Review: Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie

 

This has solidified the Tommy and Tuppence series as my favorite one from Agatha Christie. I do  not know what it is about these two characters that just draw me in and keep my attention. Maybe it is how relatable their feelings are about one another are. This is a short story collection where they solve a multitude of cases while being undercover for Scotland Yard. They are bored sitting around at home after their big adventure in the first book and they are settling down after getting married. 

They are contacted by Inspector Marriot from Scotland Yard and he asks them to pretend to be a detective agency and they jump at it. The cases range from pranks, bad judgement and serious blackmail and terror.

With each case, Tommy and Tuppence also pretend to be some famous detectives and investigators from fiction. They are Sherlock and Watson and others along with a famous Agatha Christie character... Monsiour Hercule Poirot. They had me giggling when mentioning the little gray cells. 

I am sad that there are only three more books in the Tommy and Tuppence series.

BLOG TOUR: Sainted Love by Steve Orlando

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the SAINTED LOVE Vol. 1: A Time to Fight by Christopher Yost & Val Rodrigues Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: SAINTED LOVE Vol. 1: A Time to Fight

Authors: Steve Orlando & Giopota (Illustrator)

Pub. Date: August 20, 2024

Publisher: Vault Comics

Formats:  Paperback, eBook

Pages: 144

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/SAINTED-LOVE-Vol-1-A-Time-to-Fight

THE TIME MACHINE meets MIDNIGHTER & APOLLO in SAINTED LOVE Vol. 1: A Time to Fight - a steamy, genre-blending gay, science fiction, era-spanning, adventure-packed graphic novel!

A SEXY, TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE TOO POWERFUL TO BE CONTAINED IN A SINGLE ERA!
New York City, 1907.
Malcolm “Mac” Irina is the greatest inventor the world’s never heard of, and his lover, John Wolf, is the toughest bare-knuckle boxer in the city. Irina’s crowning invention, the Chronocorridor, is nearly complete. He dreams of whisking himself and Wolf away to a time when they can live and love freely. But when crazed Detective Felt raids Irina’s lab, the couple dive into the freshly powered-up portal to escape capture.

Sainted Love is a steamy time-traveling adventure series, equal parts romance and science fiction as two heroes fight for their love while journeying across centuries of history. It’s sexy, it’s exciting, it’s fast-paced. It’s a gay romance that sees queer heroes become legends themselves as they explore and adventure through iconic times in queer history, from the passion of gay saints Sergius and Bacchusto to the Lavender Mafia of the 1970s, and in between. Irina and Wolf first think they need to return home, but they soon realize that their real calling is elsewhere in time, to places where they’re free to love and exists as who they are and eras that desperately need their help.

Steve Orlando (Eisner and GLAAD Award nominated writer of Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man 2099, Wonder Woman) and Giopota (artist+creator of beloved webcomic Mothersea) hurl you across time with Irina and Wolf, as they encounter famous queer people throughout history and fight back against all who would see their names and love erased!

SAINTED LOVE Vol. 1: A Time to Fight collects issues #1-3 of the acclaimed series and successfully-funded Kickstarter!

For fans and readers of: Doctor Who, Black Mirror, Quantum Leap, The Time Machine (H.G. Wells), The Star Rover (Jack London), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Mark Twain), Check, Please! (Ngozi Ukazu), Paper Girls (Brian K. Vaugh/Cliff Chiang), Moonstruck (Grace Ellis, Kate Leth, Shae Beagle), The Prince & The Dress Maker (Jen Wang), Bingo Love (Tee Franklin, Jenn St. Onge, Joy San, Genevieve FT) Sunstone (Stjepan Sejic), Money Shot (Tim Seeley), Midnighter and Apollo (Steve Orlando)

PRAISE FOR SAINTED LOVE:

"...a giddy mashup of sci-fi adventure and queer romance." -- Publishers Weekly

"This is slick comics storytelling and lots of fun." -- Publishers Weekly

 

About Steve Orlando:

Steve Orlando has written for every major American comic book publisher. He’s received Eisner Award Nominations for OUTLAW TERRITORY (Image Comics) and RAINBOW BRIDGE (AfterShock Comics), as well as participating in the Eisner-Winning LOVE IS LOVE (IDW Publishing). He’s received a Ringo Award Nomination for RAINBOW BRIDGE (AfterShock Comics), and wrote for the Ringo-Winning DC PRIDE (DC Comics). As well, his MIDNIGHTER and MIDNIGHTER AND APOLLO were both nominated for GLAAD Media Awards. As a localizer, Orlando contributed to SWEET PAPRIKA, winner of a 2022 Harvey Award.

At DC Comics, he’s written for titles including BATMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, DOOM PATROL: MILK WARS, SUPERGIRL, MARVIN THE MARTIAN/MARTIAN MANHUNTER, WONDER WOMAN, DETECTIVE COMICS, NIGHTWING, BATMAN/THE SHADOW, and MARTIAN MANHUNTER, its first issue named one of Tor’s Best Single Issues of 2018.

At Marvel Comics, he’s written for STAR WARS: LIFE DAY, X-MEN GREEN, MARVEL VOICES: PRIDE, MAGNETO AND THE MUTANT FORCE, MARAUDERS, EXTREME CARNAGE, CURSE OF THE MAN-THING, and SCARLET WITCH.

At Image Comics, he’s written and edited UNDERTOW, VIRGIL, CRUDE, LOADED BIBLE: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD, and COMMANDERS IN CRISIS. In addition for Image, he’s localized the best-selling UNNATURAL, MERCY, and DEEP BEYOND, as well as UN/SACRED for Ablaze Publishing.

At AfterShock, Orlando additionally wrote DEAD KINGS, KILL A MAN, SEARCH FOR HU, PARTY AND PREY, and PROJECT PATRON. Additionally, he wrote THE SHADOW/BATMAN for Dynamite Entertainment, NAMESAKE for BOOM! Studios, THE PULL for TKO Studios, TRANSFORMERS: KING GRIMLOCK for IDW Publishing, as well as STARWARD at Heavy Metal Magazine. Also at Heavy Metal, he wrote and edited for the BOULET BROTHERS HEAVY METAL HALLOWEEN TAKEOVER.

Outside of comics publishing, Orlando has written for and been featured in Epicurious, HELLO MR, as well as NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine. In animation, he worked with Man of Action Studios on the fourth season of BEN 10.

Steve is based in the Boston, MA area

Keep up with Steve Orlando: 

Twitter | Instagram

 

About Giopota:

GIOPOTA is a queer cartoonist of fantasy and body positive comics, known for his original work Mothersea and the Cornucopia self published collection. Sainted Love is his very first comic published for US audiences.

Gio is based in Bologna, Italy.
Keep up with Giopota:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | BlueSky

 

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive finished copies of SAINTED LOVE Vol. 1: A Time to Fight, US Only.

Ends September 3rd, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

8/19/2024	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
8/19/2024	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt
8/20/2024	Comic Book Yeti	Steve Orlando Interview/IG Post
8/20/2024	Never Hollowed By The Stare	Excerpt
8/21/2024	Lady Hawkeye	Excerpt/IG Post
8/21/2024	Edith's Little Free Library	IG Post/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post
8/22/2024	Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt/IG Post
8/22/2024	The Momma Spot	Excerpt
8/23/2024	Rajiv's reviews	Review/IG Post
8/23/2024	@dana.loves.books	IG Review/TikTok Post

Week Two:

8/26/2024	@evergirl200	IG Review
8/26/2024	Lifestyle of Me	Review
8/27/2024	@enthuse_reader	IG Review/TikTok Post
8/27/2024	@heyashleyyreads	IG Review/TikTok Post
8/28/2024	Nonbinary Knight Reads	Review/IG Post
8/28/2024	@sparks_books	IG Review
8/29/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
8/29/2024	Two Points of Interest	Review
8/30/2024	More Books Please blog	Review/IG Post
8/30/2024	Ohyouread	IG Review

Review: this was spicy spicy spicy. like 3 carolina reaper pepper hot. lots of dick.

Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

 

Another classic that I did not care for. I was super excited to read this because it is dystopian but I am now realizing that I am not a dystopian girly. I will forever be a Hunger Games girl and that will be my dystopian fix I guess. 

Going into this book, I had no idea what it was about. That's how I go into most classics surprisingly. 

We follow a dude named Guy Montague and he is a fireman. In this world, firemen do not put out fires, they start them. The main reason they start fires, well the only reason is if someone has books in their home. Books have been outlawed and literature has been forgotten.

The homeowners eventually get taken away. When Guy is on his way home from his job, he meets a young girl who is his new neighbor and she starts to make him think about things. He goes home and finds his wife unresponsive and she is brought back by cycling her blood and taking away the medicine that she took to end her life. 

Guy starts thinking about books and the next job he goes to, a woman is screaming because she doesn't want her books burned. Guy is distraught because the woman wont leave but she ends up blowing up herself and her house. Guy goes home and decides to stay home the next night and he pulls out books that he has taken from previous houses. 

His wife who goes crazy and paranoid ends up getting them caught when she goes to burn the books after he had hidden them. He eventually goes on the run and finds a group of people who are walking literature, meaning that they remember these tomes that have been burned to pass them down from generation to generation. Guy then decides to help the revolution and the upcoming war.

That is where the book ends. I was so over his unhinged ass. I felt paranoid just listening to him and also confused like what was the damn point to his madness. 

Review: The Odyssey by Homer (Translation by Emily Wilson)

 

I re-read this back in March and never wrote a review because I figured that everyone and their mama has read this but then I forgot that I had this on my classics challenge and I need a review.... so here it is 5 months late. 

With my daughters being in high school and homeschooling, I figured that a re-read would help me help them understand this epic ass poem better. I don't know what translation I read in high school, but I had to pick this translation up because it is the first done by a woman. She also translated The Illiad that I will also be reading for the first time. 

I read this translation while my daughter read a different one and we talked about the differences and similarities. It really solidified that I did not pay attention in high school and the only thing I remembered was Calypso's or Circe???? I don't even remember now.. 

I did get really annoyed with Penelope constantly crying even after 10 years and then Telemachus being a complete dick to his mom and blaming her for the suitors and not being man enough to throw them out of the house his self. 

Review: The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

 

I am still continuing my read of all of Agatha Christie's works. I only read a handful a year and sadly this was one that I did not enjoy. I definitely have two favorite series from Christie which is the Hercule Poirot and Tommy and Tuppence. I am not a fan of the Superintendent Battle series which this is the second installment in this series and I have to say that I kept thinking of the book The Man in The Brown Suit and trying to place Battle and Bundle in that book and the I realized that book is part of the Colonel Race series and I have no recollection of the first book in this series. Take a drink every time you read the word series in this post.

This story still takes place at Chimneys and we follow a group of people who are staying in Lord Caterham's house. There is a guy in the group called Gerry Wade and he likes to sleep in till early afternoon. Well the others in the group decide to go into town and purchase eight alarm clocks to go off at the same time and scare the hell out of Gerry.

They place the clocks and they go off and Gerry doesn't react to them because the poor bastard has died. Bundle comes back home with her father Lord Caterham and he is over the fact that people decide to die in his house because it is such an inconvinence. Bundle finds a letter that Gerry was writing to his sister and she decides to send it. On her way to town, she hits a man with her car and she takes him to the doctor who informs her that no she didn't kill him by running him over, but he had been shot and killed.

From there the story becomes discombobulated and confusing and so many plot lines. It put me to sleep which I am having trouble falling asleep, so it had one good thing going for it. Also there is a character that gave me the absolute ICK because he is an old man and he proposes marriage to Bundle and she flees out of a window and he find her young mind attractive and moldable.  GROSS!!!

When the end came and the culprit was revealed, I was zoning out because it was so long winded and it basically summarized the whole damn book. If you can't get through a Christie book, read the last chapter because I guarantee you that the whole book will be paraphrased in two-three pages.

Review: The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

 

A series that I have been wanting to read since it came out and I got a arc of the third and final book last year and I have been waiting for my library to get a copy of this book. They only had one copy and it was lost, so they had to reorder it. 

This is one of my favorite time period to read in. While reading, I was constantly thinking of Rebel Daughter, Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore and also Curses & Smoke which is set in Pompeii like this book.

We follow a woman named Amara who is a prostitute in Pompeii. She was sold into slavery by her mother when her father who was a well known doctor died. She was sold to a patient of her fathers who was wealthy and his wife got jealous and sold her to a pimp named Felix. Felix runs the local brothel and he is in rivalry with another brothel owner named Simo.

The book starts off with Felix's women getting thrown out of the baths because Simo has paid off the baths owner to ruin business for Felix. 

This a very charcter driven book where we get the feelings and emotions of the woman being reprimanded, raped, forced to perform sexual acts, being cat called and groped in the street, not being free but being able to walk around the city center. 

There is a lot of stockholm syndrome where the girls feel hope when Felix is nice to them and talks gently to them but get disheartened when he shows his true colors. 

Amara did get on my nerves when she was with these men and she was thinking that she could get them to free her and that she could pretend to love them and she was always paranoid that these men would betray her and ot give her the freedom they promised her while they were screwing her.

I am excited to read book 2 soon so I don't forget anything.