Lethal Bayou Beauty by Jana DeLeon

Lethal Bayou Beauty
Jana DeLeon
4/5 stars

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From Amazon:
No one in Sinful liked Pansy Arceneaux, but who hated her enough to kill her?

When aspiring actress Pansy Arceneaux returns to Sinful, Louisiana to head up the beauty pageant portion of the Summer Festival, CIA assassin Fortune Redding knows she’s in for trouble. Her undercover identity as a former beauty queen makes Fortune the perfect choice to chair the event with Pansy, but Pansy’s abrasive personality makes it impossible to get through a single rehearsal without a fight.

 When Pansy turns up dead, Fortune is the prime suspect. Armed with only her wits and two conniving seniors referred to locally as The Geritol Mafia, Fortune launches an investigation to find the real killer before her cover is blown.

***

This book was just as much fun as the first one.  Fortune's character continues to really branch out, and you can see she's got a happily-ever-after in the form of a complete lifestyle change by the end of the series.  The minor characters in this series are a lot of fun too, like Walter, the man who owns the general store.  He's a guy I'd spend time with.  Carter continues in his sexy cop-ness, and Gertie and Ida Belle are just as fun too.  There's some slap-stick humor here and there, and an annoying person is killed, which is always a bonus.

Some aspects of this series are a little far-fetched, like 2 murder investigations in 2 weeks in a town of 200 people, but sometimes suspending disbelief is okay if you want to have a good time, and a good time was definitely had reading this book.  On to book 3!

Louisiana Longshot by Jana DeLeon

Louisiana Longshot (A Miss Fortune Mystery)
Jana DeLeon
4/5 stars

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From Amazon:
CIA assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever--in Sinful, Louisiana. With a leak at the CIA and a price placed on her head by one of the world's largest arms dealers, Fortune has to go off-grid, but she never expected to be this far out of her element. Posing as a former beauty queen turned librarian in a small bayou town seems worse than death to Fortune, but she's determined to fly below the radar until her boss finds the leak and puts the arms dealer out of play. Unfortunately, she hasn't even unpacked a suitcase before her newly inherited dog digs up a human bone in her backyard.

Thrust into the middle of a bayou murder mystery, Fortune teams up with a couple of seemingly sweet old ladies whose looks completely belie their hold on the little town. To top things off, the handsome local deputy is asking her too many questions. If she's not careful, this investigation might blow her cover and get her killed. Armed with her considerable skills and a group of elderly ladies the locals dub The Geritol Mafia, Fortune has no choice but to solve the murder before it's too late.

***

I really liked this book.  Plot and writing quality-wise, it's pretty generic (not bad, mind you, but nothing really stands out), BUT the characters and the fact that it's pretty funny make up for it.

Fortune is a character with a lot of room to grow, which is important in a series (four books so far). She's tough, but still human.  The two old ladies, Gertie and Ida Belle, are the best part of this series. I know "innocent-looking old lady solves crime" is a done to death trope (thanks Agatha!), but these old ladies have got some real bite to them.  And then there's Carter, the sexy cop.  I like mysteries with a bit of romance in them, and while there isn't anything going on between Carter and Fortune yet, there will be soon!

I have already bought the next book and will be digging in soon.  That right there is a reason to check it out because I put down more books than I finish reading (maybe I'm picky, maybe I'm a snob, I don't know), and here I am buying the follow-up.  Also it's free, so you've got nothing to lose.

Flashback Friday: "Gone Away Lake"

Gone Away Lake
by Elizabeth Enright
Genre: Children's Fiction/Vintage
Rating 5/5

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Since I recently wrote about one of Enright's other books, "Thimble Summer" I thought I would write a review of a book I first read 23 years ago. I might make this a regular thing, reviewing my favorite books every Friday.

I love this book.  This book spawned my first-ever attempt at fanfiction even before I decided I wanted to become a writer when I grew up.  Like "Thimble Summer" its about a summer of adventures. This time it takes place in the 1950's and two kids, Portia and & Julian, discover an abandoned Victorian resort on the edge of the swamp.  The swamp used to be a lake and there are two residents--a pair of elderly siblings who grew up at the resort in the 1890's.  They become fast friends with the kids and many adventures are had. This is peppered with the adventures of Portia, Julian & friends, as well as flackbacks to the 1890's.

This book has so much going on it can make you dizzy, and it's paired with wonderful busy illustrations that you can look at for hours, always finding something new.

I have a great love of dilapidation so the book's background of crumbling Victorian mansions thrilled me as much when I was a kid as it does now, and the old car in it is excellent because my family has always had old cars. (My father has two Model A's: the one he bought as a project car when he was a teen (still not finished) and my grandfather's, which is beautiful and perfect.)

Enright's girl characters are always as bold and strong as the boys, even when writing in a time when women were seen as nothing more than housewives. I really connected with Portia when I was a kid in the early 90's, even though she was written into existence the same year my father was born.

There is mystery and some scares in this, which make it a bit more exciting than "Thimble Summer." Everything about it is beautiful and perfect.  Recommended for kids and adults.

A Cold Day for Murder

A Cold Day for Murder
by Dana Stabenow
Genre: thriller/mystery
3/5

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Kate Shugak is a former D.A. in Anchorage who returns to her roots, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere in Alaska, after a brutal encounter with a child molester. Trying to hide in her cabin, she is called out to find a missing park ranger with ties to a congressman, as well as an FBI agent (and her former lover) who went looking for him.

I liked parts of this book. The setting of an Alaskan wilderness was fascinating, along with learning about the Aleut culture in small-town Alaska.  I liked how it ended, and a lot of the drama among the characters. A lot of the characters were really cool too.

I didn't like a few things too. It was slow. Even though this is the first book in the series it feels like it needs an entire book before it to flesh out Kate's back story.  I feel like there's a lot of telling vs. showing in that respect.  And Kate seems to have slept with half the men in the book, which isn't exactly a turn-off, but introducing 3? 4? former/current lovers seems a bit over-kill to me. I'm assuming this was to build up tension for later books.

I liked it, but I didn't love it enough to get the next book in the series. It did win an Edgar Award though (and the author's forward about winning the award was pretty funny), so it must have something to it that big mystery readers find important and amazing.

"Thimble Summer"

Thimble Summer
by Elizabeth Enright
Genre: Children's/Vintage
Rating: 4/5

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I bought this book because I was thinking about how much I loved one of Enright's other books, "Gone Away Lake."  This book was written very early in her career in the 1930's.  I love older books because you always learn something of historical significance.  Did you know in the 30's the word 'cookie' was spelled 'cooky'?  I saw it in 2 different publications from the 30's just this week.

"Thimble Summer" is a simple 'slice of life' style story about a farm girl named Garnet. She has a summer full of adventures, from getting locked in the library to befriending a hobo 13 yr old boy to running away from home without anyone noticing.  Her family worries about bills (this takes place in the tail end of the depression) and drought. Throughout the story she raises a runt pig and shows him at the county fair (this is pre-Charlotte's Web), and has many many adventures.

Thimble Summer isn't quite as good as Gone Away Lake, but they're very similar stories.  It's charming, amusing, and fun.  I liked it as an adult very much, but I'm not sure how modern kids would feel about reading it.  Maybe the the complete alien concept of a depression era farm would interest them.

It's a simple string of short stories with a few themes following all the way through. If you don't like books without a lot of plot you won't like it.  Would be really great to read aloud to your kids one chapter a night though.

The Sherwood Ring

The Sherwood Ring
by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Genre: Gothic/YA
Rating: 4/5

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This is a 1958 gothic novel I found re-packaged in the 80's as "Magic Quest #16."  I picked it up in a used book store because I liked the cover and it promised ghosts and romance.  It has since been repackaged again as a YA book, and I am impressed to find it still in print.

From the first few pages I knew this was a classic Gothic novel.  In present-day (1958) Peggy is orphaned and sent to live with an unknown relative in a big 18th century house in New York called Rest-and-be-thankful.  (I thought I would die at the name of this house and is probably the best part of the whole book.)

Peggy meets the ghost of a long-lost relative and an English student studying the Revolutionary war.  From there Peggy's story frames the tale of British soldier Peaceable Sherwood, told to her through the ghosts of her family, while she is ignored by her uncle and pursued by Pat, the aforementioned student.

It's a very simple tale, and very much full of common Gothic tropes, but it's enjoyable from beginning to end (partially because of the tropes).  I'm very disappointed to discover that the author only wrote one other book and passed away years ago.  I very much suggest picking up this little read (the version I have clocked in at 180 pages--I'm not sure if it was shortened for this series, as the current printing is 256 pages).  It was fun, well-written, and if it's a little predictable, I didn't care one bit.

Review: Almost Persuaded

Rating: 3/5
Genre: Fanfic/Regency Romance
Length: Novella

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Plot:
In this re-imagining of Jane Austen's Persuasion Jane and Captain Mitford are soulmates who have lived their lives over and over again, unable to overcome obstacles and find love in eachother's arms. In this lifetime, however, they are both privy to their past lives. Capt. Mitford having gone on a spiritual journey in India, and Jane, having remembered a past life where she was a poor drowned girl in her own neighborhood.  They meet and fall into instant attraction.  Jane must revolt against her sensibilities and the advice of Lady Percy, if she wants to break the cycle of love lost.

Review:
While I didn't love this I didn't hate it either.  The writing is solid and the story is well-told.  I guess I just wasn't as into the idea of someone else messing with Austen's characters as I thought I would be. I don't mind when people fanfic up public domain work. It belongs to everybody and they can do what they want with it.  But for it to be done well...is another thing entirely.

The thing I liked most about this story was that Jane seemed to have more of a backbone than in the original. Austen's heroines are always proper, "good" girls, but Jane is one awesome doormat.  She's a little less so in this one.

What bothered me the most was that Austen's heroines are always proper.  Never in a million years would a Austen heroine have premarital sex. Her heroines are a step above the rabble.  Perfect, soulmate love would not have tempted Jane from rolling around in the grass before marriage. I was scandalized, and I write erotica.

That being said, if you like premarital sex, give it a go.

This was part of an anthology. I'm not sure I'll read the others.  Persuasion is not one of my favorites, and this book touches on my top two: P&P and Northanger. Would hate to be offended