Literary Criticism
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Review: Messenger of Truth (Maisie Dobbs #4) by Jacqueline Winspear
So after reading the third Maisie book, I was kind of on a ‘Great War’ mysteries kick so I decided to continue on with the next book in the series, Messenger of Truth. I was impressed with how the third book developed and the next book sounded equally as intriguing that I just couldn’t help myself. This time Maisie is called to assist on what appears to be an accident. Up and coming controversial artist Nicholas Bassington-Hope is set to open an exhibit that has been receiving a lot of hype. The night before the big event, he takes a fall from the scaffolding, breaking his neck. It appears to…
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Review: The Violinist of Venice: A Story of Vivaldi by Alyssa Palombo
Oh how I love a great historical romance novel……add in some classical music and you have a wonderfully delightful read! Adriana d’Amato adores music, except there is one big problem….her father has forbidden her to cultivate her gift for the violin. But do you think that’s going to stop her? Of course not! She begins sneaking out of her family’s palazzo under the cover of night to take violin lessons from violinist and composer Antonio Vivaldi. However, what begins as secret lessons swiftly evolves into a passionate, consuming love affair. Adriana’s father is set on her marrying a wealthy man….and though this suitor has things to love, Adriana’s heart belongs to…
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Review: Pardonable Lies (Maisie Dobbs #3) by Jacqueline Winspear
I have had a love hate relationship with the Maisie Dobbs books over the years. I read the first one and just wasn’t overly impressed but I pressed on and read the second and again felt like I wasn’t connecting with the series in the way that I had hoped. But I keep pushing myself to read them because not only do I love the covers but I love the time period! I love books set either during the Great War or in the years immediately following in England. This should be a series that I fell in love with based on the setting but I struggled to really connect…
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Review: Where It Hurts (Gus Murphy #1) by Reed Farrel Coleman
What struck me as interesting about this novel was that it was set on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ section of Long Island. Most people think of the Hampton’s when they think of Long Island and of course all the wealth and privileged that that neighborhood entails. This book is set on the other side of Long Island. This immediately struck me as a gritty novel that promised almost ‘film noir’ like characters…..maybe ones that were hard boiled and morally questionable so I was drawn to this book for it promised something ‘different’. When we first meet Gus Murphy, though he is a retired cop, he is living in…
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Review: Midnight in St. Petersburg by Vanora Bennett
One woman and two suitors at the twilight of the Russian empire. This love story follows three very unlikely main characters, a Jewish girl running away from Jew hating South Russia, an Englishman working at famous Faberge shop and a radical Jew wanting to fight to live equally with the people of Russia. This story starts in Sept 1911, pre-revolutionary Russia. Inna Feldman has fled the pogroms of the south to take refuge with distant relatives in Russia’s capital city. Welcomed by the flamboyant Leman family, she is apprenticed into their violin-making workshop. Inna begins to feel at home in this very bohemian family but the fires of revolution are strong and…
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Review: Frozen Tides (Falling Kingdoms #4) by Morgan Rhodes
This book was one of the first books I’ve put on pre-order in a long time! I was originally only lukewarm with this series after the first book, but then things started getting really interesting in the following books! So needless to say I was greatly anticipating the release of this novel! The last time we were in Mytica, a lot of things were up in the air. Cleo and Magnus are in Limeros trying to figure out what to do now that Magnus has basically committed treason to save Cleo. Felix and Jonas have parted ways and Felix is back working for the King of Blood while Jonas is fighting to…
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Review: A Prisoner in Malta by Phillip DePoy
Someone is plotting to kill Queen Elizabeth. The Queen’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham has changed the nineteen year old Christopher Marlowe with tracking down the truth of this impending threat. The only thing anyone knows for sure is there is a prisoner who has information about the plot and Walsingham feels sure that Marlowe can rescue the prisoner and discover what there is to know about the threat. Christopher Marlowe has quite the reputation….he’s known as a brawler, womanizer, genius, and social upstart at Cambridge. His investigation will take him through a treacherous world of Catholic sympathizers, the Spanish government, and double agents…..this isn’t going to be an open and…
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Review: The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
Kristin Chapman agrees to let her husband, Richard, host his brother’s bachelor party. Like most women, she knows what goes on at bachelor’s parties and expects a certain amount of salacious activity. What she does not expect is this: excessive drunkenness, her husband sharing a dangerously intimate moment in the guest room, and two women stabbing and killing their Russian bodyguards before driving off into the night. In the aftermath, Kristin and Richard’s life rapidly spirals into nightmare. Their home is now a crime scene, Richard is on leave from his job, and Kristin is unsure if she can forgive her husband for the moment he shared with a dark-haired girl in…
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Review: The Journey of the Penguin by Emiliano Ponzi
Many of you know that I’ve been a huge supporter of Penguin Books….Penguin always has great classic editions and their cover designs are some of my absolute favorites! So when this fun little picture book about THE penguin at Penguin Books came across for review, I had to check it out! Here is a little bit about the book: A lonely Antarctic penguin, dreaming of adventure, sets off on a long swim north. Arriving at last in London in 1935, he encounters the chance of a lifetime: auditions are on to find the face of a brand new publishing house. The penguin wins, of course, and so begins an adventure…
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Review: Daughter of Sand and Stone by Libbie Hawker
I love reading about women in antiquity…..especially about women that I don’t know much about. So when this book about Zenobia came across my nightstand for review, I was intrigued. Especially because I know virtually nothing about Zenobia…..I even had to Google her so I could at least put a name to the ‘face’ in antiquity. Zenobia, the proud daughter of a Syrian sheikh, refuses to marry against her will. She won’t submit to a lifetime of subservience. When her father dies, she sets out on her own, pursuing the power she believes to be her birthright, dreaming of the Roman Empire’s downfall and her ascendance to the throne. Defying…