Audiobook Review: Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander by Christian Hurst

Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander

Author: Christian Hurst

Narrator: Aryn Mello Pryor
Series: Lily Starling (Book 1)
Publication: Outpost Books SE (May 6, 2026)

Length: 12 hours and 34 minutes

Description: Lily Starling wakes up in a city she barely recognizes, with no memory of her past—only a metal tag bearing her name and an instinct for survival. When a Union starship crew claims she belongs with them, she's pulled centuries beyond her own time and into a desperate mission against the psionic Krythar.

Aboard the starship Salamander, Lily is drawn into a found family of misfit officers, warriors, and exiles. Together, they uncover mysteries hidden among the stars: an ancient memory seed carrying the voices of the dead, and a weapon capable of unraveling time itself.

But when Lily faces her greatest fear, she must choose—confront the demons of her past, or risk losing everything.

Lily Starling and the Voyage of the Salamander is an award-winning, bestselling YA space opera about identity, connection, and courage at the edge of what's known. Perfect for fans of Becky Chambers, N.K. Jemisin, and Mass Effect, with the heart of found-family adventures like Firefly and Red Rising.

If you love found family, queer identity, time travel twists, and lyrical, fast-paced sci-fi adventures, you'll love joining Lily on her voyage.

My Thoughts: This YA space opera stars Lily Starling who begins the story on the street in the 20th Century. She's homeless, hungry and has lost her memory, but she is still kind and caring especially when she comes across a homeless kid. She is soon rescued by space travelers from the future who tell her that she is an orphan, but also a member of the crew of the Salamander. 

Lily is told that she's a genius with special talents that can defeat the psionic Krythar who want to conquer the galaxy and remake it to their design. She and her companions on the Salamander want to stop that from happening. The crew is a mixed bag of characters from many of the worlds the Krythar want to conquer. 

Even with her memory loss Lily still wants to be of use. She finds herself making friends and having adventures, most of which are solved successfully because of her genius. 

I enjoyed the worldbuilding in this story. The characters from all the different races were interesting. The action scenes were exciting and the suspense kept building. I liked the way Lily manages with her memory loss and the great blow that comes late in the book. She is an interesting character. 

I bought the Kindle copy May 13. The audiobook was available as part of my Audible subscription. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Death at a Highland Wedding by Kelley Armstrong

Death at a Highland Wedding
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Rip Through Time (Book 4)
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 20, 2025)

Description: Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth installment in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's gripping Rip Through Time Novels.

After slipping 150 years into the past, modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson has embraced her new life in Victorian Scotland as housemaid Catriona Mitchel. Although it isn’t what she expected, she's developed real, meaningful relationships with the people around her and has come to love her role as assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie.

Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie are on their way to the Scottish Highlands for McCreadie's younger sister's wedding. The McCreadies and the groom’s family, the Cranstons, have a complicated history which has made the weekend quite uncomfortable. But the Cranston estate is beautiful so Gray and Mallory decide to escape the stifling company and set off to explore the castle and surrounding wilderness. They discover that the groom, Archie Cranston, a slightly pompous and prickly man, has set up deadly traps in the woods for the endangered Scottish wildcats, and they soon come across a cat who's been caught and severely injured. Oddly, Mallory notices the cat's injuries don't match up with the intricacies of the trap. These strange irregularities, combined with the secretive and erratic behavior of the groom, put Mallory and Duncan on edge. And then when one of the guests is murdered, they must work fast to uncover the murderer before another life is lost.

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s unique time travel mystery series continues to entertain as Mallory adjusts to life in the 1870s.

My Thoughts: In the fourth Rip Through Time historical mystery, Mallory, Gray, Isla and High McCreadie travel to Scotland for the wedding of Hugh's younger sister. They arrive at quite a fraught situation since Hugh's sister is marrying the brother of the woman Hugh jilted when they were younger. 

Archie Cranston was a school friend of Hugh's. The bridal party also includes a number of other school friends. Mallory feels out of her depth because she doesn't know all the in-jokes and references to past exploits that are flying by. The groom is also constantly picking at Gray which Archie considers good-natured teasing.

However, when a body is found, it first looks like it is Archie. It turns out to be Archie's best friend and groomsman Ezra Sinclair. Someone has bashed him in the back of his head with a shillelagh from Cranston's collection. 

Though Gray, Mallory and Hugh have extensive experience solving murder, this case falls on the shoulders of the local constable who is woefully unprepared, inexperienced and too stubborn to use their expertise. In fact, he soon arrests Cranston for the crime. 

However, Mallory, Gray and Hugh are giving up their own investigation and soon discover that Sinclair had a secret and seedy life which leads to lots more suspects for the murder including a number of the houseguests and staff.

This was an entertaining mystery. I liked the subtle romances going on in the story as Hugh and Isla are conducting a very slow courtship and Mallory isn't at all certain about her own relationship with Gray. I also enjoyed the investigation and Mallory's frustrations for the lack of tools she had available as a cop in Vancouver 150 years later in time.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong

Disturbing the Dead
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: A Rip Through Time Novel (Book 3)
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 7, 2024)

Description: Disturbing the Dead is the latest in a unique series with one foot in the 1860s and the other in the present day. The Rip Through Time crime novels are a genre-blending, atmospheric romp from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. Though inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and is developing true friends―and feelings―in this century.

So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn't that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.

My Thoughts: Mallory and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping party in this third book in the Rip Through Time series. She is settling in as Duncan Gray's assistant as he helps the police with their investigations and becomes one of the first forensic scientists. 

When the host of the mummy unwrapping party disappears, Gray needs to step in and unwrap the mummy to prevent the well-healed guests from rioting. Unfortunately, the unwrapping leads to the discovery of Sir Alastair Christie's murdered body. 

There are a number of suspects to the murder from a young suffragette protesting Sir Alastair's stand on women attending medical school to his sponsor for his Egyptological investigations to someone who wanted either the mummy for the production of medicine or who wanted the antiquities to enrich themselves. 

Mallory, Gray and McCreadie explore lots of possibilities as they investigate the murder. Mallory even visits an underground market where suspicious items are routinely sold in the company of Queen Mab. 

And all the while they are investigating, they are plagued by a series of broadsheets depicting the "adventures" of the mysterious Doctor Gray and his winsome assistant. Searching for the author of those broadsheets adds another task to the busy investigators. 

Mallory, who has been trying to find a way back to her own time period since her arrival in Scotland in 1869, does find her way home in time to say goodbye to her beloved grandmother. But then she, with her parents' encouragement, makes the decision to return to 1869 where she has found a group of friends and a purpose for her life. 

I enjoyed this story very much. I liked the modern young woman who is making her life in a time period that is not her own. I liked that she was concerned with "spoilers" - things she knew about the future which she couldn't share. I also liked the way the other characters accepted her. There was quite a bit of humor in this episode. 

Favorite Quote:

"Then ask her to tell you about the town called Chicken because no one could spell 'ptarmigan.' At least someone will believe that tall tale."

"Hey, can you spell 'ptarmigan'?" I say.

"I do not even know what a ptarmigan is, and I am quite certain you are making that up, too."

"Actually, she's not," McCreadie says. "It's a type of grouse found in very cold regions. Do not ask me to spell it, though I am pleased to know something you do not, Duncan."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Poisoner's Ring by Kelley Armstrong

The Poisoner's Ring
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: A Rip Through Time (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 23, 2023)

Description A modern-day homicide detective is working as an undertaker's assistant in Victorian Scotland when a serial poisoner attacks the men of Edinburgh and leaves their widows under suspicion.

Edinburgh, 1869: Modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian Scotland. Her employers know she’s not housemaid Catriona Mitchell―even though Mallory is in Catriona’s body―and Mallory is now officially an undertaker’s assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows… the latest of which is Gray’s oldest sister.

Poison is said to be a woman’s weapon, though Mallory has to wonder if it’s as simple as that. But she must tread carefully. Every move the household makes is being watched, and who knows where the investigation will lead.

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong is known for her exquisite world building, and this latest series is no exception. The Poisoner's Ring brings the intricacies of Victorian Scotland alive as Mallory again searches for a 19th-century killer as well as a way home.

My Thoughts: The second in the Rip Through Time series has Mallory and Dr. Gray working on a case of wives poisoning their husbands. It comes much closer to home when Dr. Gray's older sister Annis is also accused of poisoning her husband. 

Annis had left her family behind when she married into the aristocracy. She was angered that her father decided to leave his funeral business to one of his sons rather than her who had an interest in business. Now, she needs the help of her brother who has been working as a consulting detective and her sister Isla who is a chemist, but you wouldn't know it because of her attitude.

This story is set in a richly imagined Victorian culture with all the required fashions and attitudes. The worldbuilding is very well done. I enjoyed watching Mallory, as a 21st Century police officer, try to adjust to a new time period and the knowledge and attitudes of Victorian policing. It helps that a select few know that she is a person out of her own time.

Fans of time travel and mysteries will enjoy this story. 

Favorite Quote:

"If Annis wanted someone to think she isn't capable of murder," I say, "she'd be better off with a cop who hasn't spent a full minute in her actual presence."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Audiobook Review: A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong

A Stitch in Time
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Narrator: Samantha Brentmoor
Series: A Stitch in Time (Book 1)
Publication: K. L. A. Fricke, Inc. (October 13, 2020)
Length: 10 hours and 39 minutes

Description: Thorne Manor has always been haunted...and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt's house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. After a family tragedy, the house was shuttered and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination.

Now, 20 years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor. And when she returns, William is waiting.

William Thorne is no longer the boy she remembers. He’s a difficult and tempestuous man, his own life marred by tragedy and a scandal that had him retreating to self-imposed exile in his beloved moors. He’s also none too pleased with Bronwyn for abandoning him all those years ago.

As their friendship rekindles and sparks into something more, Bronwyn must also deal with ghosts in the present version of the house. Soon she realizes they are linked to William and the secret scandal that drove him back to Thorne Manor. To build a future, Bronwyn must confront the past.

My Thoughts: A STITCH IN TIME is a time travel romance complete with an impossible love and vengeful ghosts. 

Bronwyn Dale has recently inherited Thorne Manor from her great-aunt. Bronwyn had spent happy childhood summers there and made a friend of William Thorne, a boy of her own age, who lived in the house nearly 200 years earlier. But she hadn't been back since a terrible accident when she was fifteen.

When she's fifteen, childhood friendship has turned into adolescent love. But there are ghosts, ghosts. that only Bronwyn is able to see. When one of the ghosts frightens her awake one night, she runs out of the house in a panic which causes her uncle to come out onto an unsafe balcony and fall to his death. Her mother doesn't believe her ravings about ghosts and hospitalizes Bronwyn. 

After treatment, Bronwyn begins to question what she saw and becomes convinced that both her time traveling, and visions of ghosts were hallucinations. She goes on to live her life. She falls in love and marries but loses her husband to a fast-acting brain cancer. She gains her dream position as a professor of history at a university in Toronto. And then she inherits Thorne Manor and needs to go back...

Once in Thorne Manor, she remembers those things she had suppressed, and she is still seeing a variety of ghosts. She also finds that she can still travel back to William's time where she finds a man who is at first angry with her for leaving him all those years earlier. He's also a man who has never stopped loving her. They rekindle their romance but there are still many obstacles not least of which is that they each have lives in another time. 

There are also mysteries to solve. A strange number of disappearances have centered around Thorne Manor and William has gotten the reputation that carries into Bonwyn's time of being a reclusive murder. His sister, his fiancée, and his best friend's wife have all disappeared under suspicious circumstances. 

Bronwyn needs to solve the mysteries and clear her lover's name but is concerned that righting the wrongs will repair the stitch in time and separate her from her William forever. 

This was an entertaining story. I am not a big fan of time travel but thought that Kelley Armstrong dealt with the problems in a creative way. Samantha Brentmoor did an excellent job narrating the story. 

I bought this one November 2, 2020. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

A Rip Through Time
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 31, 2022)

Description: In this series debut from New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland―in an unfamiliar body―with a killer on the loose.

May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness.

May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot.

When Mallory wakes up in Catriona's body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it's too late.

Outlander meets The Alienist in Kelley Armstrong's A Rip Through Time, the first book in this utterly compelling series, mixing romance, mystery, and fantasy with thrilling results.

My Thoughts: Homicide Detective Mallory Atkinson is in Edinburgh with her grandmother who is dying of cancer when she decides to take a late-night run to ease some of the stress. She hears something suspicious in a dark alley and goes to investigate. She is attacked and left for dead.

When Mallory wakes up, she finds that she is still in Edinburgh but 150 years earlier than when she was attacked. She finds herself in the body of housemaid Catriona and working in the household of a mixed-race doctor who is acting under the table as a medical examiner assisting the police with their investigations. 

Mallory's main goal is to get back to her own time, but she has no idea how to do that. She decides that finding out who attacked Catriona and why might be a way to get back home. She learns that Catriona wasn't a very nice person. In fact, she was a thief and con woman who was being given a change to change by Dr. Gray and his sister. She was taking advantage of their help to find more opportunities to cheat and steal. 

Mallory gets involved in Dr. Gray's work because it is the sort of work she does in her own time. She uses being knocked out as a reason why her personality has changed so much and to explain why she doesn't know things that a Victorian maid would know. While Dr. Gray isn't very observant outside of his own scientific interests, his sister is much more observant. Most improbably, she believes Mallory when she confesses that she's a time traveler.

The story was entertaining. I liked the characters and the setting. I liked Mallory's fish-out-of-water problem. I also liked the potential for romance with Dr. Gray. I look forward to more stories in this new series since Mallory doesn't find her way home in this episode.

Favorite Quote:

I'm not Catriona. I'm the woman who followed that voice into an alley. 

We're both here.

We both jumped through time. 

Is that possible? What if I'm leaping to conclusions?

Does it matter? Nope, not when this guy -- whoever he is -- is currently trying to kill me.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book & Audio Review: The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

The Rose Garden
Author: Susanna Kearsley
Narrator: Nicola Barber
Publication: Sourcebooks Landmark (October 4, 2011); Audible Studios (October 4, 2011)
Length: 448 p,; 12 hours

Description: A riveting and romantic journey through time, The Rose Garden drops a modern woman into the middle of a historical fiction novel when she's thrown back to 18th century Cornwall—only to find that might just be where she belongs.

After the death of her sister, Eva Ward leaves Hollywood and all its celebrities behind to return to the only place she feels she truly belongs, the old house on the coast of Cornwall, England. She's seeking comfort in memories of childhood summers, but what she finds is mysterious voices and hidden pathways that sweep her not only into the past, but also into the arms of a man who is not of her time.

Soon Eva discovers that the man, Daniel Butler, is very, very real and he draws her into a world of intrigue, treason, and love. Inside the old British house, begins to question her place in the present, she realizes she must decide where she really belongs: in the life she knows or the past she feels so drawn towards.

A brilliant escape that gives one woman the chance to time-travel and find her place in British history, The Rose Garden presents Susanna Kearsley's signature combination of romance and fascinating historical fiction at its very best.

My Thoughts: This was another engaging time travel romance by an author who is a star in the genre. Eva Wells is rather lost after her beloved sister dies. She is determined to take her ashes to a place where they were both happy. She ends up in Cornwall with people who made her childhood happy.

She finds that things are different in many ways. The farm is in trouble and the place isn't quite what she remembered. Then she finds herself hearing voices and traveling back in time to the same house in 1715. 1715 is a time of political unrest. Queen Anne has died, and George I and James Stuart are rival claimants for the throne. She meets Daniel Butler who is a free trader and supporter of James Stuart.

She also finds herself falling in love with a man from a time which is not her own. She gets involved with him, and he accepts her presence without question. Together they have to deal with a constable who really hates him and who is eager to arrest him for his support of James Stuart.

I enjoyed this story and loved the characters. It was a great romance and an interesting look at British History. The narrator did an excellent job expressing the emotion of the story. 

Favorite Quote:

"I would argue 'tis never the place, but the people one shares it with who are the cause of our happiest memories. That is why we find that having lived them once, we never can recapture them."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

Mariana
Author: Susanna Kearsley
Publication: Sourcebooks Landmark (April 1, 2012)

Description: The next book from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Susanna Kearsley, Mariana is a story of incredible romance traveling in time from modern day England to a haunted Gothic past.

When Julia Beckett moves into a beautiful old farmhouse, she soon discovers she's not alone there. She encounters haunting remnants of a beautiful young woman who lived and loved there centuries ago. Julia finds herself transported into 17th-century England, and into the world of Mariana.

Each time Julia travels back, she becomes more enthralled with the past... until she realizes Mariana's life is eclipsing her own. She must lay the past to rest or risk losing the chance for happiness in her own time.

With heartbreaking romance, escapist fantasy, and powerfully drawn characters, Kearsley takes you on a time-traveling journey you'll never forget.

My Thoughts: Julia Beckett fell in love with a house when she was five and on a family vacation. She saw it again at 22 and again at nearly 30. She's grown up, become a successful illustrator, and inherited a packet from a great aunt. She is finally able to buy the house that had been calling to her for years.

Almost as soon as she moves in, she begins seeing a man on a gray horse, hears legends of a Green woman who haunts her house, and finds herself slipping out of the present into the life of a young woman named Mariana who lived in the 1600s. This terrifies her and makes her think she's losing her mind, but her brother who has become a Vicar reassures her and lets her open her mind to the possibility of reincarnation.

As Julia spends more time as Mariana she comes to know Richard de Mornay who is the Lord of the Manor. She is also forced to live with her abusive uncle, his beaten wife, and sister-in-law. As an orphan who was forced to flee London because of the plague, she has no other options. Her relationship with Richard has to be kept secret. 

Meanwhile, Julia is making friends in the present. Vivien is the local barkeeper. Her next-door neighbor is Geoff de Mornay who is very rich and a descendant of Richard's. She also meets Iain Sumner who is Geoff's best-friend from his Cambridge days and who is currently a farmer and gardener. 

Julia also meets Vivien's Aunt Freda who is Geoff's housekeeper and who seems to know a lot about what Julia is going through. Julia becomes almost obsessed with Mariana's life and spends more and more time in the past. None of her research in the present gives her any information about Richard and she knows little more about Mariana than she can find on her tombstone. 

I loved this story which was beautifully written and intriguing. I will admit that I was surprised at the ending which didn't go at all the way I thought it would. I'm not really a fan of time travel but Kearsley's books are exceptions. I love the way the present and past are woven together.

Favorite Quote:

"The past can teach us, nurture us, but it cannot sustain us, The essence of life is change, and we most move ever forward or the soul will wither and die."

I bought this one December 29, 2012. You can buy your copy here.

Book and Audio Review: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
Author: Garth Nix

Narrator: Marisa Calin
Publication: Katherine Tegen Books (September 22, 2020); Listening Library (September 22, 2020)

Length: 408 p.; 11 hours and 15 minutes

Description: A girl’s quest to find her father leads her to an extended family of magical fighting booksellers who police the mythical Old World of England when it intrudes on the modern world. From the bestselling master of teen fantasy, Garth Nix.

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.

Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.

Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.

Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.

My Thoughts: It is 1983 in an alternate London when Susan Arkshaw comes to try to discover who her father is before she begins an arts course at school. She has stopped to see Frank Thringly who had sent Christmas presents and written to her and her mother for years. She isn't expecting him to be turned to dust via a silver hatpin wielded by Merlin St. Jacques. Nor is she expecting to be forced to flee with Merlin which drops her into a magical world she knew nothing about.

Merlin is one of a line of left-handed booksellers who do more than sell books. Their tasks are to keep legendary creatures under control. Merlin's family includes the left-handed ones who are the fighters and right-handed ones who are the scholars and even-handed ones too. 

Merlin decides to help Susan track down her father because he learns that there is something special and unusual about her and also because she is suddenly in danger from creatures from the other world. Susan doesn't have many clues beyond a reading room ticket with an illegible name and a silver cigarette case with an unknown engraving. 

Merlin is on a quest of his own to find out who murdered his mother. The two investigations look to be linking up. Marisa Calin did a great job narrating this story. The pacing was well done and the characters easily distinguishable. 

The story is filled with intriguing characters, lots of literary references, lots of action and even a romance as Merlin and Susan get to know each other. Fans of contemporary fantasy and coming of age stories will enjoy this well told tale. 

Favorite Quote:

"Children's writers," said Merlin. "Dangerous bunch. They cause us a lot of trouble."

"How?" asked Susan.

'They don't do it on purpose," said Merlin. He opened the door. "But quite often they discover the key to raise some ancient myth, or release something that should have stayed imprisoned, and they share that knowledge via their writing. Stories aren't merely stories, you know. Come on."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

A slight young man with long fair hair, wearing a pre-owned mustard-colored three-piece suit with widely flared trousers and faux alligator-hide boots with two-inch Cuban heels, stood over the much older man on the leather couch.

Friday 56: 

"Thorn House is one of our places in the country," said Merlin. "Dorset, They grow a lot of vegetables there. You'd probably be at home. Whereas I wouldn't be, making it a suitable place to send me for a punishment."

"Growing up in the country doesn't make me a farmer," said Susan. "What were you trying to find out?"

This week I'm spotlighting The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix. This was a recent Kindle Deal. Here is the description from Amazon:

A girl’s quest to find her father leads her to an extended family of magical fighting booksellers who police the mythical Old World of England when it intrudes on the modern world. From the bestselling master of teen fantasy, Garth Nix.

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.

Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.

Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.

Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.

Book and Audio Review: The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

The Firebird
Author: Susanna Kearsley

Narrator: Katherine Kellgren
Series: The Slains (Book 2)
Publication: Sourcebooks Landmark (June 4, 2013)

Description: Two Women. One Mysterious Relic. Historical fiction with romance, betrayal, and magic you'll never forget.

Art-dealer Nicola Marter was born with a gift so rare and dangerous, she kept it buried deep. When she encounters a desperate woman trying to sell a small wooden carving called "The Firebird," claiming it belonged to Russia's Empress Catherine, there's no proof.

But once Nicola holds the object, her buried talent gives her surprising insight. She knows the woman is telling the truth.

Trying to keep to her hard-won job, Nicola sets out to confirm the fascinating history of The Firebird with help from a man she never thought she'd see again.

The Firebird is a sweeping historical romance that will whisk you from London to Scotland to St. Petersburg in a magical, century-spanning epic about the dangers and rewards of being true to yourself.

My Thoughts: This book follows a double timeline. Nicola Marter is a modern woman who works with art. She has a bit of a leg up because she can touch an object and see its history. She is keeping this ability secret largely because she inherited it from her Russian grandfather who fled the Soviet Union after being forced into to experiments using his gift. He has raised her to hide and deny her talents. She also inherited an interest in Russia and Russian art. 

When a woman named Margaret Ross comes to the gallery where she works hoping to sell a carved Firebird that she says was given to her ancestor by Empress Catherine of Russia in the 1720s, Nicola holds it and sees a vision of the exchange. Yet the Firebird comes without mark or providence and there is nothing to prove its history. Nicola would like to help the older woman who has lived a life in service to her relatives and has her heart set on a world cruise before she herself dies.

When Nicola was a student, she took part briefly in some psychic experiments of her own and met Rob McMorran who had a much stronger psychic gift than her own. They began a relationship but Nicola ran from him because she was afraid of her gift and his. Now she wants to track him down to see if he can help.

Rob agrees and together the two of them begin their travels to track down the young woman who is Margaret Ross's ancestor. I think that most of the story is that of Anna which begins as Rob and Nicola find the castle she lived beside and see her as a child living with some friends of her mother's. They follow her from Scotland to Ypres to Russia and watch her grow up steeped in the Jacobite cause. They see a young girl who never has a home or a family except the one she builds among strangers. While there are dangers in Anna's life, she has always been loved and cared for by the people she lived with. 

And they see Anna who finally settles on the last name of Jamieson to honor one of the men who brought her from Scotland to Ypres as she travels to St. Petersburg and meets Edmund O'Connor and falls in love with him. O'Connor is a man of mystery and an actual historical figure that the author chooses to paint as a hero. 

I loved the way the story moved from the present back to the 1700s. Both groups of characters were intriguing people and people a reader can identify with and sympathize with. The narrator did an excellent job with the accents and pacing of this story. I liked her ability to portray the ages of the characters with her voice.

Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this wonderfully written and narrated story. They will also enjoy the author's notes at the back telling about her research and which of the characters were real and which were a product of her imagination. I also like that some of the characters in this story make other appearances in the author's other books.

Favorite Quote:

Most skills are learned. Or at the very least, developed. If I handed you a cello, would ye ken the way to play it? No. But given time and practice, ye could learn.

You're an optimist. It came out as an accusation. Anyway, it's not a good analogy. You're working with a cello. I've just got a ukulele.

I bought this one for my Kindle April 6, 2014 and got the audiobook very recently. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

My cousin didn't try to catch the bride's bouquet. She knew me well enough to know I wouldn't try to catch it, either.

Friday 56: 

"Surely, that's new," she was saying to Claudine, her gaze having moved to the painting above the piano, a street scene in winter. "You had a man's portrait hanging there, before."

This week I am spotlighting A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley. It is my first book by this author and I am combining the print and audio versions for this reading experience. Here is the description from Amazon:

Beloved New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley delivers a riveting novel that deftly intertwines the tales of two women, divided by centuries and forever changed by a clash of love and fate.

For nearly three hundred years, the cryptic journal of Mary Dundas has kept its secrets. Now, amateur codebreaker Sara Thomas travels to Paris to crack the cipher.

Jacobite exile Mary Dundas is filled with longing—for freedom, for adventure, for the family she lost. When fate opens the door, Mary dares to set her foot on a path far more surprising and dangerous than she ever could have dreamed.

As Mary's gripping tale of rebellion and betrayal is revealed to her, Sara faces events in her own life that require letting go of everything she thought she knew—about herself, about loyalty, and especially about love. Though divided by centuries, these two women are united in a quest to discover the limits of trust and the unlikely coincidences of fate.

YA Book Review: Navigating the Stars by Maria V. Snyder

Navigating the Stars
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Series: Sentinels of the Galaxy (Book 1)
Publication: Maria V. Snyder (December 1, 2018)

Description: “The answer is no, Lyra,” my mother utters her favorite—I swear—phrase.

No means I have to travel with them to another planet—again.

No means leaving all my friends fifty years in the past. Thanks, Einstein.

Seventeen-year-old Lyra Daniels can’t truly blame Einstein or her parents for their impending move across the Milky Way Galaxy. It’s all due to the invention of the Q-net, which made traveling the vast distances in space possible—with one big caveat: the time dilation. But that never stopped Lyra's ancestors from exploring the Milky Way, searching for resources and exoplanets to colonize. What they didn’t expect to find is life-sized terracotta Warriors buried on twenty-one different exoplanets.

... Make that twenty-two.

As the Galaxy’s leading experts on the Warriors, Lyra's parents are thrilled by the new discovery, sending them—and her—fifty years into the future. Her social life in ruins, she fills her lonely days by illegally worming into the Q-net. The only person close to her age is the annoyingly irresistible security officer who threatens to throw her into the brig.

After the planet they just left goes silent—meaning no communications from them at all—security has bigger problems to deal with than Lyra, especially when vital data files go missing. But that's just the beginning, because they’re not as alone as they thought on their new planet... and suddenly time isn't the only thing working against them.

My Thoughts: This is a great science fiction/adventure story. Lyra Daniels doesn't want to go along when her parents go to a new planet. They are excited to find another planet with pits of the terracotta warriors that are like those on Earth. She knows it means leaving her friends behind on Xinji and never seeing them again. Space travel also means time travel. While days pass for those on the ship, years pass for those who are left behind.

One of the first people she meets on the ship is Niall Radcliff. He is ship-born and ship-raised and the last thing he wants to do is make friends with a passenger. It's the same time dilation thing. Once passengers leave the ship they are never again part of the crew's life. He is grumpy but attractive and a little bit too law-and-order for her. Lyra has decided to do some exploring in the Q-net which is a vast computer network that does everything from storing all data to managing space flight. She is her century's version of a hacker and a really good one.

Her worming brings her to the attention of ship's security in the person of Niall's father and also to the ship captain's attention. They decide to make her an intern for those who navigate the ship rather than place her in detention for her worming. There she learns much more about the Q-net and about navigating through space.

When they arrive at Yulin, their messages catch up to them. Lyra has some messages from her friend Lan who has grown up to be a cryptographer like her parents and who has devoted her life to studying an octagonal disk Lyra found that had a variety of symbols on it. The terracotta warriors on all the planets also have varieties of those symbols. Lan thinks she has made a breakthrough but, unfortunately, doesn't tell Lyra what it was. Also among the messages was the message that Xinji has dropped out of communication and that no life forms show in scans.

Lyra is determined to find out what Lan was trying to tell her. But things are not going well on their new planet. First, they discover that some of the pits have been looted which means they are all in danger from the looters. Next, Lyra discovers the way into a hitherto unknown lower level beneath the pits which contains devices, more warriors, and hearts covered with alien symbols. When she picks up a heart, it crumbles in her hand but it also lets her see shadow blobs that are also in the pits. Unfortunately, she's the only one who can see them and the rest of the scientists, including her parents, are writing her visions off as a symptom of concussion or PTSD.

When the looters come again, Lyra has to use all her talents on and off the Q-net to save the rest of the expedition and decipher what the aliens who seeded the planets with the terracotta warriors wanted.

This was exciting science fiction. It had great characters. It had a great romance too. I liked Lyra and liked her relationship with Niall. I can't wait to read Lyra's next adventure in CHASING THE SHADOWS in December.

Favorite Quote:

Radcliff faces his second-in-command. "No need to terrify the girl."

"I doubt that's possible," Morgan says dryly. "Besides, she needs to know what those energy wave guns can do, since she tends to be where the trouble is."

No one corrects her. I'd be insulted, but Morgan has a point.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

YA Book Review: Stolen Time by Danielle Rollins

Stolen Time
Author: Danielle Rollins
Series: Stolen Time
Publication: HarperTeen (February 5, 2019)

Description: Seattle, 1913

Dorothy spent her life learning the art of the con. But after meeting a stranger and stowing away on his peculiar aircraft, she wakes up in a chilling version of the world she left behind—and for the first time in her life, realizes she’s in way over her head.

If there was ever a girl who was trouble, it was one who snuck on board Ash’s time machine wearing a wedding gown—and the last thing he needs is trouble if he wants to prevent his terrifying visions of the future from coming true.

My Thoughts: This is a time travel story. It begins in 1913 when Dorothy, running away from a wedding engineered by her mother, stows away on a time machine piloted by Ash who is looking for the time machine's inventor. Soon, Dorothy finds herself in 2077 in a Seattle that has been decimated by earthquakes and tsunamis.

Seattle is a drowned city and a lawless one. A gang called the Black Cirkus is terrorizing everyone and definitely wants the professor's time machine. They want to go back to the past and prevent the disasters that happened.

Before he disappeared, the professor created a team of teenagers including his daughter Zora, Ash who is a WWII fighter pilot, Chandra who is a doctor who was taken BCE and brought up to speed on current medicine and English and who really loves 1980s television, and Willis who was a circus strongman in the 1900s. A teenaged genius named Roman was also part of the crew until he disagreed with the professor's plans and joined the Black Cirkus.

The story skips around in time as both the Black Cirkus and heroes are searching for the professor. Ash has seen some prememories that show that he'll be falling in love with a white haired girl who will kill him. He's hoping the professor can find a way to change that future. Dorothy has been raised as a con woman who doesn't trust anyone but who would really like to have friends and to have someone she can count on. Ash and Dorothy tell the story in alternate chapters. There are also interludes from the professor's journal which lets the reader know what he was thinking.

This was an entertaining story with twists and turns, intriguing characters, and an interesting setting.

Favorite Quote:

Ash wouldn't have left her behind. The two of them would've walked down the stairs shoulder to shoulder, ready to take on the waiting army together. It made Dorothy feel strangely jealous. She wanted that, the chance to be someone's ally and not just their prize.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library
Author: Genevieve Cogman
Series: Invisible Library (Book 1)
Publication: Ace (June 14, 2016)

Description: Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure from a spectacular debut author.

One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen.

London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.

Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself...

My Thoughts: This was a fun, engaging fantasy that hit my heart because its main character is a librarian. Her career path is much more exciting than mine though. I've never been sent to an alternate Earth with a dragon as my assistant in order to retrieve a particular book. Irene is up for the challenge. Only, when she and Kai arrive, they find that the book has already been stolen and many, many people are looking for it.

Between trying to find the book, dodging the evil librarian who wants to pervert the purpose of the library, dealing with a jealous rival, working with this alternate world's great detective and dealing with steampunk gadgets loosed by another set of villains, Irene is kept busy and we readers are kept entertained.

Luckily, this book is the first of a series because I am eager to follow Irene on further adventures.

Favorite Quote:

Irene sighed. "So we have an incredibly glamorous female cat burglar who slinks around in a black leather cat suit, who kills vampires in her spare time?"

"I'll tackle her," Kai said enthusiastically.

Irene raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that I don't want to tackle her?"

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Teaser Tuesday: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser (from 10% in the ebook):

"Or?"

Kai glanced at her icily. "The 'or' would have been bad news for me."

This week I am reading The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. This one has been on my Kindle since Nov. 9, 2016. Here is the description from Amazon:

Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure from a spectacular debut author.

One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen.

London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.

Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself...

Friday Memes: Timeless Desire by Gwyn Cready

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

I was recently offered Timeless Desire by Gwyn Cready for review by a publicist at Blue Dot Literary. Since I needed some adult books to review, liked romance books, and haven't read a time travel romance in quite a while, I accepted. As an added bonus the main characters in a librarian.


Beginning:

"I just think librarians are the glue that helps stick a community together," Marie said, clasping a hand over her heart as she said it.

Friday 56:

Marie poked her head into the entryway. "Oh, there you are. For our 'Are they out of their minds?' question of the evening, we have the Teen Book Club wondering if they can do a True Blood--hey, are you okay? You look a little, I don't know, weird."

I have watched four seasons of True Blood on DVD and like my job too much to show them to a teen book club. This made me laugh.


Timeless Desire was released on July 18.