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 Continue Reading…
The Fetch by Laura Whitcomb: Book Review
Calder is a Fetch, a soul who escorts people on their journey to heaven. One day he shows up at a Death Scene, waiting to see if an infant chooses to die or not. The woman holding the baby takes his breath away. She’s beautiful and has a kind, caring, sad face. He can’t get Continue Reading…
She-Rain by Michael Cogdill: Book Review
Frank Locke is the son of an opium addict in the 1920s in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. He’s quit school to work in a cotton mill and take care of his parents’ and grandparents’ farms. He’s bitter about his father, but he’s found a good woman to love. Then some big family Continue Reading…
Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler: Book Review
Jane True is practically an outcast in her small town of Rockabill, Maine. She finds solace in swimming in the ocean, dangerously close to the whirlpool known as The Old Sow. When she finds a body in the water, her world changes beyond all recognition. The big draw for me was the cover. I love Continue Reading…
Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier: Book Review
Paula is accompanying her father to Constantinople on a trading trip. She might “only” be a seventeen-year-old girl, but she’s an intelligent, able assistant. They’re in search of an ancient religious artifact, Cybele’s Gift. Once in Constantinople, Paula starts seeing strange visions, visions that she feels sure are coming from the Other Kingdom, the fairy Continue Reading…
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia: Book Review
Sixteen-year-old Ethan Wate has been having nightmares for months. In his dreams, he’s unsuccessfully trying to save a girl. Then Lena Duchannes, the first new girl to move into his small South Carolina town in years, shows up. He recognizes her as the girl from his dreams, and things only get more complicated from there. Continue Reading…
Soulless by Gail Carriger: Book Review
I have waited entirely too long to write this review and gotten too deeply involved in Ken Follett’s World Without End, so this review is going to suck a little. Which is a pity because I had thought of all kinds of witty things I was going to write and now I’ve lost them. Miss Continue Reading…
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale: Book Review
As luck would have it, the day Dashti enters the service of a lady is the very day said lady is bricked into a tower for seven years to learn obedience. Dashti goes along with her to keep her company and take care of her. Between fighting off rats, Lady Saren’s torpor, and the unsettling Continue Reading…
Truly, Madly by Heather Webber: Book Review
Lucy Valentine has lost the family ability to match people based on their auras, and can now only find lost objects. After some negative publicity, Lucy finds herself in charge of the family matchmaking business for a few weeks. Not realizing what she’s getting herself into, she offers to try to find a new client’s Continue Reading…
Lament by Maggie Stiefvater: Book Review
Deirdre meets Luke at an audition one day. They play some amazing music together, and by the end of the day, Deirdre is more than a little infatuated. But Luke isn’t the only stranger appearing in her life. All kinds of weird people and events start surrounding her, and it’s obvious that Luke has something Continue Reading…
Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani: Book Review
Valentine Roncalli is turning 34 years old, she lives and works with her grandmother, and she’s single. She’s pretty happy though, until the day her grandmother tells her that the family’s custom shoe shop is in financial trouble. Now she finds herself trying to find a way to save the business she loves as she Continue Reading…