December 2022 Books & Shows

It was a lazy December (yes, there is still one day left) and I think that will continue into next year. I don't know why but I can't make myself finish anything. Would that be called the year-end fatigue? It seems like that more and more. Anyway, here are the books I read and one show I sort of finished.

Books I Read:

01 - My Rock and My Refuge (Once Upon a Western Book 4) by Rachel Kovaciny > link > author's website (Cover illustration by Erika Ohlendorf)
What's it about: family, faith, love, sibling-ship, immigrants, baking
This is a Christian, western, romance that is also a Beauty and the Beast retelling and with what some reviewers called Jane Eyre vibes. I don't get the Jane Eyre vibes aside from similar story structure with a woman (and her brother) going to work for a rich man with side characters of a housekeeper, a child and the mystery of the rich man's past but no crazy wife in the attic but there is a tower room that people are not allowed to go in. This does have roses, a beautiful lady and a kind of a beast-like character but I wouldn't call this a Beauty and the Beast retelling.
    Marta (the main character and narrator) did most of the preaching and her faith is defined. The constant reminder of Charlie O'Shea, Marta's old flame, is annoying. Yes, he's an asshat but did Marta need the reminder to torture herself to be more aware of men who only wants her for her beauty? Was it necessary to mention him 30 times when he was never around nor did he had anything to do with the overall story? The time she spent talking/thinking about Charlie O'Shea, she could have baked more bread instead. I'm not sure if I like Marta but at least I don't hate her but perhaps I hate how she thinks her beauty is a burden. I do like the relationship Marta has with her brother Jakob and with Mrs. Craig.
    The beast character, Arthur Wendell, is somewhat mysterious but when we learned his back story, it somehow deflated his character in a way. I guess I was hoping for something more tragic than what it was. And making his character handsome before he was scarred reminded me that romance is again between two good looking people. Why couldn't he had been average looking instead of handsome? I'm not sure I believe the romance between Wendell and Marta but that's perhaps Marta somehow made me think that way. I would have preferred we get Wendell's point of view here to make it a more complete story because Marta can only tell the readers what she knew and what she knew wasn't always enough.
    There are no love triangles, no amnesia, no misunderstandings, no one scheming or doing any harm aside from speaking ill of other characters and the adults are mature and they actually talks to each other and make good decisions, well, the main characters anyway. There was no point at any time did I want to slap any character, well, except maybe whatshisname, Alex McLeod. I couldn't stand Alex. Nothing he did was likable or even considered nice because I somehow had such a bad opinion of him that when they mentioned how he made his mother happy by coming home, I thought, he didn't come home for his mother, he came back to get rich. He didn't sound like someone with any good intentions but then we only see him through Marta's point of view so that might somehow clouded my judgement of him.
    The bits with the Chinese immigrants was intriguing and I like having them there so that immigrants aren't just Americans or Germans, it's nice to have a mixture of different people but still, we see little of them as Marta didn't seem to have much interactions with them.
    Summary: This is a somehow slow book and kind of subtle in plot, that is, everything moves in a quiet kind of way. I'm not sure how to describe it but nothing moves too fast (expect perhaps the romance) and no excessive actions. The conflict is mostly internal and since we only get Marta's point of view, it's mostly her conflicts. Everyone's basically good here. I kind of like it but at the same time, it's rather too subdued for me. This is a clean, family friendly, love story with bits of religious tones and main adult characters at its most mature. And baking, lots of baking and there are recipes at the end of the book. I would say this is a cozy book that one can enjoy on a weekend but perhaps it might be too tame or too cozy for those looking for more conflicts and actions in their books. I enjoyed this but probably not as much as I would like.

02 - Dead Broke: Agatha's Amish B&B Book 2 by Vannetta Chapman  > link
What's it about: murder, romance, Amish-ish stuff
I have always thought if the first book wasn't well written, the second one would be better but in this case, somehow the writing seemed worse. The absence of dialogue tags annoys me endlessly. Sometimes I really did mistake who was talking. If you have six people in a space, I think dialogue tags are necessary. Two people, I can understand but more than two and I will begin to wonder if three or four of the people there are mute or if they spoke, I would have to figure it out who. And also, saying he/she did this and that without a name and in a paragraph by itself - not a good idea. I mean, yes, we can figure out who it was doing this certain thing but why do readers need to figure it out like some type of mystery? Just put in a name, is that too much to ask?
    The romance between Agatha and Tony is unavoidable because readers might be frightened out of their wits if they are just friends, oh, no, you can't have that. I don't believe in the romance at all. Not because she's Amish and he's not but because I just don't buy it. Of course, I know nothing about how Amish and none-Amish people romances work but it seems there's no difference. Certainly, these two are already sharing kisses but maybe Agatha had asked her bishop for approval because apparently, anything the bishop approves, it's acceptable.
    The perspectives are now Agatha and her B&B guest, Henry Lapp (same last name as Agatha but no relation) which I thought was kind of an unnecessary change. The first book is told in Agatha and Tony's perspectives which I thought was okay so why change it? I do like Henry's ability to draw a scene with perfect detail and he's a few degrees more interesting than Agatha but having his perspective meant we no longer have Tony's and seeing how his character is the one I find interesting, it's a rather bad change. Agatha being Amish was interesting in book 1 but here she's kind of meh.
    The mystery is reluctantly spread out and reached its end with the usual running around and ending up with nothing kind of way so that the only solution is for the murderer to show themselves. And the victim, Nathan, is apparently someone the readers should know but I didn't know his existence until this book and I read book 1. I don't see why Agatha and Tony bother to do anything when they keep saying, we'll let the police handle it but then Agatha does the let's go and meet the murderer thing because that's what they meant by let the police handle it. At least Agatha brought someone along which is not any better because she put that person in danger as well as herself. What's this thing about meeting murderers and why do characters do it knowing there is danger? Why is there no common sense in those situations?
    Summary: I think the writing sort of ruined the mystery for me but then again, the mystery wasn't all that interesting. I'm thinking now the author is trying to write like Agatha Christie because Christie also have a habit of not using dialogue tags but we can forgive her because she's the queen of mystery and this author is not. So who solved the mystery? No one. It solved itself which is not the kind of mystery I like.

03 -  Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie and 12 authors > link
What's it about: Miss Marple, murder mysteries, non-murder mysteries, short stories
Apparently Raymond West, Miss Marple's nephew, is in almost every story or else he's the one that sent her to that particular place. I can understand using his character but there is such thing as Miss Marple planning her own trip, choosing the places she wants to go and not because Raymond was generous enough to send her there. Raymond sounded just as arrogant and annoying in these stories as he was in the original so if you didn't like Miss Marple in these exotic locations, blame it on him.
    I've not read any of these authors except Leigh Bardugo though I couldn't finish her book. Some of these stories are quite like Agatha Christie's stories but most of them seemed off. I don't know why they need to move Miss Marple around the world since the mysteries are mostly unrelated to the setting. I don't know if I would recommend this unless you're a fan and you want to see how some of the authors ruined or perhaps, reshaped Miss Marple. Here are the list of stories and my thoughts:

One - Evil in Small Places by Lucy Foley - Reminds me of the original and the mystery was decent.
Two - The Second Murder At The Vicarage by Val McDermid - The mystery is bland and it's like re-reading the original in a slightly altered way.
Three - Miss Marple Takes Manhattan by Alyssa Cole - Didn't like it, it just seemed Miss Marple shouldn't be there at all.
Four - The Unravelling by Natalie Haynes - Just okay though the mystery depended on something that some people would agrue is inaccrurate.
Five - Miss Marple's Christmas by Ruth Ware - Makes me think of the original and the mystery is good.
Six - The Open Mind by Naomi Alderman - Didn't care for this one, I find the writing a bit too academic or perhaps too intelligent. Miss Marple's presence seemed rather odd. Yes, she gets invited to all sorts of places and events but really, it's almost as if she's placed in some very modern world for no reason since she's not a professor and she's not an academic, I don't know, I just find this bland because I'm not interested in the story or the mystery or why Miss Marple was there.
Seven - The Jade Empress by Jean Kwok - This was okay.  It's too bad they didn't have use for the boat setting.
Eight - A Deadly Wedding Day by Dreda Say Mitchell - It seemed Miss Marple has a partner, Miss Bella, still, it was just an okay mystery.
Nine - Murder at the Villa Rosa by Elly Griffiths - Don't know why I thought the narrator was a woman and anyway, this was a dumb story since you can't even call this a mystery and there were no interesting bits. Miss Marple's presence here is neither necessary nor had any meaning, she was just there.
Ten - The Murdering Sort by Karen M. Mosse - I didn't care for the 17-year-old narrator or her dumb decisions and I put her in the category of 'too stupid to live.' The mystery was lukewarm.
Eleven - The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse - A little better than okay.
Twelve - The Disappearance by Leigh Bardugo - I didn't really like this much but only because they turn a character I like into a murderer.

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Shows I Watched:

04 - A Touch of Frost > link
What's it about: crimes, murders, detectives
This series was good and DI Jack Frost is a great character. He's an ordinary man who did his job right and he had his way of doing things. There is humor to him. I like his character. He didn't take nonsense from people. Even when people, mainly his superior, get him down, he still did his job. Perhaps he was a bit too passionate about his job but he would definitely care. (There are 42 episodes but I only watched 28 which is up to season 8. I watched the show here.)

How was your December?