Gail
I don't usually read the big city career/small town guy trope, it feels too Hallmark Christmas to me, but I really enjoyed this book. It felt very realistic to me. Giving up or changing her career was a non-starter. The way they navigate the relationship while she stays true to her career goals was handled well. I liked both main characters and was rooting for them.
The book does deal with issues of emotional and physical abuse, both with the main character, Alexis, and one of the side characters. I liked how they handled it with Alexis, but with the side character, who was in a worse situation, it seemed a little too easily handled.
Solid historical fiction bringing light too a little known part of history.
This book starts with a forward by Chip Beck, about the many U.S. POWs that have been held captive long after a conflict ended or transferred outside of the conflict zone. In this case, it's a marine captured in Vietnam and transferred to Prague. The historical note states evidence leaked after the fall of the Soviet Union that troops were moved from Vietnam via Prague for experimentation. Congress investigated but not much of a conclusion. Boris Yeltsin confirmed this occurred when he was president of Russia in the 1990s.
The story about the POW, a JOB colonel, a U.S. spy left behind in Prague after WWII, and his decision to try and help was compelling. The information about the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the KGB colonel at the center was fast paced, the conflict building to a tense and realistic final showdown. I enjoyed this part of the story a great deal. The small town setting and the town's struggle with the Colonel and oppression was a great (but hard) read. I felt their anger and fear and frustration.
There's a love story subplot that honestly seems unnecessary. That's the only reason for the 3 star rating. It wasn't a bad storyline. Just a bit of a distraction.
I won this book.as a Goodreads giveaway. And I received it just as I was leaving for a trip to the Czech Republic! Perfect timing.
This book is told in alternating timelines. Normally, I'm ok with that style of writing, but I had trouble with out in this book because the Anna Anderson timeline is presented backwards. It was very hard for me to follow. Just be warned.
Otherwise, I would say this book tries to portray both storylines as honestly as possible. And these women had some excruciatingly hard lives, so don't expect an easy read.
Not my favorite Lynsay Sands
I've read a bunch of Sands' books in the past and really enjoyed them. But this one just wasn't for me. The book description doesn't really make this clear, but the book has secret that's kept from the Metra initially. She has amnesia and assumes he's her husband and everyone decides that for her own good, they need to let her believe that. This big secret type story line is my least favorite trope and I just didn't ever recover from the annoyance it caused. Wish this would have been clear from the description.
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
The is my second Christina Lauren book and another very enjoyable read. I liked reading Macy and Elliott's story and seeing them grow up together and fall in love. I did think the ending was a bit much. I don't see how they can get past the events of 11 years ago but books can be more hopeful than really.
My spoiler alert is based on some of the negative reviews. Everyone has different tastes obviously, and you like what you like. But specifically citing Elliott's lame or pathetic excuse for sleeping with Emma just hits me wrong. Imagine their genders are reversed. A girl is severely intoxicated, to the point of being passed out at the start of the encounter. No one would care what excuse she makes, most readers responses would be, “Honey, it's not your fault, you were assaulted.” Unconscious people do not consent to sex. And in fact, Elliott was so traumatized after that he didn't sleep with anyone for years. And freaked out the first time he did. His rationalization may seem lame but I'd guess it's even harder for a guy to deal with being raped. Just something to think about.
Best book you'll ever read about hedge funds and tax fraud!
The heroes of this story are a tax attorney and a billionaire hedge fund manager. And heroes they are. This book tells the story of Bill Browder's career and life, and the crime that turned him from business man to human rights crusader.
Sergei Magnitsky was killed in police custody in Russia. Held for nearly a year on trumped up charges, his real crime was whistleblower. He uncovered a massive tax fraud committed in Russia. Despite his horrible treatment and his failing brotherhood in custody, Sergei never backed down and continued to tell the truth of what he had uncovered.
Browder tells this story with such heart and feeling. It reads like a political thriller, an excellent one. Read this book. You won't regret it!
I didn't know anything about Coco Chanel before reading this book. I found the book interesting and would think of Chanel as a complicated but interesting person if I took the book at face value. She owned her sexuality. She was unapologetically ambitious. She was a visionary. Unfortunately, she was also a Nazi collaborator and an anti-Semite. The book would have you believe that she wasn't really anti-Semitic, despite her string of anti-Semitic lovers, German lovers, financial baking of an anti-Semitic magazine and use of Nazi laws to try and oust the Jewish owners of her perfume company. I takes a lot of twisting to ignore all these facts. I think this is a much more interesting book if you don't ignore the uncomfortable parts of Chanel's character.
The best I can say about this book is that it was so obviously glossing over the truth that I was compelled to look for more information. Even a quick internet search found a lot. It's a shame. I like Gortners writing style, he's a good storyteller. But if you're telling stories about historical figures, you should try to keep closer to the truth.
2.5 Stars. A Taste of Paris looks at the history of food in Paris and Parisian attitudes towards food. The book starts it's history with the Roman conquest of Paris and goes through modern times. Each section gives a brief overview of the bigger moments of the period under discussion and then moves on the the ways the period shaped the eating habits of Paris in the future and where you can see elements of this history in today's Parisian restaurants. I guess I'm more of a historian then a foodie because I found the histories more interesting than the food-restaurant recommendations. Once Downie moved on to talking about the restaurants or food trends that harken back to a certain period I got a little bored. These sections sounded a bit too “tour guide” to me. Still,there are definitely some places that I will want to check out if I'm lucky enough to make it back to Paris. Ie keep this book around for reference.
I won this book through a good reads give away.
Beautiful people with extraordinary lives
Sin With Me is the third book in a series but is a stand alone novel. The writing is ok and the story started out well but just continued getting more complicated. Car accidents, exploding houses unbelievable coincidences. Based on the snippets from the couple's in the previous two books, it sounds like par for the series. It was just a bit too over the top for me.
DNF. I had high hopes for this book. It is so well reviewed and I've always been fascinated with stories of possible escaped grand duchesses. But this book didn't hit the mark for me. The romance was saccharine. The love at first sight lacked believability even more than usual. More frustrating, the timeline stories didn't really connect in my opinion. The transition between present and past was choppy. There's only one moment when present day Kitty finds a charm that probably matches up to something mentioned in the previous past timeline chapter and starts wearing it on a necklace. Of course, if it was the charm from the previous chapter then it was a fancy tag for the royal dog. How romantic.
My suggestions is that is you want a historical fiction novel featuring a grand duchess, read City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin. Skip The Secret Wife.
Dearest Rogue is part of the Elizabeth Hoyts Maiden Lane series. The heroine of this book is Lady Phoebe Batten. Phones is blind and her over-protective brother has hired a bodyguard, Captain James Trevellion to keep her safe. 2 attempted kidnappings, 2 successful kidnappings and a hideout later, Phoebe and James are in love. HEA for everyone.
I have mixed feelings about this book. The story was fast paced and fun. Both the main characters are very likable. The only problem I have is that they have no chemistry. Not great for romance. Maybe a buddy story but not a romance.
Overall, I give this 2.5 stars.
I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway.
Loved it! Lisa Kleypas is one of my favorites. I was a little disappointed in the first book, Cold Hearted Rake, it was just ok. This book more than makes up for it. Great story. Loved both the main characters. Super excited for the next book, especially when I found out it features the son of my most loved couple!! Can't wait!
Burned by KMM
I liked this book much more than I wanted to. I've been a fan of KMM since her Highlander series. Kiss of the Highlander was my first highlander book and remains one of my all time favorites. And the original 5 book Fever series was fantastic. Dark, twisted, at times both hard to read and impossible to put down.
And now here we are, Fever 7. Mac is back. Dani is back-seated. The story is engaging from the start. Drew me right in. I needed to know what happened to all my favorite characters. I needed to know if they were getting any closer to fixing their world. I was excited. And if it wasn't for the assault on feminism that is Mac and Barrons, I would have given this book a much better rating. Mac should be a strong woman, she's certainly a capable woman. But it's growing more obvious to me that she's also an abused woman. And it makes me mad. I read a blog post just today defending romance against the claim that it teaches women that being abused by the alpha male is ok. I don't buy that for one second. But I also can see that Mac and Barrons don't exactly send the best message. This is not a relationship of equals. If you follow KMM, you'll know that this is completely intentional. Mac is not equal to Barrons, and won't be until she suffers some more. A big part of me hopes Mac comes to her senses, drops Barrons (no matter how hot the sex is) and finds herself an honorable MacKeltar to settle down with.
So I guess my advice to readers is this. If you are fans of the Fever series, you'll probably like the story. But if you're like me, you'll also be angry and disappointed.
All The Winters After tells the story of lonely and damaged people finding family, forgiveness and themselves in the Alaskan wilderness. The book begins 20 years after the death of Kache's parents and older brother in a plain crash. Kache has not been able to move past the sorrow and survivors guilt, but he is finally heading back home after losing his job and his girlfriend. He thinks his parent's home has been left abandoned all this time but instead finds that Nadia has been squatting in his home, and acting as caretaker. His home is exactly as he remembers it and Nadia seems to know everything about him.
Nadia escaped a violent husband and left her family and life behind, hiding out in the cabin. She has immersed herself in the life of Kache's family, reading their books, watching their movies, living in their memories. She's a shut in, never leaving the property, fearing that the husband will find her, but instead Kache does.
Together, Kache and Nadia heal each other. This book is a beautiful story about finding your way through great tragedies. Moving on, but never forgetting.
I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Sourcebooks in exchange for an honest review.
The Swans of Fifth Avenue is the story of the rise and tragic fall of Truman Capote. It centers on the befriending of Truman by the beautiful and privileged elite of New York, especially William S Paley, the founder of CBS, and his iconic wife, Babe. Truman was taken into the group as a novelty and he called them his swans. I don't imagine these people had met many openly and proudly gay people up to that point, though the were whispers about some. And he was a story teller and entertainer. They befriended him, trotted him out like a favorite toy and told him all their secrets. Babe Paley is the tragic figure in this story. She truly loved Truman and cherished his friendship. She was also the one most betrayed when he published a short story in Esquire, laying out the dirty little secrets of so many, including a very embarrassing story about Babe's cheating husband. The names were changed but it was obvious who was who. After the story, Truman was ostracized. He never finished published another book.
I enjoyed this book very much, though it mad me sad. In Cold Blood is one of my all time favorite books and though I never believed that Capote was a great person, I didn't know he was such a sad person. He longed to be loved, but couldn't stop himself from being mean. And Babe, she was a good friend, a true friend, but even that couldn't stop him from making his tragic mistake. And sadly, the short stories he published about his swans weren't even that good. That seems the most tragic part to me.
The book is a work of historical fiction. The characters are all real and the author stayed as close to the known facts as possible. But as she says in the Author's Note, so many of the characters were such liars, it was easy to take some liberties. It is a very good book. I highly recommend it, even though it is a bit sad.
DNF. This book was horrible. I can't understand why it was so well reviewed. It kept getting more ridiculous with every chapter. Once I got to the time travelling automobile that the 15th century highlander just instinctively knows how to drive, I had to stop. I wish I could go back in time and not purchase this book.