Booklog 11/2023: Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway: The Lady Most Willing

This is a bit of historical fluff written by three authors about three, possibly four love stories. The action takes place in a few days during a snowstorm when all the protagonists are locked into a dank and chilly Scottish castle by the laird who is determined that his two nephews will marry proper Scottish lasses so that when one of them inherits his castle, their heirs will be properly Scottish. So he kidnaps three eligible girls and gets another one by mistake and also a duke who happened to be napping in the stolen coach. It’s all wildly improbable but good hearted fun. And yes, you don’t need me to tell you that everyone gets a happy ever after. It’s not Bridgerton, but it’s a light read.

Booklog 12/2023: Sebastien de Castell: The Malevolent Seven - malevolent #1

I think I’ve said before that I hate cliffhanger endings. I loved this book right up until I realised that the last page just dropped me into a hole in the middle of the story. I like Sebastien de Castell, so I will read the next book anyway, but that cliffhanger ending lost this book at least one star. Anyhow… the rest of the book is tight and exciting. It features Cade Ombra, a war mage, or ‘wonderist’, his best friend (friend is a loose term) a homicidal thunder mage and five seemingly random wonderists with an odd assortment of powers: a rat mage, an angelic, a demon, a reluctant blood mage, and Mr Bones, seemingly a small carrion-feeding canine. Circumstances see then heading north to do a job with the promise of a rich reward or an early grave. Cade constantly reminds us that they are not the good guys, but Cade’s secret past hints at other motives.

Booklog 13/2023: Peter McLean: Priest of Lies – War for the Rose Throne #2

Thomas Piety, ex soldier, army priest, mob boss of the Pious Men, and now reluctant employee of the Queen’s Men is married to Ailsa, though it’s all a sham as his wife is his handler, a spy, and a Queen’s Man herself. Favourite characters from the first book are still in there: Bloody Anne, Thomas’s second, Billy the Boy. There’s magic and a lot of blood and death. In this book the action moves from the streets of Ellinburg to the capital where the wealthy and influential are equally as dangerous as thugs with sharp weapons. It’s been hailed as Peaky Blinders with Swords, and that’s possibly close to accurate.

Booklog 14/2023: Tade Thompson: Far From the Light of Heaven

The colony ship, Ragtime docks in the Lagos system to bring a thousand sleeping colonists to settle a new planet, but something is wrong, some of the passengers have been brutally murdered and their bodies chopped to pieces. What’s more, when all the body parts are reassembled, not everyone is accounted for. Shell is nominally in charge of the ship, though the AI is supposed to do all the heavy lifting. Fin is an investigator sent from the planet with his humanoid robot AI, Salvo. Nothing is quite what it seems, especially with the AI, and this is basically a murder-mystery in space. I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but quickly forgot about it afterwards. I liked Tade’s Rosewater better.