Book 5 Snobbery with Violence

 

Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney, aka MC Beaton, fulfilled the category “Favorite Past Prompt” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. As always, I chose Audiobook. I listened to the title on Audible because it was free with my gold membership, as are many of MC Beaton/Marion Chesney’s books.

The novel is subtitled an Edwardian Mystery. The Edwardian period spans 1901 to 1910 and followed the Victorian period. I mention this as I had to keep remembering as I read the book that we were not in Jane Austen times but wholly in another century. The mentions of the suffragette movement should have nudged my brain that we were more Downton Abbey than Pemberley.

The book was written in 1971, so it’s older than me. I read about halfway through the novel when I stopped and looked up the information. One listing said it was pubbed in 2003, and another said 2008. Google to the rescue because no way was this book written after all the Agatha Raisin books. The mystery was not very complex, and the characters were scattered. The detective work, even given the era, was disjointed. Yep, an early book and she got so much better.

I chose the book because of the author, the title, and the time period. I do like a historical romance, but this was a nice, light twist. Many historicals are lengthy. Lately, I’m just not focused enough for a long book. Maybe it’s the months and months of being stuck in the house or the recent closure of my workplace. Either way, I have a short attention span.

My lack of focus may be the reason I didn’t love-love the book. (Or it was the fact it was older, less well-written, and of a time period I’m not familiar with.) I was confused about the societal conventions of England at the turn of the century. With motor cars and fingerprints in the background, I assumed young ladies had more freedom. According to the book, I guessed incorrectly. Again, I used my considerable Downton Abbey knowledge to confirm that yes, women were still in need of chaperones, had lady’s maids, and needed to comply with class rules. Though the main character seemed to take it on the fly, using her lady’s maid (a former show girl) as a chaperone. Would an Earl worried about his daughter’s reputation allow that? Probably not.

The book was whimsical, fun, and cute. Not high literature, but in essence, it’s a romance with a bit of a cozy mystery wrapped inside.

I give Snobbery with Violence by Marion Chesney Four Doses of Arsenic, because why not?

 

 

 

Book 4 Still Alice

 

 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova fulfilled the category “A Book about Forgetting” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. In this novel, Alice Howland discovers she has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease at age fifty.

Yikes.

Alice Howland is a professor of cognitive psychology at Harvard. Yep, a Harvard professor with Alzheimer’s. The story broke my heart. Here’s a brilliant mind dying, and modern medicine could do nothing to save her. The novel includes not only her journey and pain with the situation but also her family’s. I think that’s where the book sucked me in and shredded my emotions. The character had a gene for this type of Alzheimer’s, and it’s a 50/50 shot to pass on to her children, all adults dealing with their own issues. Two opt to test, and one has the gene.

I’ve been reading a few books about genetic disorders and their inheritability (i.e. Kathryn Biel’s series on breast cancer and a cozy mystery about a breast cancer patient). I don’t know if it’s better to know or not. Modern medicine is wonderful, but what happens when the material that makes you yourself gives you a disease medicine can’t cure? Or a disease you give to your babies?

The book also speaks to family matters, a subject I love in a story. I’ve had some turbulent issues with my siblings in the past, and we aren’t as close as one would hope. Being the mom of two very different teen girls, I’m learning “the mother” role about guiding, not crushing, leading by example, and so forth. I gravitate to stories where families triumph over their issues and come together. (Charmed, The Umbrella Academy, Harry Potter, Supernatural—to name a few.) In this novel, the youngest child and Alice don’t see eye to eye about college, an issue my oldest and I are at loggerheads about. Reading such books has shown me how better to embrace my daughter and her choices. Many of these stories teach me, “Your choices are not mine. And that’s okay.” Basically, it makes me a better mom. (I’m still working on the sibling part.)

The novel was written in first-person which makes for interesting reading. We have a brilliant woman looking at her life and disease clinically. But that doesn’t mean the book doesn’t pack the emotion in it. Through her sometimes terse narrative, we can see the emotions of the family and her own bubble-over. For me, the sections with her husband are so telling, the pain, the denial, the hurt, especially when he discovers the butterfly file. And each of her children reacts differently to the news, and therein are all the feels about their mother, their family, and their own futures.

It was a tough tale, a weepy one, and all about forgetting the best and most important things in life. Sometimes I wished I picked a sweet romance with an amnesia trope for this prompt.

I give Still Alice by Lisa Genova Four Purple Butterflies.

Book 3 The Last Conversation

 

The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay fulfills the category “Shortest Book in my TBR List” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. It is fifty-five pages. I listened to the audio version, which was one hour and forty-five minutes. It is not the shortest on my list.

Confession time.

I panicked for this post. I read half of two different books for this week’s blog. One was flat out boring, and in the other, I couldn’t find one character I liked. I also read a much-hyped romance story, but it left me wanting. I didn’t wish to air my feelings on the blog. So…I had to go for the shortest book prompt.

 I read four titles for the category—Brokeback Mountain (64 pages), The Year of Magical Thinking (accidentally got the abridged at 1.75 hours audio), The Last Conversation, and ’Til Morning’s Light (only available in audio, 35 minutes). Only one worked for the blog. I loved Brokeback, but what else can you say about it? And the second one, I could not connect. That may have been the reader or a poor abridgment. (Note: I NEVER read abridged items. I grabbed this title for free on Audible and didn’t read the fine print.) The third I discovered was a prelude to a video game. How cool is that! I might use it for the “different format” prompt. I also started The Left Hand of Darkness, a BBC radio dramatization, which could also work for both categories. My point is, I scrambled for something this week.

Sorry that this post is a mess.

Anyway…

The Last Conversation is part of the Forward Collection. It is a series of six novellas written by some of today’s best writers. Author Blake Crouch contemplated today’s rapidly advancing technology. With this idea, he challenged fellow authors to write about a “pivotal technological moment” that would change the world and the repercussions of that innovation. Paul Tremblay, Andy Weir, Amor Towles, and Veronica Roth are among those who took up the challenge. The two I’ve read from the collection are pure Black Mirror.

Without giving the entire plot of this short novel, our protagonist wakes blind into a world he doesn’t understand. He’s in pain and confused. A single human voice is his light in the darkness as he recovers and learns about what he’s woken into. Mr. Tremblay makes a new twist on pandemic fiction. (Yes, there’s killing disease, but the story is set in the aftermath.) We only see our hero’s point of view, and half the passages are in second person. That’s right. The author addresses the reader as You. “Your room is dark. You cannot see anything.” What a way to start! What a way to write! No one does second person pov. But in doing so, Mr. Tremblay invites the reader into the protagonist’s head on a deep level. From the start, we need to know who “we” are and what’s going on. And for me, it doesn’t hurt the novella starts with a very Zork line. (Some of you will get that.)

Long and short: Interesting story, interesting collection, great authors

I give The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay Four Little Brown Houses.

 

 

Book 2 Seize the Day

 

 

Seize the Day by Kathryn R. Biel fulfills the prompt “Book that Has the Same Title as a Song” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. This is the second in the UnBRCAble Women series. All the women in these novels are positive for the BRCA gene for breast cancer, and their stories center on their difficult choices and the consequences.

I love Dr. Biel’s books. All of them have song titles if you need a book for this category for your own challenge.  I asked her what inspired this title. The song is from Newsies, and it’s about gathering the newsboys for a strike. It’s a rallying song, and our heroine in the novel could use some rally power.

In this story, Erin McAvoy can hear her biological clock screaming at her. She’s positive for the BRCA gene but would love to have a family before her inevitable hysterectomy and full mastectomy. Now in her early thirties, she’s realizing she may’ve run out of time. She must act soon if she wants to have a baby—husband or not.

It’s not an easy choice for her to make. Her mother has issues with non-traditional families. Not to mention as a zookeeper, Erin’s not rolling in dough to pay for fertilization options. And as a super romantic woman, having to go on alone is rather crushing.

I loved this book so much. Not just because Erin loves funny t-shirts, sloths, and tacos. The character was so real, and her problems so huge. I felt for her at every step of her journey. No one wants to disappoint Mom, but as adults, we must choose our own paths. I think that many Gen-Xers have that issue. We aren’t adults yet because we are still trying to please our parents.

Erin wants it all—but not ginormous levels of all. She wants love and family, and that shouldn’t be too much to ask. I admire how determined she was to take huge risks to make this dream come true.

I don’t want to spoil the book, but I need to chat about Xander, our hero. At first, we all think there’s no way this guy can be a hero. But he is. Over and over and over again. I loved everything about him. And man, it was tough to get to know him at first. The novel is in first-person from Erin’s point of view. So, we only see what she sees about Xander. But Dr. Biel did a great job of showing us him. (Because the boy hardly talked about his feelings, his true purpose, his past…ugh, Xander!) I’m hoping maybe someday, she might write a “reader extra” with a few pages about his emotional journey.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

I give Seize the Day by Kathryn R. Biel Five Sleepy, Cute Sloths.

(Find Kathryn R. Biel's books here.)

 

 

Book 1 Lord of Scoundrels

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase fulfilled the prompt “A Book Everyone Seems to Have Read but Me” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. The title was recommended to me about ten years ago when I first started writing romances. Everyone in my romance writers' group insisted it was a must-read. I even got to meet Loretta Chase at a conference but was afraid to admit I’d never read the novel.

What a tale! Please take my assessment of it with a grain of salt. The book was written in 1995 when storylines for romances were much different. That doesn’t change how amazing the novel was.

I don’t normally read historical romance more than once a year. And if I do, it’s usually ala Jane Austen. Sweet, romantic, sappy. This story was nothing but heat from the start. Wow. A Regency era romance where people have and talk about sex? Sign me up. I’ve read a few more contemporary titles that delve into a sexual relationship between the characters, but I had no idea there were older books like this.

Okay, I’m naïve which is why I should’ve read this one ten years ago when suggested. I loved that it showed a more human side to the Regency era, where people have desires and actually act on them. The activities and discussion were so out of range for regular sweet historical that a few times, I had to check the dates of the book.

I loved that the heroine, Jessica, though a virgin, had an interest in the more “tangible” side of humanity. She bought a naughty watch without blinking. She and her grandmother discussed relationships and men. Jess helped raise many of her male cousins and had a full education about little boys and young men before she went out into the world. She was an amazing character—strong, smart, and realistic.

I also loved that the book’s setting was Paris. It allowed for English prudishness to contrast with French ideas. Having Dane stay in Paris to be “a foul demon” seemed perfect. It let the story to move from one world to another when Jess and Dane return to England.

I had two misgivings about the book. The first had to do with the description of Dane in the beginning of the story. I think the author overdid the “he’s like the Devil” thing. It was thrown at the reader in heaping servings and got hard to swallow. At one point when Ms. Chase compared his rather unpleasing looks to Lucifer, I was like, “Wasn’t Lucifer the most beautiful angel before he fell?” Anyway…

The other issue I had is one I have with many older romances. The tale focused on the romantic arc first. It was a beautifully laid out plot that kept the reader hoping for both man and woman to get a happy ending. It must be the reason it was recommended to me. But spoiler, once they were together, a revenge plot and an illegitimate son pop up. I was like, “The story is over. Is this a companion novella?” In modern times, an author would have done just that. Cut at end of the romance arc, and later given us another book with the characters saving Dane’s son.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book, though I listened on audio and had to turn the thing off when I had other ears in the room.

I give Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase Four Icon Pictures with pearls and rubies.