Rambling About.. Janet B Taylor's Into The Dim

Title: Into The Dim
Author: Janet B. Taylor
Publication: 1 March 2016 - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
First Line: Everyone in town knew the coffin was empty. I think that's what packed the pews - the pure curiosity of the thing.
Favorite Line: (maybe not my FAVORITE favorite since there were a freaking ton of them ... but the first one I scribbled down in my notebook:) Aged leather and old paper. The library smelled like Shakespeare. It smelled like my mom. (p 25)

Ramble: Seriously, though? If you know me you probably know that I love time travel. I grew up on Doctor Who and Time Bandits and Timeline have been two of my favorite movies ever. I marathon read the first book in the Outlander series and have only put off on reading more because I then fell in love with the show and don't want to spoil it. When I got the notice from NetGalley about Into The Dim being available and saw that there was a blip on the cover from Outlander's Diana Gabaldon I figured "eh ... why not?" I'm very hit or miss with YA reads but 1) It was free. 2) No one would yell at me for not finishing it if it blew. 3) Scotland. 4) Time Travel.

Just add those last two together. Time travel and Scotland. It's like David Tennant ... and Gerard Butler ... and Sean Connery ... and I just thought to myself "gosh this book had better not blow."

The Amazon blurb tells the basics (of course):

When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing.      Addictive, romantic, and rich with historical detail, Into the Dim is an Outlander for teens. 

And I know it says it's "an Outlander for teens" but .... eh .... not so much. Yeah, there's a girl ... there's time travel ... there's Scotland. That's about it.  Into The Dim reminds me soooo much more of the 2003 movie Timeline. Holy heck how I love that movie and have watched it dozens of times over the years. (And no .... not because of Paul Walker. He was great but I've been more of an Ethan Embry girl ever since he did All I Want For Christmas with a little Thora Birch and Leslie Neilson as Santa  -- several years prior to his awesomeness in Empire Records.) I guess the movie was based on a book by Michael Crichton which, somehow, I only JUST found out. Yeah. I need to get my grubby mitts on it.

Yeah. I got distracted. Sorry. Be glad that I didn't take the time to post Time Bandits, too. Oh. Fine. But just one.   And no ... Robin Hood really has nothing at all to do with anything ... it's just a funny clip. Okay, okay. Back to the book. So, eight months after her mom is presumed dead in an earthquake Hope is shipped off to Scotland to her aunt's and finds out that her mom wasn't really at the earthquake site but is a time travel and has been left behind at the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine. "Eleanor of huh?" Get thee to a library, kids.  It had to be done. In order to try and save her, Hope must go back to the twelfth century. From the descriptions of the trip, no doubt she wished she had Hermione's Time Turner. C'mon ... Rowling lives in Scotland ... and there are HP references in the book ... and ...  Once in 1154 London not only do Hope and her fellow travelers meet Eleanor, but also Thomas Becket  and King Henry II (my fingers are ITCHING to put a Burton/O'Toole clip here. ITCHING, I say!). The historical details and descriptions are phenomenal without being too overbearing. (You know how sometimes you can be reading something TOO descriptive? Like "Yes, we KNOW already! The freaking grass was green!") Granted, some bits I felt could have been maybe not mentioned quite as much as the were. Taylor more or less beat a dead horse with how poorly women were treated and how much worse the Jewish women had it and yadda yadda yadda .... but, luckily, the good far outweighed the bad and I'm already excited about the fact that there'll be at least one sequel! 

Rambling About.. Catriona McPherson's Quiet Neighbors

Title: Quiet Neighbors
Author: Catriona McPherson
Publication: 8 April 2016 - Midnight Ink
First Line: It was the last thing on her mind when she fled across London. She had her passport and meant to take a train to the airport then buy a ticket for the farthest place on the departure board, to put time zones and maybe the date line between them.
Favorite Line: Suddenly she was living in an Anne Taylor novel. A world where you can set down one life, walk away, and pick up another. It was almost too easy. (p 31)

Ramble: I've been a fan of Catriona McPherson's since I first stumbled upon her Dandy Gilver mystery series. When I saw she had a non-Dandy title on NetGalley I was ecstatic. When I received the notification that Midnight Ink had approved my request I even squealed a little.

I miss Dandy.

It's listed as a mystery but even at the half-way point I was finding the main mystery to simply be "what the heck is the big mystery?!?" And, more to the point, "do I really care?!?" I even read through the reviews on Goodreads and the description on Amazon to see if either would give me a clue.

From Amazon:

It's the oldest bookshop in a town full of bookshops; rambling and disordered, full of treasures if you look hard. Jude found one of the treasures when she visited last summer, the high point of a miserable vacation. Now, in the depths of winter, when she has to run away, Lowell's chaotic bookshop in that backwater of a town is the safe place she runs to.
Jude needs a bolt-hole; Lowell needs an assistant and, when an affordable rental is thrown in too, life begins to look up. The gravedigger's cottage isn't perfect for a woman alone but at least she has quiet neighbors.
Quiet, but not silent. The long dead and the books they left behind both have tales to tell and the dusty rooms of the bookshop are not the haven they seem to be. Lowell's past and Jude's present are a dangerous cocktail of secrets and lies and someone is coming to light the taper that could destroy everything.

I assumed that the mystery was still yet to come so I kept reading. After all, there was laundry to fold at work (the joys of third shifting at a hotel) and I could multitask reading and folding. Besides, I found Lowell endearing and his not-so-quiet nosy neighbor, Mrs. Hewston, amusing. 

I did start to care a bit more about the secrets (I guess, the "mysteries") of the past that were popping up, but it never quite became what I was expecting when I hit the request button. I'm not sorry that I did, though. It had some delightful moments even though some bits felt horribly disjointed and I felt as though I had somehow missed reading entire paragraphs or pages. I'm pretty sure that my sister-in-law would love it, though, and if I can get her hooked on McPherson with this then maybe she'd be willing to give Dandy a try and maybe we'd have something else to gab about at family get-togethers.

Rambling About.. Rachel McMillan's The Bachelor Girl's Guide To Murder

Title: The Bachelor Girl's Guide To Murder
Author: Rachel McMillan
Publication: 1 March 2016 - Harvest House
First Line: 'A murder scene is no place for a proper young lady.'
Favorite Line: Jem realized early in her acquaintance with Merinda Herringford that attempting to solve a crime as an amateur and a woman meant leaving any semblance of pride or dignity behind. (p 21)

Ramble: When I posted the teasers for The Bachelor Girl's Guide To Murder I had only just gotten the book loaded from NetGalley into my various readers. I had no real idea what I was getting myself into. No idea that I would start saying "Rats!" and "Cracker jacks!" on a regular basis. No idea that I would become obsessed with getting my hands on a copy of M.C. Wheaton's Guide to the Criminal and Commonplace only to have my hopes shattered with the knowledge that it never existed. (Thanks, Rachel.)

It's 1910 and Merinda Herringford and Jemima (Jem) Watts -- both young ladies of "proper" upbringing -- are living in Toronto with their housekeeper/chaperone, Mrs. Malone. Jem works in the mailroom of Spenser's department store and Merinda spends her time aspiring to be Sherlock Holmes -- with Jem as her Watson. Toronto's mayoral elections are approaching. Immigration is on the rise. The 'Morality Squad' is out making sure that women are "behaving" properly. Times are changing -- too quickly for some and not quickly enough for others.

The story opens at a crime scene that Merinda and Jem are visiting with their friend, Constable Jasper Forth. A young Irish immigrant woman has been found murdered in a new theater linked to the current mayor. Shortly after, another murdered Irish woman is been discovered at an event for the mayor.

Merinda and Jem set out to solve the case of the "Corktown Murders." Jasper Forth is along for the ride as is Ray DeLuca -- an Italian immigrant working as a reporter for the Hogstown Herald newspaper. Through it all Jem's turned upsidedown as she begins to question the world around her and her place in it. Should she be looking for a man to settle down with and stop disguising herself as one during investigations? She's very traditional and conservative in some aspects of her life and very revolutionary in others. It's not easy!

Also not easy? Having the book finish as quickly as it did. I joked with the author on Twitter about making my son fend for himself come mealtime so I could keep reading ... which is exactly what ended up happening. Luckily he's pretty good in the kitchen and enjoys making his own meals from time to time. Cracker jacks, I've got a good kid.

Book Beginnings & Friday56 - The Bachelor Girl's Guide to Murder by Rachel McMillan

Please note that since this is from an ARC (thanks to NetGalley & Harvest House!) the exact text may differ in the final publication set for March 1st. A change would be quite the pity since they're both absolutely darling blips and I already adore Merinda Herringford just from the Book Beginning. (Not sure yet if she's the "she" from the Friday 56. I haven't read that far yet!)

Friday56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

Rambling About.. Kitty's Countryside Dream by Christie Barlow

Title: Kitty's Countryside Dream

Author: Christie Barlow

Publication: 25 February 2016 - Bookouture

First Line: When I received the telephone call on 1st November 1985 it was unpredicted, it came out of the blue, but maybe destiny was calling, a fresh start, and a time to make something out of myself.

Favorite Line: 'Always remember to stick your nose in a book and not in other people's business.' (57%)

Ramble:For the first half of the book I figured it was probably going to end up with a solid three stars. It wasn't particularly gripping but it wasn't horribly boring. I could put it down and get distracted by things and not think about Kitty.

The story opens with Kitty arriving at her new flat that she had inherited from a grandmother she never knew and was always told had died years prior. We got to see her adjust to her new surroundings, mourn the fairly recent loss of her mom, get acquainted with the business she had also inherited and its workers. Sweet and quaint and only a few editing foibles to get under my skin, but I let those slide since I was reading an e-ARC thanks to NetGalley.

Things started picking up a little about a third of the way through, but then Kitty found a diary in her grandmother's office safe and started to read it. That changed everything ... for Kitty and the pace of the book. 

When I left work this morning I was only slightly past the 50 % mark and had gone from easily distracted to not wanting to put it down. I delayed sleep by an hour in order to finish it and find out what happened. I fell asleep hoping for a follow-up from Barlow to revisit my new friends.

I had originally requested it from NetGalley because of its adorable cover and Brit Chick Lit-ness. It wasn't what I was expecting but I definitely didn't end up disappointed!