Review: The Arrangement by Ashley Warlick

M.F.K. Fisher is American’s most well known food writer. Her writing abilities created a new literary genre all about food….that’s some pretty impressive writing!

What isn’t known about this interesting woman, is much about her personal life. That’s what writer Ashley Warlick plans to do……create a more or less fiction account of a factual figure.

When we meet Mary Frances, she is young, restlessly married, and returning from her first sojourn in France……she is hungry, and not just for food.

She begins writing to impress friend and neighbor Tim, who seems to understand her better than anyone. Mary Frances and her husband, Al, no longer share the things that once bound them together—a good glass of wine, a fine meal, their creative and passionate energy.

After a night’s transgression, it’s only a matter of time before Mary Frances claims what she truly wants, plunging all three of them into a tangled triangle of affection that will have far-reaching effects on their families, their careers, and their lives.

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Announcement: Winner THE LAST DAYS OF MAGIC by Mark Tompkins

And the winner of THE LAST DAYS OF MAGIC by Mark Tompkins is…..

Tori (follows on Twitter)

The winner will be notified via email.

Thank you to everyone who entered and a huge thank you to the publisher for making this giveaway possible!

Review: A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) by V.E. Schwab

This book has been all OVER my social media feed for months but especially the last few weeks with the upcoming release of the second book in the series.

So I decided on a whim to try it out. The cover is totally eye catching and the premise for the story sounds intriguing, plus I haven’t read a really good fantasy in a while so I picked this book up.

Kell is one of the last Travelers, which is a rare magician who choose a parallel universe to visit. Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered (also home of Kell), and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London—but no one speaks of that now.

Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Lila Bard, a thief with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her ‘proper adventure’.

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Cover Reveal: The Gilded Cage by Judy Alter

02_The Gilded CageThe Gilded Cage
by Judy Alter

Publication: April 2016
eBook & Paperback

Genre: Historical Fiction

Born to a society and a life of privilege, Bertha Honoré married Potter Palmer, a wealthy entrepreneur who called her Cissy. Neither dreamed the direction the other’s life would take. He built the Palmer House Hotel, still famed today, and become one of the major robber barons of the city, giving generously to causes of which he approved. She put philanthropy into deeds, going into shanty neighborhoods, inviting factory girls to her home, working at Jane Addams’ settlement Hull House, supporting women’s causes.

It was a time of tremendous change and conflict in Chicago as the city struggled to put its swamp-water beginnings behind it and become a leading urban center. A time of the Great Fire of 1871, the Haymarket Riots, and the triumph of the Columbian Exposition. Potter and Cissy handled these events in diverse ways. Fascinating characters people these pages along with Potter and Cissy—Carter Harrison, frequent mayor of the city; Harry Collins, determined to be a loser; Henry Honoré, torn between loyalties to the South and North; Daniel Burnham, architect of the new Chicago—and many others.

The Gilded Cage is a fictional exploration of the lives of these people and of the Gilded Age in Chicago history.

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Review: The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell

This year seems to be the year of Jane Eyre re-imaginings! And I am not complaining in the least because I love the Brontes so I am gladly reading many of the re-imaginings that are coming out!

Needless to say, that’s what caught my eye about this latest novel, The Madwoman Upstairs!

The only remaining descendant of the Bronte family embarks on a modern-day literary scavenger hunt to find the family’s long-rumored secret estate, using clues her eccentric father left behind.

Samantha Whipple is used to stirring up speculation wherever she goes. As the last remaining descendant of the Bronte family, she’s rumored to have inherited a vital, mysterious portion of the Bronte’s literary estate; diaries, paintings, letters, and early novel drafts, a hidden fortune that’s never been shown outside of the family.

But Samantha has never seen this rumored estate, and as far as she knows, it doesn’t exist. She has no interest in acknowledging what the rest of the world has come to find so irresistible; namely, the sudden and untimely death of her eccentric father, or the cryptic estate he has bequeathed to her.

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