eyes.2c Reviews

The Deadly Hours by Susanna Kearsley; C.S. Harris; Anna Lee Huber; Christine Trent Four fabulous historical mystery writers have banded together to beguile us with the ominous story of a gold pocket watch.  A mesmerizing piece with a siren engraved on it. Down through the ages it has garnered the name, La Sirène. This legendary object made from cursed gold can apparently affect many things including the weather. Greed, obsessiveness, maleficence and death on both a narrow and wide scale follow in its wake. It was reputedly "first cursed by God when French buccaneers stole the gold from the holy altars as they sacked the city of Cartagena.” Doom is it's stamp. There was so much packed into these novellas. Each was a sleek and deep read, with an overlay of the Gothic. I was entranced! I just loved the atmosphere and tension each writer brings to the overall premise. Characters we know from their novels are called to deal with the watch and its impact within their histori...

A Rogue of One's Own (A League of Extraordinary Women #2) by Evie Dunmore       A suffragette and a rogue hero who just happens to be a poet. That's a good start right there! Evie Dunmore had shot right to the top of my 'must read authors' with the first book in her 'League of Extraordinary Women series,' and stays there with this title. The story revolves around women's right in the Victorian era. The story fairly seeps situations highlighting these facts. As a counterpoint we have the reluctant warrior poet, returned from the wars in Afghanastan whose soul has been afflicted from the very start, indeed since childhood, by our defender of women's rights, Lady Lucinda Tedbury. Lucie and her group of Oxford suffragettes and Tristan, Lord Ballentine, "scoundrel, seducer, bane of [Lucie's] youth," are in conflict over control of a Publishing House. Tristan's price for standing down is one Lucie is never going to adhere to! The st...

Spiteful Bones (Crispin Guest Mystery #14) by Jeri Westerson        It's now 1398. The years are moving on for Crispin Guest, disposed knight. We and he feel the seasons turning. Just out of sight there are the strains of his lost life juxtaposed against the now and the comfort of what he has, what he's become. From Traitor to Tracker, from being stripped of all he had to reputable investigator. For all this it seems in the background to his now, his past, present and future are colliding. Crispin is older and wiser. I love the tender moments when he takes stock of his made family, Jack Tucker, his wife Isabel and their children. He now has a reputation to be proud of--The Tracker. He has a relationship with his son Christopher by Philippa Walcote, he is feeling content. It's been a long time for coming. It seems into this setting will come a pull from the past, but that story will be for our last view of him. In the Now, Lawyer Nigellus Cobmartin and his co...

Who Wants to Marry a Duke (Duke Dynasty #3) by Sabrina Jeffries          So the gaining of a spouse by a ducally family member despite all odds falls once more within the orbit revolving about Lydia Fletcher, the Dower Duchess. Not that Lydia is a party to this latest event Indeed her son Marlowe Drake, the Duke of Thornstock managed and mismanaged the finding of a wife all by himself. The first time around with the chemistry research fixated, Miss Olivia Norley he managed to misread her, kiss her in a library during a ball, be discovered, and do the right thing--propose. Two problems arose. Thorn believed that Olivia had deliberately trapped him. Not so! Secondly, Olivia was not looking for a husband despite the pressure being brought to bear on her. She was looking for acceptance as a serious scientist. The second time around with Olivia was equally as eventful. Running apace of these happenings, the step siblings including Grey, Thorn, Gwyn and Sheri...

Highland Gladiator (Scots and Swords #1) by Kathryn Le Veque           Sometimes I find medieval highland novels bleak. Given what's happening in Lor Careston's life, times are definitely bleak. The ray of sunshine is the feisty young girl child he'd met years before in 1476 when taking a short cut through the Vale of Morning dubbed by the locals as the Vale of Demons. Unknown to Lor, that child was Isabail Keith, the daughter of the chieftain of Auchnacree. As the years move forward to 1484 they renew their acquaintance, and the attraction between them blooms in secret. When Lor returns from a neighboring town he discovers his village destroyed and his beloved grandfather dead, supposedly at the hands of Clan Keith. Lor's mind cannot get beyond his anguish and need for vengeance. He looks for help from Drostan Lindsay who suggests he seek warrior training at a gladiator school Lor had heard about years before. The idea of a gladiator school in the highl...

How to Catch a Sinful Marquess (The Disreputable Debutantes #3)   by Amy Rose Bennett       So I hung around thinking to myself haven't I read this already? Trying to work out how, until lightning struck⚡️ and I remembered I'd read an excerpt in Bennett's previous book, "How to Catch an Errant Earl". Mystery solved! And that excerpt had been enough for me to want to read about the 'Sinful Marquess' featuring another of our Disreputable Debutantes. The story seems to be a cross between Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast. An heiress with a stammer, and a guardian uncle and aunt with two quite vicious daughters and a horrendous brother. Naturally the ugly family want to keep our heiress, Olivia de Vere's funds within their control. Hence the determination to marry their ghastly (degenerate it seems) son Felix to Olivia. Then there's the mysterious Lord who lives next door to Olivia, Hamish, the Marquess of Sleat. I love the opening scenes b...

Someone to Romance  (The Westcott Series Book 7)   by Mary Balogh            Ahh Mary Balogh! You've done it to me again! With a turn of a few pages some of my 'just read' recently historical romances have completely faded into the background by comparison. This was so a five plus star read. I was completely enthralled with this fabulous story with its reluctant return of a lost heir, a reigning beauty contemplating marriage, and the confusion of a dark past. Brimming with anticipation, romance, roses and humor this was a masterful entry into the numerous stories of the Westcott menagerie. Lady Jessica Archer's story, the sister of the Duke of Netherby, is a page turner. And just like that I fell in love with Avery Netherby all over again. The man is so finely tuned, so droll, so deadly and so much more. I adore him. And the family! The way it gathers together and protects its own is priceless, even if sometimes more than a tad interfer...

A Lyon in her Bed (The Lyon's Den Connected World)   by Amanda Mariel            Lady Emiline Hawthorne has a problem. She's on the verge of being forced into an unwanted marriage. Leonard Quinton, 6th Earl of Morton needs an heir, that means a bride. A marriage of convenience, organized as quickly as possible will work for him. Ditto for Emiline. Hence a visit by both protagonists to The Lyon’s Den and matchmaker Mrs. Bessie Dove-Lyon. I liked the premise of a matchmaker. Not that the matchmaker did much matching on this occasion except become the intersection of chance for our two main characters.  Unfortunately it turned out this promising novella had a rather thin spinning of its tale despite its promising storyline. It galloped its way through the events with more than quite a few pages devoted to marital bed antics. There was a nice little play around the wounded feline kitten and wounded LEOnard. I kept thinking about the story of ...

The Faithless Hawk (Merciful Crow #2) by Margaret Owen           Compassionate, unsure (until angry and then watch out), gifted, amusing, self deprecating--all words to describe the now new Crow leader, Fie. Crows--in a world peopled by twelve castes, the Crows are the untouchables, the lowliest of the low. Only they can cleanse villages and cities from the Sinner's Plague. The Crows are immune. They give mercy to the victims, burning away the ravages incurred.  This is their duty. They cannot go against the Covenant and ignore the summoning beacon's black plumes of smoke. But is that what the Crows were originally intended to be when the gods created the castes? Fie's god given mission is to reclaim the Crow's lost birthright. Whatever that might be.  What stands in her way? Only a ruthless queen who's enslaved and seduced the realm's King and the powerful into supporting her claim to the throne, buoyed by her terrifying witchcraft abilities. ...

The London Restoration by Rachel McMillan        A compelling, even stunning marriage of ex Bletchley Park personnel, the aftermath of the second World War and the political jockeying of new world powers and their race for intelligence. Told through the eyes of an unusual woman and her equally unusual husband Their initial meeting and love is like a fairy story, scarred by real life, and searching for a way to readjust. Diana Somerville, an architectural historian whose passion is churches particularly those designed by Wren, was a codebreaker at Bletchley. Now she's being drawn into the post war intelligence service with the hunt for a Russian agent, Eternity by MI6. A chance meeting between Brent Somerville and Diana in a churchyard was really love at first sight. Brett, a theology professor at Kings college saw out the war as a stretcher bearer. They had married before he shipped out to the European Theater. Injured, he returns to England to find that D...

Who's That Earl (Love and Let Spy #1) by Susanna Craig            Now this is something different! An unlikely combination but it works. A lady writer of scandalous gothic novels, a government intelligence officer and a castle in the Scottish highlands hiding secrets. When Lieutenant Thomas Sutherland comes back to England after seven years in Jamaica he doesn't expect his spy master, General Zebadiah Scott, to send him off to check out an inheritance that seems to have come his way. That inheritance is a title, castle and land in Scotland. A place Thomas grew up in. Now he's returning to Balisaig as the lord,  the Earl of Magnus, albeit with that information hidden for the moment. Miss Jane Quale, a figure from his past, the woman he'd longed for and was spurned by, is the writer hiding out in the castle Thomas has inherited. It turns out she's also the recipient of death threats. Something Thomas is not going to take lightly, even if Jane doe...

The Archer's Son by M. E. Hubbs How I came to choose a 2014 publication to review is beyond me. After all it's 2020. But I think the title attracted me and I completely ignored the date. I'm glad this gem came my way. Really when I think about it, it's reminiscent of Rosemary Sutcliffe's writing style and she's always been a fav. A great fan of the Owen Archer series by Candace Robb, I am aware of the reputation of the English longbow men and the havoc their bow skills wreaked in battles. I knew that one punishment metered out by their captors was to remove their two fingers that knocked the arrow. So I was sort of fascinated by the idea of a story about an archer's son It's 1415 and Cornish 12 year old Hedyn is a villein, a serf who is owned by his lord, little more than a slave. A villein had nor surname, only the small plot of land that he could plant within his Lord's holding. He was absolutely beholden to his lord. All village men at the...

Grown Ups: A Novel by Emma Jane Unsworth          Definitely funny, Obsess..ss..sive moments  are scripted as our gal Jenny McLaine decries life and all relationships in general, online. Inventively stealing others stories to make them her own ‘cause her own life’s in tatters even as she possessively clutches her one true prop, her phone—even during sex (and then wonders why her boyfriend Art moved out!) Working for an online magazine that sounds more like some sort of pop-up than a stayer, adds to the transient, ungrounded feel of Jenny’s life. Then there’s Jen's relationship with her mother, one that seems to have parented our 35 year old obsessor into being locked into inaction and stuck Alice like in a somewhere-too-young place on the never ending merry-go-round of life. I felt I was watching Bridget Jones on steroids. The angst and worry is EXHAUSTING! The urge for recognition, the attention to who’s following you on Twitter, and then maybe n...

Married by Moonlight (Distinguished Rogues #9) by Heather Boyd   A killer has been stalking ladies of the ton. Not just any ladies but young single debutantes. The link? Possibly that they'd kissed unwisely. Possibly that they'd set their sights on a particularly person. Lord Carmichael is of interest. Anna Beasley is being harassed by her father to marry his godson Price Wagstaff, Lord Carmichael. He it seems is a tad to free with his kisses. Gilbert Bowen, Earl of Sorenson, is a former runner. His sometimes sideline had him assisting Bow street. When his best friend Lord Carmichael, Anna Beasley's nemesis, is rudely interviewed as a suspect he takes control of the investigation Gilbert's meeting with Anna goes awry. Discovered alone in the library, Gilbert offers Anna marriage. Bur Anna's no wilting flower. Will the protection of marriage be Anna's? Will that be enough to ensure she doesn't become just another victim? There ae a few things that pu...

Always the Wallflower (Never the Bride #5 )  by Emilya E K Murdoch        Wallflower from solid ton background meets rake of first order. Her best friend is his adopted sister. Not that that makes much difference as they barely speak to each other (there's a mystery here!) Lady Letitia Cavendish is painfully shy in large gatherings. She doesn't dance. Well that's not right. It's just that no-one ever asks her. So she's perfected the hanging out amongst the curtains, loosing herself in a crowd, fading into the background as a way of coping. Only Edward Wynn, the Viscount of Stulsemere, practiced seducer and rake really notices her when they're forced to dance. He is shocked when he pushes Letitia beyond her painful silence and she leaves him standing in the middle of the ballroom. Rejection is something Wynn's unused to. He's fascinated, and then he's taken by the fact that the shy Letitia is downright gorgeous when she lifts her head and...

Condor Comeback (Scientists in the Field #22) by Sy Montgomery         I found this story about the Condor on the edge of extinction and the fight for its survival fascinating. The data presented paints a revealing picture. My problem I guess is with the book's presentation. I just wanted grander pictures of Condors soaring and sweeping. I wanted to feel the Condor more. To be fair I did have my awareness awakened by the evidence and the feelings expressed. Such as through Montgomery's prose, "Condors don’t just traverse heaven; they dwell there." Wow! That's a wonderful image provoking line to sit with. Parts were absolutely fascinating, other areas, detailing the research process were dryer and didn't hold my interest that well. I suspect this would be of more interest to those who want a hands on look at  the methodology employed by conservationists to bring the Condor back from the edge of extinction. I didn't know that "once they were fou...

Murder in the East End (A Below Stairs Mystery #4) by Jennifer Ashley           Missing children, a nurse's disappearance, and a foundling home at the center of these troubles. This was an exciting addition to the addictive Victorian mystery series with the intrepid cook Kat Holloway again being drawn into ongoing conundrums. Daniel McAdam of course involves Kat in these investigations. Apparently the Foundling Hospital doesn't want to notify the police as any rumors might affect their funding. Embroiled in this is someone from Daniel's past. And a little more light is cast on Daniel's checkered background. He's just that little more visible. No longer the shadowy figure of mystery. His outline is being given form. I like the way Ashley has us discovering more about the lives of Daniel and Kat, as their pasts impact the now. The series unfurls rather like a fiddle fern revealing a little more each time. We're also privy to more information about those U...

A Royal Affair (A Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #2) by Allison Montclair     This continuation of the series is as good as its predecessor. London 1946 and The Right Sort Marriage Bureau owners Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge who were both affected by the war, although in different ways find themselves investigating a potential groom in a whole new way. Both women have their own devils to conquer. Their joint business venture is one way of moving forward. But this is something from left field. Gwen seems like a privileged ex debutante, wife and mother, but she'd done a stint in a sanatorium when the love of her life was killed, leaving her small son Ronnie in the care of her in-laws. They are now a major problem! Who are these Iris and Gwen? There's an air of desperation in both them. They have both served their country in unusual ways. That's left a mark. Both have hidden scars. When Gwen's cousin Lady Matheson asks them on behalf of the Palace to inves...

In the Realm of Ash and Sorrow by Kenneth W Harmon        I must say I really had no idea what I was getting into with this story. I found it stunning, compassionate and yet could hardly read some parts. An American bomber, dropping propaganda pamphlets warning people to leave Hiroshima was shot down. Bombardier Mica Lund tries to scramble out, his parachute becomes entangled and he dies on impact. All this happens just as a war widow  Kiyomi Oshiro is passing nearby. In the moment of his death their eyes lock and they become joined in the spirit world. A spirit world that Kiyomi and her daughter Ai can enter when asleep. So begins an amazing encapsulation of this time in Japan, including the strict customs around living arrangementsand many beliefs. It sounds somewhat corny but it wasn't. It was respectfully written, unrolling like a deceptively intricate Japanese scroll painting. The bombing  of Hiroshima was hard to read but again depicted sen...