Seeking some literary sisterhood on the path of series-ous reading

With my regular blog challenge of Series-ous Reading, it can be tricky to find fresh new works to not only write about but to enjoy merely for the pleasure of reading.

However, a good number of new bookish opportunities do come my way and I'm rather partial to those with solid female leads. One recent example arrived by my having won a copy of The Prisoner in the Castle from Library Thing.

This happens to be the eighth book in Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope Mystery series, set in WWII where Maggie has gone from being Winston Churchill's secretary to a major spy who has encountered the likes of Princess Elizabeth, Eleanor Roosevelt and even the Queen herself during her various adventures. Here, she's deemed too risky to be in the field so Maggie is sent to a distant island along with other agents sharing her unofficial status.

While their confinement is not severe,due to being kept at a mock Tudor mansion where the previous owner gave his prior guests the quite the grisly end, there is plenty of danger to be had as one by one, Maggie's fellow exiles are being eliminated. Since all of them have been trained to kill, this makes the suspect pool both wide spread and growing narrower with each death.

Granted, this story is placed far within the series yet the plot set forth has an echo of Agatha Christie's classic tale of deadly isolation And Then There Were None, a story that I'm pretty familiar with there. Yes, I have decided to read a couple of earlier titles in this series as well but do plan to walk along these story shores with Maggie Hope as she searches for the killer before she gets taken off of the playing board:

Of course, it's also good to check in with old friends and thanks to Netgalley, I had an early holiday visit with Becky Brandon,nee Bloomwood as she turns into a Christmas Shopaholic.

Becky is expecting to have Christmas with her parents as usual, only they decide to move to the trendy neighborhood of Shoreditch(think hipster Brooklyn, if you're a New Yorker) which passes the celebratory baton to her instead.

Since holiday prep involves a good amount of shopping,which is still her greatest strength and weakness, Becky feels that she can handle this challenge but things get topsy-turvy at a steady pace.

In between hunting down the perfect gift for husband Luke(which has her breaking a long standing tradition for membership at a billiards club), finding that special must-have llama ornament for her tree and juggling various menu requests, Becky's buying powers are getting stretched to limits beyond her credit line on an emotional level.

Despite the mounting stress, Becky is determined to give all of her loved ones the happy holiday they deserve, just like the made for TV Christmas movies that she's become hooked on lately. During these current challenging times, I've found myself taking comfort in more of Sophie Kinsella's invigoratingly charming novels and this upcoming one(due out in October) is a welcome indulgence in British holiday humor indeed:

Meanwhile, there are those dazzling debuts that you are eager to invite in and hope that they stay around for more engaging tales. I feel that may be the case when it comes to The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis.

This first novel in a historical mystery series has the Bronte sisters themselves in search of the titled lady in question. Their brother Branwell announces a possible murder at the local estate of Robert Chester, whose first wife died via a fall from a window.

The second Mrs. Chester is missing and, due to the gruesome state of her bed chamber, is feared to have shared a similar fate. While Anne and Branwell team up to look into the household staff at the Chester estate, Charlotte and Emily decide to use their intuitive skills as interviewers, seeking answers to dangerous questions. Can the combined cleverness of the Bronte women reveal the truth of the matter or are they risking more than their reputations here?

This does sound like an intriguing premise for a new literary themed series and while I'm more of a Jane Austen fan(who has had a few mystery series written about her), I would be very willing to see where the detecting tales of the Bronte sisters would lead to:

Whether it be standalone or a series, reading is a true constant in turbulent times. However, it does help to be more flexible and I've had to deal with reading a series out of order on occasion and surprisingly, it can be more rewarding than starting from the beginning.

Of course, there's also the added bonus of playing catch-up which only gives you more great books to read and enjoy, regardless of their numerical status. If you're lucky enough to find a series that you really like, just go with it and if you have a plucky heroine to boot, you have been blessed by the literary deities indeed: