Feisty, careless, and a good marshall
349973
A new twist on romance in the west!  Meet the Marshall who has no help until a detective arrives looking for the killer of his brother and childhood sweetheart.  Lots of twists and turns. A page turner....
1124
I liked Jayson's candor. He seems honest and vulnerable, which are two qualities I'm convinced will bring you great friends and relationships.
387243
DC Smith is a nice chap who has a backstory, both personal and professional, which will probably be filled in as the series develops. He seems kind, intelligent and thoughtful, and clearly not a ruthlessly ambitious type. In a word, he is an old-fashioned gentleman. This story will therefore not appeal to those looking for sex and violence, but is perfect for a quiet day of leisurely relaxation. It's undemanding and engaging. I loved it, and will be back for more.
3917851
I picked up this book because I wanted to read more of Atwood's razor-sharp family history narrated by a woman. I enjoyed "The Robber Bride" very much, and "Cat's Eye" was also good, although the end disappointed me a bit. I didn't care because I don't read a book because of its ending anyway.
The Blind Assassin features the story of the Chase family (who is not quite a dynasty), and those bits were just great. I can see why Atwood got the Booker Prize for this one here. With only a few poignant sentences, she can evoke characters, situations, and, most of all, atmosphere with great detail and density. I disagree with Iris Chase when she apologizes for not having drawn Richard Geffen (another blind assassin in his own way) in more detail. I found him being there, and I despised him from the beginning. An even stronger case in point is Winifred: she does appear only very rarely in the text, but I was surprised at how much I came to hate her. Each and every character is drawn strongly in the text. That's not to say that the heroines are intelligent, but damsels in distress and prone to twists of faith all the time. Far from it - sometimes I was exhausted with Laura's nave world views or Iris' passivity. Even with their flaws, they were wonderfully rounded characters, and interesting to read about, for instance Laura's problems with God or Iris' sarcasm as an old woman.
There are, however, those excerpts of a novel-in-the-novel called "The Blind Assassin," wherein a man tells a fantasy story to a woman (both will be identified at some point in the text). What were those for? He is a Communist, and they are having an affair, okay, so far I understood it; but what else is it for except to let the man rant about her being rich and maybe unfaithful with someone other than him? Such stuff is dangerously close to mindless man-bashing, and Atwood is way above such cheap tricks. Some of the passages are screamingly funny because they are your stereotypical fantasy stuff (check out "Peach Women of Aa'A), but otherwise I was confused.
Maybe I didn't get the point. There is a lot of stuff in the text that you are likely to overread - allusions to texts by Dante, the Book of Daniel, and so on, besides the obvious references to Coleridge and others. What is more, I don't know enough about Canadian history to get all the references in the newspaper clippings, but that did not keep me from enjoying a good read. In the case of the Assassin and the mute Virgin and their escape to the wolves, I am afraid I've got the point, and I think those parts do not live up to the rest of Atwood's writing. Consequently, the book falls apart. Nevertheless, quite a great read, because the moment when you find out who did what to whom and why, that is the moment that makes reading this book so worthwhile.
2744650
Eddie is a fun, flawed character who evokes empathy, frustration and support from the reader with some delightful, unexpected twists and turns.
530283
This is an enjoyable and relentless tale which giddily revolves around a hapless and likeable central character. Several recognisable personalities are neatly woven into the plot - some entertaining, some loathsome - which keeps the action moving at pace. There are moments of humour, action ad despair plus some nice historical titbits thrown in to boot.
3128430
The Choir displays the virtues of JT's novels and, to my mind, may be placed just below her masterwork, Other People's Children (no shame in that). There is a cast of the usual suspects who range from the wise bespeaker of old English virtues, to the snarling emblem of our modern, self-centered, pampered society, the character who works mischief all around by doing what she/he feels like doing. The plot offers more than a small dose of unrealistic wish fulfillment and large doses of the author's usual theme--namely, that a woman become strong by beating up on a man, usually a man of straw. But here nobody eats her/his cake and keeps it too. As usual, the writing style is clear, easy, spare--much like the style of America's own Anne Tyler--with no straining after flourishes; and both writers detail the tribulations of modern, middle-class household life, especially the depredations wrought on a vibrant soul overwhelmed by diapers, whinny brats, a selfish (or overly solicitous) husband, and the demands of passion. A highly recommended book.
3420166
Apparently a light erotic romance, there were at time when this novel went a little beyond. The character of Morric had a darkness in him that made this man more complex than the simply eye candy blue collar lover that attracted Grant's attention.

Grant is a self-made millionaire who is enjoying is early almost retirement; a computer wizard, sometime he still behaves like a spoiled teenager who is playing with big toys, like muscle cars and co. He is not a bad boy, only a little self-centered. So self-centered that, even if he says that he cares a lot for Marty, and I didn't find any reason to not believe him, he let pass months before coming to visit, so long that he doesn't know Marty hired a new mechanic, Morric, and that Marty is terminal ill.

That was the first hint the author decided to make this story less light than first impression; the second is Morric and his stubbornly decision to not let Grant have it easy with him. Morric is not the last toy Grant will use and toss away, if he wants to play, they will do it together. I quite enjoyed Morric, he is round and square, able to understand his issues and trying to overcome them. So much that sometime I found Grant to be too immature for someone like Morric; but the positive side of Grant is that, like a stubborn puppy who wants to share his love, he ignores Morric's attempts to push him away and is always coming back for more.
103722
Jeffrey Archer's " A Prisoner of Birth" opens on a cheerful note.  An East-Ender named Danny Cartwright gets down on one knee and proposes to his pregnant girlfriend, Beth Wilson, who happily accepts.  Bernie, Beth's brother and Danny's best mate, joins the happy couple at a pub to celebrate.  The revelry ends abruptly when four drunken men pick a fight with Bernie and Danny, who depart with Beth to avoid a row.  Unfortunately, the three are confronted by their antagonists and a vicious brawl ensues, leaving Bernie dead and Danny arrested for his murder.  Although Danny's conscientious young attorney, Alex Redmayne, does his best to defend his client (who refuses to plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter), the four men from the pub, who call themselves the Musketeers, concoct a bogus but credible story and stick with it.

The actual killer is Spencer Craig who, ironically, is a barrister specializing in criminal law.  Craig is a sociopath who has convinced his three friends, Gerald Payne, an estate agent, Lawrence Davenport, a television, actor, and Toby Mortimer, a drug addict, whom he has known since their days at Cambridge, to lie on his behalf.  The wealthy and privileged Craig has contempt for the uneducated Cartwright and is elated when the jury finds Danny guilty.  The sentence:  twenty-two years in Belmarsh high-security prison.

"A Prisoner of Birth" is reminiscent of Dumas' classic "The Count of Monte Cristo," with Danny playing the role of Edmond Dantes, who was also the victim of a gross miscarriage of justice.  While in prison, Danny undergoes a major transformation.  His cellmate, Nick Moncrieff, is an sophisticated and cultured individual; under his tutelage, Danny loses his accent and begins to speak and behave like a gentleman.  He also takes courses and proves to be an intelligent and gifted pupil, especially in mathematics and business.  Although his future seems bleak, a series of unforeseen events provide Danny with the opportunity to clear his name while taking revenge on the people who wronged him.

Archer has written an engrossing tale that is blessedly free of the sensationalism, gore, and explicit language that is common in today's fiction.  Archer's style brings to mind the novels of yesteryear, with a beginning, middle, and end, and no distracting flashbacks.  On the downside, Archer offers no shading in his characterizations; the villains are contemptible and the heroes are loyal and steadfast.  Since most people are somewhat familiar with the Dumas story, there are few surprises in store.  Still, once the reader becomes invested in Danny's fate, he will be interested to see how the young man's problems are eventually resolved.  There is something here for everyone: scenes of intense courtroom drama, a touching romance, high-stakes financial intrigue, and a few delectable twists and turns in the final chapters.  Although "A Prisoner of Birth" is not subtle, edgy, realistic, or brilliantly written, it is a good old-fashioned yarn, and that alone will earn it an eager audience.
2698588
Lord Ross Carlisle is the perfect British aristocrat. Hes handsome, and will one day be a duke. He is calm, fair, and highly intelligent, a bit of a philosopher, with an inquiring mind, and is master of many sports and other manly pursuits.

And he loves to explore the far corners of the earth and immerse himself in diverse cultures and languages. Plus he writes books about his travels.

Far from a boring man. Plus he has everything, lives at the pinnacle of society, is highly regarded by pretty much everyone

And yet

With her usual honesty, depth, and intensity, author Mary Jo Putney shows us a man with a core of loneliness and despair.

However, this is no modern hero who indulges himself in endless angst and poor me suffering.

No, Carlisle does not inflict his pain on others, nor does he indulge it. It is simply there, and must be lived with because, he believes, there is nothing he can do to assuage it.

Years ago, his beloved wife left him after only six months of marriage; she has not returned, nor has she communicated; and he doesnt have, as he says, the heart or stamina to take another bride, nor is he willing to go through a public and scandalous divorce.

Because his fathers health is declining, Carlisle decides to go on one more adventure, intending to explore along the ancient and still active trade route through Central Asian deserts called the Silk Road.

Just before launching his journey, he encounters his mother-in-law, who begs him to save her son Ian, who is imprisoned in Bokharaa city so perilous for westerners that its virtually suicide for him to agreebut hes always liked her, and his wifes brother Ian, so he agrees to go.

Shortly after he embarks on the journey, he and his two guides are set upon by a group of fierce Turkoman bandits bent on killing Ross because he is a ferengi. His guides run off, but Ross cannot escape, and finds himself surrounded by fierce, implacable men with rifles aimed straight at his heart and head.

Until they are run off by a group of Persians led by a warrior of the mysterious, veiled blue men tribe called Tuareg.

*spoiler on* He soon learns the veiled Tuareg warrior is none other than his estranged wife, Juliet. Who insists on going with him to rescue her brother. *spoiler off*

What follows is a grand adventurefull of heart-stopping danger, from caravans and sandstorms, to the exhilarating and treacherous Turkoman game on horseback called bozkashi, to their own capture and escape so they can enter the black hole prison where Juliets brother might lie dying.

It is also a poignant and gut-wrenchingly painful emotional journey.

This is one of the best examples of this authors ability to explore the deep and anguished emotions of her characters through their relationship, delving down layer by layer, until they find their way to the essential truth, and to the possibility of healing.
275150
Sophisticated, Well-written SpyFi for Old China Hands.
Charles Cumming.  'Typhoon'.
  Spies lie, cheat, steal, and occasionally kill.  Yet we ascribe considerable moral stature to them, particularly (but not exclusively) in wartime.
  Joe Lennox is recruited by SIS, which used to be MI6 when I was in short pants and reading Buchan.  He covers a lot of ground between Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing uncovering and then trying to disable a CIA 'loose cannon' team's plot to exploit western China's Muslim unrest.  His friend and nemesis is Miles Coolidge, amoral but realistic as his CIA counterpart.  There's lots of midnight meetings, coded messages, and quite believable fieldcraft.  Not to mention bangs, blood and guts along the way.  And cynicism and stiff upper lips.
  Widely tipped as 'The New LeCarre', Cumming's  undeniable appeal is perhaps a little different. His main focus seems to be what it means to be living a lie, what kind of person do you have to be to be 'an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country', to mildly distort Henry Wotton's phrase.
  It's perhaps a sign of Cunningham's success in doing this that he ultimately fails to convince.  It's hard for us to understand just how spies do live with themselves?  Joe worries about this (well, a little bit); Miles doesn't. But Coolidge is ultimately the more interesting character: and just possibly the more noble.
  Cumming has written six books; I've already read four. He's good; don't miss him!
2779947
Although not without it's flaws, I really enjoyed this novel. It's a crime caper that has hints of Kyril Bonfiglioli, without resorting to his relentless salaciousness. "Will Our Hero get away with it?" is the main question the reader is asking throughout this book, and the answer is left right till the end.

The lead character, Jonathon, is clearly an outrageous Mary Sue - or rather Gary Stu - and yet he is immensely likeable none the less. The other characters are similarly Utopian, through the prism of Jonathon, yet none of them is annoying for it. Nobody is particularly interestingly flawed, but they all feel like plausibly real people. There's naughtiness but no nastiness, and some coy and very British sex scenes which hint at scandalous behaviors while never detailing them - which is how I prefer my sex scenes if I'm honest.

The research which gives this book it's backbone, so far as I can tell in the areas I know something about, was reasonably exacting. In fact, in that respect it reminded me of nothing so much as Ian Fleming, who was incredibly detailed about little things in order to ground his more unbelievable plots in some semblance of reality, and gave Bond his signature drink as a subtle signal of his lack of class.

Another way in which this book reminds me of Fleming is that it's very clearly written by a heterosexual man who has many of the blind spots of a typical heterosexual man - there's maybe a bare Bechdel pass, but the vast majority of the incidental characters are male for no particularly good reason other than that men are what pops into this writer's head - and yet the plot rattles along at such a pace that I found myself not really minding, where in a book that was less fun to read this would really bother me.

This book will annoy those who don't agree with it's politics, mischievous and tongue-in-cheek though they are, but frankly those people are the sort of people I don't mind annoying. The only genuine sour note for me is in one of the appendices, in which there is some unnecessary misgendering of Caitlyn Jenner in a footnote - however I suspect this springs from lack of knowledge rather than malice.

It's inventive and funny - cackle aloud funny in places - and while it's very obviously a fantasy of a certain type of man, sometimes that's all you need for an evening's entertainment. And given several of my previous jobs, I really appreciated the ending.

A solid 4/5, here.

Read this if:
- you want a fun read that will give you a few guffaws
- you share the author's views on the tabloids in general and the Daily Mail in particular
- You like the kind of crime caper where nobody is really a bad guy except the faceless corporations

Don't read this if:
- You need a gender balanced cast (or any sort of diversity at all that isn't inserted by the reader)
- You think the Daily Mail is a quality newspaper
- You value thought-provoking over entertaining
3520690
I recently read an article comparing detectives to ancient shamans, the people who could see how things truly worked and interpret them for those of us without the gift ([...] This seems an entirely appropriate calling for Jake Samson, protagonist of Shelly Singer's Samson's Deal, the first in her PI series. Hopefully the rest of the series will come along on Kindle.
Jake Samson is an ex cop and an unlicensed investigator who seems, in this first book, to fall into a job through an old girl friend. He's middling - age, fortune, prowess, and, according to his own testimony, intelligence - but he has an intuitive gift and a gifted sidekick in a kickass female carpenter named Rosie who is handy with a two by four.
The novel is pure pleasure, dealing with the late 70s or early 80s obverse of 60s left-wing radicals, that is, the current rash of rightwing nuts that have made such a resurgence lately. Which makes the novel quite timely.
Descriptions, though: Berkeley and Oakland at a particular time. You don't have to have been there to appreciate the bars, the growth centers, the cantilevered houses on the hills, the seedy apartment buildings, the burning campus. And the range of characters: mostly women, many of whom, in good private detective fashion, Jake manages to bed. It's all a romp and great fun.
Sometimes I had a feeling Jake might know a bit too much about furniture and decor, and then I realized I would probably try to know a little something about pretty much everything if I were tracking down killers. You never know where they come from or what they're up to, and being observant is part of the job description. And like a good gumshoe he likes to drink everything from white wine, to wine spritzers, plenty of beer, and an occasional margarita. Or two.
Samson's Deal: he plays poker, he's dabbled in real estate, and he handles difficult situations even when getting beaten up, so he deals with pretty much anything that comes along. And of course he makes a deal with his client.
And he has two cats named Tigris and Euphrates. You gotta love a tough guy who picks names like that.
No spoilers here. Get this book and read it. It goes down smooth. Like good Scotch.
1063816
Kooky, quirky characters are fun to read. But they often fade away when the book ends unless there is a real solidity underneath any absurdity. It is not easy to write a character who is at once silly and dead serious, and even more difficult to place that character in a suitable tale. First-time novelist Tod Wodicka, however, has done just that. In the memorably titled ALL SHALL BE WELL; AND ALL SHALL BE WELL; AND ALL MANNER OF THINGS SHALL BE WELL, readers meet Burt Hecker, a widowed eccentric who lives as if it is 1105 and not 2008.

Years ago Burt founded the Confraternity of Times Lost Regained, which allowed him not only to live out his medieval fantasies but to do so with like-minded people. His friends and family put up with his eccentricities, understanding them as harmless for the most part. Only his mother-in-law, the stern Lemko nationalist Anna Bibko, called it ridiculous. His daughter, June, rebelled through an interest in science fiction and geology, but Burt's sensitive son Tristan, a natural musician, joined his father in the world of medieval reenactment.

However, since his wife's death from cancer two years ago, Burt has loosened his already-tenuous hold on reality. He can no longer maintain the family's Victorian bed and breakfast, spends his days dressed in dirty tunics drinking mead and is estranged from his two adult children. After absconding with his friend's car (which he did not know how to drive), he is sentenced to an anger management treatment. The group he ends up in is a women's medieval chant workshop led by the sympathetic Tivona Henry. Tivona takes the group to Germany for a conference on Hildegard von Bingen, a medieval mystic and composer to whom Burt relates on a deeply personal level. The trip to Europe provides an escape from the scene of his wife's death and the opportunity to track down Tristan, who, it turns out, is somewhere in Prague. Facing head-on Burt's depression and drinking problem as well as family secrets and dysfunction, the Heckers must decide if they can be a family again and what family really means.

Wodicka's debut is original and highly readable but provides no easy answers. Readers will surely come to care for the egocentric and damaged Burt and his grieving family. Still, the author never promises that all shall be well for them. In this way, the book is at once inventive and realistic. This is a very confident first novel; the characters are complex, the story is rich and the settings are lively --- and all of it is written with a smart and graceful hand.

ALL SHALL BE WELL succeeds in marrying the offbeat with the commonplace. Moving effortlessly between past and present, Wodicka tells the compelling story of a man at once both simple and quite complicated. While the details of Burt Hecker's life are unique, his tale --- of origins, destinations and the path between the two --- is universal.

  --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
1840971
SOPHIA is a novel solidly in the sentimental tradition. It first appeared in 1760, not only written by Charlotte Lennox but also serialized in her own monthly magazine - a daring idea that would usher in a whole new publishing methodology.

The story follows the fortunes of a widow and her two daughters after the death of their father, a fine gentleman who squandered his inheritance and left his family destitute.

The widow is beautiful, extravagant and frivolous, and her daughter Harriot is just like her. The younger daughter Sophia is not stunning like her sister, but her intelligence, high principles and subtle elegance are ultimately more attractive. Sir Charles Stanley, the rich but morally lax young gentleman essential to the plot, attempts to seduce Harriot, then changes the object of his desire when he beholds the superior Sophia.

Various misadventures and misunderstandings ensue to challenge virtue and torment lovers.

Charlotte Lennox saw her first novel published when she was twenty. A prot&eacute;g&eacute;e of Samuel Johnson, she achieved fame in an age when male writers were the dominant powers on the literary scene.

Contemporary reviewers praised SOPHIA as "an agreeable love-tale," just the sort of morally improving book young ladies ought to read. But even as a twenty-first-century woman reader, with none of the social restrictions suffered by Sophia, I found myself charmed by the graceful prose style, the engaging story and the characters, all so quaintly reflective of their time and place.

The introduction is a bit dry, but I was fascinated by the notes that followed on female property and education, rank and titles, social status of the clergy, currency values and everyday transportation in mid-eighteenth-century England.
1950824
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially its accurate descriptions of my beloved San Francisco streets and neighborhoods. There's some irritating carelessness in the writing: the police address the flat-broke Bill Damen as "Mr. Damen" and his rich cousin, who lives in a mansion, as "Chris"; Bill cleans up all the evidence of an attack on his car, including vacuuming the interior, then reports the crime to the police; "Cole let his crossed leg fall to the floor with a thump"--suspect Calder meant Cole's *foot* fell to the floor; etc. In all cases, any decent editor would have caught and corrected these things.

The main characters, Bill and his girlfriend Clem, are well drawn and likable, and the story is unusual and interesting. All in all, it's more fun and more pleasing than a lot of the overly hyped books on the NYTBSL.
687370
This is a pleasant surprise especially from a debut author. Is rare for me to discover some good historical m/m and when I saw this book, I knew I gotta read it.

Oliver Rivington, the son of Earl and an ex-army, returned to London with a busted knee. He is a straight laced gentleman and highly honorable. He expect things to be perfect order and people to respect the law. When he meet Jack Turner his belief and boundaries are sorely tested.

Jack Turner might appear to be a morally corrupt scoundrel, but underneath his criminally incline disposition lies a man with a good heart. He took in clients who pay him handsomely to solve their problems by skirting the laws.

We have a case of family scandal whereby Jack was hired to investigate and due to Oliver's nosiness and boredom, they both set upon an interesting journey that brings them from the upper class of London's society to the bowel of St. Giles. They are such a miss match pair that it brought forth some funny and awkward moments.

As for the case itself, it was pretty tame and not high in suspense. I don't even care much about the case in the beginning and only feel slightly invested during the last quarter of the book when the truth is unveil.

As for the romance itself, it can be better if the author crank up the heat more. I'm so used to much dirtier m/m romance that this feel rather tame. I would prefer there are more heated glances, more hanky panky and much longer sex scenes. This is merely my personal preference.

However, I did enjoyed the romance between Jack and Oliver. Is a bit of hate at first sight between them with Oliver and Jack having prejudice towards each other. Jack who used to be servant for nobleman, sneer at Oliver high handedness and his perfect manners. Oliver can't even fathom the idea of Jack totally disregard for law.

The fact that they both have such different status in the society is an interesting angle. They live in a period whereby not only they can never come out as homosexual, is not even a good idea to be seen together as acquaintance due to their status difference. I really like the idea that it was Oliver who make the initiatives to be with Jack and show him that a future for them is possible.

I'm really looking forward to the next book about Jack's brother, Georgie. But at the same time, I hope the author will explore more on Oliver and Jack's future. Maybe thrown in another interesting case for Jack to solve with the help from Oliver.