eyes.2c Reviews

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 mystery is what are they after? Sp

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 the French Foreign Legion, going on

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   Peggy Guggenheim. The names! I

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 absorbed, class conscious daughter. It’s

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. Suffragette chemist sister Isla

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 beloved uncle and aunt, the

His Scandalous Lessons  (Private Arrangements #1) by Katrina Kendrick     (Paperback) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Anne Sheffield is the daughter of Stanton Sheffield, a powerful politician whose ideas are ultra conservative, where women are seen as the property of fathers and husbands. Anne’s been betrothed to a much older man, the Duke of Kendal since she was twelve years old. Definitely sleazy connotations, cohesive control, and abuse—both physical and mental are part of her life from her father and the Duke. She has six weeks to find an alternative to her marriage to the Duke, but how to dodge her father’s decrees? Who better to help her than Richard Grey, a dedicated politician opposed to all her father stands for. A thorough rogue to train her in the art of flirting and help find someone else to wed. Anne’s bar is not high. In return Anne will give Richard the names of politicians whose vote her father has obtained by manipulation  and blackmail. Anne trades her lessons for that damaging politica

Hunted  by Abir Mukherjee         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Abir Mukherjee has served up a fast paced thriller exploring many of the challenges of our society today. Racism, religious tensions, the everyday working class feeling disenfranchised, refugees in despair, ideological conservatism on the rise, Government organizations gone rogue. Citizens feeling their dreams and hope lost, the rise of populist demigods “peddling simple answers to complex situations.” It takes talent to roll all those factors into your storytelling. Mukherjee does it with ease. I was disturbed and yet enthralled by the determination of FBI agent Sheyra Mistry as she defied bosses and protocols in her hunt for terrorists who were multi racial, multi religious, and angry. Their actions are being steered by an unknown enemy with contacts at the highest levels. What follows is a complex, gut wrenching chase that serendipitously is helped by the stubbornness and brilliance of Agent Mistry. I found the author’s notes extremely en