Tag: Regency Lit

Book Challenges, Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading, Reading Challenges

Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7) by Lauren Willig

by The Lit Bitch11 Comments on Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7) by Lauren Willig

Tis the season for purloined pudding! Christmas pudding, bonnets, love, and mystery are all literary in the air in Lauren Willig’s book The Mischief of the Mistletoe. This book is #4.2 in Willig’s wildly popular Pink Carnation series.

I saw this book advertised on Goodreads a few weeks ago and fell in love with the cover and….suddenly I had to read it! So I picked up a copy and then I saw the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge hosted by  the True Book Addict and suddenly I couldn’t wait for it to be Christmas season so I could read this book! Biding my time, I started the book the day the challenge started and finished the book like 2 days later!

I have never read any of these books but heard LOADS about them from friends and of course my sister. I have always wondered why I hadn’t read any of them because they seem like books I would devour! I supposed somewhere between all the epic series I have ben reading over the last couple of years….I guess I just missed this one, and that my friends is my biggest regret! This is a charming, enchanting, and above all….a captivating series. Continue reading “Review: The Mischief of the Mistletoe (Pink Carnation #7) by Lauren Willig” →

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynne Shepherd

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynne Shepherd

Hold on to your bonnets, there’s been a Murder at Mansfield Park! In this charming Jane Austen spin off, author Lynne Shepherd takes a classic English novel and turns it into a classic ‘who done it’.

Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park is the only Austen novel I have not read ironically, for some reason it just never appealed to me. Everyone says that Fanny Price is the worse Austen heroine ever, though I cannot claim my own opinion of the original Fanny Price, I can say with confidence I didn’t care for the Shepherd version of Price in this book which was the obvious point of her novel.

I’ve only read a few other Jane Austen ‘spin offs’ but none like this. Most of the spin off books are more of an extension of the original story, (largely in the romance category) such as Mr Darcy Takes a Wife….some are more eccentric parodies such as Pride  and Prejudice and Zombies…..but over all most of the spin offs are alike, which was the main reason why this particular book caught my eye….a Jane Austen murder mystery? What could be better, it brilliant and not been done before!

Shepherd and I follow each other on Twitter and when I went on to accept her follow request, I was intrigued by what I saw. It sounded like such a fresh take on an old classic…..I was so happy that I started reading it first and just in time the Halloween season! Continue reading “Review: Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynne Shepherd” →

Book Challenges, Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading, Reading Challenges

Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen

For my birthday a few months ago, my sister got me this book. Both her and I have very similar literary tastes so when she got me this book I was very excited to start reading it–I totally trust her literary judgement, since she is a librarian she knows all the good books/authors :).

She had heard lots of good things about it and said she thought it was part of a series but wasn’t sure. She knew the author had written other historic works such as Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV which I saw featured on Goodreads around the same time.

Karleen Koen has written four books, Dark Angles, Through a Glass Darkly, Now Face to Face, and Before Versailles….for more info check out her website. All of the books are set in 17th-18th century England and France  and all feature colorful blue blood aristocrats so if you love historic fiction of this period, these books are for you!

I was ready for something new and different. As I was browsing my bookshelf I decided to pick up Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen. Since the book falls under the historic fiction category I decided to use it as part of the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  Continue reading “Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen” →

Book Challenges, Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Gen Lit, Literary Criticism, Reading Challenges

Review: Emma by Jane Austen

by The Lit Bitch7 Comments on Review: Emma by Jane Austen

I finally find myself at the end of another book and at my computer long enough to compose a post. I just finished Emma by Jane Austen last night as part of the Victorian Literature Reading Challenge hosted by Subtle Melodrama.

As the challenge outlines, the books must have been written during the Victorian era (1837-1901) or contain Victorian era thoughts/values which Austen does….though Austen wrote more in the Georgian era/ Regency era (1811-1817) her concepts and ideals were generally Victorian so I was happy I could include some of her novels as part of the challenge.

Of course I have read Emma before, once in high school and once as part of a Jane Austen literature class to fulfill my British Literature BA in college. One of the things I love about the ‘classics’ is you get something new out of them every time you read them and of course Emma is no different so I chose to read it again as part of the challenge. Some of you might not know but Emma is actually the basis for the modern day film, Clueless which became a ‘cult classic’ file in the late 1990’s. Though Austen might be considered ‘old fashion’ or ‘boring’ to some her stories are truly timeless and relevant even in the more recent culture. Continue reading “Review: Emma by Jane Austen” →