The Lit Bitch

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo

August 17, 2015August 7, 2015by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment

Ravka has fallen and now the Darkling rules and the people look to Alina, the Sun Summoner for liberation.

Alina has taken refuge in the tunnels below the city where the Apparat and his zealots treat her like a saint. But deep below the ground Alina is weakened. She can’t summons her power and she continues to grow weaker.

After months below ground, her loyal friends help free her and they continue on their quest to bring together the three amplifiers. Without all three amplifiers they don’t stand a chance against the Darkling.

In order to gain an upper hand, Alina must learn as much about the Darklings past as she can, but his secrets will forever change her. She must use the bond between them to understand not just his power but hers as well. But through that bond, Alina grows closer and closer to the Darkling.

The last amplifier is the elusive fire bird…..she must find it and with Mal’s tracking skills she should be able to find it quickly. But the fire bird might actually be closer than any of them originally thought. But will Alina be able to pay the sacrifice that obtaining the fire bird requires?

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Books, Reading

Book Blast: THE ENCHANTRESS OF PARIS by Marci Jefferson

August 14, 2015August 7, 2015by The Lit Bitch1 Comment

Enchantress of Paris: A Novel of the Sun King’s Court
by Marci Jefferson

Publication Date: August 4, 2015
Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover & eBook; 336 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

READ AN EXCERPT.

Fraught with conspiracy and passion, the Sun King’s opulent court is brought to vivid life in this captivating tale about a woman whose love was more powerful than magic.

The alignment of the stars at Marie Mancini’s birth warned that although she would be gifted at divination, she was destined to disgrace her family. Ignoring the dark warnings of his sister and astrologers, Cardinal Mazarin brings his niece to the French court, where the forbidden occult arts thrive in secret. In France, Marie learns her uncle has become the power behind the throne by using her sister Olympia to hold the Sun King, Louis XIV, in thrall.

Desperate to avoid her mother’s dying wish that she spend her life in a convent, Marie burns her grimoire, trading Italian superstitions for polite sophistication. But as her star rises, King Louis becomes enchanted by Marie’s charm. Sensing a chance to grasp even greater glory, Cardinal Mazarin pits the sisters against each other, showering Marie with diamonds and silks in exchange for bending King Louis to his will.

Disgusted by Mazarin’s ruthlessness, Marie rebels. She sacrifices everything, but exposing Mazarin’s deepest secret threatens to tear France apart. When even King Louis’s love fails to protect Marie, she must summon her forbidden powers of divination to shield her family, protect France, and help the Sun King fulfill his destiny.

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Hot New Release This Week: THE DRESSMAKER by Rosalie Ham

August 13, 2015August 7, 2015by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment

A darkly satirical novel of love, revenge, and 1950s haute couture—soon to be a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth

This novel is the perfect fit for the dog days of summer: Ham sets her tale of haute couture and revenge in small-town Australia, where the nosy neighbors think they know all your business and don’t like any of it one bit. Sometimes if you can’t beat the heat you have to embrace it, and this novel will have you steamed up alongside dressmaker Tilly Dunnage and the curious cast of characters that populate the town of Dungatar.

After twenty years spent mastering the art of dressmaking at couture houses in Paris, Tilly Dunnage returns to the small Australian town she was banished from as a child. She plans only to check on her ailing mother and leave. But Tilly decides to stay, and though she is still an outcast, her lush, exquisite dresses prove irresistible to the prim women of Dungatar.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Once Upon a Crime (A Brothers Grimm Mystery #2) by P. J. Brackston

August 12, 2015August 7, 2015by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment

Gretel (yes, that Gretel) is a plump 35 year old woman, still living with her brother Hans and working as a private investigator.

She has just received a new case….while it’s nothing glamorous, it is still a case. Gretel is charged with finding three abducted cats. Not three missing cats….three stolen kitties! Her client assures Gretel that the cats would never just run away, someone must have taken them but she has no idea why.

Reluctantly Gretel accepts….she feels that her skills would be better suited for something better, but she takes the case anyway.

In the mean time, the small Bavarian town of Gesternstadt is about to be rocked to its foundations by a murder. The workshop of a local cart maker is burnt to the ground and Gretel’s nemesis, Kapitan Strudel, is called in to investigate.

Gretel pauses to greet Strudel and see what she can find out about the fire, when she discovers a body in the ashes…..a body that is missing a finger and holding a bell from one of her client’s cats! Could it be coincidence? Did the cats die in the fire? Did the person die trying to save the cats?

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