eyes.2c Reviews

The Spy and the Snake  (Mrs. Spy #2) by M. J. Robotham        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed this. So much so I read the previous title.  It’s post WWII and MI5 personnel Maggie Flynn seizes the opportunity to head back into the field with both hands. It’s the beginning of the Cold War and Maggie is sent to Budapest to extract a  British defector, Fitzroy Carver, and bring him safely back into his country’s arms.  Fitzroy has demanded a woman agent be used. Cue Maggie! Only Maggie finds herself up against the AVH, Fitz’s demands, KGB, and MI6. The experts expected Maggie to fall at the first fence. When she doesn't their plans are blown out of the water. Maggie has explored her own contacts and gets in touch with an older agent, Dottie Hands. An unexpected turn of events has Maggie looking at alternative plans to sew confusion and doubt. Exciting read!  A Bloomsbury ARC via NetGalley.                  ...

Wisdom Corner : A Novel by David Heska Wanbli Weiden          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Life on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota, can be tough and uncompromising. Not much work, the loss of spirituality, culture, and the ghosts of the past. Virgil Wounded Horse has been trying to reform himself. He has been acting as a local punisher.  When medicine man Jerome Iron Shell is killed, a much admired leader, who has been helping Virgil to reform, and then Virgil’s house is burnt down, Virgil knows he must investigate. A local construction company is going to tear down the old Native Boarding School and build an apartment and shopping  complex. It appears the land was illegally sold to developers. Jerome was part of a Lakota group moving to have the sale overturned. Now unmarked graves from the past, of stolen children, including Virgil’s aunt have been discovered.  Is the death of Jerome connected or is something else afoot? A solid read that makes one ...

Last of the First  (Saga of Recluse #26) by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What is it about the Recluse books that I enjoy so much? “Last of the First” is set in Cyador in the beginning days of Recluse, after the fall from the Rational Stars. Alyiakal’s is a figure mentioned slightly in early Recluse novels. Weapons and transport that are charged by the Magi are failing. The Great Forest is impinging on the Wall. Alyiakal, promoted to Subcommander is at Mirror Lance Headquarters, but now it seems he must reluctantly take control for the good of all. Alyiakal is a Modesitt hero whose antecedents are somewhat lost in the morass of his upbringing. He’s the outsider. He perceives situations with a fresh outlook. He doesn’t like to waste lives and seeks to bring balance into whatever he does. His appointments so far have been challenging and he’s often has to act in a decisive manner and in roles beyond what his rank calls for. He trained as a healer and developed strong mental s...

Lady Ashley Never Behaves  (Season of Secrets #4) by Bronwen Evans        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The tale of the Duke of Blackstone and Lady Ashley Ware’s sudden marriage of convenience transforming into a love match has lots of wrinkles and surprises. Who knew pain could bring two people together? Raven is torn up by the murder of his beloved mistress, Ashley’s been the unwarranted epitome of scandal for three years. Consolation shared in a public place! Well!! Loved it! A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

The Unicorn Hunters : A Novel  by Katherine Arden        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reading Katherine Arden’s notes gives me a glimpse into her fertile and often whimsical imagination, always with an edge. Loosely based around Anne, the Duchess of Brittany, her plans and contrivances to avoid marriage to Charles VIII of France, a proxy marriage to Maximilian of Austria, her valiant attempts to keep her duchy and people free. All of which came to naught. Here in Arden’s tale Anne seizes the moment, aided by magical forces and a unicorn the true story gives way to a startling story of light, duty and magic woven unhesitatingly through the pages. I love that Arden has connected the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries in the Cloisters in New York City to the tale. As always—a splendid read! A Del Ray ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many than...

The Tea Planter’s Secret  (Ceylon series #2) by Clare Flynn       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A young married woman leaves Ceylon to accompany her father on a trip back to Oxford. Stella Baxter has acted as a researcher for her father, Sir Michael Polegate, an esteemed Professor of Anthropology who’d been working on an ethnographic study contrasting the Tamils of northern Ceylon and India. It’s over eighteen months before Stella can return home to her beloved husband Norton. Her father has died and Stella has a baby girl born upon arrival in England, a baby she can scarcely look at. Complex in plot and relationships—the dreadful Bertie Frobisher, assistant to the Governor and bully; the Governor’s wayward daughter; Stella’s brother, who apart from being an unprincipled lothario, steals his father’s and Stella’s works. Just  a  few of the subplots moving through the story.  Interesting read although somewhat thin at times. I’m undecided about picking up the series, altho...