“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 […]
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’ […]
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 […]
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 […]
“Bennett’s sophisticated grasp of historical realities and psychological complexity gives power and depth to what might easily have been a clichéd romance.” – Sunday Times First, let me help you set the mood before starting this sweeping story of revolution, music, and romance. Do yourself a favor and Spotify or buy Anna Netrebko’s Russian Album to steep this reading experience in even more magic. Netrebko brings such rich, velvety tones and mastery of subject matter […]
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 […]
BOHEMIAN GOSPEL WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2015. “A fast-moving, seductive read. A fascinating mix of dark fantasy and rich historical detail.” Author of The Bloodletter’s Daughter Like any good book, Bohemian Gospel is a book for all seasons. However, I suggest you hurry and go buy a copy to read now, during the Winter months, so you can cuddle up under a fuzzy blanket by a toasty fire. This book will make […]
ATTENTION FANS OF History channel’s VIKINGS: This is the book you have been waiting for. And now for the funny part. I couldn’t handle The Vikings show and unfortunately, Avelynn just wasn’t the book for me. That being said, I think a ton of people will really enjoy this book. It has a powerful female lead and there are strong feminist currents to the novel, which I loved, but I just couldn’t get into […]
There has been some what of a revival in American historical television dramas over the past few years, and I’d be lying if I said I liked them as much as the British historical dramas- based solely on the integrity of the history being presented to the public via the preferred medium of flat screens. Cable shows like TURN: Washington’s Spies, Sons of Liberty, and (the less recent) HBO series on John Adams are all wildly entertaining. […]
” What if British Magic kept the American Revolution from ever occurring?” The premise of this book is pretty amazing. My synapses salivate at the thought of how Shanna Swendson conjured this story question. There are two story worlds in this novel. One is out in the open, filled with proper aristocrats and those who wish they were. The other is clandestine, filled with working-class folk who walk on the radical side. I loved how […]
The Last Midwife was the most scandalous Western Mystery I have ever read. I LOVED it. By the late 19th century, women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were making a name for themselves in the first Women’s Suffrage movement and Gynecology had just been professionalized. Where women’s care and the delivery of their babies had previously been left up to midwives, the culture was changing as men crowned themselves Gynecologists and cursed […]
(WARNING: To my Southern friends- I may use a couple of Northern slang words in place of ”awesome” or ”super cool”. I don’t know why. Can you spot them?) I’m not really a Fantasy fan but damn, this book was wicked good. An Inheritance of Ashes is one of the BEST BOOKS I’ve read so far this year. I was completely taken by the atmospheric story world and the haunting characters. Hallie, the female […]
“Through it all, the very same sun and moon and stars never wavered, never once failed to rise and fall and shine their light upon the world. And though mankind itself had run amok, the universe never once collapsed in on itself. Through seismic shifts, wars, famine, and mankind’s great experiment with its own free will, the universe never lost sight of even its most infinitesimal need for balance. “ Some lovely Ottoman textiles. The […]
“We walk on fire or air, so Daddy liked to say. Basement floors too hot to touch. Steaming green lawns in the dead of winter. Sinkholes, quick and sudden, plunging open at your feet.” The synopsis of this book is the kind that plants little hooks inside my historically minded brain and pulls on it. Especially the part of my brain that loves hauntingly atmospheric settings set among neglected snapshots of American history. The below […]
You can find my reviews of C.J. Archer’s Freak House series HERE and her stand alone novel, Surrender, HERE. Don’t forget to ENTER to WIN at the bottom! Victorian Era London, England ATTENTION POLDARK FANS: You will LOVE the dynamic between the Female and Male protagonists in this novel. I wish I could buy stock in C.J. Archer. Once again, she’s blown me away with the start of another great series, The Ministry of Curiosities. […]
“Cabaret meets Cassandra Clare-a haunting magical thriller set in a riveting 1930s-esque world.” When I was 16, there was this movie that came out called Dark City. The trailer looked so nouveau-weird and mysterious. It looked like the coolest kind of psychological thriller. I went to see the movie and felt more than a little confused but still thought the film was a cool concept. That’s what Dark Metropolis reminded me of. Both have the […]
REVIEW: ~ 54 minutes. The entire story spans a timeframe of fifty four minutes. ~ Although there are other published books that deal with this topic. I think the way this story is written sets it apart from the others. It’s told in multiple points of view, and I really enjoyed learning each featured characters perspective. Learning how they were connected with each other in one way or another. Ms Nijkamp did a great job […]
You can check out my review of the first book in this series, Flappers, Flasks and Foul Play HERE. “”Boardwalk Empire” meets “Miss Universe” in 1927 Galveston, Texas-the “Sin City of the Southwest.” Jasmine (“Jazz”) Cross is an ambitious 21-year-old society reporter for the Galveston Gazette who wants to be taken seriously by the good-old-boy staff, but the editors only assign her fluffy puff pieces, like writing profiles of bathing beauties.” Here’s a fun alternate […]
Check out my PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS of Marci Jefferson HERE, and don’t forget to ENTER to WIN a finished copy of the Enchantress of Paris at the end of the review! “Fraught with conspiracy and passion, the Sun King’s opulent court is brought to vivid life in this captivating tale about a woman whose love was more powerful than magic.” COULD ANYONE ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE IN AN HISTORICAL NOVEL?! Some opulent scenery from King Louis […]
I discovered Ellen Mansoor Collier’s Jazz Age Mystery series while doing some Historical research of my own, and by God, I feel like I struck gold, babies! GOLD! We’ve all read the 1920s Historical Fiction set in New York, Chicago, Paris, New Orléans, but I never would have thought about experiencing the Jazz Age via Galveston, Texas until I read Flappers Flasks, and Foul Play. To be honest (I admit with my head hung […]
I went into this book with some Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas baggage. I was beyond bored and unimpressed with the film when I was in high-school and had to hide my true feelings about it so I could be cool and fit in with my friends. Every time so-and-so made a reference to the film, I just nodded in agreement about how cool it was or whatever. Kind of like in college when […]