Reading
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Special Feature: A Treacherous Curse (Veronica Speedwell #3) by Deanna Raybourn
The day is finally here…..A TREACHEROUS CURSE is finally out! I had this book on pre-order the instant I was done with the second book. This is one of my all time favorite mysteries and Deanna Raybourn is a fantastic writer of romance and blending it with mystery! If you haven’t read her books, start with the first book in the Veronica Speedwell series….you won’t be disappointed! If you have already discovered this series, then like me you have been waiting for almost a year for the next book and today it is finally available! London, 1888. As colorful and unfettered as the butterflies she collects, Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell can’t…
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Review: Artemis by Andy Weir
This book is everywhere. It’s all over my Instagram. It’s all over my Twitter. It’s front and center in every bookstore in my city. It won for best Sci Fi on Goodreads. The cover is interesting, eye catching, and cool! The hype around this book is real. People are basically fighting to read this book. So imagine my luck when I found it on the ‘Lucky Day’ display at my local library! I immediately check it out and was excited to see what all the fuss was about. Sci Fi isn’t a genre that I read a lot of but I love science and space and I loved The Martian…
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Review: Murder on Astor Place (Gaslight Mystery #1) by Victoria Thompson
My mom has been after me for years to read this book series. She has repeatedly send me copies of this book via inter district mail on a regular basis and then constantly asks me when I am going to start reading it. The series has also continued to pop up on my Goodreads recommended books page as well, so yes I had this book series on my TBR list for quite some time. I love all things gaslight and was excited when an opportunity arose that I could start it now rather than ‘someday’. Mother dear, AKA my biggest fan, should be thrilled to see this one is being…
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Review: Hearts of Resistance by Soraya M. Lane
This if my first official book of 2018….the first one that I read and reviewed this year. I read Lane’s earlier novel, Wives of War, back in June and was really impressed with her ability to write interesting characters and a romance that I was invested in. When Hearts of Resistance came up, it was an easy yes for me to review and I was thrilled to read it and see how Lane’s writing grew in the next book and what sort of romance was in store. At the height of World War II, three women must come together to fight for freedom, for the men they love—and for each…
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Special Feature: The Secret Life of Mrs. London by Rebecca Rosenberg
The Secret Life of Mrs. London by Rebecca Rosenberg Publication Date: January 30, 2018 Lake Union Publishing eBook & Paperback; 348 Pages Genre: Historical Fiction San Francisco, 1915. As America teeters on the brink of world war, Charmian and her husband, famed novelist Jack London, wrestle with genius and desire, politics and marital competitiveness. Charmian longs to be viewed as an equal partner who put her own career on hold to support her husband, but Jack doesn’t see it that way…until Charmian is pulled from the audience during a magic show by escape artist Harry Houdini, a man enmeshed in his own complicated marriage. Suddenly, charmed by the…
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Review: The Lost Season of Love and Snow by Jennifer Laam
This is my first book review of 2018 and I couldn’t have picked a better book to kick things off with. Though I read this in 2017, I am ringing in the new year with love and snow! There is something about Jennifer Laam’s writing that I find so lovely and elegant. It’s hard to describe but her books are consistently good and well written which made me all the more anxious to read this one! At the age of sixteen, Natalya Goncharova is stunningly beautiful and intellectually curious. But while she finds joy in French translations and a history of Russian poetry, her family is more concerned with her…
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Review: The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty
As 2017 comes to an end, I couldn’t ask for a better book to close out the year with. This book was all over my Instagram feed for weeks and it was also on Book of the Month so it basically got a lot of hype. I was really hesitant because of the hype, but believe me when I say—the hype is real! Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned…
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Review: Our Lady of Guadalupe: Mother of the Civilization of Love by Carl A. Anderson, Eduardo Chávez
I don’t often read a lot of nonfiction but ever once in a while a book catches my eye that I simply must read and that’s what happened with this book. Our Lady of Guadalupe’s feast day is Dec 12 and even though I am a Catholic myself (albeit a new one), I wasn’t very familiar with anything to do with her. I first started becoming interested in Our Lady back when I was living in Arizona over ten years ago. In Arizona she is huge as there is a large Hispanic population there. It was amazing to see the devotional level to Our Lady yet as a non-Hispanic person,…
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Review: The Woman in the Camphor Trunk (Anna Blanc Mysteries #2) by Jennifer Kincheloe
About a couple of years ago, I read the first Anna Blanc mystery and was in love with her character and eager to see the romance develop between her and Joe. It seemed an age before the next book would come out but then suddenly it was out and I quickly picked it up from my library before anyone else could get their hands on it! This time we find a very different Anna from the Anna we met in the first book. A once rich society girl, we now find a poor Anna struggling to get by. Los Angeles, 1908. In Chinatown, the most dangerous beat in Los Angeles,…
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Review: Mumpreneur on Fire by Estelle Keeber
Like many mom’s the decision to stay home or return to work was agonizing. It was a topic of discussion in our house for months after my little boy was born. Like many mom’s I returned to work after 3 months maternity leave but it was awful. So much so, that my husband and I made some sacrifices so I could eventually stay home full time. It’s hard only having one income and I often find myself wondering how other mom’s do it. I am personally not crafty so cottage industries are out for me, and I am terrible at selling things so direct sales are also out. I am…