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Review: Poison or Protect (Delightfully Deadly #1) by Gail Carriger
I have been a huge fan of Gail Carriger since reading Soulless way back in 2011! Carriger has a wonderful whit that translates so well onto the pages of her stories. When this short story came across my desk for review, I was thrilled to read another book set in the same world that Carriger has crafted so well! Over the years she has written the Parasol Protectorate series which is more of an adult read, and then the Finishing School series which is more of a YA read but both are set in the same world that the PP series begins. This latest novella is also set in the same world…..a steampunk universe…
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Review: The Secret Language of Stones: A Novel (The Daughters of La Lune #2) by M.J. Rose
When I read the first book, The Witch of Painted Sorrows, I had no idea that it was going to end up being an actual ‘series’. It read so well as a stand alone book that I was surprised to see it would be becoming a series. So when this one came across my desk, I was thrilled to review it and see how the ‘series’ was going to develop as there were some loose ends that weren’t exactly completely tied up in the first book. This book was right up my alley, WWI France. I love books set in this time period not to mention a little hint of…
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Review: Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye
This has been the year of Jane Eyre inspired literature and this latest Jane Eyre revisitation was something quite unexpected. Any book that has the passage ‘reader I murdered him’ so eloquently stated and matter-of-factly, instantly holds a special place in my heart! When we first meet Jane Steele she is living with her mother in a small cottage on the grande estate of Highgate House. All her life Jane is told she is to inherit Highgate House but when her mother dies unexpectedly Jane’s evil aunt purposes to send her away to a school where she will learn to be a governess. After first hearing this news, Jane runs…
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Review: The Secret Life of Anna Blanc by Jennifer Kincheloe
Young socialite Anna Blanc is one walking scandal after the other. She is expected to be a good girl and do exactly what her father wants, however she is impulsive and longing for excietment in her life…..bad combo. When she runs off to elope with a handsome, but rather rake-ish gentleman, her father intervenes and gets the marriage annulled and takes Anna back to his mansion in LA and basically puts her under house arrest. Feeling more confined than ever, her eludes her chaperon on a rare afternoon out so she can attend a suffragette rally, but ends up getting arrested instead. While she is at the police station, she…
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Review: Home by Nightfall (Charles Lenox Mysteries #9) by Charles Finch
The once arm chair detective, Charles Lenox, has now successfully made the big shift to being in ‘trade’ with his detective agency and partners. Things seem to be going well for Lenox, Dallington, and Polly….they have after all hired a ‘staff’ of detectives to help with their work load, but their rival LeMire also threatens to take away some of their business. All of London is buzzing with the disappearance of a famous German pianist….everyone is speculating that the Yard will call in a consulting detective firm….Lenox hopes it’s his. While he waits to hear if he will be brought in, his brother Edmund is grieving the loss of his wife…
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Special Feature: The Spine Tingling Literary Canon List for Halloween
Halloween is just around the corner and this week on The Lit Bitch we are talking about the books that make you want to curl up and hide under the covers of your bed. You know those books that scare you so bad that every little noise in your house makes you jump and wonder….is there a monster under my bed??? The folks at Casper Mattresses have a great blog called Pillow Talk and they are doing a super fun ‘haunted’ feature on their blog for Halloween where they talk about spooky hotels (including the Heathman Hotel in Portland, a personal fav of mine being from Oregon and all). Casper is a great company full…
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Review: Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Horowitz #2) by Anthony Horowitz
Shortly after Sherlock Holmes and his adversary, James Moriarty, go over Reichenbach Falls a body is pulled from the water. American detective, Frederick Chase, rushed to Switzerland where he hopes to identify the body as Moriarty’s and ultimately recover a letter sent from notorious American criminal, Clarence Devereux. Devereux and Moriarty had planned to form a partnership that would make them the most formidable crime syndicate in Britain and America. But with Moriarty dead, that leaves Devereux holding the reigns. Chase plans to stop Devereux by any means necessary. When he arrives are Reichenbach falls he meets British detective Athelney Jones who has learned many of Sherlock Holmes’s methods of deduction. The soon…
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Review: The Counterfeit Heiress (Lady Emily #9) by Tasha Alexander
Lady Emily and her husband, the dashing Colin, are enjoying their evening out at an exclusive costume ball. A strange encounter with a masked man leaves Emily scratching her head. She was certain that she was the only Artemis at the ball but clearly the masked man was expecting a different sort of Artemis. Well the only other Artemis at the ball is the eccentric Estella Lamar. Estella hasn’t been seen in society for years. She is known for her world travels and is rarely….if ever…..seen in society. Emily’s long time friend Cecile knows Estella well from a childhood spent together. When Cecile sees Estella at the ball, she knows she’s a fraud. Someone is impersonating…
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Review: The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose
Sandrine Salome is running away to France. Her father has just died and her husband most likely had a hand in it. She cannot continue to be in his house so she flees to Paris where her grandmother lives. Sandrine used to live with her grandmother when she was younger but then she was whisked away when she was caught in a compromising situation with a boy. Since then she has only seen her grandmother a handful of times but it’s almost like Paris is calling her home from America. When she arrives, her grandmother’s home is empty. Her grandmother claims its due to renovations but Sandrine feels like she…
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Review: Die I Will Not (John Chase Mystery #3) by S.K. Rizzolo
British mysteries are some of my favorite books to read….especially those set in either the Victorian or Regency eras. Who doesn’t love a good murder by gaslight novel? The John Chase series intrigued me. I often gravitate toward British mysteries/detective novels with female protagonists, so a series that boasted a male detective grabbed me. Penelope Wolfe has married the wrong man. She tried to break away from her father and in her attempt at ‘independence’ she has found herself very unhappily married. Jeremy is basically gambling himself into the ground.