Lovable Dog

Once in a Blue Moon

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By Kristan Higgins

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This was just terrific. So often when an author continues the stories of quirky or unconventional characters, they undergo a transformation in the second book. I guess to make them easier to write about or more fit the mold of a romantic hero or heroine. Not so in this one. Dr. Satan is just as arrogant and obnoxious as ever, and I was turning pages to see if Kristan could manage to make him fall in love and be lovable without compromising the integrity of his personality. She succeeds brilliantly.

After reading Look on the Bright side, I had no real desire to read a book about Dr. Satan aka Dr. Lorenzo Santini. Apparently I was in the vast minority. I was, however, very amenable to revisiting the Smith family and having the boring sensible sister as the heroine. Pairing the two together was perfect. In a family of 3 beautiful and accomplished sisters and a charming handsome brother, Winnie (Windsor) was ‘the other one”: Not beautiful and not brilliant. No one can even remember her name. In a typical KH running joke, Her brother teases her about this affectionately: “Winnebago,” “Winona” “Winster-the-Spinster” “Winipedia,” “Window”, “Winfrey,” “Windmill” “Winnipeg”. … yes, I think that’s all of them. But everyone loves her and depends on her, because she is the most competent person in Christendom. She has made being a “behind the scenes” person work for her.

When her party planning business collapses through no fault of her own, Winnie is hired as the personal assistant of the world renowned surgeon and former fake fiancé of her older sister Lark. He needs someone who can keep his life in order so he can focus on being brilliant. He is intimidating, demanding, cold and is the definition of “arrogant.”

Was he really supposed to go to Whole Foods to buy kale when he could be, oh, saving a life? Teaching future doctors? Writing a paper that would change the way a procedure would be done, therefore raising patient survival rates?… He…didn’t want to have to call the florist himself to order flowers for his mother’s birthday. It was enough that he even remembered his mother’s birthday. Most years, he even called.

Winnie is not intimidated. She knows her worth, and it is not long before Dr. Satan does too. She becomes his right arm and virtually indispensable. She is so good at her job, that Lorenzo realizes that eventually she will organize herself out of his life, no longer having to constantly be at his side to keep his life on an even keel. And that bothers him. He doesn’t know why it bothers him, but it does.

It is a very slow burn romance, and perfectly paced. Dr. Satan (“I’ve been working for you for a month now, can I just call you Satan?”) may start to show some vulnerabilities, sensitivity, and a sense of humor, but then he will do or say something to prove once again he will never quite get off “the spectrum” completely. Things do blow up a few times, (how could they not?) but Kristan never does the predictable thing, to my great relief. Winnie always saves the day with her aversion to drama and unshakeable good sense. I loved her, never more so when she forgets she is the steady predictable one. And yes, she does do that, but only on occasion, and usually under the influence of alcohol.

As always, Kristan’s ability to make you laugh, then touch your heart, make her one of my top 5 favorite authors. One of the few who has never disappointed me the least little bit. This book is described as a novella, but it doesn’t read like one. Her later books are more “women’s fiction” than romance and are great. But this one is unabashedly a romance. And one of her most romantic ones. It is a little shorter because she took a metaphorical red pencil to most of the “women’s fiction” stuff, but somehow left a lot of depth on the page.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

And the Crowd Went Wild

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by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

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I was afraid that Susan Elizabeth Phillips, although all her books except the last one were very entertaining, had kind of lost her mojo. I had given several of her books 4 stars in recent years, but she is an author that had been consistently 5 stars for me back in the day. And in looking back I think some of those 4 star reads had an element of “benefit of the doubt.” My least favorite of all of her books was the last one, Simply the Best, which it certainly was not. It had some good parts, but overall, it just was not up to snuff. There were problems, and I really really did not get on with the heroine’s brother Clint. When I saw that this one was Clint’s story, for the first time in decades, I did not buy her new book, but got it from the library. Mea Culpa. This one was her best book in 15 years. I am so grateful to be wrong. What a comeback!

The heroine is one of SEP’s “bad girls”, Or I should have said, not bad “just drawn that way”? Some of her heroines are likable and relatable from the get go, like Lady Emma or “Neely” Litchfield Case. But every so often she will throw in a gorgeous but very flawed and at first unsympathetic heroine. They might have done lamentable things in the past but have paid the price and when we meet them they are desperate. Add Dancy Flynn to the Sugar Beth Careys and Francesca Days of SEP-land.

Dancy is a washed up former Bond Girl who was married to a Tom Cruise level action hero until he traded her in for a younger model. When we meet her she is a border-line alcoholic whose plan for jumpstarting her career is about to cover her in such shame and humiliation that it is hard to imagine she could ever recover from it. To get out of the public eye, she flees to the only person in her past life that might provide a port in the storm: Her high school boyfriend, Clint Garrett, who is now the star quarterback for the Chicago Stars. So what if she hasn’t seen him since she broke his heart with her bad behavior 20 years ago? She is all alone in the world and he is “Saint Clint of the Gridiron,” a squeaky clean all around Mr. Nice Guy. Although Dancy is new to us, Clint was introduced in SEP’s previous book, and as I said, I was not impressed. But it has been 5 years since the events in that book, and Clint is no longer the whiny immature victim that I found him to be in Simply the Best. I really liked him. He has retreated to his vacation home on Lake Michigan to refocus and prepare himself for the upcoming football season after the last couple weren’t up to his usual standards. The last thing he needs is a troublesome Dancy distracting him from his work. But being the good guy he is, he can’t completely turn his back on the pitiful (but snarky!) mess that she is, so he allows her to stay on his property in an old semi-converted train caboose until she can make other plans. Overnight only. Yeah right.

I really liked both Dancy and Clint. And that’s half the battle to really loving the book. The more I learned about her history and saw how she reacted to things that she was confronted with I liked her more and more. Clint’s admirable character is established from the beginning although he has some lessons to learn as well. They each have each other’s number and give as good as they get as the relationship develops into friendship then love. The back and forth between them was funny and engaging. Dancy forms a friendship with another woman in the community and rescues a pitiful dog. Not one, but two bad villains emerge. Dancy has a bad set back which was so predictable, but she is never a victim.

She stumbled to her bedroom, tugged at her clothes, and got into bed only to stare at the ceiling. Minutes ticked by. She shifted her weight and pulled the covers up only to shove them back down. She didn’t want oblivion. She wanted revenge.

Every time I was going to put the book down there was a twist or a turn or a new character that kept me reading. Of course we also have some more than welcome appearances by characters in Simply the Best.

In the first pages when we learn that Dancy is a washed up mostly B movie actress, I was 89% sure she was going to end up getting an Academy Award by the end. I won’t say if she does or not, but rest assured, her triumph is complete and satisfying. It was a solid 4 ½ star book until the epilogue. I loved it. It wasn’t original: Emily Henry did the same thing to great success in one of her books. This was done just as well and was as cute as could be. 5 stars.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Catch of the Day

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by Kristan Higgins

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I enjoyed re-listening to The Perfect Match so much that I looked for another KH novel I hadn’t read or listened to in a while. This is one of her first books, and one of the first by the author I read. I was surprised to see that I hadn’t already done a review of it. Or maybe Goodreads swallowed it before I could get it on my blog. Although our heroine Maggie is straight out of the Kristan playbook, her hero is one of a kind. Many of her readers would say, “ Thank Goodness!” But I liked him when I wasn’t periodically shaking my head at the same things that drove Maggie up the wall. The two were complete opposites and in some ways served as antidotes to each other. When Maggie got too puppydogish for me, Malone was there to provide balance, and vice versa

Maggie, as many of her heroines are, is a warm and generous “giver.” She cuts her elderly tenants toe nails, she employs a developmentally disabled teen to help in her diner, babysits her niece at the drop of a hat. She pays her head cook more than she, as the owner of a diner, makes herself. She is a good deed doer and she is devoted to her dog. Kristan Higgins never describes her characters’ personalities but shows us what they are about by their words and actions. And almost all of the characters are layered with good and bad qualities like real people. One example is Maggie’s difficult mother. She is very unlikable and insensitive. Yet, she has a kind of endearing malapropism quirk. She’s always full of advice and helpful platitudes: “When the Lord closes a door, a window breaks,” and “A rolling stone gathers no dirt” come to mind. Later we find out there is more to her than meets the eye, although she will always be more Mommie Dearest than Marmee. You can’t hate a person too much who also makes you laugh. And their relationship at the end is in a good place. But I digress.

Maggie is a single 33 year old who longs for a husband and family of her own like her twin sister Christy. Three things have gotten in the way of this. She was rudely and publicly dumped in front of her whole town by her longtime boyfriend after they graduated from college. (Yet Skip and his sweet wife are a happy family with three daughters-so as always, KH doesn’t take the obvious path). The pickings of good eligible men in her home town of Gideon’s Cove are pretty slim. And she is in love with the local parish priest. And unfortunately he is Roman Catholic, not Episcopalian. After a series of disastrous and funny blind dates (which were to become a KH mainstay in her future books), she finally meets her destiny in Malone, “Maloner the Loner”, a local lobster man. This happens not until almost a third of the way into the book. Maggie has lots of other things to talk about to the reader. That’s another of her character traits. She is a blabbermouth. Not a gossip, but an over-sharer who starts to babble when she feels uncomfortable, which is rather a lot of the time. Malone is completely opposite to Maggie: very unsociable, brooding, and mysterious. He gives new meaning to “the strong silent type” hero. Neither Maggie nor the reader even know his first name till the very end of the book. Yet he is a very hard worker, is genuinely respected, even liked by the community, and has a daughter he loves and is seen to unbend with when she visits. Every so often Maggie thinks she detects a quirk in his lips that might be a smile and that he just might have a sense of humor behind his dour exterior. Also Maggie’s dog likes him, and he has come to Maggie’s rescue twice: Once on an 10 mile walk home after a bike crash, and once from social humiliation when she is stood up by one of her blind dates. After that incident, Maggie and Malone finally start seeing each other.

Most of the rest of their relationship consists of Maggie trying to get two words in a row out of Malone. He is very uncommunicative and Maggie has no idea what their relationship really is. The reader is similarly in the dark about what is going on in his head. Meanwhile Maggie is the opposite of that. For the most part, I loved this tension of their completely opposite personalities. Something had to give. Malone was very much an enigma and this fostered a lot of anticipation of what was going on. We know him and his feelings by his actions not his words. At one point, Maggie dresses up as her twin to confront Father Tim about something and no one sees through her disguise except Malone. From across the street.

On this re-read, there were some things that bothered me more than before. I don’t really have a major problem with Embarrassment Humor as such, as long as it’s funny. But there was an incident with Maggie getting drunk and hurtling towards public doom that was really yikes. I didn’t like it when she hears part of a conversation (while sneaking around and eavesdropping no less) and jumps to an insulting conclusion about Malone. She does not handle it well. I really did not like her for this part of the book. But Malone’s reaction when she finally comes to her senses was just as frustrating. I didn’t know which one to be more disgusted with or side with. Another character that bothered me this time was Father Tim. He was described as such a good, kind, and compassionate man and the perfect priest. But he takes advantage of Maggie’s generosity and willingness to volunteer her services to the church in the name of friendship. She wasn’t even an active member. He should have been doing his best to keep his distance, but he did just the opposite. It kind of gave me the creeps at times, although no lines were crossed. In the end, we see his loneliness and it’s a bit sad. Thankfully, although she still had a soft spot for him, her crush on Father Tim was pretty much at an end as soon as she gets together with Malone.

Maggie has a more clear-eyed view of herself and Father Tim by the end of the book. As lovable as she is, Maggie had some work to do on herself as well. As does Malone who has also learnt some things and changed for the better. I thought it was a nice touch that though she is far from religious, she realizes that church may have something to offer her besides a handsome priest. We get a peek at Gideon’s Cove and Joe’s Diner in a subsequent book and all is well with Maggie and Malone.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle

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By Georgette Heyer

“Do you mean that I am redoubtable? Oh, you are quite mistaken!” “Am I? Then let us say intrepid!” She sighed. “I wish I were! The case is that I am a wretched coward.” “Your father gives you quite another character.” “I don’t fear fences.” “What, then?” “People – some people! To – to be slain by unkindness.” He looked at her with a slight frown…

Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle has always been right on up there with my favorite Heyers. I think it’s because of the unusual heroine and the complex hero. Most of her heroines have charm to spare and are, if not extremely beautiful, at least attractive with some outstanding feature or another. Phoebe is a drab little “sparrow” who is only at home and comfortable in a stable. She has been bullied and dominated her whole life by a rigid and cold stepmother whose mission in life seems to be to beat every spark of Phoebe’s own unconventional personality out of her and into a model of perfect but insipid behavior. As for our hero, although a large percentage of Heyer heroes are formidable and proud, very few, like Sylvester, have to undergo growth and change in order to find their happy endings. Of course as in all romances, Heyer included, one or both individuals must change towards each other, but not their actual mentalities. In this novel, although Phoebe comes into her own to a certain extent, It is Sylvester’s journey to self awareness that is the significant one.

The Duke of Salford has decided it is time for him to do his duty, get married, and perpetuate the House of Rayne. He has prepared a list of five candidates for the honor of his hand each more well born, well behaved, charming, and beautiful than the next. It makes no difference to him, so he takes his list to his beloved mother to see if she has any input as to which of the fortunate ladies to favor with a proposal of marriage. His wise and gentle mother’s suspicions are confirmed: Although always open, loving, and warm with her, (and his 6 year old nephew and current heir, Edmund) to all others he has closed himself off from any emotional attachment. He is considerate and well-mannered to his servants and his peers and is popular with all. But his exemplary behavior to others is not out of any empathy or warm feeling but because it is what is due to his proud family name and station. He says and does the right things always, but beneath this surface he is cold and aloof. Encouraged by his mother and godmother, on a whim he decides to meet one other candidate for the position of the Duchess of Rayne: Phoebe, the daughter of his mother’s long-deceased best friend and his godmother’s granddaughter. He is not impressed. And neither is Phoebe. To add to her discomfort, she has secretly written a novel which is about to be published and she has based the villain of the bloodthirsty gothic tale on Sylvester. She had met him at a ball once and she noticed his distinctive satanic-looking eyebrows and was hurt by his haughtiness and boredom with her. Of course Sylvester doesn’t remember her at all. Due to a misunderstanding, she has been told that he has travelled to her family’s country home with the intent of actually proposing marriage to her and she better accept him, or else. Horrified and panic-stricken by the prospect, she decides to run away to her grandmother in London (yes, that same one) escorted by her loyal friend Tom. Sylvester is considerably peeved, as well as incredulous, that such a plain and vapid chit of a girl would hold the idea of a proposal of marriage from him in such abhorrence that she would flee from home in a snowstorm. He leaves as well, and inevitably the 3 fugitives meet in a small inn and are marooned together for several days. As they get to know each other, Phoebe learns that Sylvester is actually a pretty good guy beneath the arrogant facade, and Sylvester learns that out from under her stepmother’s thumb, Phoebe is a clever, funny, and forthright original. She is mortified and guilt- stricken that she has made Sylvester her villain in a novel that will potentially hold him up to ridicule and suspicion. And Sylvester is embarrassed to realize that Phoebe’s initial poor opinion of him may be justified.

Adventures, escapades, and misunderstandings ensue. Despite its romp of a plot, there is a serious undertone to this book. Sylvester’s aloofness is self protection and is due to a terrible tragedy in his past. Before he is shaken off his high horse by Phoebe (and the down to earth Tom) he is on his way to a loveless marriage and, except for his care for his invalid mother and his little nephew, an emotionless half-life. The emotional abuse Phoebe has had to endure her whole life is the source of her hypersensitivity and fearfulness in society. Other than her writing, her future is bleak and lonely.

The book contains Heyer’s usual humor and comedy and the light tone is there. But although some of her comic set pieces involving Edmund’s flighty, shallow, and selfish mother and her silly fop of a husband are amusing, there is a potentially a very sad side to even them. When the couple actually kidnap Edmund from the guardianship of his Wicked Uncle (inspired by the plot of Phoebe’s unexpectedly successful novel) Edmund’s life is actually in danger due to their inattention and thoughtlessness, and he is exposed to the cruelty of neglect. Luckily for him, it is Phoebe and Tom to the rescue. And luckily for Sylvester and Phoebe, it is Sylvester’s lovely mother (and Phoebe’s eventual kindred spirit) who will save the day for them. The Duchess of Rayne’s cleverly engineered and tender reconciliation of the two soulmates continually at odds is one of my favorite endings in all of Georgette Heyer’s works.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Old Country

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By Matt Query & Harrison Query

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Despite many frustrations with the male half of the couple who are the two narrators of their story, I really enjoyed this folk horror/thriller. A young couple leave their urban lives behind and fulfill their dream of buying a large property in the country at the foot of the Teton mountains. With them, is their dog, Dash, who I have to count as the third main character in the novel. Their nearest neighbors are an older couple, Dan and Lucy, and Joe, the rather mysterious Native American patriarch of the family who has owned the largest ranch in the area for generations. Soon after moving in, Harry and Sasha are visited by the older couple who shock them by telling them that their valley is haunted by a malevolent spirit that manifests itself 3 different ways depending on the season. Winter is a reprieve when the spirit is at rest. They talk to them about the rules they must follow to keep themselves safe and the spirit at bay. And though the whole process is disturbing, it is not that hard. At first, though they like and value Dan and Lucy, how can they believe such craziness? Harry especially is resistant to anything dealing with the supernatural, while Sasha, as things begin to transpire exactly as Dan and Lucy foretold, understands that she must believe the evidence of her own senses.

Harry and Sasha’s love and support for each other throughout the ordeals which are to come is never in doubt. It is established early on that Sasha is wise and strong, while Harry, though a former marine and tough and strong on the surface, is ruled by his emotions. This leads to bouts of rage and actions that not only fly in the face of logic and sense, but put the safety of himself and his beloved Sasha (and Dash) at risk. This happens over and over despite his recognition of his own foolhardiness and the remorse which follows. Harry’s frustrating behavior is caused to some degree by his injuries and experiences in Afghanistan. Until near the end of the book when Joe, often talked about but never seen, finally makes his entrance, I counted Harry’s weaknesses as a flaw in the book. I was driven to distraction by him and his mess when I felt the rest of the story was so strong that it was an unnecessary distraction. After a disastrous encounter with the Autumn manifestations of the spirit, Joe finally comes to the rescue and his encounter with Harry is so satisfying that it almost made all of my distress and disgust with the essentially good man and co-hero of the book worth it. I saw what the authors did there.

I was engaged and engrossed throughout. The concept and source of the horror and terror were fascinating and unusual. Secrets are revealed that increase the threat and danger to Harry and Sasha. Sasha’s focus changes to living with the spirit by following the rules to vanquishing it permanently. When winter comes, the season in which the spirit is supposed to hibernate, we learn that it only hibernates for those who have not killed another human. And of course, Harry, a war veteran, has killed as many as 5 people in Afghanistan. It is with the Winter manifestations that the story breaks down. The main problem is voiced by Harry himself:

I dunno…a divine omnipotence that’s damn near indiscernible from how most monotheists describe God. All that power over the souls of the dead just to play ventriloquist for a few weeks a year? All that power just to put on some spooky theater for a nobody asshole like me in this little mountain valley? Nah. Even applying the bizarre, fucked-up metrics that exist in this strange place, that’s just too much of a stretch.

Exactly.
At the end of the book we are left with the hope that this infinity-year-old omnipotent spirit has perhaps been permanently put to rest by Harry and Sasha. But how they did that when generations of Native Americans could not crack the code is very unclear. And smacks of white saviorism. The secret was too simplistic bordering on inane. So much so that I thought I missed something. There were plot holes and questionable aspects throughout the book which I could and did overlook, the story was so compelling. I loved all of the characters except for Harry. But since Sasha and Dash the dog (and Dan and Lucy) loved him despite his flaws, I didn’t want any permanent harm to come to him. It was a good read but the epilogue was facile with an attempt to bolster it by a tangle of meaningless gobbledygook. Also, unanswered questions! A bête noire of mine. No pun intended.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The Love Haters

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By Katherine Center

Katherine Center’s bright and sparkly authorial voice captured me right away, as it always seems to. Her heroines, who narrate their stories, are instantly relatable and likable. I also am a sucker for “direct address”, where the narrator speaks right to you as if she expects you to answer. The usual humor was present and accounted for. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Katie, who narrates her story, started to get on my nerves and I got very impatient with her.

The agenda in this book (and I don’t mean that in a bad or critical way) is to encourage body positivity. When Katie’s former fiancé became a big music star, she was exposed to the cruelty of social media commenting on how fat and ugly she was, when of course she was just a normal nice looking girl. If I remember correctly she starved herself and got really thin. Her fiancé cheated on her and dumped her, and then she started putting on the pounds until she became a little plump. Katherine Center is pretty vague about the weight loss and weight gain, and I understand why.

Katie makes corporate videos and posts mini-biographies of “Heroes” on her own YouTube channel. She agrees to go to Key West to interview and film her boss’s brother who is a hero in the Coast Guard, having famously rescued Jennifer Anniston’s dog who fell off a cliff. To do her job though, she has to get in a bathing suit and learn to swim. She is used to wearing black inconspicuous clothes that do nothing for her, so this prospect of what she has to do to do her job and get material for her personal YouTube channel fills her with horror. For me, her inner struggles with bathing suits and learning to swim got very tedious very quickly. And since her luggage got lost on the plane, she is “forced” to borrow clothes from her boss’s and his brother’s beloved Aunt’s store which are all brightly colored and very loud. Again, this is torture for her, as she is afraid of being seen and judged. Her fixation on her body came across as silly and shallow. “Oh the Humanity!”

I didn’t get what the heroic, beautiful, kind, and smart hero saw in her. She was kind of a cute nonentity. She was naive and she didn’t seem to be too bright either. On almost the first page she states to the reader that she couldn’t locate Key West on a map or know what the Coast Guard or a rescue swimmer was. Was she trying to be funny? I don’t think so. Because later in the book she is corrected when speaks of forming an “allegiance” with someone when she meant “alliance”.

**Spoilers**

Shortly before the halfway mark she is magically cured by a kiss from “Hutch” the coast guard hero and the love interest. Frankly, I was OK with that, even though I’m not sure what message that was sending. She decides to disagree with the ghouls on the internet and “be the kid who stands up for bullying victims-for myself”. My relief didn’t last long however. She knows her boss Cole, Hutch’s brother is a liar, but when he unexpectedly shows up in Key West, believes and lamely goes along with all of his lies to Hutch and his Aunt Faye. **End Spoiler**

It’s all a tempest in a teapot until a real tempest descends on Key West and Katie is blown out to sea in Hutch’s houseboat trying to rescue his beloved dog, George Bailey. Will she prove her mettle and come into her own?

This was well-written (of course) and perfectly enjoyable. It seemed lighter and fluffier than the four other books I’ve read by her. There really isn’t anything really serious at stake, as with her other books. But sometimes that is just what one is in the mood for. Since I’ve been reading Katherine Center I’ve enjoyed each book more or at least equal to the previous one. This one is a slight step back. But still 3 ½ stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an Advanced Review Copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. It will be published 5/20/2025

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The Bullet That Missed

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by Richard Osman

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“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?

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Susan Elizabeth Phillips

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“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.

Summer Romance

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by Annabel Monaghan

I find a fourth box of cornstarch and it takes me down. I use one teaspoon of cornstarch once a year to make a pecan pie for Thanksgiving. How have I become a person who doesn’t have the time or energy to check the pantry before she buys more cornstarch? How is it possible that I am a professional organizer who doesn’t even make a grocery list?

Just a 3. This is going to be short and somewhat slapdash. This book didn’t get off on the right foot with me, because Ali, our heroine, got on my bad side from the get-go. And the more I got to know her, the more I didn’t like or approve of her. Her mother had died two years ago, but she was letting her absence take over her life, to the harm of her children. When her husband comes home on the first anniversary of her mother’s death and finds her sobbing with a “sink full of unopened mail” he announces he does not want to be married anymore. When we see more and more how Ali has let herself and her life go to pot, I didn’t much blame him. Now I respect that she was very close to her mother and there is no timetable for grief, but that doesn’t mean I would enjoy mucking around in the “slough of despond” with her. Another year passes, and Ali is still in the same place. Also, although she remembers her mother as always there to protect, support, and entertain her and her kids, I sensed something a little off in their relationship. I didn’t like it.

As the book progresses, and she meets the love interest (who was lovely) she starts to pull herself together and my antipathy diminished. Unfortunately, it came part way back again when her younger new man gives her skateboard lessons and she puts her baseball cap on backwards. I skipped through most of the romance part because it was just so blah for me. He was completely besotted with her and it was so very smooth. I loved how she got the best of her husband during the divorce arbitration and Ethan’s (“Scooter’s”) role in that. Her husband turned out to be a real jerk. Then Ali lost me again by breaking up with such a great guy who was so good for her and her kids because she wouldn’t even explore the idea of moving to his town just because she had children. Or even try to make a long-distance (4 hours by car) relationship work.

This was well-written and had some good parts in it. I liked that Ali realized that some of the problems with her husband were her fault and that her perfect mother was also not so perfect after all.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Welcome to Temptation

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by Jennifer Crusie

“That’s a movie quote, right? You know, if you do that with books, people think you’re intelligent.”
Sophie lowered her chin. “If this is your pathetic attempt to seduce me again, you’re falling miserably.”
“I don’t seduce women.” Phin shoved back his chair and stood up. “They fall into my open arms.”
“Clumsy of them.”

I first read this about 25 years ago (it seems longer). Back then, some of its aspects made me slightly uncomfortable although I loved it. I don’t take my romances as seriously as I used to. Good ones are few and far between now, but they were really really scarce back then, and much harder to find. I had a good time with this one on Audible this time around.

We meet Sophie and Amy, two sisters on their way to Temptation, a town in southern Ohio. They have a photography business and are meeting a “C” list actress there to film a movie, which is Amy’s dream. Sophie is only mildly interested but is there as Amy’s sensible overprotective older sister. Also to keep Amy on the straight and narrow. Both Amy and their brother Davy take after their father, a notorious con man and grifter. Sophie knows her way around a good con as well, but she has chosen to stay on the right side of the law and ethical behavior. Well, she tries, anyway. As they start filming their movie, Sophie to her exasperation and disapproval, sees that the movie is borderline porn. This does not make the good citizens of Temptation or their mayor, Phin Tucker, happy. Actually, Phin couldn’t care less, but duty calls and he is up for election.

This book was not the first award winner that Crusie wrote, but it was the first one that made it to the New York Times Best Seller List. It was her third non-category novel (not a Silhouette, Loveswept, or such). It’s the first “big” book by Jennifer Crusie that I remember reading and while it is the one that made me a fan of hers, I had kind of shied away from re-reading it until, a year and a half ago, I read the sequel to it, Faking It. That one picks up the story of Davy Dempsey who has business with Clea, the movie actress, in this one. Temptation, Sophie, and Phin make a brief appearance in the sequel and it put this one back on my radar.

Crusie’s books are all about humor and romance in equal measure. They are very fun and fast-paced. This one has more crazy characters than usual who are either good guys or bad guys (or gals). There are really only 3 normal sensible people in it: The two main characters, Sophie and Phin, and Phin’s best friend, the sheriff of Temptation, Wes. Oh, and Phin’s 9-year-old daughter, Dilly. Everyone else has issues galore which play out all kinds of ways that kept me turning the pages (figuratively). And then, as there often is in Crusie’s books, there’s a murder. And since this victim was poisoned, drowned, shot, and run over by a car (twice) and the body moved across town by an innocent party, it is quite the mystery.

This one was another wild ride. I think I have at least one more of her books left to re-read, but first I have to take a little break.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.