Book Critic
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Review: The Fatal Flame (Timothy Wilde Mysteries #3) by Lyndsay Faye
Wow, completely different than what I was expecting! This book is a very uniquely written mystery and I loved it. I have never read anything by Faye before, but what a treat it was! Her writing style is so different and raw. It’s almost had a film noir feel to it….gritty, dark, and real but at the same time oddly addicting. In New York City, an arsonist threatens Alderman Robert Symmes, a corrupt and powerful leader high in the Tammany Hall gang ranks. Copper Star detective, Timothy Wilde is investigating the arson situation when the love of his life, Mercy Underhill, suddenly shows up on his door step and takes in an…
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Review: Dead Cert by Dick Francis
Horses and murder in the English countryside…..how can I resist a book like that? Jockey, Alan York, is riding in a steeplechase race when his long time friend, Bill Davidson, takes a terrible fall over the last fence. Alan finishes the race in first place and rushes back to check on his friend. Bill is quickly taken to the hospital but it is too late, he is dead. Alan examine the fence where Bill went down and discovers the remains of a wire, indicating that the fall was anything but an accident. The dark world of horse racing and bookmaking is one that Alan is familiar with. He knows the…
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Review: Day Shift (Midnight, Texas #2) by Charlaine Harris
Midnight, Texas is full of all kinds of weird residents. It’s a one light town in the middle of nowhere Texas and its residents are witches, vampires, and all sorts of supernatural beings. Manfred is a psychic and has been enjoying his time in Midnight. It’s quiet and everyone stays out of everyone else’s business…..everyone in Midnight is secretive about their lives which is fine by Manfred. Well the most mysterious of the Midnight bunch is Olivia, no one seems to know anything about her other than that she lives with a vampire and she’s smoking hot.
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Review: The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl
Matthew Pearl has been on my radar for a while now. His books always look so intriguing since they are historic thrillers books…..about books…..but for some reason I just haven’t made it around to reading any of his books. When this one came around to review I jumped at it since this was an author I have wanted to read. The Last Bookaneer explores the dark side of publishing and the literary pirates who commandeered unpublished works by famous authors. Before 1890, loose copyright laws allowed for author’s works to be publish on the blackmarket so to speak, which ultimately gave rise to the bookaneers whose job it was to track…
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Review: Ice Kissed (Kanin Chronicles #2) by Amanda Hocking
Bryn Aven is stuck in social limbo, she has no social status in the Kanin kingdom she servers because she’s a half breed (part Skojare herself) but she longs to serve the kingdom in any way she can. Her determination to be part of the Kanin kingdom takes her to the palace of the Skojare. These Skojare people need protection from the same rival that has been tormenting the Kanin people. For Bryn, this is also a chance to learn more about where she comes from as much as a mission. She is accompanied by boss, Ridley Dresden, but soon their growing attraction for one another becomes a distraction. This books takes us to…
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Review: Aunt Dimity and the Summer King (Aunt Dimity Mystery #20) by Nancy Atherton
Lori Shepherd loves everything about her quaint town of Finch in the Cotswold country of England. It’s here that she is raising her twin boys and new baby daughter Bess along side her husband, Bill. Finch is you typical country town full of country events like the church bake sale and the dog trials. Everyone knows everyone and that also means that everyone knows your business. Since Lori had her baby, she has been out of the loop on all the town gossip but she has noticed that two Finch cottages are still for sale after months on the market and she just can’t understand why.
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Review: Midnight Crossroad (Midnight, Texas #1) by Charlaine Harris
In the sleepy town of Midnight, TX there is not a whole lot to draw new residents. It’s literally a one stop light town…..a modern day ghost town. There are few residents, but the residents there are there are an eclectic mix to say the least. The town and it’s residents are full of suspicious and strange activities….not to mention, secrets. Manfred Bernardo, psychic extraordinaire, arrives in Midnight hoping to working in private. For him Midnight is the perfect place to come and be ‘anonymous’. There is an unspoken rule in Midnight……’don’t ask questions’……and Manfred likes this. But there is a reason that no one asks questions in Midnight…..each town member…
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Review: Les Miserables: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Victor Hugo
This book is a literally massive. For years I have thought about reading it, and though I am not intimidated by the length or the wordy writing style….I kept putting it off. Even after seeing the film, I thought…..this is the time I am going to read it…..and then I didn’t. I knew it would take me a while to read and considering that the French translation of ‘Les Miserables’ is ‘the miserable ones’ or the ‘poor ones’….I knew it would be an emotional roller-coaster that I just wasn’t ready for in my reading. Well no more excuses. When the new Penguin Deluxe edition came out, I was in some serious…
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Review: Longbourn by Jo Baker
Reader beware…..if you love Jane Austen and are looking for something that will give you a new ‘perspective’ about the Bennet sisters, keep on looking. Sure this novel includes the Bennet sisters and follows the traditional Pride and Prejudice story but that’s about it. Jo Baker remakes the classic story of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of the below stairs staff but yet it’s a story all its own and noting close to the Austen classic. Sarah has been a maid at Longbourn since she was a child. She cleans the chamber pots, scrubs the laundry, polishes the floor and of course waits on the Bennet sisters.
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Review: The Patriot Threat (Cotton Malone #10) by Steve Berry
I’ve read a couple of the books in the Cotton Malone series and really really enjoyed them. Steve Berry has a special talent for merging politics, history, and conspiracy all together so well. This time, our favorite ‘retired’ agent is recruited by his former boss to find a North Korean who has some top secret Treasury files. Basically his novel begs the question “what if federal taxes were actually illegal”. This case is anything but straight forward for Cotton and he finds himself globe trotting, trying to chase down leads and to recover the documents, not to mention wading through convoluted history. The reader is treated to an array of historic facts (and…