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review 2019-12-07 17:22
Es geht weiter mit dem 2. Fall für Louisa
Die Schwestern von Mitford Manor - Jessica Fellowes

Inhaltsangabe

Es ist ihr großer Tag: Pamela Mitford feiert ihren 18. Geburtstag. Doch die Party endet in einer Tragödie, als der charismatische Adrian Curtis in den Tod stürzt. Die Polizei identifiziert schnell das Dienstmädchen Dulcie als Täterin. Louisa Cannon, Anstandsdame und Vertraute der Mitford-Schwestern – und selbst eine ehemalige Kriminelle –, hält Dulcie allerdings für unschuldig. Aber welcher Gast wurde dann zum Mörder? Und welche Rolle spielen Alice Diamond und ihre Bande der vierzig Diebinnen, zu denen Dulcie Kontakt hatte? Louisa und Pamela stellen Nachforschungen an – und der wahre Mörder ist ganz in ihrer Nähe. 

 

Meine Meinung 

Band 1 der Reihe, in dem wir die älteste Schwester Nancy kennengelernt haben, habe ich gelesen. Nun wollte ich mal einen Versuch mit dem Hörbuch und der mir noch unbekannten Sprecherin Juliane Köhler machen.

Im zweiten Band der Reihe dreht sich alles um Pamela und ihren 18. Geburtstag, auf dessen Feier ein junger Mann ums Leben kommt.

 

Womit mich die Autorin wieder sehr schnell in den Bann ziehen konnte, war der kriminelle Part im Buch. Das Dienstmädchen Dulcie Long und auch ihre Schwester sind bzw. waren Mitglieder der weiblichen Verbrecherbande „Forty Thieves“.

London und diese Zeit, in der die Geschichte spielt, braucht sowas einfach.

Es passt vom Setting und auch von der Atmosphäre und man ahnte als Hörer von Vornherein, dass von dieser Seite Gefahr in Verzug ist.

 

Und dann kommt es zum schrecklichen Vorfall, dass der junge Adrian Curtis bei Pamela’s Party aus dem Kirchturm fällt und stirbt. Niemand weiß, was sich dort oben abgespielt hat. Gab es einen Streit oder sogar einen Kampf?

Eines ist gewiss. Kurz nach seinem Sturz erscheint das Dienstmädchen des Hauses, Dulcie und wird prompt verhaftet.

Ist sie die wahre Täterin? Und was sollte ihr Motiv gewesen sein?

 

Louisa beschließt diesen Fall zu untersuchen und stößt dabei um viele Geheimnisse, welche Dulcie um ihr Leben gesponnen hat. Aber diese neuen Informationen bringen genau zum richtigen Zeitpunkt Schwung in die Geschichte.

 

Weiterhin ist das Buch durch eine sehr angenehme Sprechstimme seitens Juliane Köhler geprägt, welche einen gut durch die Geschichte führt. Dieses „Ermitteln in eigener Sache“ bereichert das Buch schon, es gibt auch ein Wiedersehen mit Guy aus Band 1.

Ansonsten sollten sich die Hörer und Leser auf viele Geheimnisse gefasst machen.

____________________________________________________________

 

Der Kritikpunkt, der für mich wohl über die gesamte Reihe bestehen bleiben wird, ist, dass wir die Geschichte und Erlebnisse aus der Sicht der Anstandsdame Louisa Cannon erzählt bekommen. Was mir da verloren geht, sind die Eigenheiten der individuellen und berühmten Mitford-Schwestern. Sie kommen mir in ihrer Persönlichkeit einfach zu kurz. Heißt, ich hätte mir lieber jeweils eine Schwester als Protagonistin gewünscht und nicht unbedingt Louisa.

Mag absolute Geschmackssache sein, da man ohne Louisa wohl auf den Nachforschungspart in den Büchern verzichten müsste.

 

Mein Fazit

Auch der zweite Band der Reihe konnte mich gut unterhalten.

Das Medium Hörbuch werde ich mir für den kommenden Band im Hinterkopf halten. Trotz der vielen Figuren im Buch, konnte ich den Überblick behalten und der Geschichte und dem Fall aufmerksam folgen.

Ich freue mich auf Schwester Nr. 3.

 

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text 2019-10-04 04:30
September Books

I read 35 books this month with an average score of 3.87. 7 were graphic novels and 14 were YA. My most-read genres were mystery, contemporary, and sci-fi. Fantasy and thriller were right behind. It's been a while since romance didn't make that list. Horror actually tied it for sixth.

 

I just realized all my favorite books were graphic novels this month. It was a really good month for those. Of those, I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 1: High School Is Hell might have been my favorite, but it's really close with Pumpkinheads and Go For It, Nakamura!. All three of those had great art and I had a smile on my face the entire time I read them.

 

My least favorite was Bring Me Back - B.A. Paris. The main character frustrated me for the entire book and I just wanted him to stop and actually think things through.

 

 

4.5 Stars

Go For It, Nakamura! - Syundei 春泥  Pumpkinheads - Rainbow Rowell,Faith Erin Hicks  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Vol. 1: High School Is Hell - Jordie Bellaire,Joss Whedon,Dan Mora  The Handmaid's Tale (Graphic Novel) - Margaret Atwood  Astra Lost in Space, Vol. 1 - Shinohara Kenta  

 

4 Stars

Into the Black Nowhere: An UNSUB Novel - Meg Gardiner The Lovely and the Lost - Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Parasite - Mira Grant  The Boys Omnibus, Vol. 1 TPB - Darick Robertson,Garth Ennis,Peter Snejbjerg  Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris  Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World - Ashley Herring Blake  The Grief Keeper - Alexandra Villasante  

The Mother-in-Law - Sally Hepworth  Keep This to Yourself - Tom Ryan  My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite  Symbiont - Mira Grant  Let Me Hear a Rhyme - Tiffany D. Jackson  Chimera (Parasitology) - Mira Grant  Killing November - Adriana Mather

Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass - Steve Pugh,Mariko Tamaki  His Hideous Heart: 13 of Edgar Allan Poe's Most Unsettling Tales Reimagined - Kendare Blake,Fran Wilde,Lamar Giles,Stephanie Kuehn,Emily Lloyd-Jones,Hillary Monahan,Rin Chupeco,Dahlia Adler,Tessa Gratton,Marieke Nijkamp,Caleb Roehrig,Amanda Lovelace,Tiffany D. Jackson  The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World - Sarah Weinman  The Perfect Wife - J.P. Delaney  A Duke by Default - Alyssa Cole  Wayward Son - Rainbow Rowell  

 

3.5 Stars

The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date #3) - Jasmine Guillory  You Must Not Miss - Katrina Leno  The Chalk Man - C.J. Tudor  The Lost Coast - Amy Rose Capetta  Middlegame - Seanan McGuire  Nevertheless, We Persisted: 48 Voices of Defiance, Strength, and Courage - Amy Klobuchar,In This Together Media  Murder in the Mews - Agatha Christie

Loki: Where Mischief Lies - Mackenzi Lee  

3 Stars

The Under Dog and Other Stories - Agatha Christie 

 

2.5 Stars

Bring Me Back: A Novel - B.A. Paris 

 

 

 

Books by author gender:

  • Male: 4
  • Female: 28
  • Nonbinary: 1
  • Male/Female Mix: 2

 

Books by format:

  • Physical: 14
  • Audio: 21

 

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text 2019-09-30 14:34
September 2019 Wrap -Up

 

Hello and welcome back friends :) 

It is officially Fall, my favorite reading season, I just hope that I actually get some time to read. September reading was terrible, I barley finished one book and that shouldn't even count as I started that back in August. Even on audio I'm still on the same book.  I was super busy this month, so I mostly I had no time to read and when I had time I was too tired, or didn't feel like it and toward the end of the month I started getting sick. So it just seems like the reading gods were all against me this month. On a happy note I finally had a chance to post some of my reviews that been sitting here, lol.

For October.... I'm not even sure yet and don't want to make any promises. There are a few new releases coming out that I've been waiting for a long time now, so we shall see.

Here are some of the books releasing in October according to Goodreads.

 

 

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

 

 

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Rebel by Marie Lu 

 

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The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh 

 

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The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L. Armentrout

 

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There are a few more, but these are my top four coming out in October.

 

I also have some review books, that need to be read but again we shall see. I'm definitely not going to rush myself this time around, I also really want to read something scary or spooky for October this year as well.

 

Reading right now, I'm at three books, was two but I started another one for now lol.

On Audio I'm still listing to Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, its a long book and I didn't get all that much Audio time in this month. I'm at about 60% and still there are over 6 hours left.

 

 

91474 

There's no love lost between Harry Dresden, the only wizard in the Chicago phone book, and the White Council of Wizards, who find him brash and undisciplined. But war with the vampires has thinned their ranks, so the Council has drafted Harry as a Warden and assigned him to look into rumors of black magic in the Windy City.

As Harry adjusts to his new role, another problem arrives in the form of the tattooed and pierced daughter of an old friend, all grown-up and already in trouble. Her boyfriend is the only suspect in what looks like a supernatural assault straight out of a horror film. Malevolent entities that feed on fear are loose in Chicago, but it's all in a day's work for a wizard, his faithful dog, and a talking skull named Bob....

 

 

 

I also made it to the second book in the The Remnant Chronicles, The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson.

I still need to post my reading updates that I took a long the way for book one, which was the only book I finished this month lol.

 

21569527

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save Lia's life, her erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar's interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen.

Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: There's Rafe, who lied to Lia but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be savages. Now that she lives among them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country... and her own destiny.

 

And because I have no to little self control and it arrived in the mail I also started Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews.

 

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From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews comes an enthralling new trilogy set in the Hidden Legacy world, where magic means power, and family bloodlines are the new currency of society…

In a world where magic is the key to power and wealth, Catalina Baylor is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, and the Head of her House. Catalina has always been afraid to use her unique powers, but when her friend’s mother and sister are murdered, Catalina risks her reputation and safety to unravel the mystery.

But behind the scenes powerful forces are at work, and one of them is Alessandro Sagredo, the Italian Prime who was once Catalina’s teenage crush. Dangerous and unpredictable, Alessandro’s true motives are unclear, but he’s drawn to Catalina like a moth to a flame.

To help her friend, Catalina must test the limits of her extraordinary powers, but doing so may cost her both her House–and her heart.

 

As I mentioned I would like to read something scary and or spooky for October this year and even if just one book, so I picked out Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. That is so far all I picked out for October and I will go from there along with some

new releases.

 

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THE LEGENDARY THRILLER THAT CREATED DR HANNIBAL LECTER

Will Graham was a brilliant profiler of criminals for the FBI - until he suffered terrible injuries in the process of capturing Dr Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter.

Years later, a serial killer nicknamed 'the Tooth Fairy' is massacring entire families each full moon. With the FBI desperate for progress, Will reluctantly agrees to consult. But he soon realises that he alone can't crack the case; he needs the help of the only mind even better than his own at understanding the mentalities of psychopaths.

The mind of Hannibal Lecter.

But Hannibal is playing his own twisted game from the asylum for the criminally insane. Will isn't alone in getting advice from the cannibal. So is the Tooth Fairy - the man haunted by visions of the murderous Red Dragon...

 

That should be all for now, here are the books I have posted the reviews for this month. As always you can find the buy links in the reviews that will be linked ;) 

Hope you all have a great October and for those who celebrate Halloween. Happy Halloween and wish you a great sugar rush from raiding your kids halloween candy lol.

 

Image result for happy halloween gif  


A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

 

In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

Fall in love, break the curse.

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper Lacy. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

 

 5 ★


It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

 

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up

— she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

 4.5 ★

 


Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

 

Harry Dresden–Wizard

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Business has been slow. Okay, business has been dead. And not even of the undead variety. You would think Chicago would have a little more action for the only professional wizard in the phone book. But lately, Harry Dresden hasn’t been able to dredge up any kind of work–magical or mundane.

But just when it looks like he can’t afford his next meal, a murder comes along that requires his particular brand of supernatural expertise.

A brutally mutilated corpse. Strange-looking paw prints. A full moon. Take three guesses–and the first two don’t count…

5 ★

 


Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

 

Harry Dresden – Wizard

Lost Items Found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden has faced some pretty terrifying foes during his career. Giant scorpions. Oversexed vampires. Psychotic werewolves. It comes with the territory when you’re the only professional wizard in the Chicago-area phone book.

But in all Harry’s years of supernatural sleuthing, he’s never faced anything like this: The spirit world has gone postal. All over Chicago, ghosts are causing trouble – and not just of the door-slamming, boo-shouting variety. These ghosts are tormented, violent, and deadly. Someone – or something – is purposely stirring them up to wreak unearthly havoc. But why? And why do so many of the victims have ties to Harry? If Harry doesn’t figure it out soon, he could wind up a ghost himself….

5 ★

 


Summer Knight by Jim Butcher

HARRY DRESDEN — WIZARD Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations. Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates. No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or Other Entertainment Ever since his girlfriend left town to deal with her newly acquired taste for blood, Harry Dresden has been down and out in Chicago. He can’t pay his rent. He’s alienating his friends. He can’t even recall the last time he took a shower. The only professional wizard in the phone book has become a desperate man. And just when it seems things can’t get any worse, in saunters the Winter Queen of Faerie. She has an offer Harry can’t refuse if he wants to free himself of the supernatural hold his faerie godmother has over him–and hopefully end his run of bad luck. All he has to do is find out who murdered the Summer Queen’s right-hand man, the Summer Knight, and clear the Winter Queen’s name. It seems simple enough, but Harry knows better than to get caught in the middle of faerie politics. Until he finds out that the fate of the entire world rests on his solving this case. No pressure or anything…

5 ★

   


Source: snoopydoosbookreviews.com/index.php/2019/09/30/september-2019-wrap-up
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review 2019-09-28 13:41
Brief Thoughts: Lost Among the Living
Lost Among the Living - Simone St. James

Lost Among the Living

by Simone St. James

 

 

England, 1921.  Three years after her husband, Alex, disappeared, shot down over Germany, Jo Manders still mourns his loss.  Working as a paid companion to Alex's wealthy, condescending aunt, Dottie Forsyth, Jo travels to the family’s estate in the Sussex countryside.  But there is much she never knew about her husband’s origins… and the revelation of a mysterious death in the Forsyths’ past is just the beginning…

All is not well at Wych Elm House.  Dottie's husband is distant, and her son was grievously injured in the war.  Footsteps follow Jo down empty halls, and items in her bedroom are eerily rearranged.  The locals say the family is cursed, and that a ghost in the woods has never rested.  And when Jo discovers her husband’s darkest secrets, she wonders if she ever really knew him.  Isolated in a place of deception and grief, she must find the truth or lose herself forever.

And then a familiar stranger arrives at Wych Elm House…



There was a lot going on in this book, but I found myself really loving it.  Between the atmosphere and the haunted house premise, as well as Jo's character, this is probably my second favorite of Simone St. James's books I've read.  Of course, when we got into a lot of the pre- and post- Great War tangents, as well as the big surprise twist in the end, the story might have started untangling a little bit.

And the truth is, I saw the plot point concerning the mystery behind Alex's disappearance from ten miles away.  It was pretty obvious so I wasn't so surprised when the big surprise twist came around.  Hopefully, I've given nothing away, but, again, it was pretty obvious from the beginning where St. James was going with her story.

If it's one thing that St. James seems able to do, it's create appropriately creepy atmospheres involving all the hauntings depicted in her books.  Truth, I felt a very big chill go through me in the beginning, when Jo first arrives at Wych Elm House, and sees the girl sitting silently in the parlor.  Something about the way that scene was described was so vivid that I couldn't help seeing it in my own mind and being dutifully freaked out.  A lot of the other later scenes, such as when Jo sees the ghost girl Frances walk past her bedroom door out of the corner of her eye was also a great scary, and atmospheric moment.

Or maybe I'm just easily scared.

Jo's story was a good one, with a wonderfully strong starting point, but I feel like the characters' directions kind of got lost when more plot devices started getting added to the book.  So this book wasn't entirely perfect, but it was entertaining enough that I really, really liked it.

 

Halloween Bingo 2019

 

 

Source: anicheungbookabyss.blogspot.com/2019/09/brief-thoughts-lost-among-living.html
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review 2019-09-27 06:22
An Act of Villainy (Amory Ames Mystery, #5)
An Act of Villainy - Ashley Weaver

A bucket full of meh.

 

It's been 5 books now, since Amory decided to take her rogue of a husband back, and frankly, I'm sick and tired of wallowing with her in her anxiety about her marriage.  Trust him or don't; keep him or kick him out; fish or cut bait.  I don't actually care either way, though I suspect the series would be a lot better without her lifeless husband around.  That's right: the 'rogue', the ladies man apparently nobody can resist, is about as exciting as white paint.

 

The mystery this time around wasn't enough to distract me from the angst, as it was set in a theatre (which trope never appeals to me), and the mystery might have been clever, except it was just too ridiculous.  The author set her plot for stun, but over geared it and overshot the mark, landing somewhere in between incredulous and you've-got-to-be-kidding-me.

 

It's not a bad book, it's just not a very good one either.  Everything about it felt like an example of stretching a point too far.  The series started strong, so this might just be the runt of the litter and the next one will improve.  But I'm not rushing out to buy it.

 

I read this for the Halloween Bingo square Darkest London.

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