The Underground Library

Jennifer Ryan hooked me with her first WWII novel, The Chilbury Ladies' Choir (See my post of 12/27/2017.) and I've looked forward eagerly to each new stand-alone book.  Her latest is The Underground Library (#1,215).

Here Ms. Ryan interweaves the stories of three young women who find themselves in the London neighborhood of Bethnal Green at the outbreak of WWII.  Katie's family owns a large house on the Park, and her life is seemingly set as she spends the final summer working at the Bethnal Green Library before she heads off to university in the fall.  Juliet arrives to take up her new post as Deputy Director of the Bethnal Green Library, escaping her small country town and her controlling parents.  Sofie is a young German Jewish refugee sent by her abusive employer to the library to find him a book of maps.

Each chapter is told from a different point of view, tracing the impact the Bethnal Green Library has on each of them, even as it is bombed by the Nazis and subsequently moved down into the London Underground for safety, to serve the community which gathers each night to escape the bombs themselves.  It's an engrossing tale.

In the Acknowledgements, Ms. Ryan mentions Simon Parkin's fascinating non-fiction work The Island of Extraordinary Captives.  I came across this book in my own library recently, and both my husband and I read it with a great deal of interest.  I hope Jennifer Ryan's shout out will encourage people to read it who might not otherwise have ever heard of it.  (See my post of 10/31/2023.)

As always, highly recommended.

The Silence In Her Eyes

After hearing author Armando Lucas Correa speak about his latest novel, The Silence In Her Eyes (#1,214), I knew I wanted to read it.  Known for his historical novels, Silence was a pet project for him.  It's a thriller centered on a young woman who suffers from a neurological condition called akinetopsia.  Leah has motion blindness.  Although she can see, the image remains still until she blinks her eyes.  Much can change around her in the time it takes her to blink.

Leah's mother has recently died, leaving her alone in an enormous pre-war apartment.  When a young woman in the throes of a nasty divorce moves in next door, Leah can hear them fighting.  After Leah befriends Alice, everything changes for her; someone comes into her apartment, leaving a strong and distinctive scent behind.  No one believes her, though, even when she senses someone watching and following her...

In this cat-and-mouse thriller, it really is a question of who is preying on whom.

Twisty, it certainly kept me guessing until the end!

Women of Good Fortune

The cover blurb for Sophie Wan's novel Women of Good Fortune (#1,213) calls the book "Joyous, indulgent, immensely clever."  While I might agree with the "immensely clever" comment, I would never call this book either "joyous" or "indulgent".  

Three women in Shanghai have been friends for years.  None of them are happy with their lives as the book opens.  Jane is married, but hates her looks, herself and her husband, not necessarily in that order.  Rina lived and was educated in the US.  She is unmarried, but at an age in China where her strivings in the corporate world are guaranteed to take her nowhere.  She stays in Shanghai to take care of her ailing parents.  Lulu, the third member of the trio, has seemingly hit the jackpot.  She is about to marry the heir of one of the wealthiest families in Shanghai.  Why isn't she happier about the life of luxury she is about to enter?  Could it be because of all the demands her own family is placing on her?

The action of the novel revolves around the plot these three women devise to steal the millions of yuans which will be gifted to the happy couple at the lavish wedding ceremony attended by the cream of Shanghainese society.  Lulu can head off to Thailand during the ceremony unwed as she's always dreamed, Jane can have her plastic surgery, and Rina?  Rina will do what she always does best - organize and take care of everyone else's needs.

Will the story have a happy ending?  Not the way these three pictured it.

The Wedding Date

The Wedding Date (#1,212) by Jasmine Guillory is one of her earlier books, but I snatched it up when I saw it on display at my local library.  I loved one of her more recent books, By The Book.  It was one of the most enjoyable romances I've read in years.

I still enjoyed The Wedding Date, but I think there was a lot less plot, and waaayyy more sex!  I realize that's what publishers think sells books, but for me, it's the story behind how the couple got there.  There was a definite "meet cute" here, lots of food, and plenty of anguishing about a less than perfect body for the heroine to keep me reading, though, even if I did skip over the sex scenes to get to the good parts.  Oh, and did I mention that this is an interracial romance?

I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy her later works more, but I'm still glad to have discovered Jasmine Guillory.

The Ninth Man

If you've read Steve Berry's popular Cotton Malone thriller series, you'll be familiar with Luke Daniels, a spin-off character from those books in The Ninth Man (#1,211).  Berry has co-authored this book with Grant Blackwood, but they've done a seamless job blending their writing into an interesting plot with several unexpected twists.

Luke Daniels, former Army Ranger and nephew of a former US president, is relaxing in London after completing his latest assignment for the Magellan Billet when he receives an urgent text from a former colleague.  When Luke arrives at the Belgian home of Jillian Stein's grandfather, he finds himself in the middle of a fire storm.  Her grandfather has been murdered, and those responsible will not stop until they retrieve a rifle hidden away by Benji Stein.  Who is after it, and now them, and for what purpose?  The stakes are life and death in this cat and mouse game involving a controversial day in American history.

Okay, I did not see the end of this one coming!  Tense thriller, with a promise of at least two more to come from this writing team.  Can't wait.

The Reading List

The Reading List (#1,210) by Sara Nisha Adams is a wonderful book.  It contains not one, but two reading lists within its pages.  

In the neighborhood around Wembley Stadium in London, a number of isolated people come across neat, hand-written lists of book titles, with the heading "In Case You Need It". Although they don't know it yet, they do have a common connection: the local library, perennially in danger of being closed down by the Civic Council.  As each person embarks on their own journey by reading through the list, we meet them in their struggles and heartaches and see how the act of reading lifts them out of themselves and into a greater community.  But the question remains: who wrote this particular reading list, and why?  We do find out in the end in a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Maybe I related to this book because I've read all but one of the novels on the "In Case You Need It" list.  I plan to remedy that omission in the near future.  This is a debut novel from Ms. Adams.  I hope we hear more from this talented writer.

Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Lord

Hmm.  Not sure how I feel about Celeste Connally's Regency mystery Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord (#1,209).  The cover blurb promises "Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie".  I can't tell whether or not the comparison to Bridgerton is fair or not, since I've neither read nor seen either series.  As for Agatha Christie - not exactly in her league.  It's easy to spot the ending well in advance.

The premise is that the lords in Lady Petra Forsythe's social circle are sharing the name of a gentleman who will, for a price, arrange for the troublesome women in the peer's life to be taken to an estate in the country "for her health".  Most are never seen again, and some are rumored to have died.  One of Lady Petra's friends has been removed thusly from London society when she succumbs to her depression.  Based on overheard snippets at a ball, Lady Petra doubts very much that the story of her death is true, so she investigates, putting her directly in the crosshairs of the villain of the piece.

And of course she falls right into the trap set for her in her very own house, no less!  And of course the handsome hunk comes to her rescue.  But wait!  The dangling thread about the cause of Lady Petra's fiance's death in a fall down stairs shortly before their wedding is used to cast doubt three years later on Lady Petra's childhood friend and new main squeeze.  I guess there will be more, but I won't be reading any sequels.  Sorry, Ms. Connally.  I much prefer Georgette Heyer.