The Postscript Murders (2021) Elly Griffiths (Harbinder Kaur) Apparently I don’t love mysteries written in the present tense. Primarily because sentences like this are jarring. There’s another man called either Brodie or Brady, Harbinder never does discover which it is. Can she see into the future that she will never learn his name? Which was […]
Christmas Wish List (2021) N.R. Walker (Hartbridge Christmas) Last year I read Tic-Tac-Mistletoe which was cute and sweet, so I was pretty sure I was getting cute and sweet here. Cass inherited an old manor and has spent the last two years turning it into a modern B&B. He just needs a chef to help […]
Threshold (2013) Jordan L. Hawk (Whyborne & Griffin) Set in Boston and WV in the late 1800s. This wasn’t bad, but Lovecraftian monsters just aren’t my thing. So why did I keep reading? Because it was set in WV, and it featured mining and was actually accurate for those things! I mean, this: By the […]
Jury of One (2016) Charlie Cochrane (Lindenshaw Mysteries) Inspector Robin Bright had been meant to be enjoying the weekend with his partner Adam Matthews, but a murder has him and his team called in while the Abbotston team tries to deal with a serial killer. It’s a cozy mystery, and just what I was in […]
Valor: Wands (2018) Isabelle Melançon, Megan Lavey-Heaton Editors “The Prince’s New Clothes” by Isabelle Melançon and Megan Lavey-Heaton “Mom Knight and The Centipede” by Sara Goetter “The Magnificent Daji” by Alex Singer and Diana Huh “Maleen” by Nicole Chartland “Marie and The Nutcracker” by Emily Hann “The Laughing Queen” by Gisele Weaver “The Princess with […]
The Mystery of the Spirits (2021) C.S. Poe (Snow & Winter) This is the fifth Snow & Winter mystery. Sebastian and Calvin are happily married, and Sebastian has managed to avoid getting involved in murders–until now. “We should get one of those OSHA scoreboards for the shop. You know, for recording accidents? Except we record […]
Aunty Lee’s Delights (2013) Ovidia Yu (Singaporean Mystery) After Rosie “Aunty” Lee became a wealthy widow, instead of shopping and gossiping, she opened a cafe where she could cook and gossip. During her step-son’s wine tasting dinner the discussion is on a body discovered on the beach that morning. But no one except Aunty Lee […]
Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones (2020) Ngozi Ukazu Jack has graduated and gone to the NHL. Bitty remains at Samwell, still playing hockey, and unable to talk about his relationship–both for fear or jeopardizing Jack’s career and because he still hasn’t come out to his own family. OMG IT IS SO SWEET! This […]
Check, Please! Book 1: # Hockey (2018) Ngozi Ukazu Eric Bittle may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It is nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! I love this comic […]
How to Be a Movie Star (2019) T.J. Klune (How to Be) Josiah Erickson wants to be a movie star. From his first acting role–as a block of cheeses–he has wanted nothing more than to act. Unfortunately, he tends to create stories in his head. A man a few chairs down stood up. He had […]
Widdershins (2014) Jordan L. Hawk (Whyborne & Griffin) Set in New England in 1897 This is a Lovecraftian story–only without all the racism and misanthropy. One advantage of not being able to picture things in my head is that I can read things like this: Its head was worse, however. Thanks to Christine, I’d spent […]
Body at Buccaneer’s Bay (2021) Josh Lanyon (Secrets and Scrabble) This was delayed, and delayed, and delayed. However, a brief check of her website made it clear that she (like the rest of us) was struggling with the pandemic, and would be unable to meet her publishing schedule. Which, good for her for realizing that, […]
Hexbreaker (2016) Jordan L. Hawk (Hexworld) Set in New York City in 1897. Tom Halloran escaped the death of his family–and his own imprisonment–and became a city cop. But hiding the fact he is a witch is about to become difficult. Hexbreaking was too rare a skill. If anyone found out, they’d want to know […]
Goblin Fruit (2019) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in England in 1924 Lizzie has taken a job for the ministry, hoping it will allow her and her sister to survive–especially since her work during the war hadn’t helped her to get any other jobs. Carillon also does work for the ministry, and keeps a public […]
Possessed by Shadows (2021) Lissa Kasey (Simply Crafty) Alex may be content trying to let his past go, but his brother isn’t. He’d decided to go from police homicide detective, to paranormal detective. I was not a fan. But he didn’t see the same sort of stuff I did, and it seemed to be a […]
Marked by Shadows (2020) Lissa Kasey (Simply Crafty) Micah has a complicated past. But he’s happy where he is now: running a craft shop and spending time with Alexis. Even if the ghost tours can be a little stressful. I watched other ghost hunters, or paranormal enthusiasts as they called themselves, do something called ‘provoking […]
Stalked by Shadows (2019) Lissa Kasey (Simply Crafty) Alexis Caine received a medical discharge from the army after witnessing an attack that the government insisted could not have happened the way he stated. After a stint in a mental hospital, he goes home with his twin, to try and restart his life. My social services […]
Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021) Malinda Lo Set in San Francisco, mostly in 1954-1955 I frequently try to start a book not knowing anything about it. It keeps me from having preconceived notions and all that. But once in awhile I start a book and realize it’s not what I thought it was. […]
Perfect Rhythm (2017) Jae (Fair Oaks) Leontyne Blake grew up wanting nothing more than to escape the small town where she grew up, and now she has that, as pop start Jenna Blake. But at the end of her tour she receives a call from her mother, that Leo’s father has suffered a stroke and […]
The Heartbreak Bakery (2021) A.R. Capetta Syd is finishing up high school while working full time in the Proud Muffin–the bakery and community space that is a second home for so many LGBT teens and adults in Austin. But when Syd is dumped by their girlfriend, the accidentally bake Break-Up brownies which not only breaks […]
A Marvellous Light (2021) Freya Marske (The Last Binding) Set in England prior to The Great War. Maybe 1906 or 1907. After his parents were killed ina car wreck, Robin Blyth has to pick up the pieces of the life they left him and his sister. “You don’t talk about your parents much.” “I am— […]
The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (2021) Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings) Nearly 20 years have passed since Monty (and then Felicity) fled England and their father. In the mean time, their younger brother has grown into an adult–but one with his own problems. Adrian has struggled with his mind his entire life, but after […]
The Murder Next Door (2021) Sarah Bell Set in England in 1912. Louisa is startled to discover their next door neighbor has been found dead–and the wife has disappeared with their young son. Ada saw Mrs Pierce hurry away from the house early in the morning, with a look of terror on her face. I […]
The Quid Pro Quo (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in 1920 Walter met Sylvia when they were both working at the same hospital at Royaumont. They only got the worst cases here now… had done for a while, since the brass had worked out that the lady doctors had a better surgical […]
The Fog of War (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in the summer of 1919. Dr Sylvia Marks returned to the village where her father had been the local doctor, after the end of the war and her time as a surgeon at Royaumont, where she was later joined by Walter, a nurse […]
Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? (2016) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) The third–and seemingly final–book of the Shadow Police series. The story opens with a bank robbery. ‘I won’t tell you!’ she shouted. ‘I can!’ Kevin insisted, pointing at himself. The stormtrooper paused awkwardly again. He obviously had as little idea as she did what Kevin’s weird […]
Murder Most Actual (2021) Alexis Hall Liza and Hannah are having a bit of struggle with their marriage. A struggle that Hannah tried to help by scheduling a vacation for just the two of them: no internet, no cell services, just the two of them in the wilds of Scotland. Except that Hannah didn’t consult […]
Dead Dead Girls (2021) Nekesa Afia (Harlem Renaissance Mystery) Set in Harlem, NYC in 1926 Louise Lloyd became famous as a teenager, when she escaped a man who had kidnapped her and two other girls–girls who would have been ignored because they were Black and in Harlem. Ten years later, someone is killing young women, […]
Learned Behaviors (2020) Jayce Ellis (Higher Education) JaQuan Reynolds has dedicated the last 18 years of his life to his daughter. For four years, Tanisha had begged Santa to give her a new mommy, and had stopped believing in him not long after that. Now that she is off to college, he is faced with […]
Faces (2021) A.M. Rose Dorian was born blind, but that blindness came with a gift–the ability to draw the soulmates of those whom he touches. The portrait I draw is the image of the soulmate the way they look when the person sees them for the first time” Hayden knows that soulmates exist–his parents were […]
The Severed Streets (2014) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) When the Secretary of the Treasury is killed violently and inexplicably, Quill’s group is certain the case falls to their remit–even if they are the only ones who know it. ‘We’ve been given access to … advanced sensor … techniques, the details of which we can’t go […]
Galaxies and Oceans (2018) N.R. Walker Apparently my brain things I need to be having feelings. Grief was like the great Southern Ocean; it moved in ebbs and flows, often turbulent and rough, or peaceful and settled, and even over time when I could navigate the waters, the tide never stopped. “(S)ometimes you have to […]
Rend (2018) Roan Parrish (Riven) Matt Argento was abandoned as a child, and from that moment on has never felt himself to be enough. To be deserving. He has a job he loves, but in the back of his mind he still expects everything to be taken away. “You were so used to things being […]
London Falling (2012) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) Me, to myself. “I haven’t read the Shadow Police series in awhile”. Also me, “It’s really dark.” “I know it’s dark! I read it and listened to it!” “Are you sure you’re up for that right now?” (stomps off in a huff to read London Falling.) Oh. Yeah. […]
Riven (2018) Roan Parrish (Riven) This book is full of so many strong feelings and so much angst, yet bits and pieces of it kept tugging on my mind, so I decided to reread. “Don’t ever apologize for doing what you need to be okay,” he said. But still the shame trickled through me like […]
Open Hearts (2020) K. Evan Coles (Stealing Hearts) Jae-seong Bak love his job as a Nurse Anesthetist, but the swing shifts are starting to get to him as he gets older. For now, he’s back in Boston, where he grew up, and getting ready for his brother’s upcoming wedding. What he didn’t expect was to […]
The Love Study (2020) Kris Ripper To say that Declan has commitment issues is an understatement. He left his boyfriend (and best friend) at the altar, and refuses every offer of permanent employment he receives, preferring to remain with the temp agency. What I especially like about temping at offices: never feeling like I’m trapped […]
Bodyguard (2021) Dassy Bernhard (The Bodyguards) An orphan. With secret superpowers. Who works as a bodyguard. Tang Jun-young had hoped that saving the K-Pop boy band he was guarding flew under the radar, with people paying attention to the musicians rather than the nameless man who saved them. But no such luck, as the chairman […]
The Charm Offensive (2021) Alison Cochrun I am having a really hard time writing this review. Because I keep diving back into the book and reading passages an getting sucked back in. Charlie Winshaw was forced out of the company he helped found, and now he’s hoping to rehabilitate his image by appearing on a […]
Let Me Show You (2019) Becca Seymour (True-Blue) Carter Falon inherited his grandfather’s house and decided to uproot himself to the Kirkby. Unfortunately, the house needs a lot of work. towel. In my haste to get myself together and then answer the door, the dodgy floorboard didn’t even register until my foot slammed through it, […]
Fortune Favors the Dead (2020) Stephen Spotswood (Pentecost and Parker) Set in New York in 1945. Will Parker ran away to join the circus, to escape her abusive father. But an event one night in 1942 in NYC changes everything, and she ends up working for Lillian Pentecost, a private investigator. “I trust you to […]
Trailer Park Trickster (2021) David R. Slayton (Adam Binder) Do you know what I hate? Cliffhangers. Do you know what this book had? Yup. A cliffhanger. Adam and Vic have had no chance to work things out, because Adam took off for Oklahoma in an attempt to save his aunt. He didn’t save his aunt. […]
Paladin’s Hope (2021) T. Kingfisher (The Saint of Steel) The third book in the Saint of Steel series. Piper is the lich-doctor (think coroner) for the White Rat. He’d worked with several of the paladins of the Saint of Steel in solving the a series of murders. Now it looks like there is another murderer […]
The Lion Tamer (2018) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) As noted throughout the series, Scottie us a wreck, who is incapable of being a functioning adult. Scottie sat up slowly and glanced around to find the scenery had changed quite significantly. “Why the fuck am I in a hospital bed?” Taine placed a hand on […]
The Unexpected Santa (2017) Dahlia Donovan (Sin Bin) This story is is a glimpse of the start of the relationship between Scottie and Gray. Scottie is a mess. He’d never possessed the tools to deal with the chaos of emotions in his life. It always funnelled into anger. The rage burned in him. Seriously, he […]
The Royal Marine (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) Akash Robinson moved to Cardiff to open his own bakery after working at his parents for years. Unfortunately, running his own bakery means he has no time for the social life he had hoped to develop with the move. (H)e’d never brought a date home once. […]
The Botanist (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) This story takes place over the course of about two years, and opens with Aled being rescued by Wyatt. (The damage to Aded all occurs off the page, by Wyatt is there for the immediate aftermath.) Although it is a romance, most of the story is about […]
The Caretaker (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) Freddie Whittle is a cancer nurse. It’s an incredibly hard job, and he puts too much of himself into it, but he doesn’t want to do anything else. Taine stood silent while the nurse gathered himself. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly […]
The Wanderer (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) This is a romance. With cancer. Graham languished in his bungalow on the water for two days. He never got sick, which made him the worst patient in the world. One of the things that makes this story so good is that it is unflinching in looking […]
Not So Cookie Cutter (2019) Aidan Wayne This is a sideways sequel to Making Love, in that Jerrell is Carla’s target at the end of that book. It’s also about a baker. Maybe he could try some for tomorrow. And it would take way less time than cheesecake. Pumpkin-cheesecake inspired mousse, though? Or trifle cups! […]