Mailbox Monday

 Mailbox Monday is the creation of  The Printed Page and is hosted this month by I’m Booking It. I nabbed the first three from Amazon Vine,

“The war that’s been brewing for a decade has exploded, pitting North against South. Fearing that England will support the Confederate cause, President Lincoln sends Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, to London. But when Charles arrives, accompanied by his son Henry, he discovers that the English are already building warships for the South. As Charles embarks on a high-stakes game of espionage and diplomacy, Henry reconnects with his college friend Baxter Sams, a Southerner who has fallen in love with Englishwoman Julia Birch. Julia’s family reviles Americans, leaving Baxter torn between his love for Julia, his friendship with Henry, and his obligations to his own family, who entreat him to run medical supplies across the blockade to help the Confederacy. As tensions mount, irrevocable choices are made—igniting a moment when history could have changed forever.”

Apparently this novel was first published as In The Lion’s Den: A Novel of the Civil War and a big thumbs up to the publishers for putting that piece of info right on the cover. Thanks for that.

“Amid the intrigue and danger of 18th-century Italy, a young woman becomes embroiled in romance and treachery with a rider in the Palio, the breathtaking horse race set in Siena….

It’s 1729, and the Palio, a white-knuckle horse race, is soon to be held in the heart of the peerless Tuscan city of Siena. But the beauty and pageantry masks the deadly rivalry that exists among the city’s districts. Each ward, represented by an animal symbol, puts forth a rider to claim the winner’s banner, but the contest turns citizens into tribes and men into beasts—and beautiful, headstrong, young Pia Tolomei is in love with a rider of an opposing ward, an outsider who threatens the shaky balance of intrigue and influence that rules the land.”

I was a bit underwhelmed with Fiorato’s last book, The Botticelli Secret (that potty mouth was too OTT for my tastes), but I’m willing to give her another go. Last book and it’s not a historical this time,

I just couldn’t resist having a look-see at this one. No book description up yet, at least at Goodreads.

A Race to Splendor by Ciji Ware

Tags

Hearst Castle, Julia Morgan, San Francisco

San Francisco, 1906. Amelia Bradshaw returns home from her architectural studies in Paris only to find her beloved grandfather dead and the family’s grand hotel on Nob Hill lost by her drunken fool of a father during a game of cards. Amelia loses her legal battle with the winner of the card game, J.D. Thayer, and takes employment with her mentor, architect Julia Morgan. And just who is Julia Morgan do you ask? You can read about her here, but her most famous project is the little house that Julia built for William Randolph Hearst.

The big earthquake hits and events take a bit of a turn for Amelia. What wasn’t destroyed in the earthquake burned during the subsequent fires and that includes her beloved Bay View Hotel. Julia’s firm is hired to restore the Fairmont Hotel, as well as the Bay View and the race is on to restore both hotels to their full splendor so that they can reopen on the first anniversary of the disaster. Despite their past differences, Amelia and J.D. work together towards the common goal of restoring the Bay View, but they are beset from all sides by corrupt government, graft, shady labor organizations and other evil baddies who want the hotel for their own. And what about her father? Is it possible he had the poker hand of a lifetime and won it all back the moment the earth shook? If so, can she find the missing cards and wrest ownership of the Bay View away from J.D. Thayer? Will Amelia and J.D. ever stop dancing around each other and realize there’s some serious chemistry there?I’m not telling. Despite a few quibbles towards the end, I really did enjoy this a lot and blew through it quite quickly. The architectural details and building challenges might bore some readers, but I found them fascinating. I really liked the character of Amelia, she was strong, intelligent and assertive without that annoying I Am Woman Hear Me Roar attitude you can get from some heroines. How nice that she could intelligently assert her independence and make wise choices in the face of danger instead of stupidly rushing out in the middle of night, thus requiring constant rescue by the hero 🙂

I found it very refreshing to learn that men found Amelia attractive without heaving bosoms or ripped bodices, as well as seeing the conflicts between the pair without the done to death trope of instant passion and loathing anytime a pair is in a room together. Another big thumbs up to Ms. Ware for writing well-rounded baddies and showing us why they’re bad instead of telling us with snarling lips, stinking breath and feral smiles. As for the quibbles? IMHO things fell apart just a tad at the end, when all of a sudden it’s time for the book to end and several pages of exposition are needed to wrap up the loose ends. Still, I enjoyed this overall and one I would heartily recommend to others, especially those interested in San Francisco history.

FTC, thanks to Sourcebooks for an advance copy of this book.

The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas

Barbara of Austria is the second duchess of Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara – his first duchess, Lucrezia de’ Medici having died mysteriously several years before. Barbara may not be the great beauty that wife #1 was, but she’s got brains and breeding and goes into the marriage with her eyes wide open and accepts her lot in life. Well sort of, because she’s soon hearing unsettling rumors that Lucrezia may have met an untimely end and Barbara decides to investigate for herself, which is no easy task when one’s every move is observed and reported back to one’s husband.  No surprise, but Barbara finds she’s opened a bigger can of worms then she really wanted and she finds herself having a few too many close accidents. Could it be Alfonso himself who did in Lucrezia and now has the same plans for her?  One of his jealous sisters? Or his brother the Cardinal? Or…

…I’m thinking you really don’t want me to tell you, do you? It’s a lot more fun to read it for yourself and see if you can guess. I enjoyed this book a lot, and found it a great change of pace and I’m hoping there will be more from Ms. Loupas in the near future. There are two narrators in this piece, one being Barbara and so as not to spoil the fun I won’t name the other but trust me, you’ll love the twist and the voice of both ladies, and that says a lot coming from one who doesn’t normally care for first person narratives. Barbara’s voice was very much what I would expect from a woman of her class and breeding, no stamping of feet demanding *twu wuv* forever. No hysterical pouts when she doesn’t get her way with her husband. How refreshing.

Ms. Loupas does a great job with her setting, giving the reader a good sense of time and place with realistic characters acting appropriately to their positions. All in all a very engaging read, a great mystery that keeps you guessing and turning the pages until the very end. Recommended.

FTC disclosure – I won a copy off of Librarything.

Books selling at $1/lb?

Yes. They. Are. Or should I say at least one UBS is and this one is too damned close to home for comfort’s sake. Once Sold Tales (love that name!) is also an online seller, but when I found out they had opened up a shop for retail peeps like me I just couldn’t resist a closer look. I had lots of fun browsing, although the historicals are not separated from general fiction so you’re on your own hunting them down amidst the Steven Kings, Sidney Sheldens, etc. There were some interesting sightings of books I already owned that I passed on, including Karlen Koen’s Through a Glass Darkly and Now Face to Face (original hardbacks). Oh, and if there’s something in their online catalog you can just pick it up there – I nabbed one of the last few cheap copies of Lily Cigar (I know the library had it, but what if they purged the catalog and there were no more copies?).

What did I get this time around?

 (click on any cover for larger image, and you can find jacket blurbs on Goodreads)

A Roaring Wind was written by the same author who wrote The Travels of Jamie MacPheeters (a Pulitzer Prize winner) and sounds like a gas of an adventure set in old Montana. Can’t wait.

All in all a pretty decent haul and all for about $15 and change. Lily Cigar was from their online catalog so that was $3 or thereabouts and the rest was at the $1/lb rate – most of those hardback and a lot heavier (adding to my $1/lb rate). I already own an older copy of Legacy but it is in sad condition and with no cover so I couldn’t resist nabbing this copy. If you are planning a visit to the Seattle area and/or have along layover at SeaTac airport (the store is just down the hill from the airport) do try to find time to come and browse. It’s dangerous, but oh so much fun 🙂

Pale Rose of England by Sandra Worth

Tags

Henry VII of England, Lady Catherine Gordon, Perkin Warbeck

History tells us that a young man known as Perkin Warbeck claimed to be the son of Edward IV, one of the lost princes in the tower and the rightful King of England. Supported by his *aunt* Margaret of Burgundy, he eventually came to Scotland and obtained support from King James in his efforts to invade England and regain his *lawful* crown. James gave *Richard* the hand of Lady Catherine Gordon, and she accompanied him during his second attempt to invade England, which was just as unsuccessful as the first. Was Perkin really Richard Duke of York and England’s rightful king, or was he a great pretender? We’ll never know.

Worth begins her novel in 1497 at the start of Richard’s campaign in Cornwall, which quickly peters out as he is unable to rally support among the populace. Captured by Henry Tudor’s men, they are brought to court and kept on slim leashes and Richard and Catherine play a very tense game of cat and mouse whilst trying to keep their heads intact. Catherine fares a bit better as she’s taken into Queen Elizabeth’s household, but Richard’s every move is watched and members of the Tudor court take turns spitting on him and tossing rotten vegetables (thus showing us how awful they all are).  Meantime, mean ole’ Henry has taken one look at the beauteous Catherine, goes into immediate lust mode and determines to have her for his very own. Not quite sure what he planned to do about Queen Elizabeth but oh well…Potential readers should be warned that Worth believes Perkin/Richard is the true son of Edward IV, no ifs ands or butts about it. In case you doubt it, we are constantly reminded about his princely bearing and the drooping Plantagenet eye he’s inherited from his ancestors Edward I and Henry III. Since Edward and Henry lived a long time before this, there are a whole lot of generations between them and Richard and I couldn’t find anything on the net of any other Plantagenets having it. Just sayin’.

As for Richard and Catherine, I didn’t pick up on much chemistry between the two. They were married and had one child by the time the book begins, and the back-history of their courtship filled out as the story progresses. We know that they love each other because we are told they did, but I really didn’t pick up on any grand passion between the two. I did pick up on a lot of purity, perfection and absolute sugar-coated sweetness on Catherine’s part, and while Richard might have the regal bearing of a true king, he sure didn’t have a strong nature to go with it. He was a bit wimpish IMHO, but Catherine sure thought he was the cat’s meow,

Clad in a white silk doublet, a furred cape around his shoulders, and a beaver hat on his sunny hair, Richard, Duke of York, cantered in on a pale war-horse, a hand resting on his hip, a smile on his lips. She gasped; he was the handsomest man she had ever seen.

And to offset all that purity and goodness is the baddest most evil mean nasty awful bad guy ever – Henry Tudor.  Honestly, every one in this book is either black or white, there are very few shades of gray to be found here. I think it’s obvious I wasn’t as enamoured of this book as some of the other reviewers and to each his own when choosing a book, but this one was just a bit too fluffy for my tastes. I was very disappointed that we didn’t get a closer look at Elizabeth and what one would expect to be very conflicted emotions – how do you choose between your brother or your son? I was going to give this book an overall three star rating until the latter third covering Catherine’s later years threatened to put me to sleep (she spends lots and lots of time in the country).One final note and that is on two items in the author’s notes:

1. “English novelist Philippa Gregory, who holds a doctorate in history…”. Erm, a simple bit of Google tells me it’s English Lit. The historian myth continues.
2. Her reason for sending Richard to his execution via boat instead of how it really happened, “I plead artistic license in not documenting this last indignity and in depicting him as being taken partway by boat. This unfortunate young man had already endured deplorable degradation, and I felt no need to add more such instances to the reader’s burden.”

I could have handled that burden. Really I could have.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

From the rugged mudflats of the Northwestern frontier to a rusting strip mall, West of Here is a conversation between two epochs. In his eagerly awaited second novel, Jonathan Evison tells the stories of the people who first inhabited the mythical town of Port Bonita in Washington State from 1887-1891. Moving ahead more than a century to 2005-06, he introduces those who live there now and must deal with the damage done by their predecessors.

The characters are drawn with compassion and truth, the themes are grand and sweeping: regeneration, the trappings of history, the elusive nature of perception, who makes footprints and who follows them. Evison writes with heart and verve, capturing evocative details and unforgettable scenes.

I know Point Bonita is a fictional setting, but I am curious to figure out where in Washington State it is located in. I’m going to guess the northern Olympic Peninsula and see how close my guess is 🙂

I’ve seen mixed reviews about The Darling Strumpet and I hear the sex is rather OTT at times, but I am curious enough to give it a go.

From London’s slums to its bawdy playhouses, The Darling Strumpet transports the reader to the tumultuous world of seventeenth-century England, charting the meteoric rise of the dazzling Nell Gwynn, who captivates the heart of King Charles II-and becomes one of the century’s most famous courtesans.

Witty and beautiful, Nell was born into poverty but is drawn into the enthralling world of the theater, where her saucy humor and sensuous charm earn her a place in the King’s Company. As one of the first actresses in the newly-opened playhouses, she catapults to fame, winning the affection of legions of fans-and the heart of the most powerful man in all of England, the King himself. Surrendering herself to Charles, Nell will be forced to maneuver the ruthless and shifting allegiances of the royal court-and discover a world of decadence and passion she never imagined possible.

So, what’s landing on your hold shelf this week?

Our Lives are the Rivers by Jaime Manrique

Tags

Simón Bolívar, South America, South American Liberators

Doña Manuela Sáenz was an illegitimate daughter of a Spanish nobleman who left her husband and became the lover and supporter of Simón Bolívar. She was very much involved in his struggle for independence from Spain, rode beside him in battle and earned the title of “Libertadora del Libertador” when she helped him to escape mutinous officers plotting his death.

History tells us that Manuela Saenz lived an amazing life and accomplished great things, and her story has plenty of potential for a powerful novel. Unfortunately, this book fails to deliver that story, at least for this reader. The narrative is told in the  first person, mainly from Manuela’s POV, and interspersed with chapters from the POV of her two slaves, Jonotás and Natán.  Unfortunately Manuela comes across as a bit too modern, extremely self-centered and spends much of the first third of the book stamping her feet in order to get her way and pouting that she’ll only marry for *twu wuv*  (that trope is so old).I didn’t get a good feel for the historical period/settings and if it weren’t for the dates at the beginning of some chapters I might have thought I was reading about events in the early 20C instead of 19C.Too much of the first third of the book is spent on Manuela’s early life and would have been better served beginning around the time of her first meetings with Bolívar and then fleshing out the back history. And be warned, if you are like me and not familiar with this period in history, prepare to spend some time reading up on it elsewhere and even then some historical events barely get the briefest of mentions in passing conversations. A map and a brief narrative at the beginning might have helped alleviate some of that, but still…I thought it was the author’s job to show us. Oh well.

I really didn’t pick up on much chemistry between Manuela and Bolívar (you would have expected them to sizzle off the pages), nor did I even care what happened between them. I had imagined Manuela a strong formidable woman and not the self-centered shrew portrayed here. And the Bolívar in this book was most definitely was not the stuff of which legends are made of – more of an aging, whiny boor. Meh.

As for the writing itself, as a whole it was rather tepid and uninspiring but I’ll let you be the judge,

As the general lathered me in my most intimate parts, the lover in him returned and I would take his hardness and ride it like a mermaid at sea.”

“His concern for me was touching. After I promised I would, he kissed my face, my neck, my hair, and roared as if he were a famished lion about to tear into my flesh.

What really sent the book flying though, was Manuela’s narrative at the end which continues after her death (no I’m not spoiling, history tells us she died),

I placed my hand over my heart. it had stopped beating-I was dead”

And yes, this after death narrative continued for several more pages so we can hear about the spirit exiting the body and other touching stuff. In the end it’s an OK sort of novel, not terribly bad, but not terribly great either  – it just doesn’t live up to its potential. I’d very much like to see someone else take on Manuela’s story and run with it though.

FTC – library loot.

Lily Cigar by Tom Murphy

Tags

San Francisco

Orphaned at ten, Lily Malone and her older brother Fergus are shuffled off to St. Patrick’s Orphanage. Being the good Irish Catholic that she is, Lily dutifully obeys the nuns and learns the skills they teach her, but brother Fergus runs off to seek his fortune in California and is presumed dead at sea. At fifteen, Lily takes a position as between-stairs maid to the very rich Wallingford family, who being both newly rich and Catholic are not yet invited into the best homes – but they’ll do anything to get in, including selling their daughter off to a perverted English lord.

Lily works hard and resists all temptations to evil thrown in her path, that is until she’s seduced by the Wallingford’s younger son Jack, although it’s his best friend Brooks Chaffee who sets her heart afire. No surprise, but Lily eventually turns up pregnant and the Wallingfords give her a big check and passage to San Francisco with the promise of employment in their emporium there. Not everything is smooth sailing, and let’s just say a few unexpected things happen upon arrival,

“The streets of San Francisco were paved with mud and broken dreams, and the gutters were just waiting, hungrily, yawning and gaping for the likes of Lily Malone!”

With a baby to feed and the cheap Chinese labor taking up all the menial jobs, Lily has little choice but to join the world’s oldest profession – although her friend Sophie Delage has the smarts to turn Lily into the most sought after, highest priced whore in the city – Lily Cigar. Successful she may be, but Lily is not one to accept her lot in life, and she dreams of making enough money to start a better life in the country where she can live quietly with her daughter. Now you know there’s a whole lot more to it than that, but I’m not going to spill the beans – read it for yourself. Lily faces a lot of ups and downs and challenges in her long life, and the greatest of all during the 1906 earthquake (sniff). Through it all she keeps true to her pure and honest nature, and always the good Irish Catholic girl at heart.

“She had knowingly sinned and been paid for it. God hadn’t struck her dead, and if the angels were weeping for her, Lily could not hear them.”

Don’t let that scare you off though, Lily is not the irritating Pollyanna that you might think. The author’s writing is excellent and very lyrical at times, somewhat surprising for a male author,

“…the fires that burned in him were bright pure fires that did not burn but only made a new alchemy of love in whose dear crucible dark dreams and secrets were magically transformed into a new and golden thing, a strong and happy cage of love that promised to hold them both, together, always.”

Sigh. And don’t you just want to know who the man is who finally captures Lily’s heart? Or rather, she captures his wounded heart. I loved loved loved this book, and it’s an absolute must read for fans of big fat sagas. Lily’s story hooked me from the get-go and I couldn’t stop turning the pages until it was over. Don’t let the lurid cover or the prostitute angle scare you off either, any sex in this book is very very tame, especially by today’s standards. Out of print, but well worth hunting down and don’t forget to check your library – mine had a copy.

Library Loot

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.I haven’t been looting too much from the library as I’m tring to whittle away at my actual pile of owned books for The Biggest Book Loser contest at Paperbackswap so there’s just a couple this week.

One of my friends at Goodreads discovered this long-lost gem via a Bookmooch swap and we’re going to buddy it – although she got a head start on me with this one. The blurb:

“She was a beautiful young innocent, driven into the sins of that womanhood by the dark desires that ruled men’s hearts. You will never forget Lily — as a child watching her mother die in want…as an orphan struggling to protect her reckless brother…as a teen-aged innocent discovering the power of desire…as a fear-filled young girl learning to sell her body in the most elegant brothel in the wickedest city on earth…as a captivating beauty whom men would pay any price to possess…as a mother desperately trying to keep the truth from her daughter…as a woman forced by love to return to the city of her shame and seek to conquer it..

And you will never forget Lily’s story — as it moves from the Hell’s Kitchen squalor and Fifth Avenue splendour of old New York..to the rolling decks of a great clipper ship…to the brawling streets, the fantastic pleasure palaces, the magnificent Nob Hill mansions of San Francisco, through storm and earthquake and fire in a breathless saga of love, intrigue and illicit passion….”

My kinda book. I’ve also been looking for a South American setting for the Around the Wold in 80 days reading challenge at PBS (the only other one I had my eye on was huge) so I was thrilled when Tara at Book Babe reviewed this one and yay (!) the library had it in the catalog.

From critically acclaimed author Jaime Manrique, comes a breathtaking, sweeping novel based on the life of one of the most controversial women in the history of the Americas.

Before there was an Eva Peron, Collette, or Mata Hari, there was Manuela Saenz. Arguably one of the most fascinatingly sexy women in all history, she single–handedly helped to secure independence for much of South America from Spain.

Based on actual events, Our Lives Are The Rivers tells the life story of a woman who was willing to risk it all for her country –and her lover–and in whose legacy lies the history of an entire continent.

I also picked up a few interesting OOP’s at the FOL sale shelf, plus DVD #10 of the old Dark Shadows TV series. I am loving watching this series all over again (yes, I know it’s campy as all get out). except for the current storyline. I can’t wait for the Adam/Frankenstein story to end and Quentin’s to begin and another trip to the past.

That’s my loot for a while, anything good coming your way?

The Circling Years by Janice Young Brooks

The Thornes have a very long history in the Ozark Mountains, from the small cottage down the hill to the huge rambling estate they built and named Thornehill. Grace thinks she’s made the perfect marriage to older Jack Thorne, until she feels neglected during their grand trip to England and lets German armament king Frederich Von Holdt sweep her off her feet for a night of passion. Grace and Jack mend their differences, but that little indiscretion has consequences on subsequent generations, as does the roll in the hay her son takes with the gardener’s daughter, leaving two cuckoos in the Thorne nest. When Jack dies, Grace gains control of everything, and her indomitable spirit holds the family together through the trials of WWI and the Great Depression when she turns Thornehill into a hotel that at first caters to a most unexpected clientele (lol).

Grace has two grandchildren, Sonny and Laura, but Laura is her favorite and she’s just as spirited, intelligent and independent as grandmother. Laura soon finds herself swept up by the charm and charisma of a man who feels he’s destined for the White House. OK, so it’s also his domineering mother and uncle with their hopes set on the White House, and they’ll go to any lengths to achieve it. Laura soon finds out that her marriage isn’t quite the bed of roses she hoped for, but WWII happens and her husband is off to be a war hero and further his chances in the political arena. While hubby’s away, Laura puts Thornehill’s many rooms to good use and turns it into a convalescent home for returning soldiers. And one of those returning soldiers is a man from her past she thought she’d put out her mind for good…

Can she give up that ticket to the White House for true love in rural Arkansas? I’m not telling – read it for yourself.  Not the greatest book ever and certainly not JYB’s best, but still an entertaining read for those who like the multi-generational type of family stories.  You can pretty much guess where much of the story twists are going, but it was still fun watching them, especially that final well deserved comeuppance that you-know-who got. About time. 3.5/5 stars.