Category: Book Reviews

Blog Tour: Never Missing, Never Found by Amanda Panitch

July 11, 2016 0 Comments Regina

“With flashbacks that slowly reveal the terrible secret of Scarlett’s escape and Pixie’s fate, this psychological thriller evokes well-paced fear.” —Kirkus Reviews Psychological Thrillers are all the rage right now and if you tore your way through novels like Damage Done, With Malice, or The Darkest Corners , then you will want to add Amanda Pinatch’s Never Missing, Never Found to your “reading a psych-thrill and chill” queue. Never Missing, Never Found has a certain afterschool […]

Upcoming Release: Girl in the Afternoon by Serena Burdick

June 30, 2016 0 Comments Regina

Belle Époque Paris. Three words that will sell me on a book in a heartbeat. The opulence of fashion and architecture. The richness of artistic and intellectual life. The idea of “The Salon” and sparkling soirees that lasted until the morning sun lit the sky a color to match the Perrier Jouet in party-goers crystal flutes. BELLE EPOQUE PARIS. YES. The setting of Girl in the Afternoon lived up to my expectations of Paris […]

Midnight in Berlin by James MacManus

June 20, 2016 0 Comments Regina

This book goes beyond capturing the music, fashion, and style of the WWII era and paints a picture of the chaotic attitudes, theories, failed diplomacy, and missed connections that contributed to the start of the world’s bloodiest war to date. The tone of the novel is serious and the author does an excellent job of capturing the psychosis and sexism of not only the Nazi party but the culture in general. Pre-Nazi party, Berlin was […]

The Empty Jar by M. Leighton

June 16, 2016 0 Comments Christy

Hello fellow bookworm, I hope you’re having a good day. I’m not sure how often you read, but I just finished a book called “The Empty Jar.” I can’t wait to tell you about it. I think you will enjoy reading it. It is written by M. Leighton. She sent me an advanced copy before it was released so I could read and review it. She’s written several books. Most of which are racy romance, […]

The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi

June 8, 2016 1 Comment Regina

“Set against the golden age of Hollywood, the dark days of WWII, and the swinging ’70s, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem follows generations of unforgettable women as they forge their own paths through times of dramatic change.” – jacket excerpt The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is an absorbing novel that traces the familial and amorous relationships and life-shaping decisions of four generations of Israeli women. “The shop employed several seamstresses who made the clothes according to patterns […]

The Tsarina’s Legacy by Jennifer Laam

May 18, 2016 0 Comments Regina

Check out my review of Jennifer Laam’s The Secret Daughter of the Tsar HERE. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Catherine the Great 1995 I enjoyed Laam’s debut, The Secret Daughter of the Tsar, and this follow up did not disappoint. Straddling the worlds of 18th century and 21st century Russia, the author bravely tackles some complex political and cultural issues that very much resonate with topics that are flooding American headlines today. It was absolutely genius how […]

Review & Giveway: The Rule Book by Jennifer Blackwood

May 15, 2016 7 Comments Erin

That synopsis SOLD ME. I was scrolling through my facebook feed and I saw one of the Publicists for Entangled that I am friends with on Facebook post the synopsis for this book last week and I one-clicked the shit out of it when I got done reading the synopsis. I started reading this book last night and I finished it when I was supposed to be working today at work. Oops, my bad. I […]

The Problem With Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout

May 13, 2016 16 Comments Erin

Wow, I have no words for this book. Jennifer L. Armentrout is one of those authors who I don’t even bother reading the synopsis for any book she writes..I just usually dive in to the book. The Problem with Forever is a heartbreakingly beautiful book and when I started reading the prologue I knew that it was unlike anything she’s written before. Mallory is a high school senior who has spent the last so many years being […]

Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Nicolas Barreau

April 10, 2016 0 Comments Regina

As one customer aptly put it in her review on Amazon, “Reading this book is a GREAT idea.” I concur. If you are like me and have never had the pleasure of visiting Paris, then you probably have a stack of travel books and travel fiction as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Not to mention ones with the word “Paris” in the title. Queue my NON-reluctance to read JUST ONE MORE book set among the […]

The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam

April 8, 2016 0 Comments Regina

Мать Россия!!! A little bird told me something. That Historians secretly love to read alternate histories. I’m here to qualify that secret. We love to read well-written and believable alternate histories. The Secret Daughter of the Tsar almost made me want to change my focus of study as a historian-in-training, and that is saying a lot. These days, I am lucky to finish a book in a week. I finished this one in a few […]

Book Tour: Listen to Me by Kristen Proby

April 6, 2016 2 Comments Erin

Another great story from Kristen Proby and another great set of friends/family that I can’t wait to get to know! Addison Wade and her closest friends have opened up Portland’s hottest new restaurant, Seduction! While Addison and Kat (one of her best friends and partner) out scoping local talent at an open mic night in an effort to bring some local music to their restaurant, we, the readers meet Jake Keller aka Jake Nash. Jake […]

Blog Tour: The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

April 5, 2016 0 Comments Regina

GIVE IN TO THE BIIIIIINGE! The Darkest Corners is a gripping psychological thriller. Once you read the first few pages of this book, be ready to give in to the binge-reading urge that will overcome you. Once-upon-a-time there was some television-crack called the O.J. Simpson trial, the Casey Anthony trial, and most recently, Making A Murderer. The dark and addictive pull of these trials has been wonderfully crystallized in The Darkest Corners. This book could […]

The Violinist of Venice: A Story of Vivaldi by Alyssa Palombo

March 26, 2016 0 Comments Regina

“Playing the violin again ignited a permanent glow that I carried inside me, which burned gently and steadily just beneath my breast bone. Before I left Maestro Vivaldi’s house, we agreed I should return at noon in three days’ time, but I knew my frequent comings and goings would not go unremarked upon for long. I was tempting il destino, but I couldn’t stop.” The man, the myth, the legend: Most ears […]

Blog Tour: The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters Review + GIVEAWAY!

March 11, 2016 0 Comments Regina

Cat Winters takes a brave look into the under belly of the post WWI cultural climate in America and teaches you about all of the things you never learned in history class. History buffs and Shakespeare fanatics will want to add a “Cat Winters Collection” space to their bookshelves. Title: THE STEEP AND THORNY WAY Author: Cat Winters Pub. Date: March 8, 2016 Publisher: Amulet Books Format: Hardcover, eBook Find it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare’ […]

Review: Some Sort of Happy by Melanie Harlow

March 1, 2016 0 Comments Erin

This book is amazing! I just re-read it for a second time THIRD TIME. I don’t usually re-read a book so soon after I read it the first time or second time, but I had to. I just LOVED Sebastian. He was imperfectly perfect. You get so used to reading about these PERFECT GUYS in romance novels, that it’s a little refreshing to find one who isn’t so perfect. Reading the blurb, you’re not […]

The Power by Jennifer L. Armentrout

February 23, 2016 0 Comments Erin

Ok wow, This book was even better than The Return. I really started to like Seth a whole lot more. I mean he finally started to grow on me in the Return (I kind of wanted to punch in the Covenant books…so that’s saying a lot), but I like him even more now, though he did have a few moments where someone needed to bitchslap him, but he found his way again… This book kind […]

The Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth

February 20, 2016 0 Comments Regina

Check out another fantastic book I reviewed that centers around midwifery HERE. Here’s a vague, three run-on sentence long history of delivering babies: Skilled women helped other women deliver their babies and would pass the torch of ”mystical delivery” down to other women because, after all, a woman knows how women things work better than a man. Fast forward to the nineteenth century and the medical field becomes ”professionalized” and the field of gynecology was […]

Book Review: Nine Minutes by Beth Flynn

February 15, 2016 1 Comment Christy

Wow! This book was amazing! Well, if you can overlook an adult having sex with a fifteen year old. Normally I would have DNF’d the book right away, but after reading tons of reviews I knew I was going to go ahead and read it anyway. And honestly I’m glad I did. There are so many layers to this story. I was hooked from the very first page. I can honestly say this book is […]

#PastPostingDate: RE JANE by Patricia Park

January 29, 2016 0 Comments Regina

Yeaaaaah, I was supposed to post a review about this AMAZING book (more than) a few months ago but lets move on, shall we? *clears throat* The thing is, I enjoyed this re-telling of Jane Eyre so much that I was waiting for my intellect to catch up. RE JANE was incredibly clever, insightful, poignant, and funny. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with the words to review such a smart book. I bow down […]

ILLUMINAE (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

January 13, 2016 0 Comments Regina

Disclaimer: I read Illuminae in ARC format over the summer but won the hardcover version on a blog. I am reviewing the ARC version in this post but any quotes/excerpts used were checked against the published version. It seems pointless to do a review of ILLUMINAE this long since its release date. I’m sure there are already a billion and one blog reviews of the book out there and it’s unlikely that I will have […]

A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison

January 12, 2016 0 Comments Regina

A Small Indiscretion was one of those books that I saw on another blog last year and thought to myself Ohhh! I really want to read this!. I occasionally passed by it at Barnes and Noble over the past year and would say to my husband while pointing at it with the excitement of remembering a long-forgotten good idea, “Oh! I have been wanting to read that one!”. Ultimately, the book failed to ever make it […]