April was a rather modest reading month for me. I read four books, including a couple of mysteries as well as historical fiction. I am not doing well with my nonfiction reading goal this year. I haven’t found the just-right book yet.

My book club read The Secret War of Julia Child by Dianna Chambers. The novel tells the story of the mission of the OSS in Southeast Asia, where Julia MacWilliams was sent to set up registry offices to receive and record the various communications sent in and out of the offices. Chambers embellished Julia’s role, elevating her to operative status. The book club members had a mixed reaction to the novel, from liking it very much to not liking it at all, because several events recounted in the novel did not happen. I found the book’s opening chapters very slow. However, the last third of the book, Parts III and IV, was much faster-paced. I found Julia’s character engaging, but noticed that she often tried to make herself “small” in spite of her large size. I ended up enjoying the book much more than I thought I would, given its slow start.

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn was a surprise as her first foray into the genre of magical realism. I know Quinn more as a writer of historical fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed The Rose Code, also set during WWII, but in England. The Astral Library is set in 21st-century Boston and centers around a young woman who spent most of her childhood in foster care and shifted from home to home. When Alix is asked to leave the apartment she shares with two other people and gets fired from her job as a barista, she retreats to the one safe place she knows, the Boston Public Library. There, she discovers the secret Astral Library, which allows anyone who has been chosen by the library to live within the world of a chosen book. But instead of living in her book, she ends up book hopping with the librarian to track down a villain who wants to sabotage the Astral Library. This is a timely book that deals with the theme of censorship.

After seeing several pop-up ads on Facebook, I thought I’d try the first book in the series, Poe Prophecies: The Raven. Set in the fictional school of P.O.E. Academy, the protagonists are being trained to recognize the prophecies that Edgar Allen Poe left in his writings. I felt like this was Harry Potter fanfiction. While the characters are likable, they are not engaging enough for me to continue the series.

C. J. Harris released the twenty-first book in the St. Cyr mystery series with When the Wolves are Silent. When Sebastian St. Cyr’s nephew asks him to investigate the mysterious death of one of his cronies, Sebastian delves into the neo-Druid movement of the early 19th-century. The plot thickens as other friends are also murdered in ways that mimic the ways humans may have been sacrificed by the ancient Celts. Sebastian suspects the murders involve more than mimicry of ancient sacrificial practices, given the recklessness and cruelty of the nephew and his friends. What I like about this series is not only the mystery, but also the way Harris weaves in the social and economic issues of the early 1800’s through the character of St. Cyr’s wife, Hero. Harris does not sugar coat the disparity between the social classes, the poverty of the working class, or the political issues that a rising middle class and dissatisfaction with the Regent are bringing to the fore.

Which of this was my favorite this month? It’s a toss-up between The Astral Library and When the Wolves Are Silent. I enjoyed the voice of the narrator in The Astral Library, her cheekiness as well as her vulnerability and the historical elements of When the Wolves Are Silent. It will be a while before Harris released the next installment of the St. Cyr series, but I will wait patiently for that one.