Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too!

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/11/books/hidden-gems-books-favorites.html

Jane Austen’s Unsung Characters

by Adriana Trigiani; Sarah MacLean; Eloisa James; Elinor Lipman; Audrey Bellezza; Karen Dukess; Emily Harding; Nikki Payne; Diana Quincy

There has been a great outpouring of love for Jane Austen in this anniversary year of her birth. This collection adds yet another welcome homage to a great writer.

Here eight authors tell stories about characters in the novels. The protagonists in these stories are not always the most well-known, but it is lovely to get to know them better in these pages.

I liked how each story was introduced with a quote from one of the novels. I also enjoyed each author’s note on their tale.

This book, at nearly 400 pages, offers lots of good reading to Austen fans. I most definitely recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this title.

Pub date: 04 November 2025

This post was first written on 14 December 2025

Description:

from the publisher

Celebrate Jane Austen’s classic novels with this short story anthology starring forgotten characters as they experience their own happy endings.

In honor of her 250th birthday, eight authors have come together with wildly imaginative reboots of the lives of several of Jane Austen’s minor characters. Written with plenty of love and wit, these clever stories star everyone from Pride and Prejudice’s snobbish Caroline Bingley to the modern descendant of Sense and Sensibility’s Eliza Williams and much more. Blurring genres and taking us across the oceans, Ladies in Waiting is a heartfelt celebration of Jane Austen and her timeless masterpieces.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Nearly any romance reader with even a passing familiarity with Austen should find at least one or two stories that they adore—and there isn’t a weak one in the bunch… Janeites and casual fans alike will smile and sigh happily at these clever stories that capture the spirit of Austen for a new era.” — Library Journal

“Each writer has created vivid settings and thoughtful inner lives to infuse these secondary characters with the main-character energy they deserve… This smart and lively anthology is a fresh and vibrant homage to Austen.” — Booklist

“The collection will have tremendous appeal to Austen’s legion of devoted readers… A joyful celebration of one of the most important writers in English literature.” — Kirkus

“In honor of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday, an all-star lineup of nine romance authors charmingly reimagine the stories of some of the author’s best loved supporting characters… Expertly crafted, with the authors’ deep understanding of the original texts on clear display even as they take Austen’s work in new directions. Austenites will be thrilled.” — Publishers Weekly

About the Authors:

from Amazon

Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, including the instant New York Times bestseller The Good Left Undone. Her work has been published in thirty-eight languages around the world. An award-winning playwright, television writer/producer and filmmaker, Adriana’s screen credits include writer/director of the major motion picture of her debut novel, Big Stone Gap, the adaptation of her novel Very Valentine and director of Then Came You. Adriana grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where she cofounded The Origin Project, an in-school writing program serving over 1,700 students in Appalachia. She is at work on her next novel.

Sarah MacLean, a life-long romance reader, wrote her first romance novel on a dare, and never looked back. She is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of romances translated into more than twenty languages, a romance columnist, and the cohost of the weekly romance novel podcast Fated Mates. A graduate of Smith College and Harvard University, she lives in New York City.

Eloisa James is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of historical romance novels. Her books have been translated into twenty-six languages with sales worldwide of seven million. As Mary Bly, she is a Shakespeare professor at Fordham University. She lives in New York City and Florence, Italy. Find out more at EloisaJames.com.

Elinor Lipman is the award-winning author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Inn at Lake Devine, Isabel’s Bed, and more. Her first novel, Then She Found Me, was adapted into a film directed by and starring Helen Hunt, with Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick. She divides her time between Manhattan and the Hudson Valley.

Audrey Bellezza is a two-time Emmy Award–nominated TV producer who has spent over twenty years writing, developing, and executive producing nonfiction television shows for a number of networks and streaming platforms. Audrey lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.

Karen Dukess is the author of The Last Book Party and Welcome to Murder Week. Karen has been a newspaper reporter in Florida, a magazine publisher in Russia, and a speechwriter on gender equality for the United Nations. She has a degree in Russian studies from Brown University and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. She lives outside of New York City and in Truro on Cape Cod, where she interviews some of today’s most acclaimed writers as host of the Castle Hill Author Talks for the Truro Center for the Arts. Find out more at KarenDukess.com.

Emily Harding is one-half of the writing duo behind the For the Love of Austen series, including Emma of 83rd Street and Elizabeth of East Hampton. She is a graduate of Emerson College with degrees in both creative writing and film. After working over fifteen years in television development and production, she found her way back to writing. Emily lives in Dallas with her husband, two children, and an incredibly spoiled Texas heeler.

Nikki Payne is the author of Pride and Protest and Sex, Lies, and Sensibility. By day, Nikki Payne is a curious tech anthropologist asking the right questions to deliver better digital services. By night, she dreams of ways to subvert canon literature. She’s a member of Smut U, a premium feminist writing collective, and is a cat lady with no cats.

Diana Quincy is the bestselling author of the Accidental Peers series. As a US Foreign Service brat, Diana grew up all over the world but is now happily settled in Virginia with her husband and two sons. When not bent over her laptop, Diana spends time with her family, reads, practices yoga and plots her next travel adventure.

From the Publisher:

A Novel

by Diana R. Chambers

#TheSecretWarofJuliaChild #NetGalley

Julia Child has been having a fictional moment. She has been a detective in Paris in the new series by Colleen Cambridge and has been in a TV series as well. In The Secret War of Julia Child, Diana R. Chambers nimbly lets readers into Julia’s world.

In these pages, readers get a sense of how Julia felt about herself (too tall, for one), her parents, her hopes to do something with her life, her wishes for a relationship and more. Readers also find out about Julia’s experiences in WW II. She worked for “Wild” Bill Donovan and was stationed in India and Ceylon, among other places. Some of her work was clandestine. Some of it led to her meeting Paul Child-of course, Julia McWilliams became Julia Child in time.

This story is about much that happened before Child became known for her cooking. It offers an immersive look at her life and WWII. I recommend it highly to fans of Child and historical fiction.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks-Landmark for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 22 October 2024

Delightful: Mastering the Art of French Murder

Now out: A Murder Most French (Colleen Cambridge)

#DeathattheSignoftheRook #NetGalley

My first impression is that Kate Atkinson must have enjoyed herself when writing this book. In this novel, she has created unique, over the top and idiosyncratic characters who often, in my opinion, require some suspension of disbelief on the reader’s part. The plot here includes a number of tropes, including the murder mystery weekend, the small English village, the snowstorm that isolates characters, stolen art, family relationships and more.

Readers who have read other Jackson Brodie mysteries will be delighted to meet up with him, his family and his police contacts once again. This time, he has been hired to look into stolen art but stumbles on much more.

There were times when I felt that Atkinson was going for the comic, even farcical, effect. That said, some of her portraits of the characters, were quite moving. While many jokes were made, often by Ben, about his war experiences, he is very sympathetically presented. Ben reminded me of Strike in the JK Rowling series. Their situations are similar in dealing with the loss of a limb. He is just one among a group that includes a vicar, actors, down on their heels aristocrats and others.

This book just gallops along. Events and situations pile up on one another. Atkins fans will rejoice!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for this title. All opinions are my own.

pub date: 03 September 2024

#MidnightattheChristmasBookshop #NetGalley

Jenny Colgan is a mistress of her craft. She writes the kinds of books that readers hope for, especially when they are feeling stressed. This new book offers so much to enjoy. There is a wonderful Scottish setting, good characters and a bookshop! Of course, there is also romance and the holiday season. What more could possibly be needed?

Make this book a gift to yourself as the nights get longer. It will offer you the perfect escape.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Avon-Harper Voyager for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 10 October 2023

#Winter #NetGalley

I have long been a fan of Val McDermid’s crime fiction. I truly think that she is one of the very best writers of Tartan Noir. This book, though, is something different. It is personal.

In these pages (complete with woodcut illustrations), McDermid muses on winter. The prose is quite evocative. Reading these pages, McDermid may just change a person’s mind about a season that some find cold and bleak.

I read this book in small increments. I wanted to savor it. It is short and I wanted it to last.

Whether or not a person has read this author’s other books, they are in for a treat with this one. So, come to Scotland this winter. The (meditative) journey will be worth it.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic-Atlantic Books and NetGalley for this title. All thoughts are my own.

Pub date: 13 January 2026

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Description:

From the U.S. publisher

In this radiant work of creative nonfiction, internationally beloved novelist Val McDermid delivers a dazzling ode to a lost world, ruminating on a single winter in her life as she journeys into the heart of the season’s ever-evolving community-based traditions

Val McDermid has always had a soft spot for winter: the bitter clarity of a crisp cold day, the crunch of frost on fallen leaves, and the chance to be enveloped in big jumpers and thick socks.

In Winter, McDermid takes us on an adventure through the season, from the frosty streets of Edinburgh to the windblown Scottish coast, from Bonfire Night and Christmas to Burns Night and Up Helly Aa. Recalling in parallel memories from her own childhood—of skating over frozen lakes and carving a “neep” (rutabaga) for Halloween to being taken to see her first real Christmas tree in the town square—McDermid offers a wise and enchanting meditation on winter and its ever-changing, sometimes ephemeral, traditions.

A hygge-filled journey through winter nights, McDermid reminds us that it is a time of rest, retreat and creativity, for scribbling in notebooks and settling in beside the fire. A treat for the hunkering-down, post-holiday reading season, Winter is a charming and cozy celebration of the year’s idle months from one of Scotland’s best-loved writers.

From the Publisher

From the British edition

An e book bargain

#LucybytheSea #NetGalley

This is a beautiful novel about the hardest of times. Readers follow Lucy as she slowly comes to understand the magnitude and tragedy of the Covid epidemic.

This quote brings things into focus and puts the reader firmly in Lucy’s world:

Here is what I did not know that morning in March. I did not know that I would never see my apartment again. I did not know that one of my friends and a family member would die of this virus. I did not know that my relationship with my daughters would change in way I could never had anticipated. I did not know that my entire life would become something new.

Strout’s writing is so effective. Like Hemingway, she knows the value of some unembellished prose. This matter of fact style makes the awfulness of Covid even more acute.

Strout has written many novels. I have not read them all. However, I did recognize characters in this story from those that I had read. This, to me, adds to the sense of a universe populated by folks that I feel I know.

I recommend this book about Lucy, William and those around her as they spend time in Maine. It is impactful with tragedy, relationships and the need for resilience.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.

Pub date: 20 September 2022

From the Publisher

I am very excited to be a part of this blog tour. I have enjoyed everything that I have read by this author. Fans of historical fiction will too. This book is definitely worth a look!

Many thanks to everyone at HTP for this opportunity.

About the Book:

A heartwarming story about a mother and daughter in wartime England and the power of books that bring them together, by the bestselling author of The Last Bookshop in London.

In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.

When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing and the work at the lending library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.

As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times.

Start reading:

PROLOGUE

Nottingham, England April 1931

JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER. Emma lingered in the storage area on the second floor of her father’s bookshop, Tower Bookshop, with Jane Austen’s Emma cradled in her lap. Sadly, not her namesake—her parents had named her Emmaline for an aunt she’d never met, who had died on Emma’s seventh birthday ten years ago.

Still, the book was one of Emma’s favorites.

“Emma.” Papa’s voice rose from somewhere in the bookshop, sharp with irritation.

She frowned. Papa was seldom ever cross with her.

Perhaps the smoke from the man who had come in with his cigar earlier still lingered in the shop.

She settled a scrap of paper into the spine of her book.

“Emmaline!” Something to that second cry snapped her to attention, a raw, frantic pitch.

Papa was never panicked.

She leaped up from the seat with such haste, the book dropped to the ground with a whump.

“I’m in the warehouse,” she called out, racing to the door.

The handle was scalding hot. She yelped and drew back. That’s when she saw the smoke, wisps seeping beneath the door, glowing in the stream of sunlight. 

Fire.

She put her skirt over her hand and twisted the knob to open the door. Thick plumes of smoke billowed in, black and choking.

She sucked in a breath of surprise, unintentionally inhaling a lungful of burning air. A cough racked her and she stumbled back, her mind reeling as her feet pulled her from the threat.

But to where? This was the only exit from the storeroom, save the second-floor window.

“Papa,” she shouted, terror creeping into her voice.

All at once, he was there, wrapping a blanket around them, the one she kept in the shop for cold mornings before the furnace managed to heat the old building.

“Stay at my side.” Papa’s voice was gravelly beneath the blanket where he’d covered the lower part of his face. Even as he led her away, a great cough shuddered through his lean frame.

Beyond the wall of smoke was a vision straight out of Milton’s Paradise Lost as fire licked and climbed its way up the towering stacks of books, devouring a lifetime of careful curation. Emma screamed, the sound muted by the blanket.

But Papa’s hand was firm at her back, pressing her forward. “We have to run.” Not slowing, he guided her to the winding metal staircase. She used to love clattering down it as a girl, hearing the metal ringing around her.

“It’s hot,” Papa cautioned. “Don’t touch it.”

Emma hugged against his side as they squeezed down the narrow steps that barely fit the two of them together. It swayed beneath their weight, no longer sturdy as it had once been. The blazing heat felt as though it was blistering Emma’s skin. Too hot. Too close. Too much.

And they were plunging deeper into the fiery depths.

The soles of Emma’s shoes stuck to the last two steps as rubber melted against metal.

What had once been rows of bookshelves was now a maze of flames. Even Papa hesitated before the seemingly impassable blaze.

But there was nowhere else to go.

The fire was alive. Cracking and popping and hissing and roaring, roaring, roaring so loud, it seemed like an actual beast.

“Go,” he shouted, and his grip tightened around her, pulling her forward.

Together they ran, between columns of fire that had once been shelves of books. An ear-shattering crack came from above, spurring them to the front as fire and sparks poured down behind them.

Emma ran faster than she ever had before, faster than she knew herself capable. Papa’s arm at her side yanked her this way or that, navigating through the fiery chaos. Until there was nowhere to go.

Papa roared louder than the fire beast and released her, running toward the blazing door. It flew open at the impact, revealing clean sunny daylight outside. He turned toward her even as she rushed after him and grabbed her around the shoulders, hauling her into the street.

Emma gulped in the clean air, reveling in the cool dampness washing into her tortured lungs. A crowd had gathered, staring up at the Tower Bookshop. Some came to Emma and Papa, asking in a frenzy of voices if they were hurt.

In the distance came the scream of emergency sirens. Sirens Emma had heard her entire life, but had never once needed herself.

There was need now. She held on to Papa’s hand and looked behind her at the building that had been in her family for two generations and was meant to become hers someday. Her gaze skimmed over the bookshop to the top two floors where their home had once been.

The fire beast gave a great heaving howl and the top floor crumpled.

Someone grabbed her from behind, dragging her back as the rest of the structure came down, ripping her hand from her father’s. She didn’t reach for him again, unable to move, unable to think, her eyes fixed on the building as it crashed in on itself in a fiery heap. Their livelihood. Their home.

All the pictures of her mother who had died after Emma was born, all the books she and her father had lovingly selected from bookshops around England on the trips they’d taken together, everything they’d ever owned.

Gone.

Emma choked on a sob at the realization.

Everything was gone.

“We need a doctor.” A man’s voice broke through her horror, pulling her attention to her father.

He lay on the ground, motionless. Soot streaked his handsome slender face, and his thick gray hair that had once been the same shade of chestnut as hers was now singed in blackened tufts.

“Papa?” She sagged to the ground beside him.

His eyes lifted to her, watery blue and filled with a love that made her heart swell. The breath wheezed from his chest like a kettle’s cry. “You’re safe.”

Once the words left his mouth, his body relaxed, going slack.

“Papa?” Emma cried.

This time his eyes did not meet hers. They looked through her. Sightless and empty.

She shuddered at how unnatural he appeared. Like her father, and yet not like her father.

“Papa?”

The wailing sirens were still too far-off.

“I’m a doctor.” A man knelt on the other side of her father. His fingers went to Papa’s blackened neck and the man’s sad brown eyes turned up to her.

“I’m sorry, love. He’s gone.”

Emma stared at the man, refusing to believe her ears even as she saw the truth.

It had always just been Emma and her father, the two of them against the world, as Papa used to say. They read the same books to discuss together, they worked every day at the bookshop together, friends and colleagues as much as they were father and daughter. Once Emma had completed her schooling, she’d even traveled with him, curating books like the first editions they were still waiting on to arrive from Newcastle.

Now that beautiful light that shone in his eyes had dulled. Lifeless.

It was no longer Papa and her against the world.

He was gone.

Their shop was gone.

Their home was gone.

Everything she knew and loved was gone.

Excerpted from THE BOOKLOVER’S LIBRARY by Madeline Martin, Copyright © 2024 by Madeline Martin. Published by arrangement with HTP Books, a Division of HarperCollins.

About the Author:

Madeline Martin is a New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author of historical fiction and historical romance with books that have been translated into over twenty-five different languages.

Buy Links:

HarperCollins: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-booklovers-library-madeline-martin?variant=41311560695842 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1335000399  

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-booklovers-library-madeline-martin/1143849745  

BookShop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-booklover-s-library-original-madeline-martin/20392302 

Social Links:

Author Website: https://madelinemartin.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadelineMartinAuthor 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MadelineMMartin 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madelinemmartin/ 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12062937.Madeline_Martin 

The Booklover’s Library

By Madeline Martin

On Sale: September 10, 2024

ISBN: 9781335000392

Hanover Square Press Paperback Original 

Price: $18.99

I’ll just put it out there: I loved this book. It is a novel for anyone who has ever felt the power of books and the delight in reading a special series (there is a fictional one in this novel) and for those who know how important relationships can be. It is part whimsy, part fairy tale, part game and all a page turner with heart. There are characters that I loved and wanted good lives for, most especially Lucy and Christopher who both suffered difficult childhoods. Lucy is in her twenties as the story opens while Christopher is seven. Lucy deeply wants to be Christopher’s parent as he very much needs one.

Those who enjoy stories about reclusive authors, puzzles and the power of dreams and wishes will find this to be a most satisfying read. Travel to Clock Island, try to solve a riddle and watch what happens.

Four adults who were childhood fans of author Jack will come to Clock Island. Lucy will also get to know Hugo, an illustrator and wing man for Jack. What will happen when they meet?

Read this fairy tale for adults. I wonder how many people you will then urge to read it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.

#TheWishingGame #NetGalley

Pub date: 30 May 2023

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Meg Shaffer’s beautiful novel is part Willy Wonka, part magical realism, and wholly moving. It broke my heart and patched it over and reminded me that even as an adult, if you look hard enough, you can find the child still inside you.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey

“Our list of must-read fiction books wouldn’t be complete withouta novel that reminds readers of the power books hold between their pages. Meg Shaffer’s The Wishing Game may not contain any magic—this is a whimsical tale, but it’s grounded in reality—yet there’s something magical about the book.”—Reader’s Digest, in “Best Fiction Books of 2023”

Here is a simple but very appealing book for young children. The illustrations have vibrant colors and textures.

Discover what cats, dogs and children like with the simple captions that accompany the art work. Then, find out what the three groups have in common.

I highly recommend this book for its intended audience.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing-Beach Lane Books. All thoughts are my own.

Pub date: 06 January 2026

Description:

from the publisher

Celebrate the small, often overlooked things that cats, dogs, and children love in this sweet and gentle picture book from Newbery Medal winner and author of the Henry and Mudge series, Cynthia Rylant.

Cats love boxes and windows and toys…and other things. Dogs love sticks and biscuits and puddles…and other things. Children love bubbles and cake and stories…and other things. But what do they all love? Love.

Editorial Reviews:

Review

An affectionately observant picture book that captures loving’s universality . . . Smudgy, thickly colored artwork has an approachable, naïve quality that suits the text’s minimalism as it builds to the repeated observation that creatures also share love for experiencing love. — Publishers Weekly — 10/6/25

Love is love is love in this collection of what is most loved . . . Rylant’s images are the epitome of sweetness . . . opportunities abound for little ones to make their own lists . . . Tenderly expressed sentiments, ideal for Valentine’s Day. — Kirkus — November 1, 2025

About the Author:

from Amazon

Cynthia Rylant is the author of more than 100 books for young people, including the beloved Henry and Mudge, Annie and Snowball, Brownie & Pearl, Motor Mouse, Hornbeam, and Mr. Putter & Tabby series. Her novel Missing May received the Newbery Medal. She lives in Portland, Oregon.