Review: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Trapped in a love less marriage to a man with good social standing, Anna Karenina does the unthinkable–she enters into a doomed, passionate love affair with another man.

Society will torment her, her husband will ridicule her, but her own guilt will drive her to the breaking point.

With one of the most memorable opening scenes in western literature, Anna Karenina is a literary masterpiece about life, passion, and love.

This lengthy novel is spread over eight parts featuring two alternating protagonists, Konstantin Levin and Anna Karenina.

The elegant and proper Anna, is married to a high-ranking government official, Alexei Karenin. For the past eight years they have maintained a fragile facade. On the outside their marriage appears amiable but in the absence of love, there is nothing but respect and understanding to fill the missing pieces.

Continue reading “Review: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy”

Review: On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves

Is age really just a number? Does true love transcend all things? Even through extreme, desperate situations? Even through a large age gap? Does wanting different things or being in a different spot matter when love is involved?

Thirty year old Anna is an English teach. She needs time to think about her life. She has been with her boyfriend of eight years and they still aren’t married. She feels like she is just waiting and waiting for a life that isn’t going t happen. So when the opportunity to get away comes….she takes it.

TJ is a sixteen and recovering from cancer. His parents want to take a celebratory vacation in the Maldives where he can both recover and study. TJ’s parents hired Anna as his tutor for the summer.

Anna and TJ board a seaplane bound for a remote island in the Maldives when suddenly their pilot has a heart attack and dies. The plane goes down somewhere in the ocean. When they wash ashore on a deserted island, they think it’s only a matter of time before a search party discovers them.

Three and a half years go by.

Continue reading “Review: On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves”

Review: Mine to Take (Matrix of Destiny #3) by Dara Joy

Mystical galaxies, wizards, shapeshifters, aliens, adventure, and sizzling romance lurk in the pages of the para-romance novel, Mine to Take by Dara Joy. 

The beautiful Jenise is more or less a prisoner in her own home. The evil Karpon desires her and yet also wants to kill her. Jenise longs to be free of him before he can conquer her making her his wife.

As luck would have it, Karpon holds a fierce Familiar (shapeshifter) in his dungeons. If Jenise can some how free the Familiar, she too might be free of Karpon.

The Familiars are a wild and sexual people, therefore Jenise bargains with the captive using the only thing she has in her favor….her virginity.

Continue reading “Review: Mine to Take (Matrix of Destiny #3) by Dara Joy”

Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

When you enter the ‘big top’, you enter into a world full of illusion and intrigue and here you will find a dark, gritty love story.

Jacob Jankowski is grieving the loss of his parents when he jumps a train bound for anywhere that isn’t his current location. He has boarded a train full of freaks, drunkards, performers, sparkling costumes, and illusion–he has ran away with the circus–literally.

Jacob is able to gain employment as the circus veterinarian where he works closely with the charismatic August, the menagerie superintendent/trainer. August’s wife, Marlene, works as a circus performer as well…..Jacob is infatuated with her the moment he sets eyes on her.

August and Marlene’s marriage is rocky at best and Jacob tries to do his best to not fall in love with Marlene but it’s inevitable….she is breath-taking and refreshing. Continue reading “Review: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen”

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”