The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin

July 23, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
Publisher: Hanover Press
Genre: Historical, Fiction, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Snowdrop

August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to the city, but the bunkers and drawn curtains that she finds on her arrival are not what she expected. And she certainly never imagined she’d wind up working at Primrose Hill, a dusty old bookshop nestled in the heart of London.

Through blackouts and air raids as the Blitz intensifies, Grace discovers the power of storytelling to unite her community in ways she never dreamed—a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of the war.

Moved my heart. This was such an enjoyable read. It has good times and bad times. It has a bookshop, a curmudgeonly but sweet old man, a lonely old woman having lived through the hells of wars, and young girls trying to make their way in the world all in the midst of World War 2. Don’t get me wrong. This book is not all set during WW2. The story begins as Grace and Viv grow up in a small town and dream of leaving their unfortunate lives and running to make or break it in London. It’s a story of dreams. One of people who know they must work hard to succeed and find they can live through more than they ever dreamed.

This could be perfect for Young Adults, and yet I enjoyed every minute of it as an adult. There might be a lot of sweetness here, but there are some very realistic parts of the British living in London during the bombings in WW2. And in today’s world, a sweet story isn’t such a bad idea.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Tawny by Chas Carner

July 15, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Tawny by Chas Carner
Publisher: Scholastic and Macmillan
Genre: Middle Grade (8 – 12 y.o.), Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Trey and Troy Landry are 12-year-old twin brothers growing up on a New Hampshire farm. Even though Troy is the impulsive trouble maker, and Trey the more dutiful and introverted one, they share an incredibly close bond.

One day Troy is accidentally killed by hunters poaching deer on the farm. Trey is devastated and channels his grief into caring for an injured deer, which he names “Tawny.”

As their friendship deepens, however, Trey finds it harder and harder to release Tawny back into the wild.

What he learns in the process of letting go—about loss, love, and the healing power of nature has even more relevance for youth today than when this critically acclaimed novel was first published.

Grief has many faces.

Mr. Carter had a smooth and descriptive writing style that was a joy to read. I especially liked the passages in this novella that talked about the rhythms of life on a farm and how one season of the year would gradually give way to the next. As someone who had spent his entire life on that same property, Trey was so accustomed to what every month felt like that he didn’t quite seem to realize how special they were, but his descriptions of his childhood were still beautiful and showed me so much about his personality and the empathic and patient man he would become in a few short years as a result of his rural childhood.

It was the passages dealing with Trey’s grief over the death of his twin brother that ultimately convinced me to choose a five-star rating. Many stories that deal with death and loss focus on how it feels immediately or, at most, several months later, but healing can require a much longer period of time than that and sometimes involves old pain returning in quiet moments when the outside world might assume someone is doing much better now than they actually are. I loved the scenes later on that explored how Trey dealt with these feelings while also going about his usual routine of school, chores, and looking after Tawny as she healed from her injury.

The many cultural difference between the 1950s and modern times also piqued my interest. For example, Trey and Troy were taught how to drive at age eight and, a few years later, were doing potentially dangerous chores on the farm like helping cows to deliver their calves or shooting guns. Many children in the Western Hemisphere today would not allowed to participate in these activities, so it was fascinating to see how much more freedom and autonomy people that age had a few generations ago.

Tawny was heartfelt and bittersweet. It made me want to read more from this author!

Filed Under: Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson

July 10, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Historical, Cozy Mystery
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Look who’s back in hot water! The highly anticipated new novel in The Tea Ladies cosy crime series, a runaway bestseller of the year. Available for pre-order now!

Welcome back to Zig Zag Lane in the heart of Sydney’s rag-trade district, where our intrepid tea ladies, Hazel, Betty and Irene, have their work cut out. Solving a murder, kidnapping and arson case, and outwitting an arch criminal, earned them the respect of a local police officer. Now he needs their assistance to help solve a plot that threatens national security.

As if that’s not enough, Irene gets a coded message directing her to the spoils of a bank robbery, which sends the tea ladies on a treasure hunt with an unexpected outcome.

There’s also trouble brewing within the walls of Empire Fashionwear, where an interloper threatens not just Hazel’s job but the very role of tea lady. It’s up to Hazel to convince her friends to abandon their trolleys and take action to save their livelihoods – before it’s too late.

Hazel and her fellow Tea Ladies are back for another rollicking adventure. It’s 1966 in Sydney, Australia and the world is moving along at a fast pace. The Sydney Opera house is being built to much political posturing and arguments, the fashion warehouses are changing their designs with the new short skirt craze gripping the world, and the Tea Ladies are banding together to save their livelihoods as a new Café-Bar machine threatens their very jobs. Can Hazel and her friends successfully navigate everything while still sharing the best cuppa around?

I really enjoyed this historical cosy mystery story. Hazel and her fellow tea ladies all came across to me as well rounded and deeply empathetic characters, even Irene who was absolutely somewhat out of the usual mould for a well-aged working class woman. I definitely think readers who haven’t read the first book in this series can easily pick this story up by itself. The characters are all well explained and this book is quite separate from the first. The strong relationships between the ladies doesn’t need too much explanation and their solid friendship and history is easily understood.

I thought it was quite a well written book. Not necessarily a mystery in the usual sense as there were at least three or four main sub-plots all threaded together and unwinding at their own pace. Many of these were very neatly tied up by the end of the book but I did feel a few of these plots didn’t have a final conclusion as yet – Pixie and her new line in particular I feel will likely show up in the next book for a bit more action. I really enjoyed the slower pace of the mysteries and the quite cosy feel the story as a whole had. I feel readers who like historical based novels – or just a slower plot in general should absolutely find this an excellent book.

That said, I absolutely found the mysteries to be well plotted and quite entertaining. A lot seems to be happening in this book and so while I don’t feel it’s action-orientated or fast moving, the author really has crammed a lot into the space of this one book. I am very eager for the next in the series and hope there are many more to come. I also found it quite refreshing that Hazel and her friends are not young woman – and really aren’t even middle-aged as such but more a little older than that, while still being completely fit and healthy and certainly of a working age with all the wisdom and patience that comes from having been around the block a time or two before.

Fun and interesting, with complicated and layered characters this is an excellent book and one I can strongly recommend.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

The Red Tenant by Donovan M. Neal

July 8, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Red Tenant by Donovan M. Neal
The Nain Rouge Chronicles Book 1
Publisher: TornVeil / Independently published
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Inspirational, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Most horror stories ask a simple question:

What is out there?

The Red Tenant asks something far more unsettling:

What has been with you all along?

1701.
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac sails toward a future he intends to build—a legacy he believes he controls.

But control was never his to begin with.

Because something older than his ambition has already laid claim to his name… and everything that comes after it.

As the ship cuts through the Atlantic, the illusion of progress begins to break apart.

Men lose their bearings.
Objects refuse to remain contained.
Whispers move where no one stands.

And slowly, unmistakably, a truth emerges:

This is not a random terror.

This is something that followed him.
Something that was carried—generation after generation—waiting for the moment it could no longer be ignored.

This is where the transformation happens.

You begin the story expecting fear.

You leave it asking different questions:

What do we inherit that we never agreed to?
What do we carry forward without realizing the cost?
And what happens when what we’ve ignored finally demands to be acknowledged?
The Red Tenant does not offer an easy resolution.

Because the most unsettling realization is not that evil exists…

It’s that it can be carried, protected, and passed on—quietly—until it is too late to pretend it was never there.

Temptation can lurk anywhere, and sometimes it even hides in plain sight.

Strong character development is essential in order to tell a memorable tale, and all of the major characters in this piece were complex and felt like real people to me. It can take time to develop personalities and backstories to this extent, so be patient as everything is being pieced together in the beginning. The payoff later on was not only worth the wait but it made me go back and reevaluate little moments from the beginning of this voyage that take on much deeper significance once one knows more about the moral fiber of those involved. There were many shades of grey in this universe which makes for a nuanced and thought-provoking read.

This was one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of how to seamlessly blend the horror and inspirational genres together in ways that not only complemented them both but also enriched the storyline as the characters wrestled with their sins. While I can’t go into too much detail about this without sharing spoilers, learning more about their lives and the things that tempted them only made me more interested in what might happen to them next.

There was a cliffhanger ending that was as intriguing as it was appropriate for everything that had already been established about the setting. I’m saying this as a reader who generally struggles with this type of conclusion, but in this case it only made me more excited to find out what happened next due to how much care was put into setting everything up and explaining why the audience would need to wait until next time to have certain questions answered.

The Red Tenant kept me perched on the edge of my seat from the first sentence to the last one, and I am highly anticipating any sequels that may be in the works already.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Cherry Creek by Linda Griffin

July 6, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Cherry Creek by Linda Griffin
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Romance, Historical
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

When her fiancé died, Eileen said, “Then I’m free,” words that her younger sister Molly didn’t understand and never forgot. In 1850s Ohio, a girl doesn’t have that many options, and marrying Andrew MacLeith may be the best she can hope for. He promises to cherish her, but they have to live with his parents, and he can’t even protect her from his mother’s sharp tongue. After a quarrel, Molly impulsively joins his gambler brother Hugh on a journey to the Pike’s Peak gold region. Perhaps the romance and freedom she longs for lie elsewhere. Or were they right under her nose all along?

Freedom always comes with a cost.

I loved Molly’s assertive personality and willingness to do anything necessary in order to improve her life. Her strained relationship with her judgmental and mean-spirited mother-in-law could have intimidated a less self-assured protagonist, so it was refreshing to see how she stood up for herself in that situation as a new bride. Marriage is a big enough adjustment to make on its own, after all, even for someone who knew what she wanted as clearly as Molly did.

There were some plot holes in this story that I wish had been explained in more detail. For example, Hugh’s fate was not clearly explained, and neither was Andrew’s reaction when Molly decided to run away from home soon after he married her. These were both important aspects of the storyline, so I was surprised by how quickly they were glossed over later on. A few more chapters developing this would have encouraged me to choose a higher rating.

It was also interesting to see how Molly’s dreams about what life would be like elsewhere were tempered by her actual experiences. Nobody has everything they want or even necessarily knows what all of their other options are, and sometimes fantasizing about a change can be quite different from actually experiencing it. The strongest passages in this tale in my opinion were the ones that explored the gap between the two and showed some examples of how to try to build a better future for oneself.

Cherry Creek made me smile.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Book of Revelations by Mitchell Hadley

June 24, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Book of Revelations by Mitchell Hadley
Publisher: Throckmorton Press
Genre: Romance, Historical
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Every life has a story waiting to be revealed.

The Book of Revelations is a haunting, postmodern literary novel that refracts a single life through multiple viewpoints, spanning the American Midwest of the 1960s to the San Francisco of the 1980s.

At its center is eight-year-old Nan Jaffe, whose early world collapses in a single night. What follows is not a linear narrative but a mosaic: a marriage quietly unraveling, grandparents attempting a clean break, a teacher offering rescue in the hope of saving himself, a diner waitress watching with older-sister concern, and a poet providing temporary shelter. Each voice sees only a piece; none holds the whole.

Nan becomes Robin, Robin becomes Nancy, Nancy becomes Ellen—names changed like addresses, in the hope that distance might erase what cannot be forgotten. Yet the past persists: in nightmares, in a stuffed monkey that listens without judgment, in the echo of a promise made at eight years old.

The Book of Revelations refracts a single life through multiple lenses, revealing how memory is subjective, truth elusive, and the past impossible to erase. It is a precise meditation on memory, guilt, and the limits of protection, asking what remains when everything familiar is taken away, and whether some absences can ever be filled—or are simply carried forward until the last story is finally revealed.

Nobody can outrun their past.

I appreciated how this story explored the myriad of ways in which childhood trauma can resurface again in adulthood and disrupt just about every aspect of someone’s life. Nan was haunted by something awful that happened when she was a little girl, and her memories of that night followed her no matter how far away from home she wandered. Her reaction to that trauma felt realistic to me, and I never stopped hoping that she’d find peace.

It would have been helpful to allow the romantic storyline more time to flourish. Figuring out whether to even label this a romance in the first place was a little bit of a dilemma for me given how long it took to appear, but I ultimately decide in favor of including that genre in the labels I selected for this review due to how important romantic love became later on in the plot. With that being said, I would recommend patience in the beginning for readers who are accustomed to much more swoon-worthy tales. This was a realistic take on how and when love can develop, but it was worth it once it showed up even though I will continue to wish that there had been more foreshadowing of these events early on.

Mr. Hadley’s decision to take an understated approach to the traumatic event in question was definitely the right one for both Nan and the plot as a whole. There was no need for salacious details about what exactly happened that night, and the bare facts were eventually revealed as Nan moved further into her healing journey. I liked the fact that the author trusted his audience to fill in the details he chose not to include and that he always remained focused on the protagonist’s emotional growth and mental health instead of other details that didn’t even matter in the end.

The Book of Revelations was heartwarming and life affirming.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , ,

Dona Nobis Pacem (God Grant Us Peace) by Will Okati

June 18, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Dona Nobis Pacem (God Grant Us Peace) by Will Okati
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Dark Romance, LGBTQ, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Historical
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Dona Nobis Pacem. God Grant Us Peace.

Voiceless Donnell and defrocked priest Nathan are outcasts and strangers at the turn of the century. Despite his handicap, Donnell has made a life for himself as a businessman and owner of a saloon. His heart goes out to those whom life has dealt an unhappy hand. When Nathan arrives in this former gold-rush town, horsewhipped and ill to the point of collapse, Donnell is the only one to offer help.

Barely ordained before being accused of unnatural desires, Nathan has been sent to travel a faux road to Damascus as penance. He did not expect to survive the trek, and longed for the peace he might find when his body gave up the fight.

He never expected to meet someone like Donnell. Despite his lack of voice, Donnell is the teacher Nathan has hungered for all his life, and the lover he never dared seek out. Triumphing over a lifetime’s worth of threatened damnation will not be easy to overcome, but Donnell’s not giving up. The passion they share is what both men have always craved, but never found. When they’re discovered, standing together is the only thing that will save them both.

Peace comes in many forms.

Donnell and Nathan had sizzling chemistry that was evident from the very first time they met. Seeing those sparks between them slowly develop into something much deeper was rewarding and is exactly the kind of pacing I love to see in this genre. While they had wildly different backgrounds in certain ways, both men shared some things in common that I wasn’t necessarily expecting to find. This only made me root for them even more strongly than I already was.

The strong and memorable world building made me briefly wonder if this were part of a series, but it does seem to be a standalone work after all. I particularly appreciated how much time was spent explaining the origins of Nazareth, the small community where Donnell was born and raised. Little details like this went a long way in not only explaining why some residents behaved the way that the did but also helped to round out the main character’s backstory and personality in ways that other readers should discover for themselves.

What ultimately convinced me to give this a full five-star rating was the ending. Not only did it wrap up all of the conflicts satisfactorily, it gave readers some strong hints about what to expect from these characters in the future regardless of whether not we ever get a sequel about them. While I’d want to be the first person in line to read more about them, I was also quite satisfied with how everything ended and thought the author did a great job of wrapping it all up.

Dona Nobis Pacem (God Grant Us Peace) was everything I wanted it to be and then some!

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths

June 17, 2026 By Leave a Comment


The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths
Publisher: Quercus
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Fern

There’s nothing forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway hates more than amateur archaeologists, but when a group of them stumble upon Bronze Age artifacts alongside a dead body in this gripping murder mystery, she finds herself thrust into their midst—and into the crosshairs of a string of murders circling ever closer.

Ruth is back as head of archaeology at the University of North Norfolk when a group of local metal detectorists—the so-called Night Hawks—uncovers Bronze Age artifacts on the beach, alongside a recently deceased body, just washed ashore. Not long after, the same detectorists uncover a murder-suicide—a scientist and his wife found at their farmhouse, long thought to be haunted by the Black Shuck, a humongous black dog and a harbinger of death. The further DCI Nelson probes into both cases, the more intertwined they become, and the closer they circle to David Brown, the new lecturer Ruth has recently hired, who seems always to turn up wherever Ruth goes.

DCI Nelson is called out onto the coastline in the middle of the night when a group of enthusiastic metal detectorists discover a body washed up on the shore. The case quickly turns difficult as a cache of Bronze Age artefacts – complete with a skeleton – is simultaneously found nearby, and Nelson calls Ruth in to ensure the skeleton is old and none of his concern. But when an apparent murder suicide quickly occurs, Nelson and his team need to uncover what’s really going on.

I have been a fan of this series for a number of years and found this to be an excellent addition. Nelson and Ruth’s long term – and extremely complicated – relationship gives a solid tension and backdrop to the mysteries – both old and new. In some respects this book gave the feel of things beginning to come full circle and settle down, and I admit I really liked that. The ongoing will they/won’t they tension between Nelson and Ruth does sometimes get me a bit down and frustrated. While I admit no actual progress was made between them, this books ending really gave me the impression that some sort of resolution wasn’t too much further into the future. Considering the book ends at Christmas 2019 (and we all know what followed sharply after THAT event) I have a feeling things will shift pretty firmly one way or the other in the next book.

Readers who are familiar with this series will know to expect a blend of history/archaeology and British police procedural murder mystery. This book does fulfil that – though I must admit the archeology takes somewhat of a back seat in this book, being more focused on Ruth and her teaching career. I thought the digs and field work were not quite as prominent as they sometimes are. I didn’t mind this – the characters, both old and new – were a lot more front and center and really there were almost two mysteries in this book, the washed up body and the apparent murder/suicide. These two cases gave the book a solid feel of plenty going on and adding on a big archeological scene on top of that would have felt too full in my opinion and might have detracted somewhat from the focus and plot.

While I do feel this book can be read by itself, there is a long and complicated history between the characters – particularly Ruth and Nelson – and while I think this is an excellent book I do feel a better understanding and emotional connection will be achieved if readers have at least a few of the other books under their belt first. This book is towards the end of the series and while discovering this series would be fantastic, I do think it might be prudent to start a little closer to the beginning.

I found this to be a well written and solidly plotted mystery with a strong element of archaeology. The characters are layered and deep – and the main relationship in particular is complicated and not for the faint hearted. A brilliant series and one I will be sad to wrap up in a few books time. Recommended.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Silver Spider by Lena Austin

June 15, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Silver Spider by Lena Austin
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Dark Romance, LGBTQ, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Historical
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The secretive Duke of Aberystwyth has invited Madge Majesty to a murder mystery party, but he’s the first victim!

Madge is a harpy, mystery writer, and amateur sleuth with a nose for murder. At her side is her faithful chauffeur, Hayden, who is a telekinetic ex-thief — and a confirmed bachelor.

Now it’s up to Madge to solve the whodunit. Her suspects are a motley assortment of inverts and very nervous heterosexuals, all of whom have more than just their sexual foibles to hide. Is it the cross-dressing vampire, the packless werewolf, the voyeuristic doctor, the gargoyle majordomo, or the promiscuous man who seems bent on getting everyone into his bed, including Hayden?

Some parties can never be forgotten.

This was a good example of how to include a wide variety of characters in a storyline that probably would not have otherwise crossed paths with each other. It was interesting to see how they all interacted, especially the characters who weren’t human and who therefore weren’t necessarily bound to the social norms of this era, much less the typical behavior of human beings in general. While I can’t go into detail about this without sharing spoilers, I was pleasantly surprised by how this played out and how it affected what certain characters wished to do.

I would have liked to see more character development in this piece, though. Sometimes I had trouble keeping track of who everyone was because of how little time was spent describing what they were like. Given how many characters were interacting with each other in the various scenes, this was something that kept me from fully immersing myself in the plot.

With that being said, I thought Ms. Austin did an excellent job of combining the erotic and mystery genres. They both kept the storyline chugging along smoothly and fed into each other in all sorts of creative ways. When combined with what appeared to be a 1910s or maybe an early 1920s setting, there were some fun plot twists involving hijinks both in and outside of the bedroom in a time when people tended to be more reticent about certain things…at least in public.

Silver Spider – A Paranormal Murder Mystery Romance was a wild ride.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Freedom Quest – A Love Story by Debora Masterson

June 12, 2026 By Leave a Comment


Freedom Quest – A Love Story by Debora Masterson
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Genre: Romance, Historical, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

FREEDOM QUEST: A Love Story follows Michael Griffin, a gifted musician whose journey through the Southern California music scene of the 1960s-80s becomes a cautionary tale about artistic integrity, the pursuit of stardom, and the cost of chasing dreams. From backing up strippers in North Beach, San Francisco, to nearly landing a Capitol Records deal, from fronting his band Freedom Quest to losing the love of his life, Grace, Michael’s story captures the raw reality of what it means to live and breathe music.

Their story begins in 1965, when an instant spark ignites between them in a San Fernando Valley music shop. As Michael chases his musical destiny amid the counterculture revolution, Grace becomes his anchor, his muse—and the love he can’t live without. But the struggle between artistic integrity and commercial success, betrayal, and the chaos of the times tear them apart, sending each down separate and often harrowing paths of self-discovery.

FREEDOM QUEST is a sweeping and emotional odyssey. A love story that survives separation, success, failure, and illness and reveals the redemptive power of music. At its heart lies a timeless truth that true love does exist.

True love is eternal.

I adored Ms. Masterson’s creative approach to the second chance romance trope. Micheal and Grace were young lovers who never quite got over each other even after life pulled them in wildly different directions. It was engrossing to see where they both ended up and how their paths continued to cross years after their first relationship disintegrated. The conflicts that kept them apart were realistic and understandable, but I also liked how nostalgic these characters were about those years and how much they wished that things had turned out better.

There were times when I wished for more character development in this book. Michael’s life was filled with romance, adventure, and, in some phases, deep trauma, and I kept hoping he’d go into more detail about how they influenced him not only in those particular moments but also decades later as he began reflecting on what he had and hadn’t accomplished. While I still wish his innermost thoughts had been given more time to shine, the author’s note after the final chapter softened my opinion on this. I highly recommend taking a moment to look back at some of those scenes with a fresh perspective after reading it as it does put certain plot twists in a new light!

The ending was what made this tale so memorable in my opinion. Kudos to the author for being willing to take risks with this genre that stayed true to both her characters as well as to the decades-long journeys they’d just undertaken. This sort of writing that stretches the boundaries of what love could look like and how it can transform a character’s life no matter how many plot twists have already appeared is why I continue to include romance in the types of books I read.

I didn’t want Freedom Quest – A Love Story to end. It was beautiful.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,
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