Review: An Old Affair: A 1920s tale of murder, mystery, and an ancient family feud

An Old Affair: A 1920s tale of murder, mystery, and an ancient family feud by G J Bellamy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie Burgoyne and her team of amateur spies (who masquerade as servants to infiltrate the homes of the aristocracy) have been tasked with spying on a Bulgarian businessman (aka spy) called Todor Minkov on a cruise ship from GIbraltar to England and then at a stately home where he will be the guest of Lord Gerald Munday's eldest son Basil at their home Dumond Hall where they are holding their annual fete and Ball.

The Munday family is notorious for an ancient feud between them and their nearest neighbours, the Eldred family, a feud which has resulted in tit-for-tat murders. Tensions are running high as both of Basil's older brothers have recently been murdered and it is deemed very poor show (FFS) for two Mundays to be murdered without an Eldred being murdered in return. To add insult to injury, it has always been an unwritten rule that the murders take place elsewhere, but the latest murder took place on the outskirts of the village and the local Chief Constable has had enough.

Whilst the Mundays are flourishing and are displaying their wealth by building a swimming pool in the grounds which resembles a Grecian temple, the Eldreds are in dire financial straits having been hit by double death duties as a result of WW1 and several bad harvests. With the country in the grip of a prolonged dry and hot spell in 1921 the Eldreds are facing the loss of their home and livelihood. Accordingly, tensions are riding high. Can the redoutable folks from Burgoyne's Agency uncover who killed Basil's brother and discover why Mr Minkov is in England?

This fell flat for me. I loved the banter between the Agency people just as much as ever, but the whole feud between the Mundays and the Eldreds was tedious in the extreme, I couldn't keep track of their names and hence why I refer to Basil's brothers and not by name.

Overall, I suspect that this might be the prelude to something more juicy in the next book with a bi assignment in the offing.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: The Echoes of Us

The Echoes of Us by Emma Steele
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Robbie and Jenn had been an item for several years, then they broke up for eight months. They have just got back together and are on their way home from the hospital where Jenn works as a doctor when they are in a head-on collision with a truck.

When Robbie comes to, he finds himself watching Jenn as a young girl. As he is swept at random through various key moments in her life he begins to suspect that he is somehow seeing 'her life flash before her eyes' and the key to saving her rests with getting her to wake up before its too late. However, as Robbie sees his behaviour through the eyes of a spectator he realises he may not have been the best boyfriend, can he save Jenn and prove that he can be the boyfriend she deserves?

I liked the writing in this but I found it very hard to see why Jenn loved Robbie because he was just so unlikeable and because the flashbacks zoomed around (and I didn't really pay any attention to the years) I didn't really get invested in either character. Frankly I was more invested in Fi and Max or Marty and Hils and their stories.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.



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Review: The Duke at Hazard

The Duke at Hazard by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vernon Fortescue Cassian George de Vere Crosse, the fourth Duke of Severn is a quiet unassuming gentleman. After his father's death when he was just six the Duke was brought up by his uncle. His uncle has always impressed on the Duke his obligations to the title and his dependants, whilst also impressing upon others how important the Duke is. As a result the Duke has been both cosseted and constrained by what is expected of him. When an anonymous encounter leads to him being robbed in his sleep of clothes, cash, and the Ducal Severn ring he knows he must recover it before his uncle discovers it is missing, what symbolises the Duke of Severn more than his ring?

When his cousins mock him at dinner for being unable to fend for himself, they enter into a bet, the Duke will live incognito, travelling alone as an ordinary gentleman by stagecoach instead of hiring a private carriage, carrying his own bags, for a month. At first the Duke makes a complete hash of things, he doesn't know how to order himself dinner at an inn, or request a room, he drops his clothes on the floor expecting a valet to pick them up and clean them, he doesn't know how to book a seat on a stagecoach. Then he encounters a man he knew vaguely at Eton who was disgraced when his father lost all their money gambling and killed a man before escaping abroad. The Duke knows this man, Daizell Charnage, is considered disgraced, tarred by the same brush, but he is clearly living on his wits, so in an impetuous moment the Duke begs for his help in finding the thief and his ring, introducing himself as plain Mr Cassian. Daizell can't believe his luck, this man will pay him £50 for a week's travelling (including food and board) which will keep him afloat for months if he is careful and leave him less reliant on the hospitality of friends and the small sums he can earn from cutting out paper silhouettes of people.

Together they career around the English countryside looking for a nondescript man who most certainly gave a false name. Travelling incognito forces the Duke to suffer various slights and indignities, a stagecoach crash, sharing a bed with Daizell. The pair also get embroiled with a runaway heiress and her reluctant swain, a vindictive guardian, and a corrupt magistrate.

I can give no higher accolade than to say it reminds me strongly of Georgette Heyer's writing, if she had written open door LGBTQIA+ romances. Some elements are similar to The Foundling in which the Most Noble Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware, seventh Duke of Sale travels incognito under the name of Rufford to retrieve some letters for a relative.

Anyway, gentler than the characters in the Doomsday Books series, Cass is more like Jeremy KIte in Death in the Spires in terms of our romantic MMC.

Thoroughly enjoyed this, as I have all books by KJ Charles.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.



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Review: You Should Be So Lucky

You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mark Bailey is a twenty-eight year old gay journalist in New York in 1960 known for his caustic commentary on the arts scene. His lover William had political ambitions and was part of an important family, so their entire relationship was kept under wraps. When William died suddenly at only thirty-four he left everything to Mark, but sudden wealth and grief has left him unable to even feign an interest in writing.

Eddie O'Leary is a twenty-two year old from Nebraska, he was a phenomenal baseball batsman, then he was told live on air that he was being traded by Kansas City Athletics to the newly formed New York Robins, Eddie has struggled with impulse control and he let rip about how badly he thought of his new teammates, coach, and female owner. Now he's in New York he can't play for toffee and none of his teammates will speak to him. He doesn't know any other gay men in New York, nor does he know where is safe for him to look for men. On top of all this, the coach is a drunk, Connie Newbold (the new owner) has lost/sacked half the staff, his teammates are either wet around the ears or too long in the tooth, and they go out drinking and clubbing too much.

Mark's editor Nick (who was the subject of the previous book in this series We Could Be So Good) asks him to ghost-write a diary for Eddie, which the team's owner thinks might make him more likeable to the fans. As the two of them meet to discuss Eddie's thoughts on playing baseball, the fans, his batting slump, and so much more these two opposites find themselves falling for each other. But in 1960 homosexuality is still taboo, Mark refuses to act straight any more, or be another man's secret, but any hint of homosexuality could end Eddie's career.

I skim read a review of this book and liked the idea of a sunny/grumpy sports romance, but I was imagining something light and frothy based on the cover. Instead, it felt like a real representation of the problems faced (particularly) by gay men in the 1950s/1960s unless they were in arty professions - indeed my friend Google tells me there have only ever been three out gay professional US major league baseball players in its 175 year history, none of whom officially came out whilst playing in the MLB so its still perceived as an issue. I loved the historical detail of $10 steak meals, the racial abuse suffered by black players, the sexism, the clothes. Basically I felt immersed in 1960.

I love, love, loved this book. I loved snitty Mark and kind-hearted Eddie. I loved all the characters who saw what was developing between Mark and Eddie and had their backs. I'd really like to read Connie's novel.

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Review: An Inheritance of Magic

An Inheritance of Magic by Benedict Jacka
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stephen Oakwood is a bit of a loser. His mother left when he was small, his father mysteriously disappeared three years ago, all he has left now is his cat. He lives in a tiny bedsit and works as a temp at the Ministry of Defence fetching records from the basement. His only unusual quality is his aptitude for Drucraft (magic). The problem is, since his father's disappearance Stephen has no-one to ask about Drucraft, its not public knowledge and searching the internet gives as much fantasy as facts. What he does know is he can use his Drucraft to draw essentia (magical essence) from a magical well and create a sigil, the power is in the shaping and depending on the type of well Stephen can create a sigil which emits light, or one which improves speed etc.

Then one day an aristocratic young woman comes to visit, it turns out she is a sort of cousin to Stephen and a member of one of the elite magical Houses, House Ashford, she is looking for Stephen to be an ally against the current heir-apparent. However, when she discovers Stephen's abilities she quickly turns from potential ally to competitor and tries to eliminate him.

Stephen quickly realises he has been thrust into a vicious contest between cousins to be named the heir of House Ashford and in order to survive he will need to rapidly improve his Drucraft. His wealthy cousins have been educated in Drucraft from an early age and attended Drucraft universities, they are enhanced with sigils which Stephen can only dream of, powerful sigils can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, even millions. Stephen's only hope of earning money is to use his natural ability to sense wells and report unclaimed wells for a bounty.

In some ways I've seen this all before, it's not a dissimilar concept to the Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, there's shades of Harry Potter, the Belgariad, The Tarot Sequence, the Hidden Legacy, and basically any book/film where someone is plucked from obscurity and, despite their lack of training, turns out to be better than anyone else. But that is too simplistic, with all these it is the storytelling that is key and Benedict Jacka is a master storyteller. I loved the juxtaposition between the idea of magical dynasties and twenty-first century capitalism. The way in which the magical elite have commoditised magic so that no-one makes their own sigils anymore, they just buy them, and cheaper sigils only last about two to three years.

Overall, I loved this, I can't believe I missed its release, and I'm gutted that I am going to have to wait until October for the second book.

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Review: Not in My Book

Not in My Book by Katie Holt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rosie is a poor student, studying at NYC, trying to write a romance. She loves everything about her classes, except a guy in her class, Aiden, who sneers at romance (because he writes lit-fic) and gives harsh feedback on every chapter Rosie reads to the class.

When their bickering threatens to derail the class their tutor offers them a stark choice, both leave the class and try to enrol in another, or write a novel together. Knowing their chances of being accepted into another class are slim, they reluctantly agree to work together, writing alternate chapters. In an effort to irritate Aiden Rosie's first chapter features a hero who resembles Aiden and gives him a name loosely based on Aiden's surname. Aiden returns the favour and makes the heroine a barely disguised version of Rosie. Their plot is two rival co-workers forced to work together on a presentation.

This was opposites attract to the max. He's a New Yorker, she's from Tennessee. He's rich, she's poor. He write lit-fic, she writes romance. He's cold and distant, she's a friend to everyone. He has a bad relationship with his father, she has a warm and loving family.

I found this a bit disappointing. The conflict was signalled very early on (practically Vegas flashing lights) and frankly there was no need for the subterfuge. Both Rosie and Aiden behaved irrationally and then 'blamed' it on their fight or flight mechanisms. Also I have a very personal ick about a guy in his early twenties calling his girlfriend baby in bed and some of the other things Aiden said just felt unnatural for someone of his age.

Overall, I felt I'd seen/read it all before, it was a bit clichéd, and I didn't really like Rosie or Aiden.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Dead Lions

Dead Lions by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The apparent death of a former Cold War foot soldier (putting the very best spin on it possible) from a heart attack on a rail replacement bus service didn't raise any flags, except for Jackson Lamb, head of the dumping ground for disgraced former MI5 operatives commonly called Slough House. His investigations indicate that a fictional Russian spymaster may not, after all, have been so fictional and he may have created a Russian sleeper cell in the UK. Or does someone want Slough House to think that?

Slough House has two new operatives, one of whom may (or may not) be a spy planted by Diana Taverner.

Meanwhile, since Regents Park is being audited following misappropriation of funds by a senior member, 'Spider' Webb has recruited two Slough House operatives to babysit a Russian oligarch on his visit to London. Spider hopes to 'recruit' the Russian as an ally against the faint possibility that he could rise to power.

I enjoyed this, but not as much as the first book. It may just be that I didn't read it practically at one sitting like the first one, but I found it somewhat disjointed flipping between the babysitting job and the hunt for the Cold War spy, which itself took place at Slough House and in the Cotswolds simultaneously.

Now the dilemma, do I watch the TV series (since I've just got a three month free trial of Apple TV+) or carry on reading?

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Review: Textbook Romance

Textbook Romance by Kristen Bailey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

When Zoe Swift meets Jack Damon at a colleague's wedding she finds him easy to talk to, and kind of flirty considering she's fifteen years older than him. Then in an instant one phone call overturns her happy family life.

A few months later, Jack turns up as a supply teacher at the school where Zoe teaches maths. He's just as easy to talk to, kind, and flirty as she remembers, but now her circumstances are very different, and with two angry, devastated teenagers at home she doesn't have the bandwidth for romance, until two well-meaning friends set them up.

I always enjoy a Kristen Bailey novel, she truly does write rom-coms, in this case there are some dodgy and ambiguous emojis flying around. However, this one doesn't hit the heights of my all-time favourite Can I Give My Husband Back?.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: A Deadly Discovery

A Deadly Discovery by Ciar Byrne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Virginia (Ginny) Woolf and her husband Leonard, together with her sister Vanessa (Nessa) Bell and her (former) lover Duncan live in Rodwell, close to Lewes, West Sussex (in separate houses, in case that wasn't clear). As some of the advanced wave of Londoners moving to West Sussex, Ginny feels superior to most of the others such as Mrs Daphne Rivers, whose husband's origins were very working class until he made sufficient money as a stockbroker in the City to buy one of the grandest houses in the village, or Mrs Alice Dudeney, a successful author of romantic novels.

One day, Ginny and Nessa get dragged by Mrs Rivers into meeting her son Gideon, an extraordinarily handsome young man, and feted archaeologist, together with his fiancé Jasmine Zain Al-Din, the daughter of a wealthy French-Syrian family.

However, the next day the village is shocked to learn that Gideon was murdered, battered to death by his own tools at the dig site where he had recently uncovered a small tablet thought to have been brought back from the Crusades. Worse still, Ginny's gardener's son-in-law has been arrested by the local police for the murder. Ginny's gardener and his daughter implore Ginny to reason with the police detective and/or find the real killer.

As befits the Bloomsbury Set, everyone appears to have multiple lovers, both male and female, and there are multiple possible motives for murder including jealousy (from numerous people), illegitimate children, professional rivalry, and potentially money. Everyone is lying about knowing other people. Suspicion lands on one person after another. There is also a mysterious figure in black haunting the lanes/following people.

I'll say straight off that I've never warmed to Virginia Woolf or her writing so she was going to be a difficult character for me to like. However, my issue with this book was that it wasn't sure whether it wanted to be a fictional story about the Woolfs and the Bells, with lots of detail about the décor in Nessa's house and their friends, or a cosy mystery and it sort of fell between two stools for me.

I have some reservations about the method the murderer used and why they killed some people but not others. Also I question the physical appearance of the tool the murderer used. (view spoiler)[Would a hypodermic needle look like a sewing needle, and also why would the murderer discard the needle? I thought perhaps they were using a blow dart at first. (hide spoiler)]

I note that there are other cosy mysteries featuring famous people (the Mitfords spring to mind) and I have avoided them for the same reason I have issues with this book. Totally off topic, but if I were writing this sort of cosy fiction I would make our detective famous-person-adjacent eg a fictional friend or servant, that way the reader can peep into the lifestyle but focus on the mystery.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gareth Inglis lives a quiet life of desperation, clerk in his uncle's law practice, his only pleasure his meetings with like-minded gentlemen at the Three Ducks pub in London. Recently he has met a man there 'Kent' who knows him only as 'London' and they have developed a strong affection for each other. Then everything changes, his uncle sacks him, his lover announces he is returning home to Kent, and he discovers that his father has died, making him Sir Gareth and leaving him Tench House in Romney Marsh in Kent, an 'aunt', and a half-sister of whom he knew nothing.

Walking on the Marshes one night looking for nocturnal beetles, Gareth sees what is clearly a group of smugglers and their ponies laden with contraband. Although his aunt tells him that everyone on the Marshes turns a blind eye to the smugglers, and their leader Joss Doomsday, and in return they get their silks, brandy and tea, Gareth is unconvinced and when two of the smugglers get into an argument he realises that one of them is a girl he's seen before in Dymchurch. Gareth mentions this to his family, and his sister tells her beau, who happens to be a Revenue officer and the next thing Gareth knows he is being asked to testify against the girl, Sophy Doomsday in court. Twice messengers from Joss Doomsday suggest he should not testify, or ask him to meet Joss but Gareth refuses to be intimidated, until he stands up in court to testify and Joss Doomsday walks into court and it is none other than 'Kent' from the Three Ducks!

After resolving their differences Joss and Gareth secretly resume their relationship, but it seems that Gareth's father was involved in some shady dealings and his business partners think Gareth is involved.

I only recently discovered KJ Charles' books and I love them, so when I saw the Kindle version of this book had been reduced, snapping it up was a no-brainer. Love, love, loved it, loved Gareth, loved Joss, loved seeing young Luke. Also, as I live in Kent, it was lovely seeing places like Dymchurch and Rye in a book.

Thoroughly recommended.

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Review: Killing Time

Killing Time by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Someone is selling Moai from Easter Island. Mikey has developed Rapidly Hardening String and testing it on Time Police volunteers. Two young trainspotters have built a time machine in their shed and used it to travel back to Italy where they want to witness the inaugural journey of the notorious Zanetti Train which departed Rome in 1911 and was seen entering the Lombardy tunnel as planned, but never emerged from the other end of the tunnel. Various alleged sightings of the train have been recorded in Mexico, in the Ukraine, in Russia, in Modena all through time. The Weird Squad or Team 236 as they prefer to be known are barely speaking to each other. The Time Police are stretched very thin.

I really enjoyed this, but at the same time I wanted it to be longer and have more going on! I'm intrigued with the Grint/Jane/Luke dynamic and I'm warring against myself as to what outcome I'm rooting for (that should probably be 'for which outcome I am rooting' but it feels too stuffy).

Anyway, it isn't really a cliff-hanger, but also, THAT ENDING!

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Review: Last Dance with the Texas Bull Rider

Last Dance with the Texas Bull Rider by Rebecca Crowley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Jessa Star was a gifted ballerina until an accident ended her career. After a brief hiatus in Hawaii she returned to her hometown of Last Stand, Texas where she now teaches ballet to children. Jessa has always cared deeply about what other people think, perhaps because her twin Amy so blatantly didn't care so she felt she had to be the good girl. All she wants is to find a sensible man and settle down to be a credit to the community.

Then when visiting the Last Stand Rodeo, Jessa is shocked to see Caleb "Calamity" Ross competing. While in Hawaii she and Caleb had a hot fling and impulsively got married. When Caleb sees Jessa in the audience he is momentarily stunned and ends up being flattened by a bull. Jessa feels obligated to let Caleb stay with her while he is recovering from his injuries. But while Caleb's messy habits annoy the ultra-organised Jessa, she can't help but enjoy his company and his unwavering support for her and her dreams.

Caleb has never had a home, not since his first marriage imploded and his ultra-religious parents blamed him, can he stop wandering and settle down?

This was a pleasant opposites attract romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher Tule.

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Review: The Secret War of Julia Child

The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R. Chambers
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

I loved Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen and the recent TV series about Julia Childs so when I saw this fictionalised account of Julia's WW2 experience in the OSS and meeting Paul Childs I was eager to request an ARC from NetGalley.

Julia McWilliams was working as a Washington file clerk during WW2, in control of the File Registry for the head of the OSS "Wild Bill" Donovan. Eager to become an agent, successfully petitions/manoeuvres Donovan into letting her set up the File Registry in India, which leads her to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Singapore, Burma, and China.

All I can express about this is disappointment. I feel like Diana Chambers has done a lot of research, reading biographies and autobiographies of many of the characters in this book, but then in the afterword she says Julia might have done X, or seen Y, or could have done Z - so the reader feels like basically all the interesting things are totally fictitious. Added to which this reads like a slightly superficial factual account, maybe an outline for a film, or a historical text written for a younger audience. So now I don't know how much (if anything) is real and how much is fiction, and if its fiction why is it so dry? The 'romance' between Julia and Paul is dreadful, he comes across as having a superiority complex and she comes across as desperate. Overall, this felt like it missed the mark on both fact and fiction, I didn't learn anything about Julia Childs' earlier life because I can't tell what the author made up, and the fiction wasn't enjoyable.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Catch a Kiwi

Catch a Kiwi by Rosalind James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Meet Summer, brought up in a trailer park by a single mother who tried her best but didn't always make the best choices (although with a small pre-school child what employment opportunities are there?). She found fame on a reality TV survival show, married a big-shot soccer player, got arrested for fraud, although later acquitted. Now she and her cousin Delilah are trying to make ends meet and stay under the radar by taking cleaning jobs and living in a camper van in New Zealand.

If you thought Summer's formerly golden life couldn't get any crappier, then strap in. The camper van gets caught in a tropical cyclone in the middle of nowhere and rolls down a hillside with Delilah trapped inside.

Roman is a self-made millionaire. Also the child of a less-than-stellar upbringing, after two marriages and two divorces he's decided he's just not cut out to be in a relationship. When he discovers the mailbox outside his South Island weekend home in splinters he's initially more irritated than alarmed, until he hears a woman calling for help. While every rational instinct tells Roman not to get involved, not to try to White Knight the two young women, especially since Summer repeatedly tells him they don't need his help, he offers to let them stay at his home until they can retrieve their belongings from the campervan.

What happens when you put two hard-working, stand-on-their-own-two-feet, people who have both been burned by love before in forced proximity? Well what do you think?

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's Rosalind James so its still light years better than half the books out there. The characters have complex back-stories and aren't 100% good or bad. Nevertheless, I had a bit of deja vu about this book, it felt too similar to other books Rosalind James has written. Also, it makes sense that everyone knows everyone from the previous books in the rugby series but this felt a little too forced, there were three connections to previous books/series and that felt like maybe two too many in one book. Overall, (three, two, one) I liked it but I didn't love it.

Also available on Kindle Unlimited.



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