eyes.2c Reviews

Lady Ashley Never Behaves  (Season of Secrets #4) by Bronwen Evans        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The tale of the Duke of Blackstone and Lady Ashley Ware’s sudden marriage of convenience transforming into a love match has lots of wrinkles and surprises. Who knew pain could bring two people together? Raven is torn up by the murder of his beloved mistress, Ashley’s been the unwarranted epitome of scandal for three years. Consolation shared in a public place! Well!! Loved it! A Dragonblade ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.

The Unicorn Hunters : A Novel  by Katherine Arden        ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reading Katherine Arden’s notes gives me a glimpse into her fertile and often whimsical imagination, always with an edge. Loosely based around Anne, the Duchess of Brittany, her plans and contrivances to avoid marriage to Charles VIII of France, a proxy marriage to Maximilian of Austria, her valiant attempts to keep her duchy and people free. All of which came to naught. Here in Arden’s tale Anne seizes the moment, aided by magical forces and a unicorn the true story gives way to a startling story of light, duty and magic woven unhesitatingly through the pages. I love that Arden has connected the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries in the Cloisters in New York City to the tale. As always—a splendid read! A Del Ray ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many than...

The Tea Planter’s Secret  (Ceylon series #2) by Clare Flynn       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A young married woman leaves Ceylon to accompany her father on a trip back to Oxford. Stella Baxter has acted as a researcher for her father, Sir Michael Polegate, an esteemed Professor of Anthropology who’d been working on an ethnographic study contrasting the Tamils of northern Ceylon and India. It’s over eighteen months before Stella can return home to her beloved husband Norton. Her father has died and Stella has a baby girl born upon arrival in England, a baby she can scarcely look at. Complex in plot and relationships—the dreadful Bertie Frobisher, assistant to the Governor and bully; the Governor’s wayward daughter; Stella’s brother, who apart from being an unprincipled lothario, steals his father’s and Stella’s works. Just  a  few of the subplots moving through the story.  Interesting read although somewhat thin at times. I’m undecided about picking up the series, altho...