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 After her husband leaves her for a professional woman that can have his children, Leonora Manin decides to seek her heritage in Venice. Her mother fell in love with a Venetian, but wound up raising Leonora alone in London, separating her from an essential part of her heritage. Leonora arrives in Venice to learn about Corradino, one of her ancestors, and to find herself again in the city of her birth. Her story is interwoven with that of Corradino, her famous ancestor who was at the time the most skilled glassblower in the world.
I remember a lot of other bloggers reviewing this book when it came out a good while ago. It seemed to be good, but not spectacular – that was enough for me to acquire it on my Kindle when it was on offer for just £1. I hoped to find something a little more than others did, but in the end I felt the same, just liking the story rather than really getting into it.
The first thing that turned me off from the book was the style of the writing. It was okay, but I often felt like it was trying just a bit too hard to inject the prose with beauty. It felt flat and stilted instead, with descriptions of Venice dragging on, and I really disliked the way the perspective was sometimes taken away from the main characters and written from an observer’s point of view. The book also switched around haphazardly between characters, sometimes having one new perspective for a single chapter and nowhere else in the book, which threw me off when it felt like the first half of the book was simply Leonora and Corradino. Why introduce other narrators when it’s already hard enough to connect with the two established?
The romance also happened much too quickly. They’d hardly met by the time Leonora decided she was permanently in love, and to be honest I never really connected with either of them. I did enjoy Leonora’s perspective, especially in the beginning, and felt for her, but just could not understand her attraction nor her reckless disregard for certain consequences. And I say this as a happy reader of romance novels, because I adore a good love story – unfortunately, this isn’t one. Everything was written to be a big deal, with lots of excitement and feeling and drama, but I couldn’t believe in it at all.
To top that all off, I didn’t even really like the historical parts, usually my favorites. Corradino was too cocky for my tastes, much too sure of himself, and I didn’t like what happened with the plot in that section. It just didn’t tie together as well as I would have liked; moreover, I never really “got” why Leonora felt more of a connection to Corradino than her own father, who also blew glass. Was it just because he was more famous?
I sound very critical here, but I don’t mean to be – I did actually enjoy reading The Glassblower of Murano. It passed the time well and I found it good for a casual read. But if you’re looking for a proper, in depth work of historical fiction (or even a fun switch between history and the present) I’d recommend you look elsewhere.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 The US Civil War is a topic that more or less everyone on both sides of the pond has learned at least a little something about. For us Americans, this is almost certainly more; I know in my school we covered the big battles and perhaps more importantly the many issues underpinning the war’s start and continuation. A World on Fire isn’t just a summary of those things. Instead, it is a history of the Civil War and at the same time a reflection of British and American relations during the war from the perspective of the people who lived through it. Foreman quotes extensively from personal records, letters, and other correspondence in her massive effort to tell the story of the war from different sides.
My edition of this book is subtitled “An Epic History of Two Nations Divided” and it is certainly epic. Coming in at over 800 pages long, in hardcover, reading this book is an undertaking (not least because it’s hard to hold!), but I at least found it a worthy one. Foreman is known very well for her earlier book, Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, which I read and enjoyed well before blogging, so before I even knew what her next book would be about I already suspected I’d be reading it. This is a total change of pace, but it stands up very well in its own right. American history has never been my favorite subject, but I enjoyed reading this and felt like I got a ton out of it, as well as another perspective on a war that still persists strongly in our culture.
Depicting just how closely relations between America and Britain still were is incredibly complex. British men fought for both sides in the war, British ships were involved in blockades, and both sides remained convinced that Britain would play a big part in determining the outcome of the war. All this despite the British government’s continued attempts at neutrality. It is epic in its scope, covering all events of the time in equal measure – Foreman can tell the story of a battle costing thousands of lives alongside a drawing room conversation or dinner that could have as much or as little effect on the war.
To write this book, Foreman draws from an unbelievable amount of sources and quotes from a variety of people. Some of them stick in the mind a bit better than others; Frank Vizetelly was one of my personal favorites. Even though he’s generally on the Confederate side, I loved that his pictures of the war were sprinkled liberally throughout the book. It made him a bit more human, especially when the images of the time are simply stiffly posed photographs. I was saddened to discover the poor guy doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, but his drawings are around on the internet. Here’s one of the Federal retreat from Bull Run:
 Source
Of course, Foreman also includes the big names who ran the governments in all of the countries concerned, as well as the generals and a huge host of lesser soldiers whose letters have survived. We get the perspective of men in England, like Charles Francis Adams, who was ambassador to London during the war, and men in Parliament who were split between the North and the South. I’d learned nothing about this ever previously, aside from the fact that the lack of southern cotton was bad for England, so I was completely fascinated by this side of the story. Canada also plays a part I’d never suspected; at the time it was British North America and thus an obvious front for England. I didn’t even know that anyone in the US had ever hoped to annex Canada, although that should have been obvious. To top it off, the book doesn’t just focus on the men; there are women here, too, both the women loved by the men fighting and women who were passionate about their causes themselves.
In short, this was a book fascinating on many fronts, full of information, both on a small and wide scale. In terms of its mission to depict the the truth of the relations between two countries and how the people of the time felt about them, it succeeds hugely, depicting the events of the war with depth, thought, and consideration. Those who are not history buffs may find it dry and lengthy at times, but those who are obsessed like me will undoubtedly adore A World on Fire. Highly recommended.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from Amazon Vine.
 Jordan Lennox is a member of the Inferno Club, a group of spies for the government masquerading as reckless, scandalous noblemen. His work caused him to leave Mara Bryce without explanation, without promises, twelve years ago, but he’s been pining after her ever since. On Mara’s side, things are largely the same, except she has endured a hateful marriage in the meantime. Her husband passed away, leaving her with a little boy, who is unquestionably the light of her life. When Jordan returns to England, neither he nor Mara can resist one another, no matter what’s happened over the years. In the meantime, the exchange for Drake’s return, carried on from previous books, has been completed, but none of the men are prepared for his complete memory loss or shocking switch of allegiance.
When it comes to Gaelen Foley, hope springs eternal. I requested this book from Netgalley on the back of positive early reviews, fingers crossed that the Gaelen Foley I used to know and love would finally be back. Someday, I will stop trying. There are good parts about this book, but there are also bad parts, and the whole thing feels rushed.
First, the good. I found the spy story genuinely interesting for much of this time around, which is strange because I hadn’t enjoyed it previously. I would have loved an entire book devoted to Drake at this point, especially after they return him to his parents’ house and he encounters the servant girl from his past, Emily. There was an enticing story there, I think, and while it is followed up a little bit throughout this one, it’s definitely put off for the next one, again. I like the overall idea of a story that spans an entire series, but I’m struggling with these. I just feel like not enough time is devoted to either thing. It’s a problem I had with Eloisa James’s Desperate Duchesses series in the beginning, with too many characters and not enough time devoted to any of them, but that series wrapped up spectacularly well. This one hasn’t given me the same indications.
I liked the idea of the romance as well, but too often it felt like the modern appeal was simply piggybacking on the past flashbacks, especially in the beginning. Their hatred and anger about the past twelve years dissolved in about an instant, even without explanations. It didn’t really help that I didn’t like them, mainly because the book was split in two, but also because their characters were inconsistent. The quick flash from hatred to adoration is part of that, but Mara goes from enjoying her hard-earned widowhood to ridiculously eager to be with Jordan in another five seconds flat. There was very little actual romance, mostly just stilted conversations and a quick hop into bed. I like the idea of childhood sweethearts reuniting as older and wiser people, but there has to be some substance there.
In short, My Irresistible Earl was disappointing. I’m beginning to think I’ll never have another Prince Charming! But didn’t I say that with the last one in this series?
If you’re looking for a fabulous romance, why not try Sarah MacLean? I loved Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for review from Netgalley.com.
 At eighteen years old, Lady Calpurnia Hartwell knows she is a failure during her own first season. Not helped by her old-fashioned name and the fact that she is forced to wear hideous gowns that don’t flatter her curvy figure, Callie has resorted to hiding in gardens and taking refuge amongst spinsters, avoiding the embarrassment and the fortune hunters who are the only men seeking her attentions. During one of her stints in a garden, Callie runs into Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston, who actually pays attention to her – Callie – and calls her an empress. Almost immediately afterwards, Callie sees Ralston in the arms of another woman, cementing his rakish ways and diminishing his compliments to her.
Ten years later, Callie’s little sister Mariana has just made the match of the year, while Callie has cemented her position in “spinster seating”. After hearing herself described as passive by the little sister she adores, Callie is driven to cast off the propriety which has ruled her life and seize opportunities not traditionally open to women. Her first task is to kiss someone – passionately – and who else should she choose but the Marquess she has adored from afar for ten years? He obviously know what he’s doing. But for a lady who longs for a love match, getting closer to Ralston is almost guaranteed to break Callie’s heart.
There is a reason that stereotypes in romance are so prevalent throughout the genre, and that’s because done correctly, they work, and they work very very well. Sarah MacLean’s adult romantic debut is the perfect demonstration of this. There is nothing particularly original about this book, nothing that hasn’t been done to death somewhere else. Callie is an aging (for her time) spinster, 28 years old, who has ceaselessly crushed on a true rake for ten years. She’s a wallflower, someone vast hordes of shy women can connect with on sight, and someone who is relentlessly ignored by dozens of men because she doesn’t conform to the stereotypes. She is a fantastic heroine, easy to love, easy to root for, and very clever for a woman who decides to make a list of nine things she’s not supposed to do.
Ralston is a man afraid of love because of his mother, like so many romance heroes before him. Having seen his father devastated by his mother’s departure, Ralston has determined never to love any woman, but instead to enjoy them. He doesn’t treat them badly – he spoils his mistresses rotten – but he makes a point of staying away from women who would love him or invite his love in return. Having been immune to every young lady’s charms, buried in the most gorgeous of women’s embraces for years, Ralston then finds himself peculiarly enamored with a woman completely unlike his others, even though he still resists love.
Having said all that, these familiar storylines work incredibly well in this novel. It’s fun, it’s witty, and it’s absolutely, indescribably romantic. It never falls into the trap of lust turning into love (though there is plenty of lust). Instead, it’s believable, even when the characters behave stupidly and deny themselves what they actually want. Their emotions leap off the page and into the reader’s heart, too – I can tell you I fell in love with this book. I stayed away for a good long while because of all the hype; I have read some books in this genre that simply don’t live up to expectations. This one did.
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is an amazing read, a must for historical romance fans. Highly, highly recommended – I am now going to proceed to devour MacLean’s next books!
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
 I’m combating my own laziness and restlessness this weekend by making a few changes around here. Bloggy maintenance always seems to be last on my list, and while it isn’t essential, I still do spend a lot of time on my blog and commenting on others’ blogs, so I might as well make it a bit more comfortable around here. The biggest change is my “Read in” tabs – I hadn’t updated them since 2009! I didn’t think anyone noticed until I actually got an email from a reader who wondered what happened to them. I made a new one for 2011 and am planning on combining the old ones together. I have to add in 2010 and all the links in to the older blog posts as well.
I’m also planning on reconsidering the sidebars and what’s in them and adding in some new headers. The affiliate links are also going to take some thought. So, hopefully within a few days it will be a little bit different and nicer on the blog! Please ignore if things look a bit strange for the next week or two. I’ve also been thinking about a custom redesign, but it’s not in the financial cards just yet.
Also getting a bit organized, or disorganized as it may appear to the casual visitor, I have been making piles of books and I thought I’d share them with you. I have three hanging out on my TBR bookcase right now. The first one here is my Once Upon a Time V pile. I also plan to poach from this for the Read-a-thon, if I feel like it.
The second pile is the actual Read-a-thon pile. I know it’s two weeks away, but I got excited, and we’ll be away next weekend to visit my MIL for British mother’s day, so what time better than now to put it together? The pile kept getting too heavy on the romance – I seem to read short books faster than long ones – but I think the mix looks good now. I’ll be at the library in a couple of weeks to get a few more non-fiction books in there.
 Lastly, my regular “immediate” TBR pile. I’ve mentioned before that I like to rotate through my books, reading equally from library, review, and own piles. This short term TBR stack switches between them, and I fill in the bottom with the next type of book as I go. I let myself choose other books or take something out of the middle of the pile sometimes, but generally I try to just get through all nine of them to keep to the mix. The current pile should take me about two weeks.
 And that’s it from me today. I’m off to continue reading Monsieur Montespan, a novel set in seventeenth century France about a rare loving marriage, but one in which the Marquis’s wife has caught the eye of King Louis XIV.
Do you have any piles of books lying around your house?
I am an Amazon Associate. Some of the books mentioned / pictured above may have been sent to me for review.
 In 2009, Colin Thubron journeyed to Tibet to climb the impressive Mount Kailas. Scaled by very few, usually approached and gone around by the path that Thubron takes, the mountain is sacred to Buddhists and Hindus, as well as a number of minor religions and sects that have sprung up around it. Thubron visits several of these as he journeys, as well as staying at very basic camps and experiencing life in Tibet with his two comrades, a cook and a guide. His journey isn’t just physical, as he pulls in his own mental and spiritual experiences to make a fully rounded trip for both the mind and body.
This was a travelogue unlike anything I’d read before. They are a bit of a new genre for me, so I was excited to try out another new author. I ended up getting a lot more than I expected.
The first thing that really astonished me about the book was Thubron’s writing. Not that the other books I’ve read have been written poorly, but his writing is almost poetic in its beauty. He really delves deep and describes the scenery and the people in ways that are almost transcendent. I kept getting lost in the imagery and thoughtfulness of his observations – he’s obviously one of those people who just sees and feels things more deeply, and has the ability to put all that into words. At times, I felt as though the stark loveliness of the writing kept me from really getting to know Thubron, but then he would share an insight from his life, about the loved ones he’d lost and the fact that he was the last remaining member of his family, that made me feel sympathy for him once again, and regain interest in his journey.
I’m not particularly familiar with Tibet. It’s one of those places that I know is far away but is off of my personal map, simply because I’ve never had cause to learn about it. Thubron’s book is interesting in this respect, particularly because he does delve a bit into the history of the places and the many spiritualities that worship the mountain. Considering it’s a place I’d never even heard of before picking up this book, I was quite surprised to discover just how revered it is, even more that people go on pilgrimage there and actually sometimes die because it’s hard going and tour operators don’t always monitor the people who go on their trips.
It’s a short book, but it is quite deep, and I suspect you’ll find it takes you longer to read than you expect, as it did with me. It isn’t perfect – sometimes the many names of religious sectors and gods, for example, gets overwhelming and adds up to too much. But take a little time to really appreciate the beauty of Thubron’s words and I think you’ll find that To a Mountain in Tibet is a rewarding read.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
 Popular high schooler Sam Kingston dies one night after attending a party at an old friend’s house. But she wakes up the next morning, only to find that she’s living that same Friday over again. And then it happens again. By the time she gets the hang of it, Sam starts to wonder why she’s being forced to live the exact same day over and over again. But as she does, she also begins to consider her actions more closely, to think about her friends more deeply, and to think about the small – and big – things that she does which can change the course of not only her life but those of everyone around her.
When I read Delirium a couple of months ago, I loved it, but many other bloggers said it was good but didn’t quite live up to this. I can completely see that now – this was a five star book for me, not necessarily from the first page, but as Sam went on living Cupid Day, I fell more and more in love with it.
It’s easy to see why, for me, as well, because this book has everything that I love about fantastic character development simply inherent in it. The premise of going back and living the same day over and over again gives us a whole different spectrum of ways to view Sam. She realizes that her actions have no consequences at one point, because she’ll just repeat the day over again, and so acts outrageously. But then she’s still stuck with the memory of what she did and how unhappy it made her, even if it impacts no one else. People do all sorts of small acts that simply pass by, without thinking of what they’ve done to others, but Sam can change this one day for everyone.
The book itself is truly breathtaking; I could not put it down as I was reading it. I’d intended to cycle through this and two non-fiction books I was reading, but they fell to the wayside because I absolutely had to finish this one. Despite the fact that Sam’s living the same day over – a plot which I thought would get repetitive – it genuinely doesn’t because each day is different. Each day brings new discoveries. I loved the way Sam could start to work out how everyone around her ticked because of the way she asked different questions and acted differently depending on what she’d discovered. It worked and spotlighted so many different aspects of any teen’s life at the same time – friends, family, boyfriends, sex, teacher crushes, drugs, even popularity itself. It sounds like a lot, but it fits perfectly.
Oh, and the end? That’s perfect as well. I was wary of reading anything else afterwards – even my non-fiction – because I didn’t want to spoil the way my mind kept going over the book. It keeps popping up in my head, too, like the characters have never left.
I wholeheartedly recommend Before I Fall, an absolutely fantastic YA read that will keep you turning the pages until you’ve finally closed the book.
I am an Amazon Associate. I purchased this book.
It’s time again for Carl’s Once Upon a Time challenge! As usual, we have gorgeous buttons, and I have an immense stack of fantasy books I would like to read. Since I have eight that I’ve pulled out which are sitting in front of me, plus my monthly Wheel of Time rereads, I think I’ll easily be able to pull off Quest the First, five books of any type of fantasy. I’ve not been doing many challenges this year, but I think I can make an exception for this one. I love fantasy, after all, so what’s not to like about reading more of it??
The choices I’ve given myself include:
- Dreams Underfoot, Charles de Lint
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin – I know I’ll read this as it’s a book club choice for April!
- Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
- Ill Wind, Rachel Caine
- The Native Star, M.K. Hobson – This was meant to be my first Nebula read, but I still haven’t gotten to it yet.
- Demon Angel, Meljean Brook
- Blood and Iron, Elizabeth Bear
- The Dubious Hills, Pamela Dean
- Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal – I don’t own this yet but I do plan to buy it, probably in May, which still works for this challenge!
And then, if I keep with my Wheel of Time reads, I should also be reading The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, and The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan.
Where should I start? Are you joining in?
 At long last, Mercy Thompson and Adam Hauptman get married, the human counterpart to the fact that they’ve been mated for a while. The marriage is refreshingly normal, given the fact that werewolves and fae are in attendance, and Mercy and Adam head off on their honeymoon to a park in a deluxe trailer. Unfortunately for what they were planning, a fae sent them there for this purpose, and the fae rarely do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. Finding a man with his leg nearly sliced off, his sister missing, and several European otters in the nearby river is only the beginning.
Patricia Briggs has never let me down with this series, and maintains the great character and relationships that have been the hallmark of this series since the start in this latest installment. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is happy to see Mercy and Adam finally married. Their relationship is so sweet and perfectly suited to both of their characters. It’s hard not to like it.
As for the rest of the book, we encounter a few tidbits from Mercy’s past as the newlyweds find themselves encountering quite a few Native Americans, including Coyote, who Mercy met in her coming of age vision years ago, only sensible because she shifts into a coyote. The plot is good and solid and certainly kept me turning the pages, so no complaints here.
It’s always difficult to review a book like this, late in a series, so I think I’ll leave it here; River Marked is a book well worth reading and the entire series comes highly recommended by me for anyone who enjoys urban fantasy.
I am an Amazon Associate. I bought this book.
 Kabul, Afghanistan became an incredibly difficult place to live after the Taliban took over. Within days, women lost all of their privileges, forced to wear restrictive clothing and take male family members with them everywhere, but often starving because those same men had to flee to avoid persecution or conscription. It’s too easy to envision these women as victims, helpless and starving, when some emerged as anything but. One of these was Kamela, who determined to save her family of sisters by starting a dressmaking business, even though only one sister knew how to sew and women were not allowed to speak with men to sell their wares. Reporter Lemmon tells Kamela’s story clearly and with a significant amount of hope for the future.
It’s very difficult as a western woman to picture the lives of women in Afghanistan. We know they’re hard, but we’re so consumed with our own everyday lives that we don’t spare too many thoughts for those whose lives are immeasurably harder than ours. Kamela’s story was outright inspiring and I am so glad Lemmon took the time to tell it clearly and carefully. She keeps herself completely out of this; she only figures in the introduction, and leaves Kamela’s story to stand clear without any details of how she fared as a visitor to Afghanistan. As a result, Kamela emerges as a daring heroine, not only determined to help her family but to help other women help themselves. It’s a story that certainly deserved to be told and I am very glad I read it.
At times, however, I felt the writing let the story down a bit. Little details that work in a column don’t necessarily work over the course of a book; I felt like the author threw in little things like what the girls were eating but then neglected big-picture details, somehow making the situation seem less dangerous than it was. She explained the background to the conflict exceptionally well, and there were incidents where Kamela was certainly in danger, but for the most part it felt almost too straightforward, without any real sense for me of what was constantly going on outside Kamela’s doorstep.
Regardless, The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is definitely a book worth taking the time to read. It’s short and it’s a true story of a woman who faced adversity to save her family, teach her peers, and make life in her country better for everyone involved. I’m very glad I read it and would recommend it to everyone.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
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