eyes.2c Reviews

In the Shelter of Hollythorne House  Houses of Yorkshire #2) by Sarah E. Ladd          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Charlotte Grey and Anthony Welbourne were in love. Their families are the bitterest of enemies so they met out on the moors, away from prying eyes. When Anthony purchased a commission in the army at his dead father’s bequest, he walked away from Charlotte, and towards the American Wars. Meanwhile Charlotte has married Roland Prior, on the surface charming, underneath a controlling abusive husband. Roland was a dodgy mill owner who it turns out hasn’t paid his workers. His workers are after satisfaction. Four years later Roland dies from apoplexy. Charlotte’s relief is short lived. Her brother-in-law Silas will have control of Henry her seven month old son, although Charlotte retains guardianship.  However she now owns Hollythorne House, the place on Blight Moor she grew up in. The very next morning she leaves for Hollythorne House and Yorkshire, with its memory of her secret love, and of

Love Unseen   by Rachel Kelley Stones      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A love story impeded by more than a few difficulties. Hannah Hadley is the oldest daughter of a loving father and a not so supportive mother. She’s intelligent and used to listening to her father, engaging in discussion with him on a wide variety of topics. Hannah contacted measles when young, which left her blind. When Hannah’s father died, her closest supporter and advocate was gone. What’s left is a life squashed and reduced more frequently by her relentless harridan of a mother, whose actions of vitriol make no sense, and a sister who puts her down constantly. Think of someone like Cinderella’s mean stepmother and self-centered and careless sister. Her brother James loves Hannah but can’t stand up to his mother. James avoids family difficulties. When he’s overwhelmed he leaves Hannah to fend for herself. Hannah is confronted by the  misunderstood actions on the part of Mr. Jonathan Carter who has bought the neighboring property, i

  The Duke's Hammer  (Duke’s Guard #5) by C.H. Admirand    ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 So the trope here is a powerful one. An orphaned maid landed in desperate straights when lied to by her kinsman offering respectable work. What she actually did was all the serving,  cleaning work around his bar. He’s beaten her badly for refusing to entertain men and she’s not fed properly. Let’s not even ask about water for washing. Enter our knight in his shining black coat, one of the Duke of Wyndmere’s private guards, James Garahan, who has plainly fallen in love with her. Rescue is his motive. Love is his reward, maybe! Only Melinda Waring doesn’t think she’s worthy of rescue, and is frequently doing things to put herself in danger in her efforts to be independent. Meanwhile the Duke and his family are besieged by foul rumors. How to stop that, how to find the source, and how to save his love are all problems the Duke’s Hammer, James, has to contend with. The plot is mightier than the execution but I still e

A Most Agreeable Murder   by Julia Seales     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ So I dragged my feet reading this. I took so…oo long it wasn’t funny. Jane Austen would cringe is my first thought. My second? Absurdity running amok! My third? Wonderful!  Mrs Steele does a credible job of aping Mrs Bennett. Oh, and Mr. Steele’s heir is attempting to have him ruled insane so he can claim his property!  The story line is indeed improbable.  A town called Swampshire! Reports of a couple lost on their way to breakfast in their 59 bedroom mansion By the time they were found they’d perished! And their son Mr. Edmund Croaksworth inherited 8000 pounds a year. Hmm! There’s so much more here that pokes fun at lampooning Regency/Victorian mystery romances. So if you enjoy a rollicking, improbable farce, playing on the rules for living appropriately, as determined by the town’s founder (and the rest of society in these times) then you’ll enjoy this, as our heroine Beatrice Steele breaks them with abandoned regularity.  Wit

Love and Murder in the Time of Covid  (Inspector Chen #13) by Qiu Xiaolong     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A confronting novel. Chen Cao, now relegated to director of the Shanghai Judicial System Reform Office, is recalled from convalescent leave to solve a high profile crime. It seems there’s a serial murderer loose just as China is fighting Covid. Chen is a poet and policeman. Much like the famous Judge Dee. Only it’s not an empress Chen is keeping at bay, it’s the Chinese Communist Party. A constant heartbeat underlying the investigation of what is being seen as the work of a serial murderer, is the story of the Covid pandemic in China. The inhumane efforts the Chinese government went to to control the spread of the disease, their infamous zero Covid policy, their surveillance, and severe rules and punishments carried out by the party faithful, administering the harsh regime. People nailed into their apartments, children separated from parents, left alone, no food, people taken into concentration c

A Newlywed's Guide to Fortune and Murder  (Countess of Harleigh Mystery #6)   by Dianne Freeman     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A welcomed dive into the latest doings of the former Lady Hartleigh and her husband George Hazelton.  Frances has been asked by Vicountess Winstead to sponsor her niece’s presentation to the Queen. What could go wrong? A fortunate opportunity for George to ask for Frances’s assistance in looking around Lady Winstead’s rooms for the deceased Viscount Winstead, Lord Peter’s journal. It lists the Egyptian artifacts he’d obtained in his travels, including the journal, that were all willed to the British museum. The journal has disappeared It turns out that someone is drugging Lady Winstead with laudanum, and a murder occurs. The niece  might be more than she appears and Frances finds herself negotiating with two truly frightening older women of the ton who wreak havoc wherever their attention lands. An enjoyable  Victorian mystery. A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley.          

Three Oaths : A Legend of the Five Rings (Daidoji Shin Mysteries #4) by Josh Reynolds      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ah! My favorite sleuth from the world of the Five Rings, in the realm of Rokugan—Daidoji Shin,  nobleman from the House of Cranes, sent by his house to the City of the Rich Frog to oversee the Daidoji Trading Council merchants. He’s  a witty, languid courtier given to all sorts of ne’er do well pursuits; theatre, music, and deplorably ready to embroil himself in various investigative pursuits. That his personae hides a laser sharpe mind and keen intelligence that’s bored easily has him moving  from one challenge to another, accompanied by a varied group of individuals, from his much put upon samurai, Kasami, a rather seedy character Kitano, to river pirates. Each time he moves himself to undertake an action he somehow comes out on top. That’s not by accident. Amusing and yet driven, this time Shin’s asked by Lady Akodo Minami, commander of the Lion Garrison, to investigate the legitim

  Match Me, I'm Falling  (School for Spinsters #2) by Michelle Willingham    ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lady Ashleigh Pryor and her mother Georgina’s lives were rigidly controlled by her father Cecil Pryor, Marquess of Rothbury. Everything from the jewellery she wore to what balls she should attend. Ashleigh had been desperately saving her pin money but didn’t have enough for the two of them to escape. Now her father has decided to marry her off to one of his cronies, Lord Falkland. Cameron MacNeill, Chief of Kilmartin was a spy for the Crown. He was looking for a mature woman, a wife to take charge of his holdings in Scotland and his son Logan whilst he was on missions. She would be a wife in name only. Ashleigh and Cameron were introduced by Mrs. Rachael Harding of the “School for Spinsters.” neither thought they suited. That is until Ashleigh is forced to runaway sooner than expected. She chose to depart from a ball she’s attending. (Ok, even I know the footman employed by her father wouldn’t keep

The Shell House Detectives  (Shell House Detectives #1) by Emylia Hall     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Cozy mystery I thought! That’ll be a pleasant change. But this was so much more than that! Think more along Vera lines.  Aly Bright is a misunderstood artist whose husband Bill, her rock, has died. Aly’s daughter wants her to move to Australia but Aly loves her treasured seaside home. Jayden Weston is an ex cop from Leeds suffering PTSD after his partner had died in a stabbing. His wife Cat had talked him into moving back to her family’s farm at Upper Hendra near Porthpella, Cornwell, to start a Glamping business. A woman is missing! This unites Aly and Jayden into doing something about it. Jayden laughingly calls them the Shell House Detectives. They follow through on clues that the police seem to have ignored with some surprising, and at times, dangerous leads. A real page turner! Then there’s the characters we meet, a disparate group of people. Outsiders who are beginning to find community with ea

The Secret of Villa Alba  by Louise Douglas   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ April Cobain is recovering from the loss of her love and soulmate when a letter comes from a friend who’d pushed her away decades ago. She’d left to go her own way after a dreadful, jealous scene. Maddalena Borgata pleads for April to come to Sicily to help prove her father Enzo’s innocence in his wife’s disappearance 35 years ago. The case has been reopened by a dogged, sensational seeking popular tv host who stops at nothing to take his targets down. Enzo’s english wife Irene had been injured in an earthquake a few months previous to her disappearance. Enzo’s and Irene had driven to the hospital in Palermo. On their way home they’d had car trouble. Enzo had walked ten kilometres to the family compound, Villa Albo, seeking help. Irene was left alone in the car as it was impossible to push her wheelchair along the rugged road, little more than a rough track. When Enzo returned with help, Irene had disappeared, never to be found. No