The Wings of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie Dobson (2023)

 

In this dual timeline story, a little girl goes missing from Koster Isle in 1907 and in 1992 a journalist teams up with a woman living on the inland to find out what happened to her and save the life of another young girl.

On the eve of her fifth birthday in 1907, Poppy Pendleton is nowhere to be found in her family’s castle on Koster Isle in the St. Lawrence River. The grounds are searched but neither she or her body are ever found. Poppy has simply disappeared without a trace.

Eighty-five years later Chloe Ridell is living on Koster Isle in the shadow of what is left of Pendleton Castle, having inherited the island from her grandparents. She also inherited their candy store across the river in Clayton, New York and it struggling to keep her grandparent’s legacy a float. When returning from work one evening Chloe finds a young girl seeking shelter with her. Emma is full of secrets, as is every character in the book, even Chloe’s grandparents.

At the same time Chloe is searching for Emma’s family, a journalist arrives intent on solving the mystery of Poppy’s disappearance in time for what would be Poppy’s 90^th birthday and needs Chloe’s help.

The chapters of the book move from one character to the other but I never found the story hard to follow. The mystery builds as new characters are added to the story and it is up to the reader to put the pieces together. The book begins a little slowly and it takes a while to get to the actual disappearance but I soon found that I had to have the answers.

Dobson is a Christian writer and it is reflected in her story.

4.3 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on Amazon

Starter Villain by John Scalzi (2023)

 

Villain (n)  A professional disrupter, not necessarily evil. Services are available by subscription.

I am frequently drawn to a book by its cover and more often than not, the inside cover confirms I want to read it. Villian Starter was one such book. Who wouldn’t want to read about super intelligent cat spies who can talk and dolphins threatening to go on strike? 

Charlie Fitzer's life is going nowhere fast. The former business reporter turned substitute teacher is divorced and living in his deceased father’s house which his siblings want to sell out from under him. All Charlie wants to do is buy the downtown pub and live a quiet life with his cat. Everything changes when his billionaire uncle Jake, last seen when Charlie was five years old, dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. Unfortunately, Charlie also inherits uncle Jake's enemies who now want to kill him.

After his house is blown up, Charlie moves to the volcano lair and is guided in his new life by Mathilda Morrison, his uncle’s right-hand woman, now his. It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against the other supervillains. But first he must attend the mysterious Lombardy Convocation, a consortium of all supervillains. And there are also labor negotiations with the Cetacean Association of the Americas, Chapter One.

The book is very well written and hard to put down. The whole thing is absurd but it’s a vastly entertaining read. I highly recommend it.

4.3 stars on Goodreads, 4.6 on Amazon