Our Lives, Our Fortunes by Janice Young Brooks

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North Carolina

Basic setup: Lilia’s father dies unexpectedly without a will and everything goes to a distant cousin who isn’t interested in sharing the money with anyone. With no dowry and not willing to live penniless on another’s bounty, she convinces family servant Rob MacAllister to marry her and they head for the colonies to seek their fame and fortune. They purchase what they believe to be a large piece of land with a home along the Cape Fear river in North Carolina, but it isn’t quite as represented – all they find is a narrow strip of land hotly disputed between the two neighboring plantation owners.

Lilia and Rob aren’t willing to sell, even though their efforts at raising indigo have lackluster results. Tragedy strikes (doesn’t it always?) and Lilia’s left in quite a pickle and she uses her ownership of that land to blackmail wiggle her way into the *cough* loving arms of the Gordon family. Surprisingly to some, Lilia adapts well to her new home, but things are not smooth sailing between she and her new husband and misunderstandings and petty jealousies abound (oh boy, do the petty jealousies abound).

I’ve really enjoyed reading JYB’s books and have a few more on the pile, but this one just didn’t work well for me, especially the latter half. I love a bitch we love to hate as much as the next person, but Nichola was just too OTT and slutty to the point of straining credulity, and the big misunderstandings surrounding her wore very thin after a while. It was also unfortunate that the events leading up to and through the American Revolution mostly happened *off-screen* so the reader only hears about them second-hand, ending up with too much telling instead of showing. Bah. Not recommended.

FTC? A genuine Amazon Verified purchase.

Napa by Kate Damon

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Napa County California, Robert Louis Stevenson, San Francisco

 Napa Valley, 1863. Elizabeth Asheford chafes at the simple life of a vintner’s daughter in boring Napa Valley and sets her cap for Harvard bound Jake Duncan, thinking he’s her ticket out of town. Enter the older, but oh so charming Jean DeMille who sweeps her off her feet, but she still wants the high life and thinks she can convince her new husband to return to France. Fool her, Jean loves Napa and wants to create wines as great as those of his forebears and he works long hours, leaving a disgruntled and somewhat neglected Elizabeth pining for more. Jean is successful and builds Elizabeth a grand house in San Francisco at the top of Nob Hill and years later she meets up with spurned Jake Duncan and he’s hot to get his revenge – a revenge that has unforeseen consequences on the next generation.

The DeMilles’ sons, Peter and Marcus, are two very different men. Peter is self-centered and only concerned for money to drink and gamble, while Marcus is as devoted to the family winery as his father – although he fears he’ll never earn papa’s respect. When the great earthquake strikes in 1906, everyone’s lives are forever changed and set the two brothers on a path to destiny that only one can finish and treacherous Peter makes sure that destiny is in his favor. Or is it?

I love all things California and most especially love visiting Napa Valley (wish I could afford to go more often), so I snapped this up when I spotted it on my feeds at Goodreads. I did enjoy it, but Elizabeth was a bit too full of herself and it took too long before she saw the forest through the trees and appreciated her husband and family (although she did pay a big price for that selfishness). There was a bit too much telling instead of showing, but overall a fairly good read. I especially liked the name dropping of some of Napa Valley’s players and legends, from Robert Louis Stevenson at his *hideout* at the old Silverado mine to Charles Krug to Far Niente and the Schramsbergs themselves – that was a really cool bonus. All in all a fairly good solid read for a rainy afternoon, but I’d probably only recommend it for those who must read all things California and those interested in the early days of Napa Valley. A big boo-hiss to the editor for so many numerous typos left in the final edition. Isn’t that your job?FTC? A genuine Amazon Verified Purchase.

The Bridge of a Hundred Dragons by Emma Drummond

Revolution isn’t war, it’s an expression of national freedom…I know what is seething beneath the surface of this country. When the time comes, the people will rise and take what is rightly theirs.

Major Mark Rawlings of the Royal Engineers is ordered to Shanghai to inspect the wreckage of a collapsed railroad bridge and determine who is at fault. On ship from Hong Kong, he *steps* on the foot of Alexandra (Alex) Mostyn, daughter of a wealthy Shanghai merchant and every inch a liberated woman of the 1920’s, although the two don’t exactly get off on the right foot (pun intended). Mark is a straight shooter and immediately buts heads with Alex’s double-dealing father when he won’t provide the white washed report on the rail disaster Mostyn expected from him.

Mark finds himself being drawn to Alex, as much as he dislikes her wild ways and friends (especially Lionel and his socialist leanings), and Alex very much wants to be the woman who can bury Mark’s demons forever. Mark has some serious skeletons in his closet, dating back to the time he served in Russia aiding the White Russians against the Red, and he hopes to find the answers he needs among the White Russian refugees in Shanghai, but he ends up with something very unexpected. Will this surprise from his past destroy the love growing between him and Alexandra? Meanwhile, China is a hot bed of intrigues, politics and dirty dealings as Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Army is on the rise and heading straight for Shanghai, and…

When peasant marches against peasant the only really effective result is that the population is markedly decreased. Gregori Petrovich, what happened in Russia is about to happen in China, yet the world stands by.”

“Revolution imposes instant changes. Those at its head have been training for months, often years, for their new roles as rulers. The the masses, the simple citizens, are forced into instant situations they cannot handle. They can be taught, as you said, but it takes time. In Russia it is too late. The dread deed is done. The people agonised for freedom, but they go on agonising. Who knows when or if they will ever recover? Here in China is has not yet happened. There is time for the people to be taught…and it is what we are doing.

Sorry, you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out, but you’ll find plenty of intrigue, treachery, blackmail along with a kidnapping and a hair-raising rescue or two. I wasn’t too warm and fuzzy over Alex’s character at first, but once we saw beneath the surface I was rooting for her, and Mark is quite the long-suffering hero who has to go through hell and back before he gets that HEA (or does he?). I never knew much about China’s revolution except that they’d had one, so that was interesting to *see* some of the events first hand. According to the author’s notes her story “was strengthened by the personal reminiscences of two of my uncles, who were amongst those rushed out from England to defend British residence and their property.” A bit uneven here and there and definitely not Drummond’s strongest work, but a good solid read and one I had a hard time putting down. 3.5/5 stars.FTC? Library loot.

Forget the book for once and skip right to the movie

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Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn

I can’t believe I’m saying it, but for once it’s true and from a book considered by many to be a *classic*. I think  we’ve all watched that classic movie starring Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, but just in case I’ll give you a little teaser from the trailer,

The basic set up: 

Missionary Rose Sayer is left high and dry after the Germans kill the villagers and her brother Samuel. Cockney boat owner Charley Allnut lets her ride along with him on his creaky old boat and Rose gets the hairbrained brilliant idea to use the explosives on the boat to torpedo the Königin Luise and convinces Allnut to go along with it. Why he goes along with this is any one’s best guess (I was sure scratching my head over it). But to get to that point, they must travel the river, avoiding the Germans and their guns, shoot rapids that no one has ever shot before to reach the lake where they will find their target.

Shooting dangerous rapids in a creaky boat, being fired upon by evil German soldiers and risking all to strike a blow for freedom and Britain. Wow, that should be even better as a book, right? Not. Boring, boring, boring.

I just never bought into the relationship that develops between Rose and Charlie, nor could I fathom why he’d merrily follow along on her cockamamie plan to blow up the Germans.  How a sheltered on-the-shelf missionary managed to learn how to hold the tiller and guide them through rapids like no one has done before them really stretched the credulity meter, but even worse is how it all ends once they reach the lake and the Königin Luise. I won’t spoil, but if you’re expecting a big bang like in the movie, think again – it’s a snoozer, albeit a mercifully short one. This was so dull it almost put me to sleep on the treadmill, and I only finished as it was I needed an Africa book for the historical fiction challenge at Paperbackswap. Not recommended.

The Fires of July by Sharon Salvato

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South Carolina

The Mannings of South Carolina are ruled by family patriarch Elizabeth. Older brother John holds the family’s Lowland rice plantation and Joseph ekes out his livelihood in the acreage he’s given in hills of the “Upcountry”. While the colonies chafe at English rule without representation, Carolina itself is rife with tension between the Lowlanders of Charles Town and residents of the Upcountry who feel they don’t receive equal support and protection of the government as outlaws are allowed to roam the countryside unpunished. Frustrated, the more radical of them have formed their own *police* force, the Regulators. Joseph’s younger son Andrew (Drew) is an ardent supporter of the movement, but his political leanings set him at odds with both his City cousins and the woman he was betrothed to at a young age, the cold-blooded self-centered and oh-so-haughty Joanna Templeton. 

Drew knows that Joanna is the wrong woman for him, but is unwilling to dishonor his family by breaking the contract, let alone ticking off Joanna, but when he meets Laurel Boggs he decides she’s the woman for him. Laurel’s humble beginnings with her trashy family gets him disinherited as well as earning Joanna’s eternal hatred, but he and Laurel look forward to building their own plantation in the upcountry – that is until an act of revenge taken against Drew for his activities with the Regulators sets their life on unexpected paths.

Despite the appearances of the cover and the plot description, there’s a lot more to this than just a romance, and any sex in this is very tame. I found myself rather torn about this one, I really liked learning how divided Carolina was between the city folk and those of the upper country, along with the building tensions as some support independence and others remain loyal to the crown. Matriarch Elizabeth Manning was a lot of fun, especially with her schemes and plots to get her beloved grandson Drew and —- together. As for the relationship between Drew and Laurel and the subsequent love triangle? I liked it, but at times it seemed a bit forced and considering Drew can only end up with one woman in the end, it was fairly easy to guess that *something* was going to *happen* to bring it about. Drew also was a bit self-centered for most of the book, but that might be chalked up to his young age – I’ll withhold judgment until I read more in the sequel, The Drums of December, as war breaks out and further divides the Colonies and the Manning clan. 3.5/5 stars.

By Royal Decree ~ Kate Emerson

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Henry VIII of England, Lady Jane Grey

***Those not familiar with Tudor history might consider this review a bit spoilerish. Consider yourself warned**

The story begins as Elizabeth (Bess) Brooke is one of a large party of eligible noblewomen invited to dine with Henry VIII so he can peruse them and pick his next bride. Luckily for Bess she’s passed over for Kathryn Parr, who ends up as wife #6.  Bess comes to court and ultimately meets and falls in love with Queen Kathryn’s brother William Parr, but there’s a hitch. William was given a divorce from his first wife for being unfaithful, but he’s not allowed to remarry until she kicks the bucket and their only hope is a “Royal Decree” from the King.

When Henry dies, his son Edward is crowned king and William curries favor with Edward and his guardians (first Edward Seymour, then John Dudley), always hoping to gain that “Royal Decree” allowing him to marry Bess. The Princess Elizabeth is given into Kathryn’s care and Bess also joins her household in the country. Edward, never the healthy one, dies and with no male heir to follow him England is divided over the choices left – should they support Mary and face a return to Catholicism, or the Lady Jane Grey? And if William supports the wrong party, their hopes for a “Royal Decree” allowing them to wed might be dashed forever…

Sounds like all the material one needs for a fat juicy novel no? Unfortunately, Emerson is not quite up to giving Bess and William the treatment their story deserves. Too much time is spent with Bess and William panting pining after each other as Henry’s court flits from one palace to the next, and not enough on the latter part of their lives as they live in terror of loosing one’s head during Mary’s reign. If you read up on Bess here, you’ll see she led quite a life and must have been a formidable woman indeed to earn the trust and respect of Elizabeth Tudor – but unfortunately that is not the Bess you’ll see this book. While she was certainly a more appealing heroine than Nan in Between Two Queens, Emerson wasn’t able to make her terribly engaging either as she spends too much time stamping her feet at her father demanding “twu wuv” and mooning over William.

I’d read Emerson’s first book in this series, The Pleasure Palace, and enjoyed it for what it was, light and fluffy brain candy with lots of details on court life, the food and clothes along with a healthy dash of court intrigue, but that mixture just didn’t gel as well for me in this one. The historical details were fewer and farther between and missing those left me hungry for something more. The tie-in to the title, By Royal Decree, was also a bit overused in the book to the point of feeling like I was being clubbed over the head with it. In the end, this is a light easy read and a good book, just not a great one. William and Bess could make for some fascinating reading and I’d love to see a stronger author take them on as Susan Kay did with Elizabeth I in Legacy.

A Rage Against Heaven by Fred M. Stewart

A Rage Against Heaven was published in 1978 and apparently drifted off into relative book obscurity, long forgotten by readers always on the hunt for another Civil War Novel. It was mentioned by a poster who began a thread at Amazon titled “Bar none the best historical fiction” (at this writing there are 8,087 posts). Very hard to find, but Michele at A Reader’s Respite, intrepid book shopper extraordinaire, managed to find a cheap copy, reviewed it here, and passed it along to me.

Philadelphia, 1860. Lew Crandall is “The Golden Prince” and has it all, wealth, looks and the hand of Elizabeth Butterfield. Lew finds some damning evidence against a powerful politician among his dead father’s letters and he unwisely exposes him to public censure. When Civil War breaks out, Lew leaves college and his wife behind in Philly and hightails it to Washington, where he runs smack dab into the unscrupulous pair he never should have ticked off in the first place.

Lew and Elizabeth’s lives take plentiful twists and turns and ups and downs in a soap opera of the very highest magnitude. Presumed death, crooked politicians, blackmail, a long side trip to Mexico with some evil banditos, a return from the dead, turmoil in Paris as the The Franco-Prussian War heats up, a kidnapping, jewel heists and more as Lew exacts his revenge against the baddies who done him wrong. I generally love a big old soap opera with lots of strum and drang, but unfortunately there’s a big drawback in this one – Mustard seems to be one of those male authors who throws in squicky sex just for the male fantasy fun of it, and much of it was entirely gratuitous involving secondary characters. It’s easy enough to show the reader a man is overly obsessive with young girls, I didn’t need a blow-by-blow rape of a child. I can grasp that a Southern female can care about her family’s slaves, she doesn’t need to lust after one of them. An author can show me a young actress is a slut without a detailed description of oral sex including a loose hair (no, I am not kidding). I’ll give you a couple of examples of the tamer stuff, but be warned I’m quoting verbatim:

“They came to each other in the middle of the room, and flesh kissed flesh. Breasts met chest, belly met belly, thighs met thighs. She smelled sweet; he was musky and warm…After a while he stood up. His big penis was gorged with blood, white blood and black blood. She looked at it. Then she put her hand to her mouth and spat in her palm. She reached down and took his penis, slicking it slowly.”

“He wore nothing under the pants but an erection….She felt his enormous penis going into her and she moaned with pleasure…Then, slowly, he began thrusting. Slowly, the sweetness began rising up the volcano. When they both erupted, they were both covered with mud.”

Ick. Honestly around page 160 the sex toned down and I was rather enjoying it but towards the end the returns from the dead/name switches really stretched the believability factor. One further warning – despite the historical settings I would not call this a historical novel. The Civil war happens, but it is merely a backdrop – several year’s worth of history are recounted in tedious letters. One of the main characters is involved in the Mexican revolution, but again it’s merely a backdrop to further the story. In the end, if you come across a copy cheaply I’d pick it up for curiosity’s sake as well as the chuckles you’ll get at the groaningly bad sex scenes, but don’t go out of your way for it either.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

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Young-adult fiction

Let’s start this by making one thing perfectly clear – I’ve read both The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose by Donnelly and loved them enough to buy copies for my keeper shelves.  I don’t normally read YA novels (especially not those with contemporary settings), but the premise with the historical setting intrigued me, so when it became available on Amazon Vine I decided to give it a try.

Andi Alpers is a teenager carrying quite a load of emotional baggage, angry at life, angry at her parents and angry over the death of her brother.  Her father brings her along on his business trip to Paris and while there she finds a journal hidden in an old guitar case – the journal of Alexandrine (Alex) Paradis, a street actress in 1795 who gets herself in the thick of the events surrounding the Revolution. Andi finds herself drawn to Alex’s story until finally one dark night in the catacombs of Paris things take a decidedly unexpected turn and…

I guess you will have to read it for yourself, because I am not telling. After reading all the rave reviews I find myself in the minority again (no surprise), but this one just didn’t work for me. Andi’s teenage Angst was just too OTT for me, and I never really warmed up to her character – teenager or not, she was much too self-centered, and I was rather put off with all that pill popping, prescribed or not.  I didn’t find myself caring about anyone in the present setting, and while the parts in the past with Alex were better, I didn’t exactly find myself highly engaged either. Frankly, Donnelly just did not suck me into her world, and the scenes in the past were not very believable and the characters much too modern – especially the young musician (can’t say why without spoiling).This is a very hard book for me to rate as I wasn’t entertained enough to give it more than two stars, but I suspect fans of the genre will enjoy it more than I did so I’m giving it three. That said, I still have a hard time seeing Andi as a sympathtic role model for younger readers. I suspect my age is showing again 😉

The Queen of Last Hopes by Susan Higginbotham

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margaret of anjou

Margaret of Anjou is married off to Henry the VI with the hope that the marriage will bring finally peace between England and France. Hah. The English hate her, especially when she’s unable to produce the required heir. Gossip swirls about her and her alleged lovers and when she finally produces a son ole’ Henry’s about the only one who believes the boy is his.  Always in the wings lusting after Henry’s crown is Richard, Duke of York (and believes his claim is the stronger), and when Henry’s mind goes a bit awry he’s more than ready to step in and take it all…

Everyone’s fortunes take plenty of ups and downs as power passes between the Lancasters and Yorks admidst intrigue, treachery and some incredibly bloody battles (which are not recounted in detail here) – who will rule England in the end? Yes, there’s a whole lot more to it than that and if you know the history of the Wars of the Roses you don’t need a rehash (that’s what Wik is for after all), and if you don’t I’m not going to spoil it for you. I’m just here to discuss the reading experience.Kudos to Susan for taking on a character so reviled by history and shedding new light on her actions – although I’d have liked to see Margaret with a few more warts and flaws. I did struggle with the multiple POV’s at first and for me as a reader this story would have come off better in the third person narrative. That said, I did adore Hal (I’m in love) and I laughed my arse off with Edward of Lancaster and Anne Neville. All in all this is a good book, just not up to the higher quality I’ve become accustomed to in her earlier books. I hear the next one is set in the Tudor period and I’m wondering if I picked up on a hint on the topic at the end of this one. Time will tell…

Thanks to Sourcebooks for my copy.