eyes.2c Reviews

A Relentless Rake (Lords of the Armoury #4) by Anna Harrington ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Secrets, plots and assassination attempts carve out a story of lost love, despicable family relationships and redemption in this enemy to lover story. Alexander Sinclair, Earl of St James, rake by night and Home Office investigator by inclination, is searching for connections to a recent attempt on the Prime Minister’s life by the revolutionary group Scepter. That leads him to the Everett School for the Education of Proper Young Ladies and mathematician Henry Everett. It seems though that Everett’s sister Headmistress Olivia is the one with the superior mathematical talent.  Alec and Olivia tangle, in more ways than one. Henry has disappeared and Olivia is frantic with worry. Henry has been rash and secretive, seemingly getting in over his head with his feverish desire to join the ranks of the Royal Society. Alec and Olivia’s forays will become a joint race against time to find out the next development in...

Big Duke Energy (Seasons of Sin Anthology Collection #1) by  Kerrigan Byrne, Christi Caldwell, Amalie Howard, Janna MacGregor, Stacy Reid.                     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lusty dukes and their equally adventurous duchesses  or those destined to be so, even if they don’t know it at the beginning. A pocketful of entertaining and raunchy Regency romances by leading lights of the genre combine to makeup a tantalising anthology. Swoon worthy dukes with secrets and panache.Lovely ladies, their light and fate.  A lively and steamy read, with all five stories having their distinct voice and own charm. How to measure a Duke or a Duchess? Plenty here gives food for thought. Featuring different tropes from marriage of convenience and reformed rake through to second chance romance and enemies to lovers. Something for everyone. I must admit to a smile of appreciation for Artie a very young defender who carries a dagger in Stacey Rei...

The Letter from Briarton Park (The Houses of Yorkshire #1) by  Sarah E. Ladd           ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Set in Regency England as industrialisation is overtaking the landscape.  A young school teacher, Cassandra Hale, is given information about her past and handed a letter by “the woman who’d been like a mother to her”, her mentor and headmistress,  Mrs Jane Denton,  as she was dying. A deathbed confession if you will. Cassandra’s love for her mentor vies with a sense of betrayal. The letter is an invitation to Briarton Park in North Yorkshire from one Robert Clark where she will be given more information about her family. Cassandra had been placed in care at the Denton School for Young Ladies at the age of five. Now nineteen years later she sets out to Briarton Park, to find out more about her unknown past. That search leads her to Anston Village during the troubled times when the instalment of machinery in mills threatens workers employmen...

The South Bank Murders (Detective Rob Miller #5) by  Biba Pearce        ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Well paced contemporary British crime novel. It starts with a phone call to DCI Miller, sleep deprived proud new father that he is. His mentor retired Detective Chief Superintendent Sam Lawrence wants a meetup. Miller passes. The next phone call  in the middle of the night  is to report Sam’s death. The Putney Major Investigation team want the case but their new Super decides it’s to be handed over to another group. After a few false starts, Putney gets the case. Great, as they’d all been working on it anyway. Things get complicated when another murder case, that of a young boy, appears to cross into this investigation. In between the drug dealing, child trafficking and who knows what else the team have their hands full. The revealed truth was something I’d wondered about beforehand. There’s another seemingly uptight person I’m having thoughts about. I still wonder who the ...

A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs #17)   by  Jacqueline Winspear ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ England 1942. Amongst the many challenges she faces, investigator Maisie Dobbs comes face to face with some American problems—Racism, US Army regulations, a dead American serviceman, and assassins. On the more personal front her daughter Anna is having problems at school, and Billy’s family have fresh heartache.  Maisie and her husband Mark Scott have to thread a careful path between their respective jobs. Especially as it seems Maisie’s investigative work will cross over into Mark’s work with the American Embassy. Three spitfires have mysteriously crashed near a landing field in Biggin Hill, Kent. One being flown by the fiancé of aviatrix Jo Harvey, who is with the Air Transport Auxiliary who ferry different planes to where they’re needed. Jo feels that something’s not quite right about these accidents and she employs Maisie to investigate. Along with this a colored soldier has been accused of kil...

The Wedding Crasher   by Abigail Mann ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Poppy has been separated from her gaslighting ex-husband Josh for sometime although one would hardly know it given they still have infrequent sexual relations. A talented wildlife photographer, Poppy is determined to get away and follow her first love, capturing images in the wild. She’s all set to travel to a secluded island to take shots of her favorite birds, Puffins. Her trip is slightly deflected (read knocked off course) when her best friend Lola, an up and coming wedding planner who’s invested her all in meeting the demands of an exclusive high society wedding, asks Poppy to step in and replace the high fee commanding wedding photographer who’s had to bow out temporarily. An island wedding surrounded by extreme security with ALL cell phones being commandeered. (Sort of). Ripe for nonsense!  More a business takeover than a wedding, the groom is gorgeous and likeable, the bride heavily into time alone to align her mantras. ...

Treacherous Trade (Fiona Mahoney Mystery #2) by Kerrigan Byrne          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oh my goodness! Victorian clean up specialist Fiona Mahoney is surrounded by men of power! And such men! Like the Scotland Yard Inspector, Grayson Croft and The Hammer, dangerous lord of London’s underbelly, alongside the exotic assassin, Aramis Night Horse, and yes, Jack the Ripper. All take an interest in Fiona. Fiona is London’s premier post mortem sanitation cleaner. The sanitation work is how Fiona puts food on the table. Her true passion is investigating who’s killing prostitutes in Whitechapel. This has become her overriding raison d’être after her best friend and prostitute Mary Kelly, was butchered by Jack the Ripper. In this issue Fiona has slowly come out of the dreadful place she’s been in following her ex fiancé and childhood friend, Father Aidan Fitzpatrick’s death, to be given the news that another young courtesan has been brutally murdered. Not Fiona believes...

The Blood Covenant (Simon Westow #4)   by  Chris Nickson  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Gripping continuation of the Simon Westow thief taker series set in Leeds. Nickson’s channeled the historical injustices of the time, the brutality of the majority of factory owners and overseers towards the children who worked in the mills, the cheapness of life, the bullying of the powerful who  are never called to account. Until they are! Two young factory lads die from injuries received from brutal mill overseers at Seaton’s Mill. Simon is enraged. It brings back memories of his time in the factories. He still carries the marks. Wealthy factory owner Thomas Arden, and his associate, mill owner Seaton have a long relationship, and Simon and his family are in their sights. Jane is as usual slipping around the city. Some strange happenings have her on high alert and she continually senses someone following her. When Simon’s children are targeted Simon, Rosie and Jane become a focused combination of...