eyes.2c Reviews

Love, Just In by Natalie Murray    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Friends to lovers romance that’s complicated, heart breaking and strangely surprising. Set in Australia this is the tale of two friends. Josie Larson and Zac Jameson have been friends since they first met years ago when Josie changed schools, from a private girls school to the local high school They did everything together. W hen Zac asks her to be his girlfriend, Josie said No but even then she’d wondered about a Yes! They went to university together, had too much to drink together, laughed and mourned—together. Now it’s fifteen years later and Josie’s a television journalist. Recently she had a panic attack on air and froze. In  an  attempt to regain her mojo and prove she’s fine, Josie’s moving from Sydney down to Newcastle to consolidate her experience. She has an eye to reclaiming her reputation, and  anchoring the  Sydney desk in the near future. Zac is in Newcastle, a paramedic. He’s been through a hard ...

Keeper of the Hearth  (Three Sisters MacBeith #2) by Laura Strickland      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mists swirl around the MacBeith’s lands in Glen Bronach.  Land they’d held for generations, raided and harried by the MacLeods who claimed the other end of the Glen across the river. Over the years the groups had reived and harassed each other, but not escalating much beyond that. When both old chiefs died, Rory MacLeod decided to bring to fruition his plans of conquering the MacBeith’s, claiming their holdings. Rory’s plans hit a roadblock when his best friend Farlan became MacBeith’s Chief, Moria’ MacBeith’s lieman. Despite being banished from his clan, and the fierce opposition and continuing denigration from her people, Farlan stayed by Moira’s side. Now it seems Rory’s other boyhood friend Leith has been wounded and captured. That Rory cannot allow. Severely wounded, Leith opens his eyes in the aftermath of the battlefield and beholds an angel. Not an angel but the one of t...

Holmes, Marple & Poe : The Greatest Crime-Solving Team of the Twenty-First Century   by James Patterson; Brian Sitts   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Thinking Marvel hero characters or scenes from Red is no stretch of the imagination when considering this title. There’s a brilliant lineup of characters who, apart from sharing names with three of literatures greatest detectives, are also about as mysterious as you can get. Each with their individual, merging peccadilloes. Auguste Poe enjoys fantastic, glorious cars, and from what we can gather, has a dead wife he can’t get over. Brendan Holmes has an extended olfactory sense and a heroin habit. Margaret Marples seems retiring, drinks sherry and is a kick “a” person with a photographic memory and friends in places way beyond High. They’ve recently opened an agency in New York in an improbable location. They are currently investigating at least three cases that look like extending into something else. Then there’s the case closer to home! Norma...

The Twilight Queen (A King’s Fool Mystery #2) by Jeri Westerson    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Will  Somers—Fool to Henry VIII. Only Jeri Westerson could craft such a delicious novel of intrigue and hi-jinx set in Henry’s Tudor Court.  There’s people of power who stalk the corridors whom Will in his role is Fool, tweaked their importance and vanity. Dangerous foes like Cromwell.  But Will loves the Princess Elizabeth, his little Bess, has sympathy for Mary no longer counted as legitimate, and has care for Queen Anne, whom he refers to as Nan. Will sees which way the wind is blowing. Who does Nan call when she finds a murdered man in her apartment? Why Will it seems! Can Will deflect the eye’s of the King away from what would be misconstrued as Nan having committed treason. A murdered man in the Queen’s rooms speaks volumes! The court and Henry will assume the worst. We know Henry already has his eye on Lady Jane Seymour. Henry’s relationship with his Fool is interesting. W...

Protecting Her Heart  (Matchmakers #3) by Nancy Campbell Allen   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Three cousins, that notorious branch of the Hamptons! Scandalous and intrepid! The reputation lives on in cousin Charlotte Duvall! It’s 1899 and Charlotte has just graduated as a Medical Doctor in New York City when she receives a letter from her invalid father saying he was wrong to do nothing about her mother’s death. All very cloak and dagger! Charlotte’s mother had fallen overboard from a riverboat on the Thames during celebrations, some twenty years ago. As far as Charlotte knew nothing nefarious? Unfortunately her father dies halfway through her journey home. Charlotte decides to investigate and enlists the help of her special friend Johnathan  Albert Ellis, second son of the Earl of Ashby, and director of the Metropolitan Police’s Criminal Investigation Department  of the London. When Charlotte’s badly injured by someone demanding she stop looking into an old happening she is even mor...

An Inconvenient Earl  (A Royal Match #4) by Julia London      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What an untidy, meandering, convoluted, and strangely joyous tale! Emma Clark’s abusive husband Albert, the Earl of Dearborn had decamped to Africa, leaving Emma to wander Butterhill Hall and manage the estate alone. Months later a man turns up to give Emma the news Albert has died in Cairo from yellow fever. Said gentleman then promptly has some sort of attack and dies on Emma’s receiving room floor. Emma’s stunned. What to do? She knows her sister-in-law Adele, will toss Emma out of Butterhill Hall when she learns of Albert’s death, so Emma says nothing. Almost a year is gone when Luke Olivien, the Weslorian Comte ve Marlaine, son of the Duke of Astasia, turns up to deliver Albert’s pocket watch to Emma. Luka is an anthropologist. He’s been travelling with Bedouin tribes studying their migratory habits and trade routes. Emma does all she can to avoid having Luka tell her that Albert is dead. ...

Cocktails & Chloroform  (Rip Through Time #2.5) by Kelley Armstrong  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once again we tumble into the Victorian world of Edinburgh with time trapped, Canadian detective Mallory Atkinson. Previously Mallory had woken to find herself in the body of Catroina Mitchell, a housemaid for a progressive doctor, Duncan Gray and his sister, a chemist, Isla. We meet her this time accompanying Isla and Alice to buy high proof alcohol to make Molotov Cocktails. An educational experience for Alice! Catroina was not trusted by her fellow maidservant Alice. Alice remembers the self serving piece of work Catroina was (before Mallory inhabited her body) Except this time Catroina/Mallory follows Alice to a Abernathy Hall, a dance hall where her sister Mae is being trafficked by their brother Felix. Mallory tries to rescue Mae and ends up in literally the same boat. What! It all ends well but not before Mallory succumbs to chloroform, Dr. Gray is kidnapped and certain cocktails are ex...

Lyon's Roar  (Lyon’s Den) by Tabetha Waite     ⭐️⭐️ More a novella than anything else. I’ve got to say I was disappointed in the unrealised potential of this story. It had so much going for it, but all we ended up with was more an outline, a  cursory tale. Let me see, Scottish Lord is persuaded by Mrs. Bessie Dove-Lyon to take a wife. Said intended is in an asylum due to machinations of wicked step brother and unfeeling stepmother. (See plenty to go on with!) The trip to beyond Glasgow via Gretna Green had some action, but again fell short. There was little or no meat on the bones. The work didn’t live up to the title. Disappointing because this story had real promise. It just felt rushed. A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                              

The Duke's Saber  (Duke’s Guard #7) by C.H. Admirand      ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another title in the Duke’s Guard series. I really should give them up. They’re not offering much new. A variation on the same theme. Bad (well good) Boy meets lovely girl who’s threatened in some way. Falls head over heels for her but has to convince her to want him as much as he wants her (or a variation on that theme). All happening as he’s trying to protect the Duke of Wyndmere and his family. There’s always some sort of threat to the girl, and the Duke’s extended  family. The many Irish/Scottish cousins who make up the cohort that are the Guards are helping, or hindering. This tale is set at Summerfield Chase, home of the Baron and Baroness Summerfield, distant cousins to the Duke of Wyndmere. All are under the protection of the Duke’s Guards. In the Duke’s Sabre, Prudence Barstow is the niece to a local squire. Prudence is treated like an unpaid governess, being starved because her mother an...

The Secret of the Lady's Maid  (Useful Woman Mystery #2) by Darcie Wilde   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Adam Harkness, of Bow Street, is watching a group of men meeting at Cato Street, London who are purported to be hatching a plot to murder the Privy Council when the members dine together. Rosalind Thorne is out with her friend Alice and maid Amelia when they rescue a young woman who’s fainted in the midst of the market, although another woman was very insistent on helping too. Amelia recognizes the young woman. Adam turns up and helps Rosalind take the young woman safely home. (Rosalind helps women of the ton who find themselves in all sorts of difficulties. A conundrum!) Rosalind finds herself with a possibly poisoned patient on her hands. Adam has a case that’s leaning towards high t reason. Somehow both events are linked.  The denouement is both shocking and dangerous. One of the upshots is that Rosalind and Adam find themselves looking into a new future. A Kensington Books ARC via N...

Second Duke's the Charm  (Her Majesty’s Rebels #1)   by Kate Bateman       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nineteen year old Tess Townsend had been married against her will to a lecherous and decrepit man old enough to be her father, if not her grandfather. Fortunately for her, as the bridegroom came to consummate the marriage he suffered a heart attack and died. This left Tess as the Duchess of Wansford, still a virgin, and unwilling to trade her freedom for marriage. She’s involved in a detective agency, King & Co., that helps women to right wrongs that have been inflicted upon them. Word of her and her companions has spread by word of mouth. Even Queen Charlotte has asked for their assistance. Looking for a night of pleasure (not too much) Tess attends a masquerade in a scarlet dress. She attracts the attention of a gorgeous man who kisses her ruthlessly. Imagine her alarm when the stranger turns out to be Justin Thornton (Thorn), the new Duke of Wansford. They meet at a ball w...

Taming the Savage Duke  (Victorian Outcasts #1) by Barbara Russell    ⭐️⭐️⭐️ All Madeline Debenham dreamed of and worked towards was being accepted by the Royal Women’s Academy of the Arts. To be able to paint! An eminent painter Mrs Blanchard was willing to look at her work! All Hector Wentworth (brother to the Duke of Blackburn), wanted was to become a member of the Royal Botanic Society and join a scientific expedition to South America. When Maddie’s dream is shattered through an injury caused by Hector she’s left weak and hardly able to hold a brush. That’s a tall tale indeed. Plausible in a strangely earnest way. By this time I was ropable. Maddie’s dream is dead in the water but she bravely deigns to forgive Hector and send him off to follow his dream! What!! Of course he fails to return. Meanwhile tragedy strikes the Wentworth family and a new heir is waiting in the wings. Many years later on the way back from a trip to the Bahamas, Maddie sights a raft and sounds...