Monthly Archives: September 2021

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Book Review: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, by India Holton

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I won a book stack from Waves of Fiction and among the books was India Holton‘s The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.

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A prim and proper lady thief must save her aunt from a crazed pirate and his dangerously charming henchman in this fantastical historical romance.

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She’s also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means. Sure, she has a dark and traumatic past and an overbearing aunt, but all things considered, it’s a pleasant existence. Until the men show up.

Ned Lightbourne is a sometimes assassin who is smitten with Cecilia from the moment they meet. Unfortunately, that happens to be while he’s under direct orders to kill her. His employer, Captain Morvath, who possesses a gothic abbey bristling with cannons and an unbridled hate for the world, intends to rid England of all its presumptuous women, starting with the Wisteria Society. Ned has plans of his own. But both men have made one grave mistake. Never underestimate a woman.

When Morvath imperils the Wisteria Society, Cecilia is forced to team up with her handsome would-be assassin to save the women who raised her–hopefully proving, once and for all, that she’s as much of a scoundrel as the rest of them.

my review

I adored this. It was an absolute mad-cap adventure, full of sarcasm and pointed cognitive dissonance. I adored Cecilia and all of her morally ambiguous, but completely proper aunties. I thought Ned was a marvelous love interest. It would be difficult to call him a hero, since Cecilia has so little need of one. But he does try, bless his heart.

As much as I loved the witty repartee and utter lack of seriousness, it did become tedious at times, making the book feel a little like a one-trick pony. But every-time I started to think it, the book would throw some sarcastic aside at me and I’d find myself laughing again. I also disliked how easily Cecilia went from strong, smart, and capable to silly and how often. One sip of alcohol and she’s giggling drunk, for example. But that’s a relatively small complaint in the larger picture.

I’m so glad to see Alex will be the male focus of book two. I’ll be lined up to read it on it’s release.

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Other Reviews:

Review: The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels (Dangerous Damsels #1) by India Holton

THE WISTERIA SOCIETY OF LADY SCOUNDRELS by India Holton – Review

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Wrapping up the Wolf Marked reading challenge

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I had a lot of fun with the Wolf Marked reading challenge. As a reminder, three different books titled Wolf Marked were promoed on Sadie’s Spotlight fairly close together and I joked on Twitter that I should just read and review them all. Well, what started as a joke soon became reality and I decided to see if I could get hold of all of them. The last was a challenge since it wasn’t released yet. But I managed it and the battle of the wolf marked was on.

I set out to read Veronica Douglas‘ Wolf Marked, Alexis Calder’s Wolf Marked, and Harper Brooks’ Wolf Marked. I’ve accomplished it and it’s time to wrap the challenge up and call it done.

Being only three books long, I don’t know that it really needs a wrap-up post. But I think I do. It’s not until I write such a post that my mind stops going, “Oh, there’s another Wolf Marked (or whatever the challenge is), maybe I can add it in.” For example, I stumbled across Isabeau Cross‘ Wolf Marked book, and undoubtedly would have added it to the challenge if it was actually available now instead of next April.

So, to put a period on this challenge and call it truly finished, I’m bringing all three Wolf Marked reviews together.

Book Review: Wolf Marked, by Veronica Douglas

Book Review: Wolf Marked, by Alexis Calder

Book Review: Wolf Marked, by Harper A. Brooks

I’m reluctant to declare a winner. I didn’t love or hate any of them. If I was truly forced to rank them it would probably go Calder, Douglas, Brooks. But they’re all pretty neck-to-neck honestly. They did have a lot in common though. All the heroines were pretty close in age, there were a disproportionate number of red-heads with freckles, and (of course) they’re all destined to love werewolves (though not all did by the end of the book).

All in all, I’d call the whole endeavor a success.

 

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Book Review: Axiom’s End, by Lindsay Ellis

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I won a copy of Lindsay Ellis‘ Axiom’s End through Goodreads last year. I only just now got around to reading it.
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Truth is a human right.

It’s fall 2007. A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.

Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary. The alien presence has been completely uncommunicative until she convinces one of them that she can act as their interpreter, becoming the first and only human vessel of communication. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being human—and could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.

my review

I always find it interesting when I read a book, love it, and then read other reviewers’ critical reviews of the same book. I just read one that discussed the romance of the book. And while I’ll always defend the stance that every reader’s encounter with a book is valid, I didn’t read romance into this story. Mutual affection by the end, sure, even a relationship of a kind, but a platonic one built on circumstances. I wouldn’t call anything in this book romantic, or it a romance in and of itself.

In fact, that’s part of what I most liked about the book. Ellis didn’t take the low-hanging fruit of tossing in some romance. The aliens are ALIEN. The circumstances are bleak. People are shit, sometimes even ‘people’ of multiple species. It made for an interesting mélange.

I appreciated that some questions are left unanswered, leaving the reader to make their own assessment. I also liked Cora quite a bit, though I’ll acknowledge that she tended to just go with the government flow a little more easily than I’d have liked. The book is quite long and a bit slow in the beginning, but the writing is readable and eventually the pages flew by for me. I quite enjoyed this and will be looking for more.

Other Reviews:

REVIEW: “Axiom’s End” by Lindsay Ellis

Book review: Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis

Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis: Book Review