katydid

Fantastic

Revisado: 03-30-25

I hate that they now but an ad for another book onto the end of the book that has just finished. I like to reflect on the book I just finished, or I will be driving or falling asleep where it’s not convenient to push the off button. I’m already paying enough; I don’t think I should have to have a commercial as well.

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Boring and banal

Revisado: 08-26-24

The story was pretty boring, and the characters not developed enough to be interesting, especially the romantic pair, which relied on the overused beauty and the beast trope—not one of my faves anyway. And the big question throughout the book—what caused the family rift—had a reason so far fetched as to be ludicrous.

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A book about love

Revisado: 08-08-24

I love this book! It is funny, cheesy, sad, absurd and heartwarming, both ridiculous and realistic. It has multiple points of view, imperfect characters and some unreliable narrators, so that it sometimes resembles the messiness in the characters’ lives. It is a wonderful story of lives intertwining in the course of a “hostage drama.” At bottom, though, it is a story about the importance of love in its many manifestations in an imperfect world.

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One of the best Brother Cadfael stories

Revisado: 07-23-24

This is one of my favorite Brother Cadfael books. I haven’t read it for several years, but it did not disappoint! The story was both poignant and heartwarming, and I loved the characters. Also, we are introduced to one of my favorite recurring characters!

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Pretty dumb

Revisado: 06-19-24

Claire was insufferable. Gareth was awesome but Claire behaved like a spoiled child. Island was cool though.

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Annoying heroine

Revisado: 05-10-24

Super annoying heroine who had a secret that really was too important for a romance novel since it was not solved until close to the end. Also she stupidly kept this secret from the hero.

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Descriptions of life in Outback Australia

Revisado: 02-11-24

This was not one of my favorites, but like all of the Boney books, worth listening to, and the narrator was, as usual, terrific. There were also some very entertaining secondary characters, like Harry and a couple of elderly bush men. Upfield really brings long ago life in the Outback to life. This one in particular had the elderly men describing even earlier life in the Outback! Australian history as entertainment!

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Not one of her best

Revisado: 12-15-23

This had a promising start, what with a Russian element and a body in a basement; however, it was all downhill after Anne departed a house early in the book. It then went nowhere for most of the book. Anne had amnesia and there was basically no character development, of hers or anyone else’s. The romance was inexplicable, considering it was based on about two brief conversations between amnesiac Anne and a man who was asking her questions. An exceptional amount of time was wasted in endless repetitions of Anne finding the body in a cellar. First it was described as it happened. Then it was described in excruciating detail each time someone had to be told about it. (In a better book, after the first time, the author would have said something like Anne told Miss silver what had happened.) Then the person had to respond asking are you sure she was dead, and that had to be discussed yet again. Miss Silver was fairly marginal, and even gave some bad advice, which seemed to be for the sole purpose of extending this fairly lame story. I believe it was published posthumously, so it may have been poorly edited, and possibly the author was ill at the time.

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Delightful!

Revisado: 12-04-23

Phryne and Dot travel to Sydney in this delightful romp. Phryne has promised two college students that she will help their friend who has been accused of theft. Dot wishes to visit her sister, who turns out to be missing, so Phryne sets out to solve both mysteries while enchanting faculty members and undergraduates alike, watching cricket, and dealing with a mesmerist. I love this book, especially the bickering faculty, although it is less action packed than most of her books.

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Disappointing

Revisado: 12-04-23

I’m not entirely sure how much of my disappointment with this book is due to the book itself or the new narrator. The late, great Stephanie Daniels is a hard act to follow, but the book itself is not up to the standards of her earlier books. There was an 8-year break after Mendelssohn, and a significant decline in quality. Phryne just isn’t fun anymore. I felt in this one that she really was being quite insufferable. She seems to think she can do no wrong and that it is her right to interfere in everything, no matter how remote from her, and pass judgment like she is a god!
Also, the continuity errors were particularly egregious in this one. There have often been some continuity errors in this series, but usually they are only mildly annoying and the story makes up for it.
Here, she uproots an entire university that was previously located in Sydney (Death by Wicket) and moves it to Melbourne! And for no good reason—any man would have done. Also, I don’t think that Camelia’s original origin story is at all consistent with her family as depicted in this book.
Again, for no good reason. And while I like Tinker, his living in a shed because he wants to has always seemed dubious to me, and the part of the story involving him read like a mystery written for children. Ditto for Ruth and Jane.
Ruth and Dot were relegated to completely traditional female roles; Dot in particular was quite diminished—she was previously a quite interesting and complex character, perhaps more complex than anyone else—here she is relegated to worrying if her fiancé still wants to marry her and being shocked about the relationship between Phryne, Lin Chung and Camellia. I don’t think she did or said anything interesting in the entire book! She was basically just a maid!
In general the entire book was just more boring than any of this series. If this was your first Phryne Fisher book, I recommend going back to the first 20–this one is atypical, sadly.

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