THE ANGEL OF HIGHGATE by Vaughn Entwistle

PUBLISHER: Titan, 12/2015

GENRE: Historical Fiction

MY RATING: 4 stars

SYNOPSIS: It is October 1859, and notorious philanderer Lord Geoffrey Thraxton cares for nothing except his own amusement. After humiliating an odious literary critic and surviving the resulting duel, he boasts of his contempt for mortality, and insults the attending physician. It is a mistake he will come to regret. When Thraxton becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman who appears to him one fog-shrouded night in Highgate Cemetery, he unwittingly provides the doctor with the perfect means to punish a man with no fear of death…

MY THOUGHTS: This was pretty interesting and never boring. I like Dr. Silas Garrette and his jars of children best of all. He's pretty unique and sadistic. I really don't see the point of main character Geoffrey's best friend Algernon being in here other than to help him fight off mobsters during one scene. I think the 'angel' Aurelia is pretty bland and found her relationship with Geoffrey to be very underdeveloped and rushed. Two kidnappings involving her were too much. I like the cast of mobsters and what a motley crew they were. The action involving them and Geffrey and Algernon was too over the top though. 

ONE DUKE DOWN by Anna Bennett

PUBLISHER: St. Martin's, 1/24/2023
GENRE: Fiction/Historical Romance
SERIES: Rogues to Lovers, book 2
MY RATING: 4 stars

SYNOPSIS: Miss Poppy Summers is determined to keep her family’s fishing business afloat. Her poor widowed father has fallen ill, and her foolhardy brother has moved to London, leaving her precious little time to read or pursue her own dreams. But she’ll do anything for her family, so she cheerfully spends mornings in her rowboat, casting her nets. The very last thing Poppy expects or wants to find tangled in them is a dangerously attractive man. Especially one with a head wound—who’s convinced he’s a duke.

Andrew Keane is the Duke of Hawking, but he’s having the devil of a time convincing his fiery-haired rescuer of that fact. The truth is he came to the seaside resort of Bellehaven Bay to escape his life in London. Unfortunately, someone in Bellehaven wants to kill him—and he intends to find out who. He implores Poppy to tend to his injuries and hide him on her beach, reasoning it will be easier to find his attacker if that man assumes Keane is already dead. She wants no part of the scheme but can’t refuse the generous sum he offers in exchange for food and shelter while he recovers. It’s a mutually beneficial business arrangement…nothing more.

Under Poppy’s care, Keane regains his strength—and a sense of purpose. As they work together to solve the puzzle of his would-be murderer, he’s dazzled by her rapier wit and adventurous spirit; she’s intrigued by his mysterious air and protective streak. Though Poppy’s past gives her every reason to mistrust someone like Keane, the seawalls around her heart crumble in the storm of their passion. But when clues hint at the prime suspect in Keane’s attempted murder, Poppy must decide where her loyalties lie. Torn between the world she’s always known and the one she’s always dreamed of, she’ll need true love for a shot at her fairytale ending.

MY THOUGHTS: This was a light read though serious topics are explored but not with any depth, like abandonment and attempted murder. The story is 330 pages and the time span is about four months. The cover is really pretty.

I really like green-eyed Keane. I don't have much to say about him other than he's really into Poppy and isn't disrespectful to her in any way. There's no friction or miscommunication between them at any time, which is something I do like in my historicals.

Poppy's your average likable twenty-three-year-old heroine who's out there getting it done, helping to financially support her brother and father, who's ailing. I like that she doesn't come from money and knows how to take care of herself.

I have to say I was very excited to unravel the mystery of who's trying to kill Keane but dang, it was lackluster, to say the least. Keane was unbelievably forgiving in that matter to those involved.

I never thought the day would come that I'd complain about too many sex scenes in a book. I've been reading historical romances for 29 years this year, since I was a teen, and I can't really tolerate them anymore and generally skim them. This story has four of them, three of which I believe are descriptive, which is too many for a non-erotic novel of only 330 pages.

Complaints: Pet peeves of mine are when hero/heroin ages aren't given, or the year. If Keane's age was given, I missed it, and the year this story began isn't mentioned. A major pet peeve of mine is when authors put modern day ways of typing into historical stories. Here are two examples of that from this novel, "Let.Go." and "You.Are.Mine." There are two typos in the book too. The heroine has auburn hair yet it's said to be 'strawberry' colored too, which is nothing at all like auburn. Also Poppy has "blue-green" eyes that were once described as being sapphire! Overall this was a decent read.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

THE GOOD SON by Todd Strasser, book vs film

PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, 1993
MY GRADE: 4 stars

SYNOPSIS: Here is the chilling story of a young boy sent to live with relatives after the death of his mother, and of his prankish cousin, who is responsible for increasingly dangerous "accidents".

MY THOUGHTS: Though I'd seen the film a few years ago I didn't realize until recently it was novelized at the time of its release. I read it since I like the film. The novel's better. I don't like Macaulay Culkin in this role at all. I think he's quite awful. Fortunately when I read it I didn't have trouble picturing someone else as Henry/Macaulay. Henry comes across as more sinister in the novel and that's another reason why novel is better than film. Since the novel is only 212 pages, it's pretty condensed, going from one incident to another. Had it been longer, with more dialogue between incidents, I think it could have been a 5-star read for me.

-There's a scene in the novel when Mark is climbing the tree where Henry is and the piece of wood he's stepping on breaks, causing Mark to dangle. He later looks at the piece of wood and sees that it had been partially cut with a saw, making it easier to break when stepped on. That part with Mark discovering what Henry had done wasn't in the film.

-Richard, Henry's dead two-year-old brother who died in the bathtub, his whale toy that he'd play with in the tub was changed to a yellow rubber duck in the film.

-Henry and Mark are playing on train tracks before Henry hurts the dog. A train's coming and Henry waits until the last minute to get off but that scene's not in the film at all.

-Later, Mark threatens Henry with a screwdriver but in the film it's changed to scissors. I think it's during that scene in the novel when Henry threatens to harm his mother but it's not really said in those words in the film.

Henry's Freddy Kruegeresque green and red jacket wasn't lost on me.