The Great War has finally come to an end, but that doesn’t mean army nurse Bess Crawford’s days of fighting crime are finished. In An Irish Hostage, Bess travels to Ireland for the wedding of an old friend only to discover a missing groom, distraught bride and a village seething with rage regarding the upcoming…
I enjoy learning about a different culture in a different time; throw in a romance and I’m on board. With those things in mind, A Dance in Donegal seemed like a good fit but the romance was a little too flat and the story a little too slow and inconsistent for my taste Shortly before…
Are you the sort of person who has found comfort in These Times by reading tales of other pandemics throughout history? Or about historical social uprisings? Or the failure of institutions to protect those they are charged to? Then The Pull of the Stars is for you, since it takes place in Dublin during the…
The Write Escape combines the fantasy escapism of falling in love in a charming small foreign town with very real problems, including self-empowerment, racism and generational cycles of alcohol abuse. It’s mostly successful and very dreamy on all counts, with a couple of flaws in its conclusion keeping it from a flat out A. Antonia…
In Grounded Hearts the storyline is simple – an RAF pilot bails out of his damaged bomber, sustains injuries and seeks help from a lovely woman in enemy territory. The storytelling, however, is anything but simple. Here, I found romance, adventure, spiritual wisdom, humor, pathos, and a picture of World War II I never knew,…
I love a great sports romance and the Rugby series has been a reliably sexy, romantic and wholly satisfying treat for this fan. After the disappointment that was the third book, The Cad and the Co-ed, I’m pleased to say that normal service has been resumed and L.H. Cosway and Penny Reid have scored another…
Sometimes, I get tired of mysteries set in places like London, New York City, or Los Angeles, so I was pleased to discover that The Liar’s Girl was set in Ireland. Plus, the synopsis sounded fabulous, so I decided to give this psychological suspense novel a try, and I’m pretty glad I did. It’s been…
In early summer of 2007, I picked up a mystery at the Regulator Bookshop. The cover was mildly menacing, black letters embellished with sharp pointed green branches spelled out Tana French In the Woods. From the first lines of the book’s first chapter–What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. Our relationship with the truth is fundamental…
To his chagrin, Irish rugby player Sean Cassidy finds himself attracted to Lucy Fitzpatrick (sister of one of his teammates). He doesn’t know her well, but following a brief conversation at a team party and an awkward dinner date, he can’t stop thinking about her and decides to pursue her. Lucy is annoyed, yet secretly…
This is the tenth entry in the author’s Royal Spyness series, featuring Lady Georgiana Rannoch, thirty-fifth in line to the British throne. The series is primarily set in England between the World Wars and while often touching on darker world events, falls clearly on the side of a light mystery series with numerous touches of…