian. Who? I'll let you read and discover that for yourself. But since it was neither Ava nor Elaine, the title feels a little misleading.
Overall, The Librarian Spy is a beautifully written, well-researched work of historical fiction that enlightened me about the important role of librarians during World War II. Ultimately it's a tale about the power of words and their ability to bring hope even to the darkest hour. Four stars from me.
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy from the publisher and NetGalley. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
Felicity's shop, Greetings and Felicitations, is doing well. So she decides she's up for the challenge when a local museum offers her the opportunity to create a replica of a gigantic pirate ship sculpture from chocolate for a gala event. But soon there are two dead artists on the scene, no clear suspects, and no agreement on which of the dead people was actually the intended victim. Felicity realizes she may have to go back to her sleuthing ways to get the case wrapped up so that the gala can go on.
I do enjoy this series! Felicity is smart and creative, and if she's branching out into chocolate sculpture, she's not afraid to try new things. Before I read this book, I hadn't even thought of being able to 3D print chocolate. That's pretty amazing stuff. But I digress. Felicity has to put herself out there for this sculpture, investing time, investing in new equipment for new processes, and investing in new people with different skills for different parts of the project. The whole process had me fascinated.
Not only is Felicity branching out in terms of her chocolate craft, she's learning to scuba dive! She misses her deceased husband. She's had to deal with a lot coming through that. But she's not stagnating. She's learning and growing and doing different things. If she was my friend in real life, I'd tell her how proud I was of her.
The characters were an interesting lot. You often hear about temperamental artists, and several of these fit the bill. That made it challenging to really pinpoint who might be the killer. Slights real and imagined abounded among this artistic crew, but which one of them could have been upset enough to kill? It was tough to get a handle on it. Royer would lead one way, I'd think I'd figured it out, and then she'd switch things up! That makes a mystery so much more fun, when it keeps you guessing.
Renoir the cockatoo was a delightful addition to the story. He was quite the character, creating art for the museum's benefit and talking up a storm. He tossed out some phrases that really made Felicity wonder what he'd heard, and from whom. Ah, if only birds could create their own sentences instead of just repeating what they've heard. Renoir might have been able to offer some insight into the murders right off the bat! And I appreciated that Royer made the point that bird ownership is a lifelong commitment, as some birds, cockatoos included, can live about 40 years.
Felicity is still having a hard time making up her mind between Logan and Arlo. What a dilemma – choosing between two men who sound positively delicious, and who each complement Felicity's personality in their own way! She's finally committed to making a decision by Autumn's wedding, though, so the love triangle may not last much longer. (Who are you cheering for? I'm currently leaning toward Team Arlo.)
Chocolate, history, art, mystery, and romance – that's a five-star story right there. I can't wait to see where the series takes us next!
Merryn Allingham has another winner with Murder at the Priory Hotel! Here, Flora, Jack, and everyone in Abbeymead is gathering to celebrate the grand re-opening of the Priory Hotel. Sally Jenner has bought it and has big plans. But those plans grind to a halt when Beverly Russo, the lead singer of the band brought in for the big day, drops dead on stage. Heart attack? Poison? Electrocution?
Flora and Jack are once again in the thick of things when police progress is painfully slow. This time, they're both aware of their growing feelings for each other, and so aren't as quick to jump in to help. But when Sally asks Flora for help, fearing that she will lose the hotel, Flora can't say no.
Once again, there's no shortage of suspects! At one point Flora wonders whether Sally herself could have done the deed. It turns out many people have connections to Beverly, and most of those connected to her have a reason to hate her. Even Dominic, on whom Sally is sweet, has ties to Beverly (and he may not be who he purports to be, either). Who acted on that passion and ended her life?
The most frustrating thing about this book for me was the efforts both Jack and Flora made to keep themselves away from each other. Clearly they have feelings for each other. Why, then, the dance to keep those at bay? I like the characters. I want them to be happy. It seems to me like they would be happy together (and then they could open a detective agency, and wouldn't that be fun?!).
This is a light, clean read with enough twists and turns to keep the story moving. No extreme gore or adult situations here. It's the kind of book you can just lose yourself in and forget about life for a while! I think that may be just what we need in this crazy world. Five stars from me!
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy of this book from Bookouture and NetGalley. All opinions are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
To say I'm a fan of Anita Dickason's work would be an understatement. With Deadly Business, she established herself firmly as one of my favorite authors. So I had high hopes for Deadly Keepsakes, the first in Dickason's Tori Winters series. Boy, did she deliver!
In Deadly Keepsakes, we meet Tori Winters, a hospice nurse. She's in hot water with some questionable characters after she reports the death of one of her patients as suspicious. So when she receives a call from an attorney in Texas, wanting to meet with her, she decides to pull up stakes and meet him in person. Tori leaves town expecting to stay in Granbury, Texas for a few days at most.
Imagine her surprise when she learns about a grandmother she never knew. Even more surprising, this grandmother has left Tori a massive inheritance. The inheritance includes a mansion, built by Tori's mobster great-grandfather. Word travels fast in small towns, and it soon gets out that Tori may want to stay in Granbury. Suddenly a whole lot of people seem to be trying to persuade her that maybe she should sell.
Tori's grandmother has left her a message indicating that the house holds secrets. Tori has to figure out what the secrets are and unravel their meaning while dodging ever-escalating attempts to run her off - or just get her out of the way for good.
The cozy mystery may not be Dickason's usual genre, but she has written a bang-up good story here. The characters are people you love, hate, or love to hate. Tori hires Mia, Cammie, Tina, and Heidi to help her clean up her new home, but they soon become her girl gang. I love how Mia knows everybody and can hook Tori up with a solution to just about every problem she faces, because isn't that exactly how small towns are? Can Jonah Greer, Tori's local legal counsel, be trusted? Is he really advising her to do what he thinks is best, or does he have an ulterior motive? And snobby socialite Myra and her equally snobby daughter, well, my fingers just itched to slap them as I was reading.
And while the story has lighthearted moments, it also hooks you from the start and pulls you along. The action starts in chapter one and doesn't let up until the big reveal. There was never a moment in this book when I thought, gosh, this story is lagging. To the contrary. I could barely tear myself away from it!
The historical notes at the end of the book were a nice finishing touch. I had never heard of Benny Binion and the Top O'Hill Terrace, and it's always interesting to learn a little bit about Texas' colorful characters!
Found family, danger, intrigue, a wonderful cast of characters, and an engaging mystery – sounds like a five-star read to me!
JeVon McCormick, the CEO of Scribe Media, isn't your average CEO. He didn't grow up with the country club set, learning how to present himself and move in polite society. In Modern Leader, he shares how he got to where he is now and how his upbringing and experiences have shaped his philosophy of leadership.
I normally write All the Wordy Words about books. With this book, I just can't. I'd have to put the whole book here for you, because it is chock full of McCormick's hard-won insights and wisdom.
Ask yourself: Why do individuals feel the need to edit themselves to fit into our organizations?
Why don't we instead edit our organizations to better fit individuals?
Jevon McCormick, Modern Leader
His philosophy is pretty simple (not necessarily easy to implement, but simple): Ask questions. Listen. Hold yourself accountable. Lead by serving your company, your customers, and the people who work for you. And it is working, because everything I've heard about Scribe Media is overwhelmingly positive. The company is growing. Clearly, his putting People First is doing something right!
If more leaders subscribed to JeVon McCormick's ideas, work might not be such a slog for so many people. The world has changed. Is changing. Will continue to change. The “right” degree, the “right” background, those are no longer the only (and maybe not even the best) qualifications that will indicate the talent someone may bring to a role. Leadership has got to adjust and change its focus, and McCormick provides a guide that shows how to get it done.
If you're a leader, or if you just want to improve your ability to communicate and be mindful in your interactions, you need to read this book. I'd like to gift a copy to all the leaders I know.
(Also, if anyone from Scribe is reading this, I would love the opportunity to work with y'all.)
Gemma Cross is a cat burglar. Retired cat burglar, that is. She's just bought a condo in a building that really promotes the idea of community, and it's an adjustment for her. She misses the adrenaline rush of scaling a building, and she isn't used to people like new neighbor Penny popping up and being all friendly.
But it isn't long before Gemma has a problem. Two, in fact. First, there's the dead body in their building. Second, there's the detective working the case. She's seen Gemma before, at the scene of a double murder that ended Gemma's cat burglary days and that took her partner in crime, Danni, away from her. And she's determined to make Gemma her number one suspect for this murder.
Archer weaves a delightful story, and Gemma is a lot of fun to read. She isn't used to fitting into polite society. She has to navigate rooftop cocktail parties and having dinner with her new neighbors. She makes no secret of her singleness, and she unabashedly goes out looking for male companionship. (No graphic details, but it's not all entirely off the page, either. Worth a mention if you prefer the romance-type element of your books squeaky clean.) She's also having a hard time finding an adrenaline buzz that matches what she gets from hanging off the side of a building where she isn't supposed to be.
As all good cozies should, this story has a cat. Gemma rescued the cat from her final burglary (the one that went wrong and put her front and center as the current suspect), and she has a soft spot for him. Anyone who's a cat person is my kind of people. When Gemma's past rears its ugly head and Mr. Solomon (or Sol, to his friends – meaning Gemma) is in danger, she does what she has to do to bring him home safely.
And everybody in this story has a secret, it seems like! Is slightly-nosy neighbor Penny as good as she seems? What's up with author Cassie's sleaze boyfriend, Leighton? Even Nico, the lead detective on the murder, has something that she'd rather not talk about. There's a little mystery and intrigue around every corner here!
The Body in My Building is a good start to a new series, and I look forward to reading more about what Gemma Cross gets up to. Will she adjust to community living? What else might pop up from her past? Will Gemma (and the readers) see more of hunky detective Jared Jackson? And will she have to get a regular job?! Oh, the horror. I can't wait to find out!
Murder on the Med is an enchanting cozy mystery set in the 1920s. Lady Dorothea (Dodo) Dorchester is on vacation in Greece with her family – her parents and her sister Diantha (Didi). Dodo has nothing more on her mind than hoping the introduction of her sweetheart, Rupert, to the family will go well. But things take a turn when an English woman is found dead at a tourist site that a group, including Dodo and her people, had just visited. How is the dead woman connected to the group? Could one of the group be the killer?
Often an amateur sleuth is an unwelcome presence in cozies. They frequently have to work around the police and are admonished to stay out of the way and let the professionals do their job. Not so in this story! The local detective welcomes Dodo's help and discusses the case with her regularly. I think that frees Dodo up to do more in terms of open investigating than we usually see in a cozy, and that's refreshing.
I love the Greek setting. The descriptions and details made me almost feel like I was there, and the period details seemed to be on point. You could tell Ms. Sutton did her research.
The plot kept me guessing, too. Mysteries where I don't figure out whodunnit early in the story are the best! Ms. Sutton used a couple of red herrings to great effect in concealing the killer's identity until time for the big reveal.
Dodo herself is a thoroughly likable character. She's upper class but not the least bit snooty about it. Her maid, Lizzie, met a man she liked in Greece, and it tickled me no end to see Dodo encouraging Lizzie to be happy. She wasn't worried about whether she'd have to find a new maid. She cared for Lizzie and wanted the best for her. That's a quality not always portrayed when you've got characters who are well to do.
All told, Murder on the Med is an enjoyable read. If you can't get away for a sun-drenched vacation anytime soon, go to Greece with Dodo. This book is perfect for devouring in one sitting by the pool! It's my first book by Ann Sutton, but it definitely won't be my last.
Tansy Hill and Dane Knudson are longstanding rivals. Tansy is convinced that Dane's charming good looks hide a heart that dances with glee every time he can do something to benefit his family's honey operation and get in the way of hers. And right now, they're both aiming to win the best honey award at the upcoming Honey Bee Festival. Can Honey Hill win and keep the business going?
The Sweetest Thing is a treat! Sasha Summers creates a lovely small town in Honey, Texas, and she populates it with characters you can love (and love to hate). Tansy assumes the worst of Dane based on their shared past, and Dane seems to delight in allowing her to make those assumptions, even as he finds himself attracted to her. They alternate between bickering and drawing closer, back and forth, and they're simply adorable even when they're infuriating. (Because I did occasionally want to reach into the book and shake them and tell them to get over themselves already!) It was fun seeing them thrust together to work with the Junior Beekeepers.
In addition to the competition for the best honey award, there is also multigenerational family drama. Dane is trying to keep Viking Honey going while his father hides out after his latest failed marriage. This includes trying to keep his younger brother, Liam, on the straight and narrow. Tansy's aunts, Camellia and Magnolia, each have a secret of their own. What happened between Camellia and Harald Knudson? Who is the red-haired woman seen with Magnolia, and why isn't Magnolia talking? The side stories in addition to the main plot really kept things buzzing.
Dane's brother Liam was an especially appealing character. I'm a boy mom. I know what teenage boys are like, particularly when their older brother is trying to keep them in line and they're interested in exactly none of it. Liam was just about perfectly drawn as a young man heading for a heap of trouble, and I loved that Dane didn't just give up on him.
I thoroughly enjoyed all of the details on beekeeping! I know very little about the care and keeping of bees, so all the information Summers included was fascinating to me. It was clear she'd done a lot of research, and if we had room, I might like to try keeping a hive or two of my own after reading the book.
A second-chance, enemies-to-lovers romance, the tension of waiting to see whether Honey Hill will survive, some surprise plot points that I didn't see coming, and a fascinating look into the world of apiary care and management made this a solid four-star book for me. It's a quick, engaging read, and would be perfect for road trip reading or for reading while you're outside swinging in a hammock. The recipe for lavender-honey lemon poppyseed muffins is a tasty bonus. I can't wait to try those out!
The Sweetest Thing is a honey of a story! Buzz on down to your local bookstore and pick up a copy. You'll be glad you did!
Disclaimer: I received an advance reader copy from the publisher and NetGalley. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
This is my first book by Karen Witemeyer that I've read, and I think we have the start of a beautiful friendship here! I simply adored the story, the characters, her writing style, everything. Action, mystery, romance, family tension, this one has it ALL.
Quiet, bookish Damaris Baxter often felt overlooked and invisible to everyone except her older brother. She seldom saw him, though, because he'd moved away to Texas. When he dies suddenly, Damaris learns that he named her as guardian of his son, her nephew, Nate.
Luke Davenport's upbringing was rough. He grew up with violence and anger around him, but he didn't let it define him. As part of Hanger's Horsemen, he's been able to help right some wrongs. The Horsemen are settling down, though, and they've all found a place to rest except for him. He figures on a nomadic life...until he encounters Damaris and Nate.
Damaris isn't your typical romance heroine. She's nerdy (yay for the book nerds!), reserved, of average pleasing looks. She started the book out nervous and scared about a lot of things. She had to steel herself to jump into situations that needed jumping into. She isn't drop dead gorgeous or super confident. But she's real. I could relate to her as she tried to figure out how best to help Nate deal with his father's death and how to show him that trouble wasn't the path he wanted to choose. She jumped headlong into a new life in Texas to help the nephew she loved, and it was a delight seeing her grow in confidence and in wisdom as the book progressed.
Luke wasn't the perfect hero, either. He'd had some difficulty in his life. He doubted himself, doubted whether he was meant to ever have things easy. But he kept on trying to do the next right thing. When he saw that Nate was running headlong toward trouble, he stepped in to try to redirect him. He didn't hesitate to jump into a fight when the cause was just, even at great risk to his own safety. And he wasn't going to let Damaris go it alone trying to learn more about her brother's death in mysterious circumstances.
The secondary characters were also nicely fleshed out. Dr. Jo was one of my favorites. Witemeyer writes her women capable and strong, even if they don't realize it at first. It's nice to see female characters in historical fiction who don't necessarily abide by the expectations for women in their time period. And Nate was so very teenage boy! I liked seeing how Luke and Damaris never gave up on him, even when he was determined to fling himself headlong into trouble.
Faith was a vital part of the story for both of our main characters. Luke relied on Scripture in every situation. I should have so much knowledge of the Bible tucked away in my heart. Prayer was a regular part of their lives, and trust in God was essential. The romance was clean. Luke and Damaris were notably careful not to put themselves into situations where temptation might overcome them, and their relationship had time to build.
Rich in faith and love, with good guys to cheer for and bad guys to boo and hiss, In Honor's Defense is everything I love in a good book. Five stars, and I can't wait for my next Witemeyer read!
After her family was brutally murdered before her eyes ten years ago, Leah Miller left the Amish community. The man believed to have committed the crime is thought to be dead. So why, as the tenth anniversary of the murders approaches, are Amish girls being killed? And why is their killer apparently setting his sights on Leah? Leah, now in law enforcement, will have to work with new chief Dalton Cooper to unravel the clues and solve the crime before the killer gets up close and personal with Leah herself.
MAN, this is a heck of a read! It's got suspense by the bucketful, as the killer continually taunts Leah and always seems to be one step ahead. The tension builds as the anniversary of her family's murders draws nearer and as the victims are increasingly closer to Leah. Alford includes the killer's point of view in the story, too, which helps keep the pressure on.
There's an element of romance, too, as Leah and Dalton develop feelings for each other. It's a little bit of an insta-romance, but not entirely, as Dalton has a connection to the case that he's reluctant to reveal. His personal interest gives him at least a little pause before he lets himself act on his interest in Leah. I found his personal connection fascinating, and thought it added a nice touch to the story.
Marge, Leah's adoptive mother, is battling dementia. I thought Alford did a masterful job of portraying the difficulties Leah faced trying to help an aging parent cope, as well as the pain Marge felt in her lucid moments, realizing her grip on her memories was slipping. I wanted to reach in and hug them both, because that's a rough thing to deal with.
As you might expect with a book where many of the characters are part of a religious community, faith in God definitely plays a role. Leah drifted away from her faith after her family was killed, and she struggles to find her way back. Dalton relies fairly heavily on his faith and has a fellow believer who he can talk to and be encouraged by. I do love a story where the faith portrayed isn't tacked on as an afterthought, but is an integral and important part of the characters' lives.
And lest you think I thought this book was perfect, there was one teeny-weeny thing that stuck in my craw just a little. When Leah learned of Dalton's personal interest in the case, she took it poorly. Understandably, she felt hurt that he hadn't trusted her with that sooner. Yet, in just a couple of pages, they're back on good terms, with very little said about the matter. This one thing felt super rushed to me and I would think that situation would play out differently in real life. In the grand scheme, though, that was but a minor blip on my enjoyment of the story.
Overall, this was a great read. Lots of twists and turns, insight into the killer's thoughts without overly gory descriptions of crime scenes, characters who rely on their faith and each other, and just enough romance to keep it interesting. And I learned something! I had no idea there were Amish communities in Montana. I had to go look up St. Ignatius. Beautiful country up there. I'd love to visit.
Five stars to Mary Alford for a ripping good thrill ride of a book!
The Thread Collectors is an amazing testimony to what we'll do for love and freedom.
The story unfolds from the perspectives of Stella, a Black slave whose love, William, has escaped from slavery, and Lily, a Jewish woman from New York whose husband, Jacob, has enlisted for the Union.
Stella was a slave, purchased by a white man as his mistress, to be used for his pleasure. She had very little to call her own. Lily was the daughter of a wealthy businessman in New York, with all the advantages the world had to offer. They seem as different as two people could possibly be. But Lily felt very strongly that slavery had to end, and she became involved with the abolitionist movement. These women's lives and their fights for freedom intersected when the men who were important to them met up at a Union encampment in Louisiana.
Thread ties the lives of Stella and Lily together. Stella sewed a map to the Union camp for William before he left, using what cloth and thread she could come up with, both so that he'd have a guide as he fled his bondage and so that he'd have a piece of her to carry with him. She then continued to stitch maps for other slaves to find their way to freedom as well. Lily helped the war effort by rolling bandages and stitching quilts for the soldiers, with her first quilt made especially for Jacob, a tangible representation of her love for him.
Likewise, music is a unifying force for William and Jacob. William is a good musician, and that earned him a little bit better treatment than many slaves received. His master always wanted him to perform. Jacob is also musically inclined, and when he realizes William's talent, he does his best to ensure that William has a chance to put his skills to use in the military.
This book is simply amazing. The research the authors put into it is apparent, and the events they convey are often heartbreaking. It's loosely based on their own family histories, and quite a compelling tale. And this book really stands out because its viewpoint is different. I've read a fair bit of historical fiction, and I can't say that I recall reading another story told from Black and Jewish viewpoints. That made this a story that really caught my attention and didn't let go.
If you want a story that's well researched, well written, and emotionally gripping, set in the latter days of the Civil War, you'll love The Thread Collectors.
I had no idea who Sasha Alsberg was when I had the chance to join the blog tour for Breaking Time. I didn't know she was a Booktuber/Instagrammer/content creator. The book just sounded like a dandy read. I do enjoy a good time travel story, after all, and my goodness, that gorgeous cover would draw anyone in. So my thoughts on the book aren't affected by Ms. Alsberg's internet presence or reputation.
It reminds me of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. The name similarity – Claire and Klara – caught my attention right off the bat. But thankfully, Breaking Time is not an Outlander clone. Clearly very heavily inspired by Outlander, but not a carbon copy.
Klara has returned to Scotland following her mother's death, where she is helping her father run an inn. When a man appears unexpectedly in the road ahead of her, her immediate concern is whether she hit him. But it soon turns out she's got bigger worries. The man, Callum, has traveled forward in time from the 1580s, and Klara is in danger.
Callum feels like he failed his friend Thomas in his own time when he couldn't save Thomas from a killer. Now he thinks it's his job to protect Klara, who is being pursued by the same dark entity. Klara is the last remaining Pillar of Time, and if her pursuer is able to take her out, it means a whole lot of bad things for life as we know it.
Things I enjoyed about the book: Time travel is always fun to play with. It's interesting to see how Alsberg set hers up as compared to how other authors design it. Here, “thin places” in the world allow for time travel. Not stones, as in the Outlander series, but historical points of interest. Klara is a likeable young woman, and I appreciated the way that Alsberg presented and dealt with her neurodiversity in the form of dyslexia. And I really liked her grandmother! I wish we'd seen more of her character in the book.
Things I didn't like: Having Callum's Scottish accent written out was distracting. Knowing where he was from, I could have imagined it for myself just fine. The fact that he sometimes fell out of his accent didn't help. He also seemed to generally accept his sudden time shift fairly easily, without a tremendous amount of confusion or suspicion about modern conveniences.
I don't entirely understand WHY it was that he came to be transported into Klara's time. Was it just happenstance, in the wrong place at the right time, and he just happens to have knowledge of events with Thomas that give him some insight into Klara's situation? If that's the case, that's a lot of coincidence, that he'd end up in proximity to not one but two Pillars of Time (which I reckon aren't all that common). And for the love of goodness, would a major library not have some security for its special collection books?! Pretty sure it would, but this one, apparently, did not.
And unless I'm missing something, Arianrhod is from Welsh mythology. The story takes place in Scotland. Scotland is not Wales. I'm not an avid student of Celtic mythology, and I get that country boundaries are not always firmly fixed. But it seems odd to use a goddess from the Welsh pantheon to give Klara, in Scotland, her special powers. Likewise, it seems odd that another Welsh figure, Llaw, would be made the Big Bad in Scotland. Maybe the Pillars of Time are worldwide, and so the forces involved don't all have to be associated with the same location. I just wasn't really expecting Welsh names in a book with a Scottish setting.
Klara's maturity level is about what you'd expect from someone of an age to be considering college. It's billed as YA, so that makes sense. The writing style was easy to read, and I didn't have to focus deeply to follow the story.
Best book I've ever read? No, but it also isn't the worst. It's fair to middling, three stars. There's clearly a setup for a sequel, but I haven't decided yet if I'm interested enough in the outcome to keep reading. It's a fun bit of brain candy, if you're looking for a light, easy read for the summer.
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy from Inkyard Press and NetGalley. All opinions here are mine and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
Sunflowers Beneath the Snow follows the story of Lyaksandro and Ivanna from 1973 to 2021. Lyaksandro is in an untenable situation. His cover as a spy for Ukraine has been blown. He is considering ending his own life to protect his wife, Ivanna and daughter, Yevtsye (Yevt) from the Russians. A way out is offered, but he must cut ties with his family completely and leave them thinking he has betrayed them in the most painful way possible.
Ivanna finds the strength to move forward, to provide for Yevt and herself under the harsh conditions of Soviet rule. In spite of their difficulties, though, Ivanna is a believer in the Communist system. As Yevt grows, she doesn't always agree with her mother, and she marries a man who shares her subversive beliefs. They have a daughter, Ionna, who shares a wonderful bond with her babusya Ivanna even as she grows into beliefs of her own and goes out into the wider world.
But this is not only the story of three women and the efforts they make to maintain family and some kind of stability in difficult times. It is the story of the Ukrainian people, fighting to throw off oppressive Soviet rule and bloom as an independent country. Ivanna clings to her belief in the Soviet system. Yevtsye insists that there is a better way, that Ukrainian independence is the path forward. Ionna actually leaves her country and sees for herself that there is more than the harsh reality of life under the shadow of the USSR.
And though they didn't share the same beliefs and sometimes fought over their differences, Ivanna, Yevt, and Ionna are all strong women who care deeply for their family. They adapt to difficult circumstances, find ways to keep their relationship in good order even when they disagree, and do what is necessary to keep moving forward.
Brown has clearly done her research, and the story she shares here resonates with today's headlines of war between Russia and Ukraine. I knew that Russia had previously invaded Ukraine, but I didn't know any of the details. I learned about it reading this story. I suspect there are people like Ionna, who were out of their country and now find themselves stranded, far from loved ones, unable to return. I can't imagine what a struggle that is, and Brown writes her characters in such a way that you feel the hurt they feel. The true story on which this book is based must be remarkably compelling.
Brown's writing style is easy to read, too. The pages flowed, and I stayed up reading until I dropped my Kindle on my face on more than one occasion. She covers sensitive political and personal topics – the reality of Soviet control, family members who disagree with each other, racism – with grace and flashes of humor, too.
The story portrays struggles, but also has a beautiful ending. I won't spoil it for you here. Go support the author – buy her book and find out for yourself! But it had me reaching for the Kleenex, I'll say that. I wouldn't say this is strongly Christian fiction, but faith in God definitely plays a role.
Five stars for a story that both packs an emotional punch and educates the reader about historical events. Well done, Teri Brown! I look forward to reading more of your books.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy from the author. All opinions are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
I loved Sunrise, the first in the Sky King Ranch series. When a book is that good, you wonder if the next in the series can live up to the high standard the first one set. In the case of Sunburst, the answer is a resounding yes.
Ranger Kingston is on a mission to rescue his brother Colt, who's been taken hostage by terrorists. He doesn't expect to find someone else that he knows among the people they're trying to free. Noemi Sutton was captured when she was on a humanitarian mission. She never thought she'd see Ranger Kingston again, and certainly not in the middle of nowhere, Nigeria.
Ranger and Noemi have a history of mutual attraction, but it ended on a sour note. Now, when they find themselves separated from the rest of the rescue mission, the only way they can possibly survive and get out of Nigeria is to pretend they're married. But when they find Noemi's family on her mother's side—and her uncle is an actual Nigerian prince who wants to do their wedding up right—can they maintain that facade?
Warren does it again. She creates a world where the characters are genuine, the action is enthralling, and the romance is ultimately sweet. Ranger and Noemi are almost maddening at times with their struggles to move past old hurts and take a chance on building a new relationship. But Warren shows us why they struggle, and that makes it easy to have compassion for them. Like any of us walking this earth, they have baggage and issues and fears, and they each have to work through those things in their own ways.
It was quite a surprise to have Noemi's family turn out to be actual royalty! Her uncle and the rest of her family members were just a joy to read about. Warren uses that part of the story arc to share a bit about Nigerian culture with the reader, and I loved it. I know very little about Nigeria, and I always appreciate the chance to learn something when I'm reading. I also loved that they just welcomed Noemi back, no hassle, no headache. She was family, and she was home, and that made my heart so happy!
As always, Warren does a masterful job of making faith an integral part of the story without beating you over the head with a King James Bible. It isn't a blind faith. It's a faith that sometimes wavers. The characters have to wrestle with God and work some things out. Noemi struggles to trust that God is with her, while Ranger wrangles with issues that go to the heart of who he thinks he truly is. But they ultimately find their faith strengthened by the trials they face, and we can find encouragement in that.
You can read Sunburst as a stand-alone; however, I highly recommend starting with Sunrise and seeing the entire story arc unfold. Susan May Warren has written another bang-up good Christian romantic suspense novel, and I eagerly await the third in the series!
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and Revell. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
I just love Lady Eleanor! She's taking a little R and R on the French Riviera, along with Clifford, her canine companion Gladstone, and her staff. Nothing is on the agenda except some fun and sun. She doesn't believe Clifford when he tells her that there's a dead body in the wine cellar of their rented villa. And she really can't believe it when the French police arrest none other than Clifford for the dirty deed.
Bless her heart, Ellie can't get away from crime-solving even on her vacation. The officer handling the case, Inspector Damboise, knows they don't really have anything on Clifford. His incarceration is largely at the behest of Mayor Lessard, who would rather see an innocent Brit take the fall than risk upsetting the boisterous American movie folks who are in town (and no doubt bolstering the local economy by rather a lot). After all, the dead man is one of those movie folks. Mayor Lessard doesn't even want word to get out that the man was murdered for fear of putting all Americans (and their money) off the idea of coming to his little seaside town. A deal is made. Clifford can go free, but only if Ellie finds evidence to prove who really committed the crime.
Inspector Damboise joins forces with Ellie and Clifford as they all work to solve the murder. There are seaside jaunts, lavish parties, and hair-raising twists aplenty as Ellie discovers that many people had good reason to dislike the dead man and even want him dead. Can she put the pieces together and identify the killer before Clifford is thrown in the clink for good?
Verity Bright has gifted us with another delightful read! Ellie is sharp as always, and even with the threat of prison hanging over his head, Clifford keeps his cool and does his best to keep Her Ladyship in line. They offer such a charming contrast to each other. Clifford, so proper and so mindful of doing things correctly. Eleanor, such a free spirit and so not bound by the expectations for her class and gender (she reminds me a bit of Phryne Fisher in the Miss Fisher Mysteries). In this story, though, we get a little peek at Clifford's backstory, and that's a lot of fun. Has our butler always been as buttoned up as we usually see him? How HAS he picked up so many diverse and interesting skills? Read and find out!
And my goodness, what descriptions of the Americans come to town! They rented out an entire hotel, threw over the top parties, and generally made spendy nuisances of themselves. After reading about those shenanigans, I could see why some Europeans might think of their American cousins in less than flattering terms. That's a lifestyle that just sounds exhausting to me.
The mystery kept me guessing, as each new clue that seemed poised to blow the case wide open invariably came to nothing, more than once. Bright does a great job of keeping multiple options open and then bringing them together in a flash of brilliance, just in time. I did miss Hugh Seldon in this book. He only made his appearance by telephone. I hope their time apart gave Ellie and Hugh a new perspective on their relationship, and maybe we'll see things progress a little more between them in the next book!
An engaging story, a beautiful setting on the French Riviera, lots of action, witty dialogue, interesting characters, and an ending that I didn't see a mile away. This would be a great summer read, and I highly recommend it for cozy mystery lovers!
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy from Bookouture and NetGalley. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
How could I not love this book? I mean, look at the synopsis! Time travel? Hurricanes? Yes, please! Ronnie Andrews has moved to Florida, and now she's facing a major hurricane in Charley. Her friend Steph is going to stay with her, but Ronnie bails on Steph when her troll of a boyfriend, Jeffrey, asks her to come to the lab where he's working on some weather-related experiment. He tempts her with the promise of a birthday surprise and says the lab will be much safer than her house.
BAHAHAHAHAHA no. No, the lab won't be safer. Unbeknowst to Ronnie, Jeffrey plans to use her as his human subject in a time travel experiment that needs the energy of the hurricane to power it. The special watch he gives her as her birthday gift, that he had custom made, has something to do with it, as do the drugs he slips into her birthday dinner. Ronnie starts feeling queasy, and when she heads for the bathroom, she finds her consciousness sucked from her body and transported into someone else's body, in England, in the mid-18th century. Talk about an unpleasant birthday surprise.
So, we establish right up front that Jeffrey is a horrible person. He draws Ronnie to the lab under false pretenses, drugs her, and sends her back in time without her knowledge or consent, to an era where women were little more than property. And sending her with the watch as her only link to getting back, in a time where a device like that would be seen as some kind of sorcery?! He's a creep and an idiot and is putting his experiment far above Ronnie's well-being. Some boyfriend. I hope she ditches him, assuming she makes it back to her time alive.
And that's debatable. Eighteenth-century England was not known for the rights it afforded women. Ronnie's physical body doesn't show up in modern clothing so as to clearly draw attention to herself, but rather she jumps into the body of one Regina Ingram, a la Quantum Leap. She's unable to convince Regina's brother Jack that she is his sweet, biddable teenage sister, and sure enough, she finds herself imprisoned on charges of witchcraft. A cousin, Mathias, falls for her, as she seems to do for him, and he tries to help her. I don't think he's who he seems, though, as his German accent is inconsistent and he falls out of 18th-century speech patterns at times. I'm curious to find out who exactly he is, because every time he tries to help Ronnie, it seems to make things worse.
There were some things about the book that stuck in my craw just a little. Early on in the book, there is one somewhat detailed sex scene between Ronnie and Jeffrey. That isn't my jam when it comes to reading. I'm okay with the adult action being implied and taking place offscreen, as it were, but I'd rather not read a description with any significant graphic details. If that's something that bothers you, be mindful. However, it is just the one scene, and you can skim over it without losing the thread of the story. And I realize that folks' definition of what constitutes graphic detail will vary.
Waters writes out Mathias' German accent. I found this distracting as I was reading, especially as it wasn't consistent. I would rather have been told where he was from and then mentally created his accent for myself. Then there was the fact that when Ronnie goes to the lab, she leaves her cat, Fluffy, at home. We have cats, y'all. We took them with us when we evacuated ahead of Hurricane Ida last year. If you're evacuating ahead of rough weather, never, never leave your furbabies behind. Ronnie thinks Jeffrey wouldn't want Fluffy at the lab, so that's why she walked away from her cat (that, and I think she was lured by him buttering her up and making her feel special for her birthday – in a hurricane). That should tell her he is not to be trusted.
But there are plenty of things I do like! Waters does a great job with her historical setting, including some pretty stout descriptions of bloodletting, prison conditions, and hanging. The story evokes strong emotion, and I am absolutely sucked in wanting to know what happens in book two. That's what a good story does, right? Stealing Time earns four stars for keeping me engaged, for good historical detail, and for making me care what happens to Ronnie next.If she stays with Jeffrey in book two, I swear to goodness, I may throw the book across the room.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book from the author. All opinions here are my own, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.
I'm familiar with James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux books (one of which I reviewed here). Before reading Every Cloak Rolled in Blood, I had not read any of his Holland Family Saga works. Y'all know how this goes. Now I gotta go read all of them. I need to win the Powerball and be independently wealthy just so I have time to read all of the books that are calling my name.
Aaron Holland Broussard is cut adrift. Since the sudden, violent death of his daughter, Fannie Mae, he has lost his anchor. Death isn't unfamiliar to him, but the loss of Fannie Mae cuts deep – deeper than deaths on the battlefield in Vietnam, deaths of parents, deaths of friends. He is determined to find a way to reconnect with her, to bring her back or join her beyond the veil. He isn't actively suicidal, but you get the feeling he wouldn't mind if the Good Lord called his number.
When two local boys paint a swastika on his barn, his 911 call leads Broussard to an ally – a friend? a soulmate? – state trooper Ruby Spotted Horse. Ruby is also struggling with her own grief over the death of her niece, and, like many others in the story, is not entirely what she seems. She confesses to Broussard that she is one of a group called the Guardians, and that the Old People – monsters wrapped in myth and story from ages past – are trapped in her basement.
Broussard knows that people, that things, are not always what they appear to be. He's seen – and talked to – Colonel Eugene Baker, the long-dead architect of a horribly brutal attack on a peaceful band of Blackfeet. He's faced a malevolent little girl who looks like Ruby's murdered niece, but probably isn't. And as the evils of the past bleed over ever more forcefully into Broussard's present, he knows that he must fight evil, in human or spiritual form, with everything he has. Otherwise, it may overtake them all, and Fannie Mae may be lost to him forever.
Burke's books are always filled with turns of phrase sometimes graceful, sometimes spare, sometimes philosophical, and this book is no exception. That, for me, is one of the greatest pleasures of reading his novels – seeing how he will express himself when I turn the next page. Whether Burke wrote the words himself or, as he says in the note at the beginning of the book, “another hand wrote it for me,” the prose is magnificent, and it stayed with me long after the last page was turned.
Burke tackles a lot of chewy issues in this book. The pandemic, social distancing, BLM, white supremacy, twisted politics. But it all takes a backseat to the constant underlying thrum of the pain and loss a parent feels upon losing a child. If this story is Burke's most autobiographical yet, he is surely sharing his grief with us here, and inviting us to feel its weight for a moment.
This is not necessarily an easy read, as emotionally laden as it is, but it is worthwhile. Love opens us up to pain and loss, but it also offers healing and redemption. Burke portrays both masterfully.
Disclaimer: I received an advance review copy from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley. All opinions here are my own, and I don't say nice things about books I don't actually like.