The Enchantress Saga by Nicola Thorne

…it was no strange accident that had brought her here: it was Analee’s destiny, woven before time in the stars perhaps, to enchant, to be enchanted.

 The Enchantress Saga is actually three books in one, and originally published under the author name of Katherine Yorke.Book #1, The Enchantress. Analee joins up with the Drivers, a gypsy clan who involve her in a little horse thieving – although it does introduce her to Jacobite supporter Brent Delamaine in a most unusual manner. Fearing the lusty embraces of  the head of the Driver clan, she flees with a group of young siblings who make their way as traveling musicians and dancers (and boy can our girl dance).  She meets up again with the handsome rogue Brent and well…let’s just say chemistry happens, but both of our lovers are in for quite a surprise when jealous Randal attacks Brent and that sets everyone on some very unexpected paths in life. Are Brent and Analee meant to find happiness in the end? Or does her destiny lie with another? Will she forever wander England barefoot, cold and hungry?

Book #2, Falcon Gold.  Analee and her husband, the powerful general known as The Falcon arrive in Paris. No surprise, but the beauteous Analee is the toast of the town and her husband’s jealously takes a very nasty turn. Now hating all things Hanoverian, Analee devotes herself to the cause of Bonnie Prince Charlie and that little romp in the hay is quite fruitful indeed. She eventually reconciles with her husband (why?) and they spend time in London where she’s once again much sought after by the men. The Falcon is enamored of the younger beauties and packs his wife off to her home at Derwentwater in the north (she actually prefers it). There’s a bit of a duel, some Jacobite intrigue and the mystery of her parentage is finally solved (figured that one out as soon as he landed in the story).

Book #3, Falcon Fury AKA The Lady of the Lakes. Honestly, I am not quite sure what happened in this one, outside of men lusting after Analee (when she’s not having another baby that is), The Falcon lusts after young nubile females (and bedding any he can get his hands on) as poor Brent pines away for his beloved enchantress – will they even find true happiness together?

As much as I wanted to love these books, my interest faded pretty quickly around the end of book one. I would have liked to see more Jacobite intrigue and less gypsy lore – the magic stuff and love spells wore very thin indeed, let alone Analee constantly reminding everyone (and I do mean everyone) of her gypsy heritage. Huge gripe – I really really did catch on how tacky and low class Ambrose was from his burping and but-scratching. I did not need to hear about him picking his nose, nor where it went afterwards. Really.

Not recommended.

Note: if you have issues with domestic violence in your books, this is very likely not the book for you.

Do you read whilst doing the cardio?

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flipklip

I do, and it sure makes the cardio time at the gym go a whole lot faster. My problem had always been how to keep the book open, but then one day I discovered a wonderful gadget on Amazon called the FlipKlip, and now I can’t imagine how I lived without it. Easy page turning, and very lightweight, although you should note that the FlipKlip is not strong enough to hold every book open. It will not work with mass-market paperbacks, nor some trade paperbacks that don’t like to stay open (i.e. the new editions of Anya Seton’s books). My favorite choices are well-worn hardbacks, and I usually have a book that just stays in the gym bag and only gets read there. Also, your cardio machine must have  a shelf to support a book, the FlipKlip does not do that for you. If you have one of those older treadmills that is nothing but handlebars, this product will not work for you.

So, what do you use? I’ve seen closepins, large rubber bands and binder clips. Any other ideas or products out there? Or are you one of the lucky ones with a tely attached to your machine?

FTC, don’t you worry. IIRC this is a genuine Amazon Verified Purchase and I have owned it for several years. No one from the FlipKlip company asked me to promote their product. I am merely a satisfied customer wanting to share this with the rest of my reading friends.

Mavreen by Claire Lorrimer

 Mavreen is the illegitimate daughter of Sir John Danesfield, a result of an affair with his daughters’ governess. Sir John learns of the existence of a child years later, and hoping for a son he heads for the Sussex farm where the child is living and despite the disappointment of a girl (gasp!), he is so impressed with Mavreen’s intelligence and indomitable spirit that he makes arrangements for her proper education. Sir John also has a young ward, Gerard de Valle (Gerard’s mother put him into Sir John’s care during the height of the French Revolution), and Mavreen has loved him since she was a youngin’. When he matures, Gerard returns to France to fight for the royalist cause and eventually returns to England years later to find a very grown up and most delectable Mavreen. Of course it’s true love until death do they part, but Gerard needs a rich heiress to help restore his family home and being a penniless by-blow Mavreen is pretty much out of the running.

What follows are plentiful ups and downs and too-brief reunions amidst looooooong separations as our pair of lovers battle fate, amnesia, ill-advised marriages, the Napoleonic wars, the Russian winter and more. Despite some OTT situations that might seem a bit of a stretch (you would think that finding one soldier in Napoleon’s army in a country as vast as Russia would be like finding a needle in a haystack but our Mavreen she can do it all ;)), this was still an enjoyable romp. Note: whilst our heroine is stubborn and independent to a fault and she does have quite the adventurous life, this is not your usual foot-stamping TSTL always needs the hero to get her out of her latest pickle kind of heroine. Our Mavreen takes care of herself, with a little help from her faithful servant Dickon. This is the first in a trilogy, the next two being Tamarisk and the last Chantal (oh, wait until you see that cover).  There’s a bit of telling instead of showing here and there, but otherwise a solid entertaining romance with a good dollop of history.  From the page listing at Fantastic Fiction Lorimer has quite an interesting backlog of historicals/romances and she also writes under the pseudonym Patricia Robbins.

The Secret Eleanor by Cecelia Holland

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Eleanor of Aquitaine

Holland’s take on Eleanor of Aquitaine begins in 1150. Her marriage to Louis VII of France has yet to produce a son and heir (only two daughters) and she’s become something of a liability – at least that’s how flunky Thierry and Abbe Bernard see it. Eleanor gets a good look at Henry d’Anjou when he comes to court to pay homage to Louis and she thinks she’d like to dump hubby #1 and hitch her star to Henry instead. As for Henry, yep he’s lusting after the beauteous Eleanor as well, and with a little aid and sleight of hand from her younger sister Petronilla, the two lovers meet and have their night of passion (although this reader found it more eeeewwww than passion).

The story then switches gears to events leading up to Eleanor’s divorce from Louis, dodging a couple of much too amorous suitors and her future with Henry, now Duke of Normandy and soon to be Henry II of England (no spoilers, that’s known history). There is a somewhat fanciful twist to this, hence the “secret” in the book’s title, and that twist puts Petronilla front and center in the action, as well as forever changing the relationship between the two sisters. 

My thoughts? While certainly not near as dire as Alison Weir’s Captive Queen, this book didn’t exactly rock my world either. The author had a bad habit at the first of telling us how bad the bad people were with a much too liberal use of stinky breath and body odor. The same goes with Eleanor’s reputation as the big slut of Christendom. We are told she is because all the bad guys call her that, but outside of the one time with Henry (which none of those baddies knew about) I didn’t see references to previous encounters. Or did I miss the boat again?

Even when things centered around Petronilla in the latter half of the book, the pacing was terribly slow, the medieval settings not very believable (I got soooooo tired of hearing about Holy Week), and frankly the big “secret” was just a bit too improbable to believe, let alone that everyone in Eleanor’s household was in on it. Some of it I would buy, but for Henry not to notice up close and personal? Bah!

In the end, I am finally persuaded that Holland is not an author for me. I did enjoy her two Lily Nevada books, but everything else of her’s that I’ve tried has gone flying – including The Bear Flag set in old California, a period that I usually gobble up like a cat with a bowl of cream.

If you enjoy a “what if” story that’s light on the history you might enjoy this, but if you’re expecting an Eleanor on par with Sharon Penman’s I suspect you’ll be sorely disappointed. Library only, and then buy it if you love it.

Wicked Company by Ciji Ware

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Covent Garden, david garrick, theatre

Edinburg, 1761. Sophie McGann’s bookseller father runs afoul of the law as well as a vengeful nobleman and she finds herself in need of a quick getaway out of Scotland before she lands in the clapper as well. Coming to her rescue is the ever-so-handsome Hunter Robertson who hides her in his friend James Boswell’s trunk and she’s off to London to start a new life with her Aunt and Uncle (who also run a bookshop), but she finds her uncle dead and her aunt well on the road to insanity. Never one to let her spirits down for long, Sophie bucks up and puts the bookshop and printing business to rights. Located near the Covent Garden theater district, Sophie soon finds herself thoroughly entrenched in the theatrical community, including the famous actor/manager David Garrick who encourages her to pen her own plays. Eventually Sophie needs to get out of Dodge in a hurry and retreats to the theaters at Bath where she meets up with old friend Hunter (who is surprised at how nicely Sophie has grown up), as well as two lords with a great interest in the theater business, Roderick Darnly and Sir Peter Lindsay-Hoyt.

Since this is a romance, you know that just as our pair discover true love there’s going to be complications and separations, and Sophie finds herself at the mercy of our two debauched noblemen. Is Sir Peter really the dear knight in shining armor he seems, or does he desire Sophie for other reasons? What deep dark secrets does Darnley hold and what it his compelling interest in Sophie? The story from here on out takes plentiful twists and turns and ups and downs as Sophie and Hunter fight the baddies, have numerous Big Misunderstandings and separations whilst trying to keep their true love alive.

Is this the “old” new cover?

I enjoyed this book a great deal, especially the setting of Covent Garden, and Ware did a nice job of weaving her fictional characters in with the historical ones. It was interesting to see how the plays came together along with the struggle women had whilst writing plays and succeeding in a man’s world, as well as getting anything past the King’s censor. The first two-thirds of the book were pretty near unputdownable (I love a good romance), but in the end things got a wee bit too much with the melodrama, the separations waaaaay too long, and IMHO could do with editing out about 200 or so pages and wrap things up quicker. Still, a good quick read despite its length and I’d recommend it for romance fans, as well as those interested in all things theatrical. 3.5/5 stars.

Mr. FTC: I got a nice well-used old copy from the library with that pretty blue cover.

Marianne and the Crown of Fire

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juliette benzoni, Napoleonic Wars

 Crown of Fire picks up immediately where Lords of the East left off, as Marianne and her merry band of loyal friends take the long road to Moscow so she can warn Napoleon of a treasonous plot against his Russian campaign. Once in Moscow, they find the city in panic and the citizens fleeing at the word of the Emperor’s approach. Separated from the rest of their group, Marianne and Jason cross paths with old foe Count Chernychev. Male egos and tempers fly and the two men duel, with Jason landing in the clinker (no spoilers, that’s on the jacket) and Marianne’s left to shuffle for herself – and just like a cat she always (well, almost always) lands on her feet.

The embittered Moscow residents plan to burn the city to the ground rather than yield it to the invading army, and let’s just say that our heroine definitely jumps out of the frying pan into the fire this time. Even if she can escape the burning city, there’s still a long road to travel as Russia’s deadly winter begins its bitter grip on the countryside – there’s little food, the horses are dying and plenty of marauding Cossacks are bent on revenge against all things French. Plus there’s still a very ticked off  Napoleon somewhere on the road behind her (and when she ticks him off she doesn’t mess around ;)).

Will our heroine survive this latest peril? Will Napoleon strangle her when he gets his hands on her? Will Jason escape prison and search for his beloved Marianne, or will he continue to be the jealous jerk he’s been in the last two books? Will Marianne finally get over her blind devotion to Jason, wake up and smell the coffee and realize where her true destiny and happiness lies? Gawd, I sure hope so.

This was just as much fun as the previous books in the series, although I am glad it’s finally over – a person can only take so much high adventure, returns from the dead, near misses and emotional turmoil – and all of that before she hits her twentieth birthday! There were a couple of things I wish had been resolved better instead of leaving the reader hanging wondering what really happened. We never do find out what you-know-who was really up to in Russia, what happened to Dr. Leighton and Marianne’s missing jewels, nor the mystery of the diamond and the identity of the person who retrieved it. Perhaps there was another book written and/or planned that never made it to this side of the pond? All in all this series was jolly good fun and I do want to hunt down Benzoni’s Catherine series one of these days. These books were wildly popular in France and have been put to film. I found this clip from the first episode on YouTube,

The series in order,

1. Marianne (also found in two volumes as Bride of Selton Hall and The Eagle and the Nightingale)
2. The Masked Prince
3. The Privateer
4. The Rebels
5. The Lords of the East
6. The Crown of Fire

Marianne and the Lords of the East

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Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, constantinople, Lady Hester Stanhope, Odessa, ottoman empire

There comes a point in a series, especially one about which little is known, that putting too much of the plot into the review is bordering on spoiling the earlier books in the series. Because of that, this review is going to be a bit short (although I found some awesome covers to make up for it ;)).

Now safely landed in Constantinople, Marianne prepares to meet with Aimée du Buc de Rivéry, cousin of Josephine Bonaparte and Queen mother of the Ottoman Empire, to deliver a personal message from the Emperor Napoleon. Mission accomplished, high on her list of things to do are getting rid of something she very much doesn’t want to have, finding Jason Beaufort and sailing off into the sunset, but another surprise return from the dead puts a definite kibosh on that plan. And what a doozie that is – I suspected that person was a-coming back from the dead, but the big reveal sure surprised the heck out of me (loved it though).

Marianne and gang eventually high tail it to Odessa, where she picks up on some choice information that could have dire consequences on Napoleon’s Russian campaign and they’re on the road to Moscow. Like the other books, the action picks up at the start and never lets up. Benzoni really does a great job putting her story and characters in with real life ones – along with Aimée we get brief glimpses of Hester Stanhope, the Duc de Richelieu, The Black Pope along with a hint of a new mystery surrounding the main diamond from that diamond necklace (can’t wait to see what that’s all about). Only one more book until the grand ride is over.

The series in order,

1. Marianne (also found in two volumes as Bride of Selton Hall and The Eagle and the Nightingale) 
2. The Masked Prince 
3. The Privateer
4. The Rebels
5. The Lords of the East
6. The Crown of Fire

Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay

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Bolshoi Theatre, russia

 Nina Revskaya, a former Prima ballerina now confined to a wheelchair, prepares to auction off her fabulous jewelry collection. Drew Brooks is the representative from the auction house handling the event, and is intrigued when an anonymous donor gives them an Amber necklace – a necklace that seems to be a matched pair with the bracelet and earrings from Nina’s collection. The mysterious donor is recently widowed Grigori Solodin, who received the necklace  from his adopted parents, along with some unsigned letters in Russian.

Grigori believes these pieces reveal the identity of his birth parents, and he thinks Nina is the key – but she’s not talking. As Drew and Grigori eventually come together and try to solve the puzzle of the Amber suite and how it connects them all, Nina reflects back on her life in Russia as a premier dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet and her marriage to poet Viktor Elsin.  

In the end, I did enjoy this a lot and thought it was an excellent first book for Kalotay. Not surprising, but I enjoyed the bits in the past more than the present and found the images of life in Stalin’s Russia terrifying – I can’t imagine having to walk around on eggshells day in and day out for fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. I never did warm up to Drew and Grigori, nor to the present day Nina and while I thought I had the big ta-da figured out Kalotay pulled a fast one out at the end that I hadn’t seen coming. A fair part of this novel is set in present day Boston, so if you’re expecting to spend all 400+ pages in Soviet Russia, think again. A good book, but the slower pacing might not appeal to all readers, especially if jewels, auctions and the ballet don’t hold much interest.

FTC, copy courtesy of Amazon Vine.

Cinnamon Wharf by Janice Young Brooks

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Singapore

 The story first begins in 1927, as Natalie Beecham has been called to attend her grandmother Mary on her deathbed, and Mary has some family history to impart to her granddaughter before it’s too late. Flashback to 1859 at Castlemere, the home of the Beecham family who have a centuries long history in the spice trade as Beecham heir George finds a very ill Mary abandoned on their doorstep. Once she’s recovered, George is somewhat flummoxed to find that Mary is the result of an affair he had with a former governess (she’d disappeared and he was told she had died in childbirth). With no sign of her mother, George and his Aunt Nell take red-headed, bright and oh-so full of life Mary under their wing (much to the chagrin of his wife and domineering mother) and he eventually adopts her and raises her alongside his legitimate daughter Hester.

Several years later, their cousin Alex from the Singapore side of the family comes to England to attend school and for young Mary it is love and devotion at first sight, although the older Alex just sees her as a charming minx to be petted and played with. Alex and Mary eventually meet again when her father brings both his daughters to visit him and his wife in Singapore, where Mary must accept the fact that Alex loves another and she must move on (or does she?). On their return to England, Mary’s life takes plentiful twists and turns, but you know what? That’s all I’m going to tell you.

I enjoyed this a lot, especially the bits where we got to see Mary using her noggin and thinking (how refreshing), as well as seeing a woman in Victorian England actually getting a say in and running a business instead of just staying at home and breeding babies. This is a novel that’s hard to pigeon-hole, since the characters aren’t involved in real historical events I can’t quite call it historical fiction, but despite Mary and Alex’s relationship (can’t tell you much without spoiling), I wouldn’t classify it as a romance either (if you’re expecting sex you will be sorely disappointed).  There really isn’t a whole lot of action, the story is more character/relationship driven, and despite the promises on the jacket Mary spends more time at home with family than she does in the family’s spice warehouse. That said, I love the way the author set her scenes, especially the jungles and rainforests of Malaysia (I’ll pass on the snakes, thankyouverymuch). While I’m not normally fond of an alternating POV format, it worked well with this story, especially at the end that wraps up a lot of loose ends without having epilogue stamped on the last chapter’s forehead.  A wee bit soap-opera-ish and not quite on scale of a saga, it still was a highly entertaining read and I plan on hunting down more of this author’s books in the near future. 4/5 stars.

Beloved Enemy by Mary Schaller

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Alexandria Virginia

1863, Alexandria Virginia. Sisters Carolyn and Julia Chandler, loyal Confederates, plot to crash a masquerade ball put on by Yankee railroad tycoon George Winstead. The Chandler’s loyal servants help the young ladies sneak out from under their parent’s watchful eyes (!!) and they’re off to the ball, but Julia has other things in mind than just catching the eye of a handsome man. Her parents plan to wed her to her odious cousin Payton Norwood, and she gets it in her brain if she’s debouched, he’ll dump her (she doesn’t quite know what it really means, but she means to do it). Handsome Yankee Major Robert Montgomery catches her eye and she thinks he’ll fit the bill – especially when he starts quoting Shakespeare (the one bright light in this sorry book). Rob was wounded and lost the use of one hand at Gettysburg and his fiance dumped him for that, so he’s a bit gun-shy of women, but he can’t seem to resist Julia’s attractions, hated Confederate that she is.

What follows is pretty much what you’d expect in your standard Harlequin historical romance, they meet, lust after each other, never confess their true feelings, have Big Misunderstandings (well duh), all ending up in a terribly silly and overly contrived plot to put Robert in a southern prison so he can help his fellow Yankees escape. Of course you know that Julia’s going to have to get mixed up in the thick of things as she tries to dodge her less than ardent suitor Hayward (he’s only interested in an inheritance she’s soon to come up with).

*yawn*

The book started off well enough, albeit a bit on the light side, but by the time the action moved to Richmond and the prison things just started falling to pieces and got terribly silly indeed – as did some of the prose. I give kudos to the author for putting real events and characters in her story (at least according to her notes they were), but it wasn’t enough to save this one from landing in the recycle bin.  That said, outside of some heavy kisses there is no sexual activity so this might actually do well for a younger reader. Your call though, I don’t have a teenage daughter, so I’m not the best judge.

FTC, Paperback Swap