A busy week of news and work. Honestly I wish it would just stop. It’s starting to feel a bit end of days to be honest. Here’s hoping the world improves.
Read:
An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
Gridiron Grit by Noel Sainsbury Jr
Fatal Forgeries by Ritter Ames
Bitch Planet Vol 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick et al
Rivers of London: Detective Stories 1 by Ben Aaronovitch et al
Fatal Facade by Alison Campbell
The Antique House Murders by Leslie Nagal
Started:
Trans Like Me by CN Lester
The Early Birds by Laurie Graham
Nun Too Soon by Alice Loweecey
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel
I may have bought a few Kindle John LeCarrés, but apart from that, well behaved. I’m also trying to make the Cartmel last because I’m really enjoying it!
This week’s BotW is Jill Shalvis’s Once in a Lifetime which was the last book in that omnibus of her Lucky Harbor series that I mentioned in a Recommendsday post when it was on Kindle sale last month. It was a very busy and challenging week at work for me last week what with the fall out from the London Bridge attacks and the General Election here in the UK and this was perfect escapist reading for me.
This is the UK cover for the individual ebook which is… ok. Not as pretty as I’d like
Aubrey is Lucky Harbor’s resident bad girl – or at least the town thinks that she is. She got into trouble at school, she was a mean girl and a beauty queen – and she recently slept with her boss. But now she’s trying to make things right and turn her life into what she wants it to be. Ben is back in his hometown after leaving to escape his grief over the death of his wife. He’s not looking to risk his heart again, but there’s something about Aubrey that draws him to her, even though everyone keeps telling him that she is Trouble.
Once in a Lifetime is the ninth book in the Lucky Harbor series and it has been building towards Aubrey and Ben’s story for the previous two books. You’ll get more out of this if you’ve read those two books – because you’ll have more insight into Aubrey and Ben’s pasts and you’ll see the love stories of Aubrey and Ben’s closest friends, but it still works as a standalone book too. Aubrey is not a traditional romance heroine – she’s not sweet and goody goody and you learn through the book exactly how mean she can be. But she’s working to be better and to make amends and her family backstory explains a lot of her behaviours and makes a character who you don’t initially like that much into one that you’re really rooting for.
Ben is a more usual sort of romance hero – except for the fact that he is a widower. Shalvis does a really good job of negotiating the fact that he has been in love before and had a happy marriage whilst still working towards a happy ending with Aubrey. It’s a difficult tightrope to tread – particularly at times because he is discovering things about his wife that he didn’t know – but Shalvis manages to create a lovely relationship between Ben and Aubrey without running down or ruining the one that he had before.
I’m not a massive reader of contemporary romance as you all know, but small town contemporaries really do scratch an itch sometimes. They seem like a logical extension of my love of Sweet Valley High and the Babysitters’ Club books when I was growing up. To me the towns often feel a lot like a larger (and American) version of the villages that I grew up in – where everyone knows you and your business – but populated by small businesses, often quirky, and attractive people. Who wouldn’t want to live in that sort of world? Well except for everyone knowing you and your business and your history, which I know from personal experience can get on your wick after a while, but hey it’s a romance book and it’s fun to read about!
Anyway, as I mentioned, my copy of Once in a Lifetime was in an omnibus (the third of the Lucky Harbor omnibuses to be precise). That’s unfortunately not on sale anymore and is back up to £4.99 on Kindle but that’s still a better deal than buying it individually for £3.99. Both of those are probably better value than buying the actual books – which I think are quite expensive considering how long they take to read – but that is often the case with American romance novels. However the first three Lucky Harbour books are £3.99 at the moment, if you want to dip your toe into the water (so to speak) – I know I’m very tempted…
I’m not that surprised I didn’t get much read this week – it was elections and I’ve been super busy with work and have done a lot of hours. Hopefully this week will be more normal…
Read:
Marriage is Pure Murder by Staci McLaughlin
Once in a Lifetime by Jill Shalvis
Death by Vanilla Latte by Alex Erickson
Bad Housekeeping by Maia Chance
Started:
Fatal Forgeries by Ritter Ames
An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
Written in Dead Wax by Andrew Cartmel
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
Yeah. Quite a lot of books bought – two proper books at the lovely Big Green Bookshop after work on Saturday and five ebooks which were on various short term offers…
It’s election day in the UK tomorrow, and I’m gearing up for an all-nighter at work. So the natural way to prepare is to… read some nice relaxing cozy crime books that don’t feature any politics at all! Here are a few that I’ve enjoyed recently.
I’m working on making my collages neater… it might take a while
I think I’ve mentioned these before, but Donna Andrew’s Meg Langslow books are a lasting source of delight to me. They have some of the best punny titles in the genre (all based around birds) and are witty and fun. There was a slight mid series slump* (but hey where there are 20 books in a series that can happen) but they’re back on form now. Start at the beginning with Murder with Peacocks – I’ve recently read numbers 17 and 18 – the brilliantly titled The Good, the Bad and the Emus and The Nightingale before Christmas.
I’ve also got a serious soft spot for Cindy Brown’s Ivy Meadows series about a wannabe actress who is a trainee Private Investigator in her spare time. Each book is based around a different play or musical title – the fourth book has just come out, Ivy Get Your Gun, and I enjoyed it although I think the second book in the series The Sound of Murder is still my favourite.
I read my first book in Lyn Cahoon’s Tourist Trap series a few weeks ago and, although there were a few things that had me confused, I already have another one lined up on my Kindle so I must have liked it. This follows the trend for small business-owner detectives with a Bookshop-cum-coffee-shop proprietor in a small coastal town. I like a competent heroine and Jill is good at her day job – or at least she by the eighth book in the series Hospitality and Homicide and she at least has a credible reason for investigating the death. There’s an interesting supporting cast and a nice relationship to watch develop too. What more could you want?
I bought the Donna Andrews – and you can get them fairly easily (and for a sensible price) in the UK, but the other copies came to me via NetGalley, so it might be a case of adding them to your book wishlists and waiting for the price to drop, because I often find American cozies are too expensive for me soon after release, especially given how quickly I read them.
Happy Reading – and if you’re up watching the election result tomorrow night, think of me and my colleagues working probably the busiest nightshift of the year!
*SPOILER ALERT: The slump (for me at least) coincided with the period where Meg’s twins were very small. Once they got to toddling and the books had less feeding and naps, it all sorted itself out
This week’s BotW is another forgotten Golden Age crime novel which has been republished by the British Library. I picked this up at the book barge on Regents Canal, but it’s taken me a couple of months to get around to. The Sussex Downs Murder is the second story to feature Superintendent Meredith – there are a load more, and I already have another waiting for me on my Kindle now that I’ve read this.
Yes, I admit it, I read it on the train. Its such a useful handbag size!
John Rother and his brother William live and work together at a farm in the Sussex Downs. One night John leaves for a holiday and disappears, leaving his car and some worrying blood stains. Has he been kidnapped? Is he dead? Whatever has happened, William falls under suspicion as rumours had been circulating in the village that his wife was getting rather too friendly with John. Superintendent Meredith is called in to investigate, but events soon take a macabre turn when bones start turning up.
If you’ve read a lot of detective novels, you may suspect the solution to this one rather earlier than Meredith does, but it’s still a really enjoyable read. I suspect at the time, the solution would be a big gasp-inducing moment, but because there’s been 80 years of crime writing since, you may have come across plots like this before. It is a really well written and well crafted mystery, with plenty of interesting characters and lots of twists and turns. And if you’re a fan of Golden Age mysteries, it’s well worth reading because it has exactly the sort of vibe you get from a Sayers or a Christie – not too creepy, but totally engrossing.
I’ve read quite a lot of these British Library Crime Classic reissues and I’m struggling to think of one that I haven’t enjoyed. I’m always watching out for them, and I suspect that this will continue to be the case. It’s £2.99 on Kindle at time of writing, which is a bargain, or £1.89 on Kobo which is an even bigger bargain, but is for a slightly different edition. You should be able to get order the paperback from all the usual sources too.
Not as much read as I wanted this week, but sometimes it goes like that – I’ve been super busy and I can’t see this week being any quieter, what with the election on Thursday.
Read:
Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
Westmorland Alone by Ian Sansom
The Sussex Downs Murder by John Bude
One Fete in the Grave by Vickie Fee
Bearly Departed by Meg Macy
Started:
Marriage is Pure Murder by Staci McLaughlin
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
The Headmistress by Angela Thirkell
Only one ebook bought so I’m counting that as a big success. Fingers crossed I can keep that going…
So yesterday I took advantage of the last of my post-nightshift days off to go on a family jolly to Blenheim Palace. It’s less than an hour from home, but surprisingly I’d never been before – perhaps because it’s not National Trust or English Heritage so you have to pay. It was fabulous – and I got my day ticket converted into a year pass (which doesn’t cost any extra to do) so I can go back again and see some of the bits we didn’t have time for on Tuesday. Any how, after a day out at a country house, it got me thinking about books which feature amazing houses. So here’s a few for you for Recommendsday.
OK the sky wasn’t as blue as I was hoping, but at least we didn’t get rained on…
I know it’s totally the obvious choice, but I had to start with Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. It’s not my favourite Waugh (that’s Vile Bodies) but I know I may be in the minority on that. I had a massive Waugh kick a couple of years ago and read a whole load of his novels back to back and for the most part they still really work. Brideshead tells of Charles Ryder’s infatuation with the Marchmains and their upper class and crazy world. The house is at the centre of it all as a character in and of itself. Well worth reading if you haven’t already. I definitely need to watch one or other of the TV/film versions soon. And read Vile Bodies too.
Next, if you haven’t read any Roderick Alleyn books (and why not?) the first in the series, A Man Lay Dead, is set around a weekend party at a country house where one of the guests ends up dead. Again, it’s not my favourite of the Alleyns (that’s Artists in Crime) but it’s a really good start to the series and a really good example of a country house murder mystery.
It feels like a while since I mentioned Rebecca on here, which is strange since the Du Maurier classic is one of my mum’s favourite books and I have a lovely Virago hardback copy which sits on my downstairs keeper shelf. It’s creepy and gothic and has one of the most famous opening lines in literature in “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again”. If you haven’t read it, why not and if you have go and reread it. You won’t regret it*.
Finally, if you want something funny, try PG Wodehouse’s Blandings series. The first one is Something Fresh, where you meet Lord Emsworth, his son Freddie and his secretary The Efficient Baxter and get a taste for the sort of high jinx that ensue. I think I like them better than the Jeeves and Wooster books, but again I think I’m in the minority there.
I could go on – I haven’t even mentioned I Capture the Castle, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre or The Secret Garden..
All recommendations for more books with amazing houses gratefully received, in the meantime
Happy reading!
*Even if, spoiler alert, you never trust a housekeeper again.
Normal service is nearly resumed here after last week’s nights, although I’m still having to resist the urge for an afternoon doze. Anyway this week’s BotW is Julia Quinn’s Because of Miss Bridgerton, which is the first in her new Rokesby series.
Pretty in lilac – and definitely not set in the Regency!
Billie Bridgerton is the tomboyish daughter of Viscount Bridgerton, who spends her days riding the estate and doing the work of her father’s estate manager. The Rokesbys are the neighbouring family and she’s always expected that she’ll end up marrying one of their sons, but definitely not George. Definitely not. She can’t stand him and he can’t stand her. Except suddenly, when they’re thrown together, they don’t hate each other any more. But what do you do when you start getting feelings for some one you’ve always hated – especially if you’re fairly sure they don’t feel the same way about you.
I do love an enemies to lovers romance, and although Billie and George are not quite enemies, it definitely has elements of that, along with best friend’s brother and a bit of a ugly duckling into a swan situation with Billie who definitely doesn’t want to be involved in the Season or the London world at all. It’s fun and flirty and is such a joy to read.
Julia Quinn was my gateway drug into the world of historical romances – she was the first modern author I can across who was doing the same sort of thing (if with a bit more sex in it!) that Georgette Heyer was and I worked my way through her back catalogue at speed. Her best know series are the Bridgerton books – and that makes this especially good – because it’s going back to the previous generation of that family. And there are tit-bits here for people who have read those previous books about Anthony and his siblings – it fills in some gaps in Bridgerton family history and there are some definite nods to the characters that we’ll meet later on in Billie.
This has been out over a year – but I didn’t manage to find a copy in the shops when it first came out (and I’m not meant to be buying books) so it took until I found a copy at the library last week for me to get around to it. The next book in the series – The Girl with the Make Believe Husband – is out today. This one features one of George’s brothers and is nicely set up in Because of Miss Bridgerton. I doubt if I’ll be able to wait a year before I read it having enjoyed this one so much.
You should be able to get hold of a cop of Because of Miss Bridgerton from all the usual sources – I’m going to leave you my traditional links to the Big Green Bookshop and to the Kindle and Kobo editions.
I hate nightshifts. My brain is totally frazzled. Totally. And that’s before you get to the events of this week. It’s not been a good one. So I’ve read lots of lovely romance. Lots of it.
Read:
The Death of Lucy Kyte by Nicola Upson
Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Summer, With Love by Sarah Morgan (omnibus edition of:
The Spanish Consultant, The Greek Children’s Doctor and the English Doctor’s Baby)
The Magnificent Flying Baron Estate by Eric Bower
The Nightingale Before Christmas by Donna Andrews
Started:
Westmorland Alone by Ian Sansom
Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy
Still reading:
Kick by Paula Byrne
Reel History: The World According to the Movies by Alex von Tunzelmann
On the brightside, I didn’t buy any books. So there is that. Onwards and upwards.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 