I'll Sleep When I've Read... A Geek Girl's Guide to Murder by Julie Anne Lindsey

Title: A Geek Girl's Guide to Murder

Author: Julie Anne Lindsey

Publication: 1 February 2021

Format: paperback

Amazon Description: 

IT manager Mia Connors is up to her tortoiseshell glasses in technical drama when a glitch in the Horseshoe Falls email system disrupts security and sends errant messages to residents of the gated community. Mia doesn't have time to hunt down a computer hacker. Her best friend has disappeared, and she finds another of her friends murdered—in her office. Then the hunky new head of Horseshoe Falls security identifies Mia as the prime suspect. 

Eager to clear her name, Mia moves into action to locate her missing buddy and find out who killed their friend. But her quick tongue gets her into trouble with more than the new head of security. When Mia begins receiving threats, the killer makes it clear that he's closer than she ever imagined.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I shared the beginning and a blip from page 56 of the paperback on Friday ... by Saturday evening I was cursing and praising Julie Anne Lindsey for bringing such amazing characters into my life ... and leaving the book in a way that is only acceptable because the rest of the Geek Girl's Guide trilogy is already available. [Geeks love trilogies, by the way. It's just the way it is.] Mia is so much like me in so many ways that it really didn't surprise me when I ended up with four pages of my blog notebook filled with quotes -- with even more highlighted in the digital version that had to also be obtained so I could continue to read even when the lights were off.

I understood her. I felt her. Aside from the family, age, bank account, and murder, I was her. My wardrobe is almost equal parts nerdy fandom shirts and cute girly-girl dresses (I prefer Mary Janes to Mia's stilettos, though). I never ever willingly go anywhere beyond the corner store without my tablet, my smart phone, and a book (not counting the hundreds of digital books on various clouds). I have serious social anxiety issues but get along remarkably well with just about everyone I have to deal with for work. I have little clue and little success when it comes to 90% or more of the members of the opposite sex. Hipsters make me cringe.

Mia Connors is my girl and Nate reminds me so very much of my beloved Ben -- one of my dearest friends who sadly passed a couple of years ago. I kept picturing us as Mia and Nate ... without Mia's Jimmy Choos and flowing Guinevere hair (I tend to stick with the pixie cut Ben insisted was my "bestest"). I regret that we never got to solve any actual mysteries together. We would have been epic.

As for the mystery and storyline, there were so many pieces that it kept me guessing as to how they would all fit together. Seeing how it all worked together was brilliant and stressful and awe-inspiring and a little bit anxiety-inducing. At one point, the oh-so-confusing security guard Jake told Mia that he was surprised that she was good at her part of the investigations going on. She replied with "well, I like a challenge, so this has been fun." It was fun for me, as well, and I look forward to getting my hands on the next two books. 

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... Farewell, My Babylon by Davidy Rosenfeld

 

Title: Farewell, My Babylon

Author: Davidy Rosenfeld

Publication: 12 January 2023/5 March 2023

Format: Kindle eARC via NetGalley 

Amazon Description:

Erez Brown is a private detective. He’s a busy man dealing in cheating spouses, small-time fraud and petty theft. Nothing dangerous. No one gets hurt. That’s until he takes on the case of a missing young woman. It’s been three years since Lea Rubinstein walked out the door, but only now her Orthodox Jew parents are suddenly interested in finding their daughter. Erez believes it’s an obvious case of a teenage girl escaping the confines of a strict religious upbringing and that Lea simply doesn’t want to be found. What should be a straightforward paperchase for a detective of Erez’s talents turns ugly when he's savagely beaten for getting too close to answers, and then his discovery of a murder—a prostitute who specializes in dominance and sexual harm has been brutally killed. Is Lea Rubinstein responsible, or is she another victim?

Rambly Teaserish Stuff:

Dashiell Hammett gave us Sam Spade. Raymond Chandler gave us Philip Marlowe. Mickey Spillane gave us Mike Hammer. Now, Davidy Rosenfeld has given us Erez Brown. It reads like a classic noir but set in modern Tel Aviv, Israel. 

All of Brown's cases kept me turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. Will he find the missing daughter? Is the wife really cheating? Is the husband? Where's the ice cream money??? Rosenfeld really drew me in, though, with Brown and everyone he encountered -- his clients, staff, friends, and even the police who are sure he's leaving something out even when he's not. I could see them and hear them and, more than a few times, wanted to buy them a beer. My brain has already cast Eric Balfour as Erez and Inbar Lavi as his secretary Mazal, who could easily rank right up there with Mike Hammer's Velda in terms of awesomeness.

The most fascinating character for me, though, was Tel Aviv:

"They say this city is a bubble. What it really is, is a broken mirror reflecting countless dreams. Tel Aviv is the capital of unfulfilled fantasies; the port Odysseus never reached; the grand lottery win missing only a single number; Pamela Anderson’s boobs…"

I've never been, but it feels like I have. Brown heard a song about Barcelona and though he had never been, he missed it. I'm going to feel the same about Tel Aviv until I get my hands on the next book and hopefully many more to come.

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

 

Title: The Winter King

Author: Bernard Cornwell

Publication: 5 October 1995/reprint: 15 April 1997

Format: paperback & Kindle ebook

Amazon Description: 

It takes a remarkable writer to make an old story as fresh and compelling as the first time we heard it. With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell finally turns to the story he was born to write: the mythic saga of King Arthur.

The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been banished and Merlin has disappeared, where a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, where religion vies with magic for the souls of the people. It is to this desperate land that Arthur returns, a man at once utterly human and truly heroic: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor; a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than he should; a man whose life is at once tragic and triumphant.

As Arthur fights to keep a flicker of civilization alive in a barbaric world, Bernard Cornwell makes a familiar tale into a legend all over again.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I stayed up late Friday just to read. I did the same on Saturday. I almost didn't get a pre-work nap on Sunday because I was soooooooo close to being done.

And then I was.

And now I have a massive book hangover.

There have already been teaser snippets on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and now you get some more because that's part of the beauty of I'll Sleep When I've Read... posts. I make up my own rules. Since I had already covered Parts One and Two, this will only have blips from Three and Four and will pretty much focus on characters. Most people know the main characters of Arthurian Legends -- Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere, Lancelot, Galahad ... and, of course, Camelot -- so I thought it would be nice to highlight what Cornwell does with them. Part Five was too busy ripping my soul apart to have me take any suitable notes. I guess you'll just have to read the book ... and the next ... and the next ...

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

 

Title: The Hunting Party

Author: Lucy Foley

Publication: 3 December 2018

Format: paperback (William Morrow reprint - 3 March 2020)

Amazon Description

Everyone's invited...everyone's a suspect...

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

The trip begins innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps, just as a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead. . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage says. But how close is too close?

DON'T BE LEFT OUT. JOIN THE PARTY NOW.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I am pretty sure that the only upside to being abandoned on my birthday during what was supposed to be a great vacation weekend was that I had opted to throw The Hunting Party in my carry-on bag and was, in the absence of anything else to do but drink and wallow, able to read the whole thing in one very long and very stressful sitting.

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... The Whispering Tongues by Beth Andrews

Title: The Whispering Tongues

Author: Beth Andrews

Publication: 28 November 2022

Format: Kindle eARC via Joffe Books & NetGalley

Amazon Description

Anthea Halliwell’s once-bright future is cruelly taken from her the moment she is accused of stealing a necklace dripping with rubies and diamonds and attempting to sell it.

Her beloved Captain Crispin breaks off their engagement at the first hint of scandal and marries her friend instead. Then to make matters worse, her father gambles away their fortune.

Heartbroken and penniless, Anthea is forced to beg handsome Gideon Rodrigo for help. But she never expects him to propose.

It may be a marriage of convenience for Anthea, but Gideon will do anything to clear his wife’s name.

Gideon enlists the help of John and Lydia Savidge, who have their own reputation for solving crimes.

While tongues wag and suspicions mount, John and Lydia suspect more than theft and slander are at play.

And someone is killing to keep their secrets hidden . . .

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

To be completely honest, I'm kind of stuck at the beginning of Chapter 20 (out of 27) because my brain is a bit livid over a conversation about religion near the end of Chapter 19.

I loved the first book in the series and quite enjoyed the second, but I'm going to need some time for my brain to cool down and stop telling my fist to punch Thea in the jugular before I finish this one. It's really too bad because I thought it was well on its way to being even better than the first, but the Kindle I'm reading on is brand new and I would hate to become so irate that I damage it somehow.

Three stars, though, for the first 63% ... which could easily have been 5 stars had it not been for flowers and mushrooms.

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... Xoe by Sara C Roethle

   

Title: Xoe

Author: Sara C Roethle 

Publication: 3 October 2009

Format: Kindle ebook

Goodreads Description

Xoe Meyers had a normal life. So she was stuck going to high school, and she only had a few friends to call her own. She liked her normal life. Things were about to change though, because there's a new guy in her small town, and he is anything but normal. Before Xoe can say, "Werewolf," her best friend's life is in peril, and Xoe's world is turned upside-down. Then, of course, there's Jason. Xoe doesn't trust him as far as she can throw him, and given that he's a vampire, she'd have to be able to catch him first.

 

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I had an X title all picked out and ready to go for the Alphabet Soup Challenge and then stumbled upon this in the deep recesses of my Kindle Cloud .... having been originally purchased shortly after it's release in 2009.

Then I got it again as a three-pack in 2014 after the release of the third book in the series.

Whoops.

Better late than not at all, right? And, besides, now there are eight books in the series so I won't have to wait to continue or finish or whatever.

That was my plan all along.

Right.

This is very much a fun piece of YA fluff. Mostly fluff, anyway. There is a fair amount of teenage angst included ... and, of course, the supernatural angle ... which balances the fluff nicely.

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... The Raven Song by Luanne G Smith

  

Title: The Raven Song

Author: Luanne G Smith

Publication: 11 October 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via 47North & NetGalley

Amazon Description

Fleeing Victorian London, a witch finds her newfound independence comes with all-new perils—both mortal and immortal.

Forever untangling the branches of her strange family tree, Edwina Blackwood is at a turning point. Her parents’ disappearances still strike her as unaccountably odd. Her sister’s questionable life and untimely death have left her shaken. Spellfire has transformed her home and livelihood to ash. And now a devious stalker is on her trail. With supernatural detective Ian Cameron by her side, Edwina can’t get out of London fast enough.

Gaining safe passage, she finds refuge with Sir Henry Elvanfoot, famed wizard of the north, and is promised protection from ill-aimed curses. But in this unfamiliar city of fair folk and witches, where the veil between Earth and the Otherworld is about to be lifted, something is amiss. How else to explain Edwina’s sudden prophetic visions? Or the fear that surviving whoever pursues her will require the powers of an ancient bloodline she’s only beginning to comprehend?

Whatever destiny awaits, it’s Edwina’s to finally control. Where will it lead? Only time, cunning, and magic—in this world or the Other—will tell.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I have been looking forward to The Raven Song since before I even finished the first in the series, The Raven Spell, back in March. There were so many questions left unanswered ... and so much more swooning to be done over Ian Cameron ... and now that I've finished The Raven Song I anxiously await announcement for a third installment. I just know that the new twists and turns (and Smith is great at twists and turns) will be niggling at the back of my brain for quite some time.

And, of course, there's Ian....

I know that some have said that you can read the second without having read the first. I suppose that you could, but you will be missing out on so much if you do. Besides, this isn't due to release for over a week so that gives you plenty of time to get the first ... especially if you stay up late and/or wake up early to finish reading.

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... The Deception by Kim Taylor Blakemore

 

Title: The Deception

Author: Kim Taylor Blakemore

Publication: 27 September 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via Lake Union Publishing & NetGalley

Amazon Description

New Hampshire, 1877. Maud Price was once a celebrated child medium, a true believer in lifting the veil between the living and the dead. Now penniless, her guiding spirits gone, the so-called “Maid of Light” is desperate to regain her reputation―but doing so means putting her faith in deceiving others.

Clementine Watkins, known in spiritualist circles for her bag of tricks and utmost discretion, creates the sort of theatrics that can fill Maud’s parlor again, and with each misdirection, Maud’s fame is restored. But her guilt is a heavy burden. And the ruse has become a risk. Others are plotting to expose the fraud, and Clem can’t allow anyone―even Maud―to jeopardize the fortune the hoax has made her.

When the deception hints at a possible murder, Maud realizes how dangerous a game she’s playing. But to return to the light from which she’s strayed, she must first survive the darkness created by Clem’s smoke and mirrors.

 

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I've read quite a few books about spiritualists. Some have been quite good; others haven't even been worth the time it would take to give a negative review on Goodreads, much less the time to put together a teaser graphic for the blog. Good enough to willingly lose sleep? I don't know if that's ever happened with this particular subject matter ... until Kim Taylor Blakemore's The Deception.

Okay, so I haven't been sleeping much or well anyway, but that's absolutely not the point.

The point is that this book is fanfreakingtastically amazing.

You may (or may not) have picked up on the fact that I keep journals for my blog notes -- mostly the quotes and whatnot that I've highlighted in the Kindle or not highlighted in the actual hard copy (because that's just criminal). I actually had to re-read the last half of The Deception because I was so caught up in what was going to happen next with Maud and Clem (and Russell .... oooooh Russell) that I couldn't even highlight.

It's that good.

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... The Counterfeit Wife by Mally Becker

  

Title: The Counterfeit Wife

Author: Mally Becker

Publication: 20 September 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via Level Best Books & NetGalley

Amazon Description

Philadelphia, June 1780. George Washington’s two least likely spies return, masquerading as husband and wife as they search for traitors in Philadelphia.

Months have passed since young widow Becca Parcell and former printer Daniel Alloway foiled a plot that threatened the new nation. But independence is still a distant dream, and General Washington can’t afford more unrest, not with food prices rising daily and the value of money falling just as fast.

At the General’s request, Becca and Daniel travel to Philadelphia to track down traitors who are flooding the city with counterfeit money. Searching for clues, Becca befriends the wealthiest women in town, the members of the Ladies Association of Philadelphia, while Daniel seeks information from the city’s printers.

But their straightforward mission quickly grows personal and deadly as a half-remembered woman from Becca’s childhood is arrested for murdering one of the suspected counterfeiters.

With time running out—and their faux marriage breaking apart—Becca and Daniel find themselves searching for a hate-driven villain who’s ready to kill again.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

The follow-up to The Turncoat's Widow (which was featured this past Tuesday)  was almost as amazing as the first. Of course, I love Becca and Daniel and became quite enamored of Becca's new friend (and Benjamin Franklin's daughter) Sally, but it was missing some of the humor that I loved so much in the first one. There were still humorous moments, but this installment felt generally angstier (it's a word .... really .... at least, now it is). I am very much looking forward to seeing where Becker goes next with Becca and Daniel. Hopefully we'll also see a return of some of the secondary characters from the first who were sorely missed here like Becca's "aunties."

If you know, you know .... and if you don't, do read the first book. (And then, of course, this one.)

 

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

 

Title: Killers of a Certain Age

Author: Deanna Raybourn

Publication: 6 September 2022

Format: Kindle eArc via Berkley & NetGalley

Amazon Description

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon.
 
They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire – it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.
 
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death.
 
Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

The original intention was to have this be the Book Beginnings & Friday 56 post on the 2nd. I had the graphic made and the post started and then realized that I just couldn't do it. I couldn't limit myself to trying to adequately tease Billie, Helen, Natalie and Mary Alice in just two blips. I could have waited for a hard copy to appear (since I'm fairly certain that this will end up on my actual bookshelf) so then I could do a p56, p156, p256, etc ... but ... nope. One, I don't want to wait to share. Two, I'm on a "random buying freeze" for the next couple of weeks until my much needed vacation. Three, even then I would only have at most five blips to share and that still wouldn't be enough and there's no telling if any of the blips that I have highlighted in my Kindle and copied into my notebook would fall on any of the 56es.

Besides, this actually does fall into the "I'll Sleep When I've Read..." guidelines even if it wasn't just for the weekend. It was pretty much every day from Saturday to Wednesday. 

It's a darling tale of four women on the brink of retirement.... after being international assassins for forty years. The books seamlessly flips between stories of their early years with the Museum to what may be their final days.... anywhere. Period. End of. Kaput. They've been set up and it's become a case of kill or be killed and these ladies have absolutely no intention of being killed. It's the perfect blend of humor and intrigue and the past and the present. I, for one, would very much like to see what's in store for the future.

 

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If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... This Book Is Full Of Spiders by Jason Pargin

 

Title: This Book Is Full Of Spiders

Author: Jason Pargin (originally as David Wong)

Publication: 5 October 2021 (originally 12 October 2012)

Format: paperback

Amazon Description

Warning: You may have a huge, invisible spider living in your skull. THIS IS NOT A METAPHOR.

You will dismiss this as ridiculous fear-mongering. Dismissing things as ridiculous fear-mongering is, in fact, the first symptom of parasitic spider infection--the creature stimulates skepticism, in order to prevent you from seeking a cure. That's just as well, since the "cure" involves learning what a chainsaw tastes like. You can't feel the spider, because it controls your nerve endings. You won't even feel it when it breeds. And it will breed.

Just stay calm, and remember that telling you about the spider situation is not the same as having caused it. I'm just the messenger. Even if I did sort of cause it. Either way, I won't hold it against you if you're upset. I know that's just the spider talking.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

I love it when someone asks me what I'm reading and all I can do it stare at them and turn the book so they can more clearly see the cover. I had several very confused people (and one who totally understood) Thursday morning before I left work.

"I honestly have no idea... 

...but I love it."

I actually had to leave the book at work that morning because I knew that if I took it home I wouldn't sleep and sleep is a much needed thing. Sometimes. Instead I brought it home with me Friday morning and then didn't sleep much Friday night. Or Saturday. 

It's a big book.

A lot happens.

And then a lot doesn't.

Or does it?

And then more almost does. 

And ....

Don't ever ask me to explain it to you.

If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.

I'll Sleep When I've Read... Down a Dark River by Karen Odden

 

Title: Down a Dark River

Author: Karen Odden

Publication: 9 November 2021

Format: Kindle ebook

Amazon Description

London, 1878. One April morning, a small boat bearing a young woman’s corpse floats down the murky waters of the Thames. When the victim is identified as Rose Albert, daughter of a prominent judge, the Scotland Yard director gives the case to Michael Corravan, one of the only Senior Inspectors remaining after a corruption scandal the previous autumn left the division in ruins. Reluctantly, Corravan abandons his ongoing case, a search for the missing wife of a shipping magnate, handing it over to his young colleague, Mr. Stiles.
 
An Irish former bare-knuckles boxer and dockworker from London’s seedy East End, Corravan has good street sense and an inspector’s knack for digging up clues. But he’s confounded when, a week later, a second woman is found dead in a rowboat, and then a third. The dead women seem to have no connection whatsoever. Meanwhile, Mr. Stiles makes an alarming discovery: the shipping magnate’s missing wife, Mrs. Beckford, may not have fled her house because she was insane, as her husband claims, and Mr. Beckford may not be the successful man of business that he appears to be.
 
Slowly, it becomes clear that the river murders and the case of Mrs. Beckford may be linked through some terrible act of injustice in the past — for which someone has vowed a brutal vengeance. Now, with the newspapers once again trumpeting the Yard’s failures, Corravan must dredge up the truth — before London devolves into a state of panic and before the killer claims another innocent victim.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff

Normally I save I'll Sleep When I've Read... posts for those I fly through in a weekend sitting or two (including the hours of missed sleep). I started Karen Odden's Down a Dark River on Wednesday morning thinking that it would be my Book Beginnings & Friday 56 post for the week. Luckily I had another book that I could throw something together for because this just needed more than usual two blips. Even the handful that I usually cram into an ISWIR graphic really doesn't feel like it's going to give the book the justice it deserves. Several pages of my notebook can attest to that ... and 336 pages according to Amazon for the hardcover ... and the fact that I had to stop pulling quotes for the graphic because at 42% it was full. It's just a teaser post anyway so 42% is a good place to stop pulling, right? Still, even if I went all the way to the end for it, one square full of random blips wouldn't give it justice

Justice. It's a big deal in the book -- a Victorian mystery featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan. He's seeking justice for the victims of the present, trying to prevent victims needing justice in the future, and trying to correct injustices done in the past. It's a big undertaking, especially when the Yard itself is trying to recover from a bribery scandal. Few seem to trust them as a whole in spite of the fact that only three were found guilty. 

I'm not going to bother going in to great detail about the plot since you can get the general description from, well, the description. I will tell you, though, that if you have any interest at all in historical mysteries you need to read this book. Corravan may easily become one of my favorite characters, and Odden one of my favorite historical authors, if the second book in the series (which is currently sitting on my NetGalley shelf calling to me like a Siren) is even half as excellent as this one. 

I knew from reading the Acknowledgements at the very beginning that Odden had put a great deal of time and research into the writing and it certainly shows. The descriptions and the language really pulled one out of the present and dropped them right into 1878 London. The sights and the smells and even the thickness of the air before a pending storm -- she nails it all ... or so I would assume, you know, never having the actual opportunity to travel back in time to cross the pond.

Long story short, read this book ... and expect to not be able to sleep until you've made it through at least one more chapter once you've picked it up. I lucked out with a couple of quietish nights at work that allowed me to read more than usual. Even then, though, I could not bring myself to stop reading once I got home in the morning until my eyes literally gave up. And then came the task narrowing down what to use for the ISWIR graphic. Even with only using the first 42%, that was a task even the Yard wouldn't want to be faced with. 

If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.