Pallas Poppies

It was refreshing that it didn’t shy away from the time and place as some cozies set the the 20’s do.

It’s light on the paranormal, you barely notice it and it doesn’t act like deus ex machina.

A bit meh. Not bad but… nothing really stood out? It was pretty mediocre, nothing new, nothing special.

The audiobook doesn’t have any recipes :(

Reading about slavery always pisses me off.

I don’t really get to know Ona and not really her world either, a very interesting character but we don’t know much about here. There’s more about the Washington's, I felt a little disappointed after reading the book. Also the title is somewhat misleading “Relentless pursuit”, he put and ad in a paper and sent a guy to look for her twice?

I don’t know… a lot of the characters felt cartoonish and the “reveal”, who could have seen that one coming, oh my god /s

Not a proper cozy for those that care about that, sex on the page and some cursing I think as well.

I was pretty bored and I didn’t care about the murder or the MC so I guess that’s bad.

There’s a little movement in the B stories but it’s too late for me and not enough. Nothing has happened in 10 books… I’m bailing.

I liked the beginning but I lost interest. It felt a little cheap to have so much focus on Jack the Ripper without it being an actual part of the plot. Why spending all that time reading the Ripper letters if it’s not needed for the story? Meh, and I'm moving on.

This is my third Freya Sampson and there’s a lot of recurring themes and ideas from her previous books, it makes you feel at home but it’s can become repetitive.

The characters are new, the town is new but it does feel like I have already read it.

I found it charming but it doesn’t read like a proper cozy mystery, cozy sure but not much on the mystery like I would expect or want.

… and the ending felt a bit rushed.

Not a lot of knowledge about the people other than watching some costume dramas. Felt like more than half of the book was the first two wives, maybe there’s more sources on them? It wasn’t a dull read and it wasn’t a thrilling one either, it was middle of the road for me.

There was an odd part towards the end… “What turned the King into the ruthless tyrant of latter years was to some extent Katherine of Aragon's stubbornness and Anne Boleyn's ambition.” Yeah, not sure we can blame them for Henry loping the heads off of women.

Not a lot of knowledge about the people other than watching some costume dramas. Felt like more than half of the book was the first two wives, maybe there’s more sources on them? It wasn’t a dull read and it wasn’t a thrilling one either, it was middle of the road for me.

There was an odd part towards the end… “What turned the King into the ruthless tyrant of latter years was to some extent Katherine of Aragon's stubbornness and Anne Boleyn's ambition.” Yeah, not sure we can blame them for Henry looping the heads off of women.

Not a lot of knowledge about the people other than watching some costume dramas. Felt like more than half of the book was the first two wives, maybe there’s more sources on them? It wasn’t a dull read and it wasn’t a thrilling one either, it was middle of the road for me.

There was an odd part towards the end… “What turned the King into the ruthless tyrant of latter years was to some extent Katherine of Aragon's stubbornness and Anne Boleyn's ambition.” Yeah, not sure we can blame them for Henry looping the heads off of women.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for the Victorian setting but it was fine. Not great but I might give another one in the series a try and see if things gets better.

Finished it and I barely remember a thing… it was like white noise.

So I’ll give it a 3 as that is neither good or bad.

All the women the MC comes across are pretty terrible and she doesn’t like any of them, she comments on their hair roots, surgery, breast etc. She hates influencer's because they have ruined journalism instead of accepting that things has change. She’s jealous and bitching and everyone is below her.

You could have kept this bad character if we understood her reasoning behind it, maybe she has been pressured into acting this way because this is how she managed to get things down back in New York, she had frenemies but no real friends etc but no. She’s too terrible and there’s not enough change or a reason for change or much of an apology at the end of the book.

Read this with no previous knowledge about Hadrian, The Wall or Roman Britain. It served it’s purpose and I’ll pick up some more books about the Romans. Or hiking The Wall, that seems like fun as well.

I was a little annoyed at the preface when talking about ramparts and fortifications, “Perhaps the attraction comes from years of television and film: American Indians charging across the plains, whooping and yelling, hurtling towards camera, loosing off arrows at the good guys safe behind the stockade…” Yes in reference to the world of movies where natives are bad and cowboys or whatever good but I hate that, make it stop.

There were some really fun ideas in here but… Haven is mad when someone doesn’t take her serious as a diver and then she forgets antifogger and to bring to change into after diving. She also has amazing sex with some guy and never a conversation, and this is real love. The historical time-line isn’t better, the love is there because the author says so. How can you make sea witches so dull? And it was set up for a modern Indiana Jones adventure but it never happens. Dull and I wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t an audiobook.