Books

Book 1,072: Sense and Second-Degree Murder (Jane Austen Murder Mystery #2) – Tirzah Price

Book cover of "Sense and Second-Degree Murder"In for a penny, in for a pound, right? After reading Pride and Premeditation, I figured I should go ahead and read Sense and Second-Degree Murder before conquering Manslaughter Park and I’m glad I did. Although they’re not intricately tied together there are definitely mentions of Lizzie in this book and I’m part of the way into the third and Lizzie, Darcy and Charlotte actually make an appearance and the Dashwoods are mentioned.

For the most part, I enjoyed this adaptation of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Price did an excellent job with sticking to the core character traits of Marianne and Elinor, and even gave Margaret a bigger role which I could appreciate as I always forget there’s a third sister. If there’s one thing I didn’t like about the adaptation it was that Colonel Brandon became Mr. Brandon. And it made sense for the story, but EVERY time I read it I was like “Bah! What is this nonsense?!”

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Books

Book 1,065: Pride and Premeditation (Jane Austen Murder Mystery #1) – Tirzah Price

Book cover of "Pride & Premeditation"I had no intentions of reading this book (or the entire series) even though I’m already looking ahead to Manslaughter Park, the adaptation of Mansfield Park I’ve decided to read this year.

HOWEVER, the cruise we went on in early March had an honest-to-god library. Like an entire room with books you could take out and read on the ship and we just happened to sit right beside this and it was too much of a coincidence to NOT read it.

I stuck to my plans and finished up two ARC’s prior to starting, but the second I started I flew through this one thanks to my familiarity with the source material and Price’s great adaptation.

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Book 948: Patricia Wants to Cuddle – Samantha Allen

What a wonderfully weird novel. When this landed in my inbox from the publisher I first thought WTF is that because the cover art screams pulp fiction and as much as I find those hilarious I’m not usually drawn to them. However, I’d decided I wanted to expand my LGBT novel repertoire, and knowing this featured lesbian/bisexual female protagonists I said sure why not.*

Billed as a satire of The BachelorPatricia Wants to Cuddle takes place in the final two weeks of The Catch‘s season with four female finalists and the catch going to the San Juan islands off the coast of Washington state. While it is that, it’s also a final girl thriller novel with murder and mystery and urban legends aplenty to keep the reader engaged.

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Book 935: Dream Boy – Jim Grimsley

Bare with me for a moment as I go on a tangent. Recently, I’ve been obsessed with re-watching the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series and I  couldn’t realize why other than it’s a fantastic series and adaptation, but then I read this book and it all clicked into place: queer joy.

Growing up in the 1990s/early-2000s I’d say 85%+ of all depictions of LGBT characters were tragic or left to interpretation and this is a prime example of that. Having the opportunity to watch Charlie and Nick in Heartstopper as they discover happiness and joy, even with setbacks, mental health issues, and added TV drama, is just such a wonderful feeling of relief and joy that I float along every time I watch it or listen to the soundtrack or think about it. And this is in stark contrast to Roy and Nathan, the protagonists of Grimsley’s second foray into the novel.

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Book 915: A Novel Death – Judi Culbertson

This was one big “MEH . . .” Some of it was the writing, a lot of it was the characters, and the nail in the coffin was the overall storyline.

I got a copy of this back in March 2013 and it has sat on my Kindle ever since, not for any particular reason, I just never got to it. I’m a little surprised I didn’t read it sooner since it’s a mystery/thriller about a book with bookstores and libraries involved and those, in general, are like catnip for me.

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