What are you reading May 9?

[Okie]

I'm starting on Boyfriend Goals by Riley Hart.

[🐝 Shaz 🐝]

The widow’s Scandalous Affair by
Lucy Ashford

[Susan]

Bloodless

[Chocolatesoup]

I listening to The Devil Is a Marquess by Elisa Braden and it is sooo good so far. Also, I started by Rosalind James and despite the really terrible cover, I'm already loving it (suspense + humor + steamy romance yes ma'am).

[DanielleGN]

I just finished Code Name: Virgo by Janie Crouch, I really loved it!

[Leigh-Ayn]

I just finished Riley Thorn and the Blast from the Past by Lucy Score which was great fun!
I am waiting with great patience (ok no patience at all) for A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin
I have started Book Lovers by Emily Henry which is proving to be a delight

[Dls]

I have now tried three times to post a Monday puzzler for the week. I get a notice that its posted, but then I can't see it. Does anyone else see it? Thanks!

[Chocolatesoup]

Dls wrote: "I have now tried three times to post a Monday puzzler for the week. I get a notice that its posted, but then I can't see it. Does anyone else see it? Thanks!"

No, I don't see it but what a bummer!

[Stacey]

Dls wrote: "I have now tried three times to post a Monday puzzler for the week. I get a notice that its posted, but then I can't see it. Does anyone else see it? Thanks!"

I thought it was me...that it was my system on the blitz :D

[Manda]

Dls wrote: "I have now tried three times to post a Monday puzzler for the week. I get a notice that its posted, but then I can't see it. Does anyone else see it? Thanks!"

No! I get an email notification you've posted it but then when I follow the link it's already gone.

[Leigh-Ayn]

It is quite odd!

[Dls]

Ok I’m trying it here. If it works here could someone post a note in the puzzler saying look for it here ?

She is just pretending to be his cousin—she is in disguise for her mission.

Ow, you ugly bitch!” a voice shrieked close to his ear. “Let go of me, you sodding sow!”
“Oh, no, I don’t think so,” Heroine said.
Hero glanced that way.
A ragged boy half hung over the back of the seat. Heroine had him by the arm, and she was regarding him with amusement.
Hero could spare them only a glance. His team and the traffic wanted all his attention. “What the devil?” he said. “Where did he come from?”
“Nowhere!” the boy snarled. He wriggled furiously, to no avail. “I wasn’t doing nothing, only getting a free ride in back here, and the goggle-eyed mort tried to take my arm off.”
This, at least, was what Hero presumed he said. The Cockney accent was almost impenetrable. Nothing was “nuffin,” and aitches were dropped from and attached to the wrong words, and some of the vowels seemed to have arrived from another planet.
“And you were trying to keep your hand warm in the gentleman’s pocket?” she said.
Hero choked back laughter.
“I never went near his pocket! Do I look like I’m dicked in the nob?”
“Far from it,”Heroine said. “You’re a clever one, and quick, too.”
“Not quick enough,” the boy muttered.
“I wish you could have seen it, Cousin,” she said. “The two who ran in front were meant to distract you while this one jumped on and did his job. The little devil almost got by me. It took him two seconds to leap onto the groom’s place. Probably he would have wanted only another two to get your pocket watch—perhaps your seals and handkerchief as well—while you had both hands busy with the horses. I daresay he thought I was a gently bred female who’d only stare or scream helplessly while he collected his booty and got away.”
She reverted to the boy. “Next time, my lad, I advise you to make sure there’s only one person in the vehicle.”
Next time?
Hero nearly ran down a pie seller.
“What next time?” he said. “We’re making a detour to the nearest police office, and leaving him to them.”
The boy let loose a stream of stunning oaths and struggled wildly. But Heroine must have tightened her hold or done something painful, because he stopped abruptly, and started whimpering that his arm was broken.
“As soon as I get out of this infernal tangle, I’ll give you a cuff you won’t soon forget,” Hero said. “Cousin, will you give him a firm thump or something to stifle him in the meantime?”
“I don’t think we should take him to the police,” she said. “I think we should take him with us.”
Hero and the boy reacted simultaneously.
The boy: “Nooooo!”
Hero : “Are you drunk?”
“No, you don’t,” the boy said. “I ain’t going nowhere with you. I got friends, and they’ll come any minute now. Then you’ll be sorry. And I think my chest’s got a rib broke from being bent like this.”
“Stifle it,”Hero told the boy. He needed a clear head to find his way through Heroine’s rabbit warren of a mind. He couldn’t do that and translate the boy’s deranged version of English at the same time.
To Heroine he said, “What exactly do you propose to do with him?”
“He’s wonderfully quick,” she said. “He could be useful. For our mission.”
Occupied with horses and traffic, Hero could give the urchin no more than a swift survey. He looked to be about ten or eleven years old, though it was hard to tell with children of the lowest classes. Some of them looked eons older than they were, while others, small from malnourishment, seemed younger. This boy was fair-haired under his shabby cap, and while his neck was none too clean, he wasn’t an inch thick with filth as so many of them were. His clothes were worn and ill-fitting but mended and only moderately grimy.
“I don’t see what use he’d be to anybody, unless someone was wanted to pick pockets,” he said.
“He could hold the horses,” she said.
“Could he, indeed?” he said. “You suggest I put my cattle in charge of a sneaking little thief?”
The boy went very still.
“Who better to keep a sharp eye out, to watch who comes and goes, to give the alarm if trouble comes?” she said.
The mad thing was, she had a point.
“You don’t know the brat from Adam,” he said. “For all we know, he’s a desperado wanted by the police, and due to be transported on Monday. He tried to steal my watch. And climbed up behind the carriage to do it! That wants brass, that does—or something gravely amiss in the attic—and if you think I’m leaving a prime pair of horseflesh in the grubby hands of Mad Dick Turpin here, I suggest you think again. And take something for that brain injury while you’re about it.”
“Oy!” the boy said indignantly. “I ain’t no horse thief.”
“Merely a pickpocket,” Hero said, egging him on.
“What’s your name?” heroine said.
“Ain’t got one,” the boy said. “Saves trouble, don’t it?”
“Then I shall call you Fenwick,” she said.
“What?”
“Fenwick,” she said. “If you don’t have a name, I’ll give you one, gratis.”
“Not that,” the boy said. “That’s a ’orrible name.”
“Better than nothing,” she said.
“I say, mister,” the boy appealed toHero. “Make her stop.”
Hero couldn’t answer. He was working too hard on not laughing.
“That is not a mister,” she said. “That’s an actual lord whose pocket you tried to pick.”
“Yer lordship, make her stop. Make her stop breaking my arm, too. Which this is a monstrous female like nothing I ever seen before.”
Hero glanced at Heroine . She was regarding the ghastly little foul-mouthed urchin, her expression speculative—or so it seemed. He couldn’t be sure. For one thing, he could spare only a glance. For another, the spectacles dimmed the brilliance of her eyes.
But he saw enough: the smile playing at the corner of her mouth, and the angle at which she held her head as she regarded the boy, like a bird eyeing a worm.
“Now you’re really in trouble, Fenwick,” he said. “She’s thinking.”

[Leigh-Ayn]

Done and I posted it in there too... I had to confirm I was not a robot!

[DanielleGN]

interesting- I am not seeing any new puzzler posts, so I'm not sure your post worked, Leigh-Ayn.

so I will comment here - there are some details that seem familiar, but others that aren't, so I don't think I've read this one.

[Leigh-Ayn]

well damn! Maybe it is broken!

I haven't read this I don't think! but I did giggle that the boy is horrified at being a horse thief when he is but a pick pocket!

[Susan]

I reposted yours and the program redumped it yuck.
I wil repspond here Love it want to read it and will do so .


Susan

[Susan]

I feel everyone who belongs should get an email saying problems posting. We will notify when fixed.

[Susan]

I know this one! Fenwick is a hoot. Wait until Heroine decides Fenwick Needs A Bath!

[Dls]

I reported it. We will see what happens

[Susan]

Also be sure to upgrade Goodreads it needs to be done

[Dls]

It’s Scandal wears Satin by Loretta Chase.

[Susan]

Never read but will now! Thanks for your hard work, nothing is still working

[Susan]

Nice will read

[Susan]

Another posting alerted nothing in website from Reader

[Susan]

May 13 was not posted

[Susan]

May 16 posting
Saw the date but when opening May 16 Goodreads shuts right down.

[Okie]

May 16 posting works for me and i was able to comment.