Friends of Dorothy by Sandi Toksvig

320 pages

Publisher: Little Brown Group UK / Virago

Release Date: September 26, 2024

 

Blurb

After much searching, the happily married young couple, Amber and Stevie think they have found the perfect spot in Grimaldi Square. Despite the rundown pub across the way, the overgrown garden and a decidedly nosy neighbour, number 4 is the house of their dreams. Stevie, a woman who has never left anything to chance, has planned everything so nothing can spoil their happiness. But ... upstairs in their new home, seated on an old red sofa is the woman they bought the place from - eighty-year-old foul-mouthed, straight-talking, wise-cracking Dorothy - who has decided that she's not going anywhere. It turns out that Dorothy will be only the first in a line of life-changing surprises.

Friends of Dorothy is a touching, funny novel about a family that is not biological, but logical; a story close to Sandi Toksvig's heart.

 

Review

The last thing anybody moving into their new house expects to find is the former owner still in situ. But that’s exactly what happens to Stevie and Amber when they take possession of number 4 Grimaldi Square. Dorothy Franklin sits comfortably on a red sofa in one of the bedrooms with a suitcase by her side and she has no intention of leaving. Despite Stevie and Amber’s best efforts, there’s no getting through to Dorothy who appears to be staying for a reason she isn’t willing to disclose.

Life with Dorothy turns out to be anything but boring. From a demolished internal wall, via delicious meals, to heart-stopping rides through London, Dorothy keeps the two young women on their toes. She also introduces them to the neighbourhood and the pub across the road that has seen better times and is called The Price of Onions. Without being sure how it happens and while they’re busy trying to come up with a solution for Dorothy that doesn’t involve her living with them, Stevie and Amber find their new life taking shape and their circle of friends growing.

This is mostly a lighthearted, at times laugh-out-loud story. However, it isn’t without its deeper and darker moments. It is also a commentary on parenting, the housing market, the way society deals with our elderly, and LGBTQ+ issues, for starters. It is fair to say that while I found myself crying on numerous occasions while reading this book, most, but not all, of those tears were triggered by laughter. Overall though I would call this a feel-good read. While the book itself states that it isn’t a fairytale, the story does come with perfect happy endings for all the characters who deserve them.

I adored this book. It’s almost certainly going to be (one of) my favourite book(s) this year and goes straight to my ‘extra-special’ list. There is so much to love on these pages. Quirky and charming characters, lively dialogue, and not a boring moment, make this a memorable read. While the stories are different, the atmosphere of this book, the diversity of the characters, and the idea of logical rather than biological families reminded me of the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin. Considering how much I loved those tales the comparison is a compliment.

Finally, I’m pretty sure Sandi Toksvig referenced herself in her book when she wrote:

 “That lesbian on the telly – what shername – she has kids.”

And yes, this was one of many times when I laughed out loud.

Long review short: Friends of Dorothy is a delightful book! So much so that I want to live in Grimaldi Square, be part of that world, and become one of Dorothy’s friends.

The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre

 

400 pages

Publisher: Little Brown Group UK

Publishing date: July 18, 2024

 

Blurb

            FORGET WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW

THIS IS NOT THAT CRIME NOVEL

You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a twinset and tweed.

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes.

Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation. It will end with a rabbit hole that goes so deep, Johnny and Penny might come to question not just whodunnit, but whether they want to know the answer.

A cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly, The Cracked Mirror is the most imaginative and entertaining crime novel of the year, a genre-splicing rollercoaster with a poignantly emotional heart.

 

Review

Unique, original, and unlike anything I’ve read before are statements that get overused in reviews. However, for me they truly apply to The Cracked Mirror. There are plenty of twists and turns in this book but 85% into the story I gasped because I didn’t see that particular twist coming.

But, let’s start at the beginning.

It would be both right and wrong to say that The Mirror Cracked has two main characters because this book starts off with two different stories with different titles, different ways of numbering them, and written in different tenses. Penny Coyne is the main character in one story. She’s a lady in her 80s who lives in a picturesque Scottish village where she has solved numerous crimes. Johnny Hawke, the main character in the second story, is an LAPD police officer with a reputation for getting his partners killed. These two characters have nothing in common and should never have met except that they both end up at the same wedding.

There’s a third story headed Private Investigations followed by a place name. The PI in question is Dan Rattigan. These sections are short, and it doesn’t become clear how Dan is connected to Penny and Johnny’s stories until the end of the book.

That’s all I’m going to say about the story in this book. I hate spoilers in general, but it would be a crime (pun intended) to give anything away here.

Apart from apparently investigating the same mystery, Penny and Johnny don’t appear to have anything in common. It was only when I neared the end of the story that I realised there were other similarities between them. Once Johnny and Penny start cooperating the story is neither particularly cosy nor overly hard-boiled. Johnny adjusts to Penny’s sensibilities while Penny learns to accept that her cosy way of solving mysteries doesn’t always work.

“Penny felt unmoored. In her world, the police did not lie like this.”

This book takes you on a wild rollercoaster ride. Nothing is what it appears to be, and twists and turns keep the reader on their toes. Looking back now, a few days after finishing the book, I want to say that this story shouldn’t have worked but it somehow pulls off what are multiple shocking surprises without this reader rolling her eyes. Also in retrospect, I realised the author played fair with the reader. There were clues as to what was actually happening laced throughout the story. I just didn’t recognise them for what they were until the story spelled it out for me. And just when I thought I had all the answers the story ended and I realised that maybe, just maybe I didn’t. And that that is exactly as it should be.

I’m not sure if this book is ‘the most imaginative and entertaining crime novel of the year, but it is most certainly in the running for that honour. For me, it is a title to add to my very short list of extra-special books because, as I said at the start of my review, this book deserves to be called unique, original, and unlike anything I’ve read before.

West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman

 

 

288 pages

Publisher: Raven Books

Publishing Date: October 24, 2023

Netgalley

 

Blurb

'Any respectable practitioner must follow the rules in making the truth - however skilfully camouflaged by lies - accessible to all'

It's the Fourth of July weekend at the prestigious West Heart country club. Gathered for cocktails on the first evening are just some of the guests: the club president, the treasurer and his pregnant wife, the snooping school boy, the bereaved father, the taciturn caretaker, the prospective member, the private detective...

And there will also be a body.

And a fiendish mystery to solve.

But everything else is to play for.

And you are about to find out that you have a role to play in this mystery too..

West Heart Kill is an outrageously original and imaginative murder mystery that is both a love letter to the greats of classic crime fiction and a brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before.

 

Review

When a blurb states that the mystery in the book is ‘a brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before’ it is hard not to see that statement as a challenge. Therefore: challenge accepted. 😊

Brace yourself for a review filled with vagaries. So much of the plot depends on the things that make this story unique and surprising, and I wouldn’t want to ruin those discoveries for others. I do have a few things I want to say about the fascinating, original, surprising, and thought-provoking reading experience I just had, though.

The book starts with the narrator/author comparing West Heart Kill to all other murder mysteries. In fact, the book starts as if it hasn’t started yet, with the narrator describing what is happening, or going to happen, as if this is not the actual story yet but rather a description of what is to come. I’m going to stop relaying how the story is told soon, but I do want to add that the list of ‘dramatis personae’ has some parts of the description of individual characters blacked out. The text implies that the missing information would either tell the reader a lie or reveal too much.

I have to say a bit more about how this story is narrated after all because the second chapter is told from a first-person perspective, the third section shifts to the “we” of the first-person plural, and the book finishes as a play. Interspersed between the sections of murder mystery are apparently random theoretical facts about and opinions on murder mysteries and their authors. Except that nothing in this story turns out to be random. With one possible exception, although I can’t go into that. Which is probably just as well since I haven’t figured out how I feel about that yet.

If all of the above gives the impression that this book is anything but a mystery, allow me to reassure you. The components you’d expect in any whodunnit are all present here. We’ve got a private detective, deaths that need explaining, a locked room, and a closed circle of suspects, to mention a few familiar tropes.

But those are the bare bones. There is so much more going on. As an avid reader of the genre, I knew that everything on the page had to be in some way relevant to the mystery plot. And while a lot of what I read had me stretching my head in the moment, it all made a wonderful sort of sense when I reached the end of the book. If all you want from your mysteries is the traditional set-up of murder, followed by investigation, and denouement, this book may be too much for you. If, on the other hand, you enjoy discovering something new and being taken by surprise, you are going to love this story.

All too often the claim that the book a reader is about to start is unlike anything they’ve ever read before turns out to be a disappointing overstatement. Not this time. This time I fully agree with the last line of the blurb. West Heart Kill is indeed an

outrageously original and imaginative murder mystery that is both a love letter to the greats of classic crime fiction and a brilliant puzzle the likes of which you will never have read before.

All I know is that if ever a book deserved a re-read, this is it. I’m already anticipating how much fun I will have starting the story again but this time armed with the knowledge I’ll need to figure out exactly how immensely clever this work is. Because I’m sure I haven’t recognised the half of it.

 

 

 

 

 

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

 

410 pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

Bookclub

 

Blurb

 

Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants

A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.

Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.

The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest

There was a murder here last night.
A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.

Who holds the key?

 

Review

WOW!!!

There are well-plotted mysteries and then there is The Paris Apartment. To say I am impressed would be a gross understatement.

There is very little I can tell you about the story. Jess leaves her shitty job in England in a hurry and travels to Paris to stay with her brother Ben. From the moment she arrives at the address he’s given her, things seem off. For starters, how could her brother possibly be able to afford a place in such a luxurious building? That question is quickly pushed to the back of Jess’s mind when her brother doesn’t appear to be there to let her in. He doesn’t answer his phone either and isn’t reading her text messages. With nowhere else to go and very little money to her name, Jess has no choice but to find her way into the building and Ben’s apartment.

There is no sign of Ben in the apartment either, but worryingly, Jess does find his wallet. Jess stays because she has nowhere else to go and because she wants to find out what has happened to her brother.

Her search centres on the other people living in the building and the more Jess learns, the more she discovers that nothing is as it seems.

And that’s when a breathtakingly intense mystery slowly unfolds. There are layers upon layers of secrets to be revealed, unexpected connections to be made, and shocking discoveries a plenty. Lucy Foley achieved something remarkable here. This story works on every level and is masterfully plotted. In my arrogance, I thought at one point that I had it figured out. I was wrong. Very wrong. What happened in this story was more intricate and intelligent than what I had come up with.

This book is a page-turner and a half. It layers twist upon twist and then adds a few extra twists just when you think surely all has been revealed. The story pulls you in and the more you read, the deeper it sinks its claws into you. This was, without a doubt, the best book I have read so far this year. It’s going to take something very special to push it off that top spot.

Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession

240 pages

Publisher: Blue Moose Books

Blurb

Leonard and Hungry Paul are two friends who see the world differently. They use humour, board games and silence to steer their way through the maelstrom that is the 21st century.

"The figure in Munch’s painting isn’t actually screaming!’ Hungry Paul said. ‘Really, are you sure?’ Replied Leonard. ‘Absolutely. That’s the whole thing. The figure is actually closing his ears to block out a scream. Isn’t that amazing? A painting can be so misunderstood and still become so famous.’

LEONARD AND HUNGRY PAUL is the story of two quiet friends trying to find their place in the world. It is about those uncelebrated people who have the ability to change the world, not by effort or force, but through their appreciation of all that is special and overlooked in life.

 

Review

This is one of those books I find almost impossible to review. The problem is not that I can’t work out whether or not I enjoyed the read. The answer to that question is easy: I adored this story. The ‘issue’ is that I’m having a hard time pinpointing, never mind putting into words, why this book captured me the way it did.

On the surface, very little happens in this story. The tone and pace are quiet and gentle, as are the two main characters. Nobody makes grand gestures or reinvents themselves. There are no major revelations or shocking developments. And maybe that is one of the reasons this book spoke to me. In a world where more and more people want to be heard and seen, where how loud, funny, or controversial someone is seems to determine their status, it was wonderful to read about characters who have no such ambitions, who ‘just’ want to live their lives to the best of their abilities without agonising about qualities they may not possess.

On the other hand, it’s not quite true that nothing happens in this story. Maybe I should have said that nothing shocking or huge occurs. Because both Leonard and Hungry Paul’s lives change between the first and the last paragraph. Those changes are gradual though and anything but earth-shattering. What’s more, they grow without the essence of who they are changing.

This story is as gentle as its two main characters. It’s filled with observations to make you think and/or smile. It portrays the charm in everyday life, the beauty in small moments we all too often fail to recognise. It turns what appears to be a lack of ambition into a victory of appreciating what is. Leonard and Hungry Paul is the ultimate feel-good story in that it shows us how much we have to be grateful for in what appear to be unexceptional lives.

I’m not sure why Paul is labelled ‘hungry’. If hungry can be defined as needing wanting, yearning for something (food, success, popularity, power), then Paul is the exact opposite of hungry. He is contentment personified. And while his lack of ambition at times worries his family, Paul himself is unconcerned. What’s more, the way the story ends implies that his laissez-faire attitude to life is anything but a dead-end street.

I loved the alternative sign-off for emails Hungry Paul came up with:

 “You may wish to note the above.”

Goodness knows that would be great advice to end almost any email with. 😊

In fact, the whole book is a parade of quotable scenes, thoughts, and statements. I stopped myself from marking all of them, but the following idea is too close to my heart and beliefs for me to not share it.

 “The kids’ lives are their own. From day one you are handing it back to them bit by bit, until they move on.”

Long (and confusing) review short: Leonard and Hungry Paul is a quiet read…sweet, uplifting, and all the more thought-provoking for it. 

The Auction by Tiffany Reisz

 

 Original Sinners 0.2

 

Blurb

 

You're invited to New York City's hottest dating event: Kingsley Edge's annual King's Trust Charity Auction.

New on the auction block this year is Daniel, a wealthy widower and Dominant. However, he happens to have his eyes on another first-timer in the club's auction: Anya, a strikingly beautiful virgin submissive from his native Canada.

Too bad Anya hates him on sight. Or does she? There's a fine line between hatred and burning passion, and Daniel is determined to bring Anya across it. Now let the bidding begin....

 

Review

 

It is no secret I’m a huge fan of Tiffany Reisz’s Original Sinners series. Less well-known is that I’ve had a reading crush on Daniel since I first encountered him in these stories. Just my luck that he’s a dominant who features a lot less frequently than Kingsley and Soren, the two ‘uber’ Doms in this world. But it does mean that I appreciate every opportunity to spend some of my time with him all the more. In fact, the fact that this is a re-read and re-review is a good indication of how much I enjoy my encounters with Daniel.

The following is a re-write, with additions, of what I wrote in 2012 (I can’t quite believe how much time has passed):

Daniel returns to America and Manhattan after a year of travelling the world and testing his limits. A year that has helped him come to terms with his wife’s tragic death but has done nothing to help him get over Eleanor, the young sub he shared a week with, who helped him escape from his self-imposed house arrest after his loss and wouldn’t stay with him once the week was over. Now he’s about to enter Kingsley Edge’s world again; a world of BDSM as well as the world where Eleanor spends a lot of her time. Before he meets Kingsley though he has to get past the front door and Anya, a young woman from Quebec who appears to take an instant dislike to him. When Daniel finds out that Anya is about to put her virginity up for auction in order to care for her five, younger, siblings he is worried about the young woman and what she may have to face. But it isn’t until he has another encounter with Eleanor and finally realises that she will never be his that he realises that Anya may well be the ideal woman to make his own. Making Anya feel the same and saving her from the auction won’t be easy though and requires assistance as well as a devious plan.

As always Tiffany Reisz managed to captivate me with her story. Daniel is a wonderful character; strong and very dominant as well as caring and thoughtful he reads like a dream come true. Having said that, Daniel’s story requires some suspension of disbelief. Over the course of only a few weeks he moves from still not having quite come to terms with the loss of his wife while obsessing about Eleanor and wanting her back to falling for Anya so hard that he not only wants her as his sub but also offers to take on her whole family. I can’t say this speedy development bothered me, though. I’ve long since learned that the world of the Original Sinners, while resembling the world I live in, comes with its own set of rules. Sex and feelings are intense, come fast (pun totally intended), and transform characters.

This was a wonderful and very sexually charged love story and I was very sorry when it was over. Nine years after I first attended the auction, my feelings about the novella haven’t changed at all. Just as I still can’t seem to get enough of these characters or of Tiffany Reisz’ stories.

 

Listening Still by Anne Griffin

Sceptre

345 pages

 Blurb

Jeanie Masterson has a gift: She can hear the recently dead and give voice to their final wishes and revelations. Shared by her father, the gift has enabled the family undertakers to flourish in their small Irish town.

Yet, Jeanie has always been uneasy about censoring what she hears to protect the feelings of the living. Unsure too about the choice she made seventeen years ago, giving up the chance of a new life in London with her first love, Fionn, to work with her father and aunt – or the wisdom of marrying her faithful childhood friend Niall when she has never quite been able to forget Fionn.

Until now Jeanie has stifled her doubts, but when her parents unexpectedly announce their plan to retire and leave the business to her and Niall, she is jolted out of limbo.

In this captivating successor to her bestselling debut When All is Said, Anne Griffin masterfully portrays a young woman torn between duty and a last chance to break free – unaware that she’s not the only one who has long been softening the truth.

 

 Review

What to say about Listening Still other than WOW. Anne Griffin has done it again, be it that for me, Listening Still isn’t quite as breath-taking as When All is Said was. However, that may be because I have very strong feelings about the subject matter of the latter book, and not because there’s anything wrong with Listening Still.

In Listening Still, we meet thirty-something Jeanie who finds herself reassessing her whole life and the decisions she made and avoided making. Born into a family of funeral directors and being one of only two people in Ireland who can hear the thoughts of the death, her future appears set in stone before she is old enough to fully realise what a future is especially since she loves hearing from the death as a child.

Jeanie is basically a good girl, who takes her responsibilities seriously and, for the longest time, without much question. When Jeanie’s parents announce their decision to retire and move away, the house of cards starts crumbling. Jeanie questions everything. With her dad being the only other person who can communicate with the recently deceased, Jeanie will no longer be able to share the burden. She has long held doubts about her father’s inclination to beautify the final words and revelations when relaying them to the next of kin. Was she right to give up on the love of her life in order to fulfil what felt like her destiny? Does she love her husband, Niall enough? Is the life she is living really what she wants and needs?

In many ways this is a coming-of-age story, even if Jeanie goes through the process somewhat later in life than most. Jeanie has always done what was expected of her and has taken her responsibilities very seriously without ever asking herself how she felt about it. Between her parents’ announcement and further shocks, her breakdown is hardly surprising. The question becomes if it’s ever too late to be what you might have been and if Jeanie could ever have been anything other than what she is. The story poses some further interesting questions, such as, why do we tell those seemingly innocent little white lies? Is it really to spare others pain or discomfort or are our reasons more selfish; are we in fact trying to save ourselves from uncomfortable situations or embarrassment? Listening Still also asks how much of our lives we live for ourselves. How much of ourselves our we willing to deny in order to accommodate others?

I can’t say I agreed with or understood many of Jeanie’s decisions, nor her refusal to make them. But I was fascinated by the dilemmas she faces, heartbroken about some of the consequences, and frustrated with her refusal to take responsibility for the consequences of her (in)actions. It is, however, not necessary to agree with or even like characters in order to get caught up in their journey, and Jeanie’s progress over the course of this book had me entranced.

Maurice, from When All is Said makes an appearance in this story. Well, his corpse does. And he doesn’t talk to Jeanie. What she learns about him, she hears from his son, Kevin. I can’t help wondering if Anne Griffin was tempted to make him speak to Jeanie, to explain his reasoning one more time. Whether she considered it or not, I’m glad she didn’t, because Maurice told us everything we needed to know about him in his own amazing and memorable book.

My romance writer’s heart struggled with the somewhat ambiguous ending, but that’s not to say there was anything wrong with how the book ended. Quite the opposite in fact. When everything starts from scratch, the future is, by its very nature, at least a little ambiguous. The story couldn’t have ended any other way; if it had, it would have been a betrayal of both the previous 340 pages and of the main character(s).

Long review short: Listening Still was a captivating read, even if it did read a little like a car crash at times. The twist near the end was clever in that it came as a shock as well as a moment of clarity. While this isn’t a book for someone who wants stories to end with every question answered and all characters settled into their happy ever after, this is the perfect read for someone who, like me, enjoys playing the ‘I wonder what might happen next’ game after they’ve read the last chapter. With a storyline and main character that will stay with me for a long time, Listening Still has earned itself a place on my ‘extra-special’ list.

To read my review of When All is Said, click here: Review

 

  

Forever (#Hunt&Cam4Ever #8) by Adira August

397 pages

Buy links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

 

Blurb

....turn around...

“Lieutenant?” Woodward was there as if he’d materialized out of the lush greenery beyond the strip of grass. “Did you injure your left arm?”

Hunter looked down at his hand on his arm.

“Have you been feeling light-headed at all?” Wood asked.

“Yes,” Cam answered for him.

“Oh, God.” Avia started to rise.

“Please stay where you are,” Wood said, pulling his open collar aside, revealing a mic he spoke into. “I have a code xray ten at bungalow seventeen. Direct evac to Oceanside, cardiac teams in place asap.”

Cam was on his feet looking to Woodward for instructions.

“Get his I.D. and any medications he’s on.”

Cam shoved the chair back and ran for the door.

“I’m sorry. Don’t leave me,” Hunter’s voice was thick. A tear slid down from the outside corner of one eye.

Sirens sounded in the near distance.

Avia was next to his chair with her arms around his shoulders. “He’ll never leave you, Hunter, he just went to get something.”

Panicked, Hunt tried to rise. “No! I don’t need it. Don’t let him go to the store!” He knocked the table over trying to get up, to follow Cam.

Woodward caught him as he slumped to the floor.

.................from Shadow Men, Hunt&Cam4Ever Book 7

This is what happened next.

"...forever's gonna start tonight..."

 

Review

““This isn’t a future”, she told him. It’s a crossroads.”

O.M.G.

Hunt&Cam4Ever has been a favourite of mine ever since I read On His Knees. From that very first (short) installment, Hunter Kane and Camden Snow were unforgettable and edged into my mind. In fact, I started that very first review the exact same way I’m starting this one and, in all fairness, OMG is a perfect fit for the whole series.

This book is the culmination of everything that’s gone before. It answers remaining questions and reveals truths I wasn’t even aware I’d missed so far. It rounds things off in the most perfect fashion and yet, it was the toughest, most heart-wrenching story in the series.

Before I say anything else, let me repeat the words I ended my review of Shadow Men with: whatever you do DO NOT READ FOREVER UNTIL YOU’VE FINISHED SHADOW MEN. In fact, now that I’ve read Forever, I’ll go one step further and urge you to make sure you read all previous books before you even think about starting Forever. Without knowing everything there is to know about Hunter, Camden, Hunter’s team, and all the other characters who featured in the earlier stories, you won’t get the significance and beauty of everything that unfolds here.

Mind you, you’ll want to prepare yourself before you open this book. Guard your heart and be prepared for pain. The first third (approximately) of this story all but broke me. I never thought I’d see Hunt and Cam as shattered and insecure as they were in this tale. On the other hand, now that I have seen it, I have to admit it was inevitable. They had to break before they could become everything they always were, individually and together.

 Grief. It’s such a small word.

That encompasses sadness, fear, anger, guilt, deep loss, reality that shifts beneath your feet.”

There’s a lot of pain in Forever. Old pain, almost forgotten pain, pain denied, and fresh pain. And while this pain is important and something our heroes must go through, it’s not what this story is ultimately about. The real purpose of this story is what’s on the other side of that pain, on what remains when the sharp edges of grief have smoothened, on what emerges after it seems like everything is lost.

In one way this is the story of Cam and Hunter doing what they should have done from the start and certainly before they got married. They’re communicating, discovering each other in different, not sex- or work-related ways. It’s beautiful, emotional, at times warming my heart at others all but breaking it.

In another way Forever is about Cam and Hunt being honest with themselves before they’re (able to be) honest with each other. They have to open themselves up and dive into the depths of everything they’ve more or less successfully pushed into the far recesses of their consciousness before they can emerge together, better, stronger, and closer than they’ve ever been—even if I thought they couldn’t possibly get any closer than they already were.

Just because Hunt is out of the running, doesn’t mean that his team doesn’t have a nasty and tricky murder to solve. Just like his team members, I initially had a hard time coming to terms with that. Hunt was such a central and vital part of their earlier investigations that it was hard to imagine how they would manage without him, whether they even could function without him. But I guess they, and I, had to learn a lesson too. Hunt and Cam have grown over the course of the eight book series, but so have those who work with Hunt. His influence may not be direct in this book, but enough of it rubbed off on his co-workers for his intuitive and at times unorthodox style to bring them to the (rather horrifying) solution this time too.

The sex scenes in this book are as hot, powerful and breath-taking as always. They are (how shall I put it) less prominent in Forever, though. The sex, their scenes, were never the problem. You could say they were the only thing about Hunt & Cam not in need of re-examination. The scenes in this story were perfectly placed though since they happened just when Hunt, Cam, and I needed them most.

Honestly, I could go on Forever (pun totally intended) about this book, Hunt and Cam, and the series as a whole. If you want to read more of my fan-girling about these stories, you could check out my previous reviews. The following link will take you to my post about Shadow Men. Near the end of that review, you’ll find links to all other gush-fests, some of which include excerpts as well as character interviews. Enjoy!

Before I finished Forever, I feared that this might be my last encounter with Hunt and Cam. I’m very happy to report that I worried about nothing. There’s more to come and while it may be a little while before we meet again, I rest assured in the knowledge that Hunt and Cam will be back.

“That’s everything I want: to get through to the end of every day and still find ourselves together.”

The Priest (Original Sinners #9) by Tiffany Reisz

Publisher: 8^th Circle Press

Pages: 432

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Blurb

New Orleans, four months after the events of THE QUEEN...

Søren has been suspended from the Jesuits for a minimum of one year after confessing to fathering a child. To say he's struggling with his newfound freedom is an understatement.

Kingsley is about to be a father again and is convinced something very bad is about to happen. Nerves? Or is he right that the time has come for the Sinners to pay for their sins?

And if things couldn't get worse, a handsome private detective shows up and tells Mistress Nora that a priest has just committed suicide, and she was the last person he tried to call. He would like to know why...

She doesn't know, but Nora and her new detective friend will turn over the city to find out, meeting liars, vampires, and witches along the way. When she finds what she's looking for, she may wish she'd never stepped foot in New Orleans.

Review                     

“They were more like a spiderweb, all of them, made of filaments so fragile and fine nothing could put them back together if one of them was torn away…”

… and Nora decides to help investigate a suicide that may well cause those filaments to shrivel up and die.

Oh my God, what a book. I’m not sure how I’m going to put my thoughts and feelings into words, especially since I want to avoid spoilers, but … WOW. Not that I’m surprised. Tiffany Reisz is yet to let me down. But I’m not sure I was ready for this story. Then again, maybe I was. Maybe I’d been waiting for this story ever since I first read the Siren.

I’m sorry, I’m reviewing in riddles, and I can’t promise that’s going to get a whole lot better as I go on. I want to say all the things, and I don’t want to risk spoiling even the tiniest of details.

As always with Tiffany Reisz, this is a story with many layers; quite possibly more than I managed to discover on a first read. There’s the mystery Nora gets pulled into after a priest commits suicide. The last number he called before pulling the trigger was Nora’s old number and when Cyrus, the private detective trying to find out why the priest took this drastic action, approaches her, he pulls her into the case. A case which will bring them into contact with fascinating characters, vampires, and witches (well, what would you expect in New Orleans?). A case that will show Cyrus a way of life he barely knew existed, and a case that will turn two people who, at first glance, have very little in common, into friends.

But there’s more…so much more. There’s Søren and Nora and their complicated, fascinating, scary, and stunningly beautiful, yet fragile relationship.

“Twenty-three years together, and he could still make her toes curl and give her goosebumps and scare her down to the bone.

It was a sacred thing to be loved by a sadist like Søren. Sacred like a sacrifice, like a vestal virgin offered to a god. What was a god, anyway, but one who held the power of life and death in his hands? By that measure, surely Søren qualified, if only when they made love.”

And there’s the thing I don’t want to mention except to say that it answered something I’d been wondering about for as long as I’ve been reading the Original Sinners’ books. I approve of the way that ‘issue’ was resolved. It made sense and I had been anticipating it. And it was a wonderful illustration of how we sometimes don’t allow ourselves to see the full picture of who we are and how we reached a certain point in our lives until something from the outside forces us to open our eyes.

Again, I’m sorry. I’m being horribly mysterious but, if you are still to read the book, you wouldn’t thank me for saying more.

There was so much to love in this book. Kingsley, Juliette (expecting her second baby), and Celeste are delightful secondary characters. I adored Nora’s dog, Gmork. But I think I loved the developing friendship between Nora and Cyrus best. These two have little to nothing in common and Cyrus is definitely not a part of Nora’s kinky world. But their differences allowed them to be exactly what the other needed at various points in the story and I can’t help hoping that we’ll see more of Cyrus and his fiancée Paulina in future books.

I’m going to leave it here. Nobody is going to get anything out me making more vague yet gushing statements. Just go and read the book. And if you’ve so far managed to miss the Original Sinners’ series (what stone have you been living under?), all I can say is, pick up The Siren and start on a journey that will mesmerize and captivate you. Nine books in, and all titles still feature at the top of my ‘extra-special list’.

“If anything in the world was truly a sin, it was letting one’s own mild discomfort interfere with someone else’s healing.”

The Henchmen of Zenda by K.J. Charles

Publisher: KJC Books

232 pages

Buy links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Blurb

Swordfights, lust, betrayal, murder: just another day for a henchman.

Jasper Detchard is a disgraced British officer, now selling his blade to the highest bidder. Currently that's Michael Elphberg, half-brother to the King of Ruritania. Michael wants the throne for himself, and Jasper is one of the scoundrels he hires to help him take it. But when Michael makes his move, things don’t go entirely to plan—and the penalty for treason is death.

Rupert of Hentzau is Michael's newest addition to his sinister band of henchmen. Charming, lethal, and intolerably handsome, Rupert is out for his own ends—which seem to include getting Jasper into bed. But Jasper needs to work out what Rupert’s really up to amid a maelstrom of plots, swordfights, scheming, impersonation, desire, betrayal, and murder.

Nobody can be trusted. Everyone has a secret. And love is the worst mistake you can make.

A retelling of the swashbuckling classic The Prisoner of Zenda from a very different point of view.

Review

The Henchmen of Zenda was the most fun I had reading this year so far. This is a delightful tale of dastardly Daring Do’s, of secrets and betrayal, adventure, sexy times, and danger. And it’s all told by Jasper Detchard, who does his best to come across as cynical and aloof but can’t quite hide the fact that beneath the bluster hides a big heart.

I’ve never read The Prisoner of Zenda (although now I’ll probably have to get the book), but I’m not sure that mattered. I had no problem losing myself in this story, these characters, and this world. There really isn’t a boring moment in this story and the surprises come hard and fast. The villains are exceedingly (borderline over the top) bad and evil which makes reading about their demise all the more fantastic. I wouldn’t necessarily call their counterparts upstanding citizens. In fact, Jasper and his sex-interest Rupert have quite a few villainy traits of their own, but both of them happen to find themselves on the side of what’s right (or should that be ‘less wrong’) in this case and it’s impossible not to think that they’re comfortable there.

Sharp conversations between the principle characters fixed a smile on my face. The vivid descriptions of everything ranging from features, landscapes, to sword fights, brought the story to light, and numerous twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat. This is the sort of adventure story you should only start if you have a long stretch of reading time available. Because once you start The Henchmen of Zenda it is next to impossible to put the book down before you reach the final paragraph.

I neglected KJ Charles recently, and I have no idea why. It is an oversight I intend to fix over the next few months. Of course, the advantage of ‘forgetting’ about a great writer for a while is that there’s a good selection of new to me titles just waiting for me to find them.

Constellations by Sinéad Gleeson

244 pages

Book club read

Blurb

I have come to think of all the metal in my body as artificial stars, glistening beneath the skin, a constellation of old and new metal. A map, a tracing of connections and a guide to looking at things from different angles.

How do you tell the story of life that is no one thing? How do you tell the story of a life in a body, as it goes through sickness, health, motherhood? And how do you tell that story when you are not just a woman but a woman in Ireland? In these powerful and daring essays, Sinéad Gleeson does that very thing. In doing so she delves into a range of subjects: art, illness, ghosts, grief, and our very ways of seeing. In writing that is in tradition of some of our finest writers such as Olivia Laing, Maggie O'Farrell, and Maggie Nelson, and yet still in her own spirited, warm voice, Gleeson takes us on a journey that is both personal and yet universal in its resonance.

Review

…and then there are those times when I feel totally unprepared and even less equipped to write a ‘worthy’ review. Never mind that I’ve been sharing my thoughts about the books I read for at least fifteen years. Maybe fiction is easier because it gives you a linear story to follow, but I think that’s not really the issue here.

For starters, Constellations and Sinéad Gleeson are in a league of their own when it comes to language—beautiful language, fluent language, descriptive language, emotive language, efficient language… I could go on, but you get my  drift. Every single word on these 244 pages has a purpose, and most of them left me in awe. The book as a whole left me in no doubt that my ‘second language’ English is just not up to the task of doing Constellations justice.

But it’s more than that. I recognised so very much in this book, despite the fact that my background couldn’t be more different from the authors. My (medical) history doesn’t compare to Gleeson’s but many of her thoughts and feelings about dealing with a chronic condition and its life-long consequences struck home. But despite all the ‘oh yes, me too’ moments, there were at least as many where my reaction was the almost exact opposite of what I found on the page.

I’m not sure I have ever taken as long to read 244-page book. Nor did I ever stick as many sticky notes between two covers or fill as many pages with quote after quote after quote. You’d think that those notes would make writing a review easier but most of those ‘highlighted’ paragraphs and quotes are strictly personal to me, food for thought that will keep me thinking for days, weeks, months to come and may even encourage me to write that book I’ve been thinking about for the past twenty-odd years. All of them are fascinating, while none are helpful when it comes to giving an objective overview of this breath-taking book.

January hasn’t quite ended yet, but I think that with Constellations I may have finished the best book I’m going to read this year. Thought-provoking, enlightening, and touching this deeply personal memoir resonated with me in a way other people’s experiences rarely do. I have no doubt others will go through the same process of recognition and reflection—about being female, about life and death, and about learning to live with a chronic medical condition—I experienced and for that reason alone I’ll probably never stop talking about this book and recommending it to anyone who asks for my opinion.