eyes.2c Reviews

The Essential Patricia A. McKillip  by Patricia A. McKillip         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Patricia McKillip has been a magical writer whom I’ve enjoyed for more years than I care to count, starting with The Forgotten Beasts of Eld in 1974 and continuing down through the decades. This collection of short stories brings her craft forward for all to enjoy. An introduction by the fabulous Ellen Kushner adds acclamation and biographical interest. McKillop’s word smithing is brilliant, full of beautifully turned phrases imbued with riddles like, “ The Amaranth that never dies but only lives forever to watch men die.”  “  I have seen this tower before and I have seen in it the woman we all expected, the only woman some men ever know . . . And every time we come expecting her, the woman who lures us with what’s most precious to us and kills us with it, we build the tower around her again and again and again. . . .” Populated with peoples such as Ryd Yarrow, a Dragon Harr...

A Vicious Love Burns  (House of Croft #5) by Sophie Barnes          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Samantha is pregnant. Adrian’s empire is being threatened by a vicious Irish gangster, Finn O’Leary. The demise of Adrian’s rule is personal for Finn. Adrian killed his father. Meanwhile Detective Kendrick and Bow Street are flummoxed by a murder where a man has been killed and then had his throat cut. More deaths follow. There’s a pattern, but what is it? Is the assailant a woman? Melody Roberts returns from her travels on the continent as the companion to Lady Heathbrooke and runs into Marsdale! When Samantha is kidnapped Lord Harlowe’s adopted daughters, part of the Nightingale Project, swing into action, Melody with them. This all just as Marsdale has turned to Melody. Now things will change! Another feisty involving read! An Independent ARC via NetGalley.                                   ...

Christmas in Newfoundland 3: Sgt. Windflower Holiday Tales by Mike Martin            ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Another amazing group of joyful and thoughtful Sg. Windflower Christmas stories from Mike Martin. Whether it’s the secret and focused yearnings of his older daughter Stella who has re discovered her ability to skate (I felt her sadness and love when she dreams of her dead mother skating with her); or Christmas at Grand Bank looking after the families who are currently pushed to the edge, it is all so uplifting. Windflower’s smoking ceremony to connect him to his ancestors, his dreams, and his use of the pipe left to him by his Auntie Marie of course play a part. We go back to his Cree boyhood in Pink Lake, Alberta. Windflower remembers. He is appreciative of his beginnings and where he is now. A ray of sunshine on his cheek is like a benediction from his crossed over grandfather. So many stories, so much love to be read and enjoyed! The cover deserves a special ...

The Widow : A Novel by John Grisham         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ John Grisham never fails to delight. Another enthralling read from the master of investigative thrillers. Death, old ladies who are more than they seem,  attorneys, the law and lots of wriggle room! Wahoo! A Doubleday ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

The Mumbai School for Murder  (Temple Hill Mystery #3)   by Meeti Shroff-Shah        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Radhika Zaveri, Radhi, is a successful mystery writer and divorcee who’s returned from New York to Temple Hill in Mumbai. Daughter of a prominent jewel merchant, her parents were killed in an accident. Radhi inherited wealth. She has unresolved trauma and nightmares abut her parents’ deaths. She believes the accident was her fault. Radhi’s also wracked with guilt about fleeing abroad. Mostly because she believes she's  deprived her niece of an auntie, and her sister Madhavi the support she needed.  Radhi is talked into taking up a guest faculty position at an elite school, North Star High School, by the principal Rose Fernandes, her former maths teacher. She runs a creative writing workshop.  Her sister Madhavi is hoping to enroll her daughter and Radhi’s niece, Amara, at the school. Competition for placement is tough. Radhi is trying to help. When t...

Miss Morton and the Missing Heir  (Miss Morton Mysteries #4) by Catherine Lloyd          ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wrapped up in Victorian times where the heroine is a lady fallen on hard times. Lady Caroline Morton has taken on the role of paid companion to Mrs. Frogerton. When Caroline’s spendthrift father died bankrupt and ruined, Caroline found that her and her sisters dowries had been spent, and any jewellery and effects not tied to the earldom sold to pay off debtors. Caroline and her sister were left destitute. Society turned their collective backs on them. Caroline was fourteen. It’s 1840. Caroline’ s employer Mrs. Frogerton is an industrialist, a very competent woman of business. She recognised that her daughter would need guidance to take her place in society. Caroline was that guide. All eventually turned out well. No sooner had Caroline and Mrs Frogerton returned to London from the wedding when Caroline is given news that the authorities have finally found a lik...

Dark Tidings on the Thames  (Kier and Levett Mystery #7) by Deb Marlowe         ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Kara Kieran and Niall, the Duke and Duchess of Sedwick are once again pulled into deadly doings.  Their young friend Beth Williams who volunteers at the Waif’s Wardrobe, a charity in London   is worried about dissension in the organization.  They arrive, only to find a Covent Garden flower seller, Miss Glynn Foulger, a friend of Beth’s, has been brutally murdered by a cobbler’s shoe form. The person seemingly responsible, John Yardley, a cobbler who works with the charity has disappeared.  When Yardley turns up at Bluefield Park claiming his innocence, Kara and Niall are inclined to believe him, as does Inspector Wooten. However the truculent Detective Frye who loathes Kara and Niall arrests Yardley. Case closed!  The case though is far from over! As Kara and Niall, and their friends delve more deeply into things it becomes apparent that there’s mor...

A Rage of Souls  (Simon Westow Mystery #8) by Chris Nickson        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Simon Westow, the thief taker is puzzled. He’d been hired by James Barton to find Frederick Fox. Fox had lured Barton in to trusting him to sell a gold bracelet of his wife’s. Fox seemed trustworthy until the day he wasn’t and absconded with the bracelet. Simon captured him and Fox was for the gallows. He was due to be hanged but at the eleventh hour was pardoned. No one could work out why. A number of theories were put forward.  Now surprisingly, James Barton employs Simon again. Fox has been following him. Barton  wants Simon to keep him safe However Fox and his wife seem to have disappeared. Is James imagining things or is something else at play? Neither Simon, his wife Rosie, nor Jane and Sally, the young women who worked with him can find the Fox’s. Sally has been assisting a group of children who live on the streets. They’ve been terrorised by some young upper class me...

The Earl That Got Away  (Sirens in Silk #2) by Diana Quincy       ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Vivacious young Palestinian American woman Naila Darwish falls in love with a young Englishman visiting Philadelphia. Basil Trevelyn is looking at his uncle’s business concerns with a view to staying and eventually taking over the company. Basil proposes and Naila accepts only to break it off when her Aunt Majida points out how such a marriage would effect the honor of her family. Later that day, realising she’s made a mistake Naila goes to tell Basil she was wrong but hed already left for England. Naila is brokenhearted. She returns to her family and becomes the faded spinster aunt, instead of the bird of paradise she’d once been. Eight years later the Darwish family journeys to England for Naila’s sister’s  engagement ball and wedding to the Duke of Strickland. Naila and Basil meet again. Basil is now the Earl of Hawksworth, and Strick’s best friend. How these two finally come together i...