Review: An Academic Affair

An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sadie Shaw and Jonah Fisher have been bitter rivals since practically the first day of college. For fifteen years they have competed for everything, top of the class, teaching positions, grants, you name it. What both of them want, but neither has, is a permanent teaching position. Meanwhile, the two of them have somehow ended in a house-share *and* co-teach some literature classes. Sadie's speciality is modern romance (ie populist) whereas Jonah's is more traditional Shakespearian drama and the like. Also, at their graduation, Sadie's sister got into a screaming argument with Jonah's father.

Sadie didn't have the greatest start in life, her father left them when she was very young and their mother checked out of parental responsibilities so she was practically raised by her older sister Francesca ('Chess'). As a consequence, money is tight and the two sisters are very close.

Jonah on the other hand comes from a family of academics, his father is famous and his mother was a student/researcher in his father's classes. However, he is not close to any of his family, his father forced them to participate in debates at meal times and pitted sibling against sibling.

Fast forward, Jonah is trying to be a better brother and all round person. He hates the privilege he receives as a middle class white male with connections and tries to be an ally to Sadie (and other females) wherever possible.

When Jonah's father lets slip that his older sister's husband has left her and their two small children for his other secret family, Jonah wants to do whatever he can to help, but being in Sydney while she lives in Tasmania is difficult. Then a teaching job comes up in Hobart which seems perfect. The only trouble is the successful candidate will have expertise in one of four areas, including Shakespearian drama and modern romance. Could this be their fiercest contest?

The employment contract has a clause agreeing to spousal hire (if they are in a similar field) so Sadie concocts a plot to get married, that way Jonah can move to Hobart to be near his sister - after all they have been living together (platonically) for years. But working together every day and spending evenings at home may change things forever.

Told from both POVs, this was a fun romance, with plenty of references to romantic tropes and plot devices (eg forced to share a bed, marriage of convenience etc). As always, great to get some recommendations of other romances to read and/or validation of your reading choices.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Hitwoman: The new action-packed hilarious thriller rom-com for 2025

Hitwoman: The new action-packed hilarious thriller rom-com for 2025 by Elsie Marks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Maisie Baxter is a hitwoman for Novum, a boutique 'ethical' assassination service. She founded the organisation with her boss Gabby, a minor celebrity and charity advocate (think Spring Watch and Save the Hedgehogs), they have expanded and now have a second assassin, Owen (good looking but not very bright), a tech guy, Jason, and an admin person Sophie. One of Novum's key tenets is that Maisie (or Owen) can veto a target if they don't consider them to have committed a heinous crime, something Maisie is very proud of, and she loves that Gabby respects her choices.

When we meet Maisie she is on a job for a mysterious anonymous client (not so odd as who wants a team of assassins to know your name) who is also very specific about what they want Maisie to do and when and how, including arranging for her exfiltration. The job goes without a hitch and later the team are introduced to the mysterious client, Pascal Robertson, elusive billionaire CEO of ILS, a company which has created the world's first green fertiliser. Pascal has discovered that some of his senior management have been selling the fertiliser illegally to terrorist organisations to help them make bombs and he is determined to root out all the bad eggs ... the permanent way.

The following week, Maisie (in disguise) is headed to a Young Farmer's Festival where one of ILS's board is giving a keynote speech. She has orders to assassinate him during that speech. After setting up the tent for the following morning she joins the festivities at the bar and bumps into a handsome man who looks as out of place as she feels, the strong cider helps them form an instant connection and they end up spending the night together. The next day, Maisie watches as the ILS director is making his speech, ready to (literally) push the button, when suddenly a light fitting swings down towards him, killing him instantly. Coincidence? Or is there more than one team of assassins hired? Could it be someone from Removals Inc, Novum's main competitor who would kill their own mother if the price was right?

But when the same guy turns up at Maisie's next hit, she realises sweet, shy Will could be working for the opposition.

This gave off similar vibes to the Brangelina film Mr and Mrs Smith, and probably for that reason I did enjoy it, but it didn't feel very original.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.


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Review: Cairo Gambit

Cairo Gambit by S.W. Perry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Its 1938, Europe is on the brink of war. Primrose Nevendon lives a rather Bohemian lifestyle as a freelance stage designer with her Italian mother and a collection of artists and philospohers that call themselves (rather grandly) the Bevern Fraternity. Her father Archie left them when she was small and she has barely seen or heard from him since. He is now a director of Anglo-Levantine Oil in Cairo whilst also running his late brother Nim's theatre.

Then two Special Branch police officers come calling, Archie has gone missing in Egypt and they are concerned that he might have sold secrets about British oil pipelines and the like to the Germans and/or Italians, especially since Prim herself was briefly a member of the British Union of Fascists until she realised that they were just as bad as the Communists and didn't really want change for the masses - just for the leaders.

Prim decides to travel to Egypt to find her father. On the long air journey she meets Harry Taverner, ostensibly with the British Council to bring British arts and science to Egypt, but in reality to babysit Prim and see whether they can find Archie (or if she knows where he is). Also on board is Mike Luzzatto, an American Jew who deals in real estate, although his real motive is buying land for Jewish settlement.

When she gets to Cairo, Prim discovers that there are a lot of people looking for Archie, some of them not at all nice. The theatre manager was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered to find some clues as to where he might be - but no-one knows.

In their attempts to find Archie, Prim and Harry are drawn into the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews, and both sides' antipathy towards the British. It seems as though Archie may have been trying to play both sides and it spectacularly backfired.

The author had clearly done a lot of historical research but honestly most of the time it felt like a bewildering hotchpotch of politics and all I really got out of it was that all sides were pretty unpleasant, prepared to sanction absolutely anything to the cause as collateral damage - that may also have been a product of the times where extremism was rampant across the world. The story itself got subsumed in the politics and felt like a bit of a damp squib, I was left with the feeling of 'so what?'.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Murder on an Italian Island

Murder on an Italian Island by t a williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Virgilio invites Dan, Anna and of course Oscar to Elba for a holiday with him and his wife, staying at a swanky hotel where his (sort of) cousin Rita is the manager. Unfortunately there is an unpleasant incident on the first night, a very drunk man comes over and deliberately throws a glass of red wine over Virgilio. Apparently the man, Ignazio, abducted and raped four women in Puglia many years ago, and had been sentenced to twenty years in prison, seeing Virgilio again made him very angry and things could have escalated if Dan hadn't stepped in. The guys are debating whether to move to a different hotel to avoid the man when one of the surf instructors comes running in - they have found a body washed up on the rocks ... it's none other than Ignazio, and Virgilio apparently had another run in with him later that night. Since the body was found on the hotel's private beach, which can only be accessed through the hotel or a locked gate, it seems clear that if it is murder it must have been one of the guests or staff.

Soon Dan and Virgilio are working hard to determine whether Ignazio fell to his own death because he was so drunk (they ruled out suicide as he seemed to feel no remorse), or whether he was pushed, maybe by a relative of one of the girls he attacked?

Then Dan finds another body in the sea. are the deaths connected? An accident seems far less likely now there are two bodies.

This was very good, I was convinced I knew who was the murderer but I was completely wrong - they were never even a suspect!

However, I am trying to eat more healthily and having to read the descriptions of the huge meals Dan eats is making it hard for me to make good choices.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days: A Novel

How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days: A Novel by Sophie Irwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Miss Lydia Hanworth is surprised when Lord Ashton proposes marriage to her, they'd barely spoken previously, and before she can politely decline her aunt and uncle assume it's a done deal. The only saving grace is that Ashton wants to keep the engagement a secret until his father can announce it at a masked ball his cousin Phoebe is throwing in two weeks time.

Lydia's aunt and uncle have threatened her that if she messes this engagement up she will be sent to live with aunt Mildred - a fate worse than death - so she determines she must get Ashton to cry off instead - and ten days spent at his cousin's country house will be just the right opportunity.

As the title might suggest, this book draws heavily on the film How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days as Lydia behaves oddly, wear eccentric clothing, uses inappropriate language and (frankly) lies through her teeth. At first Ashton is perplexed, what happened to the quiet, well-behaved girl he met in London, but when he discovers her true motivation this means war!

Throw in a scheming mama, a strange host, a twin brother with a Sherlock Holmes obsession, a stolen diamond necklace, a widow on the prowl, a young lordling, and a famous explorer who reminds me of Professor Gilderoy Lockhart from the Harry Potter books and you have a rip-roaring rom-com.

I have no idea when this is supposed to be set, the clothing on the cover looks early 1800s but Lydia's twin brother is clearly emulating Sherlock Holmes. Also, Wikipedia tells me that bananas didn't become common items until the 1880s when Fyffes began importing bananas from the Canary Islands to the UK through Southampton Docks (one of Lydia's dresses is compared to a banana). But, if you can suspend disbelief at the language which is used and the ambiguity as to the historical setting this was a fun read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages

Meet Me at the Seaside Cottages by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Meet Janey and Essie Carter, mother and daughter respectively. Janey loves living in the tiny town of Carso, working in the local hospital as an audiologist whereas Essie couldn't wait to get away to the hustle and bustle of Edinburgh. But then it all falls apart, Essie's employer is moving to Switzerland and there's no position for her, also she's been there less than two years so she doesn't qualify for redundancy. With no new job on the horizon, realising she has huge credit card debts, and can't afford her flat share Essie reluctantly decides to move back to Carso and her mum's tiny cottage, since her posh boyfriend Connor doesn't seem willing to let her stay with him and his colleague Tris.

Janey is thrilled to have Essie back home, even if her daughter blames her for the divorce and finds fault with everything, but soon Essie's messiness, unwillingness to do anything around the cottage, and slovenly appearance are driving her to drink.

Luckily, Janey's son Al persuades Essie to join them and Janey's colleagues down the one remaining pub for a quiz night, where Janey runs into the father of one of her former patients, and Al and Essie catch up with their old school friend Dwight (who developed a love of country and western clothing as a child and doesn't seem to have dropped it) who has been working the oil rigs. Dwight has just bought the three dilapidated cottages next to Janey's and intends to do them up and sell them, but after five minutes talking to him Essie realises he hasn't the first clue about budgeting or decorating and volunteers herself as project manager.

Meanwhile, Janey's former patient's father's dog has had puppies in one of the cottages. Lowell is totally clueless and enlists Janey's help with caring for the puppies, which she helped to birth after the first one got stuck.

This was just charming from start to finish. As a woman of Janey's age I identified more with her, especially since Essie came across as a spoilt brat at first, but it was just charming, sweet, funny, all the feels.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Births, Deaths and Marriages

Births, Deaths and Marriages by Laura Barnett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Six people meet at university - specifically at the funeral for a man/boy who was killed in a car accident just a few weeks into term. They spend the next few years inseparable, several of them share a house, and as is perhaps inevitable with young people away from home, there is a lot of secret hooking up, being in love with someone who's in love with someone else, etc, etc.

Fast forward twenty years. Zoe and Rob got pregnant while still at university, got married but subsequently divorced when their son Gabe was five years old. Rancour over, Rob is soon to be married for a second time to a wealthy architect, Rob is a teacher and Zoe is a midwife in Herne Bay, Kent.

Yas, the working class girl with a single mother is now an NHS surgeon.

Al, who was in love with Zoe at university was married, but his wife Estelle died, following which he gave up his job and started working at the family undertakers in Beckenham, Kent.

Indie, who was in love with Al at university, has created a successful coffee business, she is married to Xavier (not one of the university six), who was a successful chef until COVID, when his restaurant went bust.

Finally Rachel, who is married with two small boys. Her husband Mark runs a successful gym business.

Over the past twenty years the tight knit group have drifted apart, particularly after Estelle's funeral, but the invite to Rob's engagement party brings them all back together. In a year there will be a baby, a wedding, a death, a divorce, and other upheavals.

This is described as Four Weddings and a Funeral meets One Day and I can sort of see why, it's also a lot like Cold Feet. After a rocky start, the introductory chapter was quite turgid and I didn't have a clue about anyone, this quickly became a great read - I think it would be even better as a film or a TV series. Laura Barnett did a good job of keeping the characters separate (after the first chapter) which is not easy to do when there is a main cast of six plus spouses/children to remember.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Dark in Death

Dark in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The 46th outing for this gritty detective series set in the future.

Detective Eve Dallas is called out when a woman is found murdered in the cinema whilst watching the re-run of a classic film, stabbed in the back of the neck with an ice-pick. Her friend had only stepped away for a couple of minutes to answer a page (she was on call). But the plot thickens! A famous author comes into the police station, she is afraid that this murder bears a striking similarity to the murder in the second of her detective novels, and she has also noted an earlier murder of a licensed companion also mirrors the murder in her first book. The only thing is the murderer in the first book was a woman and in the second it was a man. But then looking at the footage from the cinema Eve notices that there are striking similarities between a man and a woman they catch on camera - it appears their murderer likes to don disguises.

After interviewing the author Eve is convinced, the third novel concerns the murder of a rock star's former girlfriend, one famous for all the wrong things, who could drag him down to her level if they get back together. Eve gets her team to profile likely skanky ex-girlfriends, sadly there are several, and warns each of them to look out for a woman matching the description in the novel.

I enjoyed this novel, why do all the books I read from this series seem to happen when its bitterly cold? The premise was interesting and kept me engaged. There were lots of promising leads which turned into dead ends. My only gripe is (and this is only based on the two books I have read recently) that there seems to be a need for several murders before the murderer is caught and there needs to be a showdown where they rescue the latest victim in the nick of time - maybe if I read more of the other 57 books I haven't yet read I may find that is just a coincidence in these two.

Also, who doesn't want to read about a future where a New York cop can marry a former thief billionaire and has an Auto Chef in her car which can dispense a multitude of drinks?

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Question of Guilt

Question of Guilt by Sally Rigby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sebastian Clifford and Lucinda ‘Birdie’ Bird are private investigators, he's the son of a lord and has recently discovered he has a teenage daughter at university. She's bisexual. They have both left the Police, although she is only thirty. This si the seventh book in the series, none of which I have read before, but it is easy enough to read as a standalone.

Daryl Brackstone approaches the duo, her mother Helen was murdered decades ago by ingesting cyanide and her father was convicted of her murder. Her father died in prison a year ago and a true crime blogger has approached Daryl with evidence that her father may have been wrongly convicted and Daryl wants the duo to uncover the truth.

As they dig deeper it seems that Helen Brackstone was not just a middleclass suburban housewife, she was also a founding member of a group of activists which protested cronyism and investigated corruption. It seems one or both of the detectives assigned to the murder may, at best, have cut corners believing they had a slam dunk suspect, and at worst deliberately framed an innocent man.

Then Birdie starts getting threatening messages and is run off the road by another car - evidently their investigations are getting close to the truth.

This was an interesting detective story. It helped enormously that Birdie is still friendly with her former partner and Sarge so can draw on their knowledge and resources. Similarly, Seb has friends in high places and his father knows a lot of important people, so can effect introductions or provide insights into character.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: We Could Be Heroes

We Could Be Heroes by Philip Ellis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Will is an English openly gay man who works in a bookshop by day and is trying to make a name for himself on the Birmingham drag queen circuit by night.

Patrick is an American actor, famous for portraying Captain Kismet (sort of Flash Gordon, All American hero who accidentally gets launched into space and finds himself on a strange planet) in a superhero movie, he is in Birmingham filming some additional scenes for Kismet 2 and this film could catapult him into the big leagues (think Marvel franchise). His agent has always told him he can be openly gay or he can be a successful movie star and he has heeded that advice, so much so that he hasn't had a relationship in four years.

One night Patrick's co-star, his stunt man and his nutritionist persuade him to come out on the town and their taxi driver takes them to a gay bar where Will's friends are performing and Will is serving cheap shots as a roving drag queen waitress. They meet ... and the rest is history.

The story is interspersed with flashbacks to 1949 and the husband and wife duo who originally wrote the Kismet comics, their imaginations envisaged a world where they could be their authentic selves whilst having to hide who they really were in real life.

I enjoyed this (sort of). My problem is that it didn't really know what it wanted to be. Is it a romance? Is it a political statement about the way in which current society appears to be reverting back to 1950s views about repressing homosexuality and anything other than heterosexual behaviour? Is it about some idea that stories transport us to other worlds and open our minds to things being different? I don't know and that was the problem for me. Then everything had a lovely happy ever after all wrapped up in a nice bow.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Bones of the Buried

Bones of the Buried by David Roberts
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lord Edward Corinth returns from six months in New York, single once more after his love affair with Lord Weaver's daughter fizzled out. No sooner is he home than Verity Browne comes knocking, she has been in Spain reporting on the fight between the Republic and the fascists with her on-again, off-again boyfriend and Communist Party leader David Griffith-Jones but David has been arrested and convicted of murdering fellow communist Godfrey Tilney, who coincidentally was at Eton with Edward. Verity has come to beg Edward to come to Madrid and help clear David's name. Meanwhile, Basil Thoroughgood from the Foreign Office asks Edward to extend an offer to David, the FO will help him if he agrees to pass on information to them, aka spy.

Soon the body count is mounting, including another fellow Old Etonian, who also happened to be the father of Edward's nephew's best friend. Edward can't help but feel that the deaths of several Old Etonians must have a connection and he is determined to discover the truth.

I think I can only echo others' reviews. I didn't realise that one of the characters was a very thinly veiled Ernest Hemingway (mainly because I have zero interest in him), but it does explain why the character featured so heavily.

I felt that the tension was missing because of the prologue which have the link between the victims and then it was a case of dangling one red herring after another as to the identity of the murderer(s). Also, I feel that the only reason we know the answer is because the murderer(s) confessed, otherwise it could have been another red herring.

Also, both Edward and Verity are becoming unlikeable characters. Apparently he is in love with Verity, despite having lived in New York for six months with another woman, thought he was in love with a second woman, and then had a sexual relationship with a third woman, to pass the time. Indeed, while watching a production of Love's Labour Lost he muses that he could never be celibate for three years in the pursuit of love. Verity on the other hand appears to be easily led and treated as a propaganda and sexual favours machine by David, whilst leaning on Edward and then complaining about him.

I enjoy the historical details about the murky politics on left and right, but I'm not sure how much longer I will continue with the series.

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Review: A Schooling in Murder: The gripping new WWII historical mystery from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London

A Schooling in Murder: The gripping new WWII historical mystery from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's 1945. Monkshill Park School for Girls is one of those establishments that appeals to the snobbish while treating the girls as unpaid skivvies and worse than children in an orphanage (although TBH that might just be the food in the 1940s in England LOL).

The book is narrated by Annabel Warnock, a teacher at the school who went away on holiday and never returned. Her fellow teachers assume she just left but we and Annabel know she didn't leave, she was murdered (by person(s) unknown), pushed over a cliff, and her body has been swept down river and out to sea.

For some unknown reason, Annabel can move about freely within the school grounds IF she had visited that place before her death, but if she hadn't previously entered a room, she can't now.

The school is a Petrie dish, all those female hormones inclose proximity. There are same sex relationships, conducted in secret for fear of being sacked, bullying by some girls, blackmail, poison pen letters, theft, intimidation, you name it.

Alec Shaw, the first male ever male teacher at the school, has come as a substitute teacher. Annabel discovers that he is the only person she can communicate with as she can 'hijack' his typing when he is typing his fledgling detective story. After a number of false starts she manages to convince him that she is not a figment of her subconscious, and enlists him in her search for her murderer. But the list of suspects is long. Could it be the surly gardener/former poacher who goes by the charming nickname 'Tosser'? What about the surly young nephew of the school cook Stephen who Annabel was trying to get into a local boys' grammar school? What about the local deserter Sam Crisp, son of the school cleaner? Could it be one of the school bullies Venetia and Rosemary? Could it be someone from Annabel's past - she had impressive qualifications but was forced to take the job at Monkshill after an unfortunate incident at her school?

I have loved Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London series so when I saw this new historical mystery I jumped at the chance to request an ARC. All I can say is 'huh?'. I don't really get this and I am left with a vague suspicion that it is misogynistic - although thinking about it the only character of any note who comes across as even halfway decent is Alec Shaw - and he has spent time in prison for embezzlement - so maybe it is just a book filled with unlikeable characters. Even characters who were supposedly friends turn out not to be.

I turned to my husband when I was 85% through this book on my Kindle and said 'I don't understand the point of this book' and I have to say after finishing it I am still baffled. I think the idea of having a 'ghost' able to overhear other peoples' discussions and/or read private correspondence felt too omnipotent and then this had to be reined back with the odd rule that she couldn't visit somewhere she hadn't before, and couldn't leave the school grounds. Also, why was she a ghost but there weren't any others drifting around?

Also, I thought the murderer's identity was fairly obvious, despite the plethora of red herrings, I just thought the motive was a bit left field.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Sweet Poison

Sweet Poison by David Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's 1935 and the Duke of Mersham and his wife Connie have invited a select group of men to stay at Mersham Castle with the aim of reaching some kind of accord about the relationship between Germany and the UK. He has invited Lord Weaver, the press baron, together with his wife Blanche and daughter Hermione, war veteran General Sir Alistair Craig VC, an up-and-coming conservative MP Peter Larmore and his wife Celia, peace campaigner Bishop Cecil Haycroft and his wife Honoria, and the new under secretary at the German Embassy Baron Helmut von Friedberg.

To occupy the petulant Honoria, whose paramour Charlie Lomax declined an invitation at the last minute, the Duke has strong-armed his younger brother, Lord Edward Corinth to come down for dinner. Edward may look like a typical feckless aristocrat, more money than sense, but in fact he has a keen brain and loves to test himself physically.

On the way down, running late and consequently driving too fast, Edward crashes his car and is rescued by a journalist, Verity Browne, who claims to be from Country Life, writing a series on English castles. Grateful for her assistance, Edward invites Verity to spend the night at the Castle rather than in the nearby hotel. However, shortly after their arrival, as Verity is entertaining everyone with the tale of their meet-cute, the General suddenly starts choking and dies at the table. While all the other guests are sure he has had a heart attack, Edward and Verity aren't so sure, Edward thinks it bears all the hallmarks of cyanide poisoning - something the doctor subsequently confirms.

Eager to avoid publicity, everyone, including the police plays down the death, suggesting the General may have committed suicide, or perhaps mistaken his old army cyanide pill for the painkillers he was taking. But unconvinced Verity and Edward join forces, despite him discovering that she is actually a member of the Communist Party and a journalist for the Daily Worker.

As other reviews have said, Edward bears a resemblance to Lord Peter Wimsey (right down to the apartment in Albany), although Verity is more like some of the characters Lord Peter encounters on some of his adventures.

I did enjoy this, perhaps marred slightly for me by a brutal event close to the end - I understand its purpose etc but it did upset me a little (reading late at night). Otherwise, I am interested to see where this will go and have already downloaded the second book.

Also, I really like the new covers - definitely a factor in my decision to download the book.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: One Final Turn: An Electra McDonnell Novel

One Final Turn: An Electra McDonnell Novel by Ashley Weaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A satisfying end (I believe) to an enjoyable series.

Electra (Ellie) McDonnell is the niece of a locksmith, the family also has a less legal occupation as safecrackers and thieves. Electra was recruited/blackmailed into assisting Major Ramsay in certain top secret work, and she fell in love with him. However, after a steamy kiss, and a brush with near death, he not only rejected her, but sacked her into the bargain.

Ellie has recently heard that her cousin Toby may have escaped from a German POW camp and be making his way home via Portugal, coincidentally Captain Archie Blandings, a British intelligence officer based in Portugal, is keen to get more information about the route escapees are using to get from France to Portugal, he agrees to help Ellie get to Portugal, unfortunately Major Ramsay will also be part of the team.

It seems as though every clue Ellie and Archie find to help them contact the local resistance is a bust, clearly someone is watching them and getting to the resistance before them. Can they find Toby and rescue him before the German agents recapture him?

I loved this, everything I wanted. All mysteries solved.

I can't wait to see what Ashley Weaver is going to do next.

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Review: The Fix-Up

The Fix-Up by Sharon M. Peterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Ellie Sterns is a twenty-eight year old with ADHD, and the mother of a six year old called Oliver. After an unremarkable career as an actress, and numerous short-lived romances, she was en route to her family home in Oklahoma when she stopped briefly in the town of Two Harts to see her brother and ended up staying. The local diner owner, grumpy Ollie, took pity on Ellie and gave her a job and a place to stay. Ollie has recently died and Ellie has been keeping things going as best she can, when she gets the amazing news that Ollie has left her the house and the diner. Unfortunately, Ollie only left her 50%, the other half has been left to his previously unknown grandson. The kicker is that to inherit the two of them must live in the house for six months.

The grandson, Gilbert, wants to sell and get out of Two Harts as quickly as he can, he doesn't understand why Ollie abandoned his wife and daughter and never got in contact with them when they were alive, an inheritance means nothing to him. Ellie on the other hand, has put down roots, the inheritance safeguards her job and her home, she'll resist any move to sell either of them, even if the local property developer is offering a vast sum for the large plot of land on which the house sits.

This is a classic, opposites-attract, enemies-to-love, small-town romance. After being very grumpy and leaving some less than enthused reviews recently this was a breath of fresh air. Yes it trod a familiar path, but it was fun, sweet, and an easy read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.


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Review: A Queer Case

A Queer Case by Robert Holtom
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's 1929, Selby Bigge is a lower middle-class banking clerk living in a grubby bedsit by day and haunting Hampstead Heath by night looking for men of a similar persuasion. One night he comes across an old acquaintance from Oxford, one with whom he shared a brief kiss which Selby has never forgotten. The acquaintance, Patrick Duker is bemoaning the fact that his father, the banking millionaire Sir Lionel Duker has married a much younger woman, an alleged gold-digger and Patrick hates her.

For reasons known only to himself, Patrick invites Selby to have dinner with his father and step-mother at the Ritz with the intention of getting 'proof' that his step-mother is evil/a gold digger. Their dinner is enlivened when a journalist makes a scene and accuses Lady Duker of stealing away his lover (her first husband who she subsequently divorced). The journalist also made several accusations about Sir Lionel before being ejected from the Ritz. Not withstanding all the excitement, Selby is then invited to Sir Lionel's' birthday dinner at his home on Hampstead Heath where he is faced with a bizarre group of guests, including an alcoholic General, Patrick's fiancé (!), and a female novelist with a chip on her shoulder. Just as the evening is breaking up, the journalist comes banging on the door, a row ensues and in the chaos one of the dinner party is found dead, strangled in the Billiards Room.

Selby notices a few oddities, which the Police seem uninterested in pursuing, so he undertakes his own investigation - but soon discovers nearly every person at the dinner had a motive for killing the victim.

I have read several K.J. Charles novels and very much enjoyed them so when I saw the premise of this book, and the gorgeous cover, I requested it immediately. However, Selby didn't really come across as a likeable character, and he also appeared very gullible - which seems odd given that homosexuality was illegal then and therefore his gaydar/antennae for Police entrapment should have been finely honed. Also, the balance between enlightening the reader as to the way in which homosexuality was viewed/ the underground gay scene and the detection felt wrong - too much explanation and not enough real detection (other than going around accusing everyone in turn).

I feel it has promise and I would probably request the next book in the series, hoping that having established the historical context the mystery would come to the fore. Having said that, there were clues to the murderer and I did suspect something of the sort early on (and kind of forgot again).

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Wild Love

Wild Love by Elsie Silver
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 76%.

I don't recall ever DNFing a book this late but I just can't stand it any longer. I even downloaded it AGAIN because I couldn't believe I hadn't read the first book in the series, because it sounded so good, only to find out I had got three quarters of the way through last time.

Older guy with child, best friend's little sister. Small town. Billionaire Ford Grant has just discovered he is the father of a twelve year old daughter, he's trying to open a recording studio in small town Rose Hill, so when his best friend's little sister Rosie comes home begging for a job he reluctantly hires her. Blah blag forbidden fruit.

She busted up his office - to get his attention - the smexy times gave me the ick and then she deliberately trod paint (which he was using to repair his office) into the floor - what is she five? Just no, no, no. I'd have called the police.

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Review: A Cornish Love Story: The perfect brand-new escapist and romantic standalone novel for summer 2025 from the million-copy best-selling author

A Cornish Love Story: The perfect brand-new escapist and romantic standalone novel for summer 2025 from the million-copy best-selling author by Cressida McLaughlin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Georgie Munroe grew up in small-town Cornwall, she loved the Rosevar family saga romance novels of the local author S.E. Artemis which were set in her beautiful cliff-top home Alperton House, which was called Tyller Klos. But the series ended thirty years ago with the last pair of lovers separated by the Atlantic Ocean, the author left her home and never wrote again. Georgie had plans to be a writer but her mother's MS meant she had to leave university after just one term to support her.

Since then Alperton House fell into disrepair, indeed as an adventurous teenager Georgie and her friends explored the half-derelict house and told each other ghost stories in the gloomy rooms.

As an adult Georgie works part-time as a journalist for a local newspaper and also as an assistant to Spence, (drum roll) none other than S.E. Artemis. Alperton House has been bought by a developer and a team have been hard at work transforming it beyond recognition, but Georgie gets a shock when she discovers the architect is none other than her childhood sweetheart Ethan Sparks. Encouraged/forced by both her employers to cover the open day for Alperton House, now renamed Sterenlenn, Georgie is both hopeful and terrified of seeing him after all that went down between them.

I have read and enjoyed previous books by this author so, despite having already requested another contemporary romance set in Cornwall I duly requested this one. Unfortunately, this book didn't really work for me, Georgie and Ethan's romance and break-up were told in flashback (which I have decided annoys me more often than I enjoy it after having two books in succession that use this device) and at the end of it it all seemed like a storm in a tea-cup and the two of them were wetter than a wet weekend in Manchester. Throw in a smart house with a mind of its own which locks Ethan and Georgie in the house and my eyes were rolling so far back I could see the inside of my skull.

Perfect for someone less cynical to read as a beach second-chance romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Copper Script

Copper Script by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Its post WW1, Detective Sergeant Aaron Fowler is part of the Metropolitan Police, he has struggled to overcome two obstacles, his adopted father who was a firebrand unionist, and his aristocratic relations on his mother's side. One if his aristocratic cousins, Paul, comes to him complaining that a charlatan graphologist by the name of Joel Wildsmith has broken up his engagement to a wealthy society heiress by telling a pack of lies and he wants Aaron to investigate/prosecute.

Joel lost his left hand during the war, just his luck that he was left-handed to begin with. Jobs are short on the ground for the able-bodied, let alone a one-handed man who can barely write, but he discovered a knack of understanding people's feelings/emotions through reading their handwriting and he is scratching a living at it.

When Fowler goes to confront Joel he goes undercover with three samples of handwriting to analyse and is shocked by the accuracy of the reading. Convinced there is a trick of some kind, he and a colleague devise a blind test, the colleague will select an ongoing case at random and provide samples of handwriting from several suspects, Fowler will add some control samples from non-suspects and the samples will be numbered. Joel will read each of the samples and give his impressions. The samples and Joel's impressions (written down by Fowler) will be placed in an envelope and sealed pending the successful resolution of the case.

The results are astounding, Joel's reading were amazingly accurate, but it's his chilling reading of one of the control samples that causes consternation. Can Joel and Fowler expose a powerful criminal before he catches up with them?

I loved this, as I love everything KJ writes. It feels like it might be the start of a series and I couldn't be happier.

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Review: Lessons in Life: A funny, fabulous read from Julie Houston

Lessons in Life: A funny, fabulous read from Julie Houston by Julie Houston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second in a series, I haven't read the first book (I've started it but not finished), but it can be read as a standalone. I also note that there is a third book (at least) in the offing.

Robyn Allen is a former West End dancer who tore her ACL and is now back at home in Beddingfield as a supply teacher. She had been seeing Fabien Carrington, an aristocratic high-flying defence criminal lawyer, but they split up and she had a brief affair with the head teacher at the school where she works.

Robyn's older sister Jess runs a care home at Hudson House, although her ambition has always been to be a chef, a teenage pregnancy put paid to those ambitions, although she has recently won a cooking competition.

Robyn's youngest sister Sorrel is still at school, Robyn's school in fact, and is seeing a young man from a troubled family who may be involved in County Lines.

Lisa, Robyn's mother, is adopted. She is of half-Indian and half-English heritage but doesn't know much more because her adoptive parents were secretive and also ashamed of Lisa's mixed heritage. Lisa has been a single mother since she was a teenager, although the girls' father is still in the picture and has supported Lisa financially. He's a semi-famous musician who prefers life on the road to domesticity. Lisa has suffered from Porphyria for most of her adult life, which has left her weak and subject to bouts of being bedridden, but recently a new treatment has given her a new lease of life.

Interspersed with the narrative about Lisa and her three daughters is an historical narrative involving Eloise Hudson, daughter of a wealthy manufacturer, who used to love at Hudson House as a child and is now a resident suffering from dementia.

If you've read any previous Julie Houston novels, particularly the Westenbury books, then this is very familiar. Multiple stories, multiple protagonists, several strands left unfinished for the next book, on-again, off-again relationships, County Lines, etc. For me, I wasn't really invested in any of the characters enough and every time I did start to be engaged we would abruptly switch to the 1960s and I would lose the thread again.

Overall, this felt very much like a middle book, it sort of ended abruptly with new beginnings in the offing for most of the Allen family, but how long that will last is anyone's guess.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: The Elopement

The Elopement by Gill Hornby
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF at 35%.

I requested this book because I had seen adverts for the TV mini series Miss Austen which had intrigued me and the blurb looked interesting.

Sadly, I am 35% through the book and I can't decide if it is intended to be funny (because it isn't), or who is supposed to be the main character. Indeed, I have just read the blurb as I start to write this review and I have discovered that the FMC is still a thirteen year old child, so far most of the book has been from the POV of her stepmother.

Anyway, I'm over a third through the book, none of it resembles the blurb, and I don't like the writing tone so I am giving up.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.



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Review: Echoes in Death

Echoes in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

New York Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband billionaire Roarke (like Madonna he only has one name) are driving home from a fancy do when they come across a naked woman covered in blood stumbling through the snow. The woman, Daphne Strazza, has been beaten and raped. Apparently she and her husband Doctor Anthony Strazza were attacked in their own home by a man, dressed as a devil who subjected them both to a terrible ordeal, leaving the Doctor dead, and stealing some of their possessions.

The incident is similar to two previous incidents, in both of which the husband is tied up and beaten, then forced to watch the man repeatedly rape and beat his wife, the husband is induced to give the codes to their safe, and the man steals various high value possessions. Although murder appears to be an escalation. Can Eve identify what links the crimes and hone in on the perpetrator before he claims more victims?

I have read the first two books in this series but a combination of the gruesome crimes and the sheer number of books in the series put me off reading any more. Then I saw two books being offered as ARCs on NetGalley and decided to have another go.

Set in the future, there are police droids, clever 'Links which are one step up from mobile phones, etc. Throw in a doting billionaire husband who is also a genius and a former thief, and Eve has access to vast resources.

I enjoyed this, about 80% of the way through I was wondering who the murderer could be and trying to recall if anyone had stood out. But then, when the murderer was revealed I did think oh yes, I had my suspicions.

Anyway, a good suspenseful detective novel.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Drop Dead

Drop Dead by Lily Chu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Nadine Barbault and Wes Chen were on the same journalism course at college, always rivals for everything, but somewhere along the way the competitiveness tuned bad.

Nadine works for the Toronto Herald, she was on the politics desk until a reader objected to some of her articles, sent her abusive and violent messages and crowned it all by turning up at her apartment. After that, although the paper was (sort of) supportive, she moved to the recently vacated role of Obituaries Editor until one night, in her eagerness to be the first paper to publish the news, she ran the obituary of Dot Voline, a world-famous author, only to later discover the news of her death was, as they say, greatly exaggerated.

Wes works for the Spear, an online newspaper. He really wants to be on the Investigations desk, but after a six month internship he was transferred to the Sunday supplement style desk. His transfer may be because the online newspaper is losing money and his writing gets the most attention. When glorying in Nadine's error, he notices a comment online which references a past scandal involving Dot and decides to follow up in person with the elusive author. Nadine has seen the same comment (before the obituary was removed from the website) and has the same idea.

Although Dot initially refuses to speak to either of them, they eventually win her over - but she will only tell her story to the two of them together - they are going to have to collaborate to break the story. Week after week they visit her OTT mansion, getting ever closer to discovering what the scandal was about, but when Dot dies unexpectedly it seems the story might die with her, until her heir offers them three weeks to search for evidence/clues.

Of course, as they search the mansion the enforced proximity forces the two of them to look beyond their rivalry and discover they have more in common than they thought. But when they uncover a decades old scandal will they fight to break the story?

After a slow start this was a fun read, sweet, funny, full of cats, secret basements, and hidden rooms.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Proper English

Proper English by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

1904, Patricia Merton is invited to a shooting party at the Earl of Witton’s remote country house, Rodington Court, with her brother. As a champion shot, Pat is looking forward to the party until she discovers instead of a small group of dedicated shooters led by her old friend, the Earl's heir Jimmy Yoxall, it has evolved into a full on house party, with Jimmy's fiancée Fenella, Jimmy's sister and her poisonous husband, Jimmy's sister's lover, the Earl and Countess.

Tensions are rife, Jimmy's brother-in-law makes spiteful comments about everyone and no-one, including the Earl, checks him. Despite her own vague hope that she and Jimmy would have made a match of it, Pat finds herself irresistibly drawn to his fiancée, and is surprised that Jimmy isn't making more of an effort, especially since it appears he must marry Fenella for the money.

Whilst a shock, it comes as no surprise when Jimmy's bother-in-law is found stabbed in the back - but who did it? Pretty much everyone has a motive.

Argh! I read these out of order but I still very much enjoyed this Edwardian country house murder mystery by one of my favourite authors.

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Review: Bad Moon

Bad Moon by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where to begin? Well definitely not her at the fourth book in the series LOL! Seriously, so much happened in the first three books that you will be completely lost starting here.

To briefly recap, Elizabeth Cage is a widow. Although (relatively) young, she describes herself and comes across as a bit of a 1950s housewife. Part of her reticence may be because she can see people's auras and generally tell if they are telling the truth. Her parents (who turned out to be her adoptive parents) always told her to keep her powers secret.

Her husband was the head of security for the Sorensen Clinic before his death, the clinic was partially owned by some top secret branch of the military/security for rest and recuperation of operatives who had seen things they couldn't explain/comprehend - ie a secure mental institute. Dr Sorensen was experimenting with psychotropic drugs on his patients and became obsessed with Elizabeth, something that led to a near catastrophic annihilation of the world by the goddess who 'rests' inside Elizabeth's brain. Some supernatural warriors helped Elizabeth to forget what happened that Christmas, although she 'knows' that something bad happened because her sort-of boyfriend, the James Bondesque Michael Jones now has a faint aura of fear when he is around her.

Things have been very quiet for a while now, until Iblis comes round to watch soaps with Elizabeth and she channels a supernatural being (while writing down their take-away Chinese food order) with the chilling message

I will send the Serpent
I always send the Serpent
It's kind of my signature move

What follows is once again a bizarre mix of sarcasm, cosiness, sheer supernatural terror, a smelly dog, a troll, a snake, a wood full of thousands of dead men, a bizarre secret stone ritual, a haunted student house, the legend of a country mansion massacre, and so much more.

I have reread my reviews of the previous books and other peoples reviews and I think we all agree this series defies description, but its funny, scary, cosy, and sad all at once.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Think of England

Think of England by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

** Warning - the book is set in 1904 and there are several racial, religious and sexual slurs used, I took them to be in keeping with the way in which certain people spoke/thought at the time but some might be offended. **

Captain Archie Curtis lost his career, several friends, and some of his fingers when a batch of new rifles his regiment were testing turned out to be seriously flawed. Initially the manufacturer was blamed for cutting corners, but recently he visited Archie's uncle, someone high up in the secret service, ranting about sabotage. Only a few days later his body was fished out of the Thames. Did he take his own life? Or was he murdered to cover up what really happened? Archie's only clue is that the manufacturer's arch rival profited from the incident. Coincidentally, Archie has been invited to spend two weeks at this man's modern country house - an ideal opportunity to snoop around he thinks.

The other guests are a strange mixture, including Daniel da Silva, a poet, foreign, Jewish, and clearly homosexual. Archie is disgusted by da Silva, especially since he slinks around almost silently and seems to pop up just when Archie is trying to do some snooping. When it becomes clear that Daniel is also snooping (for slightly different reasons) they reluctantly agree to join forces. But what they uncover is far bigger, and worse, than either of them ever imagined.

I loved the irony of Archie turning his nose up at Daniel because he was gay, yet thinking having a 'special friend' in the army was okay because that's what you do when you are in an entirely male organisation! Watching Archie realise he was gay was such fun.

Anyway, loved it. I'm a sucker for an early twentieth century country house mystery, throw in a love affair and some chuckles and I'm all in.

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Review: It's All Greek to Me

It's All Greek to Me by Andrea Christodoulou
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Isme is the second daughter in a Greek-Liverpudlian household. Her mother is full on My Big Fat Greek Wedding whereas her father was adopted and raised as English. Her elder sister is married to George and has twin sons. Isme's mother's mission in life is to get Isme married to a 'Good Greek Boy' with lots of money and she has set her sights on Carlos the son of the local fish and chip shop entrepreneurs, never mind that Carlos takes his fashion sense from the seventies and can't alk about anything but fish and chips!

What Isme really wanted to do in life was bake cakes, but everyone (her mother) said she should get a real job, so she tried to train as a solicitor but failed and now has a job as an admin assistant at the same law firm. A colleague, Zara, is also someone Isme has known since childhood, her parents once owned the business and she is a solicitor there. Although Zara treats Isme as a friend, she isn't averse to poking fun at Isme, and Isme suspects that Zara only pretends to be friendly because she fancies Anthony.

Since they were four years old, Isme and Anthony have been friends, everyone thinks they should get together but as Isme says, when you've wet your pants in front of a boy (even if you were only five) it does tend to preclude romance. Nevertheless, the two of them spend lots of time together drinking, watching Netflix, attending the same Greek church etc.

After a few home truths are spoken, Isme is put on leave and decides to go on holiday with her sister Maria, which morphs into the entire family spending the summer in Corfu at Uncle Stavros' villa, where Isme discovers that there is an ulterior motive for her mother's obsession with her getting married. Now Isme has to decide what she is willing to do for her family.

This was pleasant enough, it felt like a mash-up of multiple books/films I have seen before and what brought it down for me was that frankly there were only two characters I liked (a clue, Isme wasn't one of them). Maybe I'm too old but Isme struck me as very immature.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: An Unnatural Vice

An Unnatural Vice by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Justin Lazarus is called the 'Seer of London' and claims to be able to contact the spirit world, of course in reality its psychology, research, leading the witness, and good old fashioned picking of pockets to discover hooks.

Nathaniel Roy is a former lawyer turned crusading journalist who has been asked by his editor to bring down Lazarus and expose him as a fraud - his wife is frequenting another spiritualist and he is worried that she is being conned out of her money.

In disguise Roy attends a group seance and is at once both appalled and attracted to Lazarus, and ashamed of himself for being drawn to such a conman. Roy had been greatly in love with a man called Tony until he was killed some six years ago.

Roy is helping his friend Clem Talleyfer track down his brother's lost twins (the story is told in the previous book), the boy twin is now the Earl of Moreton following his father's suicide/murder if he can be tracked down. Unbeknownst to both of them, Lazarus has vital information, the twins' mother visited him the previous year desperate to find her children who had run away when they were fourteen years old. She left Lazarus with a portrait of the three of them, but never returned.

But it seems there are several people looking for the twins and some of them will stop at nothing to prevent them from proving their claim. As London is enveloped in a choking fog, Lazarus is abducted and the only man he can turn to is Roy.

I loved this, enemies to love, aristocratic shenanigans, sleight of hand, its all here.

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Review: An Unseen Attraction

An Unseen Attraction by K.J. Charles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Clem Talleyfer runs a boarding house. He is mixed race, of a white British father and Indian mother. He is also neurally diverse in that he doesn't always pick up on hints and signals, some people try to take advantage of him because of that fact. One of the tenants is an unpleasant preacher who too often gets drunk on gin, shouts obscenities and has to be carried up to bed. Unfortunately, it is a condition of the job that this tenant must be accommodated.

Clem's favourite tenant is Rowley Green, a taxidermist who has a shop next door to the lodgings. Clem doesn't know if Mr Green also likes men, because he isn't good at licking up on signals, but he enjoys a cup of tea in his rooms with Mr Green of an evening, just sitting quietly.

Then just as Clem and Rowley seem to be coming to some kind of understanding, the noisy lodger is found tortured and murdered on the doorstep. What's worse, Clem's landlord, his older brother Edmund, insists its all Clem's fault and demands that he find out why the man was murdered.

This was a wonderfully atmospheric mystery, loved it.



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Review: Pride Not Prejudice

Pride Not Prejudice by Jennifer Ashley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I fully intended to read all of these but guess what? Its two years later and still not done it!

The Price of Lemon Cake by Jennifer Ashley
Invincible by Kerrigan Byrne
When She's Shy by Ruby Dixon
The Kraken and The Canary by Camille Duplessis
Mafia Bute by Mila Finelli
To Be Fair They Were Pleather by Kristan Higgins
Lady Waverly's Lover by Amalie Howard
The Sweetest Chocolate Drop by Piper Huguley

Escape to New Zealand by Rosalind James - 4 1/2 stars
Let's be honest, I only bought the anthology because I wanted this story and I couldn't wait until it was published as a standalone. 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 hime, 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.

Billionaire and the Beat by Darynda Jones
Dirty Dare by Mira Lyn Kelly
Drive Me Wild by Kim Loraine
Werewolves Save a Kitten by Kathy Lyons
Always Love Me by Clare Rebecca McCarthy
What Lovers Do by Janna MacGregor
Caelan: Guards of Clan Ross by Hildie McQueen
Potential New Girlfriend by Sara Ney
Johnson Jones's Diary by Robyn Peterman
Her Princess at Midnight by Erica Ridley
Love Wins by Cynthia St Aubin
The Inspector and Mrs Mac by April White

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Review: Murder Under the Sun

Murder Under the Sun by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I can't believe this is the twenty-second book in the series (or why I somehow missed books seventeen to nineteen).

The UK is sweltering in an unexpected heatwave (very much like the time that I am writing this review) which making everyone grumpy. Hillary is handed the cold case of a forty-something woman, Imelda Phelps who was murdered in the hallway of her swanky home in Chipping Norton, bludgeoned with a lightweight object with a rounded end, fifteen years ago.

As Hillary and her team go over the old case files and re-interview family and colleagues it turns out their victim was a self-absorbed narcissist who didn't care much for her husband or children. Even her much younger lover didn't seem to have captured her attention. Whilst there might be a lot of people with motive to kill Imelda, Hillary just can't seem to the key to unlocking this case, until one of the suspects is murdered in a suspiciously similar fashion.

I really like these books, I could do without the descriptions of Hillary's clothing or her helmet-like (I think its described as being like a bell but all I can think of is the hair on Lego people) hair but I can live with them. Hillary is human and fallible, but she tries to develop her junior staff, she's dogged and a good judge of human nature. Even better, I started reading this morning (close to the end) and was speculating as to who the murderer could be, and I just couldn't see it, but when Hillary reveals her thinking I was like Doh! So obvious!

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Prince of Darkness

Prince of Darkness by Rebecca Zanetti
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

The Realm has defeated the Kurjan nation and the half-demon half Kurjan Paxton is now King of the Kurjans and is trying to rebuild a nation on peace in the Yukon. If you've missed all of the previous sixteen books in this series, Kurjans are very pale, long black hair with red tips, similar to how we think of vampires (whereas actual vampires are not) because they are allergic to sunlight.

Vero is Paxton's half-brother, a full-blown Kurjan and is acting as Paxton's enforcer/bodyguard. He knows that a lot of the older Kurjan are only supporting Paxton because Vero is backing him.

Lyrica was one of the enhanced women kidnapped by the Kurjan before the peace (Kurjans are 100% male and need females from other species to mate). Since Paxton became King she has been supporting the other kidnapped women and trying to emancipate the women who have been mated to Kurjans, sometimes for centuries. Oh, did I not mention that mating with an immortal gives a human immortality too?

Vero and Lyrica feel a visceral attraction to each other, but she is determined to leave the camp and go back to the 'real world' once her work is done, so they decide to enter into a dating with benefits agreement for three months ... like that's ever going to work!

Meanwhile, Paxton is about to host 40 members of the Cyst (the Kurjan's religious order) in the hopes of getting them to join his group - its a once every thousand years kind of deal and a show of strength is imperative, but someone seems determined to thwart their plans. And then the raped and murdered bodies of human women start appearing, frozen in the snow, with a strange symbol carved into their necks (duh, duh, duh!).

If you've enjoyed the previous books in this series then you will love this one too. There's immortals with abs of steel, zero body fat, able to lift school buses with their bare hands, nearly seven foot tall, strange mating rituals, and able to give multiple orgasms. The heroine is feisty but eventually she has to submit blah, blah, blah.

This series is like catnip to me, the smexy times might be rinse and repeat, 'mine, mine, mine', but I love 'em.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Royal Fright: A 1920s tale of murder, mystery, and royal intrigue

Royal Fright: A 1920s tale of murder, mystery, and royal intrigue by G J Bellamy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie Burgoyne owns a temporary staff agency by day, but she and some of her closest friends also do some top secret work for the government at times.

There have been death threats made against King George and his family so while security has been enhanced, Sophie has been asked if she and her team can go to Sandringham with the royal family to try to uncover what is happening. The threats are signed by someone calling himself King Lud who claims to be the hereditary ruler of London. Whilst the team discover two fake bombs and a third bomb is thrown over the gate at Buckingham Palace, Sophie begins to suspect that the threats and bombs are a distraction to divert everyone's attention elsewhere.

Someone points out that if the intention was to really kill the King, Lud could have done so several times over, if the intention was to make the Police and Secret Service look bad a real bomb would have done the trick, therefore it seems likely that the purpose was theft. As a result of the bomb threats, the King cancels a planned visit to the Bank of England, which gives Sophie a starting point.

A team of criminals is digging through underground tunnels leading into the Bank of England's gold bullion vaults - but the evidence is highly circumstantial and the Directors of the Bank of England are too smug to consider that the bank might be vulnerable.

This was a good story, however towards the end (and this may have been in part because I had picked up and put down the book several times and was reading late at night) I completely lost track of who was who in the gang and in the cold light of day, other than the identity of Lud, I am still confused about the exact roles of the various underlings.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.



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Review: Built to Last

Built to Last by Lexi Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Harper Ross inherited the majority stake in her family's New York construction business when her father passed away suddenly. Since then she's discovered he and her uncle had a very sketchy idea of how to run a business, which mainly seemed to be using the business as a family slush fund, giving jobs to family who have no construction experience, and the big one, never paying taxes! Since then she's been trying to get the company on an even and legal footing, but it has required her to sell some of her shares. Now every one of her many relatives is moaning because they want a new car, or to join a sorority, or equal pay with her. Her mum just wants her to get married and pump out babies and let a man run the business.

One of her ride-or-die BFFs has bought an old brownstone on Park Avenue and intends to stage a reality TV renovation show, with the sale proceeds from the renovated house going towards disaster relief in her country. Harper is excited to be renovating such an historical building, its her great passion and she wants to do it justice. Then she discovers that two reality TV house designer brothers, Reid and Jeremiah Dorsey, are also part of the show (think Drew and Jonathan from The Property Brothers), Harper is immediately bowled over by Reid's good looks and sharp suit, now she wishes she wasn't still in her construction work wear, but her admiration turns cold when she overhears him talking about ripping out all the old features. Then he compounds his gaff by assuming she's a set runner.

What Harper doesn't know is that the house has already been sold and Reid is working to the new buyer's requirements, as they bicker over every little detail. But fight as they might, it only makes the attraction burn stronger.

My heart sank when I realised that Harper's BFF has married the King of a (fictional) small European country, in fact I put the book down for several weeks because I just can't bear those sort of books. Luckily Anika and Luca are just side players (I now know that this is the third book in a series which features each of the BFFs) and when I picked the book up again I raced through it.

It was fun, flirty, all about home renovations (which I love), sure it was pretty predictable why Reid blew hot and cold and who the mysterious house buyer was, but that didn't stop the enjoyment. Reminiscent of Lauren Layne. Perfect, undemanding beach reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Traitor’s Legacy

Traitor’s Legacy by S.J. Parris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Its December 1598, Queen Elizabeth I is still on the throne, but ageing, with no heir.

Sophia De Wolfe is a widow and former spy. When she retired her former spy-master, Walsingham, brokered a marriage for her with the wealthy merchant Humphrey de Wolfe and they were very happy until his death. When she was nineteen Sophia fell in love with a Jesuit priest and bore a child out of wedlock who was subsequently adopted, she has used her connections to discover the identity of the child, who is now a young man of fifteen and has kept an eye on him ever since. Her son, Tobie, who has no idea she is his birth mother, is an actor in a theatre company and she supports the company with her patronage.

One night, a young woman's body is found in a shallow grave. She is no pauper, instead she is an incredibly wealthy young woman, Agnes, ward to Sir Thomas North, who was intended to be betrothed to Thomas's son Edmund. Pinned to the girl's body is a note in a code created especially for Sophia when she was a spy. She hasn't thought of the code for a decade - who could have got hold of it and why would they use it to write a note and pin it to a body? Has someone discovered Sophia's past? Robert Cecil, the queen's current spymaster instructs Sophia to investigate.

Then disaster strikes. Sir Thomas has found love letters from Tobie to Agnes and has decided that Tobie killed her when she refused to elope with him. Now Sophia will do anything to rescue her son from prison. But as she investigates things become murky, was her death connected to a secret Catholic conspiracy? Why did the Countess of Essex take such an interest in Agnes? Is her murder related to the uprisings in Ireland? Was her murder a direct hit to Sophia?

I requested this book thinking the author was C.J. Sansom or Andrew Taylor (many of whose books I have read and enjoyed) and honestly I was none the wiser at the end that it wasn't one of these authors - I will definitely revisit her Giordano Bruno series - I think I bought the first one and couldn't get into it.

Overall, a fascinating, well-plotted historical detective series and I will definitely request the second book in the series.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: One Cornish Summer With You: The uplifting new romance and escapist beach read from the Sunday Times bestselling author

One Cornish Summer With You: The uplifting new romance and escapist beach read from the Sunday Times bestselling author by Phillipa Ashley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Tammy lives in the Cornish harbour town of Porthmellow where she creates sand designs (eg pictures or 'Will You Marry Me?' scripts) and supplements her earnings by working at the local art gallery for her father's friend Davey.

Her idyllic childhood was marred when her mother left her father and her father gambled away their family home. The final blow was when his body was found washed ashore - was it a tragic accident for a local who became over-confident, or did he take his own life?

Every year on the anniversary of his death, Tammy creates a special design to honour his memory. This year, while she works she notices a man in a business suit watching her. Ruan is a solicitor who has recently moved from Bristol to Cornwall for a better work-life balance and his struck by the beauty and skill of the woman working on the beach.

Romance ensues but Ruan has a secret, which turns out to be much bigger than he imagined, which could break this young couple apart.

This was okay, I found Tammy a bit difficult to believe as a character, she was just so nagtive about everything, and Ruan was just another cut-out Ken doll - no faults at all.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: This Is Not a Game

This Is Not a Game by Kelly Mullen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Mimi is a septuagenarian living on Mackinac Island in Michigan, living her best life of bridge, crosswords, and the occasional Gibson martini. Then she receives an invitation to a Jazz Age themed auction party at Jane Ireland's extravagant mansion - the kicker is the invitation comes with a side of blackmail, Jane knows Mimi's secret and the price of silence is to buy a specific lot at her auction, no matter the cost.

Mimi has been estranged from her only living relative, her granddaughter Addie, since Addie started dating Brian. But when she receives the invitation/threat she knows she needs Addie's keen mind to help her ... at the very least she needs to tell Addie her darkest secret before it gets exposed.

When they arrive at Jane's party there's a motley group of guests, including Jane's son-in-law (who is also rumoured to be her lover), her brother, her life coach, a tv host, a famous artist, a pianist, a perfume creator (and there may be more). There seems to be a brittle atmosphere and Jane is seen arguing with guests at different times in the evening, before retiring to bed at just gone 9pm.

With the mansion's drawbridge raised and an extreme storm blowing in, the party are set to spend an uncomfortable night together, and then they find Jane's body and Mimi is accused of the murder. Can Mimi and Addie draw on all their resources to solve the mystery before more bodies pile up or the police can get onto the island from the mainland?

This sort of mystery harks back to some of the great locked room mysteries, all the guests (and staff) have secrets, most of them are also being blackmailed, some of the guests are co-conspirators, most of them are lying, the power has gone out and they are all trapped in the mansion which has lots of secret passageways (cue duh, duh, duh music).

I enjoyed this, I didn't guess the identity of the murderer and there were plenty of red herrings along the way. Maybe my only quibble was that it was a bit convoluted at the end.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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