BookBrowse | Book Reviews and Recommendations

The Last Chance Library
by Freya Sampson

We are what we read (7/10/2021)

Are we what we read?

Freya Sampson's The Last Chance Library, is a charming and thoroughly engaging homage to books, libraries and librarians. Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. The characters were so vividly and efficiently portrayed. I was totally caught up with the residents of the small town Chalcot and their efforts to save their local library. This is a perfect reading for a summer's day. The fast-paced plot led me to devour the book in nearly one sitting. As a daughter of a librarian and one who also works in a library, I embraced the book's theme of extolling the value that libraries and librarians provide to the community.

The Four Winds
by Kristin Hannah

Be Brave (3/31/2021)

I totally plowed through The Four Winds. Truly it is a gritty story, wonderfully depicting spirited women trying to overcome adversity in order to protect their families. The treatment of "Okies" makes one very angry. Extremely culpable are the locals and land owners, who dehumanized and profited off of those fleeing starvation and destitution in the plains. This is a story that resonates today.

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie
by Marie Benedict

Capturing the Mastermind of Mysteries (3/26/2021)

As a lover of Agatha Christie, this book is the next best substitute for an A.C. mystery. Marie Benedict posited a creative telling of Agatha's mysterious disappearance. I enjoyed her method of weaving the story within the story with the hunt for Mrs. Christie. Agatha would be proud of this book.

Daughter of the Reich: A Novel
by Louise Fein

A Great Read (3/8/2020)

I could not put the "Daughter of the Reich" down. Even before finishing the book, I raved to friends about it. I am an avid read of fiction occurring in times of rising authoritarianism. I loved the 'Nightingale" and "All the Light We Cannot See". This book towers above those two great reads. The layers and complexity of the character development are phenomenal. Hettie's transformation from a Nazi loyalist to resister is highly believable. The writing is well crafted. Each character plays a significant role in the development of the story and adds to the describing the tension of living in Germany during the late 1930's. The scenes about Kristallnacht are graphic and chilling. I highly recommend this book. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. It is GREAT.

A Long Petal of the Sea
by Isabel Allende

A Long Petal of the Sea (2/9/2020)

A beautifully written epic story of love and resistance against the rise of authoritarian governments during the Spanish Civil War and in Chile. The characters and plot lines are wonderfully crafted. A haunting story that I could not put down.

Lola
by Melissa Scrivner Love

Lovely Lola (3/3/2017)

I'll try to avoid any spoilers in this review. The story of Lola has lots of action and suspense, and will keep your interest to the end. Lola is definitely not your typical drug lord (or should I say lady). Author Melissa Scrivner Love describes vividly the scenes within Los Angeles County where the action occurs. She nails the cultural treatment of women in the Chicano society beginning with the initial scene, where the Chicanas of the neighborhood take over Lola's kitchen to prepare food for the BBQ. Food, relationship, cultural clashes, maternal love interweave with the world of drug dealing.

Home Sweet Home
by April Smith

Home Bittersweet (12/7/2016)

Home Sweet Home by April Smith is well-written. Yet, the first 125 pages of detailed vignettes about the various characters made me wonder if the multitude of story threads would come together. Satisfactorily, the threads did became woven. The book captures the bleak scenery of the South Dakota prairie and the paranoia formed in the McCarthy years of communist smear campaigns. The story portrays well the tension between the urban, more Eastern-elite and the rural Midwest farm communities.

Lady Cop Makes Trouble: Girl Waits with Gun #2
by Amy Stewart

Kopp Sisters Thrive (5/19/2016)

Lady Cop Makes Trouble is the sequel to Girl Waits with Gun, the debut or the Kopp Sisters Novel series. I enjoyed the first book immensely. To me, Lady Cop Makes Trouble plodded along for the first 100 pages, with more description than action. The writing is quite good, yet the plot is slow to develop. Having read the first book, the characters were familiar to me; readers beginning with this story may be at a disadvantage. Additionally, the book left sufficient loose ends to suggest a third book is in the wings.

The Dark Lady's Mask
by Mary Sharratt

Rich Tapestry (2/2/2016)

I couldn't put down The Dark Lady's Mask and I didn't want it to end. The story is a rich tapestry, finely woven with exquisite details of place, well-developed characters, highly evolved themes. It is a novel of Shakespeare's muse, yet more deeply it is a story of an educated woman and the on-going challenges faced by educated women. This book is wonderful in all aspects and especially in its portrayal of women, society, religion, arts, and commerce of the Elizabethan age. A must read!

The Forgetting Time
by Sharon Guskin

Not to be forgotten (12/7/2015)

Sharon Guskin's debut book, The Forgetting Time, is an excellent read and extremely well written. The plot is fast paced. The characters are vividly portrayed and highly engaging. Beautiful themes of living in the present moment and forgiveness punctuate the story-line. This story of reincarnation and of life being lived to the full will haunt your memory long after you finish this book.

Home by Nightfall: A Charles Lenox Mystery
by Charles Finch

Victorian Detective (9/10/2015)

The advance, uncorrected proof that I read of "Home by Nightfall" by Charles Finch will greatly benefit from a major and a skillful editing of the draft book. I was greatly distracted by the awkward sentence structure, the inconsistencies in the scene descriptions, and story-lines addressed and left unresolved. Even if those concerns were resolved, I'm not sure if I could rate this book above average. The story seemed to plod along and was very easy to put down. Many characters held promise of being engaging, but really didn't engage me. Finch has obviously researched life in the Victorian Age, but what did the canary circus or the toy rasp have to do with the crime at hand?

What Doesn't Kill Her: A Reeve LeClaire Series Novel
by Carla Norton

Not as Edgy as Normal (5/4/2015)

Having read Edge of Normal, I was familiar with the characters in Carla Norton's second Reeve LeClaire thriller-- What Doesn't Kill Her. This second book lacked much of the tension and suspense of the first book. I found I could put this story down, even during what might be considered the tension-building scenes, such as the hunt and chase in the snow and near the dock. I was a bit annoyed by some of the extraneous characters--like why did Dr. Moody's wife have to be so angry.

Her
by Harriet Lane

Is it Her or Me (5/4/2014)

Maybe it's me, but I am not taken by this book from Harriet Lane. The storyline was meandering, filled with scenes, vignettes and little action. To me, the story seemed to be all adjectives with no verbs. The plot conveyed some sparks of insight into the two primary characters and developed a bit of tension, which kept me reading to the end. Within this book, there was an appropriate review of itself--"I found the final plot twist unsatisfying" and again "I don't think I like these characters". Mercifully, the book is short.

Through the Evil Days: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery
by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Evil Days and Nights (9/2/2013)

If I could give ½ stars, I might rate this book 3 ½ but not a 4. Through the Evil Days is a continuation of a mystery series that I have not read. Unlike many series stories, I was either annoyed or felt disadvantaged because I did not know the nuances from the prior books. Through the Evil Days relied heavily on the earlier books to provide the character development. Without that point of reference, I found the main characters to be flat. Oscar, the dog, was my favorite character. I also yearned for greater description of the scenery, although highway conditions were vividly discussed. Lastly, without being a spoiler, I did not think that the stage was properly set for the final snow scene. Nonetheless, the book held my interest and was a generally fast-paced read.

Amy Falls Down
by Jincy Willett

Birdbath Creation (6/11/2013)

Is it a cheap shot for a writer to write about a writer? Maybe. Yet Jincy Willett in Amy Falls Down crafts a fascinating story from beginning to end. Is a reader a sponge, sandglass or a strainer or does an author create a story that a reader wants to absorb like a sponge? From the first page I was fully engaged with Amy Gallup, her basset hound, Alphonse, and the literary and media crowd. Scenes and character descriptions were so vivid that I felt like I was right there with them. Amy Gallup's riffs about publishers and the pseudo mystic of writing were classic irony without the klaxon. Amy Falls Down is a thoroughly entertaining, yet highly thought-provoking story. I could not put this book down and will definitely recommend it to friends.

Her Last Breath: A Kate Burkholder Novel
by Linda Castillo

Breathtaking (5/4/2013)

Her Last Breath was the first Kate Burkholder Amish mystery that I've read, but it won't be my last. The story was so well crafted, and the characters and scenes were so vivid, that I was totally swept into the plot. The plot was suspenseful throughout, and the ending did not disappoint. The insights into Amish life and the alienation felt by former members of the community made this book more than just a mystery, but an escape into a lifestyle that is so different from my Southern California environment. I highly recommend Her Last Breath by Linda Castillo.

Crime of Privilege
by Walter Walker

Justice for the Privileged is different (4/10/2013)

That the wealthy and powerful have a different justice system than the average American is not really a revelation to most of us. Crime of Privilege tracks members of a well-known family from Cape Cod that has extensive political and societal connections. The family, through their minions, is able to hush up crimes and indiscretions done by many members of the extended family. The story is initially told through a series of flash-back and fast-forward scenes. The mystery is written in a first-person narrative from the perspective of a low-level district attorney, who happened to be present at a Palm Beach crime. This attorney, Georgie Beckett, is not a very endearing protagonist. The pacing of the book is quite disjointed and sometimes tedious. Characters and storylines are described in extensive detail and then that particular thread of the story is dropped. I had great hopes for reading this book, yet was mildly disappointed throughout.

The Good House
by Ann Leary

What the Good House Tells (12/2/2012)

My rating was a borderline between a 3 and a 4. The Good House interested me with its first sentence, "I can walk through a house once and know more about its occupants than a psychiatrist could after a year of sessions." Later, the storyline annoyed me with its disjointed, seemingly unresolved scenes and one-dimensional secondary characters. Then it dawned on me that this first person story is from the perspective of Hildy Good, an aging woman, who was the former town party girl, an independent business owner in a very charming New England town, and an alcoholic. From this perspective, the story was riveting, well-crafted, suspenseful, disturbing, and engaging.

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar: A Novel
by Suzanne Joinson

Amazing women in amazing times (5/6/2012)

Suzanne Joinson's novel is engaging, weaving an adroitly balanced story set in the time frames of 1923 and today. The book grabbed me at the first page and kept my interest throughout. The pacing between the two time periods was exceptionally well done. The characters and locations, as well as the tensions between the Moslem and Christian worlds, came to life on the page. My only let-down was that the book ended. Ms. Joinson left me wanting to read her next book.

An Unmarked Grave: A Bess Crawford Mystery
by Charles Todd

A War on Many Fronts (4/9/2012)

Unmarked Grave is the fourth in the Bess Crawford mystery series, yet requires no prior knowledge of the earlier books to make for a thoroughly engaging and entertaining read. Bess Crawford is a plucky and highly capable nursing sister assigned to the field hospital and aid stations in France during World War I. She is no shrinking violet in post-Victorian age of war-torn England. Unmarked Grave takes place in 1918, when the horrors and the deprivations of the war are well felt both on the battlefields and on the home front of England. Charles Todd’s depictions of war, notably the chemical gassing and field hospitals triage, are highly effective and appropriately set the stage for the mystery. The storyline is quite suspenseful and makes for a very fast-paced read.

Reviews by Grace W. (Corona del Mar, CA)

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Reviews by Grace W. (Corona del Mar, CA)

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