The Vanished Days (Scottish/Slains, #3) Susanna Kearsley – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, favorite series, historical, Jacobites, romance, Scotland, series, Susanna Kearsley

About The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley

There are many who believe they know what happened, but they do not know the whole of it. The rumours spread, and grow, and take their hold, and so to end them I have been persuaded now to take my pen in hand and tell the story as it should be told…
 
Autumn, 1707. Old enemies from the Highlands to the Borders are finding common ground as they join to protest the new Union with England, the French are preparing to launch an invasion to carry the young exiled Jacobite king back to Scotland to reclaim his throne, and in Edinburgh the streets are filled with discontent and danger.
 
Queen Anne’s commissioners, seeking to calm the situation, have begun settling the losses and wages owed to those Scots who took part in the disastrous Darien expedition eight years earlier.
 
When Lily, the young widow of a Darien sailor, comes forward to collect her husband’s wages, her claim is challenged, and one of the men who’s assigned to examine her has only days to decide if she’s honest, or if his own feelings are making him blind to the truth, and if he’s being used as a pawn in an even more treacherous game.

A story of intrigue, adventure, endurance, romance…and the courage to hope.

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Review of The Vanished Days

The Vanished Days is told through the narrator, Sergeant Adam Williamson, as he investigates the claim of Lily Aitcheson.  The first person viewpoint tells the reader that Williamson is telling his personal tale.  The third person perspective means that Williamson is telling someone else’s tale with details provided by the many witness he questioned.  The effect is to create a dual storyline, a method often used by Susanna Kearsley, as her readers will be aware.

The book centers on Lily’s story:  from her childhood with its happy, memorable moments to the days when it appears the world is against her.  Lily perseveres through many trials using her own grit and sometimes getting help from friends and family.  Ultimately, there are terrible men using their power over women.  But there are also good men who will do what is right.  The Vanished Days has a few characters to boo and curse at, but even more to hope for, weep for and cheer for. 

There is a great deal of withholding of information by the narrator (or by the author).  One of the characters, Robert Moray, said “All men do leave pieces out when they tell tales.”   This is evident in the way the characters lives intersect in ways the reader does not imagine they will intersect.  When the facts are revealed, the revelations are pleasantly surprising and may even bring tears of joy.  If you have read Ms. Kearsley’s books, you are familiar with the path she likes to take.

Slains and Scottish are the two series names that now appear to be attached to this book.  Whatever you call it, The Vanished Days is pure Kearsley storytelling magic.  If you enjoyed The Winter Sea and/or The Firebird, I recommend you check out The Vanished Days.

Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book so I could bring you my honest review.

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Cosmic Boom (Project Enterprise #9) by Pauline Baird Jones – Review

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5 stars, aliens, favorite series, first contact, Pauline Baird Jones, scifi, scifi romance, series, space opera

About Cosmic Boom by Pauline Baird Jones

A critical mission, a cosmic event, and a secret….

USAF Captain Hedy Quinton joined Project Enterprise so she could travel to a distant galaxy. Excited about her first command, she never expected the headaches that would go with it. She’s dealing with a lonely AI in her ship’s systems, a really cute deck officer who used to be a robot, a disgruntled ally who wants to be in command, and a passel of possibly dubious scientists. The only thing going for her is that none of them are named Dr. Smith.

BoomerJ—known as Boom—is still getting used to his new human body. His new form feels and needs things that his robot body never did, especially when he is around his new commanding officer, Hedy Quinton. His new emotions also make him realize something else—that his new form is fragile compared to his old one.

For Hedy, the pressures of command come into sharp conflict with the longings of her heart when Boom goes down to check out the weird happenings on an unknown planet. Things don’t go well down on the planet or up on the ship, making Hedy wonder if she should rethink her life’s choices.

Can their love survive a cosmic event, betrayal, and the secret of Boom’s past, or will they be destined to be lost in space?

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Review of Cosmic Boom

Once again, I was swept off of my feet with another Project Enterprise adventure.  A feisty heroine (who is also sweet and polite) and an enigmatic robot-turned-human are joined by an AI ship, marines and scientists as they venture into unknown space.  Their mission is two-fold.  Escort a ship full of recently awakened cryosleepers home and try to establish contact via communication outposts in that quadrant.

Sounds like a pretty straight-forward mission.  But now let’s throw in a cosmic event that seems to be messing with space in a big way and then add a few heretofore unknown species out in that area of space.  Now, things have gone from straight-forward to Zigzagging with a capital ‘Z’.

Get ready to meet the Grikal, Fisse, and Niltu.  (Who comes up with these names?)  These are the alien races encountered along the way.  The trick will be to sort out the friendlies from the not-so-friendlies.  First contact is never boring, is it?  Then there are the scientists, representing the Gadi, Garradians and Earth.  Diversity at its scientific finest.

Captain Hedy Quinton is on her first command mission.   Hedy can’t decide which Starfleet captain she is should channel but mostly she seems to settle on Picard.  Mostly.   BoomerJ (Boom) is the human-who-was-a-robot and is learning more and more about being human – from interacting with humans and from reading romance and mystery books.   I was delighted by the many pop culture references centering around these two characters.  Mostly because I got most of them. 

Cosmic Boom is pure entertainment for anyone that enjoys a good adventure, a little mystery, some romance, hope and humor.

Cosmic Boom is another far, far away space adventure in Pauline Baird Jones’ Project Enterprise series.  Spanning 9 books, several galaxies, a myriad of civilizations, and dozens of sentient species there is no end to the possible stories that can be told by this author.  (I hope!)

Thanks to the author who kindly provided a copy of her book in exchange for my honest review.

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A Lethal Lesson (Lane Winslow, #8) by Iona Whishaw – Review

Tags

5 stars, Book Review, Canada, favorite series, historical mystery, Iona Whishaw, mystery, series

About A Lethal Lesson by Iona Whishaw

Back home in the Kootenays after her Arizona honeymoon, Lane offers her assistance when neither the outgoing teacher, Rose, nor her replacement, Wendy, show up at the local schoolhouse one blizzardy Monday in December. But when she finds the teachers’ cottage ransacked with Rose unconscious and bleeding, and Wendy missing, Lane delivers Rose to the hospital in Nelson and turns the case over to her exasperated husband, Inspector Darling, and his capable colleagues, Sergeant Ames and Constable Terrell.

Never one to leave a post unmanned, Lane enlists as substitute teacher for the final two weeks before the Christmas holidays, during which time she discovers a threatening note in the teachers’ desk and a revolver in the supply cupboard. But these clues only convolute the case further. Who has been tormenting these women, and where has Wendy gone?

Meanwhile, Darling finds the body of a hit-and-run victim in a snowbank miles outside of Nelson, the residents of King’s Cove are preoccupied by the possibility of a new neighbour, and Sergeant Ames is as confused as ever by the inimitable Tina Van Eyck.

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Review of A Lethal Lesson

There are so many good historical mystery series out there, it may be hard to choose which to read.  Lane Winslow is a great series to try. It is one of my favorites in historical fiction. 

Lane Winslow was a WWII spy but has now settled in a small Canadian town.  Having married the local police Inspector Darling, the couple is now trying to settle down to marriage bliss. 

There must be something about a former spy and police inspector couple that draws trouble to the small town.  A ransacked house with an injured school teacher, a missing teacher, a hit-and-run victim, a mysterious new neighbor, and an abandoned child are all part of the multitude of mysteries that Lane will try to solve in A Lethal Lesson. 

As the substitute teacher, Lane should not be getting into any trouble.  Right?  Hmmph.  Readers of this series know that is not possible.  Readers of this series know that the question is, are all the troubles going on in the community connected and if so, how?

There is a lot of jumping back and forth in time that sometimes left me spinning and having to go back to the beginning of the chapter to figure out the date. But other than that, I enjoyed this story very much.

Familiar characters with all their unique traits enrich the story and add to all the speculation behind the troubles.  With each book, the characters evolve.  And getting to know them, with each book, the town gets smaller. 

A Lethal Lesson has the charm of a cozy mystery and the suspense of a murder mystery.  Mystery lover’s will not go wrong with Lane Winslow.

Thanks to the publisher who provided a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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