Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron

Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron is the 14th in the Jane Austen Mystery series and the first I've read. In Jane and the Year Without a Summer, Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra spend two weeks in the spa town of Cheltenham to take the waters as Jane's health is declining. 

Most of the book reads very much like an Austen novel, with a large cast of characters interacting, some maybe with romance in mind, others with suspect motives. 

Is the viscount who insists that the wife who ran away from him return to Cornwall trying to kill her for her fortune? Or is she simply desirous of her independence and the ability to live by her own means? When deaths begin to occur at the boarding house in which Jane and the viscountess are staying, Jane is determined to solve the mystery. 

Highly recommended - While I admit to being a bit overwhelmed by the huge cast of characters, I loved the writing style and found the storyline suitably intriguing without being overly complex. Also, it was clear early on that the author had done her research. I stayed in a building on a site that was mentioned, which has one of London's infamous blue plaques (Hans Place) mentioning Jane Austen's stay. After reading this installment, I really want to go back to the beginning of the series and read them all. Reading Jane and the Year Without a Summer was definitely a learning experience and I want to know more!

My thanks to Soho Crime and Laurel of Austenprose for the review copy!

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The London House by Katherine Reay

In the prologue to The London House by Katherine Reay, it's the 1940s in Occupied France. A woman named Caro has gone to the House of Schiaparelli to give her Jewish friend money and encourage her to escape the country before it's too late. But, then a dangerous traitor shows up and grabs Caro. He's going to turn her over to the French police, the Milice, who are known to be even more brutal than the Germans. 

In present-day Boston, Caroline Payne (great niece of Caro in the prologue) is working when she gets a call from an old college friend, Mat. Now a college instructor working toward tenure, he has developed a side business that he hopes will get him onto tenure track, researching family histories and writing about how history sends ripples through families. He's in Caroline's building and wants to talk to her because her family came up while he was researching a German family whose Nazi ancestor was connected to the disappearance of Great Aunt Caro, whom Caroline is named after and has always been told died at the age of 7 from polio. 

Mat has a different story to tell and the documentation to prove it, a letter by a British dignitary who informed her great-grandparents that Caro ran off with her Nazi lover. Mat has already approached her father to tell him that the story will include her family but it's not meant to be incriminating; it's about how the pain of the past reverberates through the generations and how people move on with their lives after tragedy. Caroline's father has threatened him with a lawsuit. 

Caroline has a great deal of difficulty adjusting to the idea that her great aunt lived to adulthood. But, once she does, she decides to visit the family's ancestral home in London's Belgravia, where there are letters and diaries that can give her clues. She only has a limited amount of time to get the research done before Mat's article is submitted and she's also on a tight schedule to return to her job. 

Did Caroline's great aunt, her grandmother's twin sister, betray the family and her country? Or, is there more to Caro's story? Will Caroline be able to untangle the clues from the past that will lead her toward the truth?

Highly recommended - I loved The London House. The story is a very believable one because some things about WWII simply could not be known till recently and it makes sense that one may have had to know where to find clues — and couldn't necessarily find answers in any official sense. I loved the way Caroline slowly uncovered her great aunt's story, the Nazi lover's (in the process), and in so doing changed the direction of both her friend's article and her family's understanding of their history. Also, there is a touch of romance and it unfolded slowly and believably. 

My only problem with this book is an issue a lot of Americans probably won't have. The writing and dialogue by British characters doesn't contain any particular use of Britishisms and lacks a British cadence. So, everyone sounded American to me. I think that's an extremely minor issue because the story swept me up so thoroughly that I didn't really give the dialogue much thought. However, it did eventually jump out at me. I still highly recommend The London House, even if you've been to the UK a bazillion times. It's a good story and I found it nearly impossible to put down. 

My thanks to Harper Muse, Katherine Reay, and Laurel Ann of Austenprose for the review copy!

Interesting side note:

Goodreads has some additional description that I found interesting (I opted not to read the publisher's description but saw this when I went to rate the book):

A stand-alone split-time novel
Partially epistolary: the historical storyline is told through letters and journals

"Stand-alone split-time" is a new descriptor for me. I usually call the split-time books a "contemporary historical mix". Also, the fact that much of the book is told through letters and diary entries is crucial, so I'm glad I glimpsed that for the reminder. Now you know. If you're an epistolary fan, you'll undoubtedly enjoy the way this story is told. 

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Golden State by Ben H. Winters

I had to blow this one up extra large so you can enjoy the fake leaves. As you can see, we're still green as Ireland, but we had the good fortune of experiencing an unseasonal cold front, yesterday (still cool, today, and maybe for another day or two, yay)! Happy Autumn!! The words feel real, for once. :)

Golden State by Ben H. Winters takes place in a near-future world in which the former California is now a country and lying is illegal. The main character, Laszlo Ratesic, works for the Speculative Service in the Golden State. Here's an excerpt from the cover flap of Golden State:

. . . the Golden State [is] a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth — speaking a lie — is the greatest crime. Stopping those crimes is Laz's job. 
    Why, then, has he been ordered to the front lawn of a Los Angeles mansion, where the body of a roofer has fallen, irrefutably dead? 

At the same time Laszlo is given this unexpected job that feels like it doesn't fit the normal parameters of his work, he's assigned a rookie to train. But, the rookie appears to be much more talented at sensing lies than he is. Is there something more to this accident than meets the eye?

Of course there is. But, obviously I'm not going to say any more because I don't want to ruin it for you. 

Highly recommended - Wildly creative and clever writing about a society where lying is the greatest crime but the truth that is known is built upon lies. The only thing I didn't like about this book was the ending. But, then I sat with it for a while and decided it was actually perfect in that it fit the storyline and was just . . . right. It simply wasn't how I'd imagined it would end and I had to adjust my expectations to fit. 

Notably: this book appears to be a response to years of an American administration in which lying became the norm and the division between the parties so deep that one had to choose to either believe the lies and continue to feed them or choose to refute them — and there was no in-between. So, I guess it's also a satire in that it pokes fun at the ridiculousness of the current political state in the US and possibly serves as a warning that lies can only last as a foundation for so long before everything comes crashing down. That's my interpretation, anyway. 

I've also read the "Last Policeman" series by Ben H. Winters. Golden State made me want to read everything he's ever written and go for a reread of The Last Policeman. Here's a link to my review of the final book in the Last Policeman series which also contains links to the first two, for anyone who may be interested:

World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier

Confession: I bought A Castle in the Clouds by Kerstin Gier mainly because I liked the cover, particularly the fact that there's a cat on the cover. I almost removed it from my shopping cart but the cat threw me over the edge (and the story sounded fun, anyway).

A Castle in the Clouds is about a German teenage high school dropout named Sophie Spark who works at an aging, upscale hotel in the Swiss Alps as an intern. Not much happens in the first third to half of the book, other than the introduction of a very large cast as the reader gets to know Sophie, beginning with her interaction with an obnoxiously witty 9-year-old regular patron. You see her everyday life and learn about the mysterious "forbidden" cat who manages not to be seen by the bad-tempered one of the two co-owners.

There's a love triangle but it's a little odd. One of the teenage boys is the son of one of the hotel owners (it's a family-run hotel), the other has a grandfather in the jewelry business and a knack for climbing the outer hotel walls and sneaking through windows. Is he a thief? One of the families visiting and planning to attend the annual New Year's Ball is headed by a Russian oligarch who is going incognito. Is the oligarch up to no good?

You know something interesting is going to eventually happen because there's a prologue in which Sophie is covered in blood. But, the book is generally understated, a little everyday, and very fluffy. It's more about Sophie wondering what could be happening and getting it wrong, her odd little quirks like naming the birds that perch on her window ledge, and the two handsome young men circling her. The mystery is weak. I liked it that way, myself.

Highly recommended - I've never read Kerstin Gier and at the time I picked it up, I'd just read something a little too heavy that was getting me down. So, a fluffy read was exactly what I needed. I found A Castle in the Clouds light, a little adventurous, and humorous with a likable heroine. And, I loved the forbidden cat. The mystery is admittedly not that great and that's fine with me, since I'm no longer a big mystery fan. I was hoping for a light read and that's what I got. So, don't go into the reading of A Castle in the Clouds expecting a complex mystery. While it kept me guessing, A Castle in the Clouds is not the kind of book that mystery lovers tend to appreciate. I thought of it more as a love triangle YA with a little excitement on the side. Because A Castle in the Clouds was the perfect book for me at that moment, I gave it 5 stars.

Translated from the German.



©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street by Karen White

Melanie Trenholm has always seen ghosts and she lives in a house with spirits, at least one of whom comes only when needed. Now, in The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street, the most recent release in a series full of mystery and paranormal elements, Melanie has recently discovered a dark presence in her stepdaughter Nola's room, seen a man in old-fashioned clothing where an archeological dig is going on around her cistern, and smells the scent of roses always left by the ghost of a woman she helped to release in the first Tradd Street book.

Marc Longo is back to annoying her, as well, and now he's searching for a new treasure (this time, a French treasure brought to the continent by the Marquis de Lafayette), trying to foist his way into the Tradd Street house with a film crew, and determined to one day own the place. His brother Anthony now owns the other estate associated with the Tradd Street home, both of which had the same owner in the past. Anthony was conned into taking on the estate when his brother discovered the original treasure he sought was not there. Now, Marc is convinced that there's a connection between the mausoleum at the estate Anthony now owns and the bricks in the cistern at Tradd Street. But a presence in the mausoleum is keeping them from investigating.

When Melanie and others in her circle check out the mausoleum and some documents Marc stole, they find pieces of a puzzle. Meanwhile, Melanie and her sister, Jayne see several new spirits from the Revolutionary War era at Anthony Longo's home and Anthony is having frequent accidents. What do bricks, peacocks, and the warnings of ghosts mean? Can Melanie unravel the mystery in time to have a relaxing Christmas with her family?

First, a little background on my own reading of the series. I've only read the first book, The House on Tradd Street, prior to this one. When The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street was offered to me, I thought it was the perfect excuse to read The House on Tradd Street, which had been sitting on a pile in my library for years. Had I not recently read that first book, I would have been completely lost. Christmas Spirits stands alone well enough if you're familiar with at least the main characters but I would not go into the series in the middle. At the very least, you need an introduction. Fortunately, while a lot has happened and many new characters have been introduced, I had no trouble at all catching up on the general events of the books I've missed.

Recommended but not a favorite - If you have read and enjoyed past Tradd Street books, you'll probably love this one, as well. It is much like the other book I read, although obviously I can't speak for the rest. I remember there was a lot going on The House on Tradd Street and the same is true of The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street. There are a ton of different elements to the story. Christmas, by the way, is more of a backdrop than a feature. While Melanie and Jack are facing some immense challenges caused by Marc's intervention in their lives, as well as working to unravel the mystery and stay a step ahead of Marc as he chases down the same paths, Melanie is also involved in preparations for a "progressive dinner" for the Christmas season (I had to look that up -- it's a meal where each course is served at a different house). There are other preparations, like buying presents and gathering for a family photo, but they're really secondary and you could be forgiven for occasionally forgetting Melanie and Jack even have small children.

There are almost too many characters in the story -- many of whom were introduced in various novels as the series has progressed. I had a little difficulty getting them all straight in my head and I'm not sure all of them were necessary to the plot. In the end, though, it was ultimately satisfying how the mystery was wrapped up and the problems I had with the book were the same ones I had with The House on Tradd Street: there's a bit too much going on, the writing is wordy (tight writing with few wasted words is my personal preference), and I find Melanie annoying. Those are really a matter of individual taste, not commentary on the storyline, though. I liked the story's complexity so I still recommend it to those who have an affinity for paranormal stories.

My thanks to Berkley Books for the review copy!

Fiona Friday will be on the wrong day, once again, this week. Tune in tomorrow for your weekly cat fix!


©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen

There are WWII-era planes flying over the British estate on the cover of In Farleigh Field, so it should come as no surprise that I wanted to read the book. I am hard-pressed to ever say no to a WWII book of any kind.

In Farleigh Field is a story that takes place partly in Kent, home to the Sutton family's large estate, Farleigh; Bletchley Park, where one of the Sutton daughters translates German messages; and London, where the son of the local vicar and friend to the Sutton daughters, Ben Cresswell, works for MI5.

There's a prologue that takes place in 1939 at a cricket match on the grounds of the village. While prologues are something I can take or leave, I think the author did a nice job of introducing the characters in the prologue: Jeremy, the daredevil aristocrat, his more mild-mannered friend Ben, and the woman they both adore, Pamela "Pamma" Sutton. After Jeremy lands his plane on the cricket field and spirits Ben away, the real story begins.

In 1941, Jeremy is an RAF pilot who has been captured by the enemy. Ben has a metal knee that he acquired in a plane crash, and Pamma is working a night shift at Bletchley Park. There's a child named Alfie, an evacuee from London, who discovers the body of a man whose parachute didn't open on the grounds of Farleigh. The Sutton family now lives in a single wing of their estate while soldiers have taken over the rest and are billeted in their home. The dead parachutist wears the uniform of one of the soldiers on the estate but the billeted soldiers don't jump from planes and there's something off about his uniform. The only clue as to why he may have arrived at Farleigh is a single photograph.

Without interacting, a number of different people and agencies are set to work solving the mystery of the soldier who died in Farleigh Field. Will they figure out the mystery in time to stop a nefarious plot?

There is a large cast and a number of other minor storylines, but the heart of the book is the story of the deceased parachutist and what he may have been up to with young love as a secondary storyline.

Recommended - Unfortunately, there were some plot holes and I don't think the ending quite worked, apart from the romantic storyline. But, I liked the main characters (a few of the more minor characters were a little too stereotypical) and enjoyed the interaction between them, so I didn't mind the book's flaws. As is often the case with mysteries -- and I would not call this a mystery novel but a novel with a touch of mystery -- I didn't always understand how those investigating came to their conclusions or even why they felt obligated to pursue a particular line of reasoning. But, since I thought of the dead body as only one strand of the story, which was a mix of mystery and romance as well as a family story set during a short stretch of WWII, I just went with the flow and enjoyed it. If you're a WWII fan, you may find the book flawed, as I did, but I still found it an enjoyable read and well worth my time.


©2017 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A Most Extraordinary Pursuit by Juliana Gray

I suppose scorn makes one feel more clever, in the same way that indignation makes one feel more moral. 

~p. 197

Emmeline Truelove was the personal secretary to the Duke of Olympia, till his recent death. Now, a young man by the name of Maximillian Haywood has inherited the duchy. But, he has gone missing. At the behest of the newly widowed duchess, and with the charming and dashing Lord Silverton accompanying her, Miss Truelove must head for the Mediterranean to unravel the mystery of the future duke's disappearance.

A Most Extraordinary Pursuit contains a wild, almost bizarre blend of adventure, mystery, characters who may or may not be entirely what they seem, potential for romance, ghosts, time travel, magic, and some very informative history paired with mythology.

The vast majority of the book follows Truelove and Silverton as they pursue clues to Haywood's whereabouts. Somewhere along the way, they pick up another man, a gentleman and scholar by the name of Mr. Higganbotham. Silverton is a gorgeous spy and a cad, Higganbotham an, at times, slightly daffy intellectual. After finding a fresco that appears to be fake in the palace of Knossos, which is being dug up and preserved, and repeatedly facing danger, the myth of Ariadne takes on a deeper meaning. But, what does the myth have to do with the missing duke? And, will either of the men pursue an understanding with Truelove or are they toying with her?

Recommended with postscript - I was absolutely immersed in A Most Extraordinary Pursuit, all week. It's only about 430 pages long (technically, that meets my old definition of "chunkster" from the days when I came up with the Chunkster Challenge, but it's not far over the line) but there's so much happening that it took me a long time to get through the book. I love the fact that A Most Extraordinary Pursuit has interesting characters but is plot-heavy. I love the Edwardian time period and the language. I really love-hated Lord Silverton. I pictured him with the face and hair of Luke Norris (Dr. Enys in Poldark) but with a wicked twinkle in his eye, Edwardian clothing, and a bit of a swagger.

There were portions, however, that didn't work for me. There are two ghosts: the ghost of Queen Victoria and Truelove's father. Both visit Miss Truelove but it's Queen Victoria who tries to guide Emmeline and the ghost of her father contributes little. There are two men who may have romantic interest in Truelove, but one is known for enticing and abandoning women. The other is a either an enigma or exactly what he seems. Higganbotham almost completely fades away within the last 100 pages; he's there, but he's no longer key. Are we to distrust Higganbotham or simply dismiss him? Has his interest waned for good or will he appear in the next book? Because, herein lies another issue. A Most Extraordinary Pursuit is not a stand-alone. Although it's mostly wrapped up, at least one bright red thread is left dangling; clearly the story will continue.

Also, toward the end of the book, the mythology became extremely confusing. I thought the author did a fairly good job of interspersing bits of the tale of Ariadne and Theseus between chapters and explaining the characters (I'm not knowledgeable about mythology) till that last 50 pages or so. Then, it became suddenly overwhelming, to the point that I began to skim over the mythological portion. I didn't mind the craziness -- there is even a paranormal aspect, a magical touch -- but the author nicely warned her readers that she'd asked permission to take the book to extremes and it was granted. Well, she certainly did that. The book is wildly adventurous but it's also rather strange.

In the end, I gave the book 4 stars and I would, in fact, like to see where Juliana Gray (more commonly known as Beatriz Williams) takes Miss Truelove in future installments, but I also felt a slight bit let down and perplexed after the last 30-50 pages. And clearly I need to bone up on mythology.

There was also one particular feature of the book that I believe could have been minimized, if not left out entirely, and that was Truelove's repetitive seasickness. It was neither important to the plot, nor necessary for character development at any time, in my humble opinion, although perhaps it was meant to show us that Silverton could display compassion and kindness. I would have preferred that the author minimize those scenes; they were not fun to read at all.


©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear

We have Internet! So happy. Fingers and toes crossed that it will last.

First things first: Journey to Munich is #12 in the Maisie Dobbs series and I have not read any other Maisie Dobbs books. Sometimes it works to dive into a series in the middle or toward the end of a mystery series (I've done it many times) and sometimes it doesn't. Journey to Munich was a mixed experience in that way. If you're familiar with the series, you know about the heroine's past and the characters who have been prominent but died. I did not, of course. Maisie spends a lot of time reflecting on her past, which muddled things for me, but not enough to stop me from reading on. More on that in a minute.

In Journey to Munich, Maisie is asked to pose as the daughter of an industrialist who has been imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp. It's 1938, Hitler is on the brink of invading two nearby countries, and Leon Donat's real daughter is not well. Donat has important knowledge that the British government wants to get their hands on, so they've begun negotiating his release (for a price);  Maisie must present the necessary documents and bring Leon Donat home.

Meanwhile, a very important man finds out about Maisie's plans to go undercover and requests her help locating his daughter, the woman Maisie blames for a tragedy in her own life (it's a spoiler if you missed #11). Maisie refreshes her German, memorizes information about Leon and his family, practices shooting a gun, and then dons a wig and takes off for Munich. I confess, I was a bit surprised how long it took for Maisie to even arrive in Munich.

In Germany, Maisie is faced with a number of challenges. The woman she's searching for is not quite what she seems, there's an American tailing her wherever she goes, Donat's story is more complex than she realized, and one particular Nazi seems to suspect her motives.

There's good and bad to Journey to Munich from the perspective of this new Maisie reader. She does put on her detective hat, so to speak, now and then. But, Journey to Munich is more a spy novel than a mystery novel. In that regard, it is probably more my type of book than a typical Maisie book. In fact, I tried the series, early on, and couldn't get into it. But, at the time I was reading almost no mysteries and I doubt it was the author's fault. I think it was more a function of my past mystery burnout holding me back. I requested an ARC of Journey to Munich because I've been gradually reading more  from the Mystery/Thriller category, in recent months, and I thought it would be a good time to give the series a second go.

My biggest problem with the book involved what I considered some minor touches of implausibility. Maisie is easily followed everywhere by an American but while the Nazis seem suspicious of her and she places herself in danger numerous times, they're never quite as threatening as anticipated. However, I did think the author did an excellent job of providing a sense of place and ramping up tension. The only other problem I had with the book was the one mentioned above. The Maisie Dobbs series is definitely best read in order. Regular Maisie readers will understand her references to The Dower House and Maurice and why she doesn't want to deal with certain people or wants them back in her life. Again, I did not.

I had no problem with the main storyline at all but did find frequent references to the past frustrating. And, yet, I liked the book enough to think, "Hmm, maybe I should start this series from the beginning." If I do, I believe I'll stop at #10. I peeked at a few reviews by Maisie lovers to get their impression and it sounds like that's where they would have liked the series to end. And, yet, I should add that Journey to Munich ends on a very hopeful note, implying that better things are to come, including the return of characters and format from the past.

Recommended - While the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series doesn't stand all that well alone, it's still perfectly readable if you have not dipped into the series in the past. I asked a friend who has read all the Maisie books what he thought and he said he didn't even notice any implausibility. He just enjoyed the book. So, my discomfort about Nazi suspicion might be the eyes of a frequent WWII novel reader at work (although the story takes place on the cusp of war, before Great Britain has declared war on Germany) and I may be a touch more picky, not being familiar with the series. I enjoyed Journey to Munich, in spite of the problems I encountered by diving into a series whose characters and past are unfamiliar, and I definitely recommend it.


©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin

Quick! Someone interview me! 

Smelly Candle: I volunteer.

Bookfool: Thanks. I didn't know where to start.

SC: That's what I'm here for. That and wafting pleasant odors throughout your library. What is What Remains of Me about?

BF:  It's the story of convicted murderer Kelly Michelle Lund. Five years after her release from prison, where she spent 25 years serving time for the murder of a movie director, John McFadden, her father-in-law is killed and the evidence leads to Kelly. But, did Kelly shoot her father-in-law? Was she even guilty of John McFadden's death?

SC: So, why were you having trouble starting to write about What Remains of Me?

BF: It's got a lot of twists and turns. Kelly's story is told via two timelines as the book jumps back and forth between 1980, the year she killed McFadden (or, did she?) and 2010, when Sterling Marshall is found dead. There's enough complexity to the story to make it hard to describe.

SC: What happened in 1980 to lead to the murder?

BF: There's too much to go into in a review and I don't want to spoil anything but in 1980 Kelly is a vulnerable high school girl whose fraternal twin sister tragically died, two years before. Kelly still mourns her. Their mother is bitter and over-protective. Her father, a stuntman, was badly burned in a movie and he's still working but heavily addicted to painkillers. As the book opens, Kelly meets actor Sterling Marshall's daughter, Bellamy, and they become friends. Unfortunately, Bellamy is a rebel who gets Kelly into trouble as they experiment with drugs. Bellamy introduces Kelly to Vee (short for Vincent), son of John McFadden, and through these friendships Kelly begins to unravel what happened to her sister, Catherine, before her death.

SC: And, what happens in 2010?

BF: In 2010, Kelly is married to Bellamy's little brother, Shane, and living in the desert about two hours' drive from Hollywood. On the night of the murder, she goes for a long drive and returns home covered in blood. It seems fairly straightforward; there's plenty of evidence placing her at the scene. But, why would Kelly murder her father-in-law when she has spent five years living quietly, well away from the Hollywood scene? After all these years, will Kelly find out there's more to her sister's story than she imagined?

SC:  Sounds interesting. What did you think of the writing and characterization?

BF:  The writing is good but nothing that stands out. I would call it typical for the type of book -- written in a way that places you in the scene without noticing the writing. There's a certain skill in the ability of a writer to not stand out. The characters felt very real and three-dimensional to me. They each have their own secrets and problems, things that shape them but which they don't necessarily share with anyone. I liked the unreliability of just about everyone. There is a lot of implication, a lot of unknown that the author gradually shades in.

SC: What did you like the least about What Remains of Me?

BF: There were moments that I was pulled out of a scene because of an inaccuracy or something I thought was questionable. For example, in one scene that takes place in 1980, Bellamy (who is driving) "rolled the windows down" in a Volkswagen Rabbit. As I recall, windows were not electronic in 1980 (we actually owned a Volkswagen in 1980). So, unless Bellamy leaned over Kelly to crank the passenger-side window down, that moment could not have happened as described. However, I should add that I read an ARC that I got from the library and the book is a February 2016 release -- I have not seen the final print version. Some of the errors I found may have been edited out.

SC:  What did you like the most about What Remains of Me?

BF:  It kept me guessing all the way to the end. I love that. There were many times that the answers to the many questions posed in What Remains of Me seemed transparent. They were not.

SC: Recommended or not?

BF: Definitely recommended. What Remains of Me should satisfy psychological thriller readers and those who enjoy mysteries. The reader can't fully understand what Kelly is thinking because she keeps certain bits of her past locked in metaphorical drawers, which makes untangling her thoughts and motivations interesting. And the murder is not necessarily what it seems, so there's definitely a mystery aspect. Harlan Coben's cover blurb says, "Label me a big fan," and, hmm, yes, I do believe fans of Coben would like Gaylin's writing.

SC: Thank you for allowing me to interview you. I don't know if you've noticed this, but I'm a candle and you've never lit me. Not once. I have a purpose, you know, a purpose that has been unfulfilled.

BF: Yes, sorry. You smell perfectly lovely without being lit, though, you see. Thanks for jumping in to interview me when I was desperate.

SC: ----Goes back to corner of desk to sulk----

What Remains of Me by Alison Gaylin is a February, 2016 release from William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. It is 374 pages long if you include the author acknowledgments (I always read them . . . do you?) and my copy came from a cart of ARCs being given away in my former library.


©2016 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon

The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon
Copyright 2013
Sourcebooks Landmark - Fiction
340 pp., incl. Reading Group Guide

First sentence Paragraph:

Her father. Shouting her name.  "Olivia!" His footsteps falling loud and heavy on the wood of the floor.

Summarize the plot without giving away the ending:

Livvi is having an affair with the first man who has ever made her feel truly special.  In her twenties but a deeply wounded by childhood abuse and naive due to her homebound education, she finds it difficult to break away when she discovers her lover's secrets and develops an attachment to someone who reminds her of herself as a child.

AnnaLee's husband is both a doctor and a lawyer but he can't seem to find his place in the working world and limits his hours. Frustrated by her husband's inability to provide for the family, AnnaLee is slowly selling off valuables from the home she inherited. Then, summer arrives and brings with it a refugee from distant and wealthy parents. As AnnaLee tries to break through to the girl who calls herself Persephone, will Persephone's desperate attempts at friendship end in disaster?

Micah has cancer.  To determine whether or not it's even possible to atone for the sins of her past, she goes on a journey, seeking out the individuals she's hurt and hoping they can help her decide whether to live or die.

Capsule Description:

The Book of Someday is the story of three women with interconnecting lives.  The key to their interconnection is a painting/photograph/nightmare of the same thing -- a woman in a silver dress and pearl-button shoes.  One of the stories is told from the 1980s, the other two in 2012.  

What did you like best about The Book of Someday?

Could. Not. Put. Down.

It takes a very long time to get to the point that the connection is explained and I figured it out before the author got to the point of the big reveal, even as she was still hiding little bits of the tragedy that connected their lives.  I didn't mind that I figured out the mystery portion because I was enjoying the book so much.  I loved the fact that I found the book so gripping I actually fell asleep reading (the book falling, fwop, onto my chest woke me up) and turned the light out with deep regret then awoke at 5AM dying to keep reading.  I adore that kind of read.

What did you dislike about The Book of Someday?

There were only 2 things that kept The Book of Someday from being a 5-star read.  One was the constant use of sentence fragments.  I understand using them for impact but they were used All. The. Time. For no good reason.  Sometimes I had to visualize lower-case and correct punctuation to figure out the meaning of a paragraph that genuinely should have been written as a single sentence.

The other problem was the ambiguous ending. I couldn't discern whether the author was telling me Livvi was planning to end up with one guy or the other and I wanted that clearly spelled out.  I don't mind an open ending but this one was just confusing to me.  I reread it several times and then dashed off to read other reviews.  Most readers were not bothered by the ending.  I just found it perplexing and decided to create my own ending, mentally. Still, very solid storytelling with just enough held back to keep the suspense going.

Other notes:  

There is a lot of lightly graphic sex in the book (Livvi and her lover), which probably accounts for the comments other reviewers have made about the book reading "like a Harlequin".  I didn't get that "Harlequin" sensation at all, in spite of all of those scenes. I was too busy being swept away by the storyline and trying to puzzle out the interconnection to be bothered, although I'm not a fan of graphic sex scenes.

Highly recommended - One of the most unputdownable books I've read in a while.  Although I gave it a 4/5 rating at Goodreads, The Book of Someday really deserves a 4.5/5 for the mere fact that I couldn't put it down till it literally fell out of my hands . . . and then I was so anxious to start reading that I woke up early and didn't put the book down till I finished.  In spite of the fact that there's some graphic sex and that's something I don't enjoy, I thought the sexual relationship was crucial to explaining Livvi as a character so it just fell into the background for me.

I received an ARC of The Book of Someday from Sourcebooks in return for an unbiased review.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Widows of Braxton County by Jess McConkey

The Widows of Braxton County by Jess McConkey

Copyright 2013

William Morrow (an imprint of HarperCollins) - Contemporary-historical fiction with a touch of mystery

358 pp.

First Sentence: 

Hannah Krause drew the back of her hand over her eyes and, careful of the squeaking bedsprings, slowly rolled onto her side.

Description:

In 1890, Jacob Krause is murdered in his bed.  His eldest son, Joseph, cheats Jacob's second wife, Hannah, and her son Willie out of their portion of the farm after Hannah is blamed for Jacob's death. But, Hannah is innocent and 130 years later the mystery remains unsolved.

In 2012, Kate marries Joseph's descendant, Joe, and moves to the same farm where the family has been living under a curse for over 130 years.  There, she finds that Joe is not the gentle man who wooed her but a violent man who is barely hanging onto the family farm.  And, there's another surprise waiting.  Joe's mother, Trudy, a bitter woman who belittles Kate and treats her like a household slave.

Kate tries to be what her husband and mother-in-law want her to be, eventually realizing she must place her own needs first.  But, even as she's trying to work things out with Joe and get back on an even keel, history suddenly repeats itself.  As Kate tries to dig into the past to find out what exactly happened to Hannah and her son Willie and prove herself innocent of murder, she finds that to ask about Hannah is to enter forbidden territory.

My thoughts:

Yet another story with a historical woman's tale told in parallel with a contemporary tale, The Widows of Braxton County is about murder, greed and how violence is passed down through generations. I gave The Widows of Braxton County a high rating because I was in the midst of a slump and the story sucked me in, right away.  I loved the hint of mystery (just enough to keep the plot moving but not enough to toss it into the mystery genre) and the way Kate summoned the strength to do what she needed to do after trying her best to please people who were far too headstrong to respond positively.  The Widows of Braxton County is as much about the differences between life for women 130 years ago vs. today as it is a mystery with a touch of the paranormal.

Recommended - While not brilliant and extremely quotable, I thought Jess McConkey's writing was solid, the plot gripping and the two female characters upon whom the book is focused great characters.  I rooted for both of them, hoping they would go on to have happy lives.  Occasionally, I found that I had trouble remembering which side of the family (Joseph's or Willie's) the characters referred to in dialogue, so a family tree diagram would have been helpful but a little confusion was never enough to slow the reading down significantly.

I received a copy of The Widows of Braxton County by mistake from HarperCollins and chose to review it.  What a terrific mistake that turned out to be!  I really enjoyed the story and am grateful that it was around when nothing else was appealing to me.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.