To Marry an Earl by Karen Thornell

Katherine Cartwright's father is desperate enough because of gabling debt to offer up his beautiful daughter to the highest bidder. Before she knows it, Katherine is betrothed to an earl that she she thinks she has never met. In actually the lucky earl is Katherine's childhood friend, James Fenwick, who came unexpectable into a title and a fortune. He invites Katherine and her mother to a house party.  At the party, he conceals his identity as her mystery fiancé and instead tries to rekindle their friendship. Things start off fairly well, but as Katherine feels herself drawing closer to her old friend, she feels guilty about betraying her future husband that she believes she hasn't even met yet. Because of her parent's unhappy marriage, Kate doubts the existence of real love, and it takes all of James' charm and kindness to coax her back to a place where she can begin to trust again.

This is the first book I have read by Ms Thornell, and it wasn't bad. This is a more than a little wish fulfillment going on with the love interest.  He is the ideal man with fortune, a kind heart, and patience to wait for Katherine to work out her emotional turmoil. It is common in modern stories for the female character to be bold, and even brash in her pursuits, but Katherine is mostly sweet and submissive to the desires of her parents and those around her who care about her. The side theme of Kate and her mother learning to stand up to Katherine's abusive father is satisfying and shows good character development. I will probably try Thornell again, but will wait to put her on my Clean Romance list until I have read at least one more of her full length books. (2021, 218 p.)

The Christie Curse by Victoria Abbot

 Jordan Kelly has just graduated and needs a job.  Unfortunately, the only job she qualifies for, besides flipping burgers, is as a research assistant for her hometown's most hated citizen, Vera Van Alst. She is an eccentric book collector and she has heard of an hither unknow manuscript by Agatha Christy.  Jordan starts following up on leads, but when her best contact turns up dead, Jordan knows she now has more than one mystery to solve.  There are no shortage of suspects; the overly smiley but handsome anyway cop, the creepy pale postal worker, the snobby book dealer. When Jordan finds out what happened to her predecessor, she begins to wonder if she will ever get out of this job alive. 

While I was looking for Agatha Christie novels, I kept running across this one.  Finally I gave in and checked it out.  It turned out to be a fairly well written cozy mystery. I liked the strange host of characters, from Jordan's not-so-law abiding uncles, to the Italian cook who wants everyone to "eat, eat!".  There were a good amount of plot twists, and some fun information about Agatha Christie.  I was kind of glad there wasn't a romance involved. It is just a good, clean, fun mystery read. (293 p, 2013),

Various Works by Agatha Christie

 I needed something different this week, so I looked up to see if there was anything available by Agatha Christie that I hadn't listened to on Libby.  I found that they have added several full cast short stories. I listened to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Triangle at Rhodes and Finessing the King.  They were entertaining and light and matched my mood for the week.  They don't have the fun character portrayal that you find in her longer works, but she does have clever plot twists. Actually, the first and last were full cast, but Triangle of Rhodes wasn't.  Still, the narrator did a good job. There are several more available on Libby. These would be a good choice for listening to on a road trip. 

The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer

Gervase Frant, Earl of St Erth, has recently inherited an estate and title after the death of his estranged father.  His half-brother and stepmother are not happy that he survived the war with Napoleon, but he tries to console them by allowing them to continue to live in the castle/mansion that he now owns, but which was never his home. Then someone starts making attempts on his life.  Everyone suspects the step-brother, Martin, who is next in line to inherit, but Gervase and his stepmother's companion, the plain but canny Miss Drusilla Moreville decide they ought not jump to conclusions. Gervase is determined to stay alive while preventing a family scandal. With Miss Moreville's help, he tries to unravel the mystery of who is really responsible for the the attempts on his life. 

I checked out this book to read on the airplane on my trip to Italy.  It is not one of Heyer's most famous books and doesn't seem to be available in audio, so I hadn't read it already. It is ok, but not my favorite of the Heyer books.  Gervase is an interesting protagonist. He is wealthy, smart, and a bit of a dandy, but he is also very patient and fair with his unfriendly extended family. That being said, he doesn't let them bully him and he knows his own mind. The focus of the story is the mystery of who is trying to kill Gervase, and the character of Drusilla, and her growing regard for Gervase, almost seems like an afterthought. It is as if Ms Heyer wrote a mystery, and then someone told her she should add a romance, so she quickly added in the Drusilla character. Still, I generally like Heyer's writing style and enjoyed the book well enough to make an extra effort to finish it before the lone expired. It wasn't a bad choice for an airplane trip.

The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim

 Evie Mai's mother has just been declared dead from drowning when her car went off a cliff into the ocean, although her body was never found.  As Evie is dealing with her grief and trying to help her family cope, a strange monkey demon comes into her room and tells her that her mother isn't really dead.  Instead she had been kidnapped and taken into Diyu, the Chinese Hell, by someone trying to get her "spindle of fate" a magical item that allows her to change the fate of another person.  Evie discovers her mother was part of a group of mystical elders and had magical weaving powers.  Evie decides to, with the help of the other elders, to go into Diyu and rescue her mother.  A young son of a warrior elder, Kevin, agrees to go with her. Together they traverse all 10 layers of Hell to try to save Aimee's family. 

This is the first book of a new author, but in the tradition of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint.  To me it felt like a Chinese Dante's Inferno. Since the characters are going through Hell, the story ends up being pretty dark.  At one point they are swimming through a river of blood, and there are several other rather graphic depictions of the different kinds of tortures in Diyu.  It would be too much for some young readers, but I could see certain 10-12-year-old boys liking the gross-out factor. There is some snarky sarcasm in the story that helps lighten things up a bit. The author does a good job of making Aimee a very believably flawed character, and doesn't flinch away from the complex nature of her grief. Kevin is also an interesting character, and they have pretty good chemistry (though not romantic).  The author keeps the ending open for a sequel, which seems to be coming out next summer, but I am not sure if I will read it.  (2024, 304 p)

Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William Ury

Based on the work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, this book outlines the key point of how to negotiate effectively so that both parties can reach a mutually acceptable agreement without being adversarial. The authors have four key points: Separating the people from the problem, focusing on each party's interests instead of their positions, work together to create mutually beneficial options, and how to deal with those who are more powerful or not willing to negotiate fairly. The authors use examples from both famous negotiations and day-to-day interactions to illustrate their techniques. 

This is an old classic in the library of business self-help books, but there is a reason has gone through multiple editions.  The advice is common sense and really useful.  The writing is clear, and the authors use interesting examples.  Since it is an older book, younger readers might not remember some of the famous examples, like the Iran Hostage Crisis, or the Egypt Israel treaty of 1979, but the authors explain them well enough to still be illustrative. In this third edition, the authors include a few comments about how the internet has influenced negotiations, but mostly to warn people not to try to negotiate solely via texts or emails. I checked out the book because of some upcoming negotiation I will need to do at work, and I felt like I gained some good ideas from it. (240, 2011)

Ring of Secrets by Roseanna M. White

 Winter lives with her loyalist grandparents. They urge her to play the dumb beauty at social events, but she is really a patriot spy.  Most men don't see past her beautiful but witless façade, except awkward Harvard professor Bennet Lane. He is convinced that there is more to Winter than her beauty, and is determined to find out what it is.  His attentions make it harder for Winter to pass the information she gleans from her many admirers, but Winter's grandparents urge her to encourage Lane's attentions since he is set to inherit a large English estate. As they are thrown together, Winter begins to feel as attached to him as her grandparents wish, but how can she fall in love with a loyalist, continue her spy work, and let the man she is starting to love see the real her. 

My dedicated readers know how much I loved Ms White's Christian spy romances that were set in WWI.  They have been some of my favorite all time Christian historical romances. I also really enjoyed this one but it has a slightly different flavor. As I read it I wondered if it was one of Mrs White's earlier books, and it is. Her writing just wasn't quite as refined as in the Codebreakers series.  The religious elements are quite a bit more heavy handed.  Every chapter has the characters praying out-loud of spouting scripture. It could be off-putting to some, but it was actually just right for me this week (despite the less than ideal cover). I like her characters, and her plot was well crafted. I wonder how much reflects actually Revolutionary War history? I have already put the second in the series on my wish list and will check it out next time I need some biblio RX. (352 p. 2013)