Spring Has Sprung: Unusual Historicals for April 2024

Looking at this month's crop of unusual historical offerings it's safe to say spring has sprung in Romancelandia!  This bumper crop of 12 books is actually whittled down, if you can believe it. I know the rage the last few years has been contemporary romance, all of them slapped with interchangeable cartoon covers (don't at me, y'all know I'm right) but these unusual historical posts always give me a bit of hope every month that maybe the dearth of interest in historical romance in this moment is greatly exaggerated. Now sit back, relax and feast your eyes...

The Lady He Lost by Faye Delacour

Her only interest is in making her own way in the world. Luckily, he can help.

Lieutenant Eli Williams was supposed to be dead. In the two years since his shipwreck, his friends and family mourned him, his brother spent his savings, and his fiancée married someone else. So, when he turns up in the middle of the London social season, he quickly becomes the talk of the town. All Eli wants is to set his life back in order and reconnect with Jane Bishop, a friend who has always meant so much more to him, before returning to sea.

Jane refuses to waste any more of her life pining over Eli, who chose her cousin instead of her. She needs to focus on gaining her financial independence by establishing a ladies' gambling club. Never mind that Eli keeps trying to atone for his past mistake by bringing in new members. He's obviously keeping secrets about his disappearance, which means that she can't trust him with her heart even if she did kiss him in a moment of weakness. Or three.

As Eli works to regain her trust, Jane's defensive walls begin to crumble. But when Eli faces a court of inquiry on suspicion of desertion, Jane must decide if she can let go of the past to build a future with Eli, or risk losing him for good.

A debut and the first in The Lucky Ladies of London series features a presumed dead hero who returns in the middle of the whirl of the London Season to discover everyone has moved on - including the woman he always considered a friend. That friend is our heroine, who is working to establish a ladies' gambling club and she apparently has no interest is getting stuck back in the hero's Friend Zone.

Wake Me Most Wickedly by Felicia Grossman

Solomon Weiss has little interest in power, but to repay the half-brother who raised him, he pursues money, influence, and now—a respectable wife. That is, until outcast Hannah Moses saves his life, and Sol finds himself helplessly drawn to the beautiful pawnshop owner.  

Forever tainted by her parents' crimes, Hannah sees only a villain when she looks in the mirror—no one a prince would choose. To survive, she must care for herself, even if that means illegally hunting down whatever her clients wish. So, no matter how fair or charming she finds Sol, he belongs to a world far too distant from her own.   

Only neither can resist their desires, and each meeting weakens Hannah’s resolve to stay away. But when Hannah discovers a shocking betrayal in Sol’s inner circle, can she convince him to trust her? Or will fear and doubt poison their love for good? 

The second book in Grossman's Once Upon the East End series features a pawnshop owner heroine and a riff on the Snow White fairy tale. I found the first book in this series a little uneven, but I was so taken in by the worldbuilding I knew I'd pick up this one (which, hello, already have...)

Alliance with the Notorious Lord by Bronwyn Scott

Mixing business…

…with rakish pleasure!

Recently widowed Antonia Lytton-Popplewell is determined to carve her place in a man’s world. Yet turning a ramshackle property in London into a world-class department store isn’t easy. Especially when her inheritance comes with strings in the form of her late husband’s business partner, infuriatingly attractive Lord Cullen Allardyce. To ensure success, Antonia needs Cullen’s guidance. But her alliance with society’s most notorious rebel becomes even more complicated when begrudging respect turns into mutual desire…   

The second book Scott's Enterprising Widows series features another widowed heroine who lost her husband in the 1852 Homfirth Flood.  Determined to open her own department store in London, she finds herself saddled with her late husband's business partner, our hero, who is not only attractive (naturally) but also a bit of a maverick.

The Orchids of Ashthorne Hall by Rebecca Anderson

For years, rumors have flown through the village of Suttonsbury about Ashthorne Hall—that its occupants hoard pirate treasure, that a ghost walks its halls—but botanist Hyacinth Bell only cares about the estate's extensive, one-of-a-kind orchid collection. As an independent woman, she is eager to focus on her career, even if it means waiting to pursue a romantic relationship. After all, love—like an orchid—must be nurtured and tended before it can bloom.

What she doesn't expect is to be swept away by Lucas Harding, the manor's caretaker, upon their first meeting. He is handsome and charming, and the connection between the two is nearly instantaneous. Hyacinth is certain this autumn will be the season that everything good in her life takes root

But then strange things start happening in the seemingly empty halls of the estate: unexplainable noises, items appearing then disappearing from her room, threatening messages, and glimpses of a woman in white who vanishes into the dark. Lucas dismisses Hyacinth's worries, insisting that there is no ghost at Ashthorne Hall, but she suspects he is withholding information and decides to investigate the mystery herself.

Armed with little more than her instincts and her courage, Hyacinth must venture deep into the shadows of Ashthorne Hall to uncover the truth Lucas is keeping secret before she herself falls victim to the dangers hidden in the estate.

A botanist heroine, a caretaker hero, an estate in Cornwall shrouded in rumors and mystery - folks, it's textbook Gothic and I am HERE for it. 

The Lady Plays with Fire by Susanna Craig

As the daughter of a clergyman, Julia Addison knows she’ll never be able to fulfill her lifelong dream of acting on the stage. But writing forthright reviews of the Season’s most popular plays for Mrs. Goode’s Magazine for Misses, popularly known as Goode’s Guide to Misconduct is surely the next best thing. Even better, she’s got a ticket to Ransom Blackadder’s latest irritating satire about English society. Best of all, she’s sharing a theater box with the gruff but handsome Lord Dunstane, which is enough to make Julia call for an encore . . .

Graham McKay, the Earl of Dunstane, rarely leaves his home in the Scottish Highlands. Why would he? Nothing about London has ever held his interest—until he meets Julia. But when Graham realizes she is the critic who panned his last play—and she discovers he is in fact the man behind Blackadder’s wicked pen—will it bring down the curtain on their romance—not to mention the magazine that published the humiliating review? Or can an unexpected collaboration set the stage for a scandalous love affair?

The second book in Craig's Goode's Guide to Misconduct has our daughter of a clergyman penning theater reviews for a ladies' magazine and running afoul of an Earl whose last play she panned. Unfortunately for both of them feelings are caught before true identities are revealed - who said love isn't complicated?

A Perfect Match by Margaux Thorne

Marriage and babies are the farthest things from Miss Myfanwy Wright’s mind. Cricket is her one and only love, which is why she created the Single Ladies’ Cricket Club. A club where like-minded single women can bond together over sport; it is a sanctuary for those who don’t wish to spend endless hours gossiping over tea and needlepoint or compromise their interest with a husband’s.

But after three straight years of losing to the Matron’s Club, Myfanwy’s team is showing signs of collapse. And the fact that her best friend might be next in line to get married—and desert the club—is too much to bear.

If Myfanwy’s going to beat the Matrons and save her team, she will have to find a coach who can lead the Single Ladies to victory. Luckily, she doesn’t have to search far. Her guardian is one of the best cricketers to ever play the game. Unfortunately, he can only see out of one eye, walks with a limp, is drunk half the day, and is the most disagreeable—and handsome—man she’s ever met …

Ex-cricketer, Samuel Everett is resting on his laurels. Injury might have taken him out of the game he loved, but he is a rich man now who can retire into a quiet life of mini-celebrity. He is done with the crowds, done with the constant traveling and living on the road. Cricket might have been his life; however, that life is now over.

But when Myfanwy nags him into coaching her little club, Samuel finds that old habits die hard. And the more time he spends with the talented team—and Myfanwy—the more he realizes that there is still some fight left in him. With Myfanwy’s help, Samuel rehabilitates his mind and body, gaining a fresh perspective on what he still has to offer the sport—and his opinionated, obstinate, gorgeous ward.

Banding together Myfanwy and Samuel butt heads and hearts as they prepare the club for victory. But as the match with the Matrons draws near and their love grows, Myfanwy faces the ultimate conundrum. As team captain of the Single Ladies’ Cricket Club, she made the rules, and she knows them better than anyone—there’s no room for married women.

Lord help me A LADIES' CRICKET CLUB?!?!??!  I once had a college professor try to explain cricket to me and I was so hopelessly lost that I'm half convinced that's why the sport isn't seen more in romances - but hot damn, I'm willing to learn. A LADIES' CRICKET CLUB Y'ALL!!!!!

A Lyon to Die For by E.L. Johnson

Crossed in love and sent to London for almost ruining her reputation, Emmeline is the only female proprietor in an exclusive row of London shops whose owners aren’t the most welcoming. But with a sharp tongue and fiery temper, Emmeline can deal with her unfriendly neighbors, even Mr. Horatio Whittaker, an arrogant, reserved, opinionated young man with fixed opinions and cold manners.

Horatio Whittaker has given up on happiness. Abandoned at the altar for his scheming best friend, he never expected to find love again. He hardly notices women until he crosses paths with Miss Emmeline Harcourt.

Emmeline hopes to never encounter Mr. Whittaker again, but when she accepts an invitation to the Lyon’s Den, they find themselves at the heart of a mystery, entangled with Horatio’s former fiancée and deceitful best friend.

From false accusations, rumored affairs, and even a deadly party game, Emmeline and Horatio must work together to prove their innocence and find the culprit. Pretending they are courting should make investigating easier, so long as they don’t fall in love.

Part of the extended Lyon's Den universe, a betrayed hero who has sworn off women and a shop owner heroine with a "reputation" get swept up in a mystery.  I am nothing but a sucker for heroines with a reputation and grumpy heroes with valid reasons for being grumpy.  Bring it on.

The Sailor Without a Sweetheart by Katherine Grant

Six years ago, Amy Lamplugh decided not to elope with Nate Preston. Ever since, she has been working hard to convince herself she was right to choose her family over Nate.

Now, Nate is back. After an illustrious career as a naval captain, he faces a court martial for disobeying orders while fighting the slave trade. He accepts an invitation to await the trial at a country estate outside of Portsmouth - and discovers he is suddenly neighbors with Amy.

Nate is shocked to find that Amy didn’t end up marrying someone rich and titled. Instead, she is a glorified companion to her younger sister - and is clearly battling some unnamed illness.

Thrown together by circumstances outside their control, Nate and Amy try to be friends. Soon, it becomes clear that their feelings for each other never died.

This fourth book in The Prestons series features a naval captain hero on trial for following his conscience and defying orders being reunited with the heroine who refused to elope with him years earlier. A reunion romance against a compelling backdrop of uncertainty (will the hero hang or will they live happily ever after?) 

The Wrath of the Marquess by Barbara Russell

An earthquake brings Cora and Ethan close. Literally.

They find themselves trapped together under an altar in a half-collapsed church. With nothing better to do but wait for the rescue party to free them, they form a bond of friendship and shared secrets.

She endures a loveless marriage with her abusive husband, Lord Roxbury, who mistreats and neglects her and their son, David. Ethan, a soldier and the next Marquess of Hertford, is about to be deployed to a Pacific island to fight against pirates.

Cora and Ethan meet again a few years later after he returns to London to keep open the centre for veterans his father founded. Not an easy task since he needs Lord Roxbury’s support for legal reasons.

When Cora tries to leave her husband to start a new life and protect her son, he shoots her. Desperate to help his mama and scared, David takes Cora to Ethan’s house and begs him to save her.

Ethan hides them in his house and takes care of Cora’s injury. Helping Cora leave England and hiding her from Lord Roxbury proves to be a challenge for Ethan. The future of dozens of soldiers, who suffer from permanent physical and mental problems, depends on his good relationship with Lord Roxbury.

On top of that, he didn’t expect to develop strong feelings for both Cora and David. As they carve their places into his heart, he has to decide which path is the worst. If he helps Cora and David move somewhere Lord Roxbury won’t find them, he won’t see them again. But if Cora gets a divorce, Lord Roxbury will take his revenge on Ethan, destroying everything important to him. Including Cora.

This third book in the author's Victorian Outcasts series features a heroine trapped in an abusive marriage being reunited with a hero who needs her odious husband's support to help the country's veterans. Things get complicated when the heroine tries to leave said husband...

A Duke a Day Keeps the Doctor Away by Emily EK Murdoch

Moses Warwick, Duke of Chetnole, is not going to allow a literal stab in the back to slow him down. Getting robbed and left for dead? That might do it.

Thankfully, someone finds him, drags him to their cottage, and tends to his wounds. When Moses comes round, he wants to thank the doctor who so expertly cared for him. That was when the woman he knew as Jenny Powell revealed that she was a doctor.

Unable to call her such a ridiculous title, and trapped by his lost memory in her cottage until it returns, Moses struggles against his growing admiration for the woman who surprises time and again. But Jenny can’t have this stranger in her home forever. She’s hiding a secret no one has been told for three years—a secret that will change the way Moses looks at her.

Good thing she gave him a good slap the first time he stole a kiss…right?

With traitors in France on one hand, mistrust of a woman doctor on the other, and fierce attraction growing between the two unlikely friends, will a duke each day manage to keep away from this delightful doctor?

Part of the author's long-running Dukes in Danger series, a Duke left for dead is saved by our doctor heroine, and if we can read between the lines of the back cover blurb, unsurprisingly behaves like a jackass that a mere woman saved his life 🙄.  That said, I have this sick fascination for reading about heroes like this having their notions about "womanhood" challenged and of course I'm now intrigued by the heroine's "secret." Oh, and traitors in France you say?

The Swan Laird by Susan King (Reprint)

Scottish-born Sir Gawain Avenel, raised in England and pledged to the English king, keeps his Highland origins secret when sent north to rout Scottish rebels. Saving a Highland girl from drowning, he recognizes her years later as a Scottish captive in the English court. In a cruel jest, the king orders Gawain to marry her and command her Highland castle as a warning to rebels.

Juliana Lindsay risks her life each time she disguises as a legendary swan maiden to lead the English enemy away from rebels. Captured and forced to marry a mysterious English knight and relinquish her castle, she recognizes her rescuer–who now poses danger. Drawn back to the rebellion, Juliana begins to trust Gawain–yet as love grows passionately between them, he must guard his secrets or lose all.

The hero is reunited with the Scottish heroine when the King orders him to marry the rebel and take over her Highland castle. Originally published under Penguin's Signet imprint in 2001 with the title, The Swan Maiden, this reprint features newly added content.

The Madness of Miss Grey by Julia Bennet (Reprint)

Everyone thinks Helen Grey is mad but, despite ten years imprisoned in a crumbling Yorkshire asylum, she’s managed to cling to sanity. When a new doctor arrives, she sees an opportunity. William Carter may seem like an honorable man but she's sure he'll prove easy to seduce…and trick into helping her escape.

Will would never bed a patient, no matter how tempting she might be. But once he realises Helen's been imprisoned for no good reason, he's determined to save her. They need to work together but freeing her won’t be easy, not when her mysterious benefactor is determined to keep her locked up and hidden from society forever.

When Helen is entangled in her own trap and begins to fall for Will too, she must fight not only for her liberty but for her right to love.

Originally published in 2019 by Entangled (with a clinch cover), this Gothic romance features a presumed "mad" heroine (whose only illness is probably having a mind of her own 🙄) finding in an ally in the hero who she was planning to seduce in her bid for freedom. I somehow missed this one back in 2019 and bland illustrated cover aside (come for the unusual historicals, stay for Wendy hating on illustrated covers....) this sounds great.  

Whew! That was a lot. Here's hoping we all find something delicious to read among this bountiful crop of unusual historicals.  What are you looking forward to reading?

Mini-Review: Harlem Sunset

When I read and reviewed Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia earlier this year I closed out the review by saying I wasn't sure I would continue with the series. Well, guess what I found when I did a deeper dive into my backlog of ARCs on my Kindle?  Yeah, Book 2 in the series, Harlem Sunset. I really need to exhibit some self-control and not request multiple books in a series on Netgalley before I even read the first book 🙄.  

This book picks up where the first book left off.  The Girl Killer has been dispatched, Louise is now working at her friend Rafael's club, The Dove, and she's moved into a new apartment with Rafael's sister, and her longtime girlfriend, Rosa Maria.  They're celebrating Louise's 27th birthday at the club when in walks Nora Davies.  Nora was one of the girls Louise rescued when she was abducted by The Girl Killer as a teenager. After the club closes the group settles in for some after hours drinking, only to discover they've been drugged. When they all wake up Rosa Maria is covered in blood and Nora is dead.  Louise just knows that Rosa Maria couldn't kill anyone, but the cops lack imagination and have the group in their crosshairs. Louise puts her investigator's hat back on and starts digging.

Let's start with the good - I do think this was a better executed book.  The pacing issues I had with Book 1 are ironed out more here. Louise continues to be an interesting character with some complicated edges to her and we learn a bit more about her family (she's estranged from her father) in this book which adds more depth. Also, while I found Rosa Maria annoying in Book 1, she's not so bad here - maybe I'm softening in my old age? - and the Prohibition Harlem setting continues to be interesting.

What doesn't work so well? While the pacing issues are cleaned up, I still found the author's tendency to jump ahead in the narrative timeline a bit ragged. It's like she takes us from Point A to Point C while speeding past Point B. This kind of thing always gives me whiplash as a reader.

This is also a book that does not stand-alone well as so much of the story hinges on events detailed in Book 1.  For that reason reading Book 2 ahead of Book 1 essentially "spoils" the entirety of Book 1 - so something to keep in mind if you're entertaining starting this series. It really needs to be read in order.

And ultimately, that leads me to my biggest issue with this book - Louise is pretty dense.  Given her life experiences (abducted at 16, in the cross hairs of a murderer in Book 1), you just expect her to be more jaded and not so trusting.  I clocked the Bad Guy the minute they waltzed on page and remembered enough minor details from Book 1 that I even had the motive unraveled before Louise catches a clue. And this is a character she just implicitly trusts from the jump. 

In the end, while I do think this is a better book in some ways over the first one, I'm left with pretty much the exact same reaction. I didn't hate it, but there wasn't much here to inspire me to keep going. Thankfully Past Wendy exhibited some control and did not download the ARC of Book 3 from Netgalley.

Final Grade = C+

#TBRChallenge 2024: Sweet Mercy

The Book: Sweet Mercy by Jean Brashear

The Particulars: Harlequin SuperRomance #1339, part of series, 2006, out of print. The author later self-published this book as Dream House and given that she changed the hero's name, it stands to reason that maybe other changes happened?  I read the SuperRomance edition of this story and this review is about that edition.

Why Was It in Wendy's TBR?: I got my copy at a used bookstore and liked the sound of the back cover blurb. 

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Review: This cannot be overstated: I am utter trash for romance heroines who have "reputations." Add in a gooey vulnerable core and some stand-up-for-yourself feistiness and I'll be a goner before you even get me out of the first chapter. All the enjoyment I got out of this book is entirely because of our heroine, Jezebel Hart. Too bad she falls for a hero who isn't even remotely good enough for her.

Gamble Smith was a jackass in a previous book, breaking that particular heroine's heart. He's working as an artist in New York City, his career is starting to take off, and then he gets word he has to go home to East Texas.  It's his mother's birthday and his siblings are throwing a party.  However, once he arrives in Texas he learns the party had to be cancelled because Mom has been in a fairly serious car accident.  This just compounds his guilt.  He left Texas years ago after his one twu wuv, his first wife, died.  They were childhood sweethearts, he built them a dream home (a lovely cottage) and they were happy.  Then, against doctor's advice, she got pregnant. Think Shelby in Steel Magnolias.  She's overjoyed, Gamble is not because 1) she's so frail and the doctor said it was a bad idea and 2) because she got pregnant without consulting him (she stopped taking her birth control behind his back). Naturally what everyone fears will happen, happens. Wife #1 and the baby die and Gamble is swallowed up by his grief, leaving a lovely cottage to rot as penance, a shrine to everything he's lost.

It should be noted here that Gamble's grief seemed entirely wrapped up in Dead Wife #1. The unborn baby's death gets short-shrift.

Enter Jezebel Hart. A former stripper and cocktail waitress, she came to Three Pines, Texas looking for a fresh start and found a family.  The bar's owner gave her a job and she's now running the place while he recuperates from an injury.  She would love nothing more than to get him out of the nursing home he's currently in and into a real home - and of course Jezebel has fallen in love with Gamble's abandoned cottage. She meets Gamble when he lands back in town and sparks immediately fly.  She doesn't know who he is right away and he has no idea that she's the one who approached his brother about buying his cottage.  Naturally they end up in bed and naturally once he finds out who she is things get complicated.

Words cannot express how much I loved Jezebel. If she had a theme song it would be Brick House by The Commodores. She doesn't have the red hair, but I pictured her looking like the actress Christina Hendricks.  She's the kind of woman with curves for days and who has spent her entire life dodging leers (and other things) from asshole men. She's also a woman who can take care of herself, getting a lifetime of practice growing up in foster care and doing the type of work she's done. But underneath the siren's body is a woman who wants the white picket fence. If there's a stray within a country mile she'll take it in.  And Gamble with his haunted eyes, his grief and pain - she doesn't stand a chance.

The problem here is that Gamble is nowhere near good enough for her. Look, I get it. He's grieving. However, grief does not give anyone a free pass to be a hateful jackass - and the slut-shaming in this story enraged me.  Gamble has sex with her and then says awful things when he finds out she's the one interested in buying his cottage.  His sister accuses her of using her body to manipulate her poor grieving brother.  To add insult to injury, while Jezebel doesn't back down from Gamble, and gets more than one scene where she rips him to shreds, his vile sister never does show up on page again with Jezebel to apologize for what an evil witch she was to her.  

Seriously, I would take a bullet for Jezebel.

Two other issues with this story: the first time Gamble and Jezebel bone the condom breaks.  She knows this and immediately thinks she's pregnant (because she's clairvoyant apparently?) but has to wait a few days for the pregnancy test. And since this is a Harlequin of course she doesn't even have a single thought about emergency contraception.  Of course Gamble is all butt-hurt when he discovers the pregnancy test in her apartment and that leads to Drama Llama in our final act - but dude, she knew the condom broke and you didn't? When you were the one WEARING IT?!  Then there's the final separation to spur our couple to the happy ending. The author has to get Jezebel out of town for Gamble to have his Come to Jesus moment, and that's done by having Jezebel go back to Reno to be a trial witness for a mob hit she witnessed before hightailing it to Texas to lie low. 

Seriously.

The witness to the mob hit thing is very tacked on and screams CONVENIENT PLOT DEVICE. It's so tacked on that to keep Jezebel safe from eventual mob retribution it's disclosed she ended up not having to testify and the bad guy was convicted without her testimony. Ergo the mob has no reason to want her dead and she can go on with her life. Which begs the question - why fly a witness all the way to Reno and then not use her testimony?  This nugget in the story is mentioned early on to explain why Jezebel is in Three Pines and then leveraged at the end to be the third act separation. Other than that it does nothing and goes nowhere.

What am I left with?  With no idea how to grade this story. I loved the heroine. Her immediately thinking she's pregnant and no thought of emergency contraception did annoy me - but she's in a Harlequin, so yeah.  But the rest of her? Insert all the heart-eye emojis.

It's just unfortunate I hated Gamble. The pining for his saintly first wife. His behaving like a jackass while he and everyone around him uses his grief as an excuse. I've seen people grieve. I've known grieving people. They don't behave like this asshole does. And while I'm at it, his vile sister who slut-shames Jezebel should have been drop-kicked into the sun, not fall in love with the ex-con who works at her mother's garden nursery. Seriously, she's terrible.

I read it in two gulps, but it gave me emotional whiplash. Love ya Jezebel, but the rest of it is kind of a mess.

Final Grade = C+

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is April 17

This reminder post is set to go up on the day I'm heading north to watch my niece, Lemon Drop, compete in an equestrian competition and take custody of my Parental Units from my sister. It's also hopefully going to mean that I've already read and scheduled the post about my #TBRChallenge book this month since it hits at the tail-end of their visit - Wednesday, April 17. This month's optional theme is No Place Like Home.

This is another suggestion that came out of my Annual Theme Poll and I feel like this one should be like shooting fish in a barrel - there's several popular options that come to mind! One of the characters returning to their hometown for some reason. A second chance or reunion themed romance. Or maybe one of the characters searching for a figurative "home." These are all really popular themes in romance and I'm sure we all have plenty to choose from in our TBRs.

However if you feel like this month's theme is too much like work 😂, remember that the themes are completely optional. The goal of the challenge has been, and always will be, to read something (anything!) that's been languishing in your mountain range of unread books. 

It is certainly not too late to join the Challenge (to be honest it's never too late).  You can get more details and get links to the current list of participants on the #TBRChallenge 2024 Information Page. 

Review: Killers of a Certain Age

I promise that one of these days I'll get back to reading and blogging about romance, but the Clean Out Old Suspense ARCs via Library Audiobook Check-Outs Project continues here at the Bat Cave. Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn is a book that got a fair amount of play when it was published in 2022 - making the New York Times Bestseller List and being nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award (meaning a TON of people read and rated this book on GR).  Well, buckle up kiddies because you're in for another patented Auntie Wendy Damning with Faint Praise Review.

Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie and Helen have spent the last forty years working for "The Museum," an elite group of assassins who got their start during and after World War II hunting down Nazis. As they ran out of Nazis, The Museum sets their sights on other desirable targets.  Drug cartels, human traffickers, dictators, despots etc.  Our group of four women were hand-picked by The Museum for "special skills" they see in them, to be trained as the first all-female squad of assassins since World War II. 

Forty years later, all in their 60s, the women are retiring with a posh, all-expenses paid cruise funded by their soon to be former employer.  The cruise starts out unremarkable enough until Billie spies one of The Museum's assassins on the boat disguised as a crew member. That could mean that the four have stumbled their way into a mission, but that seems unlikely since The Museum funded this cruise for them. Nope, it can only mean one thing - their soon-to-be-former employer wants to make all four of them soon-to-be-formerly breathing. 

What follows is a race to outfox The Museum and get to the bottom of why the agency wants all four of them dead. Only the Board can order the termination of a field agent, and The Museum has always been methodical in their research department - potential hits being investigated sometimes for years, down to the type of underwear they like to wear and how they take their coffee.  None of it makes any sense.

While there are four characters, this story is told from Billie's point of view, sort of the defacto leader of their group.  The story also features timeline shifts, with the bulk of the story taking place in present day and chapters interspersed throughout about past missions, set in the early 1980s.

For a book about hired assassins the tone of this story is surprisingly light and frothy. It's also a lot of fun. I had a good time listening to it, I chuckled in a few spots, I enjoyed the story.  

If you're thinking there's a but coming - well, you would be right.

Look, I love me some fiction with morally gray characters. Anti-heroes, tough guys, characters with a lot of tricky edges that don't always make them "nice." This is not a problem for me. For heaven's sake, I spent an entire year glomming through Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series. 

The problem here is the author doesn't sit with the morally gray or the ethically dubious. Yes, yes our retiring assassins only kill "bad guys" but THEY'RE STILL KILLING PEOPLE FOR A LIVING! There's a brief conversation between Billie and one of the others about "guilt" which basically ends with Billie saying (paraphrasing) "What are you talking about, I sleep just fine at night," but beyond that - nothing. 

There's no unpacking being done, and that's a problem because our Girl Gang tends to come off as naïve. Much hay is made over how The Museum runs it's operations and yet not one of them stops and thinks for a moment that this system could be corrupted. Give human beings enough time (and it usually doesn't take as long as you'd think) and everything is corruptible. It just is. It's the special sauce that makes humans human (and generally speaking why we're terrible - Lord, it might be time for me to read a nice romance novel I'm extra jaded at the moment...)

To put it more succinctly the author never takes the reader beyond You Go Girl! 

There's nothing wrong with this per se. It's an authorial choice. But what that authorial choice ends up being is Fun Beach Read. And that's what this was for me. I had a good time reading it so long as I didn't stop and think about it for too long. Because once I started doing that? I realized it's the kind of book I'd tell people, "It's a fun read, but it could have been great."

Final Grade = B

Review: The New Girl

I realize that Jesse Q. Sutanto is a bigger household name with her Aunties and Vera Wong series of adult mysteries, but I discovered her through her bang-up YA suspense thriller, The Obsession.  That book ended up being one of my favorite reads of 2021, and I was excited to hear that the author was going to continue on with a series, of which The New Girl is book 2 and yes, I'm just getting around to it.

Here's the thing, it's not really a sequel.  It's set in the same universe and is more of a prequel. A few characters from The Obsession are here (Sophie, Logan, the cops...) but not much else. This can be read purely as a stand-alone.

Lia Setiawan is a mid-distance running track star and thinks her ship has come in when she wins a full-ride scholarship to the prestigious private school, Draycott Academy.  However it doesn't take long for Lia to realize she's in way over her head.  She's quite literally getting a tour of campus when she witnesses a girl getting hauled out of a building by security, kicking and screaming.  And the rest of the students? Don't even bat an eye.  Speaking of, the student body is full of rich kids with their designer clothes (and designer drugs) and she quickly runs afoul of mean girl, Mandy, who Lia outperforms on the track, getting Mandy kicked off the varsity squad. Lia quickly becomes a hot topic on the school's anonymous social media app, Draycott Dirt - and naturally everything being said about her is unflattering. 

That's not the worst of it though - that's reserved for Mr. Werner, Lia's English teacher. Lia quickly runs into problems with him as he starts failing her right out the gate.  Then Lia stumbles across a major scandal - it seems Mr. Werner is selling good grades to the highest bidder.  And Lia, she of the single Mom, one-bedroom apartment, on a scholarship, does not stand a chance.  Failing Mr. Werner's class puts her track scholarship in jeopardy and, in turn, puts Lia's hopes for a college education in jeopardy.  The only thing going her way?  Danny, the cutest boy in school seems to have taken a shine to her. But even that gets complicated thanks to his racist parents and the fact that Mr. Werner is his uncle by marriage.

It's a lot. And eventually this toxic stew gets to bubbling and the bodies start dropping - with Lia right in the crosshairs.

A plus of this story is that the heroine acts and reacts like one would think a teenager would when dropped into extraordinary circumstances.  The downside? The heroine acts and reacts like one would think a teenager would when dropped into extraordinary circumstances.  Folks, this is a non-stop cavalcade of bad decisions from our heroine, start to finish.  Even worse? The reader is stuck in her reactionary, frantic brain for the entire story as she continues to make one bad decision after another. 

It is, and this cannot be overstated, exhausting. How this dumb bunny manages to skate out of serious trouble in the end beggars belief. Look, different strokes and all that, but frantic characters running off half-cocked making terrible decisions does not make for compelling reading. It just doesn't. Go ahead, fight me.

The other major problem with this book? Whoever at the publisher approved the back cover blurb has hopefully been fired since this book came out in 2022. There's a huge, honkin' spoiler in the back cover copy.  Look, I may not know much, but I do know that if the author doesn't reveal something until the final chapters? That's a spoiler. Yes, yes - I saw it coming at a certain point - but I would have seen it coming a lot sooner had I decided to read the back cover blurb before I started the book (which, hello, a lot of readers do). 

In the end this just didn't work all that well for me. I tore through it mainly to be done with it and see how the heck the author was going to get her Idiot Heroine Of Bad Decisions out of trouble, but that was the only reason. Too frantic, too frenetic, just too too.  As much as I loved the first book, this one might have killed my interest in the dysfunctionally corrupt Draycott Academy.

Final Grade = D

Review: Never Look Back

Y'all, this ARC has been in my TBR pile since 2019 and I could just kick myself in the teeth for not reading it sooner.  Never Look Back is a riveting read that didn't have me coming up for air. I basically lost an entire Saturday reading it and hashtag no regrets. I'm ready to follow Alison Gaylin off a cliff.

For nearly two weeks in 1976, two teenagers, Gabriel LeRoy and April Cooper went on a killing spree, killing a dozen people before dying in a fire at a cult's compound in the middle of the southern California desert. Forty years later, journalist Quentin Garrison is working on a podcast about the murders tentatively titled "Closure." His husband, and even his producer Summer, think it's a great idea. Quentin has a connection to the murders. His aunt, just a young girl at the time, was gunned down by LeRoy and Cooper at a local gas station. Her death set off a chain of events that included his mother's spiraling drug addiction and an estrangement from his grandfather. Now Quentin has uncovered a lead. A man who saw an interview about movies online and he swears on his life that one of the women in that interview is none other than April Cooper.

Robin Diamond is a film columnist living in New York City and her life is starting to unravel. Her husband is hiding something from her, and she's convinced he's having an affair.  On top of that her latest column has generated a predictable amount of hate from Internet trolls.  The one solid in her life, the one thing she can count on, are her parents. Her mother, the perfect homemaker. Her father, a retired criminal psychologist who now has a small, private practice. Her parents are solid. Her parents have the perfect marriage. Her parents love her.  And then she gets a call from Quentin Garrison who tells her he thinks her Mom is the notorious, not dead after all, serial killer April Cooper. 

The story is told from multiple points of view (primarily Quentin and Robin) and different timelines (1976 and present day).  The 1976 timeline is told from April's perspective, in the form of a school assignment she received from her favorite teacher right before Gabriel LeRoy murdered her stepfather and kidnapped her.  That assignment is to write a letter to her future child, which April does. Those letters become her diary, as she details her life on the run with Gabriel and the bodies left in their wake.

This book is a ride, and Gaylin keeps the reader guessing by taking forks in the road.  I didn't see the forks coming and once on that stretch of road, I had no idea where the driver was taking me. Not all of them are shocking twists, but they're twists all the same, the story winding and curving, keeping me on my toes and unable to look away.

The compelling theme behind the story is that everybody has secrets - even your parents. What do any of us truly know about our parents? They had lives before they had kids. They had tragedies, triumphs, made good and bad choices.  That's what drives this narrative. What does Robin truly know about her mother? For that matter, what does her father know and how much? At first Quentin seems completely off the rails, but then there's the little things - the cracks that start appearing. The coincidences that are just too amazing to be actual coincidences. As Robin starts her journey towards the truth, the 1976 storyline careens to it's fiery epic conclusion at the cult's desert compound.

I'll also say that I loved the settings of this story, which takes place between southern California and the suburban enclaves outside of New York City.  Los Angeles tends to get a fair amount of attention as a setting for suspense stories, but this story tickled me for featuring such Los Angeles County cities as Duarte, Claremont, and even a brief mention of Pico Rivera.

Truly, it's an excellent read that I could not get enough of. As soon as I get through some more long neglected suspense ARCs on my Kindle, I need to drop my life and go on an Alison Gaylin reading tear.

Final Grade = A