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.

View all my reviews

 

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.

View all my reviews

 

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.

View all my reviews

 

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.

View all my reviews

 

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*

View all my reviews