Book Review: So Far From Home (Dear America) by Barry Denenberg

So Far From Home: The Diary of Mary Driscoll, an Irish Mill Girl, Lowell, Massachusetts, 1847 by Barry Denenberg
Dear America Diary Series
Hardcover, 170 pages
Scholastic Inc
October 1, 1997
★★★★☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Source: Personal collection

In the diary account of her journey from Ireland in 1847 and of her work in a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, fourteen-year-old Mary reveals a great longing for her family.

I picked up So Far From Home right after I came back from a trip to the Lowell Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts; I love being able to match a book with an experience! I had the opportunity to walk through some of the mills (experience a smidge of the noise created there) as well as the boarding houses where many of the girls would have lived. I wanted to see how Lowell stacked up in a novel treatment, especially one for young adults.

The novel takes on 2 topics that are nicely tied together: the first being the plight of the Irish facing famine at home that led to many choosing to flee to America, the second being how these immigrants were treated upon arrival in the United States. Mary and her family are caught up in the famine at home. Some of the family makes the tough decision to emigrate while some choose to remain at home and live through it. It was hard to think that people would choose to remain behind and continue to live in those conditions, but that was the life they knew and who knew what they would find in the new country. These concerns and arguments for and against were thoroughly explored. The ship voyage was treacherous and while I had thought about and read about the immigrant arrival experience before, So Far From Home did a great job of showing how scary that would have been; how do you find your family and figure out how to get where you are going, especially if you don’t speak the language. Mary’s experiences at the mills showed how the Irish immigrants were taken advantage of and asked to perform the more difficult and dangerous tasks. In total, I think the experience here was perfectly depicted.

One thing I didn’t like was how the book ended. It ends abruptly with Mary headed out for a new experience, which sounds like it could be rather dramatic and I thought it would have been interesting to explore that experience more. It just felt a little bit unresolved to me.

I always enjoy the bonus content included in these books as it expands on the reading experience without me needing to go do my own research. Included in this novel are images of the mills (inside and out), boarding houses, some sheet music for a lullaby that is mentioned in the novel and, what I found most interesting, the time schedules and pay scales for the mills.

Overall, this is a great novel to include for any kids learning about the industrial revolution or to expand upon a visit to the National Park. It’s sad that it’s not one of the few of the Diaries that is currently in print at this time.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Through the Looking Glass Children’s Book Reviews

Buy the Book: AbeBooks

Other Book in the Dear America Series:

A Journey to the New World

The Winter of Red Snow
[My Review]

When Will This Cruel War Be Over?

A Picture of Freedom

Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie
[My Review]

I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
[My Review]

West to a Land of Plenty

Dreams in the Golden Country

Standing in the Light

Voyage on the Great Titanic

A Line in the Sand

My Heart is on the Ground

The Great Railroad Race

A Light in the Storm

The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow

A Coal Miner’s Bride

Color Me Dark

One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping

My Secret War
[My Review]

Valley of the Moon

Seeds of Hope

Christmas After All

Early Sunday Morning

My Face to the Wind

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

A Time for Courage

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Survival in the Storm

When Christmas Comes Again

Land of the Buffalo Bones

Love Thy Neighbor

All the Stars in the Sky

Look to the Hills

Hear My Sorrow

I Walk in Dread

The Fences Between Us

Like The Willow Tree

Cannons at Dawn

With the Might of Angels

Behind the Masks

A City Tossed and Broken

Down the Rabbit Hole

Find Dear America series here.

 
Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Cover Crush: We Were the Lucky Ones

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.

This cover is ethereal and evocative.  I know that this is a World War II novel and can imagine that this novel might be heartbreaking just from the title and the cover image.  And I’m curious about the musical notes that go across the top half of the cover and wonder how it works into he novel. 

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 Books, A Bookaholic Swede, Layered Pages, and A Literary Vacation.   

 

 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Audiobook Review: Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne
Unabridged, 15 hrs. 9 mins.
Simon & Schuster Audio
David Drummond (Narrator)
September 20, 2016
★★★½☆☆

 

Genre: Non Fiction

Source: Received audio download from the publisher for review

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.

S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told.

I have been a huge fan of S.C. Gwynne’s since reading Rebel Yell a year or so ago. He took a controversial subject, and someone that I had really no interest in, and made me fascinated with his intelligence and battlefield strategy (something else I am not interested in). When an author can do that for me, they fall into a special category of people whose books I need to pick up ASAP. While Empire of the Summer Moon was released prior to Rebel Yell, when I saw that Simon & Schuster was releasing the audio version, I knew I needed to read/listen to this one.

Empire of the Summer Moon takes an interesting look at the late Comanche culture. It explores the later part of the American westward migration and how they interacted with the native peoples. It also explores how the Comanche, and to a lesser extent other nations, pushed back against these incursions of their land and ways of life. The most interesting part for me was the extensive time spent on the people taken captive by natives during raids and how life was like for them. The most time was spent on the story of Cynthia Parker who was taken captive, bore three children to her native husband, and when reclaimed by her white family, struggled to reacquaint herself with her own culture. A few other capture stories are explored to some extent as well. Cynthia Parker was also the mother of Quanah Parker, who would become one of the last powerful Comanche leaders and would wrap around the time where the Comanche would go from a plains people to a reservation people. He was a fascinating person, but I felt that even though he is a titular figure, much less time was spent on his story than that of his mother or the Comanche people in general, which I think was a missed opportunity.

The structure of the novel was a little divided to me, which felt almost like two separate threads rather than a cohesive thread that spans all the way through the book. Cynthia Parker is technically the element that connects the two: she connects the old style native life with the new style life and she is the mother of Quanah. However, I really felt like these were two separate elements and would have liked them to be better integrated.

Despite my qualms with the structure, I learned A LOT from this book. I had taken classes on native American peoples during college, but none of these elements from this book were explored in them.  I definitely think that Rebel Yell was better executed but this was well done as well. 

★★★★☆

The narration was strong for this book. It was never boring or dry and kept my attention. I can’t say that it was exciting or engaging as some are wont to be, but for a non-fiction book, I felt that it did enough to serve the topic. 

You can check out a sample of the audio production below:

 

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• The Book Love Blog
• Accidental Blogger

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

Also by S.C. Gwynne:

Rebel Yell
[My Review]

The Perfect Pass

Find S.C. Gwynne: Website | Facebook | Twitter

 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Pairings: For Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

If you are anything like me, sometimes you get hooked on a subject while reading your current book and you can’t let it go upon closing the cover.  Sometimes you want to know more about the real subject involved, while other times you might just want to pick up another novel about the same thing.  Maybe you are even looking for other categories like film or music that might pick up on elements of something you read.  Here is where Book Pairings comes in.  Each installment of Book Pairings will have a theme that pairs up several books with something else that would compliment them beautifully (most often this will be other books).  I’m excited to explore where this will take me!

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I recently finished listening to Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (review to come this week) and there were so many things that I was fascinated by that would either be interesting for further research or that would make an awesome novel.  Now it was difficult to find novels that strictly focused on the Comanche, but there are many novels that dealt with elements that this book highlighted, just with different tribes.  I imagine some of these things might have been similarly experienced regardless of the tribe.  So this list is some of the interesting novels that have come to my attention (commentary provided for each novel).

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The first 2 novels that I am going to highlight deal with white women who were taken captive by natives and their experiences.  I was interested in this based on the extensive discussions of captives, particularly that of Rachel Parker Plummer.

Flight of the Sparrow: A Novel of Early America by Amy Belding Brown

Book Blurb: She suspects that she has changed too much to ever fit easily into English society again. The wilderness has now become her home. She can interpret the cries of birds. She has seen vistas that have stolen away her breath. She has learned to live in a new, free way....

Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1676. Even before Mary Rowlandson is captured by Indians on a winter day of violence and terror, she sometimes found herself in conflict with her rigid Puritan community. Now, her home destroyed, her children lost to her, she has been sold into the service of a powerful woman tribal leader, made a pawn in the on-going bloody struggle between English settlers and native people. Battling cold, hunger, and exhaustion, Mary witnesses harrowing brutality but also unexpected kindness. To her confused surprise, she is drawn to her captors’ open and straightforward way of life, a feeling further complicated by her attraction to a generous, protective English-speaking native known as James Printer. All her life, Mary has been taught to fear God, submit to her husband, and abhor Indians. Now, having lived on the other side of the forest, she begins to question the edicts that have guided her, torn between the life she knew and the wisdom the natives have shown her.

Based on the compelling true narrative of Mary Rowlandson, Flight of the Sparrow is an evocative tale that transports the reader to a little-known time in early America and explores the real meaning of freedom, faith, and acceptance.

Burning Sky by Lori Benton

Book Blurb: Abducted by Mohawk Indians at fourteen and renamed Burning Sky, Willa Obenchain is driven to return to her family’s New York frontier homestead after many years building a life with the People. At the boundary of her father’s property, Willa discovers a wounded Scotsman lying in her path. Feeling obliged to nurse his injuries, the two quickly find much has changed during her twelve-year absence—her childhood home is in disrepair, her missing parents are rumored to be Tories, and the young Richard Waring she once admired is now grown into a man twisted by the horrors of war and claiming ownership of the Obenchain land.

When her Mohawk brother arrives and questions her place in the white world, the cultural divide blurs Willa’s vision. Can she follow Tames-His-Horse back to the People now that she is no longer Burning Sky? And what about Neil MacGregor, the kind and loyal botanist who does not fit into in her plan for a solitary life, yet is now helping her revive her farm? In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, strong feelings against “savages” abound in the nearby village of Shiloh, leaving Willa’s safety unsure.

Willa is a woman caught between two worlds. As tensions rise, challenging her shielded heart, the woman called Burning Sky must find a new courage--the courage to again risk embracing the blessings the Almighty wants to bestow. Is she brave enough to love again?

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The next books explore the fates of Native peoples as the American western boundary expanded further west as well as how Native peoples had to sometimes choose which world they belonged to.  Both of these were very important topics in Gwynne’s book.

Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy

Book Blurb:  An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

Lake in the Clouds by Sara Donati (Book 3 in the Wilderness series)

Book Blurb: In her extraordinary novels Into the Wilderness and Dawn on a Distant Shore, award-winning author Sara Donati deftly captured the vast, untamed wilds of late-eighteenth-century New York and the trials and triumphs of the spirited Bonner family. Now she takes on a new chapter in the life of Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner--as their brave and beautiful oldest daughter comes of age with a challenge that will change her forever. . . .

It is the spring of 1802 and the village of Paradise is still reeling from the typhoid epidemic of the previous summer. But despite a devastating personal loss, the Bonners persevere, with Hannah, Nathaniel's half-Indian daughter, working as a doctor in training. A gifted healer, this striking young woman of two worlds finds herself in peril when a dangerously ill runaway slave is discovered near the family home and Hannah insists on nursing the outlaw. Her determination places both her family and her heart in jeopardy, for a bounty hunter is afoot--and he is none other than Hannah's childhood friend and first love. So begins a journey that will test the strength of the Bonners' love for one another--and bring Hannah to face the decision she has always dreaded: will she make a life for herself in a white world, or among her mother's people?

**Note: I almost selected the first book: Into the Wilderness, but I liked the sound of this woman’s experience as being more directly related to the issue at hand.**

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The last novel that I selected is an alternate fiction, based on a proposal by a Cheyenne chief to have their warriors given one thousand white woman to marry as a way to assimilate into the American culture.  This offer was historically declined, but in the novel it is not.  I thought this was an interested exploration of the differences in perception and understanding between the tribes and the government.

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

Book Blurb: One Thousand White Women is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians" program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.

 

Have you read any of these or are there any titles that you know of that would fit with these recommendations?  I would love to hear them!

 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Book Review: Lord of the Privateers by Stephanie Laurens

Lord of the Privateers by Stephanie Laurens
Book 4 in The Adventurers Quartet
ARC, e-Book, 512 pages
MIRA
December 27, 2016
★★★★☆

Heat Level:

Genre: Historical Romance, Adventure, Regency

Source: Received from publisher for review as part of TLC Book Tour

Revel in the action, drama, intrigue and passion as the Frobishers— with help from Wolverstone, the Cynsters and many familiar others— steer the adventure to a glorious end.

Unstoppable determination
Widely known as the lord of the privateers, Royd Frobisher expects to execute the final stage of the rescue mission his brothers have begun. What he does not expect is to be pressured into taking Isobel Carmichael—his childhood sweetheart, former handfasted bride and current business partner—with him. A force of nature, Isobel has a mission of her own: to find and bring a young cousin safely home. And along the way, she hopes to rid herself of the dreams of a life with Royd that still haunt her.

Unfinished business
Neither expects the shock that awaits them as they set sail, much less the new horizons that open before them as they embark on a full-scale rescue-assault on the compound deep in the jungle. Yet despite the support of his brothers and their ladies, Royd and Isobel discover that freeing the captives is only half the battle. To identify and convict the conspirators behind the illicit enterprise—and save England from political disaster—they must return to the ballrooms of the haut ton and hunt the villains on their home ground.

Unforgettable love
But having found each other again, having glimpsed the heaven that could yet be theirs, how much are Royd and Isobel willing to risk in the name of duty?

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens delivers the thrilling conclusion to her acclaimed series THE ADVENTURERS QUARTET, a passionate Regency-era drama where intrigue and danger play out on the high seas and in exotic tropical jungles, ultimately reaching a dazzling climax in the glittering ballrooms of London.

In Lord of the Privateers Stephanie Laurens brings us the conclusion of the adventure that began back in book 1, The Lady’s Command. Royd Frobisher and friends head back down to Africa to execute the mission to free the captives at the mine and then follow that up with exposing those in England who are backing the entire mission and bring them to justice. The action/adventure has been an element that I have repeatedly thought that Laurens does well in this series. I found myself looking forward to those parts and I believe that is why I found that I enjoyed books 2 and 3 the most. Those two books were primarily all action, all the time. If you look at this quartet it really covers one story arc throughout and thus the first book provides exposition and the last the conclusion, so they do get a little bogged down with more quiet elements.

While each new book brings the reader a new couple to root for and love, I found that it took a lot longer for me to get behind Royd and Isobel than I have the other couples. These two have SO much baggage and hurdles to get over. However, I loved that this was a second chance story, as they had been nearly married several years ago. Laurens has brought us couples in very different situations and relationships status throughout this series which I found refreshing.

I felt that this novel took a long time to get moving and could have used some paring down (and a second look at the page count reaffirms my belief of this). There is always a period of getting to know the characters, but this was primarily accomplished through internal dialogue here and made me wish for something, anything, to happen. I know they have a lot that they need to digest dealing with each other again after 8 years, but this was definitely a case of too much telling, and not enough showing. It would go on for pages and then we would go through even more from the other character’s perspective and all that has happened is they are standing in the cabin looking at each other. I didn’t notice this issue in any of the proceeding novels in the series, so this was even more out of character here. I also felt that the novel could have easily resolved a few chapters earlier than it actually did, specifically on the boat trip home from Africa. There was a really nice beat where the relationship story and the bulk of the action story nicely had a pause. I get that the author wanted to bring us back into England and discover who the backers of the illegal mining activity were, but I didn’t feel like I needed it and it would have helped with the length issue.

By this point, we have quite the cast of characters, and for once I am actually glad for one of those cheat sheets at the beginning of the book. We now have not only all four of the Frobisher brothers, but the women that have come into their lives throughout the series, and also some friends and family who have made appearances in other Laurens novels, especially when they are plotting to catch the backers toward the end. It was a lot to handle, but it was easy to keep track of the main characters and I just let the others become fluff. I can say that I am interested in looking into The Black Cobra Quartet whose events are mentioned in passing quite often and the multiple series that involve the Cynster family members, so the author did a good job of linking interest with her other series.

As a whole I enjoyed the series. I like the action and romance element and appreciated that Laurens relies more heavily on the adventure story and uses the romance to build the characters and the story. My biggest gripe with the series overall is that each book is not self contained; there is no sense of resolution at the end of each novel. They aren’t exactly cliffhangers, but you certainly HAVE to read them in order and I wouldn’t be able to have just read the first and felt ok to move on. I had to know what happened to the captives even though I didn’t enjoy the first book enough to normally have picked up the next in the series. While this certainly works for the author as it keeps a reader acquiring the books, it doesn’t leave me with a good feeling because I almost felt strong-armed into having to finish the series.

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Laura’s Reviews
• Night Owl Romance

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

Also by Stephanie Laurens:

Stephanie Laurens has written many novels, those in the Adventure Quartet include:

The Lady’s Command (Book 1)
[My Review]

A Buccaneer at Heart (Book 2)
[My Review]

A Daredevil Snared (Book 3)
[My Review]

Find Stephanie Laurens: Website | Newsletter

Follow the Tour!

Follow the Tour at the TLC Tour Page

Monday, January 16th: The Sassy Bookster

Tuesday, January 17th: Reading is My Superpower

Wednesday, January 18th: Bibliotica

Friday, January 20th: Reading Reality

Monday, January 23rd: Buried Under Romance

Tuesday, January 24th: Dwell in Possibility

Wednesday, January 25th: The Romance Dish

Friday, January 27th: A Chick Who Reads

Monday, January 30th: From the TBR Pile

Monday, January 30th: Let Them Read Books – Excerpt

Wednesday, February 1st: A. Holland Reads

Friday, February 3rd: Becky on Books

Monday, February 6th: Broken Teepee

Tuesday, February 7th: Laura’s Reviews

Wednesday, February 8th: Black ‘n Gold Girl’s Book Spot

Friday, February 10th: The Maiden’s Court - HERE

 

Copyright © 2017by The Maiden’s Court

Cover Crush: For the Most Beautiful

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 on this cover just jump out at me – the rich jewel tones are gorgeous and the purple and teal are just beautiful.  Although I’m not the biggest fan of the headless woman cover, I do like that we are seeing the view from the back with a little glance over the shoulder.  And while I’m not really sure what that little symbol is over the ‘O’ in “Most” in the title (maybe it’s a boat?), I like how it looks.

What are your thoughts on this cover?

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

 

 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Audiobook Discussions: The Audible App

I have been doing a lot of audiobook listening lately and I attended a recent blogger webinar about audiobook reviewing which got me thinking more and more about audiobooks.  So I wanted to know more of what you think about them!  From there, Audiobook Discussions has been born!

So today I want to talk about the Audible app.  Do you use Audible?  Are you aware of some of the cool features of the app?  What do you like/dislike?  What can you teach me about the app!?

I use Audible a lot!  I think I have somewhere around 90 books on there.  I use it the most of all my listening options because I find it the most user friendly – download and play! That’s it!  You can even access your wishlist right from the app.  Makes it pretty simple I think.  And you can sync between listening on the app or online – I do all my listening from the app, but that’s cool in case you don’t have access to your phone or something.  And the best thing in my opinion is I can download the audiobook when on my home wifi and then don’t have to worry about streaming or using data when listening.  So I can listen at work or the car.  

Did you know there are badges you can earn based on different listening activities?  I know some of them are buggy, but I’m one of those “collect them all” sorts of people so I try to do what I can to earn them for my own personal satisfaction.  And there are three tiers of them too – something like regular, silver, and gold (depending on if you have Android or iOS they are labeled differently) – you can see how I have some of each level based on the ring around the badge color.

There are also some other cool stats that you can check, like number of hours listened to over the single day, month, year, all time. 

I would love to hear about your experiences with Audible and what parts of the app you love or hate!

You can check out the other posts in this series:

• How You Listen
• Why You Listen
• What You Listen To

 

Copyright © 2017 by The Maiden’s Court

Wish List 5: Historical Mystery

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!!! If you have been a follower of this blog for any length of time, you know that historical mysteries are not always my favorite genre.  In general, I tend to avoid them, but there are the occasional novel that knocks it out of the park and makes me want to pick up another.  Here are a few that I want to check out, some based on recommendations and others based on past experience.

Murder on Black Swan Lane (Quill Mystery) by Andrea Penrose

In Regency London, an unconventional scientist and a fearless female artist form an unlikely alliance to expose unspeakable evil . . .

The Earl of Wrexford possesses a brilliant scientific mind, but boredom and pride lead him to reckless behavior. He does not suffer fools gladly. So when pompous, pious Reverend Josiah Holworthy publicly condemns him for debauchery, Wrexford unsheathes his rapier-sharp wit and strikes back. As their war of words escalates, London’s most popular satirical cartoonist, A.J. Quill, skewers them both. But then the clergyman is found slain in a church—his face burned by chemicals, his throat slashed ear to ear—and Wrexford finds himself the chief suspect.

And Only to Deceive (Lady Emily) by Tasha Alexander

Emily agreed to wed Philip, the Viscount Ashton, primarily to escape her overbearing mother. Philip's death while on safari soon after their wedding left Emily feeling little grief, for she barely knew the dashing stranger.

But her discovery of his journals nearly two years later reveals a far different man than she imagined-a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who apparently loved his new wife deeply. Emily's desire to learn more about her late husband leads her through the quiet corners of the British Museum and into a dangerous mystery involving rare stolen artifacts. To complicate matters, she's juggling two very prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond matrimony into darker realms.

A Death by Any Other Name (Lady Montfort Mystery) by Tessa Arlen

Building on the success of her last two mysteries in the same series, Tessa Arlen returns us to the same universe full of secrets, intrigue, and, this time, roses in 'A Death By Any Other Name'.

The elegant Lady Montfort and her redoubtable housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, investigate a murder among a group of amateur rose-breeders while the idyllic English summer days count down to the start of the First World War.

When Mrs. Jackson receives a visit from a cook who believes she was an indirect witness to murder from a poisoned dish of breakfast kedgeree Lady Montfort promises to do what she can to clear the cook’s name, and contrives an invitation to Hyde Castle, the home of a self-made millionaire, to investigate a murder of concealed passions and secret desires.

With the help of the invaluable Jackson Lady Montfort sets about solving the puzzle surrounding the death of the rose society’s most popular member and discovers a villain of audacious cunning among a group of mild-mannered, amateur rose-breeders.

While they investigate, the headlines bring news of the growing crisis in the Balkans following the assassination of.the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire. As each day brings more threatening news and the very real fear that Britain will be drawn into war, Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson must race against the clock to solve the mystery before Britain declares on Germany.

Brimming with intrigue, Tessa Arlen's latest does not disappoint.

Ruler of the Night (Thomas De Quincey) by David Morrell

Thomas De Quincey is beginning to control his opium addiction when the excitement of his current case threatens to unravel his grip on reality once and for all. On their way home to the Lake District, the De Quinceys become unwitting witnesses to a truly historic murder: the first to take place on one of England's newly constructed railways.

The railways changed everything in the Victorian era, transforming the English countryside, revolutionizing modern industry, and as the De Quinceys discover, providing the perfect escape. Giving chase in a cat-and-mouse game unlike any that have come before, the De Quinceys uncover a dangerous secret that reaches all levels of English society.

A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock) by Sherry Thomas

USA Today bestselling author Sherry Thomas turns the story of the renowned Sherlock Holmes upside down…

With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society.  But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London.

When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She’ll have help from friends new and old—a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society’s expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind.

Looking for some recommendations of historical mysteries I have read?  Check these out!

Death of a Dishonorable     The Shoguns’s         The Study of Murder
          Gentleman                    Daughter                        ★★★☆☆
          ★★★½☆☆                ★★★★½☆                    

Here are some of the wishlists from a few of my friends this month:

• A Bookaholic Swede: Southern Gothic
• Flashlight Commentary: Recommended by Friends
• 2 Kinds and Tired Books: Comedy

 

 

 

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