Ayesha

This time last year I read India Holton’s “The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels” and the sequel “The League of Gentlewomen Witches” and loved them. Not sure why it’s taken me a whole year to read the third and final book of the series but at least we’re finally here.

Synopsis: “The Secret Service of Tea and Treason” follows Alice, or secretly known as Agent A, the top spy operative of the Agency of Undercover Note Takers. Used to working alone, her next assigned mission, to foil an assassination plot, requires her to work with another. Who you may ask? Well, none other than her greatest rival, Agent B, or better known to us loyal readers, Daniel Bixby. Together, they must go undercover pretending to be a married couple – perhaps their hardest undercover assignment. Determined to stay strictly professional, Alice and Daniel attempt to ignore their growing attraction to each other…but just successful can they be? 

My thoughts: So far, I’m enjoying the read! As I said, it’s been a year since I read the previous books so my memory isn’t the greatest with remembering some of the characters. I do appreciate Holton having a “Cast of Characters” at the start of her books with little tid-bits about them – I have been flipping back and forth to see who’s who. I do love that both Alice and Daniel love reading and I think that’s the start of a great love story. Stay tuned for a book review to come. For anyone looking for a fun read that’s got some history, romance, magic, and action – this series is definitely one you should check out!

“Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.”

Julia

This week I have been reading a memoir titled, ‘Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Loving and Living Alone’, by British poet Amy Keys. When I first picked this book off the shelf and saw the title, it felt like something I could have written myself, and I was curious to see if that initial feeling was true. I’m almost done with this book now, and in many ways, the author’s own thoughts around love ring eerily true with mine, a concept which I have found both comforting and terrifying. 

In her book, Amy Keys uses Joni Mitchell’s music album ‘Blue’ as a roadmap to write about her experiences surrounding romantic relationships, or her lack thereof. I have said before that I wanted to read a book about finding love from the perspective of someone who had never been in a serious relationship, and I suppose this is the closest thing there is to that. It is as heartbreaking and relatable as I figured a book like this would be.

While I didn’t always follow Key’s use of Mitchell’s songs to find reason to talk about her own experiences, I did find her writing to be extremely raw and honest, and I think it’s that poetic vulnerability that kept me turning pages, unable to look away.