Review: The Mystery of the Missing Frenchman: A Historical Mystery Women

The Mystery of the Missing Frenchman: A Historical Mystery Women by H.L. Marsay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Based on the real-life policewoman Dorothy Peto, this series has settled down into a pleasant cosy detective series with less emphasis on the accurate historical detail, although it is still there, just not so prominent. Dorothy has been seconded to Scotland Yard during WW1 to assist while so many men are on the Front. A charming Frenchman, Colonel Cartier approaches Scotland Yard on a delicate matter, his cousin the Marquis de Nagay has disappeared in London, together with three rather fine sapphires worth £50,000. Meanwhile, London is being plagued by a spate of thefts of jewellery from members of the aristocracy who are all baying for Scotland Yard to find their heirlooms.

They discover that the Marquis left London to visit Yorkshire and the home of Lady Birkbeck, the mother of a former school friend who was killed at the Somme, he was also expected to visit a local factory in which he had a substantial investment. Following her son's death, lady Birkbeck has thrown herself into trying to save other young men, even giving over most of her home to house a hospital for wounded soldiers.

As they try to track down the elusive Marquis Dorothy and the Colonel find themselves embroiled with Communists, Irish republicans, criminals, mysterious bandaged men, and men dodging conscription.

I enjoyed this, I suspected what had happened (although I got some of the logistics wrong). However, I did think Dorothy was a bit gullible.

Looking forward to the next one.

I received an ARC from the publisher.

View all my reviews

Review: Murder in Portofino

Murder in Portofino by T.A. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Dan Armstrong, his girlfriend Anna, and his dog Oscar have gone to Portofino for a long weekend of sightseeing, walking, Bob Dylan, and gastronomy. Eating dinner at a restaurant after the Bob Dylan concert Dan and Anna's meal is overshadowed by the loud and drunken activities of a large group of people in the private dining room. Imagine Dan's surprise when some of the rowdy crowd turn out to be famous British comedians and TV presenters. Dan also overhears a conversation between two men who seem very unhappy about a third man, with threats of violence being made.

Their min-break is progressing well, until Dan discovers that one of the rowdy crowd has been murdered. Thinking that the conversation he overheard might be important he explains the discussion to the detective in charge of the case, and promptly gets roped into the investigation, much to Anna's chagrin.

Oh, and Dan has also been roped into investigating the disappearance of a young British woman who has been teaching English as a foreign language, she hasn't answered her phone in days and her parents back in England are frantic with worry, although her older sister just suspects she has lost her charger and has gone off with her latest boyfriend.

A previous gripe was that everything got way too complicated (I think there was one book where one person killed someone, then they were killed by someone else in revenge and so on). Luckily this one was relatively straightforward and although there were numerous suspects there were sufficient doubts to keep you guessing.

Overall, you know where you are with these books. Cosy retired copper and his trusty dog solve mysteries against the backdrop of the gorgeous Italian countryside, with copious luscious descriptions of delicious-sounding food.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: Death at the Sign of the Rook

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would have sworn blind I'd read all of the Jackson Brodie books but Goodreads tells me different. Anyway, when I saw this ARC on Goodreads I jumped at the chance to read the latest instalment.

Jackson is a PI, his lucrative Russian clientele have fallen away and he is reduced to working for a rather unpleasant set of twins who claim their late mother's home help helped herself to paining which had sentimental value. Whilst Jackson can clearly see there is a place where a painting once hung, he is unconvinced by the frankly wooden explanations given by the pair and feels there must be more to the story. However, as he investigates he discovers that the home help used a burner phone, a fake reference, and a fake name. Could the painting be a lost master? Could it have been stolen during WW2, or was it seized by the Nazis (which of course is also stealing)? Jackson reaches out to an old friend and discovers that there may be some similarities with a theft two years ago of a Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to the Dowager Lady Milton and her family.

The Milton family have been selling off their valuables to keep the house afloat, the new Lord Milton has turned one wing into a hotel, repurposed some buildings as Airbnbs, and sold off others. His latest venture is to sell Murder Mystery weekends with a small acting troupe portraying an Agatha Christie-esque story for the guests to solve. However, with laughable consequences, it turns out that a real vicar, sleuth, thief, murderer, and army major also arrive at the house unexpectedly.

This is the second detective novel I have read in the last few days which has played with the detective genre (by which I mean played 52-card pickup with the foundation stones) and I loved it. I loved seeing Jackson Brodie again. I loved everything about this.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: The Cracked Mirror

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was debating with myself how much I could actually say about this book, but the blurb does it neatly for me:

You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a twinset and tweed.

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes.

Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation. It will end with a rabbit hole that goes so deep, Johnny and Penny might come to question not just whodunnit, but whether they want to know the answer.

So I was trying to reconcile these two parallel stories (well actually there are three), one minute I'm in a sleepy English village with an octogenarian little old lady who has somehow solved multiple murders, the next I'm in Hollywood with a hard-boiled PI - maybe I should have read the blurb LOL.

Penny Coyne is beginning to think she might be losing her memory, especially when she receives an invitation to a swish wedding at a Scottish castle which will also signify the merger of two publishing houses. Penny has no inkling of why she has been invited, surely briefly working for the groom's father forty-plus years ago can't be the reason?

Johnny is investigating what looks like a clear case of suicide in a Hollywood film set, but he's not convinced, then his new partner is killed after someone deliberately torches the film studio to conceal the evidence. His only clue is that the deceased man's writing partner has left LA for Scotland to attend a wedding. The longer Johnny is in Scotland the more similarities he sees between his case in LA and the events in Scotland - almost as if his was the film version and this is the book ...

I have never read a Chris Brookmyre novel before, although my sister has recommended him to me, so I had no idea what to expect. It did take a while to get into this, particularly when the book wrenches from Hollywood to a sleepy Scottish village and back again, but once Penny and Johnny were both at the wedding things started to come together. I must admit I had a smidgen of suspicion about what was happening, but the unravelling of the plot(s) was very satisfying.

Overall, I loved it, a total Mindf*ck.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: London Rules

London Rules by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Roddy Ho has a girlfriend. I repeat Roddy Ho has a girlfriend.

Having got rid of the Bo-Jo lookie-likee Mick Herron now turns his thinly disguised lens to the Clacton scourge Nigel Smug-arge, in a showboating character who defects from the Tories to join a right-wing party so vile that even he can't stomach them. Determined to destabilise the PM (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Liz Jockstrap (sorry I saw it on a Gogglebox repeat last night - 'Truss, its like jockstrap isn't it?') by disclosing at a public meeting that her latest Muslim protegee has been doing something untoward. The showboat is aided and abetted by his wife, a tabloid journalist who intends to publish the incriminating evidence. Meanwhile, said Muslim is likely to be the next Mayor of a major regional city, he has weathered the news that his brother became radicalised and was killed in a targeted missile strike, and is well-known for supporting ex-cons and helping them to find work.

The UK is being hit by a seemingly unconnected series of attacks, possibly by a group of incompetents, but J.K. Coe with his amazing memory figures out that someone might have resurrected an old British playbook and is using it against them.

This is probably the first book where I noted that Herron often uses the trick of misdirection, describing something which leads your mind to imagine X and then later you discover it wasn't even a letter of the alphabet - unfortunately, in the next book I found it more irritating than clever, but I digress.

Can the Slow Horses foil the incompetent terrorists before they complete their mission?

I enjoyed this, the humour, particularly in relation to Roddy Ho, was off the scale and I particularly liked the Jason Stillborn quip (still snorting with laughter just typing it), but the body count is becoming stratospheric and I am starting to feel that some new characters maybe the spy equivalent of the Star Trek redshirt.

On to the next one, which as you may have gathered I have already read :)

View all my reviews

Review: Thieves' Gambit

Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rosalyn 'Ross' Quest has been brought up as a master thief by her mother Rhiannon and the Quest family. However, she is beginning to find her life stifling and has planned to leave to take up a gymnastics course. She and her mother are on a heist and Ross is about to desert her family when it all goes wrong, her mother gets captured (and recognised). The captors demand a ransom of $1 billion and the only way Ross can see of getting that kind of money is by entering the Thieves Gambit, where the winner has one wish granted, no matter how big.

The Thieves Gambit is an annual competition, invitational-only, where a group of hand-selected thieves compete in a no-holds-barred competition to steal priceless artifacts, art, etc. Imagine Ross' horror when one of the first competitors she runs into is her former BFF turned nemesis Noelia, who wastes no time in forming an alliance with one of the other competitors, guess its true what her mother says, you can't trust anyone other than a Quest.

There's subterfuge, violence, double-crosses, romance, and high stakes car chases.

Loved it. Others have compared it to The Inheritance Games and/or Oceans Eleven and it does have those vibes. I felt some of the 'twists' were a bit obvious, although I suspected a Bodyguard-style plot. In the subsequent books I would like Nicholi (Noelia's younger brother to play more of a role, dare I say love interest?

Anyway, a fun read with lost to keep the reader interested.

I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: The Break-Up Pact

The Break-Up Pact by Emma Lord
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

June left her home town to travel the world with her boyfriend Griffin, but when her older sister Anna died she returned home (with some relief) to run the tea and scone shop they had dreamed of together. Unable to stand being dispensable, Griffin dumps June live on his reality TV show by introducing her to 'the love of his life'. Bad enough to be publicly humiliated, but June also becomes a social media meme titled 'the crying girl'.

June, Anna, and their brother Dylan were all friends with Levi at high school, June even had a major crush on him, but he moved to New York to become (gasp) a hedge fund manager and he and June haven't spoken for years. When Levi's artist girlfriend publicly cheats on him with probably the world's sexiest actor (I'm thinking George Clooney - basically someone on everyone's pass card), Levi returns home to finish writing his novel.

As soon as June and Levi run into each other their old camaraderie flourishes, and their mutual fried suggests the two of them change the narrative by posing as a rebound couple - something that takes the internet by storm. But with unresolved issues from their past, scheming exes, a voracious internet, and a failing tea shop to deal with, the course of true love never did run smooth.

I liked the premise of this, the fake dating didn't last more than about 30 seconds and that was okay. However, what dragged this down for me was just how much verbiage there was about everything, honestly I was ready for the book to be over a long time before it was finished. Maybe there were too many side plots (eg dead sister, planning brother's wedding, fake dating, failing business, Levi's writing, etc). I would compare this to Jamie Beck with a little les angst (rereading some of my reviews they were quite vitriolic) but there does appear to be quite a bit of navel-gazing, angsty introspection that I don't enjoy - if you enjoy that then I think you'll love this. SO I'm basically saying I'm shallow and I like my romances light on the angsty introspection LOL.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: The Case of the Lonely Accountant (The Finder Mysteries)

The Case of the Lonely Accountant (The Finder Mysteries) by Simon Mason
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

One day, at the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Don Bayliss walked out of a meeting in the office and was never seen again, a pile of his clothes and possessions was found near Poole Harbour and the assumption was that he had committed suicide. Eight years later his widow, a local councillor and wealthy in her own right, finds Dwight Fricker's business card amongst her husband's things. Mr Fricker is a well-known local businessman with several illegal activities who is currently in solitary confinement in prison after attacking two guards - he is known to be psychotically violent. The local police re-open the missing persons file and call in 'the Finder'.

The Finder discovers Don to be a man of contradictions, a typical boring accountant who also lied to a neighbour unnecessarily. A kind and caring boss who opened doors for women and was generally respectful, but who sexually harassed a young woman in the office. A scrupulously honest employee who embezzled money from the company. Someone who presented as content with his life who was found weeping in quiet desperation by a colleague.

I enjoyed this, but reading it immediately after the first book in the series I felt it was too similar in the premise (not wanting to spoil the ending). Also, as I feared, the Finder's quirk is that he just happens to be reading a novel which sheds some light/has some bearing on the case he is working on.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: Missing Person: Alice (The Finder Mysteries)

Missing Person: Alice (The Finder Mysteries) by Simon Mason
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I only requested this book because I wanted to read the next book in the series, then I saw that it was based around Sevenoaks in Kent, which is very close to where I live, so I thought I would request this too.

Our narrator, 'the Finder' of the series, is an Iraqi-born former police detective who assists police forces in finding missing people.

When a young girl's body is found in a lake near Sevenoaks there is evidence linking her to a local man, Vince Burns. Mr Burns is relishing the notoriety and seems keen to imply that there may be other victims, he seems to want to be a famous serial killer. Nine years ago a twelve year old girl called Alice Johnson went missing while on her paper-round and her body was never found. The local police call on the Finder to find Alice('s body) and hopefully pin her murder on Vince Burns.

As the Finder retraces Alice's steps and reinterviews anyone who knew her then, he finds a child of great contradictions. Where des the truth lie?

This is a difficult book to categorise. Its a quiet, thoughtful, measured detective story, with the Finder trying to get inside Alice's head just as much as following clues and re-interviewing people. He also analyses the people he interviews to assess their credibility. We often say people piece together the evidence and that is a very good way of describing this detective process. Nothing felt like a leap of imagination or something obscure mentioned in passing, everything followed logically, including a few blind alleys.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. My only gripe was the references to the book the Finder was reading - I do hope his reading matter won't be some kind of allegory/commentary on each missing person in the series. On to book 2.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: Liv Is Not A Loser

Liv Is Not A Loser by Lauren Ford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Olivia 'Liv' Granger has trouble committing, to a career, to a hot drink, to an apartment, to a boyfriend, to a new phone, to her degree. When her brother Joe gets engaged to his boyfriend she realises that everyone else seems to have their lives together whereas she is still acting like a teenager. Together with her brother, his boyfriend, and her brother's best friend Henry, Liv creates a ten point list to stop her being such a loser (I can only remember seven):

1. Finish her degree
2. Get an internship in her chosen field
3. Sign a lease
4. Get a new phone
5. Commit to one hot drink (I feel in this I need to explain that she routinely buys three drinks at a time)
6. Have at least three dates with a guy before rejecting him
7. Keep a pet alive

Liv starts to make headway with her list, despite being dragged into wedding planning by her obsessive mother, and forced to meet yet another of her father's new girlfriends (each of whom believes she is far more special to him than she really is), but her dating life is terrible - it is only the calm acceptance and commiserations from Henry that keeps her going. But when Liv overhears a conversation between her niece and Henry she realises Henry may have feelings for her and when she looks at him in the light of this new knowledge she realises she might have feelings for him too.

Whilst I get that Liv was stuck in a bit of a rut, I also felt that her family/friends were pushing her into a pigeonhole (maybe because she was the youngest they felt she still needed to be babied and/or told what to do?), really is it too much for someone to want three drinks? Really is your reality so rigid?

I've read a couple of similar books recently and this one didn't really stand out from the rest. There was a bit too much therapy-style chat and things just quickly fell into place when Liv started her list. How many times have I said this? I liked it but I didn't love it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: A Proper Façade

A Proper Façade by Esther Hatch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Nicholas Kendrick, Duke of Harrington, had an affair with an engaged woman when he was seventeen, they were not discreet and only his late father's actions in enlisting him in the army prevented it from becoming a scandal. Nicholas' father had single-handedly rescued the family's reputation after a series of philanderers and dissolute gamblers had made them notorious. Now, with his reckless pursuit of his own desires, Nicholas came close to ruining the family's reputation again.

Once he came to see the error of his ways, particularly after his father's untimely death, Nicholas has become a model of propriety, terrified of allowing his emotions to rule his head. He has parliamentary ambitions to relieve the suffering of the Irish people and needs his fellow peers to take him seriously and award him the same respect as his father. He decides he needs a wife, preferably someone who can help him with his ambitions. Lady Mercy Rothschild fits the bill, her father holds similar political views, she is of the right sort of family, and she is a beauty to boot so Nicholas proceeds most properly with a sedate courtship, desperate to legitimise his passions within the bounds of holy matrimony.

Mercy's parents have always been kind and loving, allowing her considerably more freedoms than other girls of her age. She has strong political views and is determined to marry for love, just like her older sister and her best friend, just indeed as her parents did. Until recently, Mercy's parents supported her wishes and were content for her to find love in her own time. However, Mercy's parents have suddenly started pressurising her to consider the Duke of Harrington's suit, he might be handsome but his stilted address and serious mien are totally at odds with the passion she seeks. So, to avoid disappointing her parents Mercy looks for other suitable young ladies that he might court instead.

This was pleasantly enjoyable. However, there was a little too much of Mercy discounting the obvious about Nicholas' passions (and indeed Nicholas assuming that when Mercy pulled away from a kiss it was with revulsion) and neither of the young women Mercy tried to set up with Nicholas would have furthered his political career so from that standpoint (given that was why Mercy was against the proposal in the first place) the set-ups seemed ill thought through.

Loved the cover, very Mr Darcy views Pemberley.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: The Lonely Hearts' Quiz League

The Lonely Hearts' Quiz League by Lauren Farnsworth
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 47%.

I really tried with this, but after seven months and at nearly halfway through I've got to say I just don't feel any sympathy for any of the characters. They are all deluded or just plain stupid and I can't bear to read them making bad decisions or setting themselves up for failure, I can see where it is all going and it doesn't end well.

Not for me.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: Spook Street

Spook Street by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of London's shopping centres is rocked by a suicide bomber who appears to have orchestrated a flash mob dance routine just so that he could cause maximum carnage.

Over at Regents Park Dame Ingrid is out (as indeed is Bojo lookilikey Peter Judd) and there's a new First Desk. Lady Di is still there trying to manipulate the new First Desk who has come from outside MI5. In addition there's a new head of the Dogs, a woman. No sooner has the Frist Desk advised the PM of their provisional findings about the bombing when Lady Di drops the news that the bomber's ID is one that had been carefully curated by MI5 during the Cold War - they key being that it wasn't a fake ID, it was a genuine ID just not assigned to a warm body. Somehow, someone in MI5 has stolen a number of these 'Products' and it has only just been discovered.

Meanwhile, at Slough House Catherine Standish has been replaced by a woman nominated by the First Chair, everyone else is much the same, except Rive Cartwright is worried that the O.B. (his grandfather) appears to be becoming increasingly forgetful and paranoid. Given the O.B. was once the power behind the First Chair throne River is worried that Regents Park may decide the only way to ensure the O.B. doesn't start spilling state secrets is to silence him permanently.

Another great instalment in this series, the Slough House body count continues to rise (in more ways than one), I guessed some parts of the plot but others eluded me.

View all my reviews

Review: Just for Me

Just for Me by Rosalind James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first read this as part of an anthology, but felt in need of a pick-me-up so read it again. We have seen some of this story in previous books, notably Just Say (Hell) No which was Marko and Nyree's book and Just Come Over which was Rhys and Zora's book.

So Luke is Nyree's half-brother. He's a professional rugby player, as is his younger brother Kane, which is unsurprising since his father Grant was the All Blacks coach for many years. Luke left NZ for Europe and now plays for a Paris rugby team, with a British mother he has also captained England. What no-one knows because he has kept it a closely guarded secret, even from his family, is that Luke is gay. But after his latest romance goes South because of the secrecy, Luke worries that he is suppressing too much. The one thing he can do is go back to NZ for his sister's wedding and take some of the heat of their father's displeasure off her shoulders.

Hayden is Zora's openly gay brother, a New Zealand contract lawyer, he's just found out that his boyfriend has got back together with his ex, without bothering to tell Hayden. Definitely a case of having his cake and wanting it too. Not only that, but he makes it very clear that Hayden was only temporary, a fling, before the two of them got back together, because Hayden is too boring, too pedestrian, too middle-class to be a long-term thing.

Hayden and Luke meet at Zora's where Nyree is painting a beautiful mural on Rhys' daughter Casey's bedroom, having previously painted Zora's son Isaiah's ceiling, as the wedding is rapidly approaching she has enlisted everyone to help. Both instantly smitten, Luke can't imagine what a sophisticated, cultured man like Hayden could see in a hairy, taciturn, scarred bear of a man like him, whereas Hayden can't imagine what appeal a boring talkative lawyer could have for a strong, internationally famous athlete.

But is Luke willing to be out-out with his team as well as his friends and family, and how can a relationship work when one of you lives in Paris and the other lives in New Zealand?

This was just delicious from start to finish. Luke and Hayden were such a lovely couple and I'm glad we got to see more of them.

Loved it just as much second read.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

View all my reviews

Review: Real Tigers

Real Tigers by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The third outing for the Slow Horses of Slough House. London is in the grip of a long hot summer. Catherine Standish leaves Slough House at the end of the day, only to be approached by a ghost from her drinking past, a disgraced former high-ranking soldier who has recently been released from prison. She evades him but shortly afterwards is kidnapped and taken to an unknown location in the country.

All our favourite characters make an appearance, Dame Ingrid plays more of a role than previously as she and Lady Di jostle for power in Regents Park. Meanwhile, the brilliantly sketched psychopath Peter Judd continues his bid for power. But as Aretha Franklin said, who's zoomin' who? Inevitably Slough House are dragged into this by all the other players, desperate to have plausible deniability.

After a slight disappointment with the second book, I felt this was right back up there. Loved it.

View all my reviews

Review: The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal

The Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

At last the origin story of bounty hunters extraordinaire: Lady Amelia Smallhope and Pennyroyal, well Smallhope at least, I don't think I know much more about Pennyroyal's background.

Lady Amelia Smallhope meets Pennyroyal for the first time when he steals the diamonds she inherited from her mother from her rapacious sister-in-law's safe. Soon the two of them have fled the scene (avec les diamonds naturellement) and Pennyroyal has transported Amelia to London in the blink of an eye.

With a sick friend to assist and grasping moneylenders, Smallhope and Pennyroyal decide to become bounty hunters - and so the legend was born.

It seems odd to gripe when I loved this book so much but I still don't know much about Pennyroyal's origins (ooo hope there's another book), also I wanted to see all those missions involving St Mary's and/or the Time Police from Smallhope and Pennyroyal's POV but instead they were just mentioned in passing, I would have been happy for the passages to be copied verbatim from the relevant other books if necessary and I think that this might be a hard read for a newcomer to the series (what is the plural of series?).

Anyway, gripes aside, loved it, loved it, loved it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: Daydreamer

Daydreamer by Susie Tate
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lucy Mayweather has a tendency to daydream, in fact her daydreaming has made her a very successful fantasy author under the name LP Mayweather, but she can live in her own little world too much which is why she took a job as Executive Assistant in her brother's best friend Felix's London office. Unfortunately, the kind boy Lucy remembers is now a hard-nosed businessman whose office runs on fear and pressure.

Since he left their small village all those years ago Felix hasn't really thought about Lucy much, he certainly doesn't know that her knack for storytelling has brought her fame and fortune. He thinks Lucy needs the job and that otherwise her mother (his former nanny) would have to support her, so he does everything he can to get Lucy to toughen up, fit in, and generally become a corporate drone.

Despite his misgivings, and breaking the bro code, Felix and Lucy come together and things are good, but Lucy still hasn't come clean about her writing and Felix has deep-seated trust issues after a previous girlfriend betrayed him. Unfortunately, those two things come together in a flashpoint that could tear them apart.

I read this twice. The first time I didn't love it, felt there was something missing, maybe I was looking for the humour or the badassery of some of the previous books/series. However, I reread it (mainly because I didn't write a review at the time and didn't have enough recall to write one afterwards) and really loved it. Felix is just such a steamroller when he wants to get things done he gets blinkered and he genuinely couldn't see any other way of doing things, or any other conclusion to draw. Despite Lucy having been in love with Felix since she was a child (and basing every single hero in her books on him), she does stand up for herself and call out Felix for never having showed any curiosity about her.

Overall, loved this and can't wait for Gold Digger, the next book in the series.

I received an ARC from the author.

Available on Kindle Unimited.

Sadly, this was the last book I read on my Kindle which I accidentally left on the platform of East Dulwich train station on Sunday afternoon - when I got back it had gone - farewell my lovely.

View all my reviews