Reading
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Review: Wonton Terror (A Noodle Shop Mystery #4) by Vivien Chien
I stumbled upon Vivien Chien’s Noodle Shop Mystery quite by accident. When I started the first book, I fell in love with Lana Lee’s charm and sass. I also loved all the various food descriptions in this series and found myself perpetually hungry for noodles. While there are times that I have found myself wanting more romance in this series, the fun mysteries that Chien constructs are undeniable—I am hooked on her mysteries. Each book could probably be read on their own. Chien does a great job catching new readers up to date on the most pressing back stories in the series if it pertains to the new book, but…
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Cover Reveal: Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau
Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau Publication Date: January 16, 2020 Endeavor Quill Genre: Historical Fiction The year is 1911 when twenty-year-old heiress Peggy Batternberg is invited to spend the summer in America’s Playground. But the invitation to Coney Island is unwelcome. Despite hailing from one of America’s richest families, Peggy would much rather spend the summer at the Moonrise Bookstore where she works voluntarily, than keeping up appearances with Brooklyn socialites and her snobbish, controlling family. But soon it transpires that the hedonism of Coney Island affords Peggy more of the freedom she has been longing for. For one, she finds herself in love with a troubled pier-side artist…
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Review: The Viscount and the Vicar’s Daughter by Mimi Matthews
I have been being reading all of Mimi Matthews books in the last few weeks. I read her holiday book, A Holiday by Gaslight, last fall/winter and loved it but just didn’t get around to reading her other books. Flash forward to the spring, I was asked by a longtime blogger friend if I would participate in the book tour for Matthews latest book, The Work of Art. I was so glad to put this book on my calendar and looked forward to reading it. I burned through it and then was left wanting more Matthews! Since then I have read the two books in her Parish Orphans of Devon…
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Special Feature: Polite Society by Mahesh Rao
I love seeing all the new cultural twists on Jane Austen’s classic novels in recent years and this is one I have been looking forward to for quite some time. I have read a couple of retellings this year and have loved them so much. The cultures add different and colorful things to learn about and love and this book promises to be an exciting take on the classic story of Emma. A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma with a touch of Crazy Rich Asians set in Delhi, in which the daughter of a wealthy Indian family aspires to match-make for her friends and family, only to find herself…
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Special Feature: This Poison Will Remain (Commissaire Adamsberg #11) by Fred Vargas
The Commissaire Adamsberg is a long standing series in crime fiction! Fans of this genre will know that Fred Vargas’s series is much loved and will no doubt be looking forward to this latest installment. In this brilliantly twisty crime novel, Vargas follows the quirky, intuitive commissaire as he investigates the deaths of three men killed by spider bites. Following a whim and a hunch, Adamsberg becomes convinced that these death by spider bite are not just unnatural; they’re actually murders. And the closer he looks, the more suspicious they seem. Recluse venom is indeed poisonous, but it would take the venom of twenty-two spiders to kill like this. And…
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Review: A Modest Independence (Parish Orphans of Devon #2) by Mimi Matthews
Ahhh Mimi Matthews, where have you been my whole life?! Matthews writes such wonderful historical romance of the drawing room variety and she does such a fantastic job. I only recently started reading her books and now I simply can’t stop! As soon as I finished The Work of Art, I started this series and polished it off in a matter of days. Now I am on to her other stand alone books and I absolutely love every single one of them. I don’t know what I am going to read once I am done with her books! I need more authors like her to pick from! Her books are…
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Review: The Murder List by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Right from the start this book sounded edgy and different. I haven’t read anything by Hank Phillippi Ryan before, but I liked that the main character in this book sounded like she had her shit together but yet it might all be a lie. I have been having quite a bit of luck with thrillers this summer but I was looking for something with a little more suspense rather than the thrills and chills of a psychological thriller and this book sounded like it would fit the bill. I mean it does have ‘a novel of suspense’ in its formal title on Goodreads! Eager to read this one, I started…
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Special Feature and Excerpt: Law and Addiction by Mike Papantonio
Mike Papantonio has written a number of legal thrillers and also happens to be a practicing attorney with an impressive resume. My first thought is when does he actually have time to write books?! He does so many things but clearly he does them all well. In my mind being a successful attorney clearly makes him an excerpt on legal thrillers—he obviously knows his way around a courtroom and all the drama that comes with it. I can only imagine all of the tantalizing stories he has to tell—fictional or otherwise. His latest novel, Law and Addiction was released in April and has earned impressive ratings on Goodreads as well…
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Review: The Perfect Son by Lauren North
Full disclosure, I wanted to read this book because I loved the cover. It was eye catching and coupled with the title suggested and interesting and complex mystery that I was instantly dying to read. This book is also the author’s debut and I was even more excited to read it since her author bio sounded so relatable! Here’s the CliffNotes version—Lauren’s love of psychological suspense has grown since childhood and her dark imagination of always wondering what’s the worst thing that could happen in every situation—I felt like I found my person! Like many kids I had a huge imagination but unlike other kids who were dreaming of unicorns…
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Review: The Matrimonial Advertisement (Parish Orphans of Devon #1) by Mimi Matthews
I read a short story by Mimi Matthews back in December last year and loved it but it was months before I read one of her full novels. In fact, I just read my first full length book by Matthews a couple of weeks ago and I fell even more in love with her writing! So much so, that I knew without a doubt that I needed to read all of her books and the sooner the better. So I binged this book in the space of 24 hours. I started with the Audible edition, but quickly changed to the written form since I read much faster that way and…