Category: Book Review

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Review: The Fleet Street Murders (Charles Lenox Mysteries #3) by Charles Finch

by The Lit Bitch6 Comments on Review: The Fleet Street Murders (Charles Lenox Mysteries #3) by Charles Finch

I can feel fall in the air which means it’s time for another mystery book! This time I read the next book in the Charles Lenox mystery series, The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch.

I started reading the Lenox series as part of the Historic Fiction Reading Challenge.

When I started the series, I didn’t really know what to expect…I had heard mixed reviews about it. But after finishing the first book, A Beautiful Blue Death, I was pretty much hooked. I guess we can still consider this book part of the Historic Fiction Reading Challenge though it’s technically ‘over’ for me, my goal was to read just two Historic Fiction Books which I have gone WELL ABOVE so I guess technically this counts 🙂

What I like about the series is that it is consistently good….you know how some book series start good but then can’t keep up the momentum or some of the installments are good while others just aren’t…this book series IS NOT like that.

As I have said before, the series is simple and at time predictable but that is also what makes it a quick, easy read. It’s not overly complicated and not overly involved with tons of plot twists…it’s easy to follow and a good ‘mental’ break from other complicated mystery plots. I have read other reviews about this book and the series…overall most say the same things, it’s good but not complicated. I’m sorry but sometimes one just needs to read something fun and uncomplicated. As I have also said before though, the same things that I love about this series are the same things that I don’t like about the series….double edged sword to be uncomplicated I guess. Continue reading “Review: The Fleet Street Murders (Charles Lenox Mysteries #3) by Charles Finch” →

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Review: Heartless (Parasol Protectorate #4) by Gail Carriger

by The Lit Bitch5 Comments on Review: Heartless (Parasol Protectorate #4) by Gail Carriger

I managed to read another book. This time I read Heartless by Gail Carriger as part of the Steampunk Reading Challenge! Originally I selected only the first two books of Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, but after reading Soulless I was hooked on the series and subsequently read Changeless and Blameless.

Heartless is clearly a steampunk novel, not just because it features all kinds of dirigibles and steam powered machines but because it distinctly has  the scientific flair that defines the genre in general. Heartless picks up right where the last Parasol Protectorate left off…with protagonist Lady Alexia ‘soulless’ Tarabotti Maccon pregnant and trying to avoid all hell breaking loose in the British empire!

Alexia is assaulted by zombie-like porcupines and almost killed…knowing that she and her unborn child are in grave danger it is at that point that Alexia and her werewolf husband Lord Maccon, agree to give custody over to Alexia’s vampire BFF and fine British ‘dandy’….Lord Akeldama. Soon Alexia is visited by a ghost and informed of a plan to kill the Queen. As head woman in charge of Queen Victoria’s supernatural empire more or less, it is Alexia’s duty to solve the case.

Alexia is once again stuck in the middle of supernatural politics all set against an industrious Victorian London backdrop…..complete with all the favorite steampunk devices….dirigibles, steam powered technology, and random futuristic machines such as the octomaton, a mono-wheel cycle (complete with a steam powered propeller), and the quintessential glassicles. Continue reading “Review: Heartless (Parasol Protectorate #4) by Gail Carriger” →

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Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch

How perfect and fitting that I am finishing this book today on the first day of September!

I’ve just come off a string of long and content heavy books. So I just mentally needed a break from reading things that were hard/complicated, wordy, and had long, extensive family trees (which is so typical of English literary classics and British based books like Outlander or Through a Glass Darkly!).

So, I was eager to read something else historically based but yet something I also knew to be a little less complicated and easy to read/understand….I immediately turned to the next book in the Charles Lenox Series, The September Society by Charles Finch!

When I started the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge this year, my objective was to complete at least two books in the genre. I selected two books from the Charles Lenox mysteries series by Charles Finch, A Beautiful Blue Death and The September Society.

If you are a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Mysteries….or enjoy Sherlock Holmes-type mysteries….you will devour these books. Finch gives readers a similar approach to the amateur gumshoe/doctor duo with Lenox and his sidekick Dr McConnell who are a bit more down to earth an approachable than Holmes and Dr Watson.

The Sherlock Holmes series has gained a lot of popularity in the last couple of years with the modern Guy Ritchie rendition in 2009 and another upcoming installment (Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows) due out in Dec 2011. I know lots of people are picking up the classic series hoping to find the same type of Holmes character that they see portrayed by Hollywood. Lenox is a breath of fresh air for the typical Sherlock Holmes style mysteries. As I said before, we have a more approachable combo of detective/doctor in the Lenox series…..Lenox is rich, eccentric, witty, charming, and smart. Continue reading “Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch” →

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Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen

For my birthday a few months ago, my sister got me this book. Both her and I have very similar literary tastes so when she got me this book I was very excited to start reading it–I totally trust her literary judgement, since she is a librarian she knows all the good books/authors :).

She had heard lots of good things about it and said she thought it was part of a series but wasn’t sure. She knew the author had written other historic works such as Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV which I saw featured on Goodreads around the same time.

Karleen Koen has written four books, Dark Angles, Through a Glass Darkly, Now Face to Face, and Before Versailles….for more info check out her website. All of the books are set in 17th-18th century England and France  and all feature colorful blue blood aristocrats so if you love historic fiction of this period, these books are for you!

I was ready for something new and different. As I was browsing my bookshelf I decided to pick up Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen. Since the book falls under the historic fiction category I decided to use it as part of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  Continue reading “Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen” →

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Review: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

by The Lit Bitch5 Comments on Review: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Well it’s taken me a few months but I have finally finished Great Expectations! Yes I know I started it like months ago and have been slowly trying to finish it up between the move and other books I’ve been reading.

I started reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for the Gothic Literature Reading Challenge, I had it down to read for the Victorian Literature Reading Challenge also but I decided to use it for the Gothic one since it had a lot of classic Gothic themes which I love.

I have struggled with reading Dickens over the years only because I think he is wordy and often his stories seem a little slow to start.

However, last year I read the book Drood which is a fiction work based on two English literary greats…Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. After reading that book I was curious about Dickens’s life and works. After signing up for both the Victorian and Gothic literature challenges having some Dickens novels on my ‘to read’ lists was a no brainer.  Continue reading “Review: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens” →