Book Review: Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper by Ana Brazil

Author: Ana Brazil
Title: Fanny Newcomb and the Irish Channel Ripper
Genre: Mystery and Historical Fiction
Pages: 319
Published: Oct 2017
I Got It: My shelf (Given to my by the author/publisher for my honest and unbiased opinion)

Gilded Age New Orleans is overrun with prostitutes, pornographers, and a malicious Jack the Ripper copycat. As threatening letters to newspaper editors proclaim, no woman is safe from his blade.

Desperate to know who murdered her favorite student, ambitious typewriting teacher Fanny Newcomb launches into a hunt for the self-proclaimed Irish Channel Ripper. Fanny quickly enlists the help of her well-connected employers--Principal Sylvia Giddings and her sister Dr. Olive--and together the women forge through saloons, cemeteries, slums, and houses of prostitution.

Fanny's good intentions quickly infuriate her longtime beau Lawrence Decatur, while her reckless persistence confounds the talented police detective Daniel Crenshaw. Reluctantly, Lawrence and Daniel also lend their talents to Fanny's investigation. 
As the murderer sets a date for his next heinous crime, can Fanny Newcomb and her crew stop the Irish Channel Ripper before he kills again?



I couldn't resist this book due to the title. Like many people I am fascinated by the Ripper, so when I saw this I had to give it a go. I was even more intrigued that the hero is a woman with a crew of fellow women to help track down this killer. 

Poor Nora. She was a good egg even though she was a prostitute on the side. She didn't deserve to be murdered like that!

Fanny was okay. I really respected her and I applauded her courage, but she annoyed me. She was SO pushy and I feel like she is playing Lawrence. Lawrence is a good egg for a lawyer, so I really feel bad for him because he really seems to love Fanny, but she just uses him. Yes, there is a part of her that likes him a lot, but she doesn't want to marry him because she doesn't want to give up her freedom. 

Olive was my favorite. Sylvia was okay; I do want to learn more about her. 

I must give major kuddos to the author...I was not sure who the murdered was. I had my main guesses, but I really had no idea. So yayy! 

It is so hard to say what happened without giving away much. But the ending just exploded!! So, so good. 

I can't wait to see what happens next! I want Fanny to marry Lawrence and stay being an investigator!

The story was fun and I loved the Jack the Ripper mania. So scary.Fanny was an interesting heroine. I respected her but I didn't really care for her much. In a way...it made the story more interesting. The side characters were interesting too. This was a good mystery and I highly recommend it. 5 stars is what I shall stamp this with. 

Book BLAST: The Tides Between by Elizabeth Jane Corbett

Happy Thursday! Today I am super excited to be kicking off Elizabeth Jane Corbett's The Tides Between Book Blast! The Tides Between is a historical coming-of-age novel set in the steerage compartment of a nineteenth century emigrant vessel. It includes elements of magic and storytelling and will be released on October 20th from Odyssey Books.

The Tides Between by Elizabeth Jane Corbett

Publication Date: October 20, 2017

Odyssey Books

Paperback; 300 Pages

Genre: Fiction/Young Adult/Historical

She fancied herself part of a timeless chain without beginning or end, linked only by the silver strong words of its tellers. In the year 1841, on the eve of her departure from London, Bride's mother demands she forget her dead father and prepare for a sensible, adult life in Port Phillip. Desperate to save her childhood, fifteen-year-old Bridie is determined to smuggle a notebook filled with her father's fairytales to the far side of the world. When Rhys Bevan, a soft-voiced young storyteller and fellow traveller realises Bridie is hiding something, a magical friendship is born. But Rhys has his own secrets and the words written in Bridie’s notebook carry a dark double meaning. As they inch towards their destination, Rhys's past returns to haunt him. Bridie grapples with the implications of her dad’s final message. The pair take refuge in fairytales, little expecting the trouble it will cause.

Pick up your copy from Odyssey Books

About the Author

When Elizabeth Jane Corbett isn’t writing, she works as a librarian, teaches Welsh at the Melbourne Celtic Club, writes reviews and articles for the Historical Novel Society and blogs at elizabethjanecorbett.com. In 2009, her short-story, Beyond the Blackout Curtain, won the Bristol Short Story Prize. Another, Silent Night, was short listed for the Allan Marshall Short Story Award. An early draft of her debut novel, The Tides Between, was shortlisted for a HarperCollins Varuna manuscript development award. Elizabeth lives with her husband, Andrew, in a renovated timber cottage in Melbourne’s inner-north. She likes red shoes, dark chocolate, commuter cycling, and reading quirky, character driven novels set once-upon-a-time in lands far, far away. For more information, please visit Elizabeth Jane Corbett's website. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

Book Blast Schedule

  Monday, October 16 Passages to the Past 
  Tuesday, October 17 The Never-Ending Book 
  Wednesday, October 18 A Book Geek 
  Thursday, October 19 The Reading Queen 
  Friday, October 20 Pursuing Stacie What Is That Book About 
  Sunday, October 22 Faery Tales Are Real 
  Monday, October 23 Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots 
  Tuesday, October 24 Creating Herstory 
  Wednesday, October 25 History From a Woman's Perspective 
  Thursday, October 26 Jenn's Book Vibes 
  Friday, October 27 WS Momma Readers Nook 
  Monday, October 30 I Heart Reading 
  Tuesday, October 31 Back Porchervations 
  Wednesday, November 1 T's Stuff 
  Friday, November 3 A Holland Reads 
  Monday, November 6 Broken Teepee 
  Tuesday, November 7 Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers 
  Thursday, November 9 CelticLady's Reviews 
Locks, Hooks and Books 
Carole Rae's Random Ramblings 
  Friday, November 10 What Cathy Read Next

Book Review: The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille

Author: Nelson DeMille
Title: The Lion's Game (John Corey #2)
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, & Fiction
Pages: 720
Published: Jan 2000
I Got It: My shelf (Inherited from my grandpa's collection)

Detective John Corey, last seen in Plum Island, now faces his toughest assignment yet: the pursuit and capture of the world's most dangerous terrorist -- a young Arab known as "The Lion" who has baffled a federal task force and shows no sign of stopping in his quest for revenge against the American pilots who bombed Libya and killed his family. Filled with unrelenting suspense and surprising plot twists at every terrifying turn, THE LION'S GAME is a heartstopping race against time and one of Nelson DeMille's most riveting thrillers.



Blast! I started with book 2. Sighs. Oh well. Luckily it was one you could pick up and not really miss anything. A good stand alone. A couple of references I was unsure of but it wasn’t necessary to the story. 

The story follows a couple of POVs. Detective John Corey and his sidekick who has a new assignment to locate a dangerous terrorist who has everyone scratching their heads. The other POV is “The Lion’s” who is killing those who he blames for killing his family. You don’t get to see much of him, but I did enjoy seeing those glimpses here and there. Honestly? I enjoyed that POV a little more than John’s. John wasn’t bad…but I found it interesting to see from the killer’s eyes. 

There was a lot of suspense going on. Sure, you know WHO the killer is. But how do you stop this dangerous terrorist? Where is he? Where is he going to strike next? The ending was no surprise, but the real question was HOW it was going to get there. 

This is a BIG book and I really feel it was not necessary to be this long. There were so many parts that could have been trimmed and snipped. Yes, I didn’t mind the romance between John and his sidekick, but c’mon…I can only handle so much. This is supposed to be a suspense! I really feel that these overextended parts dogged down the story and made it move super slowly. I do admit I skimmed a lot of these filler parts. Yes, filler is a good word for the extra parts that didn’t help the story along. 

I honestly have to give the author credit on the character building. They were not 2D at all. John was complex and so was The Lion. It made it feel more real which added to the suspense. Also, the author made The Lion scary, buuuuut a small part of you feel bad for the guy. He did lose his whole family and now he is out for blood. Is it right of him? Eeee no…but it is tragic and it is hard not to feel a hair bad for him. I enjoyed having these conflicting thoughts about the terrorist. I also went back and forth how I liked John. Not a bad guy at all..he is law enforcement! However, he was kind of a jerk sometimes. Even the side characters were well done. Kuddos to the author *tips hat*

In the end, this was simply just okay. I didn’t hate the book, but I didn’t love it. It was SO long and it exhausted me in a lot of places that I had to skim to keep going. I enjoyed the two POVs. There was a lot of suspense even with the fillers. Not a bad read if you are craving some modern suspense that deals with terrorism. This shall be stamped with…mmmm…3 stars. 

Blodeuedd's Monday Review: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa’s stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse’s most frightening tales. 

Hardcover, 328 pagesPublished January 12th 2017 by Del Rey (first published January 10th 2017)The Winternight Trilogy #1YA/fairytale/fictionLibrary

My thoughts

I enjoyed this one and yes I was surprised because hype books, aye, they often fail me. But then it is a sort of fairy tale and I love them.

Vasilisa's grandmother was a witch, or so people said. And her own mother dies giving birth to he last child. The daughter she wanted to be like her own mother. A wild girl who runs in the woods and sees things in the shadows. And I liked all those things the in shadows, all known to me, except for that the Russians have a woman drowning people and we have a man. I always liked the stories of those taking care of houses and stables, and that you should feed them to make them happy. In the story they give bread, here it would be porridge. I have always loved folklore and it is so beautifully woven in and it makes you miss those times. But then came men with crosses and called them demons and they disappeared. And it made me sad.

Right so the mythology was obviously interesting. 

I liked the story of her growing up and being destined for something. I liked her spirit.

And then came that dang priest, arghhhh, and her evil stepmum, arghhhhh. Yes a book needs baddies but everyone was so happy before those two!

Conclusion:

'I enjoyed this tale and it does end well. But there will be more and I am happy for that. She needs more adventures, and at the same time I am happy there was no cliffie.

Cover

Not a fan, it looks so childish and this tale fits everyone