I so very much wanted to like this book, and am so very disappointed that I did not. The setting – very rural Victoria, Australia, in the 1890s – was fascinating, and I think the initial chapters do a marvelous job of not only introducing the characters but also the place. The descriptions of the trees, the birds, the desolation and the beauty of the landscape surrounding the main characters were absorbing in a way … Continue reading By the Currawong’s Call by Welton B. Marsland →
Content warning for this book: threats of rape and scenes of brutality that include forced feeding and assault, with a side order of legal manipulation and cruelty that seems crushingly too familiar. This is a difficult book for me to review. There were a number of things that frustrated me, the development of the characters is very uneven, and to me, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of mystery. The marketing and cover … Continue reading City of Lies by Victoria Thompson →
This series was recommended by so many people on Twitter and in my inbox, I grabbed it immediately and skipped it to the top of my TBR spreadsheet. This was a good decision on my part. Cathal MacAlasdair is running his family’s castle in remote Scotland, though he’s much better suited to running around doing soldiery things. He’s also a dragon shifter, something the people who live in his castle know about, but not a … Continue reading Highland Dragon Warrior by Isabel Cooper →
Mild trigger warning for deeply negative, damaging descriptions of mental illness common during WWI. I love epistolary novels, especially those with a solid thread of romance, so Last Christmas in Paris was a hefty dose of my catnip. While I was entirely absorbed by this novel when I was reading it, I found the ending and the finale of the emotional journey way too rushed, and not as finely wrought as the first 85% of … Continue reading Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb →
I was so absorbed in this novel, I read it in one long, very lovely day, the kind of weekend day where you look back with a sort of awed gratitude that you spent most of the daylight hours reading happily. Everything that I found so enthralling about the first book in this series, A Study in Scarlet Women, I found here: layers of meaning, thoughtful scenes and pieces of dialogue, multi-faceted examinations of simple but … Continue reading A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas →
The Half-Drowned King is the first in a planned trilogy that is a heavily fictionalized retelling of the Saga of Harald Fairhair, which is one of the parts of the Heimskringla, an Icelandic Saga written in the 13th Century by Snorri Sturluson. The trilogy charts the rise of Harald and how he became the first king of Norway in the 9th century. It’s told from the point of view of one of Harald’s dudes, Ragnvald, … Continue reading The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker →
I have mixed feelings about Ten Days in August. Set during a heat wave in New York in 1896, it’s a romance between a closeted gay policeman and a gay nightclub performer. I loved the idea of the 1896 setting, but in practice the setting made for depressing reading despite a happy ending for the lovers. The story begins when a male prostitute is found dead. Inspector Hank Brandt takes an interest in the case. … Continue reading Ten Days in August by Kate McMurray →
Our heroine Mei is summoned to the Emperor’s palace after her father’s untimely death. There she quickly discovers the social stratification among the emperor’s many concubines. She also learns the intricate politics among the women, though not as quickly as perhaps she should have to succeed in her overriding goal: attracting the Emperor’s attention quickly so that she could assist her mother. The most intriguing aspect of this book is the interpersonal dynamics between the … Continue reading The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel →
The category is Mainstream Fiction with a Central Romance, which I interpret as a meaty fictional story with a side of romance. This is the first book of a duology (Empress of the Bright Moon is the second volume) about Empress Wu, the first and only Empress of China who ruled in her own name. She is an exciting historical character and while the basics of her life are known, there is much room for … Continue reading The Moon in the Palace by Weina Dai Randel →
I DEEPLY regret that I can’t remember which of you wonderful Bitches recommended Cinnamon and Gunpowder, but I owe you one because this book was AMAZEBALLS. I do have to warn readers in the strongest terms that the book has a bittersweet ending. There is a love story, but this is NOT a romance novel and you will want copious amounts of tissues towards the end. But boy howdy, is it amazing! Cinnamon and Gunpowder … Continue reading Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown →
When I saw that Lauren Willig was one of three authors of what was described as “a blend of romance, historical fiction and family saga,” I was like OMG PUT THAT IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW. The Forgotten Room checks the box for all three categories, but unfortunately I found a lot of the tropes within the book to be tired and I struggled to really engage with the heroes. As family saga/ historical fiction … Continue reading The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams and Lauren Willig →
