all book related reviews
The old story of Snow White and her Prince Charming gets a rather interesting new treatment in One Day, My Prince. For one thing, it’s set in a small town in late 19th-century Texas. For another, Jones switches around the sexes for all the major characters in the story. It’s a clever and pretty interesting…
The premise of this book sounds a little silly: the main conflict between the hero and heroine is that he’s a sheep farmer and she’s a cattle rancher’s daughter. Yet, it brought back memories of 4th grade state history class when we learned about range wars between cattlemen and sheep farmers in Wyoming. So in…
Almost nothing is known of painter Johannes Vermeer’s life, and he was not a prolific painter. What paintings we have of his, however, are memorable with their luminosity and portrayal of everyday life in seventeeth century Delft, Holland. In Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier brings to life the subject and circumstances of one…
Sometimes “literary fables” make me sad. They make me wonder if there are grown-ups out there who can’t let themselves be seen reading science fiction or fantasy or – heaven forbid – romance, so when they happen upon a bit of moderately imaginative storytelling wrapped up in a dustcover that looks respectable, they’re all over…
My favorite holiday celebration anywhere is a neighborhood in Austin, Texas that has had a riotous (and fairly pagan) Christmas lights spectacle for 15+ years. It’s essentially a wild block party that lasts a month and a half, with live music and thousands of visitors, and it wouldn’t be possible without the good-natured cooperation of…
Blue-Eyed Bandit by Stobie Piel was a difficult book to assign a letter grade to. I finally settled on a C, but parts of it are better than that. And parts of it are much worse. Emily Morgan is a modern-day bookstore owner whose heart was broken by a former love. Cora and Adrian de…
If you’re like me, you’ve been counting the days until you can snag a copy of Judgment in Death. Every time you’re anywhere near a book section, your heartbeat picks up a little bit, hoping against hope (and publishers lay down dates) that Eve and Roarke will be there. As of right now, they’re not….
In A Heart Full of Miracles, Stephanie Mittman returns to the late 1800s Midwest. This is a setting that really plays to her strengths, and indeed this book is much better than her last two, which both departed from her usual style. While it takes a while for this book to really come together, it’s…
Set in Wales in Regency times, Daughter of Destiny is the story of a woman, Georgiana, who possesses the ability to create illusions with her mind. Georgiana remains unaware of the power she commands, and is trapped in a marriage of convenience to Brock, Lord Darleigh. She is also a marked woman, the target of…
Come on – fess up. You just love a good shameless melodrama. There’s nothing quite like wallowing in a story about a bad girl who is really good, small town people with closed minds, a hunky hero who hates our heroine at first because she is rich and he was born on the wrong side…
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