I was kindly sent an e-ARC of this book by Sacha Chadwick at Lee and Low Books for which my thanks. Twin Flames (2024) is a young adult fantasy novel set around estranged twin sisters having to battle a horde of djinns who have invaded their town to protect both their family and the place…
Book Review: The Luck Runs Out (1979) by Charlotte MacLeod
In The Luck Runs Out, Canadian–American author Charlotte MacLeod gives readers a truly enjoyable read, with a different from the usual setting, eccentric, exaggerated characters, a pignapping (with plenty of other animals around-none harmed), plenty of literary references, witty writing but amidst all the fun also a quite solid murder mystery. The book, second in…
Guest Post: Book Review: The Case of the Reluctant Model by Erle Stanley Gardener #1962Club
It's the start of the #1962Club hosted by Karen at Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings and Simon at Stuck in a Book, a week long biannual event in which readers and bloggers read and share reviews of books published in a particular year (chosen by Karen and Simon for each even). This October it's 1962. Today, to…
Book Review: The Cousins (2020) by Karen M. McManus #15BooksofSummer
While slightly different from the previous young adult mystery-thrillers I’ve previously read by author Karen M. McManus, The Cousins (2020), a standalone was a fast-paced and quite engrossing book which had me reading all the way through. Narrated in first person from three perspectives (later joined by a fourth voice from the past), in The…
Book Review: Dreams of Arcadia (2023) by Brian Porter
My thanks to Legacy Book Press for a review copy of this book via NetGalley. Dreams of Arcadia (2023) is an engaging and beautiful (but also gritty) story of new beginnings, reconnecting with family, family secrets and life in a small town. Nate Holub is a veterinarian working in Houston. Recently divorced, his wife also…
Book Review: Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen #NovNov
Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen, written and set during the Harlem renaissance, is a complex novel, which as its name suggests, navigates themes of race and identity which form a central thread in the book but also much more, for themes of marriage and relationships are also key, besides others like motherhood, class and society.…
Book Review: The Golden Gate by Alistair MacLean #1976Club
The Golden Gate by Alistair MacLean is my second pick for the #1976Club hosted by Karen at Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings and Simon at Stuck in a Book. The Golden Gate is a suspense–thriller, around a meticulously planned, daring kidnapping. The book opens with master-criminal Branson, who with his crew is beginning to give effect to…
Book Review: The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
My thanks to Canongate and Netgalley for a review copy of this book. The Book of Form and Emptiness is certainly a strange book, a story about loss and coping, about depression and mental illness, about friends and support systems, and of course, about books, for it is a book that tells us the story,…
Book Review: Naked Heat by Richard Castle
Naked Heat is book 2 in the Nikki Heat series of books. The series was published as to tie-in with the TV series Castle in which Richard Castle, an author, first comes in contact with Detective Kate Beckett when a copycat killer bases his crimes on the former’s books, and decides to base his next…
Book Review: The Case of the Careless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner
This, the twenty-first of the Perry Mason books, was certainly a complicated one and a very interesting read, even though the end, or rather the denouement, done differently from usual, was a touch confusing as well, I wasn’t quite sure at first if I understood it right. This one opens with Helen Kendal, a young…
Literary Potpourri 