This holiday weekend and preparing for Jeremy’s next Canada trip just kicked my butt when it came to getting reviews shared. They’re all on my Instagram, but it amazes me how often I forget to update them here at the same time. Have a couple reviews to round out the month, and then I’ll have my wrap up and the June 2023 TBR will be coming this weekend!
Thanks to the mentioned publishers for any gifted copies in exchange for my honest reviews
Mini Reviews – May 2023 Part Two:
CLYTEMNESTRA – Costanza Casati (Released May 2nd, 2023 – Thanks to Sourcebooks for the gifted copy)
As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best…
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offence against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot.
But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice.
Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods’ hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did.
If power isn’t given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
A blazing novel set in the world of Ancient Greece for fans of Jennifer Saint and Natalie Haynes, this is a thrilling tale of power and prophecies, of hatred, love, and of an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt out death to those who wronged her.
Mini Review: 5/5 stars – Now, it’s been some time since I’ve read some Greek mythology, but I remember the broad strokes of certain stories. This book was mesmerizing from the very first page – the author pulls you into the story, and you feel like you’re right there alongside the characters.
Clytemnestra is the daughter of the Spartan King and sister to the infamous Helen. While there are many events that build her resentment towards her husband, Agamemnon, the one that begins her plot against him is when he sacrifices their daughter for fair winds at the start of the war.
The author’s knowledge of Greek mythology is astounding and so apparent because of the rich detail and ability to transport the reader back to Sparta. I loved this book more than I thought I would, and I’m amazed that this is a debut novel! I’m in need of some more retellings of mythology because this had me hooked from the beginning.
THE PARIS DECEPTION – Bryn Turnbull (Released May 30th, 2023 – Thanks to Kaye Publicity and MIRA Books for the gifted copy)
From internationally bestselling author Bryn Turnbull comes a breathtaking novel about art theft and forgery in Nazi-occupied Paris, and two brave women who risk their lives rescuing looted masterpieces from Nazi destruction.
Sophie Dix fled Stuttgart with her brother as the Nazi regime gained power in Germany. Now, with her brother gone and her adopted home city of Paris conquered by the Reich, Sophie reluctantly accepts a position restoring damaged art at the Jeu de Paume museum under the supervision of the ERR—a German art commission using the museum as a repository for art they’ve looted from Jewish families.
Fabienne Brandt was a rising star in the Parisian bohemian arts movement until the Nazis put a stop to so-called “degenerate” modern art. Still mourning the loss of her firebrand husband, she’s resolved to muddle her way through the occupation in whatever way she can—until her estranged sister-in-law, Sophie, arrives at her door with a stolen painting in hand.
Soon the two women embark upon a plan to save Paris’s “degenerates,” working beneath the noses of Germany’s top art connoisseurs to replace the paintings in the Jeu de Paume with skillful forgeries—but how long can Sophie and Fabienne sustain their masterful illusion?
Mini Review: 5/5 stars – A mix of real and fictional characters always makes for incredibly immersive reading when it comes to historical fiction. I also learned a lot about the government-sanctioned destruction of, what was then considered, degenerate art in Berlin outside the Reichstag in March 1938. I read a lot of historical fiction and, wow. This one blew me away from the very beginning. Not only are the characters memorable and come to life, but the stakes are high, the suspense is consuming and the fear of being caught, and the atmosphere is set so precisely that it feels real. I am already going back to find more from Turnbull and I highly recommend this to fans of historical fiction and art!
HIDEOUT – Jack Heath
A tense, unputdownable thriller from the author of Hangman.
Timothy Blake has nothing to lose. He’s headed to an isolated house in rural Texas with a hammer in his pocket and murder on his mind. His target is Fred, the ringleader of a criminal empire on the dark web. Once Fred is gone, Blake can disappear for good.
But it turns out that Fred isn’t alone. Five other psychopaths live in the house. They work together and call themselves the Guards. Torture, extortion and death are their business. Blake manages to convince them that he’s one of their online associates. Soon they think he’s a monster, like them. They’re not wrong.
Blake decides to pick them off one by one. But when a Guard is found with a bullet in his skull, Blake realises that someone else in the house may have the same idea – and he might be their next target.
Meanwhile, who are the desperate people chained up in the building behind the house? One of them will change everything . . .
A bloody, twisted roller-coaster of dark action and suspense from the acclaimed bestselling author of Hangman.
Mini Review: 5/5 stars – My favorite cannibal is back! There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say. This was in my last Book Depository order and I’m so mad I waited so long to get it.
Book three and just as good as the first two! This has been a solid and suspenseful series from the very beginning. I love the riddles at the beginning of each chapter (I feel like I got most of them right). I wasn’t sure how this could get better from how Just One Bite ended but, wow. Fred and each of the Guards were somehow worse than the next and I was anxious to see how Blake was getting out of the mess. I was not disappointed and now I need to figure out how to get the next book! Thank you for another thrilling installment, Jack Heath!
Jessicamap Reviews 