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 Kim and her mother arrive in the United States from Hong Kong only to discover that nothing is what they’d expected. Kim’s aunt has paid for their passage and their green cards, but she doesn’t allow them to stay in her home, instead putting them in a falling down apartment, charging them excessive rent, and deducting huge portions of their wages for the immigration costs. Kim not only has to help her mother at work in the evenings but struggles along at school; she’s used to excelling but the difficulty of learning English and the strange environment makes her life very uncomfortable. As she adjusts to her new environment, she soon learns that she has to choose between her dreams and her love.
I was actually really surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I managed to read it in one day – a work day, no less – and I found myself thinking about it constantly. I’ve always been interested in stories about immigrants to the US, no matter when they happened, and this was not at all an exception. I was very interested in the contrasts between Kim’s and her mother’s attempts to keep their native culture alive – the holidays they celebrated, the food they ate – and her attempts to learn English and navigate the American school system, which is difficult enough for those of us who do speak English and grew up in the US.
The difference is especially highlighted in Kim’s clothing. She and her mother are so poor that her mother for a time continues to make her clothing. Her lack of traditional bra and panties causes her a huge amount of embarrassment when the other girls can see her and reluctantly, they’re forced to spend the money on store-made underwear so the mocking stops.
The difference between her time at school and work in the factory with her mother also show how different the two experiences are; Kim’s one school friend just doesn’t believe that such illegal factory work can exist. It made me sad that they moved to the US for a better life, yet Kim’s mother could never even dream of being a music teacher again.
I think what I liked best about the book, though, was Kim herself. Her narration is written excellently and really drew me in. She grows up and changes throughout the book, earning her way to the status she deserved; yet her voice is still believably modest even as she outperforms all of the other students. Her emotions are so well realized; when she fell in love, I very clearly remembered what it was like myself, and I felt her pain at times like it was my own.
Girl in Translation is a poignant story about a girl who must find her way in a foreign culture and prove her true potential to her new country. I very much enjoyed it and I would certainly recommend it to someone who enjoys the classic immigrant story.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 Catherine de Medici is just a girl with a little too much life experience when she leaves her home of Italy to be married to the French king’s son, Henri. Wondering and hoping for the best from her marriage, Catherine is dismayed to discover that her new husband has a mistress intent on keeping his attention away from her. With her status at stake, Catherine must make sacrifices to take control of her life, but they are sacrifices which only strengthen her for the extraordinary role she must take in the lives of her children and her adopted country, France.
Even though I really enjoyed C.W. Gortner’s last work, The Last Queen, I was worried how I was going to react to this one. I’ve mentioned my recent disaffection with historical fiction quite a lot, but since I so recently loved The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, I thought it might be time to give it a try. And I was right – I loved this book. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it and I fully enjoyed immersion in it throughout its 400 pages. Gortner has penned another winner and I’m glad I didn’t wait one minute longer to read it.
Making Catherine de Medici, one of history’s favorite villains, a sympathetic character is an impressive feat, but Gortner does just that. Charting her growth from naive girl to married princess to crowned queen to mother and regent allows him to give her life perspective which is rarely achieved in other works that target the same time period but focus on different characters. As a result, we can see how and why she acts the way she does, and with these believable motives in place, her character shifts and she becomes a character we can relate to instead of a conniving queen, even if she might appear that way to others.
I also really enjoyed the settings; I could picture sixteenth century France and its many troubles easily. A number of important historic events happen during Catherine’s reign as queen, most notably the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and the struggle between the Huguenots and the Catholics was, for me, well portrayed, and captured a lot of the frustrations and violence which seethed through France and its neighboring countries at the time. So much was happening that the book never slows down or feels boring; whether it’s Catherine’s personal life in turmoil or the country itself, something is always going on to keep the reader entertained and captivated.
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici was surprisingly just as excellent as I’d hoped, and I think it’s an excellent choice for other lovers of historical fiction – even if, like me, you are a bit unhappy with the genre as a whole. C.W. Gortner is an amazing writer and you’ll find me lining up for his next book ASAP.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
 Art historian Campbell Stratford is very close to securing the top job at her museum, but first she needs to complete a biography of seventeenth century artist Anthony Van Dyck first. Unfortunately, her publisher wants her to add a little sex and drama to an otherwise rather staid story, and she has no idea where to start. Then she accidentally discovers a time portal, courtesy of amazon.com, and finds herself in seventeenth century England at the studio of Peter Lely with a host of naked models. At first naturally shocked, Campbell then seizes on the opportunity to observe Lely paint – but she doesn’t know that he’s been expecting her, and neither of them could have predicted the attraction that immediately springs up between them.
I haven’t read very many time travel romances, but I liked this idea of this one, and it was very well executed for the first part. We’re aware of the time travel from the very beginning, since the book starts from Peter Lely’s point of view. He’s sent back from an in-between place – between dying and being born again – to rescue Van Dyck’s reputation, but his personal goal is to declare his dead lover, Ursula, his wife by royal decree. When he meets Campbell, he’s astonished by his reaction to her.
The best part of this book for me was reading about each individual character’s reaction to finding themselves in the past or the future. Campbell is considerably less shocked by her presence in the sixteenth century than Peter is by his in the twenty-first, which only makes sense. She’s spent her life studying the period, so she at least knows what’s going on. Everything is foreign to Peter and his earnest determination to stick to calling things what he’s used to – tunic, carriage, and so on – is endearing. I really liked the way the whole time travel angle was handed, and I think that now I’d be open to reading more in the genre (Yes, I have read Outlander and no, I didn’t love it the way everyone else did).
The romance did let me down a bit, though. I often fail to relate to couples who meet and then two hours later find themselves in bed together; it’s just not something I’d ever do and it definitely has me questioning the believability factor. This is especially so when Peter and Campbell shortly afterwards develop animosity towards one another; there’s so much distrust that it’s hard to believe they could also be falling in love at the same time.
So, to sum up, I enjoyed Flirting with Forever but I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I’d been able to connect with the romance. Still, I definitely wouldn’t mind reading more by Gwyn Cready or in the genre of time travel romance.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 Lady Duff Gordon is one of nineteenth century London’s best known aristocrats. Famed for her house parties, friendships, and writing, she is admired by all who meet her, including her lady’s maid, Sally Naldrett. But Lady Duff Gordon has tuberculosis and is slowly dying from the inside out, even though she tries to hide it. Her doctors advise a departure from the damp English climate, so she’s forced to move away from her family, to Egypt, with only Sally as a companion. There, without a household of servants around her and the love of her Lady giving her peace, Sally begins to discover freedom like she’d never imagined; until she crosses a line and abruptly learns that she has nothing.
The Mistress Of Nothing has the distinction of being one of few historical fiction novels I’ve managed to thoroughly enjoy this year. I was never bored and I never knew what was going to happen next, which is so refreshing when I feel I’m usually reading the same stories over and over again. Kate Pullinger’s prose is rich and enveloping; I was completely sucked into this book from the very first page. Sally narrates the book and I adored her voice and her character, how she embraces freedoms and discovers so much about herself that wasn’t possible when she was only a simple servant.
The gorgeous descriptions made me feel as though I could have been in England and Egypt, too. I really enjoyed the contrast between the two locations. Not much time is spent in England in the book, but Sally has lived there her whole life and she recognizes when her life begins to change. Just the moment when she decides to stop wearing her corset is perfectly captured:
” … Without it, I felt fully unwrapped and as though everyone was looking at me. My back and arms seemed loosened and free, even with the stiff brown muslim on once again. I felt odd, as though along with the stays, I’d removed my spine and become a kind of jelly creature, supple, porous.”
At that moment, Sally starts to embrace her new freedom. She loves her Lady – has chosen not to marry in order to stay with her – but she remembers that she is also her own person and starts to seize on her time in Egypt. Later in the book, her new ways cause her trouble fitting in with other English people; she becomes a product of her experiences in both countries.
Everything else about the book was richly drawn and evocative, too – the characters’ emotions, the slow-moving but deeply impacting plotline, even the lazy Nile that meanders through the town in which Sally lives. But the whole thing is truly about a class struggle. Even when Sally feels equal to her employer, even when she’s spent her life serving another person and that person seems to feel just as affectionate as she does, she can easily be knocked down to absolute zero simply because she’s a servant. It’s not only a story about a woman embracing life, it’s a story about learning that things could be different and bucking the trend for the first time. That, at the core, is what makes it so powerful.
I loved The Mistress Of Nothing and, if you enjoy historical fiction, I’m pretty sure you will too.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 I’m going to have to quote the back of this one; I’m not sure how I’d go about summarizing it myself!
‘”If you look hard enough into the history of anything, you will discover certain things that seem to be connected but are not.” So claims a character in Frederick Reiken’s wonderful, surprising new novel, which seems in fact to be determined to prove the opposite. How else to explain the threads that link a middle-aged woman on vacation in Florida with an elusive sixties-era fugitive, as well as a dozen or so other characters whose lives seem to be mysteriously intertwined? As the story travels from Florida to Salt Lake City to New Jersey to the Caribbean to the Dead sea, this wondrous, exquisitely crafted novel glides effortlessly across time and space, reaching forward and back and building toward unexpected moments of revelation.’
I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into when I started this book. I immediately liked the way it was written, but I wasn’t sure where the stories were going. That first jump between the different strands threw me a little and I didn’t really understand how anything was connected. But it was a book club read and an ARC, so I persevered, and I ended up rewarded.
I loved the way the stories melded themselves together and sometimes actually didn’t. That’s okay; it felt a bit more realistic because of it and it perfectly balanced some of the coincidences throughout. Each small story led to another small story, each interesting and surprisingly full fleshed character to another, and every facet of the book wove together beautifully. I honestly could never have the imagination and capacity for narrative scope that Reiken must have; I am already an intense admirer of him and I’ve only read this one book. I’m eager to read more, after this.
I really appreciated the way so many of the stories connected with the past and the book showed how history can resonate through people’s lives and how events can influence actions and thoughts decades after they happened. People are not floating about in a vacuum; our history and culture make us who we are in many ways. World War II was the perfect choice for this book, I think, because so much of that does still affect us in enormous ways. Reiken has a lot to draw on and he does so without an absolutely masterful skill.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this beautiful book. It takes a little while to get into Day for Night, but once you are I am firmly convinced you’ll be hooked – and thrilled you read it.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 A single steamer ride threw Theresa Longworth and Charles Yelverton together in 1852. They didn’t begin to correspond immediately, but Theresa soon found reason to write a letter to Yelverton, starting off a haphazard courtship and irregular marriage that would change the course of her life forever. Theresa’s fight for recognition as Yelverton’s wife highlight the serious issues with Victorian marriage laws in Great Britain, while her sojourn and writings later on in her life demonstrated her will to retain independence and support herself no matter the cost.
This was a truly fascinating book. Theresa and Yelverton’s courtship is carried on almost completely in letters, and while there were not nearly enough excerpts for me, Schama’s narrative was enough to keep me curious and wondering about Yelverton’s motives in particular. I particularly enjoyed the sections where Theresa was a nurse in the Crimean war; they were disturbing but illuminating, and I appreciated the references to the better-known Florence Nightingale. I was astonished at the fact that a couple could essentially get married twice, have it certified as legal in both Scotland and Ireland, yet allow the man to marry again and acknowledge the second marriage over the first in England, more or less because he chose that marriage.
Just the various court battles provide for surprisingly good reading, especially the first one. There’s a curious dichotomy between Theresa’s somewhat obvious “promiscuity” – staying with Yelverton as his wife despite the questionable legality of their marriage, surely a Victorian no-no – and the courtroom portrayal of her as a virtuous innocent used by a man.
The second half of the book covers the end of the court battle, with Theresa continuing to use Yelverton’s name but going off to live her own life. At times, the book definitely suffered from having a less coherent narrative here. Schama sometimes has to delve into various backstories of history to explain why Theresa does things and goes places, which was necessary but dragged. Without the love letters, the book had a less personal feel and I felt like I couldn’t relate to the older Theresa as much as the younger one.
But what she accomplished was fantastic – making herself a living off of her writings and traveling the world. She traveled throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia, documenting it all in a series of fictional retellings. I wish these books were still in print. I loved that Theresa’s writings to defend herself early on in her life lent her the voice and independence to make it on her own at a time when women had few rights. The rest of her life almost reads like defiance; if the courtroom couldn’t recognize her right to her marriage and a husband’s protection, she was going to prove that she didn’t need it anyway.
I’ve seen a few reviews around that suggest the book was written in too scholarly a tone, so I think it is important to note here that it’s non-fiction and reads like a non-fiction book. I didn’t have a problem with this at all and in fact enjoyed the more factual tone – the book never slips in sensationalism as it so easily could have done – but it’s worth briefly noting. The entire thing is less than 300 pages long, so even when parts do drag they’re usually over in 10 pages and something more interesting has happened again.
I also totally loved the literary references sprinkled throughout the book. Schama especially notes how the courtship and later court battle between Yelverton and Theresa gave rise to numerous fictional stories around similar subjects; she actually discovered the story through a literary footnote. I think these little tidbits perfectly tied the book into its historical and literary context, reminding me of what I’d read before and what I really should read again.
Overall, Wild Romance was an excellent book. It’s a fascinating historical account of an extraordinary Victorian woman, poking at the society’s flaws – not just in England, but worldwide – while demonstrating how a truly motivated woman could go about making a life for herself in nontraditional ways. The first half was better than the second half, but it’s all worth reading.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.
 In the early twentieth century, Benjamin Purnell gathered a group of followers dedicated to chastity and remaining young forever, called the House of David. Together they relocated to Benton Harbor, Michigan, and created a community called Eden Springs. An amusement park and a house full of young people successfully hid the corruption within, though, until eventually Benjamin Purnell’s lechery and abuse of young women was exposed. This is a re-imagining of those true events, supported by documentary images and real newspaper clippings about Eden Springs.
I had never heard of Eden Springs before and to be honest I found just the history fascinating and quite disturbing at the same time. I did have to look it up to fully understand what was going on at first; I really had no idea where the story was going or what had happened with the cult. But the writing was beautiful and I really wanted to continue, so I perservered beyond the first fifty pages and the story came together.
In essence, the story centers around girls. One’s death is covered up, a sixteen-year-old buried under the headstone of a sixty-year-old woman. Another is frustrated with life and longs for openness. Yet another girl, pregnant, longs for Benjamin Purnell’s touch once again; but all the girls long for him. Slowly, suspicion grows in the reader and the community as we realize that far too many women are pregnant for a colony about chastity and when rushed marriages take place in order to explain the babies. Only then do we become aware of what’s happened and why Lena longs so desperately to get away.
If anything, I really wanted more from this book. The chapters were very short and written in a dreamlike style, as though the girls were living in a haze before the truth was exposed. Even then, they still longed to see Purnell. Though the images and newspaper clippings definitely expanded on the story and brought it more to life, I still felt like I didn’t get the appeal of Benjamin Purnell or the cult in general. I could see how nice it would be to run an amusement park surrounded by luscious fruit trees providing all the money the followers could ever want, but personally that wouldn’t be a draw.
I would definitely recommend Eden Springs to anyone who has heard of the House of David before – it’s just such an interesting story. The fact that the fiction is backed up by so much genuine history for me really enlivened the book. I just wish it had been longer!
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from a publicist for review.
 When her beloved grandfather dies, Theodora Lestrange finds herself dependent on the charity of others to survive. As a Victorian woman intent on making her living by her pen, she still doesn’t earn enough to house herself, but she’s repulsed by the idea of living with her sister and brother-in-law and children. Luckily, her friend Cosmina writes to her, urging her to attend her wedding in Romania to the enigmatic Count Dragulescu, and stay for a while. Theodora gratefully accepts, planning to write her novel in an atmospheric castle. But when she arrives, she discovers more than atmosphere – a mystery that could have more to do with the supernatural than anything she’s ever encountered before.
If you’re a long-time reader of my blog, you’ll know that I just adore Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey series. I was made a little sad by the fact that she took time off from Julia to write this book, but I looked forward to it just the same. And with good reason; her writing quality stands up to the test and I definitely enjoyed my time with this book.
The beginning started off particularly slowly, which had me worrying at first. It all felt like a simple summary of what had gone before and way more telling than showing. I was waiting for the action to get started, and it finally picked up when Theodora got to Romania and the book began properly.
I didn’t love it quite as much as the Lady Julia Grey series, though, perhaps because much of it feels like the same characters in a different story. Theodora is a paler imitation of Julia and the Count just doesn’t have the appeal that Nicholas Brisbane does. I didn’t fall in love with them and I felt the Count in particular remained shadowy, possessed of few attributes beyond his physical attractiveness and rakish past. But I liked them and I was intrigued by the mystery, whether there were truly supernatural creatures in Romania or not and what was the true cause of these crimes. I didn’t predict the outcome, but then I didn’t think about it all the much either. I was too busy reading!
The Dead Travel Fast is an engaging gothic romance, but doesn’t quite touch the appeal of the Lady Julia Grey series. If you’re new to Raybourn’s books, I would suggest starting with Silent in the Grave.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the Amazon Vine program for review.
 Gwen Maudsley may be only a Miss, but she’s beautiful, wealthy, and kind enough to be one of the most popular debutantes of her day. Gwen’s parents spent their lives wishing for her to become a perfect lady, so she’s spent her time trying to catch a title with her three million pounds. Twice, she almost succeeds, but when the second man leaves her at the altar, Gwen wonders if it’s time to ditch her “nice” reputation and see what it’s like to be wicked. The object of her attention? Alex Ramsay, her late brother’s best friend, well known for his rakish tendencies and travels the world over.
I really, really enjoyed this book. I bought all of Meredith Duran’s previous books and virtually inhaled them through the last couple of months, so I was absolutely thrilled to receive this for review. Part of me was a little worried that I’d be disappointed – I know others have been – but I found this to be a satisfying, perfectly romantic read throughout. Duran is the romance author to watch these days, if you’re asking me.
This book feels a lot less emotionally tortured than her previous books, which I thought was a nice change. She still writes extraordinary well, and is IMO one of the most talented writers in the genre today. I could actually focus on this book with the TV on, something I normally struggle a lot with. But I can see how other fans of Duran would be disappointed, simply because it’s lacking that degree of suffering. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of emotional resonance here. Gwen and Alex have a number of problems to work through before they can truly be together. But there is certainly a lighter edge to this book, especially in the interactions between them, some of which were just plain fun.
In the end, I pretty much loved Wicked Becomes You. I’m almost wishing I’d left one of Duran’s books to savor while I’m waiting for her next one! But trust me, she’s on my auto buy list and she’ll be my first recommendation for romance readers from here on out.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 Anne Neville has always known that her future isn’t really hers to choose. But she trusts her father, the earl of Warwick, to provide a good husband for her, and her childhood is generally happy even if she does occasionally fight with her sister Isabel. When Richard, duke of Gloucester, is brought to her home of Middleham to be fostered, Anne immediately develops an interest in him, and they become friends. When her father arranges their marriage, Anne is at first uncertain and then pleased. But politics in England are uncooperative and soon a rift grows between Anne’s father and King Edward IV. Anne is forced to flee to France, where she ends up in a loveless marriage and spends days wondering when she will escape her cruel life and get back to the man she loves.
Anne O’Brien chose to write this novel about Anne Neville because few people actually give the focus to her when writing a novel set during the Wars of the Roses. And she’s right, because I’m not sure I’ve read one which does actually have her as the narrator. As a result, there were some new sections here, particularly the exile in France. I’ve not read a fictional account of Anne’s marriage to the Edward of Lancaster, even though most books mention it. So, O’Brien succeeded in bringing some new material to a story that’s been told many times, which I appreciated.
I also liked that O’Brien chose to cast the novel as a romance between Anne and Richard over an extended period of time. While there’s no evidence that there was actually a romance, and Richard had plenty of greedy motives for marrying Anne, as the author says, there isn’t any evidence that it didn’t happen. And the romance was quite sweet and well-written; I like how both the characters, especially Richard, changed over the period of the novel and the couple acknowledged one another’s faults and flaws when they decided to be together in the end.
Unfortunately, a few things prevented the book from being truly excellent, though it was enjoyable. For one thing, I really feel like the Wars of the Roses are massively overdone in historical fiction, only surpassed by the truly ridiculous saturation of Tudors. Knowing the details of everything that is going to happen in a novel just kills it, IMO – which is why I appreciated how O’Brien did some things differently. I did find some things a little strange, like the fact that Anne referred to her parents as the Earl and Countess even in her own head, but Margaret of Anjou was never really the Queen and Richard was always Richard. While children in the Middle Ages would have been very aware of their parents’ titles, I’m pretty sure they still called their mothers “Mother”, especially when they’re depicted as having a close relationship – Anne’s mother doesn’t seem to be a particularly distant figure to her and she loves and trusts her parents. It added a bit of distance that I don’t think the novel needed.
Lastly, I thought the addition of an incestuous relationship between two of the characters was a little unnecessary; they had already been villainized enough throughout the rest of the novel. It just kind of squicked me out.
Virgin Widow is a good addition to the current offering of historical fiction covering the Wars of the Roses and I definitely recommend it for its different perspective on events.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
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