Book Review: A Magic Deep & Drowning

A Magic Deep & Drowning by Hester Fox ~ 352 pages ~ published 6/24/2025 by Graydon House

Goodreads Synopsis:

Set in the waning days of the Dutch Golden Age, this enchanting, lush reimagining of The Little Mermaid is perfect for fans of Jesse Burton’s The Miniaturist and Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar.

The Dutch Republic, 1650. One fine spring day in Friesland, twenty-year-old Clara van Wieren is faced with an ill omen: a whale, beached and rotting in the noonday sun. But Clara doesn’t believe in magic and superstition, and this portent is quickly dismissed when a proposal from a wealthy merchant arrives, promising Clara the freedom she seeks from her mother’s overbearing rule.

When her attempts at overseeing the household at the family’s estate lead to her chance encounter with a young man with russet hair and sparkling eyes the color of the sea, she finds herself strangely drawn to him. As Clara grows closer to Maurits, she must choose between the steady, gentle life she has been raised for and the man who makes her blood sing.

But Maurits isn’t who he seems to be, and his secrets, once hidden beneath the waves, threaten to rise up and drown them both. And when an ancient bargain, forged in blood between the mythical people of the sea and the rulers of the land, begins to unravel, Clara finds herself at the heart of a deadly struggle for power.


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Book Review: The Rushworth Family Plot

The Rushworth Family Plot (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney, #4) by Claudia Gray ~ 336 pages ~ published on 6/17/2025 by Vintage

Goodreads Synopsis:

The fourth book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery series, which finds the amateur sleuths caught up in the whirlwind of the London Season—and in a murderous scheme involving the family of Edmund and Fanny Bertram

Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney understand each other perfectly; it’s a pity their families do not. A series of misunderstandings, misplaced pride, and—indeed—prejudice, has led their parents to deem the pair unsuited to wed. Now, with the Season approaching, Juliet’s grandfather, General Tilney, has sent her to London with a new wardrobe and orders to prove herself worthy of someone better than the snobby Darcys. Meanwhile, Jonathan has been forced to accept an invitation to stay in town with old friends Edmund and Fanny Bertram at the house of Edmund’s brother, Sir Thomas. Oblivious to and undesiring of female attention outside of Juliet’s, Jonathan is at risk of being ensnared by Caroline Bingley’s previously rebuffed plans to make herself—or her daughter—mistress of Pemberley.

But when Mr. Rushworth, the former husband of Edmund’s sister Maria, is discovered dead in his home, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market. In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her new husband in favor of the notorious rake Henry Crawford, and when he wouldn’t marry her, was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace. Now Maria is back, accompanied by a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce—and who he wrote into his will just before his death. To spare Edmund and Fanny further social shame, Jonathan and Juliet must unmask a killer before the drama surrounding the Rushworth family fortune claims another victim.


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Book Review: Golden Dreams Nashville Years

Golden Dreams Nashville Years by Kaye Golden Wright ~ 145 pages ~ self published on April 22, 2024

Amazon Synopsis:

Kaye Golden Wright, known professionally as Kaye Golden, was born at the right time and in the right place, Nashville. Music was in the air, and she grew up singing and playing from the age of three in a very musical family. Kaye’s a straight shooter and pulls no punches in telling her story. Her music career included background singing on sessions, recording her own singles, the Grand Ole Opry, a rock and roll tour with Jerry Lee Lewis, singing with big bands, live radio and television shows and entertaining in numerous venues and clubs in the Nashville area. She performed alongside and was friends with a who’s who of performers: Jerry Lee Lewis, Roger Miller, Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Brenda Lee, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, Doc Severinsen, Loretta Lynn, the Bee Gees, Dinah Shore, Larry Gatlin, Jim Reeves, Conway Twitty, Jimmy Dean, Dottie West, Tommy Overstreet, Minnie Pearl, Grandpa Jones, the Anita Kerr Singers, the Jordanaires, Jerry Byrd and others. After performing for 30 years, she changed course and used her musical talent and experience to become a well-respected and in demand vocal and performance coach in the Dallas, Texas, area. In this autobiography, Kaye traces the path she took through the early Nashville music world and her journey to Texas to continue her life in music and improve the lives of countless students.


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Book Review: Kill Her Twice

Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee ~ 400 pages ~ published on April 23, 2024 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Goodreads Synopsis:

Los Angeles, 1932: Lulu Wong, star of the silver screen and the pride of Chinatown, has a face known to practically anyone, especially to the Chow sisters—May, Gemma, and Peony—Lulu’s former classmates and neighbors. So the girls instantly know it’s Lulu whose body they discover one morning in an out-of-the-way stable, far from the Beverly Hills mansion where she moved once her fame skyrocketed.

The sisters suspect Lulu’s death is the result of foul play, but the LAPD—known for being corrupt to the core—doesn’t seem motivated to investigate. Even worse, there are signs that point to the possibility of a police cover-up, and powerful forces in the city want to frame the killing as evidence that Chinatown is a den of iniquity and crime, even more reason it should be demolished to make room for the construction of a new railway depot, Union Station.

Worried that neither the police nor the papers will treat a Chinese girl fairly—no matter how famous and wealthy—the sisters set out to solve their friend’s murder themselves, and maybe save their neighborhood in the bargain. But with Lulu’s killer still on the loose, the girls’ investigation just might put them square in the crosshairs of a coldblooded murderer.


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Mini Reviews: Second half of January 2024

I have had a good start to the year, reading 11 books in January. Here are my thoughts on the books that I have read in the second half of the month of January!


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Mini Reviews: January 1-19, 2024

I have had a good start to the year, reading 7 books so far. Here are my thoughts on the books that I have read thus far during the month of January!


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