I listened to all of the Ann Cleeves Vera, Shetland and Two Rivers novels and then moved to the Karen Pirie series by Val McDermid. Some themes, like fatphobia re: the main character are similar and for both Vera and the first book barely mentioned the detective until most of the book was over and … Continue reading
The mystery in You Should Have Told Me was pretty solid but I wanted to say that I enjoy reading a book where the people aren’t just upper middle class or wealthy moms, lawyers, writers, doctors etc. Janie is a reluctant unemployed mother and her partner is a guitar teacher with a low paying indie … Continue reading
All the Little-Bird Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow Continue reading
I have been working my way through all the Ann Cleeves novels as audiobooks. Wild Fire is the last Shetland book. The series isn’t as fatphobic as her Vera series but I do think Cleeves tells on herself a lot in her books. Perez is a real jerk to boss and fling Willow! I have … Continue reading
I don’t read a ton of rom-com type books but I liked Josie Silver’s first book and much like Beth O’Leary I keep reading her subsequent books and they are fine but never quite as good. A Winter in New York seemed like a good seasonal read. I don’t like reading about Christmas or snow … Continue reading
Gilly Macmillan’s books are generally pretty fun so I was looking forward to The Manor House. I do enjoy books set in weird giant houses in England! This one focused on two couples–one living in a garish smart house on the former grounds of a historic house the other couple lived in. Lots of twists … Continue reading
I want to say upfront that I received an ARC of Lost to Dune Road from NetGalley so I’m hoping the mistakes are fixed before publication. I was excited to see Kara Thomas back! I still think her YA is a little more solid than her adult fiction but this was a good start to … Continue reading
I have watched the Vera show for years along with Shetland and the short lived The Long Call. I had read the first book years ago and Vera Stanhope is only in it briefly and the book was long and the writing a little stilted so I didn’t pick up more. Then I thought to … Continue reading
I liked the idea of The Summer She Vanished but it could have done with some editing. There was a fair amount of repetition—for example the main character, Maggie, thought things like “why didn’t I think of that” about nearly every revelation. The American characters also used a lot of British terminology like “smallhold” that … Continue reading
I’m not sure this is my usual genre but it looked cute and if Susanna Hoffs can’t write about a one hit wonder than who can? I found This Bird Has Flown to be a little off. Not horrible but some core parts, to me, made little sense. I liked the premise; one does wonder … Continue reading
Rachel Reads Books 