3 Stars. This was a decent book, but I have a couple of complaints. I was excited to read a non-Western fairy tale re-telling. While I did enjoy the story, and I really liked Mulan herself, this book stayed a little too faithful to what I know of the legend from the Disney movie. I enjoy re-tellings that add an unusual twist to […]
Twenty-three-year-old Jacob Jankowski has just lost his parents in a car crash. They had already lost everything in the Great Depression. In a devastating bout of grief, Jacob, a vet school student, walks out of his final exams at Cornell University. He ends up working for a circus as the vet. His boss, August, is […]
Pelagia is a beautiful 17-year-old girl living on the Greek island of Cephallonia when World War II breaks out. The Italians eventually occupy the island and that’s when she meets Captain Antonio Corelli, a man who joined the Army because he thought it would give him plenty of time to practice his mandolin. There were […]
Arabella Dempsey has just seen all her hopes dashed. She’s been a companion to her aunt since she was a child and fully expected to inherit from her. She realizes that isn’t going to happen when her aunt marries a much younger man–the very man that Arabella has been fantasizing about. Does it get any […]
Alexia Maccon, née Tarrabotti, is awakened one morning by her husband bellowing out orders and questions. He doesn’t take time to answer her questions, but of course she finds out what’s going on later. Something or someone has found a way to completely negate whatever magic makes supernatural beings, well–supernatural. This has London in an […]
Taking place before The Russian Concubine, The Jewel of St. Petersburg tells the story of Valentina Ivanova and Jens Friis as they meet during the fall of the Russian monarchy. Valentina is the privileged daughter of a wealthy Russian minister and Jens is a Danish engineer, working to improve the overall water quality in St. […]
Lily Davis was only 17 when she married a boy she had known for a short time. He was shipping out to WWII soon as a supply man for Coca-Cola and it seemed like the thing to do before he went away. Three years later, her hometown of Toccoa, Georgia has scheduled a big homecoming […]
Miss Amelia Peabody is a confirmed spinster. Her father died and left her a comfortable inheritance and she has decided to start traveling to those ancient sites they both loved. She acquires the lovely yet troubled Evelyn as a companion in Rome and she sets off to visit Egypt. There, she meets the Emerson brothers. […]
Camille Rowen is engaged to Randall Jackson, the most eligible bachelor in San Francisco. So why doesn’t she feel anything when he kisses her? And why is she so excited to go on one last voyage with her sea captain father? Could it have anything to do with handsome, inappropriate Oscar Kildare? And why does […]
Loosely based on The Twelve Dancing Princesses, among other fairy tales, Wildwood Dancing is the story of five sisters who disappear into The Other Kingdom for a fairy revel every full moon night. But when their father leaves them alone to spend the winter in another city, their cousin, Cezar, realizes something is going on […]
This is the story of Claude Monet; his great love, Camille Doncieux; and their life as they struggle together in the years before his fame. I started reading this not knowing anything about Monet except that I used to have a print of one of his works hanging in my bedroom. I also don’t know […]