Review - Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Title: Lincoln in the Bardo

Author: George Saunders

Synopsis:

In his long-awaited first novel, American master George Saunders delivers his most original, transcendent, and moving work yet. Unfolding in a graveyard over the course of a single night, narrated by a dazzling chorus of voices, Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other—for no one but Saunders could conceive it.

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy’s body.

From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and ter/rifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.

My Thoughts:

When a book makes me want to visit a place I know I won't soon forget it. When the place in question is as quaint as a cemetery, a particular resting place, it gets wedged in my memory even more.

When Willie Lincoln, President Lincoln's son died at age 11 he was placed in the Carroll crypt in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown. That's where we are guided by George Saunders to take part in an unforgettable journey.

Lincoln in the Bardo is a complex project that can be studied from many angles. It's a thoughtful and gentle piece of grief literature on the one hand, while on the other it draws from historical records to cement its supernatural plot in reality. 

According to some such records President Lincoln visited the cemetery to hold his son's body for weeks after the boy was entombed. The book tells the story of one night, the night after the funeral when Willie Lincoln finds himself sitting on the roof of his crypt in the company of ghosts. He's utterly confused and wants to go home. He doesn't know what happened to him.

The interesting thing is that the ghosts don't seem to know either that they are dead. They refer to their coffins as 'sick boxes', to their corpses as 'sick forms'. Later we learn the reason of this, we only have to read between the lines to understand.

Willie's unwillingness to pass on puts his soul in danger and when his living father appears on the scene Mr. Bevins, Mr. Vollman and the Reverend Everly Thomas – ghostly residents of the cemetery – snatch this opportunity to help the little boy move on.

President Lincoln's grief gets the center stage, but he never talks; he thinks, he feels and we always experience his thoughts and feelings through a mediator. We see a broken man, one who struggles under the weight life has placed on his shoulders.

While we get to meet the father in the cemetery, snippets of memoirs that are collected and arranged expertly throughout the book show us the president through the eyes of the people. 

Lincoln gets hot and cold as it is to be expected but the most fascinating for me was how this novel indicates how uncreditable human recollections can be. There is a bit where paragraph after paragraph appear from different memoirs in which people recall how the moon looked the night before Willie died. Some say there was a clear full moon, some insist a storm was rolling in, the sky was so cloudy you couldn't see the moon. Then in another part people recall the colour of Lincoln's eyes and again the descriptions don't match. It reminded me that so many pieces of information we take for granted yet some facts get irrevocably lost in the past.

Another topic George Saunders touches on is sin and how everyone perceives their own or other people's sins. This has so much to do with everything that occurs in Oak Hill Cemetery in the book.

The structure in which all these supernatural happenings and historical reminiscences are presented is unique for a novel. It reads more like a play, the name of the speaker is always written under each utterance but very often the speaker relays what others in his presence say or do. For some the format can be challenging but if one likes reading dramas I don't think it will be an issue.

There's a reason why Lincoln in the Bardo won the Man Booker Prize in 2017 and I'm glad I decided to read it. It's a great literary achievement for sure.

Goodreads | Amazon

Review - The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr

    Title: The Angel of Darkness

    Author: Caleb Carr

    Synopsis:

    WARNING: The synopsis contains possible spoilers for The Alienist by    Caleb Carr

It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a pioneer in forensic psychiatry, tracked down the brutal serial killer John Beecham with the help of a team of trusted companions and a revolutionary application of the principles of his discipline. Kreizler and his friends--high-living crime reporter John Schuyler Moore; indomitable, derringer-toting Sara Howard; the brilliant (and bickering) detective brothers Marcus and Lucius Isaacson; powerful and compassionate Cyrus Montrose; and Stevie Taggert, the boy Kreizler saved from a life of street crime--have returned to their former pursuits and tried to forget the horror of the Beecham case. But when the distraught wife of a Spanish diplomat begs Sara's aid, the team reunites to help find her kidnapped infant daughter. It is a case fraught with danger, since Spain and the United States are on the verge of war. 

My Thoughts:

Given that the second season of The Alienist series has already come out on TNT and I'm eagerly anticipating it on Netflix because that's the place I'll be able to see it myself, I thought I'd read the book first to be up to date for the show.

For those of you who are not familiar with the duology – soon to be trilogy – Caleb Carr's crime novels are set in New York at the end of the 19th century and follow an alienist (the term roughly referred to psychologists at the time) and his group of friends as they track down serial killers. In the first book they are after a ruthless man who murders child prostitutes with extreme brutality while in The Angel of Darkness they set out to catch a woman whose victims are mostly babies.

The main difference between the first and the second Alienist book is that The Angel of Darkness is narrated by young Stevie Taggert, Dr. Kreizler's ward instead of John Moore, Kreizler's journalist friend. I enjoyed John's storytelling, but Stevie's recollections are positively hilarious at times and, taking into consideration how dark the story is on the whole, I appreciated the fresh, youthful humour that somehow eased the digestion of the tougher parts of the novel for me.

I found it refreshing that this time the killer was a woman and so Sara's insight into the female mind became invaluable in the case. By now she's opened her own detective agency and it is so nice she gets recognition and a chance to act on her ambitions. I absolutely adored how Laszlo and Sara's relationship was raised to another level (not romantic, or was it? I like that I can't tell), how he treated her like an absolute equal intellectually and otherwise (not that he didn't in the Alienist, but here their mutual trust and respect deepened even more).

As for the plot, the murderess's identity is revealed pretty fast but the team finds it hard to get a grip on her and so they have to work hard to build up a case from scraps of evidences. They find a couple of allies during their investigation, like the talkative Mr. Picton, John's old prosecutor friend and Kat, Stevie's sweetheart who, although a bit troublesome, proves to be helpful in the end.

I confess I liked AOD more than The Alienist for many reasons, one of them being that it deals less with New York's political mechanisms of the time and more with the killer and the female psyche. Since I'm not extremely interested in politics in general the parts in The Alienist where it was detailed who held what kind of power over whom bored me quite a bit even if on the whole the political intricacies had a great influence on the plot. I felt AOD was more character and case-centered and had less 'background noise' in it, which was more to my liking.

Judging by the promos I've seen the tv show won't be very faithful to the book in its second season, but I won't mind that if they've come up with an original plot that doesn't mess much with my favourite team. 

The books I wholeheartedly recommend to everyone, they are pure fun for crime and historical fiction lovers.

Goodreads | Amazon

Review - The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

    Title: The Silence of the Girls

    Author: Pat Barker

    Synopsis:

When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis's old life is shattered. She goes from queen to captive, from free woman to slave, awarded to the godlike warrior Achilles as a prize of battle. She's not alone. On the same day, and on many others in the course of a long, bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters.

As told in The Iliad, the Trojan War was a quarrel between men. But what of the women in this story, silenced by their fates? What words did the speak when alone with each other, in the laundry, at the loom, when laying out the dead?

In this magnificent novel of the Trojan War, Pat Barker summons the voices of Briseis and her fellow women to tell this mythic story anew, foregrounding their experiences against the backdrop of savage battle between men. One of the contemporary writers on war and its collateral damage, here Pat Barker reimagines the most famous of all wars in literature, charting one woman's journey throught it, as she struggles to free herself and to become the author of her own story.

My Thoughts:

This is the story of the Invisible, the story of the Oppressed. Of the ones who the songs barely mentioned despite their courage which often was greater than the fighting men's. The ladies who suffered and were forced to endure the dire consequences of the bloody war under the walls of Troy are often but a footnote in books that retell the events of the Iliad. Pat Barker decided to honour them at last. 

The Silence of the Girls starts with the sack of Lyrnessus and the capturing of its women. The first half of the events are told from Briseis' point of view who's given to Achilles as a war prize. In Lyrnessus she was a princess, now she's a slave. At home she wasn't allowed to walk the streets unveiled, now all she owns are rags and she's subject to the obtrusive leer of the Greek fighters.

One of the most shocking issue that this novel deals with is how the women were objectified. None of the men (except for Patroclus) treated them as human beings. The humiliation was sometimes hard to read and made me extremely angry. 

Achilles wasn't depicted as the great hero in this novel. The author focused on how he had been abandoned by his mother Thetis and because of this he grew up to be a miserable man-child. He was cruel and cold, but he did go through some development in the novel which was interesting to observe (some parts are told in the third person following Achilles).

There's a tension you feel throughout the book that's generated by the fact the women don't speak up for themselves. Because they can't, if they want to survive they can't. Some choose to speak with action, like Briseis' cousin who throws herself off the wall of the city right before they are captured. Some resist by not resisting, like young Polyxena who holds her head high while she's taken away to be executed. Some pray wordlessly, hard and long for vengeance and get it, like Briseis. You see all these silent battles, but never a loud confrontation, because it's impossible. It's dreadful to realize they don't have a choice.

Pat Barker included all the themes Iliad works with and more. There's Achilles' grief for Patroclus, but there is the mothers' grief for their murdered babies, sisters' anguish over the loss of their brothers. There are musings about whether a person's memory lives on, but also how the memory of a community survives. The question is asked: can there be friendship between enemies? and so on...

If you're looking for long descriptions about the heat of the battles don't look here. The whole book is set in the background, at the camps. But there's plenty of pressure behind closed doors and consequences of the fighting always touch the women's lives. They are strong and enduring, they are women to look up to; Briseis, Arianna, Helen, Chryseis, Hecamede, Hecuba, Polyxena, and I could go on... these are names to remember.

I'm always looking for works that present Iliad from a new angle; Pat Barker's book is not one that I'll soon forget, I'm sure.

Goodreads | Amazon

Review - White Lotus by Libbie Hawker

  Title: White Lotus (White Lotus Trilogy #1)

  Author: Libbie Hawker

  Synopsis:

  In the sixth century BCE, Egypt is the greatest civilization known to mankind. But with a foolish king on its throne, the Nile Valley is ripe for conquering.

Amid this climate of danger and strife, in the alleys and brothels of Memphis, an extraordinary young woman comes of age. To spare her siblings from starvation, Doricha is sold into prostitution. But she has gifts beyond mere beauty. Through wit and determination, she works her way into the realm of the hetaerae—courtesans of exceptional refinement.

As a hetaera, Doricha has access to the schemes and negotiations that shape the world. But the rich and powerful also have access to her, and Doricha soon finds herself in the Pharaoh’s harem, caught up in his reckless plans. When the Pharaoh sends her off to his fiercest enemy, thinly cloaked by a dangerous ruse, Doricha must become a double agent if she hopes to survive. Caught between the Pharaoh and the Persian king Cambyses, it is Doricha—once a slave, now a woman of great but secret power—who will determine Egypt’s fate.

Blending ancient fable with true history, White Lotus brings Egypt’s downfall to life.

My Thoughts:

I don't know what it is with me and books about strong ladies breaking their way out of sex slavery (or at least making the best of their situation by manipulating powerful men), but this theme seems to stick with me, I enjoy these kinds of books a lot. 

"However great Iadmon deems my value, he cannot value me more than I do myself." 

In White Lotus we follow Doricha, a young girl who's sold to be a prona (the name for prostitutes at the time) because her family is starving. However, her fate turns to the better when her master starts seeing potential in her and instead of turning her into a common prona, he decides to train her to be a hetaera. 

Hetaerae were highly cultivated courtesans in ancient Greece and later when Greek culture seeped into Egypt these girls were present there too to provide intellectual as well as physical entertainment for wealthy men.

Doricha's story is interesting because there are twists and turns along the way that you don't expect (in the beginning she doesn't have much control over her fate, and you can't help but feel for her because of her vulnerable situation). The majority of the novel is about her training through which we see what a hetaera was supposed to do or not do in the company of men and what the hetaerae's attitude was like towards one another (you can expect a lot of intrigue).

I loved the historical setting and how it came to life through Libbie Hawker's words. The tension between Egyptians and Greek people was seething at the time (we are in the 6th century BC just before the Persian conquest). The streets were dangerous because the two parties were wont to provoke fights and Egyptians were extremely dissatisfied with the Pharaoh, Amasis II, who enthusiastically embraced the Greek traditions and culture.

In these uncertain times Doricha meets friends like Aesop, the cunning servant who mastered the art of manoeuvring from the background and she also has to face some foes who slyly betray an initially well-forming friendship.

Doricha is very young, by the end of the book she's only 14 but she's got a quick mind and adapts easily. She's a charming character and I can't wait to see how she matures into a strong woman who's not afraid to play the hard games of politics to earn her freedom. 

I should also mention here that Doricha later goes by the name Rhodopis, and according to my research in real life there was a hetaera with that name indeed, who is associated with the origins of the fairy tale Cinderella. How cool is that?

The only thing that could have been better in the book was the editing; unfortunately there were typos here and there... It didn't ruin the whole reading experience but still... I'd have preferred if there hadn't been any.

This book became a new favourite of mine, naturally I'll read the second book in the trilogy too.

Goodreads | Amazon

Next in the series:

Persian Rose

Review - Screamcatcher: Web World by Christy J. Breedlove

  Title: Screamcatcher: Web World

  Author: Christy J. Breedlove

  Synopsis:

  When seventeen-year-old Jory Pike cannot shake the hellish nightmares of her parent’s deaths, she turns to an old family heirloom, a dream catcher. Even though she’s half blood Chippewa, Jory thinks old Indian lore is so yesterday, but she’s willing to give it a try. However, the dream catcher has had its fill of nightmares from an ancient and violent past. After a sleepover party, and during one of Jory’s most horrific dream episodes, the dream catcher implodes, sucking Jory and her three friends into its own world of trapped nightmares. They’re in an alternate universe—locked inside of an insane web world. How can they find the center of the web, where all good things are allowed to pass?

I received a free e-book copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts:

I'd like to thank the author for offering me a copy of Web World because I had a lot of fun reading this mystical gem of a YA. I'm sure Jory, Darcy, Choice and Lander – the four teenagers who get caught in the web of the dreamcatcher – wouldn't call their adventure "fun" but it evoked in me a certain kind of nostalgia with its distant similarity to the movie Jumanji.

Since Jory lost her parents she suffers from nightmares. In the daytime she helps out in her grandfather's novelty shop but her nights are ruined by the recurring bad dream. When her friend, Choice first visits the store, his eyes wonder on the giant old-looking dreamcatcher that hangs from the ceiling and he immediately thinks if nothing else, that will help Jory to rest well – and from then on trouble is guaranteed.

With two mates of theirs, the 16 year-old Darcy and the streetwise Lander they end up inside a world of night terrors from where they can only escape if they work together. I have nightmares sometimes, but nothing like with what these teenagers have to face. What I really liked in this book was that it works with Native American folklore and legends. It's not something that is normally covered in my everyday reading and so it was extremely fascinating for me to read about what creatures were the natives afraid of.

This book has horror elements. Not many, but the few it does give it spice. I don't want to give much away but something happens to one of the members of the group that gave me the creeps. This incident and its consequences kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end.

The novel is quite unputdownable, one action scene follows the other and you wait for the end to know how the band will fare during the last challenge. The team seems very experienced despite the fact that they are teenagers, for example Jory knows a lot about lore, plants, tracking, while the boys help out with the practical side of things. Darcy is a bit of a hindrance but at times I felt sorry for her because the others didn't handle her with much patience.

There's a love story in there somewhere too, but it wasn't overdone, which I was glad to see. To be honest, I don't even know when was the last time I've read a YA book without a love triangle or overemphasized soppy love-drama. This was just perfect, keeping all emotions at bay and very realistic. 

All in all, I definitely recommend this book if you'd like to try something fresh. Web World is a unique tale presented in a very enjoyable way.

Goodreads | Amazon

Next in the series:

Dream Chasers

Review - A Shadowed Fate by Marty Ambrose

  Title: A Shadowed Fate (Claire Clairmont #2)

  Author: Marty Ambrose

  Publication Date: March 03, 2020

  Synopsis:

1873, Florence. Claire Clairmont, the last survivor of the 'haunted summer of 1816' Byron/Shelley circle, is reeling from the series of events triggered by the arrival of Michael Rosetti two weeks before, which culminated in a brutal murder and a shocking revelation from her old friend, Edward Trelawny.

Stunned by her betrayal at the hands of those closest to her, Claire determines to travel to the convent at Bagnacavallo near Ravenna to learn the true fate of Allegra, her daughter by Lord Byron. But the valuable Cades sketch given to her by Rosetti is stolen, and Claire soon finds herself shadowed at every turn and in increasing danger as she embarks on her quest. Is the theft linked to Allegra, and can Claire uncover what really happened in Ravenna so many years ago?

I received a free ebook copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts:

I've been waiting for A Shadowed Fate for a long time and here it is at last. Marty Ambrose managed to pull me in with her first book in her Claire series so much, that in the past 1.5 years I've been checking and rechecking if there were any news about the second instalment. It hits the shelves shortly, and I received a copy on NetGalley, so here is what I think.

I flew through this novel as well as the first one. They are quite short  which is a shame. In ASF Claire is going on a road trip with her friend Trelawny and her small family in order to find out what happened to her daughter, Allegra, when she lived in the convent of Bagnacavallo. While on the road a dangerous stranger seems to be on their heels, and with Byron and Shelley's valuable letters in her pocket Claire has to look over her shoulder continuously if she wants to keep her loved ones safe.

Like in Claire's Last Secret, here we got glimpses into the past too, this time of Byron's years in Ravenna, when he supported the Carbonari's revolution for a united Italy. Through journal entries the reader gets caught up in a shoot-out at the fringe of a forest, where Byron is the target, and an equally heated situation on the streets of Ravenna, where once again, bullets fly low. It was an interesting addition to the book, because I've never really read much of this part of Byron's life before.

I also enjoyed the child Allegra's journal entries and was glad the author gave her a voice. I'm looking forward to read more of her story later.

Claire and Trelawny's relationship develops quite a lot in this novel and we hear more of the one night they spent together in the past. We are also given reasons why it never really worked out between the two and we are left with a big question mark regarding their future relationship. Another reason for me to want to read the third book.

Diving into Marty Ambrose's prose was easy, as if I had just finished the first book and picked up the second right after. She's got a very clear style and she makes you care and root for her characters. It still surprises me, but with some magic she makes me like Claire, while I've never really cared  much for her before.

Sign me up for the last book in the trilogy, I'm still in! 

Goodreads | Amazon 

Read my review of Claire's Last Secret here.

Review - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

 Title: The Secret Garden

 Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

 Synopsis:

  Mary Lennox is sent from an India as an orphan to live at

 Misselthwaite Manor. She arrives as a sour-faced,

 sickly and ill-tempered little madam but becomes friends with

 local lad Dickon and her poorly cousin Colin. In their

 restoration of a secret garden all their lives are changed for the better.

My Thoughts:

When, once finished,  you close a book with the thought: "I'll definitely read this to my children one day", that's a clear testament to the book's merits.

The Secret Garden is pure magic, an ultimate feel-good retreat, a novel that shows the healing power of nature and the world around us. Though generally labelled as a children's book, it is not only for children; it warmed my poor adult heart in ways that are impossible to describe.

"Mother says as th' two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have his own way – or always to have it."

When Mary Lennox arrives to Misselthwaite Manor, she's a haughty, self-centered little girl. While before she was always surrounded with people who served her, at the manor she's left to her own devices to entertain herself throughout the day. Her uncle Craven is hardly ever at home, and Martha the maid has chores around the house therefore she cannot be with her all the time. 

When she ventures outside to the gardens she feels a change in herself that she cannot really grasp, and when Ben the gardener and Martha mention a garden that has been locked up for 10 years, she cannot help but dream about finding the key.

The Secret Garden has a history that has something to do with the soft crying of a child she hears on the corridors of the manor sometimes, and of course Mary has to go and investigate. 

Strong friendships are born in this book that bridge gaps in between classes. Martha's little brother Dickon is like a little Mowgli of the Yorkshire moors, he charms Mary very quickly with his gentle nature and ability to speak with the animals.  

"Where you tend a rose, my lad,

A thistle cannot grow."

Three children find a haven in this novel; a place where they can grow, heal and learn, and as they do, the reader does the same alongside them. Again, I say, it is a magical experience. 

Goodreads | Amazon

Film Review - La Novia (The Bride)

  Title: La Novia/The Bride

  Director: Paula Ortiz

  Year: 2015

  Genre: Drama

  Cast: Inma Cuesta | Álex García | Asier Etxeandia

  Trailer

  IMDB

My Thoughts: 

The film is based on the Federico García Lorca play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), which I read this month. It wasn't a question that I'd watch this adaptation, given that I know some of the actors and I'm always in search of new Spanish films/series for language learning purposes.

Blood Wedding was inspired by a true story from 1928, when a bride fled her wedding with a cousin, who was later murdered by the groom's brother. The difference in Lorca's version is that the the lover and the groom himself face each other in the end to create the tragic conclusion of the drama together.

The creators of La Novia stayed loyal to Lorca's play in many ways. Almost all the lines the characters speak come from the actual text and the lyrical quality and the beautiful cinematography support each other so well, together they create a brand new work of art. 

Each frame if carefully composed, masterfully arranged, the whole movie is a real delight for the eyes. The rhythm of Lorca's 'singing' poetry beats together with these pretty visuals – the feeling of pain and pleasure is intensified by being transmitted through both words and scenery at the same time.

There are frames where individual characters stand alone, like the bride in white dress in front of the night sky and the moon above, or the lover, Leonardo on her horse, a solitary figure in a desert-like dry-yellow landscape – these all took my breath away. The group scenes at the wedding and the wedding party are amazing as well, especially the parts with singing and dancing in it.

I absolutely loved the music. García Lorca was first and foremost a poet, and he also collected folk songs for a long time. His poem/song La Tarara that he composed from several songs for children was also put in the film, the scene in which the bride sings it is one of my favourites. A Spanish version of Little Viannase Waltz, which you might know from the Leonard Cohen song 'Take This Waltz' is used, during the knife-fight scene.

The only thing I found a bit too much in the movie was how the symbols were overused. The play itself is full of objects and characters that have certain meanings, like the horse, the different kind of flowers, colours, the character of the moon and the beggar woman. There is too many of these, even in the original material if you ask me, and the makers of the movie added some more which seemed superfluous. However, they merged the moon and the beggar character into one and that I consider a good choice, the twist they pulled in the end with this character was pleasantly surprising too.

I could rave on about this film forever and I think I'll rewatch it many times yet.

Review - Escape to Everly Manor by Chalon Linton

   Title: Escape to Everly Manor

   Author: Chalon Linton

   Synopsis:

   Nineteen-year-old Lizzy and her young brother, Thomas, find themselves orphaned after a tragic accident claims the lives of their parents. Their estranged Uncle Cline arrives to claim his inheritance, and his roguish ways cast a shadow over the manor. Both the family estate and guardianship of his niece and nephew were left to him, and diabolical Uncle Cline is determined to indulge in his newfound wealth and rid himself of his charges. Desperate to save her brother from a dangerous life at sea, and herself from being married off to a detestable old gentleman, Lizzy knows there is only one choice left—they must run.

Lizzy and Thomas sneak away and find refuge in an abandoned cabin. There they remain hidden—until fate acquaints Lizzy with Mr. Barton, a charming gentleman who is immediately intrigued by the mysterious young woman. Concealing her identity, Lizzy is unaware that there is much more to this compassionate man than meets the eye. Through his kindness to herself and her brother, Lizzy begins to trust him. Soon Lizzy realizes Mr. Barton may be her best hope for a life in which she can live—and love—as she chooses . . .

I received a free ebook copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts:

The cover caught my eye on NetGalley, I find it very pretty with the autumn forest and the solitary lady in the center. The fact that I've basically only read regency romance from Jane Austen so far urged me to give it a try too.

The story is simple: two orphans, Elizabeth and Thomas, run away from an evil uncle to avoid being separated from each other. They come across a kind-hearted gentleman who is willing to help them. Romance ensues but it only complicates things. The choice between her dear brother and the love of her life seems impossible to Lizzy.

I instantly connected to Lizzy because I myself have a young brother and just like Lizzy I'd do anything to keep him safe. Sisterly love was such an important force in this story, it drove the plot, which I appreciated because it balanced out the romance that slowly developed between Lizzy and Barton and thus kept it from being cheesy.

The little brother Thomas somehow grounded Lizzy and made her look beyond the pink cloud. You guys know that these days romance is a risky genre for me because I often find myself impatient with it, but here I felt it was well-executed.

There were quite a lot of twists in the story; an accident, an unexpected and unwanted guest appearing, a rescue mission having to be planned... I was never bored while this book was in my hands.

I'm hoping to ready more such good regency romances in the future.

Goodreads | Amazon

Review - Pressed to Death by Kirsten Weiss

   Title: Pressed to Death (Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum #2)

   Author: Kirsten Weiss

   Synopsis:

   Perfectly pressed. Perfectly proper. Perfectly deadly.

Paranormal museum owner Maddie Kosloski thinks she has the perfect paranormal exhibit for the harvest festival—a haunted grape press. But before she can open the exhibit, she’s accused of stealing the antique press. And when her accuser is found murdered, all eyes turn to Maddie.

Solving the crime is the last thing on Maddie’s mind, but her mother insists she investigate. Does her mother have a secret agenda? And why has the local charity, Ladies Aid, seemingly gone gangster?

In this light, cozy mystery, haunted houses, runaway wine barrels, and murder combine in a perfect storm of chaos. Facing down danger and her own over-active imagination, Maddie must unearth the killer before she becomes the next ghost to haunt her museum. 

My Thoughts:

I've been eager to 'visit' San Benedetto again after reading the series opener of The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum this spring. I'd forgot how much I like small town crime/mystery stories and these cozy books reinitiated me into the genre.

Just like in the first novel our protagonist Maddie Kosloski plays detective after a vineyard owner is found dead in a grape vat. To the current-time crime joins a past mystery around a haunted grape press that Maddie acquires for her museum. 

The double puzzle is always a joy in Kirsten Weiss's books and I also appreciate that Maddie has to investigate not only in the future but back into the past too. So far in both novels there was a haunted object through which San Benedetto's murder-ridden history was revealed and with each story you wonder less and less why the body count is growing in this sleepy rural town.

Again, I had a good time getting to know the new characters (there are a lot of them and Weiss still juggles them well): Leo, the weird teenage kid, who is suspicious but whom Maddie likes a lot, Elthia, who runs a Death Bistro and is pretty emotional all the time, the new tyrannical leader of Ladies Aid who acts like she is the Godfather... All of them were pretty entertaining.

After Maddie got together with Mason the motorbike shop owner viking in the first book I expected to see their relationship blossom, however the guy is pretty much absent most of the time and Maddie has to rethink their relationship while she deals with everything else that disrupts the peace in San Benedetto. I didn't mind that, because I ship Maddie hard with Detective Slate and as things are looking I might get my wish and see them together in the next book...

Until I get there, I cannot recommend this book series enough for people who are after a light, entertaining, fun read for a cozy weekend.

Goodreads | Amazon

 Read my review of The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum here.

Next in the series:

Déjá Moo

by Kirsten Weiss

Review - The Widow of Pale Harbour by Hester Fox

    Title: The Widow of Pale Harbor

   Author: Hester Fox

   Publication Date: September 17, 2019

   Synopsis:

   A town gripped by fear. A woman accused of   witchcraft. Who can save  Pale Harbor from itself?

   Maine, 1846. Gabriel Stone is desperate to escape the ghosts that haunt    him in Massachusetts after his wife’s death, so he moves to Maine, taking a    position as a minister in the remote village of Pale Harbor.

But not all is as it seems in the sleepy town. Strange, unsettling things have been happening, and the townspeople claim that only one person can be responsible: Sophronia Carver, a reclusive widow who lives with a spinster maid in the eerie Castle Carver. Sophronia must be a witch, and she almost certainly killed her husband.

As the incidents escalate, one thing becomes clear: they are the work of a twisted person inspired by the wildly popular stories of Mr. Edgar Allan Poe. And Gabriel must find answers, or Pale Harbor will suffer a fate worthy of Poe’s darkest tales.

My Thoughts:

The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox completely enchanted me last year. It was the perfect October read, featuring a haunted mansion and a girl who had just come into her power as a witch. I was looking forward to read the writer's second novel, which had a similar eerie promise.

It wasn't exactly a let-down, but I couldn't say The Widow of Pale Harbor lived up to its predecessor.

Gabriel – a man with a well-guarded secret – arrives to Pale Harbor to act as the minister of the sleepy town. He quickly becomes fascinated with the woman the whole place regards a murderess and a witch, and when strange occurrences disturb the people, he can't help standing up for the lady of his heart.

"Death had cast its sickly pall over the town, and nothing was certain any more."

Most of the readers will be drawn to this book for the reference to Edgar Allan Poe in the blurb. Indeed, the murders and other weird happenings in the novel are pulled from Poe stories and the reader even gets time to guess from which ones before it is revealed. I think it is a pretty awesome game for those who know Poe's tales intimately.

The setting and the whole atmosphere that is created are the strongest features in the book. The gothic vibes are very powerful, starting from the mansion Sophronia lives in, through the foggy streets, to the eerie cemetery and the windy cliffs – the mood is beautifully composed through the chilly descriptions.

I know, so far I've only shared good things – so why wasn't I completely satisfied then? 

The romance I'm afraid blunted my excitement for yet another autumn read. It was too flowery, too sweet for a gothic book. Everything else was so dark, so raw, that I expected the passion to be a bit more down-to-earth, the love a bit less schoolgirlish. I find I don't have much patience for these kind of romances any more. It is sad, but it's the truth. 

Also, I couldn't really understand why Sophronia found Gabriel so intriguing. It turned out they didn't share that many interests after all, he wasn't one for intellectual conversations – as far as male protagonists go he fell a little flat for me.

I'd say it is worth to give The Widow of Pale Harbor a try if you're a Poe fan and like gothic tales. It helps if you're also a romance fan, because then you'll appreciate the parts I didn't, and the story can give you more than what it offered me. It is far from being a bad book, but I couldn't rate it higher because the author's debut novel undoubtedly casts a long shadow on it.

Goodreads | Amazon