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The Alice Network
RECOMMENDED: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn is $2.99! This is part of today’s Kindle Daily Deals, which feature a lot of bestsellers. RHG gave this one a B+:
If you read and loved Code Name Verity this is a book for you. I said a couple of years ago that I expected a lot of World War I stories to come out of this centennial, and I’m pretty pleased to have been right. There are a lot of really interesting stories emerging. I’m also really interested (for various reasons) in how people deal with the PTSD that come out of traumatic periods in history, and this story is a deeply layered exploration of just that.
In an enthralling new historical novel from national bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.
1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the “Queen of Spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.
Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads.
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The Real Deal
The Real Deal by Lauren Blakely is $1.99! This is a contemporary romance with a fake relationship and forced proximity. Readers say this does a great job blending humor and romance, while others wanted a more emotional payoff. Have you read this one?
Get ready for your next favorite romantic comedy, THE REAL DEAL!
April Hamilton wants you to know she hasn’t been on Craigslist since that time she sold her futon after college. She doesn’t even spend that much time online. And even if she did, she would not be looking up personal ads. But going home alone for her family’s summer reunion is an invitation for every single relative to butt into her personal life. She simply can’t handle another blind date with the butcher, the baker or the candlestick maker from her hometown. So when she finds the Craigslist ad for a boyfriend-for-hire, she’s ready to pay to play.Heading Home and Need a Buffer? I’m the REAL DEAL.
Theo Banks has been running from the past for years. He’s this close to finally settling all his debts, and one more job as a boyfriend-for-hire will do the trick. He’s no gigolo. Please. He’s something of an actor, and he knows how to slip into any role, including pretending to be April’s new beau — the bad boy with the heart of gold.Even if it means sleeping in close quarters in that tiny little bed in her parents’ inn. Even if it means spinning tales of a romance that starts to feel all too true. What neither one of them counts on is that amid the egg toss, the arm wrestling, and a fierce game of Lawn Twister that has them tangled up together, they might be feeling the real deal.
She only wanted to show her family once and for all that she had no need to settle down.
He didn’t expect to have the time of his life at her parent’s home.
They didn’t plan on loving every single second of the game.
But can a masterful game of pretend result in true love?
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Alice Isn’t Dead
Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink is $2.99! This book is by the creator of Welcome to Night Vale and it also based on a podcast of the same name. I love the Alice Isn’t Dead podcast and highly recommend it, though I’m not sure if the book is simply a novelization of the podcast or if it’s different in any way.
From the New York Times bestselling co-author of It Devours! and Welcome to Night Vale comes a fast-paced thriller about a truck driver searching across America for the wife she had long assumed to be dead.
“This is not a story. It’s a road trip.”
Keisha Lewis lived a quiet life with her wife, Alice, until the day that Alice disappeared. After months of searching, presuming she was dead, Keisha held a funeral, mourned, and gradually tried to get on with her life. But that was before Keisha started to see her wife, again and again, in the background of news reports from all over America. Alice isn’t dead, and she is showing up at every major tragedy and accident in the country.
Following a line of clues, Keisha takes a job with a trucking company, Bay and Creek Transportation, and begins searching for Alice. She eventually stumbles on an otherworldly conflict being waged in the quiet corners of our nation’s highway system—uncovering a conspiracy that goes way beyond one missing woman.
Why did Alice disappear? What does she have to do with this secret war between inhuman killers? Why did the chicken cross the road? These questions, and many more will be answered in Alice Isn’t Dead.
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Shakespeare’s Landlord
Shakespeare’s Landlord by Charlaine Harris is $1.99! This is the first book in the Lily Bard mystery series. I believe these are more on the cozy side, but correct me if I’m wrong. Readers seem divided on the heroine. Some love her tenacity and how much she’s overcome, while others feel like her personality was rather grating.
Welcome to Shakespeare, Arkansas. Lily Bard came to the small town of Shakespeare to escape her dark and violent past. Other than the day-to-day workings of her cleaning and errand-running service, she pays little attention to the town around her. So when she spots a dead body being dumped in the town green, she’s inclined to stay well away. But she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and despite her best efforts, she’s dragged into the murder case. Lily doesn’t care who did it, but when the police and local community start pointing fingers in her direction, she realizes that proving her innocence will depend on finding the real killer in quiet, secretive Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s Landlord is the first book in Charlaine Harris’s Lily Bard mysterious series.
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Mild spoilers for Shakespeare’s Landlord.
I would say the Shakespeare series that started with Shakespeare’s landlord is darker than cozy. The heroine’s background comes out early in the series but it includes violent rape and murder described in detail. The series itself also takes on issues like gaslighting and racial violence.
These Alice titles are making me want to reread “A Town Like Alice” and “Alice in Wonderland”.
I *really* liked the Lily Bard series when I first read it many years ago. But I listened to Shakespeare’s Landlord in audio in 2017 and it did not hold up well at all for me. Lily was not as unlikable as Aurora Teagarden (another Harris heroine), but she’s in no way endearing. Advances in technology also didn’t do the mystery any favors–it seemed very outdated this time around. Also outdated were some of the attitudes about sexual assault victims, women’s sexuality in general, and interracial relationships. I decided to not bother revisiting the rest of the series. Of course, this is subjective and YMMV.
As a bit of trivia, Lily and another character from the series make a cameo appearance in one of the later Sookie Stackhouse books. Since the Lily Bard books have no paranormal elements at all, it was a very strange (and jarring) crossover.
The Alice Network was one of my favorite reads of last year! I can’t wait to read Quinn’s next book.
Harris’s Shakespeare is very dark – I read it ages ago and still remember some of the details very vividly.
I loved the Lily Bard books that I read, though they could be kind of draining. I liked how she was kind of unlikeable and especially how she’s honest to herself about how she’s annoyed by a guy she’s into because he wants a different kind of relationship than her. But I’d also say they’re more violent than cozy, in a way that can seem too real/plausible.
Lily Bard is not cozy, as described above. I liked them a lot but they are difficult books.
Not a spoiler exactly but:
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This article talks about how Harris’s own experience is part of how she portrays Lily Bard.
https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/charlaine-harris