Summer reading suggestions: Girls and Ladies entertain, inspire

THE BOOKWORM

Augusta and Julia Colebrook are twin sisters of a certain age in Regency England and are absolutely done with gentlemen in their society telling them what they can and cannot do. They see injustice around them and decide they will have to rely on each other to right some wrongs.

Armed with a blunderbuss named Hades and other inventive weaponry, they set about rescuing kidnapped children, women imprisoned by ill-meaning husbands, and an entire asylum of mistreated individuals.

The Colebrook sisters can be found in the pages of “The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies,” and “The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin,” by Australian author Alison Goodman. Both novels can be read as e-books through the Boundless app and are great fun.

Another enjoyable read on the Boundless app is “A Most Agreeable Murder” by Julia Seales.

In this novel, Beatrice Steele is a young unmarried woman in the early 19th century and should be looking for a husband. That is the last thing she is interested in, however.

Beatrice can’t get enough of true crime tales from the newspapers, and when eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth drops dead during a village dance, she is on the case. The second book in this series will be published in late June.

The latest novel by Oklahoma native Julia Bryan Thomas, “The Kennedy Girl,” is more serious than the above but also filled with adventure.

The Kennedy Girl tells the story of Mia Walker, a 20-year-old girl living in New York when she is recruited to work at a fashion house as a model in Paris. A dream job soon turns into a nightmare as the protagonist is pulled into a world of Cold War espionage.

This is the third historical novel by Thomas, and available to read in print through the library.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the Summer Reading Challenge for adults and teens. There is still a month or so to participate. Pick up your challenge materials at the upstairs desk at the library, for a chance to win a fabulous prize at the end of July.