Jane Litte's Blog, page 61

REVIEW: Coming Home by Shelley Shepard Gray

In Woodland Park, a small town nestled in the foothills of Pikes Peak, Anderson Kelly and Chelsea Davis were once the high school “it” couple—the star quarterback and the valedictorian. They broke up when Anderson joined the army and one poor decision at a fraternity party changed Chelsea’s life. Now, she works long shifts in a senior center to support her nine-year-old son, Jack.

After multiple tours in Afghanistan, Anderson has changed, too—physically scarred but mentally strong—and he decid...

Review: The Gentleman’s Book of Vices by Jess Everlee

Is their real-life love story doomed to be a tragedy, or can they rewrite the ending?

London, 1883

Finely dressed and finely drunk, Charlie Price is a man dedicated to his vices. Chief among them is his explicit novel collection, though his impending marriage to a woman he can’t love will force his carefully curated collection into hiding.

Before it does, Charlie is determined to have one last hurrah: meeting his favorite author in person.

Miles Montague is more gifted as a smut writer than a s...

REVIEW: The Forever Witness: How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder by Edward Humes

A relentless detective and an amateur genealogist solve a haunting cold case—and launch a crime-fighting revolution that tests the fragile line between justice and privacy.

In November 1987, a young couple on an overnight trip to Seattle vanished without a trace. A week later, the bodies of Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend Jay Cook were found in rural Washington. It was a brutal crime, and it was the perfect crime: With few clues and no witnesses, an international manhunt turned up empty...

REVIEW: Códice Maya de México by Andrew D. Turner

An in-depth exploration of the history, authentication, and modern relevance of Códice Maya de México, the oldest surviving book of the Americas.

Ancient Maya scribes recorded prophecies and astronomical observations on the pages of painted books. Although most were lost to decay or destruction, three pre-Hispanic Maya codices were known to have survived, when, in the 1960s, a fourth book that differed from the others appeared in Mexico under mysterious circumstances. After fifty years of deba...

REVIEW: Summer Pudding by Susan Scarlett

“There was silence. In it Janet heard the twittering of innumerable birds chatting as they settled down for the night. Some rooks cawed overhead. The baa of a sheep came from a distant field. London had been so noisy, with its crashes at night, and blastings and hammerings at smashed buildings by day, that the quiet and peace fell on her spirit like a cold hand on a sprained ankle.”

Janet Brain has been bombed out of her job in a London office and comes to the village of Worsingford (surely a ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Credit: Toni Cuenca

If you are American, you may be celebrating Thanksgiving today. Happy Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, or whatever else you celebrate (or celebrated if you are Canadian)!

What are you thankful for this year?

(Also, what are you cooking/baking/eating/freezing for later in the week? I’d love to hear about your holiday menu.)

REVIEW: The Red Scholar’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard

From the author of the Xuya universe comes a rich space opera and an intensely soft romance…

When tech scavenger Xích Si is captured and imprisoned by the infamous pirates of the Red Banner, she expects to be tortured or killed. Instead, their leader, Rice Fish, makes Xích Si an utterly incredible proposition: an offer of marriage.

Both have their reasons for this arrangement: Xích Si needs protection; Rice Fish, a sentient spaceship, needs a technical expert to investigate the death of her fi...

What Janine is Reading: K.D. Edwards’ Tarot Sequence Series

Back in springtime I started fretting how few good 2022 books I’d read. I keep track of these things because I want to have a half decent best-of-the-year list by the end of the year. By early July, I only had two. Less than five books do not a list make and at the rate things were going, I thought, I’d be lucky to have four (luckily the second half of the year turned out better).

Two months before that, I had started to go through other DA reviewers’ A and A- reviews to see if I could find som...

REVIEW: Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese

Content notes: autism, anxiety, family conflict, gaslighting, emotional abuse

Dear Chloe Liese,

I have a confession to make. I haven’t read Much Ado About Nothing. I haven’t seen the movie either. Yes, I am a Philistine. Two Wrongs Make a Right is an homage to Much Ado so it’s probably relevant I say that up front. (I expect it adds something to the reading experience if one is familiar with the play but I’m here to say the book stands well on it’s own so for readers who are like me, well, you’l...

Review: Reforged by Seth Haddon

Since time immemorial the warriors of the Paladin Order have harnessed arcane powers to protect their rulers. For Balen, who has given up his chance at love and fought his way to the top of the Paladin Order, there can be no greater honor than to serve his king. But when assassins annihilate the royal family, Balen suddenly finds himself sworn to serve the very man he abandoned.

Now with their nation threatened by enemies both within and outside the kingdom, Balen must fight hidden traitors...