Jane Litte's Blog, page 11

Jayne’s Puggleton Park Reading List

[image error] Puggleton Park #1 by Deanna Kizis

Meet Penelope the pug in the first book of this delightful series set in Regency-era London!

Penelope is a pleasant little pug who has quite the quandary: All she can remember is that she lost her Lady in the park while chasing the most dreadful squirrel. Now she dreams of one day finding a new Lady and a permanent place to stay. So when she finds herself taken in by the kind Lady Diggleton, she can’t believe her luck!

But Penelope soon discovers that Lady Dig...

Review: The Man Who Hated Clouds (Ben Ames Files #3) by Gayleen Froese

Private investigator Ben Ames is supposed to be on vacation. He’s followed his rock star boyfriend, Jesse, to the Edmonton Folk Festival, where Jess is doing an acoustic set with friends and having a boozy sulk about his changing image.

Neither is there to solve a crime, but they’re offered a case anyway, when the festival headliner hires them to help his author friend Charlie.

Charlie’s latest manuscript is missing. A normal guy would have backups, but Charlie’s an internet-hating conspiracy t...

REVIEW: Fleeing France: A WWII Novel of Sacrifice and Rescue in the French Ambulance Service by Alan Hlad

France, 1939: A talented singer, Ruth Lacroix has left Maine to live with her aunt and uncle, dreaming of performing at the Casino de Paris. But with the outbreak of war, and the heartbreaking news that her cousin has been killed by German forces, that goal is supplanted by another—to support France in any way she can.

Though Ruth has never driven a vehicle larger than the tractor on her parents’ farm, she joins a friend in enlisting as a driver for the French ambulance corps. On their way to ...

Review: Dead Country : Book One of the Craft Wars Series by Max Gladstone

From the co-author of the viral New York Times bestseller This is How You Lose the Time War.

Discover the destiny of the Craft in Dead Country, the standalone entry point to Max Gladstone’s beloved fantasy epic.

BOOK ONE OF THE CRAFT WARS SERIES

Since her village chased her out with pitchforks, Tara Abernathy has resurrected gods, pulled down monsters, averted wars, and saved a city, twice. She thought she’d left her dusty little hometown forever. But that was before her father died.

As she make...

REVIEW: Death on the Tiber by Lindsey Davis

In first century Rome, a murder victim found in the Tiber leads to a brutal gang war and Flavia Albia to a confrontation with her long-hated nemesis, with all that she loves in the balance.

First century Rome is plagued by all the evils the have beset major cities since time immemorial: crime, corruption, squalor, and worst of all, tourists. When a barge full of those entitled creatures arrives in Rome, they hit all the touristy hot-spots (the Amphitheatre, the Capitol, the dodgy bars with dub...

REVIEW: The Au Pair Affair by Tessa Bailey

CW: Description of stalking and kidnapping

Dear Tessa Bailey,

I loved Fangirl Down earlier this year and was hoping for a similar experience with the the second book in the Big Shots series, The Au Pair Affair. I was not disappointed.

We met Burgess “Sir Savage” Abraham and Tallulah Aydin in Fangirl Down where, Tallulah agreed to take the job of au pair for Burgess’s tween daugher, Lissa, when she moved to Boston for her graduate program in marine biology after completing her stint in Antarctic...

REVIEW: How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley

When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards.

The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, se...

Jayne’s Recent Reading List

[image error] Ancient Egypt: A Photographic History by Nigel Fletcher-Jones

First appearing around the mighty River Nile in the fourth millennium BC, Ancient Egypt is one of the great wellsprings of human civilization. Egyptian culture developed around a complex system of religious rituals tied to the agricultural seasons, with the pharaoh a living deity at the centre. Mighty pyramids, tombs and monuments were built to celebrate the pharaohs, many of which can still be seen in all their splendour today. Arr...

Bridgerton, Season Three, Episodes 5-8: A Discussion

Sirius: In the last part of the season we get to see the conclusion of Colin and Penelope’s storyline and I did not really care about it all that much.

I do think though that a lot of it stems from the fact that show runners chose to reveal Penelope as Lady Whistledown to the viewers if not to other characters in the beginning of the first season. I still do not see any storyline based reason to do so, but I think in this season the fact that we already know who she is made all the questions ki...

REVIEW: Off to the Races by Elsie Silver

Dear Elsie Silver,

This book (and the others in the series) was originally self-published. It took BookTok by storm and the author subsequently landed a traditional publishing deal. Off to the Races is the first book in the Gold Rush Ranch series, all of which are being re-released by Sourcebooks this year.

Vaughn Harding is wealthy and hot. He’s been helping to run the family mining business but has come to Gold Rush Ranch following the death of his beloved grandfather. Vaughn’s grandfather was...