Sixteen short stories all relating to water,be it rivers,seasides,estuaries, pools and so on. And ranging in style from classic murder mysteries to tales of the unexpected. Some are good,very good indeed,and some do not quite enchant me so much. But one of the great advantages and delights of these anthologies is the fact that you are introduced to different writers(some famous like Arthur Conan Doyle,C.S.Forester,Michael Innes and some now long forgotten) and their different approach to the "murder mystery". And notwithstanding the fact that some were written more than a century ago,they are still highly readable and are still a wonderfull source of bookish pleasure.

Recommendations Time!

If you like the Call the Midwife memoirs by Jennifer Worth.....then check out The Nightingales series by Donna Douglas.

If you like true crime sans murder....then check out Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald.

If you like WWII era historical romances....check out Sarah Sundin's trilogies.

If you like adventure/road trips with your romance...then check out the Tang Dynasty series by Jeannie Lin.

If you like more recent historical romances...then check out Let It Shine by Alyssa Cole or any book in the Decades: A Journey of African-American Romance series (each book in the series is written by a different author and takes place between 1910-2008ish). Decades have some of the best romance covers ever!

If you like Regency era historical romances but need more color *cough*….then check out Vanessa Riley's Advertisements in Love series.

If you like historical romances other than Regency era or another mail order bride...then check out Piper Huguley's Home to Milford College series (Reconstruction era/early Gilded Age) or Migrations of the Heart series (WWI/post war/early Jazz Age). 

Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly for November. This whole household has been sick since Thanksgiving and we are slowly recovering. Planning on setting up holiday decorations this weekend. Today we got snow showers, and tonight we even got some snow to stick to the ground; my son said that seeing the snow is makes him feel the holiday spirit.

I finished two series, March and Call of Crows. Turns out this month was not good for mysteries, as I DNF'd 3 cozy mysteries, mostly due to characters I could not get into or like enough to stay in their head for novel length of time.

Challenges:

BL/GR: 159/150

Pop Sugar: 4; 49/52 for the year

16 Festive Tasks: 16 points

Library Love: 4; 52/36 for the year (I definitely should have gone with the higher goal level)

1. Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love from the Great War by Various Authors (one story used for Pop Sugar prompt Set in 2 different time periods) - 4 stars

2. March Volume 3 by Rep John Lewis et al - 5 stars

3. A Taste of Chardonnay (Napa Wine Heiresses #1) by Heather Heyford (Library Love) - 3.5 stars

4. Check These Out by Gina Sheridan (Library Love) (Pop Sugar prompt Career Advice) - 3 stars

5. Love's First Flames (Banished Saga #0.5) by Ramona Flightner - 2 stars

6. A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs - 2.5 stars

7. The Unyielding (Call of Crows #3) by Shelley Laurenston - 5 stars

8. Through Waters Deep (Waves of Freedom #1) by Sarah Sundin - 5 stars

9. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman (Library Love) (Pop Sugar prompts Recommended by a Librarian and Story within a Story) - 4 stars

10. Reasons Mommy Drinks by Lyranda Martin-Evans and Fiona Stevenson (Library Love) - 3 stars

11. The Toymaker by Kay Springsteen - 1 star

DNFs:

12. It Had to Be You by Delynn Royer

13. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke

14. Death of a Christmas Caterer by Lee Hollis

Currently Reading

1. Unleashed (Love to the Rescue #1) by Rachel Lacey

2. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

3. Saga Volumes 2-4 by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples

4. Burning Bright: Four Chanukah Stories by Various Authors

Square 2, Part 1: Bonfire Night

Book: Love's First Flames (Banished Saga #0.5) by Ramona Flightner (fire on the cover)

Task: Here are several pictures from this year's Bonfire and Fireworks night in my town of Brandon. 

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Square 2, Part 2: Bon Om Touk 

Book: Through Waters Deep (Waves of Freedom #1) by Sarah Sundin

Task: My family loves to be near water, so finding a picture with water from our trips was not at all difficult to find. This picture was taken in February 2015 on the beach of Great Yarmouth (Norfolk county). We took our kids to the aquarium for daughter's 2nd birthday.

Total points for this square: 4

I love it when a historical romance takes on the forgotten parts to well-known history and Sarah Sundin excels at the forgotten history. This is the story of young US Navy Ensign Jim Avery is stationed in Boston on board the USS destroyer Atwood, a boat built at the Boston Naval Yards where his childhood friend Mary Stirling works as a secretary to the civilian head of the naval yard. They meet up several years after graduation when the Atwood would begin escort duties. Although Mary had a small crush on Jim in high school, he only had eyes for her best friend who happened to be the girlfriend of his best friend. So Mary kept everyone as a friend but didn't once pursue anything more from Jim. Life at the Academy and in the early days of his naval career matured Jim, who is still an easy-going guy and natural people-person. Now with those mature eyes he sees Mary in a different light but doesn't want to be seen as the goofy guy she knew in high school; his pursuit of her is slow and methodical, and doesn't seem to make a dent in her friendship with him.

Meanwhile, the war in the Atlantic is heating up and American lives are being lost long before we officially entered the war. Tensions are high at the naval yard between interventionists and isolationists and sabotage is happening with increasing frequency, putting Jim and his sailors in peril on a routine training mission. Mary is smart and has the skills and intuition to suss out the true villain. All while trying her damnest not to fall for Jim and get over her fear of public speaking/attention.

I could not put this book down! The pages flew and I just wanted more of this realistic world and the characters that inhibit it. The action scenes were intense but the characters were smart and kept their wits about them. The story takes place over the course of 1941 (starting in March and ending on December 7th) so the reader needs patience as the romance is slow building and angsty without being dark. I love how the author weaves actual history (such as the Lend-Lease agreement with Britain, the constant changes to the draft, and how lingering feelings from the Depression color some of the characters' viewpoints). It is an inspirational story, but the religious aspect is interwined with the characters and not shoe-horned in, so it feels very natural to the story. The book also passes the Bechdel test; Mary often talks to her female friends about her investigation and they help her see different angles, and Yvette (a college friend/roommate and French refugee) and Mary often speak of the war and the politics while riding the train or subway on their way to do some shopping.

One quibble I had with the story was the naval jargon, but I just skimmed most of that. Can't wait to read the other two books in the series.