In The Night Wood by Dale Bailey (Book Spotlight)

Favorite Quote

"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... ."

My rating: 5 stars

About the Book

IN THE NIGHT WOOD

By

Dale Bailey

Published by John Joseph Adams

(An Imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

October 9, 2018

Hardcover, 214 pages

Contemporary Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic, Horror

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In this contemporary fantasy, the grieving biographer of a Victorian fantasist finds himself slipping inexorably into the supernatural world that consumed his subject.

American Charles Hayden came to England to forget the past.

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, In the Night Wood. But soon after settling into Hollow's remote Yorkshire home, Charles learns that the past isn't dead.

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.

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.

Soon enough, Charles will venture into the night wood.

Soon enough he'll learn that the darkness under the trees is but a shadow of the darkness that waits inside us all.

Marilla Of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy (Flash Review)

Flash Review

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. 3 stars

***Review copy generously offered by Goodreads in return of an unbiased. And honest review.

About the Book

MARILLA OF GREEN GABLES

By

Sarah McCoy

Published by William Morrow

October 23, 2018

Paperback, 320 pages

Historical Fiction

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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

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.

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.

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.

Our House by Louise Candlish (Flash Review)

My Review

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. 3 stars

About the Book

OUR HOUSE

By

Louise Candlish

Published by Berkley on August 7, 2018

Hardcover, 404 pages

Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

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On a bright January morning in the London suburbs, a family moves into the house they’ve just bought in Trinity Avenue.

Nothing strange about that. Except it is your house. And you didn’t sell it.

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.

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.

I Found You by Lisa Jewell (Flash Review)

Flash Review

"Modern, complex, intuitive" Lisa Jewell... I love everything she writes! This thriller didn't disappoint--a deliciously atmospheric and suspenseful read for this last stretch of summer. 5 stars! About the Book I FOUND YOU By Lisa Jewell Published by Atria Books on April 25, 2017 Hardcover, 352 pages Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense Goodreads Amazon East Yorkshire: 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. Surrey: 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. Two women, twenty years of secrets and a man who can't remember lie at the heart of Lisa Jewell's brilliant new novel.

Women Of The Dunes by Sarah Maine (Flash Review)

Flash Review

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! 5 stars

About the Book

WOMEN OF THE DUNES

By

Sarah Maine

Published by Atria Books on July 24, 2018

Paperback, 373 pages

Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

DREAMS OF FALLING by Karen White (A Review)

About the Book

DREAMS OF FALLING

By

Karen White

Published on June 5, 2018 by Berkley Books

Hardcover, 416 pages

Women's Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery

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Amazon

My Review

    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...

     "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." 

    Dreams Of Falling doesn't go off the beaten and successful path of Karen White'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. 

    White delivers a novel awash in forgiveness dealt out in spite of betrayal and 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. 
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

From the Cover...

    From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night the Lights Went Out comes an exquisite new novel about best friends, family ties and the love that can both strengthen and break those bonds.

    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  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.

The English Wife by Lauren Willig (Flash Review)

Flash Review

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. My verdict: 5 stars!

About the Book

THE ENGLISH WIFE

By 

Lauren Willig 

Published by St. Martin's Press

January 9, 2018

Hardcover, 376 pages

Historical Fiction, Mystery

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From the New York Times bestselling author, Lauren Willig, comes this scandalous New York Gilded Age novel full of family secrets, affairs, and even murder.

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?