Category: Book Review

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: A Wicked Conceit (Lady Darby Mysteries #9) by Anna Lee Huber

by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment on Review: A Wicked Conceit (Lady Darby Mysteries #9) by Anna Lee Huber

I have been a long time fan of all Anna Lee Huber’s books, but the Lady Darby series stands out as a favorite of all her books. I will gladly clear my calendar for any upcoming Anna Lee Huber book because they are just that good! This book is the ninth in the series and I will say that I encourage readers to start this series from the beginning.

Some of the books could be read out of order but there are relationships and back stories that spread across multiple books, thus making it difficult for readers to fully appreciate the nuances of the characters and the mysteries. This book in particular harkens back to earlier books in the series and previous relationships that readers will want to be aware of.

As a side note, I loved that this book was so timely. In the book, there is a cholera pandemic and the author has commented on the fact that when she was writing this book she had no idea that we would be in an actual pandemic. It’s a fun aspect of the book and also rather ironic and timely.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: In a Book Club Far Away by Tif Marcelo

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: In a Book Club Far Away by Tif Marcelo

I have read a couple of Tif Marcelo’s books and I have to say that my favorite has been The Key to Happily Ever After. Her books are always so great and written with so much heart and perspective not to mention rich with family relationship complexities. I have really enjoyed reading them and when I saw that her latest novel In a Book Club Far Away, was a Book of the Month pick, I was even more excited to get my hands on it!

Even though I had a digital copy of the book to read, I did make this one my BOTM pick not just because the book sounded good, but I also thought the cover was elegant and rich with fun bookish details! I knew that I would read the book one way or the other, but there was something about the cover and title of this one that just seemed to say ‘read me as a hard copy!’ that I simply couldn’t ignore!

Besides the author reputation and elegant cover art, this one sounded like such a great read for book clubs or maybe even a buddy read with your BFF. It’s a story about friendships and for me, it was just the book that I needed right now. It was like curling up with a good friend and a glass of wine to gossip about life and laugh about all the things that life throws at you.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: What the Devil Knows (Sebastian St. Cyr #16) by C. S. Harris

by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment on Review: What the Devil Knows (Sebastian St. Cyr #16) by C. S. Harris

I absolutely love Sebastian St Cyr. I read the entire series last year in one long binge read. I adore the books and even if some of them have fallen into a bit of a formula, I still enjoy the characters so much. This one was high up on my TBR pile. I always set aside time in the early spring to read a new Sebastian mystery and I am never sorry about that.

The mysteries are intelligent, a little on the gritty side, and full of questionable characters all with their own motives. Going into this one, I was fully ready for just that and I wasn’t disappointed! But now that we are into book sixteen in the series, I am sure readers can’t help but wonder at what point will this series end? For me, I hope the answer is never but I also know that at some point all good things come to an end.

But until that day comes I am going to keep devouring the Sebastian mysteries and keep returning to my favorite characters. Some books in this series are able to be read as standalones and I think this one here could easily be read as a standalone if you want to check out the series but also don’t want to go back and read all the books to enjoy it!

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Review: To Love and to Loathe (The Regency Vows #2) by Martha Waters

by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment on Review: To Love and to Loathe (The Regency Vows #2) by Martha Waters

When I read Martha Waters debut novel, The Have and to Hoax, I laughed out loud multiple times and absolutely fell in love with the characters and writing! Waters is funny and cheeky, I adored the banter and chemistry between the characters. Which is why this one went on my auto buy list! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one!

I picked this one up while I was waiting for my son’s soccer camp to finish and I was looking for something that was easy reading that would put me in a good mood and that I could put a bookmark in as needed and then pickup again later without feeling totally lost. That’s exactly what this book was for me. Some easy fluffy romance reading!

I enjoyed this one very much but I have to admit that I don’t know that it held the same magic as the first one in the series. That’s not to say that it was bad or anything, it was just different than the first one but it was still a fun read all the same! I would also recommend this one to Bridgerton fans. The first book in the series was on my top books to read after Bridgerton list and this one would easily make that list too.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #2) by Holly Jackson

by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment on Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #2) by Holly Jackson

One of my book club’s very first books was A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder last spring and we absolutely loved it and couldn’t put it down! So needles to say this book was our pick for March. While we all range in age from late forties to early thirties, the first YA mystery novel in this series kept us all inthralled!

We all had high expectations for this one too. I will say though, we do have people in the book club who haven’t read the first book so we were a little nervous picking this one. But most of the early reviews that I read noted that this was a separate mystery and having not read the first book wouldn’t ruin it for new readers. I beg to differ on that front.

While it might not be necessary to read the first book to enjoy this one, there were spoilers to the first book and the trial of Max is a carry over from the first book so I would say if you haven’t read the first book, do that before reading this one! For me, this book wasn’t as good as the first one, it was still a good mystery read and here’s why…..

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