Under Construction
Book Review: The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
Determined to secure another London season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, Mary Alsworthy accepts a secret assignment from Lord Vaughn on behalf of the Pink Carnation. She must infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded French spy, the Black Tulip, before he and his master can stage their planned invasion of England. Every spy has a weakness and for the Black Tulip that weakness is beautiful black-haired women his petals of the Tulip. A natural at the art of seduction, Mary easily catches the attention of the French spy, but Lord Vaughn never anticipated that his own heart would be caught as well. Fighting their growing attraction, impediments from their past, and, of course, the French, Mary and Vaughn find themselves lost in a treacherous garden of lies.
And as our modern-day heroine, Eloise Kelly, digs deeper into England’s Napoleonic-era espionage, she becomes even more entwined with Colin Selwick, the descendant of her spy subjects.
Mary and Vaughn are my favorite couple (so far). I think it’s because they both don’t claim to be heros. They acknowledge that they are self-motivated and everyone believes that of them (including readers).
But as the story unravels, they are not as conceited as everyone thinks, even to themselves. Willig really put them through the ringer in this book (like no other couple before or after). To date, they are the only characters who have been shot at (well, Vaughn was…Mary had the un-Mary-like task of cleaning him up and saving his life) and blown up.
Nothing like an explosion to profess their undying love for each other. Yes, Mary all beautiful with blood down the side of her face from a piece of shrapnel and Vaughn with a reopened bullet wound through his side chest. Both their faces blackened with ashes. Yet, still sarcastic as ever.
That has go to be one of my favorite “love declaration” scenes in any the book.
Book Review: Lucinda, Darkly (Demon Princess Chronicles #1) by Sunny
For centuries, Lucinda has endured her agonizing reality. As daughter of the High Lord of Hell,she rules over nothing, retrieving the occasional wayward demon and feeding off of the savage Mon�re-of whom she was a member before she died.
Then she encounters the Monre warrior Stefan, who offers himself to her. She is moved beyond measure by her desire for him-and soon finds herself drawn back into the heady eroticism of the Monre. There, she must carve out a home between the jealousy of the dead and the violence of the living, if she is to keep her newfound love-and life..
This book was disappointing. Sunny’s world is derivative to begin with, reading like cross-over fanfiction between Laurell K. Hamilton’s Merry Gentry and Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels, with some original concepts and quasi-original characters. The Mona Lisa books were at least an entertaining read, if I didn’t think too much about the ethical quandry behind lifting so much of other authors’ work (which she all but admits to in one of her acknowledgments) … this one, frankly, bored me. I couldn’t care about Lucinda, and her “males” were uninteresting at best. I’m not sure why I finished it.
It’s not the worst book I ever read, but there are many others on my TBR that I would’ve read first had I known it wouldn’t hold my interest.
Book Review: Finding Laura Buggs by Stanley Gordon West
In this companion novel to Until They Bring The Streetcars Back, Stanley West transports the reader to 1949 Minneapolis/St. Paul– those memorable days of corner grocery stores, big band music, and filling stations that check the oil and wash the windshield. Against this nostalgic backdrop, West has set his riveting and heartwarming novel, the devastating story of young Sandy Meyer. Bright and outgoing, having grown up through the Great Depression and the World War II years, she is suddenly given a perplexing clue to her past that sets her on an incredible and harrowing journey in search of her lost family– a pilgrimage that brings her face to face with nerve-shattering suspense, unbearable terror, and the magnificent capacity of the human heart.
Surrounded by juicy and wacky characters, and without the support of her adoptive parents, her devil-may-care friends, or the boy she desperately loves, she summons the courage to doggedly follow where the faint trail leads. When she stumbles upon the buried past and long-hidden treachery, she is confronted by an evil that knows her by name and is drawn into a darkness she never knew existed. Tenaciously refusing to quit, she discovers a heartbreaking heroism and an extraordinary triumph that changes her life forever. 
As a Minnesota girl I was happy to get ahold of an author who wrote local. I loved the first novel I read by this author. However Finding Laura Buggs I found disappointing. I just could not warm to the book. I am not sure why the prose was good and the story idea itself was sound. However I struggled with the book. Perhaps because Laura put herself in so many dangerous situations and I just wanted to smack her and say STOP doing that! Or perhaps it was for another reason.
BooK Review: Austenland by Shannon Hale
Jane is a young New York woman who can never seem to find the right man—perhaps because of her secret obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. When a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-obsessed women, however, Jane’s fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined. Is this total immersion in a fake Austenland enough to make Jane kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?
Anyways, my point is (and I do have one), that there is only one good movie adaptation…and it’s six hours long and only strays (and not really even strays, just leaves out a few minor details) slightly from the book. So, when the main character in Austenland, Jane, loved this movie as much as me, I knew I could appreciate her.
32 year-old Jane, single and relationship challenged, is obsessed with Mr. Darcy…the dreamy Colin Firth who walks across his magnificent grounds in a wet shirt after diving into a pond (you know the scene). The Colin Firth…I mean Mr. Darcy, who beams at Elizabeth while she’s turning pages for his sister, Georgiana, at the piano (you know this scene too). After her rich great aunt comes to visit her, and subsequently finds her two-disc DVDs hidden behind a houseplant, Jane is surprised when she receives a call following her aunt’s death from the probate attorney. Instead of money, her aunt leaves her an all expense paid for trip to an exclusive British resort, where Jane will spend three weeks living the Regency period lifestyle in an attempt to fulfill, and also hopefully expunge, her Darcy obsession.
I found the beginning of this book to be annoying. Jane is too nervous and melodramatic and not all that likable. For starters, I have no idea why anyone would be ashamed of owning Pride and Prejudice. Houseplants? Please. I’m thinking of fashioning my set up with a chain and wearing it around my neck. See? I’m a true fan. However, the three weeks she spends at Pembrook Park, a Netherfield/Pemberly-esque manor with servants who can’t speak to her, empire wasted gowns, gentleman that are actors (or are they?), turns about the room, walks on the grounds and a ball are simply fantastic. The situations are entertaining, the plot pleasantly twisty and the ending satisfying.
Shannon Hale writes a light-hearted fantasy romance that is sure to please even the snobbiest Jane Austen fans. As a warning, do not expect a Jane Austen book. While Hale does a fair job mimicking some of the dialogue, the novel is thoroughly modern and much less subtle. It is a romance…therefore extremely unlikely to be true. Regardless, when I turned the last page, I had a smile on my face and said, out loud, “That was fun!”
Book Review: Converting Kate Beckie Weinheimer
Kate was raised in the Holy Divine Church it influenced everything from her homeschooling to her handmade clothes. But ever since her unbelieving father’s death last year, she has suspected that there’s more to life than memorizing scripture.
Taking advantage of their move to a new town, Kate to her devout mother’s horror quits Holy Divine. She joins the cross-country team, wears shorts to public school, and even tries a traditional Christian church. As she struggles to come to terms with her father’s death and her mother’s unquestioning beliefs, Kate discovers there’s a big difference between religion and faith and that the two don’t always go hand in hand
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After her father’s unexpected death, Kate begins to question the conservative religious tradition that she has been brought up in. When she and her mother locate to a new town, Kate discovers new ideas, new friends, and is able to gain a sense of peace about her father’s place in her life and his ultimate death.
I liked a number of things about this novel. Kate was a likable character and some of the novel’s minor characters were well-drawn and interesting. However, the novel’s primary focus, Kate’s rejection of her traditional religious upbringing lacked subtlety. In the novel, anyone identified as ‘Christian’ was narrow-minded, ignorant and filled with hate. Non-Christians were liberal and tolerant. I’m sure many teens questioning their religious backgrounds do see things this starkly, but a more sophisticated view, which allowed Kate to question her beliefs while recognizing that there were good, loving aspects of the tradition she was leaving might be more realistic and helpful to teens.
I also found myself distracted by the fact that ‘The Church of the Holy Divine’, described as being a fundamentalist Christian church with cult-like overtones, was actually a thinly veiled version of the LDS Church. I think it might have been a more interesting and honest story if the author had been more open about this. It certainly would have provided a better context for the reader to understand the rich tradition and culture that Kate was choosing to leave behind.
Book Review: Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot
Book Review: The Queens Fool by Phillipa Gregory
It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of “Sight,” the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward’s protector, who brings her to court as a “holy fool” for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up in her own yearnings and desires.
Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen’s Fool is another rich and emotionally resonant gem from this wonderful storyteller
Gregory, the reigning Queen of historical fiction, weaves a tale that is as much an insight into the Tudor court as it is into religious history. The protagonist Hannah, is a secret Jew serving a Catholic Queen and befriending a Protestant Princess. What a catalyst for an electrifying plot!
Being that this story is based in history and immersed in fact, there are twists and turns that you will anticipate. However the addition of a completely fictional heroine adds a layer of intrigue and provides you with plot points you will not see coming. It is such a satisfying narrative arc that you won’t want it to finish and you certainly won’t want to leave Hannah behind.
Hannah is a character full of contradictions. Like many women of the time, Hannah’s age and her sexual innocence leave her at the mercy of men who would use her for social elevation. However her education and life experience make her cunning a formidable player in these war games. She gives her heart freely to Robert Dudley, Queen Mary and Princess Elizabeth all at once and in doing so endears them all to the reader. Yet she finds it hardest of all to give herself over to a love far greater than any of these, one grounded in safety and protection. She is a tangible character and one I am sorry to say goodbye to.
This was one of the most enjoyable history lessons I’ve ever had and a formidable novel next to ‘The Other Boleyn Girl’. I am so grateful for the sympathy and understanding I now have for England’s first female ruler and one of history’s most notorious tyrants. I saw ‘Bloody Mary’ through Hannah’s eyes and now history is not just black and white, it is all shades of red.
2013 Book Challenges
Book Review: Angel in a red dress by Judith Ivory
REISSUE of STARLIT SURRENDER by Judy Cuevas
AT FIRST THEY KISSED
From the instant she set her thick-lashed gaze on handsome Adrien Hunt, Christina Bower knew he was like no other male. He was as graceful as a panther, as confident as a lion-and as lusty as a tomcat. But no matter how much the golden-haired innocent told herself he was a rich, abhorrent womanizer, she couldn’t resist his sensual, practiced advances. And even as her sweet lips protested each caress, her womanly curves eagerly welcomed his arousing embrace!
AT LAST THEY LOVED
With danger his constant companion, hot-blooded Adrien Hunt lived life to the hilt. His days were fraught with plots, pistols and swords, and his nights were filled with warm and willing wenches. But when he first saw the spirited nymph Christina Bower, even the experienced knave had to admit she was more enticing than any of his previous conquests. Ignoring her modest, prim “no,” Adrien began his gentle assault on her senses, liberating her passions, setting free her inhibitions… and guaranteeing that in a moment more they’d share the magic of her Starlit Surrender!
For those of us who view Judith Ivory as one of the finest writers working in the romance genre, the release of “Angel in a Red Dress” is a very welcome return of one of our favorites. The book is a re-release of the hard-to-find “Starlit Surrender”, Judith Ivory/Judy Cuevas’s first book which was published originally in 1988. Although Ivory’s style has gotten more polished over the years, SS/AIARD is one of my favorites of her books with its rich, uncompromising characterizations and adventure-filled plot full of Scarlet Pimpernel-sequel overtones.
Judith Ivory is one of the few romance writers who is able to create truly flawed characters and make them both engaging and wonderfully real. The hero and heroine of AIARD are far from perfect individuals, but they are some of the most memorable in the genre, IMO. The hero of the story is Adrien Hunt, the Earl of Kewischester, an arrogant half-French British peer with a well-deserved reputation as a libertine. Adrien is rich, intelligent, handsome and lethally charming. The heroine, Christina Pinn, is the lovely, somewhat spoiled daughter of a wealthy London barrister who comes to shelter at the earl’s estate while she is in the process of getting a divorce from her stodgy baronet husband. The attraction between Adrien and Christina is immediate and palpable, with some of the most sensual scenes in the genre as Adrien attempts to charm the reluctant Christina into an affair. (The seduction scene in greenhouse is one of my all-time favorites!) Adrien is certainly no “fake rake”–he has actual illegitimate children from some of his previous affairs and Christina finds this fact as disturbing as one might expect. Adrien is a consummate aristocrat–a man who is used to getting his own way in all things and he cannot understand why the proud Christina refuses to become his mistress. But unlike the usual romance heroine, common-born Christina is really tempted by the earl’s title, social position, wealth and power as well as by his physical beauty. Christina’s dilemma is that Adrien is everything that her bourgeois father has raised her to desire, but it is clear that the earl has no intention of marrying her.
Adrien is a complex, fascinating, very imperfect hero–selfish, high-handed, stunningly autocratic, but he is also intelligent, resourceful, non-judgmental, brave and protective of his friends. Christina is also refreshingly imperfect and three-dimensional as she struggles to maintain her dignity while carrying on an affair with a man that she is sure will eventually break her heart.
The story is set in England and France at the time of the French Revolution and the second half is jam-packed with action and adventure as Adrien (in Scarlet Pimpernel mode) tries to rescue imprisoned French aristocrats from the guillotine. But the main focus of the story is on Adrien and Christina and their complicated, passionate relationship as Adrien slowly comes to realize how much Christina means to him.
Judith Ivory’s prose is (as always) exceptional and her characters wonderfully memorable. This is not a “Disney-style” historical romance with a storybook perfect hero and heroine, but readers who prefer a more angst and an emotional story are in for a treat.
