Jane Litte's Blog, page 115

REVIEW: The Many Lives of Pusheen the Cat by Claire Belton

A delightful new collection of comics from Pusheen in all of her adorable forms—from the classic gray tabby you know and love, to her unicorn, dragon, alien, mermaid, dinosaur, and even dog alter egos—Pusheen always lives life to the fullest!

We all know Pusheen, the pleasantly plump cat who has warmed hearts and tickled funny bones of millions worldwide with her signature animated bops, bounces, and tail wiggles. Now you can learn what makes her purr and find out why so many have already fall...

REVIEW: The Dust Bunnies by Nicki Rae

The Dust Bunnies transports children to a world in which dust bunnies have favorite hiding places, eat snacks, and make MORE dust bunnies; the perfect addition to a child’s Easter basket

Meet Fluff, Puff, and Stuff, three adorable dust bunnies ready to reveal their favorite hiding places, snacks, and games! In this charming rhyming book, young readers enter the world of dust bunnies—which happens to be right under their their own bed! Under the couch, in the corner, and anywhere crumbs and dus...

REVIEW: An Uxpected Peril by Deanna Raybourn

Dear Deanna Raybourn:

This is book six in your Veronica Speedwell mystery series, set in late Victorian London. Blurb time!:

January 1889. As the newest member of the Curiosity Club—an elite society of brilliant, intrepid women—Veronica Speedwell is excited to put her many skills to good use. As she assembles a memorial exhibition for pioneering mountain climber Alice Baker-Greene, Veronica discovers evidence that the recent death was not a tragic climbing accident but murder. Veronica and her ...

REVIEW: The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones

The glittering tradition of sword-and-sorcery sweeps into the sands of ancient Arabia with the heart-stopping speed of a whirling dervish in this thrilling debut novel from new talent Howard Andrew Jones

In 8th century Baghdad, a stranger pleads with the vizier to safeguard the bejeweled treasure he carries, but he is murdered before he can explain. Charged with solving the puzzle, the scholar Dabir soon realizes that the treasure may unlock secrets hidden within the lost city of Ubar, the Atl...

REVIEW: Talk of the Town by Joan Smith

Daphne Ingleside’s visit to her Aunt Effie in London was meant to add a little spark to her placid country life. And it did—once the two women decided to write Effie’s memoirs. For Effie, a faded divorcée, had been the beauty of London in her day, and many of the ton feared their misbehavior would be disclosed. The Duke of St. Felix, misinterpreting their project as a means of blackmailing his family, antagonized the sharp-witted, beautiful Daphne to his peril. Regency Romance by Joan Smith; o...

REVIEW: Home on Folly Farm by Jane Lovering

Needing an escape, Dora swapped city living for life as a shepherdess on her grandad’s Yorkshire farm. More than a decade later Dora is still there, now farming the fifty acres and caring for the one hundred rare sheep by herself. She never hears the call of the city, but instead relishes the peace and simplicity of life on the Moors.

When Dora’s glamorous but quarrelsome sister Cass, her teenage nephew Thor and his handsome tutor Nat, turn up for an unexpected and unreasonably long stay, life...

REVIEW: Let’s Go Out by Kelly Jensen

CW: depictions of anxiety, panic attacks, mention of pet death

Dear Kelly Jensen,

Let’s Go Out is book 2 in your Let’s Connect series, originally published in serial format and available to your newsletter subscribers. After the story is completed in the newsletter, you then publish it for sale to everyone. The final version has a bonus epilogue not available in the serial format.

While not strictly necessary, I do think the reading experience in Let’s Go Out is richer if one has read Let’s Conne...

What Janine is Reading: Jeannie Lin’s Pinkang Li Books

Several years ago I fell in love with Jeannie Lin’s Lotus Palace novels. Whether you consider them romances or mysteries (I think of them as romances), the setting, a pleasure quarter called the Pinkang Li, part of the Tang Dynasty capital, Chang’an, during the 840s CE, is beautifully rendered and immersive. It serves the backdrop for two gorgeous, romantic novels in the series, The Lotus Palace and The Jade Temptress and now for two more books.

One of the fascinating things about the setting—am...

Brooklyn Bruisers Series Books #5 and #6

Note: I had somehow thought that Sarina Bowen’s Brooklyn Bruisers series ended with book four. Anyway, I’m glad to pick it up again – here are two short(ish) reviews of books five and six.

Overnight Sensation by Sarina Bowen

The book opens with Brooklyn Bruiser player Jason Castro at a bar with teammates. Also there is Heidi Jo Pepper, a team intern with whom Jason has shared a mutual lust since the previous season. Heidi gets drunk and comes on strong; Jason is tempted but ultimately decides He...

REVIEW: The Missing Queen by Sally Watson

King Tutankhamon is dead. The possibly-divine ivory cat Nefru is still (perhaps) putting a paw into royal Egyptian affairs.Lord Ay wants a royal wife-Tut’s widow, actually-to give him the blood-right to the throne. She flees marriage with him and finds long-lost relatives. Princesses Baketamon and Meri have both longed to be Queen of Egypt-but both find sand in that honey. General Horemheb (described as being like ‘desert red, rectangles and a lion’) has sent Ranofer to find a lady once known ...