The Literary Lucy

  Did you ever pick up a book only to realize that you've read it before but so long ago that it's just outside of what you remember?  Happened to me with this book.  I started reading it and it felt so familiar that I scoured my shelves thinking that I had bought it before.  I couldn't find it and then I wondered if I was going crazy but I knew way too much about the book, including the resolution of the central mystery.  I can only conclude that I bought it, didn't like it, gave it away, and then rebought it.  The good news is that I liked it much better the second time, even if I did end up skipping all the parts not featuring the two main characters. Blackthorn was facing an ignominious death in prison at the hands of a corrupt nobleman when a fey mysteriously arrives and offers her freedom if she will forgo vengeance for seven years and also agree to help anyone who asks her for it during that time.  She is unhappy with the idea but agrees, esca...

  I read this series a long time ago but when I was putting books back on the shelf after moving this summer, I realized I had lost all but one in the series.   Sounded like a damn fine time to revisit the series and see if it was as good as I remembered. Rhapsody is a half-elf Singer trying to outrun her past when she runs into a couple of monsters:  Grunthor, a huge, green-skinned, sharp-fanged, mountain bristling with weapons, and the Brother, a preeminent assassin who can hone in and track the heartbeat of anyone in the world.  They too are on the run and rescue/abduct Rhapsody for her abilities.  Grunthor and the Brother are seeking to escape the evil F'dor, one of the elemental races, and to do so they travel through space and time along the root of the world tree.  When they emerge, it's to discover that their homeland has been destroyed and they are millennia away from when they began their journey.  The Brother, renamed Achmed the Snake, set...

  This is book 16 in the Coffeehouse Mystery series.  Series like this tend to live or die on the strength of their recurring characters, so it's inevitable that there will be some spoilers regarding the relationships and lives of those characters in this review.  I will do what I can, but really, you should start at book one and not try to jump in at this stage. Clare Cosi is finally going to marry her favorite flatfoot, Mike Quinn.  Her ex-mother-in-law is happy for her and recommends Clare go see the family's jeweler, Gus Campana, about having a ring designed.  Clare also wants to talk to Gus about being one of the only survivors of the Andrea Doria shipwreck.  A billionaire is launching an exact replica of the ship and Clare is in the running to produce a coffee blend for the grand disembarkation.  But Gus ends up poisoned by his beloved cold brew coffee and a laundry list of suspects, including a blackmailer, present themselves.  Plus, a sn...

  This book felt more geared towards younger readers, like maybe mid-teens and I found some of the prose a little stilted but I appreciated the new mythology very much. After an unfortunate magical incident at college, Gray finds himself the virtual prisoner of his professor, Appius Callender, with his only friends the professor's two daughters, Sophie and Joanna.  Sophie in particular is very interested in learning magic, partly because she has been forbidden by her father, and partly because of an innate longing.  Gray suspects Professor Callender of plotting some nefarious deed against the headmaster of Merlin College but as he and Sophie soon learn, the conspiracy has a much loftier target in mind. Much like Masks & Shadows , I found the love story here to not be to my taste.  Overall, this was a harder book to read because I kept finding myself thrown off by the focus on Gray and Sophie ending up together.  It reminded me of Regency romances, which ...

  I am not much of a "romance" person so that aspect of this book was not my favorite but I did appreciate the setting and the use of magic in unexpected ways. Charlotte von Steinbeck is a recent widow visiting her sister, Sophie, mistress to Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy, at the summer palace.  Charlotte is excited to hear new music from choirmaster Josef Hayden and a little scandalized that one of the foremost castrati of the day, Carlo Morelli, will also be a guest.  Things get very out-of-control quickly, however, and Charlotte finds herself caught up in webs of palace intrigue as well as supernatural plots. Like I said, the romantic subplot between Carlo and Charlotte I could have done without, even though I think it was integrated into the story quite well.  It's just not my cup of tea.  I liked the quasi-realistic setting and the attention to period details, however.  It was a very lush read and it was easy to get caught up in the drama of it all. ...