saltygalreads's reviews
306 reviews

This delightful book is the third in a series for young readers, which I read as a stand alone.

Set in the ancient world, Sesha is the daughter of a great physician. She is a scribe, learned and educated, on a mission to Hyksos to find a missing Oracle and hear her speak a prophecy before the lunar eclipse. Her devoted friends and protectors, Reb and Paser, accompany her on the dangerous quest. Will the three friends be able to find the Oracle and learn the prophecy in time, while preventing the Hyksos chieftain from waging war on their home, Thebes?

I had no difficulty picking up the story and quickly learning about the characters in this final instalment. The author manages to evoke images of the ancient world while keeping the story relevant and exciting for the modern reader. There is endless excitement and adventure with a group of distinctive and likeable characters, weaving a mystical tale that engrosses the reader. While written for younger readers, this book is ageless. As a young person, I was obsessed with the ancient world and Egypt in particular. I know I would have adored this series.

Congratulations to the author on a well-researched and engaging novel! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and can highly recommend it. Thanks to Dundurn Press and Alisha Sevigny for allowing me to read and review it.

Bookstore owner Malcolm Kershaw leads a quiet life. He c0-owns and runs Old Devils Bookstore in Boston with his friend, tends to his ginger cat Nero, and reads. Years ago he compiled a list of eight perfect murder mysteries for a blog - murders which he considered to be so well done that they wouldn't be detected or solved in reality. But one day an FBI agent comes to see him, convinced that there is an actual series of murders based on his list. Is he a suspect? Is someone acting on his blog post? Is Malcolm in danger? Malcolm starts looking into it himself, and begins to see danger around every corner.

When I say I love a good old-fashioned murder, this is what I mean. All the ingredients are present: a seemingly harmless bookseller, an investigator, an old bookstore with a lovable ginger cat, a string of dead bodies and a shadowy city setting. I read this with a cup of tea and my cat sprawled nearby, a snowstorm blowing outside. It doesn't get any better than that. I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend to fans of a classic murder mystery.

Perhaps I have read too many domestic thrillers in recent days, however The Replacement Wife was not a hit with me. I found the writing a little garbled and confusing at times, while the extent of the gaslighting just went too far for credibility. It was a touch melodramatic and most certainly too long. I sincerely believe that enough thrillers have been produced with "wife" in the title. I cannot recommend this one.

Geographies of the Heart tells a story about family - the one you are born into and the one you chose for yourself. Sarah and Glennie are two sisters born into the same family, but worlds apart in personality and life choices. Sarah puts family before everything else, while Glennie is endlessly and single-mindedly driven to pursue her passion in life, medicine, and puts it first. Their decisions over the course of the years from 1994 to 2019 shape their lives, and puts a strain on their relationship as Sarah struggles to understand Glennie's choices. Through better and worse, Sarah, Glennie and Sarah's husband Al navigate the joys and trials of life though happy family moments, tragedies and the challenges of everyday life.

The novel is deeply reflective, with insightful observations on how we communicate (or not) with family, how it shapes our identity and the significant role that family history and story-telling plays in our lives. "It's important to know how one's story begins, especially in our family. Stories connect us; words are our banners and flags. We have no crest. We have the twining of our chapters." The novel flows and reads like a series of related short stories, including the perspectives of each of the three primary characters. It is an artistically written piece of emotional and reflective literary fiction, quite unlike anything I have read before. Many thanks to NetGalley and to Suzy Approved Book Tours for providing me with the opportunity to read it.

The Running-Shaped Hole is a tale of one man's struggle with himself. The title is based upon the Christian concept of the God-shaped hole that supposedly exists in every heart, that only God can fill and complete. For Robert Earl Stewart the hole is filled by running.

Robert struggles with his inner demons - loneliness, low self-esteem and a penchant for self-destructive appetites for alcohol and food. He loses his mother before her time when she dies at only 58, an event which serves to propel him further into his self-destructive patterns of over-eating and heavy drinking. When a serious warning from his physician finally frightens him into facing his obesity, he turns to running and within a year has turned his lifestyle and his health around. But for Stewart, life doesn't turn around that easily, since his outer struggles are minor compared with the struggles inside his own head.

This memoir is raw and honest, alternately evoking feelings of frustration and satisfaction, annoyance and admiration. Stewart spares himself nothing - he shares his humiliation, sadness, joy and triumph. His unflinching honesty about his weaknesses and flaws allows us to commiserate with him and also to root for him. Whatever his flaws might be, lack of courage isn't one of them. I look forward to reading more from Robert Earl Stewart.

I'm completely fine...

It is what you are supposed to say when someone asks. But Eleanor has been telling herself for all her thirty years that she is fine all by herself - no family, no friends and no real life. Until one day Eleanor meets Raymond and learns the true meaning of connection with other people, and starts to come to terms with the trauma of her past.

I picked this book up one day on a whim. When I started reading I was hooked. A little bit of humour, romance and a lot of insight into the human condition. Even if we haven't had Eleanor's terrible traumatic childhood, we can all relate to the insecurities, the need to have someone to trust and rely on, the love of a furry friend and the respect and collegiality of our work mates.

And the vocabulary! I am a total English grammar geek so I was delighted by Eleanor's observations and word choice. My favourites include sybarite, dipsomaniac and "cacophonous din of hell". I have never read a book that touched me enough to make me cry, however I will admit that for the first time ever I shed a few tears while reading this book. I loved it and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be my favourite read of the year.

This audiobook popped up while I was perusing Libby so I decided to nab it and listen to it in the car. It was a sweet little confection which entertained and didn't stress me out, so it was exactly what I was looking for!

The story takes place in a picturesque, storybook village called Miracle Springs and revolves around a group of 4 female friends, all with a dark and painful secret in their past. Together, they tackle a murder mystery in the town and forge a bond of trust and support, while healing from their past unhappy experiences. The book ends with a teaser indicating a second mystery to come.

The Secret Book and Scone Society isn't going to win a Giller, but that isn't the point of the book. I needed something a little lighter and less intense to just enjoy and be entertained, which is exactly what the story delivered. The narrator was excellent, expressive without being annoying, the mystery was sufficiently interesting, and the characters all very likeable and engaging. Yes, the picture of the town that is painted is a bit technicolour and overly quaint, a bit like a Hallmark movie, but this is a flaw I can overlook given that the characters are all flawed and realistically damaged, which makes their stories more interesting.

I quite enjoyed it and would continue to listen to other books from the series.

"A tissue for your issue?"

Molly Gray is different from other people and she knows it. Behind her back, her co-workers at the Regency Grand Hotel call her Molly the Robot, weirdo, or Roomba. But Molly loves her work as a maid at the hotel; she delights in cleaning and restoring rooms to a state of perfection as she likes to say. Then one day Molly finds the wealthy and notorious Charles Black dead in his room, and suddenly to her dismay Molly is the prime suspect. Who will come to her aid and help her clear her name of suspicion? As it turns out Molly has more friends than she realizes. "Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, it's not the end."

The Maid is a delightful novel! I flew through this one quickly as it was so enjoyable. The memorable characters are drawn so clearly, especially Molly and Gran, with their daily routines and sweet life together including a love for jigsaws, Columbo and Olive Garden. Molly's literal interpretations of people and events make for a few amusing moments and the conclusion is sweetly satisfying.

It is difficult to believe that this is a debut novel for Nita Prose. Well done!

In The Paris Apartment, Jess arrives in Paris to visit her brother Ben at his new apartment in a wealthy neighborhood. Ben had taken his friend Nick's offer to move into his building which had a vacant apartment in it. Jess arrives to find Ben missing and a very odd assortment of people living in the building, who might know a lot more about her brother's disappearance than they are saying. Jess doesn't know who she can trust, but she must find her brother since he is the only family she has.

The Paris Apartment was a fast read with odd and interesting characters and dysfunctional relationships galore. Although it is set in Paris, it isn't essential to the storyline and really could have been set in any big city since the focus is really on the characters. It has a little bit of a gothic feel to it which I enjoyed. There are some thought-provoking themes running through the novel including violent partner relationships, the mother-daughter bond and the disparity between great wealth and poverty. I felt there was a maturity in the writing that didn't exist in her prior books, and I really appreciated that.