Casually Yours

Finished March 23

Casually Yours by Vivian Jia Lac

This debut by Toronto writer Vivian Jia Lac is a winner. Set partly in Manhattan and partly in Oregon, the main character is only child Dani Tsai. Dani grew up in small town Silverpine, Oregon, in a house she and her father moved to after her mother returned to Taiwan to pursue her artistic career. Next door lived the Trans, a warm and rambunctious family who ran a local pharmacy. Their son Parker was the same age as Dani and the two became unlikely best friends. Parker was popular at school, always into sports, and became a local football star in high school. Dani was bookish, artistic, introverted, and has a passion for the idea of parallel worlds. Their families spent holidays together from the Fourth of July to Thanksgiving. Parker's mom, Cô Tran, was like a mother to her, much appreciated with the absence of her own mother. Parker's older brother Nathan went to university in Philadelphia and ended up settling there.

When they went to college, they went in opposite directions: Parker to the University of Oregon on a scholarship and later to San Francisco, and Dani to New York City. They stayed in touch until Christmas their sophomore year. Parker was supposed to come to New York for Christmas, but didn't show and basically ghosted her, refusing to respond to her, or even discuss what happened and why. 

Dani works for a magazine, Adagio, as a copy editor, but often writes freelance articles for it and other publications as well. She gets along with her co-workers for the most part and, as the book opens is looking forward to an interview for an online publication, for a contract 18-month position travelling through Asia, something her boss has already approved as a side gig as long as she meets her deadlines. 

After the dinner interview goes drastically wrong, Dani runs into Parker, in town for work as a sports marketing specialist, and the two reconnect. He even invites her to a gala his company is co-sponsoring that weekend. There, the evening takes a turn neither one planned for. 

Their casual relationship takes off from there. Regular meetups at his hotel suite and soon more. But whether it will last past his current New York-based assignment or not is unclear, and insecurities abound.

 I enjoyed the connection between the two characters, built from their past friendship, but with added passion. Shared memories, plus now secrets that just they know. Lac is great at characterization, and her dialogue is perfect. I got a good sense of even the less major characters of friends and family. A definite winner and an author I'll be looking for again. 

Alchemised

Finished March 23

Alchemised by Sen Lin Yu

This long novel is fantasy set in a country in another world. It has a lot of elements of horror and some romance, but not done in a typical way. The main character is Helena Marina, and she came to Paladia as a teenager on a scholarship to a special alchemy school. Her father accompanied her, and although he is a skilled surgeon in his own country, he wasn't allowed to practice in Paladia. Helena trained as a healer, and the civil war in the country started around the time she finished school, but she decided to stay and help the government that was in place when she came. They have a philosophy and folklore of the leading family, the Holdfasts, being granted their leadership and abilities by the gods. But she has grown to learn that not all of these stories are based in fact. 

The rebellion came from the guild families, some of whom came to the school, but who were always made to feel lesser. They were led by someone who came from elsewhere, a shadowy figure who has the ability to grand everlasting life, including quick self-healing. Only those who have taken up this promise know the true cost.

The story begins after the war, where Helena is now a prisoner-of-war, about whom the authorities are very curious. She has had something done to her mind to reorganize her memories and they wonder what she is hiding. She doesn't know herself what was done to her, and she has no memories of much of the war. She is given to the High Reeve, who is expected to break the barriers created in her mind and find out any hidden information. His house is in the countryside, a gated estate, and the only ones there besides him and his wife, who resents Helena, are dead servants who have been reanimated by the Reeve. She is also watched all the time. The High Reeve is an accomplished alchemist and necromancer with an affinity for several metals. His home has iron embedded in it that he can use when needed. 

Part of this story is what really happened in the war, and we learn all the events and relationships, the loss that Helena can't remember. She has many secrets, and so does the High Reeve, and some of those secrets are shared.

This is a horrific war, where the rebels reanimate the people they kill and use them as soldiers. They are cruel and don't really care about anyone but themselves. During the war, they did experiments on those they captured, and created monstrous animals that lived in pain and because of their pain lashed out at all those they encountered. 

There is also a plan to use the women alchemists and necromancers from the defeated side as breeders with the winning men to create more skilled necromancers. 

This is a disturbing read, and I think it could have used some more editing to shorten it a bit, but it is also a book that draws you in, needing to know what happens to these characters. 

Forget Me Not

Finished March 21

Forget Me Not by Stacy Willingham

This standalone psychological suspense follows Claire Campbell as she returns to her mother's home in small town South Carolina. She returns because her father has called her and told her that her mother broke her leg and could use some help. 

Over twenty years earlier, Claire's older sister Natalie, eighteen at the time, disappeared and while her body was never found, her blood was found on a shirt in a man's car and he was convicted of the crime. Claire always wondered what happened, and since her sister's room is basically untouched, she pokes around and finds a cardboard box of photographs. Some were from the summer job at a small winery that Natalie worked at earlier in the summer, some were of their family, and there was one of the man with the car. 

Claire's mom tells her she doesn't need her, and Claire is tempted to go back to New York, but she's recently quit her newspaper job and gone freelance, and hasn't been doing well, so doesn't have much finances. She's also sublet her place to someone. So instead she decides to try to find the winery Natalie worked at, and she does. But the Galloway winery is no longer open to the public, and the man she encounters wonders why she's there. On a whim, she agrees to work there for a month, earning some money, getting a place to stay, and maybe learning more about her sister. 

But then she finds a diary, that seems to be by the quiet woman married to the winery owner, and she is intrigued by what she reads. A story that both captivates her and scares her. The young man who she first met is friendly and she begins to feel at ease with him, but not so much the owner, who she finds a little creepy. There is no phone reception there, but she does manage to email a former co-worker back home about where she is and what she's doing. She finds, that while the work is physically strenuous, it is satisfying and calming. But the suspicions grow, as she learns more from the diary, and from other research she does, and she finds that she may not be acting as 'under the radar' as she thinks.

This book is eerie and creepy, as we learn along with Claire what's been going on out here and with the people she's met. Who can she trust, and what does her mother have to do with it all?

A Dozen Deadly Roses

Finished March 20

A Dozen Deadly Roses by Kathy Bennett

This novel begins in Los Angeles, where Jade Bennett is a police officer. She is the single mother of a four-year-old boy, and is doing well in her job, now training rookie officers. When she's at work, her son stays with her father and his girlfriend. both recovering alcoholics. 

As the novel starts, Jade is getting florists boxes of dead roses hand-delivered to her. First at her home, then at her work, and even at her father's house. They are obviously a message and a threat, with the first delivery containing twelve roses and each subsequent one containing one less. It is obviously a countdown to the threat. She has told her superior officer, but the woman doesn't like Jade, and dismisses it as a joke and doesn't provide any police support or investigation to it. Jade realizes that she must deal with it herself and begins carrying her gun everywhere she goes. 

Five years ago when she started with the police, Mac Stryker was her training officer, but he was going through a difficult time after the violent death of his wife and child, and was drinking to numb himself. On one call, Jade used lethal force to a threat, and Mac was too drunk to be useful. He left the police. Now he's back after going through therapy, and Jade is assigned to be his training officer, something neither of them like. They manage to make a workable arrangement for their shifts together, but Mac becomes interested in her personally and notices the threat that she is facing. As they deal with a variety of cases, from the mundane to the dangerous, he becomes closer to not only her, but also to her family. The threat to her intensifies and extends to her family as well. 

The back stories of the characters was interesting, and the threat believable. There are emotions involved and the issue of trust arises as well. The characters have depth and the plot is a page turner. 

April Reviews for the 19th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

 This is where you add the links to reviews that meet the challenge. We have a little less than three months left, lots of time. 

The Shining Skull

Finished March 19

The Shining Skull by Kate Ellis

As usual in this series, there are both historical mysteries that Neil, the archaeologist comes across, and modern day ones that have some relation to the historical ones.  

In 1976, Marcus Fallbrook, a seven-year-old boy, son of a well-off man, was kidnapped. His family was asked for ransom and it was paid, but he was never returned. Thirty years later a middle-aged man knocks on the door of his home looking for Marcus' father, who has passed away, and says that he is Marcus. He explains that a recent accident to his head has caused him to start remembering. In the house are Marcus' younger half-brother Adrian and his wife. As they go through confirming his identity and catching up with events, Adrian is pleased to meet his brother and connect with him.

Meanwhile a teen pop-star who lives in the area is kidnapped, and some parts of her case show similarity with that of Marcus's. 

There is also an odd case of a man, who changes appearances with each contact, impersonating a taxi cab and picking up fares of blonde women, taking them to a more private location, and cutting off most of their hair. He doesn't seem to want anything else of them. 

In terms of the historical case, Neil is supervising a relocation for graves and their inhabitants to make way for the building of a church hall. Some are quite old, and the coffins aren't in good shape. One breaks apart as they move it, and everyone is surprised to find that it holds two bodies: a young woman and a young teen boy. It is her grave, and Neil is determined to discover his identity and work out why he is there. He is also intrigued by a singular marking on some of the graves that indicates they belonged to a group that followed a woman who called herself The Shining One and who predicted a major event when her child was born. 

As the police and Neil separately research their cases and mysteries, the connections begin to be shown and the parallels are, as usual, very interesting. 

I really like how this series brings in history to current cases. It is also interesting to see how the personal lives of some of the characters develop. From Wesley's boss trying to support his woman-friend through moving her mother into dementia living to Pam's teaching to Rachel's moving out of her family home, we see changes in their lives. 

A Scottish Country Escape

Finished March 17

A Scottish Country Escape by Julie Shackman

This is the fourth book in the Scottish Escapes series, where each book is a standalone story. Here the main character is Elle Cassidy, and it is almost a year since her parents died in an accident. Since then, she moved back into their home where her grandmother has a suite to herself. Now she is ready to tackle her mother's newsagent shop, deciding to reopen it as a stationery shop, carrying a range of fine stationery as well as stationery items for children. As she is beginning her renovations to the shop, she has an encounter with a newcomer to the town, famous mystery author Dexter Grayling. He has ignored the signs indicating the narrow street is pedestrian only and not only nearly hit her and another local woman, but also had a condescending attitude that didn't include recognition of the situation or any apologies.

When the local woman, Linda Carlucci, has a strange reaction, muttering at him with her hand on her necklace, she doesn't think much of it until he returns soon after looking for Linda as he is sure that she laid a curse on him. Elle doesn't believe it, but her grandmother does, and urges her to help him.

As she spends time with Dexter, she changes her feelings about him, and an attraction is formed.

As Elle is dealing with the logistics of her work around the shop, and becomes involved in the fight to save their local forest trail, she does help Dexter. But the questions lead her into not only past events in their small town, but also into her family's past. 

This book has a mystery element, a paranormal element regarding the curse, and a romantic plot line for Elle. I really got a feel for the setting, and Elle's home and shop. I enjoyed the read, which is the second book I've read in the series.