A Royal Romance Re-imagined

 

Philip II of France and Richard I (the Lion Hearted) were rival kings and in this re-imagined history, lovers. They were raised with different expectations. Philip always knew he would be king and a sense of duty to his country was instilled in him from his earliest years. Richard was the second son. He was not slated to be king until his older brother died. He had a great deal of conflict with his father who he hated. These two very different men from different backgrounds come together in a poignant romance.

The book is well researched. The author spends much of the first part of the book going into the historical and political background. I found this very well done. It laid the ground work for the romance, but did put the actual coming together off until the later part of the book.

I am not a big fan of telling history and presenting characters with actions and desires they didn’t have, at least as far as we know from the historical record. However, the author is upfront about this in both a note at the beginning and another note at the end.

The two men are well portrayed. The author does a good job of letting reader get to know each man by alternating chapters where each tells his own story. I thought it as an effective device. The writing is quit lovely and makes the story more believable. While not really historical fiction since it takes liberties with the history, it’s a satisfying romance.

I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.

A Gothic Mystery Reminiscent of Jane Eyre

 

Margaret Lennox, recently widowed and left without resources, has taken a position as a governess at Hartwood Hall, a large, remote country house. Her charge, a ten-year-old boy is delightful, but the house and the other occupants seem full of secrets.

The townspeople gossip about the house, and Margaret can’t help but listen. They believe the house is haunted and the residents are strange. There are whispers that the owner is a witch. Although she discounts the gossip, Margaret feels uneasy. She thinks that she sees shadows, candles burning where they shouldn’t be and there are strange noises in the night.

Margaret fears her own past will catch up with her. She is also uneasy about her budding relationship with Paul, the groundskeeper.

The book is very atmospheric. The underlying tension and the strange occurrences make Margaret unable be comfortable in her new position. The story is told completely from her point of view, which works well. We see the eerie house through her eyes as an outsider. She is also a strong woman and doesn’t easily give in to her fears.

The time is 1852 and the author has done an excellent job using the historical background to keep the story realistic while providing details that help build the feeling of unease and suspense. If you enjoy historical fiction with a Gothic tone, you’ll like this book.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

Keeping Your Head Above Water as a RideShare Driver

 

Damani is a Sri Lankan RideShare driver. Life has gotten more difficult now that her father is dead and she’s become the caretaker of her grieving mother who refuses to leave their basement apartment. Her friends are trying to organize and protest in the hope of getting a better life, but Damani has little time for protests, she’s barely eking out a living as it is.

Then she meets beautiful, rich Jolene. She seems perfect. There’s chemistry between her and Damani, and Jolene becomes an ally in the protests for livable wages and justice for the under-served like Damani. However, things are not always as perfect as they seem and in the end it turns out they’re definitely not.

Damani is an interesting character. She talks tough. She’s into working out so that she’s able to deal with any dangerous situations with her riders. She has weapons hidden all over the car. I found her breezy style interesting but it began to drag in the first half of the book. The second half is much livelier. It’s hard to put down.

The book is very readable social commentary. I’m not sure the romantic aspect adds a great deal, but it does enliven the ending.

I received this book from Knopf Doubleday for this review.

A Myth Retold without Fantasy or Magic

 

Three women figured prominently in the tale of Perseus: Danae, his mother, Medusa, the Gorgon he slew, and Andromeda, his wife. In Greek mythology, Perseus, descended from Zeus, is a perfect hero. However, the experiences of the three women in his life paint a different picture. In this book Perseus comes across as cruel angrily trying to prove his descent from Zeus.

Instead of the magic and fantasy of the Greek myth, this book is relentlessly realistic. The story is told from the point of view of each of the three women in turn. I liked that each woman had a section of the book to tell her story. It kept the flow going. I often find that a story becomes choppy when the author moves back and forth from chapter to chapter among characters.

While I found the book interesting, I am not a big fan of retelling myths in all the grim reality of the period. I enjoyed seeing how the author envisages the historical settings. However, for me the myths have their own beauty. It is the way people at the time looked on their gods and heroes and the magic and fantasy play a major role.

I received this book from Dutton for this review.

A Town Divided: A Family-Divided

 

The small town of Wesleyan, Georgia is bitterly divided over whether to remove the statue of a Confederate general. Marietta, whose husband Harry has recently died, is on one side; her brother, a well-known trial attorney is on on the other. When an ice store paralyzes the town during Harry’s funeral, people are thrown together for shelter. Marietta finds herself marooned with three others all coming to grips with their feelings.

The ice storm precipitates a crisis when the town emerges from the ice storm to find the statue gone. Things rapidly swing out of control as feelings run high about the vandalism. Some people support the action, others are ready to fight, including Marietta’s broth, Macon.

Although the statue of a Confederate general is at the center of the controversy, this is not a book about racial problems. It is the story of people coming to terms with their inner demons and growing because of it. In the beginning of the book, I didn’t like Marietta. She seemed rigid and had turned away from friends because her ideas differed from theirs. This included her brother and her former best friend, Butter. As the story progressed, I liked her better because she tried to see others point of view. She didn’t want to lose her friends and family.

The book is beautifully written. The setting and life of a small southern town is brought to life. It‘s a delight to read about the setting and the characters. I also liked the fact that the story was told from multiple points of view. It showed that everyone has their own problems and can grow.

I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.

Nordic Noir Police Procedural

 A severed body is found in a suitcase in a park in Copenhagen. Annette Werner from the Violent Crimes Unit is given the lead on the investigation. In this novel, she’s working alone because her partner Jeppe Karner is on leave living on the Danish Island of Bornholm where he is working at the local sawmill as a lumberjack. His friend Ester di Laurenti is also on the island researching the life of a female anthropologist for a biography she’s writing.

Annette discovers a connection between the island and the crime. She’s working with the local police, but with her partner, Jeppe, there she feels comfortable asking him to look around for a missing person who may be the body. Ester is also engaged when reading the anthropologist’s letters it appears that the past secrets in the letters may relate to the present crime.

This is the fifth book in the series, but is easy to read as a standalone. The author makes her characters come alive through details of their personal lives which helps the reader understand the interactions between them. I thought the characterization was one of the main pluses in the book.

The book is a somewhat gruesome police procedural due to the nature of the crime. If you find that objectionable this may not be your book. However, the plot, although moving at a moderate pace, is well done with plenty of clues and twists to keep you reading. The ending is somewhat of a surprise, but is well foreshadowed by the action.

I received this book from Gallery Books for this review.

 

A Dystopian Murder Mystery

 

Under the shadow of a deadly virus, society is breaking down. Three groups are seeking shelter at the Retreat, but are forestalled by accidents. Hannah and her classmates are on a bus heading for the Retreat when the bus goes off the road in a snowstorm. The bus is on it’s side with the unbreakable windows on the exposed side. Meg is trapped with strangers in a gondola swinging a thousand feet above the mountainside. Carter is already at the Retreat where he works, but the generator is going out and getting more supplies would be difficult at best.

The three threads of the story seem seem disconnected at first, but as the novel progresses the author cleverly pulls the strands together for a surprising conclusion. Although the book with multiple narrators and numerous characters seems difficult to follow at first, it’s worth sticking with it to get to the ending.

The writing is atmospheric and the difficulties faced by the three groups will have you on the edge of your seat. There is rather a lot of horror and blood. If it makes you uncomfortable, this may not be the book for you. However, the murder mystery and the interacting strands make for plenty of twists. I couldn’t figure out the trick at the end until well into the second half of the book.

I received this book from Random House for this review.