leandrathetbrzero's reviews
262 reviews

The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh by Claudia Gray

funny mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Hey, Claudia Gray, when is book 4 coming out?? Please say "soon."

Actual Rating: 4.75 stars
Pub Date: 18 June 2024
Reading Format: physical book (preordered)

A historical mystery series that has never failed to entertain me is the Mr Darcy & Miss Tilney mysteries by Claudia Gray. As the name of the series suggests, Gray has taken well-loved (and some well-hated) characters from Jane Austen’s canon and placed them into intricate murder mystery plots. These crimes occur after the events in Jane Austen’s books. In fact, our sleuths are the offspring of romantic leads from Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey.

I recently finished the third installment, The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, as a buddy read with Julie (YouTube: @KeepCalmWithBooksAndCoffee). Spoiler: we both ADORE this series. I continue to love Juliet and Jonathan as our sleuthing duo. Their friendship and loyalty to one another has slowly progressed to romantic affection. It's especially lovely to see as both characters are outsiders in one way or another to Regency society: Juliet, due to her views on marriage and women's agency; and Jonathan, due to his often misunderstood neurodivergence. This third book featured brilliant cameos from the protagonists' parents as well!

I really enjoyed not only the mystery involving multiple attempts on Lady Catherine’s life but also the stylistic choices made by the author in homage to the Austen title to which it acts as a companion. Each book in this series mirrors the setting and themes of one classic work in the canon: The Murder of Mr Wickham is set in Emma’s Donwell Abbey; The Late Mrs Willoughby returns us to Sense and Sensibility’s Barton Cottage in Devonshire; and The Perils of Lady Catherine de Bourgh takes our sleuths to Rosings Park as featured in Pride and Prejudice. I cannot recommend this series enough, and I do want to encourage that any who are interested begin with the first book to avoid spoilers!

Thank you NetGalley and Vintage for an E-ARC copy in exchange for this honest review!

The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

~THE MARKETING OF THIS BOOK~
I need to preface this 1-star review by emphasizing that this book is extremely mismarketed "for fans of The Magician's Daughter and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries." While I haven't read the former, I have read Emily Wilde, and The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt could not be more different. Iverson's novel follows a naive young woman who has experienced decades of trauma, initially by the hands of her father and then by the hands of her husband. Throughout the book she has vague magical abilities with nature that are never explained nor really explored by our main character, making this historical magical realism, not fantasy. With that said, my reasons for giving this book the lowest rating possible has nothing to do with the mismarketing of this title.

~MY GENERAL CRITICISMS~
Below, you will find a list of content warnings. Each one was either superfluous and added nothing to the plot except length OR the author included so many examples and callbacks to the trauma that it lost all meaning. The excessive repetition extends to overdone themes and overused word choice. Moreover, none of the characters were consistent in personality or demeanor, and none of these characters know the meaning of active listening. Numerous times, it seemed characters were having completely different conversations with each other. I kid you not when I say that at one point, Harriet confides to two other characters that her husband locked her in the basement for days (all while she has hair missing from her head from when he dragged his wife by her hair), and the response she gets is this question: "Did he hurt you?"

Harriet doesn't bat an eye at this oddly timed question, and that is because she is just as clueless and passive regarding the events around her. Take for example her choice to marry Christian (after speaking to him twice, and he did all the talking). She thinks by marrying him, she will be safe from an inspector's investigation of her missing father, and then her magical ability will be safely hidden. Then, once they are married, she realizes that her husband will move in with her (something she literally NEVER considered), thus increasing the chances HE will detect her magical abilities...I cannot make this up. Many times, it is clear the author also forgot story threads she created: the mysterious Nigel Davies and the promised weekly letters from Eunice, to name two.

~THE USE OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AS A PLOT DEVICE~
The inappropriate and insensitive way sexual assault is used as a plot device is baffling, and the bafflement is heightened when one woman's idea of comforting another after attempted SA is to give her the day off and then write a letter to a relative stranger suggesting he come visit because the SA victim has so many suitors.

In conclusion, the number of loose ends and surface-level scenes leaves me quite surprised that this story didn't go through a few more rounds of editing and beta readers before it was published for public consumption. These criticisms are just the tip of the iceberg, and I am so disappointed to see a fascinating premise be executed with this result. I will not be recommending this book.

CW: two attempts of sexual assault, verbal and physical abuse within a domestic partnership, child abuse, threatened institutionalization

Actual Rating: 1.0 stars
Pub Date: 03 December 2024
Reading Format: ebook

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an E-ARC copy in exchange for this honest review!

Content Warnings

Much Ado About Margaret: A Novel by Madeleine Roux

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slow-paced

2.0

It's important to acknowledge that I have previous experience with this author before, and that experience was quite negative. With that said, my initial reading of Roux's work involved a science fiction horror titled Salvaged. I received a "Read Now" offer via email, and the book was advertised as a historical romance with mystery elements, which sounds like something I would enjoy. I also gravitated toward the title, an obvious allusion to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

The beginning of this narrative held promise. I appreciated Margaret's passion for writing and the struggle she faces as she attempts to become a published author in Regency England. I also liked the nods to Much Ado About Nothing through the narrative structuring of this story. However, the character development for our protagonists and surrounding cast is surface level, and the actions/reactions from these characters are childish or executed in a way that makes it hard to believe this might occur during the Regency era. This criticism comes from someone who is far from an expert in social etiquette and practices from this time period. The drama (and trauma) involving Bridger and his brother was summarized more often than not, and attempts at pulling heartstrings was not natural. I am most disappointed by the climactic moment where the two villains are revealed, and the aftermath that includes a character telling others just how loud the leading couple's s*x was.

I will not be recommending this book to others, and I will not be trying this author for a third time.

Actual Rating: 2.o stars
Pub Date: 22 October 2024
Reading Format: ebook

Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine for an E-ARC copy in exchange for this honest review!

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

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dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

When Iðunn experiences numerous troubling symptoms like persistent exhaustion, body aches, and unexplainable bruises, she seeks help from medical practitioners. Unfortunately, the advice she receives consists of such vague lifestyle changes like eating better and exercising more. Nothing helps, and she seems further away than ever before from the answers and relief she seeks, until one night Iðunn falls asleep with her step-counting watch on, and wakes up to find she’s walked over 40,000 steps in the night...

I was captivated by how Iðunn's battle for a good night sleep takes her on a haunting journey to regain control of her own body as well as her sense of self separate from societal expectations and comparisons to her dead sister. This is an excellent, easy-to-read-in-one-sitting novella. In fact, that is exactly what I did! There is darkness in this book but also sharp humor. The terror and rising tension that one feels while reading interestingly comes from events that are often off page. This works really well for the story's formatting as we only have Iðunn's POV, and that is restricted to when she is awake. This limited first-person POV does mean that we as readers will not get all of the answers we may want by the book's close; moreover, the ending is ambiguous. That won't work for everyone, but I really enjoyed my reading of this.

I am so glad that Hildur Knútsdóttir and Mary Robinette Kowal (another author I have enjoyed in the past) met at what I believe was a writer's conference, and their meeting led to this work being translated!!

CW: animal death

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Original Pub Date: 3 September 2024
Reading Format: print + audio

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for an E-ARC copy in exchange for this honest review!

Content Warnings