Book Review
-
Review: The Lure of the Moonflower (Pink Carnation #12) by Lauren Willig
So this is the book that everyone has been waiting for in this series…..Jane’s romance with maybe the exception of me. I have never really been a fan of Jane in this entire series. Maybe in the beginning she had intrigue and promise but as the series has gone on I just have liked her less and less. But I had to finish the series all the same and Willig is always so good at making me fall in love with her heroines, I tried to keep an open mind. Portugal, December 1807. Jack Reid, the British agent known as the Moonflower (formerly the French agent known as the Moonflower),…
-
Review: Gin and Panic (Discreet Retrieval Agency, #3) by Maia Chance
I have just come off of reading two very very dense books with heavy subject matter. I needed something to just enjoy rather than something I need to digest. Enter Gin and Panic. I was happy to read a cozy mystery even though I was jumping in on the third book. I didn’t care. I just wanted something that looked entertaining without epic battles in every chapter. Former socialite Lola Woodby, not-so-discreet private eye in Prohibtion-era New York City, along with her grim Swedish sidekick, Berta, take on a piece-of-cake job: retrieving a rhinoceros trophy from the Connecticut mansion of big game hunter Rudy Montgomery.
-
Review: A Column of Fire (Kingsbridge #3) by Ken Follett
I was first introduced to Ken Follett back in 2009 when I took my first trip to London. I needed something long enough that I would not read it all by the time the flight was over and long enough that I wouldn’t have to buy another book while I was there. One of my friends recommended The Pillars of the Earth. I wasn’t going to read it but she brought it for me and I felt bad saying no. Ironically, all I remember of that trip was how much I loved that book! That book was fantastic. I loved everything about it. I remember staying up way too late…
-
Review: Christmas in London by Anita Hughes
I feel like I gained 10 pounds just reading this novel. This is a great foodie lover novel if you are into that sort of thing. Foodie lit is a new phenomenon for me but one that my tastebuds love and my waistline doesn’t. I love how charming novels like this are and I am surprised how much I loved the food element….needless to say, I devoured a roll of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls while reading this book….#sorrynotsorry. It’s a week before Christmas and Louisa Graham is working twelve hour shifts at a bakery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. When a young cooking show assistant comes in from the rain and…
-
Review: The Ghost of Christmas Past (Molly Murphy #17) by Rhys Bowen
This is one series that I really need to go back and enjoy from beginning to end! While most of the Molly Murphy books can be read as stand alone books, why deprive yourself of such fun reading? I’ve only read one of the books in this series but I was very impressed with the quality of writing and mystery of that book and I was eager to read more by her. I’ve read one of her stand alone books and while good, I think her mystery books are better personally. My mom keeps giving me a copy of popular series, HER ROYAL SPYNESS, I have like 4 copies now.…
-
Review: The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation #11) by Lauren Willig
This was the book I was least excited about reading in the series. It sounded completely out of Willig’s usual formula….like so far removed from her usual style that I just wasn’t thrilled about it. Vampires? In this series. No, no, and just no. Plus the heroine, Sally Fitzhugh, is not one that has even been on the fringes of the series up until like the last book and even then it was minimal. However, as I have said before, I am continually impressed with her ability to hook me into a believable romance and prove all my misconceptions wrong. So I tried to keep an open mind when I…
-
Review: Romancing the Werewolf (Supernatural Society #2) by Gail Carriger
I first discovered Gail Carriger in early 2010. I loved her Parasol Protectorate series so much for a number of reasons, but mostly because of how well she developed her world. Since completing the series she has gone on to write a number of other novels/series and novellas in the same world. When the second installment of the Supernatural Society came out, I was happy to review it and see what characters would find a HEA. Werewolf in trouble… Biffy, newly minted Alpha of the London Pack, is not having a good Christmas. His Beta abandoned him, his werewolves object to his curtain choices, and someone keeps leaving babies on…
-
Review: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe by Melissa de la Cruz
Let the Christmas reading commence! Some years I have a ton of holiday themed books (like this year) and other years I stretch my ‘scary reads’ from September to January. But this year I have had a lot of Christmas reading come my way and I can’t tell you how excited I am about that! While this book has a nod to the classic Jane Austen novel, Pride and Prejudice, it is a modern retelling rather than a Regency retelling. Darcy Fitzwilliam is 29, beautiful, successful, and brilliant. She dates hedge funders and basketball stars and is never without her three cellphones—one for work, one for play, and one to…
-
Review: The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation #10) by Lauren Willig
I don’t know why but I always seem to go into the later Pink Carnation books with a preconceived notion of the romance. With the last book, I was so not looking forward to it but found it was one of the more enjoyable ones! So one would think that I would keep an open mind. But I didn’t. I was not really looking forward to an ‘old person romance’ in this book…not that I’m a spring chicken mind you but still…something about Miss Gwen and Colonel Reid just didn’t scream sexy to me. In my mind, Miss Gwen is this old lady chaperone with pursed lips and grey hair…
-
Review: The Silent Fountain by Victoria Fox
There is nothing like fall to make you want to read a mystery or a Gothic novel…..well at least for me! Fall is the perfect time to curl up with a creep or suspenseful book and spend the day lost in the mystery. That’s exactly what I did with The Silent Fountain! I read this book as part of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, it was hard to break with my Pink Carnation book but somehow I found the ability to read something else, and I was not sad in the least. This book was a great Gothic novel! Hollywood, 1978: Tragedy sends troubled film star Vivien Lockhart into the arms…
