Three months in ... and changing things up a bit

Yesterday (or the day before -- it's all a blur) I finished my 20th book of 2015 (not including the ones read with John).

I tried starting the next book on my TBR which should have been my "I" for the A to Z. I had it so hyped up in my head for so long and then got thinking "Wait. These are some of my favorite characters of all time. What if they screw them up???" and once I finally started reading it I think one eye was looking for problems and issues while the other eye was just trying to enjoy the ride.

Having your eyes doing different things at the same time can give you a headache.

So.

I'm putting off "I" for a while. Hopefully I'll get to the point of being a little less uptight about it. Or find a new "I." Whatever.

Moving on with a totally random pick: Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike (which will be released in mid-April in the US with the title Murder is Bad Manners ... because Americans don't understand what is and isn't "ladylike" perhaps???).

After that? Probably something else randomly picked. Life is stressful enough to try and follow any sort of plan for my reading. Even the looseness of the "alphabet-random-series-alphabet-Christie" got too stressful.

Randomization rules.

Sometimes.

Until it doesn't.

Deanna Chase's Demons of Bourbon Street

The third Jade Calhoun book! You can read the previous two rambles by clicking HERE. This is really a series that needs to be read in order so you aren't completely lost. (And, even then, you might get a little discombobulated from time to time.)

Good grief does Deanna Chase ever seem to enjoy putting her poor main character in turmoil! First Jade gets mixed up with ghosts haunting her apartment building and torturing her new friend/boss. Then she finds out that she's a witch. Then she battles a witch, Meri, who has gone black. Of course, Meri has dragged her boyfriend to Purgatory and is the same witch who twelve years ago trapped Jade's mother. Jade pretty much sucks at controlling her magic, has issues with the neighborhood guardian angel, and her ex-boyfriend ends up sacrificing himself in order to save Jade's mother -- who, of course, still treats Jade like a teenager instead of a 27 year old since time stands still in Purgatory. I guess.

At least she gets to have a lot of steamy scenes with the boyfriend (which I skip/skim for the most part) .... when, you know, they aren't being trapped or possessed or otherwise mixed up in Chase's twisted plan for their lives.

Seriously. I don't ever want to be a character in a Deanna Chase book.

This time around Jade, her friends and her coven are trying to get the ex-boyfriend, Dan, free from Meri's clutches.  Jade's mom is left behind in Idaho with Aunt Gwen, but gives some words of advice before they part ways:

 Her "solid escape plan" involves getting help from the angels -- including Dan's biological father (who happens to have been involved with Meri way-back-when). Of course, if you've read the first two installments you already know that angels in Chase's world haven't been all halos and wings and happiness. That hasn't changed. At all.

SO we have the still-snarky angel Lailah, the absentee-dad angel Philip, and as an added bonus there's an angel who's on Earth as a conservative televangelist trying to rid the world of witches -- and, more specifically, Jade. He feels her soul has been tainted and that she needs to be bound before she goes all black witch freaky on the world.

Souls (yes - multiple) are in danger. Lives are in danger. Witchcraft is in danger. Danger danger danger. Of course, that means there also ends up being battles and wins and losses and sacrifices. Yep .... it's a Deanna Chase book!

Seriously. I don't ever want to be a character in a Deanna Chase book. I enjoy the books but I definitely wouldn't want to live in one of them!

The next title is a short story (# 3.5) titled Engaged Off Bourbon Street. I'm guessing there'll be danger ... and we'll probably find out soon! (Not too soon, though. You know how I am about staggering series.)

Agatha Christie's The Murder on the Links

The Murder on the Links is the third of Christie's novels and the second featuring Hercule Poirot yet this was my first encounter with the story. The ITV series didn't air the tale (in all of its "made-for-tv-ness") until part way through the sixth season and I'm still only on the second. (I took a break from watching them on Acorn since they ARE so different and SO out of order. Still very watchable, of course, but I'd like to get more of them read before watching.)

Once again, Hastings is the narrator. In fact, he starts out the tale by breaking my heart into a million lit-crushing pieces:

Ah .... Hastings wouldn't have patience for me! Totally not his type. Of course, my Tom isn't what I ever would have considered to be my type so maybe my lit-crushing fantasies can continue ....

The woman in question Hastings meets while on a train returning to London from Paris. It is some time after The Mysterious Affair At Styles and he and Hercule Poirot were living and working together. While on the train the two talk about life, Poirot, and Styles. They part ways in much better spirits than they started (see? There's hope for my modern neuroticism!) but he doesn't get her name. She says it's Cinderella as she leaves.

Hastings returns to Poirot who is lamenting about being bored because there are no great criminals about to let him work his "little grey cells." Waiting for him in the mail, though, is a call for help from a man in France who feels he is in danger but does not wish to go to the police. He begs Poirot to come at once and, of course, the two take off for France but arrive too late. The man was murdered and his body found on a nearby golf course (the "links" from the title).

The local authorities already know Poirot and there is another detective milling around -- a French Sherlock-ish character who irritates Poirot (he refers to him as "the human foxhound"). There are also mysterious South Americans, family members household staff, a mysterious "secret," a supposed mistress and her "goddess"-like daughter (oh, Hastings ... you're such a dog sometimes. What about the girl on the train?), twins ... and the Cinderella girl and her sister.

Everyone is a suspect at one point or another, and Poirot is brilliant at picking apart what's what and who's who until everything is all solved and tidy again. Since this is told by Hastings, though, we're left quite in the dark at times just as he had been.

Oh, yes. I know the feeling well. At the same time, though, I often feel like giving my beloved Hastings a good shake because of how obvious it is that the "nothing" isn't "nothing" at all. Love him dearly, but Hastings definitely isn't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree sometimes and definitely isn't in this outing.

I blame Cinderella.

Carolyn G Hart's Southern Ghost

To be completely honest with you, I'm not quite sure how to go about writing this review. It's not that I don't know how I feel about the book because I was more than happy with it and will slap 4 stars on it on GoodReads (very few get 5). It's that it's the eighth book in the Death on Demand series and I don't want to give too much away about any of the previous installments -- which you should really read before you read this one. Well, I guess it's probably not absolutely necessary but you'll understand the players better if you do.

I love the Death on Demand series. It was my first "cozy" series that I really got wrapped up in back when I was in high school. My mom's best friend owned a book store and once when we were visiting I happened to pick up the first couple in the series. A mystery series about a girl who owns a mystery book store? Yeah. Instant lit love. Of course, there are now 24 books in the series and I just finished number 8 so I'm a bit behind ... but the first four or five I've read and reread several times and now I'm determined that I WILL read the rest. Sooner or later.

Anyway, Death on Demand. Like I said, it's a series about a girl who owns a mystery book store (named, oddly enough, Death on Demand). The girl is Annie and she's married to Max. He's kind of a private investigator though not officially since he's not licensed. It's complicated. He's working a case for twenty-something Courtney Kimball involving some deaths in one of South Carolina's oldest families. The deaths happened over twenty years ago but when Courtney disappears they all appear to be related.

If you know the series it will seem like a bit of a departure in writing style and how the story all plays out. I loved the change of pace and scenery and the focus on different characters in this book than in the others. Quite a few characters met previously play major roles here, but not the usual supporting cast from the previous seven books.

Go read those ... then this ... then let me know and we can discuss!

Teaser Tuesday #4

The Meme:

The Tease:

The Book: