Books
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Review: A Bridge Across the Ocean by Susan Meissner
After reading Stars Over Sunset Boulevard, I was really impressed with Susan Meissner’s writing. I started out not really in the mood to read her book and then I was sucked into the story and enjoyed the characters and plot so much that I was pretty bummed when it was over. So obviously I had experience with Meissner’s writing before this book, so when it came across my desk for review it was an easy yes however her name wasn’t what caught my eye about this book. The name only cemented my acceptance to review it….what got me was the cover. I am absolutely in love with the beauty of…
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Review: Mortal Arts (Lady Darby Mystery #2) by Anna Lee Huber
After rapidly finishing the first Lady Darby book, I knew that I would need the next one. I didn’t care that the book cost $14.00 on my Kindle and I had tons of other books I could read….I had to know what happened to Gage and Kiera next! This book was much different than the first one and I think I liked it even more than the first book! I loved all the Gothic elements that this one had. The first book lacked some of my favorite elements but this one did NOT disappoint! Crumbling castle on the coast, a madman locked in the attic, an asylum looming ominously off…
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Review: Gone Without A Trace by Mary Torjussen
When I read mysteries, I typically read historical mysteries but from time to time, a modern psychological thriller captures my eye and I pick it up but I kind of have to be in the mood. Well the mood struck me when Gone Without A Trace came up for review. So what caught my eye about this one? Well I liked the tag line ‘no one disappears completely’. One of my favorite shows on ID TV is Disappeared, so books that deal with disappearances intrigue me because that tag line is so true and the not knowing drives the interest for me. Gone Without a Trace is a compulsive thriller about a…
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Review: The Anatomist’s Wife (Lady Darby Mystery #1) by Anna Lee Huber
After reading Anne Lee Huber’s novel Secrets in the Mist, I realized how desperate I was for another Gothic romance novel. I wasn’t really up for a murder mystery but everyone raved about Huber’s Lady Darby mysteries so I thought I would try out her well known mysteries that boast Gothic elements and romance. The Anatomist’s Wife was on my radar years ago when it released and I recall trying desperately to win a copy when it was published. I obviously didn’t win a copy, but I did try very aggressively for days. Then of course I moved on to some other novels only to have this one resurface again…
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Special Feature: A RING OF TRUTH (A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel #2) by Michelle Cox
Last year I had the pleasure of reading the first book in this series, A GIRL LIKE YOU. While I enjoyed the first novel, I wasn’t able to fit this second one into my review schedule for this spring but I still wanted to share the release of the next book with all my readers! A RING OF TRUTH picks finds the newly engages Inspector Howard and sweet Henrietta in quite the predicament…..meeting each other’s families! This is quite the difficult task because Clive has neglected to tell Henrietta that he is in fact the heir to the Howard estate and fortune, and Henrietta has just discovered that her mother…
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Review: Secrets in the Mist (Gothic Myths #1) by Anna Lee Huber
I have been craving a Gothic romantic suspense novel for a while, I just haven’t been able to find something more contemporary than Victoria Holt. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Victoria Holt but I just wanted something a little more up-to-date. I downloaded a sample of this one months ago but just never got around to starting it. So on a whim I decided to just read the sample and see how it was. I was completely hooked from the first couple of chapters! Foggy marshes, a chance encounter on a misty night, a handsome stranger masquerading as someone else, spies, and a damsel in distress? This book…
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Review: If I Could Tell You by Elizabeth Wilhide
Ahhh war romances how I love you! When this one came across my desk for review, I jumped at the chance to review it. The description was tantalizing and I just knew I had to read this one! For some reason I just love books about ill-fated or impossible romances and while this one had an adultery element, that wasn’t a deal breaker for me….in fact I was curious to see how that angle would work within the story. England, 1939: Julia Compton has a beautifully well-ordered life. Once a promising pianist, she now has a handsome husband, a young son she adores, and a housekeeper who takes care of…
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Special Feature: WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy
WAR AND PEACE is one of those novels that people always claim to have read but have never actually picked up the book because…..1400+ pages is A LOT of reading. I am not one of those people…..I freely admit I have NEVER read this book. I haven’t even attempted! At first the length scared me but after reading other lengthy books of this same caliber, I have since considered tackling this mammoth book! So I will be running a review of this one in June but in the mean time I wanted to call everyone’s attention to this beautiful edition from Penguin Classics! Full confession…..I decided to commit to review…
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Review: A Death by Any Other Name (Lady Montfort Mystery #3) by Tessa Arlen
I am always on the look out for new murder mysteries, preferably with a female lead ‘detectives’ and set in England. While this isn’t my first novel by this author, it felt new to me. I read Tessa Arlen’s first book in this series, DEATH OF A DISHONORABLE GENTLEMAN, back in early 2015 and though I wasn’t completely hooked at the beginning, I was invested enough to finish it and was rewarded for my tenacity. I didn’t read the second book in this series for some reason, but when the third book came up for review it sounded rather good so I decided to give her books another go. I…
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Special Feature: THE BOOK OF POLLY by Kathy Hepinstall
I have a soft spot for local writers and when I saw that this author lives in Portland, OR I had to at least do a special feature on her novel! This is an unforgettable story about the grip of love in a truly quirky family, told with a particular blend of sass and warmth. Polly is one of those can’t-forget-her female characters with whom readers are destined to fall in love, and her daughter Willow’s coming of age story is one to which both mothers and their daughters will relate. Publishers Weekly says, “Polly is a hybrid of Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies and Shirley MacLaine’s Ouiser Boudreaux in…