The Lies of Locke Lamora was a hugely fun tale of a group of con artists called The Gentlemen Bastards and their lives in Camorr, a fantasy version of Venice. I’m going to say right out that I actually struggled a little with this, and that says more about my attention span at the moment […]
“The Spaniard died in agony. That much was evident from the contortions of his once handsome face and limbs and the black foam caking his lips. A horrible death to be sure, one only possible from that most feared of weapons: ‘Poison.’”* What an opening to a page-turner of a book! Especially when the protagonist, […]
Based true events, The Blind Contessa’s New Machine tells the story of Carolina Fantoni and her friend, Turri. Carolina is a beautiful, somewhat solitary girl. She loves to spend time alone down at the little lake her father constructed for her mother. When she gets older, she attracts the attention of the local heartthrob, Pietro. […]
Journalist Mikael Blomqvist has just been found guilty of libel and sentenced to 90 days in jail and slapped with a huge fine. He needs to take a break from journalism for a while, so when a former industrial tycoon asks him to write a family history while investigating a 40-year-old mystery, Mikael takes him […]
Susannah Charleson sort of fell into search-and-rescue. After volunteering as an assistant for her local search-and-rescue team, she eventually received approval to train a dog of her own. After a prolonged nation-wide search, the Golden Retriever Puzzle landed in her lap. I’m not a huge non-fiction reader. Let’s take a peek at my GoodReads shelves, […]
Elizabeth Gilbert is an emotional train wreck. She’s going through a tortuous divorce and her on-again-off-again relationship with her new boyfriend is just killing her. She realizes that she needs a change in her life if she is going to save it. So she sets off on a year-long journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia […]
Mary “Jacky” Faber is an orphan in eighteenth-century London. She actually came from a good family, but when both her parents died of illness, there was nowhere for Jacky to go but the streets. Luckily, she made her way into one of the gangs of street orphans, groups of children who watch out for each […]
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. […]
Sure, you know all about the fairy tale princesses. There’s that Cinderella chick and her pumpkin coach. Another fell asleep for a hundred years or so. And wasn’t there one who had crazy-long hair? Sure, you know them. You don’t know these princesses. Covering a gamut of traits, from Princess Hot-Head to Princess Eelizabeth (not […]
Elena Klovis is badly mistreated by her stepmother. She is forced to clean the house, cook the food, and dress her stepmother and her two stepsisters, while she herself dresses in rags and goes hungry. Sound familiar? That’s because Elena is supposed to be her kingdom’s Cinderella. But her “Prince Charming” is completely wrong for […]
Scarlett March was horribly scarred when she defended her younger sister from a Fenris (werewolf) when they were both young. They lost their beloved grandmother in the same attack. With guidance from the local woodsman, Pa Reynolds, and with Silas Reynolds as a partner, the March sisters become deadly Fenris hunters. Now that the girls […]