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Review Date: 5/27/2011
Very well written book; hauntingly beautiful.
Review Date: 11/3/2020
This is a fun read. And it does have interesting people in it, and a very good mystery to solve. My only gripe is that the author didn't do enough research on mushroom poisoning. The victim dies shortly after eating a destroying angel mushroom sneaked into his food. However, it takes 2-3 hours for a destroying angel to take effect in a person, after it gets into the small intestine and the body starts to digest it.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/8-most-poisonous-types-of-mushrooms.html#:~:text=Image%20credit%3A%20Jolanda%20Aalbers%2FShutterstock.com.%20About%2030%20wild%20species,high%20levels%20of%20amatoxins%20that%20cause%20fatal%20mycetism.
Picky, I know. But overall, it was a good read and interesting mystery.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/8-most-poisonous-types-of-mushrooms.html#:~:text=Image%20credit%3A%20Jolanda%20Aalbers%2FShutterstock.com.%20About%2030%20wild%20species,high%20levels%20of%20amatoxins%20that%20cause%20fatal%20mycetism.
Picky, I know. But overall, it was a good read and interesting mystery.
The Earl's Mistletoe Bride (Harlequin Historical, No 1018)
Author:
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
15
Author:
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
15
Review Date: 5/27/2011
Fairly well written book; it held my interest.
Review Date: 5/3/2010
This book is hilarious. Viets is a very funny, infectious writer with a way with words. All her secret shopping books make for an enjoyable, cozy read. My favorite line from one of her books is when she goes secret shopping at one of those huge discount stores. Her cart gets stuck in something gooey on the floor and try as she might, shc can't get it loose. She wrote that it was stuck "like a mastadon in the LaBreya Tarpits." (Not sure how that is spelled, so forgive me, if it's wrong)
Review Date: 12/15/2014
This is a highly entertaining Regency Christmas romp. The characters are all memorable, especially the old "beldame" Bertha. This book is as funny as any written by Barbara Metzger. The plot, though wildly improbable, is a lot of fun and keeps one reading.
A couple of quibbles, though....the book has a couple of anachronistic errors in it. It mentions Christmas trees, which were not used as Christmas decorations in Regency England and didn't really come to England until Queen Victoria's time, after she married Prince Albert, who was German and who brought the custom to England. The book also mentions hansom cabs--but the man after whom the cabs were named wasn't born until around 1808--unless he was extremely precocious and invented the cab type when he was 7 years old. During the Regency period, hackney cabs were used.
Another quibble is faulty proofreading. Twice I saw "wined" when it should have been "whined" as "the dogs whined." (Now,I suppose someone will scour this review for spelling errors. I admit there may be a few as my computer keys stick a bit).
Another quibble is that the 17-year old heroine, Carin, takes in a foundling baby not old enough even to crawl--yet there isn't a wet nurse in sight. Bertha is a nurse, in that she cares for the baby, but she is hardly able to feed it, as she is an old woman. As near as I can tell, the baby lives on air! Then, in the last two penultimate chapters, after the Marquise loses nearly all his servants the babe Joy disappears from the book while all the main characters are involved in their problems and such, and doesn't reappear until the last chapter. Who took care of her while all of the other stuff was going on and the servants were nearly all gone?
Still, the book is a fun romp with well-developed, 3 dimensional characters. I highly recommend it.
A couple of quibbles, though....the book has a couple of anachronistic errors in it. It mentions Christmas trees, which were not used as Christmas decorations in Regency England and didn't really come to England until Queen Victoria's time, after she married Prince Albert, who was German and who brought the custom to England. The book also mentions hansom cabs--but the man after whom the cabs were named wasn't born until around 1808--unless he was extremely precocious and invented the cab type when he was 7 years old. During the Regency period, hackney cabs were used.
Another quibble is faulty proofreading. Twice I saw "wined" when it should have been "whined" as "the dogs whined." (Now,I suppose someone will scour this review for spelling errors. I admit there may be a few as my computer keys stick a bit).
Another quibble is that the 17-year old heroine, Carin, takes in a foundling baby not old enough even to crawl--yet there isn't a wet nurse in sight. Bertha is a nurse, in that she cares for the baby, but she is hardly able to feed it, as she is an old woman. As near as I can tell, the baby lives on air! Then, in the last two penultimate chapters, after the Marquise loses nearly all his servants the babe Joy disappears from the book while all the main characters are involved in their problems and such, and doesn't reappear until the last chapter. Who took care of her while all of the other stuff was going on and the servants were nearly all gone?
Still, the book is a fun romp with well-developed, 3 dimensional characters. I highly recommend it.
Review Date: 12/5/2010
Helpful Score: 1
All five of these novellas are charming and well-written. My favorite is by Carla Kelly; she infuses her writing with some warm humor--not quite as quirky as Barbara Metzger, but it still there, which is a nice change of pace. There is even the REAL meaning of Christmas in this particular story; rare among Regency Christmas novels, indeed! I recommend this book for a cozy, Christmassy read.
Review Date: 9/4/2012
Very good story; good, well-developed characters. Interesting ending.
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