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Bewitched!

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The Muse of Maiden Lane  (Belles of London #4) by Mimi Matthews          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Artist Edward (Teddy) Hayes  is astounded, awed when he first sees Stella Hobhouse. They’re at an exhibition at the British Museum. He can’t take his eyes off her. Her hair is unusual—pure silver! He’s mesmerised,  struck by Stella’s beauty. He must paint her!  Stella must be his muse!  Stella is entranced by the gentleman in the wheel chair who speaks his mind, who sees her, who discusses art with her free from condescension. Stella’s a gentlewoman with an impatient vicar for a brother. He wants to marry her off, even if the potential suitors are years older than Stella. After all her hair is gray! A match! Grr! Her brother’s also casting his eyes over someone who wouldn’t and doesn’t suffer Stella gladly. What can Stella do? A member of the Furies, four women who galloped their horses in the early morning on Rotten Row, who became known as the Four Horsewomen.  Except two are now married and the thir
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A Duke’s lot!

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Duchess Material  by Emily Sullivan        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Phoebe Atkinson is in trouble. Arrested and taken to Bow Street, in desperation, she sends a note to the one person she hasn’t communicated with for years. An old friend who she’d had feelings for. Out  of the blue, he’d became not plain Will, but the heir to a dukedom, the Viscount Middlefield. Will Margrave, the Duke of Ellis, of course went to the aid of his friend Alex’s impetuous sister. He wasn’t prepared for the leap of his heart when he saw her. Will had a safe course planned out. Marriage to the reigning debutante Lady Gwendolyn Fairbanks, daughter to his mentor Lord Fairbanks who was guiding him through the House of Lords. Now here was Phoebe, a schoolteacher in a school for underprivileged girls. Phoebe has been looking for a missing student when she was arrested. Will ends up helping her in her search and from there it’s a short step to becoming more and more involved. He has a few shocks on the way, not the least being Ph
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A new investigation for Jan Kalisz of the Warsaw Kripo

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Blood Sacrifice  (Warsaw Quartet #2) by Douglas Jackson         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Investigator Jan Kalisz is a detective with the Warsaw Krupp. He continues his investigative life under deep cover, as a Nazi collaborator, whilst really an agent for the  Armia Krajowa, the Home Army,  Poland’s major resistance force. He has to be careful yet daring. The tale centers around the final days of the Ghetto of Warsaw. The end is coming. The last Jews in the Ghetto are being rounded up and sent to places like Treblinka. Kalisz has been investigating the murder of Axel Weiss, an accountant, the golden boy of the Gestapo. Weiss had been looking into Nazis who were feathering their own nest. The puzzling thing is Weiss has three identities. Following that up puts Kalisz at odds with Kriminalassistent Hofle who before the war was a detective in Munich. Now he’s with the Krupp, when not moonlighting as an enforcer with  the soldiers rounding up the Jewish residents of Warsaw and the Ghetto. This story ha
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Company of Rogues—once more into the fray!

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A Thief's Blood  (Company of Rogues #4) by Douglas Skelton         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1718. Captain Jonas Flynt is once again caught up in Colonel Nathaniel Charters’ Company of Rogues business.  This time a depraved murderer is slashing his way across families in the Rookeries. Whole families including children have been brutally murdered. Dubbed the Whitechapel Horror by the broadsheets, denizens of these places are angry, fearful and ready to riot. A line has been crossed. Flynt is fearful for his loved ones (not that he’ll admit that!) like Belle St. Clare who owns a Pleasure House at Covent Gardens. For Charters the deaths are personal. He is convinced they're the work of a man he’d sought on the eve of the battle at   Malplaquet in Flanders, one Nimrod Boone. Boone was supposedly dead. Now Charters is questioning this. He wants Jonas to investigate that and the appearance of Monsieur Lombre, another dangerous character. Rumblings between warring factions in the Rookeries are jus
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Laran and Darkover

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  Arilinn : A Novel of Darkover   by Deborah J Ross, Marion Zimmer Bradley  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s been some time since I’ve read any Darkover novels. There’s a few favs I return to now and again though. I’ve been a passionate follower of Marion Zimmer Bradley since I first came across her novels some 40 plus years ago. The Darkover arc is fascinating.  Arilinn adds to the backstory of that planet and its inhabitants. The importance of laran, the idea of using it as a weapon, the ethics of such moves, the story behind the founding of the tower of Arilinn, all recall Bradley’s earlier books that explored various aspects and formation stages of Darkover, the towers and circles that were so important.  Names give remembrance to the stories.  The Hasturs, Alliards, and Lindars. In Arilinn we see the picture  unfold through the eyes of Leora Hastur, a potential leronis, a Keeper, who comes late to the gift of laran, almost dying in the process. Her father is trying to establish a council of Comyn
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Dear Overcaptain!

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Overcaptain  (Saga of Recluse #24) by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I applaud the carefulness of Overcaptain Alyiakal’alt as he does what’s he’s commanded to, but looks for different ways to obey to the letter of the law. This becomes a key personality trait of the Overcaptain. Alyiakal, leading his Mirror Lances is sent to Oldroad Post. A post near the border with Kyphros.  At Oldroad Post he learns quite a bit about tarrif enumerators, bribes, and trade costs, and the rules for traders coming through a Cyador frontier post. After Oldroad Post  he's ordered to Luuval to close the Post there. It’s surrounded by lands sinking into the marsh. They’ve already lost houses, land and people.  At Luuval the Imperial Tariff Enumerator doesn’t want the Post closed and strongly encourages  Alyiakal to delay the closing it. Of course that’s not about to happen. Alyiakal needs all his cunning and illicit mage craft (healing abilities) to survive. In the background are hints of the en
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Diamonds are a girl’s best friend!

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The Viscount and the Thief  by Emma Orchard         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Sophie Delavallois (Clemence de Montfaucon) a French emigre and daughter of a Duke, was reduced to living by her wits when her father traded the family diamonds, including the famous Montfaucon pink diamond with the Marquess of  Wyverne. Actually Wyverne walked off with jewels. He stole them and told the Duke to try and prove it. Wyverne would spread despicable rumors about the Duke. Sophie’s father, already a broken man after narrowly escaping the Terror, distraught, killed himself (so he leaves his wife and child to what? well that’s a cowardly action!) Sophie’s life has not been easy. Seven years later, under the guidance of a powerful underworld figure Nate Smith, Sophie is working in a bar in Seven Dials.  Nate had created Sophie Delavallois. Clemence was gone.  Sophie is all set to go to the avarice Wyverne’s castle to steal his jewels in the guise of  the Dowager Marchioness of Wyverne’s new companion. The Dowager like
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