Review: The Forgotten Tower

The Forgotten Tower by Lulu Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Georgie Wakefield and her sister Pippa had a terrible childhood, brought up by a pair of controlling, manipulative adoptive parents. After years of therapy Georgie has learned to stop repeating her past and has married the kind and dependable Casper, but the memories of her childhood can spring on her unexpectedly.

When Casper's grandfather dies he leaves him Wakefield Castle, at first Georgie is horrified, the last thing she wants to do is leave their cosy flat in London to live in a big, drafty, castle. Then when investigating in the castle she comes across the family recipe book, some of the recipes dating back to Tudor times, as well as some more prosaic exercise books left by the five Wakefield children who lived in the castle during WW2.

In 1939 the five Wakefield children, eighteen year old Imogen, twins Miranda and Rosalind and the little boys Toby and Archie, have come to live with their grandfather and Great Aunt Constance after the tragedy which took their parents away. When war is declared the Natural History Museum sends one of its curators, Arthur Humphries, down to Wakefield Castle together with some precious fossils for safekeeping. Then, Aunt Constance takes on two little refugees from London, brothers Tom and Robbie Foster. With the castle full it feels a happier place.

As Georgie starts to explore the castle she feels there are mysteries to unravel. Why did Miranda and Rosalind write such creepy poetry? Who was the mysterious Etti Boule? Why is one of the towers surrounded by a fence?

I feel this was a novel trying to be too many things to too many people. Pippa's marriage difficulties, Georgie's hang-ups about her childhood, the contretemps with Casper's grandfather's wife, even Georgie's job as recipe creator for a famous TV chef were pulling the novel into women's fiction/romcom territory while the rest of the book was trying to create some gothic tension about a family trapped in the castle. And it was slooooow. I was 61% into the book and nothing of any note had happened.

I received an ARC from the publisher for an honest review.

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Review: The Magpie Lord

The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Twenty years ago Lucien Vaudray was banished to China by his father Lord Crane. Now with his father and vicious older brother both dead Lucien is Lord Crane and has returned to London, ostensibly to sell off his inheritance before returning to China with his faithful manservant Merrick.

However, four times in the last few weeks Lucien has tried to kill himself, and yet has no recollection of intending to do so. One minute he is going about his everyday life happy and carefree, the next he is full of anguish and trying to kill himself. Merrick persuades Lucien that this is not normal and tells him to engage the British equivalent of the Chinese Shaman to unravel the cause.

Stephen Day is a small, insignificant man, a Practitioner (in magical terms) who quickly determines that someone has laid a powerful magic on the Crane family, whilst he is able to lift the immediate effects, they must travel to Lucien's ancestral home Piper to seek out the root cause and perpetrator.

This is only my second book by KJ Charles but she is quickly becoming a favourite author. This book has it all, opposites attract romance, magic, a vague steam-punk vibe, magical tattoos, haunted houses. Loved it.

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Review: A Matter of Loyalty

A Matter of Loyalty by Anselm Audley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

And so to the third and final novel in this series featuring Hugo Hawskworth, his (much younger) sister Georgia, his uncle Leo and Freya Selchester. Set in 1950s Britain during the Cold War, Hugo has been sent to the small town of Selchester after being retired from active duty in the Secret Service.

At the end of the second book Hugo is told that a nuclear scientist Bruno Rothesay has gone missing from the top secret research facility known by locals as the Atomic. The British Intelligence Services have known that there is someone selling secrets to the Russians and suspicion has fallen squarely on Rothesay who is thought to have defected. Hugo is asked to review his background checks while the odious Inspector Jarrett from Special Branch looks into the leaks. Then Rothesay's body is found, shot in the back of the head and all signs point to an old adversary, but Hugo isn't so sure.

Others have commented that this final book is not as good as the previous two, and that the sad death of Elizabeth Edmondson before the novel was completed is the cause. I must say I didn't find that. Yes, there is repetition of some things like Freya's secrecy about her successful writing career, but you find that in any series, it helps remind the reader of characters and how they fit into the plot.

I must say I am very sad that there are no more books. I really wanted to know whether Freya and Hugo would ever get together and ditto Gus and Dinah. Never mind.

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Review: A Man of Some Repute

A Man of Some Repute by Elizabeth Edmondson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Hugo Hawksworth is invalided out of the Secret Service with a bullet to the leg, he is transferred to the Service's facility at Selchester where he fully expects to be bored to tears and hand in his resignation, a life of pen pushing after travelling the world surviving on his wits seems like a dull choice.

His boss, Sir Bernard, has secured lodgings for Hugo and his younger sister Georgia at Selchester Castle. Sir Bernard is a trustee since Lord Selchester disappeared in a blizzard in 1947 and hasn't been seen since.

Shortly after Hugo and Georgia move in with the housekeeper Mrs Partridge and Lord Selchester's niece Freya, a broken pipe leads to the shocking discovery of a skeleton under the slabs in the Old Chapel. It seems that Lord Selchester did not disappear, he was murdered.

The local police seem very keen to place the blame on Lord Selchester's son, who had an argument with his father and stormed out the night of the blizzard, but Tom was killed in the war so can not defend himself. The police are also inclined to think that Freya may have aided and abetted her cousin although charges are unlikely to be brought given the main suspect is dead. Hugo suspects that Lord Selchester's war work may have something to do with Special Branch leaning on the local police to close the case quickly.

Freya and Hugo are determined to clear Tom's name, with Georgia's precocious help, but what unfolds about the late Lord Selchester turns out to be scandal of the highest order.

I rather enjoyed this, the isolated country house murder, spiced up with a bit of cold war communist fear-mongering and small town gossiping. I've already downloaded and read the second book.

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Review: A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel

A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have seen lots of very positive reviews on KJ Charles' novels so when one became available on NetGalley, set in my home county of Kent, I thought it must be a sign.

Major Rufus d'Aumesty has unexpectedly become the Earl of Oxney, master of the remote Norman built Stone Manor on the edge of Romney Marsh in Kent. He did not grow up as an aristocrat, his mother was a draper's daughter seduced by the local lord of the manor. His cousin Conrad believed that he was to inherit the land and title and has done everything in his power to prevent Rufus from taking his title.

After seven months of wrangling in the Courts, Rufus is declared the rightful heir, only for Conrad to produce another man, Luke Doomsday, who claims his mother was similarly seduced and married by Rufus' father a few months before he married Rufus' mother. Conrad intends this news to render Rufus illegitimate (and therefore ineligible to inherit) not realising that this claim would mean that Luke, rather than Conrad, would inherit.

Luke is a part of the notorious Doomsday family of smugglers, a personal secretary by training, he has his own reasons to be at Stone Manor, wholly unconnected to the issue of who is the Earl, and agrees to act as Rufus' secretary to help him sort out the years of neglect and poor bookkeeping that make running the Manor such a problem.

Despite potentially being the means of disinheriting him, Rufus quickly finds himself relying on the quick-witted and irreverent Luke, which turns into attraction and maybe more, but what will happen when Rufus discovers Luke's real reason for being at the Manor?

I loved this, although we were abruptly thrust into the story at the point where Conrad springs Luke's existence on Rufus (which I initially found a bit jarring), the story soon gets going at a pace. Poor Rufus is dealing with rebellious servants, plotting cousins, a crumbling estate, and he's falling hard for Luke.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

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Review: Murder at Castle Traprain

Murder at Castle Traprain by Jackie Baldwin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The backstory, fair warning I haven't read the first book in this series. Grace McKenna was a high-flying detective in the Edinburgh police force, until her son Connor's suicide sent her spiralling. Her marriage to Brodie, also a detective but far less driven, did not survive and he is now dating Julie, the (much younger) daughter of Grace's old Superintendent.

Now Grace runs a detective agency, assisted by her friend Jean and Connor's girlfriend Hannah who didn't have a chance to tell Connor she was pregnant before he died. Now Brodie, Grace and Jean help Hannah look after her toddler Jack.

Grace is called to Castle Traprain to investigate what appears to be a locked room mystery. The owner, Russian millionaire Sacha Komorov, has recently acquired an Imperial Faberge egg to give to his wife Katya, a former ballerina whose career was cut short when her dance partner dropped her. He hosted a dinner party for friends and neighbours to show them the egg, but when he took them down to the vault it was missing.

Shortly after accepting the assignment, and planting Hannah as a maid, Katya also approaches Grace, she has been receiving threatening letters and disturbing toys (fake Faberge eggs containing a toy ballerina with a broken leg etc).

Neither of the Komorovs wants to call in the police so Grace and her team must investigate alone, until the Russian housekeeper is found poisoned in her office.

As Brodie and Grace pursue their separate investigations they can't help but wonder if there is a link between them. But as the body count rises it seems they have a psychopath escalating out of control.

I thought the Russian angle was a bit over-egged with references to FSB, ballerinas, defecting, Faberge eggs etc. It felt a bit like the author had just thrown everything they knew that was Russian at the book. And yet strangely there was no attempt to create Russian accents/speech patterns or even Scottish ones which left me feeling that the book didn't really establish itself as being set in Scotland.

Overall, this was a pleasant read, there's a lot of backstory about Grace and Brodie which serves as an overarching story. Verdict? I'd read more in the series on Kindle Unlimited or if they were free but I don't think I would pay for them

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

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Review: Murder in Siena

Murder in Siena by T.A. Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dan Armstrong and his girlfriend are having a long weekend break with Dan's friend Virgilio and his wife. However, their romantic break is ruined when one of the delegates at an international environmental conference being held in the same hotel is found dead in the hotel grounds. Initially it looks as though the death could have been caused by wild wolves that roam the local countryside, but the medical examiner soon discovers that the wounds were caused by a broken bottle. Our victim was quite the Lothario and it seems that he has been very friendly with more than one of the delegates, at this conference and in previous years. He was also overheard having an altercation with one of the other delegates about plagiarism - could either of these be a motive?

Dan and Virgilio are roped in by local police to help with interviewing the delegates, many of whom have flown into Italy for the conference which was being held in English, but trouble could be brewing between Virgilio and his long-suffering wife.

Then there's a second murder, and a third. But the clues are pointing in multiple directions.

Without being too spoilery, I thought the explanation for the murders was a bit torturous, but I enjoyed this nonetheless.

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Review: The Hawthorne Legacy

The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, so I've binge read all four books in this series and reviewed them out of order so I'm not 100% sure what happens in this book and what happened in book 1 and, for that matter, what happened in book 3.

Anyhoo, Avery Grambs was an ordinary teenager, she had it harder than most, especially after her mother died, when she was taken in by her half-sister Libby because their deadbeat Dad Ricky wanted nothing to do with either of them. Then she discovered that she has been left a multi-billion dollar fortune by an eccentric millionaire, Tobias Hawthorne at the expense of his two daughters and four grandsons, provided she spends a year living at Hawthorne House. As is always the way with these mega-rich families, the boys are all devastatingly attractive but also all have major issues because none of their (different) fathers have ever been in the picture and their mother Skye is very absentee. In fact the only love and attention any of them received was from their grandfather Tobias, but he was all about pushing them to be the best., most extraordinary people they could be. Tobias loved puzzles, the more convoluted the better, and a multi-billionaire can afford to indulge himself. So Hawthorne House, where Avery and the four brothers live, is just one puzzle after another. Secret passageways, hidden compartments, invisible writing on the walls, word games, agility games, mechanical puzzles.

I'm pretty sure in this book we find out more about Avery's parents and also the identity of two of the brothers' fathers.

However, as Avery becomes more high-profile it appears that someone (or more than one person) is trying to kill her before she has spent a year in Hawthorne House. Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of suspects ...

Loved it, didn't love the love-triangle aspect but never fear it does get resolved soon.

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Review: The Brothers Hawthorne

The Brothers Hawthorne by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After the story concluded at the end of the third book (very satisfactorily) this is sort of a What Happened Next. But don't be dismayed, there are still puzzles galore.

Xander, Nash, LIbby and the other girls very much take a backseat in this story, which focuses on Avery and Jameson together and Grayson on his own.

Grayson has had a private investigator keeping tabs on his half-sisters, then he gets a call to say that one of them (Gigi) has been arrested for trying to break into a bank vault. Apparently ,Gigi and her twin Savannah have found a safe deposit key in their father's possessions and are hoping that it will give them some clues as to where he disappeared to. Grayson knows very well where his father went and will do anything in his power to keep that secret from his sisters, even if it mean lying to them. Despite his attempts to be cool and detached, Grayson can't help liking his half-sisters and their mother so when he discovers that his father appears to have defrauded his wife's trust and is being investigated by the FBI he feels he has to help.

Meanwhile, Avery and Jameson are travelling the world seeking new experiences and (for Jameson at least) new thrills. However, when they land in London, Jameson receives an invitation to meet his father, who asks him to 1) get invited to an exclusive London gaming club, so exclusive just mentioning the name could have serious consequences 2) catch the eye of the proprietor of said gaming club by behaving in a way that intrigues him, so that 3) he gets invited to play the very exclusive annual game and 4) win it so that he can 5) claim back one of the family's castles which Jameson's father lost in a gamble.

Oh, and evil Eve makes an appearance.

Really good, two different 'treasure hunts' for want of a better description and an absolute mind-blowing secret that Jameson has been keeping since Prague.

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Review: The Inheritance Games

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Avery Grambs is barely surviving. She and her beloved mother were living hand-to-mouth. Then her mother died. Her deadbeat dad Ricky was never around and wouldn't take responsibility, only her half-sister Libby stepped in to assist. However, Libby's on-again, off-again boyfriend causes trouble and it sometimes means Avery has to sleep in her car.

Then Avery gets called to the school principal's office, where a suave, impossibly handsome young man introduces himself as Grayson Hawthorne. Avery has been named as a beneficiary in his late grandfather multi-billionaire Tobias Hawthorne's will and is required to attend the reading of the will.

When Avery gets to the reading of the will she discovers that Tobias has eft his two daughters with a mere pittance and completely disinherited his four grandsons: Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander. He has left all his property and vast wealth to Avery ... and no-one knows why. But Avery has to live in his home, Hawthorne House for a year in order to inherit and all of the Hawthornes can continue to live there too, unless they pose a real and present threat to Avery's life. The will is iron-clad and it is not in anyone's interests to attempt to break it. In the will Tobias also left each of his family and Avery a letter.

As soon as news spreads of the will fake friends and hangers-on emerge from the woodwork. And someone seems to want Avery dead ...

The late Tobias Hawthorne was a genius, always ten or twelve steps ahead of everyone else. He loved anagrams and puzzles of every kind and encouraged his grandsons to do the same. Even the letters he left his grandsons turned out to be a puzzle. The house itself has everything you would expect from an eccentric billionaire: wine cellars, a bowling alley, a cinema, a theatre, five libraries, secret passageways, a bricked off wing, and more secrets than you can shake a stick at.

Thrust into a new school, given hair and beauty training, forced to attend high-profile events and given media training, Avery doesn't know who to trust, it seems a lot of people will do or say anything for money.

But the mystery is ... why did Avery inherit?

I've read hundreds of books over the years where the poor girl is suddenly thrust into a life of unimaginable wealth and seen loads of TV series which are similar. This book has some similarities. Everyone is super-rich and ultra-intelligent. However, this also has puzzles, games within games, twists within twists.

I LOVED it.

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Review: The Final Gambit

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

Wow, just wow. Quick recap. Avery's mother died and her deadbeat dad had never been present, she was living in her sister's apartment or, when her sister's deadbeat on-again-off-again boyfriend was back, sleeping in her car. Working to try to afford college. Then an impossibly handsome man appears and says she has been named in the will of multi-billionaire Tobias Hawthorne and is required to attend the reading of the will.

Avery learns that she has inherited the entire fortune. Tobias' two daughters receive paltry sums, and his four grandsons receive nothing.

(view spoiler)[At the end of the last book, Avery had discovered that she was not the daughter of Tobias Hawthorne's son Toby, a man she had known as Harry before she inherited the millions. However, Toby/Harry did have a daughter called Eve, the result of a one-night stand. While Avery offers to bring Eve into the fold and have her live at Hawthorne House with her and the four Hawthorne brothers, Toby is determined to keep her away. (hide spoiler)]

When someone comes to Hawthorne House with shocking news about being stalked and abduction it seems as though Avery has found a new enemy and more shocking family secrets are about to be revealed. Can Avery survive the last few weeks at Hawthorne House to fulfil her inheritance stipulations?

I loved the first two books and I was a bit hesitant about a third book - sometimes with these novels with puzzles and mysteries and secrets it can all get a bit repetitive. I'm thinking about the TV series Nikita where every series it appeared that the real head of Division was actually someone else, or Asimov Foundation series where (and I read these books decades ago) it felt to me like every book started by saying actually we didn't find the real Second Foundation (or Earth, the details are a bit hazy even with Wikipedia's help) that was a decoy, now we have the clues to find the real one.

I needn't have worried. I think this might be my favourite of the three books. The silly love-triangle is resolved in a non-icky way. The clues are higher stakes and the ending is brilliant.

LOVED it.

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Review: The Worst Christmas Wife

The Worst Christmas Wife by Katie Bachand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Ava is a frustrated interior decorator with a Christmas fetish. After her last boss stole her designs and bad-mouthed her she's been having trouble getting work. Then one of her roommates tells her a world-famous architect's PA is retiring. He's young, grumpy, and hates Christmas, but he needs a new PA and Ava would be perfect.

When Hendricks Cole's PA Matilda foists Ava on him he is beyond irritated. The only thing stopping him from firing her is that he does need a PA desperately and his old PA is now sunning herself in far-off climes. But he isn't going to make things easy for Ava, no siree. Hendricks is trying to win a pitch to build a new forever home for Camryn Wren, a famous movie writer, producer, and director and he needs Ava to help him learn everything there is to know about her.

Since Camryn is famous for her schmaltzy Christmas romances, Ava suggests Hendricks watches a few of her movies to really get a feel for her vibe. But what Hendricks takes away from watching the films and doing his research is that Camryn is all about family, and a married man has a much better chance of getting the commission. So he proposes a fake-marriage contract to Ava, until 31 December or when he wins the contract, whichever falls sooner. In return she gets a wodge of cash and the chance to decorate both his homes, as well as introductions to his other clients.

Hendricks is all about the architecture, the clean lines. No fuss, no knick-knacks, no rugs or throws. So when Camryn tells him she can't really sign off on plans without visualising the fully decorated and furnished rooms. So now Hendricks must work with Ava to pull together designs for Camryn's new home.

If you like hallmark Christmas movies, opposites attract, fake-relationship romances then this is right up your street. Its cute, sweet, and very, very Christmassy.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

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Review: The Lighthouse Murders

The Lighthouse Murders by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In a bizarre twist DS Dennis Frampton has been arrested for the murder of his former boss DCI Mackie, even though his death was treated as suicide for nearly two years.

Poor Lesley is having to manage multiple assignments without her right-hand man. The latest murder involves a body draped over the bulb in a lighthouse at Portland Bill. Even more surprising is that the body turns out to be that of a criminal who Zoe Finch put away for child grooming and other offences. He was recently being moved from the local prison when the convoy was ambushed and he was spirited away, only to be found dead.

I am writing my reviews out of order but I think my gripes about the last book in this series apply equally to this one. (view spoiler)[Why did the gang break him out of jail only to kill him? Why were members of the gang being killed off one by one? Why was a gang from the Midlands trying to muscle in on drug dealing in Dorset? Who actually killed everyone? Why is Superintendent Carpenter being so weird - why didn't he just meet Lesley away from the station and tell her his suspicions? What was the point of leaving the body in the lighthouse? (hide spoiler)]

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Review: The Ghost Village Murders

The Ghost Village Murders by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The conclusion to this long-running series.

Two young girls partying with their friends find the body of a young woman in the Ghost village of the title. The body turns out to be that of DC Fran Dugdale, one of the two Police Conduct officers who were interrogating DS Dennis Frampton.

The good news is that we now know who killed DCI Mackie. The bad news is, frankly that's all we know. The rest of my gripes will be in spoilers.

(view spoiler)[I'm still not sure who killed Hamm or why he was broken out of prison in the first place. As others have said, is DI Angus (Beef) a goodie or a baddie? Was DC Dugdale really engaged to one man and also sleeping with DI Angus? Why did Dave Watson kidnap Lesley's daughter and then just leave her in the Orangutan enclosure? Indeed why did she come home sobbing that time? Why did Collingwood/Watson/Kelvin start killing all the people who broke Hamm out of jail?(view spoiler)[

As others have said, this felt like a throw in the kitchen sink final, we had cameo appearances from all the other series, multiple plots going off in all directions and a hurried end.

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Review: Seeing Other People

Seeing Other People by Diana Reid
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 19%.

I've tried reading this three times but the characters just don't speak to me. It sounds odd to say so early on that I find them mildly repellent, but I do.

Having read so little I can't say much about the plot, its post-COVD lockdowns. Helen is a struggling actress in a play in a small theatre who has fallen in love with the director, they hooked up on opening night but Helen has heard nothing romantic from her since. Helen lives in a sort of party squat with questionable hygiene. Her sister Eleanor has just broken up with her boyfriend.

That's about it, a fifth of the way through and I have no more. Perhaps as this is recommended for fans of sally Rooney I am not its target audience as I didn't really get the point of Normal People.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.


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Review: The Lochside Murder: A Dorset Crime Story

The Lochside Murder: A Dorset Crime Story by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Crossover novella between Lesley Clarke's Dorset Crime and the McBride & Tanner series.

DCI Lesley Clarke and her new bride Elsa have driven north to spend their honeymoon in a cottage on the banks of Loch Lomond. But when Lesley goes for an early morning walk she discovers the body of a woman in the water tangled up in the jetty.

DI Jade Tanner is nervous, her Complex Crimes Unit has only just been formed but so far they've only had the one case, if something doesn't pick up soon they could be disbanded.

Can Lesley step back and let another officer investigate the murder? Will Elsa ever forgive Lesley for finding a dead body on their honeymoon?

A short but enjoyable read linking the two series.

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Review: The Moonlit Murders

The Moonlit Murders by Fliss Chester
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

James and Fen are finally ready to leave France and come back to England. James is travelling First Class and Fen is travelling Second Class. Whilst waiting to board Fen meets a glamorous young couple, Stanley and Genie, he's a former radio star about to turn movie star and she's a former dancer who wants to break into theatre - they are on their way to New York. Meanwhile, all the passengers are distracted when a wealthy American woman in First Class creates a scene thinking her Cartier tiara has gone missing.

That evening, James and Fen are invited to dine at the Captain's table, alongside Stanley and Genie, and the American woman Mrs Archer and her niece Eloise. James drops a bombshell when he tells Fen he isn't planning on disembarking at Southampton, instead he intends to travel on to New York. Eloise persuades her aunt that Fen would be a sensible companion on the trip and persuades her to pay for Fen's cabin.

However, disaster soon strikes and Mrs Archer's priceless jewellery is stolen from her cabin while she slept. James and Fen volunteer to search the ship and investigate, not least to stop Mrs Archer from accusing all and sundry of the theft. But while searching the lifeboats Fen and Eloise come across a grisly discovery, one of the other Second Class passengers has been stabbed and wrapped in a swastika flag.

Only Fen knows that the dead passenger is also a German, was he a Nazi? Why was he on the boat? What was his name? Who else knew he was a German national?

I am enjoying these novels, particularly the historical detail. However, as with most cosy mysteries, there is a fair amount of repetition eg Fen feels awkward comforting people, Fen's affectation about creating crossword puzzles out of random key words in the investigation etc.

Are those small green shoots of romance between James and Fen - at least on his part?

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Review: The Happiest Ever After

The Happiest Ever After by Milly Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Polly Potter is unhappy. Her boyfriend Chris treats her like a doormat, a cross between his mother and a housekeeper, leaving his stuff strewn everywhere and taking her for granted, he even had an affair. She used to love her job as business consultant, heling companies to turn themselves around. But after the business was bought out and a new boss installed she has been demoted, marginalised, and put down. Many of her ideas have been repackaged as those of her new boss and she dreads going in to work. Her only respite is her creative writing class, but she keeps that a secret because she knows Chris, his spiteful daughter, and snobby sister would just ridicule her if they knew. Polly is writing a novel about a character called Sabrina, whose life resembles Polly's, except Sabrina is much braver, and Sabrina's partner Jasper could react violently when he finds out that she is leaving him.

Polly decides to go to the seaside, where her beloved aunt and uncle once took her. However, she is robbed and hits her head - causing her to lose her memory. When she wakes up in hospital she thinks her name is Sabrina and doesn't want the hospital to contact the police because she doesn't want Jasper to find her.

A kindle hospital visitor, Marielle offers to let Sabrina stay in her annex flat. Marielle has a history of helping lame ducks, some of whom repaid her trust by stealing from her, so Marielle's friends and family are suspicious of Sabrina and her amnesia. Marielle's son Teddy owns a local Italian restaurant and is persuaded to give Sabrina a job, cleaning the toilets and chopping vegetables (not at the same time you understand).

Soon Sabrina is thriving in the warm and happy restaurant, finally in the bosom of a close and loving family. But all is not well. A chain of Italian restaurants is planning to open a new restaurant right next to Teddy's and they seem to started a dirty tricks campaign to discourage Teddy's patrons by leaving one star reviews and trying to get a compulsory purchase order for Teddy's car park. Can Sabrina bring her expertise to help Teddy save his restaurant?

I did enjoy this, but I felt there were too many things that were clearly only there as plot devices. For example, some of the chapters are prefaced by a 'humorous' newspaper clipping from the Daily Trumpet where the newspaper has used the wrong words and created an offensive/funny alternative meaning eg referring to someone as Chief Defective instead of Chief Detective, the sole purpose of which seems to be so that when Polly's relatives place a missing person advert in the newspaper and Sabrina's friends do the same neither recognises that they are the same person.

Overall, a pleasant read but not one of my favourites by Milly Johnson.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Night Train to Paris

Night Train to Paris by Fliss Chester
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

The second in the Fenella Churche mystery series.

After the traumatic events in Burgundy, Fen and James get the train to Paris for a break. Fen stays with an old family friend Rose, an eccentric artist, at her apartment, but Rose has let out her second room to a young woman, Simone who models for a fashion house.

When Fen and James find Rose, murdered with one of her own paint brushes, the police suspect robbery as some of her paintings and jewellery are missing. But Fen is not convinced, does her death have something to do with her work during the war, secretly coding art that the Nazis stole from Jewish families so that they could be returned after the war?

This novel really has everything. Stolen art. The resistance. Death camps. Jewish families returning to find they have been dispossessed. Pierre Balmain and Christian Dior. The Louvre. Mobsters. Russian countesses.

It took me a while to get into this, in fact I left it for over a year because I couldn't get into it. But I picked it up yesterday and raced through it. A good mystery although a little predictable.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: Five Gold Rings

Five Gold Rings by Kristen Bailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

When Eve finds her boyfriend in a compromising position in their shower with a work colleague on Christmas Eve her world comes crashing around her head. It's the most magical time of the year for her and her family and this has left her devastated. Feeling unable to spoil her family's Christmas with the news she goes to the Hatton Garden jewellers where she works part-time for some support from the kindle old couple Mr and Mrs Caspar who own the shop.

Joe also works part-time at the jewellers and has had a crush, no he's been in love with, Eve almost since the first time they met, and he's been trying to pluck up the courage to give her a very special Christmas gift. Since Joe isn't really very subtle, Mrs Caspar knows he is in love with Eve and calls him to help cheer her up. One of Joe's other part-time jobs is as a waiter at hen-dos and today (for Christmas) he's dressed as an elf, wearing very tight shorts with bells on the bottom. Then disaster strikes ... a courier was supposed to deliver five pairs of cufflinks to a customer for a Christmas Eve party, but instead he has delivered five engagement rings which were supposed to have been delivered to five guys who were intending a Christmas proposal.

Since Eve thinks her drama may have contributed to the mix-up, she offers to collect the engagement rings and deliver the cufflinks in their place. After all, London isn't that large and six deliveries is totally do-able. Egged on by Mrs Caspar, Joe offers to drive Eve around London.

This is a classic Christmas romantic comedy, complete with nativity play, men popping out of cakes, bridezillas, fairy lights, naughty crackers, multiple Santas, family barneys, and more risqué puns than you can shake a turkey at.

I liked this, but I think you have to be in the right kind of mood for a full-on, Christmas-pun laden, romantic comedy and on what was the hottest day of the year it was just a leetle too full-on for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher Storm Publishing via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Return to Embthwaite Farm

Return to Embthwaite Farm by Kate Hewitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rachel left her Yorkshire home when she was eighteen years old and has rarely been back since, preferring her life as an analyst in London. Then her childhood crush and neighbour Ben Mackey calls and practically orders her home (while she is on holiday), refusing to explain why.

Despite her misgivings Rachel returns home to find her father as uncommunicative as ever and her baby sister Harriet continues to both complain that Rachel never does anything and resent her for coming home to try to help.

Rachel also feels an unwelcome romantic pull towards Ben, but after the way he treated her she can't give in to those feelings.

This is a second chance romance where everyone remembers the past differently, everyone thinks their feelings/intentions were crystal clear whereas the other person gets completely the wrong end of the stick. And there's a lot of refusing to spell things out for fear of losing face.

Unfortunately, for me Ben was the weakest link. His call to Rachel was fairly typical of his actions and attitude towards Rachel throughout the book. He just made unilateral decisions and told her what to do, or did things without consulting her. As a consequence, I felt Ben was more in the wrong but as usual the FMC is the one who makes the sacrifices.

Also apologies, I had a total reading binge and have come out of it with large numbers of books to review and not very specific reasons for liking or disliking books.

I received an ARC from the publisher Tule in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Promise of Forever: A completely heartbreaking Irish novel

The Promise of Forever: A completely heartbreaking Irish novel by Brooke Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As a teenager, in March 2000, Dee and her best friend Lainey were sent to Gaelic school on the tiny island off the coats of Ireland of Cloch Bheag. Dee can't think of anything more boring, she'd much rather be in Dublin than spending three weeks at school in the middle of nowhere. But that short period of time changed her life, because it brought Dee into contact with the O'Connell family and the three sons, Sean, Fionn and Oisin.

A sweeping story spanning twenty years, this is the tale of the one she loved, the one she married, and the one who died… I honestly can't tell you any more than that without revealing any details, suffice it to say even writing this review I'm welling up. I think the blurb sets it up very well, maybe its stupid of me to wish that it had ended differently. Sorry, just had to go and get a tissue and blow my nose. It is most definitely heart-breaking.

I received an ARC from the publisher Storm via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Countdown to Christmas

Countdown to Christmas by Jo Thomas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Chloe is a single mother. Her son Ruben has gone to stay with his father, and his father's new family in New York. It's the first Christmas Chloe has spent without Ruben and all she wants is for it to be over.

Then a mysterious heir hunter approaches Chloe, she may have inherited a tract of land in Canada which, if sold, would enable her to buy a home for her and Ruben. So Chloe travels to a small town in Canada, miles away from any cities and is overjoyed to discover that they too seem to be avoiding Christmas this year. The truth is somewhat more prosaic, Bea the owner of the town's café/restaurant is heavily pregnant with twins, since she is the one who organises all the Christmas festivities nothing has been done.

Soon, despite her 'Bah Humbug' feelings, Chloe is wooed by the townspeople, she quickly starts to take over Bea's duties in the diner, particularly after she is ordered to go on bed rest until the babies are born, and the townsfolk get invested in her homemade advent calendar which Ruben prepared for her. Chloe discovers that her land is crucial for the own's maple syrup cooperative, without it they wouldn't be able to distill the raw syrup they tap from the trees.

But just when it looks like Chloe could be getting her very own Hallmark Christmas it seems that she might not be the only heir - and he has no intention of selling to anyone except the highest bidder.

I love a schmaltzy Christmas film/romance as much as the next woman but this just felt too sugary, without enough grit to make it real. All the characters felt like stock romance characters, just there for one-dimensional purposes, including the obligatory grasping ex-wife. I feel blasphemous writing this, but it felt a bit lazy. And the ending ... ridiculous what about red tape? Also the idea that you can chop and change transatlantic flights that close to Christmas is laughable - most flights are sold out months in advance at Christmas.

Not one of Jo Thomas' better novels for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Infinite Stars

Infinite Stars by David Weber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I saw this available on Kindle Unlimited, saw reference to several authors that I knew/had heard of and thought this would be a good way to read some new authors and some novellas by previous favourites. This is going to sound really petty, but the lack of a proper table of contents listing the novellas and their authors really put me off. I want to cherry-pick novellas, or at least know which storyverse they come from, instead the only table of contents is at the back and has no authors!

Which is a long-winded way of saying I only read the Orson Scott Card novella set in the Ender Wiggin universe.

Fleet School - Renegat by Orson Scott Card - three and a half stars
Ender/Andrew and his sister Valentine come to the colony of Tarragona at the request of the governor Dabeet Ochoa to speak for Kenneth Argon who died in mysterious circumstances from a hitherto unknown toxin at a time of great unrest in the colony.

Now whilst I understand that some of what Orson Scott Card is exploring is what makes something a someone, something sentient. However, I felt there were too many similarities to things that happened in Speaker for the Dead.

Also, I felt as though half the story had been lost in editing, leaving me a bit unclear as to what had happened.

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Review: The Lady from Burma

The Lady from Burma by Allison Montclair
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs Gwen Bainbridge are approached with an odd request. Mrs Remagen, the titular Lady from Burma, has a strange request. She is dying of cancer and, when the time is right, would like The Right Sort Marriage Bureau to find her husband, Professor Remagen, a new wife and she fully intends to take her own life once her affairs have been put in order.

In order to get to know the Professor better, Iris attends a lecture at the Royal Entomological Society (of which she is a member) where he is speaking and runs into an old flame, Trevor Forester, who was last heard of deep in the Amazon basin.

Meanwhile, Gwen is desperate to have her lunacy diagnosis overturned and retake her place as a majority shareholder in Bainbridge, Limited. Especially since her father-in-law's recent heart attack has left him temporarily incapacitated. However, her financial committee representative (the man who administers her not inconsiderable wealth whilst she is deemed incapable) Mr Parsons seems determined to thwart her at every turn.

When Mrs Remagen is found in Epping Forest with an empty bottle of morphine, a bottle of wine, and a book of poetry the assumption is that she took her own life. But the young Essex policeman who finds the body is unconvinced, not least by her shoes which are totally unsuitable for walking in a forest.

Although unravelling the solution to this mystery seemed a bit convoluted, I think the actual execution (if I can say that) seems more straightforward. However, the greater part of the novel appears to have been devoted to the romantic antics of both Iris and Gwen, and Gwen's lunacy hearings.

I liked this, but not as much as the previous books. I felt like some of the characters (eg the two detectives) were very broadly drawn caricatures and some of Gwen's actions were plain stupid (although necessary for the plot).

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Review: Detective Hillary Greene Books 6–10

Detective Hillary Greene Books 6–10 by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read 16 DI Hillary Greene novels practically back-to-back so the reviews will be of necessity a bit brief. If you are binge-reading like I am the reminders of what happened previously can be a bit repetitive, but I imagine it means a new reader could jump right in and get up to speed quickly.

MURDER AT HOME
Flo Jenkins is found murdered in her armchair, a paperknife sticking out of her chest. It was common knowledge the old woman only had weeks to live. Why kill a dying woman? DI Hillary Greene faces one of her toughest cases yet.

I did not see this one coming, and yet there was mention of the crucial fact at the start of the novel if I had but realised it was important. I assumed and you know what that does ...

MURDER IN THE MEADOW
Wayne Sutton is found dead by a stream in a beautiful meadow. His head has been bashed in and a red paper heart left on his body. Who would kill the handsome young artist, who had a reputation as a ladies’ man? Can Hillary get to the bottom of a complex case involving jealousy, love, and cold-blooded murder?

I initially remembered who was guilty but not why, but looked at a few other reviews and it all came flooding back. Once again, there is something mentioned at the start of the novel which is highly relevant to the motive for murder.

MURDER IN THE MANSION
Mattie Jones is found brutally stabbed to death in her palatial home. DI Hillary Greene discovers that the victim’s snobby attitude had made her many enemies. But who hated this wealthy woman enough to kill her? Hillary tackles one of her most complex cases yet. Could a blast from the past shed any light?

In addition, there's a sniper picking off police officers at random outside their stations, everyone is looking over their shoulders.

Meanwhile, Hillary's boss Mel is dealing with an horrific case which is falling apart on a technicality.

MURDER IN THE GARDEN
Edward Philpott is found bludgeoned to death with his own spade in his beautiful garden. Hillary’s only lead is a rival from the village flower show who used to argue with the victim about the size of their vegetables. But what dark secrets from the past and present does this village hold?

Edward's family life is tragic. His young daughter was widowed and she had her daughter have moved back in with him, now she has incurable cancer and only a few weeks or months to live.

Meanwhile, the station is rocked by the murder of Hillary's boss, was it the sniper who has been picking off random officers, or could it be linked to the case which went sideways? And if the latter, can they prove it?

MURDER BY FIRE
David Merchant’s body is found in a bonfire in his back garden. David was a publisher and devout Christian. Who would want to kill this seemingly very decent man? DI Hillary Greene faces one of her most puzzling cases as she struggles to find anyone with a strong motive to kill the pious publisher.

I felt, perhaps because I am reading this book 13 years after it was originally published and we as a society are more aware (still trying not to give away spoilers), that the 'big reveal' was obvious almost right from the start and hence I guessed the murderer fairly early on.

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Review: Murder of a Lover

Murder of a Lover by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read 16 DI Hillary Greene novels practically back-to-back so the reviews will be of necessity a bit brief. If you are binge-reading like I am the reminders of what happened previously can be a bit repetitive, but I imagine it means a new reader could jump right in and get up to speed quickly.

After having retired to avoid bringing herself and the Thames valley Police into disrepute if anyone discovered she had helped to cover up a pre-meditated murder by a former colleague, Hillary returned after 18 months and joined the cold case Crime Review Team.

The cold case in this novel concerns Rowan Thompson, a student who was found stabbed to death with a pair of dressmaking scissors in his student house. Although he had a steady girlfriend, Rowan was known to be liberal with his affections with rumours that he experimented with men as well as women and had been known to indulge with multiple partners. In addition, the autopsy found that Rowan had traces of an unknown drug in his system, was he a dealer for something cooked up by one of the chemistry students?

Meanwhile, Hillary's stalker is escalating and she appears to be making some rash decisions.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Murder at Work

Murder at Work by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read 16 DI Hillary Greene novels practically back-to-back so the reviews will be of necessity a bit brief. If you are binge-reading like I am the reminders of what happened previously can be a bit repetitive, but I imagine it means a new reader could jump right in and get up to speed quickly.

Hillary has chosen to retire early to avoid bringing herself and the Thames valley Police into disrepute if anyone discovered she had helped to cover up a pre-meditated murder by a former colleague. Her boss is trying to change her mind by allocating her a murder investigation just two weeks before she retires.

Michael Ivers is found dead on a small industrial estate by the site security man, who just happens to be our old friend former DS Frank Ross who (as usual) has been cutting corners and making a quick buck on the side. Michael Ivers liked to flash the cash with flash cars and a series of short-term girlfriends. he was also known to have enjoyed more than the odd flutter and belonged to a London casino where he would take friends and acquaintances. Frankly he was such a nasty piece of work that the problem is finding someone who didn't want him dead!

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Review: Murder Never Retires

Murder Never Retires by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read 16 DI Hillary Greene novels practically back-to-back so the reviews will be of necessity a bit brief. If you are binge-reading like I am the reminders of what happened previously can be a bit repetitive, but I imagine it means a new reader could jump right in and get up to speed quickly.

After having retired to avoid bringing herself and the Thames valley Police into disrepute if anyone discovered she had helped to cover up a pre-meditated murder by a former colleague, Hillary returned after 18 months and joined the cold case Crime Review Team, assisted by two civilian interns and a retired police sergeant.

The cold case in this novel concerns Anna McRae, a young mother of three, who was found beaten to death in her kitchen with a rolling pin. She was having an affair with her brother-in-law so her husband and her sister are high on the list of suspects, although the husband had a rock-solid alibi.

Meanwhile, Hillary appears to have found an admirer, who has quickly turned into a stalker.

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Review: Murder Never Misses

Murder Never Misses by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read 16 DI Hillary Greene novels practically back-to-back so the reviews will be of necessity a bit brief. If you are binge-reading like I am the reminders of what happened previously can be a bit repetitive, but I imagine it means a new reader could jump right in and get up to speed quickly.

After having retired to avoid bringing herself and the Thames valley Police into disrepute if anyone discovered she had helped to cover up a pre-meditated murder by a former colleague, Hillary returned after 18 months and joined the cold case Crime Review Team.

The cold case in this novel concerns Hillary's stalker and three other women who have vanished into thin air - were these his previous victims?

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Murder in Mind

Murder in Mind by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read 16 DI Hillary Greene novels practically back-to-back so the reviews will be of necessity a bit brief. If you are binge-reading like I am the reminders of what happened previously can be a bit repetitive, but I imagine it means a new reader could jump right in and get up to speed quickly.

After having retired to avoid bringing herself and the Thames valley Police into disrepute if anyone discovered she had helped to cover up a pre-meditated murder by a former colleague, Hillary returned after 18 months and joined the cold case review team.

The cold case in this novel concerns Sylvia Perkins, a 75 year old pensioner, battered to death by what is thought to have been her own fire poker. Suspicion originally fell on her ne'er do well grandson Robbie who stood to inherit what little she had, but there was no evidence that he had been there. Another suspect was Sylvia's love rival for a dapper gentleman. Or was it her close friend and neighbour who blamed Sylvia for poisoning her beloved cat?

Whilst solving this crime (which I thought was relatively straightforward), Hillary is also dealing with the suspicious activity from her new(ish) intern Jake, a multi-millionaire entrepreneur with an ulterior motive for joining the squad.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: More Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up

More Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 10%.

Okay, before you jump down my throat for DNFing a book so early, in my defence the blurb said this was hilarious and un-put-downable. I can assure you it is neither. I didn't find anything funny, it just seems to be a first-person POV story/podcast with Nell talking to the reader.

It just didn't grab me, sorry.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Girl in the Eagle's Talons

The Girl in the Eagle's Talons by Karin Smirnoff
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 24%.

I truly loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when it first came out, despite the dark nature of the book and I read the following two books with almost as much enthusiasm, although even then I thought it was becoming a bit far-fetched. I'm afraid that this book stretched my credulity to breaking point with a girl that can't feel pain (albeit I now realise she is the daughter of Lisbeth's brother who also couldn't feel pain).

Maybe its me, but the sheer awfulness of practically every character, the murders, the beatings, the abuse, made me not want to carry on reading. Also, the translation felt off, or maybe its that the storytelling jumped about so much with so many natural words that I couldn't work out what was going on.

Anyway, it felt like it was all going to get nastier and I don't want those sorts of images in my head. This is a thing I've found about authors who write horror or about serial killers, they have to escalate the atrocities to go one better than the last one and I can see that this is going the same way so I stopped at 24%. However, I am sure that people who enjoy dark detective stories with characters with special abilities will love this.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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