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Dear Cat Sebastian,

I have the first book in your Seducing the Sedgwicks series, It Takes Two to Tumble, on my TBR but haven’t managed to read it yet. A Gentleman Never Keeps Score works well as a standalone however.

Hartley Sedgwick is one of the eldest of the Sedgwick siblings and it is apparent early on that he felt a great deal of responsibility for them as they were all growing up. Their father was scattered and erratic; there were days of abundance and days of scarcity in their childhood and one could never predict what the day would bring. Hartley decided he would ensure they would all never have to go hungry again.  Hartley’s godfather was Sir Humphrey Easterbrook. Humphrey was not a good man. In exchange for a too-young Hartley providing sexual services to him, Humphrey provided funds for Hartley’s brothers. Hartley was 16. In the process of spending time with Humphrey, Hartley learned the art of being a “gentleman”. He learned how to dress elegantly and how to converse with the upper crust. And he learned to hate himself even though he was happy to help his brothers and didn’t ever blame them for what had been done to him. The book is not explicit about what went on between Hartley and Humphrey but even so, the subject matter may be triggering for some readers.

One of the things Humphrey liked was to have lewd paintings done, and he preferred the women to be of the desperate-for-money variety rather than willing sitters for portraits. One such painting is of a young Kate Bradley, a black woman, now a midwife, who is dating the brother of Sam Fox, publican. Kate has refused to marry Nick because she’s worried the painting of her would be revealed at some future point and cause embarrassment to him. Nick knows about the painting and isn’t worried, but it is a barrier to their wedded bliss and Sam wants to fix it.

Sam is a former boxer, now the owner-operator of The Bell, a pub near Fleet Street. He is very much a caretaker. He wants to fix things for people and with the people he cares about this need is even stronger. He undertakes to try and locate the painting and this puts him in proximity with Hartley. Because, there is a painting of a younger Hartley, too.

After Humphrey died, he left his Brook Street house to Hartley. It was the only unentailed property and the only property of value. The entailed property went to Humphrey’s son and heir, Martin, but Hartley got the house. He doesn’t quite know why. In any event, Hartley was living there relatively happily until information about his true relationship with Humphrey became well known amongst his peers. He was cut from society and has been living as a recluse, rarely leaving the house. Most of his servants have quit. In fact, fairly early in the book, his only remaining servant is Alf, a former prostitute Hartley had brought in from the streets. (There is no sexual relationship between Alf and Hartley; Hartley, it turns out, is a bit of a caretaker too.) Later, Alf brings a friend of his, Sadie, an unwed girl of “gentle birth” who had also turned to prostitution to support herself as she awaited the birth of her baby.

Over the course of the book, Hartley, Alf, Sadie, Sam, Nick and Kate form a family.

Initially, Hartley and Sam plan to work together to locate and destroy Humphrey’s lewd paintings. Hartley sees this as some direct action he can take which may make him feel better about everything. He can’t get any revenge on Humphrey, or Martin (who he blames for releasing the information which led to him being cut from society), but he feels it will be somehow cathartic. In some ways, the paintings are a McGuffin though.

Sam and Hartley are attracted to one another but Hartley does not like to be touched. He feels sexual attraction but has difficulty enjoying sex because it involves others touching him. He is clearly quite traumatised by what Humphrey did to him.

Sam is all about consent. He asks what is okay and what is not. He lets Hartley set the boundaries and always, always respects them. Their sexual relationship develops slowly, with Sam finding unexpected delight in restraining himself as Hartley pleasures him. They slowly inch toward more and more physical contact – touching hands, hugs, kisses. And non-sexual touch too – something else Humphrey robbed from Hartley.

Maybe because of Sam’s own history – his father was an enslaved African American man who joined the British Army during the American War of Independence and was subsequently invited to settle in England – Sam’s view of what happened to Hartley is perhaps similar to that of a modern (and sex positive) reader. Sam doesn’t have a problem with someone supporting themselves by selling their body for sex. He sold his body in a different way when he boxed. But he does object to coercion – whether that’s because of desperate financial straits or being too young to be said to be consenting or a more overt form of physical violence, Sam is not okay with it. He has a keen understanding of what consent and bodily autonomy actually mean. He helps Hartley see that what was done to him was terrible, that he was a victim of a depraved, evil man. This helps Hartley see himself as worthy of love and affection and, along with Sam’s respect for Hartley’s limits and his easy acquiescence to them, makes it possible for Hartley to get to a place of emotional and physical freedom with Sam.

The story struck me as full of various intersectionalities; class, gender, race, sexuality. The book explicitly notes that Sam has advantages over Hartley in some areas because he can “pass” as straight and because he is big and muscular whereas Hartley cannot and is not. As Alf so blithely puts it: “There are newborn babies who know about you, mate.” Sam has similar thoughts but is more politic about them.

It wasn’t that Hartley was exactly feminine, but there was something about the way he held himself, something about the tone of his voice, too, that wasn’t quite masculine either. Sam didn’t think it was anything Hartley was deliberately doing, so much as something inborn in him, just part of who he was. And his looks didn’t help; he wasn’t handsome so much as beautiful. Maybe that was why the gossip had ruined him: it was just so easy to believe that Hartley was that kind of man.

and that Hartley has advantages over Sam in others because he is wealthy and white. And of course, they both have a certain advantage over Kate and Sadie because they are men. It is particularly stark in relation to Sadie because of her status as an unwed mother.

Hartley pursed his lips. In the girl’s words he heard an echo of his own childhood: unpredictability of household arrangements, servants coming and going, children pressed into service as unpaid help. But if her family had a cook, however sporadically, they had certainly been well-to-do. She oughtn’t to be scrubbing floors and washing dishes.

This was what Will would call reactionary twaddle, but Hartley couldn’t quite rid himself of the notion that some people scrubbed floors and other people paid them to do so. Complicating matters was the fact that his own background placed him more comfortably in the former group than in the latter: his family hadn’t had servants or even a functional roof until his older brother was old enough to take things in hand.

The book discusses being black in Regency England and dealing with racial slurs and racism, the different kinds of freedom each character enjoys or can have. I don’t know enough about the subject matter to comment authoritatively on this. I am white, as are you. I’ll leave it for black readers to comment more fully on whether the representation is well done here. It felt well-researched and respectful but I’m no expert.

While Sam’s initial draw to Hartley was perhaps his vulnerability, the book does address Sam’s savior complex.

“He’s a man, not a stray animal,” Kate said, petting the dog on her lap. “You can’t just keep him because he doesn’t have anyone else.”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” Sam said.

“Then what are you doing?”

“I don’t rightly know, Kate,” he admitted. And that was the truth.

And I was convinced by the end that Sam loved Hartley for himself. And, Hartley helps and cares for Sam just as much, albeit in somewhat different ways. In the end, theirs is a relationship of equals.

The story is angsty and sweetly charming, with engaging characters who do not aspire to the ton – something which felt fresh to me what with all the dukes and earls abounding in Romancelandia –  and I liked it very much.

“I care about you more than I know how to manage,” Hartley finally said, looking up at Sam with wet eyes. “More than our circumstances will allow.”

Sam’s voice rumbled. “I think you care about me just the right amount.”

Grade: B+

Regards,
Kaetrin

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Findriddy and Carson are two explorers sent to Boohte to survey the ridges and scrub-covered hills of the planet. Back home, their adventures are followed by countless breathless fans, but the reality is far less romantic as they deal with dust, nitpicking regulations, and uncooperative aliens. Teamed with a young intern whose specialty is mating customs, and a native guide of indeterminate gender, the group sets out for a previously unexplored sector of the planet. As they survey canyons and cataracts, battle dangers, and discover alien treasures, they will soon find themselves in alien territory of another kind: exploring the paths and precipices of sex. And love.

Dear Ms. Willis, 

I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into with this long novella and even after finishing it, I’m still pondering everything that gets subtly and not so subtly turned on its head here. We have two government employees who work exploring and charting uncharted territory on a planet inhabited by sentient beings. On this journey, a novice goes with them along with an indige guide who accompanies them. 

Fin and Carson are legends at this job. Ev arrives, practically starstruck at getting to work up close and personal with his idols. There’s even a (heavily glamorized) 3-D popup show about their adventures and exploits (48 or so episodes so far). Fin and Carson are gleefully fined by Bult – their guide – for a dizzying array of infractions. You see, the government (aka Big Brother and other “colorful” names that Carson uses) is contrite about past colonialism and has laid down a rigid set of rules and regs which the indiges – who are no fools – exploit to the nth degree. “Destruction of indigenous flora” for stepping on a flower or  “destruction of land surface” for leaving a footprint.” As Fin and Carson gripe, they’ll have to keep working for at least twenty more years just to pay off all the fines. 

But there’s something going on here. Something that Fin and Carson have worked out ways to finesse and to hide. Ostensibly they are there to chart what they find and name “f and f “as well as landmarks which don’t already have indige names. Of course the naming regs are as nitpicky as any others though by the end, readers might have caught on to how Carson’s strategy works. 

Because there are also other things going on here besides a combo/flip of Old West and SciFi exploration. I agree that Ev is smarter than he looks but between explaining mating rituals to Fin – which leads him to notice something strange going on with a native bird – and trying to jump a ‘happy to be jumped’ coworker who flies the heli, Ev might not notice everything right under his nose. 

This is an older story and in sending up bureaucracy or exploring genders, it might not have aged quite as well. Or it might exactly hit the spot, depending on your viewpoint. We get dropped straight into the action with little to no explanation so be prepared to just float along, gathering information and data as you go before things become a bit … less murky. I would have liked to see either a bit more or maybe a bit less as I think the story would have worked better either bulked up or slimmed down. But I still enjoyed myself. B-        

~Jayne

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Professor Topaz is tired of fending off advice that he should retire in Vegas where magicians his age have an easier time finding work.

Ricardo Hart’s career has sunk so low, he’s resorted to shaking his moneymaker at bachelorette parties.

But there’s a casting call for a new reality show called Magic Mansion that could change everything for these two gay stage magicians, one recovering from the loss of his partner, the other awe-struck by the presence of his idol. Each is poised for a critical second chance: at fame, and at love.

Who will win? Step into the Mansion, and find out….

Dear readers,

A lot of you who read m/m probably mostly know this writer by her Psycop series, which I also used to read but stopped sometime ago, because I felt as if the series does not have an end in sight and the characters got stale. But this little stand-alone of a book which I purchased in the year 2012 is still one of my favorite m/m books. It still stands upon reread. I cheated a little – I started reading the paperback, but finished on Kindle. Please note that even though I purchased the kindle version back in 2012 as well, now it appears to be on KU if you have it.

I think that what stayed with me all these years after I read this book was not even the romance. I mean, I thought both John, aka Professor Topaz, and Ricardo were great characters and I liked their chemistry. I just did not really care for that large of an age gap between them. I believe John is sixty three at the time the story unfolds and Ricardo is 35 (but it was said only once, I think, so he can be 31 or 32 – early thirties). There was nothing squeaky for this reader – they meet when they are both adults accomplished in their chosen career even if they want more exposure, otherwise they would not have tried out for the Magic show. John had a successful very long term relationship. Ricardo thought of John as his idol for many years and finally he gets to know John as a real person during the filming of the reality show which was a little ironic but made perfect sense and makes Ricardo realize that the person besides the stage name is even better than what he saw as a public persona of Professor Topaz. I liked all of that, it just made me sad, because I wanted a lot of years together for both of them. And they hopefully will have at least two or three decades, but I wanted more than if they met when one of them is sixty three, that’s all.

What stayed with me the most though was the sense of wonder. I bought this book because the blurb promised romance amongst a reality show. I had a weird relationship with reality shows when they just started. I hated watching the back stabbing aspect, but liked the skill based shows, that’s why cooking shows were my favorites, and it was my first book about a reality show with magicians as the main characters. So that’s why I bought the book, but even though I got the reality show aspect and magical illusions and romance, there was something else. There is nothing about it in the blurb, but there is something else both Ricardo and John possess and I guess I just did not expect to see it in this book. I remember gasping with delight, because it was so unexpected for me.

The Reality show aspect was really fun for me and some secondary characters were extremely entertaining.

Grade: B+

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A charming retelling of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility set in Ming-dynasty China.

Two sisters with conflicting attitudes on passion and restraint must each choose between the traditions that bind their hearts and pursuing the love that could save them.

Nineteen-year-old Ailin is torn between duty and desire. Following her father’s death, her family must rely on the wealthy Jiang clan for financial survival. Though Ailin knows she must marry strategically to help her family, her heart has already been captured by the poor but gentle scholar Enze. When his family opposes their union, Ailin knows she must hide her feelings from everyone until she can strengthen her dowry and stand on her own terms.

Meilin encourages her older sister to fight for her personal desires, but Meilin’s romantic ideals conflict with Ailin’s devotion to duty. Meilin believes in being honest about one’s feelings regardless of what others may think, and she unabashedly pursues a charming playwright while also clashing with a frustratingly handsome but gruff army captain.

Each sister would do anything to help the other find happiness, but their assumptions about restraint and passion are as different as earth and sky. Ailin feels honor bound to her family yet is unable to deny her love for Enze, even as circumstances push them further apart, while Meilin grapples with unexpected feelings for Captain Bai and societal restrictions that leave little room for her own hopes.

Silk and Sensibility explores the delicate cultural expectations of womanhood in historical China by following two sisters who must learn to balance loyalty and longing, courage and constraint, to claim their own happiness.

Dear Ms. Seeley, 

Earlier this year I read a historical Korean take on “Pride and Prejudice.” Maybe there will be a Japanese or Vietnamese version of “Emma” to come? Anyway, here we have a Ming era “Sense and Sensibility” and I found it delightful yet also true to the novel and the time period which I can tell is no easy feat. Yes, some small differences are there but overall, the adaptation to historical China is well done.

Getting a new “take” on a famous novel is hard work but this one manages it beautifully. As I read it, I mentally said “Oh, she’s “this character” or he’s “that person” and then watched to see how well they would tally with the original. But after a while, I was more interested in how well these characters would fit into Ming era China. For funsies, look up the meanings of the Chinese names. 

The bones of the story are the same, but a few tweaks such as having the Duan sisters and their mother leave the Duan family home due to their insufferable daughter/sister-in-law Fan Fulan and move to the wealthy merchant household into which Mama’s brother had married added a lot of interesting aspects to the book. I’d never heard of matrilocal marriages, in which the man moves in with his in-laws rather than his wife moving into his family home, and I must say the Jiang family household is funny yet also welcoming. 

Grandmother Jiang is a hoot. The Jiangs are also merchants and although rich, they can not claim to be from a scholarly family – something which conveys status even if the family, like Fan Enze’s, is actually poor. As Mama reminds her daughters, they’ve been taken in by the Jiangs and need to show respect even if Grandmother Jiang teases them a bit and pokes her matchmaking nose into their business. 

Grandmother Jiang and her daughter run this household and the family business very efficiently and I loved seeing women not only in charge but also respected. They think highly of Mama’s brother who has slotted into the business and helped them increase profits even more. Double points for him that he loves his wife and married her despite her smallpox scars. I wish we could have seen a bit more of their children but understand that the plot was already packed. 

Back to Ailin, Meilin, and Mingming who are true to the Dashwood sisters. Ailin is the traditional one who also has bound feet which I took as one more clue as to how she views life, the family, and honor. When it came time to start binding her feet, Meilin rebelled as did Mingming. At times Meilin, who is a skilled zither player, is conscious of how large her (normal) feet are but given her exuberant personality, she doesn’t think of them often. Mingming, who seems to enjoy studies and learning, has a bit of sass in her and doesn’t skimp on her sarcasm. One major difference here is that Meilin knows all along about Ailin’s heartbreak which minimizes a bit the impact of her realization of her own selfishness. 

As in the original story, the focus is on the Duan sisters rather than their beaux but Fan Enze the poor scholar trying to get ready to sit for the scholarly exams which by passing would elevate him in society, gruff Bai Yun who is a captain in the army with something in his background that doesn’t bother the Jiangs but does offend Meilin, and slick as snot Wei Luobi who smiles too much and promises too little are important parts of the book. As Fan Enze is on-page less, there are excerpts from unsent letters that he writes to Ailin at the start of each chapter so we can follow what he’s thinking.  

Drama unfolds, roadblocks to happiness appear, and I eagerly watched to see how scenes and characters from the original would be transposed into Ming era China. Everything is thoughtfully done and makes sense not only in the plot but historically. I cringed at bit at Meilin’s emotional thoughtlessness; I laughed at Mingming’s “saying it like it is”; I enjoyed the fact that Mama actually has a bit more gumption and ability to add to the family purse; and sighed at Ailin, who also has more agency, suppressing her emotions to keep things on an even keel and maintain the family honor. Of course we know which suitors are going to marry the Duan sisters but the roller coaster ride wrings out the reader’s emotions before final understanding and happiness. This is a solid reimagining of the original and I’m glad I read it. A-      

~Jayne 

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Betty Lou Dearden has been a member of the Ogden Quilters Association for more than twenty years when it is announced that the biggest quilting competition in the country is coming to Utah. With the clock ticking and a chance to finally beat their long-time rival quilting circle, the women welcome two young gay men to their group as they bicker their way to an award-worthy entry. With disarming humor and extraordinary heart, Eli McCann takes readers deep into the cozy but cutthroat world of competitive quilting and the sometimes-messy friendships that shape our lives.

Dear Mr. McCann,

I was looking forward to a book with older female characters and, honestly, some cutthroat quilting. The older female characters are definitely there in their full crotchety glory (and there are days now when I’m starting to feel my crotchetiness beginning to bloom) but honestly the quilting stuff is a bit of a let down.

Many of the characters are cliches: the grumpy cat lady, the deaf lady to whom everyone has to scream to be heard, the “take on everything until she’s overwhelmed” lady, the over-the-top gay guy. I had thought that the action would focus on how the two new additions to the quilting group – the younger gay men – would shake things up and help the quilt contest given the gay reference part of the announced “theme.” I had images of them helping come up with a quilt idea to focus on that but no. Rob is lovely but why is he there? Byron is an exuberant tea-spiller but mainly he’s just comic relief. 

The promise of the “cutthroat world of competitive quilting” is, honestly, what got me interested in the book but it takes way past the halfway point to see much and even then I was still disappointed. What is there mainly consists of complaining about another regional group and their bitchy leader. There is a lot of long term seething and passive aggressiveness among the OGA quilters that is almost but not quite buried under a layer of “be nice” which has apparently been going on for years. Okay, yes I can understand this in women who are mainly 60-70+ years of age but … not what I was hoping for.  

I have done some cross stitch and sewing over the years but no quilting. I didn’t expect to understand all the finer details about this craft but there’s a lot of so-so descriptions that tell me little and confuse me a lot. The OGA quilters are initially fired with enthusiasm but based on one past competition quilt description, they couldn’t be bothered to double check to depict the correct national flag, something which was incredulously noted by the judges. So when I read about their disparate ideas for individual quilt squares, it didn’t fill me with confidence about their final product. Then comes the scenes of their lackluster individual results and blasé efforts to finish the hand quilting. It all gave the impression – do they really care? and again – this is not cutthroat competition.  

Dough-eyed. Yes, this description is in the book. Doe-eyed? Dewy-eyed maybe but an editor needed another pass through the book. There are lots of things like one character always carrying a large bracelet with 40some keys on it that jangles a lot. At one point she drops it but doesn’t notice this. Why is this even mentioned? There were definitely some funny moments that made me smile but overall the pacing was too slow. 

There are plenty of older female characters which I like. But I feel there are too many characters and had to remind myself who was who. When they came back into the story I had trouble remembering who they were as they were just too similar to each other. We see more of Byron but Rob mainly fades into the background and as I asked earlier, why was he even there?

Now all this being said, I think the actual point of the book is friendship – both old and new, lost and regained, and contentious at times and this done well. Yet, cutthroat quilting is what I was promised and I don’t think this is really there enough. C-    

~Jayne

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The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards

In the present day, Will has arrived at a posh townhouse in London to attend a dinner party. The hosts are Georgina and Theo. The hosts and attendees have a connection that goes back 25 years, to 1999. That summer, a group of recent grads spent months working on a dating site for an eccentric professor, a site with a hook: it purported to use rigorous psychological testing to create the ideal match. As is often the case in this type of book, the summer and the project ended very badly.

The get together is ostensibly intended to honor Sebastian, the professor, who has recently passed. Besides Will, the dinner party attendees are Sophie, whom Will had an unrequited crush on that long-ago summer; Rohan, who is grasping for success in both past and present; and Lily, the technical brains behind the dating site. There is also a stranger named Finn, supposedly Sebastian’s final research assistant (though he oddly appears to not know much about Sebastian).

Will is disquieted both by strange noises – he thinks he hears crying from a nearby boarded up house – and by Georgina and Theo’s odd behavior. The caterers are the only other people present – a massive man named Callum and a redhead named Amber, who at first shocks Will with her resemblance to a woman the group knew back in 1999.

Things are not as they seem in the present day, of course. In 1999, the students ended up on a sort of side quest to develop a test that can weed out psychopaths. In the present, the dinner party quickly descends into chaos as the attendees are held hostage and compelled to reveal a secret one of them is ostensibly hiding. But what’s the secret, who has it, and what is the motive of the hostage-takers?

The Wasp Trap had a compelling set-up and satisfying twists and turns (even if it felt like there were maybe one or two more than was necessary – of course I love twists and turns but sometimes authors get into this frantic last minute “but wait, there’s more!” thing that ends up diffusing some of the satisfaction with sheer glut). Will is a decent but slightly weak protagonist – I actually felt like the male protagonists in all three of these books were a bit “soft” in a way that I found somewhat unappealing. (But I feel guilty for thinking that way because I don’t think male protagonists need to be macho he-men or anything. Just maybe a little more proactive. Will mooning over Sophie in the past and present got tiresome.)

My grade for The Wasp Trap was a B.

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The Retreat by Mark Edwards

Lucas is a horror novelist hoping for a quiet place to inspire him to work on his latest book. He chooses a newly opened writers retreat in rural Wales.

Julia has recently opened her home out of economic necessity. Two years previous, a family walk with her husband and young daughter ended in unimaginable tragedy – her daughter Lily disappeared and her husband, thinking that Lily had fallen into the river, jumped in and drowned. Lily has never been found and is presumed to have drowned as well, though the reader knows from the prologue that this wasn’t the case – she had been abducted.

Lucas meets Julia and several other writers at the retreat and settles in to try to work on his book, one he’s far behind on. He’s had recent success with one of his books after writing a number that no one read. Rather than inspiring him, the success seems to intimidate Lucas into a raging case of writer’s block. Originally from Wales, but a long-time resident of London, he thinks maybe a return to the rural quiet with its abundant (and sometimes creepy) nature and ancient folktales will get him writing.

Once he learns about Julia’s tragedy, though, Lucas becomes distracted by the missing Lily. He realizes that Julia believes Lily is still alive. The locals are eccentric and closed-off, to the point of being somewhat suspicious. Strange incidents begin to occur in Julia’s home – items missing or moved, late-night singing with no obvious source.

The resolution is…kind of odd? But relatively satisfying. It feels less dark than it could have been, which makes the final twist feel very dark. I realized only as I was reading the book that it had some unexpected gothic horror elements – which I think may be something that Edwards’ other books also delve into. I’m not sure how I feel about those elements in my reading but they were pretty effective here.

I liked this maybe a smidge less than The Wasp Trap but gave it the same grade, a straight B.

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One of the Family by Mark Edwards

This is Edwards’ most recent book and I was drawn to the setting – a remote Scottish Highlands village during Christmas, with the prospect of snowstorms looming. Patrick is an aspiring filmmaker/food delivery driver who is involved with Holly, who works in a posh clothing shop but comes from much posher roots. Patrick and Holly are traveling for the holiday to meet her family at their Scottish vacation home.

Patrick is nervous because Holly’s dad Charles Grant is an ultra-wealthy and famous tech mogul. Holly is reassuring but has her own nerves – she’s meeting her father’s fiancée Jasmine for the first time. The meeting is fraught because Holly’s mother – who passed from cancer years before – is still much beloved and mourned by her children. Also, Jasmine is the same age as the Grant children – mid-30s.

When they arrive, Patrick is suitably impressed with the home, which he likens to a “castle.” He soon meets several members of the family – the snooty and high-strung Miranda, her husband Zack who works as Charles’ right-hand man, and Lewis, the brother who seems like a bit of a slacker. He also meets the housekeeper Morag and notes some uncomfortable undercurrents in the air.

Before Charles and Jasmine even arrive, the Grant siblings make a discovery that shocks and distresses them. Jasmine is apparently a carbon-copy of their late mother (albeit much younger). Her resemblance confuses and distresses the family. They don’t understand why Charles sought out his late wife’s doppelgänger, or how he even found her (they met in a hotel in Miami, where Charles was a guest and Jasmine worked at the front desk).

Suffice to say, there is a lot of tension by the time Charles and Jasmine show up. Patrick is a bit at sea with the strange dynamics of the family. He also feels his outsider status and his lack of wealth – in fact, he bonds with Jasmine over their similarities. Patrick had some very minor success with his first documentary, but he’s been unable to find a subject that interests him for his next project. When he learns of a local story about a young man who died mysteriously almost a year previous, he’s intrigued enough to want to follow some leads. Various members of the Grant family seem uneasy with his interest, however.

The story continues with an approaching storm, a nearby cave formation in which a local boy died decades before, and the eventual death of one of the main characters in that same cave formation (side note: I am terrified of cave formations and would never go in one gah even thinking about them freaks me out). Another character goes missing as the winter storm increases in intensity, and long-buried secrets emerge. Patrick ends up both an investigator and a suspect in another death.

One of the Family kept me entertained with various twists – I pictured Charles as sort of a Succession/Logan Roy type, and his children as, potentially, as viperous as the Roy heirs. As a main character, Patrick was a bit weak and ineffectual, but likable enough. (And again, I feel guilty for expecting him to be, essentially, more manly, or at least more competent, but still that expectation persists.) I give this one a B as well, though it’s probably my favorite of the three. I’m going to be checking out more of Edwards’ backlist.

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Her Prince Charming?

Sister Tabitha was an effi cient nurse, but when it came to matters of the heart she was less sure of herself. So when she fell in love, she had no idea how to deal with her feelings.

Was that why the Dutch surgeon Marius van Beek called her Cinderella? If only Marius would ride up on a white horse and ask for her hand in marriage. But people lived happily ever after only in fairy tales, didn’t they?

“They say that beauty is but skin deep, but there are other kinds of beauty than the obvious one, and they are vastly more important.”

Review

I thought I had all the Betty Neels books but then discovered that I didn’t own this one. And wow, the normal price was way higher than most Neels books I’ve bought. But then – a sale! So I slotted this into my reading schedule. Originally published in 1975, this has a Cinderella theme of a UK RN and a Dutch doctor. She thinks she’s plain (mainly due to the evil stepmother and stepsister plus she’s got a mirror) though she has a good figure and “splendid legs.” He doesn’t think she’s plain but it will take him the whole book to get her on board with that. 

Tabitha Crawley, 25, is a Sister in Men’s Orthopedics. She practically runs the place and it’s done ship shape and Bristol fashion. There’s not a big major disaster in this one but rather one bad case at a time coming in. Plus they get loaded with Mr. Raynard who is Chief Consultant (US= Attending surgeon, remember in the UK surgeons are not called doctor) who has broken his patella which – ouch. Raynard is bristly and crotchety anyway but being a patient adds a layer to that. He is, however, decent to his lovely wife and says he loves his children. 

Marius van Beek, surgeon extraordinaire but who looks like he can’t even tie his shoelaces, gets called in to Save the Day. He quickly realizes that Tabitha is actually in charge of the ward and is adored by one and all including the Housemen (interns) and Registrars (residents). Tabitha might have been brainwashed into thinking she’s plain but we know from the beginning that Marius is smitten with her (he compliments her eyelashes!) though he cleverly conceals this. He likes a restful woman who is not forever patting her hair or putting on lipstick.

Soon, however, the evil steps appear. Mrs.Crowley (the second) and her beautiful daughter Lilith (spoiled brat) have possession of the family home in which Crowleys have lived since it was built. Mrs. Crowley is described as a terrifying woman and Lilith makes me want to drop kick her off a high cliff. Once her evil hijinks are known, no one will judge me on that. But somehow Tabitha is convinced – convinced I tell you! – that Marius is in love with this chit who is twenty years younger than he and as avaricious as they come. Honestly, Tabitha would someone as nice as Marius (all the hospital staff adore him) fall for Lilith?? Sure she’s pretty but she’s also dreadful. 

The book is filled with lovely secondary characters including the irascible Mr. Raynard, his lovely wife Muriel, Meg who is Tabitha’s nurse/housekeeper, a wonderful Dutch servant, a Schipperke named Smith (which, about time as it’s a Dutch breed of dog) and Knotty who was one of Marius’s tutors in uni who has Fallen on Hard Times before he fell and broke some leg bones. His cat Podger is soon taken in by Tabitha and Meg which – yay! 

Of course we must journey to Marius’s lovely home in the Netherlands, do three weeks of sailing, exploring, and eating then be confronted with Lilith and Mrs. Crawley who ought to be charged with stalking. Now I love all this as a hero who falls first as well as being willing to listen to lengthy discussions about what a bride/her bridesmaids/the MOB/ and the MOG wore at a village wedding is wonderful. Marius gets challenged a lot in this book and always comes up trumps. 

Still, I could tell what was going on in the background and that most of the large cast knew, too. Looks were being exchanged, plots were being hatched, glances met across crowded rooms, and it was pretty darn clear that Something Was Up but our Tabitha is kept in the dark about a lot of things until the last few pages. To be fair, Tabitha almost willfully kept herself in the dark and Marius does end up having A Reason. Marius is trying to get it through her head that he finds her not only attractive but, in his eyes, beautiful which is lovely and he’s Doing Something Else but this one dragged out just a bit. B

~Jayne  

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AN INSTANT

Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests’ shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power …

Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and just might know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing.

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone…and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.

Review:

Dear Sangu Mandanna,

Your book was a book of the month in one of the book clubs I belong to and I am typing my review after we already discussed it, so it is possible that some of my thoughts are at least somewhat influenced by the discussion. To be honest though, the only thing in this book which I was not sure how I felt about it before we discussed it was its ending. Before I got to the ending this book was shaping up to be one of the best cozy fantasy/ romances that I have read in the recent years. When I read the ending though… I mean I get what the author was trying to do, I think, and I get how it may fit the story, however in some ways the ending was unsatisfying for me.

To be clear, I have no beef with how the romance in this book ended. I thought it was very well done from the beginning to the end. I thought Luke and Sera had great chemistry, I thought they were both interesting and lovable with all their quirks and flaws and the author let both of them experience character growth while keeping the romance at least somewhat a secondary storyline. I mean, the building romance between them was not exactly in the background, however I would argue that the story of Sera trying to get back her magic, while inadvertently building her “found family” was the main story. Reasonable minds can differ of course on which storyline was primary and which was secondary.

In fact, while we are talking about character growth, I would argue that several secondary characters also experienced character growth and I thought that it was very well done while using the light touch.

Sera trying to get her magic back though was front and center all the time for me and while it was not exactly unexpected that the ending will turn out to be as it was, I was still somewhat surprised. SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING HIDDEN BEWARE

Grade: B

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Lucy isn’t a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She’s a doll on a mission—to find the man who killed her and return the favor.

Lucy McQuinn has been murdered, but she’s not about to go quietly.

If she doesn’t get to keep breathing, then neither does Kyle, her killer. Possessing the body of an antique doll, she sets out on a quest for revenge. But it’s hard when you’re eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain.

For help, she turns to Nicola, a human and fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle. But in their small idyllic town, no one wants to hear the truth, especially not about such a promising young man. If they can’t expose his crimes, Lucy will have to roll up her lacy little sleeves and teach him a lesson the old-fashioned way—as slowly and painfully as possible.

From LA Times bestselling author Barbara Truelove, She’s a Doll is a ghoulish and gleeful tribute to the unstoppable power of female rage and a love letter to the friends who have our back—in this life and the next.

CW/TW – Something happens to several female characters which isn’t ever specified but I’m guessing it’s rape. The book is tagged as “horror” but to me it’s more creepy. Lucy is murdered and ends up in a doll body but the worst of the horror is the (described) roadkill that Lucy encounters while traveling somewhere.

Dear Ms. Truelove,

The blurb ought to get readers ready for the wild shit in this book. If not, to get into the spirit of this story, readers will just have to accept what’s presented. If you can’t get behind a murdered woman’s spirit ending up in a doll then that woman setting out to get revenge, then this isn’t the book for you.

Lucy is a pretty normal young woman in a small Australian town who has friendships yet also issues with those she grew up with. After a party, she ends up at home where her bestie’s twin brother finds her. Then Kyle kills her. This is all in the blurb. Then what happens next is the rest of the book.

Believe it or not, this is a story of female friendship and empowerment as well as white hot rage and revenge. One fucker ends Lucy’s life, her future, her plans, her hopes, her dreams. Lucy’s not going to just sit on a shelf wearing a bride’s costume and let him get away with it. Finally she finds an unlikely ally in Nic who has her own bad history (never explained) with Kyle. First though, Lucy and Nic will have to come to terms with what the hell is going on here and does Nic need to talk to her therapist about this.

There are times when both Lucy and Nic are stubborn, angry, fed-up, and at odds with each other. Lucy, I’ll be honest, is sometimes not easy to take. For a porcelain doll in a wedding veil, Lucy can be all up in your business. She’s determined to get her revenge and won’t take “no” for an answer. Once Nic is on board though, the two of them make a pretty good team. Still Lucy sometimes acts without thinking which can cause … issues.

Lucy and Nic have some history from before Lucy’s death which can also raise an ugly head at times as it ties into their relationships with others in the story. I wasn’t quite sure about how some of these other characters would play out as the tale continued. Are they also victims? Or will they just not accept what really happened? When Lucy and Nic’s plan B seems like a washout, will plan C work? And what if Lucy’s still fixated on her original plan A?

To have a possessed doll move through life, interact with others, and come to a time and place where she finally gets some revenge calls for some things that sometimes just have to be accepted and not thought too much about because explanations are thin on the ground. The passage of time and Lucy’s control over it is one of these things. Her manipulation of tech is another. There are also a few sections with a lot of repetition where the plot wheels spin with no traction.

But I was actually cheering Lucy on in the end. #Metoo is an underlying part of the plot. Several women have suffered at the hands of Kyle while he remains a golden boy. Again, this isn’t a secret in the book. The way Lucy settles things is one way it could have gone. Opinions will vary on whether or not she does the best thing much less the correct thing. I wish there had been a bit more oomph to it. Some closure is found but fair warning, Lucy doesn’t really get the answers to the three questions she repeatedly asks herself over the course of the story. The after section is maybe a bit too neat and sweet but given the events of the book, yeah I’ll go with it. B-

~Jayne

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This hilarious novel stars the Herdmans, the worst kids in the world, who made their first appearance in author Barbara Robinson’s classic The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

In The Best School Year Ever, Imogene, Claude, Ralph, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman haven’t changed a bit. They still set things on fire and knock the other kids black and blue.

One day the teachers ask all the students to think of compliments for their classmates, and Beth Bradley picks Imogene Herdman’s name. At first, Beth can’t think of anything good, but soon she begins to see Imogene in a new light.

Maybe behind all of the outrageous pranks, there is something good about the Herdmans?

Trigger warning for bullying

Review

A few years ago, I finally read the first book in this series,  “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” Robinson wrote that book in the early 1970s so, even though this book was published twentysome years later, I’m assuming that that the timeline was supposed to be close to the first book. 

I’m going to slightly revise my warning about book one for this one. Before I get started reviewing, here are some “you ought to know” vintage aspects. The six Herdman children are basically wild when the book begins. Feral might be a better word. They scare the crap out of the other kids at school. Today we say this is bullying and (I hope) school systems would do a better job at stopping them. Child social services also know the Herdman family but none of them seem to have made any impact on the family nor done anything to help them. The next thing is that one of the school kids is described several times as “fat.” Today we would call this fat-shaming. The non-Herdmen children in the story run a little wild compared to what is acceptable today but, for the early 1970s, it’s normal. I didn’t cancel reading the story because I figured Robinson would redeem it as she did the first one. 

The story starts at the beginning of the school year and narrator Beth (we don’t learn her name until near the end) is in the same class with Imogen Herdmen. Their teacher announces that the class project this year will be for each student to think of a genuine compliment for each other student. In addition, each student will draw a name and need to come up with several other compliments for that student. Of course we know whose name Beth draws. 

Told in a series of vignettes, we learn some of the hijinks that go on over the course of the year. The fire department is involved in a lot of them. We also see the healthy fear that the other students have for the Herdmen children, that Mr. Herdmen has abandoned the family and that Mrs. Herdmen works two shifts at the shoe factory. I never settled in my mind if these children truly are the horrid terrors everyone thinks they are or if they’re just running wild with almost no supervision. 

As with the first book, the Herdmen kids do some things such as taking the young baby brother of one of Beth’s friends, drawing on the kid’s bald head with permanent markers then charging 25 cents to see “the tattooed baby.” If there is food involved, you can bet the Herdmens will be there to take it. Their poor cat also gets involved in a few escapades. 

This plot seems a bit more disjointed than the Christmas one but it does allow Beth to come up with some applicable adjectives for Imogen that are actually … very good and complimentary. Twelve-ish year old Imogen even wants to have one of them tattooed on her arm. So there is a point and lesson to be learned. Everyone has something about them that is better than you might think so pay attention in order to see beneath first impressions. B-      

~Jayne

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