strange and random happenstance

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Published by: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film - and awakens one woman's hidden powers.

Montserrat has always been overlooked. She's a talented sound editor, but she's left out of the boys' club running the film industry in '90s Mexico City. And she's all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she's been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives - even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse...but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies."

I am always here for the dark side of film and Nazi occultism!

A Guide to the Dark by Meriam Metoui
Published by: Henry Holt and Company
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"You can check out of Room 9, but you can never leave.

The Haunting of Hill House meets Nina LaCour in this spine-chilling horror YA about the ghosts we carry with us.

Something is building, simmering just out of reach.

The room is watching. But Mira and Layla don't know this yet. When the two best friends are stranded on their spring break college tour road trip, they find themselves at the Wildwood Motel, located in the middle of nowhere, Indiana. Mira can't shake the feeling that there is something wrong and rotten about their room. Inside, she's haunted by nightmares of her dead brother. When she wakes up, he's still there.

Layla doesn't see him. Or notice anything suspicious about Room 9. The place may be a little run down, but it has a certain charm she can't wait to capture on camera. If Layla is being honest, she's too preoccupied with confusing feelings for Mira to see much else. But when they learn eight people died in that same room, they realize there must be a connection between the deaths and the unexplainable things that keep happening inside it. They just have to find the connection before Mira becomes the ninth.

Readers won't be able to put down this edge-of-your-seat thriller that includes over thirty interior black and white photos by the author!"

Because nothing adds to the creepy than being able to see the creepy.

Jackal, Jackal by Tobi Ogundiran
Published by: Undertow Publications
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 318 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Shirley Jackson award-nominated author Tobi Ogundiran, comes a highly anticipated debut collection of stories full of magic and wonder and breathtaking imagination!

In "The Lady of the Yellow-Painted Library" - featured in LeVar Burton Reads - a hapless salesman flees the otherworldly librarian hell-bent on retrieving her lost library book.

"The Tale of Jaja and Canti" sees Ogundiran riffing off of Pinocchio. But this wooden boy doesn't seek to become real. Wanting to be loved, he journeys the world in search of his mother-an ancient and powerful entity who is best not sought out.

"The Goatkeeper's Harvest" contains echoes of Lovecraft, where a young mother living on a farm finds that goats have broken into her barn and are devouring all her tubers. As she chases them off with a rake, a woman appears claiming the goats are her children, and that the young woman has killed one of them and must pay the price: a goat for a goat.

These and other tales of the dark and fantastic await."

If it's good enough for Levar it's good enough for me!

The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the tradition of Craig Johnson and C. J. Box, Bruce Borgos's The Bitter Past begins a compelling series set in the high desert of Nevada featuring Sheriff Porter Beck...

Porter Beck is the sheriff in the high desert of Nevada, north of Las Vegas. Born and raised there, he left to join the Army, where he worked in Intelligence, deep in the shadows in far off places. Now he's back home, doing the same lawman's job his father once did, before his father started to develop dementia. All is relatively quiet in this corner of the world, until an old, retired FBI agent is found killed. He was brutally tortured before he was killed and clues at the scene point to a mystery dating back to the early days of the nuclear age. If that wasn't strange enough, a current FBI agent shows up to help Beck's investigation.

In a case that unfolds in the past (the 1950s) and the present, it seems that a Russian spy infiltrated the nuclear testing site and now someone is looking for that long-ago, all-but forgotten person, who holds the key to what happened then and to the deadly goings on now."

There's something about nuclear testing sites that just exudes mystery and danger.

The Block Party by Jamie Day
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This summer, meet your neighbors.

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other.

On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder.

But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold - discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing - and no one - is ever as it seems."

Because neighbors are always up to something...

The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop
Published by: Grove Press, Black Cat
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For fans of Lisa Halliday and Susan Choi, The Anniversary is a simmering page-turner about an ascendant writer, the unresolved death of her husband, and what it takes to emerge on her own. Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her former professor, film director, and cult figure, Patrick is much older than J.B.. When they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. But now his success is starting to wane and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him, now it may overshadow his. For days they sail in the sun, nothing but dark water all around them. Then a storm hits and Patrick falls from the ship. J.B. is left alone, as the search for what happened to Patrick - and the truth about their marriage - begins. Propulsive and fiercely intelligent, The Anniversary is exquisitely written with a swift and addictive plot. It's a novel that asks: how legible, in the mind of the writer, is the line between reality and plot? How do we refuse the people we desire? And what is the cost, to ourselves, to others and to our art, if we don't?"

And what really happens behind closed doors when a older professor marries his ingenue. 

The Wonder State by Sara Flannery Murphy
Published by: MCD
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of Girl One comes a spellbinding adventure about a strange power lurking in the Arkansas Ozarks, and the group of friends obsessed with finding it.

Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, the small town they all fled after high-school graduation. Each of them is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter: You promised.

It has been fifteen years since that life-changing summer, and they're anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return.

But Brandi is missing. She'd been acting erratically for months, in and out of rehab, railing at whoever might listen about magic all around them. About a power they can't see. And strange houses that appear only when you need them...

Told in two enthralling time lines, The Wonder State is a stunning, immersive follow-up to Girl One. Sara Flannery Murphy has created another dazzling, genre-blurring novel - an adventure story laced with nostalgia and magic, exploring belonging and the lasting power of community."

I've always been fascinated by the appearance of strange houses.

Sinners of Starlight City by Anika Scott
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the author of the international bestseller The German Heiress, a gripping historical drama about a woman determined to avenge the crimes against her family, set at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

Vengeance is in the family, and the family is a bond like no other...

It's the worst year of the Great Depression, and America needs all the hope it can get. The Chicago World's Fair, a glittery city-within-a-city, becomes a symbol of the good that's yet to come. But every utopia has a seedy side - and that's Rosa Mancuso's world. As the mysterious Madame Mystique she mixes magic with a dose of bare skin burlesque, bringing customers to the home of the Fair's carnival rides and spectacles.

Rosa doesn't perform for fame, though. She has come from Mussolini's Italy to America, where she's plotting her revenge for the murders of her family. The perpetrator will soon arrive at the World's Fair via a celebrated Italian air fleet, and Rosa is determined to be prepared.

But when her estranged cousin, Mina, comes to her desperate for help, with a dangerous mobster close on her heels, Rosa agrees to protect Mina and her new baby, born across the color line. With the clock ticking, Rosa decides the only way to survive is to make vengeance a family affair and prompt everyone to, at last, confront the sins from their pasts.

A gripping story of retribution, belonging, and survival, Sinners of Starlight City boldly explores the complexity of identities straddling ethnic lines and asks, who gets to decide who we are and where we belong?"

I've always been obsessed with Chicago and the World's Fair. My grandfather actually went to it!

The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein
Published by: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Two women fall under the influence of a powerful doctor in Paris's notorious women's asylum in this gripping historical novel inspired by true events, from the bestselling author of Wunderland.

When Josephine arrives at the Salpêtrière asylum, she is covered in blood, badly bruised, and suffering from amnesia. She is quickly diagnosed with what the Paris papers are calling "the epidemic of the age" hysteria, a disease is so baffling and widespread that Doctor Jean-Martin Charcot, the asylum's famous director, devotes many of his popular public lectures to the malady. Charcot often uses hypnosis to prompt his patients to reproduce their hysterical symptoms, and to his delight, Josephine proves extraordinarily susceptible to this unconscious manipulation. He is soon featuring the young woman on his stage, entrancing her into fantastical acts and hallucinatory fits before enraptured audiences and eager newsmen - many of whom feature her on their papers' front pages.

Laure, a ward attendant assigned to care for Charcot's new favorite, knows that Josephine's diagnosis is a godsend. Life in the Salpêtrière's Hysteria ward is far easier than in its dreaded Lunacy division, from which few inmates ever return. But as Josephine's fame grows, her memory starts to return - and with it, images of a terrible crime she's convinced she's committed. Haunted by these visions, and ensnared in Charcot's hypnotic web, she starts spiraling into seeming insanity. Desperate to save the girl she has grown to love, Laure begins to plot their escape from the Salpêtrière and its doctors. First, though, she must confirm whether Josephine is truly a madwoman, doomed to die in the asylum - or a murderer, destined for the guillotine.

Both are dark possibilities - but not nearly as dark as what Laure unearths when she sets out to discover the truth."

Male doctors historically misdiagnosing there female patients.

Awakenings by George Mann
Published by: Games Workshop
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sabbathiel returns! Now, facing mistrust wherever she turns, she must prove her worth once more.

Inquisitor Astor Sabbathiel has a problem: she's been dead for nearly a hundred years... or so everyone believes.

The last thing she remembers is being shot at point-blank range just as a roiling warp storm engulfed the Calaphrax Cluster. Now, she finds herself awakening on a distant Ecclesiarchy stronghold and indebted to a magos called Metik, who has brought her back from the brink of death.

Shortly after her resurrection, Sabbathiel is called to an audience on the planet Hulth by a high-ranking inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus, Heldren, who informs her that after being lost for so long, the members of her former conclave no longer trust her. Forced to undertake a mission to prove herself worthy and true, Sabbathiel soon discovers a secret agenda beginning to unfold - one that contains a burgeoning threat to the Imperium that only she can avert. Trying to assemble the fragments of the past to make sense of the mysteries of the present, Sabbathiel will need to act fast and decide who to trust quickly, or else risk the fate of the future."

A new George book!

Batman: One Bad Day: Catwoman by G. Willow Wilson and Jamie McKelvie
Published by: DC Comics
Publication Date: July 18th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 88 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When Selina Kyle finds out an item from her past is being sold for way more than it used to be worth, it sends her into a spiral, and she'll do everything in her power to steal it back.

2023 Eisner Nominee - Best Limited Series

Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, is the greatest thief that Gotham City has ever seen. She's effortlessly stolen countless items of immense value over the years and successfully evaded the GCPD and Batman. But when Catwoman finds out an item from her past is being sold for way more than it used to be worth, it sends Catwoman into a spiral, and she'll do everything in her power to steal it back. Batman tries to stop her before she goes too far, and a mysterious figure known as the Forger will change Catwoman's life forever. The all-star creative team of G. Willow Wilson (Poison Ivy, Ms. Marvel) and Jamie McKelvie (The Wicked and The Divine, Young Avengers) unite for this epic story!"

I am always here for Catwoman!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Anika Scott, Bruce Borgos, Catwoman, George Mann, Jamie Day, Jennifer Cody Epstein, LeVar Burton, Meriam Metoui, Nazis, Sara Flannery Murphy, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Stephanie Bishop, Tobi Ogundiran, Warhammer

The Prisoner in the Castle by Susan Elia MacNeal
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A series of baffling murders among a group of imprisoned agents threatens the outcome of World War II in this chilling mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Churchill’s Secretary.

World War II is raging, and former spy Maggie Hope knows too much.

She knows what the British government is willing to do to keep its secrets.

She knows the real location of the planned invasion of France.

She knows who’s lying. She knows who the double-crossers are. She knows exactly who is sending agents to their deaths.

These are the reasons Maggie is isolated on a remote Scottish island, in a prison known as Killoch Castle, out of contact with friends and family.

Then one of her fellow inmates drops dead in the middle of his after-dinner drink—and he’s only the first. As victims fall one by one, Maggie will have to call upon all her wits and skills to escape—not just certain death . . . but certain murder.

For what’s the most important thing Maggie Hope knows?

She must survive."

New Maggie Hope! And in Scotland! 

Weekend at Thrackley by Alan Melville
Published by: Poisoned Pen Press
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARTIN EDWARDS.

'I'm taking a revolver to Thrackley. You never know with blokes like Carson. I hate these harmless, potty people – they're always up to something.'

Jim Henderson is one of six guests summoned by the mysterious Edwin Carson, a collector of precious stones, to a weekend party at his country house, Thrackley. The house is gloomy and forbidding but the party is warm and hospitable – except for the presence of Jacobson, the sinister butler. The other guests are wealthy people draped in jewels; Jim cannot imagine why he belongs in such company.

After a weekend of adventure – with attempted robbery and a vanishing guest – secrets come to light and Jim unravels a mystery from his past."

While I love books written like Golden Age mysteries, sometimes nothing beats actual Golden Age mysteries... 

Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding by Rhys Bowen
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the days leading up to her wedding to Darcy O'Mara, Lady Georgiana Rannoch takes on the responsibilities of a grand estate, but proving she can run a household just may be the death of her in the new Royal Spyness Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of On Her Majesty's Frightfully Secret Service.

If only Darcy and I had eloped! What I thought would be a simple wedding has been transformed into a grand affair, thanks to the attendance of the queen, who has offered up the princesses as bridesmaids. Silly me! I thought that withdrawing from the royal line of succession would simplify my life. But before Darcy and I tie the knot in front of queen and country, we have to find a place to live as man and wife...

House hunting turns out to be a pretty grim affair. Just as we start to lose hope, my globetrotting godfather offers us his fully staffed country estate. Mistress of Eynsleigh I shall be! With Darcy off in parts unknown, I head to Eynsleigh alone, only to have my hopes dashed. The grounds are in disarray and the small staff is suspiciously incompetent. Not to mention the gas tap leak in my bedroom, which I can only imagine was an attempt on my life. Something rotten is afoot--and bringing the place up to snuff may put me six feet under before I even get a chance to walk down the aisle..."

Anyone else sick of Four Weddings and a Funeral puns? 

The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In her latest captivating novel, nationally bestselling author Fiona Davis takes readers into the glamorous lost art school within Grand Central Terminal, where two very different women, fifty years apart, strive to make their mark on a world set against them.

For the nearly nine million people who live in New York City, Grand Central Terminal is a crown jewel, a masterpiece of design. But for Clara Darden and Virginia Clay, it represents something quite different.

For Clara, the terminal is the stepping stone to her future, which she is certain will shine as the brightly as the constellations on the main concourse ceiling. It is 1928, and twenty-five-year-old Clara is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art. A talented illustrator, she has dreams of creating cover art for Vogue, but not even the prestige of the school can override the public's disdain for a "woman artist." Brash, fiery, confident, and single-minded--even while juggling the affections of two men, a wealthy would-be poet and a brilliant experimental painter--Clara is determined to achieve every creative success. But she and her bohemian friends have no idea that they'll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression, an insatiable monster with the power to destroy the entire art scene. And even poverty and hunger will do little to prepare Clara for the greater tragedy yet to come.

Nearly fifty years later, in 1974, the terminal has declined almost as sharply as Virginia Clay's life. Full of grime and danger, from the smoke-blackened ceiling to the pickpockets and drug dealers who roam the floor, Grand Central is at the center of a fierce lawsuit: Is the once-grand building a landmark to be preserved, or a cancer to be demolished? For Virginia, it is simply her last resort. Recently divorced, she has just accepted a job in the information booth in order to support herself and her college-age daughter, Ruby. But when Virginia stumbles upon an abandoned art school within the terminal and discovers a striking watercolor hidden under the dust, her eyes are opened to the elegance beneath the decay. She embarks on a quest to find the artist of the unsigned masterpiece--an impassioned chase that draws Virginia not only into the battle to save Grand Central but deep into the mystery of Clara Darden, the famed 1920s illustrator who disappeared from history in 1931."

Literally THE BOOK everyone I know is talking about this summer!

Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley
Published by: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
""The house, when I first saw it, seemed intent on guarding what it knew; but we all learned, by the end of it, that secrets aren't such easy things to keep."

It's late summer, war is raging, and families are torn apart by divided loyalties and deadly secrets. In this complex and dangerous time, a young French Canadian lieutenant is captured and billeted with a Long Island family, an unwilling and unwelcome guest. As he begins to pitch in with the never-ending household tasks and farm chores, Jean-Philippe de Sabran finds himself drawn to the daughter of the house. Slowly, Lydia Wilde comes to lean on Jean-Philippe, true soldier and gentleman, until their lives become inextricably intertwined. Legend has it that the forbidden love between Jean-Philippe and Lydia ended tragically, but centuries later, the clues they left behind slowly unveil the true story.

Part history, part romance, and all kinds of magic, Susanna Kearsley's latest masterpiece will draw you in and never let you go, even long after you've closed the last page."

It's a new Susanna Kearsley, AKA a new "Must Buy!"

Tiffany Blues by M.J. Rose
Published by: Atria Books
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The New York Times bestselling author of The Library of Light and Shadow crafts a dazzling Jazz Age jewel—a novel of ambition, betrayal, and passion about a young painter whose traumatic past threatens to derail her career at a prestigious summer artists’ colony run by Louis Comfort Tiffany of Tiffany and Co. fame. “[M.J. Rose] transports the reader into the past better than a time machine could accomplish” (The Associated Press).

New York, 1924. Twenty‑four‑year‑old Jenny Bell is one of a dozen burgeoning artists invited to Louis Comfort Tiffany’s prestigious artists’ colony. Gifted and determined, Jenny vows to avoid distractions and romantic entanglements and take full advantage of the many wonders to be found at Laurelton Hall.

But Jenny’s past has followed her to Long Island. Images of her beloved mother, her hard-hearted stepfather, waterfalls, and murder, and the dank hallways of Canada’s notorious Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women overwhelm Jenny’s thoughts, even as she is inextricably drawn to Oliver, Tiffany’s charismatic grandson.

As the summer shimmers on, and the competition between the artists grows fierce as they vie for a spot at Tiffany’s New York gallery, a series of suspicious and disturbing occurrences suggest someone knows enough about Jenny’s childhood trauma to expose her.

Supported by her closest friend Minx Deering, a seemingly carefree socialite yet dedicated sculptor, and Oliver, Jenny pushes her demons aside. Between stolen kisses and stolen jewels, the champagne flows and the jazz plays on until one moonless night when Jenny’s past and present are thrown together in a desperate moment, that will threaten her promising future, her love, her friendships, and her very life."

Tiffany and the Jazz Age are making me go, perhaps if she doesn't mention sandalwood I won't have flashbacks to that bad book of her's I read... 

The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A deliciously told group biography of the young, rich, American heiresses who married into the impoverished British aristocracy at the turn of the twentieth century – The real women who inspired Downton Abbey.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century and for the first few years of the twentieth, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege and breeding in which the titled, land-owning governing class had barricaded itself for so long was breached. The incomers were a group of young women who, fifty years earlier, would have been looked on as the alien denizens of another world - the New World, to be precise. From 1874 - the year that Jennie Jerome, the first known 'Dollar Princess', married Randolph Churchill - to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them all the fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication of the Gilded Age.

Anne de Courcy sets the stories of these young women and their families in the context of their times. Based on extensive first-hand research, drawing on diaries, memoirs and letters, this richly entertaining group biography reveals what they thought of their new lives in England - and what England thought of them."

Let's read about some Buccaneers! 

An Unwanted Guests by Shari Lapena
Published by: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A weekend retreat at a cozy mountain lodge is supposed to be the perfect getaway...but when the storm hits, no one is getting away.

It's winter in the Catskills and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing--maybe even romantic--weekend away. It boasts spacious old rooms with huge woodburning fireplaces, a well-stocked wine cellar, and opportunities for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or just curling up with a good murder mystery.

So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity--and all contact with the outside world--the guests settle in for the long haul.

Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead--it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic.

Within the snowed-in paradise, something--or someone--is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm."

And Then There Were None Catskills edition? 

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas
Published by: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Sizzling with action and suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author SARAH J. MAAS delivers a coming-of-age Selina Kyle who will steal readers' hearts in a new, highly anticipated YA blockbuster: CATWOMAN!

When the Bat's away, the Cat will play. It's time to see how many lives this cat really has.

Two years after escaping Gotham City's slums, Selina Kyle returns as the mysterious and wealthy Holly Vanderhees. She quickly discovers that with Batman off on a vital mission, Gotham City looks ripe for the taking.

Meanwhile, Luke Fox wants to prove that as Batwing he has what it takes to help people. He targets a new thief on the prowl who has teamed up with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Together, they are wreaking havoc. This Catwoman is clever--she may be Batwing's undoing.

In this third DC Icons book, Selina is playing a desperate game of cat and mouse, forming unexpected friendships and entangling herself with Batwing by night and her devilishly handsome neighbor Luke Fox by day. But with a dangerous threat from the past on her tail, will she be able to pull off the heist that's closest to her heart?"

Beloved YA author writing about Catwoman? YAS!

A Girl of White Winter by Barb Hendee
Published by: Rebel Base Books
Publication Date: August 7th, 2018
Format: Kindle, 327 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Kara, as a ward with no parentage and no future, has been raised knowing nothing outside her lady’s chambers. Until Royce Capello, a visiting nobleman, is struck by her ice-pale looks, and demands her as payment for the land the family needs.

With barely time to protest, Kara is sold and packed off for a life as a concubine—until a raiding party descends on Royce’s company and she’s kidnapped for the second time in as many days.

Whatever happens, Kara will be alone in the world, inexperienced and fearing even the vast unfamiliar sky. But one raider gives her a choice—and a magic mirror appears to show her where each path will lead...

~She can leave with her protector Raven and journey with his performing troupe, competing for his mercurial affections.

~She can flee the raiders’ settlement, and return to Royce’s manor, chattel among devious nobility.

~Or she can stay in the settlement, bound to firm, silent Caine, who is as gentle as he is staid and inscrutable.

Her fates twist and turn to affect far more than she could have guessed, tangling the bitter with the sweet—and Kara must choose which consequences she can live with..."

Yeah, yeah, romantic fairy tale retelling, but what I really love is the publisher's name, Rebel Base Books!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Melville, Anne de Courcy, Barb Hendee, Catwoman, Fiona Davis, MJ Rose, Rhys Bowen, Sarah J. Maas, Shari Lapena, Susan Elia MacNeal, Susanna Kearsley, The Husband Hunters, The Masterpiece, Weekend at Thrackley

The Janus Affair by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: May 29th, 2012
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Eliza and Wellington have been behaving themselves... mostly. Since the to-do with the Phoenix Society, Eliza's desire for field work has been mildly slacked. But even Welly MUST admit that when a case just falls into their lap it can't be ignored. Even if it wasn't so much the case fell as a lady disappeared in front of them on a hypersteam train from Scotland to London. Eliza had just met the lady in question at a Suffrage meeting and now she's all screaming and lightning and gone. Yet their boss Dr. Sound doesn't follow the logic of Braun. She's too close to the case and therefore shouldn't investigate. But for Eliza this is exactly the reason why she must investigate, that and the knowledge that their fellow agent assigned to the case, Bruce Campbell, will do nothing. A promise he lives up to when he quickly sends the case down to the archives as closed... but not solved.

Eliza might have been convinced by Welly to back down if they didn't see it happen again. They are wandering around the park and head over to Speaker's Corner. There is a large Suffrage rally in progress and a large shock in store for Eliza. Kate Sheppard is there. Eliza hasn't seen Kate since the incident that made Eliza an outcast, no longer welcome in New Zealand. Kate is looking pretty good with her half metal face, she's not one to back down when the going got tough! Then all of a sudden the same metallic tang fills the air and Eliza knows Kate is going to be snatched. Jumping to the podium, Eliza once again saves Kate, but the other girl wasn't so lucky.

Now that there are two cases, Eliza combs the archives and finds even more. Key women to the Suffrage movement snatched out of thin air. But why? And why bury the cases? Are they being killed, kidnapped, ransomed? Or is this all just to undermine the movement? Because not knowing what is happening is sewing more fear than a direct attack would. Yet Kate is ready for a fight if Eliza is! Too bad Kate brought her son Douglas along... Eliza's first true love. No matter who is behind this or why, Eliza will solve this, job and life be damned. Yet, with the forces of darkness aligning themselves against the agents and their ministry, could it really be the end for Books and Braun?

First, make sure you've read the first book, second, make sure you've read the short story The Evil that Befell Sampson, which really should be required reading to get this book, ok, done? Now we can discuss. I adore Books and Braun. Their chemistry and their combined talents are such a perfect match. Yet, with just the two of them, you'd have a decent book. It is all the perfectly formed peripheral characters that make this book so much more. From Eliza's Ministry Seven, her answer to the Baker Street Irregulars, to her kick ass half steam maid, to their fellow agents whom you not only fall in love with but mourn. Even the baddies fascinate me! Usually the adversary is some mysterious, convoluted, not very well plotted big bad, yet here, we have Sophia and Lord Sussex and the conflicted Bruce. You are almost cheering them on as much as the protagonists. I want to know more about them, I want to know more about the mysterious Maestro. I want to know exactly what is happening to Sussex, because right now I have fifty million theories, and most point to a Jekyll and Hyde scenario. I never have cared much for villains in the past, maybe a passing interest in a roguish cad... but actual villains? Nope.

The world of this novel makes me want to curl up in it and never leave, which is why I'm so excited they put out so many short stories, because how else would I survive till the next book comes out? Still, there where a few things in this book that made it click a little less for me. What I loved most of all was that the arrival of Douglas threw Eliza and Wellington's feelings for each other into relief. We also had the closure of the Douglas chapter of Eliza's life. There could be no romantic entanglement between the two of them till at least the most obvious of the obstacles where removed, ie, Eliza's former partner, her former love. That isn't to say that there aren't tons of other problems, psychological and ideological that could get in their way... but now the real hurdles have been passed.

The Suffrage movement, personally, I could take it or leave it, but that's probably because I have grown up in a world that has never banned me from voting. I love this historical aspect and the little things, like the distinction of calling the women Suffragists not Suffragettes. Also, the fact that Kate Sheppard was a real hell cat for New Zealand, minus the bionic makeover, makes this ever more real. Yet, the fact that this struggle is somehow the final straw that broke our villain's back and had the world heading for... I'll be good, no spoilers... well, something really bad, I didn't really buy.

What I didn't like? I missed the archives! Which, because of this book's ending, I fear I will continue to miss. I liked the idea of them having a base of operations within this larger organization. I loved them thwarting their boss and trying to cover up what they where up to with elaborate shadow play and excuses. I missed the research in that dank little cellar! The archives are a character all it's own and I missed it! Plus, the archives has so much to offer, and really, it is their job! I found it not that feasible that they where not missed at all for the entire duration of the book. They maybe stopped by once or twice and no one commented on their absence? Really!?!

Though the thing that bothered me the most was a lack of copy editing. Hell, I would personally copy edit these books for free to avoid the grammatical errors and the occasional missing words which would make a sentence not make sense unless your brain filled in the gaps, which my brain is quite used to. Though, I think a continuity editor would be even better because of one niggling thing that drove me bonkers. The added elevator. In the first book, Phoenix Rising, there is a scene when Welly has to take the drunken Eliza home. He has to carry her comatose body up flights and flights of stairs. It was a struggle because that little pepper pot (a word starting to get overused in the chapter headings) was wearing her reinforced corset... yet in the second book, after Douglas shows up at Eliza's when Welly is there, Welly and Douglas leave together and glare at each other while riding the elevator to the ground floor. Say what!?! If there was the option of an elevator when Welly was lugging around a drunk Eliza, I think he would have taken it! Also, not much time has passed since the first book, so I find it highly unlikely that an elevator was installed. So, magically appearing elevator... yeah, no thanks. Yet, even these detractions can't take away my love of this series and the fact that I am desperate for the next volume... which probably won't be out to next year... sigh, sob and wail.

Moste Importante Steampunkery:
Sophia de Morte's Lococycle. It's basically Batman's Batcycle but cooler! Especially so once Wellington finishes adding some of his touches, sure to be far more effective than that lame crotch rocket Christian Bale was riding in The Dark Knight Rises! Though I think Sophia would approve of Catwoman having her own. Meow! This "infernal contraption" might be inelegant to the eyes of some, Sussex cough cough, the "two wheels, one in front of the other like a bicycle" added with pistons and valves makes this the fastest mode of transport for delivering messages to your dark master or rescuing your partner. It also scares the hell out of horses.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Batman, Bruce Campbell, Catwoman, Christian Bale, Eliza Braun, Kate Sheppard, Ministry of Peculiar Occurances, Phoenix Rising, Suffragettes, The Dark Knigt Rises, The Janus Affair, Wellington Books