The Windsor Knot: A Novel by SJ Bennett

 From the publisher:

The first book in a highly original and delightfully clever crime series in which Queen Elizabeth II secretly solves crimes while carrying out her royal duties.

It is the early spring of 2016 and Queen Elizabeth is at Windsor Castle in advance of her 90th birthday celebrations. But the preparations are interrupted when a guest is found dead in one of the Castle bedrooms. The scene suggests the young Russian pianist strangled himself, but a badly tied knot leads MI5 to suspect foul play was involved. The Queen leaves the investigation to the professionals—until their suspicions point them in the wrong direction.

Unhappy at the mishandling of the case and concerned for her staff’s morale, the monarch decides to discreetly take matters into her own hands. With help from her Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, a British Nigerian and recent officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, the Queen secretly begins making inquiries. As she carries out her royal duties with her usual aplomb, no one in the Royal Household, the government, or the public knows that the resolute Elizabeth will use her keen eye, quick mind, and steady nerve to bring a murderer to justice.

 

'"Oh, not at all," Humphreys said, with an indulgent smile. "You underestimate President Putin."

The Queen considered that she did not underestimate President Putin, thank you very much, and resented being told she did.'*

 

Let me start this review by saying that neither mysteries nor the British royal family are my usual interests. I'm aware of them, I occasionally read them or pay attention past the headlines, but that's about it. So I'm not the best to speak on the quality of the plot compared to the rest of the genre, nor the accuracy of the Queen and Prince Philip (the only members given much attention). I can, however, say that this was a fun read. In this series, Queen Elizabeth has been solving mysteries since she was a girl, often with the help of her Assistant Private Secretary. Now as her 90th birthday approaches, the Queen finds herself on the case again, this time with a brand new APS. 

I found this book to be a lovely escape. The diverse cast of characters is well written and differentiated, and the dialog flows well. I found the wrapping up of the murder case itself to be a little murky, but as stated above, this is not my usual genre, and it may be crystal clear to others. Overall I would definitely recommend this book, and I look forward to reading future volumes in the series. 

 The Windsor Knot will be available from Galesburg Public Library when it is published in March of 2021. Thank you to William Morrow and Custom House and NetGalley for the e-ARC.  

 *Above quote is from an advanced copy and will be checked against final publication.

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Swedish author burst onto the American book scene in 2014 with A Man Called Ove. Backman has a very distinct writing style, and it’s on full display in his new novel Anxious People. I’m sure his style is not to everyone’s taste, but Backman really speaks to me. I loved A Man Called Ove and Beartown; maybe I didn’t love Anxious People quite as much but I still loved it. There are a lot of characters in this book and no main character, and I didn’t quite feel like I connected with anyone like I did with Ove. I still enjoyed this earnest, heartfelt story.

I heard Fredrik Backman speak in a webinar recently, and he suffers from anxiety. Anxious People was not supposed to be about anxiety, but that’s what it turned into. Backman can’t keep thoughts on anxiety and suicide out of his books, but they are somehow happy anxiety books. By that I mean, people who are depressed and anxious and who feel inadequate carry on and do the best they can and do some things very well.

The story in Anxious People is “spoiled” for us by the narrator straight off. The story meanders all over, doubling back to explain things we’ve already read. It’s repetitive, in an OCD kind of way. And yet to me it does not feel like Backman is trying to be clever. I believe this is how his mind works.

This book addresses the need to understand that everyone is out there struggling and the need for kindness and empathy. It’s a rare book that makes me cry, and I can legit say I was crying at the end.

I read an advance reader copy of Anxious People provided by Netgalley. The book was published in early September 2020 and is available at the Galesburg Public Library in print, audio, and digital.

The Warehouse by Rob Hart

Imagine a world ravaged by gun violence and environmental damage, where a huge corporation that sells everything to everyone and delivers the items by drone limits the choices of where you can live and work. In Rob Hart’s The Warehouse, the giant company Cloud has put other retailers out of business and become the only place to work. Paxton and Zinnia pass the test and start their jobs. Paxton ends up in security;  Zinnia works long days racing against the clock, picking items to mail to customers. They work at Cloud. They eat at Cloud. They sleep at Cloud. Zinnia puts up with sexual harassment from a manager; Paxton competes against others for the approval of his boss.

But neither Zinnia nor Paxton is who they seem. Each is keeping secrets, and each has an agenda. However, it’s not easy to stand up for yourself when you are a tiny cog in the Cloud.

The Warehouse is likely to be this year’s big, almost-there dystopian novel. And it all feels like it could come true next week.

Rob Hart dedicated his book to Maria Fernandes, a woman who worked part-time at several Dunkin’Donuts to make ends meet and who died from gas fumes while taking a nap in her car. In the meantime, Dunkin’ CEO Nigel Travis earned $10.2 million the year she died. The Warehouse is not a perfect book, but it will make you think hard about the relationship between corporations and their employees and about income inequality.

I read an advance reader copy of The Warehouse, which comes out on August 20. The Galesburg Public Library will have it in print and as an ebook.

Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

From the publisher: Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted—the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America’s opioid epidemic.

A run of the mill mystery elevated by the fact that it's narrated by a (fictional) Joe Biden, kicking around with nothing to do and missing his BFF Barack Obama. When a friend from his days riding Amtrak is killed, Obama shows up at his house, secret service agent in tow (poor Biden no longer qualifies for secret service protection).

Biden and Obama (and the dour secret service agent) get pulled into solving the mystery and busting a drug running ring. Obama is cool but heroic; Biden is self reflective and self deprecating. Everything we loved about those Obama/Biden memes is captured in this book. Biden jokes with the clerk at a convenience store about the weather; when she responds with "global warming," Obama counters with a lecture on climate change. 

Hope Never Dies got a big draggy, but it's worth continuing for those golden Obama/Biden moments. Recommended for those who miss their presidential bromance.

I read an advance reader copy of Hope Never Dies; it will be available at the Galesburg Public Library as an ebook and in print in July,

The One by John Marrs

Wow. The One by John Marrs was not what I expected and is hard to describe. I thought it might be similar to Crosstalk by Connie Willis, but it is not a romance, or at least, not a traditional romance. It is creepy and thought provoking.

In The One, we meet and follow five people who have been Matched by the newest service. Send in your DNA and it will scientifically Match you with your perfect DNA partner. You only have one Match – and the person may be older than you, or younger, or dead, or they may not have submitted their DNA yet.

What would you do if you were happily married? Would you submit your DNA to see if you married your Match? And if you weren’t, would you leave your spouse? What if you were straight and matched with someone of the same sex? Or gay and matched with someone of the opposite sex?

Although the concept of having only one perfect DNA Match didn’t seem logical to me, I got completely caught up in the stories of the five people we meet who have been Matched. Two are men, three are women, and one is a psychopathic serial killer.

Their stories were not always enjoyable, but I did want to keep reading to find out what would happen next. The stories don’t all have happy endings, and those that do may not be the ones you expect. Although I saw a few plot twists coming, there were a lot that surprised me.

This is not a perfect book; I had to pretend to buy in to some stuff that I didn't find plausible. But if you are looking for a an unusual book about love, matchmaking services, and social media, you might want to read The One.

I read an advance reader copy of The One. It is scheduled to be published in February 2018 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library in print and as an ebook.  

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

 I give All Our Wrong Todays 4.5 stars. I deducted half a star only because the ending wasn’t perfect (although I don’t have a suggestion for a better ending). Otherwise it is mostly 5 stars  because I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.

The narrator, Tom Barren, is straight with us right from the first chapter. He lives in our world in 2016. But it’s not supposed to be like this. An unlimited energy source invented in 1965 is supposed to have changed everything, leading to peaceful lives, plenty of food and health care for everyone, transport for all, and plenty of other cool things. But it’s not like that in our current timeline – and Tom himself is to blame. A stupid mistake while stupidly time travelling has changed everything.

Not everything is worse though. Our world is as messed up as we know it to be. But Tom’s personal situation is much, much better. This causes him some highly believable angst, since he knows he need to restore the timeline if possible, no matter what it costs him personally.

Everything in this book seems so plausible, and the time travel science seemed real (whether it is or not) and not too confusing for a nonscientist. I felt I got to know Tom well, given his complicated personal circumstances (I don’t want to spoil anything by saying more), and every now and then Tom hit me with something that I found insightful.

After finding a damaged pocket watch in his original timeline world:

 In the early twentieth century, railroad accidents were commonplace because trains running on the same tracks weren’t accurately synchronized. Keeping time was actually a matter of life or death. A watch like this was made to protect people. Every piece of technology in my world shared a global chronometer, coordinated to the microsecond, a planet of people all living in unison. But this pocket watch was from an era of temporal isolation, a planet of people each inside their own definite of time. (pp. 67-68 of the advance reader copy)

Wow, temporal isolation. What a great concept.

About the new timeline world (our world):

Part of the problem is this world is basically a cesspool of misogyny, male entitlement, and deeply demented gender constructs accepted as casual fact by outrageously large swaths of the human population. Where I come from, gender equality is a given. I’m not talking about absurdly fundamental things like pay equality. I mean that there is no essential difference in the way men and women are perceived in terms of politics or economics or culture. (pp. 159-160)

Maybe the author put this in as a ploy to appeal to his female readers, maybe it’s sincere, but I loved it either way.

At one point he describes his mom as “rereading The Time Machine with what I guess you would call passive-aggressive literary exasperation.” (p. 215) Ha, what a great turn of phrase!

I found this book cleverly constructed and very very entertaining. The author kept me guessing with the plot and threw in twists I didn’t see coming. This would be a perfect book for a long plane ride. Also, it is separated into nice short chapters if you read in short bursts, always a plus for easily finding a place to stop reading.

I read an advance reader copy of All Our Wrong Todays. It will be available for checkout at the Galesburg Public Library in February 2017.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

From the publisher: At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, she forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. As danger circles nearer, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a lovely and lyrical telling or retelling of a fairy tale. (If this is based on a real fairy tale, I am not familiar with it.) The language is beautiful, although a knowledge of Russian might come in handy as I had some trouble keeping the characters and their many nicknames straight. There is a glossary of Russian words at the back. The book has a gorgeous cover.

This is a very slow moving story; readers looking for lots of action will not find it here.  This is not a book that gallops along. It is a quiet, intriguing tale. I will admit, although I enjoyed The Bear and the Nightingale, I really wanted to love it. I don’t need a lot of action, but I would have liked more character development. The characters did not move beyond being one dimensional fairy tale characters, even though the story is 300 pages long. I did enjoy the descriptions and the variety of the many household spirits Vasilisa sees and honors.

The story does not reflect well on the church and organized religion, but it does have a definite and obvious feminist point to make:

All my life,” [Vasilisa] said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. (p. 279)

Some readers may rejoice at this firm and clearly expressed message; I would have preferred something a little more subtle.

If you enjoy novels based on fairy tales and full of beautiful language and imagery, especially those with a strong and spunky female main character, I recommend The Bear and the Nightingale.

I read an advance reader copy of The Bear and the Nightingale. It will be published in January 2017, and the Galesburg Public Library will have the book in print and electronic format.

The Last One by Alexandra Oliva

From the publisher: Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense. She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far. It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens. Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game. Sophisticated and provocative, The Last One is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.

I attended the Public Library Association conference in Denver this spring, and The Last One was one of the hot books people were talking about. I was lucky enough to meet the author and pick up an advance reader copy of her book.

The concept is intriguing – 12 contestants on a reality survival TV show have no idea that a pandemic has broken out. The novel moves back and forth between the early days on the show before the pandemic, as the staff behind the show manipulate how viewers will perceive the 12 contestants, and later days, when the contestants believe they are facing a solo challenge. The later chapters follow one contestant in particular as she stumbles on increasingly distressing scenes that she believes are part of the challenge.

I very much enjoyed reading The Last One. I compare it to the blockbuster Gone Girl in that I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. It’s not a book I would read a second time, and it will be more enjoyable to read if you don’t know much about the plot. The writing is smooth and the character development good.

I’ve never watched any Survivor episodes and I still enjoyed the book. I think fans of the TV show would like this book even more than I did because of the way the contestants are manipulated and presented to the TV audience.

The plot dragged a bit toward the end and slowed my rush to finish. But the slow period didn’t last very long. This is a debut novel, and to make the story work the author does rely on a couple of plot devices that are hard to believe. I won’t mention one because it would act as a spoiler, but the other involves her eyeglasses. She breaks them early on. Although she breaks into stores to find supplies, she does not look for reading glasses or contacts until late in the book.

But those are minor complaints. I think this would be a great beach or travel read. I often dislike the flat or anticlimactic endings of first novels, but I was quite satisfied by the ending of The Last One¸ and I was happy to see that the author did not feel the need to tack on an epilogue.

I recommend The Last One to anyone looking for an engrossing thriller, especially fans of survivalist fiction. I read an advance reader copy of The Last One; it is scheduled to be published on July 12. It will be available at the Galesburg Public Library in print and as an ebook.

Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

From the publisher: At thirty-nine, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep—and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene. Edith Hind—a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family—has been missing for nearly twenty-four hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon instantly knows that this case will be big—and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive. … Suspenseful and keenly observed, Missing, Presumed is a brilliantly twisting novel of how we seek connection, grant forgiveness, and reveal the truth about who we are.

Things were off to a great start when Missing, Presumed opened with a quote from a T.S. Eliot poem. This police procedural is not really so much about the mystery of the missing girl but about how her friends, her family, and the police react to her disappearance. There is a lot of character development, and the characters are messy and imperfect.

The author is not afraid to show her main characters in an unattractive light. Manon gets conjunctivitis and doesn’t take care of it for several days, and her eye becomes more and more inflamed and ugly. She sleeps with men on first dates just to get rid of them, and she cries a lot. When she is in a relationship, she is needy and impatient. But I warmed to Manon right off when I learned she can only fall asleep to the sounds of her police radio.

I found most of the characters interesting – the missing girl is about the least interesting – and I enjoyed the author’s writing style. I felt immersed in the lives of the police officers and their investigation. Some plot twists surprised me and some did not. Missing, Presumed is a definite recommend from me for lovers of British police procedurals. I think readers will want to see more of Manon and crew. I know I do.

I read an advance reader copy of Missing, Presumed. It will be published in late June and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library. 

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Posted for reader Kaye - 

This is the story of a mother of four who is widowed at a young age. It is set in Wexford, Ireland, a small community where everyone knows your business. Everyone has grown up together and knows everything that has ever happened in your life.

Nora finds work again at a company she had worked at 20 years before she married and had children. Nora has a hard time shaking off grief at the loss of her husband and doesn’t see how her young sons are struggling also at the loss of their father and now the loss of their stay-at-home mother. The boys are left a lot to themselves and struggle with school, their relationship with each other, and their mother.

Through her love of music, Nora starts to sing again, takes voice lessons, and is asked to sing at a big concert. After three years, she finally allows her aunt to clear out her husband’s belongings. She is finally able to move forward and finds herself and her children again.

This book is far different than any book I have read before, but I really enjoyed it. I had to keep reading to see if Nora would shake off her grief and work through her problems. A great book!

- Submitted by Georgette Kaye Carroll

Rain Dragon by Jon Raymond

Nothing in this world tugs at my heart strings quite like a pretty book facade. What can I say? I’m easily charmed. Jon Raymond’s Rain Dragon just has one of those covers--it sings to my inner wannabe bohemian gypsy. Conveniently, Rain Dragon is sort of about bohemian gypsies. Damon and his lady, Amy, just recently abandoned the thriving metropolis of Los Angeles in search of a way to reconnect with the land and, by extension, each other. After touring a series of sustainable farm outfits, they stumble upon Rain Dragon, a farm in Oregon best known for its organic yogurt line. Rain Dragon is chock-full of idealistic folk from all walks of life--engineers, bankers, carpenters--looking to simplify and make greater contributions to global consciousness. At the helm of this lofty idea ship is Rain Dragon’s charisma-radiating leader Peter Hawk. With Peter as their guide, Amy quickly finds her spot among the pack while Damon slowly, painfully languishes until he finally stumbles upon a unique gift.

Quiet, somewhat strange, and emotionally dense--in the “I’m not so bright when it comes to feelings” kind of dense--Rain Dragon is as wandering and curious as its characters.

Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik

I love the Temeraire series from Naomi Novik. It is set during the time of Napoleon; in addition to naval fleets, each country has dragon fleets as well. That is the only "fantastical" element of the series. The intelligence of the dragons and their relationships to their captains and crews is captured in a fun and interesting way.

The first book in the series is a wonderful read, and I enjoyed the first few sequels as well. I was not quite as thrilled with Victory of Eagles and to a certain extent Tongues of Serpents (the fifth and sixth books in the series). Crucible of Gold seems to be getting the series back on track. We get to enjoy plenty of interaction between Temeraire and his Captain, Laurence. The plot meanders from Australia, to the open sea, to the Incan civilization and Brazil.

I find the dragon Iskierka even more annoying than Temeraire does, and there was a bit too much of her in this book for my taste. I really miss Temeraire's formation mates, especially Maximus and his Captain, Berkley. I have high hopes of seeing a lot of them in the next book in the series. Anyway, I definitely recommend the whole series if you've not yet read His Majesty's Dragon.

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

As a librarian, I like to read books that readers are talking about. As the leader of the library’s Movie of the Book club, I also keep an eye on books being made into movies. The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins falls into both of these categories.

The Hunger Games has a horrific premise. A future version of the United States, Panem, damaged by war and climate change, hosts a yearly event called the Hunger Games. To punish its twelve Districts for rising up against the Capitol (and losing) decades earlier, two young adults from each District are chosen by lottery every year and sent to the Capitol to fight to the death in an arena while the whole country watches on television. One victor emerges.

Because of the depressing plot, I dragged my feet on reading the series. However, once I started I found it hard to stop. The three books in the trilogy are difficult to take. They are grim, violent, and disturbing. However, they are also exciting, full of unexpected plot twists, and told by a flawed and compelling narrator.

The first book in the series is The Hunger Games. It is the strongest book in the series. It grips your imagination and won’t let go. It begins with an introduction to Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old who lives in District 12 with her mother, her little sister, and her sister’s pet Buttercup, “the world’s ugliest cat.” Katniss’s life is a hard one: never having enough to eat, hunting illegally to get food, scrambling to survive. Still, she has family and good friends.

But it’s reaping day, the day two youths in each District are chosen as “tributes” and sent to the Capitol to entertain its citizens by fighting to the death in punishment for rebellion. When her sister’s name is chosen, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Then the boy for District 12 is chosen. He is Peeta Mellark, a boy in her class at school, a boy she is not friends with but owes a debt to all the same. And from that point on, their fates are intertwined as they head to the Capitol and the Hunger Games.

The similarity to our own reality television shows is obvious and no doubt intentional. The 24 contestants are polished and prepped, then presented to the viewers to choose favorites. While the cameras roll there are breathless interviews, the revealing of secrets, and prurient interest in the lives of the contestants. And then the Games begin.

Most of the first book takes place during the Games. The author makes you feel the narrator’s desperate desire to live. She also makes you feel the moral dilemma Katniss faces in knowing that to survive, every other contestant, including her fellow tribute from District 12, must die. The book made my heart race and gave me nightmares, but it also made me desperate to know what happened next. Although it concludes in a satisfactory manner, it is clearly a Book One that urges you to continue on to Book Two, Catching Fire.

As so often happens with a series, Catching Fire is not as good as the first book in the series. The novelty of the plot has worn off, but the pain and horror of the situation in Panem for the citizens of the Districts has not. That’s not to say it’s not a good book. It is, and it continued to take plot turns I did not expect. There was no doubt I felt compelled at the end to forge on to Mockingjay, the final book in the series. Katniss continues to grow and change, as do the people and the situations around her, leading to a difficult but acceptable series conclusion that left me thinking about conditions in our own world. The themes of this series will stick with me for a long time.

The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

I wished I’d loved it more, but I did enjoy The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones. Set in England in the early 1920s, it features a mother, her three children, and their “Step” – her second husband. They live at Sterne, an aging manor house that they are in danger of losing. The Step is off to London to try to borrow enough money to save the house.

Charlotte, the mother, nearing the age of 50, is still a beauty although not a particularly nice person; her husband Edward (who I found the most sympathetic character in the book) loves her so much he will do just about anything for her. The two eldest children, Emerald and Clovis, are also not particularly likeable but can be forgiven some of their faults for their youth. The youngest child, named Imogen but called Smudge, is largely neglected by the rest of her family and spends most of her time in her room in a remote corner of the house drawing pictures of the family animals on the wall. The house is full of animals and servants who play significant parts in the story.

The story takes place on Emerald’s 20th birthday. As the household prepares for the big event, news of a railroad crash comes to them. They are told to expect a number of passengers from the crash who’ll need a place to wait while the railroad sorts things out. Among the guests who arrive is a mysterious man from Charlotte’s past.

The Uninvited Guests starts out as one thing – a Noel-Coward-like comedy of manners – morphs into something else, and then returns to what it was originally. I found it at times very dull and others very entertaining. The author has a droll writing style that struck me a number of times. For example, she describes Clovis at breakfast: “Clovis Torrington balanced the pearl-handled butter knife on his middle finger and narrowed his eyes at his mother. His eyes were dramatic, and he very often narrowed them at people to great effect.”

Unfortunately the author also fills her work with implausible events, some of which don’t quite come off. (An attraction between two of the characters late in the book was particularly difficult to believe.) I certainly did not find the plot predictable, although the final resolution regarding the house does not come as a surprise.

I imagine an audience of readers who will love this book and an audience that just won’t get it. If you enjoy unusual literary fiction, you might fit into the first group and delight in The Uninvited Guests. The Uninvited Guests is scheduled to be published in May 2012.

Brotherband Chronicles: The Outcasts by John Flanagan

The Outcasts is the first book in the Brotherband Chronicles, a new series by John Flanagan. I really enjoyed his Ranger's Apprentice series and was interested to try his new series.

Boys of a certain age in the land of Skandia go through Brotherband training. They split into teams and compete against each other in many different skill areas. The team we are most interested in is made of up of the outcasts - the boys who were not picked by the other teams. Each has one or more quirks or unusual life circumstances. They are not perfect, but they make mistakes and learn from them as they compete against the other teams. A nice camaraderie is built between the boys as they develop their teamwork skills.

So far, the new series is not quite as good as Ranger's Apprentice in my opinion. The character of Halt was an anchor for that series, and there is no character who plays the same role here. There is a lot of introductory narrative in this book, so it's possible I will enjoy future books more.

The villains in this book are a group of pirates. The good guys, on the other hand, are raiders. I don't see a lot of distinction between those two professions, which caused me a little trouble while reading this book.

Like the Ranger's Apprentice series, this is a good book for reluctant male readers and for anyone who feels like the kid who always gets picked last. I will give at least the next book in the series a chance to hook me more thoroughly than this one did.

The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis

There is much to like about The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis. The main character is a 42-year-old man contemplating suicide, still grieving over the mysterious death of his twin brother ten years before and now an unhappily divorced father. Ezekiel Cooper is a flawed protagonist but an eloquent one.

Ezekiel has three sisters in addition to his dead twin, Carter, who suffered brain damage as a toddler and died as an adult under mysterious circumstances. Ezekiel is the child his mother, Lillian, expected to make something of himself and get out of Clayton, the small Tennessee town she has always felt stuck in. When Ezekiel left for college in 1960 and went to live in Virginia with his mother’s cousin, his mother made decisions that changed lives and that still form a barrier between Ezekiel and Lillian 25 years later.

Ezekiel’s flight from Clayton in 1985 to fulfill his vaguely formed suicide plan ends instead at that same Virginia farm of his college days. His brother’s ancient dog, Tucker, keeps him company on the trip. His troubled relationship with his mother is reflected in his awkward parenting of his own two teenaged daughters.

As seems to be a requirement of novels these days, the book jumps around in time, from the 1980s to the 1940s and various dates in between. The book is broken into three parts. The first and third are told by Ezekiel; the middle is told by his mother. (Oddly, her section does not have the date headlines that Ezekiel’s sections do.) Fortunately, the timeline jumps are pretty straightforward and I did not find them confusing.

Despite the title, the quotes from the Bible that appear before each part, and the biblical name of the main character, The Lost Saints of Tennessee is not an overly religious novel. The religious themes are not wielded like a club to make points throughout the story, which I found refreshing.

The author often turns a nice phrase. For example, when the mother is trying to justify an affair with her brother-in-law, she says, “I needed to believe someone still saw a spark in me, something that didn’t have to do with [my husband] or the children. Maybe that’s why most married people have affairs. Because the affair is separate from the family; it’s just about you. Of course, in the end, it winds up right back with the family.”

However, the book is not without its flaws. I found a romance between two of the characters unbelievable, unnecessary and indeed a drag on the plot; the book would have been better if the events could have played out without the romance. I also found the “big reveal” of the mysterious secret from the past to be very anticlimactic.

Still, The Lost Saints of Tennessee is well written, and it kept my interest to the end. If you enjoy novels that are more about character development than plot, I recommend The Lost Saints of Tennessee. It is scheduled to be released in February 2012.

Fitzwilliam Darcy Rock Star by Heather Lynn Rigaud

Fitzwilliam Darcy Rock Star is yet another modern day retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Darcy is the lead singer for the popular rock band Slurry. Band members include his good friend Charles Bingley and his cousin Richard Fitzwilliam. In need of an opening act, they book the girl band Long Borne Suffering, with musicians Elizabeth Bennett, her sister Jane, and their friend Charlotte Lucas.

The book started out very well. The author found ways to bring in many familiar characters and situations from Pride and Prejudice, but the story is also original and funny. However, the novelty wore off after a couple hundred pages. The book is over 400 pages long and would have been much better if it had been closer to 300. Still, overall I enjoyed reading it.

If you like revisiting the characters of Jane Austen and are looking for something to read, I recommend Fitzwilliam Darcy Rock Star. However, be warned that although this romance is inspired by the works of Jane Austen, it is not written in the style of Jane Austen. There is plenty of sex and liberal use of the F word.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Consider Lia Habel’s Dearly, Departed to be the anti-Twilight. Like Bella’s Edward, Nora’s Bram is undead. Unlike the sparkly Edward Cullen, however, Abraham Griswold is a rotting corpse infected with the Laz – a disease that reanimates a dead body and turns the person into a zombie. And, unlike Bella Swan, Nora Dearly has spunk and a mind of her own.

Dearly, Departed is set in 2195. Disasters have reduced the Earth’s population to various settlements in Central and South America. One settlement, a wealthy one, has chosen the Victorian era as the perfect time period in the past, and the inhabitants follow Victorian protocols. The Victorians are in a running war with a poorer group of people called Punks. Into this mix comes the Laz, and undead Punks and Victorians who have managed to keep their minds unite to battle it out with the mindless undead.

Beauty Nora Dearly’s father was an important Victorian researcher trying to find a vaccine for the Laz. Handsome Abraham Griswold was a Punk soldier before he died and got the Laz. Cue the star-crossed teen-aged lovers!

At one point, one of the zombies is reading some books from the past. In what is clearly a poke at Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, he says, “In all of these books the girls are throwing themselves at the romantic heroes – romantic heroes who are dead, who drink human blood.…Vampires are just zombies with good PR! That could be us in a few years!”

Dearly, Departed (the first book in a trilogy) is almost 500 pages long. I would have enjoyed it more if it was 100 pages shorter. It definitely dragged for me toward the end, once the novelty of the situations had worn off. Also, I did have a little trouble getting over the ick factor of making out with a zombie. Still, Dearly, Departed is a light amusing read. If you like paranormal romance with a touch of steampunk and lolita, I recommend it.

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

The narrative of The Lantern is told by two alternating voices, Eve and Bénédicte. Both stories take place at Les Genévriers (The Junipers), a decaying farmhouse in France.

American Eve and her English boyfriend Dominic met on the shores of Lake Geneva, quickly fell in love, and moved to the moldering but romantic Les Genévriers. Dom has made a fortune through a computer company that he sold just before the economic downturn. Eve is a writer trying to make a living as a translator. Once they move in together, their old lives – families, friends, jobs, countries – recede into the past and they are completely absorbed in each other.

Elderly Bénédicte is the last member of the family that owned and farmed Les Genévriers for generations. Her tale is set decades in the past, as she recounts her childhood, her troubled relationship with her brother, the remarkable life of her blind sister, and her time spent working in the lavender fields during the war.

At first, the lives of the two women don’t seem to have much in common, aside from living at Les Genévriers. However, as the book goes on, connections start to be made. Eve hears noises that cannot be explained. She encounters strong scents that seem to have no source. She sees shadowy figures and strange lights. Meanwhile, in the past, Bénédicte is visited by ghosts – her brother, her sister, and the spirits of strangers she does not recognize.

Hanging over Eve’s life is the shadow of her boyfriend’s ex-wife Rachel, whom Dom refuses to discuss. An acquaintance hints that Dom is not what he appears, and wonders where Rachel is. Eve begins to question her “perfect” relationship with Dom. It took a few chapters for the book to draw me in, but once it did I had a hard time putting it down. The characters were not especially memorable, but the language was lovely and the plot had enough original elements to keep me interested. I foresaw some of the twists at the end, but others surprised me.

The Lantern is spooky with a sinister undertone. There is some implied violence and one scene of animal abuse. Overall, however, it is a romance in the tradition of gothic fiction. The Lantern owes much to the classic novels Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, but it also reminded me of The Distant Hours by Kate Morton. If you like a romantic mystery, check out The Lantern.

The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens

The Emerald Atlas is the first book in what is presumably going to be a fantasy trilogy. It's not particularly original - three orphans who fulfill an ancient prophecy team up with a wizard, dwarves, and others to battle an evil sorceress working for an even more evil master - but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I will definitely read the next book in the series, whenever it comes out.

I listened to the audiobook read by Jim Dale, which didn't help the book when it came to me judging its originality. The book ended up reminding me quite a bit of Harry Potter since I kept thinking, as new characters spoke, "that's Hermione's voice! that's Ginny's voice! that's Peeves's voice!" The comparison would probably not have been quite as strong if I'd been reading the book instead of listening to Jim Dale read it.

However, if you like Harry Potter and other fantasy novels about children growing up while battling magical evil, I recommend The Emerald Atlas.