Recommended The Devil In The White City was borderline trash.
I get what your saying about being leery of recommendations but how does one know which is trash and which isn't until reading them.
On to recommended Blood and Thunder....
you`re...... I hate when that happens...
One ought to know by the reputation of the authors and genres, from reviews, by critics, and by everyone, since everyone's a critic, on Amazon and elsewhere. I always check Amazon, and always read the one star reviews first, that you know don't come from friends, family, fans of the author or bots. In the Saturday WSJ my favorite book critic there recommended a novel titled "Personae" by Sergio De La Pava. I went and checked out other reviews, and found an excerpt to read. No, I don't think so.