Four-star review of A Better Man by Louise Penny

This was not my favorite book in this series, but it was an interesting read. Armand has returned to the Surite with Jean-Guy as his superior. They become involved in the search for a missing pregnant woman at the same time as the rivers are overflowing from a mixture of rain and Spring thaw. All the characters are deftly drawn but the scenery steals the show.

Four-star review of The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Janoff

The story of three women just before D-Day and a year or so after is about how their lives intertwine. Eleanor Trigg created and managed a group of young British women who flew into German-occupied France in the closing days of the WWII to send and receive radio messages in code to help the resistance fighters. Marie was one of her girls, and Grace is an American who finds Eleanor’s abandoned suitcase in Grand Central Station and takes a packet of photos of twelve of the girls. Full of mystery, intrigue and romance, this was an interesting and quick read, but I was bothered by the incorrect details, e.g., there were only forty-eight states in 1946, not fifty, and TVs weren’t common then either.

Tuesday Blog Review

 

Five-star review of Challenge Accepted – a charity anthology compiled and edited by Stephanie Barr

This anthology to benefit Special Olympics contains seventeen science fiction and fantasy short stories in which disabled main characters don’t allow their disabilities to prevent them from being heroes. All of the stories, including I hope my own, are well-written, entertaining and diverse. Several are even excellent. The people in them rise above. Their disabilities don’t define them. They don’t need rescuing but instead, save the day. Many kinds of disabilities are represented including loss of a limb, loss of sight, loss of hearing, even mental disabilities.

Tuesday Book Review

 

Four-star review of The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester

I don’t usually read romances, not even historical ones, but I found this book in my ginormous TBR pile and started it. I finished it in just a few weeks. The story about a seamstress who flees Paris as the Germans are invading and find new family and friends in New York as well as eventual success as a designer of ‘clothes women want to wear’ would probably have been enough. But that story is interspersed with her granddaughter modern day story. Like most romance novels, the women are all beautiful and the men all handsome. The designer’s clothes are amazing, etc. But the superlatives didn’t bother me as much as they usually do. Perhaps it was the engaging writing. At times, the parallels between Estella’s and Fabienne’s lives and similar personalities were too much, and I occasionally had to think about which one’s story we were in. But their stories were usually interesting and once in a while exciting.

Tuesday Book Review

Four-star review of Spellbreaker by Charlie N. Holmberg

The latest duology by the author begins with the story about Elsie Camden, a spellbreaker or rather spell unraveler in a late 19^th century England where magic is real. She’d been left by her family with strangers, sent to the workhouse, worked in service for one noblemen and finally ended up working for a stonemason as a kind of secretary. She receives letters from someone she calls the Cowls that imply that the spells she’s asked to unravel will help the poor. In the process of unraveling one, she’s caught at it by as aspector or spellmaker. The story takes off from there. It may not be as exciting or original as most of Holmberg’s work, but I enjoyed it. I’ll look for book two when it comes out in 2021. 

Tuesday Book Review

 

Five-star review of The Buried World (Book 2 of the Grave Kingdom) by Jeff Wheeler

In the second book of the series, Bingmei’s adventures become more intense as she fights against the will of the evil Echion, the Dragon of Night. Many members of her ensign are there to assist her and so are a few former enemies. But she realizes she must fulfill her destiny as the Phoenix-Chosen. Filled with action and suspense, as well as excellent world-building that relies on Asian influences, this book is clean enough for even early teens to read. I’ve already purchased book 3 in the series and will start it soon.

Tuesday book review on Wednesday

 

Four(-and-a-half) star review of The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card

This begins with a longish story within a story about a boy writing down the history of Jason Worthing and his descendants. Snippets of the boy’s own story are interspersed with the history told to him by telepathy. Many interesting characters populate each. This is followed by a compilation of shorter stories that involve some of the people in the history. Running through it all is the use of somec, a drug that allows a person to sleep for a time dependent on their wealth and position, thus ‘prolonging’ their lives. But they aren’t really living during the time their asleep. Their memories are extracted and kept for them and then reintroduced when they wake. The use of somec allowed interstellar travel, which seems to be the only good use. Card’s writing was excellent as usual.

Tuesday book reviews on Wednesday

 

Three-star review of Butcher Rising (The After War 2) by Brandon Zenner

The second book in the After War series is bloody, violent and very unlike the first book in the series. I had a hard time reading about atrocity after atrocity committed by a group determined to control all of the United State. A large part of the book covers the efforts of Karl and his group to capture the town of Alice. I gave this three stars because the writing is very good; otherwise, I would have given it a one or two star review.

Tuesday book reviews

 

Four-star review of Beast by Anna Willett

Two well-written horror short stories make up this book. The first, Last Call, is a good reason to never visit a haunted house, even with a friend. In the second, The Widow, Dan’s experiences may have scared him straight. Both stories are filled with vivid descriptions. Since I’m not a fan of horror stories, if I hadn’t been given an ARC of these to read, I wouldn’t have picked this up. Perfect for this time of year, though.

Five-star review of New Worlds: Rogue Star #2 by Jasper T. Scott

Like the first one in the series, this is a fast-moving story, this time focusing on Logan’s attempts to find his son and on the amazing technology of the robotic Screechers who have invaded Earth. Logan, his wife and daughter are living in a hidden underwater city, but his son was left behind. Logan especially is a very believable character with many choices to make. Some of those get him into desperate situations. The wrap-up is far-fetched, but after all the twists and turns, why not?

Tuesday Book Review

 

Three-star review of Key Lime Die by Summer Prescott

Like the first book in the series, the first half of this one was build-up. The murder didn’t occur until the halfway point. As expected from that build-up, Marilyn was suspected of killing her rival pie maker. She did solve the crime, I’ll give her that. I like Marilyn and love key lime pie, but I don’t think I’ll read more stories about her misadventures.

Tuesday Book Review on Wednesday

 

Five-star review of Rogue Star: Frozen Earth by Jasper T. Scott

I always enjoy this kind of science fiction story, especially if it’s as well-done as this one. A rogue asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. It will cause another ice age, affecting the northern half of the U.S.

Named for Richard Greenhouse who discovered it, the rogue hides an invasion by alien robots. Richard’s sister Kate, brother-in-law Logan, and their family don’t take his warnings that it’s coming until it’s almost too late for them to fly from New Jersy to San Antonio and join him in the compound he created. But the story really picks up after they do. The characters are real, and their reactions to the invasion by the aliens before the rogue arrives are also real. I’ve already purchased the second book in the series and will read it very soon.

Tuesday review on Wednesday

 

Four-star review of Blowout by Catherine Coulter

Savich and Sherlock are on the case again, this time after one of the Supreme Court Justices is murdered in the Supreme Court Library. This time, they are aided by police detective Ben Raven and reporter Callie Markham, who’s also the step-daughter of the murdered man. The suspense is riveting as one after another, the Justice’s law clerks are killed too. The side story involving Savich seeing the ghost of a woman dead for decades detracted from the main story. And I still want to know which of the women was the lover of the mass murderer who killed the Justice. This was much better than the historical romance written by the same author.

 Tuesday Book Reviews

New Mexico Remembers 9/11 anthology

This anthology includes poetry and prose from current New Mexico residents recalling where they were on 9/11 and what the events that day mean to them. Whether they were in New York, Washington D.C. or somewhere else, they each have a story to tell. Whether moving or funny, the reminiscences are all well-written. I didn't rate this since I have a story in it.

Four-star review of Waking (Clockwork Twist #1) by Emily Thompson

Twist is a small Londoner who has a gift that allows him to repair anything mechanical. He's hopeless around real people. When he's whisked away in an airship, powered by steam and hot air balloons, his focus is on finding a clockwork princess and bringing her back to life. Along the way, he has adventures and meets a strange collection of people. He finds the only one who can touch him without disasterous consequences is Jonah, a young man whose gift is the ability to see the future of anyone he looks at. The two form a connection. This steampunk novel, the first of a long series, was a quick read. The writing is good, the characters and situations interesting. I'll read more about Twist.

 

Four-star review of A Lime to Kill by Summer Prescott

The murder didn’t happen until 45% into the story, but I enjoyed reading about Tiara’s decision to help her mother Marilyn run her key lime pie store in Key West. The characters were fun. Marilyn, the narrator of the story, was especially well-rounded. There were enough hints about her and her daughter for me to know this series has a lot to explore. I’m not a particular fan of cozies or romances, but I’ll be happy to read more about them and their delicious shop. And the recipes included at the end were an added bonus.

Tuesday Book Review

 

Five-star review of A Girl Called Ari by P. J. Sky

This dystopian YA story grabbed me from the start and carried me onward. A true page-turner. The mayor’s daughter is kidnapped from a walled city of spires and towers. She finds herself in the wastelands near the salt mines where another teenaged girl, the one named Ari, toils and lives. The two set off together to get back to the city, encountering numerous perils, both natural and man-made. The author avoided going for the expected happily ever after ending for both girls. I’ll never doubt an author’s tweet about her book again. I’ll look for more by this author in the future.

Tuesday Book Reviews

 

Five-star review of The Secret Servant by Daniel Silva

A page-turning thriller about the role an Israeli spy and art restorer, Gabriel Alon, plays in the rescue of the daughter of the American Ambassador to England after she is abducted by a jihadist group. The story takes place in England, Holland, Denmark, Egypt and Israel. This is the seventh in a series but the first I’ve read, yet I didn’t have any problems following the interaction among characters who obviously took part in earlier novels. An emphasis is made on the fact that the growing numbers of Muslims throughout Europe include members of radical groups.

 

Four-star review of Murder on the Flying Scotsman by Lee Stauss

I’ve enjoyed Strauss’s cozy mysteries before. This one, in the Lady Ginger Gold series, is as good as the others. A head has been found in the mail car aboard the Flying Scotsman train taking Ginger and her new husband, Inspector Nigel Reed, for their honeymoon in Edinburgh. All of the first class passengers become suspects as the jewels of one of them are stolen. Those cars are separated from the rest of the train, and the Reeds assist the York police in solving the crimes, which are related to the 1855 Gold Robbery.

Tuesday Book Reviews on Wednesday

Five-star review of Killing Fog by Jeff Wheeler

Quite a bit different from the Kingfountain series by the author I’d read over the years, and even more engrossing. I enjoyed reading about Young Bingmei, her connection to the Phoenix Blade, her freeing of the Dragon King and all the other people involved in her story. First in a series, this novel was full of action, tension, world- and character-building. According to the author, his visits to the glaciers in Alaska and to China gave him the ideas for this story and that shows. The fight scenes are reminiscent of Martial Arts movies, especially when Bingmei flies over her opponents and performs well-practiced maneuvers with staff and sword. I look forward to the other titles in the series. 

 

Four-star review of The Emotion Thesaurus second edition by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

An improvement over the last version of the book I used a few years ago. Expanded to 130 entries so you can find most emotions you can think of, and for each a long list of physical signals and behaviors as well as shorter ones of internal sensation and mental responses. Acute and long-term responses are also addressed. This is a good reference book for when you want to show a characters emotional response to something that occurred.

Tuesday Book Reviews on Wednesday

Four-star review of The Pythagorian Solution by Joseph Badal

This was an exciting story set on the Greek island of Samos. Lots of action and good descriptions of the beautiful island. The good guys are well developed but, though there are short chapters about what the bad ones are planning, their characters are all charicatures. I could have done without the rape scene too. The basis for the story, that a fisherman has such a good understanding of geometry that he can leave the clue to leads the good guys to find a treasure aboard a Turkish boat that sank at the end of WW II, is a leap. But the tension built throughout, so this book was a page-turner.

Tuesday book review on Wednesday

Short one this week for a shorter book

Four-star review of Trixie Finds Her People by RJ the Story Guy

Cute book of dog stories for kids about how a dog adjusted to a new family and the real and imaginary adventures she had. Partly told through the eyes of the brown rescue dog. Good descriptions of the dogs behavior with emphasis on how much scent plays in a dog’s perceptions.

Tuesday book review on Wednesday

Although this was slow to build up to the event that shaped the lives of so many people, especially when we know one of the five teens will die, the second half of the book was full of action and suspense. Secrets kept for twenty years come out one by one. The method of writing each chapter from the POV of each of a few characters works here. A few of the deaths seemed unnecessary. I’ve always enjoyed Scottoline’s work, starting with the series and more recently a few of the thrillers, but this didn’t quite measure up to the rest.

Tuesday book reviews on Wednesday

4-star review of Cyberspace by Matthew Mather

I was eager to read this near future novel since I’ve enjoyed all of Mr. Mather’s books I’ve read, including the first in this series, Cyberstorm. As I read it, I realized I didn’t remember the last parts of that novel. This one was full of the same kind of suspense and I do care for Mike and his family and friends and what happens to them, but I didn’t see much character development. Here he is going through yet another world-wide catastrophe and he doesn’t learn anything new about himself. But I learned a lot of neat stuff from the discussions about how many satellites are orbiting our world, ane what would happen if they were damaged, turned off or brought down by a physical or cyber attack. The most important for me was the explanations about how the time signals they send are used in diverse ways, since that relates to my own novels.

Three star review of The Valcourt Heiress by Catherine Coulter

I’ve read several of Coulter’s FBI thrillers, but this was the first historical romance. Set in King Edward’s regency, the story of Merry, the titular character, and Garron of Kersey included a few page-turning sections, wast mostly very wordy. That he didn’t realize at first that the Merry who joined him at court was not his Merry didn’t sit right with me. And a twin? How cliché. I almost didn’t care whether Arthur was dead or alive. Some sections were better written and developed than others, especially the beginning, but it sort of fell apart toward the end.

Tuesday Book Reviews

5 star review of The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell

This book taught me more about creating tension and writing action scenes than all the talks I’ve seen David Morrell give. Two orphans, Saul and Chris, were mentored by the mysterious Eliot and trained to be assassins, supposedly for the CIA. Years after Eliot gave the boys their first Baby Ruth candy bar, they are being hunted by every espionage group in the world. Loyalty is tested by betrayal leading to revenge. The story moves swiftly from the rockies in Colorado to Washington, D.C., Bangkok to London, Paris to the Canadian rockies and other places along the way. Most of the time a page-turner with a few sections of exposition.

4 star review of Ice by Kevin Tinto

From the cliffs in the Gila Mountains of New Mexico to Antarctica, this novel was full of action and emotion. The Native American mystery starts with the discovery of an unknown dwelling at the bottom of a cliff and kept my interest through this story. The main characters of anthropologist Dr. Leah Andrews and her mountain-climbing husband Jack are only partly rounded, and I expect will continue to show what their made of in book 2. The geography and history of southwestern New Mexico are skewed somewhat. A cliff dwelling is known in the area, and the muddling of Navajo and Pueblo Indians is disturbing, but since the novel is part science fiction, I can accept that, as if it was alternate history. I’m interested enough to read on to find out what happens to the Native American girl.