A charming book. My best description is that it's a cozy adventure.

Not sure what I was expecting from this book and I guess for its time, 1513, it was insightful, but reading it today with statements that say you cannot avoid war and should only postpone it to your own advantage was disturbing. The book is Machiavelli’s perspective on how rulers must conduct themselves in order to be successful. And while I imagine that there are some who would agree even today, reading statements that say people must fear you and some brutality is needed, is disturbing to be reading now.

I would say that the central part of this book is solid and enjoyable, but some of the peripheral stuff I could do without, including names of many people who have little or nothing to do with the story. And maybe it is just me, but I found the ridiculousness of the names, virtually all of them, to detract from the serious central plot. There is a god story in here, but you just have to wait for it to rise to the top.

This was an interesting book about 4 physicians who share a medical practice. Their practice also serves a nearby boarding school. The author does a good job of carefully overlapping the action between the school and the doctor’s personal lives. It’s a good and different read.

The trouble I had with this book is that I did it as an audiobook. There were just too many characters, and sometimes the characters were referred to differently depending upon who was speaking about them. Add to that the challenges of the language of 1826 and I was not able to enjoy the book or really follow what was going on.

Adorable nerdy romance. I cannot wait for more from this author.

In this story about women who go missing and then have their dead images appear in paintings, Isles does an excellent job in developing the characters and their connections to one another. And this is important because the subject matter here is often harsh and without this development of characters, it would simply be a brutal story. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time and liked the ending.

At its heart, this is a police procedural. But the characters are so well explored within this context and the circumstances so bizarre, that the story, though bloody and twisted, is very interesting. If you like cop drama, you will definitely enjoy this one.

This was an engaging story of a RAF war flyer who crashes during a mission, but he winds up in a different year. It is interesting to watch him as he realizes what has happened and then try to figure out what to do. A different type of story.

This book follows the 2 daughters of the man who was responsible for people seated on the throne of England in the 1400's. It follows the 2 girls through their lives and does a beautiful job of following their changing view of the position of Queen from their childhood until their death. It is a wonderful, albeit at times a grim, look at the life of powerful women during that time period.