Book Review: Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley

 

Talk Bookish to Me

by Kate Bromley

This is a lovely little Romantic Comedy that I found in our library’s Overdrive catalog by searching for books with a “vacation” theme – our August theme for book club.

I wasn’t familiar with the author and I would not have guessed that this is the first book she has written. On her web site, it says that she is an avid reader and it sounds like she has written other stories but this is the first book attributed to her. I’d say she has quite a career in front of her if she keeps going with it.

The opening lines drew me in and the laughs start on the very first page – from “His eyebrows bob up as I adjust my grip on the Great-Dane-sized gift basket I’m carrying,” to “Because if everyone isn’t uncomfortable for the entire ride, are you even really in an elevator?”

The main character is Kara, a writer of romance novels, both historical and contemporary. She’s maid-of-honor for her best friend’s wedding and on the eve of the rehearsal dinner she arrives to find her college boyfriend, Ryan, is one of the groomsmen. Of course, things did not end well with them ten years ago. There are both unresolved issues and serious chemistry.

“I’m convinced that if Nat King Cole were here and knew my side of the story, he would grab Ryan by the scruff of his shirt and hold him steady as I roundhouse-kicked him in the throat.  

It’s a tough pill to swallow but Ryan looks good. Like, really good.”

Kara is also struggling with writer’s block at the moment. Her next book is due to her publisher any day now and she is supposed to be taking off on a six-month trip to Italy.

Of course, things get a little wilder when Ryan gets thrown out of his hotel because his dog trashed the room. The groom wants to have him stay with them, but Kara can’t let her best friend’s marriage implode before it even begins, can she?

The language is natural, the dialogue snappy, and the situations funny but believable. This is everything you want in a romantic comedy and if Hallmark or someone doesn’t snap it up to turn into a movie, I don’t know what the world is coming to.

Book Review: The Witchcraft Mysteries by Juliet Blackwell

 

The Witchcraft Mysteries

by Juliet Blackwell

This is a long running series with the 11^th set to come out soon, which I found via my library’s digital catalog. I’ve now read through the sixth book, A Vision in Velvet, and don’t find myself tiring of it at all. It’s a cozy paranormal mystery with a light touch of romance.

Lily Ivory is a natural witch who just happens to have settled in San Francisco and opened a vintage clothing store. She doesn’t shy away from using her witchcraft but not indiscriminately. For example, Lilly can sense some of the past of the owners of the garments, and she uses her magic to cleanse them of those impressions before she resells them. Brewing is her area of expertise, using supplies from the garden she seems adept at nurturing.

Lily had a difficult childhood, growing up in a town with people who were not okay with her natural talents, and her parents were not nurturing. Her grandmother raised her and taught her, but the town ran Lily off before she could finish her training, so Lily has a lot of learning left to do.

One of her closest friends, who runs an herbal counter out of her vintage clothing store, is Bronwyn. She is a witch too, but of a more conventional nature. Through her store, Lily begins making good friends for the first time in her life.

Over the course of the first few books, there are several romantic entanglements with several different men as Lily searches for someone she can be herself with. She also acquires a rather unusual familiar who is part gargoyle and goblin but transforms into a potbellied pig. He can be a bit unethical but he’s very cute.

If I were pressed, I’d say the one thing that slightly annoys me with the books is the way the author information dumps details that don’t change from book to book, such as who and what her familiar is, her friends like Bronwyn, and the store itself, instead of weaving the information into the story. It’s a minor irritation and soon past.

Each book brings Lily up against a mystery, a demon, other witches, and a wide variety of difficulties. Each story is unique, picking up on urban legends, history of witch hysteria, or love curses. Each story has offered something different and I can’t really say which one was my favorite of those I’ve read. I can say that I think Lily ends up with the right guy. I just hope they manage to stay together, since I still have several books to read in the series.

The books that I’ve read has been thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing, and satisfying. There is just enough depth to make the story satisfying while staying light enough to make it relaxing. A perfect cozy mystery.

 

Secondhand Spirits

A Cast Off Coven

Hexes and Hemlines

In a Witch’s Wardrobe

Tarnished and Torn

A Vision in Velvet

Spellcasting in Silk

A Toxic Trousseau

A Magical Match

Bewitched and Betrothed

Synchronized Sorcery (forthcoming)

 

 

Beyond The Cliffs of Kerry by Amanda Hughes

Beyond the Cliffs of Kerry

By Amanda Hughes

Reviewed by Tarren Young

The writing of this book does not flow smoothly like any of the three main rivers of Ireland mentioned in the story, it is harsh and choppy. Perhaps this is done because of the environment Darcy McBride, the main character, lives in – and has had to live in since she was a young child, facing and surviving a famine in Ireland in the 1740’s. If Ms. Hughes chose to use choppy sentence structure for the time periods purpose, I could potentially understand, but I still feel that it doesn’t work and makes for a more difficult and less enjoyable read.

There are a few plot twists that I didn’t expect, which is cool, and I was getting into the romance part toward the end. (Literally, like page 320 or something.) Despite how uneven, sometimes awkward and clumsy the romance writing is, I do not appreciate how long it took me to get into the romance.

As a reader, I also don’t appreciate wasting my time on reading something that doesn’t draw me in right from the beginning. The story starts in Ireland but, other than a beating by her brother, there is no real action taking place until two years later – about 120 pages into the story. As a writer of mainly historical romance myself, I stuck with it to see what I could learn about the time period and the general character roles/thoughts/actions of the time.

I am also very disappointed with this story because it is written in third person and, although I typically don’t have a problem with third person, the author gives us what every character says and thinks. For example, in one paragraph we have Darcy’s point of view, then Nathan’s, then Jean-Michel, then another character. Sometimes it is within very short paragraphs in succession, so that we never really get to know the characters. We just have surface driven ambitions. This, to me as a reader, is very distracting and there are very little transitions at all in the story.

As both a reader and a writer, I understand that, considering the time frame of Darcy’s story, (it spans roughly five years of her life) and the scenarios she is thrown into, there is a need for a lot of characters. Darcy and her brother, her friends and family in Ireland, her best friend and her husband and all of their children, the Catholic Father they smuggle in, and the British military that is stationed there for a while (we learn all the top men’s names.) We hear of names from towns one or two over, we learn names from the ship she is on while being transported to the colonies and, of course, the people she meets in the colonies. Having to keep track of all the characters was a bit maddening. I honestly felt there were too many characters in this story and, if we heard ninety-percent of it from Darcy’s view only, then we wouldn’t have had the need for so many characters. She could have just called them the British guards or British Generals.

I am rating this story as 1.5 stars because this story could have been told in 150 pages instead of 390, and the writing feels more like a first draft than a final draft.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones : Mad About the Boy

By Helen Fielding

Okay, I loved this book! I will say that I didn’t go into this book with many preconceived notions because it has been over a decade since I saw the first movie and I never read the second book. I wasn’t as invested in the characters as someone might have been if they read the second book and were eagerly awaiting the third.

All the friends are still around – Talitha, Tom, Jude and even Daniel though he seems to be on a downward spiral. I won’t tell you what happened to Mark Darcy. It’s sad and a large facet of the story but it doesn’t overwhelm the story.

There’s romance, humor and even some action as Bridget takes care of the kids and attempts to get back into the dating and work worlds.

Bridget is now a single mom of two small children. As a mother I could relate to so many of the sentiments. There’s a point where both kids are sick to their stomachs and in the midst of all the gross out, “Billy’s bewildered expression overwhelmed self with love for Billy.” I felt it when she said that. You can’t help feel sorry for and overwhelmed with love for the sick munchkins.

One bit of the humor is kind of over the top and does maker her seem overwhelmingly stupid.  She’s working on a screenplay adaptation of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen but spells the title wrong and has the wrong author. If you’re adapting it, you must be referring to a copy of it so how do you get those things wrong? However, most of the time the humor is gentle or even a bit slapstick.

The format can take a little getting used to, mostly written in journal type entries with texts, emails, and tweets interspersed with regular prose. Hang in there and you do get used to it. I enjoyed it tremendously on audio CD.

There’s depth to this book, as well as humor. I highly recommend it.