eyes.2c Reviews

Palazzo :A Novel   by Danielle Steel     ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Switching between Rome, Venice and Paris, this tale depicts the struggles of three siblings to survive in the mad rush of haute couture life. Cosimo, her brother Luc and sister Allegro inherit the family run Italian business, Saverio leathers making handbags for the elite. Unfortunately their parents were killed and younger sister Allegro injured in an horrific boating accident. Cosimo at once took over the running of the family business. Her driving ambition is to look after her siblings and maintain the stands of her Saverio heritage. A beautiful woman, but it’s her inner beauty that makes her glow. Luc becomes a high rolling, shallow playboy, wanting nothing to do with the business except to be given money to indulge his life style and gambling habit. His petulance and entitlement attitude says it all. Allegra, left in a wheelchair after the accident, is absolutely lovely and a talented designer just itching to fly. She faces life head

Appointment in Bath  (Somerset Stories #4)  by Mimi Matthews     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Poor Margaret (Meg) Burton-Smythe named for her father’s obsession and heart’s desire. Margaret Honeywell had spurned Sir Frederick Burton-Smythe for her love,  John Beresford, Earl of Allendale. A n occasion that gave rise to an intense enmity between the Burton-Smythe’s and the Beresford’s. A hatred that spilled over decades and was implacable The short story?  Meg first meets Ivo Beresford when she’s fallen from her horse and sprained her ankle. All Meg can see is an incredibly handsome knight on a shining white horse  Meetings of friendship lead to feelings of the heart. Ivo persuades Meg to attend a small dance at his home. She’s unchaperoned but that can’t be helped. Having been refused the use of the family carriage Meg walks across the moonlit, snow covered fields to Beasley Park. Once there, she realizes from the shock on everyone’s face that Ivor has not told his family about her. She is dismayed, an

The Husband List  (Worthington Brides #2) by Ella Quinn         ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️ I must be frank. I was a bit surprised at the fairly ordinary plot of a young woman, Lady Madeline Vivers, in her first season, looking for a man with the required qualities of a husband from a list that she and her sisters had composed. Once I fell in with the pace, I became pleasantly aware of the tension in the story around the quest for the right suitor. A friend, Lady Merton (Dottie), visits the sisters with her brother, Mr Harry Stern,  Member of Parliament for Bittleborough. Madeline wonders what a wife’s role would be in a MP’s life. Harry wonders about how someone like Madeline could fit into his life.  Of course by the time the plots Harry had my vote but would Madeline be of the same opinion. After all he wasn’t a Duke, something Madeline’s mother was angling for for her daughters. (That obsession is a story by itself.)  Then there’s Harry himself who is looking for a suitable wife but would Madeline

Remember Me : Phillipa’s Story  (Ravenswood Novel #3) by Mary Balogh   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The fallout from Devlin Ware accosting his father publicly at the village Grand Fete was his sister Lady Phillipa Ware, elder daughter of the late Earl of Stratton, being stunned when she heard herself being referred to as spoiled goods by Lucas Arden, the Marquess of Roath. That rejection decided Pippa about not making her presentation and come out for four years. Other things stood in the way as well, but this was the deciding factor. Pippa could not stand the thought of being given the cut direct by other members of the ton. Luc’s grandfather, the Duke of Wilby, wants him to marry. It seems the Duke has set his sights on Pippa, whom Luc knows wants nothing to do with him. He’s agonising over his immature response of the past, but might there also be something else going on? I was somewhat dismayed by the beginning of the novel, it seemed somewhat flat, but by the end I loved it. I also grew to adore Luc

Black River  (Rose Riley #1) by Matthew Spencer           ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Set on the Parramatta River north of Sydney near Gladesville. A series of particularly viscous sexual murders have spooked the community. The deaths began maybe a couple of years ago. A huge investigative police strike force has been put together led by Detective Chief Inspector Steve O’Neil and Detective Sergeant Rose Riley. Its code name is Satyr. Adam Bowman is a newspaper journalist who lives out that way, near the elite boarding school, Prince Albert, he’d attended. His father had been the school chaplain. An attack has happened at the school. The current chaplain’s eighteen year old daughter Marguerite Dunlop, is found murdered. Is it the work of Gladesville, the killer the police are combing through a zillion places for? Gladesville is dubbed the Blue Moon Killer by the press. Bowman knows the place like the back of his hand and walks through tracks unknown to the police to take a look. He’s eventually spotted

Death from the Druid's Grove  (Keir and Levett Mystery #2) by Deb Marlowe       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Marlowe’s portrayal of Kara Levett, the rather stunning young woman with position and riches, who lives the life she wants constructing automations in Victorian England is brilliant! Niall Kier, the rather gorgeous and mysterious Scot who forges masterpieces, panels of wrought iron, is equally as fascinating. Together they sparkle. Their friendship asks nothing and gives everything. Last we met they were tracking down a killer in the Crystal Palace whilst avoiding the police and in particular Mr.  Lionel Wooten, an inspector with Scotland Yard. Here, Kara is being inducted into the  Order of Druidic Bards, along with another candidate Miss Janet Ottridge, whose rendition of a poem is somewhat threatening. How threatening is later demonstrated when Miss Ottridge is found dead, having drunk a tea laced with poisonous plants from the Druid’s grove! Members of the Druid’s group come under scruti

A Crown of Ivy and Glass  (Middlemist Trilogy #1) by Claire Legrand     ⭐️⭐️💫 This had all the right tropes. A kingdom of magic! Fantasy, romance, revenge, an alluring young woman who didn’t quite fit—allergic to magic, a Capulet and Montague-type family feud, a missing mother, lovely swanlike swain who I didn’t like or trust, green ivy pathways—transiting points that the family can use except they always spit Gemma out and she’s always dreadfully ill. Then there’s the monsters in the edging mists (Middlemist) fought by the selected warrior women who transform (usually the youngest daughter in the family but because of Gemma’s reaction to magic, it’s her sister who has to go!) Oh those mistlands, the deformed beings, part of the Mistfires! Yes! I mean so much happening that I was  dizzy. High fantasy exploding! I should have revelled in it, I didn’t. Gemma is beautiful, facile, beguiling  and nasty (I know magic makes her wretchedly tempered, but she’s mean!) The tone is totally Youn

The Wall  (City of Victory #3) by Adrian Goldsworthy    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What’s not to like. Times of historical fact and legend, of old gods and magic. Amazing research and knowledge of the era is demonstrated by Goldsworthy. All turned into a narrative that had you sure you were there, crouching in the dark, patient and still. Thrown back into a time when the air might have been fresher, but the dangers are many. This novel takes place as the Wall is being built, centred around Roman Centurion Flavius Ferox and his wife  Claudia Enica,  granddaughter of Cartimandua, would be Queen, although not yet recognised.  The intricacies of the characters and tribal groups is complex as are the plots for supremacy being woven. A thing of gods or man? Hadrian’s coming to power and his subsequent actions placed their stamp on Britain. And the Wall is just beginning—a mighty witness to Rome’s might then, and today of powers rising and falling. A subtle yet searing novel filled with plots and treachery. A

The Captive Duke  (Captive Hearts #1) by Grace Burrowes   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I had almost forgotten I’d first read the captive Duke in 2014 One feels the sense of betrayal, their world turned upside down that both lead characters had to endure, each in their own way  Christian Severn, Duke of Mercia,  tortured by the French, Giilly tortured by a despicable husband Both have scars. Then maybe Girard, Christian’s torturer has them too. I’d forgotten the reason why Christian’s daughter Lucille’s refused to talk. When that reason came who could blame her. I’ve reread this as eagerly as the first time.  The almost Burrowes trademark inclusion of feet and stockings are lovingly mentioned. A glimpse of which bring a heightened heartbeat and treasured feeling to our hero.  Personally I love these inclusions and always look for them. Devlin St. Just is present, solid and true. I may just have to wander off and reread his story. Who can resist true Burrowes heros—Gilly and Christian both! A Sourcebooks

A Lark's Flight  (Verity Lark Mysteries #2) by Lynn Messina    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What joy it is to make Verity Lark’s acquaintance again. Shrewd, with an Holmsian intellect, an ingrained sense of honor, and able to think every way which on a problem. No straight lines for this woman. Working incognito using three major personas there’s newspaper gossip columnist, Mr. Twaddle-Thum, as a serious writer masquerading as her non existent brother, Robert Lark. Holding these together plus being herself is incredible. When Colson Hargreaves throws down the gauntlet, (or at least that’s how Verity sees it )by inelegantly asking her to spy on  an  Arnold Fitch for him just using her“girlish laugh,” Verity is incensed into action. She refuses Colson but determines to investigate secretly without knowing. When she presented her information he would know her abilities, This leads her to a reform movement which consisted of the Blanketerring movement and the Yarwellians protesting over machinery takin

The Paris Daughter  by Kristin Harmel       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The fate of three women, three friends  and their children, in a Paris under German occupation, is both heartbreaking and alarming. The three women meet  through happenstance  when Elise and Juliette are pregnant. They go on to be good friends. Elise LeClair, an American artist and wood carver married to feted artist Oliver, with  “the brush of Picasso with the looks of Clark Gable”. Oliver’s also  a communist, and an outspoken anti Nazi. They become the parents of the delightful baby Matilde. Juliette Foulon, with her husband own a fabulous Parisian bookshop,  La Librairie des Rêves. Juliette has two children. Lucie will be the third.  The third woman, Ruth Levy, a Jewish widow with two children, Georges and Suzanne. When Oliver is taken by the Gestapo, Elise is forced to flee Paris leaving Matilde with Juliette. Ruth meanwhile makes the difficult choice to have her children sent to safety. Later she’s taken to the concentration c

A Botanist's Guide to Flowers and Fatality  (Saffron Everleigh Mystery #2) by  Kate Khavar          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oh my goodness! This second foray into the perils of ingenious botanist Saffron Everleigh is as mind bending as the first. Alexander Ashton, whom Saffron is strongly attracted to, the botanist who helped with tracking down the people who’d tried to poison her, is now off in Bolivia with the University College of London’s expedition into the Amazon. Saffron tries valiantly to read tender messages into his scientific letters.  Since her close call with death and the unveiling of the culprit, Saffron has been granted a research position in the University’s Botany Department. This doesn’t mean that her male colleagues give her any more respect. In fact the very opposite is the problem. Saffron’s been paired with Dr. Lee to research further into poisons and their effects. They are  working together “to examine the effects of certain local botanical toxins more specifically.” O