Category: Book Critic

As a young girl growing up in the late 80’s, early 90’s at the height of the ‘glamour’ industry (well at least for me!), there was no way I could pass on this book.

I was exceptionally interested in cosmetics and the ‘glamor’ industry starting in my early teens, a passion the carried on into my early 20’s. In my youth, there was nothing like seeing who the new ‘Cover Girl’ was going to be, or what new makeup promised to revolutionize my beauty routine.

I was the girl who wore every single cosmetic from age 13. I had horrible acne as a elementary child and because I went to a Catholic school, I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup which was horrible for a girl with terrible skin. But once I transitioned into a public junior high school, all bets were off and thus came my obsession with cosmetics and beauty.

So what I am trying to say is this book appealed to me on a deeply personal level and I was thrilled to read about the cosmetics industry, especially since a man was writing the book. Continue reading “Review: Rouge: A Novel of Beauty and Rivalry by Richard Kirshenbaum” →

This book came across my desk for review months ago. I adore the simple cover and didn’t need to think twice about adding this one to my review schedule because it was historical fiction and looked elegant! Let’s be honest that cover is a solid 10. It’s gorgeous and I absolutely love love love it!

While this book is a debut for writer Karen Kelly, I was looking forward to it because of all the early advance praise it received. Though it did have some large shoes to fill when it came to some of the early praise and promise of the summary.

Her writing style is described as ‘the writing chops of Ian McEwan and the story-craft of Lisa Wingate’. McEwan is a big name in literature so obviously I was a little skeptical, especially since I don’t really care for his novels, but that said, I was eager to see if this book lived up to the hype it’s been getting. Continue reading “Review: Bethlehem by Karen Kelly” →