Literary Criticism
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Review: A Royal Affair (Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #2) by Allison Montclair
After reading the first book in this new historical mystery series last year at about this same time, I was eager to read the next installment and see how well the next mystery satisfied. I remembered really enjoying the relationship between the two main characters, Iris and Gwen. I thought they were funny and paired well together so I was eager to see how that translated in this latest mystery. The other thing that I thought sounded so much fun was this book was that this time the mystery was to include members of the royal family.
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Review: The Twelve Clues of Christmas (Royal Spyness #6) by Rhys Bowen
Over the last year or so, I have been making a big effort to go back and catch up on some long running historical mystery series that I have loved but haven’t read all the books. The Royal Spyness books are at the top of that list. I read a few of the later books and then went back and read a few of the first books in the series but then I kind of stalled on the series and moved on to something else. I meant to pick this one up at Christmas time as this one is obviously set around the holidays, but I didn’t and then I…
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Review: The Woman in the Green Dress by Tea Cooper
Let’s just start by pointing out the obvious here—-this cover is gorgeous! And then I read the summary and couldn’t wait to dive in! A cursed gemstone set in WWI, sign me up is exactly what I said! Ok if I am being honest, I stopped reading the summary after ‘cursed opal’ because I was already sold on this book! I haven’t read anything else by Tea Cooper but I know that she has written a ton of books, many of which sound interesting and fun so I felt confident giving this one a shot. Especially given that this book promised romance, mystery, and intrigue. All the things I love in…
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Review: Riviera Gold (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #16) by Laurie R. King
I absolutely adore the Russell and Holmes books! Sadly I have only read a couple of them but this is a series that I knew I would love the second I cracked open the first book a few years ago. But as you can see this is a very long standing series and while I only read a couple of the books in the series, it’s a series that I know I would pick up again when I needed something guaranteed to be enjoyable. When I was approached to read this book I debated about passing, simply because I knew there were a number of books I would need to…
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Review: The House of Whispers by Laura Purcell
Laura Purcell is an auto buy author for me. I fell in love with The Silent Companions and after that she secured herself ‘auto buy’ status from me! I love how deliciously gothic and creepy her books are and this one was on my radar months ago! I love the Gothic troupe of an old crumbling house and a crazy lady in the attic, and this book totally sounded like it would meet all of my expectations. Purcell has a wonderful way of sending chills up readers spines without even trying! To say that I was excited for this one is an understatement! In the UK this one is also…
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Review: The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
Chanel Cleeton was an author who was on my radar from the release of her very first book. At first I wasn’t really that interested in the time period or Cuban history—but all the reviews of her first book, Next Year in Havana, were overwhelmingly positive and I wanted to check it out. But many other books came before I finally picked it up and even then it was only recently. I read When We Left Cuba last year and loved it and when I heard that Cleeton was coming out with a new book this year, I finally read Next Year in Havana and re-read When We Left Cuba…
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Take Two Review: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton (Audible Edition)
When I first read this book, it was my first time reading anything by Chanel Cleeton. I hadn’t read Next Year in Havana yet so it was my first time reading about the Perez family. Cleeton has another new book coming out this month and I desperately wanted to be ready for it so I downloaded Next Year in Havana on Audible and listened to it and fell in love! Then I wanted to go back and re-read this one since I didn’t really have a full understanding of the Perez family and I thought that now having read Next Year in Havana, this one would make a lot more…
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Review: Passing Fancies (Julia Kydd #2) by Marlowe Benn
Last year I read the first book in this series and I thought it was a promising start and was eager to see how this book would be. I remember that the first book was a little on the slower side but I loved Julia the heroine and that’s what made me want to read this one. One of the things that always caught my attention was that one of the featured characters was a black singer, so right away I thought that this book would likely tackle some big issues like race. At a time like this, I am looking to diversify my reading and while this book isn’t…
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Review: The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni
The anticipation I had for this book was undeniable. I haven’t read anything by this author before, but I was in a Facebook group chat with her and won a copy of this book and couldn’t believe how good it sounded. I have only recently really gotten into the horror genre, I love Gothic fiction (to me there is a big difference) but recently I have opened up to reading more and more traditional horror books and this one sounded like a perfect blend of Gothic and horror. I was literally watching my mailbox like a hawk waiting for this one to arrive and when it finally did, I tore…
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Review: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #1) by Holly Jackson
I stumbled on this book while scrolling through my Instagram feed and since I am my book club dictator—I mean book club host—I thought I would suggest this book for our June read since it sounded fun. A slight back story here, my book club is small and we all love murder mysteries so we try to read only murder mysteries but we have all read so many murder mysteries so it’s hard to find one we haven’t all read. Since this one just came out, I thought it would be a good pick. Fortunately everyone else thought the same thing and so it was settled—we would read this book…