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Review: City of Time and Magic (Found Things #4) by Paula Brackston
I have been a long time fan of Paula Brackston and I have read the other books in this series so naturally when this one came up for review, it was a no brainer to say ‘yes’. If you haven’t read the other books in this series, I would not start with this one. This book picks up where the last book left off and continues to build on the series and established characters. Brackston is known for the ‘witch books’ which I have enjoyed and they are not necessarily part of a ‘series’ but they all maintain similar themes of witchcraft and a bit of a love story. The…
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Review: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
I have had this book on my TBR for years. Like years. Every Halloween season, I tell myself that I am going to pick this one up. It’s on all the ‘most scary’ book lists and I have heard such great things about Sarah Waters. Not to mention this book features all the creepy things that I love best in the gothic—a family fallen from grace, a crumbling old mansion, a haunted house. I mean all the things that make the gothic what it is can be found in this book or at least promise to be! Well this year was finally they year for me to read this one.…
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Review: Parting the Veil by Paulette Kennedy
This book had me written all over it. Gothic romance—check. Brooding hero—check. Crumbling old creepy house on the moors—triple check. I needed this book so bad this Halloween season and I couldn’t wait to read it because it clearly had all the hallmarks of a quick read for me not to mention one that I would absolutely love for the ambiance. It literally took zero convincing for me to agree to read this book simply for all the atmosphere it promised. I think this book will delight readers who love Gothic romances (like me!) as well as historical fiction that is both familiar and yet different. This book has a…
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Review: Miss Moriarty, I Presume? (Lady Sherlock #6) by Sherry Thomas
This was one of the few series that I have started and didn’t care for but actually decided to go back and give another chance to because everything about this book series promised to be right up my alley! I was so glad that I decided to give it another go because I have fallen in love with the characters (especially Lord Ingram) and I have loved all the books so far! Obviously when this one came up, I couldn’t WAIT to see what some of my favorite characters had been up to since the last book plus things are really heating up when it comes to the Sherlock Holmes…
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Special Feature/Excerpt: Sisters of the Great War by Suzanne Feldman
You all should know by now that I am a sucker for a novel set during WWI. It’s my favorite historical era and military history is kind of my thing. There is something about the Great War that just speaks to a massive shift in tradition and truly takes the world into the modern era in a way that no other time period has really experienced. Any time I see a new Great War novel I can hardly pass it up but I can’t always review every single novel that comes across my desk and it’s always hard to choose which ones to review. This one is a book that…
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Special Feature: The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab
Last Christmas season I became obsessed with the Queen’s Gambit on Netflix! I think there were many many many in the same boat. The show was amazing and I of course instantly downloaded the book and bought a chess board. Now have I read said book and played said chess board—-no but I still loved the movie and am slowly trying to learn how to play chess. That is why this book caught my eye—it is another historical fiction chess book! I am so excited to read this one, I couldn’t fit it on my October review calendar but I couldn’t pass up a chance to share a bit about…
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Review: The Woman at the Front by Lecia Cornwall
A WWI battlefield nurse romance? Yes please! I saw this cover and was instantly like YES WWI nurse romances are where it’s at for me! But as I dove into this one it was about a female doctor not a nurse which added a feel of newness for me to a tried and true genre. Lecia Cornwall has written a number of other romances so I was eager to see how much of a romance this book would be. I would say it contained a fair bit of romance but that wasn’t necessarily the focus—the focus was more about the main character, Eleanor’s, journey from fresh new doctor to battle…
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Review: Portrait of a Scotsman (A League of Extraordinary Women #3) by Evie Dunmore
When I first read Evie Dunmore’s debut novel, Bringing Down the Duke, I absolutely fell in love. I hadn’t been consistently reading a ton of historical romances (meaning, I hadn’t read Julia Quinn yet!) and all I could think of was ‘finally—-a romance novel I can get behind!’ I felt like I was reading something deliciously modern yet set in the Victorian era with all the things I love about historical fiction—strong women with untold stories. I read the second book in this series and while I didn’t love it as much as I loved the first book, I was eager to continue with the series. I was especially excited…
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Special Feature: The Duchess by Wendy Holden
I read my first Wendy Holden book last year and I loved how well she wrote historical fiction! The Royal Governess was a well researched and interesting novel about the governess of Queen Elizabeth, and I came away from it feeling like I learned some new things while enjoying a great story. When I saw she was coming out with this new book about Wallis Simpson I knew it would be a quality book! For me personally, I am not a fan of the love story of Wallis Simpson and the man who would be king. I always felt like Wallis Simpson was an opportunist and I questioned if she…
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Review: Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens (Wrexford & Sloane #5) by Andrea Penrose
When I randomly picked up the first book in this series a few years ago, I knew I was reading something special. While not necessarily and earth shattering read or even something ‘new and different’ in the saturated genre of historical mysteries, there is something about Lord Wrexford that just makes me swoon and I just love him! Charlotte and Wrex have been solving murders and falling in love for the last five books and finally here we are just as they are planning their nuptials and Charlotte’s reentrance into society when another body pops up! This time Charlotte and Wrex don’t really have a reason to investigate this murder…