**spoiler alert** I'm a big fan of mother-son author team Charles Todd. I needed an audiobook to listen to and picked up The Walnut Tree, labeled as "**spoiler alert** I'm a big fan of mother-son author team Charles Todd. I needed an audiobook to listen to and picked up The Walnut Tree, labeled as "a Holiday Tale." Set during the same time as the Bess Crawford series, some familiar characters like Bess and her landlady make appearances. The writing is fine, and it kept me interested, but I have some major problems with the plot and characters.
The narrator, Lady Elspeth Douglas, is not very admirable. In France with a school friend awaiting the birth of her child, she believes she has fallen in love with her friend's brother Alain. Even though it is not proper to do so, she gives him permission to speak to her uncle/guardian about marrying her since Alain is about to join the War.
After he leaves and her friend has her baby, Elspeth makes her way back to England. On the way she runs into and becomes reacquainted with an old friend, Peter Gilchrist. She feels an immediate connection with him. She returns to England, joins the nursing service (and shares a flat with Bess Crawford), and starts journeying back and forth between England and France. Along the way, she runs into an implausible number of people she knows, many of them more than once. She also falls for Peter Gilchrist.
It is clear that Peter is in love with her, but she never at any point tells him that she is promised to another man. She lets him go on about speaking to her uncle after the War, but she never finds the courage to admit the truth.
So now she is caught between the man she loves and the man she is promised to. Alain has been missing, and she receives a letter that he is injured but back at home in France. She leaves Gilchrist without a word and goes to France. Alain has lost his arm. He is depressed but Elspeth strives to convince him that she loves him the way he is, even though of course she only loves him as a cousin. She decides to forget Peter and devote herself to Alain. How does this dilemma get resolved? Alain shoots himself, leaving Elspeth free to return to Peter. (Which she decides not to do, out of guilt, but circumstances of course bring them together for a "happy" ending.)
As I said, this kept my interest because the writing is strong, but overall the mood of the story just did not work for me. It was hard to believe in happy ever after for Elspeth and Peter after her inability to be honest with him (really, he forgives her for that?) and after it took a suicide to bring them together.
I will however continue to read any new Charles Todd that comes along.
Although this is not my absolute favorite book by Mary Burchell, it's probably the best book I've read by her. (I've read about half of her more than Although this is not my absolute favorite book by Mary Burchell, it's probably the best book I've read by her. (I've read about half of her more than 120 books. I've been re-reading the box of them I've kept for many years.)
Loyal in All was published in 1957, so presumably it was written shortly after the failed Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet Union in 1956. With a different cover, Loyal in All could be passed off as a historical thriller.
Marika is a nurse with an English father and a Hungarian mother. She is in Hungary nursing a boy who had travelled to England for surgery. As her months nursing the boy come to an end, Dr. von Raszay, the handsome senior doctor from the hosptial, takes her out for coffee and warns her to leave the country immediately, rather than lingering for a vacation. As it turns out, her mother is arriving for a visit, and he is not happy to hear that. Marika does not understand his urgency.
She greets her mother at a local hotel. Over a meal they hear shots outside - the Secret Police hunting someone. After they have gone to bed in separate rooms, there is more shooting on the hotel roof. There is a sound at her window and a man steathily enters. Marika is shocked to see Dr. von Raszay, bleeding.
Marika, her mother, and an English friend who is a journalist work to save the doctor from the secret police as the revolution erupts around them. Marika's Hungarian grandmother and diplomat father also put in appearances. The story is packed with action and the tension is terrific. Marika is torn between her feelings for her journalist friend and the doctor, but the romance grows steadily as the three work to escape out of the chaos in Hungary to Austria.
This is a finely written romance set in a time of great upheaval. I recommend it to anyone who likes vintage romance that returns you to the time the book was written....more
I read a lot of books. Very rarely while I’m reading a book do I think to myself, “I’ve never read anything like this before,” but that happened whileI read a lot of books. Very rarely while I’m reading a book do I think to myself, “I’ve never read anything like this before,” but that happened while reading The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker.
This debut novel is set in New York in 1899 New York. It revolves around two unlikely characters and their unlikely friendship. In the part of Lower Manhattan known as Little Syria lives a tinsmith named Arbeely. A local woman brings him an old, battered, copper flask. She asks him to knock out the dents and polish it up. As he begins to repair the delicate scrollwork on the flask, a jolt knocks him off his feet, and a naked man appears on his shop floor. The naked man is a Jinni, a creature of fire from the Syrian Desert who has been trapped in the flask for a thousand years. Although released from the flask, an iron bracelet that cannot be removed keeps him from resuming his natural form.
Meanwhile, in a different part of New York, a rabbi encounters a Golem – a woman fashioned of clay in Prussia who travelled to New York with the master who commissioned her but then died on the steamship. She is sentient, but lost, with no master and therefore no purpose.
The author’s prose is often lovely and lyrical. As the steamship carrying the Golem approaches New York, after her master Rotfeld has died on board:
"The deck was crowded with people, and at first the Golem didn’t see what they were waving at. But then, there she was: a gray-green woman standing in the middle of the water, holding a tablet and bearing aloft a torch. Her gaze was unblinking, and she stood so still: was it another golem? Then the distance became clear, and she realized how far away the woman was, and how gigantic. Not alive then; but the blank, smooth eyes nevertheless held a hint of understanding. And those on deck were waving and shouting at her with jubilation, crying even as they smiled. This, too, the Golem thought, was a constructed woman. Whatever she meant to others, she was loved and respected for it. For the first time since Rotfeld’s death, the Golem felt something like hope.” (p. 15)
The author spends considerable time introducing us to the Golem Chava and the Jinni Ahmad, their neighborhoods, and their neighbors. I don’t know much about turn-of-the-century immigrant New York, but the descriptions of the people, their jobs, their homes, and their pastimes rang true. The passages set in Syria and Prussia also felt right. I was very caught up in the characters and the setting.
The plot drags a little after we’ve met both characters but they have not yet met each other. But that soon passes. The two meet by accident late at night and recognize a completely different yet kindred spirit in the other. As I continued to read entranced, I had no idea what would happen next. So often with novels, especially first novels, I am not happy about the ending, but I was very satisfied with how this tale ended.
The cover compares The Golem and the Jinni to The Night Circus, A Discovery of Witches, and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I thought it was considerably better than all three.
I read an advance reader’s edition of The Golem and the Jinni. It is scheduled to be published in May 2013.
Reread in July 2021. Such a lovely book - on to the sequel!...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this delightful Regency from an author I've never read before. The plot is slow moving, with lots of time for character developmeI thoroughly enjoyed this delightful Regency from an author I've never read before. The plot is slow moving, with lots of time for character development. A cynical war veteran who is snubbed by society for the way he treated his cheating wife in their divorce becomes entangled with a young widow with two daughters who rents the decrepit dowager house at one of his many estates to escape the lecherous attentions of her brother-in-law.
Although he declares all babies should be drowned at birth, of course the two little girls have him wrapped around their fingers in no time. He falls for their mother, she falls for him - but when will they reveal their true feelings? I enjoyed their banter as they got to know each other and the hero's believable and sometimes contentious relationship with his three sisters and their families.
Typical for a regency, there is no descriptive sex. Atypical, however, is reference to how the heroine has to take long walks to work off all her excess energy because she has no husband to wear her out in bed (and she discussed this with her husband of convenience! who quickly becomes convenient in other ways than just saving her from the lecherous brother-in-law - so much for those long walks).
There are plot contrivances toward the end - a letter that is accidentally burned up and never read, a complete character reversal - but I will still be seeking out other Regency romances by this author....more
A sweet bit of fluff, a quick read, obvious and predictable, and it's a bit unseemly for the first person narrator to go on and on about how beautifulA sweet bit of fluff, a quick read, obvious and predictable, and it's a bit unseemly for the first person narrator to go on and on about how beautiful she is and how she attracts all the young men like a magnet. Not terrible, not great. Could be a good gateway book to other, better Regency romances.
Beautiful Creatures is yet another teen-aged paranormal romance. It’s the first in a series. A local boy in the Deep South falls for the mysterious neBeautiful Creatures is yet another teen-aged paranormal romance. It’s the first in a series. A local boy in the Deep South falls for the mysterious new girl who lives in the local “haunted mansion” with her uncle. Over the course of this book, Ethan learns about the existence of the supernatural (his mother sending him messages from beyond the grave, for example) without showing much shock or surprise. He takes it all in stride in a fairly unbelievable way. He and Lena express their undying love for each other on a regular and wearying basis. Their fellow high school students are stereotypically bullying of the unusual new girl. Still, Beautiful Creatures is better than other books I’ve read of this kind. At least neither Ethan nor Lena is abusive and controlling. I did find it refreshing that the book was told from the boy’s point of view, rather than the girl’s. There is a strong and helpful librarian aiding the lovers (always a plus for me). I enjoyed Beautiful Creatures (which I read in anticipation of the movie) well enough, but I will not be reading the rest of the series....more
I would like to give this three and a half stars. I really enjoyed the first part of the novel. The descriptions of the people and the landscape were I would like to give this three and a half stars. I really enjoyed the first part of the novel. The descriptions of the people and the landscape were very good, and the secrets of the mysterious child kept me intrigued. I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.
I felt the plot went a bit flat with the entry of a romance toward the end of the book, and I found the ending somewhat unsatisfying. Still, if you are interested in Alaska and the charm of a novel based on a folk tale, it is well worth reading.
I chose it for my library adult book clubs in December 2012. I heard many good comments about it from members as they were reading it, and we had two great discussions about it....more
This started out really well, with an interesting female protagonist - a young woman interested in geology in 1814 - and an interesting male protagoniThis started out really well, with an interesting female protagonist - a young woman interested in geology in 1814 - and an interesting male protagonist - a viscount mentally scarred by the accident that took his parents when he was a child - but it did not keep me interested until the end. Once they left for Scotland, it began to drag. The slow pace was not helped by sections devoted to the couple that will apparently be the focus of the next book in the Spinster Cove series. I also thought that Minerva changed in ways that didn't make sense given her character. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read the previous book, I don't know. It wasn't bad but it didn't live up to its initial potential....more
Newly widowed Mrs. Martha Russell has a problem. The much older husband she didn’t love has died without leaving an heir; without a son, Martha will hNewly widowed Mrs. Martha Russell has a problem. The much older husband she didn’t love has died without leaving an heir; without a son, Martha will have to hand over her late husband’s estate to his depraved brother and move in with one of her own siblings. Her husband has only been dead two weeks; although Mrs. Russell knows she is not pregnant, no one else does. When the indolent eldest son of a neighboring landowner is exiled from London to the country to prove himself, Mrs. Russell devises a plan to save not only herself but also the local children and their the new estate school (which will surely be shut down by her brother-in-law). Purely as a business arrangement, she asks Mr. Theo Mirkwood to visit her in secret once a day for a month in the hope that she can become pregnant and hold on to the estate.
This is the premise of Cecilia Grant’s book A Lady Awakened. This is her first book, although I would never have guessed it. It delivers in all the ways one expects an historical romance to deliver, but it also offers up unexpected plot turns and a freshness to the characters. There are a few unnecessary (I thought) uses of the f word, and the ending was not completely satisfying, but on the whole it’s an entertaining page-turner for fans of steamy historical romance novels....more
I greatly enjoy Anna Dean’s Dido Kent series of mysteries. Set in England during the same time period as Jane Austen’s works, they feature Dido Kent, I greatly enjoy Anna Dean’s Dido Kent series of mysteries. Set in England during the same time period as Jane Austen’s works, they feature Dido Kent, a single woman in her thirties who has a talent for solving mysteries. Considered a spinster at her “advanced” age, Dido nonetheless has a widowed admirer who does not quite know what to make of Dido’s intelligence and unusual spirit.
A Woman of Consequence dragged a bit in the middle compared to the first two books in the series, but the author is a good writer and it didn't take me long to get through the slow part. I very much like Miss Kent and look forward to developments in her romance with Mr. Lomax. If you are a fan of Jane Austen or gentle historical mysteries, this series is definitely worth a look. (The first book in the series is Bellfield Hall.)...more
My rating is more like 3.5. Four stars for the parts that are closely associated with the text of Persuasion. I enjoyed those parts enough to be glad My rating is more like 3.5. Four stars for the parts that are closely associated with the text of Persuasion. I enjoyed those parts enough to be glad I read the book.
Three stars for the rest, especially the 100 pages after Anne and Frederick declare their love for each other. It was like a different novel - a boring, pointless, repetitive novel. Austen was smart to end Persuasion when and how she did.
I was irritated by the repetitive use of his Anne in italics. I wonder if someone did a change replace to make every instance of "his Anne" print as his Anne because there really is no adequate explanation for it otherwise. The constant use of the endearment "Sweetling" was also annoying....more
Loading...
