I signed up for a murder mystery, not a spy thriller. It was fine, though. I did end up liking the characters by the end, but there was just too much I signed up for a murder mystery, not a spy thriller. It was fine, though. I did end up liking the characters by the end, but there was just too much going on all the time, felt very scattered. And again, this is not a whodunnit, despite the title. I hope the next one is more of a mystery than this one was....more
"There are two great powers and they’ve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency w"There are two great powers and they’ve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
This was a three star book until 25% of the way through and then the premise actually kicked in and I was hooked. I'm not sure how I feel about the enThis was a three star book until 25% of the way through and then the premise actually kicked in and I was hooked. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, but this would have been better without all the dreary set-up. The good stuff should have started way earlier.
Past me was unable to admit this was a five star book. I'm glad past me has gotten over her issues and is now Now Me. This is a five star book. Thank Past me was unable to admit this was a five star book. I'm glad past me has gotten over her issues and is now Now Me. This is a five star book. Thank you and go about your day.
(This time did the audio for the first time, and it was fantastic. Full cast!)...more
I liked this a lot! It was exactly what I was in the mood for. (I still like her non trad-published stuff better, but I'm glad she's getting more recoI liked this a lot! It was exactly what I was in the mood for. (I still like her non trad-published stuff better, but I'm glad she's getting more recognition and more people are reading her!) Also, I'm rating this 4.5 stars, so what I am even saying?? I think I just need to re-read Think of England or A Seditious Affair again for the hundredth time.
“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to kno“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”...more
“She rubbed a hand over her heart. It was like reading a book, she decided. You read the book and the words became scenes, the characters became pe
“She rubbed a hand over her heart. It was like reading a book, she decided. You read the book and the words became scenes, the characters became people and they lived inside you. She had dreamed of Sol, she had read his stories, and it had opened up a space inside her, where he could exist.”
“We are here, exactly where we should be, at exactly the right moment, because we are the Raven, and we are magnificent.”
“'Why don't you leave, Neema?' But she didn't want to leave. She wanted to prove them all wrong. The fuckers.”
Hello, this is my perfect book. I will be accepting no questions at this time.
r/Fantasy BINGO 2025: A book in parts. HARD MODE: The book has 4 or more parts....more
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
I'm sad to say this was a disappointment. Pretty Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
I'm sad to say this was a disappointment. Pretty sure I'm done reading this author's books, as both have resulted in the same outcome for me: frustration that a great premise (and great research!) was wasted on subpar execution.
Said premise: Dorothy L. Sayers (our narrator) has been the driving force behind the creation of The Detection Club, a real club formed in 1930 by Britain's most prominent mystery and crime writers, for the benefit of their genre. They were tired of being discounted by the literary establishment and wanted to safeguard their chosen form and promote it at the same time. Other members included: Agatha Christie, Baroness Orczy, Anthony Berkeley Cox, and G. K. Chesterton, the first president. (The club also famously wrote up The Fair Play Rules for mystery authors, which I most recently enjoyed a prominent mention of in Benjamin Stevenson's book, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone.)
Queens of Crime opens when the club is having its initiation, and Sayers and Christie are both very frustrated at the attitude of the male members towards inviting more women than themselves into the club, as they view Sayers and Christie as exceptions to the norms of "womanhood". Your basic sexist bullshit. So Agatha and Dorothy scheme to get more women in, including Ngaio Marsh, the Baroness Orczy (The Scarlet Pimpernel), and Margery Allingham. I believe there were liberties taken with the membership history here, but I don't know for sure because the ARC copy didn't have her author's notes. But even as they are successful in getting five women mystery authors into the club, they are treated poorly or dismissed by the men, and determine to show themselves worthy of membership.
Firstly, this approach rankled me. Why must they have to go so far out of their way to prove themselves to these men? It's gross.
Anyway, they hatch a plan to solve the murder of a woman called May Daniels, whose body has just been found after she went missing months before. They choose May because they believe the men running the investigation have discounted many things about the case because they lack the perspective of women, and because the fate of the dead young nurse is one they'd like to address if they can.
This had the bones of a good story, great historical research, compelling characters (in theory), a twisty mystery, and an emotional hook based on these women doing something that men can't to fight for the respect they should have been given automatically. But unfortunately, Benedict's style is very lacking in almost every aspect of the craft that makes stories compelling for me. The characters are wooden, the descriptions and events as they are laid out are very very workmanlike with absolutely no sense of emotional or artistic flair. It is a logic-based approach to story, and it did not work for me at all. The result of all this is a book that feels overall plodding and lifeless, which is an impressive feat, considering the quality of materials the author had to work with. How do you make such vibrant historical women seem so mundane on the page?
I really wouldn't recommend this book. I wish this author would team up with another author with more artistic flair, or that someone else had written a book with this same premise, like happened with Benedict's other book featuring Agatha Christie*.
*The Mystery of Mrs. Christie was published around the same time as The Christie Affair, which was a much, much better book, in my opinion.
Very sad with this outcome, but it is what it is, and I've learned my lesson.
Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Ace for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
This book should not have worked! ButThanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Ace for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.
This book should not have worked! But, it really did. At least for me.
This is an enemies to lovers slow burn romance set in an alternate Earth where magic is real. (Actual, real enemies, mind you, not just rivals or people who are annoyed at each other.) Aurienne is a gifted healer in an order of healers who is contacted by Osric, an eeeevil (but handsome and roguish) assassin, who has a fatal ailment to do with his magic that only Aurienne has a hope of curing (and it's a very very small hope at that). She does not want to help him AT ALL but is ordered to after he makes an obscenely large donation to their order, even though his only hope of a cure is based on folklore and fairytales, and is very unscientific (Aurienne frowns on non-evidence based magical healing). Osric is incorrigible and Aurienne is orderly and rule-following. Of course they are going to fall in love.
I really only have one main criticism, and the rest is just going to be a YMMV kind of thing. My criticism is that is STUNNINGLY unclear when and why this is all taking place, aka the worldbuilding. This is a world with electricity but people still wear suits of armor?? They have antibiotics but also medieval type places like brothels and castles and public houses? It's an alternate history world with magic*, where places like London and such still exist, but then there's new places and England is split into Tiendoms? (ten kingdoms) It's all very much unexplained. And yet, the central relationship, and the main plot points are all very clearly on the page, so in a sense the faffery surrounding the worldbuilding almost doesn't matter (ALMOST).
*I highlighted several instances of language that makes no sense outside of our world, for instance the phrase "crime-scene chic" and certain body parts being called "Thoughts and Prayers" (in a world with no guns??). But those might be gone in the final version, I don't know.
I feel where this book is really going to succeed or fail for people is the voice, the writing style. It is very informal, at times vulgar, and has a sense of humor that is extremely specific. This very much worked on me, and I laughed out loud multiple times over the course of the book. Most of my highlights were things that had me giggling. But it also has this sweet heart underneath all the name-calling and ribald jokery. I really believed it at the end when both people had realized they had feelings for the other; it made me go "Awwwwww".
Here are some examples of the language (again, ARC copy, subject to change):
"There is some family," said Mrs. Parson. "Father from the Danelaw, mother from Tamazgha. Both presently in London. No debts to speak of; she's rather well-off. Kidnap would, of course, always be an option." "A classic," said Osric.
"More whinging than Aurienne had expected from a Fyren. Weren't they meant to be rugged killers? This specimen had the fortitude of a wet quiche."
"I detest operating in this improvisatory manner"—"just titting about the countryside without a plan—" Mordaunt, seized with sudden liveliness, leapt to Aurienne's side. "Let's tit about. I love titting about."
"He was a Fine Specimen in the way an abscess might be a Fine Specimen; the best, most shapely, most beautiful abscess in the world still brimmed with foulness and ought to be incised and drained."
"Osric noticed that, under Patient Name, she had inserted an alias, which was fine, but that the alias was U. Ganglion, which offended him."
And I had a lot more than that! I got my copy months and months ago, so the final copy might very well be a lot more polished. I guess I'll see! Because I have this coming in a subscription box next month. For me, the charms of this book vastly outweighed the things that bothered me. But that is the reason it's not getting five stars, because I kept getting the urge to sit down with a red pen and fix things.
If you like banter, antagonism, scatological humor, inexplicable worldbuilding, and animals, this might be a book for you....more
This is absolutely NOT a cozy mystery, but it is extremely good, and I can't wait for book two. It has so many th30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 5 Book 22/30
This is absolutely NOT a cozy mystery, but it is extremely good, and I can't wait for book two. It has so many things in it that I like in addition to being a really good whudunit: nuns, ex-nuns (and all that entails, I really can't go into it rn, it's fraught okay), queer people living their lives in a historical time period, a protagonist who is GOOD AT SHIT and MEANS BUSINESS, serious explorations of human emotion, darker themes handled with aplomb, and I don't even know what else. The audiobook narrator is delightful, very much recommend reading the book that way. This was just so well done in every aspect. For that reason, and because it tickled my fancy, I'm rounding up to five stars.
This one got a bit complicated, but I still had a great time. The plot is going in a direction I definitely did not expect, I hope it gets back to theThis one got a bit complicated, but I still had a great time. The plot is going in a direction I definitely did not expect, I hope it gets back to them helping Regency ladies in need after the next book. (I hope there is more than three!)
The premise of The Ill-Mannered Ladies books is that because our two main characters, Gus and Julia, have the gift of independent wealth, and the questionable blessing of being constantly overlooked and underestimated due to their genders and ages (they are 42-year old unmarried twins), they can get a lot done under everyone’s noses in the name of progress, justice, and equality. In the first book they go through a series of almost episodic adventures, helping women and the dispossessed of Regency England.
This one, though, it really barely touched on that premise, because consequences from their previous adventures had to be dealt with, and all of sudden there’s espionage! State secrets! Agents provocateurs!
I continue to really like the way this series is portraying the dark underbelly of Regency society, though. Goodman doesn’t hold back, purposefully puncturing the more romantic depictions of the time with uglier reality (including frequent health conditions people in this time might have suffered and how they dealt with them, i.e. Julia has breast cancer, doctor’s remedies were often worse than the disease they were “treating”). I also really like the focus on actual historical events and figures that are woven very naturally into the plot. In that way it’s much more historical fiction than it is historical romance, even though there are romantic elements present.
Definitely recommend this series if you haven’t checked it out yet....more
First, y'all should click over to see the larger version of the cover so you can see our heroine Susan's face. It is the most non-swoony face I have eFirst, y'all should click over to see the larger version of the cover so you can see our heroine Susan's face. It is the most non-swoony face I have ever, ever seen on a romance novel cover, and that is so true to her character, I love it. Even the arms are folded! Susan Lazarus is not fucking around.
This is the second book in the Lilywhite Boys series, which follows two con men and thieves in late Victorian London. This series is actually connected to Charles's prior series, Sins of the Cities, as Susan is the adoptive daughter of Justin Lazarus, the former spiritualist (and scammer) turned enquiry agent. Now it's about twenty years later, and Susan herself has taken up the family business, making a name for herself by being tough as nails, and very, very good at her job. Her former lover is one of the Lilywhite boys himself, Templeton Lane (formerly James Vane, confirming this also takes place in the same universe as her first series, Society of Gentleman). They were sort of childhood sweethearts, but their relationship ended with a terrible break between them that left Templeton on a boat to do hard labor in Australia, and with Susan as an enemy.
Years later, they are on opposite sides of the law. Templeton is nearly killed when a jewel theft goes wrong. He finds the body of the owner when he breaks in, and he in turn is found standing over the body of the owner, at which point he makes a run for it. Having clearly been framed and not wanting to drag his only two friends (and criminal associates) down with him, the only person he knows who might possibly believe him innocent of the murders (the valet was killed, too) and also might be able to help clear his name, is one Susan Lazarus.
This is a second chance romance, with elements of enemies to lovers near the beginning, so it's a twofer. Also, it's a murder mystery! And historical fiction. And it's very well written. And the way that Susan and Templeton come back together is so very good. They're both such emotionally complex people with such different personalities, but their chemistry feels effortless, and their conflicts and struggles poignant. Susan is a badass, and Templeton is some sort of gentle bear/puppy combo with criminal tendencies mostly to do with thieving. As both puppies and bears are known for stealing shit that doesn't belong to them (mostly to eat), I feel my comparison is apt.
I really can't emphasize enough how much it upsets me that y'all still aren't reading K.J. Charles as much as she deserves. She deserves to be a bestselling author with awards threatening to collapse her shelves. I think I'm finally going to have to do a deep dive and finish out the books in her back catalogue I haven't gotten to yet, because I don't know when she's publishing her next book and it's making me anxious.
Merged review:
First, y'all should click over to see the larger version of the cover so you can see our heroine Susan's face. It is the most non-swoony face I have ever, ever seen on a romance novel cover, and that is so true to her character, I love it. Even the arms are folded! Susan Lazarus is not fucking around.
This is the second book in the Lilywhite Boys series, which follows two con men and thieves in late Victorian London. This series is actually connected to Charles's prior series, Sins of the Cities, as Susan is the adoptive daughter of Justin Lazarus, the former spiritualist (and scammer) turned enquiry agent. Now it's about twenty years later, and Susan herself has taken up the family business, making a name for herself by being tough as nails, and very, very good at her job. Her former lover is one of the Lilywhite boys himself, Templeton Lane (formerly James Vane, confirming this also takes place in the same universe as her first series, Society of Gentleman). They were sort of childhood sweethearts, but their relationship ended with a terrible break between them that left Templeton on a boat to do hard labor in Australia, and with Susan as an enemy.
Years later, they are on opposite sides of the law. Templeton is nearly killed when a jewel theft goes wrong. He finds the body of the owner when he breaks in, and he in turn is found standing over the body of the owner, at which point he makes a run for it. Having clearly been framed and not wanting to drag his only two friends (and criminal associates) down with him, the only person he knows who might possibly believe him innocent of the murders (the valet was killed, too) and also might be able to help clear his name, is one Susan Lazarus.
This is a second chance romance, with elements of enemies to lovers near the beginning, so it's a twofer. Also, it's a murder mystery! And historical fiction. And it's very well written. And the way that Susan and Templeton come back together is so very good. They're both such emotionally complex people with such different personalities, but their chemistry feels effortless, and their conflicts and struggles poignant. Susan is a badass, and Templeton is some sort of gentle bear/puppy combo with criminal tendencies mostly to do with thieving. As both puppies and bears are known for stealing shit that doesn't belong to them (mostly to eat), I feel my comparison is apt.
I really can't emphasize enough how much it upsets me that y'all still aren't reading K.J. Charles as much as she deserves. She deserves to be a bestselling author with awards threatening to collapse her shelves. I think I'm finally going to have to do a deep dive and finish out the books in her back catalogue I haven't gotten to yet, because I don't know when she's publishing her next book and it's making me anxious....more
This honestly might be five stars on re-read, but I've been handing out five star ratings like they're candy, and I've come off my book high now. ThisThis honestly might be five stars on re-read, but I've been handing out five star ratings like they're candy, and I've come off my book high now. This is a strong 4.5 stars for now.
Firstly, this is a retelling of The Prisoner of Zenda, a Ruritanian Romance/Adventure/Swashbuckler from the late 1800s, written by Anthony Hope. I've never read the original, but before diving into this I did read the detailed summary of the book and I'm really glad I did that, because it was fun seeing what Charles changed and tweaked, although our narrator, Jasper Detchard, also informs us of the big things that the original "got wrong" (in this book, the original is played off as a memoir of the "player-king" Rudolf Rassendyll, a distant cousin of the king of Ruritania who is called upon to impersonate said king).
You can tell that Charles just had an incredibly amount of fun, not only with reworking a book that she obviously has great affection for (and criticism of), but also writing a different kind of romance, one where the heroes are morally grey at best, villains at worst, and who don't hold to monogamy. There are plots and swashbuckling and schemes ahoy in this book, and it was an incredible amount of fun to read. It's a relatively short book, but she really packs a whole bunch in here. There is not a dull moment to be found.
Highly recommend! Just know you're not getting a traditional romance, but more of an adventure story and you'll have a grand old time.
Merged review:
This honestly might be five stars on re-read, but I've been handing out five star ratings like they're candy, and I've come off my book high now. This is a strong 4.5 stars for now.
Firstly, this is a retelling of The Prisoner of Zenda, a Ruritanian Romance/Adventure/Swashbuckler from the late 1800s, written by Anthony Hope. I've never read the original, but before diving into this I did read the detailed summary of the book and I'm really glad I did that, because it was fun seeing what Charles changed and tweaked, although our narrator, Jasper Detchard, also informs us of the big things that the original "got wrong" (in this book, the original is played off as a memoir of the "player-king" Rudolf Rassendyll, a distant cousin of the king of Ruritania who is called upon to impersonate said king).
You can tell that Charles just had an incredibly amount of fun, not only with reworking a book that she obviously has great affection for (and criticism of), but also writing a different kind of romance, one where the heroes are morally grey at best, villains at worst, and who don't hold to monogamy. There are plots and swashbuckling and schemes ahoy in this book, and it was an incredible amount of fun to read. It's a relatively short book, but she really packs a whole bunch in here. There is not a dull moment to be found.
Highly recommend! Just know you're not getting a traditional romance, but more of an adventure story and you'll have a grand old time....more
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