Category: Book Review

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin

Quirky Charlotte, as the heiress to the Lenox fortune, is one of the most wealthy women in England. Her marriage prospects are numerous.

Her over bearing brother is set to marry into the upper crust of English society and he hopes to make another advantageous match for his sister.

Charlotte could care less about society and marriage. Her real passion in life is her photography–a rather unladylike hobby.

So far her only real suitor is Captain ‘Chicken’ Hartopp, who is equally as rich as she but rather boring, older, and unattractive.

Charlotte and her brother are to attend another society opera that is sure to bore Charlotte to tears….but something happens at the opera. Something that will change the path that her brother and his future wife have planned for her.

At the opera Charlotte meets the dashing Calvary officer, Bay Middleton. Bay is the best rider in all of England, and he has hopes of one day winning the Grand National race.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent (Maggie Hope Mystery #4) by Susan Elia MacNeal

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent (Maggie Hope Mystery #4) by Susan Elia MacNeal

Maggie Hope has been under the spell of the ‘black dog’ for what seems like an eternity.

Her depression and post traumatic stress are taking over her life.

She can hardly remember what life was like before she became a spy and had her life turned upside down.

She’s been throwing herself into her work as a trainer at an elite spy institute in Scotland, trying to escape the ‘black dog’.

Maggie has nothing to distract her but her work. John Sterling and her are not on speaking terms, her mother faces death at the Tower of London, and as a spy she doesn’t have ‘friends’ that she can talk to either.

Depressed and alone, Maggie knows she needs to start moving on and getting it together but she just isn’t sure how.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Bone Church by Victoria Dougherty

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: The Bone Church by Victoria Dougherty

I recently had the pleasure of reading quite a few historic thrillers. It’s kind of a new genre for me but books like The Bookman’s Tale and The Lincoln Myth have piqued my interest and made me want to give the genre a shot .

I have also started reading a lot of spy novels as well, so when The Bone Church came around for review I couldn’t resist the unique combo of spy novel and historic thriller!

Wartime Prague is the stage where our novel is set. A pair of fugitive lovers, Felix Andel and Magdalena Ruza, make a bargain with a Catholic cardinal in 1956 to smuggle a woman from Czechoslovakia. The other half of this complex tale is set in German-occupied Prague during WWII.

Magdalena is a Jew while Felix is a gentile. They work underground as resistance or freedom fighters where there is an assassination plot in the works. With the end of WWII and the Nazi party rule in Prague, it seems like life for the Jews as well as the gypsies, will improve. However a new power is ripe to take over the war torn Eastern European country.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett

by The Lit Bitch8 Comments on Review: The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett

The socially awkward Peter Byerly is an antiquarian book collector who might have just made a huge discovery.

Peter might have just discovered a manuscript–possibly a new Shakespearean manuscript–which needless to say would be priceless!

Peter is in a bad spot, he’s just lost his wife nine months prior to the opening of the novel, and he’s really only ever loved two things…..books and Amanda. So now he’s left with only his books.

Living in America, he decides to leave behind his old life and go live in the country cottage in the English countryside that him and Amanda bought before her death.

Living in the cottage makes Peter somewhat of a recluse. But while flipping through some old books/papers, he finds a portrait of a woman that looks a lot like Amanda…..but the problem is, the portrait was painted 100 years before she was even born! Could it possibly be her? What is her connection to the painting?

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

by The Lit Bitch6 Comments on Review: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

I’ve been a fan of Jojo Moyes since I read Me Before You last year. Since then I’ve read two more of her novels, The Girl You Left Behind and Silver Bay.

I love her storytelling style and her romances are usually unique, touching, and compelling. However, the last novel I read by her, Silver Bay, lacked some of her usual magic so needless to say I was hesitant to review One Plus One.

The reviews I had seen online though made me decide to read One Plus One, in hopes of recapturing some of the magic from Moyes earlier novels. I was glad that I decided to give this one a shot.

This novel is a numbers game! Jess Thomas is a single mom with two kids and two jobs. Her kids are a little on the different side. The daughter, Tanzie, is a mathematical genius and her eyeliner wearing son Nicky struggles to fit in.

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