This month, as always, the Wenches have been indulging in an eclectic mix of books—many of them perfect for light-hearted holiday reads.
Joanna: I think I’ve mentioned Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series before. The first, Midnight Riot, introduces us to London cop Peter Grant. Grant is not just a canny policeman with an encyclopedic knowledge of the odd corners of the city, but a man who can sense the weird creatures who live in its shadows. Ghosts and monsters. Magical creatures.
This month I read Whispers Underground, Book Three in the series. Grant continues his training under Master Wizard Nightingale. The signature humor continues. The cynicism is firmly in place. The cast of quirky characters still delights.
Pat: The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan reminds me entirely too much of The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, by Katarina Bivaldi, but I can’t help it, I love stories about books and librarians, romance and quiet thoughtful plots, and The Bookshop has all of these and more. Nina is an extremely introverted, impoverished librarian who has been downsized out of a job. She’s also filled her friend’s house with so many books that the ceiling cracks and the stairway threatens to fall in. She’s more or less terrified into chasing her dream of owning her own little bookshop—in a mobile van because she can’t afford more. She’s a romantic mess with her head in the clouds, but little by little, she learns how to live a real life, and the story’s unfolding is pure pleasure. It even has a little sex and a lovely romance, but mostly, it’s a love story to the Highlands and the people and to books. If you’re in the mood for a rural escape, try this one!
Anne: Having just finished a book I've found it hard to settle into reading. It seems, looking back through my recent reads that cosy mysteries have ht the spot for me -- nothing too serious, but entertaining and fun.
First up is Nancy Warren's The Vampire Knitting Club—the first in a cozy paranormal mystery series, where the heroine learns she has inherited her grandmother's knitting shop in Oxford. A fun, slightly tongue-in-cheek read. I’m already onto the third book in the series. I also loved her Toni Diamond mystery series, set in the U. S. South.
Paige Shelton has written a number of different series, all based around a theme. Comic Sans Murder is a lighthearted cozy mystery set in a small town and based in a shop the heroine runs with her grandfather, repairing and collecting old typewriters and books.
Jenny Colgan’s Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe is not a cozy mystery. I picked this up when wench Pat wrote about another of Jenny Colgan's books. Amazon wouldn't let me buy that one, so I chose this one, that won the RNA prize. When the heroine is made redundant from her safe but dull City job, Issy decides to seize the moment. Raised in her grandfather’s bakery and armed with his recipe, she decides to open The Cupcake Café. A pleasant, lighthearted read, with more depth to it than a lot of those change-your-life-and-open-a-café stories.
Mary Jo: I was a fan of Jo Beverley books for several decades and even before we became friends, so I thought I'd read most of her stories, but to my delight, The Wise Virgin, an early novella which was published in several different Harlequin holiday anthologies, is one that I missed. It has just been published as a standalone story, and it's a real winner.
The story has a medieval setting, at which Jo excelled, and features two warring families; think Montagues and Capulets, though in this case the vendetta is over possession of a holy banner that crusader ancestors had carried into Bethlehem.
One of the families always reenacts the Christmas story, with the youngest virgin of lordly family playing the Virgin Mother. Unfortunately, the daughter of the house who should play Mary is pregnant by one of the enemy house, and it would be sacrilege for her to play Mary under the circumstances.
Which is why her somewhat less noble cousin, Joan, has taken her place--and it is Joan who is abducted by the lord of the enemy house. Both Joan and the Golden Lion are appalled by the error, and even more appalled by the fact they must spend Christmas Eve together hidden in a cave.
The story is funny and sweet and even though the vendetta seems insoluble, you are in the hand of a master and all turns out well. Highly recommended if you like Christmas novellas!
Susan: This month I haven't read much, between holiday stuff and family stuff and writing stuff. Currently I've almost finished - and I'm really enjoying -- The Royal Runaway by Lindsay Emory. Princess Thea of a fictional European country (it feels similar to Luxembourg or Belgium) is jilted at the altar in a very public and mortifying way, especially for a high profile princess close in the line to her grandmother's throne. Worse, her ex-groom, a duke, disappears and Thea has no clue why he ditched her. Trying to cope, she sneaks out to a pub one night in sweatshirt and cap, and meets Nick, a mysterious and sexy Scotsman who seems to be a journalist with an interest in Thea and the duke who dumped her. Turns out Nick is more than he seems, and the duke's disappearance is mysterious indeed. Thea and Nick begin to investigate together, and soon Thea is thinking way more about Nick than the missing duke .... This is a fast-paced, clever, fun story that barrels along. There's a film option, I hear, and would be a delightful movie.
Andrea: I couldn’t resist the title, so picked up A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman, a Victorian mystery, which proved to be a fun, slightly tongue-in-cheek Victorian mystery. Frances, the American-born Countess of Harleigh is a recent widow who decides to escape from her stuffy brother and sister-in-law, who now are master and mistress of the family estate and establish an independent life for herself and her young daughter in London. (It may have something to do with the fact that she had to help her husband’s mistress get his body out of the wrong bedroom and into his own room to avoid a great scandal.)
However her grand plan is complicated by several things—an anonymous letter has the police wanting to open an investigation concerning her husband’s death, as the it accuses Frances of poisoning him. She is, of course, determined to learn the truth of whether her husband was murdered—a task complicated by the fact that her very handsome new next-door neighbor is the obliging family friend from the country house party who helped her and the mistress carry the body.) It’s a fun romp and a very enjoyable read.
So, what have you been reading? Please share—you'll be giving us all lovely gifts for our TBR piles!
