Tag: Historical Fiction

🔸️🔸️Book Mail!🔸️🔸️

TGIF!  Oh I am so happy it’s Friday!  Definitely ready for the weekend!  Hopefully spend some quality time reading.

Book mail makes it even better!  Thank you so much St. Martin’s Press for this copy!

The Brightest Star in Paris
Diana Biller
Historical Romance
Publication Date:  10/12/21

Amelie St. James, prima ballerina of the Paris Opera Ballet and the people’s saint, has spent seven years pretending. In the devastating aftermath of the Siege of Paris, she made a decision to protect her sister: she became the bland, sweet, pious “St. Amie” the ballet needed to restore its scandalous reputation. But when her first love reappears, and the ghosts of her past come back to haunt her, all her hard-fought safety is threatened.

Dr. Benedict Moore has never forgotten the girl who helped him embrace life again after he almost lost his. Now, he’s back in Paris after twelve years for a conference. His goals are to recruit promising new scientists, and, maybe, to see Amelie again. When he discovers she’s in trouble, he’s desperate to help her—after all, he owes her.

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🔸️🔸️Book Mail!🔸️🔸️

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today is the 14th anniversary of my husband and I’s first date. Every year we go on a date to celebrate.🍾💕🥰
We go on normal dates too but we always make this one extra special.

I also received some awesome book mail! So excited for this one! Thank you Kensington Books for this gifted copy!

The Second Life of Mireille West
Amanda Skenandore
Historical Fiction
Publication Date: 7/27/2021

Blurb:
In this thought-provoking and sensitive novel, inspired by the true story of a Louisiana leprosy hospital where patients were forcibly quarantined, acclaimed author Amanda Skenandore tells an extraordinarily timely tale of resilience, hope–and the last woman who expected to find herself in such a place…

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Book Review – Duchess If You Dare

Duchess If You Dare (The Maidens of Mayhem, #1)

Duchess If You Dare by Anabelle Bryant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Historical Fiction, Regency Romance

“When the four ladies had banded together with a vow to right wrongs in London and fight for women who had no voice against male harassment or otherwise unjust travesties thrust upon their gender, they’d labelled themselves the Maidens of Mayhem. Perhaps it was a fanciful thought at first, but their intention was soon realized. London had more nefarious secrets than anyone imagined.”

Scarlett is a member of the Maidens of Mayhem, a group of women who fight to protect other women in a society ruled by men. When her seamstress suddenly goes missing, she knows that foul play must be involved. While investigating, the clues bring her to an upscale brothel, aimed at the wealthier men of status. Inside Scarlett discovers that several of the girls have gone missing recently.

Continue reading Book Review – Duchess If You Daresignature

Spring is Finally Here

Happy Spring everyone!  My tulips are blooming!

Well I had some unexpected technical issues at work this week that caused me to be unable to do my job.  Silver lining, I was able to get a little caught up on my reading.  My life has been so crazy lately with work and the reptiles that I have not been able to do much of any reading.  By the time I settle down for the night my brain is fried and all I can do is veg.  Which is why I only managed to read one audiobook in March. 
This week I was able to FINALLY finish Little Heaven (which was awesome!) and Duchess If You Dare!  Reviews still to coming.  I wanted to get to it before the pub date but life happens and I am glad that it was still close.  I also chose this one for 2021 Genre Reading Challenge, March was Historical Fiction.

Duchess If You Dare
Maidens of Mayhem Book 1
Anabelle Bryant
Publishing Date:  3/30/21
Historical Fiction, Regency Romance, Mystery

Scarlett, a member of the Maidens of Mayhem, a group of four women who fight to protect women in a society ruled by men. 
When Scarlett’s seamstress suddenly goes missing, she knows that foul play must be involved.  While Scarlett investigates, the clues bring her to an up scale brothel where she learns some girls have also gone missing from.  Ambrose, Duke of Aylesford, is investigating this same brothel as well, a mess his impetuous younger brother got him mixed up in. 
After Scarlett and Ambrose’s path cross and they discover they’re looking into same thing and decide to work together. 
From opposites backgrounds and lifestyles, they don’t have much in common but the chemistry is unavoidable.

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Book Review – Catch-22

Catch-22

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Classic, Satire, Historical Fiction

Set in Italy during WWII, bombardier Yossarian is upset that his command keeps increasing the number of missions he must complete before being sent home.

“Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.”

This one was not for me. I understand that this is considered comedy to a lot however I did not find funny at all. It actually took me probably half the book before I realized that this was a comedy, I had been thinking that it was just a horrible plot until then. It made it a little easier to listen to after that but not much.
Took me a very long time to finish with many stops and starts. It seems it is either a love it or hate kind of book.




View all my reviews

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Don’t Get Stuck in a Genre Rut

When I was younger I used to only read Stephen King, R.L. Stein, Dean Koontz, you get my drift, pretty much thriller and horror only.  When I was in High School, I stared my first job as a barista and found my co-worker’s copy of Nora Robert’s novel Lawless.  That was my intro into great Romance novels.  I very rarely left that comfort zone of those authors though. I had no idea the books I was missing out on. 

The past several years I have made changes in the way I choose what books to read and I have been picking up ones that I normally wouldn’t.  I join reading challenges that prompt me to choose books outside my comfort zone.  We are two months into the year so far and my genre resume has already been so vast, Literary Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, New Adult Romance, Literary Fiction, Crime and Comedy Thriller, Poetry, and Non-fiction Memoir.

Here are a few that I have thoroughly enjoyed recently:

I hope that this will give you the push to expand your reading beyond your comfort zone as well.  There is a whole world out there to explore.  Don’t be afraid to check them out.

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