BOOK REVIEW: Euphoria by Lily King

Euphoria by Lily King is an immersive, heartbreaking historical novel. Set in the 1930s, it follows three anthropologists in New Guinea: Nell Stone and her husband Schuyler Fenwick (Fen), and loner Andrew Bankson. They have very different research styles, giving a fascinating look into the field of anthropology, with all its flaws on display. Yet despite the limitations of their work, they are passionate about it. Nell is particularly passionate and particularly methodical. Fen is more ruthlessly ambitious and possessive. Bankson is in the midst of a crisis of faith in the profession when he meets up with the husband-wife team. Although working with two different native communities, they manage to spend a good deal of time together. Bankson and Nell inspire one another, while Fen is driven by jealousy and competitiveness. 

Nell and Bankson are so in tune with one another that it is no surprise that they fall in love. The story is told largely by Bankson, years later, looking back. He’s aided in the tale by entries in a journal that belonged to Nell, that was given to him much later by Nell’s closest friend. This is an interesting device that shows us their yearning for one another and how hard they tried to resist the mutual attraction.

The relationship has a slow build, and seems doomed from the start. There is a sense of isolation and danger throughout, but the source of the danger is murky. Will it come from the natives or from the volatile love triangle?

The story is beautifully written. Shot through with regret, there is a poignancy to the narrative that makes the characters sympathetic (except for Fen) despite their questionable actions. Highly recommended. 

BOOK REVIEW: Murder in Moonlight by Mary Lancaster

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I love Mary Lancaster’s writing. I’ve read several of her historical romances and historical romance with elements of mystery. Her latest novel (book 1 of a new series) takes a different tack. It’s a mystery first and foremost (with elements of romance.) The detecting couple have met before but very briefly. Now, they launch a series of their own. I imagine we’ll find them growing closer and closer as the series progresses. I love this type of series!

Murder in Moonlight is book 1 of the Silver and Grey series. Constance Silver and Solomon Grey (hence the series name) meet again at Greenforth Manor out in Norfolk, home of the Winsom family. Constance, the owner of a high-priced brothel back in London, is masquerading as a respectable widow, Constance Goldrich. Both Constance and Solomon have been invited for social reasons, by different members of the family. Both are there for information-seeking reasons of their own. Solomon could give Constance away, but sees no reason to, so he keeps quiet. Constance knows that could change at any moment, but she has learned to keep a charming, give-nothing-away demeanor, which intrigues Solomon even more.

The two watch each other warily, knowing they are both there under false pretenses. But the game quickly becomes very real when one member of the family is found dead, stabbed in the back with a kitchen knife. 

In this “stuck-together” mystery, the protagonists, family, and other house guests must remain at the manor until the police investigation is completed, which is longer than anyone wants, considering the murderer is very probably one of them. Constance and Solomon work together to solve the mystery, understanding that they are considered suspects, and knowing that they don’t quite trust each other. The more information they uncover, the more it seems everyone there has a motive. And opportunity. 

Fast-paced, well-plotted, and with a wonderful budding friendship likely to turn into more, Murder in Moonlight is my favorite kind of mystery. I eagerly await book 2.

BOOK REVIEW: The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner is a delightfully wacky murder mystery. It begins as a garden-variety cozy mystery. Sherry Pinkwhistle is a middle-aged librarian in a small town in upstate New York. She lives alone, has a close friend, a new friend, and an across-the-street neighbor that she looks in on. She has an almost boyfriend, a sweet middle-aged man who owns an antique shop. And, she solves murder mysteries.

There has been an uncannily high number of murders in their small town. Sherry has helped the local sheriff to solve them. She has a knack for it and, although he grumbles about her involvement, he accepts her help (and takes the credit).

A local art gallery owner is murdered—the cheating husband of Sherry’s new friend. Sherry gathers the clues (which are very conveniently strewn in her

path) and solves the mystery pretty quickly. She’s pleased with herself. As a reader, I’m wondering where this is all going. It’s a little too cozy. And Sherry is dizzy and funny, but...

And then her almost-boyfriend is killed. And everything flies off the rails.

There is a demon in her town, orchestrating the murders. And Sherry has to solve them to entertain the demon. A cast of characters help and hinder her: the sheriff who is intermittently possessed, the handsome, very young, very earnest new priest and his evil twin, as well as the dead boyfriend’s family. If this all isn’t enough, Sherry is hiding a crime in her own past.

The whole story is implausible (obviously), yet Sherry pulls it together to solve her boyfriend’s murder in conventional detective fashion. The trouble is, what will the demon do when Sherry wants the fun and games to stop?

BOOK REVIEW: A Holiday by Gaslight: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Mimi Matthews

I don’t generally read novellas, or seasonally-themed stories, but I love Mimi Matthews’ books so I read A Holiday by Gaslight: A Victorian Christmas novella.

Sophie Appersett is the older daughter of an impoverished baron, impoverished because of his passion for the renovation and innovation of his country home (among other extravagances.) In order to install gaslights in the house, he spent Sophie’s dowry. And he’s entirely unrepentant.

Sophie’s younger sister is just as impulsive and selfish as their father. She wears all the latest fashions, while Sophie and their mother content themselves with patched-up, made-over clothes. Sophie is resigned to this, but less resigned to the fact that she is supposed to marry for money to pay off the family’s debts. She is being courted by a wealthy, educated, manufactory owner, Edward Sharpe, but he is so cold and dull she breaks off the courtship.

Edward Sharpe is not as cold as he appears. Rather, he is truly smitten by Sophie, so much so that he has been following to the letter the advice in a book on gentlemanly behavior. When she breaks with him, he is hurt and peeved.

But Sophie has second thoughts. Not only because her father and sister are furious with her, but also because she thinks she didn’t give Edward a fair chance. She realizes they don’t know each other at all. 

The Appersetts are returning to their country home for a big Christmas celebration. Edward had been invited, and Sophie urges him to come despite their breakup. If he will talk to her, let her get to know him and him to know her, they might have a chance after all.

If you’re looking for a short and sweet holiday romance, this is a charming love story with likeable protagonists and a thoroughly happy ending.

BOOK REVIEW: Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University by Michael T. Benson

Something completely different!

I have an interest in the early history of Johns Hopkins University and Hospital (which will be on display in my forthcoming historical novel, Till Taught by Pain, to be published by Regal House in November, 2025). I’m also interested in early U.S. university presidents (such as Robert M. Hutchins, a character in my work-in-progress). So I knew I had to read this biography of the first president of Johns Hopkins, who helped build the university, medical school, and hospital from scratch. The author gave a talk at our local library, which made me even more determined. However, it took two long car rides back and forth to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving before I finally moved it to the top of my TBR pile and read it.

Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University by Michael T. Benson is an interesting account of Gilman’s life. It centers on his work, without touching upon his private life except to mention that he was married, widowered, remarried, and had two daughters. 

Born in 1831, Gilman devoted his life to the study of education, utilizing (as a young man) a position as an attaché to the ambassador to Russia to tour Europe and Russia and investigate universities there. His interest always seemed to lie more with administration than with teaching. He returned to various positions at Yale before being hired as the president of the University of California as it was getting started. (There is an analysis of the Morrill Act, the government program of land grants for education purposes; both Yale and the University of California made use of such grants.) Although Gilman accomplished a good deal in California, it wasn’t a great fit. (Disgruntled faculty members caused some problems.)

Back in the east, in Baltimore, the Trustees of the board administering the bequests of railroad tycoon Johns Hopkins were tasked with founding a new university. They took their responsibility seriously. Interviewing other educators and university presidents provided the unanimous recommendation of Gilman to head up this new endeavor. Gilman was promised almost complete control over building a true research-oriented university from the ground up. It was an opportunity he couldn’t resist.

This new biography delves into the nitty-gritty of Gilman’s process, the vision he had and the men he hired to bring his vision to life. It goes beyond the founding of Johns Hopkins. Gilman had his finger in many pies, all related to education.

It’s not an adventure-filled story, or even one rife with conflict, but it does bring notice back to the life of this remarkable man. It also shows the reader something of the state of higher education in the mid-to-late eighteen hundreds and the central role of Johns Hopkins University as a premier example of what academic research could become in the U.S.

BOOK REVIEW: The Wrong Lady Meets Lord Right by Suzanne Allain

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Wrong Lady Meets Lord Right by Suzanne Allain is a Regency Romance take on The Prince and the Pauper.

The orphaned Arabella (Bella) and her heiress cousin Lady Isabelle (Issie) have been raised together since toddlerhood by Issie’s demanding, overbearing mother, Lady Strickland, who makes it clear that her daughter is a disappointment and Bella is an unwanted burden. So it is somewhat of a relief to both young ladies when Lady Strickland suffers a stroke and dies.

After a year of mourning, during which they stayed hidden in the countryside, the two emerge to go to London for Issie’s planned season. Issie, who is painfully shy, doesn’t want to go, but Bella is more eager. Unfortunately, when they get to London, they are to stay with Issie’s great-aunt, Lady Dutton, who is every bit as bad as Lady Strickland.

However, Lady Dutton has poor eyesight and it isn’t long before Issie launches a scheme: taking to her bed, she claims she is too ill and frail to be presented to the Queen. And since Lady Dutton has been mixing them up anyway, why can’t Bella pretend to be her?

Good-natured and manipulable, Bella agrees, even though she can foresee all the potential consequences. The one she doesn’t foresee is falling for a handsome, kindly lord who courts her, thinking he is courting Lady Isabelle.

This sweet mistaken-identity romance is a delight to read (even if the reader will figure out what is going on with the hero long before Bella does.)

BOOK REVIEW: Home Is Where Your Bark Is by Debbie Burns

If you’re in the mood for some sweet contemporary romance, Home Is Where Your Bark Is by Debbie Burns is a new release from Sourcebooks Casablanca. (The title is a clue: there is also a lovable dog.)

Jenna Dunning has devoted far too much of herself to supporting her younger sister (just 15 months younger) ever since their mother died. Even the fact that her sister married the man Jenna had once been in love with couldn’t shatter their bond. But when her sister asks her to take the border collie she’d just adopted a couple weeks ago back to the shelter, this seems to be the last straw. Jenna had warned her the high energy dog was not the right fit for her family (two boys not even school age, a baby on the way, and a radiologist husband who spends more time working than at home, not to mention their expensively decorated house.) On the way to the shelter with the dog, Jenna is hit by a drunk driver and her car crashes into another.

Jake Stiles is the driver of the other car (not the drunk guy.) He rushes to help, holding her hand until the ambulance arrives. And then, he agrees to take the dog where it needs to go, not realizing the phone number he finds is for the shelter. Unable to surrender the trembling border collie, he finds himself fostering the dog.

A few of the chapters are in the voice of the dog, who comes to be named Seven.

Jenna and Jake bond over Seven, and despite their mutual decision to take things slowly, (Jake has just gotten out of a long-term relationship; Jenna is wary of jumping into a relationship with a stranger she met in a car crash when she had a concussion) there is strong momentum driving them along – especially when it seems they might have lost Seven.

This is a heartwarming love story, highly recommended if you need a lift.

BOOK REVIEW: The Women by Kristin Hannah

I finally read The Women by Kristin Hannah, an homage to the women who served in Vietnam. It reads fairly quickly despite its length.

It’s 1966, and Frances “Frankie” McGrath is a sheltered, innocent California girl, a “good girl,” whose parents’ plans for her are marriage, motherhood, country clubs, and maybe some volunteer work. She has an older brother, and is devoted to him. In keeping with the family expectations, he volunteers to go to Vietnam. Missing him, and wanting to get the same respect from her father that her brother gets, she signs up to be an army nurse. Her parents aren’t proud; they’re horrified.

Frankie is 20 years old and, although she has a nursing degree, she has no experience to speak of. When she arrives in Vietnam, it is to a baptism by fire. Fortunately, with the support and camaraderie of the staff there, especially two fellow nurses, she learns quickly and is soon a superbly competent surgical trauma nurse.

The harsh realities of life (and death) in Vietnam are fully explored, and are contrasted starkly with goings-on back home that Frankie learns about in letters from her mother. In country, Frankie falls in love, enjoys occasional respites with colleagues, learns to smoke and drink, and makes lifelong friends. But she also experiences the trauma and horrors of Vietnam. They are not spared the bombings and, if they venture away from camp, the threat of snipers or ambush. This part of the novel is like M*A*S*H, but in Vietnam, not Korea, seen through women’s eyes, not men’s, and without the humor.

The first part was a wrenching read, but captivating.

At the halfway mark, Frankie’s tour is done and she ships home. She arrives to a U.S.A. that has grown vehemently anti-war and anti-soldier. Her parents won’t speak of the war. It is made very clear to her that she should be ashamed of having been there. And when she reaches out for help for what we would now recognize as PTSD, she is told over and over that there were no women in Vietnam and that she doesn’t deserve resources reserved for combat veterans.

The second half of the book reads as a history lesson, as Frankie is traumatized again and again, suffering everything that nurses and returning veterans are known to have suffered and then some, until it began to feel like a checklist that needed to be completed. The plot twists were a bit too predictable. And the concluding chapters felt too preachy – even though I agree with the sermon that was preached.

So overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. The first half was riveting. The second half seemed to have an important message, but the plotting felt a bit contrived as it worked to deliver that message. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Muse of Maiden Lane by Mimi Matthews

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Muse of Maiden Lane is the fourth book in Mimi Matthews’s wonderful Victorian Romance series, Belles of London. The series centers around four women who come to London for the Season to find husbands. Initially, they find only each other, bonding over their love of and skill with horses. The series includes The Siren of Sussex, The Belle of Belgrave Square, and The Lily of Ludgate Hill. You don’t have to read them in order, but you might get to know the ladies best if you do.

The last of “the four horsewomen” to make a love match is Stella Hobhouse. When Stella’s father died, he left her a small inheritance, just enough to live on (with her horse) and to have two London Seasons to find a husband. If she doesn’t, she is doomed to live with her brother, a sour, self-righteous clergyman, who criticizes her constantly and keeps trying to control her and her money. Worst of all, he’s interested in marrying a woman who is even more critical than he is. 

But Stella has another problem. Although she is only twenty-two, her hair has gone completely platinum gray. She is seen as an oddity, and the ton is cruel to oddities. She hides in the background. But there is one man who sees her for the beauty she is.

Teddy Hayes is a young, very talented artist who burns to paint her from the first moment he sets eyes on her. Teddy has his own obstacle. An illness has left his legs paralyzed and he is confined to a wheelchair. He is accompanied everywhere by a manservant. And he is coddled by his sister and her husband, who infantilize him. But he is as determined to gain his independence as he is to paint Stella.

Stella can’t possibly pose for Teddy. Artist’s models are usually prostitutes or actresses, and Stella has enough trouble with her gray hair and judgmental brother. Still, the two are drawn together.

This is a beautiful story of two people overcoming society’s boundaries to fall in love and find their happily-ever-after. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman has been garnering a lot of buzz. It’s a feel-good second-chance love story, so compelling that I read it in just two sittings.

Augusta Stern is about to turn eighty, and is nudged (against her inclination) into retirement from her position as a hospital pharmacist. Her niece has helped find her an active senior retirement community in Florida. Augusta is not crazy about this idea, but she goes, moving away from Brooklyn. The first day there, she comes across Irving Rivkin, a blast from her past. Sixty-two years ago, Irving was the delivery boy working in her father’s pharmacy. He was also her first and only love.

Augusta was devoted to her father, Solomon, and to his profession. In the 1920s, when Augusta was a teenager, women were rarely pharmacists and those who were faced significant discrimination. But Augusta had great determination and the support of her father. However, Augusta’s mother died (of diabetes, one year before insulin treatment was discovered) and Augusta’s great-aunt Esther arrived to help raise Augusta and her sister. Esther was, to Solomon’s dismay, a folk healer. On occasion, when none of Solomon’s medicines worked, and doctors had given up, Esther’s chicken soup, ointments, or...potions? cured the ills of their neighbors.

Augusta is enthralled, and yearns for a way to combine her father’s scientific knowledge and compassion with Aunt Esther’s somewhat magical elixirs, to use all means at her disposal to help people. 

The novel’s chapters alternate between 1987, in Florida, where Augusta is dealing with Irving, a man she’d never expected (or hoped) to see again, and the early 1920s. As kids, Augusta and Irving began as friends. Their friendship matured to love. And then, Irving disappeared to Chicago without so much as a goodbye, marrying another girl immediately, and breaking Augusta’s heart. Of course Augusta carries a grudge. But she also carries a lot of guilt. Because she believes that in experimenting with Aunt Esther’s elixirs, she might have been responsible for Irving’s defection.

Is it too late for honesty, forgiveness, and renewed love?

BOOK REVIEW: The Spinster's Last Dance by Mary Lancaster

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Although this is contrary to my usual practice, I read The Spinster’s Last Dance, Book 7 of Mary Lancaster’s Regency Romance series One Night in Blackhaven, after having only previously read Book One, The Captain’s Old Love. The books are centered on the Vales, a large family of siblings who have returned, after their father’s death, to the family estate in Blackhaven, which is a spa town. The youngest of the group, the twins Leona and Lawrence, play matchmakers for their older siblings. The stories take place simultaneously, so I think it doesn’t really matter to read them out of order, though I do recommend reading book one first.

The Spinster’s Last Dance focuses on the eldest sister, Delilah. She has always been something of a motherly figure to her siblings. She also played the role of hostess/secretary/traveling companion to their father, who was a diplomat. However, she is an illegitimate sibling and she has just turned thirty, so she now expects to fade away into genteel spinsterhood. Before she does, she wants one last waltz at a local ball. She chooses her partner, the handsome Denzil Talbot, Baron Linfield, who she vaguely recognizes. He also recognizes her. He’d been a young friend of her father.

Denzil is a spy for the Crown, and he has come to Blackhaven to investigate Delilah, who is suspected of being a traitor.

The two are made for each other. However, they have to get past Denzil’s initial mistrust and Delilah’s certainty that his only interest in her is as a suspect. They also have to solve the dangerous puzzle of who is the traitor in their midst, and there is a clock ticking.

The protagonists are sympathetic and the love story sweet. Additional viewpoint characters are brought in, which is unusual for historical romance but becoming more common. The main villain is sufficiently villainous to keep readers invested in his downfall.

The other siblings have fairly small roles, but their love stories are hinted at, and make me want to read more of the series.

BOOK REVIEW: Upon the Corner of the Moon by Valerie Nieman

 I received this ARC for free. That did not influence this review.

Upon the Corner of the Moon by Valerie Nieman is a remarkably immersive historical novel of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Set in Scotland in the early second millennium, the novel provides the backstories of this infamous couple, placing them squarely in the larger framework of Scotland’s history, while humanizing them and making them sympathetic. Each is related to the high king Malcolm, who guards his power jealously. Macbeth and Gruach (the future lady Macbeth) are taken from their parents for fostering, and are brought up to be pawns who will exist to support Malcolm’s aims. This is an era of constant warfare and jockeying for power. Christianity has a hold on the people, but the old religion of the Picts has not yet faded away. Macbeth and Gruach are lonely figures who do their best to survive by bending to the king’s will. Yet as time passes, Malcolm ages, and the ambitions of his followers lead them to break oaths and bonds. Macbeth and Gruach are shaped by events, and find each other in the bloody aftermath. The beautiful language of the novel pulls the reader into the cold, brutal world. This is book one of the story, and I’m eager for book two.

BOOK REVIEW: The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs. Disraeli by Richard Aldous

After reading a biography of Benjamin Disraeli, I thought I should read one about his nemesis, William Gladstone. Instead, I chose a dual biography that focused on the rivalry between them, The Lion and the Unicorn: Gladstone vs. Disraeli by Richard Aldous.

This monograph very nicely lays out the political questions of the time (in superficial detail) and delves into the positions and personalities of the two prime ministers of late 19th century Britain. The two men were supposedly both brilliant orators, but apparently that meant they could speak for 4 or 5 hours at a stretch and lard their speeches with witty (or what passed for witty at the time) invective.

It seems as though the two began their political lives on roughly the same side of issues, with slight differences of opinion, but as their ambitions grew, their rivalry increased, and they began staking out more extreme positions. Disraeli became more reactionary. Gladstone became the leader of the Liberals. At times, they borrowed policies from one another with minimal deviations, more concerned with scoring political points for their parties than with actually achieving effective change. (Disraeli seems more guilty of this.) It’s unclear how strongly they believed in the principles they espoused.

Clearly, to better understand their roles in guiding British politics, I’d need to read something that gets more into the weeds. I was left with the impression that they were captains of the ship (alternating captaincy) at a time when Britain was undergoing great upheavals (industrialization, increased colonialism, etc.), but although they are each considered among the great Prime Ministers, I’m not all that clear on whether their incessant bickering actually steered the ship or just rocked it back and forth.

BOOK REVIEW: Must I Go: A Novel by Yiyun Li

Must I Go: A Novel by Yiyun Li fits partly into the mold of a crotchety elderly woman (in an assisted-living facility) telling her life story. The unusual aspect of the story is that she chooses to do this not because of the memoir-writing class that is inspiring others in the facility, but because she has located a published (abridged) diary of an old lover, and feels the need to append it.

The first part of the book is set-up. The protagonist, Lilia, has been married and widowed three times and has a passel of children from her first husband. But just before she met him, she met the lover, Roland, and they had a one-night stand. She was sixteen years old, beautiful, and saw him as an exciting man of the world. (He seemed to see her as available and disposable.) They met again when she tracked him down in a hotel in the city and had sex again. At the same visit to the city, she met her first husband. She was already pregnant with Roland’s baby.

It’s possible her memories of Roland would have faded over time, if not for the daughter they shared that he was never aware of. But what truly made him unforgettable was that the daughter, Lucy, killed herself in her early twenties. Lilia can’t think of Roland without thinking about Lucy or vice versa. 

At any rate, Roland always wanted to be a novelist, and Lilia kept an eye out for his novel. He never wrote one, but his diary was published posthumously and she found that. She relives her life in the reliving of his, learns a good deal about him, and decides that even though Lucy never knew her biological father, it was important that Lucy’s daughter and granddaughter know of him. So she as she read the diary, she pasted notes into it that were both clarifying and questioning.

This is an interesting premise and structure. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an interesting story. Roland had been a larger-than-life figure in Lilia’s head until she read the diary and discovered (if she didn’t, the reader certainly does) that he is a dull man, who wavered between imagining himself fascinating and bemoaning his own dullness. Lilia’s personal claim to fame is her ability to repress all her emotions. Repression may serve her well enough, since losing a child to suicide is an unfathomable tragedy, but it doesn’t serve the narrative of the story. We end up with two not very likeable protagonists, perseverating over the disappointments and suffering of their lives in an increasingly monotonous way. There are some lovely insights and turns of phrase, but these weren’t enough to sustain my interest in the book.

BOOK REVIEW: Much Ado About Margaret by Madeleine Roux

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Much Ado About Margaret by Madeleine Roux is a Regency Romance homage to Shakespeare, and particularly to Much Ado About Nothing. The main characters, Margaret Arden and Bridger Fletcher, resemble Beatrice and Benedick. The main trope is enemies to lovers.

Margaret has wanted all her life to write novels. After her father’s death, she becomes more frantically determined to be published. She needs money. As the eldest daughter and with two younger sisters and a mother to support, she is being coerced by her aunts to marry soon and well. She wants to do right by her sisters, but not at the cost of sacrificing herself. She has a manuscript that she knows will succeed, but when she sends it to a publisher, it is ignored. And when she thrusts a copy into the hands of the publisher at a party, he pushes it back and insults not only the book, but female authors in general. The publisher is Bridger Fletcher.

Shortly, they meet again at Margaret’s cousin’s wedding. The cousin is Bridger’s closest friend. Bridger is dealing with troubles of his own, a dying demon of a father and an alcoholic older brother bent on ruin. All three men have terrible tempers, which partly explains Bridger’s cruel response to Margaret. However, Margaret’s manuscript is accidently scattered by the wind, and Bridger finds a few pages. He discovers he was horribly wrong about the book, and wants to publish it after all. Can Margaret forgive him for his initial rudeness? 

Likely, yes. Especially since they are both strongly physically attracted to one another and both share a love of literature. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by ill-intentioned family, friends, and ex-fiancees and a wedding drama that plays with plot themes from Shakespeare’s play.

It’s an interesting premise and fun to pick out where the plot might reference Shakespeare. However, I wasn’t caught up by any chemistry between the hero and heroine, primarily, I think, because of the dialogues, which didn’t ring true for me.

BOOK REVIEW: The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I felt the urge to read a classic, and chose F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and the Damned. What a gorgeous and depressing book.

Of course, the prose is lush. Oddly, the normal narrative is interrupted from time to time by scenes written as though for a screenplay. And that works, because the characters are acting their way through life. They are the shallowest protagonists to ever compel me to read over 120,000 words spanning just under a decade of their lives. They are not likeable. They aren’t even pitiable. And yet, I couldn’t walk away from the train wreck of their lives.

Anthony Patch is a young man, recently graduated from Yale, with no ambition and no direction. He inherited from his mother enough money to live on, just enough to maintain an indolent lifestyle. When he falls into debt, he sells off his principal, without much awareness of the fact that his income is thus going to fall. He isn’t much concerned, at any rate, because he has a fabulously wealthy grandfather and considers himself the man’s only heir. Never mind that he can scarcely bear the old man’s company. Grandfather Patch made his fortune in the usual unscrupulous ways, then settled into a life of pious judgmentalism. The grandfather doesn’t like Anthony any more than Anthony likes him. The rare times Anthony visits his sole remaining relative, he is always asked what his plans are. When is he going to work?

Anthony drifts along in his semi-sleepwalking state, accompanied by his best friend Maury, who also doesn’t have to earn a living. They drink a lot and have conversations that are as witty and deep as any drunk college kids. They have a third friend, Dick, who wants to be a writer. They are scornful of Dick, who talks of nothing but his work-in-progress, both because of his specific ambition, writing a novel, but also for having any ambition at all.

And then along comes Dick’s cousin, Gloria Gilbert. She is beautiful. She’s also self-centered, selfish, and a siren. Every man she meets falls for her. Her beauty and her charisma stem from her youth and her indifference. She needs to be the center of attention, and she is.

Anthony falls hard for her. And then, she falls hard for Anthony. They then proceed to bring out the worst in each other. Partying hard. Drinking far too much. Living beyond their means. Growing bored with one another. Waiting for Anthony’s grandfather to die.

The timeline carries them through WWI, which almost touches them, but not quite. Their ultimate downfall is always on the horizon, but the pace of their deterioration picks up as Anthony descends farther and farther into alcoholism. It’s brutal.

The novel is not as tightly plotted as The Great Gatsby. And it is far less emotionally compelling than Tender is the Night, my favorite Fitzgerald work thus far. But after reading it, I’m more determined to work my way through all of Fitzgerald’s novels.

BOOK REVIEW: The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America by Elizabeth Lunday

I know next to nothing about art/art history. But I became intrigued by a reference to the 1913 Armory Show and wanted to learn more about it. Modern Art had been dribbling across the Atlantic from Paris to New York thanks to a few intrepid collectors and artists. Yet the U.S. was mostly isolated from European influences: impressionism, cubism, fauvism, etc. It took the determination of a small group of artists who were dissatisfied with the grip held over American art by the ultra-conservative National Academy of Design to break that grip. They decided to put together an art show that encouraged young American artists and exposed the U.S. to new ways of thinking about art. The Armory Show took America (or at least New York) by storm.

The Modern Art Invasion: Picasso, Duchamp, and the 1913 Armory Show That Scandalized America by Elizabeth Lunday is a quick-paced introduction to twentieth-century art history. Focusing on the personalities of the organizers and their detractors, the author gives a concise (and a bit whirlwind) tour through art of the time. Not long after the show closed in the U.S., Europe was engulfed by war. Yet the impulse to create new art, to challenge assumptions about art, to question even what constitutes art, survived the war and came surging back when it ended. 

This is a fascinating and informative book with an extensive bibliography for those who want to delve deeper. Highly recommended!

BOOK REVIEW: In France Profound: The Long History of a House, a Mountain Town, and a People by T. D. Allman

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

So who doesn’t want to buy a centuries-old mansion on a picturesque hilltop in the south of France, fix it up, befriend your neighbors, and spend years soaking up the culture and history of the region? Also, eat the food and drink the wine? T.D. Allman, an award-winning American foreign correspondent, did just that. And then, when he realized he was now the most senior resident in Lauzerte, he wrote a memoir-like history of the town, the region, his house, and his place in it.

In France Profound: The Long History of a House, a Mountain Town, and a People is an engrossing history of France Profonde, the southern part of France geographically distant from the capital, culturally distinct, and yet never quite able to escape Paris’ influence.

The timeline proceeds mostly chronologically from the Middle Ages to the present. Allman gives emphasis to history-changing people and events–those that are important to the story he’s telling. He centers the tale on what was formerly known as the province of Quercy, but is now the department of Lot and part of the department of Tarn-et-Garonne. It’s fascinating to see the history of France unfolding from the perspective of this off-the-beaten-track part of the country. Most interesting to me were the chapters on Count Raymond VI and Count Raymond VII of Toulouse and the Albigensian Crusade. Allman’s agnostic view of the various religious wars makes a case for their pointlessness. But the long history of the region’s involvement in all the successive wars showed the importance of the area in all major European conflicts.

The author uses his 800-year-old house as a metaphor for the timelessness and the changes of the area. Initially, the town was isolated and known for its beautiful medieval appearance. Allman points out that the medieval touches were recent, which is disillusioning. But the geography and culture of the region were more resistant to change and to fashion. I think I was as sorrowful as he was to watch the life of the town move down the mountain (in order to provide for more convenient car parks) and suffer the influx of chain stores and fast food places. 

Looking up the author when I finished the book, I was sad to see he died in May. This book was published posthumously. But what an incredibly full life he led!

For fans of memoir, French history, and France in general, this book is recommended. It’s a bit lengthy and I found some of the digressions slow-going, but overall, it’s a beautiful book.

BOOK REVIEW: The Captain's Old Love by Mary Lancaster

The Captain’s Old Love by Mary Lancaster is a lovely regency romance by one of my go-to historical romance authors.

Captain Sir Julius Vale has just retired from the Royal Navy in order to care for his younger siblings after the death of his father. (There are a lot of them!) Julius has lost an eye and injured his leg in the war against France, but he would still be sailing in spite of these maladies if not for his obligations at home. The familial solicitousness is not all one-sided. His siblings are equally worried about him. They want to see him happy. They want to see him married. But Julius is not looking for a wife. Years ago, he was jilted by a lady he loved desperately. He has never gotten over her, and he carries a grudge.

Antonia Temple is the lady. Julius has the misfortune (or good fortune?) of coming across her at the first ball he attends back in Blackhaven (the town where his home and family are located.) She is as stunned to see him as he is to see her. And she gives every appearance of being as hurt and as resentful.

Who jilted whom?

Julius and Antonia are delightfully level-headed and quick to seek out the truth rather than wallowing in self-pity and anger. They might be able to find their way back to one another if they can hold onto a tenuous trust. But whoever was responsible for their earlier estrangement is still determined to keep them apart. And tenuous trust might not be enough.

The hero and heroine make this an entertaining read. The villain is a bit over the top, but needs to be if he’s going to be able to drive a wedge between a pair so right for one another. This is book 1 in the One Night in Blackhaven series, and I have book 2 queued up on my kindle!

BOOK REVIEW: Rock Bottom, Tennessee and Rock Bottom Rising by Kimberly Nixon

I just about never read a series out of order, but this time, I did. Reading the sequel made me determined to read book one.

(Book one) Rock Bottom, Tennessee by Kimberly Nixon is a poignant story of poverty and loss set in the Appalachian mountains in the early 1900s. In the argument between nature and nurture, the story comes down squarely on the side of nurture. The protagonist, Ruby Sullivan, was a sweet little girl, but she is subjected to a painfully hard life. Her father died the night she was born, her mother abandoned her, her brothers left home as soon as they were able, and she was brought up by her resentful grandparents. She grew up with very low self esteem and an underdeveloped sense of right and wrong.

Ruby is beautiful. She’s gifted with intelligence and a will to succeed, but little opportunity to do so. During her childhood, she excelled at schoolwork, but was often pulled from class to help on her grandparents’ farm. She had one friend, Leon, a similarly disadvantaged boy who worked part-time for her grandfather. And she had one supporter, Joseph MacCallum, the schoolteacher, who first comes to admire her smarts and her resilience, and then, falls in love with her.

Readers will sympathize with Ruby’s plight, her grasp at stability, and her inability to accept love that’s freely given. When tragedy strikes, Ruby throws caution to the wind and reaches for excitement and happiness in a self-destructive way, piling up one poor choice after another.

Based on the life-story of the author’s grandmother, Rock Bottom, Tennessee fits the story into its setting in a way that draws you in, and then tugs at your heartstrings.

The sequel, Rock Bottom Rising, is what I read first, and I highly recommend it also. Here’s my review:

Prepare to be inspired by this Depression-Era-to-WWII novel based on the adventures of the author's fascinating grandmother. Ruby Sullivan Ross, a resilient woman haunted by her past mistakes, must continually reinvent herself as she journeys from poverty, poor decisions, and dependence on crooked men to a promising life of self-sufficiency and self-respect. In Rock Bottom Rising, Nixon brings us a powerful tale of sacrifice, regret, and the redemptive power of forgiveness. Readers will feel Ruby's pain and root for her rise.

BOOK REVIEW: Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister by Christopher Hibbert

 Here is an example of how I tend to over-research. I’m thinking of setting my next historical romance in the late Victorian era rather than Regency England. I’ve been reading about customs, dress, etc. It’s a very broad time period (1837-1901) with a lot of world-changing events and technological advances. A while ago, I read Victorious Century: The United Kingdom, 1800-1906 by David Cannadine, which gave an overview, primarily of the political history. But now I wanted to zero in and focus more on the years around 1875.

So, I decided to read the relevant sections of Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister by Christopher Hibbert, a biography of Benjamin Disraeli. But I’m rarely ever able to read relevant sections. I need all the context to understand what’s going on. I ended up reading the whole thing.

The book is an interesting take on the prime minister, focusing more on his life than on his politics. Disraeli was supposedly a brilliant speaker and a clever politician. He was also a novelist. Hibbert quotes extensively from Disraeli’s letters, and I got the sense that Disraeli was more convinced of his own brilliance and eloquence than others were. Except for Queen Victoria, who he flattered shamelessly until he became a favorite.

He really sounds insufferable in his early life. By the time he was middle-aged, he’d lost much of his flamboyance and settled into more of a statesmanlike lifestyle. I didn’t get much of a sense of his politics, but that could be because his political aims were power for himself rather than any principled stance on issues. At least, that is the impression from this biography. Rather than outlining his politics, Hibbert quotes letters that list the country houses he visited and the dinner parties he attended. Which ladies he favored. And what a fine impression he was sure that he’d made. 

It isn’t what I was expecting from a biography, but it was nevertheless fascinating. It didn’t inspire me to dig up Disraeli’s novels, but it does make me want to read a biography of his arch-nemesis, Gladstone. 

BOOK REVIEW: A Governess Should Never Tempt a Prizefighter by Emily Windsor

A Governess Should Never Tempt a Prizefighter by Emily Windsor is an engaging (and steamy) romp through the world of prize fighting in the Regency Era.

Mathilda Griffin is a young lady in trouble. Her parents are dead and her guardian means to marry her off to an elderly lecher. Although her life up till now has been sheltered, she has the gumption to run away to save herself from a miserable future. She applies for the position of governess to the 13-year-old daughter of a famous prizefighter.

Seth Hawkins is a self-made man who climbed out of the Rookery by means of prizefighting. He was a renowned champion, so when he opens a boxing academy he has no trouble attracting members from up and down the social scale, even including a number of dukes. Despite the violence of his younger days and his profession, he’s a soft-hearted man, particularly when it comes to his daughter. And when Miss Griffin confesses the real reason she’s applying for the position of governess, he can’t help hiring her. (Her physical attractiveness is another reason.)

Mathilda is thrilled by the introduction to the world Seth inhabits, which is nothing at all like the world she comes from. Seth is enchanted by her enthusiasm. The reader is also introduced to a side of Regency London that is not usually seen in Regency Romance.

The protagonists progress from intense physical attraction to an appreciation of each other’s other qualities. And when Mathilda’s guardian finds her, Mathilda and Seth have to band together to protect each other and the love they have found.

This is an interesting take on the trope of “falling for the governess.” Generally, the MMC is a lord and the governess is either a commoner or a lady down on her luck. A male protagonist from the Rookery finding love with an impoverished gentlewoman is a fun twist.

BOOK REVIEW: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Our book group’s next pick is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. 

The novel begins with a prologue set in 1972, when a skeleton and a mezuzah are found in a well – a murder mystery. But then Hurricane Agnes hits, any possible additional evidence is destroyed, and any possible witnesses scatter.

The novel then begins again, about 50 years earlier. A story is told about the inhabitants of Chicken Hill, a poor neighborhood of Pottstown, PA. It is a community of Black and Jewish residents, primarily Jewish immigrants. Most of the earlier Jewish residents have moved down the hill into Pottstown to be more “American.” The people largely self-segregate, but there is a connection between the two groups. Moshe owns a dance and music hall and often brings in Black musicians. He hires Black workers. But the main point of connection is Moshe’s wife, Chona, who runs The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, endlessly extending goodwill and credit. Everyone loves Chona.

The plot loosely revolves around a teenage boy who was deafened in an accident in his home. His mother has recently died, and he has gone to live with his Uncle Nate and Aunt Addie. Nate does odd jobs and works for Moshe (and he has a secret past). Because the boy is deaf, he no longer goes to school. Presumably, this is how he was reported to the government. Now, the government keeps sending men to carry him off to Pennhurst, which everyone knows is a horrific institution. The Chicken Hill community bind together to, first, hide him, and then, rescue him. 

Along the way, the reader is introduced to a whole host of characters. New characters keep coming out of the woodwork, bringing in their involved backstories to help explain their roles in the increasingly complicated narrative. At times, it reads as a string of character sketches in search of a plot. Nevertheless, McBride ties it all together in the end as the murder victim and murderer are revealed. The murder mystery is the framework, but it is the character sketches that are the heart and soul of the work, showing the full range of human goodness, flaws, and evil.

BOOK REVIEW: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Elizabeth Strout always digs deep into the hearts of her characters. They lead messy lives. They are flawed. But she portrays them and their situations with such compassion and realism that I’m always entranced. In her latest novel, Tell Me Everything, Strout returns to small-town Maine for a reunion of sorts with Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Barton, Bob Burgess, and a host of other familiar characters. Their lives are now intertwined. It is a post-pandemic world (though Covid is not entirely gone.) They’ve aged. They are, to some extent, taking stock of their lives. But they are also continuing to live those lives, encountering new dilemmas that must be resolved. There are new losses that must be adapted to. New friendships develop.

The novel dances around a murder mystery, but this is kept largely in the background. It’s not a detective story. Rather, the murder allows a more in-depth look at the type of person Bob Burgess is, as he takes on the defense of the main suspect.

More than this, the novel is about stories. Strout’s novels are always stories of people’s lives, but this book takes that one step further. Olive has heard of Lucy from Bob, and sends word that she would like to meet her to tell her a story, thinking she might be able to use it in her writing. (Lucy is a novelist.) They meet. Olive tells Lucy the story of her mother’s first love. This sets off a chain where the two meet and tell each other stories of “unrecorded lives.” The point being: everyone has a story.

The point is not an original one, but Strout does a superb job of showing the truth in this simple statement with a series of stories within the story. As always, this is a quiet book. Quietly intense. If you haven’t read Strout before, I’d recommend starting with an earlier book so that you can follow the lives of these people as they grow.

BOOK REVIEW: The Deserted Heart by Mary Lancaster

I took a dive into Mary Lancaster’s backlist and read The Deserted Heart, book 1 in her series, The Unmarriageable.

In this case, the “unmarriageable” is Charlotte, the second daughter of the Earl of Overton. Sandwiched between two very beautiful sisters, Charlotte is also disadvantaged by a small limp acquired during an illness, and a very slight stammer, that she is generally now able to control. However, she has gotten used to the idea that these deficits mean no man will pursue her, primarily because her parents and sisters constantly drive the point home. She is relegated to caring for her younger brothers, wearing hand-me-downs, and awaiting the day when she will be the spinster caring for her parents. Despite all this, she is good-natured, fun-loving, and devoted to her family.

The Overtons had been living abroad, but returned to London to salvage their poor financial state. The family is relying on the eldest daughter, Thomasina, a renowned beauty, to marry well and rescue them. Thomasina is prepared to do so, but none of her suitors has come up to scratch. Until, finally, the aloof Duke of Alvan makes his interest known. He is coming to the Overtons home to visit – and everyone knows what that means.

Alvan and Charlotte are both on their way to the Overton estate. They meet at an inn, under unusual circumstances, and find themselves confronting a mystery: the inn is entirely deserted. The staff has disappeared. They are unable to solve the mystery in their short time at the inn. But when Alvan later turns up at Charlotte’s family home to woo Thomasina, he is drawn instead to Charlotte. 

The two protagonists are genuinely interested in the mystery, but continuing to investigate also affords them an excuse to spend time together. Soon, Alvan is ready to offer for Charlotte, but she refuses him out of loyalty to her sister. Alvan leaves, devastated. He and Charlotte must then find their way back to each other.The protagonists make a great pair, and it’s a joy to see them solve the mystery and overcome the barriers keeping them apart. I’m going to have to keep going with this series!

BOOK REVIEW: A Perfect Match by Margaux Thorne

A Perfect Match by Margaux Thorne is the first book in a new Historical Romance series, The Cricket Club.

Myfanwy Wright is the orphaned daughter of a viscount. She lives for cricket. And for an injured, reluctantly retired cricketer, Samuel Everett. Myfanwy has been watching Samuel on the field since she was ten years old and has been infatuated with him for just as long.

The viscount’s will named Samuel as Myfanwy’s guardian. This is just for a few months until she reaches her majority. Then, she intends to buy a cottage and enough property for her own cricket field, where she can gather together her single ladies’ cricket club, the only “family” she has anymore. Until then, she is determined to have an affair with Samuel.

This steamy Victorian-era Romance plays with tropes of love between a gentlewoman and a commoner, and between a guardian and his ward. There is a touch of grumpy-sunshine. What gives this romance its entertaining kick is the way these tropes incorporate cricket. An underdog team must fight its way to the top. It will take the combined talents of Samuel and Myfanwy to win the big game, and the combined determination of both to win each other’s hearts.

BOOK REVIEW: Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick sets out to answer the question: When did we learn that dinosaurs existed?

To my surprise, the answer (according to Dolnick) is 1802, when the first dinosaur tracks were discovered by a 12-year-old boy while plowing his father’s Massachusetts fields. Of course, the story is more complicated than that. No one knew what the tracks were. Dinosaur bones had to be found and studied; skeletons had to be imagined and reconstructed. The creatures had to be named and categorized. And finally, they had to be classified as “dinosaurs,” a word that did not exist before 1842.

Dolnick takes the reader on a trek through 19th century natural science (in England, primarily, but also in America), showing how well religion and science coexisted until Darwin took the stage. Men and women were enthusiastic fossil hunters. In fact, one of the foremost fossil-finders of the day was a young, impoverished Englishwoman, Mary Annings. While she was recognized by the great scientists of the day, she was not recognized as a great scientist. The occasional  cooperation and more frequent competition among the great scientists makes for entertaining reading.

Of course, gigantic bones were discovered prior to 1802. But although these were eventually found to be prehistoric, they are practically modern-day compared to dinosaurs. Dolnick steps back in time to acquaint the reader with those spectacular finds as well.

This delightful and informative book does a wonderful job of placing the natural science debates of the Victorian age within the context of its time. It poses another question as well: What do you do when faced with the unimaginable?

BOOK REVIEW: Robert Maynard Hutchins: A Memoir by Milton Mayer

I’m oddly fascinated by Robert Maynard Hutchins (one-time president of the University of Chicago) and his wife Maude Phelps McVeigh (a sculptress and author.)  See previous reviews: A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books by Alex Beam and An Aristocracy of Critics: Luce, Hutchins, Niebuhr, and the Committee that Redefined Freedom of the Press by Stephen Bates.

Robert Maynard Hutchins: A Memoir by Milton Mayer is a biography of Hutchins, written by his friend and aide. (Even Mayer had a hard time explaining what he actually did as Hutchins’ aide.) The book does a good job of taking the reader through Hutchins’ professional life and gives a half-hearted nod to his private life. He uses quotes extensively, showing the convictions and contradictions of his subject. And he gives his own interpretation of Hutchins, which varies from fawning to disappointed and sour.

I can recommend this book for its facts, but it’s a slog to read. The prose is turgid. And when Mayer tries to be coy, he’s obtuse. There is humor, but it’s all Hutchins’. I have another biography on my shelf, Unseasonable Truths: The Life of Robert Maynard Hutchins by Harry S. Ashmore, that I’ll try next.

BOOK REVIEW: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I just finished reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky for a class. I’m glad it was assigned or I likely never would have read it. Long, heavy, Russian literature in translation intimidates me. But this is a remarkably readable book, despite its length and depressing themes. 

Crime and Punishment is one of those classics where it is obvious why it is a classic. Even in translation, it is beautifully written, thematically complex, and surprisingly gripping. I was surprised to find it gripping because much of the book comprises interior and somewhat repetitive suffering. But the character’s suffering is distant from the reader. We can understand it without feeling it ourselves.

Raskolnikov, the main protagonist, commits a premeditated murder, compounded by an impulsive one. He was obsessed with the act before committing it, and he wallows in guilt and attempted self-justification afterward. He is surrounded by people who love him or don’t, who suspect him of the crime or don’t, and he scorns them all and tries to drive them away. He also seeks them out. He’s terrified of being caught, but also ruminates over turning himself in. He has grand theories, and delusions of grandeur. Is he insane? Or is that just an easy explanation for modern readers?

The author dives deeply into the viewpoints of several characters, not just Raskolnikov. Their motivations are as clear to the reader as they are to the characters themselves, which often means they are obscure. It’s a book to linger over, and to read more than once. It helped to read it in a class!

BOOK REVIEW: Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester

I’ve been slipping biographies of writers into my reading list, most recently George Eliot (The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life by Clare Carlisle) and John Donne (Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell.) This time, I turned my attention to the Queen of Regency Romance, Georgette Heyer, one of my favorite authors. (Heyer was born in 1902 and died in 1974.)

Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester is a meticulously researched biography of this talented and fiercely private writer. Like many comprehensive biographies, the book begins even before her birth, with an overview of her parents and grandparents. We learn about her early life, particularly the influence of her father. For my part, I found the childhood portion of the book to be a little too detailed and lengthy. It was slow going at first, but grew more interesting when Georgette reached adulthood and her writing took off.

And take off it did. From her very first published work, The Black Moth, written while she was still a teenager, Heyer found an eager audience. However, it took a long while for her to settle in to writing what she wrote best. She wanted to be taken seriously, and to write big books. (She did write a few non-Romance historical novels.) Moreover, she wrote constantly to keep the wolf from her door. She could turn out short stories with ease. And she wrote a slew of detective novels (contemporary at the time, but that now also read as historical.) These all sold well, but her romances were what her fans clamored for most. It is said that she essentially invented the Regency Romance genre.

The biography focuses a good deal on Heyer’s worries over money. After her father died, she was financially responsible for her widowed mother and, for a long time, her two younger brothers. She also supported her husband until he got his legal career off the ground. They had one son, and during his childhood, Georgette was primary (and at times, only) breadwinner. And yet, the biography makes clear that it wasn’t that her income was insufficient, but rather that she and her husband spent themselves into a financial hole and had a hard time climbing out. This was good news for her fans, since it spurred her to write romance after romance.

It was interesting to see the life circumstances surrounding each of Heyer’s novels. She lived through both World Wars. Family members fought in WWII, a great source of anxiety. There was also a paper shortage. Rationing meant limiting the number of books that could be released and printing them smaller. (Heyer’s books got top priority because they sold so well.)

The biography quotes many of her letters and some of the responses. We peer into her relationships with her agents and publishers. It isn’t always pretty. She was rather thin-skinned, and the impression I got from the book was that she tended to drop people when they were no longer useful to her. She was also a product of her time and her upbringing, which meant she was a bit of a snob and a bigot. We want better from our idols, but they are human. And Kloester’s biography does a great job of revealing Georgette Heyer, warts and all.

Book Review: Miss Morton and the Deadly Inheritance by Catherine Lloyd

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I love Catherine Lloyd’s historical mysteries. Her new series is the Miss Morton Mysteries. You can see my reviews for book 1: Miss Morton and the English House Party Murder and book 2: Miss Morton and the Spirits of the Underworld, which were both thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve been looking forward to book 3: Miss Morton and the Deadly Inheritance, and was not disappointed.

Miss Caroline Morton was the daughter of a peer, but he gambled away the family fortune then killed himself rather than face the shame of bankruptcy. That left Caroline and her younger sister Susan in the lurch, dependent on the charity of relatives. Caroline took matters into her own hands and found a position as a companion to a wealthy businesswoman (a commoner), Mrs. Frogerton.

Mrs. Frogerton is a no-nonsense, outspoken woman who hired Caroline not only as a companion, but also to help launch her daughter into Society. Miss Frogerton is determined to snare herself a titled gentleman. Caroline’s connections and advice are invaluable.

Unfortunately, Caroline and Mrs. Frogerton keep stumbling upon murder victims and becoming embroiled in solving the who-dunnits.

In the current novel, Miss Morton and the Deadly Inheritance, Caroline learns that she and her sister have inherited tidy sums from her aunt (a fact which makes her sister prey to an unscrupulous relative) and that her father may have made a second will before he died. Although Caroline believes he had nothing to bequeath, others are far more interested in what the will has to say. The plot thickens when the clerk making a copy of the will is murdered. Caroline has another mystery to solve – with the help of Mrs. Frogerton and two men who have aided her in the past, Inspector Ross and Dr. Harris.

Both the Inspector and Dr. Harris are drawn to Caroline, but show their interest in very different ways, and I’m curious to see who (if either of them) will eventually win her. A third man enters the picture, Mr. DeBloom, who pays her aggressive attention, trying to win her over by confiding that his mother swindled Caroline’s father, and he is determined to repay her. And then, a fourth man shows up, Mrs. Frogerton’s son, who shares his mother’s bluntness, and also her commonsense – once he convinces himself that Caroline is not out to swindle his mother.

In addition to the murder, Caroline’s sister goes missing, and it is all-hands-on-deck to find and retrieve her.

The plotting is complex, but the story moves right along. The characters are well-drawn. The resolution is satisfying. And the ending sets us up for book four!

BOOK REVIEW: Jackie by Dawn Tripp

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I was not particularly interested in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. I knew who she was and I knew a little of her life’s timeline. But the era she lived in is recent enough that the thought of a novel centered on her life didn’t quite grab me the way historical fiction set farther in the past does. However, I had read author Dawn Tripp’s wonderful novel of Georgia O’Keefe, Georgia, so when I saw Jackie on Netgalley I thought I’d give it a try.

This fictional biography is told mainly from a first person perspective, and it takes the reader deep into the mind and heart of this extraordinary woman. Occasional chapters are told in the third person from JFK’s perspective. There is a whole lot going on in the world during their courtship, marriage, and Kennedy’s rise to the presidency. The 1950s-1960s were tumultuous, world-changing decades, and the history drew me in more than I expected.

Even so, the novel keeps a tight focus on the relationship, the love story between “Jack” and “Jackie,” while the chaos of the era swirls around them. Jackie is intelligent, witty, charming, and independent—perhaps more so than her husband. He sees everything through the lens of his political ambition, even calculating when and who he should marry. Jackie knows this, just as she knows he is a philanderer. It’s painful to watch her draw back from love to protect herself from his casual cruelty, even while remaining unstinting in her support. The author’s ability to show us Jackie’s strength and vulnerability all at the same time makes this novel compelling. 

Jackie’s commitment to what is right, rather than simply politically expedient, helps guide Jack’s public policy, particularly in civil rights. Her moral courage pulls JFK into taking more daring positions. And then, of course, comes the assassination. Readers watch Jackie come apart. And then, put herself back together again.

The novel is relatively long, reaching about 500 pages, and there were times when it FELT long, because the relationship was static for a time. But enough history is pulled in to keep the narrative interesting. And Jackie’s second marriage takes her and the reader in a whole new direction.

While this is a novel, and novels always require the author’s imagination, the research is meticulous and the writing so beautiful that the story is entirely credible as Jackie’s story. The heartbreak feels real.

BOOK REVIEW: The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff is an entertaining revenge fantasy that is simultaneously amusing and disturbing. Set in an unnamed rural village in India, the novel incorporates tropes and truths of poverty, the caste system, male privilege and oppression of females, alcoholism, domestic abuse, rape, and governmental corruption. 

Geeta, the protagonist, is an outcast. Five years ago, her husband disappeared. Everyone assumes she killed him. Even those who don’t believe it pretend to, and she is feared and mocked as a churel, a witch-figure. Since her husband’s disappearance, Geeta has supported herself by jewelry making – her entrepreneurship aided by a government micro-loan. The loan is not to her as an individual, but to a group of five women, who must meet weekly to make payments to a loan officer. The women are not her friends (though one of them used to be her best friend) but they are bound to each other by economic necessity. It’s a lonely life, but aloneness has its advantages.

Her life changes when one of the women comes to her for a favor. Farah wants to kill her own abusive husband and needs help. Geeta reluctantly helps her, and before long, she is the go-to murder consultant.

It’s a novel of female friendship, or at least, solidarity. The plot, however, requires a good deal of female cattiness and backstabbing before friendships are cemented. It’s a fast-paced book with numerous plot twists, some of which surprise and some of which are predictable. The pacing of the book is aided by easy-to-read “familiar” language. There is a good deal of snark. The women’s dialogues and Geeta’s inner monologues sound like young Americans talking (“yeah, right,” the verbal tic “like,” “screw it” etc) – but I have no knowledge of, so can’t claim to judge, whether this jargon is realistic in translation or a sort-of Americanized style of speech adopted so readers can be in on the jokes. The over-the-top violence, particularly at the story’s climax, is interwoven with a cartoonish bumbling to counteract the darkness of what is going on. The ending gets preachy. Nevertheless, it’s a page-turner. And readers will want the women to prevail.