The Archer Series Box Set by Heidi McLaughlin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


From a love that endures to a heart destined to break. The Archer brothers are one heartache short of a love song. McLaughlin puts emotion on full display in all of it's broken beauty. A beautiful heartache with a captivating twist.



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Minor Trouble by Julie Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Humor takes a backseat to heart. Minor Trouble aims for emotions. Archer tackles the story of a father and son in all it's glory. Seth and Noah are a work in progress as dramatic as it is heartbreaking. Brought together by tragedy this duo has a lot to learn about themselves, each other and what makes a family. It takes an outsider with a soft heart to heal the rift between this father and son and perhaps find a hint of happiness of her own in the process. From slow burn to heartaching, Ainsley, Seth and Noah creep up on your blindside and find a permanent home in your heart.



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From Amazon’s book page:

India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who'll accept her - an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he's ill. Matthew Glass must find a particular watchmaker, but he won't tell India why any old one won't do. Nor will he tell her what he does back home, and how he can afford to stay in a house in one of London's best streets. So when she reads about an American outlaw known as the Dark Rider arriving in England, she suspects Mr. Glass is the fugitive. When danger comes to their door, she's certain of it. But if she notifies the authorities, she'll find herself unemployed and homeless again - and she will have betrayed the man who saved her life.

This really summarizes the story well. I don’t think I could have said it better. Anyway, this was a good read. I’d read about this book a long time ago and decided I wanted to read it ’some time’. When I had the opportunity to download it for free, I was pleased. I’m even more pleased now. This book was everything I had hoped it would be. It’s very well written. It seems to be a bit ’steampunk’, but to begin with, it comes across mostly as a historic story. India struggles with the role society demands she plays. She knows she has a talent for watches, but doesn’t have a clue how far that talent goes. In fact, there is so much she doesn’t know, but as she works with the mysterious mr Glass, she is beginning to suspect there’s far more to watchmaking than she’s been led to believe. And why do most of her father’s old colleagues seem to fear her?

In my opinion this is a very good fantasy story, at least if you like a sort of alternate history.

This was one of the audible monthly free listens.  I listened to this at work while binning and while I would love to say I couldn't focus on it because of the job, that's not the case.  It was a fun-ish listen; the stories had some comedy, and intrigue that made me laugh or gasp, but it was nothing to write home about.

I feel as though it was a good effort and the stories were decent, but I could only manage 3-stars.  The stories all take place during the "current global situation" and I can appreciate the thought behind it.  A little something to make you giggle during quarantine, or something the spike your heart rate.  I get the intentions behind it, and I applaud the authors and editors, as well as the narrators.  I just didn't love it.  It was not quite distracting enough.

But it's a quick listen with comedy, quarantined mobsters, estranged brothers stuck together in their childhood home, and a woman who is certain one neighbor murdered his b=husband and is slowly disposing of the body in pastry boxes every day. So it's worth a listen, especially if you're an audible member.

The Crimson Parrot - A genuinely funny take on what happens when the hard-case criminals from classic noir detective novels have to work from home.

The Cape House - fun story progression as the characters reveal themselves

Stop Motion - meh