Wednesday, March 27, 2024

❤️‍🔥Romance/Fantasy, 🔍Mystery, 👻Horror, and 🎨 Fiction

 

    A Fire Endless (Elements of Candence #2) by Rebecca Ross is the second of a duology. The first is A River Enchanted. Here is a link to that review: 

https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2024/02/every-book-winner-or-came-close.html.

A Fire Endless was a satisfactory sequel/conclusion once I got into it. It was long (512 pages), and it started with adding more problems to the plot, making me regret starting it at first because the difficulties felt unsolvable. Still, Ross did bring them to a gratifying and surprising conclusion. A third of the way in, I got caught up in the story. Ross's plots are driven by relationships, and there are several passages of couples pledging undying love followed by sexy time. I read a review that felt the book was more of a romance than a fantasy novel. I agree. However, it was still diverting.

❤️‍🔥🧚‍♂️🧝‍♂️🎶🔥

    Tana French's The Hunter is the second in the Cal Hooper series. I read the first one before I started this blog. A retired Chicago cop moves to rural Ireland to find respite from the ugliness of broken, angry people. He meets a good woman, Lena, and gives his heart to a hurting teenager, Trey, who is hungry for a mentor. Then Trey's wandering dad returns after years of being gone, and he plans to make everyone who thought little of him rich. Trouble follows. Sides are chosen. Then someone ends up dead. French is an excellent mystery writer. She spins a good plot, but her greatest strength is her writing. Her language, descriptions, and images are lyrical. I get swept away. She doesn't write cozy mysteries where everything comes out happily ever after, but her endings are earned and authentic.

🇮🇪🕵️‍♂️🔍🐕

    Have I mentioned I like T. Kingfisher? What Feast at Night is the second in her horror series. Here is a link to the review of the first one:

 https://barbpruittwrites.blogspot.com/2024/01/i-start-year-with-memoir-horror-and.html.

    Once again, soldier Alex Easton is in an isolated location where deadly, possibly supernatural, events are taking place. Kingfisher juggles the three suspects: science, superstition, and crazy. The main characters from the first book, What Moves the Dead, are present: Alex Easton, Angus, and Ms. Potter. This book centers on the themes of PTSD and superstition. 

🐴👻🏚️😴

    I heard about Painting the Light by Sally Cabot Gunning on vacation with my sister and her mother-in-law, Nancy. They both have strange ties to Cap Cod and have met Sally Cabot Gunning. They highly recommended her. They were right! Gunnings describes painting so accurately that I went looking for Ida Russell's work online. Gunnings has done plenty of research, and it gives her novel texture and gravitas as she describes sheep farming, food, laws surrounding inheritance, bicycling, and clothing. She had a propulsive plot with surprising revelations. It was an enjoyable read, and I felt like I painlessly learned things. Win! A criticism is the heroine behaved more like a woman in 2024 than in 1898.

🎨🖼️🌅🗳️🐑


No comments:

Post a Comment

🎄🎄🎄📚📚📚Forgiveness and a Fierce Grandmother!

  How to Read a Book  by Monica Wood was a delightful book that spoke deeply about forgiveness and how difficult and vital it is. The story ...