Magic for Liars

We sailed away for a week. Here is one of the books I read at sea.

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey.  Not for the squeamish at all!  Ivy is a private investigator and completely devoid of any magical talent.  When an "accidental death" occurs at the private school for magical teens, Ivy is called in.  Her twin sister teaches at the school. 
To "fit in", Ivy lets the students and teachers believe that she has some magical talent.  That is her first lie.

My take?  I knew who was responsible for the death fairly early in the novel and could not resist skipping to the end to see if I was right.  What I discovered was not what I expected, so I backtracked and read the whole book.  This is a book that is steeped in family tensions, envy, and a studied lack of envy.  There are two sets of siblings that take center stage in this book.  The teen siblings are wonderfully portrayed . all the drama, posturing, insecurities of that stage of life are writ large.

This book is intended for adults.  Older teens will enjoy the teen drama and a chance to view tmselves as an outsider might.  It's a good mystery, too. (I read the ARC.)

Yesterday, I bought SHOES!! For years, the shoe-loving side of me was untapped. I bought reasonable, sensible shoes. And I wore them to the point of collapse. I had a pair of black Born (run a dagger through the "o", please) slip-ons that I wore for over six years until the sole split right across the insole. I LOVED those shoes.

I know that I am insinuating that I bought killer heels or princess shoes, yesterday. I didn't. I'm still that earth-mama who needs her comfortable shoes but...I bought FOUR pairs of shoes all in one day. I am - all in and of myself - an economic stimulus package - at least for the shoe industry. I never buy more than one pair of shoes and the moths fly out of my wallet when I do. Yesterday was different.

Hub-man and I went shopping this morning, too. I bought some blouses with a gift card and then we visited the newly opened branch of The Christmas Tree Shops. I'm thinking that the dollar stores and surplus stores are going to have a run for their money now that the Christmas Tree Shops are in town.

Books, right, books...that's what this blog is all about. Books and stories. Well, there is a story of my inner shoe lust above. Now, books. I just read the most recent entry in the Inspector Ian Rutledge series by Charles Todd, A Matter of Justice. This is a character-driven series. The book opens with a secret crime and revenge planned for that crime. So right off, the reader knows who is behind the eventual murder. This makes Rutledge's search for answers frustrating because without knowing about the secret crime, the murder doesn't make any sense and in the aftermath of the Great War, investigators couldn't Google their victims or their suspects. Rutledge perseveres, pokes his nose in where it's not wanted, asks the inconvenient questions and figures it all out by the grisly end. The largest tension arises from wondering how long Rutledge can keep his shell-shock caused demon at bay. I love these books.

On March 1st, I will be telling stories at Godfrey Daniels again - with the accordion, of course. The program is part of Godfrey Daniels/Lehigh Valley Storytelling Guild's Children's series and starts at 2 pm. Admission is charged. Kops 'n' Kids will be there handing out free books so the event is a BARGAIN, for sure. I hope to see you there.