ClareR (5584 KP) rated Lucifer’s Game in Books
Feb 15, 2022
Cordelia Olivieri’s life in Rome becomes more precarious as the Italian fascists start to identify more Italians with Jewish heritage. Cordelia’s English mother was Jewish. She has a friend in the Vatican who promises to get her on a transport to England, if she will just photograph the German plans for North Africa. This seems a simple task (or not!), as the German officer in charge of the planning for Rommel has taken over Cordelia’s hotel as his centre of operations. But Cordelia complicates things somewhat when she starts to fall in love with him.
The villains in this book are thoroughly despicable, and the ‘goodies’ are in constant danger. It’s all very nail-bitingly exciting and another great read on The Pigeonhole!
Alien Plague
Book
Dr Avery Hutton lives in good times. All of humanity now lives under the Global republic, a...
Science Fiction
The King’s Inquisitor (Stuart Monarch, #2)
Book
In The King's Inquisitor, the queen of Scotland is dead. Her almoner’s son, William Broune, has...
Historical Fiction Historical Romance Scotland Scottish
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Hazardous Duty ( Squeaky Clean Mysteries book 1) in Books
Oct 30, 2022
Kindle
Hazardous Duty ( Squeaky Clean Mysteries book 1)
By Christy Barrit
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
On her way to completing a degree in forensic science, Gabby St. Claire dropped out of school and started her own crime scene cleaning business. Now, when a routine cleaning job leads her to a murder weapon the police overlooked, she realizes that the wrong man is in jail. With the help of her neighbor, Gabby plays detective to make sure the right man is put behind bars. Guaranteed fiction!
This was a fun read. A good Nancy drew type of character with a quirky job as a crime scene cleaner. I found it an interesting read a book that didn’t take itself to seriously. I’m pretty sure I changed suspect 3 or 4 times and still didn’t get it in the end 😂!
The Housekeepers
Book
UPSTAIRS, MADAM IS PLANNING THE PARTY OF THE SEASON. DOWNSTAIRS, THE SERVANTS ARE PLOTTING THE...
Historical fiction
The Signs We Missed
Book
Thrown out by his mother, 17-year-old Luke hopes to overcome his narcotic addiction and depression...
Contemporary MM Fiction LGBTQIA+
Elizabeth of York: The Last White Rose
Book
Mother. Survivor. Queen. --- AN ENGLISH PRINCESS, BORN INTO A WAR BETWEEN TWO FAMILIES. ...
Historical fiction Tudor Medieval 16th Century England
Blood Surfer (Thunder City #1)
Book
When outlaw Hannah Quinn saves Officer Scott Grey's life, she accidentally activates his...
Science Fiction Romance
The Future
Book
The Future – as the richest people on the planet have discovered – is where the money is. The...
Speculative fiction Social media climate change
"Janet had never understood, not until she turned the thin brown pages of Dolores Wood's novel, that other girls might feel the way she did. That a world existed outside the one she'd always known."
I loved this book so incredibly much that I can't even really explain it. It was captivating and beautiful and tragic and just appealed to me on so many levels. I have always been interested in lesbian pulp fiction since doing a project on it for a Queer Studies class in college, so it was so fascinating to read about Abby's research within the pages of this novel.
Talley effortlessly weaves so many narratives within this one that it sort of leaves you breathless at times. We have Abby's narrative, Janet's narrative, and then excerpts from the book by Marian Love that Abby grows to love so much, "Women of the Twilight Realm." The parallels are really striking between Abby and Janet, as each are discovering lesbian pulp fiction in their own era and using it to grow and learn about themselves.
Even more, we see how much things have changed between the 1950s and 2017. It's horrifying to see what Janet (and the entire gay community) had to endure, and the book really serves to educate on how terrible things were then. While I knew bits and pieces about the Lavender Scare, its ties to our actual characters here really brings it home. I have to say, I just adored Janet. She seems so incredibly real, and I just fell for her and her incredible strength and bravery. I think she will remain one of my favorite characters in lesbian fiction (and all fiction) for all time.
As for Abby, I really liked her too, although in some of her sections, I was more captivated by her research than her story. Still, she presents a poignant tale of a young bisexual trying to find herself, and I appreciated the diverse set of characters with whom she surrounds herself. Abby and her friends stand in stark contrast to Janet in their sexual freedoms, but, in many ways, they aren't so different at heart.
"That was the best part of being in love. The way it set the rest of the world on mute."
I just really really loved this book. It has so much of what I love--lesbians, diverse characters, passionate and realistic storylines, well-done research, literary references and ties. Reading Janet and Abby's stories took me back to a time when I wasn't yet out and when I had first come out--when the world wasn't yet so forgiving (not that it always is, but things were pretty different even 15+ years ago). I remember how much comfort books provided me, how wonderful it was to realize I wasn't alone in the world. I love how well this book shows that fact, and how the books-within-the book are almost their own characters.
Overall, I can't recommend this one enough. It's just a beautiful, well-written story, and, to top it off, it's informative to boot. The characters are lovely, the story is amazing, and it really leaves you feeling a bit awed. Highly recommend.
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).