{"id":3111,"date":"2025-06-01T18:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-01T18:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3111"},"modified":"2025-06-01T18:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T18:15:12","slug":"monthly-monthly-features-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=3111","title":{"rendered":"Monthly Monthly Features \u2013 May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Cobbler\u2019s Crusaders by Rick Steigelman<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

Synopsis: <\/strong>Jacquelyn Pajot is a nine-year-old American girl whose excitement over a solo visit to her grandmother in Paris is soon diminished by the discovery that the grandmother is far more devoted to dragging her to church every day than she is in showing her the much-anticipated sights of the city. Jacquelyn\u2019s despair is remedied when she meets a pair of local girls, Nicolette and Genevieve, who are only too happy to lead the American astray. Jacquelyn, to her giddy astonishment, finds herself cajoled into joining her young companions in singing for money on the streets of Montmartre and leg kicking for laughs before the doors of the Moulin Rouge.<\/p>\n

Jacquelyn\u2019s joy over this \u2018new\u2019 life is tempered when she learns the circumstances of Genevieve\u2019s father, a charming but financially struggling cobbler. Employing her own creative skills to produce a flier, Jacquelyn devises an advertising campaign that quickly spirals out of her control and into the hands of her more mischievous friends. By means both legal and not, the two French girls set a dubious course that has Jacquelyn flirting with the prospect of prison, purgatory and, most perilously, her grandmother\u2019s righteous indignation.<\/p>\n

Summary: <\/strong>Overall, if you\u2019re in the mood for something offbeat but grounded, funny yet poignant, and filled with the kind of observational detail that makes even the smallest moment sing,\u00a0The Cobbler\u2019s Crusaders<\/em>\u00a0is a journey worth taking. It\u2019s not just a week in Paris\u2014it\u2019s a week in the emotional lives of people who are messy, loving, ridiculous, and completely real.<\/p>\n

See the full review here: The Cobbler\u2019s Crusaders<\/em><\/a>
Purchase here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Half Made Up by James Dunlop<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.<\/p>\n

Synopsis: <\/strong>How far would you go for a friend? Andrew MacKay, the sort of man who\u2019s more likely to bet his last penny on a losing horse than lift a finger for anything resembling responsibility, is about to find out. An incurable gambler, chain-smoker, and binge drinker, Andy\u2019s only real talent lies in outliving his own poor choices. But when his mate is shot dead and robbed of a classified secret, Andy finds himself bound to retrieve it, purely out of loyalty and an alarming lack of common sense.<\/p>\n

Andy learns the stolen secret is a new nerve agent deadly enough to make any terrorist giddy with joy. Wanting nothing more than to ignore the whole thing, he finds himself drawn into a web of corporate espionage, government corruption, and terrorists with excellent taste in chemical warfare. He\u2019ll have to rely on his wits to stay one step ahead of MI-5, who want him behind bars, if he hopes to recover the secret, and stop the zealots from killing thousands.<\/p>\n

Time is running out. Andy\u2019s got only one chance to make things right. Can he do it?<\/p>\n

Summary: <\/strong>Half Made Up<\/em>\u00a0is a blistering, witty, and emotionally resonant debut that proves James Dunlop has the chops to stand alongside authors like Mick Herron and Ian Fleming. If you like your thrillers with more punchlines than platitudes\u2014and aren\u2019t averse to your heroes being half-unhinged\u2014this book deserves a place on your shelf. Beneath the biting humor and barroom brawls is a novel that asks serious questions about morality, manipulation, and memory in a world where everything might be\u2026 well, half made up.<\/p>\n

See the full review here: Half Made Up<\/em><\/a>
Purchase here<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cobbler\u2019s Crusaders by Rick Steigelman I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion. Synopsis: Jacquelyn Pajot is a nine-year-old American girl whose excitement over a solo visit to her grandmother in Paris is soon diminished by the discovery that the grandmother is far more devoted to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}