book review

Book Review: Crooked House

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Crooked House by Agatha Christie

Crooked House
by Agatha Christie

4.5 out of 5 stars

Charles and Sophia meet abroad and become engaged, but when Charles meets Sophia again in England, she refuses to acknowledge their engagement until the mystery of her grandfather’s murder is cleared up. Charles meets Sophia’s family, her aunts and uncles, and her step-grandmother. Each member of the family is suspicious of the step-grandmother because she was fifty years younger than her husband. They all think she must have gotten tired of waiting for him to die so that she could inherit his wealth. But Charles isn’t so sure, and Sophia is afraid that it might have been someone else in the family, someone close to her.

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Book Review: The Lost Kingdom

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The Lost Kingdom by Matthew J. Kirby

The Lost Kingdom
by Matthew J. Kirby

4.5 out of 5 stars

Growing up in the American Colonies, Billy wants to be a botanist just like his father. When Benjamin Franklin sends them on an expedition to the Ohio frontier, Billy is excited to be included with his father in the team of scientists and philosophers. Their mission is to find a lost Welsh colony that may have traveled to the Americas centuries before. With war with the French on the horizon, they will need allies on the frontier.

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Book Review: Strawberry Acres

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Strawberry Acres by Grace S. Richmond

Strawberry Acres
by Grace S. Richmond

4 out of 5 stars

When four siblings inherit a run-down farm, they aren’t sure whether to sell it or try to live there. Max opposes every plan to live in the farmhouse, since it will need extensive repairs, and it’s so large that they could never afford to furnish it. But Sally has her heart set on a peaceful country life, and she tries to persuade her brothers that they could make a living growing strawberries in the fields. Although the guys hate their stuffy city office jobs, they can’t imagine themselves as rugged farmers. They argue back and forth until finally, a disaster in the family compels them to make use of the farm, and they discover that they love living in the country.

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Book Review: Dickens’ Fur Coat and Charlotte’s Unanswered Letters

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Dickens' Fur Coat and Charlotte's Unanswered Letters by Daniel Pool

Dickens’ Fur Coat and Charlotte’s Unanswered Letters: The Rows and Romances of England’s Great Victorian Novelists
by Daniel Pool

3 out of 5 stars

I liked reading about how the Victorian novel rose to prominence and the different literary trends that came and went during the Victorian era. It was interesting to learn more about some of my favorite authors.
However, the book just drags on and on with really dry writing that made it hard to concentrate, and the sentences are so convoluted and long that it was difficult to follow sometimes.

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Book Review: Tiger’s Tale

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Tiger's Tale by Colleen Houck

Tiger’s Tale (The Tiger Saga, #6)
by Colleen Houck (Goodreads Author)

2 out of 5 stars

DNF at page 222
Stacia and Veru are twin princesses, neither of whom want to inherit the throne. They long for freedom and they train with the soldiers, hoping to someday get a military command that will allow them to travel the empire while their sister has to take the throne and make a good political marriage.

When their mother is on her deathbed, the twins send for any healer, priest, or doctor who can cure her, and an old wizard claims to have the power to heal. However, he unleashes a curse that transforms the twins into tigers, and now they must travel to the furthest mountains to find magic that will turn them back into humans again.

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Book Review: Basil and the Library Ghost

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Basil and the Library Ghost by Catherine Hapka

Basil and the Library Ghost
by Catherine Hapka, Eve Titus (Creator), David Mottram (Illustrations)

4 out of 5 stars

Basil and Dawson are on their way to visit Oxford and see their old college friends. But when they arrive, their friends tell them that the college library is being haunted and strange things have been happening. Basil thinks someone is impersonating a ghost for their own nefarious ends, but Dawson wonders if something else might be going on. Meanwhile, Ratigan has escaped prison and Basil is on high alert, searching for any clue to his whereabouts.

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Book Review: A Lady of Quality

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Lady of Quality by Georgette Heyer

Lady of Quality
by Georgette Heyer

3.5 out of 5 stars
Annis Wychwood is a lady in her late twenties who has been labeled a spinster. She is independently wealthy and sets up her own home in Bath with her cousin Miss Farlow as a chaperone. Young Miss Lucilla is barely out of the schoolroom and has not yet been presented to society. When her carriage is upset on the road, Annis comes to the rescue and offers Lucilla a place to stay until her family can arrive to help her. But Lucilla doesn’t want her family notified of the accident because she is running away from an undesirable engagement! When Lucilla’s guardian, the bad-mannered Mr. Carleton, arrives to protest Annis’s interference, the verbal sparring may soon turn to flirtation.

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Book Review: The Royal Box

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The Royal Box by Frances Parkinson Keyes

The Royal Box
by Frances Parkinson Keyes

3 out of 5 stars

A group of people are invited to the theater to welcome the new American Ambassador and his wife. They are able to secure the Royal Box and have refreshments with the principal actors between acts. Lady Laura Whitford and her daughter are escorted by an attaché with the American Embassy and a French count who are both interested in Lady Laura’s daughter. The Ambassador from a Middle Eastern country tries to take the American Ambassador aside to talk about oil deals and political unrest in his country. The Ambassador’s wife embarrasses herself with her crass manners and drinking. At the end of the night, one of them is dead and everyone is a suspect.

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Book Review: A Wish in the Dark

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A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat

A Wish in the Dark
by Christina Soontornvat (Goodreads Author)

5 out of 5 stars

Pong was born in prison, and he escapes with a tattoo that marks him as a criminal. A kindly monk takes him and covers the mark with bracelets. Each bracelet represents a blessing. Pong hides in plain sight, joining the monks in their prayers and charitable deeds.
Nok, the daughter of the prison warden, is determined to prove herself by tracking down the escaped prisoner and bringing him to justice. However, she begins to realize that justice and the law might not always agree.

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Christmas Books from Nosy Crow

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Tis the Season by Richard Jones

Tis the Season: A Lift-the-Flap Advent Calendar Full of Christmas Poems
by Richard Jones (illustrator)

5 out of 5 stars

This advent calendar book has a lift-the-flap surprise illustration for each day until Christmas as well as a poem to read each day. The poems are lovely selections from poets like Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti, Ogden Nash, and James Pierpont, as well as several that are the lyrics to traditional Christmas songs like Deck the Halls and Here We Come A-Wassailing.

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