Berkley

Rhys Bowen: We Three Queens

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Royal Spyness #18

It’s Oct. 1936 and Lady Georgie is enjoying her quiet life at home in the country, being a wife and new mother. Of course that peace is soon shattered by the arrival of the dreaded Wallis Simpson; imperious Fig; guileless Binky; their kids Podge and Addy; an American film company; Georgie’s naïve mother; and a murder!

How did this chaos ensue? First, the new King Edward VIII needs a place where Mrs. Simpson can stay out of sight of the press while Parliament decides if he can marry her. He naturally imposes on his easy-going cousin, Lady Georgie. read more

Mia P. Manansala: Guilt and Ginataan

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Tita Rosie’s Kitchen #5

When this series opened, Lila Macapagal, our heroine, was a young woman with a broken heart who had left the big city of Chicago for her little hometown of Shady Palms.  She began the series working in her Aunt Rosie’s restaurant; by book five, she and her besties, Adeena and Elena, have opened their own place: the Brew Ha Cafe. As this book opens, they are manning their booth at the local corn festival (hey, it’s Illinois), offering up an unbelievable array of delicious sounding treats featuring corn.  Warning: don’t read these books hungry. read more

Christina Lynch: Pony Confidential

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I loved this book and sobbed my way through it. I loved it so much that I may not even be able to speak rationally to people who don’t feel the same way, even though, as you can judge by the title, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. As the book opens, our heroine, Penny, is being arrested for reasons not all that clear until her overworked public defender, who has yet to pass the bar exam, arrives to present her with her options.  As is common practice, the lawyer advises Penny to settle, but she refuses as she knows she is innocent on what emerges as a murder charge. read more

November Book Club: Vanessa Lillie

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Vanessa Lillie, author of last year’s Blood Sisters, will be joining our November book club via zoom on Sunday, November 17th at 2 p.m.  This is a wonderful first in a series novel featuring a Cherokee woman who works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  She lives in Rhode Island but is called back to her Native Oklahoma, where she encounters ghosts of her past as well as a wall of family resentment and hostility.  She’s an archeologist, so she’s been called back to examine a skull that’s been found with her ID in it’s jaws.  This was a wonderful, textured, emotional read, one of my favorites of 2023.  My review can be found here.  All are welcome.  Copies (paperbacks available after October 1) are available on our website.  If you’d like the zoom link, message me on facebook or email me at store (at) auntagathas.com. read more

Elise Bryant: It’s Elementary

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Series debut

If the mystery part of this novel hadn’t meandered a bit as it headed in for the finish it would have been the absolutely perfect summer read.  The rest of the book, though, is so utterly charming, that’s really a nitpick.  This is the first adult novel for author Bryant, who up until now has written YA romance, and she seems to be embracing adulting in her first outing.  Her heroine, Mavis Miller, is a single mom who lives with her Dad and is late getting her adorable daughter Pearl to school just about every day in the rush of getting ready for work, making Pearl’s lunch, letting the dog out, etc. read more

Anna Lee Huber: A Deceptive Composition

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Lady Darby #12

This enjoyable series centers on unconventional artist Lady Darby, aka Kiera Gage, who still carries her first husband’s title, though she’s since remarried one Sebastian Gage. That first husband was cruel, forcing her to use her artistic skills as an anatomical illustrator to sketch as he dissected corpses, an extremely disreputable occupation for a woman in the 1830s.  Fortunately for her, his passing left her free to marry her dishy second husband and have a baby with him.  She now uses those skills as a society portraitist, but it’s her eye that makes this series original, detecting colors and relevant details others would miss. It’s her incredible powers of observation that makes her such a valuable assistant to her husband, an operative for the crown. read more

Jennifer Ashley: Speculations in Sin

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Below Stairs #7

Why haven’t I heard of this series before? Though it’s the seventh book, I was completely taken in by it almost immediately, wanting to read the other six as soon as possible. Because it’s the seventh book there was a slight amount of catching up, but very slight. The main character, Mrs. Kat Holloway (the “Mrs” is an honorary title) is a cook for a wealthy London household in 1883. She has a 12 year old daughter her employers aren’t aware of, placed in a friend’s household. read more

Deanna Raybourn: A Grave Robbery

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Veronica Speedwell #9

Whether she’s writing suspense or historical fiction, Deanna Raybourn is never anything less than completely entertaining. There’s a magic to the storytelling in her long-running Veronica Speedwell series that suspends time for the reader.  In case you don’t know, Veronica is a lepidopterist (studies butterflies), and her partner, Stoker, is a gifted naturalist and expert taxidermist.  There are mysteries involved, of course, but these are more adventure stories in the vein of Mrs. Pollifax  or Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody books, and you, dear reader, can’t help but enjoy the ride. read more

Amanda Flower: I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

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Emily Dickinson #2

I hardly ever think the second book in a series is better than the first, but in this case, I do.  Amanda Flower introduced Emily Dickinson as a detective in the first audacious book. She detects with her maid, Willa Noble.  While the first book was mostly about Willa and her family, this one is more a melding of the two women’s lives, centering on a visit by Ralph Waldo Emerson to the home of Emily’s brother, Austin, and his new wife, Susan.

As the story opens Austin and Susan have just returned from their honeymoon, and Emily insists that Willa help them out for the week, preparing the house for Emerson’s arrival.  She blithely insists Willa can do her work at her house when she’s finished for the day at Austin’s.  One feature of this book, a bit more than the first, is Emily’s lack of awareness of the different life of a servant, and the constraints under which they function.  She’s constantly putting Willa into situations where no other maid would find herself and where Willa is supremely uncomfortable. This friction, mostly undiscerned by Emily herself, adds depth to the story. read more

Rhys Bowen: The Proof of the Pudding

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Royal Spyness #17

The fun factor in this series never diminishes.  In this outing, Lady Georgie is awaiting the arrival of her baby.  She’s settled in her godfather’s house, and her big issue is finding a chef.  At the moment, her longtime employee Queenie is running the kitchen, but she’s not a trained chef and Georgie has found a candidate in Paris who is about to appear.  Queenie is in a classic huff, saying she won’t take orders from foreigners, when the dashing Pierre appears at the front door and all Queenie’s objections disappear. read more