Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas Intrigue by Stephanie Laurens

It is once again Christmas and Lady Osbaldestone is hosting an additional person this year, her youngest son, Christopher. He usually stays in London as long as possible, joining the family as close to Christmas as possible. But this year, his work in the Foreign Office is making him change his habits. Someone has been staking out his London residence and the higher ups are afraid it might be someone from France. The war from Napoleon looks like it might be ending soon (God willing) and Christopher's web of informants will be vital in rebuilding should the war actually be at an end. So if a French agent is staking out his house, Christopher needs to disappear. Add in to that the fact that he suddenly seems to be on the target of eligible lades, he's ready to disappear. And heading to Little Moseley might be the answer. He loves his nieces and nephews and knows that they've had fun there the last few Christmases. Joining them there might be a bit of a hardship but not entirely.

Marion Sewell is tracking Christopher but not for matrimonial purposes. Instead, she is trying to do a favor for her brother who is in the Foreign Office. But she thinks that Christopher might suspect her of the former. He certainly ran away from her in that London ballroom fast enough. But she is going to be relentless in making sure that he hears what she has to say, even if she tracks him down in the back of beyond.

The Christmas Chronicles usually focus around a mystery with a little romance on the side. This book is no different. But from the description (and even the way I described it myself), the romance seems to take the fore. However, there is actually a lot of back and forth between the children and Christopher, the children and Lady Osbaldestone, and even the children and the man sent to protect Christopher. The mystery in this one was weaker than usual and there was a lot of running around with little to show for it until a lot of action was packed into the last 5% of the book.

Three stars

This book came out in October 15th, 2020
Follows Lady Osbaldestone’s Plum Puddings 

Followed by The Meaning of Love

Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

I got this as an ebook but about 3 pages in realized that I wanted to hear this book in Hadish’s own voice. My local library had the audiobook so I waited for 10 weeks to hear the book rather than read it. So worth it.

Hadish has had a hard life; foster care when she was a child, getting physically abused by her mother and an older man, a series of men who weren’t good to her... and, maybe weirdly, hearing it come from her makes it even stronger and more true in the audiobook than it would have been reading it.

Sooooo... the other thing with listening to the audio is that it didn't stick in my brain. At all. I listened to the first part of the book and was loving it so much I went to Goodreads to squee before the first chapter was even done. And there was already a review. You know what? It is just as awesome the second time around. Tiffany starts with her high school experience as a mascot which became her first job. That transitioned into her job as the person at bar mitzvahs who got everyone excited to be there.

Four stars

This book came out December 5th, 2017

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Opinions are my own

An English Trilogy by François Rivière

This book was originally published in 1992 and it has very European sensibilities with twists and endings that seem odd to this American's sensibilities. 

I was not expecting a graphic novel to start with so much text (it's a letter that takes up the first quarter of the book). However, it does set up the rest of the stories. It sets us up with a writer (Olivia Sturgess) and a literary critic (Francis Albany). While they were lovers at one point, they were better as friends. And the two get into some odd situations: some more believable than others. They include a fellow author who finds a book published years before but it contains all of his stories, a woman in black who is slowly killing off the people in Olivia's publisher's family, and Francis's memories of being on the Titanic. 

This reminded me of the Golden Age of mysteries in the fact that it referenced the classics, in this case, classic mysteries of all genres. We either see on the page or hear mentioned Christie, Sayers, Allingham, Hitchcock and more.

Three stars

This book came out June 23rd, 2021

ARC kindly provided by Europe Comics and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

July Rereads

 As always, opinions are my own

Broken (in the best possible way) Jenny Lawson

This book came out April 6th, 2021

Audiobook from Libby

Toucan Keep a Secret by Donna Andrews

Meg Langslow #23

Four stars

This book came August 7th, 2018

Follows How the Finch Stole Christmas!
Followed by Lark! The Herald Angels Sing

Owl Be Home for Christmas by Donna Andrews
Meg Langslow #26
This book came out October 15th
Follows Terns of Endearment
Followed by The Falcon Always Rings Twice
Borrowed as ebook from Libby

When All the Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz

Cutler, Sutter, & Salinas #1

This book came out November 29th, 2016

Followed by Promise Not to Tell
Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Promise Not to Tell by Jayne Ann Krentz

Cutler, Sutter, & Salinas #2

This book came out January 2, 2018

Follows When All the Girls Have Gone

Followed by Untouchable

Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

Untouchable by Jayne Ann Krentz

Cutler, Sutter, & Salinas #3

Three and a half stars (liked it better on re-read)

Follows Promise Not to Tell
This book came out January 8, 2019
Borrowed as audiobook from Libby

The Pomodoro Technique by Francesco Cirillo

How can you work smarter? Through good planning and time chunking according to the Pomodoro Technique. If you plan to work for 25 minutes at a time with breaks of 3-5 minutes, Cirillo promises that you will be able to move mountains. This book apparently adds on sections for teams. 

This was originally published online so you can find it and the planning for it in various places but this book does set out some more rules.

It's an interesting idea but I think you need more self-discipline than I have...

Three stars

This edition came out August 14th, 2018

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Murder Most Fowl by Donna Andrews

Something's afoot when Meg's twins find what appears to be a hand in the local woods. Thank goodness it just ends up being some interesting-looking mushrooms. She's already got a lot going on. Their rambling house is once again full of actors; this time Michael is directing Macbeth and some of the actors might be truly be trying to bring their roles to life. There's also a camp of medieval reenactors in the neighborhood who might be taking their vow to live like those in Macbeth's time a little too seriously, especially because they're not doing it well. Just ask the sheep they "liberated" from Seth Early's farm. 

To add on to everything else, there's a filmmaker capturing it all on camera and he's not just annoying because of his noise level, it seems like he's trying to film something more like an expose than a straight up documentary. When his first edit is screened in the library, somebody sees something they don't like and the documentarian ends up dead with his trailer trashed and all of the raw footage gone.

Another enjoyable book. Many mysteries overlap to make for many people but not overly complicated.

Four stars

This book comes out August 3, 2021

Follows The Gift of the Magpie

Followed by The Twelve Jays of Christmas

ARC kindly provided by Macmillan and Edelweiss

Opinions are my own

Reread January 2022

A Boldly Daring Scheme by Lynn Messina

 Up until this book, all of the stories have been narrated by Beatrice Hyde-Clare, now a newly-minted duchess. She has described her cousin Flora as somewhat caring but basically a fluff brain. In this book, we jump into Flora's first person narration and see that, yes, she is sort of fluff-brained but that may, in part, be because no one has asked her to step up. In this book, she decides to do it on her own.

Even though Beatrice is now married, Flora knows that Beatrice must be missing her former fiance. Of course, Flora hasn't quite figured out that the fiance is fake but... at least her search gives her a purpose in her life. Of course, it does put her in the notice of Mr. Holcroft. She danced with him once but... meh. And now he's asking her what she things she's doing and being almost interesting.

An interesting diversion from the Beatrice books but Flora is still a bit vapid, even when she's doing interesting things. I have a feeling that she could grow into a stronger character but it wasn't in this book.

Three Stars

This book came out October 23, 2020

Follows A Sinister Establishment

Followed by A Ghastly Spectacle

This book came out June 16th, 2020

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own