The King's Grace by Anne Easter Smith

Book Description:

All that history knows of Grace Plantagenet is that she was an illegitimate daughter of Edward IV and one of two attendants aboard the funeral barge of his widowed queen.  Thus, she was half sister of the famous young princes, who—when this story begins in 1485—had been housed in the Tower by their uncle, Richard III, and are presumed dead.

But in the 1490s, a young man appears at the courts of Europe claiming to be Richard, duke of York, the younger of the boys, and seeking to claim his rightful throne from England's first Tudor king, Henry VII.  But is this man who he says he is?  Grace Plantagenet finds herself in the midst of one of English history's greatest mysteries.  If she can discover the fate of the princes and the true identity of the mysterious man, perhaps she will find her own place in her family.

My Review:

I enjoyed this book very much.  I have my doubts whether the mystery of the two princes in the Tower will ever be solved, but this book presents such a convincing story of what might have really happened that it almost seems as if the author was there.

The characters were all very well fleshed-out and even Elizabeth Woodville was mostly sympathetic.  I loved Grace Plantagenet from the very beginning of the story.

I would definitely recommend this book.

A Woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Book Description:

In 1905 a young kitchen maid leaves Fairley Hall.  Emma Harte is sixteen, single and pregnant.

By 1968 she is one of the richest women in the world, ruler of a business empire stretching from Yorkshire to the glittering cities of America and the rugged vastness of Australia.

But what is the price she has paid?

A magnificient dynastic saga, as impossible to put down as it is to forget.  A Woman of Substance is truly a classic novel of our times.

My Review:

While I wouldn't put this book in the same league with Gone With the Wind as some people have, I did enjoy the story immensely.  The characters were fully and richly conceived.  My only complaint there was that Emma sometimes seemed to good to be true.  Some of the other characters were just a little too despicable, too.

The story kept my interest throughout.  I enjoyed the plot twists and turns, and I especially enjoyed the descriptions of clothing, buildings and furnishings.  However, since I prefer historical fiction, primarily in the 16th and 17th centuries, the time period of the early- to mid-20th century didn't really grab me.

This is the second book I have read by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and this one was far superior to Her Own Rules.  Since this was Ms Bradford's first book, I assume she put everything she had into it.  She also wrote two sequels to A Woman of Substance, and I wouldn't mind reading them, if they happen to come along, but I won't go out of my way to get them.  I suspect they will not be as good as this book, plus they will undoubtedly focus on a more current time period, even, than this book did.

Highlander Series by Karen Marie Moning

I just finished reading the first seven books in this series.  (I've been told the eighth book is not really a necessary part of the series.)  While I wouldn't classify these books with the usual historical fiction I'm partial to, they were still fun to read.  Some of the anomalies in the earlier books really grated on my nerves, but they got more historically accurate as they went along.  I guess Ms Moning actually started to do some research!  Once I approached them as what they are billed — paranormal romances — and not as historical fiction, I relaxed and enjoyed them more.

Some of the stories involve time travel, some involve Druids, some involve faeries, some involve all three!  All of them take place at least partially in Scotland, if not entirely.  The men are all unfailingly beautiful, ripped and dominant.  The women are all beautiful, mostly blonde, and smart.  Naturally, the men fall for the women and vice versa, but the stories do have enough plot to keep it entertaining.  The books also got sexier as they went along — probably too titillating for a woman of a certain age *blush*!  If you are a fan of historical romance, paranormal romance or time travel romance, you should love these books.

"Three Junes" by Julia Glass

Book Description:
An astonishing first novel that traces the lives of a Scottish family over a decade as they confront the joys and longings, fulfillments and betrayals of love in all its guises.

In June of 1989 Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage.  Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home.  Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion.  Far from his straitlaced expatriate life as a bookseller in Greenwich Village, Fenno is stunned by a series of revelations that threaten his carefully crafted defenses.  Four years farther on, in yet another June, a chance meeting on the Long Island shore brings Fenno together with Fern Olitsky, the artist who once captivated his father.  Now pregnant, Fern must weigh her guilt about the past against her wishes for the future and decide what family means to her.  In prose rich with compassion and wit, Three Junes paints a haunting portrait of love’s redemptive powers.

My Review:
Yet another book I did not enjoy.  More dysfunctional family stuff.  And I found the homosexual part very distasteful.  It's not so much that I have anything against gays; I really don't.  I just find descriptions of their sexual encounters to be repugnant.  I, personally, don't want to know what arouses them.  Plus, I have a really hard time believing that your average straight, middle-aged woman author can really understand what makes a gay guy tick.  Just saying. . .

Lady of Leisure

You may have noticed that most of my posts lately are book reviews!  There are two reasons for that.  First, I had surgery again at the end of April, and I wasn't allowed to do much; hence the copious reading.

And secondly, I got laid off from my job of 20 years, right in the middle of my medical leave.  I'm not as upset about that as many might be, because I have been wanting to retire for quite awhile now, but my husband doesn't think we can afford it.  I am looking for something else, but my severance package was very generous, and I sure would like to have a break!  I've been working since I was 11 years old, sometimes two jobs at once, and I am so ready for the next phase of my life.

I'm not sure what the future holds at this point, but I do know one thing — I'm going to spend some time with my Dad this summer!

She Wakes by Jack Ketchum

Book Description:
Greece.  Ancient land of mystery, legend and myth.  It is here that businessman Jordan Chase visits an historic tomb, only to experience a dark vision of the future.  And it is here, amidst the beauty of the landscape, that Lelia, a gorgeous but dangerous woman, befriends a group of tourists . . . to lure them into a nightmare of pain and terror.  She lives to seduce and destroy, to feed off her human prey.  Lelia is more than myth, more than superstition.  Lelia is deadly.

My Review:
E-e-e-e-u-u-u-w-w-w!  A very strange story indeed.  This is another one of those books that was recommended on the Books-A-Million booklover's calendar.  I would never have chosen this book on my own, but I was having a slump on books coming up on my wishlist on BookMooch, so I added some from the booklover's calendar that looked even remotely promising.  I should know better!

Fortunately, this book was quick to read, and in its own way, gripping.  But I can't say I liked it.  Too much sex and bad language for me.  And then there was the flesh-eating part, and the rape part, and the cruelty, and the snakes and the mean cats.  I did enjoy the descriptions of Greece, though, and I would love to visit someday.  I would hope it is not as tourist-y as described in the book, but I suppose it probably is.  I never did figure out what Jordan Chase's role really was, and the ending didn't make much sense to me at all.

This is definitely a horror story with not nearly as much tie-in to Greek mythology as it would like you to believe.

Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Book Description:
Beware!  Honey Santana is off her meds, reacting rapidly to the bad behavior of others.  This time, the annoyer is a telemarketer from Texas.  Honey's revenge?  She invites Boyd Shreave on a paid ecotour of the Everglades, where a blue-eyed Seminole named Sammy Tigertail strums an electric guitar on a woe-begotten clump of shells, mangroves, and beer cans called Dismal Key.  Soon Boyd and vengeance-crazed Honey are joined by a private eye with a red-hot video camera and a college girl who just wants to have fun.  And with a brawling cast of lunatic men, desperate women, a skateboarding teen, and even a restless ghost all going native, who will protect the Everglades from the wild humans?

My Review:
This is a crazy, fast-paced romp through the Florida Everglades with a wacky cast of characters.  This is nothing like Orlando or Miami, but real Florida, with alligators, snakes, mosquitos and fire ants.

Honey Santana likes to teach people lessons, especially when soulless telemarketers interrupt the precious time she spends with her son.

Sammy Tigertail's first day on the job as a boat guide for the tribe goes terribly wrong when a drunken tourist dies of a heart attack, and he is afraid he will be blamed.

Boyd Shreave is a loser from Texas whose current job is calling people at dinner-time to offer them lots in Florida.  He is having an affair with his co-worker, Eugenie, and is being spied on by his wife's PI.

Somehow, all these people, plus a few more, end up on tiny Dismal Key in the middle of the Everglades.  What follows is like a Shakespearean comedy of errors—highly entertaining.  This book would make a great movie!

Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon

Book Description:
On a clear morning in mid-June, Lord John Grey emerges from London's Beefsteak Club, his mind in turmoil.  A nobleman and a high-ranking officer in His Majesty's army, Grey has just witnessed something shocking.  But his efforts to avoid a scandal that might destroy his family are interrupted by something still more urgent:  The Crown appoints him to investigate the brutal murder of a comrade-in-arms who may have been a traitor.

Obliged to pursue two inquiries at once, Major Grey finds himself ensnared in a web of treachery and betrayal that touches every stratum of English society—and threatens all he holds dear.  From the bawdy houses of London's night world to the stately drawing rooms of the nobility...from the blood of a murdered corpse to the thundering seas ruled by the East India Company, Lord John pursues the elusive trails of a vanishing footman and a woman in green velvet, who may hold the key to everything—or nothing.

The early days of the Seven Years' War come brilliantly to life in this historical mystery by an author whose unique and compelling storytelling has engrossed millions of readers worldwide.

My Review:
Meh...not for me.

I read the first five books of the Outlander series quite a few years ago, and I had forgotten who Lord John Grey was.  Perhaps if I had remembered, I would never have read this book, but, then again, I probably would have, since I consider Diana Gabaldon one of my favorite authors.  Lord John was the young English soldier who lost his lover, Hector, at the Battle of Culloden and subsequently fell in love with Jamie Fraser.

This book is nowhere near as good as the Outlander series, and I was put off by some of the language and crude epithets.  I have read in other reviews that the Lord John series gets better, so maybe I will persevere...maybe not!

Mourning in Miniature by Margaret Grace

Book Description:
Now that Geraldine Porter is retired, she's got time to devote to her favorite craft and her precocious granddaughter, Madison.  You'd think a world of shoe-box-sized high school hallways would be trouble free.  But Gerry's problems are anything but tiny...

When bookish Rosie Norman asks Gerry to accompany her to her thirtieth high school reunion, Gerry looks forward to seeing her old students.  Rosie, however, has only one classmate in mind:  star athlete David Bridges.  Bearing a miniature replica of the bank of lockers where David once kissed her, Rosie has pinned her hopes on romance.

The tiny corridor, however, becomes a giant clue when David is murdered—a clue that leads Gerry down a path of thirty-year-old alliances, betrayals, and grudges.  Now with the help of her granddaughter, Gerry must employ all her skills to reconstruct the true scene of the crime...

My Review:
I won this book as part of a contest in Dollhouse Miniatures magazine.  It was an enjoyable mystery and a cute story.  I'm not really into modern-day stuff, so it wouldn't have been my first choice, but it was well-written and fast-paced with plenty of plot twists.  The interaction between the main character and her granddaughter was charming.  This is not the first book in the series, and if I had read the earlier books first, I might have had more of a sense of who all the characters were, although they were sufficiently explained for the story to be complete.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes murder mysteries (without tons of gore and details—this is definitely a G-rated book) and/or anyone who likes miniatures.

The Time of Terror by Seth Hunter

Book Description:
In 1793, British Navy commander Nathan Peake patrols the English coast, looking for smugglers.  Desperate for some real action, Peake gets his chance when France declares war on England and descends into the bloody madness of the Terror.  Peake is entrusted with a mission to wreck the French economy by smuggling fake banknotes into Paris.  His activities take him down Paris streets patrolled by violent mobs and into the sinister catacombs beneath the French capital.  And they bring him close to famous characters of the day:  the English feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, her American lover Gilbert Imlay who acts as George Washington's agent in Paris, and the British/American writer and revolutionary Thomas Paine.  As opposition to the Terror mounts, Peake fights to carry out his mission—and to save the life of the woman he loves.

My Review:
This was an enjoyable story, but by no means the best I have ever read.  I believe it was well-researched, and I particularly enjoyed the naval battle scenes.  However, the romance was decidedly weak, although it was obviously not the main point of the book.  I never really felt that Nathan cared that much about what happened to Sara, or the other people he met in Paris, for that matter!  And, of course, that applies to the reader, too, then.

The book did not build suspense or anticipation for me, as it should have.  However, I wouldn't hestitate to recommend the book to someone who enjoys historical fiction, particularly naval stories, or has an interest in the French Revolution.  And I may read further books in the series because I think there is potential for the stories to get better.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Book Description:
'She looked absolutely pure.  Nature, in her fantastic trickery, had set such a seal of maidenhood upon Tess's countenance that he gazed at her with a stupefied air:  "Tess—say it is not true!  No, it is not true!"'

A beautiful peasant descended from a decayed aristocratic family, Tess Durbeyfield is betrayed by two men.  The story of her violation by one, her abandonment by the other, and her tragic revenge shocked many of Hardy's readers; the debate focused on his representation of Tess as 'A Pure Woman'.

Hardy thought Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891) his finest novel, and Tess herself the most deeply felt character he ever created.  D. H. Lawrence and James Joyce testified to the significant effect this novel had in breaking down the barriers of literary censorship.

My Review:
Oh, my goodness, what a sad story!  I loved the poetic language used by Thomas Hardy—no one talks like that any more, sadly—but I much prefer a happy ending.

It was interesting to see how Tess was treated in her time for something that was not her fault and has been happening since the beginning of time.  I think (I hope) we are slightly more accepting nowadays.  I don't like to give away particulars of a book in my reviews that may spoil it for others, so I won't say exactly what happened to Tess or how she eventually dealt with it, but it will definitely be a book to be remembered.

Ahab's Wife

I just finished reading Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund.  I'm still trying to decide what to make of it.

Some reviewers really loved it, some hated it.  I wanted to love it, but I didn't.  Her phrasing was lauded by many, but I found it cumbersome.  Perhaps I'm not as literarily precocious as some, but I dislike having to read a paragraph multiple times to glean its meaning.  I can appreciate a well-turned phrase, but if I find myself thinking of ways to have said it more concisely, it distracts from the story, in my opinion.  The book is long at 666 pages, but I wouldn't mind that at all if there really were that much to tell.  There were some chapters that amounted to nothing more than raving or rambling.  I understand their purpose within the story, but I didn't enjoy them at all.

I gave my husband a not-so-short synopsis, and he just laughed at all the things that happened to the heroine, Una.  He insisted there was no way that could have happened to one person, but I quite enjoyed the plot twists and the varied situations she survived.

I'm still not sure what to think of the book.  I may read another by Naslund and see if I can decide!

If you have accumulated as many books as I have...

You may be interested in a book swapping site such as BookMooch.  On this site, each user gets fractions of points for each book they enter into their inventory.  Then, when they have sufficient points, they may request a book from another user for which they will pay 1 point and the owner of the book will receive 1 point (slightly different for out-of-country mooches).  The owner of the book pays the postage to send the book to the moocher, but now has an additional point with which to mooch a book for himself.  Each user can build up a wishlist of books they would like to have and an email will be sent when one becomes available

It's a great way to clear off your shelves and get some new books to read at the same time.  The only cost is the postage for sending books to other users, and if you use Media Mail, the cost is usually just over $2.  Where else can you get books for $2?

There are other book swapping sites, but I like BookMooch best.