Book Review: The Murderer’s Maid by Erika Mailman

The Murder’s Maid by Erika Mailman
ARC, e-Book, 366 pages
Bonhomie Press
October 10, 2017
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Received for review for Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour

Bram Stoker Award finalist Erika Mailman brings the true story of the brutal murder of Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother into new focus by adding a riveting contemporary narrative.

The Murderer’s Maid interweaves the stories of two women: one, the servant of infamous Lizzie Borden, and the other a modern-day barista fleeing from an attempt on her life.

Trapped by servitude and afraid for her own safety, Irish maid Bridget finds herself an unwilling witness to the tensions in the volatile Borden household. As Lizzie seethes with resentment, Bridget tries to perform her duties and keep her mouth shut.

Unknowingly connected to the legendary crime of a century ago, Brooke, the illegitimate daughter of an immigrant maid, struggles to conceal her identity and stay a jump ahead of the men who want to kill her. When she unexpectedly falls in love with Anthony, a local attorney, she has to decide whether to stop running and begin her life anew.

With historical detail and taut, modern storytelling, Erika Mailman writes a captivating novel about identity, choices, freedom, and murder. She offers readers a fresh perspective on the notorious crime and explores the trials of immigrants seeking a better life while facing down fear and oppression, today and throughout history. Intelligent and detailed, The Murderer’s Maid is a gripping read from beginning to bloody conclusion.

I don’t know about you, but true crime stories draw me in. I might not be able to sleep afterward or want to be home by myself at night, but there is something about getting behind the mind of someone who could do such a terrible thing that holds my attention. Mailman uses this concept to draw the reader into both her historical thread of Lizzie Borden, but also builds that into the contemporary thread of Brooke who also finds herself drawn to true crime.

I don’t tend to be a huge fan of dual timelines, particularly when one of those is a contemporary set storyline. I don’t read contemporary novels in general because I don’t care to read about people living a life that is somewhat similar to mine, and that did impact my ability to get into this story early on. On the other hand, I immediately connected with the Lizzie Borden storyline. Mailman builds the drama and distinct personalities of those within the Borden house. While Lizzie was very clearly unhinged, she wasn’t the only one who had her issues in that household and you could see how someone who might already have her own issues might be driven to more extreme means by her circumstances. This made me want to find out a little more about the trial and especially the Borden maid because I found her interesting within this story.

The shocking part of this novel comes in the contemporary story, as anyone who knows about the Borden case will not be surprised in her story. Mailman brings in a major twist at the end of Brooke’s story that I didn’t see coming at all. I liked how her storyline wrapped up and thought that it would have been good on its own, but I really don’t know that it was necessary with the historical Borden story. I get the connections drawn between the two throughout, and it helped to bolster Brooke’s mission in life and her character, but I often felt that it just wasn’t necessary to have a dual storyline here and would have been stronger to stick with one or the other.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• What Cathy Read Next
• 100 Pages a Day

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

Also by Erika Mailman:

The Witches Trinity

Woman of Ill Fame

House of Bellaver

Find Erika Mailman: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Follow the Tour!

I know I’m a little late to the party on this one – there were some technical difficulties, but you can check out the other lovely contributions from this tour at the HFVBT Website or on Twitter at #TheMurderersMaidBlogTour.

Monday, October 16
Review at Unabridged Chick
Feature at Passages to the Past

Tuesday, October 17
Interview at Unabridged Chick

Wednesday, October 18
Review at 100 Pages a Day

Thursday, October 19
Review & Excerpt at Books of All Kinds
Review at So Many Books, So Little Time

Friday, October 20
Spotlight at Bookfever
Review at Once Upon A Book

Monday, October 23
Review at Poppy Coburn
Review at A Bookish Affair

Tuesday, October 24
Guest Post at A Bookish Affair
Feature at A Literary Vacation

Wednesday, October 25
Review at Back Porchervations
Feature at Must Read Faster

Thursday, October 26
Review at Linda’s Book Obsession

Friday, October 27
Review at What Cathy Read Next
Feature at The Reading Queen

Monday, October 30
Review at A Holland Reads

Tuesday, October 31
Review at The Maiden’s Court

Wednesday, November 1
Review at Pursuing Stacie
Review at Books of a Shy Girl

Thursday, November 2
Review at Book Nerd

Friday, November 3
Review at T’s Stuff
Review at Just One More Chapter

Monday, November 6
Review at A Book Geek
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews

Tuesday, November 7
Review at Locks, Hooks and Books

Wednesday, November 8
Review at The True Book Addict

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini

Christmas Bells by Jennifer Chiaverini
ARC, e-book, 320 pages
Dutton
October 27, 2015
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical fiction, Christmas

Source: Received from the publisher for review via Netgalley

In 1860, the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow family celebrated Christmas at Craigie House, their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The publication of Longfellow’s classic Revolutionary War poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” was less than a month hence, and the country’s grave political unrest weighed heavily on his mind. Yet with his beloved wife, Fanny, and their five adored children at his side, the delights of the season prevailed.

In present-day Boston, a dedicated teacher in the Watertown public school system is stunned by somber holiday tidings. Sophia’s music program has been sacrificed to budget cuts, and she worries not only about her impending unemployment but also about the consequences to her underprivileged students. At the church where she volunteers as music director, Sophia tries to forget her cares as she leads the children’s choir in rehearsal for a Christmas Eve concert. Inspired to honor a local artist, Sophia has chosen a carol set to a poem by Longfellow, moved by the glorious words he penned one Christmas Day long ago, even as he suffered great loss.

Christmas Bells chronicles the events of 1863, when the peace and contentment of Longfellow’s family circle was suddenly, tragically broken, cutting even deeper than the privations of wartime. Through the pain of profound loss and hardship, Longfellow’s patriotism never failed, nor did the power of his language. “Christmas Bells,” the poem he wrote that holiday, lives on, spoken as verse and sung as a hymn.

Jennifer Chiaverini’s resonant and heartfelt novel for the season reminds us why we must continue to hear glad tidings, even as we are tested by strife. Reading Christmas Bells evokes the resplendent joy of a chorus of voices raised in reverent song.

Despite the name, Christmas Bells is a novel that while it fits more with the holiday/winter season, it can certainly be enjoyed throughout the rest of the year. The title relates directly to the poem, and later the Christmas carol, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the novel by Jennifer Chiaverini takes that poem at its heart and builds around it both a modern story as well as a historical story. Let’s explore that more.

The historical story is set during the years of the Civil War in the United States and follows the Longfellow family (yes, the Longfellow that wrote the titular poem) through all the trials and tribulations that led to the composition of said poem. I had not known anything about Longfellow, I’m not a huge fan of poetry, but I found his life fascinating, but so tragic. There was a lot of sadness during this time for him. While we learn a lot about the man himself we also see what some aspects of the War would have been like for those living in the North as well as on the battlefield as that touched close to home for Longfellow as well.

The modern story line ties in because it is based around a church children’s choir that is practicing to perform Christmas Bells for their Christmas service. While the historical narrative follows one man/one family, the modern narrative looks at several different people’s stories each filled with a lot of hardship and sadness around the holiday, just like Longfellow.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I liked both the historical and the modern for different reasons. The historical narrative evoked the time period very well and looked at the effects of the War on the people at home and how they dealt with their family member being at war. The modern story was one that kept you on the edge of your seat wondering how each person’s plight would resolve and if it would be happy or not. Both stories pulled at my heart strings and made me truly care about the characters. However, there were a couple issues as well.

My major issue was with the structure of the novel. The historical narrative is told from the limited perspective of Henry Longfellow whereas in the modern narrative each chapter is told by a different character – from children in the choir, to the choir directors, parents, and church people. It was weird for me to bounce around between characters in one narrative, but remain with one character in the other. However, this wasn’t my most significant issue with the structure. In the modern narrative there were some instances of repetition in storytelling between characters. This was particularly obvious with the chapters from the brother/sister and their mother. There were entire passages that I skimmed right past because I had already read that exact thing not a chapter before, which was a little frustrating. It felt almost like a copy/paste job. You can still have overlapping segments, but being from 2 perspectives there should be differences there. They were wasted words on me.

At its heart, Christmas Bells is the story of survival, moving on, and embracing what life throws at you, which can be appreciated at all times of the year.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• The Calico Critic
• Always With A Book

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

 

Also by Jennifer Chiaverini:

Jennifer Chiaverini has written many books in the Elm Creek Quilt series, that I am not going to list here for brevity. You can find the complete list on her website.

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule

The Spymistress

Fates and Traitors

Mrs. Lincoln’s Rival

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker

Find Jennifer Chiaverini: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Audiobook Review: The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa

The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa
Unabridged, 10 hr. 48 min.
Simon & Schuster Audio
Joy Osmanski (Narrator)
October 18, 2016
★★★★ ½☆

Genre: Historical Fiction

Source: Received audiobook download for review from publisher

A stunningly ambitious and beautiful debut novel, perfect for fans of Sarah’s Key and All the Light We Cannot See, the story of a twelve-year-old girl’s harrowing experience fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany with her family and best friend, only to discover that the overseas asylum they had been promised is an illusion.

In 1939 before everything changed, Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. Her family moved in Berlin’s highest social circles, admired by friends and neighbors. Eleven-year-old Hannah was often taken by her mother for an afternoon treat at the tea room of the beautiful Adlon Hotel, both dressed in their finest clothes. She spent her afternoons at the park with her best friend Leo Martin.

But, in an instant, that sunlit world vanished. Now the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white, and black flags; their fine possessions are hauled away, and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home. The two friends make a pact: come what may, they promise to have a future together.

As Hannah and Leo’s families desperately begin to search for a means of escape, a glimmer of hope appears when they discover the Saint Louis, a transatlantic liner that can give Jews safe passage to Cuba. After a frantic search to obtain visas, the Rosenthals and the Martins depart from Hamburg on the luxurious passenger liner bound for Havana. Life aboard the ship is a welcome respite from the gloom of Berlin—filled with masquerade balls, dancing, and exquisite meals every night.

As the passengers gain renewed hope for a bright future ahead, love between Hannah and Leo blossoms. But soon reports from the outside world began to filter in, and dark news overshadows the celebratory atmosphere on the ship; the governments of Cuba, the United States, and Canada are denying the passengers of the St. Louis admittance to their countries, forcing them to return to Europe as it descends into the Second World War. The ship that had seemed their salvation seems likely to become their death sentence.

After four days anchored at bay, only a handful of passengers are allowed to disembark onto Cuban soil, and Hannah and Leo must face the grim reality that they could be torn apart. Their future is unknown, and their only choice will have an impact in generations to come.

Decades later in New York City on her eleventh birthday, Anna Rosen receives a mysterious envelope from Hannah, a great-aunt she has never met but who raised her deceased father. In an attempt to piece together her father’s mysterious past, Anna and her mother travel to Havana to meet Hannah, who is turning eighty-seven years old. Hannah reveals old family ties, recounts her journey aboard the Saint Louis and, for the first time, reveals what happened to her father and Leo. Bringing together the pain of the past with the mysteries of the present, Hannah gives young Anna a sense of their shared histories, forever intertwining their lives, honoring those they loved and cruelly lost.

Like many historical fiction readers I have enjoyed my fair share of novels set during WWII; there are so many on the market that it is difficult to not run into one. What I loved about the premise of The German Girl is it takes the reader somewhere new and explores an oft overlooked event during the early days of the war. This is not a novel that will feel familiar or a rehash of events that you have read before, but it will pull at your heartstrings.

The story is told through a dual narrative – sort of. There are two distinct timelines: that beginning in 1939 and following Hannah Rosenthal and also that of Anna Rosen in 2014. These two timelines do come together in 2014, and it is early on when Anna meets her great-aunt Hannah, and then we get the story from 1939 forward as Hannah tells Anna and her mother the story of how she fled Germany in the early days of the war. I was certainly more committed to the 1939 story line. This was the fascinating and new part for me. I had never heard of the Saint Louis and the plight of the passengers who had fled Nazi Germany aboard it only to find extreme difficulty upon arriving in Havana, Cuba. The 2014 storyline and references to events during Anna’s life during the 2000s really held no interest for me. Because of this, I found the earliest chapters a little bit of a slog because I didn’t really care about Anna, her mother, or how her father died. I think that the novel could have held its own just fine being told only from the historical storyline without the distractions of the present. That being said, I do understand why the author chose to include the present-day narrative: it allowed him to draw character parallels between Anna now who is learning what happened to her family and Hannah then at the time the events were transpiring as she was the same age as Anna is now. And that worked just fine.

The historical narrative can be divided into three distinct segments: Berlin, the trans-Atlantic crossing aboard the Saint Louis, and then Cuba. The part set in Berlin gives the reader a perspective of what life had been like before the Nazi regime took over as Hannah describes the life her glamorous mother had led. You also witness events like Kristallnacht through the eyes of a young girl who doesn’t understand at all what is going on. I don’t believe she ever uttered the word “Nazi” and instead calls them “the ogres” when describing what was happening. All of this escalating terror and destruction is juxtaposed against childhood fancies and games, such as hiding outside a man’s window to listen to the radio and running around with her friend, Leo. It gave it all a sort of surreal perspective. The same can be said about the experience aboard the Saint Louis. The passengers viewed it as a successful escape from the clutches of the Nazi and both children and the adults thoroughly enjoyed their voyage, until they reached Cuba to find out very, very few of them would actually be disembarking the ship – among them Hannah and her mother. Cuba takes a decidedly depressing turn as the family struggles to figure out what has happened to their family and friends and decide what to do in this country that doesn’t want them and in which they do not want to be. We also witness Cuba later in the throws of its revolution and Hannah draws uncomfortable parallels between it and what they lived through it Germany.

This was a fantastically written novel. Even with my misgivings about the present storyline being a little superfluous I would enthusiastically recommend this book to any historical fiction or WWII fan. You will love the characters and the passion for the subject shines through the writing. It will open your eyes to niche experiences beyond the typical stories of WWII. I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out that I think that this could certainly be a novel read by young adults; it is something I would have read if it was available when I was 12-15. The two girls through much of the narrative are young teens that many could relate to. The material is heavy at points, so as a parent you might want to decide for yourself if it is something your child should read, but there are no violent scenes, romance/sex, or foul language (there might be one scene where someone is beat up during the Berlin portion, but I can’t remember if it was onscreen or off, and there is a scene during the rebellion in Cuba, but either way it isn’t graphic).

★★★★☆

One of the things that I always note is how well the narrator pronounces phrases when there is foreign language used throughout a novel. As one might expect, there is German in this novel, but also Spanish as they spend extensive time in Cuba, as well as French. While I know very little German and am far from fluent in Spanish or French, I feel that the narrator handled these segments well. They sounded good to my ear and enhanced my enjoyment of listening to a book and made it feel more accurate (because let’s face it, if I was reading the print version I would have butchered those parts in my head). Ultimately I think I would have appreciated having 2 narrators, one for Anna and another for Hannah, just to make it easier to differentiate the two in case you do not stop at a chapter header. The pace of the reading was very even, however it sometimes bordered on being too slow and I felt the need for the pace to be picked up. The narration overall, however, is strong.

You can get a feel for this audiobook by checking out this excerpt from the production.

 

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Man of La Book
• Worn Pages and Ink

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

Find Armando Lucas Correa: Website | Facebook | Twitter

 

Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Indiana Belle by John A. Heldt

Indiana Belle by John A. Heldt

Book 3 in American Journey Series

ARC, e-book, 295 pages

John A. Heldt

April 14, 2016

★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction/Time Travel

Source: Received from Author for Review at Romantic Historical Reviews

Providence, Rhode Island, 2017. When doctoral student Cameron Coelho, 28, opens a package from Indiana, he finds more than private papers that will help him with his dissertation. He finds a photograph of a beautiful society editor murdered in 1925 and clues to a century-old mystery. Within days, he meets Geoffrey Bell, the "time-travel professor," and begins an unlikely journey through the Roaring Twenties. Filled with history, romance, and intrigue, Indiana Belle follows a lonely soul on the adventure of a lifetime as he searches for love and answers in the age of Prohibition, flappers, and jazz.

**This Review was Previously Posted at Romantic Historical Reviews**

Indiana Belle has so many things going for it that it really defies a distinct categorization. It has a romance thread that runs throughout. It is packed with a little mystery, intrigue, and adventure from the earliest pages. There is the historical setting and some significant events. Oh, and let’s not forget the very critical element of time travel!

I have been a fan of Heldt’s works since I first read back-to-back The Mine and The Journey in 2013 (both are from his other book series, The Northwest Passage). All of his books include an element of time travel and that was one of the elements that originally drew me to them. In Indiana Belle the time travel element involves some tunnels, some gypsum crystals, and some scientific formulas. While time travel does require some level of suspension of reality, and maybe it’s presentation here isn’t what most would expect for a method time travel, I found it creative, possible, and achieved the point of bringing Cameron back to 1925. The novel also tackles the age old idea that if you travel back in time you must be careful to not change the past or it could affect the future. Cameron wrestles with this premise as he does not wish to let a historical murder happen on his watch. Seeing how he struggles with this and what decision he ultimately makes is one of the central concepts of this novel. Some of the best scenes of this book were with Cameron making continuity mistakes while back in 1925 – some were things that I would never have even thought of.

The romance element is a very light, but critical, part of the story. What happens if you fall in love with someone who isn’t from your time? It served as more of another obstacle to time travel and the completion of Cameron’s mission than anything else. The scenes were sweet and grew from a natural place.

Heldt does an excellent job here of bringing to life the Roaring Twenties; from the quiet mid-west town, to the speakeasy parties, to the big church revivals, it has it all. Cameron sees it as a simpler time initially, but it is full of its own problems, like the KKK and women’s struggle for rights. Some of these elements are obvious while others are atmospheric, but all contribute to a well-formed time. Heldt also tends to cover an event of significance in most of his novels and here we get a little bit of the Tri-State Tornado of 1925. Having survived a tornado myself, it felt very real.

There was only a small element that I questioned while reading, and I thought that it might resolve at some point in the novel, but ultimately wasn’t…Cameron comes from 2017. I wondered at the choice to set it in the near future at the time of publication instead of the current year. Additionally, how the difference in perception of that being a future date for us now, but come a couple years the entire novel will occur in the past. After reading, the resulting analysis: It didn’t seem to have an obvious purpose to me.

While Indiana Belle is the third book in the American Journey’s series, it certainly is successful as a standalone novel. I have not read the first two books yet (September Sky and Mercer Street) and did not feel like I was missing out on anything. I have a feeling Geoffrey Bell, the professor referenced in the book description, probably has connections to the first two books based on some allusions to other time travelers and maybe we learn more about him there, but you still come away with a full understanding and appreciation of Indiana Belle on its own.

There is a little something for everyone here and would appeal widely to both men and women!

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Miki’s Hope
• The Reading Café

 
Buy the Book: Amazon

 
Also by John A. Heldt:

September Sky (American Journey #1)

Mercer Street (American Journey #2)

The Mine (Northwest Passage #1)
[My Review]

The Journey (Northwest Passage #2)
[My Review]

The Show (Northwest Passage #3)












The Fire (Northwest Passage #4)

The Mirror (Northwest Passage #5)


Find John A. Heldt: Blog | Facebook | Twitter

 



Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Galerie by Steven Greenberg & Giveaway

Galerie by Steven Greenberg
ARC, e-book, 246 pages
Evolved Publishing LLC
October 24, 2015
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Thriller, Literary

Source: Received for review as part of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour

Every family has secrets, but some are far darker, reach deeper, and touch a rawer nerve than others.

The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Vanesa Neuman’s childhood in the cramped intimacy of south Tel Aviv is shadowed by her parents’ unspoken wartime experiences. The past for her was a closed book... until her father passes away and that book falls literally open. Vanesa must now unravel the mystery of the diary she has received—and the strange symbol within—at all costs.

From Jerusalem, to the backstreets of Prague, and into the former “paradise ghetto” of Theresienstadt, Vanesa’s journey of understanding will reveal a seventy-year-old secret darker than she could have ever imagined.

After reading the final pages of Galerie by Steven Greenberg I felt like I had not stopped to take a breath for the last 30 pages at least! And the majority of the book was that way as well. Greenberg keeps the reader on their toes, never knowing which way the plot is going to turn next. Despite a page count that is less than 250 pages, you never once get the feeling that it is that short as the story is so full of twists and shockers. The plot of this novel definitely had a feel similar to The Da Vinci Code, where one discovery just spirals into the next and sucks the reader along in the intrigue. This is not only a story of events that transpired during World War II, but also the lingering effects on those who survived the Holocaust and the next generation. This was a new angle to the WWII story for me.

I didn’t necessarily love the format of the story – I struggled with it initially, but after the first half of the novel I started to get used to it. I struggled with 2 things: that the narrator did not really experience any of the events himself, it is mostly all second hand knowledge so I found him to be an unreliable narrator. There is even a scene where he imagines what might have happened and then tells the reader that he has no knowledge that this happened at all. The second thing was that the storytelling jumps all over the place in the timeline. You will go from the 1990s back to the 1940s and then the next chapter is the 1980s and there are different family members whose stories are being told. It all comes together and ultimately works, but I had a hard time keeping the storylines straight throughout.

Despite the stylistic quirks that troubled me early on, the story being told rocked!


Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Man of La Book
• Library Educated

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

     Available on Kindle Right Now for Only $2.99!!!

 
Also by Steven Greenberg:

Enfold Me

 








Find Steven Greenberg: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

 
Giveaway!!

I have the opportunity to offer one e-book copy of Galerie to offer to one reader and it is open worldwide!!  Here are the rules:

– Must be 18 or older to enter.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– All entries are made through the Rafflecopter below

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the Tour

On the HFVBT Website

On Twitter: #GalerieBlogTour #HistoricalFiction

Copyright © 2016 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: The Lake House by Kate Morton

The Lake House by Kate Morton
ARC, E-book, 606 pages
Atria Books
October 20, 2015
★★★★ ½☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Time Shift

Source: Received for review with HFVBT tour

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Secret Keeper and The Distant Hours, an intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heart-stopping suspense and uncovered secrets.

Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…

One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.

Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone…yet more present than ever.

A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies, this latest novel from a masterful storyteller is an enthralling, thoroughly satisfying read.

I have to tell you that I had never read one of Morton’s books before, even though I have had The Forgotten Garden AND The House at Riverton on my bookshelves for quite some time now. I had picked them up because their back matter sounded interesting at the store, but then forgot about them once putting them up on the shelf. Well, rest assured, I am going to have to dust them off sometime in the near future because The Lake House has whet my appetite for her writing!!!

I selected this book for review, again because the description sounded really intriguing. A mystery, a little time shifting between WWI/WWII era and the present, and family drama – always makes for great reading. Despite that, I did not jump into this one as soon as I received it – I sort of left it sitting around until I realized I needed to really get reading or a book of this length was never going to be finished in time for the review! Good thing Morton’s prose just flows and you never really want to let up from practically page one. I have found myself reading this book in all those weird in-between moments in the day – which is SO not me (I am more of a marathon style reader than a sprinter). And each time I put it down it leaves me wanting more, wanting to jump forward or back in time to put pieces together, to solve the puzzle! Just when I think I know what is going on, a tidbit is revealed that shows I wasn’t anywhere close! I love reading mysteries because I love the chase to solve the puzzle – but I often find that I figure out the reveal much too early. Not the case here at all. It is actually interesting that one of the characters, Alice, is a mystery writer who speaks on a couple occasions of the strengths of a good mystery novel – Morton hits all of those points here as well.

Besides being able to write a compelling mystery, Morton crafts wonderfully complete characters. At one time or another we pop into the thoughts of many of them giving you a distinct difference between how they are perceived by others and what they think of themselves. We even get part of a chapter from the perspective of an 11 month old baby. I wasn’t convinced that this construct would work while reading it, but ultimately I think that it served its purpose well in the long run. All the characters took a while to figure out – everyone was hiding something from someone. Don’t even get me started on the atmosphere that this author creates! I could feel each sensation that the characters experienced – I was in that forgotten, bucolic lake side garden with Sadie when she discovered the Edevane estate.

I loved the pacing and flow of this novel. Every chapter and section break compelled me forward. Not only did I want to know what happened next, it never felt completely resolved, thus propelling me into the next chapter. While it felt like it took me a while to get through the book, it wasn’t a bad thing because I was gulping down each and every little detail offered. The novel bounces back and forth between time periods that break down into roughly 3 sections – the present where Sadie has fallen into unofficially re-opening the Edevane case, the time surrounding WWI when Anthony and Eleanor Edevane where newly married and then in the time surrounding WWII and the days around the disappearance of their child Theo. It was easy to keep these sections separated in my head and each time we dipped into one of these sections it added little elements to the mystery – either revealing something or adding to the mystery.

Overall, I say pick up this book ASAP, you won’t regret it!! This has definitely pushed her other books up higher on my TBR.

If you would like to preview the story before reading it, why not try out this excerpt of the book? You can also hear the author talk about her inspiration behind the novel below.

 

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• We Love This Book
• Bring My Books
  

Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound

 

Also by Kate Morton:

The House at Riverton

The Forgotten Garden

The Distant Hours

The Secret Keeper

 

Find Kate Morton: Website | Facebook | Instagram

Follow the Tour!

Follow the Tour on Twitter: #TheLakeHouseBlogTour    #HistoricalFiction    #KateMorton

or on the HFVBT page

 

 

 

Copyright © 2015 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Don't Know Much About the American Presidents by Kenneth C. Davis

Don’t Know Much About The American Presidents by Kenneth C. Davis
Unabridged, 23 hr. 52 min.
Random House Audio
Arthur Morey, Kirby Heyborne, and Mark Bramhall (Narrators)
September 18, 2012
★★★★☆

Genre: Non-Fiction

Source: Purchased audiobook through Audible

"Which president broke the law to prevent enslaved people from being freed? Who said, "When the president does it,that means it's not illegal"? Why does America have a president? From the heated debates among the framers of the Constitution in 1787 over an "elected king," to the creation of the presidency, and on through rich profiles of each man who has held the office, New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis takes readers on a guided tour of American history. Examining each chief executive, from the low lights to the bright lights, the memorable to the forgettable and the forgotten, Davis tells all the stories, offering rich anecdotes about real people. He also charts the history of the presidency itself, debunking myths and grading the presidents from A+ to F. For history buffs and history-phobes alike, this entertaining book may change your understanding of the highest office in the land throughout more than two hundred years of history."

After having enjoyed the initial installment of the Don’t Know Much About… series I was excited to read Kenneth C. Davis’ take on the American Presidents. Davis breaks his narrative down into three major sections: The Making of the President; Presidential Profiles; and What Should We Do With the President?. The first section focuses on what the Constitutional framers intended the role of the President to be (or not be). The second, and admittedly where the bulk of the book takes place, is a look at each individual President and a grading/ranking of their place in American history. The final section is a wrap up that looks at where the role of the President goes from here. A complete, well-rounded view of the presidency.

The first and final sections were utterly forgettable – honestly, I didn’t pay any attention to these sections. The main action transpires in the individual biographies of the Presidents, from George Washington up through the first term of Barack Obama. If you have read widely within the Presidential biography realm, there wasn’t much new material presented here; a general scope of their presidencies. What was interesting for me was to read about some history that I have actually lived through with regard to the late 1980’s through the present. There were some great appendices presented at the back of the book as well. Short on time? Check out the Milestones in each President’s life at the beginning of each chapter or the Milestones in the Presidency of each Presidents as the chapter wrap up.

Davis presents his content in his traditional, easy to digest, question and answer format. Ultimately if you are in the market to learn a little something about each of the Presidents, this could be the book for you.

★★★★☆

The three narrators were presented in the same manner as his prior book. There is one narrator for the questions, one for the answers, and a third who reads the other material. This worked well for the style of the material being presented and the change of narration kept it from being monotonous.

Author Kenneth C. Davis also has written the following for adults: Don’t Know Much About the Bible, Don’t Know Much About the Civil War, Don’t Know Much About Geography, Don’t Know Much About Mythology, and Don’t Know Much About History. He also has a series of books for kids focused on specific topics such as the Pilgrims or Space. You can view the whole children’s list here. You can visit the author’s website for additional information about the book. Check out this audio excerpt.

My reviews of other books by this author:

• Don’t Know Much About History

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon, B&N, RJ Julia (my fav indie bookstore).

 

Copyright © 2014 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: The Journey by John A. Heldt

The Journey by John A. Heldt
Book 2 in The Northwest Passage series
E-book, 242 pages
Self-Published by John A. Heldt
November 3, 2012
★★★★½☆

Genre: Historical Fiction (sort of), Time Travel

Source: Received from the author for review

“Seattle, 2010. When her entrepreneur husband dies in an accident, Michelle Preston Richardson, 48, finds herself childless and directionless. She yearns for the simpler days of her youth, before she followed her high school sweetheart down a road that led to limitless riches but little fulfillment, and jumps at a chance to reconnect with her past at a class reunion. But when Michelle returns to Unionville, Oregon, and joins three classmates on a spur-of-the-moment tour of an abandoned mansion, she gets more than she asked for. She enters a mysterious room and is thrown back to 1979.

Distraught and destitute, Michelle finds a job as a secretary at Unionville High, where she guides her spirited younger self, Shelly Preston, and childhood friends through their tumultuous senior year. Along the way, she meets widowed teacher Robert Land and finds the love and happiness she had always sought. But that happiness is threatened when history intervenes and Michelle must act quickly to save those she loves from deadly fates. Filled with humor and heartbreak, The Journey gives new meaning to friendship, courage, and commitment as it follows an unfulfilled soul through her second shot at life.”

I have to start by getting two things out of the way – 1^st: I’m not a huge fan of time travel stories, but this one worked for me. 2^nd: Don’t take the fact that it is self-published as a sign it is a lesser work. I know a lot of people shy away from self-published works, but John A. Heldt seems to have a solid hand at fiction writing.

While this doesn’t technically fit in the genre of historical fiction, as the bulk of the story takes place in 1979, it’s still before my time that I’m going to classify it as such.

The Journey is the 2^nd book in The Northwest Passage series; however it has an entirely different cast of characters (a pint sized Joel from The Mine does appear for a brief scene). And while we again find a person from the new millennium transported back to the past via a strange portal we do not encounter a rehashing of the style of The Mine. Whereas in The Mine Joel is transported back to a time before he was born, Michelle is transported back into her own past, when she was a senior in high school. This brings on a whole new set of dilemmas for a time-traveler. I was glad to see that Michelle freaks out about learning she is in the past and honestly tries to return home (something I found Joel to lack). And whereas in The Mine Joel actively tried to avoid changing the past, Michelle tries to right some of the things that went wrong in her senior year. However we do see the time-travel-ism of how changing one event can lead to a different chain of events.

It was also extremely interesting to see how Michelle would interact with her younger self, Shelly, and vice versa. We do get to see things from both Michelle and Shelly’s perspective. Obviously, no one is going to expect that someone they meet has time traveled, but Shelly questions things as she gets to know Michelle because she seems very familiar to her.

I think that this could be a good novel for a YA audience as well as a general adult audience. For teens it would be an easy introduction to the historical genre because the time period isn’t that far removed from what they know but still before their time and several of the main characters are high-schoolers dealing with high-school problems that today’s teens still face. It also has the time-travel element which might catch the attention of those who are neck deep in the supernatural.

If I thought that The Mine tugged at my heartstrings, The Journey pulled them apart. This was such a tear-jerker and I couldn’t believe the ending. Not only did I not see the event coming, but I couldn’t believe what actually happened. Another highly recommended read for 2013.

Author John A. Heldt also has written The Mine (book 1) and is currently working on The Show (book 3). You can visit John’s blog for additional information about the book. If you would like to preview the story before reading it, you can read a sample of chapter 1 on the Amazon page.

My reviews of other books by this author:

• The Mine

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Reviews from the Heart
• The Towering Pile

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon.

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: The Mine by John A. Heldt

The Mine by John A. Heldt
Book 1 of The Northwest Passage series
E-book, 290 pages
Self-Published by John A. Heldt
February 12, 2012
★★★★½☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Time Travel

Source: Received from the author for review

“In 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can't use, money he can't spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of Whirlaway, swing dancing, and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. The Mine follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.”

I have to start by getting two things out of the way – 1^st: I’m not a huge fan of time travel stories, but this one worked for me. 2^nd: Don’t take the fact that it is self-published as a sign it is a lesser work. I know a lot of people shy away from self-published works, however this one is well-polished and so well built that it made my list of favorite reads of 2012.

In terms of historical to time travel ratio, the historical aspects definitely win out. The time travel element is only heavily accentuated in the very beginning and end. I actually found myself wishing that Joel had reacted more to finding himself 60+ years in the past. He seems to quickly accept what has happened and starts to build a life for himself in 1941. I, on the other hand, would have been freaking out! I think that Heldt created a good balance of including what Joel knows will happen historically and investigating how he will react to that knowledge. Will he do anything to stop or change an event or let it happen? Joel takes the approach to time travel of, “I don’t want to do anything that will substantially mess up history especially because I haven’t been born yet” approach – which is one tried and true time travel belief.

The author also equally balances the historical events of significance with the historical events of Joel’s family. He is interacting with his grandmother and her friends in 1941 and things that happen to them can affect Joel’s life in 2000. It was interesting to see how Joel walks that line and learns a lot about his family and deeper meanings for things he only knew passing references about. I loved seeing how he reacted to meeting people in the past that he knew in the future. I have always thought it would be so interesting to see and know my grandmother when she was in her 20’s, her stories are always so fascinating, and I could sort of live that through the character of Joel.

The 1940’s world that the author builds just exudes the feel of this period – from the cars, manner of dress, attitudes, etc. The author definitely did his research to make the period jump from the pages.

I LOVED the characters in this book – the certainly stay with you even after finishing reading it. They felt so real. Each was different and carefully crafted. The emotions that they feel really pull at your heartstrings. There really weren’t any characters that I didn’t like, they all fell somewhere on a moving scale of likeability depending on what was happening at the time – which is how we perceive different people in our life anyway.

This book moves right along and at 290 pages you will be done with the book before you know it. The first half of the book builds a character for Joel in the 1940’s while the second half of the book really deals with what Joel is going to do. This was one of those books I just couldn’t put down. I went to bed with 10% left of the book (because I had to go to bed sometime and get up for work) and all the next day at work I couldn’t wait to get home to pick up the book and finish it – which is exactly what I did when I walked in the door. The story and the characters just wouldn’t leave. I highly recommend this book (and book 2, The Journey – review later this week!)

Author John A. Heldt also has written The Journey (book 2) and is currently working on The Show (book 3). You can visit John’s blog for additional information about the book. If you would like to preview the story before reading it, you can read a sample of chapter 1 on the Amazon page.

My reviews of other books by this author:

• The Journey

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Mary Ellen’s Musings
• Lucybird’s Book Blog

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon.

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court