When Charlotte Brontë died, she left 20 pages of a novel behind. Clare Boylan decided to finish it. A little girl is enrolled in a private girls’ academy. She is shy and reclusive, but the headmistresses make much of her because it’s obvious that her benefactor has money. Trouble arises when her benefactor can’t be Continue Reading…
Eleanora Cohen’s birth is full of omens. The town where she was born was under siege, her mother died in childbirth, and a flock of exotic hoopoes come to roost at the house and just stay. Otherwise, her very early years were fairly normal. Her father married his dead wife’s sister, who did her duty Continue Reading…
In WWII France, the French police rounded up over 13,000 Jews and held them in a huge stadium, the Vélodrome d’Hiver, for days before shipping the survivors off to concentration camps. This is the fictional story of one little girl who was taken and what her life might have been like. It’s also the story Continue Reading…
A group of comrades-in-arms have almost all gone back to live in the rural area where they came from. Some are faring better than others but they all seem to be at a loss as to what to do with themselves now that the war is over. Things change when their long-time leader, Kunessin, finally Continue Reading…
Cassandra Moon, firmly in her 40s, is finally getting married. She’s been taking care of others all her life and now she’s looking forward to having someone else take care of her for a change. All she has to do is walk down the aisle and say “I do.” So why does she find herself Continue Reading…
Dena Nordstrom is on the verge of making it big as a female newscaster in 1970s New York, but she’s not dealing well with the stress of the job and some unresolved issues from her past. This was enjoyable enough. My favorite parts featured the extended family living in Elmwood Springs, Missouri. I kept reading Continue Reading…
**SPOILERS FOR SOULLESS, CHANGELESS, AND BLAMELESS** Alexia Maccon, nee Tarrabotti, is back in residence at Woolsey Castle. She’s gloriously pregnant, not very happy with the way the infant-inconvenience is trying to slow her down, and firmly resolved to keep on with her daily business as usual. When a ghost appears to her and manages to Continue Reading…
Victoria McQueen, known at different times as Vic or The Brat, inadvertently discovers she has a special gift when she’s about ten years old. If she wants to find something badly enough, she can ride her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike across a rickety wooden covered bridge and find whatever she’s looking for on the other Continue Reading…
Charles Vess’s fantasy artwork has been collected in a beautiful volume. I love just about every piece of art in this book. The few that I don’t like are probably the few that are science fiction. I am not at all knowledgeable about art so I can’t write in any kind of meaningful way about Continue Reading…
Mitch Moxley hits a personal low in his mid-twenties. His career is pretty much nonexistent and he’s tired of the cold, gray Toronto winters. He starts looking for jobs overseas and stumbles on a job working for a state newspaper in China, the China Daily. He applies and lands himself a one year contract. He Continue Reading…
When Michael Berg is 15, he has an affair with Hanna Schmitz, who is over twice his age. The affair does eventually come to an end, but their lives are intertwined afterwards. This book should have been passionate, challenging, and emotionally wrenching. But I just felt too distanced from everything. I’m trying to decide if Continue Reading…