A Tapestry of Light by Kimberly Duffy

Ottilie Russell is 3/4 British but looks like her mother who is Indian. She has been raised in India in the late 1800's and trained to be expert at beetle wing embroidery. When first her mother dies, and then her grandmother, (her father having died years before) she struggles to keep food on the table for herself and her younger brother, Thaddeus. Then one day a man, Everett Scott, arrives from England and informs Ottilie that her brother is now Baron Sunderson, and has to return to England to assume his title and inheritance.  Ottilie must decide whether she should leave the only home she and her brother have ever known or risk staying in Calcutta where there is a cholera outbreak.  She also needs to decide whether her growing friendship with Everett is developing into something more. 

I started this book because it came up in a search for "Christian Romance" but it had a different setting than many I have read.  It turned out to be a good choice.  The depiction of India was interesting, especially the details about elytra, or beetle wing embroidery.  I looked it up later and it was a real trend for a while during the imperial period in British history. The characterizations were good as well.  Ottilie is a complex and sympathetic heroine, as are the other main characters.  Finally, the Christian element was a little different than many I have read, noteably Roseanna White.  Ottilie doesn't pray for guidance and eventually receive direction. Instead, she prays for patience and that God will resolve things and he does.  She doesn't receive any inspiration per se, she just finds comfort in reading the Bible.  I would imagine that kind of Christianity would resonate with a lot of people.  (432 p. 2021)

The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer

 Nola Brown in on the list of casualties in a military transport plane crash in Alaska.  But when her body shows up at the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, the mortician Zig, knows it is not Nola's body he is working on because he knew Nola as a child. Driven by his connection to his diseased daughter's friend, Zig starts investigating what happened to the the real Nola and finds himself caught up in a dark conspiracy that is more dangerous than he could have guessed. 

I checked out this book because it happened to be available when I finished the last one.  I had enjoyed his book The First Conspiracy, and it had been a while since I had read more "masculine" thriller.  This one was interesting in that it had none of the sexual content you often find in thrillers, but it was quite violent and dark. I probably had a lower threshold for that kind of content than a lot of people, but if you choose to read this, beware there is quite a bit of description about different ways people die. That being said, the plot and characterizations were quite good, good enough that I stuck with the book until its end.  I won't be reading any more in the series, though.  After I finished I quickly checked out a Christian Historical Fiction as kind of mental and emotional dental floss. (2018, 434 p)

Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend

 Morrigan Crow now knows she is a Wundersmith and is starting training at the exclusive Wundersmith academy.  Even as she has her first lessons by viewing recordings of Wundersmith teachers from long ago, a terrible sickness starts affecting the Wunamils, changing them into savage and dumb beasts.  Could the new "disease" actually be a wicked plot meant to lure Morrigan into a trap set by the most evil Wundersmith of them all?

This is the third installment in the Wundersmith series.  I have enjoyed the series from the beginning, but this might be my favorite installment yet.  The first book was a fun "magical school" story.  Like the Harry Potter series, each successive book is growing in sophistication as its reader's age. I like the fact that Townsend gives Morrigan hard decisions without easy answers. At the same time, Morrigan behaves like a young teen, trying to do what is right, but not knowing exactly what that is or whom to trust. As soon as I finished the book, I looked to see if the next in the series was out.  It has been a long time since I have gotten that caught up in a middle-grade fantasy. (560 p. 2020)

The Power of Fun by Catherine Price

What is fun and why is it important?  How can we make more fun in our lives?  These are the questions Ms Price tries to answer in this fairly new self-help.  She talks about the difference between real fun and fake fun, and dwells (and dwells, and dwells) on how our modern addition to our electronic devices is antithetical to experiencing more fun.  She give several exercises to enable the reader to discover their "fun magnets" and maximize their chances of having more real fun.  

It is totally ironic that I didn't find reading this very fun.  I actually started the book, read a different book, tried again, read a different book again, and then finally finished this book.  I liked her suggestions for analyzing what each person considers to be fun, and I have even tried some of her suggestions for adding more fun into my life. On the other hand, I really got tired on her hammering on how bad and addictive cell phones are and how evil Facebook is.  I basically agree with her assertions, but the problem is that she makes them over and over and over.  If I wanted a rant about cell phones I would have read her other book, How to Break up with your Phone. In full disclosure, I got to the point that when I saw that she was jumping on the "cell phones are evil" bandwagon again, I just skipped to the end of the chapter.  That was the only way I could get through.  I skipped about 1 1/2 hours of the recorded book and I don't think I missed any of her main points. (2021, 352 p)

The Lady and the Highwayman by Sarah Eden

 Elizabeth Black is a very proper headmistress of a respectable girl's school who has a secret.  She is also a writer of cheap "penny dreadful" novels.  She writes under the pseudonym of Mr. King, and her books are very successful.  One day she meets Fletcher Walker, another writer of penny dreadfuls, who has risen from being a street urchin to a level of some social status.  Walker is also the secret leader of a group of men who try to help street children find a better life through sometimes less-than-legal means.  As Elizabeth and Fletcher become more and more attached, both struggle to hide their secrets. 

I think this is probably Ms Eden's most popular series.  I enjoyed it very much.  The story is written from the point of view of both Fletcher and Elizabeth in alternating chapters, but then there are chapters from each of their penny dreadful novels.  The novels within a novel is handled in a clever way that leads to the resolution of the plot.  I started this book because I was fed up with another book I was listening to, The Power of Fun by Catherine Price.  That book wasn't much fun at all (so far it's been a long rant about how cell phones are ruining our lives.  I may still finish it, but I may not), but this one was. (2019, 384 p)

Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

 Finlay Donovan is still reeling from her divorce and struggling to keep food on the table for herself and two kids.  She is a writer of mystery romance novels, but is way behind on her deadlines. One day as she is arguing with her agent about her next book plot, a woman overhears the conversation and assumes that Finlay is a hit-man.  She slips Finlay a note offering her $50,000 to kill her husband.  Finlay is no murderer, but is curious about what would make a woman want to kill her husband.  She decides to investigate the man, and he ends up dead in the back seat of her car. In a panic, she must figure out who actually killed him to clear her name.  

This was a very popular book when it came out in 2021.  As I started to listen to it, I almost gave up on it because the language and sense of bitter sarcasm was a bit too rough for me. I stuck it out and ended up liking it. The events of the story are wildly improbable, which makes them entertaining and, at times, pretty funny. The characters are all deliciously flawed, and  I actually felt a little guilty about how much I liked the amoral babysitter character. I guess the best descriptor I can come up with for the book is an irreverent romp. (368 p. 2021)