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Title: Rosy

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Suzanne Tyrpak

Narrator: Christy Lynn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-20-14

Publisher: Adytum

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Dreams can become nightmares. Small town girl, Sarah, hopes to find love and fame in New York City, but following her dreams leads to a downward slide into the insanity of the late 1970s: nightclubs, sex, drugs, and violence la Magic Mike.

Desperate to dig herself out of debt, Sarah becomes pole dancer, Rosy Dreams. But the more money she makes, the darker her nightmare becomes as she sinks into a world where no one can be trusted - especially the men who claim to adore her. As Sarah slips deeper into the underworld, she questions not only her dreams, but her sanity. She battles demons - imagined and real - fighting to survive the city's brutality, fighting for her dreams, and ultimately fighting for her life.

Members Reviews:

Rosy

What happens when you mix a sassy young blonde who is ripe and ready for a professional stage career in NYC, with long audition lines, continuous unemployment, mounds of bills and opportunistic male predators on the hunt for bootie at every turn?

Rosy dreams of a loving soul-mate, to share a home and family, happy and demurely tucked inside a rose colored picket fence. But as a talented erudite with a flair for drama, she would likely dance in her evocative kimono to serve her children deep fried jelly blintzes. Rather than an apron and pot holders, she'd wear tantalizing vintage gloves that erotically cover her elbows, sulking only momentarily as hot grease tinged their silk and burn mark the flawless flesh of her arms. The analogy as we discover in author Suzanne Tyrpak's latest novel, is that Rosy isn't afraid to touch the frying pan, is surprisingly shocked when it burns, yet is resilient enough to try it again.

With sexual tension at the core of Tyrpak's novels, "Rosy" a dark dance through sex, drugs and rock and roll, is no "sex -eption". Set not that long ago in America, we relate to the familiarity of it's strongly drawn-conflicted characters, penetrating urban aromas as well as to the proximity and seemingly ageless challenges faced by women seeking financial independence and pursuit of their dreams, even in a modern world.Wild Horses in Winds of Change

Another fab novel from Tyrpak!

As a fan of author Suzanne Tyrpak's other novels (both which are more historical in nature) I was pleased to discover that she writes just as well no matter the time period or sub-genre of the book.

Not every author can pull of a novel with some of the things that this one contains (violence, betrayal, sadism) without it being bleak and depressing. Tyrpak's that talented- even after reaching the novels conclusion I felt light and sated the way one does after feasting on a worthy tome.

I feel like I knew Rosy....

I probably didn't, but the character, the story, the descriptions will evoke memories for anyone who came of age in the 1970s in the NYC area. If you are too young to remember the 1970s, you'll get a glimpse of the past. As another reviewer mentioned, the next time you are in NYC, you'll be looking for Rosy.

Chapter titles: A playlist. Brillant! A soundtrack in your mind as you read.

Obviously, I loved Rosy, as I have the author's other work, and recommend it. Would love to see a sequel - what happens to Rosy? Her story is not done.

Insightful and well written

The characters really come to life, reminding me of a time not too long ago. Rosy is a coming of age story with lots of twists and bruises. VERY BELIEVABLE !

Amazing

I read this novel in 24 hours.

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Title: What to Wear to See the Pope

Author: Christine Lehner

Narrator: Tara Ochs

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-18-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Alice Fairweather, a lapsed Catholic who lives in upstate New York with her two sons and philandering husband (whom she loves to distraction), has just lost her dream job as a radio talk show hostess. When one of the family dogs suddenly becomes gravely ill, Alice opts out of a family spelunking vacation to nurse the pooch. Unexpectedly, her husbands charismatic Nicaraguan Harvard roommate, Abelardo - coffee planter, failed seminarian, and scion of an old Nicaraguan family - comes to visit as part of his quest to have his aunt canonized as the first Nicaraguan saint. Through a variety of somewhat bizarre and miraculous events, Abelardo must return home to his village before his canonization work is complete. But Alice, with time on her hands and a void to fill, adopts Abelardos mission and becomes obsessed with helping him find the path to sanctify his ancestor. Not only does she befriend Hubert, the eccentric man in charge of New Yorks hagiography club, she becomes somewhat of an expert on the various women who have achieved the distinction of sainthood, and soon finds herself on a plane destined for Nicaragua.

Abelardos quest to canonize his aunt, together with Alices quest to save her marriage, makes for a miraculous story of love, loss, and faith.

Members Reviews:

One of my favorites

The book is so good I'll lend it out, get impatient about its return and simply buy a new one! I only wish I were as witty, verbose and grammatically inclined as Lehner's characters.

This is a terrific book.

In a voice that's distinctive and marvelously quirky, the author tells tales of domestic life that dance on the edge of the absurd but resonate with essential truth. The voice is so quirky that it would be easy for it to go over the top, or become cloying, but it never does. Lehner delights not just in chasing absurdities to comic lengths, but in playing with the language -- and while it can be irritating when writers toss in fancy words, it doesn't here. She's not showing off; she's rejoicing in the richness of the language. My favorite is a tale about a knife that seems to have a malicious mind of its own, but the story of a phantom limb runs a close second. And, throughout, these odd saints keep appearing, to delightful effect.

Just literally plain fun!

This writer has a great use of language and can poke fun of an extensive vocabulary all the same. I am a book reviewer for a major newspaper and a published author as well, so I kiss a lot of toads to find the royalty that will go in our columns, this one made it in stellar fashion. I am including this as one of 2004's best debuts. I read much of this book while climbing a stairmaster at the gym. On three occasions people came up to me to ask me what it was that was "SO FUNNY" about the book, writing down the title to go find it. ENJOY!

Better than Belgian Chocolate and funnier too

It does not do justice to this book to call it a collection of short stories, it's more a series of plunges into the same bracing swimming pool. I read it in one sitting and it played every variation of my laugh button. Ms. Lehner knows more about Saints than she needs to, but you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy the obsession.

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Title: Shadow Lessons

Author: Tim Reardon

Narrator: Gregg A. Rizzo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-17-14

Publisher: All Things That Matter Press, Inc.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

When high school English teacher Sean Cullinan comes across a specialty publisher looking for fresh African American voices, he decides to submit his latest manuscript. One problem: Cully is white. Enter Janine Russell, black lieutenant in the San Francisco fire department and long-time friend of Cullinan. Together, they create a literary hoax that eventually fuels a national race debate.

In Shadow Lessons new author Tim Reardon delves deep into the heart of the volatile American race conversation in a work that overflows with humor, honesty, and courage.

Members Reviews:

This is worth buying and reading.. new author and excellent

Excellent book. Great writer.

Five Stars

Great story line, editing could have been better.

A Slippery Slope

While not exactly a mystery Shadow Lessons most reminds me of noir. The politics of race and race relations is the crux of the story, but it is really only the raison d'etre for a story about what happens to people as a result of the unintended consequences of their actions. Our 'hero' is a San Francisco high school teacher and coach and a desperate 'wanna be' author who takes advantage of his friendship with a black female firefighter on the fast track within the department. He can't get published and she gets no respect from the old boys network that surrounds her. His solution: submit his book with an attractive, educated and successful black woman as author. The good news: the strategy is wildly successful! The bad news: the strategy is wildly successful and everything begins to fall apart and in unintended ways as both our 'hero' and his 'author' are co-opted by folks...black militants and right-wing media 'stars' with their own agendas...none of which are what either of them had in mind when it all began. Slippery slope, indeed. Read it; it's fun and it's thought provoking.

Like Stockett, Gladwell, Webb on Race

I read this terrific novel in less than a day, partly out of personal interest. I went to the same San Francisco high school as the author, and taught and coached at another Bay Area Jesuit prep. While the novel is spot on in its description of San Francisco details, it deserves to be compared with several other authors and books that have established a national reputation on the same topic -- Webb (Fields of Fire; Born Fighting), Gladwell (Outliers), Gallagher (Kaboom), Stockett (The Help).

Gladwell/ Stockett

Reardon's work addresses in fiction some of the same uncomfortable themes that Malcolm Gladwell confronts in his non fiction work, Outliers. Gladwell's non fiction book, Outliers, concludes with a chapter that reveals a stunning fact: his great grandmother was a black slave bought by his Irish great grandfather. Using the greater flexibility of fiction, Reardon's novel explores the same charged themes as Outliers. Reardon's prologue starts with a similarly jarring statement, "I guess you could say that my grandparents on both sides were pretty much your run of the mill racists." Too, his prologue states his main argument -- that the tensions between races are not black and white, but shades of grey.

Money is a persistent motive throughout Reardon's novel.

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Title: Miss Mezzanine

Author: Mike Smith

Narrator: Michael Smith, Alexa Casciato

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-14-14

Publisher: Michael Smith

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Jass Dietrich has everything a college senior could dream of: solid grades, a supportive girlfriend, and cushy job waiting for him the moment he graduates. But then, on his last spring break trip, he meets and falls for Annabelle, the mysterious free spirit who challenges him to reconsider his plans. When Jass returns to campus, he finds himself finally facing the questions he had avoided for so long: Is it too late to change career paths? Are he and his girlfriend truly meant to be together? And will he ever see Annabelle - the girl who left an imprint on his heart - again?

Members Reviews:

Perfect!

Expertly narrated and written in a clear, relatable style, this book was a great reminder that sometimes people are put into your life just so that you can see the path you need to take more clearly. I listened in one sitting!

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Title: Spare Brides

Author: Adele Parks

Narrator: Charlotte Strevens

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-13-14

Publisher: Headline Digital

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Sunday Times best-seller Adele Parks turns her laser-sharp perception and empathy to a forgotten generation of women against the tumultuous and opulent backdrop of post-First World War England. Damaged and beautiful, they were the generation who lost so much and became 'spare brides'.

This is the powerful story of four extraordinary women left to pick up the pieces of their lives, in the scarred, glamorous and endlessly fascinating post-First World War era.

New Year's Eve, 1920: The Great War is over and it's a new decade of glamorous promise. But a generation of men and women who survived the extreme trauma and tragedy will never be the same.

With countless men lost, it seems that only wealth and beauty will secure a husband from the few who returned, but lonely Beatrice has neither attribute. Ava has both, although she sees marriage as a restrictive cage after the freedom war allowed. Sarah paid the war's ultimate price: her husband's life. Lydia should be grateful that her own husband's desk job kept him safe, but she sees only his cowardice. A chance encounter for one of these women with a striking yet haunted officer changes everything. In a world altered beyond recognition, where not all scars are visible, this damaged and beautiful group must grasp any happiness they can find - whatever the cost.

Members Reviews:

So clichéd...

If you like a steamy romance then this is for you. I prefer more in a book. Found it like a cheap copy of Downton Abbey.

Adultery and intrigue post-WW1

I quite enjoyed this saga of the four women friends (Lydia, Ava, Sarah and Beatrice, the last two being sisters), who all fight their own battle of recent, lost, found and non-existing love amongst war-torn men. They really are forced to help each other out as time goes by, but particularly is the story focusing on the attempts to prevent Lydia's reputation from disintegrating after her scandalous affair with a "tall, dark and handsome" war officer. The narration was superb, making each character personal and believable. Though an easy listen, I think I can safely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a historic drama of love and intrigue.

I can't wait for it to finish

If this book wasnt for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

I have made it to just over half way through this book and can't wait for it to end. It's so clichéd and I actually cringe when I am listening! The idea behind it sounded great but the reality just doesn't reflect the potential.

What could Adele Parks have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Not written it at all, or possibly concentrated on another of the woman rather than the vain and spoiled Lydia. An equal portrayal of the 4 woman would have possibly made Lydia and Edgar's affair easier to stomach.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

The narration was ok

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Spare Brides?

the never ending sex scenes - I just find myself thinking - "Oh no, here they go again!"

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Title: Call Nurse Millie

Author: Jean Fullerton

Narrator: Penelope Freeman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-13-14

Publisher: Orion Publishing Group

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

It's 1945 and, as the troops begin to return home, the inhabitants of London attempt to put their lives back together. For 25-year-old Millie, a qualified nurse and midwife, the jubilation at the end of the war is short-lived as she tends to the needs of the East End community around her. But while Millie witnesses tragedy and brutality in her job, she also finds strength and kindness. And when misfortune befalls her own family, it is the enduring spirit of the community that shows Millie that even the toughest of circumstances can be overcome.

Through Millie's eyes, we see the harsh realities and unexpected joys in the lives of the patients she treats, as well as the camaraderie that is forged with the fellow nurses that she lives with. Filled with unforgettable characters and moving personal stories, this vividly brings to life the colourful world of a post-war East London. Read by Penelope Freeman.

Members Reviews:

Most enjoyable

The narration was excellent bringing all the characters to life a very pleasant story well told enjoyed it to the end

Hard Slog

What did you like best about Call Nurse Millie? What did you like least?

There were some parts of this book that I enjoyed. . but it was all so predicatable & I found the end was incredibly weak ...I was expecting it to go on & all of a sudden it ended !

Would you recommend Call Nurse Millie to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes I would recommend it - just a light reading when you have nothing better to read.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Penelope Freeman?

Annie Aldington, she always brings these sort of books to life & makes them far more enjoyable....

Was Call Nurse Millie worth the listening time?

Not especially.

Any additional comments?

Just disappointed with this book, but unless you listen to them, you will never know will you !

Great story excellent narration

Loved the well written story. The narrator was great at adding different voices and accents.

Call nurse millie

Really enjoyed this book ,at time's i thought I was there ,I'd forgotten I was reading. Really good read and enjoyed the person reading.

Usual Nurses Story "shopping list style"

Nothing special. Not enough engagement with the patients which is disappointing. Just a routine story of a nurses general life.

Half way through I wished to stop listening but having purchased, I wanted to know what the ending would be. It is the narrator who makes this story bearable to listen to the end.

The narrator Penelope Freeman does a reasonable impersonation of her characters, all a little too stereotyped for the Londoners which sounds like something from a n overdone Charles Dickens production. Penelope's voice impersonation of the men is very good, especially Millie's boyfriend which sounds exactly like a mans voice I have heard several times on TV.

The only character I do not like is Aunty Ruby. Her attitude annoyed me and if I was unfortunate to have that woman for my aunty, I would put her in her place. I would not stand for anyone to try to interfere like she does.

All in all, this is not the type of story book for me. Far too general. What I call "shopping list writing". It just reels off the page and nothing happens.

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Title: Jellybird

Author: Lezanne Clannachan

Narrator: Joan Walker

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-13-14

Publisher: Orion Publishing Group

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

'I'm good at secrets,' Libby says. Yes, thinks Jessica, I bet you are... Jessica should have everything to make her happy: a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer, hope for a family of her own in the future. Then she meets Libby - flattering, attentive - and believes she has found the friendship she missed out on as a child. Until Jessica catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion.

With her life unravelling, Jessica flees home to the seaside town where she grew up. The discovery of an old postcard among her childhood belongings sends Jessica in search of her first love, Thomas, 'the ghost boy' who disappeared one night seventeen years ago. The last time Jessica saw Thomas he was covered in blood and begging her to hide him. Now to find him, Jessica must confront the secrets that link her to Libby, the missing boy and a brutal murder. Read by Joan Walker

Members Reviews:

Great book

Really enjoyed listening to this book. The narrator was good and had an easy voice and the descriptions used by Lezzane painted good picture in my mind, good story.

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Title: The Kept

Author: James Scott

Narrator: Kate Udall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-13-14

Publisher: Random House Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

How far would you go for your family, for love, for revenge? In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Elspeth Howell returns home to find her family brutally murdered. The only survivor is her 12-year-old son who witnessed it all. Wounded, frightened, and with retribution in their hearts, mother and son set out into the frozen wilderness to track down the red-scarfed men who killed their loved ones in cold blood.

Their journey leads them to a rough-hewn settlement on the edge of ice-filled Lake Erie, a merciless place where violence abounds. Here, forced into a brutal adulthood, Caleb begins to discover truths about his mother he could never have anticipated and Elspeth must finally confront the terrible urges that envelop her.

All the while, the memory of Calebs brothers and sisters presses him onwards. Big skies, deep snow, open wounds: The Kept delves deep into what it means to be a mother - and to be a son. It asks us how far we would go for our family, for love, and, ultimately, for revenge?

Members Reviews:

Three Stars

Okay but moved too slowly. Same things on and on.

not so good

I was unable to finish the book. I found it too dark and boring. Not my type for an enjoyable resd

Enough, Already

The pain and agony did not get resolved. Another morbid novel. Regret buying on the recommendation of your staff. I'll be smarter in the future. Robert G. Long

Incredulous

A midwife abducts babies, hides them in a very isolated homestead and with her husband creates a family unit.

Complications arise when relatives of one of the kidnapped and kept children seek revenge for their loss. The reactions of some of the principal characters to events is unexpected and at times incredible even though we are reading about events in pre-industrial times when society had not advanced to today's standards. It was a struggle to read the book through to see how it ended.

A Stunning Debut Novel - Atmospheric, Sublime and Emotive

This book just blew me away, what a dark, atmospheric emotional novel this is, absolutely unique from anything I have read for a long time. It will stay with me for a while, I still keep thinking back on this book and it's characters. It's haunting and it's haunting me.

What's the book about?

It is the winter of 1897. Elspeth Howell returns to her isolated snow-bound farm to find her family brutally killed. Only her son Caleb has survived and, thinking that the murderers have returned, he shoots his mother.

With her chest bound and Caleb at her side, Elspeth sets out to find the men who committed this heinous crime. But as they get closer to the perpetrators, Caleb discovers his mother has a truly terrible secret and Elspeth finally begins to understand its hideous consequences.

My Review:

Where do I begin? Firstly, let me tell you this is not a fast paced action packed book, it moves slowly, beautifully, surrounds you, pulls you in and gently takes you with it. The writing is sublime, just magnificent. I am baffled at the low reviews this book is getting.

So Elspeth Howell and her only remaining child Caleb set out to hunt the men who killed the family in cold blood, Caleb is twelve years old yet has so much maturity and depth to him as a character, he has the heart of child, but at times the hardness of life makes him almost a man.

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Title: The Following Girls

Author: Louise Levene

Narrator: Louise Levene

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-13-14

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

School, the happiest days of your life? Not for Amanda Baker, 16 and sick of it as she moves miserably between lessons. Her only solace is her fifth form gang - the four Mandies - and a low-calorie diet of king-sized cigarettes, until she teams up with Julia Smith, games captain and consummate game player. So begins a passionate friendship that will threaten her future, menace her sanity, and risk the betrayal of everything and everyone she holds dear.

Members Reviews:

'St Trinian's for grown-ups'

I really enjoyed this novel - a bit of light reading but one which really evokes the memories of being a teenager back in the 70s. School, friendships, a future career, family problems are all part of the life of the main character, Amanda Baker. A rebellious 15 year old, who with her friends delights in breaking rules and organising pranks, Amanda can see the pettiness of school life...

(spoiler alert) The author's epigraph: "The Hate had started", is taken from George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. We learn that Amanda is studying Orwell, and Levene very loosely structures her novel around that work. Amanda is a latter-day Winston Smith, making a stand against authority - there's even a friend and co-conspirator, Julia - but will medicine and drugs bring her into line?

Very enjoyable but doesn't really seem to go anywhere, so more of a *3.5.

Going back to school!

The Following Girls does not refer to girls who follow someone or something. It is instead a very schoolmarmish quote often heard in school classrooms and assemblies, eg - 'Will the following girls please step out of line?' or 'The following girls have been selected for the school play' and so on.

This book is a story about a particular girl's life in an English girls school in the 70's, not very difficult to relate to even today. Malory towers it is not. For starters it is not residential and for another the students and teachers seem to exist in a perpetual state of war. Our protagonist is called Amanda Baker, aka Baker, and is friends with 3 other girls also named Amanda. The four Mandies are pretty notorious in school and a constant source of pain to their teachers who have been dying to find a reason to expel at least one of them to make an example.

Baker's mother left her with her father when she was but 5 years old and she grew up with him and his new wife. Mr. Baker is utterly conventional and incapable of looking at his daughter without seeing his first wife. He is so caught up in the wrongs that were done to him that he deciphers every action of his daughter as a deliberate attempt to hurt him. At times I felt sad for him, so caught up in conventionality, so afraid of what people might think and at times so angry for failing to love this child of his.

Amanda is an intelligent girl and quite good at her studies. She doesn't commit any great mistakes and I felt great sympathy for her when she is caught wearing the wrong shoes for gym and is terrified that the teachers will inform her father. I mean that is such a pathetic thing to call parents for and an even more pathetic thing for the child to be scared about it. If someone had called my Dad that I was wearing the wrong shoes in school, he would have laughed it off like he did every time the teachers told him that I talked too much in every single school and every single parent-teacher meet he ever went to.

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Title: A Plague of Scoundrels

Author: Jon Cory

Narrator: Charlie James

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 02-08-14

Publisher: Roger Lee Paulson

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Elliot Vail is a floundering San Francisco stand-up comedian who will do anything for a cheap place to live. So when strange Edward Bockman offers him free rent in exchange for some odd dos and don'ts, Elliot thinks his luck is about to change. After all, despite Bockman's over-active imagination, head-to-toe Robin Hood costume and locked bedroom door, he seems nice enough.

Little does Elliot know that his new landlord is time-traveling to trysts with an ex-mistress of England's King Charles II...and that he'll soon be expected to rescue Bockman from a 17th-century prison and a deadly outbreak of the Black Plague.

Members Reviews:

Well written, that man!

It should take a kitchen staffed by Bob Hope, Mark Twain, H.G. Wells, Rafael Sabatini, Bill Gates and Nora Roberts to conjure up this delightful stew of swashbuckling time-travel, romance and bubonic plague. But Jon Cory manages it all by himself, thank you very much. The style is pleasing, the pace is swift and the story unrolls easily through the writer's efforts, not at a cost to the gentle reader. It is suspenseful throughout and the end a mystery until the end. Thoroughly enjoyable and as true to detail as any time-traveler's handbook you can buy in a store.

good start, so-so from there

A San Francisco comedian is let an apartment from a renaissance-festival type in exchange for carrying out a few curious errands, which the landlord requests via notes in a box outside the landlordâs door. And the comedian is never, ever, under any circumstances, to open the landlordâs door.

When the landlord leaves a note saying heâs in grave danger, the comedian opens the door and discovers a time machine. The landlord doesnât just play medieval, he actually travels there! So, our comic protagonist dons a period costume and zaps off to save the day.

Plague was pretty well written to this point. The mystery of the landlord and the box and amusing quips from the comedian kept me interested. After we go back to 17th century England, which is where most of the story takes place, not so much.

The main problem was that Plague tried to be both a comedy and an adventure and wound up lukewarm at both. There was huge laugh potential in the culture clash of a modern stand-up comic in Tudor times, but Cory never mined it. The humor was limited to smart aleck one-liners in the comicâs head. They were kind of amusing, but never laugh-out-loud funny. The story could have used more reaction humor between characters of very different backgrounds. Then the smart aleck tone kept me from unengaged from the long, supposedly nail-biting action scenes.

Iâm not saying Plague was awful. Itâs a light humored, light actioned fish-out-of-water tale with clichéd period characters. The really good beginning just had me expecting more.

Light comedy, quick action, and a little history just for fun

As the title suggests, this novel is a light comedy set (mostly) in the England of Charles II. However, unlike most time-travel stories of this sort, the hero does not interact with the king, or any other great lord of that era. Instead, he has a very believable, if vastly chaotic, adventure involving ordinary citizens of that time (and one extraordinary character from the present), many of whom happen to be scoundrels of one ilk or another. All of the characters are complex enough to be very human, and most compelling in some way.

The action is fast and funny.