April 2022 Reading Challenge

The reading challenge for April is titled April Showers...

Challenge: read the amazing books you’ve been saving for a rainy day.

I was pretty excited to get to April's reading challenge. I had lots of books waiting on my shelf to be read; ones that I was sure I would love, but had been waiting for the right time to read. I added 19 books to this list, and I ended up reading 11 of them. I going to post reviews for 8. Some of the ones I read were also ones that I was considering as book club reads, but wanted to at least sample before I brought them as choices. 

Surprisingly, the ones I thought would be good book club choices ended up being crossed off the list. One of them I even gave a 1 star rating, but anyway, let's get to the book reviews!

 

Manners and Monsters (Manners and Monsters #1) by Tilly Wallace

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Paranormal
Content: Clean

 

A lady never reveals the true extent of her decay...

Hannah Miles lives a quiet existence, helping her parents conduct research into a most terrible affliction - until a gruesome murder during her best friend's engagement party pulls her from the shadows. With her specialist's knowledge and demure disposition, Hannah is requested to aid the investigation.

Except Hannah discovers her role is to apologize in the wake of the rude and disgraced man tasked with finding the murderer. The obnoxious Viscount Wycliff thinks to employ Hannah purely as a front to satisfy Whitehall, but she'll have none of that.

The two must work together to find the murderer before the season is ruined. But the viscount is about to meet his greatest challenge, and it's not a member of the ton with a hankering for brains. 

This was a delightful book that feels like a historical fantasy/paranormal/cozy mystery mashup. It reminded me a little of the Parasol Protectorate books, but without the steampunk element. It also made me think of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I love the regency setting and the take on zombies. Face powder, who knew? 😂 The brooding love interest with secrets was also a plus. I'll definitely be reading more of this series.

I came upon this gif and thought it was perfect!

 

 

 

Shards of Honor (The Vorkosigan Saga #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Space Opera, Sci-fi
Content: Strong language, Two near rapes (I found this to be pretty intense and had a hard time listening), A woman is nearly tortured

 

Cordelia Naismith, Betan Survey Captain, was expecting the unexpected: hexapods, floating creatures, odd parasites... She was not, however, expecting to find hostile humans on an uninhabited planet. She and her survey crew are attacked by a renegade group from Barrayar, she is taken prisoner by Aral Vorkosigan, commander of the Barrayan ship that has been taken over by an ambitious and ruthless crew member. Aral and Cordelia survive countless mishaps while their mutual admiration and even stronger feelings emerge.

I've been wanting to try this series for so long. So many of my friends have loved this book, and this series in general, that I was sure I would love it too. Unfortunately, I didn't love it.

First off, I decided to listen to this instead of read it, and I kind of regret that because I didn't like the narrator at all, and it's hard to say if the way I feel about the book is entirely the book's fault or if some of it lies with the narrator.

Second, I found the story a bit bland in the beginning, and the characters hard to connect to, at least at first. Later Cordelia grew on me more. The romance that developed between Cordelia and Aral wasn't bad, but I didn't really feel the connection so much as I was told it was there. As for the side characters, some of them were not very memorable, but the sadistic one was over the top. I was very disturbed by the near rape and torture scene that happens at one point in the book.

So why did I still give it 3 stars? Well, it wasn't all bad. The author is a good writer, and I kind of liked the tone of the book. I also enjoyed the space opera aspect of the book, even though I didn't think there was enough of it. I feel like it has potential to get better, especially since everyone says the books with Miles are the best, and the next one features Miles. So I'm willing to give the series one more try.

As a side note, this series is written out of chronological order and a lot of people appear to read the books in chronological order instead of publication order. I was unaware of this until after I started reading this book. At this point I can't say which is the better way to read it. 

Midnight Crossed (Midnight Texas #1) by Charlaine Harris

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Content: Strong language

 

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town.

There’s a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There’s a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there’s new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he’s found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).

Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth...

 

I've wanted to read this book ever since I saw the TV series, so it's been on my list for a while. I enjoyed the TV series, but didn't love it. I was interested in seeing the source material because I suspected it would be even better than the series. After reading this I'll say that there are things I like better about the book, and things I like better about the TV series. There were definitely quite a few changes for the TV series, but I didn't think they were all bad. What I wasn't expecting was for this to be so slow paced, but the slow pace didn't really bother me. This felt kind of like a slice of life story with weird, unique characters that all had something to hide.

The murder mystery aspect of the story was just ok. I didn't figure out who the killer was, and I feel like it was because there weren't enough clues given. Either that or I wasn't paying enough attention. I didn't really care who killed the woman because my mind was more focused on the mystery surrounding the townsfolk, and who and what they were. That being said, I was hoping to really like the characters, but I ended up feeling kind of indifferent about them. Fiji was the most likeable for me, but even she was a bit bland.

Fiji is a witch, and I had a problem with the inconsistent use of her powers. There is one point where she freezes someone and does it quite easily, and then later when her life is in danger, she doesn't even think to do the same thing in that situation until far later than she should have. It seemed like it was conveniently forgotten to add to the drama and danger of the situation, and then conveniently remembered to finally get her out of it. 

Originally, I was on the fence about continuing this series, but I found the audio on Scribed when I signed up for a free trial, and decided to go ahead and listen to the other two books in the series. I did not like book two quite as much as this one, but book three so far, is better.

The Sword-Edged Blonde (Eddie LaCrosse #1) by Alex Bledsoe

 

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery
Content: Strong language, Abuse is mentioned, Rape done off page, Mildly described sex scene

 

Private investigator and sword-for-hire Eddie LaCrosse is swept up in a web of mystery involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime, and the tragic past he thought he'd left behind.

 

I wanted to like this because I enjoyed the mystery and fantasy combo but this was disappointing. There were several times I wanted to quit, but I stuck with it to the end.

I dislike the way women are portrayed in general in this book, and I suspect all the author's books will be the same. One part in particular that annoyed the heck out of me, was a character alluding to the fact that horses are a sexual thing to women. This kind of crap thinking is why it took women so long to be able to ride astride a horse, instead of on those dangerous sidesaddles. It was a tiny blip of a conversation in the book, that most people will probably read and move past without much thought, but it struck the wrong nerve with me. There are lots of other examples of the way the female characters are treated in this book that just didn't sit well with me. None of them had any real good substantial roles in the book, not even Epona. It was always about sex or abuse in some way.

Then there's Eddie, who didn't come off as very likable to me. I wanted to like him, but he never really let me. I especially disliked the way he treated Rhiannon near the end when he wanted to see the mark on her thigh. He had her thinking he was going to rape her. There was no need for that.

Of course, I'm sure you've guessed that I will not be continuing with this series.  

 

 

Sanditon (Jane Austen's Unfinished Masterpiece Completed) by Jane Austen and Juliette Shapiro 

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Classic
Content: Clean

Had Jane Austen lived to complete Sanditon, it would have been as treasured as her other novels. In the half-finished masterpiece, Austen fashions one of her classic heroines--Charlotte Heywood. The surviving fragment also sets the story well on its path as Charlotte begins an adventure to Sanditon where a full cast of characters becomes intertwined in various intrigues.

At first, Charlotte finds amusement enough standing at her ample Venetian window looking over the placid seafront. However, before long, Charlotte discovers that scandals abound. She becomes captivated by the romance of the seaside lifestyle. But is the town of Sanditon truly a haven and will Charlotte find happiness there?

Now, fully completed by respected author and Austen expert Juliette Shapiro, this new edition of Sanditon finishes the original story in a vivid style recognizable to any fan. Shapiro's prose and plot twists stay true to Austen's sensibilities at all times while capturing her romance, tragedy, humor and sardonic wit.  

 

After watching the first season of Sanditon on PBS a couple of years ago I was very disappointed when I found out it was canceled. Now, I knew the TV adaptation wasn't very true to Jane Austen's book, because it was obvious that some of the elements that were added into the story would never have been written by Jane Austen, but nevertheless, I enjoyed the show and wanted it to continue after that terrible, heartbreaking cliffhanger. Imagine my delight when my wish came true and it was rescued and given another season! Then imagine my disappointment when the actor that played Sidney wouldn't come back to finish the story! So I gave up on the TV version. I decided not to watch the second season and instead decided to try this book in hopes that it would give me closure to the story of Charlotte and Sidney.

There was a bit of confusion for me concerning the finished versions of Sanditon. I did not realize that there were multiple versions that were completed. I picked this one up thinking it was the only one, only to find out differently afterwards. There is one other in particular that I want to read that is finished by Anne Telscombe, referred to on some of the covers as "Another Lady" I think it would be fun to compare the two different versions.

As for this version of the work, I feel like this gave me some good closure, and I enjoyed listening to the audio version of it. I do recommend it, but keep in mind that it's not going to be perfect. No finished version of another author's work ever is. I have to say though, that not knowing where the original story left off, I couldn't tell at what point Juliette's part of the story took over.

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Classic, Psychological thriller, Suspense
Content:

 

Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno are passengers on the same train. Haines is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno a mysterious smooth-talker with a sadistic proposal: he’ll murder Haines’s wife if Haines will murder Bruno’s father. As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy finds himself trapped in Highsmith’s perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, ordinary people are capable of extraordinary crimes. 

The inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1951 film, Strangers on a Train launched Highsmith’s prolific career, proving her a master at depicting the unsettling forces that tremble beneath the surface of everyday life.

 

 

I got into a real classics mood after finishing Sanditon and listened to the dramatization of  The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I'm not writing a review for it because it was far shorter than the actual book and I need to go back and read the whole thing, but that led to me picking up this classic. I've had this book sitting on my bookshelf for so long. I loved the Hitchcock movie version of this, and was eager to find out if I would love the book just as much. The verdict is that I found the book absorbing, but can't say that I liked it better than the movie. One thing I liked about the movie was that I found Guy Haines to be a sympathetic character who gets swept up in this scheme created by Charles Bruno, and he stays sympathetic. In the book, not so much. In fact, after Miriam's murder, the movie and book share little in common. That being said, I think the biggest flaw the book has, is that it just goes on for too long. I'm still glad I read it though.

Guns of the Dawn by  Adrian Tchaikovsky 

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Flintlock Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, Attempted rapes, Implied sex

 

The first casualty of war is truth . . .

First, Denland's revolutionaries assassinated their king, launching a wave of bloodshed after generations of peace. Next they clashed with Lascanne, their royalist neighbour, pitching war-machines against warlocks in a fiercely fought conflict.

Genteel Emily Marshwic watched as the hostilities stole her family's young men. But then came the call for yet more Lascanne soldiers in a ravaged kingdom with none left to give. Emily must join the ranks of conscripted women and march toward the front lines.

With barely enough training to hold a musket, Emily braves the savage reality of warfare.
But she begins to doubt her country's cause, and those doubts become critical. For her choices will determine her own future and that of two nations locked in battle.  

 

I have mixed feelings about this book. It had been high on my list of books I wanted to read for a long time, but after reading it I'm somewhat disappointed. Going into this I had read quite a few reviews from friends and most of them really loved it. I thought I knew what to expect. It had been described as Jane Austen on a battlefield, and that was intriguing to me.

What I didn't expect was the amount of time the novel takes place on the battlefield, and the lack of fantasy elements in the book. While the book contains sorcerers that wield magic, there was virtually nothing about it in the book. I was expecting magic infused battles and got nothing. That was incredibly disappointing. I struggle to even call this a fantasy novel, and I honestly am not quite sure what to classify it as. I'm just going with flintlock fantasy.

On the surface, it feels like there is little character development in the book, but then it's the kind of development that sneaks up on you. It's so subtle, so gradual. I liked Emily a lot and enjoyed the way her character is shown throughout the book. That being said some of the characters weren't as well developed as I would have liked. I do think this author is a really good writer and the book was well written, but at times it felt like it went on too long. I wanted to get to the end of all the battles sooner. The battle scenes themselves felt very real, and I could feel the misery of the situation right along with the characters. Emily had a lot of courage and I admired that about her. I also really came to like several of her comrades, and even shed a tear or two at a couple of the deaths.

 

“I am picked apart. Each day, some new part of me is pecked out. I am losing those things that make me human. Take me away from this place before it devours me, piece by piece.” 

 

I particularly enjoyed the relationship that develops between Emily and one of the love interests in the book, and it gave me some Pride and Prejudice type vibes. Unfortunately, I didn't like the way the romantic relationships were handled in the book. First there was a love triangle that I wish had not been there, and then the way it ends felt very wishy-washy to me. Emily couldn't figure out who she really wanted for far too long and it harmed the credibility of both romances. 

Overall, I liked this book. I kept going back to it, but I didn't feel a sense of urgency to do so. It felt like a character study during war more than anything else to me, and it lost my interest at certain points.

The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library #1) by Genevieve Cogman

  

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk
Content: Strong Language

 

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.

Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.

Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at stake.

 

This is another book that I kept going back to but didn't feel any real urgency to do so. I think I like the idea behind this book better than the execution. For me the story ended up feeling somewhat absurd. I didn't think the whole premise of the book made all that much sense. Why are these people going through all this trouble for certain books? What's so dangerous about these books that they are risking death, and some people are even killing for them? Unless I missed something, I don't feel like this was adequately explained. 

For the most part this was a mixed bag of exciting moments and boring ones, and the book was just missing something for me that could have made it really good. I liked the steampunk aspects of the books and the type of magic used in the book, but I'm not sure either of those elements were used as well as they could have been. And there is a dragon in this book that does nothing very dragonish, and that was a huge disappointment. I liked the interdimensional travel, but with the exception of the beginning of the book, where the protagonist is finishing up a job elsewhere, we are bogged down in only one for the whole book. It also looks like we might be stuck in the same one in the next book because the protagonist was appointed a position in that dimension. I hope not, but then, I don't think I'll be reading on anyway.

 

April 2022 Book Club: Downbelow Station (The Company Wars #1) by C.J. Cherryh

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Space Opera
Content: Clean

The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and politically dependent on Mother Earth. The Earth Company which ran this immense operation reaped incalculable profits and influenced the affairs of nations.

Then came Pell, the first station centered around a newly discovered living planet. The discovery of Pell's World forever altered the power balance of the Beyond. Earth was no longer the anchor which kept this vast empire from coming adrift, the one living mote in a sterile universe.

But Pell was just the first living planet. Then came Cyteen, and later others, and a new and frighteningly different society grew in the farther reaches of space. The importance of Earth faded and the Company reaped ever smaller profits as the economic focus of space turned outward. But the powerful Earth Fleet was still a presence in the Beyond, and Pell Station was to become the last stronghold in a titanic struggle between the vast, dynamic forces of the rebel Union and those who defended Earth's last, desperate grasp for the stars.  

 

This was our book club pick for April and I honestly wasn't expecting to like it nearly as much as I did. The different factions and their political machinations reminded me, at times, of The Expanse.  There were definitely comparisons that could be drawn between Earth Company, Union, and Merchants in this book; and the Belters, Martians, and Earth's United Nations in The Expanse series. Of course, this series came far before that one. I liked that the author was able to show the different sides of the conflict in this book, and how there were good and bad people on all sides. The characters felt very well drawn and real to me. I especially enjoyed reading about Damon and Elene, Josh, and the Hisa. 

I do want to point out that this review is specially for the Graphic Audio version of this book. I tried listening to the other audio version and quite frankly, did not care for the narrator. I'm not sure how much I would have enjoyed this book if I had continued to listen to that version, or even read the print version. I would like to think the print version would have eventually drawn me in. The Graphic Audio version was loaded with a full cast of voice actors and lots of sound effects that made this book something I looked forward to listening to. I don't know how much of the book is changed or left out of this version, but this version was about 13 hours long, and the other audio version was 19 hours long. So I'm assuming some things got cut, but I don't believe anything of real significance was cut.

In the end, I enjoyed this so much that I plan on reading the second book in the series. 

 

 

 

Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot #17) by Agatha Christie

  

 My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Clean

The tranquility of a lovely cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything – until she lost her life.

Who's also on board? Christie's great detective Hercule Poirot. He recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Despite the exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…

 

A friend and I have been doing a movie night every week and we decided we wanted to watch the latest movie version of this book—The Kenneth Branagh one that was just recently at the theater. But first we decided we should both read the book, because neither of us had ever read it. This review is not just going to include my thoughts on the book, but also on the movie—actually two movies.

We both borrowed the audio version of the book narrated by Kenneth Branagh and enjoyed it immensely. This book starts off slow. It takes about half the book to set things up, but I wasn't bothered by this. The story and the enjoyable narration sucked me right in and I knew it would eventually pay off. There were two parts in the book that stood out to both my friend and me. One where Poirot talks with Linnet, and admonishes her for making the choice to take the man her friend loves away from her.

“I suggest to you that, although you may have endeavored to gloss over the fact to yourself, you did deliberately set about taking your husband from your friend. I suggest that you felt strongly attracted to him at once. But I suggest that there was a moment when you hesitated, when you realized that there was a choice–that you could refrain or go on. I suggest that the initiative rested with you–not with Monsieur Doyle. … You had everything, Madame, that life can offer. Your friend’s life was bound up in one person. You knew that, but, though you hesitated, you did not hold your hand. You stretched it out and, like the rich man in the Bible, you took the poor man’s one ewe lamb.”  

 

Then there is the part where he talks with Jacqueline and warns her not to go down the path fueled by jealousy and revenge that she is heading down. 

 

“Mademoiselle, I beseech you, do not do what you are doing.” “Leave dear Linnet alone, you mean!” “It is deeper than that. Do not open your heart to evil.” Her lips fell apart; a look of bewilderment came into her eyes. Poirot went on gravely: “Because—if you do—evil will come…Yes, very surely evil will come…It will enter in and make its home within you, and after a little while it will no longer be possible to drive it out.”

They were very poignant for both my friend and me, and we both agreed that these conversations gave us great insight into the character of Poirot and were one of the best parts of the book. I won't say too much about the book. If you've never read it or seen the movies, there are some clever twists added in that, unless you're paying attention to certain details, will take you by surprise. This is why Agatha Christie is considered such a great mystery writer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After reading the book, we did watch the movie, and both of us were very disappointed in it. We both like Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, and I also thought it was a beautiful film, from the scenery, to the costumes, to all the people. It was all beautiful, but that didn't make it a good adaptation of the book. Several characters were completely changed. Some of them were completely cut out and combined into one character. Poirot's friend Bouc from the movie, Murder on the Orient Express is added in and given the role of one of the other characters in the book as well. It also dwelt on adding a backstory to Poirot which I found distracting from the story. And to top everything off, it felt like they were checking boxes to kowtow to people nowadays. I've got no problem with stories that include those things, I just have a problem with messing with a classic to include them. 

And what of those two poignant conversations Poirot has with Linnet and Jacqueline? They were skimmed over so much that they had no impact. Which was sad really, because it seemed that they wanted to show us more of who Poirot was by adding backstory and superimposing it into the original story, but they completely missed the part in the original story that gave us a glimpse of who he was.

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

After being disappointed in this movie version we decided to watch the 1978 version and see how it was. There were lots of great actors in the 1978 version—Betty Davis, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Peter Ustanov, Mia Farrow. This was exciting! In this version there were only one or two characters missing from the book, and they did a good job of adapting the story without them. Angela Lansbury, in particular was a hoot in her role, even though she didn't play it as a closet drunk, but an obvious one, it was a lot of fun watching her. Unfortunately, this movie didn't touch on those poignant conversations that we loved so much enough either. And neither of us thought Peter Ustinov was a very good Poirot, but overall we both liked this movie adaptation better, simply because it was a lot truer to the book.

 

 

March 2022 Reading Challenge

 

Our challenge for March was to Read a few books we've been hanging onto for more than 10 years.

I've had several classics on my shelf for at least that long, so I ended up picking Emma, and Lady Audley's Secret.

 

 

Emma by Jane Austen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Classic
Content: Clean

Charming, rich, and clever, heiress Emma Woodhouse has no need for an occupation - or a husband. Still, she considers herself quite skilled at matchmaking. Although her dear friend Mr. Knightley advises against it, there is nothing that she enjoys more than entangling herself in the romantic lives of others. But when one of her well-intentioned plans goes awry - as Mr. Knightley rightly predicted - Emma must face the consequences of her meddling.  

Emma, first published in 1816, was written when Jane Austen was at the height of her powers. In a novel remarkable for its sparkling wit and modernity, Austen presents readers with two of literature's greatest comic creations--the eccentric Mr. Woodhouse and that quintessential bore, Miss Bates. Here, too, we have what may well be Jane Austen's most profound characterization: the witty, imaginative, self-deluded Emma, a heroine the author declared "no one but myself will much like," but who has been much loved by generations of readers. Delightfully funny, full of rich irony, Emma is regarded as one of Jane Austen's finest achievements.

 

“Better be without sense than misapply it as you do.”  

I've had Emma on my shelf for so long, though not the copy in the above photo. I bought this collection last year. So, technically I have multiple copies of Emma, this one in the photo, two ebook copies, and a paperback copy that is currently on my daughter's bookshelf. This one definitely qualified for the challenge! 

I was pretty excited to finally actually read this book. I had already seen the BBC mini-series twice and loved it. I also saw the movie that was made in 2020 and didn't care for that adaptation at all. I was hoping the book would be like the mini-series, and it was, but not without issues.

I've read Pride and Prejudice and loved it, and Sense and Sensibility and liked it. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Emma as much as those two. My main reason for giving this book only 3 stars is because, surprisingly it was very tedious to read. I did not have that experience reading Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility.

Emma, however was full of unfinished or interrupted sentences that broke the flow of the story so much that it irritated me. There were also tangents that characters would go on to the point that I thought they were never going to get to the point they were trying to make. This book is so needlessly wordy, and it's about the most mundane things sometimes. I know it was supposed to be somewhat of a comedy which highlighted these sorts of characters, and I was supposed to find all of this amusing, but it was too frustrating to read, and thus not so amusing. I have to say that I enjoyed the mini-series way more.

A lot of people don't like Emma, and I get that for sure. Going into this book I was no stranger to her personality and it didn't bother me any more than it did when I watched the mini-series. She was hard to like in the beginning, but she grew on me as the story progressed and she learned from her mistakes. In the end I do still think Mr. Knightly is too good for her, but I still ended up liking her because she learned and changed. Also, in the film adaptations I've seen there was more spark between Mr. Knightly and Emma. There really isn't any in the book and that was disappointing.

I'm not sorry I read this, even if I didn't like it as much as I wanted to, and I plan on reading more of Jane Austen in the future. Hopefully it won't take me ten years.

“Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise.”

 

 

 

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Classic
Content: Clean

When beautiful young Lucy Graham accepts the hand of Sir Michael Audley, her fortune and her future look secure. But Lady Audley's past is shrouded in mystery, and Sir Michael's nephew Robert has vague forebodings. When Robert's good friend George Talboys suddenly disappears, he is determined to find him, and to unearth the truth. His quest reveals a tangled story of lies and deception, crime and intrigue, whose sensational twists turn the conventional picture of Victorian womanhood on its head. Can Robert's darkest suspicions really be true?

A publishing sensation in its day, Lady Audley's Secret is a thrilling novel of deception and villainy in which the golden-haired heroine is not at all what she seems. But it is not just a pot-boiler. Indeed, Mary Elizabeth Braddon's terrific plot touches on many contemporary social concerns, including class, madness, and the separate roles of men and women.

Lady Audley's Secret was an immediate bestseller, and readers have enjoyed its thrilling plot ever since its first publication in 1862. 

 

“For you see Miss Lucy Graham was blessed with that magic power of fascination by which a woman can charm with a word or intoxicate with a smile”

The above quote perfectly describes the character of Lucy, and I must say that I really despised her. 

I've had an ebook copy of this on my Kindle for many years, but I actually ended up listening to this instead of reading it. I really enjoyed this book, and the free audio version. It pulled me in right from the beginning. I, of course, wanted to know what Lady Audley's secret was. It actually wasn't too hard to figure out, but it was great fun getting to the reveal anyway. 

I think this book was supposed to be rather shocking in it's day, but nothing shocked or surprised me. I guess I've read far too many mysteries for that, and we hear of way too many things like this and more in our day and age. 

I would recommend this if you love reading classics and also love mysteries.

"Foul deeds have been done under the most hospitable roofs; terrible crimes have been committed amid the fairest scenes, and have left no trace upon the spot where they were done."

The Unknown Beloved by Amy Harmon

  

 My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance
Content: Strong language; Sex that is not described in detail, Gruesome killings

Chicago, 1923: Ten-year-old Dani Flanagan returns home to find police swarming the house, her parents dead. Michael Malone, the young patrolman assigned to the case, discovers there’s more to the situation—and to Dani Flanagan herself—than the authorities care to explore. Malone is told to shut his mouth, and Dani is sent away to live with her spinster aunts in Cleveland.

Fifteen years later, Michael Malone is summoned to Cleveland to investigate a series of murders that have everyone stumped, including his friend and famed Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, now Cleveland’s director of safety. There, in a city caught in the grip of a serial killer, Malone’s and Dani’s paths cross once again.

Malone is drawn to Dani and her affinity for the dead and compassion for the destitute. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that she could help him solve his case. As terror descends on the city and Malone and Dani confront the dark secrets that draw them together, it’s a race to find the killer or risk becoming his next victims.

 

I rarely read straight up historical fiction. I usually need some mystery or romance added in and this book had both of those things, plus it's Amy Harmon so how could I go wrong? Well, to start off I'm going to say that I have never read any of Amy Harmon's historical fiction novels. I've read quite a few  of her fantasy and romance ones and loved them. This book had a different feel to it from those books, but that wasn't completely unexpected since it's a different genre. 

I think this book is darker than her other books. It's based on a true crime that Eliot Ness was involved in trying to solve, that involved a serial killer that did gruesome killings, so I think that made the book feel even more different than I was expecting. I've read books with gruesome killings before and I don't particularly enjoy them, but this one was pretty mild in the descriptions compared to those. We never get into the head of the killer or have anything described as it's happening, just what's left to be found later. To me that was a good thing. 

The investigation was at times interesting, and at times too long and drawn out. I'm always cautious about reading something fictional about someone that was real, but I thought the real people were blended into the story well. The story is very character driven and I like character driven stories. Dani and Malone were both interesting characters and I liked that we were able to slowly peel the layers off of who they were. Their relationship was sweet and slow burn, but at times I found it frustrating because Malone didn't want to involve Dani in his life. 

Mostly what I didn't like about this book were the huge coincidences, the fact that there were so many elements in play, and the snails pace the plot moved at. Along with the historical, mystery, and romance elements, Dani also has some psychic abilities, and there is a bit of what feels like fate in play as well. It felt like the author crammed a few too many ideas into the book, but it wasn't bad and I did end up liking this book. 

I wouldn't recommend this as the first book to read by this author. While I mostly enjoyed it, I feel like others are better. If you've never read Amy Harmon I would suggest starting with Making Faces, or if you like fairy tale type fantasy, start with The Bird and the Sword.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.

 

 

 

  

March 2022 Book Club: Kill the Queen (Crown of Shards, #1) by Jennifer Estep

  

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Brutal murders

 

Gladiator meets Game of Thrones: a royal woman becomes a skilled warrior to destroy her murderous cousin, avenge her family, and save her kingdom in this first entry in a dazzling fantasy epic from the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Elemental Assassin series—an enthralling tale that combines magic, murder, intrigue, adventure, and a hint of romance.

In a realm where one’s magical power determines one’s worth, Lady Everleigh’s lack of obvious ability relegates her to the shadows of the royal court of Bellona, a kingdom steeped in gladiator tradition. Seventeenth in line for the throne, Evie is nothing more than a ceremonial fixture, overlooked and mostly forgotten.

But dark forces are at work inside the palace. When her cousin Vasilia, the crown princess, assassinates her mother the queen and takes the throne by force, Evie is also attacked, along with the rest of the royal family. Luckily for Evie, her secret immunity to magic helps her escape the massacre.

Forced into hiding to survive, she falls in with a gladiator troupe. Though they use their talents to entertain and amuse the masses, the gladiators are actually highly trained warriors skilled in the art of war, especially Lucas Sullivan, a powerful magier with secrets of his own. Uncertain of her future—or if she even has one—Evie begins training with the troupe until she can decide her next move.

But as the bloodthirsty Vasilia exerts her power, pushing Bellona to the brink of war, Evie’s fate becomes clear: she must become a fearsome gladiator herself . . . and kill the queen.

 

Gladiator meets Game of Thrones? Yeah right... That comparison is kind of laughable. This is like kindergarten compared to both of those. I wanted to like this book so much, but unfortunately it wasn't what I was wanting or expecting.
My biggest problem with it is that the main character is an idiot most of the time. She completely ignores the obvious so many times in this book I lost count. Also, pie baking and complaining is not a good way to open a fantasy book. The main character comes off pretty whiny as she complains about having to bake pies, and royal protocol when there are people who have much bigger problems in her world. Needless to say, this did not draw me into the story at all.

There were a lot of things that bothered me about the main character, but these are a few examples of what I really didn't like-

-She has a very heightened sense of smell. She can smell things no one else can, like people's emotions, the magic in gemstones, and poisons, but somehow doesn't realize there is poison in the drinks that kill a lot of people, even though it's the poison that killed her own parents. That just doesn't make sense.

-She decides to kill the queen, as the title eludes to, and rightly so after the queen has done so many horrible things. But her big reason for wanting to do this is because she was bullied by her, not because of all the murders she committed. This was a little disturbing because it seemed to unintentionally send the message that it's ok to kill someone who is bulling you.

-Don't even get me started about the dumb dance thing, that coincidentally ends up saving everyone's life later in the book. I couldn't take it seriously.

This book reads so YA while adding in a protagonist who is supposed to be well into her 20s. She came off so much younger than that. There is also quite a bit of adult language in this book, mostly in reference to the main character wanting to hook up with someone, and calling other women bitches over and over. If that was supposed to make it feel more adult, it didn't work. It felt juvenile to me. I'm sad to say this series has been added to my abandoned pile.