Category: week in books

Book of the Week, cozy crime, first in series

Book of the Week: The French Bookshop Murder

veritywilde

I said yesterday that I wasn’t sure what I was going to pick today and it turns out it’s actually a book I finished on Monday. But that’s the way it goes sometimes.

Zoe Pascal has relocated from her life in England to a small village in southern France where she is going to run a bookshop. But when she arrives in Sainte Catherine the locals are strangely hostile and there’s an undercurrent in the village that she just doesn’t understand. Then the body of a tourist is found in the local church – not long after she was due to meet Zoe. Suddenly Zoe finds herself under even more suspicion – from the gendarmes now as well as the locals. So she sets to to try and undercover the killer and the mystery at the heart of the village.

This is a lot of fun, with a really good puzzle as well as the murder mystery. I had a few bits figured out, but not all of it and I really enjoyed the village setting and the cast of characters. I could really picture the historic houses and Provençal countryside. There appears to be a tie in going on with a prior series by Greg Mosse, which I will be tempted to pick up – but there is a sequel to this to read first!

This is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, but it’s also still available on Kobo and there is a paperback too, although as only one of the London Waterstones‘ has it on click and collect you may have to have a bit of a hunt for it.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 23 – March 29

veritywilde

It’s nearly the end of March and Easter is fast approaching. The clocks have sprung forward and my commute this morning was plunged back into darkness again after a couple of weeks of glorious daylight. I had a day off last week and a day of work from home and the lack of commuting reading time on those two days shows up on the list and the fact that I’m not really sure what I’m going to write about tomorrow…

Read:

A Death in the Dark by Ellie Alexander*

A Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio Marsh

Just As You Are by Camille Kellogg

Mrs Spy by M J Rowbotham*

Death and the Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh

Fishing for Trouble by Elizabeth Logan

Cloaked in Chaos by Patti Benning

Started:

The Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula*

The French Bookshop Murder by Greg Mosse

Still reading:

Game Changer by Rachael Reid

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

I managed to resist buying too many books this week, considering how over the top I went last week, but if you are in the market for books, Dawn Tripp’s Jackie is 99p on Kindle at the moment – I don’t know how long it will last because it doesn’t say, but march ends shortly and often that is the cue for price changes.

Bonus picture: I do not need novelty salt and pepper shakers. I do not need novelty salt and pepper shakers…

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

Book of the Week, romance

Book of the Week: Slow Dance

veritywilde

We’re less than a month away from the release of Rainbow Rowell’s new novel Cherry Baby, so I thought I could probably risk reading her previous adult work now. You know what I’m like about saving things sometimes. Anyway, I wasn’t feeling very well last week so it seemed like a good potential treat in a week when I needed one. And here it is, this week’s BotW,

Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school. The two of them and the third member of their trio Mikey were inseparable. But it was Shiloh and Cary that everyone thought would end up together. But they didn’t – and more than a decade later they’re going to meet for the first time in years at Mikey’s second wedding. Shiloh’s divorced with two small kids and Cary’s in the Navy, spending months at a time at sea. But is this the time that they will finally work out that they’re meant to be together?

This jumps backwards and forwards between the characters’ present day, high school and college showing how things were, how it fell apart and how they’re trying to make it work. I ended up really enjoying this, but I did have a few frustrations about it. Both characters needed to use their words more and have actual conversations, but I understood why they didn’t as teens because both had complicated home situations that they were working their way through. However, being inside Shiloh’s head made me anxious some of the time because the self sabotage was very real. But perhaps that’s what makes you root for them so much. This made me feel quite on edge through the final third, waiting for it all to fall apart again, but actually the resolution was pretty good. I can find military heroes a bit trying, but I understood why Cary was joining the Navy and what it was doing for him, but it was very much in the subtext and I felt like Shiloh’s lack of understanding about as a teen that was quite out of character for her considering how smart she was in other ways.

I can see that it won’t be for everyone – common threads in reviews that haven’t enjoyed it are around Shiloh being too hard to care for because of a perceived “too cool for school” or “not like other girls” type personality, or the characters not changing/developing as the years pass, but honestly I read Shiloh more as stand-offish and not letting people get close to her because if people are close they can hurt you (or judge you) more than anything else, and I think they did grow and change although it’s mostly in the subtext rather than one character overtly saying “OMG you would never have done that when we were at school” or similar. But I read this across about 24 hours and was smiling at the end, so that’s a pretty good recommendation and if you look at how much I’ve written about it, it will at least make you think!

My copy of Slow Dance came from NetGalley (yes I know, I told you I was behind) but it’s out in paperback now as well as in Kindle and Kobo. Rowell has a new book out in April, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a price drop on the ebook price next month to go with the new release. You should be able to find it in bigger bookshops relatively easily too.

Happy Reading

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 16 – March 22

veritywilde

Genuinely cannot tell you how please with myself I am for getting the two longest runners off the list this week. Sadly it happened mostly because I was poorly for a couple of days and stuck at home, but the point is, I did it. Yay me. And aside from that a pretty good week in reading too – I read the new Katherine Center short I mentioned in last week’s BotW and strangely that is one of two on this list which are a second chance romance with hero who is in the Navy. So long since I’ve had a military hero pop-up in a book and then two come along at once. Had a bit of a day out on Saturday – more on that to come – but it was an eight book (purchase) day. Which is great in terms of new reading material, bad in terms of size of the shelf!

Read:

Woof Times by Patti Benning

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett

Tea’d Off by Patti Benning

Death with a Dark Red Rose by Julia Buckley

Everybody’s Favourite Guy by Katherine Center

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell*

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

A Murder in Eight Cocktails by Kelly Mullen*

Started:

Mrs Spy by M J Rowbotham*

Just As You Are by Camille Kellogg

Still reading:

Game Changer by Rachael Reid

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

As mentioned up top, eight books bought just on Saturday. Luckily that’s it – apart from one pre-order placed.

Bonus picture: a misty frosty morning on the train, which turned into a 17 degree day! Spring is doing some weird things right now.

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

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: The Love Haters

veritywilde

I mentioned yesterday that I had to crack out an emergency book over the weekend because I wasn’t feeling very well and that’s what I’ve ended up picking today: the latest Katherine Center, The Love Haters, which came out in paperback back in November. And it’s particularly good timing because it turns out that Center has written an Amazon Original story that is out today too.

Katie Vaughan is a videographer. For her day job she works for a small media company who make corporate and promotional video. For herself she makes day in the life videos about people who have done something heroic. The trouble is the passion project doesn’t pay the rent and there is a massive round of layoffs happening at the day job. So that’s why when her boss Cole offers her a last chance job she takes it. Trouble is, it’s filming a coast guard rescue swimmer and Katie doesn’t swim and the swimmer is Hutch, Cole’s brother. Hutch is internet famous after his rescue of a dog went viral, but he’s turned down every interview request since. But Katie really needs her job, so she heads off to the Florida Keys, where she finds that everything is just a bit different – and Hutch is definitely not what she was expecting either.

So I had a few qualms at a couple of points when I was reading this. Firstly there was a point where I was worried that this was going to have too much comedy based on humiliation, then there was a big third act twist that I was a bit dubious about and then I was concerned about the finale. But every time, it pulled it around – for me at least. I can see from the reviews that some people have found the plot strand around body image too much for them, but as someone who grew up in the terrible times that were the early 2000s I could totally understand where Katie was coming from and found her evolution on that front quite satisfying. Hutch is a great character – I wasn’t really aware of Coast Guard Swimmers being a thing before this book, but it was the perfect match of character and job and makes total sense for the way that the ending plays out. I don’t know that it’s my favourite of hers – I think I love The Rom-Commers the most, and it’s not a surefire recommendation for people because for reasons that may be apparent from what I’ve already written, but I read this in the space of an afternoon and evening and really enjoyed it.

This is out now in Kindle, Kobo and paperback. It’s showing up as being in stock in some of the London Waterstones so I think you should be able to get it in stores too.

Happy Tuesday!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 9 – March 15

veritywilde

It’s really starting to feel like the weather can’t make up its mind what it’s doing at the moment. One day it’s so warm you barely need a coat, another it’s blowing a (freezing) gale and raining. I dislike this because it’s impossible to dress for but also because I don’t know if I want to read cosy autumnal books or spring-y new start ones. I’ve got such a huge to-read pile that I really should just pick one and go with it, and yet I find that really hard to do. A solid week of reading though – a couple from the NetGalley list, a couple from the shelf and one break-glass-in-case-of-emergency read because I wasn’t feeling very well. Onwards…

Read:

Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd*

Death at the Bar by Ngaio Marsh

The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr

Death Waits in the Dark by Julia Buckley

The Pie and Mash Detective Agency by J D Brinkworth*

Veiled Threat by Patti Benning

Murder on the Eiffel Tower by Claude Izner

The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Started:

Death with a Dark Red Rose by Julia Buckley

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett

Still reading:

Game Changer by Rachael Reid

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

Four ebooks and two books bought, two pre-orders arrived.

Bonus picture: Tower Bridge by night on the way to the theatre last week.

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

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Murder at Gulls Nest

veritywilde

Happy Tuesday everyone I’m back with the offers post tomorrow, but for today I’m back with in the mystery realm with a book from the to-read pile. I really am trying to reduce the size of that. Not least because the overspill is currently on my jigsaw table and I have two that I got for Christmas that I want to do… Anyway, to the book:

In Murder at Gulls Nest it’s 1954 and Nora Breen has asked to be released from the monastery where she has lived for the last thirty or so years to try and find out what has happened to a former novice whose letters have abruptly stopped. Nora heads to Gore-on-Sea on the south coast and to the very boarding house where Frieda was living to investigate. When she arrives there she hides her connection to Frieda and starts to dig. But when another resident is found dead, she starts to worry that Frieda may have found herself caught up in something even more worrying than Nora feared.

Nora is a great character and I really like the way that she is rediscovering the world and herself as we go through the book. The world has changed while she has been cloistered away and she has decades of habits to break as well. And then the mystery is really good. I think that boarding houses are great settings for mystery books because it’s a way that hugely different people can be forced into proximity and they can feel very claustrophobic. They are also places where there are rules – and rules are something that Nora is used to, just in a different context. Inspector Rideout, who is the police officer that she comes into contact with, also makes for a great foil for Nora to bounce off, but he has depth and complexity of his own too.

This was one of my Christmas books, and there is a second book featuring Nora coming out next month which I’ve already started thanks to the wonders of NetGalley, which just shows how much I enjoyed this first installment. I hadn’t read anything by Jess Kidd before, but it seems like this was a bit of a departure from her previous writing and I’m really glad that she went in this direction because I enjoyed it a lot.

This one should be pretty easy to get hold of – I’ve seen the hardback in a bunch of stores and the paperback is out towards the end of March too. And of course it’s on Kindle and Kobo too where I’m expecting the price to drop when the paperback comes out.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: March 2 – March 8

veritywilde

I’m starting to thing that March might be the month of shows – I saw two shows last week, and I’ve got two more this week, and I’ve got another two booked for later in the month already. So on that basis, I’m still pretty pleased with the reading last week, even if I didn’t finish anything from that pesky still reading list. I will try again on that this week.

Read:

And The Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Philips

Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd

Murder in the Cathedral by Kerry Greenwood

Murder at the Tower by N R Daws*

Thunder in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters

The Bombay Prince by Sujuta Massey

Started:

Murder at the Spirit Lounge by Jess Kidd*

Death Waits in the Dark by Julia Buckley

Still reading:

The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr

Game Changer by Rachael Reid

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

Nothing bought. For once.

Bonus picture: What I saw on Monday – it’s really good, but it’s only on two nights a week and tickets are very limited so if you want to see it, move fast.

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

Book of the Week, new releases, romance, romantic comedy

Book of the Week: Love and Other Brain Experiments

veritywilde

Happy Tuesday everyone, and I’m back with a new release (well it was released in February and I read it in February so that counts as new release) romance for this week’s Book of the Week.

The heroine of Love and Other Brain Experiments is Frances, a neuroscientist who has spent the last five years trying to build her career after turning down a job – and her boyfriend – to follow her own research. Now she’s heading back to New York to a conference, where she’s going to come face to face with that same ex, who said she’d never make it on her own. When an argument with a rival is mistaken for an argument between a couple, she’s flustered and inadvertently confirms the misconception and suddenly both her and Lewis’s careers are at risk – and thus starts the fake dating agreement…

My favourite Sophie Kinsella book is Can You Keep a Secret, which starts with a genius scene set on a plane, and this also starts with an excellent plane-based meeting which set me up to really enjoy this. I had a slight concern with the fake dating scenario – because as the book sets it out Frances’s main problem with the initial relationship misconception is gaining a reputation for untruthfulness in science (where falsifying data is the worst thing you can do) but then she and Lewis create a much bigger reputational risk with the prolonged fake dating scenario. However, I love a fake dating story, and an enemies to lovers plot and this is so much fun that I just decided to go with it and hope that the resolution was well thought out and satisfying enough to negate that fear – and it basically was.

Frances is a great character – I loved all the details about the different places she’d worked in around the world and her complete single minded focus on her research made a great foil for her missing some issues in her real life outside of the lab. I thought Lewis was also really well drawn, although the reason why he and Frances became rivals seemed pretty unsurmountable initially, the actual explanation made it work. There is a slight case of just have a proper conversation you two here, but ultimately I raced through this in about 36 hours and ended with a big smile on my face at the resolution. This is Hannah Brohm’s debut – and this is a really accomplished start to a romance writing career and I look forward to seeing what she writes next. And on a more basic level this was one of the first STEM romances that I’ve read recently that wasn’t completely obviously a Reylo thing…

I got my copy of Love and Other Brain Experiments from NetGalley, but it’s out now in Kindle, Kobo and paperback – and as you can see I’ve already found it in a Waterstones – so it should be fairly easy to find in the shops too.

Happy Reading!

books, stats, The pile, week in books

The Week in Books: February 23 – March 1

veritywilde

A pretty solid week, considering that it included a theatre trip, an art gallery trip and another evening out as well. However I seem to be developing a bit of an issue on the still reading shelf by starting books and then not finishing them when I already have a few on the go. So I need to work on that. But on the bright side, more than half of the things I did finish last week were from Netgalley, so that is something.

Read:

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay*

Death in a White Tie by Ngaio Marsh

Love and Other Brain Experiments by Hannah Brohm*

The Wedding Bait by Adele Buck

Death on the Lusitania by R L Graham*

Frozen Felonies by Patti Benning

Missing in Soho by Holly Stars*

Started:

And The Crowd Went Wild by Susan Elizabeth Philips

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd

Still reading:

The Corpse in the Waxworks by John Dickson Carr

Game Changer by Rachael Reid

Square Haunting by Francesca Wade

Ritual of Fire by D V Bishop

Pet Shop Boys, Literally by Chris Heath

We are not talking about the purchases, because a fresh month of kindle deals started yesterday and I bought two more books in the week. Bad Verity.

Bonus picture: One of the most famous paintings from that art gallery trip. And underneath Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier dancing to a song about it…

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