April Spotlight of Cozy Fantasy

 

image provided by publisher

I'm excited to offer a spotlight on my blog for the book launch of Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe. It's always fun to be part of blog tours for new books that I've gotten to read an ARC for and loved! Not only that but Amy Coombe is a debut author as well.

About the Book

A cursed princess must discover what her heart truly longs for in this charmingly cozy romantic fantasy for everyone who’s ever lost – or found – themselves in a bookshop.

Princess Tanadelle of the Widdenmar is disillusioned with life as a princess. She longs for real conversation, the chance to build a life of her own making, and uninterrupted reading time.

During a routine royal visit to the town of Little Pepperidge, Tandy’s dream comes true when she finds herself cursed to remain in a run-down bookshop until she unlocks her heart’s desire. Certain that someone will figure out how to break the curse eventually, and delighted by the prospect of an entire bookstore of her own, Tandy settles into life among th e stacks. She finds it easy to exchange balls and endless state dinners for teetering piles of books and an irritatingly handsome pirate who seems bent on stealing her stock.

 

She even starts to believe she’s stumbled into her very own happily ever after.

My thoughts on this book:

Stay for a Spell was an adorable cozy fantasy. Tandy is a princess who spends most of her time on the road performing her royal duties of kissing babies, cutting ribbons, and glad-handing the people. A fateful stop in a bookstore for more reading material in her endless travels by carriage lands her in the bookshop permanently. Tandy is cursed to remain there until she finds her heart's desire. At first, it doesn't seem so bad living in a bookshop and having plenty of time to read. But the curse also leaves her worrying what will happen if she can't ever discover what her heart truly wants.

Tandy was immediately an empathetic character for me. She has spent her whole life making others happy and is an avid bookworm. That doesn't mean she is a total pushover. But she has been raised to believe her royal duty trumps seeking her own happiness. I found this to be believable even if someone isn't royalty. As women we are especially prone to being conditioned to always put the interests of others ahead of our own. That isn't always a bad thing and if you're a parent it is often a necessity if you want to keep your offspring alive and happy. I also could appreciate the fact that when she is unable to leave the bookshop she's cursed to stay in, Tandy feels free for the first time in her life. For once, the world's expectations cannot be met and to a large extent cannot intrude on her tiny oasis full of books. But as a character she also doesn't spend this time resting on her laurels either. Shortly after taking possession of the bookshop, she finds a young teen to hire on as an assistant. Something that gives that teen a purpose and inspires her to help Tandy revamp the bookshop to be more enticing for people to want to explore and shop in. Tandy also attracts the attention of a handsome pirate who is also cursed. 

Bash was a mysterious and very charming love interest for Tandy. But he also proves to be kind beneath his roguishness. The other secondary characters that are sent to Tandy to help break her curse were equally fun and amusing. Her parents decide the best way to get her back to her duties where she belongs is to start sending her princes from across the realms to kiss her. Each one had their own distinctive personalities and interesting kingdom customs. 

If you love cozy fantasies in a similar vein to stories like The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst or Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz then you will love Stay for a Spell.

A Gripping YA Gothic Horror Suspense

Image copied from NetGalley

So, I'm veering off from what I originally planned for my first book review in April. I will get back to mystery and suspense. But I recently finished this young adult gothic horror mystery, and I loved it! 

I am not normally a fan of horror stories, even young adult ones can often get too dark for me. But the premise for this novel intrigued me enough to request an advanced reader copy (ARC) from NetGalley. I'm very glad I did because from the first I was drawn into this narrative and what might unfold for Mina, the main character.

One of the few gothic horror novels that I've even been able to read all the way through was Bram Stoker's Dracula. Though I read it many years ago, too many to remember it as vividly as some might, I'm still familiar with it enough to recognize some of the plot points in Girl of Lore by Melanie Dale. For one thing, the main character's name is Mina and for another she's a teen living in London, but not the London you're thinking of, nope. Mina lives in London, Georgia a small town that was established 200 years ago by British colonists seeking religious freedom. But according to local legends, these early settlers brought more across the pond with them than their religious convictions. 

The story is told in close third person from Mina's perspective. I was immediately drawn into Mina's narrative and her world as she experiences a strange, vivid dream as if seeing it from someone else's body. Upon waking, she has trouble holding onto the details of it, but one remnant she's left with is a strange mark on her wrist. I found Mina to be a very empathetic character right from the beginning. She suffers from OCD and her condition leads her to be drawn to things that are spooky and morbid. Her intrusive thoughts from her mental health disorder often bring about fears that she might lash out and hurt someone and are part of the reason she often likes to hang out in the local cemetery and draw gruesome scenes in her sketchbook. The cemetery is quiet, as Mina says, the dead don't demand much of anybody, and sketching out her fears soothes her and provides a way for her to cope with the exhausting mental gymnastics her condition causes. But the downside of this is that her attraction to spooky, macabre things also serves to isolate her from others her age. In fact, her only friend is her neighbor Jackie. Things change though, when in an effort to avoid having to help her adoptive mom out at her yoga studio, Mina lies and tells her she's too busy because she's starting a new club at her school. One that will be focused on delving into the strange lore and history of her town. Confessing this problem to Jackie, Mina is surprised when her best friend actually finds two other students, Arthur and Quincey who are interested in helping to create such a club. From there Mina develops her first actual friend group. 

In terms of the writing, I really appreciated how Dale was able to smoothly balance a realistic portrayal of OCD, in a way that I've never really seen in fiction before, with intriguing gothic horror elements and a terrific blend of humor and wit. Mina not only is relatable because of her struggles but also in how she interacts with the cast of characters in the novel, namely her nemesis on the student council, Jonathan Harker. The banter between them was so good! I could literally quote several passages from this novel that made me laugh out loud. While the pace of the story starts off fast, delving us right into the spooky suspense, the middle of the novel does slow in pace some. There is lots of focus on Mina's OCD and there's also some time devoted to the development of her Lore of London Club. But these things were necessary to the plot as they give Mina more stakes at the end that drive her to dig into what is really going on in London. Why does there seem to be a coverup about what caused the strange sinkhole at the edge of town and about the couple who died when they car was sucked into it? Did one of London's oldest residents really die from natural causes? All of these questions not only captured Mina's attention, but mine as well, keeping me spellbound until the very end. If you like gothic vibes, nods to classic vampire lore, and complex, empathetic characters who exhibit phenomenal wit and snark, then I recommend you read Girl of Lore. You won't be disappointed. 

In addition to my next book review in a couple of weeks, I'm also going to be doing a spotlight of another NetGalley book in participation with the blog tour launch starting April 14th. That book spotlight will be for Daughter of the Wind by Nora Carmody. Then at the end of April I'll be reviewing By Hook or By Book by Misty Simon. Misty is a fellow mystery author published by Rowan Prose Publishing. I've pasted book covers and blurbs for both below, the one for Daughter of the Wind is courtesy of the publisher and By Hook or By Book is copied from bookshop.org.

A princess without the magic she was meant to inherit, Zara has always felt like an outsider among her people - until a dangerous wind power awakens within her, strong enough to change the course of a war. But that power comes at a devastating cost: the bond with her beloved horse begins to unravel. When a political marriage sends her into enemy territory, Zara finds herself caught between duty and desire—especially when her sworn protector, Commander Talon, becomes something far more dangerous.

Perfect for readers craving epic romance, political intrigue, and magical creatures with heart, DAUGHTER OF THE WIND is the start of an unforgettable new trilogy.

Roxy Gleason, an innkeeper by trade and a bibliomancer by birth, has lived in the same small town on the Susquehanna River in Central Pennsylvania for her entire life. Tradition is strong here. Roxy understands the rules and is willing to play by them most of the time. She runs the Charmed Inn, which has been in her family for decades.

The inn is all set to host a writers' professional business weekend that's been planned down to the very last hand-folded napkin, and Roxy is ready for the influx of creatives. She knows she'll have a lot of different and sometimes unusual personalities to deal with, but this is a yearly function, so she's not expecting anything to go awry.

Her expectations are completely tanked when she finds a dead body on her daily walk by the river's shore. Owen Schultz had checked in for the conference a few hours ago, and she'd last seen him having tea with her aunt in the dining room.

How did he get down here on the ferry, and who killed him?

 

Diverse Urban Fantasy at Its Best

 

image copied from Goodreads

I'm admittedly behind the times by a wide margin on the Mercy Thompson series as the first novel came out in 2006. However, to be fair at that time the market was flooded with many popular urban fantasy series, riding the wave of Dresden Files fame and the likes of YA sagas like Twilight and Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments. So, it was hard to keep up. But I recently found graphic novel adaptations of the first few books in the series and decided when my sister recommended it, and loaned me the first book, (Thanks, Megan!) that now was a good time to give this urban fantasy a try. I'm glad I did and for this review, I'm going to discuss the first book and the graphic novel adaptation of it. I thought it'd be fun to read one and then follow up with reading the other. 

So, what I can say about the novel right off the bat is that it has held up very well over time. As I was reading it, I didn't feel that it was twenty years outdated at all. In fact, in terms of the worldbuilding I would say that Patricia Briggs was thinking ahead by bringing up how much harder it was becoming to keep the supernatural and magical world under wraps with advancing technology and forensic science. That isn't something that I think was always addressed in urban fantasy back then. Or it was handled in a way that explained how some magic users could still keep humans in the dark by making technology glitchy around them, like Butcher does with his Harry Dresden. However, in Briggs's world the Gray Lords over the fae have already revealed themselves to humanity and as a result, many of the lesser fae, at least, have been forced to live on reservations. Another thing that I liked about this series is the diversity of the main character and the portrayal of her as a walker, someone who can magically shift into a coyote. Many walkers or skinwalkers then and now, have been negatively stereotyped as cannibals or monsters and villains in fantasies and urban fantasies over the years. But Briggs offers us a different perspective that is more respectful, in my opinion, of Native American folklore and culture by making Mercy's ability more in keeping with the natural world and less an evil monstrosity. In fact, I would say that from Mercy's point of view, the European werewolves and vampires are more monstrous and predatory in an unnatural sense than any walker that might still exist. 

Another positive that I feel has stood up to time over the last several years is the characterization of Mercy herself. Briggs gave her a profession that makes her a minority in the human world in the same way she is in the supernatural one, as a auto mechanic. Still today there are fewer women working in this field than there probably should be. Mercy is independent and like many urban fantasy characters has already endured much tragedy and loss in her life. But while she is content to be largely a loner, she isn't cynical of closed off. Mercy does have contact with her family and has developed some friendships with some powerful beings. She also lives next door to the werewolf alpha for her region. I don't think it is too much of a spoiler to say that I'm pretty sure Adam, her werewolf neighbor, is going to be an important future love interest for Mercy later in the series. Despite his obvious charisma and dangerous appeal though, Mercy is clear on setting her boundaries as far as what she'll tolerate from him and his natural machismo. I liked that about her. She claims to be rash and impatient and in some instances she is, but I never felt that her decisions as she becomes more and more enmeshed in what is going on with the werewolves in the mystery of the story were out of character or just plain dumb. I also felt that the rest of the cast of characters were given complexity and reasonable motivations for why they do the things that they do. So, I really enjoyed this first installment in the series and will continue to read more.

image copied from Goodreads 

As for the graphic novel adaptation, I was a little taken aback by where it starts. Instead of opening with Mercy and the boy who comes to her looking for work, as the novel does, we get some backstory about the wider world by finding out that the fae have revealed themselves to humans. In looking at this though from an adaptation standpoint, it made sense after I continued reading. It sets up the world right away and helps it stand out from other urban fantasies at the same time and eliminates the need for too much dialogue or monologue for Mercy as a character once we switch to her. The adapter, David Lawrence, made good choices in giving us some visual backstory for the world, then giving us the first gripping action scene with Mercy and Mac, the boy she's helped, then takes us back a few days before to when Mac first shows up in Mercy's shop. I thought that arranging the story and visuals in this way gave us some important worldbuilding, drew us into the story and action right away and then allowed us to take a step back and say, okay, here's how this all transpired in the first place. In terms of the illustrations and artwork, Amelia Woo also did an amazing job. I was not disappointed by any of her depictions of the characters from the novel. Based on the descriptions of them from the book I think her artwork was spot on and adds to the visual narration of the story in the graphic novel. 

So, if you're an urban fantasy fan and you've never given the Mercy Thompson series a read, I highly recommend it. I also found it very entertaining to read the first book and then follow up by reading the first graphic novel adaptation right afterwards while the story was still fresh in my mind. Both were available through my local library system, so if you have a library card with your own public library, they shouldn't be hard to find. I checked out the graphic novel on my library's digital hoopla app. 

For my next reads and reviews for April, I'm considering either a cozy mystery by one of my Rowan Prose pub siblings, or one of the paranormal suspenses that I bought from Plenty Bookshop when I went to their Wine and Words Festival the beginning of March. As always, I came away from that with far more books than I probably should have. Stay tuned for my next review in mid-April!

Assassin Suspense That Would Make Helen Mirren Proud

 

Image copied from Bookshop.org

I have long been a fan or Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series. A mystery series set in Victorian England that features a strong, fiercely independent and unconventional female lead. I was naturally intrigued when I heard that Raybourn had created a stand alone thriller that featured a squad of female assassins who are equally fierce and unconventional. The reason I think this book would make Helen Mirren proud is the fact that she played just such a character in the movie Red, which I've included an IMDB link to for those of you unfamiliar with that film. Mirren's character of Victoria from the movie was what I thought of when I first read the blurb for this book. However, instead of a group of different assassins both male and female being targeted for a hit, this book features all female assassins. 

So, let's get right into it. These women are all mature women who have mastered the art of being underestimated and used that to their advantage their whole career. Being retirement age and seen as outdated, while maddening, is not really that shocking for them. As the first group of women to be trained as professional assassins for the clandestine organization they work for, they are very used to being either overlooked, underestimated, or both. At the start of the novel they've each retired from their agency and have been offered an all-expenses-paid vacation as a reward for their 40+ years of service. Unfortunately, during their cruise they realize that the organization they've worked for has set them up to be taken out on their vacation. A kill order has been initiated and if they want to survive they're going to have to figure out who put out this kill order and why. They're also going to have to take down the people behind it to put a stop to it.

From there the suspense and action take off and I was here for all of it. The book is largely told from Billie's point of view in the contemporary timeline. But there are a few chapters interspersed that take place in the past and give readers a window into why these four women, Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie and Helen were recruited and how. Those chapters are told from a distant third-person viewpoint. I found this to work very well. It gives us backstory but in a fun and interesting way as the stories for each of the women and the woman who trained them is fascinating in part because it is given in small doses from this more distant lens. Also, it adds to what we know of each of them now, setting them apart personality wise as distinctive characters. Later ,when we learn about their training it also augments what we already know as each of them also have different aptitudes and skillsets as assassins as well. Though, as this becomes important to the story as it unfolds, I won't spoil that for anyone who hasn't read the book.

The action in this novel was fast-paced and each chapter was just long enough to keep my interest. Sometimes, even with action suspense books, I can find myself paging through to see where a chapter might end. I didn't find myself doing that with this book. Each chapter cut off in just the right place and with just the right cliffhanger for me to want to turn that page. Also, each time one of the women has to take someone out, Raybourn is careful not to make it too easy for them. As Billie notes, even the best plans can get derailed or have unexpected problems crop up, making it important to be able to pivot and improvise when needed. One of the things I really appreciated about that was the way that the author used that in not only the plot of the novel, but also used that as an example of how one's everyday life can unfold. Each of these women has had to learn how to pivot or adjust when life threw them curveballs all while largely being seen as expendable by society as a whole rather than appreciated for the strong and competent people they are, especially, as they became women of a certain age. Hats off to Raybourn for conveying that in a fun action-adventure story. Making her fierce heroines assassins also created an excellent vehicle for portraying female rage in general without it being trite, preachy, or heavy-handed. I think women of any age who love fast-paced suspense featuring strong female main characters should give this book a try. You might be surprised by how much you'll enjoy the ride!

Stay tuned for my next review and read. Whatever I choose from my extensive TBR pile it will have some sort of mystery element and also feature a strong female main character in honor of Women's History Month. 

New Dark Academia Urban Fantasy

 

image copied from Bookshop.org

Half City by Kate Golden is a new urban fantasy series that was just released this past February and offers a fun spin on the dark academia trope. I thought it was unique in that it was set in our world but one in which a chasm exists where demons or deviants were unleashed on the world in some alternate past. Lymantrians, or supernatural beings, then came down to Earth from an upper plane of existence to fight them and seal the chasm. That is the world in which the made up city of Astera is located. So, our world with some alternate history twists. 

The main character Viv is a born hunter, unlike her sister and mom. Therefore, she's been forced to live in the mortal world while keeping her abilities and hunting of deviants a secret from her own family since her father (who was the parent she inherited her gifts from) was killed by demons years ago. In this world hunters mainly hunt and kill demons but other forms of deviants exist such a vampires, werewolves, warlocks, etc. As a lone hunter since her father died, Viv has developed her own code of conduct in who she hunts and kills to protect mortals. Much of her ethics revolve around what her father taught her, but some have evolved as she has. I thought this was an excellent way to portray her as a character. She loves her family but cannot be fully herself with them. She abhors deviants that prey on humans, but only hunts and kills them if she feels they're posing an actual threat to someone, not just because she recognizes them as a deviant or something other than human.

As such, Viv is tough, cynical, conflicted, isolated, and very lonely at the start of the novel. Her conflict, backstory and the backstory of this world are all introduced well through action and dialogue right from the beginning. I was immediately drawn in and left wanting to read on to figure out what might happen with her next. She was a very relatable and well-drawn heroine. While defending herself from yet another deviant encounter after showing up late for her best friend's birthday party, Viv meets a recruiter for a university for hunters, Reid Graveheart from Harker Academy. What a fun name! 

Intrigued that there might actually be a university for demon hunters, Viv decides to check it out. While she isn't sure she'll want to enroll, it would mean more lying to her mortal family and friends after all, another hunter who befriends her encourages her to give it a day. Viv is surprised to find she feels at home at Harker and decides to enroll. She also realizes that attending college there might give her more of a chance to figure out who her dad really was and what might have led to his death. 

The description of the campus and of Viv's classes and training were all fun and rich in detail. I felt that I was discovering this world Viv never knew existed right along with her. She is able to form friendships with other hunters where she can finally be herself and not have to hide all of who or what she is. The mystery about what happened to her dad and the events as they unfold on campus  throughout the story were intriguing and intertwined well. The romance that develops between Reid and Viv was also tense and believable. Even though he's Viv's instructor, which I would normally find icky for a love interest, the backstory for both characters and the fact that Viv is of age made it less of a problem for me. 

My only complaint, and it's not really a big one, was the cliffhanger ending. While the threads of the mystery for this novel were wrapped up, the ending leaves you wondering how Viv or Reid might survive. So, many questions and so much action still lie ahead for both. I'll be eagerly anticipating the sequel to this one! I hope it isn't released too long after this book.

The next book I'll be reviewing in a couple of weeks is Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. It is a suspense thriller about a group of women who worked as assassins and have to figure out a way to avoid being retired by the company they worked for permanently. The cover and book blurb below have both been copied from Bookshop.org.

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that’s their secret weapon. They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire—it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller by New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. Now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills.  

When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death. 

Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They’re about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman—and a killer—of a certain age.

Amazing Contemporary Gothic Suspense

Image copied from bookshop.org

The title and description of this book had me intrigued from the first. But oh my!! This was so much more than I expected. The mystery by itself had me compelled to keep reading, but then add in the gothic elements of the setting, a small coastal island town and the large mansion overlooking it on its lonely bluff, and I was completely hooked. It reminded me of the Victoria Holt or Phyllis Whitney romantic suspense novels that I read growing up, only better.

The romance elements were there but they were very, very small compared to the rest of this sweeping story of murder, family secrets and small isolated communities. I loved the main character Willow, who despite seeming to have it together as a musical grad student is still very lonely and adrift at the start of the novel. She returns to North Shore Island off the coast of Maine after receiving a plea from her godmother to come back so they can reunite. Willow cannot resist the chance, but is heartbroken to learn, shortly after receiving the letter, that her godmother has met with an untimely death. From there we follow Willow and a few other point of view characters throughout the story as she struggles to come to terms with what happened to her godmother and why the mysterious and very haunted Cameron House seems to be at the center of it all.

The setting, the mystery and the characters were all well drawn and engaging. I especially loved the women on the island who all seem to want to help Willow but who seem to have secrets of their own that make you wonder along with Willow who she can really trust or if she can accept their overtures to become a part of their found family. Despite the fact that the last living Cameron on the island was truly a despicable and mean old man, I couldn't help but like him a little as Willow did. Then there was the police detective who used to be Willow's nemesis when she visited her godmother, Sue, on the island in the summers. Nick is obviously secretly smitten with Willow still, but hides it well. She likewise finds he has grown up to be quite attractive, but still clings to her impression that he is a royal pain all the same. The banter between them in the few scenes where they're together was entertaining and added just the right amount of zing to the dynamics of the story. The mystery, you realize early, is one of murder and involves a plot on someone's part to claim Cameron House for their own. I was left guessing until near the very end who was behind it all and there were some wonderful twists and reveals at the climax that any mystery lover would enjoy! But then add in the ghosts and the sentient-seeming house and it takes the whole mystery up another notch in my estimation. I truly loved this book and will be getting my own copy to re-read again once it comes out this February!

If you love gothic mystery suspense with rugged settings and haunted mansions, then you will thoroughly enjoy this debut novel. 

For my next review, I'll be featuring Half City the first in a new series by Kate Golden. This one is a fun urban fantasy into dark academia. It combines the best of both worlds for me in that it is a fantasy and a mystery as most urban fantasies tend to be. I also loved the spin Golden gives to dark academia in this one. Both the book cover and blurb copied below are from Bookshop.org. As always, consider supporting your local indie bookshops or local libraries whenever possible. 

Welcome to Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. Keep your daggers sharp, and your wits even sharper.

Viv Abbot is an average twenty-one-year-old girl. She lives in an expensive city where the rent is too high, works long hours at a thankless job, and is dating a guy she doesn’t even like in the hopes of winning her prickly mother’s approval.

She also happens to be a demon hunter.

Ever since her father's murder, she's been forced to hunt deviants alone, meaning everyone, including her family, sees her as an outsider . . . until the day she crosses paths with a dangerously alluring demon, Reid Graveheart. The reformed deviant tells her of a school for people just like her: Harker Academy for Deviant Defense. If she enrolls, she'll learn to hone her craft, work with other hunters, and never be alone again.

But Viv has a deadly secret. One that not even her new friends at Harker can know about, not if the school might hold the answers to untangling the mystery surrounding Viv's father’s death. When strange occurrences begin to plague the students, Viv will have to figure out who she can trust, all while trying to ace her classes, avoid falling for a demon, and make it through her first year at Harker in one piece. How hard could that be?

 

Fun Historical Mystery Adventure for Middle Grade Readers

Image copied from Goodreads

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin was the first read of 2026 of my Online Kidlit Book Club. I was excited to delve into this one as it was a historical mystery that involved spies, intrigue and Bletchley Park in England. I was not disappointed. This novel was an adventure that was well balanced for the intended reading audience in terms of the history it incorporated in with the fictional suspense. It also had a lot of heart as the two main characters are a brother and sister that have become estranged by loss and the war. 

The story opens with Lizzie, the sister for the main character duo, escaping from her escort tasked with taking her to America where her grandmother resides. Lizzie is determined to do the opposite of escape to safety from the coming German Blitz on London and other parts of England that is imminent. Instead, she had decided to seek out her brother Jacob once she discovers where on the map he's dropped off to and to figure out what happened to their mother who everyone thinks is dead. Finding her way to Bletchely Park, by way of Jacob being tasked with bringing her there, the adventure begins.

Of the two characters I loved Lizzie! She is smart, determined and full of optimism even though everyone keeps telling her that her mother is dead. Lizzie refuses to believe it. She finds coded information hidden in her mother's room right before she is whisked away to Bletchley by her brother that is further proof for her that their mother was more than she seemed and is in fact very much alive still. Add in the historical details of the work that was done in Bletchley Park to break the enigma that is the German intelligence exchange system and this is a mystery that is full of tension, suspense, and heart. Lizzie soon figures out what is really going on at Bletchley despite Jacob's efforts to keep her in the dark. As someone who is hired by the general in charge of the park to be a message courier about the manor she is in able to watch and observe the hive that is the park. As clever as she is, it doesn't take her long to piece things together. 

The backdrop of the start of WWII is also a character in the story. The parts that are told from Jacob's point of view give us a glimpse into British intelligence and recruitment during the war as Jacob is recruited as a university math major to be a part of the think tank that is Bletchley. We see firsthand the pressure the people involved in this code breaking were under to prevent the Germans from invading England and to figure out what their targets would be for the bombing they did of England to break the British spirit. As the British fought largely alone at the start of the war once the Germans occupied France. A few details were also included as to how the British were able to get their hands on the enigma machines in the first place in order to start working at breaking the coded ciphers the Germans used to relay their messages. While I was not as engrossed in Jacob's side of the story, anyone interested in coding, ciphers and complex math would probably enjoy this side of it. I did like getting to see some of the real life people in the story also such as Alan Turing. The ending when the two siblings finally figure out the real story of what happened to their mom was tension filled and very like a James Bond moment. All in all, if you or a young reader that you know enjoys historical mystery fiction set during WWII then I recommend picking up The Bletchley Riddle. I think this book would also be appropriate for those teaching this historical period to upper elementary or middle school students. 

My next review for February will be a really good gothic mystery that I read as a NetGalley ARC, Murder Will Out by Jennifer Breedlove. The book cover and the description are both copied from bookshop.org. To obtain copies of either books mentioned in this post just click on the title to order a copy from bookshop.org and support indie bookstores. I also recommend supporting your local libraries by checking out or requesting they obtain copies of either of these books for their shelves as well. 

Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award winner Jennifer K. Breedlove brings coastal Maine to life in Murder Will Out, a lighter, modern gothic mystery that's as atmospheric as it is heart-warming.

Come for the memories. Stay for the murder...
Little North Island, off the coast of Maine, is so beautiful it could be a postcard. Organist Willow Stone cherishes her memories of childhood summers spent on the island with her godmother Sue... even though her visits ended abruptly, and she hasn't seen or heard from her godmother in over fifteen years. Until a letter from Sue—and word of Sue’s death—brings Willow back to the picturesque island.

The islanders rarely mention Sue without also bringing up Cameron House, and the controversy around Sue’s unexpected inheritance of the sprawling mansion. When Willow overhears someone threatening the next heir to the property, she starts to question whether Sue’s death was really an accident, and can’t help but wonder whether someone on this sleepy island is willing to stop at nothing—even murder—to claim Cameron House for their own.

Through Willow’s eyes, as well as those of others on the island, a mystery unfolds that keeps drawing Willow back to Cameron House and the very real ghosts that walk its corridors.