February 8 Releases

 

A Baker’s Guide to Robber Pie
By Caitlin Sangster
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (February 8, 2022)
Hardcover: 336 pages
ISBN-10: 1250793319
ISBN-13: 978-1250793317
Reading age: 9 - 12 years
Grade level: 4 - 6
 
Publisher’s Blurb:

Evie Baker is a great story-teller, an avid prankster, and a fantastic baker. And while she loves her parent’s bakery, she has no plans to stay in their small town and become stuffy or static. Evie wants to go on adventures and she knows just what she needs to do it!

With her best friend, Cecily, by her side, Evie sets off into the Old Forest to find one of the Fel, a group of crow-like magical creatures who can’t lie. She is sure her family’s irresistible raspberry tart and a carefully crafted deal will get them to take her on a magical adventure―without getting her eaten or worse. But the forest hides many dangers and when they finally find their Fel, they also discover a nest of robbers!

Having seen the Robber Lord’s face, Evie is whisked away into hiding for her own protection. But even in the queen’s own city, trouble has a way of finding her…

 My Thoughts:

Like The Ghoul of Windydown Vale, which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago, this is another winning middle-grade mystery. Evie is a spunky character, and her mystery-solving sometimes misses the mark, but in the end, she is able to sort it all out, make friends, and pretty much save the kingdom.

 There are a couple of big reveals here, and they are carefully telegraphed—visible if you’re looking, but Evie’s discovery of these truths is nonetheless satisfying.

 There are some important lessons here, particularly about how important home really is to her, and how you can’t always believe what the stories say about people. She is able to make new friends while keeping her best friend—always a nice thing when one’s circle expands.

 I’ve read Sangster’s YA trilogy, and this middle-grade venture shows that she is able to write at multiple levels quite successfully. Her characters are strong, with their own strengths, weaknesses, and clear voices. I would definitely read more of Evie and company’s adventures!

 Possible Objectionable Material:

Sneaking around, peril, stealing, blackmail, lying.

 Who Might Like This Book:

Those who like mysteries, spunky heroines and faithful friends. And raspberry tarts.

 Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

 

With Love From London
By Sarah Jio
Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 8, 2022)
Paperback: 400 pages
ISBN-10: 1101885084
ISBN-13: 978-1101885086
 
Publisher’s Blurb:

When Valentina Baker was only eleven years old, her mother, Eloise, unexpectedly fled to her native London, leaving Val and her father on their own in California. Now a librarian in her thirties, fresh out of a failed marriage and still at odds with her mother’s abandonment, Val feels disenchanted with her life.

In a bittersweet twist of fate, she receives word that Eloise has died, leaving Val the deed to her mother’s Primrose Hill apartment and the Book Garden, the storied bookshop she opened almost two decades prior. Though the news is devastating, Val jumps at the chance for a new beginning and jets across the Atlantic, hoping to learn who her mother truly was while mourning the relationship they never had.

As Val begins to piece together Eloise’s life in the U.K., she finds herself falling in love with the pastel-colored third-floor flat and the cozy, treasure-filled bookshop, soon realizing that her mother’s life was much more complicated than she ever imagined. When Val stumbles across a series of intriguing notes left in a beloved old novel, she sets out to locate the book’s mysterious former owner, though her efforts are challenged from the start, as is the Book Garden’s future. In order to save the store from financial ruin and preserve her mother’s legacy, she must rally its eccentric staff and journey deep into her mother’s secrets. With Love from London is a story about healing and loss, revealing the emotional, relatable truths about love, family, and forgiveness.

 My Thoughts:

Very much like my previously reviewed The Fashion Orphans, this book is the story of a daughter discovering the mother she barely knew. As with the other book. Valentina’s recently deceased mother has left her a mission of sorts, and, in the process, Valentina discovers how much her mother truly cared for her.

 Told in both Valentina’s point of view and that of her mother, Eloise, the story follows both of them as they work through their troubles to find contentment in life and love. The course of love definitely does not run smooth for either of them, but Eloise’s path is particularly rocky.

 There are a lot of references to books—children’s books, literature, etc. It’s a book-lover’s delight.

 I have not read any other of Jio’s work, but definitely plan to. She creates characters with real struggles, who sometimes make mistakes, but work hard to be good people and make the best of things. Dialogue is natural. There’s a lot of wit and warmth here. The secondary characters are vibrant, real people, not just set dressing. The physical setting is also strong.

Possible Objectionable Material:

Unmarried sex. Drinking. Miscarriage. Divorce. Death.

 Who Might Like This Book:

Those who enjoy reading about difficult family dynamics. Book lovers. Those who like books where yes, there is romance, but it’s not the focus of the story.

 Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my opinion.

 

Jane and the Year Without a Summer
Jane Austen Mystery #14
By Stephanie Barron
Publisher: Soho Crime (February 8, 2022)
Hardcover: 336 pages
ISBN-10: 1641292474
ISBN-13: 978-1641292474
 
Publisher’s Blurb:

May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript—about a baronet's daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain—cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a trial of the curative waters at Cheltenham Spa, in Gloucestershire. Jane decides to use some of the profits earned from her last novel, Emma, and treat herself to a period of rest and reflection at the spa, in the company of her sister, Cassandra.
 
Cheltenham Spa hardly turns out to be the relaxing sojourn Jane and Cassandra envisaged, however. It is immediately obvious that other boarders at the guest house where the Misses Austen are staying have come to Cheltenham with stresses of their own—some of them deadly. But perhaps with Jane’s interference a terrible crime might be prevented. Set during the Year without a Summer, when the eruption of Mount Tambora in the South Pacific caused a volcanic winter that shrouded the entire planet for sixteen months, this fourteenth installment in Stephanie Barron’s critically acclaimed series brings a forgotten moment of Regency history to life.

 My Thoughts:

Why haven’t I read anything from this series before?!? I have been missing out!

 Seriously, Barron’s meticulous research into both Austen’s history and the history of the time and place is incredible. Especially considering that Austen’s sister destroyed most of Austen’s letters after her death.

 The book is written in a style that is very close to Austen’s own. If you are not a fan of the writing of that period, it might be a bit of rough going. It also is based very closely into Austen’s actual history, while creating fictional events and conversations. And adding a mystery as well—in this case, about a viscount’s runaway wife. As with any good mystery, just as you think you’re onto something, another surprise appears.

 As an Austen fan, I really can’t praise Barron’s work enough. Of course, the fact that this particular book takes place during the visit to Cheltenham Spa for her health, which Austen took about a year before her death, is very meaningful to me. My grandparents retired to Cheltenham, and I have been to several of the places mentioned—and even drunk the (very alkaline and nasty) waters.

 Possible Objectionable Material:

A wife runs away from her husband, who calls her his “property” in his attempts to get her back.

 Who Might Like This Book:

Austen fans. Mystery lovers. Those who love the literature and history of the era.

 Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.