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 From the back of the book:
It is 1588, and as the Spanish Armada prepares to besiege England, Paris balances on the brink of revolution. To maintain her grip on the throne and on the dark magic that has become her obsession, Catherine de Medici turns to Louis Xavier, a ruthless corsair who was schooled in the dark arts and has mastered piracy along the Spanish main. But Louis’s basest instincts are held in check by the kindness of Lady Jane Danvers, a British exile whose innate sense of honor is but one facet of her complex and passionate nature.
On Faire Isle, Ariane Cheney, unaware of the escalating threat from the Dark Queen, struggles with the task of protecting the daughters of the earth and their vast story of ancient magical wisdom. Weak and desperate for an advantage, the ailing Catherine makes a devil’s bargain that will cast a shadow over all.
This is the fifth and final book in the Dark Queen series. I chose to provide the book’s summary because there are many plotlines here and I didn’t want to miss any! I intended to read the first four in the series before getting to this one, but then ran out of time, so I was worried I’d feel I’d missed something. To some extent I know I did, but this book stands alone extremely well. I understood everything that was going on without a problem and possibly wouldn’t even have noticed it was a series wrap-up if I hadn’t been told!
There are two threads to this story and they intertwine close to the end. The first is the Dark Queen Catherine de Medici’s search for Megeara, the former Silver Rose. Meg has memorized all the secrets from a dark book which Catherine believes is the cure for all of her ills. Catherine knows Meg is on Faire Isle, and tries to send Xavier there to get her. Xavier has no intention of doing so, until a storm blows his ship off course and sends him overboard, just in time for Lady Jane Danvers to find him nearly dead on the beach. Jane, a Catholic exile from England, is all but alone in the world, and Xavier proves to be just what she needs by way of a little romance and a lot of love.
This book proved to be a very enjoyable historical fantasy novel about how the late sixteenth century French court might have been with the addition of a little magic. Thanks to the various threads of the plot, there is a lot of action and the reader is often left wondering what is going to happen next, particularly thanks to Meg’s scrying abilities. We know the future, but not how the characters are going to get there nor what will happen afterwards. The love story is sweet and believable. I found myself attached to all of the characters, especially Meg, even though I had never “met” them before. I’m very much looking forward to reading the first four, which I have, and finding out just how they all got to this point.
In short, Twilight of a Queen comes very recommended, especially to those who like historical fiction with a touch of fantasy and romance.
 Hunter Greymore, an alpha lupus garou, or grey werewolf, has lost his pack. All but his sister have abandoned him due to a forest fire in California and because he refuses to move them to a city. They take up residence in Portland while he finds himself near the cliffs, in the woods. When three wolves take away his sister and he goes after them, Hunter is seriously injured. Tessa Anderson, a human woman who finds herself strangely attracted to wolves, finds him and brings him home. When Hunter discovers that a werewolf is stalking Tessa, he quickly realizes that he must do everything in his power to protect her, even if all he wants is to make her his mate for life.
This is the third book in a series, but I never would have noticed if it didn’t say so on the book and it stands alone very well. I hope that these characters appear in the next book, as I’ve grown fond of them, and I’m looking forward to reading the first two.
For all that the hero of this book is a werewolf (and so are many of the secondary characters), this was a nice romance. The hero isn’t threatening but the stalkers are, which means it’s much easier to champion Tessa with her rescuer than with anyone else, especially not her ex-boyfriend from high school. As a result, the couple worked nicely together, with a great dynamic of their own when it was allowed to come to the fore. At times it feels that the book focuses too much on constant threat and injuries instead of the developing romance, but that may be just a personal preference. For readers of romantic suspense, this wouldn’t be a problem.
Where this book truly shines is the werewolf society and the group dynamics amongst them. The sparring between the alpha leaders is top notch and it’s fascinating to see how wolf habits transcend into human behavior, such as how Hunter’s sister Meara is grumpy not only because she is experiencing her first werewolf “heat” but also has a very human desire for a relationship with someone who can match her in all of her strengths. Hunter is also torn because while he wants to make Tessa his mate, he doesn’t know whether or not she would be an alpha, and if she was a beta, she would never be able to exercise the authority that he does over the pack. It is an interesting, close look into the pack, although I found it a little strange that while Hunter’s pack and their friends are reluctant to turn people, the other packs are not. Perhaps Tessa is just the (un)lucky exception.
All in all, I enjoyed To Tempt the Wolf. It wasn’t an earth-shattering romance for me, and I could have done with less of the suspense, but I am definitely looking forward to following up with the rest of the series.
 Kiernan Fitzgerald’s sister Kathleen has been kidnapped, and if he can’t find the Jewels of the Madonna in time, he fears for her life. On the run from the men who took his sister, Kiernan runs into Samantha Lewis at a cafe and asks her to pretend to be his date so he can escape. Perplexed, Sam goes along with it, hoping Kiernan might help her forget her horrible ex-fiance, especially given she is on what was meant to be their honeymoon. When she experiences strange dreams and flashbacks, Sam begins to wonder whether she and Kiernan are reincarnations, reliving a love story that happened more than five hundred years ago.
I liked The Treasures of Venice a lot more than I was expecting to! I normally don’t like romantic suspense novels; I read this one for the dual history prospect since I enjoyed The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose. Normally, I find romantic suspense isn’t conducive to believable relationships, since at least half the book will be spent intriguing, running away from bad guys, or having the characters’ lives in danger. That’s also the case here, but I liked the couple and I loved the historical tie-in. I felt that the second, older timeline was a little gimmicky; I could actually believe in the present-day love story a little more, probably because the latter is given more screen time. Maybe also because I had trouble believing that any fifteenth-century woman would have a chance to escape her entourage in broad daylight every single day. It was completely necessary to have both storylines, though, or the ending would have felt very deus ex machina instead of having been built up the whole time. I did love the little trip into Venice’s history, the cathedrals, the detective hunt for specific graves, the gondola trip, and so on.
As I mentioned already, I liked the couple that were the main focus of the book. Even without the physical spark between them that we’re explicitly told about, I felt they had a connection from square one and then built on it nicely, so I found myself hoping for them to be together. The suspense towards the middle-end of the book ramped this up for me a lot and I found myself realizing just why people like romantic suspense. It was cute how worried the main characters got about each other, especially when the bad guys were all taken care of, because they didn’t know how to act without that filter of danger. They figure it out, though, of course.
I really enjoyed The Treasures of Venice and would definitely recommend it to those who enjoy contemporary romance or romantic suspense, with a hint of historical mystery.
 After a battle with the Scots, Jamie Sinclair impulsively marries a young woman to save her from certain rape by his men. Assuming the marriage will be dissolved easily, considering he leaves it unconsummated, he is astounded when she flees in the night. That young woman, however, is not an ordinary camp follower, but Catherine Drummond, countess and laird of her clan in her own right, is far from ordinary. Jamie attempts to get her back, only to suffer at the hands of her clan; they remain married only so that Cat can avoid the marriage her cousin wants to arrange for her. Only when she realizes that she will never be laird as she ought does she go to London, to seek an annulment, but when she finds Jamie, she finds that it’s not so easy after all.
Like most people who are aware of the huge romance blogging community, I have heard of Broken Wing by this author and the huge number of bloggers who read and fell in love with it. When Danielle at Sourcebooks offered me the chance to review this, James’s second novel, there was no way I could say no. And while this book isn’t shaking the foundation of romance or anything like that, James certainly does deliver a great novel that I really enjoyed reading.
I think what I liked best about this book is the fact that the relationship between the two main characters really starts to grow when they become friends. Obviously, romance comes about between them too, but I love the way their personalities interact and they grow truly fond of each other in a way that has nothing to do with passion. This is one of the rare couples that I feel really develops a bond over the course of the novel that will actually last. They share common interests, experiences, and feelings that I could imagine sustaining them through many tough times, as indeed they do in this novel.
Plus, I loved Cat. She’s such a strong, independent, well-crafted woman that it’s impossible not to feel for her. Her curiosity, intelligence, and loyalty all endeared her to me and I really wanted her to go after what she wanted, whether that was Jamie or lairdship of her clan or even an annulment.
Probably the only problem I had with it was Jamie’s promiscuity. While he is faithful to Cat, he has a great number of “lady friends” and I felt he was too close to them for comfort. I don’t really like reading about heroes with other women, even if it’s just to show how they change over the course of the novel, like it was here. Honestly, if Cat could come upon him with a woman and misconstrue the situation, and in way that is not at all base jealousy, that is enough to put me off him. Still, this is one instance out of many, and I definitely got past it.
I do still recommend Highland Rebel. I think it has a lot to offer, namely great development of both individual characters and the relationship between them. It’s well worth a read for fans of historical romance – and I’m still really looking forward to reading Broken Wing when I get a chance.
 Holly Frick is convinced she’s still in love with her ex-husband, a year later. Her career is heading downhill, as is that of her writing partner, after she published a novel that did very poorly. Perhaps what’s worst is that Holly has begun sleeping with a 22-year-old and isn’t sure where she is going in life. Her friends even act mysteriously, so that Holly is frustrated by their inability to behave the way she believes they should. She is unhappy, and so are all of the other characters in this charming, short novel about the quest to find that elusive something to brighten up life beyond the mundane.
Sarah Dunn conveys the humanity of her characters to an almost alarmingly perfect degree. They are all searching for something to make them happy, but they go about this in typical human ways which generally backfire. For example, Holly’s friend Amanda, easily the most frustrating character in the entire book, is dissatisfied in her marriage and expresses that dissatisfaction by having an affair, even if she doesn’t realize what she’s doing until afterwards. This seems to me to be such a passive-aggressive way to attempt to sabotage a marriage, and isn’t something I would do, but is in fact something that I have witnessed plenty of men and women engaging in to end a relationship without actually confronting what’s gone wrong. Frustrating, but true.
Similarly, Holly is her own worst enemy when it comes to happiness, but is simultaneously so wonderful and sweet that it’s impossible not to love her as a character. She adopts a dog with cancer just because she had already told him she was taking him home, even when she knows it will probably lead to expensive medical bills and the loss of the pet she already loves. She has an affair with a 22 year old who seems to be in love with her rather than considering men who might be in any way like her ex-husband. And she is surrounded by characters who equally sabotage themselves because they are innately human and as a result, damaged and confused.
All of this is compounded by Sarah Dunn’s lovely writing and clever wit. I read this on a plane and I just know the woman sitting next to me was probably wondering why I was smirking so much, but I couldn’t keep a straight face for much of the time. And the ending had me grinning like a loon because it was very hopeful and sweet.
The book, however, is not exactly perfect. I do think there were too many characters; Holly’s previous ex and his fiancee could probably have been cut out without much loss, and overall the book spent too much time away from Holly. She’s the focus of the narrative, but the various strands of the book don’t pull together as well as they could. Even though I was enjoying it, I didn’t have a problem putting the book down to watch a movie, as the plot was somewhat slow and didn’t compel me to constantly keep reading. I loved the characters, but I couldn’t usually understand their motivations and so I only related to them tangentially.
I do think, however, that Secrets to Happiness is a hugely enjoyable book, and would probably appeal most to the women’s fiction crowd. It’s a light read, but it still left me thinking about the definition of happiness and the many ways in which we prevent ourselves from attaining it.
 From the back cover:
Will and his brother Ned are on the long march from the Fens to North Wales, commandeered into the army of ditch-diggers heading west towards Flint, to prepare the foundations of Edward I’s new castle.
The lads are nervous, and rightly so, for not only is Ned a mute, whose abilities as a horse-whisperer and herbalist make him suspicious in the eyes of their English overseers, but they have been close to the enemy. Ned had been secretly taking lessons in music from Ieuan ap y Gof, an exiled bard, not long before the ‘recruiters’ came. The boys find themselves besieged on all sides – unsure of their own allegiances and in danger of being thought traitors.
Finding Ieuan and saving Ned tests Will to his limits. Finally, when all appears lost, he learns that love is sometimes harder to understand than death itself.
First, I think it’s worth noting that this book is narrated by Will but in three different time periods, denoted by a little symbol. The first is when he is a boy, marked by a shovel, and in third person. The second is the book’s main story, marked by a swan, and the third is narrated by an older Will and marked by a cross, and often this last is directed straight at the reader as if Will’s talking to us. For the most part I liked this, it allows flashback without too much confusion, but it did take me a couple of chapters to realize which symbol was which. After that, I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and almost instantly learning how the characters got to be where they are in the main story. It’s a short book, so the plot isn’t terribly complex, and the multiple viewpoints flesh out the story more.
I also really liked that this book feels medieval. A lot of historical fiction romanticizes everything, and generally I’m okay with that, but on occasion I like a book that is properly grim, violent, and stinky. There’s more to medieval life than that here, but it exudes the atmosphere I can definitely imagine existing around a medieval building site, especially for a castle when they are digging the moat. There is also some violence, people are murdered, but I wouldn’t say that it is too gruesome. Just realistic in a culture where people eagerly stood around to watch men be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and then saw various body parts gradually rotting away on their city walls every day.
Will is probably the only character worth mentioning in terms of likeability, since the other main character, Ned, is mute, but luckily he is likeable. This is something of a coming-of-age for him as he learns a lot about his family and himself over the course of the narrative. He often refers to himself as a skinny, mouthy brat, but I felt like he went beyond that limited definition and came to embrace more of his potential as the book went on.
I really liked Flint. It was a welcome break from more romantic historical fiction and a great, quick coming-of-age story with an endearing main character. I would definitely recommend it to others who enjoy historical fiction or are perhaps looking for something a little bit different than their normal read.
 Lady Elizabeth Grey’s husband was killed at the Battle of St. Albans and she desperately wants his lands back for her two little boys. She is tired of living in her parents’ home and would like her independence. So she stands out in the road as the new king, Edward IV, rides by, holding their hands and hoping he’ll see her. He does see her and takes note not only of her problems, but of her beauty, and before she knows it, Elizabeth is the queen of England and in almost over her head with politics and intrigue. She is a Woodville, though, and she will perservere, going to the edge to push her family as high as it can possibly go before her tower of cards topples around her.
This is going to be a good long review, as I have a lot to say on this book. For those who skim, here’s my verdict: much better than I was expecting!
If you know me and have been reading my blog, you’ll know that I’ve been working on a dissertation about Anthony Woodville (and fifteenth century chivalric culture in England overall) for what feels like forever. As such, this book was bound to touch on a topic near and dear to my heart, and it was bound to get some of the facts wrong, if only for the sake of storytelling. So it does; the Woodville family was loyal to Edward IV after 1461 but before he married Elizabeth, and Anthony was sent to besiege Alnwick Castle on his behalf with the earl of Warwick in 1463, not to mention that Elizabeth’s father Lord Rivers had already been appointed to office. The beginning was anachronistic in another way because Edward kept being referred to as a boy, and there is no way anyone in the medieval period would have considered a man who had commanded and won two battles a boy. I can see that she did this more for characterization purposes, especially given he was younger than Elizabeth, so I don’t mind as much, but still worth noting. And Anthony was not at Tewkesbury, although he was definitely in London and fighting when Thomas Neville arrived. There is also the whole magic subplot, but I thought that was actually quite creative, and historical inaccuracy only bothers me if people believe it’s true. I don’t think anyone would ever believe Elizabeth and Jacquetta were witches. I could go on, but I’ll spare you.
All that said, Philippa Gregory got more right than wrong in this instance and I was pleasantly surprised. No one is needlessly victimized here; in fact Elizabeth is quite a sympathetic character which is refreshing after all of the villainizing that typically surrounds her. Even Richard III is not a villain but a multi-faceted man whose ambition just kept on pushing a little too far. The rest of the history is in many ways what has been fictionalized before, and I found nothing that really bothered me. All things considered I enjoyed this book after the first fifty pages and I wasn’t expecting to. Gregory even included Anthony’s poem, which is authentic and the only one that survives; she inflates his reputation to some extent, but I didn’t mind, it fit in.
Gregory writes well, and in general the book is absorbing even for someone who has heard it all before. It’s romanticized, but in the way that makes us sigh and wish we had a big blond knight to save the day. It’s exciting and tense because everything is dangerous, and because I kept wondering who was going to kill the princes in this version. Another interesting twist there, and I think we’re meant to guess at what she means, but for someone who doesn’t know the history, it’s a nice question. And in the end, I like the way Gregory twisted things here. It’s interesting and it’s different when the story has been done over and over again. Given the fluidity of history itself, I found myself enjoying the way she pushes boundaries and suggests things that probably didn’t happen but might have done. I didn’t want to read another fictional recap of the Wars of the Roses, but Gregory made it a little bit new, and despite myself I think I’m looking forward to The Red Queen very much, even if I don’t think anyone ever called these ‘the cousin’s wars’.
In other words, I do recommend The White Queen. It is historical fiction, after all, and if you’re going to read another book that fictionalizes the Wars of the Roses, I highly suggest this one.
Amazon | Amazon UK
 Stealing the back cover description this time because this is so complex:
In his most dazzling novel since the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears tells the story of John Stone, financier and arms dealer, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries, and indeed entire countries and continents.
A panoramic novel with a riveting mystery at its heart, Stone’s Fall is a quest to discover how and why John Stone dies, falling out of a window at his London home. Chronologically, it moves backwards–from London in 1909 to Paris in 1890, and finally to Venice in 1867– and in the process the quest to uncover the truth plays out against the backdrop of the evolution of high-stakes international finance, Europe’s first great age of espionage, and the start of the twentieth century’s arms race.
Like Fingerpost, Stone’s Fall is an intricately plotted and richly satisfying puzzle–an erudite work of history and fiction that feels utterly true and oddly timely–and marks the triumphant return of one of the world’s great storytellers.
I had an interesting time with Stone’s Fall. I read most of it in a couple of days, then set aside the last 200 pages to be read several weeks later. I didn’t do it on purpose, I just didn’t feel like lugging such a huge book on a plane with me. It’s worth noting that I wasn’t particularly compelled to pick it up again, especially as I’d forgotten most of what happened, but I enjoyed the end when I got to it.
Since it’s set in three time periods, it takes a bit of patience to see where this book is going. At first, everything seems clear. John Stone and his wife Elizabeth are fairly ordinary as millionaires go; it’s only when Stone falls out a window and Elizabeth invites reporter Matthew Braddock into their home that things get interesting. Stone has insisted that they find an illegitimate child of his before the will can be settled, but no one can find this child. And so this twisting mystery begins with a search, but widens into something much more.
Despite its massive length, Stone’s Fall needed every word to pull off its twisting plot. Even though the story goes back in time, we have no idea what the outcome in the present time is until the full story is told, and that outcome is extremely unexpected. I can’t imagine anyone guessing the result of this mystery and it’s all the better for it; I like a little unpredictability in my reading. It’s hard to get attached to the characters, especially as we’re treated to details of their sordid pasts, but they are complex and well-developed in all stages of their lives. I thought the best character was the man who represented Venice in the book’s last segment. The city is a character, so it makes perfect sense for it to be manifested as a human being. This was a nice touch.
If you like long, involved mysteries, I would recommend Stone’s Fall to you. It would be a great read for anyone else, too, but I do have to suggest not putting it down once you get involved! It’s hard to pick up the pieces in such a convoluted plot, at least not until it starts to make sense towards the end. I am still looking forward to An Instance of the Fingerpost by this author, which is sitting on my TBR pile staring at me.
 When her parents arrange for Bess de Montacute to marry Hugh le Despenser, Bess is extremely unhappy. Hugh is the son and grandson of traitors and in his thirties, while Bess is only thirteen. She cannot imagine ever getting along with her new husband and spurns many of his advances. Hugh, meanwhile, is thrilled with the match, given that Bess is lovely and her family is in favor with King Edward III, but regrets having to put aside his long-term and much-loved mistress. Still haunted by dreams of his tortured past in prison, Hugh needs someone who will love and support him. Will Bess be the one, or will their marriage result in heartbreak?
Since I really enjoyed The Traitor’s Wife by Susan Higginbotham this spring, I was very much looking forward to Hugh and Bess. I was not at all disappointed; Higginbotham has written an eminently charming and touching novel of romance that varies enough from Traitor’s Wife to show off her writing talent while giving us something a little bit different.
As this is essentially a novel about a relationship, the two main characters must be well developed for the book to work, and here they certainly are. I loved Hugh and Bess. I loved them apart but I loved them together even more, which is what made this book such a pleasure to read. They each bring problems to the marriage, Hugh with his difficult past and Bess with her initial inability to look past Hugh’s traitorous family. Watching them fall in love with one another and get past their individual issues was pure enjoyment. Higginbotham efficiently fills us in on the history of Edward II and the Despensers, so readers without knowledge of the period will fully understand the stigma Hugh faces as he attempts to rebuild his family’s name. It also helps that the cast of this novel is considerably smaller; we don’t need an epic to get to know these people, and just under 300 pages is the perfect length for this book.
One rather small detail I appreciated was Higginbotham’s attention to the chivalric education of young men around this time. I just so happen to be educating myself on this topic right now and I love that she stuck to the history and incorporated her research, particularly in this one area about which I have become well-informed. It makes me trust the rest of her facts, which are all accurate as far as I know. Of course, historical novelists tend to slant portrayal of all characters one way or the other, but it’s wonderful knowing that there is a sound basis for such decisions.
Hugh and Bess is a wonderful read. I highly recommend it to fans of historical fiction (and romance!) everywhere. I’m eagerly awaiting more by Susan Higginbotham. In the meantime, she has a fantastic blog which you can find right here and you can also visit the other great blogs on this tour:
Musings of a Bibliophile (7/28)
Passages to the Past (8/1)
My Friend Amy (8/1)
Reading Adventures (8/2)
Jennifer’s Random Musings (8/2)
Peeking Between the Pages (8/3)
Historical Novels.info (8/3)
Grace’s Book Blog (8/4)
The Written World (8/5)
Mrs. Magoo Reads (8/5)
Historical Fiction (8/6)
Jenn’s Bookshelf (8/6)
The Tome Traveller’s Weblog (8/7)
Galley Cat (8/8)
Book Addiction (8/9)
Steven Till (8/10)
Carla Nayland (8/11)
The Literate Housewife Review (8/12)
Diary of an Eccentric (8/13)
Bookfoolery and Babble (8/14)
 After a marriage spanning nearly fifty years, Charles and Sarah have settled into a comfortable routine. They have left their petty squabbles and difficult times behind them and are ready to enjoy what is left to them. Since they were both healthy, though, Sarah did not envision her life without Charles, and is cast adrift into sudden widowhood after an accident. Without purpose or companion, Sarah is not sure what to do with herself. Eventually, however, she finds her house filling with both familiar and new faces, casting her life into a different mold than she expected, but perhaps one she can live with after all.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Every Last Cuckoo. I don’t read much women’s fiction and I didn’t choose this one for myself, it was a book group choice. Perhaps because I wasn’t expecting to, I really enjoyed the book and I read it in just a few hours. I found it easy to relate to Sarah, despite the vast difference in our ages and life experiences, and I loved the relationships that formed between her and her new houseguests. This is a novel that is much more about one woman’s growth and discovery of peace than about any external conflict or tension. It is Sarah that must define her future without the man who has been beside her for most of her life.
I also enjoyed Sarah’s reflections on her life with Charles. They are poignant, touching, and illustrate beautifully the strength of a marriage that can weather so many ups and downs. Even her relationships with her children are remembered, sometimes with fondness and sometimes with regret. The book pulled together all the strands of Sarah’s life and made it into a whole which she is still continuing to experience and change.
I definitely recommend Every Last Cuckoo. It is a wonderful, moving read, and I think most women will be able to relate to Sarah. For the record, my mom read this book too, and her reaction to it made mine pale in comparison, so much so that I gave it to her. More life experience may just make this one better.
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