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Review: Victoria by Daisy Goodwin
I am going to preface this post by saying that Queen Victoria is absolutely my favorite queen! I’ve had my eye on this book for MONTHS waiting for it to come out. When this came up for review I literally jumped for joy. So I was already geared up to love this one but my biggest fear was that because I was so excited to read it that I didn’t want to be let down if it wasn’t good. Well my fears were entirely unfounded! This was an excellent read! Less than a month after her eighteenth birthday, a young Alexandrina Victoria is roused from bed with the news that…
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Review: At the Edge of Summer by Jessica Brockmole
A couple of years ago I read Jessica Brockmole’s debut novel, LETTERS FROM SKYE and it was one of my most favorite books! I loved it! So when her follow up novel AT THE EDGE OF SUMMER came out, I was eager to read it and see if it too had the same magic as her first novel. Luc Crépet is accustomed to his mother’s bringing wounded creatures to their idyllic château in the French countryside, where healing comes naturally amid the lush wildflowers and crumbling stone walls. Yet his maman’s newest project is the most surprising: a fifteen-year-old Scottish girl grieving over her parents’ fate. A curious child with…
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Review: The Lake House by Kate Morton
Alice Edevane grew up in a charming lake house on Cornwall coast just after the Great War. Cornwall is a mystical place that inspires imagination and welcomes thoughts of magic. A perfect place to inspire a young girl to write. Alice always knew she wanted to be a writer and living in a large home full of people with their own ‘stories’ she couldn’t help but write them down. But one summer, the unthinkable happens….her brother disappears without a trace never to be seen again. Alice thinks she knows what happened and for the next seventy years she harbors extreme guilt. Now a successful mystery writer, Alice buries her secret deep…
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Review: Longbourn by Jo Baker
Reader beware…..if you love Jane Austen and are looking for something that will give you a new ‘perspective’ about the Bennet sisters, keep on looking. Sure this novel includes the Bennet sisters and follows the traditional Pride and Prejudice story but that’s about it. Jo Baker remakes the classic story of Pride and Prejudice from the perspective of the below stairs staff but yet it’s a story all its own and noting close to the Austen classic. Sarah has been a maid at Longbourn since she was a child. She cleans the chamber pots, scrubs the laundry, polishes the floor and of course waits on the Bennet sisters.
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Announcement: Winner BLACK DIAMONDS by Catherine Bailey
And the winner of BLACK DIAMONDS by Catherine Bailey is….. Anne (commented on blog post) 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!
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Giveaway: BLACK DIAMONDS by Catherine Bailey
Are you going through Downton Abbey withdrawals? I don’t know about you but I know I am! If you are longing for more history and mystery from this exciting era in English history this book is going to be exactly what you are looking for! Thanks to the publisher, I am ecstatic to be able to offer a copy of Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey for your enjoyment! Giveaway runs 2/19/15 to 2/26/15 Winners will be announced 2/27/15. (how to enter) On this blog you must leave a comment to be entered in the giveaway. Your comment MUST include your email so I can contact you….if you do not enter an email in the…
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Review: Black Diamonds: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England by Catherine Bailey
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Catherine Bailey chronicles the rise and fall of the Fitzwilliam coal mining dynasty in Yorkshire England. The Fitzwilliam family was at one time, one of the wealthiest families in all of England. So how does this extensive fortune and massive house end up on the real estate market in 2014 in need of mass repairs? Well that’s what Bailey decides to find out. What follows is this outstanding narrative about the rise and fall of this aristocratic family, a fortune worth 3 billion pounds by today’s standards, and a family full of salacious scandal, family feuds, and dark secrets. This book was scandalous and…
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Review: Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman (Lady Montfort Mystery #1) by Tessa Arlen
A Downton Abbey-esque murder mystery? Yes please! Lady Montfort is eagerly anticipating and planning her annual costume ball. Every year she tries to out do herself and plan an over the top event. Well what would be more memorable than discovering a body? Teddy is not the most endearing victim. Teddy was the nephew of Lord Montford who was constantly involved in scandal. Most recently he was involved in a gambling ring at Oxford that caused him the be expelled. Having him home for the costume ball is not exactly the most desirable scenarios but he is after all family. Well while taking a stroll around her property before the…
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Review: An Affair Downstairs (Thornbrook Park #2) by Sherri Browning
Though not a baron himself, Logan Winthrop, is from a wealthy family. But he has a colored past. It’s rumored that he killed a man and now lives in shame as an estate manager at Thornbrook Park. Things are more or less tolerable for Logan…that is until the feisty Lady Alice Emerson sets her sights on him. Lady Alice has zero interest in marriage but her sister, The Countess of Aberford, intends to make an advantageous match for Alice one way or another. Alice has a bucket list of sorts….travel and most importantly, have a lover. Nothing major or long term, she just wants to make love once so she can…
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Review: Night of a Thousand Stars by Deanna Raybourn
Deanna Raybourn has been an author long on my radar. I hear wonderful things about her Lady Jane series from a number of people. So when the opportunity to review her latest standalone book, I was eager to try her books out! Poppy Hammond, is all set to marry into an aristocratic family but she has other plans which include making a run for it. She is assisted by the dashing curate Sebastian Cantrip who helps her escape to her family’s house where she can have some time to think and sort out her life. Before she can thank Sebastian for his assistance, he disappears and she sets her mind to…