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A Desperate Fortune
A Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley is $2.51 at Amazon and $2.99 elsewhere! Like Kearsley’s other books, it has strong romantic elements and dual timelines. Many readers loved Sara, a woman who’s been diagnosed with Asperger’s and takes a job as a codebreaker, but other readers found the book took a while to get going. Are you a Kearsley fan?
The highly anticipated, brand-new timeslip romance from New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley
For nearly 300 years, the mysterious journal of Jacobite exile Mary Dundas has lain unread-its secrets safe from prying eyes. Now, amateur codebreaker Sara Thomas has been hired by a once-famous historian to crack the journal’s cipher.
But when she arrives in Paris, Sara finds herself besieged by complications from all sides: the journal’s reclusive owner, her charming Parisian neighbor, and Mary, whose journal doesn’t hold the secrets Sara expects. As Mary’s tale grows more and more dire, Sara, too, must carefully choose which turning to take… to find the road that will lead her safely home.
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Attachments
RECOMMENDED: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell is $1.99! Sarah really enjoyed this one and gave it an A-, though I know other readers found the hero to have some major boundary issues.
I read this book while flying, and fought the Ambien I’d taken to keep reading it. The best thing about the story is that it’s alarmingly easy to sink into. Epistolary novels work very well on me for that reason. It’s a point of view that, if I like the narrators (and I did), is extremely accessible to my imagination.
“Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you …”
Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.
Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now- reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.
When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.
By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself.
What would he say …?
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Puppy Love
Puppy Love by Lucy Gilmore is $1.99! The heroine and her sisters run a training school for service puppies and the hero is in the market for a diabetic service dog. When we previously featured this one, some readers expressed concern for whether the medical/dog training details were accurate and it seems like a lot of research was done. If you have thoughts, definitely leave them below!
No matter the job, no matter the need
These service dogs in training will always fall in love at first bark.When Sophie Vasquez and her sisters dreamed up Puppy Promise—their service puppy training school—it was supposed to be her chance to bring some good into the world. But how can she expect to do anything when no one will take her seriously?
Enter Harrison Parks: a rough, gruff, take-no-bull wildlife firefighter in need of a diabetic service dog. He couldn’t be a more unlikely fit for Sophie or Bubbles—the sweet Pomeranian she knows will be his perfect partner—but when Sophie insists he give them both a shot, something unexpected happens: he listens. Even better, he keeps on listening, even as Sophie and Bubbles turn his lonely, uber-masculine world upside-down.
As it turns out, they all have something to prove…and more than enough room in their hearts for a little puppy love.
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Was interested in Wagon Train Cinderella, and then when I checked the starred reviews, stumbled on this gem:
“You have to love the people from the east who conquered the west during a time when Indians and lawlessness ruled.”
Somebody tell me that the book doesn’t reflect this attitude?
If I remember Attachments correctly, a secondary character has a miscarriage. I think it was mostly implied (there were emails about the baby, and then there conspicuously were not), but content warning for those who need it.
I liked the story in the Kearsley book, but didn’t think the way the cryptography was portrayed actually worked.
@Tam – It definitely does. The one I reviewed elsewhere from this series – Wagon Train Sisters – had literal talk of manifest destiny among the white characters, Chinese characters who spoke in pidgin, and native characters who appeared as drunken caricatures who were whispered about behind their backs as cannibals. It was ugly.
On the positive side of things, I can’t recommend the Gilmore series high enough. Every single book in it is adorable.
‘Attachments’ was just added to Audible’s Escape package.
Of the six Kearsley books I’ve read, I’ve got this one ranked fourth. I’m usually all about the Scots (or, in the case of “Named of the Dragon”, the Welsh), but this one was indeed a bit slow, & I didn’t find the characters as compelling as, say, “The Winter Sea”. That said, it’s still a good read – the only one of hers I truly couldn’t get into was “Bellewether”.
I should add that when I questioned the attitudes in the book the author popped up to say that she/the book wasn’t racist because “things were really like that back then.” Yes, really.
Puppy Love was adorable. The medical service dog aspects seemed pretty realistic. I knew someone who had a dog that she used for stability, like one of the dogs in the story. It was also trained to bring her her medication and help with her panic attacks. I’ve heard stories about dogs that spontaneously alerted to diabetic low blood sugar events — their owners just smelled “wrong” to them. All dogs can smell physiological changes like that, the trick is to train them to pay attention and recognize that it’s something to alert to. My dog would be a terrible service dog: she’s smart and trainable, but too ADD and independent. I’m not surprised that a breed specifically bred to be companions made a good medical service dog. I met a woman once on public transit with a cat in a backpack. She had let it out and it was walking back and forth between her shoulders and her companion’s. I asked about it, and she said it was an epilepsy alert animal. I said I didn’t think cats could be trained to do anything useful.
I loved A Desperate Fortune! I particularly enjoyed how fairy tales factored into the story and learning how they were a big part of French salons in the 18th century and how empowering this was for women at the time. Of course, the patriarchy couldn’t have this and hence we mostly know fairy tales written by men.
I agree with Ruth, Puppy Love is adorable. I’m looking forward to reading Puppy Christmas with my holiday reading binge. I was the leash-holding half of a therapy dog team and dogs never cease to amaze me.
Susanna Kearsley is a go to author for me, and I’ve never been disappointed in any of her books! This is a great deal for A Desperate Fortune, and bonus for a heroine on the spectrum. I will admit this one took longer to get going for me than some of her others, and it doesn’t have the magical/time travel elements of some of her other novels. However, the ending of both timelines was very emotionally satisfying.
I DEVOURED Puppy Love!! I loved the hero and his Dad, I could picture them so clearly. I couldn’t wait for Puppy Christmas-I started reading it weeks ago and still haven’t finished. Just didn’t grab me like Puppy Love did. Interesting characters, but it just didn’t hit the sweet spot with me.
@LauraL I gave Puppy Christmas an A, and it’s well-earned. Adorable and sweet.