Number of Re-Reads: 0
Number of DNFs: 1
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Swallow the Sun by Matti Riekki
It’s been really quiet here also this year. I’m still doing my master’s degree, and that has taken a lot of my time. All of my reading for fun pretty much happens on the train. So yeah… let’s see if I actually post more this year…
Number of Re-Reads: 1
Number of DNFs: 2
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
It’s been really quiet here this past year. Or even quieter than before… I started university in 2023 to get a master’s degree, which has taken a lot of my time. All of my reading for fun pretty much happens on the train. Hopefully, I have time (and motivation) to do some reviews here during 2024!
The Jeweler of Stolen Dreams by M.J. RoseParis, 1942. Suzanne Belperron is known as one of the most innovative jewelers of her time. Elsa Schiaparelli and the Duchess of Windsor are just two of her many illustrious clients. What no one knows is that Suzanne and her dear friend, American socialite Dixie Osgood, have been helping transport hundreds of Jewish families out of France since the war began. But now, the war has come to Suzanne’s front door—the Nazis have arrested her business partner and longtime lover, Bernard Herz.
New York, 1986. Violine Duplessi, an appraiser for a boutique auction house, is summoned to visit the home of Paul Osgood, a scholarly lawyer and political candidate who aspires to take over the Senate seat of his recently deceased father. Paul has inherited everything inside Osgood Manor, from the eighteenth-century furniture to the nineteenth-century Limoges china. But a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk is what calls to Violine, with the surprising but undeniable thrum of energy that can only be one thing: the gift passed down to her by La Lune, the sixteenth-century courtesan. Since childhood, Violine has been able to read an object’s history and learn the secrets of its owners by merely touching it, but she silenced her psychometry when it destroyed her last relationship.
So begins a search that takes Violine to Paris to work with the Midas Society, a covert international organization whose mission is to return lost and stolen antiques, jewels, and artwork to their original owners. (Goodreads)
The book follows two storylines: one in 1986 and the second in 1942 in occupied France. Suzanne Belperron was a jewelry designer in Paris during WWII. Violine Duplessi works for an auction house and has a job to appraise an old trunk, which has some secrets. Suzanne and Violine’s lives are intertwined when Violine tries to solve the mystery regarding the old trunk.
I hadn’t realized this was part of a Daughters of La Lune series before I started reading, But I love the series, so that was a good thing. I loved both timelines but didn’t really care for the romance in the 80s timeline. I would have wanted to learn more about Violine’s gift and what she could learn about objects with it. In Violine’s family, the women have some kind of gift, and in Violine’s case, it’s understanding the secrets of the object’s owner.
3,5 stars
Published: Blue Box Press (February 7, 2023)
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
The Foxglove King (The Nightshade Crown 1) by Hannah WhittenLore has been living by her wits since she was a child, running poisons for the cartel that took her in, avoiding the attention of the law, and keeping her illicit affinity for death magic a secret.
When a job goes wrong and Lore is captured by the Sainted King’s warrior-monks, she expects death. But King August has a different plan. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what’s happening – or face the pyre.
Thrust into a lavish court where no one can be believed and even fewer can be trusted, Lore must navigate an intricate web of politics, religion, and forbidden romance and solve the King’s mystery. A mystery more dangerous and twisted than Lore can even imagine. (publisher)
Lore is a poison runner and a spy for her adoptive parents in Dellaire. Magic is a rare thing in the world these days, and some people have noted Lore’s powers. Lore can use Mortem, a kind of death magic. After a poison running drop goes wrong, she is brought to the palace and now must spy for the king. Entire villages are being wiped out, and the king suspects that his son Bastian knows something about it. Lore’s mission is to spy on Bastian and act as a cousin to Gabriel, an aristocrat who is now a monk.
I liked Lore, but as someone who’s been a spy for some time, she’s not a very good one. Like, someone has been spying on her since she was a child. And the two people she spies on in the book know about the spying…
I didn’t really mind the love triangle, but oh well. Too many YA vibes for me. I liked all 3 people but not as a love triangle. And I did like the concept of Mortem and the whole death magic thing and all the court intrigue.
I enjoyed the author’s previous books and was looking forward to this new series. And while it had its flaws, I just wanted to keep on reading and wanted to know what happened next. And I definitely want to know how the story continues.
3/5
Published: Orbit (March 9, 2023)
Format: eBook
Source: Netgalley
Number of Re-Reads: 0
Number of DNFs: 5
Elizabeth I by Margaret George
The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley
The Hunger of the Gods (Bloodsworn Saga #2) by John Gwynne
The Champion by Elizabeth Chadwick