July 23 - 29, 2017

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles - a story of haves and have-nots in New York City during the late '30s. A woman at an art exhibition with her husband sees the picture of an old love and spends the rest of the book reminiscing about the year she met him. The writing was lovely but I didn't like many of the characters. I'm glad I read the author's latest book first or I probably would not have after this.

3 stars
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Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane - on the first page, Rachel shoots and kills her husband. Then we explore the reasons why. Rachel seemed to be on the road to recovery from her anxiety attacks. But then she sees something that rocks her world. We don't discover what's really going on until the last  fourth of the book and then it's a fast ride from there. Rather an abrupt ending.

4 stars
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Princes at War: The Bitter Battle Inside Britain's Royal Family in the Darkest Days of WWII by Deborah Cadbury - beginning with the abdication of Edward VIII, the reluctance of George VI to take the throne and the rise of Churchill at a time when he was most needed. Not only was George VI worried about the Duke of Windsor's actions, he wasn't sure his two younger brothers would step up. Took me awhile to get into the book and figure out who all the royals were but I was glad I persevered.

3.5 stars
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In This Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear - war has just been declared when Maisie Dobbs is asked to look into the murder of a former Belgian refugee from WWI. Soon there's a similar murder and Maisie tries to make connections between the two. She has a feeling she's not getting the whole story from her client, a shadowy figure in the government. There's also a lesser mystery involving a little girl evacuated from London who is not speaking and no one knows where she belongs. Maisie does her usual job of not only finding the culprit but also why they acted as they did. All the while England is bracing for the war and families are changing rapidly. Characters and animals were introduced that I hope to see again.

4 stars