My May 2024 Reading

There is no doubt my two favorite books of the month were Going Zero, a thriller involving a chase I am still thinking about, and The Diamond Eye, about a Russian sniper during WWII. I suspect they will be on my "Best of 2024" list and I recommend both of them highly.  Overall, there were some very strong and some disappointing books with two good rereads, Lucy Parker's Act Like It and The Emerald City of Oz for Ozathon24.

Spell the Month in Books - May

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on the second Saturday of each month or maybe a bit later!

Here is my May installment:

My September 2023 Reads

I covered a lot of genres in September and my favorite books this month were Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear, memoirs by Drew Faust and Mabel Esther Allan, and a contemporary romance with a mature heroine and a theater background called Flirting with Fire by Jane Porter. Have you read any of these? What’s on your October horizon?

Codename Charming by Lucy Parker

Title: Codename Charming
Author: Lucy Parker
Publication: Avon Books, paperback, 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Present-day London

Description: Battle Royal was the first book in Parker’s much anticipated Palace Insiders series in which Sylvie Fairchild and Dominic De Vere are rival pastry chefs competing to make the wedding cake for Britain’s Princess Rose. 

WWW Wednesday – August 16

WWW Wednesday is hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading: Last night, I started The Arsenic Labyrinth, third in the Lake District mystery series by Martin Edwards (2007).

Pas de Don't by Chloe Angyal

Title: Pas de Don’t
Author: Chloe Angyal
Publication: Chicago Review Press, paperback, 2023
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Setting: Present-day New York City and Australia

Description: Heather Hays has worked for years to become the principal dancer at the New York Ballet and when her boyfriend, Jack Andersen, already established as the biggest star in American ballet, proposes, she thinks she has everything she’s always dreamed about, even if Jack is sometimes condescending about her talent.

Spell the Month in Books – September

Spell the Month in Books is hosted by Reviews From the Stacks and occurs on the second Saturday of each month or maybe a bit later! 

Here is my installment for September:

September 2021 Reads

I got a lot of reading done in September considering I was away for more than two weeks. This may be why my suitcase hasn’t made it back up the attic and the lawn needs to be mowed!

Fiction

Royal Summons by Elizabeth Cadell – American Ellen Berg travels to her mother’s childhood home in England where she has to come to terms with the imperious aunt who drove her mother away.

Favorite Reads of 2020

Like most of you, I read a lot of books in 2020, including many books I owned but had never read. I was relieved, however, when the libraries opened their doors for curbside pickup – by the time they did, I had 50 books on hold! I don’t read to achieve specific numbers, but I like to keep an eye on what I’m reading, so here are my top ten and the runners-up for this extremely long and stressful year: 

Suspense 

The Deepest Grave by Harry Bingham (2017). This is the sixth book about Fiona Griffiths, a police detective in Wales who is complaining when the book begins about how long it’s been since she had a murder to solve. She is thus thrilled to learn an archaeologist has been found murdered and decapitated, plunging Fiona into a complicated quest to find the criminal. Fiona’s erstwhile-criminal father, a fascinating character, plays a bigger role in this book than usual. I love this series and wish it had a bigger audience. Start with Book 1, Talking to the Dead. I keep lending my copy to people, which is dangerous. 

Books I'm looking forward to in 2020

Historical Fiction

The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel                                March 2020

This is the final novel in Mantel’s trilogy of historical novels about the life of Thomas Cromwell, and will cover the final four years of Cromwell’s life, starting with Anne Boleyn’s execution in 1536, and (spoiler!) moving to his own execution for treason and heresy in 1540.  And she'll be in Boston on March 20th!  Unfortunately, I know from a family member that she is quite unpleasant.

The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon Kay Penman                 March 2020

From the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Sharon Kay Penman comes the story of the reign of King Baldwin IV and the Kingdom of Jerusalem’s defense against Saladin’s famous army.  I have been a huge Penman fan since the summer I spent in DC, poor and only allowed to check out two books at a time by the library.  I bought The Sun in Splendor for $1 on the street and, entranced, made it last an entire week.  

Favorite Reads of 2019

Happy New Year and wishing you many delightful reads in 2020! I am enjoying seeing other people's "Best of" year-end lists, even when I haven't read any of their books.  There is always room on my TBR pile for books that sound appealing.

Historical Fiction

Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce (2018)
This wound up being my favorite book of the year!  A warm and emotional story of a young woman who yearns to be a war correspondent during WWII but finds a job instead working on advice magazine during the day (what the Brits call an Agony Aunt) while doing her bit for the war at night as bombs fall.  You know how much I like books with WWII settings but some have become almost a cliche of tired plots.   This was fresh and appealing, humorous at times, heartbreaking at others, and altogether delightful. Those who remember Dear Lovey Hart will love it.

Pretty Face by Lucy Parker

Title: Pretty Face (London Celebrities series) 
Author: Lucy Parker

Publication: Carina Press, 2017, paperback

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Plot: Lily Lamprey is a pretty blonde starring in a very popular English television show when director Luc Savage starts casting his new 16^th century historical drama.  He makes fun of her as a “breathy Marilyn Monroe impersonator” but is persuaded to audition her for the part of Elizabeth I in a period drama.  They clash immediately but she gets the job.  Once hired, Lily needs to work hard to acquire the skills Luc requires and show the cast and critics that she was hired because she is more than a pretty face, not due to connections or because she’s having an affair with her sexy director.  Even if the temptation is irresistible!

You could get away with dating a co-star - if they were single and born in the same decade.  That was good promo for the show.  The bosses loved it.  Until the inevitable breakup, when fans went into meltdown on social media and the backlash hit.  Lily had seen it happen enough at CTV that she'd never wanted to go anywhere near another actor romantically. 

Nobody was high-fived for having a fling with management . . . it was all her lifelong deal-breakers in one man.

Audience: Fans of character-driven contemporary romance

My Impressions: This is the second book in an entertaining and fast-paced new series set in the celebrity world and on the London stage, always a fascinating venue.    Lily is not interested in a relationship while she tries to establish a serious career; she has a complicated family history: her father is a business magnate who had an out of wedlock relationship with her mother, and his mortified wife has always despised her.   Luc is just coming out of a long relationship with an actress who precipitously married someone else and just wants to focus on his new production.

Naturally, they can’t think about anyone but each other and the tension practically sizzles on the page – I love how the author manages to make their story sexy and funny at the same time.   Lily’s internal monologues are especially amusing because they ring true.  The minor characters are also well depicted.  I like Lily's roommate Trix and Luc's ex Margo is more complicated than predictable other woman cliches.   If there is a flaw, it is that humans probably can't sustain this degree of intensity nonstop (and I think Parker could have reduced the cursing).  And it is hard to believe that two mature adults - who acknowledge a romantic relationship would be unprofessional and potentially disastrous to at least one of their careers and who are committed to those careers -can’t withstand temptation for a few weeks, but the result is good storytelling.

New Zealand author Lucy Parker

Source: Library – but I ordered the next two books in the series to keep.  I suggest you begin with the first in the series, Act Like It, because characters from that book appear in this one.  Thanks to Stephanie Burgis for the recommendation.

Off the Blog: Thinking of F. Washington Jarvis, a dear family friend whose memorial service I just attended.