A Pattern of Lies (2015) Charles Todd (Bess Crawford) Set in England and France in 1918. Stuck in Canterbury waiting for a transport train to take her to London, Bess meets a soldier she had helped nurse back to health. Invited to spend the night with his family when the train is further delayed, she […]
Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford (2015) Charles Todd This collection is four short stories with Bess Crawford and Ian Rutledge. “The Kidnapping” “The Girl on the Beach” “Cold Comfort” “The Maharani’s Pearls” “The Kidnapping” – Ian Rutledge, London 1920 I actually have a copy of this short story, but it had […]
The Deserted Heart (2018) Mary Lancaster (Unmarriageable) Bringing her brothers home from school, a thick fog forces them to stop at an inn. But they enter to discover not a soul around, even though the doors were unlocked and everything inside looked normal. Since it is too dangerous to continue, they settled in, and are […]
Gay All Year (2020) Richard May These are twelve short stories–one for each month of the year–with a variety of men in a variety of situations, including age differences, second chances, friends to lovers, some supernatural elements and a BDSM story. Which is a lot. As with most anthologies, I didn’t love all the stories, […]
There Galapagos My Heart (2020) Philip William Stover (Love Beyond Boundaries) Mike Davis is perfectly content being an account manager. Of course he’d rather be an artist, but after his mother got sick he needed a job and it’s not a bad thing to be comfortable. I can never go back to not knowing where […]
Everything I Ever Wanted (2003/2015) Jo Goodman (The Compass Club Series) Set in England in 1818 Matthew Forrester, Viscount Southerton and his four friends created the Compass Club when they were in school together, based upon the titles it was possible they could (but were unlikely to) inherit. India Parr is a stage actress of […]
Blood Cross, Audio Edition (2010) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock) The second book of the Jane Yellowrock series finds Jane still in New Orleans, taking a job for the Council of Mithrans–despite the fact that the Master of the City wants her dead for killing what he believed to be his son. […]
The Sicilian Method (2017/2020) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli There are only a few Montalbano books left. This one was quite disappointing, considering how few books there are left. We did have the typical banter between Montalbano and his men. As soon as he reached the landing, Augello and Fazio popped out of the […]
No Wind of Blame (1939) Georgette Heyer (Inspector Hemingway) Ermyntrude Carter married Wally Carter, but has come to regret doing so, as Wally isn’t a great human. Yet Ermyntrude and her daughter Vicki Fanshawe, and Wally and his ward (and cousin) Mary Cliffe lived together on the money Ermyntrude inherited from her fist husband. Although […]
Sergeant Delicious (2020) Annabeth Albert I shouldn’t have started off today with a Josh Lanyon short story. No other short story was going to measure up (unless it was another Josh Lanyon short story, which I don’t seem to have on my TBR pile.) Xavier is going to be discharged in just a few weeks. […]
New Game, Start (2017) C.S. Poe This is a perfectly fine story. I just feel like it needed to be a lot longer for what happened, because what did occur happened so fast it was almost out of left field. I mean, it took place over the course of a week–and during that week they […]
Requiem for Mr. Busybody (2020) Josh Lanyon Michael misses his days as a crime reporter. His life now consists mostly of his apartment building and his research. But when his elderly neighbor disappears, Michael reaches out to his ex, Detective Leonard Drake with his concerns. Here’s the thing about Josh Lanyon: She’s really good at […]
Angels Sing (2019) Eli Easton (Daddy Dearest) Jamie Bailey has been a single dad since he was eighteen. He still managed to go to college, but stayed in his small town to help his uncle run his bookstore (after all, his uncle gave him a job when he was an eighteen-year-old single father trying to […]
Kitty’s Mix-Tape (2020) Carrie Vaughn “Kitty Walks On By, Calls Your Name” (2020) “It’s Still the Same Old Story” (2011) Down These Strange Streets “The Island of Beasts” (2018) Nightmare, December 2018. “The Beaux Wilde” (2014) Urban Fantasy Magazine, December 2014. “Unternehmen Werwolf” (2013) Halloween: Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre “Kitty and the Full Super […]
The Remaking of Corbin Wale (2017) Roan Parrish Alex Barrow broke up with his boyfriend and lost his job so he has headed back to Ann Arbor and taken over his parent’s coffee shop–turning it into his dream bakery. The best bakeries had a cohesive vision. You didn’t want a counter selling bran muffins next […]
The Rook (2012) Daniel O’Malley (The Checquy Files) I love this story so much. (T)he most effective psychics are the ones who never realize they’re psychic and instead manage to live excellent lives by consistently making the right decisions. Their powers effectively guide them through the shoals of life without their knowing. So very very […]
Team Phison (2017) Chace Verity Phil Hutton is 55 struggling with the dating scene. Luckily, he he has his favorite game to keep him sane. When he goes on a mission with a newbie, he thinks there’s not going to be anything more, but the more they interact, the more Phil likes him. Except that […]
Heathen Volume 3 (2020) Natasha Alterici, Ashley A. Woods Aydis has entered the lands of the gods, searching for Odin. But Odin, angered by Aydis’ brash demands and actions, wants revenge against her, and will take it out in her people. Some of those she has met along the way are also journeying–some towards her […]
Iron & Velvet (2013/2019) Alexis Hall (Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator) Kate Kane is a paranormal private investigator, called when something goes wrong i the supernatural world. She’s called out to Velvet–an expensive nightclub–to investigate the exsanguiation of a werewolf in the back alley. It doesn’t look like he had been killed by a vampire, but […]
The Duke Who Didn’t (2020) Courtney Milan (Wedgeford Trials) Set in England in 1891. Chloe Fong may have spent time pining, but she is certainly not doing so any longer. She is going to help her father sell his sauce and get back at the men who stole his formula and left him with nothing. […]
Tic-Tac-Mistletoe (2020) N.R. Walker Hamish Kenneally is moving to the US. His sister has been there for four years, and there is nothing for him in Australia, so he has a two year visa, is going to remote work, and see if a change will do him good. But he arrives in the US just […]
Best Laid Plaids (2020) Ella Stainton (Kilty Pleasures) Set in Scotland in 1928. Well, I’ve now completely ruined my search history, trying to find when top and bottom were first used as gay slang. And the worst part is, I didn’t find the answer. Joachim Cockburn fought in WWI. He’s now trying to finish his […]
Eight Tiny Flames (2018) Crista McHugh Set in Belgium in 1944. Lt. Ruth Mencher is a nurse in the 64th Evacuation unit. Like many of the other nurses in the unit, she’s had a bit of a crush on Capt. Joseph Klein. Unlike the other nurses, she has a plan to see if she can […]
Love All Year: A Holidays Anthology (2020) Stacey Agdern, Hallie Alexander, Savannah J. Frierson, Felicia Grossman, Farah Heron, Celestine Martin, Ekaterine Xia This is an anthology of romances set around holidays that are NOT Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Valentines Day. Three Stars in The Sky by Stacey Agdern It Happened One Yule by Celestine Martin Queen […]
The Affair of the Mysterious Letter (2019) Alexis Hall Captain John Wyndham has returned to the city of Khelathra-Ven after five years of war. He needs rooms, but anything nice is beyond what he can afford–until he sees a posting. Co-tenant required. Rent reasonable to the point of arousing suspicion. Tolerance for blasphemies against nature […]