After taking a week off (o, life, why must you interfere with books?), we’re back with a vengeance! I finished the “Troubleshooters” series, finally checked out a book a friend’s been recommending since forever, and immersed myself in historical mysteries and high adventure. In short, I had a lot of fun.
The Gentleman and the Thief (“The Dread Penny Society” #2) by Sarah M. Eden: Finally!! I’ve been looking forward to this every since reading the first book, The Lady and the Highwayman, and, okay, Eden is cranking these out pretty fast (book three is scheduled for an August release!), but when you’re excited for a book, it’s hard to wait. And The Gentleman and the Thief was well worth it. It felt good to be back among the Dread Penny Society, solving mysteries, rescuing children, chasing bad guys. This series is exactly as advertised: good escapist fun, with dashes of adventure and romance mixed in. The “Higglebottom’s School for the Dead” chapters (from the hero’s latest penny dreadful serial) were especially amusing, with the ghostly antics.
West (“East” #2) by Edith Pattou: After two years, I finally worked up the nerve to read this sequel to one of my favorite fantasies, East (read my review here), and while I enjoyed it overall and loved watching Rose do her unstoppable badass thing, my feelings are mixed. The story here isn’t as cohesive as in East, which is especially disappointing considering Pattou had ten years to tighten it up. But the overarching themes of identity and choices, of living in the present without fretting over what-ifs, still resonated beautifully. Even knowing romance isn’t your strong suit, if you write a third book, Writer Pattou, maybe don’t put Charles under yet another enchantment? Don’t get me wrong. I love how you flip it, so Rose is the hero to his damsel-in-distress, but… it would be nice to have more than a couple pages of them interacting without a magical barrier between them. Just a suggestion.
A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (“A Lady’s Guide” #1) by Manda Collins: The literary equivalent of a murder-themed cupcake. The mystery itself is only vaguely compelling, but this book lives and dies with the combined charm of the hero and heroine. I was less interested in finding the killer than in watching them be cute together and in resolving the concerns that could keep them apart, such as the heroine’s (understandable) mistrust of men and marriage after her disastrous first marriage. If you want a cozy mystery with humor and surprising sweetness, this is the one for you.
The Lies of Locke Lamora (“Gentleman Bastard” #1) by Scott Lynch: So, my friend Mari has been recommending this book for ages, promising cons, adventure, and great characters. All things she knows I love. And hoo, boy, she was right! It took me a while to get into it because every time I started to settle in, new characters were introduced, and I had to reorient myself, but once things got going, I was hooked. I love a good con, and I love protagonists who are too clever for their own good. I found myself hooting at the characters’ antics – not so much because they were humorous (except in a very dark way) but because they were just so audacious. Locke Lamora never met a con he didn’t like, after all. The book is missing a little something needed to grab me by the heartstrings, but for good twisted (in all the senses) fun, this story delivers.
Headlong by Michael Frayn: P.G. Wodehouse meets art history. The story follows a philosopher-turned-amateur-art-historian who believes he’s discovered a long-lost masterpiece among his tax-evading neighbor and attempts to con the man out of it, so he can claim the discovery (and any ensuing monetary gain) for himself. His internal monologue and the ridiculous scrapes he gets into cracked me up and definitely put me in mind of Wodehouse’s style and humor – especially in the scenes were our intrepid hero is trying to guess what’s going on in the minds of those around him. Frayn did a lot of research for this one, a great deal of which he includes as the character’s findings, and it’s occasionally amusing but mostly pretty dry. I found myself checking out a bit during those passages, impatient to get back to the main story.
Do or Die (“Troubleshooters” #18/”Reluctant Heroes” #1) by Suzanne Brockmann: This is the first of a spin-off series – and the only one in the series so far, which makes me wonder if Brockmann will ever get back to it. The characters are mostly new, with the exception of a few minor characters from the main series. It was fun and entertaining, as usual, but it didn’t grab me as much as I wanted – maybe because Brockmann was intentionally breaking away from the decades of backstory and relationships in the main series, and that’s exactly what I like so much.
Some Kind of Hero (“Troubleshooters” #19) by Suzanne Brockmann: At present, this is the last of the “Troubleshooters” series – I don’t know if Brockmann has plans to return to it, but honestly, I’ll be surprised if she does. She’s told most of the stories for this universe, and this feels very much like a conclusion. Part of that is how all our main characters are happily settled now. The other part is that the heroine is a writer of romantic thrillers, which means there’s a lot of in-book discussion on the nature of the genre and of writing. I’m calling this Brockmann’s Northanger Abbey, since she writes so much in defense of the genre. The heroine does feel a little self-inserty at times, but her conversations with Harry (one of her heroes who lives in her head and offers advice and commentary on her life) are entertaining, and it’s interesting to hear Brockmann’s direct thoughts on writing. Finishing the series is bittersweet because I’ve had such fun living in this world the past few months, but like Brockmann, I feel like it’s time. Maybe I’ll check out some of her other series sometime, but for now, I want to explore other things.
“Gaslight Mysteries” #5-8 by Victoria Thompson: What can I say, except that these continue to delight? Each book is a short, easy read, and I’m loving the slow but steady development of the characters and of Sarah and Frank’s relationship. I think we’re on the verge of learning the truth about Sarah’s late husband’s death, and if you’d told me I’d be this worried about what we might find out, I wouldn’t have believed you. But here I am – invested, and all the more anxious for it!
–b
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