When you read those romances that end with the "Happily Ever After" somehow there's always a few questions left unanswered. In this book, Julia Quinn writes the 2nd epilogue to the 8 books in the Bridgerton series bringing all the characters back to life but showing us the ever after.
Great fun!
★★★★
GENRE: Romance
CHARACTERS: Anthony, Benedict, Colin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, Hyacinth, Violet, Penelope, Kate
Series/ Progress: The Bridgertons - 9/9
DATE READ: March 28 - March 29
NO. OF PAGES: 384
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Nook stockpile
I'm not normally into the paranormal, but because this was such a speedy read, I managed to get past the ghosts and witches to find an entirely enjoyable story with somewhat 2 dimensional characters - but fun just the same. I may even read another.
★★★½
GENRE: Paranormal mystery
CHARACTERS: Jade Calhoun, Kane, Pyper, Ian, Bea
Series/ Progress: Jade Calhoun Series- 1/7
DATE READ: March 27 - March 28
NO. OF PAGES: 575
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Nook stockpile
Bookstore owner, Pamela Shedd has handed over the "Rhinestone Clipboard" and all the responsibilities for their sponsored craft retreat. Things don't start out well having to replace the Tai Chai instructor as well as the acting coach, but managing that Molly is optimistic about the retreat until a massive fog sets in - stopping the arrival of the retreaters. Then the crochet instructor is found dying on the beach apparently suffering from an allergic reaction to a s'more.
Molly has to rely on her own instincts as well as her friends to figure that it wasn't an accident but murder!
★★★½
GENRE: Cozy Mystery
CHARACTERS: Molly Pink, Adele Abrams, Izabelle Landers, Mason, Fields, Bennett Franklyn
Series/ Progress: Crochet Mysteries - 4/9
DATE READ: March 24 - March 26
NO. OF PAGES: 216
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Nook stockpile
ABANDONED
This author must have either been writing his thesis or being paid by the syllable/name/stats that were used, because after 100 pages I'd had too many stats, too many minuscule details, and too many names which meant absolute nothing. Not only this, but he kept inserting his own comments and opinions.
½★
GENRE: Non Fiction
CHARACTERS:
Series/ Progress:
DATE READ: March 21 - March 26
NO. OF PAGES: 102 of 704
Challenges:
SOURCE: library
After 20 years with no contact, Harold receives a note from a former co-worker, Queenie, telling him that she's dying. Guilt immediately attacks Harold's conscience, so he sets out to save her by walking the length of England unprepared for the journey - physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. The tale of journey and the enlightenment he receives along the way point the reader to soul searching of their own.
★★★
GENRE: Fiction
CHARACTERS: Harold Fry, Maureen Fry, Queenie Hennessy
Series/ Progress: 1/2
DATE READ: March 19 - March 23
NO. OF PAGES: 453
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: bookshelf Stockpile
This 19th installment of the Guido Brunetti series returns the great characters of Commissario Brunetti, Inspector Vianello, and secretary Signorina Elettra to Venice in the stifling heat of a Venice August. Guido loses out on his vacation in the Alps with his family when a diligent government worker is found dead. Was he murdered because of his job working for a corrupt judge or was he murdered because he was a homosexual?
The book is filled with twists and turns followed by an unusual resolution.
★★★
GENRE: Mystery
CHARACTERS: Commissario Guido Brunetti, Inspector Vianello, Signorina Elettra, Araldo Fontana
Series/ Progress: 19/24
DATE READ: March 10 - March 20
NO. OF PAGES: 397
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Audio Stockpile
I knew that Hans Christian Andersen wrote a great number of fairy tales and the basic stories of some of them, but I was delightful to sit down and actually read them. Some I'd never heard about and I enjoyed those too.
★★★
GENRE: short stories
CHARACTERS: Little Mermaid, Emperor, Thumbelina
DATE READ: March 1 - March 19
NO. OF PAGES: 615
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Nook Stockpile
Normally, shifts in time in a book will drive me crazy, however, Kate Morton manages to always make this process work for me.
The reader is introduced to Dr. Grace Bradley, an archaeologist, spending the remainder of her years in a nursing home. She has been contacted by movie producers who want her opinion of their sets for a movie they are making set at Riverton, a manor house where Grace had worked as a housemaid when she was very young. The sets bring memories flooding back to Grace telling the story of the Hampton sisters and the tragedies that befell the residents of Riverton.
As the story progresses we see Grace battling with her memories as well as trying to find a way to reveal the secrets of her life before her end.
One of my favorite authors with a great story.
★★★½
GENRE: fiction
CHARACTERS: Grace Bradley, Hannah Hartford, Emmeline Hartford, Robbie Hunter, Teddy Luxton
DATE READ: March 1 - March 18
NO. OF PAGES: 473
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: loaned from a friend
This conclusion of the All Souls Trilogy has Diana Bishop (weaver/witch) and her vampire husband, Matthew de Clermont battling not only their own powers but their families and others of their kind.
This story brings the vampire/deClermont family together to protect Diana and Matthew but also to discover the whereabouts of Benjamin, Matthew's son who has Blood Rage. Benjamin is an evil vampire who is trying to retaliate against the de Clermonts.
This final installment brings the characters together and the story to a very interesting conclusion.
★★★½
GENRE: fantasy
CHARACTERS: Diana Bishop de Clermont, Matthew de Clermont, Sarah Bishop, Benjamin Fox
Series/ Progress: All Souls Trilogy/3
DATE READ: March 2 - March 8
NO. OF PAGES: 561
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Audio Stockpile
Lady Catherine can't understand why her husband of 7 years insists on dressing her up like a trollop when he has visitors coming. But on one occasion she meets the Earl of Ashworth, and they become romantically involved.
The reasoning for her husband's behavior and the subsequent events are an interesting tale of Regency romance.
★★★
GENRE: Romance/mystery
CHARACTERS: Lady Catherine Bourgeault, Lord Edgar Bourgeault, Adam Stanford (Earl of Ashford)
Series/ Progress: Garden/1
DATE READ: February 25 - February 28
NO. OF PAGES: 225
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Nook Stockpile
Goodwin is superb as an historian and in this book we see Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft as individuals but also we see how working shoulder to shoulder, they created a greater good often at the cost of their own ambitions.
TR's personality comes through as adventurer and master politician. Taft comes through as a loving, generous, gentle giant who twice refused appointment to the Supreme Court (his greatest desire) because he believed his efforts elsewhere were needed. In this book we also see the development of the power of the press and how a good politician could utilize that power.
This book was extremely informative, however it could have been just as informative without being so wordy. Several passages were repetitive and could easily been omitted.
★★★½
GENRE: History
CHARACTERS: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Edith Carow Roosevelt, Nellie Taft, SS McClure, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens
Series/ Progress: Presidents #26,#27
DATE READ: February 1 - February 28
NO. OF PAGES: 912 36 hours audio
Challenges: 75, Category, TIOLI, AlphaKit
SOURCE: Audio Stockpile
