Tag: series I love

books, new releases, Series I love

Series I love again: Blessings

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I know. I’ve already written about Beverly Jenkins Blessings series more than once, but the latest book in the series came out here this week – after a gap of three and a half years so how could I not!

You can find my first post about the people of Henry Adams here, but the basic plot is that when she divorces her rich but cheating husband, Bernadine Brown uses part of her divorce settlement to buy a historically black town in Kansas on eBay. Over the course of the series you can see Henry Adams come back to life and flourish. There’s a regular cast of characters who cover multiple generations, there’s always a romantic element – although it’s not always the main focus – as well as whatever is happening in the town. It’s strongly influenced by faith – after her divorce Bernadine wants God to tell her what her purpose should be after being so fortunate as to get so much money – and buying the town is what she feels that he wants her to do. And the latest in the series is mostly focusing on Reverend Paula and the new guy in town.

I realise I’ve got this far without really talking about the narrative structure – which is that it moves around from character to character looking at the different strands of the story. Its a bit like Tales of the City – although Blessings isn’t written to be read in episodes and the overarching plot is more connected together than TotC tends to be.

Anyway, A Christmas to Remember came out this week, I had it pre-ordered and had finished it within two days despite all my efforts at moderation (and it would have been less except that I had to work and also had theatre tickets). Last week I mentioned Sweet Mercies and if you’ve read that or Small Miracles, the first book about the Sisters of St Philomena, this has lots of similar vibes – although those have less romance than these do and maybe a bit more God. Or at least a different way of dealing with God. And the narrative moves around in a similar way.

Ms Bev writes brilliant historical romances as well – I’ve written about a couple of them – so there’s plenty to go at in her back catalogue if you read one of these and like it.

Have a great weekend everyone.

books, series, Series I love

Series I Love: Stockwell Park Orchestra

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It’s nearly the end of my 2023 Proms odyssey, and I’m still looking for romances with musicians or orchestras, and I’ve already recommended you some books featuring bands. So now I’m going to take the opportunity to write about a great series that features an orchestra in it – Isabel Rogers’s Stockwell Park Orchestra series.

This is a light comedy series about the members of an amateur orchestra, who meet weekly to rehearse and regularly perform concerts to a pretty high standard. The only trouble is there always seems to be some kind of drama going on in the background. There is a core group of main characters – most of whom are in the orchestra, although one notable exception isn’t – and there are also some regular side character for extra comic relief. So far the adventures have included a dead conductor, a continental tour and a certain level of fame.

There are four books in the series – two of which were Books of the Week. And as I said in both of reviews – I’m a band person, a lapsed clarinettist with a dislike of public performance and love of being part of music happening, but these guys are much better than I ever was. And because of that I find it quite hard to judge how these will land with people who aren’t musicians – or who don’t have experience with bands. But if you are someone who has experience with large groups of artistic types, I’m fairly sure you’ll recognises some of the personality types here. No news yet on whether there will be a fifth, but I’m really hoping it’s going to happen.

They’re available from all the usual ebook retailers, but if you get them direct from the publishers, Farrago Books, you can buy them as a set with a handy discount *and* get a free short story featuring the gang. Here’s the link. Enjoy!

books, romance, series, Series I love

Series I Love: The Rules of Scoundrels

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And after finally doing that post about some of my favourite Marriage of Convenience romances this week, it’s time to do a series I love that has a marriage of convenience in it’s opening novel!

So the Rules of Scandal series features four aristocrats who have been caught in a scandal and find themselves in the London underworld running a gaming hell. In each book one of them finds love and reclaims their rightful place in society. Or at least the place that they would like to be in anyway! A Rogue by Any Other Name is a marriage of convenience by a hero trying to claim his inheritance, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover has a nearly engaged heroine looking for a taste of the scandalous side of London before she settles down, No Good Duke Goes Unpunished has a hero who is suspected of murdering a woman on the eve of their wedding whose victim reappears alive and Never Judge a Lady by her Cover has a hero who is determined to uncover the secrets at the heart of the gaming hell.

I read these in order as they came out and it has one of the most gasp-worthy reveals at the end of the third book that I have come across in the genre – so surprising that I went back and reread the previous books to check that I hadn’t missed something and that it really was as clever as I thought it was! And I’ve tried not to give too much away in this review – even though if you read the blurb for the last book it gives it away! So don’t do that if you don’t want to be spoiled.

These are fairly old now – but they are available on Kindle, which they weren’t when I first started buying them I don’t think – or at I wouldn’t have started acquiring them in the US mass market format! And yes, it does annoy me that my set doesn’t match. And no I’m not 100 percent sure why because the UK format one isn’t signed so I didn’t get it at one of Sarah’s yea parties – and although the final one is I think it was the first one I ordered from Word. Anyway if you need a good romance series to binge this summer, these would be a good option.

Have a great weekend!

historical, series

Series I love: Emmy Lake

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This week’s series post was an easy choice because the third Emmy Lake Book came out in the UK yesterday (it’s not out in the US until August) and I’ve read it and it’s good. It’s also a long time since I’ve written about a historical series that’s *not* a murder mystery one so it’s also a nice dash of variety for you all!

When we meet Emmy Lake at the start of the series, it is 1940 and she is applying for a job at the London Evening Chronicle and dreaming of being a Lady War Reporter. But what she actually gets is a job working for a women’s magazine, as secretary to their Agony Aunt. Mrs Bird doesn’t want any “Unpleasantness” included in the column, But as Emmy reads the letters coming in, she realises that some people need actual help with real problems, and takes matters into her own hands. The sequel, Yours Cheerfully, was a BotW when it came out back in 2021, and now we have a third. I’ve puzzled about how much of the plots of each of the sequels to talk about – because obviously there are spoilers a plenty here. I said you didn’t need to have read Dear Mrs Bird to enjoy Yours Cheerfully, and the same is true of Mrs Porter Calling, but as this is a Series I Love post, I’m encouraging you to read all of them and I don’t want to give too much away.

What I’ve decided that I can say is that the first book shows Emmy finding her feet in the world of magazines, the second shows her getting involved in the war effort, and the third has a threat to the future of the magazine that she loves. And then there is Emmy’s private life, which runs through all three books – her best friend Bunty, some romance, and then obviously living in London during the Second World War. Emmy has a can-do attitude and is very cheerful, which makes her a fun character to follow around – at the start of the series she’s quite sheltered – or at least not very worldly, but obviously that’s evolved as she’s seen more of life. As you know, I’m a Girl’s Own reader – and I’d say she’s a bit like one of the school girls from those series grown up and let lose on the world. It is a book set in the war, so it is inevitable that sad and bad things happen in this – but if you’ve read a few books set in London in the Second World War you can see what’s going to happen in the first book coming* so you’re slightly forewarned.

By the end of the new book, we’ve reached the start of 1944 so I’m hoping that means we have another book to come, because there are still some questions unanswered, but as it’s taken at least two years between books so far, I’m resigning myself to not getting any answers until 2025 at the earliest! My copy of Mrs Porter Calling came from NetGalley, but I think you should be able to find it fairly easily in the bookstores – I’ve seen Yours Cheerfully on the shelves in the last few weeks ahead of this one coming out too – and of course they’re all also in Kindle and Kobo. And if you’re a Kindle Unlimited member, the first book is in KU at the moment as well.

Have a great weekend everyone!

*Slight spoilers: This book may have been the origin of my unofficial Cafe de Paris rule. If you know, you know. I’ve tried to write a post about it the idea, but it would be full of spoilers. So full of spoilers…

Series I love

Series I Love: Aunty Lee

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Having mentioned the Singaporean super rich in last week’s Recommendsday, today I’m returning to the city for a mystery series and Ovidia Yu’s Aunty Lee books.

Rosie Lee is a widowed lady of a certain age, who runs a home cooking restaurant. She doesn’t need to work – her husband left her plenty of money – she does it keep her busy and because it helps her keep her finger on exactly what’s going on in the city. In the first book, two women are found dead and as she knows both of them – one has eaten at her restaurants, the other had been due to be a guest at a dinner party – she starts to investigate. This sets up both the way Aunty Lee straddles different parts of Singaporean society but also how she meets the police officer who appears through the series.

The mysteries aren’t always the most complicated – I’ve figured out the culprit fairly early more than once – but Aunty Lee’s and her world is a delightful space to spend time that it doesn’t actually matter. If you liked the world of Crazy Rich Asians, this is the cozy crime version of that except that I need to issue a warning: these books will make you hungry. The presence of food in a cozy crime series is nothing new – I mean lots of series have recipes included after all – but very few of them make your mouth water the way that Ovidia Yu’s do – even if you’re like me and you know that your chili tolerance is not enough to be able to cope with some of it! I have written about a couple of these before – there’s more about Aunty Lee in the posts about Deadly Specials and Meddling and Murder (which doesn’t seem to be attached to the series on any of the online vendors, even though it is and Aunty Lee book as you can see from the cover).

These are all available on Kindle and Kobo – and yes it really annoys me that the covers don’t match as a set – and I’ve occasionally spotted them in shops, I own one in paperback because of that!

Happy Reading!

Series I love

Series I Love: Well Met

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It was Valentine’s Day this week, so we’ve got a romance pick for this week’s series post. But before we get to the books, can I just say how typical it was that literally hours after I published a post about upcoming releases mentioning that there’s an untitled Julia Quinn coming in May, that the Bridgerton account posts that there is a Julia Quinn and Shonda Rimes Queen Charlotte book coming out in… early May. Oh the timing!

Anyway, in keeping with the low-peril vibe of Nora Goes Off Script, I’m talking about Jen DeLuca’s Renaissance Faire series where there is no peril at all for the heroines, just self discovery and a happily ever after. Anyway at the start of Well Met we meet Emily, who has moved to Willow Creek for the summer to help her sister who has been in a car crash and needs some help looking after her teenage daughter. Emily ends up volunteering at the renaissance fair along with her niece where she meets Simon, grumpy school teacher who Definitely Doesn’t Like Her. And of course romance ensues. The second book is a a Cyrano-type thing which it just about manages to pull off without being catfishing, the third book is Emily’s older sister, now recovered from her broken leg and who finds her self agreeing to a fake relationship with a toy boy and finally we have Well Traveled with Mitch’s cousin Lulu and Dex the playboy musician.

While I’m convinced that their fake ye olde English accents are about as convincing as my American one, these books are basically a big comforting hug in the form of a crazy summer faire tradition and a found community. Oh and the romances are excellent, but I think that goes without saying. We’ve got a while to wait for more from Willow Creek – Jen DeLuca announced a new book deal at the start of this month and although she’s signed for a fifth Ren Faire book, it’s coming after the first in a new series set in a coastal town, which a woman whose new house is haunted. Intriguing.

In terms of buying these, I’m going to warn you that it’s a bit confusing on Amazon – I think they’ve done something behind the scenes that has made things go a bit wonky because it didn’t know I already own Well Met – so I bought it because it’s 99p at the moment and then discovered two copies in my Kindle account – and Well Traveled isn’t linked to the rest of the series. So your easiest thing on Kindle is to just search for Jen DeLuca and cross reference against your device. On Kobo none of them seem to be linked as a series at all, so same thing – search on the author name. You’ve seen that I’ve got Well Traveled in paperback because it was in Books Incoming as I preordered it, but the ggood news is that these seem to be available in bookshops in the UK now I think because they’ve got some TikTok buzz (and adding that to their amazon pages may be the root of the trouble) so if you have a reasonably large store you may be able to find them – perhaps even on the “TikTok made me buy it” table.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Series I love

Series I Love: Meg Langslow

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I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get around to writing a Series I Love post about one of my favourite series, but here we are. I had planned this for December, but when I went back to read the first in the series again in preparation for this post it started the massive binge that you’ve seen evidence off in all the week in books and stats posts ever since and so this has had to wait until I finished that, because it’s only fair.

Meg Langslow is a blacksmith based in Virginia. When we meet her in book one, Murder with Peacocks, she’s living in Yorktown, but she moves to the fictional town of Caerphilly fairly early in the series where there is much more scope for Donna Andrews to create plots and drama! The first book sees Meg and her notebook that tells her when to breathe trying to organise three weddings at the same time, including her brother’s. The murder side of the book is very good, but also so is the world building which seems Andrews introduce the core of the regular characters who appear throughout the series. There is Meg’s bossy mum, her murder mystery obsessed retired doctor father, her creative but scatty brother Rob and Michael, the son of the dressmaker in charge of all the dresses. As we go through the series the regular crew gets bigger as the world expands.

There are now 32 books in the series, with a thirty third coming in summer 2023, and having reread them all basically back to back, what has impressed me is the consistency of Donna Andrews’ world building. Yes there are a few little fudges here and there, but if you weren’t binging the lot at once you wouldn’t notice them. And you don’t get fed up of the characters, or notice that there’s a formula the way you do with some other series that have run this long.

Looking back, I think that one of the smartest moves Andrews made was not marrying Meg and Michael off too quickly and then giving them a house that allowed plenty of options in terms of plot and house guests. Not every book is based in Caerphilly, but even when they are, there are enough different locations (and reasons for Meg being there) that it doesn’t feel like Meg is the problem (I’m looking at you Jessica Fletcher) or that she’s meddling unnecessarily. And because she has several different professional hats, you don’t worry how she’s stayed in business with all these bodies piling up!

Having read them all again, I think my favourites are probably Owls Well that Ends Well, Some Like It Hawk, The Nightingale Before Christmas and maybe Murder Most Fowl. But it’s hard to decide because they’re all good and it turns out they repay rereading. I’ve already written about a few of the others elsewhere as well – Terns of Endearment in the Cruise Ship post, Gone Gull was a BotW, Gift of the Magpie was in a Christmas round-up as was How the Finch Stole Christmas.

If you want to read them, the good news is that the first one is now available in ebook (it wasn’t when I started reading the series) so that is much easier to get hold of than you might expect for a 20 year old cozy crime book, but the next one after that that is on Kindle is the 9th book. Luckily, Murder with Peacocks is that rare thing – a first in series cozy crime that sets up a world very well and has a good mystery. You can find the link to the Kindle books here, the Kobo ones here and they’re also available in Apple books too. Try not to look at how much it would cost you to buy them all!

Happy Reading!

Best of..., book round-ups, series

Series of the Year 2022

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So this is the point where I look back on the series I’ve read this year and pick out some highlights for you.

Let’s start with a new to me discovery – Her Majesty the Queen Investigates. These were fun cozy Murder mysteries with a royal twist. As I said in my series post about them, I think they work best in slightly closed settings – or at least not London – but I liked the characters and the tone a lot. It’s a shame there’s a year until the next one.

Moving on to Richard Osman. This year we got the third Thursday Murder Club book and they continue to be both clever and witty and fun but occasionally heartbreaking. This is the series that spawned the copycats that are popping up all over the place at the moment – I’m reading my way through some of them so you don’t have to!

I really enjoyed the Nanette Hayes mysteries, but I wish there were more of them. I am still looking for more 90s crime series that I missed out on (too young at the time!) and can catch up on now because they do seem to work for me – see some of the Fahrenheit series I’ve enjoyed. And I have another of the Liz Evans books waiting that I picked up from the charity book stall at the shopping centre. If you have any suggestions please do whack them in the comments please.

I’ve also carried on working my way though some of the other series I’ve been reading for years. I’m up basically up to date on the Kate Shackleton series now, as well as Dandy Gilver. It continues to be tricky to find new historical-set mystery series that I don’t wish to throw across the room, but I’m still trying. I hope Carola Dunn is having a happy retirement but I do miss her and the prospect of a new Daisy Dalrymple. But I’ve basically binged the Mary Russell series over the last two years, which has been good, but that age gap still annoys me. Royal Spyness continues and Kerry Greenwood has written a new Phryne that I’m saving for a special occasion. All hail Kerry.

Roll on 2023!

bingeable series, Series I love

Series I Love: London Celebrities

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I’ve been running a theatrical theme for a couple of weeks now so I thought I’d start the bank holiday weekend with a bingeable series of romance with a theatrical theme.

Lucy Parker’s London Celebrities books are a series of enemies to lovers type romances set in London – initially in the world of West End theatre but in the fourth and fifth in the series expanding a little to include asetting at a country house and then two rival TV producers and. They tend to have sunshiney heroines and grumpy heroes who are actually big softies underneath and plenty of charming banter. In fact several of them were Books of the Week when they came out and I’ve mentioned them all at some point before, but now I’m finally taking them as a group.

They’re all set in the same world and there is character cross over but – like many romance series – each story is selfcontained and features a different couple. Act Like It has a fake relationship between two co-stars who can’t stand each other to try and help a bad boy fix his image problem. Pretty Face has an actress who’s been pigeonholed as her man-stealing period drama character taking on a West End role and fighting with the director who doesn’t want to give her the part. Making Up has an understudy who takes over the leading role and a make-up artist who is working on thes show after his professional reputation took an unfair battering. The Austen Playbook has a daughter of an acting dynasty taking a role in a new Jane Austen TV series being filmed at the ancestral home of a descendant of someone her grandmother had an affair with. And Headliners has two rival TV presenters who are forced to work together on morning TV to save the show and save their careers. And don’t they all sound delicious? I mean I started reading the series again just to write this post, and that’s a bit of a disaster in itself to be honest, because I have a long list of things I’m meant to be reading and these aren’t on it.

You should be able to get them on all the usual ebook platforms – there’s even an omnibus edition of the first three if you’re feeling ready to commit. Also Lucy Parker’s newest novel Battle Royal – which was a Book of the Week here almost exactly a year ago – is £1.99 at the moment. No news yet on when the sequel to that one is coming though…

Children's books, children's books, series, Series I love, Uncategorized

Series I Love: Swallows and Amazons

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As it’s been a week of Girls Own content, lest carry it on with another classic children’s series – this time an adventure one for boys and girls.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the series, they follow a group of children going on outdoor adventures during the school holidays. There are three families – the Walkers (the Swallows), the Blacketts (the Amazons) and the Callums (the Ds) – who appear in various configurations across the series, but the opening books (which are my favourites) mostly centre on the Walkers and the Blacketts who start off as rivals but become friends. Sailing is often involved – and many of the books are set in and around the Lake District in the North West of England.

I first encountered the Swallows and the Amazons when my Year 3 teacher read the first book out loud to our class and I carried on reading most (if not all) of the rest of the series by borrowing them from my local library. What’s not to love about a group of children going off to camp on an island and sail around a lake all summer long. There’s “pirates” and actual crime and it’s just wonderful. Let’s be honest, which child didn’t wish they’d had a grown-up free holiday or two, or been allowed to roam around without supervision for days on end – I think it’s one of the reasons why Secret Island was one of my favourites of the Enid Blyton series when I was little.

I should say at this point that I am not by any means an outdoors person. We never went camping when I was a child, so when I was first reading these the idea sounded fun – I think I “camped” on the floor of my bedroom for a few weeks after reading the first book, but I was not a big walker or hiker. I also suffered from travel sickness so being on a boat of any size was always pretty awful, but I loved the books – and still continue to enjoy them whenever I get a chance for a re-read. There’s something about children with a secret code between themselves and who go on what are basically quests that just really appeals. Also you learn a lot about various countryside-y things from the mid 20th century – most of what I know about charcoal smoking and dowsing for water comes from this series – which of course means I’m hopelessly out of date, but I didn’t know that at the time.

There are a couple of books in the series that get a bit weird – and as with a lot of books of similar era, there are some bits that haven’t aged well. I probably should have had a reread before I posted this – but I remember that I found Missee Lee very weird when I read it when I was about 10. And I don’t own all of them – I have some from when I was little and I’m picking the others up as I see nice copies at sensible prices. But I do own the first two on audio book and have listened to their fairly regularly. I treated myself to Pigeon Post (my other childhood fave) the other week and it’s next on my to listen list.

The first book has been turned into a film twice – it’s been a while since I saw the original film, but I remember it as being fairly true to the actual plot. I have seen the most recent one has had a fair few alterations to the plot – and not just the fact that they renamed the unfortunate to modern ears Titty. I’ll leave you to judge for yourself from the trailers!

Anyway, delightful outdoors fun, even if pemmican – real or fake – sounds disgusting!

Happy Friday everyone one!