I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons

I've never read anything by Peter S. Beagle before, but somehow his latest novel, I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons (#1,275) made it onto my radar.  What a fun read!  It's a romantasy, to use the current phrase, that doesn't take itself seriously, and that's the point.

Who wouldn't love a novel where the hero is named Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax?  He's inherited the job of dragon exterminator from his late father, but he loathes his job.  He secretly enjoys the company of dragons and keeps some at his own home.  But he's summoned to the castle for a rush job when the beautiful Princess Cerise appears to have met the handsome Prince of her dreams in the woods.  Everything at the palace must be perfect when he arrives at the castle to claim her hand from the King and Queen of Bellemontagne.  The courtship doesn't proceed exactly as planned, and therein lies the tale.

Of course there are deadly dragons, and an evil wizard to boot.  The Princess is feisty, Prince Reginald looks perfect in every way, but is full of doubts, and Robert (as Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus prefers to be known) discovers unknown powers within himself.  It's all seriously entertaining.  I was sorry to see this book end.

Not only was the cover art perfect for this book, but the endpapers as well are lavishly decorated with beautiful dragon artwork.  Worth a look for that alone!

Don't miss it!  (Especially if The Princess Bride is one of your all-time favorite reads!)

A Farewell To Arfs

Chet and Bernie are back in Spencer Quinn's latest A Farewell To Arfs (#1,274).  Bernie, the human half of the Bernie Little Detective Agency, is in the middle of discussing flower arrangements for his wedding to Weatherly when he is interrupted by his next-door neighbor behaving oddly.  The Parsonses have been going through a bad patch, with Edna in and out of the hospital, but when his son Billy calls from Gila City to ask for his dad's help in making payroll for his non-profit agency, of course Daniel is willing to help with a loan.  Unfortunately, the next morning he discovers that every penny in his bank account has vanished.  When Bernie learns what happened, he offers to go to the bank with Daniel to help straighten things out.  But that's only the beginning of a deadly scam...

Everything's on the table not just for the Parsonses, but for Chet and Bernie, too.  Will Weatherly ever forgive Bernie?  Will Chet ever be able to put two and two together?  He feels he's getting close!  And just who is behind the deadly voice scams?

I've missed Chet's unique approach to crime.  It's a joy to be inside his head again.

Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly

Marie Bostwick's novel Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly (#1,273) has been sitting in the pile beside my bed for a while now.  But when I picked it up the other day, it turned out to be just the book I needed.  That's kind of a theme in Esme, too.  Things happen to Esme she doesn't want to deal with, or can't wait to move beyond, but somehow, everything works out for the best...

Esme thinks she's left the remote fishing lodge her grandparents run just outside of Asheville, South Carolina behind when she escapes to New York to pursue a career in books.  Writing them, editing them, she really doesn't care as long as she's part of that world.  But her beloved grandmother asks her to come home, so Esme reluctantly prepares to visit.  But she's left it too long, and her grandmother is gone.  Not only that, but she's insulted one of her publishing house's biggest authors, so now she no longer has a job to go back to.

How Esme finds her way by starting over again on a new path makes this a relatable story, and a pleasure to read.  Family and friends make the world a bigger place if you are willing to look beyond the covers...

This book contained some twists I did not see coming, nor did it have a neatly tied up ending, and it was all the better for it.  Recommended.

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust

I was very excited to read Alan Bradley's latest Flavia de Luce novel What the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (#1,272) especially after discovering that the first book in the series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is being made into a TV series.  While I liked this book very much, I did think it was much darker in tone.  Young Flavia has always delighted in murder, but up until this point, the crimes have been pretty much one-offs with Flavia playing the starring role in their solution.  Here, she realizes what a small cog she actually is in the scheme of things.

Flavia's father is dead, her oldest sister is on her honeymoon in Europe and her other sister Daffy has plans for her future which she has not bothered share across the breakfast table.  Life at Buckshaw has settled into a dull routine, broken only by the antics of her brattish cousin Undine, a constant thorn in Flavia's side.  But the morning that Major Greyleigh's body is found in his cottage nearby, and their housekeeper Mrs. Mullet is the chief suspect in his death, everything changes.  No one Flavia has grown up with is exactly whom she thinks they are as one secret after another is revealed and even Flavia's life is on the line.

So much to deal with and Flavia is still not old enough to qualify for her official driver's license!  She's growing up fast, but she's still barely a teenager.  The weight and responsibilities of duty are settling on her shoulders... I can't wait to see where this series will go next.

The Healing Season of Pottery

The Healing Season of Pottery (#1,271) by Yeon Somin has been a major best-seller in Korea and is now available to American readers through the translation by Clare Richards.  I found it an interesting read on many levels.

Junming has been working for a number of years in an extremely high-pressure job in broadcasting.  That is until the day she has a major meltdown at work and walks out.  She retreats into her apartment in an area outside Seoul which is slowly becoming gentrified.  It takes her months to venture outside again.  She stumbles across a pottery workshop which she mistakes for a cafe, and that mistake changes her life.

Taking the time to make things by hand gives her time to heal her mind and heart.  This is Junming's story.  Oh, and there's a cat....

I've quite enjoyed a number of Japanese books I've read in translation recently.  I liked this one as well, although I did notice differences between the cultures I really hadn't thought about.  Most of the untranslated Korean terms were totally unfamiliar even though they were easy to figure out in context.  Most of the food described here I had never heard of, not having had the benefit of a local Korean restaurant nearby.  I certainly did think it was worth the time I happily spent with these characters.  I recommend it as something different to savor.

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife (#1,270) is a novel of mistaken identity set in Australia.  A down on his luck senior citizen is caught up by the staff of a nursing home who think Frederick is a wheelchair-bound resident named Bernard.  Much as Fred tries to tell them that he's not, he winds up at the home where he learns he bears an uncanny resemblance to the man whose body he had discovered by the river.  But for someone who has just been evicted from his apartment, and who has not eaten a square meal in days, the temptation to enjoy the food and the comfort of the bed is too much.  Maybe he'll just stay for a day or two...

But as he gradually makes friends and a difference to the nursing home community, one member of the staff is suspicious.  Bernard has never been this nice - and what about his incontinence?  It's suddenly gone.  But Denise has problems of her own.

The story itself is very touching, but after hearing this book described as "cute", I was surprised by the pre-adolescent glee the author, Anna Johnston, takes in including bodily functions at every, and I do mean every, opportunity.  To be honest, it almost put me off reading beyond the first few pages.  But I hung in there and was glad I did for the uplifting ending.

We Solve Murders

Richard Osman has switched from his popular Thursday Murder Club series to a new mystery series with equally quirky characters in We Solve Murders (#1,269).  I found it highly entertaining.

Amy Wheeler works for an exclusive personal protection agency.  Her current assignment is to guard a glamorous author of uncertain age but massive worldwide appeal who has received a credible death threat from a Russian oligarch.  They're on her private island, so hard can it be?  As it turns out, extremely hard!  Not only is someone out to kill Rosie D'Antonio, but Amy, too.  Which is funny, because one of her company's clients was recently killed on a boat only about fifty miles from Rosie's island hideaway.  Coincidence?  Amy is beginning to suspect not...

The driver behind this book is the hunt to discover just who is the mysterious person pulling the strings for a series of disparate events.  Is it someone at Amy's company?  Or someone else entirely?  The fun in this book is in the chase all over the world in pursuit of the puppet master.

Try it; I'll bet you'll like it! I can't wait for more from We Solve Murders.