2014

✬✬✬✬✬ Several twists in the plot and a great ending. The historical reality of how a minority was treated will bring tears to your eyes. Wonderful depictions of art. Great read.

✬✬✬✬✬ Kay is a writer of great skill, one who is able to create a new world filled with believable,  lovable, characters, and delight the reader with descriptions that come to immediate life in the mind’s eye, while showing the perfect restraint of the true artist.

✬✬✬✬ A heartwarming story about a personal struggle and sacrifice. Wonderful, wonderful language; descriptions evoked vivid mental images and impressions. The characters were well drawn, and bonus, some historical background material.

✬✬✬✬  This book spans four generations of woman, all affected by the French aristocratic society. Each woman is strong and deals with a series of life events, both good and bad. The book spotlights the fact that circumstances can be life changing. Entertaining.

✬✬✬✬✬ This book was great fun to read and held my attention the whole way through. I loved learning more about a land and time period I knew little about. Lindley’s writing is detailed enough to get a good feel for the surroundings and action, but not so detailed as to bog the reader down in descriptions.

✬✬✬✬ I enjoyed this book a great deal. I thought it provided a fresh perspective on a story we’ve seen done many times. This book deals with Kleopatra’s younger years, before she ascends to the throne, but ends when she is a queen-in-exile and about to meet Julius Caesar for the first time. Some parts of the story were extended more than they should have been and grew a little dull, but fortunately, they were few.

✬✬✬✬ Pharaoh follows two storylines, from when Kleopatra is in exile and in Kleopatra’s final reign as she tries to restore her relationship with Antony. I thought the characters were very complex. The only thing I did not like about Pharaoh was that I thought the ending was a little rushed.

✬✬✬ The first section of this book was great. Ms. Donnelly captured the feel of lower-class, Victorian London during the time of Jack the Ripper, and her characters were exciting, fully realized human beings, not just fictional standbys. The second part of “The Tea Rose” was heartbreaking to me because the first part opened so strongly. I skimmed halfway through the second part, unable to sustain interest, and only finished the book with half-hearted interest.

✬✬✬✬ This follow-up sequel to “The Art of Hearing Heartbeats” is a good read, and I thoroughly enjoyed since I fell in love with the first book. It did not captivate me as much as the first although it is well written.

✬✬ The descriptions of food in this book were lyrical and vivid. Eventually, it took away from the story and just became unnecessary fluff. The timeline was poorly described and confusing at times, which just made me lose interest in the characters.

✬✬✬ Well, this was a fine read, but it started out slow, thicken in the middle, and was slow to the end. I found it a bit on the dull side yet I was fascinated at the same time.

✬✬ I’m not sure what I’m missing because I did not like this book, and I was so looking forward to reading it. I found some parts to be boring and felt the story dragged on and on. The book started out fine and then I lost my interest, then my interest picked back up and then I felt bored again. The characters were not particularly interesting or compelling; the story was very shallow and did not give an enough depth of character.

✬✬✬✬✬ The Hathaway’s are an amazing, emotional and wild bunch that are so entertaining and fill the books with such excitement. But it is the calm that Poppy brings to her story that delights the reader because she is so dear and has an open heart for everyone that you want true love for her. This book has such a high wow factor that you slow down your reading pace to make sure you can extend this as long as possible.

✬✬✬✬ This is a lovely book - sweet, sensuous and filled with an excellent dialogue between interesting characters.

✬✬✬  I loved the story and couldn’t put the book down until I was done. As I was reading I keep thinking of all these different things that would happen and even different ways it would end. So with all these ideas running through my head, you can imagine how disappointed I was at the ending. It was weird because the rest of the story was great, it’s almost like she just hurried up and finished it. The ending ruined the whole book for me.

✬✬✬✬✬ A captivating story, that takes place in the late 19th century, about a young girl who is orphaned and left, at the age of 16. I loved Mistress Mine a historical romance I highly recommend to everyone.

✬✬✬✬ Believable plot,  well-formed characters, cohesive, strong ending, likable hero. No extra plot lines required to make it dramatic. The author writes the characters beautifully.

✬✬✬✬ A different hero - not perfect, handsome but poor and with a bad reputation. A different heroine - somewhat selfish, judgmental, and almost materialistic. Through time - they evolve and fall in love. And love changes them into better people. Highly recommended for light reading.

✬✬✬✬ C.W. Gortner is one of my all-time favorite authors. The writing is fantastic, it’s just the plot line itself that isn’t exactly my favorite. Still, I liked it enough to read the whole trilogy!

✬✬✬ This is a good book, not one of her best, but certainly interesting and enjoyable. The plot was predictable, but I enjoyed the characters, I thought the heroine manipulated the situation too successfully without enough difficulty.

✬✬✬✬✬ It is an excellent book. Light to read, simple, but deeply emotional, stays with you forever.  Feels you with warmth and real taste of love.

✬✬✬ While it’s nice to hear about Mary Tudor’s childhood — everyone knows about Elizabeth’s already — I can’t say I liked this book all that much. The problem for me was the voice. Mary just seemed to recount all her trials and tribulations in a flat, matter-of-fact manner.  I would rather she has shown more emotion.

✬✬✬✬✬ Well written, a good companion to Pride and Prejudice. Amanda Grange takes enough from the original to work well, without changing the tone, Mr. Darcy seems understandable.

✬✬✬✬ The Shadow Queen delivered much more than I expected. Full of intrigue, scandal and secrets - religious cults and fantastic plays. The tale of Claudette begins as a poor player and spans many levels fame. From helping her mother become a famous actress to being the confidante of The Shadow Queen - with much in between.

✬✬ This booked seemed to jump from event to an event, as if the author was just filling out an outline of plot points. The main character was an unlikeable snob who seemed determined to make herself a martyr and who lived in her own head rather than in reality. In fact, the characters were unlikeable. Not only that, but the writing style itself was disjointed and sometimes confusing.

✬✬ I enjoyed the beginning but lost interest about halfway through the book. I guess the different viewpoints weren’t that different and I would lose track of who was narrating.

✬✬ This book was a challenge to get through. The amount of characters to keep track of was overwhelming. Page after page the reader is introduced to more and more unlikeable, selfish, mean people. At some point, I felt like I would have to meet every horrible resident in Pagford. I disliked everyone, except the dead guy!

✬✬✬✬ I enjoyed this book very much. Premise is very intriguing. The characters are well-developed and interesting and the descriptions are well drawn without being over-done. The plot bogged down a little in the middle and the ending sort of fizzled out, instead of closing with a bang. But my biggest complaint was the lack of exploration of the title character, the miniaturist. I would’ve loved more explanation about her. Still, this is an enjoyable read.

✬✬✬ This is an enjoyable, quick, light read. The historical background is well-captured. I felt that the characters lacked some depth and that 18-year-old Delia was not believable.

✬✬ I was a kind of excited to get my hands on this book after reading the reviews, but was disappointed to find it’s too immature for me. The foreshadowing ruins the book. It’s predictable and only vaguely interesting.