Cousin Kate

 

This was a really fun one. Heyer combined her own unique brand of Regency romance with some gothic horror in the vein of "Jane Eyre". My only complaint, and it's a minor one, was that it was a touch longer than it needed to be. 

Kate is a 24 year old orphan with no close relations. When she's released from her job as a governess, she returns to the London home of her former nurse, Sarah Nibb, to look for another position. She's not having much luck and ponders working in a dress shop as a seamstress, but Sarah won't hear of it and writes to her half-aunt Minerva, who's married to Sir Timothy Broome of Staplewood. Minerva had no idea she had a half-niece and immediately comes to London to take Kate home. 

Kate is overwhelmed by her aunt's generosity and happy enough at Staplewood, although she is a bit bored. Torquil, Minerva's fragile son, is a few years younger than her and seems much younger than his years, very immature and can be annoying. Philip, Torquil's cousin, comes to visit, and immediately sparks fly. Anyone who's read Heyer will recognize that the two of them are going to end up together (I guess that was a spoiler. Sorry!). 

Minerva has other plans, though. She wants Kate to marry Torquil. 

Kate, meanwhile, is experiencing some odd things at Staplewood. Screams in the night, strange men lurking in the garden, her door being locked from the outside. She starts to suspect all is not right (she's correct). 

I really enjoyed the horror element, mild as it was. It was a nice touch. 

I am Ozzy; Thursday Murder Club

I believe I warned you that there would be more Ozzy. 

This one was published in 2009, after the show ended, and in it he makes public his Parkinson's diagnosis. It was pretty thorough, covering his childhood in Birmingham, how he became part of Black Sabbath, his first marriage and kids, his drug and alcohol addictions, going solo and getting divorced, remarried, and having more kids with Sharon. His love for his career, his family, and his way too many pets (seriously, I love dogs as much as the next person, but 16 at a time is way too many) shined through. There were still more controversies to come for Ozzy at this point (which he covered in "Last Rites") but he was in a good place when this book came out. It was one of those rare books that I couldn't put down and just spent several hours getting through it on Saturday. 

A friend of mine mentioned how good the show is on Netflix, but because I'm weird like that I have to read the book first. (She told me I didn't need to, but, you know. Old habits and all). 

It was pretty good, if not a little convoluted. I loved the main characters though: a group of four retirees who live in a community called Coopers Chase. It used to be a nunnery, and when the last nun passed away the property was sold and homes were built next to the cemetery (that's important later). Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim used to have another member of their Thursday Murder Club group: former detective Penny. Penny is now in a coma, but when Penny was awake, she used to bring old cold case files to the group and they would try to solve them. Now a real murder has happened: Tony Curran, the "muscle" for Ian Ventham, who owns Coopers Chase and is looking to expand it by trying to buy a nearby farm as well as relocate the cemetery. 

I don't want to give away the ending, but the armchair detectives are all very charming and funny in their own ways.

 

 

False Colours

I love Georgette Heyer but I do not love this cover. Ick. 

At any rate, Heyer's Regency romances are so much fun. They sparkle. The only criticism I have (and it's a mild one) is the overuse of slang from that time period. I completely understand the young ones in their twenties flinging around slang, makes perfect sense. But when the sixty year old grannies are talking the same way it just rings a little false. I never heard any of my grandparents say "cool". They sounded like adults, not like me and my friends.

Kit and Evelyn are identical twins in their early twenties. Their father passed, leaving his title to the elder twin, Evelyn. Both boys dote on their loving but flighty mother, Lady Denville. Kit has been in Vienna for years when he gets a feeling that Evelyn in is some kind of trouble and returns home to London. His mother confirms Kit's suspicions: Evelyn has been expected back for a few days and they've had no word from him. Even worse is he's expected to show up to dinner to meet the family, including the formidable Grandmother, of a women he intends to marry, Cressy Stavely. It will be a scandal on both families if Evelyn doesn't attend, so Lady Denville begs Kit to take his place. Kit is reluctant to do so, certain the ruse will be discovered, but he does it anyway. The tangled web gets messier when Kit and Cressy find themselves falling for each other (Cressy, a smart girl, saw right through the scheme and knew it wasn't Evelyn).

So now Kit wants to marry his brother's intended, his brother returns in love with a woman he just met, and they're up to their eyes trying to figure out how to pay off their mother's considerable debts. It was a lot of fun and of course everything worked out in the end.  
 

Ordinary People

 

I have always been one of those people who doesn't dabble in something. If it grabs my interest, I devour it. I have to become an expert on it. Thus, another book about Ozzy Osbourne (there will be more, I'm just waiting for my holds to come in).

This one was written during their show on MTV, "The Osbournes" (which I watched over the weekend). Aimee expressed a lot of sadness over the show making her dad look like a buffoon, but I didn't really get that impression. Honestly, I felt sorry for the man. No one listened to him. He was also a bit difficult, refusing to do things and then doing them anyway. Sharon said he'd always been that way. Some people are like that. But the book was a nice companion to the show, mostly Ozzy and Sharon with the kids chiming in here and there.