The Heir Affair

If you read my 6/15/21 post on The Royal We, you know that I already had Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan's sequel, The Heir Affair (#990) on my bookshelf.  It was just as entertaining as the first book, with a number of twists and turns I did not see coming.  (How ironic that on the way to posting this review, I came across a news feed that said "Kate Middleton given a new job and Prince William announces it!")

Bex and her Prince Nicholas are off to a somewhat rocky start to their marriage, as Bex has been pilloried in the press.  Hiding out in Scotland, they must make the fraught decision to return to London and take up their royal duties.  For Bex, of course, that means producing an heir to the throne.  The Queen has granted them their first official royal residence in Kensington Palace, an apartment formerly occupied by her bachelorette sister, Georgina.  Crammed full of trinkets and treasures amassed over the course of her wild celebrity lifestyle, Bex has the main job of sorting out Georgina's things before redecorating their new home. While she's at it, she makes some discoveries with the potential to change everything.

It's a wild ride again, with the principal characters based on figures easily recognizable to royal watchers.  But then again, if you weren't one to start off, you probably wouldn't be reading these books in the first place.  Do be sure to read them in order, though.  Thoroughly enjoyable!

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

What a great read!  Elle Cosimano's mystery Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (#989) will keep you turning the pages to see what could possibly happen next.  

Finlay, divorced mother of two young children, is definitely not living the good life.  She's way behind on all her bills, and even worse, she doesn't even have enough of a manuscript to show her agent that she isn't in violation of her contract. When Sylvia demands an in-person meeting at a local Panera's, someone is listening in on the conversation about her book plot.  The problem is, the listener thinks Finlay is a hitman discussing a job.  Finlay finds a name, a phone number, and the promise of enough money to clear up her financial situation on her tray at Panera's.  She couldn't possibly kill someone, but she's intrigued by the desperation behind the note.  What if she just checked things out, for book research purposes...

One thing leads to another, and before she knows it, Finlay's in over her head with a dead body in her minivan.  The more she tries to clean things up, the worse the situation gets.

I absolutely loved this book!  I hovered between chuckling and nail-biting as the plot progressed.  I sure hope the teaser in the epilogue is leading to another mystery featuring Finlay Donovan and her plucky nanny/accountant Vero.  Can't wait!

The Chicken Sisters

 Several people whose opinion about books I respect told me that they loved KF Dell'Antonia's novel The Chicken Sisters (#988).  Heck, even Reese Witherspoon chose this book for her reading club!  Me, though - not a fan.

I don't watch reality TV, so I'm not a fan of the fictional Food Wars TV reality show driving the plot between estranged sisters in rural Kansas.  Mae has left it far behind in her escape to New York and her own struggling career as a social media influencer who comes back to help her mother's fried chicken restaurant, Mimi's, win the hundred thousand dollar prize.  Amanda, her younger sister, has remained in town, but she married into the rival restaurant Frannie's family.  Her mother barely speaks to her, and she is not allowed over the threshold of Mimi's.  Her heart is really with the chickens she draws, but refuses to eat.  Much fighting, angst and unpleasantness ensue.

Frankly, I did not like any of the characters, even though the author did try to focus a spotlight on mental health issues.  After reading this, I felt pretty much the way I would have after eating a meal at one of these restaurants: bloated and uncomfortable.  Not for me.

The Royal We

Thoroughly enjoyed The Royal We (#987), written jointly by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan.  If you're a romantic at heart, who wouldn't love this modern update of a commoner who gets her prince?  Or does she?  (I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that I put off reading The Heir Affair, its sequel, until I got my hands on The Royal We.)

When American Rebecca Porter applies for a semester abroad at Oxford, little does she realize that one of her dorm mates will change her life forever.  Prince Nicholas, oldest son of the Prince of Wales, is there as well.  The tightly-knit cluster of students who have known him since childhood accept Bex into their circle.  When Bex's twin sister Lacey learns who she is living with at Oxford, she's anxious to meet Nick's younger ginger-haired brother Freddie, her favorite pin-up.  Complications and heartbreaks ensue.

It's easy to pick out who the real-life models are for most of the characters- Prince William, Kate Middleton (Except in this case, Bex is American, to throw in an extra fillip and Oxford substitutes for Saint Andrews.), Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, even Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mum. But since this is a novel, Cocks and Morgan have plenty of leeway to create whole levels of perfectly plausible mayhem behind the scenes.  Such fun to dish without doing any actual harm to anyone involved, unlike the characters in The Royal We.

You may want to change your mind about putting yourself in Bex's (and Nick's!) place after reading this novel, but still, it's fun to dream, isn't it, when you don't have to do any of the heavy lifting!  A brilliant beach read.  Can't wait to start The Heir Affair!

Project Hail Mary

 I just finished reading Andy Weir's latest sci-fi novel, Project Hail Mary (#986).  At almost 700 pages in the Large Print edition, I was still sorry to get to the last page, it was that good.

Ryland Grace didn't ask to be on a suicide mission to save planet Earth, but here he is deep in outer space with only a foggy memory at first of what he is supposed to do when he wakes from a coma.  The time perspective shifts back and forth between his present day dilemmas (and there are quite a few!) and the events which led this junior high school science teacher to be onboard a spacecraft.  It's thrilling, nail-biting and, told in Ryland's wry voice, funny.

The science is dumbed down enough so that the average non-scientific reader will be able to comprehend most of the finer plot points without insulting said reader's (me being one!) intelligence.  You can't help but root for Ryland even though you know he's doomed to die...  Or is he?

Without giving away too much of the plot, I'll just say that like his previous best-seller, The Martian  (See my post of 4/7/2014.), I think this would make a terrific movie.

Interesting cover art on the book, too.  It took me several days to notice the scientific notation in the title.  Clever!  Highly recommended.

Last Train to Paradise

 It was reading Chanel Cleeton's novel The Last Train to Key West recently which finally spurred me into reading Les Standiford's account of the building of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad's (FEC) extension to Key West, Last Train to Paradise (#985).  What a monumental undertaking!  Although its existence as a railroad was relatively brief after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 destroyed large sections of it, its indelible impact on the Keys cannot be denied.

The FEC itself still exists to this day, and is part of my everyday life; I crisscross its tracks in the course of my errands and appointments, and hear its engine whistles blowing at night.  I've often visited Henry Flagler's Palm Beach mansion Whitehall, and toured his personal railroad car housed on the grounds.  I've driven down to Key West on the Overseas Highway which replaced Flagler's railroad from Homestead to Key West and appreciated the stunning views, but until I read this book, I had never really considered the vision, the effort and the cost that went into building that incredible connection to the furthest flung of the Florida Keys.  I will never see it again the same way after reading Last Train to Paradise.  And lest you think that this is some dry, prosy local history, bear in mind that Les Standiford was a successful thriller/mystery writer before he turned to non-fiction.  His narration here is every bit as gripping, but it's about real people and real events.  The Centennial Edition and re-printing of his lavishly illustrated book was gifted to my local library by the Flagler Museum, and is worth seeking out to visualize just what was entailed with the construction of this "Eighth Wonder of the World".

Anyone can tell you who John D. Rockefeller was, but how many know who his partner in Standard Oil was?  If you read Last Train to Paradise, you'll be amazed that more people don't know the name Henry Flagler.  Don't be one of them!  Thanks, Chanel Cleeton for pointing me in this book's direction!