Review: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Publication date: 9th March 2023
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Pages: 368

Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death.
To get out alive they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival. They're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman - and a killer - of a certain age.

I adore Raybourn’s historical novels so I was fascinated to get stuck in to her latest novel, and whilst very different from her previous fare, this is no less delightful. Billie is a fantastic protagonist who offers us a human and flawed view into this crazy world. I loved how real she was, how grumpy, how very hacked off she was with the situation thrust upon her. I was rooting for her right from the start, even through the darker, grittier morally grey moments.

Raybourn is particularly skilled at creating intriguing shades of grey characters who are delightfully human in their navigation through the story, and this is no exception. I loved the juxtaposition of the present day older ladies and the pieces of history that fit in to round out the story of how they came to be the women they are today in the situations they’ve found themselves in.

This had all the trademarks of Raybourn’s work, whilst also feeling fresh and exciting, further cementing her place as a favourite author of mine. I loved it, and I’m desperately hoping we get more in the world of the Museum, even if Billie is getting her well deserved retirement.

Review: The Vintage Shop of Second Chances by Libby Page

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Publication date: 16th February 2023

Publisher: Orion Pages: 384

 Among the cobbled streets of the Somerset town of Frome, Lou is embarking on the start of something new. After the death of her beloved mother, she takes a deep breath into the unknown and is opening her own vintage clothes shop.
In upstate New York, Donna has just found out some news about her family which has called into question her whole upbringing. The only clue she has to unlock her past is a picture of a yellow dress, and the fact it is currently on display in a shop in England.
For Maggy, she is facing life as a 70-something divorcee and while she got the house, she's not sure what to fill it with now her family have moved out. The new vintage shop in town sparks memories of her past and reignites a passion she's been missing...
Together, can these three women find the answers they are searching for and unlock a second chance at a new life?
It's never too late to start again...

A charming plot set in the lovely Frome, this had all the markings of a cosy read that I’d zip through in no time. However, whilst I did enjoy the interweaving stories of the three women, and the ways their lives connected it didn’t hit all the marks for me.

Ultimately it was a quick and relatively enjoyable read, but sadly lacking in substance. I was excited to read this one, but never really connected with it. The writing style just didn’t work for me personally, a lot of telling the reader and dumping lots of information at once rather than exploring and allowing it to unfurl naturally. 

I also found the exploration of grief and loss of Lou’s mother to be rather flat and unrealistic. This is a particular bugbear of mine following the loss of my own mother, and I know won’t be a problem for many readers, but for me personally it just didn’t sit well.

However I really loved the theme running throughout of second chances, hope, and finding a new lease later in life. This will definitely be one that many people will love, it just didn’t quite spark for me as I had hoped it would.

Review: A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

Thank you to Netgalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Publication date: 28th February 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 880

The stunning, standalone prequel to the New York Times bestselling The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is starting to question the Priory's purpose.
To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hróth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother's past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
Intricate and epic, Samantha Shannon sweeps readers back to the world of A Priory of the Orange Tree, showing us a course of events that shaped it for generations to come.

The Priory of the Orange Tree is one of my favourite fantasy epics - sweeping in scope, lush in vivid rich details, and breath taking in its audacity. Which meant that I had both high hopes and huge fears when it came to A Day of Fallen Night - how could it possibly compare? 

I should not have worried.

Priory will always be excellent, but A Day of Fallen Night is a masterclass that showcases Shannon’s growing talent. She is a force to be reckoned with, a writer who can craft incredibly rich and detailed stories and never lose their reader for an instant. Fallen Night is a behemoth, an epic 880 pages long, but none of that feels bloated or unnecessary. Instead it is a tapestry of interweaving characters and plots, layered over years, coloured through time, and embroidered with the acts of humanity that make it feel raw and real to the reader.

I have struggled over the days since finishing it to articulate fully how I feel about this book. It’s hard to distil it down to a few choice words and phrases. Instead, I will simply press the book into people's hands with the instruction to read it. Read it and fall in love with the world, with the characters, with the scope and force of this novel. 

It is a masterclass in writing, an epic to rival big name fantasy epics, but frankly executed better and with a richer and diverse world. This is one that I will revisit time and time again, and I’m already excited to explore it through the audiobook.

Add this to your to read pile, you won’t regret it.