Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 55

"The Malleville Conspiracy" by H. L. Roethle

This was a fast-paced spy story, quite a change of pace from the classics and hard-boiled mysteries I've been reading a lot of lately.  It's H. L. Roethle's debut novel, and a nice first effort.  Imagine a teen joining the Mission: Impossible gang, but also imagine they're all Christians.  And very nerdy, prone to referencing every imaginable nerdy fandom at some point.  And also baroque music.

Its premise is fun, if a credulity-stretcher: an 18-yr-old gets to join a secret spy organization becau...

"The Little Sister" by Raymond Chandler

I think this is my least-favorite book by Raymond Chandler.  Don't get me wrong -- I still love Chandler's writing.  Deeply love how he writes.  But... I don't like anybody in this book except Philip Marlowe.  Everyone else is just as rotten as can be.  So, while I still love Marlowe and I still love the writing, it's my least-favorite book by my favorite author.

So, Philip Marlowe takes a job finding the missing brother of a sweet young girl fresh off the train.  She offers him twenty dollars an...

"Persuasion" by Jane Austen (yet again)

Yup, still my favorite Jane Austen book.  I can't believe the last time I read this was in 2015!  Silly me.

Characters are always what draw me to a story -- if I love the characters, I will love the book.  If I don't engage with the characters, no matter how much I like the author's writing, I won't actually love the story.  So the reason that this is my favorite Austen book is because Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth are my favorite Austen heroine and hero.  And together make my favorite Austen...

Signing Up for the "One Bad Apple" Virtual Book Tour

I will be going on a virtual book tour to celebrate the release of One Bad Apple at the end of July!  This tour will run from Monday, July 27 through Friday, August 7.

Just like the tour I did for Dancing and Doughnuts, this will be very flexible.  Would you like to interview me on your blog?  Host a video chat on your Instagram or YouTube channel?  Post a book review on your blog or Instagram?  Contribute some totally different thing I haven't imagined?  I am open to ideas!

You can sign up using ...

"Goldwater Ridge" by Hannah Kaye

This was a rollicking story -- part old-fashioned western, part tall tale, part whodunit.  Aimed at middle-grade readers, it's clean as a whistle.

Billy Bob Clyde, who prefers to be called just Clyde, heads west when he gets a garbled message from his father, who went west years earlier.  Clyde falls in with a bunch of bounty hunters, crosses a desert with no one to help him but his horse, and finally lands in the almost-deserted town of Cactus Poke.  There he meets a motley collection of people,...

"The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" by Victor Hugo

Um, yeah.  So, the best thing I can say about this book is that, now that I've read it, I never have to read it again.

It's not that I don't enjoy tragedies.  I mean, this is the person who has seen nineteen different versions of Hamlet, many of them multiple times.  I like a good, sad story.

So it's not the tragicality that made me dislike this book.  It's the fatalism.  The bleak flavor that permeates it.  Hugo seems to be saying that fate dictates how everything will turn out, what everyone wil...

"Chronicles of Avonlea" by L.M. Montgomery

How is it that I never read this book before?  Why, when I was first introduced to Anne of Green Gables as a child, didn't anyone say, "By the way, there are some books of short stories that have Anne Shirley and other characters in them too."  WHY?

Anyway.  I heartily enjoyed this sweet book.  It was just the antidote I needed when I was in the middle of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and getting somewhat depressed by it.  This book was like a balm.  I kind of wish I hadn't inhaled it in basically ...

"Desert Death Song" by Louis L'Amour

This is a collection of short stories by Louis L'Amour, many of which are not easy to find in book form because they were first published under his pen name Jim Mayo during the early part of his career.

Of these eleven stories, my favorites were:

+ "His Brother's Debt" -- a man is accused of being yellow so often, he convinces himself he must be even though he subconsciously has a very good reason for avoiding fights.

+ "Dutchman's Flat" -- a posse trails a man accused of murder and gradually comes...

"Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors" by Sonali Dev

Well, this was a roller coaster.  I actually had to put it down for a couple days because it was making me too tense!  Wow.  Been a while since I had a book do that.

Yes, this is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  Yes, it's set in the modern day, and it does a gender-swap on many of the characters, which was neat.  And yes, it was a lot more emotionally intense than I was expecting.

Indian-American neurosurgeon Trisha Raje can't stand DJ Caine, the brother of one of her patients A...

"One Bad Apple" Advance Reader Copies Now Available!

EDIT: All my copies are claimed!  You are so awesome!  Thank you so much!!!

One Bad Apple releases on July 28, five weeks from today!  So it's high time to start rustling up some advance readers.  If you would like to receive an ARC, please fill out this Google Form.  I will not use the email address you provide there for any purpose other than to send you an email with information on how to download your free copy.  You will be able to download your copy by the end of June.

Like my previous books...