Tag Archives: book

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Leading an Elegant Death by Paula Carter

 

I had never heard of this series before, but I saw it in my local used bookshop and decided to give it a try.  The book’s theme revolves around one of the now myriad home styling/cooking/gardening/entertaining experts and TV personalities, a la Martha Stewart.

The TV personality, Hillary, is not the main sleuth. Her new executive assistant, Jane Ferguson, law school dropout, divorcee with a child, is the primary investigator.   Hillary’s character is kind of a silly flake, but it seems like it might be an act.  A persona she has adopted to go along with her TV identity because when push comes to shove she takes action and is decisive.  In the beginning of the book Jane came across like a victim, but by the end she seemed much more capable.

The mystery was well done with clues dotted across the landscape and Jane as a sleuth actually doing investigating, not just stumbling across them.  This was a light, quick cozy with a definite southern accent and I will read the others if I come across them. Fans of the Southern Sisters Mysteries might enjoy it.

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Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend.

Finished this tonight.  I was intrigued by the theme, fortune telling, as there are a couple fortune tellers who set up shop relatively near my home and I found the cover really pretty as well.   The mystery was fine.  An interesting intrigue involving  several red herrings.

My issue was that I absolutely could not relate to main character, Sunny.  She just seemed like a stereotypical spoiled rich girl and on top of that she acted very immaturely .  Put her together with a male lead, who didn’t act much more mature than her, and I just couldn’t connect.  The name calling and temper tantrums were just really unattractive.

Maybe I’m just too old to relate??

 

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Breathless by Louise Marley & A Canterbury Crime by Brian Kavanagh

Couldn’t sleep last night and decided to pull a few more books off of my Kindle.  The first was Breathless by Louise Marley.  There was a lot to like about this, a strong, interesting lead character, well built back story and setting. The plot involving Greg, Will, Zac and Drew ticks along at a nice pace.  I found a couple of the characters actions and reactions off putting or odd.  On the whole, a fun, quick romance with a dash of mystery thrown in to the mix.

 This book is 4th in a series and I did not read 1 through 3, so I hesitate to review because perhaps my thoughts are influenced by that fact.

I found the murder mystery plot interesting, especially the connections to the past and the archaeology aspects that were involved.  Other than that, I really didn’t connect to the characters and found some of parts a little heavy handed.  Perhaps I would have gotten more out of it, if I read the series in order.

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All That Mullarkey by Sue Moorcroft

 

Very light romantic read.  Interesting characters and a nice happily ever after ending.  The plot “twist” was very obvious to me early on and that took away from some of the enjoyment of the book.  I simply couldn’t understand how seemingly intelligent characters couldn’t see what was happening.

Overall, well written with enjoyable characters.

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Christmas Carol by Michele Gorman

 

A novella that I heard about on a blog and downloaded quite cheaply from Amazon.

A delightful read, touching and heartfelt Christmas story. It was laugh out loud funny in places.   I am only sorry that it was such a short story. Very mood elevating and definitely in aid of getting into the Christmas spirit.

In one scene Carol receives a massage as a gift/bribe from her sister and she is definitely not the type of person who gets massages.  She had just laid face down on the table and the masseur whipped down her panties…

Is this a back massage or is it not a back massage?  Because she’s kneading my cheeks like they’re bread dough.  I’ve watched Mum make loaves since I was a child.  I know what happens next.  They double in size.

If you need a pick me up or are just in the mood for a Christmas romance, this book would be a good fit for you.

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The Loyal Servant: A Very British Political Thriller by Eva Hudson

 I read this for my English Kindle Mystery book club on Goodreads and I downloaded it for free from Amazon.    I must admit that Political Thrillers are not a genre that I read normally, so I almost hesitate to say too much about it other than some broad generalizations since some of the things I noted might be the norm within the genre.

This was a very fast paced book, which I assume was part of the thriller aspect, which was fine and kept me turning the pages, however, I found some of the transitions at that pace to be rather abrupt.  At one point, I had to reread to figure out what happened during a transition from one chapter to the next.  The characters were well developed and in my mind (as a former civil servant) very realistic.  In fact, I found the whole scenario realistic in the portrayal of corruption and the ensuing cover up.  Caroline’s family situation was a little bizarre, but  after reading the news for as long as I have been, I don’t find it terribly unrealistic.

Although I am not a big fan of political thrillers (or politics in general), I have to say that this book was very well done and I will probably read the next in the series.

 

 

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The One You Really Want by Jill Mansell

 

I finally received this in the mail from worldofbooks, one of Amazon’s vendors.  I read a lot of British women writers and they can be hard to get here in the US.   I subscribe to the UK version of Good Housekeeping magazine and Woman and Home and always scan the book reviews first and add many of them to my TBR list, then I am disappointed when I can’t get the books here easily :(.  Ordering them from the UK, costs a fortune in postage…or so I thought.  When I tweeted about this, Jill Mansell responded and told me about Book Depository UK, so I am definitely going to try them!

I finished The One You Really Want….could be closer than you think last night and loved it! There were several characters, but the main female protagonists  were Nancy, Carmen and Rose.  The women were each well developed with their own personalities and their own concerns throughout the book.  I really enjoyed the multiple story lines throughout the book especially because they were all written to seem important and I cared about each of them.  Sometimes when I read book with multiple characters with their own story lines, there are one that takes precedence or the others just have that feel of not being as well done as the main one (then if it is segregated by chapter I end up just skimming certain chapters).  Definitely not the case here, I connected with all of them.  This was probably because the characters had that quality of seeming like real people, people you might actually meet in your community.

The book is well written and ties together the multiple story lines in the end.  Not to give anything away, but there is a happy ending, which after the week I had at work I really needed!

Recommended read for readers of ….hmmm, now what do we call it.  I just attended the Romance Writer’s Symposium in Princeton last week and this was the issue discussed.  Kay Mussell spoke and discussed the importance of referring to Romances, as Romantic Novels as a matter of gaining some respect for the writers of  romantic fiction.  All the genre fiction related to women’s writing was really put on the table.  Discussions included how marketing drives  this categorizing of books.  Romance and chick lit are seen as pejorative categories, but then other arguments were raised that women’s fiction was for “literary fiction” and then there was a debate about that.  Jennifer Crusie spoke, as did Eloisa James.  Both spoke with a great deal of candor about the publishing industry and the business of writing and selling books.  It has really made me think about how I classify books.

Maybe I’m dating myself but when I grew up there were not that many categories.  You had non-fiction and fiction.  Then, fiction had mystery, romance, adventure and THE CLASSICS, always referred to with that tone of awe.  So, as a school kid basically the first three were the things you wanted to read and the other one was the stuff you had to read.  As was said in the symposium, and I can’t remember who said it  (must take better notes next time), romance is the category that supports financially all the other categories.  Romance books sales allow people like Jonathon Franzen to first get published.

I highly recommend Jill Mansell’s The One You Really Want for readers of good books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ghost Walk by Marianne MacDonald & Haunting Jordan by P.J. Alderman

Started and finished this book this morning; it almost made me late for work:)  It is the second in the Dido Hoare series which I only recently discovered.  I love the characters of Dido, her father Barnabas and now her new sidekick, Ernie.   The characters are rich and well developed and I really enjoy the relationships among them and the others on the periphery of the story.

The mystery surrounds a former spy/secret agent and bookstore customer who died under what Dido deems suspicious circumstances.  Scotland Yard is involved along with other police/governmental agencies and even Egyptian authorities.  Dido follows the clues, attempting to do justice for  the dead man.  Barnabas and Ernie each helping in their own ways, everything from watching her baby, Ben, to minding the store, acting as a bodyguard, or researching antiquities.

This is a wonderful series, with a strong and intelligent cast,  and I plan to read all of it.  There are 8 in the series so far.  I have looked on line but am unable to find any current information on the author so I don’t know if she is still writing or not. The antiquarian book shop sets the theme, but it is not as cutesy as many modern theme based cozies.

 

Finished this one last night, the first in the Port Chatham series.  This is a paranormal cozy and the paranormal definitely takes front and center stage so you need to be prepared for that to be the focus.

The characters are interesting including Jordan Marsh, the protagonist therapist turned home renovator turned sleuth.  A good looking contractor type is thrown in for fun and then of course, the ghosts.

Jordan is actually dealing with more than one mystery.  The death of her ex-husband, an open case in she is the main suspect and the murder of Hattie, one of the ghosts inhabiting her home.  The chapters flip back and forth between the present day and the past events and journal entries.

The writing is well done and the transitions between chapters, past and present flow smoothly, which can be difficult to do well. Curious to see how this series continues since the original ghost’s mystery is solved.  Paranormal is not my favorite read, but this was well enough done that I would give another book in the series a try.

 

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A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair and The Best Man by Kristan Higgins

Last night I read these two books that I’ve had stacked in my bedroom for quite a while, A Veiled Deception and The Best Man.

The Best Man was an engaging light American romance.  There are some hardships that the main character overcomes, death of her mother and being jilted at the altar in front of her whole town.  A “boy” from the wrong side of the tracks and a family full of characters who love each other and show it in their own way.  I liked the characters and the story line.  This was a light, fun read.

 

A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair is a magical themed cozy mystery, involving fashion, weddings, family, lost love, secrets, and of course, murder.  The main character is Madeira…and she has sisters Sherry and Brandy, let’s just leave that alone.

The fashion information that was incorporated was interesting to me.  I like vintage fashion and Madeira,”Maddie” is interested in fleeing from her NY designer job to open a vintage fashion shop in her home town.

Some of the dialogue was a little off, unnatural, but the mystery was interesting and involved secrets and long lost love.   The magic end was not overplayed, more psychic than witch, but I don’t know how that will develop over the series.  Overall, a fun light cozy read and I will read more in the series.

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The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey & Evan Help Us by Rhys Bowen

This is the second book in the wonderful Constable Evans Mystery series by Rhys Bowen.  I picked this book up from the library having read and enjoyed the first one.  Constable Evans is a happy village policeman surrounded by an interesting array of characters, among them Evans the Meat, Evans the Post, tourists, competing love interests, and of course a murderer.  The mystery begins when an amateur archaeologist stumbles upon what might be the tomb of King Arthur and then has his head bashed in on his way home from the pub.  The mystery leads the reader all through the little Welsh village and then some leads go all the way to London.

The book invokes a well established sense of place.  I love the Welsh mountain village setting.  The characters are well developed and engaging.  I will definitely read more in this series.

I have never read any Josephine Tey books, but having recently heard of her I decided to read The Daughter of Time, which is supposed to be one of her best or most well known books.  The Daughter of Time opens with Inspector Alan Grant being injured and laid up in the hospital.  He is not a happy patient and Marta, who knows of the Inspector’s fascination with faces, provides him with stacks of images to entertain himself.  One of them was the image of RIchard III.  The changeable nature of the portrait captures Grant’s imagination.

Inspector Grant takes up an investigation to discover whether or not Richard III was really guilty of murdering the young princes.  From his hospital bed, Grant conducts his entire investigation.  A fascinating look at history and how it is recorded, particularly when the victor is doing the recording.

This book is number 5 in the series and I have not read any of the others, but it is very able to be a stand alone book. I liked Inspector Grant as a character, even though I suppose in this book he was not entirely himself, since he spent the whole time in his hospital bed and I loved the historical mystery.