Bea Evans Books

Category: Book reviews

  • The Bachelor’s Valet by Arden Powell

    This was a lovely little read. I always enjoy when I am smiling as I finish a book.

    Time-period was a little tricky to pin down. They drove cars but people’s parents were still forcing them to get engaged. So it feels a bit like a regency romance, but obviously not.

    Also, there’s magic, but it seems either useless or so widespread that it’s just part of life.

    The point of view character is supposedly empty-headed. Usually characters like this annoy me, I think because so often it’s an excuse to renounce responsibility for themselves or their actions. This one hurt my heart a little bit because he was obviously aware of his lack and how people responded to him. He does give over the running of his life to his valet, though, but at least he seems to have found the right person to place his trust in. So he’s not a complete idiot, just very naive and, luckily for him, rich.

    He’s been ticking along until his mother forces him to get engaged to a girl. This throws his life in a tizzy, but maybe for the best as it can finally settle into the kind of life where he can be consciously happy rather than heedlessly so. 

  • Rattling Bone by Jordan L Hawk

    You’ll want to read the first book in the series, The Forgotten Dead, to get a better sense of the characters here (plus it’s spooky and worth the read). 

    In some respects, I enjoyed the second of the Outfoxing the Paranormal series a little more than the first, because the first was essentially an alternate-universe fanfic for The Magnus Archives (a podcast). Since that’s something I got into big time during the pandemic, I enjoyed it but it took a while for me to settle into Hawk’s story, which is completely original.

    I didn’t have to overcome that in this second book which follows a paranormal researcher and his boyfriend, an accountant who has a ghost hunting show with a couple of compatriots, as they go visit the boyfriend’s parents.

    While there, they dig into his family’s history with the paranormal, something his dad suppressed in his son after his mother spent the end of her life in a psychiatric facility. They uncover a family curse that strikes every 25 years… and it’s due to hit any day now.

    Exciting, but not too overwhelming. If you like Hawk’s other writing, this series fits in perfectly with the tone he sets in other series. If you like this and want more, his SPCTR series is also set in modern times, but check them all out.

  • The Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

    I am probably not the target audience here. As originally a comic series, it’s episodic, with a story developing in a longer arc. This is the first 8 comics in the series in one book. I don’t really like the art, but it’s evocative, dark and gross. The level of detail is impressive, however, and I probably missed a few things.

    The story, of the accidental imprisonment of Dream, his eventual escape, and his quest to get back his tools, makes me wonder what the rest of the series is about. “The sound of her wings” is perfect, to me, because I thought, “okay what now,” and Morpheus was at the same place.

    The other episodes are occasionally very violent and sometimes sexual. Definitely not for younger viewers, as they say. I’m sure the genre affected the storytelling. The inclusion of other DC characters was odd, to me. And, since I’m not a comic reader, I wasn’t always sure who was who. The myth and classical allusions are more my speed.

  • The Last Nanny in Manhattan by K Sterling

    Fun, modern day story about a man who needs help with his terrible triplets and the nanny best suited (or cardiganed) to take on the job.

    That’s not to mean that I didn’t actually yell while reading this one. The dad is afraid of his own kids and wants to make sure they don’t turn out awful but does absolutely nothing to make sure they don’t turn out awful. My actual (shouted) words were, “So DO SOMETHING!” Good job, author, I guess, if you were trying to get across how frustrating the situation was for the nanny walking in – risking actual life and limb – to care for a few brats.

    Okay, yes, there’s more to it than that. The guy had horrible examples growing up and, after the loss of his husband, wasn’t capable of finding his feet. Grief does weird things to us. But he’s willing to learn and the new nanny has some interesting reinforcement strategies to encourage him.

    The first in a series. Definitely some not-safe-for-triplets content, but readable and enjoyable (even with the shouting).