Julie Otsuka - When the Emperor was Divine

Four months after Pearl Harbor, signs begin appearing up and down the West Coast instructing all persons of Japanese ancestry to report to 'assembly centers'. For one family - reclassified, virtually overnight, as unwelcome enemies - it is the beginning of a nightmare of oppression and alienation that will alter their lives forever.There is the mother, reeling from the order to 'evacuate', and the daughter, travelling on the long train journey away from freedom. There is the son, who struggles to adapt to their new life in the dust of the Utah desert, and the father, who, after four bitter years in captivity, returns to his family a stranger.Based on a true story, Julie Otsuka's powerful, deeply humane first novel tells of a forgotten generation who found themselves imprisoned in their own country, and evokes an unjustly overlooked episode in America's wartime history.

Comment: I'm not certain anymore why I've added this book to my TBR. This is a novella and I've added it in December 2024 so it might have been part of some best of list somewhere...

Life had been going as normal as it could when Pearl Harbour happened, and with that the existence of all people of Japanese origin in the US radically changes. There are signs telling them they need to travel to a specific place, for an undetermined period of time, and every adult understands what this means. A certain family follows the rules, a mother and her two sons, for the father is already detained somewhere, and they join the others in the long train journey and on the long stay in a camp in Utah. What they live through, what they feel while there are things that will never leave them.

I had an idea about the camps in the US where many American-Japanese citizens had been kept after 1942. I didn't know where exactly and for how long but it seems that if there is one thing we can count humankind to do is to be blind in regards to what it means to have morals. History did not teach us anything, after all, whether regarding what this books talks about or in regards to countless other examples in which a group of humans thinks they know best how to deal with other groups.

Sadly, the state of the world now only validates these "historical" novels and texts and proves that power and money do control the world and only a few manage to make the rules. How many world crimes would not have happened if only the greed of man were no more, but... 

This subject is never ending, so I will move on. This novella was quick but gave quite a punch. And, honestly, to me it wasn't so much about the situation in general, which is bad enough to think about, but the way the author wrote this based in real life facts/events. The apparently mundane, everyday routines of how the family leaves their house, coped with what happened and then returned to a life that was never the same impacted me in a much more powerful manner. Whoever else read this, the scene in which the mother "releases" the pets is.... God.

We are never given the characters' names but that, after all, is meant to not matter to those who make the rules. We follow these three in their travel and it is true that they stay there and have food and water but the psychology of what happens to them is a concept that we would spend a lifetime exploring and trying to explain. I both liked this - I do like to think about details - and disliked it because if one tries to place oneself in these people's shoes.... or anyone else somehow privy of their freedom...

The historical context should be enough to make this an easy book to understand but the real wonder is in the little things, the thoughts they have and how they all deal with what they must do and live through. While they stay at the camp, it seems as if everything is simple to follow, boring and pointless most of the time, unfair at others, and under all that who knows how many layers of feelings and sensations and thoughts that are impossible. No, this isn't a book where the author enumerates all possible things, but it does give food for thought.

After the despair and the obvious trauma of this situation, the family goes back home. Another trauma waiting because, of course, nothing can ever be the same. I bet there are many books published about this and about other returns, both from a social and a psychological POV, even if not centered on PTSD as it should, but it is impossible to avoid the fact that these people, like so many others nowadays, simply cannot be allowed to have a voice. Perhaps culture is also something to consider here, but... what stays with someone is not measurable, is it?

The fact this a novella made some things seem simplified and not even inferring made it easier. I also think maintaining the distance between the characters and the reader was good most of the time, but not always. I also would have wished for an end with a bit more of closure but I suppose this is only personal preference, since the way it does end gives that food for thought I've mentioned.

This left me thinking, that is a fact. So, I will investigate the author's other work.

Grade: 8/10

L.H. Cosway - Six of Hearts

Step right up and meet Jay Fields: Illusionist. Mentalist. Trickster.
I think in triangles. You think in straight lines.
I show you a table and make you believe it’s a chair.
Smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, misdirection. I trick and deceive.
But most of all, I put on a good show.
The world thinks I killed a man, but I didn’t. Bear with me. It’s all a part of the plan.
Revenge is what I want. I want it for me and I want it for her.
I want it for all six of us.
She doesn’t remember me, but she’s the reason for everything. She’ll be my prize at the end of all this – if I can hold onto my willpower, that is. Maybe I’ll slip up a little, have a taste, just a small one.
So go ahead and pick a card. Come inside and see the show. Look at my hands, look so closely that you can’t see what’s happening while you’re so focused on looking. I’ll be destroying your world from right here in the spotlight.
You’ll never see me coming until it’s too late.
I’ve only got one heart, and after I’ve pulled off my grand deception I’ll hand it right to her.
So, sit back, relax, and let my girl tell you our story. You’re in for one hell of a ride.

Comment: One more book by this author, whose blurb had caught my eye, to add to the list of things I have read by her. My experience has been mixed, some books seemed great, others less so. This one stays in the middle.

Matilda lives with her lawyer father and she helps him with his work, although he doesn't have a big office. To help with the money, her father decides to accept a lodger, and in comes Jay Fields, a charismatic man, an illusionist who had a lot of success in the US and is now in Ireland, apparently for work. Her connection with him is immediate and they become friends, but there's always this weird tension between them and it doesn't seem to be explained only by sexual attraction. What is Jay hiding and why, of all places, did he choose to stay with Matilda and her father? When some problems seem to come to light in regards to a trial case Jay is involved with and in which Matilda's father is helping too, will the truth be too much for Matilda?

Overall, what comes to mind when I think of this novel is "average". Everything felt kind of average to me, even though the fact Jay is an illusionist is quite the detail. In a way, this author is very clever in deciding which job/area to give to her characters, all of them are somehow linked to some cultural or artistic field. But an original activity can't be enough to sustain a plot.

This story is also told in first person by Matilda, as is the author's style. Unfortunately, here I could not fully disconnect from it and there were times where, as so often happens to me, the focus on Matilda's inner monologues was too much and gave the story an almost sense of lack of maturity. Matilda is 23, Jay is four years old, but following her thoughts made me imagine them much younger, juvenile. Of course, life experience has made them seem more mature at times and if I think about certain scenes, this is visible, but having only her POV, in this novel, kind of brought the grade down for me.

Although it is a little obvious how the characters are connected, I was still interested in seeing how the author would play out the journey until we finally have explanations. I think Jay has an interesting path in life and I can understand the reasons why he behaves the way he does while the plot develops. Matilda is less complex, but for the most part I thought she was a genuine and friendly person and while I wasn't particularly motivated to see them become a couple, I was glad they found happiness.

The romance is OK, I suppose, but it didn't impress me because it felt like they were teenagers. All of Matilda's thoughts about Jay and the weird stuff they do together go on and on so that we could have scenes with them both flirting and getting close enough for falling in love to be believable from her POV alone (she goes to a seminar to practice being comfortable talking to guys and he randomly is able to go with her). This becomes repetitive and, frankly, a little annoying after a while. I wanted more nuance and inner development, not only sexy thoughts.

The plot about the reason why Jay came to Ireland and a lawsuit he is involved with is intriguing enough, and has some cute scenes, but this is all very superficially presented. I didn't exactly mind this, but then the resolution of the legal case sets too much on situations that are too coincidental or simplistic. I liked the idea but the execution seemed a little too simple to me.

All things considered, this was an entertaining novel, had fun scenes and some silly but cute things, but it didn't really meet all the expectations I had on it. I will keep on reading things by the author, but I hope I will appreciate the next one more, whenever that happens.

Grade: 6/10

Nora Roberts - The Seven Rings

Long ago, Arthur Poole built a grand house overlooking the turbulent ocean, in a Maine village that bore his name. Today, Sonya MacTavish lives in that house—a manor that has been cursed for generations. Within its walls, she has witnessed the deaths of seven brides and the thefts of seven wedding rings. And now, to break the curse and banish a malevolent spirit once and for all, a difficult task must be completed.
After Sonya, her boyfriend, Trey, and their friends are forced to hear, see—and feel—the suffering of the house’s many ghosts as their torment is reenacted by the evil presence, their bond only strengthens and their anger is renewed. Refusing to let her spirit be broken, Sonya searches each room for clues to her ancestors’ hidden story, putting the picture together, unearthing small treasures, and uncovering the moments of joy that existed among the sorrows. She’s determined to bring light to this haunted place—to fill it with people, with life and hope, once again.
But the enemy in the black dress continues to hover, to come at her in frightening forms. They may be illusions—but illusions can be powerful enough to wound and kill. She feeds on fear, and lies are her weapon. This dark-hearted witch wants to be mistress of Poole Manor, at any cost. And Sonya will need to fight a battle across two realms to finally take possession of the house on the clifftop—and of her own future…

Comment: This is the third and final installment in the Lost Bride trilogy by Nora Roberts. I liked the first book, thought the second to be unnecessary and this third one felt like a good enough conclusion but that was it.

After realizing that she needs to find the seven rings so that the manor where she plans to live becomes free from the evil ghost of Hester Dobbs, Sonya decides she won't give up the search even with some setbacks. Along with boyfriend Trey, friend Cleo and cousin Owen, she goes on with her routines but she also makes an effort to find the clues which lead her to the rings, even if that increases the anger of the ghost. But Sonya has built a life here now and she wants to help those around her, as well as the other ghosts trapped in the manor. But will she succeed before the ghost of Hester does her most daring attempt yet?

I will repeat what I said about the second book, which was, in my opinion, avoidable: this story, all three installments combined, would have made for a much better standalone. Certainly, with less elements but to be honest, the scenes we are given in these three books, especially the 2nd and 3rd ones, could have been easily edited into a single story. Or, as the author often did in the past, if each book were to be focused on a different main couple, perhaps that sequence between books would not feel as repetitive.

The first book presented the idea and developed things in a likable way, mainly because I like the author's style. The second was a constant repetition of the same thing and this third book concluded loose threads, which was obviously intentional but at the same time it maintained a certain superficiality and thinness of plot that surprised me a little negatively, since I know the author has done so much better in her past.

Basically, nothing major happens and what does happen could be summarized into half the pages, I'd say. In fairness, I had a good enough time reading and being involved in the comfort of the routines in these characters' lives, but  that isn't enough. Sonya and the others accomplished the necessary tasks to defeat the evil ghost, they do find the clues about the rings, we get to see a (very) quick resolution to her past with Brandon, we see a perfect bow to their personal lives, as couples - Sonya and Trey, Cleo and Owen - but all this was shared in such a polished, perfect writing style that it read to me as lacking passion, a touch of drama and some unpredictability, which the author was known for.

Everything about Sonya and those around her fits the perfect mold of the idea the author imagined. This is good, all things well aligned, but there is no real challenge into what is happening. Even the whole quest about the rings and such is terribly superficial, well used in each scene and idea and it was, frankly, boring. I also missed some more character interaction, mainly with the secondary characters, who were all perfectly established in Sonya's sphere and played a role, didn't read as real people.

I especially disliked how the romances were presented. No passion, no angst, no real doubt on whether they would see each other differently, no slow falling in love while wondering what was the other that appealed to them. The romances were consensual and practically discusses as a given, so no sexual tension nor self awareness, which was something the author did wonderfully in other books. I mean, the author is very talented, a perfect user of the craft, as she likes to call it, but the result in this trilogy was, for me, as if this was a computer program of steps to accomplish, and not an always heartfelt story.

Thus, it was good to pass the time, and I did finish but I won't feel like re-reading as I still do other novels by her.

Grade: 7/10

L.A. Witt - Shot on Goal

The Vancouver Narwhals’ star goalie. The New York Krakens’ head coach. This can’t possibly be a recipe for disaster.
Goalie Brad Spencer is flying high after his team clinches the Cup and names him their MVP. Like his teammates, he’s ready to celebrate—ideally with someone in his bed. When he slips off to a gay bar, he meets someone who’s gorgeous, willing, and… absolutely the last man he should be touching.
Head coach Anthony Caruso just wants to have a few drinks and get laid to soothe the sting of his team losing the Cup. Then that ridiculously sexy player from the opposing team strolls into the club. The chemistry is instantaneous, and a mountain of PHL regulations can’t keep them apart. After all, it’s just a hookup.
And then another hookup. And then a summer getaway that’s just enough time and privacy for them to get in way over their heads. When the hockey season starts up again, they walk away… but they can’t stay away.
Anthony and Brad value their careers way too much to be this reckless, but they’ve both been alone for way too long to ignore these feelings.
Sooner or later, though, something has to give, and one of them is going to have to choose between the man he loves and the sport he lives for.

Comment: This is the third installment in the Pucks and Rainbows trilogy by LA Witt. I have read the first last month but skipped the second book because it would feature a romance between three guys. Nothing against it but it's not a relationship dynamic I'm interested in, so I've jumped to this third story instead.

In this story we meet Brad Spencer and Anthony Caruso, goalkeeper and coach of two opposed teams which have just played each other and Brad's team won the cup. As a celebration, Brad checks out a gay bar where he hopes to find someone to spend the night with and who else would be there but Caruso, the only openly gay coach in the league. They hit it off and decide to spend the night... then Bard invites Anthony to spend a week with him, and they they mutually agree to spend the whole summer together... but reality and their jobs won't allow them to be a couple. How will they cope or will they need to stop seeing each other?

I liked the previous book in this trilogy but didn't love it. In fact, I liked the cover more than the story (this book's is also gorgeous) but the blurb of this book seemed to captivate me and I hoped this would be a good story, better than the previous one.

Although this one and the first - and the second, which I haven't read - all feature characters in the same universe, hockey players, I mean, the plots are independent and the characters are only referenced, and from what I understood, it's not important if one reads in order or not. Still, it was nice to have the main character of the first book named here once or twice and I could know who he was.

Brad and Anthony are two people who should not match, and not only due to their roles in their respective teams. I can see how a relationship between a player and a coach of an opposed team would be too hard to maintain, especially if this is at a professional level, one only needs to think about real life and the repercussions of it and how it would affect several things. Still, to me, the forbidden aspect was never a thing because these two are falling in love and as with so many other sports novels out there featuring rivals who fall in love, this is the fun part to see developed.

I think it was also a good idea to have the guys in teams that don't play each other often, only at decisive moments, because it certainly made the opposition seem less important if real feelings are involved. Of course, this means the relationship struggles with long distance and if this wasn't a romance, the odds of they holding on to it in a steady way would seem very weak. I liked it how the author played things out and the "solution" in the end was rather predictable. I still preferred it to something unrealistic, so..

Brad and Anthony have very different personalities but I think the way the author established that they were falling in love and what was special about the other in this situation, with this sequence of events seemed intriguing and I wanted to see them being happy and finding a way to make it work. I also liked the way the sport they played and their professional roles being key to how they dealt with the potential discovery of their relationship. Perhaps what was lacking was a more obvious interaction with the secondary characters, namely their teams. This does happen but only close to the end of the book and I think to have these dynamics more would have been important.

I won't analyse how well the sport is portrayed since I don't know any rules about ice hockey, but when it comes to the way this affected Anthony's behavior in leading a team, and in how Brad felt when things weren't as great for him as a player, I think the sport was key enough to make these things seem important and why it influenced their decisions as much as it was made to seem.

All things considered, this was a good enough story. I think there was something extra missing, that special thing that made me like other novels more and a few others even less, but I would not mind re-reading this one, if I were to have time one day...

Grade: 8/10

Meljean Brook - Demon Angel

Half-demon, half-human, Lillith is bound by a bargain with the devil and forbidden to feel pleasure. She draws upon her dark powers and serpentine grace to lead men into temptation. That is, until she faces her greatest temptation, Heaven's own Sir Hugh Castleford. Once a knight and now a Guardian, Hugh's purpose has always been to thwart Lillith, even as he battles treacherous hunger for her. When a deadly alliance unleashes a threat to humans and Guardians angel and demon are forced to fight together against evil and against a passionate desire for each other.

Comment: I had this book in the pile since 2010, a time when I was still very much invested in paranormal romance, and I thought the premise to be captivating.

Hugh and Lilith have been in opposed sides of a war between Heaven and Hell for centuries but deep down they both want something out of the other. Lilith wants to defeat Hugh and he wants to somehow redeem her. It seems their battle will be never ending, at least until a mutual threat makes it necessary for them to join forces. Will such an alliance be the way they needed to finally learn more about one another and see what has always been in front of them?

I have read several books by this author, from her other series, and have liked all those stories. I was also, at a time, eager to read the Guardians series, in which this Demon Angel is included, and even more so when it seemed there were many installments to look for. Still, despite getting this book before the others, somehow I got to them first and this one stayed behind. And stayed....

Now, sixteen years later, I've finally decided to start it. Sadly, it ended up being a DNF because I just could not get into the story. Not surprising, as often happens in a situation like this, time and my personal taste have evolved and I no longer feel the patience to read this genre as I used to. I mean, I still like PNR but now the story has to be something extra for me to want to immerse myself in such a new world. Had I read this back then I might have liked it, but now I simply don't feel the vibe.

I've read 110 pages and they were all of Lilith and Hugh on a cat and mouse game, kind of, and while the possibilities seemed intriguing, I just didn't want to read the huge amount of pages left (my paperback edition had more than 400 total) to see them get their HEA. So, I've stopped and glimpsed the end. I think the writing is competent and captivating, but the characters didn't convince me, not in the way they were being developed.

This author published her last book under this name in 2014. She has voiced how difficult it has been to find motivation and eagerness to write the stories fans were waiting for in the ongoing series she had. After that she has written other things under a pseudonym, which I have not read. Perhaps she will never return to these worlds, but her stories are always incredible, that's a fact. It's just my poor timing that cannot appreciate this Demon Angel.

Grade: DNF

Jenny Colgan - Operation Sunshine

Evie needs a good holiday. Not just because she’s been working all hours in her job, but also because every holiday she has ever been on in her life has involved sunburn, arguments and projectile vomiting – sometimes all three at once. Why can’t she have a normal holiday, like other people seem to have – some sun, sand, sea and (hopefully) sex?

So when her employers invite her to attend a conference with them in the south of France, she can’t believe her luck. It’s certainly going to be the holiday of a lifetime – but not quite in the way Evie imagines!

Comment: I was given this book for my birthday last year, or the year before. Terrible friend that I am, only now did I pick this but since I have previously liked some books by this author (others a little less) I hoped I might like this one too.

Evie is a receptionist at a plastic surgery clinic and she dreams of having a wonderful holiday, even though her past experiences haven't been anything to look up to. She hasn't much money and she doesn't have anyone who would want to share holidays the way she envisions, but everything changes when her bosses tell her about a work related conference, which will happen in the south of France. Evie is eager to accept, and she immediately imagines all the fun she will have in between work stuff, but when she arrives, she realizes her ideas won't really happen as she planned, and a sudden situation changes her whole perspective on how her life has been.... will Evie save the day?

I've seen that this is one of the author's early books and I think it really shows. The writing style isn't as polished and the plot as organized as in the books I have enjoyed the most by her. In fact, if I didn't know, I'd say someone else had written this, perhaps someone with a similar style to Sophie Kinsella, considering the tone of the story and the shenanigans the characters find themselves doing.

The plot is quite weak, honestly, because while the ideas behind it are meaningful- is plastic surgery and the advance in the techniques for the procedures worth the price of testing when no one really knows at what cost? - the way the characters behave and the sequence of situations feel like a very poor comedy. My biggest struggle with this story was believing that the characters had to go on about it the way they did. I can understand the point was to be more on the comedy side than not, but this really felt poorly executed.

Evie and the others somehow find themselves in France for a conference on medical procedures or such, and they also get involved with a secret plan to test stuff in ways that the authorities would not catch them. Of course, while this happens, plenty off misunderstanding and unlikely situations need to take place, which is why the story lacks any kind of interest for me.

Perhaps it is fairer to say that the real issue is characterization. All the characters were caricatures, were superficially portrayed and lacked nuance and depth. I don't think there is one single character here I liked, even though there isn't one I hated either, mostly because I felt pretty indifferent to the whole thing. I feel that, perhaps, the author only had a general idea of what she wanted to do with this story and she stayed at the basics with the characters. To me, it isn't enough.

Evie is a good person and she has a quiet life, which means her dreams of a wonderful holiday aren't that our of proportion. But I think the way things progress for her to go to the south of France and everything that happens after was just too much of a coincidence, even in such a silly story. I also think her character was misused, even though her heart is, mostly, in the right place. Sadly, I just can't with how her behavior is too juvenile and irresponsible! Yes, this is a comedy, but the way she goes on with things makes me pity her naivete, not feel she was given an impossible task.

It was quite a task for me, in fact, to finish the book but thankfully, it wasn't a long book. The end was rushed, almost abrupt, and the way things were dealt with in regards to the plot felt inconsistent and ridiculous. I just cannot take anything here in a serious way and that really brought my impressions of the book down. There are some interesting ideas and stereotypes about plastic surgery patients and secondary subjects which I think had merit and made me curious but, well, the execution didn't fully deliver.

Grade: 5/10

Louise Penny - A Fatal Grace

Welcome to winter in Three Pines, a picturesque village in Quebec, where the villagers are preparing for a traditional country Christmas, and someone is preparing for murder.
No one liked CC de Poitiers. Not her quiet husband, not her spineless lover, not her pathetic daughter—and certainly none of the residents of Three Pines. CC de Poitiers managed to alienate everyone, right up until the moment of her death.
When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, of the Sûreté du Québec, is called to investigate, he quickly realizes he's dealing with someone quite extraordinary. CC de Poitiers was electrocuted in the middle of a frozen lake, in front of the entire village, as she watched the annual curling tournament. And yet no one saw anything. Who could have been insane enough to try such a macabre method of murder—or brilliant enough to succeed?
With his trademark compassion and courage, Gamache digs beneath the idyllic surface of village life to find the dangerous secrets long buried there. For a Quebec winter is not only staggeringly beautiful but deadly, and the people of Three Pines know better than to reveal too much of themselves. But other dangers are becoming clear to Gamache. As a bitter wind blows into the village, something even more chilling is coming for Gamache himself.

Comment: This is the second book in the Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny, whose first book I have read last year. This time, as then, it's because my buddy read friend and I have decided to read this series and we will try to do it in the following months.

In this second adventure, inspector Gamache and his team return to the quiet village of Three Pines to investigate the murder of CC de Poitiers, a socialite-alike who claims to have the perfect life teachings everyone needs and she plans to expand her philosophy Be Calm, mostly through a book and a deal with an American company. The problem is that CC herself is a despicable person and clearly someone has enough of her. The question is, why and why in Three Pines? What reason could this person, very much a city and luxury person at that, have to stay in Three Pines and even buy a house there?

I had a very good experience reading the first book in this series and I certainly assumed that reading this second one would be as good. I saw that there is even a TV series based on these books, apparently focused mainly on the events in this installment and I will check it out when I can, to compare. This story was as engaging as the previous one had been and I really felt myself "in the zone" reading it.

The mystery is very well planned. I keep being positively surprised by author's imagination in thinking about details and in how putting them together so that the big picture makes sense. For instance, the victim of this story, CC, is murdered by electrocution. Never would I think about all the necessary scientific elements and such that would make it a possibility, the way it was described, but it does add drama and gives off a certain "vibe", which made the experience of connecting the dots so much more interesting.

To be fair, the final explanation for the elaborated murdering was a little convoluted, considering what we learn in terms of red herrings, but the actual motif and the way the killer was portrayed at the end really gave me food for thought. I suppose this is the author's intention, according to her introductory note, that the point of these books is not only the investigation of a crime and all that is related to that task, but the study of human behavior and human psychology.

The characters in this book are all quite complex and added to the author's writing style it seems that everyone is slightly more mysterious than what they seem, I kind of like this tactic, this notion of being lead to believe that everyone has inner depths not immediately seen and that by observation and characters interacting, we get to peel off layers and nuances. Many authors cannot do this but I think it's a great way to not only perceive things but also to be captivated by the characters and what they do, what drives them... of course this might sound a little exaggerated for some readers.

All the secondary characters in this book were captivating and the little things we learn about them make them seem more important at times and then annoying at others. I do think that inspector Gamache does sound a little condescending at times but he is such a good guy, has unshakable principles and I keep rooting for him to succeed. Again, the way he connects the dots about what happened during this investigation was very interesting and made me think too.

The element I'e found weakest here was close to the end, when a certain situation happens and we get kind of mislead on the reasons for why it happened. I thought that the whole scenario was too melodramatic and when we know why it happened, what motivated the ones who did it to do it, even being aware of their psychological state of mind, their personalities, I was still a little disappointed, because it didn't make sense, not the way it was. I'd change this whole section, honestly.

That aside, this was a great story. I'm more than sold on the idea of continuing with the series.

Grade: 8/10

Jayne Castle - Midnight Crystal

For many earthly centuries, a legendary curse has plagued the Winters family, stemming from the tumultuous founding of the Arcane Society. But now, on the futuristic world of Harmony, the curse's final mystery will be unraveled... Head of the ghost hunters guild Adam Winters and dreamlight reader extraordinaire Marlowe Jones must break the curse, save Harmony's entire underworld-and fight a passion that could destroy them both.

Comment: This is the 7th installment in the Ghost Hunters series by Jayne Castle. It can be confusing to place the installments, actually, because the author does plenty of crossovers with other series she has under other names and pseudonyms and this title is also listed as part of two others. 
Still, I have only been interested in this specific Ghost Hunters one.

Marlowe and Adam come from families which have historically been adversaries. Now that their descendants live in Harmony, they are the ones who need to deal with sort of curse, which can only be fixed by finding the midnight crystal, a device of a kind that has special powers. If the wrong people find it, they might cause harm to many people, but the problem first is to find it. Marlowe and Adam join forces after a clue about is location is shared but will they get to it on time before someone else does it? And will they be able to separate the task at hand from the personal feelings they suddenly start having for one another?

I'm certain I have said this before, but the books in this series are both comforting and predictable if one has read more than one, but also full of great ideas and descriptions if it's a new discovery. This said, for me it is already like a comfort read although I should say that it also means some things are just too repetitive and don't really seem very stimulating anymore.

The plot is quite simple, the main characters are seeking a special artifact, created a long time ago by members of their families, and because they were enemies back then, they have always been in opposed sides of what it meant to find it. Now, with a way of life that is so different from anything their ancestors knew, Adam and Marlowe, the youngest of both their families, are finally putting an end to the "curse". In fact, there is no curse, only some forces at hand, derivative of alchemy.

I liked this story enough but to be honest, it wasn't as incredible as others in the sere have been. The setting and everything related to it, yes, and the dust bunnies remain as wonderful as ever, no doubt about it, but the plot is quite repetitive. As I've said, this doesn't have to be an issue, if one starts reading already expecting this, but there were still some transitions here and there that felt a little dull. I also think the two or three scenes we got from the POV of secondary characters were avoidable, and having them just made those sections feel jarring.

Perhaps, an element the author could improve on - but I can already guess this won't happen, since it is her trademark, in all of her pseudonyms (I have tried three) - is the romance development. These stories all revolve around the same pattern/formula, whether the protagonist just met each other or not, which is like this: they talk because of business, they immediately have the "magical" vibes letting them know the other person is their intended soulmate, they face some tasks and problems, they help each other, they have sex and they just accept they are it for one another.

There's nothing wrong with a formula if it works, and it certainly does work for the types of plots the author envisioned for these series, but even allowing for this, there is a lot an author can still do in terms of romance. In my opinion, the author relies too much on the formula and her characters simply seem cardboard of one another, everyone is pretty much the same, apart from names, physical descriptions and one or two other minor details. I just wish the romance part would be more exciting and the characters would have more personality and depth. Even interactions with others would improve the story but every character is a little stereotypical.

This aside, reading this book was entertaining enough and it does fit a purpose, in the sense that I knew what I would get and I knew this would be a quick read. However, it wasn't the most interesting installment for me.

Grade: 6/10

Kristin Hannah - The Four Winds

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.
In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

Comment: This is the third book by the author I try this year. Of her four most recent books, which are all labeled as "women's fiction" and "historical fiction" (opposed to her earlier novels which seem more a mix of romance and woman's fiction), this is the one I have liked the least.

Elsa Martinelli and her family live in Texas, in the early s, when the Great Depression hits their farm, as well as everyone else's. Things become practically impossible but most farmers hold on to the hope that next year, surely, rain will come and the land will start to recover. Elsa gained everything when she married Rafe even though their relationship wasn't set on love. She gained a father and mother in law and a daughter, and then a son, and a land she loves with all of her being. The only reason she contemplates leaving for California, where the opportunities seem to be there for everyone who seeks them, is due to her son's health. Little Anthony won't last long in a place where dust is everywhere, but will the price to survive be too high for this family? Will they make it?

Just like all the other readers going into this book, I knew the plot would not be a happy one for most of the time and if things were to follow the same pattern I had seen in the other books I had read by this author, then it would be obvious that a lot of despair and sadness would co-exist with simple happy moments.

In fact, it was so and more: I think this book had a much higher amount of despairing scenes than the other way around and a good part of the reason I didn't enjoy it as much was due to this. I can see why the story couldn't be light, and I can understand why the author felt like stressing out the terrible possibilities of what happened in real life for countless people during those times, but as a fictional novel I also expected some balance. However, everything seemed to be too harsh, all the time.

I'd say the only time things seemed easier were at first, when Elsa leaves her family to live with her new one. Still, even this was not easy to go through, but I always thought the author would find a way to counterbalance the bad things with some later period of more calm or stability, like in The Great Alone and The Women, which also had heroines going through very harsh periods and then, at some point, even without a traditional HEA one sees in romance novels, they found ways to have a life in which they could think and plan and have some peace, even at a personal cost.

I don't think I saw that here and felt that Elsa just suffered through so much in a way that felt unbalanced because she had no real support system while she was in California, at least not like when she had while in Texas. Of course, this has to be intentional, so that we can try to imagine how many suffered with things we now feel are way too far from our reality, but while reading I've kept thinking that Elsa and the others being dealt a terrible fate were shown only a version of events and it shouldn't. I get it that the point was to highlight the traumas and the unfairness of those who lived what Elsa did, but the quiet, happy moments weren't enough. Reading this novel was tiring by how sad it was.

Personally, I'm not fond of misery to simply make one emotional. I don't mind characters going through hard times if at some point that pays off somehow. I don't really feel we were given this here, considering how the book ends. I really feel annoyed at that, but I can accept why it works for other readers and why the author might have imagined it would increase the ideas she conveyed. Perhaps, if the characters surrounding Elsa had really been good secondary characters... the way things happened, apart from her son Anthony, everyone else felt too distant from her, as if only playing a role, to better contrast with per personality.

After finishing, I've checked some negative reviews - to see if it was for the same reasons I felt like giving this a 3 star rating - and saw that no, the majority of negative reviews I saw were so because of how the author portrayed Communism in the book. I really won't go into it because it would certainly offend someone but... what a ridiculous reason to downgrade this book. I mean... well, I should not care because everyone can have an opinion, but some people really have a very short span of awareness.

This book was certainly a very realistic one regarding the time period portrayed and how many families were affected without having much to hope for. I understand, but I still wish the author had included some more positive slices of life or even a conclusion to the Martinellis.

Grade: 6/10

A.J. Demas - The House of the Red Balconies

Hylas has come to Tykanos to build an aqueduct. He has not come to enjoy the island’s main attraction, the six houses where the companions of Tykanos, courtesans both female and male, offer tea and elegant conversation. Yet he cannot ignore them as he finds himself renting a room in one of the tea houses and meeting his neighbour, the beautiful, chronically ill companion Zo.
Over breakfasts in Zo’s garden, the two men begin a friendship that transforms the isolation of their lives. But Hylas’s aqueduct project is threatened by bureaucratic delays, and Zo is pressured to secure a rich patron to help support his failing house. When they have begun to hope that they have found a home in each other, the world seems intent on forcing them apart.

Comment: I saw a recommendation for this book at a site I usually check and this one seemed to contain a quiet, cozy type of plot, and I was interested in seeing why readers liked it.

Hylas is an engineer who travels to the island of Tykonos to help with the construction of an aqueduct. However, things don't happen at the speed he imagined and there is a lot of talking and planning that leads to no real plans. While he becomes used to the pace of the island, he rents a room at a tea house, which he learns later is actually a pleasure house. he decides he doesn't need to partake but after a while he starts to become friends with the cook and the waiter and even some of the companions. He especially likes the company of his neighbor Zo, and he feels they are becoming very good friends. But is it only friendship or will they discover that there is more uniting them than that?

This is the first book I try by this author. I only knew that her stories are mostly set in fictional worlds which resemble ancient civilizations, kind of similar to ancient Greece and/or the Roman empire. The descriptions and setting are actually very alike what I remember from this in school and I think it was almost too easy to try to imagine what I knew of those civilizations as inspiration for what I was reading here.

The writing was smooth and fluid and I had a good time going through this story. I think the vibe is a little moody, not exactly sad or depressing, but there is this vibe of things not being always, completely secure in how they can or will work out. I mean, I imagined this would have an HEA but the main characters were facing some issues, mostly related to their lives and not as much their feelings, that made me think their path to happiness would not be simple.

The plot is not really the important element here. Basically Hylas is in the island for a work project but as often happens, he isn't able to do things the way he planned because there are always some weird/unknown rules in how things work, and sometimes they don't make much sense, something that an be seen as a cultural issue. Stereotyping places and cultures is the same, and we can infer that things in Tykonos aren't rushed, even though building the aqueduct is necessary. Thankfully, by the end of the book, it seems doing this construction might become a reality.

Therefore, the really key element here is the personal relationships and how Hylas discovers something new about himself by having had the experience of interacting with others, namely Zo. Their romance isn't fast, isn't insta-love and doesn't seem to set in uncontrollable passion. Still, I liked how sweet they were together once they started becoming closer. I think the author developed things in such a way that we get to appreciate the time it took for them to get used to the other nearby - their apartments in the tea house are door to door if I got it correctly - and then to think of the other romantically.

Hylas seemed to be someone very lonely and we get little glimpses of why, although the author really doesn't waste too much time with past details or explanations. I kind of like this method of giving the reader little hints, this way it makes seeing how characters deal with things a more rewarding exercise. Hylas is a shy, quiet person and I wanted him to feel comfortable in finding someone who could love him as he deserves.

Zo is probably a bit more complex and, to be honest, we learn something about him closer to the end that I didn't expect but I guess the author never meant for that information to be a big deal or for it to define who Zo is supposed to be. However, there were times where he was a bit abrupt (in my opinion, maybe others didn't see this) and I wasn't always fond of his behavior. Thankfully, for a tea house environment, there wasn't much about what the companions like Zo did that bothered me. But I can't help thinking that it would have been as interesting if the main characters weren't in a pleasure house... the actual setting could have been anything else and the main conflicts would not need to change much.

In the end, things work out at most levels but I will say that the happy ending wasn't one where only great, cute, amazing things suddenly become possible. The end is rather sedate and within the limits set by the author. This is good, realistic for that situation. Still, I would not have minded something "extra" regarding every thing, not just the romance aspects.

Grade: 8/10

TBR Challenge: Lisa Sandlin - The Do-Right

1959. Delpha Wade killed a man who was raping her. Wanted to kill the other one too, but he got away. Now, after fourteen years in prison, she's out. It's 1973, and nobody's rushing to hire a parolee. Persistence and smarts land her a secretarial job with Tom Phelan, an ex-roughneck turned neophyte private eye. Together these two pry into the dark corners of Beaumont, a blue-collar, Cajun-influenced town dominated by Big Oil. A mysterious client plots mayhem against a small petrochemical company-why? Searching for a teenage boy, Phelan uncovers the weird lair of a serial killer. And Delpha -- on a weekend outing -- looks into the eyes of her rapist, the one who got away. The novel's conclusion is classic noir, full of surprise, excitement, and karmic justice. Sandlin's elegant prose, twisting through the dark thickets of human passion, allows Delpha to open her heart again to friendship, compassion, and sexuality.

Comment: It's July already and time for another TBR Challenge post. The theme for this month is "freedom!" and what came to mind right away was a story with someone gaining freedom, therefore when I realized that this book had a heroine who had just gotten out of prison.... ta-da!

In this book we meet heroine Delpha Wade, who has been in prison for 14 years for manslaughter. Delpha killed a man who had raped her and she just barely missed killing the other one, who had been the father of her rapist. Delpha paid her dues and now is out and she only wants to have  quiet life and for that she needs to have a job which, she is aware, will not be easy to get. Still, somehow, she finds herself getting two, helping with Jessie who is a n old lady in need of a carer for the nights and then becoming the secretary of private investigator Tom Phelan. Delpha is eager to prove her skills and her worth, in spite of her prison record, and she soon finds out that life in Beaumont, Texas, has people being connected in many situations....

It shouldn't be a thing for me to be this interested in protagonists who leave jail and then have to get a whole new life. Still, it seems this is, indeed, a theme I'm interested in and I confess that when I saw the blurb for this, although the labels mention historical fiction and mystery, my first reaction was to assume that Delpha might find love too and that this story would include some romance. 

Sadly for me, it wasn't exactly so and Delpha's journey is really more about her getting back her sense of freedom than anything else. The plot is also more focused on the protagonists solving the little mysteries they need to investigate and not as much on their personal lives. I get it even if it disappoints me a little, but then I've started to become a bit confused because there were plenty of tasks both Delpha and Tom had to do, and I thought this big amount of subjects seemed to be rather random.

Of course, we learn it isn't so and most of the cases they look into are somehow related, even if in a simple manner. We also get to see them deal with little things, in Tom's case, more cases and his personal relationships, and in Delpha's mostly with her other job. Somehow, even these things are connected but things got to a point where I felt lost. The biggest issue for me ended up being the writing style. It's very jarring, not always offering a linear sequence of events and sometimes I was thinking "what does this matter, why is this relevant now?" and many things were certainly too subtle for me to understand.

Thus, my issue with the writing style. This is the first book by this author that I have tried but I think the choice of writing things in the (I suppose) traditional style of the south in the early 1970s, with both expressions and references, made this a complicated task for me in terms of language. I did not understand some things nor how they would be perceived and I think my lack of knowledge was more because of the semantics and expressions than plot issues. It was sometimes frustrating how the characters would go from one scene doing something/thinking a certain idea and in the next paragraph the reference was already about something else.

Due to this, reading the book became like going through a task and it was not fun to get to know these characters as much as I imagined. All personal musings and experiences were shared in such a way that I don't feel compelled to want to know more besides what has been told in this book. I wanted Delpha to go through situations which would validate her past experiences so that she would feel her freedom as something even better than what she tells us. I wanted Tom to be more sensitive to what happened to her and for them to be more clearly a team.

The resolution of the several mysteries and how everything was related was done well enough. I think the bones of this story were great and the many elements were all intriguing on their own. I just didn't really appreciate how the story was told, even though it does seem the writing was competent.

Grade: 6/10