tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12150795467458607542024-03-15T18:09:38.360-07:00Mina's BookshelfMinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.comBlogger420125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-61187793149145489312020-05-26T22:23:00.000-07:002020-05-26T22:23:58.252-07:00The Ancestor By Danielle Trussoni (Book Feature)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>(Photo Credit: Mina's Bookshelf)</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's uncanny how a combination of paper and ink can cast a spell on the reader...around the physical presence of a well-crafted book, we can create a visual story made of long lost memories and family heirlooms.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> And so the ritual begins: The writer conjures into existence people and places, ghosts and shadows that haunt the meanders of her imagination, and readers find in fiction a safe place to rehash complicated feelings and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">what-ifs</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Ancestor</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a “dreamlike...suspenseful...modern gothic thriller” from the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New York Times</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> best selling author of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Angelology</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Danielle Trussoni</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Her writing is always stylish and erudite ...it is such a joy to re-discover this novelist. The book, published by William Morrow on April 7, 2020, is marketed as "<i>a bewitching gothic novel of suspense that plunges readers into a world of dark family secrets, the mysteries of human genetics, and the burden of family inheritance.</i>" I found these premises to be too alluring to pass up, not to mention my familiarity with the setting of the story: the protagonist, Alberta, a Hudson Valley resident at a crossroad in her life, finds herself to be the unexpected heiress of a large fortune and a castle in Italy, of all places. With the family estate and aristocratic title comes along a legacy of dark secrets and complicated repercussions...beyond her wildest dreams, or better yet, her wildest nightmares. For these intriguing reasons, <i>The Ancestor </i>is this month’s book recommendation. A review copy was graciously provided by the Publicist in return of an unbiased opinion. Review soon to come here, on Mina's Bookshelf. </span></div>
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</span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-17745265721144930162020-02-09T16:20:00.000-08:002020-02-09T16:31:01.017-08:00Where To Begin by Cleo Wade (A Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>About the Book</b></span><br />
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<b>WHERE TO BEGIN</b><br />
<b>A Small Book About Your Power To Create Big Change In Our Crazy World</b><br />
<b>By</b><br />
<b>Cleo Wade</b><br />
Published in October 8th 2019 by Atria Books<br />
Hatdcover, 192 pages<br />
Non-fiction, Poetry, Inspirational<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46212527-where-to-begin?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=zkeFxSNzok&rank=1" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Where-Begin-Small-Create-Change/dp/1982138793/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=where+to+begin+cleo+wade&qid=1581293897&sprefix=where+to+begin&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Amazon</a><br />
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">My Review</span></b><br />
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<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextreview2945428138">***Review copy graciously offered by the Publicist in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.<br /><br /> "<i>There are times when we must speak, not because you are going to change the other person, but because if you don't speak, they have changed you.</i>" And this is exactly what this lovely little hybrid of poetry and prose does in its understated and yet highly ambitious manner -- raise its voice to remind us with gentle vigour that hope of a better tomorrow is not magic; it is work. </span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"> Counterintuitively, for this revolution to have a massive effect, strong foundations, and a largely tangible scale, the spiritual work needs to start within a place of peaceful mindfulness and individual self-care. "<i>We earn our optimism. We earn our hope. We do this by caring for ourselves mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically so that when we show up in the world, we are able to show up with the best of what is within us. When we show up as a person who is cared for and loved, we have the energy and ability to approach the world's problems with optimism and hope. When we are cared for, we are in the best possible head space and heart space to find solutions for our communities that are kind, humane, just, moral, and ethical</i>."</span><br />
<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><br /> I would recommend this inspirational book to a wide and diversified audience, but mostly to our youngest readership on whose mistakenly fragile shoulders most significantly weighs the responsibility of building a "<i>society rooted in love, acceptance, justice, and equality</i>."</span><br />
<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><br /> I would also encourage the author, if she hasn't yet given this idea some consideration, to explore other communication media popular among many of us 'mystical readers' -- I see a deck of affirmation cards (in the vein of Gabrielle Bernstein and Tosha Silver) as a perfect companion to this book. To some degree, <b><i>Where To Begin</i></b> lends itself to that end: the author herself, <b>Cleo Wade</b>, devoted a handful of book pages to an interactive use with the readers. For some of the poems, she simply outlined the letters, and she invites us to fill them in with our favorite colored pencils and crayons, as a way for the readers to share with her the joy of the creation of the book. Ms. Wade's book has the built-in spiritual and motivational stamina of a mantra which, incorporated in a daily meditative practice, could have a surprisingly deep transformative power.<br /><b><span style="color: magenta;">My rating: 5 out of 5 stars</span></b></span></td></tr>
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<i><b><span style="color: magenta;">From the cover...</span></b></i></div>
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<i><span id="freeText14911047115912713692" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> With her lyrical, stirring mantras and affirmations, Cleo Wade’s second anthology of heartfelt poetry and prose builds on the wisdom of her bestselling book Heart Talk, encouraging you to remain hopeful and harness your personal power to bring positive change in our world.<br /><br /> Where to Begin is perfect for those who are ready to be a part of building a society rooted in love, acceptance, justice, and equality.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span></i><br />
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<br />Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-17683574091302863212019-06-12T09:32:00.000-07:002020-04-06T09:34:13.968-07:00The Confessions Of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">The author weaves the gothic threads of this strong debut novel on a loom of historical plausibility and sensational 'grotesquerie'. You might not always, if not at all, "sympathize" with the "heroine" of this atrocious murder mystery plot, but her clever and lucid voice will get a hold of your attention for a good span of the book. </span><br />
<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">My rating: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"> 4 stars.</span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>***Review copy generously offered by Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an unbiased opinion.</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>By</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>Sara Collins</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Published by Harper Collins</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">May 21, 2019</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Hardcover, 384 pages</span></div>
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Historical Fiction, Mystery</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41154315-the-confessions-of-frannie-langton" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
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Amazon</div>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done?</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning - slave, [...], seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-25342006159201121452019-01-24T09:06:00.000-08:002020-04-06T09:07:29.328-07:00In The Night Wood by Dale Bailey (Book Spotlight)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscFvnFNlzALloNsRJqef7XodclKCNeIKyr1mFuL1GC75zdYED3jmy4HHkCMwnvk2603-ihtjKeQfEcuvZP6YsQYuKeSl9NrJe-Mg9scPdbaxNO4U0HHnEt6TERKhQjxGfz4MGAjO64wkq/s1600/IMG_20181127_121608_957.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgscFvnFNlzALloNsRJqef7XodclKCNeIKyr1mFuL1GC75zdYED3jmy4HHkCMwnvk2603-ihtjKeQfEcuvZP6YsQYuKeSl9NrJe-Mg9scPdbaxNO4U0HHnEt6TERKhQjxGfz4MGAjO64wkq/s640/IMG_20181127_121608_957.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">"Perhaps stories had no beginnings or endings at all. Perhaps they simply branched out forever, like rivers, one from another, enveloping you for your brief span, each life a story within a story, intersecting with thousands of other stories... ."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>My rating: 5 stars</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>IN THE NIGHT WOOD</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>By</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>Dale Bailey</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Published by John Joseph Adams</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">(An Imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">October 9, 2018</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Hardcover, 214 pages</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Contemporary Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic, Horror</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37570474-in-the-night-wood" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><span id="goog_983605589"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_983605590"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Amazon</span></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">In this contemporary fantasy, the grieving biographer of a Victorian fantasist finds himself slipping inexorably into the supernatural world that consumed his subject.</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">American Charles Hayden came to England to forget the past.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Failed father, failed husband, and failed scholar, Charles hopes to put his life back together with a biography of Caedmon Hollow, the long-dead author of a legendary Victorian children's book, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">In the Night Wood</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">. But soon after settling into Hollow's remote Yorkshire home, Charles learns that the past isn't dead.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">In the neighboring village, Charles meets a woman he might have loved, a child who could have been his own lost daughter, and the ghost of a self he thought he'd put behind him.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">And in the primeval forest surrounding Caedmon Hollow's ancestral home, an ancient power is stirring. The horned figure of a long-forgotten king haunts Charles Hayden's dreams. And every morning the fringe of darkling trees presses closer.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Soon enough, Charles will venture into the night wood.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Soon enough he'll learn that the darkness under the trees is but a shadow of the darkness that waits inside us all.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-66063848721053330102018-09-23T17:47:00.000-07:002020-04-04T17:48:24.549-07:00Marilla Of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRsWvD1l6gzuUWu8J1BAZRm21UFhCndQ9n9YE1QhKo5_da1fefOCH6Sz5mueyJzAKMZYS_SYcD_5RcZroj09tGHhXDHvD96ugLUdkWzF_FSUUlYniLmIfc2JawtFTOLaRyqR5CpgPaJjv/s1600/IMG_20180630_234425_028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRsWvD1l6gzuUWu8J1BAZRm21UFhCndQ9n9YE1QhKo5_da1fefOCH6Sz5mueyJzAKMZYS_SYcD_5RcZroj09tGHhXDHvD96ugLUdkWzF_FSUUlYniLmIfc2JawtFTOLaRyqR5CpgPaJjv/s640/IMG_20180630_234425_028.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<span id="freeTextreview2385136767" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">A bittersweet reacquaintance with self-restrained Marilla Cuthbert before "Anne Of Green Gables". The character created by L.M. Montgomery in 1908, and painted in the original novel as a spinster with no patience for sentiment or frivolity, is reinvented by Sarah McCoy with a deft hand: the historical lense the author uses to add dimension to her heroine is a poignant one. Nonetheless, the book left me unimpressed...for some reason, it didn't stir my enthusiasm. Writing a satisfying re-telling or prequel to a highly celebrated novel can be a tall order: I certainly applaud the author for taking the risk.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"> <b>3 stars</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><b>***Review copy generously offered by Goodreads in return of an unbiased. And honest review.</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></div>
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<b>MARILLA OF GREEN GABLES</b></div>
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<b>By</b></div>
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<b>Sarah McCoy</b></div>
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Published by William Morrow</div>
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October 23, 2018</div>
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Paperback, 320 pages</div>
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Historical Fiction</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38251253-marilla-of-green-gables" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
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Amazon</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">A bold, heartfelt tale of life at Green Gables . . . before Anne: A marvelously entertaining and moving historical novel, set in rural Prince Edward Island in the nineteenth century, that imagines the young life of spinster Marilla Cuthbert, and the choices that will open her life to the possibility of heartbreak—and unimaginable greatness</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Plucky and ambitious, Marilla Cuthbert is thirteen years old when her world is turned upside down. Her beloved mother has dies in childbirth, and Marilla suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife: cooking, sewing, keeping house, and overseeing the day-to-day life of Green Gables with her brother, Matthew and father, Hugh.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">In Avonlea—a small, tight-knit farming town on a remote island—life holds few options for farm girls. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth “Izzy” Johnson, her mother’s sister, who managed to escape from Avonlea to the bustling city of St. Catharines. An opinionated spinster, Aunt Izzy’s talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. Joining the Ladies Aid Society, she raises funds for an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity in nearby Nova Scotia that secretly serves as a way station for runaway slaves from America. Her budding romance with John Blythe, the charming son of a neighbor, offers her a possibility of future happiness—Marilla is in no rush to trade one farm life for another. She soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics, and abolition—jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe. Now Marilla must face a reckoning between her dreams of making a difference in the wider world and the small-town reality of life at Green Gables.</span></div>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-80379107017045594802018-09-20T18:11:00.000-07:002020-04-04T18:18:28.549-07:00Our House by Louise Candlish (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifK4MnextwFYJsstEiyLNYVCqio3R1WLXTi658ejDdOJ5uPazjmBqoYrcvSZMx4HEuqDPpz3HSWMLGpGrhJ1MtNviDWr7MXqNZmb6R3Fdc8JfvJcilsm475E9HLB07HJ-xAZL3LIszy2X-/s1600/IMG_20180926_165400_829.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifK4MnextwFYJsstEiyLNYVCqio3R1WLXTi658ejDdOJ5uPazjmBqoYrcvSZMx4HEuqDPpz3HSWMLGpGrhJ1MtNviDWr7MXqNZmb6R3Fdc8JfvJcilsm475E9HLB07HJ-xAZL3LIszy2X-/s640/IMG_20180926_165400_829.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: magenta;"><b>My Review</b></span></div>
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<table border="0" cellspacing="1" class="myActivity" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextreview2399926817">I finally decided to jump on the "marriage thriller" bandwagon, although not exactly keen on all the publishing brouhaha initiated by the "Gone Girl" phenomenon—not my cup of tea. I picked OUR HOUSE by Louisa Candlish anyway, drawn as I was by the theme of "house vs. home" in my recent reads (while a 'home' can never be destroyed or stolen, a 'house' can certainly be). The British writer, author of several suspense novels, delivers something that brings the "domestic noir" concept to a whole new disquieting level...definitely a must-read for fans of the sub-genre made popular by Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, and Liane Moriarty. If you are partial to tales of intimate betrayal and characters flawed beyond redemption, you will appreciate this harrowing exploration of the domestic sphere and its darkest corners. All characters here qualify as 'unlikable', but Candelish injects the story with such a 'pathos' that it will be hard not to be moved to a place of compassion as you witness the tragic undoing of a family and the loss of a house that failed in its role of 'nest', protective shelter, and center of gravity for its vulnerable inhabitants. A house...not a home. <b>3 stars</b></span></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></div>
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<b>OUR HOUSE</b></div>
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<b>By</b></div>
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<b>Louise Candlish</b></div>
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Published by Berkley on August 7, 2018</div>
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Hardcover, 404 pages</div>
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Fiction, Mystery, Thriller</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35924499-our-house" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
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Amazon</div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>On a bright January morning in the London suburbs, a family moves into the house they’ve just bought in Trinity Avenue.</i></b><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Nothing strange about that. Except it is your house. And you didn’t sell it.</i></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">When Fiona Lawson comes home to find strangers moving into her house, she's sure there's been a mistake. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern co-parenting arrangement: bird's nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Now Bram has disappeared and so have Fiona's children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly knew each other. But Bram's not the only one with things to hide, and some secrets are best kept to oneself, safe as houses.</span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-82080039195400609232018-08-19T08:40:00.000-07:002020-04-06T08:42:40.138-07:00I Found You by Lisa Jewell (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_2rB-cGZ2GuAoNOzELc9VOu57ygkhJaoU2N7XTm78R0j1Fo1rROBlZpxTfcLt4E9N4WhxZMCqxcj8MU0bI-12jthj2O_q8bNybLCaLQ0wIT4zz3N26NPd1rh63__DniZzLxsDaCcd0SS/s1600/IMG_20180818_190054_320.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS_2rB-cGZ2GuAoNOzELc9VOu57ygkhJaoU2N7XTm78R0j1Fo1rROBlZpxTfcLt4E9N4WhxZMCqxcj8MU0bI-12jthj2O_q8bNybLCaLQ0wIT4zz3N26NPd1rh63__DniZzLxsDaCcd0SS/s640/IMG_20180818_190054_320.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<tr><td colspan="2" style="line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="readable reviewText" style="line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2495390539"><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">"Modern, complex, intuitive" Lisa Jewell... I love everything she writes! This thriller didn't disappoint--a deliciously atmospheric and</span><br /><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">suspenseful read for this last stretch of summer. </span><br /><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>5 stars!</b></span><br /></span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2495390539"><b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
I FOUND YOU</div>
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By</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Lisa Jewell</div>
</span></b><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Published by Atria Books on April 25, 2017</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Hardcover, 352 pages</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35184176-i-found-you" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Amazon</div>
</span><br /><b style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">East Yorkshire:</b><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> Single mum Alice Lake finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement she invites him in to her home.</span><br /><br /><b style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Surrey:</b><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> Twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Two women, twenty years of secrets and a man who can't remember lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell's brilliant new novel.</span></span></span></td></tr>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-25306926326655173192018-08-04T18:51:00.000-07:002020-04-04T18:52:56.533-07:00Women Of The Dunes by Sarah Maine (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR-eBpm6znn1HOJZFCpRW_9oXb2qv7hS9rqiFogy-AYXc4OPh8v__mCVL56iEnHmPINrlnL-2DQEAzhLXImSJH_c8QpgJCen2qnKHiLEZ9-pvC81HxtuVOZMO9Zp_cRCCR_i5K3wFAWWNR/s1600/IMG_20180730_150713_863.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR-eBpm6znn1HOJZFCpRW_9oXb2qv7hS9rqiFogy-AYXc4OPh8v__mCVL56iEnHmPINrlnL-2DQEAzhLXImSJH_c8QpgJCen2qnKHiLEZ9-pvC81HxtuVOZMO9Zp_cRCCR_i5K3wFAWWNR/s640/IMG_20180730_150713_863.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">This book went as fast as freshly baked short cake and tea on a chilly afternoon in the Scottish highlands, a place where "the wind never ceases, the sun never shines, and where the past won't let you go...". An ingenious trifold mystery plot and an enchanting setting...perfect for lovers of all-things Scottish and fans of historical fiction ever so slightly infused with romance. Loved it! <b>5 stars</b></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>WOMEN OF THE DUNES</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>By</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Sarah Maine</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Published by Atria Books on July 24, 2018</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Paperback, 373 pages</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36374001-women-of-the-dunes" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Amazon</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">From the author of the acclaimed novels The House Between Tides and Beyond the Wild River, a rich, atmospheric tale set on the sea-lashed coast of west Scotland, in which the lives of a ninth-century Norsewoman, a nineteenth-century woman, and a twenty-first-century archeologist weave together after a body is discovered in the dunes.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Libby Snow has always felt the pull of Ullanessm a lush Scottish island enshrouded in myth and deeply important to her family. Her great-great-grandmother Ellen was obsessed with the strange legend of Ulla, a Viking maiden who washed up on shore with the nearly lifeless body of her husband—and who inspired countless epic poems and the island’s name.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Central to the mystery is an ornate chalice and Libby, an archaeologist, finally has permission to excavate the site where Ulla is believed to have lived. But what Libby finds in the ancient dunes is a body from the Victorian era, clearly murdered…and potentially connected to Ellen.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">What unfolds is an epic story that spans centuries, with Libby mining Ellen and Ulla’s stories for clues about the body, and in doing so, discovering the darker threads that bind all three women together across history.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Infused with Sarah Maine’s signature “meticulous research and descriptive passages of lush, beautiful landscapes” (Publishers Weekly), Women of the Dunes is a beautifully told and compelling mystery for fans of Kate Morton and Beatriz Williams</span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-9065591094370389772018-07-29T21:53:00.000-07:002018-07-29T21:56:21.140-07:00DREAMS OF FALLING by Karen White (A Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-aodnUiIGw1bwGiRMWAEdT8U1fyfoVivwiYQNFxqnrM5b6341ujAxsKkBUDBM0aOuKmvckprddTy0i-YIHCdx_153sTmD9ClVORf-VQZRzvXUF6rPOcOlClcgtdNv1CNfMvPUN8SqAU8/s1600/IMG_20180718_190452_966.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1322" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-aodnUiIGw1bwGiRMWAEdT8U1fyfoVivwiYQNFxqnrM5b6341ujAxsKkBUDBM0aOuKmvckprddTy0i-YIHCdx_153sTmD9ClVORf-VQZRzvXUF6rPOcOlClcgtdNv1CNfMvPUN8SqAU8/s640/IMG_20180718_190452_966.jpg" width="528" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>About the Book</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>DREAMS OF FALLING</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>By</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Karen White</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Published on June 5, 2018 by Berkley Books</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hardcover, 416 pages</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Women's Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35792055-dreams-of-falling">Goodreads</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451488415/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0451488415&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2">Amazon</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>My Review</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Quintessential "Karen White": Three childhood friends growing up together, weathering storms of all kinds side by side and yet keeping secrets from each other. Juvenile dreams going west and a wish granted at the tragic price of loss and grief. A young woman who, for the first time in her life, pays attention to her past and to the people who have been loving her all along despite her antics. A family heirloom (a 19th century rice plantation and its neoclassical mansion) hiding more secrets than its charred walls will ever be able to reveal even if they could talk...</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <i>"Secrets can be used for subterfuge. But secrets kept out of love are different. In their own way, they keep us sane. They tell us that love isn't about doubt, but believing in spite of it." </i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <b><i>Dreams Of Falling</i></b> doesn't go off the beaten and successful path of <b>Karen White</b>'s signature storytelling, a distinguished narrative blend that embraces all the core themes of unadulterated women's fiction (the complex nature of family and friendship bonds, an odd mixture of happiness and grief, all the wonderful and sometimes complicated, messy ways love shows up in our lives), a strong Southern flair, and a sensibility finely tuned to mystery plots. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> White delivers a novel </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 21px;">awash in forgiveness dealt out in spite of betrayal and</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> brimming with secrets alternately covered and exposed by waves of memories and flashbacks: the story is, in fact, narrated by three different POVs and spans over a period of sixty years. For this reason, the narrative frame demands a constant shift of attention between the 1950s events, plots/subplots unfolding in the present time (2010), and a relatively recent past (2001). And although this writing technique can trigger anticipation, increase suspense, and offer a few edge-of-your-seat thrills, it may also deter readers who are not partial to dual timelines and multiple perspectives. My issue was rather with one of the female lead characters, (Larkin sounds too immature for her twenty-seven years), but I understand that the author has intentionally painted her in such a way, as the scarred product and recipient of everybody else's emotional traumas and misconceptions. My interest in the story was nonetheless unwaveringly fueled throughout its entire 416 pages. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="color: magenta;">My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.</span></b><span style="color: #181818;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: magenta; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>From the Cover...</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #181818;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> From the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>The Night the Lights Went Out</i> comes an exquisite new novel about best friends, family ties and the love that can both strengthen and break those bonds.</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> It's been nine years since Larkin fled Georgetown, South Carolina, vowing never to go back. But when she finds out that her mother has disappeared, she knows she has no choice but to return to the place that she both loves and dreads--and to the family and friends who never stopped wishing for her to come home. Ivy, Larkin's </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">mother, is discovered in the burned-out wreckage of her family's ancestral rice plantation, badly injured and unconscious. No one knows why Ivy was there, but as Larkin digs for answers, she uncovers secrets kept for nearly 50 years. Secrets that lead back to the past, to the friendship between three girls on the brink of womanhood who swore that they would be friends forever, but who found that vow tested in heartbreaking ways.</span></span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-71655316972926331422018-07-20T08:11:00.000-07:002020-04-05T08:12:42.163-07:00The English Wife by Lauren Willig (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDL1ZOFQBiFKWw7z2s7FfWBGJzwvxw4qlzqdBtGR1j4LuRH8hdbPDu_1KYVDIi6Sp1Kra40L2W2bAMT6vSGhLs0wwbyA_nKsKrCwpWfam9KvzYzbjhqtuJuHuvnxIurJvIJ9O3nWsrd4tN/s1600/IMG_20180714_141844_557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1403" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDL1ZOFQBiFKWw7z2s7FfWBGJzwvxw4qlzqdBtGR1j4LuRH8hdbPDu_1KYVDIi6Sp1Kra40L2W2bAMT6vSGhLs0wwbyA_nKsKrCwpWfam9KvzYzbjhqtuJuHuvnxIurJvIJ9O3nWsrd4tN/s640/IMG_20180714_141844_557.jpg" width="560" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<span id="freeTextreview2456029576" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">A relentlessly readable and absorbing novel! The way the author untangled the seductive plot of this Gilded Age historical mystery transfixed me throughout its tantalizing dual-timeline structure, its rapid fire plot twists, and its "literally" explosive final revelations. The plethora of literary references to Shakespearean plays (The Twelfth Night in particular), the witty banters and lively dialogues (loved the erudite exchanges between Bay and Annabelle, Janie and Burke) were just the icing on an already elegant and well thought out confection.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"> <b>My verdict: 5 stars!</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>THE ENGLISH WIFE</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>By </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>Lauren Willig </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Published by St. Martin's Press</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">January 9, 2018</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Hardcover, 376 pages</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Historical Fiction, Mystery</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34945222-the-english-wife" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Amazon</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">From the </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">New York Times</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"> bestselling author, Lauren Willig, comes this scandalous New York Gilded Age novel full of family secrets, affairs, and even murder.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life: he’s the scion of an old Knickerbocker family, she grew up in a Tudor manor in England, they had a whirlwind romance in London, they have three year old twins on whom they dote, and he’s recreated her family home on the banks of the Hudson and renamed it Illyria. Yes, there are rumors that she’s having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors and people will gossip. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball, Annabelle goes missing, presumed drowned, and the papers go mad. Bay’s sister, Janie, forms an unlikely alliance with a reporter to uncover the truth, convinced that Bay would never have killed his wife, that it must be a third party, but the more she learns about her brother and his wife, the more everything she thought she knew about them starts to unravel. Who were her brother and his wife, really? And why did her brother die with the name George on his lips?</span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-74867189119413674272018-07-08T07:48:00.000-07:002020-04-05T08:15:35.498-07:00The Little Shop Of Found Things by Paula Brackston (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC5Y9E5CxTT91nZFJFcLnUdv644b3IIOlKNzZJVnqvJcA9TXmZv0uZ0PKyjslt4CSLKWIAZbZYfclDTCWvKzSF0O40g7VfEq8CkI5z2JMDCqc4tI8heFfvXicVpPbvXoPxjPmud3IT6cxp/s1600/38312958._SY475_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="313" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC5Y9E5CxTT91nZFJFcLnUdv644b3IIOlKNzZJVnqvJcA9TXmZv0uZ0PKyjslt4CSLKWIAZbZYfclDTCWvKzSF0O40g7VfEq8CkI5z2JMDCqc4tI8heFfvXicVpPbvXoPxjPmud3IT6cxp/s640/38312958._SY475_.jpg" width="421" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Fascinating premises! An antiques store in a Georgian redbrick town, a ghost, a seventeenth century chatelaine, and a love story that spans the ages, with the promise of more instalments to come...perfect read for lovers of Diana Gabaldon (Outlander) and Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife). <b>4 full stars!</b></span></div>
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<b><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">***ARC copy generously provided by the Publisher via NetGalley in return of an unbiased and honest review</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></div>
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<b>THE LITTLE SHOP OF FOUND THINGS</b></div>
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<b>Found Things Series Book 1</b></div>
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<b>By</b></div>
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<b>Paula Brackston</b></div>
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Published by St. Martin's Press </div>
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October 2, 2018</div>
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Kindle Edition, 336 pages</div>
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Historical Fiction, Contemporary,</div>
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Fantasy, Paranormal, Time-travel,</div>
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Mystery</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38312958-the-little-shop-of-found-things" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Xanthe and her mother Flora leave London behind for a fresh start, taking over an antique shop in the historic town of Marlborough. Xanthe has always had an affinity with some of the antiques she finds. When she touches them, she can sense something of the past they come from and the stories they hold. So when she has an intense connection to a beautiful silver chatelaine she has to know more.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">It’s while she’s examining the chatelaine that she’s transported back to the seventeenth century. And shortly after, she's confronted by a ghost who reveals that this is where the antique has its origins. The ghost tasks Xanthe with putting right the injustice in its story to save an innocent girl’s life, or else it’ll cost her Flora’s.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">While Xanthe fights to save her amid the turbulent days of 1605, she meets architect Samuel Appleby. He may be the person who can help her succeed. He may also be the reason she can’t bring herself to leave.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">With its rich historical detail, strong mother-daughter relationship, and picturesque English village, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">The Little Shop of Found Things</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> is poised to be a strong start to this new series.</span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-35822810973254619892018-06-26T21:39:00.000-07:002018-06-26T21:39:12.884-07:00FEEL FREE: Essays By Zadie Smith (A Review)<div style="text-align: left;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Rf540lz0pVx7Vi8jlcQyYkZsvjHxE3g6KRIYNuxOCd9ErH4aMW2PKgKmWXB1MDa7pNu9nU8EPfnfTlQrtUnifT26W5pof9qq3SamfCLXhRoP_ujFNgcn9L6eotMsXs5X1H_7_YkPbjsm/s1600/33186851_2081800258703093_8881318672442851328_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1280" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Rf540lz0pVx7Vi8jlcQyYkZsvjHxE3g6KRIYNuxOCd9ErH4aMW2PKgKmWXB1MDa7pNu9nU8EPfnfTlQrtUnifT26W5pof9qq3SamfCLXhRoP_ujFNgcn9L6eotMsXs5X1H_7_YkPbjsm/s640/33186851_2081800258703093_8881318672442851328_o.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: magenta; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>About the Book</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>FEEL FREE</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Zadie Smith</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Published on February 6, 2018 by Penguin Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hardcover, 452 pages</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35642245-feel-free">Goodreads</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> "<i>...you can't fight for a freedom you've forgotten how to identify. To the reader still curious about freedom I offer these essays</i></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 21px;">—to</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><i> be used, changed, dismantled, destroyed or ignored as necessary!</i>"—<b>Zadie Smith</b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;" /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> I enjoyed this collection of essays: Smith weaves all kinds of themes into its fabric (from the wry and yet poignant portrait of a generation, <i>Generation Why?</i>, lost in the hedonistic values of the social network to the elegiac tones of <i>Love In The Gardens</i>), but my favorite moments are the diaristic ones (<i>The Shadows Of Ideas</i>, <i>Find Your Beach</i>, <i>Joy</i>) and those where she narrows her scope down to a more autobiographical and self-revealing narrative.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;" /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> Above all others, I loved the retrospective lucidity, emotional intelligence, and lyricism of "<i>The Bathroom</i>", a touching family portrait reminiscent of that time of her childhood when her family raised from an impoverished background to the British "lower middle class", a change of social status that brought a great sense of liberation to the Smith family, but came also at the high price of self-sacrifice and nearly self-obliteration of at least one of her parents. Echoes of her signature themes (family, multiculturalism, race, social displacement, search for identity) reverberate across the essay with that exquisite harmony of social satire and compassionate remembrance that is so typical of her writing. The acquisition of a larger home (not quite a mansion, and yet a maisonette with four bedrooms and two bathrooms) was, in the 80s, one of the points of pride of the "unlovable lower middle class", and a spare room or an extra toilet represented for the Smiths the passage to a higher social status, a notion somewhat bemusing nowadays to some, but a milestone sort of achievement for a family that was not exactly enjoying the contentment and freedoms of the British bourgeoisie.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;" /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> "<i>When I think of my parents it's often with some guilt: that I did the things they never got to do, and I did them on their watch, using their time, as if they were themselves just that—timekeepers—and not separate people living out the evershortening time of their own existence. [...] no matter how many rooms you have, and however many books and movies and songs declaim the wholesome beauty of family life, the truth is "the family" is always an event of some violence. It's only years later, in that retrospective swirl, that you work out who was hurt, in what way, and how badly</i>."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;" /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"> As the author herself claims in her forward, essays about one person's experience have, by their very nature, not a leg to stand on. In <i><b>Feel Free</b></i>, though, the intimate tone of <b>Zadie</b> <b>Smith</b>'s memoires and the insightfulness of her social commentaries imbue this collection (earnest musings on matter of culture and politics) with erudite authority and soulful humanity: <i>"I'm a sentimental humanist. I believe art is here to help, even if the help is painful—especially then." </i></span></span><i style="color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><i><b style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-size: large;">From the Cover...</span></b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; line-height: 21px;"><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span id="freeText1876342580870522326"><b><b>From Zadie Smith, one of the most beloved authors of her generation, a new collection of essays </b></b><br /><br />Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to <i>The New Yorker </i>and the <i>New York Review of Books</i> on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right.<br /><br />Arranged into five sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and Facebook itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we'd just been through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes--and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat."<br /><br />Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your Beach," <i>Feel Free </i>offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as well as Smith's own life. Equally at home in the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and incisive--and never any less than perfect company. This is literary journalism at its zenith.</span> </span></i></span></span></div>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-70384820801832016632018-03-26T16:26:00.000-07:002020-04-04T16:28:13.756-07:00The Man Who Made The Movies: The Meteoric Rise And Tragic Fall Of William Fox by Vanda Krefft (A Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">My Review</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">He never intended to shake up the movie industry. At heart, he was and would always be a social conservative who wanted to change nothing except his own status from outsider to insider. William Fox's life might have turned out to be like many marginalized, unassimilated immigrant sons driven to derangement by their disappointment in America, but his energy, ambition, and hope didn't allow it. "He loved America, its values, its processes, its definition of culture. Consequently, in starting Fox Film, he aimed to create a respectable image by translating high-minded literary and stage plays into motion pictures...". "I was put down as the craziest man in the city," Fox recalled, "...a nut who thinks he can delude us into believing that pictures can be made into movies." They used to say the same about Walt Disney and look at the contribution these path-breakers gave to the evolution of a medium from new technology to a modern and original art form. Not to mention the monumental importance of a public social experience that helped millions of Americans and immigrants throughout decades of unsettling cultural, social, and political turmoil.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">A deeply exhaustive and meticulous portrait of an era, its most emblematic industry, and one of its most fascinating figures. <b>5 stars</b>!</span></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></div>
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<b>The Man Who Made The Movies:</b></div>
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<b>The Meteoric Rise And Tragic Fall Of William Fox</b></div>
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<b>Vanda Fox</b></div>
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Published by Harper Collins </div>
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November 28, 2017</div>
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Biography, Non-Fiction</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34217511-the-man-who-made-the-movies" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
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Amazon</div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">A riveting story of ambition, greed, and genius unfolding at the dawn of modern America. This landmark biography brings into focus a fascinating brilliant entrepreneur—like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, a true American visionary—who risked everything to realize his bold dream of a Hollywood empire.</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Although a major Hollywood studio still bears William Fox’s name, the man himself has mostly been forgotten by history, even written off as a failure. Now, in this fascinating biography, Vanda Krefft corrects the record, explaining why Fox’s legacy is central to the history of Hollywood.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">At the heart of William Fox’s life was the myth of the American Dream. His story intertwines the fate of the nineteenth-century immigrants who flooded into New York, the city’s vibrant and ruthless gilded age history, and the birth of America’s movie industry amid the dawn of the modern era. Drawing on a decade of original research, </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">The Man Who Made the Movies</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;"> offers a rich, compelling look at a complex man emblematic of his time, one of the most fascinating and formative eras in American history. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;">Growing up in Lower East Side tenements, the eldest son of impoverished Hungarian immigrants, Fox began selling candy on the street. That entrepreneurial ambition eventually grew one small Brooklyn theater into a $300 million empire of deluxe studios and theaters that rivaled those of Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew, and the Warner brothers, and launched stars such as Theda Bara. Amid the euphoric roaring twenties, the early movie moguls waged a fierce battle for control of their industry. A fearless risk-taker, Fox won and was hailed as a genius—until a confluence of circumstances, culminating with the 1929 stock market crash, led to his ruin.</span></div>
Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-18474919942670850252018-03-16T16:00:00.000-07:002020-04-04T16:04:12.543-07:00Death Of An Unsung Hero by Tessa Arlen (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxjJcWWMzX6NgxvbsqDe5EDgroGB10QRGOBNt4ARST-lDzrFmti68xfG9iJQ1UhDU6zWIBG776zGFDRNGdCnwcQRoU37BDwy5ieOKdHLkAKd7bIMMURPGT1jqAjpwVuUBKst6hn95l-LG/s1600/34953095.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="314" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbxjJcWWMzX6NgxvbsqDe5EDgroGB10QRGOBNt4ARST-lDzrFmti68xfG9iJQ1UhDU6zWIBG776zGFDRNGdCnwcQRoU37BDwy5ieOKdHLkAKd7bIMMURPGT1jqAjpwVuUBKst6hn95l-LG/s640/34953095.jpg" width="422" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<tr><td colspan="2" style="line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="readable reviewText" style="line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextreview2324676500" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">"What a tale! What a frightful story of betrayal and cowardice."<br /><br />Apparently, my infatuation with "all things Downton Abbey" hasn't fizzled out yet. Edwardian England glamour has still a strong hold on my reading preferences. My expectations in terms of authenticity of historical setting and language were not disappointed. Boldly reminiscent of Julian Fellowes' popular drama (season 2 in particular), Tessa Arlen's streamlined narration features a dynamic sleuths duo (a landlady and her housekeeper) and consistently shows robust knowledge of time period and historical events. An engrossing read.</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> <b>4 full stars! <br />***Review copy graciously offered by the Publisher in return of an unbiased and honest review.</b></span><br /></span><br />
<div style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">
<span class="readable reviewText" style="line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: magenta;"><b>About the Book</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: magenta;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: black;"><b><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
DEATH OF AN UNSUNG HERO</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Lady Montfort Mystery #4</div>
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By</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Tessa Arlen</div>
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Published by Minotaur Books on March 13, 2018</div>
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Hardcover, 302 pages</div>
</span><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
Historical Fiction, Mystery</div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34953095-death-of-an-unsung-hero" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
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Amazon</div>
</span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Lady Montfort and her pragmatic housekeeper Mrs. Jackson investigate a murder of a WWI officer with amnesia in the 20th-century English countryside.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Building on the success of her last three mysteries in the same series, Tessa Arlen returns us to the same universe in Death of an Unsung Hero with more secrets, intrigue, and charming descriptions of the English countryside.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">In 1916, the world is at war and the energetic Lady Montfort has persuaded her husband to offer the dower house to the War Office as an auxiliary hospital for officers recovering from shell-shock with their redoubtable housekeeper Mrs. Jackson contributing to the war effort as the hospital’s quartermaster.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">Despite the hospital’s success, the farming community of Haversham, led by the Monfort’s neighbor Sir Winchell Meacham, does not approve of a country-house hospital for men they consider to be cowards. When Sir Evelyn Bray, one of the patients, is found lying face down in the garden with his head bashed in, both Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson have every reason to fear that the War Office will close their hospital. Once again the two women unite their diverse talents to discover who would have reason to murder a war hero suffering from amnesia. </span><br /></span></td></tr>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-54383502674441878382017-09-29T09:02:00.000-07:002017-10-01T07:25:33.885-07:00MERRY AND BRIGHT, A Novel by Debbie Macomber (ARC Review and Wine&Dessert Pairing)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9sk7dcsJkQpAZbR83PJSI_tFaUc9lYhwW8bssaT9nN_g3U6CL99RtOVBIjnKoHmuseQ1ZQylFG5egpovmlnvwbrqr0T1oB9K3RFVIUqJNSLFk9ABCcjrR1Wsj9hp1nXRtOr5QpPLv6zht/s1600/33931111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><strong><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="318" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9sk7dcsJkQpAZbR83PJSI_tFaUc9lYhwW8bssaT9nN_g3U6CL99RtOVBIjnKoHmuseQ1ZQylFG5egpovmlnvwbrqr0T1oB9K3RFVIUqJNSLFk9ABCcjrR1Wsj9hp1nXRtOr5QpPLv6zht/s640/33931111.jpg" width="441" /></strong></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><strong>MERRY AND BRIGHT</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>by</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Debbie Macomber</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To be published on October 3rd 2017 by Ballantine Books</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hardcover, 302 pages</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fiction, Romance, Holiday, Christmas, ChickLit</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33928751-merry-and-bright?ac=1&from_search=true"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Goodreads</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Merry-Bright-Novel-Debbie-Macomber/dp/0399181229/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506821852&sr=8-1&keywords=merry+and+bright+by+debbie+macomber">Amazon</a></span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">About the book</span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 18.94px;">Merry is pretty busy these days. She’s taking care of her family, baking cookies, decorating for the holidays, and hoping to stay out of the crosshairs of her stressed and by-the-book boss at the consulting firm where she temps. Her own social life is the last thing she has in mind, much less a man. Without her knowledge, Merry’s well-meaning mom and brother create an online dating profile for her—minus her photo—and the matches start rolling in. Initially, Merry is incredulous, but she reluctantly decides to give it a whirl.<br /><br />Soon Merry finds herself chatting with a charming stranger, a man with similar interests and an unmistakably kind soul. Their online exchanges become the brightest part of her day. But meeting face-to-face is altogether different, and her special friend is the last person Merry expects—or desires. Still, sometimes hearts can see what our eyes cannot. In this satisfying seasonal tale, unanticipated love is only a click away.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 18.94px;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: magenta; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><b>My Review</b></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;">While <b>Debbie Macomber</b>'s latest holiday treat, <b><em>Merry And Bright</em></b>, tugged at my romance reader's heart strings, it fell flat on a few levels, the characterization of the male lead, Jayson Bright, being one of them--too juvenile and unidimensional for my taste. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;">I warmed up to the delightful heroine of the story instead (Merry Knight) and enjoyed the atmosphere of unconditional love, genuineness, and collaboration pervading her home and defining each member of her family. All in all, <em>Merry And Bright</em> will do the trick for all those readers who are looking for a make-you-feel-good, highly readable, holiday season romance. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;">Having said that, I personally believe the author doesn't dig deep enough in Jayson's background and family history in order to reveal motivations and emotional triggers standing behind his conflicted attitude toward love and relationships. His characterization is not convincing enough: giving a simple recount of his childhood struggles is as effective as telling me the moon is shining rather than showing me the glint of light on broken glass, to use Chechov's words. Macomber seems to limit herself to what's on the surface of the story and progresses through the stages of the enamourament between Jay and Merry by narrative leaps and bounds. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;">The novel strikes the right chords thanks to the authenticity of the down-to-earth Knight family (Merry's mother's health issues, a brother with special needs, ordinary people with ordinary problems versus the wealthy, Scrooge-like, grumpy male protagonist), but in its uncomplicated, predictable, run-of-the-mill lightheartedness, the narration penalizes depth and character development. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;"><strong>My final rating: 3.5 stars</strong></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;"><strong>***ARC graciously offered by the Publisher via NetGalley in return for an unbiased and honest opinion </strong></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif;"><strong><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">Wine&Dessert Pairing</span> </strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; font-size: 17.9px;">That curmudgeon of Jayson Bright (Merry's boss and eventually love interest) might be a dour one (at least on the surface), but he knows a thing or two about wine. His favorite is an excellent <strong>Argentinian Malbec</strong>, a full-bodied red known for its plump, dark fruit flavors, and smoky finish. It pairs well with foods that echo its earthiness, so what a better match for this sipping companion than a <strong><a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/336835/plum-cake">Plum Cake</a></strong>, soft, moist, and topped with fresh plums? Cheers!</span>Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-13402904843355967662017-09-21T14:58:00.000-07:002020-04-04T15:01:21.020-07:00Perfectly Good Crime by Dete Meserve (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmPCmy2-u0vOt1Nz1Diz2Ju5d-L3k8rXVMoJqun6KTVZkn3OPnc1NNm28FDZKnM9zuQnrGrHpL5s-95oITa6rkWoaziC4itffPYLFzD3ybnnP0c7Gd_-5sEcNCZydNviZDL-epL2ydTlvT/s1600/30657049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="192" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmPCmy2-u0vOt1Nz1Diz2Ju5d-L3k8rXVMoJqun6KTVZkn3OPnc1NNm28FDZKnM9zuQnrGrHpL5s-95oITa6rkWoaziC4itffPYLFzD3ybnnP0c7Gd_-5sEcNCZydNviZDL-epL2ydTlvT/s640/30657049.jpg" width="416" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<table border="0" cellspacing="1" class="myActivity" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299">A modern day retelling of the legend of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, humming with social commentary and political undertones. Cleverly disguised as mystery novel, and served with a light dose of romance, it was a refreshing diversion from the traditional crime/suspense novel I tend to favor during the beach season. Current and thought-provoking: <b>4 stars</b>.<br />A copy of the book was graciously provided by Goodreads First Reads.</span></span><br />
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><b><span style="color: black;">A Kate Bradley Mystery</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><b><span style="color: black;">Dete Meserve</span></b></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><span style="color: black;">Published by Melrose Hill Publishing</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><span style="color: black;">June 28, 2016</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><span style="color: black;">Paperback, 272 pages</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><span style="color: black;">Fiction, Thriller, Mystery</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30657049-perfectly-good-crime" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><span style="color: black;">Amazon</span></span></span></div>
<span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: "merriweather" , "georgia" , serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2127655299"><br />From the bestselling author of Good Sam comes a taut and thought-provoking follow-up, Perfectly Good Crime, book no. 2 in the Kate Bradley Mystery series.<br /><br />When the estates of the 100 wealthiest Americans are targeted in a series of sophisticated, high tech heists of over $20 million in luxury goods and cash, Los Angeles TV news reporter Kate Bradley must venture inside the world of the super rich to investigate the biggest story of the year.</span></span></td></tr>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-20573064261265947542017-09-20T20:07:00.000-07:002017-09-21T12:45:56.299-07:00Beach, Breeze, Bloodshed Sweepstake: Win $75 Gift Card!<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW0fgnCK7nVPPiREcKk57ra9PhqEZo-hWJ9So7Z2zxtYy7KFlPOBx5jPf7NGSScC0GCoqcHBuiMXSw_TjcJMQ098vT9NvKgB7CcHl_OOnsBRdMl6stFTrUHleNhTC546NVR3_wcVWtSJBo/s1600/beach+breeze+bloodshed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="684" data-original-width="684" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW0fgnCK7nVPPiREcKk57ra9PhqEZo-hWJ9So7Z2zxtYy7KFlPOBx5jPf7NGSScC0GCoqcHBuiMXSw_TjcJMQ098vT9NvKgB7CcHl_OOnsBRdMl6stFTrUHleNhTC546NVR3_wcVWtSJBo/s400/beach+breeze+bloodshed.png" width="400" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Minotaur Books</strong>, a mystery, suspense, and thriller imprint of St. Martin's Press, is running a fantastic sweepstake that you absolutely don't want to miss!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">All you have to do is pick up a copy of BEACH, BREEZE, BLOODSHED by John Keyse-Walker (now available!), post a photo of the book on any social media platform, and use the hashtag #BeachBreezeBloodshed to be entered. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Winners will get a $75 gift card to the bookseller of their choice!</strong></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Deadline to post is October 12, 2017.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><strong>Read about the book on </strong><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33602157-beach-breeze-bloodshed?ac=1&from_search=true"><strong>GOODREADS</strong></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><strong>Buy the book on </strong><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250148472/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1250148472&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2"><strong>AMAZON</strong></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"></span></span> </div>
Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-74536812032816638522017-09-14T00:30:00.000-07:002017-09-14T04:24:01.393-07:00SUMMER ON EARTH by Peter Thompson (Book Spotlight, Guest Post & Excerpt)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZmjC64yXmIareYBtCnnzcUhFvVPaTW-rIeep0WnNlSdaSG-Df55Yoh5pNdCkZoqmL534l2Cw1pHTGYy8_9vcvWv-ga3Nz3sQ2bzTZcxF9MZtX_tn9SSLQ_AmhpF6J-42sKjLzm5QW-nu/s1600/Summer+on+Earth+banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="646" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZmjC64yXmIareYBtCnnzcUhFvVPaTW-rIeep0WnNlSdaSG-Df55Yoh5pNdCkZoqmL534l2Cw1pHTGYy8_9vcvWv-ga3Nz3sQ2bzTZcxF9MZtX_tn9SSLQ_AmhpF6J-42sKjLzm5QW-nu/s400/Summer+on+Earth+banner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A wishing star changed 11-year-old Grady's life forever...</span></strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho42NAtD5zsHRkfbRP9oV5EeXbmYhTY_vPSx84QNX6wsipKY2GcMagUY_H7nt14-5swb98rHzcgRhLEWDk3f-0qaNVayECcHWNBP06Uc9Eju1zXpMHwlUZAvl9hGe7MJEc3iiakmx2RYDc/s1600/Summer+on+Earth+cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="405" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho42NAtD5zsHRkfbRP9oV5EeXbmYhTY_vPSx84QNX6wsipKY2GcMagUY_H7nt14-5swb98rHzcgRhLEWDk3f-0qaNVayECcHWNBP06Uc9Eju1zXpMHwlUZAvl9hGe7MJEc3iiakmx2RYDc/s640/Summer+on+Earth+cover.png" width="432" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>SUMMER ON EARTH</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>by</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><strong>Peter Thompson</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Published by Persnickety Press, 293 pages</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia";">Sci-fi, Middle Grade</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Book Blurb</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></strong> </div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-97b4b91e-2f92-af85-f170-8f204d1d2354" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The night that eleven-year-old Grady Johnson looked out his window and wished upon a shooting star, his life changed forever.</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Grady, his Ma, and younger sister Luanne are having a hard summer. Dad has died and the family isn’t the same. Though Ma is trying her best, Grady knows they don’t have enough money to get by.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The shooting star he saw was a space craft plunging to Earth, and landing at the back of their farm. Extraterrestrial engineer Ralwil Turth has one goal, to fix his power drive and go back home. But things don’t go as planned. Stuck in human form, he gets to know Grady and his family as he works on their farm. He starts to learn about what it means to be human, and the exotic charms of this planet like the taste of potatoes, and how amazing bugs are.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ralwil grows to care for Grady and his family. On a trip to town, he realizes that money is what matters to humans, and is the cause of the family’s trouble. That night, he uses his technology to combine a twenty-dollar bill with an oak twig. Over the next week this grows to a towering tree, every leaf a twenty-dollar bill. This, Ralwil is sure, will solve all the family’s problems. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But the family’s wealth raises suspicion in this small town, and this soon leads to more trouble. With the family’s fate, and Ralwil’s life, on the line, Grady has to find the courage to help his family and save his friend. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summer on Earth</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> blends humor, adventure and poignancy to create an unforgettable story about finding home. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">ORDER YOUR COPY:</span></span></h3>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Earth-Peter-Thompson/dp/1943978301" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Amazon</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"> | </span></span><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/summer-on-earth-peter-thompson/1125449191" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: "arial"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Barnes & Noble</span></span></a></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGANds73ho1IskqkrFwU1P76TpxG2wJy4s115l9YuUws4wPBn4R4IbrIxoMFAzUnuGJEmqkwlmVvPUBTyt_C55LXz60NBxArZ1eI3ooGKaPGT5HPqDy7vW6kN0OuEgUl8BM_havi-K91Qd/s1600/Summer+on+Earth+author.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="633" data-original-width="950" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGANds73ho1IskqkrFwU1P76TpxG2wJy4s115l9YuUws4wPBn4R4IbrIxoMFAzUnuGJEmqkwlmVvPUBTyt_C55LXz60NBxArZ1eI3ooGKaPGT5HPqDy7vW6kN0OuEgUl8BM_havi-K91Qd/s400/Summer+on+Earth+author.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-97b4b91e-2f94-e7f1-0721-e2182394c190" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">About the Author</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Peter Thompson grew up in Illinois, and lives near Chicago. He remembers how excited he was when the first astronaut stepped on to the moon. He has had an appreciation of space, and all its possibilities ever since. His love of children’s books developed while reading to his three sons. His first novel, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Living Proof</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, was a thriller published by Berkeley Books. </span></span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Earth-Peter-Thompson/dp/1943978301" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Summer on Earth</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">is his first book for younger readers. It will be released in August of this year.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span> </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:</span></span></h3>
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<a href="http://www.authorpeterthompson.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WEBSITE</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> | </span></span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/pthompsonbooks" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">TWITTER</span></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.999pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Book Excerpt</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 13.999pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> It was hotter than usual that night, and Grady couldn’t get comfortable, even with the fan on high. The June bugs thumped against the window screen, and the crickets chirped so loudly it sounded like they were right there in the room. He could hear the TV on downstairs, so he knew Ma was still awake. Ever since Dad died she’d stayed up late most every night. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Grady just stared out the window and looked at the night sky. Where they lived, out in the country, there wasn’t much light at night and the stars stood out more than they did in the city. Grady tried to find the constellations his Dad had taught him, just letting his mind wander. At some point he started to get sleepy. But before he fell asleep, he saw a shooting star. And when he saw it, he made a wish.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> This is the story of how that wish came true. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>Guest Post</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em>How to Write by the Seat of Your Pants: Outline or No?</em></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Peter Thompson</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you ask any fiction writer how they write, their answer will place them firmly into one of two camps. They are either a Plotter, or a Pantser.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Plotters plot their stories out ahead of time. They live and die by their outline. A Plotter puts the time in to figuring out the full arc of the story before they even write their first line. They know who their characters are, and what their relationships are to each other. Plotters don’t have to pull rabbits out of their hats to make the ending work. They don’t go wandering into dark alleys where they get stuck, or write themselves into a corner where they can’t get out. They’ve already thought through every detail of the story. They’ve found the holes that need to be fixed before they invested the time, and energy of writing out a novel, until they know exactly how it will work.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Plotters can be very prolific, because they know what they are going to write before they write it. This way of writing is efficient and productive, but sometimes there’s a cost for this. Plotter writers have to make sure they are showing real emotion. Sometimes the stories can feel a little flat.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You might be a Plotter if:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s the beginning of August, and you’re already done with your Christmas shopping.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You get excited about your to-do list.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Your desk is neat and organized.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you go on vacation, you have a detailed itinerary of what you will do.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You type out your shopping list.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You hit all your deadlines on time.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a proud and proper Pantser, I envy the Plotter. As a Pantser, I write by the seat of my pants. I make it a point to sit down every day and put in the time to write. But, as a rule, I have no idea where I am going. I am driving without a roadmap or GPS. Sometimes it feels like I’m driving with no headlights on a dark and stormy night. To a proper Plotter, this would be majorly stress inducing and considered certifiably crazy behavior. And they might be right. I have too many partially completed novels sitting on my hard drive. It is painful and discouraging to write a couple hundred pages into a story and then find out you don’t know where you’re going, and have no idea how to finish.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That said, I wouldn’t trade places with a Plotter. I think I have more fun. For me, a big part of writing is in the discovery. It is a true joy when you think your characters are going one way, and they surprise you and go off in a whole new direction. I can’t tell you how many times I have laughed out loud when someone in my story said something I didn’t expect them to say. Being a Pantser is about letting go, and letting your subconscious take over. When it is flowing, it feels like you have a direct line to the universe, and it is dictating the story to you and you are just typing as fast as you can, trying to keep up. The pain is real when it doesn’t work, but when it does, Wow! That is a cool thing. If I am surprising myself, I know my readers are also feeling that, and I think these stories have a real life to them because of that.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You might be a Pantser if:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You know you have the receipt you are looking for, you just don’t remember which pile you put it in.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">are why stores are open on Christmas Eve.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You like to wing it, and you cook without using a recipe.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deadlines? It will get done when it gets done.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These are exaggerations of course, and most Pantsers try and have an idea of where they are going, and most Plotters will go off course from time to time as new ideas present themselves. When I first started writing my novel </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Summer on Earth</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, I had already written pages of notes. I knew it would be about an alien and a young boy, and I knew there would be a money tree in it. I knew the basics of the story, but I discovered the rest as I wrote. The novel I am writing now, will be a series. I know that I am going to have to get a whole lot better at pre-plotting, to make sure this all comes together in the best way possible. Each writer has a style that fits them most naturally, but taking on some of the other style can help to improve their writing overall.</span></b> </div>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-74025668645931715002017-09-08T14:23:00.000-07:002020-04-04T14:33:15.062-07:00In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen (Flash Review)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8FQ25C7KLXdPKhpR-Zjea8e832VEa14p9r0bJDytbJ3zHNWc1SauPp0qHsvn7spc8a6MumO7zwTV0xg-bFY4PQgineMG_kuYeSPW8SNWazDxkycfV7K7MkoVEUlxCPvPpDRnenbbs9gw/s1600/31340883.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="316" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu8FQ25C7KLXdPKhpR-Zjea8e832VEa14p9r0bJDytbJ3zHNWc1SauPp0qHsvn7spc8a6MumO7zwTV0xg-bFY4PQgineMG_kuYeSPW8SNWazDxkycfV7K7MkoVEUlxCPvPpDRnenbbs9gw/s640/31340883.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;">Flash Review</span></b></div>
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<table border="0" cellspacing="1" class="myActivity" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="readable reviewText" style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; line-height: 21px;"><span id="freeTextContainerreview2103878133">I had a "jolly" good time reading this WWII mystery novel -- crickey, blimey, and all that posh British slang included. Highly readable: <b>4.5 stars</b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta;">About the Book</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: magenta;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black;">IN FARLEIGH FIELD</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black;">by</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black;">Rhys Bowen</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;">Published by Lake Union Publishing</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;">March 1, 2017</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;">Hardcover, 379 pages</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Historical Fiction, Mystery, WWII</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31340883-in-farleigh-field" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Amazon</span></div>
<br />World War II comes to Farleigh Place, the ancestral home of Lord Westerham and his five daughters, when a soldier with a failed parachute falls to his death on the estate. After his uniform and possessions raise suspicions, MI5 operative and family friend Ben Cresswell is covertly tasked with determining if the man is a German spy. The assignment also offers Ben the chance to be near Lord Westerham’s middle daughter, Pamela, whom he furtively loves. But Pamela has her own secret: she has taken a job at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking facility.<br /><br />As Ben follows a trail of spies and traitors, which may include another member of Pamela’s family, he discovers that some within the realm have an appalling, history-altering agenda. Can he, with Pamela’s help, stop them before England falls?<br /><br />Inspired by the events and people of World War II, writer Rhys Bowen crafts a sweeping and riveting saga of class, family, love, and betrayal.</span></span></td></tr>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-82528627471901308092017-09-05T00:30:00.000-07:002017-09-05T00:30:00.248-07:00A SHAPE ON THE AIR by Julia H. Ibbotson (Book Blast & Giveaway)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJkdpTXvs1Ka1-UZ4vOC-zGsPjPylJEQDWS7pIaVQV4qW6LnAmrKLNIhwSSDCEw5GVnJKSBOGV-YfpYUfj6vdSbX4rRe2FQl8lGus4E_5NCOHLlr9SYBOnBceQvylq3yTqI1H3jjEwXEE/s1600/A+Shape+on+the+Air+banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="646" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJkdpTXvs1Ka1-UZ4vOC-zGsPjPylJEQDWS7pIaVQV4qW6LnAmrKLNIhwSSDCEw5GVnJKSBOGV-YfpYUfj6vdSbX4rRe2FQl8lGus4E_5NCOHLlr9SYBOnBceQvylq3yTqI1H3jjEwXEE/s400/A+Shape+on+the+Air+banner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Title</b>:
A SHAPE ON THE AIR</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Author</b>: Julia H. Ibbotson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Publisher</b>: Endeavour Press</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Pages</b>: 267</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Genre</b>: Medieval Timeslip Romance</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3ge0WVK_n-jXTtKIf8n3zt6LMM3YgfllTSKvei1MqgFClsJ7aVGYwyjS-O3V_Vle1LaG37EJrDhbx3Rcf8mwqgWZwA_x3CTq0NUAabBTbEN66vxhuuWglO0uVdzIho-4m8SRE-lRN9I/s1600/Blurb+-+gold.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="126" data-original-width="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3ge0WVK_n-jXTtKIf8n3zt6LMM3YgfllTSKvei1MqgFClsJ7aVGYwyjS-O3V_Vle1LaG37EJrDhbx3Rcf8mwqgWZwA_x3CTq0NUAabBTbEN66vxhuuWglO0uVdzIho-4m8SRE-lRN9I/s1600/Blurb+-+gold.png" /></a><b> </b></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Unlocking
a love that lasts for lifetimes … and beyond … </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Dr
Viv Dulac, a lecturer in medieval studies, is devastated when her partner walks
out (and with her best friend too) and it seems that she is about to lose
everything. Drunk and desperate, her world quite literally turns upside down
when she finds herself in the body of the fifth century Lady Vivianne. Lady V
has her own traumas; she is struggling with the shifting values of the Dark
Ages and her forced betrothal to the brutish Sir Pelleas, who is implicated in
the death of her parents. Haunted by both Lady Vivianne and by Viv's own
parents' death and legacy, can Viv<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>unlock the mystery that surrounds and connects their two lives, 1500
years apart, and bring peace to them both? Can the strange key she finds hold
the truth? A haunting story of lives intertwining across the ages, of the
triumph of the human spirit and of dreams lost and found.</span></div>
<h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
ORDER YOUR COPY:</span></h3>
<h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Air-Julia-Ibbotson-ebook/dp/B0733N7NXP/ref=sr_1_1?tag=geolinker-20&s=digital-text"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Amazon</span></a>
</h3>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Prologue</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">1500 years before</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 8.5pt; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="X-NONE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Lady Nymue, her
mother, is rising from the mere like a spirit: tall, slow like a dream,
over-gown falling in slim folds from her waist. Vivianne sees her in a haze of
mist, like magic, an illusion. She feels it, that enchantment, and it is
enfolding her, but making her shiver, too. Her life-giver, robes dry despite
the water, is coming towards her as she stands anxiously on the bank, waiting
impatiently, calling out urgently, hopping from one foot to the other, tangling
her feet in her earth-sweeping kirtle, longing to rejoin her playmates who are
chasing around the village pretending to be Roman soldiers. Her mother,
reaching out a hand to her, is shaking her head, but laughing. Be more patient,
my little Lady Vivianne, she says, I have not completed my rituals, but let me
wrap you in my cloak, for I must return to the mere. But she is only a little
girl and something is making her feel cold, frightened. No, she calls, sticking
out her lower lip, I want to play! I want to be Honorius this time! They
promised! Eleanor will play my wife - or maybe my lady servant.</span></div>
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<span lang="X-NONE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Her mother is
ruffling her soft curls. Well, then, she smiles, I will return later to finish.
She is lifted onto her mother’s horse, in front, held close. Dry, warm,
comforting. Riding back to the village. Her care-giver is taking her back to
play with her friends again. Her mother turns to the special hall which her
father, Sir Tristram, called “sacred” and where she is only allowed to go
sometimes. </span></div>
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<span lang="X-NONE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">And then, fire,
flames, the acrid smell of smoke. Looking across to the great hall, terror
strangling her heart, stealing her breath. Running towards the wooden building,
through the ash and cinders and the roaring, screaming now, choking. Someone
holding her back, pulling her. </span></div>
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<span lang="X-NONE" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Darkness. </span></div>
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<span lang="X-NONE" style="mso-ansi-language: X-NONE; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Waking up in her
little bed. A big red-faced man in the shadows, haloed with a fair unruly beard
and thick wild hair, telling her that her parents were dead, burned in the
fire. Her mother and her father, both of them. An accident with tallows. She
knows those tallows; they are always on the altar in the sacred hall. They are
only spoken of in whispers. But this man is speaking in a strange way, loud,
too loud, and it seems to her, sneering, as she peers at him through the
darkness.</span> </span><br />
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<h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Julia Ibbotson is giving away a PDF
copy of ‘Drumbeats’!</span></h2>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Terms & Conditions:</span></b></div>
<ul type="disc"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">By entering
the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One winner
will be chosen via Rafflecopter</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This
giveaway ends midnight September
29.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Winner will
be contacted via email on September 30.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Winner has
48 hours to reply.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span></ul>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Good luck everyone!</span></div>
<h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
ENTER TO WIN!</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="1a49cf61211" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/1a49cf61211/" id="rcwidget_8bz0zqfu" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">a Rafflecopter giveaway</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Award-winning author<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>Julia Ibbotson is obsessed with the medieval world and concepts of
time travel. She read English at </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Keele
University</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">, </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">England</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">
(after a turbulent but exciting gap year in </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Ghana</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">)
specialising in medieval studies, and has a PhD in linguistics. She wrote her
first novel at 10 years of age, but became a teacher, lecturer and researcher,
and a single mum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Julia has published
four books, including a children’s book S.C.A.R.S (a fantasy medieval time
slip), a memoir, and the first two novels of her Drumbeats trilogy (which
begins in </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Ghana</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apart from insatiable reading, she loves
travelling the world, singing in choirs, swimming, yoga, and walking in the
English countryside.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Her recent release is <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Air-Julia-Ibbotson-ebook/dp/B0733N7NXP/ref=sr_1_1?tag=geolinker-20&s=digital-text">A
Shape on the Air</a></i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /></div>
<h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:</span></h3>
<h3 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
</span><a href="http://www.juliaibbotsonauthor.com/"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">WEBSITE</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> | </span><a href="https://twitter.com/JuliaIbbotson"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">TWITTER</span></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> | </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Julia-Ibbotson-author-163085897119236/?ref=bookmarks"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">FACEBOOK</span></a></h3>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-76657313794110399782017-09-03T12:26:00.002-07:002017-09-03T13:40:42.207-07:00The Witches' Tree (Agatha Raisin #28) by M.C. Beaton: ARC Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGt8l1Ea9nkBmGxEwl12PQ4vRFqHmrXzfZHwcs9UlKFX-TbSy-6aEDvP7CgZvz4GJpfVjdQsSIFpCmVEkTz5sA_6QlgAa-ZbUUKuM3m7YnshpD7-q_fM9-hg0FrmHq3BKkxsTuH5zRyyf/s1600/The+Witches%2527+Tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="314" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGt8l1Ea9nkBmGxEwl12PQ4vRFqHmrXzfZHwcs9UlKFX-TbSy-6aEDvP7CgZvz4GJpfVjdQsSIFpCmVEkTz5sA_6QlgAa-ZbUUKuM3m7YnshpD7-q_fM9-hg0FrmHq3BKkxsTuH5zRyyf/s640/The+Witches%2527+Tree.jpg" width="423" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">THE WITCHES’ TREE</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">An Agatha Raisin Mystery #28</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">M.C. Beaton</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Expected publication on October 3, 2017 by Minotaur Books</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hardcover and Kindle edition, 304 pages </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cozy Mystery</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35141476-the-witches-tree">Goodreads</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-witches-tree-m-c-beaton/1125377141;jsessionid=90A8858BF072AB7D3E38F6DD0FB3F72E.prodny_store02-atgap06?ean=9781466861206&st=AFF&2sid=Goodreads,%20Inc_2227948_NA&sourceId=AFFGoodreads,%20IncM000004">Barnes&Noble</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;">ABOUT THE BOOK</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Witches’ Tree</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> continues the tradition in M. C. Beaton's beloved Agatha Raisin mystery series―now a hit T.V. show.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cotswolds inhabitants are used to inclement weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Devere, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They strain to see the road ahead―and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights, a body hangs from a gnarled tree at the edge of town. Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster, has been murdered―and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion (a little glad for the excitement, to tell the truth, after a long run of lost cats and divorces on the books). But Sumpton Harcourt is a small and private village, she finds―a place that poses more questions than answers. And when two more murders follow the first, Agatha begins to fear for her reputation―and even her life. That the village has its own coven of witches certainly doesn't make her feel any better... </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;">MY REVIEW</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A cozy murder mystery, an idyllic village in the lovely Cotswolds, thatched cottages, and legends of a witches' coven swirling around an old oak tree...I couldn't have asked for a more inviting setup! Unfortunately, this charming narrative frame wasn't enough to smooth the choppy edges and afflictions of the book. Would reading the Agatha Raisin mystery series from the onset help warm up to the leading lady and recurring cast? Maybe...overall, I didn't find in the narrative enough appeal to sustain my interest in future (or backlist) installments. Scene development and flow of events were too bumpy and uneven to keep me focused on the plot, and this is what had me scratch star after star from my final rating. To quote P.I. Agatha Raisin herself, “the whole case makes me feel as if I’m wading through thick mud.” </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jumping on Agatha Raisin’s band wagon after the mystery novel series has been successfully running for twenty-seven episodes wasn’t probably the best way to enjoy </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Witches’ Tree</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">...not enough background story, a huge chunk of the lead character’s arc missing completely, etc. Because I would like you to maximize your reading experience, I’ll bring you up to speed and fill you in on M.C. Beaton’s popular amateur sleuth and humorous mystery novels.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Agatha Raisin is a frustrated, yet endearing , middle-aged public relations agent who moved from London to Carsely in the Cotswolds when she sold her public-relations firm in Mayfair and took an early retirement. She solves murders in each of the earlier books, but in the fifteenth book (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Agatha Raisin and The Deadly Dance</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, 2004) Agatha sets up her own detective agency. The police, and even some of her acquaintances, insist that she solves crimes through accident and luck. Among the permanent cast of characters, police constable and friend Billy Wong; her ex and neighbor, James Lacey; Sir Charles Fraith, Agatha’s on-off boyfriend known for being stingy with his money. In 2014, M.C. Beaton’s mystery series was adapted to the small screen and became a full 8-part tv drama (Sky 1). It aired in the US on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/video/agatha-raisin-series-preview-jvn2t2/">PBS</a> (watch a video clip below).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.mcbeaton.com/us/">M.C. Beaton</a> is the pseudonym Glasgow native and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Times</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> bestselling author Marion Chesney reserves for her crime fiction and mystery novels. She is known primarily for the more than one hundred historical romance novels she has published under her own name and under several </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">noms de plume</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>My rating:</strong> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2 out 0f 5 stars</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">***An advance reader e-copy was graciously offered by the Publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.</span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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</span><br /> </b><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/3003541588/" width="512"></iframe><br />Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-4136428944495665292017-08-24T19:05:00.000-07:002017-08-24T19:32:47.665-07:00THE COTTINGLEY SECRET by Hazel Gaynor (A Review & Dessert Pairing)<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0dQyC1x9PGlq7R5EW-mxTIRA_Aqv8b43TahP3S8JHt7YD__qw5-0XXWOLth13OJ_1b32Y52R5-2Kf7OkrJBHStJOO5R5eJjerV5OzwFsmtQrJgWU_f6LKuu2XgggsX_GFWPaf_lewQnFG/s1600/The+Cottingley+Secret.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="315" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0dQyC1x9PGlq7R5EW-mxTIRA_Aqv8b43TahP3S8JHt7YD__qw5-0XXWOLth13OJ_1b32Y52R5-2Kf7OkrJBHStJOO5R5eJjerV5OzwFsmtQrJgWU_f6LKuu2XgggsX_GFWPaf_lewQnFG/s640/The+Cottingley+Secret.jpg" width="424" /></a></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">THE COTTINGLEY SECRET</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hazel Gaynor</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Published by William Morrow on August 1st, 2017</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hardcover, 399 pages</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Magical Realism</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33545345-the-cottingley-secret">Goodreads</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062690485/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062690485&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2">Amazon</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;">ABOUT THE BOOK</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Times</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> bestselling author of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Girl Who Came Home </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">turns the clock back one hundred years to a time when two young girls from Cottingley, Yorkshire, convinced the world that they had done the impossible and photographed fairies in their garden. Now, in her newest novel, international bestseller Hazel Gaynor reimagines their story.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1917</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">… It was inexplicable, impossible, but it had to be true—didn’t it? When two young cousins, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright from Cottingley, England, claim to have photographed fairies at the bottom of the garden, their parents are astonished. But when one of the great novelists of the time, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes convinced of the photographs’ authenticity, the girls become a national sensation, their discovery offering hope to those longing for something to believe in amid a world ravaged by war. Frances and Elsie will hide their secret for many decades. But Frances longs for the truth to be told.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">One hundred years later</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">… When Olivia Kavanagh finds an old manuscript in her late grandfather’s bookshop she becomes fascinated by the story it tells of two young girls who mystified the world. But it is the discovery of an old photograph that leads her to realize how the fairy girls’ lives intertwine with hers, connecting past to present, and blurring her understanding of what is real and what is imagined. As she begins to understand why a nation once believed in fairies, can Olivia find a way to believe in herself?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;">MY REVIEW</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Like fairies, stories will not be rushed", and this one certainly wasn't! Although I was captivated by the concept behind </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Cottingley Secret</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, I found its execution somewhat underwhelming: achingly slow even for someone who, like me, doesn't mind dwelling on contemplative (and sometimes repetitive) descriptions, introspective tones, and lyrical passages. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am fond of dual timeline narrations and I found the connection between the two main characters (Frances and Olivia) to be cleverly harmonized. However, Frances' voice and the unfolding of the historical thread (based on the true incidents of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies">Cottingley Fairy Hoax</a>) sounded more persuasive and convincing than Olivia's present day storyline. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The author's fictionalized account of those astonishing events is clearly backed by extensive and rigorous researches, as the copious </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">post scriptum</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to the book shows. Don't skip those final pages: history buffs and lovers of all things fairies will enjoy </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hazel Gaynor</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'s insights and leads to further readings. My rating: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3 stars</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;">FAVORITE QUOTES</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Come away, O human child!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To the waters and the wild,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">With a faery hand in hand,</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For the world’s more full of weeping than you can</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Understand.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Irish Proverb)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“You know, Frances, I sometimes think there’s too much truth in the world. Too much certainty and scientific fact. We don’t always need an explanation, do we? Sometimes all we need is something to believe in, something to give us hope and to remind us how remarkable the world can be, even in the middle of a war.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-15cdf805-171b-9a57-ac38-92689ba6f3dd" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;">DESSERT PAIRING</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbM1hLeQoVCxDomKQ5EVHumq4IfEu-tJfU2j0CS_F7PW7BRhaNA8j51hSozWQmvA3JrIN9VoBnxwUAVhF8bR4MFoBgJgJdarHr2aJ5yF0Ph2TbCzYHGszf9PaCYZzpjin7bKi5eCHs8PB/s1600/Fairy+cakes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="362" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbM1hLeQoVCxDomKQ5EVHumq4IfEu-tJfU2j0CS_F7PW7BRhaNA8j51hSozWQmvA3JrIN9VoBnxwUAVhF8bR4MFoBgJgJdarHr2aJ5yF0Ph2TbCzYHGszf9PaCYZzpjin7bKi5eCHs8PB/s400/Fairy+cakes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Cottingley Secret</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I couldn’t think of a better dessert pairing than </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/recipes/desserts-cakes/fairy-cakes">Fairy Cakes</a>. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">They’re not fairy themed cakes, as someone might think: wildly popular in the UK, they’re a smaller variation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">of what we commonly call 'cupcakes', but unlike the American version, they’re made of a lighter sponge cake and favor a more delicate glace icing as opposed to the buttercream traditionally used in the US. A 'fairy cake' is also a type of cupcake with its top cut off and replaced in two pieces, like wings. The etymology of the name ‘Fairy Cakes’ is due to their </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">petit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> size, small enough to be enjoyed by the tiny mythical creatures. No wine to match this time - just a cup of good English tea. Enjoy!</span></div>
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</b><br />Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-5174714083866934092017-08-01T20:53:00.001-07:002017-08-02T12:43:54.164-07:00THE DREAM KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Emily Colin (ARC Review plus Dessert & Wine Pairing)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9txao2sSYZmAGroO1rozRfI0S0nNKchyphenhyphennKg6m4PIXv4xXCBPOkEFP2rPpAZKYchorGbh4k50jM4qRORJnzh1Q3-6IDRFQeL7304vY0bHWfSJsGq2bQuxqYIbTxHWJHYZYq6rB1D33EoKj/s1600/the+dream+keeper%2527s+daughter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="308" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9txao2sSYZmAGroO1rozRfI0S0nNKchyphenhyphennKg6m4PIXv4xXCBPOkEFP2rPpAZKYchorGbh4k50jM4qRORJnzh1Q3-6IDRFQeL7304vY0bHWfSJsGq2bQuxqYIbTxHWJHYZYq6rB1D33EoKj/s640/the+dream+keeper%2527s+daughter.jpg" width="414" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">THE DREAM KEEPER’S DAUGHTER</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Emily Colin</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Published by Ballantine Books on July 25th 2017</span></b></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Paperback and Kindle Edition, 480 pages</span></b></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Time-travel, Romance, Paranormal Fiction</span></b></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32912922-the-dream-keeper-s-daughter?ac=1&from_search=true">Goodreads</a></span></b></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1101884312/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1101884312&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2">Amazon</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;"><strong>ABOUT THE BOOK</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">An archaeologist discovers her presumed-missing boyfriend is trapped more than a hundred years in the past—a love story that transcends time and place, from the author of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Times</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> bestseller </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Memory Thief</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eight years after the unsolved disappearance of her boyfriend Max Adair, archaeologist Isabel Griffin has managed to move on and rebuild her life with her young daughter, Finn, her last tie to Max. But after a series of strange incidents, Isabel begins to wonder if Max might still be alive somewhere, trying to communicate with her. She has no idea that the where isn’t the problem—it’s the when. Max has slipped through time and place, landing on his ancestral family plantation in 1816 Barbados, on the eve of a historic slave uprising. As Isabel searches for answers, Max must figure out not only how to survive the violence to come, but how to get back to his own century, the woman he loves, and the daughter he has only ever met in his dreams. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: magenta;"><strong>MY REVIEW</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Truths of the heart revealed through bizarre cosmic conjunctions seem to be a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">leitmotif</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Emily Colin</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’s books (read my review of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Memory Thief</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="color: magenta;"><strong><a href="http://minadecaro.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-memory-thief-by-emily-colin.html">here</a></strong></span>). Her second foray into the paranormal romance field, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Dream Keeper’s Daughter</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, echoes themes and plot devices she successfully employed in her debut novel– love and loss, coping with grief, emotional healing, the complex workings of the human heart, the delicate interplay of love and time put to the test by a supernatural phenomenon. What her fans will be delighted to know is that, in her new release, Colin ups her game: the paranormal treatment takes a new exciting direction with the introduction of a brilliant time-travel paradox (a time slip, to be precise), a poignant historical backdrop, and elements derived from the Celtic folklore. The result is an imaginative and highly absorbing read.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">South Carolina archeologist Isabel Griffin thought she would never hear the voice of her long-lost boyfriend again after he mysteriously disappeared in a clearing on his parents’ Charleston estate. Until one day, seven years later, while she is supervising a dig in Barbados, she receives an unexpected phone call from him imploring her to keep their daughter Finn safe. Only seventeen years old, Max Adair’s vanished without leaving a trace, and what is even stranger, he couldn’t have possibly known he had a daughter because Isabel found out about her pregnancy just before he inexplicably fell off the face of the earth. To complicate the matter even more, six years before Max’s disappearance, Isabel’s mother ‘dematerialized’ in the same obscure circumstances, in the same geographic area, during a cocktail party hosted by Max’s parents. The thing is, Max involuntarily, and for reasons to him unknown, traveled one hundred years back in time and winded up in the middle of a Barbados sugar cane plantation owned by his ancestors during the slave rebellion of 1816. He stepped in a so-called ‘Thin Place’. According to the Celtic mythology, thin places are spots where the great beyond and the physical world meet and mingle, where the boundary separating the living and the dead is as thin as a veil. Legend has it that the Adair estate is home to one of those mythological places.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And this is where the author delivers a masterstroke of narrative finesse: in these wondrous gateways, usually heavy with the weight of historical grievances, our relationship with time is altered. Time speed in Max’s dimension is slowed down: days in eighteenth-century Barbados correspond to years in Isabel’s life. And that’s not all...travel to thin places holds a transformative power, leads to spiritual breakthroughs, to revelations and new awareness. Torn between his burning desire to see his Isabel again and the overwhelming feeling he landed in that point in time to uncover a mysterious historical link, Max finds his way back to the twenty-first century, but what sums up to about a week on his ancestor’s plantation (and what an eventful week) equals eight years in his family’s life, eight years through which Isabel faced the loss of the love of her life without any closure, went through a rocky pregnancy, raised her daughter by herself, and put herself through graduate school–the only fixed star in her chaotic existence is her good, reliable, and ever-present friend, Ryan. Ultimately, the conundrum at the heart of the story is not so much about the existence of a portal to a different space-time dimension as it is about the resilience of a young love and its ability to hold a fragile bond against the filters of time. As The Time Traveler’s Wife aptly claimed in Audrey Niffenegger’s popular time-travel novel: “It’s hard to be the one who stays.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The strongest asset of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>The Dream Keeper’s Daughter</i></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> is the fascinating and well-conceived time slip motif with the heart-pounding turn of events unfolding on the Caribbean island during the dramatic escalation of violence and bloodshed known as the Bussa’s Revolt. Emily Colin recreates that historical scenario in highly enjoyable bite-sized chapters, with tantalizing shifts of scene, timeline, and voices (the narration alternates between Max’s and Isabel’s POV). The resolution seems to sink in comparison to the soaring pace and intensity of its premises; the author overindulges in her treatment of the love triangle trope and use of love scenes. All in all, an intriguing page-turner. 4.5 stars out of 5.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">***An e-copy of the book was graciously provided by the Publicist via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: magenta; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>DESSERT & WINE PAIRING</strong></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Courtesy of Robert Carter from the Peninsula Grill, in Charleston, South Carolina. </td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-a456-f5a7-ebe3-707f05a99c42" style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the best features of Emily Colin’s latest novel, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">The Dream Keeper’s Daughter,</span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> is the narrative style, a binary system of alternating POVs (Max and Isabel), locations (Barbados Island and Charleston, South Carolina), and time periods (1816 and 2016)...such a dynamic and enthralling way to reel us in two different storylines! The dessert that comes to mind is the <strong><a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/966156/ultimate-coconut-cake">Ultimate Coconut Cake</a></strong>, a Southern treat infused with</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;">coconut and fresh vanilla, layered, topped with a fabulous icing, and rolled in freshly toasted coconut. The perfect sipping companion? <strong>Asti Spumante</strong>, a highly perfumed and sweet Italian wine boasting fruity and floral notes.</span></span></div>
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Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-20490393088043085922017-07-15T16:48:00.001-07:002017-07-15T18:33:21.287-07:00THE FORBIDDEN GARDEN by Ellen Herrick (Review & Dessert Pairing)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">THE FORBIDDEN GARDEN </span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">By</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ellen Herrick</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Published by William Morrow on April 4th 2017</span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Paperback, 400 pages</span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Magical Realism, Mystery, Chick Lit</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30653962-the-forbidden-garden">Goodreads</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062499955/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0062499955&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2">Amazon</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: magenta; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>ABOUT THE BOOK</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At the nursery she runs with her sisters on the New England coast, Sorrel Sparrow has honed her rare gift for nurturing plants and flowers. Now that reputation, and a stroke of good timing, lands Sorrel an unexpected opportunity: reviving a long-dormant Shakespearean garden on an English country estate.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Arriving at Kirkwood Hall, ancestral home of Sir Graham Kirkwood and his wife Stella, Sorrel is shocked by the desolate state of the walled garden. Generations have tried—and failed—to bring it back to glory. Sorrel senses heartbreak and betrayal here, perhaps even enchantment. Intrigued by the house’s history—especially the haunting tapestries that grace its walls—and increasingly drawn to Stella’s enigmatic brother, Sorrel sets to work. And though she knows her true home is across the sea with her sisters, instinct tells her that the English garden’s destiny is entwined with her own, if she can only unravel its secrets…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: magenta; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>MY REVIEW</strong></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In her second novel, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>The Forbidden Garden</strong></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, <strong>Ellen Herrick</strong> makes a welcome return to the quaint coastal town of Granite Point and gets us reacquainted with the quirky Sparrow sisters and their magical healing powers (<a href="http://minadecaro.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-sparrow-sisters-by-ellen-herrick.html">read my review of </a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://minadecaro.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-sparrow-sisters-by-ellen-herrick.html">The Sparrow Sisters</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Just as Patience read the people..., searching for the troubled bits in their bodies and hearts, and Nettie collected the harvest and composed meals that sustained the very same parts, Sorrel wove her plants and flowers into a tapestry of her own.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After some brief introductions, the author quickly shifts the action to an equally scenic countryside estate on the other side of the Atlantic –an enchanting English mansion and its “cursed” Shakespearean garden serve as new center of gravity for a novel that is handsomely written and rich in Gothic vibes. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Part landscaper, part sorceress, Sorrel Sparrow is hired by the illustrious Sir Graham Kirkwood to restore a six-century old garden to its former glory. With the help of six panels of fine tapestry depicting its original splendor, Sorrel will painstakingly resurrect the vibrancy and variety of its meanders once standing on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery, but in the process she will unearth a sinister chapter of the Kirkwood family history, and for this reason her quest to save the cursed garden will prove daunting and ultimately dangerous.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Kirkwood Hall, the ancestral estate built by Graham's predecessors during the reign of Queen Anne Stuart, is lovingly depicted in all its bucolic beauty. The author paints it with the languid and atmospheric strokes of her artful prose and clever is also the way she concocts a mysterious (and supernatural) source of tension to tear down the veil of the apparent idyll: a garden brimming with illness and decay, and a gruesome past at its roots.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While Herrick features all those pleasures inherent to Gothic narratives (the uncanny element, the enigmas, the windswept landscapes, an eerie atmosphere), there is also great luminosity and cozy warmth in the description of culinary pleasures and romantic tension between Sorrel and her love interest (the brooding as much as attractive Andrew). Although not as taut as her previous book, Ellen’s narrative pulls together in a satisfactory way. <strong>4 out of 5 stars</strong></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJ9vcuvdhb4ixq7Tg15-FG8G1nNAEsRC_n2RDmPsmclGxnvQpi5sc4zeJZ6cPX8jhXJxItbFEgu13969YF-XFf79LpxbSTB1q5laVA_5at9ghdMxPpgjDR05j7h6feGA_F6lPKuCP6576/s1600/Jaffa+cake+big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="236" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDJ9vcuvdhb4ixq7Tg15-FG8G1nNAEsRC_n2RDmPsmclGxnvQpi5sc4zeJZ6cPX8jhXJxItbFEgu13969YF-XFf79LpxbSTB1q5laVA_5at9ghdMxPpgjDR05j7h6feGA_F6lPKuCP6576/s640/Jaffa+cake+big.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If I could pull one character out of Ellen Herrick’s latest novel and invite him in my kitchen, it would certainly be Andrew, Kirkwood Hall’s young and dashing pastor. Brooding he may be, but also seductively proficient behind the stove! The author indulges in the description of scrumptious dishes time and again throughout the book: my favorite is a dessert, of course. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/homemadejaffacakes_91480"><strong>Jaffa Cakes</strong></a> are my pick for this ‘book & dessert pairing’. In bite size or, better yet, layer cake. Enjoy!</span><br />
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<br /><br /> </b><br />Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1215079546745860754.post-85602187117675301602017-07-02T12:10:00.000-07:002017-07-04T20:30:26.716-07:00SILENT COMPANIONS by Laura Purcell (Book Spotlight & Dessert Pairing)<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">SILENT COMPANIONS</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">By</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Laura Purcell</span></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A nail-biting gothic mystery to look forward to: <em><strong>Silent Companions</strong></em> by <strong>Laura Purcell</strong> will be available in US only next year (March 6th 2018, Penguin Books), but if you are lucky enough to live in the UK you can grab a copy this coming fall (October 5th 2017). For all lovers of bone-chilling tales a la Susan Hill and Shirley Jackson.</span></div>
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ABOUT THE BOOK</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Expected Publication </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">October 5th 2017 by Raven Books (UK); Hardcover</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">March 6th 2018 by Penguin Books (US); Paperback, 320 pages</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mystery, Gothic, Horror</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35458733-the-silent-companions">Goodreads</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Companions-Novel-Laura-Purcell-ebook/dp/B071K4DV8F/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499016370&sr=1-1&keywords=silent+companions">Amazon</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge, what greets her is far from the life of wealth and privilege she was expecting . . .</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure--a silent companion--that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of The Bridge are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition--that is, until she notices the figure's eyes following her.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Victorian ghost story that evokes a most unsettling kind of fear, this is a tale that creeps its way through the consciousness in ways you least expect--much like the silent companions themselves. Inspired by the work of Shirley Jackson and Susan Hill and set in a crumbling country mansion, The Silent Companions is an unsettling gothic ghost story to send a shiver down the spine…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“If </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Silent Companions </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">lands on your night table, don't plan on leaving your bed anytime soon. Immersive, meticulous, and reminiscent of the masters of gothic fiction—not only a compulsively readable ghost story, but a skillful, loving ode to the entire genre.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">—Lyndsay Faye, bestselling author of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jane Steele</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Laura Purcell lives in Colchester, the oldest recorded town in England. She met her husband working in Waterstones bookshop and they share their home with several pet guinea pigs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Laura’s 'Georgian Queens' series explores the lives of royal women during the Hanoverian era. She also writes spine-tingling Victorian Gothic fiction.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Visit Laura's <a href="http://www.laurapurcell.com/">website</a> to find out more about her and read her history blog.</span><a href="http://www.laurapurcell.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To match Laura Purcell’s spine-tingling novel <em>Silent Companions</em>, I would recommend a pleasurably and equally chilling dessert. Ice cream/sorbet pies are the perfect ‘no-bake’ treat for the summer and beyond: no stress around the oven, nice and easy, all you need to do is fill, chill, and serve. My pick is <strong><span style="color: magenta;"><a href="https://www.haagendazs.us/recipes/strawberry-ice-cream-pie-with-corn-crust/">Strawberry Ice Cream Pie With Corn Crust</a></span></strong> paired with a sweet and crispy Moscato wine from Italy — a lightly-bubbled <strong>Moscato d’Asti</strong> is just the ticket. Cheers!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsUd_Sk1Z3VcQkc2w_FlHDZDo9pLltiW8vT3zZY7IhKbftM_vrQ7OnTGQuPGPuzRPUKQtrEcezjvuNsFS8mmBaxnIlMEp9j6h3bPk8rybpZI4y9IhXUZ4ySQ50xNnRZJLjAEGJDriXHmu/s1600/moscato.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="465" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXsUd_Sk1Z3VcQkc2w_FlHDZDo9pLltiW8vT3zZY7IhKbftM_vrQ7OnTGQuPGPuzRPUKQtrEcezjvuNsFS8mmBaxnIlMEp9j6h3bPk8rybpZI4y9IhXUZ4ySQ50xNnRZJLjAEGJDriXHmu/s640/moscato.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo source: Bing</td></tr>
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</b><br />Minahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13051823919337174226noreply@blogger.com0