7/2/2013
Evoking Elizabeth Peters and her Amelia Peabody series in combining history, mystery and humor, Rhys Bowen has done it again with Heirs and Graces, her seventh Royal Spyness mystery.
Kept guessing until the end, the reader is all the while treated to a social commentary of the time (1930s Edwardian England), including "royal" descriptions of country houses and misbehavior and decidedly un-royal behavior while in country houses.
Georgiana, thirty-fourth in line for the throne, is asked again by no other than the Queen of England for her help. This time, she further hones her detection skills while grooming the heir of the title and is aided in both with her support system: Darcy, Belinda and, yes, the irrepressible Queenie, too.
Ms. Bowen has wittily combined royalty and romance for another jewel in her crown.
Coincidentally, Ms. Bowen has posted an excerpt on her blog today. Of course, you can pre-order at the usual places, but why not try an independent book seller near you?
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Thursday, April 11, 2013
The Book of Killowen by Erin Hart
A triple treat for me today:
1. A great post on Jungle Red Writers regarding Fiction = Reality and how real fictional characters stay with us readers.
2. The post involves neuroscience, long a favorite topic of mine. Many have heard me utter (too many times) that if it weren't for all that science and chemistry (!), I would have made a great brain researcher.
3. And the post was written by a favorite of mine, Erin Hart. While Erin has "only" written three novels featuring Nora, an American pathologist and Cormac, an Irish archaeologist, these two have stayed with me long after finishing each book. And to prove Erin's point in her post today, I commented that "even" a secondary character (Triona, in Erin's False Mermaid) can become as real to the reader as the main protagonist.
And while I haven't yet had the privilege of reading Erin's latest featuring Nora and Cormac, The Book of Killowen, I just know it'll be another fantastic installment in this series. Also, it doesn't hurt to have the word of some of the following blurbing the bounty of this book:
"Can the arcane science and lore of the Irish 'bog people,' who often died alone and in agony, be fuel for a mystery that actually does what The Da Vinci Code tried to do? A thousand times yes, if Erin Hart's storytelling witchery is at work. Intelligent, eerie, utterly compelling."
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and What We Saw At Night
"The novel is rooted in medieval Ireland and rich in the particulars of monastic manuscripts... All of this history serves the novel's carefully measured suspense and adds to the book's splendor."
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
1. A great post on Jungle Red Writers regarding Fiction = Reality and how real fictional characters stay with us readers.
2. The post involves neuroscience, long a favorite topic of mine. Many have heard me utter (too many times) that if it weren't for all that science and chemistry (!), I would have made a great brain researcher.
3. And the post was written by a favorite of mine, Erin Hart. While Erin has "only" written three novels featuring Nora, an American pathologist and Cormac, an Irish archaeologist, these two have stayed with me long after finishing each book. And to prove Erin's point in her post today, I commented that "even" a secondary character (Triona, in Erin's False Mermaid) can become as real to the reader as the main protagonist.
And while I haven't yet had the privilege of reading Erin's latest featuring Nora and Cormac, The Book of Killowen, I just know it'll be another fantastic installment in this series. Also, it doesn't hurt to have the word of some of the following blurbing the bounty of this book:
"Can the arcane science and lore of the Irish 'bog people,' who often died alone and in agony, be fuel for a mystery that actually does what The Da Vinci Code tried to do? A thousand times yes, if Erin Hart's storytelling witchery is at work. Intelligent, eerie, utterly compelling."
—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and What We Saw At Night
"Combines powerful insights into human nature and pristine prose...offers food for thought that persists beyond the immediate thrill of a well-told tale."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The novel is rooted in medieval Ireland and rich in the particulars of monastic manuscripts... All of this history serves the novel's carefully measured suspense and adds to the book's splendor."
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
So, Erin, please tell me novel no. 5 is a WIP?!
And as my no.1 book newsletter and website, Stop, You're Killing Me!, says: "You made it to the end; now go find a book to read." And, of course, I suggest that book be Haunted Ground, Erin Hart's first in the Nora and Cormac series. Read all about it and the series here.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Imperfect Pairings by Jackie Townsend
Imperfect Pairings by Jackie Townsend
An adult romance truthfully articulated with characters (and settings as characters --- Italy, San Francisco, New York) voicing eternal sentiments and questions without whining, e.g., "How about defining ourselves by how we love?" [Jamie, page 231, in discussion with her sister.]
Or Luca on why each wine and love is its own (and more pointedly to the story, why he's waiting to harvest his grapes): Like amore, love, one wine is like no other wine. The troubles [emphasis mine] make it yours."
Vino and amore and amore amongst the vino, perfectly paired in Jackie Townsend's Imperfect Pairings.
NetGalley in its own words is " . . . a service to promote and publicize forthcoming titles to readers of influence."
I've been a member since 2010 and as a "professional reader" (again, Net Galley's words, not mine) I am able to request galleys from publishers that, in turn, can accept or reject my request.
Life intervened shortly after requesting and reviewing my first title in 2010. In the interim, I remained on NetGalley's weekly e-mail newsletter and often thought of returning to a space and time requesting multiple galleys on a weekly basis and, perhaps, becoming of reader of a bit of influence, something to expand on the years of recommending books to my circle of family and friends. And to jump-start my re-entry into the virtual world, or as Jamie in Imperfect Pairings would put it, "Give into who you've been all along," a professional reader.
An adult romance truthfully articulated with characters (and settings as characters --- Italy, San Francisco, New York) voicing eternal sentiments and questions without whining, e.g., "How about defining ourselves by how we love?" [Jamie, page 231, in discussion with her sister.]
Or Luca on why each wine and love is its own (and more pointedly to the story, why he's waiting to harvest his grapes): Like amore, love, one wine is like no other wine. The troubles [emphasis mine] make it yours."
Vino and amore and amore amongst the vino, perfectly paired in Jackie Townsend's Imperfect Pairings.
NetGalley in its own words is " . . . a service to promote and publicize forthcoming titles to readers of influence."
I've been a member since 2010 and as a "professional reader" (again, Net Galley's words, not mine) I am able to request galleys from publishers that, in turn, can accept or reject my request.
Life intervened shortly after requesting and reviewing my first title in 2010. In the interim, I remained on NetGalley's weekly e-mail newsletter and often thought of returning to a space and time requesting multiple galleys on a weekly basis and, perhaps, becoming of reader of a bit of influence, something to expand on the years of recommending books to my circle of family and friends. And to jump-start my re-entry into the virtual world, or as Jamie in Imperfect Pairings would put it, "Give into who you've been all along," a professional reader.
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