Friday Fives - Five Quick Reviews For Books I've Read Recently

I'm in a list making kind of mood so I thought I'd start making random five lists.  Sometimes they'll be bookish other weeks not so much. This week I'm sharing 5 quick reviews for books I've read recently.

1.  The Art Thief by Michael Finkel - I'm fascinated by this historical implications of art and art theft.  This was the story of a French art thief, Stephane Breitwieser, who believed himself not a thief but a collector.  The author does a fantastic job of telling the story and allowing the reader to understand Breitwieser without glamorizing him or making him sympathetic.  The importance of the art and the potential loss is staggering.  This reads quickly and I was engaged from beginning to end.  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)  

2.  Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one but I ended up thoroughly enjoyed it.  Evie is a delightful character.  She's impulsive but not an idiot about it and her motives are always good hearted.  She's also hilariously okay with finding severed heads hanging from the ceiling and various other villainous activities.  I loved the Villain and was curious about his backstory from the beginning.  I loved Becky and Gage and Kingsley and Tatiana as well.  There's humor, suspense, characters getting to know themselves, and a touch of romance.  I did find the audio a bit slow and listened to it .5 faster than I usually do.  By the end I was so hooked on the story I immediately went and pre-ordered the next book because I HAVE to know what happens next.  My Rating: Really Liked It! (4.5 Stars)

3.  Charms and Chocolate Chips by Bailey Cates - This is a really cute magical cozy series centered around a bakery in Savannah, Georgia.  There's a fun group of characters both magical and non-magical and I love seeing all the familiars.  This one not only had an interesting mystery but had some relationship growth in several areas of Katie's life that I enjoyed.  This is a series I think I'm going to roll into my series project soon to concentrate on finishing it. It's a bit light and fluffy but a nice read. My Rating: Liked It! (3.5 Stars)

4.  At the Chinese Table: A Memoir with Recipes by Carolyn Phillips - I love a foodie memoir but Chinese food has never been high up on my interest list though through homeschool study with my son I've become more interested in Chinese culture.  This was an interesting read.  The author's love and deep appreciation of the food shines through as well as her awareness and respect for the culture and languages.  I enjoyed her experiences trying food as a college student and then again later as an adult.  Each chapter is ended with detailed recipes that she has clearly tried and worked on and is full of insightful notes.  If you're looking for an in-depth look of either Chinese culture or cuisine this isn't it but this does provide an interesting and insightful overview.  My Rating: Liked It! (3.5 Stars)

5.  A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn - I have really enjoyed all the books in this series and this one really worked for me.  After some time estranged Veronica and Stoker are back together with a deeper understanding and appreciation for each other.  The mystery is a novel one.  Who is the "beauty" - a young woman preserved in an extraordinary fashion and made to look like a waxwork.  This leads to an interesting mystery about the identity not just of the young woman but of just who preserved her and why.  I loved that not only do Veronica and Stoker ask from help from a reporter and a detective but these friends hold them accountable when Veronica and Stoker go off on their own a bit too much instead of relying on the team.  My only concern is that the end of this book reads like the potential end of the series and I'd be sad to be done with the world Raybourn has created.  

Books from the Backlog - Historically Dead

Today I'm linking up with Carole from Carole's Random Life of Books for Books from the Backlog.  I really enjoy the chance to feature a book that's been hiding in the piles of books for far too long!

Goodreads:  Historically Dead by Greta McKennan

Blurb:  Seamstress Daria Dembrowski must find a historically-minded killer before the fabric of her peaceful town rips wide open . . .
When the reality show My House in History comes to Laurel Springs, Pennsylvania, savvy seamstress Daria Dembrowski sees a business opportunity. The show follows two elderly sisters’ quest to restore their colonial mansion, and that means a heap of work for a seamstress who specializes in historical textiles. Although one of the old women is a bit of a grump, Daria loves the job—until she discovers one of the researchers dead, and the whole project threatens to unwind.

As a series of historical crimes pile up, from a stolen Paul Revere platter to a chilling incident of arson, Daria must find the killer quickly, for her life is hanging by a thread.

Why It Needs to Come Off the Shelf:  This has been on my NetGalley shelf for far too long and it does sound like a cozy I'd enjoy.

Murder in Rose Hill - Historical Mystery Review

Goodreads:  Murder in Rose Hill (A Gaslight Mystery #27) by Victoria Thompson

Rating: Really Liked It! (4.5 Stars)
Source:   Publisher

Description:  Sarah Malloy has just helped with the delivery of a bouncing baby girl at her women’s clinic, when she receives a visit from an engaging and determined young woman writing an article for New Century Magazine. Louisa Rodgers explains that she is researching the dangers of patent remedies. Sarah is only too happy to tell Louisa exactly what she thinks of the so-called medicines whose ingredients include heavy doses of alcohol and other addictive drugs, and hurt much more than they help.

A few days later, Sarah receives a visit from a bereft Bernard Rodgers, who explains that his daughter, Louisa, has been found strangled in the lobby of the building where New Century has its offices. The police have decided it was a random attack and have made no attempt to investigate, hinting that Louisa got what she deserved for sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. Sarah wants justice for the bright young woman but as she and Frank delve deeper into Louisa’s life, they find that nothing is quite as it seemed and Louisa is not who she claimed to be. The Malloys must first solve the mystery of Louisa’s life before they can figure out who wanted to see her dead…

Genre: Mystery - Historical

Why I Picked This Book:  I absolutely love this series so of course I had to pick up the newest book in the series.

My Impression: I thoroughly enjoyed this newest entry into the gaslight mystery series.  Sarah, Malloy, Gino, and Maeve are my favorite investigative team with each person bring a different perspective and understanding to the investigation.  Gino had a fairly small role but we saw a lot of Frank, Sarah, Maeve and much to my delight even Sarah's parents.  I have yet to read the early books in the series but at least in the later books Sarah's parents have been my favorite side characters as is Frank's mother.

The mystery was a good one.  I was fascinated and somewhat horrified by the information on patent medicine and how people tended to take them.  But did Louisa's article on these patent medicines cause her murder?  And just who was Louisa really?  She's painted as a saint and terrible person so someone has to be lying.

This series just keeps getting better.  The characters are solid, the relationships are evolving in an authentic feeling way, and the mysteries typically pull aspects of the timeperiod that I know very little about.  The more I read the more I like this series and I can't wait for the next book!  

Would I Read More of this Series/Author? Absolutely!  I really enjoy this series and am looking forward to going back and reading the earlier books as well as looking out for the newest book.

Would I Recommend this Book? If you enjoy mysteries - especially if you like historical mysteries - this series is a must read!

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Unread Books On My Shelf I Want to Read Soon

Today I'm linking up with Top Ten Tuesday hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl which is all about lists.  Since lists are one of my favorite things this is one of my favorite linkups!  Today's topic is Ten Unread Books on My Shelf I Want to Read Soon.  I have a habit of buying books and then putting them on my shelf where they sit there for ages and I keep buying more books and it's kind of an endless cycle.  This year I am trying to make more of an effort to read books off my shelf (I'm still buying books but at least I'm clearing some out!) and here are 10 that come to mind as books I really want to read.

1.  Love Without Borders by Angela Braniff - Angela Braniff is a family vlogger on YouTube who I don't watch as much as I used to.  While family vloggers are notoriously controversial I really appreciated that right from the start she never filmed her kids if they were upset and was careful about what she shared.  Now she very rarely shows them on camera at all and as they've gotten older she has gotten even more careful about their privacy.  I'm really curious to see what she has to share.  I preordered this book but right after I got it Covid hit and then my son was diagnosed with leukemia so it kind of fell through the cracks.

2.  Meet Me in Monoco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb - I picked this up years ago.  I love the authors, the cover and the premise but I've yet to read it.

3.  Old World Murder by Kathleen Ernst - I have a couple of books in this series that all look good but I need to read this one before I can go on to the others.  

4.  A Skeleton in the Family by Leigh Perry - This series is one of my favorite YouTubers favorite cozy series so of course I had to try it.  Unfortunately that was at least 2 years ago and it's still sitting on my shelf.

5.  The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton - This is the last Kate Morton book I have to read and is one I bought years ago - right after it came out but for some reason I've just never read it.

6.  Seeing Darkness by Heather Graham - I really want to make progress on the Krewe of Hunter series from Heather Graham.  I picked this one up soon after it came out thinking that I would be caught up pretty quickly but I'm not caught up yet!

7.  Wild Ride: A Memoir of I.V. Drips and Rocket Ships by Hayley Arceneaux - Hayley was Will's PA when he was in active treatment at St. Jude and it was great to have a childhood cancer survivor on his medical team - plus she's just a super nice person.  I preordered this book but wasn't in a place to read it when it came out but would really like to read it soon.

8.  The Bookshop at Water's End by Patti Callahan Henry - I picked up this book after reading and really enjoying other books by this author fully intending to read this on vacation.  That vacation has come and gone and I've yet to read it.

9.  Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser - I got this as a birthday gift several years ago and fully intended to read it.  

10. When the Marquess Met His Match by Laura Lee Guhrke - I have a whole pile of historical romances that I got years ago and then kind of stopped reading historical romances.  I've been getting back to enjoying them and this is at the top of my list.

Four-Alarm Homicide - Cozy Mystery Review

Goodreads:  Four-Alarm Homicide (A House Flipper Mystery #6) by Diane Kelly

Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)
Source:   Publisher

Description:  Carpenter Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck are hot for a historical property that has just come on the market—a fire station in Nashville’s Germantown neighborhood that was built nearly a century ago.

The cousins have just begun the interior demolition work at the fire station when Joanna Hartzell, who lives in a townhouse around the corner, comes by with a plea for help. Joanna owns the right half of her building, which she proudly maintains in perfect condition, while the left side falls into disrepair: the seven adult children who inherited it years ago refuse to lift a finger on repairs. Never one to turn down a challenge, Whitney and Buck manage to acquire the rundown townhouse—though it turns out Joanna is only one of the many neighbors interested in buying the property once they’ve worked their magic.

Then Joanna shows up at the fire station confused and rambling, then collapses, never to recover. Alarm bells go off for Whitney: she suspects something—and someone—evil could be the real cause. Can she and Collin put the clues together and smoke out a killer?

Genre: Mystery - Cozy

Why I Picked This Book:  I've enjoyed other books by this series so of course I had to pick this one up!

My Impression: This was a fun mystery with lots of home renovation detail and some observations from Sawdust.  Whitney and her cousin Buck are trying to manage two flips - an old firehouse and a townhouse - as well as fighting sabatoging adult children and meddling neighbors.  

This was a fun read.  I like Whitney and Buck as well as their friends and the renovation parts were interesting.  The murder happened later in the book but I never felt like it was dragging and was entertained from the first page.  The mystery was an interesting one and definitely kept me guessing until the end.   There were more than a few possible suspects and I really had no idea how it was all going to play out.

This is a slice of life style cozy with lots of side information.  The characters are likable with interesting jobs and the mystery was solid.  I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?  Absolutely!  I've enjoyed everything I've read by this author.

Would I Recommend this Book? If you enjoy cozy mysteries I'd recommend this author, book and series.  This was a fun read.

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *

This Week in Reading - 4/21

It's Sunday Post time!  This is hosted by the awesome Caffeinated Book Reviewer and gives us all a chance to recap our week.

What I Got:

Death Scene by Carol J. Perry - I love this series so of course I had to pick up this latest one!

Currently:

Reading:  The Summer Swap by Sarah Morgan and A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn

Listening:  Day of Vengeance by Jeanne M. Dams

It's been a quiet week with mostly recovering from the eclipse trip.  Now the laundry is all done and I caught up on everything else so it's almost time to go out of town again!  We are going to Colonial Williamsburg in a few weeks and it has been a long time since I've been.  Has anyone been?  Any recommedations for places to go or places to eat?

Have a great week and happy reading!

Authors I've Been Meaning to Read - Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

At the beginning of the year I made a list of authors that I've been saying I need to read and commit to reading at least one book by each of the authors in 2024.  Here's my thoughts on one of those books/authors.

Goodreads:  Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Blurb:  In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

My Thoughts:  This is a deceptively simple book.  In theory I could summarize it in one sentence - "A mother tells her three adult daughters the story of her young adulthood focusing on one summer she spent doing summer stock with an actor who would go on to be famous".  And that is what happened.  But there is so much more.  It's a coming of age and children realizing that their parents had an existence that didn't involve them.  It's figuring out what it is that's really important to you and what you really want out of life.  It's also appreciating what you have despite the challenges. It's a slow moving book but one I really enjoyed.  My main complaint is an interaction that occured towards the end in an encounter of two characters.  It just felt needlessy crass and out of character for Lara as well as just having a randomness to it.   It hit a sour note for me where I had enjoyed the rest of the book.  That said I did enjoy this book and highly recommend the audio that is read by the wonderful Meryl Streep.  I'm looking forward to trying more from this author.  My Rating: Really Liked It (4 Stars)