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| B07V4SLY8B
| 4.40
| 312
| Jul 19, 2019
| Jul 19, 2019
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None
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Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 16, 2025
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not set
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Apr 16, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CT991DHS
| 4.32
| 691
| unknown
| Jan 31, 2024
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really liked it
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I woke up this morning, Lucille was not in sight / I asked my friends about her but all their lips were tight (Lucille � Little Richard). Ann~nnd finis I woke up this morning, Lucille was not in sight / I asked my friends about her but all their lips were tight (Lucille � Little Richard). Ann~nnd finished... that's another one down! Also hey, we’re on book twelve and the fact that the Penelope Banks Murder Mysteries series is still strongly holding the door like Hodor is nothing short of a miracle in my eyes! Wait a minute "Hodor, ho-dor, hoo-door, hold the door!?" Wow, spectacular use of word-play Mr. George R.R.R.R.R. Martin, you've done it again!! More like hold the phone, because this guy is a literary genius! Sorry, I'm in a weird mood right now. Also, what's the limit on spoilers nowadays? Because I think I'm soft spoiling a bunch of things from, like, ten years ago. Oops, my bad! Um, I guess spoiler warning for whatever dumb reference pops into my head next? Could be anything, really, but mostly Game of Thrones, I think. Okay, I'll dial it down a bit, because I feel like I've used one too many exclamation points and I'm not used to speaking at this decibel!! This book was good, and I liked it a whole lot. It's absolutely on par with every other book in the series and I've never meant that more as compliment than I do right now. I just sincerely hope that my incessant gushing towards this book series hasn’t gotten to the point where it's been dulled in its meaning. Like, "Oh yeah, this guy loves this series, so he's obviously going to be singing its praises!" I get it, you know? Nobody likes it when something their watching or reading feels sponsored and if I'm watching a video, it doesn't matter how much I like the YouTuber, you know I'm about to skip their little sponsor segment. Square Space looks fishy and Raycon earbuds literally look like one of those products you'll see in trouble on the news in a few years for having asbestos or something like that. But nah, all of my love for this book is completely for free! And not to be Mr. �trivia night� here, but like� woah� did you know that Viggo Mortensen actually broke his foot when he kicked that Orc helmet on the set of The Two Towers? Whaa~aat? Yeah well, peep this one, Leonardo DiCaprio really shattered that cup for real while doing his little racist monologue in Django Unchained and kept acting�! Sorry if that was totally random (’m quirky teehee), since ’m going to be repeating a lot of the same stuff for this book that I’ve already said about the past installments, I figured why not just go all out and start saying a bunch of things that everyone’s all heard before. I think why I always gravitate towards the �cozy historical-fiction� variety of mysteries is because I can take comfort in the fact that they rarely feel like they’re trying to compete with me. Like, I can rest easy knowing that I'll simply get a complete and satisfying story without any wild curve-balls specifically written in to try outsmart the reader (me), no matter the cost. And I know that ٳ’s literally part of the job when you’re a mystery novelist, a tough brain-teaser is what keeps things interesting and engaging, but it can sometimes feel like writers have a barely contained resentment towards the readers when they’re planning out their mysteries. Like they're on some "who do they think they are," "I'll show them" type shit. I remember when the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie came out, everybody loved it, me included! And the people obviously wanted to learn more about this ragtag group of outlaws and were really excited to do a deep-dive into the lore for these characters nobody's heard of before. You know, watch a couple YouTube videos with a guy sitting in front of his alarmingly massive wall of Funko Pops as he doles out a bunch of information to us. That's always fun, right? But apparently the experts missed something, because in never failing to prove to us that he's the most annoying kind of insufferable nerd out there, director James Gunn resolutely promised fans that there was one “easter egg� that everybody missed and would never ever ever guess in a million years! And like you can easily predict, people took to this challenge and without fail, every time someone would bring something up, obscure or otherwise, he would always answer with a resounding �nope, guess again!� to which everybody would start guessing again... I guess. It's the "I know you are, but what am I?" equivalent of annoying nerd discourse. Yeah well, this "rug pull" tactic is how I frequently feel about thriller and mystery books, because they’re often so~oo obsessed with staying one step ahead of the audience and if they catch a whiff of the fact that maybe somebody guessed at their mystery beforehand, or "beat them," then they drastically change course. But the only thing that accomplishes is just the big twist at the end feeling like it was literally pulled out of nowhere. Because maybe it was? You know, like a James Gunn easter egg. It's much better when a mystery sticks to its guns (ha ha), no matter how obvious. Anyway, as for the story this time around, 𱹱ǻ’s favorite harbinger of death, Penelope Banks, is back at it again with another twisted mystery to unravel. Yay! Only now her and her crew are overseas and perfectly enjoying themselves on the beautiful sunny shores of the Côte d’Azur (which I won’t even try to pronounce har har). And after rebuffing a renowned, yet reprehensible business woman’s invitation to one of her famous parties one too many times, Pen’s curiosity finally gets the best of her and with little convincing from her pals, she finally gives in and indulges in the festivities. Hey, they're on vacay, aren't they? Might as well have a little fun! But as these things tend to go, rather than a flashy evening of dancing and making the kinds of memories that exist only to be forgotten the next day, she instead finds herself knee deep in yet another murder investigation. But sticking with the genre, rather than a grizzly scene played out in front of us, the victim falls... victim to a King Joffrey type poisoning that will no doubt leave everybody scratching their heads. But then again, I can only speak for myself, I'm sure there are plenty of people who could clock this mystery right away. My Kindle has a setting where it shows me what other people who have also read the book highlighted, and every highlight I saw was what I suppose everyone else thought was a clue? And I can't lie, I felt like the one kid who forgot to do the homework. Like, "Oh, are we supposed to be taking notes!?" Was that bit important? I didn't know! “Very good, Benny,� Pen said in a teasing voice. “Patronize me all you want, dove, but some of us are naturally inclined to find dirt. You should include me more often.� But yeah, other than a brief moment of intense alarm, I'm generally not ashamed to admit whenever a book gets the better of me, because again, I’ve never been very good at these kinds of things. Mysteries, that is. I often go on and on about the things that would make me a terrible detective; my inability to remember names for one, the fact that ’m totally lost once people introduce words like �east� or �west� if they happen to be giving me directions, or how I will start second guessing myself the second someone asks me a follow-up question. Those are just a few examples, but one thing I’ve got in spades is suspicion. Really though, I do the Tuco Salamanca squinted eye thing at every character in a mystery book because I think 𱹱ǻ’s lying! This guy's sus, that guy's sus, we're all sus! Not to get all Assassin's Creed, "nothing is true, everything's permitted," but even in real life, I kind of think it's good practice to never trust anything at face value. I'm sure there are good examples of that, but the only thing that comes to mind are those “drunk� confessional things on Twitter. You know, the ones where somebody pretends to take on a "drunk" texting affectation like "i'msooodrunkdude" or whatever. Sorry, but I literally think the only reason people do that is that they want to make a real confession ("I've always been in love with you") but mask it under the veneer of being able to claim that "omg I'm soo~ooo drunk, I don't even know what I'm going to say teehee!" should things backfire. They are all fake. All of them. Hey, I told you I don't trust anything! But yeah, outside of delusion, having a suspicious mind is the only tiny thread that keeps me thinking that if push comes to shove, I could figure out a murder, sure. Alas other than that charming trait of mine, ’m afraid that ’d be rather lacking in that department. ’d be like a mix of Benny (from this book) and Pen’s aunt Cordelia (also from this book), in that ’m mostly just a messy gossip and the fact that �sick� is the only kind of worried I get. Anyway, like I said, I’ve never been good at these things, because damn, while starting this book, for once I randomly gained an unprecedented level of unearned confidence in my theory for who the killer was right out the gate, and I was seriously patting myself on the back by page 20! �Got another one!� I so proudly proclaimed! But as these things happen, karma then decided to punish me in my Icarus musings because my main suspect ended up dying halfway through the story. Foiled again. I guess the real killer was A Murder on the Côte d’Azur for dashing through all my enthusiasm that I'd right in one of these mystery novels for once. The thing is, even after being so brazenly proven wrong, I didn’t completely lose hope. I thought, hey, I can probably salvage any remaining pride in my detective skills, because even after they died, the scene was written in such a dramatic fashion that I figured that it was just for show. You know, like that time when Tyra Banks faked fainting when she wasn’t getting enough attention. I thought, oh that's totally an act they're putting on! Nobody actually faints like that, hands all on the forehead like some kind of Jane Austen, Victorian era lady! Like I said, I don't trust things. Don't worry, I won't say whether I was right or not because that'd be a spoiler (I've done enough of that, I'm sure), but just know that I was doing some serious mental gymnastics throughout my entire reading experience. Outside of the mystery though, I also really enjoyed how this installment focused on the inherent family drama between our new, one off, cast of characters. A Murder on the Côte d’Azur was especially interesting in this regard because you can tell that the author got the go-ahead to go ahead and go all out with how messed up they're allowed to be. Hey, we'll never see them again, so who cares, right? Make them nasty! My favorite part of a mystery novel has never been the killing bit, but rather the bit just before that bit� the family drama bit. That’s just my kind of party, where there’s an undeniable tension and everybody resents each other and all their underlying problems are just waiting to come to a head. I'm just saying, wherever the screaming match starts is where I want to be. Except... you know, on the sidelines and as a spectator... and in fiction only, of course. I've been in a few serious family screaming matches in real life and I've got to say... not a good place to be. For real though, to this day, the only episode of The Bear I've seen was episode 6 of season 2, “Fishes,� because it’s all about a stressful holiday dinner party and the constant arguing and anger and stress is what I find really entertaining. Even though cozy mysteries usually default to the whole �every lose end being tied up� thing because it’s the nature of the genre, I really did appreciate how Colette Clark decided to let A Murder on the Côte d’Azur lie on the side of ambiguity with its Shutter Island-esque ending, as I thought it lent itself to the narrative in a more unique and complete way. It’s always a tricky thing to write the victim in a murder mystery to be so wholly evil, because then you risk the prospect that� nobody will give a shit about solving the case, so you've got to use a few different tricks to keep people interested. And because this book ends with �justice being served,� but maybe not in the most lawful way, it caps off the book in a darkly (for this series, anyway) satisfying way that wouldn’t have been possible had everything wrapped up neat and tidy, villain in handcuffs and all that. So yeah, this book was good and I liked it a whole lot. I hope it's clear that this series has become a great comfort for me over the years that I’ve been reading it, and ’m totally in it for the long run. I mean, it's kind of funny that ’m even bothering to say this like it’s some kind of revelation, considering ’m writing this review while wearing a hoodie I’ve had since Middle School. What can I say? Once I'm stuck, I stick for a long while. “One thing I’ve learned is that there is no point in wondering ‘what if.’� “That doesn’t stop it from happening.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 25, 2025
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Apr 15, 2025
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Mar 25, 2025
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1641866969
| 9781641866965
| B0771NV16Z
| 3.63
| 715
| Nov 28, 2017
| Nov 28, 2017
|
really liked it
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I won't tell a soul, no one has to know / If you want to be� totally discreet / I'll be at your side, if only for one night (If Only For One Night � L
I won't tell a soul, no one has to know / If you want to be� totally discreet / I'll be at your side, if only for one night (If Only For One Night � Luther Vandross). Excuse me for a moment, ’m just taking this chance to marvel at the sheer number of amazing books there are out there in the world. Wow, so many! It’s a little staggering! You know how people love to say �this is the bad timeline� or several other variations of the sentiment? Yeah well, this is the timeline where I read a wonderful little story called The Doctor’s Discretion that made me embarrassingly choked up, so it can’t be all bad. Seriously, ’m not being snarky, because it’s wild for me to think about all these fantastic books that I might not have read had I not randomly stumbled across them one day. Emotionally devastating, effortlessly powerful, and satisfyingly (if a little belatedly) optimistic, The Doctor’s Discretion is one of those books that you don’t want to read in public unless you don’t mind everybody seeing you break down in tears. Nah, you’ve got to find somewhere quiet, somewhere you can read this with discretion, an empty, wide open space� like at a screening for Captain American: Brave New World! Zing nobody watched that movie ha ha! Anyway, the story goes that we follow Doctor Blackwood and Doctor Hill as they attempt to save a transgender man from being made a humiliating and dehumanizing spectacle by the medical community at large by initiating a jailbreak and getting him the hell out of dodge. It’s all very exciting and nail-biting at the same time, because on one hand you don’t want anything bad to happen to these characters, while on the other, without this conflict there would be no book for us to read. I guess that's kind of obvious, huh? I think this story handles the subject matter as well as it possibly can because it never shies away from the mistreatment and constant danger that queer people of the time were victim to, and yet it also never makes queer trauma the sole focus of book in some kind of show of horrifying shock value. The story is laced with tension, sure, and the profound danger trans people are always in for just existing is never sidestepped or ignored, but The Doctor’s Discretion never uses traumatic experiences as a simple story beat or even worse� torture porn disguised as a misguided “lesson� about how terrible the times were. Let’s be real, all times were and are terrible, queer people hardly need the constant reminder of stories being all like, "Hey, you deal with this awful bigotry, you know that, right?" and it's like, yeah dude, we know. Anyway, I wasn’t too sure if ’d like this book at first due to its depiction of period accurate mindsets of the times (the 1830’s? Yikes!) and I was worried that ’d come out the other end not liking any of the characters. The thing is, normally in historical-fiction the main characters are unusually forward thinking for the time, and I know that a lot of people hate this because it’s “unrealistic� or whatever, but I usually don’t mind it. In fact, I kind of count on it, because the truth is that if a character is throwing out slurs left and right, then ’m just not going to like them. The end. My problem is that even despite all that, I just know that it doesn’t actually take too much for me to turn on the stuff that ’m currently engaging in, even if I'm into it. I didn’t like The Weeknd’s “final� album, “Hurry Up Tomorrow� as much as ’d hoped due in no small part to his garbage show The Idol, I stopped listening to HAIM specifically because of the choreography to “I Know Alone,� and I have an unnecessarily strong dislike of the “Hot Ones� host because he sucks and I don’t like him. Like, I've blocked people who leave bad reviews of The Song of Achilles, ٳ’s just how I am and I'm sorry. Going into this book, I had to actively turn the switch on my Negative Nancy mindset in order to avoid randomly turning on it. �It’s all a part of the process of story-telling! It’s all a part of the process of story-telling!� Besides, I know disliking unlikable characters is hardly a good reason to disengage from the story, because only using art as an escape from reality isn’t the most productive way of consuming literature, so ’m definitely trying to unlearn that base instinct of mine. Please excuse this moment of clarity, but I'm having one right now! I mean, I liked I Am Legend, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, and The Mist despite the fact that I didn’t particularly like anybody in them. Also, I have to remind myself that a lot of authors who write books featuring queer folks or folks of color (or both) often write like they're walking on a tightrope because they feel like readers can be excessively critical whenever they don't fit the "wholesome" mold. Like, our stories have to be "good" representation and can't have characters who are a little bit mean and rude and they sometimes can't even learn a valuable lesson throughout the story or else you risk people turning on the book or the movie or the whatever. And I think it's notable how E.E. Ottoman completely disregarded the notion that queer characters of color have to come out the gate fully formed and completely enlightened, that he didn't write these characters infantilized and respected the reader enough to allow us to make our own minds up about them and judge accordingly. And if nothing else, I just think we should always thank authors who avoid Michael Schur's overly self-indulgent yet guiltily eager-to-please prose. Thanks authors! ’m glad I gave this book a chance because it was a delight to find that this isn’t a book about bigotry towards queer folks, it isn’t even a book about survival and fear, but rather it’s a book about companionship and happiness that can be found when allowing yourself a moment of vulnerability. There’s a lot of fear in what might happen if things go wrong, but what if it goes right? What then, huh? What then!?!? Sorry, that was a little aggressive. The Doctor’s Discretion is a beautiful story that serves as a reminder, maybe not a gentle one, mind you, but a reminder nonetheless that when it comes to solidarity, there is no such thing as picking and choosing. We’re in this together and we’ll get through it together. “’m doing this because there is a better chance than you might think of me ending up where you were, and I would like to think; if that happened, that someone would do the same for me.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 23, 2025
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Mar 29, 2025
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Mar 23, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CVDPH56N
| 4.43
| 76
| unknown
| Feb 09, 2024
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I'm not going to continue reading this due to the fact that the cover is a.i. generated.
I'm not going to continue reading this due to the fact that the cover is a.i. generated.
...more
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Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 2025
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not set
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Jan 01, 2025
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Kindle Edition
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| 9798858694687
| B0CGGD8DTG
| 3.99
| 106
| unknown
| Aug 23, 2023
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really liked it
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I don't deservе someone loyal to me, don't you think I see? / And I don't want to bе a prisoner to who I used to be (Is There Someone Else? � The Week
I don't deservе someone loyal to me, don't you think I see? / And I don't want to bе a prisoner to who I used to be (Is There Someone Else? � The Weeknd). Please wait a second, ’m currently basking in the moment� okay, ’m done, I'm here now. Hey, this is a cause for celebration because I’ve managed to reach the eleventh book in a series and it’s still just as good as it was when I started all those books ago! Cool stuff. Just like all the others, this was a lot of fun, and I really wasn’t exaggerating with all my singing of praises up there, because the thing is, Murder on the Atlantic is singular in the way it's such a testament to Colette Clark’s skill as a writer and actually works as more of a victory lap as it’s a wonder that she's been able to constantly up the ante and yet maintain the same quality of intrigue in such long running mystery series. The story this time around is that after Penelope Banks� friend’s wedding, she and her little Scooby Gang decide to go on a cruise ship to party it up. You know how it is, holida~ay� celebra~ate! Among the cast of characters this time around includes her usual stick-in-the-mud love interest, Detective Prescott, the jazz singer and apparently-only-person-of-color-in-the-book, Lulu, Socialite and allegedly-the-only-gay-person-in-the-book, Benny, and incessant reporter, Kitty! Oh yeah, and also Pen’s cousin. Phew ’m out of breath, this is why I never do plot summaries. Anyway, other than the titular murdering going on the Atlantic, deeper, more personal troubles arise as Pen runs into an old lover who used to paint her like one of his French girls, thus driving a bit of a wedge in her relationship with her current man, Detective Man, Richard. Now, normally ’m of the mind that jealousy plots are kind of lazy and only show up whenever the writer runs out of ideas, but I honestly didn’t really mind it here because Richard is normally kind of boring, walking around like a discarded piece of cardboard. So yeah, I’ll honestly take any story line that proves he still has a pulse. Come on, shock some life into him and reanimate him like the corpse of Frankenstein! Yes, I know Frankenstein is the doctor� but if he treated “The Creature� like a person, like his son, then he would be a Frankenstein! Also then the plot of the book wouldn’t have been a tragedy. Also, also, Victor wasn’t a doctor, he was a college drop-out. I know that! These are all things that I know! Going back on track though, yeah, I didn’t mind the jealously story line at all, because Pen normally has more chemistry with literally every other character than her love-interest, so it was nice to see their relationship in a different light. Besides, this new angle made Richard look a little more alive and a little more like a realized character rather than a plot device to just stand there like a mannequin only to arrest the bad guy at the end. I also liked how their relationship squabbles were written with a normal and healthy amount of insecurity and suspicion rather than having Richard flying off the handle in a rage the way these things are normally portrayed. They both have good reasons for being vexed with each other and I honestly couldn’t even decide who I thought was in the right and who was wrong. It felt like I was singing both parts in Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract� (not that I speak from experience). Arguments in fiction are usually set out with the intention of being “objective� by the writer, but often fail to hit the mark. Like how Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (spoilers) was supposed to be seen as this super enlightened and unbiased piece of art, a monument to how objective a man can be in the face of a deteriorating relationship, and yet he just couldn’t help but portray his self-insert as some kind of self-flagellating martyr figure in the end. I got the impression that he wanted us to feel soo~ooo bad at Adam Driver's longing, sad puppy eyes by the end of that film. Were we really supposed to be surprised? Because I wasn't! No duh, dude of course he lost custody of the kid in the end! He punched the wall and passed out when he was trying to impress the social worker (another scene where the writer was trying to be self-deprecating yet still portray his self-insert as a bumbling, yet lovable fool). Scarlett Johansson had Laura Dern as her lawyer! He didn't even want a lawyer!! He was always going to lose!! I don't know, it's just another example of an artsy guy patting himself on the back and getting a high off of his own self-pity. Hey, let's take a gander at The Weeknd's discography for a couple sentences. Hundreds of songs about vulnerability and the pains of being a sad boy, yet never actually changing for the better. Believing that the mere act of acknowledgment equates to absolution. I love the movie Before Midnight, but it’s another example of one of those male writer’s �rational man verses emotional woman� story lines that I could do without. Anyway, what ’m trying to say is that even when arguments are written with the intention of allowing us to �see both sides,� it’s actually very challenging to actually do so successfully. And ’m usually pretty good at picking sides, you know? One thing about me is that I’ve never been accused of being a centrist. Otherwise, I think Penelope is kind of the perfect mystery protagonist because she has enough money in the universe to go anywhere and the author can literally put her in any situation. Which is helpful for mysteries because location is a deciding factor that helps separate them from the rest. This ones on a boat, that one was in a mansion, there was one in a hotel, �Where in the World is Penelope Banks� and all that, but what’s most important is the fact that she’s also experienced poverty, which gives her an �everyman who helps the everyman� appeal that's highly reminiscent of early Sherlock Holmes stories. And normally her perfect memory thing would seem like cheating in a mystery novel, but it’s written in such a way that Pen never feels like she has a super power.. even though having a picture perfect memory would certainly seem like one to me! Anybody remember that scene in The Pursuit of Happyness where Will Smith has to remember a specific set of numbers and he doesn’t have a pen and paper on him at the time and in his pursuit to find them there are a bunch of little obstacles where people would unintentionally be throwing him off? Yeah well, I wouldn’t even get that far to be thrown off by some dude screaming random numbers at me, becasue by the time ’d look away from original the list of numbers, there’s a good chance that they’d already be gone from my memory banks forever. Poof, bye bye bye! Haha! Wait, what was I going to say next? Oh yeah, I was ending this review. Um, I’ll always keep coming back to the Penelope Banks Murder Mysteries because they never fail to pleasantly surprise me. Emphasis on "pleasantly, because mysteries can often feel the need to adhere strictly to a tone, a concept, and because of that they end up ironically feeling predictable. Like how Black Mirror is supposed to be this mind-blowing new-age concept, yet in my experience, every single episode ends the same way; with the worst possible outcome you could possibly imagine for the characters. I mean, literally every one of these things ends with either the main character being a secretly terrible person (gotcha!), some kind of vindictive “moral� lessons that doesn't actually say anything, or just some guy being trapped in a mind palace. Seen one, seen them all. Oh, spoilers for every episode of Black Mirror, I guess. So I've always love of how this series� twists are always of the �twisty, yet narratively satisfying� variety rather than being on the “cruel twist of fate� side of things. I get that by their very nature, mystery books have to be formulaic, but I’ve always found that the ones that catch me unawares are the ones that don’t bother going out of their way to subvert expectations. Yup, this was a good book! And I reckon enough time has passed since I've finished this, so now I can go on and read next one! “Either way, love, greed, jealousy � three very good motives for murder.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 30, 2024
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Dec 10, 2024
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Nov 30, 2024
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1945802081
| 9781945802089
| B07712MW9C
| 3.63
| 474
| Oct 30, 2017
| Oct 30, 2017
|
really liked it
|
I picked this up in a desperation because I wanted to read more Halloween themed books this October and this looked like an easy-breezy read. Besides,
I picked this up in a desperation because I wanted to read more Halloween themed books this October and this looked like an easy-breezy read. Besides, Josh Lanyon books post 2009 usually don’t disappoint. Not all that spooky but it’s quite an atmospheric vampire/mystery and accomplishes a lot in a small amount of time. The mystery aspect is fairly simple and maybe not as satisfying as it could be, but because of the stylish noir coating, ’d say this was a hit with me. ’d write more, but at only forty pages, ’m at risk of making this review longer than the story itself.
...more
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Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 11, 2022
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Oct 12, 2022
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Sep 28, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1685501583
| 9781685501587
| B0B5NYBM6Z
| 4.38
| 72
| Jul 09, 2022
| Jul 09, 2022
|
liked it
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Despite its fun and whimsical set-up, I think this is a case where the story tries to do too many things; featuring too many love stories, while also
Despite its fun and whimsical set-up, I think this is a case where the story tries to do too many things; featuring too many love stories, while also being too short to garner any real emotions out of me. We start with a man named Jolyon Everett, who ends up writing and sending two letters: one, a sexy letter to his part-time lover, Percy, and another, more innocent one to� his tailor. As these things tend to happen, the letters get mixed up and Jolyon’s life is in for quite the upheaval. Oops! But perhaps it was for the best, as it’s more than likely that a new romance will blossom from this accident! This was definitely a “one-sitting� read (even though I read it through several sittings), and because of that, it’s pretty low-stakes in its premise. The low key, matter-of-fact approach to storytelling gives it a quaint and intimate atmosphere, and made it feel like a passing, momentary glimpse into a chapter of these people’s lives. The simple, yet effective prose helped Twelve Letters serve as a perfect love letter to stories that feature quirky mishaps that can bloom into something else entirely. Maybe even something beautiful! All in all, I can’t argue that this was a charming enough romance story and I enjoyed my time reading about these fools who fooled around and fell in love. "I couldn’t bear to be a passing fancy." ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 16, 2023
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Jul 21, 2023
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Sep 28, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1645660311
| 9781645660316
| 1645660311
| 3.44
| 218
| Oct 11, 2022
| May 21, 2024
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really liked it
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As above so below, I don't know how I'm gonna go / But with angels by my side, I'm gonna get on my horse and ride (Good Time Blues, An Outlaw’s Lament
As above so below, I don't know how I'm gonna go / But with angels by my side, I'm gonna get on my horse and ride (Good Time Blues, An Outlaw’s Lament � Hurray for the Riff Raff). This review will seem a bit weird because I’ll probably be all over the place. I’ll be out here saying it’s really good in one sentence, and then in the same breath I’ll be talking about something that felt off to me. All I can really say is that at the end of the day, I think this is a great book, and any negativity on my end is more to just explain the context as to where ’m coming from as a reader. Like I said, objectively, I think The Nightland Express is wonderful. Anyway, can I be real with you for a second and say that ’m fake as hell because the only reason why I picked this book up was because I didn’t want to leave the Cannon Beach book store empty handed and the cover was pretty. Well, it’s nice to be rewarded for half-ass-ing everything every now and then because sometimes you'll find yourself reading an absolute gem! A diamond in the rough, if you will. Seriously, I really can’t stress enough how much I didn’t know about this book going into it! I didn’t even realize it was a fantasy until some wild stuff started happening and I was like, �Wait a minute� what’s all this here�� If it wasn't obvious by now, it takes a little while for me to catch up to basic concepts. ’m not joking when I tell you that I thought empaths were, like, a real thing while I was reading The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen! Hm, I'm realizing that ٳ’s an embarrassing thing to admit in writing, isn’t it? Moving on though, while I thought this book was at its best when it stayed more grounded in reality, as it did take some time for me to get used to the genre shift from Western to Magical Realism, I was still able to appreciate the effort the author put into making a historical-fiction novel infused with fantasy that also manages to tackle racism, gender roles, queer awakenings, trans awakenings, climate change, and colonization, all within a sensitive and cohesive narrative. It’s actually kind of a miracle that this book works at all, given the many pratfalls it could have gotten itself into. This comes as a surprise, well, to me, because it’s not always the easiest thing to do a story set during this time without tripping up when it comes to exploring its specific social issues and how they relate to the social issues of our time. Nonetheless, ’d say that when done right, I think Westerns as a genre will always be entertaining for me. Well, maybe �entertaining� is the wrong word because of all the awfulness happening during the time (slavery and genocide, among other things), but it’s interesting to see how Westerns have shifted in the cultural zeitgeist as these movies about machismo, freedom, and �man taking justice into his own hands,� into a genre ٳ’s now more interested in exploring themes of the hypocrisy of said freedom and the cultural unrest of the time. Oh, by the way, I think this is a good thing. These things should evolve and if you keep making the same story with the same ideals forever, then you’ll fail to realize that audience sentiments are constantly changing and won't hesitate to move on without you... much like how Westerns often feature stories about society moving too fast for the stoic, wandering main character. Just ask Kevin Costner! Dances with Wolves man with his newest shitty Western that bombed because nobody wanted to watch it except him. What ’m getting at is that I don’t blame this book for almost immediately abandoning the well-known iconography of the genre and going down a different path entirely. Still, I think that J.M. Lee manages to imbue The Nightland Express with just enough of a deep-seated feeling of wanderlust that I can’t help but feel like this book remains profoundly� Western. Let me just set the scene. When I did realize that this book would mostly be a fantasy, my eye-brow did do an involuntary twitch. Not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things, but I guess this is the part where I say that ’m Native American. Dun dun dunn~nn! And I don’t mean it in a �My great-great-great-great-great grandma is a Cherokee princess� kind of way, but like� in a �Hey, my mom is Native so ’m Native� kind of way. It’s actually not something I usually advertise about myself, and even looking at that �’m Native American� bit up there like it’s some kind of important declaration makes me cringe a little, but whenever I let people know, they can sometimes get kind of weird about it. Things get a little too “Send Me on My Way� by Rusted Root for my taste. ’m only letting you in on the secret for added context! Anyway, the truth is that ’m always a bit skeptical whenever there’s a story that includes both Native Americans and has a �the magic of the land� vibe to it. ’m always like, gee, I wonder what vaguely offensive thing the author will imply about Native’s inherent connection to nature this time around. Not that I don’t think environmentalism is a very important thing to write about, but when you characterize Native peoples with this fantasy, “elf-like,� quality that adheres so strictly to some kind of lofty idea of �the old ways,� it kind of creates this imagery where the Native peoples are an ancient society ٳ’s only duty left here is to pass the torch onto newer societies. Portraying them as some kind of willingly sacrificial people, rather than victims of genocide. Sorry to let the cat out the bag, but hey, we’re still here! My point here is that I was worried that this book would be another one of those ones, but thankfully, I think it made great strides into alleviating a lot of the fears I had going into it. The narrative goes out of its way to address and feature the kinds of people that a Western genre story always seems to forget, and I appreciate that. But I will say that it was interesting how Natives are often brought up by the characters, but aren’t often seen or given a voice within the actual story. This isn’t really a criticism, but it’s funny how in a book ٳ’s so dead-set on breaking the wheel, it still delegates Native Americans to being tertiary characters in a story that, in many ways, should be about them. It’s almost like it’s another example of Native peoples again merely being used as set-dressing in a genre story rather than a respectful portrayal outright. Wow, this went off the rails, huh? I usually just keep writing until I arrive at some kind of point. Because who knows, maybe it’s not that deep? But if a story opens up a dialogue about issues that are important to me, then I’ll always take that opportunity and run with it! Sorry. I mean, it’s prevalent even in the way that the fantasy aspect of the novel often felt at odds with the setting, because the whole story is about the Fae and their connection to the land, but I thought something felt off because ’m not really sure if Fae fantasy really fits in a story taking place in 19th century North America. Again, ’m not really sure what I'm trying to say here, but maybe I would have liked this book better if there were more connections to Native religions or something. So, here’s the thing about doing a Western genre thing in this day and age and why most people don’t bother� it’s because you can’t just do a simple cowboy story anymore (why don't we ask Kevin Costner). Meaning, a writer can’t just ignore the issues of the time anymore. I mean, you can, but not if you want the story to be honest and true. Remember that thing about audience taste’s growing and changing? Yeah, that part. Again, I think this is a good thing, because otherwise the genre becomes stale and derivative, and art should always try to reflect important social change, no matter how difficult it can be to talk about. But because a lot of people would rather to avoid hard topics, in order to get around talking about them in Westerns specifically, I’ve noticed that writers like to add a designated “POC� character to give the audience the okay, a kind of buffer that let's us know that �it’s alright, everyone! Our main characters aren’t racist!� The thing is, ’m afraid I don’t have one example of this! …I have five. In Bone Tomahawk, the main characters have to go into a cavern to kill off the savage, dangerous, and cannibalistic natives that are threatening the town. Sounds pretty racist, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, they’ve got a native dude that tells Kurt Russell before he sets out on this journey that these monsters aren’t “real� Native Americans and it’s totally cool to get rid of them. Cool, thanks man! In Cowboys & Aliens, Harrison Ford plays a guy who used to literally hunt Natives, and while that sounds like an objectively bad thing, it’s all good, his character now has a Native friend that tells the audience that he’s a good man. Even cooler! In the newer Magnificent Seven, the evil group’s turncoat Native dude is offset by the hero’s good guy Native dude who gives us permission to cheer when turncoat Native gets killed! Yes! Wooo! Mass Effect: Andromeda is a sci-fi video game about the races of the Milky Way Galaxy traveling to the Andromeda Galaxy in order to “colonize a new frontier!� Hold up, yuck, actually. It’s fine though, in order to side-step the weird “manifest destiny� vibes, the story reveals that the Natives of the Andromeda galaxy are actually under attack by other evil invaders. See, the Milky Way travelers are the “good� kind of colonizer! Phew, really dodged a bullet there guys! In The Nightland Express, the narrative likes to wax poetic about the terrible treatment of the Native Americans, but only features one Native character in the whole novel. And even then, they’re really only there to offer sage advice about the land and "the old ways" to our main characters before they dip. My point, if I have one, is that Native Americans are always going to be ever present in any kind of Western, as it’s literally a part of our history, but if there’s going to be a story with us in it, ’d like our role to be a bit more substantial than the �offers you a life lesson about nature and mysticism�-guy. Regardless, I hope this review didn’t come across like I thought this book was offensive or uninteresting, because I did like it. Quite a bit, actually. It’s a story for the downtrodden, the marginalized and forgotten, and finishing it felt like saying goodbye to an old friend. “I have to go. But I’ll be back� I want to know everything.� We have all of time, she said ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 28, 2024
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Oct 26, 2024
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Sep 28, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0063025256
| 9780063025257
| B08RDTPV15
| 3.87
| 4,588
| Sep 28, 2021
| Sep 28, 2021
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really liked it
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The setting was great, the use of magic was great, Jack and Wilhelm were both great (and I remembered their names after putting the book down)! So, it
The setting was great, the use of magic was great, Jack and Wilhelm were both great (and I remembered their names after putting the book down)! So, it’s a shame that so much of the novel’s pages are devoted to Teddy; whose one-note villainy is tiresome at best and genuinely uncomfortable at worst. I just think there’s a better book here without him in it. Also, it seems like most of the book is just waiting to get to the third act, which, I’ll admit was quite spectacular. Otherwise, Shaun David Hutchinson is definitely one of the more inventive voices in YA lit, and his books never disappoint. (We don’t talk about The State of Us, his weird "I see both sides to racism book.) ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 26, 2022
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Mar 30, 2022
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Sep 17, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1839082062
| 9781839082061
| B0DGDMMX9W
| 4.04
| 126
| unknown
| Sep 06, 2024
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really liked it
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The truth will set you free / But first, it'll piss you off (Lemon � N.E.R.D & Rihanna). Hey, I kind of want to talk about this song ’m sure most peop The truth will set you free / But first, it'll piss you off (Lemon � N.E.R.D & Rihanna). Hey, I kind of want to talk about this song ’m sure most people remember called, “Call Me Maybe� by Carly Rae Jepson. Ahh, the memories. It was a smash hit by all accounts but it’s such a pure, unadulterated pop song, that I feel like people are still uncomfortable listening to it unironically today. I like it though. It’s funny, because near the end of the song, she sings the classic line, �Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad,� and I clearly remember a bunch of dude-bros trashing it, saying things like, �that doesn’t even make any sense! This song is so stupid!� You know, the usual. Even though it’s such obvious and intentional hyperbole, these critics still believed with the strongest conviction that it was a mistake on her end. That, since it was a dumb pop song, she has to be a dumb writer. Just like the misunderstood Carly Rae Jepson, our protagonists, Alessandra Zorzi and her apprentice, Pepper Kelly, are constantly dealing with that same undercurrent of condescending misogyny. Their intelligence is always underestimated by the insecure men that surround them. Despite this being a light, horror/adventure novel similar to the likes of The Mummy (the good one, not the Tom Cruise one), In many ways, what makes this book a cut above the rest is that it's about more than just the adventure, but how the characters, two women in the 1920’s, fit into the adventure. Was that a tenuous link at best? Maybe, but I love myself a good stretch, so ٳ’s why ’m always reaching. Anyway, I had a good time with this. I especially enjoyed the main character, Alessandra. She could easily be up there with the greats! Indiana Jones, Nathan Drake, and Carly Rae Jepson, time to make way because here’s Alessandra Zorzi! She’s cool as a cucumber and always keeps the party running, not one hair out of place! And while this book isn’t all that scary, as it’s probably too action packed and grand in scope to fit strictly within the horror genre, it’s still a good time all around. It's probably more Aliens (1986) than Alien (1979). I went in expecting horror, but instead got a fun adventure full of swagger and style. This book reads like a throwback, like something straight out of an old pulp magazine. So, it’s a damn good thing that I love a lot of pulp in my orange juice. “Then, with a great cracking and rending, the world dissolved into madness.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 12, 2024
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Apr 02, 2024
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Sep 12, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 0823455335
| 9780823455331
| B0BBPCHZNL
| 3.92
| 601
| May 23, 2023
| May 23, 2023
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really liked it
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Girls, you know you'd better watch out / Some guys, some guys are only about / That thing, that thing, that thing (Doo Wop, That Thing � Lauryn Hill).
Girls, you know you'd better watch out / Some guys, some guys are only about / That thing, that thing, that thing (Doo Wop, That Thing � Lauryn Hill). Hi, this was really good, and ٳ’s all there is to it, nothing left to say! Okay well, I feel like I at least owe a couple words dedicated to it. Nothing too crazy, but maybe a few paragraphs worth? Anyway, I know that with me, it’s always �this was so~oo good�-this and �That was so~oo great!�-that, but I promise that when I say this book was really good, I mean it was really good! This is especially noteworthy this time around because� I wasn’t so sure it would be. I tend to get caught in the routine of certain genres and I was worried that this book would be too much of a departure from what ’m comfortable with when it comes to mysteries. And in a way, I was right, because any story that has to do with missing people always has my stomach turning, but in the end I do think this was a good thing. It’s really important every now and then to be challenged by the literature you consume. Here's the thing, ’m usually not so sure about adding fantastical elements to mysteries because it’s a genre that operates on such a strict set of rules, and giving the characters a paranormal or magical edge could have easily felt like cheating or something. I was also afraid that the paranormal aspects would somehow unintentionally make light of the subject matter, so it was nice to see that not only did this book expertly navigate around the obvious pitfalls, but worked back around to being a sensitive and compelling piece of art. In fact, this was so expertly written, that I couldn’t even imagine this story done in any other way. And while the paranormal aspects veer on the outrageous side, I thought that both abilities of Henrietta being able to see ghosts and Declan being invulnerable to damage ended up giving the narrative an extra layer of emotional weight rather than detract from the message. You know how ’m always talking about how stories should be about something, that they should mean something? Yeah well, A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife has something to say, and I was more than happy to listen. Otherwise, I like how “Fantasy Mystery� is, like, becoming this author’s thing, because it's fun to notice common motifs throughout an author’s catalogue! Like how all of Stephen King’s main characters are writers (write what you know, right), or how Adam Silvera always halts the narrative to air out old grievances about how he used to get picked on for playing as Zelda in Super Smash Bros. (Caring about that? Couldn’t be me), or the way John Green ends all of his books like someone writing an English 101 essay at 11:46 when it’s due at midnight; we’ve all got our own thing! Uh, I got a little sarcastic, but I started out with good intentions and I really do like how this author has found a specific niche. And if nothing else, ’m always here for any story about the dark underbelly of Hollywood. Without any of the flash and glamour, what is there? Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life. Hey, hey, hey, hey, run for your life. I mean, Since I’ve been waxing poetic about how �literature should mean something� and �art can be an important teacher� and blah blah blah for a minute now, I guess I should roll up my “essay writing� sleeves and actually talk about what the story is about. Try to talk to the text, as it were. Well, if I were to take a stab at it, ’d have to say that this is a book all about how fragile the male ego is. Hardly a groundbreaking topic, sure, but it’s never a message ٳ’s lacking in its need to be told. Say it often, and say it loud. It’s especially effective in how it's told here because of the way that toxic masculinity is sprinkled around naturally throughout the book. For example, we see it in the way a handsome leading actors will constantly throw tantrums, yelling at those who can’t say anything back, or in nauseating plethora of situations where powerful men will prey on young women who are just trying to become actors and how they always retaliate against them if the women don’t “fall in line.� It’s harrowing how normalized it is, it's realistic and awful, and it's something that needed to said. And ٳ’s it, this book doesn’t just examine male fragility on a personal level, one asshole here, another there, it also knows how important it is to explore exactly how embedded within the culture it really is. Sure, actors acting like manbabies, going on Christian Bale Terminator Salvation-esque rants is terrible, but it’s the environment that makes them feel safe enough to act out in these ways that's the core of the problem. It’s a systemic thing. That's why I think this book works as a standalone, because with "one-and-done" mysteries, you’re able to tackle more intense story-lines without worrying about stretching the story out across several sequels. You can get as real as you need to, without having to adhere to classic mystery tropes. And while I'd say that this book still generally has a hopeful tone to it, I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of hopelessness that was challenging to shake, because the opposition just felt that inescapable. �How many opps you really got? I mean, it's too many options" and all that. More often than not, I found myself wondering how these two people could possibly topple the corruption of Hollywood when it’s so inborn, so accepted, and so encouraged in every facet of our society? This is a historical-fiction novel, but I'm using present tense because I there's a lot of shades of these issues permeating to modern Hollywood. Things change, but not fast enough. The problem seems larger than any one person can handle, but I think that ٳ’s why this story was so powerful, so profound to me, because there’s always going to be people who will want to do the right thing. Declan may have been invulnerable, but it was Henrietta’s resolve to find justice and the missing girl’s spirit that ended up being the one unbreakable thing that could dismantle the insurmountable corruption at the end of the day. It's a great story, and I really enjoyed reading something that forced me to confront some hard truths and didn't shy away from shining light in the dark corners. This is why “Moriarty� type characters are always so useful to introduce as "the final boss" in mystery novels, because it not only gives a face to systemic issues that are hard to conceptualize on our own, but also by having the main characters go against these powerful men, it offers us the opportunity imagine something better than the world given to us. Change takes time and work, and just by these kinds of books existing as they are now, they express exactly what it is that makes these types of stories so triumphant in the first place; they feature heroes that fight the power. “Why didn’t you just keep your mouth shut?� How many times had someone said that to me? Smile. Say nothing. Go along. My mother had even given me a dainty embroidered pillow that read A woman is beautiful with her mouth closed in a smile (it made a truly excellent pincushion), and my oldest sister used to scold me constantly, not for talking back but for rushing in without a plan: “If you’re going to make a fool out of someone, at least be smart about it!� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 2024
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Sep 13, 2024
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Aug 29, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0C2F44BK3
| 4.43
| 959
| unknown
| Apr 12, 2023
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really liked it
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These presents don't really come for free / Your paychecks don't mean that much to me / Just take my hand and hold me tight, you'll never buy my love
These presents don't really come for free / Your paychecks don't mean that much to me / Just take my hand and hold me tight, you'll never buy my love (This Girl � Kungs & Cookin� On 3 Burners). Hey, hey, hey, another killer installment in the Penelope Banks Murder Mystery series! It’s always nice to have a wonderful and reliable author to fall back on if I ever find myself losing interest my little reading hobby. Not saying that ٳ’s what was happening when I first started this, but it’s not not happening! Sorry about the double negative, but honestly? ’d use triple negatives if I thought I could get away with them. Anyway, I think it’s cool that we’re on book 10 (ten!) in this series and it still feels as fresh and exciting as it did when I first started them on a whim. Though, I do appreciate the little deviations this time around to switch it up a little bit. Keep us on our toes and all that. I know this seems like the most obvious thing in the world to say, but I like when books, even formulaic mysteries, are about something more than just the events that they portray. You know, themes. Hurray for themes! And yeah, the straw-man argument in my ear right now is saying, �duh, everything has a theme, dude.� But I’ve actually noticed that a lot of writers (and some readers) are actually a little resistant and a little hostile to the idea that the stories they write and consume can have a deeper meaning. �It’s not that deep!� Yeah well, maybe it should be. At the end of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, I remember there was this extra written interview between John Green and David Levithan where they were both tooting their horns about how they never write with themes in mind. And maybe it's because I imagined both of them chortling as they were saying these things, but it annoyed the hell out of me. Other than the fact that writing without a theme in mind is almost impossible, why the hell would you even set that as your goal when writing, let alone being proud of the fact? Like, �yay, my book doesn’t mean anything! I love slop, take that, thinkers!" It’s a bizarre way of thinking, and the wrong way to approach art, in my opinion. What ’m getting at is that this book (and the whole series, really) is about something. Sure, it stars out business as usual, but this time around, Pen’s got herself in a �Catch-me-or-I-go-Houdini�-situation, and while it seems simple enough at first, what’s really interesting is the undercurrent of sexism explored through Penelope’s interactions with the powerful men around her and their treatment of the young women that have gone missing. Maybe it was more their fault than they realize? We may never know! Dun dun dunnn (it was). Men’s casual dismissal of a women’s agency has been a constant running theme throughout this series; as it’s shown in the way Penelope was disowned by her father for not marrying a schmuck, in the way everybody raises their eyebrows at her being a lady detective, and it’s even the source of friction between Penelope and Detective Prescott in the early days of their relationship (she thinks he doesn’t believe she has what it takes because she’s a woman and they only get together when he proves that ٳ’s not the case), but I don’t think that the sentiment has ever been more pronounced than how it's explored here in The Girls and the Golden Egg. But ٳ’s a story for another paragraph! Okay, here we are on another paragraph! This book sees two sets of shitty fathers go to Penelope in a desperate plea for her assistance in helping find their missing daughters. Because they suck, as fathers... and just normal guys, they believe that her �womanly sensibilities� will be the secret ingredient that offers special insight on the case. The thing is, they’re totally right, but for the wrong reasons. Pen is the right person, but all she does differently than the two brutes (other than being smarter and better than them in every way) is look at the victims through a lens of empathy and understanding. Her special “insight� is actually giving a shit. Woah, who would have thought! This book is delicious in its depiction of irony, because all of the problems caused throughout the novel could have easily been avoided had the fathers given their daughters, the people they claim to care about, the love and attention they so clearly craved. If they had more than material things to offer, then there wouldn't have been anything to worry about in the first place. It's cyclical! And while they're constantly yapping, callously blaming a women’s �flighty nature� as the reason for their running away, it’s actually shown that the father's own emotionally stunted ways are the causes of every problem throughout the novel. Man, I love snacking on some irony! You know how there’s always that guy who says something like �Pay them no mind. They’re only doing that for attention� and it's like, then maybe give them some attention, dumbass. I'm getting a little heated, so I'll move on. I think it’s easy to get caught in a specific rhythm when it comes to these mystery books, to the point where it feels a little too choreographed; a person dies in Pen’s company, then she investigates, then around the third act she figures it all out and we can all call it a day, but what I enjoyed the most about this book is that it hides the usual story beats in a more naturalistic way. I usually have to get myself into different mindsets whenever I'm reading switching from genre to genre, but this time around I didn't even register that I was reading a mystery book. Actually, I was flying through this at such a fast clip, that I barely noticed I was even reading! And I was so enraptured by the increasingly complicated mystery that I hadn’t realized that Penelope hadn’t even come across a dead body (yet). Trust me, the fact that I didn't notice is saying a lot because ’m usually that guy who glances at each page in impatience if there hadn’t been a dead body discovered yet. Really, it’s the only way my bloodlust can be satiated. And not to name names, but I'm going to name names... when I think of a book with this problem, Corpse at Captain's Seat by Josh Lanyon, book 8 (eight!), comes to mind. I thought my problem with it was that nobody dies in the first few pages, but I guess it turns out that you can make any story interesting enough with some good writing. Who knew? Also, this book pairs Pen with different characters other than her designated love-interest, Detective Prescott, which worked wonders not only because I’ve never really been his biggest fan, but it also reminds us, the readers, how good of a detective Pen is in her own right. By having her accompanied by a bunch of bullish, he-man, types, it really proves why Penelope is the right person for any mystery that comes to her table. And it’s not for her �feminine ways,� it’s because she is more personable and more tactful than the men around her. Kind of like how there’d be no problems in the Alien universe if all the losers around Ripley would have just listened to her. It’s good writing, it’s good stuff! And because Pen is hardly around her designated love-interest (he doesn’t appear until, like, 50% in the story! Nice.) this time around, I actually realized how little space he actually takes up in these books. Is it weird that his absence was not felt? At all? Like, apparently all he’s good for is moving out of the way, and it’s probably not the best thing for a book when the the love-interest is the least interesting character. I mean, “interest� is in his title, so I should probably notice when he’s not around, no? It even got to the point where I started my usual nonsense by noticing that Pen actually has more chemistry (of the romantic variety) with Lulu, the jazz singer. They seemed to hit it off with each other in a more organic and interesting way than with Detective Dude over there. It's not only that he's a bit of a bore, I also think that he sometimes acts too much like a father figure for Pen and his relationship to completely feel like they're equal partners. Maybe this is just a me thing, but if ’m bored with a romance, I always find myself trying to look at things through a queer lens (we call that a queer eye, heh). Truthfully though, I'm mostly joking and I'm definitely not taking any of this too seriously, but I do think it’s interesting how we’re always supposed to assume a thing is heterosexual at face value, until explicitly told otherwise. It’s a bit unfair, if you ask me. Just the fact that I have an “LGBT� shelf on here but not a “straight� shelf kind of proves that too. And it’s like, why can’t I have a little fun in pretending something can be queer if I want to? Just because a book isn’t labeled as such doesn’t mean it can’t be interpreted as queer fiction. Not everything has to be straight (not like there’s anything wrong with that!), and it’s fun to interpret art way differently than intended! Besides, sometimes unintended queerness in stories can have a more of an impact than something ٳ’s trying to be too careful, too “correct� in its inclusivity. It's the The Outsiders effect! I know for a fact that the author of that book isn't cool like that, but that doesn't change the fact that the book is liked by a lot of queer folk. Me included. I'm also reminded of how The Sims 4 added an option to give your sims sexual preferences, and a lot of people made a huge stink about it because they thought it was making the game �too political� or whatever, but the funny thing is� because sims could already have same sex relationships as the default option before the update, what was actually added to the game was the option have your sims be straight! Queerness was the default! Hahah how the turntables, indeed! Anyway, ’m not delusional (about this series, at least), and I know Detective Man is here to stay, ’m just saying that maybe, just maybe The Lord just forgot Pen’s gay awakening. Random tangent aside, I still love this series, and it amazes me how reading each one I can get my hands on is as bingeworthy as the one that preceded it. They really are lovely books and never fails to give me a feel-good� feeling. Really though, they’re like a warm bowl of Miso Soup on a chilly day. “You’re beginning to sound like my father.� “Don’t be silly, ’m hardly that terrible.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 25, 2024
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Sep 2024
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Aug 25, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0BRGP6J7D
| 4.02
| 1,206
| Dec 31, 2022
| Dec 31, 2022
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liked it
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We'll steal a Lexus, be detectives / Ride 'round picking up clues / We'll name our children Jackie and Wilson / Raise 'em on rhythm and blues (Jackie
We'll steal a Lexus, be detectives / Ride 'round picking up clues / We'll name our children Jackie and Wilson / Raise 'em on rhythm and blues (Jackie and Wilson � Hozier). Hey, I’ve got to get something off of my chest� I’ve actually been sitting on this book for a little while, just waiting for the moment to finally be able to talk about it, because it actually turns out that I read this a little bit ago. Um, let's say somewhere between the days of Christmas and now. ’m sorry, I know that breaks protocol! ’m a fraud who’s living a lie! And I wish I could say that this unfortunate �ŷ faux pas� was due to the fact that ’m a voracious reader and just couldn’t stand being without a book in hand for even a second, but the simple truth is that I really don’t like my “currently reading� books to rollover into the new year, so I figured ’d pick this up with the intention of having some light reading material to thumb through while I waited with bated breath for January. And here I am. That’s how I got here. Record scratch sound or whatever. But then the weirdest thing happened, the next thing I knew I had finished the entire book in a couple sittings! Aw shucks, not again. Anyway, while this all sounds one of my usual overlong, convoluted beginnings to a glowing review, ’m afraid ٳ’s not entirely the case here. Let’s be real, binge reading something because I couldn’t put it down doesn’t always necessarily mean that ’m enjoying it, you know? Maybe I wanted to put it down! I mean, my ass suffered through several seasons of The Walking Dead before realizing I was actually only hurting myself in the long run! Well, maybe that's not fair, because this book definitely didn’t stoop to the low lows of The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, ٳ’s for sure. And I would never be so cruel as to accuse anyone, let alone Blythe Baker, of being as bad a writer as Scott Gimple is. And yet, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in this book all the same. I don’t know, it might just be the fact that ’m still a really big fan of Blythe Baker’s Miss Alice series, and there were a few things about this book that didn’t quite match up to what I think of as this author’s usual quality of writing. Well, on the surface, they’re actually quite similar! We've got the reluctant hero, the mystery having deep ties to the main character’s past, and we can’t forget the love-interest with a dark secret, making him a little edgy but with a devotion to the hero that can’t help but make him charming and lovable. On paper, these elements together should make for an easy win for me, but there are a few key differences as to why I couldn’t really gel with this story. The only problem is that I'm lacking in the vocabulary department and can only describe my problems with this book as feeling like �the vibes were off.� I know, ٳ’s a complete bullshit answer, so I’ll try to explain in better detail, it’s the least this book deserves. Where should I even start? Well, for one, I wasn’t too hyped about the mystery this time around, which probably isn't a good thing considering this is a mystery book. I didn't think it was particularly smart or intriguing, which was a bit sad because the ingredients really were there for this to feature a puzzling one to write home about! And sure, while it's true that Alice from the Miss Alice series would also often "luck" her way into solving her own mysteries, ’d argue that she at least wanted to solve them, if you catch my drift. In this book, Sylvia in constantly stating to herself, others, and us, the readers, that all of this murder business is �none of her business� and that she should �leave these matters to the authorities,� and ’m sorry Sylvia� but you’re in a MYSTERY NOVEL! Is it really too much to ask for a mystery protagonist to have an innate interest in uncovering mysteries? Okay look, none of this would have been a problem had Sylvia eventually shed this reluctance for meddling naturally over the course of the story and eventually used her smarts to save the day, but ٳ’s the thing� this book’s mystery mostly solves itself by the end?? In fact, ’d go as far as to say that the story probably wouldn’t have changed all that much even if Sylvia and her sexy new butler/chauffeur hadn’t gone investigating in the first place! If anything, they'd probably made things worse, because the only time Sylvia and Miles actually went out sleuthing, Sylvia went to the obviously wrong suspect, a working class lady who had been dating her uncle, and accused her of being both a gold digger and a murderer! Like damn, she really needs to work on her instinctual� instincts. And that actually leads into my other main criticism for this book; I felt like there was a bit of a classist aura to the story and it really rubbed me the wrong way. Remember all those sentences ago where I said that Sylvia accused an obviously innocent lady of being both a murderer and a gold digger? Yeah well, this also happens at the jazz club where the lady worked and throughout the whole scene there’s this unmistakable judgmental tone to the narration. I mean, I could be reading into things, it's true, but we’d get several comments about how �This place is so~oo dirty� or there would d be a heavy emphasis about how they’re �in the dangerous part of town,� and I was just kind of, like, bracing myself for things to get offensive. Thankfully, nothing gets too out of hand, it’s not like this was written by Josh Lanyon, and there’s no doubt that this mindset mirrors sentiments of the time period, but it’s already hard enough for me to root for entitled rich people, so following a bunch of snobs constantly crying about their first world problems really didn’t help to endear me to Sylvia and her family. It's why I couldn’t get into Red, White, & Royal Blue and why I absolutely loathed Playing the Palace. Sorry, I just couldn’t be bothered enough to care. Hell, there’s this Twitch streamer who by all accounts is apparently a “nice� guy, but because he’s always talking about how he's some kind of �mogul,� I’ll always have an unshakable dislike for him and all the content he churns out. But hey, ’m probably going off on one of those tangents again. Would you believe me if I told you that one of my new year’s resolutions was to write shorter reviews and not stress about getting every one of my nitpicks out on paper for the whole world to know? Yeah well, I guess I’ve already failed that one. Drat! Anyway, what I was trying to say before I got sidetracked by my inborn dislike for Twitch streamers was that I was already prepared for a less than stellar mystery before starting this book because, while enjoyable, I already knew that the ones featured in Baker’s Miss Alice series didn’t exactly feature the most brain teasing twisty twists out there. So, it wasn't like I was devastated that the mystery was lacking this time around. I knew what to expect! Besides, what was really special about those books was the romance between Alice and her man, Sherborne. This writer definitely knows how to do romance, and I can definitely say with confidence that even the tiniest hint of romance between Miles and Sylvia was the strongest aspect of Murder With a Motive as well. Though ’m afraid that it didn’t quite hit for me the same way it did in this author’s previous works. Something was off, I suppose. Not to circle back to the whole �entitled rich people� thing that I keep harping on about� but I think that the main thing that didn’t work in Sylvia and Miles� relationship was the fact that Miles works for the former. Sure, there’s a power dynamic thing at play here and ٳ’s not the greatest, but it’s also just a dynamic ٳ’s not exactly deserving of� swoons. Swoon worthy? swoony?? Like come on! �The Lady and the bodyguard?� now ٳ’s a classic trope right there! We’ve all seen Whitney Houston’s The Bodyguard and loved it, but �The Lady and her Chauffeur?� Eh, ’m not so sure that one’s doing all that much for me. Unless we’re counting Kato and the Green Hornet? Because I guess I could get behind that one. They’ve got a little something something going on, no? Anyway, it’s weird because I feel like their dynamic should work for me, but it just kind of doesn’t. So yeah, like I said, the vibes were off or whatever. Murder With a Motive was alright, and I definitely didn’t dislike it, which I consider a huge win considering the amount of elements in the story that I find disagreeable. But the real question is will I continue the series? Um, unfortunately� yeah. There was a pretty killer cliff-hanger at the end, so forgive me for potentially leaving a bunch of �3 star� reviews in my wake as I continue on. Sorry book! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 2025
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Jan 2025
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Aug 14, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B099P4MW33
| 4.06
| 3,095
| Jul 27, 2021
| Jul 31, 2021
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liked it
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Cut people out like tags on my clothing / I end up all alone, but I still keep hoping / I won't be scared to let someone know me / Life feels so monot
Cut people out like tags on my clothing / I end up all alone, but I still keep hoping / I won't be scared to let someone know me / Life feels so monotone, but I still keep hoping (People Watching � Conan Gray). Hell yeah! Wo~oo!! Sorry, ’m riding on a high here because I correctly guessed who the killer was! Let me bask in this victory for a moment. Ahh� this is a big moment for me. And even though I often got a little confused at all the character names being thrown my way (Mr. This and Mrs. Who), I managed to power on through. This will sound like a compliment sandwich, but ’m really just trying to paint a picture reflecting on what a grand accomplishment this is! It's a miracle because my attention span really is pretty short every now and then (to the point where I may or may not read six books at the same time). My personal issues usually aren't an issue because I subscribe to the idea that a confusing mystery is a sure sign of a good mystery! Besides, it’s cool when books don’t dumb down their story in an attempt to appeal to the largest number of people possible. It's better to confuse the reader than patronize them. It’s not this book’s problem I have such a lack of object permanence that a game of peek-a-boo would mess me up. Um, inane rambling aside, I thought that this book was alright. I know, all that build-up. Well, at least the mystery was fascinating, but I've got to say that there were a few things that made it a little too easy to see in-between the lines. It's probably not a good thing when I could figure everything out without even trying. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have noticed any of this if it didn't feel like the dialogue was often a little stiff. If I were being charitable, ’d say that this was purposeful, as it contrasted nicely with the plethora of other 1920’s mysteries that place heavy emphasis on the flash and glamour of the era, to the point where they can drift a little too close to romanticizing the time period. The muted tone of this book not only differentiated it from the crowd, but it also helped ground the whole thing in a sense of reality. And I can objectively appreciate the realistic tone because we are reading about murder after all, and it's a good thing to remember. Not all books need to be on a Great Gatsby vibe, right? But while it’s important for these things to have a sense of gravity, the writing style and main character are given such a passive voice that, while befitting Augusta’s personality and the general tone the story is going for, it doesn’t exactly make for the most engaging of plots. Is it too much to ask for a main character that wants to engage in the story? I don't need John Wick breaking concrete, but a little intellectual curiosity would be nice. Yeah so, I liked the story, but I didn’t love it. It's weird because I probably would have if I had read this even two months ago! I think my inconsistent feelings towards this book are mostly because I’ve probably been reading too many of these cozy mysteries recently. It’s sad, really. I can’t help but grow more and more melancholic at my general disinterest in the things ’m supposed to love. Damn, changing as a person kind of sucks. It’s a little like how you can tell the Hot Ones guy sounds more and more jaded with each passing hot one he has to consume while spewing his “shower thoughts�-esque, deep questions. You can see how the light has gone out of his eyes and ٳ’s probably how ’m looking right now. ’m just being fatalistic, because I always come back to things and none of my interests ever truly leaves me. By this time next month, there’s a good chance that my dormant obsession with mysteries of the cozy variety awakens like an Archdemon. Inane musing aside, I can stomach a middling mystery as long as I love the main character, because then at least there's something tangible to latch onto. You can probably guess where ’m going with this� I didn't love the main character. Sorry, but Augusta is a good character, just not a fun character. I mean, I actually related to her a lot! An introverted bookworm? Sure, I dig it. But ’m not an amateur sleuth, I'd be the most boring mystery protagonist ever! So, don't worry, you won’t be seeing �Noah Mysteries #1-36� any time soon! Her Eeyore-vibe is probably why the author tried to inject some excitement by adding several (!?) other pov’s throughout this super short, hundred-page book. On one hand, I liked how changing the narration gave the book a little flavor, a little hot sauce, and made it feel like a complete story rather than just another notch in some amateur sleuth’s belt (and it was fun to play the guessing game because everyone had good reasons for doing the dastardly deed), but on the other hand, it made the whole thing too easy to solve. Like, the plot thins? There were three other perspectives, two of which had things to hide and another who seemed completely innocent? Spoilers, I suppose, but gee, I wonder who the turns out to be the murderer. You know, now that the high’s come down, I'm kind of wishing I hadn't figured everything out so early. The truth is, ’d much rather be completely lost than impatiently waiting for our detective to finally catch up. My favorite Sherlock Holmes story is actually this video game (#gamer) called Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One where you play as the famous detective in his early days. And while I had a lot of fun, the thing is, I seriously needed a guide for every little puzzle there was to solve! ’d be running around in circles for hours talking to everyone when it turned out that all I had to do was pick up a thing and spin it around. ’m not made for this business, ’m afraid. But it was fun and the story was beautiful (seriously, check it out)! My point is that I needed my hand held, but I loved the mystery for the story it told, not at how easily (or not so easily) I could “beat� it. Anyway, speaking of video games, ’m mentioning them again despite there being barely any overlap between these two mediums, because some of the dialogue in this novel reminded of that particular back-and-forth that you usually only ever see in games. You know how there are always a bunch of side characters who are a little too forthcoming with convenient plot information? Yeah, ٳ’s how a lot of Augusta’s interrogations felt like with potential culprits (all three of them). Every �What were you doing at the time of the murder� is met with a �Ah yes, well, let me tell what I was doing at the time of the murder.� No offense, but there's some real Skyrim ass dialogue here. Also, how old is Augusta supposed to be!? The book goes on and on about how she’s �getting on in the years� or how she lives like a �middle aged spinster� (the book’s wording, not mine), but then it’s stated that she’s not of a dissimilar age to a guy who’s in his early thirties! So� she’s in her thirties? Sure, I guess. I’ll just chalk this up to era accurate double standards about the way they viewed men and women’s ages respectively, but I just thought it was weird because the whole time I was picturing a real Mrs. Crumplebottom walking around. Okay, ’m done. This book was okay, but I probably would have liked it more if ’d read it when I was in a better headspace for mysteries. I know this is an unfair sentiment, so I’ll definitely try to give this series another go somewhere down the line. “The golden rule was to always walk slowly. People needed time to stare.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 17, 2024
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Jun 28, 2024
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Jun 17, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CK58W4DN
| 4.09
| 293
| Sep 2023
| Sep 29, 2023
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it was amazing
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Only for the night, ’m kiddin' / Only for life, yeah, homie for life, yeah / Only for life, let’s get it (LOVE. � Kendrick Lamar). Hi. I’ve come here Only for the night, ’m kiddin' / Only for life, yeah, homie for life, yeah / Only for life, let’s get it (LOVE. � Kendrick Lamar). Hi. I’ve come here to tell everyone that this book is my kind of book. I don’t know why I worded this like the start of a canceled YouTuber’s apology video, but my muted tone is the only way I can convey my absolute love for this book without me just spamming a hundred exclamation points. Oh what the hell, I’ll do that anyway; I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! And so on, and so on. It really checks all the boxes and then some, because, while yes, it is a lovely queer romance, it’s also a story how all the different layers of privilege inherently mold our level of comfort and the way we participate in society. That sounds obvious, but this story was really interesting to me because while it’s centered around a relationship between two “common folk,� it actually takes the time to explore what a romance between two working class men of this particular time period (is it super obvious that I forgot the specific year?) would actually mean, and how they’d go about making it work. Dangerous repercussions and all. See, in most of the historical romances that I read, the pairing normally includes some kind of a duke or a lord or a prince or a whatever-the-fuck, and it gets a little boring after a while, you know? I assume authors do this because it adds a pretty little safety net for the main couple to have their “happy ending� in unhappy times. They'll buy land in a better place or find shelter in some other rich person's home or the bigoted people in their lives will magically turn over a new leaf when they realize the error of their ways. It's a nice thought, but what about the ones who don't have that privilege? Who’s going to tell their stories? ’d like to know. The worst ones are those books that have the rich, lordly, main character masquerade among the working class, pretending like they "get it," thinking they're doing something for the common folk on the ground when they're actually just walking around like Nickeled and Dimed or whatever. So, a million stars to this book for portraying a duke who’s actually just a dick (the dick duke, if you will). Because if we were going by normal story conventions, he'd probably be the main character! Oh wait, I should probably introduce him. The villain of this novel (the narrative is a lot kinder to him, but I think he’s a steaming pile of shit, so villain it is), Lord Warbury, is a gay man who has to go through life hiding pieces of himself, and while, yes, this is obviously sympathetic, it sure never stopped him from treating his valet, Noah (hey, ٳ’s my name) Moorcott, with cold flippancy, or how his sexuality never stops him from using his power and influence to try to bury our other main character, George, another queer man. Now, I know what you’re thinking, �Jeez, can this guy use any more commas!?� and to that, ’d say� yes. If I could, ’d be running on this run-on-sentence forever! But seriously though, I don’t think I’ve felt this level of visceral disgust for a character in a book in a long while. The way he’d probably realized a long time ago that he’ll have to live his life in secret meetings while also never once considering for a second that there are other queer folk around him that aren’t as fortunate as him� man, it had me feeling some type of way. Lord Warbury? Let’s be real; he’s not like us. Let's move on to greener pastures, because the actual main romance between one Mr. George Evans and Noah Moorecott was absolutely exquisite, and I’ve literally never used “exquisite� to describe anything in my life! ’m not a fan of using film as the bar to which we should compare other mediums (�This video game is just like a movie! Soo~oo cinematic!�), but this book was just like a movie! The way it ends with a courtroom drama that leads into a fated duel? Ugh, I dig its cinema. And while I think I can safely say that I enjoy reading about any and all time-periods, as anything can be good (and if it’s gay, then doubly so), I will admit that I've veered away from contemporary romances in more recent years because the ones that I’ve read tended to feel a lot more focus-group-tested than ’d prefer. #He-falls-first #Rivals-to-lovers #HEA #Low-Drama... how about I just smash my head into a wall? Okay well, it’s not like I even hate well-oiled machine-type books (most of the time), but if I want to read a book that makes me stare at the wall blankly after finishing it, then ’m going to be over here with my queer historical-fiction. Sometimes I want the books I read to tear me asunder, and ٳ’s what I got with this book. Torn asunder, I am. Go ahead and consider me torn... asunder. Everything about this book was incredibly sweet and loving in a way ٳ’s achingly reminiscent of the best kind of YA novel. I mean, even down to the way that they had to be constantly tip-toeing around Lord Warbury like a couple of teenagers gave their romance a level of innocence that contrasted wonderfully against the backdrop of the tense plot. George and Noah's story made my heart ache from the get-go. And it must be said that their chemistry was electric (boogie woogie, woogie) despite the both of them being rather restrained, stoic men. Let’s just say that it didn’t take long for George to be yearning for more cock from Mr. Moorecott� heh, two conversations and he was already gunning to see his uncut gem! Okay, ’m done. What I'm getting at is that their relationship was portrayed beautifully, and even though their circumstances mostly forced their acquaintance to be met in hidden rooms at the disillusionment of ten o� clock, it’s still as incredibly pure as it was heart wrenching. The thing is, I’ve noticed that queer relationships in fiction are often subconsciously associated with sentiments of sin and lust more often than something more classically romantic. I remember back in the day whenever ’d see fanart of gay relationships (ships), the artist would sometimes caption it by saying something like, �Oh no, ’m really sinning now by drawing these two together! Teehee!!� And while these were obviously said in jest or even adoringly, I think it’s interesting that in a lot of people’s minds, through word association, queer love is so naturally grouped together with illicit sin and moral failing. Our stories are told through fleeting clandestine meetings and not courtship and roses. And I think ٳ’s the crux of it, ٳ’s what made this novel so special to me. It manages a grand romantic epic without failing its duty as a historically accurate historical-fiction. The Oak and the Ash is a love story about solidarity, companionship, and accountability. But most importantly� it’s a story ٳ’s written in good faith. Trust me, I can tell. “The blank sheet of paper was still waiting for him on the little table in his room. He picked it up and read over the two sentences he had written. His heart sank. But didn’t they say that starting was half the battle?� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 08, 2024
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Jul 21, 2024
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Jun 08, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 0593378075
| 9780593378076
| B0C5V8LWMH
| 4.21
| 727
| Feb 20, 2024
| Feb 20, 2024
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it was amazing
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“The truth is, Dami never liked endings. It’s why they’ve left so many books unread.� ’m a little embarrassed. Remember a couple weeks ago when I made “The truth is, Dami never liked endings. It’s why they’ve left so many books unread.� ’m a little embarrassed. Remember a couple weeks ago when I made this huge fuss about how I was �totally done with YA forever and ever and ever and nobody can convince me to return no matter what"? Yeah well, I'm here to say that all the hullabaloo was for nothing, because this YA book convinced me to return. It’s good. Really good, even. It kind of feels like me ending up loving this book is the result of some kind of universal karma that went out of its way to make sure ’d be eating my words for making such a grandiose statement. Kind of like a deal with a demon? Hmm. But that's enough shame for one night, because it’s synopsis time! The basic story follows Dami, a demon who is desperately trying to find a way to turn back into a human because they tire of the duplicitous life. To do this, they have go back to all the people they’d originally made deals with and undo all the �curling-of-the-monkey-paw,� �bad-faith-genie�-type wishes they’d granted. It just so happens that the last schmuck on the list is our second main character, Silas, a guy who is also desperately (desperation is a running theme with the both of them) trying to break free from his family curse that marks him and his loved ones for death. Thankfully, the shifty deal that Dami dream-came-trued it for him was that he’d effectively become immortal. Well, maybe not "thankfully," because there's a catch (because there always is one) that he can still technically die� just not permanently. Guess he didn't read the fine print, because he dies only to comes back. Again, and again and again. Just like Jesus! � or Goku. This was great fun, and I don’t think I’ve loved a pure adventure novel like this since I've had the pleasure of reading The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, all the way back when. This book feels nostalgic to me because it really effortlessly captured that "something special" vibe from the very beginning. Here's the thing, adventure romances are always tricky because no matter what, they all live in the looming shadow cast by Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003), which manages to perfectly balance the exciting, action-packed journey with its quieter, contemplative moments. The problem is that more often than not a lot of adventure stories sadly just end up being Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010), a lifeless, wooden movie with zero chemistry between the leads and zero dramatic tension. I'm happy to say that The Diablo's Curse beautifully resembles the former. Yay! Otherwise, I will say that like with most stories that deal with the search for a vast treasure, this book does the whole �the-real-treasure-was-the-love-we-found-for-each-other-along-the-way kind of thing, and I can’t lie� I was a little disappointed. Is it too much to ask that they find love and become filthy rich too!? In Fallout: New Vegas, there’s this quest you go on where the main theme is all about �letting go of the past� (yawn), and in order to really drive the message home, at the end you have to choose between escaping an underground bunker before it explodes or staying there and dying with thirty-nine (39!) gold bars that are too heavy to carry out of there on time. Want to know what I did? So, it turns out that there’s a glitch where if you stash the gold on some dead guy’s body near the door, you can actually still take all the money and escape with your life with seconds to spare. I love having cake and then eating it too! ’m probably just greedy, but it literally hurts my heart every time the heroes throw the gold or the jewels or the whatever into the abyss in the climactic ending in a triumphant display of how they’re better than the villain. Yeah well, ’m not! I mean, it's important to know that I'm still salty over Aladdin and the King of Thieves! You could probably tell which character ’d be in these kinds of adventure stories, huh? Best believe ’d be Smeagol, clutching my ring to the last. Though, if I had another complaint (I'm a "two complaint" kind of guy), ’d say that the sacrifices being made are a little too one-sided on Dami’s end. It's Silas' curse they're all trying to break, so why is Dami doing all the heavy lifting!? I know that they’re the “demon� in the relationship and that they’ve technically done the most harm in the past, meaning that most of the character development lies on their shoulders, but the unfortunate result is that it made Silas a little boring in contrast. Dami was doing too much! They’re the one who does all the rowing when they're stuck in the storms, the fighting against the bandits, the "figuring out" when they're faced with trials and tests on the evil killing island, where is Silas?? I know where. Busy sitting there like a log with his judgemental aura. If he didn’t have his own pov chapters, ’d seriously forget he was even there after a while. I don’t think he’s a bad character, and I didn't even dislike him, but I was just hoping for a better apology scene than what we got in the actual story. What can I say? I love some good ole groveling. ’m kind of joking, because none of this actually changed my opinion of the book, but ’d at least like something a little more concrete, a little more substantial than him just looking at the ceiling as he drafts his �’m so sorry� text. I've noticed a lot of the books I’ve been reading recently are trending towards the more introspective side when it comes to their character development, and that's cool and all, but it is a little sad that it feels like the days of grand gestures in the third-act are over and done with. Oh well. This will be a bit of a spoilery bit (for The Kite Runner, very popular book The Kite Runner), but remember in The Kite Runner when the main character gets the ever loving shit kicked out of him and it's unnerving and visceral and... the only feeling he actually feels is pure euphoria? No pain or sadness, just a calming relief that he’s finally, finally, getting punished for the pain he’s caused. Obviously, this isn’t a perfect comparison because Silas didn’t do anything even remotely close to what Kite Runner guy did, but ’m just saying that they sure don’t write absolution like they used to. Oh, did I say that this book was a great book yet? Because it absolutely is! I don't know, that sentiment might have gotten lost in all my ramblings. Or whatever all that is up there. I’ll try to move on to more positive things from now on. I loved how The Diablo’s Curse has all the imagination and thrills of a typical adventure novel, but with the added benefit of all the main characters simply being queer. No fuss, no overlong discussion about it, they just are. And that's just a nice thing to read about. And it’s nice how we can have fun adventure stories without the narrative being completely centered around queerness and how we fit into the world, into society. And yet, it’s still a theme ٳ’s felt deeply all throughout the story. From the way the narration doesn’t bother with any character being maliciously misgendered or how Dami’s shape-shifting powers are used to explore the beauty of being non-binary rather than the trauma they’d probably have to go through in any “realistic� historical-fiction novel about queer folk. It's all a metaphor, Hazel Grace! Every now and then I like to joke around saying stuff like �love isn’t real� or �love is dead� and blah blah blah, but the truth of the matter is that that sentiment is disproven by the simple fact of this book existing in the world. �How wonderful life is... while you're in the world!� This is a book that sets out to celebrate queer joy over pain, and accomplishes just that. And believe me, I felt the love every time I turned the page. Oh my love, I know I am a cold, cold man / Quite slow to pay you compliments / Or public displayed affections / But baby don't you go overanalyze / No need to theorize / I can put your doubts to rest (Cold Cold Man � Saint Motel). ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 05, 2024
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Jul 15, 2024
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Jun 05, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| B0CP8M5TB8
| 4.10
| 1,071
| Jan 16, 2024
| Jan 16, 2024
|
really liked it
|
You are the promised kiss of springtime / That makes the lonely winter seem long / You are the breathless hush of evening / That trembles on the brink
You are the promised kiss of springtime / That makes the lonely winter seem long / You are the breathless hush of evening / That trembles on the brink of a lovely song (All the Things You Are � Ella Fitzgerald). Hey, ’m on a roll with all these good books lately! Not to brag, but I guess I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what I’ll end up liking. It really does help that this is the eighth book in a series of books that I’ve only ever adored! After reading heaps and heaps of these “cozy-mystery�-types, I always find myself gravitating towards the ones that always manage to feel alive and breathing despite the genre being done to death. So yeah, Olive Belgrave stuns in yet another wonderful mystery! This one was especially engaging for me because I remember a while back my friend told me in excruciating detail about how an icicle was the best possible weapon to murder someone with. The best accomplice a potential murderer could have! He probably read it in some kind of Buzzfeed article or something because this was all unprompted and I could tell that he was trying to pass it off like he came up with the idea. So don’t worry, he’s not out there, running around like Dexter. Anyway yeah, that's one point to him (or Buzzfeed), because I damn sure couldn’t see any obvious cracks in the logic. For one, there aren’t any fingerprints to worry about, and then after everything, the ice would literally just melt away over time, leaving no trace. Woah, this is sounding suspiciously like a good idea for a mystery novel! Hahah yeah� good times. It's this book. I'm talking about this book. Somebody dies by icicle in this book. I wasn’t just sharing a random weird conversation I had way back when! I read a lot of mysteries, and I don’t think I’ve encountered one that actually went into the logistics of this particular brain teaser, so this book was a lot of fun! I always feel a bit more involved in Olive’s adventures than any of the other amateur sleuths out there because I already have a pretty strong emotional attachment to this series. Lovable characters and tantalizing mysteries? What more could I ever ask for? I even tried to play along, pretending to be a detective in my own right a couple times (it’s kind of impossible not to) throughout the book, but then I remembered I get confused and lost whenever someone happens to change their name on here, removing the “semi-hiatus� and all that, so I figured ’d let the book do the solving instead. Let the professionals handle this one. Hey, maybe ٳ’s why I like mystery books so much! They let me live vicariously, allowing me to see what it’s like to have a good memory! Anyway, my original point was the fact that ’m always looking out for a new installment in the High Society Lady Detective series, and when I saw that this book was out, I pushed aside everything else I was reading just to start it right away. I'm usually patient (kind of, sort of) so it really is a testament to the author how much I love these characters and how much I couldn't wait to see them again after all this time. Now, this is usually the bit where I talk about the love-interest. And well� I love Jasper! Yup, ’m surprised (and relieved) that I don’t have to talk trash about him! Yesss. You know, I don’t really talk about my “book crushes� much because� I really don’t have any. I just read book after book without a second thought on these “swoon-worthy� guys. I mean, most of the time I barely even remember their names and I for sure can't count the number of times I've had to check the book page of something I just finished so I could remember who anyone was! It’s sad, really. The only fictional characters ’d ever unabashedly say that I have a crush on would be Narsi from Ginn Hale’s Master of Restless Shadows, Dante’s dad from Ari and Dante, ...and I guess Jasper from this book series. Hm, is that really it!? I think there’s a common thread here too; they’re all cool, chill, dudes. I think Jasper is especially great because he’s the classic charmer, sure, but he's also supportive and sweet. I know it doesn’t sound like much, like, I'm doing limbo the bar's so low, but it really does go a long way in the mystery genre, where the love-interest is usually at odds with our main character. It's funny how writers often try so hard to be subversive that their subverted tropes ironically become just as oversaturated as the very thing they tried to avoid, leaving the old clichés to come back around to being a breath of fresh air! Heh heh, how the turn tables, indeed. While so many love-interest guys in fiction (and in real life, I suppose) are so hellbent on fashioning themselves around being as unpleasant and unreachable as possible, Jasper over here is just a calming, serene old chap who's far too busy looking camp right in the eye to be combative with anyone, let alone his partner. No but really, he's always in Olive’s corner, and I almost never need anything more in a mystery book. Especially because there are more important things to focus on! Murder usually. It's usually murder. Sometimes even an impossible murder with an icicle! Gasp! Oh, and also, ’m grateful to this book for being the �aha" moment that made me realize why I like mystery books so much in the first place. Because no matter how cozy they are, reading mysteries also gives me the same thrill I always get from watching horror movies. I don’t mean when everything’s gone to shit and there’s a killer running around (though there's more than enough of that to go around with mysteries too!), but the before bits; the parts of the movie where everything seems idyllic and peaceful, but you just know that something is about to go terribly wrong. I know it sounds macabre, but those moments really are the most fun for me. In a movie, in a book, it doesn’t make a difference to me as long as there’s some delicious tension in the air. And delicious this book was in that regard. I can’t wait for the next one because I just know for a fact that no matter whatever clever conundrum is thrown at Olive, she still won’t fall for the illu-u-u-u-u-u-u-sion. “Undoubtedly. The world of sport provides many important functions, such as allowing us an escape from all the unpleasantness in the world � politics, personalities, even crime � if only for the length of a race. And it provides an opportunity to challenge oneself, which is always a good thing.� “I agree, in theory. In practice, ’d rather read a good book.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 27, 2024
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Jun 08, 2024
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May 23, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| B0BVRQSY5W
| 4.45
| 1,054
| unknown
| Feb 13, 2023
|
really liked it
|
They made haste in the brown sedan / They drove to 55 Secret Street / They made love, and by the seventh wave / She knew she had a problem (Glamorous
They made haste in the brown sedan / They drove to 55 Secret Street / They made love, and by the seventh wave / She knew she had a problem (Glamorous Life � Sheila E.). Bear with me for a second, but ٳ’s seriously one of my favorite songs. ’m always singing it whenever I find myself picking up one of these books up again. The glamorous life! �Without love, it ain’t much!� Ugh, love music. The way it starts out the way you’d expect, talking about a woman who yearns to live lavish, but subtly evolves its meaning to wanting to find love instead is so great. By the end of the song the character still wants the glamorous life, but the song isn’t about excess anymore, now it’s about human connection, empathy, ...compassion! And those are the things I think of whenever ’m reading a Penelope Banks Murder Mysteries book. Because for as much as they celebrate the 1920’s shine and glamour, with the diverse cast of characters, it always maintains a whole lot of heart that can relate to any time period. See, I think I got there eventually. Otherwise, I just really enjoy Penelope Banks as a main character, as she makes these books a lot of fun to read. Besides, I know that giving your fictional detective a photographic memory would normally seem like cheating, with them seeing through every case like they’re bathing in Windex, but I promise that it never feels contrived or lazy. It helps that Penelope is always using her memory in clever and unique ways, limiting her abilities so it never gets to "superpower" levels. A lot of the times, whenever authors make their characters too skillful, they then need to find ways to “write around� them in order for the story to continue being a story. I think its darling (help, I can't stop talking like the characters!) how Penelope is always just as involved in the human side to the story as an she is an investigator. Anyway, as for this specific installment, I usually don’t try to "win" or “play along� with the mystery when ’m reading mysteries, but this time around I figured it might be kind of fun to give it a try so I could, you know, exercise the brain and all that. I even had a little note sheet and everything! "This guy definitely did it", "Oh, she did it, I know it!" Yeah well� let me tell you, this was hard work! Mrs. Abernathy had so many paramours that I was properly discombobulated by the fourth dude. About half-way through I figured, you know what? I’ll just let Penelope handle this one, She’s got this! At least I could always count on her to be properly bobulated. My failed attempt at being a detective aside, this book really does continue to prove why I always find myself going back to this specific mystery series out of all the rest out there. It’s. Just. That. Good. And hey, each new release never fails to release the same number of endorphins as finding new music! This series is a lovely song, and trust me, ’m not about to pass the aux. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, my dear.� “When do I ever?� “Should I answer that?� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 15, 2024
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May 26, 2024
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May 15, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0385550472
| 9780385550475
| B0D21YZCB1
| 4.37
| 858
| unknown
| Feb 04, 2025
|
it was amazing
|
Said you're gonna shoot me down, put my body in the river / Shoot me down, put my body in the river / While the whole world sings, sing it like a song
Said you're gonna shoot me down, put my body in the river / Shoot me down, put my body in the river / While the whole world sings, sing it like a song / The whole world sings like there's nothing going wrong (The Body Electric � Hurray for the Riff Raff). Phew what a ride! I don't know how popular this opinion is, but now that ’m standing at the end of this thing, I think the only way I can summarize my thoughts on Dead in the Frame is that it's the best Pentecost and Parker mystery, and yet the hardest to read. I'm sure there's something profound I could say here about how only consuming easily digestible media rots the brain after a while. Something something, "it's good to be challenged by art" or something. Hey, I love a light and easy contemporary romance as much as the next person, but after reading a couple in a row, I've found myself having a hard time coming up with stuff to say about this book, even though it did make me think a whole lot. So yeah, I’ve probably said this a million times before, but I usually don’t like it when mysteries do the whole �main character is accused of a murder that they didn’t commit and they have to solve the case themselves to prove their innocence� trope. Which I know is an odd stance to take considering almost all mysteries have this premise. I think it’s because there’s an added level of anxiety and urgency that can feel a bit gimmicky if done too excessively. Besides, books with this premise always makes me skittish in not a good way and makes me want to rush through a book I might otherwise be enjoying. Call me The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry the way I was trying to get my ass out of here! I mean, it’s clearly not a deal breaker for me, because I still read an alarming amount of mysteries regardless, but just know that I didn’t go into this book, the newest installment of my favorite book series, with the same amount of excitement that I have had with the previous books. Anyway, is it okay if I talk about it for a little while? In a move ٳ’s already above how Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell handled Wayward Son's intense cliff-hanger, the cliff-hanger from Murder Crossed Her Mind's final chapter gets answered almost immediately as Lilian Pentecost is arrested for maybe kind of sort of killing somebody and this whole book being about exonerating her. Now, this premise already marks this installment as vastly different than those that came before because this time around it’s up to everyone’s favorite bisexual, Will Parker, to sus out the real killer. All on her lonesome, can you believe it? They grow up so fast! The only problem is that the list of suspects outside of our favorite detective grows to be far more complicated and mind-boggling than she's ever before. Let me check list it; we’ve got the evil art collector who's idea of art falls on the macabre side, a “former� assassin with a gambling problem, a police officer who finishes his chores prematurely and... oh yeah, and Xenia Onatopp from Goldeneye. That’s really just scratching the surface! Who dun it!? I hope Will finds out, because I dunno! Seriously though, despite never trying to "win" at mystery books, sometimes I get lucky because I did end up guessing the right killer by maybe the halfway mark. But again, don't consider me an expert detective just yet, because it's important for you to know that I was still very confused throughout this entire book, but because all the characters kept getting killed off and the mystery got so twisted in knots, I figured I'd take a wild swing say it's most obvious culprit. That it would be a "the solution was right in front of us all along" kind of thing. Guess what? It was! Process of elimination or whatever. Hey, literally anything is better than how The Maid expected us to follow along with a mystery that was flat out making up new characters as the story went on so we literally couldn't include them on the suspect list! And my trepidation aside, I focused on Pentecost and Parker’s track record of absolute bangers in the past, and I owed it to Stephen Spotswood to at least give him the benefit of the doubt that he’d give these characters the kind of electric (boogie woogie, woogie) story that they deserve. You know, get me out my zone, I'm just talkin' comfort, shawty. You know how I always talk about how I forget everything in books the minute I finish them? Well, I don't sat that just to be quirky, because I actually forget a whole bunch, but I really do feel like Dead in the Frame will stay with me for a long while. I mean, ask me again next week. Really though, ’m not exaggerating when I say that Dead in the Frame is nonetheless a singular achievement in not only queer representation and feminism in the mystery genre, but it was also just so darn entertaining! It's just that I've found that a lot of authors think queer stories can either be "important" or "fun." You know, this one is the popcorn flick, and this one is the one that we take seriously. And this might just be because I'm bisexual, but I'm always left wondering... why not both? Well, the answer to that is Pentecost and Parker mysteries. Fun and exhilarating one second, breathtakingly sad the next. And like I said, I had a good time even though this one is a little less "fun focused" than usual. You know, because Ms. Pentecost spends most of it in jail being mistreated by the media and the prison institution alike. It's a hard read, and the book goes to great lengths to show that even if she were guilty, nobody deserves this kind of treatment. Oops, spoilers I think. I mean, I think it’s hardly a spoiler to say that Lillian Pentecost obviously didn’t do it to it to the guy. And that's cool, she's not a killer, but I actually think ٳ’s where a few of my criticisms with the book came up. Dead in the Frame tries for a more “adult� vibe to its story considering it’s more apparent themes of police tampering, inhumane prison conditions, and infidelity and murder. All of which Ms. Pentecost and Will find themselves in the middle of, thus pushing them both much further than they’ve ever been pushed before. "Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep." � Circe. And not to get too hung-up on something that ultimately didn't bother me too much, but it would sometimes get to the point where the narrative felt like it was trying to convince us that maybe the heroes could have committed the drastic actions presented throughout the story, even though it didn't have any real interest in portraying Will and Ms. Pentecost as anything less than morally good. It often felt like a cop out because every time the main characters finally gain the nerve to actually do something kind of shady, when they're no longer �playing Mr. Nice Guy,� the narrative will oddly gives them a pass. For example (slight spoilers), as the story goes along and the pressure mounts to an unbearable level, Will, finding herself running out of time and options, decides that the move is to apply some Joel Miller interrogation techniques on a fool. Yes!! I was excited, I can't lie! Ugh, but the hype died pretty quickly as she finds that the guy already dead by the time she gets there? Boo~ooo! I know Will and Ms. Pentecost giving up their morals is not the point of the book (quite the opposite, actually) but I found myself oddly disappointed regardless. Are these still consider Young-Adult books? Because at this point I'm kind of waiting for Will and her boss to go buck-wild on someone! I don't know, they spend so much of this book �taking hits� that it almost felt like the author was just stringing us along after a certain point. It started giving off that condescending vibe of, "What? You expected this to be easy? Oh, you sweet summer child." I won't name names (because I hate this kind of movie with a passion), but there's this specific kind of horror movie that likes to use shock value and violence (usually against women) as some kind of "statement" on the genre as a whole, positing that anybody who watches horror movies and finds enjoyment in... the horror, is somehow also complicit in the actions taken throughout the movie. And because of this angle, these movies will refuse to give the audience any kind of satisfying narrative pay-off simply because they are attempting to question the very notion of finding violence in horror movies entertaining. But I'd argue that because they are using the same violence and shock value in their movies that they apparently loathe in others, are they not doing the same thing? Self-awareness of story tropes doesn't mean you're exempt from them! Especially if you're using them in your story to "make a point!" Hey, I guess if you can't beat 'em... join 'em? Otherwise, I think I just kind of hate any story that's smugly proud of being able to make the audience angry. What, like it's hard or something? Um, I know I said I wouldn't name names, but the truth is that I was actually talking about three different horror movies that annoyed the hell out of me. My top three of "never again's" They're The Vanishing, Speak No Evil (2022), and most importantly, Funny Games. Hate them, I hate them good. Anyway, my point is that while I'll admit that I was a little worried for a moment here, Dead in the Frame is decidedlynot one of those stories, but I found myself frustrated nonetheless because whenever it seemed like they’d finally hit back, the narrative goes out of its way to make sure nobody important to the narrative actually has to get their hands dirty. I include Ms. Pentecost in there because she has a very similar story line where she gets to the point of contemplating murder (for real this time) and her problem is solved in much the same way. Wasn't a fan, sorry. And I know that these books (and this one in particular) have a strong �revenge is bad and killing never actually solves any problem� theme, but ’d like to propose a counter argument; every shitty person presented in this book doesn’t deserve that much thematic consideration. Quincannon dying doesn’t solve anything? Well, considering he’s the classic �enlightened,� self-important, �learned� type of asshole who uses their calm and rational visage to mask the fact that underneath it all they’re really just a raging misogynist, ’d argue that him getting sent to the next dimension solved the very real problem of a disgusting ghoul like him being alive. Besides, if he really wanted to stay among the living, then his ass should have been walking around like Daft Punk! Just know I did the Lady Gaga “Abracadabra� dance when I saw that it was him who got murked. You know, the one where she’s doing the finger-pointing gun thing. Anyway, any criticism on my end are mostly just stray thoughts, as you can probably see by my star-rating that I really liked this! It's as stylish as ever and Will remains one of the best narrative voices in recent memory. I can't get enough of the writing style and whenever I finish one of these books I always start talking like, "'M'yeah, see? M'yeah'" and all that. But anyway, I really do think that the Pentecost and Parker books are the best mysteries out there right now because they forego Josh Lanyon type copoganda often seen nowadays in queer mystery novels and are much more reminiscent of old school Sherlock Holmes, where he used to look out for those ignored by society. That's what makes mystery detectives memorable for me; when they care for the forgotten and downtrodden. “They deserve to pry some small bit of happiness from a world determined to deny it from them.� ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 25, 2025
|
Mar 17, 2025
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May 10, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1035409518
| 9781035409518
| B0BY4P7L42
| 4.21
| 2,050
| Dec 05, 2023
| Dec 07, 2023
|
it was amazing
|
“I just want it to be over,� I said to myself. Which is one of the nicely consistent things about bad days. If you just wait a while, eventually they
“I just want it to be over,� I said to myself. Which is one of the nicely consistent things about bad days. If you just wait a while, eventually they end. Wow, this was amazing! Sometimes I feel a little left out and have to fight the urge to try fitting in by claiming that ’m �in a reading slump”� because not only is that almost never true for me, but also that’d be especially untrue here. I devoured this book. Yum. I think what I enjoy most about these books is the fact that they manage to capture the spirit of what I think an old-school Sherlock Holmes story should be, only without the baggage of a century's worth of re-writes, reinterpretations, and reinventions. Lillian Pentecost and Willowjean “Will� Parker are here to fight for the helpless and ignored, full stop. Yeah I guess socially inept, quirky, yet genius investigators are all fine and dandy, but when there’s a moral imperative behind the case, then that's when I'm really hooked. It’s always nice when our mystery protagonists are fighting for something other than satisfying their intellectual curiosity, when we know for real that at the end of the day, they really are for the people. I think what works so well is that these books can be quite twisty, but they never go so far as to rely too heavily on big, revelatory twists. I know this is kind of odd to say about the mystery genre, but ’m generally of the mind that they don’t actually need to be all that surprising in order to have a satisfying conclusion. I could read a million book's where it turns out it's the butler, and ’d be cool with it as long as it holds up. If it’s narratively sound, then I'm good. I’ve read my fair share of mysteries, and I can honestly say that a lot of them get so caught up “winning� against the reader, desperately trying to think ten steps ahead, that they end up diminishing their own story to do so. Like, congrats. I never even guessed who the killer was when they were given one paragraph of description or whatever. So clever, so surprising. I mean, I like a good twist as much as the next guy, but unless it's going to be good, good... then I'd rather there be none. I don't know, I just think that when you create stories, it's probably best to not be known as the twist author. Then you have to constantly be thinking up new story conventions, and if you fail, then it comes crashing down that much harder. For example, I liked the original Planet of the Apes, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to rewatch because so much of it is carried by the ending scene. There are a bunch of sequels, but how can you beat a guy shaking his fists at the heavens because society destroyed itself. Why do you think the new ones forgo the twist all together? Also... why exactly did he believe he was on an alien planet anyway? He’s surrounded by apes ffs. Where else would you be, dude? Anyway, my point being that expecting a big twist in every mystery story can burn me out on the genre just as fast as if every one of them were of the "by-the-book" and "simplistic" nature. Both styles can get a little same-y after a while. Like, Mama Mia: Here We go Again, I've been here before! In my opinion, the best way to fix this is that if the focus is mostly on writing a captivating story, full of dynamic and interesting characters, then there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll be so lost in the story that the twist will end up surprising me regardless. The real surprise is that ٳ’s what happens every time I find myself reading this Pentecost & Parker series. And if nothing else, I just love when a book series can be four books strong and you can tell that the author is still having a lot of fun writing it. After all this time, the spark hasn't dimmed even the tiniest bit! When I eagerly start another one of these, I just know I'm in good hands. That I'll laugh, cry, get puzzled, and all those other emotions I'd be too embarrassed to admit out loud. What can I say? It's got the special ingredient, the sauce. Um, I also like how Will has a girlfriend now named Holly. Normally, mystery books like to introduce lovely, fun characters in one installment, only for them to be completely forgotten and discarded by the next one. Mission Impossible 2, James Bond-core, and all that. Personally, I like to have a dash of continuity sprinkled in. If an LGBT+ couple existing and being happy in a historical-fiction means that this series will feel a little less episodic and more serialized, then so be it. I mean, I was a little surprised that Holly has, like, two other boyfriends on retainer? I only listened to the last book on audio format (while doing other things), and I definitely don’t have a photographic memory like Vera Bodine, so my memory’s a little hazy on the details. Oh, ’m not judging, maybe she’s just on some Zendaya, Challengers-type shit. If so, then good for her, good for her. Yeah so, I loved this one, I had a great time, I thought it was lovely, and all the other things I'm always saying! Sometimes I like to take notes while I'm reading (they used to call it "talking to the text," I think) for fun and they're usually incomprehensible (like, "I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress" kind of stuff), but they were surprisingly clear this time around. Now that's the surprise twist I was waiting for! Words like: "timeless, intriguing, dangerous, stylish, noir, classic, and very, very queer," littered the page like graffiti! It doesn't sound like much, but I count myself so lucky that I found a book that has all of the above! Besides, If I ever find myself in that fated reading-slump, I know for where to fall back on. Never has it failed to reinvigorate my passion for this genre. This is the one! Ahh, I loved this book, and I have a feeling ’m going to love the next one. That’s just a guess, but an educated one. Memories are all I have to cling to / And heartaches are the friends I'm talking to / When I'm not thinking of just how much I love you / Well, I'm thinking 'bout the things we used to do (Things � Bobby Darin) ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 21, 2024
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May 09, 2024
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Apr 21, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.40
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not set
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Apr 16, 2025
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| 4.32
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really liked it
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Apr 15, 2025
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Mar 25, 2025
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| 3.63
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really liked it
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Mar 29, 2025
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Mar 23, 2025
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| 4.43
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not set
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Jan 01, 2025
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| 3.99
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really liked it
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Dec 10, 2024
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Nov 30, 2024
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| 3.63
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really liked it
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Oct 12, 2022
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Sep 28, 2024
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| 4.38
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liked it
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Jul 21, 2023
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Sep 28, 2024
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| 3.44
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really liked it
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Oct 26, 2024
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Sep 28, 2024
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| 3.87
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really liked it
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Mar 30, 2022
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Sep 17, 2024
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| 4.04
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really liked it
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Apr 02, 2024
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Sep 12, 2024
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| 3.92
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really liked it
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Sep 13, 2024
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Aug 29, 2024
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| 4.43
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really liked it
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Sep 2024
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Aug 25, 2024
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| 4.02
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liked it
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Jan 2025
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Aug 14, 2024
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| 4.06
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liked it
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Jun 28, 2024
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Jun 17, 2024
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| 4.09
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it was amazing
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Jul 21, 2024
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Jun 08, 2024
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| 4.21
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it was amazing
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Jul 15, 2024
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Jun 05, 2024
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| 4.10
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really liked it
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Jun 08, 2024
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May 23, 2024
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| 4.45
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really liked it
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May 26, 2024
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May 15, 2024
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| 4.37
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it was amazing
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Mar 17, 2025
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May 10, 2024
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| 4.21
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it was amazing
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May 09, 2024
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Apr 21, 2024
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