The choices made by three women intertwine from 1532 (Santo Domingo de la Calzada), 1827 (London), and 2019 (Boston).
What I Liked
The stories and world building are quite good, bringing 1532 and 1827 to life as the characters explore for the first time outside of their homes. The interchanges are lively, and I think I enjoyed 1827 the best. Rich, vibrant, and a sense of change.
What I Didn’t Like
The description of the plot leaves out a very crucial fact, one that isn’t revealed until about a fifth of the way into the book. Which is critical to choosing the book, critical to enjoying the book, and even critical to just understanding it. I thought the book was about witches and revenge on men, particularly the description of Boston in 2019, but it isn’t quite that genre at all. I really didn’t enjoy the descriptions of 1532, and without knowing where the story was going to go, I almost gave up on it. It was bleak and boring, with the main character of the era seemingly both proactive and smart at first and later just completely passive and rather dull. I won’t spoil the genre, there are clues in some of the descriptions, but I almost missed out on quite a good saga over the centuries.
I bought this book as a gift for my niece as she’s into fantasy and some horror, and I’m trying to decide if I “spoil” the genre before she gets to the reveal.
The Bottom Line
Good story, but buyers may be surprised by the genre
A former mob enforcer and cleaner has a new identity and no worries, until an unknown body turns up on her lawn.
What I Liked
The initial premise was kind of interesting — a former mob assassin / cleaner who has (mostly) retired finds a dead body on her lawn. A young female detective looks into the murder, and also thinks there is something off about the retired woman too. After that, it is all downhill.
What I Didn’t Like
I hated just about everything in this book. I was going to quit, but the author is an Agatha winner and an Edgar nominee. It can’t be THAT bad, can it? It has to get better? Nope. I was going to quit at the 30% mark.
At that point, we had Lorraine (the retired mobster) running around trying to investigate the crime. Everybody she meets, literally everybody, the first words out of her mouth are insults. Not just men…the family of the dead guy, witnesses she wants info from, the cops. It’s supposedly “wit” according to the promo copy, because she’s old and saying things that turn people off and surprise, they won’t help her. Really? How strange. Despite the fact that she’s supposed to be street wise, really good with planning murders and body disposals, skating by in life unseen and under the radar.
Oh, and every man she meets, they’re obviously sexist pigs who deserve to die. Oh, and did I mention she has a dead husband that seems like she misses him in the first half of the book and the second half she’s joking that he’s dead. Okaaaay. Did I also mention that she’s trying to figure out the case, but she abruptly kills the ONLY PERSON WHO KNOWS ANYTHING before finding anything out?
I had some hopes for the female detective. Some, not much. But the dead guy was a PI who was following a shady guy who was a drug dealer just before the PI ends up dead. It’s possible the drug dealer is into shady dealings with two other guys from high school. But other than Lorraine, the drug dealer is the ONLY real suspect. Yet at the 50% mark, Detective Mike has been investigating the case for several days and pauses to think, “What if the drug dealer killed him?”. Like, seriously? What the heck? He is the ONLY suspect at the time. There is virtually NOBODY else with any known motive. Yet she’s super smart and just figured out maybe he was involved? OMG.
I didn’t think this train wreck could get worse until Detective Mike accidentally finds some bad guys by random luck, there’s a farcical series of scenes moving a body, and Lorraine cracks part of the mystery with amazing deductive skills that make NO SENSE AT ALL. She makes a random guess that has nothing to do with any evidence, just “oh, it must be these two people”, one of whom WE HAVE NEVER MET. Oh, and a second mystery? It’s resolved by the person revealing themselves for fun and giggles.
Disclosure
I received a free copy of this book through Amazon First Reads. I am not friends with the author, nor have I interacted with them on social media.
A woman is surprised to find out that a local bookstore has a gift for her from her husband, who passed away six months before. He arranged for “A year of books” to help her heal.
What I Liked
The author had me at the initial premise of twelve books to help the surviving spouse heal and live again. Throughout the months, you see her reluctantly start to read again, try new things, and develop a life without him. Their life together is told through flashbacks and you see her come out of her shell with the help of family and new or old friends. She even travels to exotic locales that she always wanted to visit.
While contemporary or romance is not my usual jam, I picked it from an online book club list based on the wonderful premise, and it didn’t disappoint. I read through it in one sitting which let me escape into the book, except for the need for refreshing the tissue box every chapter. There is an intentional small plot hole that gets filled near the end, and I never saw it coming. I might have if I had read it over several days or weeks, but straight-through worked perfectly.
What I Didn’t Like
It is a bit schmaltzy at the end, with the typical rom-com-style “let’s avoid talking about something and just make huge assumptions instead” plot device, but it isn’t egregious. I was expecting a different “solution” at the end, actually 2 or 3 different ones, but mostly liked the one that showed up.
The Olympic gods still rule Earth, and once every hundred years, they choose champions to compete in the Crucible to see whose patron will lead the Gods for the next 100 years.
What I Liked
The trial of the Crucible is covered by this first book in the series instead of being spread out across multiple novels. In addition, the love interests ensure that nobody mistakes this for Percy Jackson stories aimed at a younger audience. Hades is awesome, while most of the rest of the Gods are caricatures. The trials are generally good throughout, with relatively realistic challenges and solutions.
What I Didn’t Like
When we first meet Lyra, I thought she was in her teens. Everything about her screams mid- to late- teens. A few chapters in, it reveals she’s 23. Wait, what? She is nowhere near streetsmart enough for 23, particularly with the life she’s been living and work she has been doing. Way too naïve. Equally, Lyra’s supposed curse is never fully explained, including how her existing friends “show up” for her during the Crucible but had never done so before, and she makes a couple of new friends relatively easily, but had never been able to before either?
In a semi-dystopian future where the world is at war, a TV show called The Compound puts 20 young men and women through a series of Survivor-like tasks, with Big Brother dynamics.
What I Liked
I gave this book to my brother-in-law for a new Christmas Eve tradition. I thought he would enjoy the cross-over stuff from the two shows. The mechanics of the game seem great, as each member tries to figure out how they want to play. Eventually, the dynamics stop being simply “fun” and the real emotions show through. And at least a couple of the roommates are a wee bit psycho.
What I Didn’t Like
I was hoping for more info about the outside world, what they were all “running” from, their backgrounds, and their motivations to join the show. And when it all comes to a head at the end, it seems weird that the show just keeps going.
