eyes.2c Reviews

Knight in Highland Armor: Scottish Historical Romance (Highland Dynasty Book 1) by Amy Jarecki  1455 Scottish highlands. Not quite the time of mail order brides but writing and asking for a bride via a letter maybe more the norm for these medieval times. Lord Colin Campbell's beloved wife Jonet has died in childbirth. Colin has been commanded back to Crusades for the third time by the grand Master of the Order of St. John. Colin is a Knight of the Order. Colin applies to the King for a wife to be a step mother to his new bairn. The older plain woman he envisages, whom will fall in with his marriage for necessity plans, is not what Colin gets. Rather he is married to Margaret Robinson. Young, attractive, determined and talented. Margaret is hoping for someone younger and more loving. Someone who will recognize her abilities and stand by her side. Their's is not a marriage made in heaven, but it could well end that way. Though the trials and misunderstandings of unsolved g...

Stella Mia by Rosanna Chiofalo      A story of lives that meet and part and meet again, like the ebb and flow of waters kissing the sands. Of daughters lost and found, of mothers and sisters, lovers and husbands. Abandoned at 3 years old, Julia Parlatone comes to know her mother Sarina's story through a battered diary and others belongings she finds locked away in a trunk in the basement of her childhood home in Queens. Stella Mia, the song her mother sang to her, the part of her mother Julia remembers. As Julia journeys to discover the lost part of herself and the truth about her mother we are carried willy nilly with her. And what a story Sarina's is. A story of an abusive childhood, of change and family, of sacrifice and love. I ached for them all. For Sarina and her siblings, for Julia and her father, for Julia and her mother, for Carlo and Sarina. Poetic in its description of  Sicily and the Aeolian Islands, I truly felt the warmth of the sun and the da...

The Duke In My Bed (The Heirs' Club) by Amelia Grey  The notorious Heir's Club, a byword for those indolent young men cooling their heels in the waiting room of life. Heedless of life and limb, the next wager is the thing. But a wager's gone wrong, a friend is deceased, and a reluctant vow was given. Two years later and Bray Drakestone, Marquis of Lockington is still running from his vow, to marry one of his challenger's five sisters. Throughout the London clubs the bets have been placed. Even the Prince Regent is becoming anxious, urgent in his desire to see the matter brought to a close. Bray Drakestone carries the pain of his friend's senseless death. That does not mean that he wants to honour his vow! Yet in the face of the eldest Miss Prim's reluctance to even see him he once again recklessly wagers. This time that the non compliant Miss Louisa Prim will not only agree to marry him but will propose to him. So we have the conundrum of neither wishing ...

Hunter of Sherwood: The Red Hand #2 by Toby Venables  (A Guy of Gisburne novel) This medieval story based around a legend of the past combined with riveting action captivates and ensnares. Guy of Gisburne and Galfrid have returned to England. Pleased to be back after his horrific time in Jerusalem Guy finds himself once more fighting a pitched battle against nameless foes with little more than his intellect,his experience and trusty squire to rely on. Prince John's stronghold at Nottingham has been breached and it's up to Guy to find out who is threatening England. Who has sent John a macabre message written on the skin of one of John's men, signed with a bloodied handprint with the sinister message that 'the circle is closing?' It seems two of John's knights have been murdered and their hands removed. ' A red hand is coming...' a remembered utterance from one of Tancered the renegade Templar's knights in the sewers of Jerusalem. And a new fe...

Taste of Treason (The Tudor Enigma #2) by April Taylor Sunderers, strife and division. The Intrigue continues! Having just finished #1 Court of Conspiracy in the Tudor Enigma series I  just had to purchase this second alternate Tudor period mystery where religion and magic intertwine. The cleverly developed plot uses the religious upheavals of the time to deepen the mystery and intrigue, whilst injecting the very real superstitions and fears then present with magic, constructing a new reality. The attack upon the English throne by the Sunderers continues. Luke Ballard is now a Dominus.  He has moved beyond the journeyman stage of his calling as an elemancer to that of an Elemagus. Luke is in danger on more than one front, as are Bertila and her father. The local priest Gerard Frayner, a convert from Catholicism is determined to have Luke and Bertila denounced as a sorcerer and a witch. The sunderers continue their deep and darstardly game with the future of England at ...

Court of Conspiracy (The Tudor Enigma #1) by April Taylor An alternate Tudor universe where Anne Boleyn is very much alive and the Queen Mother. Henry VIII has died and their son Henry IX is King. Anne holds at bay those who would attempt to rule via the young monarch. Now though the very life of the young king has been threatened three times. Anne must 'plot her strategy and make England, and the King, safe.' Luke Ballard is chosen to ensure that. Although a lowly apothecary, Luke is so much more. An elemancer, a user of magic he channels the power of one of the four elements (water, fire, wind or earth). Luke's element that he uses to perform his magic is fire,   Elemancers work their magic 'through the Grace of God for the good of all.' They are helped by their faithful  familiars, a breed of dogs called Greysprings. It seems dark magic is at work, a sunderer, the opposite of elemancers, is at large and the net they have cast endangers those dear to Luke. S...

Bonfire Night (A Lady Julia Mystery #5.7) by Deanna Raybourn  1890 near to All Hallows' Eve. Nicholas Brisbane of the 'witch black eyes' and Lady Julia with a heart of gold, an enquiring mind and a gleefully abandoned love for her husband are in the middle of house renovations which are creating havoc. Nicholas and Julia are now parents to the lively Jack. Julia is questioning her mothering skills as she keeps forgetting about Jack and leaving Him behind. Fortunately Julia's maid Morag has taken charge of Jack. The chaos is added to by Plum and Perdita. Not to forget Perdita's baby Jane, just learning to talk. So when Nicholas is mysteriously left a house in the country conditional on being there to collect the rents on All Hallows' Eve, Julia is more than ready to pack up the family and flee to a place that offers intrigue, a challenge, a refuge from the renovations and something other than bananas to eat.  The village of Narrow Wibberley and the crazily...

Snow Woman (The Maria Kallio Series #4 ) by Leena Lehtolainen, Owen Witesman (Translator).      Detective Maria Kallio is called to investigate the disappearance of Elina Roseberg, the director of a woman's retreat center, near Espoo. Maria had some previous contact with the center in an advisory capacity. Concurrently, a deranged killer, Malmberg,  is on the loose and it becomes clear that those who put him away, Maria and her partner Palo are his main targets. As events transpire a subtle thread connects the missing woman's life with the escaped killer. Who though is responsible for Elina going missing? Each of the retreat member is a suspect.  The storyline is tight, the translation flows nicely and events unfold at a good pace. The psychological buildup of events draws you in. Maria works in a charged, tough environment. There is little room for feelings. Sometimes her very femaleness renders her an isolated island amongst all the testosterone. An en...

To Wed The Widow (The Reluctant Bride Collection #3) by Megan Bryce   Reluctantly, the Honourable George Sinclair returns from India at his brother's command to marry.  His brother the earl, Sebastian fears for his wife's life should they have more children. After four daughters and no heir in sight and Sebastian will not put the wife he loves in danger. It is up to George to produce the heir to the title. George, when he's not missing India, is smitten by the entirely unsuitable Lady Haywood and refuses to come to heel. He wants an affair with the languishing widow. The widow who has already buried five husbands. George's friends warn him off.  They don't want him to joining the ranks of the regretful or possibly rewarded dead. Both leads are determined and charismatic. George loves his brother and wants to do right by him. The thing is, the debutantes he might marry all have little appeal, the widow however does! Lady Elinor Haywood doesn't want an aff...

The Oblate's Confession by William Peak  Set during 7th Century England when Christianity is finding a foothold in England. When different groups of monks hold differing attitudes. A world where Christianity and ancient beliefs clash. A small boy, Winwaed, is given to a Monastery straddling two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. A world where the power of spirits and prayer is primal, unfettered by the rationalism of today.  We begin with the oblate as an old man retelling his story, giving his confession. We never know to whom. We don't know the oblates name until sometime into the story. That's all part of the mystery. We see the world through his eyes as a small child. This is fascinating and powerful stuff. We see first hand life in the Monastery; we see the confusion of learning to live and work in silence, Winwaed's growing relationship with the hermit , his meeting a young girl. All heady interactions.  Later we see Winwaed's understanding of the world influenced b...

The Earl's Defiant Wallflower (Dukes of War #1) by Erica Ridley   Oliver York, the now Earl of Carlisle, inherits a title that has nothing more to recommend it than that it is. His dissolute father has driven the estate into the ground. The only way to keep a roof over his and his dependant's heads is to marry an heiress. He and his friends have returned from Napoleonic war. For some the damage is obvious, for others not. Oliver and his gallant friends, more battle scarred than any thing else are quite a menagerie. There is Captain Xavier Grey who has retreated into a listless amnesia or possibly we would say post traumatic stress disorder. He appears unable or doesn't want to communicate, but his friends take him around to the various ton happenings, invariably ensconcing him in the library. This of course feeds into the plot.  Then there's the Yankee, Miss Grace Halton who desperately needs to marry, preferably someone wealthy, so that she can collect her sm...