Book Critic
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Review: At the Mountain’s Edge by Genevieve Graham
One of the things I enjoy most about blogging, is all the amazing authors that I get to interact with. I started corresponding with Genevieve Graham back in 2015 when Tides of Honour was first released. I read it and loved it! Since then I have read just about all of her books and never come away feeling disappointed. She is a consistently solid writer and I find so much to love in all of her books. When I saw that she had a new book being released that was set in the frontier, I was admittedly a little less than excited for the setting, as I am not a…
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Review: The Night Before by Wendy Walker
This one arrived on my desk a couple of weeks ago and I loved the classic thriller cover. Thrillers have such a distinct style of cover and I opened this one and I was like ‘yep thriller’ before I even got it out of the package. Author, Wendy Walker, has written a few other thrillers and her latest one, The Night Before, has had a ton of advanced praise and is popping up all over my social media! I was intrigued mostly by the cover because I thought it was eye catching, but the summary sounded promising and interesting. While there is a summary for the book—it’s short. It doesn’t…
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Review: The Vanishing Man (Charles Lenox Mysteries 0.2) by Charles Finch
I have been a long time fan of the Charles Lenox mystery series. I believe I binge read the first three books and then had to wait for the next one to come out and when it did, it was in my Kindle on release day since I had it on pre-order months in advance! Charles Lenox has been a wonderfully entertaining detective and I adore so many of the mysteries in this series! Sadly I got sidetracked by other books and missed a couple in the middle, but I always came back to the series and found something to love in many of the books! When I saw that…
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Review: The Friends We Keep by Jane Green
This is a book that I might have passed on if it hadn’t been for the thoughtful card from the author included in my pitch request. I have been reading a ton of women’s fiction lately and while so many of them are good, there are some that are just ok. And as I have been reading so many lately, I am trying to be a little more selective. This book arrived with the coolest welcome package ever, a makeup bag full of chocolates (and not the cheap kind either!), a fun bracelet, the book (dah!), and a hand written note for Jane Green herself! I appreciate little things like…
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Review: Murder Once Removed (Ancestry Detective #1) by S.C. Perkins
I’ve read a lot of cozy mysteries and I love discovering new series that might end up being a long time favorite. The trick seems always be finding something new and different. This book is the first in a new series featuring Lucy, a genealogist. I had to pause and reread this particular part. I was very intrigued by the genealogist part and was curious to see how that played out in the mystery. My mom is really into genealogy and I have to say that it’s not the most exciting filed of study in my opinion, but I do love history and uncovering unique characters in family lineages is…
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Review: The Alchemist of Lost Souls (Bianca Goddard Mysteries #4) by Mary Lawrence
As many of you know, I have a weakness for historical mysteries. I adore them and can’t get enough. However, so many of them are written during Victorian or Edwardian era England that often the books blend together, no matter how well written they are. That’s why this book set itself apart for me….it’s set in Tudor England. When I think of historical mysteries, I don’t think of Tudor England as an optimal setting, but rather a period full of obstacles to detecting/investigating, so I was eager to see how the author used this to her advantage. I haven’t read any of the other books in the series, so I…
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Review: Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini
This book showed up on my desk for review a few months ago and I was absolutely in love with the cover! It reminded me of spring and it was elegant and had a lot of visual interest. The summary also sounded like something I would love, as I especially love war time stories. Chiaverini has written a variety of different books, with her most widely known book being Mrs Lincoln’s Dressmaker as well as a women’s fiction quilting series called, Elm Creek Quilts. This book seemed completely out of her normal genre. Her signature genre seemed to be historical fiction with crafting and women’s fiction with crafting so I…
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Take Two Review: The Storm Sister (The Seven Sisters #2) by Lucinda Riley (Audible)
So as some of you know, I am going back through the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley but this time listening to them on audiobooks. Right now it’s kind of an ‘at your own pace’ type of deal since I am listening to them in my car when I run errands so it’s taking forever to make my way through. But I love Lucinda Riley so I am eager to keep listening and enjoying her books. When I first reviewed this book, I had a hard time with it mostly because it was so sad. While it was still enjoyable and a testament to Riley’s writing abilities, I just…
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Review: How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
I haven’t read a ton of Asian literature but I was eager to read this one because of one thing—the time period. My venture into Asian literature has come down to two books, Memoirs of a Geisha and Snowflower and the Secret Fan…..that is it. So when I agreed to read this book, I had no idea what I was going to get. I remember reading Memoirs of a Geisha and Snowflower and the Secret Fan and loving both of those. Especially Memoirs of a Geisha, mostly because it was set during WWII and the occupation of allied troops post war was very interesting to me. When this book came…
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REVIEW: Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes #1) by Sonali Dev
This is an author that I have been really really looking forward to reading. She’s written a number of ‘Bollywood’ books and while I am not Indian, I think their culture is exotic, colorful, and interesting. This book is the first installment in a new series about the Rajes family and I was thrilled that I got to read this one, especially since there is a Pride and Prejudice element to the story. I would definitely put this book in the retelling category, but it was so much more than just another P & P retelling. With it’s cultural aspect, this book adds a lot of uniqueness and color to…