Reading Challenges
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Review: A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) by George R.R. Martin
Winter is coming. The Stark family motto rings in the ears of all the people of Winterfell….but it is ringing loudest in the ears Lord Stark himself…..winter is coming. A Game of Thrones is the first in George R. R. Martin’s epic high fantasy series , A Song of Ice and Fire. Let me just say, epic doesn’t begin to describe this series…..each book is roughly 800+ pages. The story itself is intricate and tedious….you really need to pay attention to what is going on but once you get use to the prose, flow, and points of view….you are rewarded with a richly designed and beautifully written story. Personally, I found…
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Review: The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4) by Lauren Willig
Dapper, dark, mysterious, and mature: Lauren Willig’s latest flowery spy novel, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose was the ‘changeling’ in the series. Each book follows the usual pattern of ‘romance’ between a dashing international man of mystery (typically of peerage) and a virginal debutant. The Crimson Rose is principally the same as the other books, but the love story between Lord Vaughn and Mary Alsworthy is more of an intimate, mature, intellectual love not like the previous books that are more of a fairytale romance….Vaughn and Mary for me were more like Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara. I was actually surprised that the love story was more intellectual in nature….based…
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Entry: Austen Murder Matchup Contest/Giveaway
An author friend of mine, Lynn Shepherd, is hosting a comparative book review contest on her blog. I couldn’t resist entering as the goal is to review two of the hottest Austen inspired murder mysteries on the market, Murder at Mansfield Park and Death Comes to Pemberley. Shepherd is putting both books together in a head to head compare and contrast style review contest. What is the goal of the comparative book review? I’m pitching these two Janeite murder mysteries together, head to head, to see which one you think comes out on top. I’m inviting anyone who’s read both books to write a short review comparing the two, and giving them…
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Review: Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James was literally DOA for me. It really tears me up when I have to write and unfavorable review, but I do have to call them like I see them, it’s only fair to my reads, fans, and authors. For me, Death Comes to Pemberley was a flatline. I really wanted to like it but I just could never really get into it which makes me very sad. With every page that I read I was hoping it would improve but I found it confusing at times and the characters flat. James begins with giving the ‘ridiculous short version’ recap of the original Jane…
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The Lit Bitch’s Year in Literature Wrap Up 2011
A Year in Literature Wrap Up–2011. Here are my stats and a quick recap 8 reading challenges entered 6 challenges completed 52 books read 22,645 pages total Want to see all the bitchin’ details about what I read this year? Click the ‘read more’ in this post to see the answers to all your favorite questions……. 🙂
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Review: The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3) by Lauren Willig
Letty Alsworthy has an appalling nasty habit of being whisked way by seemingly innocent carriages! What was it about her that made everyone within grabbing distance want to and act upon the sudden urge to toss her an anything with wheels, one would be abductor in particular–Lord Geoffrey Pinchingdale Snipe. In Lauren Willig’s latest Pink Carnation romantic spy thriller series, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, Letty Alsworthy finds herself in a precarious situation…her sister Mary is secretly engaged to Lord Pinchingdale and plotting to elope with him. Letty discovers the plot moments before Mary literally flies out the window right along with her reputation….Letty manages to get to Lord Pinchingdale’s…
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Review: City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare
Being a teenager is hard enough without the added stress of suddenly being able to see demons and other downworlders. In Cassandra Clare’s book, City of Bones (Mortal Instruments #1), Clarissa ‘Clary’ Frey has gone from being completely oblivious of the shadow world to suddenly being very much aware of demons, downworlders, and shawdowhunters. Clary and her best friend Simon are at a club in NYC when Clary witnesses three other teens kill a boy–well Clary thought he was a boy but really he was a demon–the three other teens are shawdowhunters that only she can see. When Clary gets home that night, she is still stunned by what she…
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Review: Letters In Cardboard Boxes by Abby Slovin
How do you want to be remembered? How would others see you? How would you see yourself? What if you didn’t remember who you were? That is precisely what happens in Abby Slovin’s novel Letters in Cardboard Boxes. Parker’s beloved grandma has suddenly become a stranger to her….confused and rapidly declining, Parker must face an alarming reality: her eccentric, loving grandmother is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Throughout her life Parker has come to rely on her grandma. While her parents have all but abandoned her, Parker has felt awfully alone with no one to shield her but her grandma. Parker’s grandma helps her cope with the abandonment of her parents…
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Review: The Masque of the Black Tulip (Pink Carnation #2) by Lauren Willig
If the Pink Carnation left you feeling a little wilted and longing to drink in the next flowery caped crusader….look no further, Lauren Willig’s The Masque of the Black Tulip, is sure to quench any lingering thirst readers had! Ravishing and bewitching, the whole Regency era upper-class turned spies with cute horticultural names thing is a force to be reckoned with…these books are simply amazing. I am reading them as part of the Regency & Victorian Reads Challenge over at the Royal Review’s blog. As I was about thirty or so pages out from finishing the first book, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, I had to stop myself,…
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Review: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (Pink Carnation #1) by Lauren Willig
I feel like I just entered the most interesting florist shop in London. I am surrounded by flowers….the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Purple Gentian, and of course the Pink Carnation….but wait I’m in a book! What the deuce are all these flowers doing in a book?? Granted…it’s decidedly less fragrant in the book than in a florist shop but still–what the deuce is going on here? Oh wait….I am reading Lauren Willig’s novel The Secret History of the Pink Carnation! Pink Carnation is just the beginning of the flowery Regency era series. We begin with Amy, born in France she and her mother flee the French Revolution across the Channel to…