This healing, heartwarming classic Japanese novel has been getting a lot of buzz lately. I rarely do book spotlights anymore, but The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa seems to merit it. If there's anything the world needs right now, it's healing and heart warming...

Welcome aboard the Hankyu Line train!

Come along on a heartwarming, funny, and perfectly cozy voyage with the charming and relatable passengers—including one dashing dachshund—whose lives intersect and affect each other on one of Japan’s most romantic railway lines from international bestselling author Hiro Arikawa.

Between the two beautiful towns of Takarazuka and Nishinomiya, in a stunning mountainous area of Japan, rattles the Hankyu Line train. Passengers step on and off, lost in thought, contemplating the tiny knots of their existence. On the outward journey, we are introduced to the emotional dilemmas of five characters, and on the return journey six months later, we watch them find resolutions.

A young man meets the young woman who always happens to borrow a library book just before he can check it out himself, a woman in a white bridal dress boards looking inexplicably sad, a university student heads home after class, a girl prepares to leave her abusive boyfriend, and an old lady discusses adopting a dog with her granddaughter.

With stories that crisscross like the railway lines, the Hankyu train trundles on, propelling the lives and loves of its passengers ever forward.

Thanks to the generous folks at Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of The Passengers on the Hankyu Line to spotlight and review.

Have you read The Heirloom Garden?  What did you think?

Thanks to the generous folks at Harlequin (a division of HarperCollins) for sending me an e-ARC of The Heirloom Garden!

This meme has been making me chuckle ever since I saw it, not just because my name is Susan but because the sentiment is so very true!  I feel as if I'm perpetually behind, not just at Christmastime, but always.

Case in point:  I was supposed to review Wings Like a Dove by Camille Eide today.  Not only do I not have a review for you, but I haven't even read the book yet.  I'm definitely going on the book blogger naughty list!  However, I would like to share a spotlight because (1) I need to fulfill my commitment (at least partly) to the lovely folks over at Celebrate Lit! and (2) the book sounds like one I would really like.  I'm planning to read it at some point, but not today.  I haven't even finished my reading for the Cybils Awards and Round 1 decision-making is happening in a couple days.  Bad, blogger!  So, here you go with a spotlight:

Back in 2017, Lark mentioned her love of the Lady Darby mystery series by Anna Lee Huber.  She always gives out great recommendations, so I immediately bought a copy of The Anatomist's Wife, the series opener.  I enjoyed the book immensely and proceeded to read Mortal Arts.  Although I've got copies of the next five books in the series, I have not had a chance to read them yet.  So, unfortunately, I can't post a review of the newest Lady Darby novel, An Artless Demise, as I was supposed to do today.  Instead, I'm going to hit you with a spotlight and encourage you to give this fun series a go.  If you like historical mysteries that are well-written, not too graphic, set in intriguing locales, and peopled by likable, interesting characters, this series is right up your alley.  Give it a try.  You will not be disappointed.

Before I give you the plot summary, be warned that there is a spoiler in the first line.  It's a fairly obvious one, but one all the same.  Just so you know.

An Artless Demise: 

Lady Darby returns to London with her new husband, Sebastian Gage, but newlywed bliss won't last for long when her past comes back to haunt her in the latest exciting installment in this national bestselling series.

November 1831. After fleeing London in infamy more than two years prior, Lady Kiera Darby's return to the city is anything but mundane, though not for the reasons she expected. A gang of body snatchers is arrested on suspicion of imitating the notorious misdeeds of Edinburgh criminals, Burke and Hare—killing people from the streets and selling their bodies to medical schools. Then Kiera's past—a past she thought she'd finally made peace with—rises up to haunt her. 

All of London is horrified by the evidence that "burkers" are, indeed, at work in their city. The terrified populace hovers on a knife's edge, ready to take their enmity out on any likely suspect. And when Kiera receives a letter of blackmail, threatening to divulge details about her late anatomist husband's involvement with the body snatchers and wrongfully implicate her, she begins to apprehend just how precarious her situation is. Not only for herself, but also her new husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, and their unborn child. 

Meanwhile, the young scion of a noble family has been found murdered a block from his home, and the man's family wants Kiera and Gage to investigate. Is it a failed attempt by the London burkers, having left the body behind, or the crime of someone much closer to home? Someone who stalks the privileged, using the uproar over the burkers to cover his own dark deeds?

Purchase your copy of An Artless Demise here or wherever books are sold:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Indiebound

Have any of you read the Lady Darby series?  What do you think?

I wasn't able to get The Accidental Further Adventures of the 100-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson read and reviewed in time for my stop on its blog tour, so you're getting a spotlight today instead.

I haven't read anything by Jonasson, but his books certainly sound delightful.  Have you read them?  What did you think?

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