Anne here, and it's my pleasure to present to you some of the books we wenches have been reading in the last month.
We start with Pat, who read Deb Richardson-Moor's book, MURDER, FORGOTTEN
I got quite excited when I started reading this contemporary mystery, thinking I’d found a really good new mystery writer. And the book is definitely well-written, with well-drawn characters and lots of red herrings and one could never be absolutely certain who the killer was until the end. There was even a point at the beginning where I was becoming annoyed with the main character for not realizing the obvious—and the author turned it around beautifully. Unfortunately, she picked up the same clue again later and let the character be an idiot. Worse yet, she killed off a POV character to whom I was attached. And from the very beginning, the one major clue everyone kept asking about was so verrrrry obvious. . .
But its redeeming value is the women’s fiction setting of Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina, with lots of lovely beach homes and nosy neighbors. The two main protagonists are mother and daughter, the mother a writer and the daughter an artist. The book starts with the mother slipping into dementia and her husband already murdered. As the police examine all the close-knit neighbors, secrets are unwound, and it’s impossible to know how much more is hidden. I’ll admit, I read every word and enjoyed it—but there were points when I really wanted to scream: Stop being stupid! So if you want to sink into a southern who-dunnit, this is fine. Just don’t expect perfection.
Next we have Nicola, who read and recommended A SEASON FOR LOVE by Ally Sinclair, and had a bunch of Wenches running off to buy it. (It's on special too at the moment)
Emma Love takes over her mother’s matchmaking company and with the help of her brother determines to expand the business through a series of events with a Jane Austen style Regency theme. However, this is Regency with a modern twist in the sense that the book is a contemporary Rom Com so the couples embarking on this old-fashioned style of courtship are more accustomed to online dating and casual hook ups than dancing the cotillion. Our heroine Emma is too fixated on developing the business to consider romance herself – until she bumps into the infuriating Mr Knight, for whom she just doesn’t seem able to find the perfect match. Meanwhile her friends Annie, Jane and Lydia are all at different stages of relationships and all are looking for something but not sure what form, if any, their HEA will take. The plot is structured around a modern version of the events of the Season and it’s completely charming and at times laugh out loud funny. A Season for Love is a book that manages to explore so many different aspects of love, friendship and relationships in a way that is thoughtful, diverse and emotional. It’s such a joyful book but profound and thought-provoking at the same time. I loved it and it left me feeling uplifted.
(Anne notes, this is the English author, Ally Sinclair, not the Australian author, Alli Sinclair.)
Christina says: There are some authors whose books I look forward to as soon as I’ve finished their latest one and Kylie Scott is one of them. I threw myself into END OF STORY when it landed on my Kindle. I had high expectations and I wasn’t disappointed! This is a little different from her other stories as it has a bit of a magic/paranormal element to it. I have to admit I was a bit dubious about that, but the rest is so wonderful I was prepared to suspend disbelief and just go with it. And I’m very glad I did.
The heroine, Susie, has been badly burned by her latest boyfriend and is grieving for her aunt, who was the most important person in her life and the only one in her family who loved her unconditionally and allowed her to be herself. She inherits her aunt’s house and when her ex’s best friend, Lars, turns out to be the builder she’s hired to do some renovations, she’s understandably wary. Things get even more tense when Lars finds a divorce certificate hidden inside a wall and dated ten years in the future – with both their names on it. It has to be a hoax and they accuse each other of planting it there, but neither of them can figure out how it got there. As they try to find out, they start to see each other in a different light and there is a lot of chemistry. Could the document possibly be right? And should they fight the fate that’s apparently in store for them or go with it and try to change destiny?
Lars is a wonderful hero – the strong, silent type, laid-back and with oodles of self-confidence. Susie is his complete opposite, and she has a hard time trusting anyone (understandable as her family are horribly self-centred). I fell totally in love with Lars and absolutely couldn’t put this book down – superb!
(Please note there is a prequel called THE BEGINNING OF THE END which can be bought separately. It was also included at the end of my Kindle copy of END OF STORY, so please check and read that first if so!)
Mary Jo here. I've always been a big reader of science fiction and fantasy, and I think there has never been a fantasy writer like the late Sir Terry Pratchett. (https://terrypratchett.com/terry-pratchett/) His books are quirky, wildly imaginative, and warm hearted. He is the creator of the forty-one book long Discworld series. The Discworld is flat and travels through space resting on the backs of five gigantic elephants which stand of back of a ginormous turtle. (Pratchett had a number of tortoises that lived in his conservatory.)
But the stories are deeply human, passionately felt, and often wildly funny. There are a number of recurring characters who soon become old friends. He was a working class kid, six years old, when a teacher told him he'd never amount to anything. He grew up to become one of Britain's best selling authors. He died too young of a rare form of early onset dementia and continued working until almost the end, aided and supported by his long term assistant, friend, and companion in mischief, Rob Wilkins, who is the author of this excellent biography.
I was fortunate enough to hear Sir Terry speak twice, once at an event in Washington,. DC, and some years later, at an SFF convention in a DC suburb. This was several years after his very public revelation of his illness, and with the aid of Rob Wilkins, he was still funny, intelligent, and absolutely and totally one of a kind.
Where to start if you want to read about Discworld? A fan discussion on the Novelists, Inc, talk loop once decided that Guards, Guards! was a good place to start. I also am very fond of Wyrd Sisters, the first book featuring three witches of very different temperament. (At a coven gathering, one witch spoke the immortal line, "You brought potato salad, too?"
It's really hard to explain the eccentric and wholly original charm of Sir Terry's work, but Rob Wilkins does a brilliant job of telling his boss's story, and he has a rather similar sense of humor.
Andrea says: I’m not a big spy novel reader, but I do love the writing of John le Carré. So when I read in several places that Mick Herron is being called by some the heir to the Master’s mantle, I decided to give Slow Horses, the first book in his Jackson Lamb series, a try. (For those of you who have Apple TV, there is a recent very well-done series based on these books. Gary Oldman gives an absolutely brilliant acting perfornace as the washed-up, cyncial spymaster, Jackson Lamb, and the rest of the cast is wonderful, too. I highly recommend it!)
Slough House, run by by the slovenly, hard-drinking Jackson Lamb, is where MI5 sends its agents who have royally screwed up to fade away into oblivion. Mockingly called the “Slow Horses” the mismatched group—especially River Cartwright, the grandson of one of Britain’s top secret agent—resent their exile and all dislike each other. The only thing they have in common is grumbling about the stupid busy work and lack of respect they get from their lazy, cynicl boss. But things change when Lamb is asked by the head of MI5 to have one of his “horses” do a small, trivial surveillance favor. Bored, River happenes to notice that his colleague seems to be doing something interesting, and decides to poke his nose into what’s going on . . . and suddenly he’s caught up tangle of lies within lies. And then the news breaks—an extremist group has kidnapped a British citizen is threatening to behead him on a livestream. Several other of the “Slow Horses” get pulled into the fray and the ore they uncover, the more they begin to wonder just who the real enemy is. It’s very cleverly plotted, with wonderful characters and dialogue. Herron’s writing may not be quite as elegantly crafted as that of John le Carré, but I very much enjoyed the book and will be continuing with the series.
And finally, it's Anne again, sadly, with no fresh-off-the-printing press recommendations. Christina beat me to the review of Kylie Scott's END OF STORY, and all I will add is that I loved it and devoured it almost in one hit. Kylie Scott does really good banter, and this book is both fun, and intelligent as the two protagonists work out their relationship. (BTW I did not get the short prequel included in my kindle version of the END OF STORY — and I haven't read it, so can't comment.)
Like Mary Jo, I'm a huge fan of Terry Pratchett, and have most of his books. I'd second the recommendations of Guards Guards, and also the Wyrd Sisters trilogy. But there are so many wonderful Pratchett books. And BTW, if you're a cricket fan, then you might enjoy this article.
Otherwise, in the last month I've read Mary Jo Putney's LADY OF FORTUNE, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and interviewed her about last week. I've also done a few rereads, starting with Jayne Ann Krentz, Wildest Hearts, (inspired by a discussion on the Wenches) and then I went on to Grand Passion
But that's it from the wenches — so now, over to you, dear Wenchly readers — what have you read and enjoyed in the last month?