Sarah Morgan has a knack for writing involving stories with good characters. In her latest book, I enjoyed getting to know Imogen (even if she exhausted me) and Dorothy. Their lives change over the course of the novel and readers will always be hoping that these changes are for the better. Readers will also hope that each is able to be honest about their backstories.
Imogen works hard, really hard, like all the time hard. She is very good at the event planning that she does until…
Dorothy has experienced sadness with the death of her husband. She feels fortunate to have a daughter and granddaughters even if her daughter feels that Dorothy is too close to Imogen.
What brings these women together? How do their stories intersect? Find out in a book that kept me wanting to read more. Now, I will wait impatiently for what this author writes next.
Recommended to readers who like holiday stories and women’s fiction.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.
I have been following the exploits and relationship of Sidney and Verity since Huber began the series with This Side of Murder. She has mastered the art of storytelling with interesting characters, plots, relationships and an historical period. In my opinion, The Cold Light of the Day is the best entry yet (though readers may want to read the series from the beginning, especially the first book which sets the scene for the main characters).
In The Cold Light of Day, Sidney and Verity are in Dublin at an important historical juncture. It is the time of such notable figures as Eamon de Valera and Michael Collins, among others. Our protagonists are thrown right into the intrigue as they attempt to spy on both sides in the conflict. It is a real strength of the author’s that the history is clearly explained and easy to follow.
A spy/colleague/important person to Verity has been sent to Dublin to infiltrate those seeking Irish independence. He has not been heard from in some time. Will Verity and Sidney be able to locate him? Is he even still alive?
Finding out about Alec is just one of the many situations in which Verity is involved. Readers will turn the pages wanting to know how each storyline plays out. Then, like me, they may be sad to know that it will be at least a year before meeting up with Verity and Sidney again.
I thoroughly enjoyed this title and recommend it highly.
Many thanks to Net Galley and Kensington Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.
As many may remember, Radcliffe was once the women’s college affiliated with Harvard University. As such, it was one of the prestigious seven sisters schools.
As this novel, set in the 1950s, opens four young women are enrolled as Radcliffe freshman. They each arrive at school with their own family history. Tess hopes to be a writer and is happy to leave an unhappy home life behind in order to be a scholarship student at the school. Tess’s roommate, Caroline, is a wealthy young woman with a voluminous wardrobe. She seems less interested in academics than in dating and having fun. There are then Merritt and Evie rounding out the group.
A new bookstore has opened in Cambridge. The slightly mysterious owner, Alice, is planning to have a monthly book group with the first selection being Jane Eyre. Our four protagonists join.
I enjoyed this book’s setting and the way that the gracious life of a 1950s women’s school was brought to life. I could completely visualize the common room’s sofas and the dorm dining room where waitressed meals were served. These details accurately reflect the novel’s time period. I also enjoyed and eagerly waited to see which book would be discussed each month.
Many things happen to and around these four young women. They go through some difficult times on their way to adulthood and the story can be quite dramatic.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this title. All opinions are my own.
Some of the many poets whose works are included in this collection are Wordsworth, Keats, Tennyson, Hardy, St. Vincent Millay, Langston Hughes, Anne Sexton, Randall Jarrell, Muriel Rukeyser, Robert Lowell, Sharon Olds and Phillip Larkin, among many others. This is certainly a good collection with, as the title suggests, a focus on heartbreak. What a topic for Covid times, although there are many kinds of losses and many centuries during which poets grappled with this emotion. Grief does not only belong to today.
This collection will most appeal to serious readers of poetry. There are many kinds of poems including sonnets, aubades, a villanelle, a nocturne and more. The erudite editor has selected poems that have special meaning to him and he explicates them all. Some readers may not want all of this additional content but it is worth looking at, at least some of the time. Other times, readers can dip in and read whatever poem they like on its own merits. Readers who take their time with this title will learn a lot and feel a good deal as well.
Still Life was published in early November but I was not ready to review this title until now. That is because I chose to read the novel very slowly as, for me, it was one to savor. This novelist has a unique voice and that comes across loud and clear in this beautiful work.
The title had multiple meanings for me. As there is much about art in the book, it can refer to a classic form of painting, the still life. However, to me, it refers to still, as in on-going, life or still, as in quiet and unmoving. In part, I mean, how people go on when they have faced all that life has to bring to a person, everything from war, to love, to loss, to aging, to relationships to art, to travel, to home and more.
Ms. Winman has her very own authorial voice and this led me to need a bit of time to fully enter the world of the novel. At first, I was distracted by the absence of quotation marks for example. The story also goes through time and a number of locations.
The characters are quirky and unique. I enjoyed getting to know everyone and their connections to one another. Just a few of these folks include:
Ulysses: He survived WWII. What leads him back to Italy?
Evelyn: A gay woman who also survives the war. She is a professor who first met Ulysses on a significant night.
Peg: She was the woman for Ulysses except….
Alys or kid: She is Peg’s child but Ulysses is the one who parents her.
Spend time in this novel. Read it slowly but with enthusiasm. It is special.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb have mastered the art of writing together. This book reads seamlessly and I have no absolute idea of where one author’s voice ends and the other begins. This was also true in their earlier collaboration, Meet Me in Monaco, a book that I very much enjoyed. I loved this one too.
Christmas with the Queen was exactly the kind of read that I was looking for, one that would transport me to another time and place. The story opens in 1952 when London was enveloped in a murky fog. Elizabeth was new to the throne. The novel goes on to cover a five year period (with some back history).
The story principally follows two characters, each of whom has an interesting profession and story. Jack is working in the Sandringham kitchens during the festive period. Olive is a trainee reporter with the BBC. When her boss became ill, she travels to Sandringham to write a seasonal story. These two (re) meet and readers follow them over the years.
There is enough detail to bring Sandringham, the Queen, her corgis and the royal experience to life. It is delightful to observe Elizabeth in the novel. There is a charming scene fairly early in the book when Elizabeth strolls into the room where a star struck Olive is sitting. She will reappear.
This is a charming and lovely book. Readers will want the best for these characters.
If a reader wants to get into the Christmas spirit without the frenetic quality of holiday life, come to this book with a cup of tea and relax. I am very glad that I did just that.
Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this title. All opinions are my own.
Any book that Ruth Hogan writes is a book that I want to read. I still remember how much I loved The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes. I also enjoyed Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel, and The Moon, The Stars and Madame Burova. Common to all of these novels are characters for whom readers will care and good stories. That excellent trend continues in The Phoenix Ballroom.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be widowed at a certain age? Does life end or do new experiences come to one? Does it have to be that adult children think they know what is best for one? These are some of the themes in this story.
Venetia is seventy-four when her husband dies. Around the same time, her son and his wife plan to move to France leaving their young son, Kite, behind in boarding school. He is not happy there. Additionally, Venetia’s son, Heron, wants her to have someone nearby. This leads to Liberty Bell’s arrival.
Liberty has her own story. When her mother died, she did not receive the inheritance that she expected. She was left a copy of The Lady magazine which is where she saw the ad for Venetia’s position.
Kite, Liberty and Venetia will all develop and grow in these pages. Readers will adore spending time with them, other characters, and Venetia’s dog named Colin Firth. They will also watch to see what happens to the ballroom of the title.
Anyone who loves a good and charming story should pick this one up. It is very highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this title. All opinions are my own.
I am delighted to join this blog tour for Sara Ackerman’s newest novel. I have enjoyed other books by this author including The Codebreaker’s Secret. Her stories are must reads for me.
Book Summary:
Taylor Jenkins Reid meets The Hundred Foot Wave in this dazzling new romance by USA Today bestselling author Sara Ackerman.
‘Iwa Young’s life is high in the Maui rainforest. As a field biologist, she’s happiest in company with trees and birds and waterfalls. When a developer arrives with plans for a so-called Eco Resort in the middle of a forest full of endangered species, ‘Iwa puts all her energy into the fight to protect it. But a chance encounter threatens to distract her. His name is Dane Parsons, and he’s a big wave surfer from California. ‘Iwa has a few unbreakable rules, and at the top of her list: Never Date A Surfer.
Dane Parsons is part of an underground group of big wave riders and his connection to the ocean runs deep. When he meets ‘Iwa he can’t get her out of his mind. But ‘Iwa wants nothing to do with Dane until he offers to help protect her beloved forest and waterfall. Always on the hunt for the ultimate ride, Dane suddenly glimpses something even greater, but just out of reach.
In this thunderous love story, we travel deep into the Maui rainforest and hop across the globe from Maui to Mavericks to Portugal, chasing waves the size of nine story buildings–where the unthinkable is always just one breath away.
Start reading:
THE BLUE ROOM
Dane
Pe’ahi, Maui, January 3, 2012
The Hawaiian ocean was more blue than he remembered, and it smelled faintly of salt and sea foam. Dane sat on his surfboard watching rays of sun pierce the surface and descend into the depths. Farther out above the trench, the water shone indigo, and inside over the coral shelf, a dappled turquoise. Bathwater warm, smooth as blown glass, deadly. There were sounds—a light splash, the low rumble of whitewater meeting rock on the shoreline—but he didn’t hear them.
Someone is going to die.
An old man on the cliff had spoken these words to him just as he was scrambling down the rocks to get in the water, and he was having a hard time shaking it off. The man was thin as a twig and wrinkled, with a shock of white hair against his sun-beaten skin. A complete stranger. He touched Dane’s shoulder and looked him straight in the eye, pinning Dane in place for a few seconds, before he pulled himself away. His shoulder still burned.
Now he focused on the horizon and matched his breath to the rise and fall of the swells. Reaching down with both hands, he scooped up water and splashed himself to cool off. The air was thick with a salty haze, windless, hot and lazy. Usually by this time—early afternoon, the waves were blown out and ragged from the wind. But today was perfection. Even the locals were saying the conditions were epic.
All he needed was one wave.
The Maui offshore buoys showed an afternoon pulse, which meant that the swell could get even bigger before it faded away. No doubt it was a gamble to paddle out on his biggest board, a mint green beauty, but risk was his thing, the only constant he knew. While most people moved away from risk, Dane had always sought it out. Not consciously, but looking back, he had been the kid to climb the tallest tree, skateboard down the steepest road or take the highest jump on his bike, and later, often the only one to paddle out on those winter days when the whole horizon was closing out.
He checked his watch. Eighteen minutes since the last set rolled in, but it seemed like days. He could feel the island behind him, a massive volcano with a dollop of white snow on her peak, but he refused to look. Never turn your back on the sea. Anyone raised around the ocean knew this.
Four minutes left in the heat and Dane had nothing to show for it. He had missed the only rideable wave on the last set by being too far out. His last hope was the tide. It had just bottomed out, and now began to fill back in, the whole ocean heaving toward the island. All he could do was wait. Mother nature called the shots out here, there was no way around it.
Two minutes left and he was starting to sweat, when he noticed a bump on the horizon. He stood up on his board to get a better look. Definitely a set. Kicking his board out in front of him, he fell back in the water and crossed himself. This was it. Sliding back onto his board, he adjusted his vest, took a deep breath and started paddling toward the horizon.
A live wire ran under his skin, electrifying every cell, every muscle. It was a familiar feeling, and it meant game on. The first wave in the set rose up like a liquid mountain and began to feather, but already he could tell it wasn’t the one he was waiting for. Too small and a little too west. Let someone else have it. When he reached the top of that one, he got his first look at what was coming—a blue wall of water taller than a small building and farther out than he had thought possible. Lined up perfectly and swinging straight for him.
He scrambled to position himself a little deeper as the wave moved in and lifted him up and up. And fricking up. He turned and went for it. At the top, he hung for a second as he looked down the vertical face of water, half wishing he had wings. Beyond the point of no return, he jumped to his feet and dropped in. The first few seconds were a free fall and he was poised with arms out, as if in flight, while his board miraculously stayed under him. He managed to level out and picked his line. From behind, the lip hurled and thundered and created a bus-sized barrel, spitting out at him.
Still high up on the wave, which felt ready to pitch him at any moment, he felt the burn in his legs, his lungs, his eyes. Spray from the barrel chandeliered down on him and began to blot out the sun and everything else. If this beast closed out, he was done. He’d be held down on the reef for at least a few waves and then washed into a frothy cauldron of whitewater and boulders at the bottom of the cliffs.
Someone is going to die. The words came to him again in a flash, then disappeared. Today was not his day to die.
The avalanche of water behind him was creating its own wind, but he managed to stall for a few seconds in the barrel before getting shot out in the spit. Time slowed, and the outside world slipped away. A feeling of euphoria came over him. Saltwater ran in his veins and he looked down on the scene from a bird’s-eye view. Albatross or petrel or booby. When he hit the shoulder of the wave still standing, his arms shot up skyward and he fell back, landing with a splash in the very water that could have easily taken him. The horn sounded a few moments later, signifying the end of the heat.
The crowd in the channel went crazy; he heard them even underwater. Jet skis, boats, boards, camera guys swimming—all rushed toward him. People yelling, hooting, clapping, cheering. Shirtless men and bikini-clad women. Not a wetsuit in sight. And there was no need to see the score, or the video. Their reaction told him everything he needed to know.
Sara Ackerman is the Hawai’i born, bestselling author of historical & romance novels set in the islands. Her books have been labeled “unforgettable” by Apple Books, “empowering & deliciously visceral” by Book Riot, and New York Times bestselling authors Kate Quinn and Madeline Martin have praised Sara’s novels as “fresh and delightful” and “brilliantly written.” Amazon chose Radar Girls as a best book of the month, and ALA Booklist gave The Codebreaker’s Secret a starred review. Find out more about Sara and her books at http://www.ackermanbooks.com and follow her on Instagram @saraackermanbooks and on Facebook @ackermanbooks.
My thoughts:
Native Hawaiian Ackerman sets her newest novel in a place she knows well and clearly loves. I am sure that, like Iwa, she is concerned about the ecology of the island.
Two people meet. They are Iwa and Dane. Each has feelings for Hawaii though their work and hopes for the island may differ. When they meet, what will happen? How will their pasts influence their futures? Throw is rain forests, surfing, Portugal and the novel moves forward.
Those who like books with settings that are vividly brought to life will enjoy this title. The same is true for those who like to read romances.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the team at HTP for this title. All opinions are my own.
What a concept! Imagine you are on a plane. You have your reasons for being there, things that you are thinking about and have settled in. Imagine that in the midst of whatever you are doing, a woman stands in front of you and tells you when you will die and of what. How would you react? How intense would that be? This is the monumental basis for Moriarty’s latest novel. No spoiler-she spectacularly pulls it off.
Get to know many characters. They are of different ages, sexes, experiences. How will they move forward when they have this information? Will it be true? Who is the woman making the predictions? Read this long (500 plus pages) novel that is divided into many short sections to find out. See if it will change you.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for this title. All opinions are my own.
Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 