Slightly South of Simple--is Simply Boring

Slightly South of Simple by Kristy Woodson Harvey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A good summer beach read--so you don't have to dwell too much on any of these characters. Just pure fantasy--a little tragedy that didn't really hit me deeply--but lots of monied women who don't need to work, or work at very glamorous jobs. Peachtree Bluff sounds pricey and the family, though old Southern gentry, can well afford it. Found the characters shallow and self-indulgent to say nothing of willing to do anything for what they want, without much regard for the feelings of any but themselves. Oh, the mother, grandmother and sisters are all very concerned about each other and their children, but the rest of the people who love them and who they purport to love fall outside the golden circle. Could not relate to any of them, although the NYC-country mindset is definitely one I've lived and can sympathize with Caroline's need for the city. I miss it, too. Probably will not bother with the sequels.

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Who Killed the Scarecrow at the Harvest Festival and Stuffed His Mouth with a Pumpkin Muffin???

The Pumpkin Muffin Murder by Livia J. Washburn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Just an easy read for when your mind is tired but you want to relax with a fun book. Phyllis is a retired teacher who is also a widow whose son is grown and married and out of the house. She had decided to rent rooms in her house to two fellow, also retired teachers, Eve the manizer and Carolyn, an overbearing sort always competing with Phyllis for baking awards and cooking compliments. Sam, from another school district, has also joined the ladies and he and Phyllis are boyfriend and girlfriend though, at their age, they shrink from the terms.
In this, the fifth outing of mystery solving in Weatherford, Texas we find the community getting ready for the annual Harvest Festival. Phyllis is entering Pumpkin Muffins in the baking contest but, this time around, Carolyn is acting as a judge. While that situation in itself may have ended in a murder and may have been quite interesting the contest never came to be.
On the morning of the day, as contestants arrived with their baked goods, Carolyn and Phyllis notice that one of the scarecrows that are scattered around the park as decoration appears to have been moved onto the porch of the cabin serving as the venue. Always ready to set things straight, the ladies take it upon themselves to move the misplaced fellow, only to have him fall at their feet--not a straw filled men's outfit, but a dead body dressed as a scarecrow. One of the local real estate moguls lies there, his mouth seeming to be stuffed with a PUMPKIN MUFFIN!!!! The game as has been said before is afoot! Did his wife do him in? The local police chief and his head detective are sure of it--but not so fast--Phyllis doesn't believe this lovely teacher could kill her husband. And, as is her wont, she sets out to prove it.

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New Evanovich Series--Curious Minds--Knight and Moon #1

Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having grown a little tired of Stephanie Plum, I decided to try this new series by Evanovich. The story moves fast, Emmie Knight is a little spacey but interesting, though I think he could become quite irritating after awhile. Sort of like Bones who never seemed to get with the program--in time, the lack of social grace in such an intelligent character seems a bit far-fetched. For now, however, the repartee between him and Riley Moon is a cross between Hart to Hart and Nick and Nora Charles and fun. The mystery involving the Federal Reserve Bank and the gold of many nations was interesting and informative. Will definitely rejoin the couple on their next adventure. Whether this will become a must read series for me remains to be seen.

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Where the LIght Falls--A Novel of the French Revolution

Where the Light Falls by Allison Pataki
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an engrossing story--French Revolution devolving into the Reign of Terror. Simply horrifying. The rabble bound to have freedom, equality and fraternity are frightening enough but the men who managed to wrest power from the nobility are ruthless. For simply questioning the need to use the guillotine so universally one could find oneself summarily carted off to prison, given a joke for a trial and find yourself one of its next victims. It mattered not what the rank of the person nor the situation and company in which such doubts are expressed--none are safe. In reading of the threats and insidious betrayals of friends I could not help but think of the similar conditions in Russia during their revolution, of the rise of Hitler in Germany and many subsequent events in South and Central America and also in the Mideast. In one character's defense of the rampant death sentences, when another character compared the relatively bloodless success of the American revolutionaries, he said that the American's were not surrounded by other countries willing to invade them and to support resisters within. Therefore, he continued, it was essential to eliminate the enemies within totally so that they could not stop the Revolution when aided by these other monarchies which did not wish to see its success. An interesting point.
Yet, so many of those who were condemned to death were people whom the new leaders held personal animus toward or whose possessions were envied and therefore had to be taken from them. Into this maelstrom of chaos and revolt enter the characters who wish change in France and who are willing to help the cause but who are not leaders in it. The young idealistic lawyer from the South of France, Jean-Luc St Clair who moves to Paris with his wife, Marie and their young son, Mathieu. Jean-Luc finds a job with the government doing the inventory of the clothing, furniture etc taken from nobles' homes and from various Churches and convents. He also acts as lawyer in suits brought by common Citizens against members of the nobility. Not a very highly paid position but the young couple are glad to be of service and are barely noticed. That is, until Jean-Luc's trust in the law and justice cause him to take on a very dangerous case.
Then there is Andre Valiere and his brother, Remy. Both are soldiers in the French Army, where they hope they will be safe, since in actuality their surname is de Valiere and their father has already lost his head, having been a land rich noble from the North. His accuser, his former friend and fellow officer, General Murat and his prosecutor, Guilliame Lazare. Neither man will rest until they have been able to have Andre and Remy thrown in jail and eventually killed.
This cat and mouse game carries us through the rise of Bonaparte and his invasion of Egypt. It ends ironically with his own crowning as Emperor. The revolt started with the almost total eradication of those nobles who remained in France, the beheading of a King and his Queen, The Terror with its blade that ran the cobblestones of Place de la Revoltion red with blood and ended with yet another crowned head assuming control of a country whose people were somewhat freer but still starving, where neither equality nor fraternity reigned though now all were citizens or citizenesses rather than monsieurs or mesdames.

This is a review of an advanced uncorrected proof provided by Goodreads for that purpose.

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A Dublin Student Doctor--Fingal Takes a Walk Down Memory Lane!

A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Finally, Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly has proposed to Kitty and she, after all these years has accepted. We readers know that as students the two had fallen in love but, with Fingal's procrastination and dedication to work over personal life, their romance had folded and each went on to separate lives. After a day at the races, as Fingal was taking Kitty home, they come upon a motorbike accident. Who but Donal Doherty is lying in the road regaining consciousness after a severe blow to the head. Fingal sends Kitty home with Barry Laverty and goes to the hospital with Donal, who requires surgery to relief the pressure of blood building in his bruised brain. The surgeon is none other than Dr Crombie with whom Fingal studied medicine in Dublin many years ago. Finding himself again with Crombie and in a hospital setting for several days, surrounded by med students and student nurses to say nothing of the true ward bosses, the ward Sisters, Fingal finds himself transported back to his own student days.

And so, we meet his family, Ma and Father, his brother, Lars and learn of his home life. His relationship with his parents and his struggle to convince his father that medicine is his choice of career despite his father's wishes for him to study nuclear physics. Once he manages to get into med school after a stint in the Royal Navy we are introduced to his best pals, Crombie, Charlie Greer and Bob Beresford. We follow the four through their five years of study. We meet Kitty, a student nurse and watch the development of their romance. Each of these characters are so well defined it is as if they step off the page or rather that we step into the page and hang out with them--doing rounds, treating patients, going to the pubs, to the tenements, taking exams.
They become our friends, too. The secondary characters are just as developed and complex and many of them have appeared in the earlier five books--some, like Fitzgerald as irritating and arrogant as always.

Though this book takes place, mostly in the '30's and during Fingal's young manhood, it fits perfectly into the series. It is like hearing stories about your parents' youth or the history of a new contemporary friend--interesting and gives insight into how they became the people you know in the present. Read the series from the beginning--the book that now and then appears to be out of sequence is background to the present and gives a sense of reality to the whole.


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Foreign Eclairs--Is this the end of Ollie and Gav in the White House?

Foreign Éclairs by Julie Hyzy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Considering this is a series about a White House chef, one would think the author would provide us a baker's dozen before ending it. Yet, rumor has it that this ninth installment is the end of the adventures of Head Chef, Ollie Paras. It is an exciting romp filled with assaults, tension, death and near death. Ollie is the target of a man, whose brother she has successfully managed to thwart in his terrorist activities. In the process, the brother died and another terrorist is incarcerated. The surviving brother, Kern, has family honor as well as personal reputation to avenge. He intends to do it by having Ollie killed as well as the President and his family. Gav has been infiltrating the man's terrorist group but once Ollie is mugged on her way home, his cover, since he is her husband, is blown. Now, he, too is in danger. DC police and the Secret Service, including the special White House contingent all get into the act to capture Kern and his flunkies and to protect those who have been targeted by them. Easier said then done which brings us to the author's method of ending Ollie's adventures. But, as any good author of mystery novels and movie and TV scripts know, it is always wise to give yourself an out, should you want to revive your characters and their plots. We may get our baker's dozen, yet. We can always hope.

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So High a Blood The Story of Margaret Douglas, Niece of Henry VIII, Mother of Darnley

So High a Blood: The Life of Lady Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox by Morgan Ring
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Margaret Douglas, daughter of Henry VIII's sister. Born in Scotland into the Douglas family, she was brought to England at a young age and lived through all the tumult of Henry's marriages. She found herself in favor at times and at others was labeled, as her first cousins were on and off, a bastard. She was ignored and then she was considered a favorite in Henry's court. He treated her to many luxuries.yet there were times when she was a threat to the succession to the throne and as such found herself in the Tower.

All the players are here--Henry, Mary Tudor, with whom Margaret was quite close, Edward, Elizabeth--with whom she had her problems. Then there are the French, the Spanish, the Scots. Mary Stuart, Darnley--who was Margaret's son--and therein lies the story. Margaret was a Tudor--heir to the throne--she was a Douglas with claim to the throne of Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots was her niece and first cousin to Darnley. All of these people were Catholic but there was the whole upheaval of Protestantism and the suppression of Catholic practice. Margaret was an agile politician and manipulator, who spent at least three sessions of her life in the Tower. How she managed to keep her head, how her husband, Lennox kept his was fascinating. She was in the forefront of intrigue--sometimes in touch with the Spanish, other times in cahoots with the French--allies of Scotland, but not of England. She intended Darnley would marry Mary and he did but things went really badly there as history tells us. She had eight children--only two lived to adulthood and she and Lennox placed all their hopes and dreams in Darnley. Once he was killed ,Margaret and Lennox believed Mary was the leader in that murder, their sights moved to their grandson. James VI of Scotland, an infant, born Catholic, raised Protestant, would become the King of England, Scotland and Ireland though Margaret did not live to see her dreams fulfilled. She was so high a blood, a Tudor , with possible claim to the throne of England, who spent her life attempting to bring Scotland and England together under one Ruler and back in the good graces of Rome. At least part of her wish was fulfilled.
This is a review of the ARC provided by Goodreads and Bloomsbury.

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