Friday Book Blogging

I read a respectable number of books this week, but only one of them actually stuck in my mind. I did like Tasha Alexander's latest Lady Emily novel, Dangerous to Know, but I was more taken with the newest installment of Rhys Bowen's Molly Murphy stories, Bless the Bride. Oddly enough, both books take place near the turn of the last century, but Irish immigrant Molly lives in bustling New York City and British aristocrat Lady Emily Hargreaves is visiting bucolic Normandy, France. Both are well-written historical mysteries. And both have a difficult mother-in-law (mandatory with any spouse). However, Bless the Bride has much more fleshed-out characters overall and the descriptions of the city itself are wonderful. I found myself mentally returning over and over to the fictional Chinatown near Canal Street in Manahattan 1900.