The Last Romanov by Dora Levy Mossanen

Publisher:
Publish Date: April 3, 2012
Format: Kobo 
Pages - 
ISBN:978 1402265952

She was an orphan, ushered into the royal palace on the prayers of her majesty.  Yet, decades later, her time spent in the embrace of the Romanov haunts her still.  Is she responsible for those murderous events that changed everything?

If only she can find the heir, maybe she can put together the broken pieces of her own past – maybe she can hold on to the love she found.

My Thoughts

My typical cover loving self got the best of me on this one!  With a new found love for Russian storytelling,especially the Romanov family, I was excited to stumble across this one on sale.  Well there is always a reason a book sells for dirt cheap - it's awful.  And apparently I will never learn.  It took me so long to actually figure out what the story was about that by then I had lost interest.  It was boring, poorly written, and just a down right confusing jumble.

I don't mind a fantasy element in a novel, although it's not my favourite, but in no way did it work with this story.  An opal eye? Really?  And while historical fiction novels have a tendency to be inaccurate, this novel was so beyond inaccurate it makes me think the author knew nothing about the history of the Romanov family.  A little bit of research is necessary when writing a historical fiction novel.  The author attempted to write a story, and I'm sure there was a story in there somewhere, it was just very unclear.  All the characters fell flat and had no real depth to them.

My advice?  Steer clear of this one. 

My Rating: «

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

Publisher: Algonquin Books
Publish Date: September 18, 2012
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 978 1616201937

When She Woke tells the story of a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned and rehabilitated but chromed – their skin colour is genetically altered to match the class of their crimes – and then released back into the population to survive as best they can.  Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder.

In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a path of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith.

My Thoughts

This would have never been a book I would have chosen for myself and was a bit skeptical - it was selected at my local library as the January Book Club pick - and I ended up really enjoying it.  I found the concept to be brilliant and devoured this novel in just a few days.  It really got me thinking - is this where we could actually be heading?  Imagine walking among criminals.  Chroming (maybe not totally like this) could be a way of the future - you just never know.  We already microchip pets, why wouldn't we start doing something like that with babies at birth?  

I have to say though that I did enjoy the first half of the book better than the last half.  It started to get a little too preachy and felt rushed.  I also felt like Hannah's character made a drastic change and by this I'm referring to the Simone encounter.  I just found it added no value and unnecessary to the plot of the story.  I understand what the author was trying to relay - that Hannah's outlook on gay people were wrong, but I still found it irrelevant.  The ending just didn't have enough closure for me.  I was left with too much wonder about some of the characters and how they fared.  I need closure in a novel - I crave it.  Even an Epilogue would have been amazing.  I would be okay with a sequel, I'm interested in seeing Hannah now living her new life.  Just leave Simone out of it.

Having never read The Scarlet Letter, I am very interested in reading it as there seem to be a number of similarities.

It is also good to know that the future still has Target and McDonald's...

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore

Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publish Date: February 1, 2012
Format: Audio
Discs: 12
ISBN: 978 

Can dreams be passed down through families?  As a child Jude suffered a recurrent nightmare: running through a dark forest, crying for her mother.  Now six years later her six-year0old niece, Summer, is having the same dream, and Jude is frightened for her.

A successful auctioneer, Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband.  When she’s asked to value a collection of scientific instruments and manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham, a lonely 18^th century astronomer, she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk, where she grew up.

As Jude untangles Wickham’s tragic story, she discovers threatening links to the present.  What have Summer’s nightmares to do with Starbrough folly, the eerie crumbling tower in the woods from which Wickham and is adopted daughter Esther once viewed the night sky?  With help of Euan, a local naturalist, Jude searches for answers in the wild, haunting splendor of the Norfolk forests.  Dare she leave behind sadness in her own life and learn to love again?

My Thoughts

Was this a story about trying to understand the reason for Summer's bad dreams or Jude finding love again or solving the mystery of the Wickham family and what happened to Esther or tracking down her grandmother's long lost childhood friend?  I'm not really sure because there were so many sub-plots going on that each got lost.  It was very slow paced and I just found the overall plot to be boring and uninteresting.  The novel had so much potential - why couldn't it just be about Jude unraveling the mystery of Esther and be done with it.  The dream aspect was just plain unrealistic and held no value to the story.  I also found the love story to be unnecessary and boring.  I felt zero engagement with the characters and couldn't wait for the story to end.

I listened to this on audio and I have come to the conclusion that I strongly dislike British narrators!  I have listened to a number of them and the attempt at doing different voices for each character (especially a man or child) makes my skin crawl.  

It had been a few weeks since I listened to this book and I can't real how it even ended.  Hate when that happens.

My Rating: ««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Confabulist by Steven Galloway

Publisher: Knopf Canada

Publish Date:April 29, 2014

Format: Advanced reading copy

Pages: -

ISBN: -

The Confabulist weaves together the life, loves and murder of the world’s greatest magician, Harry Houdini, with the story of the man who killed him (twice): Martin Strauss, an everyday man whose fate was tied to the magician’s in unforeseen ways.  A cast of memorable characters spins around Houdini’s celebrity-driven life, as they did in his time: from the Romanov family soon to be assassinated, to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the powerful heads of Scotland Yard, and the Spiritualists who would use whoever they could to establish their religion.  A brilliant novel about fame and ambition, reality and illusion, and the ways that love, grief and imagination can alter what we perceive and believe.

My Thoughts

Whether or not this book is historically accurate (which it's not) I still found it to be an entertaining read.  I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book to others, just as long as they don't dissect and really analyze it.  Harry Houdini was a fascinating person - there is no doubt about it.  And his career was only a small part of it.  And I think that's what I wanted more of with this book.  So much of it was fabricated (such as Martin Strauss) that I wanted maybe just a bit more reality.  But on the other hand had I wanted all the facts I would have just read a biography.  I liked the uniqueness of this retelling and learned a few things about Houdini that I didn't know before such as his involvement with the Romanov family and his strange relationship with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the spiritualists.  But it did peak my interest enough  that I gave it 4 stars because it grasped my interest and held it, I never struggled to keep going. 

Thank you to Random House Canada via Goodreads First Reads Giveaway for an advanced copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

Beholding Bee by Kimberly Newton Fusco

Publisher: Random House Audio

Publish Date: February 12, 2013

Format: Audio

Discs: 7

ISBN: 978 0385361279

Bee is an orphan who lives with a carnival and sleeps in the back of a tractor trailer.  Every day she endures taunts for the birthmark on her face – though her beloved Pauline, the only person who has ever cared for her, tells her it is a precious diamond.  When Pauline is sent to work for another carnival, Bee is lost.

Then a scruffy dog shows up, as unwanted as she, and Bee realizes that she must find a home for them both.  She runs off to a house with gingerbread trim that reminds her of frosting.  There are two mysterious women, Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Potter that take her in.  They clothe her, though their clothes are strangely out of date.  They feed her, though there is nothing in their house to eat.  They help her go to school, though they won’t enter the building themselves.  And, strangely, only Bee seems able to see them.

Whoever these women are, they matter.  They matter to Bee.  And they are helping Bee realize that she, too, matters to the world – if only she will let herself be a part of it.

My Thoughts

I happened to stumble upon this one while looking online for audio books at my local library.  When I went to pick it up I was told it was located in the middle grade/young adult section.  I was going to leave it behind when I discovered it was juvenile, but I was just so drawn to the cover and the concept behind the story I just couldn't resist.  And I am very glad I didn't!

What a powerful story that is full of self discovery and self acceptance and at the center of it all is courageous heroine Bee that you can't help but root for and fall in love with.  I loved the setting, 1942 travelling carnival during the height of WWII and found it the perfect backdrop for this story.  I loved Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Swift, and thought they were a nice touch to the plot and really enjoyed the magical aspect that only Bee could see them.  All I wanted while reading was to go out and buy a floppy orange hat.  I hated Pauline for abandoning our precious little Bee when she needed her most, all for a love interest.  But in the end Pauline had redeeming qualities.  

Packed full of wisdom, heartbreak and hope, it's not just a story for kids.  Adults will fall in love with it as well. I thought it was a very enchanting book narrated by Ariadne Meyers; whom I loved listening to reading The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen.  Meyers will help you fall in love with Bee just a little bit more.

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

Publisher: Random House Audio

Publish Date: March 4, 2011

Format: Audio

Discs: 6

ISBN: 978 0307877772

The Red Garden introduces us to the luminous and haunting would of Blackwell, Massachusetts, capturing the unexpected turns in its history and in our own lives.

In exquisite prose, Hoffman offers a transforming glimpse of small-town America, presenting us with some three hundred years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty, and redemption in a web of tales where characters’ lives are intertwined by fate and by their own actions.

From the towns founder, a brave young woman from England who has no fear of blizzards or bears, to the young man who runs away to New York City with only his dog for company, the characters in The Red Garden are extraordinary and vivid: a young wounded Civil War soldier who is saved by a passionate neighbour, a woman who meets a fiercely human historical character, a poet who falls in love with a blind man, a mysterious traveler who comes to town in the year when summer never arrives.

At the center of everyone’s life is a mysterious garden where only red plants can grow, and where the truth can be found by those who dare to look.

My Thoughts

Well I didn't love it, but I didn't all together hate it either.  This was my first book by Alice Hoffman and I listened to it on audio.  While I really enjoyed the narration (done by Nancy Travis from Last Man Standing) I found the story as a whole to be very choppy and wish it would have been classified as a collection of short stories.  I found it had to develop an emotional connection to any character because once I got into a story line it ended and went on to the next chapter.  I often felt robbed when all I wanted was more. 

I wish the author would have stuck with Hallie Brady as the main focal point of the story as I found myself very interested in her but as soon as the years and stories progressed my mind would wander and the previous story would be lost.

Although I did enjoy some of the stories, such as the Fisherman's wife, I found others to drag on and unimportant to the overall story and history of Blackwell.  I also didn't quite buy into the "magical red garden" and for it supposedly being the main focus of the overall tone of the novel I found it lacking interest.

I feel like I'm ripping this one apart, but like I said, I didn't hate it, it was just different and left me with mixed feelings.  Mixed feeling reviews are always the hardest to write. I'm defiantly willing to read more from Alice Hoffman. 

My Rating: «««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

Publisher: Bantam
Publish Date: March 22, 2011
Format: download library
Pages: - 
ISBN: -

It’s dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruins generations ago.  The Blue Ridge Madam-built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather and once the finest home in Wall of Water, North Carolina has stood for years as a monument to misfortune and scandal.  Willa has lately learned that an old classmate – socialite Paxton Osgood – has restored the house to its former glory, with plans to turn it into a top-flight inn.  But when a skeleton is found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, long-kept secrets come to light, accompanied by a spate of strange occurrences throughout the town.  Thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the passions and betrayals that once bound their families – and uncover the truths that have transcended time to touch the hearts of the living.

My Thoughts

I really really enjoyed this book.  The cover of the novel was just so beautiful how could I not fall in love with it?  I found it a nice easy read and got completely wrapped up in the story.  While the story lacked any real depth, I found it cute and entertaining and kept me engaged.  It had the perfect blend of charm and haunting mystery you just needed to devour and has the flawless magical realism aspect Sarah Addison Allen seems to have perfected.

Sarah Addison Allen has quickly made her way onto my auto-read list and I can't wait to consume myself with the rest of her novels.

My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Publisher: Random House Audio
Publish Date: May 20, 2008
Format: Audio
Discs: 5
ISBN:

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favourite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet.  For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…Until she finds her closet harbouring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis-and two parts fairy godmother.  With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands.  She even bonds with Chole Finely, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them – and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush.  Soon Josey is living in a world where the colour red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons.  And that’s just for starters.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book, it was a really fun light-hearted story of one girl and her journey of self discovery.  I found all the characters enchanting and the magical touch of the story very charming.  I would have to say that Chole was my favourite - I wish books would just appear to me.  I would be saving a boat load of money.  There was just something so sweet and innocent about her that spoke to me.  Josey, you just felt sad for.  And Della Lee was there to bring them all together.  Very entertaining and leaves you with that warm fuzzy feeling.

I found the end was predicable, but but not realistic.  It ended the way I figured it would, but everything was just to neat and tidy and in it's place for me.  I like a little mystery in an ending and a little left to the imagination.  

This is the first book I've read by Sarah Addison Allen, although I've had her first novel Garden Spells on my bookshelf for years - it's about time it comes off for a read.
My Rating: ««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Publisher: William Morrow
Publish Date: August 6, 2013
Pages: 354
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0062227324

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs.  And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects.  But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family.  They want her to become a ghost bride for the family’s only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances.  Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit.  Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

After an ominous visit to the opulent mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lim’s handsome her heir, Tian Bai.  Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel would of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits and monstrous bureaucracy – including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit.  Li Lan must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets – and the truth about her own family – before she is trapped in this ghostly would forever.

My Thoughts

So I haven't finished this one yet, I got it from the library and didn't have a chance to finish it before I had to take it back and renewal was unavailable due to (lots) of holds placed on it.  I got back on the list because I DO want to finish reading it, but I wanted to give you my thoughts on it so far while they are fresh on my mine.

Although I don't know much about Chinese culture/rituals/beliefs I have been thoroughly enjoying this read.  I'm half way through (Chapter 20) and so far I find it very haunting.  The novel is broken into 4 Parts and follows Li Lan on her spiritual journey.  I really enjoyed the first 3 parts of the story and currently am on part 3.  I'm finding myself getting a little bit lost with the story and I think it's mainly due to the references that are made to the Chinese culture and their beliefs in the afterlife.  I never like giving away the plot to a story line in my reviews, so I don't want to say too much about what is currently happening and why I am finding myself confused with the plot.

Stay tuned for a future update of the remainder of the book.  

My Rating: yet to finish

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Publisher: William Morrow
Published Date: June 18, 2013
Pages: 192
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0062255655

Sussex, England.  A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral.  Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother.  He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she’d claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back.  And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.

Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road.  Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways.  The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy.   And Lettie – magical, comforting, wise beyond her years – promised to protect him, no matter what.

My Thoughts 

All I really have to say about this book is huh? I just didn't "get it" and not really even sure what to say about it.  I read the whole book, but what I actually absorbed...

I'm sure it was "haunting" and "magical" to those who enjoy Gaiman's work, this is the first novel (or rather novella) I have read of his and I'm not certain if I will read anymore.  Maybe the genre just isn't for me.  I found myself very lost during the magic parts of the story.

My Rating: «

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Publisher: Washing Square Press
Publish Date: February 16, 2010
Pages: 560
Format: Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1416550556

Cassandra is lost, alone and grieving. Her much loved grandmother, Nell, has just died and Cassandra, her life already shaken by a tragic accident ten years ago, feels like she has lost everything dear to her. Cassandra learns that Nell wasn't who she thought she was. It turns out that Nell had been raised by a couple who found her on the dock after she had been abandoned on the boat that had carried her from England to Australia at the age of four. Nell had attempted to research her own heritage, but the sudden appearance of Cassandra in her life prevented her from putting all the pieces together. Cassandra takes it upon herself to solve the mystery for her grandmother once and for all. The story weaves back and forth between three generations -- Cassandra in 2005, Nell in 1975, and the two women who are the key to the puzzle in the early years of the twentieth century. 

My Thoughts

It’s narrated by three women in three different times - all three eras are linked by the same family secret that has been hidden for over a century. In present day Australia, Cassandra’s grandmother, Nell, dies and bequeaths her a crumbling old house in Cornwall, England. Intrigued, Cassandra travels to Cornwall, and finding a long forgotten garden in the grounds of the abandoned house, beings to unravel her family’s hundred year old secret. In Victorian England, spirited Eliza flees her from her wealthy but controlling family, never to be seen again. And in the early 1900s, a very young Nell arrives alone in Australia carrying just two items: a little white suitcase and a book of fairy tales written by a mysterious author.

Layer after layer, and in alternating chapters, Cassandra, Eliza and Nell tell their tale of love, loss, sacrifice and hope, weaving their individual stories together to make a poignant whole. Although part of the secret is guessable, the finer details are held back right until the end, and when it all comes together, you get a real sense of completion, a fairy tale within a fairy tale (that'll make sense if you read it), a story that stays with you long after the final page has been read.

My Rating: «««««

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The reviews made here are my personal opinion. I’m not being paid to review any of these books. I am by no means a professional book reviewer or editor.  I do this for the love of books.