Recommendations from Karin for August 2015.

In order to bring some more variety to my blog, I have asked some of my bookish friends to tell about the books they have in the past month, and to give us a recommendation. Today’s post is made by Karin from Austria.

This post is much too late, my apologies for that, as I completely forgot to schedule it! Karin was on time ;)

Karin:

Again a month full of joyful reading – thanks to Aurian I discovered my love for cozy mysteries a while back and now I have found two series that I would like to recommend to you:

The first one is by Dawn Eastman:

Pall in the family and



Be Careful what you Witch for




There is a third book in this series out already but I haven’t read that yet. This series is just what I enjoyed for a light summer reading. The heroine and the supporting characters of her family are delightful. I even guessed who the culprit was in the second book but I didn’t mind that. These books have such funny scenes that I found myself laughing out loud several times. They are relatively light on the romance side but the hero is what you could wish for: handsome, strong and protective. Highly recommended!!

The second series of cozy mysteries is by Laura Morrigan:

Woof at the Door



A Tiger’s Tale



This series too is delightful although the heroine is not as likeable as the other one. She is like Dr Doolittle – she understands and communicates with animals. Mind you: it’s not the wham bam humour of a Hollywood movie. It’s done very tasteful. The animals in the books are more loveable than the humans. This series as well as the first one are written in the first person which is something I don’t really appreciate – I like to read from multiple points of view. Still, if you feel like it – give that series a try.

Next I would recommend a writer who I would call the godmother of all historical romances.
I discovered Georgette Heyer when I was in my teens (and no, I won’t tell you how long ago that was). I read her books in German then of course and I have to warn you – they are no easy reads in English. The reason for my warning: Heyer stuck close to the speaking patterns of these days.
These books are very different to what we are used to reading in historical romances these days. Of course you recognize the subtle courtship, but the most you get is a kiss at the end of the book. But the whole journey of getting to that one kiss is such fun to read, the supporting characters mostly show Heyer’s trademark of humor, there are mysteries, villains – in short everything you could ask for.
I love books like: “The Grand Sophy”, “Venetia”, “Frederica” “A Civil Contract” “The Reluctant Widow” – I could go on and on. So, if you feel up to the challenge of reading them in English, give those books a try. (Or you might even try them in your native language. The German translations were really good!!)

This is about it for this month. I hope you find a lot of good books to read!



Aurian: Thanks for the recommendation Karin! I would love to read that first series especially, love the covers! That is always the first thing to catch my attention, a gorgeous cover. And of course I have read Georgette Heyer! I still have dozens of her books both in Dutch and in English in my attic, and re-read them occasionally. The Grand Sophy is my absolute favourite though.
How about you, reader? Have you read anything by this Grand Dame of Romance? Which one is your favourite?

© 2015 Reviews by Aurian