As some of you may know, I’ve been trying to liven up my Series-ous Reading challenge this year by finishing three books from a series in a row, calling it Triple Play.
Well, that event is over but SR is not, as I will explain by the end of this post. First things first, my last entry in Triple Play is Jane and the Barque of Frailty by Stephanie Barron, which catches me throughly up with the Jane Austen Mystery books (at least until the finale is released this fall).
Here, we stay with Jane in London as she is proofreading her about to be published first novel, Sense and Sensibility. She is the guest of her banker brother Henry and his wife Eliza, a former French countess who is rather ditzy at times but very loving towards her sister in law.
During her visit, Jane goes to the theatre where a recently notorious figure is noticeable in the audience. A Russian princess sitting alone, whose secret love letters to powerful and married nobleman Lord Castlereagh were published in a major newspaper causing all sorts of scandalous talk.
Despite such shocking news, Jane cannot help but feel a touch of sympathy towards this young woman who was perhaps lead astray in love, much like Marianne Dashwood in her nearly ready for publication novel:
It is even more shocking to learn the next morning that the Princess has been discovered dead on the doorstep of her supposed paramour, her throat slashed. Since Lord Castlereagh’s residence is within the section of town where Henry and Eliza live, this gruesome demise feels too close for comfort.
Jane becomes more involved in this case than expected as Eliza enlists her aid in selling some jewels for one of her friends who expects her husband to divorce her in favor of a much younger woman.
As it turns out, those jewels were the property of the late Princess and the Austen house is visited by the infamous Bow Street Runners, an unofficial police force whose capture rate is rather steady regardless of the true guilt or innocence of the parties in question.
In order to save Eliza and herself from serious criminal suspicion, Jane must mount her own investigation before the week is out or the two of them could face some deadly consequences to be sure:
While seeking answers, Jane endeavors to keep Henry fully out of this particular loop but must include a few others into this situation such as Sylvester Chizzlewit, a young lawyer who is protecting her inheritance of papers from the late Lord Harold and Julia Radcliffe, who is the Barque of the title.
Julia ‘s status as a popular mistress (to which the lengthy title term refers to) is seen in a slightly more charitable light as she is known to be to disgraced daughter of a noble family. Yet she may know much more than she is willing to say regarding the jewels which are said to be in her possession at one point.
Barron does have quite the flavor of Austen’s Regency world firmly brewed in her tea cup of storytelling here and much like Miss Austen, properly points out the hypocrisy of those folks who consider themselves “respectable “ and those deemed to not be so by society yet have more honorable notions in their dealings with others.
There’s also a bit more lively interaction in this London adventure as Jane and Eliza go undercover to the Cyprian’s Ball(sort of an underground masquerade for barques and their beaus) where Eliza gets a little too caught up in the moment there!
All in all, this story is suitably bittersweet and I am happy to be completely caught up with this series. Jane and the Final Mystery is set to be published in October and that swan song for this engaging reimagining of Our Dear Jane will be well worth the wait:
So as I was going over my next set of books for this challenge, I realized that there were five titles in Rhys Bowen’s Her Royal Spyness series on my TBR that needed to be read and deserved their own separate listing.
Therefore my Triple Plat is now being replaced by the 5 Point Page Turning Plan, beginning with Crowned and Dangerous , where Lady Georgiana‘s plan to secretly wed her sweetheart Darcy O’Mara are put on hold due to his father being accused of murder.
The victim is a rich American who bought Darcy’s family estate and kept his father on as a horse trainer. With no love lost between the two, the elder O’Mara is the prime suspect so as his future daughter in law, Lady Georgiana accompanies Darcy to Ireland to use her sleuthing skills on his behalf.
I do enjoy this series quite a bit and it will be nice to get more caught up on these books as well. They’re just the right amount of historical fiction, humor and drama like a good season of Downton Abbey used to be:
It may not be December but the weather outside is frightful as in frightfully hot enough to stay indoors with a cool drink and a good book at hand. Fortunately, the Seasons of Reading High Summer readathon is set to start this August and the sign ups have begun(I’m lucky number seven on that list!).
As per my usual, three books are on my TBR here and the one thing they have in common (other than being novels, that is) is that each cover has a strong element of blue as background color, artwork, etc. Coincidence? Perhaps but with these ever increasingly heated days ahead of us, any cooling touch is welcome indeed:
First up is Jennifer Weiner’s The Summer Place, set at a Cape Cod summer house where a big family wedding is planned with the standard amount of hectic arrangements, last minute guests and long held secrets and lies just waiting to be revealed.
Some of the drama here comes from Sarah, whose stepdaughter Ruby is marrying Gabe who Sarah thinks is rushing into this marriage a little too soon. Also, her husband Eli has become rather emotionally distant since Ruby’s announcement and her stepson Sam is newly widowed with conflicting feelings about his romantic future.
Meanwhile, Sarah’s mother Veronica is just happy to have one last family gathering at the house she’s planning to sell but is worried that a certain something from her own past might pop up during this farewell party of sorts.
Weiner is at her best when chronicling the ins and outs of familial relationships and this book sounds picture perfect for her writing wheelhouse there. Definitely an end of summer read if I ever saw one to be sure:
Next up is A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore, the second entry in her League of Extraordinary Women series.
The subtitle refers to a group of women fighting for the suffragette cause in Victorian England who find themselves having to deal with high society men to achieve their goals.
Lady Lucie Tedbury would much rather prefer to fully own all of the shares of the London based magazine she has recently acquired to publish her political views on the controversial Married Women’s Property Act.
However, the remaining shares belong to Lord Tristan Ballentine, a known ladies man who needs the magazine to be successful in order to free himself and his mother from being under the vicious thumb of his father.
As Lucie and Tristan attempt to reach a reasonable compromise that doesn’t compromise Lucie’s reputation, an attraction does arise between them that appears to be mutual. Can these two work together in more ways than one to the benefit of each or is true love the ultimate price to pay here?
I did greatly enjoy the first book in this series, Bringing Down the Duke, and hope for more of the same lively energy in this next outing. Publishing both then and now is a heartfelt venture that can make or break someone but in this case, I wish for the former most passionately:
For the finale, my choice is the third book in Alison Weir’s Six Tudor Queens series, Jane Seymour: The Haunted Queen.
As the third bride-to-be of Henry VIII, Jane is understandably reluctant to enter marriage, particularly as she’s seen up close what happens when a woman defies this particular king.
Pressured by her ambitious family , Jane gives in and winds up falling in love with Henry, who seems to really care for her. Nonetheless, the shadows of the wives before her are impossible to ignore completely.
I have read the other books in this series and like how Weir blends historical facts so seamlessly into her fictional takes on these real life characters.
Plus, I did promise myself to read at least one more of Weir’s novels on my TBR shelf before looking into her more recent work so this is a good opportunity to do that. Jane Seymour may look like the least exciting of the six wives yet she could contain multitudes of depth within her romantic soul:
The High Summer readathon runs for the entire month of August and if you want to sign up and/or learn more about it, please check out the link in the first paragraph of this post. Thanks in advance to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for setting this literary romp up for us all in smartly steadfast fashion.
And it looks like we’ll be getting more time to read beyond this season as there are now two strikes in Hollywood that will delay many a movie and TV production schedule.
With the Writers Guild of America (WGA) along with Screen Actors Guild (SAG) both sharing equal concerns about their payments being severely undercut and having AI being used to minimize their creative contributions to the corporations that have grown obscenely wealthy off of their labor, the wait for new content will be more than worth it.
This isn’t about giving movie stars big bucks; it’s about getting regular working actors enough money to live on and be able to afford health insurance from residuals that have gone down to literal pennies in some cases.
Also writers need to be included when comes out to getting a proper slice of the payout pie, not to mention the insult of having AI gobbledegook replace their hard work in the not too distant future.
With Hollywood executives acting like mustache twirling villains by boasting of “starving the writers out” and insisting that SAG’s issues are “not realistic “, it’s going to be awhile here on the picket line, folks.
So let us support those on strike in any way we can and use this extra time to catch up on some good books or movies and shows that we haven’t seen yet (got a few Marvel series to watch myself!).
It is extremely important that Hollywood be made aware that the creative people they hire have talents that are independently owned and deserved to be treated with respect as well as equally compensated :
Well, I did take a brief break from book buying (granted, emphasis on the brief part to be sure) but now am happy to say that my summer time fun is fully underway in this regard.
My first big purchase was from Book of the Month Club; having skipped June, I made up for lost time by selecting one of their major new releases, The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.
This novel chronicles the growing friendship between future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune, who became known as the First Lady of the civil rights movement.
Despite their overt differences, both women had much in common, particularly a drive to improve the basic conditions of women via access to education as well as offer those impoverished by the Great Depression a chance to get back on their feet.
Through a mutual understanding of what needed to be done to achieve as many of their goals as possible, Mrs. Roosevelt said Mrs. Bethune decided to join forces to not only support FDR in his bid for the White House but to change the viewpoint of one political party to a more favorable approach to the issues facing Black Americans. Not an easy task to be sure yet having each other’s back at certain times was a good start.
I started reading this book on the Fourth of July (I kid you not!) and so far, it’s a well paced and engaging read. Both authors write together in excellent harmony with much depth of character and feeling. Much like the iconic women of this story, this literary partnership is one for the books indeed:
Added to that was a debut novel, Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul and the latest from Fiona Davis, The Spectacular.
Set in 1956 NYC, Marion Brooks decides to upend the course of her dreary expected life by becoming a Radio City Rockette.
However, an attack at Radio City Music Hall by the unknown “Big Apple Bomber” shakes Marion’s new found confidence to the core. Can her dreams continue or is this her last dance?
Even though I do have a couple of other Fiona Davis books to get to, it’s hard to resist picking up a brand new one. Davis has a wonderful knack for placing well thought out characters at prime real estate locations in New York, making their lives an integral component of what makes this setting so special there. A good mix of history with heart:
Next up is my Simon Books Buddy selection, courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
They sent me the paperback edition of Marianne Wiggins’ Properties of Thirst, a novel that takes place in the early stages of WWII on a California ranch run by the Rhodes family.
As patriarch Rocky battles for water rights with the city of Los Angeles, his daughter Sunny pursues her love of cooking while a newcomer named Schiff is pursuing her heart. Schiff is sent by the government to set up an internment camp for Japanese Americans, a task that he quickly loses the taste for. Can this mutual loathing of official policy bring Schiff imo the family fold or will this connection not bring any of them a lasting peace?
This does sound like what some call a thumping good read but I may save it for autumn. Something about this epic saga energy of this book is going me all the fall feelings;
Finally, my last stop was my local library, where I returned four books (finished two of them at least) and borrowed a pair of mystery related reads.
One of them was the newest entry in Ellery Adams’ The Secret,Book & Scone Society series entitled Paper Cuts and the other is Rogue Justice , the follow up to Stacey Abrams’ Supreme Court thriller While Justice Sleeps.
Avery Keene is still working at the highest court in the land but it’s the demise of a judge at the FISA(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) that leads her to another case to be solved.
Before his death, law clerk Preston Davies tells Avery that his former boss was being blackmailed with a deepfake video into making rulings that drove her to end her own life. Witnessing Preston’s murder, Avery is determined to find out what the ultimate point of this secretive plot is that has already cost two lives and perhaps more to come.
I did enjoy While Justice Sleeps (also a library loan) and this looks to be more of the same, which is a welcome sight to be sure. As timely as this book is, having a fictional force of nature take on the upper echelon bad guys is definitely my idea of a good time:
That should be enough for now, I hope. With the weather getting wilder and warmer by the day, sitting under the AC with a stack of good books at hand sounds like the perfect vacation spot to me.
I’m also looking forward to the third season of Only Murders in the Building (recently added Hulu to my TV lineup and caught up with this fantastic show!) this August, especially with Meryl Streep being a guest star! Yes, Paul Rudd is here as well but Meryl is must-see, no question about it, a true summer treat indeed:
Self fulfilling prophecy alert! I did say that after two of these readathons where I finished all of the books on those respective TBRs, that the Sci-Fi Summer one was going to break that potential streak for me and it did!
This, of course, is of my own doing as I chose much longer books for this challenge and seriously underestimated how long one of them would take to read(YA fantasy shouldn’t be taken for granted in this regard). However, two out of three really isn’t that bad so let me get into this pair of fantastical reads:
The School for Good and Evil 3: The Last Ever After-Yes, despite the high page count, I thought this would be a quick read but to be fair, there is quite a bit of backstory that requires the additional length.
When we last left Agatha and Sophie, the two of them were in separate realms with their respective “true loves” but as it turns out, neither girl is really happy or safe from the total destruction of both their worlds.
As Agatha and her prince Tedros head back to the tittle school, things have definitely taken a few turns for the worse as zombie versions of classic villains have risen up to brutally rewrite the endings of their stories at the behest of Rafal, the evil School Master determined to make Sophie his Queen.
Teaming up with a band of aging former fairytale heroes and the wizard Merlin, Agatha and Tedros must find a way to convince their friend to break her ties with Rafal to save the day yet can Sophie truly turn down the chance at some sort of true love, not to mention a crown?
I did enjoy the wild twists that this finale took, including the bits of humor from the pack of old school legends (including a very cranky Cinderella!) at times. This book was more than just a wild ride through fairytale land as character development emerged strongly and many surprisingly touching moments occurred all the way towards the end.
There are more books in this series (a follow up trilogy and a pair of prequels) but I think that I’m good stopping here. The ending tied up most of the major plot points and left a few loose ends to be suitably imagined by the reader if you ask me.
At the very least, I got to see both leading ladies achieve their dreams even if one of those made her an evil queen for a day:
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi: We don’t get enough pirate queens in pop culture, if you ask me, and this novel by Shannon Chakraborty more than makes up for in treasure chest abundance.
Amina has retired from sea faring life to raise her daughter Marjana in relative peace but her past comes back to demand one more journey from her.
A wealthy woman who happens to be the mother of Asif, a former crew member that died under secret circumstances, requests that Amina find her missing granddaughter Dunya, who has been allegedly kidnapped by Falco, man seeking objects of powerful magic.
Amina is reluctant to take this job but a combination of great payment and threats against her family make her say yes. Along the way, a number of very startling revelations and dangerous encounters cause her to reconsider this voyage but an experienced sailor like Amina knows when there is a point of no return indeed.
This book is old fashioned storytelling at its finest with fresh takes on both the characters and expected tropes to boot. What’s not to love about a book with a pirate queen battling evil magicians, sea monsters and the occasional acting up of an injured knee?
I got this book from Book of the Month Club awhile ago and saved it for this readathon which made it go down like a very fine wine there. If you get a chance to read it, do so as soon as possible! This is one literary trip you won’t regret :
While I am sorry about not getting to The Fifth Season in time, this was still a great readathon and much thanks to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for making this all happen.
The rest of the summer should be smooth sailing but I do plan to put a few books aside for the High Summer readathon in August.
We’re getting some steamy dog days of the season to be sure so staying cool with a good book sounds ideal to me. Not much out there to tempt me to venture out beyond my local library but best wishes to those heading out for some warm weather fun, especially if you’re a Barbie fan:
