It's time to get caught up on reviews, but there are so many to do now that I'm just going to have to do mini-reviews in groups. We'll start with four and see if I can get these all caught up by the end of the year!
Death of a Smuggler by M. C. Beaton and R. W. Green
6 hours, 34 minutes
Read by David Monteath
Published February 2025 by Grand Central Publishing
Publisher's Summary:
All Hamish Macbeth wants is a quiet life in his peaceful home in the Highland village of Lochdubh. But when his newly-assigned constable arrives, he presents Hamish with a surprise and a secret. Getting to the bottom of the secret becomes the least of Hamish's problems when he meets a family who have a score to settle with a sinister man who has mysteriously gone missing. Discovering a murdered woman's body puts further pressure on Hamish, especially when it becomes clear that the murdered woman and the missing man are linked...
My Thoughts:
Maybe I've just read/listened to enough of the Hamish MacBeth books that they've just lost their charm. Maybe it's the fact that it's a new writer. Maybe this one just wasn't as good. I'm not sure and it's been more than two months since I read it. It felt more convoluted than previous books and lacking the charm that I'd originally liked in these books. Or maybe I'm feeling like Lochdubh is a really dangerous place to be and I no longer understand why anyone would live there.
Book of Gothic: Memoir of a Witch by Mary McMyne
13 hours, 30 minutes
Read by Vanessa Johansson
Published September 2023 by Orbit
Publisher's Summary:
Haelewise has always lived under the shadow of her mother, Hedda-a woman who will do anything to keep her daughter protected. For with her strange black eyes and even stranger fainting spells, Haelewise is shunned by her village, and her only solace lies in the stories her mother tells of child-stealing witches, of princes in wolf-skins, of an ancient tower cloaked in mist, where women will find shelter if they are brave enough to seek it.
Then, Hedda dies, and Haelewise is left unmoored. With nothing left for her in her village, she sets out to find the legendary tower her mother used to speak of-a place called Gothel, where Haelewise meets a wise woman willing to take her under her wing.
But Haelewise is not the only woman to seek refuge at Gothel. It's also a haven for a girl named Rika, who carries with her a secret the Church strives to keep hidden. A secret that reveals a dark world of ancient spells and murderous nobles behind the world Haelewise has always known...
My Thoughts:
I haven't read a good fairy tale retelling in a long time; and while this one had witch in the title and you all know how I feel about magic and witches in my books, I figured it was worth a shot.
The reader was good, there were some really interesting ideas in this one that kept my attention. But I also felt like there was just too much going on, that the ending was a bit disappointing, and there wasn't enough of a tie to Rapunzel to really make it a back story for that fairy tale. If you're a fan of witches and fantasy, with a touch of feminism thrown in, you might enjoy this one more than I did.
Searching For Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
12 hours, 9 minutes
Read by Angela Lin, Samantha Quad, Caroline McLaughlin
Published December 2020 by HarperCollins
Publisher's Summary:
It begins with a mystery. Sylvie, the beautiful, brilliant, successful older daughter of the Lee family, flies to the Netherlands for one final visit with her dying grandmother-and then vanishes.
Amy, the sheltered baby of the Lee family, is too young to remember a time when her parents were newly immigrated and too poor to keep Sylvie. Seven years older, Sylvie was raised by a distant relative in a faraway, foreign place, and didn't rejoin her family in America until age nine. Timid and shy, Amy has always looked up to her sister, the fierce and fearless protector who showered her with unconditional love.
But what happened to Sylvie? Amy and her parents are distraught and desperate for answers. Sylvie has always looked out for them. Now, it's Amy's turn to help. Terrified yet determined, Amy retraces her sister's movements, flying to the last place Sylvie was seen. But instead of simple answers, she discovers something much more valuable: the truth. Sylvie, the golden girl, kept painful secrets . . . secrets that will reveal more about Amy's complicated family-and herself-than she ever could have imagined.
A deeply moving story of family, secrets, identity, and longing, Searching for Sylvie Lee is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive portrait of an immigrant family. It is a profound exploration of the many ways culture and language can divide us and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone-especially those we love.
My Thoughts:
This one was a Read With Jenna pick but I didn't pick it because of that. I picked it because it was an audiobook that was available when I needed something and it gave me some diversity in my reading. Bush Hager calls this a "true beach read." I've gotta say that I think of beach reads as something lighter, but perhaps for her it had to do with it being a book she just couldn't put down. I didn't have that same reaction.
I did feel like I learned a lot about other cultures and there were certainly plenty of a-ha moments in this one that I didn't see coming. I can certainly see why it would be a good choice for a book club - there is a lot to discuss here: migrants, different cultures, sibling relationships, family relationships, mysteries to be solved. But it's a book that starts sad and just stays that way. Perhaps my feelings about this one had more to do with me than the book.
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
8 hours, 57 minutes
Read by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, Lauren Fortgang
Published November 2021 by St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publisher's Summary:
Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates--a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.
But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates' most mysterious resident. His wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies lost to the deep. Jane can't help but see an opportunity in Eddie--not only is he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection she's always yearned for.
Yet as Jane and Eddie fall for each other, Jane is increasingly haunted by the legend of Bea, an ambitious beauty with a rags-to-riches origin story, who launched a wildly successful southern lifestyle brand. How can she, plain Jane, ever measure up? And can she win Eddie's heart before her past--or his--catches up to her?
With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won't stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature's most twisted love triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending?
My Thoughts:
This one was another case of my interest being piqued by a book that claimed to be a retelling of a story, a classic I've read several times. I'm not opposed to the idea that maybe Jane isn't the innocent that she was in Bronte version. Or that we're going to get a whole new image of Rochester and Bertha (the literal wife upstairs). But the names of the characters, the fact that Rochester is keeping his wife locked upstairs, and that a fire will end it all is as far as Hawkins gets to working from Charlotte Bronte's novel, which was disappointing. The disappointment didn't end there - the reason Bertha is locked away is preposterous, the big secret Jane was keeping that caused her no end of trouble turned out to be a big yawn, and not a one of the characters developed beyond what they were when the novel began.
