Early Summer Reading

Farewell To Summer (New Albion Book 3)

by Wallace Greensage (author)

This is Wallace Greensage’s 3rd New Albion book. I don’t say ‘story’ because it is lots of stories about lots of characters all cleverly woven together.

New Albion is an imaginary country in the mid-Atlantic. A bit like Britain towed south by a thousand ships. (Going South – Forever.) The climate is warmer and so are most of the people. Apart from a few gangsters who are seeking to use the convenient location for their own ends, who bring the edge to the story.

I really enjoyed this gentle relaxing tale of good people geting the lives they deserve!

Well worth the Full 5 stars

Storm Glass (Harbinger Book 1)

Mirror Gate (Harbinger Book 2)

by Jeff Wheeler (author)

Take three girls, A princess, a pauper and a child of privilege. Add a few ghosts and some Muirwood, leering mediated magic, set the stories in a world with a huge gap between rich and poor and a narrow margin between success and failure. Add a bit of steampunk science and you have the Harbinger books.

They are well written and entertaining stories that in the end you walk away from. Harmless, without great significance and reading like one long book .

Pointless fluff

Three Stars

Hello from Another Time: A fun, yet poignant story about a modern girl…

by Tina K. Burton (author)

A story that starts promising but fails to deliver.

Emily is crossing the road, absorbed in her phone then she is in the care of her great aunt in 1930’s Bath. If the story had stayed there it would have been a wonderful piece of whimsy.

Sadly World War 2 approaches and Emily goes off the rails, panicking about the coming bombing … At the level where you’d imagine only a tiny percentage of the population were going to survive and the story sort of goes off the rails.

fun scenario, fun story for the first two thirds, let down by the final third.

Three Stars

Life Models

by D.H. Jonathan (author)

A fun uplifting story of lonely Life Model, widower David, who becomes enamored with a new model on the rota at the Art College. Despite the difference in their age and social background they find common cause in the course of a project and …. I’m not giving away the plot.

We written with very believable characters (probably because DHJ has vast experience as a life model) I enjoyed this story from start to finish.

Five Stars

Elven Winter (The Saga of the Elven Book 2)

Elven Queen (The Saga of the Elven Book 3)

by Bernhard Hennen (author), Edwin Miles (translator)

I loved the original book The Elven and gave it 5 stars. Well sadly it has been down hill from there. The Elven Winter begins as quite an exciting tale that crackles with action and tension then slides into a quagmire of detail.

The third book seems to stay stuck in the same rut. I say seems I set it aside at about a fifth of the way in.

The Case of the Lascivious Lecturer

by Jack Dearborn (author), Ellen Dearborn (editor)

PI Miles Grant is back, This time trying to discover who is blackmailing the family of a young girl. How did they come by the images? Why can’t the victim remember? Methodical (plodding?) as ever Miles sets off to solve the mystery.

Meanwhile at home Miles’ wife is flirting with naturism or is it something else? Spending more time naked than dressed, to what purpose, is it just a passing phase? Or should they tell the children of the family what is going on?

This tale left a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth. To get his evidence another student is allowed to go through the same ordeal. i suppose it is historically correct but the young girls are left unsupported after being abused.

Unscored

A Thousand Devils (Max Heller, Dresden Detective Book 2)

by Frank Goldammer (author), Steve Anderson (translator)

Another case of I gave Book 1 five stars and book two fails to hit the mark. however it was a very high mark to aim for.

Set two years after air Raid Killer (the first Max Heller case) and Dresden is struggling to survive the bitter winter under Russian occupation when a series of bizarre killings involving the occupation forces arrives in Max Heller’s case load.

Are the murders related to a Nazi revival, desperation for food or are they as the Russians insist not related at all?

While it isn’t as good as the exceptional The Air Raid Killer, Im still going to give it more than four stars …. so that is

Five Stars

See-Through: An Emma Nelson Mystery

P.Z. Walker, (Will Forest editor)

It started when Emma accepts a candy from a stranger …

Unnerved by her new ability she confides in a friend, and then while drunk, another, a guy, a policeman. Suddenly she is attracting interest from the police. In more ways than one.

A Fun poolside read from a prolific pen of Paul Z Walker.

Five Stars

Love…From Both Sides

Nick Spalding

A very forgettable book … I had to check on my kindle that I had read it. I recognised the last few pages. I dipped back through a few pages and I remember that it is a piece of nothing – Boy meets girl, makes an idiot of himself in a food poisoning episode and eventually gets her back – As usual it makes for a great read by the pool or in the airport waiting for a delayed flight.

Three Stars

Lies Sleeping: The New Bestselling Rivers of London novel (A Rivers of London novel Book 8)

Ben Aaronovitch

The New Bestselling … I hate that sort of subtitle doubly for the repetition. The cast is all here again as PC Peter Grant chases down the bad guys of magic in a complex narrative that finally moves the Rivers of London series forward after a couple of rather static books. Nightingale, Beverley and even a gentler Leslie play their roles, as finally we discover more about the Faceless man …

This is by no measure a stand alone read you have to read the enjoyable first couple of stories and wade through the fifth and sixth books for this one to make sense. Even Amazon are confused calling it book 8 of a seven book series.

Three Stars