Special Feature and Giveaway: What Maisie Knew by Henry James

The classics are making a vivacious come back to the silver screen this year! This year we have seen modern takes on old favorites with such blockbusters as Anna Karenina, Les Misérables and The Great Gatsby.

The Henry James classic, What Maisie Knew, has also been made into a feature film!

Though there hasn’t been as much buzz about this film as some of the others, it has been highly praised by the critics after its debut at the Toronto Film Festival in Sept 2012.

The movie has now been released to the masses in May and continues to   garner much critical praise for the performances of Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgård, Steve Coogan, and the young Onata Aprile.

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Review: His Majesty’s Hope (Maggie Hope Mystery #3) by Susan Elia MacNeal

Maggie Hope has finally gotten the opportunity she has been waiting for to prove herself. After serving as a secret agent and saving Princess Elizabeth in the previous book, Maggie’s performance has earned her a full-fledged membership into the newly formed black ops organization. She is now a Special Operations Executive—or more commonly known as a spook.

Britain plans to drop her behind enemy lines in Germany where she will bug the office of a high ranking Nazi official who just happens to be her estranged mother. The mission is only supposed to last a couple of days—in and out. But when an opportunity presents itself for Maggie to stay on longer and further infiltrate the German society, she decides to press her luck.

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Review: The Fifth Knight by E.M. Powell

Sir Benedict Palmer and a group of four other mercenaries were to arrest one of England’s most powerful men, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. But what was supposed to be a simple arrest quickly turns deadly.

Sir Palmer suspects the real target was a beautiful nun named Theodosia. The knight in charge of the arrest party, Fitzurse, means to kidnap Theodosia and also her missing mother. Sir Palmer is puzzled by this and begins questioning the motives of the other knights.

He frees Theodosia and helps her escape Fitzurse’s clutches but they must now rely on each other to survive and try and get to her mother before Fitzurse does. But there’s a big problem….Theodosia can’t get the image of the murdered Thomas Becket out of her head. Even though Sir Palmer didn’t participate in the actual murder, he was one of the five knights who invaded the cathedral.

Theodosia doesn’t trust Sir Palmer, but she really has no choice but to trust him since he is helping her after all and trying to save her life. They dodge danger and Fitzurse’s knights at every turn trying to stay one step ahead!

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Review: Royal Mistress by Anne Easter Smith

Jane Lambert is not exactly a woman of means. She is a merchant’s daughter but what she lacks in monetary value and peerage, she makes up for in wit, intellect, charm, and beauty.

Jane’s father is quick to be rid of her though, and thus arranges a match between a colleague, William Shore, and Jane.

William is much older than Jane and clearly not interested in her female charms….under any circumstance but he hopes a marriage to her will mean advancement for his business.

The negotiations move forward but Jane still holds out hope that a mysterious man she met by chance in the street will speak for her hand instead, the handsome and dashing Tom Grey.

She meets Grey in secret and tells him her father plans to marry her off unless he stands up and asks for her hand. She has no idea that Master Grey is really Lord Thomas Grey, the 1st Marquess of Dorset, the King’s step son. Grey rejects her because he is already married, and confesses that he really just wanted to bed her, not marry her.

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Review: The Chalice (The Crown #2) by Nancy Bilyeau

Henry VIII changed the face of England when he broke with the Catholic Church to marry his great love, Anne Boleyn. This decision was felt by all those at court and those in the monastic sects.

Joanna Stafford was once both a noble and a novice nun in training. Once King Henry made the choice to split from the church, Joanna struggles to make a common life for herself in the small village of Dartford.

As the world around her takes shape based on the whims of a tyrannical king, Joanna and those closest to her, feel King Henry’s decisions acutely.

All Joanna really wants is to start her tapestry business close to the priory and close to two men who fight for her heart: the dashing constable Geoffrey Scovill and a close friend and former friar, Edmund  Sommerville.

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