No Place for Wolverines

No Place for Wolverines (Jenny Willson Mystery)- Dave Butler
DunDurn Press
Release Date: October 13, 2018

Rating:
📚

Synopsis: When Park Warden Jenny Willson initiates a covert inquiry into a proposed ski hill in Yoho National Park, she’s quickly drawn into a web of political, environmental, and criminal intrigue that threatens to tear apart a small B.C. town. Suddenly, neighbour is pitted against neighbour, friend against friend, and family against family.

After a wolverine researcher dies in a mysterious fire, Willson forms an uneasy alliance with an RCMP corporal and an investigative journalist to expose the truth behind the project. But all is not what it seems. In a showdown involving the ski hill proponent, her own agency, and mysterious political puppeteers, Willson must decide if she’s willing to risk her career — and perhaps the lives of herself and those close to her — to reveal what lurks in the shadows.

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When a new ski resort is proposed in Canada's Yoho National Park, Park Warden Jenny Willson is asked to quietly investigate its' legitimacy.  Going back to her home town of Golden, Jenny is drawn into a web of politics, environmental activism, and intrigue.  The death of a wolverine researcher pushes Willson into an investigation with the RCMP, and violence escalates as the proposal threatens to split quiet Golden in half.  Willson must help end the violence before Golden in destroyed and becomes no place for her family- and no place for wolverines.

No Place for Wolverines is definitely a book I read because of the cover.  I love ferrets, weasels, wolverines, and fervently believe that members of the mustelidae family are terribly underrepresented in fiction and literature.  So when a book comes out where they are in the title and on an adorable cover? You bet I'm reading it.  Based on the book's description I knew from that my darling wolverines were not destined to play a major role in the plot, but I figured there would be at least one devoted wolverine researcher involved and we'd get to read a few impassioned speeches about how awesome they are and how important they are.

There is one devoted wolverine researcher- Albin Stoeffel- who gets a few pages of attention and comes across as either highly devoted to his cause or completely nuts, depending on your point of view.  Sadly, he doesn't get much time to lecture us on the glory and importance of wolverines.  The wolverines are a symbol of the wilderness being threatened, but get no more than a passing glance themselves.  This was also pretty much how it seemed all the actual characters came across. Even the main character, Park Warden Jenny Willson, gets very little in the way of genuine character development or depth.  Occasionally there are glimpses of a person, but she seems to be mostly a roughly sketched anti-government government employee.  Stubborn, tenacious, and kick-ass are all words used to describe Jenny (making her rather a human wolverine) but stubborn is the only quality that really comes through most of the book.  It's possible she got more character development in the first book of the series (Full Curl) but I haven't read that one to know.

On the one hand, I enjoyed the setting for this book and the descriptions of the wilderness of Yoho.  The mysterious death of researcher Sue Webb and the violence connected to the ski resort were a good story, and the 'bad guys' are sufficiently slimy and threatening that you believe completely they will do whatever it takes to wring the most money possible out of the situation. While some people will argue that the town's division over the issue is overdramatized, having lived in a small town divided over a windmill project I can say for certain that that part was spot on.  On the other hand, until about 3/4 of my way through the book it felt like reading it was more of a slog and a chore than fun escapism.  Characters were flat, dialog was stilted and unnatural, and there was a lot  unnecessary repetition.  Butler had a tendency to skip around, making jagged transitions that didn't really work and left the reader feeling like they had missed something.  I felt no connection or investment in Willson (as she's referred to through the book, creating further separation from the character in my mind) until the last few chapters, which were heartbreakingly depressing and left me looking at the last page asking "that's it? That's how you leave it?"  That reaction suggests to me that Butler has definite potential in the future, but No Place for Wolverines did not live up to that potential, and I probably wouldn't want to give the author another chance by reading another book.  

Unusually, it is only the wolverines who win by the end of this book.  It is not the characters, and it is definitely not the reader.  My recommendation is to enjoy the cover, but you'll enjoy it more by not reading the book. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Dangerous Duet

A Dangerous Duet- Karen Odden
William Morrow/Harper Collins
Release Date: November 6, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Nineteen-year-old Nell Hallam lives in a modest corner of Mayfair with her brother Matthew, an inspector at Scotland Yard. An exceptionally talented pianist, she aspires to attend the Royal Academy; but with tuition beyond their means, Nell sets out to earn the money herself—by playing piano in a popular Soho music hall. And the fact that she will have to disguise herself as a man and slip out at night to do it doesn’t deter her.

Spending evenings at the Octavian is like entering an alternate world, one of lively energy, fascinating performers, raucous patrons—and dark secrets. And when Nell stumbles upon the operations of an infamous crime ring working in the shadows of the music hall, she is drawn into a conspiracy that stretches the length of London. To further complicate matters, she has begun to fall for the hall owner's charismatic son, Jack, who has secrets of his own. 

The more Nell becomes a part of the Octavian’s world, the more she risks the relationships with the people she loves. And when another performer is left for dead in an alley as a warning, she realizes her future could be in jeopardy in more ways than one.

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Nell Hallam, nineteen and desperate to be accepted to the Royal Academy to further her future as a pianist, doesn't let convention stop her from reaching her goals.  To earn the needed tuition she plays piano at the Octavian Music Hall- which requires her to pretend she's a man.  There she makes friends with an unusual assortment of people, including trapeze artist Marceline and handyman Jack- who just happens to be the owner's son.  After finding Marceline beaten in an alley one night, Nell realizes there is more going on at the Octavian than music and a good time.  Nell needs to help her Scotland Yard Inspector brother take down a vicious ring of thieves and murderers- including dirty cops and Jack's own father- while keeping her friends and their secrets safe.

Nell is a woman ahead of her time, willing to step beyond the boundaries of convention to reach her goals and protect the people she loves.  Mature and rational, she is also willing to listen to her heart when it comes to the people around her.  Through her eyes we see people not only as they present themselves to the world, but also the complicated, multiple layers beneath their masks. Primary and secondary characters alike unfold layer by layer, all complex people with hopes, dreams, fears, and motives beyond what is seen on the surface.

Odden's debut novel, A Lady in the Smoke, introduced readers to a wonderful new author who knows how to describe London and the surrounding areas as if it is one of the book's characters and that talent is even more in evidence here.  A Dangerous Duet vividly brings readers into the double life of Victorian  London: beautiful Mayfair homes and first rate museums alongside the dirty alleys and rickety buildings of Soho.  You smell the bread being sold, feel the cobblestones beneath your feet, and hear the busy traffic on the streets. You check your hands for splinters, feel the smoothness of piano keys, and feel your heart leap in your chest right along with Nell.

A fast-paced novel blending the perfect amount of suspense and mystery with a deft touch of romance and music, A Dangerous Duet is a perfect book for mystery lovers!     

Archangel's Prophecy

Archangel's Prophecy- Nalini Singh
Berkley/Penguin Group
Release Date: October 30, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: Midnight and dawn, Elena’s wings are unique among angelkind—and now they are failing. The first mortal to be turned into an immortal in angelic memory, she’s regressing. Becoming more and more human. Easier to hurt. Easier to kill. 

Elena and Raphael must unearth the reason for the regression before Elena falls out of the sky. Yet even as they fight a furious battle for Elena’s very survival, violent forces are gathering across the world. In China, the Archangel Favashi is showing the first signs of madness. In New York, a mysterious sinkhole filled with lava swallows a man whole. In Africa, torrential monsoon rains flood rolling deserts. And in Elena’s mind whispers a haunting voice that isn’t her own.
 
This time, survival may not be possible…not even for the consort of an archangel.

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Elena Deveraux.  Vampire Hunter. Hunter born.  Bad-ass fighter. Archangel's Consort.  The first mortal to become angel-made.  Elena has grown into her role as all of these things over the course of the Guild Hunters series.  But now she is regressing into a mortal and no-one, angel or vampire, can figure out why.  With the world still shaken from the effects of the Cascade and the madness of Lijuan fresh in everyone's memory, everyone is jumping at the smallest strangeness.  Sudden lava pits, a strange set of murders, and ghost owls only Elena can see take things to a whole new level of Cascade-Weirdness.  Elena and Raphael must try to change destiny and protect their friends and their world or an ancient prophecy will come true- and Elena may not survive it.

Like most of the Guild Hunters series, (Archangel's Viper) Archangel's Prophecy does a good job of walking the fine line between personal problems and relationships and world-shattering change and clashes of archangels.  And Elena is, as always, the heart of the series.  Her view guides readers through the harsh world of immortals while at the same time reminding many immortals of their own capacity for kindness and wonder.  And she does her best to always remember (and remind others) that what is most important in the world, whether you are human or immortal, is love, friendship, and family.  So it is really no surprise that even when her own world seems to be crashing down around her, what she focuses on is a sudden threat to her sister and niece.  And it is a testament to Raphael's love and understanding that he doesn't try to wrap Elena up and hide her safely somewhere, but supports her hunt for a murderer even when she is at her weakest.  Elena and Raphael remind me a lot of Eve and Roarke in J.D. Robb's In Death series.  They may view the world very differently at times, and have come to the same place in very different ways, but despite the occasional fight, they are a perfect partnership.  Supportive, wildly in love when they thought it wasn't possible, they compliment and anchor each other perfectly. 

It's hard to talk too much about Prophecy without giving away too many spoilers.  But it is another example of Nalini Singh's wonderful writing genius: emotional, compelling, fast-paced, edge of your seat action, with just the right amount of humor and softer moments mixed throughout.  Readers new to the series would probably do best to read some of the earlier books first to get the most out of Prophecy and long-time series readers won't be able to put it down!  Just be aware that it ends with the biggest cliff-hanger Singh has ever given us and will leave you begging for the next book to find out what happens!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Bartered Brides

The Bartered Brides (Elemental Masters)- Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books/Penguin Group
Release Date: October 16, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

Synopsis: The threat of Moriarty is gone—but so is Sherlock Holmes.

Even as they mourn the loss of their colleague, psychic Nan Killian, medium Sarah Lyon-White, and Elemental Masters John and Mary Watson must be vigilant, for members of Moriarty’s network are still at large. And their troubles are far from over: in a matter of weeks, two headless bodies of young brides wash up in major waterways. A couple who fears for their own recently-wedded daughter hires the group to investigate, but with each new body, the mystery only deepens. 

The more bodies emerge, the more the gang suspects that there is dangerous magic at work, and that Moriarty’s associates are somehow involved. But as they race against the clock to uncover the killer, it will take all their talents, Magic, and Psychic Powers—and perhaps some help from a dearly departed friend—to bring the murderer to justice.

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Returning to the world of Elemental Magicians, psychics, and Sherlock Holmes, The Bartered Brides takes the series to its next logical step: what if Professor Moriarty had a necromancer in his organization and, after Reichenbach Falls, that necromancer tried to bring Moriarty back in a new body?  With Holmes in hiding to keep up the presence of being dead so he can track down remaining members of Moriarty's crew, it is up to the Watsons, Nan Killian, Sarah Lyon-White, the parrot Grey and the raven Neville to deal with a case Sherlock wouldn't be able to handle anyway.  But can they track down the villain who is murdering innocent girls to power seriously dark magic before he can bring the Napoleon of Crime back from the dead?

The idea behind The Bartered Brides is a classic, and fits perfectly into Lackey's Elemental/Holmes universe.  It also provides a good showcase for John and Mary Watson, who get overshadowed in the more 'traditional' Holmes world.  As Elemental Masters, John and Mary have always worked to deal with the cases Holmes couldn't, and to try to provide magical insight when his own cases seemed to need it.  Here they are recognized as powerful Masters in their elements, willing to take risks when needed and devoted to hunting down the man responsible for headless corpses turning up in the Thames.  Brides in particular also celebrates the close bond between them.

While John and Mary shine here, Nan and Sarah- the theoretical heroines of the series- fade a bit.  Unless they are using their particular talents (Nan as a mind reader, Sarah a medium) the two girls are pretty interchangeable in Brides.  They think the same way, act the same way, plot the same way, and half of the time I could only remember who was who because of the birds.  As brave and dedicated as all the heroes were, Brides pretty much stars the necromancer Spencer.  Our heroes chase leads and dead ends while Spencer gets all the action.  The reader is horrified by what Spencer is doing, and cheers his (eventual) failure, but he is still the stand out in the book.  I spent most of the book waiting for something to happen.  Which was also what our heroes were doing for most of the book.  With what seemed to me a rather uncharacteristically hurried ending, I didn't feel like I got quite the payoff I was hoping for.

Unlike Lackey's earlier books (The Black Gryphon for example) Brides spends most of its time wandering.  Loosely written, with largely mediocre and forgettable characters (although I greatly enjoyed meeting Caro!), this was not one of Lackey's best efforts.  Devoted Mercedes Lackey fans will be willing to spend an afternoon with these familiar characters and in this familiar world, but I wouldn't recommend it as a starting point for those new to the works of a usually stellar author.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Napoleon

Napoleon: A Life- Adam Zamoyski
Basic Books/ Hachette
Release Date: October 16, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: "What a novel my life has been!" Napoleon once said of himself. Born into a poor family, the callow young man was, by twenty-six, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The Pope crowned him as Emperor of the French when he was only thirty-five. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic.

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Napoleon Bonaparte is one of those larger than life figures who becomes a myth, a hero, and a villain, and in the process the true human being often disappears.  In Napoleon: A Life Adam Zamoyski works to discover the man behind the legend.  Zamoyski works to place Napoleon in the context of his time period, both politically and philosophically. He works to explain the occasionally unexplainable mindset of the French Revolution and French Republic so that readers can understand how ready France was to accept someone like Napoleon as their leader.  

Zamoskyi warns readers in his introduction that he examines the military aspects of Napoleon's life only as he feels they effected his political and personal situation.  This leads to an uneven study of the military aspect of Napoleon, heavily emphasized in the beginning and much less so by the 1812 campaigns in Russia.  Waterloo receives barely a page and a half.  But since these are well researched and frequently written about in other books, I think the unevenness worked in the book's favor.  More is certainly known about those times than about Napoleon's family, his work on restoring France, or his behavior to enemies and colleagues.  

Here we discover Napoleon's formative years on Corsica and his work to define his life on his own terms.  Corsican traditions emphasized family above all and Napoleon followed this throughout his life- while his brothers and sisters only considered family when it benefitted them directly.  Napoleon was a man who grew up despising the idea of love, only to fall head over heels in love with Josephine- who I also learned far more about in this book than I had ever known before!  He was not a man who was comfortable delegating authority, which became a serious problem when he was on campaign and trying to run an empire. Even when he wanted peace, he felt his only true claim to the throne of France was as a general. 

A well-written and well researched book, Zampyshki's Napoleon delves behind the myths to get as close to the man as possible.  Neither a saint nor a demon, Napoleon is instead presented as a man with both genius and faults, who retained until the end of his life an incredible charisma that caused men to devote their lives to his star, even when it seemed hopeless.  Which is perhaps a large part of why he is still so fascinating today.

An excellent biography for those interested in learning more about French history and the Napoleonic Wars, as well as the self-made man behind the legend.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Ravenmaster

The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London- Christopher Skaife
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Release Date: October 2, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The ravens at the Tower of London are of mighty importance: rumor has it that if a raven from the Tower should ever leave, the city will fall. 

The title of Ravenmaster, therefore, is a serious title indeed, and after decades of serving the Queen, Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife took on the added responsibility of caring for the infamous ravens. In The Ravenmaster, he lets us in on his life as he feeds his birds raw meat and biscuits soaked in blood, buys their food at Smithfield Market, and ensures that these unusual, misunderstood, and utterly brilliant corvids are healthy, happy, and ready to captivate the four million tourists who flock to the Tower every year.

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In The Ravenmaster, we have the first behind-the-scenes, insider story of what it's like being the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London. I follow Skaife on social media and have been looking forward to reading this book for a long time- and it does not disappoint!  Ravenmaster Christopher Skaife generously shares his successes and learning experiences, triumphs and tragedies, and gives readers a glimpse into his life caring for some of the most famous ravens in the world. He tells us the Story of the Tower as if giving us a tour of the grounds: its history, famous residents and prisoners, and woven throughout are stories of the ravens. Ravens past and present, their personalities and habits, and his relationship with each one of them.

Throughout this fast-paced, witty  and enthralling account, Skaife's love for the ravens comes through loud and clear.  It is clear that you need not only to think like a raven to succeed in this job, but always need your sense of humor about you! By the end, the reader not only has a delightful glimpse into his life, but the lives of his feathered friends as well.  Skaife is a natural storyteller, and reading The Ravenmaster is like he is sitting down with you over a drink and telling you about the latest exploits of Merlina and her cohorts.

An absolute must-read for history-lovers, Anglophiles, and animals lovers, make sure to clear a few hours for yourself when you sit down with The Ravenmaster, because once you start you won't be able to put it down!

Behind the Throne

Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the British Royal Household- Adrian Tinniswood
Basic Books/Hachette
Release Date: October 2, 2018

Rating:
📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: In Behind the Throne, historian Adrian Tinniswood uncovers the reality of five centuries of life at the English court, taking the reader on a remarkable journey from one Queen Elizabeth to another and exploring life as it was lived by clerks and courtiers and clowns and crowned heads: the power struggles and petty rivalries, the tension between duty and desire, the practicalities of cooking dinner for thousands and of ensuring the king always won when he played a game of tennis.

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Adrian Tinniswood's Behind the Throne explores the lives of English royalty from Queen Elizabeth I to Queen Elizabeth II through the eyes of those who served them.  In a light, conversational style of writing, Tinniswood examines how costly Elizabeth I's 'visiting' her nobility was and the incredible lengths nobles needed to go in order to house and entertain her- not only in a way fit for royalty, but also in a way fit to recommend them to Elizabeth the next time she had a gift to bestow.  It is hard to imagine the number of residences that have come and gone during this time period, and what one royal thought of as the best of all houses the next might hate and ignore.

Much of the book looks at the inevitable balancing act of how a king (or queen) should be seen to live like royalty, while at the same time trying (or not) to keep in some kind of budget.  Throne has an uneven amount of behind the scenes stories to tell, and often instead of newly discovered research into the daily life of English royalty and those who serve them, we read the same stories we've heard in any history.  While I didn't learn anything new about the Prince Regent (George IV)'s living habits, there were many good glimpses behind how Elizabeth I and King James I lived.  George V and the more modern royals become more known and accessible and we see the harbingers of the modern day paparazzi and the new balancing act between private lives and what the public wants to know.

From what has changed to what hasn't, Behind the Throne gives an entertaining, and highly readable, account of 500 years of history and the lives of English royalty and those who surround them.  A good read for history lovers and those who think they don't like history, but always enjoy a good bit of royal gossip.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review