The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh

The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this series--a chance to revisit my favorite Jane Austen characters and their offspring? Yes, please! In this installment, the infamous Lady Catherine de Bourgh has suffered the indignity of someone trying to kill her not once, not twice, but three times. The impertinence! To stop the incompetent villain from succeeding, she summons her great-nephew, Jonathan Darcy, and his investigative partner, Juliet Tilney, to Rosings Park to uncover the would-be killer. Juliet and Jonathan are delighted to be reunited, and after some unfortunate misunderstandings, soon rekindle both their friendship and their budding romance as the investigation proceeds, much to their respective overprotective fathers' chagrin.

Many twists and turns keep readers (and the young sleuths) guessing until the very end. I am grateful to be able to add this book to my list of mysteries without murder.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways are very strong, and language and setting should appeal to readers who love Jane Austen and the Regency era. No profanity that I can recall, no sexual content, and the only violence is both off-screen and unsuccessful. Jonathan Darcy's autism is realistically and gently depicted for the era, as is another character's epilepsy (trying to avoid spoilers here). The pace clips right along but doesn't race.

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A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder

A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Frances Wynn, now the “elder” Countess of Harleigh after her husband’s untimely death, has been controlled by others her whole life, so she seizes the opportunity afforded her by widowhood and moves to London on her own as soon as her year of mourning has ended, with just her young daughter and a few servants to accompany her. Her freedom is immediately curtailed by the news that her brother-in-law has placed a freeze on her bank account in his attempt to get control of her money “for the family,” because Frances was an American heiress who married an earl in need of funds, and that need did not vanish with his death. Luckily, the news came just after she received a sizable bank draft from her mother, who sent her younger sister and aunt to visit her for the Season. The money is enough to allow her to maintain her household while fighting the new earl in court. But Frances soon has other concerns, as there is a thief on the loose in Town, an anonymous letter sent to the police has accused her of murdering her husband, and one of her sister’s new suitors might not be what he seems.

Fun and fast-paced mystery set almost a generation before the start of Downton Abbey, so Countess Harleigh would have been a contemporary of Lady Grantham back when Lady Mary was a little girl.

I loved this mystery with its hint of romance to come and enough complications that I only solved half of it before the end.

For readers’ advisors: story doorway is primary, setting secondary. Only a couple of mild swear words. No sexual content, though sex is referenced in that the main character’s husband dies in the bed of another woman at the start of the book. Violence is mostly off-screen and not described in detail at all, though Frances does have a couple of attempts on her life by the end, including being threatened with a gun.

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Cassandra in Reverse

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What would you do if you discovered you could go back in time (though no further than a certain date)? Would you use it to win the lottery? Prevent accidents? Or try and keep from getting fired from your job and dumped by your boyfriend on the same day? Cassandra Penelope Dankworth chooses the latter option. It is, however, exhausting, and perhaps not what the universe had in mind.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Cassandra was such a wonderful, heartbreaking character. I would say I wanted to scoop her up and hug her and tell her there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with her, except, of course, she would hate that.

I did have a really hard time believing she had gone 31 years without realizing she was autistic, as that was blindingly obvious from almost the first moments of the book, but then I read that the author wasn’t diagnosed until she was 39, so I guess that’s sadly more plausible than I’d realized. I also read that the author herself processes emotions as colors, which explains the phenomenally beautiful way they are described throughout the book.

For readers’ advisors: character and language doorways are strongest. A fair amount of occasional swearing. References to sex and a time loop sex scene (as Cassie tries to “fix” things) which is not described in detail. No physical violence aside from the anti-fur protesters who yell and throw fake blood on Cassandra when she accidentally stumbles into their midst.

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Romantic Comedy

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In April of 2018, Sally Milz is a writer for a live sketch comedy television show in New York City.  One week that month, Noah Brewster is both the guest host and musician.  They meet and hit it off when Noah comes to Sally for assistance in writing a sketch, though Sally doesn't believe a superstar could possibly be romantically interested in a regular, non-gorgeous, non-famous woman, so after an intense week of rehearsals and the live performance, she panics and says something hurtful to him during a conversation at the after-party.  Regret and pain follow, but life returns to normal...until the global pandemic shuts the world down in March of 2020, and by the time summer rolls around, Noah is bored and lonely enough to try reaching out to Sally via email.  That medium allows the pair time and space to be vulnerable and honest, rebuilding and strengthening what both had believed to be irretrievably lost.  But can their renewed relationship survive the reality of in-person contact? 

I loved the behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of TNO (The Night Owls--i.e. the thinly veiled SNL), and it was completely believable to me that Sally would be confident in her professional abilities as a comedy writer, yet insecure in her personal life. This story had two things working in her favor, though: first, Sally & Noah met in a place where she felt confident, which is an attractive quality to most men, and second, Noah was old enough and had been through enough therapy to be tired of shallow connections. The story wouldn't have worked with younger characters, I don't think.

Actually, I'll add a third: COVID lockdowns. For those of us who lived through the pandemic (which is everyone reading this), we experienced the duality of this chaotic era that both caused massive upheaval but also gifted us with time to reevaluate our lives. And the latter is what allowed Noah to slow down enough to forgive Sally's verbal sabotage of their budding relationship and to reach out and reconnect.

While I couldn't always decide whether I wanted to hug Sally and give her a pep talk or shake her for making so many unhelpful assumptions about what Noah was thinking or feeling, I could definitely relate to her and rooted for the relationship to flourish.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways are both strong. Plenty of swearing, sexual references, references to bodily functions, mention of past alcohol abuse and recovery, and some cracked-open-door sex scenes. No violence.

My thanks to Bookbrowse for the free copy in exchange for participating in their online book discussion.

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Remember Love

Remember Love by Mary Balogh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Gwen Rhys and Devlin Ware grew up as neighbors, each secretly infatuated with the other until they realize their mutual attraction the day of the annual summer fete and become engaged.  But that same night, the pair discover Devlin's father with his mistress, and Devlin's strong sense of justice and love for his mother lead him to confront his father in public.  Devlin is banished, joins the army to fight Napoleon, and doesn't return for six years, two years after he inherited his father's title. 

I liked this story, but I didn’t love it. Mostly, I think, because we don’t witness Gwen & Devlin falling in love. They never really get to know each other, just go from childhood crushes they believe to be love to insta-love after being reunited 6 years later. They respect each other, which is a good start, but they don’t actually know enough about each other to be in love.

I also really hated that Devlin had sex with SOOOO many women during the war. Historically accurate? Probably. But really, what are the odds he didn’t come home with multiple sexually transmitted diseases, which he would then have passed on to Gwen?! Ruined all romance for the rest of the book, especially the one sex scene, which I just had to quickly skim because all I could think about was how he was almost certainly giving her syphilis. *shudder*

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Slacker

Slacker by Gordon Korman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm a huge Gordon Korman fan and have been since childhood, uh, some decades ago. Unfortunately, this one is not my favorite. I'm really tired of all the adult characters being clueless and/or uncaring, for one thing. And for another thing, the "main" character (if you can call him that in a book where only a few of the chapters are from his POV), Cameron Boxer, is a video game addict who really doesn't grow or mature very much over the course of the book until he suddenly has something of a change of heart at the very end.

I think that's really why this story didn't resonate with me: virtually no character development. So much more *could* have been done with that. I would love to have learned more about Xavier's background and emotional growth, for example. I enjoyed the scene with the handmade bowl. Both Pavel and Chuck had potential. Melody's motivations begged for elaboration. And what was up with the high school mean-girl-on-steroids who never got her comeuppance or ah-ha moment? Seriously, NO adults figured out what was happening? And NONE of the high schoolers--in a supposed do-gooder group--were willing to resist her nasty schemes or spill the beans? *sigh*

What this book was, was fast-paced and plot-driven. I read it in a single evening after I got my son to bed. The short chapters bounced from character's POV to another's and flew by rapidly, so I think this book will be far more interesting to kids, who typically read for plot anyway and who lack the adult perspective that makes the plot holes and cardboard characters so obvious. There are some mildly humorous situations, mostly the result of people ascribing positive motivations to this self-centered kid who doesn't care about anyone or anything except his video games. I was actually shocked he followed the dripping water in his chapter at the retirement center.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is obviously primary. No sexual content or swearing. The only violence was a middle school girl tackling a senior citizen to save a beaver. Well, and a big chaotic "fight" in a sabotaged swimming pool, but no one got hurt that I can recall--it was mostly a lot of yelling and anger vaguely described.

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The Wishing Bridge

The Wishing Bridge by Viola Shipman
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Henri Wegner grew up a beloved child in Frankenmuth, Michigan, helped her father plan and execute his dream of opening the world's largest Christmas store, and then moved to Detroit to live her own dream of going to business school. She couldn't wait to leave behind small-town life and her childhood sweetheart. Fast forward a few decades, and the company she has worked for since graduating is now run by the son who inherited when his father died, and the son's a 2-dimensional stereotype of a greedy corporate shark. To save her job, she impulsively promises to convince her father to sell his now-famous, beloved store to a soulless company that will destroy it for profit. All she has to do is go home in December for the first time in years and betray her family to save a job she hates and doesn't really need or have strong ties to anymore.

*sighhhhhh* I wanted to like this book. It's a Hallmark Christmas movie in book form. Sadly, it is NOT one of the good Hallmark movies. There is no real conflict in this book, just a couple hundred pages of a grown woman agonizing over the world's most obvious choice.

This story is an identity crisis, and not in the way it intends (see above about the faux dilemma). Henri is introduced as being 52 years old, but the math on that doesn't work out, since based on the timeline of all the flashbacks, she had to be born in 1967, and the main part of the story has to take place now (2023) or thereabouts because of how the author refers to the COVID pandemic's effect on businesses in town. So Henri is actually 56. A 56-year-old woman with the angst and immaturity of a 26-year-old.

And that's, I think, really the problem. I LOVE finding stories centered on middle-aged characters, but this one doesn't feel authentic in the slightest. We are supposed to believe that Henri has lived and worked in the same place for *decades* and yet seems to have zero community? Her assistant is the closest thing she has to a friend in the city. There is no mention of anything that would in any way tie her to her current life--no friends or neighbors or former coworkers she keeps in contact with, no favorite restaurants or theatres, no faith community, no personality of any sort in her fancy, cold, uber-modern condo, and her work life is unbearably toxic. Apparently Henri has had the world's most routine, robotic life for the past 34 years, and we're supposed to believe this is in some way hard to give up to come home to a place she says she loves and feels loved, to take over management of a business she helped get started and still feels nostalgic for?

If Henri *had* been 26, I could buy that she was a workaholic driven by ambition and focused on her career to the exclusion of all else. I could believe that she was facing a quarter-life crisis and grappling with the realization that her life was going in the wrong direction. Actually, I could believe that of a 56-year-old if the circumstances of her life were different--multi-dimensional instead of a negative caricature of "Big City Life." It feels as though Henri was intended to be 26, but the author wanted to include all the nostalgia of life in the 1970s & 80s, which she couldn't do without making Henri a generation older. And it just doesn't work.

I did appreciate the nostalgic bits--I am old enough to have grown up with the excitement of those huge Wish Books at Christmastime that came from Sears and Montgomery Ward. However, I'm also old enough to know that NO ONE in 1975 was excited to get Star Wars figurines for Christmas, as is asserted in the opening of the book, because Star Wars didn't come out until 1977. That was just the first of several anachronisms.

One other thing really bugged me: toward the end, when Henri's boss & rival showed up at her family's store "unexpectedly" (it was telegraphed so hard...), Ms. Shipman describes the two of them sitting on the giant Santa throne in an "unchristian" way. I'm assuming she meant something akin to "lewd" or "x-rated," so the term raised my hackles. And then I snort-laughed at the implication that Christians don't have sex. Sure would be a lot fewer if that were true!

As with all Hallmark Christmas movies, there was supposed to be a romantic theme. Again, it would have worked quite well if the main characters had been 26 instead of 56. Or if they had spent more time getting to know the people they've grown into over the past 35 or so years since Henri broke Shep's heart, and IF the people they have become were actually a good fit. But that was pretty much glossed over, aside from Shep's newfound maturity a la post-divorce therapy. Nothing at all with the realities of single-sided step-parenting (which I can promise you is tricky!). I honestly think the most real character was Shep's ex-wife Hannah, who had done some major self-reflection and personal growth that Henri and her childhood BFF had not. Well, Sophie might have done a bit. All that is to say, the romance aspect of the book, which is usually my favorite part of a Hallmark Christmas movie, was both incidental to the main story and disappointingly paper thin.

For readers' advisors: I'm going with setting doorway as primary, for the descriptions of Frankenmuth and all its snowy businesses. There was no sex or violence, only a little swearing and a fair amount of drinking. Don't suggest this book to anyone who cares about complex, well-developed characters or a compelling plot, but it will probably appeal to readers who don't care about those things and just want to inhabit a Bavarian Christmas fantasy-land for a while. In that, it succeeds!

Nevertheless, I am very grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the free eBook ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

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