eyes.2c Reviews

The Highlander's Christmas Bride (Clan Kendrick #2)   by Vanessa Kelly   Near to Christmas 1819, and Donella Haddon, the Flower of Clan Graham, who'd fled to a convent three years before when her engagement ended has just been given a shock. Now the convent is returning her. It seems that her vocation is in doubt, if not dead in the water. Logan Kendrick, a wealthy widower has returned from Canada to more firmly establish his Shipping business. He been negotiating financial matters with Lord Ruddick and agrees to escort his grandniece home. What he doesn't agree to is defending her from a kidnapping attempt. Not that Donella wanted to be kidnapped either. So fleeing from the brigands is their main priority. I very much enjoyed Logan and Donella's interactions that ranged from humorous to pointed. They "fashed" each other continually. And when clan business became involved things became even more obscure. Of course they were drawn to each other but the...

This Earl of Mine (Rogues and Rebels #3) by Kate Bateman           An usual woman, a former soldier (ex Rifles, ah Sharpe!), and a hurried marriage at Newgate Prison ensure this tale opens with a bang. Fortunately the pace doesn't waver and the beginning frames the subsequent action superbly. Georgiana Caversteed, a fabulously rich young woman who controls a shipping empire has decided to do away with importunate odious cousins, fortune hunters and other such sycophants that haunts her every step. Her plan is failproof! She will buy herself a husband, one who's about to depart this world, and then present herself to society after a time as a widow. Unfortunately her target died of jail fever and the only other candidate was to be shipped to the other side of the world. Not to be thwarted Georgina goes for plan B and decides to make do with the replacement. What she didn't know was that the dubious character, her prisoner husband was actually Benedict W...

Penny for Your Secrets (Verity Kent 3) by Anna Lee Huber Attending a dinner party and having the host murdered is shocking! For Verity Kent and Sidney we might be forgiven in thinking it's naught but small change for them after all they've encountered other the past years. It's not! Ada, Lady Rockman is an old friend of Verity's and due to a totally dramatic moment between the hosts at the dinner table, it seems Ada is about to be charged with murder. Ada appeals to Verity for help. To find out who really killed her husband. The trail is convoluted and snakes back in upon itself. Add to this the unrelated death of a woman who'd worked for the Royal Mail,” in the censorship department. Verity and Sidney are forced to cast the net wide. Along the way they encounter Ada's lover Lord Ardmore, who "holds some unknown  position within Naval Intelligence", and as things become more complex, Captain Alec Xavier, a man Verity became close to after Sidney...

A Mackenzie Clan Christmas (Mackenzie series) by Jennifer Ashley             Two Christmas season stories with my favorite MacKenzie man taking a lead role, Ian with his wife Beth and their three children. A Mackenzie Yuletide At two in the morning Mac is painting in his room at the top of Kilmorgan Castle when he's disturbed by what appears to be the ghost of a woman. He pursues the trailing  apparition without success. Later, the younger Mackenzies decide to help, after a humorous start. Ian wants to purchase a special present for his Beth for Hogmanay. A heavy gold "antique necklace with intricately worked loops of gold and hung with emeralds and lapis lazuli." Unfortunately its disappeared. Ian brings his unwavering focus to bear on solving the problem, not realizing that his son Jamie is going toe to toe with him trying to find the piece. A Mackenzie Clan Gathering I had read this previously and a second reading in no way diminished my...

The Girl with the Pearl Pin (The Society for Single Ladies #1 )  by Lynne Connolly      On the outside she's a demure young woman, always relegated to second place beside her younger, beautiful and vastly shallow sister Lucinda. Miss Phoebe North has removed to London ahead of her family to keep her friend Angela Childers company. Angela is a wealthy young woman, not interested in finding a husband, but in husbanding her business ventures and her latest brainchild, the Single Ladies Society. Pheobe has a terrible stutter, a lively intelligence, a keen sense of the ridiculous and is convinced of her unworthiness to be special. She is! Unbeknownst to all, including Phoebe, inside hides a wanton woman the match for any strong man. Enter the Duke of Leomore, “Call me Leo,” whom we meet at the beginning of the story  just as enticement gives way to alarm! Phoebe and Leo are thrown into the midst of a jewel heist and Phoebe is accused of the theft. Our noble Du...

The Lady's Deception (Rogues and Rebels #3) by Susanna Craig First impressions of Paris Burke? He's harassed to the point of being obtuse. He's late for an appointment. Not good for a supposedly on-the-ball solicitor. So focused is he on problems of the home front that when a young woman approaches him at King’s Inns Quay he assumes, because she's looking for a lawyer, she's the governess he's been sent to organize his sisters' time. Mind you, the fact that Miss Gorse fainted when they reached his home should have been something of an alarm bell. And what governess would approach a perspective employer on a dockside? Paris is a member of the radical organization, Society of United Irishmen. The recent rebellion had left a trail of heartache for him. This has been part of his distraction. So for Paris, "His absolute and only concern was whether Miss Gorse was a suitable governess for his sisters." Rosamund Gorse has fled a haunted castle a...

A Christmas Gathering: A Novel (Christmas Stories #17)  by Anne Perry              I love these two, Victor Narraway and Lady Vespasia. True love in their mature years. As Vespasia muses, "So late in life, she had found the man she truly loved with all the passion, intelligence, and trust in her nature." What a special couple! Victor has retired as head of the London Special Branch, but unbeknownst to Vespasia he's acting as a contact for a young woman, Iris Watson-Watt, involved in a sting to unmask a traitor. So they are spending Christmas at Cavendish Hall the country house of Max and Lady Amelia Cavendish. Not really where they both wanted to be. For Victor this case is personal. It takes him back to a similar occassion in France which did not end well. And like that time twenty years ago, the young woman Iris is attacked. Recovery is uncertain. Will history repeat itself? Vespasia of course knows most of the people at the house party...

The Art of Looking Up by Catherine McCormack    Firstly I was sold on the very simple, yet clever title. I immediately related to it. Some of my more fabulous architectural and artistic encounters have happened in that 'looking up' moment. Years after visiting them, I remember some of the places mentioned here, the amazing juxtaposition that happens when looking up and through one space into another. This book speaks so eloquently to these experiences. As with those wonderfully painted vaulted columns in The Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, St Petersburg; or captured so perfectly in the photos of the Iman Mosque in Iran; and the astounding double page ceiling shot of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona. How can you not gasp aloud as your whole body opens up into the 'starry vault' of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris? And then there's the "mesmerizing" blue of Cy Twombly's,  The Ceiling, in the Louvre? This book is a celebratory treat beckoning m...

Where the Light Enters (Waverly Place #2) by Sara Donati          I found this tale somewhat difficult to be present with at first. I kept thinking I'd missed something. And I had! The first book! However, in the end that didn't matter. As the story emerged I was swept up into its dynamics. Opening in 1884 with a series of letters and telegrams between obstetrician Dr. Sophie Savard, in a sanatorium in Switzerland and her family in New York, as her husband Cap battles tuberculosis. This in effect recaps some of the actions from before and sets up for us some of what is to come. Dr. Anna Savard is Sophie's cousin, friend and also a doctor. These two are the central axis of the story. As we look into this family I am struck by the powerful women stretching back, including mid wife Aunt Amelie and elder Aunt Quinlan, “Iakoiane ... It means clan mother."  (And with that one line for me the mystery behind these women beckoned!) Women of color, strong and ...

Dukes, Actually (12 Dukes of Christmas #5 ) by Erica Ridley  Another light romance in Ridley's 12 Dukes of Christmas series. The painfully shy Duke of Azureford covers his natural inclination up with a brusque and severe front. A warm young lady, Miss Carole Quincy, hides the pain she's known since her mother's death. A lost sketch book and billiards bring them together--as friends. Nothing more as both have responsibilities. Carole undertakes to help Adam to learn to flirt and converse to make his quest for a Duchess easier. By the time Adam comes to understanding that incorrigible Carole is not only a tour de force, the glue that holds the village together, and more importantly holds his heart, things are coming unstuck. A charming piece, nicely put together. The main characters are likeable and well drawn. As are the humorous secondary pair. BTW pleasing title nod to one of my fav. Christmas movies. A WebMotion ARC via NetGalley *****

This Side of Murder (A Verity Kent Mystery #1)   by Anna Lee Huber.    Set just after the war in England in 1919. Verity Kent's husband Sidney had been killed during action. Now the war is over the rudderless, fragile Verity has been filling her nights with mindless parties and dubious nightclubbing with the upper crust set. Verity had, "gotten rather good at avoiding [memories]. At calculating just how many rags [she] needed to dance, and how much gin [she] needed to drink so [she] could forget, and yet not be too incapacitated to perform [her] job the following morning." Verity is lured to the engagement party of a fellow officer of Sidney's by a letter not only claiming Sidney had committed treason but that Verity had been an agent with the Secret Service, a fact few people, including her husband, knew about. The engagement/house party is on Umbersea Island. A near car crash with Verity driving Sidney's beloved "currant-red with brass fittings"...

Betrothed by Christmas: A Holiday Duet   by Jess Michaels and Elizabeth Essex  What at quandary! Two young women know their families want them to marry. Neither wants to be married to an idiotic nobleman with nothing but hunting and other pursuits on their minds. Neither of them want to be relegated to being owned by a husband and the subsequent loss of their freedom. So after a chance meeting at a ball, a few laconic comments about the idiotic gentlemen playing a game where they all but singe their eyebrows off, the two decide to look for wallflower gents to help them out of their predicament. Where do they look? Why the library of course! And this is the start of two immeasurably pleasurable, light hearted, Christmas Regency romances that dovetail beautifully. Think of Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests and how the play happens in three different rooms over three separate plays and you get the idea of how these stories intertwine. We see each story within the individual'...

Jane Austen's Ghost by Jennifer Kloester I was intrigued at the start and hooked by the end of the Prologue. I still did not know quite what I was letting myself in for. But thank you Jennifer Kloester for an entrancing, frequently humorous, and very different ride! Full disclosure! I'm not that keen on Austenesque knock offs and I was hesitant to go here. So glad I succumbed! What a deliciously amusing and witty piece of work! In 1816 Jane is confronted by an Anglican clergyman, Reverend James Stanier Clarke, a crony of the Prince Regent (say no more!) at Carlton House with a view to wedding her. He refuses to take NO for an answer. Im busy referencing either Osborne Whitworth, the disgusting clergyman from Poldark, or a more worldly, degenerate version of Obadiah Slope from Barchester Chronicles. Clarke is determined to have Jane either in this world or the next. Clarke is both selfish and sinister. He takes a tome of old incantations, a grimoire, of the "Dark Pa...

The Easy Mediterranean Diet Meal Plan by Susan Zogheib     My doctor has said I must loose weight. So after having flirted around the "doing of" for some moons, and putting my repeat doctor's visit back by a month when I realized I'd procrastinated for far too long, I knuckled down to just getting on with it. I've flirted with 5:2, with Intermittent Fasting and lastly this, the Mediterranean diet. "What a timely opportunity," I thought when this book came to my attention. The book does explain exactly and succinctly what the Mediterranean Diet is. It has a good list of meals, weekly menu plans, what to buy etc. Great, especially for those of us who just want the best help with the least amount of list making. It gives calories for all meals, which actually suits the way I work. So that was an important plus. (A couple of problems though, I cannot with a clear conscience use almond milk due to the amount of water it takes to produce one gallon,...

A Reputation Dies (The Rutherford Trilogy #1)   by Alice Chetwynd Ley     I've read quite a few of Chetwynd Ley's works in the past, so when the chance came to revisit her writings, I took it and wasn't disappointed. A spiteful ton member, Mr Marmaduke Yarnton , of the mellifluous voice (I love that!), who holds his place with gossip, innuendo and malicious hints, has, it seems has finally gone too far. He is found strangled at  the fashionable Lady Windlesham's soirée. Admittedly, the Lady wanted her event to be of note, but not quite in this tenor.  The thing is just before he is found dead, the newlywed Lord Velmond had taken exception to some of Yarnton's baiting and threatened him. Ergo, Velmond is suspect no. 1. A chance meeting with his friend Justin Rutherford has Velmond requesting his assistance to help clear his name. The Honorable Justin is rather an interesting character. I do like his humor and his self deprecating manner. He's just so ...

Fire, Fog and Water (Sgt. Windflower Mystery #8) by Mike Martin      March in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. Neither fish nor fowl. Sergeant Winston Windflower RCMP is angry, "he was sun-starved. And he knew he was angry." "The rain, drizzle and fog didn’t help his mood either. It had been raining or drizzling or foggy every day that it hadn’t snowed." Getting out of town and going for a run with his dog Lady always helped. That was until Windflower slid down the greasy mountain trail, slapped into a boulder and found Lady digging up not a dead animal but, you've got it, a body! Well things just became more complicated from then on. A hit and run adds a further layer. All is not helped by the bullying acting Superintendent. Winston's second-in-command Corporal Eddie Tizzard runs into a nasty spot of trouble with said Super. Windflower's background is Cree from Northern Alberta. That heritage comes to the fore in what I considered to be a high poin...

The Art of Theft (Lady Sherlock #4) by Sherry Thomas            Such a complex and rewarding story that explores the Holmsian genre and all it's accoutrements in a brilliant fashion. Charlotte Holmes is an usual person, focussed, brilliant, capable of ingenious guile, a freethinker with a much vaunted love of sweet things. The descriptions of her measures in the face of the dreaded approach of Maximum Tolerable Chins, the sensuality with which she regards deserts just serve to enhance her quirkiness. Charlotte, Lady Sherlock is asked by fabulous Mrs. Watson to help solve a problem for an old friend. That request opens memory doors for Mrs. Watson, and danger and intrigue for all. Their quest takes Charlotte, Mrs. Watson, and Lord Ingham, along with her sister Livia and Stephen Marbleton to Paris and beyond.  A famous private annual Art auction and a glittering ball held at a heavily guarded chateau is where their attention is centered. What t...

Murder at Whitby Abbey (Abbess of Meaux Mystery #10)   by Cassandra Clark            A troubled time in history. 1398, King Richard has no army of his own and amongst others he's up against  Gloucester, Arundel and Lancaster, when they stop bickering, as one man so eloquently puts it. Against this background the nun Hildegard of Meaux, of the Cistercian priory of Swyne, and her three associates from the Cistercian fold, have been sent north during the twelve days after Christmas to Whitby Abbey, part of the Benedictine order, to obtain a 700 year old relic, a lock of hair of Abbess Hild. Hildegard silently questions her Abbess' injunction, "to bring back as a prize a possibly fraudulent artefact at any price." Her escorts are a young priest, Luke, and two militant monks, Gregory and Egbert. This mission is part of her continued penance for a grievous sin she has committed against the Abbot Hubert de Courcy and the Rule. Not long after they...

Cilka's Journey: A Novel  by Heather Morris             What more can I do than add my praises to the already resounding accolades this novel deserves Before opening the pages I'd wondered if I really wanted to face more evidence of the sorry state of misery that mankind so frequently doles out. The inhumane actions of the powerful inflicting pain on the powerless, the mindlessness of bureaucratic decisions that completely annihilate the hopes of the individual. Such suffering and torment goes unheeded.  Despite this, at its heart, Cilka's Journey also points to the redemptiveness of the human psyche and how some soar despite their circumstances. Heart wrenching and heart warming, this is a work to be treasured for its willingness to face the hard realities of history, with underpinning forays of resilience to be nurtured. All I can say is that Heather Morris is an amazingly gifted story teller. A St. Martin's Press ARC via NetGalley...