This review is for the audio book version of The Devil’s Breath, a Thomas Silkstone mystery, by Tessa Harris, read by Simon Vance. This book was perfectly pleasant, not too taxing, quite entertaining, perfect to listen to while walking or sewing, or whatever you prefer to do while listening to audiobooks. We pick up where we left Thomas and Lydia at the end of the second novel: looking for her son. As they follow young Richard’s trail, a mysterious notary is one step ahead of […]
The Ties that Bind Us
During the 1960s Chinese Cultural Revolution an old woman fainted at a train station. While going through her belongings to identify her, police found scraps of paper with strange writing they’d never seen before. They assumed she was a spy and arrested her. But scholars sent to identify the characters realized the script was nu shu-a written language written exclusively by women in remote areas of China. Literally meaning “Women’s Writing” nu shu had very little in common with the “traditional” Chinese characters that men […]
A Study of Grief and Dysfunction
Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet. At first glance, Everything I Never Told You looks like a classic thriller. There’s a missing girl, a family with secrets, a lake, and a bad boy who knows more than he’s willing to say. It’s easy to think it’s a familiar story about catching a killer. That’s the first curve ball author Celeste Ng throws at you, but not the last. It turns out discovering who killed Lydia (and did anyone actually kill Lydia?) is […]
Bite Me
The Historian is like a cross between The Da Vinci Code and Dracula. It’s partially an update of Stoker’s classic tale, utilizing the scarier-than-fiction stories about Vlad “The Impaler” Tepes-the man upon whom Dracula’s legend is based. It’s also about a Robert Langdon-esque race to find priceless historical relics…before the bad guys get to them first. Throw in some father-daughter bonding, centuries-old secret societies waging quiet but brutal war and an old fashioned-love story, and you’ve got a pretty thick book. If that sounds intriguing, […]
“When we tell truth, often we are callous; when we tell lies, often we are kind”
Spoiler warning! There will be some mild plot spoilers for the early sections of Jane Steele in this review. I’m going to try to keep things vague, but it’s difficult to write about without revealing some details. Even if those in today’s world who never read Jane Eyre (they exist, I’ve met several of them), still tend to know the gist of the story (it is after all, 200 years old by now). Poor, down-trodden and plain Jane has an awful childhood, goes to the […]
Sherry Thomas branches out into young adult fantasy
Summary from Goodreads: It all began with a ruined elixir and a bolt of lightning. Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation – or so she has been told. The one prophesied for years to be the saviour of the Realm. It’s her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the most powerful tyrant and mage the world has ever known. This would be a suicide task for anyone, let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training. Guided by his […]
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