TeaMonster

Interesting Beginning

Revisado: 02-21-25

As a huge fan of Golden Age mysteries and mystery writers, I’ve read not only the fiction by Detection Club members but biographies about them and “The Golden Age of Murder” by Martin Edwards and SO listening to this was a little treat.

First, my thoughts on the primary character, Eliza: we know she’s traumatized, but she also codes on the spectrum. I have no idea if that was the author’s intent, but there’s much that can be explored here and I hope it is. There’s a fantastic chance to establish a bright, traumatized, neurodiverse detective after Emily Brennan’s (“Bones”) own heart.

I was slightly put off by her continual snarky attitude toward detective writers and mystery fiction. It doesn’t soften that much through the book and many of the writers come across as virtually buffoonish, which is ironic considering that Eliza herself is literally a fictional character inside a detective novel. At least by the end she demonstrated some growing awareness of the writers as humans and not cartoons. I hope that as the series continues, that perception flourishes.

Outside of these thoughts, the resolution for the mystery was tidy and perfect.

I am only left with hopes for the series, hopes that include appearances by Margery Allingham, Baroness Orczy, Ngaio Marsh and Georgette Heyer (her own brand of special who turned down the Detection Club).

My hopes also include a slow establishment of mutual trust between the two main characters and a romance that continually moves forward and is not stopped by some sort of misunderstanding or Deus ex machina each book, which annoys the heck out of me.

Here’s to a great beginning! May each book be better than the last!

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Helpful

Revisado: 02-02-25

I’m making a journey through books like this to make sense of some parts of my own upbringing. This is maybe the fifth one I’ve read. In many of the underpinnings, it’s the same, although obviously, each person’s story of growing up in an abusive and/or hyper-fundamentalist/cult environment is different.

I do have a few Thoughts.

One, I don’t think the author is through on her faith journey, although I could be wrong. Speaking from personal experience, deconstructing something like this is often a decade or more of processing and deciding what to keep and what to lose. For instance, toward the end, the author writes that because of a relationship she had (no spoilers) and what came out of that, she realizes church leaders can be wrong and they might not always be hearing from God (so far, so good) but then she goes on to say that what she trusts is her own conversation with God. What makes hers any more reliable? I do not mean that in a disrespectful way. The book just makes it evident how very tricky the mind can be, and how people struggling with mental illnesses think they’re hearing from God when they’re very obviously not. Depression, anxiety, etc—these can all make you believe something is True when it’s very, very Not. Unless she’s basing her own conversations on an objective standard (ie, scriptures or science or something outside of herself), trusting yourself above all others can be dangerous. BUT-at least she has personal agency now.

Outside of that, I do hope the dad is going to therapy too. I don’t blame the author for forgiving and she makes it clear that she remembers. I would say he was also a victim. People are criticizing him for being complicit, and that’s essentially true, since he was the other adult responsible for the well-being of his family. But unless you live through something like this yourself you don’t realize how easy it is to be an adult victim. So—monitor and therapy.

Those two negative thoughts out of the way, the rest was insightful and courageous. I am 100% on board with banning family vloggers, or at least making major restrictions. From the outside looking in, it seems like there must be someone out there who is doing it right, but who can know which ones are, outside of grown children looking back on their lives? We’ll be finding out in the next decade what the repercussions of child influencers are.

And also, Derek should go to prison. Shari Franke was NOT responsible for what happened in any way, shape or form.

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Eek! So Adorable

Revisado: 04-11-24

This was such a sweet, refreshing little slow burn romance. I’ve listened to it about three times.

Epistolary format is tough to get right, but when it’s good, it’s really good. This has a smidge of Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster and a touch of You’ve Got Mail (which is my favorite romantic comedy).

So cute; so worth it.

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So Far…

Revisado: 03-01-24

(Only at Ch 3; I’ll revise if my opinion changes).

Okay, idk what the target audience is for this book but I’m hoping it’s high school? I read a lot of YA but I’m having to suspend disbelief so far over the MC of this book.

She acts age appropriate—no problems there—but wow, is she a spoiled brat. It was her idea to blend so she changes her hair and clothing and stuff to do so. But doesn’t think any deeper than that…she’s going to have to interact with people at some point but it’s like it never occurred to her. So instead of doing the normal thing of saying hi and bye and making it clear she just wants to stay out of everyone’s way, she paints a weird target on her own back of 1. Running away, 2. Stealing stuff, 3. Being rude.

What is her problem, seriously? I wouldn’t say what they’re doing is bullying her so far because, honestly, she started it. What a weirdo. If she doesn’t change asap, I’m gonna have to DNF this one, which is disappointing because I like other CM Stunich.

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Review From 3/5 Through

Revisado: 01-06-24

Ugh.
So far, solid hero.
The heroine is starting to get on my nerves.
My number one pet peeve is the prototype of a sunny-tempered and stubborn naïveté. Number two is a lack of self-awareness.
Fortunately, the heroine lacks the first revolting quality. Unfortunately, she reeks of the second.
She’s spent most of the novel so far either trying to escape, plotting to escape or vacillating about whether she should escape. Her reasons are because she wants to be free to make her own choice (this I get and sympathize with but it’s only been mentioned a couple of times) and that it’s not *normal* to love a monster.
And yet, so far, *normal* people have treated her very badly, and she has never even really viewed herself as *normal*. So why the obsession over it?
I just reached the peak of frustration though because the H is away and she thinks seriously of running away while he’s gone and finally decides she’ll run away later when she’s stronger. And when he returns she finds he still doesn’t have total faith in her not running away and is super angry with him.
Um, what? Aww, the big monster hurt your wittle feelings? He’s correct. And she’s berating him and making him feel guilty when she should be angry with herself. Manipulate much?
Please…lie to him all you want but at least be honest with yourself.
I’m gonna try and finish and if the dumb bunny wises up and the book improves, I’ll edit my review. Until then, this is my review and I’m sticking to it.

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Okay, Has Potential

Revisado: 10-22-23

The narrator seems to be from Australia? But she does a good enough job that it doesn’t overly bother me.
I feel like an editor would make a huge difference in this book (and maybe there was one, idk). But there are a couple of plot holes, or what I like to call leaps for the imagination.
There was quite a bit of repetition with ghosts that could’ve been cut without taking anything away from the story.
The Duchess herself is kind of a blank slate. We know a lot of things that happened to her. We know it made her feel “sad” as a child. But she seems now to be taking it all in her sunny stride: no ghostly encounter, no fall from a horse, no attempted murders—no inconvenience major or minor—upsets that saint-like personality.
What there is present in her character sketch is uneven. She is by turns naive and intensely practical. She can’t figure out what profession her friend has turned to, yet she’s matter of factly talking the realities of pregnancy with the doctor like she’s known it all her life?
And then finally the thing that bugs me most—and it really bugs me—is the adoption. Adopt the child, by all means. But a Duke would need an Act of Parliament to adopt an heir to the title. And maybe that’s not the intent here and future books will show the child is to be raised with their name and not in line for the title, I don’t know. But I am too afraid to keep reading the series to find out this fanciful error is perpetrated.

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A Lot of Encouragement

Revisado: 12-05-22

Simply put, this is the message I needed to hear right now.
I can’t tell you how crazy it is that she says something in the last chapter of the book that is word for word what I have asked of God.
While I can see how her style would not be everyone’s cup of tea, I enjoy it. Other reviewers have said it is preachy, but having come from a hyper-fundamentalist background I can honestly say it’s more like a day at the spa with a very enthusiastic gym teacher than the hard preaching I’ve heard in my lifetime. So while it might not be for everyone it was refreshing for me, and the message was like a cup of cool water.
I recommend.

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I Stopped Here

Revisado: 09-21-22

Why mess with perfection? I’ve read other books by the author but I just can’t finish this series. In part because the next story is Dean and while I guess he is probably the guy most people would want to marry IRL, he irritates me to no end.
If loyalty is so valued among the FHH, why is it that Dean never has to make a public/bigger apology? It’s obvious to everyone he was no friend to Vicious by taking Emilia in high school when he knew how much Vic wanted her. So why is V always the one making the apologies to him? Yes, V is awful, but he didn’t start it.
Vicious is not a nice guy, but he’s nice to Her (once he finally embraces that he loves her anyway) and that’s my favorite trope. While the other 4 hotholes were interesting enough in the story, V was the only one I cared about.
Em is a great heroine. I can’t stand naïveté. She’s not naive, except maybe the tiniest bit in the beginning. She’s self aware but chooses to be kind. And she has limits. She won’t go on endlessly forgiving to her own detriment. When he finally goes too far, even for her, Em makes V earn his way back into her graces.
One of my favorite contemporary romances.

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Warning-Don’t Stay Up Until 4am Listening

Revisado: 09-05-22

First, an author who finally knows Chicago! Yay! I’m a native Chicagoan and I love how out of town people are like, ‘oh, don’t go to the south side’ and I’m like….um, that’s not the side you need to worry so much about.
Second, normally I’m not a big fan of this particular male narrator—at least not in romance novels. But he does a good job with the first book in this duet and an adequate job with this one. It goes off the rails a little bit with the narration but not enough to ruin it. So I think his milieu might be classified as “tough guy suspense”.
Third, what the flip is up with that ending? As you probably guessed from my title I did, indeed stay up until 4 listening to get to the happy ending. (It was a holiday the following day, it’s fine, I’m fine.) But I’m not fine! Because there is no happy ending! Spoiler alert: the reader comes to know something about the villain that the H & h aren’t privy to. So you know your beloved characters are going to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders and they don’t need to…unless that wasn’t ACTUALLY the meaning of what I just heard and they DO need to spend the rest of their lives in fear. Either way, it was an excruciating thing to hear at scary bleary-eyed o’clock. Unless there’s a novella coming, I’m very upset. And I can’t tell that there are any plans for a follow up. So I’m upset.
And fourth, these books are well-written and I think I would still say they are worth it. So what a good author! Well done.

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Somehow Even Better Than the First

Revisado: 04-14-22

Just loved these two. I sometimes try to imagine how it would be if the characters were real people. Would the relationship go the distance? I feel fully confident that if these two were real, they would. It’s so rare to be able to say that about book relationships! As lovely or fun or exciting as many couples are to read about, in real life most would be a Big Fail. But these guys…such opposites but still such a good pair. All the hearts.

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