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Great Chance to Reconnect with Gio and Bea.

Revisado: 06-12-24

I never get tired of these two. The humor, the affection, and the history gets to me every time.

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Good Overview of the Life of John of Gaunt

Revisado: 06-12-24

Enjoyed this book about one of the greatest "men behind the throne" characters in history.

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Fascinating History

Revisado: 06-12-24

Great book. Highly recommend. Knowing very little about the subject and the people, I have already reread parts of it a couple of times. I will likely reread the entire book another time or two. So much info!

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Heyer Never Dissapoints

Revisado: 03-09-24

As usual, writing was wonderful. Her battle description
Options are always amazing. Narrator very good.

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Bad Romance or Ridiculous Mystery?

Revisado: 04-24-23

This is a debut novel, written evidently by a 12 year old girl. Only someone that young would come up with something so inane. It is more romance than mystery, because the two lead characters supposedly fall in love immediately upon viewing each other for the first time. Then they are in bed and evidently mated and bickering for life. A prepubescent view of romance for sure.

The mystery is ridiculous and totally unbelievable. And the end is preposterous. The bad guys sound like they are plucked from the crazy ramblings of one of the looney conspiracy theorists in the news today.

The narrator is fine, except when he narrates in the voice of the female character, which is a good chunk of the book. She comes across as an 8 year old dim boy. And the narrator gets overly melodramatic at weird times. Someone needs to tell him this isn’t Shakespeare.

Maybe the author will improve with practice.. But I won’t know because I won’t read another book she writes.

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Did I Miss Something?

Revisado: 03-13-22

If I didn't know better I'd swear I kept falling asleep and missing critical parts of the book. I expected to like this book but I couldn't finish it. I felt like chunks of the plot were missing, once she decided to take up her brother's work. If I'd been reading a physical book I would have started looking to see if pages were missing or stuck together. Cassandra Campbell can be an excellent narrator, but I found her somewhat annoying, especially her Italian accent. But that may have been the fault of the book itself, not Campbell.

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Another Comfortable Entry In a Comfortable Series

Revisado: 03-13-22

I enjoy this series and liked this latest book. These are not deep, complex mysteries. They are primarily travelogues through the most beautiful parts of France and Italy, detailed discussions of amazing meals, and just enough mystery to qualify for the genre. The characters are interesting, seem terribly French to me and some of their discussions about history, food, and wine are fascinating. The addition of Marine's pregnancy and Antoine's fear of fatherhood add an interesting sideline. The narration is excellent. I would appreciate it if the author would do away with constantly mentioning "the bise" every time two characters meet. Either say it completely in English or completely in French or better yet, drop it entirely. Other than that, very good series. and the disappearing museum was unique.

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Amazing Staying Power

Revisado: 03-01-22

I've never written a review on a book I listened to over a decade ago. I remember it being slightly slow going but incredibly well written and narrated when I read it. But what makes this book a 5-star book for me is it has been almost 15 years since I read it. I have not reread it since. But I think about this book, its themes, his concept of a temporary afterlife, and the idea of living on as long as you are remembered at least a couple of times a month. And have done so ever since I first listened to it. It was definitely an apocalyptic book. But I found it extremely thought-provoking and in a weird way, very hopeful.

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I really tried

Revisado: 02-17-22

I got this book a couple of years ago. The premise was promising. I started listening to it and just could not get into it. I put it aside to pick up later. I just tried listening to it again and while I got over halfway through the book this time, I just couldn't finish it. I thought the writing was sophomoric at best. There were lots of words but very little story. And the main character vacillates between vacillating about which time period he wants to be in and raising questions or points of interest - and then dropping them entirely. He's broken every rule of the Guild that manages time travelers but with their permission, There is very little explanation of why they want him to go back, just some vague mentioning of some time travelers who are "bad". He makes two close friends who disappear one day and he says it really upset him, but he makes no effort to figure out what happened to them.

There were so many gaping holes in the plot I kept wondering if I'd fallen asleep during critical sections but no, I was awake the full time.

To top it off, I thought the narration was poor. For a good chunk of the book I listened to, the word "Marquess" is used in at least every other sentence. And the way the narrator pronounced the word was extremely jarring.

I wish I had just passed on this the first time I attempted it rather than devoting over 10 hours trying to find the plot.

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The World I Wish I Lived In

Revisado: 08-28-21

Most of Penny’s books make me wonder what it would be like to actually live in the world she’s created. A world where terrible things happen but a world where you knew in the end, the goodness, kindness and intelligence of Gamache and his eccentric but well meaning family and friends would prevail. And along the way they would eat well and talk poetry. Pretty perfect.

But in this entry, which I would call more dystopian than mystery, taking place in a post pandemic world where everyone seemingly embraced science and fact, where people acted rationally like intelligent beings and the ridiculous arguments about masking and vaccination did not exist, my longing to exist in that world just intensified. Because it initially seemed ridiculous to me that anyone would buy into the eugenics and mercy killing theories purported by the main protagonist in the story I had difficulty seeing that for what it was and what it represented. Then I thought of similar comments made this past year by politicians and pundits about sacrificing the elderly and infirm so younger people could enjoy the privileged way of life those politicians and pundits seemed to live, and they felt was their due. And I thought of the shrieking and gnashing of teeth about a piece of cloth to cover our mouths. And that people seemed to believe fairy tales and innuendo spread by anonymous sources rather than opinions or facts from educated experts willing to use their real names, and I realized Penny’s dystopian post-pandemic world wasn’t so perfect after all.

But I still long for the world she’s created and I really enjoyed this book.

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