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 After a disastrous first marriage, the lovely widow Joanna Ware has absolutely no desire to marry anyone, ever again. Certainly not another explorer cut, in her mind, from the same mold as her late husband. But in the midst of thwarting yet another proposal, Joanna kisses Alex, Lord Grant, an Artic explorer who was her husband’s best friend. Despite the seeming clash in their personalities, the will of Joanna’s late husband throws them together again and again. It’s no surprise when she and Alex start to feel something for one another, and rumors begin to run rampant across London.
This first novel in a new series by long time romance author Nicola Cornick is an engaging, witty, and emotional journey through London up to the chilly Arctic to retrieve a little girl, the child that Joanna Ware never had with her husband. While the characters sometimes suffer colossal struggles to communicate, their mistrust eventually fades and I did get a genuine sense that they loved one another and belonged together. It’s difficult because sometimes I did want to smack them, but I certainly supported them in the end.
They have so many misunderstandings to surmount that we automatically know reconciliation isn’t going to happen in a second anyway. There are sparks, but there are also problems. Joanna has been led by her experience with her husband, while Alex’s mind has been poisoned by his slander, so they have learn to actually know one another instead of knowing the myths that each of them have built around their lives.
Providing a bit of comic relief to the otherwise emotional, painful story is Joanna’s friend Lottie. This frivolous society girl takes along an unimaginable amount of belongings to the frozen north and doesn’t hesitate to head straight for affairs when she feels necessary. While she is surprisingly ridiculous, Lottie isn’t a soulless character, as she has an affair of the heart in the book and learns just what it feels like to be treated the way she normally treats men.
Mostly, however, this book is an emotional journey through one couple’s struggle to learn to be comfortable with one another, to set aside past scars and focus solely on their future together rather than the battle-strewn past they’ve endured. With that in mind, Whisper of Scandal is an excellent choice for the romance reader, though not one lacking patience, and I’m looking forward to the second and third books in the series.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review.
 Finley Jayne would have just been an ordinary servant girl in this steampunk version of London if she wasn’t two personalities in one body. Her dark side gives her supernatural strength and an incredible amount of anger, while her normal personality is sweet and unthreatening. When she flees from one of the numerous houses in which she’s attempted service, after (rightly) beating an aristocrat for sexually accosting her, she runs into Griffin King, a young duke who promptly takes her home to his relatively ragtag bunch of odd personalities. Each has a special talent, but they’ve also been targeted by a mysterious villain, The Machinist, who has it out for Queen Victoria.
This was an incredibly entertaining read that I just couldn’t put down. I loved the atmosphere of steampunk London and the special skills that each of the characters had. It felt almost like I was reading a classic superhero comic book set in Victorian London, with some vicious automatons added in. It’s a atmosphere at once familiar and different, so I could fit right in while still taking some time to learn about the world.
The book is pretty clearly a YA novel with a bit of an emphasis on Finley’s romantic relationships and her seesawing between Jack Dandy and Griff. It’s very much about her personal growth from a girl with two personalities into a girl who can control herself and unleash her feelings when it’s more appropriate. She changes quite a bit over the course of the novel; at times it’s difficult to get a grasp on who she is due to her separate personalities, but overall I certainly liked her as a heroine and felt I could understand her issues and hope for her to do better.
I did feel the book was a bit predictable; I figured one part out well before the characters managed it, and while I was probably meant to, I would have preferred that extra suspense towards the end. Plus I felt by the end that I hadn’t got to know many of the other characters particularly well; it was enough to like them, but not the same degree as I felt for Finley after her journey of self-discovery.
Still, though, I really enjoyed The Girl in the Steel Corset. I looked forward to reading it whenever I had a chance and I was very invested in the story’s outcome. It’s not perfect, but I will most definitely be looking forward to further volumes in the series.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review from Netgalley.
 As an adult, Heather Sellers discovers that she suffers from a condition called prosopagnosia, commonly known as face blindness. She is unable to recognize people by their faces; while she can usually identify them by features such as hair, ears, and clothing, it’s never reliable and she runs into her own husband thinking he’s a stranger. With her condition as a guide, Heather can start to process her difficult childhood and her relationship with her parents, both of whom have issues of their own. More importantly, Heather’s diagnosis comes to provide more clarity for her life, giving her a better understanding of who she is and how she can deal with her condition.
I’d never heard of prosopagnosia before reading this book, but it sounds very difficult. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like not to recognize people I knew walking down the street, or introduce myself to someone I already knew at a party – it’s just automatic for me and, clearly, for the many people who told Heather, “Oh, I’m really bad with names too”, ignoring her very real condition. I could feel her frustration and her certainty that she genuinely had this problem and I was relieved when she finally got a diagnosis and could begin to deal with what she did have. There is currently no cure for face blindness, but letting others know about the situation seems to help.
Tied in with Heather’s modern day story is the depiction of her childhood, which was far from ordinary. Her mother appears to be a paranoid schizophrenic, while Heather’s father has issues that are never fully understood throughout the narrative. Her parents live separately and as a child Heather lives with one and then the other and back again, switching schools on a yearly basis and struggling to make many friends. Her success to PhD level and eventual professorship at a university is simply astounding coming out of that and she deserves a lot of credit for sticking to her education, even when her mother handed her job listings for secretaries and cleaning women.
I did find the stories of her childhood very hard to take, simply because her life was so difficult. I felt very bad for her but to be honest, I was also just more interested in her modern day struggles with her condition, her marriage, and the fallout from her childhood rather than the events itself. As a result the second section of the book, which moves more away from childhood, struck a deeper chord with me and had me much more eager to read to the end. I think that Heather’s childhood is essential to understand her problems as an adult, but personally, I wouldn’t have minded an entire book on face blindness.
You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know is a moving memoir on a condition very few people are familiar with. The author is a strong woman with a difficult past to overcome that readers will come to empathize with and even admire. Recommended.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
 Lady Elaine Warren began her first season full of excitement and verve, ready to have her chance at the world. But slowly, she began to fade away and turned into a wallflower of the highest order. The culprit? Evan Carlton, the Earl of Westfield, made Elaine his target. With his insecure cousin in tow, Evan made Elaine’s life miserable, until she lost all chance of finding a well-placed husband. But in reality, Evan has always liked Elaine, and his mocking of her was simply an immature reaction to an attraction he didn’t know what to do with. Returned from the Continent, and several life-changing experiences, Evan longs to show Elaine just how stupid he was and see if he can have a chance at winning the woman he loves most of all, even if she wants nothing to do with him.
This little novella by Courtney Milan has received rave reviews pretty much everywhere. I’m not going to lie, I was absolutely thrilled when I discovered I could buy it for 86p on my Kindle, even though I’m in the UK. I downloaded it and read it within two days. It’s a short novella, equivalent to about 100 pages in print, so it’s best read straight in an evening (preferably alone, and with tissues if you’re anything like me).
Anyway, despite the reviews, I was genuinely surprised at how well this worked. I often have trouble buying into short romances, because it’s hard to believe they’d fall in love so fast, but this one just clicked with me instantly. The back story comes thick and fast, so we’re prepared for the characters’ reactions immediately. Plus, they tap right into that stereotype of the popular teenager longing for the wallflower, turning around and falling in love with her, then grovelling in order to win her heart back. I’m sure we’d all wish to avoid the torment that is actually inflicted on poor Elaine, but watching Evan try impossibly hard to win her back is gorgeous reading for someone who loves romance.
Plus, if you’ve ever been made fun of, even if not to such a degree, it’s impossible not to empathise with Elaine. Who wouldn’t want their former tormentor to turn around, beg forgiveness, and proceed to do everything in his power to make things perfect? At the same time, how hard would it be to trust that person not to turn around and make it all a living hell once again? It’s all so well done and so true to real life emotions. I’d never really Courtney Milan before, but trust me, this will not be the last time I do so, and I will be purchasing her backlist the minute I allow myself to buy books again.
If you’re a romance reader, you simply must give this novella a try. It’s available for every e-reader through All Romance ebooks, Amazon, or Amazon UK.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I purchased this book.
 In 1876, fancy mail order magic is driving out homespun magic, the kind Emily Edwards practices. As her and her father’s situation gets more and more desperate, she decides to snare a wealthy husband with a love spell. Her efforts, though meant well, completely backfire, and soon she finds herself racing across the country with Dreadnought Stanton, a snobbish warlock from New York City, on a frantic effort to reach the centre of the warlock’s world before it’s too late.
This was a great book in so many different ways. I love the setting – like other reviewers before me have said, it’s that wild west meets magic that is surprisingly appealing. It reminds me of Firefly in a way, both set in a world full of cowboys but with added twists to make them fresh and new. Here we have not only magic but echoes of steampunk and a few other bits and pieces.
Hobson’s ideas about magic are different from anything I’ve personally read, but the contrast is so apt for the time period when the mass catalogues started going out and people began to crave something other than homespun, homemade goods. This is a few years before that started to happen in real life, but it has that feel about it of the new pushing out the old, and the old struggling to survive in any way possible. The magic system develops very much along the course of the book, with new discoveries coming rapidly. It’s obvious that Hobson has a lot of ideas and I’m really looking forward to her fleshing this version of our world out more. The end of the book hints at a sequel and I am crossing my fingers that this is true, because I would definitely like to spend more time here.
And then, of course, there is a fantastic romance, and I can’t spoil that for anyone as it’s right on the back cover. Plus, tension sparks between Emily and Dreadnought almost immediately, and I think it would be difficult to miss their eventual romance from the opening chapters of the book. It’s a well done romance, too, without getting at all in the way of the plot. Instead it feels natural, inspired by the tension they’re both experiencing and the chemistry that springs up between them. There are very few types of novels that I like better than a good fantasy with a side romance, so needless to say this book ticked all of those boxes for me.
The Native Star is a solid satisfying indulgence of a read, well worth the time for anyone who likes fantasy or romance. And it was a nominee for the Nebula award this year, which is a third-party agreement of this book’s excellence.
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 Eleanor of Aquitaine is just fifteen years old when her father dies and she marries Louis, the future king of France. They’ve not even reached Paris before the crises in Eleanor’s marriage become apparent; her husband has no interest in consummating their union, despite his physical attractiveness, is ruled by several members of his government, and has ascended to the throne without knowing anything about what he is doing. Taking us through Eleanor’s life from this moment through her journey on Crusade and second marriage, Devil’s Consort (Queen Defiant in the US) explores what might have really happened to one of history’s most well known royal women.
Historical fiction and Eleanor of Aquitaine are not strangers to one another; in fact, I feel like she’s been the subject of more and more books lately, both fiction and non-fiction. She’s a character that’s hard to resist, after all, a strong woman who broke free of convention, possibly had several affairs, and was the queen of two rival countries in the High Middle Ages, also known as the part of the Middle Ages that best represents our imaginings of it. She divorced her French husband and almost immediately dashed off to marry the future Henry II – so quick we can’t help but think she planned it – but also represents a woman who was easily capable of ruling, even if she did have to do it under her husband’s and son’s names.
Devil’s Consort is a hugely enjoyable book; it doesn’t precisely challenge any of the leading ideas about Eleanor, which means she does have those affairs I mentioned, one in particular with a crusading knight, and she does get very frustrated with her first husband Louis. Naturally he adores her, in a puppyish way, as he completely ignores her and goes off to pray instead of make heirs. At times I did wish the book reached beyond conventional ideas, but for someone who is a bit less read in Eleanor’s life and times, I don’t think this would at all be a problem. One thing I did think was that, outside of Eleanor and Henry, a few of the characters were more cardboard than flesh, in particular Louis. This doesn’t at all mean that history is neglected; I particularly enjoyed the mention of a particular rock crystal vase, the only item that we know Eleanor actually possessed (and can see for ourselves).
Overall, it’s a fast-reading, entertaining romp through medieval England and the thoughts and struggles of a woman who clearly knows who she is and often what she wants as well. I enjoyed in particular the bits when Eleanor herself goes on crusade; obviously she didn’t participate in the fighting and I was very curious to see how O’Brien depicted her time in the holy land. Devil’s Consort is a book well suited for others who love historical fiction and should stand firmly on the shelf next to other works about her. I’d recommend it!
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review from a publicist.
 Sarah McConnell’s husband has been dead for three months, lost in a boating accident. But then she sees him in the grocery store, in her home, at the cabin they once shared. She’s convinced that he’s real, more so when he speaks to her. When she tries to tell the women at her widow’s group, they all smile and reassure her, because they have all seen their husbands at one point or another. Sarah’s grief confuses her so much that she isn’t sure whether her husband is still alive, whether her experiences are real, or whether it’s all just the wishful thinking of a widow who wasn’t sure about anything beforehand either.
This book starts out with the perfect set-up. We instantly know Sarah is a widow and that she’s still seeing her husband as if he were alive. We speedily find out that he’s been lost in a boating accident, and though some of his personal items have been found, his body is still missing. So he might be alive, and missing, or he might truly be dead – it’s a mystery and Sarah is just as confused as the reader is. Throw in a bit of angst left over from their previous marriage and a whole lot of learning to be alone and it’s easy to understand how Sarah can struggle so much while doing her best to appear fairly normal.
Somehow, though, while I liked this book well enough, I never really crossed the line into loving it or feeling like I wanted to pick it up after I’d put it down. I did finish it, but it didn’t stand out in any way, and I felt there was a reason I’d had it for review for a while without considering reading it yet. I think a degree of this is personal; I generally struggle with books like this, which are about women and feelings, mainly I think because I am a woman and have feelings and get enough of that in my own life.
Still, I appreciated the way the book was put together, the slow unveiling of the mystery, confusing at first but with a twist at the end that helps it all make sense and coalesce. It’s a story about coping with grief and making sense of what is left, however possible. Whether David is still alive or not, and we spend most of the novel unsure, Sarah still has to manage her grief because her life will never be the same either way. I can appreciate that The Widow’s Season a very good book and I suspect someone who is the right target audience for this will just love it.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free to review.
 Famous for her battle to win the English throne as rightful heir from her cousin Stephen, Matilda ‘the Empress’ is still young when her husband, the Emperor of Germany, passes away, leaving her childless and off to be reunited with her father Henry I. Matilda is Henry’s only living child, which means that she is his heir unless his young wife Adeliza can get pregnant. The two women become fast friends but are separated when Matilda is married once again to Geoffrey of Anjou, a man much younger than her and not at all to her taste. Matilda’s marriage becomes a smaller problem in the wider scheme of English and French politics, however, when her father dies and her cousin Stephen grabs the throne before Matilda can even get to England. Matilda’s fight for the throne for herself and then for her son Henry is juxtaposed with Adeliza’s rediscovery of herself and her possibilities through a second marriage.
Every single time I read a book by Elizabeth Chadwick, I find myself wondering why I haven’t devoured her entire backlist by now (trust me, that day will come). Each book is a treasure to savor and Lady of the English is no exception. Even knowing the history and the outcome of the book, I found myself captivated throughout, spellbound by Chadwick’s well told version of a tale I’ve read before. I loved many, many things about this book, not least its realistic portrayal of historical figures as complex human beings that can’t be summed up in a chronicle.
Matilda, Adeliza, Geoffrey, and Henry all walked and breathed in my mind at least. Matilda in particular stole the show for me. Chadwick’s depiction of her genuine struggle between showing authority as the rightful monarch and being womanly as required was just fabulous and I got a real sense of how frustrating this must have been for her. The very idea of a king was completely at odds with the concept of femininity and Matilda really has nowhere to go.
I also found the friendship between her and Adeliza to be a inspired way to tell this story. Their lives become very different, but they can represent two paths while still remaining connected. Matilda is ambitious and determined to get what is hers by right, turns off her emotions in public as best she can, and is fundamentally a leader, even as she rages against her own powerlessness. Adeliza is more submissive, using more traditional female power tactics to get her way from her husbands, and seems content in the domestic sphere even at the highest levels. The contrast brings more life to the book and I think women who read this book will find a little bit of themselves in both Adeliza and Matilda.
Lady of the English is an excellent read, with a lot in it for both people who like to read historical fiction and those who like to read about relationships. It’s a fascinating story grounded with very real people. Very highly recommended.
For a little more about the book from the author, check out my interview with Elizabeth Chadwick.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
 In Moonwalking with Einstein, Joshua Foer digs deep into the concept of memorisation and how our lack of it as a society has affected us. He goes so far as to compete in a memory championships, sharing his tips along the way, as we learn just what it takes to be a memory professional. He doesn’t memorise just the shopping list or the US Presidents; he memorises poems, playing cards, and people, with easy tips for us to learn how to memorise as well.
I have a memory that is simultaneously atrocious and very efficient, so I was incredibly curious about recognised memory techniques. Foer mainly describes the memory palace idea that I’d seen used previously, although I can’t remember where. It’s surprisingly effective; I managed to do his little exercise and actually found it very successful, to the point where I can still remember it a few weeks later. There are a couple of other hints and tricks throughout as he goes through the process of learning to be a memory champion.
That wasn’t the most interesting part for me, though, as I was much more interested in the history of memory and his investigation into the top minds in the world, including those with mental illnesses whose memories are somehow naturally more effective than the rest of us. He goes in two directions with the latter, interviewing a man who has no memory and a man who has unnatural memory abilities. It’s absolutely fascinating to see how the mind is affected at different stages of memory recall. Foer also talks to memory professionals – people who help you remember – and gets a wide range of perspectives on the subject. All of it was quite interesting.
I’m sure it helped that I am firmly in Foer’s camp in that I believe memory is very important. I am partially blessed with a good memory; I can stick things in my memory with relative ease when I try, and sometimes I find random dates and facts stuck in my head without real effort (my new mobile number popped into my head one day and hasn’t left yet!). But if I’m not paying attention, I forget very easily, and I’ve never been good at using memory devices to remember things like the planets. I usually just remember the sentence and forget which planet is which word!
But I do believe memory is important, largely for the reasons Foer mentions; we need to have a lodestone to attach future knowledge on. As a practical example, I know a lot more history than the average person who has never really cared for it, like my husband. When we go to a museum, I love it partly because I can usually relate what I’m seeing to the store of memory in my head (partly because I love history). He loses interest pretty quickly and forgets what he’s seen because nothing has meaning to him, but when he sees something he can relate to, he’s much more interested. We need to have some firm grounding of facts in our heads to relate to the world around us – this is why a lot of older literature is harder to read, because we’ve lost the intimate knowledge of things like classical literature and the Bible to attach allusions to.
Although I enjoyed parts of this book more than others, I would still highly recommend it to anyone who is at all interested in memory, whether you’d like to remember better or are simply curious about the history of memorisation.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I received this book for free from Amazon Vine.
 On the eve of the French Revolution in Paris, Marie Grosholtz runs the Salon de Cire with her uncle Curtius, sculpting wax figures of prominent public figures and placing them in realistic settings for public viewings. Their wax figures are so famous that even the royal family come to pay a visit and many nobles request sculptures of themselves. But revolutionary talk is set to change everything and Marie, as new tutor to the king’s sister at Versailles, is in a position to hear everything and witness the fall of the monarchy from the inside. When the revolution begins to threaten her life, Marie must decide between staying in Paris with her family or fleeing to England with her lover, Henri.
I have been really looking forward to this book for months. I’ve loved all of Michelle Moran’s books set in Egypt and Rome and was thrilled that she’d chosen a time period more to my overall tastes this time. I’ve always been curious about Madame Tussaud and this just seemed like the perfect way to learn a little bit more about her. It would have been easy to be disappointed given the high level of my expectations, but I loved this book just as much as Moran’s previous books. It was immensely satisfying in every way. In fact, the only thing I didn’t like was the cover quote, ‘Can Love Survive the Revolution?’, which just didn’t convey what the book was about at all to me.
I loved the atmosphere in this book in particular. There is a constant sense of danger and suspense around Marie, even at the beginning, particularly due to the talk that occurs in her family’s salon. She can feel what’s going to happen, and as a reader, I know enough of the history of the French Revolution to sense that things aren’t going to go well. As she gets close to members of the royal family, Marie’s outlook on events starts to shift, and she starts to understand the depth of difference between the actual lives of royalty and the people’s perception of them. I particularly enjoyed the scenes set in Versailles – both because I’ve been there and because I recently learned how disgusting the palace used to be from watching a recent TV show, Filthy Cities on the BBC. These added a very welcome extra dimension to my reading and Marie’s Paris.
I also, predictably, loved Marie’s character. As you’ll undoubtedly have noticed, I am a very character-driven reader, and I was thrilled to have one I could really appreciate in Marie. She’s practical, with a keen eye for money and a determination to do her best, but she also has a romantic, sympathetic heart that does emerge on occasion. Her mission in life isn’t to get married and have babies, although she wouldn’t mind doing that as well as her job; she’s about as career oriented as an eighteenth century woman could get. And, we know from the beginning, she succeeded hugely and her name now graces wax museums the world over. I think she would have been pleased.
If you’re a historical fiction fan, I think you’ll love Madame Tussaud. It has the perfect mix of historical detail, atmosphere, story, and great characters. Highly recommended.
All book links to external sites are affiliate links. I purchased this book.
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