The life of a single Cornish twenty-something.
Nothing about this book caught my interest. Millie and her roommate Hester are both man-obsessed, with heads as empty as their wallets. Millie's friendship with the writer had potential but the writer turned out to be as ditzy as anyone else. The men in the story weren't worth pursuing. I forced myself to read the first quarter of the book, hoping something interesting would come up, but it didn't.
The Inspector investigates the murder of a businessman whose body was found burned.
Decent police procedural, nothing special.
A grisly discovery in what should have been a barrel of books sends Gil and Pierre across Scotland and to the royal court while Alys and Kate investigate at home.
More complicated than previous books but intriguing and enjoyable. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/
Supposedly, basic instruction on growing plants to seed and saving your own.
Clearly amateur - Bonham's cover is pretty but appears sideways, the formatting is erratic, there is no active table of contents, and he starts with a rant on the evil seed-selling industry. Spelling and grammar are much better than most self-pubs with a few glaring exceptions; I never did figure out what a "heedful of recipes" was supposed to be. But he gives a pretty good presentation of what seeds are, the different cycles of plants, and the mechanics of seed-saving.
Basic information on the advantages of composting and how to set up and run a compost pile.
This is a decent composting primer, but very much misnamed. Only the first part briefly discusses the three types of microorganisms found in a compost pile. The information is accurate but disorganized. Worth picking up free, but there are better choices to spend money on.
Reporter from dysfunctional family hunts for missing sleazeball while her wannabe fiance tags along.
Although the "story of me" start wasn't as bad as usual, the unlikeable characters and sex breaks pretty quickly overcame the interest Buckley generated in the actual storyline.
eBook downloaded from www.Gutenberg.org
Mike's poor scholastic performance leads his father to transfer him to Sedleigh, where he is befriended by the outrageous Psmith and the two boys get into various adventures.
Mildly interesting but their obsession with power games and getting the better of the teachers made them rather unsympathetic.
eBook downloaded from www.Gutenberg.org
Sent off to public school, young cricket player Mike is torn between family loyalty, school honor, and his desperate desire to make the first eleven.
Portrait of a simpler time that kept me reading, although I mostly skimmed through the detailed descriptions of cricket games which would probably have meant more if I knew more about cricket. The boys are all shown through an idealized stiff-upper-lip rose-colored glass, but the slight storyline still kept me reading. For some reason, the Gutenberg file of this book includes the sequel, Mike and Psmith.
Collection of short stories, poetry, and essays to raise money to help the Gulf Coast shoreline damaged by the oil spill
Mostly uninteresting but with a few shining gems. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/breaking-waves-edited-by-phyllis-irene-radford/
Nice little cookbooklet giving the author's family recipe for this English classic.
Trifle is like stuffing in the U.S: every family has their own recipe and they are all delicious. I like a more custardy version, but I learned something from this as I had never heard of Bird's Custard, and the author gives readily-available substitutes for items that U.S. readers might not have access to. I don't think a rank beginner could make trifle using this recipe, but a moderately-experienced cook should have no problems. Pictures would have helped.
Prim and proper librarian's orderly life is disturbed by the murder of a transient in the library.
One of the least likable or interesting characters I've ever tried to read about, an absolutely stereotypical librarian who has to have everything in its place and relates better to books than people. Dereske does a great job of characterizing Helma Zukas to the reader, but she is so impossible to like that who cares? I got a quarter of the way through and essentially nothing other than the murder had happened, so I quit.
Headmaster's wife Ginger finds the school attorney dead in a conference room. But when a school employe is arrested, Gin is determined to find the real killer and save her husband's job.
Involving enough but the ending didn't make sense. See my full review at http://redadeptreviews.com/the-main-line-is-murder-by-donna-huston-murray/
Charles and his ex-fiancee Margaret wind up the reluctant protectors of an immature, self-centered heiress being pursued by a mysterious criminal mastermind.
Absolutely awful. There is no reason for Charles and Margaret to keep the girl rather than getting police help for her, there are no likable characters, and Miss Silver is an unbelievably perfect PI who barely appears in the story. I couldn't get into it at all.
A murder involving lookalike cousins distracts Hannah from Norman's gorgeous new partner.
Finally, Fluke has gotten back to the solid mysteries that got me interested in the series to start with. The explanation was pretty obvious almost from the beginning, but Fluke filled the pre-murder pages with another mystery, kept the story moving right along as Hannah and friends tried to find the killer, and provided a reasonable resolution. The only major flaw was the soap-opera cliffhanger ending to one of the secondary storylines.
eBook downloaded from www.Gutenberg.org
An old man writes of his adventures during the era of James II.
Any story that starts with the narrator being born is almost certainly going to lose me for lack of a storyline, and this one went back even further, to the narrator's father's service in Cromwell's army and marriage to his mother. I tried to get through the introduction but gave up when the narrator was expelled from a boarding school.
When one of Jack's friends is found shot during a visit to Hesperus, everyone assumes it was suicide. But Jack suspects murder, and recruits his cousin Isabelle and her new fiance Malcolm as well as his shellshocked friend Arthur to help investigate. Complicating the plot are a second murder, some mysterious Russians, and Isabelle's romantic vacillations.
Good story with some weak elements. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/
An art history student pursues the whereabouts of a beautiful Carnivale mask in Venice while wondering about a mysterious fellow student.
Well-drawn characters, but strange but without any perceptible storyline to keep me reading. I quit a quarter of the way through.
Roger and his remaining bodyguard continue their trek to the spaceport, solving problems and acquiring new allies along the way.
More of the same, so much so that it didn't hold my interest and I skipped chunks of the book before completely giving up. This would have been a great single book, but there just wasn't enough story to stretch out into a Lord-of-the-Rings-style series.
The death of a sleazy businessman running a Christmas tree lot sends Hannah and her helpers sleuthing to prove his wife didn't do it.
Fluke started with the murder, and then flashed back to days earlier and an exceedingly slow start as Hannah is shangaied into attending a business class with her mother, investigating Carrie's new secret, and trying to make a Christmas tree Moishe-proof. I don't remember her using this technique in other books and I didn't like it at all; it was continually jarring to see the dead man involved in his activities. Whodunit was pretty obvious and there was no good reason for the inevitable last-minute rescue. Michelle's new boyfriend was not a surprise, either. All in all, a very weak entry in what has been an enjoyable but deteriorating series.
An innocent act of helpfulness is Thomas' pass into a life of wealth and danger, interacting with dragons.
Great stories, horribly in need of editing. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/curse-of-the-crystal-dragon-by-jonathan-saville/
Collection of blog entries purporting to explain men.
Although I read and mostly enjoyed Thompson's "A Walk In the Snark," I couldn't even get through this one. It relied mostly on body-part humor, which I outgrew in second grade, and the occasional amusing moment didn't make up for page after page of tedium. I quit 62% of the way through.
Super collection of 30 impossible mystery short stories by various authors.
Really excellent, only one bad one in the bunch. See my more detailed review at
http://redadeptreviews.com/mammoth-book-of-perfect-crimes-and-impossible-mysteries-edited-by-ashley-mike/
Collection of people's experiences and thoughts about the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, published electronically about a week after it hit.
As an historical document, most of this is a priceless collection of firsthand reports from various areas of Japan. (I have no idea why it included entries from people who didn't experience it, other than perpetual stick-her-nose-in but admittedly famous Yoko Ono.) As reading material, it is amateur and unfocused, simply slamming the reader with one small tragedy after another.
An apprentice healer spends more time on magical rituals than herbs.
I skipped the first book in this series because I don't like phony supernatural tales. Unfortunately, this one wasn't any better - it is NOT a historical mystery, it's woo-woo gibberish. I quit very quickly.
A girl grows up in Henry VIII's England with her beautiful, temperamental cousin.
Pretty good job of evoking the feel of living during religious conflict, less so at producing an interesting story. The narrator is a wimp and cousin Kate is a selfish terror who has to dominate every situation. I gave up about a quarter of the way through.
Supposedly a collection of lists of funny things.
Simply awful, mostly relying on sniggering at body functions and not in the least amusing. I picked it up free and it was still overpriced.
A recent widow discovers her late husband had an illegitimate son.
I've tried to read this before, with no more success than now. When the characters in a character-based book are one-dimensional and unlikable, there just isn't anything to keep me reading.
Spinster Dido Kent is summoned to palatial Bellfield Hall when the son, who is engaged to her niece, disappears. But her investigation is complicated by the appearance of an unknown dead woman.
Pleasantly intriguing and absolutely logical. Dido borders on Sherlockian in her ability to identify clues and make deductions from them. Catherine started rather whiny and spoiled but shaped up gradually. Set in the same era and social level as Jane Austen's novels, the characters are more authentic and enjoyable than the efforts of the many Austen imitators. The reader isn't given warning of which characters will turn out nice and which nasty, and Dido's love affair (such as it is) doesn't add anything to the storyline.
Impoverished gentlewoman Martha Leigh takes a governess position at imposing Mount Mellyn in Cornwall. As she tries to win over her young charge with riding lessons, she finds herself falling in love with the widowed master of the house. But first Martha must find the truth of happened to the late Mistress of Mellyn.
All too predictable, unsurprising since this is one of Holt's early works. But the characterization is still good and the plot rolls right along.
Collection of stories featuring the adventures of Calhoun, an interstellar physician. Contains Med Ship Man, Plague on Kryder II, The Mutant Weapon, Ribbon In the Sky, Tallien Three, Quarantine World, The Grandfathers' War, and Pariah Planet (also released as This World Is Taboo). The Grandfathers' War, Med Ship Man, and Tallien Three were also released in Doctor to the Stars. Plague on Kryder II, Ribbon in the Sky, and Quarantine World were also released as SOS from Three Worlds. However, this collection from Baen Books is the only one I am aware of that includes all eight published Med Ship stories.
Intriguing premise and the stories were really SF mysteries. Started well, but some of the stories involved solutions that relied on coincidence, such as a sick Calhoun just happening to land on the one planet whose air could counteract his illness. Also, it was pretty obvious that the stories had appeared in magazines at different times, as each included what Med Service did and the purpose of Calhoun's accompanying tormal, which a sharp editor would have cut.
A successful female exec sets her goal being engaged by the end of the year.
Absolutely awful. There is nothing to like about the narrator and no detectible storyline in between the wandering narration. I forced myself through the first chapter hoping it would improve. It didn't.
The young Egyptian princess grows up at a dangerous court headed first by her gentle drunk father and later by her two usurping older sisters. When she becomes queen after her father's death, she must fight the regency council of her young brother and future husband.
I have to admit my heart sank when I saw the size of this book. I don't have anything against long novels per se, but it is my sad experience that very few authors can maintain an interesting storyline for a normal-length book, much less a massive monster. Then there were a lot of small incongruities that contributed to a jarring effect, such as addressing Cleopatra's pharaoh-father as "King" and referring to her family as "the Ptolemies." Everything I've read on ancient Egypt showed a vast cleft between the god-kings and those who served them. I managed to wade through the first hundred pages, but between the little inaccuracies and lack of a compelling storyline, I gave up.
Newly back in her Virginia hometown after a divorce, Daphne's attempts to start a cake business are stymied by gossip after she finds a customer murdered. She stumbles across a shocking piece of news about her mother that she is obsessed by investigating, but a killer may not want her to find the truth.
Solid mystery with mostly likable characters. See my more detailed review at redadeptreviews.com/murder-takes-the-cake-by-gayle-trent/
The dramatic Menfreys always fascinated Harriet nearly as much as their lovely ancestral home Menfreya did. So marrying the handsome son of the house, Bevil, was a dream come true, until it turned into the terror of thinking the legend of the clock tower was foretelling her death.
Engrossing story full of lively characters and a surprise resolution. Leaves most historical romance writers in the dust.
Supposedly a way to profit from declining stock markets, but all I got through was a history of the declines of the Japanese and U.S. stock markets.
Simply never caught my interest and I quit about 10% of the way through.
Short novella about a young man in a Mafia family in 1969.
Mildly interesting but populated by one-dimensional stock characters: the big dumb "muscle," the tiny mother with the deadly glare, the wise-guy uncle. I picked it up free and it was worth what I paid for it.
Beauty's Beast became a callous, unloving fop when he lost his beast form, and Beauty sets out on a quest to turn him back into the Beast she loved.
While the story idea itself wasn't bad, the execution was awful. Ditchoff mixes tenses and flashbacks without regard to the poor reader trying to follow the storyline. She confuses words, such as "bridal path" for "bridle path" - both useful but NOT interchangeable. When a couple of dwarves come to Beauty's aid and accidentally uncover her "ta-tas," I couldn't take any more.
New midshipman Hornblower endures bullying and self-accusations of cowardice at the start of his naval career, although his creativity earns praise from his captain and respect from the men.
Probably the weakest of this justly-famous series. Forester does too much telling the reader how Hornblower is feeling, rather than showing. But the action storylines are wonderful, as are Hornblower's developing capabilities under Captain Sir Edward Pellew. And it's worth mentioning that the book is not nearly as depressing as the first of the Ioan Gruffudd Hornblower movies!
Sweet story of two families in a small English town from post-Victorian times through WWI.
Not compelling but enjoyable, with vivid and likable characters.
Brehon Mara investigates the deaths of two MacNamaras within a day of each other. Could it be the open enemy? The greedy clan leader? The overworked daughter or her lover? The cheating linen merchant? Mara tracks down a killer with the help of her young students.
Well-enough written, and the clues were all there, but I found the resolution unsatisfying. Since I wasn't thrilled with either of the first two books, I'm giving up on the series.
A thoughtful discussion of the different people involved in Jesus' birth, and then a rather simplistic modern-day short story about people with different problems facing Christmas.
This clearly amateurish self-pub still has a lot going for it. There is no point in downloading the Kindle sample because Tull's long, tedious, and completely unnecessary introduction will be all you will see. If he had to include his background and reasons for writing, he should have put an author's note at the end, in case a reader was intrigued enough by the book to want to know more. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/christmas-journeys-by-justin-tull/
eBook downloaded from www.Gutenberg.org
Convoluted narration by a crippled old man of the club that meets in his house and the stories the members record and leave in the clock.
The stories-within-stories-within-stories left me confused, and the stories themselves weren't interesting enough to motivate me to wade through them. I gave up at about a quarter of the way through.
Amusing look at the pitfalls of getting ready for Christmas.
Great early Christmas gift for stressed-out friends. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/a-married-mans-guide-to-christmas-by-robert-henry/
Roger is a foppish and lazy third-in-line to the throne, but when he is forced to land on a backward planet under attack by the Saints, his imperial bodyguard is determined to keep him safe or die trying. But the pampered prince surprises both his retainers and his guards.
Surprisingly enjoyable once past the slow start. Roger clearly has the capability to learn from his surroundings, both inanimate and living. There are so many guards that I wasn't able to keep them straight, and there is a definite non-PC humanocentric philosophy, but the strong storyline kept me reading to the end (which, sadly, did not resolve the story - continued in the next book)
Shunned when she left Bird-in-Hand to marry an Englisher, now pregnant Anna Mae desperately wants to reunite with her birth family. She enlists her sister-in-law to arrange a surprise Christmas visit, hoping to win her father's forgiveness.
Wonderful if predictable story. For more detail, see my review at http://redadeptreviews.com/a-plain-and-simple-christmas-by-amy-clipston/
Five somewhat-interrelated romantic short stories set around various holidays.
Only romance fans will like it, but they should enjoy it a lot. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/?s=holiday+flirts
Scottish advocate Rex travels south to spend Christmas at the B&B of his mother's friend, and finds himself investigating a series of murders.
There were problems with this book. Rex started off more concerned with the color of his sweater than anything else - not likely for a smart advocate. He did become more likable as the book progressed. Rex's rotund build and overpowering attraction for the ladies don't mesh. (Not that that isn't possible, but Challinor doesn't give us a reason to believe it.) The clues aren't there to identify the killer. I don't always get it right, but when I miss it, I can usually look back and see where I went wrong. The solution to this one left me going "huh?" There was no real Christmas connection in the book; it could have been set in any temporarily-cut-off-from-everything building. But the bottom line is that the book kept me reading, and that is so much more important than anything else that I will go on to #2 in the series.
She doesn't have dogs to train while her new facility is being built, so Raine helps hunt for a missing girl and stumbles across a murder.
Never caught my interest as Raine was too much of a wuss. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/silent-night-by-donna-ball/
The cynical and desperate son of a missing father is determined to rob his father's former boss to buy a new life for his family. The spoiled daughter of the boss decides she wants a strange man who calls himself Santa Claus as her new caretaker.
Unpleasant people, uninteresting storyline. I quit before I got a quarter of the way through.
Just what the title says, 100 ways for the reader to lose weight listed in a "book" that is not even as long as a typical short story.
I was skeptical that it would include any new ideas, but I'm always on the lookout anyway. I should have saved my time. Worthington's "ideas" include obvious techniques like eat less and exercise, and dangerous ideas like eat more protein (which can overwork the kidneys) and eat margarine instead of butter (he obviously hasn't heard of trans fats). It wasn't even worth what I paid for it, which was nothing. (Amazon giveaway)
A writer who has lost his faith finds himself stuck in a diner at Christmastime, with characters from his most famous book.
Charming short story with vivid characters and believable problems.
Two affectionate children grow up under the reign of Henry IV.
This book never grabbed me. The writing was so simplistic that it felt like it had been written for children, and the children's innocence made an awkward counterbalance to the scheming of the adults. I only got about a quarter of the way through before giving up.
A missing-girl case turns into a nightmare as the police try to stop an IRA bomber during the Lord Mayor of London's inaugural parade.
Way too scary for me and I quit as soon as I realized it was a thriller with a child in danger.
Callie and her cousin Lovie head for Vegas to search for a missing corpse.
Everything I dislike about Southern parodies rolled into one book. Callie is a wuss who is divorcing her husband but can't resist a roll in the hay with him, Lovie is a slut, mysterious Jack is rich and gorgeous, Callie's mother is a gambling moocher, and the dog (who alternates narration with Callie) really thinks he's the late Elvis Presley. It's not badly written, but with such awful characters, who cares? I couldn't even get a quarter of the way through before throwing it across the room.
Muirteach's prior father is found murdered, and the Lord of the Isles assigns the young man to find the killer or a convenient scapegoat before the King becomes impatient.
This is a great example of a 21st century character plopped into a 14th century tale. Muiteach not only doesn't feel old-Scottish, he doesn't act it; he complains about not being able to sleep in and worries about a missing piece in the information he is gathering on his father's murder. The story itself wasn't too bad but the dissonance between character and setting was so jarring I didn't quite make it halfway through.
Newly promoted commander and given the Sophie, Jack Aubrey is thrilled to recruit a real physician, Stephen Maturin, as ship's surgeon. Their friendship deepens as the Sophie takes prizes and faces battle.
Solid sea-yarn in the Hornblower mold, although O'Brian splits Hornblower's active and ruminative sides between different characters, and does a surprisingly good job following two main characters. The only real flaw is that the plot never achieves a focus, wandering between sea adventures, Stephen's political history, and Jack's love life.
Collection of short stories with a Christmas theme.
The book starts badly, with a preachy and not very interesting short-short. Schaap offers a fictional look at different situations, but only some of them felt real. "Forgetting Jesus" brought home in an only slightly heavy-handed way that Jesus is the center of Christmas. Nearly everyone in "Facts of Life" felt like a cardboard character. "She'll Love It" lacked a satisfying resolution and Julia was too self-obsessed to be sympathetic. "Finding Something" was probably meant to be inspirational, but I found it unspeakably sad. "First Cry in a Stable" was a moderately good look at a sullen teen's Christmas. "Merry Madness" was another sad story, featuring neglected children. The final story, "Joy and Miracle," seemed to feature the same self-righteous academic as the first story. I would love to see a fictional work that would gently and subtly convict the reader to put the Christ back in Xmas, but this isn't it.
Supposed letters between John and Blanche Bickerson during their courtship.
A skilled writer wasting effort on a boring product. See my review at http://redadeptreviews.com/the-bickersons-love-letters-by-ben-ohmart/#more-7147 for more details.
Ruso is not happy to be assigned to uncivilized Britain and winds up determining cause of death on a murdered prostitute and rescuing another slave girl from a brutal owner.
The characters felt authentic but they were all so depressing I couldn't get interested in them. I got a third of the way through and still hadn't found a real story, so I quit.
Very short cookbook (7 recipes) supposedly comprising a complete Thanksgiving dinner baked using parchment paper.
Too short to qualify as a real cookbook and not what I'd consider an acceptable holiday meal, although some of the recipes sounded worth trying. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/a-parchment-paper-thanksgiving-by-brette-sember/
Wounded by her parents' rejection when she decided to keep her illegitimate child, young mother Lauren doesn't even consider romance until mall owner Kyle becomes entranced by her and sets out to get through her barriers.
Typical romance. I got about a third of the way through before quitting.
Alex Rutledge supports himself as a photographer in Key West, partially by photographing crime scenes for the police. But crime hits too close to home when he recognizes a murder victim as a former girlfriend and decides he is the link between hits from a serial killer.
Typical hard-boiled PI story except Rutledge isn't a PI; otherwise just as full of complicated political backstabbing and people trying to kill him. Not too bad a story, although it started dragging about halfway through and I skipped to the end. The bigger problem was Rutledge's conviction that he was the link between the killings. Without saying whether he turned out to be right or not, it didn't feel right to me as I read. I live in another overgrown small town, and there were just too many other possible links between long-time residents. The story was okay, and if I was short of reading material I'd probably continue reading the series, but it never gripped me and I am not desperate for books to read.
After her husband's death, Jo moves her boys back to her small hometown to take over her grandmother's yarn shop. Between mothering her sons and reviving yarn sales, Jo finds herself making new friends and becoming once again part of the community.
Nice character-driven story that sadly failed to resolve ANY of the various storylines. For a more detailed review, see http://redadeptreviews.com/the-beach-street-knitting-society-and-yarn-club-by-gil-mcneil/
When a house party is interrupted by a murder, Alleyn must wade through a revolutionary plot as well as a web of secrets to find the killer.
Good enough police procedural, although Alleyn is not your typical by-the-book policeman. Not exceptionally involving but it kept me reading. Alleyn irritated me with the hiding-his-findings routine, though.
Timid church secretary Cindy Preston is shocked when she stumbles over a dead man in the sanctuary, and terrified when a strange man hears her screaming and comes running. But the stranger turns out to be Rabbi Jeremiah from the synagogue next door, and he and Detective Mike Ashley will be the only people she can trust through one murder after another as a serial killer pursues his vengeance.
I generally don't like serial-killer-thrillers, and while Cindy finds the first body near the beginning of the book, she is such a nonentity that it was hard for me to work up any feeling for her. In fact, characterization was a big problem throughout the book. I don't mind characters who are a mixture of good and bad qualities, but they need to be somewhat consistent, and the side characters weren't. There was also at least one unresolved plotline, and the title had nothing to do with the book. However, once Cindy started to develop some character, the book kept me reading.
Collection of short stories published between 1896 and 1901.
Knowing L.M. Montgomery wrote the "Anne of Green Gables" series, it shouldn't surprise the reader to find these are mostly sweet stories: love triumphs and virtue is rewarded, with only a few cynical/sad exceptions. Nice easy read, and good for younger girl readers as well.
Anthology of historical mysteries with a Dickens theme, featuring either characters and events from Dickens' work or the man himself in a fictional setting.
Not Ashley's best collection; in fact, it's the first one I was unable to finish. I generally dislike putting real people into fictional settings and/or re-using fictional characters, but even without that preference, very few of these stories qualified as enjoyable. The story in letters from the Squeers girl was like listening to the awfullest, most self-delusional highschool queen for way too long. The story featuring a whiny, entitled Edgar Allen Poe offered the additional liability of switching points of view - difficult to pull off in a novel and even harder in a short story. I forced myself to read the first half, and while there was an occasional enjoyable story, they were so rare that I quit.
Middle sister Joan always felt awkward compared to her petite and bubbly older sister Allie and younger sister Tori. But Joan's reluctant interest in the new doctor-next-door brings her closer to Jesus' love as well.
Very tedious start, but by the time I got halfway through I found myself interested. The sisters, grandmother, and doctor-next-door are all cookie-cutter types but enjoyable anyway.
Desperate to protect her hemophiliac little brother after the sudden death of their father, Carrie marries mysterious Daniel Miller who just moved to Lancaster County from Ohio. But their marriage suffers from hidden hurts on both sides, and the arrival of cousin Abel Miller triggers new revelations.
This book had two serious problems. One, the characters never felt real. Two, the plot wandered around and never got anywhere. It's not awful but it never captured my interest either. I quit halfway through.
A desperate-to-diet woman flees her family's Christmas dinner and has a serious wreck.
Dual storylines, one a routine workaholic romance but the other a haunting look inside a woman's head as she faces her own mortality. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/planning-to-live-by-heather-wardell/#more-6847
eBook downloaded from www.Gutenberg.org
Collection of short stories on nautical themes. Includes: A change of treatment, A love passage, The captain's exploit, Contraband of war, A black affair, The skipper of the "Osprey," In borrowed plumes, The boatswain's watch, Low water, In mid-Atlantic, After the inquest, In Limehouse Reach, An elaborate elopement, The cook of the "Gannet," A benefit performance, A case of desertion, Outsailed, Mated, The rival beauties, Mrs. Bunker's chaperon, A harbour of refuge.
Mostly interesting period stories, some with an intriguing twist at the end but clearly the author did not think well of women!
A sheltered orphan, desperate for adventure, blows her meager inheritance on a boat passage to South Africa to find what was behind a murder in England.
This book had everything that annoys me about amateur detectives: eager beaver sticking her nose (and almost her neck) into what doesn't concern her, miraculously tripping over clues, deus ex machina rescues - you name it. The storyline alternates between two narrators, the overeager girl and a staid MP whose primary goal in life is to be comfortable; as usual, the two narrators quickly became confusing. I barely got halfway through before quitting, and the "series character" of Colonel Race was still a minor part of the plot when I gave up.
General Dominic, the bastard half-human son of Elven Lord Mor'ded, marries Lady Cassandra as arranged. But the groom does not dare have any feelings for his new wife, knowing that his cruel father will torture anything he values in order to make sure he has not developed more powers. Meanwhile, the bride has been carefully trained to assassinate Mor'ded, hoping that as a member of his household she will have the opportunity.
This actually was a pretty involving story, but Kennedy seemed confused about her target audience. There was way too many and too explicit sex scenes for a fantasy, and too much storyline for erotica. Both Dominic and Lady Cassandra were believable up to the point that they became instantly obsessed by each other. That a driven warrior who had seen everyone he loved killed would so completely lose his control over a schoolgirl is no more believable than that a convent-reared innocent would turn into a sex-crazed temptress after her wedding night. Sadly, this lack of believability was critical to the storyline; without their mutual sexual obsessions, the plot falls apart. I couldn't finish it, but I'd like to see more by this author as she has tremendous imagination.
New Yorkers Eleanor and Franz are visiting his mother at her senior residence outside Vienna when another resident is killed. More deaths follow as Eleanor tries to sniff out the killer.
See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/a-place-to-die-by-dorothy-james/#more-6811
Yet another tale of how the four Liverpudlians got together, made history, and broke up. This one also follows their individual post-Beatles careers and has lots of photos.
The photos were the main reason I picked this up when the Kindle edition was free on Amazon. I like photos and I was curious to see how they looked on my Kindle Keyboard as well as my Kindle 4 Android app on my smartphone. (The answer is, they were viewable on the black-and-white Kindle but much more interesting in color.) The story itself is pretty much the same; this version gave a little more attention to the women and managers in their lives.
Professional soaper Sophie Mae is horrified when a local handyman kills himself by drinking lye in her basement. Unable to accept the suicide, she talks to the bereaved mother, the man's surprise fiancee, and a cute barkeep who knew the victim during his alcoholic phase. She also looks through his papers for clues. But someone doesn't want Walter's secrets revealed and Sophie Mae's curiosity may wind up her epitaph.
For my more detailed review, see http://redadeptreviews.com/lye-in-wait-by-cricket-mcrae/#more-6775
A new small-town detective arrests a 62-year-old Sunday School teacher for murder after a dead body is found in her car trunk.
The people were so unlikable that I didn't get far into the book before giving up. Mama is every bossy mother in literature, Mace's sisters are equally obnoxious, the new detective is determined to prove Mama did it, and there just wasn't anyone I cared enough about to want to see what happened. I didn't even skip to the end.
Maisy tries to be a good Christian girl but says things she shouldn't and winds up pregnant by a gay friend.
Perfectly horrible book, with no similarities to actually trying to live a Christian life. And not even interesting - I got a third of the way through and skipped to the end. No redeeming value whatsoever.
Moderately talented opera singer Debbie jumps at the chance to sing a small role with an Idaho company, but keeps having "accidents."
Generally very well-done mystery with a large dose of satire. For more details, see my review at http://redadeptreviews.com/ding-dong-the-divas-dead-by-cat-melodia/#more-6710
eBook downloaded free from www.Gutenberg.org
A convict who chose colonizing Mars over serving time on Earth regrets his decision and will do anything to get back.
Thoroughly unlikable main character, moderately novel twist at the end but not interesting enough to recommend.
History of making soap with milk and instructions on how to do it yourself.
Pretty decent and simple instructions, with possibly an overemphasis on safely using lye (if there IS such a thing as overemphasis on safely when using a caustic product). Recipes included. Looked too complicated for me to want to try it, though.
Escaping from corporate life, Gretchen finds a new career cleaning up death scenes and a couple of interesting men to entertain her in between jobs.
Moderately interesting story but started with way too many flashbacks. And while there was nothing particularly wrong with it, none of the characters felt real and the story never held my attention. I got about halfway through and skipped to the end.
Em escapes a bad divorce by running to Kauai and managing her uncle's sleazy island bar. But the feuding neighbor next door is found murdered in the Tiki Goddess' luau pit, and Em, her tattooed bartender, and her uncle all fall under suspicion.
I got halfway through, realized I did not care what came next, and quit. The over-the-hill and over-the-top Hula Maidens were more annoying than entertaining. There were too many really unlikable characters and the few nice ones weren't interesting enough to keep me reading.
After her mother's suicide, young Maggie becomes responsible for raising her selfish brothers and keeping house for her unappreciative father.
I could not get into this book at all, it was just too depressing. Yes, I know children get their childhoods stolen all too frequently, but I don't want to read about it.
Young bookbinder Brooklyn is accused of the murder of her mentor.
Carlisle makes every first-book-in-the-series mistake: tedious description of far too many characters including the ex-fiance and his current ladylove, comparison of the physical attributes of heroine and BFF, long flashbacks into how Brooklyn and BFF met, how Abraham taught Brooklyn about bookbinding … I gave up in utter boredom. I'll try the next book in the series, hoping against hope that it's a good solid story, but I've noticed that the series with clever titles usually have uninteresting stories - it's as if the author used up her creativity on the titles.
A woman recalls her life, starting in Africa during WWII.
This book's beginning screamed "unskilled amateur writer" as a prologue detailed how the story was going to wander erratically around the planet and told me how the reader was going to "see a reflection of themselves" and "laugh and cry." I almost quit right then. Then the author bored the reader with "a small family" of initial characters. So I was unsurprised that it started with a tearful goodbye from two little girls heading off to boarding school followed by "cute" tales of their train trip accompanied by two blind nuns. There is no formatting; chapters are introduced only by non-capitalized chapter numbers. Surprisingly, the spelling and grammar are okay. I'm really glad I didn't pay for this; even free, it was overpriced. Unless you enjoy listening to people you don't know recounting events they enjoyed involving other people you don't know, give this one a miss.
Widowed boarding house owner Annie Fuller poses as psychic Sybil to give business advice in Victorian San Francisco. But the alleged suicide of a client shocks her into investigating.
Annie has the same self-righteous preciousness that has disgusted me in other Victorian settings. I didn't read much before quitting, but fans of this type of writing will probably enjoy her.
Should have been 3-1/2 stars, but I don't have half-star capability. Somewhat interesting but flawed narrative of small-town life in Haines, Alaska. See my more detailed review at http://redadeptreviews.com/if-you-lived-here-by-heather-lende/#more-6646
eBook downloaded free from www.Gutenberg.org
A tired London writer follows his overbearing friend Ukridge to set up a chicken farm in the country.
I don't find ignorant confidence or ability to con credit out of shopkeepers amusing or interesting, and Ukridge is a thoroughly disreputable specimen of a disreputable type. I got a quarter of the way into it and quit.
Agents Saint and Wolf are forcibly retired once Napoleon is captured, and try to settle into their Regency personas of Viscount and Viscountess Smythe. But the murder of the Prime Minister's brother-in-law reveals their hidden personas to each other and may help them turn a formal marriage into a loving one.
I was hoping the spy part of this story would outweigh the romace aspects. It didn't, and I quickly tired of heaving bosoms and gallant thrusting.
eBook downloaded from www.Gutenberg.org Gutenberg.net.au
A newspaperman, desperate to impress the woman he loves, falls under the spell of a biologist who claims to have found supposedly extinct creatures on a remote South American plateau.
I just couldn't get into it. No sympathetic characters and adventure stories rarely interest me.
A young man falls in love with a woman whose fiance died, and feels guilty about it.
Utterly tedious. I got a quarter of the way through and still didn't care about the characters or wonder what was going to happen next. The formatting errors didn't help, although they weren't as bad as I've seen in some OCR'd books.
Very shortly before their wedding, Chloe's fiance Ward disappears, leaving a cryptic email message with instructions not to look for him. Emails between Chloe, her best friend Bethany, and Ward's best friend Owen gradually reveal secrets and changing alliances.
Interesting format and effective at both characterization and plot development. It wasn't all believable, such as Chloe casually telling Ward she fancied him first, but it kept me reading.
Collection of short fiction. Includes the title story, Dear Charles, Gateway to Elsewhere, The Duplicators, The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator, and The Pirates of Zan.
The best SF takes common beliefs and turns them sideways, and two of the stories in this book fit that description. The title story combines television, the Internet, voice commands, and artificial sentience in quite a different way from current fantasies. In Gateway to Elsewhere, Leinster takes aim at the human dream of commanding a djinn. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was not compelling at all. I only got about halfway through The Duplicators before giving up, and I couldn't get into The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator at all. The Pirates of Zan was cynical but readable. Baen Books' Kindle version had a very nice active Table of Contents, although spelling and punctuation were erratic.
The newest member of the magic faculty at Osyth is seduced by a demon as the two most senior members lose their souls.
Dark story full of unlikable characters. See my review at http://redadeptreviews.com/advice-from-pigeons-by-patricia-s-bowne/#more-6608 for more details.
Another collection of short historical mysteries, ranging in period from Solomon to the Titanic and featuring well-known HM characters including Catherine Le Vendeur and Sister Fidelma as well as real historical characters such as Herodotus and Benjamin Franklin in created mysteries.
Ashley normally does a great job collecting intriguing stories, but I was less than thrilled with this collection. Partially it was that many of the stories were closer to horror than whodunits. Partially it was because many of the stories featured real historical characters, which I dislike. I've liked enough of Ashley's work that I won't quit reading because of this one, but I'm glad this wasn't the first collection of his that I read.
Collection of short stories set in the Catherine Le Vendeur series, in between the existing books.
Mostly enjoyable but with some serious and unexpected flaws. See my review at http://redadeptreviews.com/death-before-compline-by-sharan-newman/ for details.
eBook downloaded from www.Gutenberg.org
Orphaned street musician Nat joins the crew of boys at Plumfield under Professor and Jo Bhaer.
Collection of short tales rather than a book-long plots, but thoroughly enjoyable. Same large quantity of proofreading/punctuation errors as earlier ebooks from Gutenberg, unfortunately.
James finally manages to destroy Agatha's obsession with him, and in an effort to win her back, takes her on vacation to a seedy beach resort where they wind up in the middle of a murder investigation. But when James is ready to move on to the Riviera, Agatha is determined to find the killer.
Easily the most convoluted of the usually-complex plots in this series, bringing in organized crime as well as a vicious victim and family members. Agatha finds herself in more danger than usual, and the reader isn't given the clues to figure out whodunit. But I kept reading, and I was cheering Agatha for winning free of James. But the title had very little to do with the storyline.
The murder of a sleazy radio preacher while staying at Grace and Favor joins Lily and the chief of police in sleuthing.
The reader is given all the info to figure out whodunit, but the actual resolution depended too much on coincidence and felt too pat to be satisfying. There was also a small plot hole, and I couldn't tell whether it was simply ignored or a teaser to a future book. But the story itself was enjoyable, as Churchill continues to add likable characters to the Grace and Favor family even though the title had nothing to do with the book.