eyes.2c Reviews

The Winds from Further West :  A Novel by Alexander McCall Smith   ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Strangely haunting, yet arresting tale of  a  honest, decent man Dr. Neil Anderson. Neil is a medical researcher and lecturer in Public Health at Edinburgh University. Neil’s reported by a student for using improper language about people who live in a downtrodden area. He didn’t. The student is a would be activist. Neil’s ambitious head of department decides that Neil must apologise to the class. She can make political mileage out of this! Neil refuses and resigns. At the same time he finds out his partner Chrissie Thomson is having an affair. Neil comes home early and walks in on Chrissie and her lover.  Neil heads off to the Isle of Mull, off the West Coast of Scotland, to think things through. He stays in a house belonging to his gay friend James.  Neil finds himself becoming more involved with his neighbors in this very different community on the Isle.  An interesting fe...

Road Trip With a Rogue  (Her Majesty’s Rebels #3) by Kate Bateman                ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dashing after a couple fleeing to Gretna Green, the last thing Daisy Hamilton expected to happen was to find Lucien Vaughan, Duke of Cranford being held up by highwayman. She’s disguised as a man to make pursuit easier. Lady Daisy Hamilton is working with King & Co. and has been hired by heiress Violet Brand’s father to recover his daughter before she makes it to Scotland with Lord Peregrine Hughes. Rescuing Lucien is not in her plans. It just happens—sort of! They do have history. Lucien had been friends with her brothers. And yes, Daisy is a duke’s daughter. But that’s another story, best forgotten. It’s a pity Daisy can’t forget the way Lucien kissed her before going off to war FIVE  years ago. Now finding herself in Lucien’s company, pursuing the runaways, is more than Daisy can bare. Besides she  never did believe the prophecy she’d...

Bad Luck Bride  (Scandal at the Savoy #3) by Laura Lee Guhrke                  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lady Kay Matheson had never forgotten the man she’d eloped with to Gretna Green fourteen years ago, Devlin Sharpe. Stopped by friends before they’d crossed into Scotland, Kay had returned home after Devlin swore he’d come for her. He never did. No answers to her letters. Nothing! It took years for Kay to crawl back into some sort of place in society, because yes, as much as she denied the elopement, the gossips were far from satisfied. Then came Kay’s next wedding that failed because her bridegroom-to-be listened to the old scandals and called the wedding off. Once more plunging Kay into society’s awareness. Now Kay is engaged to American millionaire, Wilson Rycroft. Finally she can care for her mother and support her sister Jo in her first season. Except Devlin Sharpe has turned up, engaged to Lady Pamela Stirling. Really! Not only that Kay and Devl...

Blood Caste  (Murder in the Deccan #1) by Shylashri Shankar         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A deviously, thrilling mystery set against the backdrop of 1895 Hyderabad, India. I’m particularly enamoured of mysteries set during the British Raj occupation of India. The  British deviousness of the times, the Indian nobles seeking to hold onto their territories, all ripe for murder and intrigue, injustice and corruption. Of course it’s not all that simplistic. Several women have been murdered after the style of Jack the Ripper leading to sensationalism and fear that Jack the Ripper had arrived in Nazim and was loose in the city. One man, Acting Chief Inspector Soobramania, knew this was impossible. He’d been in London at the time working for a secret Whitehall Police unit. A Brahmin, Soob has returned to Hyderabad and now is in charge of the Nizam City Police. His English counterpart, Inspector Bill Wilberforce in charge the Residency Police enclave had also been in London a...

The Unraveling of Julia  by Lisa Scottoline        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 Julia Pritzker’s world collapsed when her husband Mike was murdered during a slash and grab robbery as she and Mike were walking home. Her horoscope had predicted her life would change. It did! All Julia knew of their attacker was that he wore a strange vibrant blue hoodie. Nearly twelve months on and Julia still finds it difficult to go outside. In the midst of all this pain and angst Julia receives notification from an Italian lawyer in Milan that she has inherited three million euros, a villa and a vineyard. Julia needs to go to Italy to sort out the paperwork. Julia btw was adopted and knew this from the get go. She’d always wanted to find her birth mother. Her time in Italy has Julia negotiating DNA tests, experiencing hallucinations and a somewhat spooky encounter with the spirit of a Caterina Sforza, an influential noble woman of the 1480’s. As Julia searches for her birth mother, danger unfold...

Of Flame and Fury  by Mikayla Bridge       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A world of magic where the phoenix are tethered and raced. It’s not a gentle world. Kel Varra is a phoenix trainer whose phoenix Savita she’s had from infancy and trained to race! When her racing team’s numbers (the Crimson Howlers) are reduced by the death of their rider, it seems to survive Kel will have to join with another team to form a new group. That group? Her “neck or nothing” rival and rider, Warren Couper “Coup” and what’s left of his team, The Star Chasers. When the newly formed group is offered sponsorship from a huge tech company they accept, although Kel has misgivings. As the saying goes, beware of those bearing gifts. Different treatment of a trope where powerful corporations corrupt, ecological factors are ignored, and magical creatures subdued. A Macmillan Children’s Group ARC via NetGalley.                               ...

The Dangerous Love of a Rogue  (Marlowe Family Secrets #1) by Jane Lark          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Troubling tale about a young woman who’s stalked by a rogue over two seasons.  Against her better judgment Mary Marlowe (half sister to the Duke of Pembroke) is intrigued by Lord Andrew Framlington. She sees the man he is hiding behind his mask of roguishness and, somewhat against her better judgement, finally agrees to elope with him He sees an innocent with a dowry, a woman who might prove to be his ideal, who will heal his jaundiced view on life, and maybe love him. Unfortunately the book ends on a note of crossed messages and misunderstandings. I’m not sure of where to now for these two. They’re left on a cliff face with some hope. A Boldwood Books ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publ...

Welcome to Cottonmouth  by Jay S. Bell  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The town is Cottonmouth where a very, very secret, part of the US government has put its old and troublesome agents from a variety of organizations. The only rule, do nothing and stay below the radar. That goes out the window when a crime boss’s plaything makes a bid for freedom and then breaks down in Cottonmouth. Shades of the movie Red engage, although in a different way. The idea of what does a government do with it’s misfit agents? Gutsy and engaging. I enjoyed this as the evil men met their match, not without casualties from our band of heroes. A Blackstone ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

A Lark's Regret  (Verity Lark Mysteries #5) by Lynn Messina    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Once again Verity Lark mesmerises me worth her convoluted grasp of happpenings. Her masterful disguises of various characters she uses to seek information, to confuse and confound her targets. What is she seeking? Always answers to challenges that seemingly escalate into problems, including murder. And now Verity has to confront her sister-in-law and her nemesis, the Duchess of Kesgrave, Her Outrageousness. Mr. Twaddle-Thum, Verity’s literary character is trying to put the rumor genie back in the bottle. Twaddle-Thum is being aped and out rumoured by the mysterious Mrs.-Flimmer Flam. Flimmer-Flam’s target is the Duchess, but not in a good way, rather it’s exploitive and nasty, designed to bring about the Duchess’s ruin. So what would society make of the Duchess in a lowly boarding house with a man dead at her feet, accompanied by none other than Michael Barrington, Viscount Nuneaton? Apart from giv...

Murder at Maltby le Marsh (Harlowe & Fitch Historical Mystery #3)   by Elizabeth Rose             ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ It’s the late 1300’s. Maltby le Marsh Abbey is having repairs done to the scullery when a grisly discovery is made. A bound female immured in the wall. Sheriff Zachariah Fitch and his childhood friend Lady Vivienne Harlowe head off to the Abbey to investigate. Accompanying them is a young woman, Maleine who’s decided to enter the nunnery, the Sheriff’s young daughter Starah, Lady Vivienne’s seven year old son Martin, and Vivienne’s faithful bloodhound Grunt. Between the children, Maleine, the various persons and ongoing practices of the abbey it seems there’s no time to investigate. When ghosts turn up to show the way the Sheriff and I gasped in disbelief. I feel I lost a lot by not having read the earlier titles. I was interested to see how it would all play out. An interesting medieval mystery with a some fascinating moving parts An Oliver H...

This Much Is True  (The Liar’s Club #3) by Vivienne Lorret       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Into her third season, Althea Hartley, from an eccentric creative family is not looking forward to this latest round in London. Last season she had her playwriting hopes shot down by her romantic hope, playwrite and swine, Sir Kellum Archer. Althea has lost her mojo! Jasper Trueblood, Viscount St. James is playing the long game. He’s his despicable uncle’s heir. His unrepentant uncle punishes anyone involved with Jasper. Society however accepts Silas, the Earl of Redcliffe. They only see his perfect presentation, not his victims, not his venal attude, not those he’s sucked the life from. Cohesive Control is Redcliffe’s game, his imperious disregard for all is hidden from his acquaintances, including the Prince Regent. Jasper plays the game by presenting himself as a bumbling awkward oaf. Ahh! But by night Jasper is a highwayman robbing from those like his uncle to give to the needy. When Jas...