Review: The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder

Title: The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder
Author: C.L. Miller
Genre: Mystery, Contemporary, Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 10, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

In this irresistible and thrilling debut novel, a former antique hunter investigates a suspicious death at an isolated English manor, embroiling her back in the dangerous world of tracking stolen artifacts.

What antique would you kill for?

Freya Lockwood is shocked when she learns that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and her estranged mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. She has spent the last twenty years avoiding her quaint English hometown, but when she receives a letter from Arthur asking her to investigate—sent just days before his death—Freya has no choice but to return to a life she had sworn to leave behind.

Joining forces with her eccentric Aunt Carole, Freya follows clues and her instincts to an old manor house for an advertised antiques enthusiast’s weekend. But not all is as it seems. It’s clear to Freya that the antiques are all just poor reproductions and her fellow guests are secretive and menacing. What is going on at this estate and how was Arthur involved? More importantly, can Freya and Carole discover the truth before the killer strikes again?

Review:

When Freya Lockwood’s former mentor, Arthur Crockleford, dies under mysterious circumstances, she returns to her hometown. She has avoided her hometown for the past twenty years, when she had a falling out with Arthur and gave up her dream of hunting for antiques. When she returns to her aunt’s home where she grew up, Freya discovers that Arthur left a letter for her saying that his death was not accidental and he asks her to investigate. Freya and her Aunt Carole follow Arthur’s clues to an antique enthusiast’s weekend getaway, where only Freya can find the truth behind Arthur’s death.

I didn’t know anything about antiques or the business of antique forgery before reading this book, so it was fascinating to read about. It was a dangerous world with murders happening over reproduced antiques or pieces of art, and lots of money behind the business. The ending of the story suggests that this is the beginning of a series, so I’m excited to see what adventure Freya goes on next!

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder is an entertaining cozy mystery!

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for sending me a copy of this book!

Content warnings: death, fire, gun violence

Have you read The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder? What did you think of it?

Review: Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute #3)

Title: Rosie and the Dreamboat (The Improbable Meet-Cute #3)
Author: Sally Thorne
Genre: Romance, Novella, Contemporary
Publisher: Amazon Original Publishing
Source: Purchased
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 23, 2024
Rating: ★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

For a hopeful and hopeless romantic, it’s love at first sight—with a little twist.

Rosie Whittaker and her sister are up for some Galentine’s pampering at a day spa. Getting locked inside a flotation tank is so Rosie. Enter a firefighter hero determined to pry this luckless pearl out of her high-tech shell. All Rosie has to go on is a dreamy voice and a flirty sense of humor. Remain calm, Rosie. This could be what you’ve been waiting for. Is this the man she’s waited for her whole life?

Review:

Rosie Whittaker takes her sister to a spa for Galentine’s Day for some pampering. When they go in the brand new flotation tanks, Rosie gets stuck inside. The fire department has to be called in to rescue her, and Rosie listens to the attractive voice of one firefighter as he tries to rescue her. 

This novella was quite short, at just around 40 pages, but it felt like it dragged on. Most of the story was spent with Rosie in the tank, speaking to the firefighter, and not much was happening. The way that Rosie was trapped in the tank was also making me feel claustrophobic, so it didn’t feel like a particularly romantic setting.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this romance novella. 

Content warning: claustrophobia

Other books in the series:

Have you read Rosie and the Dreamboat? What did you think of it?

Review: Fatal Throne

Title: Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All
Author: Candace Fleming (editor)
Genre: Young Adult, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Ember
Source: Purchased
Format: Paperback
Release Date: February 18, 2020
Rating: ★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Perfect for anyone fascinated by the Royal Wedding, Netflix’s The Crown , or Wolf Hall , this is a pitch-perfect reimagining of the romance and tragedy of Henry VIII and his six wives, told from multiple points of view by some of your favorite authors. 

If you were one of King Henry VIII’s six wives, who would you be? Would you be Anne Boleyn, who literally lost her head? Would you be the subject of rumor and scandal like Catherine Howard? Or would you get away and survive like Anna of Cleves?

Meet them and Henry’s other queens–each bound for divorce or death–in this epic and thrilling novel that reads like fantasy but really happened. Watch spellbound as each of these women attempts to survive their unpredictable king as he grows more and more obsessed with producing a male heir. And discover how the power-hungry court fanned the flames of Henry’s passions . . . and his most horrible impulses.

Whether you’re a huge fan of all things Tudor or new to this jaw-dropping saga, you won’t be able to get the unique voices of Henry and his wives–all brought to life by seven award-winning and bestselling authors–out of your head.

This is an intimate look at the royals during one of the most treacherous times in history. Who will you root for and who will you love to hate?

Review:

This book is a collection of stories about the six wives of King Henry VIII. Each short story about one of the wives was also accompanied by a passage from Henry’s perspective. 

I liked that each story told the wives stories from different times in their lives. Some of them told how they became his wife, while others showed the women at the end of their lives. Each story was told from the perspective of the wives, so they can finally let their story be heard. 

Fatal Throne is a great story for fans of Henry VIII’s wives!

Content warnings: death, adultery, miscarriage

Have you read Fatal Throne? What did you think of it?

Review: Finally Seen (Finally Seen #1)

Title: Finally Seen (Finally Seen #1)
Author: Kelly Yang
Genre: Middle Grade, Contemporary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Format: Ebook
Release Date: February 28, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Front Desk comes a “involving, realistic” (Booklist, starred review) middle grade novel about a young girl who leaves China to live with her parents and sister, after five years apart, and learns about family, friendship, and the power of being finally seen.

My sister got to grow up with my parents. Me? I grew up with postcards from my parents.

When ten-year-old Lina Gao steps off the plane in Los Angeles, it’s her first time in America and the first time seeing her parents and her little sister in five years! She’s been waiting for this moment every day while she lived with her grandmother in Beijing, getting teased by kids at school who called her “left behind girl.” Finally, her parents are ready for her to join their fabulous life in America! Except, it’s not exactly like in the postcards:

1. School’s a lot harder than she thought. When she mispronounces some words in English on the first day, she decides she simply won’t talk. Ever again.
2. Her chatty little sister has no problem with English. And seems to do everything better than Lina, including knowing exactly the way to her parents’ hearts.
3. They live in an apartment, not a house like in Mom’s letters, and they owe a lot of back rent from the pandemic. And Mom’s plan to pay it back sounds more like a hobby than a moneymaker.

As she reckons with her hurt, Lina tries to keep a lid on her feelings, both at home and at school. When her teacher starts facing challenges for her latest book selection, a book that deeply resonates with Lina, it will take all of Lina’s courage and resilience to get over her fear and choose a future where she’s finally seen.

Review:

Ten-year-old Lina Gao lives with her grandmother in Beijing, since her parents and younger sister moved to the U.S. five years ago. Lina has always felt like she was left behind while her parents have a wonderful life without her. When her mom finally says Lina can join them, their life isn’t what she expected. Lina has trouble speaking English in class and gets embarrassed and teased by classmates. Her parents are struggling to make enough money to pay for their back rent from the pandemic. And Lina is missing her grandmother who is now alone in Beijing. The librarian introduces Lina to some graphic novels so that she can finally see herself represented in stories, which gives Lina the confidence to make changes in her life. 

This was such a powerful middle grade story. There were many parts that brought tears to my eyes. Lina struggled with being bullied because she couldn’t speak English perfectly. She experienced racism from children and adults. Her parents were really struggling with money, and Lina was doing her best to help them make ends meet. Lila also had to deal with her favourite book being banned because it had a similar immigrant experience to hers, but she was strong and confident and fought it. I wish a book like this was around when I was a kid, because it would have allowed me to understand my friends’ experiences with immigration. 

Finally Seen is an important story! The sequel, Finally Heard, comes out on February 27. 

Content warnings: death of grandparent, abuse, cancer, racism, bullying

Have you read Finally Seen? What did you think of it?

Review: Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute #2)

Title: Worst Wingman Ever (The Improbable Meet-Cute #2)
Author: Abby Jimenez
Genre: Romance, Novella, Contemporary
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Source: Purchased
Format: Ebook
Release Date: January 23, 2024
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

They’re falling in love, yet they’ve never met. Maybe fate can intervene in a heartwarming “what-if” short story about new beginnings by the New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly.

Holly is dealing with the impending death of her grandmother and still reeling from a bad breakup. One bright spot: a Valentine’s Day card on Holly’s windshield—even if it wasn’t meant for her. An amusing mistake soon turns into a lovely exchange of anonymous notes, little acts of kindness, and a growing affection between two strangers. What happens when one of them has to say goodbye?

Review:

Holly is a hospice nurse who is taking care of her dying grandmother. When she leaves her grandmother’s apartment on Valentine’s Day, she finds a Valentine card on her windshield but it isn’t addressed to her. John, who mistakenly put the card intended for his brother’s girlfriend on the wrong car, writes an apology note and leaves it on the car the next time he sees it. This begins an exchange of anonymous notes and gifts, until fate gives them their meet cute. 

This was my first read of Abby Jimenez’s stories, and I loved it! It was short and sweet with some surprising twists along the way. It did have a sad side, with Holly’s grandmother dying, but her grandmother added some funny moments to the story too. 

Worst Wingman Ever is a fun romance novella!

Content warnings: death of grandparent, hospice

Other books in the series:

Have you read Worst Wingman Ever? What did you think of it?

Review: Down Comes the Night

Title: Down Comes the Night
Author: Alison Saft
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: March 2, 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling author Allison Saft’s Down Comes the Night is a snow-drenched romantic fantasy that keeps you racing through the pages long into the night.

He saw the darkness in her magic. She saw the magic in his darkness.

Wren Southerland’s reckless use of magic has cost her everything: she’s been dismissed from the Queen’s Guard and separated from her best friend–the girl she loves. So when a letter arrives from a reclusive lord, asking Wren to come to his estate, Colwick Hall, to cure his servant from a mysterious illness, she seizes her chance to redeem herself.

The mansion is crumbling, icy winds haunt the caved-in halls, and her eccentric host forbids her from leaving her room after dark. Worse, Wren’s patient isn’t a servant at all but Hal Cavendish, the infamous Reaper of Vesria and her kingdom’s sworn enemy. Hal also came to Colwick Hall for redemption, but the secrets in the estate may lead to both of their deaths.

With sinister forces at work, Wren and Hal realize they’ll have to join together if they have any hope of saving their kingdoms. But as Wren circles closer to the nefarious truth behind Hal’s illness, they realize they have no escape from the monsters within the mansion. All they have is each other, and a startling desire that could be their downfall.

Love makes monsters of us all

Review:

Wren Southerland is a healer, but her empathy for a prisoner leads her to heal him, allowing him to escape. She’s dismissed from her position and separated from her best friend. When she receives a letter from Lord Lowry from a neutral country, she decides to go help him. Lowry wants Wren to heal one of his servants, who is the latest to come down with a mysterious illness. However, when she arrives there, she discovers that the servant is actually Hal Cavendish, her country’s enemy. Wren’s morals mean she must heal Hal, and they discover that they actually have the same goal for peace in their countries. Wren and Hal have to work together to discover the truth behind the illness at Lowry’s manor and how to save their countries from war.

This was a great fantasy! There was great worldbuilding, with some people having magic. Since Wren’s magic was healing, there were a lot of medical scenes. Some of these scenes involved surgery, which became quite gruesome at the end. However, the ending was so perfect, it made it all worth.

Down Comes the Night is a thrilling fantasy!

Thank you Wednesday Books for sending me a copy of this book. 

Content warnings: death of parents, death, poisoning, surgery, blood, eye surgery

Have you read Down Comes the Night? What did you think of it?

Happy Pub Day – February 6

Happy Pub Day to these authors!

The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller

Four Good Liars by Sarah Wishart

Emily Posts by Tanya Lloyd Kyi

Skater Boy by Anthony Nerada

When Grumpy Met Sunshine by Charlotte Stein

To Woo and to Wed by Martha Waters

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada, Frenzy Books, Tundra Books, Soho Teen, St. Martin’s Griffin, and Atria Books for providing copies of these books!

What books are you most excited for this week?

Review: Role Playing

Title: Role Playing
Author: Cathy Yardley
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Montlake
Source: Firefly Books Distributed Lines
Format: Paperback
Release Date: July 1, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

From Cathy Yardley, author of Love, Comment, Subscribe, comes an emotional rom-com about two middle-aged gamers who grow their online connection into an IRL love story.

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal—he’ll be more social if she does the same—she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face-to-face—after a rocky, shocking start—the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

Review:

Maggie is a forty-eight-year-old editor who lives alone after her son went away to college. Maggie makes a deal with her son to be more social, to make her son become more social at college. Though she doesn’t like many of the women in her small town, Maggie joins a local guild in an online game under the name Bogwitch. Aiden is the fifty-year-old leader of the guild Maggie joins. He’s busy trying to get his mom’s affairs in order as she’s aging. She agrees to sign the legal paperwork for him if he can bring a date to his cousin’s wedding. Aiden quickly builds a friendship with Bogwitch online, under the username Otter. Aiden assumes Bogwitch is an eighty-year-old woman, and Maggie assumes Otter is a teenage boy. Their attraction feels wrong, until they meet and discover they’re almost the same age. They both need to work through relationship problems from their past before they can commit to their own romance.

I loved that the protagonists in this romance were middle aged. Most romances have protagonists who are young adults, but new romances can begin at any age. The misunderstanding about their ages was funny and realistic. You never know who’s on the other side of your computer screen. Their reasons for thinking the age of the other person was different was logical (Maggie was recommended to Aiden as a mutual friend from his mom’s church and Maggie was told Aiden took classes at the community college). There was also some representation of the LGBTQ spectrum, which was explained to characters who didn’t understand it.

Role Playing is a fun romance!

Thank you Firefly Books Distributed Lines for providing a copy of this book. 

Content warnings: death of parent, homophobia, divorce

Have you read Role Playing? What did you think of it?

Review: The Fall of the House of Tatterly

Title: The Fall of the House of Tatterly
Author: Shanna Miles
Genre: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Contemporary
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Source: Publisher
Format: Paperback
Release Date: October 10, 2023
Rating: ★★★★★

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Goodreads Synopsis:

Twelve-year-old Theo Tatterly’s ability to see ghosts is a useful skill in a house full of dead relatives, but it makes him a loner at school and everywhere else, where ghosts eternally pester him for help. For Theo, life is easier on the periphery. When his first failed exorcism portends an end to the Tatterly line, Theo must bring together his entire family—living and dead—to save the home they’ve lived in for generations . . . and maybe the world.

Author Shanna Miles’s story of magical modern-day Charleston crackles with unforgettable characters and pays homage to the city’s rich culture, folklore, and history.

Review:

Twelve-year-old Theo Tatterly can see ghosts, which is useful in his family full of witches. He can communicate with his dead ancestors who live in their house, but he doesn’t have friends outside of the family. When he fails at an exorcism, everything starts to fall apart for his family. The Tatterly family must work together using their unique magical skills to save their family home. 

This was an exciting paranormal story. I love ghost stories, especially middle grade ones. They were my favourite when I was a kid. Theo came from a big family with many aunts and a few cousins, but they each had distinctive powers. He was able to see some older ancestors so he was in a unique position to get their help with problems too. Though Theo didn’t have many connections outside of the family at the beginning of the story, when he started playing basketball, he made some friends. The ending of the story was action packed and a little creepy too. 

The Fall of the House of Tatterly is a fun paranormal middle grade story! 

Thank you Union Square and Co for sending me a copy of this book!

Content warning: death of parent, parental abandonment

Have you read The Fall of the House of Tatterly? What did you think of it?