A Study in Scarlet Women
RECOMMENDED: A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas is $2.99! Both Sarah and Carrie read this book and enjoyed it.
Sarah gave it a B+: I haven’t shut up about this book since I finished it. My outbound text messages are mostly hollering, squeeing, and long strings of vowels about this book.
I’m so excited this book exists. I’m so excited that I got to read it. I’m so excited there will be more.
Carrie gave it B: I can’t WAIT to find out what Charlotte, Livia, and Mrs. Watson are up to. I hope it involves them being protective of each other, empowering, and smart. The excitement is palpable!
USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the story of the renowned Sherlock Holmes upside down…
With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.
When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.
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Rock Hard by Nalini Singh is $2.99! This is a contemporary romance and book two in the Rock Kiss series. I remember liking this one and it pairing of gruff rugby player and mousy heroine.
In New York Times Bestselling author Nalini Singh’s newest contemporary romance, passion ignites between a gorgeous, sinfully sexy man who built himself up from nothing and a shy woman who has a terrible secret in her past…
Wealthy businessman Gabriel Bishop rules the boardroom with the same determination and ruthlessness that made him a rock star on the rugby field. He knows what he wants, and he’ll go after it no-holds-barred.
And what he wants is Charlotte Baird.
Charlotte knows she’s a mouse. Emotionally scarred and painfully shy, she just wants to do her job and remain as invisible as possible. But the new CEO—a brilliant, broad-shouldered T-Rex of a man who growls and storms through the office, leaving carnage in his wake—clearly has other plans. Plans that may be equal parts business and bedroom.
If Charlotte intends to survive this battle of wits and hearts, the mouse will have to learn to wrangle the T-Rex. Game on.
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City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong is $2.99! This is the first book in the Rockton thriller/mystery series and I will warn you that this deal will expire tomorrow. Readers loved the pacing of the book and say it really grabs you. However, some reader wished they had more history and info about the main character.
Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey’s best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana’s husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it’s time for the two of them to disappear again.
Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you’re accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. As a murderer, Casey isn’t a good candidate, but she has something they want: She’s a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn’t the only secret Rockton is hiding—in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.
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RECOMMENDED: Wicked Intentions by Elizabeth Hoyt is $1.99! I listened to this on audio after Elyse’s great review and loved it. I’ve since listened to the next two Maiden Lane books on audio as well. Elyse really enjoyed this book and gave it an A-.
A man controlled by his desires…
Infamous for his wild, sensual needs, Lazarus Huntington, Lord Caire, is searching for a savage killer in St. Giles, London’s most notorious slum. Widowed Temperance Dews knows St. Giles like the back of her hand— she’s spent a lifetime caring for its inhabitants at the foundling home her family established. Now that home is at risk.
A woman haunted by her past…
Caire makes a simple offer—in return for Temperance’s help navigating the perilous alleys of St. Giles, he will introduce her to London’s high society so that she can find a benefactor for the home. But Temperance may not be the innocent she seems, and what begins as cold calculation soon falls prey to a passion that neither can control—one that may well destroy them both.
A bargain neither could refuse.
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N.K. Jemisin’s THE CITY WE BECAME is a daily deal for $2.99. The energy of NYC has reached critical mass for it to be “born” as something like a god, monstrous forces are trying to stop that from happening, and the city’s defenders are assembling. The “most helpful” reviews are from people really upset about race and gender, if that helps clarify who the intended audience is not. And the sequel will be out in November!
HIGHLY recommend Armstrong’s Rockton series. I have the latest on the bedside chair as we speak. The characters are a delight. The stories are twisty. The premise is intriguing.
B&N has a coupon for 25% off preorders, ending Friday.
It can be applied to most physical book and some ebooks. (The details on the website list the excluded publishers.)
I enjoy the Charlotte Holmes books, but the friendships and sisterhood moments are much, much stronger than the romance. I stopped reading them because I was so frustrated with the love interest.
Is that a new cover for Wicked Intentions? Is it me or does the head look pasted on?
Shouting about the Rockton series, wish I could read them again for the first time. I have to disagree that there isn’t enough backstory about Casey; it all comes out, just as everything does there, slowly and as needed. One of my all-time favorites.
The Nalini Singh book is a comfort read of mine – at first the h is timid and reserved due to a terrible experience at the hands of her ex, but discovers that in fact her inner strength and determination haven’t been completely extinguished. Seeing her start to push back against the overwhelming and bossy H is lovely (and funny too!)
@ Lena Brassard/Ren Benton
That’s a good book. The source story is in How Long til Black Future Month?
I enjoy the Charlotte Holmes books a good deal, despite the occasional clanging anachronisms. There’s a lot of spit-on observation of what it would really mean for “Sherlock” to be “Charlotte”.
@2dollarsshoes: That’s the original cover & yeah, his head is pasted on. Still better than a cartoon cover.
@DonnaMarie, @Darlynne, is the Rockton series graphically violent? I’m reading romantic suspense again after a long hiatus. I can enjoy suspense if it doesn’t involve torture or other meticulously-described violence.
@2dollarsshoes, @hng23
Wicked Intentions is an old favorite of mine and I hate this cover. I believe the original cover featured the heroine doing a caped gothic novel style lurk through the London streets. The current cover makes the hero look like a pouty frat boy.
Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron is .99 at Amazon.
@PamG
Also he’s got short blond hair! Hero has long silver hair a la Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy. His hair color later becomes a major plot point in The Duke of Sin.
I really liked the Hoyt—there are some quibbles about historical accuracy but I found the emotional arc of the MCs very satisfying.
I’ve read a somewhat random smattering of the rest of the Maiden Lane series owing to library availability (1, 3, 6, 7, and 10) and this is by far the best of that bunch. (#10, DUKE OF SIN got Hoyt on my permanent NOPE list, unfortunately.)
@LML, I would have to say yes. The murders generally happen off page, but due to the nature of the inhabitants and the environs, the resulting investigations have some sustained tension and lead to more violence. Not as graphic as some, but definitely things that aren’t for the squeamish.
@LML I’d also says she doesn’t revel in the violence, but it is factual. Also, at some point she gets a puppy. A Newfie puppy who is never anthropomorphized or treated as a child substitute. Though she often has to make sure it isn’t mistaken for a bear.
I feel like the last book was unintentional cover snark. His head, hair, and hands look pasted on. But it’s like an optical illusion because maybe it was the clothes and hair pasted on a shirtless model?
Of course you can’t judge a book by its cover :). Adding it to my Library request.
@LML: I co-sign DonnaMarie’s take on the violence in the Rockton series.
BUT–and I say this as someone who will not read anything graphic, gratuitous or from the killer’s POV–there is so much more to these books. Character, character, character. Then the harsh environment and the complicated relationships that develop, or not, when only one person knows why anyone else is there.
Armstrong clearly thought a lot about what kind of society such a place would create. I found all of it fascinating.
Rock Hard needs a content warning for intimate partner violence. The FMC has a violent ex and it’s a major part of the story. I thought it was handled well enough back when I read it but it could be potentially deeply triggering for someone and I would hate for them to be caught off guard.
@Darlynne, 1000 times yes.
@DonnaMarie and @Darlynne, thank you. If I were just trying to decide to read Rockton, I would not. But I read your comments here all the time. Occasionally I have precisely the same thoughts (which can be peculiar), but even when I don’t think the same, your opinions are always considered. Long way around to say I will try the Rockton series. I appreciate mysteries with “substance”.