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Category: Family Saga

Review: Three Maids for a Crown by Ella March Chase

[ 3 ] January 27, 2012
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Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Reviewed by Shannon Hopkins

The Lady Jane Grey is quite possibly one of the most tragic figures in the English royal lineage: at fifteen, she was declared King Edward’s successor to the English throne in an attempt to keep Mary Tudor from succeeding to the throne and reinstituting Catholic rule. Jane’s nine days as heir apparent are recognized as the shortest reign by an English monarch, but there is far more to the story of the Greys than Jane’s fateful visit to the Tower of London.

In Three Maids for a Crown, Ella March Chase weaves a brilliant story of love, ambition and betrayal, about three sisters who became pawns in a game larger than they could begin to understand. Their tandem narration paints a moving picture of the ties that bind, and the desires that can tear worlds apart.

Jane is a quiet, pious girl who finds strength in her faith. She goes into her wedding day with a sense of dread and distaste for her new husband, as yet unaware that her parents have set her up to take a kingdom. When her father and father-in-law press the ring of state into her hands, she is swept into a whirlwind in which she is declared queen and then a traitor when her cousin Mary comes to claim the crown. Despite a promise that she will be safe from reprisal, danger nonetheless looms when the queen chooses Prince Philip of Spain as her husband.

Katherine is as unlike her sister as night and day. She is radiant on the morning of their double wedding, dizzy in love with her new husband and eager to start their life together. Like Jane, though, she has no idea that her marriage is part of a carefully coordinated plan between three of the most powerful families in England. When Mary takes the throne instead, Katherine loses her husband, her father, her sister, and her hope – and gains center stage in the intrigue still swirling about her family. She becomes a lady in waiting at her cousin’s court, and very nearly becomes Mary’s heir; however, when Elizabeth ascends the throne instead, Katherine becomes a threat to be eliminated.

Mary, the youngest Grey sister, bears witness to the treacherous paths her sisters are forced to follow. Stunted, deformed, and uncharacteristically blunt for a medieval lady, Mary is often dismissed to the fringes – where she finds that being invisible has its benefits. She observes and learns secrets of planned campaigns and attacks, but her best efforts cannot stop the chain of events that has been set in motion. Still, hope and love remain for Mary to find even when she has lost her sisters, her cousin and, it seems, everything else worth holding on to.

Chase’s beautiful prose brings both hope and tragedy to life in a story that is well-known but little understood. Each of the sisters tells her part of the story in a back-and-forth that flows smoothly even over the roughness of tragedy and heartbreak, and reminds the reader of the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Shannon lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her fiancé and a room full of books that she peruses when she isn’t trolling Apartment Therapy for new decorating ideas. In her free time she enjoys maintaining her blog, The Writer’s Closet, planning her wedding, and baking tasty gluten-free treats.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Broadway. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Paris Noire by Francine Thomas Howard

[ 6 ] October 27, 2011
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Reviewed by Shannon Hopkins

It is August 25, 1944, and Paris has been liberated from her German occupiers. The city reawakens in a frenzy of joyful celebration and anticipation of a bright new future. But the liberation of Paris will change the Brillard family more than any of them can imagine when they face that morning. While Christophe and his sister Collette join the throng of revelers below, maman Marie-Therèse watches and worries, and wonders what will come of them all. So opens Francine Thomas Howard’s Paris Noire, a moving story about love and loss set in the streets of post-war Paris.

Christophe collides with the beautiful Genvieve on the Champs-Elysees; sensing an immediate connection, he seeks her out and the two fall in love as they rediscover the sights of the city. However, Christophe grows suspicious as they continue to meet in secret. A jolting revelation, a tearful half-truth and an unexpected arrival put their budding relationship and Christophe’s life in jeopardy, and threaten to destroy his hopes for the future.

American expatriate and singer Glovia Johnson holds court in her apartment and her club, where she entertained the Nazi occupiers and collected many secrets to pass on to the Resistance. Now that Paris is free again, she has reconvened her parties of fellow expat writers, artists, and a company of black American soldiers serving with the liberation effort. Marie-Therèse finds herself unexpectedly at home in this circle, and even more unexpectedly the object of an American lieutenant’s admiration. For more years than she can remember she has been a strong and devoted mother, but she has never truly known how it feels to be seen as a woman. Can she embrace those feelings, and what Monsieur Lieutenant has to offer, or will she throw everything away to save her family?

There is far more than entangling love stories to make Paris Noire a must-read, however. Howard’s look at the American noir expatriate community in Paris is a refreshing perspective on a well-known historical period, and Marie-Therèse’s ongoing personal struggle with issues of race and bloodline affect her opinions and those of her children in interesting ways. That personal journey is critical to the story, and it is possible to trace her changes of heart as new experiences define the importance of color in her mind.

Howard’s writing style also keeps the reader from easily setting Paris Noire down. The prose is straightforward and plain, and infused with a rhythmic cadence that flows from Marie-Therèse’s native Martinique patois and the easy speech of the American expats. Though some authors’ great thoughts sink under the weight of heavy words, Howard’s thoughts soar off of the page.

Paris Noire is not a romance, or a thriller, or a historical drama. It is not a comedy or a tragedy, or a portrait of the black Parisian – well, it is not simply any of these things. It is all of these things, and so much more. I am already looking forward to picking it up for another read.

Rating: 4/5

Shannon lives in Cleveland, Ohio with her fianc é and a room full of books that she peruses when she isn’t trolling Apartment Therapy for new decorating ideas. In her free time she enjoys maintaining her blog, The Writer’s Closet, planning her wedding, and baking tasty gluten-free treats.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Little Bird Publicity. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Sense and Sensibility (Insight Edition) by Jane Austen

[ 5 ] October 22, 2011
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Reviewed by Jennifer Jensen

In the introduction to the Sense and Sensibility (Insight Editions) Julie Klassen writes: “Jane Austen is more popular now than during her lifetime nearly two hundred years ago.” Earlier this week I went to Barnes & Noble. Sure enough, there was an end cap in the fiction section covered with retellings and sequels to Austen’s beloved novels. Austen’s influence can even be found in the popular paranormal genre; Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) and Jane Austen both appear as vampires in two such books. The Insight Edition, published by Bethany House Publishers, offers a newly packaged look at the original story of Sense and Sensibility, with a few fun surprises in store.

I’ll be honest with you. Up until this week, Sense and Sensibility was the only Jane Austen novel I had not yet read. Without this new edition of the beloved classic, it’s more than likely I never would have made it through. A few months ago, I attempted to read it from beginning to end, but gave up less than a third of the way into the story. I was baffled. If I can read Pride and Prejudice in two days flat, then why was I having so much trouble with Sense and Sensibility? Like in other novels, Austen writes about marrying for love and/or money, first impressions, and differences in class.

Sense and Sensibility is the story of the Marianne and Elinor Dashwood. They are the late Mr. Dashwood’s children from his second marriage. At the time of his death, he asks his son Henry to care for youngest three daughters and his new widow. However, Henry’s wife has his ear and persuades him to give them less income annually than the promise he made to his father. Marianne and Elinor can only hope to preserve their future by making smart matches.

Bold and romantic Marianne has her sights set on the charming Mr. Willoughby, and sensible and logical Elinor has fallen for Edward Ferrars. Neither gentleman is what he seems, and both girls soon suffer from a broken heart. The loss of Mr. Willoughby prolongs Marianne’s sickness, and Elinor silently suffers through Edward’s upcoming nuptials with Lucy Steele. Just as it seems all hope is lost for a happy ending, Marianne opens her heart to a new love, and Elinor learns that things are not exactly as they seem.

This annotated edition of Sense and Sensibility enhanced a story I already knew through the 1995 Kate Winslet/Emma Thompson feature film. The editors provided trivia about the movie, ranked their favorite characters and least favorite characters, offered facts about Jane Austen and the Regency period, and provided definitions of difficult words. Whether Sense and Sensibility is an old favorite or a new-to-you text, this is the edition you should read. Lovingly put together by some of Austen’s biggest fans, the Insight Edition will earn a slot on your bookshelf.

Rating: 5/5

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Bethany House. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald

[ 156 ] August 15, 2011
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Please join Lisa Grunwald, author of The Irresistible Henry House, as she tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!

Reviewed by Vera Pereskokova (Luxury Reading)

The idea for The Irresistible Henry House came about by accident. Author Lisa Grunwald was searching the web when she stumbled across a photo of a baby boy – a “practice baby” from Cornell University’s long since abandoned home economics program. This single photograph led to more research and eventually to the marvel that is The Irresistible Henry House.

Henry was just one in the long line of “practice babies” in the 1940s, brought to the all-women’s Wilton College to be passed from one “practice mother” to another. The program director, Martha Gaines, was a model of austerity and discouraged any excessive signs of affection towards the babies in her charge. In her mind (and in the mind of many child-raising experts at the time), babies had to be trained to stay in schedule and holding the babies “too much” was about the worst thing one could do.

Despite herself, Martha grows attached to Henry and decides to raise him as her own. Skilled in tending to infants and toddlers, she knows surprisingly little of children older than two years of age. Because of her ineptitude and owing largely to his unusual upbringing, Henry grows up craving attention of everyone, never letting his loyalties or affections rest with just one person.

The Irresistible Henry House follows our character through his decision to stop speaking as a protest to Martha’s ever imposing presence, his stint in a school for kids with special needs in Connecticut, his blossoming art talent and his various gigs in animation with Disney, both in the US and the 1960’s London.

Henry is intensely charming and moves through women just as fast as he moves from place to place, from one feigned attachment to another. Henry enjoys conquering women, enjoys knowing that he can win them over if he chooses to do so. But, his actions are easy to tie back to the lack of a motherly bond in his childhood, easy to explain away as a result of his upbringing. And it is his apparent desire to truly love – and his inability to do so – that keeps the pages turning, and keeps the suspense and the hope for a happy ending alive for the reader.

Rating: 4.5/5

Giveaway:
I have 1 copy of The Irresistible Henry House to give away!

Mandatory entry: Please comment here and include your e-mail address.

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This giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on August 31, 2011.

Review and giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Random House. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Summer in the South by Cathy Holton

[ 9 ] August 4, 2011
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Reviewed by Meg Massey

Summer in the South tells the story of Ava, a young woman who agrees to spend the summer in her friend Will’s hometown, where she plans to spend the majority of her time working on her first novel. But when Ava enters the small town of Woodburn, Tennessee, she realizes that her summer will be nothing like she had planned.

Ava suddenly finds herself in a world of old money, manners and long-hidden secrets. While staying with Will’s aunts, Fanny and Josephine, she finds herself wrapped up in the mysterious death of Fanny’s first husband, Charlie Woodburn. Ava finds that no one wants to talk about Charlie, and to her surprise, Will dodges her questions just as quickly as the rest of his family. Suddenly (and literally) haunted by the deceased as she attempts to write at night, she feels that she must somehow tell the story of what led to Charlie’s demise.

As Ava immerses herself in researching Charlie’s death, she is introduced to his grandson, Jake, who is Will’s estranged cousin. After discovering the truth about what tore the two of them apart, Ava begins to worry that history will repeat itself. As her attraction to Jake continues to grow, so does Will’s jealousy. But when Ava decides to turn the town’s dramatic past into a novel, will she lose the relationships she’s formed with both men and their families?

Cathy Holton’s novel is rife with suspense until the very last page, as Holton travels back and forth through the tumultuous, secretive history of Woodburn, interweaving the stories of Ava, Josephine, Fanny and the deceased Charlie. What I thought I knew I didn’t, and what I did not know was not revealed until the very stunning ending that makes Summer in the South a true success, and a joy to read until the very last word.

Rating: 4.5/5

Meg lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Ryan. Marketing professional by day, freelance writer by night, Meg writes about life, entertainment and everything in between on her blog. 

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Ballantine Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Madame Bovary’s Daughter by Linda Urbach

[ 8 ] July 31, 2011
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Reviewed by Alysia George

Emma Bovary, the main character in the 19th century French novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, was not exactly a maternal woman. She was not very interested in her only child, Berthe. One hundred fifty years later, readers finally get to find out what happened to the unfortunate little girl after her mother’s tragic ending. In Madame Bovary’s Daughter, Linda Urbach picks up where Madame Bovary left off, crafting the story of Berthe’s coming of age.

Despite the dismal early years of her life – living with parents much more interested in adult affairs than in anything having to do with her – Berthe manages to emerge from her childhood home as an optimistic orphan, especially considering the circumstances she finds herself facing. Madame Bovary’s Daughter follows Berthe from the small town in which she grew up with her parents, to a country farm life with her strict and poverty-stricken grandmother, to the deplorable conditions of working in a cotton mill, to an odd arrangement working as a maid in Paris, and finally to her eventual independence. There are love affairs, friendships, abuse and tragedy along the way as Berthe fights for a better life for herself.

With all the trials and tribulations that Berthe lives through, reading about her successes is extremely gratifying. From a young age, she begins to realize she has a great love of and interest in fabrics and fashions. Little by little, she learns more about her passion until she finds herself in the epicenter of Parisian fashion, working with a much sought after designer. Berthe becomes a career woman well ahead of her time, and, despite her difficult childhood, creates a happy life for herself.

Having read and enjoyed Madame Bovary years ago, I liked reading about Emma’s daughter, and finally knowing that she turned out alright after all.

Rating: 4/5

Alysia lives in Metro Detroit with her husband and four children. She writes about family life, parenting issues, and other things of interest to her on her blog, Michigal.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Bantam. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Privileges by Jonathan Dee

[ 5 ] July 23, 2011
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Reviewed by Luxury Reading

Jonathan Dee’s latest book, The Privileges, is a funny, tragic, loving tale of a family reaching the heights of success in New York City. The novel begins with the marriage of Adam and Cynthia Morey, who are in a hurry to start a new life. While Cynthia has two children before the age of twenty-five, Adam’s star rises as he becomes his boss’s protégé and shines in the world of finance. With plenty of money to spare, they acquire a beautiful home in Manhattan and seemingly enjoy their new found riches and success.

However, the characters’ standards grow faster than their wealth. The future of an almost boundless privilege (hence the title), in which any of their desires and dreams are made real, is not enough to suit them. As Cynthia is home with the kids, she begins to drift into boredom of her day to day life. Adam is confronted with a choice that tests how much he is willing to risk to keep his family happy.

The characters that Dee writes about are stories in and of themselves. For example, the wedding scene is written from a variety of guests’ perspectives, including the caterers, the wedding planner, and Cynthia’s jealous mother. Dee seems to approach all his characters with a unique understanding of dialogue and point of view.

The novel climaxes as the Morey’s children face their own crises as well as the possibility of their own death. The Privileges is an intriguing tale of greed, creating an appealing portrait of a world won by risk and insider trading. The Moreys become so impossibly rich they don’t seem quite human to others, and, of course, money doesn’t ease their suffering.

The Privileges is an exploratory journey of a couple touched by fortune, guided by their love for each other. This book a timely narrative of wealth, family, and what it means to leave the world richer than when you found it.

Rating: 4/5

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Random House. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Last Letter by Kathleen Shoop

[ 5 ] June 15, 2011
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Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Reviewed by Krista Castner

When Frank and Jeanie Arthur flee Des Moines, Iowa with their young family in 1887, they are running headlong from a shameful scandal right into homesteading in the Dakota Territory; a task they are woefully unprepared for. What ensues is hardship and deprivation as Jeanie tries to make a home for their three pre-teen children, and Frank builds ‘air-castles’. The Last Letter, is told from two perspectives. We hear Jeanie’s perspective as she is bombarded with new homesteading challenges in 1887 and her now grown daughter, Katherine’s, perspective in 1905, Des Moines.

Frank and Jeanie both started out as spoiled adults with unrealistic expectations about how the real world works. Frank continues his spoiled ways as Jeanie starts to mature and works hard to provide the bare modicum of necessities for their family. They live in a dirt dugout which is quite a comedown for the women who used to write housekeeping hints and tricks books.

Everything on the Dakota prairie is new, and often dangerous to the family. The Arthurs join with other local homesteaders to form a local cooperative. The knowledge and support of the other community members is the only thing that stands between them and total disaster. Many natural disasters and tragic accidents occur during their time on the prairie. These events kept the story moving but they were often heart-wrenching. There wasn’t much of a respite for the reader, which is probably exactly how the homesteader’s felt.

I appreciated seeing Jeanie grow and mature as a character. She faced tough decisions and made them, unlike her wastrel husband whose continuing self-centeredness put the family at risk time and time again. The adult Katherine resents her mother because of choices made during their time on the prairie. But Katherine holds the resentment based on her childhood memories. Will that resentment be turned into forgiveness when she stumbles upon letters that provide a truer portrait of the struggles her mother faced?

The Last Letter is a work of historical fiction about the settling of the Dakota Territory. In addition to the homesteading experience, the author also captures the psychological challenges faced and conquered by a woman determined to do the best for her family in less than ideal circumstances. I felt like Jeanie’s emotions and reactions were genuine and fully considered. The book contains plenty of drama, it is well written and the story is compelling.

Rating: 4/5

Krista lives just outside the urban sprawl of Portland, Oregon. Lamentably, her work as a technical writer and business analyst often interferes with her reading which is a true passion.

Review copy was provided free of any obligation by BookSparks PR. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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