A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Pages: 384 Original date of publication: My copy: 2013 (Harlequin MIRA) Why I decided to read: Copy offered for review How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, April 2013 Set in 1923, the novel focuses on Delilah Drummond, a daringly modern woman who is forced to take a “break” from society when a scandal threatens her reputation. She goes to Kenya and her stepfather’s estate, Fairlight, and quickly becomes acclimatized to the way of life there—meeting, as she does so, Ryder White, a hunter/tracker. I’ve had a taste of British colonial life in Kenya—Frances Osborne’s The Bolter is about a famous colonist of the period, Idina Sackville, and the five husbands she “bolted” from in order to set up a new life in Kenya (where she continued her adventures, many of them sexual). So there are pretty obvious comparisons to be made between Idina Sackville and Delilah Drummond, as there are between Dennis Finch-Hatton (of Out of Africa fame) and Ryder White. Still, there’s enough...

Pages: 506 Original date of publication: July, 2013 My copy: 2013 (Random House; ARC) Why I decided to read: Offered through Amazon Vine program How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine program, march 2013 I’ve loved Sarah Dunant’s novels for years, so when I saw that Blood and Beauty was available for review before publication, I jumped at the chance to read it. It tells the story of the Borgia family, specifically Lucrezia, and follows them from Rodrigo Borgia’s ascension to the papacy (and pope Alexander) in 1492 to Lucrezia’s third marriage to Alfonso d’Este in 1502. Rodrigo Borgia’s rise to power was much in keeping with the mores of the time period in which his lived. He even Italianized his name from Borja to Borgia. He and his four children, as well as his mistresses, became symbols of the power, splendor, and decadence of the Papal court in the late 15th century. It’s really, really hard to write fiction about the Borgia family without completely vilifying or ...

Pages: 294 Original date of publication: 2012 My edition: 2012 (Bloomsbury) Why I decided to read: Offered through the Amazon Vine program How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, April 2012 Isabella Robinson was a housewife in the mid-19th century. Her husband moved her and their family to Edinburgh, where she met Edward Lane, a doctor who specialized in hydrotherapy (Charles Darwin was one of his patients and supporters later on). Although Dr. Lane was married, Isabella began spending a lot of time with him. She began keeping a diary, detailing her friendship/relationship (real or imagined) with him. When Isabella fell ill, her husband found her diary and began divorce proceedings against her. The diaries were nearly pornographic in nature (the women in the courtroom had to be cleared out before the diaries were read) and indicate a woman who was caught up in her emotions as well as had a strong sex drive. These are the broad strokes of a fascinating incident—almost a blip in history, bu...

Pages: 447 Original date of publication: 2011 My edition: 2012 (Harper Collins) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: review copy from the Amazon Vine program, April 2012 The Unseen is another time-split novel. The historical bit takes place in 1911, when a young woman with a troubled past comes to the rectory in a small Berkshire village to be a maid. Cat Morley is a spirited, rebellious girl, and she clashes with several people in the village, including the vicar and his wife, who are pretty much stuck in their ways. Then Robin Durrant comes to the village, shaking things up so to speak with his talk of theosophy and the ability to see—and photograph—spirits. In the present is Leah, a journalist who is investigating the story of all these people in the past, including that of a n unknown WWI soldier. As with all these types of novels, the historical strand is by far the strongest. Leah is kind of an archetype; she’s disillusioned with her career and looking for change. So w...

Pages: 260 Original date of publication: 2011 My edition: 2011 (Harper) Why I decided to read: it’s a review copy How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine program, January 2011 Set in (according to Amazon.com’s product description) 1912, The Uninvited Guests takes place over the course of one day at an old English estate. It’s Emerald Torrington’s birthday, and her stepfather (who she and her younger brother inexplicably hate) has gone off to seek funding for the failing estate. Meanwhile, a train accident happens “on a branch line,” and a group of survivors show up at the house to be held for the interim. I really did want to like this book, but I didn’t I love historical fiction, especially fiction set in the Edwardian period, but I felt as though the author didn’t give her reader a good sense of time. Aside from the odd mention of cars or clothes, this book could be set in any time—1912, 1962, or even 2012. In fact, there was a distinctly modern feel to the characters. There are a numbe...

Pages: 182 Original date of publication: 2012 My edition: 2012 (Random House) Why I decided to read: it was offered through Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, February 2012 Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake is a series of essays, really, about being in one’s fifties. She covers topics such as owning “stuff,” having girlfriends, marriage, having grown children, and aging. Although I couldn’t really relate personally to a lot of what Anna Quindlen talks about, reading Anna Quindlen’s book (and this really goes for all of her books) is kind of like talking to your mother. And there are similarities to my own mom that are eerie! (“I have needlepoint pillows everywhere: camels, chicks, cats, houses, barns, libraries, roses, daisies, pansies. I needlepoint while I watch television. I have a vision of my children, after I’m gone, looking around and saying, ‘What are we going to do with all these pillows?’”). As I’ve said, there’s not a lot in this book I can actually relate to, s...

Pages: 200 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Harper Collins) Why I decided to read: it looked interesting when it was offered on Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, March 2011 The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder , is a series of essays on life lessons to be gotten from classic, well-loved novels. For example, we learn to have a sense of self from Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice ; we learn about the importance of happiness from Anne of Green Gables . Each essay is short, only about ten pages or so (and this is physically a small book), and gives at the end of each bullet points for when to read the book and characters from other novels who are similar. As I’ve said, each chapter is short, and there’s not a lot of character analysis (probably purposeful, if the author wanted to only focus on one virtue for each character). The novels are all well known, and the author assumes that her reader has read al...

Pages: 387 Original date of publication: 2011 My edition: 2011 (St. Martin’s Griffin) Why I decided to read: I enjoyed Marina Fiorato’s other books and thought I’d give this a go How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, May 2011 Set amidst the danger and excitement of early 18th-century Siena, the plot of this novel centers on an event to which the Sienese look forward to eagerly: the Palio, a traditional horse race that takes place twice, in July and August. Pia of the Tolomei is descended from Cleopatra and the daughter of a wealthy patrician. He marries her to a member of a family from an opposing ward in the city, despite tradition. When her future husband is killed in the Julia Palio, Pia is married to his brother. Over the course of the next month or so, she develops a relationship with a horse rider, and the two of them work (in conjunction with Violante de’ Medici, who has governed the city for ten years) to fight a plot to take over Siena, led by the Nine—leaders from ea...

Pages: 434 Original date of publication: 2011 My edition: 2011 (Crown) Why I decided to read: It was offered on Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, March 2011 I’ve read Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City twice, and also Thunderstruck ; so when this book was offered on Amazon Vine, I jumped at the chance to read it. Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck are books that deal with crime; In the Garden of Beast s is a little bit different. In this one, Larson traces the story of the Nazis’ rise to power, from the point of view of an American diplomat and his daughter. William Dodd spent four years in Berlin, but this book focuses on the first year. In reality, the whole family went over to Berlin; but it’s the stories of William and Martha Dodd that are much more interesting. Dodd was an odd choice for the role of Ambassador; a former college professor, he was more interested in American history and getting his book written than in foreign policy. ...

Pages: 327 Original date of publication: My edition: 2011 (St. Martin’s) Why I decided to read: Heard about this through Amazon.com How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, December 2010 Originally published as The Secret Lion , The Tudor Secret is the first in what will be a series featuring Brendan Prescott, an orphan foundling who was raised in the household of the Dudley family. In 1553, King Edward is on his deathbed, and William Cecil gives a secret mission Brendan. Soon he finds himself working as a double agent, as he attempts to discover the secret of his own birth. There ‘s a lot to like in this novel, mainly in the historical details that the author weaves into the story. He knows Tudor history like the back of his hand, and it definitely shows in this book. Because it was his first novel, however, there are some rough patches. There were a couple of plot holes that I had trouble navigating around—primarily, why would a secretive man such as Cecil entrust a ...

Pages: 469 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2011 (Hyperion) Why I decided to read: it was offered through Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: Amazon.com, November 2010 Last year, I read one of Andrew Taylor’s other books: Bleeding Heart Square , set in Earl’s Court in the 1930s, right in the heart of the British fascist movement. The Anatomy of Ghosts is completely different. Set in 1786, it features a bookseller who is commissioned by a wealthy lady to catalogue a library, while at the same time find his benefactress’s son, a student at Cambridge who has been committed to an insane asylum. It’s an interesting premise, but it’s not an original one. The author turns to all the old clichés: a femme fatale (guess where that story line is going?), a mysterious library, a murder, a secret mission, etc. Taylor doesn’t really go out of the box for this book as he did with Bleeding heart Square, and Holdsworth, his main character, is about as bland as they com...

Pages: 405 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Random House) Why I decided to read: it was offered as a part of the Amazon Vine program How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, November 2010 Clara and Mr. Tiffany tells the story of Clara Driscoll, the creative impetus behind the iconic Tiffany lamps. She was also the head of the women’s division at Tiffany Studios in the 1890s and 1900s, and had a close working relationship with Louis Comfort Tiffany himself. Clara Driscoll’s work made her more or less at the center of the Decorative Arts movement of the late 19 th century, although her work was never fully acknowledged in her lifetime (even today, we call them Tiffany Lamps, not Driscoll Lamps!). The story opens in 1893, when Clara, newly widowed, rejoins Tiffany Studios. The story follows her over the next fifteen years or so. The novel is the story of how Clara struggled to balance her love life with her work life (since married women were not perm...

Pages: 397 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Random House) Why I decided to read: it was offered through Amazon vine How I acquired my copy: Vine, October 2010 When Amazon Vine came out with their October newsletter, I told myself that I wouldn’t select anything; I’ve got way too many unread books lying around as it is! But when I saw that Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City , had a new book out, I couldn’t resist. And who could? This nonfictional account of the life of a famous burlesque dancer was begging to be read. But I was disappointed. Clearly, the author is interested in her topic, but her approach to the book was all wrong to me. The flashes backwards and forwards in time were very distracting to the flow of the book. and I feel as though the author skipped over a lot of stuff in order to get to the racy bits. As a result, I felt that Gypsy Rose Lee’s relationship with Michael Todd could have been fleshed out a lot more—I get t...

Pages: 388 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Mira) Why I decided to read: Heard about this book through the author’s website and blog How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, October 2010 Dark Road to Darjeeling is the fourth book in the Lady Julia Grey series. This time, Lady Julia and Nicholas, nine months married, are headed to India, where Julia’s sister Portia’s friend, Jane, has recently been made a widow. Jane suspects that her husband has been murdered, and so Lady Julia goes to investigate. Lots of people have reason to want Freddie Cavendish dead—and the child that Jane carries. I love that Deanna Raybourn took Julia out of England for this one. India is always a stellar place to set a novel, and I loved the descriptions of Darjeeling and Calcutta. I was nervous about seeing what would happen now that Julia and Brisbane are married; but the tension between them is still alive and kicking (and Deanna Raybourn depicts their relationship much ...

Pages: 414 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Dial) Why I decided to read: Heard about it through Amazon.com How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, September 2010 I’ve read all of Sophie Kinsella’s books to date, and I’ve enjoyed nearly all of them. Her novels are quirky and fun and funny, and they always provide their reader with a bit of brain candy. Mini-Shopaholic is the sixth Shopaholic book featuring the adventures of Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood). You’d think that after six books in this series, the series would have jumped the shark, so to speak, but still Sophie Kinsella manages to find fresh material for our heroine. Mini Shopaholic takes place two and a half years after the last Shopaholic book, Shopaholic and Baby, leaves off. Becky’s daughter Minnie is essentially going through the Terrible Twos, and everyone else (including Luke) think Becky spoils her. Added on top of that is the fact that, apparently, Minnie is becoming a mini-shopah...

Pages: 285 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Crown) Why I decided to read: Heard about this through the Amazon Vine program How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, September 2010 The Countess is a novel about Countess Erzebet Bathory, apparently the first female serial killer. In the early 17 th century, she was rumored to have murdered dozens of young women. As with many of these kinds of novels, the story is told from the Countess’s point of view, and it covers her life starting from when she was a small child and continuing up until her incarceration. It’s an interesting subject, by my, does the author manage to make it boring. The novel focuses a lot on Erzebet’s early life, and the plot moves at a very, very slow pace. I don’t know a lot about Hungarian history, so the parts of this novel that dealt with that were extremely edifying; but this novel disappointed me in terms of plot. I was intrigued to find out how the Countess would explain her...

Pages: 470 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Plume) Why I decided to read: It was offered on Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: same, June 2010 Oh, man. This is another one of those “I really wanted to like this book, but…” kinds of books. Set between the years of 1200 and 1204, when King John disputed with Arthur of Brittany over the crown. Although the struggle is the backdrop of the story, it’s not the focus; instead the story centers around one Juliana de Charnais, a wealthy young woman who starts out as a novice but must marry in order to keep her inheritance. In comes Guerin de Lasalle, who’s just as eager as she is to end the marriage. At first it seems as though the plot of the novel is going to be one of those battle of the sexes things, where the hero and heroine eventually will end up with a happily ever after. I’ll give the author credit for taking the plot of the novel in a direction I never expected it to go in. however, the way in ...

Pages: 392 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (St. Martin’s Press) Why I decided to read: I heard about this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program How I acquired my copy: Amazon Vine, May 2010 Set in 1492, Poison is told from the point of view of Francesca Giordano, professional poisoner to the Borgia family (or, more accurately, Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope). Cardinal Borgia is a dangerous man, willing to do anything to further his ambitions, and he hires Francesca to help poison the current pope. Meanwhile, Francesca discovers a plot that her father, also a professional poisoner, may have been involved in. I did like the premise, I really did; that’s why I decided to read this book. It has a great, eye-catching opener, too, which kept me reading. But the plot is so convoluted and so “been there, done that,” that I found myself not caring anymore about what happened to any of the characters. I guess my main problem with the novel...

Pages: Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Avon) Why I decided to read: it was offered on Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: Vine, May 2010 Dracula, My Lov e is a retelling of the Dracula myth. It’s been a long time since I read the original, and my memory is a little hazy about whether or not this book stays true to its inspiration. But I really enjoyed this novel, covering Mina (Murray) Harker’s experiences from her time at Whitby (where she meets a man named Mr. Wagner, obvious to everyone but her that he’s Dracula), her love affair with Dracula (even though she’s married to Jonathan) up through the time when she must make a difficult decision regarding her personal happiness. I’ve read Syrie James’s other two books (one based on the life of Jane Austen and her inspiration for Sense and Sensibility, the other about Charlotte Bronte), and this one is just as enjoyable. The author’s prose flows very smoothly and the plot moves along quickly. James...

Pages: 331 Original date of publication: 2010 My edition: 2010 (Henry Holt) Why I decided to read: it was offered on Amazon Vine How I acquired my copy: same, May 2010 Set in New York City in 1865, The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno is set amongst PT Barnum’s Museum of Human Curiosities. The story is narrated by Bartholomew Fortuno, the Museum’s Thin Man, who notices a strange woman entering the Museum late one night. His curiosity leads to an assignment from Barnum, who asks Bartholomew to shadow the mysterious woman. It’s a good premise, and I enjoyed the setting of the novel: I love reading novels set in historical New York, But the author’s writing style is uneven; sometime’s she’s erudite about the nature of Human Curiosities and their relationship with the rest of the world, but sometimes the writing is clunky (“Abigail something or another,” I said, remember only the poor girl’s first name”). There’s a heavy amount of foreshadowing in this novel, so m...