For me a title by Alexander McCall Smith is a comfort read. Currently, that is the kind of read that I really need so I was delighted to pick up Looking for You.
This title is another in the Perfect Passion Company series about a matchmaker in Edinburgh. For those who don’t know (though there are probably not many), McCall Smith has written several other series. I especially love the Scotland set Dalhousie ones but another favorite is The Number One Ladies Detective Agency. These are worth searching out.
This book speaks to the common wish to find the right relationship, the one where a person feels understood and loved for exactly who they are. Follow Katie Donald as she tries to help any number of people.
With Valentine’s Day upcoming, this book that reminds us of the wonder of love, would make a perfect gift for yourself or a person in your life. McCall Smith writes in a lovely style that displays warmth, understanding and humor.
I may be one of very few people never to have read anything by Margaret Atwood. I am so happy to now have had the chance to spend some time with her poems.
The poems are reflective and often moving. One of my favorites was called Blackberries. It is about fruit, growing older and generational connections. Another elegiac poem called Blizzard is about the poet’s mother getting older and how hard it is to let go.
Ms. Atwood covers a wide range of topics in this collection. It is definitely worth either reading straight through in order or dipping into.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.
Meg Shaffer’s previous novel, The Wishing Game, was one of my favorite books last year. So, I was incredibly excited to receive an e galley of The Lost Story.
In this title, the author develops an imaginative story that pays homage to CS Lewis. Just as Lewis did, Shaffer creates an alternate and magical world populated by unique characters and situations. As in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, characters lives will be transformed.
Two boys, Rafe and Jeremy, disappeared only to miraculously return six months later. How did their relationship and lives fare after this? What happens to them and a young woman named Emily fifteen years later? No more plot reveals as readers will want to have their own experience while reading this.
Good and evil, many kinds of love, and adventure await in this highly recommended title. BookPage has given it a well deserved starred review.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
It is hard to believe that this is Kristen Perrin’s first novel. She writes with an assured hand and keeps readers turning the pages in her take on a traditional mystery.
The story-Frances Adams was a teen growing up in the sixties when she went to see a fortune teller. She was given a very detailed and particular warning of things to watch out for. Much of her subsequent life was spent trying to evade her own death by nefarious means. On this night, Frances was with her friends Emily and Rose. They have roles to play in the story.
Frances had a niece and grandniece who are living an eccentric London life as the story opens. When Annie is summoned to meet with Frances’s lawyer in the small town where Frances has an estate, off she goes. There she meets Walt, the attorney and his relative, Oliver. She also encounters the annoying Elva and her family.
Not a spoiler because this happens early in the story, Frances is found dead. Who will inherit her money? Who killed her? Find out in this very enjoyable novel.
It is easy to recommend this title. Hopefully, Ms. Perrin will keep writing twisty, fun mysteries.
Many thanks to Penguin Group-Dutton for this title. All opinions are my own.
Pub date: 26 March 2024
From the Publisher
A Jimmy Fallon’s Book Club Finalist for 2024
AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A GMA Buzz Pick!
One of Amazon’s Top 10 Best Books of April, One of Jimmy Fallon’s favorite books for Spring 2024, The Top LibraryReads pick for March 2024, A Publishers Marketplace 2024 BuzzBook
Named most anticipated by: Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, BookRiot, BookBub, The Nerd Daily, Shelf Reflection, Novel Suspects, Borrow Read Repeat, The Everygirl, The Scout Guide, The Real Book SpyA
“The pace is quick, the red herrings are plentiful, and Annie’s growth from timid wannabe writer to confident sleuth is beautifully rendered. Combining elements of Agatha Christie, Anthony Horowitz, and Midsomer Murders, this is a richly entertaining whodunit from a promising new talent.”—Publishers Weekly
“Perrin juggles characters and clues with aplomb, sketching in the past via teen Frances’ journals and immersing readers in the present through Annie’s determined, good-hearted point of view. Readers will root for her as she gains hard-won confidence in this entertaining exploration of family secrets.”—BookPage
The cover of this novel tells readers that it just might be a good summer read. The warmth of a day shines through. And, yes, this is a good book to read while at the beach or inside with the AC humming.
Warm locations are indeed settings in this dual time line story. Events in the past take place in Egypt at the time that the Suez Canal is being built. In the modern day, some storylines unfold on a wealthy New England beach enclave. Connecting the timelines and characters is a unique bracelet.
Much transpires in this story. In the 1950s Hannah has survived a tough war and married for safety. However, when she meets a hotel employee, what will happen to her (temporarily) secure life? What excruciating decision must Hannah make? How will this choice reverberate in the contemporary storyline?
In the present, a child has a severe reaction to a poisoned mushroom and needs a kidney transplant. Will his mom, Mallory, reach out to his now famous father to let him know that she was pregnant and needs a donor? How will her decision impact multiple lives?
What, other than a bracelet, connects the two stories that are told? Will there be happy endings for anyone? Read this atmospheric title to find out. It was enjoyable.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.
I am delighted to be on the blog tour for this book that will be enjoyed by many. It is the third in a series so readers may well want to read every one. This is a collection that seems perfect for this time of year when we are in the doldrums. Enjoy some welcome escape in this book and the prior ones. Readers will enjoy spending time with Aurora (a doctor and rebel as defined in the title) and the Duke.
Many thanks to the team at HTP for this opportunity.
A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke-Third in the series
By Adriana Herrera
On Sale: February 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781335476968
Canary Street Press Trade Paperback
Price: $18.99
About the book:
The third and final book in USA TODAY bestselling author Adriana Herrera’s smart, sensual Las Leonas series featuring an ambitious doctor breaking societal norms and the reluctant Duke willing to risk it all for her…
Aurora Montalban Wright has had a whirlwind summer in Paris but is finally settling down to the business she came to do: run an underground women’s clinic. This venture is risky, not only because she’s technically breaking the law, but because she is providing services to the daughters, wives and mistresses of powerful men who could get her into a lot of trouble.
When she finds herself in danger, Apollo Sinclair Robles, the new Duke of Annan, offers his assistance, even though she despises him (or wants to despise him – that doesn’t stop the several dalliances they have with one another). But he has many secrets of his own. He’s still grappling with his newfound place in the British aristocracy, especially as a Black man. Now he is part of a world he despises with more than a few enemies waiting for any opportunity to disgrace him.
He should be focusing on finding a bride that can help him further his causes and leverage himself withing the highest echelons of power, but instead he’s distracted with keeping Aurora Montalban safe. Aurora has been cut off from her family and has been living modestly for months. Once Apollo realizes the risks she’s been taking with her clinics, he makes it his business to protect her. The woman is relentless in her endeavor to help women in need, even when it means putting herself at risk. Their closeness leads to discovering new sides to Aurora, and the more he learns about her the more he’s convinced she’s the perfect woman for him. But her past is complicated and having her as his duchess would make his bid for power more difficult.
Meet the Author:
Evoto
USA TODAY bestselling author Adriana Herrera was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last fifteen years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people getting unapologetic happy endings. Her books have received starred reviews from PW and Booklist and have been featured on The TODAY Show and NPR, in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Adriana is an outspoken advocate for diversity in romance and was one of the co-creators of the Queer Romance PoC Collective.
Start reading now:
Prologue
July 1889
Paris, France
Aurora Montalban Wright was no rebel.
At least that was what most who knew her would say. It was not an unfair assessment of her character. After all, true rebels never bothered with consequences, not when a glorious mission lay in the balance. No one would label Aurora a carefree sort, and that was fine by her. Because what she’d learned early in life was that rebellions cost blood, sweat and tears, and she had none of those to spare. This, of course, did not mean she was above bending a rule—or five—if the situation called for it.
In fact, twice in her past, she’d broken every rule set before her in order to escape her circumstances. Once, humiliatingly, for a man—which came to a disastrous end. The other—equally catastrophic—for her freedom. Despite this, Aurora was not rebellious by nature. It was simply that she was galvanized by the word no. The more she was told she could not do something, the more creative she became at conquering it.
No, Aurora was no rebel, but tonight she felt like one. The worst possible news had come at the worst possible time and she desperately wanted a distraction. In fact, she wanted far more than that, she needed the kind of oblivion that only came from terrible decisions. Thankfully she was in a city where immoral diversions were easy enough to procure, if one knew which objectionable doors to darken.
Her destination, the clandestine apartment of Apollo César Sinclair Robles—a man who’d just claimed his place as the heir to a dukedom by destroying his own father—could be considered a particularly ill-advised one.
As her fiacre came to a stop on the Rue de Volney, she fleetingly considered if there weren’t less potentially disastrous ways to deal with her current mood. Then she felt the weight of the key she’d kept in her pocket for weeks and decided there definitely were, but she still wanted to do this.
The building looked exactly as she remembered from the night she’d spent here a month earlier. It was one of those modern, luxury apartment buildings near the Parc Monceau, kept by wealthy aristocrats and business titans to commit their more slanderous peccadillos in decadent discretion.
When she reached the door, she took a moment to examine herself in the sparkling glass window. The walking suit she’d donned that morning showed the strain of the day. Her face was framed with wisps of loose curls that had escaped the braid pinned to the nape of her neck. Her hat was a bit more askew than what was fashionable and there was a stain on her left cuff she could not quite identify and was reluctant to smell.
She ought to go home, clean herself up and come another day.
She wasn’t presentable and she was certainly not in a state of mind to interact with someone who had a natural gift for trying her patience. Coming to Apollo for what she needed tonight was the furthest from sensible she’d been in a long time.
The thought sent a flash of alarm through her body. She decidedly ignored the cardiovascular admonition.
Undeterred, she pushed the door open and strode right up to the porter with the key dangling from her hand and her heart making another valiant effort at warning her off.
“Oui, madame.” The porter greeted her with the detached politeness of someone too well trained to openly scowl at her clothes, but too French not to appear at least marginally aggrieved at their deplorable state.
“Lord Darnick.” The two words did the trick, and with a nod, he stepped aside and directed her toward the lift operator, who was already pushing buttons.
Clearly, women coming to see his lordship at all hours of the night was a regular occurrence. Not exactly a surprise. From the moment she’d met the man at a soiree months earlier, he’d been an unapologetic reprobate. She’d never encountered anyone who cared less about other people’s opinions than Apollo César Sinclair Robles.
The evidence of that lay in the way he’d arrived in Edinburgh like a dark avenging angel and exposed his father as a liar and a thief. Upending in a single night, one of the oldest dukedoms in Britain while establishing himself as its rightful heir, leaving the peerage reeling, and his own father a social pariah.
He was arrogant, rude, and blatantly ridiculed the societal norms she’d so carefully ascribed to. From that first meeting, she’d found herself equally appalled and intrigued by him.
A smile tugged at her lips at the thought of what the new Earl of Darnick would do when she turned up at his apartment and told him she was there for sex, and the more depraved, the better.
He would probably think she was out of her mind.
Out of her mind or not, she had it made up, and whatever lapse this was, she would deal with it in the morning. Four steps forward and two firm knocks were all it took for her, a respected physician, to announce herself at a man’s tryst apartment somewhere between one and two in the morning.
Her heartbeat marked hurried footsteps on the other side, while she took in slow, calming breaths. The moment the door finally opened, it was suddenly very clear that she had not properly prepared herself. The rapid escalation of her pulse told the story.
He looked like the very last stop on the train to ruination. All languid grace, and the ease of a man who was well aware of the damage he could do on a woman’s good sense with a mere wink and a smile.
Aurora, to her eternal shame was not immune to either.
“Bella Doctora, I didn’t know you made house calls.” He spoke in that lazy drawl he always used with her, but there was an alertness to his gaze that betrayed his indifference.
“Don’t call me that,” she rebuked, then remembered she was here to ask for something and tempered her manner with what she hoped was a comely smile. “I came to return your key.” She held it up as she endeavored, and failed, not to gape at the triangle of bronzed, muscled chest. She didn’t dare look below his sternum lest she encountered bare forearms and swooned before she could tell the man what she was about.
“My key,” he drawled, without reaching for it. “After more than a month, you’ve decided to deliver it at one in the morning, on a Tuesday.” He’d given it to her on the night he’d brought her here, after her friend Manuela’s wedding day devolved into a scandal that had all of Paris talking for weeks. She hadn’t seen him since.
“I was looking in on a patient close by,” she retorted, truthfully, dropping the key into the pocket of his dressing gown. The other truth she failed to disclose was that she’d kept the damned key in her pocket like some kind of talisman since he’d given it to her.
“Ah yes, Doctora Montalban and her causes.” His voice dripped with cynicism, as if it amused him that she considered her profession anything serious.
“Why is it that every time you call me that it feels like an insult?”
“That might have more to do with you than with me.”
It irked her that his barbs always hit their targets. She’d made an art of letting men’s opinions roll off her back, not a difficult task, since a significant number of men she encountered were imbeciles. But not this earl, not the man who’d ambushed the British aristocracy like Simón Bolívar did with the Spanish at Boyacá.
She wished that diabolical grin of his didn’t start a sizzle under her skin. “Are you going to invite me in?”
He cocked a thick, dark eyebrow at whatever he heard in her tone, but instead of inviting her inside, he braced a large hand on the top corner of the doorjamb, until his very distracting mouth was close enough to kiss. She swallowed audibly when she caught a glimpse of the corded muscle of his forearm, thick veins and dusting of dark hair. Her salivary glands seemed to run out of fluid just then.
“First you have to tell me what you’re really here for, Doctora.” He was showing off his size for her and it was fruitless to pretend it had no effect on her. Everything about the man eroded every preservation instinct she had.
For over ten years, she’d avoided any scenario that could place her in a vulnerable position. She’d practically forgotten that under her walking suits lived a woman with very real urges and burning desires. Until this man had crossed her path. Since then, he’d been like a toothache. Making himself known, throbbing, gnawing at her, until she’d had to do something about it.
His closeness sent her blood from a canter to a gallop, and her breaths became shorter, more erratic. The undeniable biological evidence of arousal and desire. She might as well get on with it. She locked her own gaze with the new Earl of Darnick’s, took a breath and leaned in.
“I came here for sexual intercourse, Lord Darnick.” It was gratifying to see his predatory gaze replaced by genuine shock. But as expected with a hunter, he recovered quickly.
“Well, in that case, do come in, Doctora Montalban,” he told her with a wave of his hand before stepping aside.
She decided to ignore the sarcasm in his voice and walked into the apartment.
The moment she stepped inside, she was once again surprised by how different this place was to what she envisioned for Apollo’s lair. Instead of a showroom full of ostentatious furniture and excessive gilt, what she found was a comfortable, unpretentious room. He had an impressive collection of books. One of which was sitting open on the armrest of a chair by the fire, next to a tumbler of amber liquid. He also collected art, which to her astonishment were tasteful and interesting.
He was rich, handsome, well-read and had an uncanny eye for art. Not that any of it mattered, to her. She was not here for a marriage proposal, she off from the door and taking a few steps toward her place by the bookshelf. “Let’s reserve the endearments for later and see what we can do about all these clothes you’re wearing.”
“What?” She sounded like a dolt. This was what she’d told him she wanted. What did she expect after propositioning a scoundrel? Sweet nothings in her ear, passionate declarations?
“Your clothes, sweetheart.” He wiggled two fingers somewhere in the vicinity of her chest. “The infernally unending layers of fabric you insist on wearing. They give a man a devil of a time surmising what you’ve got under all that wool and linen.” He made a face, and her mouth twitched. Of all the things to fluster the wicked Earl of Darnick.
She took another look at him, those winged cheekbones, skin like the most perfect caramel, and the umber curls, which made her think of days in bed and rumpled, sweat-soaked sheets. It was a face a woman could ruin her life over. It was a good thing she’d already done that once and had no intention of ever doing it again.
“This is just for tonight.” It needed to be said, but he remained unbothered.
“That you don’t need to worry about, sweetheart.” He lifted a shoulder, his gaze still suspended somewhere below her neck. “I’ve never had much craving for seconds.”
She shrugged and looked away, what more was there to say to that?
“I’d appreciate it if this stayed between us.”
“Keeping secrets from your pride, are you?” he asked in a mocking tone. He was referring to her two dearest friends. The friends with which she arrived here in Paris four months earlier: Luz Alana and Manuela. The only two people in the world who knew every one of her secrets, except for this one now, she thought grimly.
“My dear sister-in-law will be scandalized to know you’ve come to me in your hour of need.” Of all the unlikely twists of fate the last few months in Paris had yielded, Luz Alana finding a love match with a Scottish whisky distiller, who turned out to be an earl and Apollo’s half-brother, had been one of the most surprising.
“It is not like you’re the Marquis de Sade, you’re just convenient.” He laughed again and this time it reached his eyes. “Besides, Luz Alana and Manuela have their own lives.”
“True love is miraculous.” For her friends, it seemed to be. She’d seen enough people entrapped into those cageless prisons of duty and guilt to have any use for the sentiment.
But even she had to admit, Luz Alana and Manuela seemed to have found partners worthy of their devotion. She was glad for them, but that was not what she searched for.
Her friends believed in love worth any sacrifice. That soulmates and fairy tales were possible. Aurora did not. Not for herself, at least. She was too…marked. Too jaded to ever believe in the lies of the heart.
Love, for her, had only ever served to remind her of the ways she never quite measured up, how hard it was for her to inspire that sentiment in another, and she would never again risk her freedom for that chimera. She had a feeling Apollo César Sinclair Robles, in this at least, was a kindred spirit.
“Why are you really here, Doctora?” Apollo asked, taking another step in her direction. He was merely a couple of feet away now. From this distance she could see that his lips had a pink tint to them. She allowed herself the distraction of that perfect mouth for a moment as she considered his question.
She could confess that this very evening she’d received a letter from her brothers informing her they’d suspended her ability to withdraw funds from her trust. She could tell him she’d been using those funds to operate a clandestine clinic that helped women in a certain kind of trouble. She could even say that the friend who delivered the correspondence had seen the man who’d ruined Aurora at the of age fifteen aboard a steamer headed to France. She might even admit that the possibility of running into the villain of her past made her so sick with dread and shame she’d run here, to Apollo. To ruin herself again, by choice, this time. But none of those pitiful confessions would be conducive to what she’d come here for, not comfort or solace, but escape.
“Let’s just say I’m in a fairly destructive mood,” she declared, looking at him square in the eyes. “I would very much like to do something utterly ruinous and you were the first thing that came to mind.”
Fiona Davis sets her novels in iconic New York City locations. She has told stories set at the Barbizon Hotel for Women, The Dakota, Grand Central Station and now at the Chelsea Hotel. In each of her three prior novels, the narrative took place during two eras; in this book, the author follows two characters in the same time period. They are actress Maxine and would be actress and playwright, Hazel.
The novel opens with Hazel joining a USO troop in Italy during WWII. These scenes were so evocative, both in terms of the war and the emotions raised for the performers. This beginning left me feeling very excited about the rest of the book except…for a while, I then found the narrative less engaging. However, round about chapter 18 there was a twist and I again became very involved in the story and the characters’ lives. It is worth sticking with the book in my opinion.
Much of this book centers on the activities of HUAC, the House Un-Amercian Activities Committee. Who is a Communist? Who is being targeted unfairly? Should we be rooting people out and encouraging them to turn on others? What are the consequences to everyone when a government sponsored witch hunt is going on? You will think about these issues as you read and may also find the subject relevant in our current political climate.
In addition to HUAC, the reader spends time at the Chelsea Hotel, the Tonys, on Broadway and more. There are actors, government workers, names dropped of famous and real Chelsea Hotel denizens and more. Most of all, readers will connect with Hazel and Maxine, their friendship and its challenges.
All in all, this was a good read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my e-galley. All opinions are my own.
Cara Hunter is an author who has fans. Her Adam Fawley series has not had a new entry for a few years, so many will probably purchase this one on its release date.
As soon as I started reading this title, I was glad that it was on a day where I had a good amount of free time. I just wanted to keep reading. It wasn’t that I thought that I would solve things but I was certainly enjoying watching the story unfold.
The plot has to do with both a past event involving a young child and more recent events. Readers will surely wonder about connections.
Hunter has created a good cast of series regulars. I also like how she includes various media throughout the book as, for example, newspaper cuttings.
This book can be read as a standalone. Hunter helpfully includes mini bios as the start of the book to bring new readers up to speed. I imagine that many who read this will be heading for the backlist though.
Many thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for this title. All opinions are my own.
Historical fiction appeals to me as it offers an engaging way to become immersed in another world and time. Frequently, through this genre, I “meet” people whom I would not otherwise have known. That is certainly the case in the novel about Jessie Redmon Fauset. While I once saw some artwork from The Crisis and know of WEB DuBois, I was unfamiliar with Fauset. That is no longer the case as she and the Harlem Renaissance come to life in these pages.
Jessie comes to New York to take on a prestigious position at an important publication. She goes on to “discover” many writers that we read today as, for example, Langston Hughes and Nella Larson. What Jessie perhaps did not expect to discover was that she was attracted to the married DuBois.
How does Jessie’s life play out? Find out in this intriguing work of historical fiction by an author who knows how to write in this genre. She has published other novels with Marie Benedict including one about Belle Greene, another important Black woman who was JP Morgan’s personal librarian.
It is easy to recommend this title to those who enjoy historical fiction set in the not so distant past.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.
Pub date: 04 February 2025
The book’s subject:
This painting may be found in the National Portrait Gallery
I have been following the exploits and relationship of Sidney and Verity since Huber began the series with This Side of Murder. She has mastered the art of storytelling with interesting characters, plots, relationships and an historical period. In my opinion, The Cold Light of the Day is the best entry yet (though readers may want to read the series from the beginning, especially the first book which sets the scene for the main characters).
In The Cold Light of Day, Sidney and Verity are in Dublin at an important historical juncture. It is the time of such notable figures as Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins, among others. Our protagonists are thrown right into the intrigue as they attempt to spy on both sides in the conflict. It is a real strength of the author’s that the history is clearly explained and easy to follow.
A spy/colleague/important person to Verity has been sent to Dublin to infiltrate those seeking Irish independence. He has not been heard from in some time. Will Verity and Sidney be able to locate him? Is he even still alive?
Finding out about Alec is just one of the many situations in which Verity is involved. Readers will turn the pages wanting to know how each storyline plays out. Then, like me, they may be sad to know that it will be at least a year before meeting up with Verity and Sidney again.
I thoroughly enjoyed this title and recommend it highly.
Many thanks to Net Galley and Kensington Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.
I may be one of very few people never to have read anything by Margaret Atwood. I am so happy to now have had the chance to spend some time with her poems.
![The Chelsea Girls: A Novel by [Fiona Davis]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51-yfEcmQ1L._SY346_.jpg)
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 