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The Matzah Ball
The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer is $1.99! I know there was a lot of buzz for this one because it was a Hanukkah romance. However, reviews seem pretty middling and it also still appears to be rather rooted or influenced by Christmas. I have not read it though.
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The Library of the Dead
The Library of the Dead by T.L. Huchu is $2.99! This is an urban fantasy series with horror elements set in Edinburgh and I’d say it’s Nancy Drew meets Stranger Things. The central plot does deal with children in peril, being abducted, etc.
Sixth Sense meets Stranger Things in T. L. Huchu’s The Library of the Dead, a sharp contemporary fantasy following a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.
When a child goes missing in Edinburgh’s darkest streets, young Ropa investigates. She’ll need to call on Zimbabwean magic as well as her Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. But as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
When ghosts talk, she will listen…
Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children–leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.
She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan…), discovering an occult library and a taste for hidden magic. She’ll also experience dark times. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets, and Ropa’s gonna hunt them all down.
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The Other Miss Bridgerton
The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn is $2.99! This is the third book in the Rokesbys series and also described as a Bridgertons prequel. However, readers say this works fine as a standalone. Quinn is an auto-buy for a lot of romance readers, though some were unable to forgive the hero for kidnapping the heroine.
She was in the wrong place…
Fiercely independent and adventurous, Poppy Bridgerton will only wed a suitor whose keen intellect and interests match her own. Sadly, none of the fools from her London season qualify. While visiting a friend on the Dorset coast, Poppy is pleasantly surprised to discover a smugglers’ hideaway tucked inside a cave. But her delight turns to dismay when two pirates kidnap her and take her aboard a ship, leaving her bound and gagged on the captain’s bed…
He found her at the wrong time…
Known to society as a rascal and reckless privateer, Captain Andrew James Rokesby actually transports essential goods and documents for the British government. Setting sail on a time-sensitive voyage to Portugal, he’s stunned to find a woman waiting for him in his cabin. Surely, his imagination is getting the better of him. But no, she is very real—and his duty to the Crown means he’s stuck with her.
Can two wrongs make the most perfect right?
When Andrew learns that she is a Bridgerton, he knows he will likely have to wed her to avert a scandal—though Poppy has no idea that he is the son of an earl and neighbor to her aristocratic cousins in Kent. On the high seas, their war of words soon gives way to an intoxicating passion. But when Andrew’s secret is revealed, will his declaration of love be enough to capture her heart…?
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Meet Me in the Margins
Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson is $1.99! This was Catherine’s last review for the site and she gave it a B-:
Overall, this was a really fun read, especially if you enjoy stories about writers and writing. I liked the humour, and I really enjoyed the friendship between M.E. and Savannah. While I had some (ok, many) misgivings about their professional relationship, I found their romantic relationship both convincing and charming.
Savannah Cade is a low-level editor at Pennington Publishing, a prestigious publisher producing only the highest of highbrow titles. And while editing the latest edition of The Anthology of Medieval Didactic Poetry may be her day job, she has two secrets she’s hiding.
One: She’s writing a romance novel.
Two: She’s discovered the Book Nook—a secret room in the publishing house where she finds inspiration for her “lowbrow” hobby.
After leaving her manuscript behind one afternoon, she returns to the nook only to discover someone has written notes in the margins. Savannah’s first response to the criticism is defensive, but events transpire that force her to admit that she needs the help of this shadowy editor after all. As the notes take a turn for the romantic, and as Savannah’s madcap life gets more complicated than ever, she uses the process of elimination to identify her mysterious editor—only to discover that what she truly wants and what she should want just might not be the same. Melissa Ferguson’s latest—a love letter to books, readers, and romance—will leave fans laughing out loud and swooning in the same breath.
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THE MATZAH BALL was okay— I appreciated the author’s depiction of chronic illness, but I didn’t really buy the romance. It’s based on them having had a summer camp romance at age 12? And neither the hero or heroine is particularly adept at using words? For its Jewish and disability rep, I’d give it a 4; for the romance, a 2, so an average of 3?
THE OTHER MISS BRIDGERTON was one of those historicals that drove me around the bend because Poppy is stuck in the cabin on a ship for ages (a week plus?) and there is no discussion of toileting/bathing and certainly no change of clothing involved. I just kept imagining how awful she must smell after a week in the same clothing (shudder.) And then there is Danger Sex and I get it, that works for some people, but it’s like, “These people are trying to kill you and NOW is the time for pants feelings!? Also, you are both still disgusting! Bathe first! Sex later!” (But yes, you can read it as a standalone/don’t need to have read any of the other Bridgerton novels.)
I liked the Rokesby series much much more than the Bridgertons. There was more meat and interiority to these stories than the Bridgertons I felt.
Here’s what I said about The Matzah Ball when I read it: “If you would like to learn more about being Jewish in America during Christmastime, or about living with an invisible illness (Rachel has chronic fatigue syndrome), you’ll like this book. But if you’re looking for a believable, relatable romance, look elsewhere.”
Maybe I’m confusing Jean Meltzer the author with her character in the Matzah Ball, but I swear she must have started as a screenwriter. Her books make perfect sense as a breezy half an hour Hallmark movie, but don’t really have enough romance to satisfy my romance novel requirements. I think if you go in with appropriate expectations, you may enjoy, but I’ve tried two of her books and realized she is not for me.
I loved The Other Miss Bridgerton, but yes, suspension of disbelief is key and not just the bathing/bathroom stuff. I won’t say more b/c it’s kind of spoiler, but I’ll just say a lot hinges on some big coincidences and leave it at that. But I’m sucker for light and fluffy pirate times ala Pirates of Penzance.
@Jill Q—so I was about to say, “No, Meltzer wanted to be a rabbi and had to drop out of rabbinic school because of her chronic fatigue,” but I went to look it up and it turns out we are both right—her GR bio says she studied dramatic writing at Tisch and worked in television and that she also studied to be a rabbi.
Just got an email from Graphic Audio. The first three Murderbot books are available for pre-order with full cast audio and sound effects. Looks like they plan on releasing the entire series.
i had to DNF matzah ball. i really struggled with the christmas of it all and also the depiction of the jewish community because that, for me, was TOO REAL and i did not like it. i didn’t even get far enough into the book to judge the romance because i was so turned off by the other aspects.
I liked The Matzah Ball (I’ve liked both of her books so far.) Coming from a religiously blended family (Christian and Jewish for me, and my husband is Buddhist), it’s nice (for me) to see other people who enjoy “Secular American Gift-Giving Christmas” in addition to their own spiritual practices in books. I understand other people have more complicated relationships with Christmas, and I totally respect that.
I also read Meet Me in the Margins, and I felt underwhelmed because I didn’t know that it was a closed-door romance, so I felt like it was missing something (this was my preconceived expectation, not the book’s fault.)