eyes.2c Reviews

The Medicine Woman of Galveston  by Amanda Skenandore      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Uplifting, often sombre story of a woman doctor who’d been let go from a hospital after an operation resulted in the death of a patient. As a recently graduated doctor Tucia Hatherley was being supervised by the hospital surgeon  Dr. Archibald Addams. He’d   bullied Tucia into performing an operation she wasn’t ready for, a situation where she’d froze. Blackballed Tucia fought for her and her son’s survival, taking a job in a mill. Answering an advertisement for a Doctor, she’s employed by Hugh Horn aka the Amazing Adolphus, a snake oil seller, to look after his troupe.  Tucia’s son Toby has Downes Syndrome. All Tucia wants to do is protect him. She takes the position. Their journey to the travelling show and subsequent involvement with the show folk is an eye opener for Tucia. Even more so when she realised their employer has something on everyone  During the show’s long journe...

All's Fair in Love and War  (Miss Prentice’s Protégées #1) by Virginia Heath       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A wonderful tale filled with sass and hope. Georgina (Georgie) Rowe has trained to be an exclusive governess, a protégé of the estimable Miss Prentice of the four “D’s” of governessing.  Duty. Decorum. Diligence. Discretion. And now in Georgie’s case, Miss Prentice added diplomacy.  The problem is that Georgie keeps being ‘let go’ when her educational St. Joan’s philosophy clashes with her employers views on education. This next assignment is somewhat of a last gasp, her last chance to make good.  I hooted with laughter at so much in this book Georgie’s employer,  Captain Henry Kincaid, (grandson of a famous Admiral), and Harry to his friends,   works for the admiralty overlooking the building of the warship Bodescia, ensuring its on time, on cost, and up to scratch. Logistics are a huge part of Harry’s talent. (Georgie acquaints us with a few ...

Litany of Lies  (Bradecote and Catchpoll Investigations #12) by Sarah Hawkswood    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once again Sarah Hawkswood serves up a juicy medieval mystery. Sheriffs jealous of Abbots! The clashing of power and feelings between William de Beauchamp, Lord Sheriff of Worcestershire, and  Reginald Foliot, Abbot of Evesham, has history. It’s the underlying current that ebbs around  their current investigation, the death of the Abbot’s steward, Walter.  Lord Undersherrif Hugh Badecote, Serjeant Catchpoll and Underserjeant Walkelin are sent to uphold the Law and search for the killer. The steward Walter had been found inside a new well being dug on monastery land. He’d been murdered. Bradecote is called to hunt down the murderer and finds himself mired in community scandals on one side and the Lord Sheriff’s underlings on the other. I loved the careful investigations of all three men as they stepped over and around the growing list of possible perpetrators. Alth...

The Heiress's Daughter  (Brides of Bellaire Gardens #4) by Anne Gracie   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Just how was a confirmed rake to woo a young heiress who’s always been told she’s plain and dumpling like? Lord Randall, Horatio, known to his friends as Race, saw the inner beauty of Clarissa Studley the moment she’d supported her illegitimate sister at a ball years ago. Clarissa’s strong suppressed feelings are mistaken for insipidness. Race is never confused. Clarissa’s father had been a thorough going rake and cad. He’d married Clarissa’s mother for her fortune and then left her to wither away on his estate in Hampshire while he cut a swathe through London society. No rakes could not be trusted! Ever! This story of a rake a-wooing, and the complicated thoughts of his beloved is absolutely a delight. Of course things get tangled up and others add to that entanglement. There’s the wounded war hero making tentative overtures towards Clarissa. So charming! Race’s blood boils! A story of hidden s...

The Last Hope  (Maggie Hope #11) by Susan Elia MacNeal  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Maggie is home, safe at last with John Sterling, her ex-fiancé. But that relationship’s put on hold when she’s called into the Special Operations Executive by Kim Philby, head of the Iberian Section of MI6 The writings on the wall for Germany. The allies are pushing through. Europe’s already been carved up at the Tehran Conference.  The German Generals want to negotiate a seperate peace with Churchill. Coco Channel is calling in markers for her lover, Nazi, Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage. Coco has asked for “Paige Kelly” that is Maggie, to be the conduit. Maggie owes her! The meeting will take place in so called neutral Spain in Madrid, a hotbed of spies—Fascists, Nazis, and Communists as well as the Americans and Brits. Maggie though has been tasked by something even more dangerous. She’s to assassinate the scientist, Weber Heisenberg, who is believed to be working on an Atomic Bomb. Maggie however decid...

Locked in Pursuit  (Electra McDonnell #4) by Ashley Weaver        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The report of a puzzling robbery at a Diplomat’s dinner party has Electra McDonnell suspicious. Nothing adds up. None of her contacts have heard anything. (Electra had been a jewel thief and safecracker until military intelligence recruited her and her family to use their skills as part of the war effort.) Having not heard from her recently injured handler, the aloof Major Gabriel Ramsey, for some months, Electra decides to approach him about the matter. (There is the slight aspect of a growing attraction between Electra and Major Ramsey!)  There’s also the history of Electra’s mother. She was a condemned murderer, pregnant with Electra. Electra has been following clues trying to find out what the truth was behind what her mother’s actions. Electra’s visit to the Major leads to the uncovering of German spies looking for something important that may have come from Lisbon. The myste...

Tomorrow Is for the Brave  by Kelly Bowen     ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Violet St. Croix is born into a wealthy English family. Her mother and Violet spend their time at the family villa in Nice. Her father, Commodore Robert St. Croix joins them from London as time and his important work permits. Violet is being groomed towards a successful marriage within the circle of a their  acquaintances. In fact her fiancée has already been decided on. Driving becomes her eccentric hobby that will be put away when she marries.  Only it isn’t and it doesn’t.  It’s 1939. War is coming and Violet volunteers with the French nursing corps. Her family disown her. How Violet ends up as a driver for generals and colonels is part of her extraordinary story that begins with Violet being just another idle rich girl who loves driving. That morphs over time into the story of a brave, formidable woman.  Violet spends the war as firstly a nurse and then a driver in Finland, then Africa with t...

Every Time We Say Goodbye  (Jane Austen Society #3) by Natalie Jenner         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jenner continues exploring the lives of various of characters we’ve met in the “Austen Society” and “Bloomsbury Girls.” This time the action is mostly set in post World War II Rome. Vivien Lowrey is a playwright. Through her works she tries to capture the truth of things. Having been savaged by theatre critics for her latest production she comes to Rome to work as a script doctor for “ When All Else Fails” a Douglas Curtis film being produced in Italy. Joseph McCarthy has started his witch hunts for communist and socialists in the film industry and many have fled here. Mussolini had built a huge studio complex in Rome specifically for propaganda. Now, in 1955, Cinecittà Studios is being well used by the Italian and other film makers, including the Americans. Vivien catches up with others of the Austen and Bloomsbury women who flit in and out of the story, including   P...

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club  by Helen Simonson  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ During World War I Constance Haverhill had been the unpaid estate manager and general dogsbody for her mother’s friend and supposed patron Lady Mercer.  Constance and her mother lived in  a  small game-keeper’s cottage on the estate in return for a myriad of duties they both performed to keep Clivehill  running smoothly.  The end of the war brought that arrangement to a close. It’s now 1919 and Constance’s mother has passed away from Influenza. Constance’s sister-in-law is irrationally blaming Constance for the death of her children from the flu epidemic. Lady Mercer has had Constance’s belongings packed up and stored unknown to her whilst she’s supposedly on holidays at Brighton. Constance is to all intents and purposes is homeless. In reality she’s caring for Lady Mercer’s mother, Mrs. Fog who’s fortunately very different from her overbearing, inconsiderate, self absorbe...

Disturbing the Dead  (Rip Through Time #3) by  Kelley Armstrong  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A return to Victorian  Edinburgh and the freak out life of a thirty year old, twenty-first century detective, who went to the aid of a woman being strangled in her time and woke to found herself trapped in the body of a nearly illiterate housemaid to a Dr. Duncan Gray. The maid Catroina had been a young, well endowed servant with sociopath tendencies, consequently Mallory has had trouble winning over her fellow servants. They’re all waiting for the other shoe to drop! Now six months later Mallory Atkinson (her real name) is a valued member of the doctor’s household and has become Duncan’s forensic assistant. Mallory had been  a dedicated homicide detective. She knew all about DNA, fingerprints etc. She has to be careful not to let her knowledge outstrip the times. Much to her disgust Mallory is to attend a mummy unwrapping party with the Dowager Countess Lady Annis her siblings. Su...

The Worst Woman in London : A Victorian Romance   by Julia Bennet      ⭐️⭐️⭐️ When James Standish first met his best friend’s fiancée he knew the relationship wouldn’t work. He recognised the streak of individuality Thorne’s beloved displayed, especially her humor, her way of laughing. His friend, Edward Thorne was oblivious. He thought of Francesca Heller as everything a wife should be. Gracious, womanly, taking her rightful place at his side gladly. (If anything he was to be shocked by her sensual advances.) Francesca wasn’t like that and two years later Thorne left Hertfordshire for London leaving his wife with his mother, whilst he cavorted his way through London, setting up a string of mistresses. Now  eight years later Fran has come to London, opened up her own house and is suing for divorce. Shock and horror! Society is both titillated and outraged. Thorne is beside himself with righteous anger (the swine!) Fran is cut by many in society including her bel...