I wanted to like this series

Book Review:  By Book Or By Crook (A Lighthouse Library Mystery) by Eva Gates

A proposal from her long-time boyfriend prompts Reference Librarian Lucy Richardson to reevaluate her life.  Although she loves her job, she doesn't love Ricky or the social circle she's allowed herself to be part of for so long.  She leaves Boston for North Carolina's Outer Banks and is thrilled with her new life.  Things are going exceptionally well until a priceless first edition Jane Austen novel on loan to the library is stolen, and a library board member is found murdered inside the library.

A librarian who has a small room above a library in a lighthouse?  And the library has a cat?  I wanted to like this book.  Wanted to but didn't.  I love the details about the library and the setting itself.  Gates establishes a sense of place well.  Character development, not so much.  Gates offers a potentially interesting assortment of characters, and tells us a lot about them, in a gossipy sort of way.  At this point, the first book in the series, they seem like caricatures.  There's no depth, which is a shame, because it's characters' backstories that make for a compelling read.

I will give the next book in the series a try before calling it quits.  


Book Review:  Booked for Trouble (A Lighthouse Library Mystery) by Eva Gates

Lucy's mom comes to visit (and presumably convince Lucy to return to Boston).  Because only the best will do for Suzanne Richardson, she stays at the most expensive hotel in the area, where she snubs her former classmates who work there.  Suzanne and former bestie, Karen, have a loud argument in front of several hotel guests, during which Karen threatens to tell everyone about Suzanne's past.  Which, of course, makes Suzanne a person of interest when Karen is found murdered soon after.

I'm done.  There's potential here but there are too many books on my TBR list to see if it ever comes to fruition.  Even if I don't like them, I need characters to feel real.  Not a single character in this series -- and there are several to choose from -- feels like anything more than a caricature.  Reviewers have praised the colorful cast, and I agree that Gates has assembled a quirky group -- but there's still no depth.  Worse than that, characters change their behaviors overnight, with nothing to make the change believable.

Manhattan has many secrets. Some are older than the city itself.

Book Review:  Winter of the Gods by Jordanna Max Brodsky

It's been 3 months since Selene (Artemis), a few of her fellow Greek gods, and a Professor of Classic Mythology, worked together to uncover a cult trying to resurrect the Eleusinian Mysteries.  She's in a foul mood -- she hasn't punished a wrongdoer in at least a week, and it's December in Manhattan -- all of the hallmarks of Christmas are grating on her nerves -- she has a lot of rage to vent.  She is enjoying getting cozy with Professor Theo Shulz, however.  When he's not singing or humming Christmas carols, that is.  Or joking about sex.  She says that she spent enough time being what mankind imagined, and now she will decide who she is -- but she's not entirely sure it works that way.  Her powers are already significantly diminished from what they were when men believed in her.  What happens if she chooses to let go of her chastity, one of the main attributes men imbued her with?

That's a question she'll have to come back to.  Another cult has made a sacrifice, a man sprawled atop Wall Street's Charging Bull statue, surrounded by a variety of ritualistic symbols.  When she and Theo receive the call from Detective Freeman, Selene assumes the worst -- that her fellow gods are replicating the methods used by Orion, in the hopes of regaining their former powers.  She's wrong -- this time it's the gods who are being sacrificed.  But by whom and why?

Aside of Selene's choice of punishment for a rapist, which seems likely to have consequences for the bears involved (which she should have considered), I really enjoyed this book.  The mystery is excellent.  What I loved though is that Brodsky again writes her characters true to the original myths but allows for believable growth and regret.  All of the gods have acted rashly and criminally over the millennia and this storyline confronts them with their misdeeds.

I may not have bought the quick romance between Selene and Theo in the first book, The Immortals, but I bought the relationship struggles they face in this book.  Utterly and completely.  And I was happy with the way things were between them at the end.  We'll see what happens in the next book, Olympus Bound.  It's checked out and on my nightstand at home!

The Greek Gods are alive and well and living in Manhattan

Book Review:  The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky

When people stopped believing in the gods, the gods began to diminish.  They still walk among mortals though.  Artemis now goes by the name Selene DiSilva and she calls Manhattan home.  Her powers may be greatly diminished but she can still handle mortals.  Or can she?  As the story begins and she intervenes to save yet another woman from an abusive man, she finds herself wondering if this is the fight she won’t win.  She does win, but just barely.  Has she finally grown so weak that a mere man can defeat her?  As troubling as that thought is, Selene soon discovers there’s something that frightens her even more.  Someone is trying to resurrect the Eleusinian Mysteries and they are upping the ante by using human sacrifice.  Selene suspects that it’s one of her fellow gods, trying to regain former powers.

This is the first entry in the Olympus Bound series and it’s intriguing.  I liked Brodsky’s interpretation of not only the histories of the Greek gods, but also what they would be like if they were among us today.  And I appreciated Selene’s observations about her fellow gods, particularly Persephone.

The mystery was okay — the gods don’t really hide themselves all that well but why should they bother?  No one believes in them anyway.  I had most of the bad guys figured out but not the main one.  That one caught me by surprise but in a good way.  The tension level was excellent.

The romance, and yes, there is one, sort of — that didn’t really work for me.  Let me amend that.  I felt the romance of Artemis and Orion.  Brodsky sold that very well.  Selene and this guy, not so much.  Aside of the glimpses of her past with Orion, Selene is a pretty icy character.  During her heyday, she may have allowed herself to care about her handmaidens, but these days she keeps everyone at an emotional distance.  She protects women but she doesn’t care about any one of them individually.  I would expect that countless years of only exposing herself to the worst of men would have hardened her against them particularly.  Yet somehow,  while trying to figure out the next move of a fellow immortal intent on sacrificing human lives for godly power, she finds herself drawn to a man she originally suspected of murder?  Over the course of a few books, maybe.  All in the same book though?  Which took place in something like 10 days?  It felt rushed.  Not a deal-breaker though.  

Originally posted on my wordpress blog on January 12, 2017.  Reposting it here as I'm preparing to review its sequels, Winter of the Gods and Olympus Bound.

Between love and madness lies obsession . . .

Book Review:  Prized Possessions by L.R. Wright

Two plots collide in the 5th Karl Alberg mystery.  The book begins with a tense scene between Charlie O'Brea and his wife Emma -- and then jumps ahead, one year later.  Emma seems content, Charlie seems . . . haunted.  One stormy night, Charlie doesn't return home and Emma is worried.  When there's still no word from him the next day, Emma contacts his office, only to discover that he no longer works there.  On compassionate leave after the death of his father, Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg agrees to investigate.

Outside of town, a troubled young man loses his temper when he thinks that a pretty college girl has insulted him.  He tries to make amends afterwards but, again feels slighted.  He wants to teach her a lesson.  A devastating series of choices will bring him directly to Emma.

Another excellent story from Wright.  The Charlie/Emma storyline slowly reveals its secrets through reflections on the past, mostly from Emma, whose only goal in life was to be the best wife ever.  Eddie's storyline is simply horrifying.  Karl faces questions about his future and his relationship with Cassandra.

If you like atmospheric, psychological suspense, this is an excellent series to try.  I reviewed the first 4 titles on my wordpress blog if you'd like to check them out.  Here are the links:

Karl Alberg 1:  The Suspect

Karl Alberg 2:  Sleep While I Sing

Karl Alberg 3:  A Chill Rain in January 

Karl Alberg 4: Fall From Grace