eyes.2c Reviews

Nice Try, Jane Sinner      by Lianne Oelke                                           Sort of Breakfast Club meets an underground reality show. I loved the way this was written with the continual running commentary in Jane Sinner's head. Her interaction with the therapist in her subconscious was just delightful. Jane Sinner, recovering depressant and attempted suicide survivor is looking for a second chance that doesn't involve God. This causes concern and consternation in her very active Christian family. Her old High School memories are too raw to continue attending. She enrols at the local community college, and in an attempt to leave home, auditions for an internet reality tv show. This gives her a rent free place to stay. Way to go, Jane! I enjoyed all the participants and their quirky, sometimes grievous behaviour. Janes's fridge antics are a hoot. Pavlov's dogs taken to a new height! Very clever. There's is some pointed social comment about ac

The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter: A Victorian Romance     by Mimi Matthews                                      Charming regency romance with the requisite rakish viscount who is unaccountability struck by cupid's arrow in the most irregular of circumstances. Well written with an interesting mystery, circumstances that add tensions to the romance your having when your not having a romance. A NetGalley ARC *** 1/2

The Duke of Nothing  (The 1797 Club #5)     by  Jess Michaels                            I really enjoyed this story. Baldwin Undercross, Duke of Sheffield is burdened with crushing inherited debts. Not to mention his own contribution to the problem. These debts he's kept secret from his family, and more to the point, his closest friends.  Marriage to an heiress is the only thing that will save the family estates, the tenants' livelihoods, and turn Baldwin's fortunes around. The American heiress might be the very thing! And Baldwin had already met her and been impressed! Only he'd met Helena Monroe, the heiress' companion--not the heiress. What a to do! Add to this a house party that Baldwin never wanted, given by his sister, that is proving far too expensive, draining what little resources available at every turn. Ice sculptures indeed! Will Baldwin ever come through? What of his doomed relationship with the companion, a woman he's come

Cast in Deception  (The Chronicles of Elantra #13)     by  Michelle Sagara                            I didn't think I would be giving this latest Elantra novel 5 stars when I was a quarter of the way through. But but the end I was saying Yes, Yes, Yes! Once again we plow through acres of the in between portal paths with Kaylin (Private Neya) and Bellusdeo (Dragon Lord), in search of the Barrani Cohort, the lost one, Teela's companions in her testing. And no this this did not start off as choice! Kaylin and Bel were literally thrown into the situation by the elemental water. As Kaylin described to Helen, her sentient living space, ' "we have a Barrani war band, the threat of war, a High Court in revolt, Barrani Lords in collusion with a fief lord to enter Ravellon, and an elemental water that’s terrified enough of something that she grabbed me and threw me at the West March. And at the heart of it all: Ravellon.”' Those left behind who are now wa

A Mortal Likeness (Victorian Mysteries #2)    by Laura Joh Rowland                              Unlikely compatriots and fellow private detectives Sarah Bain and Lord Hugh Staunton, are thrown into, well are lured into really, the case of a kidnapped young child, Robin Mariner. The beloved son of wealthy banker and hard nosed businessman Sir Gerald Mariner, a friend to those in high places, has gone missing. Sir Gerald hires them with a retainer they cannot resist. He insists on a confidentiality clause which puts Sarah immediately at odds with her beau, Police Constable Thomas Barrett and Inspector Reid. After the Ripper debacle, Reid is harbouring a deep grudge against both Sarah and Hugh. He figuratively froths at the mouth whenever he lays eyes on them. And that's a lot of frothing with this latest case! The thing is Sarah and Hugh are also seen in an area where they should not have been, so suspicion for a double murder falls on them. Tied up in all this is Sar

Earl Interrupted ( The Daring Marriages #10)   by Amanda Forester                              Quite an unexpected Regency romance with a pirate Lord and a young heiress fleeing a nasty step relatives. I quite enjoyed it even though it took me so long to read. Emma St. James  is no shrinking violet and it seems her undeterred faith and her willingness to take action keeps her one step ahead of a nasty fate. Dare,  Captain Robert Ashton, Earl of Darington,  is a man used to action and mincing about drawing rooms looking for a suitable wife is some thing he's not suited to. Glowering and stoney silences are more his  forté  in these gruelling exercises. All of course add to his reputation as the Pirate Earl. 'As a child, Emma had dreamed of her wedding. What little girl did not?' Emma's prospects now seem so different as she sets forth to be a bride to an unknown grandson of a Lord in America. It's either this, marriage to her step brother, or an as

The Rogue Is Back in Town (The Wayward Wallflowers #3)   by Anna Bennett.                                   A young woman moonlight kiss in the garden during a ball is just the beginning. Contrary to   Miss Juliette Lacey's  expectations, the erstwhile respectable Duke Nigel (the worm!) does not come a wooing. Instead he sends his rogue of a brother,  Lord Samuel Travis,  to evict her and her uncle from their home. The relationship between Nigel and Sam is really a key to Sam's behaviour. Entranced by Juliette, the rogue in Sam finds himself wanting Juliette, but the suppressed Sam wants a chance to change his path. There are some deliciously wicked moments and some humorous ones. Uncle Alistair is a wonderful character. He won my heart with his platypus exchange with a hide bound member of the Royal Society. (The science community did repudiate that such an animal could exist when it was first reported.) Uncle's investigations of the Thames River are also a

Season of Blood: A medieval mystery (A Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mystery #10)   by  Jeri Westerson Once again, The Tracker, Crispin Guest is dogged by a mysterious holy relic. This time 'the Holy Blood of Hailes.'  A Ciscurcian monk arrives at Crispin's door with a dagger in his back, and a holy relic in his hand! And that's not all, Crispin recognizes the dagger. And so it begins. Why is it that these mysteries gravitate towards him? At one stage Crispin grimly ponders that, 'Nothing good ever came from association with relics, at least not for him. It was damnable how they kept turning up at his door.'  As does a dead White monk of the Cistercian order just to add spice and intrigue. There seems to be a veritable plague of monks imbedded in this Tracker episode. And let's not forget the last words of Crispin's friend Abbot Nicholas, ' ‘Forget what you think you know … Beware of what you find …’ ' words that haunt Crispin mor