Review: Mrs Poe by Lynn Cullen

The greatest love affairs are between two souls that speak to each other in a language that no one else but them can understand.

On a fateful night in 1845, Frances Osgood meets the most famous writer in all of New York society, the dark and mysterious Edgar Poe. From the moment they are introduced, Frances can’t help but feel a strange and unexplainable connection to Poe.

A writer herself, they run in the same circles of New York society. At the time, Frances’s philandering husband has taken up with a rich divorcee and basically abandoned Frances and their children.

Frances and the girls are staying at the home of the Bartlett’s while Frances tries to get more of her poetry published so they can have money.

Meanwhile, Poe’s fame is taking off with the success of his poem, The Raven. Poe is also married and has been for some time, but his wife is in ill health and has been for a number of years. He has not been especially happy with Virginia Poe for some time, but like everything in his life he just accepts it and moves on…..until he meets Frances Osgood.

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Giveaway: The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam

Surround yourself with the opulence and mystery of the Romanov dynasty with this intriguing historic novel!

Thanks to the publisher, I am ecstatic to be able to offer a copy of The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam for your enjoyment!

Giveaway runs 10/15/13 to 10/22/13

Winners will be announced 10/23/13.

(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 comments your entry will be void. Winners will be notified by email the day after the giveaway closes and have five days to respond, it not another winner will be chosen. 

(GIVEAWAY OPEN TO US ONLY AND NO PO BOX)

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Review: The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam

In 1917, Imperial Russia was coming to an end. The Bolsheviks came to power and the powerful Romanov family was sent into exile. After being held captive, they were all supposedly executed by firing squad in 1918.

Tsar Nicholas, his wife The Empress and Grand Duchess Olga, and their four children were all executed on that fateful day ending the Romanov dynasty. But what if there was a fifth child?

That’s what author Jennifer Laam does in her novel The Secret Daughter of the Tsar. Veronica is finishing up her post graduate research and if she’s being honest…it’s not going well. Her supervisors aren’t impressed with the direction her research is going, not to mention things in her personal life aren’t going to well either.

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Review: Rasputin’s Shadow by Raymond Khoury

In the coal mines of turn of the century Russia, a group of unsuspecting workers suddenly and completely without warning they all turn aggressive, violent, and paranoid.

Shortly following the strange and savage incident, a scientist and Grigory Rasputin blow up the mine to conceal all evidence of the incident.

In modern day New York City a Russian diplomat seems to have jumped to his death.

Though it appears to be a suicide, there are some tell tale signs that he was more likely pushed from the window.

The owners of the apartment Leo Sokolov, a retired physics teacher from Russia and his wife, are also missing. FBI agent Sean Reilly is sent to investigate and locate the missing husband and wife.

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Interview: Rasputin’s Shadow by Raymond Khoury

As part of the Rasputin’s Shadow blog tour, author Raymond Khoury has done a fabulous Q & A! Without further ado, please welcome Raymond Khoury to The Lit Bitch!

Q: RASPUTIN’S SHADOW is a great mix of technology, history, and action, but there is a little romance too. How do you work to balance these in the novel?

A: I guess it just comes from practice, really. I’ve been a storyteller for years, whether in screenplays of in my previous five novels, and I suppose it’s just a personal preference for how to tell a story, for the pacing, for having a gut feeling about when those different aspects should pop up and not jar or crowd each other out. It’s not something I consciously map out, I don’t outline the books; I just spend a lot of time setting up the characters and their motivations, the triggers of the story, then I let them loose and the story—and all the elements you refer to—come in when it feels right.

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