Tag: book-reviews
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“Agnes Sharp and the Wedding to Die For” by Leonie Swann
I enjoyed two previous books in the “Miss Sharp Investigates” series by Leonie Swann and was excited to learn that the third book, “Agnes Sharp and the Wedding to Die For,” is set to be published in 2026. Luckily, I got my hands on the advance copy, thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. It was…
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“Mockingbird Court” by Juneau Black
Sometimes I feel like reading something lighthearted, whimsical, and relaxing, especially in the fall, when the days start getting shorter and darker, and diving into a book that tackles serious issues doesn’t appeal. The Shady Hollow series latest – and the final – installment fits the bill. Vera Vixen, the village reporter and self-proclaimed detective,…
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“The Armchair Detectives” by Matt Dunn
Martin Maxwell is an 84-year-old former government agent (he refers to his employer as “The Company”), now retired and recuperating from a hip replacement at a retirement home located on the beautiful, albeit cloudy, coast of England. He observes that people are dying there in bigger numbers than the national statistics and finds it alarming.…
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“What We Can Know” by Ian McEvan
“What We Can Know” is the new novel by Ian McEwan, and it primarily explores the way we perceive ourselves now, as humanity, in comparison to those who lived before. The year is 2119, and Thomas Metcalfe, a professor of literature from 1990 to 2030, is obsessed with a singular piece of poetry: a cycle…
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“The Killing Stones” by Ann Cleeves
“The Killing Stones” is the new mystery by Ann Cleeves featuring DI Jimmy Perez and his partner Willow Reeve. They moved to Orkney, off the northern coast of Scotland, hoping to have more time and peace of mind to raise their son, James. Willow is pregnant with their second child and on maternity leave. She…
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“The Lake Escape” by Jamie Day
“The Lake Escape” by Jamie Day is a summer book: something you can quickly pick up and read sitting in a beach chair and sipping iced tea, then promptly put it aside when a seagull tries to steal your snack. In the style of recently popular movies and novels, “rich people behaving badly”, the story…
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“My Friends” by Fredrik Backman
What a great gift friendship is—for everybody but especially for teenagers in their formative years, when they search for understanding and acceptance, trying to find themselves and moving between excitement and depression, often in a single day. Fredrik Backman’s “My Friends” is a book about friendship that helps them accept that being different is okay.…
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“Bad Nature” by Ariel Courage
Hester, the heroine of Ariel Courage’s debut novel “Bad Nature,” is a 40-year-old New York lawyer with no family and no friends, and to top it off, she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Refusing the treatment, she instead decides to fulfill her goal, which she has been carrying for years, always sure that it will…
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“The Seventh Veil of Salome” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Every film studio in 1950s Hollywood was making a sword-and-sandals movie based on biblical stories, preferably with a seducing woman and a powerful man falling under the woman’s spell. The moviegoers were also tired of seeing Gary Cooper and wanted Richard Burton’s animal magnetism. Hence, in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new novel “The Seventh Veil of Salome,”…
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“Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime” by Leonie Swann
I enjoyed reading the first book in the Agnes Sharp series and found the second one even better. The elderly residents of Sunset Hall – Agnes, Edwina, Bernadette, Charlie, Marshall, and Winston – go on vacation to a fancy, secluded Cornish hotel, partially because Edwina won a romantic gateway for two and everybody wants to…
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