Category: Literary Criticism

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

Review: The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8) by Lauren Willig

by The Lit Bitch2 Comments on Review: The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation #8) by Lauren Willig

After diving back into the Pink Carnation series with the sixth book, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, I was eagerly ready to continue reading.

I have already read the seventh book so I moved on to The Orchid Affair instead. As with the previous books we meet a likable heroine in a decidedly awkward situation and a headstrong bachelor with the last thing on his mind being love.

While many of Willig’s books have a decidedly obvious formula, that has never turned me off to the series. I think what I love most is her ability to make me buy into the romance no matter how odd or challenging it is.

Veteran governess Laura Grey joins the Selwick Spy School expecting to find elaborate disguises and thrilling adventures in service to the spy known as the Pink Carnation. She hardly expects her first assignment to be serving as governess for the children of André Jaouen, right-hand man to Bonaparte’s minister of police.

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Review: A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3) by Deanna Raybourn

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3) by Deanna Raybourn

I’ve had my eye on this book since before it even had a title! I finished the second book and immediately started counting the days until this one was going to be released.

Fortunately I had the good luck to be approved for an ARC way back in Oct, because I literally don’t think I could have waited for the release in Jan 2018!

London, 1888. As colorful and unfettered as the butterflies she collects, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell can’t resist the allure of an exotic mystery—particularly one involving her enigmatic colleague, Stoker.

His former expedition partner has vanished from an archaeological dig with a priceless diadem unearthed from the newly discovered tomb of an Egyptian princess. This disappearance is just the latest in a string of unfortunate events that have plagued the controversial expedition, and rumors abound that the curse of the vengeful princess has been unleashed as the shadowy figure of Anubis himself stalks the streets of London.

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Review: The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia

by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment on Review: The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia

There was something about this book cover that reminded me of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series. I kind of thought that I was going to read a steampunk-esque romance with a little paranormal thrown in.

But considering that I have not actually read the Finishing School series, I think I can safely say that I had no idea what this book was going to be about other than maybe something YA with magic.

In a world of etiquette and polite masks, no one is who they seem to be.

Antonina Beaulieu is in the glittering city of Loisail for her first Grand Season, where she will attend balls and mingle among high society. Under the tutelage of the beautiful but cold Valérie Beaulieu, she hopes to find a suitable husband. Continue reading “Review: The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia” →

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Review: The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6) by Lauren Willig

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation #6) by Lauren Willig

After the fifth Pink Carnation book, I kind of felt like I needed a little break from the Pink Carnation series. And by little break I mean like five years….thats how long it’s been since I read one of the Pink Carnation books.

I love the series as a whole but the last book in the series that I read, just left me a little wanting in the uniqueness category.

So I abandoned it in favor of other books, though I always knew that someday I would come back to it because lets face it, I am in love with this series, but I needed  little time to step away from it and come back to it in order to love it.

Granted five years seems excessive, but it happened eventually.

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Review: The Vineyard by Maria Duenas

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Maria Duenas is not a familiar author to me at all. I’ve seen her most well known novel The Time in Between, come up on my recommended reading list more time that I can remember, but I just never think to give her books a second look.

I think mostly because her books seem to be more about culture and heaving than something I would normally read, however when her latest book THE VINEYARD came up for review, I loved the cover and the description sounded like it would be right up my alley.

It’s been compared to authors such as Kate Morton and Kristin Hannah which are big names so I thought, why not? It would be something different if nothing else.

Mauro Larrea sees the fortune that he had built after years of hardship and toil come crashing down on the heels of a calamitous event. Swamped by debts and uncertainty, he gambles the last of his last money in a daring move that offers him the opportunity to resuscitate his fortune. But when the unsettling Soledad Montalvo, wife of a London wine merchant, comes into his life, her passionate intensity lures him toward an unanticipated future.

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