Laura Grey is tired of her life as a governess, so she joins forces with The Pink Carnation. After the requisite training, she is sent to work as a governess for Andre Jaouen, a high-ranking official in the French Ministry of Police. She’s also tasked with finding out any information that might be of use […]
Under the Jolly Roger by L. A. Meyer: Review
Jacky Faber finds herself working for the Royal Navy again after being mistakenly pressed into service. The ship she finds herself on is in bad shape, with a sick, evil captain who reigns with an iron fist and who has let his boat and his crew get into bad shape. Nothing can keep Jacky down […]
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston: Book Review
I find it hard to describe this book without making it sound dull and boring. I’ve tried to tell my husband and he just looks at me blankly. “It’s about trees?” “Well, yes, but it’s interesting and it’s about…trees.” Sometime in the late ’80’s, a few people who didn’t even know each other decided to […]
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand: Book Review
Louie Zamperini was a little bit of a punk as a young teen, staying in trouble all the time. But then he discovered running and pretty much turned his life around. People were taking notice of his times and the Olympics were in his future. He made it to the Berlin Olympics in a distance […]
Curse of the Blue Tattoo by L. A. Meyer: Book Review
Synopsis from GoodReads: After being forced to leave HMS Dolphin and Jaimy, her true love, Jacky Faber is making a new start at the elite Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston. But growing up on the streets of London and fighting pirates never prepared Jacky for her toughest battle yet: learning how to […]
Cinder by Marissa Meyer: Book Review
4 Stars. I had my reservations about this. I love me a retold fairy tale, don’t get me wrong. But it’s all science-fictiony. Cyborgs? Androids? Not my thing. And then it’s set in a future that sounds a little post-apocalyptic? Definitely not my thing. And yet, searching around for something mildly dystopian to read for a reading […]
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls: Book Review
This is the story of Jeannette Walls’s childhood growing up with a father who adored his children but who also neglected them shamefully and became downright scary when he drank. Her mother was a carefree spirit who couldn’t be bothered to take care of her children. She thought it was good for them to learn […]
Magyk by Angie Sage: Book Review
The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby’s father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into […]
Coldwater by Mardi McConnochie: Book Review
Author Mardi McConnochie imagines what the lives of the Brontë sisters would have been like if they had grown up on a remote island/penal colony off the coast of Australia. In this fictional tale, their father is the warden of the colony, paranoid to the point of madness and with a giant God-complex. He makes […]
Dog On It by Spencer Quinn: Book Review
Chet and his human, Bernie, are a private investigating team. When a missing teen case comes their way, Bernie is initially reluctant to take it. He eventually does and the girl shows up under her own steam hours later. But then she goes missing for real. Bernie can just feel that something is really wrong […]
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall: Book Review
4 Stars. I just love the Penderwicks. They are all so cute! Rosalind feels older than twelve, but in her circumstances, I think that’s right. She’s stepped up to be a mother figure to the younger children. Skye is so abrasive and intelligent, Jane is so dreamy and unintentionally funny, and young Batty is just adorable. I love […]