Category: fiction (Page 2 of 4)

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid | Book Review

July 11, 2023 / Monique

I love Taylor Jenkins Reid novels. They are the best summer fun. In this case the protagonist is also named Monique so that’s extra fun.

Monique is a journalist struggling to make a name for herself when suddenly the famous, and reclusive, Evelyn Hugo requests her time for an interview. How can this be? Why would Oscar-winning Evelyn Hugo even know her name? Could it be that she was wow’d by the one piece of amazing journalism Monique produced on assisted dying? That would be a stretch. But this is the interview of a lifetime. And despite the reluctance of Monique’s boss to give this cover story and the scoop to a little-known writer, she can’t refuse. Evelyn wants Monique or nothing. The story is massive.

The drama of Hollywood in the 50s, straight through to the 80s, is on full display. Evelyn is drama. She jumps from one husband to the next. She’s a bit of Liz Taylor meets Ava Gardiner. And the big question Monique seeks to answer is “who was the love of her life.”

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is published by Simon & Schuster. They have many of her other titles too.

If you liked Malibu Rising or Daisy Jones and the Six then you’ll like this novel too. It has a bio-pic vibe and great Tinseltown glam.

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes

February 23, 2023 / Monique

Elizabeth Finch is about a platonic teacher-student relationship and how we come to idolize people who create poignant moments in our lives.

In this novel Neil is an adult learner in Elizabeth Finch’s class. She is an enigma. Although her teaching style is not to everyone’s liking, she has an affect on Neil that leads to a lifelong friendship (maybe friendship is too strong, mentorship).

The novel is broken into three parts. The first is the most charming, and where we are introduced to Elizabeth Finch. The second part is Neil’s look at EF’s research into early Christian history. It’s an academic essay parading as part of the novel. And, it is fascinating if you want to think about moments in history where we could have made different choices. In the third part, Neil tries to offers a more objective perspective of EF and her research.

I really like Julian Barnes’ work and this was a good read. Like EF, it’s not for everyone. The Guardian suggests that each new section is forced to compensate for the shortcomings of the last. Fair comment, I’d say. But I still liked it.

Available everywhere. Published in Canada by Penguin Random House.

Agatha by Anne Cathrine Bomann | Book Review

February 20, 2023 / Monique

Set in 1940s Paris, this is a charming debut novel about a psychiatrist who is counting down his days until retirement. He has a client list that is quite a collection of characters but he is bored and ready to be done with them. That is until his secretary, against his wishes, accepts a new client, Agatha.

Agatha becomes his muse. He can’t stop thinking of her. He is excited when it is her appointment day. But he’s also running out of time, and realizing that he hasn’t made much of his life.

This novel captures the lonely spirit of a 1940s Parisian bachelor and presents the timeless lesson of living in the present.

If you like the tv series Shrinking on Apple TV then this is a similar story with a literary bend. Fans of A Man Called Ove will enjoy this book as well.

A Trace of Deceit by Karen Odden

November 3, 2022 / Monique

A Trace of Deceit is a great whodonit and peak into the world of art auctions. Miss Annabel Rowe is a young painter who’s studying at the Slade in London. She’s set to meet her brother Edwin for their regular Tuesday dinner but he never shows. Went she goes to his apartment, she finds two inspectors investigating his murder.

Annabel isn’t your usual Victorian lady who will demure and defer. She marches down to Scotland yard and demands to speak to Inspector Matthew Hallam. She has a plan and a plea that leads to her job shadowing Matthew.

They have a lovely romance that blooms out of their efforts to solve the mystery of Edwin’s death, recover a stolen valuable painting, and catch the culprits.

The behind-the-scenes look at the art work, auction houses, and the underworld of politics and the shipping industry are highly entertaining. Author Karen Odden draws on some of her personal experience from working at Christie’s auction house in the mid-1990s.

My favourite moments were the descriptions of various paintings throughout the novel. It was a short course in art history and painting techniques.

Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day

February 22, 2022 / Monique

Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day is a classic Agatha Christie style mystery. Indeed the novel is set during World War II at Agatha Christie’s real-life country home, Greenway.

In real life, the home hosted a war nursery—children who were evacuated from London. In the novel, the children are managed by a couple—the Arbuthnots—and two hospital nurses. The thing is, neither of the nurses is certified. Gigi is some sort of spy or at least on the run, and Bridget Kelly is a disgraced nurse-in-training. She’s been sent on the assignment as a favour by the hospital Matron.

What transpires is not one murder, but two! And it is Bridget Kelly who manages to do the sleuthing.

Greenway is home to the Scaldwells, who are butler and cook, The Hannafords, gardener and chauffeur, and a colourful cast of village folks who are not keen on evacuees. Mrs. Mallowan (Agatha Christie) makes a brief cameo.

I found this novel thoroughly enjoyable. It’s historical fiction meets murder mystery. Think Poirot, but solved by the new girl.

An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten

February 7, 2022 / Monique

Maud is almost 90 years old and you might think she’s a flighty old bird but you’d be wrong. She a calculated killer. I really wanted her to be eaten by lions on her safari trip because she’s so nasty. She did sort of warm on me in the end, but I wouldn’t drink anything she’s offering.

This tiny book looks super cute (it’s 6″ x 4.5″) but it’s an alarming set of six stories that present the unfortunate memories of Maud’s earlier days (well, one murder is rather recent). Each trick or murder is weirdly justified in Maud’s mind, and she seems to get away with it.

In some ways the book reminds me of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Night Murder Club, but instead of the little old lady solving murders, the little old lady is committing them.

Overall I did come to like this book.

City of Thieves by David Benioff

February 6, 2022 / Monique

Absolutely haunting, and hilarious, novel about two men who find themselves searching for a dozen eggs during the Nazis’ siege of Leningrad.

Lev Beniov is on citizen patrol when he and his friends see a dead paratrooper drift to ground near their apartment. It’s after curfew but they are starving and are drawn to the treasures this man must have on him, like warm boots, chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes, weapons, anything.

Unfortunately the patrols catch the friends in the act and Lev is captured and thrown into the Crosses. The Crosses is where people are brought and shot. During the night Koyla, a soldier and apparently deserter, is thrown into the same cell as Lev. Koyla is full of confidence and swagger.

“So you think they’ll shoot us in the morning?”
“I doubt it. They’re not preserving us for the night just to shoot us tomorrow.” He sounded quite jaunty about it, as if we were discussing a sporting event, as if the outcome wasn’t particularly momentous no matter which way it went.
chapter 2

Where Koyla is full of drive, Lev is cowardly. The two—a thief and a deserter—are sent out to find a dozen eggs for a wedding cake. A top colonel’s daughter is getting married. The absurdity of war.

One moment they have minutes to live, the next a sniper is flirting with them, they have a lead on eggs, they are running from cannibals who are making sausages out of unsuspecting market goers, apartments collapse, soliders freeze, girls are kept warm and fed to be prostitutes to the Germans. It’s sad and funny and desperate all at the same time.

If you like Chekhov and adventure stories, this is a well-paced novel with all the joy and misery of war that you can imagine.

The True Confessions of a London Spy by Katherine Cowley

February 6, 2022 / Monique

I absolutely LOVE Katherine Cowley’s The Secret Life of Mary Bennet Series. The books are smart and witty, and a wonderful nod to Jane Austen.

The True Confessions of a London Spy is the second novel in this trilogy. Our heroine, Mary Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, finds herself acting as a spy for the British government. She must juggle the expectations of a lady (extravagant balls, chaperones, and asking her brother-in-law permission to leave the house) along with solving the murder of a government messenger, spying on members of parliament, and avoiding harm.

If you’re an Austen fan then you know that Mary Bennet is the lesser known of the Bennet sisters. Elizabeth (Darcy) is often the star of the show. Mary is the middle child, with Jane and Elizabeth as her older sisters and Kitty and Lydia as her younger sisters. Being overlooked is quite familiar to Mary. It’s also what helps her.

Mary could admire Elizabeth. She could aspire to some of Elizabeth’s attributes, and she could use her knowledge of how Elizabeth acted in particular situations to help her take the best possible actions as a spy. But she would not let herself be consumed by envy. She could set it aside, and not let it be a focus of her attention. It was better to become one’s fullest self than to attempt to become someone else.
chapter 8

You don’t have to be a Jane Austen fan to love and appreciate these books, but if you are then I think you will come to adore Mary Bennet the way I do. She’s vain and pedantic and actually quite as beautiful as her older sisters and just as quick and mischievous as her younger sisters.

I absolutely cannot wait for the third book in this series. Full applause to Katherine Cowley for such a fun read.

Find the books at your local bookstore, check out the author’s site, or see my review of book 1 The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennet.

The Maid by Nita Prose

January 24, 2022 / Monique

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meets The Thursday Night Murder Club.

Molly the maid is the perfect scapegoat for a murder. She’s innocent to the world and befriends some bad eggs. But people shouldn’t underestimate Molly. She sees and remembers everything, yet she’s invisible to most. Just a maid.

Nita Prose’s debut novel is a great twist of a story. It has all the quirks of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. We see the world from Molly’s point of view. “The truth is, I often have trouble with social situations; it’s as though everyone is playing an elaborate game with complex rules they all know, but I’m always playing for the first time.” And it has the fun twists and turns of the best cozy mysteries. Yes there’s a murder, but it’s not a blood and gore, spine-tingling thriller. It’s a mental puzzle. And like Richard Osman’s The Thursday Night Murder Club, Nita Prose has given her readers many splendid characters.

I was on the third floor, cleaning my rooms. Sunshine was cleaning one half of the floor and I was tackling the other. I entered Room 305, which was not on my roster for that shift, but the front desk had told me it was vacant and needed to be cleaned. I didn’t even bother knocking since I’d been told it was empty, but when I pushed through the door with my trolley. I came face-to-face with two very imposing men.
Gran taught me to judge people by their actions rather than by their appearances, so when I looked upon these two behemoths with shaved heads and perplexing facial tattoos, I immediately assumed the best of them rather than the worst. Maybe these guests were a famous rock duo I’d never head of? Or perhaps they were trendy tattoo artists? Or world-renowned wrestlers? Since I prefer antiques to pop culture, how would I know?
Chapter 7, The Maid

“A smart, riveting, and deliciously refreshing debut.” —Lisa Jewell

Find The Maid at your favourite bookstore or learn more at NitaProse.com or the publisher site.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

January 18, 2022 / Monique

A beloved classic that I failed to read sooner.

Meg, her twin brothers, and her baby brother Charles Wallace are desperate to hear news of their father. He’s disappeared and although Mother is keeping it together for the sake of the kids, they all know she’s upset.

The answers come on a dark and stormy night in the form of Calvin, the neighbour, and three witches (women? spirits?): Mrs Who, Mrs Which, and Mrs Whatsit.

Seems that father and mother have been experimenting with space and time travel, and the 3 Mrs’s are experts in it. They take Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace into another dimension to rescue the dad.

Perfect for fans of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz.