Tag: New books

mystery, series

Mystery Series: The Secret Bookcase

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Happy Friday everyone! The fourth in Ellie Alexander’s new series based around a bookshop in California came out on Wednesday, and I have read all four of them, so now it’s time to write about them!

Our heroine is Annie Murray, a former criminology student turned bookseller at the Secret Bookcase in the small town of Redwood Grove in California. IN the first book, The Body in the Bookstore, she’s looking to try and boost the shop’s prospects by expanding into events – but of course a body turns up and she needs to solve the crime or the shop will end up in an even worse situation than it was to start with. Investigating the murder is one of her former professors, who also tries to entice Annie back to the world of criminology which she left after her best friend was murdered – in a crime which remains unsolved. And thus we have the template for the series so far – Annie organises an event and there’s a murder, and in the background she’s trying to decide between bookselling and criminology but with the running thread of that unsolved murder of her best friend in the background.

These are really easy to read, well plotted cozy crime novels. Annie has a nice group of friends around her which make for good secondary characters, and the events mean that there’s been a variety of locations where the murders have taken place, not just in the bookshop which helps with the “How is this business still going given all the murders” issue of the small business cozy crime. I have a little less patience with the best friend murder running strand than I do with the crime of the week (so to speak) but that’s probably because it’s going so slowly and I just want it wrapped up and sorted. But given the structure of the books, I get why it’s not happening fast.

In an astonishing turn of events, the first of this series only came out in June, and we’re already up to book four – with book five coming early next year. I’m assuming Ellie Alexander had a few of these stacked up already because the first two came out on the same day and then we’ve had another one every three months so far since, so we’ll see how long that pace can keep up, especially given as she has a couple of other series too. They’ve used various comps across the four books – some of which I don’t agree with because they lean towards the comedic and I don’t really see that in these, but generally, if you like a small business cozy crime, these may well work for you.

Anyway, I read the first one and the fourth one via NetGalley, but two and three thanks to the wonders of Kindle Unlimited. And that of course means that these are only on Kobo as audiobooks.

Have a great weekend!

Book of the Week, Christmas books, new releases

Book of the Week: The Anti-Social Season

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It’s November and we have our first Christmas-set pick of the season and it’s one of the new releases! And yes I know, I told you about it on release day, but now I’m reporting back…

Thea has been a firefighter for a decade, except that now she can’t do it any more after a colleague was injured. She’s got the chance of a job managing the fire service’s social media – but can she cope with being so close to her old job without actually doing it? And who even is she if she isn’t a firefighter? Simon is a librarian and manages the library’s social accounts part time. He’s the man tasked with teaching Thea the ropes of her new job. He also had a huge crush on her when they were at school – even though she didn’t notice him at all. As they work their way towards Christmas the two of them realise that there is something going on between them – but can they do anything about it without risking their jobs?

This is actually much lower angst than that description sounds. There is no active peril really, just some slightly toxic family members and two adults working out whether they might work together beyond the bedroom. There are adult conversations when things go wrong (not always straight away) and grown up behaviour. It’s actually a very comforting and calming read. Well except for Simon’s sister and mother who need to be fired into the sun. But apart from that. If you want to start your festive reading, this wouldn’t be a bad place to do it.

As you already know, I had this one preordered and it’s available now on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading!

book related, bookshops

Books in the Wild: Waterstones Piccadilly (again)

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I think Thursday this week was the biggest book release day of the year, but sadly I haven’t made it into a bookshop in the last two days – but instead I was in Waterstones Piccadilly on Monday and had a good wander.

There is one of those 24th October releases on this photo though – some kind person had put The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year out on the shelves a couple of days early, so of course I snapped that up. Apart from that the romance display was still fairly Halloween orientated – with Casket Case, Haunt Your Heart Out, The Wedding Witch, My Vampire Plus-One and Morbidly Yours from this season’s crop of spooky releases.

I was really pleased to see Kingmaker on a table – and I’m hoping the fact that there’s only five copies means there were more and they’ve sold a bunch. I also keep coming across mentions of Pamela Harriman at the moment, but I’ve got no idea whether it’s because the book has got people talking or it’s that thing you get where you notice things you would have missed because you’ve recently encountered some form of media about them!

And finally, on the new and reviewed history shelf has three of the history hardbacks from this autumn’s releases that I’m interested in – namely the new Helen Castor and Dan Jones, who are two historians whose work I find really interesting and readable even if their areas of expertise are different to the periods that I am usually the most interested in, and then The Scapegoat again, which I mentioned last week.

And that’s your lot. I will endeavour to make it into a bookshop this week to see what else I can spot from the autumn new releases. After all I’m soon going to have to come up with a list of books I’d like for Christmas. Oh and I found a Waterstones voucher in my purse today from my Christmas gifts last year, that I only have six weeks left to spend…

Book previews

Out Today: New Adele Buck

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Another Thursday, another new book to highlight. This time it’s the new Adele Buck book, The Anti-social Season, which is the second in her first responders series and came out today in the UK – and on Tuesday in the US. The first in the series was Fake Flame which I reviewed back when in May when it came out here. That was about a fake relationship between a university professor and a firefighter after her ex tried to win her back with a public proposal which she tried to set on fire. This time it is Christmas themed and has a female firefighter who is about to hang up her active duty hose and a male librarian who is tasked with teaching her about her new job as the squad’s social media manager. I love the fact that the genders are the reverse of what you normally find in a firefighter romance – or a romance involving a librarian – so I can’t wait to read it – I have it on pre-order so it should have dropped onto my Kindle by the time you read this!

If you want to buy it, it’s available now on Kindle and Kobo. And as a bonus, Fake Flame is 99p on Kindle and Kobo at the moment too.

Book previews

Out this week: New Ashley Herring Blake

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It’s not that long since I wrote about Ashley Herring Blake’s Bright Falls series, so I wanted to mention that her new book (not set in Bright Falls) Make the Season Bright came out on Tuesday. This one features two exes who discover they are going to be forced to spend Christmas together after they are invited to spend it with a friend (the friends are sisters, the blurb isn’t clear on whether the sisters know that their friends are exes). I’m intrigued to see how this works out because the blurb says that Charlotte was left at the altar by Brighton and I’m not sure how you redeem that in romance terms.

Make the Season Bright now is out now on Kindle and Kobo and also in paperback- and all the Waterstones near me seem to have copies available.

Book of the Week, new releases, non-fiction

Book of the Week: Kingmaker

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As I said yesterday, it was a pretty easy choice this week. And this was actually the first book I finished last week – I didn’t manage to get it finished in time for the previous week’s list, and it would probably have been BotW last week instead of The Man Who Didn’t Fly (because there’s always a BLCC post in progress somewhere where I could write about that. But actually this works better in a way as this js somewhat Truman Capote adjacent and he would have been 100 yesterday, so sort of points to me on the timing of this review!

Pamela Harriman has crossed my reading path a couple of times in the past – most often as one of Truman Capote’s slightly more tangential Swans – namely the one who came and stole Slim Keith’s Husband and whose amorous exploits were among those featured in Capote’s notorious La Cote Basque 1965. Anway, Pamela’s reputation was as a modern courtesan, but in this book, Sonia Purnell sets out to re-examine Harriman’s life and legacy and position her as a secret political power player who learnt how to exercise soft power as Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law and took those lessons on to the rest of her life – to help Gianni Agnelli while they were lovers and then later to help the Democratic Party back to life in the late 1980s and early 1990s, culminating in her appointment as Ambassador to Paris by Bill Clinton and a role in American involvement in the Balkan conflict.

Considering that Harriman is most often referred to as a courtesan, or as someone who made a study of rich men’s ceilings, this is quite a reappraisal. But Purnell makes a strong case for Pamela as a woman who used the skills and talents that she had in the ways that were permitted as a woman at whatever the given time was, and then seeking to improve and better herself and her education throughout her life. I look forward to what I’m sure will be a number of articles in response to this to see what the response is but Purnell has had access to a wealth of papers and interviews to write the book and in her telling the story of Harriman’s life is remarkable and compelling – and hard to find parallels to.

My copy of Kingmaker came via NetGalley, but it came out in hardback about two weeks ago and so hopefully should be in the bookshops now. And of course it’s also on Kindle and Kobo.

Happy Reading

Book previews

Out this Week: New Sarah Morganthaler

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This really is the weirdest time of year for book releases. We’re not past Halloween yet, but the we’re already into the Christmas-themed book releases. And yes, I’ve picked on today, I can’t help myself, because its the new book from Sarah Morgenthaler – after a four year gap since the end of her Moose Springs series.

The blurb for The Christmas You Found Me has a single dad answering an advert that was meant to be a joke and a fake marriage plot with a recently divorced ranch owner, so that he can prove that he has the money for the mediations his daughter will need after a potential kidney transplant. Which sounds like a lot, and a bit of a turn from the Moose Springs books which were unabashedly Grumpy-Sunshine romances, but I really liked Enjoy the View (it was a BotW after all) so I will keep my eye open for it for that, but also because it’s set in Idaho, which is traditionally one of the harder states to cover in the 50 States challenge! Morgenthaler in fact was my regular solution to Alaska, so I’ve had that as an issue the last couple of years. And this year in fact…

Book previews

Out today: New Richard Osman

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The Thursday Murder Club series has featured a fair bit on this blog, but after the last one came out Richard Osman said he was taking a break from writing the series to write something different – and today is the day that that something different comes out. It’s called We Solve Murders and it’s got a detective duo who are father-in-law and daughter-in-law. He’s retired, she’s a private security officer and from the blub it sounds like an adventure caper with murders. So I’m hoping for something that’s a bit early Steph Plum maybe, because Osman does humour in his mysteries. I’m hoping to pick up a copy of this at the airport next time we go on holiday, because once again it’s a hardback first release, and I’m bad at waiting. So watch this space!

Book previews

Out Today: New Matt Haig

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I know Matt Haig is an autobuy for some people, so today I wanted to mention that he has a new book hitting the bookshops. It’s called The Life Impossible and it’s his first novel since the mega hit The Midnight Library, which I still need to get around to reading, especially given how much I enjoyed How to Stop Time. Anyway, this is about Grace, a retired maths teacher who is left a rundown house on Ibiza and sets out with a one way ticket and absolutely no plan about what to do about it. The blurb promises hope, adventure, wonder and the power of a new beginning. From which I deduce it may make you cry so maybe not one to read on the plane, but perhaps one for behind some big sunglasses on your late summer holiday!

Book previews, previews, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Autumn new release preview

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Happy Wednesday everyone, and I’m taking the opportunity today to do a quick run through of some of the new books coming this autumn, as we’re about to hit the flood of books arriving in the shops in time for Christmas. The literary fiction headlines are the new novels from Sally Rooney, Elizabeth Strout, Olga Tokarczuk and Haruki Murakami, but we all know my tastes run slightly differently.

Lets start with the ones I’ve already got on the Kindle waiting for me, thanks to the joys of NetGalley. Firstly there’s the new book by Lissa Evans – A Small Bomb at Dimperley, which comes out next week, so I’m doing this just in time. This is set at the end of the Second World War, with a second son returning to his ancestral home – where he is now responsible for the whole kit and caboodle after the death of his older brother. Also waiting on the Kindle but not out until October is Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd, a cosy crime which features a distant descendent of *the* Mrs Beeton who runs a household staff agency where one of her staff ends up dead over the festive period. This might be the first of the Christmas themed novels I’ll read this year – but it won’t be the only one…

And that’s because only a few months after the third instalment of the series, we have a fourth Three Dahlias book and as I mentioned in my post about the series, this next one is a Christmas one. I don’t have this on Netgalley so I will have to wait – or maybe put it on my Christmas list, but A Very Lively Midwinter Murder is out on November 5. Out the same day is The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White which appears to be a bit of a new direction for the trio – as the blurbs are promising a whodunnit with literary satire when a superstar author is found dead on a remote Scottish Island. I look forward to getting my hands on it.

A couple of memoirs to finish today – firstly Lisa Marie Presley’s, From Here to the Great Unknown, which has been completed after her death by her daughter Riley Keogh. I watched Priscilla on the plane to Manila, and I’ve watched most of Elvis (probably need to start again from the beginning at this point though) so I look forward to seeing where Lisa Marie’s story fits in on that spectrum given all the controversy about those two movies and the family splits they caused, not to mention all the fighting after Lisa Marie’s death early in 2023. That’s coming in early October. And then there’s Darren Hayes Unlovable (another one out on 5 November). You may remember Hayes as the lead singer of Savage Garden, and you may also remember that I went to see him in London the other year and was in floods of happy tears to hear all my favourite songs of his sounding amazing, more than 25 years on. Given that one of my favourite songs of his is the haunting Two Beds and a Coffee Machine, which is clearly about domestic violence, there’s obviously going to be some difficult stuff to read in here – even before you get to the attitudes of the music industry to his sexuality. But I’m looking forward to reading it – and to finding out more about what he was up to in his ten year hiatus – and what made him come back.

That’s your lot for today – I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about some of these in the next few months though. Happy Humpday everyone.