Month: January 2025

Title: A Northern Light in Provence

Author: Elizabeth Birkelund

Genre: literary

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

What a charming, lovely book. Ilse is a translator living in Greenland, struggling to find who she is and how she fits into the world. She translates English, Dutch, and French and is renowned for her ability. However, when a set of poetry in the Provence dialect comes her way, she’s unsure she is up to the task.

Her editor agrees to let her travel to Provence to meet with the poet so she can fully grasp the nuance of the language. There, she falls in word-love (not real love, the poet is 70+) with him, the village, his friends, and France in general.

This story was just delightful. Ilsa was never boring, given her hopes and dreams, and oh to travel to Provence. The story was full of vivid scents and colors, tastes and ambiance. I adored it.

Title: All’s Fair in Love and Treachery

Author: Celeste Connally

Genre: historical fiction mystery

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

This book is a sequel to Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord which I also got from NetGalley. I randomly selected Act Like a Lady to read and was so pleasantly surprised by how fun it was. Petra is such an outstanding character.

In an effort to make sure I’m staying on top of all the series I’m reading, I made a point to read this one and loved it equally. This time we see Petra trying to solve the mystery of the death of a headmistress at an orphanage. She’s also balancing her social life and trying to stop the undoing of the entire monarch.

Many plot lines are happening in this book, but they all work toward the ending. Petra hears some gossip about the death of her fiance (not a spoiler, he was dead in book one also), and gathers her closest friends and trusted allies to find the answers to all the mysteries in this book. Highly enjoyable!