The Maiden's Court: August 2017

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Cover Crush: Midnight at the Electric

We can all say that you should never judge a book by its cover, but I guarantee that we all have done so at least once! Cover Crush is designed to feature some of those covers that have caught the eye as a standout on the bookshelf.

The colors of this cover are beautiful! And I have a thing for those small lights that just give some ambiance. I don’t love the font of the title, mostly because there are no capital letters, I think I would like it fine if that small change was made. Either way, it is a striking cover.

What are your thoughts on this cover?

I wonder what my friends are crushing on this week? Let’s check it out: (to be updated as they go live).

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Giveaway Winner–Last Christmas in Paris!

Good morning everyone!! I hope you are all having a great week and one person is about to have their day made! I have the winner of the giveaway for Last Christmas in Paris by Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor to announce. Thank you to all of you who entered the giveaway! For those of you that did not win, stay tuned for the blog tour (which I will be part of for a review of this book) which will take place September into October which will feature a tour wide giveaway as well.

Without further ado, let’s see who the winner of this wonderful book is….

Courtney W!!!

Congratulations!! I hope you will love the book! I have sent you an email already.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Wish List 5: Inspired by My Trip to Alaska

Once a month I am planning on sharing with you all 5 of my biggest wish list books broken up by theme. I know that you all need more on your TBR!!! This month’s theme is books based on my trip to Alaska in the month of July. I had to be careful about how much I bought in order to not go over the weight limit on my flight back, so I just made lists of the books that I saw in all the gift shops (although between my husband and I we did buy 4 books). So these books are all non-fiction based on Alaskan history.

The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury

When a deadly diphtheria epidemic swept through Nome, Alaska, in 1925, the local doctor knew that without a fresh batch of antitoxin, his patients would die. The lifesaving serum was a thousand miles away, the port was icebound, and planes couldn't fly in blizzard conditions—only the dogs could make it. The heroic dash of dog teams across the Alaskan wilderness to Nome inspired the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and immortalized Balto, the lead dog of the last team whose bronze statue still stands in New York City's Central Park. This is the greatest dog story, never fully told until now.

The Floor of Heaven: A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the Yukon Gold Rush by Howard Blum

New York Times bestselling author Howard Blum expertly weaves together three narratives to tell the true story of the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush.

It is the last decade of the 19th century. The Wild West has been tamed and its fierce, independent and often violent larger-than-life figures--gun-toting wanderers, trappers, prospectors, Indian fighters, cowboys, and lawmen--are now victims of their own success. But then gold is discovered in Alaska and the adjacent Canadian Klondike and a new frontier suddenly looms: an immense unexplored territory filled with frozen waterways, dark spruce forests, and towering mountains capped by glistening layers of snow and ice.

In a true-life tale that rivets from the first page, we meet Charlie Siringo, a top-hand sharp-shooting cowboy who becomes one of the Pinkerton Detective Agency's shrewdest; George Carmack, a California-born American Marine who's adopted by an Indian tribe, raises a family with a Taglish squaw, and makes the discovery that starts off the Yukon Gold Rush; and Jefferson "Soapy" Smith, a sly and inventive conman who rules a vast criminal empire. As we follow this trio's lives, we're led inexorably into a perplexing mystery: a fortune in gold bars has somehow been stolen from the fortress-like Treadwell Mine in Juneau, Alaska. Charlie Siringo discovers that to run the thieves to ground, he must embark on a rugged cross-territory odyssey that will lead him across frigid waters and through a frozen wilderness to face down "Soapy" Smith and his gang of 300 cutthroats. Hanging in the balance: George Carmack's fortune in gold.

At once a compelling true-life mystery and an unforgettable portrait of a time in America's history, The Floor of Heaven is also an exhilarating tribute to the courage and undaunted spirit of the men and women who helped shape America.

“That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend by Catherine Holder Spude

As the Klondike gold rush peaked in spring 1898, adventurers and gamblers rubbed shoulders with town-builders and gold-panners in Skagway, Alaska. The flow of riches lured confidence men, too—among them Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith (1860–98), who with an entourage of “bunco-men” conned and robbed the stampeders. Soapy, though, a common enough criminal, would go down in legend as the Robin Hood of Alaska, the “uncrowned king of Skagway,” remembered for his charm and generosity, even for calming a lynch mob. When the Fourth of July was celebrated in ’98, he supposedly led the parade. Then, a few days later, he was dead, killed in a shootout over a card game.

With Smith’s death, Skagway rid itself of crime forever. Or at least, so the story goes. Journalists immediately cast him as a martyr whose death redeemed a violent town. In fact, he was just a petty criminal and card shark, as Catherine Holder Spude proves definitively in “That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend, a tour de force of historical debunking that documents Smith’s elevation to western hero. In sorting out the facts about this man and his death from fiction, Spude concludes that the actual Soapy was not the legendary “boss of Skagway,” nor was he killed by Frank Reid, as early historians supposed. She shows that even eyewitnesses who knew the truth later changed their stories to fit the myth.

But why? Tracking down some hundred retellings of the Soapy Smith story, Spude traces the efforts of Skagway’s boosters to reinforce a morality tale at the expense of a complex story of town-building and government formation. The idea that Smith’s death had made a lawless town safe served Skagway’s economic interests. Spude’s engaging deconstruction of Soapy’s story models deep research and skepticism crucial to understanding the history of the American frontier.

The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush by Pierre Berton

In 1897 a grimy steamer docked in Seattle and set into epic motion the incredible succession of events that Pierre Berton's exhilarating The Klondike Fever chronicles in all its splendid and astonishing folly. For the steamer Portland bore two tons of pure Klondike gold. And immediately, the stampede north to Alaska began. Easily as many as 100,000 adventurers, dreamers, and would-be miners from all over the world struck out for the remote, isolated gold fields in the Klondike Valley, most of them in total ignorance of the long, harsh Alaskan winters and the territory's indomitable terrain. Less than a third of that number would complete the enormously arduous mountain journey to their destination. Some would strike gold. Berton's story belongs less to the few who would make their fortunes than to the many swept up in the gold mania, to often unfortunate effects and tragic ends. It is a story of cold skies and avalanches, of con men and gamblers and dance hall girls, of sunken ships, of suicides, of dead horses and desperate men, of grizzly old miners and millionaires, of the land — its exploitation and revenge. It is a story of the human capacity to dream, and to endure.

Alaska: Saga of a Bold Land by Walter R. Borneman

American History. The history of Alaska is filled with stories of new land and new riches---and ever present are new people with competing views over how these resources should be used: Russians exploiting a fur empire; explorers checking rival advances; prospectors stampeding to the clarion call of "Gold!"; soldiers battling out a decisive chapter in world war; oil wildcatters looking for a different kind of mineral wealth; and always at the core of these disputes is the question of how the land is to be used and by whom.

If you are looking to add more books to your list, here are some of the wishlists from a few of my friends this month: (to be updated as they go live)

Magdalena @ A Bookaholic Swede – Being Published in 2017
Colleen @ A Literary Vacation – Waiting (Im)patiently for Release
Erin @ Flashlight Commentary – Books Set in Wales
Holly @ 2 Kids and Tired Books – Behind the Scenes with the Presidents
Stephanie @ Layered Pages – WWII War at Sea

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Cover Crush: Duels & Deception

This one is cool in a sort of simplistic, hand-drawn style. I actually really like that the title is the majority of the cover and the colors and font of it all. Simplistic but cool.

What are your thoughts on this cover?

I wonder what my friends are crushing on this week? Let’s check it out: A Bookaholic Swede, Layered Pages, 2 Kids and Tired Books, A Literary Vacation, Flashlight Commentary, Of Quills and Vellum.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Audiobook Review: Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes

Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes
Unabridged;16 hr. 15 min.
Tantor Audio
Chris Sorensen (Narrator)
January 31, 2017
★★★☆☆

Genre: Non-Fiction

Source: Received audio CD from publisher for review

In the final decades of the nineteenth century, three brilliant and visionary titans of America's Gilded Age-Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse-battled as each vied to create a vast and powerful electrical empire. In Empires of Light, historian Jill Jonnes portrays this extraordinary trio and their riveting and ruthless world of cutting-edge science, invention, intrigue, money, death, and hard-eyed Wall Street millionaires. At the heart of the story are Thomas Alva Edison, the nation's most famous and folksy inventor, creator of the incandescent light bulb and mastermind of the world's first direct current electrical light networks; the Serbian wizard of invention Nikola Tesla, an eccentric dreamer who revolutionized the generation and delivery of electricity; and the charismatic George Westinghouse, Pittsburgh inventor and corporate entrepreneur, an industrial idealist who in the era of gaslight imagined a world powered by cheap and plentiful electricity and worked heart and soul to create it. Empires of Light is the gripping history of electricity, the "mysterious fluid," and how the fateful collision of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse left the world utterly transformed.

I’ve been sitting on writing this review for the last couple weeks because my thoughts were all over the place with it, but that hasn’t seemed to have changed with time. I think it’s a sign.

Empires of Light covered every base that you can likely think of within the realm of electricity and how it evolved into an everyday convenience. While the scope is narrowed, in theory, to the contributions and legacies of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse, the fact that these were the big three in their field was casting the net a bit wide. Among other things, attention was paid to: the legal battles that arose from this new technology and the battle for supremacy over it by these three men; the science behind creating, storing, transporting, and using electricity; its application in crime and punishment; and societal issues. And that just barely touches the surface here. There was an extensive amount of information here and much of it was physics and very technical, which went WAY over my head (seeing as I never took physics in school). I think my husband would have a greater appreciation for this aspect of the book than I would as he is very into that area of science. This felt especially true in the section about Tesla and his extensive work on alternating current. He was a man ahead of his time for sure and in some ways still is in my opinion.

While the technical aspects of the science went beyond what I could really appreciate (to be honest, my eyes sort of glazed over during that segment) I found the societal implications of electricity to be fascinating. My area of expertise being crime and sociology there was plenty to pique my interest. The use of electricity as a means of punishment was new at that time and the author took painstaking interest in describing for the reader just how those early attempts at the death penalty went. I will strongly recommend you not be eating during this section and possibly skipping it if you have a weak stomach or don’t want to be exposed to basically the torture of people and animals in the name of science. It grossed me out and I have a pretty high tolerance for reading about that kind of stuff in a historical context. I was able to make ties between this book and Devil in the White City by Erik Larson because Edison makes a large contribution to the electrical demonstration in the Columbian Exposition which was also a focal point of that book too. While I struggled with some of the science, there was a lot that I could get behind here too.

★★★☆☆

I think I would have been better off reading this book in print over listening to it on audio for a couple reasons. I think with the subject matter being something almost beyond my ability to comprehend it, if reading in print I would have been more apt to put it down, look some things up, and then come back to it. Having it in my ear, I just let it keep running past things I didn’t know. It also felt very heavy and dense being read to me, it just couldn’t keep my attention for long periods of time; I would have to listen to it in 15 or 20 minute intervals which made for a long reading period in order to finish this book. I also had a little struggle with settling in with the narrator. His manner of speech and intonation always made it sound like he was asking a question at the end of every sentence. It took me a LONG TIME to get past this being an issue that was driving me to distraction (also probably a contributing factor in my need to only listen to short bursts at a time). A different choice of narrator might have made it more palatable, but I still stand by the concept that the material here is just a little dense for the casual reader to be comfortable with, however if you are an engineer or has a solid grasp of physics where the technical aspects of electricity are commonplace, you might not have as difficult a listen as I did.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

You may preview a sample of the audiobook below (links to Audible):

Also by Jill Jonnes:

Eiffel’s Tower

Conquering Gotham

Urban Forests

South Bronx Rising

Find Jill Jonnes: Website | Instagram

Friday, August 18, 2017

Audiobook Review: Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery

Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
Book 3 of Anne of Green Gables series
Unabridged; 8 hr. 15 min.
Post Hypnotic Press Inc.
Colleen Winton (narrator)
June 4, 2014
★★★★☆

Genre: Classic; Historical Fiction

Source: Received download from publisher for review as part of Audiobookworm Tour

Anne of the Island was published in 1915, seven years after the best-selling Anne of Green Gables, partly because of the continuing clamor for more Anne from her fans - a fan base that continues to grow today!
In this continuation of the story of Anne Shirley, Anne leaves Green Gables and her work as a teacher in Avonlea to pursue her original dream (which she gave up in Anne of Green Gables) of taking further education at Redmond College in Nova Scotia. Gilbert Blythe and Charlie Sloane enroll as well, as does Anne's friend from Queen's Academy, Priscilla Grant. During her first week of school, Anne befriends Philippa Gordon, a beautiful girl whose frivolous ways charm her. Philippa (Phil for short) also happens to be from Anne's birthplace of Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia. Anne, always the good scholar, studies hard, but she also has many life lessons. This book sees Anne leave behind girlhood to blossom into a mature young woman.

I’ve always shied away from outright classifying these books as young adult, despite seeing that in many other locations. While I would say Anne of Green Gables does securely fall into that category, the next two books that I have read so far begin to move out of that classification. While the writing style still remains simpler to understand and comprehend, and there are by far no mature content, the characters are aging, falling in love, going to work and college, getting married, which I would say takes it out of that category in my opinion.

Throughout much of Anne of the Island we see Anne away from the place she grew up and the majority of the people she (and we) know. While we see her spend some time away during Anne of Avonlea, the majority of Island is spent at Redmond College. Here we see Anne grow a little more into her own person as she is in a whole new world with many new people. There is comfort in the familiar faces of Gilbert, Charlie, and Philippa (who I really didn’t remember that well, so she felt new to me) and she does return home for short breaks and we get the treat of hearing from home in letters that various friends send her. I’m really not sure why Anne pushes back so hard against the idea of falling in love with anyone (or her friends falling in love for that matter either); it’s not like she has negative representations of love/marriage in her past, so that would often grate at me.

There is one scene in particular that stood out in my mind in a terrible way and the inclusion of the scene in the book sort of changed the whole tone of the story for me hence forward – this would be the killing of the cat scene. It’s not a major event in the story or any kind of plot spoiler, but it really bothered me. A cat that just won’t leave their house and the girls just have this frank discussion about how you kill the cat and everyone takes part in this endeavor. Mind you, it all turns out ok in the end, but the scene was just very dark and not at all of the same tone as the rest of the book or prior books in the series. If I was editing this book I would have axed the whole scene because it just differs so tremendously from the rest of the series.

Overall the book is a strong outing in the series and doesn’t feel like it loses momentum at all.

★★★★☆

As this is the same narrator and the same series, my thoughts are essentially the same as in book 1 and 2, with a couple additional notes. I continue to love Colleen Winton’s approach to the narration of the cast of characters from Anne’s world. There are a bunch of new characters in this book and each continues to be unique, which must be difficult as there have been so many characters in this series. I forgot to mention this in my review of Anne of Avonlea when the character first appears, but it is also appropriate now, I love her characterization of Davy, one of the twins that she is helping Marilla to raise. He ends every question with, “I want to know!” which just cracks me up the way she presents it. I have now listened to all of the Anne books that Post Hypnotic Press has released and I’m sure I will finish this series someday because it is great fun, but I would be happy to listen to Winton any day.

There was one issue that was noticeable to me in this book particularly that I did not notice in either of the other two and this was that there appeared to be noticeable edits. There would be times where practically in the middle of the sentence the narrators voice would become either softer or louder where it wouldn’t have been otherwise based on the speech pattern or it sounded just a little bit off. These moments are something that becomes quite obvious to me and led to the slightly lower rating of the audio production of this book compared to the others.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

Buy the Book: Audible | Post Hypnotic Press

You can check out a sample from Anne of the Island below.

Also by L.M. Montgomery:

Anne of Green Gables (Book 1)
[My Review]

Anne of Avonlea (Book 2)
[My Review]

Anne of Windy Poplars (Book 4)

Anne’s House of Dreams (Book 5)

Anne of Ingleside (Book 6)

Rainbow Valley (Book 7)

Rilla of Ingleside (Book 8)

Tour-Wide Giveaway!

As part of the tour, there is a tour-wide giveaway sponsored by the publisher, Post Hypnotic Press, for store credit: $120 (Grand Prize), $90 (Runner-up) & $60 (2nd Runner-up). Entries are made via the Gleam app and can be made on any of the participating tour pages. Please if you have questions, contact the tour coordinator as I have no input in the giveaway. Good luck!!

Anne of Green Gables Giveaway: Three Winners

Tour Schedule

Audiobookworm Promotions

ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, BOOK 1

Jul. 30th:
History From A Woman's Perspective (Review)
The Book Slayer (Review)
Spunky 'N Sassy (Review)

Jul. 31st:
CGB Blog Tours (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
A Book and A Latte (Review)
Canadian Book Addict (Review, Giveaway)
Tara's Book Addiction (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 1st:
The Maiden's Court (Review)
Book Reviews By Jasmine (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Lilly's Book World (Review)

Aug. 2nd:
2 Girls and A Book (Review, Teasers)
Macarons and Paperbacks (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Bound 4 Escape (Review, Giveaway)
WTF Are You Reading? (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 3rd:
To Read Or Not To Read (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)
Jorie Loves A Story (Review)
Notes From 'Round the Bend (Teasers, Giveaway)
Haddie's Haven (Review, Teasers, Giveaway)
Hall Ways (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 4th:
Lomeraniel (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Joy of Bookworms (Review)
SMADA's Book Smack (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 5th:
Buried Under Books (Review)
Life As Freya (Review)

ANNE OF AVONLEA, BOOK 2

Aug. 6th:
History From A Woman's Perspective (Review)
Spunky 'N Sassy (Review)

Aug. 7th:
The Book Slayer (Review)
A Book and A Latte (Review)
Tara's Book Addiction (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 8th:
CGB Blog Tours (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
2 Girls and A Book (Review, Teasers)
Lilly's Book World (Review)

Aug. 9th:
The Maiden's Court (Review)
Macarons and Paperbacks (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Canadian Book Addict (Review, Giveaway)

Aug. 10th:
Jorie Loves A Story (Review)
Notes From 'Round the Bend (Teasers, Giveaway)
Dab of Darkness (Review, Giveaway)
Haddie's Haven (Review, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 11th:
To Read Or Not To Read (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)
Joy of Bookworms (Review)
Hall Ways (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Bound 4 Escape (Review, Giveaway)

Aug. 12th:
Lomeraniel (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Forever Literary (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Life As Freya (Review)
WTF Are You Reading? (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

ANNE OF THE ISLAND, BOOK 3

Aug. 13th:
History From A Woman's Perspective (Review)
Spunky 'N Sassy (Review)

Aug. 14th:
A Lovelorn Virgo (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
2 Girls and A Book (Review, Teasers)
Tara's Book Addiction (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Aug. 15th:
Dab of Darkness (Review, Giveaway)
Joy of Bookworms (Review)
Canadian Book Addict (Review, Giveaway)

Aug. 16th:
CGB Blog Tours (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
A Book and A Latte (Review)
Macarons and Paperbacks (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt)
Lilly's Book World (Review)

Aug. 17th:
To Read Or Not To Read (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)
Jorie Loves A Story (Review)
Reading for the Stars and Moon (Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Notes From 'Round the Bend (Teasers, Giveaway)
Haddie's Haven (Review, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 18th:
The Maiden's Court (Review)
The Book Slayer (Review)
Jorie Loves A Story (Interview)
Hall Ways (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)

Aug. 19th:
Christian Chick's Thoughts (Review)
Lomeraniel (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Teasers, Giveaway)
Life As Freya (Review)
Bound 4 Escape (Review, Giveaway)
WTF Are You Reading? (Review, Spotlight + Audio Excerpt, Giveaway)

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Cover Crush: Coming of the Storm

This cover definitely suggests what the title is – a storm appears to be coming. I also really like that this appears to have not only a strong woman, but a powerful native woman. The golden aura around the woman sets her off from the dark background. Love it and want to pick up this book!

What are your thoughts on this cover?

I wonder what my friends are crushing on this week? Let’s check it out: 2 Kids and Tired, A Bookaholic Swede, Layered Pages, A Literary Vacation, Of Quills and Vellum.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Book Review: The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin

The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin
ARC, e-Book, 417 pages
Delacorte Press
January 15, 2013
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Received via Netgalley from publisher for review

For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.
Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.
Drawing on the rich history of the twentieth century—from the late twenties to the mid-sixties—and featuring cameos from such notable characters as Joseph Kennedy and Amelia Earhart, The Aviator’s Wife is a vividly imagined novel of a complicated marriage—revealing both its dizzying highs and its devastating lows. With stunning power and grace, Melanie Benjamin provides new insight into what made this remarkable relationship endure.

I have been fascinated by the Lindbergh’s since I first saw a story about them and their kidnapped child in my READ magazine in 6^th grade. It wasn’t something I learned about in school otherwise and not in history class; I’m confident that if that outdated magazine had not come into my possession, I would likely have made it through school without ever learning about them. Of course Charles Lindbergh is known most for his historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean, but what does the world know about Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I knew virtually nothing.

I love that Benjamin chose to tell the story of Anne. She was always the child in the family that stayed in the shadow, but upon her engagement and marriage she was thrust immediately into the spotlight. She did an amazing job of creating the woman who had to walk a line of identity trying to figure out who she was for the public, for Charles, for her children, and finally for herself. The struggle is palpable and really the heart of the story. I found Charles to be a very dislikable character most of the time which is the exact opposite of the heroic image that is and was portrayed to the media.

The most interesting element for me was the way the story was structured. It bounces back and forth between the “present” which is with Anne accompanying Charles to Hawaii as he is dying, and the past of her life with Charles from the time they met. During my time reading I hated this structuring. I already didn’t like Charles and I really didn’t care that he was dying and I felt like I should. But as I look back on the experience a week or so after reading it I do appreciate the structure more. It showed how much Anne had grown and changed from when we first met her and when her time being in Charles shadow was coming to an end. I also think that the times that were chosen to break into the narrative and jump to the “present” were well chosen to flow with either the emotions or events transpiring between both times. I also really liked how more recent revelations about Charles Lindbergh were woven into that “present” storyline.

Overall this story pulled at the heartstrings and told a compelling story of a woman who lived her life in the spotlight while at the same time was not seen.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | RJ Julia

Also by Melanie Benjamin:

The Swans of Fifth Avenue