Review: The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

I read one of Gill Paul’s novels last year and loved it. I was so excited to see that she was writing a novel about the Romanov family that was coming out in August. Rather than pick up one of her other novels, I decided to hold off and wait for this one to come out.

The Romanov tragedy is fascinating to me. It’s one of the greatest tragedies in modern history, but while I am fascinated by it, I haven’t actually read a lot about the family and the history or politics of the time.

This was one of the big reasons I was looking forward to this one. While it’s a fictionalized account of the family, I knew there had to be a lot of history intertwined in this one so I was eager to start it. I didn’t even read the summary when I saw it, I just say that it was about the Romanov family and written bu Gill Paul, I didn’t need to know anymore than that. Continue reading “Review: The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul”

Review: Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolution by by Kate Quinn, Sophie Perinot, Laura Kamoie, Stephanie Dray, E. Knight, Heather Webb, Allison Pataki

Epic was the first thing that I thought of when I saw this book. There are six different writers in this book and that fact alone suggests that this book was going to have a huge scope. But to be honest, the amount of authors that contributed to this book, made me a little nervous.

There are a number of powerhouse writers here and all of them independently successful and excellent authors, but how would their varying styles work together and mesh into one novel?

That was my biggest hold out on this one. I know that many of these same authors have collaborated together to write multiple other works—but I haven’t read any of those other works so I was slightly nervous taking this one on, but I was so curious about the time period they would be exploring and I curiosity got the better of me. Continue reading “Review: Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolution by by Kate Quinn, Sophie Perinot, Laura Kamoie, Stephanie Dray, E. Knight, Heather Webb, Allison Pataki”

Review: The Lying Room by Nicci French

I have only read one of Nicci French’s books and that was the 5th book in her popular Frida Klein series. It was about three years ago when I first read that book and I recall feeling like I was missing out on a lot of the behind the scenes friendships and connections by picking up the series midway through.

Which is why I didn’t continue the series after that book. She has written a few other standalone books though and I was excited to see this one come across my desk for review since it was one of her first standalone novels in quite a while!

By picking up this standalone book, I hoped to get more of a feel for her writing rather than trying to sort out how the characters all knew each other. Continue reading “Review: The Lying Room by Nicci French”

Review: The Girl in the Castle (Deverill Chronicles #1) by Santa Montefiore (Audible Edition)

I read one of Santa Montefiore’s standalone novels recently and I couldn’t get enough of it. I loved Secrets of the Lighthouse and I was desperate to get my hands on another one of her novels.

I logged on to Audible and immediately downloaded this book, as the Deverill Chronicles had been highly recommended and is probably one of her most well known books.

Most of Montefiore’s novels are standalone but this book is the first in a series that spans 4 books so I knew it would be more epic in nature just based on the scope of this series and time periods each book covers. Continue reading “Review: The Girl in the Castle (Deverill Chronicles #1) by Santa Montefiore (Audible Edition)”

Review: Campusland by Scott Johnston

My sister works at Harvard as one of their librarians so any time I see a book about an ivy league college, I find myself drawn to it.

The summary of this book promised to include all the things that I find captivating about ivy league schools…..elitism and rich people problems. I couldn’t pass on this one because I was too drawn to the idea of it.

This is a book that I wouldn’t normally pick up in the store or really be drawn to if I’m being honest, but I liked the summary and the fact that this author is also a Yale alum. This is Scott Johnston’s first novel his having attended Yale, I think indicates he has first hand knowledge and even more authenticity to add to a book like this and made me eager to check it out. Continue reading “Review: Campusland by Scott Johnston”