eyes.2c Reviews

A Kiss at Christmastid e: A Regency Novella by Christina McKnight An engaging Christmas novella that deserved to be a full novel. I enjoyed  Lady Pippa Godfrey  (and the erstwhile rake  Lucas Hartfeld, the Earl of Maddox) . Nothing like a dark and stormy night to set the atmosphere, impassable roads, an unwilling suitor who has to take shelter at the scorned friend's house, a sensitive misunderstood young woman betrayed by her best friend during their come out, and a dark and painful secret exposed at Christmas time to give a storyline some gravitas.  Mind you maybe Pippa should have put Lucas in the stable with the animals ( echoes of a past story) but there were plenty of rooms at the inn, err country manor, and Lucas was persuasive in his wrathful anger at the elements and then being halted by a snip of a miss. Unfortunately, the rake in Lucas gave nary a thought for the reputation of said young miss. A NetGalley ARC ****

Good Earls Don't Lie  (Earls Next Door #1   by  Michelle Willingham The opening scenes with Lady Rose Thornton discovering a wild, strangely attired Irishman in her garden, claiming to be of all things, an Earl, is quite delicious, setting up for all sorts of interpretations and actions that follow. It seems the supposed Earl has been set upon and robbed. Unfortunately the Earl of Ashton, Iain Donovan is not only looking disreputable, he has no evidence of who he is.  Iain's servants have deserted him, apparently to find work. (And given the state of Ireland and the potato famine--who wouldn't take any opportunity offered).  At this time England is feeling the pressure of waves of Irish either coming across with their families or by themselves, looking to earn money to send home to their starving kin. The plot is further complicated by Rose being unable to walk due to an illness. Rose's servants don't take kindly to Iain. I like the disap...

The Young Blood  (No Better Angels #4) by  Erin Satie I must admit to really enjoying Young Blood. The interplay between the two leads is fraught and delightful.  This has it all. Mystery, romance, a somewhat OCD heroine and a rake who's so much more. Sabine Banchory must control all, in doing so she controls her unhappy life and marriage to a weakling cad. Alfred Lamb, the Earl of Kingston is a rake. He loves and leaves. Yet the unattainable Sabine holds an attraction for him, perhaps the challenge, perhaps something else. Sabine is having nothing to do with him. Years of husband Godfrey has made her immune. I enjoyed the byplay between during the day long games challenge. Godfrey is definitely a 'loose fish.' But when murder disrupts things events move at a startling pace. Sabine and Alfie find themselves in situations they'd not thought possible. I now have to find the other novels in the series to catchup. The title is interesting and as events mo...

Highland Chieftain (Murray Family #21) by Hannah Howell I liked the skeleton of this story. Sir Callum MacMillan is injured and fleeing from men determined to kill him. Unconscious and foundering on the shoreline with a broken leg he is rescued by young woman, Bethoc Matheson, who hides him in her secret cave retreat. A retreat necessary because she is frequently beaten by father. Bethoc's father is a dark and fearsome person who brings home young boys he 'finds' to help run the farm. Bethoc has a houseful of young boys, 'brothers' she cares for and a baby sister. As Bethoc's mother was dying she pleaded with Bec to always keep her baby sister with her. The reason why is later an important revelation. It appears that Bethoc has strange special abilities that fit with who her real father turns out to be--one of the Murrays. For me the mystery surrounding Bethoc and her special facilities just didn't quite cut it, but I went with it. I defini...

The King of Shanghai: The Triad Years (Ava Lee Series #7)   by  Ian Hamilton Ava is entering a new stage of her life without Uncle. I miss him, as does Ava, and certainly as does Sonny. Sonny is not quite as well kempt and a tad overweight as Ava discovers when she flies to Shanghai to meet with her business partners May Ling Wong and Amanda, Ava's sister-in-law . Ava's relationship with her new business partners continues to allow story expansion, as does her developing relationship with the triad leader most like Uncle, Xu. Xu is looking to becoming the new Triad chairman and he wants Ava's help. Once more a brilliant addition to the series.  I am looking forward to Ava's future. A NetGalley ARC *****

The Woman on the Orient Express by Lindsay Jayne Ashford.  Set in 1928, the story opens later years with Agatha Christie, now a grandmother, being visited by a young man. He has with him a photograph of Agatha and two other women. One is his mother. He wants to know more about them, and in doing so, find out more about himself. He is convinced there is a mystery surrounding them that affects him. Agatha shares their story. Meshing together fact and fiction Ashford has crafted a wonderful story depicting a painful part of Agatha Christie's life.  This rather haunting and beautifully wrought story deals with the time after Agatha's  mysterious disappearance and subsequent painful divorce from her husband Archie. Agatha travels to Bagdad via the Orient Express. It is on this trip that she meets two woman who will become important friends. Katherine is an archaeologist on her way to a dig in Ur. Nancy is a young woman, confused because of her lover's treatment. Sh...

Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking by Naomi Pomeroy  Obviously Naomi Pomeroy has led a life dedicated to food and cooking. A cook's cook if you will. This is not just a simple cookbook, it's an explanation of the balance of ingredients that bring forth the best in each other. In this way it's fantastic. This was the part I enjoyed the most. Her narrative of her journey into all things culinary is amazing. Her story is an inspiration. The idea of meal 'happenings' where the first eight to answer are invited, where people jostle for a coveted entree into the dinner prepared for that night is crazy wonderful. It's like crowd sourcing and flash happenings all rolled into one. Exciting times! I found the explanations of recipes throughout the book balanced and well presented. I will also admit to the fact that I do not devote the time to dishes that Pomeroy does and that's where I might hesitate. There are howeve...

Santorini Caesars: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery   ( Andreas Kaldis #8)   by  Jeffrey Singer A young demonstrator racing for sanctuary at the university grounds of Athens is chased by police in balaclavas and gunned down steps from safety. There is an uproar! Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis is called in to investigate. What was needless police brutality appears to be something very different.  Given more credence when it's discovered that this is the child of a Brigadier. Kaldis' investigations lead to intrigue and planning at the very highest level, with possible international connections. The new government is not acting as it'd promised. Contemplation of a military coup is on the cards. Kaldis reflects, 'Maybe his grandfather was right. If politicians are involved, there’s no hope for change. They’re all alike.' Alerted to a hush hush military conference on the island of Santorini, Kaldis' team races there ahead of the attendees to s...

A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel   by Amor Towles The superlatives reviewers have lavished on this novel are well deserved. This is an enthralling, all consuming  window into life in Moscow from the pre 1920's through to the 1950's, from Stalin and the Bolsheviks through to  Nikita Khrushchev.     We view the microcosm of what's happening in Russian history through the eyes of the man 'in the bubble'  Count Alexander Rostov, who in 1922 was confined for life to the  Metropol Hotel, across from the Kremlin, by a Bolshevik tribunal. Mentored by his godfather and guardian, the Grand Duke Demidov, Alexander recalls the Grand Duke's words, 'if a man does not  master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.' These words mark the way Alex moves forward. How the sophisticated, urbane Count Alex handles his incarceration is wonderfully told. His acquaintances are like a panoply of stars spread out beneath Alex...

Of Sand and Malice Made (The Song of Shattered Sands #0.5)   by Bradley P. Beaulieu  A story in three parts sprung from the desert sands. Beaulieu refers to this as the little book that could. The way the three parts blend from one to the next is curiously masterful. Çeda, known in the pits of the desert city of Sharakhai as White Wolf, finds herself pitted against an ehrekh, a creature sprung from the whims of the God of chaos. When Brama Junayd'ava steals Çeda's purse she rectifies the situation, yet Osman takes her to task for toying with Brama. He points out to her that her ego is involved and as a pit fighter that can't happen.  The ehrekh Rümayesh draws Çeda in, to steal her dreams, the window to her soul, Çeda knows fear, and knows that she must find a way to destroy Rümayesh. Çeda cannot allow Rümayesh entree. The emotional battle to lead Rümayesh away from her deepest thoughts and secrets, to avoid enslavement is intense...

Clean Soups: Simple, Nourishing Recipes for Health and Vitality   by  Rebecca Katz   and  Mat Edelson  Accompanied by wonderfully, colorful and artistic photography that draws you in and makes you itch to start cooking these soups really feel like they can take you away to a healthy magical place. There's more to the many 'chicken soup' stories than meets the eye and in Clean Soups we are reminded of the nourishment that is there for the taking, the road to health.       Katz talks of watching her mother and grandmother make soups,  'creating culinary wonders in a flame-enamelled Le Creuset pot. The soups they made were magic. I have always felt better after having a cup or bowl, and I knew instinctively that soup had the power to heal.' Well I know I love my Le Creuset pots, (so that statement won me over right away) and if your like me and am enamoured of all things soup, then this book should become a favourite on yo...

Destined for a King (The Bastard Brotherhood #1) by  Ashlyn Macnamara When the castle you call home is attacked by roving, landless knights, you either squeal and hide, or pick up a weapon and fight. Calista Thorne chooses to defend   Blackbriar Keep. She shoots Torch, the commander of the marauding group with a cross bow. Torch however is no common landless knight. He is the son of the slain rightful king. He is seeking to take back the throne. Blackfriars Keep is the beginning. Now Torch is ill and Callista must nurse him back to health in order to keep her father alive. Calista's mother informs Calista that she and her father have been experimenting with kingsbane. No wonder Torch is not healing. Calista is forced to fight for her enemy's life and her father's. Torch needs to marry Calista. He has foreseen that she is part of his destiny.  As the healing process happens, as they share close quarters, they are drawn to each other. Theirs is a passion wi...

Discovery of Desire (London Explorers #2)   by  Susanne Lord The Fishing Fleet! Fascinatingly ironic! This is the term used by the local English for the women who came to India looking for husbands from the  marriageable men employed by the East India Company.  A not very complimentary description but historically young women did leave England in droves to far flung places where the Empire was present, gambling on opportunities they might never have had at home. One such young woman is  Wilhelmina Adams who has accompanied her sister Emma. Seth Mayhew is on the same ship. He's an explorer, or as he terms it, a finder. Amongst his finds has been orchids from South America. But now he is searching for his missing sister, last heard from near the Tibetan border where a massacre occurred. Seth is not here to find a wife or fall in love with Mina whom he refers to as, 'His little officer quelling insubordination and giving orders. And always on h...

Woman in the shadows: A Novel (Clara Vine)   by  Jane Thynne A gripping and edgy story of intelligence gathering right under the noses of elite of the Third Reich. Born in Britain, half-German actress and movie star Clara Vine, is a British contact in the dangerous days of pre war Berlin of 1937, gathering relevant information on the movements and interests of the major German players. The names mentioned, the circles Clara has access to are the who's who of the upper echelons in the Nazi party. Two incidences appear to cross each other, the murder of a young woman at one of Hitler's Bride Schools where young women train to be wives of SS personnel, and the gathering of information about the  Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe  developments in aeronautics, in particular cameras being used on planes. Clara realizes she knows the murdered woman from the past, Anna Hansen. Her death is hushed up. Clara's friend Mary, an American journalist, has just retur...

What the Duke Doesn't Know (The Duke's Sons Book 2)   by  Jane Ashford At the start of the novel I thought the plot sounded a tad ho hum. I was so wrong! I became once more thoroughly   entranced with the doings of the Gresham brothers, sons of the Duke and Duchess of Langford. This time Lord  James Gresham (the fifth son) is front and center. Ariel is on hand, as is the Duchess. Indeed many of the family make their presence felt. We move in and out of their stories with hints of what was and what is to come. Tantalizing! But the jewel of the story, the oh so delicious centrepiece, is Kawana Bensen.  James is cooling his feet awaiting a naval appointment. As Captain of a recently decommissioned ship he is looking for something more. The sea is his life, his passion! However, it's peace time and the jostling for appointments is highly political. James wants to make it by himself, not with his father's help. Unfortunately, he's not that good at playi...

R evenge in a Cold River: A William Monk Novel  #22  by  Anne Perry A drowned man is washed up along the Thames. Why has Custom Officer McNab called in  Commander Monk of the Thames River Police to investigate? A man who is an escaped prisoner is under McNab's jurisdiction. The dislike of McNab for Monk is palpable, as is the supercilious attention McNab gives to Monk. Already my hackles are raised. This is the man who instigated action in which Orme was killed. Of course the Thames River cohorts are suspicious. As am I! Monk's past rises to haunt his coming days along with the advent of some American vessel owners who recall him from San Francisco. McNab looms like a malevolent spectre, it seems he knows things about Monk's past and is using Monk's ignorance to advantage. MacNab's feeling for Monk is 'more than professional rivalry, more than personal dislike. It was hate, deep and poisonous hate.' The link between the river pirates an...

The Rebel Heir (Spare Heirs #2)   by Elizabeth Michels Elizabeth Michels talks about the creation of  Lady Evangeline Green in her after notes. I find it quite wonderful that a character speaks to an author in the creative process in the way Michels describes: 'Evie was only supposed to be the beautiful and overly perfect sister in the background of (desperately seeking Suzanna), but there was something about her strained efforts at perfection that spoke to me. I knew then that I had to write her story'. I realized that I was glad to have read Evangeline's story The character of Evie is startling. The secret behind her perfection is both sad and heartfelt. The depths of her mother's ambition thoroughly obnoxious. A lesser daughter would have crumbled. Evie stands on the brink of allowing that to happen. Michels demonstrates the entrapped Evie to perfection, her feeling of helplessness, her feelings of blame, and her efforts to transcend t...

A Promise of Fire (The Kingmaker Chronicles Book 1)   by  Amanda Bouchet Wow! This has everything. Feisty mysterious heroine, powerful easy on the eyes warlord, fighting companions Cat (Catalia Fista) has secrets of her own. Gods are becoming involved with her destiny--bloodthirsty and brutal as it seems to be. Cat is a mystery. She is 'from the north of Fisa. Where magic is might.' Escaping an unforgiving and brutal childhood where siblings are raised to fight for what is there's to prove their strength and cunning.  Brother is turned against sister. All for the lure of absolute power. Acting as a soothsayer in a circus she avoids drawing attention to herself. Cat has fought to escape her heritage but it looks like it's coming to claim her. Cat is of the magi. Holding and using magic is part of her very being. Yet with Griffin--a warlord from the south, she is finding something more. I'm hooked! I am having serious difficulties waiting for th...