eyes.2c Reviews

Cherringham - Murder on Thames: A Cosy Crime Series (Cherringham ENG)  by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards  This was fun. A murder mystery, with a difference. Sort of Midsummer Murders meets Jesse Stone. The yank in the sleepy English village puts his finger on it when he notes that, 'sweet old Cherringham maybe not so cosy and innocent.' And thus a series is born. Ah! Those deceptive English villages!      Jack is a retired New York detective who's made home a canal boat in England, a dream he and his deceased wife had planned. Sarah is a single mother, returned with her children to her home village after a messy divorce. The death of Sarah's best friend Sammi unites these two as they search for the reason behind Sammi's demise. The writing is vivid and I had no trouble visualizing Jack's boat moored at the canal, feeling with sympathy Jack's careful driving down those English country lanes surrounded by hedges, those lazy English pubs, and ramb...

Tales from High Hallack, Volume 2: the collected short stories of Andre Norton by Andre Norton Some of these short stories I've read before, others I've somehow missed out on, such as Noble Warrior. Certainly, it's a pleasure as always to revisit the worlds Norton created. Having read the background novels to some of the short stories does make you go, oh yes, I remember. This collection is more a treat for those who are familiar with Norton's work rather than a newcomer.  A NetGalley ARC

Crown of Renewal (Legend of Paksenarrion) (Paladin's Legacy #5) by Elizabeth Moon       As Elizabeth Moon says in her very coherent introduction this is not a story for the first entry reader into those works that began with Legend of Paksenarrion. And who, having read that great beginning, can forget the feisty true fighter that she was, her humble beginnings, her refining under fire, and the blessings of Gird that upheld, tested and shaped her. Crown of Renewal is the grand finale that draws the many threads together, weaving the various books into a whole, giving us insight into the how, why, when, and what of all that has gone before. We meet old favourites and find new heroes. We are reminded of old situations as new happenings, familiar and known, are referenced. Paks's previous capture by Iynisin, the dark elves, is recalled by new attacks and resulting poisononous wounds inflicted by them. Then there's the opening horror of the fate of the Filis, a son of Co...

The Mad Herringtons (Classic Regency Romances) by Jane Myers Perrine  An amusing romp. I sometimes wondered if had fallen into an Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward play. My heart quite goes out to Aphrodite as she tries to control her more passionate wild sisters and brothers. After all she is the 'sensible' one (after all she is reading Sense and Sensibility). Almost engaged and off to a House Party to meet her fiancé's mother, some of her siblings accompany her. Those names the Herrington children all have! Quite diverting! Greek gods and goddesses and muses. As is the reason why the Marchioness named her offspring thus. Anyway as we follow some of the Herrington's antics we behold Terpsichore crossed in love, Athena a baggage if ever there was one (sort of Lydia Bennett but obsessed with kissing and practising on footmen and stablehands), and Aphrodite herself determined to be the 'proper' Herrington. Aski (Asklepios), Aphrodite's brother joins the group...

The New Colored Pencil: Create Luminous Works with Innovative Materials and Techniques by Kristy Ann Kutch I like the layout of this book. I especially like  the richness of drawing examples scattered throughout. Those certainly added to its kerb appeal. The production is smart and information is easily accessed. Kristy  Kutch is not only a proven shown artist she runs frequent workshops. Check out her website. As an artist and teacher she has produced a book that is an excellent resource for those unable to attend workshops to connect with the medium. I don't learn well by reading about things. I learn best by working alongside someone, the practical hands on approach over the theory. No book replaces that experience. However, if I wanted to refer back to a certain technique post a workshop, or extend my knowledge about a technique, this book is a useful tool. As an aside, my preference for art books is always as the hard copy, rather than an eBook. I have The New Col...

Goddess Born by Kari Edgren  A gifted healer, the blood of a Celtic goddess running through her veins enables Selah Kilbrid's talent. A talent that needs to be renewed by prayer and in secret. Persecution is a heartbeat away.  Hopewell, Pennsylvania 1730 and Selah is being pursued by the Quaker minister, Nathan Crowley. His regard for her turns sour when she refuses his suite.  Despite knowing Selah is engaged to her cousin who's on his way from Ireland, Nathan threatens to expose her as a witch if she doesn't marry him. Her family, although Catholic had settled here in the New World to escape persecution of their kind in Ireland. Selah's mother and grandmother had the 'gift'. They had been accepted into the Quaker community, and attended meetings but had retained their own religion. Now Nathan was endangering that acceptance and Selah's life. Plotting to outwit him Selah flees to meet her fiance's ship. To her dismay she discovers that he perishe...

Dragons & Dirigibles (The Gaslight Chronicles #7)  by Cindy Spencer Pape The stories surrounding the marvellously rich group of people we know from the Gaslight Chronicles continue to be mined. Melody McKay an airship engineer, pilot and member of the Order of the Round Table, is testing her dirigible's new engine design over the Devonshire coast when either the boiler or generator inexplicably explodes. She crashes into the parklands in front of Black Heath Manor.  Fortunately the damage to her is minor, bruises and a sprained ankle. Her Scottish deerhound Birch (who has his own set of specially designed goggles--how cute and practical!) is fine too. Captain Victor Arrington, the current Earl of Blackwell has returned from his first love, the sea, to take up the lordly reins and care for his niece Emma when his brother, the late Earl, and his sister-in-law are killed in an accident. He and Barnaby, his trusty ex shipmate now butler, are scouring the rocks looking ...

A Dangerous Madness (Regency London #3) by Michelle Diener London, May 1812: Political intrigue, the assassination of the Prime Minister, treachery in high places, a broken engagement and a fiancé fled abroard. Two people will become involved. Miss Phoebe Hillier, the jilted fiancé, and James the Duke of Whittaker. Whitehall is looking for culprits in the upper echelons of society and James is their man sent to find out the truth. Are there others pulling the strings, orchestrating events, or did the man, John Bellingham simply do it by himself. I was caught up in the mystery by the third page and well and truly hooked by the time Phoebe and Whittaker met and interacted.        Phoebe, our wealthy heiress is unexpected. Seemingly tractable, she is actually delightfully strong and intelligent, a woman of her times who bowed down to the inevitable force of family and duty. With her fiancé fled her world is beginning to unravel in interesting ways. Time for her t...

The Treacherous Path (The Narrowing Path Series #2) by David J. Normoyle  Societies develop in different ways. On Arcandis, an outpost of Earth, communities had been formed under the threat of the Infernam, a condition of extreme heat visited once every six years, as the planet Helion passes within orbit. Actions are driven or tempered by the Infernam, that time when the planet burns so hot that all outside are scorched and die horribly. Only those who can secure a place in The Refuge survive. That place is earned and held by trial, by belonging, by bribery, by any means possible.  It's been three years since Bowe earned a place for the Bellingers when he survived the testing time on the Green Path [The Narrowing Path].   He has not carved out the place for the Bellingers he had thought to. The Bellangers do not have an empire and hope of returning them to their original place is fading. Other family's are looking to displace them. His latest venture looks to fail...

The Paris Lawyer by Sylvie Granotier  translated by Anne Trager   For some reason the colour green of her childhood, of the grass, of emerald eyes, of Cedric  Dever's grey green eyes was amongst my first impressions. The colour green comes to represent the descent from softness and joy into the harsh and uncompromising reality of lost ways, of childhood nightmares, of fear and loss. Catherine Monsigny's past is shadowed even from herself. A rising young lawyer looking to make her mark, she takes on a murder case that unwittingly returns her to that lost time. Somehow her current case and the one just prior will merge and cross lines that terrify, intrigue and release forgotten childhood memories.    Catherine's fears of not knowing her way, of having to mark her route for the simplistic of journeys harken back to her childhood trauma.     What does the village of Creuse have to do with her past, her now and her future? As the story unfolds ...

The Day She Died: A Novel by Catriona McPherson     The storyline in 'The Day She Died' was completely unexpected in its unfolding. A pyscho thriller with more than its share of laudable twists and turns. There are scores of little touches that resonate as a new vista into what's happening is opened up, recalling hints from a seemingly innocent observation mentioned previously. Jessie Constable is a worker in a church thrift store. She meets Gus King and his daughter in Marks and Spencer just as he is given the news that his wife Becky had left him. Sympathetic to his distress, with his inability to function, she agrees to drive him and young Ruby home. En route they pass police divers in action. For some reason this scene stays with Jessie. At Gus's home Jessie finds a note that indicates Becky may have been intent on suicide, although it is strange that she has left their young son Dillon alone. Gus is however adamant that Becky and suicide can't be so. The poli...

Meet the Earl at Midnight (Midnight Meetings) by Gina Conkle  'If a woman's old enough to wear a corset, she's old enough to know midnight meeting's spell trouble.' Well that opening salvo certainly grabbed my attention. Bargained off to meet her stepfather's debts and to keep her mother safe, Lydia Montgomery decides to meet Lord Sandford, the Earl of Greenwich's demands, with her own strings attached! Edward's passion is for uncovering the secrets of exotic plants. He has decided to set his things in order, get himself a wife and heir, before sailing off, maybe never to return, on a scientific expedition to collect plant samples from the Africa's. As he is a recluse, badly scarred from an encounter with pirates on a previous voyage, this seems the way to proceed.     In fact he has some interesting observations attached to him by society. There's elusive, eccentric, The Phantom of London, mad, diseased, and The Greenwich Recluse to ...

Murder and Mendelssohn: A Phryne Fisher Mystery #20 by Kerry Greenwood Just from Greenwood's opening line I could feel the 1929 summer Australian sunlight coming in through that St Kilda window warming me. Greenwood's highly evocative prose had me picturing Phryne 'sitting in her jasmine bower, drenched in scent.' All made even more delectable and real by the wonderful cover, the divine Phyrne in her equally divine 'green silk gown embroider in phoenixes.' I am transported back to that time and place instantly. Of course Phyne nibbles croissants and sips cafe au lait! I am smitten by these scenes before moving further! I have to pause to drink it all in. I have long been a fan of Kerry Greenwood and Phryne Fisher's marvellous exploits. She is a wonderful twenties woman. This episode does not disappoint. We have a murdered orchestra conductor on one hand and are renewing acquaintances with dear John Wilson from Phyrne's war days as an ambulance d...

Noble Intentions (Noble series) by Katie MacAlister  I must admit to the odd chortle of laughter escaping my lips as I read this thoroughly delightful, charmingly disingenuous romp. Ok I was more than occasionally convulsing with laughter, tears streaming down my face at our heroine's actions and commentary. A commentary that sometimes, oops! was said out loud, to the startlement of all, including herself. Nobel Britton, Lord Wessex, known as The Black Earl, (or as Gillian Leigh calls him, The Lord of Lusciousness) is stark raving mad if he thinks the woman whom he claims as his bride, this harem sacrum original, was going to calmly do his bidding. I must admit Gillian's innocent comment about his broken man parts had me rolling in the aisle. Hilarious! Warm impulsive Gillian takes to heart Noble, his son and all his endeavours. She sails through all adversity with nary a second glance, endearing herself to all, including Noble's mistresses. A delightful escapade!...

To Charm a Naughty Countess (Matchmaker Trilogy #2 ) by Theresa Romain The Mad Duke,  Michael John Wythe Layward, Duke of Wyverne, Marquess of  Vaughan, Earl of Beaumont, Baron Lunley, and responsible for the well-being of thousands, was in need of a wealthy bride. His finances are in disarray and the weight of his responsibilities match the weight of his titles.  The problem is that Wyverne has a reputation as being crazy. How to catch a wealthy bride with that millstone around his social neck? Wyverne has few social graces and is better suited to digging canals in the depths of Lancashire than carrying on polite conversation. Hence his attempts in social interaction ended in failure. Witness the taking apart of his hosts Carcel Lamp instead of paying suit to the available heiress. Wyverne is addicted to scientific inventions, from lanterns to canals and railways, all of it. He likes to understand how things work, how to mend things, how scientific discoveries mig...

Sworn To Defiance: Courtlight #5 by Terah Edun    What a bind mage Ciardus Weathervane finds herself in. Caught as she is between two men (in more ways than one), Prince Sebastian, heir to the throne whom she loves and Thanar, a daemoni Prince whom she is attracted to. Ciardus is trying to stop a god from wreaking destruction upon her world, is caught up in the machinations of an emperor who is not all he seems, is reviled by the nobility and is trying to save her mother. All this as she is still discovering her powers. Oh, and did I mention that she tends to speak before she thinks, particularly when under stress. Not always a good thing. The Emperor, who is not the emperor but Sebastian's uncle abiding in his father's body, is whom Sebastian and Ciardus must elicit help from to take on the coming threat of the god, the blutgott.  A god determined to obliterate Algardis. At the same time they need to keep their knowledge of the Emperor's true self hidden in the ho...

The Sea Without a Shore (RCN Series #10) by David Drake  Lt. Daniel Leary and his RCN Sissies and accompanying satellite characters--a group that worm their way into your affections and stay there! I just think Adele Mundy is a thoroughly interesting person, introvert and socially inept, or maybe ignorant, though she is. Given her history how can we expect anything else. She has become stronger as the series has progressed and in this book she is more central than Daniel Leary. Her continuing reflections about her life and place in her ongoing world open her up to us even more than before. I really enjoy her interaction with and views about Miranda, Daniels fiancé. Adele's thoughts in particular about her inevitable death, something she seems to almost welcome as a penance for those deaths she's caused that haunt her are revealing. As are the various facets of her friendship with Daniel, a friendship that has become her lifeline, her touchstone back to her humanity. Her...