Charlotte Lucas is Elizabeth Bennett’s best friend and has married the easily ridiculed Mr Collins. Now she is happily ensconced at Hunsford, mother to three children and enjoying her friendship with Miss de Bourgh. But tragedy strikes…
Charlotte is a sequel to the much beloved Pride and Prejudice. It is mostly written in the Charlotte’s present day (around 1820) with some reflections about the past, including events from the original classic and events in the intervening years.
Fans of Austen will know the character of Charlotte Lucas well. The eldest daughter with no hope of abandoning spinsterhood, she seizes the opportunity to wed after Mr Collins’ proposal is rejected by Lizzie. Calculating? Perhaps but it is more reasonable to see her as a woman grabbing a chance to marry when everyone else has written her off as an old maid.
Genuine love develops between Charlotte and Mr Collins. My heart broke at the sadness they endure but their love remains strong. However, their relationship is threatened when Charlotte’s heart and body are captivated during her grief. Rather surprisingly, there are sex scenes included.
Anne de Bourgh’s character has plenty of spark in this book which I loved. Both Charlotte and Anne have become experts at spouting what Lady Catherine and Mr Collins want to hear but can persuade them through subtlety. This served to soften the big emotions of grief and infidelity that are dealt with in other plotlines.
Charlotte is an enjoyable book and I loved the interpretation of the classic characters and the imagining of how their lives developed.
Book blurb
Everybody thinks that Charlotte Lucas has no prospects. She is twenty-seven years old, unmarried, plain, and seemingly without ambition. When she stuns the neighbourhood by accepting the proposal of buffoonish clergyman Mr Collins, her best friend Lizzy Bennet is angry at her for undervaluing herself. Yet the decision is the only way Charlotte knows to provide for her future, and marriage will propel her into a new world, of duty, marriage, children, grief and ultimately illicit love, and a kind of freedom.
Jane Austen cared deeply about the constraints of women in Regency England. This powerful reimagining takes up where Austen left off, showing us a woman determined to carve a place for herself in the world. Charlotte offers a fresh, feminist addition to the post-Austen canon, beautifully imagined, and brimming with passion and intelligence.
Delilah is trying to avoid bankruptcy and is hoping that her dating agency will start to make a profit. Instead, her clients start dying… Samson is persona non grata when he returns to the village to set up a private decteive agency. Can he rebuild relationships and make amends and will he catch a killer?
Date With Death is the first book in a cosy crime series set in Yorkshire.
Samson left under a cloud and hasn’t been back despite some significant events in the village. Locals aren’t willing to forgive him but Delilah has no choice as she needs his rent money! I enjoyed the premise of the book and the way the characters behave as they have to accept change and let go of the past. There is a subtle vulnerability to the two main characters that makes them easy to like.
The murders are not graphically described and the mystery is well maintained. There are plenty of suspects and even Delilah finds herself under suspicion due to her link with the victims. The tone of writing has a light touch and there are elements of humour which counterbalanced some of the big emotions experienced by the main characters. I thought that the audio narration matched the style of the book well.
Date With Death is an enjoyable cosy murder mystery.
Book blurb
Meet two sleuths from a sleepy Yorkshire village as they investigate murders and discover the secrets behind the twitching curtains. Date with Death is the first cosy crime novel in Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective series, perfect for fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and M.C. Beaton.
Samson O’Brien has been dismissed from the police force, and returns to his hometown of Bruncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales to set up the Dales Detective Agency. However, the villagers aren’t that welcoming to a man they see as trouble.
Delilah Metcalfe is struggling to keep her business, the Dales Dating Agency, afloat as well as trying to control her wayward Weimaraner dog, Tolpuddle, when Samson’s first case – a supposed suicide – takes an unexpected turn, and a trail of deaths lead back to the door of Delilah’s agency.
With suspicion hanging over someone they both care for, the two feuding neighbours soon realize that they need to work together to solve the mystery of the dating deaths. But working together is easier said than done . . .
Full of wit, warmth and characters you’ll care about, continue the murder mystery series with Date with Malice.
1826, Frannie Langton is in love. But it is a forbidden love and a dangerous one. Frannie is a slave who is gifted to an English family and starts a love affair with the mistress of the house. She is the prime suspect when both the master and mistress are found dead but is she guilty?
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an historical book set in the 1820s. It is written as a letter to her lawyer as she awaits execution and charts her journey from Jamaica to London. There are also some witness testimonies, letters and statements to give other perspectives.
Frannie is born into slavery, a ‘mulatto’ due to her white father’s sexual exploitation of his slaves which leaves her excluded from being accepted by black or white communities. She herself is exploited to help him with his experiments that seek to prove the inferiority of people of colour. Her heart is broken when she is dumped in London with the Benham family, leaving everything she knew behind.
Marguerite Benham instigates a sexual and romantic relationship with Frannie. I am not sure how emotionally involved Marguerite was or whether Frannie was being exploited again. Both women become addicted to laudanum which directly leads to issues that result in two deaths. Ultimately I felt so angry and sad at the continual ways that Frannie is let down by those who should love and respect her.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an emotionally engaging historical book.
A servant and former slave is accused of murdering her employer and his wife in this astonishing historical thriller that moves from a Jamaican sugar plantation to the fetid streets of Georgian London–a remarkable literary debut with echoes of Alias Grace, The Underground Railroad, and The Paying Guests.
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being held in the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.
But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn’t know how she came to be covered in the victims’ blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams’ London home—and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.
Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.
The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a breathtaking debut: a murder mystery that travels across the Atlantic and through the darkest channels of history. A brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression that penetrates the skin and sears the soul, it is the story of a woman of her own making in a world that would see her unmade.
September’s book club choice but only writing about it now…!
Immi and Dex are thrilled to be accepted into the exclusive Dye Factory luxury apartment building. There was a strict application and interview process but they both pass and are welcomed into the community. But something is amiss and no one is talking about it. Small incidents lead to devastating danger…
The House Share is a psychological thriller set in London in the present day (except the prologue).
Immi and Dex are two individuals looking for a fresh start. They are both hiding secrets and we are kept guessing about the nature of these until we approach the end of the book. The clasutrophobic atmosphere adds to the tension and makes the characters respond to events as best they can.
The book is written mostly from Immi and Dex’s first person narratives except for the prologue and epilogue. I know they are both desperate for somewhere to live but this place is insane! There are a host of housemates acting suspiciously and there is no way I would have stayed.
I enjoyed this book overall but had to suspend my disbelief as I did not find it realistic or credible at all. The final chapter gives the perpetrator’s perspective and gives us a better understanding of their motives but I think this could have been hinted at through anonymous chapters dotted through the narrative to better maintain interest and momentum.
The House Share is an entertaining and intriguing psychological thriller.
Seven housemates. Seven lies. Would you join . . . The House Share?
Immi thought she had found the perfect new home in central London: a shared warehouse with luxury accommodation, a rooftop terrace and daily yoga, all with a surprisingly affordable price tag. The Dye Factory is a ‘co-living’ community, designed to combat the loneliness of big city life.
But soon after she moves into her new haven, Immi realises that it’s not quite as idyllic as it appears. No one seems to know who is behind this multi-million pound urban experiment. And her housemates may be hiding a dangerous secret . . .
Then, as a series of pranks escalates into something much darker, Immi is left questioning whether, in this group of strangers, she can ever really be safe.
And when you’re sharing a house, you can’t always lock the danger out.
Carrie Soto is the most successful tennis player EVER. But after her retirement, her record is in danger so she resolves to do the impossible and reclaim her crown…
Carrie Soto Is Back is possibly the only sports themed book I have ever read! I LOVE tennis and first became interested in the 1990s which is when this book is set.
Carrie is single minded and determined. This has given her an advantage in tennis but once she retires she feels a bit lost. She finds relationships tricky as her whole life has always been tennis. Her attitude is ruthless at times and she isn’t always easy to like. Her father is also her coach but the boundaries between the personal and professional are blurred. There are some difficult emotions involved and negotiated with sensitivity by the author.
Sportsmen and women have a limited career and it was fascinating to see Carrie defying the odds, her own age and society’s expectations. I did wonder about the nature versus nurture debate: would Carrie have succeeded with different parents, how much of the game is strategy rather than natural athletic talent.
The audio narration pefectly matched the writing style and I was completely engaged with the plot and characters. I enjoyed the use of multiple sports commentators in the audiobook to add extra context and authenticity.
I really didn’t want this book to end and, when it did, I wanted to know what happened next in Carrie’s personal life. Carrie Soto Is Back was excellent from start to finish!
Book Blurb:
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.
By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.
But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.
At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the ‘Battle-Axe’ anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.
In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.
