Double Whammy

Double Whammy by Gretchen Archer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Davis Way desperately needs a job. She's been out of work for over a year, ever since she went a little crazy when she learned her ex-husband had gambled away her inheritance, so when she's offered the mysterious undercover security position for the Bellissimo Casino, she accepts without taking the time to read the entire (very long) contract. Her new job involves lots of wigs and costumes and runs the gamut from gambling to housekeeping. She gets paid lots of money to figure out how various scams and thefts are occurring, and she does it well, given her background as a police officer in her tiny hometown and her training in computer programming. Despite her successes, Davis soon realizes something bigger and darker is going on at the casino--something somehow related to her wretched ex and the boss's wife. Her uncanny resemblance to said wife lands her in jail, and Davis must figure out what's really going on before they throw away the key.

A caper indeed. Fun romp if you don't examine it too closely & notice the plot holes or improbabilities.

Davis Way is like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum or Darynda Jones' Charley Davidson (minus the supernatural abilities, most of the bad language, and the steamy sex). She's a brilliant woman in some ways, a complete idiot in others, and a little too thoughtless/self-centered in her relationships with family & coworkers. Still, it's a fun, fast-paced, entertaining read, perfect for escaping reality for a while.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary. A few swear words. No on-screen sex.

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Secrets at Maple Syrup Farm

Secrets at the Maple Syrup Farm by Rebecca Raisin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 stars, really.

Lucy's chronically ill mother can't stand watching her daughter give up her youth and vitality to care for her, so she orders Lucy to quit her job and take a year off to travel, concentrate on her art, and apply to a prestigious art school in France. The last thing Lucy wants to do is leave her mother, but she reluctantly promises to buy a bus ticket for the next bus out of town and let fate take her where it will. She winds up in a small town in Connecticut, where some kind locals take her under their collective wings and help her find a place to stay and a job working for the local recluse who is trying to get his newly inherited maple syrup farm up and running.

Clay, the young curmudgeon she goes to work for, isn't thrilled when she shows up on his doorstep, announcing she's there for the job and that his cousin told her not to take no for an answer. His response is to put her to work doing difficult physical labor for long hours, and her innate stubbornness plus desperate need for money induce her to stick it out just to prove she can, despite having zero knowledge or experience of farming (nor suitable clothing).

For the first time in a long time--perhaps ever--Lucy begins to make friends and have a social life, despite her daily exhaustion. She takes cooking lessons and participates in Girls' Night activities, and when Clay unearths a box of journals beneath the farmhouse floor, Lucy makes an emotional connection to the mysterious author.

Gradually, though they constantly argue and push each other's buttons, Lucy and Clay grow to respect one another, which only fuels the fire of their mutual attraction. However, neither one knows how to trust enough to share the painful secrets and memories each is harboring, and that fear threatens to destroy their fledgling relationship.

It took me a little while to get into this story because I found the beginning rather confusing and lacking in exposition--why was the main character on a bus, and to where, and how old was the woman sitting next to her? I totally thought it was set somewhere in the South such as Virginia or one of the Carolinas at first, instead of Connecticut. Which makes no sense, given the part about the maple syrup farm, but the setting didn't feel...solidly fleshed out, I guess you'd say. I don't typically read for setting, but in this case because so much of the backstory was purposely left mysterious, to be painstakingly dribbled out, the lack of clarity hampered my ability to jump into the novel for a few chapters. I'm sure it didn't help that I read it mostly during lunch breaks at work! Eventually, though, it picked up steam, and I eventually really enjoyed the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ebook review copy in exchange for my honest review!

For readers' advisors: Character doorway is primary; story secondary. A little sexual content, but nothing explicit (that I can recall--it's been more than a month since I finished reading).

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The Perfect Bargain

The Perfect Bargain by Julia London
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sloane Chatfield wasn't quite abandoned at the alter, but she did already have her wedding dress and reservations booked when her louse of a fiance decided to break up with her. Her friends' plan to set her up with someone new has morphed into social torture, so Sloane tells them she's going to go to Scotland and find her own real-life Jamie Fraser (from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander). When they announce they're going to join her, she figures she can fly in early, pretend to fall in love and have a whirlwind romance, then break up with the fictional boyfriend to get them off her back for a while.

Her brilliant strategy collapses when they decide to show up a couple of weeks early, and Sloane panics. The only suitable candidate in the tiny Scottish town is the local pub owner, who's gorgeous, single, and can't stand her. Fear is a strong motivator, however, and she awkwardly propositions Galen, offering to pay him a considerable amount of money to pretend to be her boyfriend. He's completely insulted and appalled, naturally, and refuses. However, he's also going broke and eventually agrees to play along, negotiating half in jest that she'll pay extra for kisses and sex.

I stayed up WAY past my bedtime because I couldn't stop reading until I'd finished, so I was glad it's a relatively short novel. The funny thing is, although I really liked it and couldn't put it down, upon further reflection, I really didn't like Sloane's friends and couldn't understand what she ever saw in the former fiance. However, I thought that the relationship between Sloane and Galen was pretty well-written, and although each started out inflexible and obnoxious, they grew over the course of the story to the point where I felt like they might have a chance of building a life together.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways. Some sex scenes and swearing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ebook copy in exchange for my honest review!

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Just Like Magic

Just Like Magic by Elizabeth Townsend
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this retelling of the Cinderella story, particularly the twist that had the stepmother not being evil but rather just weak and lazy--she didn't intend for Ella to become a servant so much as she just wasn't strong enough or paying enough attention to prevent her older daughter, Lucy, from manipulating the situation.

I also really enjoyed Ella's character arc as she transitioned from being nearly as big a snob--albeit a less imperious one--as her stepsisters to becoming a more humble, useful, and self-aware young lady. Cinderella is often portrayed as a saint whose spirit has pretty well been broken, but this version of Ella had flaws, was fairly stubborn and strong-willed, and seemed more realistic.

My only real complaint about the book is that in the end, Ella agrees to marry the prince. (Does that count as a spoiler if we all know the basic story already?) I think it would have been a better ending if she'd agreed to consider it but had insisted on taking more time to get to know each other. I know that's not "a fairytale ending," but it would have worked much better with the story arc and the trajectory of Ella's character development--an hour's conversation with a stranger does not a solid foundation for a marriage make. A good start to a relationship, yes, but jumping straight into marriage? No.

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story secondary. No sex, violence, or bad language. Not quite fantasy, but I'm not precisely sure when or where it's set.

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The Beekeeper's Ball

The Beekeeper's Ball by Susan Wiggs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Isabel Johansen is about to open a cooking school on her family's sprawling hacienda in Sonoma Valley, California, when author Cormac (Mac) O'Neill roars into her life. Her sister and grandfather decided to hire Mac to write a book about her grandfather's life, particularly his role in the Danish Resistance as a teenager during WWII. Writing a biography means getting to know the family, and in spite of--or perhaps in reaction to--their calamitous introduction which resulted in an emergency trip to the doctor, rooted-in-place Isabel fascinates Mac, the perennial wanderer. Isabel is also drawn to Mac, but her disastrous past relationship and the secret she's kept since then have destroyed her trust in herself and her judgment, immobilizing her heart. Authors poke at secrets, however, and this one breaks free when Isabel's ex comes to town and threatens her fledgling business.

I love how Susan Wiggs slowly unfolds the story by alternating between present-day and the 1940s. Book two in the series fills in some of the details shared in book one and leaves plenty of room for book three, which I am eagerly awaiting. There are really two stories at play here: Isabel's personal growth and budding romance, and Magnus's survival as an orphaned teen determined to thwart the Nazis every way he can. Both absorbed my complete attention. This series should definitely be read in order, beginning with The Apple Orchard .

For readers' advisors: character doorway is primary, story secondary. A little bit of swearing, allusions to sex but no descriptions.

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Some Like It Witchy

Some Like It Witchy by Heather Blake
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It seems a beautiful day in the Enchanted Village, yet Darcy has a bad feeling that trouble is coming, and her instincts are proven right when she and her friend Cherise discover the body of Cherise's realtor, Raina Gallagher, upstairs in the Tavistock house. The house had only recently come on the market when its reclusive owner died. Rumors of hidden jewels from a famous heist decades ago have brought treasure hunters out of the woodwork, and Darcy must figure out whether they have anything to do with the murder.

The fifth installment of the Wishcraft Mystery series is just as fun as the first four. There is less in the way of character development in this one, but the main characters are still multi-dimensional, which I very much appreciate.

The plot twists kept me from guessing the killer, although I am pretty sure have figured out who the dove and The Elder are. I am looking forward to the next book in the series to confirm whether I'm right and what that will mean!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character & setting secondary. I only remember one swear word, otherwise it's totally a "clean read."

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Yes, Please

Yes Please by Amy Poehler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The audiobook version is fantastic! Amy Poehler herself "reads" it, but it never feels like reading--more like she's just talking to you and telling stories. She also gets Carol Burnett, Kathleen Turner, and Patrick Stewart to read her chapter titles, Seth Meyers to read a chapter he's written (i.e. chat with Amy in the sound booth and read his chapter), Mike Schur(?) to chat with her about creating the TV show "Parks and Rec," and even her parents have small speaking moments. It's a very humorous book.

Fair warning, though: Amy has a potty mouth much of the time and apparently spent much of her twenties and part of her thirties stoned, so it's not suitable for tender ears. I could only listen to it when my toddler wasn't in the car.

I might have given it 5 stars if it weren't for the abundance of swearing and my disappointment in Amy for all the drug use and smoking. Everyone has their own journey to get to where they are today, and I wouldn't have wanted her to lie about her life, but for me it was heartbreaking to know that she had done so many stupid things in her younger years--a hero falling off a pedestal, I suppose. Such a waste--think of all the (much funnier) things she could have written and performed during those years if she hadn't been stoned! She's really proud of the Upright Citizens' Brigade (UCB) improv company she helped found and is still involved with, but some of the stories she tells about them are appalling--like pressuring their entire audience to smoke pot before they would start one particular performance. Dude, if you have to be stoned to enjoy it, it's probably not that good!

Still, if you're debating between reading and listening to this book, I'd recommend listening. Hands down, no question.

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