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Monday, May 16, 2022
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was SO EXCITED to Get to When They First Came Out, but Still Haven’t Read
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Sunday, May 15, 2022
Weekly Mews: Middle of May
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Monday, May 09, 2022
Top Ten Tuesday: My Top Eleven Bookish Characters
Irene is my favorite spy and librarian in the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman that combines fantasy and mystery.
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Saturday, May 07, 2022
Weekly Mews: Happy May (Please Vote in my TBR Poll!)
Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive. [Goodreads Summary]
The kinetic story of a sixty-five-year-old female assassin who faces an unexpected threat in the twilight of her career—this is an international bestseller and the English language debut from an award-winning South Korean author.
At sixty-five, Hornclaw is beginning to slow down. She lives modestly in a small apartment, with only her aging dog, a rescue named Deadweight, to keep her company. There are expectations for people her age—that she'll retire and live out the rest of her days quietly. But Hornclaw is not like other people. She is an assassin.
Double-crossers, corporate enemies, cheating spouses—for the past four decades, Hornclaw has killed them all with ruthless efficiency, and the less she's known about her targets, the better. But now, nearing the end of her career, she has just slipped up. An injury leads her to an unexpected connection with a doctor and his family. But emotions, for an assassin, are a dangerous proposition. As Hornclaw's world closes in, this final chapter in her career may also mark her own bloody end.
A sensation in South Korea, and now translated into English for the first time by Chi-Young Kim, The Old Woman with the Knife is an electrifying, singular, mordantly funny novel about the expectations imposed on aging bodies and the dramatic ways in which one woman chooses to reclaim her agency. [Goodreads Summary]
A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.
Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it's a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.
Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he's under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.
When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her--hopefully proving, once and for all, that she's as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them. [Goodreads Summary]
- Weekly Mews: Good Riddance to March and Tip Toeing into April . . .
- Bookish Mewsings: The Maid by Nita Prose
- Weekly Mews: April Heat, Comfort Reads & My April TBR Winner
- Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Shoes On the Cover
- Where Is Your Bookmark: Books with "Burning" in the Title
Thursday, May 05, 2022
Where Is Your Bookmark: My Recent Read & Dystopia or Utopia?
It's often a man's mouth that breaks his nose, my uncle Mick was fond of saying, and the bloke in front of me was doing his best to test the theory. [opening of The Key to Deceit by Ashley Weaver]
I was awakened at the crack of dawn by a sharp rapping on the door of my flat. I looked at my clock. It was five in the morning. [excerpt from 56% of The Key to Deceit]
I love that first line. Isn't it the truth sometimes? These excerpts come from an early release copy of Ashley Weaver's The Key to Deceit. I really enjoyed the first book in the series, A Peculiar Combination, and was excited to start this one.
The second in the Electra McDonnell series from Edgar-nominated author Ashley Weaver, The Key to Deceit, is a delightful World War II mystery filled with spies, murder, romance, and wit.London, 1940. After years of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor—well, to themselves, anyway—Ellie McDonnell and her family have turned over a new leaf as they help the government’s war effort. It’s true that the straight-laced Major Ramsey didn’t give them much choice, but still, Ellie must admit she doesn’t miss breaking and entering as much as she might have thought. What she does miss is the challenge of unlocking an impossible code and the adrenaline rush that comes from being somewhere she shouldn’t.So when Major Ramsey turns up unannounced with another job, she can’t say no. A woman’s body has been found floating in the Thames, with a bracelet locked onto her wrist, and a cameo locket attached to it. It’s clear this woman was involved in espionage, but whose side was she on? Who was she reporting to? And who wanted her dead?
Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.
Which do you think is more likely - clean utopia or frenzied dystopia? (Julie @ Stepping Stone Book Reviews)
This is actually last week's Book Blogger Hop question, but it gave me an idea for this week's Connect Five feature and so I decided to include it here. There is often a fine line between utopian and dystopian societies. The idea of a clean utopia may sound good on the surface, but underneath there always seems to lurk something darker; we see this a lot in fiction--and even when looking at real life communities that carry that promise. Cults, anyone? There's another way of looking at it too. For those on the inside, life may seem like a utopia, but for those on the outside . . . not so much. If recent years are anything to go by, a frenzied dystopia is more likely--some would even argue we are already there.
Five books I enjoyed reading that fit the dystopia/utopia theme:
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