strange and random happenstance

Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: June 29th, 2021
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Charlie needs to get away from campus. She needs to flee to her grandmother's house. The fall semester has been a killer. Literally. Her unique and funny roommate Maddy was murdered by The Campus Killer. What's worse is that Charlie might have seen Maddy's killer. Only problem is, Charlie's memory isn't exactly reliable. Ever since her parents died she has taken refuge in old movies. Whenever the world gets to be too much she starts hallucinating. Her brain flips a switch and turns on a projector, making the world around her into a movie. These "movies in her mind" started at her parents funeral and happened again that fateful night when she was angry at Maddy and stormed off, turning back once to see someone lighting Maddy's cigarette. Someone she can't identify no matter how hard she tries. She has barely been able to leave the dorm room she shared with Maddy since then. As the Thanksgiving holiday nears Charlie has decided to head home. To leave New Jersey, and her boyfriend, possibly forever. She can't think that far ahead, to the end of the semester, all she can think of is to flee. This is 1991. There aren't many options for her to get back to Ohio aside from the campus rideshare board. There she meets Josh. Josh looks just like the kind of upright college student whom you could trust to get you home. And despite everything that has happened to her Charlie is willing to trust Josh with her life. Her boyfriend Robbie tells her that if at anytime something feels wrong or off to call him and tell him that "things took a detour." Charlie likes that, it's very Hollywood. Plus, if things feel off she doesn't even have to get in Josh's car. But when he pulls up she does. She puts on Maddy's red coat and gets in the car and before they even reach the interstate she's wondering if she's made a mistake. Things just seem off about Josh. He doesn't know campus landmarks despite claiming to work there. But Charlie knows her own mind isn't to be trusted. She lapses into movie memories and montages all the time. Though wouldn't a clever killer use her illness to trap her? Are they even heading to Ohio or was that just a convenient lie to get her in the car? So the question becomes, is she safe anywhere when her own mind is playing tricks on her? Or did things just take a detour?

Every once in awhile there's a book you just can't wait to get your hands on. For me there's just a handful of authors that I adore but I am usually able to wangle an advance reading copy because of my blog. Note, I set up my blog to get free books, now I get free books, blog's purpose justified! The problem with a Riley Sager book is that keeping a tight lid on spoilers is the number one priority of the publishers so... despite Dutton loving me in the past I had to wait like all the other plebs. AND face rejection on a handful of e-galley sites. Such. False. Hope. Which meant my expectations kept getting higher and higher. There was even a few minutes when I thought of buying Survive the Night for my Kindle because I couldn't wait for my physical copy to arrive! But I patiently waited, and the more I waited, the less likely the book was going to live up to my expectations if I'm honest. And the thing I kept seeing and hearing again and again without even looking for spoilers was that you would either love or loath the twist. Now I'm one of those people who assume everything will have a twist, but I don't want to be told because then I'm hyper aware. I'm like Roy on the cannibalism episode of The IT Crowd "Moss and the German," I do not want to be guessing when and what the twist is. I remember going to see The Village and because M. Night Shyamalan was the twist king, well, my friend Matt and I made a game of it and started correctly guessing the twists long before they happened. That wasn't a fun trip to the movies in regards to enjoying the movie. So Survive the Night came and I read it in virtually one sitting, which is surprising for me as I read at a speaking pace. Yes, I saw the twist coming, and honestly, I don't think it deserved the moniker if I'm honest. This is a thriller that's twisting constantly, like a tooth about to be pulled out. It's a ride that you're waiting to end because you want to know what happens and because, if I'm honest, Charlie is kind of an annoying unreliable narrator. So yes, there are lots of tropes and twists but it's more the movie references that are at the heart of this book. If you're a film geek like me, well, it comes together in a nice bow at the end and you kind of forget the bumps in the road along the way. If you don't like films... well, you might be in for a bumpy ride.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: ARCs, Dutton, Films, Going Gothic, Hollywood, M. Night Shyamalan, Murder, Rideshare, Riley Sager, Serial Killer, Survive the Night, The Campus Killer, The IT Crowd, The Village, Tropes, Twist, Unreliable Narrator

We always knew it would end with Jane. Therefore the announcement of Jane's book on February 18th of last year was bittersweet. Lauren said it best:

"It’s official. Pink XII – aka the book after The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla – will be the last book in the Pink Carnation series.

Twelve is a pretty good number for a series, don’t you think?

Here’s what I can tell you about Pink XII so far. It’s Jane’s book. It’s set in Portugal in autumn 1807. And it will presumably make its appearance at some point in 2015.

The first book in the series, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, was published in 2005. It’s hard to believe that the Pink series has been going strong for nearly a decade – but the decade mark seemed like a good time to wrap it up, before it begins to go stale.

Wrapping up the series doesn’t mean that we’ll be leaving the world of Pink forever. I’m not ruling out the possibility of novellas or related novels. After all, there are still far too many characters who need their stories told….

More about Pink XII soon!"

The copious comments on this post reflect my emotions. But I was prosaic about the whole thing, I went through the five stages of grief rather well. Rarely does an author get to end a series on their terms. Either they sell phenomenally well and the series is pushed beyond it's viability, resulting in parody, bad stories, and installments that are a shadow of their former brilliance and strain credulity. Or they sell badly and the author is never given the chance to wrap everything up in a neat and perfect little bow. Lauren's Pink Carnation series worked better than most long running series in that each installment was predominately self-contained but still placed within this larger framework. And yes, there are stories I still want told, yes, there's characters I don't want to part with. But I would choose this bittersweet ending over a broken heart any day.

Twelve books, three novellas, and ten years. I have a copiously laden bookshelf devoted to Lauren. Yet the true balm isn't in the satisfactory conclusion of this series, and yes, you will be satisfied. The balm is that Lauren continues to write. With her first three stand-alone novels Lauren has proven that she can keep us in her thrall. Plus it's also fun to play "spot the Pink Carnation reference." But when a series goes from hardcover to paperback, you know the end is nigh. Thanks go to Penguin, Dutton, and NAL for letting Lauren end the series on her terms. Also thanks for all the ARCs over the years, you couldn't have been lovelier. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: An August Adieu, ARCs, Dutton, Jane Wolliston, Lauren Willig, NAL, Penguin, Pink Carnation, Portugal, The Lure of the Moonflower, The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: February 14th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In the ninth installment of Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink Carnation series, an atrocious poet teams up with an American widow to prevent Napoleon's invasion of England.

Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can't bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of verbiage.

New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus's side. An old school friend of Napoleon's stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, the American envoy; eloped with a Frenchman; and has been rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Widowed for four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus's poetry.

As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend's entertainment.

Emma is at a crossroads: Should she return to the States or remain in France? She'll do anything to postpone the decision-even if it means teaming up with that silly poet Whittlesby to write a masque for Bonaparte's house party. But each soon learns that surface appearances are misleading. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted- especially Augustus's feelings for Emma."

New Lauren, dance of joy time! Can't wait to see her next week! Also, this books rocks by the way (see Wednesday's review).

Mrs. God by Peter Straub
Published by: Pegasus
Publication Date: February 14th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A tale of an inspired literary sojourn that turns into something far more sinister.

Esswood House. Home and estate of the Seneschal family, aristocratic patrons of the literary arts for well over a hundred years. D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, Ford Madox Ford, and Henry James were privileged to call themselves guests and Esswood Fellows. Even minor poets such as Isobel Standish found in Esswood a respite from the outer world and its refined atmosphere an inspiration for her work. There was always talk of a hidden secret in Esswood’s past, and the Seneschal children were often so pale and sickly, but don’t all English manor houses have a few ghost stories to call their own?

When Professor William Standish receives the rare honor of an Esswood Fellowship, and the chance to study Isobel’s private manuscripts at close hand, he is thrilled beyond his wildest ambitions. But something seems slightly off at Esswood House. He hears faint laughter in the halls, the pitter-pattering of small feet in the night; strange faces appear in the windows of the library, and there are those giant dollhouses in the basement . . .

Never before published as a separate volume, Mrs. God is a very different kind of ghost story from one of America’s most celebrated authors."

I get goosebumps just reading the discription! I can't wait.

I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
Published by: The Dial Press
Publication Date: February 14th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"I’ve lost it. :( The only thing in the world I wasn’t supposed to lose. My engagement ring. It’s been in Magnus’s family for three generations. And now the very same day his parents are coming, I’ve lost it. The very same day! Do not hyperventilate, Poppy. Stay positive :) !!

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!

Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.

What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life."

I keep holding out hope for Sophie Kinsella... I mean, I NEED some good chick-lit... it's not like Helen Fielding has written anything in years... sigh.

Henri's Walk to Paris by Saul Bass
Published by: Universe
Publication Date: February 14th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 48 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Henri’s Walk to Paris is the story of a young boy who lives in Reboul, France, who dreams of going to Paris. One day, after reading a book about Paris, he decides to pack a lunch and head for the city.

“Like many of us Henri wants to see Paris.

In Paris, there are thousands of buses. In Reboul, where Henri lives, there is only one bus.

In Paris there are many parks and rows and rows of trees. The park in Reboul has only five trees. In Paris there are many zoos full of animals for the people to see.
So one fine day Henri packs up some lunch and starts off to see all the things he had read about.”

Along the way, Henri gets tired and falls asleep under a tree. And this is when the story gets really charming. What Henri sees, we see, in a flowing panorama of pictures conceived by the eminent graphic designer Saul Bass. "

Saul Bass, the master of graphics and opening movie credits did a book! I'm sold.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Dutton, Herni's Walk to Paris, I've Got Your Number, Lauren Willig, Mrs. God, Peter Straub, Pink Carnation, Saul Bass, Sophie Kinsella, The Garden Intrique

Haunt Me Still by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Published by: Dutton
Book Provided by Dutton
Publication Date: April 15th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Challenge: Thriller and Suspense
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Kate Stanley has been summoned by The Lady of a remote Scottish Castle. Situated at the foot of Dunsinnan Hill of Macbeth notoriety, any theater director given half a chance to visit Dunsinnan Castle would leap at the opportunity to visit and meet it's inhabitants. Lady Nairn has become recluse in her later years and invites are rare. Once the great screen actress Janet Douglas she, like Grace Kelly, fell in love with nobility and gave up her old life for a new one. Though she never did forget her roots. Lady Nairn was famous for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth and her and her husband have spent their life collecting the rarest of the rare in Macbeth memorabilia. Recently her husband died suddenly with the final words: "Dunsinnan must go to Birnam Wood." A reversal of Shakespeare's Macbeth, making it all the more puzzling. Lady Nairn informs Kate of her plan to do a one time only production of Macbeth in Hampton Court utilizing her collection and hoping that Kate would do the honors of directing. Of course any director who knows anything about Shakespeare knows the history of Macbeth is dark and twisted with death and disaster following in it's wake. There are rumors that the scene with the witches as it now exists is not how Shakespeare wrote it. Perhaps what he wrote was not imagined at all, but a real ceremony he witnessed which lead to the curse.

Wherever the truth lies one thing is certain, once Kate accepts the job things start to go rather odd. Despite Lady Nairn's warnings Kate spends the next day up the Hill, alone. Once there Kate falls asleep and sees quite vividly Lady Nairn's granddaughter trussed up with ribbons and quite clearly dead. She also finds a very old dagger in very good condition. Rushing back to the house she stumbles upon the arriving actors, ready for rehearsals, along with her ex, Ben Pearl, who Lady Nairn hired for personal security. But stranger still, she finds Lily alive and well. Nothing is making any sense to Kate and tensions are high at the dinner party. The next morning the first death occurs, followed shortly by a second death, with the victim, Sybilla Fraser, trussed up as Kate thought she saw Lily, along with Lily's disappearance. Lady Nairn believes it to be her ex, Lucas, a cruel and manipulative director who is not above murder behind this. What follows is Kate jumping through the hurtles Lucas has set up in an effort to save Lily but find the true manuscript, the true magic that lies in Macbeth and that has cursed the play for centuries.

This book is a wonderful "what if" delving into not only the magic and mysticism, as well as the curse, that surrounds Macbeth, but all that surrounds Shakespeare as well. How else, besides magic, can you explain his rocketing to fame? From historical facts about riots in New York to more fantastical ideas surrounding John Dee and his occultism, anyone from a theater buff to a history buff should devour this book. Being at one time involved in the theatre myself, it's a compelling look into the history and development of the theatre as well as into the superstitious mentality of those artistic types who are drawn to the stage. Also the artifacts and theatrical detritus that Lady Nairn has collected over the years is fascinating in and of itself. The description of the beetle gown worn by Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth and as painted by John Singer Sargeant lead me to search out the picture to marvel at that which is true in the book.

I loved this book. It's only flaw was at times with all the running too and fro it felt a bit too "Da Vinci Code" for me. But once at the too or fro, the dialogue took it far away from any such comparison. But my favorite aspect was the relationship of Lady Nairn to Lucas. She was his muse. Their relationship has more than a hint of the Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock about it. With both actresses marrying and ending their careers and the directors never being quite the same again. Only I would liken Lucas's actions more to the sadistic qualities of the John Huston camp and his connections to Man Ray and the Black Dahlia murder, than I would to Hitchcock. But the vast influences on this book from stage and screen only lead it to be more multi layered and complex, making it a satisfying read, especially to those in the know. I would also like to thank Dutton for sending me this book, I would never have picked it up and I would have missed out on a wonderful book.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Birnam Wood, Da Vinci Code, Dunssinnan, Dutton, Grace Kelly, Haunt Me Still, Hitchcock, Jennifer Lee Carrell, John Dee, John Singer Sagreant, Kate Stanley, Macbeth, Reading Challenge, Scotland

Though it's not quite Christmas, there is that nip in the air which indicates that it's right around the corner. I can think of nothing better than a new book from Lauren Willig on the lead up to bleak winter. Usually we have to wait for the post Christmas blahs to get a hit of a new Willig book, but not this year! We're getting a pre and post Christmas bounty! To celebrate this glorious publication week and month of Willig on my blog I bring to you a wondrous giveaway. Supplemented by Dutton there is now not one, not two, but 8 WINNERS! Think of that! You have a very high chance of winning. So enter and enjoy what I think is Lauren's best book yet, though it might just be a soft spot I have for a certain man named after a root vegetable.

The Prizes:
1st Prize (2 winners): A Signed 1st Edition of The Mischief of the Mistletoe Signed by Lauren Willig plus a lovely Mischievous Christmas Ornament

2nd Prize (2 winners): A 1st Edition of The Mischief of the Mistletoe plus a lovely Mischievous Christmas Ornament

3rd Prize (4 winners): A lovely Mischievous Christmas Ornament

The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE (for clarification, this means international, but no shipping to space stations or TARDI), just because you haven't been following me all along doesn't mean you don't matter, you just get more entries if you prove you love me by following.

2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s) or email me.

3. Contest ends Tuesday, November 30th at 11:59PM CST

4. How to enter: Just comment in the space below!

5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:

+1 for answering the question: If you had a vegetable nick name, what would it be? An extra +1 if it's a root vegetable.

+2 for becoming a follower

+10 if you are already a follower

+10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @MzLizard), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link!

Good luck!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 19 comments  

Labels: A Pink Carnation Christmas, Christmas, Dutton, Giveaway, Lauren Willig, Pretty in Pink Giveaway, The Mischief of the Mistletoe, Turnip Fitzhugh

Oh Dutton, you do spoil me and my blog readers. Look at all the lovely Spy Swag I have which I'm going to share with you, my loyal readers when I announce my Pretty in Pink Giveaway next week! Until then, I think I will praise the greatness of Lauren Willig and Dutton in a warped but traditional Christmas sing-song.

And an Orchid Affair ARC! 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: ARCs, Dutton, Giveaway, Lauren Willig, Pretty in Pink Giveaway, The Mischief of the Mistletoe, The Orchid Affair

So, it might be the end of a month devoted to Jane Austen, but that doesn't mean it's the end of all that Jane has given us. It is never to late to start reading her precious six works or a wrong time to re-read them! Austen is inspirational. That one writer could produce only six books in their lifetime and have those six books be classics, read and handed down through generations shows her enduring themes. I still have my grandmother's copies of her books from the turn of the century; and to know that we both loved these words that are still so alive even though she and Austen are gone is a bond I will never loose. Countless writers are also inspired by Austen, from Georgette Heyer to Lauren Willig, Austen lives on through those she has inspired.

As one of my friends joked when I said what book release she was looking forward to most this year,  "I'm looking forward to the next Jane Austen... I hope it's this year." She does show her wicked wit, but she's not far off, with the number of Janeites producing work in the world we will get something in the vein of Jane. The one I'm most looking forward to is Lauren Willig's The Mischief of the Mistletoe. I was lucky enough to get an ARC from Dutton to celebrate Jane in style and I have a few choice words to say, you'll have to wait for a full review till the fall, right now just a teaser. The Mischief of the Mistletoe is perhaps the best book Lauren Willig has written to date. With laugh-out-loud dialogue that leaps off the pages we get to experience Regency Bath with Jane Austen as well as a gaggle of spy groupie teenagers, their new teacher and an unlikely named vegetable hero. More approachable to those not familiar with Willig's flower monikered spy ringed world, this book should appeal to the Janeite in us all, giving us crossed signals, Christmas pudding and a happy ending, just as Jane would.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 9:54 PM 0 comments  

Labels: ARCs, Dutton, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, Jane in June, Janeites, Lauren Willig, The Mischief of the Mistletoe

So apparently, the repurposing of an image we fans of Lauren Willig know and love was not exactly intentional. So new cover! Or new, new cover... either way, I'm loving the new cover. While I was all happy to see the cover for the upcoming Christmas book I was a tad disappointed that it seemed to lack a little originality and also seemed to rely on Photoshop trickery to get it took work thematically. As Lauren said on her website: "Never say you don’t have an impact. After all the discussion here and on Facebook about the similarities between the covers of The Mischief of the Mistletoe and The Masque of the Black Tulip, the Dutton art department raced back to the drawing board and whipped up a whole new cover. (Apparently, the duplication was not actually intentional.)" So whew... they fixed it, and they have outdone themselves. Christmasy, mistletoey, and a muff. Cause nothing says winter weather and holiday cheer like a muff. Now I really can't wait!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 9:00 PM 1 comments  

Labels: Christmas, Dutton, Facebook, Lauren Willig, The Masque of the Black Tulip, The Mischief of the Mistletoe

So what did my BFF's at Penguin send me today? (And yes, they are quite literally my BFFs, no one treats me as good as they do, Viking, Dutton, you all rock). They sent me the new Jasper Fforde book Shades of Grey! And not just a crappy reviewers copy. Oh no, my BBFs treat me very well. They sent me a 1st Edition hardcover, with all the lovely press info. And, I think just to make my day a little brighter, it was addressed to: Elizabeth Lefebvre - Blogger, Strange and Random Happenstance. How cool is that? Very I do declare. Blogger! (Imagine Kryten from Red Dwarf saying it and then silently laughing... yes I'm a little loopy, so? This is how my brain usually works best.) Also I'm working out doing an interview with Mr. Fforde either by phone or Skype! The coolness never ceases here. So if you have any question you've been dying to ask Jasper Fforde, just post away, and maybe I'll get around to asking him for you! Well I'm off to go read and also figure out how to properly pronounce his last name, I think that would be a good thing to find out before the interview, those wacky Welsh!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 2:35 AM 3 comments  

Labels: ARCs, Blogger, Dutton, Jasper Fforde, Penguin, Shades of Grey, Skype, Viking, Welsh