Tempest in the Tea Room - 5 stars

I enjoy reading several genres, and Tempest in the Tea Room offers a buffet in one book. This well-written historical mystery opens a window into the daily life of the Jewish community of 1811 London. Author Libi Astaire pens her story from a narrator's point of view reminiscent of classics like The Great Gatsby and uses period language that transports the reader back to London at the start of the Regency Era.

 

The cast of characters in this first book of the Jewish Regency Mystery series spans several scenarios from an orphanage to a wealthy widow's home, the synagogue, several Jewish families, an old-clothes man and a newly arrived doctor and his unmarried sister, and more. The star of the story is a wealthy-widower-turned-sleuth, Ezra Melamed, who tasks himself with figuring out who is poisoning people in the Jewish community and how they are doing it.

This book is a page-turner. One of those books you read instead of doing what needs to be done. I recommend it to people who enjoy cozy mysteries, historical fiction, or Jewish literature.

I give this book five stars because there is nothing I didn't like about it. The story is entertaining and well written. Astaire drops little breadcrumbs to build the mystery. At first, you don't recognize them as such. Then when people start to fall sick, those breadcrumbs come into question. Could it be this? It is an easy read that engages the reader.

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Some Say Love by Staci Stallings 4 stars

Some Say Love by Staci Stallings is book three in the Hope series. I did not read the first two books, but this story stands on its own. It centers on a young widow, Jenna, who lost her husband, daughter, and father when a drunk driver hit their car. She is now engaged to Scott, who has a little toddler of his own, and relational baggage following a divorce. Stallings does a fine job of weaving real-life ups and downs as this couple learns to navigate family issues, including dysfunctional relationships, as well as with the family of the deceased. The story spans a wide cast of characters with extended family, pastors, and friends. They each play a role, and I must say, Stallings does a good job of keeping them all straight. The family (all of them) have a real feel. They aren’t perfect, and jumping these relational hurdles is part of the story and growth of characters.

One large element in the story is Jenna’s grief. She has buried it for three years trying her best to move on but not dealing with it. She suffers nightmares and at times just shuts down emotionally and sleeps. She attends a grief class with her sister-in-law but just can’t bring herself to go again. Scott offers to go with her and he learns much about why Jenna is the way she is, but it doesn’t help him know what to do. Until he starts reading a little book on grief.

A couple of things I didn’t like, is that several longer passages feel quite preachy, almost as if they were taken from a book and reworded a little. The first chapter hooked me. I cared about Jenna and Scott, but then the first quarter of the book felt sluggish. The story is a good story, but I think with some editing it could be even better.

I recommend this book to people who enjoy Christian fiction and believe in the baptism of children rather than baptism as a public symbol of the profession of faith. It’s not a huge part of the story, but it is included in the plot. I'd also recommend this book for people dealing with grief.

I almost gave the book 3 stars because of the preachy patches and the sluggishness in the first part of the book, but the story is worth the read. Stallings creates characters you can care about and will miss when the story is done. So I give it 4 stars.

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Dream of Dragons (Age of Sorcers series book 8) 5 stars

Dream of Dragons is the final book in the Age of Sorcerers series by Morgan Rice. I give it five stars and applaud how she ties up every plot thread with her large cast of characters. She leaves no questions rattling around in the brain by the end of the story. 

 

 

 

Like real life, not everything goes the way one hopes as the plot takes some surprising twists. It is enjoyable to read an unpredictable story. It keeps me hungry for more. In this case, it costs a few beloved characters their lives. I will say no more because I do my best not to include spoilers in my reviews.

 

Throughout this series, Rice shows the reader how the magic in her world works, enough to understand what various characters are doing as they conjure up what they need in a given circumstance. In this final book, the lines of good versus evil are clear between those wielding these magical powers. This includes dragons, humans trying to get their hands on the amulet which can control the dragons, and three sorcerers, each with their own plan for how things should play out.

 

Watching the members of the royal family grow in their roles in this last book brought a measure of satisfaction as well as disappointment. Not a bad kind of disappointment, but the kind of disappointment we experience in real life when things don't work out the way we would like. The living out of their destinies brings with it a fantastical realism and Rice delivered one scene that really caught me by surprise near the end. 

 

Along with this, there are a few different relationships going on throughout the story, to make you hope boy-gets-girl, or girl-gets boy, and even one case where enemies might just be falling in love. In this final book, all this is resolved.

 

I recommend Dream of Dragons as well as the entire Age of Sorcerers series to fantasy readers, especially those who enjoy “clean fantasy” free of explicit sex. If you enjoy sword and sorcery fantasy, this series is a must-have for your bookshelf.

 

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