Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

 

Violet Sorrengail grew up believing that she would serve the kingdom as a scribe as her father had.  But her mother is a General and head of the Rider Academy and she forces Violet into the applicants for riders.  The Academy is where riders are chosen by their dragons for life and learn to ride and fight.  Violet is small and has an illness that makes her bones easy to snap and her muscles to part and strain.  She doesn't expect that she'll survive but she has to.  Her brother Brennan was a rider and he died in battle, tearing their family apart.  Her sister Mira is also a rider and in constant danger.  Another loss is unbearable.

Violet passes the first test and discovers both good and bad news.  The good news is that her best friend is her squad leader.  The bad news is that her wingleader is Xaden Riorson, the most ruthless leader in the force and a sworn enemy of her family.  His parents had been the leaders of a rebellion and all the adults in the rebellion had been executed as their children watched.  The children were bound to the rider academy.  There are a hundred ways an enemy as a leader could make sure Violet doesn't survive and the intense looks he gives her makes her sure that he is counting them.

To everyone's shock, Violet is chosen by the most powerful dragon in the force and then chosen again by another dragon.  No rider has ever done this and it marks her as someone to watch.  Violet constantly trains and makes adaptions to survive.  Her best friend becomes less of one as he constantly tries to shelter her and keep her weak in order to survive.  She needs someone to push her and to her shock she finds it in Xaden.  They are now tied together for life because their dragons are mates.  Violet hates to admit it but she starts having feelings for Xaden and she thinks he has the same for her.  Can they have a love in such an environment?

This book took the fantasy world by storm.  Before this, she was known as a romance writer and that shows through in the love scenes.  But she also has a lifelong love of the military and that is also obvious.  This is the start of a great fantasy series that has already been optioned for a tv series.  Violet is a wonderful character to serve as a model for young women and Xaden is every woman's dream.  This book is recommended for fantasy and romance readers.  

The Last Party by Clare Macintosh

 

When Rhys Lloyd is murdered the night of his New Year's party, there is no shortage of suspects.  Rhys had been a local Welsh boy who won a singing contest and made it big.  When his father died, his will gave Rhys his land and Rhys leveraged it into a high end development of vacation homes.  The local townspeople are not happy with that.  Rhys is also a bully and a philander.  He has cheated routinely on his wife and isn't above a little force if a woman or girl isn't willing.  

He's also a rogue in business.  He owes the local contractor for his work and his plans for a water sports center will put another out of business.  He lies to his partner about their financial position and spends company funds on his personal debts.  

Since the development is on the border between Wales and England, two police forces are assigned.  Leo is the English DI.  He is divorced and his ex wife is keeping his young son from him.  The Welsh police are represented by Ffion Morgan.  She grew up in the village and knows everyone there.  This case could uncover her biggest secret and she can't have that.

Clare Mackintosh is an English author whose mystery novels have been successful from the start.  This novel is the first in the Ffion Morgan series and its Welsh policewoman is a fiercely independent woman who has secrets of her own.  The lives and motives of all the characters are revealed with just the right speed and the solution to the murder is shocking when it is finally revealed.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.   

The Boys In The Boat by Daniel James Brown

 

This is the story of the 1936 Olympics and the men who rowed for the United States and brought home the gold medal, putting another arrow in the puffed vanity of Adolph Hitler who had stage managed the entire event to make Germany look good to the world.  These were the nine men who crewed for Washington University during a time when the world was crawling out of the Great Depression.

Daniel Brown has done a masterful job of setting the stage for the climatic race which is the book's focus.  He gives the backstories of the coaches, the English man who came to America and revolutionized the construction of the racing shells.  Washington's greatest rival was the University of California and we hear about this rivalry and how the coaches tried to outdo each other.

But it is mainly the story of the men who rowed.  Chief among them is Joe Rantz who exemplified the stories of the others.  Joe grew up poor, his father unemployed due to the Depression.  His mother died young and when Joe's father remarried, his stepmother didn't care for him, especially once her own children came along.  At age eight, she forced his father to put him out.  Joe was given a spot on the schoolhouse floor to sleep but had to cut firewood and keep the building maintained.  In order to eat, he ate with the miners of the town but had to work in the kitchen.  But he persevered.  He was taken back home for a while, but when the family moved, Joe was once again left behind to make his own way, his stepbrothers and sisters torn away.  He learned to rely on no one, to make his own way in the world.  Unfortunately, that is the exact opposite of what is required in rowing where each man must subsume himself to the group effort.  Joe and the other men learned this lesson and were considered the best rowing team ever seen.

In Berlin, Hitler and his group organizers tried to fix the race.  There were six lanes in the race.  The three inside lanes were calm and easier to row in while the outside lanes were difficult, facing the winds and waves of the lake.  Germany was given the prize position of the first lane, their ally Italy the second and the Swiss third.  The two favorites coming into the race, Great Britain and the United States were given the outside lanes with the United States being assigned the worst lane.  The man who set the stroke for the boat was ill and had collapsed two days before.  But the crew managed to pull together and win the gold.

Daniel James Brown is an American author who specializes in writing nonfiction about historical events.  His research is meticulous and he gives enough background for the reader to emphasize with the subjects of the book without becoming overwhelming.  I read his book earlier about the Donner Party and years later still remember that harrowing event through his research.  Here, once again, he brings this event to life with vivid outlines of the lives of those involved while he sets the historical events of the world in place as the background.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.  

Close To Death by Anthony Horowitz

 

When Anthony Horowitz talks with his agent, she reminds him that he is due to turn in a book by Christmas.  He doesn't have anything in progress and his agent suggests that he write up one of Hawthorne's, the private detective he partners with, old cases when Hawthorne was working with his old partner who Horowitz has always been curious about.

Hawthorne, of course, hates the idea but gives in.  He dumps case files and recordings on Horowitz and leaves him to it.  The case took place in an upscale community called Riverside Close.  It has only a few houses so when the latest resident, Giles Kentworthy, is found dead the suspects are limited.  Kentworthy and his family had moved in a few months before and no one cared for him.  He blared his music, his kids were terrors and his parking blocked the other residents.  It was suspected he was a racist.  Worst of all, if anyone talked to him, he blew them off.

The suspects include two elderly women who had been nuns before coming to Riverside, a GP, a dentist, a retired barrister and a chess grandmaster.  Most of these had spouses although some had lost their mates as they are all getting older.  The superintendent in charge goes for the most likely suspect as there is another death with a locked room plot and it appears that this was the culprit.  Horowitz had come in and solved the murder but wasn't pleased with the result.

Anthony Horowitz is an English author who has been successful in several genres.  He is best known for his mysteries and has several series that are ongoing there.  He was the screenwriter for the respected TV series, Foyle's War and is also a successful children's author.  In this series, he makes fun of himself as a bumbling sidekick and the reader knows as little about Hawthorne as Horowitz has managed to learn.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.  

The Glovemaker by Ann Weisgarber

 

Deborah and her husband Samuel live in Junction, Utah in the late 1800's.  The first settler there was Samuel's stepbrother, Nels, who came there after his wife and child died in childbirth.  Later, other families came including Deborah's sister.  At the time of this novel, there were eight families there.  All are Latter Day Saints but one of the draws to Junction is that they have a step back from the authority of the Church and can make their own way more.

Each fall, Samuel goes away for several months to outlying towns.  He is a wheelwright and there is no other in a hundred miles.  This year, he hasn't returned on time but Nels and another man searched for him and found a rockslide that would have made him turn around and find a longer way home.  But it means that Deborah is by herself when the man comes.

Only one family in Junction practices multiple marriage, but the authorities suspect them all.  Men come there to be guided to a refuge where they can live the life they choose.  But rarely does a man come in January with snow blowing.  He knocks on Deborah's door and she feeds him but there is something about him she doesn't trust.  She knows Nels will guide him the next day and she agrees to shelter the man in her barn that night.  He eventually tells her that there is a marshal and his men chasing him which increases her worry.

The next day Nels sets off with the man, barely before the marshal arrives.  The man is belligerent and insists Deborah is lying and breaking the law.  He searches around the settlement and Nels and the man have returned due to the weather.  Somehow, the marshal is injured and the entire settlement is in jeopardy.

This was an interesting historical fiction based on truth.  The orchards of Junction are now within a national park and visitors are encouraged to pick the fruit when they visit.  The extensive research into live in the 1880's and the Mormon religion is particular is evident.  Deborah's love language is making gloves for those she loves.  Her courage in the absence of her husband and her determination to shelter the other inhabitants of Junction are stirring.  This book is recommended for historical fiction readers.   

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

 Ten years ago Amina al-Sirafi was known far and wide as a pirate queen, a woman who went after what she wanted whether it was treasures, men or just the thill of exploring a new place.  But now she is forty and has been away from the sea for a decade.  She is now a mother and lives quietly with her mother and daughter.  Then a visitor arrives.

It is the mother of one of Amina's former crew, a man who did not make it home from their last voyage.  The woman reports her granddaughter has been kidnapped by a wizard and wants to hire Amina to find her and return her.  Amina demurs but the woman insists Amina owes her and her son and offers her a fortune to take on the job.  Reluctantly, Amina agrees.

She gathers up her former crew, her first mate who has been taking care of the ship, a woman known for her skill with poisons, the best navigator in the world and her crew.  She also encounters her husband, a man she married before she realized he was a demon instead of a human.  They set sail and discover that the wizard is looking for a specific treasure and is willing to do anything to attain it.  He has managed to enthrall a sea monster twice the size of a ship and it does his bidding.  Can Amina find the girl and defeat the wizard?

Shannon Chakraborty is known for her fantasy novels.  Her fantasies are a bit different from the norm as she doesn't build an imagined world.  Instead she uses her extensive research into history to set her stories in a true setting.  The characters are enticing and Amina is the middle-aged heroine all women will love.   The loyalty and family feeling among the crew is heartfelt and Chakraborty has set the scene for further adventures from Amina and her crew.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.