Literary Criticism
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Review: Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel by James Markert
This was a book that I wasn’t really thinking about, until the time for me to start reading it was upon me. For me, there was nothing that really stood out about it—not the cover, or the title, or even the description. I was beginning to wonder why I agreed to review it, but with a sigh, I had committed to reading it and thus I did. As soon as I started reading it, I began to let me misconceptions and preconceived notions fall away, as this book indeed had a lot to recommend itself and I think that there will be a number of people that will love this…
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Review: The Secret of Clouds by Alyson Richman
Alyson Richman is an author that I have had on my radar for quite a while now. She’s written a number of historical fiction books that I have been just dying to read—The Velvet Hours and The Lost Wife, I am looking at you! But for some reason, I have just not picked up either of them. I am not really sure why, but I just know that I see her name and I am like ugh, I need to read something by her! She when The Secret Clouds arrived in my mailbox, I was thrilled to read something by her. However, it looked like it was more of a…
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Review: An Artless Demise (Lady Darby Mystery #7) by Anna Lee Huber
Lady Darby has been a favorite heroine of mine for some time now. I only recently discovered the series a couple of years ago, but from the moment I started reading The Anatomist’s Wife, I was completely in love with her character. Reviewing this book was a no brainer. I have loved watching this series evolve and progress, shifting from mystery, to romantic suspense, and back to more mystery and I have loved every single book. Plus Huber is a wonderful writer with many of her books ranking highly on my recommended list! I have recommended all of her books to everyone I know and have loved seeing friends and…
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Review: The Summer Retreat (Moonlight Harbor #3) by Sheila Roberts
As a younger reader, I had a really hard time with women’s fiction. I felt too young to relate to any of the characters and like I could never fully understand or realize their struggles. But I also felt like I was too old for the YA genre—at least at that time. Now that I am almost forty, I feel like I can finally appreciate women’s fiction in its entirety so lately I’ve been really open to this genre and enjoying it so much! Sheila Roberts is a fairly well known author to me. I haven’t read any of her books, but I have seen them quite a bit in…
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Review: When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
I was beyond thrilled to receive this book on my desk for review. I had seen so many reviews for Cleeton’s novel, Next Year in Havana, which I still haven’t read yet—ugh—and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. However, her book wasn’t one that I ever thought to pick up on my multiple trips to my local bookstore. However, when this one magically appeared in my mailbox, I was so thrilled that I would finally be able to sample Cleeton’s writing with her latest novel! The cover looks like summer and the rainy afternoon that I picked this book up, was the perfect time for it.…
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Review: Royal Flush (Her Royal Spyness #3) by Rhys Bowen
My goal this spring is to get through this entire series before the next book is out this summer. I started with the last book in this series before I read any others so obviously I was more than a little out of the loop with the last book, but that didn’t make it ant less enjoyable and fun to read. But I felt like I was doing not only the author a disservice not reading the entire series, but I felt like I was doing myself a huge disservice. So I finally, finally finally, after years of having the first book forced upon me—-read the first book in the…
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Review: Glory Road by Lauren K. Denton
Southern fiction is a such a fun genre for me to read. I had never really differentiated books set in regional places, until I was in college and read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It was then that I fell in love with Southern fiction. It was very clear that books set in the South have a unique voice all their own and I simply can’t get enough. Whether it’s Southern Gothic (my absolute fav) or Southern romance, Southern beach reads, or Southern Women’s Fiction—I simply love it all, except there just aren’t a ton of books to pick from like there are for larger genres like…
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Review: The Lost History of Dreams by Kris Waldherr
This book has been on my radar for months. I basically stalked the authors Twitter page waiting to see when there would be ARC’s available and hoping that I would get picked to be an early reader! To say that this book has my name written all over it is an understatement. I love all things Victorian and Gothic and this book couldn’t have been more intriguing to me if it tried. It had everything I was looking for in a great Gothic read. I was beyond thrilled to get picked as an early reader and patiently waited to start the book so that I could savor every single aspect…
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Review: Death of a New American (Jane Prescott #2) by Mariah Fredericks
If you have been following me for just about any amount of time, it’s pretty clear that I love historical mysteries. Obviously this is a huge genre with mystery novels coming out of every period to fit just about every interest. So when I am looking for a new historical mystery, I want to read something that is either ‘new’ or different, or has an outstanding main character that can relate to. When this series came up for review, I hadn’t heard a thing about it. In fact I was actually kind of surprised that I hadn’t heard anything about it since it’s set at the turn of the century…
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Review: A Royal Pain (Her Royal Spyness #2) by Rhys Bowen
As you might have guessed, I am burning my way through this series at an alarming rate. Not even half way through the first book, I had to order the rest of the books in the series because I knew that I would be reading all of them in a matter of weeks. I have read the latest book in this series, Four Weddings and Maybe a Funeral (the last book to date)….I know—don’t ask me why but I read them completely out of order and I figured that I better remedy that situation and start from the beginning. But I wasn’t expecting to love this series as much as…