Wooing the Wedding Planner by Amber Leigh Williams

by Carol1 Comment
Wooing the Wedding Planner is the type of romance I enjoy. Both Roxie and Byron are good, solid characters on their own and their relationship gradually grows. Yes, they know they're attracted to each other way before they do anything about it, but they both have pasts that are standing in their way. The problems aren't too big though, they never seem insurmountable, which I like. I could be friends with Roxie. She's trying to be happy after her divorce, to make the right choices for herself, and she's good at her job. For the record, her family is terrible. Byron is sexy and smart. Due to a mix-up, they are both at the Victorian, although he's living in a separate apartment. He's a widower and has always believed that Strong men have one true love and that love lasts a lifetime. His family is fabulous, funny, accepting, supportive. I never doubted that they would get their happy ending, but I enjoyed...
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The Secrets of Wishtide by Kate Saunders

by Carol1 Comment
The Secrets of Wishtide is fine. I really just don't have much to say about it. Letty is a competent investigator, but I wanted her to have more of a personality I guess. She's a little bland, which does allow her to fit in unobtrusively, but I wished she had more of a spark to her. Ido have some hope for her and Inspector Blackbeard though. I liked the Victorian Britain setting, both London and the countryside. We see the seedy side of the city and the drawing rooms of the rich. We see inside of Newgate and the country manor. I do think it did a good job of portraying how women were treated and the (lack of) options in that era. As far as the mystery goes, what started as a short trip to look into an unacceptable love interest turns more complicate and dead bodies start to pile up. The story got a little complicated and I'm never much...
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Penance by Kanae Minato

by Carol2 Comments
The novel revolves around a group of friends in a small, rural town. The town is known for its fresh and clean air, which results in a company which makes precision instruments moving there. The workforce is not thrilled with the move, most come from Tokyo and don't fit in well with the locals. One of the newcomers' children, Emily, makes friends with a group of local girls – Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuko. As the blurb states, one holiday the five schoolgirls, who were 10 at the time, are playing when they are approached by a man who chooses Emily to help him with a task. An hour or more later, Emily is found violated and murdered. At the time of this book, there was a statute of limitations during which criminals could be charged and so there is fifteen years to find the murderer. When the girls are thirteen, Emily’s mother invites them to her house and informs them that...
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Of Books and Bagpipes by Paige Shelton

by Carol1 Comment
I liked Of Books and Bagpipes much more than the first in the series. Delaney has been in Scotland for a while now and has come to care about the people she works with and her friends. I felt like her reason for investigating felt more natural this time around, a combination of natural curiosity and wanting to help. As a mystery, it worked well. There were plenty of clues and suspects and secrets that went back decades. It takes a lot of unraveling and I was surpised by the whodunnit, although I felt the motive was bit weak. And of course, Delaney gets herself trapped, but I didn't feel like it was because of stupidity on her part, which was nice. Sometimes female amateur detectives annoy me by taking risks that no sane woman would. Delaney didn't do that here. She has someone with her when there's a potential for danger, and always lets someone know where she is going. I...
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A Fine Year for Murder by Lauren Carr

by Carol2 Comments
A Fine Year for Murder is the second in the Thorny Rose Mysteries. From the first, we know that Jessica has nightmares, and this time around we learn why. Once again, the coincidence that bring everyone into the investigation seems a little forced. Jessica and Murphy attend a family dinner where investigative journalist Dallas Walker is describing a cold case she is investigating that is known as the Pine Bridge Massacre – a brutal killing of a family. Jessica realizes that she witnessed the death of the young girl but has been suppressing the details causing her violent nightmares. What are the chances, really, first that Jessica was a witness to the massacre, and that a family member's girlfriend happens to be investigating it? But let's just ignore that and get on with the rest of the book. I thought the mystery was well done. I liked how Carr blended the "real" clues with Jessica's memory. The family at the winery, Jessica's adoptive family as...
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Earthly Remains by Donna Leon

by Carol1 Comment
I've read or listened to a fair number of the Commissario Brunetti series, but I read them out of order. It's a bit of bad luck that both this and the one I listened to before it both deal with pollution. Yes, it's a topic Leon keeps coming back to, apparently a major issue in Venice, but usually it's spread out a little than it was for me this time. I would have liked a different topic, but that's more my fault than Leon's. I liked that Brunetti gets out of town for a while this time around. I enjoy the early part of the story where he's relaxing and rowing; it's different than we usually see him. I like the people in the smaller towns, their relationships. I enjoyed the bees and how much they meant to David Casati. I missed his family a bit, but I'm sure they'll be in the next one. The investigation was interesting, with it's digging into...
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