You know where this book is going as soon as you've met the leading characters but on the way there's plenty of humour, an idyllic village in a beautiful setting. A happy go lucky type of story, where everyone gets what they deserve and the reader is left smiling! Take it on holiday as it's light, frothy and enjoyable.

The Carriage House

by Carla Neggers

Book 1 of Carriage House

My TBR List -- March Winner!

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From Wikipedia:

A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack.

The blurb of this book had me thinking that it was about a haunted house.  After I started reading the book, I reread the blurb and realized that I might have been mistaken.  Aside from the "human skeleton in the dirt cellar," and the "rumors that the carriage house is haunted," there really was no other indication that The Carriage House  is a book about a haunted house.  Ah well.  Though I DID get curious about what a carriage house is because of the way it was being described as a farm and whatnot.  Thus, the Wiki definition above.

I admit, my research stopped there.  But I might look into it a bit more.  The idea of old, historic homes, whether for people or carriages, still intrigues me.

Moving right along...

The Carriage House  turned out to be an enjoyable, well-written, old-timey romance.  And it isn't too dated either, although there were a few quibbles I had here and there about the way people acted towards one another.  On the other hand, the romantic suspense part of the story was a little flimsy since there really wasn't much murder mystery to the murder crime.  From the beginning, you pretty much know who the human skeleton in the cellar belongs to, and the murderer is pretty obvious as well.

But some of the parts of the book DID give me a creepy vibe: the victim was given enough significance in the book to give some significant emotions, and some of the other characters were just kind of scary.  And a bit insane maybe.  But mainly creepy.

Kudos on the attempt to derail the reader's suspicion by throwing another possible suspect out there.  But seeing as how Andrew Thorne is the main male character, and this is a typical category romance (a la Harlequin Romances, after all), it wasn't like we didn't already know for a fact whether he had anything to do with the murder.  Of course, it also helps take suspicion off of a lot of people when the murderer pretty much admits the crime, even if not vocally.


A Mix of Story Summary and More of My Thoughts:
So the basic gist of The Carriage House  is that Tess Haviland did some work for an eccentric rich guy named Ike Grantham.  Ike Grantham is the most charming snake charmer to ever charm his charming way into the land of charming.  But after all that charm is no longer in front of you, you realize how much you resent the guy for charming you into agreeing to do things you otherwise wouldn't have done.  And somehow, that causes problems.

And so somehow he had managed to convince Tess that she would be very happy to take the old Thorne carriage house in Beacon-by-the-Sea, some fancy area overlooking a nice beach and ocean view, I think, as payment for the work she had done for him--something to do with graphic design.  So instead of real money, she goes for it.  To her, getting the new property for the price of her expertise is a bargain because she'd always wanted a large, old home in the middle of nowhere by cliffs and beaches with rumors of hauntings by an ancient ghost.  It reminds her of her mother, she says... the area, not the actual house itself.  And everyone else around her pretty much tells her that she's been swindled and wonders what the heck she'd been thinking.

Now, my own personal thoughts were conflicting, to be honest.  The romantic in me would absolutely love to receive a nice, old-fashioned home with so much rich history, overlooking beautiful scenery.  For one, it would be a nice, historically rich place to bask in; and things like that appeal to pretty much anyone.

The practical, logical part of me, however, says that Tess should have had the darn house inspected first before going for it.  It's an old house, an old building, and it hadn't been inhabited in a long time.  Yes, it's probably beautiful.  Yes, it's probably got all sorts of stories to tell.  Yes, it would be kind of cool to tell people you live in an historic landmark that might possibly be haunted.  Like I said, it's a romantic notion and people are nothing if not impractical about romantic notions.  It's attractive.

But it's also an old rundown house without proper upkeep maintenance or modern plumbing, and probably doesn't even have electricity.  I don't know, I wasn't really paying too much attention and I don't think we went into too much detail about the shortcomings of this carriage house aside from some broken windows, creaky wood boards, useless locks and doors, and maybe some broken stairwells.  I mean, Tess had to sleep in a makeshift cot on the floor of the front room.

Color me shallow, but I needz my modern plumbing!


Anyway, back to the book...

So Tess decides to stay at the carriage house for a weekend in order to determine whether or not she’d like to keep the home or put it back on the market for sale.  After all, Ike very much turned over the entirety of ownership to her and she is very much legally the owner of this carriage house.  She can either have a nice, history-rich home to live in, or she can sell it and make a ton of money.  As it seems, everyone and their neighbors in this book seem to want to snatch the place right up if Tess were to sell it.

In staying the weekend at the carriage house, Tess inadvertently triggers a mountain of activity, especially after finding the human skeletal remains of a possible murder victim in her cellar… who then disappears after she keeps the incident a secret because she thinks she was hallucinating and isn’t sure of what she saw.  Now the local police and the media thinks she’s insane or trying to stir up trouble, and the real murderer thinks that Tess Haviland needs to be eliminated before she digs too much deeper.

Meanwhile, there’s a handsome next door neighbor with an adorable six year old princess to contend with.


Final Thoughts:
As I already stated, the murder mystery was pretty predictable from the start. Among all the discussion between characters about whom the skeletal remains belong to, if Tess even saw a human skeleton, or if the house is haunted at all, all fingers inadvertently point to all the answers quite obviously. It doesn’t take a start detective to know the entire story without reading the entire story. And so, in the end The Carriage House was more a romance than it was a murder mystery.

Although, I must say, that the atmosphere and the imagery of the book were quite excellently done. If any other books by Carla Neggers focuses more on the crime thriller parts and tweaks certain storytelling styles just right, I’m certain they’d be excellent murder mysteries to read.

I will definitely try to pick up another Carla Neggers book in the future.


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2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
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• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge -- My TBR List -- March Winner!
• Mount TBR Challenge

The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya

by Nagaru Tanigawa

Book 6 of Haruhi Suzumiya light novel series

Wow.

I didn't realize it took me a little over a month to finish this short book. I guess I just wasn't really getting into it... or I just found other books more enticing. The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya is a short story collection of random moments in the lives of our S.O.S. Brigade, and admittedly, it wasn't the best collection ever. In fact, I think I had set it aside for so long because the first three short stories were kind of boring. There were still little elements of anticipatory suspense for some of the mysteries in two of the five stories, but it DID take a little time before I got into the story far enough to become interested.

The last story in this collection, The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina was only interesting after the big climax... but then it went flat again because of the nature of Asahina's character role--that everything in her life is "classified" and she can't talk about it. In essence, because she can't talk about the things going on as a time traveler, we, as the readers, cannot know why she had to be at that particular place at that particular time--we only know it was important. And that's all.

The fourth story, Where Did the Cat Go? was actually the most interesting short story in the collection, if a little juvenile and predictable. Though I guess the whole point was that the "murder mystery" set-up at Snowy Mountain Lodge was supposed to be predictable. I just hadn't pegged it to be kind of tacky as well.

The third story, Love at First Sight was just straight out strange and I didn't know what to make of it.

The first two stories were simply not memorable enough for me to draw any opinions, really. Hopefully the next book in the series will be more exciting... ?


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2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
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• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
• Mount TBR Challenge

Lily Harper is just about to turn 25. That means she’ll be receiving the last letter from her mum, who died 13 years ago. In the letter she learns about her mum’s first love. On the same day she meets movie star Eddie Tessler, hiding from the press. Is something developing between her and Eddie? And why is her best friend, Dan, determined that she doesn’t get in too deep with the actor?

Oh this is a wonderful, heart-warming, funny story. It is moving in parts, particularly when memories of Lily’s mother arise. The sadness that she isn’t there to share her life with Lily, and the what could have been’s with her lost love is weaved onto the page. The memories also show how her mother, even in her absence has shaped Lily’s life. But this is not a sad, sentimental book. It is a book about friendship, love and what ‘real’ family is.

All of the characters are a perfect fit for the story and wonderfully drawn. Lily is a lovely, down to earth girl, grounded and mature given her sad loss. She is comfortable in herself and aware that family isn’t necessarily down to just biology. Each character adds something to the story, be it Coral, Lily’s surrogate mother, or Declan, her mother’s first love. Eddie is charming, kind and the perfect way for Lily to experience the world outside her life, and be an adventure for her. As for Dan, he is a wonderful character, the relationship and banter between him and Lily is funny and as you would expect for two people who have grown up together.

Perfect to curl up with on a dark cold winter evening or to read in the sun on a summer’s day. A gem of a book to read if you want to escape reality or just need a little pick-me-up. 

Funny, and laugh out loud in places this is a romantic read with the romance perfectly paced. I’m going to go back and re-read this soon, and read Jill Mansell’s other novels while I wait for her next book.

Transparent -- Natalie Whipple

Book 1 of Transparent

I'm almost certain one of the few reasons why I'm not rating this book any lower is because of how readily and easily readable it is. While not the best book in the world, there was so much awkward and wrong with a lot of things that I found myself aggressively rolling my eyes or just blinking at some points. But seeing as how I managed to roll through the entire story so quickly, I have to give it credit for serviceable writing and being fairly entertaining.

Transparent had a lot of up and down moments enjoyability-wise, and there were just a lot of things that didn't really sit well with me, even if this book is based around a mafia family... or something like that. Which is quite disappointing considering how much potential an alternate reality world like this could have had in the long run--a present-day era wherein science has caused extreme mutations in the population and now they just walk around, in every day life like it's a normal thing... cause it is.

As the tagline presents it as an X-men meets The Godfather.

The main character Fiona came off quite over-dramatic and bitchy a lot of the time. I had a hard time relating to her--not that anyone could relate to an invisible girl, but whatevs. And not that any of the characters were easily related to either because they all had their strange behaviors and actions that kind of had a hand in making this book kind of comical.

It's not to say that this book was all bad or anything. I'd just give it a slight 'meh' and move on with my life.

Ten points for a great premise with lots of potential, though I'm afraid that doesn't make up for the stuff that didn't work for me.

An invisible girl being used by her mafia boss father in unspeakable crimes tries to escape the criminal world only to be chased down by said father and his henchmen, including her older brother. Meanwhile, she spends time trying to blend into a small town under a false name even though everyone knows exactly who she is because, how many invisible girls are in existence on a regular basis anyway?

The logic fail was pretty obvious considering the fact that her father is a mafia boss and has resources and followers everywhere. If an entire high school knows who she is, I'm a bit skeptical that her father didn't manage to locate her within the first day or two she was in public. Just sayin'. When you're on the run (not that I've ever been on the run before, but books are vast pits of knowledgeable information), the key is to remain obscure and invisible (no pun intended) and make sure that NO ONE around you KNOWS who you are.

A final quibble I had was with Fiona and how things were NOT resolved between her and her psycho murderous brother. Because I don't care that said psycho murderous brother had all the good intentions in the world, you do not easily forgive someone for flying you thousands of feet in the air and then dangling you by the wrists and threatening to drop you if you don't comply with his demands. With brothers like that, who needs enemies or mafia boss fathers? I'm not understanding why everyone could still be telling Fiona that she should be able to trust Graham even after he almost choked her to death for the sole purpose of threatening her into doing what he wanted, EVEN IF all he wanted her to do was follow his instructions so that he could keep her safe.

I might be wrong, but those are contradictory actions.

And with that, the star rating is close to dropping another half a star.

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2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge