Reading
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Special Feature and Excerpt: The Last Book Shop in London by Madeline Martin
This book shot up to the top of the TBR list after I saw a number of my friends reading this one over on Instagram! It looks so good and I love the cover! Then I started reading this little excerpt below and I couldn’t wait to download a copy of this book! This book has it all—emotion, history, love, loss, and of course a bookstore! I am really looking forward to it! It has also been met with really high praise from a number of early reviews. If you are a reader and book lover, there is no way you cannot not love this book. I mean the characters…
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Review: The Smuggler’s Daughter by Kerry Barrett
This book’s cover is positively stunning and that’s how it ended up on my TBR list! I love the tempestuous looking sky, rocky coastline, and the pale peach of the girl’s dress on the cover. It suggests innocents and yet something stormy brewing in the sea. Not to mention the title suggests adventure! I love books set on the coast, it’s something so instantly atmospheric about it. Author Kerry Barrett, has written a couple of other books and while they sound good, this is the one that would naturally stand out to me. I love the description of the book and the setting, and as I noted before, the cover…
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Special Feature: Courage, My Love by Kristin Beck
If there is one historical fiction trend I am loving this year, it’s more WWII books set in Italy! So many WWII books are set in England or France and while I love WWII historical fiction books, the setting never feels original or different. But this year I have seen a number of WWII historical fiction books set in Italy and I am 100% here for that! I think there are so many untold stories from that area during that time, and I am so excited to read more about that time and location in history! This book right here has caught my eye on a number of levels too!…
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Review: A Wicked Conceit (Lady Darby Mysteries #9) by Anna Lee Huber
I have been a long time fan of all Anna Lee Huber’s books, but the Lady Darby series stands out as a favorite of all her books. I will gladly clear my calendar for any upcoming Anna Lee Huber book because they are just that good! This book is the ninth in the series and I will say that I encourage readers to start this series from the beginning. Some of the books could be read out of order but there are relationships and back stories that spread across multiple books, thus making it difficult for readers to fully appreciate the nuances of the characters and the mysteries. This book…
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Special Feature: The Virgin and the Viscount by Robyn DeHart
Publication Date: April 12, 2012Entangled Publishing/Scandalous Series: Lords of Vice, Book FourGenre: Historical Romance As a Lady of Virtue, Matilda Brooks swears to reform the most despicable man of her acquaintance, her brother-in-law, Sullivan Chase, Viscount Glenbrook. Well he may not be the most despicable, but he is certainly arrogant, flirtatious, and entirely too charming. To make matters worse, he has the irritating tendency to poke fun of her and rile her emotions as no other man does. However, when she confronts him, he laughs off her concern about his slothful ways. But when a carriage accident forces Sullivan to play knight to Tilly’s damsel, his unexpected act of chivalry…
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Special Feature: The Test of Gold by Renee Yancy
Heiress Evangeline “Lindy” Lindenmayer has been groomed since childhood to marry into the British aristocracy as her mother’s ultimate ambition is a royal title for the family name. But literature fascinates Lindy far more than ballgowns, and she spends all her free time in the library, the only room in the Fifth Avenue mansion where she can safely indulge her passion for reading and find refuge from the prying eyes of her mother. Jack Winthrop is studying for the ministry at Union Theological Seminary and has been invited to use the Lindemayer’s library for his studies. His sole experience of upper-class young women has occurred at his uncle’s church, where…
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Special Feature: Finding Napoleon by Margaret Rodenberg
The name Napoleon is arguably one of the most recognized names in history. Most people know Napoleon Bonaparte as the short guy in a funny hat who wanted to be Emperor and conquer the world. But he was so much more than that, including a lover of beautiful women. I first learned about Napoleon when I was in 5th grade and tasked with doing a research project on a figure in world history. While all the other kids picked cool people like Alexander the Great or Henry the VIII, I randomly grabbed a book on Napoleon mostly because I liked his weird hat. It was that random choice that launched…
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Review: In a Book Club Far Away by Tif Marcelo
I have read a couple of Tif Marcelo’s books and I have to say that my favorite has been The Key to Happily Ever After. Her books are always so great and written with so much heart and perspective not to mention rich with family relationship complexities. I have really enjoyed reading them and when I saw that her latest novel In a Book Club Far Away, was a Book of the Month pick, I was even more excited to get my hands on it! Even though I had a digital copy of the book to read, I did make this one my BOTM pick not just because the book…
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Special Feature: The Age of Decadence: A History of Britain: 1880-1914 by Simon Heffer
I don’t read a ton of non fiction or history books anymore. I mean I kind of got my fill when I was doing my masters in history. It’s not that I don’t love history or reading non fiction history books, but I have to been in the mood for one. I do love history books, but for the most part, I lean toward novels and fiction or mysteries. But ever once in a while a great history book catches my eye. One of my favorite periods in history is that odd few years between the Victorian era and WWI. It was a time of elegance and riches the likes…
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Review: What the Devil Knows (Sebastian St. Cyr #16) by C. S. Harris
I absolutely love Sebastian St Cyr. I read the entire series last year in one long binge read. I adore the books and even if some of them have fallen into a bit of a formula, I still enjoy the characters so much. This one was high up on my TBR pile. I always set aside time in the early spring to read a new Sebastian mystery and I am never sorry about that. The mysteries are intelligent, a little on the gritty side, and full of questionable characters all with their own motives. Going into this one, I was fully ready for just that and I wasn’t disappointed! But…