Rachel McMillan's Blog, page 6

Author Q and A : Cheryl Honigford

Recently, I read an e-galley of The Darkness Knows which is a fabulous start to a mystery series featuring a winsome radio star and Private Eye duo in 1930s Chicago.

I was delighted that Cheryl agreed to answer a few questions. I know my blog readers will love the zest and snap of the dialogue, the romantic tension and the intricate murder---not to mention the amazing setting !



1.) Most agents and publishers like a good "hook" when considering a novel. What was the hook for THE DARKNESS KNOWS?


It’s October 1938, and radio is king. Vivian Witchell is determined to be a star, and with her new role in the popular detective serial, The Darkness Knows, everything she’s dreamed of is finally within her grasp. Until, that is, Viv stumbles upon the body of the station’s biggest, and most reviled, actress in the employee lounge. Clutched in the dead woman’s hand is a threatening letter that targets Viv as the next victim. Suddenly, Viv’s biggest worry isn’t remembering her lines, it’s staying alive.




2.) One of the things I loved about the book was Viv's insistence on a career: despite her upbringing and the pressure from her society-obsessed mother to marry. The Darkness Knows did a wonderful job of painting a woman's plight in a "modern" society with some very traditional views still at the helm. Even though a new world was on the brink, warring women's roles were still a major issue. Was this an intentional layer in the story and something that you can see yourself exploring more in the next novels?

Yes, this was definitely intentional. You can’t get very far into research for the period before realizing what a woman’s role was supposed to be in 1938. I collect vintage women’s magazines and some of the ads are amazing. Dishpan hands were supposed to be a woman’s greatest worry, and don’t get me started on how they were using Lysol then… (Google it if you’re curious and not too squeamish about your lady bits.) Women didn’t have “careers” in 1938. They may have had jobs, but only if they absolutely had to and only until they found a husband. Then they were expected to promptly quit that job to take care of hearth and home. (In fact, that’s what the actress Vivian is replacing at the beginning of the book has just done.) Vivian can see how limiting this is and her becoming a secretary and then a radio actress is an attempt to buck that claustrophobic social structure (and infuriate her mother). To be fair though, Vivian’s wealth and social standing give her a lot of advantages that most women simply did not have then – like the luxury of being able to go to secretarial school out of spite. This theme of female independence will continue to be explored in the series – especially with the lead up to WWII and all that will mean for women’s changing roles in society.



3.) Radio Actress meets Sardonic yet good-hearted ( and dashing!) Private Investigator: How did these two characters come to be?

Well, Vivian was around first and then when I got the idea for her to be starring in a detective serial I thought it would be fun to play her off of an actual detective (and contrast that with the fictional detective ideal in The Darkness Knows, the radio serial). When Viv meets Charlie everything she thought she wanted flies right out the window - in a good way. J Their relationship is very much inspired by the Nick and Nora sort of bantering couples of 1930s screwball comedies.



4.) Your Chicago is to die for (okay pun intended)! So sumptuously painted with just the right amount of historical detail. I totally wanted to be at the masquerade at the Palmer, by the way. Did you intentionally use it as a starring character in the Darkness Knows or is that something that organically happened?

I wanted to be at that masquerade too! I love Chicago and I love that time period - and I think both are woefully underrepresented in fiction. I live in the far suburbs these days, but I spent 7 years in the Lakeview neighborhood and really got to know the city. I love history, in general, so even before I got the idea for this book I had already catalogued all of this random information in my head about the history of the city and the architecture. I really loved researching the details of the time period. It meant a lot of staring into old photographs and imagining how things looked, smelled, sounded. It was a different world, and I would give anything to sit in on a live broadcast of The Darkness Knows. So I guess, the answer is to your question is both - Chicago as a main character was organic and intentional at the same time.



5.) I wondered if you could give us any hints as to where we'll find Charlie and Viv next!

Book #2 (Fall 2017) is set a few months after The Darkness Knows - at Christmastime 1938. Vivian stumbles upon something that flips everything she thought she knew about her beloved (and now deceased) father on its head. Think Capone, speakeasies, and all of the shady activities that go along with that… Expect more radio station intrigue (especially with Viv’s star on the rise) and more historic Chicago detail woven throughout. And of course, Charlie is there to antagonize Viv and help her get to the bottom of things.


Find Cheryl on twitter On FacebookOn the webPre-order The Darkness Knows 

Author Q and A : Jaime Jo Wright

Greetings! 
I have our friend Jaime Jo Wright answering a few questions about her new novella The Cowgirl's Lasso  part of The Cowboy's Bride Collection. You can buy the compilation here

Jaime ( in my own words) is a super spunky caffeine-addicted workaholic who may be wonder woman. Don't believe me? This woman is a power house manager and writer and wife and mother to two adorable kids.  She has an insatiable spark about her: be it in person or print  and is a delight on social media. 
I am so thankful she took the time to chat: 



1.) The book that made you want to be a writer ( if one )


Jane Eyre and then The House of Seven Gables, by Hawthorne. Both were the epitome of romance and dark and deliciousness. I devoured them, and then determined to be like their authors one day.

2.) Your best Starbucks experience


When my barista brought me a sample, then after delivering them to everyone in the shop, gave me the rest of the samples and then returned a few minutes later with a free grande "sample". They know I have a problem. :)

3.) How do you juggle working full time, raising two kids and writing?


I don't.
LOL I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if I'm imbalanced. A lot of writing sprints. 15 mins here, 30 mins there. I have to make my kids first and then write. Oh yeah. I'm married. Hmmm... better figure that into the equation ;)


4.) Is there a historical period you have not yet attempted in fiction that you would like to?


Yes! The '20's or '30's. I love that era. I just bought my first flapper dress actually this week. I look quite grotesque in it, but I shall wear it with pride to a gala this Friday and pretend I know how to Charleston

5.) Any insights into your research process?


I read. Lots of books. Fiction and non-fiction. I love looking up old newspaper articles. They're full of interesting stories because back then, they actually wrote interesting stories. Like the most recent one where the family watched their twenty-something daughter get struck by lightening as she fed the chickens in the chicken coop. They said her bobby pins melted to her head. I know. ew. But oh so fascinating.

6.) What was the most challenging thing about writing a novella?


It's ridiculously hard to write a decent story in 20,000 words. Cause really? Who falls in love THAT fast? I wanted my romance to be somewhat realistic. So it was difficult to have time pass and a relationship establish to the point of pledging lifelong love without seeming like she was being abducted into some subservient, domestic role and forced to fall "in love". LOL


7.) Any advice to writers who are not yet published on the agent and editorial experience?


Oh gawsh. Nothing can be more painful than that journey. There's so much self-doubt. My best piece of advice is learn to take constructive criticism and apply it. I see too many get hurt feelings or make justifications as to why they wrote what they did and why it's good how it is. No one means to say you're a bad writer, but if agents and editors (especially them!) give you feedback, use it! That's invaluable and it makes you teachable. They're in this career field after all, because they know how it works. So be humble enough to know that maybe you don't really know.


Find Jaime on the web
On Facebook
On Twitter 
 

Author Interview: Julianna Deering

 HUZZAH! I had the opportunity to chat with the amazing Julianna Deering about the most recent mystery in her super popular, amazing Drew Farthering series: Dressed for Death 

1.) You previously wrote Medieval romances. What jump-started the idea of Drew and your pursuit of finding him a publishing home?

I have for years (and years and years and years) loved Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers and Margery Allingham. And the BBC series that are (mostly) faithful to their books just added fuel to the fire. After I wrote my medieval series (The Chastelayne Trilogy), I let life get in the way for a while and didn’t write at all. When I was ready to go at it again, I so much wanted to try my hand at my own mystery series. Of course, being the Anglophile I am, my amateur sleuth had to be a wealthy, stylish and witty young Englishman.

And who could I pair him with better than an equally wealthy, stylish and witty American girl? Even before my discovery of Agatha Christie, I enjoyed William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, the fashionable sleuthing couple from The Thin Man. There’s more than a little of them in Drew and Madeline. And I love including the subtle differences between British and American English in their dialogue.

I wasn’t sure if the manuscript for the first book in the series would ever find a publisher, but my agent loved it and was determined to sell it. It’s mostly due to her determination that Drew and Madeline ever made it to the bookstore shelf.

2.) Drew’s covers are amazing! Everyone knows and loves them. They’re especially revolutionary in the CBA: where live cover models are often used. Did you have any input on the design or is this the genius of Bethany ?

Bethany House was great about asking for my input on the covers. I love the style of them. It’s so very 1930s! But, besides a mention of this style early in the process, I didn’t come up with the idea at all. Bethany House brilliantly selected Faceout Studio and illustrator John Mattos to do the covers. In fact, my favorite one so far, Murder at the Mikado, won the 2014 ECPA Top Shelf award, the only novel on their list that year. I was so proud for them!

3.) You are such a prolific historical writer! Is there an era of history you would like to fictionally explore in the future?

Oh, man, nearly all of them! Right now, I’m leaning a little bit toward Regency or Gothic romance. I haven’t really written romance since my Chastelayne days, and I miss it. Being a big fan of Georgette Heyer (especially the audiobooks read by Richard Armitage (swoon!)), I’d love to give Regency a try. And I tend to want to make angsty heroes with tragic pasts have a happy ending, so Gothic seems a perfect fit, too. I think I want to do everything.

4.) I assume you are quite comfortable with Drew’s period now, having four books published that well-establish his historic world. Did any particular fun facts jump out at you when you were preparing to write Dressed for Death?
I always learn new things with every book. This time I learned a lot about what was eaten and worn and played during the Regency period, because the host of the party Drew and Madeline attend is very strict about not allowing anything modern. I also had to research the effects of an overdose of cocaine and how it might occur. That wasn’t nearly as fun, but it was necessary.

5.) The Mikado was a favourite of many and here we are with a Regency flavour! Beau Brummel, move over! What inspired you to add some Regency to Drew’s world?

I like to have a literary inspiration for each of Drew’s adventures. For Mikado, it was obviously Gilbert and Sullivan. For Dressed for Death, it’s the works of Jane Austen. Since Drew and Madeline are great readers, it’s very natural to have them quote a line or two from a favorite book that applies to whatever case they’re investigating. Plus, come on, Drew in Regency kit? I mean!

6.) Can you give us a hint as to where we might find Drew and Madeline next?

I’m just doing edits on Book Five, Murder on the Moor. This one is inspired by the Brontes with a touch of The Hound of the Baskervilles thrown in for good measure. Drew and Madeline go up to Yorkshire to investigate the murder of the local vicar and other strange happenings on the moor. I have a special fondness for this one because the rakish gamekeeper who may or may not be involved in the goings on just happens to look amazingly like Aidan Turner.

7.) I have such a crush on Drew! Who would play him in the BBC series ?

That’s a tough one for me, because I have this idea of what he looks like that isn’t anyone else. I certainly wouldn’t say no to Orlando Bloom or Richard Armitage in their younger days.

Post-Deadline films! books! theatre!

Catch up time!  I drowned under my Lesson in Love and Murder deadline; but I am finally coming up for air and seeing friends and doing things and reading and such!






I love Agent' Carter's Agent sousa Kinky Boots:

This is the most joyous show of all the shows. It really is amazing. I first saw it with my friend Melanie just after Christmas and my friend Krista was visiting from Halifax this past week for work so we went on a two for one deal .



Agent Carter:

I haven’t had a ton of television watching time these past months because I was on deadline for Lesson in Love and Murder and writing Of Dubious and Questionable Memory. So, when I wasn’t at my real job, I was writing. So much writing.

I did however, manage to work my way through the first season of Agent Carter and then just caught up on the second. I love Jarvis. And Sousa. And Peggy. I love that it is a super feminist show and I love that a core friendship is a platonic one between a man and a woman .



Risen:

Reviewed this for our Breakpoint friends


Hail, Caesar: hilarious spoof of the technicolour big budget films ( read: Ben Hur) of the 1950s. Amazing celebrity cameos and carried by Josh Brolin who plays a Hollywood “fixer.” Lots of sly, tongue-in-cheek nods to classic Hollywood scandals.


Deluge by Lisa T Bergren: This ends the River of Time sequence in a heart-breaking, gorgeously evocative way . Lots of romance, birth and death as sisters Lia and Gabriella finally find temporary happiness with their super-hot Italian nobles. I just love typing Marcello. Bergren is an expert of historical verisimilitude and my brain hurts thinking about the amount of research that went into the creation of her world. The plague is explored in a gritty, grotesque and realistic way: as an enemy force that sparks battle and divide.




The Vintage Guide to Love and Romance is a potty-mouthed chicklit treat that I read in one sitting. With a truly marvelous heroine who ends up living with her grandmother: once a writer of those etiquette guides of the 60s. A classic makeover story with a surprise love twist. I truly didn’t know who she would end up with.


Dressed for Death: Julianna Deering

Deering does it again! I mean, the only thing better than a Drew Farthering book? : A DREW FARTHERING BOOK with a Regency flair!

I love the cozy, throw-back world with large, rambling estates and an Agatha Christie meets Dorothy L Sayers timbre.

I also really appreciate the development between Drew and the other characters populating his life: especially Madeline.

A smart, classy, high read with the manners of Downton with the clever turn of a Conan Doyle yarn.

Long live Drew!

(and these super awesome covers! )


The Darkness Knows by Cheryl Honigford

First off, Honigford builds an effortlessly beautiful historical world: from the bridges criss-crossing the river to the broad, lit billboards, to the ins and outs of radio: the airwaves ruled the entertainment of the day and Viv's world is very much coloured within a studio!

This had a light, cozy feel to it: written with the tang of 1930's slang and the raucous optimism and fun of pre-War America. I loved that she never talked down to the reader: assuming that any little idioms, slang or personages of the time would be recognized by the reader. It helped create the sense that you were dropped right into Vivian and Charlie's world.

I also really liked the believable banter, chemistry and romantic hints between Charlie and Vivian (even though there's an Errol Flynn/Robert Taylor lookalike named Graham smooth-talking his way around the edges). Charlie is an ace private eye with a heart and an Archie Goodwin sense of humour that made me want to spirit him off for a night at the Flamingo Club.

An easy book to sink into with a great, winking sense of humour, a glistening old school Chicago of lights and liquor and fun and a hard-to-guess murder mystery.

I am EAGER to follow Viv and Charlie on their next adventure



Sawbones Melissa Lenhardt

I really love stories about women who step out expectations and make careers for themselves in a man's world.

The historical and medical research that went into this tale was impressive---as was the bold and inspiring heroine.

I completely different kind of historical, undercut with the visceral realities of a time and profession 

[ with the exception of Deluge, books provided by Netgalley on behalf of the publishers ]

All Things Jem and Merinda

In less than 2 weeks, The Bachelor Girl's Guide to Murder  will release in all e-book forms.  After that, your local bookstores and print orders will trickle in! I super want to encourage you to think about the print book though because the interior design is amazing

a snapshot of the interior of Bachelor Girl's Guide to Murder 
I wanted to use my blog space to kinda go all out Jem and Merinda and Jasper and Ray today.


I am kinda euphoric because I just turned in A Lesson in Love and Murder to my editor. I don't want to count my chickens, but it might turn out to be my favourite of the series. I really love it.  The girls go to Chicago and get wrapped up in all sorts of mystery and mayhem ---and anarchist bombs!  Theodore Roosevelt and Emma Goldman are our real life historical personages. And, Merinda finds herself in the midst of a bit of a love triangle when Benny Citrone of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police shows up ( much to Jasper Forth's chagrin).  Merinda, of course doesn't  do love triangles, so you'll have to check out how she reacts.
Also, I got to set some amazing scenes in some of my personal favourite buildings in Chicago.


a lot of ARC readers are talking about the Elgin and Winter Garden theatre which plays a HUGE part in the first book !


I am also beginning work on edits for Of Dubious and Questionable Memory: a novella sized adventure releasing on June 1.   In this exciting story, Jem and Merinda are lured State-side and to a mystery involving Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House.    


I visited Concord and Orchard House a few times last year for research <3
Finally, I have been so stoked that early readers have been reading and sharing the book.   The Goodreads giveaway is still running and you can go there to enter but also to read some early buzz! (see the widget on the side of my blog to enter directly)


Here are are just some early reviews:

Books for What 

The Well-Read Pirate Queen 

Relz Reviewz

Mikal Dawn  

The Green Mockingbird ( review AND interview)

MADNBOOKS 

Remembrancy



So where do you want to order your Jem and Merinda?

Barnes and Noble 

Chapters Indigo 

Amazon 

Books A Million 

Target 

Wal-Mart

Also you can find it on iBOOKS but I cannot find the link---so search!

Cover Reveal: A Lady Unrivalled

Series Info
The Ladies of the Manor Series take readers back in time to Edwardian England, when automobiles and electric lights were all the rage, but the old way of life still ruling the land. Lords and ladies, maids and valets…and in this case, a dose of danger and mystery to take them all on their journey to love.

From Booklist on The Reluctant Duchess

"With the momentum and drama of a modern thriller and the charm and intrigue of an Edwardian upper-class romance, White balances hearty helpings of names, ranks, and family history with highly entertaining situations and plenty of humor."


White Is Quickly Becoming the Top Name in Edwardian Romance

Lady Ella Myerston can always find a reason to smile--even if it's just in hope that tomorrow will be better than today. All her life everyone has tried to protect her from the realities of the world, but Ella knows very well the danger that has haunted her brother and their friend, and she won't wait for it to strike again. She intends to take action . . . and if that happens to involve an adventurous trip to the Cotswolds, then so much the better.

Lord Cayton has already broken two hearts, including that of his first wife, who died before he could convince himself to love her. Now he's determined to live a better life. But that proves complicated when old friends arrive on the scene and try to threaten him into a life of crime. He does his best to remove the intriguing Lady Ella from danger, but the stubborn girl won't budge. How else can he redeem himself, though, but by saving her--and his daughter--from those dangerous people who seem ready to destroy them all?
Bio
Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna’s novels range from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. She lives with her family in West Virginia. Learn more at www.RoseannaMWhite.com
Links for A Lady UnrivaledFind it on Amazon | Find it on Christian Book | Find it on Goodreads | See the Pinterest Page

lovely lovely books: a cornucopia of words as I clear out my netgalley shelf

So you guys know that I write my own books now, right?


Which makes it harder for me to write long, loquacious reviews --- but I do want to share some lovely books with you!



Carry Me Home by Dorothy Adamek is a sweeping love story set in 19th Century Australia. It features some of my favourite romantic tropes: including a woman ahead of her time in a situation where she has to adapt quickly---proving her strength and indomitable spirit-- a romance borne of necessity and a marriage of convenience.   I immediately fell into the world --- a unique setting for me as I haven't read a ton of historicals set in Australia--- and in love with the characters.  
Perhaps the best part? Adamek has a deceptively easy style that lures you into what is (upon slow consideration) a natural writing talent: swift and beguiling and spinning a tapestry I know I want to return to.    Readers of Jody Hedlund: take note



The Sweetest Rain  by Myra Johnson   Here's an author I had never read before but the cover really enticed me as did the setting and the aftermath of the Great War and depression in Eden, Arkansas. This quiet romance is set on the brink of something and its sombre moments imply that this undercurrent is recognized.  The other reason I loved this book was Bryony and Michael's relationship.  Michael, a veteran of the Great War, is less than whole after his experience: attempting to cultivate beauty is true passion is botanical illustration.   You all must know that recluses with tortured pasts and botanical hankerings are big time Rachel catnip ( here's looking at you, Stephen Maturin).

[review copy: Franciscan Media]


The Farmerettes by Gisela Tobien Sherman is one of the strongest YA historicals I have read in an age.  It knits together the experiences of 6 young women during a memorable summer.   It's 1943 and while the men are at war, the women on the homefront are charged with keeping things running: the farms and fields, the food and rations as the nation supports the faraway conflict.
A steady and well-told coming-of-age story, Sherman paints each experience with a competent pen and the characters spring to life.     I loved this snapshot of an experience not always explored in fiction--especially fiction for teens.  To add, this book features strong female friendship: something else I love seeing in fiction.

[review copy: Second Story Press]


Lady of Magick by Sylvia Izzo Hunter:   I kinda wanna say this will appeal to fans of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and of Naomi Novak.  There's a ton of romance in it which I love and Sophie and Gray are the type of couple that will set readers swooning.    I also have to confess that I read this sequence out of order , but am going back to the Midnight Queen.

Just to throw in another comparison: Hunter's golden-spired Oxford will put readers in mind of The Golden Compass.

[Review copy: Penguin/NAL]

Most Anticipated Reads of 2016

amazon

The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch (August. Maybe. I think).

I think this is coming out in the summer? I mean, I hope!    I MEAN I AM DYING!  The wait between Red Seas under Red Skies and The Republic of Thieves  was SO LONG so I am hoping that 2016 sees me hanging out with Locke and Jean!

A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn  (September)

Veronica Speedwell and Stoker are back




A Time of Fog and Fire  by Rhys Bowen  (March )
MOLLY MURPHY! I love her. Her husband Daniel drives me batty. Whatever.  Apparently Molly goes to San Francisco!


Flickers by Arthur Slade (August)

Honestly, it's been too long since I read a new Slade.  He's by far my favourite YA author in the world and I believe this book draws on his penchant for horror and spooks and things-that-go-bump-in-the-night
google

The Bridge of the Assassins by Arturo Perez-Reverte
Umm, I think this might be out! I mean, I am waiting for the English translation, yo.
It's a new Alatriste!   Well, not new, but since I don't read Spanish PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE someone translate this! Thanks!
goodreads
Saint's Blood by Sebastien de Castell  This is the third book in the Greatcoats series which is kinda  Dumas and kinda Firefly and I love it.


Fire by CC Humphreys
Plague was so good.I find myself thinking about the characters a lot and I am so eager for this next dark --and somewhat gruesome --adventure

This Lynn Austin Book I don't Know the Title of  by Lynn Austin

I love Lynn Austin.   I don't know the title of her book.  What the heck. Anyways, out this year a new Civil War set Lynn Austin! HUZZAH


The Lady and the Lionheart by Joanne Bischof (August)
I read this book already because Joanne was kind enough to let me and it was one of my favourite books of 2014.  It is beguiling and gripping and so beautifully rendered you will float on air.   She has such a delicate turn of phrase and her characters thrum flesh-and-blood to life.  


goodreads.

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab (February)

Her voice is so arresting: kind of like Natasha Pulley and Catherine Webb with a tinge of Gaiman.

What I am Geeking Out About Right Now

itv.com

1.) Endeavour

I finally got around to watching the first two series while home at my parents' house for Christmas.  This is a quiet, cerebral, brilliant and Foyle-esque addition to the British mystery canon.

It is brilliant: with breathtaking cinematography, exceptional use of the music Endeavour Morse loves to listen to ---lots of opera and Mozart and chant-- and a golden-hued, twinkling spired Oxford as the backdrop to corruption that plagues the city world and the potent Academic life in the old city.

Endeavour Morse is a sad puppy of a detective who is so forlorn with his ill-fitting suits and large, watered eyes that you kind of want to take the crumpled, mournful fellow home and feed him up and pat him on the head--- luckily Inspector Fred Thursday (ROGER ALLAM AND HIS AMAZING VOICE) does just that on a few occasions.

The writing is to die for (no pun intended), an intricate waltz with such subtle infusion you have to turn your careful brain on.  A few cliff-hangers and twists left me with a huge clutch in my chest.

While the rest of the world was watching Downton last night, I found the first episode of series 3 and it is just as arresting.


I spent my university years working through the Colin Dexter books and watching the original series but I have to say I like this a lot better.   Probably my favourite Brit detective show since Foyle.



2.) Away in a Manger by Rhys Bowen

If Molly had married Jakob Singer we wouldn't be having the problems we have with silly Daniel who--though very much a product of his time and its idea of women in the home and hearth--- seems to forget once a page the WOMAN THAT HE MARRIED IS NEVER GOING TO FIT THAT expectation.  Why does he hold her to it?  FRUSTRATING MAN

Consistent Daniel rant aside,  I really enjoyed this Christmas-set mystery.  It's December, 1905 and Molly and her maid/adoptive daughter Bridie encounter an angel-voiced orphan shivering on a stoop. Determined to help, Molly does her best to provide for the young urchin while discovering that she and her brother are not what they seem at all.

A delicate and finely-tuned mystery that quickly delves into a few dark places,  Molly's New York is resplendent care of Bowen's unbelievably sure handle on the time period.  

So slip into a world of yesteryear: its sleigh bells and glistening shop windows, its oil lanterns and window displays and surround yourself in an Edwardian Christmas brilliantly imagined.

And just roll your eyes at Daniel and move on. Because, seriously pal,get it together!

(I won this book on Rhys Bowen's facebook site!)



latinpost.com

3.) Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

I really thought this was just a smorgasbord of Gatiss and Moffatt's favourite Canonical moments.  They just played around like kids with a giant toy box and the nods to the canon, its adaptations (anyone notice the hint of the Granada theme in the soundtrack? ), and its pastiches!  (here's looking at you Laurie R King and Nicholas Meyer)


I loved the Victorian purist setting of course and I loved what they did with the 5 Orange Pips and the Diogenes Club: also the very meta and self-conscious discussion about Boswell Watson and his work in the strand.

I am not sure if this episode will prove quite as charming for those uninitiated with the Canon but I love that, like the series--and even more so ---it provided dollops of fun for those of us who who have spent most of our lives geeking out over the Holmesian world.


bbc.co,uk
4.) The Musketeers
Another Christmas viewing for me was  that last few eps of series 2 of the Musketeers which just is so much fun.  Great character development, expert production value and a decidedly snarky modern flair combine to make this a rip-roaringly good adventure and probably my favourite adaptation of the stories---no matter the liberties.

Christmas Reading

So,  during my two week holiday from my real job I have been

a.) writing up a storm on A Lesson in Love and Murder 

b.) hanging out with my splendid family and my adorable 7 month old niece and aunts and cousins and doing family Christmas stuff in my little hometown of Orillia

c.) working through Endeavour with my parents

d.) READING BOOKS


Only fun books ( although that's a bit of a lie because I have been doing a lot of research on the history of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police for Lesson in Love and Murder 



A few highlights:


I finally finished Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare and I love Jem but I am #TeamWill but mostly I love Henry and Charlotte


I read  A Week to be Wicked and When A Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare.  (note:mature subject in these ones, so be ye aware)
Tessa Dare's books are consistent in making me laugh (lobsters in When A Scot Ties the Knot) but there was some magic about Week to be Wicked. To be honest, I cannot remember the last time I stayed up til 3:30 in the morning finishing a book.  The magic of holidays.  

[from When A Scot Ties the Knot:  Sometimes a woman doesn't quite fit in with her expected role. We do what we can to make our own way, carve out a space for ourselves."

And I laughed through every page.  This is an arresting book that will validate anyone who has felt out of place.  There are almost picaresque elements to Colin's ability to charm his way across the country: amidst gaming halls and brothels and highway robbers in order to transport Minerva across the border to Scotland and a Geology Society in Edinburgh.


A few quotes:

"When Minerva lost herself in a book, her late father had once remarked, a man needed hounds and a search party to pull her back out."

"Did I say disgusting? I meant enchanting. I've always wanted to go to bed with a primeval sea snail."

"Her eyes always caught that wild, desperate spark just before she did something extraordinary."

"Men never hesitated to declare their presence. They were permitted to live aloud, in reverberating thuds and clunks, while ladies were always schooled to abide in hushed whispers."

"You didn't destroy my dreams. You broke me out of my shell. There was bound to be a bit of a mess."



I also read a fun book called Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey because I love re-tellings of this fairytale. Also, there were some very hilarious lines in this book:


Quotes!:

"Eat your soup and stop feeling sorry for yourself."
"I wasn't just being gallant. I already knew you were brave."


Another enchanting read was The Witches of Cambridge by Menna van Praag. I read and loved and raved about The Dress Shop of Dreams around the same time last year so I was delighted when Random House sent me an ARC of this new tale.   If you love Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen then this is the author for you.

A thread of magical realism is subtly weaved into women's fic with a splash of romance, familial relationships, bittersweet introspection on love and loss and a perfectly gothic setting of Cambridge and its university: home to several witches!

Luscious recipes with herbs to infuse delectable spells,  The Witches of Cambridge is a retrospective on art,food, love, romance and loss.  Love in its many facets of light and dark.

"It's as if his heart doesn't reside in his chest but sits,waiting and open wide, just beneath his eyes. And you believe that if you look long enough you'll fall right in."

There is such simple wisdom and universal truth in what Van Praag serves here and she does so with such a sly wink that you are lost in her languid prose, awed at how easy she makes it seem whereas really she is a master wordsmith.