Books
-
Spotlight Feature: THE BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN by Jeanne Mackin
The Beautiful American by Jeanne Mackin Publication Date: June 3, 2014 NAL/Penguin Group Formats: eBook, Paperback, Audio 352 Pages Genre: Historical Fiction As recovery from World War II begins, expat American Nora Tours travels from her home in southern France to London in search of her missing sixteen-year-old daughter. There, she unexpectedly meets up with an old acquaintance, famous model-turned-photographer Lee Miller. Neither has emerged from the war unscathed. Nora is racked with the fear that her efforts to survive under the Vichy regime may have cost her daughter’s life. Lee suffers from what she witnessed as a war correspondent photographing the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.…
-
Review: The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and Her Frankenstein by Antoinette May
Mary Shelley was the daughter of the iconic feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and her husband William Godwin. She has not had a normal childhood….she’s been exposed to all kinds of brilliant literary and philosophical figures. But she has also suffered tragedy, Mary never knew her mother. Her mother died shortly after giving birth to Mary, so the only family she has ever known was her half sister Fanny and her father. Well, Mary’s life is about to get more complicated and uncomfortable when her father remarries. William has only ever really loved one woman, Mary Wollstonecraft, so when he remarries his neighbor Mary Jane Clairmont she is pretty jealous of Wollstonecraft’s memory.…
-
Review: The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne (Verlaque and Bonnet #5) by M. L. Longworth
This book combined three of my favorite things…..art, France, and mystery. Judge Antoine Verlaque is enjoying his life and work in the small town of Aix-en-Provence. Provence was once home to the art worlds most famous painters, Paul Cezanne. A friend in Judge Verlaque’s cigar club asks him to visit René Rouquet, a man who not only lives in Cezanne’s old apartment, but thinks he found a previously unknown Cezanne portrait. When the Judge and his friend arrive at Rouquet’s apartment, they are shocked to find him dead…..and the canvas is missing. After tracking down the canvas, the Judge and his girl friend Marine Bonnet, begin looking into the canvas’s authenticity. The woman in the portrait is clearly…
-
Giveaway: THE SECRET CHORD by Geraldine Brooks
Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage. Brooks’ primary narrator is David’s counselor and friend the prophet Natan who sets down the best and worst of David: the light and the dark, the betrayals, deaths, kindness, baseness, and soaring above all, the unparalleled music that he created. THE SECRET CHORD provides new context for some of the best-known episodes of David’s life while also focusing on others, even more remarkable and…
-
Review: Paris Time Capsule by Ella Carey
Cat Jordan is about to get the surprise of her life when she opens a mysterious letter from Paris. Cat has been working as a photographer and basically lives a very bohemian lifestyle. She has a boyfriend, Christian, who she has been with for a while who is much different than she is…..his family is very wealthy and he is very traditional. Basically they are complete opposites but it seems to be working….ish. Well Cat finally decides to open the mysterious letter, only to find that she has inherited something…..from a woman she has never heard of! Side note, why can’t this sort of thing happen to me?! Cat calls…
-
Review: Nerve by Dick Francis
Steeplechase is an equestrian sport that takes a very special kind of athlete. Jockeys have to be a little crazy, fearless, and sort of adrenaline junkies to enter into the sport. Rob Finn has that special combination of crazy and fearless….all he cares about is racing and winning. Literally nothing else matters to him. Finn is working his way up in the steeplechase world and basically has nerves of steel but he is always picked to ride second rate horses. Then the day comes where he is in the right place at the right time, a fellow jockey takes a spill and Finn is hired to ride in his place. But then Finn…
-
Review: Lamb Black, Wolf Grey by Paula Brackston
Artist Laura Matthews and her husband Dan and decided to move to the Welsh countryside for a couple of reasons. They have enjoyed their lives in the city but for Laura, she hopes that living in the country will inspire not only her artwork, but also a baby. Dan and Laura have tried repeatedly for a baby and nothing has seemed to work. Laura hopes that the relaxed environment will help them achieve what they both desire, and she hopes that living there will help ease some of the other difficulties in their marriage. Dan on the other hand is not terribly excited about living in the remote area but…
-
Review: Avelynn by Marissa Campbell
Avelynn, a Saxon noblewoman in 869, has enjoyed luxuries that most women of her time haven’t. Her father is a lord and allows her to attend gatherings and she eventually hopes to rule her lands….the last things she expects is for her father to marry her off. Her father has allowed her to have a say in her suitors but with the threat of a Viking invasion and growing tensions abroad, his patience is wearing thin with her being picky. Avelynn continues to reject just about every suitor that presents himself….her parents’ marriage was a love match so why shouldn’t her’s be one as well? Well, her father has tolerated just…
-
Review: A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell Mystery #1) by Deanna Raybourn
Veronica Speedwell is finally free from her spinster aunts! Not that she is rejoicing in their deaths or anything but she has longed to be free to travel the world in pursuit of butterflies and a few romantic liaisons. She is not just an amateur butterfly collector, but a scientist, lepidopterist, and lover of natural science in particular. When a mysterious German baron shows up on the day of her aunt’s funeral proclaiming that it is a matter of life and death that she come with him to London, she agrees but not because she is afraid for her life but because he promises a free ticket to London. When they…
-
Spotlight and Excerpt: THE OUTLANDER KING by Hilary Rhodes
The Outlander King (The Aetheling’s Bride, Book 1) by Hilary Rhodes Publication Date: June 1, 2015 Amazon/Smashwords eBook; 476 Pages ASIN: B00XM9QJ1K Genre: Historical Fiction The story of The Lion and the Rose and the Norman Conquest continues in this spellbinding new historical fiction series from author Hilary Rhodes, pulling back the curtain on the lives of two remarkable women connected across centuries: Aislinn, a seventeen-year-old English girl caught up in the advancing army of the “outlander king,” the man who will become known to history as William the Conqueror. Thrust into the center of the new Norman court and a dizzying web of political intrigue and plotting princes,…