#BookReview #Coup de Coeur by #HalliStarling #BookSirens

BookSirens Summary:

A queer historical fantasy / romance set in a version of 1899 New York City where magic is common and convenient, Coup de Coeur follows the journey of three men whose fates are tied to the seemingly sudden appearance of a strange, possibly sentient, grimoire.

Calix Addington, Earl of Batherton, has a complicated relationship with his friend and former classmate, Lawton Adler. Lawton’s tendency to attract, and often cause, trouble leaves Calix sometimes holding the bag (which definitely happens). Calix is also harboring a secret – he’s an Oracle, like his mother, and in a world where small magic is meant for aesthetics and convenience, larger displays of magic are frowned upon, sometimes illegal, and very much what the church and several important organizations fear.

When Calix is stuck with a strange book after Lawton’s shady dealings go wrong one spring morning, he takes shelter in Ethaniel Harkness’s magical tailoring shop. Calix and Ethaniel know each other as customer and tailor, but Ethaniel’s kind heart won’t let Calix stay in danger. As Calix hears the strange book speak in his mind, Ethaniel contacts his old flame Aubrey Lavigne. Aubrey’s expertise with magical objects as the curator for the Magnificus Collectio, an archive hidden behind a tourist trap museum, will be key to understanding what this book truly is.

Magic, love, lust, fear, and danger run rampant as this strange book becomes the catalyst for a much larger plot conducted by a secret sect known as The Golden Order. With The Golden Order giving chase to retrieve the book, Calix, Ethaniel, and Aubrey’s lives tangle and they must flee the city to separate Calix from the book, shake off their pursuers, and find time for their burgeoning attractions.

COUP DE COEUR has deep roots in the real-life queer history of New York City, but also in art and culture.

Review by Coffee&Ink

Gorgeous story: gorgeous writing, world building, and characters.

In a magical New York City of 1899, Calix, a wealthy young gentleman with his mother’s talent for prediction, is out for a night on the town with his charming, long-time friend Lawton, and feeling the effects of a life where he has everything but love. He has companionship with Lawton, but his friend is chaotic, and Calix is hoping for peace and quiet.

Ethanial is a tailor, able to infuse magical patterns into the clothing he creates. It’s in his shop he met the very handsome Aubrey, for whom he yearns. While making a patterned shirt for Calix he encounters the Golden Order, which is a group claiming to want to regulate magic, but is really a front for something more sinister.

Aubrey, Calix, and Lawton first meet at an auction, where Aubrey and Lawton compete for a crate of old books. In the middle of the auction, Calix is overcome by something magical, something speaking to him. Lawton walks away with the coveted book, and all hell breaks loose.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough for fans of gay historical fantasy and romance.

#BookReview #TheTwistedRoad by #ABMichaels #Booksirens

GoodReads:

Jonathan Perris Can’t Save His Clients
…Until He Saves Himself

1907: Rising from the devastation of a massive earthquake and fire, San Francisco is once again on the move. But a strike by streetcar drivers threatens to halt the Golden City in its tracks. Protests turn to violence and violence leads to death. Soon a young guard is convicted of willfully killing a protester and the public is out for blood.

Jonathan Perris, an immigrant attorney from England, has opened a law firm with an eye toward righting wrongs, and the guard’s conviction may fall into that category. But the talented barrister soon finds his newfound career shaken by a tragic the gruesome homicide of the beautiful and mysterious Lena Mendelssohn—a woman he’s been squiring around town. It’s difficult to run a law firm when you’ve been arrested for murder.

Review from Coffee&Ink

It’s been a year since the 1906 earthquake devastated San Francisco. Barrister Jonathan Perris left England, after his own personal disaster, to help San Francisco rebuild and to open his law office. Strikers and scabs clash, leaving one man dead and another accused of murder. Jonathan takes on the case.

With astutely detailed writing, the author draws the reader completely into Jonathan’s atmospheric world of law and order. The story is told with multiple points of view. His associates, Cordelia, a woman lawyer, and Dove, former soldier and Pinkerton agent, help carry the narrative along. They come in handy when Jonathan is arrested for the murder of his lover, a woman with a mysterious past.

I loved the excellent writing, the setting, characterization, and the twists and turns of the plot. I’m looking forward to the next in the series and highly recommend this one for lovers of historical mysteries. A good solid mystery well told.

Thank you BookSirens for a copy to read and review.

#BookReview #CryOfTheInnocent by Julie Bates #BookSirens

Publisher: Level Best Books

Publishing date: June 8, 2021

Does anyone hear the cry of the innocent?

April 1774 – Within the colonial capital of Virginia, Faith Clarke awakes in the middle of the night to discover a man savagely murdered within her tavern. Phineas Bullard was no stranger. Faith’s late husband had borrowed heavily from the man and left Faith to struggle to pay the debt.

With unrest growing in the American Colonies, the British are eager for a quick resolution at the end of a noose, regardless of guilt. Under suspicion for the crime, she must use every resource at her disposal to prove her innocence and protect those she loves. Her allies are Olivia and Titus, slaves left to her by her late husband’s family. Individuals she must find a way to free even as she finds they also have motive.

Faith seeks to uncover the dead man’s secrets even as they draw close to home. Determined to find the truth, she continues headlong into the webs of secrets that hide Tories, Patriots and killers, not stopping even as she fears that no one will hear the cry of the innocent.

Review by Coffee&Ink

Another great historical mystery series! Faith Clark owns a small tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1774. Revolution is brewing up north in Boston and whispers of independence from Britain are catching like wildfire. Faith is a widow, trying to keep body and soul together with the help of an enslaved couple, Titus and Olivia. In everything she does, Faith throws her whole self into it, though she is always running on fumes, it seems. While searching for whoever killed an unpleasant character in her private tavern room, then set it on fire, she is also trying to take care of those she considers family, especially Titus and Oliva. Even within the context of the times, she is uncomfortable with owning human beings and strives to free them. This is a great historical mystery with lots of twists and turns and at times some difficult themes about freedom, and who deserves to be free. Highly recommended to lovers of historical mysteries. I’m very much looking forward to reading the next installment in the series.

Thank you Book Sirens for a copy of this book to read and review.

biography

Julie Bates grew up reading little bit of everything, but when she discovered Agatha Christie, she knew she what she wanted to write. Along the way, she has written a weekly column for the Asheboro Courier Tribune (her local newspaper) for two years and published a few articles in magazines such as Spin Off and Carolina Country. She has blogged for Killer Nashville and the educational website Read.Learn.Write. She currently works as a public school teacher for special needs students. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Southeastern Writers of America (SEMWA) and Sisters in Crime. When not busy plotting her next story, she enjoy doing crafts and spending time with her husband and son, as well as a number of dogs and cats who have shown up on her doorstep and never left.

WEBSITE: https://juliebates.weebly.com/

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#BookReview #DeathInAGildedFrame by Cecelia Tichi #BookSirens

Publisher: Self-published

Publishing Date: January 2, 2024

From Book Sirens:

Newport Summer 1899—yachts, balls, and famed artists eager to paint portraits of Society’s “Queens.”

Western silver heiress Val Mackle DeVere (Mrs. Roderick W.) agrees to “sit” for a portrait for her beloved Roddy, only to stumble on a scene of bloody, grisly homicide at an art gallery.

Like a figure from Pompeii, the dead Newport gallery manager screams in silence, his hands like claws clutching at a gilt frame pulled down over his head and shoulders while blood darkens his cream-colored suit.

Impulsive, Val reaches for the murder weapon and will find herself suspected, shamed, and shunned as she seeks the killer while learning yet again a lesson taught by Cornelius Vanderbilt IV: “No city on earth is as hostile to outsiders as Newport.”

Review by Coffee&Ink

Though this novel is the sixth in the series, I was surprised how well it did as a standalone. A few brief paragraphs about what was pertinent to the story—enough to draw me in but not overwhelm.

Roddy and Val are in Newport for the summer, surrounded by mansions, high society, and the sea. I love Val, the silver heiress from the West, who always feels out of place. Newport does not tolerate newcomers, though Val’s husband is not a newcomer by any means. Everyone seems anxious for her to slip up or to correct her, though she is a very capable and independent woman for the era. When she does make the mistake of picking up a bloody knife at a murder scene, she works hard to investigate the murder and get herself off the suspects list.

The prose is perfection, the immersive experience vivid, and I highly recommend this very well-plotted murder mystery. I’m starting the first book in the series 🙂

biography

A fresh start for every new book, and author Tichi’s zest for America’s Gilded Age and its boldface names draws this seasoned writer to a crime fiction series while uncorking the country’s cocktail cultures on the printed (and ebook) page. Tichi digs deep into the Vanderbilt University research library to mine the late 1800-1900s history and customs of Society’s “Four Hundred,” its drinks, and the ways high-stakes crimes in its midst make for a gripping “Gilded” mystery series that rings true to the tumultuous era. The decades of America’s industrial titans and “Queens” of Society have loomed large in Tichi’s books for several years, and the titles track her recent projects:

• Civic Passions: Seven Who Launched Progressive America (and What They Teach Us)
• Jack London: A Writer’s Fight for a Better America
• What Would Mrs. Astor Do? A Complete Guide to the Manners and Mores of the Gilded Age
• Gilded Age Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from the Golden Age
• A Gilded Death (crime fiction)
• Jazz Age Cocktails: History, Lore, and Recipes from the Roaring Twenties.

You can read more about Cecelia by visiting her website.

WEBSITE: https://cecebooks.com

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Book 4

Book 5