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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