I read 15 books this month!  Here's the run down:

The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden: A young adult paranormal with vampires, but very un-Twilight like.  Review. 

The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson: A historical mystery set in the Marshalsea gaol. Review. 

Echoes by Michael Bray:  The Second Book in the Whispers trilogy, horror/ thriller. Review

Six Million Accusers: Catching Adolf Eichman by D. Lawrence Young:  A historical documentary novel about the Mosad catching a Nazi war criminal set in post WWII. Review

Prisoner of the Queen by Eliza Knight:  Historical fiction set in the Tudor Court about Katherine Gray, sister to Jane Gray. Review.

The Bone Church by Victoria Dougherty:  A heavy historical thriller set in WWII era Prague. Review. 

Phantom's Dance by Lesa Howard: A modern re-telling of The Phantom of the Opera set in the ballet world. Review.

Changeless by Gail Carriger:   The second book in the Parasol Protectorate series, a fun steampunk, paranormal romance.  Review. 

Birds of the Nile by N.E. David: Contemporary, literary fiction the combined the political issues in Egypt and ornithology. Review

The Lost Catacomb by Shifra Hochberg:  A historical dual-time story about a lost treasure, family secrets and Vatican conspiracy. Review. 

Schasm and Fissure Free by Shari J. Ryan: The first two books in the Schasm series, a new adult, fantasy, psychological thriller series about a young woman who can live in her dreams. Schasm review, Fissure Review. 

A Triple Knot by Emma Campion: Historical Fiction about Joan of Kent, who was eventually the wife of Edward the Black Prince.  Review.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell: Contemporary family drama dealing with many different issues.  Review

Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon: Young adult gothic thriller, about a young boy and girl who find themselves in an incredible adventure. Review. 

Wow, a great reading month!  My favorite read by far was Marina, other top reads were the Schasm series, Casquette Girls and Prisoner of the Queen.  Not so favorite read was The Bone Church.  

Did you enjoy any of these books or are you looking forward to reading any of these books?

Here we are again with the monthly roundup of what  read in July. Most of them were ARC's but that should change next month and I can go to reading what I want and feel like, for a while anyways :)

All the release dates and buy links should be in the reviews of the books which I will link as always;) 

Never Been Kissed by Molly O'Keefe 

4 ½ ★

You can find my full review here

The Firefighter's Appeal by Elizabeth Otto

4 ½★

You can find my full review here 

Guilt by Degrees by Marcia Clark

3 ½★

You can find my review here

Isis, Vampires and Ghosts - Oh My! By Janis Hill

1 ½★

You can find my review here

Fool's Assassin by  Robin Hobb

3 ½ ★

You can find my review here

Born of Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

4 ★

You can find my review here

Amity by Micol Ostow

3 ★

You can find my review here 

Rising Tide: Dark Innocence by Claudette Melanson

4 ½ ★

You can find my review here

Accidentally Married on Purpose by Rachel Harris 

4 ★

You can find my review here 

The Arrow by Monica McCarty 

3★

You can find my review here

The Circle by K.M. Montemayor

3 ★

You can find my review here

So I Married a Werewolf by Kristin Miller

4★

You can find my review here

Zomburbia by Adam J. Gallardo

4★

You can find my review here

Sleepy Hollow: Children of the Revolution by Keith R.A. DeCandido

2 ½ ★

You can find my review here

Bite Me, I'm Yours by Stacy McKitrick 

3 ½★

You can find my review here

Indecent Proposal by Molly O'Keefe

4 ½ ★

You can find my review here

This months was...average. With three books that were average, one which was great and one which was boooooooooooring.

Next goal: Finishing Sword and Blood (basically Three Musketeer Fanfiction WITH VAMPIRES...cheesy and silly but quite nice)

Aristotle and Dante was my five star read.  It was an excellent young adult in which the main characters seemed true, and all of the parents were actually present, involved and adult.

i indulged in two Artful Dodger updates, both of which were enjoyable and seemed true to the Dickens-verse he's taken from.  And thanks to Lora's Rants, there are several other Dodger titles added on to my TBR list.

Time Shifters, a time travel story with sinister and mysterious overtones, came from another Lora recommendation, and I loved it.  Book 2 is out now and it too made it on to my overloaded list.  (It's all Lora's fault.  I'd say I need to quit reading Lora, but I like her postings too much! So, no.)

Written In My Own Heart's Blood, the long-awaited Addition to Diane Gabaldon's Outlander series -- so worth the wait!  Except, did anybody else have serious misgivings about the action that took place at the end?  I suppose there was no way that was ever not going to happen, but I really don't like it that it did.  My 21st century sensibilities kicking in, I suppose.  But . . .

Eleanor, by Jason Gurley. I don't know what it is. Part time travel, part ghost story, part tragedy, part pathos, part coming-of-age, part love story, part fairy tale.  Whatever it is, it's fabulous.  And beautiful.  I'm still thinking about this one.  I'll still be thinking about this one at the end of the year.

and last but not least, Taxi Cab to Wichita, another one that defies categorization.  Going in, I thought it was a crime spree, and that we would be witnessing murder and mayhem, experiencing terror and menace.  But it wasn't that at all.  It turned into a road trip with a quest, and before the end the characters were redeemed, and the best part of all was the Wizard of Oz bits that just kept cropping up and before you knew it, well, it was Oz all over again, but in a new way, with a twist.  I will definitely be looking for the next book by this author.

next, August excitement.  Rubbing hands gleefully.  can't wait!

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, once I actually thought about it, it was quite noticeable that one of the main conflicts didn’t come around to be presented until about 60% into the book--the reason why Lacey has suddenly been targeted for murder as well as the significance of her grandfather’s paintings. Of course, there was a very glaringly obvious reason (greed for her Granddad’s unsigned paintings), but there was, of course, a very deliberate, underlying conspiracy to the entire ordeal.

Of course there was. Because greed would be too easy of a motive, especially since we learn that the aim of the game was to burn Grandpa Rainbow’s paintings rather than acquire them for money. But just from the summary on the book jacket alone, we are already told that the paintings are much more significant than being priceless works of art. Heck, even the Prologue hints at the paintings being more significant.

It just felt kind of insulting that we didn’t get straight to the point and had to poke around in the dark like the reader didn’t already know what was going down and would be surprised by the reveal.

However, for the first half of the book, we simply follow a series of “unfortunate crimes” all aimed at the paintings Lacey has brought into the light with nothing else to go on. As far as crime thrillers are concerned, there was quite a bit of meandering before we’re even told that there’s something darker stirring among the characters introduced in this book than we’re being lead to believe.

If I had thought that there were too many characters and situations to keep up with in the previous book, Running Scared, this book probably has it beat simply because there were simply too many names, relationships and fuzzy histories in the Savoy family to keep track of. And all of those incidents had to do with people who were already dead and only got a mention in passing.

The story in this book was ridiculously scattered, unlike the previous few books I have read, written by Elizabeth Lowell. There’s enough direction in this book and we all knew where the story was headed; however, the events surrounding the telling meandered so much that it could have been monotonous and boring if not for the fact that I’ve grown a fondness for Ms. Lowell’s work.

So, none of the negatives seemed to keep me from enjoying the book. Lacey Quinn and Ian Lapstrake are an excellent pair together with the right amount of witty fun and heated romance to make me happy enough to continue reading the book. I thoroughly enjoyed them as a couple and an individuals with their own unique personalities of brutal honesty and blunt, straightforward, no-nonsense approaches to all situations.

And the inclusion of Susa Donovan was also a welcome presence. (Finally, a character from the previous series appeared in this series and was actually more significant to the book rather than being filler material.)

The rest of the characters were decidedly flat and unextraordinary in any way. Just as well, whatever mystery there was supposed to be was also quite predictable and a little on the “Why do I care?” side.

To be honest, while the tone of the book felt distinctly romantic suspense, and the telling was on par with the rest of Elizabeth Lowell’s romantic suspenses, the subject matter was consistently contemporary romance until the first attempt on Lacey Quinn’s life about halfway into the book. Then the events remembered that this was supposed to be a crime thriller and so acted accordingly and things started getting a little more exciting.

And for some reason, I can’t find it in myself to be bothered by it.

I guess that’s what it means to have a soft spot for certain authors.

***

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