Marry in Scandal

Anne Gracie books are quite enjoyable. Her writings are exquisite, and the secondary characters are usually as delightful as the lead couple. Marry in Scandal is the second book in the Marriage of Convenience series, and it is fine as a stand-alone. The story of Lily and Edward is strong enough to carry the book without knowing all the back story.

I absolutely loved the way the author brought Edward around to recognizing his love for Lily. Even when he is determined to protect her tender heart from his callous one, he is vulnerable to her charms and can't keep himself away. Lily was a fantastic heroine and I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. *JK*

Could You Be This Brave?

Most of us have read WWII fiction, and here's another!  The Baker's Secret is a well-written, easy to read book about a brave and determined 22-year-old woman.  In a small German-occupied village in France just before D-Day, the local Jewish baker is taken away.  The German army needs bread and Emma was the baker's apprentice.  A small resistance team is created when Emma figures out a way to distribute needed food (and hope!) to villagers while living in a home occupied by a German officer. 
Strong characters and wonderful descriptions of the countryside, the smells of bread and the villagers. This story made me think about what I would do in Emma's situation and if I could be this brave?? SW

A Lady's Code of Misconduct

A Lady's Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran was surprisingly good! In this historical romance, I love that we have a female character with brains and it's not someone who is weak that minces words with men, looking for her strength. But a woman that takes the bull by the horns and makes life happen for her.

Crispin, the male character is so different too! He started off an unlikable jerk but ended up being an amazing man. I love his passion for life and for Jane.

The author has created a perfect love story. From sparks flying at the beginning to a slow growth of respect, protection, care, consideration, and love, the perfect couple is brought together as one. It's such a beautiful and interesting historical story. *JK*

A Sinful Deception

A Sinful Deception is a second series of Breconridge Brothers by Isabella Bradford. Just by the cover and the title of this book makes you wonder what it entail and you guessed it right! It is a brilliant tale of love, lies, and survival all wrapped around together. Lord Geoffrey Fitzroy is the second son of Duke of Breconridge, and also a handsome bachelor and ladies' man. Lady Serena Carew, a mysterious young woman with an exotic beauty, grew up in India. When Geoffrey sees her at a ball, he can't resist dancing with her. He is captivated by Serena and how set apart she is from others. Even though their relationship is forbidden by her grandfather, they can't seem to resist the desire they share for each other. There are truths Serena is keeping from Geoffrey, secrets that could destroy their bond to each other. The story's climax is different from my typical experience in this genre and it's quite exciting. The dialogue appears very true to the era and I love how the dresses on the covers for Bradford's books are always featured in the story, adding an authenticity that is rare these days. I have to say the romance is steamy and sensual and has incredible tension. I am absolutely loving this writer and the series. *JK*

Adult Book Discussion

Join us Thursday, February 6 at 6:30pm for a discussion of The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.

Told from the perspective of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, The Paris Wife creates a snapshot of 1920s Paris and the vibrant, creative people who inhabited it.  Readers follow Hadley from her fateful first meeting with Hemingway, across the Atlantic to the City of Light, and ultimately back again as their marriage deteriorates.  Along the way, Hadley struggles with her place both in Hemingway's life and amongst the eccentric personalities she encounters.  HM

Only Mostly Dead

Seventeen year-old Li Lan is saddled with an impossible decision; marry the recently deceased son of her father's creditor, or helplessly watch her family sink deep into poverty.  But before she can choose, she finds herself lost and alone in the afterlife, neither living nor dead, where she must uncover the secrets of her would-be bridegroom.  In The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo masterfully recreates 1890s Malaysia and takes the reader on a spectacular ride through mythology and fantasy as we accompany Li Lan into the spirit realm.  Truly enchanting.  HM

Adventure on the High Seas

When mild-mannered personal chef Owen Wedgewood is violently kidnapped by pirate queen Mad Hannah Mabbot from his late benefactor's residence in 1800s England, he's in for a wild ride aboard The Flying Rose, where he is forced to create exceptional meals with scant ingredients in exchange for his continued survival.  Told through Wedgewood's diary, Eli Brown's Cinnamon and Gunpowder sees our protagonist confront his own shortcomings and prejudices as he slowly assimilates (kicking and screaming) into the pirate crew and becomes closer to the fearsome Captain Mabbot, who is busy trying to upset the entire opium trade and catch her nemesis, The Brass Fox.  HM

Join Us for Book Discussion

In February we'll be meeting to discuss Jim Fergus' One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd.  Fergus re-imagines an episode in the dying Old West of the 1870s, describing a fictional, top-secret government program to marry various "undesirable" white women into the Cheyenne Nation.

We will meet Wednesday, February 6th at 1pm to discuss -- please join us!  HM

Sacrifice and Love

When the Kitchen God gets caught criticizing the Jade Emperor's management of Earth's affairs, his punishment is to uncover the mysterious workings of the human heart.  To achieve this, he decides to follow one couple, Bian Yuying and Hou Jinyi -- from the Japanese occupation, through Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, and ultimately to death -- telling their story of love, compassion, and forgiveness.  Sam Meekings' Under Fishbone Clouds is a beautifully written testament to the strength and power one can derive from love in the most desperate of conditions.  HM

Good Old-Fashioned Haunting

In the spirit of Halloween, settle down for this quick read: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. I'm not a huge fan of scary stories, but this one had the right amount of thriller and supernatural creepiness to keep me on the edge of my seat (and not too afraid to be alone in the dark). Though published in the early 1980s, Hill sets her ghostly tale somewhere in the early part of the 1900s on the desolate marshes of England's northeast coast. Arthur Kipps, a young up-and-coming lawyer is sent to the secluded Eel Marsh House to settle the estate of it's most recent inhabitant, Alice Drablow. Instead, he finds himself caught in a web of terrifying apparitions and unexplainable sounds. And to add to the tension, Eel Marsh House just so happens to be situated at the end of a causeway and is only accessible when the tide is out. If this story sounds a little familiar, it's because The Woman in Black has already been made into a stage play, a TV movie, two radio programs, and will be introduced to the big screen early next year (starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame as Kipps). HM

Night of the Unread

If you've been in the library recently, you may have seen our display of books that have not checked out in awhile. Maybe they lived on a bottom shelf, maybe they had an ugly cover -- whatever the reason, these are truly hidden gems that have been looked over in the past. For example, as soon as you see Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, it's pretty easy to guess why it's been ignored; at a daunting 773 pages, it's a major undertaking. But that doesn't mean that it's not worth it. Following the fictionalized adventures of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon (as in the Mason-Dixon Line), Pynchon takes readers on a whirlwind tour "featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, and major caffeine abuse " (from the inside flap). If that doesn't sound worth the 773 pages, I don't know what does. HM

Eternal Flame

In Ghost Light, Joseph O'Connor explores what remains after a great romance has come to an end. Based on the real-life relationship between Irish playwright John Synge and his teen-aged muse, actress Molly Allgood, readers are taken on a journey through 1900s Dublin and 1950s London. Only a few years into their secret courtship, Synge dies, leaving young Molly alone to contemplate their love affair in the decades that follow. Through Molly's narration, we are told that a ghost light is the single luminescent left to burn in the theatre, always avoiding complete darkness. Synge's memory is Molly's ghost light and her constant companion during her downward spiral to alcoholism and destitution, but Molly herself is also a ghost light, the only flame left from a time gone by. O'Connor's prose makes for a very quick and engaging read, leading readers down the rabbit hole within his heroine's mind. HM

There's Always Next Time

Fans of The Time Traveler's Wife will likely enjoy My Name is Memory, the latest adult offering by Ann Brashares (of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fame). In it we meet Daniel, a young man who has the unique ability to remember past lives and past loves. In his most recent incarnation, Daniel seeks out Lucy, a young woman he remembers as Sophia, the great love of his lives. Can Daniel convince Lucy/Sophia of their past together, or will he be doomed to yet another lonely life? Told in alternating viewpoints, readers will get to know both characters, their motivations, and the reasons they may or may not be able to be together this time around. A bit confusing and, at times, frustrating, but still a worthy read.

When a Scratch Could Kill You

Lauren Belfer's new novel, A Fierce Radiance, takes place in New York during WWII, with all the fears and uncertancies of that era. There are interweaving plots,a murder,a love affair, and death. The main storyline, however, is the development of penicillin. Before antibiotics, you could die of a scratch,an infection, the flu, or meningitis. Penicillin changed life as the people then knew it. Big drug companies were competing to see who could develop the technology to produce the drug because of the huge profits involved. The government was trying to control production to be able to use penicillin for it's armed forces. Although this sounds grim, the novel is a complex, interesting read.

The Prince of Mist

The only thing better than getting fully-engrossed in a suspenseful story is getting fully-engrossed in a suspenseful story on a dark and stormy afternoon. Thus was the case with The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The thunder and lightning added atmosphere to this already deliciously spooky read!

When the Carver family moves to a small coastal town to escape the threat of war that creeps ever closer to the city, 13-year-old Max is the first to sense that something is not quite right about his seemingly picturesque new home. Soon after exploring a mysterious garden of statues he discovers behind his new house, his sense of unease about the place morphs into one of fear. Lending credit to this is a series of terrifying and unexplainable events that shake the lives of Max and the members of his family. Soon Max, his older sister Alicia, and their new friend Roland are unwillingly pulled into an age-old curse involving an evil and possibly deadly entity known as The Prince of Mist. The only living soul who knows the truth about the curse (and how to stop it) is a reclusive old man who lives in a battered lighthouse--and he's not talking. Max, Alicia, and Roland must unlock this mystery before it's too late, before the Prince of Mist claims yet another victim. But is the truth something they're prepared to handle?

Wonderfully creepy! Recommended for horror/suspense fans craving a story with more depth and imagination than the standard and highly-overrated blood and guts approach.