Love this one! It is SO refreshing to find a cozy mystery that isn't about white ladies working in bookshops. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE a good boLove this one! It is SO refreshing to find a cozy mystery that isn't about white ladies working in bookshops. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE a good bookshop mystery. But I am so thrilled to have stumbled upon a series that has a POC cast and a unique setting.
Chien's writing is also amazing, funny and cute without any of the cliched, Hallmark-channel feeling that abounds in cozies. The characters all felt real, young people being written by a young person, and it showed. I loved it.
And the mystery was great. Not obvious, not obscure. I am all in for this series and I can't wait to read the next one. ...more
This book was so much fun. A great mystery, characters that made me love them right away, and a satisfying conclusion. There are obvious echos to HolmThis book was so much fun. A great mystery, characters that made me love them right away, and a satisfying conclusion. There are obvious echos to Holmes and Watson, but Barker and Llewelyn are very much their own characters and enjoyable in their own right.
It's a novel set in Victorian England, and as such the author uses a lot of historically accurate references to Jewish and Chinese people and cultures, a while that bugged my modern sensabilities a bit, it was always made very plain that our heroes are allies of those cultures using the common terms of the day. While I could have wished the author had done without them -- it's fiction, you can do whatever you want -- in context I get it.
I can't wait to continue reading the rest of the series. ...more
This book was intense. I ugly-cried more than once and got angry at this damn story, but in the end I was so glad I had made it through. The women in This book was intense. I ugly-cried more than once and got angry at this damn story, but in the end I was so glad I had made it through. The women in this book are faced with impossible choices over and over again, and watching them struggle to survive the war is heart wrenching and tragic and beautiful all at once. ...more
Really, really well done. There is a lot to plumb in this book for themes, relationships between mothers and daughters, sisters, dreams and reality, fReally, really well done. There is a lot to plumb in this book for themes, relationships between mothers and daughters, sisters, dreams and reality, fate and decisions, and how we become who we are, how we reconcile that to who we think we were meant to be.
After reading The Nightingale I was a bit terrified of getting back into a WWII book, but this was exactly what I wanted my historical fiction to be -- moving and thought provoking and evocative without being too graphically descriptive. Which has its place to be sure, those graphic details, and I liked The Nightingale and I think it's an important book, and it's important to have those grisly details of war remembered. But my senses were raw, man, and I needed something that was focused more on the people and not the atrocities, if that makes sense.
This book was beautiful and heart wrenching. I can't wait to discuss it at book club....more
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