Laughter and Tears

The Game of Kings (#1 of The Lymond Chronicles)

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

By Dorothy Dunnett

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: dunnett1.jpg

To the men exposed to his rule Lymond never appeared ill: he was never tired; he was never worried, or pained, or disappointed, or passionately angry. If he rested, he did so alone; if he slept, he took good care to sleep apart. “—I sometimes doubt if he’s human,” said Will, speaking his thought aloud. “It’s probably all done with wheels.

This series first came to my attention probably over 30 years ago. I bought the beautiful Vintage Paperback editions around 25 years ago when a local book seller was having a sale. And there they sat. Looking very pretty and impressive, giving my library a certain intellectual credibility. The series would tap me on the shoulder every so often, but I never seriously considered starting them until recently. I read a recent review from one of my Goodreads friends https://www.goodreads.com/review/show… and I thought “people are still reading these?” Then I read some more reviews, and then I read a few scholarly type blog posts and essays. I started to get excited, but very very intimidated at the prospect of reading the first one, The Game of Kings. But then I thought, “Becky if you’re going to read these before you lose your faculties, you better get a move on. You can do hard things!” So I did.

And it was daunting. It is a deep dive into 16th century history, arts, culture, warfare, and politics that our formidable author assumes you are already familiar with. She also assumes you are fluent in multiple languages. There are no translations or footnotes-those are in a whole separate 400 page book. And a lot of the actual English isn’t that comprehensible either. Here’s an example:

“Johnnie Bullo! Man, I wish you’d take to wearing clappers on your breeches; you’re desperate sore on the arteries. And that last damned powder you gave me would have done Jimmie of Fynnart a twelve- month and pointed up the whole of Linlithgow if you laid it on with a trowel. Will ye bring to mind it’s my inner workings you’re repairing, not the Toll Brig o’ Dumfries.”

The book is peopled with real historical figures both obscure and famous. And Lymond of Crawford, our main character, mostly talks in poetry, double entendres, quotations from sources no modern reader has any business even hearing of, let alone being passing familiar with.
“ I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk–just once– in prose like other people.”
If Gideon Somerville was not a favorite character before, he certainly was one after that comment to our hero. I almost gave up several times. But I did some more research, trying to take good care to avoid spoilers (though didn’t always succeed), and found out that virtually everyone felt the same way I did at the beginning. But to a man and woman, I was assured that it would get easier and I would be rewarded.
I quote from a blog entry called “The Game of Kings in 15 minutes”. https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/… Highly recommend if you’ve already read the novel

RANDOM SCOTTISH PEOPLE: Lymond is back.
READERS: And we’ll have to wait hundreds of pages to find out why.
LYMOND: *is incomprehensible*
PIG: *is drunk*
READERS WHO ARE NEW TO THE SERIES: wtf?
READERS WHO HAVE READ THE WHOLE SERIES: You’ll learn.

Two things in particular helped me. One, someone wrote that The Game of Kings could be read as a stand alone (I have commitment issues with series books and tv shows) and I discovered a wonderful website improbably named “Now You Have Dunnett” https://nowyouhavedunnett.blogspot.co… for which I am eternally grateful. It took me through each chapter and scene almost paragraph by paragraph, translating the more important foreign language quotes, explaining the context when it was important, giving historical background, and pointing out little things that I might have missed that would become important later on. I would read a chapter, sometimes two and then go back to the website on those chapters to check for understanding. Eventually, I could go for longer and longer periods with confidence before having to check back to make sure I understood what was going on. At about the 25% mark, I not only started to comprehend without help (forgetting the foreign language quotes and esoterica which I just skipped over) but started to see the appeal and actually enjoy what I was reading. I started to get The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Count of Monte Cristo, and unabridged Les Miserables vibes. The first two being youthful favorites re-read many times, and the last reminding me of the feeling of pride and accomplishment as I waded through it without skipping.

So what about the actual book, you may ask? Enough already about your personal relationship with it! Well, as I said, the first sentence of the book is “Lymond is Back”. Back Where? From Where? The setting is Scotland in 1547, a time of war with England and great unrest politically, religiously, and every other way. King Henry the VIII has just died and the English powers that be want his young son Edward, (A.K.A. The Prince of The Prince and The Pauper) to be betrothed to Mary, the 5-year-old Scottish Queen. Loyal Scots do not want that.

We first meet our hero robbing and pillaging a friend of the family’s castle, to insure ultimate chaos, introducing the victim’s pet pig to the joys of adult beverages. Then he moves to his own family’s castle where, drunk, he breaks in with his gang of mercenaries, flirts with his new sister-in-law, robs his mother’s guests, threatens their lives, exchanges barbs with the mother he hasn’t seen for over 5 years, and stabs her best friend. He finishes off his busy day by locking them inside the castle and setting it on fire. Lymond is indeed living down to his reputation as obnoxious, amoral, ruthless, and other synonyms too numerous to list including brilliant and funny. He is a notorious proven traitor to Scotland and an outlaw also wanted for a crime so horrible and shocking that I won’t say what it is. And if possible, the English hate him almost as much as the Scots. But all is not what it seems. No, indeed. Because Lymond is back to *spoiler alert* prove his innocence, restore his reputation as a loyal Scotsman, serve his country, and protect his family. Not an auspicious start, Lymond.

And that is the most detailed I am going to get about the plot. Because if I went on, it would take me a long long time and I wouldn’t know where to stop. There are whole books written about this novel alone, only the first book in the series, as well as on the whole series. But we have many adventures and meet many people both very very good, very very bad, and very in between. Also very clever, wise, and cunning, and very and very obnoxiously thick-headed (I’m looking at you, Richard.) There is espionage, betrayal, revenge, romance, secrets, alchemy, reconciliation, tragedy, comedy, a duel considered one of the best ever written for the page, and a courtroom trial/very welcome info dump to rule them all.

This was Dorothy Dunnett’s first novel. As she says in the forward, she grew in wisdom as she wrote. And I think she meant that she saw the need to make the subsequent books a little more accessible to the other  99% of the population of potential readers. Either that, or a wise editor firmly took her in hand. From all accounts the best are yet to come, so now that I have conquered, that is, managed to survive, this first in the series…Onward

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Same Time, Next Week

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment
The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: sametime.jpg

by Milly Johnson

Timewise, I can never be too far from a Milly Johnson book. I’ve been re-reading them sporadically on Audible while waiting for a new one by her. This time, I ended up reading this new title at the same time as I was listening to an old favorite, The Woman in the Middle. Unfortunately the main heroine of the older book bore a great similarity to one of the main characters in this one in personality as well as her challenges and journey. So every time I returned to this one after listening to the other, I had to get my thoughts together and reset, so to speak. It wasn’t too difficult as “Middle” had only one main story to Same Time, Next Week’s fairly equally distributed stories of five women’s paths to love and inner growth.

Same Time… follows the lives of women who start out at, or soon reach, very low points in their lives. How they find their ways to happiness, success, and their just deserts is the very familiar foundation to any reader of Milly Johnson. It didn’t break too much new ground, that’s for sure. And I am more than fine with that. With Milly, it’s not the plot, but the writing, humor, and the way she makes you care about her characters. And you can’t beat the way she always makes sure the good guys triumph and the bad guys get what they deserve. With Milly, due rewards and punishments are super-sized. And that’s a good thing, because she really puts her characters through the gauntlet at the hands of their tormentors. When the character you grow to care about suffers, you suffer along with them. The fact that you know revenge and justice are coming for all makes it all worth it.

In this one, I would say the two main characters are Amanda and Mel. Amanda is in her 50s and suffering mightily from the symptoms of menopause. Milly gives us a play by play on this stage of life, and it’s not pretty. For those who have yet to go through this, I hope your experience does not mirror Amanda’s. Take hope that her experience is not a universal one. Some sail through with just a few blips. She is faithfully and lovingly taking care of her elderly mother who does not appreciate her and has never really loved her. On the other hand, she worships her worthless and immoral son, Bradley, who only cares about what he can get out of her and is eagerly anticipating his inheritance. The elderly, those that care for them, and their struggles, is an issue that Milly has tackled before. This one is more harrowing and heartbreaking than usual.

Mel has been married, she thinks happily, to Steve for 30 years. He goes to a highschool reunion and starts having an affair with a woman he meets there. My first question was why Mel didn’t go with him, but it is never even mentioned as a consideration. Perhaps school reunions are different in the U.K. It’s not a good idea not to accompany your spouse to a high school reunion, in my view. If Mel had gone with Steve, none of her story would have happened, and that would have been a bad thing. Bad for the reader, and, as it turns out, bad for Mel. Because life without Steve teaches her that she was not so happy in her marriage after all.

Astrid, Sky, and Erin round out the quintet of women who, through the friendship group that Amanda starts, become friends and supporters of each other through their trials and tribulations. The group meets in the newly opened Ray’s Diner, a new business in Spring Hill Square, a little center that has made a number of appearances in previous books. Sky is in her late twenties and haunted by a false accusation that her father was a serial killer. It ruined his life and keeps raising its ugly head. Her sweet and gentle nature is also being taken advantage of by her landlord from hell who moved in on her and is a creepy pervert to boot. This part of the story was very disturbing and I didn’t understand how this could have been allowed to happen. She is in love with her boss who is 20 years older and the ex-husband of…Erin. The two exes were and are great friends but were unhappy in their marriage. Erin is struggling with guilt and the death of the woman she left her ex, Bon, for. Astrid, who is a trans woman, played a prominent role in Afternoon Tea at The Sunflower Cafe and was also in The Mother of all Christmases., and The Queen of Wishful Thinking. She is struggling with the death of her husband and a lack of purpose. Astrid is a great character, a real “cracker,” pun intended. “Cracker” as in the British slang version, I hasten to add.

Once again, Milly expertly weaves a lot of threads together to fashion very entertaining and satisfying journeys of all her protagonists. And of course that includes finding love as well as their paths forward through grief of all sorts to the promise of happiness and fulfillment.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Auntie Mame: An Irreverant Escapade.

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

By Patrick Dennis

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: auntie.jpg

It’s been many many (many) years since I have reread this mid-century classic gem and old favorite of mine. I’ve read a few of Patrick Dennis’s books, many now very hard to find and undeservedly out of print. Two of the three books that are still readily available are (strangely) ones that I haven’t read and have no desire to. I guess that means my taste in novels by Patrick Dennis must be a little off. Around the World with Auntie Mame is still available and is now on my TBRR (To Be Re-Read) list. I’ve also read Guestward Ho, The Loving Couple, and The Joyous Season, which is one of my favorite books of all time, surpassing even this, his most well-known work. The Joyous Season is out of print and rarely mentioned when the subject of Patrick Dennis and his books come up in my poking around the internet. The reason why has always been confounding to me. I absolutely adored the 10-year-old narrator Kerry and his 6-year-old sister Missy whose upper-crust Manhattan parents’ marriage blows up one disastrous and hilarious Christmas Day. Besides the laughs on every page, I loved the romantic comedy aspects to it. I’ll stop there because otherwise this review of Auntie Mame will turn into trying to convince readers to read The Joyous Season instead. (But then read Auntie Mame, because it is a comedy classic and the basis for an award winning Broadway play and Hollywood movie for good reason.)

I listened to this on Audible and the narrator, Christopher Lane, was fine, although I would have wished for a more youthful voice as the book is narrated by Patrick whose adventures with his eccentric Aunt start when he is orphaned in 1929 at 10-years-old and ends around 3 years after his graduation from University. Mame Dennis’s guardianship is abruptly curtailed early on by his conservative trustee when young Patrick is discovered in an avant-garde school where all of the students and two teachers are racing around naked. From then on Mame only gets her “depraved” hands on him Christmases and summers.

I have seen the movie quite a few times and fairly recently. Most of the scenes play out much the same, with the book having the advantage of Patrick’s loving but sometimes acerbic narration and commentary on his and Mame’s life together. And of course the hilarious if sometimes harrowing episodes in their lives are unabridged. The first 3 chapters about Patrick’s and Mame’s first meeting up to when he is shipped off to boarding school for his own protection are pretty much the same. After that we are only favored with Patrick and Mame together only sporadically, while Patrick fills us in on what he knows about her adventures while he is safely at school. With the stock market crash and Auntie Mame “ruined, ruined, ruined!” (not by a long shot), she is forced to keep up with her expenditures by relying on her considerable social contacts for gainful employment. Her adventures on the stage with her great friend, Broadway star Vera Charles, down to her adventures selling roller skates at Macy’s, are almost identical to the movie. It is at Macy’s that she meets the love of her life, the fabulously wealthy Beauregard Pickett Burnside III, one of the “big, genial, easygoing, lovable” southerners. The movie only slightly curtails her clash with the old-time southern culture of Beau’s family and friends in the horsey set revolving around Peckerwood, Beau’s Georgia plantation. However, in the book, (trigger warning) horses die. I had forgotten that. After Beau’s untimely death (kicked in the head by a horse rather than falling off a mountain) Auntie Mame, as his widow, inherits all and is free to indulge her eccentric and lavish lifestyle once again. Upon Patrick’s prep school and then college years things start to diverge from the movie in plot, but not in spirit. The Agnes Gooch affair is much longer and set in Apathy, Massachusetts, home of Patrick’s St. Boniface Academy. Patrick is up to his neck with Agnes while trying to keep her and his aunt isolated from the school authorities to avoid possible expulsion. Agnes’s fate is a much happier one in the book. While in College (Ivy League, of course) we have Patrick entangled with a stripper named Bubbles, and Mame trying to recapture her youth by adopting Patrick’s social set as her own. Patrick’s engagement to the caricature of shallow wealthy WASP-dom, Gloria Upson, and her even more offensive family in the Connecticut suburbs are almost word for word. Except that in the book, they are even more racist, ridiculous, and pompous. Patrick as a young man is not as lovable as Patrick as a child. He takes way too long to rid himself of Bubbles, and to wake up to Gloria and her family. How he ever got engaged to her is a mystery other than she is beautiful and “stacked.” Wouldn’t be the first time, I guess. Moving on to WWII, Auntie Mame takes in some British War Orphans who are nothing more than thugs and reprobates who leave her with a permanent white streak in her hair. This is not in the movie at all, and Patrick’s meeting with his future wife, Pegeen, is completely different. Book Pegeen is a hoot. Patrick was a lucky guy, and sorry to say, given his history with women, I was somewhat amazed he had the good sense to nab her. As in the movie, everything comes full circle with Auntie Mame “kidnapping” their son Mike for an educational summer in India(Ha!).

Mame and Patrick become entwined with any manner of humanity likely to be ensconced in New York or environs from 1929 to 1945. And all are skewered in equal measure be they elite or common, liberal and avant-garde or conservative and stuffy. Some with affection, some not. Only two escape Patrick Dennis cynical wit: Beau, Mame’s late husband, and Pegeen (and maybe her father, Mickey the Mick.)

Despite their devotion to each other, Patrick is under no illusions as to Mame’s foibles and sometimes foolhardy impulses, And this applies to Mame’s insights into Patrick’s youthful follies and sometimes unfortunate tendencies. But the bottom line is that she raised a good man which we know by reading between the lines. Despite his understandable frustrations and complaints, he is always there for his Auntie Mame, and she for him (although as a master manipulator she is too wise to always lay all of her cards on the table.)

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I Hope This Finds You Well

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

by Natalie Sue

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: ihope.jpg

Jolene recalls the time she brought juice and milk instead of coffee and soda to an office potluck and they think it’s funny:

After that, I decided that limiting my interactions was the best way to keep people from hating me. But over time, embarrassment became resentment. I was annoyed that Rhonda had me buy drinks if coffee and the watercooler would’ve done it. That was the first step down a road. The thing about annoyance is that once there’s a spark, you can find more things to stoke it. It grew and amplified between me and them. And eventually the abyss stared back.

This was an entertaining and funny read with serious overtones. The darkness mostly stems from having to do with a heroine who has social anxiety and other damage due to a childhood tragedy that she was wrongly blamed for. She suffers from guilt that her family had to move to another city to escape the gossip and blame. Her mental state is not helped by an overbearing mother whose ill-judged parenting skills create stress and expectations she can not hope to meet. Therefore she lies about her career success and her romantic life, creating more stress. She is a bitter and very unhappy person.

She works in an office and to say that Jolene does not fit in is an understatement. Her office mates try to ignore her weird ways but are also hostile and hateful. They speculate on the chances of her going postal with a deadly weapon at some point, and they are half serious. And I’m not sure that I wouldn’t feel the same way about her (though I hope I wouldn’t be hostile and mean).

Her personal life is not any better. Her apartment is filthy and she is a borderline alcoholic. But since we are privy to her interior life and funnily sarcastic and incisive if black takes on the world and the people around her, I couldn’t help but like her while shaking my head at her self-sabotage. And I knew from the get-go that the book would be about Jolene’s journey out of the depths to happiness and health. So I was willing to put up with quite a bit from her.

The crux of the novel is how Jolene, due to some kind of computer foul up, is suddenly able to secretly read all of the private emails of her work mates and bosses. She finds out that massive layoffs are coming, and she will probably be first on the chopping block due to her, well, everything about her. She starts to play the social and political game to save her job. In the process, she finally gets to know the people she works with and everything that is going on beneath the surface. Needless to say, some people confirm her low opinion of them, and some do not. She gets to know Cliff, the new HR guy with whom she has to meet regularly for Sensitivity Training. He is a wonderful guy, and she starts to fall for him, and for some reason, he for her. With him, she is quick witted, funny, and nice with a refreshingly rebellious yet well-founded cynicism that he relates to.

There are many aspects of this book that are 5 star worthy. By itself, the premise of Jolene’s access to the secret thoughts and professional and personal lives of everyone in her office was a rich trove of humor and horror. There are revelations galore which made for quite the page turner. Eventually we know there will be hell to pay on many fronts when the truth comes out. We fear for Jolene while recognizing that justice is not on her side. But to me, Jolene’s growth came too late and then, too quickly in the book. I didn’t feel her journey was well managed. I was impatient with her constant negative attitude towards the good people in her life, especially Cliff. She always assumes the worst. I hoped that her relationship with Miley, a neglected little girl who lives in her apartment building would be the making of both her and Miley but the connection never really delivers on its promise.

The ending was satisfying and happy, just the way I like it. But I can’t give it 5 stars. Jolene disappointed me too often, until she didn’t.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Bullet That Missed

/ Rebekahrox / 4 Comments

by Richard Osman

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: thebullet.jpg

“The pool would still be here in the summer.” “Ah, but we may not be,” Joyce had replied, and she was right. It was best to grab everything while you could. Who knows when your final swim might come, your final walk, your final kiss?”

The Bullet That Missed was another great one, the third, in The Thursday Murder Club series. It picks up immediately after the second one leaves off. I found it better than the first but not quite as good as the second. It’s a close call though. I may have liked the second one better because I had forgotten how gently funny and/or wise some passages were and how endearing and well crafted were the characters, even the bad guys (well-crafted not endearing). So it was a lovely and a bit of an exciting surprise. Also, as good as Fiona Shaw was narrating this one, Leslie Manville was brilliant in the second one. In The Man who Died Twice, I was so pleased that DCI Chris Hudson had gotten himself together health and looks-wise, thanks to his new relationship with Patrice, Donna’s mother. And that a spark developed between Constable Donna and Bogdan, a character who was only supposed to be in one scene in the first book, but who was just too interesting to go quietly. In “Bullet”, the relationships are progressing happily, the latter two agreeing that they are “boyfriend and girlfriend” now. And that makes me happy.

Early in this one, Elizabeth and Stephen, her dementia-plagued husband, are kidnapped by an international money launderer, known as “The Viking”. He threatens to kill Joyce if Elizabeth does not kill a rival money launderer, who happens to be an old KGB leader and former lover of hers, Viktor Illyich. Meanwhile, A famous TV journalist asks The Thursday Murder Club to investigate the 10-year-old disappearance and murder of a young journalist who was as close as a daughter to him. Their investigation leads them to the prison where the prime suspect is imprisoned on other charges and which is also home to “Died Twice” ‘s inimitable and ruthless con-woman, Connie Johnson. As she is there courtesy of our gang, she is out for revenge. As always, murder and mayhem follow our intrepid and canny investigators, and as in the preceding book, the two plots eventually merge themselves into a highly entertaining and unlooked-for conclusion.

The twists that crop up throughout the novel, not even including the solution to the murder(s), were delicious. I don’t like using that word but it’s the perfect one. It’s hard to pick a favorite scene, but what occurs when The Viking comes for Joyce is hilarious. I love Joyce. The poignancy of Elizabeth’s beloved Stephen’s mental decline is tempered by flashes of his brilliance of old. It is he who unravels the mystery of the Viking’s identity, which eventually leads to another (delicious) twist.

Everything culminates in an exciting conclusion with answers and solutions aplenty. In both books, the titles have more than one meaning, and are more significant than you might think. Yet we are left with a few loose ends and unrevealed secrets which I sure hope will be picked up in the 4th book in the series. They better be. And that goes for the new characters we get to know. Sure wouldn’t mind even seeing Connie Johnson making a re-appearance. I have a feeling about her.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Ain’t She Sweet?

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: aint.jpg

“Hold it right there. The only agreement we ever had was that you intended to make me as miserable as possible, and I intended to courageously make the best of an intolerable situation like valiant Southern women have always done.”-Sugar Beth Carey

“They’re all mad, everyone of ’em” Said Rupert with conviction.
Georgette Heyer-The Devil’s Cub.

I have read this 2004 book by the great Susan Elizabeth Phillips a few times, and listened to it once before. The book is great. One of her best. It’s a stand alone, but mention of the Daphne the Bunny books from her Chicago Stars series tie it to that universe. Ultimate Chick Lit, it has all the ingredients I look for in that lightly regarded genre and with a delicious southern twang: Funny dialog, plenty of drama, suspense and anticipation, quintessential enemies to lovers, slow burn, true love, redemption, and justice for all. You name it. In Sugar Beth Carey, SEP has created one of her strongest and funniest heroines. And Colin Byrne, apparently inspired by Georgette Heyer’s The Duke of Avon is more than a match for her. But Sugar Beth is no worshipful Leonie sitting at the feet of Heyer’s Justin Alistair.

Sugar Beth is a one of a kind heroine who was truly a pampered mean girl and bully in her youth. In truth, she deserved every bad thing that came (and will come) to her in this book, and she knows it. The reader, however, soon learns she has reaped the consequences of her past foolish and bad acts and come through the flames a changed and better person. But her former friends and the townspeople, when she returns to her small home town of Parrish Mississippi, only know her as the spoiled rich girl who cruelly bullied and humiliated her shy illegitimate step sister. She’s the girl who dumped the popular hometown high school hero for a big time college athlete and left her provincial small town in the dust. She is still the beautiful and flirtatious teen who falsely accused a young teacher of sexual harassment and got him fired and sent home in disgrace. And who didn’t even have the decency to come back for her father’s funeral. I told you she was bad. But while life has not been kind to Sugar Beth, the nerdy step-sister from the wrong side of the tracks is now the heir of all their late father’s wealth and married to Sugar Beth’s former boyfriend. They are the power-couple of the small town and its social leaders. And the young teacher Sugar Beth ruined? He is now a wealthy and famous author who has returned from England to live in Parrish and who has brought it a certain fame and prosperity. And now Sugar Beth is back in town to find a valuable legacy that will hopefully turn her life around and save the future of a vulnerable dependant. And then get back out of the town which holds so many painful memories as soon as possible. Not gonna happen. Let the games begin.

As backstories unfold, and and secrets are revealed, we love and cheer for the very entertaining Sugar Beth while cringing at the person she used to be. But we also sympathize with and admire her sister and nemesis, Winnie Davis. This is a book with no “bad guys.” A really good romance has great side characters and every character in this one is a finely honed gem, and it is funny as heck.

With this listen on Audible, however, I regret to say that the narration by Kate Fleming got on my last nerve. It tainted large chunks of the book for me, including, unforgivably, the romance part. On paper, Colin Byrne is eccentric and affected but ultimately romantic and intriguing. An original in the 21st century, he is apparently based on an archetypal Regency or Georgian aristocratic romantic hero. In the hands of Ms. Fleming, he becomes a pompous and ridiculous ass. She does OK with Sugar Beth and the rest of characters most of the time, but she rarely lets up on the acid sardonic tone, even when it is not called for by the words or the story. Her southern accent is way over the top. I’m a southerner and when a southerner hears a southern accent that is way too southern, it is. Susan Elizabeth Phillips had the good taste and discernment to preface each of her chapters with an appropriate quote from a Georgette Heyer novel. What Kate Fleming did to those quotes was a train wreck of clown cars. She obviously has no knowledge of the characters that spoke the words of the iconic Georgette. Her reading added insult to the injury she inflicted to one of SEP’s best books. I have listened to other books by this author narrated by Kate Fleming aka Anna Fields and her interpretations have been spot on and wonderful. What the Heck happened, and why did no one stop her? The Book is 5 stars. The narration is unforgivable. But I’m not going to punish the book for that.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Man Who Died Twice

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

by Richard Osman

The current image has no alternative text. The file name is: theman.jpg

“More women are murdering people these days,” says Joyce. “If you ignore the context, it is a real sign of progress.”

“I’m involved about as much as I want to be with the Thursday Murder Club. If they can plant cocaine in someone’s cistern, I don’t want to think about what they’d do with my love life.”


The Thursday Murder Club, the initial book in this series is about what happens when a group of murder mystery-loving retirees are confronted with a real life murder in their own retirement community. I liked it quite well. I do not remember too much about the actual mystery, except that I have the vague feeling I was a little disappointed in that part. What I liked was the writing, the humor and the characters. However, books two, three, and four came out in the series and I let them go by with only just a little regret. But with all the publicity about the upcoming Netflix movie they came back to my attention and I decided to listen to the second one on Audible. With The Man Who Died Twice, I got the whole package. The mystery and the other goings on interested me much more than the first one, and the humor and characters were even better. I really grew attached to all in the club and their allies and the bad guys were equally entertaining. The conclusion was touching and satisfying. Justice was done, and extraordinarily so. I also want to add that the narration by the great actress Lesley Manville was brilliant.

Elizabeth, the formidable and fascinating ring leader of the Thursday Murder Club, is contacted by her ex-husband, Douglas, who wants to engage her and her friends to protect him from several organizations or personages that are looking to get back 20 million pounds worth of diamonds that they think he stole. (That pounds as in monetary unit, not weight-Ha Ha.) He believes his life is in danger and he would be right. Meanwhile, Murder Club mainstay Ibrahim, beloved by all, is attacked and beaten by a teenage thug and it is heartbreaking. Murder, Mayhem, Skullduggery, and Retribution ensue. In undertaking their changing goals as far as the Douglas assignment and their relentless pursuit of justice for Ibrahim, much is revealed about our crew. And of course our crew includes Chris, the local DCI and his partner Donna, a police constable. They are trying to put away Connie Johnson, a menace of a drug dealer and all around baddy, who has been a thorn in their side for ages.

Bogdan, a character whom I don’t even remember in the first one, was one of my favorites in this one. He is vital to the success of the Club’s missions, and and there are some personal developments regarding him, as well as Chris and Donna, that make me eager to read the third in the series to see where it all goes. The often underestimated Joyce’s emotional intelligence and Elizabeth’s experience and savvy continue to delight and amaze. We learn a lot more about Elizabeth’s background and adventures as a MI5 agent. Although it is tinged with sadness, her loving relationship with her Dementia-stricken husband Steven, was one of my favorite aspects of the book. I fully expect Ibrahim’s physical and mental recovery to be all but settled in the next entry.

I enjoy being surprised and confounded when reading a mystery as well as seeing through some red herrings and predicting some twists. This one delivered with both. I fear I may have gotten into spoiler territory in a couple of places which is not good territory to be in when reviewing a mystery. If, like me, you had some reservations over Richard Osman’s first book even if you enjoyed it on the whole, please give this one a go.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Happiest Ever After

/ Rebekahrox / Leave a comment

by Milly Johnson

This was a typical Milly Johnson and that’s more than OK with me. By typical I mean a nice woman or three who are not appreciated and put upon by their partner, their family, or their employer. Sometimes all three. Often they are even emotionally abused by a narcissist and they are totally under their thumb through most of the book. As the story proceeds they gradually see the light and the true character of the man they once loved. But often, and frustratingly, no action is taken until it’s last straw time. In the course of the book, she will find a good kind man who is truly worthy of their love. But the point is, we look forward to the heroine’s triumph and takedown of the abuser and it is usually massive and exceedingly satisfying. Much of this is true of the story of Polly Potter.

However, in this one, I was happy that Polly had her long-term boyfriend’s number from the beginning of the book. She had been too nice and too tolerant for too long, but she was done. She has been planning on leaving Chris but her plans have been delayed by her role in his sister’s renewal of her wedding vows. Meanwhile, Polly is also unhappy with her employer. She has been taken advantage of and discriminated against ever since the business solutions company she works for as a highly successful and talented consultant was sold. On the day before she plans to leave her boyfriend, she reaches the end of her rope with her boss and walks out. The next day, she follows through with her plan to leave Chris, but on her way to the seaside town she has run to she is mugged, hits her head, and loses her memory and her purse with all of her identification. I won’t mention all of the drama she has to go through on the “wedding” day but wow. I didn’t see that coming.

Anyway, she is taken in by Marielle, a kind and generous retired nurse and finds love with her son, a restaurant owner who is being sabotaged by a large chain restaurant that is moving into the neighborhood. As with all Milly Johnson books, there are plenty of side stories going on alongside our main character’s and as always, they doubled my pleasure in this book.
Even though this has suspense and tension as well as cheers and triumph, it didn’t reach quite the highs of some of her former books. After Polly puts her foot down at home and work, she leaves all that pain behind, and although she loses her memory everything is pretty much smooth sailing for her from there. And I was very happy that she did put her foot down. Sometimes Milly has gone a little too far in putting her long-suffering characters through the ringer. Of course, the upside of all that tension and frustration is the power of the catharsis when it comes. Although it was nice, I also was not as invested in the romance. Teddy was not as interesting as most of her heroes have been.

Milly excels in her characterizations. In this book she shows Polly/Sabrina’s goodness while still making her inner voice funny and likable. Her baddies are sometimes over the top, but I sure get a lot of pleasure in hating their guts. Polly’s boyfriend Chris was just a worm, but hoo-boy his sister Camay (!) was something else. Chris’s son Will was a love and definitely not a chip off the old block. Chris’s daughter Shauna was a teenage menace who did her best to undermine Polly at every turn. Her boss was a typical pig (“Polly put the kettle on”) but her pregnant officemate, Sheridan, was a welcome support and ally. And at the end, Marjorie, the scheming female head of HR was a force to be reckoned with. Luckily she’s a good guy. At her seaside haven, Polly meets the funny and quirky Flick, who is as smart as a whip, and one of the restaurant staff she works with as a temporary employee. Each of them is deftly drawn too. The baddie in this setting is the foolish and avaricious Cilla, Flick’s mother, and her kind protector, Marielle’s, cousin. Milly is pleased to offer some hope and redemption for her at the end thanks to Polly’s very much unsolicited words of wisdom.

No one does Karma like Milly Johnson. As always with Milly’s novels, the good are rewarded and the bad are punished, and in spectacular fashion. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, in my book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

My Favorite Mistake

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments

By Marian Keyes

I had lived countless lives. I had survived more loss and gain than their foolish young heads could ever imagine. I had loved and been loved; I’d been courageous and tough, tender and resourceful. I no longer had the bouncy skin they were accustomed to in their women but I aspired to be kind. I was wise and immensely capable, skilled at listening to boring stories about people’s drives to funerals and angry when I needed to be. Which was now…..

As soon as was mannerly, each person ran away from me to the nearest source of limitless alcohol, where they drank with dark desperation.

**Spoilers for Anybody Out There** I recommend that book is read before this one.

Yes, it went on a little too long and got a little repetitive, but Marian Keyes is such a good writer that I enjoyed every word. For me it’s the type of book that when Anna confides that the Michael Buble version of the song “Feeling Good” is the one she loves even though “Frank Sinatra’s dog did a better one”, I had to stop and listen to it. Buble’s, not the Dog’s.
This is a continuation of Anna’s story begun with Anybody Out there? Of course, Anna takes part in some way in all of Keyes’ Walsh family novels. Although in her own book she has a highly successful career in PR for a beauty company in New York, in the books prior to that she is portrayed as an unemployable eccentric hippie-type and a reliable source for drugs. In her first book, when her husband Aiden is killed in a car accident, she does not believe he is really dead, and tries every method she can think of to communicate with him. I really do not remember too much about it but it was very sad and traumatic, and I haven’t cared to go through all the pain with Anna by re-reading it. Maybe someday.

In this one, I loved that along with where Anna is now (48 and going through perimenopause), a lot of time is devoted to catching the reader up on Anna’s journey in the 15 or so years since Anybody Out There? ended with hope and healing. As this story begins, she has resigned from her PR job at the beauty company, and her happy 10 year relationship with Angelo has come to a friendly close. Missing her family and tired of New York, she moves back to Ireland. Shockingly, we also learn that she has had a falling out with her “ride or die” best friend, Jacqui, who was such a loyal help and support to her in her previous book.

Anna has not been able to find a suitable job in Ireland, so when Rachel’s friend Brigit needs her PR skills to save her family’s resort venture, she is glad to accept. Someone, or a group of someones from the locality are working to keep Brigit and her husband Colm’s upscale retreat from coming to fruition. They are spreading false rumors and sabotaging the ongoing construction. But when Anna arrives at their small village of Maumtully, everything goes surprisingly well. Being Anna, she makes friends with almost everyone. Plus, she is very good at her job, and soon puts the town’s skeptics’ fears at rest and smooths ruffled feathers.

Being nice is my literal job. The only reason I was hired.” “And you’re brilliant at it. Those poor men. They fell right into your trap and they still think you’re lovely.” “Yeah. Resting Eejit Face strikes again. Helen says that’s my default expression.”

Although there are still problems, a mystery, and some baddies still looming in the background, I’m glad that the danger of Brigit and Colm’s plans going bust did not take front and center. It would have been too much of a dark specter.

We get to know many of the entertaining and (mostly) likeable villagers. And it wouldn’t be a Walsh Family novel if at at some point the entire Walsh family didn’t descend upon Maumtully to support (and take advantage of) Anna. Her only problem is working with her old frenemy “Narky Joey,” with whom she has some mysterious “history.” Joey, now a successful financial broker is the liaison between Bridget and Colm’s resort and its investors, who were in danger of pulling out when the dirty tricks started. Joey has been a satellite character in at least 3 previous Walsh novels. We meet him in Rachel’s Holiday, one of the “Real Men” and Luke’s best friend. He also makes an appearance in the sequel, Again, Rachel and, of course, Anna’s first story. To say Joey has turned over a new leaf in the intervening years is putting it mildly. We know that he had a child with Anna’s best friend Jacqui. They eventually broke up and he married again to an upstanding citizen, had 3 more children with her, and divorced. He is a wonderful and loving father to all 4 of his kids. As Anna learns, he has truly become a sterling character and that old spark is turning into a new flame. But Anna is very hesitant given what her past experience with him has been.

Joey had known me during several incarnations. I was privy to information about him that almost no other person was. But our unique connection was bound up in pain. Better to park it in the past where it couldn’t hurt us....

Despite my fuzzy, and sometimes totally absent, memory, one part of Anybody Out There? has always stuck with me. In the last few pages when Aiden comes to Anna in a dream one last time, he tells her to “look for the signs” that he is watching over her. Years later, Anna still sees his signs in her hours of need. In the dream he told her that she will have a great love with a man once again. Anna asks him if he knows who, and the only thing he will tell her is that “she already knows him.” I had no idea.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Love of My Afterlife

/ Rebekahrox / 1 Comment

By Kirsty Greenwood

Oh god. I think…I think this is actually it? My grand finale. My expiration date. The End. Here lies Delphie Denise Bookham. She died just as she lived: alone, perplexed, wearing something a bit shit.

I really really liked this one. It was charming and very light, with an intriguing premise. And really funny. There were no flies in the ointment to detract from my enjoyment except that the heroine started out unlikable and flawed. She dislikes being around other people and is prickly, passive, and rude. She has chosen to isolate herself from the world as a response to a lot of childhood trauma, and her mother’s continuing neglect and disinterest in her. Once a talented artist, her art supplies are covered in dust. But since the overriding theme of this book is how and why Delphie learns and grows into a better, happier person, and starts connecting to other people, how can I complain? That wouldn’t be fair. And we know she is a good person at heart because of her only human contact (I hesitate to call him a friend), Mr. Yoon, her downstairs neighbor. He is an elderly mute Asian man, whom Delphie has taken upon herself to look after and keep safe.

At the beginning of the book, Delphie chokes on a hamburger and dies. She ends up in the “Evermore” waiting room with her afterlife counselor named Merritt. She is just getting acclimated to the situation when another recently dead man shows up. His name is Jonah and they have an instant connection. In fact, he is one of her 5 earthly soulmates. Delphie is thinking being dead might not be so bad after all when, Oopsie!, he is sent back to Earth. A mistake has been made. But Merritt, a lover and expert in romantic comedies has a deal for Delphie. She will bend the rules and let Delphie return to Earth for 10 days. If she can get Jonah to kiss her within that time, she can stay alive and kicking. Of course, it is easier said than done. Jonah will have no memory of Delphie and she does not even know his last name, only that he lives in London.

To her disgust, Delphie quickly finds out that she can not do this on her own. She needs the help of her workmates and neighbors whom she has been successfully and unapologetically alienating for years. Number one on the list is her downstairs nemesis, the attractive but surly Cooper, who has the necessary computer skills to track down Jonah. Readers familiar with romantic comedy know right away that it is Cooper who is “the one” for Delphie, not Jonah. Confident ladies man Cooper, it turns out, is as ornery and unhappy as Delphie. He’s not enthusiastic about helping her, but he needs a favor. As they search London for Jonah, Delphie slowly sheds her antisocial ways and finds friends. Cooper and Delphie fall in love.

Just yesterday my life involved interacting with as few people as I could get away with….How am I supposed to leave this? This…life. Because what I was living ten days ago wasn’t a life at all. But this? This noise and laughter and mess and fear and…people. Friends. Possible love. I can’t lose this. There are people in this room who wouldn’t want to lose me either. I make a difference to them. I can’t leave. Evermore is too far away. I don’t want to die. Fuck. I want to live.

But to live, she must still get Jonah to kiss her. And that blasted Merritt sometimes seems to be working against her. She must also ensure that Mr. Yoon is not left on his own in case her quest ends in failure. Cooper and Delphie’s journey to their happy ending is both hilarious and touching. As the already quick pace of the book picks up as Delphie’s 10 days comes to an end, it really kept me guessing. And then there is a surprise development that throws a whole new light on many things.

I’ve had another of Kirsty Greenwood’s novels on my TBR list for years. Now that I’ve read this one, I finally have a new author to be excited about. It’s a great feeling.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.