The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths

January 27, 2023 By Leave a Comment


The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Ruth Galloway uncovers the bones of what might be a notorious Victorian child murderess and a baby snatcher known as “The Childminder” threatens modern-day Norfolk in this irresistible mystery from Elly Griffiths.

The service of the Outcast Dead is held annually in Norwich, commemorating the bodies in the paupers’ graves. This year’s proceedings hold special interest for forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway, who has just unearthed the notorious Mother Hook, hanged in 1867 at Norwich Castle for killing multiple children. Now Ruth is reluctantly starring in a TV special, working alongside the alluring historian Dr. Frank Barker. Nearby, DCI Harry Nelson is investigating the case of three children found dead in their home when another child is abducted. A kidnapper dubbed the Childminder claims responsibility, but is the Childminder behind the deaths too? The team races to find out—and after a child close to everyone involved disappears, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

During a dig, forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway unearths a Victorian body which she strongly suspects is that of Jemima Green, a woman hung for the murder of five children. DCI Harry Neilson is investigating the recent death of a woman who lost her infant son – the third of her children who has died. During the investigation Ruth is drawn in and once again back to Harry.

I really enjoy the way this author and series merges together the history and archaeology of the British setting but meshes it so skillfully with the modern time and present day. While the two main plotlines are very well kept and fully explored during this book, I can’t help but feel the characters’ lives and interactions will be much better appreciated and have a stronger emotional link if the reader has followed along with at least a few of the previous book. While I do think a reader can pick up this story alone and thoroughly enjoy it a number of the links and threads binding the various characters will have a much deeper connection with some of that history known to the reader.

I was pleased that while the two cases – the historical story of Mother Hook/Jemima Green and the modern case – had a number of similarities and clearly played off each other, the two cases didn’t “just happen” to link up or connect. Sometimes I feel an author might try too hard to have everything dovetail in even if it’s not particularly realistic – I was really pleased that this time while there were obvious similarities they weren’t forced or merged, they were just showing how even though times change – people and circumstances don’t necessarily change much at all. I really enjoyed this.

I was very pleased with the progress and growth of a few characters and while I can see there might be some adjustment and settling needed in the future, I was very pleased with how the longer-term arc of the story between the characters is moving in this book. I feel many readers will be pleased with the movements made here.

A delightful book that blends history, archaeology and modern times very well and with what I feel is exceptional skill, this is a great mystery book.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

River Hag by Pelaam

January 26, 2023 By Leave a Comment


River Hag by Pelaam
Book five in The Devil’s in the Details series
Publisher: Pride Publishing, Totally Entwined
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Erotic Romance, Paranormal, LGBTQ
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Sometimes, a friend in need can be deadly in deed.

Keegan has an abusive stepfather, Frank, and is bullied at college. He dodges bullies, led by Owen, by hiding close to the river. He tells his friend about the attacks and his narrow escape. The next day in college, pondweed is found in Owen’s locker, and he blames Keegan. The pondweed is sent to John Bull, and on examination is found to have a paranormal resonance, so he sends Emery, Alex and Kadin to investigate.

When Owen is found drowned in a bathtub, secured with pondweed, the team believe they’re dealing with a grindylow—a river hag. They need to establish whether the creature is acting for its own ends or at someone’s direction. Circumstances point to Keegan, but the team can’t find the connection and feel time is running out.

The next victim is Keegan’s stepfather, and with Keegan missing, Kadin decides to try to communicate with his spirit. He learns that the grindylow is protecting Keegan, but the team know that its nature means that Bo, now Keegan’s lover, will be the next victim.

But first, they need to find Keegan.

A protector that might not be so protecting after all.

I love the books of Pelaam and this was no exception. The story clips along well and got me right into the action. I didn’t feel confused because it’s book 5 and I wasn’t caught up. Instead, it reads as a nice little standalone. It’s creepy in spots, tender and romantic in others and gripping.

Keegan hasn’t had the best time in life. He’s been abused and bullied. His character is someone many can relate to. I liked how the grindylow came into the picture and how it interacted with Keegan. He needed a protector. Enter his friend.

Then there’s Bo, Keegan’s boyfriend. He’s sweet and everything Keegan needs in a lover. I liked him right away. I wanted to see them have a happy ending, too.

I liked the twists and turns in this story and can’t wait to read the others. It’s a complicated story and takes a bit of unraveling to keep it straight, but I had to know what would happen next.

If you’re looking for something that’s off the beaten path, sweet and original, then this is the book for you. Check it out.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Beyond The Point by Damien Boyd

January 26, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Beyond The Point by Damien Boyd
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

DI Nick Dixon is on the hunt for a vicious serial killer, following a trail of fingerprints and DNA across west Somerset.

When the body of a young woman is found on the building site of a nuclear power station, work grinds to a halt. The body bears all the hallmarks of yet another random murder at the hands of the escaped killer. Then Dixon finds a motive.

Fighting for his place on the Major Investigation Team, he soon uncovers a family’s desperate search for the truth, exposing a web of corruption and death that will shake the billion pound construction project to its very foundations. But who can be trusted when so much money is at stake?

Can Dixon find the killer under intense pressure from the top of government? And can he do it before anyone else has to die?

With a dangerous criminal on the loose there’s no rest for DI Nick Dixon. Despite knowing exactly who they are after, Dixon and his team have had very little success in tracing him this last month. Until the bodies start being uncovered and Dixon finally catches the scent – and he knows his quarry isn’t so far away after all.

I’ve been enjoying this series and while I don’t feel this is one of the author’s strongest books it is a very solid and enjoyable read. The plot is extremely straight forward and while the killer is the same nemesis as the previous book in this series, the author explains everything very well – without those annoying, massive info-dumps – and I feel readers who haven’t read any of the previous installments can still be clear on the plot and enjoy the book.

I do feel that readers looking for a heavily action-based story or something with a deep mystery might not be as pleased with this story as others. The killer is known from the very beginning – though readers wanting a more “who dun it” style of book might start with Dead Lock, the previous book where they do the more traditional mystery solving. But this is more of a police procedural manhunt style of story.

I was impressed though that a lot of the conflict came from within the police force and team themselves – things like the power and political plays between the media and the bureaucracy and the more internal police issues. That was quite a bit of the conflict and tension found in this type of story. I also really appreciated how about halfway in the manhunt started to link around another aspect of the mystery and there was still a puzzle to solve and more traditional mystery case to solve. So that was a really enjoyable aspect to the story as well.

I was pleased both Nick and Jane had a good amount of time together – both working and personal – in this story and I am very happy with how both of their character arcs are coming along. Readers looking for lots of bombs and chase and action might not find this story fits their needs. For a realistic and character driven story with plenty of police procedure and enough questions and tension to push the plot along this was a good story and one I enjoyed.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner

January 18, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Lady in Waiting by Anne Glenconner
Publisher: Hachette Books
Genre: Historical, Non-Fiction
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Discover untold secrets with this extraordinary memoir of drama and tragedy by Anne Glenconner—a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret.

Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed “the greatest disappointment” and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact.

A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne’s life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret’s closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her “mad blood”; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities.

With unprecedented insight into the royal family, Lady in Waiting is a witty, candid, dramatic, at times heart-breaking personal story capturing life in a golden cage for a woman with no inheritance.

This lady had one heck of a ride.

I’ve been on a kick, reading books about the royals and those connected to the crown. Not the current big names, but the former ones. The ones I’d not heard or read much about. This is one of those stories.

Some of the books by those connected to the royals can come off a bit stilted or fantastical. Some don’t really show much royal, but more of their lives. This book is a good mix of both. Lady Anne had one heck of a life as Princess Margaret’s Lady in Waiting. I can’t imagine the stress of her job, let along raising five children and being married through it all.

I liked the book. She has a certain resiliency that’s not always evident these days. She really did grin and bear it often. Her children could be walking trainwrecks and her husband had so many faults. Where this was interesting, it was also a bit of a distraction. I can’t imagine how she brushed so much off and looked the other way. Sometimes she came across so strong, but other times…I can’t imagine how she put up with her lot in life or why she thought she should.

There are sneak peeks of her life with the princess, like the trips to Mustique and royal engagements. It wasn’t nearly so much full of tabloid fodder as it was everyday life. I liked that part.

If you’re looking for a book that’s about the royals, but more of a slice of life, then give this one a try.

Filed Under: Non-Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Pebble by Jane McKay

January 16, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Pebble by Jane McKay
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult (14 – 18 y.o.), Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The small drone sped away from its dying star.

It did not look back at the doomed orb as it traveled through black space. It had a single mission – find a new viable planet and report. Many years of travel later it saw a possible candidate for its mission. The drone spied the blue-washed planet ahead. Would it find a world for its people or be doomed to a lonely existence on a faraway world?

Read the exciting story of Pebble as it helps to battle for its new family on its new home world, Earth. Can it help protect them from a menace from outer space?

Kindness is essential.

It’s always nice to meet characters who think logically and plan ahead. Some of the dangers they faced could be predicted far in advance, and they did a good job of predicting what might happen and figuring out the best ways to respond if their first few attempts to deflect the antagonists or escape didn’t work out so well. This kind of common sense is a breath of fresh air, especially in the young adult genre.

I had trouble keeping track of the large cast of characters in general. Not only were there a lot of them, their character descriptions and development weren’t always strong enough for me to read a familiar name and immediately know who the narrator was referring to. If only this had been easier to figure out.

With that being said, I enjoyed the many exciting plot twists in this book. There were multiple subplots that wove themselves together in all sorts of attention-grabbing and also surprisingly kind ways. This was especially true when it came to Pebble’s backstory and how its programming tipped the scales into surviving dangerous circumstances over and over again.

Pebble was an adventurous read.

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Dead Lock by Damien Boyd

January 13, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Dead Lock by Damien Boyd
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Early on a cold Somerset morning, ten-year-old Alesha Daniels is reported missing by her father, a violent alcoholic. Her mother, a known drug addict, is found unconscious, but it’s her mother’s boyfriend the police are keen to trace.

As the hunt for Alesha gathers pace, a second local girl is taken, plunging another family into the depths of despair.

Cutting short his holiday, DI Nick Dixon races home to join the Major Investigation Team, but no sooner has he identified a network of local suspects than they begin to show up dead.

At odds with his superiors, Dixon is convinced the child abductions are anything but random, but nobody is prepared for the investigation to lead quite so close to home.

Can Dixon and his team crack the case before all the suspects are silenced? And will he find the missing girls before it’s too late?

When a ten-year-old girl goes missing Jane is called back from her weeklong holiday to help assist with the investigation. DI Nick Dixon understands completely, but he’s happy to remain away and get some climbing done. Only then another ten-year-old girl is kidnapped – and this one is the grand-daughter of a dear friend and colleague – so Nick rushes back to help with the investigation.

I found this to be a really interesting British police procedural style of mystery. I’ve been enjoying this series but was really pleased the story pretty much stands very well on its own. While the friendships and working relationships between Nick, Jane and a number of the close team members all has the weight of their shared history – the plot and story itself stands very well on its own merits and I strongly feel no prior knowledge of any of the books is needed to thoroughly enjoy this story.

While it’s clear from the outset that the two disappearances of the young girls are linked, I felt it an excellent bit of writing the few twists and turns that unfolded as the cases were more thoroughly investigated. I was well past the halfway mark of the book itself before I started to grasp exactly what was going on and even though I was wrong on a few points I felt the author did a good job giving enough insight that the reader could clue in on much of it as Nick and the other detectives pieced everything together. Then watching it all properly unfold was a real pleasure.

Readers of traditional mysteries should find this a well written and solidly plotted story. I have been greatly enjoying these books and am eagerly looking forward to more. Recommended.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

The Love of My Other Life by C.J. Connolly

January 12, 2023 By Leave a Comment


The Love of My Other Life by C.J. Connolly
Publisher: Joffe Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Women’s Fiction
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

Imagine you woke up with the perfect life . . . But it wasn’t yours.

Today is Josie’s 36th birthday.

Josie is a single British woman living in a tiny walk-up in Brooklyn. She misses her family, but her radio show is starting to go places. And sure, she could be a dress size smaller, but no one cares what you look like on the radio. The guy she’s had a crush on for months is finally going to break up with his girlfriend. She hopes.

She’s zipping through traffic on her way to meet her friends for dinner at a SoHo restaurant. There’s a screech of brakes, Josie crashes her bike and her world goes black.

Then something extraordinary happens.

She wakes up in hospital. The handsome stranger by her side, holding her hand and telling her he loves her, is Rob. Her husband of two years. They live in a chic Manhattan penthouse. She works in real estate. And she’s thirty pounds slimmer than when she got on her bike that morning.

Josie has no idea how she got here. This new life is everything she ever wanted. But there’s one very important thing missing . . .

And now she has to decide: should she go back to her old single life in Brooklyn or stay with the love of her nearly perfect new life?

What would you do?

What if you found yourself in a great situation suddenly, but the world around you wasn’t the one you had always known? Josie, turning 36, suffers a bike accident and wakes up to discover that her “husband” was a stranger. Also, she’s now suddenly wealthy.

This is a parallel universe type of story where two “Josie’s” live each other’s lives. They trade places. Both of their lives have advantages. Josie #1 (Me) and Josie #2 (Her) see benefits in staying in their new worlds. For example, Josie #2 now has her brother back. He never died in this world. She gets to enjoy seeing him fall in love and start a family.

Josie #1 is now living in luxury with a gorgeous man who loves her. However, both women will have to sacrifice something important to stay where they are. Interesting questions come up. They end up falling for each other’s men. Is it cheating when they get involved with them? Would it be worth going back to their rightful worlds?

Things escalate as the stakes get higher. Characters are developed well enough to differentiate and make a difference to the plot. Two sides of Josie come out, and the people around them have realistic reactions to them. Their worlds are described well enough to give readers a real feel for them.

This book is good escapist reading. Recommended.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,

Warlock by Marteeka Karland

January 10, 2023 By 1 Comment


Warlock by Marteeka Karland
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Dicentra

Warlock: Love didn’t stop me from killing my ex when I had to — wasn’t a choice I made lightly, but more lives than hers were on the line. Black Reign gave me the second chance I didn’t deserve, and never again would I put a woman above my club.

Then along comes this little vagabond who claims my mother left me to her in her will. Is that even possible? And to top it off, it looks like my mother pulled some strings and got us married. Without my consent. Still, I think I’d rather be married to the crazy woman my mother foisted off on me than play Santa at the club’s annual Christmas party. Yeah. Not a role I’m made for.

Hope: Christmas magic being what it is, maybe I can get my fondest wish this year. To say Warlock isn’t happy to find out he’s married to me is the biggest understatement in the history of understatements. Still doesn’t make me want my fantasy lover any less.

Warlock represents everything I’ve ever wanted in life. But the fact that I achieved my dreams through more manipulation — even if it wasn’t of my doing — means I have to give him up. But first, Warlock has to see beyond his past and embrace a future he never wanted.

Mother knows best.

Or at least she thinks she does, in Marteeka Karland’s Warlock, the ninth book in the Black Reign motorcycle club romance series. Maximilian ‘Warlock’ Wagner’s life has been shitty as of late, and Black Reign has offered him the second chance he so desperately needs. When Hope comes along stating that Warlock’s mother gave him to her in marriage through her will, both of their lives become infinitely more complicated, and they must decide what they want their future to look like (and whether they want the other person in it).

I’ve been a fan of motorcycle club romances for a while now, but what drew me to this book was the premise. The idea of someone’s mother willing their adult child to another person in their will sounded too outrageous not to check out. In theory, one of the lawyers or officials involved in the process should have noticed that Warlock was not there to consent to the union. However, I was very shocked to learn that no one did and that their union is legal (still not sure how that would hold up in real life though).

Hope and Warlock are both very damaged souls. Warlock spent a good chunk of his life loving someone who didn’t love him back, and after making an unthinkable choice to exact justice he’s spent the time since filled with regret and anger. Hope, on the other hand, has never had a family and was naively optimistic that everything with Warlock would end up in an immediate happily ever after. Thankfully for both of them, motorcycle clubs are a very welcoming and tight-knit environment full of people willing to help them work their issues out.

Motorcycle club romance fans looking for a short holiday romance will enjoy this book. As a note, this book is part of a series, but I didn’t have any issues understanding what was going on without having read any of the previous installments (this is the first book I’ve read in the series).

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Waiting for Snow by Marsha Diane Arnold

January 9, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Waiting for Snow by Marsha Diane Arnold
Publisher: Clarion Books
Genre: Children’s (0 – 6 y.o.), Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Badger cannot wait one more minute for it to snow. When his friend Hedgehog explains that everything comes in its time, Badger is as unconvinced and impatient as ever. But Badger’s friends have a few tricks up their sleeve to try to get the snow’s attention and distract their pal in the meantime. In the end, Badger sees there’s no trick—only waiting—until at last, it’s time.

Wanting something doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen.

Remaining patient can be difficult for people of all ages, and it’s often even harder for kids (and hedgehogs) who haven’t had as many chances to practice it yet. There were some subtle and thought-provoking messages in this tale about how someone should act when they really want something but can’t have it. Ms. Arnold’s decision to trust her audience to understand what she was saying worked nicely for these characters and this setting. Not everything needs to be spelled out directly, and sometimes a message can be even stronger if it isn’t.

I would have liked to see more attention paid to why Hedgehog was yearning for snow so much. Other than the fact that he thought it was an essential part of winter, what did he hope to do with snow? There were so many fun answers he could have given to this question, and I would have gone with a higher rating if he’d explained his plans at some point.

Some of my favorite scenes were the ones that showed the zany things Hedgehog and his friends did to encourage a snowstorm to come their way. They had some pretty creative tricks up their sleeves, and I chuckled as they cycled through them in an attempt to find something that worked.

Waiting for Snow made me smile.

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , ,

Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown

January 6, 2023 By Leave a Comment


Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Genre: Historical, Non-Fiction, Fiction
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

A witty and profound portrait of the most talked-about English royal

She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando tongue-tied. She iced out Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was madly in love with her. For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy.

Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends, she was witty and regal. To her enemies, she was rude and demanding. In her 1950s heyday, she was seen as one of the most glamorous and desirable women in the world. By the time of her death in 2002, she had come to personify disappointment. One friend said he had never known an unhappier woman. The tale of Princess Margaret is Cinderella in reverse: hope dashed, happiness mislaid, life mishandled.

Such an enigmatic and divisive figure demands a reckoning that is far from the usual fare. Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues, and essays, Craig Brown’s Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.

Full of quips and whimsy.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book. I thought it would be more of a biography, but it’s a bit more like a love story written for the Princess. Really. There were moments of whimsy – fictitious spots where the author takes liberties about whom she’s married and quips – she could be quite funny, but at other times downright mean. This gave an interesting view into her life, but it’s not complete.

If one is wanting to read a proper biography on the Princess, then this isn’t it. Like I’ve mentioned, there are bits of fiction in there and some conversations recorded that probably didn’t happen that way. There are lots of bits and pieces of Margaret being quite rotten to people, too.

I liked that she could be quite snide and quick-witted. She knew how to take people down. But she also showed she wasn’t exactly a person of the people. She liked her lavish things and had little to do. She truly was the spare and she felt it. In that respect, I felt sorry for her. She had little to do and no one really gave her much direction.

If one goes into this book with the notion that it’s not all fact, then it’s a fun book. Why not give it a try? There truly are glimpses of the Princess, but it’s not always what you might think.

Filed Under: Non-Fiction, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,
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