In her first foray into Historical Romance, Adriana Herrera introduces us to Las Leonas–three Dominican best friends who travel to the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Luz Alana Heith-Benzan, the heiress of the title, has come to the Expo to find new markets for her rum. James “Evan” Evanston Sinclair is there to do much …
Paris is a lot of things – lovely, exciting, old, mysterious and now, dangerous. When Jess gets herself to the City of Lights where she can stay at her brother’s apartment, things are not quite what she expected. For one thing, the apartment is much nicer than she would have expected he could afford. For …
Looking for an excuse to feel good? Well, look no further. Lian Dolan has given us a fine specimen of a feel-good read, filled with the not-too-much pain of a marriage breakup, a quick trip to Paris, an unexpected loss, and a scavenger hunt with clues. Oh, right… there’s a little romance thrown in for …
Grace Campbell of Olympia and Laura Stanfill of Portland met at Mineral School in Mineral, Washington, during a 2018 parent residency week. Grace Campbell is the Fiction Editor at 5×5 Literary Magazine. Her roots are in flash/microfiction, where she has been published in journals like Brevity, Hobart, Joyland, and Midway. Her work has been featured …
[In] Lillie Lainoff’s One for All, the story of 16-year-old Tania de Batz … suffers from constant dizziness and a murdered father. One of these things has an evident solution, and young Tania whisks herself off to Paris where she discovers that the finishing school her father wished her to attend is actually a secret …
In Sept. 2011, I first discovered Mary Lou Longworth and her first mystery (Murder at the Chateau Bremont) set in Aix-en-Provence. I waited, impatiently at times, for her follow up books. It is worth the wait. [The second in the series is Murder in the Rue Dumas. The ninth book was published in 2021.] Professor …
Adolf Hitler has been chancellor of Germany for only four weeks, when on February 27, 1933, the Reichstag—home of the parliament in Berlin—suddenly bursts into flames. The Nazis promptly blame unruly communists, and in response suspend civil liberties throughout the country. Caught up in the ensuing escalation of lies, divisiveness, and bigotry is John Russell, …
The last novel from Italian writer Camilleri (1925-2019), who produced more than two dozen wonderful Inspector Montalbano mysteries over the past four decades, this was written years ago as a final installment and locked away until after the author’s death. In it, an early morning murder outside a bar becomes immediately complicated. As always with …
Every now and then, a book comes along that stirs the excitement of the entire bookshop. This is that book. In the debut novel from Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman, The Hunger Games meets magical realism. Every generation, seven families must send a tribute to fight to the death in a secret battle for …
In the last ten months, I have devoured four books by [Bremerton, WA] author Gary McAvoy. His series is called The Magdalen Chronicles. Book 4 is entitled The Vivaldi Cipher that includes a cameo appearance by composer Antonio Vivaldi. [Here is the link for Book 1: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781954123021 ] The story opens, briefly, in The Vatican …
