Booklog 96/2024: 96. Dana Chamblee Carpenter: Bohemian Gospel – Bohemian Gospel #1 Audiobook

Set in thirteenth century Bohemia, this is a book of two parts. It doesn't go where you expect it to go, which makes the ending a little disjointed. It feels as though the author changed her mind part-way through and instead of a happy-ever after, turned and charged in another direction completely. Mouse is a healer, trained at and sheltered by Father Lucas at the Abbey. She has powers of compulsion and necromancy, which she (mostly) conceals and tries not to use. When young king Ottakar shows up, wounded, Mouse saves his life and agrees to accompany him back to Prague as his personal healer and ward. They fall in love, but Ottakar must marry for dynastic reasons, and now to someone who doesn't know her own parentage. Mouse is shuffled off, but it doesn't end well, especially when she discovers who her father really is. I really enjoyed the forst part, but the second part lost my sympathy. The book is read by Justine Eyre, and I've said before that I don't particularly like her English accent (she's Canadian) because it's too 'royal family' with words like 'here' turning into 'heeyah.' She sounds as though she's specialised in trying to sound like Queen Elizabeth II circa 1955. A little too clipped. A little too posh. If you want a book read in an English accent, why not pick an English actress to do the job? There are two more books in this sequence, set in the present day, but I won't be picking them up.