Posted on by Maureen

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

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I Am Half-Sick of Shadows is the fourth book in Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mystery series. I have read the first three books in this series, and I was excited to find out what was going to happen to Flavia in this book.

Flavia de Luce is a precocious young girl who lives with her father and two older sisters in Buckshaw, a crumbling manor house near the village of Bishop’s Lacy. It is the Christmas season, and Flavia’s father has rented out Buckshaw to a film company. Flavia is thrilled about this turn of events, and is even more pleased when Phyllis, the aging actress who is starring in the movie, pays attention to her.

Needless to say, it is quite distressing when Phyllis is found murdered immediately after a theatrical performance attended by most of the village. When a blizzard traps everyone in Buckshaw, Flavia comes to the terrible conclusion that there is a murderer amongst the guests! Read more

Posted on by Maureen

House of Furies by Madeleine Roux

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House of Furies is a YA novel written by Madeleine Roux. I read this book several months ago, but I have fallen behind on my review writing, and I am just catching up now.

As the story begins, Louisa accepts a position as a maid at Coldthistle House. She does not particularly want to be a maid, but she finds herself in a precarious position and need a place to hide out, so the offer of employment seems infinitely more appealing than being on her own.

Coldthistle House is not an ordinary manor house, and there is something unusual about Mr. Morningside, the house’s enigmatic owner. He has transformed the home into a boarding house, and Louisa quickly makes friends with one of the guests, a charming young man. There is a shroud of malevolence hanging over the house, and Louisa does not know whether it would be more dangerous to flee or to remain in a house full of secrets.   Read more

Posted on by Maureen

The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne

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I am trying to be more responsible with my reading habits by reading and reviewing the ARCs that I receive. This plan was going along swimmingly until someone posted about The Highwayman in one of my book groups. It piqued my interest, and then someone else posted about it as well. There were now two separate posts with stacks of comments praising The Highwayman, and I knew that I could no longer ignore the siren’s call. I already owned the Kindle edition of the book, so it was quite easy to push aside everything else in my TBR pile and devour this book.

The Highwayman is a romance novel written by Kerrigan Byrne. It is the first book in her Victorian Rebels series. I have read two of the books in this series (The Duke and The Scot Beds His Wife), so I had a feeling I was going to enjoy this book. However, I could not have anticipated how much I was going to fall in love with this book.   Read more