New Bullitt Movie, RIP Greg Bear, Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize, Ship Wreaked by Olivia Dade, The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams by MJ Rose, Kill the Queen by Jennifer Estep and A Shoe Story by Jane L Rosen

Hola and welcome book lovers and friends of the book! We're almost ready for December to descend on us, and today we finally got some snow here in the PNW in preparation for the holidays! My birthday is upcoming, as is Christmas, so I'm excited to turn the calendar over for the last month of 2022. We've lost a bunch of great people this past year, and since I just tested positive for COVID 19 a second time, (Ugh, when does it end?!) I'm hoping that the new year will bring better health and well being for myself and my family. I'm hoping the best for you and yours as well, gentle readers.

I remember watching Bullitt with my family back when I was 7-8 years old. My brothers and dad loved it, my mom and I didn't engage with it that much. I think its a good idea that they're not doing a remake but making it a whole new story. Should be interesting.

Movies: Bullitt

Bradley Cooper has been cast in Bullitt https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAbekeQI6aliIkx3Gg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jBDJCspoMLg-gVdw, Steven Spielberg's upcoming film about Frank Bullitt, the character made famous in the 1968 Steven McQueen movie. IndieWire reported that the project, inspired by the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L. Fish, will not be a remake of the original film by Peter Yates, but a completely original story featuring Bullitt.

Cooper will join Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger as producers. Oscar-winning Spotlight screenwriter Josh Singer will write the screenplay for the new Bullitt film, with McQueen's son Chad and granddaughter Molly executive producing.

Though I've only read a few books by Bear, they were unforgettable.I don't think anyone who read his work was unaffected by it. Smart prose and stunning plot lines combined to make thrilling reading for SF fans. He was also instrumental in getting the Science Fiction Museum up and running in Paul Allen's music museum, which has now become the Museum of Popular Culture. Though he was 71, that still seems way too young to die to me. RIP GB. 

Obituary Note: Greg Bear

Science fiction author Greg Bear https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAmIl-oI6aliIR1_GQ~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jOWpaipoMLg-gVdw, who wrote more than 50 books and "played a leading role in defining how global audiences saw future final frontiers," died November 19, GeekWire reported. He was 71. Bear had his first short story published in 1967 and began writing full time in 1975. His works include multiple award-winning series, a Star Trek novel and a Star Wars novel, as well as a trilogy set in the Halo video-game universe.

Bear won Nebulas for novels Moving Mars and Darwin's Radio, as well as three works of short fiction, two of which--"Blood Music" and "Tangents"--also won Hugos. In 2006, he received the Robert A. Heinlein Award. His final novel, The Unfinished Land, was published last year.

Bear's influence on the science-fiction community "extended far beyond the written page," GeekWire noted. He was one of the founders of San Diego's Comic-Con International and served for two years as president of the Science Fiction Writers of America (now the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association).

Current SFWA president Jeffe Kennedy said, "When I took over as a newbie president of SFWA, past-president Greg Bear was unfailingly gracious to and supportive of me. I loved his work and admired him as an author, so to discover what a truly kind person he was meant so much. He will be greatly missed by SFWA and the larger community."

After moving to the Seattle, Wash., area in 1987, he became a member of the team that created and organized the Washington State Centennial Time Capsule. GeekWire contributor Frank Catalano recalled introducing Bear to the late software billionaire Paul Allen--a contact that helped lead to the creation of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, now part of Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture.

Author Harry Turtledove tweeted: "Greg the man was a friend. Greg the writer was quite remarkable."

Bear was best known "as a writer of 'hard' science fiction--stories that are grounded in the improbable plausibilities of science and technology," Geekwire noted. "For example, in Strength of Stones, a novel first published in 1982, Bear laid out a world in which cities that are governed by artificial intelligence rise up against their human creators. And in his War Dogs Trilogy, Bear gave leading roles to private space ventures like Elon Musk's SpaceX."

In a tribute, author John Scalzi wrote : "What I will add here is the personal observation that in my experience of him, he was kind and decent, and treated me as a peer from a very early stage in my career, which is something I noted and appreciated, and tried to emulate in turn. I have condolences and care for Astrid and their children, and all who knew him, either personally or through his work. He will be missed. He is missed, already."

Oh how I adore PG Wodehouse's works, and I've always loved that he gave out a pig and champagne for his eponymous award. Nowadays they just name a pig after your book, they used to give the author a pig. Sigh. 

Award: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize

Percival Everett won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAmIkeQI6aliIRBySw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jOWpCspoMLg-gVdw, highlighting "the funniest novel of the past 12 months, which best evokes the Wodehouse spirit of 'witty characters and perfectly-timed comic phrases,' " for his novel The Trees (Graywolf Press), the Bookseller reported. Everett receives a jeroboam of Bollinger Special Cuvee, a case of Bollinger La Grande Anne, the complete set of the Everyman's Library P.G. Wodehouse collection and a pig named after his winning book.

Prize organizers praised The Trees as a "bold and provocative book in which Everett takes direct aim at racism and police violence, in a fast-paced style that ensures the reader can't look away.... Confronting America's legacy of lynching, it is an enormously powerful novel of lasting importance, while at the same time a comic horror masterpiece."

Everett observed: "It's ironic that this prize for comedy goes now to a book about the American practice of lynching, but that's why I love comedy. Comedy allows us for short bursts to be smarter animals than we usually are. To realize the absurdity is to transcend the absurdity. Funny that. Thank you."

Chair of the judges Peter Florence added: "Comedy can entertain, can mock, can tease out our compassion and empathy, it can make you laugh and smile and feel better about other people and even ourselves. And Percival Everett's The Trees can do something else as well. It can lighten the most atrocious darkness and tell truths in ways that begin to make sense of the absurdity of life. He brings us back to the core of our own humanity. You have to go back to Joseph Heller's Catch-22 to find this done so well as Percival Everett does it. He's in that company with Heller and Swift, with Chaplin, Pryor and with Wodehouse. What a joy to read such a book."

Ship Wreaked by Olivia Dade is a delightful rom-com that reads like the best YA fiction, full of witty dialogue and fun, but while also containing a lot of adult sexual situations and more than it's fair share of swearing and cussing. Though I'm not generally opposed to cursing, I felt that there was a touch too much in this otherwise well written and nicely plotted novel. Here's the blurb:

After All the Feels and Spoiler Alert, Olivia Dade once again delivers a warm and wonderful romantic comedy about two co-stars who once had an incredible one-night stand—and after years of filming on the same remote island, are finally ready to yield to temptation again…

Maria’s one-night-stand—the thick-thighed, sexy Viking of a man she left without a word or a note—just reappeared. Apparently, Peter’s her surly Gods of the Gates co-star, and they’re about to spend the next six years filming on a desolate Irish island together. She still wants him…but he now wants nothing to do with her.

Peter knows this role could finally transform him from a forgettable character actor into a leading man. He also knows a failed relationship with Maria could poison the set, and he won’t sabotage his career for a woman who’s already walked away from him once. Given time, maybe they can be cooperative colleagues or friends—possibly even best friends—but not lovers again. No matter how much he aches for her.

For years, they don’t touch off-camera. But on their last night of filming, their mutual restraint finally shatters, and all their pent-up desire explodes into renewed passion. Too bad they still don’t have a future together, since Peter’s going back to Hollywood, while Maria’s returning to her native Sweden. She thinks she needs more than he can give her, but he’s determined to change her mind, and he’s spent the last six years waiting. Watching. Wanting.

His shipwrecked Swede doesn’t stand a chance.

I've read  All The Feels and Spoiler Alert, and I enjoyed both novels, so I wasn't surprised that this one gripped me from the first chapter and would not let me go until the last. It was the best kind of page-turner, the kind that keeps you awake until the wee hours so you can see what happens to the main characters. Dade is also a master of witty dialogue and fake funny twitter feeds, as well as the bon mot and the hilariously dry aside. Having done stand up comedy (I took a class) briefly, I know that comedy is not easy to write or perform, so kudos to Dade for tackling comic writing and nailing it. Since both characters had traumatic childhoods, I was gratified to see that the characters managed to overcome their respective traumas to learn to love again. However, I do think it needs to be said that not everyone with a traumatic childhood is able to overcome it this easily or well. Anyway, I'd give this lovely funny book an A, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well written rom-com.

 

The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams by MJ Rose was a NetGalley ebook that I was allowed to read as an ARC, well before it's pub date of February of next year. This, as with all the other Daughters of La Lune books, is a gorgeous novel inside and out, with a bright and colorful eye-catching cover and a near-perfect historical romance/mystery/adventure between the covers. I've read a number of other MJ Rose books, and though they're all beautiful, I'm always surprised when she's outdone herself and made each subsequent book better than the last. Jeweler of Stolen Dreams contains some of Rose's most lush and magnificent prose, with fascinating, believable characters and a plot that flows like French champagne on New Years eve. Here's the blurb:

A captivating tale of two passionate women separated by decades but united by a shared vision. One, the famous jeweler Suzanne Belperron, fighting to protect her company and rescue the man she loves. The other, a young auctioneer whose exceptional gifts reveal a secret that endangers her very life.

“Only one thing saves you, and that is not losing sight of beauty.”

Paris, 1942. Suzanne Belperron is known as one of the most innovative jewelers of her time. Elsa Schiaparelli and the Duchess of Windsor are just two of her many illustrious clients. What no one knows is that Suzanne and her dear friend, American socialite Dixie Osgood, have been helping transport hundreds of Jewish families out of France since the war began. But now, the war has come to Suzanne’s front door—the Nazis have arrested her business partner and longtime lover, Bernard Herz.

New York, 1986. Violine Duplessi, an appraiser for a boutique auction house, is summoned to visit the home of Paul Osgood, a scholarly lawyer and political candidate who aspires to take over the Senate seat of his recently deceased father. Paul has inherited everything inside Osgood Manor, from the eighteenth-century furniture to the nineteenth-century Limoges china. But a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk is what calls to Violine, with the surprising but undeniable thrum of energy that can only be one thing: the gift passed down to her by La Lune, the sixteenth-century courtesan.

Since childhood, Violine has been able to read an object’s history and learn the secrets of its owners by merely touching it, but she silenced her psychometry when it destroyed her last relationship. Why has it returned now?

While inspecting the trunk, she senses it holds a hidden treasure and finds a hoard of precious jewels that provoke nightmarish visions and raise a multitude of questions. Who owned these pieces? Why were they hidden inside the trunk? Were they stolen? Could their discovery derail Paul’s campaign and their burgeoning attraction to each other?

So begins a search that takes Violine to Paris to work with the Midas Society, a covert international organization whose mission is to return lost and stolen antiques, jewels, and artwork to their original owners. There, Violine will discover both her and Paul’s surprising connections to the trunk—and to Suzanne Belperron, who silently and heroically hid an amazing truth in plain sight.

Told through Violine’s first-person account and Suzanne’s diary entries, The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams is a riveting story of magick, mystery, romance, and revenge. Inspired by the real-life legend Suzanne Belperron, it marks yet another masterpiece by New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author M.J. Rose.

I was utterly engrossed and riveted by this story from page one to the last sentence...I could NOT put it down! Violine and Suzu's stories are so compelling and tragic, that I kept wondering what was going to happen in the next chapter, and I felt as if the characters were so real that I could actually go to France and have a coffee or a drink with them at a cafe. The effortless elegance of the jewelry designs mimics the seemingly effortless elegance of the story itself, and the characters backgrounds and lifelong mysteries are revealed like facets in a diamond cut to brilliance. I'd give this book an A (I'd give it a higher grade if there was one) and recommend it to anyone and everyone who has an interest in historical romance and jewels and WWII.

Kill The Queen by Jennifer Estep was a fantasy/romance that was patterned off of books by Sarah Maas and Jennifer Armentrout. Though the story was interesting, it read like a paint-by-numbers work that didn't have all the plot holes covered or the characters filled in before it went to print. Here's the blurb:

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.

It might be because I am NOT a Game of Thrones fan (or the spin off  House Of Dragons), but this book felt like it was trying to be too many things at once, and in the attempt failed to do one coherent storyline well. There was also way too much time spent on describing weapons training and Evie's sparring. Nobody outside of a dojo really cares about how long it takes to master a certain type of sword, or how inevitably sore/bruised you get while sparring with seasoned warriors. While we all, of course, would have empathy and sympathy for all the horrors that poor Evie has faced (and somehow survived against all odds) I felt that she didn't really come into her power as a woman and a warrior fast/soon enough to really beat the baddies at their own game. She was battered and bruised but not defeated, which was nice, but it seems that it took several other people to tell her that she could do it for her to actually get the job done. Still, the story held my interest and I felt the prose was stout and muscular, while the plot felt a little too fast and breezy for the harsh blood and gore of the prose. I'd give this book a B- and recommend it to those who want a GOT-lite type of read.

A Shoe Story by Jane L Rosen was a lighthearted romantic comedy for all those who love women's shoes and the power of fashion in a young woman's life. Here's the blurb: A young woman has one month and a closet full of shoes to discover the future she thought she'd lost in this captivating new novel from the author of Eliza Starts a Rumor and Nine Women, One Dress.

Esme Nash is eager to leave her small town and begin her carefully planned post-grad life: a move to New York City, an apartment with her loving college boyfriend, and a fancy job at an art gallery. But when tragedy strikes, instead of heading to Manhattan, she returns home to care for her ailing father, leaving every bit of her dream behind.
 
Seven trying years later, Esme is offered a dog-sitting job in Greenwich Village by a mysterious stranger, giving her access to all of her long-buried hopes and dreams—as well as to an epic collection of designer shoes. Esme jumps at a second chance to step into the future she's sure was meant to be hers.
 
As she retraces her steps, one pair of borrowed shoes at a time, making new friends and reconnecting with her old love, Esme tries on versions of herself she didn’t know existed. But the hazy August days and warm summer nights pass too quickly, and Esme must decide how much of the life she imagined still fits, and what—and who—is on the road ahead of her. 

The prose was slinky and as pretty as a new pair of pumps, while the plot danced along in a fun and flirty way that was never dull or boring. Though I'm not a huge shoe fan myself, I understand being a passionate collector of something you adore (for me it's books and pens and purses) and I also know what happens when your original dream gets derailed by life, so Esme's journey resonated with me and I had a great deal of empathy for her. I loved that she was able to borrow the shoes of the person whom she was dog-sitting/walking for, and that she realized that she can still have her dream, but that it might take a different direction now that she's older and wiser. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who likes shoes and knows what it is like to strive for a dream deferred.

 

Obituary for Doris Grumbach, Gaiman's Dead Boy Detectives Comes to TV, B&N Buys Paper Source, Chronology of Water Movie, Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty, Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn, Only Bad Options by Jeniifer Estep, and The Banned Book Shop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson

Welcome to my blog, People of the Book, Book Dragons, Bibliophiles, Book Lovers, etc. I caught the latest variant of the COVID 19 virus this past week, so, while I had more time to read, I've been feeling so bad that I could hardly sit at my computer or manage to stay awake long enough to read. Since I've been vaccinated 5 times, I've not had more than bad flu symptoms, but the Paxlovid anti-virals the doctors gave me have side effects that make you feel like you've been licking a dumpster and eating worms, so you're nauseated, have diarrhea and, in my case, terrible gut pain and fatigue. However, I feel like I'm getting better a bit at a time as we go into Thanksgiving week. So let's get into those tidbits and reviews...naps don't take themselves.

 An honest life well lived. May we all carry such a legacy.

Obituary Note: Doris Grumbach

Doris Grumbach https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAbanrkI6aljckp_Gg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jBCJ_xpoMLg-gVdw, who in novels, essays and literary criticism "explored the social and psychic hardships of women trapped in repressive families or disintegrating marriages, and who, as modern feminism came of age in the 1970s and '80s, portrayed lesbian characters and themes in a positive light that was then unusual in mainstream fiction," died November 4, the New York Times reported. She was 104.

Grumbach wrote seven novels, six memoirs, a biography of the writer Mary McCarthy, and book reviews and literary criticism for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Saturday Review and other publications. She was also the literary editor of the New Republic and a commentator on NPR and The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour on PBS.

A scholar of medieval and modern literature, she had been the wife of a neurophysiologist for 31 years, the mother of four daughters, an officer in the Navy women's branch during World War II, and a professor of literature and creative writing at several colleges and universities.

After she divorced in midlife, she and Sybil Pike, a bookseller, were partners for more than four decades.

From 1960 to 1971, Grumbach taught English at the College of St. Rose in Albany, N.Y. She also began her writing career with the novels The Spoil of the Flowers (1962) and The Short Throat, the Tender Mouth (1964), which attracted little notice, though her literary biography of McCarthy, The Company She Kept (1967), "drew wide attention. Much of it, however, was hostile," the Times noted. Later novels include Chamber Music (1979), The Ladies (1984) and The Magician's Girl (1987). 

"Critics disagreed sharply about Ms. Grumbach's strengths and weaknesses as a writer," the Times wrote. "Some said her portraits of lesbian and gay characters and themes were unrealistic, even stereotypical. But others found them lifelike and praised her for unflinching portrayals of women who were engulfed by intolerant social conventions or caught in loveless marriages, and of families unsympathetic to female friendships that ripen into love."

A native New Yorker who had also spent much of her life in Albany and Washington, D.C., she moved in her 70s to Sargentville, a small coastal town in Maine, where she and Pike opened Wayward Books, a used and rare bookshop, and Grumbach "began a new burst of writing, producing her autobiographies and a collection of essays on growing old," the Times noted.

During the 1990s, Grumbach wrote Coming into the End Zone (1991), Extra Innings (1993), Fifty Days of Solitude (1994), Life in a Day (1996), The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany (1998) and The Pleasure of Their Company (2000).

"The most lamentable loss in the elderly spirit is the erosion of hope," she wrote in an op-ed for the Times in 1998. "Still, despite my dire description, we elderly persist with our canes, in our long-term care and miserable nursing homes and 'rehabilitation' centers, and in our seats confronting the idiocies of the tube. In the short run, so to speak, we are all characters in Waiting for Godot."

This sounds like yet another winner of a show from the pen of the brilliant Neil Gaiman.

TV: Dead Boy Detectives

David Iacono (The Flight Attendant, The Summer I Turned Pretty) will play a key recurring role opposite George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri and Kassius Nelson in Dead Boy Detectives https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAbanrkI6aljckonSw~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jBCJ_xpoMLg-gVdw, HBO Max's upcoming series based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman. Deadline reported that the eight-part series is "a fresh take on a ghost story that explores loss, grief, and death through the lens of Edwin Payne (Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Revri), two dead British teenagers, and their very alive friend, Crystal Palace (Nelson). So, it's a lot like a vintage detective series--only darker and on acid."

Iacono will play David the Demon. Additional series stars include Briana Cuoco as Jenny the Butcher, Ruth Connell as the Night Nurse, Yuyu Kitamura as Niko, and Jenn Lyon as Esther. Michael Beach, Joshua Colley and Lindsey Gort recur. Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant) wrote the pilot episode and serves as showrunner, with Beth Schwartz as co-showrunner. Lee Toland Krieger directed the pilot.

 I love a good pen and stationary store, and this sounds like something that will make my long-standing B&N membership even more valuable.

B&N Buys Paper Source

Barnes & Noble has bought Paper Source, the stationery and gift store retailer with 123 locations across 25 states.

Starting immediately, customers will be able to redeem B&N and Paper Source gift cards at either store; this applies to future gift cards as well as currently held gift cards. Many B&N locations will also start carrying a wider array of paper products, including some Paper Source exclusives, and next year the company plans to merge the Paper Source and B&N membership programs.

 

Ridley Scott and Tony Scott have been two of my top 5 favorite directors for over 30 years. I always know when I see the "Scott Free" logo before a movie that I'm in for some wonderful, gripping cinematic story telling. Though Tony Scott is gone (RIP) Ridley still continues to make great films, and while I'm not a Kristen Stewart fan, I plan on watching this movie when it debuts.

Movies: The Chronology of Water

Kristen Stewart "just completed her 2022 goal: marking her feature directorial debut," IndieWire reported, noting that the "long-gestating adaptation" of Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir The Chronology of Water https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAbcxeUI6aljcExzGA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jBDsStpoMLg-gVdw is co-written by Stewart and Andy Mingo. Imogen Poots will star. Stewart previously collaborated with Scott Free for her 2017 short film directorial debut Come Swim, which she also wrote.

"Lidia's memoir honors corporeal experience, radically," Stewart said. "To make that experience physical feels vital to me and what this impulse means... is that it absolutely must be a film.... This project has been cooking for five years with the help of Scott Free, whom I could not be more privileged to have as partners and friends. Imogen Poots will carry this movie and the staggering weight of Lidia's life. She can hold it. I am beyond lucky to have her."

Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions is producing the film alongside co-writer Mingo. Michael Pruss also produces, with Rebecca Feuer serving as an executive producer.

"Ridley and I are delighted to be working with Kristen again, this time on her feature directorial debut, adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch's extraordinary memoir," Pruss said. "Just as we have seen in Kristen's short films as a director, I have no doubt that she will bring that same level of style, uniqueness and fearless emotionality to The Chronology of Water. Furthermore, to have the opportunity to work with Imogen--who is tailor-made for the lead role--is incredibly exciting. The combination of their talents will no doubt produce something exquisite for film audiences worldwide."

 And here's the reviews:

Blood and Moonlight by Erin Beaty is a romantic mystery paranormal thriller with fearless and decisive prose and a plot that is beautifully engaging. The characters are unique, yet very real, and I felt like I was in France or Italy during the Renaissance watching all the beautiful architecture and sculpture being created by artisans/artists whose names will never be forgotten via their legendary masterpieces. Add in some moonlight magic and you've got a Poe-esque murder mystery that's hard to put down. Here's the blurb: In Erin Beaty's fantasy mystery-thriller, Blood and Moonlight, an orphan with a secret, magical sight gets caught between a mysterious genius and the serial killer he’s hunting.

Rising above the city of Collis is the holy Sanctum. And watching over its spires is Catrin, an orphan girl with unique skills—for she alone can spot the building’s flaws in construction before they turn deadly.

But when Catrin witnesses a murderer escaping the scene of his crime, she’s pulled into a dangerous chain of events where the only certainty is that the killer will strike again. Assigned to investigate is the mysterious and brilliant Simon, whose insights into the mind of a predator are frighteningly accurate.

As the grisly crimes continue, Catrin finds herself caught between killer and detective while hiding her own secret—a supernatural sight granted by the moon, destined to make her an outcast, and the only thing that might save her and those she loves from becoming the next victims.

I'm not sure why the heroine/hero of so many fantasy novels have to be orphans, but for some reason that is the trope that nearly every popular author uses at one time or another. I'm also not sure why it resonates with people who were obviously not raised as orphans to see a parentless child succeed, but it seems to come with built-in empathy that gets our protagonist into the thick of things faster.  Anyway, I loved the fearless Cat and enjoyed her sense of loyalty and love of prowling around at night. I didn't like the male protagonist, Simon very much, because, as is also the usual trope in these novels, Simon's an arrogant, judgemental and cold/cruel asshat who treats Cat like crap, yet she keeps coming back for more, though I felt she didn't really need a love interest, as all the men in the novel were either too old or utter sexist jerks who deserved a kick in the crotch. Still, the murder mystery was well done, and I loved the cover art for this novel so much that I probably would have bought it just for that, as long as the contents were written in a genre I enjoy. I'd give this novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who would like a modern take on the Hunchback of Notre Dame or EA Poe mysteries or the darker side of steampunk.

Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn is the 4th book in her Lady Julia Grey Victorian mystery series. This one takes place in India, after Julia and Brisbane have married and are trying to get on equal footing in their detective agency, though, as with most men of the era, Brisbane wants Julia to stay away from dangerous investigations and park her intellect in favor of being kept at home as a silent and obedient wife. Unfortunately for him, (but fortunately for us) Lady J has ADHD and can't sit still, let alone not follow her snooty nose and get mixed up in whatever murder mystery has unfolded. She's always got personal motivations for her inept sleuthing, usually because it involves one of her 9 eccentric siblings. This time it's Lady J's sister and her sister's lesbian paramour, who has fled England pregnant and now a widow, as the man she married (only because she wanted children and refused to hear of anything but marriage to a man as a solution, even knowing how dangerous childbirth was at the time for women...and sure enough, she dies in childbed...oh come now, this isn't a spoiler for anyone with half a brain who can see it coming a mile away) was killed while taking over his family's tea plantation in India. Here's the blurb: Return to a world of Victorian mystery and magic in the fan-favorite Lady Julia Grey historical series from New York Times bestselling author of Killers of a Certain Age, Deanna Raybourn.

Lady Julia Grey and her husband, detective Nicholas Brisbane, are ready to put their investigative talents to work again. At the urging of Julia’s eccentric family, they hurry to India to aid an old friend, the newly widowed Jane Cavendish.

Living on a tea plantation with the remnants of her husband’s family, Jane Cavendish is consumed with the impending birth of her child—and with discovering the truth about her husband’s death. Was he murdered for his estate? And if he was, could Jane and her unborn child be next?

Amid the lush foothills of the Himalayas, dark deeds are buried and malicious thoughts flourish. The Brisbanes uncover secrets and scandal, illicit affairs and twisted legacies. The danger is palpable and, if they are not careful, Julia and Nicholas will not live to celebrate their first anniversary.

Interestingly enough (not really, this is a historical romance novel, after all) Julia and Brisbane only seem to get along after one or the other is near death, and only then, after they've recovered enough to have sex. Sex is their only real point of agreement or contentment in their marriage. Also, Lady J is a snob, whether she thinks so or not, who looks down on those of the actual working class, and has the whole "look how happy those savages harvesting the tea are, how colorful their slavery is, and yet how like animals they are" racist thing going on, which, in addition to the men's misogyny makes more than a few chapters of these novels hard to read or deal with for the 21st century reader. I cringed a lot in this edition, and wondered why Raybourn insisted on playing up these horrific Victorian attributes instead of just writing them out in favor of making the heroine strong and not a slave to male whims and desires. Still, as with all her novels, Raybourn is an excellent prose stylist and her plots do not flag. I'd give this book a B- and recommend it to anyone who has read other Lady Julia books. 

Only Bad Options by Jennifer Estep is a science fiction romance/adventure novel that I was able to get cheaply, and to be honest, I was curious how the author of the Elemental Assassin series would fare in the science fiction genre. She did okay, but I felt that there were too many tropes and not enough of her originality on display here. Here's the blurb: New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Estep blasts off with an exciting new science-fiction fantasy adventure with a dash of historical romance. This action-packed space opera features a mix of magic and technology, along with a soul mates and enemies-to-lovers story. Perfect for fans of Star Wars, Bridgerton, and Pride and Prejudice.

A woman who sees everything...
Few people know the name Vesper Quill. To most folks, I’m just a lowly lab rat who designs brewmakers and other household appliances in the research and development lab at the powerful Kent Corp. But when I point out a design flaw and a safety hazard in the new line of Kent Corp spaceships, everyone knows who I am—and wants to eliminate me.

I might be a seer with a photographic memory, but I don’t see the trouble headed my way until it’s too late. Suddenly, I’m surrounded by enemies and fighting for my life.

I don’t think things can get any worse until I meet Kyrion Caldaren, an arrogant Regal lord who insists that we have a connection, one that could be the death of us both.
It becomes evident right away that Estep cribbed certain features and characteristics from famous sci-fi properties like Star Wars dark sith lords and Star Trek's Vulcan mind meld. Yet once again, the trope of the orphan (though Vesper's mother is still alive, but abandoned her as a child and still has no interest in Vesper as an adult) comes into play as lowly genius mechanic Vesper accidentally becomes bonded to a cold and ruthless imperial assassin and the two must work together to get the truth out about Vesper's bosses and keep themselves alive at the same time. While I enjoyed Vesper's inventive and scrappy mentality, I found the royal assassin to be a huge pain in the rump, and I was hoping that Vesper would find someone more worthy of her in the end. At any rate, Estep always tells a good story, and her prose and plots are clean and clear. I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi stories of female engineers who get the job done.

The Banned Book Shop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson was a YA contemporary romance that had me laughing and crying in equal measure. Though I did enjoy the diverse characters and small town struggling bookstore charm, I felt like Maggie's self loathing and deflated ego scuttled her ship more often than not, and when she's finally caught after lying to everyone, she acts like a five-year-old and tries to whine her way out of it, though she's a grown-ass woman! She of course eventually saves the whole town and finds her true calling at the same time (again, it's almost childish how her parents keep having to boost her ego by telling her she will find her calling one day and by her calling being "having parties and hanging out with fun people" when they could have just called her a party planner and part time bookseller, and let it go at that) while also falling in love with the towns rule-loving stuffed shirt who acts like a 75 year old man in a 25 year old's body. But of course, opposites attract, and that's so cute, right?! Insert eye roll here. Here's the blurb:

I, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books. If only, I, Maggie Banks, believed in following the rules.

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

And in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything. 

Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.

Again, I did enjoy the fact that this book was full of people of color and older people, but I felt that by infantilizing the protagonist, and then having her fall for a guy who seems more mature because he's a boring paint by numbers guy, it made for a weaker, less satisfying reading experience. Still, I'd give this book a B, and recommend it to anyone who enjoys opposites attract romances and small town bookstores that need saving from big corporations and local evil landlords.

 

Backwater Books Opens, Costco Picks Going Rogue, Review of The Fun Habit, Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Grave and Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn

Hiya Book Lovers! It's the middle of November, and though it's pretty chilly and dark outside here in the PNW, it's primo reading time, with cozy chairs, warm sweaters and roaring fires providing the perfect settting for a good long book reading jag with a cup of hot cocoa or tea by your side. I've been downloading a lot of books to my Kindle Paperwhite, which is a great space saver as my bookshelves are stacked full of physical books. Anyway, lets get to the tidbits and reviews!

This  is exactly how I feel about opening a bookstore someday...and I love that the bookstore dogs name is Chomsky!

Backwater Books https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAbZl-8I6aljJRl_SA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jBC5anpoMLg-gVdw> will launch soon at 8156 Main Street in Ellicott City, Md. The Baltimore Banner reported that Matt Krist, co-owner of the shop with his wife, Alli Krist, said he is looking forward to bringing back the written word to the building, once home to the Howard County Times newspaper.

The Krists are former teachers who left education during the pandemic, and are longtime readers and lovers of mystery novels for whom the idea of opening a bookshop seemed like a good fit.

"There's something very educational about bookstores. It's definitely kind of a romantic idea as well," Matt Krist said, adding that while the area has a used bookstore, Gramp's Attic Books, the historic district currently lacks a place to buy new titles.

In addition to a place to stock up on the latest thrillers, the Krists envision Backwater Books and the upstairs bar as a community gathering place with events for adults and children alike, the Banner noted.

Another draw will be the bookstore dog, Chomsky, who will greet shoppers as they browse. "We hope people come by and take him for walks," Matt Krist said. The bookstore is set to open sometime in this month, with the bar opening at a later date.

 Though I'm not a huge fan of the SP mysteries, I think it's great that Costco has picked Evanovich's 29th book as their November book club selection.

Costco Picks: Going Rogue

Alex Kanenwisher, book buyer at Costco, has selected Going Rogue by Janet Evanovich as the pick for

November. In Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members, Kanenwisher writes:

"Stephanie Plum is good at what she does, but it takes the disappearance of a colleague to figure out just how good she is.

"In Going Rogue, Janet Evanovich's 29th Stephanie Plum novel, the bounty hunter has to find office manager Connie Rossoli and a special coin that has gone missing. As the stakes grow higher, Stephanie taps into her circle of family and friends before deciding to do things her way."Evanovich truly gives readers her thrill-ride best."

 

This sounds like a great book, especially in these dark times. I will keep my eye out for a copy.

Book Review: The Fun Habit

Climbing the ladder toward happiness may, in truth, be scaling the wrong wall. That's the persuasive case Mike Rucker makes in The Fun Habit: How the Disciplined Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life, a lively and engaging argument for escaping the "happiness trap," by trading the pursuit of an elusive mental state for the effort to inject more fun into your everyday life.

If there's an overriding theme to Rucker's book, it's that there's a strong element of intentionality in the quest for more fun. In aid of that effort, for example, he recommends creating a "Fun File" of activities in the upper two quadrants of something he calls the PLAY Model (just one of the book's several helpful acronyms)--things that are easy to execute and enjoyable ("Pleasing") and those that are more challenging ("Living"). And rather than detracting from enjoyable pursuits, he points out that it's critical to schedule time for fun, "looking carefully at the choices you're making about how to spend your time and considering whether they are in alignment with what supports your well-being, now and in the future."

The Fun Habit blends abundant, but concise, accounts of contemporary scientific research, stories drawn from Rucker's life--including the sudden death of his brother, his participation in an Ironman competition in New Zealand and the hip surgery that brought his athletic career to a premature end--and a profusion of practical tips on how to consciously bring more joy into our "critically fun-starved" lives. "Happiness is a state of mind," he writes, "but fun is something you can do."

Rucker helpfully includes a chapter on having more fun as a parent (making it child-centric is a key) and devotes another to fun at work, pointing out that there's greater value to "engaging with your work more playfully," than there is to dutifully attending yet another happy hour with your colleagues. And in a moving epilogue on life's finitude, he reminds readers that "Fun allows us to cope with life's pain, and even sometimes transcend it, by more fully experiencing life's gifts."

Though he holds a Ph.D. and is a charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association, Rucker writes in a conversational style that makes The Fun Habit feel more like advice over a coffee from a well-informed, thoughtful friend than a dry academic treatise. He leavens his insights with substantial doses of humor, even nominating several candidates to an imaginary "Hall of Fun," among them Albert Einstein and Chris Hadfield, the first astronaut to create a music video in space, for their willingness to approach life with a sense of whimsy.

There's ample fun to be found in Rucker's book, but the real delight will begin when you put its prescriptions into practice. --Harvey Freedenberg, freelance reviewer

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn is a witty and sophisticated thriller about a group of 60-something assassins who discover that someone in their agency (The Museum) has put out a kill order on them all, and they've got to pull together like the A Team and make a plan to get the bad guys before they end up on the wrong side of the grave. It's billed as "The Golden Girls Meets James Bond" which is kind of sexist, but accurate all the same. Here's the blurb:
Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.

They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age. 

The prose was stellar in this novel, as usual for Raybourn, and the plot flew by on jet fueled wings. I could NOT put this book down...it was a delight from start to finish. I was particularly excited to read about women my own age (I will be 62 next month) who still know how to kick ass and take names. Though they are heir to all the physical changes that happen to women over 60, like menopause, hot flashes, aching joints and fatigue, they also brought to bear 40 years of training, experience (you can learn a lot from failure as well as success) and adaptability to the literal fight of their lives. Their honesty and memories are both hilarious and heartbreaking. I was particularly fond of the narrator of the tale, Billie, whose cynical but accurate view of her comrades and those around her at their agency made for some fascinating profiles, and though the sexism was laid bare, Raybourn still had the villains colored in shades of gray. I was also amused to learn how many ways you can kill a guy with regular household items, LOL. I'd give this book an A, and recommend it to anyone who is over 50 a yearns to read about heroines of a certain age.

Silent in the Grave and Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn are books 1 and 3 (I'd read #2 first by accident) of her Lady Julia Gray series of romantic mysteries. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Raybourn's Belle Epoch English mysteries, starring the stubborn but sly Lady Julia (and her enormous family of eccentric siblings, parents, aunties, cousins, etc) and her amour and eventual husband the half Romany heartthrob Nicholas Brisbane, who is a winning combination of Sherlock Holmes and a swarthy Errol Flynn-style pirate. This hottie sparks in many ways with the graceful and cool lady Julia, but their sassy dialog is Moonlight or Bones-level funny/feisty. Here are the blurbs: “Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.”

These ominous words are the last threat that Sir Edward Grey receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, he collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.

Prepared to accept that Edward’s death was due to a long-standing physical infirmity, Julia is outraged when Brisbane visits and suggests that her husband was murdered. It is a reaction she comes to regret when she discovers damning evidence for herself, and realizes the truth.

Determined to bring the murderer to justice, Julia engages the enigmatic Brisbane to help her investigate Edward’s demise. Dismissing his warnings that the investigation will be difficult, if not impossible, Julia presses forward, following a trail of clues that lead her to even more unpleasant truths, and ever closer to a killer who waits expectantly for her arrival.
Silent on the Moor: Despite his admonitions to stay away, Lady Julia arrives in Yorkshire to find Brisbane as remote and maddeningly attractive as ever. Cloistered together, they share the moldering house with the proud but impoverished remnants of an ancient family—the sort that keeps their bloodline pure and their secrets close. Lady Allenby and her daughters, dependent upon Brisbane and devastated by their fall in society, seem adrift on the moor winds, powerless to change their fortunes. But poison does not discriminate between classes….

A mystery unfolds from the rotten heart of Grimsgrave, one Lady Julia may have to solve alone, as Brisbane appears inextricably tangled in its heinous twists and turns. But blood will out, and before spring touches the craggy northern landscape, Lady Julia will have uncovered a Gypsy witch, a dark rider and a long-buried legacy of malevolence and evil.

The blurbs don't give enough credit to the marvelous mind of Nicholas Brisbane, who, due to sexist societal rules, is able to go places and interrogate people that Julia cannot. Julia also involves at least one of her 9 siblings in her sleuthing plots, and they always seem to keep her on track and focused, because Lady J, though she's smart, is somewhat flighty and a daydreamer who tends to moon and pine over Brisbane in every chapter. And while I love and adore the eccentric and witty English people, their classicism and casual racism becomes a bit like eating a lot of sweets all at once...at first it's a little offputting, and then it becomes nauseating and progresses to horrifying, especially when the author treats it as normal (and perhaps it was for this time period...still, this is fiction, and one can always arrange to have things be more enlightened.) I was hoping that Raybourn would at least make an attempt at cleaning out the cobwebby, musty cliches of the Empire, but she stuck with those nasty Victorian values to the bitter end.  Raybourn is a deft and magical wordsmith whose prose is clean and beautiful, and her plots never falter or flag. I'd give these two installments of this mystery series an A, and recommend them to anyone who loves a good woman-lead Victorian mystery. I'd also recommend it to fans of her delicious Veronica Speedwell mysteries and her stand-alone novels, one of which is reviewed above. 

Japanese Bookstores Declining, Obituary Note: Julie Powell, the Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker, Black Widow by Jennifer Estep, The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman, and A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair

Hey Book lovers! We're rounding the corner of the first week of November already, and now that we've "fallen back" due to daylight savings time, there's even more time to curl up with a hot cuppa tea or chocolate or coffee and a good book (plus some warm kitties or puppies and a blanket to ward off the chill in the air), and enjoy floating off to different worlds and realms. I've read about 5 new books on my Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, and I'm looking forward to reading more of fall's bounty of cheap or free books by some new and some favorite older authors. But first! Here are some tidbits from the bookselling world.

I've been hearing and seeing reports in the past 10 years or so of a steep decline in Japan's population, where the journalist goes on and on about how the elderly are the largest part of the population and various towns are dying out as their elderly residents pass on. Hence this article on the decline in bookstores. While this all seems sad, I think it's being over-hyped. Pointing out that Japan has fewer bookstores is like saying that Amazon has pushed out or destroyed many mom-and-pop stores of all kinds, and has shuttered more than a few independent bookstores all over the world. This is obvious news, and shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. I hope that by offering young couples cheap rental apartments (or lower priced homes) in various areas will lead to Japan's smaller towns having an uptick in shops and services as they serve the burgeoning population.

Vanishing Japanese Bookstores

Japan is facing a decline in bookshops https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAaNw7gI6alkdR1zTg~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jBX8LwpoMLg-gVdw.

Kyodo News reported that according to one industry estimate, "the number has fallen by almost a third in the last decade, hit by a combination of a falling population and the spread of the Internet. Some voices have been raised in protest, such as by residents of towns arguing that bookstores are needed for a lively urban environment, but customer numbers continue to fall. And that means that to survive, operators need to exercise ingenuity."

The Japan Publishing Organization for Information Infrastructure Development noted there are currently 11,952 bookstores in Japan, down about 30% from 16,722 in 2012. Kyodo News wrote that gross profits of bookstores in the country "are said to be around 20% after paying the remainder of their sales to publishers and distribution agents.... Along with the population fall and fewer book readers in recent years, an increase in convenience stores that carry magazines puts added pressure on bookstores. They have also been negatively affected by the availability of e-books and online shopping."

Kazuyuki Ishii, executive director for the Japan Federation of Bookstores, said, "Due to the decrease in the number of bookstores, there is a strong possibility that the reading population will fall, setting off a vicious cycle. The time has come for the entire publishing industry to join hands and think of countermeasures."

 

This makes me so sad. Julie Powell was only 49 years old. I loved her blog and I adored the movie based on it. Meryl Streep did a fantastic job of playing Julia Child. RIP to both Julie and Julia. 

Obituary Note: Julie Powell

Julie Powell https://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/x/pjJscAaOku4I6alkdRBzTA~k1yJoKXv-hs8x6jBXJOmpoMLg-gVdw, the writer whose decision to spend a year cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking led to a popular food blog, the Julie/Julia Project; a movie starring Meryl Streep; and "a new following for Child in the final years of her life," died on October 26, the New York Times reported. She was 49.

In 2002, Powell was an aspiring writer, about to turn 30, who was working at an administrative job in Lower Manhattan. To lend structure to her days, she set out to cook all 524 recipes from her mother's well-worn copy of Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. In a blog for Salon.com called the Julie/Julia Project, she "wrote long updates, punctuated by vodka gimlets and filled with entertaining, profane tirades about the difficulties of finding ingredients, the minor disappointments of adult life and the bigger challenges of finding purpose as a member of Generation X," the Times noted.

A few weeks before Powell's self-imposed deadline was up, Amanda Hesser, a founder of the website Food52 who was then a reporter for the Times, wrote about her project, and interest exploded. Hesser told the Times that the Julie/Julia Project had upended food writing: "I'd never read anyone like her. Her writing was so fresh, spirited--sometimes crude!--and so gloriously unmoored to any tradition.... The Internet democratized food writing, and Julie was the new school's first distinctive voice."

Writer Deb Perelman, who started her food blog (now called Smitten Kitchen) in 2003, observed: "She wrote about food in a really human voice that sounded like people I knew. She communicated that you could write about food even without going to culinary school, without much experience, and in a real-life kitchen."

Little, Brown turned the blog into a book, Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, which sold more than a million copies, most of them under the paperback edition's title, Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. Sales spiked after Nora Ephron's popular 2009 movie Julie & Julia, which starred Amy Adams as Powell, Streep as Child and Stanley Tucci as Child's husband, Paul.

Powell's second book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession, was published in 2009 and would be her last. Judy Clain, editor in chief of Little, Brown and Powell's editor," said, "She had so much talent and emotional intelligence. I only wish she could have found the next thing."

The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker is a feminist ghost story combined with literary fiction with a kind of twisted gothic/romantic LBGTQ subplot that will have you scratching your head. Still, having read Walkers wonderful "Dietland" (and yes, I saw the streaming series) I wasn't surprised at the smooth prose and engaging plot that gripped me from the first page and refused to let me go in the weirdest possible way. Here's the blurb:

"Sarai Walker has done it again. With The Cherry Robbers she upends the Gothic ghost story with a fiery feminist zeal." —Maria Semple

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

INSTEAD IT WAS THE LAST.

Iris Chapel and her five elegant sisters, all of them heiresses to the Chapel firearms fortune, live cloistered in a lavish Victorian mansion. Neglected by both a distant, workaholic father and a mentally troubled mother—who believes their home is haunted by the victims of Chapel weapons—the sisters have grown up with only each other for company. They long to escape the eerie fairy tale of their childhood and move forward into the modern world, but for young women in 1950s Connecticut, the only way out is through marriage.

Yet it soon becomes clear that for the Chapel sisters, marriage equals death. 

When the eldest sister walks down the aisle, tragedy strikes. The bride dies mysteriously the very next day, leaving her family and the town in shock. But this is just the beginning of a chain of disasters that will make each woman wonder whether true love will kill her, too. Only Iris, the second-youngest, finds a way to escape—but can she outrun the family curse forever?

Sarai Walker, the acclaimed author of the cult-hit novel Dietland, building off the Gothic tradition of Shirley Jackson, brings to life this riveting, deliciously twisted feminist tale, a gorgeous and provocative page-turner about the legacy of male power and the cost of female freedom.

Seriously WEIRD story here, folks, not going to lie. That said, it's also very imaginative and unique (and I read a LOT of books, so that's saying something) and it was like reading an old tale you found in your grandparent's library, written by EA Poe or Wilkie Collins, where you are by turns gasping in fearful surprise and freaking out or reading as fast as you can to see what in the name of heaven will happen next, and wondering why this all makes sense in some bizarre way. I wanted to scream as each sister succumbed to the family curse, because it was obvious that they should have abstained from dating or marrying men when it would spell the doom of not only the sister (in a horrific gory fashion, too) but also the ruin of her paramour. The only exception is, SPOILER, the lone sister who is a lesbian and refuses to bow to societal pressure and pretend she's straight (though one of the other sisters is also gay, or at least bisexual, she does bow to the pressure of society in the 50s and 60s to be straight and make babies after WWII...this leads, of course, to her demise). That lone sister, Iris, ends up having to change her name and move far away to live a normal life with her female partner. It's only as she is nearing the end of her life that Iris is recognized by a truly pushy reporter, and thus decides to turn her home into a museum to her life as an artist and to the legacy of her insane mother and sisters. What boggled my mind is that Iris always believed the ramblings of her mother, and that her mother, who was either a lesbian or an asexual person forced into a marriage she abhored with a nasty man, was able to infect her daughters with this cruel curse due to her own bitterness. If you read this book and don't end up finding it surprising or strange, then I'm worried about your mental health. A novel that I won't soon forget, I'd give this book an A- and recommend it to those who like lurid and gothic tales like those of Poe or Shirley Jackson.

Black Widow by Jennifer Estep is book 12 in her Elemental Assassins series, and, as usual, I whipped through it in one day, because her books are like potato chips...they're all made from the same tubers but no one can eat just one. Our beloved assassin Gin Blanco is once again faced with a big bad Elemental, the scion of her former nemesis, Mab Monroe, who has not just fire magic, but acid/fire magic (I assume, from the way it's described that it is like napalm). Once more, Gin must battle this Monroe.2 all alone, risking life and limb to save her family and her town. Here's the blurb:

Lethal, sexy, and always ready to protect her friends, Gin Blanco (a.k.a. the Spider) takes on the mysterious M.M. Monroe in book twelve of the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series.

There’s nothing worse than a cruel, cunning enemy with time to kill—and my murder to plan. With wicked Fire elemental Mab Monroe long gone, you’d think I could finally catch a break. But someone’s always trying to take me down, either as Gin Blanco or my assassin alter-ago. Now along comes the Spider’s new arch-nemesis, the mysteriously named M. M. Monroe, who is gleefully working overtime to trap me in a sticky web of deceit.

The thing is, I’m not the only target. I can see through the tangled threads enough to know that every bit of bad luck my friends have been having lately is no accident—and that each unfortunate “coincidence” is just one more arrow drawing ever closer to hitting the real bull’s-eye. Though new to Ashland, this M. M. Monroe is no stranger to irony, trying to get me, an assassin, framed for murder. Yet, as my enemy’s master plan is slowly revealed, I have a sinking feeling that it will take more than my powerful Ice and Stone magic to stop my whole life from going up in flames.

Terrifying as her new nemesis is, what was more disturbing to me was that they found out after the final battle that Monroe.2 has a daughter, a 3-4 year old who has her mother's same elemental acid fire magic...so there's a chance of a Monroe.3 battle on the horizon, about 18 to 20 years down the line. Oddly enough, Estep doesn't tell us what Gin and her gang are going to do about the child or the fact that Gin made her an orphan. Are they going to keep tabs on her? Make sure her dad doesn't turn her into a hateful, evil person out to kill Gin, aka The Spider, for revenge? Anyway, other than my usual complaint of having to skip pages that go over past battles and people long dead, I enjoyed this book and revisiting the characters who surround and support and love Gin as best they can. Plus, I now know to eat something before I read any more of Estep's Elemental Assassin books, because the descriptions of the BBQ and Southern desserts make my stomach rumble. I'd give this installment in the series a B+ and recommend it to anyone who has read other books in the series...trust me, once you start them time will fly by!

The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman is a short story that I got for free, but would have paid pretty much anything to read. Hoffman is a master wordsmith whose prose is always perfect and her plots as smooth as an icy lake in Minnesota. Here's the blurb:

From New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman comes a heartfelt short story about family, independence, and finding your place in the world.

Isabel Gibson has all but perfected the art of forgetting. She’s a New Yorker now, with nothing left to tie her to Brinkley’s Island, Maine. Her parents are gone, the family bookstore is all but bankrupt, and her sister, Sophie, will probably never speak to her again.

But when a mysterious letter arrives in her mailbox, Isabel feels herself drawn to the past. After years of fighting for her independence, she dreads the thought of going back to the island. What she finds there may forever alter her path—and change everything she thought she knew about her family, her home, and herself.

This tale fits in with another of her books, as the characters sounded familiar to me. I love the way that Hoffman makes all her novels so atmospheric and mesmerizing, so that when her beautiful and magical people show up in those environs, you know you're in for a good old fashioned "ripping yarn." This story is short enough that it should only take you and hour or two to read it, but please don't gulp it down...slowly savor each page. And when you are done being enchanted, go and beg, borrow, buy or steal every single book in her back list. Seriously, this is not a woman who has ever written anything but wonderful novels, so I can almost guarantee that you won't be disappointed in anything she's written, ever. I'd give this delicious "amuse bouche" of a story an A, and recommend it and everything Hoffman has ever written to discerning readers who like that spark of magic and wonder in their books. 

 

A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair is the first book in her Halfling Saga, and a pain-filled, almost YA (in the coming of age parts) romantic fantasy. Though the plot was uneven, the prose was strong and reliable enough to get readers through to the ending, which wasn't so much of an ending as a stop in the action that lets you know if you want any sort of satisfaction you will have to wait and read the sequel, which of course doesn't come out until next year. Ugh. Well, here's the blurb:  

My body is made of scars,
some were done to me,
but most I did to myself.
 
Keera is a killer. As the King's Blade, she is the most talented spy in the kingdom. And the king’s favored assassin. When a mysterious figure moves against the Crown, Keera is called upon to hunt down the so-called Shadow. She tracks her target into the magical lands of the Fae, but Faeland is not what it seems . . . and neither is the Shadow. Keera is shocked by what she learns, and can't help but wonder who her enemy truly is: the King that destroyed her people or the Shadow that threatens the peace?
 
As she searches for answers, Keera is haunted by a promise she made long ago, one that will test her in every way. To keep her word, Keera must not only save herself, but an entire kingdom.
 
Fans of fast-paced high fantasy such as A Court of Thorns and Roses series, The Inadequate Heir, and From Blood and Ash author Jennifer L. Armentrout, will enjoy the fierce female characters, sapphic representation, and fantasy romance of A Broken Blade.

Personally, I think that the blurb should just quit wimping out and call a lesbian romance a lesbian romance, not "Sapphic representation,"  which is likely to send a bunch of YA readers to Google Sappho (not that finding out about ancient lesbians is necessarily a bad thing, but really, blurbers, ditch the 10 cent references and just use the vernacular...it's not 1922, its 2022.) Yes, the main character was, at one point, in love with a woman, but now she's in love with a man, which makes her bisexual, not a lesbian, and though there are other women who have lesbian relationships in the book, it's not really made into anything smacking of  'representation.' The ending, in which Keera realizes she has been lied to and "played" by nearly everyone is very unsatisfying, because it's made clear that we will only see things played out in the sequel...the characters are at an impasse at the end...and book 2 isn't due out until MAY of next year! While I was unsatisfied at the end, I did enjoy most of the rest of the book for it's troubled and tough main character, Keera, who is scarred and haunted and, like Seanan McGuire's October Day, spends way too much time bleeding and barfing. Still, she refuses to give up, and she manages to kill a whole lot of bad guys while falling in love with the one man she's been told to kill: The Shadow (insert evil laugh here). I would give this book a B+ and recommend it to anyone who likes kick-arse female protagonists on a redemption tour.