Obtain Shakespeares Christmas (Lily Bard, #3) Drafted By Charlaine Harris Shown In Document
than the second book, Less disturbing somehow. Lily goes home for Christmas, Her relationship with Jack is less troublesome, more real, Lily is still cantankerous as hell, but seeing her at home makes this easier to understand, I'm starting to know Lily better now, This was my first book in the Lily Bard series, I was looking for Christmas books so read this out of order, I'm not a huge Charlene Harris fan I don't care for the vampire series at all but loved this one, I immediately downloaded and read booksandin the series next, The main character is a woman who had been brutally attacked in the past and goes on to learn self defense and get very strong.
Because of her experiences, she has as hard time relating to people but is making friends in the small town she lives in, I like the characters. These books move very quickly, I usually read cozies and this is a bit more graphic than a cozy but a great series, I'll read the rest. The third in the Lily Bard/Shakespeare Mystery series, At last a plot that has some substance to it, a whodunit that though the reason why is fairly obvious the perpetrator is less so.
Interesting that the author chose this, the third book in the series, to really explore the aftermath of Lily's assault not just through the eyes of those closest to Lily but also through Lily herself's eyes, though this works ok as a stand alone novel it is because of this that I think the books are probably best read in order.
Though still full of coincidences, highly contrived and somewhat lacking in reality what would law enforcement be without she who solves crimes others fail to, with none or very little anyway of the usual house cleaning and gym elements to the story at last we are rewarded to a good 'old fashioned' murder mystery in which we get to know a far more wellrounded and less one dimensional Lily.
Enjoyable enough, after reading this I'm at least more inclined to read the other two remaining books in the series, I've gotten very attached to Lily Bard, It was interesting this time around to see her outside of the Shakespeare setting and interacting with her family, I like how Lily, even though there seems to be a murder every time she turns around, has gradually started to enjoy life again.
She's beginning to trust people, she's making friends and she's coming to think of Shakespeare as home,
I think the cute cover art on some of the editions gives the wrong impression, though, These are not cozy mysteries, Harris doesn't shy away
from disturbing subject matter, and this book is no exception, But she doesn't revel in it either,
I don't think I've ever read so many mysteries in such a short period of time, On to the next! Warning this book has some terrible topics, There is child abduction, past rape and more awful stuff, And not much Christmas unless you include using decorations as weapons,
Since Charlaine Harris came out with this series years ago I had been circling around giving them a try, So since Im using my Christmas book read to sample a few different series, I thought I would try this one, Now I know to give it a pass, I didnt like the heroine very much, but it may have been more because of the audio reader, Her voice was kinda flat and didnt give Lily a lot of personality,
So basically, not my cup of tea, but I will probably try other books by this author, I liked her True Blood in the beginning, . . so theres that. I have an admission to make, I started reading bookand realized I had missed one somehow, I get these through Overdrive because I know I won't reread them, so why buy, right Anyway, I'm not that careful about the numbers, but something was obviously missing! I stopped reading five and went back to get this one.
This was just a par for the course Lily Bard with the exception of our getting to meet her family, Finally! I loved visiting her hometown and even something as silly as imagining her in all the fancy clothes associated with being in a wedding party was a superfun diversion.
She is usually in workout clothes or jeans, That's Lily, though, so that's ok,
I'm glad to see she and Jack developing, I can't wait to dive back into book five, I'm a little sad to leave Shakespeare, though, Le sigh. I'm tiring of Harris' writing characters who are so severely damaged that they don't make sense anymore, What woman who's been through what Lily Bard has been through would find herself attracted to a physically aggressive man like Jack And if Jack is the person he's supposed to be a man who knows what Lily Bard has been through why is always manhandling her in such a way that she has remind him not to
The premise for this book was better than the previous two, but the disjointed writing and horrible characters NO person in her family understood and took her side! ruined this.
Also, the pathetic and disturbing reasoning for why the villain did what he did made this anticlimactic, The ending is what my sister calls a "thisneededtoinbyo'clockandit's:" ending,
It didn't help that she recapped characters and incidents from previous books save for the one theme that kept coming up over and over again.
I feel that in a series, the reader takes their chances if they choose to start in the middle,
I've read better by Charlaine Harris and may simply persevere with this series since there are only two books left, Definitely not my favourite.
titularish sentence:
p: I would have a Shakespeare Christmas,
ocr:
p: Mad e uneasy by all these changes, by the prospect of going back to Bartley, I plunged myself into that work I had.
There's no shortage of depravity around Lily, It seems that Charlaine's baddies are worse than her peers', I enjoyed how the author took Lily out of the small town of Shakespeare and back to her small hometown, the root of her pain and issues, the family members she felt so awkward around.
Of course there is a mystery thrown in when she arrives, to be solved amidst family dramas and wedding plans, Jack popping into town to stir up her loins, and Lily again getting uptight and moody if anyone tries to act normal around her.
The parents and sister don't stand out too much, but they were enjoyable written, The father wasn't in many scenes but turned out to be my favorite, Jack and Lily's relationship, again, not sure about the instamagic when he appeared last time, see it's still going strong, I was intrigued by the cop and the backstory of how he reacted to Lily tugged on my heartstrings,
These books aren't known for their intense mysteries, but this one holds the more intriguing, complex, and twisted one of the series.
Involves kidnapping, child baby switching, potential murders that may have happened offpage a long time ago, and a gross, perverted revelation at the end.
Dark stuff but a happy ending after all, This is likely the best mystery of the Lily Bard series, where Lily actually has to snoop a bit on purpose, She doesn't come to by a Hercule Poirot or anything, but it's an interesting story nonetheless,
This one was a better one as, besides the story being rich, the background with her adjusting to her family and hometown made it more lively.
Her raised eyebrow at her sister about strength was a little annoying though, Lily has become a bit snobby with some of her preconceptions of others, although she does come to admire some strengths with her sister.
The ending felt too abrupt to me, and I don't get how she couldn't look back at all when she eagerly left her family and hometown.
They seem to be sweet people, Overall a good installment of the Lily Bard series, maybe the best yet, This Lily Bard outingwas the best one yet, I feel, There was some really tense moments and a decent mystery I didn't guess it, We learn more about Lily and her family here, and begin to understand her better, It was written inI believe and contains much from that time frame in terms of small town Alabama life, There's a lot criticism in some reviews, but it may be the time frame, really, and the way some people were back then, I did like it better than the first two, and sois on my "To Read" list, I really enjoyed this book, However, I don't recommend reading this series out of order, There is quite a bit of history from the first books you need to understand this book, Overall, I would say this series fits into the "meh" category, They have disturbing and dark things happen in the crimes, but they seem to be brushed over a bit, The characters are mediocre, of course with all of the police and detectives being worse at investigating than Lily, the maid, And, the love story doesn't have very many feels,
It's like the books are trying to tackle big issues without being willing to get as dark as these issues would really take to be meaningful to the reader.
There is a definite feeling of separation between the darkness and the reader,
It could be because the whole thing is narrated by Lily, who has lost touch with feeling much of anything since her victimization.
That is understandable. But, I would rather read books that either stay away from things like rape, torture, child abuse, and racial hatecrimes than to read them in a way that glosses over them quickly.
I would rate this at,out of. Certainly good enough to keep me reading the rest of the series,
In this installment, we change small towns and therefore a lot of the people that Lily Bard is interacting with and its a good change.
She returns to her hometown and her familys home for her sisters wedding right before Christmas, After her traumatic rape amp mutilation, Lily fled the town, her family and her friends, to start a new life in Shakespeare, Arkansas, Although she doesnt regret the change of scene, in this book she learns that she maybe left too soon, not giving anyone including herself time to get used to her new normal.
Like many people, Lily is reluctant to return home to face the family, She is not comfortable in her own skin yet, although shes getting there, and doesnt have the social skills to deal with those close to her effectively.
A very typical introvert, she finds that it doesnt have to be quite as difficult as she envisioned ither family will meet her halfway if she makes an effort.
One thing that did improve this book was that Lily was out of her regular routineso although she takes on some cleaning tasks as part of her “investigation” of whats going on in her hometown, the reader isnt subjected to as many detailed scenes of her cleaning routine.
Also, she is away from her gym, so ditto with the karate/strength training that permeates the first two books,
I think this could be a good series for people who care too much about the opinions of others, particularly those not close to them.
Lily seems to be far too worried about what the community thinks of her and not worried enough about what she thinks of herself.
Lily, if they arent paying your bills, their opinions dont matter!
Sometimes you don't get what you expect, . . you bite into what you think is a sugar cookie and find it's a jalapeno popper, I thought I'd kickoff the holiday season with a nice, cozy mystery Merry Christmas book, and met Lily Bard instead, She's a young woman who has been assaulted and left physically and mentally maimed, She goes home for her sister's wedding before Christmas, attempts to reconnect with her family, and encounters murder, child abuse, racial hate crime, and all manner of dark and disturbing things.
Harris' portrayal of life and society in Southern small towns is spoton, the characters are quite convincing, and her writing is clear and enjoyable.
Her boyfriend is a private investigator and having him happen to be investigating a case that intersects closely with Lily's family is a bit too much of a coincidence, but that's my only minor quibble.
There's no supernatural element, but the story is more horrific than anything Sookie Stackhouse ever dealt with, I don't read a lot of mysteries, but this is a series I'll continue with, This was my first time reading a book from the Lily Bard series and I was surprised at how good it was, This book certainly wasn't as cute or cozy as this author's Aurora Teagarden series, as the main character has some darkness in her past she was raped, and there is some blood in the descriptions of the murder scenes, but I liked that there was bit more of an edge and an honesty to the events of the story.
I also really liked Lily's relationship to her private investigator boyfriend, Jack, and the fact that this book brought her back to her hometown to face some of the relationships she abandoned after she was attacked.
The audiobook narration was also very good, and really hooked me on the story from the start, I usually hate to start a series in the middle, but in this case, this third book hooked me and I will definitely be looking for the earlier two books as well as the two that come after this one.
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