Reading Round Up

I’ve been trying to work my way through my To Be Read pile, and thus haven’t been on top of reading and reviewing too much romance. Just to make it clear I haven’t been loafing around watching television, here’s a brief look at the books I’ve gotten through in the past several weeks:

The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag
by Alan Bradley
The further adventures of Flavia de Luce, age 11, passionate chemist and amateur sleuth. When murder once again visits her little village, Flavia takes to the back roads and woods on her trusty bicycle to unearth the truth. Though Flavia is as incorrigible as ever, this novel does not hang together quite as neatly as her first adventure, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Still entertaining and atmospheric, especially for fans of the village or country house murder.

The Burning Lamp
by Amanda Quick
The second book in The Dreamlight Trilogy finds adventurous, crusading Adelaide Pyne coming to the aid of Griffin Winters. Griffin has started hallucinating, and fears he is falling victim to the Winters curse; Adelaide has the skill and the artifact necessary to help him avoid that fate – he hopes. Unfortunately, some shadowy figures from both their pasts would like to get their hands on both the artifact and Adelaide, and they don’t really care who gets hurt in the process. Another solid entry in the light suspense category from Quick, who also writes as Jayne Ann Krentz and Jayne Castle. If you are not familiar with the Arcane Society, you will want to start with one of the earlier books.

Tomorrow:
Death in the Stocks and Wild Ride -- mystery and romance combined...