Category: Samhain Press

March Came Roaring In Like a Lion and the Week Ahead in Reviews

Remember last March in Maryland?  The sun was shining over plants newly emerged from the ground,  our temperatures hovered in the high 70’s after experiencing absolutely no winter at all.  Birds were nesting, the butterflies were flying, and thoughts of picnics and outdoor barbecue dinners molded our grocery lists.  Even now I can bask in the memories….

Now switch to present day and the snow flurries I saw swirling around in clear defiance that it was March.  It was cold and dark clouds made sure the sun never made an appearance.  I stopped to look at the pansies with their smiling faces at Good Earth and thought “not in a million years am I hanging around outside to plant you so bugger off”,  channeling some Brits I know.  Those of you in the middle of huge snowstorms or still in recovery from the same are probably wanting to smack me over such piddling weather.  Me too.  I do realize it could be so much worse but this dang climate change has upped our expectations for March beyond all reasonability, hence the whining.

On the other hand, it does give me time to spend with plant catalogs, and go to a whine oops wine and cooking demonstration like I did  yesterday.  Had the weather been gorgeous, I would have been outside and missed a Mahi Mahi cooked in a buirre blanc sauce to die for, a lovely Coq au vin and a porc du rose, just a lovely 3 hours spent with nice people, great wines and food and a very funny Chef Read.  So highs and lows, cold and hot, one friend moves away and I get the chance to meet others. Life, the weather and changing climate keeps springing changes upon us whether (ha!) we are ready or not, usually mostly not.   Hmmmm,..rambling here again.

So where were we? Ah yes, the week ahead.  Hopefully that will see the Caps win, the Nats all heathly and happy in Florida, honestly don’t care what’s going on with the “Skins, and new recipes to try out.  I will be finishing up the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries series this week and it will be sad to say goodbye to Jonty and Orlando.  Look for a post full of Q & A with Charlie Cochrane to post the day following.  She was wonderful in answering all the questions that kept popping into my brain as I finished All Lessons Learned.  We have a mixed bag of new and familiar authors here, something for everyone I believe.  So here is the way it is scheduled so far:

Monday, March 4:                     Spot Me by Andrew Grey

Tuesday, March 5:                     Wake Me Up Inside by Cardeno C

Wed., March 6:                           Velocity by Amelia C. Gormley

Thursday, March 7:                    Lessons for Survivors by Charlie Cochrane

Friday, March 8:                         A Cambridge Fellows Q & A with Charlie Cochrane

Saturday, March 9:                     His Best Man by Treva Harte

So there it is, a really good week ahead.  Now if just those blasted snow clouds would go away I might just think about planting some pansies….

Review: All Lessons Learned (Cambridge Fellows Mysteries #8) by Charlie Cochrane

Rating: 5 stars

“He’s at the end of his rope…until fate casts a lifeline.”

All Lessons LearnedWWI has ended and Dr. Orlando Coppersmith is back at St. Bride’s College, after being freed from a German prisoner of war camp.  The cost of the war is all around him but the deepest, most traumatic blow is the loss of his lover and companion of more than a decade, Dr. Jonty Stewart, killed in action in the Somme.  Orlando is consumed by his loss and going through the motions of his previous life when unexpectedly a case arises to take his mind off his desolation.  A mother is sure her son did not die in battle and wants Orlando to find him or the truth whatever it may be so her mind can be at ease. The pursuit of that truth will take Orlando back to places he wished he could forget and times of untold horror and pain.

But on the French seafront at Cabourg, Lavinia Stewart Broad and her family are taking a walk on the sands when she comes across the last person she ever expected to see, giving her hope and joy for the first time in ages.  The impact of the war that has been left behind on those who fought cannot be lessoned in a day or even month.  And not all the pain and scarring left is visible on the outside.  Nothing in Orlando’s intellectual framework has prepared him for what comes next and it will take everything he has to grasp on to this new hope and hold on through to a future he thought was gone.

From the opening sentence we are audience to a sorrow so profound that you will be weeping within minutes.  I don’t think there is a more powerful symbol of love that can grip you except its absence after having found it and that is Orlando Coppersmith at the beginning of All Lessons Learned.

This is how we find him:

“The twelfth day of the eleventh month, 1918.  Orlando Coppersmith stood outside the prisoner of war camp and listened, almost unbelieving. No distant guns. No shouts or cries. No whinnying of frightened horses. Somewhere a bird was singing—two birds—and a distant dog barked. It felt unreal, as if this were a dream and the memory of the last few years the reality to which they would wake.”

The first world war has ended and its impact is hitting home as the men who survived WWI return back to their lives. Those that don’t return lie dead on foreign soil or have fled, marked as cowards, some because of what we know is PTSD, a concept so foreign that is was mocked as an excuse of cowards instead as the very real condition we know today.  Charlie Cochrane brings the reader the horrors that WWI visited on all involved by making it personal with its impact on characters we have met and come to love in the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries. In the opening pages, we find out that Dr. Peters, the Master of St. Bride’s College has died.  Also gone are Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, Jonty’s parents who also became the same to Orlando over the course of their relationship.  Jonty has been killed during fighting on the Somme and with them everything central to Orlando’s happiness and contentment , the core that made his life worth living is shattered, leaving Orlando adrift, tethered to life by a promise, Mrs. Sheridan nee Peters, and Lavinia Stewart Broad and her family.

I can think of no better way to visit the horrors that war can impart than through the eyes of a beloved character and Cochrane pulls us into Orlando’s memories with a gritty harshness not found elsewhere in the series.  This is a much changed Orlando since last we saw him.  No longer does this vaunted mathematician see the world in black and white.  Time, loss and his experiences on the front and in a prisoner of war camp have changed him forever with one exception.  His love for Jonty is as strong and final as it ever was, and now he is trying to continue living as he promised and falling short.  That changed man, more than anything else Cochrane could have done, tells us how much the world has altered in order for that to happen.  Have the tissues at hand, because this is going to hurt and hurt deeply.

Another fine element of this novel is the subject of what today we know as PTSD and veterans.  Then it had different names, shell shock for one, neurasthenia for another, the last being an ill-defined mental illness that encapsulated everything from fatigue to irritability and mental instability.  That is when it was believed in, for some doctors and the public, it was just an excuse for cowardice under fire. Here is another passage when Orlando is interviewing someone about MacNeil the man he is trying to locate:

“Orlando wouldn’t use the word “desert”. He’d heard too much rubbish spouted about men who’d lost their nerve, especially from people who’d been no nearer the front than the promenade at Dover.”

Those words might just have easily come out of the 60’s, or 80’s or even now.  While the weapons and locations may change, the impact of war upon people’s minds and bodies does not and here we see the results in Orlando and many others he comes across during his investigation.  Through recounted memories or more accurately nightmares, we hear the constant pounding of exploding munitions and the whistling of the shells overhead, the empty sleeves and missing legs of the remnants of the men who made it back, and the holes in the lives left behind of those that didn’t.  This is a grim and necessary element of All Lessons Learned and its impact upon the reader tells you exactly how well Charlie Cochrane did her job in making it real to us too.

There are also some wondrous moments in this story that will make all the pain and tears worthwhile.  They will come not with great shouts of joy and fireworks but quietly, with subtly and that’s as it should be given the nature of the couple at the heart of this series. One of the elements that made Orlando’s grief worse was that he could not mourn the loss of his lover the same as any other “widower” for that was indeed what he was.  Orlando’s grief had to remain hidden from all but a few who knew the couple and their true relationship.  And that isolation of his grief made a deeper cut than if he might have been able to mourn with the countless others at the time.  Orlando Coppersmith is a complex man and brings those same complexities of nature to everything that happens to him, good, bad or miraculous.  So the events that occur later on the story won’t surprise anyone who has become familiar with his character.  Somethings are truly fundamental and that is reassuring too.

This is not the end of the series, although I suspect at the time Charlie Cochrane intended it to be from the epilogue here.  One more book was written.  And that prompted a number of questions I had for the author.  I hope to have my review and the answers to those questions  posted for you sometime soon.  But in a way this does provide a sort of ending because the world and these men were never the same after WWI.  Changes start to happen rapidly throughout the world and the gentler time of the first seven books is forever vanished.   This series has become dear to my heart and we have one more visit to go.  I hope you will stay with me to the end.  For those of you for whom this review is your first introduction, please start from the beginning.  Take your time getting to know these remarkable men, delve into life and times of England in the 1900’s.  It starts out with all the joys of a slow promenade and then picks up the pace with each succeeding book.

It is an extraordinary journey. Dont miss a page of it.  Here are the order the stories were written and should be read to fully understand the relationships and events that occur:
Lessons in Love (Cambridge Fellows, #1)

Lessons in Desire (Cambridge Fellows, #2)

Lessons in Discovery (Cambridge Fellows, #3)

Lessons in Power (Cambridge Fellows, #4)

My True Love Sent To Me

Lessons in Temptation (Cambridge Fellows, #5)

Lessons in Seduction (Cambridge Fellows, #6)

Lessons in Trust (Cambridge Fellows, #7)

Once We Won Matches (Cambridge Fellows, #7.5)

All Lessons Learned (Cambridge Fellows, #8)

Lessons for Survivors (Cambridge Fellows, #9) – released by Cheyenne Publishing.

For free stories in the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries universe and more about the author, visit the author’s website.

 

Review: Life, Over Easy: Fragments Book 1 by K.A. Mitchell

Rating:  4.25 stars

Life Over Easy coverJohn Andrews life was all planned out, had been since he was young and entered the pool for the first time.  His life revolved around his diving.  He was tutored at home and on the road,  his social circle extended out only as far as his  teammates and diving competitors, even the most normal rites of growing up passed him by, no dances, no television watching or movie going, nothing but diving and diving competition.  Even after winning two Gold Olympic medals, that didn’t change.  John was on target to repeat or perhaps exceed  his goals at the next Olympics until a accident during training changed his life forever.  Now he copes with brain damage, blurry sight, vertigo, and life with a cane as a college freshman, on his own for the first time in his life.  But the place inside of him that used to be filled by diving is empty and John doesn’t know how to fill

One accident six months ago changed Mason’s life forever.  One deer in the middle of the road, one car crash later and everything he loved and thought he would have forever was gone.  Now its Jim Beam and sex that Mason uses to fill the emptiness inside of him, crawling into bed drunk with any number of nameless guys to the consternation and disgust of his roommates and friends.  He needs to concentrate on his school work and project but it seems impossible.

Two men, damaged by life’s accidents.  When John turns up at the wrong house for a party, they meet and while their first encounter isn’t promising, John and Mason are drawn together even as they hide secrets from each other.  John can see auras around peoples heads and he sees two over Mason’s.  And Mason?  He is seeing and hearing his dead lover.   Can both men over come multiple obstacles, including one not of this earth, to find the love both need and deserve?  Life is never easy, but this is ridiculous.

I love K. A. Mitchell.  She is a “go to” author for me and this book demonstrates why I grab up every book she writes.  The characters are unusual to say the least.  John Andrews stands out because he is different on so many levels.  First of all, he is that driven individual who has been pursuing a specific goal since childhood and succeeding at it.  Young athletes are in a category all their own.  They deprive themselves of a normal childhood, delaying or denying all together many hallmarks of growing up in order to pursue their dream, whether it be  that of an Olympic high diver or other sport.  They create a tunnel of efforts, so focused and driven that they seem almost innocent and guileless outside of their sport.  Take that goal, that lifestyle away and you have a person adrift in their own life, no  longer tethered by long term goals.  We see that happen to so many athletes once the Games are over.

K.A. Mitchell takes it one further.  John has had an accident that makes him unable to compete.  From a finely toned athlete, he now copes with a brain damaged during a 2 story fall.  He has vertigo, blurred vision, and  has a condition called Synesthesia, a neurological condition where “one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.”  Colors can be associated with sounds or words, or music is combined with sounds or specific sights, etc.   Mitchell’s vivid descriptions gives us a intimate look at how it must feel when even a short walk turns into an overwhelming cavalcade of colors and sights.  John has to deal with the loss of his life’s goal, his new disability, life as a college student, and all the while he feels empty inside because that one feeling of being “airborne”, floating in space as he dives is forever gone.  Mitchell makes us feel that loss as acutely as John does.  And then she brings it crashing up against an equally deep cavern of loss and pain that is Mason’s.

Most of us have not lived John’s life but I would bet that we all know someone like Mason or lived through a similar trauma.  Mason is easily the most identifiable and recognizable of the two men.  We can connect with Mason who is drowning in the loss of the man he thought he would marry and spend the rest of his life with.  Booze and sex are the fillers of choice for Mason, and we get that.  His friends (wonderful characters in their own right) feel helpless to stop the downward spiral, some have given up all together as Mason lashes out at them in his pain.  This is all very authentic in the emotions radiating off the characters and the pages of this story.

But then Mitchell takes it an additional step further, journeying into the paranormal.  John’s condition lets him see people auras, he knows what they are feeling by looking at the pulsating colors above their heads.  And Mason’s dead lover hovers over all the proceedings, alternately angry and amused by being “stuck” to Mason.  I have to admit I wish that this element has been left out of the story.  It was terrific with just the obstacles they were already facing but then you add ghosts and “auras” and we start tipping over the edge.  It is too much for this story to handle, there is just too much to do justice to all the elements involved.  Then at the very end, one final piece is added.  Mitchell throws in BDSM at the last minute into a relationship that had not previously explored this type of sexuality.  It just seems very awkward and out of place.  I could see where she was going with it, and that made sense but it really needed to be introduced much earlier in the book and in their relationship. But as it was I just thought it was a tad strange for them to take it to that level at that time.

So those were my quibbles with this story.  Too many ingredients to give this a 5 star rating.  It was almost there too.  Do I recommend this book? Absolutely, these are wonderful characters and their stories are compelling.  I wish Mitchell would bring out another book in this series because I like where it is going.  Life is never easy, this book reminds of us of that fact.  But there are solutions and answers for everyone, and Life, Over Easy reminds us of that too.  Pick it up and let me know what you think.

Cover by Natalie Winters, interesting but not as interesting as the story within.

Mitchell, K.A.. Life, Over Easy: Fragments, Book 1 . Samhain Publishing, Ltd..

Review: Lessons in Trust (Cambridge Fellows Mysteries #7) by Charlie Cochrane

Rating: 4.5 stars

Lessons In Trust coverIt is 1908 and Cambridge Dons Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith are attending the  Franco English Exhibition in the White City when their vacation is interrupted by two events, one a murder case and the other a personal mystery whose impact is devastating to the couple and their family and friends.  A young man they had spied earlier at an exhibition in the White City turns up dead.  When the local constabulary rebuffs all their efforts to become involved, to Orlando’s and Jonty’s consternation, they proceed to investigate on their own. Then a letter arrives informing Orlando that his beloved grandmother has died, and her death releases Jonty from the promise he made to her and he tells Orlando the truth about his grandmother, his father and his lineage.

When Orlando finds out that everything he thought he knew about his family and himself was false, including the fact that their name is Coppersmith, he is devastated and falls into a deep depression.  His uncertainty about his family background and his own identity is made untenable in Orlando’s mind when placed next to his lover’s noble and long established family. So distraught in fact that without informing either Jonty or the Stewarts, Orlando leaves their home to launch his own investigation into his past on his own.

Now Jonty is frantic to find his lover and still mired in confusion over the mistaken identities of the dead man from the White City. Unable to locate Orlando, Jonty continues to unearth clue after clue on the original murder, further infuriating the police over his involvement in a case he and Orlando were warned off.  Orlando, meanwhile, is struggling without Jonty and his depression is making him his own worst enemy.  It will take both men, reunited once more to solve both mysteries, one that threatens the very heart of their relationship if exposed and the other Orlando’s sanity if not solved.

With Lessons In Trust, once more Charlie Cochrane plunges the reader into a story that resolves around personal identities and trust and does so from two different perspectives.  When Jonty and Orlando see a young man snoozing near an exhibition hall, they have no idea that he is in fact not only dead but has been murdered.  The local police, an Inspector Redknapp, not only don’t want their help in investigating this crime but actually makes comments that let Jonty and Orlando know that the Inspector thinks very little of their investigative powers.  So they take matters into their own hands for the first time and proceed to find out that no one in the case is as they are presumed to be. Once identity after another is found false, mudding the trail to the murderer.  Charlie Cochrane is setting the stage for an even larger case of mistaken identity here, that of Orlando himself.

In the last book, Lessons in Seduction, we learned that Orlando’s grandmother had his father out of wedlock and was disowned by her family, a fact she kept from her son and grandson.  Mrs. Coppersmith only told Jonty when she knew she was dying, making him promise to hold off informing Orlando until her death.  Orlando’s family history is one of angst, suicide and depression, making him grow up socially isolated, withdrawn and prone to depression himself.  One truth he held onto and that was his name.  And with one revelation, that is gone as well, his identity in question along with his lineage.  The author asks that we remember how important family names were at the time by contrasting Orlando’s family with that of Jonty Stewart’s, a comparison not lost on Orlando or the reader.  And we know before it happens, just how badly Orlando will receive this information.

There are so many powerful elements at play here.  Not only are Jonty and Orlando facing questions about his identity but the murder case they are still pursuing keeps turning up false identities as well, highlighting how tenuous a hold a name can have on your own identity without you even realizing it.  And Orlando’s family history of depression rears its head again as Orlando spirals downward, unable to stop his depressive state from taking over his mind and his heart.  There is a blackness to Orlando’s family, his father having slit his throat in front of his son at a young age and much about his actions are finally explained here.  Orlando’s depression makes him doubt everything around him, including his trust in Jonty and the Stewarts to understand and continue loving him.  Powerful stuff indeed. Complication after complication follows our couple, even as they try to unearth the motive and murderer of the man they found at the beginning.

When Orlando flees the Stewart London home in desperation and panic, he leaves behind a confused and fearful Jonty. Jonty’s own issues of trust and pain start to resurface with the loss of Orlando and everything both men have come to hold dear and worked hard to establish is in danger of being destroyed by their actions and fears.  The author brings us into the turmoil of Orlando inner thoughts as pain and anger has him lashing out against his family and even himself in punishing detail.  But she also ensures that we feel Jonty’s fear and anquish over the safety of his lover as acutely as our own. And throughout all these events, there is a darker thread that runs subtlety through the narrative, that of continental unrest and spies from abroad appearing on English soil, a precursor of the war looming over the horizon.

As I stated in my previous blog on the Franco-British Exhibition, Charlie Cochrane’s stories are also a thing of personal delight because of the new information she imparts and the manner in which it is done.  I found The Flip-Flap ride to be as irresistible as Mr. Stewart does.  And I dearly wanted a ride in Jonty’s new Lagonda car, goggles firmly in place, face caked with dirt and full of adventure.  I truly understood Orlando’s jealousy and wanted to give it a crank myself.

But the real beauty here is the foundation of this series, the creation of Jonty Stewart and Orlando Coppersmith. Cochrane has slowly introduced Jonty and Orlando to each other and the reader and made us all fall madly in love over the course of seven books.  We now know these characters intimately as we do our closest friends.  And it is because of this connection that the author is able to build such suspense within the reader for Orlando’s safety and their love. The author does provide some lightness to offset the darkness occurring within Orlando by bringing in Jonty’s sister, Lavinia and her husband, Ralph.  They have a major problem with their marriage and a resourceful Jonty has just the answer.  This is a sweet, funny and endearing section of Lessons In Trust that still manages to address the issue at hand, that of trust within a relationship.

We are almost done, the end of the series close at hand.  The next book was the last until the author added one more.  So the next up to be reviewed is All Lessons Learned, the penultimate book in the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries and by far the most powerful in the group.  War is upon our boys and the impact as devastating as we can imagine.  Keep those boxes of tissues nearby, they will be needed.  See you back here soon.

One last look at The Flip Flap ride:
Here are the series in the order they were written and should be read to understand character development and the series events. Links to my reviews are included:

Lessons in Love (Cambridge Fellows, #1)

Lessons in Desire (Cambridge Fellows, #2)

Lessons in Discovery (Cambridge Fellows, #3)

Lessons in Power (Cambridge Fellows, #4)

My True Love Sent To Me

Lessons in Temptation (Cambridge Fellows, #5)

Lessons in Seduction (Cambridge Fellows, #6)

Lessons in Trust (Cambridge Fellows, #7)

Once We Won Matches (Cambridge Fellows, #7.5)

All Lessons Learned (Cambridge Fellows, #8)

Lessons for Survivors (Cambridge Fellows, #9) released by Cheyenne Publishing, buy link here

Visit Charlie Cochrane’s website for free stories and more information about further works from this author.

The Week Ahead in Reviews

Well, I hate to throw this out there but this coming week is full of things I don’t like to talk about, mostly doctors appointments.  I would much rather dwell on things like the arrival of Spring, plants I want to establish in the gardens, the latest antics of my terrors three, and what knitting projects are in the pipeline. But sometimes I just have to face up to the fact my health takes priority, even over the Caps and the Nats. So if things don’t exactly arrive as scheduled, this is the reason.  Just saying.

I want to finish out Charlie Cochrane’s Cambridge Fellows series over this week and the next, so grab onto that box of tissues and be prepared. I also have the latest Josh Lanyon book he self published after his year off.  This week I am also posting books from favorite authors like B.A. Tortuga and K. A. Mitchell that were reviewed for Joyfully Jay’s Jock Week.  I know you will enjoy them as well. So here is the schedule as planned.

Monday, Feb. 25:              Lessons In Trust by Charlie Cochrane

Tuesday, Feb 26:                Blood Red Butterfly by Josh Lanyon

Wed, Feb. 27:                     Life, Over Easy by K. A. Mitchell

Thursday, Feb. 28:           Adding To The Collection by B. A Tortuga

Friday, Feb. 29:                 All Lessons Learned by Charlie Cochrane

Saturday, Feb. 30:             Scattered Thoughts On Authors, Conventions and Hurt Feelings

 

In the meantime I have become familiar with the music of Kaija Saariaho,  In “Lonh”, a work for soprano and electronics, Saariaho combined a medieval love poem with bells and bird song to arrive a composition both memorable and eerie.  What do you think?

Rushed Dental Work, a Delay In Today’s Review and the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908

So, yeah, here I am about to head off for some rushed dentistry, a root canal that had to be done asap and I am not happy or feeling great at this moment.  But I won’t rush the review of Lessons in Trust by Charlie Cochrane, so there will be a slight delay in posting.   I will say that I loved this book and it sent me into paroxysms of  delight when researching the 1908 Franco British Exhibition which Orlando and Jonty attend.

See, this is one of my anticipated joys of Charlie Cochrane’s writing, she always includes  some wonderful tidbit of information or history I didn’t know about, educating me just enough to make me want to know more.  I mean really, how could you resist a 1908 ride with the name The Flip-Flap?

Here is a postcard view of the White City, the location (on 120 acres) of the Franco-British Exhibition in west London.  It was called The White City because all the exhibition buildings were  painted white. There were “villages” of various nationalities people could visit, like an Irish Village, a Senegalese Village,  Think of it like the Las Vegas strip of its day with the Luxor Pyramid, Eiffel Tower , well, you get the drift.    Here is a central view:

Franco-British_Exhibition

Then there is the marvel called The Flip-Flap ride.  Orlando, Jonty, and Mr. Stewart could get enough of this ride,  Think of the most popular rides at Busch Gardens or Six Flags, and they would not come close to the popularity and awe that was The Flip Flap .  It’s outline dominated the skyline.  Here is a post card of the ride, wouldn’t you just love for a chance to climb on?

Postcard of the Flip-Flap ride

And finally,  the age of the automobile has arrived and Jonty is full of enthusiasm for this new form of transportation.  Jonty has bought a Lagonda and loves it dearly, an affection Orlando doesn’t share.  So of course I wanted to know more about what the car looked like that drove Jonty to such heights of prose and poetry.  Off to research some more.  And I found out that the  Lagonda cars were invented by an American named Wilbur Gunn.  Wilber had two passions in life, singing and engineering and it was as an opera singer that he came to Britain.  But once there he started crafting things from fast boats to motorcycles.  In 1904 he progressed from 3 wheeled vehicles to motor cars of which  74 original models were made.  Of course, Jonty would have one of them.  The name Lagonda?  That is Shawnee for Bucks County in Ohio where Wilbur Gunn was from.  It is also the name of his father’s company, the Lagonda Corporation which made tube  cleaning machinery.  I was unable to find any photos of the model Jonty would have had but here is a  photo of a 1928 Lagonda.  So sporty and elegant I would dearly love to have one as well:

Lagonda 1928 lag 3 litre

So I hope this will give you a taste of what is to come in my review of  Lessons in Trust. Keep these images in mind when I am relating parts of the story.  It is a marvelous book so I hope you won’t mind the wait.  See you here a little later on, sore jaw not withstanding.

Author Interviews – What Does the Reader Want To Know?

I always read the author bios at the end of every book I read.  Why?  To get some understanding into the person who wrote the book I just read, hoping to get some information that tells me how that author was able to pull that fiction out of themselves and put it on the page.  It’s the same reason I read authors blogs and interviews.  More insight into the author and the process of writing a story.

When I read a Sarah Black story, I know that she is as familiar as her characters with the locations in her stories.  And if she is writing about Marines, it’s because she knows them intimately.  It is the same with Abigail Roux.  She travels to the places her characters will visit so that it is authentic right down to the streets and bars located on them.  Amy Lane knits and look at the knowledge that brought to her Knitting series, but just maybe that side passion instigated that series to begin with.  The authors pour themselves into their stories, we know that.  But how do they do it?  Do the characters whisper in their ears, fully born or do they form slowly as character bits swirl into place, one at a time.  How is a location chosen and why?

But RJ Scott lives in England and she has a wonderful feeling for locations she has never traveled to. And Charlie Cochrane?  Well, needless to say, I don’t think she has promenaded down a street in 1900’s Cambridge lately but you would never know it from the Cambridge Fellows Mysteries series.  In those books, England in the 1900’s seems as fresh as present day.  So how do they do it?  Research obviously but in such a way that it feels real and true instead of a visit to a library.  Do they visit museums?  Bribe their way into the inventories so they can touch and feel the clothes and artifacts of the era they are writing about? Hmmm, Charlie Cochrane, do you have a hidden list of  museum back entrances and docents able to do your bidding? Hmmmmm……

Characterizations will either make or break a story.  You can be a marvelous world builder and create a new universe or world full of inventive and wonderous minituae.  But if it is then filled with one dimensional characters who all talk and act alike, then your story will lie lifeless on the floor. Characters are the heart and passion of any story, regardless of whether they are human, alien, or something totally different. And it’s the manner in which each author creates the people in their stories that fascinates me.  An upcoming author interview with Sarah Black will talk about her process in building her characters.  I am sure each author has their own methods to make their creations so believable that  we lose ourselves in their lives and stories.  I want to know how, how do they bring these beings to life with such force that I still think about them months, perhaps years later.

So, tell me what questions you would ask these or any authors if you had the chance.  Is it about world building or characters or both?  Do you want to know what a character reads or what bars they visit?  How doe they chose what they name their characters? Does it help define the person when you know what music they listen to?  I know it does for me.

So gather your thoughts and send me your questions.  I will add them to mine in time for the next author spotlight.  I am hoping you will be there when the next author spotlight rolls out.

Review: Lessons In Seduction (Cambridge Fellows #6) by Charlie Cochrane

Rating: 4.25 stars

Lessons In Seduction cover1907 England.  Lady Jennifer Johnson, former mistress to the King of England, had been found dead in a fashionable hotel and already the whispers have started as to the cause of death.  The King wants answers and who better to investigate than the increasingly famous sleuths, Drs. Coppersmith and Stewart.  The need to proceed with utmost care for protocol and subtlety, Jonty and Orlando decide that some  undercover work is  required.  The hotel where Lady Johnson died has a group of professional dancers on call to dance with the hotel’s guests and give dance lessons. Given Jonty’s famous family and his easy access to many of the people they will need to question, it is decided that Orlando will go undercover as a dance partner, while Jonty and his father check into the hotel under their real names to pursue the investigation with assistance from the local constabulary.

The clues as to her death are hard to find, and as the investigation drags on, Jonty and Orlando are finding it hard to be apart.  But then anonymous letters are slipped under Jonty’s door, warning them away from the case or suffer the consequences.  When a second body is found, Jonty and Orlando must face the idea that their investigation has caused a second murder and hasten to find the person responsible before more people die and their relationship exposed.

With Lessons in Seduction,  Cochrane gives our boys from Cambridge a little bit of a breather from the angst of the last book.  Here she sets them down with a puzzling mystery to solve – the case of the King’s mistress, or one of them at least.  The Lady Jennfier Johnson was an agreeable, lovely woman, far different from his other more well known mistress Lily Langtry *, and the King was very fond of her as is mostly everyone Jonty and Orlando talk to.  I love all the little minutiae Charlie  Cochrane adds to her stories. It’s that additional bit of depth and layering that brings the era her stories vividly to life.  We see society going about its business at every level, from dowager duchess to paid companion and it is just a delight to be able to settle down and watch Jonty and Orlando prove their mettle as sleuths even as we eavesdrop in on their relationship.

Charlie Cochrane’s dialog is just amazing.  It flows so naturally from character to character, rippling from frothy conversations to confessions of the heart with such ease that it is just astounding.  Sometimes as Jonty and Orlando banter back and forth, I hear the echoes of The Thin Man most lighthearted couple, Nick and Nora Charles (yes, yes, I know, different eras).  The conversation is witty, lighthearted, downright frivolous and yet still the love and affection each man feels for the other is inescapable.

Here is an example:

He turned Orlando’s face towards his own. “This face, the Jonty Stewart fizzog, it’s a case of once seen never forgotten, isn’t it?

Orlando looked at his lover’s fine profile as if seeing it for the first time. The bright blue eyes were as stunning and unnerving as when they’d first met, the nose perfectly formed and the mouth full of promise. He snorted. “It’s a face getting too big for its own flannel if you ask me.”

It’s all captured in just a few sentences.  The terminology gives us the era and the words each man speaks tells us volumes about their relationship.  We can tell how easy they are with each other, their affection and love flowing out even as Orlando covers his emotions behind a small cut.  You know Jonty never believes it for a minute nor does Orlando expect him to.  Just lovely pin-sized portrait of their relationship and Charlie Cochrane makes it look so easy to achieve. Trust me, its not.

it’s not just colloquialisms and historical facts that make a story sing, its their mixture along with characterizations of people who seem as large as life.  That is here as well.  Miss Peters from St. Bride’s is back and her story moves forward in a startling manner I was not expecting but it is the people you meet during the investigation that stick with you as well, with their human dramas that capture you attention as much as the main mystery does.  I loved the character of Mrs. Coppersmith, Orlando’s grandmother and her revelations about Orlando’s family that explain so much about the character.  Much like the rest of this story, the revelations come gently as with the tide, rolling out over the course of an evening.

As I said earlier, the author gives Jonty and Orlando a break from any major angst producing events such as occurred in the last story.  Think of this mystery as certainly more of the relaxed armchair variety.  Even with the reported deaths, it plays out almost gently, lacking the high drama points of previous cases.  It’s as though Cochrane decided her boys needed a breather and gave them one.  Enjoy this book for what it is, a lovely mid level case and mini vacation for our Cambridge dons.  We visit a lovely vacation spot, see Orlando glide about a ballroom exquisitely clothed, while Jonty fumes and his father enjoys the picture.  It’s a wonderful moment before they return to Hyacinth Cottage and more heart wrenching times to come.

I love this series and have certainly dragged my feet as the end of the series got closer.  That’s my only excuse for not finishing this series in 2012. I just didn’t want it to end.  We have 3 more books to go.  Start piling away the tissues now for perilous times are almost upon Jonty and Orlando. Next up is Lessons in Trust (Cambridge Fellows Mysteries #7).  Stay with me and let’s finish this up together.  If this is your first introduction to our couple, go back to the beginning and see how it all starts.  You won’t be sorry either way.  Jonty and Orlando are a couple to be reckoned with, so it their creator.  I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us all next.

*Lillie Langtry, usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S

Here are the books in the series in the order they were written and should be read:

Lessons in Love, Cambridge Fellows #1 my review here.

Lessons in Desire, Cambridge Fellows #2 – read my review here

Lessons in Discovery, Cambridge Fellows #3 – read my review here

Lessons in Power, Cambridge Fellows #4 – read my review here

Lessons in Temptation, Cambridge Fellows #5

Lessons in Seduction, Cambridge Fellows #6

Lessons in Trust, Cambridge Fellows #7 – review coming

All Lessons Learned, Cambridge Fellows #8 – review coming

Lessons for Survivors, Cambridge Fellows #9 (book released from Cheyenne Publishing)

Cover:  Lovely cover by Scott Carpenter, works perfectly for the book and the series.

Dreaming of Spring while Singing the Flues Blues and the Week Ahead in Reviews

Maryland seems to have dodged another major “storm of the century” that is still leaving its impact on New England and the NE corridor from Philly to Maine is coated with the white stuff.  While those unfortunate fellows are digging out from under several feet of snow, we had to deal with wind and rain and little else.

Unless you count the flu.   Yes, that’s right, the flu. Or maybe you have the norovirus, that’s going around too.  Either way, like myself, you are probably feeling less than stellar.  I did gather all the right stuff around me as the symptoms hit. Hot tea? Check.  Loads of tissue? Check.  Blankets to huddle under?  Check. Every over the counter cold drug you could buy? Check. Reading material and knitting projects? Check.  So what is missing?  My ability to focus and stay awake.  I have no energy.  Sigh.  So while I have a schedule for this week, it might be touch and go to stay by it.  Let’s see what happens in between doctors appointments, shall we?

Here are the reviews planned:

Monday, Feb. 11:              Lessons in Seduction by Charlie Cochrane

Tuesday, Feb. 12:             Feeling His Steel by Brynn Paulin

Wed,, Feb. 13:                   Brothers in Arms by Kendall McKenna

Thurs., Feb. 14:                 Superpowered Love: Losing Better by Katey Hawthorne

Friday, Feb. 15:                 The God Hunters by Mark Reed

Saturday, Feb. 16:             Reader Questions.  If you could talk to an author, what would you ask them?

Meanwhile here is a vid making the rounds that cheered me up.  Love the reaction of the older sister.  These kids rock.