Last year I read The Lady and the Highwayman by Sarah M. Eden and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was such fun! After a little doubt at the beginning, I fell into the whole idea. The authors of Penny Dreadfuls formed the secret Dread Penny Society whose primary goal, aside from writing in the genre, was rescuing street children. The Gentleman and the Thief includes the previous characters, but focuses on Hollis Darby and Ana Newport. from description: A gentleman scribes penny dreadful novels by night and falls in love with a woman who is a music teacher by day and a thief at night. The penny dreadful stories didn't work quite as well in this one, but it was still a fun read. Read in April. Blog review scheduled for Oct. 19, 2020. NetGalley/Shadow Mountain Publishing Historical mystery/Romance. Nov. 3, 2020. Print length: 368 pages.
Heh, heh. I couldn't resist adding this meme to the post.
Often the books I get from NetGalley are 6 months or more in advance of publication; this can be frustrating because I don't want to publish reviews that far in advance, but I can't hold off reading the books. Here are some brief descriptions of books I read in July and August that won't be published until 2018. Reviews will follow closer to publication dates.
*The Night Market by Jonathan Moore (Jan.) "..a near-future thriller that makes your most paranoid fantasies seem like child’s play." Intense and uncomfortable speculative fiction. Engrossing, disquieting, conspiracy, manipulation, ambiguous conclusion. I haven't read The Poison Artist by Moore, but now I want to--I think. Maybe because I am now so distrustful of any rich and/or powerful institution (business, industry, church, state) right now, The Night Market had a chilling effect. A Cold Day in Hell by Lissa Marie Redmond (Feb.) (Cold Case Investigation #1) The major story line involves a current case in which detective Lauren Riley agrees to help a defense lawyer whose godson is on trial for murder. OK, but not a series I will pursue.
The English Wife by Lauren Willig (Jan.) Kind of spooky Gothic Lite. If you are looking for Wilkie Collins or Du Maurier, this isn't going to satisfy, but The English Wife can provide an entertaining few hours and will be appreciated by fans of the author. *The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor (Jan.) Had my complete attention from beginning to end! Suspenseful, twisty psychological--an impressive first novel.
**The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (Mar.) Yes! A great ghost story! I love a good ghost story, but I'm fussy and critical--and frequently disappointed when most ghost stories turn out to be less than I hoped for. The Broken Girls was more than I expected or hoped for. Two time frames, a boarding school, a murder mystery, and plenty of suspense. I'm surprised the publication wasn't scheduled for October or November--prime reading time for eerie, mysterious, and supernatural stories. Of course, I thoroughly enjoyed it in the heat of summer, but still...it would have been the perfect book for an autumn evening with a fire in the fireplace and a cold wind moaning outside.
