Book Critic
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Review: The Raven Prince (Princes #1) by Elizabeth Hoyt
I’ve recently read some pretty heavy novels so I think it was long over due for a fluff fest! With December being so chilly and long, it often ends up being my steamy romance month. This month I’ve read a lot of historical romances of the ‘bodice ripper’ persuasion…and not necessarily on purpose. I’ve never read anything by Elizabeth Hoyt so I didn’t really know what to expect. She has been recommended to me by other historic romance fans and after looking through some of her titles, The Raven Prince caught my eye. I think mostly because I liked the title, it sounded interesting and it sounded almost like a fairy tale.
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Review: Secrets of a Scandalous Heiress (The Matchmaker Trilogy #3) by Theresa Romain
Augusta Meredith is creating scandal all over the place. She has not only suffered and embarrassing and tragic love affair but she is also not mourning the death of her parents as society would expect. She has fled to Bath where she assumes an identity to find herself a lover. While in Bath, she runs into Joss Everett who recognizes her, but he promises to keep her secret if she keeps his. Joss is in Bath trying to locate a blackmailer for his cousin, who also happens to be his employer. Though Augusta propositions him to be her lover, Joss respectfully declines as he has his own agenda. But the two decide…
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Review: An Affair Downstairs (Thornbrook Park #2) by Sherri Browning
Though not a baron himself, Logan Winthrop, is from a wealthy family. But he has a colored past. It’s rumored that he killed a man and now lives in shame as an estate manager at Thornbrook Park. Things are more or less tolerable for Logan…that is until the feisty Lady Alice Emerson sets her sights on him. Lady Alice has zero interest in marriage but her sister, The Countess of Aberford, intends to make an advantageous match for Alice one way or another. Alice has a bucket list of sorts….travel and most importantly, have a lover. Nothing major or long term, she just wants to make love once so she can…
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Review: Die I Will Not (John Chase Mystery #3) by S.K. Rizzolo
British mysteries are some of my favorite books to read….especially those set in either the Victorian or Regency eras. Who doesn’t love a good murder by gaslight novel? The John Chase series intrigued me. I often gravitate toward British mysteries/detective novels with female protagonists, so a series that boasted a male detective grabbed me. Penelope Wolfe has married the wrong man. She tried to break away from her father and in her attempt at ‘independence’ she has found herself very unhappily married. Jeremy is basically gambling himself into the ground.
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Review: The Sharp Hook of Love by Sherry Jones
For her entire life, Heloise has known what her future would hold. She has been preparing to become an abbess. All her education, grooming, and introductions have been carefully planned for her to ascend to that position. She has long accepted that she will likely never know love or a life outside the service of God and she is ok with that, until she meets Pierre Abelard. Pierre is the headmaster at the Notre Dame Cloister School. He has had many intelligent pupils and is well known in many academic circles as simply ‘the best’ and he is equally as notorious in those circles when it comes to women. Heloise’s uncle manages to…
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Review: The Bronze Horseman (The Bronze Horseman #1) by Paullina Simons
In Leningrad, life is about to change in a big way. Seventeen year old Tatiana, has known nothing but long summers full of ice cream and day dreams. But all that changes when the declaration of war is announced. Germany has invaded Russian and they march toward Leningrad. Tatiana’s parents send her to the store to buy all the food she can. On her way to the store, Tatiana stops for an ice cream when she spots a soldier staring at her from across the street. The soldier, Alexander, gets on the same bus as Tatiana and rides with her all over the city, and then eventually back home. When she returns home,…
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Review: There Once Lived a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
Leo Tolstoy said it best: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Don’t we all have that one crazy family member who tells grossly inappropriate jokes and stories at the dinner table? Or that one sibling that we are insanely jealous of? Or what about your bratty niece or nephew that you just wish you could trip as they run by screaming? I think the best thing about family is that it’s a classic….just like Tolstoy. Most people can relate to family and that’s what makes Ludmilla Petrushevskaya latest novel such a captivating read.
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Review: The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen
In upstate New York there is a small farm that appears to be just another farm in the country. Normal. Ordinary. However the Pennywort farm is anything but ordinary and normal….it’s magical. At the heart of the farm there is a magical garden full of imagination and color. The locals have long said that entering the garden can gain insight to life’s most difficult issues by just walking through the gates, ironically the garden’s caretaker has never experienced any kind of revelation by entering the garden. Olivia Pennyworth has been caring for the garden and has spent her entire life on the farm while harboring a dark secret which forces…
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Review: First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett
If you love Jane Austen you need to move this book up to the top of your TBR list immediately! Sophie Collingwood’s uncle has just died under questionable circumstances and then his prized rare book collection has been sold to satisfy his debts. To console herself, Sophie goes to work at her favorite bookstore in London, Antiquarian Books. While working at the store, she is approached by two different collectors who are after the same book, Little Book of Allegories, written by Reverend Richard Mansfield in 1796.
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Review: The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan by Stephanie Thornton
Genghis Khan was one of antiquities most notorious and feared leaders. The Mongol empire grew exponentially under his reign but behind every fearless leader, there is often a woman pushing him to be better. This is the story of the women who made Genghis Khan’s empire what it was. It begins with the story of Borte, his queen. Borte’s future has been foretold by her seer mother and it doesn’t look good. She will come between two brothers and will bring war and destruction to her people because of it. But true to her promise to marry the man who would be come Genghis Khan, she endures the prophecy with as…