Month: May 2022

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Lost Heirs part 2

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Here is the second part of my Recommendsday selections featuring lost heirs – inspired by An Impossible Imposter! Today we’re looking at romance novels!

So we have two basic types of Lost Heirs in romance – potentially fake to steal something away and ones the family didn’t know about or tried to get rid of. The latter tend to be the heroes of the story, the former the baddies. As is often the case, let’s start with Georgette Heyer. She has a lot of tropes – but in this case only really the hero type of lost heir. Hugo in The Unknown Ajax is an heir that the rest of the family didn’t know about – his grandfather had ignored his existence until the deaths of the people between Hugo and the title. This is one of my favourites – because Hugo has hidden depths, the secondary characters are delightful and there are smugglers.

Julia Quinn has a pair of books dealing with both sides of a lost heir problem – The Lost Duke of Wyndham and Mr Cavendish, I Presume. The first is the story of a highway man who discovers he may be the long lost heir to a dukedom. The second is the story of the man who thought he was the heir but discovers that he may not be. I remember these as being not quite as steamy as her Bridgerton series but I may be misremembering because it has been a while!

The clue is in the title with KJ Charles’s An Unsuitable Heir – in which a private equity agent is sent to find the missing heir to a title and finds him in a circus. This is the third in a trilogy of longer than novellas but not really quite as long as a novels and has the conclusion to an overarching storyline so maybe if you’re going to read it do the lot. They’re all connected but with different couples and different LGTBQ identities and relationships in Victorian London. Definitely not closed door.

I’m honestly sure I’ve forgotten some – I feel like I’ve read loads over the years but I couldn’t think of any more. I even went back on a magical deep dive of goodreads to try and find them. If it comes to me, there will be a part three!

Book of the Week, Book previews, historical, new releases, romance

Book of the Week: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting

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There were lots of options for this post today. I like a week like that. I’ve gone for a historical romance because it’s been a few weeks and this was a lot of fun and I needed something fun and frothy and if I hadn’t written it already, another entry for the marries the person you’re trying to save someone from post.

Kitty Talbot’s parents have died, leaving their daughters with debts and an uncertain future. Determined to secure her sisters’ future, she decides the solution is to marry well and heads to London with the last money they have to try to secure a rich husband. She’s never moved in this sort of society before, but with the help of her mother’s best friend she’s sure she can succeed. And indeed she soon attracts a suitor and is intent on reeling him in, until his older brother, Lord Radcliffe comes to town to put a stop to it. He knows she’s a fortune hunter and is determined to keep her out of his family, but somehow he finds himself helping her ingratiate herself with the ton…

As you might be able to tell from that summary – which doesn’t even cover half the book – this has got a lot of plot and a lot of twists. It rattles along so fast that you don’t have time to think about it, but when I was trying write that plot summary I realised how much had gone on beside the whole fortune hunter main idea. It pulled it off, but I do wonder whether there are any ideas left for Sophie Irwin’s next book! But I enjoyed this a lot so I’ll definitely be looking for it when it comes to see. It’s “not quite in the common way” of the historical romances I have read recently, not least because the steam level is basically smouldering glances for most of the book and never gets higher than kissing – so not so much enemies to Lovers as enemies to soon to be marrieds!

My copy came from NetGalley, but it’s coming out on Thursday in ebook and hardback and if you pre-order it today it’ll drop onto your Kindle or Kobo or your doormat on release day.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: May 2 – May 8

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Well I’m actually quite pleased with myself this week I have to say. At the start of the week I was worried that having already written about two books that I read early inthe week that I wouldn’t have any options for what to write about tomorrow, but I’m delighted to report that that is not the case. Especially after my nice chilled weekend recovering from the election coverage. And for once, I’ve been reading stuff that’s about to be released, as it’s about to be released. Check me. Ok so the still reading list is looooong, but you can’t have everything. I’ll work on that this week.

Read:

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson*

Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

Murder in the Dark by Kerry Greenwood

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin*

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein

Set on You by Amy Lea*

The Book Share by Phaedra Patrick*

Book Lovers by Emily Henry*

Started:

Hotel Magnifique by Emily J Taylor*

Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson*

Still reading:

Paper Lion by George Plimpton

Fire Court by Andrew Taylor*

Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor

The Fake Up by Justin Myers*

Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare*

I don’t think I bought anything. So a double win this week. Unless I’ve forgotten something, the only book that turned up this week was a pre-order. Check me again.

Bonus photo: I went for my first run around the park in a few weeks on Sunday, and the trees were looking gorgeous in the sunshine. Maybe it’s time to crack out the summer work wardrobe!

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley

 

not a book

Not a Book: When Harry Met Sally

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Ask I said yesterday, this weekend is very much a relax and recharge weekend for me, so today’s post is about another one of my favourite movies.

When Harry Met Sally is a romantic comedy classic. If you haven’t already watched it, I don’t know how I can sell it to you because if you’re reading this blog and haven’t watched it you probably have some sort of hatred against it going on. Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) first meet when she gives him a lift from Chicago to New York at the end of college. They do not get on. They meet again on a plane a few years later. They still do not get on. A few years later on still they meet again and become friends – which is weird because the first time that they met Harry said that men and women could never be friends because sex always gets in the way. And you’ll never guess what happens next…

Anyway, it’s one of the films that I have recorded on the TiVo so I can watch it when I need it – see also pillow talk, some like it hot, the Sound of music and Singin in the Rain – I also own it on dvd from the days before the TiVo. It’s from the late 80s so there are a few things that have dated a little but it’s full of banter and snark because it’s written by Nora Ephron and has Carrie Fisher and Bruno as the two best friends and it’s just a joy. The stakes are low – by which I mean there’s no life threatening peril – it’s not going to stress you out and it just puts a smile on my face every time I watch it.

book round-ups, Uncategorized

Elections!

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I’m not a politics person, but I love working on elections. I love listening to the experts telling me what might happen and what to watch for and what it might mean if it does happen. And then we see what happens when the votes come in. And that was my day on Friday. And I’m going to spend this weekend relaxing and recovering. I was going to recommend some political books today, but then I realised that there isn’t really anything much I haven’t already recommended at some point – and most of it is about American politics rather than the British scene. And then of course on the US side of things it’s been a momentous week as well, so maybe people don’t want politics books this week. Maybe escapist reading is what people are after this weekend? Anyway here are some links to options for both:

Escapist fiction for Difficult Times and even more Escapist Fiction, also have some Magical Worlds and last year’s summer reading post.

Here are my politics related-y type stuff – there’s the recent JFK-adjacent and Vanderbilt-adjacent posts, and there’s a review of Red, White and Royal Blue in the Royal Romances post. There’s also my inauguration reading post from 2017, but that has a bit of repetition in it – after all it’s been five years…

Happy Saturday everyone

PS the photo is from last year – as there weren’t any elections in my area this time out

bingeable series, mystery

Mystery series: Flavia de Luce

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Another Friday, another post about a series here on the blog, another new post title. Today’s series is the Flavia de Luce historical mystery series, inspired by the fact that I was writing about young detectives yesterday – and Flavia is about as young a detective as you can get, although this series is definitely for adults. I last wrote about Flavia in 2016 so it’s been a while…

At the start of the series, it’s 1950 and eleven year old Flavia has a passion for chemistry and poisons and a running feud with her two older sisters. Their mother is dead, their father eccentric and their house is crumbling around them. When Flavia stumbles over a dying man in the first book she is more fascinated than horrified and the series goes from there.

In my Goodreads review of the first book I said that Flavia could occasionally be a little too all knowing, but as the character develops, she gets to a good balance of preternaturally clever but not too all knowing and annoying. And a lot of that is because although she is very book smart, her understanding of people is about what you would expect of someone her age, so there are things – quite a lot of things sometimes – that she just misses or doesn’t understand at all.

There are ten novels in the series, and as there hasn’t been a new one since 2019, I suspect that may be the lot – certainly the last book in the series isn’t my favourite and Flavia was not quite her usual self in it, so it may be that Alan Bradley has got fed up of her or gone as far as he wants with her. Or the delay could just be because of the pandemic. Because we all know that covid has messed up a lot of things.

These are usually fairly easy to get hold of – I picked up a lot of them from The Works, and read the last two from the library, but I see them all the time in bookshops. As you can see from the picture, there has been a redesign/rejacketing exercise done – in my picture the right hand side are the original style, the left the new. And obviously they’re on Kindle and Kobo as well as audiobooks – most of them read by Sophie Aldred, who if you’re my age you will remember from children’s TV and if you’re a bit older will remember as Ace from Doctor Who. You’re probably best reading them in order, but I didn’t and it didn’t really bother me too much – although it was a bit of a pain jumping from slightly more developed Flavia back to the less evolved version!

Happy Weekend!

mystery, new releases, Young Adult

Out This Week: The Agathas!

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I actually read this one earlier this week so wanted to give it a mention today as depending on where you are it is either out today or in the last few days. The Agathas is a YA Murder mystery set in a California town where the citizens are divided between the haves and have nots. Alice is one of the haves, but after she went missing last summer after her boyfriend dumped her, her friends don’t want to know her. Iris doesn’t live in a mansion and her mum works in a bar. She’s been assigned to tutor Alice. Then Brooke, one of the popular girls who used to be Alice’s friends, disappears. Soon the two girls are investigating – Alice because her ex boyfriend is the main suspect and Iris, well because Brooke’s grandmas is offering a reward. Can they figure out what really happened the night that Brooke Donovan disappeared?

I really enjoyed this – it’s a twisty high school Murder mystery with an interestingly flawed cast of characters and a crime fighting duo who bring out interesting sides to each other. Also I’m so glad I’m not a teenager now and that I didn’t go to American high school. It sounds awful.

My copy came from NetGalley, but you can get it in Kindle or Kobo now or in paperback. And the good news is that it’s listed as the first in a series…

book round-ups, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: April Quick Reviews

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Taking break from Lost Heirs today for the quick reviews from April. I’ve already written about quite a few things from last month and it was a bit of a binge-y one again, so it’s not a hugely long post…

Bad Luck by Linwood Barclay

Zack is called up to the lake where his dad lives after a man is savaged by a bear. It’s not his dad, but his dad is hurt so he stays in town to help him. He soon discovers there’s more going on in the idyllic town than he realised – and that some of it is very dangerous indeed. This is the third book in the series but the first I’ve read and actually 15 plus years old. But it doesn’t feel dated – in fact a lot of the themes in it feel really quite eerily prescient. I enjoyed reading it and would happily read some of the others in the series (there are four in total) if they were to come my way – but given the state of the pile, I probably shouldn’t been looking for them!

The Start of Something by Miranda Dickinson*

This is a romance between two people who live opposite each other and start talking using messages in their windows. Both Lachlan and Bethan have a lot going in with their lives and the messages provide an escape from their every day lives and then starts to turn into something more. This had a little bit more angst/peril in both lead characters’ backstories than I am currently able to deal with, but I did like it. The blurb did signpost a bit of the backstory trauma – but in no way all of it, especially as a lot of the peril/drama in the book comes from the backstory not the romance. Speaking of romance, it is very slow burn on that front – I loved the notes in the window section and the cautious meetings – I could see an incoming Big Misunderstanding coming but when it did it worked really surprisingly well. Overall a nice read, if you’re in a place where you can cope with traumatic backstories on the way to your happily ever afters.

That Cowboy of Mine by Caitlin Crews*

I seem to have read more cowboy books in the last few months that in all of last year. This is a romantic suspense novel centred on a young woman who has inherited a ranch that someone is determined not to let her have and a newly retired rodeo rider who wakes up on her land after getting pass out drunk. It had a bit too much insta love and a huge amount of suspicion. I had most of the plot figured out early doors and the end was incredibly melodramatic but it was a nice easy way to pass a few hours.

Happy hump day!

Book of the Week, romance

Book of the Week: Count Your Lucky Stars

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Did I finish this on Monday? Yes. Am I breaking my rules? Absolutely. Is this perfect? No, but it’s a lot of fun and the issues I have will the last quarter are not uncommon. So this weeks BotW is Alexandria Bellefleur’s Count Your Lucky Stars

This is the third in the Written in the Stars series – which I’ve read two of now and have the first one waiting to be read at some point in the Misty future when I remember about it. Anyway, this is a second chance romance between Olivia and Margot, who were best friends in high school that turned into something more for a week and then… wasn’t. Now a decade later they meet again because Olivia is planning Margot’s best friend’s wedding. And then Margot accidentally offers Olivia somewhere to stay after Olivia’s apartment is flooded and then it all gets complicated.

Now as I said at the top, for 75 percent of this I was all in. A lot of Margot and Olivia’s issues could be solved by a proper conversation and they had that and I was looking forward to the big finish and then… they had another big misunderstanding/problem that could have been fixed by having a conversation but the author decided to make that impossible. And I get it, I do. You need tension and a final resolution, except that it sort of already felt like a final resolution had happened and I was wondering if the book was going to have a preview of another book as the final ten percent because it felt like it was wrapping up. But it wasn’t. And it still left a plot thread sort of hanging in the resolution. And I realise that now I sound like I didn’t like this, but I actually did. There is witty dialogue and a fun group of friends and an amusing cat. I just wanted them to have a conversation to sort stuff out!

Anyway, I know that usually I’m complaining about romances wrapping up too quickly and here I am sort of grousing about one that doesn’t do that, but hey, I’m allowed to be inconsistent. This is a fun contemporary romance with a nice group of central characters and a cat. What’s not to enjoy.

My copy came from the library, but it’s out now on Kindle and Kobo and in paperback – Foyles even have it in stock in some stores.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: April 25 – May 1

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A super busy week at work and quite a lot of rereading on the list instead of finishing the new stuff that I started. As I said yesterday, April very much the month of binge-rereads as that continues to be pretty much all my brain can cope with. I’m not sure what I can blame it on, but here’s hoping I get my act a bit in gear in May, as the NetGalley list is currently getting longer rather than shorter…

Read:

Death on the Ballerat Train by Kerry Greenwood

Worn by Sofi Thanhauser*

Bad Luck by Linwood Barclay

Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh

That Cowboy of Mine by Caitlin Crews*

The Chalet School and the Island by Elinor M Brent Dyer

Blood and Circuses by Kerry Greenwood

Started:

Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

Ask a Historian by Greg Jenner

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare*

The Book Share by Phaedra Patrick*

Still reading:

Paper Lion by George Plimpton

Fire Court by Andrew Taylor*

Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor

The Fake Up by Justin Myers*

I Was Better Last Night by Harvey Fierstein

One bought, that’s it. Positively restrained.

Bonus photo: My attempt at repotting Fernando the Fern came to a bit of a tricky moment when I realised that I had underestimated how much compost the new pot would need and overestimated how much I have in stock!

An * next to a book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley