Review: Sanctuary

152 pages, Kindle Edition Sanctuary by Ilona Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm one of the very few who was not extremely happy with this book. If you are going to read it (and I hope you do), may I suggest that you first read the glossary at the end of the book. Had I done that, I think I would have enjoyed it more.

This was a unique setting, and most of the book deals with wizardly fighting and spellcasting as well as a great mystery. The second third of the book sort of sets us up for whatever comes next (two books, maybe three?) and deals a little more with Roman's past life and perhaps a setup with Andora (the Vasylisa).

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SYNOPSIS: "It’s not easy serving the Chernobog, the God of Destruction, Darkness and Death…especially during the holidays; and especially when you’re out of eggnog and one of your pesky, freeloading mythic creatures has eaten your last cookie.

Roman would like nothing more than to be left alone, but when a wounded boy stumbles into his yard and begs for sanctuary, Roman takes him in. Now elite mercenaries are camped out on his property, combat mages are dousing the house with fire, and strange priests are unleashing arcane magic. They thought Roman was easy pickings, just a hermit in the woods, but they chose the wrong dark priest to annoy. For while Roman might be patient, he is the Black Volhv, filled with the love of his terrible god. For his adversaries, it's a fight to the death, but for him, it's just another day in the neighborhood.

Review: The Christmas Inn: A Novel

The Christmas Inn: A Novel by Pamela M. Kelley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a lovely Christmas-themed romance that follows all of the rules.

I will warn you that a few things will have you rolling your eyes in disbelief. For example, when trimming a Christmas tree, they put the lights on after the garland and ornaments. Then Riley's mother, who not only owns the inn but also has her own house, just ups and leaves the Inn for hours without ever letting us know that someone works the front desk.

The unique aspect is that three different romances follow women of three different generations.

I found the inclusion of every bite they ate and every sip they took to be a bit too much filler. There was a lot of repetition, also.

Not everyone is as picky about these things as I am, however, so I definitely recommend this book to those who love clean romances with triple happily-ever-afters!

*The ARC was supplied by the publisher St. Martin's Griffin, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "Explore this delightfully cozy and joyful novel of second chances at the most wonderful time of the year, from USA Today bestselling author Pamela Kelley.A feel-good novel as delightful and comforting as a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night, The Christmas Inn is bestselling author Pamela Kelley’s most heartwarming and magical book yet.Riley Sanders didn’t plan on losing her job as a content marketing manager right before Christmas. When she calls her sister Amy to vent, she learns that their mother has broken her leg and could really use some help at the inn. Riley decides to head home to the inn, nestled along the shores of Cape Cod, in time for the Christmas rush. She is happy to help and needs something to distract her as mistletoe is hung and snowflakes begin to fall.When she gets there, she not only finds delicious cookies and a crackling fire to lift her spirits, but also the sense of family she’s been missing all along. There’s Franny, a woman who has just lost her sister and has four unopened letters from her that she plans to use to open her up to new experiences on the Cape. And there’s Aidan, her high school sweetheart, now a widower, who is staying at the inn with his nine year-old son, Luke. What begins as a quick stay over the holidays to help her mom turns into something that means much more—a second chance at romance, a deeper sense of found family, and all the joy and wonder that comes with Christmastime on Cape Cod."

Review: The Vampire of Kings Street

The Vampire of Kings Street by Asha Greyling
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 Rounded up

I'm happy to see how many readers liked and loved this book. Perhaps it just has something to do with me - maybe I missed some salient points, which is why this book didn't 'do' it for me. I normally adore vampire novels and thought that this one would be different enough to capture my attention.

I AM a fan of Gail Carriger, and in no way does this book come close. Well, maybe the female journalist who dresses in men's clothes?

It was difficult t understand anything about these vampires until near the end. The idea of a vampire being what amounts to a bulter was unique, but that was it. Unless you want to consider how far you have to suspend your disbelief about a woman being a lawyer in the very early 1900s AND her being Indian, and not American Indian either.

It just didn't do it for me. The female protagonist was too wishy-washy, and the author pounded us with her 'marginalization' rhetoric.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher Crooked Lane Books, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS:"In this gothic debut novel, perfect for fans of Tread of Angels and Gail Carriger’s Soulless, Miss Radhika Dhingra, a newly minted lawyer in 19th century New York, never expected that her first client would be a vampire accused of murder.

Having a resident vampire is just the thing for upper-class New Yorkers–besides being a status symbol, they make excellent butlers or housekeepers. The only thing they require in return is a drop or two of blood and a casket to shut out the dawn’s early light. 

Tolerated by society only if they follow a strict set of rules, vampires are seen as “less than”–and as the daughter of immigrants, Radhika knows firsthand how this feels. Accused of murder, her undead client Mr. Evelyn More, knows that the cards are stacked against him.

With the help of a journalist friend and a diminutive detective inspector, Miss Dhingra sets out to prove her client’s innocence and win his freedom. Failure will mean Mr. More’s death, the end of her dreams of becoming a successful attorney, and the loss of the vampire Miss Dhingra has begun to call her friend.

Offering an alternative paranormal history, delightful characters, and insightful social commentary, The Vampire of Kings Street will thrill readers of Deanna Rayburn and Rebecca Roanhorse. "

Review: The Empress of Cooke County

The Empress of Cooke County by Elizabeth Bass Parman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 Rounded Up

I don't know what to say about this book, but whatever the author did, it sure kept me reading!

We have a hateful, drunken main character (an adult) named Posey. Then we have her daughter, Callie Jane, a fairly spineless, at least to start, very young woman. Lastly, we have the husband and father, Vern, who is totally spineless but sticks to his word.

The book is told in two voices, Posey's and Callie Janes. It is set in 1966 with all manner of references to that time period. That was pretty cool!

Posey is living a dream in between her "nips" of gin, and she never really comes off as drunk to the reader, but the supporting cast sure knows about it!

The story is a fascinating one but leads to tragedy. This tragedy leads to Callie Jane finding her backbone and finally doing something with her life, and it also leads to Posey getting everything she deserves.

I really liked this book. It was a very fast read that you may not want to put down.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher, Harper Muse, the author, and NetGalley.

SYNOPSIS: " The chatter at the Curly Q beauty shop is about who'll be first to get a new blue Foodarama refrigerator from Sears in their small town of Spark, Tennessee, but Posey Jarvis and her daughter Callie Jane find themselves facing a crisis--one that will change both their lives forever.

Thirty-eight-year-old Posey Jarvis is the self-appointed "Empress" of rural Spark in Cooke County, Tennessee. She spends her days sneaking nips of gin, following every word about her idol and look-alike, Jackie Kennedy, and avoiding her stalwart husband, Vern. She is also struggling to control her newly defiant daughter, Callie Jane, who finds herself accidentally engaged to Trace Humboldt. When Posey unexpectedly inherits a derelict mansion from her quirky old Aunt Milbrey, she finagles her way into hosting her high school's twentieth reunion there. Possums are nesting in the parlor and the stench of cat urine permeates the sunroom, but she must be ready for the big day, so she needs to work fast. She cares nothing about seeing her classmates, but she cares deeply about seeing the love of her life, a man who dumped her twenty years ago.

Callie Jane has had enough of her mother and working her boring job at Jarvis Emporium, a junk shop owned by her father. She breaks her engagement, moves out of her parents' house, and sets her sights on moving to California. Her domineering mother, stultifying future, and even the creepy peeping Tom terrorizing the town will be in her rearview. But then a shocking act of violence changes everything, and Callie Jane must determine how far she will go to save someone she loves.

Set in a gossipy small town during the turbulent 1960s, and full of Southern charm and unforgettable characters, The Empress of Cooke County is a novel about found family, what it means to be loved, and how being true to yourself can have life-altering consequences."

FictionHistorical FictionSouthern

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Review: The Highlander's Return

The Highlander's Return by Lynsay Sands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Although this is book 12 in this series, you will have no need to read the others first. I do hope you choose to read because all of them are pretty darn good light reads!

As I said, this was a light and quite funny read with an excellent mystery added. All of this series has a mystery, and in this one, I found it a little harder to figure out the red herring than I usually do.

Poor Annelle. Her husband deserts her on her wedding night to go on a pilgrimage; several weeks later, her father-in-law suffers an accident, which forces her to take care of the keep and all of the responsibilities attached to it. Six years later, she is still doing all that and being the healer for everyone. Add to this her mother-in-law actively hates her, and there you have a miserable Annelle.

Graeme, Annelles brother-in-law, suddenly arrives home after being a mercenary for ten years and searching for William or his body.  He is also bringing her husband William's bones.

But never fear; soon, passion rears its wonderful head, and things proceed from there. And yes, even after a lot of injuries and accidents, we do get a happily-ever-after!

This is a very fast read, heavy on "romance" and mystery.  Annelle is a wonderfully strong woman, and of course, Graeme is a wonderfully sexy Scot.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher Avon/HarperCollins, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "Graeme Gunn is a warrior through and through. Content for his brother William to hold the title of clan chief, he left home years ago, battling his way through Scotland as a mercenary. When news arrives of William’s death, Graeme is forced to return to everything he left behind, including his brother’s shy young widow, Annella Mackay. But the beautiful, determined woman he finds at the keep is nothing like the quiet virgin he remembers…

Annella Mackay once had hopes for a loving marriage, a dream that shattered when her husband abandoned her. Hiding her pain, she took on the responsibilities of both laird and lady for the Gunn clan with spirit. But when she learns her husband is dead, she realizes she finally has a chance at a new dream, and she won’t let anything deter her plans. Not even Graeme, no matter how strong her attraction to the gruff and stubborn warrior…

It's a clash of will and passion unlike anything they’ve known, especially when Graeme decides to stay and claim his title. But as the clan faces the threat of a hidden enemy, Graeme and Annella must fight for their home together…and they realize they are also fighting for their love."

Review: Passions in Death

Passions in Death by J.D. Robb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 rounded up

Good grief, I can't believe there are 59 books in this series! I can easily see that the writing has changed over the years, sometimes for the better and sometimes not so much.

This book starts off slow and is a bit tedious at times, but it sure does pick up toward the end. The slang was a little hard for me to follow at times. It sort of reminded me of the one Eve Dallas book where she used the abbreviated word 'anal' for the word "analyze." I couldn't help but snort every time I read that term. The abbreviations in this book did much the same for me.

I was also disappointed that we didn't get to see many of the usual secondary characters, and Roarke gets a bit of an abbreviated part in this book.

The story was good, but for the obvious red herring the author throws in. It did have me wondering for quite a while who-dun-it, so that was satisfying.

All in all, it was a good early autumn vacation mystery. (this book comes out September 3rd).

*ARC was supplied by the publisher St. Martin's Press, the author, and NetGalley.


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SYNOPSIS : "Homicide Detective Eve Dallas hunts a killer who turns a wedding party into a murder scene in the latest novel by the #1 New York Times bestselling author, J.D. Robb.

On a hot August night, Lt. Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke, speed through the streets of Manhattan to the Down and Dirty club, where a joyful, boisterous pre-wedding girls’ night out has turned into a murder scene. One of the brides lies in a pool of blood, garroted in a private room where she was preparing a surprise for her fiancée—two scrimped and saved-for tickets to Hawaii.

Despite the dozens of people present, useful witnesses are hard to come by. It all brings back some bad memories for Eve. In her uniform days, she’d suffered an assault in the very same room—but she’d been able to fight back and survive. She’d gotten justice. And now she needs to provide some for poor young Erin.

Eve knows that the level of violence and the apparent premeditation involved suggest a volatile mix of hidden, heated passion and ice-cold calculation. This is a crime that can be countered only by hard detective work and relentless dedication—and Eve will not stop until she finds the killer who destroyed this couple’s dreams before the honeymoon even began…"

Review: By Any Other Name

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

It is an astonishing book in that sometimes it is profoundly interesting, and other times, it is profoundly boring. If you are a student of Shakespeare, you will especially love the premise of a woman (Emilia Lanier née Aemilia Bassano) creating his most popular plays, and you will most certainly, if you are an author, love learning about the work and subterfuge that went into a woman of those times writing...anything, let alone something that was published.

However, this is but two-thirds of what this book is about. The other one-third of this novel also takes us to modern times and deals with another woman playwright and her inability to get heard, much less produced. Through an interesting mistake that is along the lines of what went on with Aemilia Bassano, we find our modern woman Melina Green finally recognized, but not in the way it should have happened.

It was a good book that I found at times to be supremely boring, but I was able to stick with it to the end. This book, when set in modern times, deals a lot with wokeness not only in the theater but in other places of creativity.

*This ARC was supplied by the publisher Ballantine Books/Random House, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS:"Two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—are both forced to hide behind another name to make their voices heard.

In 1581, Emilia Bassano—like most young women of her day—is allowed no voice of her own. But as the Lord Chamberlain’s mistress, she has access to all theater in England, and finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. And yet, creating some of the world’s greatest dramatic masterpieces comes at great cost: by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history.

In the present, playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. Although the challenges are different four hundred years later, the playing field is still not level for women in theater. Would Melina—like Emilia—be willing to forfeit her credit as author, just for a chance to see her work performed?

Told in intertwining narratives, this sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire asks what price each woman is willing to pay to see their work live on—even if it means they will be forgotten."

Review: Joy: A Novel

Joy: A Novel by Danielle Steel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"JOY" is certainly a misnomer for this book. Even when you thought it might have a happily-ever-after ending, it really doesn't. There was just the barest hint of happiness at the end.

I was pulled in right from the start, and although I never cry while reading a sad book, however, I came close right from the very first section of the first chapter.

The rest of the book went downhill for me. No matter how much I hoped Allegra would find a bit of happiness, she didn't until I thought I could stand no more!

It took me a long time to get through this soul-wrenching novel, and that is unusual for me. I just couldn't take this book in big gulps; I had to take it with tiny little sips.



SYNOPSIS :  "When she is only six years old, Allegra Dixon’s party-loving mother leaves without so much as a goodbye. Her father, an emotionally distant military officer, is also unable—or unwilling—to care for her. Sent to live like a ghost in her grandparents’ joyless home, Allegra finds her only solace through an escape into books.

Attending boarding school, life finally takes a turn when she meets a dashing young West Point cadet named Shep Williams. Soon their friendship blossoms into something more, and they fall deeply in love.

After college, Allegra has established herself as a book editor and Shep is rising through the ranks of the military. But then Shep suddenly receives a posting to Afghanistan, and they decide to marry before he goes. Between his deployments, they cling to their brief and fraught stolen moments together. Each time he leaves, Shep promises the separations will soon come to an end.

But soon Allegra realizes that the horrors of war have begun to change her husband into a man she no longer recognizes. The trauma he has experienced proves to be too harrowing, and Allegra will find herself feeling utterly alone again just when she thought she’d finally found happiness.

In her new novel,Danielle Steel tells the unforgettable story of a woman who refuses to give up until she finds the joy she deserves."

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Review: Four Weekends and a Funeral

Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

With all of Allison's inner dialoguing and the misconceptions she allowed to go on, this book just got very annoying.

I do admit that Allison's medical issue/s was an unusual concept for romance ( BRCA1 is a gene mutation, a predisposition for breast cancer that is inherited). I felt it was handled fairly well. I did get a little tired of her inner- dialogue about her nipples or, rather, lack thereof, though!

Adam was a wimp-period.

No, I was unable to immerse myself in this story, and I did not manage to find out if Adam and Allison finally did the deed. I'm sure it was romantic in some way, but like I said, I couldn't force myself to finish this ARC.

Please make sure you read all of the reviews that extoll the wonderfulness of this novel. They must have seen something I didn't, or perhaps it's just my age, and you need to be in the younger generation to 'get' this book.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons, the author, and NetGalley.

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SYNOPSIS "A tender, laugh-out-loud debut romance about a woman who ends up in over her head after a little white lie . . .

When thirty-year-old post-double-mastectomy BRCA 1 carrier and reluctant thrill-seeker Alison Mullally arrives at her ex-boyfriend Sam’s funeral to find that no one knows he dumped her, she agrees to play the grieving girlfriend for the sake of the family and pack up Sam’s apartment with his prickly best friend, Adam Berg. After all, it’ll only take four weekends . . .

But Adam doesn’t want Alison anywhere near him. Forced to spend long hours with the grump, and his monosyllabic demeanor, Alison decides she must put her people-pleasing abilities to the test. She will make him like her. And after awkward family affairs and packing up dilemmas, the two form a tenuous friendship . . . if “friendship” means incredible chemistry and tension between them. Can Alison come clean and finally embrace the life and love she's always wanted? Or will her little white lie get in the way of her new, unexpected romance?"