April was a productive month for reading. I read nine books, two of which were audio books, and started two others. Most of the books were “fluff”–easy and escapist reads (yes, they were Regency historical for the most part. Sorry, but those are my guilty pleasures.)

I didn’t read many of the books that came with the two monthly book club boxes; the only one I read was A Fate Inked in Blood, a fantasy novel based on Norse mythology. It is one of several books I read in April featuring strong female characters. I enjoyed this book, but it dealt with some hard issues: father-son relationships; female friendships, loyalty and betrayal; and domestic violence, not to mention war and the threat of war. The novel provided lots to think about while reading it.

Murder, I Spy was advertised as Downton meets Miss Scarlett. I loved the PBS series, The Miss Scarlett Mysteries, and I enjoyed a couple of the books on which the series was based. The lead character is a femme fatale, sort of, who lives a double life as a frivolous socialite and a spy for the British government. When a friend and fellow spy is murdered, she teams up with a British aristocrat to solve his murder. There is mischief and mayhem a-plenty in this novel.

A Proud Woman and A Singular Woman are the first two books in a series by Sarah F. Noel. Lady Tabitha (aka Lady Tabby Cat) is recently widowed. She teams up with the new earl, her husband’s cousin, to solve a variety of mysteries and murders. The novel is partly romance as the recently widowed Tabitha and Jeremy, the new earl (aka Wolf) work together. The Dowager Countess, unfortunately, becomes something of a fly in the ointment for them as she pushes her way into their investigations. I thoroughly enjoyed these books. I wasn’t sure I would like listening to them, but I found that I did! I know I read to my students quite often, and they loved the “read-aloud” days. I think I do, too.

I have read the hype about Sarah Maas’s books, so I gave A Court of Thorns and Roses a read. I “think” I liked it. I know that it kept my interest, and I wanted to see how it ended. It is most certainly a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale with a hint of The Hunger Games in the setting of a distant, but oppressive “government” controlling the provinces and districts. I did not find the male lead very appealing, though. I liked his sidekick better. I have not read the other books in the series yet; the second one is waiting in my Kindle library and in my Audible library.

Of the books I started in April, Jane Eyre is a re-read, or maybe it’s a re-re-re-re-re-read (think Aretha Franklin’s refrain in “Respect”). I remember reading Jane Eyre in high school at the recommendation of my English teacher, Norma Richardson, who suggested so many favorite books and led me to so many literary discoveries. I still remember the cover of the first copy of Jane Eyre: a Scholastic book club edition with a white cover and the title is black stylized type face. I couldn’t name the font now if you asked me! Reading at age 66 is quite a bit different from reading at age 16. I see how the character of Jane was rebeling against the societal norms for women in the nineteenth century and how that rebellion created the problems she dealt with. I am savoring this book, making it a slow read.

Another series of books that I read in high school were the books in Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy, beginning with The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills. I did not realize that she also wrote mysteries. So, I was pleasantly pleased to discover Touch Not the Cat, published in 1974. I enjoyed this book. Again, it featured a female lead as the investigator into the mysteries surrounding the estate she is trying to save from her cousins who are trying to sell it out from under her to pay off their debts. There is a hint of the supernatural as the main character has a psychic link with another she calls “lover.” In the end there is a romance and a happy, if not completely joyful, ending.

In the midst of these books, I am still reading Les Miserables–another slow read so that I can savor the language, the characters, and the complexities of the plot. I may finish it by the end of summer!

As I write this, I am expecting my next shipment from Book of the Month. In a day or two, the books from the Aardvark Book Club will arrive. In addition, I will be receiving a nonfiction book about the photography of Thomas Merton. Over the weekend, the complete set of Jane Austen novels arrived. I will have plenty to read this month, and I’m looking forward to it!