#justfinishedreading

[mirandagoing4baroque]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Museum Detective is a very fun Dan Brown-esque thriller. Dr. Gul Delani has spent her whole life fighting, fighting to get access to an education, fighting to get her backwards, misogynistic colleagues in Pakistan to give her resources fighting to get the well meaning but racist westerners to take her seriously. Through grit and sharp elbows she’s managed to carve out a space for herself in the Museum of Heritage and History in Karachi, and despite personal tragedy in the form of the disappearance of her niece Mahnaz, she’s found a place for herself.

Then one day she gets a call from a narcotics officer who has found a mummy. This is the beginning of a mystery that will push Dr. Delani to her personal and professional limits. This is a page turner of a book, and the kicker is it’s based on a true story! Honestly, the biggest plot twist for me was when I turned to the Author’s Note and found that out. My jaw just about hit the floor. I was absolutely in love with Dr. Delani and her niece (who we get to know in flashbacks), as well as the other characters.

This book definitely had some debut moments, for example, the pacing got a little whacky in the middle, and sometimes it forgets that it is a thriller and it swerves a little too long into the literary weeds. But a very fun read, and I will eagerly await the author’s next book.

I received an ARC in exchange for this honest review.

[satsumaworld]

This is an outstanding 3 story collection set in #California's #Salinas Valley in the #1930s. I just loved it. The story that stood out the most is the second one called The Snake. It's very mysterious and disturbing, and though not evident at first, the snake itself is a main character with the other two characters a young lab technician guy and an unknown tall woman who walks in the lab one evening unannounced. The first and also the titular story was about the aftermath of a mob attack. A man comes home shellshocked, unable to speak from the horror of the violence he had just witnessed, but all his wife is thinking is that he has been out shagging some other woman and so she is hysterical and she can't stop shouting and accusing him. The third story, The Chrysanthemum is about a very discreet and subtle betrayal, so subtle that I was not quite sure what happened (hence the four stars), but something not very pleasant happened. The prose is very cool and straightforward, yet the characters are full of life and passion. #johnsteinbeck #thevigilante #shortstories #penguinmodernclassics #penguinbooks #bookstagram #whatimreading #justfinishedreading #photooftheday #instadaily #love #writer #girl #writersofinstagram #bookcover #bookcoverart

[lav-skam-blog]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 5/5 Fandom: SKAM (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Even Bech Næsheim/Isak Valtersen Characters: Even Bech Næsheim, Isak Valtersen, Sana Bakkoush, Jonas Noah Vasquez Additional Tags: Fake/Pretend Relationship Summary:

“I thought about getting a fake, you know. A decoy boyfriend. But … I don’t really know anyone.” “You know me.” “I do know you, but I couldn’t ask that of you.” “Why not?”

aka, the one where Even finds himself in need of a fake boyfriend and Isak offers to help.

[pageturner20]

So, I finished Etiquette and Espionage earlier on, and whilst it had its flaws, it was still a fun and quirky book! I'm going to start Curtsies and Conspiracies next! I also realise here are four books in this series, but my copy of book no. 4 isn't arriving until tomorrow! #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #justfinishedreading #currentlyreading #gailcarriger #etiquetteandespionage #candles #quirky #fun #coverlove

[mirandagoing4baroque]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Spooky season continues to not disappoint! Immaculate vibes, one of my favorite maybe alive houses and a historically based haunting combined to make my expectations for this one sky high.

And let me tell you, if you’ve seen the hype and the posts and everyone fawning over this book and thought, “it can’t be that good.” Let me tell you it is. It’s a well balanced read that has a little something for everyone without feeling scattershot or un focused. It feels like a grown up modern twist on those novels with women in nightgowns running away from them that we loved. It doesn’t flinch away from darkness, but isn’t cynical or hopeless either. The highlight so far of my spooky season reading.

[mirandagoing4baroque]

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ever since I read Susan Casey’s The Underworld, I’ve been searching for that high. A book that is full of interesting information, larger than life characters, and a high stakes true story. Lightning Beneath The Sea appeared to be a follow on in that tradition. It did have all three of those things, and I enjoyed reading it, but it didn’t quite achieve the same greatness that Casey did.

Lightning Beneath the Sea tells the story of Cyrus Field, an American Businessman who, after a chance meeting, became obsessed with laying the first transatlantic submarine cable. It took him over a decade, most of his considerable fortune, and four tries.

There are a lot of bits of the story that are hang on the edge of your seat, and some of the characters (Wildman Whitehouse) are indeed larger than life, but the author devotes the same care and attention to Field’s many trips across the Atlantic, and other minutiae that are more historically relevant than narratively compelling, which makes the pacing stop and go, and prevents this book from being a truly riveting read. If you are already interested in this history, you’ll likely enjoy this book, but I’m not sure it will make a convert out of an ambivalent reader.

I received an advance copy in exchange for this honest review.

[mirandagoing4baroque]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Warm Hands of Ghosts was one of my absolute favorite books of 2024, so I jumped for joy when Netgalley gave me the opportunity to review Katherine Arden’s latest--The Unicorn Hunters. I jumped again when I realized that all the things I loved about The Warm Hands of Ghosts were also present in The Unicorn Hunters: a rich and vibrant historical inspired setting, a wild and ferocious magic, and richly drawn characters.

Duchess Anne of Brittany is between a rock and a hard place. France is at the door, ready to bring her home under its overbearing control. Her small army will certainly fall before the might of the French forces, and she promised her father before he died that she would never marry the French king. Maximilian of Austria has promised her protection in exchange for her hand in marriage, but Anne needs time. Time she does not have. When she conjures up a unicorn hunt as a distraction and heads into an enchanted forest, she sets in motion a series of events that will change history.

What I loved the most about this book (and Warm Hands) is how wild the magic Arden builds into her world is. It’s scary and powerful, and absolutely out of control. I also love how Anne is a strong female character without being a strong female character (tm). She’s got might and spunk, but she also loves her sister, and embroidery, and pretty dresses. This book is the complete package.

Recommended for fans of Ella Enchanted (but all grown up), the musical Six, and Nicola Griffith.

[mirandagoing4baroque]

⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Fortune of Sand is a literary historical fiction novel. Unfortunately I went into it thinking it was a gothic novel. Perhaps this unfairly prejudiced the review that follows, but ultimately I thought this book was extremely average. The characterization was fine. The pacing was a little spotty, but not enough so that I got hung up anywhere.

Marjorie’s family made their fortunes making glass for windshields. Marjorie is the freewheeling youngest daughter, constantly at odds with the more straightlaced members of her family. She gets accepted to an artistic residency run by a tall dark and handsome man, and something isn’t right about it.

The best thing about this novel was the sense of place and atmosphere. Detroit in the 1920s leaps off the page. Unfortunately I kept waiting for the magic, or the whodunit to really kick off, but this book is straight literary fiction. The weakest part for me was the ending. I felt like we never got the pay off for some of the character development we spent the whole book waiting for, and I think I’d feel that way even if I’d gone in knowing it was literary and not genre.

I received an ARC in exchange for this honest review.