Loved the 1sr book, disappointed with the nd, thought I‘d finish the trilogy. 1/3 of the way in, it‘s getting back to the standard of the 1st one. Miach & Morgan are travelling with one of his myriad brothers, her grandfather & her uncle. It‘s nice that they have family with them but not sure how it advances the plot.

The premise is that Lauren is single but coming home from her best friend's hen night (a little worse for wear) she finds a strange man in her flat. Turns out he's her husband; but when he goes into the attic, a different husband comes down, and Lauren's world is a bit different (paint, carpets, books).
Ridiculous premise but has me laughing.

Read this one (I'm not even halfway yet)

Ch 6:

“Stop reading my mind. I don‘t like it, and you know that,” Addie said crossly.
“I explained about that. It‘s not actually mind-reading. But I do catch a sentence or two on occasion.”

Ch 26:

“I‘m a reformed character. Reforming, anyhow. Everybody Upstairs thinks so. I don‘t know why you can‘t see that,” Rupert grumbled, smoothing his own hair down. Addie had to admit that he was still ridiculously attractive, even if he was dead.

Set in London in 1925, after the Great War. Fun and light but the anachronisms and Americanisms (swapping ‘bring‘ for ‘take‘ for example) are tripping me up.
Following on from ‘Nobody‘s Sweetheart Now‘ the widowed Lady Adelaide is embroiled in (solving) another crime, Inspector Dev Hunter is investigating this one too (and their mutual, unspoken attraction continues) and she still can‘t get rid of Rupert, her husband‘s ghost, who keeps popping up

I love the cover of this book; I‘ll have to search for the artist‘s name.

The pedlar (Derimot Findeel Dan-Tor) seems to be a predecessor of Padan Fain (from the Wheel of Time series).

ETA: according to ISFDB the artist is Mark Harrison

Ch 13:
They waded across, Mogget clinging to Sam‘s shoulder and the Dog swimming in the middle. Unlike most dogs, Lirael noticed, her friend actually stuck her whole head underwater, ears and all. And whatever power fast-moving water had over the Dead and some Free Magic creatures clearly didn‘t apply to the Disreputable Dog.
⬇

Slow going. Short, choppy sentences. And something of insta-lust (3 chapters in) *sigh*

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I‘m a sucker for Ruritanian romance; throw in some fantasy and I‘m there. This is the sequel to ‘Coronets & Steel‘ literally a modern day Ruritanian romance with fantasy elements; it follows on the Christmas after the events in the first book. Although (halfway through) there‘s not much romance, the love of Kim‘s life being otherwise engaged (pun intended). Still fun

2 chapters in and liking it so far. Published in 2008, it‘s reminiscent of late 20th century fantasy which is a Good Thing to my mind. Our heroine is Morgan of the island of Melksham, which evokes Morgan of Hed (the Riddlemaster trilogy is one of my long-standing favourites)

I'm a bit more than halfway through this but it isn't grabbing me. TBH I find it weird when European mythical creatures are transposed onto American soil. The protagonist is 16 years old and that seems to be the target audience. Slow going but not terrible. Megan does tend to jump into situations that have me going 'Stop and think!' but, hey, she's 16 🤗

I'm up to ch 5. The first 3 chapters are a bit of a slog but it seems to be improving.

Beccara is in turmoil as Prince Dar waits to be crowned (not ‘coronated‘) which can‘t happen until the animal holding the soul of his recently deceased brother is found. Multiple POVs including a race trainer who trains monsters (kehoks) and riders, and her trainee who all desperately need prize money from wins to pay off their debts, the Prince and an augur who can see the souls of people and what animal they‘re destined to be in their next lives

ISBN 978-1-529-91775-8

Shes not the assistant to the villain; she‘s the assistant to The Villain, scourge of the entire kingdom. Tongue in cheek and lots of fun. The writing style is a touch rough; a bit abrupt - but it adds to the lightness and flippancy. Not quite sure where The Villain stands morally. I mean he‘s supposed to be pure evil and all but ...

Ch 3: she‘s obviously a Liverpool supporter. I‘m a fan!

Enjoying this. It‘s not action packed but more about governance. Asher is the 7th and youngest son of a fisherman who doesn‘t get much cut of the family earnings so he‘s off to the capital of Lur for a year to make his fortune for himself and his dad. We get different POVs, not just Asher‘s. He‘s an Olken but the ruling human race is Doranen; they have magic & came to Lur centuries ago creating a magical Wall to hold back the terrors they fled

I‘m not quite sure why the title but it‘s about the death of one of 3 adopted children who was a supermodel and her brother‘s convinced she was murdered so he asks Cormoran Strike, a childhood friend of his brother, to investigate. I‘m 3 chapters from the end and I have a suspect in mind … but we‘ll see if I‘m right.
It‘s not overused and is in context - I suppose - but I wish there was less swearing by the characters.

‘The Museum‘ recruited 4 girls in the ‘70s as Project Sphinx assassins; now they‘re meeting on a cruise to celebrate their retirement. Switches (currently; ch 5) between now (in past tense in the 1st person from Billie‘s POV) and the ‘70s (in - confusingly 🙃 - present tense, 3rd person) when they were recruited & sent on their first mission.
Picked this up because I read & enjoyed Richard Osborne‘s Thursday Club & sequel

The title seems humorous but the prologue has an unknown menace approaching an unnamed village with the threat of extinction.

I‘ve just started the first chapter though, which has dragons scrambling over the (presumably) protagonist‘s bed and they seem about as threatening as kittens.

ISBN: 9781473539105

Intriguing concept; the author has written himself into the story as the narrator and even tells us the various TV and book series (eg Alex Rider) that he has written. Now he is collaborating with a police consultant from his TV series to cover a crime he's investigating

… and meeting Peter Jackson & Steven Spielberg to discuss the sequel to the Tintin film!

When your family think they know better than you 'for your own good':

But it‘s not just the fact that yesterday was a particularly long day that has me in bed at a time when I‘d usually be serving coffee or writing. It‘s also the emotional toll of spending so many hours around my family.

Re-read. Epic fantasy, power struggles in desert setting/ across a continent. Would have been useful if I could have rotated the map on my laptop screen but, reading late at night, was too lazy to keep switching back
Read it as a teen & feel that I thought the MCs were a bit Mary Sue & angsty but didn't find that this time. Maybe because I'm older/ not so passionate or invested in my reads/ I know I've read it before so didn't charge ahead ..?

This was an LT Early Reviewer win for me. The first time I tried reading it, I felt it was trying too hard to be 'of the period'. This time, having read a heap of 'Regency romances' which fell short or didn't try at all, it flows better. And I'm finding the letters of Camlet jr. an amusing diversion.

Originally written in 1928 (in Germany). This edition published by Vintage Classics in 2012. Copyright is 1959, first published in GB in 1931.
Emile gets £6 to take to his Grandma in Berlin and £1 holiday money for himself though his mum tells him to keep 10 shillings for his return fare to Neustadt.
£1 in 1928 would be worth £85.37 now/ £1 in 1931 would have spending value of £78.73 now/ £1 in 1959 would be £29.16 now❗️

I requested this from LibraryThing Early Reviewers as I volunteer with Riding for the Disabled and I thought it might give me some insight and tips on the horses. I received it as a pdf which means that though the intro says underlined words are linked to definitions the links don‘t work.
The intro is about the author, how she always wanted to work with horses and ended up doing so and a fictional book series she wrote for younger readers.

I‘m not sure how the ghost part works; he can move things and seems to read her mind

Ch 3 (of 34): sitting in Singapore reading about characters planning a trip to Singapore

Just started (ch 5). Each chapter is told from alternating POVs. I could do with less language. It‘s not OTT but it makes up a lot of the conversation which, in my life, doesn‘t happen

2nd in this 3 book bundle. I‘m not sure I like Flavia; she‘s precocious and always concocting poisons to try out on her older sisters. She‘s perspicacious and empathetic. She seems to live in an endless summer in an ideal English countryside near Brontë country in the 50s; no mention of school, teachers etc yet. Lots of colourful chemical reactions lovingly described - I don‘t know how accurate they are - and where does she get her reactants from?

Wow - the prologue hits you hard, even though you've known from the beginning of the first book.

Ch 1; 'How We Learn'. Good intro for a parent to help. Overview of study methods, how brains work, organisation, healthy lifestyle, studying effectively, learning styles. Points out that things have changed a lot since my day (I've discovered that's true 🤗)
Colour coded chapters/ pg corners. Nice layout, easy to read without getting bored. Lots of diagrams (=pretty pictures)

So you‘ve heard of Hy-Brasil? That mystical isle off the west coast of Ireland? 16 (or maybe 17) year old Bridget has grown up there with only 2 mages for company.

9781925626797
Ch 10 - Gamekeeper. Thorn is annoying me. I‘d sympathise with him having to get married when he doesn‘t want to but he‘s taciturn to the point of non-communication and he has no sympathy for Ophelia (in the same position) or her aunt Rosaline, transplanted to a strange, frozen world. He seems to be playing a political game but he hasn‘t even told them that yet but expects them to play along

Borrowed this to watch the TV s2.
4 - Romancing Mr B
Penelope's POV, who's had a crush on Colin since he fell in the mud in front of her. About 13 yrs from 1st book; she's now 28 and 'on the shelf'.
The usual fluff, historical inaccuracies, the wrong mannerisms, behaviours, expressions etc. No worse than usual 🤗

Premise: Michael Stirling, experienced man about town & notorious rake, falls in love at first sight with the one attractive woman he can‘t have (I suspect the author is confusing lust with love), returns after years abroad & still lusts after her. Francesca, whose husband has now died, desperately wants a baby. Outside Hollywood I‘ve never known of anyone who‘d do anything *just* to have a baby. Ch 6 … struggling on …

978044033869. Told in 1st person, past tense (thank goodness) in 1950 by 11 yo Flavia de Luce, 3rd daughter of a country gentleman. TBH, she‘s a bit bratty/ Wednesday Adams-ish (she concocts poisons to get back at her sisters). There‘s a murder at their stately home so Flavia decides to investigate

9781471197987: despite the blackouts, rationing and ARP I‘m not really getting a sense of time. Set in early WWII on the Kent coast. Didn‘t initially grab me but now, about 50% in, it‘s picking up. And yes, got that she rides a Pashley Model A (whatever that is). And the Dads Army references; Stay tends to mention those a lot

This is an LTER book for me. So far (1/4 way in) it's light and engaging enough but quite gentle; not grabbing me & pulling me in - but this is a casual read for me so I'm not the main audience for it. Gives a believable view of London, not the usual tourist-hotspots-from-a-guidebook feel.

I like the cover; my kind of colours.

Ch 4 - in spite of the fact it's told from his POV (3rd person) I don't see anything positive about Philip. The only things we really know about him is that he's a bad father & wants a wife so he can absolve responsibility & escape to his greenhouse.
Ch 5 - starts with Eloise thinking he might be a good catch because of his looks. In spite of the fact she's turned down 6 perfectly good proposals because - we're not told.
Not looking promising.

e-book ISBN: 9780008588175

I learned a new word: petrichor - the scent after newly-fallen rain.

Upto chapter 16 and really enjoying this one. A sort of 'You Got Mail', but with a wardrobe that delivers letters instead of e-mail.

I‘m just starting this. It follows 2 timelines; present day when detective May finds out his partner, Bryant, has been killed and 1940 when they met during the war when May joined Bryant in the Peculiar Crimes Unit in London during the Blitz. The details of wartime London feel genuine, with commonplace observations and not like Fowler did exhaustive research on it. Liking it so far

💬Here, she's laid-back and cheerful and like...a woman instead of a mother, which is utterly weird.
Oh god, it just strikes me that maybe she's got a crush on someone. Maybe it's George's dad. Eww. Can people in their late thirties even have crushes? That's, like, way ancient to have a crush. 💬

A bit like ‘Crazy Rich Asians‘ in that an American Born Chinese (ABC) is brought back to Asia and has to cope with a culture (in this case Indonesian-Chinese) and family that she knows nothing about.

Ch 8 - hilarious because it‘s obvious (from the quality of English) that the parents are setting up their kids on a dating app, but they don‘t realise and are thrilled that they‘ve found perfect (by their lights) partners.

Jemis Greenwing returned to Ragnor Bella from university in disgrace and has to adapt to reduced circumstances and former high society acquaintances avoiding him. It‘s an engaging story but I‘m reading it on my Kindle and finding the smaller page size distracting.

This story takes place after the Fall but (4.5 chapters in) I‘m still frustrated in trying to discover the fall of *what*?

E-book ISBN: 9780062275141

So glad there‘s a map at the beginning. She must be a fan of the Belgariad - place names include Torak and Kel 😊

Agatha and Sophie have solved the School Master‘s riddle - so now they should be able to go home. But I‘m only halfway through the book.

It got off to a slow start initially but picked up. It‘s not obvious where it‘s going yet, which is good. There were some odd vocabulary choices which didn‘t make sense to me.

ebook ISBN 9781741769562

Where Sabriel came from Ancelstierre to the Old Kingdom and travelled all over on her adventure, so far Lirael has only been in the Clayr's Glacier. Mind you, she's only 14.and I'm only up to part 2, ch 14.
I notice that in Sabriel, we never learned the (old) Abhorsen's real name, nor Touchstone's.

audiobook ISBN 9780593742013

Wyatt broke Sam's heart 12 years ago since when she hasn't seen him but this summer she takes her fiancé to her family's beach house - and Wyatt is there too.

Ch 24; still haven't got to the reason for their break-up. Looks suspiciously like Sam's family is throwing them together in spite of the fact that she & Jack are looking for a wedding venue.

Told from 1st person POV. Aurora has a memory from someone else‘s pov of when she was captured as a toddler. 1/3 of the way in. Starts off well but now is losing its polish; things are left unexplained, it‘s started jumping between events leaving gaps and the tone is a bit young.
In 2119 she lives in a domed institute where they train to be Young Enforcers of sunset curfew in the city of Vencen. Magic is abhored & has been stamped out

Ramesh Ryan is a high-flying Sydney detective until he loses a sure-fire front page news case against a drug king-pin and is asked to move to the Central Coast town of Barton for his health. Coincidentally a drug shipment is mishandled and bodies start turning up in droves just after Ryan arrives. Plus there's a 15 year old mystery tangled in. (set in 2021, published 2024)