Tag: series redux

Authors I love, Series I love

Belated Happy Birthday Soulless!

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One of the things that happened last month that I missed was the fifteenth birthday of Gail Carriger’s first book, Soulless. I wasn’t quite in on this from the start – I started reading her about five years in, but I have consistently revisited Soulless since – and read all of the connected books at least once. I own many of them in more than one format – Soulless I have in paperback, ebook and audiobook (which I’m actually listening to at the moment) because that is the sort of person I am. Anyway, the point of this is to point you back at my series post for the Parasolverse, although I’ve also got review posts for a bunch of the later books which I read after I started this blog. So if you fancy some vampires, werewolves and more in Steampunk Victorian London this week, these could be just the thing for you!

books, Series I love

Series redux: Campion

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BBC Four showed one of the Peter Davidson Campion adaptations the other week, so I thought this Friday was a good time to remind you about Margery Allingham’s Golden Age series. I’ve re listened to a lot of them on audiobook as well as having read all bar one I think of the original nineteen novels featuring her response to Lord Peter Wimsey. They are dated in patches – some novels much more than others – but so are some of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L Sayers. If you’re interested in the Queens of Crime and you haven’t read any of these, you should. And you can read my much longer thoughts here.

books, series

Series Redux: Willow Creek

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As Jen DeLuca had her new book out yesterday, I’m taking the opportunity to point you at my point about her Renaissance Faire series – variously known as the Well Met, Renn Faire and Willow Creek series, following a group of linked romances all set at or adjacent to a renaissance faire in the town of Willow Creek. I think they’re great fun, and make a great summer read. Here’s my original series post here, and my BotW review of Well Met and preview for Well Travelled as well.

Have a great weekend everyone.

books

Series I Love redux: Aunty Lee

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The second in Ovidia Yu’s Aunty Lee series, Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials, is 99p on Kindle at the moment – I don’t know how long this deal is going to last, but this was a Book of the Week when I read it and so this seemed like a good time to remind you of Ovidia Yu’s excellent Singapore-set cozy mystery series. Aunty Lee is an older lady detective – something that I’ve always loved in murder mysteries – but this time she’s also well connected and relatively wealthy widow and restaurant owner. The food always sounds amazing in this, and the mysteries are fun. If you liked the society vibe in Crazy Rich Asians, this will give you something similar (slightly less affluent but still similar) in the cozy crime world. Do go and read my original series post as well and don’t forget Yu’s other Singapore-set mystery series – the historical Crown Colony series.

Have a great weekend!

books

Series Redux: Cupcake Bakery

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Amidst all the romance releases last week, the sixteenth (!!!) in Jenn McKinlay’s Cupcake Bakery series also emerged into the world. I’m still a few books behind – I still haven’t spotted number 14 in the bookstores that stock cozy crime, Amazon wants more than £11 for it in paperback (which is mad) and it’s not on kindle in the UK so I’ll have to wait. But this is my favourite of McKinlay’s series and the one where I think there’s the most potential for different locations for the characters to find bodies – particularly now they’re franchising the bakery. Although given how many bodies they find, would you want to franchise with them?! Anyway, go read my original series post about them and I’ll go off and chunter in a corner about the cost of US cozy crime mass market paperbacks in the UK!

books, series

Series Redux: Kate Shackleton

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As I mentioned yesterday, the second in what looks to be Frances Brody’s new series is out this week, so this Friday, I want to remind you about her other series – about Kate Shackleton, daughter of a senior police officer who finds herself solving crimes and becoming a private detective in 1920s Yorkshire. The series is not the fastest to get going, but i did also read them out of order which never helps! I really like them – there have been a few set in places that I know quite well, which is always fun.

Have a great weekend everyone!

books

Series Redux: Chance of a Lifetime

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In a touch of serendipity given this week’s BotW pick, I saw two Kate Clayborn books in the wild in the works last week, so as they’re now even easier to get hold of, I wanted to remind you all of Clayborn’s Chance of a Lifetime series – which are more straight romance or at least feature less complicated lives than The Other Side of Disappearing is. So head on over to my post from last year to find out more.

books

Series Redux: O’Neil Brothers

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I’m reading this year’s Sarah Morgan Christmas book at the moment, so I’m using it to take the opportunity to remind you about her O’Neil Brothers/Snow Crystal books – which are pretty Christmassy all in – and a pretty decent price at the moment. In a slightly bonkers twist, the Kindle omnibus is more expensive than buying them individually, but if you just want the Christmas ones, you can do both of those for about £6.50 all in.

Happy Friday everyone

books

Series I love redux: Parasolverse

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Shelf of Gail Carriger books

It was Halloween this week, so it seems an appropriate time to remind you all of one of my favourite universes – and one of the not many I read that feature the supernatural. I’ve mentioned my slightly iffy relationship with books with vampires, werewolves and the like before, and my total inability to work out in advance what sort of supernatural series I’m going to like, and which I’m not. But Gail Carriger’s Parasolverse is definitely in the like category. There’s loads and loads of detail in my original Series I Love post – from back in 2020 – but they’re steampunk Victoriana in three different series and three different generations. The Parasol Protectorate series were written first but chronologically come in the middle, and feature the adventures of Alexia Tarabotti, then The Finishing School series of Young Adult novels are about Sophronia Temminnick and are connected to Alexia’s story in a way I can’t reveal without giving major spoilers and then the final series written and chronologically are the Custard Protocol, which feature Prudence (also linked to Alexia’s story) and her band of friends and their airship. I would read them in the order they were written for maximum enjoyment, but you can really suit yourself. Generally they’re a lovely witty way to spend some time with a large dollop of adventure, peril and some romance too. Just lovely.

Have a great weekend everyone.

books

Series Redux: Her Majesty the Queen Investigates

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So, we’ve just passed the first anniversary of the death of Elizabeth II, and this week the third novel in S J Bennett’s Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series is finally published in the USA – so I’m taking the opportunity to remind you of my post about the series from November last year, which was when Murder Most Royal came out in the UK. When I wrote this series post, this was due to come out in the US in early 2024 – so there’s clearly been a delay on that, I’m not sure why – it could have been a knock on of the supply chain issues that pushed things like Sherry Thomas’s seventh Lady Sherlock book back from fall 2022 to early 2023, or maybe it was bumped back to avoid the Coronation? Anyway, if you’re in the UK, the paperback of this came out earlier in summer. The fourth book is due out here in February 2024 and is called A Death in Diamonds. It’s available to pre-order now, and judging by the blurb centres around a mystery set in 1957 – which if it is entirely set in 1957 will be a new departure for the series and might answer the question about what might happen with this series now the Queen is dead. I’m looking forward to reading it.