A Red Herring without Mustard

And so back to Bishop's Lacey I go to discover what  Flavia de Luce is up to in the third novel of this delightful series.  More murder, more mystery and Flavia cooking up mischief is held within the pages.  Surprisingly Flavia seems to be on the verge of growing up, afterall she can't be eleven forever, and there are a few passages where Flavia takes a more grown up route.  There is still the ghost of Harriet, her mother, haunting them all and the addition of discovering a bit more about her.  If you like a good mystery novel or Agatha Christie, then add Flavia de Luce to your book shelf.  You won't be disappointed.

I do have some questions about Flavia 1) the book does take place in September yet she doesn't seem to go to school 2) Will Harriet her mother return from Tibet?

With these burning questions I joined the Flavia de Luce fan club and drop in online to participate in the lively discussions with other fans.  Most of us do agree that there is more to the Harriet story than Alan Bradley is letting on, or is Mr. Bradley chuckling or possibly getting plot ideas?

Looking forward to I'm Half Sick of Shadows coming out in paperback.  I won't be adding this one to the KOBO as I want all of them, all six, on my shelf.  I probably will read them all again once the series is fully published. 

KOBO

I got a KOBO for Christmas!  I finished my first book, The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker. Tiffany Baker has not written a light read for her first novel, but rather a giant of a book.

I loved the opening line of this book "The day I laid Robert Morgan to rest was remarkable for two reasons. First, even though it was August, the sky overhead was as rough and cold as a January lake; and second, it was the day I started to shrink." 

And we learn who Robert Morgan is and his relationship to Truly Plaice the heroine of this novel.  I never like giving too much away in a book review, I'd rather people read the book and enjoy all the surprises as much as I did.  Truly Plaice has some major morale issues to deal with, but in days when herbal medicine was the only means available, humans lived with the seasons, understood life and death on a far more intimate scale than we do today.  The writing is beautiful in this novel and the characters are believable.

I certainly am putting this book on my favourites lists.  

Reading on the KOBO was a different experience.  I actually found stats one day and discovered I had turned 1900 pages! I made the font smaller.  I also won some awards, which can be turned off, one for watching during commuting time, one for reading when most people watch TV and a lunch time award too.  I liked having the book go to the page I was reading when I turned on the KOBO.  I could put the KOBO in sleep mode and quickly turn it on again.  Reading standing up was a lot easier too.  My chiropractor is happy because now I won't be carrying heavy books and I will sit up straighter too.

Angelology

This book is not part of the angel movement we saw  few years ago. Far from the cute cherubs,  this book is based on the reference in Genesis 6


When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.


Canielle Trussoni's book on angels is based on the Nephilim and how they as a race have been manipulating humanity. The Watchers sent to earth to watch God's perfect creation, man and how they fell out of grace. These are not your cute angels, these are the rebel angels, the fallen angels, the angels that walk the earth.


The book takes place in 1999 starting on December 23rd and ending on Christmas Day.  An appropriate read for December.


The book starts off promising and certainly in the vein of The Da Vinci Code and other great adventure books based on religious quests.  The middle section of this book was the best part, I found the beginning ok and the ending section to be sloppy writing.  It's as if Ms. Trussoni lost interest in her characters and the premise of this book.  As if a secret society of angelologists would choose license plates with Angel 1 for their vehicles when we know they are being watched by the Nephilim!! I thought the love story between Evangeline and Verlaine was juvenile. The novel takes place in 1999 but never mentions the internet and people never use cell phones yet both existed.  Also Verlaine is an art history graduate and doesn't know some basic art history knowledge. 


There was potential here for a fabulous well written novel but it just fell flat at the end.   The characters were well developed at the beginning and Ms. Trussoni should have just left well enough alone rather than trying to impose a love interest between the two main characters.  This could have been such a great read and certainly I had high hopes, fell flat at the end and was only a so-so novel. As this was a New York Times bestseller I guess I expected better.  I'm not saying don't read this book, just be aware that the ending isn't all that great.


Hoping the movie will be an improvement on this story.

Not Scarlet O'Hara

A bit of catching up to do on the blog posting.  I've read three books that I have been meaning to blog about. Here is the second...

This novel is about the Civil War and Mary Sutter, a woman who wishes to be a surgeon. The time period is the American Civil War and Robin Oliveira doesn't skimp on the details either.  I loved the characters in this book and the heartwrenching sacrifices the men and women had to endure during one of America's bloodiest battles.  Mary isn't Scarlet O'Hara, although she has much the same spunk, she's got far more compassion and grit.  The men who fall in love with Mary Sutter do so not because of her beauty but for her character, her determination and her passion for medicine.  Mary's character has to endure so much to finally arrive where she wished to be in life. I don't want to write a huge long review of this book because I really think it needs to be read slowly and enjoyed, plus I don't want to give too much away of the story line.

A slow read but that was due to having to slow down to take it in. A riveting story!

PS: Dear friends you cannot borrow this one from me.  It was given to me to read and pass along and I've already passed it to another reader to enjoy.

This book is the story of Marina Singh and her journey to the Amazon for the pharmaceutical company she works for, Vogel, to find her former mentor and discover what happened to her colleague Anders. What Marina discovers is beyond what she imagined and her time in the Amazon does leave her in a State of Wonder.  


Here we have the big pharmaceutical company concerned only about profits, doctors and reseachers wanting to do further work and thus hide their intentions from the company and one woman coming to terms with her past and moving forward.  The characters are well developed, complex and interesting people.  I will say the book took a bit of time to "take off" but once I was into the middle I understood the reasons for laying down all the details in the beginning. 
There are unanswered questions at the end of this book, but I rather liked that Ann Patchett didn't write a nice compact ending.  


This is the first book I've read by Ann Patchett and I would like to read some of her other ones. This wasn't a quick read and you really need to be in the mood for a book that makes you think and leaves you wondering. 

Trilogy Of Light, Darkness and Shawdows

Imagine a world where one group of people live during the hours of the evening and another group live during the day.  This is the world of the Darkborn and Lightborn who have been cursed for 800 years to live as such. The Darkborn cannot go into light or they will burn to ash.   The Lightborn cannot go into darkness or they will find their life force draining away.  Here begins the adventures of Balthasar, his wife Telmaine and their friends Ismael and Floria White Hand.  I found the characters to be most intriguing, these are the type of people you'd want to meet.  I found the relationship between Balthasar and Floria White Hand interesting and this progresses in the final book, Shadowborn.  While reading Darkborn one must remember this is a trilogy and more is to come in the other two books. Lightborn tells us more about the other side, reveals more about Floria White Hand and her life at court.  Shadowborn, the final book brings all the characters together and introduces the Shadowborn characters to us, why the curse has lasted so long and how the three groups will now live side by side.


I enjoyed the women in these books too.  Telmaine with her court manners and society rules, Floria White Hand, Telamaine's husband's first love and the Lightborn neighbour Balthasar grew up with and finally the two Shadowborn women at the heart of the curse that has lasted so long.  I even enjoyed the twins, Laurel and Lavendar, tough Border women who fight for their family home. Great characters in these books which makes reading this fantasy trilogy so much fun!


Now that all three have been released, I suggest one purchase all three and read them back to back to get the full story.


I will say, as I just recently read Shadowborn, I wish there was more.  I know writing a trilogy must be daunting, keeping all the characters in place and knowing what will come next.  Still I'm hoping that maybe there will be more, especially regarding the children and what happens to them.  Possibly Ms. Sinclair is keeping those plots for another trilogy.

When you don't like the characters....but...

Set in a small Wisconsin farming and manufacturing town still crumbling a decade after the depression of the 1890s, this is the story of Ralph Truitt, a wealthy businessman who advertises for “a reliable wife” in newspapers across America. The woman he chooses, Catherine Land, describes herself as “a simple, honest woman,” but in truth she is both complex and devious. Her plan in accepting the marriage offer is simple: she will win this man’s devotion, and then, over time, will poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow. What she has not counted on, though, is the passion she finds in this seemingly solid, forthright man—a man who also harbours secrets...


That is the description of A Reliable Wife which was given to me as a Christmas present.  I was intrigued by the description above and the story inside its cover.  It lived up to its description, with twists and turns until the very end.  What I found interesting reading this book is I didn't like any of the characters, they had no redeeming qualities and unlike other books I've read,  were not people I'd ever wish to meet.  Maybe that is why I kept reading to the very end, I wanted Ralph and Catherine to prove me wrong, to make me like them.  This book is an excellent read, even if one doesn't like the characters, it is a study in human nature and to what lengths people go to get what they want.