Well, weather is warming and fingers are busy with a selection of various projects. Reading has slipped just a bit. BUT I have managed to finish the third book in the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children… Library of Souls (by Ransom Riggs). Now I must warn you… this is an impossible book to review without putting forth information regarding the first two books… and you really MUST read them in order!

Dramatic and at times heart rending, Library of Souls is full of action and angst, friendship and betrayal, love and pain. One of the things I love and hate about this book is the confusion that runs through it. There are so many possible allies and enemies. The world is a dark place in book #3 where the entirety of Peculiardom is in upheaval and distress. The Ymbrynes are all abducted, the peculiars dead, taken or destroyed by a need for what is later shown to be essence of other peculiar’s “second soul” which acts much like an addictive drug.

In this dark and dangerous scenario are Emma and Jacob and Addison the peculiar dog. There is something absolutely lovable about Addison… There are so many other characters… and so many amazing pictures to put faces to descriptions. That really is the key to these books, Ransom Riggs has such a touch and eye to combining amazing images to enthralling words. 

Book 1 was an introduction to the world, a hint a the troubles… book 2 threw us into danger and intrigue, book 3 brings us full circle to even more new and unique loops and worlds that defy imagination. Library of Souls is a dark book, but it is a book of hope and possible redemption. It is a book of adventure and battle and decisions made under pressure. 

I have a favourite line in this one… said by Emma Bloom – when asked whether or not she doubted…

Emma shook her head. “Doubt is the pinprick in the life raft.” 

I don’t know why but that resonates with me. I hope that you will hunt down these books at your local bookstore or library, they are well worth it… Go, jump into the world of the peculiar! 

Well with Christmas under out belts there is time for the review of one more seasonal themed book. Snowflake Sweethearts by Carrie Turansky was a great book for a taste of Christmas. A single mom returns to Fairhaven, Washington just in time to help where she is greatly needed in the home of a past friend (Alex Jameson, who she had a secret love for) and his suddenly ill grandmother (Irene, owner of Jameson’s Bakery). With daughter Emma (age 5) in tow, Annie Romano has her own skeletons in the closet to deal with as she helps Alex return to his faith and Irene embrace the healthier lifestyle her heart attack has necessitated.

So with romance and healing hearts there is a bakery to save, friendships to grown and pasts to reconcile with. My only dispute with this book is Annie’s views on believing in fantasy. I understand that Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy are all a financial burden but her needs to say truth is an absolute must with raising children and that to let them have that fantasy was to lie to them was a bit extreme to me.

Otherwise, I found this to be a lovely emotional journey of two people who need to learn to let go of the past and grasp the future with both hands, uncertainty and all. I do so enjoy a romantic Christmas story. 

Want a little mystery with your regency romance? The Wicked Wager will satisfy both cravings, though the mystery falls past the halfway point in the book. There are little taunting moments of questionable clues before that but the full on mystery and the process of solving it are not immediate. Instead you get to enjoy the youthful hijynx of two young people in love.

Young Emma is thoroughly frustrated by her season and a lack of suitors. Believing she is simply not pretty enough it is a rather huge surprise when she finds herself willingly engaged to an Earl. Their planning hits a bump in the road when Emma’s uncle (to whom her father stands heir to) catches wind of the upcoming nuptials and wishes for them to wait a year instead of the projected 2 months!

What is a willful and somewhat bored Earl to do but come up with a rather complicated and foolhardy scheme to be close to his beloved OR compromise her and bring her home with him his wife? And from there hilarity, convolution and further complications arise.

I love the characters in this story. Once again Anya Wylde does not disappoint. Our main couple, Emma and her Earl George are hilarious in their absolute willingness to be together at whatever the cost of their silly and soon more and more outrageous wager. Each a bit outrageous in their own right together they are crazy and in love. One of my favourite lines (and you do know from my previous reviews on her work HERE and HERE  that I LOVE sharing those) is Emma’s…

She too looked forward to her wedding night, introspective of the horror stories she had heard from her married friends about the male dingdongs.

Right then and there you know this is not a traditional regency era historically correct piece. BUT it is hilarious! There is a house full of characters with issues and secrets, loves to be found and held onto, a mystery to solve.