|
|
 Faith heads to Canada in an attempt to find her ex-boyfriend, Hilson, who stole her father’s research paper, and to figure out what has her father so excited. Cameron is there looking for two missing partners. Thanks to a mix-up in their hotel, Faith ends up in his room after he’s just taken a shower. Nothing happens, but they realize they’re heading in the same direction. Almost immediately, they’re thrown into a confusing world of werewolves and people intent on eliminating them. As their lives change drastically, Faith and Cameron find themselves falling in love.
I really enjoyed Terry Spear’s last offering in this series, so I was really looking forward to this one. I read very few romances set in the present, but the werewolf elements liven these books up. I love Spear’s lupus garou universe, even though the characters were new to me in this one. Both Faith and Cameron are bitten and their first transformations are really interesting. Cameron for one doesn’t even realize he’s a werewolf at first; he thinks he’s just dreaming but is confused by the fact that everything is the same when he supposedly wakes up. I’m sure it would be difficult to realize that you’re a werewolf when you don’t even believe that they exist!
The romance was sweet, too. I thought Cameron and Faith were a little too hasty when it came to jumping into bed, but they definitely bonded over their shared predicament. I liked Cameron in particular; he was an extremely compelling character and I could believe in his feelings for Faith. I felt for her, especially given her ex-boyfriend’s bad behavior, but he was just that much more appealing. The secondary characters were not too detailed, but I was given enough that I wouldn’t mind reading their stories, too.
Legend of the White Wolf and all of Terry Spear’s books would be great choices for paranormal romance fans, especially those who are tired of always reading about vampires!
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 Legendary food critic Pierre Arthens is dying, but he doesn’t want his family or friends at his deathbed. No, he wants to isolate the food that he needs to taste one more time before he goes. And so he searches his memories of his life, trying to find that moment which is eluding his grasp. Meanwhile, his friends and family reflect on him, his attitude towards them, and their feelings, and it becomes clear that this book isn’t really about food, after all.
One thing is certain; this book will make you very, very hungry. Unfortunately I don’t have it with me as I’m writing this review, but its descriptions of the food that Pierre has eaten are lush and amazing, and he eats everything from huge rustic meals to the most refined fare at restaurants. I was wondering if food critics really examined their food in such detail, but then I figured they must. I enjoy Barbery’s writing, assuming my translation is fluid, and so reading this book was very pleasant for me.
I didn’t think it was as good as The Elegance of the Hedgehog, though. There were no insights that I felt applied to my own life outside the book, if that makes sense, aside from maybe showing love towards people that I love, which I think most normal people do anyway. Pierre’s character just never rose above his neglect of family and friends in search of food, and it becomes clear that he’s deprived himself of all the love that he could have had, and deprived his children and wife of a proper husband and father. He’s extremely self-absorbed and the only thing he really loves is food. His realizations all came a little too late for me to appreciate them, and I found I enjoyed the other characters’ chapters more than his, even if I did enjoy reading about his culinary delights. I could really feel for the other characters and it was fun to see a few from Hedgehog turn up to talk about Pierre, since he’s the one that dies early on in that book.
The Gourmet is so short, however, that it’s probably worth a read even if you don’t like Pierre. I’d definitely recommend it for food lovers in particular, and for anyone who has already enjoyed Barbery’s work.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
 Two boys, Julian Cain and Tom Wellwood, are wandering around a half-completed museum in London when they come across a third boy, Philip Warren, drawing the museum’s sculptures. He has fled from his family and his life in the horrible pottery factories, and the Wellwood family takes him in and finds him a place with Benedict Fludd, a strange and temperamental sculptor. At first glance, all of these families appear happy, particularly the large Wellwood family with successful children’s book author Olive Wellwood and her banker husband Humphry at its head. As the years go by, however, and the children grow up and learn the realities of the world, they understand that their childhood was an illusion as paper thin as Olive’s fairy tales.
I loved this book. I don’t think everyone will love it; it’s a long, dense book, more a portrait of family and art than anything with a plot. Although, to be honest, I didn’t think the descriptions of pots were as boring as everyone says, and there weren’t as many as I’d expected, either. I loved the intricate detail and the thought that went into this book. I felt it was such a gorgeous picture of late Victorian England, and Edwardian England, and even, heartbreakingly, World War I era England. It was a full picture of a society both different from our own and becoming our own. Honestly, I could live in this book’s atmosphere, even if I wouldn’t particularly want to live in a time where options for women were so limited.
I adored the children in each of their various ways and was fascinated by their coming-of-ages. There are so many different strands with each of them in the novel and their fates are all bound up together. I was riveted by Dorothy’s determination to become a doctor, for example, and I completely admired her ambition and devotion to science. I cheered on her success. I longed for the happiness of Elsie and Philip, two children seriously disadvantaged by their upbringing. I was torn by Tom’s story, and didn’t understand why his mother didn’t understand. In short, each of the characters has their own plot arcs, and some are heartbreaking, while some are joyful.
Closing the book with the effects of World War I makes the entire rest of the book feel idyllic. I felt as though I was feeling what the British must have felt as they sent their sons off to die, each with their own life story as these character possess, and I found the entire last section absolutely heartbreaking. Here is a book that depicts the horrors of war, how each life is cut off abruptly with no preparation and no ending. It’s easy to see how this changed England and this book brought it home to me.
I’m not sure I loved The Children’s Book as much as I loved Possession, but the more I think about it, the more I think that might be possible. It has made this review hard to write because I can’t pin down exactly why. But I’ve tried, and if you have the patience for this, I believe it will reward you immensely.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book from the Amazon Vine program for review.
 Lady Callista Taillefaire has been jilted three times and no longer expects to get married. All she wants is to go along with her engaged sister and raise her animals in peace for the rest of her single life. That’s until her childhood sweetheart, Trevelyan, the duc de Monceaux, returns to tend his ailing mother after years in France. She hasn’t forgotten the feelings she had for him, or the way her now deceased father insisted that their relationship was expressly forbidden. To make Callie’s life even stranger, her first ex-fiance returns to plague her, and her cousin gambles away her prized heifer Hubert, leaving her wondering in which direction her life is going to head next.
I have enjoyed Laura Kinsale’s books in the past, and was expecting another dark, passionate tale. Instead, I got a light and funny book, with humor and flirtatiousness between the characters that genuinely sparkled whenever they interacted. It turns out that Kinsale is just as good at writing lighter romances and this book did not disappoint in any way. It was as sweet and touching as it was hilarious by turns.
I liked Callie’s character; she’s somewhat on the shelf at 27, and even believes that she’s unlikely to have a baby at all because she’s so old (I laughed at this), and since she’s been jilted three times, all the men around clearly believe there’s something wrong with her. I really felt for her, as it must be so hard to be rejected over and over again in a world where marriage and babies were seen as the primary goals of women. She’s awkward but she’s sweet and it’s clear that she really cares for Trev. Although, I have to say, if you haven’t seen someone for ten years, can they still qualify as your best friend? I don’t know, but I did like that they had a friendship. It’s also hard not to love someone who loves animals, even if her preference leans towards cows.
I also liked that Trev had a genuine grievance and reason for not proposing to Callie when he wants to. There tends to be a big misunderstanding that fizzles out to nothing, but here they really had a problem, and I appreciated how it was solved. There isn’t much else to the plot, the focus is solely on the romance, but Lessons in French is a wonderful addition to the genre. I sincerely hope Laura Kinsale doesn’t leave such a long wait for her next romance!
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 What would happen if we twenty-first century people took a trip back in time to the fourteenth century? It would be very like visiting another country. Even our landscape would be greatly changed. Ian Mortimer takes this approach and, applying his theory of living history, treats his readers to an objective and entertaining view of one of the most stereotypical centuries in medieval history. The fourteenth century has not only castles, knights, tournaments, and wars, but also gave birth to many of the creative minds associated with medieval England like Chaucer and the Gawain-poet.
Living history is a fascinating idea. Instead of applying modern stereotypes to medieval practices, Mortimer attempts instead to understand them on their own terms. For example, a popular perception is that medieval people were dirty. In comparison to us, they were; most people did not bathe on a daily basis, nor did they have detergents and disinfectants to clean their houses or clothes with. From a medieval perspective, however, women spent hours working to clean their homes, clearing rushes from the floor, scouring pots and pans, and laundering clothes with a variety of harsh soaps. Men and women washed their hands and faces daily and even started to use perfumes. They ate politely, especially in the presence of their social betters. To them, that was cleanliness. There were, of course, smelly or messy people, but there are smelly and messy people now too.
Mortimer’s book is divided into eleven chapters, covering such topics as the landscape, the medieval character, health and hygiene, and the law. He uses examples to illustrate his points, such as a genuine medieval gang that evaded the law or examples of a few women who broke out of the status quo and became unusually wealthy and powerful. Queen Isabella is the second richest person in the century; quite remarkable when women were regarded as property of their husbands and fathers. He also attempts to convey the tragedy of the plague; while other historians may evaluate it for its effect on history, which was largely beneficial, Mortimer shows us how it was anything but that to the third to half of the population that died from it and their relatives, who watched them die and mourned for them. Mortimer even imagines a few conversations that travellers might have, for example, when bartering for food.
My favorite section, however, was the chapter on clothing. Using illuminated manuscripts and tapestries, Mortimer shows how the style of dress changed drastically from the beginning of the century to the end. Clothing more than anything enables me to visualize the people described in the book and, in my experience, is rarely mentioned in detail in schools or museums as few examples survive. I loved learning how the invention of the button changed clothing styles and how people moved gradually towards more provocative styles, which were of course disapproved of by clergy and the elderly.
This is certainly history worth reading. It’s not heavy at all and is a perfect read for the non-academic who wishes to learn a lot more about the Middle Ages but doesn’t have the patience for a more serious, longer study.
I loved this book so much that I’m going to be discussing it on That’s How I Blog with the wonderful Nicole on June 8th at 4 pm EST. Do you want a copy of your own to discuss with me? Thanks to Simon & Schuster, I have 3 copies to give away to anyone with a valid US mailing address. To enter, just leave a comment on this review. This contest will be open until February 8th. The winners are commenters 3, 6, and 32 thanks to random.org. Congratulations to Lindymc, The Kool-Aid Mom, and Alyce!
This review was originally posted at The Book Bag and I’d like to thank them for my review copy.
 Renee Michel is, at first glance, a nondescript middle-aged concierge of an apartment building in Paris. But she cultivates that image, and underneath her purposely plain exterior is a quick, intelligent brain. She uses her job as a way to hide her vibrant interest in philosophy, books, movies, and beauty. Upstairs lives a 12-year-old girl named Paloma who has determined to kill herself on her thirteenth birthday because she cannot handle being so disdained and undervalued. Both of their lives are set on a collision course when one of the upstairs neighbors falls ill and everything in the apartment building begins to change.
It’s hard to review a book in which I really disliked the first 100 pages and loved the following 200. At first it just seemed consumed with philosophy. Nothing was happening, Renee was constantly musing about things I don’t understand or particularly care about, and Paloma was completely doom and gloom about her life and her family. Honestly, I don’t like philosophy and never have. It just seems like a lot of musing about nothing particularly interesting. And then the neighbor died, and someone else moved in who changed everything. And somehow the characters’ musings became about life, and love, and missed opportunities, and caring what you do in the world. They became more relevant and more interesting.
It’s hard to go on without spoiling why this book became great. It’s when the characters collide that it happens, and they recognize in themselves people that are just like them. It’s a shout-out against the class system and defies Renee’s idea that because she began life as a poor woman, that rich people will always harm her and take advantage of her. It does its little bit to show that people are all just people and we never know what’s going on in someone else’s head. I’m not sure the ending didn’t really take away that message, that association with rich people will harm poor people, but it really moved me. It made me wonder if Barbery was reflecting on the way things are in France at the moment. I’ve never been there, so I don’t know how strong the class system still is, but reviews online (and this book) seem to suggest that it is still very present.
Anyway, I would really recommend The Elegance of the Hedgehog, I’d just suggest to stick to it a little longer than you might a normal book. It’s fairly short, but it is quite a touching journey.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free for review from the publisher.
 Aqa Jaan’s family has lived in the house of the mosque for centuries. Two of his cousins also live in the house; one is the mosque’s imam and the other is the muezzin. At first glimpse, their lives are going about as they have been for hundreds of years; television exists, but the house’s inhabitants studiously avoid it, and the women still cover themselves even though others in Tehran no longer bother. The family’s daughters are waiting for respectable men to approach their families to offer marriage, and the imam’s son is studying diligently to take his father’s place when he dies. Yet all is not the same, as a revolution is forming in 1970s Iran, and that revolution stands to change the family’s ways forever.
I found this book totally fascinating. I know so little of Iran, let alone what it’s like to live there, and I really felt like this book put me right in the midst of a revolution. Enough of their culture was established so that I felt terror and confusion just as the house’s residents did, and I was amazed at what some of the family was capable of doing for political purposes. It was all in the name of Islam, which makes it worse for me. I could see today’s political situation in the making, and it made me so sad that Iran couldn’t have continued on its former path of slow liberation without becoming extremists and closing up completely. The book does reveal how things can spiral out of control, without the people necessarily giving consent or realizing what they are doing. A few extremists can change the entire country given just a little encouragement, and that’s exactly what happens here.
My favorite character in the book was definitely Aqa Jaan. It’s predicted early in the novel that he’ll be the last one left of the family, and indeed this seems to be the case as his family either become extremists or become targets in the revolution, or simply disappear of their own volition. His emotions are often heartbreaking and I wished things could be different for him as his family began to fall apart. This is such a stunning novel of a country falling apart; it’s almost as though Aqa Jaan’s family is a microcosm of that, split between all the different factions, while he just wants life to remain as it has been for hundreds of years.
There is a lot of anti-Americanism here, but given the political circumstances, it’s understandable and didn’t put me off the book despite the fact that I am American. I also was left wondering how much of the book is true. The author, who fled Iran in 1988, was an illegal journalist and leftist there, and I expect much of the revolution was witnessed by him first-hand. He’s using a pen name here to honor executed friends (though his own name is available on wikipedia) and he dedicates the book to his own Aqa Jaan, so my curiosity is definitely piqued.
Honestly, I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It inspires me to read more non-fiction to learn more about the conflict and to read more multi-cultural fiction. This book helped me understand what’s happening in the world today and still engaged all of my emotions and thoughts. You should not miss The House of the Mosque.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the publisher for review.
 Mary Toliver DuMont knows she is dying. When she looks back on her life and reflects on all the mistakes she’s made, she chooses to sell her family’s huge farm rather than leave it to her great-niece as Rachel is expecting. In this multi-generational saga, the characters take us back through their lives to the beginning of many of their problems so that the conclusion becomes understandable. This family has experienced it all, and their mistakes may prevent the happiness of the newest generation.
I often love sagas of this variety and Roses was not really an exception. There’s little better than investing yourself in several hundred pages of a fictional family’s complicated and generally tragic life. Here the central tragedy is that Mary Toliver and Percy Warwick don’t marry, even though they are clearly the loves of each other’s lives, due to misunderstandings and mistakes. Those resonate throughout the book and influence decisions made by all the characters throughout.
These families are descended through Lancastrian and Yorkist immigrants to the United States and as a result use a system of roses to signal forgiveness (and unforgiveness) to one another. I have to admit I rolled my eyes a little at this, as it just seems way too sentimental for real life, but it works really well as a device within the story, so I got used to it very quickly and appreciated how the author wove it in, making the title perfectly appropriate for the book. I also really liked the characters for the most part, especially Percy; Mary and Rachel were slightly too abrasive for me to love them, but I still liked them.
Despite the fact that I was swept up in the story and really enjoyed it, I have to say I had an issue with the central reason for frustration. Everyone blames everything on Somerset, and it seemed to me what really happened was that the characters made bad decisions. Getting rid of the land would not have solved their problems, talking would. I could definitely understand the issue an early twentieth century southern magnate would have had with his wife out in the fields all day, but I do think there’s such a thing as compromise. Mary and Percy are just too stubborn to have things their own way.
Roses is a saga in a great tradition, but it’s not a perfect one. Still, if you enjoy reading about strong characters and don’t mind a little bit of tragedy and suspending belief, this would be a wonderful choice. I’d also suggest it to people who enjoyed Dallas on TV – the Texas feel is so similar here.
I am an Amazon Associate, so if you purchase books through my links I will earn a tiny percentage of the profit at no cost to you. Thanks! I received this book for free from the publisher.
 Ada, an Englishwoman who has found herself in medieval Spain after fleeing her homeland, is addicted to opium and will do almost anything to get it. She ends up at a slavery auction, blissfully addicted and completely unaware of her circumstances. Luckily for her, she’s spotted by two men: Gavriel, a former warrior and now dedicated novice, and her friend Jacob. Between them, they rescue her and take her away, but she faces a hard battle fighting her opium addiction. Can Gavriel’s dedication to her cure her of her addiction – and help him face down the trouble from his past?
I loved how this romance was different and yet still had all the essential ingredients for a wonderful romantic read. First off, the book is set in medieval Spain. There’s currently a total glut of historical romance (and regular fiction for that matter) set in England, which is all well and good, but sometimes I’m looking for something different. This fit that bill, and the author even includes a helpful note about what’s accurate and what’s different about her history at the end. I love when authors do this, it shows such dedication to their research that I really respect and admire. Her website lists the books she used to research in case readers are interested.
Secondly, I loved the characters. Gavriel himself feels familiar, as there are plenty of emotionally scarred warriors hanging around in the romance genre (I think immediately of Kev/Merripen in Seduce Me at Sunrise), but his character is done well and his journey to redemption is admirable and engaging.
It’s Ada that is different. She has severe issues with her life; opium addiction just one of the ways in which she is unusual. She’s treated her sister horribly, she’s seduced a man for her own purposes, and she’s not even willing to be rescued from the drug she’s addicted to. I started the book really wondering how the author was going to pull this off. Characters are absolutely essential to a successful romance, because really the entire book is centralized on the relationship between two people, and Ada was not a character that I liked at first. Somehow, though, I found myself really caring about Ada by the end. She recovers herself and realizes that many of her actions have been wrong, and that she can do better. Gavriel helps her on that path, but it’s really her that becomes strong and dedicated, and he’s not a necessity for it to happen.
Finally, I really loved the adventurous take that Lofty took with this one. Everyone fights and travels, so there is plenty of action mixed in with the more thoughtful and romantic scenes. It really helps to move the book along and provide a dimension which isn’t totally focused on the central romance. I always appreciate that.
Scoundrel’s Kiss has made me especially eager to read the author’s first book, What A Scoundrel Wants, which uses the Robin Hood legends and introduces Ada and her sister. This was a great read and I definitely recommend it.
I am an Amazon Associate, so if you purchase books through my links I will earn a tiny percentage of the profit at no cost to you. Thanks! I received this book for free from the author as an ebook.
 Words cannot describe Arissa Illahi’s grief when her husband dies in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. The videotape sitting on her dresser doesn’t cease to remind her that they were due to have their baby’s first ultrasound, and she never imagined raising her child alone. Arissa also finds her husband’s unfinished novel, a project that powered her husband through his life and now must help propel Arissa through her grief.
Saffron Dreams is such a moving book. Arissa’s grief is portrayed beautifully and is extremely touching. I could almost feel how much pain she was suffering, certainly enough to hope that nothing of its like ever touches me. Married only two years and left pregnant, Arissa has to rely on her in-laws, people she didn’t really know until her husband died, but who left their own lives to help her fix her own. Her slow recognition of what matters in life is admirable and her journey constituted an emotional but worthwhile read.
Abdullah’s writing is smooth and beautiful, too:
The brush fell from my guilty hands, landing on the floor with a tired thud. I stepped back as if struck and looked at the picture in mad fixation. Staring back at me from the canvas, behind the dull last strokes that failed to hide the subject, were entwined towers engulfed in reddish blue smoke. And in the midst of the smoldering slivers was the face of a forlorn and lost child. – p. 6
So much of the book is conveyed right there. We know what Arissa is feeling and what she’s trying to tell us.
I also found the book pinpointed many important and significant issues that followed the attacks. Arissa is a Muslim, but she can’t understand why other Muslims would do such a thing, when it’s not really a part of her faith; she hates that news reporters lump them in together and ask her how she feels about being betrayed by one of her own kind; she experiences religious hatred when she wears her headscarf after the attacks and finally removes it to give her son a better chance at a normal life. She not only has to adjust to her changing life but a changing world and fit in a place for herself when she’s faced with so much discrimination. I felt that the author here built a strong and understandable character, flawed and human but someone the reader can still root for, with a journey to self-discovery that was still compelling and touching.
I really enjoyed Saffron Dreams. In its pages I found a character to care about, a story to enjoy, and issues to think about. Highly recommended.
I am an Amazon Associate. I received this book for free from the author for review.
|
|
Recent Comments