Stacking the Shelves #48

 

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Reading Reality. It's a place to showcase any books I have purchased, borrowed, or been lucky enough to have been given an advance copy of. Hope you find something that looks interesting to you or that makes you remember a favorite book you need to finish. Enjoy your reading this week!

Borrowed audiobook and book from Libby: Free

This is the second book in the Jane Wunderly series. I enjoyed the other two I've read and wanted to go back and see how the one set in England turned out. I like that these books are following her from overseas back to America and then to other exotic locations. That sounds like a lot of fun! In this one she works with her love interest, Redvers, to solve a murder at the home of Lord Hughes, where she is a guest. 

Purchase from Amazon for Kindle: $1.49 with points:

I am so behind on this series! For a long time I read one each season. The books follow a seasonal rotation with locations and theme. I really like that idea. This one I should have finished over the fall but life got busy. I think this was my first series exposure to "cozies" and I love it but have found so many others to read now. I finally bought it and need to get going in March. This is the 11th book and the series I've read the most from. Eleanor attends a wedding and of course......stumbles into another murder to solve. With the help of her love interest, Dectective Hugh Seldon, she is on the case!

Purchase from Amazon for Kindle: $0.99 with points:

The title and cover appealed to me because of course, Egypt and pyramids. Oh, and a mystery too! My favorite kind of book. I had never heard of the author or series so thanks Book Bub for introducing it to me. It is book two of a three part series written by an English author. I might wait to read this one until I've read book one. It is part of the Ursula Marlowe Series and there are three books in all. Set at the turn of the 20th Century, it features a young heiress who finds murder and mysteries to solve. I love the covers and it has that old time classic feel to it. 

A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman (Plantagenets Book 5)

 

Publication Date: March 4, 2014

Genre: Historical Fiction/Medieval Fiction

Series: Plantagenet Saga

Length: 685 pages

Book Description (GoodReads):

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Lionheart comes the dramatic sequel, telling of the last dangerous years of Richard, Coeur de Lion’s life.
 
This long-anticipated sequel to the national bestseller Lionheart is a vivid and heart-wrenching story of the last event-filled years in the life of Richard, Coeur de Lion. Taken captive by the Holy Roman Emperor while en route home—in violation of the papal decree protecting all crusaders—he was to spend fifteen months chained in a dungeon while Eleanor of Aquitaine moved heaven and earth to raise the exorbitant ransom. But a further humiliation awaited him: he was forced to kneel and swear fealty to his bitter enemy.

For the five years remaining to him, betrayals, intrigues, wars, and illness were ever present. So were his infidelities, perhaps a pattern set by his father’s faithlessness to Eleanor. But the courage, compassion, and intelligence of this warrior king became the stuff of legend, and A King’s Ransom brings the man and his world fully and powerfully alive.

My Thoughts:

When I read the last sentence of this book Sunday night I was pretty elated. Not because I'm done and didn't like it but because I've finished all the books in this series which I started during Covid. I felt like I'd accomplished something big! Penman's books are so amazing they take awhile to read carefully. And there were times I thought I'd never finish a chapter, trying hard to concentrate on everything going on. 

It made me want to go back and re-read The Land Beyond the Sea, her last book and set during the period of Saladin and Baldwin, The Leper King. So I am reading it again before I start another epic. 

If I'm honest, this was my least favorite of the series. It was still amazing! Penman doesn't write a bad book, period. This one just wasn't quite as exciting as I'd hoped. The one before, Lionheart, was so intense and so beautifully written it was hard to top though. In this story, we spend a lot of time inside Richard's head. Penman said that she felt her novel Lionheart was about Richard the warrior and A King's Ransom was about Richard the man. I totally agree.

Richard leaves the Holy Land at the end of Lionheart. This book picks up at that point and takes us in spectacular detail through his attempted journey back to Europe. Through a series of bad events, he is captured first by Leopold, the Duke of Austria who has a major axe to grind with him, and then handed over to brutal captivity in the hands of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry Hohenstaufen. His mother Eleanor works back home to raise his ransom. After three long years he is freed but must now deal with his shady brother John and arch enemy Phillip of France as they have sought to steal Richard's kingdom and thwart his freedom at every turn. They never anticipated Richard would be freed. Now, as John says, "Look to yourself... the devil is loose!" They are panicked and realize their schemes will be revealed and have no idea how Richard will react.