Review: The Man with the Golden Compass

The Man with the Golden Compass by Vaseem Khan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

This is the second outing for James Bond's Q as a detective. I didn't read the first one but this can be read as a standalone.

Q has been called in by his local police force to assist in the investigation of the torture and murder of a local eccentric billionaire Lawrence Noble who made his money developing computer games. The only problem Q will be reporting to the woman he loved and left 30 years ago. Why was Noble tortured? Why was he wearing a suit used in gaming? Why were there three glasses of whisky beside him? Why was one hand left untethered?

The book is from the James Bond oeuvre so of course there are going to be shadowy billionaires plotting world domination with secret rooms and weird fetishes and it doesn't disappoint, yet at the same time its a cosy mystery set in a small village where the local librarians help with research.

A fun read.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews

Review: Trust Fall

Trust Fall by Lynn Painter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Julia's family inherit a fortune and a fabulous house in Manhattan from an elderly neighbour - a big difference from their mom and pop shop in Nebraska. There were two conditions to the inheritance the family must live in the New York house for six months, and Julia and her twin brother must attend an elite private school.

Julia's benefactor is the great-uncle of Damion, although he was more of a father to Damion than his own father. Damion's parents are already super-rich but believe that they should have inherited the wealth and are determined to prove that Julia's family somehow tricked them out of their inheritance. ON his own part, Damion and his uncle had made plans for Damion's future, which did not include going to the Ivy League university his father and grandfather intended - without the inheritance he may have to kow-tow to his father's wishes.

When given the opportunity to tutor Julia in maths Damion jumps on the chance, determined to uncover dirt on the family. Instead, they start falling for each other. But with a big secret between them do they have a future?

My bad, I didn't realise that this was a Mean Girls meets Gossip Girl type of novel and I found Damion's internal monologue in particular a bit whiney and his insistence that he wasn't a good guy a bit meh. I feel like I'd seen/read most of the characters before and I didn't think a lot of the plot really made sense - why did Damion's great-uncle leave New York and why didn't Damion ever go to visit him if they were so close?

Anyway, I'm probably too old for the target demographic for this book. An enjoyable, if predictable opposites attract YA/NA romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

View all my reviews