Books
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Special Feature: A COLUMN OF FIRE (Kingsbridge #3) by Ken Follett
There is a reason that Ken Follett is a #1 best selling author–his novels are fantastic. I read his book THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH while I was visiting London in 2009 and never looked back. His writing was unparalleled and I loved that book with all my heart. I couldn’t put it down the entire vacation and I happened to be cathedral hopping in England so it was a fitting read to be sure. I didn’t continue on with the Kingsbridge series though, only because I felt like the way Pillars ended, it was enough. I was happy with where it ended and where all the characters were in…
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Review: A Strange Scottish Shore (Emmeline Truelove #2) by Juliana Gray
Sometimes you pick up a book in a series and immediately know you are going to love it. That’s what happened with this one. Just the cover and title alone was enough to entice me to read this one and next thing I know, within a couple of pages, I already know I desperately need the first book in the series. For a number of reasons though, not just because I liked Emmeline Truelove and wanted more, but mostly because I felt like I needed to know more about what was going on with the characters and the over all story. Scotland, 1906. A mysterious object discovered inside an ancient…
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Review: The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor
When you first glimpse the cover of this book, it doesn’t shout ‘magical realism’. It shouts ‘family saga’. At least to me it does. Admittedly, I skimmed the review pitch very lightly and didn’t really pay close attention to it because like it or not, I knew I would review this one based on the cover and title. It just sounded like a title that said ‘family saga’ in the vein of Kate Morton for some reason. Then you add in that cover and there you have it, I was convinced at face value that this was a family saga (something that I love). So imagine my surprise when there…
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Review: The One That Got Away by Melissa Pimentel
Unlike most Jane Austen fans, Pride and Prejudice is NOT my favorite by her Austen novel. Nor are the other more popular novels: Emma, or Sense and Sensibility. My favorite Jane Austen is the lesser known Persuasion. Of course all of her novels are fantastic and her heroines memorable, but none stood out to me more than Anne Elliot and her ever so charming, Captain Wentworth. So when I saw that the novel by Melissa Pimentel was a retelling of Persuasion, I was all eyeballs. Ruby and Ethan were perfect for each other. Until the day they suddenly weren’t. Now, ten years later, Ruby is single, having spent the last decade…
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Review: The Library of Light and Shadow (Daughters of La Lune #3) by M.J. Rose
MJ Rose has a talent for writing romantic, magical, and passionate historical fiction novels. I love her Daughters of La Lune series even if at times, the books didn’t end on a high note, overall they are really fun to read and have progressively improved between book I and book II. I was super excited to see this one come up for review, ironically I had just been wondering when the next Rose book was due out and I was thrilled to see that it was this one! Her writing style is sensual and lyrical and the story is almost always a promising romance, so you can’t go wrong with…
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Excerpt: THIEF’S MARK (Sharpe & Donovan #7) by Carla Neggers
With fall coming up, I am starting to move into mystery mode. There is something about the turning of the leave and the colder nights that just screams ‘read a mystery’. So as we go into fall, I thought it would share and except from the upcoming mystery, THIEF’S MARK by Carla Neggers. As a young boy, Oliver York witnessed the murder of his wealthy parents in their London apartment. The killers kidnapped him and held him in an isolated Scottish ruin, but he escaped, thwarting their plans for ransom. Now, after thirty years on the run, one of the two men Oliver identified as his tormentors may have surfaced.…
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Review: Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives
Person disappears in a museum? A museum mystery? With maps? Yes, yes and yes! Is what went through my mind when this one came up for review. The summary promised lots of tantalizing elements which is what drew me in for a review. Stella Krakus, a curator at Manhattan’s renowned Central Museum of Art, is having the roughest week in approximately ever. Her soon-to-be ex-husband (the perfectly awful Whit Ghiscolmbe) is stalking her, a workplace romance with “a fascinating, hyper-rational narcissist” is in freefall, and a beloved colleague, Paul, has gone missing. Strange things are afoot: CeMArt’s current exhibit is sponsored by a Belgian multinational that wants to take over…
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Review: The Luster of Lost Things by Sophie Chen Keller
When I got this book in the mail, the sweet dog on the over sitting with a little boy totally did me in. We all know how I feel about covers with animals on them…I’m a complete and utter sucker! What a way to lure readers….so cute and charming was this cover. Plus I love the blue and gold accents. Basically this was an easy yes for a review based on the cover. But the question for me was when can I work it in to my schedule? I was already pretty tight for early fall reviews so I had planned on Oct for this one. But the cover just…
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Review: How to Find Love in a Book Shop by Veronica Henry
Full disclosure…..the title of this book alone would make me want to read it and don’t even get me started on the charming cover. If you are a book lover and always dreamed of finding love in a bookshop then this is the book for you based on the title alone! A quaint bookshop in the Cotswolds and a town full of people all of whom have found love (in one way or another) all thanks to the town bookshop, Nightingale Books. As cheesy as it sounds I feel like every single person should have a HEA in this story. Everyone has a story . . . but will they get…
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Review: Cocoa Beach by Beatriz Williams
I am a total fan girl of Beatriz Williams, let’s just get that out of the way right off the bat. I love her books. She has a beautiful, lyrical story telling style and I am almost always completely engrossed in her novels! This novel was all over my Twitter feed for weeks and I broke down and bought it because I couldn’t pass up such an interesting sounding novel plus it’s set in WWI so you know I was all over that! Burdened by a dark family secret, Virginia Fortescue flees her oppressive home in New York City for the battlefields of World War I France. While an ambulance…