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Review: The Undertaker’s Assistant by Amanda Skenandore
The setting of this book instantly caught my eye and made me want to read it. It is set in Reconstruction Era Louisiana and features an undertakers assistant as the heroine. As many of you know, my Masters thesis was on women in Civil War nursing specifically Southern nurses through the Reconstruction era. So to say that this book caught my eye was an understatement—I was practically chomping at the bit to read it! I finished my Masters degree three years ago, and since then I have not read a ton of books set in the Civil War or Reconstruction eras mostly because I felt burnt out but every once…
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Review: Milady by Laura L. Sullivan
When I was barely coming into my adolescents, I discovered the swashbuckling adventures of The Three Musketeers. Albeit on the big screen and not the Dumas novel, but swashbuckling adventure all the same! I loved the 1993 film version, even if I did hate Charlie Sheen and Chris O’Donnell in it, it was still exciting and as a young girl who longed for grace adventures, it had everything I could hope for. Sword fights, friendship, and of course a bad ass femme fatale! Oh how I loved Milady de Winter! She was one of the first female characters that stands out in my mind. She wasn’t a maid in need…
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Review: Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
As a little girl, I was obsessed with Grace Kelly. I was fascinated by her love story and in the end, her tragic death, and longed for the day that I too could become a real American princess. But as I got older I moved on from princess dreams to horses and didn’t look back. That is until the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markel. It was another famous American, marrying royalty and becoming a princess that reignited my interest in Grace Kelly. When I saw that this book was coming out, I squealed in excitement. Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb have written some of my favorite novels both…
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Review: Death in a Desert Land (Agatha Christie #3) by Andrew Wilson
I would venture to say that most people have heard of the great mystery writer Agatha Christie. She’s written so many classic mysteries and I would be hard pressed to meet someone who hasn’t heard of at least one of her books in one way or another. Because she is so recognizable and such a classic mystery writer, I was thrilled to see that someone had turned her into her own fictional sleuth. My first thought when I saw that someone had done this, was that it sounded hokey. Agatha Christie is such an icon and to mess with that and turn her into a fictionalized detective sounded trite…..but at…
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Interview: ACROSS THE RIVER by Richard Snodgrass
Civil War buffs, this is a novel you might want to put on your radar! In the summer of 1863, Judson Walker, a captain of Morgan’s Raiders, and Jonathan Reid, a young engineer, come to Furnass to appropriate two of Colin Lyles’ steam-powered road engines. The purpose is to outfit the engines with iron plate and the newly developed Gatlin Guns, and, with Morgan, deliver the war engines to General Lee’s army in Central Pennsylvania. Amid Walker’s growing involvement with Lyle’s wife Libby, deserting soldiers, and Reid’s own agenda, Walker learns Morgan isn’t coming. The novel reaches its climax with Lyle trying to sabotage the war engines. Walker must decide…
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Review: Murder in the City of Liberty (Van Buren and DeLuca Mystery #2) by Rachel McMillan
When this book popped up for review, I was thrilled! I haven’t read the first book in the series, but it has been on my radar. Then this one came up and I was eager to dive in. I am absolutely in love with the cover and can’t get enough of the colors and the gorgeous art deco details in the background. I felt like the cover absolutely captures the time period and would make readers excited to pick this one up……I know I was excited! With this being the second book, I was hopeful that I hadn’t missed too much of the character back stories and that I wouldn’t…
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Special Feature and Excerpt: The Turncoat by T.J. London
The Turncoat by T.J. London Publication Date: May 23, 2019 eBook & Paperback Series: The Rebels and Redcoats Saga, Book 3 Genre: Historical Fiction Spy. Redcoat. Traitor. After Captain John Carlisle’s dance with death, he’s retreated to the serenity of the Oneida village with his beloved Dellis McKesson, trying to hide from the inevitable truth: war is coming. But when duty calls, and John’s expertise is needed to negotiate a treaty between the Six Nations of the Iroquois and the Crown, he’ll once again be faced with a decision: his King or his conscience. Many truths that have yet to be revealed, and a deal with the Devil made…
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Review: Rouge: A Novel of Beauty and Rivalry by Richard Kirshenbaum
As a young girl growing up in the late 80’s, early 90’s at the height of the ‘glamour’ industry (well at least for me!), there was no way I could pass on this book. I was exceptionally interested in cosmetics and the ‘glamor’ industry starting in my early teens, a passion the carried on into my early 20’s. In my youth, there was nothing like seeing who the new ‘Cover Girl’ was going to be, or what new makeup promised to revolutionize my beauty routine. I was the girl who wore every single cosmetic from age 13. I had horrible acne as a elementary child and because I went to…
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Take Two Review: The Moon Sister (The Seven Sisters #5) by Lucinda Riley (Audible Edition)
I read this book only a few months ago, March to be exact. So why would I want to read it again so soon you ask? Well, I wanted to experience the Seven Sisters series again but in a whole new way. I started re-reading the series back in April but this time, I started listening to all the books instead which proved to be quite a different experience all together. And now that all the sister stories are fresh in my mind, I was curious to see how this book held up on a second read through. When I first got this book for review, I was excited to…
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Review: Bethlehem by Karen Kelly
This book came across my desk for review months ago. I adore the simple cover and didn’t need to think twice about adding this one to my review schedule because it was historical fiction and looked elegant! Let’s be honest that cover is a solid 10. It’s gorgeous and I absolutely love love love it! While this book is a debut for writer Karen Kelly, I was looking forward to it because of all the early advance praise it received. Though it did have some large shoes to fill when it came to some of the early praise and promise of the summary. Her writing style is described as ‘the…