JayneB- Reviews / Book Reviews / C+ ReviewsAgent/Spies/Undercover / dysfunctional family / England / estranged family / Gothic / Historical / Regency / Smugglers9 Comments

Only a deathbed promise to her dying father could force Christina Tretton to travel to Tretteign Grange, the ‘Dark House’, and meet her estranged family for the first time. Having to fast-talk her way out of an encounter with smugglers on the way is only the beginning. Waiting for her ... more >

JanineA- Reviews / C+ Reviews1910s / actors / f/f romance / fairy tale retelling / France / friendship / LGBTQ / Russia / Russian Revolution / silent cinema / theater / witch / wolf10 Comments

I was impressed by Briarley, Aster Glenn Gray’s debut retelling of Beauty and the Beast, and when I saw that Gray had a new, 120-page f/f retelling of Little Red Riding Hood just out, and that it was set in pre-revolutionary Russia, I thought Sirius, a lover of LGBT romances ... more >

SiriusBook Reviews / C Reviews / C Reviews Category / C+ ReviewsFantasy / Magic / magic users / Russia / YA7 Comments

This hot debut is the first book in an epic new series about a princess hiding a dark secret and the con man she must trust to clear her name for her father’s murder. In the Cyrilian Empire, Affinites are reviled. Their varied gifts to control the world around them ... more >

JayneB Reviews / Book Reviewschildhood friends / Contemporary / First-Person / France / friends-to-lovers / Paris / self discoveryNo Comments

Claire Le Noyer, 29, wants a do-over. She wants the life where she majors in history, not accounting. Where she takes two-hour lunches, not ten minutes in front of her computer. Where her pastor boyfriend treats her like an attractive women he’s deeply in love with, not like a nice ... more >

JayneB Reviews / Book ReviewsEngland / First-Person / Historical / Memoir / War / Military / World War II2 Comments

“When I asked the local chemist for lint and disinfectant, he felt it was only fair to allow the first-aid post to claim me. . . . Half a dozen V.A.D.s made a rush at me and treated my small abrasion as though my whole head had been blown off.” ... more >

JayneB+ Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Readseducational / non-fiction / wineNo Comments

From the creator and host of the award-winning podcast Wine for Normal People, described by Imbibe magazine as “a wine podcast for the people.” Wine for Normal People is an unpretentious guide to everything you ever wanted to know about wine. Learn a not-snobby wine vocabulary, how and where to ... more >

JayneB Reviews / Book Reviewsbees / ecology / gardening / non-fictionNo Comments

The passion and urgency that inspired WWI and WWII Victory Gardens is needed today to meet another threat to our food supply and our environment—the steep decline of pollinators. The Pollinator Victory Garden offers practical solutions for winning the war against the demise of these essential animals. Pollinators are critical ... more >

SiriusBook Reviews / C ReviewsAssassin / m/m romance / Suspense / thief2 Comments

It’s not stealing if you’re stealing it back…. Ari had a game plan for life. Shoot people. Get money. Hang out with fellow criminal friends. He saw absolutely no reason to change that plan until one dark night in Memphis, when a little girl reached out to him with pocket ... more >

JanineBook Reviewsbiracial heroine / clones / epistolary / flashbacks / genre-bender / LGBTQ / murder mystery / necromancer / portal fantasy / queer / Reading lists / romantic-elements / Science Fiction / space travel / story-within-a-story / sword fighter / YA science fiction6 Comments

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty A spaceship crew of six clones wake up in a cloning vat missing twenty-five years of memories. Of their much older previous incarnations, five are dead and one is comatose. Additionally, the spaceship has changed course. It quickly becomes apparent that one of the clones ... more >

JayneB Reviews / Book Reviews1950s / Drumberley series / family drama / family relationships / farming / Historical / Post WWII / Scotland / Small-Town1 Comments

James Dering and his new wife Rhoda are returning from their honeymoon, and Jock and Mamie Johnstone are delighted to welcome them to their new home on a neighbouring farm. But Mamie’s concern proves justified, and Rhoda, a talented painter who has chosen marriage over art, finds rural Scotland lonely ... more >