The Year of the Series - A Turn For The Bad + The Sun Sister

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.

Goodreads: A Turn For The Bad (County Cork #4) by Sheila Connolly

Premise:  A man disappears off a beach with only his toddler son as a witness and Maura and the rest of the crew at Sullivan's Pub are drawn into the world of smuggling to get him back.

My Thoughts:  I'm still on the fence with this series.  Maura irritated me a bit less in the book than she has in the past and does seem to be at least trying to understand the different culture that surrounds her.  She is still pretty judgmental which did set my teeth on edge at times.  I did like that life in Ireland isn't portrayed as just leprechauns and rainbows but instead touches on real problems.  The mystery isn't the straight forward murder mystery but instead more about just life in the pub until the end when they go kind of into spy mode.  I enjoyed this book more then I liked the previous book but I don't own the next book and my library doesn't seem to have it so I'm not entirely sure I want to continue enough to buy it.   My Rating: Liked It 

Goodreads:  The Sun Sister (Seven Sisters #6) by Lucinda Riley

Premise:  This book focuses on the youngest daughter Electra who is an internationally famous model in the depths of addiction.  As with the other books in this series this is a dual time line story with the past timeline focusing on Cecily Huntley-Morgan who has fled to Kenya to escape heartbreak and social embarrassment and ends up falling into a whole new life.

My Thoughts:  At the beginning Electra is a hard character to like.  She's rude, self involved, angry and careless of the feelings of those around her.  She has zero interest in finding out where she comes from or taking care of herself.  Like in previous books as the story progresses Lucinda Riley works her magic and I came to understand Electra and got caught up in her story.  Cecily's story was just as fascinating and engaging and this is one of the few books where I enjoyed both POVs equally.  I was so glad to see so much of the other sisters in this book and it made me super excited to start the next book.   Both of these women are flawed but I found both sympathetic and was engaged in both their stories.  My Rating: Loved It!