At her glass-blowing apprenticeship, Renaissance reveler Jessie Morton?s crabby boss and his creepy nephew are causing her problems. But when the man playing the Grim Reaper is killed, Jess has to find the lady, lord or serf whodunit.
November is the Renaissance Faire cozy mystery readathon on my blog @ This Is My Truth Now. We’re in our second week with the second book in the series by Joyce and Jim Lavene with Ghastly Glass. Anyone is welcome to join…. we’re reading the first 4 books in the series and posting our reviews each Friday. I link them together on my blog’s dedicated page so we can all review and comment. You can read any number of books you want in the series, too. Let’s get on to my review of Ghastly Glass.
Last week, I mentioned that I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book, Wicked Weaves. It had some good elements, but it was disconnected and repetitive in parts. While much of the repetition seems to be gone (not all), the disconnected parts are still present in Ghastly Glass. Part of me wonders if it might just be the duo’s writing style as it’s very blunt when it happens. The narrator comments on all the happenings around the Renaissance Faire; for instance, we could be ending a scene where the main character, Jessie, is doing something and she runs into people along the way. We hear one-liners about various performers and apprentices, Renaissance-Faire settings, et al. It’s good knowledge, but it’s just dropped in, in a way where I can’t tell if it’s part of the plot or background. And it will name drop so much that I can’t keep track of who is who. While it’s awesome for building the whole world in the books, it can be a tad frustrating for someone trying to also focus on the mystery.
In some parts, even the writing is stilted and awkward when these disconnections happen. Random lines (I’m paraphrasing) like “Death just walked by on stilts. Were they real? He looked taller.” The character of ‘Death’ wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the immediate pages before nor in the pages afterward. Just a random drop in. Okay, I’ve vented enough… while it can be jarring, it isn’t enough to say I wouldn’t want to read more in the series. If I hadn’t committed to it for the blog, I probably wouldn’t read another one, but since I agreed to 4, I will read them all and put on a positive spin wherever I can.
For instance, they do have a really fun and cool setting. I love hearing about all of the different side acts in the Renaissance Faire, meeting the performers and learning their history, watching the relationships develop between characters, etc. I also liked the mystery in this one as it was definitely a shocker. I wonder if I re-read it, would I notice the hints along the way? That’s always a good way to feel at the end of the book… so kudos to the authors for building that connection for us readers. In this caper, the actor playing Death is killed, then Jessie’s boss where she’s apprenticing, Roger, is attacked. We met him in the first book, so I felt closer to him than any newbies. Chase is back which provides a cute love story for Jessie.
Next up is the third in the series, Deadly Daggers… we read and review week of 11/17… come join us!
November is the Renaissance Faire cozy mystery readathon on my blog @ This Is My Truth Now. We’re in our second week with the second book in the series by Joyce and Jim Lavene with Ghastly Glass. Anyone is welcome to join…. we’re reading the first 4 books in the series and posting our reviews each Friday. I link them together on my blog’s dedicated page so we can all review and comment. You can read any number of books you want in the series, too. Let’s get on to my review of Ghastly Glass.
Last week, I mentioned that I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book, Wicked Weaves. It had some good elements, but it was disconnected and repetitive in parts. While much of the repetition seems to be gone (not all), the disconnected parts are still present in Ghastly Glass. Part of me wonders if it might just be the duo’s writing style as it’s very blunt when it happens. The narrator comments on all the happenings around the Renaissance Faire; for instance, we could be ending a scene where the main character, Jessie, is doing something and she runs into people along the way. We hear one-liners about various performers and apprentices, Renaissance-Faire settings, et al. It’s good knowledge, but it’s just dropped in, in a way where I can’t tell if it’s part of the plot or background. And it will name drop so much that I can’t keep track of who is who. While it’s awesome for building the whole world in the books, it can be a tad frustrating for someone trying to also focus on the mystery.
In some parts, even the writing is stilted and awkward when these disconnections happen. Random lines (I’m paraphrasing) like “Death just walked by on stilts. Were they real? He looked taller.” The character of ‘Death’ wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the immediate pages before nor in the pages afterward. Just a random drop in. Okay, I’ve vented enough… while it can be jarring, it isn’t enough to say I wouldn’t want to read more in the series. If I hadn’t committed to it for the blog, I probably wouldn’t read another one, but since I agreed to 4, I will read them all and put on a positive spin wherever I can.
For instance, they do have a really fun and cool setting. I love hearing about all of the different side acts in the Renaissance Faire, meeting the performers and learning their history, watching the relationships develop between characters, etc. I also liked the mystery in this one as it was definitely a shocker. I wonder if I re-read it, would I notice the hints along the way? That’s always a good way to feel at the end of the book… so kudos to the authors for building that connection for us readers. In this caper, the actor playing Death is killed, then Jessie’s boss where she’s apprenticing, Roger, is attacked. We met him in the first book, so I felt closer to him than any newbies. Chase is back which provides a cute love story for Jessie.
Next up is the third in the series, Deadly Daggers… we read and review week of 11/17… come join us!