Review & Excerpt: A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas

Series: Lady Sherlock #7
Read As A Stand Alone: Not recommended
Publisher: Berkley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: March 14, 2023
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Charlotte Holmes’s brilliant mind and deductive skills are pulled into a dangerous investigation at sea in the new mystery in the bestselling Lady Sherlock series.

After feigning her own death in Cornwall to escape from Moriarty’s perilous attention, Charlotte Holmes goes into hiding. But then she receives a tempting offer: Find a dossier the crown is desperately seeking to recover, and she might be able to go back to a normal life.

Her search leads her aboard the RMS Provence, sailing from Southampton for the eastern hemisphere. But on the night Charlotte makes her move to retrieve the dossier, in the midst of a terrifying storm in the Bay of Biscay, a brutal murder also takes place on the ship.

Instead of solving the crime, as she is accustomed to doing, Charlotte must take care not to be embroiled in this investigation, lest it become known to those who harbor ill intentions that Sherlock Holmes is abroad and still very much alive.

Bea Reviews The Demon Equilibrium by Cathy Pegau

Publisher: Bywater Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: Nov. 2nd, 2021

Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Bywater Books | iBooks* | Kobo
* associate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

When the demonic Horde threatens to unleash Hell on Earth, two women must summon every bit of their shared power to save the world.

Grace Carter, a “source” of magic, has spent the last nine months searching for Maggie Mulvaney, her “catalyst.” The joy of reuniting with her partner—and her lover—is thwarted by her worst fear: Maggie doesn’t remember Grace or their life together. Grace blames the Order of Saint Teresa, the centuries-old organization that trained them to be the strongest demon-hunting duo in generations. But why has the Order done this?

As Maggie and Grace begin to piece their lives back together, they discover that their memories have been masked by someone within the Order. Should the Horde succeed in their plan, those who have committed their lives to slaying worldly demons will be relegated to little more than minions as humans are completely enslaved.

Now, Grace and Maggie must sacrifice everything, possibly even their lives, as they battle to save humanity.

Not of This World, or Why Author Cathy Pegau Writes Speculative Fiction

Please welcome Cathy Pegau back to the blog in celebration of her new release, The Demon Equilibrium. It's a steampunk adventure romance, and it's available now. Be sure to come back on Monday for my review. Spoiler - I liked it! 

Not sure about buying the book? If you are in the USA and have access to Hoopla, it's available there! CLICK TO READ.

Review & Giveaway: Lady Rosamund and the Horned God by Barbara Monajem

Series: A Rosie and McBrae Regency Mystery #2
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes, though not recommended by the author
Publisher: Level Best Books
Source: the pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: April 20th, 2021
Buying Links: Amazon* | Google Books |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Widowed Lady Rosamund spends the first months of her mourning in the Lake District, where it’s safe and peaceful, and murders are exceedingly rare. Luckily, she is rescued from this tedium by a house party comprised of playwrights, poets, and actors—an immoral set of persons with whom no respectable lady should associate. Even so, she hardly expected to wake in the wee hours to find one of the guests lying dead.

As if that wasn’t troublesome enough, Gilroy McBrae is at the same party, masquerading as a footman to investigate a series of thefts. Was the sudden death an accident—or murder? Almost everyone had reason to loathe their unpleasant fellow guest. Rosie must set aside her confused emotions about McBrae and work with him to find the culprit before an innocent person is accused of the crime.

Bea Reviews A Wild Legacy by Celeste de Blasis

Series: Wild Swan Trilogy
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes but not recommended
Publisher: Bookouture
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: Feb. 15th, 2021
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from Amazon:

Lexy Culhane follows in stunned silence as her father bundles her younger brothers onto the train in a midnight flight away from the only life they have ever known. It seems impossible to her that her gentle, loving mother could have shot a man.

Despite the shock, Lexy soon grows to love her new home at Wild Swan, the grand horse farm in Maryland run by her formidable grandmother, Alexandria Falconer. It is from Alex that Lexy has inherited her fiery and rebellious spirit, and which eventually leads her headlong into a career as a crusading reporter during the final days of the frontier wars.

When Lexy meets enigmatic fellow reporter Hawk MacKenna, she feels she has finally found her soulmate. But Hawk’s life is shadowed by a mistake from his youth, and still haunted by her mother’s actions, Lexy struggles to trust him. When her relentless curiosity about his hidden past comes between them, Hawk leaves for the battlefields in the West and Lexy accepts an invitation from distant relations in England. But when she is offered a chance to stay, she faces a test—can she choose between building a new life in this foreign land, or returning to face the pain, and the love, that she left behind?

A stunning, dramatic and heartfelt story by beloved storyteller Celeste De Blasis, set against the backdrop of the most turbulent age of American history. Perfect for readers who love Poldark, Outlander and Daphne du Maurier.

A Wild Legacy was originally published as A Season of Swans.

Bea Reviews A Wild Heart by Celeste de Blasis

Series: Wild Swan Trilogy #2
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes but not recommended
Publisher: Bookouture
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 8th, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from the publisher:

Alexandria Falconer gazes around the honeyed land of Wild Swan, the extraordinary horse farm she built up from nothing in the border state of Maryland. It has been Alex’s sanctuary through years of turmoil, and she has come of age in this land of opportunity. But the storm clouds of civil war are gathering, and Alex knows she has a choice to make to protect her family and maintain the precarious peace at Wild Swan.

When Alex’s son dies tragically, she is shattered. It is only through caring for her adopted daughter, two-year-old Gincie, that Alex starts to overcome her grief and find comfort with her beloved husband Rane once more. But when Rane is called away to aid the Union war effort, she is left bereft.

Alex’s heart is with Rane, but at home she has the sole responsibility of shielding Gincie and the rest of her family from the danger creeping ever closer to their door. When a charming soldier arrives at Wild Swan, Alex reluctantly gives him shelter, but the two form a bond and when news arrives of Gettysburg, she is torn with worry for men on both sides of the battlefield. With Gincie by her side, she undertakes a dangerous journey to fight for her family, her principles, and the man who holds her heart…

Celeste De Blasis’ epic and heart-wrenching Wild Swan trilogy continues, available in eBook for the first time. Perfect for readers who love Poldark, Outlander and Daphne du Maurier.

A Wild Heart was originally published as Swan’s Chance.

Bea Reviews A Christmas Resolution by Anne Perry

Publisher: Ballantine Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: Nov. 3rd, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

A smitten woman is about to marry a dangerous man--unless Detective Hooper and his new wife, Celia, can prevent it--in this wickedly tangled holiday mystery from bestselling author Anne Perry.

Detective John Hooper, William Monk's right-hand man at the Thames River Police, is blissfully happy in his new marriage to Celia, the cousin of a victim in one of the river police's recent murder cases. Celia wants the same happiness for her good friend Clementine, who's just announced her engagement to Seth Marlowe, a member of her church. Christmas is nearing, and this should be extra cause for celebration, but when Marlowe begins receiving threatening letters about his first wife's death, it becomes clear that he is far from the devout man Clementine thought he was. In his rage, Marlowe accuses Celia of sending the letters, claiming she wants to ruin his engagement to Clementine. At a loss as to how to defend herself, Celia enlists Hooper to investigate the letters' claims, and what he finds makes her desperate to show Clementine the truth about her soon-to-be husband.

But Celia herself has not always been truthful, especially not during the murder trial following her cousin's death. How can she be believed now, when she lied on the stand? Especially when Marlowe knows that she did, and could use it against her. This Yuletide season finds love and faith put to the test--and Celia's and Clementine's lives on the line.

Bea Reviews The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Source: Library via Overdrive
Release Date: May 7th, 2019
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything—everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt's Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome's got its very own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter.

Cussy's not only a book woman, however, she's also the last of her kind, her skin a shade of blue unlike most anyone else. Not everyone is keen on Cussy's family or the Library Project, and a Blue is often blamed for any whiff of trouble. If Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, she's going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachias and suspicion as deep as the holler.

Inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and one woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere — even back home.

Bea's Review of A Wild Hope by Celeste de Blasis

Series: Wild Swan #1
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: Bookouture

Release Date: October 8th, 2020
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from publicist:

Banished from her uncaring family home for her growing friendship with older neighbor St. John, Alexandria Thaine is unprepared for the new life she encounters with her distant cousins in England’s West Country. She blossoms under the warmth of the Falconers, and as she throws herself into the thrilling danger of the family’s smuggling trade, Alex forms an unbreakable bond with the eldest son, Rane.

But just as Alex begins to imagine a future in Devon with Rane at her side, the death of her older sister forces her back home to care for her sister’s motherless twins. Still yearning for Rane, Alex grows to love the helpless babies, and as she rekindles her friendship with St. John, she finds herself caught between her heart and her home.

When the opportunity comes to start anew in Maryland’s lush horse country, Alex faces the agonizing choice between the life she dreamed of and the promise of the new world. But starting over in a golden land on the brink of war brings unforeseen dangers to her door, and when Alex’s new family is threatened, can she find the strength to risk her happiness today for the wild hope of a brighter tomorrow?

The sweeping, epic and emotional novel by beloved storyteller Celeste De Blasis, available in eBook for the first time. Perfect for readers who love Poldark, Outlander and Daphne du Maurier.

A Wild Hope was originally published as Wild Swan.

Series Review: The Charlotte Brody Mysteries by Cathy Pegau

The Charlotte Brody mysteries are a historical cozy mystery series set in 1919. I'd had the first book in this series, Murder on the Last Frontier, in my TBR pile for three years and just read it last month. I liked it and promptly checked out the others from my library. I follow the author on Twitter and felt a little guilty about not having read any of her books yet. One good thing about being laid off due to the pandemic is that I have lots of free time for reading.

Books From The Backlog: An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole

This is a fun meme! There used to be another meme about neglected TBR books, known as Dusty Reads. That meme died and recently this one popped up. I'm delighted to participate and I'm linking up with Carole from Carole's Random Life of Books for Books from the Backlog. Join the fun and share a neglected book from your shelf.

The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Fridays: The Holy Thief by Ellis Peters

I'm participating in two Friday book memes, Book Beginnings On Fridays, hosted by Rose City Reader, and The Friday 56, hosted by Freda's Voice.

"The Holy Thief" is book 19 in a 21 book series. I'd read the occasional book years ago and decided a few months ago to read the whole series from the beginning. I'll be starting this one this weekend.

Book Beginnings Rules:

Every Friday, share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

Bea Reviews 'Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick

Publisher: Thorndike Press Large Print
Source: Library
Release Date: May 4th, 2016
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository | Apple Books | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The author of the New York Times bestseller "Garden of Lies" returns to Victorian London in an all-new novel of deadly obsession.

Calista Langley operates an exclusive introduction agency in Victorian London, catering to respectable ladies and gentlemen who find themselves alone in the world. But now, a dangerously obsessed individual has begun sending her trinkets and gifts suitable only for those in deepest mourning a black mirror, a funeral wreath, a ring set with black jet stone. Each is engraved with her initials.

Desperate for help and fearing that the police will be of no assistance, Calista turns to Trent Hastings, a reclusive author of popular crime novels. Believing that Calista may be taking advantage of his lonely sister, who has become one of her clients, Trent doesn't trust her. Scarred by his past, he's learned to keep his emotions at bay, even as an instant attraction threatens his resolve.

But as Trent and Calista comb through files of rejected clients in hopes of identifying her tormentor, it becomes clear that the danger may be coming from Calista's own secret past and that only her death will satisfy the stalker..

Bea Reviews I Am Harriet Tubman, by Brad Meltzer and Illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos

Series: Ordinary People Change the World
Publisher: Dial Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 16th, 2018 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*  | iBooks* |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Harriet Tubman's heroic and pivotal role in the fight against slavery is the subject of the fourteenth picture book in this New York Times bestselling biography series

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America's icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. At the back are an excellent timeline and photos. This volume focuses on Harriet Tubman's brave heroism as part of the movement to abolish slavery. As one of the key players in the Underground Railroad, she helped enslaved African Americans escape and find freedom.

Bea Reviews Murder on a Midsummer Night by Kerry Greenwood

Series: Phryne Fisher #17
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: February 6th, 2018 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*  | iBooks* |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The Hon. Phryne Fisher, languid and slightly bored at the start of 1929, has been engaged to find out if the antique-shop-owning son of a Pre-Raphaelite model has died by homicide or suicide. He had some strange friends - a Balkan adventuress, a dilettante with a penchant for antiquities, a Classics professor, a medium, and a mysterious supplier who arrives after dark on a motorbike. Simultaneously, she is asked to discover the fate of the lost illegitimate child of a rich old lady, to the evident dislike of the remaining relatives.

With the help of her sister Beth, the cab drivers Bert and Cec, and even her two adoptive daughters, Phryne follows eerie leads that bring her face-to-face with the conquest of Jerusalem by General Allenby and the Australian Light Horse, kif smokers, spirit guides, pirate treasure maps, and ghosts.

Bea Reviews Dead Man's Chest by Kerry Greenwood

Series: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries #18 
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press 
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review 
Release Date: December 5th, 2017 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Traveling at high speed in her beloved Hispano-Suiza with her maid and trusted companion Dot, her two adoptive daughters Jane and Ruth, and their dog Molly, Phryne Fisher is off to Queenscliff. She'd promised everyone a nice holiday by the sea with absolutely no murders, but when they arrive at their rented accommodation that doesn't seem likely at all.

An empty house, a gang of teenage louts, a fisherboy saved, and a missing butler and his wife seem to lead inexorably toward a hunt for buried treasure by the sea. Phryne knows to what depths people will sink for greed, but with a glass of champagne in one hand and a pearl-handled Beretta in the other, no one is getting past her.

Bea Reviews Unnatural Habits & Queen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood

Series: Phryne Fisher #19
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: July 4th, 2017
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

1929: Girls are going missing in Melbourne. Little, pretty, golden haired girls. And not just pretty. Three of them are pregnant, poor girls from the harsh confines of the Magdalene Laundry. People are getting nervous. Polly Kettle, a pushy, self important Girl Reporter with ambition and no sense of self preservation, decides to investigate and promptly goes missing herself. It's time for Phryne and Dot to put a stop to this and find Polly Kettle before something quite irreparable happens to all of them. It's all piracy and dark cellars, convents and plots, murder and mystery .... and Phryne finally finds out if it's true that blondes have more fun.

Bea Reviews Away with the Fairies by Kerry Greenwood

Series: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries #11 
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press 
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: August 1st, 2017 (re-release)
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository*  | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from the publisher:

It’s 1928 in Melbourne and Phryne is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. To do so, Phryne takes a job within the women’s magazine that employed the victim and finds herself enmeshed in her colleagues’ deceptions.

But while Phryne is learning the ins and outs of magazine publishing first hand, her personal life is thrown into chaos. Impatient for her lover Lin Chung’s imminent return from a silk-buying expedition to China, she instead receives an unusual summons from Lin Chung’s family, followed by a series of mysterious assaults and warnings.

Bea Reviews Raisins and Almonds by Kerry Greenwood

Series: Phryne Fisher #9
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 6th, 2017
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Phryne Fisher loves dancing, especially with gorgeous young Simon Abrahams. But Phryne's contentment at the Jewish Young People's Society Dance is cut short when Simon's father asks her to investigate the strange death of a devout young student in Miss Sylvia Lee s East Market bookshop. Miss Lee has been arrested for the murder, and Phryne believes that she is a very unlikely killer. Investigation leads her into the exotic world of Yiddish, refugees, rabbis, kosher dinners, Kadimah, strange alchemical symbols, and chicken soup. With help from the old faithfuls Bert and Cec, her taxi driver friends; her devoted companion Dot; and Detective Inspector Call me Jack Robinson, Phryne picks her way through the mystery. She soon finds herself at the heart of a situation far graver and more political than she at first appreciates. And all for the price of a song .

Guest Post & Giveaway: Breathless by Beverly Jenkins

 I've not yet read Ms Jenkins but I've heard such good things about her books, and about the first book in this series, "Forbidden" (which is still sitting in my TBR pile), that I couldn't resist signing up for this tour for "Breathless".

BEVERLY JENKINS has received numerous awards, including five Waldenbooks/Borders Group Best Sellers Awards, two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Magazine, and a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer’s Guild. Ms Jenkins was named one of the Top Fifty Favorite African-American writers of the 20th Century by AABLC, the nation’s largest on-line African-American book club. She was recently nominated for the NAACP Image Award in Literature. To read more about Beverly, please visit her website at www.beverlyjenkins.net.