So Many Books, So Little Time

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhorn I will read anything about Anastasia.  She was my gateway drug into Russian history and I'm kind of obsessed.  I Was Anastasia is one of my new favorite fictional books about her and a possible escape.  I loved the story; it went back and forth between Anastasia experiencing the revolution and captivity and Anna Anderson trying to bolster her claim that she was the Grand Duchess.  Both periods were super intriguing and I was completely sucked into the story, never sure where things would end up.  The end was so good and not what I expected at all.  The fact that it was a surprise was awesome and just solidified my feelings towards this book.  I would highly recommend it! 4 stars. The Pines of Winder Ranch by RaeAnne Thayne It looks like The Pines of Winder Ranch contains two RaeAnne Thayne novellas but my review copy only had a A Cold Creek Reunion so that's what  I am reviewing.  This was c...

I, Eliza Hamilton by Susan Holloway Scott I so badly wanted to love this book but it just didn't do it for me.  I was expecting to get to know Eliza Hamilton in this story: her life before, during and after her marriage to Alexander Hamilton but that's not what this story was really about.  This was a more a story Alexander through Eliza's eyes and it got boring after a while to see her gush over Alexander non-stop for the whole book.  I did learn a lot about Alexander from the story but I don't think I really knew Eliza.  It was all completely focused on Alexander and I think the story made Eliza into a lovesick puppy.  Also, Eliza lived for 50 years after his death and there was nothing about that part of her life.   I feel bad for not loving the story but it really didn't work for me. 2 stars.   Sugar Pine Trail by RaeAnne Thayne   Sugar Pine Trail is the 7th book in RaeAnne Thayne's Haven Point series and I'm pretty...

Synopsis: When Liam reluctantly returns to Northern Ireland he learns that not only was his uncle shot to death, but he’d anticipated his own murder. In an astonishing last will and testament, Uncle Fergus has left his entire estate to a secret trust, directing that no distributions be made to any person until the killer is found. Did Fergus know, but refuse to name his killer? Was this a crime of revenge, a vendetta left over from Northern Ireland’s bloody sectarian war? Or is it possible that the killer is a family member seeking Fergus’s estate? Otherwise, why postpone distribution to the heirs? Most menacingly, does the killer now have his sights on other family members? As his investigation draws Liam further and further into the past he had abandoned, he is forced to reopen doors long ago shut. Now accepting the appointment as sole trustee of the Fergus Taggart Trust, Liam realizes he has stepped into the center of a firestorm. My Thoughts:  I LOVE Ronald...

I have a back log of NetGalley reads so I thought I would do a Mini Review post. Stolen Beauty by Laurie Lico Albanese I am fascinated by the story of the Adele Bloch-Bauer painting by Gustav Klimt so I was very excited to read this book.  I've seen the movie and a couple documentaries, read some books and even have some Klimt reproductions in my office.   I enjoyed the discussion of fin de siecle Vienna and all the creative movements (artistic and otherwise) that were blossoming during Klimt's life.  It was really interesting to read about how society was changing and art was changing with it.  As a whole, I enjoyed the story but I think the characters were hard to relate to.  At times, I really liked Adele's character and other times, she seemed very whiny and I had a hard time feeling sympathetic to her plight.  The story also jumped back and forth between different time periods and that transition wasn't very smooth.  It was an inter...

From Goodreads:  It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety. As one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see one another again, the Kurcs must rely on hope, ingenuity, and inner strength to persevere.  My Thoughts:   This was qui...

From Goodreads:  Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep… When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night. Noa finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one another—or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything. My Thoughts:   I love Pam Jeno...

From Goodreads:  As the Titanic and her passengers sank slowly into the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg late in the evening of April 14, 1912, a nearby ship looked on. Second Officer Herbert Stone, in charge of the midnight watch on the SS Californian sitting idly a few miles north, saw the distress rockets that the Titanic fired. He alerted the captain, Stanley Lord, who was sleeping in the chartroom below, but Lord did not come to the bridge. Eight rockets were fired during the dark hours of the midnight watch, and eight rockets were ignored. The next morning, the Titanic was at the bottom of the sea and more than 1,500 people were dead. When they learned of the extent of the tragedy, Lord and Stone did everything they could to hide their role in the disaster, but pursued by newspapermen, lawyers, and political leaders in America and England, their terrible secret was eventually revealed. The Midnight Watch is a fictional telling of what may have oc...

I really need to catch up on NetGalley reviews so all of the mini-reviews this week are from NetGalley. Medici's Daughter by Sophie Perinot I really wanted to love this one but I just ended up feeling disappointed. It wasn't a bad story but I just didn't love the characters.  I actually liked Henry of Navarre the best out of everyone.  Margot was supposed to be really tough (and at times she was) but other times she was just kind of pathetic.  She let the Duc de Guise use her and just fell all over herself to make him happy when he was a self-centered jerk.  It was just kind of painful to watch.  It wasn't a bad book (I enjoyed the historical aspects of it) but it could have been so much better. 3 stars. The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian   This was an interesting read.  I really liked how it was split into different characters' perspectives so you can get a little more background about each person in the story.  I found ...

From Goodreads:  Amid the changes of the modernist movement in twentieth-century Barcelona, a miraculous encounter brings two families together. The lovely Laura Jufresa, daughter of a wealthy goldsmith and one of the most prominent artisans in the city, dreams of going to Rome to learn how to make the most avant-garde jewelry of her time. Dimas Navarros, part of a humble and hardworking but poor family, searches for enchantment in Barcelona. The entwinement of these two lives and the metropolis in which they must thrive will forever change their fates. Centered around the construction of Antoni Gaudí’s phantasmagoric Sagrada Família and the pull it has on each character, The Dream of the City is both a historical imagining and a vibrant vision of the shapes and people that bring Barcelona to life. My Thoughts:  The Dream of the City is an interesting look at a turbulent period in Spain"s history.  through his characters, Mr Vidal shows the class divide i...

From Goodreads:  A glittering Persian king has a vast empire that reaches farther than where the sun meets the horizon. He is bathed in riches and commands a frightening military force. He possesses power beyond any other mortal man and rules his kingdom as a god. Anything he desires, he has. Any woman he wants, he possesses. Thousands of them. Young virgins from all across his many lands. A Jewish girl is ripped from her hut by the king’s brutish warriors and forced to march across blistering, scorched earth to the capitol city. Trapped for months in the splendid cage of the king’s palace, she must avoid the ire of the king’s concubines and eunuchs all while preparing for her one night with the king. Soon the fated night arrives, and she does everything in her power to captivate the king and become his queen. But wearing the crown brings with it a new set of dangers. When a ruthless man plies the king’s ear with whispers of genocide, it is up to the young queen to...

From Goodreads:  World War I and the Russian Revolution together shaped the twentieth century in profound ways. In The End of Tsarist Russia, acclaimed scholar Dominic Lieven connects for the first time the two events, providing both a history of the First World War’s origins from a Russian perspective and an international history of why the revolution happened. Based on exhaustive work in seven Russian archives as well as many non-Russian sources, Dominic Lieven’s work is about far more than just Russia. By placing the crisis of empire at its core, Lieven links World War I to the sweep of twentieth-century global history. He shows how contemporary hot issues such as the struggle for Ukraine were already crucial elements in the run-up to 1914. By incorporating into his book new approaches and comparisons, Lieven tells the story of war and revolution in a way that is truly original and thought-provoking. My Thoughts:  The End of Tsarist Russia is an incred...

From Goodreads:  He is her dashing Master of Horse. She is the 25-year-old newly crowned English Queen, a title she holds only because there is no male heir to inherit it. Yet in spite of her tenuous hold on the throne, young Queen Elizabeth begins a flagrant flirtation with the handsome but married Lord Robert, taking long unchaperoned horseback rides with him and constantly having him at her side. Many believe them to be lovers, and over time the rumors grow that Elizabeth is no virgin at all, and that she has secretly borne Lord Robert's child. When Robert's wife is found dead, lying at the bottom of a staircase with her neck broken, there is universal shock followed by accusations of murder. Picking up where Alison Weir's bestselling novel to date, "The Lady Elizabeth," left off (but standing completely alone), "The Marriage Game" tells the dramatic story of the "Virgin Queen's" reign, framed by Elizabeth's long an...

From Goodreads:  FRANCE, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another. Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as onl...

From Goodreads:  Elizabeth Tudor is at a crossroads. After a disastrous winter, the Duke of Northumberland has been executed for treason while his son, Robert Dudley, claims from the Tower that the true traitor has not yet been caught. And though her brother, William, has survived smallpox, scars linger in the king's body and mind and his patience is at an end. As English ships and soldiers arm themselves against the threat of invasion, William marches to the drumbeat of his own desires rather than his country's welfare. Wary of this changed royal brother, Elizabeth assembles her own shadow court to protect England as best she can. But William, able to command armies and navies, cannot command hearts. Minuette and Dominic have married in secret, and after an ill-timed pregnancy, they take to flight. Faced with betrayal by the two he loved most, William's need for vengeance pushes England to the brink of civil war and in the end, Elizabeth must choose: her b...

From Goodreads:  Joan of Kent, renowned beauty and cousin to King Edward III, is destined for a politically strategic marriage. As the king begins a long dynastic struggle to claim the crown of France, plunging England into the Hundred Years’ War, he negotiates her betrothal to a potential ally and heir of a powerful lordship. But Joan, haunted by nightmares of her father’s execution at the hands of her treacherous royal kin, fears the king’s selection and is not resigned to her fate. She secretly pledges herself to one of the king’s own knights, one who has become a trusted friend and protector. Now she must defend her vow as the king—furious at Joan’s defiance—prepares to marry her off to another man. In A Triple Knot, Emma Campion brings Joan, the “Fair Maid of Kent” to glorious life, deftly weaving details of King Edward III’s extravagant court into a rich and emotionally resonant tale of intrigue, love, and betrayal. My Thoughts:   I loved that this boo...

From Goodreads:  Early in Mary Tudor’s turbulent reign, Lady Catherine and Lady Mary Grey are reeling after the brutal execution of their elder seventeen-year-old sister, Lady Jane Grey, and the succession is by no means stable. In Sisters of Treason, Elizabeth Freemantle brings these young women to life in a spellbinding Tudor tale of love and politics. Neither sister is well suited to a dangerous life at court. Flirtatious Lady Catherine, thought to be the true heir, cannot control her compulsion to love and be loved. Her sister, clever Lady Mary, has a crooked spine and a tiny stature in an age when physical perfection equates to goodness—and both girls have inherited the Tudor blood that is more curse than blessing. For either girl to marry without royal permission would be a potentially fatal political act. It is the royal portrait painter, Levina Teerlinc, who helps the girls survive these troubled times. She becomes their mentor and confidante, but when the ...

From Goodreads:  Catherine the Great muses on her life, her relentless battle between love and power, the country she brought into the glorious new century, and the bodies left in her wake. By the end of her life, she had accomplished more than virtually any other woman in history. She built and grew the Romanov empire, amassed a vast fortune of art and land, and controlled an unruly and conniving court. Now, in a voice both indelible and intimate, she reflects on the decisions that gained her the world and brought her enemies to their knees. And before her last breath, shadowed by the bloody French Revolution, she sets up the end game for her last political maneuver, ensuring her successor and the greater glory of Russia. My Thoughts:  I was really excited to read this because I think Catherine the Great is a very cool historical figure.  I remember enjoying Stachniak's first book about Catherine, The Winter Palace, and was looking forward to the second....

    From Goodreads:  1205 - the town of Chinon is beseiged by enemies of King John, and his young Queen calls upon a trusted servant to conceal her treasured jewels. Emily Braden is intrigued by the medieval story of Queen Isabelle, and cannot resist when her cousin Harry, a historian, suggests a trip to the white-walled town of Chinon, nestling in France's Loire Valley. But when Harry vanishes and Emily begins to search for him, she stumbles across another intriguing mystery -- a second Isabelle, a chambermaid during the Second World War, who had her own tragedy, and her own treasure to hide. As Emily explores the ancient town of labyrinthine tunnels, old enmities, and new loves, she finds herself drawn ever closer to the mysterious Isabelles and their long-kept secrets. My Thoughts: I am quickly becoming a Susanna Kearsley fan.  This book sucked me in and would not let go until I finished. The story jumped between the 13th century, World War II an...

From Goodreads:  Many are familiar with the story of the much-married King Henry VIII of England and the celebrated reign of his daughter, Elizabeth I. But it is often forgotten that the life of the first Tudor queen, Elizabeth of York, Henry’s mother and Elizabeth’s grandmother, spanned one of England’s most dramatic and perilous periods. Now New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed historian Alison Weir presents the first modern biography of this extraordinary woman, whose very existence united the realm and ensured the survival of the Plantagenet bloodline. My Thoughts:  Let me preface this by saying, I love Alison Weir and will read anything she writes.  However, I struggled to get through this book.  I think Elizabeth of York is a fascinating historical figure so I was really hoping for an enjoyable read but I got a kind of dry, slow read instead.  This definitely wasn't one of those works of non-fiction that read as easily as fiction doe...

From Goodreads:  Henry IX, known as William, is the son of Anne Boleyn and now the leader of England, his regency period finally at an end. His newfound power, however, comes with the looming specter of war with the other major powers of Europe, with strategic alliances that must be forged on both the battlefield and in the bedroom, and with a court, severed by religion, rife with plots to take over the throne. Will trusts only three people: his older sister, Elizabeth; his best friend and loyal counselor, Dominic; and Minuette, a young orphan raised as a royal ward by Anne Boleyn. But as the pressure rises alongside the threat to his life, even they William must begin to question-and to fear.... My Thoughts: I really love this trilogy so far!  I haven't read many 'alternate history' books but I think Ms. Andersen has really out done herself. The whole Anne Boleyn/Henry VIII story has been done to death but with this alternate version of history, Andersen breathes new...