Month: December 2018

Dear Katherine Arden, Thank You

The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1) The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy, #2) The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy, #3)

I have been trying to get my husband to read the first one of this series for a long time! He was always too busy until now. As most of the world knows now, the doctors have discovered a large mass on his pelvis. As we wait for surgery he has time.

Yesterday I walked in the den and he was half-way in to the first book. I quietly backed out of the room.  When he was almost to the end last night he looked over at me and said, ” This is great! Do we have the next one?”  Why yes we do! “And what about the third one?” Well, honey I have it in an ARC on my tablet but it’s from Netgalley and I don’t think I am supposed to share it. ” But, what am I supposed to do?” You wait dear, just like the rest of the world we wait and hope that there is more!

After a few of long and frightening weeks we went an entire day without tears or anxiety. So Ms. Arden, thank you from this frazzled reviewer and wife.

 

xx P

 

AN ANONYMOUS GIRL by GREER HENDRICKS AND SARAH PEKKANEN

An Anonymous Girl

The next novel of psychological suspense and obsession from the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us

Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed. 

Jessica Farris is a make-up artist. Not a lucrative job when you are just starting out. But her fate changes the day she goes to make up a girl named Taylor. Taylor has signed up for a study. That pays a lot! When she can’t be bothered to show up, Jess takes advantage and slides her way into the study.

Morals and Ethics questions force her to face some of her past behavior and then it’s over. Until the psychiatrist running the study decides to offer her a job testing the fidelity of men basically. The money is great but  something isn’t adding up and she is starting to feel that this could end badly.

This is one of those books that you need to read yourself. It jumped to the top of my list as soon as it landed in my inbox!  If you are a fan of The Wife Between Us by these authors you will really enjoy this one.

Never has the phrase Not What I Signed Up For been more appropriate! But this was manipulation at its finest!

Well Done!    Netgalley/January 8th 2019 by St. Martin’s Press

 

THE HANGING PSALM by CHRIS NICKSON

The Hanging Psalm: A Regency Mystery Set in Leeds

Introducing thief-taker Simon Westow in the first in a new historical mystery series set in Regency Leeds. 

This story begins with our main character Simon Westow giving testimony in the investigation into child labor and poor houses. It’s 1820 in Leeds. A dark and dangerous time. Simon may have started life in brutal conditions of a poor house, but he is a self-made man now with a wife and children and a home of his own.

He is also a thief-taker. I had to look that one up. What Simon does is returns stolen items to their rightful owner for a fee. 

When one of Leeds businessman comes to him for help in returning his daughter Simon isn’t quite sure, but the money is good. Soon he and his helper Jane are trying to find the girl and wondering if this is all tied in with something else. Something more sinister.

Someone is watching them. Someone who shouldn’t even be here. And as the bodies pile up the danger for Simon, his family and the intriguing Jane increases. This is personal. Someone wants revenge. Someone wants Simon dead.

Nothing I like better than a good historical mystery! Especially in the Regency period. I’m happy to have gotten in on the first book because the ending left me wanting more.

Netgalley/ January 1st 2019 by Severn House Publishers

 

 

THE WATER CURE by Sophie Mackintosh

The Water Cure  The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Virgin Suicides in this dystopic feminist revenge

Imagine a world very close to our own: where women are not safe in their bodies, where desperate measures are required to raise a daughter. This is the story of Grace, Lia and Sky, kept apart from the world for their own good and taught the terrible things that every woman must learn about love. And it is the story of the men who come to find them – three strangers washed up by the sea, their gazes hungry and insistent, trailing desire and destruction in their wake.

Hypnotic and compulsive, The Water Cure is a fever dream, a blazing vision of suffering, sisterhood and transformation.

Three girls and their parents live alone on a supposed island. Taught that men are disease ridden things to be avoided at all costs.

There are drills, treatments and oh, yeah…they are all crazy as loons. We are left to figure out how they got there, why they are here and who knocked one of them up???

Honestly we are given no details. No questions were answered and you are left to interpret what is going on. And there is something going on and since I have no idea what, I’m going to say it was some type of cultish abuse going on.

But who knows. When I was finished I felt like I had wasted hours on an unfinished and unedited story. Told only from the viewpoints of the three sisters, I would have liked to hear from the parents. What happened to them and the outside world? Who knows. Not the reader.

Sorry but this one I will give a hard pass.

Netgalley/Doubleday Books    My paperwork says January 8, 2019

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (Book 3 of THE WINTERNIGHT TRILOGY)

This is the third book of the Winternight Trilogy that began with The Bear and the Nightingale followed by The Girl in the Tower and this one carries on the beautiful and tragic tale of Vasya and the Winter King, Morozko.

We have been through many trials with our brave heroine, Vasilisa Petrovna, a girl. Yes, that’s correct she is still a girl, which only makes the heroic and terrifying deeds she does more incredible.

Things are not good in Russia. After what happened in Moscow the people are ready to throw her to the wolves. She must be a witch and she must die. Vasya is alone. Even her cousin, the Grand Prince doesn’t know what to do with her.

The Winter King has traded his freedom for hers and now his demon twin is reeking havoc on the world. Feeding on chaos and death, manipulating the weak religious priest and intent on ridding the world of humans. Even the unseen, magical creatures are afraid.

Vasya doesn’t know who to trust or to believe. But if she is to save her family and her country as well as the Winter King, she must be braver than ever and listen and learn as the country prepares to go to war with the Tatars.

So much weight on the shoulders of one girl.

I have loved these books so much. First, Arden is a genius with covers. They pull you in to a world of fairy tales and magic in the most beautiful of languages. Arden is pure genius at storytelling.

Very Well Done! *****

Netgalley/DelRay January 09,2019

 

 

 

 

MURDER AT THE QUEEN’S OLD CASTLE by CORA HARRISON

Murder at the Queen's Old Castle: A Mystery Set in 1920s Ireland

Reverend Mother Mystery #6

A rare shopping trip for the Reverend Mother ends in brutal murder in this absorbing historical mystery. 

While the castle is no longer a castle, it is still in use. As a very low-end department store in Cork. The goods are shabby at best and the place itself is in deplorable condition. It is not a place we would normally find our good Reverend Mother. And yet due to a recent flood she is offered whatever she would like from the damaged goods. With money always in short supply she ventures out to the old place.

In all these years she has had no reason to go there and very little has changed since she has been there. With an apprentice who was a former student carrying her basket she sets about finding what she can for the girls at school and the other nuns.

At about the same time she smells gas, the owner comes out of his office and falls to his death at her feet. Putting her right in the thick of what looks like murder.

All of our favorite characters are here. Eileen, Patrick and the good Doctor, who is acting rather odd and solicitous to the man’s wife. Mr. Fitzwilliams was not a popular man, even within his own family, but could someone have finally had enough of him?

I enjoyed this one. I have enjoyed them all. The Reverend Mother is a wonderful character and this series keeps getting better.

Very Well Done!

Netgalley/Severn House January 01,2019

 

INTO THE NIGHT BY SARAH BAILEY

Into the Night (Gemma Woodstock, #2)

Sarah Bailey follows up her thrilling novel Dark Lake with Into The Night. I think all of us who read The Dark Lake were hoping there would be another and soon!

DS Gemma Woodstock has had more than her fair share of knocks and has left her young son to move to Melbourne. A big city with big city problems. Personally and professionally she is feeling out-of-place and very much alone.

Her new partner, Nick Fleet doesn’t seem very friendly and talks less than Gemma. When they pick up a case of a homeless man, stabbed to death in an alley, the full impact of her own lonely and almost invisible life hits her. Even after being pulled off the case when a high-profile case is suddenly thrust upon them, she can’t stop thinking about the homeless man.

Why would someone want to stab actor Sterling Wade? During a filmed scene? With so many people involved, the suspect pool is growing bigger each hour. Every one of them have secrets they would rather not share but are they worth killing over? It would seem so.

Gemma is such a flawed character. At times I want to shake her and other times make her a nice cuppa and find her a boyfriend. I actually like the fact that she is a hot mess. Haven’t we all been at one time or another? So Gemma, I’ll stick with you and see what you get up to next!

Netgalley/ December 4th 2018 by Grand Central Publishing