Review: The Bookworm by Mitch Silver

Release Date: February 6, 2018

There are two different plots in this book: one about a Russian historian who is given crucial new information about WWII, and another about a political oil scheme in Alaska. I thought for sure eventually, they'd somehow come together but by the end, I still felt like they really didn't have anything to do with one another. It just didn't make much sense and too much of the plot(s) and premise felt contrived.

The writing was okay, and the characters started off well, but wound up doing things which also didn't make much sense. Characters who don't even know what's going on somehow wind up involved but don't even question it, they just jump right in.

The ending was the worst of this - Lara gets back together with the husband that constantly cheats on her and tried to steal half her furniture and possessions? It felt like the author was just trying to make the ending unexpected, but instead it just felt like it didn't make sense.

Then there's the fact that the "bad guys" who got her to investigate the WWII recordings were supposedly doing it to get her to track down Hitler's Bible, which they apparently couldn't do on their own, even though it proved incredibly easy. Lara found it in a matter of hours with some simple internet searches. She didn't use any kind of special resources or skills, yet we're supposed to believe this makes her a master internet detective and the only one who could track down this bible. It's beyond ridiculous.

Needless to say, the premise felt flimsy, the plots disjointed, and the characters artificial.

Advanced review copy from publisher via Net Galley. My opinions are my own.

Review: The Tudor Bride by Joanna Hickson

A sequel to The Agincourt Bride, about the latter portion of Catherine of Valois' life. It's as good as the first, and again written in first person from the point of view of Catherine's servant, Mette. It dragged a little bit in the middle, the beginning and end were much more eventful, but I suppose that was to be expected given that not much was going on in Catherine's world at the time. Still, it manages to hold your interest and the ending was moving.

I still think it might have been better written in third person or from multiple character's points of view. Limiting the narrative to one character who was normally by Catherine's side, but not always privy to everything going on felt a little like you didn't get to see everything.

Overall, a read good and good follow up to The Agincourt Bride, though it could be read as a stand alone, if you enjoyed the first book, definitely read this sequel.

Upcoming Releases

Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers by Sara Ackerman

Release Date: February 13, 2018



Violet Iverson and her young daughter, Ella, are piecing their lives together one year after the disappearance of her husband. As rumors swirl and questions about his loyalties surface, Violet believes Ella knows something. But Ella is stubbornly silent. Something—or someone—has scared her. And with the island overrun by troops training for a secret mission, tension and suspicion between neighbors is rising.

(Full description at Goodreads)

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Ecstasy: A Novel by Mary Sharratt

Release Date: April 10, 2018

Gustav Klimt gave Alma her first kiss. Gustav Mahler fell in love with her at first sight and proposed only a few weeks later. Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius abandoned all reason to pursue her. Poet and novelist Franz Werfel described her as “one of the very few magical women that exist.” But who was this woman who brought these most eminent of men to their knees? In Ecstasy, Mary Sharratt finally gives one of the most controversial and complex women of her time the center stage. 

(Full description at Goodreads)

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The Romanov Empress: A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna by C. W. Gortner

Release Date: July 10, 2018

Barely nineteen, Minnie knows that her station in life as a Danish princess is to leave her family and enter into a royal marriage—as her older sister Alix has done, moving to  England to wed Queen Victoria’s eldest son. The winds of fortune bring Minnie to Russia, where she marries the Romanov heir and becomes empress once he ascends the throne. When resistance to his reign strikes at the heart of her family and the tsar sets out to crush all who oppose him, Minnie—now called Maria—must tread a perilous path of compromise in a country she has come to love.

(Full description at Goodreads)

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The Masterpiece: A Novel by Fiona Davis

Release Date: August 7, 2018

For the nearly nine million people who live in New York City, Grand Central Terminal is a crown jewel, a masterpiece of design. But for Clara Darden and Virginia Clay, it represents something quite different.

For Clara, the terminal is the stepping stone to her future, which she is certain will shine as the brightly as the constellations on the main concourse ceiling. It is 1928, and twenty-five-year-old Clara is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art. A talented illustrator, she has dreams of creating cover art for Vogue, but not even the prestige of the school can override the public's disdain for a "woman artist." Brash, fiery, confident, and single-minded--even while juggling the affections of two men, a wealthy would-be poet and a brilliant experimental painter--Clara is determined to achieve every creative success. But she and her bohemian friends have no idea that they'll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression, an insatiable monster with the power to destroy the entire art scene. And even poverty and hunger will do little to prepare Clara for the greater tragedy yet to come.

(Full description at Goodreads)

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Auschwitz Lullaby: A Novel by Mario Escobar 

Release Date: August 7, 2018

In 1943 Germany, Helene is just about to wake up her children to go to school when a group of policemen break into her house. The policemen want to haul away her gypsy husband and their five children. The police tell Helene that as a German she does not have to go with them, but she decides to share the fate of her family. After convincing her children that they are going off to a vacation place, so as to calm them, the entire family is deported to Auschwitz. 

(Full description at Goodreads)