Tag: Historic Fiction

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Review: Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd

The name of the game is deception. Real or fake? Truth or lie?

This gritty war time novel takes us all over Europe on an adventure unraveling espionage and flushing out spies.

The novel opens in pre-WWI Vienna where London based actor Lysander Rief is taking a ‘holiday’ to resolve a ‘personal issue’ with a local psychiatrist.

Must of Lysander’s “treatment’ and “cure” involves the psychological term Parallelism. This concept plays a large role in the themes/plot of the novel and with it’s characters.

At his first appointment with the doctor, Lysander meets the frazzled, yet beautiful, Hettie Bull. He is immediately drawn to her but, since he is engaged and seeking treatment for a sexual issue, he quickly dismisses his attraction.

While Lysander might have forgotten about Hettie, Hettie doesn’t forget about Lysander.

Continue reading “Review: Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd” →

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Review: Shades of Milk and Honey (Shades of Milk and Honey #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: Shades of Milk and Honey (Shades of Milk and Honey #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal

Woven intricately out of the ether, Mary Robinette Kowal creates and exhilarating new world of enchantment that will please Jane Austen fans and illusionist fiction fans alike.

In the Regency era, Dorchester countryside, Jane and Melody Ellsworth are as opposite as any two sisters can be.

While Melody is beautiful and charming, Jane is plain and lacks the feminine charms to secure a husband.

Almost a confirmed spinster, Jane possesses other talents that might make her appealing to the right man…..she is a glamourist.

Well accomplished in the art of glamour, Jane captures the imagination of all that she meets….wow people with her skills, but it is Melody the eligible bachelors are fixated on. Continue reading “Review: Shades of Milk and Honey (Shades of Milk and Honey #1) by Mary Robinette Kowal” →

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Review: Full Dark House (Bryant and May #1) by Christopher Fowler

by The Lit Bitch6 Comments on Review: Full Dark House (Bryant and May #1) by Christopher Fowler

Modern day London is rocked by a bombing, killing a senior police detective. A detective that happens to be head of the special unit of the force: The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU). Arthur Bryant was working late on an old case for his memoirs on a Sunday when the bomb exploded. Ironically he survived the Blitz of the 1940’s only to be blown up in his office decades later.

His partner and fellow head of the PCU, John May, can’t help but wonder if the modern day bombing is somehow linked to their first case together at PCU back in 1940. Now in his 80’s May must try to find out why Bryant was researching such an old case and what he found that might have brought on his demise. Did they apprehend the wrong person, leaving the murder to roam free all these years? But there is one problem, everyone from the original case is dead–it’s been sixty years!

London, 1940. The theater is a place full of dreams, illusions, emotion, and tragedy. It is also the scene of a murder. When a dancer turns up dead in a lift missing her feet this strange crime  is handed off to a newly formed unit: The Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU). It is PCU’s first case.  Continue reading “Review: Full Dark House (Bryant and May #1) by Christopher Fowler” →

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Review: The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. by Carole DeSanti

by The Lit Bitch6 Comments on Review: The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. by Carole DeSanti

With a lush, enticing cover The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. by Carole DeSanti can’t help but catch the eye. The cover conjures images of a romantic work of historic fiction, filled with extravagance and richness.

The novel does deliver in that way. France is ushering in a new era, set in the years immediately before the Franco-Prussian War era (1870’s), the book follows the life of Eugenie Rigault who was born in the foie gras country region of France.

There she meets a gentleman that she falls in love with and gives him her heart and body. They soon make plans to move to Paris where the man promises to ‘take care of her’. When she arrives in Paris a few weeks later, he has all but abandoned her. Eugenie holds out hope that her ‘prince’ will come and take her away from the Paris gutters but at long last she must accept that he will never come for her. Continue reading “Review: The Unruly Passions of Eugenie R. by Carole DeSanti” →

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Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

by The Lit Bitch5 Comments on Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

All things have a way of coming back to us in the end. Even if just as a memory from long ago, they are still with us….always.

Memories are a funny thing. How accurate are your memories? Has your subconscious twisted your memories and changed the from what really happened to what you remember? How much can you truly trust your memory? Those little moments of déjà vu, was it just that or perhaps you had really been there before in a past life. What recalls a memory most to you, scent? Sound? A place?

There is much that science doesn’t know about memory and much that simply cannot be explained. What if memories could be passed down, like DNA from generation to generation and you just inherit them the same way you do eye color? That is the question that Susanne Kearsley explores in her book The Winter Sea….could time travel through Jungian theory be possible? Continue reading “Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley” →