The Year of the Series - 2 Reviews

 

After the calamity that was 2020 I didn't want to give myself serious reading goals but I did want to do something to help my book stacks get a little more under control.  I've tried getting rid of the ones I want to read but unfortunately I want to read all the books I own.  So I decided to focus on series.  There are so many I have that I abandoned halfway through or came in halfway and never read the first few.  I made a list of ten series and the next book I had to read in them and will be rolling in new books and series as I go along and catch up.  Here are two reviews from that list that I've read recently.

Treacherous is the Night by Anna Lee Huber - This is the second book in the Verity Kent series and Sidney and Verity are still coming to terms with what happened in the first book as well as trying to reconcile the person they knew with the person they are now married too.  When Verity has a name from the past dragged up at a séance she is left but no choice but to dive back into her past to protect someone she never thought to see again.  Along the way she and Sidney must face the truths they've been hiding from each other since their reconnection.  I absolutely loved this mystery.  All of the characters in this book have been through horrors and are having to figure out how to live in civilian life with people who just desperately want them to be as they were.  The issues aren't made light of or brushed over but there is hope that they will all come out the other side - not the same but on their feet.  The mystery was full of espionage and secrets and I could not put this down until I found out just what happened.  My Rating: Loved It!

Scandal in Skibbereen by Sheila Connolly - It's been a few months since Maura Donovan came to Ireland to honor her late grandmother's final wish and she's still adjusting to suddenly owning a pub and a house in a small Irish village.  Maura's never known much stability or had many people involved in her life and now she has lots of both and is still trying to figure what her long term plans are.  When Althea Melville, who might as well as had a giant flashing sign saying New York over her head, walks in the bar to demand help Maura can't help but get involved with the pushy fellow American.  This sets off a treasure hunt for a lost Van Dyck painting that takes Maura, Althea and the rest of the crowd at Sullivan's pub into the manor house and back into the past.  I went into this one with a lot of trepidation because while I enjoy this author's books they can be a little inconsistent.  However, I needn't have worried because I thoroughly enjoyed this read.  While I don't understand Maura's lack of interest in her own family's past I did love how willing she was to help Althea and how willing she was to call Althea out when she went too far.  This was a fun read with character development and an interesting mystery.  My Rating: Really Liked It!