strange and random happenstance

Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven by Bella Forrest
Published by: Bella Forrest
Publication Date: August 27th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 402 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

When you spend years bouncing around the foster care system you really don't have any recourse when you start to develop magical abilities. This is beyond the typical inheritance of blood type and eye color and the likelihood of developing cancer. This is something "other." But Harley Merlin has learned to roll with the punches. Sure, she can sense people's emotions, that just makes her a valuable asset to a local casino. She can pinpoint anyone cheating, a skill most pit bosses would kill for. At the age of nineteen she's kind of given up on ever finding anyone like herself so when an actual gargoyle attacks her and a warlock helps save her ass one night after work her eyes are opened. She's not alone. Only the arrogant Wade Crowley might not be the best guide to this new world. He has issues, mainly a severe superiority complex. He gives her his card and tells her she has twenty four hours to call him and turn herself into the San Diego coven. Harley wonders if she could ignore the summons. Or she could run. Leave San Diego behind. After realizing there's no escaping him, he is persistently annoying, they meet up at the Fleet Science Center which hides the entrance to the coven. She is given a magical infodump and tour. Harley is tested and possess a wide range of skills but doesn't have the power to be anything other than mediocre. Yet they will still train her to properly use her abilities to the extent that she can. The most interesting aspect of the coven is their Bestiary. This magical menagerie of monsters might seem harmless, but the gargoyle that attacked Harley was one of its numbers. Which means not only does someone want to kill her, it's someone in the coven who knew about her before she knew about herself. Which means she has to look to her past. She has to find some information about the parents that abandoned her when she was just three years old. Her legacy and heritage is darker than she could have ever imagined, it's no wonder someone is out for her blood. But her new coven will protect her. They will find out who's behind the attacks. They will form teams and get to the bottom of things. Because she is one of them. Whether she likes it or not.

The real "secret" of Harley Merlin is how Bella Forrest wrote twenty-one books in five years. The answer is obviously she didn't but it wasn't "public" knowledge yet. Back when I read this book in 2019 there were only twelve books in the series but the math of one author writing it all just didn't add up. In fact my book club tried to do the math and we calculated that she would have to be writing constantly just to meet her deadlines. And that's just writing, no editing, no rewriting, just wordcount alone. So we knew there had to be ghostwriters. Since then it has come out that we were indeed correct. In a lawsuit filed in the Bahamas it came out that "Bella Forrest" is a team of freelance ghostwriters and there was a dispute over who owned the "name" which was really more of a brand at this point and Amazon pulled the books from their site. At this point there seems to have been a verdict but it's just hearsay backed up by some possibly related court documents and I'm not sure if anything is resolved because you still can't get the books on Amazon but you can from the official author site... But is that official site the "real" author? It's anyone's guess. Plus it looks like the entire catalog was bought and a Bella Forrest Publishing imprint has been created as of the beginning of this year. I don't have the inclination to go down this rabbit hole at this moment in time, but if you're interested in doing some online sleuthing of your own, be my guest. Reddit oddly has some good theories. Also I'm not judging Bella Forrest for employing ghostwriters, it happens more than you think. All I'm saying is if you're an author and someone else helps you write a book just give them credit. Be like James Patterson. The real reason for me airing my grievances here is I loved this Bella Forrest book, Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven, the second one, Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins, not so much. So I want to know who wrote the one I liked. Seriously, who had this deliciously snarky voice that just spoke to me? That wrote this book that arrived at just the right time in my life. A book that was just fun and occasionally goofy and really, didn't make much sense, but filled a magical void in me that needed filling. And now that I reread that it sounds dirty. It's not. It's just a case of the right book at the right time and I would like to know who really wrote it, that is all. Internet sleuths, if you do know, drop me a line!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bella Forrest, For the Love of Book Clubs, Gargoyles, Ghostwriting, Harley Merlin, Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven, Harry Potter Pastiche, James Patterson, Lawsuit, Magic, San Diego Coven, Wade Crowley

Market for Murder by Heather Graham
Published by: Mira Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the alleys of Edinburgh, someone is killing for profit...

Scotland has a dead body problem. Another one. And in the wake of a similar spate of tribute killings, Special Agents Luke Kendrick and Carly MacDonald know they have their work cut out for them. Working alongside a new team of agents, the partners have more questions than answers when the crime scenes yield little evidence. In the style of infamous killers Burke and Hare, it appears victims are being moved to a secondary location, where they're dissected and sold for spare parts.

With the clock ticking on every organ being harvested, the members of Blackbird know the killers must be near at hand, and soon discover that they're also being closed in on. As questions begin to arise about the newest additions to their team, Luke and Carly are running out of time - and people they can trust - to catch the killers before the agents themselves are the next to be put on ice."

I'm so here for the Burke and Hare angle!

The Cornish Campsite Murder by Fiona Leitch
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 267 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Just along the coast from Penstowan, the local festival has filled the area. Former Met police officer Jodie 'Nosey' Parker has agreed to step in and help run the Pie Hard food truck, along with her rather reluctant fiancé, DCI Nathan Withers.

As they prepare for a weekend of camping and being elbow deep in shortcrust pastry, Jodie hadn't bargained on witnessing a fight between members of the lead band.

But when the body of one of the band members is found not far from the campsite, Jodie finds it hard to believe it was an accident. Especially when the other members had so much to gain..."

Summer is the time for British cozy crime. 

The Mask of Merryvale Manor by Pete Sherlock
Published by: Fairlight Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"'We're actually all rather terrible.' On the cusp of the 1960s, when fourteen-year-old Ben moves into the ancestral home of his aunt and uncle, he is shocked by their wealth and glamour. Under the watchful eye of the Merryvale Mask, his sophisticated cousins teach him how to appreciate their languid opulence and draw him into the world of the elites. But five years later, when a woman's body is found on the estate, his new life begins to crumble. As the family is placed at the centre of a murder investigation, Ben starts to see their manipulative power in a harsher light. Placed on a collision course with his family, Ben faces a dilemma: how far is he willing to go to fit into their world?"

Because luxury and opulence always has a price!

Murder at an English Séance by Jessica Ellicott
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In post-World War I England, foul play at a suspicious séance provokes the delightfully mismatched sleuthing duo of American adventuress Beryl Helliwell and prim Brit Edwina Davenport to dig up some dirt...

Hidden beneath her British reserve, Edwina has a secret: she's finished her novel and is bravely mailing the manuscript to a publisher. Beryl also has a secret: as thanks for solving a case, the American adventuress has been gifted an airplane. After swooping over the fields and hedgerows of Walmsley Parva, livestock scattering beneath her, she flamboyantly lands the plane on the village green, prompting a startled Edwina to consider a stiff gin fizz.

Beryl's aircraft is not the only disruption of village peace. Miss Dinsdale, a psychic medium, has started holding séances. After the church organist resigns to serve as musical accompaniment for the séances, the vicar's wife hires the enquiry agents to expose the medium as a charlatan. Beryl is confident she can spot the fraud, having learned from Harry Houdini himself some tricks of the trade. The dubious Miss Dinsdale claims her spirit guide is an Egyptian princess whose mummy resides in a sarcophagus in the room. But the only body in the sarcophagus belongs to a murdered villager impaled with a dagger.

As the sleuths begin to investigate, Beryl discovers her plane has been sabotaged and wonders if there's a connection. Whether in the air or on terra firma, Beryl and Edwina must go round a circle of suspects to divine the culprit..."

I was literally JUST talking about how Houdini exposed fake mediums, this is timely reading indeed!

Death at Darrington Manor by Nancy Warren
Published by: Storm Publishing
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 285 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When intrepid reporter Abigail Dixon swaps Paris for an English manor to cover the wedding of the year, she expects afternoon tea on the lawn and cocktails in the drawing room, not a man lying dead in a stream and a woman strangled by her own silk stockings.

Spring 1925. Abigail Dixon arrives in Somerset to report on the high-society wedding of an American car tycoon's son and an English aristocrat's daughter. But when a man is murdered on a trout-fishing expedition, and with the quaint village abuzz with gossip of a local woman discovered dead in London, Abigail quickly finds herself entangled in a web of murder and scandal.

As she investigates, Abigail unearths some dark secrets lurking within Darrington Manor and clues linking the two murders. From the lovelorn estate manager to a tight-lipped butler and local mechanic with an axe to grind, everyone is a possible suspect.

Determined to expose the culprit, and with danger lurking at every turn, can Abigail unveil the truth before the 'wedding of the year' becomes the obituary column?

Fans of Agatha Christie and Downton Abbey will devour this page-turning 1920s whodunit brimming with twists, red herrings, and charming period detail."

Yes, devour away, but please can we get some new cover art? That 1920s vector graphic lady is on one too many books these days. 

Secrets of Rose Briar Hall by Kelsey James
Published by: John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this Gilded Age Gothic homage to Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman, a wealthy young newlywed in early 20th century New York is isolated within her opulent, yet ominously empty mansion by the charismatic and controlling new husband plotting to undermine her sanity...

1908, Long Island: For Millie Turner, the young and beautiful wife of a powerful New York stockbroker, Rose Briar Hall - a gleaming edifice of white marble on the North Shore - is more than a home. Every lavish detail speaks of Charles Turner's status and wealth, and its stylish interior is testament to Millie's sophistication. All that's left is to prove her worthiness to be his bride. What better way than to throw a grand party for New York's social elite?

After painstaking planning, the night of the event arrives and all is perfection - until Millie wakes to a cold, eerily quiet house, and a gray cloud where her memory should be. Can it be true that she has been in and out of consciousness for weeks, ever since the party took a terrifying turn? Millie recalls nothing. But her friends have shunned her, and it soon becomes clear that if she can't find out what really happened that night, much more than her reputation will be at risk...

As the house that promised so much happiness begins to feel more like a prison, Millie wonders whether a woman alone, even a wealthy one, can ever be entirely safe. And if she succeeds in finding the truth, will it bring relief, or shake her marriage, and her life, to the core?"

I love the concept, though I would've like Patrick Hamilton, the playwright of Gas Light to get a little credit... I guess more people are drawn to the name Ingrid Bergman. Which, well, that's fair.

An Art Lover's Guide to Paris and Murder by Dianne Freeman
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Filled with Victorian-era intrigue for readers of Rhys Bowen, Deanna Raybourn, Tasha Alexander, and Julia Seales, Dianne Freeman's Agatha Award-winning series takes a delightful jaunt to the City of Light as Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, encounters a murder scene at the Paris Exposition.

Frances and her husband, George, have two points of interest in Paris. One is an impromptu holiday to visit the Paris Exposition. The other is personal. George's Aunt Julia has requested her nephew's help in looking into the suspicious death of renowned artist Paul Ducasse. Though Julia is not entirely forthcoming about her reasons, she is clearly a woman mourning a lost love.

At the exposition, swarming with tourists, tragedy casts a pall on the festivities. A footbridge collapses. Julia is among the casualties. However, she was not just another fateful victim. Julia was stabbed to death amid the chaos. With an official investigation at a standstill, George and Frances realize that to solve the case they must dig into Julia's life - as well as Paul's - and question everything and everyone in Julia's coterie of artists and secrets.

They have no shortage of suspects. There is Paul's inscrutable widow, Gabrielle. Paul's art dealer and manager, Lucien. Julia's friend Martine, a sculptress with a jealous streak. And art jurist, Monsieur Beaufoy. The investigation takes a turn when it's revealed that George has inherited control of Julia's estate - and another of her secrets. While George investigates, Frances safeguards their new legacy, and is drawn further into danger by a killer determined to keep the past buried."

From that delightful cover to namechecking Tasha Alexander to the art, this book has me sold three ways!

A Vicious Machination by Lynn Messina
Published by: Potatoworks Press
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 287 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"As eager as Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, is to meet her husband's newly discovered illegitimate half sister, she does not want it to happen like this: in the keeper's house at Newgate.

Yes, that Newgate, the abject prison filled with squalor and misery to which Verity Lark has been consigned for murder. Found standing over the slain corpse of an old tormentor with a still-warm pistol in her hand, she is obviously guilty.

It is an open-and-shut case with little for an unduly curious duchess to investigate.

Except it all seems a little too simple and straightforward. The Runner, for example, who apprehended Miss Lark at the scene of the crime - it's awfully convenient that he just happened to be in the neighborhood at the very moment the gun discharged. Something else has to be at work here, such as a sinister figure lurking in the shadows to direct the action. Convinced of Miss Lark's innocence, Bea can conceive of no other explanation."

But here's the thing, you can't pick your relatives, and some of them might be killers... 

A Ruse of Shadows by Sherry Thomas
Published by: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Charlotte Holmes is accustomed to solving crimes, not being accused of them, but she finds herself in a dreadfully precarious position as the bestselling Lady Sherlock series continues.

Charlotte's success on the RMS Provence has afforded her a certain measure of time and assurance. Taking advantage of that, she has been busy, plotting to prise the man her sister loves from Moriarty's iron grip.

Disruption, however, comes from an unexpected quarter. Lord Bancroft Ashburton, disgraced and imprisoned as a result of Charlotte's prior investigations, nevertheless manages to press Charlotte into service: Underwood, his most loyal henchman, is missing and Lord Bancroft wants Charlotte to find Underwood, dead or alive.

But then Lord Bancroft himself turns up dead and Charlotte, more than anyone else, meets the trifecta criteria of motive, means, and opportunity. Never mind rescuing anyone else, with the law breathing down her neck, can Charlotte save herself from prosecution for murder?"

With the end of the Enola Holmes series, might I suggest this one to fill that gaping void?

A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd
Published by: John Scognamiglio Book
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"I'm the eldest daughter of Romeo and Juliet. Yes, that Romeo and Juliet. No, they didn't die in the tomb. They're alive and well and living in fair Verona with their six wildly impetuous children and me, their nineteen-year-old daughter Rosaline...

Knives Out meets Bridgerton in Fair Verona, as New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd kicks off a frothy, irreverent, witty new series with an irresistible premise - told from the delightfully engaging point of view of Romeo and Juliet's clever, rebellious, fiercely independent daughter, Rosie Montague.

Once upon a time a young couple met and fell in love. You probably know that story, and how it ended (hint: badly). Only here's the thing: That's not how it ended at all.

Romeo and Juliet are alive and well and the parents of seven kids. I'm the oldest, with the emphasis on 'old' - a certified spinster at twenty, and happy to stay that way. It's not easy to keep your taste for romance with parents like mine. Picture it - constant monologues, passionate declarations, fighting, making up, making out...it's exhausting.

Each time they've presented me with a betrothal, I've set out to find the groom-to-be a more suitable bride. After all, someone sensible needs to stay home and manage this household. But their latest match, Duke Stephano, isn't so easy to palm off on anyone else. The debaucher has had three previous wives - all of whom met unfortunate ends. Conscience forbids me from consigning another woman to that fate. As it turns out, I don't have to...

At our betrothal ball - where, quite by accident, I meet a beautiful young man who makes me wonder if perhaps there is something to love at first sight - I stumble upon Duke Stephano with a dagger in his chest. But who killed him? His late wives' families, his relatives, his mistress, his servants - half of Verona had motive. And when everyone around the Duke begins dying, disappearing, or descending into madness, I know I must uncover the killer...before death lies on me like an untimely frost."

Oh my, this is just my level of delightful, murder and mayhem with a classical romance!

Bitter Waters by Vivian Shaw
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 164 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A witty, charming standalone novella starring Greta Helsing, doctor to the undead, who must get to the bottom of a mystery involving a newly turned child vampire.

A barrow-wight shows up on Greta and Varney's doorstep one night with 11-year-old Lucy Ashton who's been newly - and forcefully - bitten and turned. Who did this to her, and why? With the help of her vampiric friends, Greta is determined to find out."

Doesn't everyone know not to change children? Case in point, Claudia...

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A chilling horror novel about a haunting, told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls "Other Mommy," from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.

To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There's Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: "Can I go inside your heart?"

When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.

Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.

But Other Mommy needs an answer.

Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home."

Like Coraline but even scarier!

The Last Witch of Scotland by Philip Paris
Published by: Black and White Publishing
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inspired by the true story of the last person to be tried and executed as a witch in the British Isles, The Last Witch of Scotland reimagines how Janet Horne came to be accused of witchcraft.

Being a woman was her only crime.

Scottish Highlands, 1727.

In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet, move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the women: Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community.

Then arrives a motley troupe of traveling entertainers from Edinburgh, led by the charismatic but mysterious Jack. It is just the distraction Janet, and particularly Aila, needs: for the first time in a long while, their lives are filling with joy and friendship, and a kind of hope Aila hasn't known since her father's death. But in this small community, faith is more powerful than truth, and whispers more dangerous even than fire.

Haunting and deeply moving, The Last Witch of Scotland is a story of love, loyalty and sacrifice, inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain.

Perfect for fans of Outlander and The Mercies, or for anyone with an interest in the history of witchcraft, late renaissance Scotland and Highland history."

I also would add perfect for fans of Burial Rites. 

Husbands and Lovers by Beatriz Williams
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two women - separated by decades and continents, and united by an exotic family heirloom - reclaim secrets and lost loves in this sweeping novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Wives.

New England, 2022. Three years ago, single mother Mallory Dunne received the telephone call every parent dreads - her ten-year-old son, Sam, had been airlifted from summer camp with acute poisoning from a toxic death cap mushroom, leaving him fighting for his life. Now, searching for the donor kidney that will give her son a chance for a normal life, Mallory's forced to confront two harrowing secrets from her past: her mother's adoption from an infamous Irish orphanage in 1952, and her own all-consuming summer romance fourteen years earlier with her childhood best friend, Monk Adams - one of the world's most beloved singer-songwriters - a fairy tale cut short by a devastating betrayal.

Cairo, 1951. After suffering tragedy beyond comprehension in the war, Hungarian refugee Hannah Ainsworth has forged a respectable new life for herself - marriage to a wealthy British diplomat with a coveted posting in glamorous Cairo. But a fateful encounter with the enigmatic manager of a hotel bristling with spies leads to a passionate affair that will reawaken Hannah's longing for everything she once lost. As revolution simmers in the Egyptian streets, a pregnant Hannah finds herself snared in a game of intrigue between two men...and an act of sacrifice that will echo down the generations.

Timeless and bittersweet, Husbands and Lovers takes readers on an unforgettable journey of heartbreak and redemption, from the revolutionary fires of midcentury Egypt to the moneyed beaches of contemporary New England.

Acclaimed author Beatriz Williams has written a poignant and beautifully voiced novel of deeply human characters entangled by morally complex issues - of privilege, class, and the female experience - inside worlds brought shimmeringly to life."

There's nothing that says summer like a Beatriz Williams book. I mean it, just look at that cover!

Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong
Published by: Forever
Publication Date: June 25th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong delivers a fun romantic comedy about a woman writing under a male pseudonym and the man she hires to play the role in public.

Daphne McFadden already knows that as a female author, the cards are stacked against her. Now she knows just how much. Because her sudden whim to pose as an "outdoorsy hunk of masculinity" male author for her new book just resulted in the unthinkable: a bidding war, a huge book deal, and the kind of fame every author dreams of. Now she's in big trouble. Because she needs to convince the world that Zane Remington actually exists...but how?

By hiring an actor, of course.

Only Chris Stanton is not an actor - not officially. He's used to balancing the books, not pretending he wrote one. Still, he's mostly certain he can pose as some overly macho bro-author. But when the media descend on Daphne's gorgeous remote home in the Yukon, it's not enough for Chris to just be the face of Zane Remington - he'll have to become him. All while hilariously balancing the terrifying dangers of the wilderness, a massive femme fandom, and a serious crush on Daphne. But as the hype circus gets more out of control, it's just a matter of time before someone discovers their little write lie..."

Oh my, I love this Men in Trees esque detour to the typical Kelley Armstrong fare!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Beatriz Williams, Christina Dodd, Dianne Freeman, Fiona Leitch, Heather Graham, Jessica Ellicott, Josh Malerman, Kelley Armstrong, Kelsey James, Nancy Warren, Pete Sherlock, Sherry Thomas, Vivian Shaw

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: October 9th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 512 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Elodie Winslow works as an archivist for Stratton, Caldwell and Co. Mainly cataloging the detritus of one man's life. But one day she stumbles on something she finds remarkable, an old leather satchel that contains an artist's sketchbook and a photograph of an arrestingly beautiful woman wearing the Radcliffe Blue, an heirloom diamond that has long been missing. Elodie isn't interested in the diamond, even if it would be quite the find, she's interested in a drawing of a house in the sketchbook. For some reason it reminds her of a house her mother used to tell stories about. She finds out that it's Birchwood Manor, an estate in the Upper Thames region. Instead of planning her elaborate society wedding Elodie decides to investigate the mystery of Birchwood Manor. Birchwood Manor was rumored to be built on land blessed by a Fairy Queen because of two children whose lives were saved. The two children are supposed to haunt the house and that is what brought the Magenta Brotherhood to the house in 1862. The leader, Edward Radcliffe, and his muse Lily Millington are the center of a summer of artistic expression. But things take a tragic turn. When Edward's ex fiance arrives she is killed and Lily and the Radcliffe Blue disappear into the ether. Because Lily had a secret past as a pickpocket it's assumed that she and her old partner have run off to America with their bounty. But the past is never as it seems and the house has gone through many hands since then. In 1899 the house became a school that Edward Radcliffe's sister Lucy actually opened. But another tragedy strikes Birchwood Manor when a student dies in a boating accident. In 1928 the house has long been sealed up but a historian gets the right to stay on the property to research Edward and Lily. There he meets a young girl, Juliet, who in 1940 will come to Birchwood Manor to escape the blitz with her three children. But what does this all have to do with Elodie's memory of this house and her mother? Only Birchwood Manor holds the key and it has keep it's secrets close for a long long time.

Kate Morton is an author who in theory should be one of my favorite authors. She writes exactly the kind of books I want to read, but somehow never sticks the landing. I've read all her books out of order, which is fine because they aren't interconnected, but if I sequence them chronologically what amazes me is that as she's developed as a writer her books have greatly improved as evidenced by my reviews. But then came The Clockmaker's Daughter. After The Secret Keeper in 2012 I had really started to anticipate her new books. I started following her on social media and the buildup to The Clockmaker's Daughter had me tingling in anticipation. Seriously, Kate Morton and the Pre-Raphaelites are so in my wheelhouse. I couldn't wait. I was so excited I even picked it as my selection for my book club to read. Now I will say that a confluence of events happened that made reading this book happen under not the best circumstances, but I don't think that would change my opinion of it. The Clockmaker's Daughter is a big step back for Morton. Quirks and ticks that were common in her early books and had been phased out were back. The writing felt immature and didn't have a clear voice coupled with an unwieldy cast of characters. Which leads me to the conclusion this has to have been a trunk book. A trunk book is a book you write and lock in the deepest and darkest of trunks because you want no one to read it because it's that bad. It's you before you understood how to be a writer. But occasionally authors hit a dry spell and their hand is forced by the demands of their agents, editors, and publishing houses. Therefore trunk books can get published. I believe the first time I heard of the official moniker "trunk book" was in the television adaptation of Stephen King's Bag of Bones. And I'm sure King has dug up a few trunks over the years to meet his publishing demands. And I think that is exactly what happened here. Morton isn't the most prolific of authors, she's only published six books, but those six books have a through line in style that is all knotted when it comes to The Clockmaker's Daughter. Yes, I'm sure she tried to polish it up a bit, but it just didn't have any luster. What's more, the Pre-Raphaelites are barely in this book. I was just let down on so many levels by this book and had to apologize to my book club. Thankfully this is something all of us do often so it wasn't a new occurrence.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Birchwood Manor, Diamond, Fairy Queen, For the Love of Book Clubs, Kate Morton, Magenta Brotherhood, Pre-Raphaelite, Radcliffe Blue, Stephen King, The Clockmaker's Daughter, The Secret Keeper, Trunk Book

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Published by: Avid Reader Press / Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: July 9th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

Maggie thought she was in love. She thought he loved her too. But it was an unequal relationship. He was her teacher. He slowly worked his way into her life so that he was all she had and then one day she texted him and his wife saw. That ended everything. In fact it felt like her life ended. A few years later she sees his face smiling on the news. He has been named teacher of the year in North Dakota. She realizes it is time to go public, because as her therapist has told her, she couldn't have been the first. Yet Maggie's past calls everything she says into question and the love of her life will get away with the damage he's inflicted. Linna just wants her husband to touch her. A kiss, a caress, anything. She's decided that if this continues for three months she will leave him. Of course he doesn't know that she has a dream, that she will get back together with her high school sweetheart whom she's been having an affair with. Aidan and her broke up in high school because she was raped by three classmates one night and forever branded a whore. Her entire life she has felt the void left by Aidan leaving. And here he is, back in her life, or at least her car, whenever his needs need to be met. She knows it's a one way relationship, but to be touched, to be cared for, even in this small way, was more than she ever got from her husband. Sloane looks to have the perfect life. A husband with whom she runs a successful restaurant, beautiful children, and looks that don't betray her age. She and her husband love each other completely, only he takes sexual satisfaction from watching his wife sleep with other men and women, occasionally participating. All these women would do anything for love. They would degrade themselves, they would hurt themselves, they would even, perhaps, kill themselves.

Three Women is a puerile and prurient book, like a small child that can not yet form full sentences but randomly yells out "fuck" for the reaction they get from adults. This is not in the least a book about female desire but a book about women molested and controlled by men. One can only assume that all the glorious reviews were written by men who long to dominate women and hope that this debasement is truly the secret desire of all women. I have shocking news for them; it's not. I keep coming back to the fact that Taddeo supposedly worked on this book for eight years and in this time she gained no depth on her subjects. These women could have been handled tactfully, their body image issues and abuse dealt with in a thoughtful manner, instead it's just who they are on the surface, not who they were made to become, and the abuse, while there, also fuels their desire. But why? WHY!?! These women are nothing more than paper dolls. They are one dimensional cliches that I strongly suspect don't even really exist with their love of Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. In fact Sloane might very well be nothing more than an amalgam of Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl. And the fact that Gossip Girl handled bulimia better than this book and that even Twilight is better written should give you a hint as to how bad this book is. As you read about Lina massaging the fondant from a Cadbury Creme Egg into Aidan's scrotum you will feel your brain cells dying.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blair Waldorf, Bulimia, Cadbury Creme Egg, Fifty Shades of Grey, For the Love of Book Clubs, Gossip Girl, Infidelity, Lisa Taddeo, Rape, Serena van der Woodsen, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Three Women, Twilight

Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, must stop a disaster of world-shattering proportions in this exhilarating entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In the supernatural realms, there are creatures who belong to winter. I am not one of them. But like the coyote I can become at will, I am adaptable.

My name is Mercy Thompson Hauptman, and my mate, Adam, is the werewolf who leads the Columbia Basin Pack, the pack charged with keeping the people who live and work in the Tri-Cities of Washington State safe. It's a hard job, and it doesn't leave much room for side quests. Which is why when I needed to travel to Montana to help my brother, I intended to go by myself.

But I'm not alone anymore.

Together, Adam and I find ourselves trapped with strangers in a lodge in the heart of the wilderness, in the teeth of a storm of legendary power, only to discover my brother's issues are a tiny part of a problem much bigger than we could have imagined. Arcane and ancient magics are at work that could, unless we are very careful, bring about the end of the world...."

Hands down Patricia Briggs is my favorite urban fantasy author ever. I have been dying to read Mercy's newest adventure. Seriously, dying.

The Witchstone by Henry H. Neff
Published by: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 476 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An unforgettable, high-stakes, laugh-out-loud funny novel, The Witchstone blends the merciless humor of The Good Place with the spellbinding fantasy of Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

Meet Laszlo, eight-hundred-year-old demon and Hell's least productive Curse Keeper. From his office beneath Midtown, he oversees the Drakeford Curse, which involves a pathetic family upstate and a mysterious black monolith. It's a sexy enough assignment - colonial origins, mutating victims, et cetera - but Laszlo has no interest in maximizing the curse's potential; he'd rather sunbathe in Ibiza, quaff martinis, and hustle the hustlers on Manhattan's subway. Unfortunately, his division has new management, and Laszlo's ratings are so abysmal that he's given six days to shape up or he'll be melted down and returned to the Primordial Ooze.

Meet Maggie Drakeford, nineteen-year-old Curse Bearer. All she's ever known is the dreary corner of the Catskills where the Drakeford Curse has devoured her father's humanity and is rapidly laying claim to her own. The future looks hopeless, until Laszlo appears at the Drakeford farmhouse one October night and informs them that they have six days - and six days only - to break the spell before it becomes permanent. Can Maggie trust the glib and handsome Laszlo? Of course not. But she also can't pass up an opportunity to save her family, even if it means having a demon as a guide...

Thus begins a breakneck international adventure that takes our unlikely duo from a hot dog stand in Central Park to the mountains of Liechtenstein. As the clock ticks down, tough-as-nails Maggie and conniving Laszlo will uncover a secret so profound that what began as a farcical quest to break a curse will eventually threaten the very Lords of Hell."

This has that Evil vibe. And Evil is one of my favorite shows ever.

Hearts That Cut by Kika Hatzopoulou
Published by: Razorbill
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this heart-pounding, much-anticipated sequel to Threads That Bind, Io will face threats even more dangerous and players even more powerful as she discovers what it will mean to follow - or defy - her fate.

It's been five weeks since Io left Alante to follow the golden thread, and she's no closer to finding the god on the other end. She spends her days in constant, grueling travel and her nights worrying over the fate-thread she shares with Edei - which seems to be fraying. Making matters worse, she and Bianca soon realize that their only lead has shaken them off, snapped the golden thread, and disappeared.

But not before Io gathers some crucial clues. Her investigation leads her to a new mystery, a rash of sibling disappearances across the Wastelands that seems to be connected to the murders in Alante. And all signs point to Nanzy, the golden city, as the center of the whole conspiracy.

As Io and Bianca make their way to Nanzy, they face powerful enemies, find allies new and old, and uncover a horrifying plot that traces back centuries. The more Io learns, the more she begins to suspect that the future of the world may truly rest on her shoulders. But she will have to determine how much of the future is her choice - and how much is simply her fate."

This series deserves far better cover art. Take note OwlCrate and LitJoy and all others of that ilk.

Dead Girls Talking by Megan Cooley Peterson
Published by: Holiday House
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The town of Wolf Ridge calls him The Smiley Face Killer. Bettina Holland calls him her father.

Everyone knows Bettina's father was the one who murdered her mother a decade ago. It's the subject of podcasts, murder tours, and even a highly anticipated docuseries. But after growing up grappling with what that means, a string of copycat murders forces Bett to answer a harder question: What if he didn't?

Old-money Bett must team up with the only person willing to investigate alongside her: bookish goth girl Eugenia, the mortician's daughter, who everyone says puts the makeup on corpses. Can this "true crime princess" unmask a murderer who's much closer to home than she ever imagined?

Gritty, gripping, and propulsive from page one, Dead Girls Talking is a ride for readers who love to see girls get their hands dirty as they claw their way to the truth. Peterson's knife-sharp thriller cuts deep, with a wicked sense of humor, a wire-taut atmosphere, and a deadly serious approach to bigger issues of justice and female anger."

But what if it is just a copycat?

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
Published by: Flatiron Books
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of Piranesi and The Midnight Library, a stunning historical fantasy novel set on a grand express train, about a group of passengers on a dangerous journey across a magical landscape.

It is said there is a price that every passenger must pay. A price beyond the cost of a ticket.

There is only one way to travel across the Wastelands: on the Trans-Siberian Express, a train as famous for its luxury as for its danger. The train is never short of passengers, eager to catch sight of Wastelands creatures more miraculous and terrifying than anything they could imagine. But on the train's last journey, something went horribly wrong, though no one seems to remember what exactly happened. Not even Zhang Weiwei, who has spent her life onboard and thought she knew all of the train's secrets.

Now, the train is about to embark again, with a new set of passengers. Among them are Marya Petrovna, a grieving woman with a borrowed name; Henry Grey, a disgraced naturalist looking for redemption; and Elena, a beguiling stowaway with a powerful connection to the Wastelands itself. Weiwei knows she should report Elena, but she can't help but be drawn to her. As the girls begin a forbidden friendship, there are warning signs that the rules of the Wastelands are changing and the train might once again be imperiled. Can the passengers trust each other, as the wildness outside threatens to consume them all?"

Seriously, this is a dust jacket so perfectly designed I'm jealous it isn't mine.

Daughter of Calamity by Rosalie M. Lin
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Genres collide in this dark and atmospheric reimagining of 1930s Shanghai for fans of Nghi Vo and S. A. Chakraborty.

Jingwen spends her nights as a showgirl at the Paramount, one of the most lavish clubs in Shanghai, competing ruthlessly to charm wealthy patrons. To cap off her shifts, she runs money for her grandmother, the exclusive surgeon to the most powerful gang in the city. A position her grandmother is pressuring her to inherit...

When a series of dancers are targeted - the attacker stealing their faces - Jingwen fears she could be next. And as the faces of the dancers start appearing on wealthy foreign socialites, she realizes Shanghai's glittering mirage of carefree luxury comes at a terrible price.

Fighting not just for her own safety but that of the other dancers - women who have simultaneously been her bitterest rivals and only friends - Jingwen has no choice but to delve into the city's underworld. In this treacherous realm of tangled alliances and ancient grudges, silver-armed gangsters haunt every alley, foreign playboys broker deals in exclusive back rooms, and the power of gods is wielded and traded like yuan. Jingwen will have to become something far stranger and more dangerous than her grandmother ever imagined if she hopes to survive the forces waiting to sell Shanghai's bones."

Given the whole transplanting of flesh, it's odd that the elegant cover reminds me of a tattoo I saw recently.

The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl by Lisa Hall
Published by: Hera
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Murder and scandal in the heat of 1950s Las Vegas: can Lily Jones stop a murder that happened before she was born?

Lily Jones can't forget her incredible time-slip adventure back to the Golden Age of Hollywood and the friends she made there - especially a handsome barman by the name of Louis, with whom she felt such a strong connection.

Back in 2020, life isn't going so well for her and Lily is idly googling when she is horrified to discover that Evelyn, Louis' ex-girlfriend, is brutally murdered in 1953.

She is compelled to go back to the 1950s and try to save Evelyn's life, but this time it isn't just the gilded stars of Tinseltown she will have to contend with, but The Mob as she finds herself in the seedy glamour of Vegas and learns that Evelyn's future depends upon her first solving the murder of a Vegas showgirl.

Thankfully she has Louis and his sister, Tilda, to help her, but her own life is in danger as she tries to find the killer and change Evelyn's fate.

What will she risk to save a life?"

Well I'd totally choose the 1950s of 2020 any day...

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Get Out meets Parasite in this eerily haunting debut and Reddit hit - soon to be a Netflix original movie starring Blake Lively - about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house's previous residents unexpectedly visit.

As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can't believe the killer deal they've just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they're working in the house one day, there's a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, uncanny and inexplicable things start happening, including the family's youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can't seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family - or is Eve just imagining things?"

I've always been suspicious of people who just show up at a house randomly and claim to have lived there... Hence I totally buy everything in this book.

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend - and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.

The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh's backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul-de-sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul-de-sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy's presence keep appearing in Ethan's backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed ghosts roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place - be it quiet forest or suburban street - is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present."

Don't worry folks, summer can officially begin as the new Riley Sager has dropped. This is how other people determine the start of summer right? It's not just me?

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin...

The deliciously twisty new locked room murder mystery from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List and The Paris Apartment.

It's the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests' healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the "Manor Mule" cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor's immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something's not right with the guests. There's been a fire. A body's been discovered."

Oh, Sunday mornings are the best time for police to be called.

We Made a Garden by Margery Fish
Published by: Batsford
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 176 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"An elegant reissue of a classic book from one of the twentieth century's greatest garden writers.

This landmark work on creating a garden was first published in 1956 and has rarely been out of print since. We Made a Garden is the story of how Margery Fish, the leading British gardener of the mid-twentieth century, and her husband, Walter, transformed an acre of wilderness into a stunning cottage garden, still open to the public at East Lambrook Manor, Somerset, England. Quirky and readable, this book details her creation of a world-renowned cottage garden, as well as her battles with Walter in the process, who preferred the standard suburban approach.

In this beautiful and timeless work, she recounts the trials and tribulations, the successes, and failures of her venture with ease and humor. This book has been hailed as everything from a blueprint for the creation of a modern cottage garden to a feminist manifesto, and the author's practical knowledge, imaginative ideas, and general good sense will encourage and inspire gardeners everywhere."

How have I never heard of this classic!?! Thankfully this has now been rectified. 

The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray
Published by: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The third book in the Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery series, which finds the amateur sleuths facing their most daunting challenge yet: preventing the murder of the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Someone is trying to kill Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Esteemed aunt of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, generous patroness of Mr. William Collins, a woman of rank who rules over the estate of Rosings Park with an unimpeachable sense of propriety - who would dare? Lady Catherine summons her grand-nephew, Mr. Jonathan Darcy, and his investigative companion, Miss Juliet Tilney, to find out.

After a year apart, Jonathan and Juliet are thrilled to be reunited, even if the circumstances - finding whoever has thus far sabotaged Lady Catherine's carriage, shot at her, and nearly pushed her down the stairs - are less than ideal. Also less than ideal: their respective fathers, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Mr. Henry Tilney, have accompanied the young detectives to Rosings, and the two men do not interact with the same felicity enjoyed by their children.

With attempts against Lady Catherine escalating, and no one among the list of prime suspects seemingly capable of committing all of the attacks, the pressure on Jonathan and Juliet mounts - even as more gentle feelings between the two of them begin to bloom. The race is now on to provoke two confessions: one from the attempted murderer before it is too late - and one, perhaps, of love."

Oh, but couldn't Lady Catherine also, you know, die. Because that would be funny... Though I do see their problem in narrowing down their suspect list... 

A Deceptive Composition by Anna Lee Huber
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lady Kiera Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage, hope they've finally found peace after a tumultuous summer, but long-buried family secrets soon threaten to unravel their lives...

October 1832. Kiera is enjoying the slower pace of the English countryside. She, Sebastian, and their infant daughter have accompanied her father-in-law, Lord Gage, home so that he can recuperate from the injuries he sustained in a foiled attempt on his life. But as the chill of autumn sweeps across the land, they receive a summons from an unexpected quarter. Lord Gage's estranged uncle - a member of the notorious Roscarrock family - has been murdered, and his family is desperate for answers. Despite Lord Gage's protests, Kiera and Sebastian press on to Cornwall to assist.

It isn't long before they discover that almost nothing is as it seems among the Roscarrocks, and they've been lured to their isolated cove under false pretenses. There are whispers of a lost treasure and frightening allusions to a series of murders stretching back decades that touch the lives of the family personally. Kiera and Sebastian are left with no choice but to uncover the truth before the secrets of the past threaten to destroy them all."

And maybe find some treasure along the way?

The Longest Exile by Tana Rebellis
Published by: Little Piggy Publishing
Publication Date: June 18th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 371 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Rome, 8 CE. Julia, eldest granddaughter of Augustus, is four months pregnant, and it should be cause for celebration. The only problem is that her husband was executed a year ago for treason. The math is simple, and damning.

Julia is exiled to a remote Adriatic island as punishment for her indiscretion, upending her privileged life. As she struggles to adjust to her new circumstances, a suspicious accident kills her only confidante, and she finds that trust is increasingly hard to come by - especially in a world where power is everything and where people will do anything to get it. Soon, Julia is forced not only to question what else fate has in store, but to fight for her illegitimate baby's survival.

Julia's scheming mother and slightly insane younger brother are already political exiles, but their newest plots pull her further into a deadly web of family betrayal and treason that threatens to taint Rome for generations to come. Further complicating matters is Titus, the bastard son of a senator. As one of the guards tasked with ensuring that Julia never escapes her island prison, she should resent him - but instead she finds herself increasingly drawn to him, at great risk to both their lives."

I am more than a little obsessed with Rome and one thing I know is they loved their island exiles.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anna Lee Huber, Claudia Gray, Henry H. Neff, Kika Hatzopoulou, Lisa Hall, Lucy Foley, Marcus Kliewer, Margery Fish, Megan Cooley Peterson, Patricia Briggs, Riley Sager, Rosalie M. Lin, Sarah Brooks, Tana Rebellis

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: April 24th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The Natural History Museum at Tring started it's life as the private museum of the 2nd Baron Rothschild who was often seen riding his zebra-drawn carriage around the estate. On his death the Rothschild family donated the museum and its contents to the nation. This suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History has many taxidermied specimens on display but its real wealth isn't for the public to see. This wealth consists of one of the largest orinthological collections in the world. Some of the bird skins within the museum were collected by Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary of Darwin. Which makes the crime that was about to happen not just egomaniacal but incalculably horrific in its impact to the study of the natural world. On June 24th, 2009, the museum was broken into and 299 specimens were stolen. Even if the specimens were recovered their scientific value was now worthless. The perpetrator was an American student, a flautist, Edwin Rist, who was caught and pled guilty over a year after the crime was committed. But why did Edwin break into an inconspicuous outpost of the British Natural History Museum? Edwin was a master fly-tier and had come up against the problem all master fly-tiers do in the modern era; what do you do when you want to recreate a specific salmon fly from the Victorian era but the bird feathers needed come from extinct species? There are those who find substitutions, but there are those, like Edwin, who would accept no substitutes and he figured out a way to get his hands on Victorian birds. It just so happened it was very illegal. Not to mention immoral. He could possibly have gotten away with it if he hadn't become greedy. The internet is full of people looking for illegal goods, it just so happens that Edwin was willing to share his. For a price. A retired detective at a fly-tier convention thought the bird skins he saw were suspect. They looked to be museum quality because they were. They had been a part of the Tring Heist. To protect themselves the fly-tier community turned on Edwin, much to his surprise. But he had a good lawyer, a willing doctor, and, in the end, to the uneducated, it was only dead birds after all. Yet one question remained, what happened to the specimens that were never recovered? Kirk Wallace Johnson was determined to find out.

The Feather Thief is an odd book. I say odd because it's built on a three act structure that should and traditionally does work but here falls flat. We start with the history, move onto the crime, and then round it out with the hunt for answers. And the problem lies in Kirk Wallace Johnson's hunt for answers. He latched onto this case because he took up fly-fishing to help with his PTSD from doing years of aid work in Iraq and it gave him an escape from his own problems. Which means he had a vested interest in tracking down Edwin Rist and the missing specimens. While he has worked as a journalist his writing in the third act felt very amateurish. His drive didn't spark in me a desire for resolution, it sparked in me a desire that the book should have been edited a little better. Because, don't get me wrong, this is a really good book, the first two acts are wonderful. Which makes his naivete about the true crime genre that much more glaring. But seriously, I don't want to focus on the negative in this review, I want to focus on the positive. Because, damn, I really should have known more about "feather fever." I watch enough costume dramas and read enough books that I can see with my own eyes the fetish for feathers that the Victorians engendered. I just had no idea it was this crazy. When the Titanic went down the most valuable thing they were carrying in their hull was feathers. That is just crazy to me. Tons and tons of feathers are down at the bottom of the ocean with all those lost souls and that one crazy billionaire and his family. My Dad used to tell the tale of an artist his gallery represented. Owen J. Gromme, while being a painter of the natural world, started out working for various museums and took several trips to Africa. On one trip he was with a member of the royal family of Britain and the carcasses of animals and birds was so vast that he was overcome with disgust. This story is why I shouldn't have been surprised by Edwin Rist. Humans will always seek to kill what is beautiful to claim it as theirs. Be it beasts or birds, they are covetous and horrible. The only justification for all the dead birds that Alfred Russel Wallace brought back was the scientific developments that could arise from the wholesale slaughter of now extinct birds. But Edwin Rist took that all away. He was a selfish boy who did not get punished as he should have. Where he is now matters not. Only the void he left matters.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alfred Russel Wallace, Birds, Edwin Rist, Feather Fever, Fly Fishing, For the Love of Book Clubs, Kirk Wallace Johnson, Owen J. Gromme, The Feather Thief, The Natural History Museum at Tring, Titanic, True Crime

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Published by: Penguin Classics
Publication Date: 1967
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

How does the devil prove that he exists? By proving the existence of God. Satan, in the guise of one Professor Woland, arrives in Moscow with his retinue. His companions are Koroviev, his valet, Behemoth, a black cat who walks on two legs, Azazello, a hitman, and Hella, a vampire. Their goal is to sew chaos and confusion. Woland targets the head of the Massolit, Berlioz, a corrupt toady. Berlioz embraces Soviet atheism and is in a heated discussion with the poet Bezdomny about how Jesus is a mythical figure. Woland, needing to prove his own existence, tells Berlioz that he will be decapitated by a Russian woman. Finding this death prophecy absurd it comes as quite a shock when Berlioz slips in the street and his head is forcibly removed from his body by a tram car driven by a woman. Bezdomny sees this as the proof Woland promised and is driven insane trying to stop the spread of their evil while warning his fellow citizens. He ends up being committed to an asylum. This is where Bezdomny meets the Master. The Master is a failed writer who was working on a book on the life of Pontius Pilate that was rejected by the Soviet state. Driven insane by critics he burned his manuscript and forsook his love, Margarita. Poor Margarita. She is about to fall under the spell of Woland, just as all of Moscow has with his show performed at the Variety theater. Azazello gives her the power of invisibility and invites her to his master's ball. There Woland gifts her with witchcraft. She flies through the night, over rivers and forests, and arrives to be hostess of Satan's spring ball, welcoming the luminaries of hell. All she asks for in return is to be reunited with the Master. They will spend an eternity together. In hell. The ball ends. The spirits all depart. Moscow is free. As is Pontius Pilate, whose story has also come to an end, and now he too can walk beside Yeshua.

Ah, the greats of Russian literature. Tolstoy is epic, you could literally bludgeon someone to death with one of his book. Chekhov is annoying, trust me on this, once you watch an undergraduate production of Three Sisters or reread The Cherry Orchard ad infinitum for a semester you will want to travel back in time to stop him from ever having written a word. Pasternak is basically why I exist. And Bulgakov is surrealist art in prose form. I think. I mean it's the only way I can make any kind of sense of whatever this is I just read. Wait, was this supposed to be funny? Oh, it's supposed to be darkly funny with a Faustian twist. Yeah, totally didn't get that. The humor that is, the Faustian part is kind of obvious. And the thing is, this is a book I felt somehow intimidated by for years but after watching the adaptation of Bulgakov's A Young Doctor's Notebook I thought that I had a handle on his humor. I was wrong. And I also shouldn't have been intimidated. Because this book is a whole lot of nothing. Sure, you can make it into something, you can analyze the Christian imagery and parse the text and basically find a way to justify whatever your point of view is, but in my mind a book can't just be there for scholars to spar over. There has to be a story, there has to be something more. The one part of the book I liked was the glimpse we got into the Master and Margarita's life before he went insane and she became a witch. That was sweet and harrowing and bored everyone in my book club. They were all about the cat and the witches and seriously, how did I not like this book? There's an anthropomorphic cat! But Behemoth was just somehow too creepy for me. Too mean. And I know cat haters out there will say, but that's just a cat. I'm sorry, but no. No it's not. And as for Pontius Pilate... Why is there basically historical fiction about the life of Jesus intercut with the devil in Moscow? And don't say because it's all biblical. Because it feels like unnecessary filler. Like an idea for another book that was just grafted onto this one. In the end, who cares? Not me. Those who decry that everyone should read and love the classics are partially right. They should read them to find out their own tastes. And this book left a bad taste in my mouth.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Young Doctor's Notebook, Cats, Chekhov, Classics, Faustian, For the Love of Book Clubs, Hell, Jesus, Mikhail Bulgakov, Moscow, Pasternack, Pontius Pilate, Russian, The Master and Margarita, Tolstoy, Witches, Woland

Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A chilling twist on the "cursed film" genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part? Only three of the film's scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played "The Thin Kid" is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he's going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions - demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost?

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful feat of storytelling genius that builds inexorably to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion."

Cursed movies is a whole subgenre that I can't get enough of.

That Night in the Library by Eva Jurczyk
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"One night locked in the library. What could go wrong?

On the night before graduation, seven students gather in the basement of their university's rare books library. They're not allowed in the library after closing time, but it's the perfect place for the ritual they want to perform - one borrowed from the Greeks, said to free those who take part in it from the fear of death. And what better time to seek the wisdom of ancient gods than in the hours before they'll scatter in different directions to start their real lives?

But just a few minutes into their celebration, the lights go out - and one of them drops dead. As the body count rises, with nothing but the books to protect them, the group must figure out how to survive the night while trapped with a murderer. That Night in the Library is a chilling literary mystery that transports readers to a world where secrets live in the dark, books breathe fears to life, and the only way out is to wait until morning."

As The Doctor would say when being hunted in a library and you're in need of weapons; "You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world."

A Talent for Murder by Peter Swanson
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A newlywed librarian begins to suspect the man she married is a murderer in this spectacularly twisty and deviously clever novel by Peter Swanson, New York Times bestselling author of The Kind Worth Killing and Eight Perfect Murders.

No murder is by the book.

Martha Ratliff conceded long ago that she'd likely spend her life alone. She was fine with it, happy with her solo existence, stimulated by her work as a librarian in Maine. But then she met Alan, a charming and sweet-natured salesman whose job took him on the road for half the year. When he asked her to marry him, she said yes, even though he still felt a little bit like a stranger.

A year in and the marriage was good, except for that strange blood streak on the back of one of his shirts he'd worn to a conference in Denver. Her curiosity turning to suspicion, Martha investigates the cities Alan visited over the past year and uncovers a disturbing pattern - five unsolved cases of murdered women.

Is she married to a serial killer? Or could it merely be a coincidence? Unsure what to think, Martha contacts an old friend from graduate school for advice. Lily Kintner once helped Martha out of a jam with an abusive boyfriend and may have some insight. Intrigued, Lily offers to meet Alan to find out what kind of man he really is...but what Lily uncovers is more perplexing and wicked than they ever could have expected."

More perplexing? Was she targeted to be his wife as a perfect alibi?

What Fire Brings by Rachel Howzell Hall
Published by: Thomas and Mercer
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A writer's search for her missing friend becomes a real-life thriller in a twisting novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of These Toxic Things.

Bailey Meadows has just moved into the remote Topanga Canyon home of thriller author Jack Beckham. As his writer-in-residence, she's supposed to help him once again reach the bestseller list. But she's not there to write a thriller - she's there to find Sam Morris, a community leader dedicated to finding missing people, who has disappeared in the canyon surrounding Beckham's property.

The missing woman was last seen in the drought-stricken forest known for wildfires and mountain lions. Each new day, Bailey learns just how dangerous these canyons are - for the other women who have also gone missing here...and for her. Could these missing women be linked to strange events that occurred decades ago at the Beckham estate?

As fire season in the canyons approaches, Bailey must race to unravel the truth from fiction before she becomes the next woman lost in the forest."

But her investigation could become a True Crime bestseller depending of she makes it out alive...

Hope to Die by Cara Hunter
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Self-defense or murder? In the continuation of one of Britain's most popular crime series from Cara Hunter - the author of the instant New York Times bestseller Murder in the Family - DI Fawley returns to determine if someone has staged a crime scene in connection with another homicide from years past.

Midnight. A grisly murder scene at isolated farm on the outskirts of Oxford.

A man lies dead in the kitchen - shot point blank. The farm's elderly owners claim the shooting was self-defense against a burglar. But something about the crime scene doesn't sit right with DI Adam Fawley, whose gut tells him there's more to their story. If the victim came to rob the house, why wasn't he wearing gloves or carrying tools? Why didn't the owner of the house call the police right after the shooting? Why did his wife wash his blood splattered clothes immediately?

Digging deeper, the police realize this is no ordinary burglary gone wrong. There's an unmistakable link to an infamous case from years earlier involving a child's murder and an alleged miscarriage of justice. When the news leaks out, the press goes wild.

Suddenly Fawley's team are under tremendous pressure to crack the case - and to bring one formidable criminal to justice."

Thames Valley, ah, murders there are everything to me.

Middletide by Sarah Crouch
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this gripping and intensely atmospheric debut, disquiet descends on a small town after the suspicious death of a beautiful young doctor, with all clues pointing to the reclusive young man who abandoned the community in chase of big city dreams but returned for the first love he left behind. Perfect for fans of All Good People Here and Where the Crawdads Sing.

One peaceful morning, in the small, Puget Sound town of Point Orchards, the lifeless body of Dr. Erin Landry is found hanging from a tree on the property of prodigal son and failed writer, Elijah Leith. Sheriff Jim Godbout's initial investigation points to an obvious suicide, but upon closer inspection, there seem to be clues of foul play when he discovers that the circumstances of the beautiful doctor's death were ripped straight from the pages of Elijah Leith's own novel.

Out of money and motivation, thirty-three-year-old Elijah returns to his empty childhood home to lick the wounds of his futile writing career. Hungry for purpose, he throws himself into restoring the ramshackle cabin his father left behind and rekindling his relationship with Nakita, the extraordinary girl from the nearby reservation whom he betrayed but was never able to forget.

As the town of Point Orchards turns against him, Elijah must fight for his innocence against an unexpected foe who is close and cunning enough to flawlessly frame him for murder in this scintillating literary thriller that seeks to uncover a case of love, loss, and revenge."

Oh, a murder just like he wrote? Someone's trying to frame him!

The Countryside by Corinne Fowler
Published by: Scribner Book Company
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ten walks through idyllic scenery reveal the countryside's forgotten links to transatlantic slavery and colonialism - a work of accessible history that will transform our understanding of British landscapes and heritage.

The green fields, rugged highlands, and rolling hills of England, Scotland, and Wales are commonly associated with adventure, romance, and seclusion as well as literary figures like Jane Austen and William Wordsworth. But in reality, many of these rural places - with their country houses, lakes, and shorelines - were profoundly changed by British colonial activity. Even hamlets and villages were affected by distant colonial events.

Taking ten country walks, author Corinne Fowler explores the unique colonial dimensions of British agriculture, copper-mining, landownership, wool-making, coastal trade, and factory work in cotton mills. One route shows the links between English country houses and Indian colonization. Another explores banking history in Southern England and its link to slavery on Louisianan plantations. Other walks uncover the historical impact of sugar profits on the Scottish isles and 18th-century tobacco imports on an English coastal port. The history of these countryside locations - and the people who lived and worked in them - is closely bound up with colonial rule in far-away continents.

Accompanying the author on her walks are a fascinating group of people - artists, musicians, and writers - with strong attachments to the landscapes featured in this book and family links to former British colonies like Barbados and Senegal. These companions illuminate the meaning of colonial history in local settings. Crucially, this is not just a history book but a compassionate reflection on the way we respond to sensitive, shared histories which link people across cultures, generations, and political divides."

History is all around us if we'd only look.

The Devil's Berries by Patti Flinn
Published by: Patti Flinn
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 442 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inspired by the true life of Louis-Benoit Zamor.

Serving Madame du Barry by day and rubbing shoulders with revolutionaries at night, Louis-Benoit Zamor is ready to find his greatness. In this, his time in the sun, he will lend his voice to the revolutionary movement and love like he's never dared.

But the Ancient Régime isn't done with him, yet.

Much like the deadly devil's berries, Madame's bitter anger takes root at the chateau. Zamor will discover that when facing the devil in disguise only one thing is for sure:

Every fox must survive its own hunt...and all that."

Vive la révolution!

The Imposter Heiress by Annie Reed
Published by: Diversion Books
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Paroled felon. Rich doctor's wife. Famous clairvoyant. Cassie Chadwick, one of history's most successful con artists, was a master of reinvention. In the dusk of the Gilded Age, she swept from town to town, assuming fresh identities to swindle a fortune so large that it rivaled the robber barons of the time.

Then came arguably the greatest con in American history. Using forged documents and her peerless wits, Cassie convinced prominent men from Cleveland to New York City that she was the illegitimate daughter of the world's wealthiest man - Andrew Carnegie.

Businessmen loaned her hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time; the ensuing crash shattered banks and bankers alike. Her sensational trial made her a household name. The newspapers called her the "Queen of Swindlers," the "Duchess of Diamonds," the "High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance."

Interspersing Cassie's crimes with stories of an unsuspecting Andrew Carnegie, author Annie Reed spins an enthralling, page-turning tale of true crime. Long before Anna Delvey captivated national attention, there was Cassie Chadwick - mother of the American con."

I marvel at those who could pull of these kind of cons, one of which we saw on this most recent season of The Gilded Age.

Truth Be Told by Patricia Raybon
Published by: Tyndale House Publishers
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Denver's newest detective. A garden's deadly secrets.

On a lovely June night in 1924, amateur detective Annalee Spain is mingling bravely at a high-class political fundraiser in the lush backyard garden of famed political fixer Cooper Coates, one of the wealthiest men in Denver's Black neighborhood of Five Points. When Coates's young daughter discovers a pretty stranger dead in her father's garden shed, Annalee is thrust onto the baffling new case just as she's reeling from another recent discovery - a handwritten letter, found buried in her own garden, that reveals the identity of her mother.

Not ready to face the truth about her hidden past, Annalee throws herself into solving the mystery of the young woman's demise. With the help of her pastor boyfriend Jack Blake, her orphaned buddy Eddie, and her trustworthy church friends, Annalee follows the clues to three seemingly disconnected settings - a traveling carnival set up downtown, a Black civic club, and a prestigious white seminary on the outskirts of Denver. Intriguing advice also comes from a famous, real-life Denver visitor. But is Annalee on the right track or just running in circles, fleeing from conflicts racing in her heart?

In a taut, heart-gripping narrative driven by secrets, romance, and lies, Annalee must unravel a case with higher stakes than she imagined - one where answers about a lovely woman's death point to truths and tensions still throbbing today."

Personally I'd blame the seminarians. 

The Pyramid Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
Published by: Embla Books
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Kindle, 300 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A night at the museum, a dead body and a trail to Cairo. Sounds like a case for Miss Clara Vale!

1930: Miss Clara Vale, chemistry major turned detective, is taking a night off from sleuthing to attend the launch party of a new exhibition at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. But when the piece de resistance, a rare ornate sarcophagus, is finally opened and it turns out the mummy inside it is a fake it looks like there is no rest for Clara after all...

Later that night, she is summoned back to the museum and asked to investigate a series of stolen Egyptian artefacts. Using her scientific and forensic prowess, Clara, with her trusted assistant Bella in tow, embarks on a trail that will lead from Newcastle to London and along the river Nile to Cairo.

But she is not the only person hunting for stolen antiquities and when she uncovers an international smuggling ring with a penchant for murder, it becomes clear that Clara's own life is in danger too.

Can Clara catch the smugglers before they get away with another murder among the pyramids?"

Egyptian and Egyptian adjacent murders are my catnip. Or should that me Skehmetnip?

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The gripping follow up to the "smart, stylish, and savage" (People) New York Times bestseller and Reese's Book Club pick The Club - a twisty mystery involving a cursed wealthy family and a Surrealist painting which holds the key to three suspicious deaths over the course of a century.

Some women won't be painted out of history...

Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx.

Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette's aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations.

But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?

A tale of love and madness, obsession and revenge, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby unravels the riddle posed by a Sphinx who refuses to reveal her secrets..."

Because somehow Louis and Armand got the painting? Yes, I am a bit obsessed with the new adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. As we all should be.

Do What Godmother Says by L.S. Stratton
Published by: Union Square and Co.
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A modern-day writer and a Harlem Renaissance artist are connected by a painting with a deadly secret in this gripping dual-timeline Gothic thriller.

Shanice Pierce knows better than to heed bad omens. But she has a hard time ignoring the signs when she finds herself newly single and out of a job on the same seemingly cursed day.

Then, while cleaning out her grandmother's house, Shanice comes across a painting she hasn't seen in years. Drawn to the haunting portrait in a way she can't explain, Shanice accepts her grandmother's offer to keep the family heirloom.

She soon uncovers the story of the artist, a Harlem Renaissance painter named Estelle Johnson. The young woman was taken under wing by the wealthy art patron Maude Bachmann - or "Godmother" as she insisted her artists call her - and vanished shortly after Bachmann's brutal murder a century ago.

As Shanice digs deeper, a paranoia that's haunted her for years returns. She becomes convinced she's being stalked, and that the deaths happening around her are connected to the staggering offer she turned down for the painting.

But the truth hiding in plain sight is even more shocking - and deadly - than Shanice could possibly have imagined..."

A Gothic haunted painting? Yes please.

The Afterlife of Mal Caldera by Nadi Reed Perez
Published by: Titan Books (UK)
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Paperback, 448Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Mal's life is over. Her afterlife is only just beginning...

By turns irreverently funny and deeply moving, this debut contemporary fantasy is perfect for fans of They Both Die at the End and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Mal Caldera - former rockstar, retired wild-child and excommunicated black sheep of her Catholic family - is dead. Not that she cares. She only feels bad that her younger sister, Cris, has been left to pick up the pieces Mal left behind. While her fellow ghosts party their afterlives away at an abandoned mansion they call the Haunt, Mal is determined to make contact with Cris from beyond the grave.

She enlists the help of a reluctant local medium, Ren, and together, they concoct a plan to pass on a message to Cris. But the more time they spend together, the more they begin to wonder what might have been if they'd met before Mal died.

Mal knows it's wrong to hold on so tightly to her old life. Bad things happen to ghosts who interfere with the living, and Mal can't help wondering if she's hurting the people she loves by hanging around, haunting their lives. But Mal has always been selfish, and letting go might just be the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

Funny, emotional and life-affirming, The Afterlife of Mal Caldera will have readers laughing one minute and sobbing the next."

I'd totally be Mal.

The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A timeless, epic novel about a family of luchadores contending with forbidden love and secrets in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and beyond.

Ernesto Vega has lived many lives, from pig farmer to construction worker to famed luchador El Rey Coyote, yet he has always worn a mask. He was discovered by a local lucha libre trainer at a time when luchadores - Mexican wrestlers donning flamboyant masks and capes - were treated as daredevils or rock stars. Ernesto found fame, rapidly gaining name recognition across Mexico, but at great expense, nearly costing him his marriage to his wife Elena.

Years later, in East Los Angeles, his son, Freddy Vega, is struggling to save his father's gym while Freddy's own son, Julian, is searching for professional and romantic fulfillment as a Mexican American gay man refusing to be defined by stereotypes.

With alternating perspectives, Ernesto and Elena take you from the ranches of Michoacán to the makeshift colonias of Mexico City. Freddy describes life in the suburban streets of 1980s Los Angeles and the community their family built, as Julian descends deep into our present-day culture of hook-up apps, lucha burlesque shows, and the dark underbelly of West Hollywood. The Sons of El Rey is an intimate portrait of a family wading against time and legacy, yet always choosing the fight."

Tell me more about lucha burlesque!

Magro's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman's attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world - from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.

As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she'd have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can't imagine how she'll ever make a living. She's still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor - and while the affair is brief, it isn't brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone's advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger.

Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion - fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she'll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx's advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she's turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo's problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo's Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who's struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It's a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off."

Good for her working it on OnlyFans!

Under a Rock by Chris Stein
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: June 11th, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Debbie Harry defined iconic band Blondie's look. Chris Stein - her performing partner, lover, and lifelong friend - was its architect and defined its sound. "Parallel Lines", their third album, catapulted to #1, sold 20 million copies, and launched singles like "Heart of Glass", "Hangin' On the Telephone," and "One Way or Another", providing the beat when Bianca Jagger and Halston danced at Studio 54 and the soundtrack to every 1970's punk-soundtracked romance.

Chris Stein knows how to tell a story. Under A Rock is his nothing-spared autobiography. It's about the founding of the band, ascending to the heights of pop success, and the hazards of fortune.

Famous names march through these pages - Warhol, Bowie, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and more - but you can get famous names anywhere. What you can't get anywhere else is a plunge into the moments that made a giant 1980's artistic sensation. Stein takes us there in this revelatory, propulsive, distinctive memoir."

A deep dive into a band that has always fascinated me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Annie Reed, Blondie, Cara Hunter, Corinne Fowler, Ellery Lloyd, Eva Jurczyk, Fiona Veitch Smith, L.S. Stratton, Patricia Raybon, Patti Flinn, Paul Tremblay, Peter Swanson, Rachel Howzell Hall, Sarah Crouch