Lady Helena Investigates

I enjoy discovering new series to read, and think I’ve run across a good one.  Unfortunately, only the first book has been published, but I’m hoping for more.

A young widow in Victorian England is confronted with the untimely death of her husband and a French doctor who is convinced the death was no accident.  Lady Helena has a meddling family and a tragic history in love, but also possesses a stubborn independence that leads her to investigate her family history.  The sixth of seven children, Helena has the unfortunate nickname “Baby”, and is frequently treated as such by her much older siblings.  Helena realizes that, due to her age, she knows little about her parents (her father died when she was 19 and her mother has been slipping into dementia since his death).  As a widow in mourning, her social options are limited, and she begins reading her mother’s journals to re-kindle an interest in herbology and to discover her mother.  Of course, some things are better left in the past.

This is a well-written book with engaging characters (though perhaps Helena didn’t need quite so many older siblings).  I look forward to the promised future books in the series.

I received access to this book from NetGalley.

How To Be a Scientist

As I’ve come to expect from all books from DK, this is an engaging and useful title.

The book begins with a “Thinking like a scientist” page that highlights 7 key attributes. I was pleased to see that “scientists share their ideas”. Good science is based on discussion, argumentation, and consensus, and being able to communicate and work with others is important. I agree with all of the tips and it was nice to see a book emphasize that scientists are creative and not afraid to look for contradictions.

The book covers a range of topics in biology, chemistry, and physics with ample illustrations and instructions for inquiry. The activities use common materials and help emphasize that science is all around us everyday. This book is perfect for my first-grade daughter who loves science, and would be appreciated in any K-3 classroom.

I received a copy to review from NetGalley.

The Island of the Mad

I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell (and of Mary’s biographer, Laurie King), but was disappointed in the last episode (The Murder of Mary Russell), which seemed to me to be very dark. I’m happy to say that the joy has returned in the latest adventure The Island of the Mad.

I received access to a copy from NetGalley on Monday, and finished reading it on Tuesday (luckily for me that I was on spring break and had no pressing obligations that I was ignoring). This is clearly Mary’s investigation and story as Sherlock plays only a supporting role. It was interesting to see some cracks in his stoic facade as he wonders if Mary had any regrets about their marriage.

While the mystery seemed somewhat contrived (and I quickly, unlike Mary, deduced the reason behind Lady Vivian’s madness), I enjoyed the story and the details of Venice during the onset of facism. All in all, a great addition to the Mary Russell canon, and I recommend “The Island of the Mad”.

Dare You Twice

I received a copy of Dare You Twice as an ebook from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers.

I had read the first book in this series (I Dare You) back in November 2016, also as part of the Early Reviewers program.  The first book was rough in patches, but not horrible.  I quite liked the heroine, Kate Blackmore, and the concept of the book, and finished that 2016 review with “I’m likely to read a “Book 2″ if it comes out.”

The cliche is “be careful what you wish for”…  Well, Book 2 came out and I picked up a copy of “Dare You Twice” from Early Reviewers. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the sequel. I like Kate Blackmore as the protagonist, but the book itself was disjointed and was all over the map; we start in Canada, dash off to the UK (while Scott heads to the Middle East) and then Kate’s off to Paris. There are at least three separate stories but I felt that justice wasn’t done to any of then.  Frankly, I was not that interested in the Scott/Joe military escapades, and would have been happy to follow clues with Kate.

In my opinion, not bad to pick up if you want some fluff reading (and I note that both books are available on Kindle Unlimited).