-
Before My Actual Heart Breaks
First of all, thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK Cornerstone for sharing an ARC in exchange for a fair review. It took me a while to get into this book. Some of it was the slog through the local dialect which was hard to understand at times. I'm not complaining of it, but it did take some time to get used to it. The beginning chapters also had a lot of characters to get to know. Once I got into it properly it became a lot easier and it kind of sucked me into that world. Mary Rattagan is the youngest of a large Catholic family in Northern…
-
Haru’s Curse
Natsumi and Haru are sisters and they are the closest family to each other after their parents divorce and the father remarries. When they are teenagers, Haru starts dating Togo as part of an engagement in an arranged marriage. They are together for two years when Haru dies from a non-specified cancer. Later Togo asks Natsumi to go out with him and she agrees on the condition they go to the places he went with Haru. Thus begins a sort of relationship between Natsumi and Togo that isn't all that straightforward. This story probably falls under the josei genre of manga which is targeted at women. For the most part…
-
Karolina and the Torn Curtain
Zofia Turbotyńska’s maid, Karolina, has gone missing, leaving the house short-staffed in the midst of Easter preparations. Zofia hears the news a body of a murdered woman has been found washed up from the Vistula River and soon discovers the victim to be the same maid who has disappeared. Zofia is shocked and horrified and immediately starts to investigate on her own and soon finds herself in the underbelly of Crakow society, quite far from her own high social standing as the wife of a university professor. This murder mystery is a bit of Agatha Christie, a bit of cozy mystery, a bit of detective story, and quite a lot…
-
How To Talk to a Goddess
Nearly four years ago I was browsing shelves at a local library and The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker caught my attention. It was a paperback and rather thick, as these sorts of fantasy books tend to be. Anyway, I checked it out and read it and I was in love. It was a fantasy book about magic, unlike anything I’d read. There was action, drama, and a bit more than a suggestion of a blooming romance. I really loved the writing: it was just a joy to read the words. I have read it a couple more times since then and still take delight…