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Review: The Sharp Hook of Love by Sherry Jones
For her entire life, Heloise has known what her future would hold. She has been preparing to become an abbess. All her education, grooming, and introductions have been carefully planned for her to ascend to that position. She has long accepted that she will likely never know love or a life outside the service of God and she is ok with that, until she meets Pierre Abelard. Pierre is the headmaster at the Notre Dame Cloister School. He has had many intelligent pupils and is well known in many academic circles as simply ‘the best’ and he is equally as notorious in those circles when it comes to women. Heloise’s uncle manages to…
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Pink For All Seasons: Flower Symbolism in The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
Many of you die hard ‘Pink Carnation‘ fans will undoubtedly notice that flowers play a huge role in the books and are meant to convey some symbolism and foreshadowing in the series and books. Each character embodies the title flower in some way or another. For me, one of my favorite Pink heroines was Mary Alsworthy from The Seduction of the Crimson Rose. The rose is not only beautiful and alluring but thorny and at times dangerous to an inexperienced handler. It’s a classic flower long associated with beauty and love. It’s chic, regal, and alluring, while at the same time the thorns remind us of suffering and sacrifice.
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Review: The Bronze Horseman (The Bronze Horseman #1) by Paullina Simons
In Leningrad, life is about to change in a big way. Seventeen year old Tatiana, has known nothing but long summers full of ice cream and day dreams. But all that changes when the declaration of war is announced. Germany has invaded Russian and they march toward Leningrad. Tatiana’s parents send her to the store to buy all the food she can. On her way to the store, Tatiana stops for an ice cream when she spots a soldier staring at her from across the street. The soldier, Alexander, gets on the same bus as Tatiana and rides with her all over the city, and then eventually back home. When she returns home,…
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Review: The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen
In upstate New York there is a small farm that appears to be just another farm in the country. Normal. Ordinary. However the Pennywort farm is anything but ordinary and normal….it’s magical. At the heart of the farm there is a magical garden full of imagination and color. The locals have long said that entering the garden can gain insight to life’s most difficult issues by just walking through the gates, ironically the garden’s caretaker has never experienced any kind of revelation by entering the garden. Olivia Pennyworth has been caring for the garden and has spent her entire life on the farm while harboring a dark secret which forces…
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Review: The Firebird (Slains #2) by Susanna Kearsley
Nicola Marter is a seemingly normal women, with an extraordinary gift. She can touch an object and see it’s past history. But she doesn’t like using her gift. She is afraid of being called a ‘freak’ and that people won’t accept her. So she hides her gift. While working in an art gallery specializing in Russian art, an old woman arrives with a wood carving of a firebird, claiming it belonged to Catherine the Great. Nicola’s boss doesn’t have any way of authenticating it and thus, it has no value to an art dealer. But when she touches it she sees that it was in fact given to a girl named Anna…
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Review: The Heiress of Winterwood (Whispers on the Moors #1) by Sarah Ladd
Amelia Barrett made her best friend a dying promise: to take care of her child, Lucy, at all costs….and Amelia plans on fulfilling that promise. Lucy’s father has been away at sea and has never met the child but he is returning from his adventures soon and will meet her for the first time. Amelia is fearful that he will take the child and she will never see her again. Lucy has become like her own daughter and she can’t stand the thought of never seeing her again. So Amelia has devised a plan to keep her and Lucy together forever….her can Captain Sterling will need to get married. There…
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Review: Gracelin O’Malley (Gracelin O’Malley #1) by Ann Moore
In Ireland, poverty is dominating the country throughout the 19th century. It’s a time of British rule and the Irish people need to make some concessions in order to survive to famine. Gracelin (Grace) is forced to put aside what dreams she had for herself and marry an English lord, Bram, to save her family from ruin. Though her brother encourages her to hold out and wait for love, Grace proceeds with the marriage. Initially the marriage seems like it will workout. Bram seems tender and gentle but after a time his true colors begin to shine though and their marriage rapidly becomes one of promise, to nothing short of a nightmare.
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Review: Music for My Soul by Lauren Linwood
Madeleine Bouchard is on the run. She flees from her abusive husband in the dead of night. She hopes to make it to London and board a ship to France that will take her back to her family. She plans on putting as many miles between her and her husband as she can while it’s still dark when fate intervenes. Lord Garrett Montayne and his friend are also on the road to London in the wee hours of the morning when they see a woman walking alone. When they ride up on her, she goes into survival mode.When asked who she is, she can’t use her name as these men could be…
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Spotlight Feature/Giveaway: What a Lady Needs for Christmas by Grace Burrows
The holidays are just around the corner and what does every woman wish for at Christmas? A little love and plaid perhaps? Well in Grace Burrow’s holiday romance, What a Lady Needs for Christmas, fulfills that wish! I am spotlighting this wonderful holiday romance for my readers and this spotlight also includes a fantastic holiday giveaway for an iPad mini! Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway at the end of this post! If you are wondering that to expect under this pretty present here is a summary from Goodreads: To escape a scandal, Lady Joan Flynn flees her family’s estate in the Scottish Highlands. She needs a husband by Christmas, or the…
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Review: Night of a Thousand Stars by Deanna Raybourn
Deanna Raybourn has been an author long on my radar. I hear wonderful things about her Lady Jane series from a number of people. So when the opportunity to review her latest standalone book, I was eager to try her books out! Poppy Hammond, is all set to marry into an aristocratic family but she has other plans which include making a run for it. She is assisted by the dashing curate Sebastian Cantrip who helps her escape to her family’s house where she can have some time to think and sort out her life. Before she can thank Sebastian for his assistance, he disappears and she sets her mind to…